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Dear Reader, Below we list the latest news and articles from our website related to international affairs and issues such as sustainable development. Read these stories and more, plus information about forthcoming events, by following the links below. You might also like the Coventry Climate Action Network website which we also maintain. Please check it out at https://covcan.uk/ Philip Brown Secretary, UNA Coventry Branch
philip@unacov.uk |
Recent ArticlesSee our website for more of our recent news articles. |
Israel, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, is using starvation as part of the genocide it is committing against the people of Gaza. This is agreed by the UN General Assembly, Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières, a UN Special Rapporteur and other experts. In late July 2025 the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) …
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On 23 July 2025, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer answered media questions about Gaza humanitarian aid. A recording was published on YouTube. However the video reproduced the whole emission five times over, as you will hear if you listen the the above audio recording taken from the video. You can listen by clicking on the white arrow. You can read a …
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The above is a recording and below is a transcript of an interview recorded on 24 July 2025 when Middle East Eye (MEE) spoke to Kenneth Roth, often dubbed the "godfather of human rights". He was the executive director of Human Rights Watch from 1993 to 2022. His book Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Government …
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The world has two views about the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). There is the view of the United Nations Secretary-General and many of its agencies, of dozens of non UN aid organisations and of many governments including the UK, that GHF aid delivery measures are inhumane and causing the people of Gaza immense problems including risking being killed when …
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On 21 July 2025 28 countries and an international partner issued the following joint statement on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We, the signatories listed below, come together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now. The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and …
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On 22 July 2025 Juliette Touma, the Director of Communications with United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), issued the following statement on behalf of UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini. I'm going to give the latest from the Commissioner-General who's asked me to convey a statement, including on our staff in Gaza. I'll say …
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On 24 July Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, wrote on X: “People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses”: a colleague in #Gaza told me this morning. Meanwhile, according to @UNRWA latest findings: one in every five children is malnourished in Gaza …
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On 23 July 2025 over 100 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) issued the following statement. As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes. Exactly …
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On 30 June 2025 over 240 Non-Governmental Organisations called for the immediate end to the deadly Israeli distribution scheme (including the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) in Gaza and for a return to the UN-led coordination mechanisms, and for the lifting of the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies. Of course, there was no such action by Israel. Full …
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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu Israel has been starving the people of Gaza for many months. It was so bad in November 2024 that the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare. But there seemed to be nothing that Netanyahu could do what as sufficiently …
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Airdrops On 25 July 2025 the Times of Israel reported that Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) saying that Israel will soon permit Jordan and the United Arab Emirates to resume airdropping humanitarian supplies to Gaza. As we previously reported, in 2024 when Israel closed its border crossings, the UK government and other countries airdropped thousands of …
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On 16 February 2024 the Israeli government website published the following report of an address by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel Katz, to the Munich Security Conference. With abductees’ family members present in the audience: During his first visit to Germany, FM Katz called for the release of all the abductees and presented the UNRWA File to the international …
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UN Photo/Mark Garten On 9 July the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, issued a press statement saying that, following President Trump’s Executive Order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court, Rubio was now imposing sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestine. The statement claimed that: …
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The United States, France, Sweden and Finland have either cut or reduced their contributions to the World Food Programme (WFP) which will probably result in a 40 percent drop in funding for 2025. The result is that 58 million people risk losing life-saving assistance in the agency’s 28 most critical crisis response operations. In 2025, WPF reports that global hunger is skyrocketing …
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In May the Reform UK party won an overwhelming 65 out of 98 seats available in Durham County Council. In July the council passed a motion to rescind a climate emergency declaration made in 2019. Instead they passed a social care pledge. The BBC reported deputy council leader Darren Grimes who proposed the motion as saying: "We are done with …
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David Obasan and Nankur Pontip On 30 June 2025, two volunteers from the United Nations Association Coventry Branch, Nankur Pontip Ramdur (who also contributed this article) and David Obasan, delivered presentations to students at Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Coventry. The presentations centred on the urgent global issue of child soldiers. The events aimed to raise awareness among Cardinal Newman students …
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At the time of writing, 147 of the 193 member states of the United Nations have recognised Palestine as a sovereign state. So far none of seven states with the largest advanced economies (G7) have done so. On 24 July 2025, President Macron of France made the announcement on X shown below. Five days later UK Prime Minister threatened to …
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On 22 May 2025 we reported that UN Staff trade unions in Geneva were deeply concern about funding cuts and the reform of the United Nations system which UN Secretary-General António Guterres had developed called UN80 to cope with future underpayments. On 24 July the Staff Union Council of the UN Office in Geneva held an Extraordinary General Assembly meeting culminating …
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Some of those states which voted Trump for President in 2024 might now be regretting their choice as a heat dome is due to cover the eastern half of the US during the last week of July 2025, putting tens of millions of people in sweltering and dangerous conditions in states such as Florida and North and South Carolinas. Up …
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Heatwaves, wild fires and floods have been sweeping across the UK, USA, Italy, Spain, France, Albania, Syria, China, Australia, South Sudan and many other countries. And yet people in democracies have been voting for politicians who say they will roll back policies to reduce global warming or even deny climate science is true. A typical example is Donald Trump. In …
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At last some good news! The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been fighting an insurgency against Turkey trying to create an independent Kurdish state since 1984. More than 40 thousand people were killed in the following 40 years. In May 2025 the group finally decided to disband and on 11 July dozens of PKK fighters symbolically burning their weapons, starting a …
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Article by Faradina Kusumastuti, UNA Coventry volunteer and student of Politics and International Relations at Coventry University. One way to bring about change is through divestment in a particular company or industry that contributes to the injustice happening in the world. The divestment movement has been gaining momentum, particularly in the fossil fuel industry. The fossil fuels industry has been …
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The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the framework upon which all countries need to build their strategies if they are to achieve peace and prosperity for their people and the planet, now and into the future. The SDGs recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur …
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Want to meet some interesting people and help make the world safer, fairer and more sustainable? Want to gain valuable experience in planning and organising fantastic events? Or fancy writing web articles about climate change, international peace and security, human rights and sustainable development? Then find out about our available roles and complete the application form below to register as …
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You can now join UNA-UK as a member for £10 per year and stand with us in support of a strong, credible and effective UN. Over the last 18 months, UNA-UK has been engaged in an extensive process of reviewing our engagement structures - how our members, supporters, and network of UNA Groups interact with us as an organisation and contribute to the …
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World Humanitarian Day is celebrated annually on 19 August as a way to honor the memory of those who have died while serving others and to encourage continued support for humanitarian causes. According the Aid Worker Security Database, 388 aid workers were killed in 2024, the latest year for which complete figures are available, 112 were kidnapped and 281 were …
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International Day of Peace (IDP) is observed around the world on 21 September. The UN General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire. In 2025 the theme will be Act Now for a Peaceful World In a time of turbulence, tumult, and uncertainty, it is critical …
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The UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) 30 will take place in Belém, Brazil, 10-21 November 2025. What is the COP? The COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP, at which they review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments …
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