SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday to meet his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un for the third time this year amid a deadlock in denuclearization talks between the US and North Korea.
During a three-day summit in the North Korean capital, both leaders are expected to discuss ways of defusing military tension along their heavily fortified border, as well as restarting their joint economic cooperation with massive investments from the South.
The summit, however, is not expected to yield tangible results about Pyongyang’s denuclearization, which is well down the list of agenda items for the Moon-Kim summit talks.
Upon his arrival at the Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang, Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook were greeted by Kim and his wife. With bright smiles, Kim hugged Moon, as he did at their second encounter at the northern part of the border village of Panmunjeom in May. Thousands of North Korean residents holding flower bouquets waved national and unification flags and an honor guard quick-marched in tight lines.
Riding a black convertible Mercedes limousine, both leaders rode together along the Pyongyang streets to the Paekhwawon State Guesthouse, while their wives shared a separate vehicle to the luxury guest house, where former South Korean Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun stayed during their summits with Kim Jong Un’s father in 2000 and 2007 respectively.
The first Moon-Kim meeting was held at 3:45 p.m. and continued for two hours at the headquarters of the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. The two sides are expected to discuss ways toward signing a permanent peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, which had ended in a truce, according to the presidential office.
Kim expressed his hope for progress in the nuclear talks with the US, thanking Moon for his balancing role between Washington and Pyongyang.
“Thanks to this (US-North Korea meeting), regional conditions stabilized and a more advanced outcome is expected,” the North Korean leader said at the start of the meeting.
Praising Kim’s “bold decision,” Moon said: “I feet the great weight we must bear, along with a heavy responsibility. I wish this will be a summit that produces abundant results as a gift to the 80 million people (of the Korean Peninsula) ahead of Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day).”
A day before departing to Pyongyang, Moon said on Twitter: “What I want to achieve is peace. Not a tentative change which could be volatile depending on the international situation, but irreversible, permanent and unwavering peace, regardless of what might happen in the global arena.”
As part of efforts to secure peace and closer ties with the communist North, Moon is expected to focus on ways of easing military tensions, including the possibility of disarming the Joint Security Area in the Panmunjeom, removing front-line guard posts and preventing naval conflicts along their boundary in the Yellow Sea.
Another key topic for this summit is expanding their joint economic projects that have been suspended for a decade owing to North Korea’s provocations, including nuclear tests and test-firings of ballistic missiles.
President Moon has pledged efforts to improve the North’s poor infrastructure, such as roads, railways and electricity supply under his so-called “New Economic Map Initiative.” To that end, Moon decided this time to take South Korean business tycoons with him to the reclusive state to let them discuss practical economic cooperation with North Korean officials.
Among those included in Moon’s economic delegation are Lee Jae-yong, heir to the Samsung Group; Choi Tae-won, chairman of SK Corporation; Koo Kwang-mo, CEO of LG Group; and Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of Hyundai Group.
But increasing economic engagement with the North has sparked a backlash since for now almost all inter-Korean economic projects with North Korea are prohibited by US-led United Nations economic sanctions on North Korea.
“It seems, being accompanied by business tycoons, President Moon wants to showcase his will to expand inter-Korean economic cooperation,” said Hyun Jin-kwon, an associate professor of the economics department at Ajou Unversity in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. “But it should be very cautious since North Korea is still imposed by economic sanctions. Any hasty business cooperation with the North could be a violation of the international sanctions.”
The inclusion of billionaire Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong is controversial as Lee was convicted of crimes related to a bribery scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye. Lee initially received a five-year prison term and later it was reduced to two and a half years and suspended. He awaits a final ruling.
“Trials are trials; work is work,” said Im Jong-seok, presidential chief of staff, the supervisor of this summit between Moon and Kim, at a press briefing Monday.
Im, Moon’s right-hand man, admitted this summit was not likely to be used as a breakthrough to the stalled denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
“It’s difficult to have any optimistic outlook (for progress on denuclearization),” he told reporters. “The summit is expected to produce meaningful agreements that fundamentally remove the danger of armed clashes and ease fears of war (between the two Koreas).”
Leaders of two Koreas meet in hopes of easing tension
Leaders of two Koreas meet in hopes of easing tension
- President Moon has pledged efforts to improve the North’s poor infrastructure, such as roads, railways and electricity supply under his so-called “New Economic Map Initiative”
- Kim expressed his hope for progress in the nuclear talks with the US, thanking Moon for his balancing role between Washington and Pyongyang
Venice expands its day-tripper tax program in bid to combat overtourism
Opponents of the day-tripper fee say it has done nothing to discourage tourists from visiting Venice even on high-traffic days
VENICE, Italy: Venice is charging day-trippers to the famed canal city an arrivals tax for the second year starting Friday, a measure aimed at combating the kind of overtourism that put the city’s UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status at risk.
