North Korea accuses South Korea of sending propaganda drones to Pyongyang
North Korea says flights are an ‘irresponsible and dangerous provocation’ as Seoul denies sending drones. North Korea claims South Korea sent unmanned drones carrying propaganda leaflets to Pyongyang three times and threatened to respond with force if the flights happened again. In a statement on Friday, North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the drones were detected in the night skies of Pyongyang on October 3 and Wednesday and Thursday this week. The ministry accused South Korea of violating its “sacred” sovereignty and threatening its security, describing the flights as an “irresponsible and dangerous provocation that may cause an armed conflict and lead to a war between the two sides,” the ministry was quoted as saying by the state news agency KCNA. The statement added that North Korean forces will prepare “all means of attack” capable of destroying the southern side of the border and the South Korean military. “The safety lock on our trigger has now been released,” the Foreign Ministry said. A balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea, carrying various objects including what appeared to be rubbish, is pictured in Incheon, South Korea, June 2, 2024 [Yonhap via Reuters] South Korea’s Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun said they had not sent any drones into the North. When asked about North Korea’s claim during a parliamentary audit late Friday, he told lawmakers, “We have not done that.” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could not confirm the North’s accusations, but also referred in its statement to Pyongyang’s practice of sending balloons into South Korean airspace, with bags of rubbish attached. In its statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it “cannot confirm the truth of North Korea’s claims”, adding: “All responsibility for the recent series of events” lies with Pyongyang. It cited “despicable, low-grade and internationally embarrassing acts of filth and garbage balloons and other provocations.” More balloons were being sent on Friday, it said. Since May, North Korea has sent thousands of balloons carrying paper waste, plastic and other rubbish in what it said was in retaliation against South Korean activists who flew balloons with anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border. South Korea’s military has responded to the North’s rubbish balloons by using loudspeakers at the border to broadcast propaganda and K-pop. The new balloons come as North Korea’s army said it would “permanently shut off and block the southern border” with South Korea on Wednesday. The army added that the defence structures would be built to deal with the South’s and US forces’ “confrontational hysteria.” Adblock test (Why?)
Israel attacks UN peacekeepers in Lebanon: Why it’s such a big deal
The Israeli military has fired on the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon twice in less than 48 hours, the UN says. Israeli forces repeatedly fired at a guard tower at the headquarters of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Thursday, injuring two members of the force, and again fired at a watchtower, injuring two more peacekeepers, on Friday. It is almost unheard of for a UN member state to take aim at a UN peacekeeping force, so how significant are these incidents in the unfolding war in Lebanon? UNIFIL armoured personnel carriers depart from a base to patrol the Lebanon-Israel border on October 5, 2024 in Marjayoun, Lebanon [Carl Court/Getty Images] What happened? On Thursday morning, Israeli forces used a Merkava tank to fire at an observation tower belonging to UNIFIL in Naqoura, a small border-area town in southern Lebanon where UNIFIL has been headquartered since 1978. Two Indonesian peacekeepers were directly hit, causing them to fall. “The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital,” a UN statement issued on Thursday read. The statement added that on Wednesday, Israeli soldiers had “deliberately fired at and disabled” the monitoring cameras at UNIFIL’s headquarters. On Friday, UNIFIL released a second statement saying two more peacekeepers had been injured when two explosions occurred close to an observation tower. One was taken for treatment at a hospital in the Lebanese city of Tyre while the other was being treated in Naqoura. Israel’s attacks were condemned by members of the international community, including Indonesia, Italy, France, Spain, Ireland, Turkey, the European Union and Canada. What is UNIFIL? UNIFIL is a peacekeeping force in Lebanon originally set up by the UN Security Council in March 1978 after Israel first invaded Lebanon in what became known as the South Lebanon Conflict. In 1978, Israel deployed its troops along the border with Lebanon after Palestine Liberation Organization members entered Israel from Lebanon by sea. UNIFIL was established to oversee the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and to restore peace and security in the area. After a 34-day war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, in which 1,100 Lebanese people were killed, UNIFIL’s mandate was expanded to monitor the cessation of hostilities and support Lebanese armed forces deployed throughout southern Lebanon. As