LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD

The United States and its allies clashed with North Korea, Russia and China over Pyongyang’s failed attempts to launch a spy satellite and who is responsible for escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The U.N. rights chief says North Korea is increasing its repression of human rights and people are becoming more desperate and reportedly starving in parts of the country as the economic situation worsens.

The U.N. Security Council will hold its first open meeting on North Korea’s dire human rights situation since 2017 next week.

UN officials say nearly four months of brutal fighting is driving Sudan to collapse with millions of people trapped in a “humanitarian calamity” and the possibility of a new ethnic conflict spilling into the region.

The United States, Britain and France are demanding that the United Nations urgently investigate Russia’s reported use of hundreds of Iranian-provided drones in the war in Ukraine, which would violate U.N. sanctions.

The United States has announced $524 million in additional humanitarian aid for the Horn of Africa that aims to put a spotlight on the extreme effects of climate change and the worst drought in the region in 40 years.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield is heading to Brazil next week, following up on recent high-level meetings between the presidents and top diplomats of the two countries.

The U_S_ has brought the sister of an American imprisoned in Russia to the U_N_ Security Council for a session being chaired by the Russian foreign minister, urging him to “look into her eyes and see her suffering.”.

The Russian presidency of the U.N. Security Council has been the most contentious in the memory of longtime U.N. diplomats.

Russia’s U.N. ambassador is dismissing U.S. and European Union descriptions of its presidency of the Security Council this month as an April Fool’s joke.

African nations are calling on the world to pay attention to how terrorism is targeting their continent, particularly its Sahel region.

The United States is accusing China and Russia of shielding North Korea from any action by the U.N. Security Council for its unprecedented spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches, which violate multiple U.N. resolutions.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is the second Cabinet member heading to Africa as part of President Joe Biden’s big push to engage with the world’s second-largest continent.

The U.N. Economic and Social Council has voted to immediately oust Iran from the U.N.’s premiere global body fighting for gender equality.

The U.S. and its Western allies clashed with Russia at the U.N. Security Council over responsibility for a deadly missile strike in Poland near the Ukrainian border.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has told Ukrainian farmers that extending a wartime deal to export Ukrainian grains across the Black Sea is a priority.

The U.N. Security Council has overwhelmingly rejected Russia’s attempt to establish a commission to investigate its unfounded claims that Ukraine and the United States are carrying out “military biological” activities that violate the convention prohibiting the use of biological weapons.

Thousands of people in towns across Ethiopia have staged demonstrations against what they say is interference by outsiders in the country’s internal affairs.

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution demanding an immediate end to violence and criminal activity in Haiti and imposing sanctions on individuals and groups that threaten peace and stability in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution that would demand an immediate end to violence and criminal activity in Haiti.

Debate over how to handle a North Korean ballistic missile launch over Japanese territory has again split an already deeply fractured U.N. Security Council.

Russia has vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have condemned its referendums in four Ukrainian regions as illegal, declared that they are invalid and urged all countries not to recognize any annexation of the territory claimed by Moscow.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is warning that Russia’s just concluded “sham referendums” and attempts to annex Ukrainian territory rule out any talks with Moscow as long as Vladimir Putin remains president.

In speech after speech, world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly are spotlighting Russia’s war in Ukraine.

While the coronavirus pandemic was not the main focus of the U.N. General Assembly, the conversations were still happening on the sidelines.

World leaders are gathering at the United Nations this week under the shadow of Europe’s first major conflict since World War II.

The United States says it has evidence that “hundreds of thousands” of Ukrainian citizens have been interrogated, detained and forcibly deported to Russia.

The U.N. humanitarian chief is warning that Afghanistan faces deepening poverty with 6 million people at risk of famine.

Russia has blocked agreement on the final document of a four-week review of the U.N. treaty considered the cornerstone of nuclear disarmament which criticized its takeover of Europe’s largest nuclear plant soon after Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is heading to Africa, saying she is going to focus on how the United State can help Uganda, Ghana and Cape Verde deal with the food crisis that has hit the continent particularly hard — not to compete with China and Russia.

The U_S_ ambassador to the United Nations says there should no longer be any doubt that Russia intends to dismantle Ukraine “and dissolve it from the world map entirely.”.

Russian, French and American leaders are crisscrossing Africa to win support for their positions on the war in Ukraine, waging what some say is the most intense competition for influence on the continent since the Cold War.

