As plastic treaty talks open, countries more divided than ever
Countries are under pressure to make progress on a first-ever global plastics treaty this week, but they face tense negotiations in the Canadian capital with parties deeply divided over what the treaty should include as talks begin on Tuesday. If…
UK announces $620 million in new military aid for Ukraine, plan to up own defense spending
Warsaw, Poland — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced Tuesday that the country is to increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade. Sunak made the announcement during a visit to Warsaw, where he also…
LogOn: Hologram-like experience allows people to connect
The Dutch company Holoconnects are experts in the field of holographic illusions and are now delivering life-size personal connections with a 2-meter-tall box that make it feel like the person you are talking to is physically present. Deana Mitchell has…
Taiwan attracting Southeast Asian tech students
Taiwan is looking to Southeast Asia as a pipeline to fill its shortage of high-tech talent. The numbers of foreign students coming to the island has been growing, especially from Vietnam and Indonesia. VOA Mandarin’s Peh Hong Lim reports from…
UK’s newly passed ‘Safety in Rwanda’ bill is anything but safe: UN officials
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a joint statement calling on the UK Government to reconsider its plan to transfer asylum seekers to Rwanda. This arrangement seeks to…
UNRWA committed to implement independent review recommendations
Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini briefed journalists in New York a day after the independent review panel published its findings. Former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna spearheaded the report, which found that UNRWA has put in place a large number of mechanisms…
WMO report: Asia hit hardest by climate change and extreme weather
Following close on the heels of the study of climate change in Europe, published by WMO on Monday, the State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of climate change across several indicators such as surface temperature, glacier…
From Dominica to Vogue: Big dreams on a small island
Small island developing States (SIDS) often benefit from good weather, sandy beaches and lush countryside, attracting large numbers of tourists, particularly from the United States and Europe, seeking to escape the gloomy winter months. But, growing up in these countries…
Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights office
The development follows the recovery of hundreds of bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste” over the weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the north. A…
Healing page by page in earthquake-affected Türkiye
Ahead of World Book and Copyright Day, marked annually on 23 April, Miko Alazas of IOM caught up with a bibliophile in Adiyaman, Türkiye, who is helping to heal his community through the power of books. Muhammed vividly remembers the…