Published on: 2026-08-26
Source: United Nations – United Nations –
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August 25, 2026 UN
Main news of the day at the UN and worldwide: The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross called on countries to immediately develop legally binding norms regulating the use of drones, the Deputy Secretary-General stated that states allocate too few funds for the restoration of degraded lands, Israeli security forces illegally entered the premises of a UNRWA training center in East Jerusalem, the head of the UN condemned the attack by an armed gang on the Kenscoff commune, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
Drone application
States must immediately move towards developing legally binding rules regulating the use of autonomous weapon systems, including drones. This was stated by António Guterres and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric. According to them, the world is rapidly approaching a dangerous threshold beyond which a machine will be able to independently select a human as a target. Guterres and Spoljaric noted that technologies are developing so quickly that the gap between the capabilities of autonomous weapons and existing legal norms is only widening.
UN Conference on Combating Desertification
Countries allocate too little funding for the restoration of degraded lands. At the same time, the economic damage from soil degradation approaches 1 trillion dollars per year. This was stated by the UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed at the UN Conference on Combating Desertification, held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Mohammed called on governments to move from implementing individual land restoration projects to carrying out comprehensive national plans supported by the necessary financing.
Capture of the BAPOR training center
UN Secretary-General António Guterres strongly condemned the actions of Israeli security forces, who today unlawfully entered the premises of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) training center in the village of Kalandia in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli officials later made public statements indicating that the center’s premises were seized by Israeli authorities. The UN chief stated that such actions against UNRWA facilities are completely unacceptable and contradict Israel’s obligations under international law.
Attack in Haiti
António Guterres condemned the attack by an armed gang on the Kenscoff commune, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At least 47 people were killed, including 22 who, according to available data, were executed on the grounds of the church where they sought shelter. The Secretary-General called on the Haitian authorities to ensure that those responsible are held accountable, including by deploying specialized judicial units recently established with international support to investigate crimes associated with mass casualties.
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