U.N. PEACEKEEPERS DAY 
In a few minutes, we will be joined by our friend Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the head of the UN Department of Peace Operations. He is here with you because we are marking the International Day of Peacekeepers.
The Secretary-General this morning took part in the events. He first laid a wreath at the Peacekeepers Memorial at the north end of the lawn and delivered remarks at the Dag Hammarskjöld ceremony and Military Gender Advocate of the year award.
The Secretary-General paid tribute to the more than 4,300 women and men who have lost their lives while serving under the blue flag of the United Nations since 1948. He said that each loss underscores the urgent need to prevent violence, protect the most vulnerable, and spare no effort to end these deadly conflicts.
This year, we honour - with the Dag Hammarskjöld medals - the 61 peacekeepers from 33 countries who paid the ultimate price for the cause of peace last year. The Secretary-General also awarded Major Radhika Sen of India with the Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award. 
As we mentioned to you, Major Sen served with our peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and as commander of India’s contingent engagement platoon, her troops actively engaged with conflict-affected communities, including women and girls.  

AFRICA DIALOGUE
This afternoon – at 3 p.m. – the Secretary-General will deliver remarks at the high-level session of the Africa dialogue series, which is focusing this year on education. 
In his remarks, he will remind participants that education is a key ingredient to unlock the full potential of Africa.
Those remarks have been shared with you in advance. They will also be webcast.

IRAN
Earlier today, the Secretary-General spoke at the General Assembly ceremony in remembrance of the late President of Iran, Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi.
In the remarks that were shared with you, the Secretary-General said that the United Nations stands in solidarity with the Iranian people in the quest for peace, development and fundamental freedoms. For that, he said, the UN will be guided by the Charter to help realize peace and security, sustainable development and human rights for all.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Also today, the Secretary-General addressed via a video message, the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva hosted by the International Communications Union. He said that artificial intelligence could be a game-changer for the Sustainable Development Goals, but transforming its potential into reality requires that AI reduces its bias, misinformation and security threats – instead of aggravating them.
He added that we also need global coordination to build safe and inclusive AI that is accessible to all.

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
For her part, our Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, has just landed in Antigua and Barbuda today to take part in the closing of the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States. 
While in Antigua, she will also meet with government officials, including Prime Minister Gaston Browne.
And on Friday, the Deputy Secretary-General will visit Barbuda to meet with local communities and other stakeholders involved in the reconstruction efforts after Hurricane Irma.
She will be back in New York on Saturday.

SENIOR PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT
Senior personnel appointment to share with you. Today, the Secretary-General is appointing Noura Hamladji of Algeria as the Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, also known as UNFCCC. The appointment has been made after consultation with the Conference of Parties through its Bureau. Ms. Hamladji succeeds Ovais Sarmad of India, to whom the Secretary-General and the Executive Secretary of UNFCCC are grateful for his dedicated service to the UN climate change efforts.
Ms. Hamladji currently serves as the Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Regional Director for Africa at UNDP, a position she assumed in 2018. She has also served for the UN in Libya, in Azerbaijan and Timor-Leste, and Djibouti. We congratulate and welcome her.

SYRIA
I have some humanitarian updates, well first, let me just go to the Council. Our Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, briefed the Council today. And he will be at the Security Council stakeout, after consultations are over, and once Mr. Lacroix is done. So that should be probably around 1:15 p.m. if we’re lucky.
He told the Council Members that in the coming months there will likely be elections in the Government-led areas and local elections for de facto authorities in areas in the northeast. He warned that in the absence of a political process, there is a grave risk that Syrians will simply drift further apart.
The Council also heard from Martin Griffiths, who welcomed the extension of the use of the Bab al-Salam and Al Ra’ee border crossings until 13 August 2024, and he said he hoped that the use of the Bab al-Hawa crossing will be extended beyond 13 July.
Also this afternoon, the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, at 3 p.m. will brief the Security Council on forced displacement around the world. He is expected to highlight the decade-long, unprecedented increase in refugee flows. He will be at the stakeout after his appearance at the Security Council.

OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
I have a number of humanitarian updates to share with you. None of them good. Our colleagues from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs say that intensifying hostilities and severe access constraints continue to impede aid operations in Gaza, at a time when hundreds of thousands of people need life-saving aid.
Humanitarian workers face movement restrictions, including to border areas, and repeated denials of access and delays. This includes planned missions to collect supplies from the Kerem Shalom crossing, on the Karem Abu Salem side, which is in an area where fighting continues to escalate.
We need Israeli authorities to swiftly facilitate access to the crossing so that aid workers can safely reach the crossing to pick up supplies. We also need safe and unimpeded passage to distribute that assistance to scale to people in need, wherever they may need it in Gaza.
As we have said repeatedly, Israel's responsibility to enable the delivery of humanitarian assistance does not end at crossing points into Gaza. The Israeli military also has a responsibility to facilitate aid operations within the Gaza strip.
We and our humanitarian partners continue to do all we can to meet growing needs, amid active hostilities that are putting the lives of aid workers at risk. Mounting an effective humanitarian operation in a war zone requires security assurances for aid workers. It also requires passable roads, adequate fuel, reliable communications, and sustained access.  
WFP is calling for all border crossings and crossing points within Gaza to be open, as the Israeli incursion in Rafah continues to have a devastating impact on civilians and on humanitarian operations.
Our friends at the World Food Programme warn that there is little the agency can currently do in Rafah, with stocks very low and mobility severely restricted. Constrained access to southern parts of Gaza risks causing the same catastrophic levels of hunger that has been seen in the north – and in central and southern Gaza, hunger levels are deteriorating fast.
WFP says that although some commercial goods are arriving in Gaza, people cannot afford the high prices. Meanwhile, the agency continues to distribute life-saving assistance – reaching one million people since 1 May.
Also, this month, WFP and its partners have reached some 60,000 children under five and nearly 23,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women with two-week supplies of supplements for the prevention of malnutrition. They are also scaling up nutrition services in Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, Deir al Balah and Gaza City. 

