United News of Bangladesh

For decades, preventing dengue fever in Honduras has meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites. Now, Hondurans are being educated about a potentially more effective way to control the disease — and it goes against everything they’ve learned. Which explains why a dozen people cheered last month as Tegucigalpa resident Hector Enriquez held a glass jar filled with mosquitoes above his head, and then freed the buzzing insects into the air. Enriquez, a 52-year-old mason, had volunteered to help publicize a plan to suppress dengue by releasing millions of special mosquitoes in the Honduran capital. Read: Death toll from dengue rises to 752 with 11 more deaths The mosquitoes Enriquez unleashed in his El Manchen neighborhood — an area rife with dengue — were bred by scientists to carry bacteria called Wolbachia that interrupt transmission of the disease. When these mosquitoes reproduce, they pass the bacteria to their offspring, reducing future outbreaks. This emerging strategy for battling dengue was pioneered over the last decade by the nonprofit World Mosquito Program, and it is being tested in more than a dozen countries. With more than half the world's population at risk of contracting dengue, the World Health Organization is paying close attention to the mosquito releases in Honduras, and elsewhere, and it is poised to promote the strategy globally. In Honduras, where 10,000 people are known to be sickened by dengue each year, Doctors Without Borders is partnering with the mosquito program over the next six months to release close to 9 million mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacteria. “There is a desperate need for new approaches,” said Scott O’Neill, founder of the mosquito program.   DENGUE DEFIES TYPICAL PREVENTION Scientists have made great strides in recent decades in reducing the threat of infectious diseases, including mosquito-borne viruses like malaria. But dengue is the exception: Its rate of infection keeps going up. Models estimate that around 400 million people across some 130 countries are infected each year with dengue. Mortality rates from dengue are low – an estimated 40,000 people die each year from it – but outbreaks can overwhelm health systems and force many people to miss work or school. “When you come down with a case of dengue fever, it’s often akin to getting the worst case of influenza you can imagine,” said Conor McMeniman, a mosquito researcher at Johns Hopkins University. It’s commonly known as “breakbone fever” for a reason, McMeniman said. Traditional methods of preventing mosquito-borne illnesses haven’t been nearly as effective against dengue. The Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that most commonly spread dengue have been resistant to insecticides, which have fleeting results even in the best-case scenario. And because dengue virus comes in four different forms, it is harder to control through vaccines. Read: Dengue becomes epidemic due to rampant corruption in health sector: BNP Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are also a challenging foe because they are most active during the day – meaning that’s when they bite – so bed nets aren’t much help against them. Because these mosquitoes thrive in warm and wet environments, and in dense cities, climate change and urbanization are expected to make the fight against dengue even harder. “We need better tools,” said Raman Velayudhan, a researcher from the WHO’s Global Neglected Tropical Diseases Program. “Wolbachia is definitely a long-term, sustainable solution.” Velayudhan and other experts from the WHO plan to publish a recommendation as early as this month to promote further testing of the Wolbachia strategy in other parts of the world.   SCIENTISTS SURPRISED BY BACTERIA The Wolbachia strategy has been decades in the making. The bacteria exist naturally in about 60% of insect species, just not in the Aedes aegypti mosquito. “We worked for years on this,” said O’Neill, 61, who with help from his students in Australia eventually figured out how to transfer the bacteria from fruit flies into Aedes aegypti mosquito embryos by using microscopic glass needles. Read: Dengue death toll crosses 700 in 2023 Around 40 years ago, scientists aimed to use Wolbachia in a different way: to drive down mosquito populations. Because male mosquitoes carrying the bacteria only produce offspring with females that also have it, scientists would release infected male mosquitoes into the wild to breed with uninfected females, whose eggs would not hatch. But along the way, O’Neill’s team made a surprising discovery: Mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia didn’t spread dengue — or other related diseases, including yellow fever, Zika and chikungunya. And since infected females pass Wolbachia to their offspring, they will eventually “replace” a local mosquito population with one that carries the virus-blocking bacteria. The replacement strategy has required a major shift in thinking about mosquito control, said Oliver Brady, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “Everything in the past has been about killing mosquitoes, or at the very least, preventing mosquitoes from biting humans,” Brady said. Since O’Neill’s lab first tested the replacement strategy in Australia in 2011, the World Mosquito Program has run trials affecting 11 million people across 14 countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Fiji and Vietnam. The results are promising. In 2019, a large-scale field trial in Indonesia showed a 76% drop in reported dengue cases after Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes were released. Still, questions remain about whether the replacement strategy will be effective – and cost effective – on a global scale, O’Neill said. The three-year Tegucigalpa trial will cost $900,000, or roughly $10 per person that Doctors Without Borders expects it to protect. Read: Apathy of ‘unelected and irresponsible mayors, commissioners’ behind  current dengue situation: BNP Scientists aren't yet sure how Wolbachia actually blocks viral transmission. And it isn’t clear whether the bacteria will work equally well against all strains of the virus, or if some strains might become resistant over time, said Bobby Reiner, a mosquito researcher at the University of Washington. “It’s certainly not a one-and-done fix, forever guaranteed,” Reiner said.   SPECIAL MOSQUITOES BRED IN COLOMBIA Many of the world’s mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia were hatched in a warehouse in Medellín, Colombia, where the World Mosquito Program runs a factory that breeds 30 million of them per week. The factory imports dried mosquito eggs from different parts of the world to ensure the specially bred mosquitoes it eventually releases will have similar qualities to local populations, including resistance to insecticides, said Edgard Boquín, one of the Honduras project leaders working for Doctors Without Borders. The dried eggs are placed in water with powdered food. Once they hatch, they are allowed to breed with the “mother colony” — a lineage that carries Wolbachia and is made up of more females than males. A constant buzz fills the room where the insects mate in cube-shaped cages made of mosquito nets. Caretakers ensure they have the best diet: Males get sugared water, while females “bite” into pouches of human blood kept at 97 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius). “We have the perfect conditions,” the factory’s coordinator, Marlene Salazar, said. Once workers confirm that the new mosquitoes carry Wolbachia, their eggs are dried and filled into pill-like capsules to be sent off to release sites.   DOCTORS ENLIST HELP IN HONDURAS The Doctors Without Borders team in Honduras recently went door-to-door in a hilly neighborhood of Tegucigalpa to enlist residents’ help in incubating mosquito eggs bred in the Medellin factory. At half a dozen houses, they received permission to hang from tree branches glass jars containing water and a mosquito egg-filled capsule. After about 10 days, the mosquitoes would hatch and fly off. That same day, a dozen young workers from Doctors Without Borders fanned out across Northern Tegucigalpa on motorcycles carrying jars of the already hatched dengue-fighting mosquitoes and, at designated sites, released thousands of them into the breeze. Because community engagement is key to the program’s success, doctors and volunteers have spent the past six months educating neighborhood leaders, including influential gang members, to get their permission to work in areas under their control. Some of the most common questions from the community were about whether Wolbachia would harm people or the environment. Workers explained that any bites from the special mosquitoes or their offspring were harmless. Read: Dengue claims life of university student in Chattogram María Fernanda Marín, a 19-year-old student, works for Doctors without Borders in a facility where Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes are hatched for eventual release. She proudly shows neighbors a photo of her arm covered in bites to help earn their trust. Lourdes Betancourt, 63, another volunteer with the Doctors Without Borders team, was at first suspicious of the new strategy. But Betancourt – who has been sickened by dengue several times -- now encourages her neighbors to let the “good mosquitoes” grow in their yards. “I tell people not to be afraid, that this isn’t anything bad, to have trust,” Betancourt said. “They are going to bite you, but you won’t get dengue.”  

