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Reuters

  • North Korea’s Kim calls for rapid nuclear buildup

    North Korea’s Kim calls for rapid nuclear buildup

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country needed to rapidly expand its nuclear armament and called U.S.-South Korea military exercises an “obvious expression of their will to provoke war,” state media KCNA reported on Tuesday.

    South Korea and its ally the United States kicked off joint military drills this week, including testing an upgraded response to heightened North Korean nuclear threats.

    Pyongyang regularly criticises such drills as rehearsals for invasion and sometimes responds with weapons tests, but Seoul and Washington say they are purely defensive.

    The 11-day annual exercises, called Ulchi Freedom Shield, will be on a similar scale to 2024 but adjusted by rescheduling 20 out of 40 field training events to September, South Korea’s military said earlier.

    Those delays come as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung says he wants to ease tensions with North Korea, though analysts are sceptical about Pyongyang’s response.

    The exercises were a “clear expression of … their intention to remain most hostile and confrontational” to North Korea, Kim said during his visit to a navy destroyer on Monday, according to KCNA’s English translation of his remarks.

    Read more: 80 years on, Korean survivors of WWII atomic bombs still suffer

    He said the security environment required the North to “rapidly expand” its nuclear armament, noting that recent U.S.-South Korea exercises involved a “nuclear element”.

    Efforts by the United States and its allies to tackle North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons are expected to be discussed at an upcoming meeting between U.S.

    President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Washington.

    “Through this move, North Korea is demonstrating its refusal to accept denuclearisation and the will to irreversibly upgrade nuclear weapons,” said Hong Min, North Korea analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

    A report by the Federation of American Scientists last year concluded that while North Korea may have produced enough fissile material to build up to 90 nuclear warheads, it had likely assembled closer to 50.

    North Korea plans to build a third 5,000-tonne Choe Hyon-class destroyer by October next year and is testing cruise and anti-air missiles for those warships.

  • Trump administration revoked more than 6,000 student visas, State Dept says

    Trump administration revoked more than 6,000 student visas, State Dept says

    WASHINGTON: The administration of President Donald Trump has revoked more than 6,000 student visas for overstays and breaking the law, including a small minority for “support for terrorism,” a State Department official said on Monday.

    The move, first reported by Fox Digital, comes as the Trump administration has adopted a particularly hard-line approach toward student visas as part of its immigration crackdown, tightening social media vetting and expanding screening.

    Directives from the State Department this year have ordered U.S. diplomats abroad to be vigilant against any applicants whom Washington may see as hostile to the United States and with a history of political activism.

    Around 4,000 visas were canceled because the visitors broke the law, with the vast majority being assault, the official said. Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs and burglary were other offenses, the official added.

    About 200 to 300 visas were revoked for terrorism, the official said, citing a rule about visa ineligibility under the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual. The rule identifies ineligibility grounds generally as “engaging in terrorist activities” and “having certain links to terrorist organizations.”

    The official did not say which groups the students whose visas have been revoked were in support of.

    President Donald Trump has clashed with several top-level U.S. universities, accusing them of becoming bastions of antisemitism following large-scale student protests advocating for Palestinian rights amid the Gaza war. In his clash with Harvard, Trump has frozen funding for investigations and threatened to remove the university’s tax-exempt status, prompting several European nations to increase research grants to attract talent.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he has revoked the visas of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, including students, because they got involved in activities which he said went against U.S. foreign policy priorities.

    Trump administration officials have said that student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to U.S. foreign policy and accusing them of being pro-Hamas.

    A Tufts University student from Turkey was held for over six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza. She was released from custody after a federal judge granted her bail.

    Trump’s critics have called the effort an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

  • Trump says Ukraine will get ‘a lot of help’ on security

    Trump says Ukraine will get ‘a lot of help’ on security

    WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States would “help out” Europe in providing security for Ukraine as part of any deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, as he and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy began a hastily arranged White House meeting to discuss a path to peace.

    Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy seated beside him, Trump also expressed hope that Monday’s summit could eventually lead to a trilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding that he believes Putin wants the war to end.

    Zelenskiy and a group of European leaders arrived in Washington facing increased pressure from Trump to reach a resolution to end the war on terms more favorable to Moscow, after Trump and Putin met in Alaska on Friday for nearly three hours.

    “We need to stop this war, to stop Russia and we need support – American and European partners,” Zelenskiy told reporters.

    Trump greeted Zelenskiy outside the White House, shaking his hand and expressing delight at Zelenskiy’s black suit, a departure from his typical military clothes. When a reporter asked Trump what his message was to the people of Ukraine, he said twice, “We love them.”

    Zelenskiy thanked him, and Trump put his hand on Zelenskiy’s back in a show of affection before the two men went inside to the Oval Office, where their last meeting in February ended in disaster after Trump dressed Zelenskiy down in front of television cameras.

    This time, the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO joined Zelenskiy to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine and push for strong security guarantees in any post-war settlement.

    Trump is pressing for a quick end to Europe’s deadliest war in 80 years, and Kyiv and its allies worry he could seek to force an agreement on Russia’s terms after the president on Friday in Alaska rolled out the red carpet – literally – for Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

    The European leaders will meet with Trump afterwards in the White House’s East Room at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), according to the White House. Such a high-level gathering at the White House on such short notice appears to be unprecedented in recent times.

    Russian attacks overnight on Ukrainian cities killed at least 10 people, in what Zelenskiy called a “cynical” effort to undermine talks.

    Trump has rejected accusations that the Alaska summit had been a win for Putin, who has faced diplomatic isolation since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

    “I know exactly what I’m doing, and I don’t need the advice of people who have been working on all of these conflicts for years, and were never able to do a thing to stop them,” Trump wrote on social media.

    Trump’s team has said there will have to be compromises on both sides to end the conflict. But the president himself has put the burden on Zelenskiy to end the war, saying Ukraine should give up hopes of getting back Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, or of joining the NATO military alliance.

    Zelenskiy “can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump said on social media.

    PUTIN’S PROPOSALS

    Zelenskiy has already all but rejected the outline of Putin’s proposals from the Alaska meeting. Those include handing over the remaining quarter of its eastern Donetsk region, which is largely controlled by Russia. Ukrainian forces are deeply dug into the region, whose towns and hills serve as a crucial defensive zone to stymie Russian attacks.

    Any concession of Ukrainian territory would have to be approved by a referendum.

    Zelenskiy is also seeking an immediate ceasefire to conduct deeper peace talks, a position that his European allies have also backed. Trump previously favored that idea but reversed course after the summit with Putin, instead indicating support for Russia’s preference to negotiate a comprehensive deal while fighting rumbles on.

    Ukraine and its allies have taken heart from some developments, including Trump’s apparent willingness to provide post-settlement security guarantees for Ukraine. A German government spokesperson said on Monday that European leaders would seek more details on that in the talks in Washington.

    The war, which began with a full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022, has killed or wounded more than a million people from both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to analysts, and destroyed wide swaths of the country.

    Russia has been slowly grinding forward on the battlefield, pressing its advantages in men and firepower. Putin says he is ready to continue fighting until his military objectives are achieved.

    Officials in Ukraine said a drone attack on a residential complex in the northern city of Kharkiv killed at least seven people, including a toddler and her 16-year-old brother. Strikes in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia killed three people, they said.

    Russia says it does not deliberately target civilians, and the Defense Ministry’s daily report did not refer to any strike on Kharkiv.

    Local resident Olena Yakusheva said the attack hit an apartment block that was home to many families. “There are no offices here or anything else, we lived here peacefully in our homes,” she said.

    Ukraine’s military said on Monday that its drones had struck an oil pumping station in Russia’s Tambov region, leading to the suspension of supplies via the Druzhba pipeline.

  • Trump vows to target mail-in ballots ahead of 2026 midterm election

    Trump vows to target mail-in ballots ahead of 2026 midterm election

    U.S. President Donald Trump pledged on Monday to issue an executive order to end the use of mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a move likely to spark legal challenges by the states.

    “I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly ‘Inaccurate,’ Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES,” he wrote in a social media post.

    Trump, who has promoted the false narrative that he, not Democrat Joe Biden, won the 2020 election, has long cast doubt on the security of mail-in ballots and urged his fellow Republicans to try harder to overhaul the U.S. voting system.

    Some Republican states, such as Florida, however, have embraced mail-in voting as a safe, convenient way to expand voter participation. Trump voted by mail in some previous elections and urged his supporters to do so for the 2024 presidential election.

    Mail-in ballots hit record highs in the U.S. in 2020 amid the pandemic as states expanded options for voters, but the numbers dropped in 2024, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

    More than two-thirds of voters in the 2024 general election cast their ballots in person, while about three in 10 ballots were cast through mail voting, according to the commission.

    Trump’s comments follow his meeting with his Russian counterpart on Friday, after which Trump said Vladimir Putin agreed with him on ending mail-in balloting.

    Each of the 50 U.S. states runs elections separately, but Trump warned them to comply.

    “Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do,” Trump wrote.

    Trump repeated the false claim on Monday that the U.S. is the only country that permits mail-in balloting.

    Nearly three dozen countries from Canada to Germany and South Korea allow some form of postal vote, though more than half of them place some restrictions on which voters qualify, according to the Sweden-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental advocacy group.

    Trump previously signed a March 25 executive order targeting elections that has been blocked by the courts after Democrat-led states sued.

  • Pakistan tell Babar to improve strike rate for T20 comeback

    Pakistan tell Babar to improve strike rate for T20 comeback

    Former Pakistan captain Babar Azam has been told to improve his batting against spin and boost his overall strike rate to be considered for Twenty20 Internationals, coach Mike Hesson said.

    The 30-year-old is Pakistan’s batting mainstay in other formats but has not played a T20 International since their tour of South Africa late last year.

    Babar Azam could not find a place in the Pakistan squad for the Asia Cup next month as the team management showed faith in rising players such as Sahibzada Farhan.

    “There’s no doubt Babar’s been asked to improve in some areas around taking on spin and in terms of his strike rate,” Hesson said of the top-order batter who has a modest strike rate of 129 in T20 Internationals.

    “Those are things he’s working really hard on. But at the moment the players we have, have done exceptionally well.

    “Sahibzada Farhan has played six games and won three player-of-the-match awards.”

    Babar Azam should use the Big Bash League in Australia to improve his 20-overs batting and stage a comeback, Hesson said.

    Read more: Kamran Akmal urges Babar, Rizwan’s inclusion in squad for Asia Cup

    “A player like Babar has an opportunity to play in the BBL and show he’s improving in those areas in T20s. He’s too good a player not to consider,” he said.

    Pakistan will begin their Asia Cup Group A campaign against Oman in Dubai on September 12 before meeting arch-rivals India at the same venue two days later.

    Pakistan squad for Tri-Series and Asia Cup 2025:

    Salman Ali Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicket-keeper), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim Jr., Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Sufiyan Muqeem.

  • Oil falls on easing Russia supply concerns after Trump-Putin meet

    Oil falls on easing Russia supply concerns after Trump-Putin meet

    Oil prices slipped on Monday as the US did not exert more pressure on Russia to end the Ukraine war by implementing further measures to disrupt Russian oil exports after the presidents from both countries met on Friday.

    Brent crude futures dropped 26 cents, or 0.39%, to $65.59 a barrel by 0028 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $62.62 a barrel, down 18 cents, or 0.29%.

    US President Donald Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday and emerged more aligned with Moscow on seeking a peace deal instead of a ceasefire first.

    Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders on Monday to strike a quick peace deal to end Europe’s deadliest war in 80 years.

    The US president said on Friday he did not immediately need to consider retaliatory tariffs on countries such as China for buying Russian oil but might have to “in two or three weeks”, cooling concerns about a disruption in Russian supply.

    China, the world’s biggest oil importer is the largest Russian oil buyer followed by India.

    Read more: Oil gains as US-China tariff pause extension boosts trade hopes

    “What was primarily in play were the secondary tariffs targeting the key importers of Russian energy, and President Trump has indeed indicated that he will pause pursuing incremental action on this front, at least for China,” RBC Capital analyst Helima Croft said in a note.

    “The status quo remains largely intact for now,” Croft said, adding that Moscow will not walk back on territorial demands while Ukraine and some European leaders will balk at the land-for-peace deal.

    Investors are also watching Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments at the Jackson Hole meeting this week to search for clues on the path of interest rate cuts that could boost stocks to more record highs.

    “It’s likely he will remain non-committal and data-dependent, especially with one more payroll and CPI (Consumer Price Index) report before the September 17th FOMC meeting,” IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said in a note.

  • Actor Terence Stamp, star of Superman films, dies aged 87

    Actor Terence Stamp, star of Superman films, dies aged 87

    LONDON: Terence Stamp, who made his name as an actor in 1960s London and went on to play the arch-villain General Zod in the Hollywood hits “Superman” and “Superman II”, has died aged 87, his family said on Sunday.

    The Oscar-nominated actor starred in films ranging from Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Theorem” in 1968 and “A Season in Hell” in 1971 to “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” in 1994 in which he played a transgender woman.

    The family said in a statement to Reuters that Terence Stamp died on Sunday morning.

    “He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come,” the family said. “We ask for privacy at this sad time.”

    Born in London’s East End in 1938, the son of a tugboat stoker, he endured the bombing of the city during World War Two before leaving school to work initially in advertising, eventually winning a scholarship to go to drama school.

    Famous for his good looks and impeccable dress sense, Terence Stamp formed one of Britain’s most glamorous couples with Julie Christie, with whom he starred in “Far From the Madding Crowd” in 1967. He also dated the model Jean Shrimpton and was chosen as a muse by photographer David Bailey.

    Read more: James Gunn explains decision behind ‘Superman’ early digital release

    After failing to land the role of James Bond to succeed Sean Connery, he appeared in Italian films and worked with Federico Fellini in the late 1960s.

    He dropped out of the limelight and studied yoga in India before landing his most high-profile role – as General Zod, the megalomaniacal leader of the Kryptonians, in “Superman” in 1978 and its sequel in 1980.

    Terence Stamp went on to appear in a string of other films, including “Valkyrie” with Tom Cruise in 2008, “The Adjustment Bureau” with Matt Damon in 2011 and movies directed by Tim Burton.

  • Hamas rejects Israel’s Gaza relocation plan

    Hamas rejects Israel’s Gaza relocation plan

    CAIRO: Palestinian group Hamas said on Sunday that Israel’s plan to relocate residents from Gaza City constitutes a “new wave of genocide and displacement” for hundreds of thousands of residents in the area.

    The group said the planned deployment of tents and other shelter equipment by Israel into southern Gaza was a “blatant deception”.

    The Israeli military has said it is preparing to provide tents and other equipment starting from Sunday ahead of its plan to relocate residents from combat zones to the south of the enclave “to ensure their safety”.

    Hamas said in a statement that the deployment of tents under the guise of humanitarian purposes is a blatant deception intended to “cover up a brutal crime that the occupation forces prepare to execute”.

    Israel said earlier this month that it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of northern Gaza City, the enclave’s largest urban centre. The plan has raised international alarm over the fate of the demolished strip, which is home to about 2.2 million people.

    Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. About 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza are believed to be still alive.

    Read More: Netanyahu has become a ‘problem’, says Danish PM

    Israel’s military assault has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry says. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced most of Gaza’s population and left much of the enclave in ruins.

