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South Korea, France Agree to Deepen Defense Cooperation Amid Middle East Conflict

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) shakes hands with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung (R) prior to a toast during a state lunch in Seoul on April 3, 2026. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron (L) shakes hands with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung (R) prior to a toast during a state lunch in Seoul on April 3, 2026. (AFP)
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South Korea, France Agree to Deepen Defense Cooperation Amid Middle East Conflict

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) shakes hands with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung (R) prior to a toast during a state lunch in Seoul on April 3, 2026. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron (L) shakes hands with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung (R) prior to a toast during a state lunch in Seoul on April 3, 2026. (AFP)

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday they planned to boost defense cooperation and work together to address the economic and energy crises triggered by the war in Iran.

Macron arrived in South Korea on Thursday for a two-day state visit after also visiting Japan, and held a summit in Seoul on Friday.

It is the first state visit by a French president since 2015, and French officials have said the trip aims to strengthen France's strategic and economic role in the region at a time of "strong international and regional tensions."

"President Macron and I agreed to share policy-related experiences and strategies in order to jointly address the economic and energy crises triggered by the ‌Middle East war," Lee ‌said after the summit.

The leaders also confirmed their commitment to bolstering energy security ‌including ⁠by collaborating to ⁠secure safe maritime transport routes through the Strait of Hormuz, he said.

Like other Asian economies, South Korea relies heavily on energy imports, including through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively shut down the waterway in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks that began on February 28, driving up energy prices and stoking fears of a global recession.

Macron said on Thursday that it would be unrealistic to launch a military operation to force open the strait, after US President Donald Trump challenged US allies to work towards reopening it.

DEFENCE TIES

Macron said after Friday's summit that the countries, both major ⁠arms manufacturers, would strive to boost their defense ties.

"What we want to do ‌is give this cooperation a contemporary dimension," Macron said, citing joint ‌exercises and more cooperation in production and in critical military capabilities.

"On both sides, we want to equip ourselves with greater strategic ‌depth in military production."

Lee also said the countries will further expand cooperation in security fields such as ‌aerospace and defense.

South Korea and France are due to sign a number of preliminary agreements to cooperate in sectors including critical minerals, semiconductors, quantum technologies, nuclear energy and wind power, Lee's office said.

The countries also aimed to increase bilateral trade to $20 billion by 2030 from $15 billion in 2025, Lee said.

Lee highlighted memoranda of understanding to be signed between South Korea's state-run ‌Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and French companies Orano and Framatome, saying this would help secure fuel supplies for Korean nuclear power plants and lay the foundation for ⁠joint entry into the ⁠global nuclear market.

LUNCH AND KPOP

The two leaders will have a lunch after their summit, accompanied by about 140 government officials and business executives from both countries. Felix, a member of the Kpop boy band Stray Kids who has been named an honorary ambassador to France, will also attend, Lee's office said.

On Thursday, a banquet attended by the leaders and their wives was served by chef Son Jong-won, who was on Netflix's popular "Culinary Class Wars", the Blue House said. Signed CDs from top Kpop acts like BTS, Stray Kids and G-DRAGON were also prepared as gifts for France's First Lady Brigitte Macron.

The French president is scheduled to deliver a speech at Yonsei University in Seoul after the summit, and attend a business forum alongside Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, according to the Blue House.

Macron is scheduled to meet the CEOs of Samsung, Naver and Hyundai Motor during the trip as he seeks to boost French exports to South Korea and attract Korean investment into France’s industrial and technology sectors, according to the Elysee.

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World

Suspected Measles Cases Kill Nearly 1,000 as Bangladesh Struggles to Contain Outbreak

A child receives treatment for measles, at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute in Dhaka on September 3, 2026. (Photo by Salahuddin Ahmed / AFP)
A child receives treatment for measles, at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute in Dhaka on September 3, 2026. (Photo by Salahuddin Ahmed / AFP)
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Suspected Measles Cases Kill Nearly 1,000 as Bangladesh Struggles to Contain Outbreak

A child receives treatment for measles, at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute in Dhaka on September 3, 2026. (Photo by Salahuddin Ahmed / AFP)
A child receives treatment for measles, at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute in Dhaka on September 3, 2026. (Photo by Salahuddin Ahmed / AFP)

Eight-month-old Rojatun Jannat Ramisa is struggling to breathe in a hospital in Bangladesh’s capital as her parents sit helplessly beside her. She's one of thousands of children sickened by a measles outbreak that's sweeping across the country and has killed hundreds of children following setbacks to the country's vaccine program.

Ramisa’s mother Ranu Akhter traveled hundreds of kilometers (miles) after doctors in eastern Bangladesh referred her to a specialized child hospital in Dhaka to seek treatment for the life-threatening condition, The Associated Press said.

“Fourteen days ago, when we were at the district hospital, there were other children being treated alongside my daughter. I saw that those children also had red rashes on their bodies, sores in their mouths and fevers,” Akhter told The Associated Press at Dhaka Shishu Hospital.

“It made me realize how widespread the measles outbreak is,” she said.

Every day, the death toll is rising.

Bangladesh races to vaccinate children Bangladesh has been racing to halt the outbreak's spread since March, when more than 100 children died in less than a month. By Tuesday, the death toll from suspected measles cases reached 999 since the start of the year, according to the government’s Directorate General of Health Services.

