UN news September 2026

The race for UN Secretary-General has come down to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan — and someone else (LINK) — 30 September 2026

— Global Dispatches: The Security Council held its fourth informal straw poll to test the viability of the seven candidates for Secretary-General — and this is now the fourth time in a row that Grynspan has been in the lead: 10 votes in favour, three "discourages," and two "no opinions". Guyana's ambassador to the United Nations, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, secured eight votes in favour but six "discourage" votes.

UN Takeaway: General Assembly debate Day 5: from artificial intelligence to migration, some of the forces reshaping the 21st century took centre stage at the UN General Assembly on Saturday (LINK) — 26 September 2026

Politico: UN gathering showcases new alliances — and their limits: on Ukraine, Iran and AI, world leaders are creating new networks without the U.S. at their center, but they can't escape the reality of American power (LINK) — 26 September 2026

Reuters: Six big takeaways from a turbulent week of UN diplomacy (LINK) — 25 September 2026

— Reboot of Iran diplomacy. Ukraine grain and energy: limited ceasefire involving grain and energy-related targetslimited ceasefire involving grain and energy-related targets? AI steals climate's spotlight. Surprise arrival of Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez: first in-person talks with Trump since she came to power. Surprise absence: Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The US withheld his visa. Uncertain future: organization is grappling with shrinking budgets, waning influence and mounting geopolitical conflicts.

Trump-Xi meeting outside UN spotlight tests world body's clout (LINK) — 24 September 2026

UNCTAD: Gaza reconstruction needs reach $71.5 billion as Palestinian economy and public finances face severe strain: report documents the loss of decades of development gains, economic collapse in Gaza and tightening economic constraints in the West Bank (LINK) — 24 September 2026

— Latest Report on UNCTAD assistance to the Palestinian people, presented to the UN Trade and Development Board, finds that 59 years of occupation have constrained the Palestinian economy, with structural and economic costs rising sharply since October 2023. Following the sharp contraction in 2024, Palestinian GDP grew by 4.3% in 2025 from a low base but remained 20% below its 2022 level. Gaza's real GDP rose by 34.2% after contracting 83% in 2024, a statistical rebound from a sharply reduced base. Across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost since October 2023, erasing an estimated $2.8 billion in cumulative labour income. 38 communities have been emptied of Palestinians since 2023, and displacement in the first quarter of 2026 exceeded the total recorded in 2025.

— Palestinian Government's fiscal position has deteriorated sharply. Under the Paris Protocol, Israel collects more than two thirds of Palestinian fiscal revenue on behalf of the Palestinian Government. Transfers have been intermittent and subject to deductions. According to the report, clearance revenue transfers due to the Palestinian Government were fully withheld from May 2025 through mid-2026. Cumulative deductions and withheld revenues between January 2019 and March 2026 exceeded an estimated $3.67 billion at the exchange rates prevailing when the payments were due — equivalent to 83% of total Palestinian net revenue in 2025. The report estimates the 2025 budget deficit at 13% of GDP when unpaid clearance revenues are excluded, compared with 6% when those revenues are counted as revenue due to the Government. Health-related arrears reached $1.1 billion by late 2025, raising risks to the continuity of services provided by hospitals, non-governmental providers and pharmaceutical suppliers. In the West Bank, resource shortages led schools to limit in-person instruction to three days a week in 2025, according to the report.

— To finance the deficit, the Government has increasingly borrowed from domestic banks and accumulated arrears to private sector suppliers and the pension fund, bringing total public debt to $4.8 billion in 2025. Combined with lending secured against government salaries, exposure of the banking system to the public sector has reached $5.3 billion, or 42% of all bank lending. The report estimates that 92% of Gaza's economic establishments have been damaged or destroyed since October 2023. GDP per capita stood at $212 in 2025 - equivalent to about $0.58 per person per day in GDP terms and 17% of its 2022 level. Unemployment reached 78%, while more than 90% of the working-age population was not employed. Gaza's share of Palestinian GDP fell from 17.4% before October 2023 to less than 4% in 2025. In 2025, Gaza's overall price level remained 274% above its 2022 level, with staples such as potatoes and cooking gas costing several times their 2022 prices.

— In 2025, Gaza's overall price level remained 274% above its 2022 level, with staples such as potatoes and cooking gas costing several times their 2022 prices. A rapid damage and needs assessment by the World Bank, the European Union and the United Nations estimates physical infrastructure damage in Gaza at $35.2 billion and economic and social losses at $22.7 billion as of early 2026. Separately, it estimates total recovery and reconstruction needs at $71.5 billion. This figure may rise if further damage is being recorded.

