Category World News

North Korea’s defence minister, No Kwang Chol, has condemned the arrival of a United States aircraft carrier at a port in South Korea and warned that Pyongyang will take “more offensive action” against its enemies.

The minister’s warning comes a day after North Korea launched what appeared to be a short-range ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast.

“We will show more offensive action against the enemies’ threat on the principle of ensuring security and defending peace by dint of powerful strength,” the defence minister said, according to a report on Saturday by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“All threats encroaching upon the sphere of the North’s security” will become “direct targets” and be “managed in a necessary way”, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency also reported the defence minister as saying.

The missile launch on Friday followed after Washington announced new sanctions targeting eight North Korean nationals and two entities accused of laundering money tied to cybercrimes, and a visit to South Korea by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Commenting on the visit by US and South Korean defence chiefs to the border between North and South Korea, as well as their subsequent security talks in Seoul, the North Korean defence minister accused the allies of conspiring to integrate their nuclear and conventional weapons forces.

“We have correctly understood the hostility of the US to stand in confrontation with the DPRK to the last and will never avoid the response to it,” No said, using the initials of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

According to KCNA, the defence minister made his comments on Friday in response to the annual South Korea-US Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) and the recent arrival of the USS George Washington aircraft carrier and the Fifth Carrier Strike Group at a port in Busan.

The arrival of the US strike group also coincides with large-scale joint military drills, known as Freedom Flag, between US and South Korean forces.

While in South Korea for the SCM talks this week, Hegseth posted several photos on social media of his visit to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the North and the South.

Hegseth said that the core of Washington’s alliance with Seoul would remain focused on deterring North Korea, although the Trump administration will also look at flexibility for US troops stationed in South Korea to operate against regional threats.

I visited the DMZ with my ROK counterpart, Minister Ahn, to meet the brave troops of the U.S., ROK, and UN Command that maintain the military armistice on the Peninsula.

Our forces remain ready to support President Trump’s efforts to bring lasting peace through strength. pic.twitter.com/Uy6gab0zwl

Pyongyang described the DMZ visit by Hegseth and his South Korean counterparts as “a stark revelation and an unveiled intentional expression of their hostile nature to stand against the DPRK”.

Pyongyang’s latest missile launch, which Japan said landed outside its exclusive economic zone, came just over a week after US President Donald Trump was in the region and expressed interest in a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

On Friday, the US said it was “consulting closely” with allies and partners over the ballistic missile launch.

President Donald Trump has said no United States officials will attend this year’s Group of 20 (G20) summit in South Africa, citing the country’s treatment of white farmers.

Writing on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump said it was a “total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa”.

“Afrikaners (People who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated,” Trump wrote, reiterating claims that have been rejected by authorities in South Africa.

“No US Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue. I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida!” he added.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly claimed that white South Africans are being persecuted in the Black-majority country, a claim rejected by South Africa’s government and top Afrikaner officials.

Trump had already said on Wednesday that he would not attend the summit – which will see the heads of states from the world’s leading and emerging economies gather in Johannesburg on November 22 and 23 – as he also called for South Africa to be thrown out of the G20.

US Vice President JD Vance had been expected to attend the meeting in place of the president. But a person familiar with Vance’s plans told The Associated Press news agency that he will no longer travel to South Africa.

Tensions first arose between the US and South Africa after President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced a new law in January seeking to address land ownership disparities, which have left three-quarters of privately owned land in the hands of the white minority more than three decades after the end of apartheid.

The new legislation makes it easier for the state to expropriate land, which Ramaphosa insists does not amount to confiscation, but creates a framework for fair redistribution by allowing authorities to take land without compensation in exceptional circumstances, such as when a site has been abandoned.

Shortly after the introduction of the Expropriation Act, Trump accused South Africa of “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY”.

“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act,” he said.

In May, Trump granted asylum to 59 white South Africans as part of a resettlement programme that Washington described as giving sanctuary after racial discrimination.

