Outgoing high commissioner Filippo Grandi, pictured at the UNHCR's 76th annual Executive Committee on 6 October, welcomed the support. (Keystone/Salvatore Di Nolfi)

💰Donors pledge $1.16 billion to Geneva-based UNHCR. The UN refugee agency rallied nearly $1.5bn in promised support for 2026, including contributions from its national partner associations, exceeding last year’s pledges, according to refugee high commissioner Filippo Grandi. This secures nearly a fifth of the budget of the embattled agency, which had to lay off 5,000 staff this year and cut back on its future operations.

🎤Eurovision faces major test as countries weigh Israel's participation. Members of the European Broadcasting Union are set to decide tomorrow whether Israel can compete in the song contest next year amid threats from public broadcasters from Slovenia, Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands to boycott the event if Israel isn't excluded over the mounting death toll in Gaza.

🦾AI 'capability' among countries could deepen the rich-poor divide. A new report by the UN Development Programme challenges the notion that artificial intelligence will help level the playing field for developing countries, as fast movers sprint ahead and others lacking the necessary infrastructure, skills and governance lag behind.

🧬Africa is stuck between global pathogen-sharing talks and conflicting US bilateral agreements. As another round of talks began on a mechanism to exchange pathogen data for stemming benefits in Geneva yesterday, African nations reaffirmed their commitment to a global agreement, but several are conflicted by negotiations with the US to trade their pathogens data for health aid.

💭Opinion: Can Trump dismantle the UN refugee convention? The US president wants to rewrite the rules of the international asylum system to suit its interests, calling into question some of the decades-old globally agreed principles that underpin it. While it has failed to garner much support from countries, can they and the new UN refugee leader resist a new asylum order shaped by the US's America First policy?