The leader of South Korea’s controversial Unification Church attended a court hearing in advance of a decision to possibly issue a warrant for her arrest on corruption charges linked to the former first lady, Kim Keon Hee.
During the court proceedings on Monday, Han Hak-ja did not answer questions from reporters regarding allegations of bribery as she was pushed in a wheelchair, entering the Seoul Central District Court.
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Han is accused of conspiring with a former church official to give 100 million won ($72,400) to People Power Party representative Kweon Seong-dong in 2022 in exchange for gaining favours for the church if Yoon Suk-yeol won the presidential election that year, which he did.
Han is also suspected of gifting luxury bags and a necklace to Yoon’s wife, Kim, by embezzling the church’s money while seeking favours.
If the court approves the warrant, Han will be imprisoned.
At the same time, a special prosecutor is investigating allegations that she directed the bribes with the former first lady for the church’s business interests.
Han has previously denied the allegation of giving jewellery and luxury bags to Kim, who is currently in detention.
The court’s decision is expected later on Monday or early Tuesday.
Han Hak-ja, the leader of the Unification Church, arrives at the special prosecutor’s office for questioning over allegations, which she has denied, in Seoul, South Korea, September 17, 2025 [Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters]
Called “True Mother” by followers, Han is the widow of Unification Church founder Moon Sun-myung, who died in 2012. Founded in 1954, the church has long been the subject of controversy and criticism.
Retaining a cult-like culture, followers are referred to disparagingly as “Moonies”. The church’s teachings are centred on Moon’s role as the second coming of Jesus Christ, and it conducts mass weddings.
The church, officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, has followers around the world and controls companies in construction, healthcare, and media, among other sectors.
Kim, who is in detention, is also expected to go on trial this week for corruption from the time before and during her husband’s short-lived tenure in power.
The former first lady has also denied allegations against her, including receiving gifts from the church.
Esmond was discovered dead just as he was getting ready to reveal his most explosive discoveries so far.
Esmond Bradley Martin risked his life by uncovering shadowy smuggling rings and the powerful individuals who guard them as he spent decades working as an undercover agent in the treacherous world of ivory and rhino horn trafficking.
Esmond was found dead in his lavish Nairobi home just as he was getting ready to reveal his most explosive discoveries so far.
Was this Esmond’s death’s retribution an illegal wildlife syndicate that he had finally crossed, or was there something else going on? Was it a result of his work, or was there another cause for that as well?
The administration of US President Donald Trump has put in place new restrictions on journalists’ reporting on the country’s military, including a pledge to refrain from publishing unauthorised information.
Reporters could lose their credentials covering the military if they refused to sign a pledge appointing only to disclose approved information under the new regulations released by the Department of War, which was previously the Department of Defense.
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The New York Times published a memo stating that “an appropriate authorizing official must approve any release, even if it is unclassified,” following its publication on Friday.
The Pentagon building’s interior is also restricted by the measures, which also make it impossible for journalists to travel inside without an escort.
Following a report on the changes, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated in a post on X that “the people do not run the Pentagon.”
“The press is no longer permitted to roam a secure facility.” Wear a badge, abide by the rules, or leave.
The changes were condemned as an attack on independent journalism by National Press Club president Mike Balsamo, who said it was “at the point where independent scrutiny matters most.”
The public is no longer receiving independent reporting if the news about our military must first be approved by the government. It receives only what the authorities want them to see. Every American should be alarmed by that, Balsamo said in a statement.
Democracy requires independent reporting on the military. It allows people to hold leaders accountable and allows for the interpretation of war and peace.
The restrictions were condemned by a number of media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters News.
The US Supreme Court’s precedent, according to Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, affirms the journalistic authority to release government secrets.
“An investigative journalist’s job description is essentially that. According to Stern, the law makes it clear that the government can’t impose conditions on people to subcontract out a constitutional right, such as the right to obtain and publish secrets, in exchange for benefits like access to government buildings or press credentials.
This rule applies to publications, which are regarded as the most serious First Amendment violations. The government can’t, as we found out in the Pentagon Papers case, forbid journalists from sharing public information merely by claiming that it’s a secret or even a threat to national security.
The Supreme Court’s decision in 1971, which allowed The New York Times and The Washington Post to publish secret documents detailing US involvement in the Vietnam War, is referenced in the Pentagon Papers case.
The US government has recently instituted a number of measures to restrain the media under the new restrictions put in place by the Trump administration.
After the FCC’s head threatened regulatory action over remarks the host made about the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the ABC announced on Wednesday that it had suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s long-running talk show.
Brendan Carr, the FCC chair, has suggested that there might be more steps being taken to repress voices that criticize the administration.
