Category: 2. World

TOKYO — Kim Jong Un put on a command performance this week at a gathering of some two dozen world leaders in China, striding with confidence and a broad grin across one of the biggest international stages of his 14-year career as North Korea’s leader.

As Kim returns home Friday, his time in Beijing marks a stunning transformation from his first tentative, violent years in power, when some analysts suggested the inexperienced young leader would struggle to survive threats to his rule.

Serious diplomacy with a large group of leaders was unimaginable.

But in Beijing, Kim looked like the leader his propaganda services have constantly sought to portray: an important — crucial, even — player in world affairs, entirely at home with the biggest hitters in Eurasia.

Beginning in 2018, when he and U.S. President Donald Trump held the first of their much-publicized meetings, Kim has emerged as a far different, far more confident leader than when he was thrust into power after his father’s death in 2011.

Granted, he is not yet appearing at the United Nations or established Western global forums. And the attendees in Beijing — which didn’t include leaders from the U.S., Western Europe or Japan — showed little interest in pressing him on widespread concerns about human rights violations or his nuclear weapons. But the events this week are a watershed in his use of international diplomacy to advance his largely secluded nation’s aims.

He deftly handled his two biggest allies, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, laughing with them, pledging enduring assistance to Moscow in its war against Ukraine, and strengthening a sometimes shaky relationship with China. He confidently rubbed shoulders with world leaders at a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

He even felt self-assured enough to bring his young daughter, and possible successor, along for the ride.

“He now appears a seasoned realist and political survivor. In addition to human rights violations and nuclear missile development, Kim has added calculated diplomacy to his authoritarian toolkit,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

For decades, the biggest trip, internationally, for a North Korean leader was an occasional armored train ride to China, where he was somewhat condescendingly feted by his country’s only real ally, an economic, diplomatic and military lifeline in a neighborhood filled with enemies.

Kim is still using the bullet-proof green train, and this latest foreign trip was to Beijing. But the similarities ended there.

Kim and Trump met one-on-one in Singapore in 2018 and then in Vietnam in 2019. They also had talks later on the border between the two Koreas.

These were the first summits between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. The talks failed to stop North Korea’s decades-long pursuit of nuclear weapons and the missiles to carry them to distant targets — ambitions that have drawn harsh international sanctions.

There was widespread criticism that Trump had helped transform Kim’s image, from pariah to legitimate dialogue partner.

The 2018 and 2019 summits and Trump’s interest in another are “gifting Kim the legitimacy he craves,” said Jeff Kingston, a specialist on Asia at Temple University Japan. “Going forward Kim will use Trump to gain attention and seek aid, an old formula that has sustained this dynastic regime,”

Kim’s more recent travel also includes two high-profile trips to Russia, in April 2019, for a summit with Putin in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, and in September 2023 to meet again with the Russian leader at a space facility.

Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, national founder Kim Il Sung, was more adventurous in his travels, but Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, famously avoided plane travel, hence the special armored train.

During his 17 years in power, Kim Jong Il made roughly a dozen trips abroad. Almost all were train trips to China. He was traveling by train when he died in 2011.

Experts believe North Korea’s previous rulers largely avoided events with multiple heads of state in attendance because they were conscious of North Korean propaganda portraying them as peerless leaders — and of international condemnation of their nuclear ambitions.

Trips to China, however, were seen as crucial. Like his son, Kim Jong Il knew that he needed to pay his respects to Beijing, which provides the North with everything from fuel to shrimp chips and is North Korea’s major link, by air and by rail, to the outside world.

Of course, this dependency makes the Kim dynasty vulnerable — one of the reasons Kim Jong Un has expanded his diplomatic circles. When he saw a chance to help heavily sanctioned, isolated Russia, he seized it, sending thousands of North Korean troops and large quantities of military equipment to help it fight Ukrainian forces in return for economic and military assistance.

Xi invited 26 foreign leaders to the massive military parade Wednesday.

But there was a particular buzz surrounding Kim.

Xi invited Kim to stand by him and Putin on the rostrum in Tiananmen Square. The three leaders walked shoulder-to-shoulder to the platform, pausing to shake hands with WWII veterans.

As he basks in the glow of his Beijing trip, however, a big, as yet unanswered question is the future of Kim’s negotiations with Washington over his nuclear and missile programs.

Trump has repeatedly signaled a desire to talk, but North Korea has rejected those offers.