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has said that a historic fund shortage was forcing it to “drastically” cut rations in most of its operations, possibly pushing an additional 24 million people to the brink of starvation over the next 12 months. Cuts have already been felt across many of the 79 WFP operations globally including Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Haiti, Jordan, Palestine, South Sudan, Somalia and Syria, it said. Read: Social Security Programmes: GoB, WFP working to raise gender, nutritional standards  Due to a series of consecutive rations cuts, the UN agency will only be able to support three million people per month across the country from October, it added. As contributions dropped but needs rise, the UN agency said “massive reductions” have already been implemented in almost half of its operations. With a funding gap of over 60 per cent, WFP’s chief economist Arif Husain said the organization had “never seen this type of shortfall” in its 60-year history.  The latest analysis from the agency shows every one per cent cut in food assistance pushes 400,000 people into emergency hunger. The lack of funding comes at a time of massive jump in needs which started with the COVID-19 pandemic and compounded by the war in Ukraine. Read: Japan provides critical funding to WFP’s lifesaving food assistance for Rohingyas Some 345 million people in the world already face acute food insecurity; this includes 40 million suffering emergency levels of hunger and at risk of dying from malnutrition. This number has doubled since 2020. “With the number of people around the world facing starvation at record levels, we need to be scaling up life-saving assistance – not cutting it,” said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain. This year, 10 million people have lost support from the agency across Afghanistan – whilst more than one-third of the population still go to bed hungry every night. Explaining the reasons for such a drastic drop in resources, the WFP said funding from traditional donors is insufficient. With a 41 per cent drop in funding, donor fatigue and spending on the COVID-19 pandemic are also contributing factors. According to Husain, matters are made worse as lower-income buckle under the burden of record high levels of debt, resulting in an inability to purchase essential food. Read: With Mocha bearing down, WFP notes Rohingyas' vulnerability He underscored the need to broaden WFP’s donor base and to address the root causes of the rise in global hunger, such as the impact of conflict, insecurity and climate change. “If we don’t address the root causes why should the situation change,” he emphasised. Last year, the UN agency reached a record number of 160 million people, stabilising many situations of hunger and famine globally. This was with 41 per cent more funding than is currently available for this year.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday his country's “full and unconditional support” for Russia’s “sacred fight” to defend its security interests, in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine, and said Pyongyang will always stand with Moscow on the “anti-imperialist” front. Kim also called North Korea’s relations with Russia “the first priority.” The leaders met at a remote Siberian rocket launch facility for a summit that underscores how their interests are aligning in the face of their countries' separate, intensifying confrontations with the United States. Read: North Korea's Kim is in Russia to meet Putin, as both are locked in standoffs with the West Putin in his opening remarks welcomed Kim to Russia and said he was glad to see him. Putin listed economic cooperation, humanitarian issues and the “situation in the region” among the agenda items for their talks. The two men began their meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia’s most important domestic satellite launch center, with a tour of a Soyuz-2 space rocket launch facility, at which Kim peppered a Russian space official with questions about the rockets. Kim and Putin then met together with their delegations and later one-on-one, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. Following the tour, the two leaders headed a meeting of their delegations, and then spoke one-on-one. Read: North Korea's Kim orders sharp increase in missile production, days before US-South Korea drills The meeting came hours after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea, extending a highly provocative run in North Korean weapons testing since the start of 2022, as Kim used the distraction caused by Putin’s war on Ukraine to accelerate his weapons development. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t immediately say how far the North Korean missiles flew. Japan’s Coast Guard, citing Tokyo’s Defense Ministry, said the missiles have likely already landed but still urged vessels to watch for falling objects. Putin welcomed Kim’s limousine, brought from Pyongyang in the North Korean leader’s special armored train, at the entrance to the launch facility with a handshake that lasted around 40 seconds. Putin said he was “very glad to see” Kim. Kim’s translator thanked Putin for the warm welcome, “despite being busy.” Read: North Korea fires 2 short-range missiles into the sea as US docks nuclear submarine in South Korea The decision to meet at Cosmodrome suggests that Kim is seeking Russian technical assistance for his efforts to develop military reconnaissance satellites, which he has described as crucial in enhancing the threat of his nuclear-capable missiles. In recent months, North Korea has repeatedly failed to put its first military spy satellite into orbit. Official photos showed that Kim was accompanied by Pak Thae Song, chairman of North Korea’s space science and technology