Israeli soldiers gather next to a military post on the border with Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, 18 March 2025. (Keystone/AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

😶‍🌫Switzerland accused of ‘lacking boldness and ambition’ over Gaza meeting flop. Bern recently cancelled a conference on protecting civilians in the Palestinian areas at the last minute. The draft text, seen by Le Temps, reveals how Israeli concerns were prioritised over those of Palestinians.

🎙️Beatrice Ferrari: ‘Let's not give up on international Geneva, let's fight’. Geneva’s director of international affairs calls for a rethink of the functioning and effectiveness of its “unique ecosystem”, which she says will likely shrink in size but will not disappear.

💉Measles vaccination, disease surveillance and labs hit hardest by US budget cuts. Cuts to global immunisation budgets risk causing further backsliding just when countries are recovering from the impact of the Covid pandemic, an advisory group to the World Health Organization warned.

🗳️WHO releases candidates for its top job in Africa; none are women, again. After the unexpected death of Tanzanian politician Faustine Ndugulile months before he was meant to take up the regional office role, the WHO has put out a new call for candidates. But it’s once again an all-male line-up.

🇷🇺UN Commission says Russia's enforced disappearances of Ukrainians amount to crimes against humanity. The report, presented to the Human Rights Council on Wednesday and dismissed by Moscow as “one-sided”, stated that many civilians were detained in Russia-controlled areas or deported to Russia.

🕊️Where are women in peace talks? In Ukraine and the Middle East, men say they are negotiating peace. But are they? In this podcast episode, four women engaged in peacebuilding share their views on how women’s voices can be heard in peace talks.