Kim has carried out a far larger number of weapons tests than his father and grandfather, persevering in the face of deep international disapprobation and crippling sanctions, apparently convinced that nuclear arms alone guarantee his nation’s survival.

Kim’s success in Beijing seems to offer him a little more leverage in any future negotiations.

“He has now stepped onto the international stage with the confidence of a strategic power,” said Koh Yu-hwan, former president of South Korea’s Korean Institute for National Unification, “and you could say he has been treated accordingly.”

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Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim and Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this story from Seoul, South Korea.

Katharine the Duchess of Kent has died at the age of 92.

The news of the death of the oldest living member of the Royal Family following Queen Elizabeth II’s death in 2022 was announced by the Buckingham Palace on Friday.

“It is with deep sorrow that Buckingham Palace announces the death of Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent,” the palace said in a statement.

The statement continued as, “Her Royal Highness passed away peacefully last night at Kensington Palace, surrounded by her family.”

“The King and Queen and all Members of The Royal Family join The Duke of Kent, his children and grandchildren in mourning their loss and remembering fondly The Duchess’s lifelong devotion to all the organisations with which she was associated, her passion for music and her empathy for young people,” it concluded.

Katharine married Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, a cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II, in 1961.

Known for her keen musicianship and advocacy for children and young people, she remained a quiet but beloved figure within the Royal Family.

The late Duchess will be remembered for her warmth and compassion, most memorably when she consoled a tearful Jana Novotná after her Wimbledon final loss in 1993.

In a move that reflected her modest nature, the Duchess dropped her HRH title later in life, preferring to be known simply as Mrs. Kent.

She stepped away from royal duties and quietly dedicated more than a decade to teaching music at a primary school in Hull.

As a mark of respect, the Union Flag at Buckingham Palace was also lowered to half-mast shortly after the announcement.

Moreover, a framed notice was placed on the palace railings, continuing a long-standing tradition.

Several social media platforms, including Facebook, were inaccessible in Nepal on Friday after the government blocked unregistered platforms, leaving millions of users angry and confused.

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has instructed the telecommunication authority to deactivate access to 26 unregistered platforms operating in Nepal, including Meta-owned Facebook, YouTube, X and LinkedIn.

“After the directive yesterday we stopped the URLs but a full shutdown will take time,” Sudhir Parajuli, the president of the Internet Service Providers Association of Nepal, told AFP.

“We are deciding what methods to employ.”

Popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X have millions of users in Nepal who rely on them for entertainment, news, and business.

“I really feel bad about the government’s decision because we run our business through Facebook and, if it is closed, our business will be affected,” said Jenisha Joshi, 25, who sells jewellery and accessories through Facebook.

“Facebook also allows us to communicate with our brothers who are living abroad, so it should not be banned.”

The cabinet decided last week to give the companies seven days to register in Nepal, and to establish a point of contact, designate a resident grievance handling officer and a compliance officer.

The decision came after a Supreme Court order in September last year.

Nepal passed a directive in 2023 that required social media platforms to register and establish a local presence.

Public frustration was also evident on platforms that were still accessible on Friday.

Lawmaker Sumana Shrestha of the opposition Rastriya Swatantra Party said the government was trying to control free speech.

“It does not care how this will impact the public,” he told AFP.

Beh Lih Yi, regional director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said that the move “sets a dangerous precedent for press freedom”, urging the government to rescind the order.

Nepal Police’s Cyber Bureau has warned users against indiscriminate use of Virtual Private Networks, citing potential risks to personal data and security.

Some platforms had made enquiries since the shutdown, said communications ministry spokesman Gajendra Kumar Thakur.

Nepal has restricted access to popular online platforms in the past.

Access to the Telegram messaging app was blocked in July, with a rise in online fraud and money laundering cited as the reason.

The government lifted a nine-month ban on TikTok in August last year after the platform’s South Asia division agreed to comply with Nepali regulations.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Friday said India and Russia seem to have been “lost” to China after their leaders met with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, highlighting his split from New Delhi and Moscow as Beijing pushes a new world order.

“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” Trump wrote in a social media post accompanying a photo of the three other world leaders together at Xi’s summit in China.

Asked about Trump’s post, the Indian foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters in New Delhi that he had no comment.

Representatives for Beijing and Moscow could not be immediately reached for comment on Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform.

Xi hosted more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Putin and Modi were seen holding hands at the summit as they walked toward Xi before all three men stood side by side.

Modi’s warming ties with China comes as Trump has chilled US-India ties amid trade tensions and other disputes. Trump earlier this week said he was “very disappointed” in Putin but not worried about growing Russia-China ties.

Two blockbuster events in China this week were a successful exposition of President Xi Jinping’s vision of a new world order – one that puts him and his country firmly at its centre while sidelining his rival the United States.

Since Saturday, Xi has met with almost 30 world leaders around the edges of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin and a huge military parade marking 80 years since World War II’s end.

No major Western powers sent leaders to either SCO or the parade, with Slovakia’s Robert Fico the only European Union member state head present.

A sharp decline in international education aid is set to push millions of vulnerable children out of school by the end of 2026, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned.

According to UNICEF, official development assistance allocated for education is expected to fall by 24 percent—amounting to $3.2 billion—by 2025 compared to 2023 levels. The agency revealed that nearly 80 percent of this projected drop is tied to reduced contributions from three of the world’s largest donors: the United States, Germany, and France.

If the forecasted cuts take effect, an additional six million children will be denied access to schooling by the end of next year, increasing the global out-of-school population from 272 million to 278 million. UNICEF compared the figure to “emptying every primary school in Germany and Italy combined.”

The repercussions are not limited to those entirely excluded from classrooms. The organization cautioned that nearly 290 million more children are at risk of enduring a steep decline in the quality of their education due to the financial shortfall.

“This is not just a budgetary decision; it’s a child’s future hanging in the balance,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Every dollar cut from education jeopardizes the potential of a generation.”

The crisis is expected to weigh most heavily on regions already facing immense challenges. West and Central Africa could see 1.9 million children lose access to schools, while fragile contexts such as Haiti, Somalia, and the Palestinian territories are also at heightened risk.

Girls are likely to bear the brunt of the funding cuts, with vital programs—such as tuition subsidies and the construction of separate sanitation facilities—threatened. These supports are crucial to ensuring girls’ continued enrollment, particularly in crisis-affected and low-income regions.

Related: UNICEF Report Exposes Punjab’s Education Crisis

UNICEF has urged the international community to reverse the trend, warning that the future of millions of children—and the progress of entire societies—depends on sustained investment in education.

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It feels like there are so many things constantly vying for our attention: the sharp buzz of the phone, the low hum of social media, the unrelenting flood of emails, the endless carousel of content.

It’s a familiar and almost universal ailment in our digital age. Our lives are punctuated by constant stimulation, and moments of real stillness – the kind where the mind wanders without a destination – have become rare.

Digital technologies permeate work, education, and intimacy. Not participating feels to many like nonexistence. But we tell ourselves that’s OK because platforms promise endless choice and self-expression, but this promise is deceptive. What appears as freedom masks a subtle coercion: distraction, visibility, and engagement are prescribed as obligations.

As someone who has spent years reading philosophy, I have been asking myself how to step out of this loop and try to think like great thinkers did in the past. A possible answer came from a thinker most people wouldn’t expect to help with our TikTok-era malaise: the German philosopher Martin Heidegger.

Heidegger argued that modern technology is not simply a collection of tools, but a way of revealing – a framework in which the world appears primarily as a resource, including the human body and mind, to be used for content. In the same way, platforms are also part of this resource, and one that shapes what appears, how it appears, and how we orient ourselves toward life.

Digital culture revolves around speed, visibility, algorithmic selection, and the compulsive generation of content. Life increasingly mirrors the logic of the feed: constantly updating, always “now” and allergic to slowness, silence and stillness.

What digital platforms take away is more than just our attention being “continuously partial” — they also limit the deeper kind of reflection that allows us to engage with life and ourselves fully. They make us lose the capacity to inhabit silence and confront the unfilled moment.

When moments of silence or emptiness arise, we instinctively look to others — not for real connection, but to fill the void with distraction. Heidegger calls this distraction “das man” or “they”: the social collective whose influence we unconsciously follow.

In this way, the “they” becomes a kind of ghostly refuge, offering comfort while quietly erasing our own sense of individuality. This “they” multiplies endlessly through likes, trends, and algorithmic virality. In fleeing from boredom together, the possibility of an authentic “I” disappears into the infinite deferral of collective mimicry.

Heidegger feared that under the dominance of technology, humanity might lose its capacity to relate to “being itself”. This “forgetting of being” is not merely an intellectual error but an existential poverty.

