TOKYO/SEOUL: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean president-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said they had agreed on Friday to ramp up three-way ties with the United States in responding to North Korea’s evolving military threat.
Kishida told reporters after a phone call with Yoon the two agreed to stay in close contact over North Korea and shared the view it would be good to meet as soon as possible.
North Korea recently used what would be its largest ever intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system in two secretive launches, likely paving the way for a resumption of long-range tests, US and South Korean officials said on Friday .
Kishida said pretty much all diplomatic options are open in dealing with North Korea, possibly including sanctions, and that Japan will stay in close contact with the United States and South Korea on any response.
A spokeswoman for Yoon, who won Wednesday’s presidential election, said he expressed hopes for greater trilateral cooperation involving the United States in dealing with North Korea.
Relations between the two neighbors have been strained over issues stemming from Japan’s 1910-45 colonization over the Korean peninsula, including victims of Japan’s forced labor and mobilization of wartime brothels.
Good bilateral ties are essential and need to be advanced given the state of world affairs, Kishida said.
Yoon told Kishida it would be important to resolve bilateral pending issues in a “reasonable, mutually beneficial manner,” adding both sides have many areas of cooperation including regional security and the economy.
Yoon also shared condolences to the victims and the families of the 2011 earthquake that struck off the northeastern Japan, marking its 11th anniversary, she added.
Japan, South Korea leaders agree to boost ties with US to tackle North Korea
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Japan, South Korea leaders agree to boost ties with US to tackle North Korea
- North Korea recently used what would be its largest ever intercontinental ballistic missile system in two secretive launches
More than 1 million people displaced by raging Haiti gang violence, UN says
The tally of 1.04 million displaced people released by the International Organization for Migration represents a threefold increase from December 2023 when 315,000 people were homeless. Never before have so many people been displaced by violence in the country, according to UN data.
“Haiti needs sustained humanitarian assistance right now to save and protect lives,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope in a statement sent to journalists, stressing the need to address the root causes of the violence and instability.
Armed gangs within Haiti now have near-total control over the capital Port-au-Prince and wide remit over the rest of the country. An international mission approved last year tasked with restoring order has so far seen just a fraction of troops deploying, although two contingents of Guatemalan soldiers arrived this month to boost the mission’s forces.
IOM spokesperson Kennedy Okoth Omondi told a Geneva press briefing that spaces in shelters were running short, with many struggling to obtain basic services like food and water. Deportations of migrants from The Dominican Republic and elsewhere have added to the strain on communities, he added.
“What has really made this worse is the fact that we have seen over and over deportation still occurring back to Haiti, where communities are already struggling to basically survive,” he said.
EU says irregular crossings into bloc last year lowest since 2021
WARSAW: The number of irregular crossings into the European Union recorded in 2024 fell to the lowest level since 2021, the bloc's border agency Frontex said on Tuesday.
Warsaw-based Frontex, which regularly publishes statistics on irregular entries into the EU, said last year's preliminary data revealed "a significant 38-percent drop" in crossings.
The agency said in a statement the numbers were at "the lowest level since 2021, when migration was still affected by the COVID pandemic".
Frontex said the decrease in undocumented asylum seekers was mainly driven by a plunge in arrivals through the Central Mediterranean and the Western Balkans routes.
"Despite persistent migration pressure, intensified EU and partner cooperation against smuggling networks has significantly reduced crossings at Europe's external borders," Frontex said.
Overall, in 2024 the agency saw over 239,000 irregular entries into the EU.
The biggest fall was registered along the route through the Western Balkans, a 78-percent drop that Frontex attributed to "strong efforts by regional countries to stem the flow".
Irregular entries detected via the Central Mediterranean fell by 59 percent due to "fewer departures from Tunisia and Libya", Frontex said.
Despite the decrease, the route still accounted for about 67,000 crossings, the second highest among all routes after the Eastern Mediterranean route, it added.
Other routes used by undocumented asylum seekers, however, saw sharp increases.
The Canary Islands registering an 18-percent rise in arrivals to almost 47,000, the highest figure since Frontex began collecting data in 2009.
