On Monday, drones struck Khartoum’s international airport, the first attack on the capital in months, shattering a fragile return to normalcy. Just one week prior, the airport had received its first international arrival since the civil war began, a Kuwait Airways flight bringing back 300 Sudanese citizens.

Sudan’s military said it had conclusive evidence the drones were launched from Bahir Dar airport in Ethiopia and constituted what it referred to as “direct aggression.” Khartoum recalled its ambassador to Addis Ababa. Ethiopia denied everything, calling the accusations “baseless” and made “at the behest of external patrons” — a likely reference to Egypt, which backs Sudan’s army and is locked in an existential dispute with Addis Ababa over the Nile water rights.

Egypt’s foreign ministry in turn, described attacks launched from “the territory of a neighbouring country” as a flagrant violation of Sudanese sovereignty — language that condemned Ethiopia without triggering a formal diplomatic rupture. Saudi Arabia called on “neighbouring countries of Sudan” to respect Sudan’s sovereignty and prohibit the use of their territory “as a launchpad for such attacks,” a formulation that managed simultaneously to condemn Ethiopia, and gesture toward its own backing of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

COP31 President-Designate, H.E. Murat Kurum today outlined how Türkiye’s model of urban reconstruction following the 2023 earthquake represents a vision of scaling up climate action in cities.

During his keynote address at the ‘Türkiye’s road to COP31: Resilient Cities’ event, he outlined a vision “to make resilient, sustainable and people-centred cities one of the main pillars of the global climate agenda.”

Mr. Kurum, who will lead the annual UN climate summit COP31 in Antalya this November and serves as Türkiye’s Minister for Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, has led the ministry’s reconstruction effort which has already rebuilt almost half a million homes across the affected region.

Speaking at an international conference in Hatay, one of the epicenters of the destruction, Mr. Kurum set out how the COP31 President sees the November conference as “a platform for solutions – one that responds to the challenges of cities, makes the capacity of local governments visible, and turns words into concrete results.”

He explained the Presidency’s intention to make resilient cities one of the fundamental priorities of the international climate agenda “because globally, we must reduce emissions from buildings.”

The UN Secretary-General’s Independent High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP released a report proposing the first global blueprint for how countries can assess progress that complements Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Expert Group’s report presents a dashboard of globally applicable indicators that provides a new compass of progress for people and planet.

For decades, GDP has guided major policy decisions at every level worldwide. While it remains an essential measure of economic output, relying on GDP alone risks an incomplete picture of progress — one where the economy can grow even as critical dimensions of well-being, like safety or environmental quality, deteriorate sharply.  

The case for a broader understanding of progress has never been more urgent. People around the world are growing disillusioned with economic and political systems, and environmental crises are intensifying by the day — all while GDP continues to climb.  

The 7th Africa Climate Talks concluded in Addis Ababa with a strong call for Africa to strengthen its negotiating capacity, build wider coalitions, and position COP32 as a decisive moment for climate implementation, accountability, and resilience.

Presenting the highlights of the 30th April to 1 May, meeting, Cosmas Ochieng, Director of the Climate Change, Food Security and Natural Resources Division at the Economic Commission for Africa, said the 7th Africa Climate Talks focused on positioning COP32 for success in three priority areas: strengthening Africa’s negotiating capacity; building broader coalitions around implementable outcomes; and advancing measures outside the formal convention process that can support the goals of COP32.

Held on the margins of the 12th African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development ahead of the 2026 COP31 in Türkiye and the 2027 COP32 in Addis Ababa, the meeting brought together African climate negotiators, experts, policymakers, scientists and civil society representatives to consolidate Africa’s post-COP30 climate agenda and define a coordinated continental approach toward future climate negotiations.