FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO)

Di Martino M. Food safety in personalized nutrition. A focus on food supplements and functional foods. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2025; 112 p. ISBN 978-92-5-139611-7. In this publication, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), provides a comprehensive overview of potential safety concerns associated with food supplements and functional foods, including adulteration, drug interactions, overdose, and toxicity, supported by case studies from scientific literature and media reports. It also examines regulatory frameworks across various countries and regions, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, Europe, India, Japan, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America. These frameworks cover key areas in the field of food supplements and functional foods such as classification, labelling, claims, composition, and registration, highlighting the differences in regulatory approaches. The report also explores consumer perceptions of the safety of food supplements and functional foods, analysing the motivations behind their use and the impact of marketing on their adoption.

Food Outlook – Biannual report on global food markets. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2025; 152 p. ISBN 978-92-5-139879-1. Food outlook is a biannual publication (June and November) focusing on developments affecting global food commodity markets. FAO’s latest assessments indicate a relatively optimistic outlook for food commodity markets, with production and trade of all commodities, except sugar, anticipated to increase. Global food commodity production remains vulnerable to weather conditions. Additionally, ongoing geopolitical tensions, uncertainties in policy developments, and potential retaliatory actions could negatively affect the trade outlook. In addition to market assessment, each edition contains a set of special features and market indicators. The June 2025 edition offers a feature article on economic impacts and trade implications of high pathogenicity avian influenza. Additional topics, such as changes in the trade flows following the start of the war in Ukraine, fertilizer update, economic drivers of fish fraud, and implications of decarbonization of the international maritime sector for net food-importing developing countries are also discussed.

Sharma R, Barange M, Agostini V, Barros P, Gutierrez NL, Vasconcellos M, Fernandez Reguera D, Tiffay C, and Levontin P, eds. Review of the state of world marine fishery resources – 2025. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper, No. 721. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2025; 515 p. ISBN 978-92-5-139859-3. The aim of this report is to provide FAO Members, national and regional policymakers, academia, civil society, fishers and managers of world fishery resources with a comprehensive, objective and global review of the state of the living fishery resources of the oceans. This document updates the regular reviews of the state of the world’s marine fishery resources, based on stock assessments and complementary information up to 2023, and official catch statistics through to 2021. The introductory and methodology chapters provide the wider context in which this updated edition of the Review of the state of world marine fishery resources was prepared, highlighting evolutions in the landscape of fisheries and stock assessment capacities since the previous edition of this report in 2011. The methodology section gives a detailed overview of the updated FAO process for providing the state of stocks index, which involved a highly participatory and transparent process. Importantly, the total number of stocks in the assessments included in this report has significantly increased to 2,570. Discussions on major trends and changes at the global level are explored in a dedicated global overview chapter, while more detailed information on the status of stocks for each of the FAO Major Fishing Areas is set out in dedicated regional chapters. Special sections address the global issue of tunas and tuna-like species, and other high-profile fisheries such as deep-sea fisheries in areas beyond national jurisdiction, and highly migratory sharks. Summary tables are provided for each species grouping used in this assessment, indicating the number of stocks included, their sustainability classification between overfished, maximally sustainably fished, and underfished categories, and the number of stocks classified into tiers based on the availability and quality of information and thus the assessment methods used.

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO)

Who bears the costs? Addressing inequalities from climate change and climate action. Paris: UNESCO Publishing 2025; 84 p. ISBN 978-92-3-100767-5. This report explores the disproportional impacts of climate change and the need for designing policies to face climate change that also prioritize inclusivity and fairness. It shows how the impact of nations’ green transitions to low carbon economies and sustainable practices varies widely, depending on where people work, their gender, income level, and the place they live in, and highlights the risk of widening socioeconomic inequalities that face our societies. It also reflects on the changes needed for climate policies and responses within and between member countries, to be tailored to all communities’ diverse needs and realities. Policymakers, researchers, and others are invited to draw on the message of this report to reflect on how equity and inclusivity can guide the development of climate transition policies, rather than being added as an afterthought.

Climate change in Mediterranean World Heritage cities. Paris: UNESCO Publishing 2025; 72 p. ISBN 978-92-3-100770-5. This report addresses important intersecting concerns around impacts of climate change on cultural heritage, the Mediterranean region as a global climate hotspot, and cities as significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions as well as of climate action, through a study of 114 historic cities and settlements in the Mediterranean region inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Considering an inclusive approach using diverse knowledge systems to better understand the threats and impacts of climate change, the study uses three different methodologies to analyse and identify threats and subregional variations within the Mediterranean region. The study includes a qualitative overview of observed and reported current climate change-related hazards across inscribed World Heritage Cities and settlements in the Mediterranean region during the Third Cycle of Periodic Reporting (2018–2024) to UNESCO World Heritage Centre; climate model projections of threats to World Heritage Cities based on Earth observation (EO) as well as an ensemble of Earth system models (ESMs) and Regional climate models (RCMs) for projecting future scenarios in the Mediterranean region by the end of the twenty-first century. Finally, spatial mapping is used to analyse geographical patterns in detail across the Mediterranean subregions.

