"We are in deep and advanced negotiations with all relevant sides to ensure that an aid operation in Gaza starts as quickly as possible... a first delivery is due to start in the next day or so," the UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said, quoted by his spokesman Jens Laerke...

Geneva, Switzerland - The World Health Organization said on Saturday enough basic health supplies to serve 300,000 people in the Gaza Strip have been flown to an Egyptian airport near the Palestinian enclave. The supplies were ready to go in once humanitarian access could be established through the Rafah crossing from...

By late Wednesday, the number of displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 75,000 people from the figure given 24 hours earlier, reaching 338,934, it said. The announcement came as Israel pounded Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip -- a densely populated enclave of 2.3 million people --...

Human rights office spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell said at a press briefing that the Nobel award for Mohammadi "highlights the courage and determination of the women of Iran". Mohammadi's husband, Taghi Rahmani, said the prize was "an award for all the men and the women who fight for Woman, Life, Freedom"

Geneva, Switzerland - Global trade growth will be sharply lower than forecast this year as stubborn inflation, high interest rates and the war in Ukraine pressure economies around the globe, the World Trade Organization said on Thursday. Strains in China's vast property market also prompted the WTO to cut its trade...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The head of the World Health Organization told the Financial Times he was ready to send a new mission of experts to China to investigate the origins of Covid-19.   "We're pressing China to give full access, and we are asking countries to raise it during their bilateral...

Geneva, Switzerland - The de-globalization of international trade is far from being a reality, but "the first signs of fragmentation" are appearing, the WTO warned on Tuesday, concerned of the effects of the phenomenon on growth and development. The idea of "de-globalization" has gained traction since the war in Ukraine and...

Geneva, Switzerland - The World Food Program said Tuesday that shrinking funding was forcing it to drastically slash rations in many operations, warning that 24 million more people risked being pushed to the brink of starvation. The United Nations agency said it had been struggling to meet growing global needs for...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The Red Cross appealed on Tuesday for more than $100 million to provide desperately needed assistance in Morocco, days after a powerful earthquake killed nearly 2,900 people. "We are seeking 100 million Swiss francs (US$112 million) to be able to deliver on the most pressing needs at this...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - Internet privacy company Proton announced Wednesday a new VPN Observatory, tracking demand for its services to detect attacks on free speech in countries like Russia and Iran before they hit the headlines. Switzerland-based Proton said its new observatory would document spikes in sign-ups to its virtual private networks...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The extreme heat in the northern hemisphere is putting an increasing strain on healthcare systems, hitting those least able to cope the hardest, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. The WHO said the heat often worsens pre-existing conditions, saying it was particularly concerned about those with cardiovascular...

Geneva, Switzerland - Saudi Arabia played up its efforts to empower women and promote their participation in the country's economic development during the 53rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The event was organized by the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -  A panel of AI-enabled humanoid robots told a United Nations summit on Friday that they could eventually run the world better than humans. But the social robots said they felt humans should proceed with caution when embracing the rapidly-developing potential of artificial intelligence. And they admitted that they...

Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin were killed during Israel's 2014 invasion of the Gaza Strip, and their remains are in the hands of Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas -- although the militant group has never confirmed their deaths. Hamas are also thought to be holding two Israeli civilians who...

A Quran was burnt outside the Swedish capital's main mosque on Wednesday, triggering a diplomatic backlash across the Muslim world. Salwan Momika, 37, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, stomped on the Muslim holy book and set several pages alight as Muslims around the world began marking...

On current policy trends, the planet will be 2.8C warmer by the end of the century, according to the UN's IPCC climate science advisory panel.

Geneva, Switzerland - United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said the COVID-19 pandemic, Ukraine crisis and the climate crises are having a devastating effect on progress towards the SDGs. The UNCTAD released the fifth edition of its annual SDG Pulse, a global reference for tracking progress towards achieving...

Doha, Qatar-- Qatar and Argentina are looking to bolster ties and in this regard Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry (QC) and Argentina Chamber of Commerce have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance and diversify trade exchanges and economic cooperation between the two countries. This came on the...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND  -  The UAE has signed a cooperation agreement with the International Labor Organization (ILO) to collaborate in labor inspection and occupational health and safety. The agreement, signed by UAE's Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization (MoHRE) in the presence of its minister Dr. Abdulrahman Al Awar, aims to...

Geneva, UAE - The private sector has increased its contribution to the UAE GDP to more than 70 percent, making the country among the top 10 in 28 of the most important global competitiveness indicators, Member of the UAE Board of Directors of the Ajman Chamber of Commerce and Industry...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The world's nuclear powers, and China in particular, increased investment in their arsenals for a third consecutive year in 2022 amid swelling geopolitical tensions, two reports showed Monday. The world's nine nuclear-armed states jointly spent $82.9 billion on their arsenals last year, with the United States accounting for...

Dubai, UAE-- Qatar and Iran intend to expand cooperation in the fields of labor, employment, and exchange of skill-training experiences. The issue was discussed during a meeting between the Iranian minister of labor and his Qatari counterpart in Geneva, emphasizing the expansion of cooperation in the fields of labor, employment....

Geneva, Switzerland - Qatar's labor minister was on Monday appointed without a vote to head the International Labour Organization's annual decision-making conference, despite criticism from some unions amid concerns over labor conditions in Qatar. Asian and Pacific nations, which according to a regional rotation had dibs this year on selecting the...

Syria's opposition urged the resumption of moribund United Nations-sponsored talks with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who has returned to the Arab fold after years of isolation. "The international, regional and Syrian conditions provide an appropriate circumstance for the resumption of direct negotiations...," the Syrian Negotiation Commission said in...

