Month: August 2025

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is traveling to Central Asia this weekend to help promote stability and transformation in the region, his office says. 

Guterres will be in Kazakhstan on Sunday to witness, alongside President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the signing of a host country agreement for a U.N. regional center for sustainable development goals for Central Asia and Afghanistan. Kazakhstan’s envoy to the U.N., Kairat Umarov, has said that the initiative aims to strengthen regional economies and trade networks, create jobs and cut migration flows.  

“We are confident that over time, economic stability will pave the way for a gradual political transformation of Afghanistan, including progress in the field of women’s rights,” Umarov has said. 

Trade between Central Asia and Afghanistan is increasing, but there are international concerns about Taliban-ruled Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis, the threat of terrorism and human rights violations, particularly toward women and girls. 

After the stop in Kazakhstan, Guterres will go to Awaza, Turkmenistan, to attend a U.N. conference on landlocked, developing countries. 

“He will reaffirm the need to help the landlocked developing countries overcome physical barriers and connect to global markets, including by leveraging artificial intelligence to strengthen early warning systems,” said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Guterres. 

The August 5-8 conference will explore ways to expand the economic potential of countries that lack direct ocean access and rely on transit nations, thereby facing obstacles to trade and development. Countries that are classified as landlocked and developing by the conference include Afghanistan, ​Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Christine Chapman apologizes for role in identity fraud that amassed millions to allegedly aid nuclear weapons program

In March 2020, about the time the Covid pandemic started, Christina Chapman, a woman who lived in Arizona and Minnesota, received a message on LinkedIn asking her to “be the US face” of a company and help overseas IT workers gain remote employment.

As working from home became the norm for many people, Chapman was able to find jobs for the foreign workers at hundreds of US companies, including some in the Fortune 500, such as Nike; “a premier Silicon Valley technology company”; and one of the “most recognizable media and entertainment companies in the world”.

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Cases winding through courts offer hope that documents could be released even if justice department declines

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump vowed that his administration would release a tranche of documents in the criminal investigation into disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

But since Trump returned to the White House, his promises have fallen flat, with few documents released – and backtracking about releasing more records. The lack of disclosure has prompted not only dissatisfaction among those seeking information about Epstein’s crimes, but political flak Trump can’t seem to deflect, especially about his own relations with the convicted sex trafficker.

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