Russian armed forces have carried out repeated attacks across Ukraine over the past several days, killing and injuring civilians and damaging homes, hospitals, shops and workplaces, UN human rights monitors said on Thursday.

Israeli policies now threaten “the very life and existence of the Palestinian people on their homeland”, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly on Thursday, urging the world not to allow “another Nakba”. 

Sea level rise is among the most visible consequences of global warming, but for some countries, it is an imminent existential threat. World leaders approved a new declaration on Thursday while debating the best ways to strengthen international cooperation and support vulnerable low-lying nations most at risk.

The Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) cautioned against growing global demand for “blood-stained minerals” in the rush to net-zero, in her speech to the UN General Assembly.

This edition of UN News's The Takeaway recaps key highlghts at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, including focus on the war in Ukraine and a renewed push by African countries for Security Council reform.

Venezuela is seeking to rebuild after a period of political upheaval and the destruction caused by twin earthquakes earlier this year, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez told world leaders at the United Nations on Wednesday.

Kenyan President William Ruto told the General Assembly on Wednesday that the sovereign equality the UN proclaims is contradicted by its own structures, urging Member States to reform the Security Council and an international financial system “built for another age”. 

“We are the first generation with the tools to end the fossil fuel age – and the last who can avert climate catastrophe,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday, calling on countries to draw up credible roadmaps with clear timelines to transition away from fossil fuels.

Nine years after the mass displacement of the Rohingya from Myanmar, their situation remains one of the world's most protracted and complex refugee crises, marked by years of persecution and uncertainty over the prospect of returning home.