Fox News Mission to the United Nations

Heather Nauert, a former Fox News personality and current State Department PR flack, has been tapped by President Trump as Nikki Haley‘s replacement as U.N. Ambassador. Ms. Nauert has shown a fine grasp of diplomacy in her current position at State:

She also accompanied Secretary of State Pompeo to Saudia Arabia for a grim discussion about the torture and murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi, marking the solemn occasion by posting a grinning tourist self-portrait on Instagram.

Heather Nauert has been at the State Department for 19 months. That’s her first and only government experience.

“Ms. Nauert is one of numerous television personalities with roles in Mr. Trump’s as-seen-on-TV administration. Mr. Bolton was a Fox contributor, and Bill Shine, a former Fox co-president, serves as deputy chief of staff. Larry Kudlow, a longtime CNBC host, stars as the president’s chief economic adviser.”

— “Heather Nauert’s Pick as U.N. Envoy Hints at Reshaping of the Role,” Peter Baker and Michael M. Grynbaum, New York Times

More:

“Three Takeaways as Trump Picks Former Fox Anchor for UN Envoy Post,” John T. Bennett, Roll Call

“Who is Heather Nauert? The new UN ambassador with little experience,” Julian Borger, The Guardian

“What do most U.N. ambassadors have in common? Decades of experience.” Adam Taylor, Washington Post

“Heather Nauert Says Visit to ‘It’s a Small World’ Ride Qualifies Her For U.N. Job,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

_______________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-suP

Top Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

What Santa and Putin Have In Common

Santa Claus and Vladimir Putin have something in common: They both live in Russia. If the UN says so, anyway.

Russia has submitted a formal bid to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) claiming more than 463,000 square miles of Arctic Ocean seabed, including the North Pole. Russia says that the underwater Lomonosov and Mendeleev Ridges under the Arctic are extensions of the country’s continental shelf. In December, Denmark claimed most of the same territory, saying the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of Greenland. Norway and Canada are preparing similar claims. Russia made a symbolic stunt claiming the Pole in 2007, putting a titanium flag on the sea floor under the ice cap.

Why would anyone want the Arctic seafloor, anyway? Oil and gas. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are reserves of 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas there, 22 percent of the world’s unrecovered oil and natural gas, and with Global Warming it’s becoming more accessible.

Another nation with interests in the Arctic is ineligible to file a UN claim, since it’s not a signatory of the Convention on the Law of the Sea: The United States of America.

7 Billion People, 6 Billion Cell Phones

“There are seven billion people on earth, and six billion cell phone contracts …. China and India each have about one billion cell phone subscriptions. Twice as many people have access to the Internet via cell phones, as those with fixed connections.”

“Six Billion Cell Phones In World Of Seven Billion,” Worldcrunch

The figures are from the annual report of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies.

More:

“ITU releases latest global technology development figures,” ITU press release

Measuring the Information Society 2012 — download it from this webpage.

______________

Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-eBe

Image (“Young Beauty With iPhone, after Kikugawa Eizan”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Bush Legacy

President George W. Bush has been traveling in Europe on his “Farewell Tour.” Time magazine says that as Mr. Bush leaves Europe he “eyes his legacy.” At home, members of his foreign affairs team struggle to find positive accomplishments and recast them as a historic “legacy.”

I don’t know about the President’s legacy, but I hope he had a chance to “eye” his future, and that Air Force One took a side trip to view the The Hague in the Netherlands. Mr. Bush may be spending much of his time there, in the building pictured above: The International Court of Justice, better known as the World Court.

That is where the United Nations tries those accused of War Crimes.

I hope this doesn’t cost him his next job.

 

Teddy Bear Tribulations

British teacher Gillian Gibbons is in a Khartoum jail for 15 days, convicted of insulting Islam for letting her seven-year-old Sudanese students name a teddy bear Mohammad.

The British Foreign Office wants to get her out sooner. Her attorney wants to appeal. An orderly crowd of a thousand left the peace of local mosques on Friday to ride around in open trucks, brandishing ceremonial swords and calling for Ms. Gibbons’ head.

Termite Guts

While you were home stuffing yourself with stuffed fowl and watching college teams on TV, teams of scientists really scored. They took a big step towards getting the bugs that are eating your house to reveal secrets that will power you car.

The November 22nd edition of the journal Nature has articles detailing how “termite guts can save the planet,” as Nobel Laureate Steven Chu put it back in 2005.