In late January, David Sheff and Vicky Cornell joined a panel discussion on addiction organised by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).  Mr. Sheff’s memoir about his son’s addiction is now a Hollywood movie, and Ms. Cornell was married to Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, whose suicide she has attributed to prescription drugs that altered his mental state.  They told Conor Lennon from UN News that changes to the health care system play a key role in addressing the crisis.

Probe call for Brazil dam collapse

‘World’s deadliest sea crossing’ claimed six lives a day in 2018: UN refugee agency

30 dead and 100 migrants missing in Djibouti boat tragedy

“If we look at what Lake Chad was and what it is today, we understand that climate change is real, and it needs to be addressed”, the newly-appointed UN Special Representative to the African Union (AU) has told UN News. Based in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa since the beginning of January, Ms. Tetteh told Cristina Silveiro what her priorities were for the year ahead.

Nearly $4 billion needed to protect 41 million children from conflict and disaster

700 people detained in one day of Venezuela demonstrations, dozens children

Palestine refugees more vulnerable now than in year 2000, warns UN agency chief

An important lesson for young people to learn from the Holocaust is that individuals “have more power than they realize” to make sure that history is not forgotten, according to Sara Bloomfield, Director of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day, Ms. Bloomfield said youth the world over had a responsibility to ask what role they can play.

‘Where there is anti-Semitism, no one else is safe’: UN Chief tells Holocaust commemoration

Latin America must condemn violence against Venezuelan refugees and migrants: senior UN official

‘Preparedness is crucial’ in fight against Ebola: health workers vaccinated in South Sudan

Bachelet condemns Venezuela killings, urges restraint lest situation ‘spirals out of control’

DRC Ebola infections increase in two health zones as numbers decline in former hotspot

Alarm over violent attacks in Malawi ahead of elections

About one third of all food which is grown in the Middle East and North Africa is lost or wasted, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).  Governments in the region have pledged to reduce food loss and waste by 50 per cent by 2024, and the agency along with the Italian government, is training farmers and wholesalers to reduce food loss and ensure greater food security, as Anais Hotin reports, from Egypt.

Venezuela’s anti-Government protests spark UN chief’s concern

An educated world spells progress, as UN marks new International Day

Mitigate extreme weather risks, urges new disaster risk report

CAR militia leader transferred to International Criminal Court

UNICEF urges Sudan to protect children from violence

UN Chief calls on “bold, innovative ideas” from global digital tech leaders