Seton Hall Graduate Degree in International Affairs
Seton Hall Graduate Degree in International Affairs

BLUE SMOKE: A new monthly newsletter, from PassBlue and UNA–UK, which shines a spotlight on senior appointments at the UN

Covid-19

LEAVE A COMMENT
This week, for World Press Freedom Day, the UN spotlighted the growing dangers — including murder — journalists face worldwide. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
On the last day of global leaders’ speeches at the opening of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the array of countries on the roster ranged from Israel to Iceland, from Algeria to North Korea, from…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
As just about every expert agrees, breast milk beats formula on every score, from the health of the baby to out-of-pocket costs. But that hasn’t stopped formula makers from pushing their products, cutting deeply into breastfeeding rates around the…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
As outbreaks of Covid-19 cases spike again in many places worldwide, the United Nations Secretariat in New York City faces reopening decisions that pit some staff members’ interests against those of UN member states. Pressure is coming from UN…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Liberian Dr. James Soka Moses remembers the West African region’s devastating Ebola outbreak as if it were yesterday: the roaring ambulances, the patients lying on the floor and spilling outside of treatment facilities, the smell of vomit and the…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
During more than a year of tracking the parameters of Covid-19, medical science has made one thing clear: the virus hits the elderly hardest. Yet their vulnerability is often taken as fate. A new international study disagrees. Prejudice, institutional…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Through the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Beirut was spared the catastrophic caseloads that brought many cities around the world to their knees throughout the spring and early summer of 2020, but the port blast on Aug. 4…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
Even with vaccines steadily rolling out in many countries, the end of the Covid-19 pandemic is hardly on the horizon. As countries continue to weave in and out of shutdowns, curfews, virus variants and new deadly waves, the travel and tourism…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
After finally reopening the United Nations Security Council chamber to physical meetings in October, the UN just announced that five members of one national delegation have tested positive for Covid-19. That means ending all in-person meetings in the Council…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
This week we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, as the Covid-19 pandemic highlights our interdependence and the need for global cooperation. Enthusiasm for it, however, is in short supply amid deteriorating Washington-Beijing relations, Brexit and rising…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
For nearly two years, an international group of 17 specialists on the finance frontier have been connecting digital technologies to new sources of money for the faltering Sustainable Development Goals. On Aug. 26, they unveiled an ambitious report on…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
STOCKHOLM — For those of us who have tried to keep up with the international commentary on Sweden’s response to Covid-19 during the last months, it has been bewildering. As Sweden failed to contain the coronavirus at its borders…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
“Yes, there’s always the fear of being kidnapped,” said Óscar, a 30-year old asylum seeker who fled political persecution in Cuba in May 2019 and landed in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, where violent crime and gang…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
If pundits were to be believed earlier in August, there was a chance for a historic vice-presidential debate in 2020: two women of color facing off for the second-highest position in the United States. The speculation was that Nikki…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
LEAVE A COMMENT
The devastating series of explosions that rocked Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, on Aug. 4, killed nearly 200 people, injured thousands of others, destroyed most of the city’s port, flattened surrounding neighborhoods, damaged six hospitals and more than 20…

LEAVE A COMMENT

 
Seton Hall Graduate Degree in International Affairs

THIS WEEK'S MOST POPULAR

Global Connections Television - The only talk show of its kind in the world

Don't Miss a Story:

Subscribe to PassBlue

Sign up to get the smartest news on the UN by email, joining readers across the globe.​

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously​