Category Archives: United Nations

Russian drone attacks on civilians in Ukraine are war crimes, UN report concludes

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Rights commission inquiry focused on south-east of country found drones targeted gathering points and critical infrastructure

A UN rights commission has concluded that Russia’s drone attacks on civilians in south-eastern Ukraine constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In a report published this week, the commission said Russian forces, operating under a centralised command, had systematically used drones to “intentionally target civilians and civilian objects and cause harm and destruction”.

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World’s climate plans fall drastically short of action needed, analysis shows

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Recent plans submitted to UN by more than 60 countries would cut carbon by only 10%, a sixth of what is needed

Recently drafted climate plans from scores of countries fall drastically short of what is needed to stave off the worst effects of climate breakdown, analysis has shown.

More than 60 countries have so far submitted national plans on greenhouse gas emissions to the UN, setting out how they will curb carbon for the next decade.

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UK military equipment used by militia accused of genocide found in Sudan, UN told

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Exclusive: two dossiers of material seen by the security council raise questions over export of British arms to the UAE, which has been accused of supplying weapons to paramilitary RSF group

British military equipment has been found on battlefields in Sudan, used by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group accused of genocide, according to documents seen by the UN security council.

UK-manufactured small-arms target systems and British-made engines for armoured personnel carriers have been recovered from combat sites in a conflict that has now caused the world’s biggest humanitarian catastrophe.

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Turkey likely to be excluded from Gaza stabilisation force after Israeli objection

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Doubts over whether Ankara will be part of 5,000-strong force to be deployed to prevent postwar power vacuum

Turkey will probably be excluded from the 5,000-strong stabilisation force that is to be set up inside Gaza after Israel made clear it did not want Turkish troops taking part.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said it was a requirement that Israel is comfortable with the nationality of the multinational force, set up to prevent a security vacuum when the massive task of reconstruction in Gaza starts. Turkey has said it is willing to offer troops, but Israel has let it be known that it disapproves of Turkish troops taking part in the force.

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UK’s biggest weapons firm BAE grounds ‘lifeline’ aircraft delivering food aid

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Exclusive: In the year they announced record profits, Britain’s arms maker has revoked licence to fly for planes taking supplies of food to starving people in South Sudan, Somalia and DRC

Britain’s biggest weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, has quietly scrapped support for a fleet of aircraft providing “life-saving” humanitarian aid to some of the world’s poorest countries.

The decision further reduces the distribution of vital aid to countries facing serious humanitarian crises, including South Sudan, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

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ICJ orders Israel to allow aid into Gaza and says restrictions breached international obligations

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UN’s top court also finds Israel failed to justify blocking Unrwa and other relief agencies

Israel must allow aid into Gaza, and its restrictions on doing so over the past two years have put it in breach of its obligations, the UN’s top court has found.

The stinging advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in The Hague also found that Israel had a duty not to impede the supply of aid by UN organisations including the beleaguered UN Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, which has been in effect banned from the territory since January.

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Thailand to let Myanmar refugees work to counter aid cuts and labour shortages

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The move, welcomed by UN, will allow thousands of people living in camps to support themselves and their families

Thailand is setting a global precedent this month by giving refugees permission to work in the country in an effort to tackle aid cuts and its own labour shortages.

More than 87,000 refugees living in nine refugee camps along Thailand’s border with Myanmar have been totally reliant on handouts of food and foreign aid.

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Houthi rebels detain 20 UN staff in Yemen

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Five Yemenis and 15 foreign workers held as Iran-backed group steps up its campaign against international agencies

Houthi rebels have detained 20 employees at a UN facility in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen.

They are holding five Yemenis and 15 international workers but released another 11 after questioning them on Sunday. It was the second raid on a UN building in Sana’a in 24 hours.

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Egypt expected to lead global stabilisation force in Gaza, say diplomats

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Decommissioning Hamas weapons seen as major stumbling block, with British diplomats advising on process

A European and US-backed UN security council motion to give a planned international stabilisation force robust powers to control security inside Gaza is being prepared, with the strong expectation that Egypt will lead it, diplomats have said.

The US is pressing for the force to have a UN mandate without being a fully fledged UN peacekeeping force and will operate with the kind of powers given to international troops operating in Haiti to combat armed gangs.

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Agencies prepare to bring aid to starving people in Gaza as ceasefire appears to hold

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Unicef says ‘humanitarian crisis continues’ and expects to scale up aid deliveries on Sunday

Aid agencies are preparing to bring large amounts of vital aid to starving people in Gaza this weekend, as a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas appeared to be holding.

“We have received signals that tomorrow will be the day that the scale-up [in aid deliveries] begins in earnest under the ceasefire,” said Tess Ingram, a spokesperson for the UN agency for children, Unicef.

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Militia strikes kill at least 60 in Sudan displacement camp, says El Fasher group

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Drone and artillery strikes by RSF paramilitary group hit Dar al-Arqam shelter in western city, says resistance committee

Militia drone and artillery strikes have killed at least 60 people at a displacement shelter in the besieged city of El Fasher in western Sudan, a local activist group has said.

The Resistance Committee for El Fasher said the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group hit the Dar al-Arqam displacement centre, which is in the grounds of a university.

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Europe needs to ‘get serious’ about threat posed to it by Russia, Ukraine minister says

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Sergiy Kyslytsya says Kremlin already at war with Europe and predicts that Vladimir Putin will ‘escalate escalating’

Europe needs to “get serious” about the existential threat posed to it by Russia, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister has said, warning that Vladimir Putin will “escalate escalating”.

