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The top UN humanitarian official was in the Security Council on Wednesday to appeal for the renewal of an operation that delivers life-saving food and other aid relief to some four million civilians in northern Syria.

The mandate of the cross-border mechanism operating from Turkey will expire in January.

“Without the cross-border operation, we would see an immediate end of aid supporting millions of civilians,” Mark Lowcock, the UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, told the Council.

Noting that the people of Iraq were at “a critical juncture”, the top UN Envoy in the country told parliamentarians there on Thursday that over the past six weeks, hundreds of thousands have been peacefully voicing their “genuine, legitimate, demands, loud and clear”. 

Education is an “essential pillar” to achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN chief António Guterres told an audience on Tuesday at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, the UN Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization, ahead of the agency’s General Conference.

Spotlighting the role of targeted investment and innovation towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with special focus on ‘Harnessing the Potential of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the Digital Economy,’ the World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum kicked off on Tuesday in the Bahraini capital, Manama.

From before birth, to the end of life, taking to the dance floor or sketching a still life, can positively affect our health and even prove more cost-effective than conventional medical treatment, the World Health Organisation (WHO) found in a new study published on Monday.

In a speech to the Paris Peace Forum in Paris on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that to thrive, multilateralism had to adapt, mindful that “conflicts persist, creating suffering and displacement: our world is unsettled”.  He was speaking as commemorations took place in countries across the world, marking the official end of the First World War, in 1918.

The UN Secretary-General is calling on business leaders to use their “enormous influence” to push for inclusive growth and opportunities that benefit all people and the planet.

António Guterres made the appeal in an op-ed first published earlier this week in the Financial Times.

“It is both good ethics and good business to invest in sustainable, equitable development,” he wrote.

“Corporate leadership can make all the difference to creating a future of peace, stability and prosperity on a healthy planet.”

Since nobody is born to hate, intolerance can be prevented and unlearned, the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday, in a speech underlining his continued fight to stamp out antisemitism, racism and other forms of hatred.

António Guterres was speaking at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York which was marking the 81st anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom carried out by the Nazi regime.

Greater action is needed to protect the environment during wartime if the world is to realize the goal of a more sustainable future for all people and the planet, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned on Wednesday.

The Commissioner-General for the UN relief and works agency serving Palestine refugees, UNRWA, resigned on Wednesday, hours after the UN announced preliminary findings of an investigation into misconduct allegations.

Outgoing UNRWA chief, Pierre Krähenbühl, was placed on leave earlier in the day, as UN chief António Guterres named Christian Saunders acting Officer-in-Charge of the agency, based on preliminary report findings from the UN’s internal oversight body, OIOS.