Reuters is reporting that Ban Ki Moon will nominate veteran Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres as executive director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The outgoing chief, Yvo de Boer, announced his retirement a few months ago, setting off an international race to become the next top climate diplomat. Here's what I wrote of that race at the time:
Christina Aguilera recently became a Good Will Ambassador for the World Food Program.
This absolutely defies comprehension.
Don't miss Una's post on this topic. A few weeks ago, she noted.
Yesterday, U.S. lawmakers passed the "Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009", a bill that will require the United States to design and implement a comprehensive strategy with multilateral and regional partners to address the violence perpetrated by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The bill, which was co-sponsored by a coalition of Republican and Democrat representatives, is the most widely cosponsored legislation focused on sub-Saharan Africa in modern American history.
The General Assembly will vote for the newest members of the UN Human Rights Council today. Here's the slate of candidates:
Some heartbreaking and frightening video of the BP Gulf oil spill.
An unexpected bit of good news I encountered at the end of my day: a new report Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity says that US giving overseas held steady in 2008. Despite the financial crisis, Americans continued to donate to international charities.
A couple of recent developments seem to belie the notion that the UN is somehow intractibly anti-Israel. First, we had the staunchly pro-Israel (and Jewish) chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee argue that Obama's policy of engagement at the UN served both American and Israeli interests.
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Howard Berman has touted the Obama administration's policy of engaging the United Nations. In a "Dear Colleague" letter to members of congress, Rep. Berman says the Obama administration "reaped important dividends, both for the United States and Israel" through its decision to join the Human Rights Council and by fighting anti-Israel resolutions at UNESCO.