Source: United Kingdom UK Parliament (video statements)
What checks did the Government undertake when appointing Peter Mandelson as UK Ambassador to the US?
In this session, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, Sir Chris Wormald, and Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Sir Oliver Robbins, will give evidence on the vetting and clearance of Lord Mandelson to the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Members will seek to understand the processes behind the clearance and vetting of Lord Mandelson and where these processes fell down. Questions are likely to cover whether due diligence should have uncovered the association between Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein.
The session is likely to explore the question of whether the Foreign Affairs Committee should routinely undertake pre-appointment hearings for political ambassadorial appointments.
Source: United Kingdom UK Parliament (video statements)
The Petitions Committee has scheduled a debate relating to consumer law and videogames.
Ben Goldsborough MP has been asked by the Committee to open the debate. The Government will send a Minister to respond.
Read the petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074
Find petitions you agree with, and sign them: https://petition.parliament.uk/
What are petition debates?
Petition debates are ‘general’ debates which allow MPs from all parties to discuss the important issues raised by one or more petitions, and put their concerns to Government Ministers.
Petition debates don’t end with a vote to implement the request of a petition. This means that MPs will not vote on the issues raised in the petition at the end of the debate.
The Petitions Committee can only schedule debates on petitions to parliament started on petition.parliament.uk
Find out more about how petition debates work: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/content/194347/how-petitions-debates-work/
Stay up-to-date
Follow the Committee on Twitter for real-time updates on its work: https://www.twitter.com/hocpetitions
Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements)
H.E President Cyril Ramaphosa holds a tête-a-tête with H.E President Karin Keller-Sutter of the Swiss Confederation as he commences with the two-day State Visit in Switzerland.
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Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements)
H.E President Cyril Ramaphosa and H.E President Karin Keller-Sutter of the Swiss Confederation hold a working breakfast meeting with the business sector aboard the Special Train during a State Visit in Switzerland
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Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements)
H.E President Cyril Ramaphosa and HE President Karin Keller-Sutter visit BZWU Uzwil Vocational & Further Education Training Centre and Bühler Manufacturing Facility during the State Visit to Switzerland.
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How does the superpower rivalry between the US and China dictate international relations more broadly? And what does it mean for the future of trade, security and development?
Lee Kuan Yew, Chair in Southeast Asia Studies at the Brookings Institution, and a member of the Forum’s Global Future Council on Geopolitics, analyses the state of the global relations almost a year into the second Donald Trump presidency.
This episode is a collaboration between Radio Davos and Beyond the Headlines, the flagship podcast of The National, the UAE’s leading English-language newspaper. It was recorded at the Forum’s Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity in Dubai on 15 October, 2025. It is co-hosted by Mina Al-Oraibi, The National’s Editor-in-Chief.
Links:
Network of Global Future Councils: https://initiatives.weforum.org/global-future-council
Global Future Council on Geopolitics: https://initiatives.weforum.org/global-future-council-on-geopolitics
The National: https://www.thenationalnews.com/
Related podcasts:
Beyond the Headlines podcast: https://www.thenationalnews.com/podcasts/beyond-the-headlines/
Radio Davos:
We have entered the age of "persistent disruption" – Visa’s Wayne Best on the Chief Economists Outlook: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radio-davos/episodes/chief-economists-outlook-visa-wayne-best/
"New era, new mood, new challenges" – historian Adam Tooze on why things will never be the same again: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radio-davos/episodes/adam-tooze-cnbc-china-us-history/
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Meet the Leader – subscribe: https://pod.link/1534915560
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Congolese photographer Do Nsoseme is featured in the "Through Her Lens" photo exhibition at the United Nations headquarters.
For a week, the Global Organization has marked the work of women in Peace and Security.
Twenty-five years ago, the international community agreed a new approach to women’s inclusion in peace processes in what came to be known as the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS), outlined in the landmark Security Council resolution 1325.
Photographer and activist Do Nsoseme reveals how admirable women in her country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo have inspired her artistic creation as a poet and photographer.
The UN Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan expressed grave alarm at escalating atrocities surrounding the fall of El Fasher to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), having gathered direct and harrowing testimonies from survivors that reveal systematic and ongoing attacks against civilians.
Despite immense challenges in accessing information, initial investigations point to a deliberate pattern of ethnically targeted executions of unarmed civilians, assaults, sexual violence, widespread looting and destruction of vital infrastructure, and mass forced displacement.
The Fact-Finding Mission’s latest report — published today and to be presented to the UN General Assembly in New York the same day — details a devastating pattern of atrocities by both warring parties, including war crimes of violence to life and person, outrages on personal dignity, and intentional attacks on civilians. It found reasonable grounds to believe both sides have subjected civilians to serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, amounting to atrocity crimes, while depriving them of genuine justice.
Entitled “Paths to Justice: Accountability for Atrocities in Sudan,” the report found that entrenched impunity remains one of the principal drivers of ongoing violence. The demands of victims can no longer be ignored and that accountability is both urgent and achievable, it said.
With justice in Sudan is being systematically obstructed and all warring parties unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute grave crimes, the report urged the international community to create an independent and impartial judicial body to end decades of impunity and prosecute those responsible for the most serious crimes under international law. The new judicial institution, the Mission said, should work in partnership with the International Criminal Court.
Given the magnitude of violations committed, the report also called for the expansion of the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction across Sudan, the establishment of a specific victim support and reparations office for Sudan backed by a dedicated trust fund, and technical training and capacity-building for those involved in documenting violations and crimes.
The ferocious conflict has dragged on for over two years with no end in sight. Fighting has trapped countless civilians between the warring parties, including in the siege and ultimate takeover of El Fasher and surrounding areas of North Darfur.
The Rapid Support Forces have been implicated in ethnically targeted attacks, rape and sexual violence, starvation tactics, and the destruction of essential infrastructure, amounting to starvation as a prohibited method of warfare. Its systematic and large-scale conduct also amounts to crimes against humanity such as persecution, and potentially extermination.
The conviction of Ali Kushayb on 6 October by the International Criminal Court represents a landmark legal breakthrough — the first international judgment on atrocity crimes committed in Sudan. With reparations proceedings now anticipated, the case signals a pivotal moment for justice and accountability.
The collapse of the rule of law has fueled the conflict, as has the February 2025 constitutional amendment delaying the transition to civilian rule, and by the Rapid Support Forces’ opaque parallel justice structures.
“The Sudanese people have shown extraordinary resilience,” said Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, Member of the Fact-Finding Mission. “They ask not for pity, but for solidarity — solidarity that turns words into action and resolutions into justice.”
