00:00:14:20 There’s a link between Arctic ice melt and your health, says this professor: Gail Whiteman, Hoffmann Impact Professor for Accelerating Action on Nature and Climate at University of Exeter Business School, talks us through the health implications of Arctic ice melt – and the best way to fight it.
00:04:36:12 This doctor founded a health center to care for women who have undergone FGC: Nawal Nour, founder of the African Women’s Health Center in Boston, explains why an approach to medical care rooted in empathy, respect and active listening is fundamental to improving women’s health.
00:07:46:17 This hospital performed the world’s first fully robotic heart transplant: Surgeons at a hospital in Saudi Arabia successfully achieved a world first: a heart transplant performed entirely by robots. The patient was a 16-year-old boy with severe heart failure.
00:09:54:00 Can these tech classes transform school?: New York has launched a 3-year pilot across 10 schools that helps pupils practise the vital STEM skills they’ll need to enter a future career in manufacturing or technology. You can hear from a host of students – as well as AFT President Randi Weingarten – in this video.
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The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.
Close to 100 countries — including nearly 40 Heads of State and Government — today announced, committed to finalizing, or set out their commitment to implementing their new climate targets ahead of COP30 in Belém, Brazil this November. The announcements came at a Climate Summit convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil on the margins of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
Do people still need Expos? We can travel freely throughout the world. With new technology, you can see things as if you were there. What is the point of Expos? The Secretary General of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), Dimitri Kerkentzes and Maher Nasser, Commissioner-General for the United Nations participation in Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai, Japan, answer to these questions.
Briefing by Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, on Colombia.
Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
Lampedusa
Senior Personnel Appointment – Children and Armed Conflict
Senior Personnel Appointment – BINUH
Gaza
Occupied Palestinian Territory
UNIFIL
Colombia
Somalia
Food Price Index
International Day and Week
Financial Contribution
LAMPEDUSA
Twelve years ago today off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa, 368 human beings lost their lives at sea while searching for of a better life.
At the time, UN Agencies said that there was a widespread call for change and a commitment to ensure that such a tragedy would never happen again. Yet today we continue to mourn lives lost at sea. Since that day, our colleagues at the UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration, and UNICEF tell us that an average of 42 people have lost their lives every week along the central Mediterranean route, and we estimated that one in five of them are children.
With over 32,700 deaths since 2014, the Mediterranean has become a death trap for those seeking safety, a dramatic reminder of the risks faced by migrants and refugees.
The UN Agencies stressed that it is important that international cooperation remains strong, that conflicts are addressed, and that safe and regular migration channels are strengthened to reduce dependence on dangerous sea journeys organised by traffickers.
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT – CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT
Today, the Secretary-General is appointing Vanessa Frazier of Malta as his Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. She succeeds Virginia Gamba of Argentina, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service and commitment to the United Nations.
The Secretary-General also wishes to extend his appreciation to Najat Maalla M’jid, his Special Representative on Violence against Children, who is serving as his Acting Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict until Ms. Frazier assumes her post.
You, of course, all know Ms. Frazier, who recently served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Malta to the UN from 2020 to 2025. She brings multilateral diplomatic expertise, crisis management skills, consensus building and dedication to child protection, with the ability to navigate complex global negotiations and broker agreements among diverse stakeholders, having played a pivotal role as Chair of the UN Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict.
And I believe she is the first UN senior official ever to have been on an Olympic team.
SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT – BINUH
Also today, the Secretary-General is appointing Nicole Flora Boni Kouassi of Côte d’Ivoire as his new Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti, which you all know as BINUH. She will also be the Resident Coordinator in Haiti. Ms. Boni Kouassi will also serve as the Humanitarian Coordinator.
She succeeds Ulrika Richardson of Sweden, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service and steadfast commitment to the UN.
Ms. Boni Kouassi brings over 22 years of UN experience to this position, with extensive experience in development, peace and security, and humanitarian work.
She has been most recently the UNDP Resident Representative in Niger since 2022. We welcome her and congratulate her on this appointment.
GAZA
Turning to Gaza, you will have seen that Tom Fletcher, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, said today that we are ready and eager to act on the window of opportunity provided by the US initiative on Gaza.
He said that we have some 170,000 metric tonnes of food, medicine, shelter and other desperately needed supplies poised to enter Gaza from across the region.
For the humanitarian plan to succeed, Mr. Fletcher said that we need open crossings; we need safe movement for civilians and aid workers; unrestricted entry of goods; visas for staff; the space for humanitarians to operate; and the private sector to be revived. He called on the parties to agree to a ceasefire, to give us access, and just let us work.
Full Highlights
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=03%20October%202025
