Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research
Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research

BLUE SMOKE: A monthly column, from PassBlue and UNA–UK, spotlighting senior appointments at the UN

Russia-Ukraine war

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Elina Valtonen, Finland’s foreign affairs minister, told PassBlue that her country joined NATO this year for security reasons, given that Finland has the longest border with Russia in Europe — 830 miles north to south — and Russian troops…

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Welcome to This Week @UN, where we summarize the most important news coming out of the organization. This week, world leaders descended on New York City for the opening debate of the 78th session of the General Assembly. It…

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Burkina Faso hit out at the “diplomatic hypocrisy” of France, the United Nations and other West African states for their treatment of Sahelian countries and threats to Niger, including its exclusion from speaking at the General Assembly, a story…

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Russia Blames the West, an ‘Empire of Lies,’ for All Global Ills —  Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov used his speech on Saturday, toward the end of the United Nations General Assembly’s annual debate, to recite many of the…

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Barbados: The Time for Reparative Justice Has Come — Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Amor Mottley said that reparative justice is inevitable for countries that suffered the horrendous consequences of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to develop economically. She made…

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His Peace Plan Will Save Both Ukraine and the UN, Zelensky Says — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine promoted his 10-point peace formula to the United Nations Security Council, meant to end Russia’s war in his country. Among the…

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Biden Pushes Global Unity as Russia Keeps Demolishing Ukraine —  President Joe Biden called for unity and partnership as world leaders gathered at what he described as an “inflection point in world history,” where nations must work together to…

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The common thread woven across the dozens of speeches by world leaders at the opening of the two-day United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Summit was a clarion call for faster progress toward achieving the goals’ deadline of 2030. National…

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We are back with our ever-popular weekly summary after a pause in August, grappling with the hottest summer on record. We continued to publish exclusive stories, provocative opinion pieces and a podcast episode, staying active on Twitter (X), Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Follow us…

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Albania is proposing the creation of a digital platform to complement the United Nations’ humanitarian aid system, drawing donations from corporations and foundations to help alleviate the growing desperation of people across the world. Ferit Hoxha, Albania’s ambassador to…

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It is no secret that United Nations mediation is in a state of decline. The UN is no longer in the lead role in conflict countries where the secretary-general and his representatives or special envoys are mandated to provide…

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Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has not discouraged the United Nations from buying millions of dollars of goods and services from Moscow, according to the latest annual statistical report on UN procurement, published in July. In 2022, UN purchases…

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Hundreds of cluster munitions have been used on Ukrainian territory since the full-scale war began in February 2022 as countries across the world have continuously condemned their deployment. Now it appears that the munitions the United States is sending…

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The United States and 90 other countries took a formal stand against weaponizing food in conflicts last week, while more than half — 102 United Nations member states — declined to sign the communiqué pledging to condemn the use…

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The United States is urging the global South to call out Russia’s aggression in Ukraine as many parts of the world continue to confront food insecurity because of the 17-month-old war. Robert Wood, an alternate ambassador for the US…

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UNGA78: A quiz from PassBlue
Online Program Enrolling Now - Seton Hall - United Nations Institute for Training and Research

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