[Feb. 27: UN] Melania in the Hot Seat, Cindy McCain of WFP to Depart & Lots More

At a refugee camp in Sudan, children who fled El Fasher, Darfur, where genocide by the Rapid Support Forces took place last fall, learn breathing exercises and other calming techniques to try to recover from the escape they and others made to safety. NORWEGIAN REFUGEE COUNCIL

This Week @UN: NYC backs Turtle Bay; prosecuting Russia’s war; US abstains on Ukraine.

Plus: No peace in Ukraine; Gaza amputees; US 1st Lady gavels; World Food Program boss leaving; Palestinian pulls candidacy; Pakistan’s fresh fighting with Taliban.

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Our #1 story: UN Resolution on Ukraine Approved Despite US Push to Water It Down, by Damilola Banjo

PassBlue this week:

• New York City Commissioner Defends the UN’s Presence in Turtle Bay, by Damilola Banjo

• Russia’s War on Ukraine: Certain Crimes and Possible Punishments, “Legally Speaking” column by Mona Ali Khalil

• UN Resolution on Ukraine Approved Despite US Push to Water It Down, by Damilola Banjo

• The family of Rafeeuddin Ahmed, a former UN envoy, extends an invitation to “his friends and former colleagues” to attend a

memorial eventon March 4, 2026, at 10 AM in the UN ECOSOC Chamber, hosted by the Pakistan mission to the UN, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the UN Development Program.

Top UN news

Monday, Feb 23: The UN was closed because of the blizzard.

Tuesday, Feb. 24

• Spokesperson’s briefing: Four years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Secretary-General António Guterres called the war a “stain on our collective consciousness” that “remains a threat to regional and international peace and security.” He called for “an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire as a first step towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.” [Update, Feb. 26: The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that overnight a large-scale drone and missile attack, combined with front-line hostilities, resulted in civilian casualties and damaged homes and critical infrastructure nationwide. In the Odesa region, for starters, some 40,000 families were left without power]

• Pekka Haavisto of Finland is named the personal envoy of Guterres for** Sudan. He succeeds Ramtane Lamamra of **Algeria, who agreed to step down, although the UN spokesperson did not elaborate.

Cindy McCain, an American and the executive director of the Rome-based World Food Program, announced on Feb. 26 that she was leaving the agency in three months as she recovers from a stroke last fall. WFP/X

Wednesday, Feb. 25

• Spokesperson’s briefing: Arriving in Deir al Balah to begin his two-day visit to Gaza, Ramiz Alakbarov, UN resident/humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian Territories, focused on aid delivery in the enclave with UN agencies there, noting continued deadly “security incidents” near the so-called Yellow Line and visiting the Abu-Jarad dumping site south of Gaza City.

[Update, Feb. 26-27: Alakbarov joined a medical evacuation mission at the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where patients are to receive treatment. Additionally, the UN reports that families in Gaza this month have on average had two meals a day, compared with one a day in July of 2025. “While this marks a modest improvement, many families tell our colleagues that they are struggling to afford food and other essential goods,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said. Aid workers are also distributing emergency shelter material of mostly salvaged timber and metal pallets in areas of the Strip. UN partners say they see more people living with disabilities; many have received amputations, while others have suffered spinal cord and brain trauma and hundreds of Gazans have endured traumatic injuries since the Oct. 10 ceasefire began. Yet, the entry of prosthetics and other “essential devices” by Israel into Gaza “remains heavily restricted,” according to Dujarric]

• ** United4Gaza, an informal group of current and former UN staff,** update on the recent

“saga”between

Franceand

, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territories: “Although Jean-Noël Barrot, the French Foreign Minister, was scheduled to address the Human Rights Council today via pre-recorded video, no address was made and France no longer appears on the HRC’s schedule. Without meaning to speculate, it may perhaps be reasonably inferred that this could be connected to the expansive backlash that the Minister has incurred since he’d announced that France would demand the removal or resignation of SR Albanese at the HRC. United Staff for Gaza is proud to have stood up in defence of the SR and the integrity of the international human rights system.”

Francesca AlbaneseThursday, Feb. 26

• Spokesperson’s briefing: Dujarric confirmed that US First Lady Melania Trump will be the first sitting spouse of a national leader to preside over a Security Council meeting (even though protocol experts say she is not a diplomat and therefore not entitled to take the Council chair). She is scheduled to lead a 3 P.M. public session on Monday, when the US takes the monthly rotating presidency of the Council, and she is reportedly focusing on children, technology and education in conflict (despite the White House having withdrawn in January from the UN’s Children in Armed Conflict office and the Violence Against Children office, among 31 UN entities). Security Council Report, an independent research group, said Monday’s topic will focus on access to digital tools for children in conflict situations.

