North Korea says it has carried out a test of its “underwater nuclear weapons system” in response to drills by the US, South Korea and Japan this week.

The test of its supposedly nuclear-armed underwater drones took place off its east coast, state media reported.

The North has claimed tests of its “Haeil-5-23” system before but the weapons have never been independently verified.

South Korea and allies have yet to respond to the latest provocation.

But it comes as the North has ramped up military action in recent weeks, including claiming to have deployed a new solid-fuelled intermediate-range ballistic missile on Sunday.

That followed live-fire drills at the maritime border with South Korea in the first week of January.

Pyongyang leader Kim Jong Un has also been increasingly aggressive in his policy direction and rhetoric – ending several agreements aimed at peace-keeping in recent months.

On Friday, North Korea said it had been provoked by joint drills by Washington, Seoul and Tokyo to carry out a test of its underwater weapons, according to a report by state agency KCNA.

It accused the exercises of “further destabilising the regional situation” and threatening the North’s security.

The US, South Korea and Japan say they have conducted more exercises in the past year as a deterrence response to the increasing frequency of North Korea’s military actions, which include multiple tests of its nuclear ballistic missiles and launches of new weapons. All such actions are in breach of UN sanctions.

But Mr Kim has repeatedly said his regime is building up its military arsenal in preparation for war that could “break out at any time” on the peninsula.

Over the New Year period, he signalled some fundamental policy shifts in his regime’s stance to South Korea.

And earlier this week he declared the former bedrock goal of re-unification with South Korea was over, designating the South as the “principle enemy”.

The rhetoric follows several claimed advances in his country’s military and nuclear capabilities – including in its underwater operations.

Source: BBC

South Africa says Israel’s response to the offensive launched by the Palestinian Hamas resistance group on October 7 had breached the Genocide Convention, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague holds a hearing against Israel for Gaza’s “genocide” case.

At the top UN court in The Hague on Thursday, South Africa said Israel had breached the UN Genocide Convention by imposing a brutal war on the densely-populated Gaza Strip for more than two months, stressing that the Hamas attack could not justify such military incursion on the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Late last month, Pretoria, in an 84-page suit filed against Israel at the ICJ, asked the top court to urgently declare that the Tel Aviv regime has breached its responsibilities under international law since it launched an ongoing war on the impoverished coastal sliver.

South Africa detailed evidence of brutality being perpetrated in Gaza, making the African nation the first to file a lawsuit against the occupying regime at the ICJ, appealing to the court to force the regime to “immediately suspend” its war on Gaza.

“No armed attack on a state territory no matter how serious… can provide justification for or defend breaches of the convention,” said Ronald Lamola, South Africa’s justice minister, during his opening statement in the case at the ICJ.

“Israel’s response to the October 7 attack has crossed this line and given rise to the breaches of the convention,” he stressed, setting out South Africa’s case at the top court.

“The Palestinians have experienced systematic oppression and violence for the last 76 years, on October 6, 2023, and every day since October 7, 2023. In the Gaza Strip, at least since 2004, Israel continues to exercise control over the airspace, territorial waters, land crossings, water, electricity, and civilian infrastructure, as well as key government functions,” Lamola added.

South Africa, when faced with such evidence of genocide in Gaza, firmly decided to initiate this case in an attempt to prevent such crimes in the Palestinian enclave as contained in Article 1 of the Convention, the South African justice minister further said at the court.

After Lamola, Adila Hassim, who is an advocate representing South Africa’s case, took the floor.

“South Africa contends that Israel has transgressed Article 2 of the convention by committing actions that fall within the definition of genocide. The actions show systematic patterns of conduct from which genocide can be inferred,” she said.

Hassim went on to say that the “first genocidal act is mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza.”

“Israel deployed 6,000 bombs per week. At least 200 times, it has deployed 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs in southern Gaza, which it designated safe. No one is spared. Not even newborns. UN chiefs have described it as a graveyard for children,” she added.

Other representatives of the South African nation one after the other presented the case against Israel at the top UN court.

