Overview

• New U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz used his first appearance to assert that the United States and its allies will defend every inch of NATO territory.
• His remarks came days after reports that three Russian MiG-31 jets entered Estonian airspace, which U.S. officials characterized as dangerous behavior.
• The Senate confirmed Waltz on Friday after months of delays, including a procedural reset that required a fresh vote in the Foreign Relations Committee.
• The confirmation filled a long-running vacancy for the U.N. post, ending the period without a U.S. representative as high-level meetings got underway in New York.
• Advisers say Waltz plans to push U.N. reforms, confront antisemitism, scale back programs he labels “woke,” and engage more aggressively in global standard-setting bodies.