Hundreds gather in Geneva on 22 October to call for the release of hostages taken by Hamas during an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. (Keystone/Magali Girardin)

🪧Hundreds join Geneva rally calling for release of hostages held by Hamas. Relatives of the hostages attending the demonstration on Sunday called on the UN, the Red Cross and governments to help make sure their loved ones are returned safely.

🗞️Opinion: media coverage of Israel and Gaza is rife with deadly double standards. Palestinians portrayed by media as less than human makes their killing more acceptable, writes the humanitarian online media.

🌍Vast majority of WHO sexual misconduct complaints are in Africa region. That’s according to the UN health agency’s dashboard on investigations into sexual misconduct.

🔇Opinion: is the UN whitewashing Azerbaijan's ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh? A former UN official questions the world body’s recent mission to the enclave after 120,000 ethnic Armenians fled their homes, fearing reprisals from Azerbaijan.

🪖UN peacekeepers expedite pullout from northern Mali camp amid tense security context. The early withdrawal from Tessalit comes as the military junta pressures the UN stabilisation mission, Minusma, to leave by the end of the year.