The Foreign Service Journal, October 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2021 19 W ant to learn more about your next post? Expats Blog is a handpicked directory featuring more than 3,200 blogs from around the world. The goal of the website is to bring expats together. Blogs are organized by country, and almost every nation is repre- sented. Select a country, and you can drill down to towns and cities within that country. For example, Spain has 151 blogs, 30 of which are in Madrid and 13 in Barcelona. Expats Blog’s researchers travel the globe looking for stories to inter- est their fellow expatriates. Not content to just bring you the latest news, the Expat Blog team also scours the internet for the best expat blogs for its annual awards. If you have a blog covering your latest post, you just might want to enter. Site of the Month: Expats Blog (www.expatsblog.com ) The appearance of a particular site or podcast is for information only and does not constitute an endorsement. UHI victims have suffered symptoms ranging from nausea and severe head- aches to ear pain, insomnia and fatigue. The incidents were first reported in Havana, Cuba, in 2016. Some diplomats are choosing against taking jobs in posts where UHIs have been reported, CNN says. “For the most part we don’t know anything other than what is in the press,” one FSO told CNN. “It is difficult for people to make informed decisions about where to serve.” On Aug. 24, Vice President Kamala Harris’ flight from Singapore to Vietnam was delayed for three hours after U.S. Embassy Hanoi reported that two U.S. personnel in Hanoi had experienced UHI-related symptoms, the Daily Mail reported. “After careful assessment, the decision was made to continue with the Vice Presi- dent’s trip,” the U.S. embassy said in its statement. The affected personnel were to be medevacked the following weekend. In March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken appointed Ambassador Pamela Spratlen to serve as senior adviser to the Health Incident Response Task Force, which was established in 2018. The HIRTF is the coordinating body for the interagency response to the incidents. CIA Director William Burns, a former top diplomat, has made the issue a priority, speaking publicly in June about renewed efforts to “get to the bottom of this,” NPR reported. The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 18 that U.S. diplomats said victims in European countries have included officials “working on Russian-related issues such as gas exports, cybersecurity and political interference.” On Aug. 3 Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced legislation— the Directed Energy Threat Emergency Response Act— to reform the U.S. government’s investiga- tion and response to UHIs. The legislation would require the president to appoint a senior national security official to coordinate the govern- ment’s response. The bill would also create workforce guidance to increase awareness of these attacks and improve reporting methods and would provide $30 million to improve access to health- care for victims. “The injuries that many victims of probable directed energy attacks have endured are significant and life-altering. I have talked with many of these victims about the debilitating symptoms they have experienced,” said Collins. “While they are focusing on their health, they should not have to battle the bureau- cracy in order to receive the support they deserve.” Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) are original cospon- sors of the bill. Climate Change: “Code Red” T he United Nations released a report on climate change on Aug. 9 that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres describes as a “code red for humanity.” The report, issued by the Intergovern- mental Panel on Climate Change—a sci- entific body convened by the U.N.—argues that climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying, and that some climate trends are now irreversible. For example, it says continued sea-level rise is “irrevers- ible” for centuries, if not millennia.