Gaza: ‘Humanitarian pauses’ will need coordination with the UN

Gaza: ‘Humanitarian pauses’ will need coordination with the UN

Stéphane Dujarric was responding to a journalist’s question following the White House’s announcement that Israel has agreed to halt military operations in northern Gaza to allow daily four-hour humanitarian pauses. Parties must agree “How any such halt in the fighting, and how it would work for humanitarian purposes, will need to be coordinated with the…

Read More
Israel-Palestine crisis: Silence the guns, UN relief chief tells Paris forum

Israel-Palestine crisis: Silence the guns, UN relief chief tells Paris forum

Echoing his remarks with French President Emmanuel Macron looking on, the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, stressed the “heart-breaking” plight of children in the territory, whom he saw last week “pleading for a piece of bread and a sip of water”. Mass displacement has led to severe overcrowding in…

Read More
World News in Brief: ‘Outrage’ over Black Sea attack, funding pledge to alleviate El Niño, breast cancer alert

World News in Brief: ‘Outrage’ over Black Sea attack, funding pledge to alleviate El Niño, breast cancer alert

Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement that Wednesday’s attack came on the heels of a series of assaults that killed and inured civilians, destroyed grain supplies and damaged the historic Fine Arts Museum in the Ukrainian port city. “I share my condolences with the family of the killed port pilot and hope for…

Read More
Five judges elected to United Nations’ top court

Five judges elected to United Nations’ top court

In parallel and independent voting conducted by secret ballot, the Assembly and the Council re-elected one judge who is currently serving, Hilary Charlesworth of Australia. Another justice currently on the bench, Kirill Gevorgian of Russia, was not successful in securing another term.   Four new justices were elected: Bogdan-Lucian Aurescu (Romania); Sarah Hull Cleveland (United…

Read More
2023 likely hottest year on record; further spike expected with El Niño

2023 likely hottest year on record; further spike expected with El Niño

That’s the message from UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which said on Wednesday that for the calendar year to date, the global mean temperature is the highest ever recorded, 1.43 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and sea ice in the Antarctic remains at record low levels. WMO expects the warming El Niño climate pattern to last…

Read More
At Rafah crossing, Türk says both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes

At Rafah crossing, Türk says both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes

Volker Türk highlighted the dichotomy at the border crossing, describing it as a “lifeline” for the 2.3 million residents of Gaza over the past month, although “unjustly, outrageously thin.” But it is also “the gates to a living nightmare”, he continued, as people in Gaza “have been suffocating, under persistent bombardment, mourning their families, struggling…

Read More