of September 2, 10,058 UNIFIL soldiers are deployed in Lebanon. They come from 50 countries. The largest number of UNIFIL peacekeepers – 1,231 – come from Indonesia. Italy, India, Nepal and China also contribute a large number of soldiers to the peacekeeping force. How common is it for UN peacekeepers to be harmed? From 1948 to the end of August 2024, 4,398 UN peacekeepers on missions all over the world have been killed. Of these fatalities, 1,629 were due to illness, 1,406 were caused by accidents, 1,130 by malicious acts and 233 were due to “other reasons”, according to data from the UN. UNIFIL is the most dangerous of the peacekeeping missions, having suffered the most casualties. In its 46 years, 337 peacekeepers have been killed. It is followed by the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, which has suffered 311 fatalities. The highest number of peacekeeper fatalities in one year took place in 1993 when 252 peacekeepers died during missions in Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia and other locations. In 2010, the second highest number of fatalities took place when 173 peacekeepers were killed. They included three peacekeepers with the African Union-UN Mission in Darfur during confrontations with unknown attackers. In the same year, 43 members of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) died on January 12 in an earthquake in Haiti. Ten other MINUSTAH personnel died in 2010 in “acts of violence”, the UN website reported. In 2017, the UN said an attack on peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was suspected to have been carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces armed group. That attack killed 14 Tanzanian peacekeepers and injured 44. What is the legal position on targeting UN peacekeepers? The deliberate targeting of UN missions amounts to a war crime, observers said. “Under the laws of war, UN personnel involved in peacekeeping operations, including armed members, are civilians, and deliberate attacks against them and peacekeeping facilities are unlawful and amount to war crimes,” a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) explained. HRW cited Article 8(2)(b)(iii) of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court in The Hague. It lists the intentional targeting of humanitarian and peacekeeping missions as war crimes. The UN statement that reported Thursday’s attack said not only was the deliberate attack a violation of international law but also a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. After Israel’s attack on Friday on the UNIFIL headquarters, the UN said: “This is a serious development, and UNIFIL reiterates that the safety and security of UN personnel and property must be guaranteed and that the inviolability of UN premises must be respected at all times. “Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and Security Council resolution 1701 (2006).” UN peacekeepers from a Spanish brigade of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) clean their weapons at their base on August 16, 2024 in Kafarkila, Lebanon [Chris McGrath/Getty Images] Has Israel attacked UN peacekeepers before? Military analyst Elijah Magnier told Al Jazeera that the recent incident was not the first time UNIFIL had come under fire from Israel. In 1987, an Israeli tank squad opened fire on a village where a UNIFIL command post was located, killing an Irish peacekeeper. In 1996, Israel shelled UNIFIL’s Fijian battalion in southern Lebanon’s Qana. More than 120 Lebanese civilians were killed and about 500 injured. Four UN soldiers were also injured. In late November 2023, Israeli forces fired at a UNIFIL patrol close to Aitaroun in southern Lebanon, but no peacekeepers were injured. Magnier said the recent attacks were happening “because Israel needs to go through the UNIFIL position in Naqoura and start the invasion
Aftermath of Israeli air strikes in central Beirut
At least 22 people were killed and 117 others wounded in Israeli air strikes in central Beirut on Thursday, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said, in the third such attack on the centre of the Lebanese capital since Israel escalated its bombing campaign last month. Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan said many people who had been displaced from southern Lebanon in recent weeks had sought shelter in the capital. “Many people who had fled southern Lebanon had found shelter here, and it’s just becoming re-traumatising, unpredictable and dangerous,” Khan said. The injured were brought to local hospitals, which sent out a warning asking people not to donate blood because they were already overwhelmed by the number of casualties and the inflow of family members. Al Jazeera correspondents on the ground said a family of five people that had fled southern Lebanon was killed alongside three relatives who were hosting them. The attacks, which came without warning, mark the third time since Israel expanded its campaign on Lebanon in late September that its bombs have hit outside Dahiyeh, a southern suburb that has seen near-daily air raids in recent weeks. A Lebanese security source, without giving further details, said a “Hezbollah figure” was targeted after a series of killings of top officials in the Iran-aligned movement. Adblock test (Why?)
