Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner general, at a press conference in Berlin, 24 June 2025. (Keystone/EPA/Hannibal Hanschke)

🗣️‘Had I resigned, I would have handed them that victory on a plate,’ says former UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini. Since stepping down from his role as head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency earlier this year, the Swiss humanitarian has published a candid account of his tenure, denouncing disinformation campaigns and western hypocrisy over Gaza.

🦠The Ebola outbreak shows that the world is not ready for the next pandemic. As Ebola continues to spread in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the burning question at recent UN pandemic preparedness meetings at the UN General Assembly was: Is the world willing and able to pay for readiness?

🆘Israel ‘progressively asphyxiating’ Gaza, continues genocide: Doctors Without Borders. In a statement, the aid organisation said conditions for survival were being "systematically destroyed" through sustained violence, and called for governments to take action.

🗺️Mixed start for pre-Cop as just two non-Pacific leaders accept Australian invitation to climate summit. Fiji was chosen by Cop organisers Australia and Turkey as the location for the pre-summit meeting to bring global attention to the plight of countries most at risk from the climate crisis. But Australia’s government acknowledged on Monday that only 14 national leaders would make the trip to Tuvalu.