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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will unveil plans to bolster the country’s nuclear forces at an upcoming governing party meeting, state media reported.
The report from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday came the day after Kim oversaw the latest in a series of missile tests that have unsettled the region. Kim has ordered the “expansion” and modernisation of the country’s missile production.
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Details, which Kim has warned will bring “excruciating mental agony” to his enemies, are expected to be released at the upcoming ninth Communist Party congress, which is due to take place in the coming weeks.
At the meeting, the first such gathering since 2021, the governing party will unveil a five-year development plan for defence and the economy.
Kim described Tuesday’s test-firing of a large-calibre multiple rocket launcher system as of “great significance in improving the effectiveness of our strategic deterrent” and said it showed the weapon system could be used for “specific attacks”, KCNA reported.
The missiles that were fired “hit a target” in waters at a distance of 358.5km (222.7 miles), the North Korean leader declared.
The missiles were fired in the direction of the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea. Two landed outside North Korea’s Exclusive Economic Zone, Japanese state news agency Jiji Press reported, citing Defence Ministry sources.
South Korea’s military reported that it detected multiple short-range ballistic missiles launched from north of Pyongyang towards the Sea of Japan.
“The result and significance of this test will be a source of excruciating mental agony and serious threat to the forces that attempt to provoke a military confrontation with us,” Kim said.
Analysts told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that the “self-steered precision guided flight system” mentioned by Kim may indicate a new navigation system employed to help the weapon defy global positioning system (GPS) jamming.
Photos showed Kim’s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, accompanying him to the test, along with Kim Jong-sik, first vice department director of the party’s central committee, and Jang Chang-ha, chief of the Missile Administration, Yonhap reported.
Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has warned that a United States attack on Iran would be “wrong”, calling on Washington and Tehran to resolve their issues diplomatically and gradually.
In an interview with Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar Atas, segments of which aired on Wednesday, Fidan called for regional cooperation as the US amasses military assets in the Middle East amid a spike in tensions with Iran.
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“It’s wrong to start the war again,” Fidan said.
The US has sent an aircraft carrier strike group to the Gulf as Trump continues to threaten to launch renewed attacks against Iran after last June’s 12-day conflict.
For their part, Iranian officials have promised to launch a “comprehensive and regret-inducing response” if attacked again.
Earlier this month, Trump told Iranian antigovernment protesters that “help is on the way”, urging them to take over state institutions.
On Tuesday, Trump highlighted the growing US military force in the region while keeping the door open for diplomacy.
“By the way, there’s another beautiful armada floating beautifully toward Iran right now. So we’ll see. I hope they make a deal,” he told supporters at a rally.
Despite the escalating rhetoric, Fidan suggested that a diplomatic resolution is still possible.
“Iran is ready to negotiate a nuclear file again,” the top Turkish diplomat said.
After Israel started the war by bombing Iran in June, the US struck Iran’s three main nuclear facilities. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the attack “obliterated” the Iranian nuclear programme.
But Tehran has insisted on its right to nuclear enrichment, and the whereabouts of the country’s highly enriched uranium remain unknown.
Beyond the nuclear programme, US officials have also said Iran should scale back its missile arsenal and end support to allied non-state actors in the region, like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
“My advice always to the American friends, close the files one by one with Iran. Start with nuclear, close it, then the others,” Fidan said.
“If you put them as a package, all of them, it will be very difficult for our Iranian friends to digest and to really process it and to go through this. And sometimes, it might seem humiliating for them. It will be very difficult to explain to not only themselves, but with the leadership.”
Fidan said Iran can fit in a “perfect place” in the regional order.
“They need to create trust in the region,” Fidan said of the Iranians. “They need to have attention to how they are perceived by the regional countries, because they are not going anywhere; we are not going anywhere.”
The top Turkish diplomat added that despite different ideologies, leanings and sects, countries in the region have to cooperate and work together within the nation-state system.
San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama said he is “horrified” after two fatal shootings by immigration agents in Minnesota.
Intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, 37, and fellow Minnesota resident Renee Good, 37, have both been killed by federal agents in the city this month, sparking protests both locally and in other parts of the US.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in the city ordered by US president Donald Trump’s administration has been going on for more than six weeks. ICE agents have the power to stop, detain and arrest people they suspect of being in the US illegally.
Frenchman Wembanyama said he was reluctant to speak out as he is not a citizen of the US and that the Spurs’ public relations team had advised against it.
“Yeah, PR has tried, but I’m not going to sit here and give some politically correct [answer],” Wembanyama said.
On Monday, the New York Knicks’ Guerschon Yabusele, who also hails from France, made a strong statement on X calling for the US government to “stop operating this way”.
Wembanyama, 22, praised his countryman for speaking out but said Yabusele’s words “might have some price right now”, adding that “each and every one of us has to decide the price we’re willing to pay”.
When asked whether he feared repercussions for speaking on the topic, Wembanyama said “for sure”.
“I read the news and sometimes I’m asking very deep questions about my own life,” he said.
“But I’m conscious also that saying everything that’s on my mind would have a cost that’s too great for me right now. So, I’d rather not get into too many details.
