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States must use every available minute to draw up a new international arms treaty that could save thousands of lives every year, NGOs from around the world said today as negotiators from 192 governments begin formal talks at the United Nations on Monday.

The World Bank has been forced to backtrack on a controversial investment in Corporación Dinant, a palm oil company implicated in serious human rights abuses in Honduras. The Bank’s private-sector lending arm the International Finance Corporation (IFC) today admitted errors and promised to ‘refine’ its action plan and ‘reflect on’ internal problems that led to mistakes.

Rich countries have paid out less than half the amount they originally pledged to help countries recover from a snapshot of three major humanitarian crises, according to Oxfam.

European border closures and restrictions are dramatically worsening the humanitarian crisis for refugees and migrants and a decision to shift the EU’s responsibility for refugees to Turkey would see the bloc bargaining its core values and abandoning fundamental legal obligations. 

Under the new provisions, INGOs already registered in Israel may face de-registration, while new applicants risk rejection.

Ahead of shareholder meetings for the giant pharmaceutical corporations, the People’s Vaccine Alliance calculates that Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca have paid out $26 billion in dividends and stock buybacks to their shareholders in the past 12 months.

Development finance institutions owned by European governments and the World Bank Group are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on expensive for-profit hospitals in the Global South that block patients from getting care, or bankrupt them, with some even imprisoning patients who cannot afford their bills.

Oxfam's Elizabeth Stuart said: It's good to see genuine debate about getting credible, legitimate leadership at the World Bank. This is a field of eminently qualified candidates. 

One year on from the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the People’s Vaccine Alliance is warning that developing countries are facing critical shortages of oxygen and medical supplies to cope with COVID-19 cases yet the majority have been unable to administer a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. In contrast rich nations have vaccinated their citizens at a rate of one person per second over the last month.

People seeking safety are trapped at borders across Eastern Africa due to COVID-19 measures.