UN Takeaway: General Assembly debate Day 2: including focus on the war in Ukraine and a renewed push by African countries for Security Council reform (LINK) — 23 September 2026

— Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had lost nearly 250,000 troops on the battlefield between January and August this year. The President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader stressed that conflicts in Europe and the Middle East directly affect food and energy prices in his country. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the international community of applying double standards to Iran's nuclear activities and Israel's nuclear capabilities and actions in Gaza. African leaders again argued that the Security Council no longer reflects current global realities.

5 takeaways from Trump's whirlwind day at UN General Assembly (LINK) — 22 September 2026

— President Trump threatened the annihilation of Iran if its leaders refuse to strike a deal and framed the U.S. as conquerors of Venezuela, while promoting himself as a problem solver. The president's remarks at the global summit kicked off a whirlwind day that included a secret meeting between U.S. officials and the Iranian delegation, with the two sides at an impasse nearly seven months into the war. Trump also signed an agreement with Denmark and Greenland that ended a standoff over his threats to invade or annex the Arctic island.

— Trump sought to rebrand artificial intelligence as "super intelligence" during his remarks to the U.N. General Assembly but largely dismissed concerns about the technology and calls for global cooperation on its regulation.

CNN Fact check: Trump's false claims to the United Nations — (LINK)

• "Since I took office, it has been my great honor to settle eight wars." Trump did help to end the brief 2025 conflict between Israel and Iran, though Israel proceeded to join the US in starting another war against Iran in 2026.
• Trump scoffed at dire warnings that artificial intelligence might eventually attack or kill people, claiming they are coming from "the very same people who said we'll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming, a name since reborn to climate change because the planet was cooling, not warming, and nobody was dead." While somebody somewhere might have said that "we'll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming," that isn't how an expert report framed the issue.
• "We've secured commitments for $21 trillion in new investments from all over the planet." His figure has no apparent basis even with the "secured commitments for" caveat; the White House has never been able to substantiate it.
• "When I arrived on January 20 of last year in Washington, DC, it was riddled with crime, and now crime is down 87%, and we're going for 100." The local police department had still recorded and publicly reported more than 15,000 total crimes through Monday — a reduction of about 23% from 2024 as of the same date,

In UN farewell, Macron denounces Trump's Gaza diplomacy as spectacle of shame (ground news LINK) — 22 September 2026

— He dismisses President Donald Trump's claims of peace in Gaza, calling the proclaimed peace a 'spectacle that shames us all.' Macron warned of a 'return to the law of the jungle,' arguing the international community cannot accept a 'new order of impunity' while noting not a single humanitarian corridor has reopened in Gaza despite proclaimed peace.

— Macron also advocated for reforming the Security Council to include new members and regions, emphasizing a more effective multilateral system.

Daily Beast: Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, 54, "has roasted" Donald Trump, 80, after sitting through the president's remarks at the U.N. General Assembly during which he threatened to "annihilate the Islamic Republic" and called Cuba a "failed state". — (LINK)

— "It was, as usual, a very ideological speech," Sánchez told Jon Stewart, 63, in a preview clip from an upcoming episode of the comedian's Weekly Show podcast. "Not backed and supported by facts and data. When he speaks about climate change, or the war in Iran, or the things that are going on in the Middle East, his political positions are not, let's say, largely supported by many countries worldwide." Both the Cuban and the Iranian delegations walked out of the chamber while Trump was speaking, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, 61, scrolled on a tablet throughout the address.

Mediaite: 'Craven Hypocrites!' Trump rages at UN officials in UN Speech — (LINK)

— "The United Nations has great, great potential — I've said that for many years — but it must stop imposing the far-left agenda of globalist bureaucrats whom nobody ever elected. Led by Ambassador Michael Waltz here at the United Nations, we have also worked with many countries in this room to implement the most sweeping UN reforms in history. We cut the UN budget for the first time ever, slashing it by 15 percent in 2026, and eliminating more than 4,000 positions from the UN bureaucracy."

— "Last year, my administration was forced to intervene to stop an obscure UN body, the International Maritime Organization, from secretly establishing a first-ever global carbon tax — a very expensive tax — to raise international shipping costs by 10 to 20 percent, and maybe more than that. There is no global government, and while I'm president, there will be no global taxes."

— "The United States is equally opposed to the out-of-control institution known as the International Criminal Court. We will never allow U.S. service members or anyone else to be investigated or given show trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us. You're an evil group of people. I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately."