Kyiv says Ukrainian reporter Victoria Roshchyna died in Russian detention
The award-winning freelance journalist was known for her reporting on life in Russian-occupied Ukraine. An award-winning Ukrainian journalist who wrote firsthand accounts of life in Russian-occupied Ukraine has died in detention in Russia. Victoria Roshchyna, who was 27, worked freelance for Ukrainian media outlets Ukrainska Pravda and Hromadske Radio, as well as for US-funded Radio Liberty. She went missing in August last year after she travelled to Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine on a reporting trip. Russia’s Ministry of Defence acknowledged in a letter to her father in May that she was in Russian custody. “Unfortunately, information about Victoria’s death has been confirmed,” Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s prisoners of war coordination headquarters, told Ukrainian television. He said investigations were continuing into how she died. Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement that Russia informed Roshchyna’s family on Thursday that she had died on September 19. “The Russian authorities have never provided any information about her detention, despite repeated requests from her family, the Ukrainian authorities, and RSF,” Jeanne Cavalier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in a statement. “They must shed light on all the circumstances surrounding her detention and death.” A terrible tragic news: Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, who was kidnapped in the occupied territories of Ukraine, has died in a Russian prison. It has happened on September 19th, but her father received the news only today. She was on hunger strike for many days, many… pic.twitter.com/FHXc5rii2m — Anastasia Magazova 🌻 (@a_magazova) October 10, 2024 Roshchyna wrote vivid accounts of life in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as well as in areas of eastern Ukraine seized by Russian-funded separatists. She also documented the nearly three-month defence of the port of Mariupol after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. She was initially detained by the Russians for 10 days, shortly after the country embarked on its war. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s HUR Intelligence Directorate, Andriy Yusov, told public broadcaster Suspilne that Roshchyna had been on a proposed prisoner exchange and was due to be transferred to Moscow from detention in Taganrog near the Ukrainian border. Ukraine said in May more than two dozen Ukrainian media workers were being held in Russian captivity and that negotiations for their return were under way. RSF said Roshchyna was the 13th journalist to die as a result of their work since the Russian invasion. Adblock test (Why?)
Armed attackers kill 20 coal miners in southwest Pakistan
The attack is the latest in Balochistan province and security concerns are growing in advance of a key international summit in Islamabad. Armed assailants have killed 20 miners and injured another seven at a small private coal mine in southwest Pakistan, police said, raising security concerns just days before a major international summit is set to be held in the country. The attackers broke into the miners’ quarters in Dukki district in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Thursday night, gathered the workers together and opened fire, local police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said on Friday. “A group of armed men attacked the Junaid Coal company mines in the [Dukki] area in the [early] hours using heavy weapons,” he said, adding the attackers fired rockets and grenades at the mines as well. Most of the victims were from Pashtun-speaking regions within Balochistan, according to Nasir. Three of the deceased and four of the injured were Afghan nationals. No group has immediately taken responsibility for the assault. Balochistan is a hotbed of armed movements, with the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) most prominent among them. They accuse the central government in Islamabad of exploiting the province’s rich oil and mineral resources to the detriment of the local population in the country’s largest and least-populated province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan. On Monday, the BLA – designated a terrorist group by Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States – claimed responsibility for an attack targeting Chinese nationals near Pakistan’s largest airport. The Chinese embassy in Pakistan said at least two of its citizens were killed and a third injured after their convoy was targeted with an improvised explosive device believed to have been detonated by a suicide bomber. Local media reports suggest at least 10 people were injured in total, with four cars destroyed in the explosion and 10 more vehicles damaged in the resulting fire. Thousands of Chinese nationals work in Pakistan, many of them involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure project the Belt and Road Initiative. Despite China’s repeated requests for Pakistan to bolster security, there has been a surge in attacks and unrest surrounding key Belt and Road infrastructure projects in the country. The attack has raised concern about the ability of Pakistani security forces to safeguard high-profile events and foreign nationals in advance of next week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of Government summit, which is set to meet in Islamabad on October 15 and 16. Adblock test (Why?)
