• At least eight migrants are dead after smugglers force passengers off Red Sea boat: IOM
• Gaza aid obstacles remain, say UN aid teams in shattered enclave
• The world pledged to ban child labour – so why are 138 million kids still working? 

Audio credit: Daniel Johnson, UN News
Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved. 



UN News Today 11 June 2025 - migrants in Red Sea, Gaza aid obstacles, child labour

Last December, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held historic hearings from addressing States’ obligations under international law to combat climate change, a process spearheaded by small island nations facing existential threats.

UN News caught up with Vishal Prasad, Director of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change at the UN Ocean Conference. 

CLIP: 'Climate change in the Pacific is an existential crisis'

• Oceans summit biodiversity czar warns over lack of ambition
• Displacement doubles while funding shrinks, warns refugee agency
• Atomic watchdog says Iran not complying with nuclear safeguards  

Audio credit: Daniel Johnson, UN News.
Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved 


UN News Today 12 June 2025 - UN Ocean Conference, displacement global trends, nuclear energy

Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) speaks to UN News on Plastic Pollution, at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France. 

CLIP: 'We are choking with plastic' experts warn at UN Ocean Conference

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s Director General addressed the Board of Governors on Friday regarding the situation in Iran. 

The head of the UN-backed atomic watchdog announced that the Iranian authorities had confirmed that the Natanz enrichment site had been “impacted” without affecting existing radiation levels.

The Iranian nuclear safety authorities also reported that the Esfahan and Fordow sites had not been impacted.

CLIP: International Atomic Energy Agency's Director General on the situation in Iran

Peter Thomson, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean, speaks to UN News about the highlights of the UN Ocean Conference and what is coming next.

Audio credit: Fabrice Robinet, UN News in Nice, France 

CLIP: Peter Thomson, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean

Since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, 1.9 million Syrian refugees have headed home to Syria. After 14 years of civil war, much of the country is in ruins, while over 90 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Yet, Syrian refugees are not losing hope: UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has found that more than 80 per cent of the diaspora hope to return one day, a major shift compared to surveys conducted before the fall of the old regime.  

There are more than six million Syrian refugees, and over seven million are internally displaced. UNHCR is committed to helping all those who want to return home.

UN News’ Emma Trager-Lewis spoke to agency spokesperson in Syria Céline Schmitt, who’s just returned from a field visit to Dara’a, birthplace of the Syrian revolution in 2011. 

Audio Credit: Emma Trager-Lewis, UN News
Photo Credit © Courtesy of Céline Schmitt

Hopeful Syrians head home to an uncertain future

Persons with disabilities living in institutions face a heightened risk of being trafficked as their reliance on others for daily support can be manipulated; that’s according to an expert in disability rights speaking at the United Nations.

Eric Rosenthal leads Disability Rights International. He told a side event at COSP, the UN’s largest annual meeting focusing on issues that persons living with disabilities face, that people isolated from their families are easier targets for exploitation.  

The number of trafficking victims of all types has seen a troubling rise since the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 25 per cent increase in global detections between 2019 and 2022.

UN News' Anna O'Donnell sat down with Mr. Rosenthal and began by asking him to explain why people with disabilities are being trafficked. 

Audio credit: Anna O'Donnell, UN News

The vulnerable and forgotten: trafficked persons with disabilities

• Israel-Iran crisis: UN chief urges calm after overnight strikes 
• Victims of DRC violence start to rebuild shattered lives and livelihoods  
• Eastern Chad ‘reaching a breaking point’ as Sudan war refugees continue to arrive 

Daniel Johnson, UN News  
Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved. 


UN News Today 13 June 2025 - Israel-Iran crisis, DR Congo violence, Sudan war refugees

Small island States are among the most vulnerable communities facing rising sea levels and marine degradation – but this invaluable firsthand experience puts them in a powerful leadership position to shape inclusive, effective ocean policies.

Safiya Sawney, Grenada’s Special Envoy and Ambassador for Climate, has been at this week’s UN Ocean Conference in Nice and told UN News that “a big part of our heritage, of our culture, of our economy is derived from the ocean.”

Describing the small island nations as “large ocean nations,” she outlined to Heyi Zou some of the pressing challenges ahead as global warming continues.

Audio credit: Heyi Zou, UN News
Photo: Coastal erosion is seen on a beach near Grenville in Grenada, a Caribbean island. NOOR/Kadir van Lohuizen

Time to ‘change the tide’ in the Caribbean says regional climate expert

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