Archive September 1, 2025

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un inspects new missile production line

According to state media, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has inspected a brand-new missile manufacturing process and production line.

His visit to the missile production line on Sunday came ahead of a s planned trip  to Beijing to observe a military parade alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development programs were developed in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, and they are subject to severe international sanctions.

In response to Russia’s and China’s growing economic, military, and political support, experts and international officials claim that the sanctions have lost much of their impact.

According to Kim, the modernized production process will help boost the combat readiness of major missiles, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday.

To support Moscow in its conflict with Ukraine, North Korea has sent soldiers, artillery, and missiles to Russia.

The US’s cooperation with Japan and South Korea was also criticized by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which recently issued a trilateral joint statement warning of cybersecurity threats from Pyongyang.

The ministry “strongly denounces and rejects” the United States, Japan, and South Korea for using cyberspace as a “theatre of geopolitical confrontation and hostile propaganda,” according to a spokesperson in a statement released by KCNA.

The spokesperson added, using the initials of North Korea’s official name, “The more the US continues to perpetuate its anachronistic and malicious hostile acts against the DPRK through the intensified collaboration with its satellite countries, the more distrust and hostility will build up.”

Clashes in Australia’s Melbourne as thousands rally against immigration

According to local media, police in the Australian city of Melbourne have used pepper spray and baton rounds in response to “violent clashes” between anti-immigration protesters and counter-demonstrators.

As thousands of people gathered in major Australian cities, including Sydney, Perth, Canberra, and Brisbane, to demand an end to what they termed “mass immigration,” the violence on Sunday occurred.

The rallies, which took place under the “March for Australia” banner, were “organized by Nazis,” according to Minister of Multicultural Affairs Anne Aly, who denounced the actions.

According to the SBS Network, about 5, 000 protesters, some of whom were draped in the Australian flag, and counterprotesters showed up in Melbourne, citing the police.

The police deployed the riot squad, which used pepper spray and baton rounds to keep the two groups apart, after violent clashes “multiple times,” according to the network.

According to SBS, at least six people were detained in the city on assault-related charges.

The violence in Melbourne was also covered by the Australian Associated Press.

The organization behind “March for Australia” claimed on its website and social media that “mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together” and that its rallies aimed to “demand an end to mass immigration, something the majority politicians never have the courage to do: demand it.”

Critics expressed concern over the rise of right-wing extremism in Australia, where one in two people is either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas.

Let’s not talk about this in a coy manner. They weren’t opposing immigration from “white Western nations,” according to Aly, the minister of multicultural affairs.

Aly told ABC News, “I would say to those who marched and who argued that they had those legitimate concerns that they were organized by Nazis. The purpose of them was to oppose immigration.”

The Nazi allegations were not made public by “March for Australia.”

According to The Age newspaper, Thomas Sewell, a well-known Australian neo-Nazi, was one of the speakers at the rally in Melbourne. He was one of a group of black men who later attacked a camp for indigenous protests in Melbourne, known as Camp Sovereignty, according to the ABC.

Four people were hurt, including a woman who was taken to a hospital, according to Camp&nbsp, Sovereignty’s organizers, according to a statement released. Police did not make any arrests until after the men had left, according to the organizers.

[Joel Carrett/EPA] Victoria Police separate counter-protesters from Flinders Street Station on Sunday during the “March for Australia” anti-immigration rally in Melbourne.

Police in Sydney estimated that between 5, 000 and 8, 000 people would attend the anti-immigration demonstration, while the Refugee Action Coalition, a community activist group, held a counter-rally.

Glenn Allchin, a protester for the March for Australia, stated to the Reuters news agency that he wanted an “slowdown” in immigration.

Allchin said, “It’s about our country bursting at the seams and our government inducting more and more people,”. Our children are battling to find homes, hospitals, and the lack of roads in our country.

Meanwhile, counterprotesters in Sydney displayed signs indicating that immigrants make up the majority of Australia’s population despite the presence of Indigenous people. A representative for the Refugee Action Coalition said in a statement that “our event shows the depth of disgust and anger about the far right agenda of March For Australia.”

