Bruce Turner, United States ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament. (United States Mission Geneva)

📝 Bruce Turner, US ambassador: ‘The Conference on Disarmament is essential, but must be revitalised’. The forum resumed its work on Monday against a tense international backdrop. This semi-UN body, made up of 65 states, has not produced anything substantial since 1996. But the United States ambassador to the conference believes it nevertheless remains essential.

⚕️ WHO executive board to debate new strategy, funding solutions and looming disease threats. The week long meeting kicked off on Monday with a warning by director general Dr Tedros Adhanom that he was “gravely concerned” that member states would fail to adopt a global pandemic accord by the May 2024 deadline.

🇨🇳 China lobbies countries to praise its rights record ahead of UN review. According to four diplomats, China’s mission has sent memos to envoys, asking their countries for support as its record comes under scrutiny by the Human Rights Council today.

🏭 Emission impossible and the trade conundrum of calculating carbon. As the world struggles to multilaterally negotiate its way to an international carbon price, the EU’s measurement method for its carbon border tax is likely to become an international standard.

🖼️ A virtual museum to discover the victims of the Afghan wars. The NGO, Afghan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, located on Rue de Varembé, has developed a computer programme to list hundreds of missing people and learn their stories.