Speaking on behalf of Secretary-General António Guterres, Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed said, “conflict displaces families into cities, climate shocks overwhelm homes and infrastructure, rising costs push housing and basic services further out of reach, and inequality becomes visible street by street. This is why the mid-term review of the New Urban Agenda reaches far beyond urban policy. It is one of the clearest ways sustainable development shows up in the lives of people on a daily basis, and it does more than look back. It tells us what cities and communities need from us now.”
Taking place just ahead of the 2026 Men’s World Cup Final, the UN Youth Office and the UN Member States Friends of Football are bringing together young leaders, changemakers, policymakers, UN entities, governments, civil society, private sector partners, athletes and advocates to celebrate football and sports as powerful drivers of youth mental health and well-being.
In the context of this celebration, the UN Youth Office and UN Office of Partnerships will bring together a select group of distinguished participants to have a conversation about youth mental health and wellbeing. This conversation follows the first dialogue convened with Member States on the 14th of May 2026, where the Group of Champions for Youth Mental Health was launched.
This discussion will strengthen, align and leverage the UN Partnerships and UN Youth shared agenda that is present in the daily lives of young people.
Tanatswa Amanda Chikaura is a Zimbabwean PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests are centered on autism, mental health and suicide prevention. She is also the Founder and Director of Ndinewe, a mental health organisation in Zimbabwe, which is transforming youth mental health through mental health literacy.
Tanatswa is one of the 17 Young Leaders for the SDGs selected by the UN Youth Office who are leading efforts to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
More info: https://www.un.org/youthaffairs/en/tanatswa-amanda-chikaura
Translation of Shona by UNIC Harare and Tinashe Mbririmi.
Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
Secretary-General/Travels-China
Trip Announcement/Cyprus
Security Council
UNIFIL
Occupied Palestinian Territory
West Bank
MH17
Ukraine
Myanmar
Pakistan
Rwanda
Democratic Republic Of The Congo
Trip Announcement / Deputy Secretary-General
Haiti
Senior Personnel Appointment
SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRAVELS-CHINA
The Secretary-General arrived in China today. Tomorrow morning, he will attend the Opening Ceremony of the World AI Conference in Shanghai. And in the afternoon, he will deliver remarks at the Opening Session of the World AI Conference Meteorological Forum.
Tomorrow, the Secretary-General will also have several official engagements.
TRIP ANNOUNCEMENT/CYPRUS
The Secretary-General will travel to Cyprus from 27 to 29 July, as part of his good offices mission and his strong demonstrated commitment to the Cyprus issue.
He will meet with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, as well as other stakeholders, and discuss efforts to advance the peace process and support stability on the island, including through the work of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
Further details on the programme will be shared closer to the visit.
SECURITY COUNCIL
The Security Council this morning held consultations on the Secretary-General’s report on resolution 1701, concerning Lebanon. The officer-in-charge of the Special Coordinator’s office in that country, Jean Arnault, briefed the Council members as well as Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean Pierre Lacroix.
The Council will reconvene at 3:00 pm for consultations on Cyprus. The Head of the UN Mission in that country, Khassim Diagne, will brief.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2026-07-16
Tanatswa Amanda Chikaura is a Zimbabwean PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests are centered on autism, mental health and suicide prevention. She is also the Founder and Director of Ndinewe, a mental health organisation in Zimbabwe, which is transforming youth mental health through mental health literacy.
Tanatswa is one of the 17 Young Leaders for the SDGs selected by the UN Youth Office who are leading efforts to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
To learn more: https://www.un.org/youthaffairs/en/tanatswa-amanda-chikaura
Translation of Shona by UNIC Harare and Tinashe Mbririmi.
“Our Office has secured vital evidence that will allow us to hold senior contributors to attacks to account,” the International Criminal Court prosecutor told the Security Council.
Briefing the Council members (15 Jul) Nazhat Shameem Khan, Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said that further evidence collected during the reporting period had strengthened earlier findings that both war crimes and crimes against humanity had been committed in El-Geneina and El Fasher.
Khan warned that the most serious international crimes may be about to take place in El Obeid. “We cannot say we did not know. We cannot say it could not be expected,” she said, describing a shared assessment with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and calling on the Council and member states to act.
She also acknowledged constraints facing the investigation. “Our resources are limited. We have not been able to access the territory of Darfur, nor interviewed witnesses in a number of other key locations, and the witness protection needs are significant,” Khan said, noting that measures taken against the Court had affected its operations in Darfur.
“The ICC and its proponents seek a standing World Tribunal with near unlimited reach,” said Jeff Bartos, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the United States, adding that the Court is overreaching its mandate and encroaching on state sovereignty.
Press Conference by Máximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He briefed journalists on the high cost of a healthy diet and what to expect from the upcoming State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report 2026, which will be launched on 21 July in Rome.
Máximo Torero Cullen said, “almost one in every three people in the world still cannot afford a healthy diet.”
Under the theme “Understanding and addressing the high cost of a healthy diet,” this year’s report will present the latest global assessment of food security and nutrition and progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2, as well as the latest updates on the cost and affordability of a healthy diet. The 2026 edition of SOFI examines the persistent challenge posed by the high cost of a healthy diet (CoHD) and its implications for ending hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition by 2030.
