Carole Lanteri, Monaco’s ambassador to the UN Geneva, next to a dashboard reading “No to violence against women and girls” ahead of the 16 Days of Activism Campaign against violence against women and girls, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, 27 November, 2023. (Keystone/Salvatore Di Nolfi)

UN Geneva, the quiet battleground in Washington’s anti-DEI crusade. An ideological battle is afoot to purge the United Nations from its progressive language and policies on gender, diversity and climate change. The United States is leading it, though with limited success.

🔮Weather forecasts. The World Meteorological Organization and the UK Met Office will publish Wednesday their latest predictions for global temperature levels over the next five years. The report will also look at rain patterns and predicted sea ice over the period. Predictions in last year’s report of an 80 per cent chance that the annual average global temperature would temporarily exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in at least one of the next five years was already smashed by the end of 2024.

⌛WHA: two days to go. The World Health Organization’s big annual meeting will wind down on Tuesday, with member states still due to weigh up a range of issues from the approval of 10-year global traditional medicine strategy – a topic being heavily promoted by China as reported by Le Temps this week – to adopting a new global action plan on climate change and health.

The ambitious plan has been met with strong support from regions including Europe but its approval could face resistance from some countries on Tuesday, with the WHO's East Mediterranean Office (EMRO) requesting it be postponed, arguing that it would be premature to proceed "due to absence of inclusive consultations" and because of the organisation's current financial problems. The plan has been estimated at around $160 million to carry out.

📌 27 May | Public discussion on Cern feasibility study for the Future Circular Collider FCC. After publishing a long-awaited report in March on the practicalities of building a particle-smashing machine triple the size of its existing Large Hadron Collider, Cern will open up discussions to the public at an evening event at the organisation’s Science Gateway building.

📌 27 May | 2025 heat action day: how cities can beat the heat. Ahead of Heat Action Day on 2 June, the Global Cities Hub and the Red Cross Climate Centre are organising an hour-long discussion on how to increase climate resilience in cities with speakers including Greece’s chief heat officer, Elissavet Bargianni.

For more events, visit the Genève Internationale website.