Category Archives: United Nations

Emirati diplomat who helped deliver aid to Gaza enters UN secretary general race

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Lana Nusseibeh has Palestine’s endorsement but faces criticism over UAE’s record on human rights and Sudan

An Emirati diplomat who as UAE ambassador to the UN helped secure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza has entered the race as a late contender to succeed António Guterres as the world body’s secretary general.

Lana Nusseibeh, who is of Palestinian heritage, is widely noted for her advocacy of the Palestinian cause and the two-state solution and has won the endorsement of the state of Palestine.

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Big pharma accused of ‘free-riding on nature’ as global fund attracts just $7,000

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The Cali Fund, set up to raise $1bn a year for biodiversity from drug companies, remains near empty

Big pharmaceutical companies have been accused of “free-riding on nature”, after a landmark biodiversity fund that invites businesses to put some of their profits back into conservation was left virtually empty.

The Cali Fund set out to raise $1bn (£750m) annually, by asking companies that profit from nature’s genetics to contribute towards conservation in low-income countries. But more than 18 months after the fund was launched, it remains far below this target.

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Twelve killed and hundreds injured in Houthi attack at Riyadh airport

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Donald Trump evaluating whether US should join Saudi strikes against the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels

The latest attack on the international airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital of Riyadh killed 12 people and injured more than 300 others, civil aviation authorities said early on Sunday, with some in a critical condition. A Saudi-led coalition blamed Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.

A missile struck a King Khalid international airport complex housing terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights, a regional official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to speak to the media.

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Malaysia begins Myanmar repatriations despite warnings from UN and rights groups

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Kuala Lumpur plans to send a total of 5,000 Myanmar nationals back to the war-torn country despite persecution concerns

Malaysia began sending back about 1,500 Myanmar nationals on Tuesday, the government confirmed, as it launched a scheme that rights groups say may endanger migrants and asylum seekers by returning them to the war-torn country.

The group is the first of 5,000 Myanmar citizens that Kuala Lumpur says agreed to “voluntary” repatriation from detention centres amid a huge uptick in anti-migrant sentiment in Malaysia.

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UN ambassador Waltz says Iran was not negotiating ‘in good faith’ to end war

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Waltz says Trump rejected Iran’s proposal to end war because they ‘were asking for everything up front’

The Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations said the US rejected Iran’s proposal to end the ongoing war there because Iranian negotiators “were asking for everything up front”.

Echoing comments by Donald Trump on Saturday, the president’s UN ambassador Mike Waltz told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that Iran had asked for relief “from billions and billions of sanctions that are going into place” as part of an economic blockade on Iran. The blockade is aimed at putting pressure on Iran to stop its attacks ‌on vessels in the strait of Hormuz.

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UN adds 61 firms to settlements blacklist over alleged human rights violations against Palestinians

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Israel ‘categorically rejects’ publication and says businesses on database have committed no wrongdoing

The UN human rights office has added 61 more companies to a blacklist of firms that it says are involved in violating Palestinian human rights through business ties to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The vast majority of the total 214 companies, which are based in 11 countries, are Israeli. Five of the 158 companies listed last year were removed in the latest update.

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‘The weaker he gets, the more dangerous he gets’: Trump lashes out as his power wanes

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Trump tries to dominate at the UN as his approval ratings plummet and even some Republicans stray from the script

Donald Trump stood before the United Nations on Tuesday and threatened to “annihilate” Iran. Yet even as the most powerful man on the planet flexed his military muscles, he was powerless to keep the gravitational pull of domestic politics at bay.

Heading into the UN building in New York, the US president was questioned by Kaitlan Collins, an anchor at CNN, which he had banned from the White House before a judge ruled against him. “I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me,” the 80-year-old snapped. “You should not be here covering me.”

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Susan Sarandon and Hannah Einbinder arrested at anti-Netanyahu protest in New York

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Actors detained at Jewish Voice for Peace demonstration against Israeli prime minister’s address to the UN general assembly

Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and Hacks star Hannah Einbinder were among people detained by police in New York on Thursday as they moved in to break up a protest against Benjamin Netanyahu.

Agence France-Presse footage shows NYPD officers cuffing Thelma & Louise star Sarandon at the demo in the city as the Israeli prime minister was readying to address the United Nations general assembly.

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Iran awaiting response from Trump on proposal to open strait of Hormuz in six days

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Country says US must lift sanctions on its oil exports and end the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon

Iran said it has told Donald Trump it is willing to open the strait of Hormuz in six days, and to start talks on its nuclear program the day after, so long as the US lifts sanctions on Iran’s oil exports in return, ends the war on all fronts – including in Lebanon – and releases some of Iran’s frozen assets.

The proposal is designed to accelerate the steps first laid down in the memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran in June, particularly by helping the talks on Iran’s nuclear program start much more quickly than previously agreed.

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Family of Iranian twins sentenced to death and decades in jail ask UN for help

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Taraneh and Romina Rahimi were charged with ‘waging war against God’ after joining protests against Tehran regime

The family of 21-year-old twins who have been sentenced respectively to death and decades in jail for protesting against the Iranian regime have appealed to the United Nations for help.

A formal “submission of information” relating to the case of Taraneh and Romina Rahimi has been submitted by British human right lawyers on their family’s behalf.

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Milei threatens at UN that Argentina will take ‘matters into our own hands’ on Falklands

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Argentinian president accuses United Nations of being filled with ‘parasites’ in bellicose general assembly speech

Javier Milei has condemned the UN as he warned that Argentina would take “matters into our own hands” in its dispute with Britain over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

In a caustic speech at the general assembly in New York, the Argentinian president criticised the UN for being ineffective when it came to the long-running tensions over the British overseas territory in the south Atlantic known in Argentina as the Malvinas.

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UK shares findings of damning climate crisis national security report suppressed under Starmer

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El Niño poses critical threat to nations’ defences, says Ed Miliband in presentation to global foreign ministers

The UK has warned countries around the world that the climate and nature crises and the coming El Niño threaten their national security and defence, presenting foreign ministries with the findings of an explosive report suppressed under Keir Starmer.

Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, made a presentation to the foreign ministers of the EU as well as Kenya and other countries on Wednesday night at a private meeting during the UN general assembly in New York, based on the report by the UK’s spy chiefs that found the collapse of natural systems around the world would lead to conflict, migration and food shortages.

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‘We hope he’ll accept’: US invites Putin to G20 summit at Trump golf club

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Kremlin yet to respond publicly to US invitation that is likely to raise concerns from Ukraine and EU countries

The United States has invited Vladimir Putin to take part in the meeting of the G20 scheduled in Miami in December in what would be the first major summit with the Russian leader present since he launched his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The invitation, which marks a significant reversal by the Trump administration of Russia’s international isolation, was announced by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, during a press conference on the sidelines of the United Nations conference in New York.

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Iran’s president hits out at ‘bully’ Trump in UN speech but signals willingness to talk

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Masoud Pezeshkian says Tehran is ready for dialogue and diplomacy ‘but without the language of force’

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, turned the tables on Donald Trump, describing the US as the true bully and terrorist in the Middle East while insisting that Iran had always shown a commitment to the negotiating table.

In a defiant speech to the UN general assembly in New York, his first since the US and Israel launched an all-out war on Iran, Pezeshkian repeatedly vowed that Tehran would never bend the knee to the US.

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Iran denies dropping preconditions amid ‘very productive’ three-hour UN talks in New York

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Trump says further talks possible as barrel of Brent crude falls to below $100 for first time in two weeks

Iran has pushed back on claims that it dropped former preconditions for reopening the strait of Hormuz in surprise talks held in New York under the mediation of Qatar between Tehran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, and Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Trump said the three-hour talks held in a room at the UN headquarters had gone very well and been very productive. He suggested further talks were possible imminently, which led to the price of a barrel of Brent crude to fall to below $100 (£75) for the first time in two weeks. Witkoff said the talks had been “encouraging, constructive and successful”.

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Iran and US have held talks on sidelines of UN summit, says Donald Trump

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Senior Iranian official indicates willingness to reopen strait of Hormuz if US takes steps to ease pressure on Tehran

Iranian officials held three hours of talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Donald Trump disclosed on Tuesday.

He said there would a further meeting in the very near future.

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Trump’s threat to annihilate Iran to UN general assembly is stunning, even for him

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US president may have upstaged the ghost of Soviet leader Khrushchev by musing destruction of fellow member state

Donald Trump has a habit of discomfiting delegates to the United Nations general assembly. But this year, he may have upstaged the ghost of Nikita Khrushchev by openly contemplating the annihilation of a fellow UN member state.

Eleven minutes into a 40-minute address, the US president announced he had “a big decision to make” over Iran, which has staged a much more determined resistance than Trump anticipated when he decided to go to war against the country in February.

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Davey says far right in Britain now better funded and supported than in the past – UK politics live

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Lib Dem leader tells party conference that ‘something big and dangerous is happening in our country’

If Andy Burnham wanted to inject some edge into his meeting with Donald Trump later (which he doesn’t), he could bring along a copy of today’s Financial Times. This front page headline speaks for itself.

Mortgages ‘on the front line’ as Iran war deals £840 blow to homeowners

British homeowners are paying an average of £840 a year more when they refinance their mortgages, as the rising borrowing costs triggered by the Iran war start to impact consumers’ spending power.

Approximately 1m households have rolled off fixed-rate mortgage deals since February, according to Bank of England data.

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‘The fault lines in our world are widening’, António Guterres warns as world leaders gather for UN General Assembly – live updates

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The UN secretary-general said the world must work together to solve problems in final major assembly address as secretary general

Tehran appears to have relaxed its preconditions for reopening the strait of Hormuz, saying it is prepared to do so within seven days so long as the US takes reciprocal steps to ease the pressure on Iran.

Previously Iran had set seven onerous pre-conditions for lifting the blockade including “an end to war on all fronts” and a commitment by the US to cease all aggressive actions against Iran including sanctions.

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UK to give support to Saudi jets in attempt to counter Houthi fighters

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Andy Burnham seeks stability in Middle East to bring down prices at home as first meeting with Trump looms

The UK has agreed to provide defensive air support to Saudi Arabia to help counter Houthi fighters and restore stability in the Middle East while driving down the cost of living at home, Andy Burnham has said, ahead of his first meeting with Donald Trump.

The prime minister said he had agreed to a request for air-to-air refuelling of Saudi jets to defend energy infrastructure against the Iran-backed rebels and help keep oil flowing from the Gulf to ease global economic turmoil.

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