WASHINGTON: The US will continue to build its military defenses against North Korea, President Donald Trump told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday, pledging all options are on the table.
The pair spoke by phone a day after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, in what analysts said was a warning ahead of Trump’s summit with China’s Xi Jinping at which North Korea is set to dominate the agenda.
Trump “made clear that the US will continue to strengthen its ability to deter and defend itself and its allies with the full range of its military capabilities,” the White House said in a statement about the call.
“The president emphasized that the US stands with its allies Japan and South Korea in the face of the serious threat that North Korea continues to pose.”
Though the White House has previously made similar statements, the call came hours before Trump hosts Chinese President Xi for a two-day summit at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Trump has said the US is prepared to go it alone in bringing Pyongyang to heel if China — North Korea’s top ally — does not step in.
In Tokyo, Abe said Trump reaffirmed that he is prepared to consider all possibilities in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
“I told (President Trump) that Japan is watching closely how China will cope with this North Korean issue,” Abe told reporters after the 35-minute conversation.
“President Trump then made a strong remark, saying all options are on the table.”
Abe said the two leaders agreed that North Korea’s latest ballistic missile launch was a “dangerous provocation and poses a great threat to Japan’s national security.”
Japan sees itself as particularly vulnerable to North Korean missile launches, some of which have landed uncomfortably close to its northwestern coast.
Trump, since coming to power in January, has been careful to assure Japan that the US, which guarantees Tokyo’s security, has its back in the face of North Korean provocations.
Abe and Trump were meeting at the Mar-a-Lago estate in February when North Korea launched a rocket, setting off a controversy when the leaders set up an impromptu “situation room” in full view of the resort’s guests.
That time the US leader responded by pledging “100 percent” support for Japan, which along with South Korea is Washington’s key regional ally
Following North Korea’s test of four missiles last month, Trump affirmed Washington’s “ironclad commitment” to Japan and South Korea.
Trump’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, last month during a trip to the region vowed a fresh strategy to counter the North Korean nuclear threat, admitting that all previous efforts had failed.
Wednesday’s missile, launched days after Pyongyang warned of retaliation if the global community ramps up sanctions, flew 60 kilometers, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.
A US defense official later said that the missile was an extended range Scud and had suffered an in-flight failure.
“A Scud ER (extended range) flew about 60 kilometers before suffering an in-flight failure and crashing into the Sea of Japan,” also known as the East Sea, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Trump to Abe: US to boost defenses against North Korea
Trump to Abe: US to boost defenses against North Korea
Somalia president visits Ethiopia in latest peace push
- Mohamud’s office said the visit to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa came at Abiy’s request
MOGADISHU: Somalia’s president arrived in Ethiopia on Saturday as the two countries looked to build on a recent peace deal aimed at defusing tensions in the volatile Horn of Africa.
Land-locked Ethiopia’s desire for access to the sea has deepened long-standing grievances between the two neighbors.
Somalia was outraged when Ethiopia signed a deal one year ago with its breakaway region of Somaliland, reportedly to recognize its independence in exchange for a port and military base on the Red Sea.
The diplomatic furor was defused by a peace deal signed last month by Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, which was mediated by Turkiye.
Mohamud’s office said the visit to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa came at Abiy’s request.
“This visit builds on the recent agreement reached in Ankara. This renewed cooperation underscores a new era of collaboration between Somalia and Ethiopia,” it said.
Abiy’s X account showed him meeting the Somali president at the airport.
But many questions remain unresolved.
Although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last month’s deal would eventually give Ethiopia some form of sea access, it is not clear how that would happen.
The fate of Ethiopia’s deal with Somaliland is also uncertain.
And continued tensions were on display in Cairo on Saturday when Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi met with his Egyptian and Eritrean counterparts.
The three countries have lately found common ground in opposing Ethiopia’s ambitions and made a veiled reference to their rival.
“The Red Sea and its security is subject only to the will of the countries on its coast, and it is absolutely unacceptable for any country not bordering the Red Sea to have a presence, whether military, naval or otherwise,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said.
Egypt, Eritrea and Somalia forged a new regional alliance in October at a summit in the Eritrean capital Asmara, and the foreign ministers said Saturday that more would follow.