— "It is equally unacceptable that, with all the genuine atrocities in the world, the UN's top human rights officials spend their time criticizing the United States for protecting our children from transgender mutilation and transgender insanity, and for enforcing our immigration laws. What they do is unbelievable, what they do — transgender mutilation of our children. The craven hypocrites of the Human Rights Council have little to say about the persecution of Christians. I mean, Christians are being persecuted all over the world."

— "It is deeply ironic that the United Nations has an entire institution — UNESCO — a group of people and countries devoted to protecting cultural heritage, yet with their ceaseless promotion of mass migration, these globalists are actively destroying the greatest cultures and most extraordinary heritage in all of history. There is no human right to illegal immigration, but there is a right to remain a sovereign nation, and we want to remain a sovereign nation, and so should you."

What will drive the agenda at the UN this week with Elizabeth Cousens, President and CEO of the United Nations Foundation, from 17 September (LINK 21:34 min video) — 21 September 2026

Catchup: United Nations Foundation: poll: public backs stronger UN and wants bold leadership from next Secretary-General (LINK) — 17 September 2026

— 20-country poll captures the views of 5,000 citizens across countries home to 56% of the global population, including all Security Council members.

Key takeaways
• The UN is relevant, but perceived as underperforming on delivery. A clear majority (84%) believe the UN remains necessary today, though more than half (52%) add the caveat that it is struggling to deliver results.
• Citizens fear for their future in a turbulent world. Nearly 6 in 10 respondents (57%) are worried about the future.
• Conflict prevention tops public priorities. Top with more than half of respondents (58%).
• A majority trusts the UN to deliver, but with a North-South divide. Trust in institutions' ability to deliver is higher in the Global South (65%) than the Global North (44%).
• The public wants an outward-facing leader. While demand for renewal of the UN is high, only 17% want the next Secretary-General to focus primarily on internal reform.
• The UN leadership race has yet to break through. Most global citizens (85%) have heard little of it
• Demand for a historic first. Six in ten respondents (61%) say it is important for the next UN Secretary-General to be a woman.

UN peacekeeping chief in Lebanon says smooth transition is critical before ordered pull-out (ground news LINK) — 19 September 2026

— The Security Council ordered UNIFIL to begin withdrawing at the end of 2026 following a new war that erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in March, intensifying the force's operational demands. Major General Diodato Abagnara of Italy acknowledged it could be "very difficult" to hand over UNIFIL posts to Lebanese troops, as more than half lie within areas now controlled by Israeli forces, including sectors near Mansouri. He warned that ensuring Lebanese troops and UN agencies assume UNIFIL's tasks before the force's withdrawal is critical to maintaining stability in southern Lebanon.

PassBlue: Third straw poll for UN Secretary-General race shows no consensus: Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica has regained the lead (LINK) — 18 September 2026

— Grynspan received nine "encourage" votes in the Security Council's third secret straw poll, held on Friday, Sept. 18. So far, however, the race has not produced a definitive front-runner as UN member states speculate about possible last-minute entrants that the Council can coalesce behind. She got five discourage votes and one no opinion from the members.

UN fact-finding mission finds "reasonable grounds" for signaling U.S. war crimes in Iran; Washington rejects report (LINK) — 17 September 2026

— The mission pointed out the Tomahawk missile strike on a primary school that killed over 150 people in the city of Minab, as well as another airstrike which killed 22 civilians. The fact-finding mission also charged Iran with human rights violations and "crimes against humanity committed".

— The report said the school was the intended point of impact, and the resulting damage wasn't the result of an errant strike or collateral damage from an attack on a compound of Iran's Revolutionary Guard next to the school. The experts said they found no information indicating that the school was used for military purposes at the time.

Nepal floods among 'most challenging' disasters: WFP. At least 1,446 people killed. More than 6,500 remain missing across both countries. (LINK) — 17 September 2026

— Riaz Lodhi, head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in Nepal, told AFP that it was among the "top three most challenging disasters" the agency had faced. "This is a very unique access challenge where, in some places, the only way to reach people is by helicopters," he said. "It's a very, very expensive operation." The catastrophic August 26 flood was triggered by a Himalayan glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border, that scientists have linked to climate change.

