Climate Action
Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere caused by burning fossil fuels reached record highs in 2025, locking in more long-term global warming, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday. The agency’s latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin indicates an average global concentration of CO2 at 426.8 parts per million (ppm) last year, or 153 per cent of the 1750 pre-industrial baseline. “Every additional part per million matters because it traps additional heat. In effect, we are supercharging the ocean and the atmosphere. That means that heat waves, tropical cyclones, and rainstorms are intensifying faster than our historical baselines prepared us for,” WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett told journalists in Geneva. Equally worrying, levels of methane and nitrous oxide – the second and third most important long-lived greenhouse gases caused by human activities – also hit a new peak in 2025. “Another year, another new record. Greenhouse gases are trapping an unprecedented amount of heat in the atmosphere, providing energy for more extreme weather and associated risks to our economies and societies,” Ms. Barrett stressed. “The past 11 years have been the warmest on record and this trend is set to continue. CO2 has a very long lifetime and so will affect the global climate not just for years but for decades and even centuries”. When the Bulletin was first published in 2004, the annual average level of CO2 measured by WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch network of monitoring stations was 377.5 ppm, compared with nearly 427 ppm today. – UN News Record carbon dioxide levels will impact us for centuries, says UN weather agency
Gaza
Families in Gaza are bracing for a fourth winter in tents and makeshift shelters as UN aid operations face mounting obstacles, with transport suspended on Tuesday due to Israel’s closure of the key Kerem Shalom crossing for election day. The UN project services agency in the field (UNOPS) reported three incidents affecting its convoys and premises over three consecutive days in the past week alone. Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva said these included close-proximity explosions, drivers detained at checkpoints, and multiple small-arms rounds striking one of the procurement agency’s guesthouses. The safety of UNOPS staff has been compromised too many times, he said, stressing that all parties to the fighting in Gaza must uphold their obligations to protect civilians and humanitarian personnel. – by UN News Gaza: Families brace for fourth winter in tents as aid operations remain stymied
Labour and Social Protection
An estimated 66.5 million domestic workers – representing more than four out of five domestic workers worldwide – were informally employed in 2025, a new report by the UN’s labour organisation has found. This makes them more than twice as likely as other employees to lack effective labour and social protection, making them more vulnerable to working anti-social hours on meagre pay. Many of those being exploited are domestic workers who “make millions of lives possible,” ILO director Sahra Razavi, briefing journalists in Geneva on Tuesday. – UN News Four in five domestic workers lack formal job protections, UN finds
US – Cuba – UN
The General Assembly opened its annual debate on the US economic embargo against Cuba on Tuesday. On Wednesday, 28 October, Member States will vote for the 34th time on a resolution calling for it to end. Every year at around this time, the assembly – where each of the UN’s 193 Member States has one vote – takes up the “necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba”. And every year, whatever the political climate, the issue generates plenty of diplomatic heat. The debate usually spills over two days as countries and regional groups take the floor to explain their positions. – by UN News General Assembly weighs US embargo against Cuba ahead of 34th vote
Tech World
The Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD) issued a policy brief in October 2026 on user control and privacy protections across the artificial intelligence (AI) lifecycle. The brief notes that building AI machine‑learning models often requires large volumes of high‑quality data, which may purposefully or inadvertently include personal data. The brief highlights a dual need to facilitate access to quality data while ensuring privacy and users’ control over their personal data, alongside safeguards for intellectual property rights and other legitimate interests. – Digital Watch Observatory OECD publishes Brief on user control and privacy in AI
UNESCO has published a technical brief urging education authorities to address online and technology-facilitated violence through coordinated policies that connect learner protection with education technology governance. The brief, ‘Connected and safe: Policy orientations to address online and technology-facilitated violence in education’, identifies risks associated with generative artificial intelligence (AI), including sexually explicit deepfakes, image-manipulation tools, voice cloning and automated harassment. Such tools can make existing forms of abuse easier to carry out and scale. – Digital Watch Observatory UNESCO outlines seven actions against AI-enabled violence
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has published a working paper examining how international labour standards can guide the ethical use of artificial intelligence in workplaces. Released on 23 October, the study explores connections between established labour rights and five widely recognised AI ethics principles: justice, beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and explicability. – Digital Watch Observatory ILO examines labour standards for ethical AI
Anthropic’s announced on 26 October 2026 that it had filed for an initial public offering (IPO), a process through which a company offers its shares to public investors for the first time, potentially raising capital while taking on greater disclosure obligations. Anthropic’s listing comes at a critical time since the company’s net loss in the first half of 2026 widened sharply to $80.7 billion, according to Reuters. – Digital Watch Observatory Anthropic’s S-1 reveals frontier AI security risks over IPO
UAE renewable energy company Masdar and Khazna Data Centers have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore clean energy and storage solutions for data centres in Greece. The partnership aims to support the country’s expanding digital infrastructure as AI, cloud computing and other digital services increase electricity demand. – Digital Watch Observatory Masdar and Khazna plan greener data centres in Greece
