A day after the devastating Aug. 4, 2020 blast in Beirut’s port, one ship in the maritime section of the UN mission in Lebanon was damaged, injuring naval peacekeepers, some of them seriously. Here, the Bangladeshi contingent prays on Aug. 5 near the scene. PASQUAL GORRIZ/UN PHOTO
Secretary of State Pompeo visiting the Patton Museum, which commemorates the United States role in liberating Czechoslovakia, in Pilsen, Czech Republic, Aug. 11, 2020. While Pompeo was traveling in Europe last week, the UN Security Council rejected a US draft resolution to extend the Iran arms ban. The five European countries in the Council and six other nations abstained in the vote. RON PRZYSUCHA/STATE DEPARTMENT
In New York City at the UN, Ambassador Kelly Craft with Talal Alhaj of Al Arabiya TV, Aug. 11, 2020, discussing the US effort to extend the Iran arms ban. Craft tweeted: “Allowing Iran to gain access to new, more powerful weapons would only fuel new terror, chaos & bloodshed in the region & beyond. The choice for the UNSC should be obvious.”
Public elementary school 29, in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn, N.Y., displays photos of its students who graduated in June in a virtual ceremony. The UN secretary-general is pushing schools globally to reopen, when local transmission of Covid-19 is managed. JOHN PENNEY
Brian Hook, the US envoy for Iran, with Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, Kuwait City, July 27, 2020. Hook has left his job just as the US wants the UN Security Council to vote on a resolution extending the arms ban embedded in the Iran nuclear deal. Elliott Abrams, US envoy for Venezuela, is to replace Hook.
A Black Lives Matter protest in Philadelphia, June 2020. The UN’s top human-rights official must write a report within a year on systemic racism and violations of international human-rights law against Africans and people of African descent by law-enforcement entities. CREATIVE COMMONS
Carol Pasisi, an activist from the Pacific island nation of Niue, spoke to the Security Council on July 24 about the threats of climate change in her region, like damage to the blue economy.
The Security Council held a climate change and security debate, led by Germany, nearly 10 years since the first and last time the Council met on this specific issue and agreed to a presidential statement on it. The Dominican Republic also led a meeting on climate change in January 2019.
Secretary of State Pompeo during a question-and-answer session about his new report by the Commisson on Unalienable Rights, unveiled at the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, July 16, 2020. Mary Ann Glendon, right, presided over the event and led the commission that wrote the report. FREDDIE EVERETT/STATE DEPARTMENT
The UN Security Council visited South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, in 2016, where Samantha Power, the US envoy to the UN, led the entourage. As the Council boarded a UN plane to leave the country and go home, she said that it “does not mean that we are going to forget about them.” UNMISS
Kelley Currie, US ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues, has had the job since January. The Trump administration tried to eliminate the post at one point but the Senate made it permanent. Currie worked previously at the US mission to the UN, above, for Nikki Haley. ERIC BRIDIERS
