BREAKING: “The Secretary-General welcomes and is encouraged by the statement issued by Hamas announcing its readiness to release hostages and to engage on the basis of the recent proposal by US President Donald J. Trump. He urges all parties to seize the opportunity to bring the tragic conflict in Gaza to an end. The Secretary-General also thanks Qatar and Egypt for their invaluable mediation work. The Secretary-General reiterates his consistent call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and unfettered humanitarian access.The United Nations will support all efforts toward these objectives to prevent even more suffering.”

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• Our #1 story this week: Special Report UNGA80: Lavrov of Russia; Barbados, China, Niger, Germany, Burkina Faso, by Anton Ferreira

• UNGA80 thank you to NYU: PassBlue collaborated with a group of graduate students in Global Journalism studies at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, to report on the high-level week of the 80th General Assembly. The collaboration was made possible by Azadeh Moaveni, associate professor and director of Global Journalism, and Whitney Dangerfield, publications director at the institute. They not only helped to assign the students to report on at least a dozen world leaders’ speeches and to write feature stories, such as fashion during UNGA80, but they also edited the pieces in record time. With their temporary UN passes, the students worked from the UNGA media tent to fulfill their assignments and witness UNGA’s relentless whirlwind: 83 heads of state; 7 vice presidents or crown princes; 41 heads of government; 4 deputy prime ministers; 45 ministers; 1 vice minister; 8 chairs of delegation (mostly ambassadors) and 3 observers, the UN says. The students proved their journalism talent like pros.

UNGA80 bragging rights: During and immediately after the high-level week, PassBlue was interviewed by Swiss Radio and Television; “Background Briefing with Ian Masters” KPFK-FM 90.7, Los Angeles; moderated a UN Capital Development Fund event; and spoke to a UNITAR public diplomacy and cultural diplomacy class.

US-UN Tracker: On Sept. 23, when President Trump spoke to the General Assembly during high-level week, he complained about the teleprompter, saying to the Hall packed with global delegates, “it is not working.” He added that “Whoever’s operating this teleprompter is in big trouble” to some laughter. He also mentioned that the escalator in the UN that he and his wife, Melania, had just taken to the General Assembly had frozen as the Trumps stepped on it. Much has been written about the escalator. Trump told the Assembly on that Tuesday that the UN gave him “a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter.” Referring to the latter, he added, “By the way, it just went on, thank you.”

That is not the whole story. According to a source, a White House team had asked the UN team operating the device from the UN teleprompter room to leave so the Washington crew could operate the autocue for Trump. The room is located in a tight corner on the right side of the Assembly, above the main floor, amid a warren of photo booths for media. The White House even called for an investigation into the teleprompter (and escalator) gaffe, and the UN immediately said it would carry it out. But officials there are keeping quiet about an inquiry, and as Annalena Baerbock, president of the General Assembly and chairing the Sept. 23 debate from the podium, said, after Trump’s speech, the UN teleprompter is working. — DULCIE LEIMBACH

• Terrible Trio: It is hard to imagine a more terrible trio of leaders to lead a plan for peace in the Middle East than US President Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Trump purports to broker peace while declaring he is Israel’s BFF, standing next to its ICC-indicted prime minister in front of a bunch of Israeli flags, touting a plan on which Netanyahu had the final pen all while he is facilitating Israel’s genocide in Gaza and fantasizing about building a “riviera” on top of the corpses of 20,000 Palestinian children.

Netanyahu claims he seeks peace while flaunting his ability to strike any state in the region, promising to annex the West Bank and occupy more and more Arab land and reassuring his criminal cabinet that there will be no Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and no Palestinian state — dismantling the pillars of Arab support for Trump’s plan that the US president boasted about and betrayed.

Meanwhile, Trump has designated Blair, another warmonger and war criminal, as his partner in the so-called “board of peace.” As former President George W. Bush’s partner in the illegal invasion and brutal occupation of Iraq, Blair is guilty of the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Far from ending the unlawful occupation of Palestine, Blair is more likely to preside over yet another failed American and British occupation of Arab land. In his useless role as the envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, Blair shamelessly made millions in contracts in the region. Far from seeking to end the slaughter and starvation in Gaza, Blair will more likely seek profits from real estate developments on, and natural gas reserves off, Gaza’s coast, usurping what legally belongs to the State of Palestine and its people.