Taiwan says four employees of Apple supplier Foxconn arrested in China
Workers reportedly arrested in Zhengzhou for equivalent of breach of trust. Taipei, Taiwan – Four Taiwanese employees of Apple supplier Foxconn have been detained in China since January, Taiwan’s national news agency has reported. The workers were detained in Zhengzhou, the home of Foxconn’s largest iPhone factory, by the local public security bureau for the equivalent of “breach of trust”, Central News Agency (CNA) reported Thursday, citing the Taiwanese government. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) cited Foxconn as stating that its employees had done nothing to harm the company’s interests and that it could not rule out corruption and abuse of power by a small number of police officers, CNA said. The MAC told the Reuters and AFP news agencies that the case was “quite strange” and had “severely damaged business confidence”. Foxconn and the MAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The case is the latest incident to draw attention to the risks facing Taiwanese living and working in China. Last month, a court in Wenzhou sentenced Taiwanese independence activist Yang Chih-yuan to nine years in prison for secession in the first such prosecution of its kind. Also last month, an executive of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics was detained as he tried to leave China, CNA reported. In June, the MAC raised the travel alert for China, Hong Kong, and Macau from “yellow” to “orange” and advised citizens against “unnecessary travel”, citing China’s strict national security and anti-espionage laws. Taiwan’s National Security Bureau in July told the island’s legislature that, during the previous 12 months, 15 citizens had been detained or put on trial on Chinese soil, while 51 had been interrogated at the border. Beijing’s Communist Party claims self-ruled Taiwan, whose formal name is the Republic of China, as one of its provinces, while Taipei insists it is a sovereign democracy. Beijing also does not recognise dual citizenship and considers Taiwanese to be Chinese citizens. Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese lived and worked in China during the 1990s and 2000s, but their numbers have fallen sharply since the Beijing-sceptical Democratic Progressive Party took power in 2016, marking a deterioration in Chinese-Taiwanese relations. Adblock test (Why?)
Abu Dhabi wave pool added as new venue on World Surf League 2025 tour
League to stage an event in the Middle East for the first time at Hudayriyat Island in Abu Dhabi. The world’s biggest artificial wave in Abu Dhabi has been added to surfing’s 11-stop world tour for 2025, the World Surf League (WSL) says, with Fiji confirmed to host the finals to crown the world champions at the tour’s conclusion. The tour will again start at Hawaii’s dangerous Banzai Pipeline in late January before heading to the Surf Abu Dhabi wave pool in the United Arab Emirates for the first time. The 75,000sq-metre (807,300sq-foot) pool uses the same technology as California’s Surf Ranch, developed with 11-time world champion Kelly Slater, which has hosted several world tour surfing events to mixed reviews. “We’ve built this schedule to include more events and feature a variety of breaks,” Ryan Crosby, WSL CEO, said on Thursday. “We’ve brought back some of the tour’s most desirable locations while aligning dates with favourable swell windows to open up more opportunity for quality surf. “We’ll see a great mix of locations from heavy-water barrels to high-performance waves and pristine point breaks.” Back on the schedule are the reeling right-hand point breaks of Jeffreys Bay in South Africa, which was skipped to accommodate the Olympics last year, and Snapper Rocks in Australia, which returns to the championship tour after a five-year hiatus. The tour’s controversial mid-season cut, which reduces both the men’s and women’s fields by one-third, remains in place after stop number seven at Margaret River in Western Australia. The change in the season-ending WSL finals to the heaving barrels and long walls of Fiji’s Cloudbreak reef was widely praised by surfers and fans after championships were decided for the past four years at the fun but soft waves of Lower Trestles in California. 2025 WSL world championship tour schedule: Banzai Pipeline, Hawaii, United States: January 27 to February 8 Surf Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: February 14-16 Peniche, Portugal: March 15-25 Punta Roca, El Salvador: April 2-12 Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia: April 18-28 Snapper Rocks, Queensland, Australia: May 3-13 Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia: May 17-27 (mid-season cut) Lower Trestles, San Clemente, California, US: June 9-17 Saquarema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: June 21-29 Jeffreys Bay, South Africa: July 11-20 Teahupo’o, Tahiti, French Polynesia: August 7-16 WSL finals – Cloudbreak, Fiji: August 27 to September 4 Adblock test (Why?)
Photos: 3 million lose power as Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida
Hurricane Milton is barreling into the Atlantic Ocean after ploughing across Florida. Milton caused at least five deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, while sparing the city of Tampa a direct hit. The storm weakened in the final hours, making landfall late Wednesday as a Category 3 storm in Siesta Key, about 70 miles (113km) south of Tampa. The storm knocked out power to more than three million customers and whipped up a barrage of tornadoes. While it caused a lot of damage and water levels may continue to rise for days, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said it was not “the worst-case scenario.” Jennifer Francis, senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Centre, told Al Jazeera that the powerful storms experienced by the US southeast in recent years are partly a result of man-made climate change. “By putting so many greenhouse gases, carbon-containing gases, into the atmosphere that trap more heat by the surface, most of that heat goes into the ocean,” said Francis. “And we know that heat in the ocean is the fuel that these storms feed off of. What this extra energy does to these storms is make them stronger, it makes them intensify more rapidly, [and] the evaporation from the extra warm water provides more moisture for them to use as rain – and we’ve seen the very heavy rain totals coming out of these storms,” she added. Adblock test (Why?)