Liberia is celebrating two major anniversaries this year — 200 years ago freed slaves from the U.S. arrived here and 25 years later they declared the country to be independent.

The U.N. Security Council has approved a resolution extending humanitarian aid deliveries to 4.1 million people in Syria’s rebel-held northwest for just 6 months in a victory for Russia.

The U.N. Security Council has failed to extend humanitarian aid deliveries to 4.1 million Syrians in the rebel-held northwest from Turkey after Russia vetoed a resolution for a year-long extension and got insufficient support for its resolution for a six-month extension.

The U.N. Security Council has delayed an expected vote on extending humanitarian aid deliveries to rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey after failing to reach a compromise.

President Joe Biden’s special envoy for North Korea is monitoring North Korean arrangements for a possible nuclear test explosion that outside officials say could be imminent.

The United States says it will push for additional sanctionson North Korea if it conducts a new nuclear test explosion.

China and Russia have vetoed a U.N. resolution sponsored by the United States that would have imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea for its spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches that can be used to deliver nuclear weapons.

Actor Richard Gere hosted a benefit concert for Ukraine at Carnegie Hall that raised $360,000 for Direct Relief, a humanitarian organization providing medical aid.

The Russian parliament has given preliminary approval to a bill that would allow the government to appoint new management of foreign companies that pulled out of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin marked his country’s biggest patriotic holiday without a major new battlefield success in Ukraine, and the Kremlin made little to no progress as the war ground through its 11th week on multiple fronts.

After decades of complaints about vetoes in the U.N. Security Council, some momentum is building behind a proposal to subject any vetoed matter to scrutiny by the world body's full membership in the General Assembly.

The U.N. children's agency says nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion.

The U.N. General Assembly has voted to suspend Russia from the world organization’s leading human rights body.

The U.N. General Assembly will vote Thursday on whether to suspend Russia from the U.N.’s premier human rights body.

The war in Ukraine has put a spotlight on the U.N. Security Council’s failure to stop Russia’s aggression and carry out its mandate to ensure international peace and security.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address the U.N. Security Council for the first time Tuesday at a meeting that is certain to focus on what appear to be widespread deliberate killings of civilians by Russian troops.

The United States plans to seek a suspension of Russia from its seat on the U.N.’s top human rights body amid increasing signs that Russian troops may have committed war crimes in Ukraine.

The United States says it will seek tougher U.N. Security Council sanctions after North Korea said it test-fired its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile to date.

As she pressed the Clinton administration into action against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic over war crimes in the Balkans, Madeleine Albright would harken back to her own childhood as a refugee from Czechoslovakia who fled the Nazis in war-torn Europe.

Six Western nations are accusing Russia of using the U.N. Security Council to launder disinformation, spread propaganda and justify an unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian forces are blockading Ukraine's largest cities to create a “humanitarian catastrophe” with the aim of persuading Ukrainians to cooperate with them.

Images of the desperate mothers and medical workers from the stricken Children’s and Women’s Health hospital in the city of Mariupol shocked the world, as the bombing took Russia’s war against Ukraine to a sickening new level.

The United States has accused Russia of using a U.N. Security Council meeting for “spreading disinformation” as part of a potential false-flag operation by Moscow for the use of chemical or biological agents in Ukraine.

Ireland’s foreign minister saluted the resilience and courage of Ukraine’s women.

The United States and 10 other countries are condemning North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launch and urging the U.N. Security Council to act.

The United States and its allies are accusing Russia of attacking Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant and putting the lives of millions of Europeans at risk of radiation fallout.

The Russian military assault on Ukraine went into its fifth day.

A regional Ukraine official says more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv.

Ambassadors from dozens of countries are backing a U.N. General Assembly proposal to demand that Russia halt its assault on Ukraine.

Russia has vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops, a defeat the United States and its supporters knew was inevitable but sought to highlight Russia’s global isolation.

From capitals around the world, leaders are condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recognition of two pro-Russia regions in eastern Ukraine as independent and his order to send troops there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has received no support from members of the U.N. Security Council for his actions to bring separatists in eastern Ukraine under Moscow’s control.

One by one, U.N. Security Council members called Thursday for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine.

