Category: World

The National Gallery of Indonesia is usually associated with such artists as Raden Saleh, Affandi and other icons of the nation’s artistic history. This month it plays host to the works of asylum seekers and refugees in an exhibition entitled Berdiam/Bertandang, which means Stay/Visit. With about 13,800 people identified as “persons of concern” by the …

Read more “Indonesia’s National Gallery Hosts Art of Refugees, Highlighting Migrant Plight”

U.S. President Donald Trump, who earlier this year demanded that North Korea swiftly give up its nuclear weapons, has said that it could take years to achieve those results in negotiations. …

U.S. President Donald Trump strode up to the lectern and took stock of the world’s press in a five-star New York hotel. “This is quite a gathering. Wow!” he crowed. And so began 1 hour and 22 minutes with the world’s most powerful man, pumped by days of U.N. diplomacy and seething over Democratic opposition …

Read more “Trump Press Conference: From George Washington to Elton John”

U.S. President Donald Trump said “Iran has to come back and they have to talk” if it wants to avoid a new round of economic sanctions. Speaking to reporters in New York Wednesday, the president defended his decision to withdraw from the 2015 six-nation agreement for Tehran to give up its nuclear program in exchange …

Read more “Trump: New Sanctions Will Force Iran Back to Nuclear Talks”

A pro-democracy group says it has uncovered an extensive online effort to suppress voter turnout for a critical referendum in Macedonia on changing its name to accelerate its bid to join NATO and the European Union. …

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called on other countries to help stop Russian aggression in his country, saying that combating such “expansionism” is part of the United Nations’ mission. …

A new report estimates that South Sudan’s civil war has caused nearly 400,000 “excess deaths” since fighting erupted in late 2013. The report funded by the U.S. State Department and issued by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine estimates that violence caused about half of those 382,900 deaths.   For years the toll …

Read more “Report Says Nearly 400,000 ‘Excess Deaths’ in South Sudan”

An artists’ group in Kabul is painting murals on the city’s blast walls in honor of journalists who have died in the line of duty. …

The United Nations warns escalating human rights violations and restrictions to civil and political rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo are calling into question the credibility of upcoming presidential elections. The U.N. Human Rights Council held a special session in Geneva on the situation in the DRC. The United Nations report highlights alarming trends …

Read more “UN Warns Rights Violations Threaten Credibility of DRC Elections”

More than a thousand women in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno are urging the government to free their husbands and sons who have been detained for years on suspicion of being members of the extremist group, Boko Haram. The women say they have not received any information about the whereabouts of their loved ones. …

Read more “Nigerian Wives, Mothers of Detainees Say Their Men Are Not Boko Haram”

The Russian athletics federation says it has launched a legal challenge to overturn a three-year ban on its athletes, which followed a major doping scandal. …

Macedonia is holding a referendum on September 30 that has provoked passionate protests in the country, as well as in neighboring Greece. The referendum asks whether the country’s name should be changed to North Macedonia, opening the path to NATO membership for the Balkan country. …

The founder of a Texas company that sells blueprints for making untraceable 3D printed guns has resigned from the firm after being arrested on charges of having sex with an underage girl, the company announced Tuesday.   Cody Wilson tendered his resignation to his own company Friday evening to tend to “personal matters,” said Paloma …

Read more “Owner of Texas 3D Gun Company Resigns after Arrest”

The relatives of thousands of Indians who died cleaning sewers protested in the capital on Tuesday, aiming to stop the practice of workers entering underground conduits to unclog drains and remove waste with their bare hands. Hundreds of protesters shouted slogans accusing the government of delaying compensation for sewer deaths, while others waved banners saying …

Read more “Hundreds Protest in Indian Capital Against Deaths of Sewer Cleaners”

Austria’s chancellor said on Tuesday a proposal by a far-right coalition partner to shut out several newspapers was unacceptable, suggesting further tensions between the ruling parties, though the far right later disowned the plan. Two of Austria’s three main national newspapers on Tuesday published details of an email sent to police spokespeople by the Interior …

Read more “Austrian Leader Rejects Far-Right Plan to Shut Out Some Media”

Underground rapper Young Zapik’s song Beautiful Girl In Hijab has gone viral in Uzbekistan, in opposition to the government’s ban on women wearing Islamic head scarves in public. …

Several strategically important islands off Finland’s southwest coast have been put under lockdown, as law enforcement raided multiple sites with ties to a company with Russian links. Finns, and others, have a lot of questions. …

U.S. President Donald Trump warned Germany not to become dependent on Russian energy. Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 25, Trump praised Poland for developing alternative sources. The Trump administration has said Russia’s undersea pipeline project to Germany, known as Nordstream 2, would concentrate 75 percent of Russian gas exports to …

Read more “Trump Warns Germany Could Become Reliant On Russian Energy”

The main jihadist group in northwest Syria will announce its position on a Turkish-Russian deal over Idlib in the next few days, it said on Monday, with its acceptance or rejection vital to the success of efforts to contain the war. Tahrir al-Sham’s stance will be critical to last week’s deal which has, for now, …

Read more “Syrian Jihadists to State Position on Idlib Deal ‘in Coming Days’”

The Marshall Islands, an atoll-nation vulnerable to sea level rise from climate change, announced steps Monday toward an ambitious plan to cut its greenhouse emissions to zero by 2050. The Pacific country became the first small island nation to present such a strategy to the United Nations amid increasing interest from governments worldwide toward eliminating …

Read more “Marshall Islands Marches Toward Zero Greenhouse Emissions by 2050”

Thousands of scientists joined on Monday to accuse the Trump administration of trying to erode the Endangered Species Act in favor of commercial interests with a plan to revamp regulations that have formed a bedrock of U.S. wildlife protection for over 40 years. The extraordinary critique of the administration’s proposal, which was unveiled in July, …

Read more “Scientists Voice Opposition to Changes in US Endangered Species Act”

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian says that the nation should hold fresh parliamentary elections “very soon” in light of his bloc’s landslide victory in the mayoral race in Yerevan. …

Wrestling’s world governing body has announced that Kazakhstan’s capital Astana will host the world championships next year. …

Out of 15 countries polled, young people in China, India, Nigeria, Kenya, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Mexico were found to be more optimistic about the future than youths in the other countries, according to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  Young people in these countries are more likely to believe they can affect the way …

Read more “Poll: Optimism About the Future Greater in Youths from Lower-Income Countries”