UN News Today 19 October 2026 |

Protecting earth’s biodiversity in spotlight at COP17 in Armenia 

Biodiversity losses continue to upend the lives of billions of people whose future prosperity depends on countries taking urgent action to protect our planet.

That’s one of the key messages at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Yerevan, from the top UN official leading the talks, Astrid Schomaker. 

The aim of the talks in the Armenian capital, build on an agreed blueprint for biodiversity protection known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 

It was adopted four years ago in the knowledge that “taking action for nature does work”, she said:

“In 2022, 196 countries made commitments. But we are all accountable to each other and to future generations. What happens here in Yerevan matters. Billions of people whose lives are being upended by the impacts of biodiversity loss depend on progress being made here in the next two weeks.”

Ms. Schomaker called for the “untapped energy and ideas” of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, women and youth to contribute to the decisions made at the talks. 

“We need even greater engagement from cities, businesses and financial institutions,” she said.

Gaza: Funding cuts leave half a million without food assistance 

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is cutting food assistance in Gaza by around one-third because of funding shortages, it announced on Monday. 

The move means that half a million people will lose access to critical assistance as winter approaches, jeopardising recent modest improvements in food security.

For the past three years, WFP has provided a nutrition lifeline for up to 90 per cent of families in Gaza. 

And since the ceasefire was announced in October 2025, the agency has been reaching at least 1.6 million people every month with food parcels, wheat flour, bread, hot meals, nutrition support, school snacks and cash assistance. 

Funding is no longer sufficient to sustain this level of support, however, said WFP’s Shaun Hughes:

“Why are we cutting back? It’s not because the needs are gone. It’s not because we can’t get assistance in. It’s because we don’t have the funding to sustain the levels of assistance that are required.”

The agency noted that rations are now being cut by half. And families receiving food assistance will now get only one food parcel (instead of two) and a smaller bag of wheat flour.

The number of hot meals WFP provides has been reduced from 250,000 to 150,000 a day. Families living in hard-to-reach areas, including the ‘yellow line’ of Israeli military control, will now only receive one hot meal every other day.

For now, the agency will continue to support bakeries that cover one-third of Gaza’s bread needs, provide nutrition assistance to 300,000 women and children and deliver healthy school snacks to 200,000 children.

Lebanon: vital peacekeeping work continues

To Lebanon, where the UN peacekeeping force there, UNIFIL, is continuing to assist communities devastated by clashes involving Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli military across the south of the country.

Reports overnight indicated an airstrike of the town of Kfar Tebnit and shelling near Baraachit, Wadi al-Salouqi and Mansouri, among renewed violence sparked by the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. 

UNIFIL’s mandate in Lebanon is due to end on 31 December, in line with a Security Council vote in August.

Its original mandate was established by the Security Council in 1978 to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, restore international peace and security and assist the Lebanese Government in restoring its authority. 

In line with Resolution 1701, the mission’s peacekeepers continue to carry out mandated tasks including daily patrols, road clearance, escorting humanitarian missions and providing assistance to displaced and vulnerable communities.

Around 7,500 peacekeepers remain deployed in southern Lebanon.

Daniel Johnson, UN News