Black members of President Joe Biden's Cabinet came together Thursday for a Black History Month event highlighting their roles in the administration, some of which are historic firsts.

The United States and its allies clashed with Russia and China in the U.N. Security Council over the usefulness and impact of U.N. sanctions, currently imposed on countries from North Korea to Yemen and Congo as well the al-Qaida and Islamic State extremist groups and their affiliates and supporters.

Russia accused the West of “whipping up tensions” over Ukraine and said the U.S. had brought “pure Nazis” to power in Kyiv as the U.N. Security Council held a stormy debate Monday on Moscow’s troop buildup near its southern neighbor.

Days after kicking out seven U.N. officials, Ethiopia is accusing them without providing evidence of inflating the magnitude of humanitarian crisis in its Tigray region.

More than a year after Black Lives Matter protests launched a worldwide reckoning about the centuries of racism that Black people continue to face, reparations emerged — unevenly — as a high-profile issue at this year’s largest gathering of world leaders.

President Joe Biden begins his first visit to the U.N. General Assembly ready to make the case to world leaders that after closing the chapter on 20 years of war, the U.S. aims to rally allies and adversaries to work together on a slew of crises including the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and trade and economics.

President Joe Biden goes before the United Nations this week to address the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and human rights abuses.

Independent ethnic organizations that have been providing health care in Myanmar after the collapse of the country's central health system are now facing serious challenges of their own.

Women’s rights supporters and faith leaders are calling for a U.N. peacekeeping force for Afghanistan to protect hard-won gains for women over the last two decades as American and NATO forces complete their pullout from the war-torn country and a Taliban offensive gains control over more territory.

Egypt and Sudan are urging the U.N. Security Council to undertake “preventive diplomacy” and call for a legally binding agreement to resolve a dispute with Ethiopia over the availability of water from its dam on the Nile River.

Russia has previewed a showdown with the United Nations, United States and Western nations Wednesday over the delivery of humanitarian aid to rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey.

The U.N.’s top envoy for Afghanistan is urging the international community to do everything possible to push the Taliban and the government from the battlefield back to the negotiating table.

President Joe Biden will seek to stave off another surge of civilian suffering in the devastating war in Syria when he meets President Vladimir Putin this week.

The U_S_ ambassador to the U_N_ says the closure of the last remaining humanitarian border crossing into Syria could cause “senseless cruelty.”.

The White House says President Joe Biden has expressed support for a cease-fire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Confronting multiple unrelated international crises, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is aiming to revive strained ties with Denmark over climate change, Arctic policy and Russia.

Pressure is increasing from U.S. lawmakers seeking a cease-fire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Human rights groups and Western nations led by the United States, Britain and Germany are accusing China of massive crimes against the Uyghur minority and demanding unimpeded access for U.N. experts.

President Joe Biden is facing a fresh challenge to his oft-repeated commitment to diversity in his administration: assembling a diplomatic corps that gives a nod to key political allies and donors while staying true to a campaign pledge to appoint ambassadors who look like America.

Vice President Kamala Harris is making the case before United Nations members that now is the time for global leaders to begin working on how they will respond to the next global pandemic.

Vice President Kamala Harris will make the case before United Nations members on Monday that now is the time for global leaders to begin putting the serious work into how they will respond to the next global pandemic.

Anti-coup protesters run to avoid military forces during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar on Wednesday March 31, 2021. (AP Photo)CAMEROON – The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar warned Wednesday that the country faces the possibility of civil war “at an unprecedented scale” and urged the U.N. Security Council to consider “potentially significant action” to reverse the Feb. 1 military coup and restore democracy. AdIn the virtual meeting, Schraner Burgener denounced the killing and arrest of unarmed protesters seeking to restore democracy. “A robust international response requires a unified regional position, especially with neighboring countries leveraging their influence towards stability in Myanmar,” Schraner Burgener said, adding that she plans to visit the region, hopefully next week. The opposition of ethnic armed groups to “the military’s cruelty ... (is) increasing the possibility of civil war at an unprecedented scale,” Schraner Burgener warned.

(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)WASHINGTON – The Biden administration is quietly ramping up assistance to the Palestinians after former President Donald Trump cut off nearly all aid. AdIn general, the administration supports a resumption in aid to the Palestinians, State Department spokesman Ned Price said. Such payments were one reason the Trump administration cut off aid. The GAO based its findings on a review of aid provided to the Palestinians between 2015 and 2019, when Trump severed most of the aid. Soon after President Joe Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20, his administration announced that it would restore relations with the Palestinians and renew aid as key elements of support for a two-state solution to the conflict.

