Nearly half of all countries lack early-warning systems for extreme weather events, leaving millions – especially those in developing nations – vulnerable.
As it released a new report on Monday, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) called for gaps in global monitoring and forecasting networks to be plugged. Timely alerts are crucial to saving lives as extreme weather events multiply due to climate change, it warned.
“Many millions of people lack protection against dangerous weather, which is inflicting an increasing toll on economic assets and vital infrastructure”, said a statement by the WMO, noting that disaster-related deaths are six times higher in countries without early-warning systems.
A resident runs amid smoke during a wildfire near the city of Patras, western Greece, August 13]Aris Messinis/AFP]
The organisation said weather, water and climate-related hazards have killed more than 2 million people in the past 50 years. It added that 90 percent of those deaths occurred in developing countries.
“Impacts are spiralling as weather becomes more extreme”, it said.
‘ Worst in conflict-affected contexts ‘
The WMO acknowledged that there has been “huge progress” in climate monitoring over the last decade. The number of countries using some form of multi-hazard early warning systems has jumped from 52 to at least 108.
However, it continued, an assessment of 62 countries showed half of them possess only basic capacity and 16 percent have less than basic capacity.
“The situation is worst in fragile, conflict and violence-affected contexts”, the organisation said.
Nevertheless, the WMO is seeing progress in Africa, with more countries having functioning websites and issuing standardised alerts.
“Early warning means early action. Our goal is to not only warn the world, it is to empower it”, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in a speech as the UN institution opened its annual conference in Geneva on Monday.
The world has been rocked by numerous weather-related disasters in 2025. Huge flooding has rocked countries including Pakistan, Nigeria and South Korea. Wildfires have devastated large areas in southern Europe, as well as the US.
People search a flooded area after heavy rainfall in the town of Mokwa, Nigeria, May 31]Afolabi Sotunde/EPA-EFE]
The head of Switzerland’s Federal Department of Home Affairs, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, told delegates at the conference that no country or region was spared from the effects of climate change and extreme weather.
She pointed to the example of how the regular monitoring of a mountain glacier allowed scientists to warn about its imminent collapse in May 2025, allowing for the evacuation of the Swiss village of Blatten.
Following deadly clashes in Rafah, Israel warns of attacks on anyone who crosses the “yellow line” in Gaza as the US tries to keep the fragile ceasefire in tact amid rising tensions. Nour Odeh from Al Jazeera provides more information about the situation and the work being done to keep the agreement.
Israel has breached the Gaza ceasefire dozens of times in 24-hours, killing Palestinians and sowing fear among people who survived two years of war. Israel blames Hamas, which has rejected that claim. Despite the surge in violence, the US President says the truce still holds.
Since the flimsy truce that Israel brokered on October 10 to end Gaza’s nearly 100 Palestinians and injure 230 others,
Israel’s army has repeatedly shot at unarmed Palestinians and bombed Gaza during a tense period of accusations and counteraccusations. The most recent claim was made on Sunday when it claimed Israel’s Rafah region had been attacked by Hamas fighters.
Since October 2023, Israel’s occupation of Gaza has resulted in the deaths of more than 68 000 people and the injuries of 170, 200 people, according to international organizations and a UN commission. Nearly 200 people were taken prisoner in Israel as a result of the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, a total of 1,139 people dying in Israel.
Who then violated the ceasefire? A ceasefire is still in effect, right? Do Palestinians finally receive aid and peace? What we are aware of is:
What transpired? Why was the ceasefire allegedly broken, people say?
Hamas had broken the agreement, according to the Israeli military, and two of its fighters had killed two Israeli soldiers in Rafah, according to a statement released on Sunday from the Israeli military.
The Gaza Strip was then subject to a “massive and extensive wave” of Israeli strikes.
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, claimed to be unaware of any clashes and that the Brigades had no relations with any Palestinian fighters there.
Hamas has also been accused of violating the ceasefire at this point.
