Gilbert Houngbo, ILO director general, at the international Labour Conference in Geneva, 13 June 2024. (Keystone/Martial Trezzini)

⚙️ILO chief ready to face up to necessary reforms. Gilbert Houngbo opened the labour conference with a sobering call for more efficiency and firmness at the UN agency as it grapples with a bleak financial outlook, largely triggered by the US withholding contributions for 2024 and 2025.

👷‍♀️Trump takes ‘wrecking ball’ to workers’ rights amid global ‘freefall’, new report says. Conditions for workers have deteriorated worldwide, according to the International Trade Union Confederation, which highlights recent efforts to revoke union protections in the US.

⛑️Israeli forces kill three starving Palestinians in southern Gaza, raising death toll of aid seekers to 75. The contested aid delivery system set up to circumvent traditional humanitarian channels and guarded by American security firms has gotten off to a fatal start, with Israeli forces accused of opening fire on hungry crowds gathered at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's food distribution points.

⚖️ICYMI – ‘A family enterprise’: WEF founder Klaus Schwab on alleged wrongdoing at Davos. The former leader of the World Economic Forum, ousted amid allegations of financial mismanagement and misconduct, has filed a criminal complaint against the whistleblowers who exposed his actions.

🇨🇳China rejects Trump's accusation that it breached Geneva trade deal. The US president claimed on Friday that China had violated the deal reached last month to roll back tariffs and announced plans to double import duties on steel and aluminium to 50 per cent.