General Assembly President Philémon Yang (Cameroon) urged Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) delegates today to adopt a realistic, implementable budget for 2025 by year’s end, ideally well before the set deadline, and to plead with their respective capitals to pay their assessed contributions in full, on time and without conditions.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction: “The role of education in protecting and empowering youth for a disaster-free future”, observed on 13 October:

The new Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations, Nicola Clase, presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The new Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the United Nations, Lise Gregoire-van Haaren, presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The new Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, Parvathaneni Harish, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The new Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the United Nations, Peter Hulényi, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The new Permanent Representative of Gabon to the United Nations, Ghislain Ondias Okouma, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

The United Nations must listen to the people on the ground in the 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today from elected officials and petitioners from British Virgin Islands, French Polynesia, Gibraltar, New Caledonia, and Guam who detailed long years of colonial occupation as well as new horizons of progress.

Facing a cascade of climate disasters, conflicts and economic strains, the world is sliding backwards on poverty, hunger, gender equality and education — requiring immediate concerted action as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recede out of reach for developing countries - speakers stressed today as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) opened its annual general debate.

Regional and global cooperation is essential to combating organized crime — from smuggling of firearms and narcotics in the Caribbean and wildlife trafficking in the Amazon to cyberscams in South-East Asia — delegates told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.