“Israel’s political leaders, military commanders and persons holding official positions have systematically and in explicit terms declared their genocidal intent. These statements are then repeated by soldiers on the ground in Gaza as they engage in the destruction of Palestinians and the physical infrastructure of Gaza,” said South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi.

While lawyers inside the ICJ are making the case against Israel, a large number of pro-Palestinian demonstrators had gathered outside the building, demanding justice and a quick end to the brutal war.

The third representative of South Africa at the ICJ was Vusimuzi Madonsela, who told the court that Pretoria had come forward “to prevent genocide and to do so in the discharge of the international obligation that rests on South Africa and all other states under the convention.”

“The consequences of not indicating clear and specific provisional measures and not taking steps to intervene while Israel disregards its international obligations before our eyes would, we fear, be very grave indeed,” he added.

After South Africa’s representatives concluded their arguments, ICJ President Joan Donoghue announced that the sitting was adjourned and that the court would meet again tomorrow to hear Israel’s oral arguments.

As it is an urgent procedure, the top UN court could rule in a matter of weeks.

The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s atrocities against Palestinians.

Since the start of the US-backed offensive, the Israeli regime has killed at least 23,210 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 59,167 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble.

Source: Presstv

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Gaza war has come at a “very heavy price” for his side.

The military says 14 more soldiers have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Friday, bringing the total of the ground assault to 153.

Saturday was one of its deadliest days – but Mr Netanyahu said his forces had “no choice” but to keep fighting.

Meanwhile, the health ministry in Gaza – run by Hamas – says another 166 people were killed in the last day.

More than 20,000 people have been killed – mostly women and children, and 54,000 injured in Gaza since 7 October, the ministry says.

Source: BBC

Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy, days after being ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation lawsuit brought by two former election workers in Georgia who said his targeting of them led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.

In his filing Thursday, the former New York City mayor listed nearly $153 million in existing or potential debts, including close to a million dollars in tax liabilities, money he owes his lawyers and many millions of dollars in potential legal judgements in lawsuits against him. He estimated his assets to be between $1 million and $10 million.

The biggest debt is the $148 million he was ordered to pay a week ago for making false statements about the election workers in Georgia stemming from the 2020 presidential contest.

Ted Goodman, a political adviser and spokesperson for Giuliani, a one-time Republican presidential candidate and high-ranking Justice Department official, said in a statement that the filing “should be a surprise to no one.”

“No person could have reasonably believed that Mayor Giuliani would be able to pay such a high punitive amount,” Goodman said. He said the bankruptcy filing would give Giuliani “the opportunity and time to pursue an appeal, while providing transparency for his finances under the supervision of the bankruptcy court, to ensure all creditors are treated equally and fairly throughout the process.”

Last week’s jury verdict was the latest and costliest sign of Giuliani’s mounting financial strain, exacerbated by investigations, lawsuits, fines, sanctions, and damages related to his work helping then-Republican President Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Declaring bankruptcy likely will not erase the $148 million in damages a jury awarded to the former Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea’ “Shaye” Moss. Bankruptcy law does not allow for the dissolution of debts that come from a “willful and malicious injury” inflicted on someone else.

And Giuliani’s filing came a day after U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington said Freeman and Moss did not have to wait the standard 30 days before starting work to collect the judgement, finding that Giuliani could use that time to hide his assets.

Giuliani has said he would appeal and said the damages award was “absurd.” Speaking outside Washington’s federal courthouse after the verdict, he repeated his claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. In a video later on X, formerly known as Twitter, Giuliani insisted he did nothing wrong and suggested he will keep pressing his claims even if it means losing all his money or ending up in jail.

The bankruptcy filing listed other potential verdicts against him in lawsuits related to his promotion of conspiracy theories about that election, including suits filed by the elections technology companies Dominion and Smartmatic.

He also listed lawsuits by a woman who filed a lawsuit claiming that Giuliani had coerced her into sex and failed to pay her $2 million in wages, and numerous claims related to unpaid legal bills.

