United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke this week at the Global Vaccine Summit, urging world leaders to ensure that a coronavirus vaccine would be available and affordable for everyone in the world. UN Foundation President Elizabeth Cousens and former World Health Organization Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland urged world leaders to fund the development of a vaccine to fight the pandemic, which WHO leaders warn will not end until the disease is eradicated everywhere.

Members of the United Nations Security Council this week voted unanimously to extend the UN's joint peacekeeping mission with the African Union in Sudan's Darfur region until the end of the year, while moving toward ending it. The council also voted to replace UNAMID with a civilian mission aimed at supporting the country's political transition and charged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to name an envoy to head up the new mission, to be known as the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan.

The war on illegal drugs waged in the Philippines by President Rodrigo Duterte and his government has given law enforcement officers permission to kill drug offenders with near impunity, says a report from United Nations Human Rights Office. The report estimates that at least 8,600 people have been killed since July 2016 in the country's drug crackdown, but notes that further investigation is needed to verify the number.

Two pregnant women in Yemen have died from complications in childbirth after local medical facilities run by the United Nations Population Fund were closed due to a lack of funding. The UNFPA has received only 41% of the $100.5 million it needs this year to outfit maternity wings in local hospitals and pay 3,800 health care workers.

Everyone around the world has played a role in damaging and destroying natural environments and everyone must play their part in helping protect the earth from further damage, says United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen in a message marking World Environment Day today. "To care for humanity, we must care for nature," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says.

Forces under the command of the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord in Libya have driven General Khalifa Haftar and his army out of the capital city of Tripoli. A UN envoy held cease-fire talks with representatives for Haftar earlier this week and plans similar talks with the Libyan government in the coming days.

Philippines drug campaign directive seen as 'permission to kill': UN rights office

"Why the Conventional Wisdom About the Arab Spring is Wrong"

On #WorldEnvironmentDay, this poem highlights both why it's important to work #fornature & to #StandUp4HumanRights for everyone, everywhere. https://poets.org/poem/small-nee...

@Nancy_Groves