Switzerland

GENEVA, July 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The El Nino weather phenomenon, which triggers higher global temperatures, is set to continue throughout 2023 and will be “at least of moderate strength”, the United Nations said.

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased heat worldwide, as well as drought in some parts of the world and heavy rains elsewhere.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced on June 8 that El Nino had arrived, warning that it “could lead to new records for temperatures”.

30 June 2023; MEMO: The UN Human Rights office has updated a list of companies doing business with illegal Israeli settlements, removing 15 companies from the database that were no longer involved, a spokesperson said on Friday, Reuters reports.

30 June 2023; MEMO: The US rejoined UNESCO on Friday, after withdrawing in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, Anadolu Agency reports.

The Trump administration, after accusing of harbouring anti-Israel bias, withdrew from the UN's specialised agency aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture.

GENEVA, June 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Some 64 flights were cancelled at Geneva’s international airport on Friday, it said, after operations were halted for four hours because of a strike by workers at the start of the busy summer travel season.

“Because of the social action… the direction decided a temporary halt of operations from 6:00 am to 10:00 am,” the airport said in a tweet early on Friday. “64 flights — arrivals and departures — cancelled.”

24 June 2023; MEMO: Germany has cancelled its condemnation of a UN Human Rights Council commission of inquiry into the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories in response to measures aimed at expediting settlements, Walla reported on Friday.

21 June 2023; MEMO: The United Nations has resisted pressure from a US-led group who are demanding a "sunset" clause to the UN's Commission of Inquiry (COI). Members of the world body are insisting that the UN would like to see a "sunset of the Israeli occupation" before its inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by the apartheid state is terminated.

GENEVA, June 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Donors at a UN conference pledged close to $1.5 billion to combat the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and help its neighbours host refugees fleeing the fighting.

Sudan is descending into death and destruction at unprecedented speed, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned as he urged donors to step in and curb the unfolding catastrophe.

The conference comes midway through a three-day ceasefire which appeared to have brought calm to the capital Khartoum, after the failure of earlier truces to secure aid corridors.

20 June 2023; MEMO: A member of an UN-mandated independent commission of inquiry said on Tuesday that increasing Jewish settler violence in the Occupied West Bank was a "major concern" and announced plans to investigate further, Reuters reports.

18 June 2023; MEMO: Switzerland's ambassador to Turkiye has confirmed that criminal investigations have been launched against demonstrators who burned an effigy and picture of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Swiss city of Zurich this week.

On Wednesday this week, a leftist group known as the Zurich Revolutionary Strike Collective set fire to the Turkish flag and an effigy and picture of Erdogan outside a bank in Zurich, prompting outrage by Turkiye.

ZURICH, June 18 (Reuters) - Voters in Switzerland on Sunday approved the introduction of a global minimum tax on businesses and a climate law that aims to cut fossil fuel use and reach zero emissions by 2050, public broadcaster SRF reported.

The results showed almost 80% of those who voted in Sunday's national referendum backed raising the country's business tax to the 15% global minimum rate from the current average minimum of 11%, an unusually strong endorsement.