UKRAINE
I want to start off with a note and a clarification on Ukraine. As you may have seen in the past few days, there have been repeated comments by various Russian officials accusing the United Nations Secretariat of having either cancelled or blocked a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. 
I want to clarify a few points. First, the IAEA is a specialized agency that acts in full independence in deciding how to implement its specific mandate. 
Second, the UN Secretariat has no authority to either block or cancel any IAEA activities.
Third, in close contact with the IAEA, the UN Secretariat has assessed that it has in Ukraine the logistics and security capacity to be able to support any IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant from Kyiv, should both Ukrainian and Russian authorities agree.

SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT - UNFCCC
I also have a senior personnel announcement to share with you, quite an important one. Today, the Secretary-General is appointing Simon Stiell of Grenada as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, otherwise known as UNFCCC. The appointment has been made after consultation with the Conference of Parties through its Bureau.
Mr. Stiell will succeed Patricia Espinosa of Mexico to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her commitment and dedicated service to the Organization. The Secretary-General also wishes to extend his appreciation to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Ibrahim Thiaw, who will continue to serve as Acting Executive Secretary of UNFCCC until Mr. Stiell assumes this position. Mr. Stiell brings to the position over thirty-three years of experience.

SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT - GRAIN
Also, I just want to read into the record and announcement that was sent out on Friday afternoon. It was about the appointment by the Secretary-General of Amir Mahmoud Abdulla of Sudan as the UN Coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Mr. Abdulla succeeds Frederick Kenney, whom you met via videoconference of the United States who was on loan by the International Maritime Organization as interim Coordinator for the UN at the Joint Coordination Centre. The Secretary-General is grateful for Mr. Kenney’s dedication, his expertise, his commitment and excellent leadership in implementing the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Mr. Abdulla brings over 30 years of experience in the areas of humanitarian response and management with the World Food Programme as well as expertise in emergency operations, supply chain and security.

MALI
Quick update from our colleagues in Mali, the work of the peacekeeping Mission in Mali, MINUSMA, to support peace and security is also continuing. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of Mission El-Ghassim Wane was just completing a mission to Kidal, where he met with both the Governor, the President of the interim authorities of the region, and other stakeholders. Discussions focused on means of improving cooperation, supporting the acceleration of the implementation of the Peace Agreement and restoring of State authority, as well as to improving basic social services. The Special Representative inaugurated two projects; one to assist communities through the installation of water boreholes at the College for Teachers in Kidal and Adoubane village, and the other to provide medicines to the Kidal Health Center. A new airstrip has also been constructed by the UN peacekeeping mission to open the northern region up to recovery and development opportunities and additional projects are underway to help local communities generate income through access to water, farming, craft production and other activities.

YEMEN
Hans Grundberg, the Special Envoy for Yemen, briefed the Security Council by videoconference on the recent two-month extension of the truce in that country. He said that along with the truce extension, the parties committed themselves to using the next two months to continue negotiations to reach an expanded truce agreement by 2 October. 
Mr. Grundberg said that four and a half months in, the truce continues to broadly hold in military terms and that we continue to see a significant decline in civilian casualties, with the first week of August seeing the lowest civilian casualty count since the start of the truce and since the beginning of the war.
The Special Envoy said that road openings in Taiz and other governorates continue to be at the forefront of his efforts. 
He also discussed the opening of Sana’a International Airport to commercial flights, saying that, so far, 31 round-trip flights have operated to and from Sana’a, transporting more than 15,000 passengers.

AFGHANISTAN
Today, in a statement, the UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director, Sima Bahous, noted that in the year that has passed since the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan, we have seen daily and continuous deterioration in the situation of Afghan women and girls. She pointed out that it has been a year of increasing disrespect for their right to live free and equal lives, denying them opportunity to livelihoods, access to health care and education, and escape from situations of violence.
Ms. Bahous said that the Taliban’s meticulously constructed policies of inequality set Afghanistan apart. She urged the de facto authorities to open schools for all girls, to remove constraints on women’s employment and their participation in the politics of their nation and to revoke all decisions and policies that strip women of their rights. 
For her part, Natalia Kanem, the UN Population Fund Executive Director, also noted in a statement that Afghan women and girls have seen the continuous erosion of their rights. She said that despite the challenges, including shortfalls in funding, UNFPA has increased its presence across the country and is working with our national partners to scale up the provision of sexual and reproductive health services for women, by women, including in remote areas. 

AFGHANISTAN/GIRLS
Also today, the UN Children’s Fund published an analysis showing that keeping girls out of secondary school costs Afghanistan 2.5 per cent of its annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). UNICEF notes that if the current cohort of three million girls were able to complete their secondary education and participate in the job market, girls and women would contribute at least $5.4 billion to Afghanistan’s economy.
UNICEF’s estimates do not take into account the non-financial impacts of denying girls access to education, such as upcoming shortages of female teachers, doctors and nurses, the ensuing impact on decreasing attendance for girls in primary school and increasing health costs related to adolescent pregnancy. The estimates also do not account for the broader benefits of education, including overall educational attainment, reduced child marriage and reduced infant mortality.     
                  
EGYPT
Yesterday, you will have seen that we issued a statement in which the Secretary-General expressed his sadness at the tragic fire that occurred at the Coptic Abu Sifin church in Giza, Egypt, near Cairo, killing and injuring dozens of worshippers, including many children. 
He expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this horrific accident, as well as to the Government and people of Egypt, and wished a swift recovery to those injured.

ARMENIA
In Armenia, our team on the ground expresses their deepest condolences over the tragic explosion at a market in Yerevan, I think that explosion took place yesterday. Our thoughts are with those who lost loved ones and we also wish a swift recovery to those who were injured. Our team remains committed to supporting all people in the country in this difficult time.

DOĞAN ULUÇ
Unfortunately, some sad news concerning one of your former colleagues. We heard over the weekend that Doğan Uluç passed away. He had been, as many of you know - since 1970 - was Hürriyet’s correspondent here at UN headquarters, I think he retired in the early 2000s, having served more than 30 years as the eyes and ears of very important Turkish media here at the United Nations. We all recall his extensive knowledge about the United Nations, his wry smile, his matter-of-fact, attitude and his tolerance towards young spokespeople who were just starting out. We send our condolences to his widow, who's a former colleague of ours, Carolyn Schuler-Uluç and to his whole family.