Independent Online News
The UN Secretary-General addressed the Security Council on Tuesday, emphasizing the potential of artificial intelligence to accelerate human development while also cautioning against the malicious use of what is revolutionary new technology.
António Guterres said that if AI became primarily a weapon to launch cyberattacks, generate deepfakes, or for spreading disinformation and hate speech, it would have very serious consequences for global peace and security.
Alexander Lobov, a military engineer and mine action expert with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), has worked in hotspots from Afghanistan to Somalia, but never imagined using this experience in his native country, Ukraine, now one of the world’s most heavily mined places since Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022.
When the Taliban surged back into power in August 2021, Afghanistan was virtually cut off from the rest of the world, and decisions by the de facto authorities to further restrict human rights have only deepened the country’s isolation.
Since then, as international funding has stalled amid skepticism about the Taliban’s return, the UN has been acting as the world’s “eyes and ears” in Afghanistan.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed deep concern about the developments in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli airstrikes have hit the densely populated refugee camp there.
In a statement from his spokesperson on Monday, Mr. Guterres affirmed that all military operations must be conducted with full respect for international humanitarian law.
Myanmar’s military is killing civilians, destroying food and homes, and keeping the most vulnerable from receiving lifesaving aid, according to a new report from the UN human rights office (OHCHR).
The chief of OHCHR’s Myanmar team, James Rodehaver, explained that since their February 2021 coup, the country’s military rulers have been instilling a “climate of fear” to subjugate the civilian population, restricting aid access and using “all means” at their disposal to clamp down on civil society.