Geneva, Switzerland - Soaring debt levels compounded by high inflation and rising interest rates have dashed job-seekers’ hopes in developing countries, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned on Wednesday. In its new Monitor on the World of Work report, ILO shows that while in high-income countries, only 8.2 percent of...

The World Health Organization launched a global network to help swiftly detect the threat from infectious diseases, like COVID-19, and share the information to prevent their spread. The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) will provide a platform for connecting countries and regions, improving systems for collecting and analyzing samples, the...

Geneva, Switzerland – The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) signed on Friday a $39 million multiyear contribution agreement with the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The grant will support the fight to end global pandemics and strengthen health and community systems. Announced during the Global Fund's 7th...

"Tech is at the top of the global agenda, but the benefits of digital technology are still out of reach for too many people," ITU chief Doreen Bogdan-Martin said in a statement. "If we are serious about digitalizing the world in a way that is meaningful and sustainable, we must...

Geneva, Switzerland - The 14th World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting of the New Champions is scheduled to take place between 27-29 June in Tianjin, China. The WEF meeting is happening when the global economy is going through the process of transformation. COVID-19 pandemic as well as fast-changing, macro-economic landscape...

DUBAI, UAE - The UAE presented its legislative ecosystem - which regulates the local labor market, provides social security and ensures decent social security to workers - the UN’s Human Rights Council (HRC). Several UAE federal, local government entities and civil society organizations were part of the delegation for the...

Israel told the UN it was justified in carrying out strikes on Gaza, even as its overall human rights record met resounding criticism from several countries. Following the pre-dawn strikes that killed 13 people, including several children, an Israel Defense Forces representative said the attacks adhered to the law of...

Heavy fighting in Sudan has displaced 700,000 people within the country since the middle of April, the United Nations said, adding the figure had doubled in a week. Sudan was thrown into chaos when fighting broke out on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo,...

Since the beginning, more than 765 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been reported to the WHO from around the world, including nearly seven million deaths. And Covid remains a threat. While the death rate from the disease has plunged in recent months, it still killed at least 16,000 people...

The United Nations said it was planning for an outflow of 860,000 people from conflict-torn Sudan, adding that $445 million would be needed to support them just through October. The UN refugee agency said in a statement that it had presented its appeal to donor countries earlier in the day.

The United Nations called for security guarantees at "the highest level" to ensure aid deliveries in Sudan, after trucks carrying food to the Darfur region were looted. The UN's top humanitarian official Martin Griffiths insisted on the need "we have the commitments publicly, clearly given by militaries, to protect humanitarian...

The fighting in Sudan has caused over 330,000 people to flee their homes within the country, with over 100,000 others escaping over the borders, the United Nations said. UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, is estimating that over 800,000 people could potentially flee to neighboring countries as the conflict continues in...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -  The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that fighters in conflict-ravaged Sudan had occupied the national public laboratory holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an "extremely, extremely dangerous" situation. Fighters "kicked out all the technicians from the lab... which is completely under the control of...

To meet the estimated energy demand from hydrogen and electric aircraft in 2050 would require the amount of energy produced from 10-25 of the world’s largest wind farms, or a solar farm half the size of Belgium, WEF says.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank Group (WBG) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Thursday launched an initiative to help developing economies meet their climate change mitigation and adaptation goals through trade. The initiative Action on Climate and Trade (ACT) . which starts with...

The global economic slowdown and swelling interest rates are pummeling debt-ridden developing countries, the UN warned, urging bold global action to ward off catastrophe. In a fresh report, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development cautioned that poorer countries were expected to suffer as higher interest rates eat away...

The World Trade Organization said 2023 global trade growth would be slightly better than feared, but would remain "subpar", weighed down by the Ukraine war and stubbornly high inflation. Presenting their annual trade forecast, WTO economists said they expected to see the volume of global merchandise trade slow to 1.7...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The Red Cross announced Tuesday that it would cut 1,500 jobs over the next 12 months in a drive to slash costs due to a funding crunch. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said an expected drop in humanitarian assistance budgets over the next two years...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The global transition to renewable energy will require greater investment in integrated weather and climate services, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said. This investment is critical to ensure that energy infrastructure is resilient to climate-related shocks and to harness the power of energy generated from sources such...

The UN rights chief called for Libyan authorities and the international community to step up accountability efforts in the conflict-ravaged country, as a probe into war crimes wrapped up. "Libyan authorities, armed groups, smugglers and human traffickers should not assume that the eyes of the international community have now left...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The WTO’s annual Public Forum 2023 will focus this year on how trade can contribute to a greener, more sustainable future. The Forum will examine in particular how the services sector, digitalization and inclusive trade policies can support global environmental goals and help combat the climate crisis....

Sheikh Thani Bin Abdullah Bin Thani Al-Thani of Qatar, who serves as a UNHCR advocate, has been the biggest contributor to the fund, providing more than $110 million to date, or more than half of total contributions.

Consultations to prolong Ukrainian grain exports deal are continuing, the UN said, after a Russian proposal for just a 60-day extension cast doubt over its fate. "The United Nations will do everything possible to preserve the integrity of the agreement and ensure its continuity," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United...

Russia has agreed to extend the Ukraine grain export deal following talks with the United Nations - but only for a further 60 days. Moscow said it wanted to see "tangible progress" on a parallel agreement on Russian exports before the deal comes up for renewal again.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The world failed to act quickly enough to rush life-saving aid to Syrians in desperate need following the devastating earthquake, United Nations investigators said Monday. The quake response was characterized by failures by the government, other factions in the civil war, the international community and the UN itself,...

Last week, Lagarde said that more interest rate hikes might be needed in the eurozone after the half percentage point hike it has already signaled will come later this month.