Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization director general, delivers his statement at the opening of the World Health Assembly at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, 19 May 2025. (Keystone/Magali Girardin)

🦠Developed countries propose ‘hybrid’ model ahead of pandemic agreement talks. The proposals, presented just weeks ahead of the World Health Assembly, include a mix of mandatory and voluntary measures to share pathogens needed to develop vaccines and any benefits that result from that information.

🚚Freight giants meet in Geneva to weigh up alternative routes to Hormuz. At a meeting taking place today, government delegations and freight companies, at the invitation of UNECE, will look to coordinate ways to bypass the closed Strait as alternative routes through the Saudi desert face unprecedented demand.

☢️Nuclear treaty review opens amid war, testing threats, failed consensus. After repeated failures, nations gathered at the United Nations’ headquarters in New York this week will try again to agree on disarmament, nonproliferation and peaceful nuclear energy.

🗣Opinion: Do Afghan lives matter? In Afghanistan, women and girls in particular are paying the price for failed policies. The Afghan Fund in Geneva should finally act to recapitalise the Central Bank, writes long-time humanitarian and human rights practitioner Norah Niland.

🇲🇱Mali in turmoil after insurgents seize towns and kill defence minister. The weekend attack has sown chaos across the west African state, with UN chief António Guterres expressing deep concern over the violence and emphasising the vulnerability of an estimated 5 million people in need of humanitarian aid.