There have been significant developments in Iraq in recent months – which  has so far avoided being dragged into the widening Middle East conflict – but  corruption and other challenges persist, the new UN Special Representative for the country told the Security Council on Friday. 

One of the last partially functional health centres in besieged northern Gaza was hit several times overnight into Friday, leaving four health workers among the casualties and the dead, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

There can be “no life without healthy land as we cannot survive,” according to an Olympic athlete who has been attending a global meeting being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, focused on halting desertification and land loss and promoting the restoration and sustainable use of land.

More than 280,000 people have been uprooted in northwest Syria in a matter of days following the sudden and massive offensive into Government-controlled areas led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is sanctioned by the Security Council as a terrorist group. 

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, has condemned a new ban imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan preventing women and girls from attending private medical institutions, warning that it will have devastating consequences for healthcare – especially the future availability of midwives and nurses.