Good morning, this is Michelle. The release of thousands of Syrians swept up by Assad’s repressive regime and imprisoned in its secretive detention network laid bare a brutal yet common practice used by authoritarian states to quash dissent. The chair of the Committee of Enforced Disappearances talks to us about this persisting phenomenon and why it concerns all countries, including modern democracies.
Trump’s announcement that he would sever ties with the World Health Organization has everyone on edge in Geneva and urging him to reconsider. From Davos, Zelenskyy tells Europe to step up. |
Olivier de Frouville, chair of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and law professor at Université Paris II, in Geneva, 15 January 2025. (Geneva Solutions/Michelle Langrand)
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Bringing you the latest from UN press briefings in Geneva.
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🇺🇸📜 Expected but no less painful.
US President Donald Trump’s decision on his first day in office to leave the World Health Organization and the Paris agreement (again) have been dreaded by UN agencies and other countries for months, as we reported on Monday. But it made the news no less easy to absorb, as UN spokespeople told journalists in Geneva yesterday.
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What the WHO said.
Spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said it was still too soon to comment on the impact of the decision, noting that he had seen the order “this morning like everyone else”. The US is WHO’s largest single donor, accounting for 15 per cent of the agency’s budget in 2024.
"We hope that the United States will reconsider, and we really hope that there will be constructive dialogue for the benefit of everyone,” Jašarević said.
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Aid repercussions.
UN humanitarian affairs office spokesperson Jens Laerke highlighted the UN health agency’s “indispensable” role in reaching people in need. “WHO is in places where others cannot go,” he said, mentioning Gaza, Yemen, Afghanistan and Sudan.
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A chilling decision.
Clare Nullis from the World Meteorological Organization also weighed in on the incoming US administration’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 climate pact, describing climate change as the “defining challenge of our time”.
The rise in global temperatures is making weather “more extreme”, she said, accounting for a rise in weather-related disasters, such as the recent wildfires in California.
- By Kasmira Jefford
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Here's what else is happening
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↩️Germany to lobby Trump on WHO withdrawal, agency hopes for U-turn.
Berlin will try to persuade the US to reconsider, health minister Karl Lauterbach said on Tuesday.
Reuters (EN)
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🏔️As Davos 2025 reacts to Trump tack, EU chief leads charge on fight against climate change.
Trump’s executive orders and fiery speech have stirred debate atat the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. Here’s a look at some major themes.
Associated Press (EN)
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🛡️‘Europe must become a leader’, urges Zelenskyy at Davos.
Making his second appearance at the conference, the Ukrainian president called on Europe to guarantee its own security and develop a joint defence policy, evoking Russia’s deployment of North Korean troops to western Russia.
Le Temps (FR)
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❄️A third of the Arctic’s vast carbon sink now a source of emissions, study reveals.
More than 30 per cent of the region has become a source of carbon emissions, a study published by Nature Climate Change has found, as global heating ends thousands of years of carbon storage in parts of the frozen north.
The Guardian (EN)
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♀️Abortion in Europe: a right for some, a fight for millions of others.
Reproductive rights have increasingly been at the centre of political debates worldwide. As US president Trump takes office following a campaign where access to abortion was a central theme, Europe too finds itself at a crossroads between liberal policies and restrictive laws.
Swissinfo (EN)
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