Clouds gather over Japan's ambitious Osaka World Expo
Voice of America
This April 2, 2024, photo shows construction of the 'Grand Roof,' one of the world's largest wooden structures, at the site of the 2025 Expo on Yumeshima island, an area of reclaimed land in Osaka, Japan. FILE - This Oct. 12, 2023, photo shows the 'Tower of the Sun' by Japanese artist Taro Okamoto. It was the symbol of the 1970 Osaka Expo and now the location of the Expo Commemoration Park in Suita, Osaka prefecture.
One of the largest wooden structures ever built is taking shape in Osaka but hopes that Expo 2025 will unite the world are being dogged by cost blowouts and a lack of public enthusiasm.
FILE - In this Nov. 9, 2015, photo, Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, right, delivers a speech as close ally Tin Oo waves in Yangon, Myanmar. Tin Oo died June 1, 2024, at the age of 97. FILE - Tin Oo, co-founder of the National League for Democracy party, points out other party members at a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the NLD, in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sept. 27, 2013.
Polling officials check and seal an electronic voting machine before they allow voters to cast their votes at a polling station during the last round of a six-week-long national election near Dharamshala, India, June 1, 2024. Nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa, stand in queue to cast their votes during the last round of a six-week-long national election, in Kolkata, India, June 1, 2024.
A North Korean military guard post, top, and South Korean post, bottom, are seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, May 31, 2024. A TV screen shows a report of North Korea's multiple rocket launchers during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, May 31, 2024.