Progress assessment towards food and agriculture SDG indicators
25/9/2025 A new report assesses progress on food-related indicators spanning the Sustainable Development Goals. The world is close to achieving one-quarter of the relevant targets, while another quarter remains far or very far from completion. An estimated 8.2 percent of the global population may have faced hunger in 2024.
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization
The Ganges River is drying faster than ever
24/9/2025: The Ganges is drying at a rate scientists say is unprecedented in recorded history. Climate change, relentless extraction and damming are pushing the mighty river towards collapse, with consequences for food, water and livelihoods for hundreds of millions across South Asia.
Source: The Conversation
Billions still lack basic services in health care facilities
24/9/2025: Over 100 countries have made unprecedented efforts to improve basic services in health care facilities according to the latest joint WHO/UNICEF global progress report. While this represents progress, significant investment is urgently needed to meet 2030 targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Source: World Health Organization
Sahel countries withdraw from International Criminal Court
24/9/2025: The decision of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to withdraw from the International Criminal Court will jeopardize access to justice for victims of atrocity crimes, warns Human Rights Watch. Increasingly repressive military juntas in the three countries have been engaged in armed conflicts with Islamist armed groups.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Seven of nine planetary boundaries now breached
24/9/2025: A new report from the Planetary Boundaries Science Lab reveals that 7 of the 9 critical Earth system boundaries have now been breached, one more than last year. For the first time, Ocean Acidification has transgressed its Planetary Boundary.
Source: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Breakthrough in cost of HIV-prevention jab for poorer countries
24/9/2025: Cheap supplies of a groundbreaking twice-yearly HIV prevention jab will be available in many poorer countries within two years, funders have promised. Last year there were 1.3m new HIV infections globally and experts have said that lenacapavir could have a transformative effect on that figure.
Source: The Guardian
AI must not decide humanity’s fate, UN chief warns Security Council
24/9/2025: The UN Secretary-General has expressed concern that decisions on nuclear weapons “must rest with humans – not machines.” He proposes a legally binding instrument to effect a ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems operating without human control.
Source: UN News
ICC charges ex-Philippine President Duterte with crimes against humanity
23/9/2025: Having been held in a detention facility in the Netherlands since March, Duterte has now been formally charged with the murders of at least 76 people during his so-called “war on drugs”. The court must first consider whether the former president is fit to stand trial.
Source: Al Jazeera
UN at 80: a mixed legacy of highs and lows
23/9/2025: As the UN commemorates its 80th anniversary, the celebrations are muted. Failure in creating a world of peace and security contrasts with the UN's performance as a massive global relief organization, providing humanitarian aid to millions of people caught in worldwide conflicts.
Source: Inter Press Service
UN report slams global corporate capture of food systems
23/9/2025: A relatively small number of corporations have amassed so much power over the world’s food systems that “a small group of people shape food systems in a way that serves the ultimate goal of profit maximization instead of the public good”. These are the conclusions from the annual report by the UN-Rapporteur on the Right to Food, to be presented to the UN General Assembly.
Source: Corporate Euro Observatory