UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged world leaders to shift spending away from wars and focus on fighting poverty and protecting the planet in 2026.
In his New Year’s message, Guterres said the world is facing mounting crises, including conflict, division, climate change and the erosion of international law, warning that these trends threaten the principles that bind humanity together.
He highlighted a sharp increase in global military spending, noting that worldwide defence expenditures have reached $2.7 trillion, a rise of around 10 percent. According to Guterres, this figure is 13 times higher than all global development aid combined and equals the total GDP of Africa.
He stressed that such spending comes at a time when global conflicts are at their highest level since the Second World War.
Guterres called on leaders to rethink global priorities, saying a safer world can only be achieved by investing in people rather than wars. He said humanity already has the resources needed to lift people out of poverty, restore the planet and secure a future based on peace and justice.
Looking ahead to 2026, he urged leaders to take a firmer stance and choose people and the planet over destruction and suffering, calling on governments and citizens alike to act with collective courage.
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At least 42 people have been killed and 104 wounded in fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Tuesday. The latest death toll figures come as fighting between the two neighbours enters its sixth day.
U.S. first lady, Melania Trump chaired a UN Security Council meeting on children and education in conflict on Monday (2 March), a move criticised by Iran as hypocritical following U.S. and Israeli strikes that triggered a UN warning about risks to children.
The Taliban's Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, has accused Pakistan of deliberately targeting civilians in recent airstrikes on Afghanistan, telling a senior United Nations official the attacks did not hit armed groups, as the UN confirmed more than a dozen members of one family were killed.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has called for an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine, describing the conflict as “a stain on our collective conscience”.
The Kremlin is utilising the recent United States and Israeli military strikes on Iran to validate its ongoing war in Ukraine. Russian officials are pointing to the escalation in the Middle East as evidence that Western nations do not adhere to international rules.
Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant Saudi Aramco closed its Ras Tanura refinery on Monday following an Iranian drone strike, an industry source told Reuters as Tehran retaliated across the Gulf after a U.S.-Israeli attack on Iranian targets over the weekend.
The Middle East crisis intensifies after the deadly attack on the compound of the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei on Saturday that killed him, other family members and senior figures. Iran has launched retaliatory strikes on U.S. targets in the region.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. military has enough stockpiled weapons to fight wars "forever"; in a social media post late on Monday. The remarks came hours before conflict in Iran and the Middle East entered its fourth day.
Türkiye raised its security level for Turkish-flagged vessels in the Strait of Hormuz to Level 3 on Sunday (2 March). The development follows Iranian restrictions on shipping after U.S. and Israeli strikes and confirmation of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s death.
Strikes across the Middle East are intensifying, fuelling travel disruption, driving up global energy prices and forcing diplomatic missions to shut their doors.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said the United States has a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions and is capable of sustaining military action indefinitely, as the conflict with Iran entered its fourth day.
The United Nations has called for an investigation into a deadly attack on a girls’ primary school in Iran, which Iranian officials say has killed more than 100 children. The U.S. has said its forces “would not” deliberately target a school.
U.S. first lady, Melania Trump chaired a UN Security Council meeting on children and education in conflict on Monday (2 March), a move criticised by Iran as hypocritical following U.S. and Israeli strikes that triggered a UN warning about risks to children.
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