UN: Attacks in Myanmar’s Rakhine state could be ‘war crimes’

The imprisonment and political exclusion of former President Lula da Silva was a violation of his rights, the UN has said. Lula is currently leading in polls for October's presidential election.

In the World This Week, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres tries to negotiate humanitarian corridors in Ukraine while on a visit to Kyiv. French President Emmanuel Macron's re-election honeymoon period proves short-lived, with the focus quickly turning to June legislative elections. And Tesla founder Elon Musk makes a $44 million offer for social media platform Twitter.

Antonio Guterres arriving Borno state, various of internally displaced persons cheering, various of street scenes, Antonio Guterres speaking, mothers and children in a hospital ward, military checkpoints, armed soldiers.

The number of people facing hunger rose to 193 million last year as conflict, climate change and economic crises ravaged people's livelihoods, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said Wednesday.

In a UN Security Council briefing, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said the streets in Iraq could "boil over" if political leaders were unable to end a political stalemate that has gripped the country for over seven months.

The UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, has traveled to China at Beijing's invitation. But the US has raised doubts about Chinese officials giving her "necessary access" to asses the situation.

The ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims suffer severe persecution in Myanmar. Following a deadly crackdown by the Burmese army in 2017, some 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they were settled in the southern town of Cox’s Bazar. Five years on, the town is home to the world’s largest and most dangerous refugee camp, with frequent floods, fires and gang wars. In December 2020, the Bangladeshi government decided to relocate some of the Rohingya refugees to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal. Our reporters Alban Alvarez and Mathilde Cusin managed to gain access to it.

The 13-2 vote in favor of the resolution was not enough to secure its adoption as Beijing and Moscow have veto-rights. The US said the rejection means Pyongyang "will feel free to take further escalatory actions."

Activists slammed UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet for her restrained criticism directed at China's leaders after her return from Xinjiang. But Bachelet noted that her visit was "not an investigation."

The UN says it is the sixth time a peacekeeping convoy has been targeted in less than a month. The West African country has been gripped by a jihadist insurgency for the past decade.

At a UN General Assembly meeting, China and Russia explained their vetoes of a proposal that would have imposed new sanctions on North Korea.