Written by 
SEOUL — What on earth to do about all the plastic polluting the oceans, the food supply, even our bodies? That is the question that the delegates from 175 countries are trying to answer this week in Busan, South Korea, where the fifth and final round of negotiations are underway for a United Nations-led treaty that […]
The fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-5), opened today in Busan, Republic of Korea. The session aims to conclude negotiations and finalize the text of the agreement. The session, which takes place from 25 November to 1 December, […]
A last round of negotiations on a legally binding treaty to address the global scourge of plastic pollution has opened in Busan, South Korea. Here’s what to know about it: Nations are deciding what actions they’ll take National delegations still have a lot to hammer out before there is a treaty. Most contentious is whether […]
A final round of talks on a treaty to curb plastic pollution opened on Monday, with deep differences between nations emerging almost immediately. The meeting started just hours after a chaotic end to the COP29 climate talks in Baku, where delegates agreed to a boost in climate funding that developing countries slammed as insufficient. Opening […]
The international community’s efforts in tackling the global plastics crisis have reached a pivotal moment, leading up to the fifth and last scheduled intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC-5) to take place in Busan, South Korea starting on November 25. If countries agree to an international framework to reduce the production and consumption of plastics, the world […]
Booming indigenous Maori “haka” chants rang out across New Zealand’s capital on Tuesday, as tens of thousands rallied against a conservative push to redefine the nation’s founding treaty. More than 35,000 demonstrators poured into the harbourside city of Wellington, police said, shutting down busy streets as their spirited procession inched its way towards parliament. Bare-chested […]
Police say 35,000 people are outside parliament Police estimate there are 35,000 protestors gathered outside parliament. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, addressed the crowd: Kia ora, my sovereign peoples. Aotearoa is our kingdom. We must protect it. We’ve got a message for this Government. Kill the bill. Kill the bill. We are inspiring indigenous […]
With the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti (March for the Treaty) from the far north moving through Auckland on its way to Wellington, it might be said ACT leader David Seymour has been granted his wish of generating an “important national conversation about the place of the Treaty [of Waitangi] in our constitutional arrangements.” Timed to […]
North Korea has ratified a mutual defense treaty with Russia, state media reported on Tuesday. The deal calls for each side to assist the other in case of an armed attack. The announcement comes days after Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported its forces clashed with North Korean units stationed in the Russian border region of Kursk. What […]
From China’s mass internment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, to Syria’s torture and extermination of thousands of detainees, to Russia’s forcible transfer of civilians from occupied areas of Ukraine, no region of our planet is free from crimes against humanity. Nor are the perpetrators limited to state actors. Between 2014 and 2017, the militant group calling […]