
UNITED NATIONS, September 30 (IPS) - Is the unpredictable Trump administration toying with the idea of resuming nuclear tests?The New York times reported April 10 that some of Trump’s senior advisers had proposed the resumption of “test denotations for the sake of national security”. The last such US explosion took place in 1992.

NEW YORK, September 30 (IPS) - Last week, the United Nations (UN) marked its 80th anniversary against the backdrop of an unprecedented global crisis. With the highest number of active conflicts since 1946, trust in multilateralism is faltering.
CIVICUS discusses North Korea’s closed civic space with Hanna Song, Executive Director of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB). Based in Seoul, South Korea, NKDB documents systematic human rights violations in North Korea through testimonies from escapees, and has built the world’s largest private database of such abuses.

As the COP30 approaches amid darkening geopolitical clouds—marked by rising rightwing extremism, corporate backtracking and rising militarism—Ali T. Sheikh, Pakistan’s leading expert on sustainable development and climate change, views the world’s largest diplomatic gathering with a mix of apprehension and caution.

Addressing the UN General Assembly on Monday, the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea gave a muscular defence of his country’s stance on nuclear weapons, also highlighting strides towards economic development.