Shared concerns about Ethiopia have also pushed Egypt and Somalia into closer military ties, with Egyptian troops joining the updated international coalition to fight Somalian insurgents, the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), that launched this month.
US wildfires pose fresh threat despite winds easing
- The National Weather Service said that conditions in the Los Angeles area would improve through the weekend, with sustained winds slowing to about 20 mph, gusting between 35 mph and 50 mph
LOS ANGELES: The largest of the raging wildfires that have devastated parts of Los Angeles this week was reported to have shifted direction on Saturday, triggering more evacuation orders and posing a new challenge to exhausted firefighters.
Six simultaneous blazes that have ripped across Los Angeles County neighborhoods since Tuesday have killed at least 11 people and damaged or destroyed 10,000 structures. The toll is expected to mount when firefighters are able to conduct house-to-house searches.
The fierce Santa Ana winds that fanned the infernos eased on Friday night. But the Palisades Fire on the city’s western edge was heading in a new direction, prompting another evacuation order as it edged toward the Brentwood neighborhood and the San Fernando Valley foothills, the Los Angeles Times reported.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Death toll rises to 11 with more fatalities expected.
• 10,000 structures burned as neighborhoods turn to ash.
• Thousands homeless, public health emergency declared.
• Insurers face billions in claims, Biden vows support.
“The Palisades fire has got a new significant flare-up on the eastern portion and continues to northeast,” LA Fire Department Captain Erik Scott told local station KTLA, according to a report on the LA Times website.
The fire, the most destructive in the history of Los Angeles, has razed whole neighborhoods to the ground, leaving just the smoldering ruins of what had been people’s homes and possessions.
Some 153,000 people remained under evacuation orders and another 166,800 faced evacuation warnings with a curfew in place for all evacuation zones, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
Seven neighboring states, the federal government and Canada have rushed aid to California, bolstering aerial teams dropping water and fire retardant on the flaming hills and crews on the ground attacking fire lines with hand tools and hoses.
The National Weather Service said that conditions in the Los Angeles area would improve through the weekend, with sustained winds slowing to about 20 mph, gusting between 35 mph and 50 mph.
Officials have declared a public health emergency due to the thick, toxic smoke.
Pacific Palisades residents who ventured back to their devastated neighborhoods on Friday were shocked to find brick chimneys looming over charred waste and burnt-out vehicles as acrid smoke lingered in the air.
“This was a house that was loved,” Kelly Foster, 44, said while combing through the rubble where her house once stood.
Foster’s 16-year-old daughter, Ada, said she tried to get inside but “I just became sick. I just couldn’t even ... Yeah, it’s hard.”
In Rick McGeagh’s Palisades neighborhood, only six of 60 homes survived, and all that remained standing at his ranch house was a statue of the Virgin Mary.
“Everything else is ash and rubble,” said McGeagh, 61, a commercial real estate broker who, along with his wife, raised three children at their home.
On Friday morning, hundreds of people streamed into a parking lot near the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena for donated clothing, diapers and bottled water.
Denise Doss, 63, said she was anxious to return to her destroyed home in Altadena to see if anything was salvageable, but officials stopped her due to safety concerns.
“At least to say goodbye until we can rebuild. I will let God lead me,” Doss said.
Many Altadena residents said they were worried government resources would go to wealthier areas and that insurers might short-change those who cannot afford to contest denials of fire claims.
Beyond those who lost their homes, tens of thousands remained without power, and millions of people were exposed to poorer air quality, as the fires lofted traces of metals, plastics and other synthetic materials.
Private forecaster AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic loss at $135 billion to $150 billion, portending an arduous recovery and soaring homeowners’ insurance costs.
President Joe Biden has declared the fires a major disaster and said the US government would reimburse 100 percent of the recovery for the next six months.
Russia says US risks global energy instability with new sanctions
- “Of course Washington’s hostile actions will not be left without reaction,” said Moscow’s foreign ministry
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told reporters that the Biden administration was trying to leave Trump “as heavy a legacy as possible“
MOSCOW: Moscow on Saturday accused the US of being ready to risk global energy instability with new wide-reaching sanctions on Russia’s energy sector.
The US and the UK on Friday announced new sanctions against Russia’s energy sector, including oil giant Gazprom Neft, just days before President Joe Biden leaves office.
