UN News Today 04 June 2026 |

Lebanon: Another peacekeeper dies after mortar attack 

A UN peacekeeper serving in Lebanon died early Thursday after his position was hit by mortar fire near Marjayoun in the country’s southeast a day earlier.

The unnamed serviceman is the seventh to be killed since Hezbollah-Israel clashes erupted on 2 March.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said that two other peacekeepers sustained injuries in the same attack and are receiving medical treatment.

An investigation is underway “to ascertain the exact circumstances that led to this tragic incident”, the mission said, before appealing for the violence to end.

It is not clear where the shelling originated, but the development comes amid intensifying exchanges of fire between the Israeli military in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah fighters, who are not part of the Lebanese army.

Here’s UNIFIL spokesperson Tilak Pokharel, speaking to UN News:

“Over the past few days, we have detected increasingly high number of projectiles impacting locations in southern Lebanon, including in field positions and this must stop. Deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a violation of international law, and also Resolution 1701, and this may amount to war crimes.”

The mortar attack came hours ahead of a US-announced ceasefire renewal agreement between the Lebanese Government and Israel on Wednesday.

The latest truce deal which does not include Hezbollah reportedly involves the creation of “pilot zones” where Lebanon’s army will take control.

Unsafe food kills 1.5 million people each year; children most at risk: WHO

Unsafe food kills 1.5 million people every year and has a major negative impact on health, development and fragile economies, the UN World Health Organization – WHO – has warned.

Children under five are particularly vulnerable to the many severe diarrhoeal illnesses caused by contaminated food, which can be fatal.

Africa and Southeast Asia account for nearly three-quarters of all foodborne illnesses and 60 per cent of global deaths. 

The economic cost of foodborne diseases is significant too, and estimated at up to $647 billion in lost productivity in 2021 alone, from time away from work. 

WHO also highlighted the ongoing dangers of exposure to highly toxic chemicals in food such as lead and naturally occurring arsenic, which cause damage particularly to young developing brains. 

Chemical contamination is in fact responsible for most deaths linked to unsafe foodstuffs – more than seven in 10.

The issue of food safety is not abstract – “it touches every meal, every family, every day”, the agency stressed.

AI threatening natural resources for billions of people

AI news now and a warning from UN scientists that by 2030, the technology will be using as much water as all 1.3 billion people living in sub-Saharan Africa.

Equally significant, the power needed for AI by the end of the decade is expected to be triple that used by Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria combined – at least 650 million people – a UN University investigation has revealed.

The findings follow deepening concern about the huge carbon footprint of AI, which is linked to the greenhouse gas emissions that are produced by the growing number of data centres driving the software. 

Even more worrying is how frequently AI projects that are touted as low-carbon “end up worse for water or for land”, insisted Miriam Aczel, lead author of the report from the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health. 

The study contends that that the environmental cost of AI is “systematically mismeasured” and misunderstood because most existing assessments focus on carbon emissions alone. 

It cites the example of a switch from coal to bioenergy power production, which cuts carbon emissions by 70 per cent on average, but increases water use more than 30-fold and land use by 100 times.

“We might think that renewables make AI infrastructure clean, but that is solving one problem while creating other problems, often in places that didn’t ask for it,” Ms.  Aczel said.

Daniel Johnson, UN News