Carr, a Trump appointee, stated in an interview with Fox News on Thursday that broadcasters would continue to be held accountable for their public interest and that those who disagree could “turn their license in.”
Following similar lawsuits against CBS News, ABC News, and The Wall Street Journal, Trump filed a $ 15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times that included allegations of defamation.
A Florida judge upheld the lawsuit against The New York Times on Friday, finding that it was based on “tendentious arguments” and contained “repetitive” and “laudatory” praise of Trump unrelated to the case.
Gurvinder Singh, a 47-year-old farmer in Gurdaspur, in the Punjab state of Punjab, obtained a $11 000 loan from a private lender to marry his eldest daughter after receiving numerous economic hardships in his home. He used that money to plant 3 acres (1. 2 hectares) of paddy.
He staked his money on aromatic Basmati rice with a high-yielding pearl variety. He would have earned almost 1 million rupees per acre ($11, 400 per 0.4 hectare) if the sale had been successful.
However, Singh’s pearl paddy grains are now submerged in floodwater and sedimentary layers.
“A shocking flood cannot be afforded at this time in my life,” I said. We have lost track, Singh claimed to Al Jazeera. Our debts were supposed to be paid for by this year’s harvest. However, I’m not sure how to start over because this field is now a lake.
After the devastating floods that hit their village earlier this month forced Singh to temporarily leave his home along with his wife and two children. What will I return to?” he inquired.
In the Kasur district of Punjab, Pakistan, on August 29, 2025, a man walks with his belongings after being evacuated from a flooded area as a result of monsoon rains and rising water levels in the Sutlej River, near the Pakistan-India border.
A “lasting repercussion”
Heavy monsoon rains, flash floods, and swollen rivers have flooded entire villages and wiped out thousands of hectares of farmland in northern Indian states.
The situation in Punjab is particularly grim, with over 35 percent of the population dependent on agriculture. Farmers in this area have experienced one of the worst floods in the last four decades, when large paddy fields were completely submerged just before harvest. In nearly two-thirds of the state’s total area, rice is grown.
Following heavy rains in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh state, India’s Gurdaspur, where Singh lives with his family, has been one of the worst flood-hit areas in the region’s three overflowing rivers, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej.
In Punjab, at least 51 people have died as a result of floods, and 400 000 more have been forced to flee.
India exports $6 billion worth of basmati from paddy fields, which is a major contributor to Singh’s industry. Only Punjab accounts for 40% of the country’s total production. Pakistan’s Punjab province, which is also submerged in floods, produces almost $900 million in Basmati, making up 90% of the nation’s Basmati output.
More than 450, 000 acres (182, 100 hectares) of farmland in India’s Punjab are estimated to be completely lost to agriculture, almost twice the total area of Mauritius. According to independent agricultural economists, floods could have a five-fold impact after the fact, according to Al Jazeera.
Lakhwinder Singh, director of the Punjabi University’s Center for Development Economics and Innovations Studies, claimed that the farmers’ homes had been washed away and that the crop had completely spoiled.
Farmers in Punjab must start fresh. According to Singh, the government would need a lot of help and investment.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which opposes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, has announced a 20 000 Indian rupee ($230) allowance for farmers who lost their crops in the floods. That may not be enough to handle the significant challenges farmers may face in the future, Singh claimed.
The United States has imposed a 50% tariff on New Delhi, which is about 6% of the basmati rice shipped there. India’s agricultural sector, which employs half of its population (the largest in the world), has traditionally been a protectionist country, which has become a sticking point in trade negotiations with US President Donald Trump.
Singh cautioned India’s government against leveraging the floods’ impact to liberalize its importation policy. He argued that the government shouldn’t “push the farmers under the bus” to lower tariffs and negotiate with Trump. The future of the agricultural economy may be impacted by these Punjab floods.
On August 28, 2025, Indian army personnel in Baoopur village in the Punjab state of Punjab use a boat to rescue residents from the flooded waters of the Beas river.
“Water is all we have,” the saying goes.
According to agriculture experts, the biggest challenge facing Punjab’s farmers will be getting rid of the soil and sediment that have settled over their farmland.
Independent agricultural policy analyst Indra Shekhar Singh said the extent of the damage could not be determined until the fields’ water dried up. He told Al Jazeera, “Farmers’ fields are getting a lot of sediment and mud.” Another issue is “preparing the field for the upcoming season,” according to the article.
The monsoon or “kharif” crop accounts for about 80% of India’s total rice production, which is harvested between late September and early October. Farmers in Punjab are now rushing against the clock to prepare their fields for the wheat crop for the upcoming winter, which must start by early November, according to experts.
