What Trump’s second term means for climate action
15/1/2025: The new US president is expected to exit the Paris Agreement, slash climate finance and wage war on science. Trump’s team is also reportedly mulling a more audacious attempt to pull the US out of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the instrument underpinning global climate action.
Source: Climate Home News
Security Council reform: when and how it can be done
14/1/2025: At the Summit of the Future in September 2024, world leaders made a commitment to consider reforming the Security Council. Five key issues will be explored in negotiations: the size of an enlarged Security Council, membership categories, regional representation, veto-related questions and the relationship between the Security Council and the General Assembly.
Source: PassBlue
Journalist jailings near record high in 2024
16/1/2025: A total of 361 journalists were behind bars towards the end of 2024, the second-highest number on record, according to a new report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists. China, Israel, and Myanmar were the leading jailers of reporters, followed by Belarus and Russia.
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists
Laureates call for moonshot innovation to avert hunger catastrophe
14/1/2025: More than 150 Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates are calling for urgent agricultural research to meet the food needs of nearly 10 billion people by mid-century. They say that neglected indigenous crops, rich in nutrition and resilient to climate change, are key to research focused on tackling global hunger.
Source: Inter Press Service
We ignore Sudan at our peril
13/1/2025: Almost two years since the calamitous falling out between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, Sudan is facing anarchy, famine, genocide – and ambivalence from the rest of the world. The UAE is the single biggest player in the war, providing the RSF with powerful weapons and drones.
Source: The Guardian
The next US administration can end HIV worldwide
9/1/2025: The first Donald Trump administration committed to end the HIV epidemic in the US by 2030. If his next administration extended this to a global goal, the legacy could rank among the most important American public health achievements. Despite significant progress, HIV/AIDS claimed over 630,000 lives and there were 1.3 million new infections in 2023 alone.
Source: Devex
William Ruto calls for action on Africa’s debt burden
2/1/2025: The President of Kenya is concerned that 19 of Africa’s 35 low-income countries are in debt distress, obliged to pay interest rates of between 5% and 16% on loans and 10-year government bonds. He calls for a review of current credit ratings whilst welcoming the recent $100 billion replenishment of the World Bank's International Development Association.
Source: Devex
Rights investigators in Syria call for protection of evidence
20/12/2024: A team from the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria has called on caretaker authorities to take immediate measures to protect mass grave sites and preserve critical evidence. The Commission was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011 to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law in Syria.
Source: UN News
No agreement on global droughts at desertification COP
19/12/2024: COP16 of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, held in Saudi Arabia, has concluded with no agreement on the major global issue of drought. This outcome echoed similar difficulties with multilateral megotiations at recent UN conferences on biodiversity and climate change.
Source: Passblue
Legal noose tightens on Myanmar junta
19/12/2024: Following numerous atrocities including alleged genocide against the Rohingya minority, the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor has lodged an application for an arrest warrant for Myanmar’s military junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing. But the practical impact of the potential arrest warrant remains to be seen.
Source: East Asia Forum