Now that Hamas has agreed to release all the hostages, the terrible trio face a fateful decision: proceed with the plan, legally and morally flawed as it may be, or destroy the last piece of hope for peace in the Middle East. — MONA ALI KHALIL

PassBlue this week:

• Special Report: Lavrov of Russia; Barbados, China, Niger, Germany, Burkina Faso, by Anton Ferreira. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov warned Ukraine’s allies that “any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response,” after accusing European and NATO nations of planning to surround Eurasia. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley told the General Assembly that the Caribbean is a zone of peace rather than of hostilities amid US attacks on Venezuelan boats in the sea. China slammed protectionist trade policies, while Niger accused France of stoking terrorism, with no proof. Calls for a permanent African seat in the Security Council persisted. 

• Special Report: Kyrgyzstan Joins Anti-Nukes Treaty; UAE, Africa’s Finances, Art @UNGA, by Maria Luisa Gambale. Kyrgyzstan signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The United Arab Emirates timidly condemned Israel and called for peace in Sudan, while supporting the opposition Rapid Support Forces. Africa wants to set up its own continent-wide financial institutions; art around New York City to attract diplomats.

• Special Report: For Armenia, ‘Peace Is Established: Joe Penney‘s exclusive interview with the spokesperson of Armenia’s foreign affairs ministry explains the new peace deal with its longtime antagonist, Azerbaijan.

• UN Security Council Approves a Military Force to Fight Gangs in Haiti, by Damilola Banjo

• The Case of Ruben Vardanyan, a Travesty of Justice, op-ed by Hasmik Egian

UN top news:

Monday, Sept. 29

• Spokesperson’s briefing: The UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) is supporting the deployment of a mobile court after the country appointed a high court judge and first-grade judge to Bentiu, the first permanent judges named in Unity state in 12 years. The court will handle criminal and civil matters while facing a backlog of 100 reported criminal cases, including 21 sexual and gender-based violence-related claims.

• When asked by reporters what Secretary-General António Guterres considered the “most successful and most important” topics of the UNGA general debate, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said the 150 heads of states’ willingness to “very seriously” address a spectrum of issues such as climate change, artificial intelligence and the crises in Gaza, Sudan and the Rohingya plight in Myanmar. The “main thing is a commitment by all of the gathered delegates to multilateralism and multilateral solutions, which is needed more than ever.”

Tuesday, Sept. 30

• Spokesperson’s briefing: Guterres said he “welcomes” US President Trump’s announcement to pursue a “ceasefire and sustainable peace” for Gaza, adding that the UN is steadfast in supporting efforts to achieve “peace, stability, and a more hopeful future for the people of Palestine and Israel and across the region.” Guterres said “all parties [must] commit to an agreement and its implementation,” in order to “ease the tremendous suffering caused by this conflict” and “create the conditions allowing for the realization of the two-state solution.”

Wednesday, Oct. 1

• Spokesperson’s briefing: The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said Internet and other telecom services have “been reversed” and air traffic has resumed after a 48-hour nationwide cut made inexplicably by the Taliban, Stéphane Dujarric said. The blackout “risked inflicting multiple negative impacts on the Afghan people,” he added, notably on “economic stability, on the continued grave situation for Afghan women and girls, and on the rights of all Afghan people to freedom of expression and access to information and privacy.”

Thursday, Oct. 2

• Spokesperson’s briefing: Asked if the Israeli government’s interception and arrest of people in the Global Sumud Flotilla headed to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid violates international law, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson, said “[certainly], we believe that the laws applying to international waters must be respected,” but added “some disputes” exist over “the relevant parts of international law that apply to this situation” and that “it would be for courts to settle that.”

Friday, Oct. 3

• Spokesperson’s briefing: On the 12th anniversary of the shipwreck that claimed the lives of 368 migrants off Italy’s Lampedusa island, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNICEF report that “an average of 42 people have lost their lives every week along the central Mediterranean route,” an estimated one in five of them children. Despite a widespread call at the time to ensure the incident wouldn’t be repeated, the route has become a “death trap,” killing 32,700 migrants and refugees since 2014, Dujarric said. UN agencies stress the importance of international cooperation, conflict resolution and safer migration channels to “reduce dependence on dangerous sea journeys organised by traffickers.”

• Vanessa Frazier of Malta is named special representative for the UN office of Children and Armed Conflict, succeeding Virginia Gamba of Argentina.

ICYMI:

• Jane Goodall: Conversation at the Franklin Institute: Jane Goodall on Making a Difference for the Good of All

• Myanmar: Remarks by Volker Turk, UN high commissioner for human rights, at Sept. 30 conference on Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar

• Gaza/Israel: “NYT Slammed for Backing Trump Plan to ‘Deradicalize Gaza,’ Not the Country Committing Genocide” (Common Dreams)

• Women’s Network: Women Transforming Global Security, a new alliance, including former heads of state, pioneering a framework to address interconnected global threats.