A UNESCO body decided against putting Venice on its list of cultural heritage sites deemed in danger after the tax was announced. But opponents of the day-tripper fee say it has done nothing to discourage tourists from visiting Venice even on high-traffic days.
Here’s a look at Venice’s battle with overtourism by the numbers:
5-10 euros (about $6-$11)
The fee charged to visitors who are not overnighting in Venice to enter its historic center during the second year of the day-tripper tax. Visitors who download a QR code at least three days in advance will pay 5 euros ($5.69) — the same amount charged last year throughout the pilot program. But those who make last-minute plans pay double. The QR code is required from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. and is checked at entry points to the city, including the Santa Lucia train station, the Piazzale Roma bus depot and the Tronchetto parking garage.
54
The number of days this year that day visitors to Venice will be charged a fee to enter the historic center. They include mostly weekends and holidays from April 18 to July 27. That is up from 29 last year. The new calendar covers entire weeks over key holidays and extends the weekend period to include Fridays.
2.4 million euros
That is the amount Venice took in during a 2024 pilot program for the tax. The city’s top budget official, Michele Zuin, said last year the running costs for the new system ran to 2.7 million euros, overshooting the total fees collected. This year, Zuin projects a surplus of about 1 million euros to 1.5 million euros, which will be used to offset the cost of trash collection and other services for residents.
450,000
The number of day-trippers who paid the tax in 2024. Officials say 8,000 day-trippers paid in advance to enter the city on Friday, among the 77,000 who have already registered so far to enter the city this year. Another 117,000 have registered for exemptions, which apply to anyone born in Venice, those paying property taxes in the city, studying or working in the historic center, or living in the wider Veneto region, among others.
75,000
The average number of daily visitors on the first 11 days of 2024 that Venice charged day-trippers. That’s about 10,000 people more than the number of tourists recorded on each of the three important holidays during the previous year. City council member Giovanni Andrea Martini, an opponent of the measure, said the figures show the project has not deterred visitors.
48,283
The number of official residents in Venice’s historic center composed of over 100 islands connected by footbridges and traversed by its famed canals. The population peaked at 174,000 in 1951, when Venice was home to thriving industries. The number shrank during Italy’s postwar economic boom as residents moved to the mainland for more modern housing — including indoor plumbing which was lacking in Venice. It has been shrinking dramatically over recent decades as local industry lost traction, families sought mainland conveniences and housing prices rose. Activists also blame the “mono-culture” of tourism, which they say has emptied the city of basic services like shops for everyday goods and medical care.
51,129
The number of beds for tourists in Venice’s historic center, including 12,627 in the less regulated short-term rental market, according to April data from the Ocio housing activist group. The number of tourist beds surpassed the number of permanent residents in 2023, according to Ocio’s monitor. Anyone staying in a hotel within the city limits, including on the mainland districts of Mestre and Marghera, pays a lodging tax and is therefore exempt from the day-tripper tax.
25 to 30 million
The number of annual arrivals of both day-trippers and overnight guests roughly confirmed by cellphone data tracked from a Smart Control Room since 2020, according to city officials.
Queen Elizabeth’s former solicitor linked to wealth management of alleged war criminal Rifaat Assad
LONDON: The private solicitor to the late Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain also helped manage the wealth of an alleged Syrian war criminal known as “the Butcher of Hama,” according to a report in The Guardian newspaper.
Mark Bridges, who was knighted for his services to the Queen in 2019, acted as a legal adviser to Rifaat Assad, the uncle of former Syrian president Bashar Assad.
Bridges served as the Queen’s solicitor between 2002 and 2019 and was a trustee of financial trusts linked to Rifaat or his relatives, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported.
Assad, now 87, commanded an elite Syrian force accused of massacring up to 40,000 civilians during the brutal suppression of an uprising in the city of Hama in 1982.
After leading a failed coup in 1984, he was exiled from Syria and went on to invest heavily in the UK, France, and Spain.
Bridges’ prestigious London law firm, Farrer & Co, said his work for Assad complied with regulatory standards and that he had received “credible information” at the time that cast doubt on the war crimes allegations.
Bridges served as a trustee for Assad between 1999 and 2008, and continued to provide “ad-hoc and limited” legal advice until 2015.
The Crown Prosecution Service began efforts to freeze Assad’s British assets in 2017, obtaining a court order preventing the sale of a £4.7 million (SAR 23.39 million) Mayfair home. However, it came too late to block the £3.72 million sale of a seven-bedroom property in Leatherhead, Surrey. Assad’s £16 million townhouse in Mayfair had already been sold.
A 2018 ruling by a court in Gibraltar noted that Bridges had been a trustee of two financial trusts connected to Assad, the English Palomino Trust and the Oryx Trust.
In 2020, Assad was convicted in France of embezzling Syrian state funds to build a French property empire valued at £80 million.
Bashar Assad and his British-born wife Asma fled to Moscow after his regime collapsed late last year.
