John Heilprin
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johnheilprin.bsky.social
John Heilprin
@johnheilprin.bsky.social
Journalism & communications. Founder, Arete News: https://www.aretenews.com/ & @aretenews.bsky.social. Accredited U.N. correspondent. Veteran AP Washington, U.N. & Geneva. Former board https://americanalpineclub.org
Reposted by John Heilprin
Recordings of this year's RHS Prothero Lecture, with Professor Peter Gatrell are now available bit.ly/4kw8GKU

Peter's lecture - ‘Refugee World(s): a Twentieth-Century Retrospective’ - took place on 2 July. Further details and an audio version are also available here bit.ly/4eHl4X6 #Skystorians
‘Refugee World(s): a Twentieth-Century Retrospective’: the 2025 Prothero Lecture, with Peter Gatrell
On 2 July 2025, the Royal Historical Society hosted its annual Prothero Lecture, given this year by Professor Peter Gatrell FBA on the subject of ‘Refugee World(s): a Twentieth-Century Retrospective’. Peter’s lecture drew on his recent research in the archives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. The archive contains the letters and petitions that refugees sent to the UNHCR in the post-1945 era, and provides the historian with rare insights of how refugees presented their situation and the responses they received. The numerous case files preserved by the UNHCR disclose the hopes, aspirations and rights claims of displaced people from many different parts of the world, whether or not they were recognised under international refugee law. As Peter argued in this lecture, to consider refugees’ encounters with refugee-creating, refugee-hosting, and refugee-deterring states – and with the organisations charged with their protection and assistance – offers new approaches to refugee history and the writing of refugees into modern global history. Peter Gatrell FBA is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Manchester. His recent publications include: 'The Unsettling of Europe: the Great Migration, 1945 to the Present' (2019) and the co-authored 'Refugee Voices in Modern Global History: Reckoning with Refugeedom' (2025), which draws on the rich resources of the UNHCR archives to present the personal experiences of mass displacement. Established in 1969, Royal Historical Society’s Prothero Lecture – which is named for the historian and former RHS President, George W. Prothero (1848-1924) – has been given annually since that date. Those invited to give the lecture are leading historians whose research has shaped how we think about the past.
bit.ly
July 10, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Reposted by John Heilprin
Delivering the @royalhistsoc.org 2025 Prothero Lecture in London, acclaimed British historian and author @pwgatrell.bsky.social shared the importance of hearing and critically interpreting the voices of refugees found among @unhcr.org archival records. #displacement www.aretenews.com/rethinking-r...
Rethinking refugee narrative and history from voices in the archives
Beyond official narratives and statistics are the complex realities and unexpected agency of displaced populations.
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July 5, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Reposted by John Heilprin
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May 21, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
Trump orders U.S. to expedite permits for deep seabed mining
Trump orders U.S. to expedite permits for deep seabed mining
The order would allow exploratory mining of the ocean floor that is overseen by an organization the U.S. hasn't joined.
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April 25, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Reposted by John Heilprin
AI promoted for research and innovation in Africa and Europe
AI promoted for research and innovation in Africa and Europe
An A.U.-E.U. workshop focused on how to use AI to enable the 'economic integration' and success of more techology startups.
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April 21, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
E.U.'s €20B plan calls for AI gigafactories with 'green computing'
E.U.'s €20B plan calls for AI gigafactories with 'green computing'
Europe's 'AI continent' would offer up to five large-scale but power-hungry facilities drawing Big Tech with simpler rules.
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April 21, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
Leaders push link between science, technology and government policies
Leaders push link between science, technology and government policies
From Africa to the Americas, leaders spoke of the need to ensure that policy decisions are more scientifically informed.
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April 21, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
Nations rush to cash in as warming opens up Arctic's mineral wealth
Nations rush to cash in as warming opens up Arctic's mineral wealth
The Arctic Council finds itself at a difficult crossroads as its member nations move to exploit the region's mineral wealth.
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April 21, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
Greenland's international ties stand in way of Trump's strategic interest
Greendland's international ties stand in way of Trump's strategic interest
Greenland's E.U. and NATO ties make it particularly unlikely the U.S. would risk a move that could destabilize the region.
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April 21, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
🌐 🇺🇳 Scoop: UNHCR is the latest U.N. agency to impose urgent spending cuts after nearly US$1 billion of its 2025 budget was held up in Trump's foreign aid freeze.

WHO announced similar cuts last week - both agencies count the U.S. as their top donor.

www.aretenews.com/unhcr-cuts-c...
U.N. refugee agency freezes hiring, cuts spending amid U.S. aid pause
UNHCR's directors scrambled to tighten its budget in response to the Trump administration's 90-day aid stoppage.
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January 28, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus put an immediate hold on new recruitment, ordered almost all meetings to be held virtually, and limited technical support missions to countries in the greatest need.
Hiring freeze at WHO as U.S. exit threatens global health programs
WHO's emergency moves follow months of warnings the U.N. health agency will dramatically suffer if U.S. funding is pulled.
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January 28, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
The new forum, which includes Brazil, Canada, Congo, Kenya, Peru, South Africa, the U.A.E. and U.K., aims to fulfill global climate pledges to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency by 2030.
Trump's climate retreat diverges from global shift to green initiatives
Trump's speech to the Davos forum contrasted sharply with other leaders' creation of a Global Energy Transition Forum.
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January 28, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
The speech offered more evidence that Guterres and his speechwriters have a knack for finding novel ways of repeating the same dire and necessary warnings about our "fossil fuel addiction" that keep generating the headlines needed to cut through the social media noise.
U.N. chief warns Davos crowd of a 'rudderless' and overheating world
His remarks were aimed at focusing attention on rising global temperatures and unregulated artificial intelligence.
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January 28, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
Ramaphosa, whose nation also is a leader in science diplomacy, pointed to the need to confront 21st century challenges ranging "from climate change to pandemics, from poverty to terrorism, from migration to artificial intelligence."
S. Africa to focus G-20 on 'solidarity, equality, sustainable development'
President Cyril Ramaphosa calls this 'a moment when we should harness' resources and technologies for a greater good.
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January 28, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
Without the world’s largest economy in the treaty, it will be difficult to mitigate rising temperatures and extreme weather events around the globe.
Trump announces U.S. exit from climate treaty, U.N. health agency
The process of forcing the United States to withdraw from the Paris climate treaty and WHO will take a year to complete.
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January 28, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
It's a strikingly divergent set of world stages for billionaire-led globalists and billionaire-led right-wing populists.
From Washington to Davos, the ranks of billionaire elites grow
Billionaires' wealth 'surged' by US$2 trillion in a year, while 44% of the world population lives on less than US$6.85 a day.
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January 28, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by John Heilprin
The U.N. and other organizations now face a second round of reduced U.S. financial support and engagement that are a mainstay for many of them.
Trump strongly rejects international cooperation. Round 2 is underway.
Here's a timeline of Trump's actions involving international organizations and treaties, from his first term to the present.
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January 28, 2025 at 9:35 PM