In an interview with the Guardian, Sergiy Kyslytsya – Kyiv’s former ambassador to the UN – said the Kremlin was already at war with Europe. He said Russia’s recent drone incursions against several EU countries were well-calculated and an attempt to “move the red lines”.

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Iran may release hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees into Iraq and Turkey

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Tehran considers move as part of multi-pronged offensive after bombing of nuclear sites and restoration of sanctions

Iran is considering releasing hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees across its western borders with Iraq and Turkey. It would be part of what officials describe as a necessarily more offensive and unpredictable strategy in the wake of the bombing of its nuclear sites and the European reimposition of UN sanctions.

The multi-pronged offensive includes expansion of its missile programme, strengthening air defences, suspending cooperation with the UN weapons inspectorate and on 18 October blocking the establishment of a UN committee to oversee the administration of the reimposed sanctions. Officials remain opposed to reopening talks with the US, believing the talks would fail.

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UN security council approves new military force to fight Haiti gangs

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Unit will have up to 5,500 soldiers and police officers who will tackle the violence that has overwhelmed the country

The United Nations has adopted a resolution to transform a security mission in gang-dominated Haiti into a larger, fully fledged force with military troops.

The new unit can now have a maximum of 5,500 uniformed personnel, including police officers and soldiers, unlike the current mission, which is just law enforcement. The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, said the vote by 12 security council members to “transform the multinational security support (MSS) mission to the new gang suppression force, a mission five times the size of its predecessor” showed the “international community was sharing the burden”.

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Mass slaughter in Gaza stands apart from other genocides, Chris Sidoti says: ‘People cannot escape’

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Australian human rights expert who was on UN commission of inquiry labels Israel’s strategy a failure that ‘has not brought peace and has not destroyed Hamas’

“The people of Gaza have absolutely no way to escape the killing: they are literally a captive population.”

Chris Sidoti knows the brutality of conflict too well, his experience investigating international crimes is devastatingly comprehensive. But he sees a categoric difference in the violence in Gaza.

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Iran angry as sweeping UN sanctions take effect after failure of nuclear talks

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Foreign ministry attacks ‘unjustifiable’ return of measures expected to have wide effects on troubled economy

Widespread UN sanctions against Iran have come back into force for the first time in a decade, prompting anger from Tehran, after last-ditch nuclear talks with western powers failed to produce a breakthrough.

The sanctions, which came into effect late on Saturday and three months after Israel and the US bombed Iran, bar dealings related to Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programme and are also expected to have wider effects on the country’s troubled economy.

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World must deny Israel ‘tools of genocide’, says growing alliance of activist states

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New York meeting of Hague Group warns of shared responsibility to prevent genocide and proposes steps to isolate Israel

The international community has a legal and moral duty to deny Israel “the tools of genocide”, the Malaysian foreign minister, Mohamad Hasan, said at a meeting in New York of the Hague Group, the growing alliance of countries dedicated to coordinating practical economic and legal steps to isolate Israel over the war in Gaza.

The group, co-chaired by South Africa and Columbia, has become a central exchange for practical steps to try to pressure Israel, including stepping up collective action at ports and airports to prevent the transfer of weapons and goods to Israel, including dual-use heavy machinery.

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Israeli loudspeakers broadcast Netanyahu’s speech to UN into Gaza

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Operation prompts outrage as Israeli PM criticises western countries for recognising Palestine as a state and pledges to continue war

Israeli military loudspeaker systems have broadcast Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the UN into Gaza in an unprecedented operation that immediately prompted controversy and outrage.

In a statement on Friday, an Israeli government spokesperson said: “As part of the public diplomacy effort, the prime minister’s office has directed civilian elements, in cooperation with the [Israel Defense Forces], to place loudspeakers on the backs of trucks on the Israeli side of the Gaza border so that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s historic UN general assembly speech will be heard in the Gaza Strip.”

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Benjamin Netanyahu set for defiant UN speech as Trump warns on annexation of West Bank – Middle East crisis live

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Israeli PM expected to share a defiant message at the UN general assembly on Friday against a Palestinian state

Israel’s air force carried out airstrikes on Friday on eastern Lebanon, the Lebanese state-run news agency reported without giving any word on casualties. The Israeli military said it struck a site used for manufacturing precision missiles, reports the Associated Press (AP).

The airstrikes took place near the Lebanese village of Saraain in the Bekaa valley region, according to the National News Agency. They are the latest strikes since the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war ended with a US-brokered ceasefire in November.

The Israeli military said the site constituted a violation of the understanding between Israel and Lebanon. It added that the military will continue to operate to remove any threat posed to Israel.

Since the ceasefire went into effect, Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, alleging that Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its capabilities.

The White House is backing a plan that would see Tony Blair head a temporary administration of the Gaza Strip – initially without the direct involvement of the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to Israeli media reports.

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‘History will remember who showed up’: Keir Starmer faces call to attend Cop30 summit

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Response from leaders and key climate figures comes after PM’s aides advised non-attendance over concerns Reform may attack him

Leading climate figures and Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to attend the crucial Cop30 climate summit this November, after aides advised him not to attend for fear of attracting the ire of the Reform party.

Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, said: “Cop30 is where leaders are expected to come and roll up their sleeves, make deals to help their nation’s economy transition faster, creating more jobs, and guide the world on what next steps we take together.”

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