What's New

Approximately 800 million young people entering the labour market in developing economies over the coming years will not find jobs unless countries act, the head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) warned on Tuesday, as the agency launched two initiatives to boost investment and employment.

In consultations with over 40 mayors and municipal unions, the UN identified community priorities and pathways to restore services and jobs.

Across five consultations with more than 40 mayors and five heads of unions of municipalities, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, and his team heard firsthand what communities need and identified with partners practical ways to help restore essential services and livelihoods in collaboration with the government.

Three years after Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups attacked Israel, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said nothing can justify the atrocities of 7 October – calling for an end to the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike.

In a message released on Monday, Mr. Guterres described an abhorrent, large-scale terror attack in which more than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed. 

Civilians were deliberately targeted in their homes, their communities and at a music festival.

From #StillHereStillBuilding to the SDG Ambassadors of Change, UN Lebanon marked International Youth Day by championing youth-led action.

“Give a young person a real problem, a limited budget, three months and the freedom to experiment,” says Julia Assi, a university student from South Lebanon and one of 23 newly selected Ambassadors of Change in the UN Global Compact Network Lebanon’s SDG Brain Lab. “Lebanon does not need thousands of perfect successes. It needs thousands of young people to have the opportunity to test thousands of ideas.”

The UN Secretary-General appealed on Wednesday for world leaders to invest in peace as violence, division and conflict exacerbate suffering worldwide.

António Guterres was speaking during the annual ceremony at the Japanese Peace Bell on the grounds of UN Headquarters in New York. 

The Secretary-General has condemned mounting civilian casualties in southern Lebanon and called on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanese territory, as fighting intensifies in and around Nabatieh.

Key points

Use of data-intensive technologies – in particular artificial intelligence (AI) data centres – is growing faster than electricity infrastructure can handle, the UN’s economic commission for Europe has warned, raising concerns about the future reliability and resilience of energy systems worldwide. 

Yasmin Al-Mashaan lost five brothers during more than a decade of conflict in Syria. Two were forcibly disappeared. Three were killed during peaceful demonstrations or by snipers loyal to the Bashar Al-Assad regime.

She found a picture of her brother, Uqba, among the “Caesar photos”, a cache of images smuggled out of Syria in 2013 documenting the deaths of thousands in government custody. That discovery, she said, is what pushed her to act.

Damaged roads, disrupted services and ongoing military activity continue to put civilians at risk in south Lebanon as strikes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah continue, according to the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the country (UNIFIL).

“Syria is not starting from zero; it is starting from resilience. But resilience alone is not a development strategy. A functioning agrifood economy is.” – Pirro-Tomaso Perri, Acting FAO Representative in the Syrian Arab Republic.