This was "fuelled by departures from Mauritania", Frontex said, adding that "flows from other departure points declined".
Spain has moved to the forefront of the European Union's migration flow as tighter controls in the Mediterranean push more asylum seekers to attempt the perilous trip from West Africa to the Canaries.
The agency also said a "threefold" rise in detections was registered at the EU's eastern land borders, including at Poland's border with Belarus.
EU states along the bloc's eastern edge have accused Russia and its ally Belarus of pushing thousands of migrants over their borders in recent years as part of a campaign to destabilise Europe.
In December, the EU said that member states bordering Russia and Belarus could limit the right to asylum for migrants in the event of their "weaponisation" by Moscow and Minsk.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last month the right to asylum "is being used today -- especially on the border with Belarus -- by Poland's enemies".
Commenting on the latest figures, Frontex's executive director Hans Leijtens said that 2024 "highlighted emerging risks and shifting dynamics".
The agency said these involve smuggling networks adapting to new circumstances and rapidly shifting migration flows.
It also warned against "increasing violence" by smugglers along the Western Balkans route.
Trump would have been convicted if he wasn’t elected: special counsel report
WASHINGTON: US President-elect Donald Trump would have been convicted for his alleged effort to overturn the 2020 election result if he hadn’t been elected four years later, said a report by then special counsel Jack Smith released early Tuesday.
The US Department of Justice’s “view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind,” the report said.
“Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the Presidency, the (Special Counsel’s) Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”
Trump, who returns to the White House on January 20, had been accused of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding — the session of Congress called to certify President Joe Biden’s election win but which was violently attacked on January 6, 2021 by a mob of the Republican’s supporters.
Smith, who was special counsel appointed to investigate Trump, dropped the federal criminal case against the incoming leader after he won November’s presidential election.
Soon after the report’s overnight release, Trump hit back on his Truth Social platform, calling Smith “deranged,” and adding that he “was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his ‘boss’.”
“To show you how desperate Deranged Jack Smith is, he released his Fake findings at 1:00 A.M. in the morning,” Trump added in another post.
Trump’s attorneys had earlier urged US Attorney General Merrick Garland not to release the report, calling the plan to release it “unlawful, undertaken in bad faith, and contrary to the public interest.”
2020 ELECTION
Smith’s report details Trump’s alleged efforts to persuade state-level Republican lawmakers and leaders to “change the results” of the 2020 election.
“Mr. Trump contacted state legislators and executives, pressured them with false claims of election fraud in their states, and urged them to take action to ignore the vote counts and change the results,” according to the report released by the Department of Justice.
“Significantly, he made election claims only to state legislators and executives who shared his political affiliation and were his political supporters, and only in states that he had lost,” it added.
In addition, the report alleges Trump and co-conspirators planned to organize individuals who would have served as his electors, if he had won the popular vote, in seven states where he lost — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — “and cause them to sign and send to Washington false certifications claiming to be the legitimate electors.”
They ultimately “used the fraudulent certificates to try to obstruct the congressional certification proceeding,” the report says.
The special counsel office concluded that “Trump’s conduct violated several federal criminal statutes and that the admissible evidence would be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction.”
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, dismissed a separate case against the former and future president last year — over Trump’s handling of top secret documents after leaving the White House — but charges are still pending against two of his former co-defendants.
Smith left the justice department last week, days after submitting his final report as special counsel.
In another case, a judge sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge on Friday for covering up hush money payments to a porn star despite the US president-elect’s last-ditch efforts to avoid becoming the first felon in the White House.
‘Survival mode’ for families displaced by Ethiopia quakes
AWASH: Under a makeshift shelter, Moussa Akele kills time chewing the stimulant khat, wondering where his family will get its next meal after fleeing a series of earthquakes that have shaken several regions of Ethiopia.
The 40-year-old was at home in Kabanna in the Afar region, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of the capital Addis Ababa, when an earthquake struck in late December.
“It caused widespread panic and destroyed our houses. People were terrified,” he said.
Ethiopia’s Rift Valley is one of the most seismically active regions in the world.