In September, Giuliani’s former lawyer Robert Costello sued him for about $1.4 million in unpaid legal fees, alleging that Giuliani breached his retainer agreement by failing to pay invoices in full and a timely fashion. Giuliani has asked a judge to dismiss the case, claiming he never received the invoices at issue. The case is pending.

Costello represented Giuliani from November 2019 to this past July in matters ranging from an investigation into his business dealings in Ukraine, which resulted in an FBI raid on his home and office in April 2021, to state and federal investigations of his work in the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss.

In August, the IRS filed a $549,435 tax lien against Giuliani for the 2021 tax year.

Copies were filed in Palm Beach County, Florida, where he owns a condominium and New York, under the name of his outside accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP. That’s the same firm that Trump used for years before it dropped him as a client amid questions about his financial statements.

Giuliani, still somewhat popular among conservatives in the city he once ran, hosts a daily radio show in his hometown on a station owned by a local Republican grocery store magnate. Giuliani also hosts a nightly streaming show watched by a few hundred people on social media, which he calls “America’s Mayor Live.”

Meantime, a criminal trial awaits in Georgia. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty in the case, which accuses him of participating in a wide-ranging conspiracy to thwart the will of Georgia’s voters who had selected Biden over Trump. Giuliani faces 13 charges, including violation of Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, the federal version of which was one of his favorite tools as prosecutor in the 1980s.

Giuliani is also an alleged co-conspirator listed in the federal case charging Trump with illegally working to overturn the results of the election. Giuliani is not charged in that case.

Source: AP

The UN climate talks in Dubai could be in jeopardy after some nations reacted furiously to a draft deal on fossil fuels they call “weak”.

The draft removed language included in a previous text suggesting that fossil fuels could be “phased out”.

All 198 countries at the summit must agree or there is no deal.

Humans burning fossil fuels is driving global warming, risking millions of lives, but governments have never agreed how or when to stop using them.

A representative for the European Union called the draft “unacceptable” and said the bloc could walk away.

“We can’t accept the text,” said minister Eamon Ryan, a negotiator for the EU and Ireland’s environment minister. But he added that the collapse of the talks is “not the outcome the world needs”.

Politicians, including from nations on the frontline of climate change, have been in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to discuss the growing problem in a year that is set to be the warmest on record.

The question of what to do about greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil, coal and gas have dominated the talks.

Expectations were low that the controversial COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber could deliver a strong deal on fossil fuels because he is also CEO of the Abu Dhabi oil giant Adnoc.

But countries that want a rapid end to fossil fuels had grown optimistic as Mr Jaber appeared to say he backed a “phase out” of fossil fuels.

A draft text published on Saturday confirmed that one option for the talks outcome was a “phase out of fossil fuels in line with best available science”.

Questions remained over when this would happen and whether it would rely on the use of expensive and experimental technology to store the carbon dioxide released when fossil fuels are burned.

On Monday, another draft was published that deleted mentions of “phase out”. Instead it said nations should “reduce consumption and production of fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner”.

While the changes in language can seem small, slight differences in UN documents can significantly change what countries are obliged to do.

Many nations appear to have had just an hour to look at the text before a meeting of all governments was called.

Source: BBC

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Washington DC to try to rescue an imperilled US defence package to Kyiv worth billions of dollars.

The aid has become embroiled in US domestic, partisan politics, with Republicans demanding concessions on border funding in exchange.

It marks Mr Zelensky’s third visit to the US since Russia’s 2022 invasion.

The week is a crucial one for Ukraine, with the EU also deciding whether to open accession talks to the bloc.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has signalled that he opposes the move, and has the power to block such a decision.

Mr Orban and Mr Zelensky had an apparently intense conversation when they met on Sunday at the inauguration of Argentina’s new president. The details of their discussion have not been revealed.

The Ukrainian president will arrive in Washington on Monday. As well as holding meetings with US President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, he will address the Senate on Tuesday morning.