SUDAN
Turning to Sudan, a new analysis today [proved] yet again the heavy toll that civilians are bearing due to the hostilities especially women and children. The analysis - conducted jointly by UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization - shows a significant deterioration of the nutrition situation for children and mothers.
In Central Darfur, rates of acute malnutrition are estimated at 15.6 per cent among children under five years old. In the ZamZam displacement camp in North Darfur, the figure is almost 30 per cent.
Furthermore, a screening carried out last month by Médecins Sans Frontières in ZamZam camp found that more than a third of pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished, suggesting they are sacrificing their own needs for the needs of their children.
The three agencies warned that in the coming months, the situation for Sudan’s children and mothers will only worsen. They say the rainy season - which will cut off access to communities in need and raise the rates of diseases - starts in late June. 
Meanwhile, in North Darfur, families, including children and older people, are being prevented from leaving the capital city of El Fasher to seek safety. We are receiving deeply worrying reports that medical facilities, displacement camps, and critical civilian infrastructure have been severely damaged.
In a statement today, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, reminded all parties of their obligations to avoid using explosive weapons in populated areas and to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.      

UKRAINE
And in Ukraine, our Humanitarian Coordinator there, Denise Brown, was in Kherson City today, in the south of the country, where she met with authorities and humanitarian partners to discuss winter preparedness, with energy infrastructures heavily impacted by the ongoing strikes in the region, it is important to make sure that Ukrainians can stay warm during next winter.
Strikes on energy facilities continue across the country and show no signs of abating and continue to cause widespread power outages.

HAITI 
In Haiti we have received an update from our humanitarian colleagues.
So far this week, WFP has distributed more than 74,000 hot meals to more than 15,000 displaced people in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
Last week, some 2,400 children received mental health and psychosocial support from child protection specialists. Humanitarian organizations also provided information sessions on gender-based violence, protection issues, and sexual abuse to more than 4,000 people living in displacement sites.
Since the beginning of March, UN agencies, national and local partners, as well as Haiti’s civil protection department distributed nearly 13 million litres of water across the displacement sites in the capital Port-au-Prince.
Outside of Port-au-Prince, in the Artibonite region, where people have also been impacted by violence, the World Food Programme provided cash assistance to over 13,000 people as part of its emergency activities, and another 6,000 people in this region received food.  
And following a tornado that destroyed or damaged over 300 houses in the Bassin Bleu commune last week, WFP will provide food assistance to about 3,800 people there.

BRAZIL
In Brazil, our humanitarian colleagues tell us that the flooding situation remains critical, with water levels high in many areas of the Rio Grande do Sul, in the south of the country, and as winter weather conditions remain unstable.
The government continues to coordinate response efforts with national responders, UN agencies, and the NGO community. 
Under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator, Silvia Rucks, the UN team in Brazil and humanitarian partners are supporting the response by providing technical expertise and essential supplies, including hygiene and purifying water kits.
The Resident Coordinator’s Office remains in close contact with the Government.  
We’ve also offered support for ongoing response efforts and early recovery planning from other specialized agencies.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA
In Papua New Guinea. I can tell you that our team there, led by Resident Coordinator Richard Howard, is supporting the Government’s efforts to address the severe impacts of the landslides. Since the onset of the disaster, our team has been supporting authorities with search and rescue operations, establishing emergency centres, and assessing immediate needs. Our colleagues from the International Organization for Migration, the UN Development Programme, UNICEF, and UN Women are all on the ground, supporting local efforts and providing relief supplies. 

BRIEFING TOMORROW
Tomorrow, at 10 a.m., there will be a briefing here by Matthew Hollingworth, who is the World Food Programme’s Country Director in Palestine. 
He will join us live from Jerusalem.

WE THE WOMEN SURVEY
And I just want to flag that the UN Office for Partnerships and the polling company John Zogby Strategies surveyed women around the world on their priorities and the future they want. 
The Global We the Women survey – a central piece of the We the Women Campaign - shows that amid a global backlash against women’s rights, women are committed to championing rights and representation. 
The results from 185 countries show that 86 per cent of women cite climate change, and more than 50 per cent identify conflict as primary concerns for the next decade. In addition, they see mental health and family responsibilities as barriers to reaching their full potential.

iNTERNATIONAL DAY OF POTATO
International Day, this could be my favorite international day of the year because you can bake them, you can fry them, you can sauté them. It is the International Day of Potato. Bon appetit
Potatoes have so many benefits in addition to being a nutritious vegetable. They are a climate-friendly crop and help improve livelihoods, especially in rural areas.