For several weeks, frequent tremors, including one measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, have been shaking the rural regions of Afar and Oromia.
There are fears they could cause a major dam to collapse or lead to the eruption of a volcano, Mount Dofan, so the authorities have evacuated tens of thousands of people.
Akele, who worked in a sugar factory, found refuge with his family about 20 km from Kabanna. Like several thousand others, they now live in a tent pitched in the middle of arid vegetation.
“We were evacuated from our good and peaceful life and are now living in survival mode,” he said.
Trucks loaded with water and food arrive regularly, “but there are a lot of people and it’s not enough,” he added.
Most of the displaced are pastoralists, who had to leave their livestock behind.
Under a blazing sun and amid dust clouds caused by the trucks, several dozen women and children queue with jerry cans. Fights occasionally break out in the desperation.
Assea Ali didn’t have time to take anything with her.
“We fled for our lives,” said the 26-year-old mother of two.
“This is the condition we are living in now,” she added, pointing to a small tent and sighing: “I have no hope.”
On a small hill overlooking the camp, a health center has been set up by local authorities.
Several women rush in as soon as it opens, most to weigh their young children.
“Until the government and support agencies like UNICEF or the World Health Organization intervene, we are helping people with the resources we have,” said Abokar Hassan, 24, a health response officer.
He estimates between 200 and 300 people see him each day, mainly to prevent the spread of cholera.
According to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Ethiopian authorities have evacuated more than 60,000 people living in high-risk areas, including some near a dam.
“A comprehensive humanitarian response is under way, but significant gaps remain,” OCHA said in a statement on Saturday.
The region is known to be a “volcanic, tectonic zone,” Cecile Doubre, a seismologist at the Strasbourg School and Observatory of Earth Sciences and a specialist in Afar, told AFP.
“There has been no eruption yet, but there is a spread of magma under the earth’s crust, between zero and 15 km. It is spreading in a large fissure, about 50 km long,” she added. “It’s a major geological event.”
Some sections of the road bear the scars of seismic activity, with the track to Kabanna partially collapsed.
In the city, there is a heavy silence, broken only by the lowing of oxen wandering the deserted streets amid several destroyed houses and businesses.
Despite the situation, Akele remains hopeful.
“The fear and uncertainty we are experiencing now are temporary, and we must not let them make us despair,” he said.
Ukraine strikes Russia in major drone and missile attack — Russian media
- Dozens of Ukrainian drones attack Russian regions
- Reports of emergency sirens at major refinery
MOSCOW: Ukraine struck Russian regions with a major drone and missile attack overnight, damaging at least two factories and forcing schools to close in a major southern Russian city, according to Russian officials and media.
The Shot Telegram channel said that Russia had downed more than 200 Ukrainian drones and five US-made ATACMS ballistic missiles.
“The enemy has organized a massive combined strike on the territory of the Russian regions,” the Two Majors war blogger said.
Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the Bryansk region in western Russia, said Ukraine had launched a major missile attack but did not say which missiles had been used.
The Russian defense ministry, which reports on such attacks, made no immediate comment. Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the reports.
In the Russian city of Engels, home to an air base where Russia’s nuclear bombers are based, Saratov Governor Roman Busargin said an industrial enterprise had been damaged by a drone but gave no more details.
Busargin said that classes in schools in Saratov and Engels would be held remotely. Flight restrictions were imposed in Kazan, Saratov, Penza, Ulyanovsk and Nizhnekamsk, Russia’s aviation watchdog said.
Nizhnekamsk, in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, is home to the major Taneco refinery. Shot said attack sirens were sounded at the refinery. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the report.
Russia fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as “Oreshnik,” or Hazel Tree, at Ukraine on Nov. 21 in what President Vladimir Putin said was a direct response to strikes on Russia by Ukrainian forces with US and British missiles.
Putin, after those attacks, said that the Ukraine war was escalating toward a global conflict after the United States and Britain allowed Ukraine to hit Russia with their weapons, and warned the West that Moscow could strike back.
President-elect Donald Trump has pushed for a ceasefire and negotiations to end the war quickly, leaving Washington’s long-term support for Ukraine in question.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