The 15 members of the Council are planning to have a “family” photograph taken with the first lady outside the chamber before the meeting. (President Trump is not expected to be coming to the UN.) Rosemary DiCarlo of the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs will brief the Council on behalf of Guterres. (Watch live on UNWebTV.) Dujarric also said that there was “no phone call for me to confirm as of yet” between Guterres and US President Trump. The US owes a total of $4.24 billion in overdue membership fees to the UN regular and peacekeeping budgets, including $766 million for this year.

• Regarding Cindy McCain’s departure in three months from her role as head of the World Food Program (WFP), Dujarric said Guterres has “greatly, greatly appreciated” her work “leading the agency and reforming the agency at a time of extreme humanitarian needs, at a time where there is less and less resources to go around.” McCain, 71, an American and the widow of Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, has served in the UN agency’s role for three years. In October 2025, she went on leave from the organization after suffering a mild stroke and returned in early January 2026, but was unable to fully recover. She called her work for the Rome-based agency “the honor of a lifetime.”

• Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, has withdrawn his candidacy as president of the 81st session of the General Assembly. leaving two applicants in the race, Khalilur Rahman of Bangladesh and Andreas Kakouris of Cyprus. (After Mansour withdrew, Bangladesh switched its candidate to Rahman from Touhid Hossain.) The election for the largely ceremonial, yearlong position is slated to occur on June 2, 2026, in the General Assembly. Many media reports say Mansour, whose candidacy was endorsed by the Arab group a year ago, withdrew from the race because of pressure by the US and Israel.

Yet, a diplomat told PassBlue that Mansour canceled his candidacy because it would have distracted from his work representing Palestine, a permanent observer state to the UN, and because the Palestinian Authority faced the difficulty of naming a successor for him, given US visa restrictions. Some diplomats say that Mansour had a strong chance of winning the race, and he was the only candidate to have filed a vision statement.

Friday, Feb. 27

• Spokesperson’s briefing: Guterres is “deeply concerned” by the escalating violence between Afghanistan *and *Pakistan and its effects on civilians, or what the latter’s defense minister declared an “open war.” Guterres called for the immediate cessation of hostilities and for all parties to “resolve any differences through diplomacy.” It is unlikely that the fresh violence will be taken up in the UN Security Council, according to a diplomat from Pakistan, a Council member.

• UN spokesperson’s quiz, prompted by a UN member state paying its annual dues: “This country’s first olive tree was planted in the 13th century, some of them were planted in the 13th century and still bearing fruits.. . . It has over 120 million olive trees and produces 1.2 million metric tonnes of olive oil every year. That makes it the fifth largest producer of olive oil in the world.”∗ [answer below]

ICYMI:

Nigeria: How Nigeria Flipped the Script on Trump, analysis

Ukraine: Ukraine War Anniversary, analyses

Congo: UN Experts Warn Extreme M23 Violence Targeting Human Rights Defenders, UN press release

US: UN Assembly Chief Urges US to Settle Dues in Full, news article

Gaza/Israel: Israeli Soldiers Killed Gaza Aid Workers at Point Blank Range in 2025 Massacre, news article

Gaza/Israel/US: Family of UN Rapporteur Albanese Sues Trump Administration Over Sanctions, news article

Rafael Grossi: Rafael Grossi on Nuclear Risk and Reforming the UN, interview

UN: UN Transitions in a Changed Geopolitical Context, Substack post (Eugene Chen)

Women: UN Report Endorses the Prostitution of Women/Redefines Sex Trafficked Girls as “Minor Sex Workers”, NGO report

Women: At Munich, Europe Found Its Voice, and It Belonged to Women, Council on Foreign Relations blog post

Women: A Year of Harms: The Impact of US Foreign Aid Cuts on Women & Girls in Humanitarian Crises, NGO report

Women: A Short History of the Commission on the Status of Women, UN Women document

AI: AI Search and News, Substack post (Tow Center for Digital Journalism)

∗ Greece

We welcome your

comments on this article. What are your thoughts on Melania Trump chairing the UN Security Council?Arthur Bassas is a researcher and writer who graduated from St. Andrews in Scotland, majoring in international relations and terrorism. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and speaks English and French.