Category Archives: António Guterres

UN chief joins condemnation of Ecuadorian raid on Mexican embassy

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António Guterres voices ‘alarm’ as Latin American governments sharply criticise Quito’s move to arrest former vice-president

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has added his voice to a torrent of criticism of Ecuador’s decision to storm the Mexican embassy in Quito in order to arrest the former vice-president Jorge Glas.

“The secretary general is alarmed at the forced entry of Ecuadorian security forces into the premises of the Mexican embassy,” Guterres said through his spokesperson on Sunday, adding that violations of the sanctity of diplomatic and consular property “jeopardise the pursuit of normal international relations”.

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Julie Bishop ‘deeply honoured’ to be appointed UN special envoy for Myanmar

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Former Australian foreign minister named as secretary general António Guterres’ special envoy to country gripped by civil war

The former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop has been appointed the United Nations secretary general António Guterres’ special envoy on Myanmar, the world body has said.

Bishop, the Australian National University’s chancellor, will take up the UN role that has been vacant since June last year, when Singaporean diplomat Noeleen Heyzer stepped down.

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UN names veteran EU official Astrid Schomaker as new biodiversity chief

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German’s appointment to head Convention on Biological Diversity follows global failure to meet any targets on protecting ecosystems

The next UN biodiversity chief will be Astrid Schomaker, an EU civil servant who will be entrusted with helping the world confront the ongoing catastrophic loss of nature.

Schomaker has been a career official with the EU commission for 30 years. A surprise appointment, she will be tasked with corralling governments to make good on their commitments to protect life on Earth – something they have not done in more than 30 years since the UN biodiversity convention was created.

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

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United Nations secretary general condemns explosion that injured UN observers in southern Lebanon

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António Guterres expresses ‘grave concern’ over ongoing clashes at border after a shell exploded near the observers

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has condemned an explosion that left three UN military observers and a Lebanese interpreter wounded when a shell exploded near them while they were patrolling the southern Lebanese border.

The blast came as clashes between the Israeli military and Hezbollah militants escalated in recent weeks.

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UN calls for humanitarian ceasefire amid urgent efforts to avoid Gaza famine

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António Guterres says Palestinian people ‘remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare’ as Israel stands accused of blocking aid

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, has again called for a humanitarian ceasefireduring a visit to Egypt’s border with Gaza amid urgent efforts to avert famine in the territory after more than five months of devastating war.

“Palestinians in Gaza – children, women, men – remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare,” Guterres said. “I carry the voices of the vast majority of the world who have seen enough.”

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Israeli diplomats pre-emptively attack findings of Unrwa inquiries

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UN refugee agency criticised by Israel, which claims Unrwa staff were implicated in 7 October Hamas attacks

Israeli diplomats have pre-emptively attacked the findings of two inquires into the role of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, in Gaza, on the day that one of the inquiries submitted its interim finding to the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres.

Unrwa has come under heavy criticism since Israel accused 12 of its Gaza staff of 13,000 of being implicated in the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel. The agency denies the charge and says no solid evidence has been presented to support it.

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UN warns Rafah attack would be ‘nail in coffin’ of Gaza aid as deliveries halve

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Amount reaching starving territory dropped 50% in February despite severe shortages of basic necessities

The amount of aid reaching Gaza fell by half in February from the month before, the UN has said, as its secretary general, António Guterres, said an Israeli assault on Rafah would be “the nail in the coffin” of deliveries to the starving territory.

“February registered a 50% reduction of humanitarian aid entering Gaza compared to January,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said in a statement on X. “Aid was supposed to increase not decrease to address the huge needs of 2 million Palestinians in desperate living conditions.”

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UNRWA staff accused by Israel sacked without evidence, chief admits

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Philippe Lazzarini says summary dismissal of nine employees was ‘reverse due process’ after Israel’s claims they aided Hamas attack

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said he followed “reverse due process” in sacking nine staff members accused by Israel of being involved in Hamas’s 7 October attacks.

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general, said he did not probe Israel’s claims against the employees before dismissing them and launching an investigation.

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UN chief urges donors to reconsider UNRWA funding withdrawal

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António Guterres says loss of funding from US and others means aid into Gaza for whole of this month cannot be guaranteed

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has appealed to the 10 donor countries that have withdrawn funding from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees to reconsider, saying the agency and Palestinians in desperate need should not be penalised due to the alleged acts of a dozen staff.

Guterres said nine UNRWA staff had already been dismissed for alleged involvement in Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October and any UN employee involved in acts of terror would be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.

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UN secretary general says Israel’s rejection of two-state solution is ‘unacceptable’

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António Guterres says denial of Palestinian state will embolden extremists at highly charged security council debate

Israel’s “clear and repeated rejection of the two-state solution” is unacceptable, and could only prolong the conflict in Gaza, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said, at the launch of a highly charged security council debate focusing on aid shipments to Gaza.

Gutteres told the meeting in New York on Monday that the denial of a Palestinian state will only embolden extremists everywhere and indefinitely extend the conflict.