Today, it can be seen as the loss of depth — the eclipse of boredom, the erosion of interiority, the disappearance of silence. Where there is no boredom, there can be no reflection. Where there is no pause, there can be no real choice.

Heidegger’s “forgetting of being” now manifests as the loss of boredom itself. What we forfeit is the capacity for sustained reflection.

Boredom as a privileged mood

For Heidegger, profound boredom is not merely a psychological state but a privileged mood in which the everyday world begins to withdraw. In his 1929 to 1930 lecture course The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, he describes boredom as a fundamental attunement through which beings no longer “speak” to us, revealing the nothingness at the heart of being itself.

“Profound boredom removes all things and men and oneself along with it into a remarkable indifference. This boredom reveals beings as a whole.”

Boredom is not absence but a threshold — a condition for thinking, wonder, and the emergence of meaning.

The loss of profound boredom mirrors the broader collapse of existential depth into surface. Once a portal to being, boredom is now treated as a design flaw, patched with entertainment and distraction.

Never allowing ourselves to be bored is equivalent to never allowing ourselves to be as we are. As Heidegger insists, only in the totality of profound boredom do we come face to face with beings as a whole. When we flee boredom, we escape ourselves. At least, we try to.

The problem is not that boredom strikes too often, but that it is never allowed to fully arrive. Boredom, which has paradoxically seen a rise in countries drowning in technology like the US, is shameful. It is treated like an illness almost. We avoid it, hate it, fear it.

Digital life and its many platforms offer streams of micro-distractions that prevent immersion into this more primitive attunement. Restlessness is redirected into scrolling, which, instead of meaningful reflection, produces only more scrolling. What disappears with boredom is not leisure, but metaphysical access — the silence in which the world might speak, and one might hear.

In this light, rediscovering boredom is not about idle time, it is about reclaiming the conditions for thought, depth, and authenticity. It is a quiet resistance to the pervasive logic of digital life, an opening to the full presence of being, and a reminder that the pause, the unstructured moment, and the still passage are not failures – they are essential.

Putin was commenting on the readiness of the West’s so-called coalition of the willing to provide postwar security guarantees to Ukraine, which could include the deployment of troops and air patrols to the country, as well securing maritime traffic in the Black Sea.

Crucially, the precondition for that to happen is a ceasefire or peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. 

However, Putin repeated he doesn’t see the point in meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “it will be almost impossible to agree with the Ukrainian side on key issues.”

He also ruled out that unlikely meeting taking place in any city other than Moscow.

“If someone really wants to meet with us, we are ready. The best place for this is the capital of the Russian Federation, the hero city of Moscow … We will definitely provide working conditions and safety,” said Putin at the forum. Zelenskyy has already dismissed Putin’s idea of meeting in Moscow.

The Kremlin chief has been playing for time over meeting Zelenskyy as the White House attempts to set up a meeting with a view to ending the conflict.

WASHINGTON: The US has ordered the deployment of 10 F-35 fighter jets to a Puerto Rico airfield to conduct operations against drug cartels, two sources briefed on the matter said, in a move likely to further inflame tensions in the region.

The advanced fighter jets will be added to an already bristling US military presence in the southern Caribbean as President Donald Trump carries out a campaign pledge to crack down on groups he blames for funneling drugs into the United States.

Friday’s development comes three days after U.S. forces attacked a boat that Trump said was carrying “massive amounts of drugs” from Venezuela, killing 11 people.

The strike appeared to set the stage for a sustained military campaign in Latin America.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 10 fighter jets are being sent to conduct operations against designated narco-terrorist organizations operating in the southern Caribbean.

The planes should arrive in the area by late next week, they said.

The U.S. has deployed warships in the southern Caribbean in recent weeks, with the aim of carrying out Trump’s crackdown.

Seven US warships and one nuclear-powered fast attack submarine are either in the region or expected to be there soon, carrying more than 4,500 sailors and Marines.

US Marines and sailors from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit have been carrying out amphibious training and flight operations in southern Puerto Rico.

The buildup has put pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has called “effectively a kingpin of a drug narco state.”

Maduro, at a rare news conference in Caracas on Monday, said the United States is “seeking a regime change through military threat.”

US military carries out strike on vessel carrying drugs from Venezuela, officials say

U.S. officials have not said what legal justification was used for Tuesday’s air strike on the boat or what drugs were on board.

Trump said on Tuesday, without providing evidence, that the US military had identified the crew of the vessel as members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which Washington designated a terrorist group in February.