The White House said in a statement on Sunday that Mr Zelensky’s visit was meant “to underscore the United States’ unshakeable commitment to supporting the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia’s brutal invasion”.

The US military aid package, worth $60bn (£47.9bn; €55bn), is currently stalled in Congress, facing pushback from Republicans who argue that more money should be going to domestic security at the US-Mexico border.

A vote in the Senate last week saw a package, which included the funding but no border measures, blocked by Republicans.

In addition to more funds for border enforcement, Republicans are seeking reforms to the way in which undocumented migrants seeking political asylum in the US are processed.

“We’ve got to be able to have a change in policy on this,” Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, one of the lead Republican negotiators, said in an interview on Sunday.

“All we’re trying to do is to say what tools are needed to be able to get this back in control, so we don’t have the chaos on our southern border.”

Mr Lankford said that Americans don’t want US national security on the border to be ignored while Congress focuses on Ukraine’s interests.

Although the Biden administration has expressed a willingness to accept some asylum policy changes, such concessions risk angering liberal lawmakers and further dividing a party that has already been fractured by the president’s support of Israel in the Gaza War.

“We are concerned about reports of harmful changes to our asylum system that will potentially deny lifesaving humanitarian protection for vulnerable people, including children, and fail to deliver any meaningful improvement to the situation at the border,” a group of 11 Democratic senators wrote in a statement issued on 30 November.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, an ally of Mr Biden’s, has said that the White House is becoming “more engaged” in the ongoing negotiations, seeking a comprehensive funding agreement that includes money for Ukraine before Congress leaves for its holiday recess on Friday.

Even if the Senate can strike a deal, however, the package would have to also be approved by the House of Representatives, where opposition to more Ukraine aid is even more intense.

Mr Biden has been urging lawmakers to approve the funds. In an impassioned televised address last Wednesday, he said the package could not wait and warned that Russia would not stop at victory over Ukraine.

Though Ukraine fended off Russia’s original attack, its much-vaunted counter-attack this year has stalled and there have been signs of fatigue from some of the Western nations which have stepped up to support it militarily.

After the Senate vote, Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that Ukrainians would be “in mortal danger” if Western countries did not continue their support.

“We really need the help. In simple words, we cannot get tired of this situation, because if we do, we die,” she said.

“And if the world gets tired, they will simply let us die.”

Source: BBC

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who played a pivotal and polarising role in US foreign policy during the Cold War, has died at the age of 100.

He served as America’s top diplomat and national security adviser during the Nixon and Ford administrations.

Despite leaving office in the mid-1970s, he continued to be consulted by generations of leaders for decades.

The German-born former diplomat died at his home in Connecticut.

Former US President George W Bush led tributes, saying the US had “lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices on foreign affairs”.

Meanwhile, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair described him as an artist of diplomacy, saying Kissinger was motivated by “a genuine love of the free world and the need to protect it”.

President Richard Nixon’s daughters, Tricia Nixon Cox and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, said that Kissinger’s life story was “so unique – and so thoroughly American”.

“Henry Kissinger will long be remembered for his many achievements in advancing the cause of peace,” the statement said. “But it was his character that we will never forget.”

Born in Germany in 1923, the school teacher’s son first came to the US in 1938 when his family fled the Nazis. He never quite lost his native Bavarian accent.

He became a US citizen in 1943 and went on to serve three years in the US Army and later in the Counter Intelligence Corps.

After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a PhD, he taught international relations at Harvard.

In 1969, then-President Nixon appointed him national security adviser, a position that gave him enormous sway over US foreign policy.

His eight years as both national security adviser and secretary of state between 1969-77 saw the US finally end its involvement in the Vietnam War, open up relations with China and bring about a cessation of hostilities in the 1973 Yom Kippur War in the Middle East between Egypt and Syria on the one hand and Israel on the other. It was an effort that created the whole idea of shuttle diplomacy.

Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, which is currently at war with Hamas, paid tribute to Kissinger’s work on the peace agreement with Egypt, posting on social media that “the entire family of nations is blessed to this day by the fruits of the historic processes he led”.

