Authoritarians are once again trying to racialize citizenship. In Asia, that’s quite normal. The problem is that conservative movements worldwide are similarly trying to shore up their dwindling popularity by undemocratically disenfranchising the very immigrants they had once invited over.
Senator Elizabeth Warren and other US lawmakers are demanding that the Pentagon stop its systematic undercounting of civilian deaths after more than two decades of the so-called Global War on Terrorism.
In the global environmental conference COP27, which is set to conclude today, much of the debate has been focused on whether or not wealthier countries should pay climate reparations to more vulnerable nations.
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told Russia President Vladimir Putin that this is not a time for war, with food, fertilizer, and fuel security among the major concerns of the world at present.
As the United Nations asked the world for US$160 million in response to catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also issued a broader warning about the human-caused climate emergency: “Let’s stop sleepwalking toward the destruction of our planet by climate change. Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country.”
Hours after India Housing Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced that Rohingya refugees from Myanmar would be provided apartments in the Bakkarwala area of outer Delhi, the Home Ministry denied that any such policy had been decided. By the same evening, Puri reversed himself.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has outlined what appears to be a sincere effort to realign Japan’s position on nuclear weapons–from one that supports the maintenance of the US “nuclear umbrella” to one that aims for gradual global nuclear weapons disarmament.
As a treaty review conference kicked off in New York City, antiwar groups called out nuclear-armed countries—particularly the United States—for not complying with the decades-old agreement.
The Yokohama Spring Homeless Patrol offers hope to those in the most desperate need for help within their community.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the first half of December 2019.