JOINT UNITED NATIONS PROGRAMME ON HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)

Equity in the HIV response: assessing progress and charting a way forward. Geneva: United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS 2024; 132 p. As countries transition away from donor assistance and progress towards universal health coverage, there is growing emphasis on the importance of integrating HIV services into national health systems to support sustainability. However, given the equity advantage of the HIV response, there are concerns that many of the equity gains from HIV programmes could be lost in the transition to a more integrated, less disease focused approach unless care is taken to preserve and build on them. To shed light on how best to close existing HIV related equity gaps and to preserve important equity gains in the future, the Technical Working Group on Sustaining the Equity Gains of the Global HIV Response analysed existing programme models and data and undertook reviews of peer reviewed and grey literature. The Technical Working Group drew on these analytical exercises to identify options for the HIV response in moving forward.

ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD)

Introducing the OECD AI capability indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing 2025; 54 p. ISBN 978-92-64-53190-1 (print) ISBN 978-92-64-89309-2 (PDF) ISBN 978-92-64-83602-0 (HTML). This report describes the OECD’s new Artificial Intelligence (AI) capability indicators. The indicators have been developed to provide policy makers with an evidence-based framework to understand AI capabilities and compare them to human abilities. Developed over five years, the indicators draw on a large network of AI researchers, psychologists and other experts. The nine indicators cover a range of human abilities that each describes the development of AI towards full human equivalence: language; social interaction; problem solving; creativity; metacognition and critical thinking; knowledge, learning and memory; vision; manipulation; and robotic intelligence. The indicators are presented in scales of five levels, where the most challenging capabilities for AI systems are found towards the top. Each level includes a short description of the sorts of capabilities that AI systems at that level can perform accurately and consistently. The rating of current AI performance on each scale is linked to available evidence.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION (ILO)

Gmyrek P, Berg J, Kamin´ski K, Konopczyn´ski F, Ładna A, Nafradi B, Rosłaniec K, Troszyn´ski M. Generative AI and jobs: a refined global index of occupational exposure, ILO Working Paper 140. Geneva: International Labour Organization 2025; 76 p. ISBN 978-92-2-042184-0 (print) ISBN 978-92-2-042185-7 (web PDF). This ILO Working Paper refines the global measurement of occupational exposure to generative AI by combining task-level data, expert input, and AI model predictions. It offers an improved methodological framework to assess how GenAI may impact jobs across countries and sectors. The 2025 scores are presented in a revised framework of four progressively increasing exposure gradients, with a new set of global estimates of employment shares exposed to GenAI. Clerical occupations continue to have the highest exposure levels. Additionally, some strongly digitized occupations have increased exposure, highlighting the expanding abilities of GenAI regarding specialized tasks in professional and technical roles.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)

Tracking global progress on preparedness for respiratory pandemics. 2023 Report. Geneva: World Health Organization 2025; 30 p. ISBN 978-92-4-011043-4 (electronic version) ISBN 978-92-4-011044-1 (print version). In line with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework for tracking global progress on preparedness for respiratory pandemics, this 2023 progress report provides an annual snapshot on the global status of functional capacities needed to prepare for future respiratory pandemics. Thirteen indicators spanning five capacity areas were collated to measure preparedness. Namely, these areas include emergency coordination, collaborative surveillance, community protection, clinical care and access to countermeasures. As this is the first annual progress report, the data was collated retrospectively until September 2024. It is expected that the global community, as well as regional teams, can view this report to identify where indicator progress has been made within each capacity area, and identify activities and actions to further strengthen capacities. This report is not a performance review, but rather a tool to inform planning and implementation.

WHO guidelines for the treatment of patients with cystic echinococcosis. Geneva: World Health Organization 2025; 48 p. ISBN 978-92-4-011047-2 (electronic version) ISBN 978-92-4-011048-9 (print version). The purpose of these guidelines is to provide guidance on the choice of treatment so that patients (adults and children) with cystic echinococcosis (CE) cysts can be offered and receive appropriate and equitable treatment. The aim is to ensure that patients receive the most appropriate and affordable management in the context of infrastructure and expertise sufficient to ensure its safety, and without unnecessary invasive procedures or treatment, to avoid iatrogenic complications by using invasive interventions. These guidelines were developed for clinicians, health facility managers and health practitioners practising at all levels of health services (primary, secondary and tertiary health care) and at all resource levels (low, middle-and high-income countries) that provide care for patients with CE. They were also developed to inform health care policymakers, health system administrators, insurance companies and NTD programme implementors.

WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2025: warning about the dangers of tobacco. Geneva: World Health Organization 2025; 281 p. ISBN 978-92-4-011206-3 (electronic version) ISBN 978-92-4-011207-0 (print version). The tenth WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic tracks the progress made by countries in tobacco control since 2008. The MPOWER (Monitor, Protect, Offer help, Warn, Enforce, Raise taxes) technical package was designed to help countries adopt the demand-reduction measures of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The 2025 report focuses on the W measure: warn about the dangers of tobacco through graphic health warnings and anti-tobacco mass media campaigns and shows that with 6.1 billion people protected by at least one MPOWER measure at best-practice level many countries continue to make progress in the fight against tobacco. Four countries have now achieved the full MPOWER packaged while a further seven are only one measure away. At the same time 40 countries still have no MPOWER measure at best-practice level.