Decisive action is needed to address the financial challenges facing developing nations, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said on Tuesday in remarks to the Second Preparatory Committee for the Forth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4).

The President of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday emphasised that peace and security in Middle East cannot be achieved through force or occupation but only through dialogue, mutual recognition and a commitment to a just, comprehensive, and lasting solution based on international law.

More than 2,000 people have been impacted by a new Israeli evacuation order issued in Khan Younis governorate in Gaza, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, reported on Tuesday.

The United Nations has condemned deadly shelling on Zamzam camp, the largest site for internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has secured early funding commitments of $1.5 billion for 2025, as global forced displacement surges to 123 million people worldwide.

Peace is in peril worldwide and avenues for diplomatic dialogue are shrinking, but young women peacebuilders are demonstrating that a better world is possible, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Tuesday.

The ongoing escalation of violence in northwest Syria linked to the wider conflict in Gaza and Lebanon has left civilians dead and injured, hospitals “overwhelmed” with healthcare attacks on the rise, the UN warned on Tuesday.

Droughts across the world are intensifying and have become a “slow onset, silent killer” to which no country is immune, according to the UN’s most senior official working on desertification, drought and land restoration issues.

THE HAGUE & JOHANNESBURG, Dec 02 (IPS) - Countries facing existential crises due to climate change have asked the International Court of Justice in the Hague to look beyond climate treaties, like the Paris Agreement, when it considers its opinion on the obligations of high-emitting UN member states.A few UN member states responsible for the majority of emissions have breached international law, Ralph Regenvanu, a special climate envoy from Vanuatu, told the International Court of Justice in the Hague in his opening address.

LONDON, Dec 02 (IPS) - COP29, the latest annual climate summit, had one job: to strike a deal to provide the money needed to respond to climate change. It failed.

This was the first climate summit dedicated to finance. Global south countries estimate they need a combined US$1.3 trillion a year to transition to low-carbon economies and adapt to the impacts of climate change. But the last-minute offer made by global north states was for only US$300 billion a year.