NI 556 - July, 2025

United Nations at 80

A note from the editor

Dis-United Nations

26 June marks the 80th anniversary of the UN Charter. Yet given devastating wars in Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere, celebrations are likely to be muted.

The group of countries that formed the UN – a smaller group than today, for much of the world was still colonized – did so from the ashes of World War Two, and the League of Nations that failed to prevent it. At the 1945 founding conference in San Francisco, while world leaders expressed their sombre and heartfelt reflections and aspirations for the UN, a military intelligence team just a few miles down the road was decoding cables between delegates and their home countries to feed back to the US State Department.

The UN, according to historian Stephen C. Schlesinger, was ‘from the beginning a project of the United States’. While it undoubtedly reinforces the hegemony of the US and its allies, the UN not only remains an arena of struggle, but also offers an opportunity to build a roadmap for global justice.

The formation of the Hague Group earlier this year was not for nothing. It’s made up of nine Global South countries campaigning for the enforcement of international law – and court adjudications – against Israel, ‘guided by the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations’. Many of these principles are the right ones, so how can we direct them with the purpose they were always denied?

Elsewhere in this issue, Kasturi Chakraborty reports from the West Bank and Richard Swift offers highlights from Toronto’s Hot Docs festival.

Conrad Landin for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at UN headquarters. While the UN General Assembly has consistently condemned Israel, the all-powerful Security Council has blocked international action.

Photo: Sopa/Alamy

NI 556 - July, 2025

United Nations at 80

A note from the editor

Dis-United Nations

The big story

The modern failures of the United Nations are not an aberration – but a product of its imperial roots, argues Conrad Landin. So how can we create a functioning system for global co-operation?

The Big Story

Action, and further reading on the United Nations.

Components, budget, and the peacekeepers of the United Nations.

In March, a UN conference sought to make progress towards outlawing nuclear weapons for good. But how can it make a difference while the world’s nuclear powers ignore it? Xander Elliards reports from New York.

Having facilitated Israel’s settler-colonial project, the UN is now helpless to pick up the pieces. By Hamza Yusuf.

Francesca Albanese has stepped out of the United Nations’ structures to speak directly to the world’s people about the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Bethany Rielly meets her.

The war in Ukraine has thrown the UN’s weaknesses and contradictions into sharp relief, argues Lily Lynch.

To confront the atrocities of its military dictatorship, Argentina introduced a range of lauded ‘memory and justice’ policies. Now the Javier Milei government is stoking denial of the past and undermining families’ fights for justice. Ali Qassim reports.

The Jenin refugee camp has long been branded a ‘capital of resistance’ for Palestinians in the West Bank, but it has paid a price. Kasturi Chakraborty reports on the impacts of Israel’s latest siege and life under surveillance.

Ruth Rohde and Jack Cinamon explain how the US and Britain went from selling bombs for use against Yemen to dropping them themselves.

Comment

Tariff tales By Nilanjana Bhowmick.

Beware the glorified military man, by Rosebell Kagumire.

Bolsonaro behind bars? By Leonardo Sakamoto.

The Global South is rapidly reducing its reliance on old imperial powers. Vijay Prashad argues this presents an unprecedented opportunity to refashion economies and societies for good.

Currents

Kashmiris pay the price while Delhi and Islamabad posture for power, by Adil Hussain and Adil Hussain .

Kolkata’s century-old trams battle property tycoons and political apathy to stay in motion, by Ritwika Mitra.

Gaza aid ship blasted as Israel extends its siege beyond the shoreline, by Paula Lacey.

Starbucks’ slaves; Canal clash; Tracking a crackdown; Deeper dictatorship; Long legacy; Royal negligence.

US gun pipeline fuels Haiti’s gangs while Washington looks away, by Steve Shaw.

Starmer courts Trump at the expense of UK rights and digital protections, by Anita Bhadani.

Vietnam’s jubilee parades clash with the lingering poisons of war, by Tom Fawthrop.

Finland’s cold-border law chills asylum rights and gives Europe a hard new line, by Bethany Rielly.

The Bangladeshi student activist-turned-politician, by Richard Swift.

Twin police shootings expose Canada’s hidden crisis of racialized violence, by Changiz M Varzi.

Ethiopia and Eritrea reignite rivalry, turning the famine-struck north into a proxy front, by Samuel Getachew.

Workers unite; Norway divests; Reclaimed.

Regulars

Praise, blame and all points in between? Give us your feedback.

A bold feminist campaign turned a whistle into a protest against street harassment. Maya Misikir tells their story.

'Sir Keir Starmer changes his mind on Transgender issues' by Chris Williams (UK)

Rhyme and Punishment, by Paula Lacey.

Endangered monarch; Dangerous monarch wanna be.

ILYA charts the rise – and demise – of the UN’s predecessor organization – and shows how entrenching Western power is a recipe for failure.

The photos, facts, and politics of Armenia.

Highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the Majority World.

Writer, activist and former British Black Panther Farrukh Dhondy reflects with Subi Shah on his inspirations and what we can learn from the current state of world politics.

Light entertainment, illustrated by Kate Evans.

A catastrophic sickness, by Marc Roberts.

A shining example. What can we learn from Pakistan’s unexpected solar surge? Words by Danny Chivers

Trump, by P J Polyp

Venture capitalist and Palantir co-founder.

Struggling with an ethical dilemma? New Internationalist’s Agony Uncle can help you find answers in our troubled political times.

Film, Book & Music Reviews

Global Battlefields; Logging Off; Love in Exile; Flesh.

Lollipop; Red Path.

Album No. 1; Ma Gitala.

Highlights from the 2025 Toronto Festival by Richard Swift.

A social historian interrogates racialized capitalism amid the mysteries of the steamship. By Michael Muir.