President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the US from the UN Human Rights Council and prohibiting any future funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Trump also directed the US to review its participation in UNESCO, citing concerns about anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment within the organizations. The executive order argues that the UNHRC, UNESCO, and UNRWA have drifted from their missions and act contrary to US interests. Trump previously halted funds for UNRWA during his first term, and President Joe Biden put a block on US funds for UNRWA in January 2024 over allegations that staff for the agency participated in Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
Jaishankar, who met Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York, also discussed other issues, including India's presidency of the G20 and the Ukraine conflict, with the UN chief.
In remarks that angered Israel, Guterres had told the Security Council ministerial meeting on Tuesday on the Israel-Hamas conflict that it is "important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum."
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has been appointed as Special Envoy of the United Nations refugee agency.
G20 leaders, including United States President Joe Biden, United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at his memorial Rajghat in New Delhi on Sunday.
What some of our leaders were up to on Wednesday, October 19.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not address the annual debate at the United Nations General Assembly session later this month, according to a revised provisional list of speakers issued by the UN.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that he has been in 'very close contact' with India and other countries on mediation efforts towards bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.
The UN Security Council could meet soon to discuss the situation between India and Pakistan, with the UNSC President expressing concern over rising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors. The President, Ambassador Evangelos Sekeris of Greece, said a meeting would provide an opportunity to express views and help diffuse tensions. Sekeris also condemned terrorism in all its forms, including the recent attack in Pahalgam, and called for de-escalation and dialogue between India and Pakistan.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has termed Russian President Vladimir Putin announcement of a special military operation in Ukraine as the "saddest moment in my tenure", while Security Council members blasted the Russian leader for the "unprovoked and unjustified' action and for delivering a "message of war".
The United Nations considers requests from countries to change their names as and when the world body receives them, a top United Nations official has said, amid a row over President Droupadi Murmu's G20 dinner invites referring to her as 'President of Bharat' instead of 'President of India'.
The United Nations condoled and expressed apologies to India over the killing of a former Indian Army officer, who died in war-torn Rafah in Gaza when the vehicle he was travelling in was attacked by shots fired from what it believes was an Israeli tank.
India abstained in the United Nations General Assembly on a resolution that demanded Israel end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory within 12 months, with Delhi underlining that it is a strong advocate of 'dialogue and diplomacy' and efforts should be made towards 'building bridges', 'not furthering divides'.
This will be the first time the UN is sending a fact-finding mission to Bangladesh since its independence in 1971 to investigate widespread human rights abuses in the country, according to a UN official.
Though India is not a member of the G7 grouping, Modi has been personally invited by French President Emmanuel Macron.
The spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a halt to any sort of violence, especially one based on perceived religious differences and hatred, amidst protests in India over the controversial remarks by two now-suspended/expelled Bharatiya Janata Party functionaries against Prophet Mohammed.
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said the attack was aimed at "specific targets".
US President Joe Biden attended the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gala dinner in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Sanjay Raut has written to the United Nations, urging it to declare June 20 as 'World Traitors Day' to mark the 'desertion' of his party chief Uddhav Thackeray by 40 Shiv Sena MLAs, including Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The summit is being attended by more than 30 heads of state and top officials from the European Union and invited guest countries and 14 heads of international organisations.
Scenes of death and destruction from Gaza and Israel.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has called on Hamas to immediately release all hostages without conditions and urged Israel to allow rapid and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid for civilians in the Gaza Strip.
World leaders, including the UN Secretary-General and US President Donald Trump, have urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and seek peaceful solutions to the ongoing tensions. The calls for calm come after India conducted airstrikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to a recent terrorist attack. Leaders from the US, Russia, UK, China, UAE, Qatar, and Japan have expressed concern over the escalating situation and emphasized the need for dialogue and de-escalation.
The year 2024 was the hottest year on record, with the global average temperature exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time, according to the European climate agency Copernicus. Every month from January to June was the warmest ever recorded, and from July to December (except August), each month was the second warmest on record. Scientists are warning that the world is entering a new climate reality, with extreme heatwaves, floods, and storms becoming more frequent and severe. The report also highlights the failure of developed nations to meet their climate finance commitments to developing countries, despite the urgency of the situation.
"I imagined my family in one of those houses that is now destroyed and black," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
Bhutto, who served as the Foreign Minister earlier, addressed a briefing at the UN Headquarters in New York and sought reconciliation with India, making a plea for talks and Intel sharing between the two neighbours.
The world is seeing an "explosion" in seizures of power by force and military coups are back, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told world leaders on Tuesday, lamenting that geopolitical divisions are undermining international cooperation as he called for strengthening global governance and re-igniting multilateralism.
On Sunday, the media reports emerged with footage allegedly taken in the town of Bucha near Kyiv with a number of bodies of dead people lying on the road.
A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the world body 'hopes' that in India and any country that is having elections, people's 'political and civil rights' are 'protected' and everyone is able to vote in a 'free and fair' atmosphere.
'While on the one hand, terrorism continues to be a serious threat to global peace and security, on the other hand, areas such as cyber, maritime and space, are emerging as new theatres of conflict'
A 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, Kamboj was previously Ambassador of India to Bhutan and was in June appointed India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, succeeding Ambassador T S Tirumurti.
The spokesperson was responding to a question by a Pakistani journalist on the condemnation by several Muslim nations over remarks by BJP's former national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and its Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal against the Prophet and the Secretary General's response to it.
Asserting that the situation was deteriorating, Rosario urged Yunus to resolve the crisis by giving it top priority and putting an end to the violence.
Antonio Guterres, who had served as UN High Commissioner for Refugees for 10 years, has emerged as the front-runner in the first two rounds of informal voting.
What all global leaders need to understand is that no Generative AI regulation will work unless they start with the basics, which is data collection, asserts Prosenjit Datta.
"I think it's absolutely essential for the two countries to be able to come together and seriously discuss their problems, and I think it's essential that human rights are fully respected in all territories that you mentioned," Guterres said during his press briefing on Thursday.
India has been mentioned in the report of the Secretary-General on Children and armed conflict since 2010 along with other countries of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Lake Chad basin, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Philippines for alleged recruitment and use of boys by armed groups in Jammu and Kashmir; detainment of boys by Indian security forces in J&K for their alleged association with armed groups, or on national security grounds.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday welcomed a host of world leaders, including United States President Joe Biden and United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, at the Bharat Mandapam, the venue of the G20 Summit.
The UN Security Council members on Monday reaffirmed the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and violence in Afghanistan and that for any acceptance and legitimacy, there needs to be a political settlement that fully respects the human rights of women, children and minorities, India's Permanent Representative to the UN and President of the Security Council Ambassador T S Tirumurti said.
The United States has vetoed a resolution in the UN Security Council on the latest Palestinian bid to be granted full membership of the United Nations, an outcome lauded by Israel but criticised by Palestine as 'unfair, immoral, and unjustified'.