Shekhar Singh remarked, “The floods are having the worst effects on the paddy fields.” Even the conservative figures suggest significant losses to farmers, unless there is a miracle.
Shekhar Singh noted that the farmers are facing a critical nutritional crisis for the Rabi season in addition to the new diseases brought on by floodwaters, which may affect the standing crops.
India’s farmers rely on urea, which is the main fertiliser for about 46 percent of the world’s farmers. However, stocks have decreased: Urea stocks decreased from 8.64 million tonnes in August 2024 to 3.71 million tonnes in August this year.
Farmers in several Indian states panicked to purchase urea during this monsoon. The floods have now caused the underlying concern that the upcoming Rabi sowing may not be enough fertilisers. Urine prices have increased significantly over the previous month’s high, rising from $ 400 per tonne in May 2025 to $ 530 per tonne in September.
Shekhar Singh added, “This would lead to black marketing for fertilisers in impacted states like Punjab, and adds to the problem of fake pesticide circulation.
According to Singh of Punjabi University, farmers will experience a “prolonged economic crisis that will continue to affect them over the coming months.”
Singh, a farmer from Gurdaspur in Punjab, is also considering what his family’s future holds.
In Amritsar, one of Punjab’s largest cities that borders Pakistan, earlier this year, he had married his daughter to another farmer. Their farmland is also submerged.
Before pondering the tragedies confronting , a region where two sides of a tense border are grappling with the same crisis, he said, “I cannot travel to visit them even when we are suffering from the same disease.”
In response to the hostilities between India and Pakistan earlier this year after a 26-person attack in Indian-administered Kashmir resulted in the death of 26 civilians, Singh said, “We were ready to fight a war for these rivers.” In response, India had suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, which distributes the six rivers between neighbors with nuclear weapons, in a move that Pakistan described as “an act of war.”
Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, has suggested that if Washington stops enforcing demands on its nuclear weapons, he would open negotiations with the US.
There is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States, Kim said in a speech at the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang on Sunday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
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The North Korean leader also made a comment about US President Donald Trump, who he met three times during Trump’s first presidency, saying, “Personally, I still have fond memories of US President Trump.”
Kim’s comments follow Trump’s and Lee Jae-myung’s pledge to meet with their North Korean counterpart at a White House meeting last month.
I’ll see him someday, I promise. I’m anxious to meet him. Trump claimed at the time that he knew Kim, whose family has ruled North Korea for three generations, “better than anyone, almost, except his sister.”
Lee, who has vehemently opposed the thawing of relations with his nation’s northern neighbor since taking office in June, stated at the same meeting that he hoped the US president would “build a Trump Tower” in North Korea so that I can play golf there.
On June 30, 2019, in Panmunjom, South Korea, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump are seen interacting with the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that binds South and North Korea.
Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, described them as a “reckless” invasion rehearsal, despite Lee and Trump making an offer to help.
A more achievable objective
Lee has also indicated that he is willing to discuss negotiations with his country regarding North Korea’s nuclear weapons in recent interviews with the BBC and Reuters news agency.
Lee said he would be open to a more “realistic” outcome, including for North Korea to give up its existing arsenal, in a BBC interview on Sunday.
According to Lee, “I think there are clear benefits to having North Korea stop developing its nuclear and missile programs as long as we keep our eyes on the long-term goal of denuclearization.”
Lee acknowledged in an interview with Reuters that sanctions ultimately failed to stop Pyongyang, which adds 15 to 20 nuclear weapons annually, according to Lee in an interview with Reuters.
The reality is that the problem has only grown worse since the previous method of imposing sanctions and pressure, Lee claimed.
Kim also stated that sanctions have only strengthened and strengthened his country, despite reports that the country, which has a population of 26 million, has long experienced an a  food crisis. Addressing the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang on Sunday, Kim added.
There will never be any negotiations with enemies over exchanging items because they are so obsessed with lifting sanctions, Kim said, and it will never be for eternity.
On September 3, 2025, in Beijing, China, Presidents of Indonesia, Russia, President Vladimir Putin, China, President Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, and Kassakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev [Rao Aimin/Xinhua/EPA]
Nearly 20 years ago, North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs were subject to sanctions from the UN.
Kim Jong Un, however, promised to “exponentially” boost his country’s nuclear arsenal in order to stand up to “hostile” forces last year.
The push comes in response to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) Yearbook’s recent annual report advising the nine nuclear-armed nations China, France, Israel, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the UK, and the United States of course.
Kim’s announcement that he is open to meeting with Washington follows his meeting with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, the head of Russia, in Beijing earlier this month to celebrate the 80th anniversary of World War II.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform, “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America,” in remarks that were apparently addressed to Xi regarding the Beijing celebrations.
