NORTH KOREA
Kim’s sister promoted
The ruling party has elevated leader Kim Jong-un’s powerful younger sister to a top position, the Korean Central News Agency said yesterday. Thousands of party elites have packed the capital, Pyongyang, for a once-in-five-years summit of the ruling Workers’ Party, a gathering that directs state efforts on everything from diplomacy to war planning. Kim Yo-jong — long considered one of her brother’s closest lieutenants — was promoted to department director within the party’s apex Central Committee, KCNA said. Although it was not clear which department she would lead, she has previously held a senior role within the party’s propaganda unit.
UNITED KINGDOM
Mandelson freed on bail
Former British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson has been released on bail after he was arrested in a misconduct probe stemming from his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said in a statement issued just after 2am yesterday: “A 72-year-old man arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office has been released on bail pending further investigation. The man was not named, in keeping with British police practice, but the suspect in the case previously was identified as the former diplomat, who is 72. Mandelson was filmed being led from his London home to a car by plainclothes officers on Monday afternoon. Police are investigating him over claims he passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.
IRAN
Chopper crash kills four
A military helicopter yesterday crashed into a fruit and vegetable market in central Iran, reportedly killing at least four people. The crash happened in the town of Dorcheh, about 330km south of the capital, Tehran, in Isfahan Province, state television reported. Isfahan is home to a major Iranian air base, as well as a nuclear site struck by the US during the Iran-Israel war in June last year. The army helicopter had been on a training flight, state TV said. The pilot and copilot died in the crash, it added, showing footage of debris and smoke rising from the market. Semiofficial Fars news agency said two people on the ground at the market died in the crash.
UNITED STATES
ICE agents poorly trained
A former US immigration official on Monday said that training for federal agents was “deficient, defective and broken,” adding to pressure on President Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown. Ryan Schwank resigned this month from his job teaching law at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) training academy in Glynco, Georgia, after he said he was instructed to teach new recruits to violate the US Constitution. Schwank told a forum hosted by congressional Democrats on Monday that he “received secretive orders to teach new cadets to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a judicial warrant,” adding: “Never in my career had I received such a blatantly unlawful order.” ICE cut 240 hours from its 584-hour training program, curtailing subjects such as the US Constitution, lawful arrest, firearms, the use of force and the limits of officers’ authority. “The legally required training program at the ICE academy is deficient, defective and broken,” he said. As a consequence, poorly trained, inexperienced armed officers were being sent to places like Minneapolis “with minimal supervision,” he said.
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
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