Responding to the revelations, Farrer & Co. told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: “Whether the same decision (to act for Rifaat) would be made today in light of further information now available and, arguably, the more stringent demands of the regulatory environment, is a point on which one might speculate.”
Britain’s King Charles highlights interfaith values in Easter message
- Monarch praised Islam’s ‘deep human instinct’
LONDON: Britain’s King Charles has praised the ethics of Judaism and the human instinct of Islam in his Easter message, calling for greater love and understanding across all faiths.
In a message issued on Maundy Thursday, the King wished the public a “blessed and peaceful Easter,” reflecting on the enduring importance of compassion. “The greatest virtue the world needs is love,” he said.
In his Easter message, the King said: “On Maundy Thursday, Jesus knelt and washed the feet of many of those who would abandon him.
“His humble action was a token of his love that knew no bounds or boundaries and is central to Christian belief.
“The love he showed when he walked the Earth reflected the Jewish ethic of caring for the stranger and those in need, a deep human instinct echoed in Islam and other religious traditions, and in the hearts of all who seek the good of others.”
Since becoming monarch, King Charles has made interfaith dialogue one of his key priorities, often highlighting his admiration for the values found across different religions and encouraging greater communication between faiths.
While he has issued Easter messages in previous years, including during his time as Prince of Wales, this year’s message marks one of his clearest acknowledgements yet of the shared principles across Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other traditions.
‘Defend ourselves’: Refugee girls in Kenya find strength in taekwondo
- Kakuma is Kenya’s second-largest refugee camp, home to over 300,000 people — from South Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Burundi
- Taekwondo black-belt teacher Caroline Ambani, who travels sporadically from Nairobi, pushes the sport’s discipline in each lesson
KAUMA, Kenya: Along one of the many dirt tracks leading into Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp there is a large hidden compound, where inside, twice a week, adolescent girls gather to learn taekwondo, the martial arts lessons offering a safe space in the often chaotic settlement.
Kakuma is Kenya’s second-largest refugee camp, home to over 300,000 people — from South Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Burundi — and managed by the Kenyan government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since its establishment in 1992.
The camp endured protests last month when rations were reduced after the announcement of the USAID cuts, with President Donald Trump’s decision to slash aid funding impacting many within the area.
But the compound — on the outskirts of the camp proper, down ‘New York City’ lane — was calm when AFP visited.
Roughly 80 teenage girls crammed into an open-sided room, their raucous chatter bouncing off the corrugated metal structure.
Fifteen-year-old twins Samia and Salha are among them, Samia explaining they joined because they live in the camp’s dangerous Hong Kong district.
“In the past when we were beaten up, we couldn’t defend ourselves but now we are able to defend ourselves,” Samia told AFP.
Her twin, Salha — who can neither speak nor hear — is just as fiery as her sister, their father Ismail Mohamad said with a grin.
The 47-year-old, who fled Burundi 15 years ago, was initially hesitant about letting his daughters join, but the difficulties that Salha faces in the camp changed his mind.
“I thought it would be good if I brought her here so she could defend herself in life,” he said.
“Now, I have faith in her because even when she’s in the community she no longer gets bullied, she can handle everything on her own.”
Taekwondo black-belt teacher Caroline Ambani, who travels sporadically from Nairobi, pushes the sport’s discipline in each lesson.
Yelling through the chatter, she tried to bring the excitable girls to order: “Here we come to sweat!“
But her affection and pride in her students is evident, particularly girls like Salha.
“Some of these girls have been able to protect themselves from aggressors,” she told AFP.
However, the three-year program, run by the International Rescue Committee and supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is coming to the end of its funding.
Instructors hope the skills they have imparted will be enough to see the girls through the coming years.
One of the captains, 18-year-old Ajok Chol, said she will keep training.
She worries about violence in the camp — like what she fled in South Sudan aged 14.
“We were so scared about that,” she told AFP. “We came here in Kakuma to be in peace.”
Now she wants to become an instructor herself, “to teach my fellow girls... to protect the community.”
Karachi mob kills member of Ahmadi minority
- The mob of 100-200 people beat a 47-year-old owner of a car workshop to death
KARACHI: A mob attacked a place of worship of Pakistan’s Ahmadi minority community in Karachi on Friday, killing at least one man, police and a community spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the Ahmadi community, Amir Mahmood, said the mob of 100-200 people beat a 47-year-old owner of a car workshop to death with bricks and sticks and was still surrounding the building, with around 30 people trapped inside.
The superintendent of police for Karachi’s Saddar neighborhood, Mohammad Safdar, confirmed the death and told Reuters that police were mobilizing efforts to subdue the crowd.
Ahmadis are a minority group considered heretical by some orthodox Muslims.
Pakistani law forbids them from calling themselves Muslims or using Islamic symbols, and they face violence, discrimination and impediments blocking them from voting in general elections.
