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UN

A cyclist cools off at a fountain at Madrid Rio park during a heat wave in Madrid, on Thursday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jul 26, 2024
U.N. demands action on extreme heat as world registers warmest day
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urges governments to "heatproof" their economies, critical sectors such as health care, and the built environment.
At a waste center in Kamikatsu, Tokushima Prefecture, residents separate trash into 45 different categories as the town aims to become "zero waste."
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 22, 2024
How circular economy initiatives are changing the world
From Asia to Europe to Africa, public and private entities are finding new ways to revolutionize the economic paradigm from a linear to a circular model. In Japan, too.
The West in developing its response to the new Russia-North Korea alliance should leverage the strategic incongruence between China and its junior allies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2024
What to make of Russia and North Korea's new relationship
Russia and North Korea's military alliance has unnerved China as much as it has the U.S. and its Asian allies owing to its potential to destabilize the region.
The North Korean flag flutters at the North Korea consular office in Dandong, China, on April 20, 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 17, 2024
'Shocking': U.N. report details North Korea's widespread forced labor
In a damning report, the U.N. rights office detailed how people in North Korea have been "controlled and exploited."
A second contingent of 200 police officers from Kenya arrive at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Jul 17, 2024
200 more Kenyan police deployed to tackle Haiti violence
Haitian sources say the new batch brings the total to 400 Kenyan boots on the ground in violence-ravaged Port-au-Prince.
A child receives an oral Malaria vaccine in Lilongwe, Malawi.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 15, 2024
Rising conflicts globally slowed childhood vaccination rate in 2023, U.N. says
About 14.5 million children failed to get vaccinated in 2023, compared with 13.9 million a year earlier, according to U.N. estimates.
Electronic waste — also known as e-waste — from computers in a junk shop in Metro Manila, Philippines
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 11, 2024
U.N. warns digital economy drive is damaging the environment
The U.N. agency called for sustainable strategies to counter the growing environmental toll digitalization creates, particularly in developing countries.
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February 2019. At the summit, Trump lost his patience and cut negotiations with Kim short just as they were gaining momentum.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2024
Blame Trump for North Korea’s saber-rattling
What would have happened if Donald Trump hadn't failed to capitalize on Kim Jong Un's willingness to deescalate by losing his patience on that fateful February day?
Russian President Vladimir Putin decorates Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called during a ceremony following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 10, 2024
Global ‘outcast’ Putin meeting a lot of world leaders
In just two months since he began his fifth presidential term in May, Putin has held more than 20 meetings with world leaders.
Pichamon Yeophantong from the U.N. Human Rights Council's Working Group on Business and Human Rights is interviewed in Tokyo last week.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 9, 2024
U.N. expert urges Japan to tackle structural discrimination
Structural discrimination that stems from harmful norms are "something that needs to be dismantled as soon as possible," Pichamon Yeophantong said.
Hong Kong protesters face off against riot police at a rally in support of the human rights of Xinjiang Uyghurs in Hong Kong in December 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 5, 2024
China rejects key Western calls for human rights reforms at U.N. meet
Beijing has striven to fend off criticism following a 2022 U.N. report.
A Palestinian man carries a child following an Israeli strike near a U.N.-run school sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
WORLD
Jul 4, 2024
Nine in 10 Gaza residents displaced since war began, U.N. says
The head of the United Nations' OCHA agency in the Palestinian territories said that around 1.9 million people are thought to be displaced in Gaza.
Security officers escort Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan as he appeared before the Islamabad High Court, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 12, 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 2, 2024
Pakistani prime minister's detention is unlawful, U.N. group says
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been in jail since last August and was convicted in some cases ahead of a national election in February.
A Taliban spokesperson addresses a press conference in Kabul on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 2, 2024
Taliban told to 'include women' in public life at U.N. talks
Excluding civil rights groups from the talks was the price for the Taliban government's participation in them.
People watch a news broadcast of a North Korean missile test, at the main rail station in Seoul on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 1, 2024
North Korea fires two missiles, with one possibly failing near Pyongyang
The launches came just days after large-scale military exercises between South Korea, Japan and the United States concluded.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a visit to the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier last Tuesday during its port call in Busan, South Korea.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 30, 2024
North Korea labels South Korea-U.S.-Japan ties Asia's version of NATO
North Korea criticized a joint military exercise by South Korea, Japan and the United States, which highlighted the three countries' growing security ties.
In a recently released report, a U.N. group has urged Japanese companies to draw up policies vowing to fulfill their responsibility in protecting human rights.
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2024
U.N. voices concern over rights violations in Japan workplaces
While noting "important advancements" on the issue, a report expressed concerns about difficulties in addressing deeply embedded harmful gender and social norms.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ride in an Aurus car in Pyongyang in this image released on June 20.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 29, 2024
Russian-made car that Putin gifted to Kim uses South Korean parts, data shows
Customs records show that the company that builds the car uses millions of dollars in imported parts, many arriving in Russia from South Korea.
North Korea's claimed successful separation and guidance control test of individual mobile warheads is seen in this image released Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 27, 2024
In a first, North Korea claims successful multiple-warhead missile test
Such a capability would potentially allow Pyongyang to use a single missile to drop nuclear warheads on a broad swath of targets.
Akimasa Nihongi, who spoke about his experience as a victim of sexual assault by Johnny Kitagawa, the late founder of the eponymous talent agency, said in a video message that victims who report their abuses are often subject to slander and harassment.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 27, 2024
Ex-member of Johnny's calls for victim protection at U.N. panel
Akimasa Nihongi said measures ought to be put in place to protect victims from slander and harassment after they go public with abuses.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals