South Korean President Lee Jae Myung vowed Tuesday to end a “vicious cycle of unnecessary military tensions” with North Korea, with the aim of achieving peaceful coexistence and shared growth. In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Lee emphasized his vision of a “phased solution” to the North Korean nuclear issue, “based on a cool-headed perception that denuclearization cannot be achieved in the short term.” On Sunday, the leader of nuclear-armed North Korea, Kim Jong Un, rejected any phased plan, saying recent overtures from Washington and Seoul for dialogue were disingenuous because their fundamental intent to weaken Pyongyang remained unchanged. Kim said...

Australia’s national broadcaster has been ordered to pay A$150,000 (£73,435; $99,200) in penalties for unfairly sacking a presenter over a social media post about the war in Gaza. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) took fill-in radio host Antoinette Lattouf off air in December 2023 due to her political views and after lobbying from pro-Israel groups, the Federal Court found earlier this year. Lattouf has already been awarded A$70,000 in damages, but on Wednesday Justice Darryl Rangiah said the “substantial” extra sum was needed to ensure the ABC learned its lesson. The broadcaster has publicly apologised to Lattouf, saying it also...

Explosions shake the walls of the dim basement in Gaza City where Noor Abu Hassira and her three daughters are sheltering. They can’t see much through a small, raised window. But if the sounds of buzzing drones and booming airstrikes are any indication, Israeli forces are getting closer. Abu Hassira is staying behind despite Israeli warnings to evacuate. She has debilitating leg injuries from an airstrike that destroyed her home at the start of the war and, like many in the devastated territory, she cannot come up with the $2,000 she says it would cost to move to southern Gaza and pitch a...

Bahison Ravindran says he always believed he was Indian. Born to Sri Lankan refugee parents in the southern Indian Tamil Nadu state, the 34-year-old web developer had studied and worked there, and held several government-issued identity documents, including an Indian passport. But a rude shock awaited him in April when police arrested him, saying his passport was invalid. Authorities said he was not an Indian “citizen by birth” since both his parents were Sri Lankans who had fled to India in 1990 amid the civil war there. For long, anyone born in India qualified for Indian citizenship, but a 1987...