TOPIC

United Nations

United Nations
The UN is an international organisation founded after World War II that aims to provide a dialogue platform between countries, fortifying international corporation and preventing future wars. There are currently 193 members led by five permanent members of the Security Council - US, Russia, UK, France and China. The organisation currently has six principal organs: General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Secretariat, International Court of Justice, and the Trusteeship Council.
Illustration: Craig Stephens
Diplomacy

Opinion | High Seas Treaty will both boost China’s power and hold it accountable

Beijing realises that maritime leadership will be measured not just by fleets and bases but also by who protects the planet’s last great commons.

videocam
Taiwan

Opinion | The US wants to block China’s peaceful reunification. It won’t work

videocam
7
Myanmar

Myanmar’s pro-junta party wins Aung San Suu Kyi’s seat: ‘surprise no one’

US-Venezuela conflict

Editorial | US raid on Venezuela should push nations to revive collective security

Following Washington’s fragrant breach of international law, responsible member states must restore the UN’s credibility and authority.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz arrives for a Security Council meeting concerning the situation in Venezuela on January 5 in New York. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
Israel-Gaza war

Hamas says will dissolve its Gaza government when Palestinian body takes over

Militant group agrees to cede power to technocratic committee under Trump-brokered plan, but silence remains over disarmament.

US-Venezuela conflict

How the US raid in Venezuela has triggered Brazilian fury and a Chinese opening

Latin America’s largest economy seeks ‘delicate balance’ between Trump’s ambitions and boosting ties with Beijing, its top trading partner.

videocam
37
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Israel-Gaza war

Israel says Bulgarian diplomat to direct Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza

The Board of Peace is meant to oversee the implementation of the second and far more complicated phase of the Gaza ceasefire.

Palestinians walk amid buildings destroyed by Israeli air and ground operations in Gaza City. Photo: AP
Hong Kong’s Tai Po fire tragedy

Letters | As Hongkongers unite around Tai Po, the fire probe must deliver

Readers discuss how to sustain social cohesion in Hong Kong, the kindness of Hongkongers, and why the world must respond to the Venezuela raid.

US-China relations

China warns of ‘law of the jungle’ as US exits global bodies

Opportunity and challenge for Beijing on world stage amid Donald Trump’s order suspending support for 66 international organisations.

videocam
40
France

France’s Macron slams US over Venezuela, Greenland actions

The French President condemned Washington’s isolationism after the capture of Venezuela’s leader and designs to take over the Danish territory.

videocam
13
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech to French ambassadors on Thursday in Paris. Photo: AP
Singapore

Singapore’s ex-PM says US raid in Venezuela is worrying for small countries

The city state has always made its stance clear on such issues, such as when it opposed the US invasion of Grenada in 1983, the ex-PM says.

9
Protesters outside the US embassy in Jakarta step on a poster with the image of US President Donald Trump during an anti-US rally on Tuesday, after the US raided Venezuela and captured its leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Photo: Reuters
Indonesia

Is 12 too young? Rare matricide case tests Indonesia’s juvenile justice system

The girl, often threatened with a knife by her mother, was inspired to use one after playing online games and watching anime, police say.

videocam
Donald Trump

Trump pulls US out of dozens of international organisations, UN agencies

Many are groups and treaties the US president’s team has categorised as catering to diversity and ‘woke’ initiatives, such as climate talks.

videocam
8
Sustainability

Opinion | Why Shein doesn’t have to be the model for the fashion industry

Although the fast fashion label had a bumper 2025 while familiar brands faced collapse, the industry should not conclude that speed and scale are everything.

videocam
Police secure the area as people queue to enter a department store, during the opening of Shein’s first physical outlet in Paris, France, on November 5, 2025. Photo: Reuters
Israel

UN accuses Israel of subjecting Palestinians in West Bank to ‘apartheid’

For first time, UN rights chief labels situation in occupied Palestinian territories ‘apartheid’, a term previously used only by UN experts.

Israeli security forces check Palestinians’ IDs as they line up to return to Jenin through a gap in a security fence in September 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE
China-Latin America relations

China condemns US raid on Venezuela amid UN stalemate

Toppling of President Maduro by US forces splits UN council, undermines international order and sows doubt in Latin American governments about Chinese and Russian support.

US-Venezuela conflict

US ousting of Maduro prompts region to reassess China – and Trump’s next move

Trump hints at wider action as Latin American governments weigh sovereignty, China ties and US dominance.

videocam
36
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
US-Venezuela conflict

‘Shocked’ China demands immediate release of Nicolas Maduro

At an ‘emergency’ meeting of the UN Security Council, Chinese envoy Sun Lei says Beijing ‘strongly condemns’ Maduro’s capture by US.

videocam
39
Sun Lei, deputy permanent representative of China to the UN, addresses the UN Security Council on Monday in New York. Photo: AP
US-Venezuela conflict

US attack on Venezuela a ‘death certificate’ for United Nations: analyst

UN chief ‘deeply alarmed’ about implications, while China is described as seeing openings to entrench itself as alternative to America.

videocam
40
War and conflict

Opinion | US attack on Venezuela tests moral clarity of the post-war world order

Amid Washington’s use of force, there is a sense that global affairs are drifting towards a modernised version of the law of the jungle.

videocam
Africa

War in Sudan: drone strikes cut power supply in oil-rich south

Over the past week, some 15,000 people have been displaced from the region, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

Sudanese protesters take part in a rally in support of the Sudanese Army and against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Merowe, about 330 kilometres north of Khartoum, Sudan, on December 13 last year. Photo: EPA-EFE
China-Latin America relations

‘Stop subverting Venezuelan regime’: China urges US to release Maduro

When the ‘law of the jungle’ replaces international norms, no sovereign nation is safe, Xinhua commentary says.

videocam
57
A still image from video posted on social media by a White House team shows Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro being walked in the offices of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in New York. Photo: via Reuters
China-Japan relations

Why China is turning down the nationalist heat in its row with Japan

With economic stakes high, Beijing seen as ‘more cautious in handling external frictions’, avoiding fanning of ‘uncontrollable’ nationalism.

videocam
17
Donald Trump

‘Peace President’ Trump embraces war: Maduro captured, Nigeria hit, Iran warned

Despite Nobel Peace Prize ambitions, Trump opens 2026 with strikes in Venezuela after a Christmas Day hit on Nigeria.

12
Bangladesh

Asian Angle | Bangladesh needs ‘structural’ change, but how will it get there?

As Bangladesh heads into elections next year, it must tread the challenge of political transition with more care and thoughtfulness.

A man holds a Bangladeshi national flag during celebrations to mark Victory Day at the old airport in Sher-e-Bangal Nagar in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on December 16, 2025. Photo: EPA
Myanmar

Myanmar military-backed party leads in election’s first phase by wide margin

The Union Solidarity and Development Party, led by retired generals, won 38 of 40 seats in the lower house.

Electoral officers count early voting ballots after closing the first phase of Myanmar’s general election at a polling station in Naypyitaw, on December 28. Photo: EPA
Israel-Gaza war

Angelina Jolie visits Egyptian side of Gaza’s Rafah crossing

‘What needs to happen is clear: the ceasefire must hold and access must be sustained, safe and urgently scaled up,’ the actress said of Gaza.

War and conflict

Outside In | 2025 was the year of denial. What now?

Despite the threat of wars, tariffs, climate change and AI, normality has persisted. But it can only be a matter of time before such contradictions explode.

videocam
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Help preserve 120 years of quality journalism.
SUPPORT NOW
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement