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North Korea Sends 600 More Trash Balloons over Border

South Korean soldiers wearing protective gears check the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, Sunday, June 2, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP)
South Korean soldiers wearing protective gears check the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, Sunday, June 2, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP)
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North Korea Sends 600 More Trash Balloons over Border

South Korean soldiers wearing protective gears check the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, Sunday, June 2, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP)
South Korean soldiers wearing protective gears check the trash from a balloon presumably sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea, Sunday, June 2, 2024. (Im Sun-suk/Yonhap via AP)

North Korea sent some 600 balloons carrying trash into South Korea overnight, Seoul said on Sunday, in Pyongyang's latest move to rile its rival neighbor.
The balloons carrying garbage such as cigarette butts, cloth, paper waste and plastic were found across the capital from 8 p.m. to 10 a.m. (1100 GMT on Saturday to 0100 GMT on Sunday), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
It said the military was monitoring the starting point and conducting aerial reconnaissance to track down and collect the balloons, which have large bags of trash suspended beneath them.
North Korea on Wednesday sent hundreds of balloons carrying trash and excrement across the heavily fortified border as what it called "gifts of sincerity". Seoul responded angrily, calling the move base and dangerous, Reuters reported.
South Korea's Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said during a meeting with US Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd on the sidelines of the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore on Sunday that the balloons violated the armistice agreement, according to South Korea's military.
The two reaffirmed a coordinated response to any North Korean threats and provocations based on the South Korea-US alliance's combined defense posture, it added.
Emergency alerts were issued in North Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces and some parts of Seoul on Sunday, urging people not to come into contact with the balloons and to alert police.
South Korea's National Security Council standing committee will meet on Sunday afternoon to discuss whether to resume blasting loudspeakers at North Korea in response to the trash balloons, Yonhap news agency reported, citing the presidential office.
South Korea stopped blaring propaganda across the border in 2018 after a rare summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

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World

Ukraine Peace Talks Paused Amid Iran War, Russia’s Izvestia Says

Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine in this handout picture released March 19, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Odesa region/Handout via Reuters)
Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine in this handout picture released March 19, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Odesa region/Handout via Reuters)
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Ukraine Peace Talks Paused Amid Iran War, Russia’s Izvestia Says

Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine in this handout picture released March 19, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Odesa region/Handout via Reuters)
Rescuers work at the site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine in this handout picture released March 19, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Odesa region/Handout via Reuters)

Peace talks between the United States, Russia and Ukraine on ending the Ukraine war, the deadliest European conflict since World War Two, are on pause amid the Iran war, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Thursday, citing Russian officials.

US President Donald Trump, who last year said he wanted to be remembered as a peacemaker, vowed to end the Ukraine war but has since said that efforts to resolve the conflict have been one of his biggest disappointments.

The US and Israeli attack on Iran has diverted US attention away from Ukraine and triggered soaring prices for oil and gas - of ‌which Russia ‌is a major global producer and exporter.

Izvestia, which in Soviet times represented ‌official ⁠state views and is ⁠now under European Union sanctions, said in a front-page story that the Kremlin had confirmed a pause in talks on Ukraine and that the Iran war could push Kyiv towards compromise.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the paper that Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev would continue working on investment and economic cooperation, but "the trilateral group is on pause".

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the ⁠Cold War.

Russia and Ukraine held talks in Türkiye last year, and ‌have conducted several more sessions with US mediation in ‌Abu Dhabi and Geneva this year. But they remain far apart on Russia's demand for Ukraine to cede ‌control of the whole of its eastern Donetsk region.

GABBARD: RUSSIA 'HAS MAINTAINED THE UPPER HAND'

Ukraine and ‌European leaders say that Russia cannot be allowed to achieve its aims after what they cast as an imperial-style land grab. If Russia wins, European powers say, then it will one day attack NATO. Moscow says such claims are ridiculous and that it has no intention of attacking a NATO member.

