How Diplomats Date: Behind the Scenes of Love Lives in High-Stakes Positions
From carefully worded online dating profiles to explicit bans on foreign partners, diplomats navigate romance…
How Diplomats Date: Behind the Scenes of Love Lives in High-Stakes Positions
From carefully worded online dating profiles to explicit bans on foreign partners, diplomats navigate romance in an environment where relationships are bound by protocol, politics, and the ticking clock of their next posting. A diplomat’s love life is rarely straightforward between rotating postings, strict security rules, and the never-ending suspicion that intimacy might double as…
Heritage for Humanity UNESCO adds 26 new sites To World Heritage List
From sacred landscapes to sites of remembrance, UNESCO’s 2025 additions reflect a global commitment to cultural resilience, ecological unity, and the power of local voices. In a world often marked by division, the enduring legacy of shared history took center stage once again in Paris, where the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee…
How Loan Trading Could Transform Developing Economies
By opening the door for banks to trade loans, developing countries could unlock billions in untapped capital, giving small businesses and everyday borrowers a fair shot at growth. In much of the developing world, the story is frustratingly familiar: small businesses with big ambitions can’t get the financing they need, and individuals with valuable property…
Climate Doomsday? Why There’s Still Room for Climate Optimism
We are definitely not on track to reach the climate targets of the Paris Agreement. In about two years, humanity will have used up the remaining carbon budget – that is, the emissions that can still be released to the atmosphere – consistent with the goal of keeping global warming to below 1.5°C. Yet, despite…
The World’s Health Sends an S.O.S.
Between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years, the steepest decline in decades. The World Health Organization’s 2025 data reads like a warning siren: the world’s health gains are stalling, and the 2030 goals are slipping further out of reach. Rising anxiety and depression during the pandemic also erased nearly six weeks…
Guterres pushes U.N. reform as organization marks 80 years
Can the United Nations reinvent itself at 80? Inside U.N. chief António Guterres’ bold gamble to streamline mandates, tame finances, and keep diplomacy alive. Reform has already begun to feel passé as the months of this year have rolled by. Projecting into the future makes policy and peace processes harder to chart, especially in an…
UNGA80 Highlights: “The World Speaks and Clashes”
The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly opened with all the pomp and pageantry the annual diplomatic jamboree demands. But beneath the flags, motorcades, and speeches, the week revealed a world at odds with itself — divided by war, shaken by climate breakdown, and uncertain whether the UN, now an octogenarian, still has…
What’s Your Place In History?
On October 24, 1791, a man named Douwe Posthuma passed out drunk in a tavern in Amsterdam. His behavior, obviously, wasn’t welcomed back home, and the brawl between father and son ended up in the records of street conflicts. A relatively unremarkable family feud seemed to have been forgotten in history until it emerged more…
G4 Ministers Renew Push for UN Security Council Reform at 80th UNGA
The foreign ministers of Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan – the so-called G4 nations – renewed their demand for urgent reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), calling for an expansion in both permanent and non-permanent membership to reflect “contemporary geopolitical realities.” Meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s 80th session, Foreign…
Security Council Confronts AI
The United Nations Security Council will hold a high-level open debate on Wednesday on artificial intelligence (AI) under the “Maintenance of international peace and security” agenda, chaired by Republic of Korea President Lee Jae Myung. Briefings will come from UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Yoshua Bengio and Yejin Choi (Stanford University). The debate will explore AI’s…
A Clash of Visions: Survival vs. Sovereignty on the World Stage
The United Nations turned 80 this week, but the milestone felt less like a celebration than a stress test. From the green-marble podium of the General Assembly, leaders laid bare their visions for the future. Secretary-General António Guterres pleaded for unity in the face of multiplying crises. General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock pressed for renewed…
The UN Turns 80. Gaza Won’t Let It Celebrate.
The United Nations opens its 80th General Assembly this week, a milestone session meant to celebrate eight decades of diplomacy and collective action. Yet the mood in New York is anything but celebratory. The war in Gaza, grinding on into its second year, has left more than 65,000 Palestinians dead and pushed the enclave to…
UN at 80: Leaders Confront War, Climate and AI at Historic Assembly
The United Nations opens its 80th General Assembly session Tuesday, Sept. 23, with world leaders gathering in New York amid global crises. The annual debate, the diplomatic centerpiece of the UN calendar, runs through Sept. 29 under the theme: “Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.” Leaders from 193 member…
UN revises 2026 budget downward by 13.5%, safeguards key programs
Regular budget reduced to $11.6 billion; peacekeeping support trimmed 15% but aid for refugees and technical cooperation preserved. Secretariat trims regular and peacekeeping accounts while maintaining support for UNHCR, UNRWA, and development in fragile states. The United Nations Secretariat has released revised estimates for its 2026 program budget and the 2025/26 Support Account for peacekeeping,…
At UN80, Guterres Warns of a World at Breaking Point
As the United Nations opens its 80th General Assembly this week, Secretary-General António Guterres stood before journalists in New York and delivered a blunt assessment: The world is drifting toward “an endless nightmare” of conflict, inequality, and institutional paralysis. His words were not just a curtain-raiser for a week of diplomacy, but a stark reminder of what…
Closing the Gender Digital Divide: A $1.5 Trillion Opportunity
The world stands at a crossroads. A new report, Gender Snapshot 2025, released by UN Women and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), offers a stark but hopeful picture: with the right investments, gender equality is not only within reach but could transform global societies and economies. The report highlights striking…
