UN cuts for 2026 mostly spare its elite, draft budget shows

UN cost savings plans for next year envisage far smaller cuts to senior staff than to lower ranks, a draft budget document shows, a contrast likely to fuel division just as financial support for the institution is slipping. Secretary General Antonio Guterres wants to shrink the regular budget by 15 percent to improve efficiency and cut costs as the United Nations runs into a cash crisis as it turns 80. A copy of the revised 2026 budget showed just two of 58 department head posts in the layer of under-secretaries-general beneath Guterres, or 3 percent, will go. That compares with around 19 percent across the board and up to 28 percent for one lower-ranking category, according to Reuters calculations based...