The FAO’s Chief Economist said, “the report shows that the global cost of a healthy diet has increased 25 percent in just five years, reaching 4.28 US dollars purchasing power parity dollars per person per day. As a result, 2.69 billion people, almost one in every three people in the world still cannot afford a healthy diet.”
Torero also said, “the most important finding is that calories are relatively inexpensive, but nutrition is not.”
He explained, “staple food provide about half of the calories we need, yet represent only 13 percent of the cost of a healthy diet. In contrast, fruits and vegetables provide only 5 percent of the calories but account for 16 percent of the cost, so significantly more expensive than cereals. While animal source foods account for almost 30 percent of the cost.”
“The challenge, therefore, is not to produce enough calories. It is making nutrient rich foods more affordable, and that’s what will reduce the cost of this healthy diet,” the economist added.
Torero also said, “between 70 and 75 percent of the cost of a healthy diet is generated after food leaves the farm. So it’s not in the farm, it’s after it leaves the farm. And the biggest bottlenecks are no longer only on the farm. They are in storage, in transport, processing, cost chains and wholesale markets.”
He said, “our analysis shows that the investment in rural roads, cold storage, logistics and efficient value chains for fruits and vegetables generate much larger reduction in the cost of a healthy diet than broad and untargeted investments.”
The report also challenges the conventional policy thinking, “our simulations show that subsidizing staple foods alone can actually increase the relative cost of a healthy diet. So increase rather than reduce.”
FAO official said, “what we need to do is to focus in three priorities: reduce structural cost across the value chain, particularly after the farm gate; repurpose policies and investments towards nutrient dense foods, rather than reinforcing incentives that favor calories over nutrition and strengthen the evidence-based policymaking through better local data, closer coordination across agriculture, health, trade, and social protection.”
He reiterated, “the cost of a healthy diet is not simply another statistic. It is a very important diagnostic that we need to resolve if we want to minimize this enormous amount of hidden costs and the enormous amounts of fatalities that come as a result of overweight and obesity.”
Asked about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Torero said, “the major risk right now that we have in terms of commodities is the lack of sulfur is enormous right now. It’s affecting all phosphates.”
He added, “the situation will continue to be complex, inputs will continue to be high costs. Farmers will continue to face enormous challenges and the possibility that what we are lucky today that we had enough good harvest in the past. That’s why the commodity prices are still not so high, with the exception of rice and durum wheat. That means that in the future that could change.”
Comments to the media by Erik Laursen, Deputy Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations, and Ambassador Lewis Garseedah Brown II, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Liberia to the United Nations, on behalf of the Security Council’s International Criminal Court Caucus, following the ICC Deputy Prosecutor’s briefing to the Security Council.
—–
Following the meeting, the Security Council’s ICC Caucus briefed reporters outside the chamber. Denmark’s representative criticized the Rapid Support Forces for its lack of engagement. “The Rapid Support Forces has failed to respond to cooperation requests,” said Erik Laursen, Ambassador of Denmark, calling the group’s non-cooperation with the Council’s accountability mechanism deeply concerning.
Liberia’s envoy stressed that accountability efforts must extend beyond Darfur. “While the ICC’s mandate is currently limited to the situation in Darfur, we emphasize that accountability, action and cooperation pursuant to the Council’s referral is central to preventing this further cycle of atrocity crimes in other regions of Sudan,” said Ambassador Lewis Garseedah Brown II.
Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
Gulf
Senior Personnel Appointment
Pakistan
Sudan
Central African Republic
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Venezuela
Security Council
Cuba
WHO/UNICEF Report
WHO/Dementia
World Youth Skills Day
GULF
The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by the continuing military escalation in the Middle East region. He calls on all parties to take immediate steps for de-escalation and return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy.
The Secretary-General reiterates that a return to full-scale hostilities would exact an intolerable toll on civilians and have catastrophic consequences for international peace and security and the global economy.
The Secretary-General reiterates his call for the full restoration of international navigational rights and freedoms in and around the Strait of Hormuz. The exercise of navigational rights and freedoms must be respected by all parties in accordance with international law.
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT
The Secretary-General announced today the appointment of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain as Co-Chair of the SDG Advocates group, alongside Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados. The Secretary-General underscored the urgent need to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals and welcomed Prime Minister Sánchez’s leadership in advancing sustainable development.
The SDG Advocates are influential leaders who support the Secretary-General in raising global ambition and action to keep the promise of the SDGs. The Secretary-General also expressed appreciation to former Co-Chair Justin Trudeau of Canada for his service. Prime Minister Mottley will continue in her role as Co-Chair.
PAKISTAN
The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has begun a visit to Pakistan to spotlight the growing humanitarian impacts of the climate crisis and what it means for countries like Pakistan, which are on its front lines.
Earlier today in Islamabad, he met with Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, and they discussed diplomatic efforts underway in the Middle East, the delivery of humanitarian aid through convoys across the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and partnership on global disaster preparedness.
Mr. Fletcher will also hold talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar and other senior government officials, as well as with our humanitarian partners.
During his four-day visit, Mr. Fletcher will meet communities affected by floods and melting glaciers to hear directly about their needs, recovery efforts and local solutions. He will also visit community-based flood mitigation and preparedness initiatives.
He will underscore the need for sustained international solidarity, including funding for preparedness and early action ahead of disasters and investment in locally-led climate adaptation.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date=2026-07-15
