"Peace and security. Inequality. Climate. Artificial intelligence. These are the four great power tests of the future. And they are interlinked." - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

"Peace and security. Inequality. Climate. Artificial intelligence. These are the four great power tests of the future. And they are interlinked." - UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres 

https://x.com/UN_News_Centre/status/2102392247404642607 

UN News

@UN_News_Centre

"Across all four tests, the decisive issue is power. Power over force, money, energy, technology, rules and the future. That is why the UN Charter – and the work of the United Nations – matter more than ever." - @antonioguterres

UN News

@UN_News_Centre

Humanity faces four defining “tests of power” – peace and security, inequality, climate change and artificial intelligence (AI) – that will determine whether the world moves towards cooperation or deeper division, UN chief  @antonioguterres warned #UNGA.

 https://x.com/UN_News_Centre/status/2102403268358053922

‘Equality is not a dream; it is a decision’

https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/09/1168392 

UN News

@UN_News_Centre

"We have an opportunity in this session to show that we have learned from what works, that we are prepared to confront what does not, and that we can build a United Nations capable not simply of surviving change, but of shaping change." - @UN_PGA #UNGA

https://x.com/UN_News_Centre/status/2102398722038755835

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"What we know is that, because Israel controls about seventy per cent of the territory of the Gaza Strip, some two million people are squeezed into thirty per cent of the territory. We know that eighty-one per cent of the Gaza Strip is damaged or destroyed, and more than three hundred thousand housing units were completely destroyed during the war, in addition to schools and other infrastructure, like clinics, hospitals, and mosques."

Photograph by Mohammad Abu Elseba / ZUMA / Reuters

The New Yorker

September 21, 2026 

Q. & A.

What Life Is Actually Like in Gaza Today

Nearly a year after the ceasefire, the analyst Jaser AbuMousa explains the impediments to rebuilding, and the devastation of his own family.

At least twenty-one people, many of them children, were killed earlier this week after a building collapsed in Gaza City, highlighting the dangerous conditions that still exist in the Gaza Strip. The building, like much of the remaining infrastructure in Gaza, had been damaged by Israeli strikes in the war that began after the massacre of October 7, 2023, and which has now killed seventy-four thousand Palestinians. More than thirteen hundred of those deaths have occurred since last October, when a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect, and Israel was left in control of just over half of Gaza. (Since the ceasefire, Israel has expanded its territory and now controls around seventy per cent of the strip.) The Trump Administration, which broadly supports Israeli policy, has given authority to the so-called Board of Peace to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction. But last month the board’s high representative for Gaza took the surprising step of criticizing Israel for its continued military strikes in Gaza, and argued that such attacks threaten both the ceasefire and the chances of Hamas ever disarming.

I recently spoke by phone with Jaser AbuMousa, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, and a non-resident policy adviser at the International Peace Institute, who was born and raised in Gaza. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed what daily life in Gaza is like for Palestinians, what has and has not changed since the ceasefire, and his own family’s horrific experience throughout the past three years.

To what degree... READ MORE https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/what-life-is-actually-like-in-gaza-today 

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"Bustan Al-Ard" (Garden of the Earth) 2020 painting by Palestinian artist Fayez Elhasani.

"Bustan Al-Ard" (Garden of the Earth) 2020 by Palestinian artist Fayez Elhasani.

Zara Zhar

@Boudicca61AD

 

Beautiful painting, titled "Bustan Al-Ard" (Garden of the Earth) 2020 by Palestinian artist Fayez Elhasani. It utilizes a vibrant, symbolic style to depict themes of Palestinian history, suffering, & resilience. The imagery incorporates the Dome of the Rock and the "Mother of the Land"

 https://x.com/Boudicca61AD/status/2073929576393105874/photo/1

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Towards A More Just World... learn more

Int'l Criminal Court

@IntlCrimCourt

 

⚖️ Even in the most challenging times, the #ICC remains steadfast in its mission: to bring justice to the victims of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. Learn more about the #ICCProcess ➡️https://icc-cpi.pulse.ly/d6u8taynjm

 

How the Court works

The crimes

The Court's founding treaty, called the Rome Statute, grants the ICC jurisdiction over four main crimes.

First, the crime of genocide is characterised by the specific intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group by killing its members or by other means: causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Second, the ICC can prosecute crimes against humanity, which are serious violations committed as part of a large-scale attack against any civilian population. The 15 forms of crimes against humanity listed in the Rome Statute include offences such as murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, enslavement – particularly of women and children, sexual slavery, torture, apartheid and deportation.

