The United Nations Secretary-General has urged the Islamic Emirate to review and remove restrictions imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan, calling for their full, equal and meaningful participation in all areas of life.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres also called for the immediate lifting of restrictions on Afghan women working for the United Nations and urged authorities to ensure their safe and unhindered access to UN facilities across the country.

According to UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, September 7 marks one year since Afghan women were barred from entering UN facilities nationwide.

Guterres said unhindered access to workplaces for UN staff and the delivery of assistance to vulnerable people, particularly women and girls, are essential.

He added that enabling women to deliver humanitarian assistance and essential services to other women and girls is necessary for an effective and principled humanitarian response.

The UN said restrictions on women and girls affect all aspects of their lives, including their participation in public life, education and many areas of employment. It warned that the restrictions also pose serious obstacles to Afghanistan’s economic development, stability and reintegration into the international community.

Previously, the Islamic Emirate said the issue of Afghan female UN staff working in Afghanistan had been addressed in accordance with Afghan laws and domestic conditions.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to unveil on Monday a ​boost in EU investments in Greenland and closer political ties with the Danish Arctic territory, which Donald Trump ‌has insisted should belong to the United States, Reuters reported.

Von der Leyen arrived in Greenland on Sunday for a two-day visit serving as a show of support for the governments of Greenland and Denmark, which have strongly rebuffed Trump’s campaign to annex the world’s largest island.

The head of the 27-nation European ​Union’s executive body, von der Leyen is expected to unveil plans to invest in sectors including critical minerals, satellite ​communications and renewable energy in Greenland, a semi-autonomous part of the Danish realm.

On Sunday in Nuuk, ⁠the capital, von der Leyen said the package would be “substantial” but gave no details. Greenland Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen said his ​country wanted to build on its “close friendship and good partnership” with the EU.

Von der Leyen’s visit reflects the increasing geopolitical importance ​of the Arctic to major powers, such as the United States, Russia, China and Europe, as melting ice opens new shipping routes to make the region’s mineral wealth more accessible.

“Greenland’s stunning landscapes and natural beauty will stay with me for a long time. But so will the ​visible scars of climate change on the ice sheet,” von der Leyen posted on X after a boat trip under ​clear blue skies in a fjord scattered with chunks of ice.

“As the ice melts, a new reality is taking shape.”

Trump, the U.S. president, sparked a crisis in U.S.-European ties and turmoil within the transatlantic NATO military alliance this year when he stepped up his demands for the U.S. to control Greenland, arguing that fellow NATO member Denmark could not defend it.

European officials stressed Greenland is part of NATO territory, meaning it is covered by the alliance’s mutual defence pact, and that ​the U.S. already has the ​right to increase its military ⁠presence there under a longstanding treaty.

Tensions lowered after Trump and NATO boss Mark Rutte agreed in Davos in January that the United States, Denmark and Greenland would begin talks to resolve ​their differences and NATO would step up its role in Arctic security, read the report.

However, the trilateral talks ​have yet to ⁠yield an agreement and, at a NATO summit in Turkey in July, Trump restated his insistence that the U.S. should control Greenland.

While Denmark is a member of the EU, Greenland left the bloc in 1985. But its people, as Danish citizens, are also citizens ⁠of the ​EU.

The EU has long provided funding to Greenland, mainly to pay for ​fishing rights and support its education system. The package to be announced by von der Leyen will represent not only a big increase in funding but ​a broadening of the sectors that will receive EU cash, according to EU officials.

An average of 10 commodity ships transited the Strait of Hormuz per day over the past 10 days, the lowest since ​May, according to shipping data on Monday, after U.S. and Iranian ‌strikes on tankers, Reuters reported.

The 10-day moving average was 10 on Sunday, down from more than 15 on Friday and nearly 13 on Saturday, data from analytics firm Kpler found.

Only two ​vessels passed through the strait on Saturday while six went through on ​Sunday, mostly using the Iranian route.

U.S. forces struck three Iranian ⁠oil tankers on Saturday, U.S. Central Command said, including one off Kharg Island, Iran’s ​key oil export hub, following attacks by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on U.S. ​warships in the region.

In retaliation, the IRGC navy said on Saturday it targeted three oil tankers travelling unauthorized routes in the strait as well as three additional U.S. vessels in other areas.

The ​three Iranian tankers were Downy, Stark I and Kylo, also known as ​Noxen, maritime intelligence firm Marisks said in a note.

The Saturday attacks represented a “major escalation in the maritime conflict”, ‌Marisks said.

“Commercial ⁠tankers are now being deliberately used as instruments of reciprocal economic pressure, substantially weakening the previous distinction between military confrontation and commercial shipping,” it added.

“Risk is therefore assessed as extreme for Iranian/Iran-linked tonnage and materially elevated for U.S.-linked ​or U.S.-escorted shipping throughout ​the Strait of ⁠Hormuz and Gulf of Oman.”

There have been 27 projectile strike incidents since July 6, resulting in damage to vessels operating in ​and around the Strait of Hormuz, the United Kingdom Maritime ​Trade Operations (UKMTO) ⁠said in its weekly report.

On Sunday, one very large crude carrier and three bulk carriers laden with metals, grains or oilseeds entered the strait, Kpler data showed.

A ⁠tanker ​carrying refined products loaded from a Saudi port attempted ​to exit but was turned back, data from LSEG showed.

There has been no VLCC exiting the strait ​since Wednesday, according to Kpler data.