Israel has claimed that Hamas is dragging its feet in returning the bodies of 28 of Gaza’s Israeli-caused captives.
Hamas has stated from the beginning that it requires extensive digging equipment to find and excavate all the bodies of Palestinians who are thought to have perished beneath the rubble of Israel’s bombing.
What conditions were included in the ceasefire?
The US released a 20-point proposal to end the September strike that was mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and Turkiye at the end of September.
The conditions include:
a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza
Israel removing its ban on all aid entering Gaza and putting an end to its interference with its distribution
Hamas is releasing all captives, whether they are alive or dead, from Gaza.
Israel is releasing about 2, 000 Palestinian prisoners and those who have vanished.
Hamas removing itself from Gaza’s governance, which would be in the hands of a technocratic regime.
Israeli forces are slowly leaving Gaza.
Hamas disarms under the agreement, with some members receiving amnesty and others receiving safe passage to other nations.
In its response, Hamas stated that leaving Gaza’s “independent Palestinian administration” would be the only way to release all captives.
The remaining demands on Hamas were, according to the statement, “addressed within an inclusive Palestinian national framework, of which we will be a part and to which we will contribute.”
Did Israel follow the instructions?
At least 97 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.
11 members of the Abu Shaaban family were killed when the Israeli military opened fire on a civilian vehicle on Friday in the Zeitoun neighborhood.
The family was attempting to get to their house with seven children and three women in the vehicle.
In Gaza on Sunday, Israel carried out airstrikes and attacks.
In northern Gaza’s Shujayea neighborhood on Monday, Israel claimed that the Palestinians “posed a threat” to Israeli soldiers after they crossed the unmarked “yellow line” behind which Israel’s army has pulled back. The Israeli army then killed several of them.
Israel also imposed restrictions on aid, keeping the Rafah crossing closed, and announcing to the UN on Tuesday that it would only permit 300 aid trucks, which is half of the deal’s size.
Hamas complied with the conditions, right?
Hamas released all 20 of the captives’ bodies, and it has also recovered and returned 12 of the captives’ bodies, despite accusing Israel of repeatedly violating the ceasefire.
Hamas reiterated its commitment to the ceasefire’s terms on Friday, but Hamas claimed recovery was challenging because of the volume of rubble Israel had created through its relentless bombing.
Hamas claimed that the project would be labor-intensive and impossible to guarantee without new equipment and external support.
More than 10,000 slain Palestinians are still stranded under debris and rubble across Gaza, according to Hamas’ efforts to retrieve their bodies.
Were people able to return home and get aid?
Really, no.
Nearly impossible for those who lived in those neighborhoods to determine the location of their homes has been the result of Israeli bombings that have destroyed entire neighborhoods.
Additionally, many people are afraid of the “invisible yellow line,” which includes those who don’t know whether their home is on the Israeli or Palestinian side of the yellow line.
The yellow line, according to a rough map, covers 58 percent of Gaza and is ultimately under Israeli control.
As Israel continues to obstruct humanitarian aid, food and resources are fatally lacking in the besieged area.
According to a loophole experts told Al Jazeera, the Israeli government did not promise to completely withdraw its forces from Gaza, saying it could maintain a buffer zone until there is no “resurgent terror threat.”
So, has the ceasefire been ended or is it still in effect?
The ceasefire is still in effect, according to US President Trump, who reiterated that US officials would make sure the situation was “very peaceful.”
The Israeli army reported that aid flow had also resumed following Sunday’s Israeli attacks, along with a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hamas has maintained that it will continue to work toward lasting peace and adheres to the ceasefire terms.
Internet monitoring site Downdetector showed a long list of major apps and sites that have been disrupted by an outage at Amazon Web Services, which hosts critical infrastructure for thousands of companies and governments globally.
President Donald Trump expanded on his oft-repeated claim that no president had ever won a war before him during a White House meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He also made an even bolder claim.