Announcing the total pledge, EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic said that besides the grants, financial institutions and donors offered loans amounting to $7 billion. AdThe EU said it committed to €3.7 billion ($4.3 billion) for 2021 and beyond, with €1.12 billion ($1.31 billion) coming from the bloc's executive arm and €2.6 billion ($3 billion) from the 27 EU member states. Another $5.8 billion was requested for nearly 6 million Syrian refugees who fled their homeland. AdGerman Foreign Minister Heiko Maas pledged 1.738 billion euros ($2 billion) on Germany’s behalf Tuesday, an amount he described as the country's largest pledge in the last four years. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom cut its pledge to “at least" 205 million pounds ($281 million), compared to 300 million ($411.8 million) last year.

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)WASHINGTON – The Biden administration said Monday it's looking at “additional actions” that the United Nations might take to respond to North Korea’s recent missile tests. “We’re looking at additional actions that we might take,” Thomas-Greenfield said of the U.S. and others Security Council members. Last week, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea in a defiance of U.N. resolutions that ban such launches by North Korea. Some experts say North Korea’s missile launches, the first of their kind in a year, were aimed at applying pressure on the Biden administration. Past short-range missile launches by North Korea have typically drawn U.N. Security Council condemnations, but not fresh sanctions.

The United States says it is giving $15 million to vulnerable Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a boost to the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority had only secured 10,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and 2,000 shots from Israel for the roughly 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. But in recent weeks, it has inoculated over 100,000 Palestinian laborers in the West Bank who have permits to work inside Israel and its West Bank settlements. Wennesland said the U.N. and its partners will continue to support Palestinian vaccination efforts, expressed appreciation for Israel's essential role in deliveries, and urged support for the Palestinian COVID-19 response. U.S. envoy Thomas-Greenfield announced the $15 million contribution as Israel awaits the final results from Tuesday’s fourth parliamentary elections in two years.

FILE - In this Nov. 23, 2019 file photo, a malnourished newborn baby lies in an incubator at the Al-Sabeen Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. Beasley told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday, March 10, 2021, that conditions in war-wrecked Yemen are hell. U.S. President Joe Biden’s envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, last week urged the Houthis to agree to a cease-fire proposal. AdOn the humanitarian front, Yemen, which imports most of its food and other commodities, remains the world’s worst crisis. A U.N. pledging conference on March 1 raised a disappointing $1.7 billion, less than half of what aid agencies need this year, which means “we don’t have enough money to stop famine,” Lowcock said.

Myanmar nationals living in Thailand hold pictures of deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi as they protest against the military coup in front of the United Nations building in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, March 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Nava Sangthong)CAMEROON – The U.N. Security Council unanimously called for a reversal of the military coup in Myanmar on Wednesday, strongly condemning the violence against peaceful protesters and calling for “utmost restraint” by the military. A presidential statement approved by all 15 council members including Myanmar’s neighbor and friend China was formally adopted at a very brief virtual meeting where U.S. Nonetheless, it will be the first presidential statement on Myanmar adopted since 2017 and reflects council unity in trying to reverse the coup. She said she doesn’t have “the solution on the silver plate” but she has some ideas, which she didn’t disclose, that she wants to discuss with the military, Suu Kyi, ousted parliamentarians and others.

FILE - In this July 30, 2020 file photo, residents displaced from a surge of violent attacks squat on blankets and in hastily made tents in the village of Masteri in west Darfur, Sudan. (Mustafa Younes via AP, FIle)CAMEROON – The United States called on Sudan Tuesday to build an inclusive and representative government that ensures peace, supports people on the margins and helps “those who have suffered achieve justice.”U.S. Another major rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement-Army in the restive Darfur region, which is led by Abdel-Wahid Nour, rejects the transitional government and has not taken part in the talks. Volker Perthes, the new U.N. special envoy for Sudan and head of UNITAMS, said in his first briefing to the Security Council that “Sudan is making significant advances in its transition. However, the remaining challenges are staggering.”AdOn the plus side, he pointed to the new Cabinet including signatories of the Juba agreement, and the government's agreement on national priorities.

