The 193 UN member countries agreed on Saturday to cut the global body’s budget for only the second time in the past 50 years following a long night of negotiations.
An accord struck at dawn on Saturday saw the 2012-2013 budget set at US$5.15 billion, down from US$5.41 billion in 2010-2011.
The US and crisis-stricken European countries had fought for cuts, while developing countries had demanded spending be maintained.
“All budget years are tough, but this year was especially difficult,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, welcoming the accord and vowing more cuts in the coming months. “Governments and people everywhere are struggling.”
US negotiator Joseph Torsella called the budget a “historic agreement,” though he acknowledged it had taken “difficult negotiations.”
Nearly every day last week talks have finished at about 5am.
This accord “is the first time since 1998 — and only the second time in the last 50 years — that the UN regular budget has declined in comparison to the previous budget’s actual expenses,” Torsella said.
He called it a “budget for a strengthened, more efficient and more effective United Nations that saves the American taxpayers millions of dollars and sets the United Nations on the path of real fiscal discipline and continued reform.”
The US has taken a tough line on UN spending, with Torsella this year railing at increased salary allowances for UN staff.
Ban acknowledged that the global body has to “cut fat.”
It has already cut posts and contracted out services in many departments at the New York headquarters.
“One year from now, I will return to you with greater cost savings,” the UN chief vowed in a speech to the delegates who struck the accord.
An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its south pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early last year, state media reported yesterday. The Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February last year on the country’s inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has since been deployed on the surface as an orbiter surveyed the planet from space. Among the images taken from space were China’s first photographs of the Martian south pole, where almost all of the planet’s water resources are locked. In 2018, an orbiting probe operated by the European
QUARANTINE SHORTENED: A new protocol detailing risk levels and local policy responses would be ‘more scientific and accurate,’ a health agency spokesman said China’s revised COVID-19 guidelines, which cut a quarantine requirement in half for inbound travelers, also create a standardized policy for mass testing and lockdowns when cases of the disease flare, showing that the country still has a zero-tolerance approach to the virus. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) solidified the position during a trip to Wuhan, where the pathogen first emerged in 2019, saying that China is capable of achieving a “final victory” over the virus. The “zero COVID-19” policy is the most effective and economic approach for the country, Xi said during the trip on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported. The first
‘TOO RISKY’: Palau’s president said deep-sea mining, in which rocks are sucked off the ocean floor, increases the vulnerability of the seabed floor and marine life Concerned about the potential effects of deep-sea mining on ocean biodiversity, the Pacific islands of Palau and Fiji on Monday launched an “alliance” to call for a moratorium of the nascent industry. The backing of a moratorium comes amid a wave of global interest in deep-sea mining, but also growing pressure from some environmental groups and governments to either ban it or ensure it only goes ahead if appropriate regulations are in place. Deep-sea mining uses heavy machinery to suck up off the ocean floor potato-sized rocks or nodules that contain cobalt, manganese and other metals mostly used in batteries. Speaking to a
A flight test of a hypersonic missile system in Hawaii on Wednesday ended in failure due to a problem that occurred after ignition, the US Department of Defense said, delivering a fresh blow to a program that has experienced stumbles. It did not provide details of what took place in the test, but said in an e-mailed statement that “the department remains confident that it is on track to field offensive and defensive hypersonic capabilities on target dates beginning in the early 2020s.” “An anomaly occurred following ignition of the test asset,” Pentagon spokesman US Navy Lieutenant Commander Tim Gorman said in
RSS