UN News Today 25 February 2026 |

Organized crime and poor regulation to blame for toxic pollution scourge

The lucrative, illegal trade and trafficking of waste products including many that are toxic may be set to surge across continents, thanks to patchy regulation, criminal groups and corruption, the UN said on Wednesday.

In a new report on the underground global scourge, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) notes that the illicit trade likely generates at least $18 billion annually.

All regions of the world are affected, although little data is available outside Europe and the UN agency said that the problem “is not an abstract challenge, but one with severe consequences for public health, as it drives toxic pollution of drinking water, the ocean, soil and more”.

Corporate involvement in waste crime and trafficking is “common”, the report’s authors said, with legal front companies set up by criminal gangs so they can carry out their illegal activities.

This includes pouring liquid waste into streams or lakes, burning waste to generate energy and mislabelling hazardous waste as safe.

Ukraine war with Russia now driving school closures even far from front lines 

To Ukraine, where schools have been forced to close far from the frontline as a direct result of the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, warned on Wednesday.

Data indicates that every two months last year, air raid alerts alone caused students to lose around 10 days of learning, whereas so far in 2026, more than 16 days have been lost to power cuts and a lack of heating.

UNICEF says that across frontline regions in Ukraine, at least 1,700 schools endure power outages and heating disruption. More than one in three schools in Dnipropetrovsk and one in five in Kharkiv also face sustained blackouts that “directly threaten safe, continuous learning”.

According to the agency, almost two million children have been impacted by disruption directly caused by intensified Russian attacks on energy infrastructure.

This includes in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa, where students lost up to 88 per cent of learning time since mid-January, primarily because of power and heating outages.

Geopolitical tensions hinder economic growth in Arab nations pursuing green energy shift

Economic news now and indications that the Arab region is seeing a gradual recovery despite an uncertain geopolitical outlook.

In an update from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, it reported that regional growth is projected to pick up from 2.9 per cent last year to 3.7 per cent in 2026.

That compares well with global averages and pre-pandemic growth of around 3.2 per cent.

The UN body noted that this positive outlook for Arab nations should also coincide with falling inflation, which is expected to reach 5.4 per cent next year.

Contributing factors include increased investment in sectors outside the oil industry such as renewable power plants.

At the same time, the UN regional body said that the Arab region remains “highly exposed” to external factors, especially given continued uncertainty about global tariffs and disruption to regional trade.

Data indicates production of 1.3 million barrels of oil per day this year across the region which is slightly above current global demand, meaning that prices at the pump could fall.

Daniel Johnson, UN News