Global news
(UN News/Democratic Republic of the Congo) The top UN aid official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is in Ituri province – the epicentre of the country’s Ebola outbreak – for a three-day assessment visit, as the confirmed case count reaches 515 across three eastern provinces. Damien Mama, interim Humanitarian Coordinator in the DRC, arrived in the provincial capital Bunia on Sunday, where he will assess response efforts and strengthen coordination in support of the Government-led campaign to end the latest deadly epidemic. – ‘Rare, untreatable strain’: Ebola toll mounts in eastern DR Congo | UN News
(UN News/Afghanistan) (UN News) As the Security Council met on Afghanistan, senior officials and civil society representatives delivered a clear warning Monday: despite relative security under the Taliban, worsening humanitarian conditions, restrictions on women and growing economic pressures are creating a fragile and uncertain future. Georgette Gagnon, UN Deputy Special Representative currently leading the UN mission, UNAMA, reflected on recent visits across the country and said communities repeatedly described mounting hardship. Ms. Gagnon noted that the country’s de facto authorities have consolidated territorial and administrative control and currently face “no meaningful armed or political challenge,” but warned that this apparent stability masks deeper risks. “What exists is increasing control by the de facto authorities without a clear end-state,” she told the Council. She pointed to demographic and economic pressures as major concerns, noting that nearly 5.9 million Afghans have returned since 2023 and up to 2.8 million more could return this year despite limited opportunities and strained communities. Afghanistan remains one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with 21.9 million people requiring assistance in 2026. – Afghanistan faces ‘lost generation of talent and potential,’ Security Council hears | UN News
(UN News/Climate and Environment) The United Nations climate chief called on Monday for countries to step up action to implement existing commitments, warning that fossil fuel dependency is deepening economic instability and exposing vulnerable communities to worsening climate impacts. Simon Stiell addressed the opening of the UN June Climate Meetings in Bonn, Germany – an important step ahead of the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkiye this November. “Tackling the global climate crisis is the hardest, but most important thing humanity has ever tried to do together,” he said. “It is worth doing, because we have no choice. Every economy and population depends on it.” – Countries urged to ‘go further, faster’ and deliver on climate commitments | UN News
(UN News/Cuba) Children are dying because doctors cannot access essential medicines, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said in a stark warning on Monday, calling for the immediate lifting of United States sanctions against the Caribbean nation that were causing “widespread harm”. “The fuel restrictions imposed since early 2026 and recent tightening of extraterritorial sanctions, taken together, are directly harming Cubans, especially the most vulnerable,” Mr. Türk said. “Children are dying because doctors lack access to essential medical supplies and medicines. This is unacceptable.” – Children are dying as US sanctions push Cuba to the brink, warns UN human rights chief | UN News
(UN News/Climate and Environment) Plastic pollution is choking the ocean, but sustainable alternatives – including seaweed – remain held back by tariffs, fragmented regulations and the overwhelming market advantage enjoyed by fossil fuel-based plastics. Only 10 per cent of all plastics produced are recycled, so most plastics will end up littering streets, entering waterways and reaching the ocean. Each year, some 52 million tonnes of plastic waste enter the ocean, where it stays and affects more than 4,000 marine species. A blue whale, the world’s largest mammal, can consume up to 10 million microplastic pieces daily, equivalent to about 43 kilograms. To tackle plastic pollution, material innovation, increasing alternatives to single-use plastic and reducing production are essential, according to the latest World Ocean Assessment, which was released on Monday. – Why sustainable alternatives to plastic are struggling to compete | UN News
Tech world
(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs/Security & Surveillance) Last year, WhatsApp won a landmark case against NSO Group, the Israeli spyware vendor behind Pegasus, and secured a permanent court injunction barring the company from ever targeting WhatsApp or its users again. The court was unambiguous: NSO had violated US federal and state hacking laws. That should have been the end of it. It wasn’t. Meta investigated user reports and detected new targeting attempts linked to NSO, which were disrupted by the company. “We successfully disrupted NSO-linked social engineering attempts, after investigating user reports. They tried to trick people into clicking on malicious links to drive them to external websites outside of WhatsApp, similar to previously reported 1-click phishing campaigns linked to NSO.” reads the Meta’s announcement.”We also caught them creating test accounts and groups on WhatsApp, which we took down.” – Meta Accuses NSO of Violating WhatsApp Court Injunction