A party spokesperson said that Pauline Hanson, the leader of a far-right Australian senator, and Bob Katter, the leader of a small populist party, attended a “March for Australia” rally in Queensland while a few hundred people were protesting in Canberra. The veteran lawmaker had threatened to speak at a press conference about Katter’s involvement with a “March for Australia” event in the days leading up to the rally when it was being discussed.

Katter had yelled at the reporter, “Don’t say that, because that irritates me, and I punch blokes in the face for saying that,” according to SBS.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, the deputy leader of the Australian Greens and antiracist spokesperson, said in a statement that “these rallies must be called out for what they are: racist fear mongering and hate.”

Faruqi also criticized the Labor government, claiming that it “must stop its racist dog-whistling against immigrants and refugees and stop bashing pro-Palestine protesters and instead concentrate on the urgent implementation of the National Anti-Racism Framework.”

Far-right organizations are becoming more organized and visible in Australia, according to previous warnings from Australia’s spy agency.

In Australia this year, following a string of anti-Semitic attacks on synagogues, buildings, and cars since Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, laws governing the Nazi salute and the display or sale of symbols associated with terror groups were passed.

Indonesia tightens security after deadly protests

Six people were killed in unrest in Indonesia as a result of the country’s economic hardship, which sparked violent outrage against the country’s police force.

President Prabowo Subianto has been forced to make a U-turn over the measures as a result of the deadly protests that started last week over financial perks for lawmakers.

After footage showed one of its teams running over delivery driver Affan Kurniawan, age 21, in the late evening of Thursday, demonstrations had started peacefully but quickly turned violent against the elite paramilitary police force.

In the worst unrest since Prabowo took office, protests have since spread from the capital, Jakarta, to other major cities, including Yogyakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya in Java, and Medan in North Sumatra province.

On Monday, more gatherings of students and protesters were planned in various locations throughout Indonesia’s vast archipelago.

On Monday, police began patrolling the capital, Jakarta, and a police spokesman informed a broadcaster, Kompas TV, that officers were also there to “protect” residents and provide a sense of security.

Late on Sunday, police attempted to avert protesters by deploying a convoy of armored cars and motorcycles to parliament.

Due to the current economic crisis, Prabowo had to cancel a trip to China this week for a military parade to honor World War II’s eve.

After the house of the Minister of Finance was pillaged, his close ally, the Minister of Defense, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, warned on Sunday that the military and police would “firm action” against “rioters and looters.”

A fire at a council building in Makassar’s eastern city on Friday that was started by protesters killed at least three people.

Local disaster agency official Muhammad Fadli Tahar told AFP on Sunday that another victim had died in Makassar on Friday after being beaten by a mob on suspicion that he was an intelligence officer.

Rheza Sendy Pratama, a student at Amikom Yogyakarta University, passed away in Yogyakarta in protest, but his cause of death is still unknown.

Car crashes into Russian consulate in Australia’s Sydney

According to police and local media, a 39-year-old man drove his car into the front gate of the Russian consulate in Sydney and was detained by Australian police.

The New South Wales Police Force stated in a statement that an “unauthorised vehicle” parked in the driveway of the consulate in Woollahra, Sydney, was reported shortly after 8am on Monday (22:00 GMT on Sunday).

The driver “drove his car into the gates of the property,” according to the statement.

According to the report, a 24-year-old constable was hurt on his hand during the incident, adding that the investigation was still being conducted.

A car with a broken window was seen abandoned next to a Russian flagpole on television from Sky News and Nine.

Police are thought to have used their batons to try to enter the car after the pictures on ABC also showed damage to the vehicle’s passenger and driver side windows. The Russian consulate staff remained inside the building, according to the network, and the car had already been towed from the grounds by mid-morning.

The consulate briefly closed in the morning before reopening, according to those who had met there for visa appointments.

The Russian diplomatic mission did not respond right away.