Since March, the country has recorded more than 166,000 suspected measles cases, including 19,835 laboratory-confirmed infections, according to the Ministry of Health.

The government launched an emergency vaccination drive in March together with the World Health Organization, the UN children’s agency and the Gavi vaccine alliance. It began with a focus on children from 6 months to 5 years old and later expanded nationwide in phases.

Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease that causes fever, respiratory symptoms and a characteristic rash. It can sometimes have severe or fatal complications, especially in young children, according to the WHO.

Two doses of a vaccine provide strong protection against measles, but the WHO says 95% of the population has to be vaccinated in order to stop the disease from spreading — which protects children like Ramisa who are too young to be vaccinated as well as immunocompromised people.

The pandemic and political upheaval set back vaccinations

A few years ago, Bangladesh had measles largely under control, with a vaccination program that was credited for decades for protecting children and mothers from the deadly diseases of tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, poliomyelitis and measles. Between 2021 and 2025, the country recorded just 100 to 300 cases per year, down from 2,410 cases in 2020.

But in the last few years, disruptions to the vaccine program have left a growing number of children unvaccinated.

First the pandemic interrupted routine vaccinations, and then in 2024 the government largely missed a vaccination campaign previously carried out every four years.

Atiqul Islam, a neonatal and child specialist at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute, said during the pandemic period in 2021 and 2022, many did not take their children to get vaccinated.

“So, if you look at children who are now four or five years old, many of them missed their vaccinations. That created a gap. During the previous interim government, vaccines were also unavailable at many vaccination centers,” he said.

Rival politicians trade blame for vaccine shortfall Bangladesh's current government, headed by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, said the failures in planning under ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and interim leader Muhammad Yunus left the country with shortages of vaccines and far behind on coverage.

The 2024 measles vaccination campaign was disrupted during the political upheaval that led to Hasina’s ouster. She left the country in the face of a mass uprising in August 2024, and was followed by Yunus, who led an interim administration that transferred power to an elected government after an election in February.

From exile in India, Hasina blamed the Yunus-led government for the disaster.

Doctor says things are getting better, but not fast enough At Bangladesh Shishu Hospital, Islam said the situation has improved, but not enough.

The doctor said his colleagues are struggling to treat infected children who often arrive at the hospital with serious complications like pneumonia, diarrhea and encephalitis, or brain swelling.

“For the past six months, we have been treating measles patients continuously, and we are exhausted,” he said.

World

Merz Says Disaster Narrowly Averted in Russia-Prepared Drone Attack at Airport

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looks on during a debate at the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, 09 September 2026. (EPA)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looks on during a debate at the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, 09 September 2026. (EPA)
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Merz Says Disaster Narrowly Averted in Russia-Prepared Drone Attack at Airport

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looks on during a debate at the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, 09 September 2026. (EPA)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz looks on during a debate at the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, 09 September 2026. (EPA)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that an attempted drone attack at Leipzig/Halle airport had been prepared in Russia over an extended period and that a disaster was only narrowly ‌averted.

"This attack ‌was planned in ‌Russia ⁠for months and ⁠was specifically targeted at Germany, and only by pure chance was major material damage and harm to people ⁠prevented," Merz told the lower ‌house ‌of parliament.

Merz spoke after ‌the far-right Alternative for ‌Germany scored a major victory in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, running ‌on a platform that includes calls for ⁠closer ties ⁠with Moscow.

Russia has rejected any involvement in the drone incident at Leipzig airport, and its foreign minister has said these accusations were "the start of a real war".

World

UK Rejects Israel’s ‘Damaging’ Sanctions Retaliation

A view shows the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem, 09 September 2026. (EPA)
A view shows the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem, 09 September 2026. (EPA)
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UK Rejects Israel’s ‘Damaging’ Sanctions Retaliation

A view shows the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem, 09 September 2026. (EPA)
A view shows the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem, 09 September 2026. (EPA)

British foreign minister Ed Miliband on Wednesday condemned as "regrettable and damaging" Israel's decision to order the closure of the UK's consulate in Jerusalem as retaliation for London-led Western sanctions over settler violence. 

"We anticipated this might happen because we saw other countries, the Dutch, for example, who had announced sanctions, who had seen these reprisals from Israel. I think they're regrettable and damaging," Miliband told BBC Radio. 

Israel on Tuesday ordered the closure after 12 countries including Britain, Canada and France announced they would sanction trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, following a surge in settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. 

Israel said it would also expel British representatives at a center monitoring the US-brokered ceasefire plan in Gaza, bar British training for Palestinian Authority forces and ban 12 Britons, mostly members of parliament, from visiting the country. 

Miliband rejected suggestions that the sanctions would impact intelligence cooperation with Israel. 

"We have important intelligence and security relationships with Israel, and I'm confident they will continue," he said, declining to go into details. 

"And I was very clear yesterday that we do believe in working with our Israeli partners when it comes to the threats they face from Iran," he added. 

Miliband also dismissed the criticism of the sanctions by Britain's chief rabbi. 

Ephraim Mirvis on Tuesday called the measures "little more than political flag-bearing". 

He said it was a "truly a dark day for British Jews", predicting that the measures "will succeed only in bolstering the very extremism they seek to target". 

Several antisemitic attacks in London this year have targeted synagogues and other Jewish sites.