A woman waves a feminist flag as demonstrators attempt to storm the National Palace during a march to commemorate International Women's Day and protesting against gender violence, in Mexico City, Monday, March 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)CAMEROON – U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on International Women’s Day that the COVID-19 pandemic has seen “a rollback in hard-won advances in women’s rights” even as calls for women's empowerment echoed around the globe, from Myanmar and Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia and the United States. “We stand at a crossroads as we ponder the recovery from a pandemic that has had a disproportionate impact on women and girls, ” said UN Women’s Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at the U.N. observance of International Women’s Day. AdAround the world, there were expressions of concern at the state of women’s rights. According to Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission, 65 women were killed and 95 wounded in targeted attacks in 2020.

Biden took office promising to move quickly to restore and repair Americas relations with the rest of the world. From Iran to Russia, Europe to Latin America, Biden has sought to cool tensions that rose during President Donald Trump’s four years in office. China and the United States are the world’s two largest economies and the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases. The backdrop is clear: The United States is convinced that it and China are engaged in a duel for global dominance. Ad“There has been huge deviation between what they believe China is and what China really is,” Yu said.

(UNTV via AP)CAMEROON – Myanmar’s U.N. ambassador, who strongly opposed the military coup in his country, insists he remains the permanent representative to the United Nations, but the foreign ministry has informed the U.N. that the ambassador has been terminated and his deputy is now in charge. The dispute over who is recognized as Myanmar’s ambassador -- the representative of the generals who carried out the Feb. 1 coup or of the ousted democratically elected government -- is under discussion and could end up in the General Assembly, where all 193 U.N. members have seats. “I wish therefore to confirm to you that I remain Myanmar’s permanent representative to the United Nations.”The second letter to the secretary-general from Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which Dujarric said was received Tuesday, makes no mention of the coup. AdThe ministry said Myanmar’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Tin Maung Naing, has been assigned as the charge d’affaires of the U.N. mission. The General Assembly meeting was called to hear a briefing from the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, who said it is time to “sound the alarm” about the coup.

Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of the Office of Emergency Programmes, center, visits internally-displaced people in Adigrat Town, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia Monday, Feb. 22, 2021. Accounts of atrocities by Ethiopian and allied forces against residents of the country's northern region of Tigray were detailed in reports by The Associated Press and by Amnesty International. We are also deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis,” said Blinken in a statement issued Saturday. AdThose responsible for abuses in Tigray must be held accountable, Blinken added, calling for an independent, international investigation into the reports of human rights violations. The U.S. urged the immediate withdrawal from Tigray of troops from the neighboring country of Eritrea and from Amhara, the Ethiopian region bordering Tigray.

United States Ambassador to the United Nations nominee Linda Thomas-Greenfield testifies during for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021, in Washington. The longtime career diplomat thanked President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, who swore her in on Wednesday, for choosing her for the “distinguished position” and said she was “thrilled” to be at the United Nations. “The United Nations is the world’s most important forum for bringing people and countries together,” Thomas-Greenfield told reporters immediately afterward. AdHer confirmation on Tuesday was hailed by Democrats and advocates of the United Nations who had lamented “America First” unilateral approach to international affairs and rejoiced at Biden’s return to multilateralism. Guterres warmly welcomed Thomas-Greenfield, calling the United States “a fundamental pillar of the United Nations and of international cooperation" and telling her, “you are not only a very distinguished diplomat, but a very passionate citizen of the world," with a strong commitment to refugees.

(Graeme Jennings/Pool via AP)WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden's Cabinet is starting to fill out, with nominees for agriculture secretary and United Nations ambassador gaining Senate approval Tuesday. “And that’s what we intend to do.”Schumer couldn’t resist a jab at former President Donald Trump, saying that all Biden’s nominees are “undoubtedly qualified for their positions, a stark departure from the caliber of nominees the Senate was made to consider during the previous administration.”But one of Biden's nominees, Neera Tanden to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget, is clearly in trouble in the evenly divided Senate. Currently California's attorney general, Becerra appeared Tuesday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “I'm not sold yet,” Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the ranking Republican on the health committee, said, addressing Becerra. ___INTERIORRep. Deb Haaland, Biden's nominee to lead the Interior Department, fielded sharp questions from Republicans over what some called her “radical” ideas that include opposition to fracking and to the Keystone XL oil pipeline.