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With Trump Republicans withholding military support to Ukraine, former National Security Advisor & UN Ambassador John Bolton made headlines with his straight talking- there will be “celebrations in the Kremlin if Trump is re-elected”.

Bolton is one of the few leading Republicans who have dared to highlight the geopolitical consequences of a second Trump Presidency, along with the global and U.S. national security risks of GOP isolationism.

Ambassador Bolton joined us again to share his uninhibited perspective on developments in Russia and Ukraine, the Middle East, Asia and the U.S. He answered questions from international reporters in a briefing moderated by FPA President Ian Williams.

FPA’s briefing with Chris Gunness, former BBC UN World Correspondent and later UNRWA Spokesperson, and Ben Armbruster, Quincy Institute, on UNRWA considered the questions that far too many media failed to ask.



Weeks after too many governments cut funding to UNRWA - in defiance of the ICJ’s admonitions - Israel has not offered the media, or the governments, any evidence for their allegations of UNRWA complicity in the events of October 7. None of the governments claim seeing any evidence, and Israel has not claimed to offer anything more than an empty ‘dodgy dossier’ relaying old and discredited allegations from UNWatch, an Israeli backed pseudo NGO.



Some “respected” newspapers had furloughed IDF service members working on their story which in the case of the New York Times was given equal front page prominence with the ICJ verdict. And when it came time for its big podcast launch, they have now walked it back for justified fear of reputational damage.



The shoot-first approach to coverage of this story and to firing UNWRA employees represent failures of elementary journalistic, employer, and government process to determine the veracity of the serious allegations made by Israel that resulted in cutting off cut funds for food health and education for millions in Gaza and elsewhere. It affects millions in the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon - where there is no sign of Hamas.



While UNWRA is conducting an investigation, a fundamental question remains - if a dozen people in an organization of 13,000 participated in the October 7 attacks on Israel – is it an appropriate response to try to shut down the whole organization and starve millions as a form of collective punishment?



Watch the full briefing which was moderated by FPA President, Ian Williams, and Al Jazeera NY Correspondent and FPA Board Member, Kristen Saloomey.

Children account for 13% of all AIDS-related deaths even though they comprise 4% of all people living with HIV globally. For over 35 years, the Elizabeth Glaser AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) has championed the needs of children and their families in the global efforts to eliminate AIDS. EGPAF has reached over 35 million pregnant women with services to prevent transmission of HIV to their babies.Furthermore, EGPAF’s global political and advocacy teams work to safeguard programs such as PEPFAR, which is mission critical to end AIDS in children, youth and families. EGPAF offers HIV counseling, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services in 15,000 sites across 17 different countries in sub-Saharan Africa where the burden of pediatric AIDS is highest.Join us for a conversation with EGPAF’s President and CEO, Charles “Chip” Lyons where we talk about EGPAF’s work, the state of the global pediatric AIDS crisis, and the need to remain vigilant in the fight to end pediatric AIDS.

With more than 20,000 Palestinians dead, areas of Gaza turned to rubble, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has yet to investigate either Israel or Hamas for the deaths on and after 7 October– despite his exemplary hair trigger speed against Vladimir Putin for war crimes committed in Ukraine.

With South Africa's referral of Israel to the International Court of Justice for genocide, and the U.S.’s continued strong support for the Netanyahu government’s military response as geopolitical context, many are looking for the International Criminal Court to take action - if only as a warning to the parties, but so far Karim Khan, the British barrister serving as ICC prosecutor, shows no sign of action, reinforcing allegations of “rich country justice."

Two close up observers of the process Hasmik Egian and Mouin Rabbani gave their take in the indispensable Pass Blue and will try to explain to the media International legal impotence in the face of alleged Israeli actions.

Antonio Guterres has invoked his little used powers to convene a Security Council meeting on Gaza and the US vetoed it. Ironically the day after, 9th December, was the International Day of Commemoration & Dignity of Victims of the Crime of Genocide & Prevention of this Crime. This past week also saw the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!

Is there a Middle Eastern dimension outside this universe where Universal Jurisdiction on Human Rights doesn’t apply?

Where are the warrants for the arrests of Hamas and Israeli leadership for crimes far more flagrant than those alleged against Vladimir Putin?

Craig Mokhiber, who resigned as NY Director for UN Commission on Human Rights over UN passivity on Gaza, discussed how human rights are impeded at the UN, the parlous prospects for Human Rights enforcement, and what the media’s role in it is with FPA President Ian Williams.

George Orwell practiced what many journalists preach, truth-telling in the face of pressure.​But decades later it’s like Groundhog Day. Perennially, politicians stage a new "deja vu all over again" action replay of Animal Farm and 1984. As Masha Karp points out, the second translation of Orwell’s fable was into Ukrainian - and thousands of copies were confiscated by the American Occupation authorities in Germany! Karp, former features editor for the BBC Russian Service goes into the Russian origins of Orwell’s worldview and reveals the author’s family connection with the Soviets and  Esperanto, the artificial language that preceded Newspeak!

https://neweasterneurope.eu/2023/09/11/orwells-warning-of-totalitarianism-for-today/ https://www.historytoday.com/archive/review/george-orwell-and-russia-masha-karp-review https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/george-orwell-and-russia-9781788317139/Masha Karp is a leading scholar on the work of George Orwell.  Born in Leningrad, USSR (now St Petersburg, Russia), she also translated George Orwell’s Animal Farm and its original preface ‘The Freedom of the Press’.In 1991 she moved to London to work first as a producer  (1991-1997) and then as Russian Features editor (1997-2009) for the BBC World Service. Her biography of Orwell was the first to be published in Russia.