Vehicles are evolving into software-defined systems built around centralized compute, modular architectures and continuous updates. This shift is decoupling hardware and software lifecycles and redistributing value across OEMs, suppliers and technology players. As control moves from distributed components to integrated software stacks, traditional roles across the automotive value chain are being redefined.
How is the transition to software-defined architectures reshaping industry structure, and who will control the key layers of the automotive stack?
Briefing Council members today in New York, OCHA’s Director of Crisis Response Division, Edem Wosornu, said, “Since we last briefed this Council two weeks ago, civilian harm and suffering have deepened including over this past weekend. More families have been forced to endure the all-too-familiar pattern of this war: attacks, destruction, loss, another night without safety. On June 15th, strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv damaged homes and critical infrastructure, leaving well over 100,000 households without power.”
Edem Wosornu also said, “In Kyiv, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site at the heart of Ukraine’s religious and cultural life, was struck and damaged. This site carries centuries of cultural heritage – history and identity – that must be protected.”
She also said, “In Kharkiv, rescuers responding to an earlier strike were themselves hit when a second one followed. This fits a documented pattern. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has found repeated strikes on ambulances, rescue teams and aid workers – in some cases as you heard hit twice, as they returned to help. Civilians have also been struck when simply going about daily life: in cars, on buses, in their gardens.”
Wosornu added, “The Mission records that more civilians were killed and injured by short-range drones in May than in any month since February 2022. Technological advances in warfare are expanding the zone of danger for civilians, which is no longer confined by the reach of artillery.”
The economics of sport are being rewritten from two directions at once. Across Asia, a new generation of fans is consuming sport through entirely different platforms, formats and loyalties, dismantling the broadcast model that built the industry. At the same time, athletes are no longer just performers but platforms: investors, entrepreneurs and brand architects who capture value far beyond the arena.
As sport’s value migrates from the stadium to the screen and the balance sheet, what will the industry look like when the dust settles?
Press Conference by Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) on the General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS.
The fifth meeting since the first UN General Assembly special session on a health crisis 25 years ago opened with the president of the General Assembly and the Deputy Secretary-General leading the session.
Byanyima told delegations the world made a promise 25 years ago to stop AIDS with all people in all countries getting the treatment and prevention they needed, with funds mobilized to enable every country to fight the disease, and communities on the ground leading and delivering services for their people.
That promise has been kept for 25 years, she said, but the progress should not be mistaken for success: nine million people remain off treatment, and UNAIDS data show 1.2 million people were newly infected last year. The promise to end AIDS, she said, “hasn’t been realized.”
Therefore, Byanyima said, she had urged countries to agree on “an ambitious political declaration” expected to be signed Tuesday.
She nonetheless pointed to gains, noting 32.1 million of the 40 million people living with HIV are now on treatment, calling it “tremendous progress.”
The UNAIDS chief called on member states to sustain international financing as countries mobilize their own domestic resources, noting 52 countries increased domestic financing for the HIV response last year, alongside regional efforts to achieve “health sovereignty.”
She closed by stressing the importance of universal access to medicines, saying “Innovations without access are not innovations. They are an injustice.”
From energy price swings and growing inflationary pressure to rising debt and interest rates, economic data shifts are sending mixed signals across the developed and developing world.
What picture is the data sharing about the state of the world economy and which numbers are the most important?
Emerging markets, home to the critical resources underpinning the energy transition, are becoming the centre of global energy growth. From rapid renewable scale-up in India and Brazil to China’s leadership in clean technologies and the GCC’s deep investment capacity, a new model is taking shape.
How are these and other partnerships accelerating power system expansion in emerging markets as global cooperation corridors are redefined?
China is the second-largest developer of new medicines, with its companies running an increasing share of the world’s clinical trials. It is also rising to the top in several critical areas of research, including cancer.
As discovery accelerates, what will faster and more competitive drug development mean for patients and how will it affect the prices they pay?
For more than a decade, the World Economic Forum has been surveying decision-makers and experts on exponential technologies on the cusp of transforming economies and societies.
Join us for the rundown of the Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2026 and a discussion on their projected impact.
Briefing by Claudio Cordone, Deputy Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, on the situation in the Middle East.
Cordone said that the scale of the challenges facing the transitional parliament in the country “cannot be overstated.” He said, “More than eight months since the main elections, the People’s Assembly has still not been constituted, awaiting the Presidential appointment of a third of its members. The delay is generating anxiety. Syria needs the People’s Assembly to begin its work. And it needs all Syrians – in particular, Syria’s women and its various components – to feel meaningfully represented in it. The scale of the challenges facing this transitional parliament cannot be overstated. New laws need to be debated and adopted, executive actions need to be reviewed, diverse voices must be heard, and progress made on the transition.”
Cordone noted, “Last week, demonstrations in Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor and Damascus saw participants calling for accountability for crimes committed during the conflict and demanding legal action against individuals associated with abuses under the former regime. In some locations, these demonstrations were accompanied by violence.”
He added, “The government announced that 5,989 persons linked to the former regime are in detention and awaiting prosecution for crimes allegedly committed after 2011. These developments highlight transitional justice challenges facing Syria, with frustration from lack of perceived sufficient progress. While the government swiftly calmed the situation, to avoid repetition of such incidents there needs to be a sense of the past being addressed swiftly yes, but also fairly.”
Cordone reported, “No progress on the implementation of the September 2025 Roadmap of confidence-building and reintegration in Sweida. The underlying issues that contributed to the violence of July 2025 remain unresolved, including accountability measures. Distrust between Damascus and actors within Sweida persists, as do strong feelings of distrust at societal level. Calls within Sweida for secession threaten to undermine the country’s unity and territorial integrity.”
He also said, “Israeli military activity in southern Syria has continued, including in violation of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement. Israeli forces have maintained presence in the area of separation and conducted near-daily incursions across parts of southern Syria, establishing temporary checkpoints and carrying out searches and detentions of civilians.”
Cordone continued, “The Syrian Government has exercised restraint while signaling openness to a security arrangement with Israel, although no tangible progress has been achieved to date. The United Nations in Syria is enhancing its efforts to address the needs of the affected population amidst continued Israeli military activity. We strongly reiterate our call on Israel to adhere to the 1974 Agreement, release those illegally detained and respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Science and art have always shared a common spark: curiosity. When creative inquiry meets scientific exploration, new pathways for imagination and innovation begin to unfold.
From laboratory research to participatory experiences, artists and scientists have collaborated across disciplines, transforming biomedical questions into sensory encounters, translating climate data into immersive environments and turning AI into interactive artworks that question how we see and know the world.
Join this session to discover how experiments become experiences and how creativity becomes a catalyst for discovery.
