International Telecommunication Union headquarters in Geneva (ITU/I. Wood)

EU split in race against India to lead UN tech agency’s spectrum office. Two European candidates are running to lead the UN’s spectrum body, and neither will step aside. If they don't resolve their standoff before the November ITU plenipotentiary in Doha, they risk handing the post to India. Geneva Solutions reports ahead of a key meeting of the Radiocommunication Bureau this week.

Cars drive through an intersection near a monument in Yaoundé, Cameroon, 12 Sept, 2025. (Keystone/AP Photo/Welba Yamo Pascal)

🚢WTO members divided over crucial reform plans ahead of key ministerial meeting in Cameroon. A long-overdue overhaul of the WTO will be the focus of this week’s ministerial meeting in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé. But with a wide gulf remaining between member states over the scope of reforms, ministers risk going back to their capitals empty handed.

Read more about what to expect at the global trade body's MC14.

⚖️WEEK FIVE. With a week and a half still to go, the Human Rights Council is set to keep a packed agenda, including with reports and discussions focussing on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Haiti.

Security faceoff. Following last Thursday’s strike by Iran on the world’s biggest gas facility in Qatar, the council will be meeting tomorrow, at the request of Gulf states affected by Tehran’s ongoing strikes, to examine the human rights implications of what they describe as Iran’s “unprovoked attacks”. The strike on the Ras Lafaan facility came in retaliation to an Israeli hit on Iran’s South Pars gas field.

Resolutions. The council session’s final stretch, which will involve considering nearly 40 resolutions, will begin on Friday. These will include a resolution on Syria to extend the International Commission of Inquiry investigating abuses in the country, which is set to pass.

Discussions are expected to be somewhat less straightforward regarding a resolution led by Russia, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and a similar declaration on social, economic and cultural rights.

A western diplomatic source said that while it may be a “smart move” for Moscow to table the resolution, it was “not appropriate for a country in clear breach” of the covenants to do so.

— Paula Dupraz-Dobias