The damaged facilities include nine schools and two health centres sheltering more than 11,000 people. At least five displaced people were injured and UNRWA’s field office also sustained damage.

The agency says that its operations in Gaza City – where Israeli air and ground attacks have intensified – have been sharply reduced after its only functioning health centre north of central Gaza was forced to close.

The UN humanitarian office, OCHA, has also reported a surge in displacement in recent weeks, along with almost 28,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children under-five recorded in July and August.

In the occupied West Bank, UNRWA says that Israeli forces have introduced more restrictions on Palestinian movement by installing new road gates.

Israel ‘intent’ to permanently control Gaza

Meanwhile, a new report from the UN Human Rights Council-mandated investigative body on Palestine says that Israel has demonstrated a “clear and consistent intent” to establish permanent control over the Gaza Strip.

The Commission investigated developments relating to land and housing in all areas of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in Israel.

It finds in relation to Gaza that Israeli authorities “extensively and systematically demolished civilian infrastructure in the corridors and buffer zone and continuously enlarged areas under their control reaching 75 percent of the Gaza Strip by July 2025.”

Actions undertaken to expand the buffer zone and establish corridors have substantially reduced the territory available for Palestinians, with significant implications for their ability to exercise their right to self-determination.

WHO responds to claims on paracetamol and vaccines

The World Health Organization, WHO, has responded to remarks made on Monday by President Donald Trump in Washington, suggesting that paracetamol use in pregnancy may cause autism.

Spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said that while some observational studies had raised questions, many others found no such link, and the evidence overall remains inconsistent. If there were a strong connection, he said, it would have been seen consistently across multiple studies.

Caution during pregnancy

Mr. Jasarevic stressed that medicines in pregnancy should always be used cautiously and under medical supervision, particularly in the first trimester.

Speaking in Geneva in response to journalists’ questions, the WHO spokesperson also rejected suggestions that routine childhood vaccines cause autism, noting that WHO’s immunization schedules are based on decades of evidence and have saved more than 150 million lives over the past 50 years.

Uncontrolled high blood pressure puts more than a billion at risk

Staying with the WHO, more than 1.4 billion people worldwide live with hypertension, yet only one in five have the condition under control.

The new WHO report on chronic high blood pressure – launched during the 80th UN General Assembly at an event co-hosted with Bloomberg Philanthropies and Resolve to Save Lives – highlights that uncontrolled hypertension is a leading driver of heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease and dementia, killing over 10 million people each year.

Over 1,000 lives lost per hour

“Every hour, more than 1,000 lives are lost to strokes and heart attacks from high blood pressure – and most of these deaths are preventable,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Countries have the tools to change this narrative. With political will and investment, millions of lives can be saved.”

The report shows that only 28 per cent of low-income countries have consistent access to all WHO-recommended hypertension medicines, compared to 93 per cent of high-income nations. In 99 countries, control rates remain below 20 per cent.

Despite these gaps, progress is possible. Bangladesh, the Philippines and South Korea have shown how integrating hypertension care into universal health coverage can sharply increase treatment and survival rates.

Nicaragua: UN experts warn of escalating repression beyond borders

The Nicaraguan Government is extending its repression of critics far beyond its own borders, UN independent rights experts told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday, as they presented a new report to the Human Rights Council.

The Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua said that opponents in exile are being stripped of their nationality, denied passports and targeted through digital surveillance, property confiscation and threats to relatives still inside the country.

“Their entire life is systematically dismantled, beginning with their uprooting and erosion of legal identity, cascading into economic collapse, social isolation, and pervasive surveillance,” said chairperson Jan-Michael Simon.

‘Cynical and calculated’

He added that the misuse of international systems, including false Interpol alerts, was part of a “cynical and calculated” strategy to avoid accountability while silencing dissent.

Panel member Reed Brody highlighted the June killing of retired army major and government critic Roberto Samcam in Costa Rica, noting that “even beyond borders, opponents of the Government don’t feel safe.”

While investigations are continuing and no official link has been made, he said the attack underscored the climate of fear facing exiled Nicaraguans.

Fellow rights investigator Ariela Peralta raised the alarm about a resurgence of enforced disappearances inside the country, with dozens of detainees held incommunicado and two recent deaths in custody. “When people are detained in secret and die in State custody, State responsibility is incurred under international law,” she said.

The independent body of experts urged States to consider bringing a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and to step up protection for Nicaraguans exiled abroad.

Each September, heads of state and government gather in New York for high-level week, where leaders present their global priorities. The Secretary-General’s opening address traditionally sets the tone.

This year, as the UN marks its 80th anniversary, António Guterres recalled the institution’s founding after World War Two, when nations created the United Nations “as a practical strategy for the survival of humanity.”

“Eighty years on – we confront again the question our founders faced – only more urgent, more intertwined, more unforgiving,” he told delegates.

A world under siege

The UN chief described a landscape marked by violence, hunger and climate disaster.

“We have entered an age of reckless disruption and relentless human suffering,” he said, warning that the “pillars of peace and progress are buckling under the weight of impunity, inequality and indifference.”

He cited military invasions, weaponised hunger, disinformation silencing truth, smoke rising from bombed-out cities, anger tearing at the social fabric and seas swallowing whole coastlines.

Each was a warning – and a question about the choices governments now face.

The UN matters

Against this backdrop, Mr. Guterres argued that the UN remains indispensable.

“At its best, the United Nations is more than a meeting place, it is a moral compass, a force for peace…a guardian of international law and a lifeline for people in crisis.”

He noted that today’s multipolar world could bring dynamism, but without cooperation it risks instability.

“Multipolarity without effective multilateral institutions courts chaos – as Europe learned the hard way resulting in World War One,” he said.

International cooperation, he insisted, is not naïve but a necessity.

“No country can stop a pandemic alone. No army can halt rising temperatures. No algorithm can rebuild trust once it is broken.” It is, he said, “hard-headed pragmatism” in the face of shared global threats.

In this moment of crisis, the United Nations has never been more essential, the Secretary-General stressed.

“The world needs our unique legitimacy. Our convening power. Our vision to unite nations, bridge divides and confront the challenges before us.”

Five urgent choices

The Secretary-General set out “five critical choices” for governments:

Peace over war: Conflicts from Sudan to Ukraine to Gaza show the cost of ignoring international law. “The Charter is not optional. It is our foundation,” he said, urging ceasefires, accountability and diplomacy.

Dignity and rights: Human rights are “the bedrock of peace,” he continued. Protecting civic freedoms must go hand in hand with development finance so countries can invest in health, education and opportunity.

Climate justice: “Fossil fuels are a losing bet,” he declared, urging faster investment in renewables, stronger national climate pledges and more finance for vulnerable nations. “Science says limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees is still possible…but the window is closing.”

Technology for humanity: Artificial intelligence and other tools must be governed responsibly. “No machine should decide who lives or dies,” he said, calling for global standards to keep technology in service of people.

A stronger UN: With crises multiplying, Mr. Guterres said the UN must adapt and Member States must fund it properly. He criticized the imbalance where “for every dollar invested in building peace, the world spends $750 on weapons of war.”

‘We must never give up’

Mr. Guterres ended on a personal note, recalling growing up “in the darkness of dictatorship, where fear silenced voices and hope was nearly crushed.

That experience coming of age under Portugal’s authoritarian regime, taught him that “real power rises from people – from our shared resolve to uphold dignity.”

His overriding message was simple: leaders cannot surrender to despair.

“In a world of many choices, there is one choice we must never make: the choice to give up. We must never give up,” he vowed. “That is my promise to you.”