Spain’s prime minister skips Trump’s UNGA reception as tensions with Washington deepen and pressure mounts over Morocco. Ever since Volodymyr Zelensky was ambushed and humiliated in the Oval Office, world leaders have learned to keep their distance from Donald Trump when relations turn sour. Or at least, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has. Last night,…
From Trump’s AI renaming to Guterres’s “law of power,” a day of competing visions at the UN Today was what UN reporters informally call “Trump Day”—a reference to Donald Trump’s ability to dominate the news cycle whenever he stops by UN Headquarters. Trump’s speech appeared more controlled than last year’s, though he still made headlines…
Along the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, global leaders and dealmakers gather to celebrate Africa’s present and claim its future. Global leaders in finance, government, and civil society gathered in New York City for two days this week for Unstoppable Africa, an event that promotes investment, business development, and prosperity…
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is using its Security Council presidency to spotlight the link between minerals and conflict, while its own resource wealth continues to expose the limits of international law and accountability. For the first time in more than 30 years, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will assume the rotating…
BY 2030, 3 billion people will need access to adequate housing—an unmet need that amounts to roughly 96,000 new affordable, accessible homes every day. By 2030, 3 billion people will need access to adequate housing—an unmet need that amounts to roughly 96,000 new affordable, accessible homes every day, according to UN-Habitat. That gap…
For Ethiopian and Eritrean comics, family migration routes, refugee histories and diaspora restaurants have become the infrastructure of a new transnational scene. On a breezy Tuesday evening, lanky Simone Shiferaw—whose stage name is Chifforobe—is pacing outside a restaurant on U Street. Positioning himself before commuters emerging from a nearby Metro station, he hands out…
As diaspora crowds cheered Khamenei’s death, rival opposition camps are still battling over what comes next. From above the crowd, a man’s voice booms out from a speaker like thunder. He chants, slowly at first, in Farsi, “We are a proud and great nation. We will reclaim Iran from tyranny!” and the people standing…
As war broke out during the Paralympic Games, a new initiative seeks to name and shame violators of the millennia-old Olympic Truce. The final event of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics featured a fiercely competitive hockey game between arguably the two best men’s teams. On February 22, 2026, the United States upset…
Security Council diplomats backed a Gaza reconstruction body. What emerged became Donald Trump’s most powerful personal institution yet. It had been two years of conflict with no end in sight, and diplomats came to the inevitable conclusion that one country, and one country only, had the power to stop the hostilities in Gaza:…
The current international order is under strain. Article 109 offers a chance to renew it by updating the U.N. Charter. World leaders are ringing the death knell of the international order. The current order’s largest backer, the United States, seems to have abandoned it – instead seeking to reshape international relations in a new…
At United Nations Headquarters, cocktail receptions are rarely where geopolitical tremors become visible. Diplomatic gatherings in New York tend to follow a familiar script. Journalists attend them regularly, knowing that behind the polite conversations and glasses of wine, there is rarely much substance. Speeches are usually cautious, carefully calibrated not to disturb the delicate balance…
As the Donroe Doctrine shakes up Latin America, Brazil rethinks its longtime security policy. The capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela last January sent political shockwaves in Brazil, some of which may reverberate for years to come. Hours after the military operation, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ordered his generals to assess the…
Tonight, many of us will walk around our homes and have the luxury of flipping on a light switch, reading a book to our children before bed, or having a porch light on for security without thinking twice. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, hundreds of millions of families will ration light or spend…
Ancestral governance meets state-led negotiation at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues As the United Nations prepares for the 25th session of the UN Permanent Forum on. Indigenous Issues, leaders heading to New York are getting ready for discussions extending far beyond ceremonial acknowledgment. The forum has become a strategic arena where they can…
The latest report from the World Meteorological Organization paints a clear picture: the Earth’s climate system is increasingly out of equilibrium. As it explains, “the amount of incoming radiation exceeds the amount of outgoing radiation… [and] heat is accumulating in the Earth’s climate.” This imbalance is intensifying. “In 2025, the observed Earth energy imbalance (EEI)…
Data Privacy and Human Rights: Balancing Security and Civil Liberties in the Age of Terrorism The Day the Phone Rang In a quiet neighborhood in Nairobi, Amina’s phone rang one morning with a message she didn’t understand. It wasn’t spam—it was a notification from a digital ID system designed to protect citizens from terrorism….
