Waste collectors look for reusable items in waste dumped at a landfill in New Delhi, India, 5 June 2025. The Indian government launched a nationwide campaign titled ‘One Nation, One Mission: End Plastic Pollution' ahead of World Environment Day. (Keystone/EPA/RAJAT GUPTA)

Ambition or compromise? Geneva plastics treaty talks test global resolve. Nations will meet in Geneva in early August to try to finalise a treaty to stem the global tide of plastic pollution. Will they hold the line on strict rules, or give ground on ambition to appease top plastic producers?

🇵🇸PALESTINE STATE TALKS. Later today and Tuesday, diplomats will meet at UN headquarters in New York to try to advance a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The gathering, which the Trump administration will skip and has asked other countries to boycott, comes as tensions rise between Washington and the global organisation. Meanwhile, Israel’s allies have expressed belated criticism of its operations in Gaza, where UN aid officials say life-sustaining supplies are running out.

On Sunday, Israel announced a daytime "humanitarian pause" before designating aid corridors, in response to the condemnation.

France weighs in. Late last week, President Emmanuel Macron said that France, which co-chairs this week’s meeting with Saudi Arabia, will officially recognise Palestine as a state in September at the UN General Assembly. To date, 147 of the UN’s 193 member states have formally recognised the state of Palestine.

Third time lucky? An earlier conference on Palestinian statehood scheduled in June had been postponed following Israel's air raid on Iran, while separate talks in March over the application of the Geneva Conventions to the occupied Palestinian territories were also cancelled at the last minute.

🗳️MPs HUDDLE. Representatives from the US will also be absent at a world conference of parliamentarians in Geneva this week. Over 110 countries will however send congressional delegations to the gathering dubbed “A world in turmoil: Parliamentary cooperation and multilateralism for peace, justice and prosperity for all.”

Russia, which is sending one of the larger delegations to the conference, will be sitting alongside representatives from Ukraine’s legislature, while Israeli and Palestinian MPs will also be present.

Before discussions over issues such as cooperation on SDGs, climate change leadership and digital governance begin tomorrow, women speakers of parliament will meet today amid the slowest rate of gains for female representation in parliaments since 2017.

– By Paula Dupraz-Dobias