Page 30 - United Nations

AI could spread false, misleading info on Holocaust, Unesco report warns

A United Nations agency is warning that developments in artificial intelligence could spawn a new surge in Holocaust denial. A report published on Tuesday by UNESCO concludes that AI could result in false and misleading claims about the Holocaust spreading online, either because of flaws in the programmes or because hate groups and Holocaust deniers will intentionally use AI programmes to generate content that falsely calls into question the murder of Jews and other groups by the Nazis. One of the biggest concerns is that AI could be used to create so-called deepfakes of the Holocaust realistic images or videos that could be used to suggest the Holocaust didn't happen or was exaggerated. That could lead to greater antisemitism and a lack of understanding of a key moment in 20th-century history. The report noted that some AI-assisted programmes allow users to interact with simulated historical figures, including prominent Nazis like Adolf Hitler. If we allow the horrific facts of th

Putin vows trade, security deals with North Korea beyond reach of West

Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said Russia and North Korea may sign a partnership agreement during the visit that would include security issues

Israeli Army announces 'tactical pause' to increase flow of aid into Gaza

The Israeli military on Sunday announced a tactical pause in its offensive in the southern Gaza Strip to allow the deliveries of increased quantities of humanitarian aid. The army said the pause would begin in the Rafah area at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT, 1 a.m. eastern) and remain in effect until 7 p.m. (1600 GMT, noon eastern). It said the pauses would take place every day until further notice. The pause is aimed at allowing aid trucks to reach the nearby Israel-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point for incoming aid, and travel safely to the Salah a-Din highway, a main north-south road, to deliver supplies to other parts of Gaza, the military said. It said the pause was being coordinated with the U.N. and international aid agencies. The crossing has suffered from a bottleneck since Israeli ground troops moved into Rafah in early May. Israel's eight-month military offensive against the Hamas militant group has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis, with the U.N. reporting

Amnesty Int'l urges Taliban to reopen secondary schools for Afghan girls

A month after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, the group reopened schools that were shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Quad transformed from security dialogue into multifaceted tie-up: Report

The new report titled 'Quad: Diplomacy and Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific' assesses the Quad's achievements and potential amidst the ongoing geopolitical churn

Cyber attack hits Pakistani UN Mission; email, YouTube channel breached

Pakistan's Permanent Mission to the UN was targeted by a cyber attack, infiltrating its official email account and the YouTube channel, a media report said on Saturday. The cyber attack occurred on Friday, at 4 pm US time, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. The breach targeted the email ID used by the Permanent Mission's information wing, the report said. The mission's YouTube channel was also compromised, and the attackers altered its name, banners, and content, the report said, quoting sources. The Pakistani UN mission requested all emails and videos put on its channels be ignored until they regain control of their accounts. No group/entity has taken responsibility for the cyber attack.

Israel accused of killing own citizens in 'Hannibal Directive'. What is it?

Israeli forces allegedly applied the so-called 'Hannibal Directive' and killed at least 14 Israeli civilians during the October 7 Hamas attack, claims a recent UN-backed inquiry

India can play bigger role in climate talks; should host COP: Sunita Narain

India can play an "even bigger" role in climate talks by emerging as the voice of the global south and presenting the challenges faced by them, leading environmentalist Sunita Narain said as Prime Minister Narendra Modi eyes hosting the UN climate summit in 2028. In an interaction with PTI editors here, Narain, the Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said the Conference of Parties, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, was the only forum where multilateral decisions can be taken to deal with the challenges posed by climate change. "We can play an even bigger role as a country which stands for countries of the south. We have challenges. We can talk about our challenges, not paper over them. And, we can help the world to find a better way ahead. We can play a leadership role," Narain said. Modi, in his address at the Conference of Parties (COP-28) in Dubai, had offered to host the climate conference in India in 2028. The COP presidency ...

Houthi crackdown: Rebels launch missile attack on cargo ship. Top points

The UN and three other agencies have asked the Houthis to release 17 detained staff and aid workers

Sudan, Congo, Haiti top UN envoy's concerns for children in conflicts

The United Nations envoy charged with reporting on violations against children in conflicts around the world said that first and foremost she is worried about what's happening to youngsters in war-torn Sudan, followed by Congo and Haiti. Virginia Gamba told a news conference officially launching the secretary-general's annual report and UN blacklist of violators that she is also very worried about children caught in Myanmar's civil war and the spillover into neighbouring Bangladesh. For the future, on the horizon, she said, I'm worried about Somalia and Afghanistan. The report for the first time put both Israeli forces and Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants on the blacklist for violating children's rights in 2023 during Hamas' October 7 surprise invasion of southern Israel and its massive military retaliation in Gaza that is ongoing. The UN also kept the Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups on the blacklist for a second year over their killing and maiming of

UN, aid group leaders urge release of 17 staffers held by Yemen's rebels

The heads of six UN agencies and three international humanitarian organisations issued a joint appeal Thursday to Yemen's Houthi rebels for the immediate release of 17 members of their staff who were recently detained along with many others also being held by the Iranian-backed group. Their appeal was echoed by a statement from several dozen nations and the European Union ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on Yemen where UN special envoy Hans Grundberg said the Houthis were holding all those detained in the crackdown incommunicado. The Houthis said Monday they had arrested members of an American-Israeli spy network, days after detaining the staffers from the UN and aid organisations. Major General Abdulhakim al-Khayewani, head of the Houthis' intelligence agency, announced the arrests, saying the spy network had first operated out of the US Embassy in the capital Sanaa. After it was closed in 2015 following the Houthi takeover of Sanaa and northern Yemen, he said, they continued

