WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at Cop28 in Dubai, 4 December 2023. (Samjith Palakkool/UNCTAD)

🥊WTO chief braces for fresh fight with Donald Trump. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the US Republican presidential candidate, who blocked the WTO boss’s appointment to the job in 2020, are ideological opposites, but they have one thing in common: they are both running for a second term.

🙏Jerry Pillay, the cross and the dove. The South African pastor has been secretary general of the World Council of Churches, a Geneva-based "UN of Christians" working for peace, for almost two years.

🐢Cop16 ends in disarray despite some biodiversity breakthroughs. Representatives of 196 countries who gathered until Saturday in Cali, Colombia, for the UN biodiversity summit failed to reach a consensus on major issues like nature funding.

🪖Iran’s help has transformed Yemen’s Houthi rebels into a potent military force, UN experts say. Support from Iran, Iraqi armed groups and others has helped the rebels grow from a local armed group with limited capabilities to a powerful military organisation, according to a report presented at the UN Security Council.

🇺🇸US election: is America drifting away from International Geneva? President Joe Biden’s actions have not always lived up to expectations of a recommitment to multilateralism. His administration has largely bypassed the UN on peace and security issues, as did former president Donald Trump.