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UN chief decries ‘unacceptable’ scale of Gaza deaths as 25,000 reported killed

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Territory’s health ministry says most casualties are women and children, and that thousands more may lie under rubble

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed 25,000 Palestinians, the health ministry in the territory has announced, as the UN chief described the scale of civilian killings as “heartbreaking and utterly unacceptable”.

Most of the casualties were women and children, the ministry said, and thousands more bodies were likely to remain uncounted under rubble across Gaza.

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Somalian rebels kill one and abduct five after UN helicopter’s emergency landing

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Al-Shabaab fighters attack after aircraft carrying medical professionals and soldiers lands in their territory

Al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia have attacked a United Nations helicopter that made an emergency landing in rebel-held territory, killing one passenger and abducting five others.

The minister of internal security of Galmudug state in central Somalia, Mohamed Abdi Aden Gaboobe, said the helicopter made the landing in Xindheere village on Wednesday after engine failure.

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Global economy faces period of prolonged weakness, UN warns

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Secretary general urges countries to increase investment to avoid falling behind on climate action and sustainable development

The world faces a protracted period of weak economic growth that will undermine progress on sustainable development, the UN has warned, as it urged countries to raise investment to tackle the climate emergency.

Its annual assessment of the state of the global economy presents a sombre outlook for growth as countries grapple with the impact of higher borrowing costs, geopolitical tensions and heightened risk of climate disasters.

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UN chief vows to go on seeking ceasefire in Gaza despite US veto

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António Guterres says UN has no clear route map to stop conflict and world institutions are ‘caught in a time warp’

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has vowed he will not give up seeking a ceasefire in Gaza after the US wielded its veto to block the move at the security council on Friday, leaving the UN without a clear route map to stop the conflict lasting many months.

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar, Guterres did not directly criticise the US in his address but said the security council was “paralysed by geostrategic divisions”. He added world institutions “are weak and outdated, caught in a time warp reflecting a reality of 80 years ago”.

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US defies appeals to back UN resolution for urgent Gaza ceasefire

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US vetoes resolution despite pleas from secretary general and Arab allies, saying ceasefire ‘would only plant the seeds of the next war’

The US has defied appeals from its Arab allies and the UN secretary general to back an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, telling the security council that to do so would merely plant the seeds of the next war.

The US vetoed a United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire late on Friday, despite a dramatic warning from António Guterres that civil order was breaking down and the risk of a mass exodus into Egypt growing, with as yet unclear consequences for the rest of the region. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1 with the UK abstaining.

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Gaza becoming ‘a graveyard for children’, says UN secretary general

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António Guterres calls for more aid trucks to enter besieged territory and calls for end to ‘dead end of destruction’

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that the Gaza Strip is becoming “a graveyard for children” as he called again for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to allow aid into the embattled territory.

The UN chief’s comments came on Monday after Gaza health authorities said the death toll had now exceeded 10,000 people and the heads of all the major UN humanitarian organisations made an unprecedented joint statement calling for a ceasefire.

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UN warns Gaza aid operation will soon stop if fuel not let in

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Crisis worsening by the hour, says UN agency, with Israel blocking supplies on grounds Hamas would use them

Relief efforts in Gaza will be forced to stop unless fuel supplies reach the besieged territory, the main UN agency working in the strip has warned.

Hospitals, bakeries and water pumps may also cease to function, compounding a humanitarian crisis that is worsening by the hour, the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) said. “We need to find a solution to the fuel – otherwise our aid operation will come to a stop.”

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Netanyahu says war cabinet ‘working around the clock’ – as it happened

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This blog is closed. Our latest live coverage is here.

A Palestinian American woman whose 6-year-old son was killed in a Chicago suburb in what police called a hate crime has asked the public to “pray for peace” as she recovers from her injuries, Associated Press reports.

Hanaan Shahin thanked authorities, doctors and others and remembered her son Wadea Al-Fayoume as an intelligent and funny child who cared about the planet and liked to join her in prayers.

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UN chief ‘shocked’ by ‘misrepresentation’ of comments in row with Israel

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António Guterres had said Hamas attacks had been in context of ‘years of suffocating occupation’ but denied ‘justifying acts of terror’

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, was locked in a bitter row with Israel on Wednesday, saying he was shocked that the Israeli government had misrepresented remarks he had made to the UN to suggest he had justified the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October.

Israel has called for his resignation, accusing him of a blood libel and announcing that it was withdrawing travel visas for UN officials, including the UN humanitarian coordinator, Martin Griffiths.

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UN’s António Guterres calls for immediate ceasefire to end ‘epic suffering’ in Gaza

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Secretary general’s comments spark fierce row and Israeli calls for resignation as 700 deaths are reported in a day and hospitals close for want of electricity

The United Nations’ secretary general has called for an immediate ceasefire to end “epic suffering” in the Gaza Strip after Israeli airstrikes reportedly killed more than 700 people in a single day and hospitals began to shut down for lack of fuel.

António Guterres said the bombardment and blockade of Gaza amounted to the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people” and violated international law, comments that sparked a fierce row with Israel.

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