The same month, when Trump met with President Ramaphosa in the White House, he ambushed him with the claim that a “genocide” is taking place against white Afrikaners in his country.

Ramaphosa denied the allegations, telling Trump “if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you, these three gentlemen would not be here”, pointing to three white South African men present – professional golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, and South Africa’s richest man, Johann Rupert.

South African historian Saul Dubow, professor of Commonwealth history at the University of Cambridge, previously told Al Jazeera that there is no merit to “Trump’s fantasy claims of white genocide”.

Dubow suggested that Trump may be more angry about South Africa’s genocide case filed against Israel in the International Court of Justice over its war on Gaza.

Nonetheless, the Trump administration has maintained its claim of widespread persecution. On October 30, the White House indicated that most new refugees admitted to the US will be white South Africans, as it slashed the number of people it will admit annually to just 7,500.

United States President Donald Trump unlawfully ordered National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, a federal judge has ruled, marking a legal setback for the president’s use of the military for policing duties in US cities.

The ruling on Friday by US District Judge Karin Immergut is the first to permanently block Trump’s use of military forces to quell protests against immigration authorities.

Immergut, a Trump appointee, rejected the administration’s claim that protesters at an immigration detention facility were waging a rebellion that legally justified sending troops to Portland.

Democrats have said Trump is abusing military powers meant for genuine emergencies such as an invasion or an armed rebellion.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield described the ruling as a “huge victory” and the “decision confirms that the President cannot send the Guard into Oregon without a legal basis for doing so”.

“The courts are holding this administration accountable to the truth and the rule of law,” Rayfield said in a post on social media.

BREAKING NEWS: We just secured a final court order blocking National Guard deployment!

Today’s ruling is a huge victory for Oregon. The courts are holding this administration accountable to the truth and the rule of law. pic.twitter.com/ffzgj0zCjM

Portland’s Mayor Keith Wilson also applauded the decision, saying it “vindicates Portland’s position while reaffirming the rule of law that protects our community”.

“As I have said from the beginning, the number of federal troops needed in our city is zero,” Wilson said, according to local media reports.

The City of Portland and the Oregon Attorney General’s Office sued in September, alleging that the Trump administration was exaggerating occasional violence to justify sending in troops under a law permitting presidents to do so in cases of rebellion.

Echoing Trump’s description of Portland as “war-ravaged”, lawyers from the Department of Justice had described a violent siege overwhelming federal agents in the city.

But lawyers for Oregon and Portland said violence has been rare, isolated and contained by local police.

“This case is about whether we are a nation of constitutional law or martial law,” Portland’s lawyer Caroline Turco had said.

The Trump administration is likely to appeal Friday’s ruling, and the case could ultimately reach the US Supreme Court.

A review by the Reuters news agency of court records found that at least 32 people were charged with federal crimes stemming from the Portland protests since they began in June. Of the 32 charged, 11 pleaded guilty to misdemeanours, and those who have been sentenced received probation.

About half the defendants were charged with assaulting federal officers, including 14 felonies and seven misdemeanours.

Prosecutors dismissed two cases.

Charging documents describe protesters kicking and shoving officers, usually while resisting arrest.

Here is how things stand on Saturday, November 8:

Fighting

• Ukraine’s top general Oleksandr Syrskii said Kyiv’s troops were stepping up assaults on Russian forces around the eastern Ukrainian town of Dobropillia to ease pressure on the embattled hub of Pokrovsk.
• Ukrainian forces carried out a long-range drone strike on a petrochemical plant in Russia’s Bashkortostan region. Kyiv’s military intelligence agency said the attack on the Sterlitamak plant sparked a fire in part of the facility that produces an additive for aviation fuel.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia is massing troops near the city of Vovchansk in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.
• Ukrainian energy provider DTEK has returned electricity to 170,000 households in Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, after overnight Russian drone strikes on energy infrastructure. The company said 373 settlements had been left without power, but utility workers had returned electricity to all critical infrastructure and most residential consumers.
• The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces have taken control of the village of Uspenivka in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhia region.
• More than 1,400 citizens from three dozen African countries are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, Kyiv’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said. He said Russia was enticing Africans to sign contracts he described as “equivalent to … a death sentence”, and urged African governments to warn their citizens.

Sanctions

• The United States has granted Hungary a one-year exemption from sanctions connected to Russian energy, the White House and Hungary have said, after President Donald Trump heaped praise on Prime Minister Viktor Orban at a White House meeting that glossed over differences about Hungary’s use of Russian oil and gas.
• Trump, who has been pushing Europe to avoid using Russian energy in order to pressure Moscow to end its war with Ukraine, expressed sympathy with his ally, Orban, before the announcement, saying: “We’re looking at it [a sanctions exemption], because it’s very different for him to get the oil and gas from other areas.”
• Greece has agreed to import 700 million cubic metres of US liquefied natural gas per year starting in 2030 in its first long-term deal with Washington, as the country seeks to replace Russian supplies to Europe.
• Two tankers carrying about 1.5 million barrels of Russian Urals crude have dropped anchor at sea on either end of the Suez Canal, in an apparent sign of the difficulty Moscow is having selling oil due to Western sanctions. The vessels Sikar and Monte 1 were both loaded with oil from Russia’s Baltic port of Primorsk in early October and have remained anchored near the canal for over a week.
• Moldovan Energy Minister Dorin Junghietu said Russian energy company Lukoil will have to stop its operations in the country as of November 21 due to US sanctions. Junghietu said the company, which owns petrol stations and operates an airport fuel storage facility, will not be able to provide petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Ukrainian affairs

• President Zelenskyy has appointed Yuri Cherevashenko as the new commander responsible for drone air defences, a role seen as critical in defending against Russian attacks.
• The president’s website said Cherevashenko had experience in helping create Ukraine’s first group of reaction forces of air defence mobile brigades. He also played a role in developing interceptor drones, which Zelenskyy portrayed as a key part in countering intensive Russian drone assaults.
• Ukrainian state oil and gas firm Naftogaz said it was increasing imports of US liquefied natural gas through Polish firm Orlen and US partners to ensure supplies for the winter amid continuing Russian strikes on the energy system. In a statement, CEO Serhiy Koretskyi said the imports would total at least 300 million cubic metres.

Regional security

• The European Union has adopted stricter visa rules for Russian nationals in light of what it describes as the “weaponisation of migration, acts of sabotage and potential misuse of visas”. Russian nationals will no longer be eligible for multiple-entry visas and must apply for a new visa each time they travel to the EU.
• Russia is set to double its stocks of artillery, missiles and munitions by 2030 compared with 2022, despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, said the chief of Germany’s joint operations command, Lieutenant General Alexander Sollfrank.
• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius suggested a link between recent drone incidents in Belgium and discussions over the use of frozen Russian assets, which are held by Belgian financial institution Euroclear, to fund a giant loan to Ukraine.
• Sightings of drones over airports and military bases have become a constant problem in Belgium and have caused major disruptions across Europe in recent months.
• A British man who offered the United Kingdom’s then-Defence Minister Grant Shapps’s personal information to purported Russian spies has been jailed for assisting a foreign intelligence service.
• Howard Phillips offered Shapps’s home address and phone number to two people he believed were Russian agents, but who were in fact British undercover officers, prosecutors said. The 66-year-old denied one count of engaging in conduct intended to materially assist a foreign intelligence service.

Russian affairs

• A man whose lawyer says he accidentally stumbled on information about pro-Ukrainian combat units while browsing the internet on a bus is the first Russian known to be investigated under a new law banning online searches for material Moscow deems “extremist”.
• Russian media quoted Sergei Barsukov, a lawyer in the Sverdlovsk region of the Urals, as saying he was representing 20-year-old Sergei Glukhikh, who had been reported by his internet service provider to the FSB security service for viewing information about units Russia regards as terrorists.