Kim Yo Jong calls North Korea's nuclear status 'absolute,' dismisses IAEA (ground news LINK) — 17 September 2026

— Her remarks coincided with the 70th regular session of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna, Austria, where the agency's Safeguards Report detailed a substantial increase in Pyongyang's uranium enrichment capacity and core nuclear facility expansion. While the IAEA urged Pyongyang to abandon its weapons program in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the DPRK leadership legally enshrined its nuclear status as permanent, arguing "no one and nothing can ever reverse" these changes.

World's water cycle becoming more unpredictable, WMO warns (ground news LINK) — 17 September 2026

— 2025 was one of the driest years for rivers worldwide in 35 years, reflecting declining water storage across Earth's surface and raising concerns about future global supplies. 2025 was one of the driest years for rivers worldwide in 35 years, reflecting declining water storage across Earth's surface and raising concerns about future global supplies. Cumulative glacier losses reached roughly 1,400 gigatonnes between 2023 and 2025, while nearly two-thirds of monitored wells showed groundwater outside historical norms. Intense monsoon rainfall and tropical cyclones across South and South-East Asia contributed to as many as 3,600 deaths in 2025

WHO says Ebola epidemic, second most lethal, still "massive" and will take months to bring under control (ground news LINK) — 15 September 2026

— Government figures published on Tuesday indicate 7,258 confirmed cases and 3,510 deaths across seven provinces, with 10 of the 62 affected health zones recording no new Ebola cases for more than 22 days. World Health Organization official Olivier le Polain cautioned it is "too early to confidently say we have passed a peak," noting this outbreak is the second most lethal on record.

Thailand and Cambodia begin UN conciliation process over disputed maritime claims (ground news LINK) — 15 September 2026

Guterres: Old global order must change as power shifts to emerging economies (LINK) — 13 September 2026

— "Multipolarity helps bring balance and equity to global systems and institutions," he said — but only if it comes with reform of bodies including the Security Council and the Bretton Woods system "to reflect the world of today."

BRICS endorses call Of China and Russia to give India a greater role in the UN Security Council — (LINK)

— Declaration wants more developing-country and women's voices in the UN, IMF, and World Bank, no lock on senior UN jobs, and notes no woman has been Secretary-General. The Delhi Declaration 2026 called for gender and country inclusivity in all global decision-making bodies such as the UN, IMF and World Bank. It backs WTO reform, IMF quotas, and World Bank shareholding changes; welcomes China's zero tariffs for 53 African states; and condemns unilateral tariffs and sanctions not authorized by the Security Council.

U.N.: Countries must increase AI regulation to avoid 'existential risks': Human Rights chief (LINK) — 14 September 2026

Myanmar government revokes status of UN envoy Kyaw Moe Tun and seeks action against him alleging "illegal activities" (ground news LINK) — 13 September 2026

— Authorities cited Tun's February 27, 2021, dismissal from the civil service for "failing to follow instructions," as he was originally appointed by the government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Military officials accused Tun of unauthorized use of state property and mission funds while working with the parallel civilian National Unity Government, or NUG. Myanmar's government is seeking legal action against Tun through INTERPOL, the United States National Central Bureau, and American agencies utilizing diplomatic channels. The UN Credentials Committee is expected to meet in New York later this month to discuss representation disputes, having previously deferred decisions on Myanmar to allow Tun to remain in his post.

AI could pose 'existential' risk to humanity, UN rights chief warns (ground news LINK) — 7 September 2026

xinhuanet.com: 63rd session of UNHRC kicks off in Geneva: photocaptions (LINK) — 7 September 2026

UN expert Francesca Albanese calls for 'true paradigm shift' as U.K.'s Miliband resets policy on Israel to ban trade with unlawful Israeli settlements (LINK) — 6 September 2026

— Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur on the occupied territories, said a "ban on settlement goods was a change in UK government stance and absolutely important". Albanese also said the trade ban could not be narrowly confined to goods — such as agricultural products and cosmetics — since "they are a fraction of what sustains the occupation, and a fraction that Israel can absorb without difficulty". The package should also aim to include trade in services, she said.

UN votes to adopt new world map to reflect Africa's true size (LINK) — 4 September 2026

— The "Correct the Map" resolution, sponsored by Togo and backed by African Union (AU) members, passed with the support of 164 nations, including France and the UK. The US was the only nation to vote against it — while there were six abstentions.

BBC: What different world maps get right — and what they get wrong (LINK)

The 2026 Ig Nobel Prizes (LINK) — 3 September 2026

BIOMECHANICS: Matilda Brindle, Catherine Talbot, and Stuart West for devising a more precise definition of kissing — "non-agonistic interactions involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer" — in ants, birds, polar bears, and humans.