US restrictions on asylum-seekers may violate international law: UNHCR

The head of the UN refugee agency says he understands that the Biden administration enacted new restrictions on asylum-seekers entering the United States, but cautioned that some aspects of the executive order may violate refugee protection required in international law. Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, spoke to The Associated Press as his agency issued its annual Global Trends report for 2023 on Thursday. It found that the cumulative number of people who have been subjected to forced displacement rose to 120 million people in 2023 6 million more than in the year before. The refugee agency noted that the total count was roughly equivalent to the entire population of Japan. The UNHCR report found that three-fourths of those people forcibly displaced including both refugees driven abroad and people displaced inside their own countries lived in poor or middle-income countries. Grandi insisted that was a sign of how migrant and refugee flows were not just an iss

Report cites crimes by Israeli Army, Palestinian militants starting Oct 7

UN-backed human rights experts say in a report issued Wednesday that Israeli forces and Palestinian militants engaged in sexual and gender-based violence during the first months of the Israel-Hamas war. The independent experts, in a detailed chronicling of events that have mostly been reported in the media, said Israeli forces and Palestinian militants committed war crimes, while Israel was also said to have committed crimes against humanity. Israel, which has refused to cooperate with the body and accused it of bias, rejected the allegations. The report, which covered the time between the Oct 7 rampage and the end of last year, laid out a wide array of alleged rights violations and crimes by both sides during the conflict. It said Israeli forces had committed acts including forced starvation, murder or willful killing, collective punishment and intentional attacks on civilians, and that the military wings of Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups had performed deliberate killings

Violence against children in conflict reached extreme levels in 2023: UN

Violence against children caught in multiplying and escalating conflicts reached "extreme levels" in 2023, with an unprecedented number of killings and injuries in crises, from Israel and the Palestinian territories to Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine, according to a new UN report. The annual report on Children in Armed Conflict, obtained on Tuesday by The Associated Press, reported "a shocking 21 per cent increase in grave violations" against children under the age of 18 in an array of conflicts, also citing Congo, Burkina Faso, Somalia and Syria. For the first time, the UN report put Israeli forces on its blacklist of countries that violate children's rights for the killing and maiming of children and attacking schools and hospitals. It also listed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants for the first time as well for killing, injuring and abducting children. Hamas' October 7 surprise attack in southern Israel and Israel's massive military retaliation in Gaza have led to a 155 per

Israeli forces, Palestinians may have committed war crimes in raid: UNHRC

The UN human rights office is citing possible war crimes by Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in connection with a deadly raid by Israeli forces that freed four hostages over the weekend and killed hundreds of Palestinians. Office spokesman Jeremy Laurence expressed concerns about possible violations of rules of proportionality, distinction and precaution by the Israeli forces in Saturday's raid at the urban Nuseirat refugee camp. Palestinian health officials say at least 274 Palestinians, including dozens of women and children, were killed in the operation. Laurence said Palestinian armed groups who are holding hostages in densely populated areas are putting the lives of nearby civilians and the hostages at added risks from the hostilities. All these actions by both parties may amount to war crimes, he told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva. It was catastrophic, the way that this was carried out in that civilians again were caught smack bang in the middle of this, ...

Migrant boat sinks near Yemen coast, at least 49 dead, 140 missing: UN

A boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Yemen, leaving at least 49 dead and 140 missing, the UN's International Organization for Migration said Tuesday. The boat was carrying some 260 Somalis and Ethiopians from the northern coast of Somalia on the 320-kilometer journey across the Gulf of Aden when it sank Monday off Yemen's southern coast, the IOM said in a statement. It said search efforts were continuing and so far 71 had been rescued. Among the dead were 31 women and six children, it said. Yemen is a major route for migrants from the East Africa and the Horn of Africa trying to reach Gulf countries for work. Despite a nearly decadelong civil war in Yemen, the number of migrants arriving annually tripled from 2021 to 2023, soaring from about 27,000 to over 90,000, the IOM said last month. Around 380,000 migrants are currently in Yemen, according to the agency. To reach Yemen, migrants are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or Gulf

N Korea installing its own loudspeakers along the border, says S Korea

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff didn't immediately comment on the number of suspected North Korean speakers

UN food agency pauses aid work at US pier in Gaza over security concerns

The director of the UN World Food Program said Sunday the programme has paused its distribution of humanitarian aid from an American-built pier off Gaza, saying she was concerned about the safety of our people" after what had been one of the deadliest days of the war there. Saturday saw both an Israeli military assault that freed four hostages but left 274 Palestinians and one Israeli commando dead, and, Cindy McCain said, two of WFP's warehouses in Gaza had been rocketed and a staffer injured. Sunday's UN announcement of the pause appears the latest setback for the US sea route, set up to try to bring more aid to Gaza's starving people. The US Agency for International Development described the pause as a step to allow for a security review by the humanitarian community in Gaza. USAID works with the World Food Program and their humanitarian partners in Gaza to distribute food and other aid coming from the US-operated pier. Completed in mid-May, the US pier was operational for only

Israel, Hamas to be listed for violations of children's rights, says UN

The UN secretary-general will list Israel and Hamas as violating the rights and protection of children in armed conflict in an upcoming annual report to the Security Council. According to the preface of last year's report, lists parties engaged in the killing and maiming of children" and in attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons in relation to schools and/or hospitals. The head of Secretary-General Antnio Guterres' office, Courtenay Rattray, called Israel's UN Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, on Friday to inform him that Israel would be listed on the next report when it is sent to the council within a few weeks, UN spokesman Stphane Dujarric told reporters. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad also are being listed. Israel reacted with outrage, sending news organisations a video of Erdan berating Rattray, supposedly on the other end of a phone call.

World food prices surge for third consecutive month in May, says UN

The FAO index hit a three-year low in February as food prices continued to ease off from a record peak set in March 2022, following Russia's invasion of fellow crop export major Ukraine