North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged his military scientists to overcome a failed satellite launch and continue developing space-based reconnaissance capabilities, which he described as crucial for countering U.S. and South Korean military activities, state media said Wednesday. In a speech Tuesday, Kim also warned of unspecified “stern” action against South Korea over an exercise involving 20 fighter jets near the inter-Korean border hours before North Korea's failed launch on Monday. Kim called the South Korean response “hysterical insanity” and “a very dangerous provocation that cannot be ignored,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will host United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at a summit on Wednesday, with talks expected to focus on business and investment, energy and cooperation in the defence sector. At a ceremony ahead of the summit, the UAE president is due to be welcomed by a flypast of Air Force jets, as South Korea seeks to tap the energy-rich Gulf state's investment potential. The summit comes after Yoon's state visit to Abu Dhabi early last year, when the UAE pledged $30 billion in investment in South Korean businesses in areas spanning nuclear power, defence, hydrogen and solar energy.
China's military drills last week were more about propaganda and intimidation than starting a war, but Chinese forces did show how they could react extremely quickly, Taiwan's top security official said on Wednesday. China said it carried out the two days of war games starting Thursday as "punishment" for new President Lai Ching-te's inauguration speech last week, in which he said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were "not subordinate to each other", which China viewed as a declaration the two are separate countries. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.
Brazil's lower house of Congress approved on Tuesday the main text of a bill that would enact a new 20% import tax on international online purchases under $50, significantly down from a higher tax rate that was originally proposed. The bill must still be voted on by the Senate. The new import tax rate for purchases that cost $50 or less was set on Tuesday following negotiations between lawmakers and the administration of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, which had previously expressed its opposition to the unpopular tax proposal.
Activist Chan Po-ying is permitted only 15-minute daily visits to see her husband, Leung Kwok-hung, separated by a plexiglass barrier in a highly guarded Hong Kong jail. Leung, 68, is one of 47 activists who were prosecuted in the largest national security law case to date in the former British colony. On Thursday, 16 activists who pleaded not guilty — including Leung — will begin hearing their verdict.
Two former FBI officials have reached a tentative settlement with the Justice Department to resolve claims that their privacy was violated when the department leaked to the news media text messages that they had sent one another that disparaged former President Donald Trump. Peter Strzok, a former top FBI counterintelligence agent who helped lead the bureau's investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, was fired in 2018 after the anti-Trump text messages came to light.
Democratic Republic of Congo has appointed a new government, spokesperson Tina Salama said in the early hours of Wednesday, ending an impasse that has mired the country in political uncertainty for months. President Felix Tshisekedi won a second term after elections in late 2023 that also handed his Sacred Union coalition a large majority in parliament. The president eventually named Judith Suminwa as Congo's first female prime minister on April 1 and his ex-chief of staff Vital Kamerhe as parliament speaker on May 22, paving the way for the appointment of the government.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green on Tuesday signed legislation meant to jumpstart the construction of more dwellings to address an acute housing shortage that is pushing local-born residents to move to states where the cost of living is less. Green, a Democrat, said Hawaii has a shortage of teachers, nurses, firefighters and other workers because they can't afford housing. Rep. Luke Evslin, a Democrat and the chairperson of the House Housing Committee, said the new laws wouldn’t solve Hawaii's housing crisis overnight.
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Tuesday scored a jurisdictional victory when a federal judge in Texas transferred to another court in Washington, D.C., an industry-backed lawsuit challenging the agency's rule capping credit card late fees at $8. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth moved swiftly to transfer the lawsuit out of his courthouse for a second time after a federal appeals court that had previously prevented him from doing so relinquished jurisdiction on Friday. That could give the CFPB a home-turf advantage as it defends a key part of President Joe Biden administration's crackdown on "junk fees" against a lawsuit filed by groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Bankers Association.
Merck did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for a comment, while Eyebiotech declined to comment. Eyebiotech is a clinical stage opthalmology company, with operations in the U.S. and the UK, that seeks to treat patients with sight-threatening diseases. Its major drug in clinical stage, Restoret, aims to treat retinal diseases characterized by leakage that can lead to impaired vision.
Former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have reached a settlement with the Justice Department after they alleged their privacy rights were violated when their text messages were released and became political fodder for Donald Trump to oppose the Russia investigation during his presidency.
Colorado legal officials on Tuesday approved an agreement with Jenna Ellis, a onetime attorney for former President Donald Trump, barring her from practicing law in the state for three years after she pleaded guilty to helping Trump try to overturn the 2020 election. Ellis tearfully pleaded guilty to felony charges of aiding and abetting false statements in Fulton County, Georgia, in October. Ellis was previously censured in Colorado for making false statements over the 2020 election, including that the election was “stolen” from Trump.
The temporary pier constructed by the US military to transport aid into Gaza broke apart and sustained damage in heavy seas on Tuesday in a major blow to the American-led effort to create a maritime corridor for humanitarian supplies into the war-torn enclave, the Pentagon said.
Californians won't be voting this November on a policy that would have required schools to notify parents if their child asks to change their gender identification. Proponents of a ballot measure to create such a statewide policy announced Tuesday they failed to collect enough signatures to put the measure before voters this fall. Proponents of the measure had sued Attorney General Rob Bonta over the title and summary he issued for the proposed ballot measure, arguing it was biased and made it harder for them to collect signatures.
Taiwan's cabinet will reject and send back for review legislation the opposition passed on Tuesday on parliamentary reforms that have brought tens of thousands onto the streets to protest and accusations of Chinese interference. The peaceful protests, and sometimes violent confrontations in parliament over the reforms, have been taking place against a backdrop of broader concern about efforts by China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, to influence the island's politics and split Taiwanese public opinion. The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Lai Ching-te won the presidency in January elections, but the party lost its majority in parliament.
Hundreds of thousands of Texans were without power Tuesday as powerful storms deliver another round of violent weather to the state still reeling from an almost unrelenting parade of destructive and deadly storms in recent weeks.
After more than 10 hours in court on Tuesday hearing closing arguments in former President Donald Trump’s trial on charges he falsified business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, jurors will begin their deliberations on a verdict on Wednesday.
Algeria is circulating a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution that would demand an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and order Israel to halt its military offensive in the southern city of Rafah immediately. The draft resolution, obtained Wednesday evening by The Associated Press, also demands that the cease-fire be respected by all parties. It also calls for the immediate release of all hostages taken during Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
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