Month: September 2026

At a time when war, climate crises and man-made disasters continue to displace millions around the world, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees will brief the Security Council on Friday. 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese underlined the need for countries to work together to address the climate crisis, emerging technologies such as AI, and the breakdown of international rules, at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. 

As the high-level debate enters a fourth day, The Takeaway looks back at key highlights on Thursday, with Israeli and Palestinian leaders presenting divergent views on the Middle East conflict and their counterparts from across the world weighing in on the far-reaching impacts of the ongoing crisis in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. 

World leaders approved the UN Declaration on Sea Level Rise by consensus on Thursday as the UN chief warned that encroaching waters are already threatening the future of coastal communities worldwide.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his address to the UN General Assembly to defend Israel’s strikes against Iran as a matter of national survival and describe the violence in the West Bank as the work of few “juvenile delinquents” and reject accusations of genocide in Gaza as “the greatest lie of the century.”

The Vice-President of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, Abdullah Al-Alimi Bawazir, told the UN General Assembly on Thursday that his Government had engaged “responsibly and positively” with regional and international peace initiatives and made significant concessions to end the suffering of the Yemeni people.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called on world leaders on Thursday to turn knowledge into action, reform international institutions and ensure that new technologies and global wealth benefit everyone.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) continues to operate under “extraordinary pressure”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday. 

“There is a people. A people who can wait no longer.  A people waiting to regain security, to return home to work, to send their children to school, and to freely choose their leaders.” Those are the words of the Haitian Prime Minister, Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who spoke at a special UN meeting on the future of security in Haiti.