US President Donald Trump said Alex Pretti shouldn’t have been carrying a gun, even though he was legally armed when a federal agent shot him during an immigration raid in Minneapolis. He then called it a ‘very unfortunate incident’ before vowing to carry out an ‘honest’ investigation into his death.
Newcastle United players certainly looked the part as the team bus pulled up outside Molineux earlier this month.
The squad emerged from the coach wearing re-released replica away shirts from the ‘Entertainers’ era, when the Magpies strutted into stadiums up and down the country.
But the visitors did not play with quite the same swagger of Kevin Keegan’s free-scoring 1995-96 side.
In fact, Newcastle did not muster a first shot on target until the 85th minute in a goalless Premier League draw against bottom club Wolves.
It was a familiar story.
Travel-sick Newcastle have won only three away games in all competitions this season.
That dire record has to change – and fast – as Eddie Howe’s men travel to the Parc des Princes, Anfield and Etihad Stadium in the space of just 10 days.
Yet could one of the toughest runs in the club’s recent history bring the best out in them?
“Sometimes, the bigger the game and the harder the challenge, the more you have to rise to it,” said Newcastle head coach Howe before Wednesday night’s Champions League match at Paris St-Germain.
Getty ImagesNewcastle certainly need to start delivering on their travels.
Such a patchy run of results on the road has only increased their reliance on home comforts.
Teams always tend to be stronger in their own stadium, but there are those inside the Newcastle dressing room who believe St James’ gives them an extra 10% when it’s at its febrile best.
However, it might even be a higher percentage than that – Newcastle have a 62% win rate on Tyneside compared to just 21% in away games this season in all competitions.
Newcastle may have lost against Aston Villa on Sunday, but only four sides have picked up more points (23) at home than Howe’s men in the Premier League this season.
Just three teams have scored more goals (22) than them on their own turf in the top flight.
Three of Newcastle’s four wins in this term’s Champions League have come at St James’, while the holders reached the Carabao Cup semi-finals following three straight home victories.
Remarkably, even when they were 3-2 down against Leeds United in the 90th minute a few weeks ago, the hosts still managed to win the game following an incredible stoppage-time turnaround on Tyneside with two goals.
Defender Sven Botman admitted it was “hard to tell” why Newcastle have been unable to deliver more of those victories away.
“You ask yourself and your team-mates,” he said. “The results haven’t been great away from home this season and we definitely want to change that.
“It’s hard to put a finger on what the reason is.
Getty ImagesIt is clear where the issue lies.
As relatively solid as Botman and Newcastle have tended to be at the back, only Wolves and Sunderland have scored fewer Premier League goals (10) away from home than Howe’s men.
They have averaged just 1.2 goals per game away compared to exactly two per match at St James’ in all competitions.
They have also had two fewer shots and around eight fewer touches in the opposition box per 90 minutes on their travels.
No wonder, then, Nick Woltemade, Harvey Barnes and Anthony Gordon have each scored just three goals away this season, while Yoane Wissa and captain Bruno Guimaraes have only bagged one apiece.
Many months have passed since Alexander Isak’s painful departure to Liverpool, but Newcastle still appear to be adapting to life after the striker, whose movement in behind was crucial to how the side played, particularly on the road, when they hurt teams on the counter.
Nearly half of Isak’s 27 goals for Newcastle last season came away from St James’, including a decisive strike in the Carabao Cup final as the club lifted major silverware for the first time in 70 years.
Yet that is easier said than done.
There is a belief internally that there have been times on the road this season where Newcastle have been dragged into the games the opposition wanted rather than imposing their own style on them as planned.
As much as it has been influenced by the need to pick their moments to aggressively press during a relentless schedule, they have, on average, had more of the ball and more 10-plus open play passing sequences per game this season.
But Newcastle have not always made the most of all that possession, and they failed to find a breakthrough in the goalless stalemate against Wolves earlier this month despite having 67% possession of the ball.
Toothless Newcastle’s pass completion rate of 94% in the first half at Molineux was the highest any Premier League team has registered in a half without hitting a shot on target.
Howe’s side have often lacked the guile to find a way through a low block, which then feeds into their main issue on the road – a lack of goals.
As season-ticket holder Adam Stoker observed, it is rather telling that on the rare occasions Newcastle scored inside two minutes, the visitors went on to beat both Everton and Burnley – even if the latter success was far from straightforward.
“When we play against teams at home who do sit in a bit more, the crowd can get the players over the line,” he said.
“Whereas, against Wolves away, when they were the ones sitting, and their crowd got behind them, that helped them.
“It feels like we’re able to play slightly differently at home than we are away. We just look a bit of a different beast.”
It has got to the stage where Howe has tried to move the focus away from where a game is taking place with his players.
Rather than overthinking the venue, he has instead called on his side to simply attack each fixture – regardless of where it is played.
Starting with Wednesday’s trip to the holders in Paris.
“There’s rightly been a lot of questions asked about our away form and our ability to handle pressure, to be resilient in times where we’re not the dominant team,” added Howe.
“We probably haven’t done that well enough this year and then, of course, when you get the moments, you need to show your quality the other way,