(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs/Security & Surveillance) Google Mandiant and the Google Threat Intelligence Group published a detailed report documenting an active extortion campaign carried out by the cybercrime group UNC3753 (aka Luna Moth, Chatty Spider, and Silent Ransom Group). The campaign targets US law firms, financial services companies, and professional services organizations. The group behind it, tracked as UNC3753 and also known as Luna Moth, Chatty Spider, and Silent Ransom Group, has been running this specific operation from January through May 2026, hitting dozens of firms. No ransomware. No malware in the traditional sense. Just phone calls. “UNC3753 leverages voice phishing (vishing) and social engineering deception techniques to achieve remote access into corporate environments.” reads the report published by Google. “Using pretexts such as data migration or invoice-related emails, the threat actors initiate phone conversations posing as IT support and convince targets to host screen-sharing sessions and download remote monitoring and management (RMM) utilities.”. The entry mechanism is entirely human. No vulnerability required, no zero-day, no brute-forced credentials. Just a convincing caller with a plausible story. – UNC3753 Escalates: From Vishing Calls to Physical Office Intrusions at US Legal and Financial Firms
(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs/Security & Surveillance) Meta’s High Touch Support tool, known as HTS, was designed to help Instagram users recover locked accounts: you provide an email address, you get a password reset link. The flaw was equally simple: the tool never checked whether that email actually belonged to the account being recovered. Anyone could request a reset link for any account, have it land in their own inbox, and walk straight in, provided the target hadn’t enabled two-factor authentication. The breach occurred from approximately April 17, 2026 until Meta pulled the tool in early June. That’s roughly seven weeks of an open door, and Meta only discovered the problem on May 31. The operation ran undetected for about six weeks before anyone inside the company noticed, which is a detail that tends to get buried under the headline number. Meta disclosed that 20225 Instagram accounts were compromised after attackers exploited the flaw. – Meta AI Recovery Tool Flaw Exposed 20,000+ Instagram Accounts – Security Affairs
(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs/Security & Surveillance) In March 2026, FortiGuard Labs discovered a new variant of the Gafgyt botnet, dubbed C0XMO, which is noticeably more capable than its predecessors. The malware spreads through CVE-2021-27137, a stack buffer overflow in the UPnP service of DD-WRT router firmware that’s been sitting unpatched on countless devices since 2021. The entry point is a crafted UDP packet sent to port 1900, exploiting how the SSDP parser handles oversized values in M-SEARCH requests. The attack doesn’t require authentication. – IoT Botnet C0XMO Adds Competitor-Killing Capability
(DigWatch/Legislation) New York State has approved legislation aimed at strengthening protections for minors interacting with AI chatbots, marking one of the first targeted regulatory efforts focused on AI companion technologies. The bill, known as S9051B, introduces restrictions on chatbot features that may encourage harmful emotional dependence or unsafe behaviour among young users. The law prohibits AI systems from presenting themselves as real or fictional human beings in ways that could mislead minors and restricts outputs that encourage self-harm, disordered eating or other harmful behaviour. The legislation specifically targets design features that may foster emotional dependency between children and AI systems, reflecting growing concerns over their potential psychological effects. – Senator Kristen Gonzalez Prioritizes Safety for Young People Using AI, Passes Regulations on Unsafe AI Chatbot Features for Minors Through the State Legislature | NYSenate.gov
(DigWatch/Governance) The Trump administration has issued a new National Security Presidential Memorandum aimed at accelerating the adoption of AI across the US national security apparatus. According to the White House, the framework is intended to ensure that military personnel, intelligence professionals and national security agencies have access to advanced AI systems while maintaining accountability and operational control. The memorandum directs federal agencies to expand the use of commercial and open-source AI technologies in support of national security missions. It also calls for investment in next-generation secure computing infrastructure capable of supporting increasingly advanced AI models and computational workloads. – US unveils new strategy to accelerate AI adoption in national security | Digital Watch Observatory
(DigWatch/Governance) Spain has proposed the creation of a permanent multilateral working group within the UN to strengthen the regulation of digital environments and improve protections for children online. The proposal was presented by Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego, during a ministerial roundtable at the Global Alliance of Pioneer Countries to End Violence Against Children in Turin. According to Rego, stronger international cooperation is needed to regulate digital environments and protect children’s rights in response to abuses by major technology platforms. She said protecting children online requires regulations, rules, and control mechanisms that safeguard their rights and freedoms. – Spain calls for United Nations Action on children’s digital rights | Digital Watch Observatory
