• U.S. Ambassador Cindy McCain has been appointed to head the U.N. World Food Program, the world's largest humanitarian organization, which aims to help millions of people confronting conflicts, disasters and the effects of climate change. Last week's appointment of McCain, the widow of Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, was announced by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Qu Dongyu. McCain has been the U.S. envoy to the Rome-based food program and the Food and Agriculture Organization since November 2021, and the chiefs called her "a champion for human rights" with "a long history of giving a voice to the voiceless." The president of the food program's board, Polish Ambassador Andrej Pollok, welcomed McCain's selection, saying she takes over "at a moment when the world confronts the most serious food security crisis in modern history." An advocate for children, McCain has served on the board of directors for Operation Smile, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing facial deformities of children around the world, visiting India, Morocco and Vietnam. She also founded the American Voluntary Medical Team, which provides emergency medical and surgical care to impoverished children around the world. And she has traveled extensively in a personal capacity on behalf of the World Food Program, visiting mother and child feeding programs in Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.