A World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report finds that extreme weather and climate-related events impacted at least 13 million people and led to over 3,000 reported fatalities in Africa in 2025, with knock-on effects across all sectors of the economy and society. The continent is warming faster than the global average, the report adds.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day for Countering Hate Speech, observed on 18 June:
In Somalia, hunger is pushing 6 million people — almost a third of the population — into critical levels of food insecurity, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, under the theme “Digital lifelines: strengthening resilience in a connected world”, observed on 17 May:
Concluding the regular part of its forty-eighth session today, the Committee on Information adopted its report containing two resolutions concerning United Nations information activities that the General Assembly will vote on later this year.
In Cuba, the humanitarian situation continues to worsen as the energy crisis deepens, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports, noting that healthcare, waste collection, water deliveries to remote areas, food distribution and other essential services are being heavily disrupted.
In Mogadishu, Somalia, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher, meeting with the diplomatic community and humanitarian partners, warned that without urgent funding, more aid programmes would close. Two million people in Somalia survive on one meal a day.
In Sudan, the World Health Organization, UN Children’s Fund and the Government have launched a nationwide polio vaccination campaign to reach over 4 million children under the age of five in high-risk and conflict-impacted areas in Kassala and North Kordofan. Nearly 1.5 million children remain inadequately protected.
With some delegates differing on what constitutes disinformation and misinformation, and how best to tackle it, today’s discussion in the Committee on Information illustrated the polarization and complexity that mark this problem.
Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message on World Press Freedom Day, observed 3 May:
