Category Archives: United Nations

Colombia gives assurances over UN biodiversity summit after rebels’ threat

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Organisers working to ensure safe environment for attenders in October after guerrillas’ warning of disruption

Colombian authorities have insisted it will be safe to attend a UN biodiversity summit in Cali later this year, after a dissident rebel group threatened to disrupt the event.

This week Central General Staff (EMC), a guerrilla faction that rejected the country’s 2016 peace agreement, said the UN nature summit Cop16 would “fail”, in a post on X addressed to the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features.

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Clearing Gaza of almost 40m tonnes of war rubble will take years, says UN

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Assessment puts cost at $500m-$600m and underlines immense challenge of rebuilding after months of Israeli offensive

A fleet of more than one hundred lorries would take 15 years to clear Gaza of almost 40m tonnes of rubble in an operation costing between $500m (£394m) and $600m, a UN assessment has found.

The conclusions will underline the immense challenge of rebuilding the Palestinian territory after months of a grinding Israeli offensive that has led to massive destruction of homes and infrastructure.

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Fresh scrutiny of free speech in Saudi Arabia after brothers’ convictions over tweets

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Crown prince criticised ‘bad laws’ for Mohammed al-Ghamdi’s death sentence months before second conviction

Fresh questions have been raised about the suppression of free speech in Saudi Arabia after the brother of a man facing the death penalty for tweeting to 10 followers was handed a 20-year sentence for largely innocuous tweets.

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had said Mohammed al-Ghamdi was a victim of “bad laws” after being sentenced to death, yet the crown prince permitted the same laws to be used to sentence Ghamdi’s younger brother, Asaad al-Ghamdi.

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Documents reveal why Australia voted yes in key UN motion on Palestinian membership

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Exclusive: Internal advice shows Australia never seriously considered voting against resolution to boost status of Palestinian mission, despite positions of US and Israel

It’s an issue that has sparked domestic and international debate and helped fuel the defection of Fatima Payman from the Labor party.

Now, newly obtained internal documents shed light on the Australian government’s conditions for recognising the state of Palestine – and the factors it weighed up before voting “yes” in a highly anticipated UN vote on 10 May.

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Sudan’s warring factions using starvation as weapon, experts say

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Special rapporteurs working for UN warn famine is imminent and over 25 million people need urgent help

Human rights experts working for the United Nations have accused Sudan’s warring parties of using starvation as a war weapon, amid mounting warnings of imminent famine in the African country.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the country’s military and a notorious paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

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Stonehenge likely to be put on world heritage danger list over tunnel plan

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Unesco officials recommend adding Wiltshire stone circle amid fears road scheme would compromise its integrity

Stonehenge is likely to be put on a list of world heritage sites that are in danger because of the plan to build a tunnel under the precious landscape.

Unesco officials have recommended adding the Wiltshire stone circle and the area around it to the list because of concerns that the tunnel would “compromise the integrity” of one of the Earth’s great prehistoric sites.

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Protecting just 1.2% of Earth’s land could save most-threatened species, says study

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Study identifies 16,825 sites around the world where prioritising conservation would prevent extinction of thousands of unique species

Protecting just 1.2% of the Earth’s surface for nature would be enough to prevent the extinction of the world’s most threatened species, according to a new study.

Analysis published in the journal Frontiers in Science has found that the targeted expansion of protected areas on land would be enough to prevent the loss of thousands of the mammals, birds, amphibians and plants that are closest to disappearing.

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Shutting Afghan women out of key UN conference to appease Taliban ‘a betrayal’

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Group allegedly demanding Afghan participation in Doha meeting this month be limited to men and that women’s rights be excluded from the agenda

Excluding Afghan women from an upcoming UN conference on Afghanistan would be a “betrayal” of women and girls in the country, say human rights groups and former politicians.

The Taliban are reportedly demanding that no Afghan women be allowed to participate in the UN meeting in Doha starting 30 June, set up to discuss the international community’s approach to Afghanistan, and that women’s rights are not on the agenda.

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US envoy visits Israel for talks aimed at averting deeper conflict with Hezbollah

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Negotiator Amos Hochstein dispatched by Washington amid anxiety that deepening conflict could trigger war

A senior envoy from the Biden administration has met Benjamin Netanyahu for talks aimed at averting a deepening conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, after Israel warned over the weekend that it was on the brink of a “wider escalation”.

Amos Hochstein has spent months in largely behind-the-scenes diplomacy in an attempt to quieten tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. Since the war in Gaza began in October, there have been worsening daily exchanges of fire, and tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced on both sides of the “Blue Line” between Israel and Lebanon.

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‘We need the world to wake up’: Sudan facing world’s deadliest famine in 40 years

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Millions face disaster as Sudanese army and RSF accused of using food access as a weapon in on-going war

Sudan is facing a famine that could become worse than any the world has seen since Ethiopia 40 years ago, US officials have warned, as aid deliveries continue to be blocked by the warring armies but arms supplies to both sides continue to flow in.