[File: Bianca De Marchi/EPA] A sign stands outside the Russian consulate in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,285

On Monday, September 1, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

  • Regional governors reported that at least five people were killed by Russian attacks on Ukraine on Monday, including two in Kherson, one in Zaporizhia, and two in Donetsk. Difficult to name just how many people were injured by the attacks.
  • Governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram that in the Zaporizhia region alone, Russian forces carried out 286 drone strikes, 10 missile strikes, and 5 airstrikes on 16 settlements in a single day.
  • More than 29, 000 customers were without electricity on Sunday morning as a result of a Russian drone attack that occurred overnight near the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, according to the governor of the area. The Chornomorsk seaport was the hardest-hit city.
  • A civilian bulk carrier carrying Belize’s flag also suffered minor damage after hitting an unidentified explosive device close to Chornomorsk, according to the Reuters news agency.
  • Russian drones targeted northern Chernihiv in Ukraine early on Sunday, damaging the country’s energy infrastructure and leaving 30 000 households without electricity, including a portion of Nizhyn, according to Governor Viacheslav Chaus.
  • Russia reportedly used 142 drones to attack Ukraine overnight, and 142 of them were shot down by the country’s air defense forces, hitting 10 locations.
  • Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, promised to retaliate against Russian strikes deep inside Russia.
On Sunday, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk visit Poland’s border with Belarus [Agencja Wyborcza/Agencja Sadowska/Agencja Wyborcza] via Reuters, pl.
  • Russia’s military criticized Russia’s claims of a successful summer offensive, saying Russian forces failed to take control of any significant Ukrainian city or “grossly exaggerated” figures regarding captured territory.
  • Two Ministry of Internal Affairs employees were among the injured in Russia as a result of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting the Kursk region, according to Governor Alexander Khinshtein in a post on Telegram.
  • According to TASS, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that its forces had destroyed 112 Ukrainian drones, two aerial bombs, and three rocket launchers in a single day.
  • The third reactor at Russia’s Kursk nuclear power plant, which had been hacked after a drone attack, was completely restored, according to a report from TASS on Sunday, citing the facility.

diplomacy and politics

  • Russia continued its operations in Ukraine until Moscow saw tangible signs that Kyiv was ready for peace, according to the Kremlin, accusing European powers of stifling US President Donald Trump’s peace efforts.
  • From the sidelines of the SCO summit in China, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the eurocrats are on their fundamental course and aren’t giving up.
  • German Chancellor Friedrich Merz predicted that the Russia-Ukraine conflict would “last a long time.” He claimed that “the price of Ukraine’s capitulation” would be the end of diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
  • During a visit to Poland’s border near Belarus, where she called Putin a “predator” who could only be kept in check through “strong deterrence,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, made announcements about additional funding for member states of the European Union bordering Russia and Belarus.
  • Von der Leyen added that as part of proposed post-conflict security guarantees, Europe is “pretty precise plans” for a multinational troop deployment to Ukraine.
  • She claimed that Trump had promised to “as part of the backstop” that “there will be]an] American presence in Europe.”
  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated in an article published in the People’s Daily, the state newspaper of China, that his nation would “continue to pursue” its “peace diplomacy” with “patience.”
  • Pope Leo urged dialogue and a ceasefire in the conflict in Ukraine. In his Sunday prayer with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, he said, “It is time for those responsible to renounce the logic of arms and to follow the path of negotiation and peace with the support of the international community.”

Weapons

    • Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, inspected a new missile production line and automated manufacturing process, according to state media KCNA on Monday. To support Moscow in its conflict with Ukraine, North Korea has sent missiles, soldiers, and artillery ammunition to Russia.

    • Norway, which has a border with Russia, announced that it will make the largest military investment ever, purchasing new frigates worth 10 billion pounds ($13.51 billion) from the UK.

Liverpool agree £125m Isak deal with Newcastle

Images courtesy of Getty

Alexander Isak has been signed for £125 million from Newcastle, according to Liverpool.

An agreement for the Sweden international to join the Anfield club is now in place, according to sources close to the deal.

Prior to completing a six-year contract with the club, Isak will go for a medical on Monday.

An earlier this month’s rejection of Liverpool’s original £110m offer resulted in their first-choice summer target.

related subjects

  • Liverpool
  • Transfers of football
  • Newcastle United
  • Football