In China – where Kissinger enjoyed enduring popularity – news of his death was soon trending on Weibo, a social media platform.

China News’ obituary referred to him as “an old friend of the Chinese people”.

China Central Television called him “a legendary diplomat” and “living fossil”, who had played an important role in US-China relations.

Over the years, however, Kissinger was also subject to scathing criticism from those who accused him of putting rivalry with the Soviet Union over human rights and supporting repressive regimes across the world, including Augusto Pinochet in Chile.

Anger over several of his policies, including on Cambodia and Argentina, followed him even in death. Rolling Stone has published his obituary under the headline “Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies” and the left-leaning Huffpost has splashed “The Beltway Butcher” over a photo of him on its home page.

Kissinger, however, was dismissive of criticism.

“That’s a reflection of their ignorance,” the gravel-voiced statesman told CBS in an interview shortly before his 100th birthday.

In 1973, he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize alongside North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, who refused to accept.

The award led to two members of the Nobel committee resigning.

While Kissinger left government service in 1977, he continued to be a prolific commentator on public affairs. His counsel was sought by a dozen US presidents – from John F Kennedy to Joe Biden – as well as by lawmakers.

Notably, Kissinger is also the only American to have dealt directly with every Chinese leader from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping.

He also served on the boards of various companies and was a fixture of foreign policy and security forums, as well as penning 21 books.

Even after turning 100, Kissinger kept up an active life, including a surprise visit this July to Beijing to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, where the aged statesman was feted despite a chill in relations between China and the US.

The visit irked the White House and prompted National Security Council spokesman John Kirby to lament that “it’s unfortunate that a private citizen” had access to Chinese leaders while the US government did not.

During an interview with ABC on a book tour in July 2022 – when he was 99 – Kissinger was asked whether he would take back any of his decisions.

“I’ve been thinking about these problems all my life. It’s my hobby as well as my occupation,” he said. “And so the recommendations I made were the best of which I was then capable.”

He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Nancy Maginnes Kissinger, as well as by two children, Elizabeth and David, from a previous marriage and five grandchildren.

Source: BBC

The first of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the war-torn and besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, said AFP correspondents on both sides.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said he was “confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies… to the people of Gaza” and warned that “this first convoy must not be the last”.

The border crossing was closed again after the passage of the trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent which is responsible for delivering the aid, including food and medical supplies from various UN agencies.

Rafah is the only route into Gaza that is not controlled by Israel, which agreed to allow the aid in from Egypt following a request from its top ally the United States.

Israel has been bombing Gaza since Hamas’ bloody surprise attack of October 7 and has also declared a total siege, cutting off most water as well as food, electricity, fuel and other supplies.

Hamas militants stormed into Israel from Gaza and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians who were shot, mutilated or burnt to death on the first day of the raid, according to Israeli officials.

Since then, more than 4,100 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed in relentless Israeli bombardments, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the aid passage as “an important first step that will alleviate the suffering of innocent people”.

Source: France 24

Turkey will declare three days’ mourning over a deadly strike on a hospital in war-torn Gaza that killed hundreds, a Turkish official told AFP on Wednesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a fervent supporter of the Palestinian cause, has accused Israel of “striking a hospital sheltering women, children and innocent civilians” and urged the world to stop the tragedy in Gaza.

“Turkey will declare three days national mourning,” the official, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP.

Israel has said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame.

Source: France 24

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in China on Tuesday to meet his “dear friend” Xi Jinping, bolstering their relationship at a summit that will be overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war.

China this week welcomes representatives of 130 countries for a forum of President Xi’s landmark project, the Belt and Road Initiative, that Beijing is using to extend its global influence.

Putin is at the top of the invitation list, with the Russian leader on his first trip to a major global power since the Ukraine invasion threw his regime into international isolation.

His plane landed in China just before 09:30 am, an AFP journalist on the tarmac saw.

He is due to meet Xi for talks on Wednesday, the Kremlin said.

Source: AFP