You may recall an explosive Wall Street Journal article from January which credibly reported an allegation that 10% of UNRWA’s Gaza staff of 13,000 were affiliated with Hamas. It was revealed this week that the paper can’t confirm these claims. Neither can other media outlets that have probed the matter. But the damage is done. UNRWA lost significant funding, including from the USA. Meanwhile, this week the UN’s internal watchdog said it can confirm that 9 UNRWA staff took part in the October 7 attacks—a far cry from the Wall Street Journal allegations, but still not good.
Our second segment looks at how the UN is approaching the war in Sudan, which by the numbers is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. We discuss a Security Council meeting on Darfur featuring the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and a second meeting on the humanitarian crisis, including a recent report showing famine conditions are spreading among 500,000 people in a vast IDP camp in Darfur.
In our third segment, we discuss the International Seabed Authority, which is an entity created by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that seeks to regulate deep sea mining. The International Seabed Authority recently had a hotly contested election for Secretary General that pitted an incumbent favored by industry against a challenger preferred by conservationists and scientists.
This episode is freely available across all podcast listening platforms including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. You can also listen directly in Substack.
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What Kamala Harris thinks about the UN
What Project 2025 Suggests About How a Second Trump Administration Would approach the UN.
A deep dive into China’s true intentions at the UN
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Spurious Accusations Against UNRWA | Sudan in the Spotlight | Drama at International Seabed Authority!