The long-running battle over whether to allow Pacific Ocean seabed mining took an unexpected turn Thursday when a company disclosed it had been confidentially negotiating a plan with the Trump administration to circumvent a United Nations treaty and perhaps obtain authorization from the United States to start mining in international waters. The proposal, which drew…
President Trump on Thursday said he had asked Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, to stay in Congress rather than serve as ambassador to the United Nations, amid concern about the minuscule voting margin that Republicans hold in the House. “There are others that can do a good job at the United Nations,” Mr….
The United Nations announced on Monday that it would reduce its presence in Gaza by withdrawing about one-third of its international workers there, following repeated strikes of its facilities by Israel. Secretary General António Guterres said in a statement that the decision to reduce the organization’s footprint in Gaza was “difficult” at a time when…
When Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead pro-Palestinian demonstrations while a Columbia University student, was detained this month, the Trump administration argued he should be deported to help prevent the spread of antisemitism, invoking a rarely used law. Lawyers for Mr. Khalil, a legal permanent resident who is being detained in Louisiana, quickly responded that the…
Young, urban women in Afghanistan are increasingly ditching the all-enveloping blue burka with a face mesh that has become a symbol of the Taliban’s oppression of women. Since their return to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed their ultra-strict interpretation of Islamic law, modelled on that of their previous rule over the Central Asian…
The leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have called for a cease-fire in eastern Congo in a bid to end the latest deadly chapter in a three-decade conflict. Presidents Félix Tshisekedi of Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda committed to an “immediate and unconditional cease-fire,” according to a joint statement issued with…
After more than a year of Israeli bombing, tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths, and a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the world was largely united in saying “enough is enough”. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 12667 in December was clear in its demand: An immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Countries as diverse as Vietnam, Zimbabwe…
Iran has significantly escalated its efforts to enforce mandatory hijab laws on women, leveraging cutting-edge technology to monitor and punish those who defy the strict dress code. A recent United Nations report sheds light on the alarming extent of Iran’s reliance on technology to surveil and control women’s behavior. At the heart of this crackdown…
Iran is deploying advanced surveillance technology like aerial drones and facial recognition to track and penalise women spotted without a headscraf and who fail to comply with the strict dress code, a report published by the United Nations said on Friday. The report said its findings suggested a growing reliance on digital tools, including a…
More than a million people in the world’s largest refugee camp could soon be left with too little food for survival. In the camp in Bangladesh, United Nations officials said, food rations are set to fall in April to about 18 pounds of rice, two pounds of lentils, a liter of cooking oil and a…