World

Yes, the UN is terrible – but right now, we need it

The Sydney Morning Herald Nicholas Kristof

27 Sept 2026 16:30 AEST Summary

Show what we removed

From the report

As 130 armed conflicts rage around the world, United Nations agencies are saving millions of lives, even as UN workers risk their own.

Headline as published: Yes, the UN is terrible – but right now, we need it desperately

This is a summary. The indicators are not. The scores were measured over this summary alone, which is less of the article than we would like and makes them less certain.

Indicators

Niral Score 26.3 mundaneloaded

None in this text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

No word appears twice.

Sentiment -1.2 hostilefavourable Sourcing 42 unattributednamed sources Mood 39.8 sorrowjoyful

5 read zero: political diction, generational, gender, jingoistic, religious

Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Jingoistic 0 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Religious 0 not invokedovert

Measurements of how this article is written, not of whether it is correct. How each one is measured.

Measured on The Sydney Morning Herald’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it

No other newsroom we read has filed on this event, so there is nothing to compare it with yet.

Also covered by WAtoday, Brisbane Times, The Age. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet	Niral Score
The Sydney Morning Heraldas they published this story	26.3

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The same event elsewhere

3 other outlets filed this story. The scoreboard above is what they did differently.

WAtoday Yes, the UN is terrible – but right now, we need it Niral 26.3 political 0 Brisbane Times Yes, the UN is terrible – but right now, we need it Niral 26.3 political 0 The Age Yes, the UN is terrible – but right now, we need it Niral 26.3 political 0