UNITED NATIONS
K-Pop’s BTS unveil campaign
K-Pop sensation BTS brought their star power to the UN on Monday, telling the world’s youth to listen to their inner voice and resist pressure to conform. “No matter who you are, where you’re from, your skin color, your gender identity, just speak yourself,” group leader Kim Nam-jun told a packed hall at the launch of a UNICEF youth campaign. Dubbed “Generation Unlimited,” the campaign to promote education, training and employment kicked off during the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN. Kim Nam-jun, who also calls himself RM, spoke of growing up in Ilsan and being “just a normal little boy” until self-doubt settled in at the age of nine or 10. “I have many faults and I have many more fears but I am going to embrace myself as hard as I can and I am starting to love myself,” he said.
NEW ZEALAND
‘First baby’ sees UN debut
With a mock security pass that lists her as the “first baby” of New Zealand, three-month-old Neve Te Aroha on Monday made her UN debut when her mother — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern — spoke at a peace summit at the UN General Assembly. “I wish I could have captured the startled look on a Japanese delegation inside U.N. yesterday who walked into a meeting room in the middle of a nappy change,” Ardern’s partner, Clarke Gayford, who is the baby’s full-time caregiver, wrote on Twitter earlier on Monday after posting a photograph of Neve’s UN security pass.
THAILAND
Couple’s bodies found
The bodies of a wealthy British retiree and his Thai wife were found yesterday buried on their own property, a week after an alleged contract killing ordered by the woman’s brother, police said. Alan Hogg was shot while his wife, Nhot Suddaen, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer at their villa in the northern province of Phrae by men paid 50,000 baht (US$1,541). Their bodies were discovered yesterday morning in graves 2m deep on their own land, Colonel Manas Kerdsukho, police commander in Phrae, told reporters. “The motive for the killings was a long-running internal family conflict, feuds and property,” he said.
NORTH KOREA
Trump-Kim talks to be ‘soon’
US President Donald Trump on Monday said he expected that a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would be announced “pretty soon,” and that the location had yet to be determined. “Chairman Kim has been really very open and terrific, frankly. I think he wants to see something happen,” said Trump during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the UN. Moon said he brought Trump a personal message from Kim and that the North Korean leader was hoping to meet with the US president soon.
JAPAN
Baby body kept in coin locker
Tokyo police yesterday said that they had arrested a 49-year-old woman suspected of dumping a stillborn baby’s body in a coin locker, amid reports that she had moved the corpse around for as many as five years. “The suspect ... left and abandoned the body of an infant inside the locker,” near Uguisudani Station, a Tokyo police spokeswoman told reporters. According to local media, the unemployed woman confessed that she had been storing the body in lockers since suffering a stillbirth “four or five years ago.” “I panicked after I did not give birth to a living child and kept the body as I could not dispose of it,” she told investigators, according to Kyodo News.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
The tale of a middle-aged Chinese man, or “uncle,” who disguised himself as a woman to secretly film and share videos of his hookups with more than 1,000 men shook China’s social media, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag “red uncle” was the top trending item on China’s popular microblog Sina Weibo yesterday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock. The online posts told of how the man in the eastern city of Nanjing had lured 1,691 heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he then recorded and distributed online. The
Hundreds of protesters marched through the Mexican capital on Friday denouncing gentrification caused by foreigners, with some vandalizing businesses and shouting “gringos out!” The demonstration in the capital’s central area turned violent when hooded individuals smashed windows, damaged restaurant furniture and looted a clothing store. Mexico City Government Secretary Cesar Cravioto said 15 businesses and public facilities were damaged in what he called “xenophobic expressions” similar to what Mexican migrants have suffered in other countries. “We are a city of open arms... there are always ways to negotiate, to sit at the table,” Cravioto told Milenio television. Neighborhoods like Roma-Condesa
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