United Nations Black Sea Grain Initiative, Syria and nuclear weapons final

SECRETARY-GENERAL’S TRAVEL The Secretary-General arrived in Hiroshima, in Japan, a few hours ago, where he will take part tomorrow in the Peace Memorial Ceremony. At the ceremony, he will reiterate his call on world leaders to urgently eliminate stockpiles of nuclear weapons. He will also meet a group of surviving victims of the atomic bombs, known as the hibakusha, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mr. Guterres will also participate in a dialogue with young activists. Later, he will move on to Mongolia and then to the Republic of Korea. BLACK SEA GRAIN INITIATIVE The Joint Coordination Centre of the Black Sea Grain Initiative authorized the departure of three vessels from Ukraine, two from the port of Chornomorsk and one from Odesa. The three cargo ships are carrying a total of 58,041 metric tonnes of corn through the maritime humanitarian corridor under the Black Sea Grain Initiative. The three ships are on their way towards the Bosphorous, where they will be inspected.The JCC has also authorized the movement of an inbound ship, the M\V Fulmar S, heading for Chornomorsk. That ship, which was anchored in an area near Istanbul, was inspected this morning and is on its way to Chernomorsk. Drawing from lessons learnt from the first movement under the initiative, the Razoni, the Joint Coordination Centre has authorized this movement as a second ‘proof of concept’, testing our ability to do multi-ship operations in the corridor, of both inbound and outbound vessels. In addition, the corridor has been revised to allow for more efficient passage of ships while maintaining safety. The Coordination Centre further acknowledges the need for the commercial vessels stranded in the Ukrainian ports since February to depart to their pre-defined destinations. Their movement will free up valuable pier space for more ships to come in and carry food to global markets, in line with the aims of the Initiative. As per the procedures agreed at the Coordination Centre, all participants will coordinate with their respective military and other relevant authorities to ensure the safe passage of commercial vessels. SYRIA The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that a UN cross-line convoy of 14 trucks, carrying food for some 43,000 people, crossed yesterday from Aleppo to Sarmada in north-west Syria. This is the sixth cross-line convoy in line with our inter-agency operational plan developed after the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2585 of July 2021, and the first since the adoption of [Security] Council Resolution 2642, which continued the scheme. Humanitarian conditions are deteriorating in north-west Syria due to the ongoing hostilities and a deepening economic crisis. There are 4.1 million people that rely on aid to meet their most basic needs. Eighty per cent of them are women and children. While it is an important complement, the cross-line operation is at this time not able to substitute for the massive cross-border operations which we run and that reaches 2.4 million Syrians each month. Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon...Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/policy-and-rights--3339563/support.