  • Spain battles 20 major wildfires amid scorching heat, deploys more troops

    Spain battles 20 major wildfires amid scorching heat, deploys more troops

    Scorching heat hampered efforts to contain 20 major wildfires across Spain on Sunday, prompting the government to deploy an additional 500 troops from the military emergency unit to support firefighting operations.

    In the northwestern region of Galicia, several fires have converged to form a large blaze, forcing the closure of highways and rail services to the region.

    Southern Europe is experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons in two decades, with Spain among the hardest-hit countries.

    In the past week alone, fires there have claimed three lives and burned more than 115,000 hectares, while neighbouring Portugal also battles widespread blazes.

    Temperatures are expected to reach up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in some areas on Sunday, Spanish national weather agency AEMET said.

    “There are still some challenging days ahead and, unfortunately, the weather is not on our side,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told a news conference in Ourense, one of the most affected areas.

    He announced an increase in military reinforcements, bringing the total number of troops deployed across Spain to 1,900.

    Virginia Barcones, director general of emergency services, told Spanish public TV temperatures were expected to drop from Tuesday, but for now the weather conditions were “very adverse”.

    “Today there are extremely high temperatures with an extreme risk of fires, which complicates the firefighting efforts,” Barcones said.

    VILLAGERS RESORT TO BUCKETS

    In the village of Villardevos in Galicia, desperate neighbours have organised to fight the flames on their own with water buckets as the area was left without electricity to power water pumps.

    “The fireplanes come in from all sides, but they don’t come here,” Basilio Rodriguez, a resident, told Reuters on Saturday.

    Added Lorea Pascual, another local resident: “It’s insurmountable, it couldn’t be worse”.
    Interior ministry data show 27 people have been arrested and 92 were under investigation for suspected arson since June.

    In neighbouring Portugal, wildfires have burnt some 155,000 hectares of vegetation so far this year, according to provisional data from the ICNF forestry protection institute – three times the average for this period between 2006 to 2024. About half of that area burned just in the past three days.

    Thousands of firefighters were battling eight large blazes in central and northern Portugal, the largest of them near Piodao, a scenic, mountainous area popular with tourists.
    Another blaze in Trancoso, further north, has now been raging for eight days. A smaller fire a few miles east claimed a local resident’s life on Friday – the first this season.

  • Premier League chief warns racist abuse to face ban, possible prosecution

    Premier League chief warns racist abuse to face ban, possible prosecution

    Premier League chief executive Richard Masters issued a warning on Saturday that anyone guilty of racist abuse would be banned from stadiums and could face prosecution.

    His comments came a day after Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo was the target of racist abuse during his side’s 4-2 loss to Liverpool at Anfield.

    “No Premier League footballer should ever have to, in their workplace or online, suffer that sort of abuse. It is important that we keep saying that,” Masters told BBC Sport.

    “It is a problem for society. It leaks into football and it shouldn’t happen in a football stadium. It shouldn’t happen online.

    “It makes people like me and other football people in charge of the game think twice about what else we can do to ensure that these things don’t happen in the future.

    “If you are found to be using discriminatory language inside a football ground you will be ejected, second you will be banned and third you may face criminal charges.”

    Friday’s game was briefly halted in the 29th minute to address the incident, with referee Anthony Taylor summoning both managers to the touchline for a briefing.

    Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk and Bournemouth counterpart Adam Smith were then called over to the benches for further instructions before play resumed four minutes later.

    Ghana international Semenyo went on to score twice after play resumed.

    Merseyside Police confirmed that the 47-year-old man from Liverpool who was ejected after the incident had been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence and taken into custody to be interviewed.

    Semenyo thanked his teammates, Liverpool, match officials and the “entire football family” for their support in a statement on Saturday.

    “Last night at Anfield will stay with me forever — not because of one person’s words, but because of how the entire football family stood together,” Semenyo wrote on Instagram.

    The incident at Anfield followed reports of Tottenham Hotspur’s French forward Mathys Tel being subjected to racist abuse on social media after missing a penalty in his side’s UEFA Super Cup defeat by Paris St Germain on Wednesday.