Tag - un

 
 

UN

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank, in April.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 30, 2025
U.S. bars Palestinian leader Abbas from U.N. as allies pledge statehood
The U.S. justified its decision by restating that the Palestinian Authority had failed to repudiate extremism while pushing for a Palestinian state.
Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant in 2019. The U.K., Germany and France on Thursday triggered a 30-day "snapback” process that would lead to a resumption of sanctions originally lifted as part of a 2015 deal.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 29, 2025
European powers pull trigger to slap Iran with U.N. sanctions
The move will likely raise tensions between Tehran and the West amid a standoff over Iran’s atomic activities following Israeli and U.S. airstrikes on nuclear sites in June.
Mourners react during a funeral for Palestinians killed by Israeli fire at Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, on Thursday. Israel has previously rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to self-defense.
WORLD
Aug 29, 2025
Hundreds of U.N. staff pressure rights chief to call Gaza a genocide, letter shows
The letter stated the staff consider the legal criteria for genocide in the war in the Gaza Strip have been met, citing the scale, scope and nature of violations documented there.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (right) and his daughter Kim Ju Ae attend a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone, in Wonsan, in North Korea, on June 24.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 28, 2025
How North Korea promotes Kim’s ‘Dear Daughter’ as a worthy heir
Kim Jong Un introduced his daughter to the world in November 2022 with a show of affection and menace, holding her hand in front of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korean leader Lee Jae Myung attend a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 26, 2025
'Peacemaker’ Trump says he wants to meet North Korea’s Kim this year
The U.S. president said “big progress” was possible, during a summit with South Korean leader Lee Jae Myung in Washington that also focused on defense and trade issues.
Begum, a 35-year-old mother of seven children, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Aug. 18. Begum will marry off one of her daughters after a funding shortage shuttered thousands of schools in the refugee camps.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Aug 25, 2025
School closures push Rohingya refugee children into marriage and work
A funding crisis has led to the suspension of many Rohingya learning centers, leaving children to play in the mud or rain.
A boy walks with a canister as Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military offensive take shelter in tents in Gaza City on Friday.
WORLD
Aug 22, 2025
U.N. declares famine in Gaza, placing blame on Israel
Israel denied there was a famine, saying the report was "based on Hamas lies laundered through organizations with vested interests."
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers a speech at the closing ceremony of the Japan-led Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, or TICAD 9, on Friday in Yokohama.
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2025
TICAD adopts Yokohama Declaration to strengthen multilateral trade
The communique emphasized proposals to solve problems facing African states, apparently reflecting Japan's wish to highlight a different approach to that of China.
Rohingya refugees fleeing from Myanmar into Palang Khali, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, in November 2017
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 22, 2025
U.N. investigation seeking justice for Rohingya hit by cost-cutting
A million Rohingya, a Muslim minority group, fled a Myanmar military offensive in August 2017 — a campaign seen by prosecutors as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.
Cindy McCain, the executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme, speaks during an interview in Yokohama on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2025
WFP chief wants world to pay attention to Africa
The continent, whose countries suffer from famine, refugee and other humanitarian crises, is sometimes forgotten, Cindy McCain, the executive director of the U.N. body, says.
Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. undersecretary-general and high representative for disarmament affairs, speaks during a news conference on Monday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2025
U.N. official Nakamitsu urges Japan to attend disarmament summit
Nakamitsu highlighted the importance of Tokyo's involvement in disarmament in the face of rising tensions and nuclear threats.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the Choe Hyon destroyer in this photo released Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 19, 2025
North Korea's Kim threatens rapid nuclear expansion amid U.S. war games
The call by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un comes amid escalating tensions with the U.S. and South Korea as the allies conduct joint military drills.
Delegates rest outside of the assembly hall in Geneva on Friday after talks aimed at striking a landmark treaty on tackling the scourge of plastic pollution ended without a deal.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 15, 2025
'Bad actors' blamed as plastic pollution treaty talks end again without deal
Countries said they wanted further negotiations despite six rounds of talks over three years having failed to find agreement.
Humanitarian aid waits to be delivered to Gaza, at a logistics site run by the Egyptian Red Crescent outside Arish, Egypt, on Monday.
WORLD
Aug 14, 2025
Turned back from Gaza, aid shipments languish in warehouses and on roadsides
Shipments are rejected for a host of reasons, ranging from minor paperwork issues to concerns over possible dual military use for some of the goods.
An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over Kyiv during a Russian drone strike, on July 30. Moscow has dispatched military specialists to train the Korean People’s Army on how to use combat drones and air-defense systems.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2025
Ukraine war has transformed North Korean military: Kyiv’s military intel chief
Pyongyang’s alliance with Moscow gives it critical battlefield experience and access to advanced weapons, at the same time making it more unpredictable.
Military personnel in tanks participate in a parade in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on March 27, 2021.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 12, 2025
Myanmar security forces involved in systematic torture, U.N. report says
Investigators said victims were subject to beatings, electric shocks, gang rape, strangulation and other forms of torture.
An Afghan woman walks next to a pile of trash full of plastic bags in Kabul.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 10, 2025
Momentum sagging at U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks
The negotiations have four working days left to strike a legally-binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment.
Ecuadorian Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso at the start of plastic waste treaty negotiations in Geneva on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Aug 9, 2025
U.N. plastic pollution treaty talks progress not 'sufficient': chair
The negotiations, which opened on Tuesday, have four days left to find consensus on a legally binding instrument that would tackle the growing problem choking the environment.
From left to right: Green Legacy Hiroshima volunteer staff Mariko Kikuchi, Tomoko Watanabe, Nassrine Azimi and Sophie Qano stand before one of the trees that survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Aug 9, 2025
A campaign to preserve Hiroshima’s historic trees for another 1,000 years
A total of 170 trees survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Since 2011, a nonprofit organization has been dedicated to sharing their seeds and saplings with the world.
Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki delivers a speech at a conference held by Mayors for Peace, a worldwide organization of city leaders, on Friday in the city of Nagasaki.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2025
Mayors for Peace start general conference in Nagasaki
The conference will discuss actions to be taken by 2029 and adopt a resolution on the abolition of nuclear weapons on the closing day.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’