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Putin meets top North Korean diplomat, says ties developing as planned

In the most recent high-level meeting between Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, which has bolstered ties with the former Ukrainian dictatorship.

Putin and Choe were greeted in the Kremlin on Monday by footage released by Russian state news agencies. Sergey Lavrov, the head of Russia’s foreign ministry, also made an appearance at the meeting.

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According to Russian Sputnik news agency, Putin stated that the nations’ “relations and development prospects” are proceeding “according to plan” and that Kim Jong Un’s situation is progressing. Kim, who had earlier praised the “spiritual closeness” of the two countries’ relationship in discussions with Lavrov, then turned on Choe to send her “warm wishes.”

In recent years, Russia and North Korea have significantly bolstered ties, signing a 2024 defense pact that requires each nation to provide military support to the other in the event of “aggression.”

At least 600 of North Korea’s troops have died fighting in Ukraine since then, according to Seoul and Kyiv-based estimates, and it has sent around 10,000 to Russia’s conflict since then.

In April, Pyongyang first acknowledged its soldiers’ involvement in the conflict, claiming they had assisted Russia in retaking its strategic Kursk region following a counteroffensive by the Ukrainians.

Kim and his family celebrated the opening of a museum in Pyongyang a few days ago in honor of the North Korean soldiers killed in the conflict. He claimed that their deployment “emerged from a new era of militant solidarity” with Russia, which has an “invincible” alliance.

After attending a military parade hosted by China’s President and CEO, Xi Jinping, the leaders of Beijing met in person on September 3 for official talks. Putin at the time praised North Korean soldiers for participating in the Ukrainian conflict “courageously and heroically.”

Putin said, “I want to make it clear that we will never forget the sacrifices your armed forces and your service members have made.”

Hurricane Melissa: Where and when will it make landfall in Jamaica?

The hurricane that has been strewn directly at Jamaica, Hurricane Melissa, is anticipated to be the strongest to ever strike the island.

Wind speeds exceeding 252 km/h (157 mph) increased on Monday to a Category 5 storm, the most powerful on the Saffir-Simpson scale. According to the American National Hurricane Center (NHC), it was expected to make landfall on Tuesday morning. The storm, according to the report, will bring “catastrophic flooding” and “destructive winds” that it expects to worsen day and night.

The south coast of Jamaica is likely to experience life-threatening storm surge, accompanied by large, destructive waves, from late on Monday through Tuesday morning, according to Jamaica’s Meteorological Service.

What caused Hurricane Melissa to form?

Off the coast of West Africa, a group of thunderstorms called Melissa first appeared. It developed into a depression as it traveled west. Its status as a tropical storm was announced on October 21.

Melissa made its way through the Caribbean Sea through the weekend into a Category 4 storm.

(Al Jazeera)

The Atlantic hurricane season, which starts on June 1 and ends on November 30, includes Melissa, which is the 13th hurricane of the season. Every year, the Atlantic basin experiences about seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes on average. This year’s Atlantic hurricane season was predicted by the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which included 13 to 18 named storms.

After Hurricanes Erin and Humberto, this is the third Category 5 hurricane to hit the area.

INTERACTIVE_CYCLONES_TYPHOONS_HURRICANES_August20_2025_HURRICANE NAMES
(Al Jazeera)

Storms are categorised using the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Hurricanes are classified into five different categories based on the wind’s sustainedness.

A storm with a sustained wind speed of 252 km/h (157 mph) or higher is categorized as Category 5. The NHC claims that Category 5 storms typically cause “catastrophic damage.”

INTERACTIVE What is the Saffir-Simpson wind scale-OCT8-2024-1728462061
(Al Jazeera)

What has Melissa grown up to? What country will Jamaica be hit by?

Residents of Jamaica have been instructed to use sandbags and boards to protect their homes and stock up on necessities in anticipation of the hurricane.

The NHC predicted that tropical storm-force winds will blow out to as far away as 45 kilometers (30 miles) from Melissa’s center, and that they will blow out to as far as 315 kilometers (195 miles) from it.

INTERACTIVE Hurricane Melissa path map-OCT27-2025

How far along is the storm’s path:

Monday, 7am in Jamaica (12: 00 GMT)

Melissa moved northwest in the Caribbean on Monday morning, earning it a Category 5 hurricane status.

Tuesday, 1am (06: 00 GMT)

Melissa will probably landfall very soon after this. The storm will cause more damage, according to the NHC because it moves slowly, moving at 8 km/h (5 mph).

Slow motion is expected to cause a catastrophic event in Jamaica due to this extreme rainfall potential, according to NHC Deputy Director Jamie Rhome.

Southern Hispaniola is expected to experience rainfall totals of 1, 016mm (40 inches) through Wednesday, with additional rainfall of 203mm to 406mm (8 to 16 inches) and a rainfall total of 381mm to 762mm (15 to 30 inches) due to Melissa. There are a lot of landslides and catastrophic flash flooding.

Wednesday, 1pm (18: 00 GMT)

By Wednesday, Melissa is expected to pass over Cuba before moving through the Greater Antilles and the Atlantic.

By the time it reaches Cuba, it is expected to fall into Category 3.

What has recently happened on the ground?

“I am aware that there are many Jamaicans who are anxious, who are very concerned,” said Prime Minister Andrew Holness. You ought to be worried.

However, being prepared is the best way to deal with anxiety and any enthrallement and concern.

The Jamaican Meteorological Service has advised fishermen and small craft owners on the banks and cays to stay in safe harbor until wind and sea conditions are normal.

It stated that it is impossible to leave the island before the hurricane arrives. Both Montego Bay and Kingston, the main airports, are closed. The airport in Kingston is advising travelers to “contact your airline for rebooking.” NEVER travel to the airport.

Melissa is anticipated to cause similar damage in parts of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and eastern Cuba.

INTERACTIVE How to prepare for a Hurricane-OCT8-2024 copy-1761575166

Jamaica’s hurricane history

Only one Category 4 storm, Hurricane Gilbert, was recorded in Jamaica in 1988, according to the NHC. At least 45 people were killed in the storm, which was the most destructive in Jamaica’s history.

The island was hit by Hurricane Sandy for the first time since Gilbert in October 2012. It was a Category 1 storm when it struck.

Despite ceasefires, Israel continues attacks around the region

With the most recent ceasefire agreement in Gaza, Israel continues to be aggressive in the Middle East.

Even if Israeli strikes in Gaza continue, the pact, which was signed on October 10, has lowered the burden on Palestinians there. Israel is still waging attacks on numerous fronts in other regions of the region.

Israel’s recent strikes in Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank give cred to the notion that Israel is attempting to isolate and weaken its neighbors.

Although Israeli officials had a visit from the US this week, Gaza’s biggest supporter didn’t seem to show any signs that Tel Aviv was ready to hold Israel accountable for its regional hostility.

What information about Israel’s most recent attacks in the area is absolutely necessary.

West Bank that is under Israeli occupation

In the occupied West Bank, Israel is severely punishing Palestinians.

Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli military has increased its efforts to annex the occupied territory, killing more than 1, 000 Palestinians in the West Bank alone.

Palestinians trying to harvest their olives are being harassed and detained by Israeli soldiers and settlers for the second week in a row.

One of the Palestinians who Israel recently detained was released during the brief but unsuccessful ceasefire, and he later was taken prisoner-free, according to the Wafa news agency.

Israeli officials, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who urged his supporters to appoint US President Donald Trump to support the West Bank’s annexation, are also engaged in violence there.

He has also suggested that Israel should “proclaim sovereignty” over the occupied West Bank, arguing that this would stymie the “dangerous idea of a Palestinian state.”

Syria

In recent days, Israeli forces have been particularly active in Syria, with local media reporting nearly daily incursions into the southern border.

Israel invaded Syria’s territory and attacked its military infrastructure as the regime of ousted President Bashar al-Assad fell in December.

Israel has continued to invade Israel, even though the new government in Syria has not reciprocated Israel’s aggressions.

According to Syrian media, the incursions include reconnaissance overflights, ground infiltration by Israeli soldiers, Syrian arrests and disappearances, and the establishment of checkpoints on Syrian territory.

According to Syrian state media outlet SANA, Israel’s most recent aggression occurred on Sunday morning in the towns of al-Razaniyah and Sayda al-Hanout in Quneitra.

A checkpoint was established between the two villages by an Israeli forces unit that consisted of four military vehicles. A local bread distributor was being held captive by the forces while serving the nearby Sayda villages, before being released and withdrawn from the area, according to a SANA reporter.

As Israel continues its airstrikes following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, Israeli tanks enter Quneitra, Syria [Bekir Kasm/Anadolu Agency].

According to Syrian outlet Enab Baladi, Israeli incursions have recently occurred in numerous villages in Quneitra, southern Syria.

Ibrahim Olabi, a UN representative for Syria, stated at the UN Security Council session on October 24 that Israel should stop ingraining into Syria’s internal affairs and refrain from ingraining into its territory.

He also criticized Israel’s continued occupation of Syrian territory, including the Golan Heights.

Olabi claimed that Israel’s “aggressive” behavior was in violation of the Israeli-Syrian Disengagement Agreement of 1974. Since al-Assad’s assassination, Israel has asserted that the 1974 agreement is invalid.

Lebanon

Israel continues to regularly violate the ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel has recently carried out particularly heavy bombings in the south.

UNIFIL fired an Israeli drone from the sky on Monday after it claimed it had dropped a grenade close to a patrol. UNFIL claimed an Israeli tank shot at peacekeepers afterward, causing no injuries. Israel’s attacks on UNIFIL are not unprecedented.

Israel killed two people earlier on Sunday in Naqoura, south Lebanon, and Nabi Chit, Baalbek, respectively.

On November 27, 2024, Israel and the Lebanese government signed a ceasefire.

However, the Israeli military did not completely evacuate Lebanon and continued to bombard the area almost daily.

Israeli media claim that these strikes are preventing Hezbollah from rebuilding in the south, citing recent attacks that have destroyed reconstruction equipment and killed civilians.

Beyond what was stated in the ceasefire, which demanded Hezbollah’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, Israel and the US are demanding that the Lebanese government completely disarm the organization.

The Lebanese government has pressed the US to hold Israel accountable for its ceasefire violations, including the country’s continued occupation of at least five locations in Lebanese territory.

However, according to Lebanese media, US Special Envoy Tom Barrack has been unable to persuade Israel to leave Lebanese territory or stop its aggression, leaving many Lebanese skeptical of a repeat of the violence from the year before, when Israel in Lebanon killed more than 4, 000 people and displaced over one million.

Israeli media also reported that Israeli soldiers recently conducted military exercises to simulate Hezbollah invasion, despite diplomats and experts telling Al Jazeera that the organization is currently incapacent to attack.

Gaza

US Vice President JD Vance claimed last week while visiting Israel that the Hamas-Israeli ceasefire is proceeding “better than expected.”

The definition of what the US administration was expecting is still unclear because Israel has continued to launch strikes across Gaza and kill people.

Israel is also undermining the ceasefire agreement by entering Gaza more deeply and overstepping the invisible “yellow line” it was supposed to break, according to a report from the BBC.

Israeli attacks continue in Gaza despite the ceasefire’s occurrence, which is less frequent. Israel has continued to raise its death toll, in addition to the aid supplies that have been flowing into Gaza.

In a drone attack on Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday night, one Palestinian was killed and four others were hurt, according to a statement from al-Awda Hospital. Since the ceasefire became effective, nearly 100 Palestinians have died.

