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How Kim’s meeting with Putin at Russian spaceport may hint at his space and weapons ambitions

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:56 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ending a global guessing game on when and where they would meet, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin convened at a rocket launch facility in Siberia on Wednesday in their first summit in four years.The talks between the two isolated, nuclear-armed leaders were expected to focus on expanding military cooperation amid their intensifying confrontations with the West.The decision to meet at Vostochny Cosmodrome, a major satellite launch facility, may communicate what Kim sees as the crucial next steps in his efforts to build a viable nuclear arsenal that could threaten the United States and its allies in Asia.Dangling North Korea’s vast stockpiles of munitions Putin likely covets for his war in Ukraine, Kim in exchange could ask for badly needed economic aid and sophisticated weapons technologies to advance his military nuclear program, experts say.Kim could push for Russian technology transfers on military reconnaissance satell...

A Crimea shipyard is on fire after a Ukrainian attack that damaged 2 ships and injured 24 people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:56 GMT

A Ukrainian attack on a strategic shipyard in Russia-annexed Crimea wounded 24 people, damaged two ships undergoing repairs and caused a fire at the facility Wednesday, Russian authorities reported. The attack in the port city of Sevastopol, which serves as the main base for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, took place as Moscow launched drones against southern Ukraine’s Odesa region. The pre-dawn onslaught there damaged port and civilian infrastructure in the region’s Izmail district – not far from the Crimean city — and wounded seven people, three seriously, Gov. Oleh Kiper said.Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 32 of 44 Shahed-type drones launched over the country overnight, most of them directed toward the southern parts of the Odesa region.The Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in an act that most of the world considered illegal, has been a frequent target since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukr...

Australian authorities protect Outback town against huge wildfire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:56 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Emergency crews were working to protect the Outback Australian town of Tennant Creek with containment lines on Wednesday as a huge wildfire threatened the remote community of 3,000.The fire has scorched 10,000 square kilometers (3,900 square miles) of grass and scrubland in the Northern Territory east of Tennant Creek, a former gold mining town.Police Acting Commander James Gray-Spence said authorities had worked through the night to burn protective containment lines east and south of the town.“There is a high level of confidence that those containment lines are in place, planned and prepared,” Gray-Spence told Australian Broadcasting Corp.Wildfires are common across Australia’s northern tropical region during the current dry season that will end when the monsoons arrive during the Southern Hemisphere summer.Because water is in short supply across the region, fire fighting largely involves excavating fire breaks with earthmoving equipment.But teams were al...

Rescuers retrieve over 2,000 bodies in eastern Libya wrecked by devastating floods

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:56 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Rescuers have found more than 2,000 bodies as of Wednesday in the wreckage of a Libyan city where floodwaters broke dams and washed away neighborhoods. Officials fear the death toll could exceed 5,000 in the nation made vulnerable by years of turmoil and neglect.Mediterranean storm Daniel caused deadly flooding in many eastern towns, but the worst-hit was Derna. As the storm pounded the coast Sunday night, Derna residents said they heard loud explosions when the dams outside the city collapsed. Floodwaters washed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea.More than 2,000 corpses were collected as of Wednesday morning and over half of them had been buried in mass graves in Derna, said eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel. Rescue teams were working day and night to recover many other bodies scattered in the streets and under the rubble in the city. Some bodies were retrieved from the sea.The startling devastation p...

New Scope 3 report sent to the SEC ahead of Climate Week

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:56 GMT

Orbitas, who provide data to the US government and work with seven other countries, are releasing a new report ahead of Climate Week that assesses the financial risks US businesses and investors face from overseas Scope 3 deforestation emissions in vital commodities such as beef, coffee, palm oil, cocoa, and rubber imported into the US. The report highlights that the total value at risk to US investors across three different scenarios ranges from $7.28 billion to $114.98bn. The report is being sent to the SEC this evening (13 September). The report authors have been engaging governments on climate related financial risks and regulations, including mandatory climate emission disclosures for several years. Specifically with the US government they’ve engaged the FDIC, CFTF, SEC, and Federal Reserve. Other governments engaged include Canada, Finland (as co-chair of the Coalition of finance ministers during Glasgow period), Germany, UK, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico. Additionally, they engag...

Dear Abby: Does my husband’s brother deserve another chance after what he did?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:56 GMT

DEAR ABBY: I am a man who has been married to my husband for two years. My problem is his brother.Related ArticlesAdvice | Dear Abby: Her selfish husband acts like he doesn’t remember the hell she went through Advice | Dear Abby: If I wear this T-shirt, people might guess the secret I’ve only told my husband Advice | Dear Abby: Why do I meet so many dumb men? Advice | Dear Abby: The houseguests know my sheet rule but they refuse to comply Advice | Dear Abby: I’m worried about my 12-year-old’s serious dating He tries to sabotage our marriage every chance he gets — from making rude comments to propositioning me and sending me nude pics of himself.The other problem is, my husband always takes his brother’s side. He knows his brother is dysfunctional but insists I should keep giving him another chance even though, when I have, it never turns out well.What should I do?̵...

Three-bedroom home sells for $1.9 million in San Jose

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:56 GMT

1075 Mazzone Drive – Google Street ViewThe property located in the 1000 block of Mazzone Drive in San Jose was sold on Aug. 15, 2023 for $1,900,000, or $1,003 per square foot. The house, built in 1979, has an interior space of 1,895 square feet. The layout of this single-story home consists of three bedrooms and two baths. On the exterior, the home features wood shake roofing / shingles. Inside, a fireplace enhances the ambiance of the living area. In addition, the house features a two-car garage.Additional houses have recently changed hands nearby:On Cross Springs Court, San Jose, in April 2023, a 3,273-square-foot home was sold for $2,337,000, a price per square foot of $714. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.A 3,872-square-foot home on the 6000 block of Sylvaner Way in San Jose sold in July 2023, for $2,421,000, a price per square foot of $625. The home has 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.In April 2023, a 2,655-square-foot home on Mazzone Drive in San Jose sold for $2,480,000, a...

North Korea’s Kim concludes one-on-one talks with Putin at Russian space launch base

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:56 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — One-on-one talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have ended, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported Wednesday. The meeting of the two leaders at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Siberia followed wider talks between delegations headed by the two leaders. Before the talks, the two leaders toured some of the facilities of the strategic spaceport.In remarks before the private meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday his country’s “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s “sacred fight” to defend its security interests, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine, and said Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow on the “anti-imperialist” front.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday his country’s “full and uncond...

One-on-one talks between Russia’s Putin and North Korea’s Kim conclude, Russian state media says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:56 GMT

MOSCOW (AP) — One-on-one talks between Russia’s Putin and North Korea’s Kim conclude, Russian state media says.Source

Kim Jong Un’s train travel has a storied history. His father and grandfather did the same thing

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:57:56 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — In a vast and elaborate complex on the edge of the North Korean capital, they sit frozen in time; two luxurious train carriages designed specifically for two supreme leaders — father and son, the predecessors of the man who is now in the middle of his own unusual railway diplomacy in Russia. When it comes to North Korea’s dynastic dictators, the tradition of train travel — and, some have said, the insistence upon it — extends across the generations. That’s in evidence at the massive Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where reconstructions of Kim Jong Un’s father’s and grandfather’s train cars — and, not incidentally, the leaders’ preserved and displayed remains — are enshrined.The prominent place that the elder two Kims’ highly secure train cars occupy in the shrine to their leadership hints at the central role of train travel among North Korean leaders, who have used trains for travel domestically and sometimes abroad since the early day...