An American teenager is using his voice to raise awareness of how climate change is having an impact on his small indigenous village of Akiak, Alaska. 

Carl Smith, 17, spoke to Dianne Penn prior to travelling to New York  to participate in a panel discussion for Human Rights Day, which this year focuses on youth activism. 

The 2019 Human Development Report (HDR) – entitled Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st Century - was launched on Monday, in Bogota, Colombia.  This year’s report shows that a new generation of severe inequalities in human development is emerging, even as the gap is narrowing, on many of the unresolved inequalities of the 20th century.  Achim Steiner, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, talks about the Human Development Report’s main messages to the world.  

• Spike in Syria attacks on civilians

Measles deaths and infections are spiking again globally, and Governments everywhere should do more to convince parents that it is safe to vaccinate their children.

That’s the message from the World Health Organization’s Dr Kate O’Brien, Director of Immunization and Vaccines.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, she describes the impact of a major outbreak of measles on the Pacific island nation of Samoa, where thousands of children have contracted the disease. 

• At least 58 lives lost off coast of Mauritania

UN agencies are assisting authorities in Samoa as they battle a measles outbreak which has killed more than 60 people, mainly babies.

Simona Marinescu, UN Resident Coordinator in the country, discusses developments and plans for long-term recovery with Julia Dean from the UN Information Centre in Canberra.

During a visit to UN Headquarters in November, Mbaranga Gasarabwe, the UN Deputy Special Representative in Mali, explained to Conor Lennon from UN News that the current situation in Mali is very different, and more difficult, than it was when she first started working there.