Israel is also preventing sick people from leaving via the Rafah border crossing.

After Israel destroyed the Gaza Strip’s medical infrastructure, Rasha Abu Sbeaka told Al Jazeera on Sunday that she needs to leave Gaza for treatment. She has stage three cancer.

Road out of el-Fasher: Ransom, violence and the price of survival in Sudan

He was devastated when he learned that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group had seized the western city of El-Fasher after most of its two and a half years of fighting with Sudan’s army.

Speaking to Al Jazeera over the phone on Sunday, the activist’s voice broke as he spoke of his fear for the civilians still trapped there and of not knowing if he would ever be able to return to his city.

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“It feels like we’ve lost everything”, the 31-year-old said from the nearby town of Tawila. “I just keep thinking about the people who are still there, the families, the children,” he said.

After declaring its ownership of El-Fasher’s final garrison in the city, belonging to the Sixth Armoured Division, on Sunday, the RSF announced its takeover of the city.

It had besieged the capital of North Darfur state for 18 months, attacking people and blocking all aid from entering, engineering a famine that has taken hold for months.

Escape

Mouawia left El-Fasher in early October, cart and walking the roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) to Tawila, fearing RSF retaliation.

As the RSF’s attacks became more vicious, he had made the decision to leave after realizing that he would no longer be able to assist civilians in the city.

Mouawia, a media graduate, had been injured a few weeks earlier on his way to a clinic he and a group of other volunteers were operating in the western sector of the city.

As they were walking, a shell exploded nearby, causing him to fall to the ground and suffer internal injuries.

He and a companion made the agonizing descent to a doctor’s assistant who could give first aid at a neighbor’s home after a terrifying trek to escape the firefight.

A trip to a hospital confirmed that Mouawia’s wounds had shrapnel in them, but they could not be removed, given the overcrowding and severe lack of resources in the hospital. Mouawia’s stomach is still covered in the shrapnel, which has now recovered.

Everything was altered by the injury. Unable to continue volunteering and with the daily bombardment closing in, he decided to leave el-Fasher through a “safe corridor” for fleeing civilians that the RSF had announced.

He and a second volunteer set out with a small cart, some cash, and their identity documents after they officially presented their clinic to the Ministry of Health.

He said, “We left quietly and prayed to be safe. But as they moved through the “safe corridor”, they realised it was anything but.

Local displacement camps like Zamzam, whose residents are depicted fleeing to the Tawila camps on April 14, 2025, as the RSF took Zamzam [Marwan Mohamed/EPA]

Ransom, humiliation

The corridor looped northwest despite Tawila being to the southwest because the RSF had erected enormous sand berms around the city during its siege, leaving just one direction open.

The two men intended to sleep somewhere before continuing their journey, but instead they made the first stop at Garni, which is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) away.

RSF fighters stopped them at a checkpoint and accused them of being soldiers dressed as civilians as they traveled to the outskirts of Garni, which can take up to five hours on foot.

The fighters shouted racial slurs and demanded to know the positions of Sudanese army forces, refusing to listen when Mouawia and his companion showed their passports and explained they were volunteers.

They were detained after being interrogated for hours before being stopped again moments later at a different checkpoint where a fighter discovered Mouawia’s bag with newly printed Sudanese government currency. Any fighter who had an army or its allies in Sudanese slang was snarled as “This is flangi money.”

“Eat it”, the soldier ordered, slapping Mouawia and forcing him to swallow a wad of bills.

Mouawia recalls that he instructed him to turn over everything. The soldiers let them pass after stealing the rest of their phones and cash.

Farther along, two RSF fighters on motorbikes stopped them, accusing them again of being fleeing soldiers.

They allowed them to continue their search for a mosque close to Garni, where they slept until dawn before setting off on their two-day journey to Tawila, finding nothing when they searched them.

The road between Garni and Jughmer, which is about 11 kilometers (7 miles) west, was further obstructed by an RSF four-by-four.

A soldier noticed the scar on Mouawia’s stomach and shouted: “He’s a soldier! I said, “”!

They were dragged from a cart, interrogated, and threatened at gunpoint before being finally released, shaken but still alive.

Hours later, the vehicle returned, the fighters demanding 10 billion Sudanese pounds ($3, 500) – an impossible ransom.

Mouawia recalled saying, “I don’t have 10 billion if you kill me.”

After heated exchanges, the fighters ordered them to call relatives for money and threatened to kill them, and later reduced the amount demanded to 2.5 billion Sudanese pounds ($860).

Desperate, Mouawia contacted a friend in Khartoum, who managed to transfer 1 billion Sudanese pounds, and another volunteer sent 1.5 billion, completing the ransom through a Starlink RSF station located near the checkpoint.

According to Mouawia, one of the fighters allegedly chose to keep some of the money for himself, yelling that he shouldn’t tell his friend in Khartoum about the first billion.

The fighters fled as they feigned kindness, saying, “We’ll return your money if you want,” giving him a WhatsApp number “for protection,” and driving away.

Tawila, North Darfur
A displaced woman prepares food on April 16, 2025, as she shelters in the town of Tawila in North Darfur, Sudan, after RSF attacks on the Zamzam displacement camp]Reuters]

Survival

By that point, exhaustion was already present. The two men slept next to their cart for the night in the small Arida Djangay village.

The next morning, they resumed their journey, only to encounter a new RSF ploy to take money from people on the road: convoys of RSF vehicles demanding “transport fees”.

He claimed that they initially promised to take us for free, but later demanded $1,000,000 [per person]$0.50] from them.

On the way down to Tawila, about 45 minutes away, soldiers stopped their cart at the Silik camp in Korma, west of Garni, and extorted “ticket money” from people to transfer them to RSF vehicles.

When an elderly man protested that he was already at his destination, the soldiers demanded payment anyway.

Mouawia claimed that “people were furious.” He and his companion pleaded for calm, bringing back their earlier assurances of a safe passage, but to no avail.

Eventually, they secured more money to pay off the fighters from friends who sent mobile transfers.

He claimed that “we paid only to survive.”

Finally, a kind-hearted driver agreed to pay 130, 000 pounds ($0.04) via bank transfer to take them to Tawila.

“After everything, I just thanked God we made it alive”, Mouawia said softly.

He finally got some rest after spending time with Tawila, but he now wonders how he will continue.

He said, “We kept going knowing that someone had to keep hope alive even in a place like El-Fasher.”

‘ Everything stopped ‘

El-Fasher, a once bustling city, collapsed on April 15, 2023 as a result of a war. Within days, hospitals and streets were deserted, and people were trapped between bombardment and siege.

“Everything stopped”, Mouawia recalled, going on to detail how he and a group of young residents – doctors, engineers and students – decided to help by reopening a clinic in their neighbourhood.

They had finished cleaning it up and reopening it within a week, relying solely on local donations and shared meals to continue their work.

Regardless of our political beliefs or ideologies, we co-operated, according to Mouawia.

The unity carried them through air raids and shortages. They treated frightened women who had been shot, pregnant women, and displaced families who had just arrived at their door. Their initiative continued to exist despite the bombings even after the end of 2024 when it reached community kitchens and other forms of support.

In May, as the RSF intensified its siege on el-Fasher and launched drone strikes on community kitchens, the volunteers switched to delivering food house to house instead.

He claimed that the meals we prepared for displaced families were their only meals of the day.

Their bravery kept the neighbourhoods together for almost two years, but by the middle of this year, the siege had grown even more severe. The RSF occupied key areas, blocked supply routes and turned hospitals into military zones.

People like Mouawia saw no other choice but to leave as the volunteers themselves turned into targets.