"During the past year, ‌Russia has maintained the upper hand in its war against Ukraine," US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the Senate Select Committee ⁠on Intelligence on Wednesday.

"US-led ⁠negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv are ongoing. Until such an agreement is met, Moscow is likely to continue fighting a war of attrition with the aim of degrading Kyiv’s ability and will to resist."

President Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly said he is open to discussing peace, casts the war as a watershed moment in relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence.

Russia has insisted that Ukraine withdraw from the parts of the Donbas region which it still controls. Russian figures indicate Ukraine controls just under 10% of the Donbas region.

In 2024, Putin said Russia's terms for ending the war were that Ukraine officially abandon its ambition of joining NATO and withdraw entirely from four regions Russia claims as its own territory.

Kyiv says it will not cede land that Moscow's forces have failed to capture in nearly four years of war.

World

Two Iranians Charged in UK with Spying on Jewish Community

UK police, the domestic intelligence service MI5 and members of parliament have long warned about a growing threat from Iran. (Getty Images/AFP)
UK police, the domestic intelligence service MI5 and members of parliament have long warned about a growing threat from Iran. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Two Iranians Charged in UK with Spying on Jewish Community

UK police, the domestic intelligence service MI5 and members of parliament have long warned about a growing threat from Iran. (Getty Images/AFP)
UK police, the domestic intelligence service MI5 and members of parliament have long warned about a growing threat from Iran. (Getty Images/AFP)

UK police have charged two men in relation to spying for Iran on individuals and places linked to the Jewish community.

UK police, the domestic intelligence service MI5 and members of parliament have long warned about a growing threat from Iran, which is currently locked in a war with the United States and Israel.

"The charge relates to carrying out activities in the UK such as gathering information and undertaking reconnaissance of targets," said Frank Ferguson, head of the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) special crime and counter-terrorism division.

"We fully recognize that the public - and in particular the Jewish community - will be concerned but I hope this investigation reassures them that we will not hesitate to take action if we identify there may be a threat to their safety," added Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans.

Nematollah Shahsavani, 40, a dual Iranian and British national, and Alireza Farasati, 22, an Iranian national, were late Wednesday charged with engaging in contact likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between July 9 and August 15 last year.

The CPS said Iran was the country the charges related to.

Both men are due to appear before a court in London later Thursday.

In October 2025, MI5 chief Ken McCallum said that British security agencies had tracked "more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots" in the previous year.

World

China Calls Killing of Iran’s Larijani, Leaders ‘Unacceptable’

10 September 2025, China, Beijing: Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, speaks at the daily briefing of the authority. (dpa)
10 September 2025, China, Beijing: Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, speaks at the daily briefing of the authority. (dpa)
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China Calls Killing of Iran’s Larijani, Leaders ‘Unacceptable’

10 September 2025, China, Beijing: Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, speaks at the daily briefing of the authority. (dpa)
10 September 2025, China, Beijing: Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, speaks at the daily briefing of the authority. (dpa)

China condemned on Thursday the killing of Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani by an Israeli air strike, calling it "unacceptable".

Beijing is a close partner of Iran but has also criticized Tehran's strikes against Gulf states housing US military bases.

Larijani was the highest-profile Iranian killed since supreme leader Ali Khamenei and other senior figures died during a wave of US and Israeli strikes when the war started on February 28.

"We have always opposed the use of force in international relations. The acts of killing Iranian state leaders and attacking civilian targets are even more unacceptable," China's foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news conference when asked about Larijani's death.

"China urges the parties concerned to immediately cease military operations and prevent the regional situation from spiraling out of control", Lin said.

Beijing has sought to mediate in the war, with its special envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, meeting top officials across the region this month.

Zhai emphasized during his visits that "non-military targets should not be attacked, and the safety of shipping lanes should not be disturbed", Lin said.

China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Beijing would provide humanitarian assistance to Iran, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.