Representatives at a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, 29 September 2026. (Keystone/Xinhua/Rick Bajornas)

🗳️Representatives at a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, 29 September 2026. (Keystone/Xinhua/Rick Bajornas) With just three months remaining before António Guterres’ term ends, Costa Rican Rebeca Grynspan has again topped a fourth informal straw poll at the Security Council, ahead of Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, with Argentina’s Rafael Grossi slightly behind.

🇵🇸Why did the UNHCR chief meet with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s ex-leader? A year after over 1,200 Palestinians were killed at GHF food distribution sites, the meeting coincides with the UN refugee agency’s attempts to smooth relations with its biggest donor, the United States.

🤖AI driving up innovation investment: UN. Daren Tang, the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization, said the technology was fuelling global economic growth while transforming life science, robotics and clean energy.

🦠Africa: Cholera deaths soared in 2025, Africa having 90 per cent of cases – UN. The World Health Organisation says last year recorded the highest number of deaths reported worldwide since 1999.

🩺Swiss university medical centre joins WHO migrant health network. Unisanté, a Lausanne-based university centre for internal medical and public health, will participate in a study on the impact of public policies on migrant populations.

❝Gender wars and gendered wars. By denouncing feminism and LGBTQ+ rights as a civilisational threat, Putin has embedded his war in Ukraine in an ideological agenda, where aggressive masculinity is the driving force behind expansionism writes Elisabeth Prügl, honorary professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute.