Confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide topped 200 million with 4.25 million deaths, amid a surge in highly transmissible delta variant infections.

Diplomats from the U.S. and Russia held a new round of discussions in Geneva seeking ways to defuse rising tensions and to avoid a new nuclear arms race.

Michelle Bachelet said reports of spying with military-grade malware on activists, dissidents and journalists “seem to confirm some of the worst fears.”

Amid devastating floods in Western Europe, the U.N. weather agency stressed the rising frequency of extreme weather due to the climate crisis.

The European Commission adopted a set of proposals to cut net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent from 1990 levels by the end of this decade.

World hunger “shot up” during the pandemic, leaving nearly 1-in-10 people undernourished mostly in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a compromise to keep open Syria’s last non-government controlled border crossing for humanitarian aid.

Senior U.N. officials warned that more than 400,000 people are suffering from famine in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, and 1.8 million more are on the verge.

Calling it “a new phase for peace in Libya,” Germany and the U.N. ended a conference with diplomats expressing confidence in Libya’s rebuilding.

The U.N. human rights chief opened the Human Rights Council’s summer session urging leaders to correct the many inequalities laid bare by the pandemic.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres was re-elected to lead the world body for the next five years, winning the General Assembly’s unanimous support.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the global number of people fleeing wars, conflicts or human rights violations rose to almost 82.4 million last year.

With U.S.-Russia tensions nearing Cold War-era dimensions, Presidents Biden and Putin used Swiss diplomacy to agree to nuclear talks and other measures.

The E.U. and U.S. announced a deal to end the bitter trade dispute between Airbus and Boeing as E.U. leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden met in Brussels.

The G-7 summit wrapped up with vows to end the pandemic, fight climate change and incorporate U.S. President Biden’s pledge to “build back better.”

The U.S. and the U.K. signed a “revitalized” version of the 1941 Atlantic Charter to focus on 21st century risks such as cyber attacks and rising temperatures.

The planet’s massive losses of species and rising temperatures are driven by human activities that must be tackled together, two organizations reported.

Russia withdrew from a treaty meant to lower the risk of conflict between Western nations and post-Soviet Russia, soon after the U.S. abandoned it.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven agreed to set a global minimum corporate tax of at least 15 percent to deter multinationals from using tax havens.

Chemical weapons were used or likely used in at least 17 attacks in Syria, the international chemical weapons watchdog told the U.N. Security Council.

Five nations announced a new alliance to promote more conservation of marine ecosystems in the fight against climate change.