Southeast Asia: Torture rooms and karaoke bars in gang-run ‘scam farms’
There are estimated to be some 400 of these criminal enterprises in the Philippines alone. They are almost always operated clandestinely and illegally alongside licensed and legal online gaming operations. The proliferation of online scam farms targeting victims across the…
Crushing the scam farms: Southeast Asia’s ‘criminal service providers’
As we reported earlier in the week, there has been a proliferation of illicit operations, known as scam farms, following the COVID-19 pandemic, across Southeast Asia – including in the Philippines – where they have often operated alongside legal gambling…
After nine months of war in Gaza, another UN school suffers Israeli airstrike
“Another day. Another month. Another school hit,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the largest aid agency in Gaza, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, after a school in Nuseirat, central Gaza, was “hit by the Israeli Forces” on…
UN envoy highlights alarming violence and neglected humanitarian crisis in DR Congo
Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bintou Keita, informed the Security Council of an attack on the residence of a Congolese politician, during which two police officers were killed. M23’s rapid expansion Ms. Keita, who also heads the UN peacekeeping mission…
Several Ukrainian cities hit in new wave of Russia missile attacks
Condemning the daytime attacks, the UN’s top aid coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, said that several cities were targeted, including the capital, Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and Pokrovsk. The attacks happened just “as people were starting their day. Dozens of people…
Hurricane Beryl highlights need for robust early warning systems
Beryl is the strongest hurricane ever to form in the Atlantic during June and rapidly intensified from a tropical depression to a Category 4 storm, briefly reaching Category 5 with winds up to 240 km/h (150 mph). It made landfall…
Guterres commends Turkmenistan’s ‘policy of neutrality’ amid troubled times
The Secretary-General expressed his appreciation to Turkmenistan for hosting the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia in Ashgabat, and commended Turkmenistan’s generosity in granting citizenship to stateless people. He also thanked the President for providing the UN…
UN warns of escalating tensions on Lebanon-Israel ‘Blue Line’ frontier
The latest escalation, which occurred on Thursday, “heightens the risk of a full-scale war”, the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said in a note to correspondents. “Escalation can and must be avoided. We reiterate that the danger of…
Tens of thousands displaced as fighting intensifies in southeast Sudan
“People are facing multiple protection risks and have reported widespread looting of homes and personal possessions,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a flash update issued late on Thursday. Humanitarian partners receiving displaced people…
Refugees, migrants face violence, abuse and death on routes across Africa, new data shows
Data from a new report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) highlights the often under-reported perils facing vulnerable people on the move on dangerous land routes….