TD Bank pleads guilty to US charges, faces business restrictions
Federal authorities began probing TD’s internal controls after agents discovered a Chinese criminal operation bribed employees and brought large bags of cash into branches to launder millions of dollars. Two TD Bank units have pleaded guilty to United States criminal charges and agreed to pay $3bn in combined penalties to resolve federal government probes into money laundering, US authorities have said. The plea deal includes imposition of an asset cap and other limitations to its business, authorities said on Thursday. The bank has pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and conspiring to fail to file accurate reports or maintain a compliant anti-money laundering programme, the US Department of Justice said. The cap on its asset expansion in the US, imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is a rare step typically reserved for severe cases. It would deal a major blow to TD’s hopes to expand further in the US, which accounts for about a third of the bank’s income. TD also agreed to pay $3bn in combined penalties to US banking regulators, the Justice Department and the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The deal resolved investigations by the Justice Department, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. It also included the imposition of independent monitoring. An asset cap is “worst-case scenario” for TD, said Cormark Securities analyst Lemar Persaud, prior to the details of the plea deal being announced. The bank had already set aside $3bn for the fine. Persaud drew a parallel with Wells Fargo, which has a $1.95 trillion asset cap in place following a fake accounts scandal, which has constrained its earnings. An asset cap would also constrain TD’s profits, but to a lesser extent than it did for Wells Fargo, he said. The TD probe has led to “significant underperformance of the stock and, we believe, the retirement of the current CEO Bharat Masrani,” Persaud said. TD is Canada’s second-biggest bank and the 10th-largest in the US. The lender first revealed it was responding to inquiries from regulators and law enforcement last year, just months after it terminated a $13bn acquisition of regional lender First Horizon. Federal authorities began probing TD’s internal controls after agents discovered a Chinese criminal operation bribed employees and brought large bags of cash into branches to launder millions of dollars in fentanyl sales through TD branches in New York and New Jersey, a source confirmed. TD has spent millions to strengthen its compliance programmes, fired dozens of staff at its US branches and named its Canadian personal banking head Ray Chun as its new CEO, distancing its new chief from the money laundering scandal. CEO Masrani, who has been at the helm for nearly a decade and previously led its US operations, will retire next year. Masrani has said he takes full responsibility for the money laundering issues that have plagued the bank. Adblock test (Why?)
Biden blasts Trump over misinformation about Hurricanes Milton and Helene
US president accuses predecessor of leading ‘onslaught of lies’ about government’s response to the storms. United States President Joe Biden has condemned misinformation about Hurricanes Milton and Helene as “un-American”, singling out his predecessor for making false claims about the government’s rescue and recovery efforts. Speaking as Hurricane Milton was on the verge of making landfall in Florida on Wednesday, Biden said people in need of help were being put at risk by the “reckless, irresponsible and relentless” promotion of disinformation about the government’s response to the storms. “Quite frankly, these lies are un-American,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “Former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies.” Biden signalled out a number of baseless claims made by Trump, including that disaster relief funds had been diverted to migrants. “What a ridiculous thing to say. It’s not true,” Biden said. Asked by reporters why he thought Trump was spreading false claims about the government’s response, Biden said he did not know. “I simply don’t know. You can speculate, but I just find it – I’ve used the phrase more than I’ve ever used it in my career – it’s un-American. It’s un-American. It’s not who the hell we are,” he said. Biden also condemned the promotion of “even more bizarre” claims by Republican House of Representatives member Marjorie Taylor Greene, a close Trump ally. “Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman from Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather – we’re controlling the weather,” he said. “It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s got to stop.” Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for November’s presidential election, levelled similar criticism at Trump in an interview with CNN, branding his behaviour “unconscionable”. “We all know it’s dangerous, and the gamesmanship has to stop at some point, the politics have to end, especially in a moment of crisis,” Harris said. Trump on Wednesday reiterated his criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis. “This administration has not done a proper job at all. Terrible, terrible,” Trump said at a campaign rally in the key swing state of Pennsylvania. “We just pray for everybody,” he said. “We hope that God will keep them safe.” Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida at about 8:30pm (01:30 GMT Thursday) local time, battering the coastal state with winds of up to 193km/h (120mph). Milton, which the National Hurricane Center has described as “extremely dangerous” and “life-threatening”, comes less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene killed at least 230 people across Florida and several other southern states. Adblock test (Why?)