With much of the world’s attention focused on Gaza, the scene of another human-made famine, Sudan is already the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and is slipping towards a humanitarian disaster of historic proportions, with far less media coverage and global concern. A UN humanitarian appeal for the country has received only 16% of the funds it needs.

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Unrwa accuses Israel of frequently preventing aid deliveries to Gaza

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UN relief agency says authorities are hampering operations by failing to grant requests for access permits

The UN’s relief agency for Palestinians, the largest aid organisation operating in Gaza, has said Israeli authorities are frequently preventing it from delivering aid and hampering its operations in the territory.

“We are getting very few positive responses to our requests for aid delivery and permits to move around Gaza,” said Tamara Alrifai, the director of external relations for Unrwa.

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Conflicts drive number of forcibly displaced people to record high

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Sharp rise, equivalent to population of London, means nearly 120 million have been driven from their homes

The number of people forced out of their homes around the world last year was the equivalent of the population of London, according to the UN’s refugee agency.

The latest annual assessment from the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) said a sharp rise in the number of people forcibly displaced during 2023 had brought the total to a record high of more than 117 million. Conflicts were largely to blame with many, such as those in Ukraine and Sudan, showing little sign of ending.

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Israel and Hamas have both committed war crimes since 7 October, says UN body

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Parallel reports describe serious crimes during Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza

A UN investigation has accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on and since 7 October, the date of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.

The allegations were contained in two parallel reports prepared by a commission of inquiry formed in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories, chaired by the former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.

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‘Unprecedented scale’ of violations against children in Gaza, West Bank and Israel, UN report says

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More ‘grave violations’ committed in occupied territories and Israel than anywhere else in world, report says

More grave violations against children were committed in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel than anywhere else in the world last year, according to a UN report due to be published this week.

The report on children and armed conflict, which has been seen by the Guardian, verified more cases of war crimes against children in the occupied territories and Israel than anywhere else, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, Nigeria and Sudan.

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US ‘evaluating’ Hamas response to Gaza ceasefire proposal

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Hamas was reportedly seeking some amendments to the proposal, as Antony Blinken puts pressure on both sides to accept the deal

The US has said it is “evaluating” Hamas’ formal response to its Gaza ceasefire proposal, as the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, attempts to channel global support for a UN security council resolution backing the proposal into pressure on the Palestinian militant group and Israel.

Late on Tuesday, a Hamas official said they had submitted a response to Egyptian and Qatari mediators, seeking some “amendments”, and that their priority was to bring a “complete stop” to the war. A separate Hamas spokesperson, Jihad Taha, said the response included “amendments that confirm the ceasefire, withdrawal, reconstruction and [prisoner] exchange”.

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UN security council endorses US-backed hostages-for-ceasefire Gaza deal

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Only Russia abstains in vote on plan calling for hostage and prisoner swap in six-week ceasefire leading to wider deal

The UN security council has adopted a resolution calling for Hamas to agree to a three-phase hostage-for-ceasefire proposal outlined by Joe Biden, the first time the body has endorsed a comprehensive peace deal to end the Gaza war.

A Hamas statement said the group welcomed the resolution, though it was not immediately clear if that meant the leadership in Gaza accepted the ceasefire plan.

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US to ask UN security council to back Joe Biden’s Gaza peace deal

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Antony Blinken also visiting Middle East this week in push to nail down support for deal to end hostilities

The US is to try to shore up support for its proposed Gaza ceasefire deal by asking the 15-strong UN security council in New York to back a resolution supporting the deal.

Washington is struggling to gain the unequivocal backing of Israel or Hamas for a three-stage deal proposed by the US president, Joe Biden, that would lead to the release of all the remaining hostages in return for Israel accepting steps towards a permanent ceasefire and the eventual withdrawal of its forces from Gaza – two key Hamas demands.

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Yemen’s Houthis detain 11 UN employees in unclear circumstances

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Aid group workers also taken as UN says it is trying to secure access to its personnel and clarify the situation around the detentions

Yemen’s Houthis have detained 11 Yemeni employees of UN agencies under unclear circumstances, authorities say, as the militia group faces increasing financial pressure and airstrikes from a US-led coalition.

UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said 11 UN staffers had been taken.

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Guterres warns humanity on ‘knife’s edge’ as AI raises nuclear war threat

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UN secretary general makes plea for nuclear states to agree on mutual pledge not to be first to use nuclear weapons

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that the spread of artificial intelligence technology multiplies the threat of nuclear war, and that humanity is now “on a knife’s edge” as dangers to its existence coalesce.

Guterres’s warning is due to be shown on a recorded video to be played on Friday morning at the annual meeting of the US Arms Control Association (ACA) in Washington.

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Dozens killed in Israeli strike on UN school, witnesses say

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Israel says it targeted Hamas fighters in strike on school where hospital officials say displaced Palestinians were sheltering

Israel bombed a UN school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in central Gaza in the early hours of Thursday morning, killing at least 33 people including 23 women and children, according to hospital records and an eyewitness.

The Israeli military said it targeted “20 or 30” Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters who had taken part in the 7 October attack and were now using the school as an operations centre. The military spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner said he was not aware of any civilian casualties.

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