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Lebanon will need support from the international community to rebuild in the aftermath of the devastating explosion in the port of its capital, Beirut, the country’s President told world leaders, gathered virtually at the United Nations General Assembly.  

Addressing the Assembly’s annual debate, via a pre-recorded video message, President Michel Aoun, said one option could be to “divide the devastated area into geographical zones and let every country that wishes to help commit to a specific zone and undertake its reconstruction directly.” 

This year’s International Day of Sign Languages is being commemorated in the midst of a pandemic that has “disrupted and upended lives everywhere”, including those of the deaf community, the UN chief said on Wednesday.

The results are in from a massive, unprecedented crowd-sourcing survey of international opinion, launched in January 2020 to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. Participants from all walks of life, women, men, girls and boys in developed and developing countries were encouraged to share their hopes and fears for the future and how the UN can help to bring about change. 

No matter where they came from, their background, age or gender, participants in the exercise were, the UN has said, “remarkably unified” in their vision of the future. 

Even amid the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, people everywhere must continue to make peace a priority, the UN Secretary-General said on Monday. 

António Guterres made the appeal in his message to mark the International Day of Peace, observed annually on 21 September. 

He described the deadly virus as a “common enemy” that is causing immense suffering, destroying livelihoods and exacerbating already formidable peace and security challenges. 

A Japanese principle that finds beauty in broken things, should serve as guidance for today’s fractured world as we navigate out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday during the annual ceremony at UN Headquarters to mark the International Day of Peace on 21 September.

COVID-19 has reminded the world of the vital role health workers play in relieving suffering and saving lives, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has said, underlining the need to ensure their safety and protection. 

“No country, hospital or clinic can keep its patients safe unless it keeps its health workers safe,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. 

The continuing COVID-19 pandemic continues to top a long list of global concerns, the UN chief told journalists on Wednesday, noting that “the grimmest of milestones” is upon us. 

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed an additional 150 million children into multidimensional poverty – deprived of education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water – a new UN study has found. 

Reports from inside Syria are pointing to a much broader spread of COVID-19 than the number of confirmed cases – currently 3,618 – suggests, the UN’s top humanitarian official says. 

Mark Lowcock told the Security Council on Wednesday that it won’t be possible to grasp the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in Syria until laboratory testing is stepped up. 

Over the course of 2020 thus far, the coronavirus has taken hundreds of thousands of lives, infected millions of people, and wreaked socio-economic, humanitarian and human rights havoc, the United Nations said in a new report released on Wednesday.

According to the September update of the UN Comprehensive Response to COVID-19, no country has been spared; no population left unscathed.