António Guterres

Rule Changes

Due to meet both leaders in the coming weeks

Nine crossing points span the 180-kilometer buffer zone that divides Cyprus. The last new one opened nearly a decade ago. On 9 November 2026, Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman agreed to add two more.

Updated 2 days ago

Force in Play

In office; confirmed the mission's end on 1 November 2026

The United Nations has started dismantling its Western Sahara mission and named a former envoy, Alexander Ivanko, to run the withdrawal. About 160 military observers and 180 civilian staff are being sent home, and 13 facilities are closing.

Updated 2 days ago

Force in Play

Condemned operation as 'dangerous precedent' violating international law

Delta Force operators captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a pre-dawn Caracas raid on January 3, 2026. Maduro pleaded not guilty in Manhattan and is jailed in Brooklyn awaiting a June 1, 2027 trial, while Delcy Rodríguez remains acting president and has not set an election date.

Updated 4 days ago

Force in Play

Condemned the Nyala market strike

A drone struck a crowded market in Nyala, South Darfur, on the evening of 26 October. Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese rights group, says more than 100 people died and 113 were wounded, while the local Tasees health ministry put the toll at 188 dead and 356 injured. Doctors Without Borders said the hospital it supports received 36 bodies, 21 of them in civilian clothes.

Updated 6 days ago

Rule Changes

Issued October 26 statement marking UNTMIS closure

For 31 years the United Nations has run political missions in Somalia. The last one, the UN Transitional Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNTMIS), ceased operations on October 31, 2026. Its functions passed to Somali institutions and UN agencies that remain in the country.

Updated Oct 31

Force in Play

Said he was deeply concerned by the Hebron closures and reports of home demolitions and possible displacement

Israel's Hebron operation entered its seventh day on October 29, and the West Bank-wide lockdown is still in place. Hebron's governor says 537 families, or 3,361 people, have been forced from their homes, including 232 infants and 326 older people.

Updated Oct 30

Built World

Active — launched the Global Grids Accelerator

More than 2,500 gigawatts of renewable and storage projects worldwide are waiting for a grid connection, nearly twice the generating capacity of the United States. The UN's Global Grids Accelerator, launched on September 23, is meant to turn government grid plans in Africa and Southeast Asia into projects that can be financed and built.

Updated Oct 27

Force in Play

As of September 2026: Warned of uncontrollable escalation; overseeing UN humanitarian response

The US-Israeli war on Iran began February 28 and displaced up to 3.2 million people inside the country in two weeks, per the UN refugee agency.

Updated Sep 4

Rule Changes

As of June 2026: Tasked with a strategic review of the mission by March 31, 2027

On June 6 and 7, Taliban morality police detained dozens of women and girls in Herat over how they were dressed. Protests followed. Taliban forces opened fire, killing a woman and a child.

Updated Jun 16

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Leading UN AI governance initiative

For the first time, the world has an independent scientific body dedicated to artificial intelligence. On February 13, 2026, the UN General Assembly voted 117-2 to create a three-year panel of 40 experts assessing AI's economic and social impacts. Only the United States and Paraguay opposed—splitting from traditional allies in Europe and Asia.

Updated May 29

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Issued statement calling expiration a 'grave moment'

For fifty-three years, binding agreements constrained the world's two largest nuclear arsenals. That era ended on February 5, 2026, when the New START treaty expired at midnight without a successor. The United States and Russia now face no legal limits on their roughly 10,700 nuclear warheads, after President Trump rejected a Russian extension offer and directed work on a new pact including China.

Updated May 27

Force in Play

As of May 2026: Condemned U.S. strikes as 'dangerous precedent'

Delta Force dragged Nicolás Maduro from his bedroom at 2 AM on January 3, threw him on a helicopter, and flew him to the USS Iwo Jima bound for Manhattan. The Venezuelan president now faces narco-terrorism charges in the same courthouse that convicted El Chapo.

Updated May 19

Force in Play

As of May 2026: Condemning the raid and invoking UN treaty protections for the compound

Israeli police and municipal officials rolled into a quiet UN compound in East Jerusalem before dawn. Motorbikes, trucks and forklifts smashed through UNRWA's former headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah, seizing equipment, cutting communications and hauling down the UN flag to raise Israel's own. UN officials say it was an unauthorized raid on inviolable UN premises; Israeli authorities insist it was just a municipal debt-collection move.

Updated May 10

Money Moves

As of May 2026: Managing UN-wide financial crisis and chronic humanitarian underfunding

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cut its 2026 humanitarian appeal to roughly $33 billion in December 2025, down from the $47 billion requested for 2025. Governments had provided only about $15 billion in 2025 — the lowest level of support in a decade. Three weeks later, the United States pledged $2 billion to OCHA-managed funds, providing roughly two-thirds of the funding needed to reach 87 million people in the most catastrophic need.

Updated May 10