On October 17, Trump claimed that if he solved another, he would be referred to as a “peacekeeper.” We’ve never, to the best of my knowledge, had a president who successfully ended a war. Bush (George W.) launched an Iraqi war. Many of them start conflicts, but they never end them. When they are not settled, especially when they are, they don’t have anything to do with us.
At least two presidents have personally overseen negotiations that brought about the end of another nation’s wars, and the US president has omitted several instances where presidents’ designated diplomats have succeeded in reaching peace agreements as a result.
According to David Silbey, a military historian from Cornell University, “it massively exaggerates what he’s done, while ignoring any history of what other presidents have done.”
We did not include conflicts that the United States militarily won and later fought in, such as World War II, in our analysis. Trump claimed that none of the eight wars he claimed to have ended were primarily those that involved the US as a combatant and that they “have nothing to do with us.”
Trump’s “direct involvement in major conflicts, using tools from America’s military might to our superior consumer market, has brought peace to decades-long wars around the world in a way unlike any of his predecessors,” according to White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, is welcomed by US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on October 17, 2025.
Which US presidents have won victories?
In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and 1905, Japan defeated an Asian power for the first time. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt assisted in the mediation of a settlement at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. For his contribution to the end of World War II, Roosevelt received the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize and the 1906 Nobel Prize.
Israel and Egypt had been at war for three decades, alternating between hot and cold war, by the time President Jimmy Carter signed the Camp David Accords on September 17, 1978. The outcome of discussions at Camp David’s presidential retreat was the agreement. The 1978 Nobel Peace Prize was presented to Sadat and Begin.
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and their aides gathered at Camp David, Maryland, on September 7, 1978. [File: Jimmy Carter Library/REUTERS]
Which wars did US diplomats intervene in while the president was in office?
Bosnian War: The Story
Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia’s presidents reached a peace deal in Dayton, Ohio, putting an end to the 1992-broken Bosnian War. Leaders from Europe and Russia were the main US officials in the Dayton Accords negotiations, including veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke and Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Bill Clinton was the US president at the time.
Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”
Prior to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, sectarian violence between Protestants and Catholics in the United Kingdom-administered Northern Ireland persisted for roughly three decades.
It was spearheaded by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who established shuttle diplomacy, which involves a facilitator negotiating between Washington and Belfast while traveling between the parties in reverse. Clinton served as president at the time.
Sudan’s civil war
The Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement came about as a result of negotiations led by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and the Sudanese government. At the time of the 2005 agreement, George W. Bush served as president. South Sudan was established as a result of a referendum in 2011.
What has Trump previously said about resolving conflict?
Trump repeatedly and repeatedly repeats his exaggerated claim that he has won six, seven, or eight wars.
Trump contributed to the ceasefires that recently slowed tensions between Armenia, Iran, and Israel. However, these were primarily incremental agreements with little chance of lasting peace. Some leaders also contest how significant a role Trump plays.
Although the US participated in a protracted peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, violence has continued there and killed hundreds of civilians. The nations alleged ceasefire violations after Trump’s assistance in brokering a deal between Cambodia and Thailand.
Unresolved is the ongoing conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia over an Ethiopian dam on the Nile River. There is little evidence that a potential war was brewing in the cases of Kosovo and Serbia.
Trump has made some notable progress recently, most recently by achieving an agreement to end Israel’s occupation of Gaza. It will take time to see if peace prevails because the agreement has multiple stages.
Trump has cited his diplomatic prowess as meriting a Nobel Peace Prize for weeks.
Trump said in a speech on September 23 at the UN that “everyone believes that I should receive the Nobel Peace Prize for each of these accomplishments.”
Maria Corina Machado, the head of Venezuela’s opposition, was awarded the Nobel Prize on October 10 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.”
Our decision
Trump once said, “We’ve never had a president who solved a war, not a war.”
At least two US presidents, Carter and Roosevelt, personally negotiated peace agreements that won some of the participants Nobel Prizes.
Several other presidents have watched as their elected officials reach peace agreements.
The statement is deemed false by us.  ,  ,