Moscow’s foreign ministry said in a statement that on the eve of Biden’s “inglorious time in power,” Washington was trying to “cause at least some harm to Russia’s economy even at the cost of destabilising world markets.”
“Of course Washington’s hostile actions will not be left without reaction,” it added.
In a reference to the California wildfires, Moscow accused Biden’s administration of leaving behind “scorched earth,” or total destruction, for incoming US President Donald Trump — since he cannot cancel the sanctions without Congress approval.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told reporters that the Biden administration was trying to leave Trump “as heavy a legacy as possible.”
The US Treasury Department said Friday it was designating more than 180 ships as well as Russian oil majors Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, fulfilling “the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy.”
Gazprom Neft on Friday slammed the sanctions as “baseless” and “illegitimate,” Russian state news agencies reported.
Biden’s deputy national security adviser for international economics, Daleep Singh, called the sanctions “the most significant” yet on Russia’s energy sector, which he said was “by far the largest source of revenue for (President Vladimir) Putin’s war.”
The Russian ministry on Saturday accused the US of seeking to “hinder as far as possible or even make impossible any bilateral economic ties, including with US business.”
It said Washington was “sacrificing to this the interests... of European allies,” which are “forced to switch over to more expensive and unreliable American supplies.”
It also accused Washington of “ignoring” the views of its own population on rising energy prices once the presidential election was over.
Two trams collide in France’s Strasbourg, 20 injured
- The trams collided near Strasbourg’s rail station.
- A large security perimeter has been set up in front of the station
STRASBOURG, France: Two trams collided in a tunnel in the eastern French city of Strasbourg on Saturday, injuring at least twenty people, the authorities said.
Strasbourg was the first major French city to re-introduce its tram service, in 1994. Since then, there have been no major accidents.
“Twenty people” have been injured, said a spokesman for the prefecture, citing a preliminary estimate. He added that the cause of the accident had not yet been established.
The trams collided near Strasbourg’s rail station.
A large security perimeter has been set up in front of the station, where numerous ambulances have taken up position, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
A video posted by a witness on social media shows a chaotic scene with the two trams significantly damaged in the tunnel near the station.
One of the trams appears to have derailed as a result of the impact.
Syrian migrant dies trying to cross Channel: French authorities
- Several dozen migrants tried to get into the water on the beach at Sangatte, on the northern coast of France
LILLE: A 19-year-old Syrian migrant perished while trying to cross the Channel to Britain, French authorities said on Saturday, adding he was probably crushed to death in a leaking dinghy.
It was the first reported death at sea of a migrant seeking to travel to Britain from France so far this year.
Several dozen migrants tried to get into the water on the beach at Sangatte, on the northern coast of France, on Friday night, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture told AFP.
The prefecture said that “a few minutes later” the group disembarked from the leaking dinghy. On the floor of the boat, a Syrian man was found, the prefecture said, adding that he had suffered cardiac arrest.
He had “probably” been crushed to death.
“This was the first death at sea in 2025,” the prefecture said.
The victim, 19, was pronounced dead at 5:24 am, the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor, Guirec Le Bras, said separately.
A forensic investigation will be carried out to determine the exact cause of death.
Citing members of law enforcement, the prosecutor said the small boat carried around 60 migrants.
A 33-year-old Syrian-born man was arrested and placed in police custody, according to the prosecutor.
According to the prefecture, 77 people died trying to reach Britain in flimsy inflatable boats last year, making it the deadliest year for migrants who are taking ever greater risks to evade Britain’s border control.
Associations providing help to migrants recorded 89 fatalities last year. The count includes migrants who died at sea and on the coast of northern France.
The groups planned a march in Calais on Saturday to denounce security policies they say are responsible for the mounting death toll.
Due to unfavorable weather conditions, only 61 migrants arrived in the United Kingdom on small boats between 1 and 10 January, according to British authorities.
More than 36,800 people were detected crossing the Channel last year, a 25 percent increase from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional figures from the interior ministry.
Immigration, both irregular and regular, was a major issue in the UK’s July general election, which brought Labour to power but also saw a breakthrough for Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party.
According to Downing Street, illegal migration was one of the issues discussed by French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday.
