In News from UNIFIL #19, UNIFIL Spokesperson, Andrea Tenenti, highlights the discovery of over 200 weapons caches since November 2024, calling it a violation of Resolution 1701. The episode also features peacekeepers from the Republic of Korea, India, and Spain supporting local communities through Taekwondo classes, tree planting, and unexploded ordnance safety sessions.

Episode 19

The aid situation in war-shattered Gaza continues to deteriorate and people are getting hungrier because of the “very limited” volume of food being allowed in, humanitarians say.

"The only way to address the situation on the ground is by reopening additional crossings," insists Olga Cherevko, who works with the UN aid coordination office, OCHA. 

"As well as allowing unlimited and unfettered supply of aid to enter, which includes things that are necessary here that go beyond food, which means things like shelter, fuel, cooking gas, and other necessary elements to sustain life in Gaza.” 

Here she is now talking to UN News from Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Wednesday.

Gaza: aid obstacles still hinder our work, says UN worker

At least eight people are feared dead and 22 others are missing off the coast of Djibouti after smugglers stopped a boat carrying around 150 passengers likely bound for Yemen on 5 June, the UN migration agency, IOM, said on Wednesday.
Search and rescue operations supported by IOM have recovered five bodies from the sea near Moulhoulé in northern Djibouti. The confirmed death toll stands at eight but this is expected to rise as search efforts continue. With more, here's IOM Regional Communications Officer Yvone Ndege speaking to UN News.

People smugglers force migrants overboard in Red Sea

• 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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