Free Republic

American officials joined Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran in objecting to language on fossils fuels, biodiversity and plastics in a report that was three years in the making.The Trump administration sided with officials from Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran in a successful effort to block part of a United Nations report about the dire state of the planet because it called for phasing out fossil fuels, switching to clean energy and reducing plastics, according to two participants.The section targeted was a summary of the Global Environment Outlook 7, a 1,210-page report that translates scientific evidence collected and reviewed by 300...

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan won a standing ovation from the U.N. General Assembly, a rare public display of support in response to recent calls for his resignation from several U.S. lawmakers. U.S. deputy ambassador Patrick Kennedy joined fellow diplomats as they rose to their feet Wednesday, despite President Bush's refusal to support the U.N. chief pending the results of an investigation into alleged corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq.[snip]"In 15 years I've spent at the United Nations, this is the second time that the General Assembly had a standing ovation for a leader," he said. The...

Many politicians seem to think that the answer to every alleged problem is higher taxes. Howard Dean, for instance, has said he would repeal the Bush tax cuts -- even though this would boost the average family’s tax burden by nearly $2,000. This initiative sounds radical, and it is. But some proposals out there are even worse. The United Nations, for instance, wants to create an International Tax Organization (ITO) that would have the power to interfere with national tax policies. This crazy idea first surfaced two years ago in a report from the world body’s “High-Level Panel on Financing...