Third, war crimes which are grave breaches of the Geneva conventions in the context of armed conflict and include, for instance, the use of child soldiers; the killing or torture of persons such as civilians or prisoners of war; intentionally directing attacks against hospitals, historic monuments, or buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes.

Finally, the fourth crime falling within the ICC's jurisdiction is the crime of aggression. It is the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, integrity or independence of another State. The definition of this crime was adopted through amending the Rome Statute at the first Review Conference of the Statute in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010.

On 15 December 2017, the Assembly of States Parties adopted by consensus a resolution on the activation of the jurisdiction of the Court over the crime of aggression as of 17 July 2018.

See The Rome Statute and Elements of Crimes

https://www.icc-cpi.int/about/how-the-court-works

 

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Ten key facts about the legal process

Further to the Key Features listed above, here are some of the basics you may want to know:

• The ICC does not prosecute those under the age of 18 when a crime was committed.
• Before the Prosecutor can investigate, he must conduct a preliminary examination considering such matters as sufficient evidence, jurisdiction, gravity, complementarity, and the interests of justice.
• When investigating, the Prosecutor must collect and disclose both incriminating and exonerating evidence.
• The defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty. The burden of proof lies with the Prosecutor.
• During all stages of proceedings (Pre-Trial, Trial and Appeals), the defendant has the right to information in a language he or she fully understands, thus the ICC proceedings are conducted in multiple languages, with teams of interpreters and translators at work.
• Pre-Trial judges issue warrants of arrest and ensure there is enough evidence before a case can go to trial.
• Before a case is committed to trial (during the Pre-Trial phase), the defendant is referred to as a suspect. Once the case is committed to trial, since at that point the charges have been confirmed, the defendant is referred to as the accused.
• Trial judges hear the evidence from the Prosecutor, Defence, and the Victims’ lawyers, render a verdict, and if a person is found guilty, the sentence and decision on reparations.
• Appeals judges render decisions on appeals from the Prosecutor or Defence.
• If a case is closed without a verdict of guilt, it can be reopened if the Prosecutor presents new evidence.

Painting "Playing for Return" (2020) from the "The Flute and the Goldfinch" series - by Palestinian artist Fayez Al-Hasani

Painting "Playing for Return" (2020) from the "The Flute and the Goldfinch" series - by Palestinian artist Fayez Al-Hasani

 https://x.com/Boudicca61AD/status/2102201352726220955/photo/1

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New report shows key indicators of Earth’s health are ‘outside the safe operating space’ as climate disaster looms

Trucks carry wood from a deforested area in Para state, Brazil, during the Cop30 UN climate change conference in November 2025,. Photograph: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images

Climate crisis

‘Planetary boundaries’ necessary for flourishing of life have been massively breached, scientists warn

Oliver Milman

Mon 21 Sep 2026

The planetary life support systems relied upon by humans have deteriorated to their worst levels ever recorded amid ongoing pollution and habitat destruction, according to a key yet grim annual update by scientists.

Of the nine “planetary boundaries” that help determine whether life can flourish on Earth, seven are being breached at their highest ever levels of transgression, according to the latest planetary health check, a process that was established in 2009.

The seven key indicators in the danger zone include climate change, change in biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, modification of biogeochemical flows, introduction of novel entities and, for the first time last year, ocean acidification.... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/21/planetary-boundaries-breached-scientists-warn-climate-crisis

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Let’s give peace a chance

On the International Day of Peace, you can give a voice to the war victims who need food and peace so they can return home

 Sep. 21, 2026  

by William Lambers in The Patriot News 

William Lambers is the author of the Road to Peace and has partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book Ending World Hunger.

In the movie “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy famously says “There’s no place like home.” On International Day of Peace , Sept. 21, there are millions of war refugees who just want to go home and live there again. Peace is precious to them because it can lead them home.

Asha is a mother from war-devastated Sudan who was forced to flee with her daughters to South Sudan. She told the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) that she worries her daughters may have to grow up away from home.

Asha and her family wish every day could bring peace. War refugees may be thousands of miles away from you, but you can actually help them get home. The theme of this year’s International Day of Peace is “‘everyday architects of peace’—people driving local action, laying the groundwork for stability, and building a lasting peace from the ground up.”

As the UN reminds us, “Peace isn’t just built in conference rooms—it is shaped by everyone, everywhere, every day.” You have the power to make a difference in building peace.

First, pay attention to conflicts, even those that aren’t in the headlines. You can ask your elected officials to make global peacemaking a priority. Ask them to fund peacemaking initiatives rather than fuel arms races.

You can... READ MORE  https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2026/09/lets-give-peace-a-chance-opinion.html?gift=707a9de1-ed48-4171-ac4a-3ca02af7116b

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