committee, and navy Adm. Kim Myong Sik, who are linked with North Korean efforts to acquire spy satellites and nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarines, according to South Korea's Unification Ministry. Asked whether Russia will help North Korea build satellites, Putin was quoted by Russian state media as saying “that’s why we have come here. The DPRK leader shows keen interest in rocket technology. They’re trying to develop space, too,” using the abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Asked about military cooperation, Putin said “we will talk about all issues without a rush. There is time.” For Putin, the meeting with Kim is an opportunity to refill ammunition stores that the 18-month-old war has drained. North Korea may have tens of millions of aging artillery shells and rockets based on Soviet designs that could give a huge boost to the Russian army in Ukraine, analysts say. Kim also brought Jo Chun Ryong, a ruling party official in charge of munitions policies who joined him on recent tours of factories producing artillery shells and missile, according to South Korea. Read: North Korea opens key party meeting to tackle its struggling economy and talk defense strategies Kim said his decision to visit Russia four years after his previous visit showed how Pyongyang is “prioritizing the strategic importance” of its relations with Moscow, North Korea’s official news agency said Wednesday. Kim is expected to seek economic aid as well as military technology. Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said Russia may discuss humanitarian aid with the North Korean delegation, according to Russian news agencies. An arms deal would violate international sanctions that Russia supported in the past. Lim Soo-suk, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said Seoul was maintaining communication with Moscow while closely monitoring Kim’s visit. “No U.N. member state should violate Security Council sanctions against North Korea by engaging in an illegal trade of arms, and must certainly not engage in military cooperation with North Korea that undermines the peace and stability of the international community,” Lim said at a briefing. The United States has accused North Korea of providing Russia with arms, including selling artillery shells to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Both Russian and North Korean officials denied such claims. Speculation about military cooperation grew after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea in July. Kim subsequently toured his weapons factories, which experts said had the dual goal of encouraging the modernization of North Korean weaponry and examining artillery and other supplies that could be exported to Russia.  

Qantas Airways lost its challenge to a court ruling on Wednesday that the Australian flag carrier had illegally fired 1,700 baggage handlers, cleaners and other ground staff at the height of pandemic travel disruptions. Thai Airways to operate double daily flights on Dhaka-Bangkok route from July 16 Seven High Court judges unanimously rejected Qantas’ appeal against a Federal Court full-bench decision. That court upheld a Federal Court judge’s ruling that the sacking of Qantas staff at 10 Australian airports in 2020 was illegal. The ruling is another major blow for the airline which Australia’s consumer watchdog is suing for more than 250 million Australian dollars ($160 million) for allegedly selling thousands of tickets mid-2022 for flights that already been canceled. Tk 32.46cr due: Govt confiscates Regent Airways’ bank account  Australian Competition and Consumer Commission initiated the Federal Court lawsuit two weeks ago for what it considers Australia’s most serious-ever breach of consumer law. That prompted Qantas former chief executive Alan Joyce to retire last week two months ahead of schedule. The Transport Workers’ Union had waged a two-year court battle against Qantas’ decision to outsource the jobs of the airline’s highly-unionized ground staff.   The union’s national secretary Michael Kaine said Qantas had been found guilty of the largest number of illegal sackings in Australian corporate history. Qantas now faces fines and claims for compensation. An earlier court decision ruled out dismissed staff being reinstated. Kaine called on the new chief executive Vanessa Hudson to offer the former staff an apology and compensation. “The action that you can take immediately is to hurry back before the Federal Court now and do everything you can to expedite compensation for the workers is so that they can get some justice and solace for themselves and their families,” Kaine said at a press conference. Qantas said in a statement it accepted the court’s ruling. Qantas' decision to restructure its business and outsource jobs had been made to improve its ability to survive and ultimately recover when borders were closed, lockdowns were in place and no COVID-19 vaccine existed. Etihad Airways asked to pay Tk2 crore to two Bangladeshis for harassment “As we have said from the beginning, we deeply regret the personal impact the outsourcing decision had on all those affected and we sincerely apologize for that,” the statement said. The Sydney-based airline last month posted a record profit for the fiscal year ending June 30, following years of losses due to the pandemic. Its underlying profit for the year before tax was AU$2.47 billion ($1.6 billion), compared to a AU$1.86 billion ($1.2 billion) loss in the previous year. Statutory profit after tax for the latest year was AU$1.74 billion ($1.13 billion). As travel has ramped up, outsourcing of Qantas jobs has been blamed for many of problems including high rates of lost and mishandled luggage.  

The senior officials of the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Ministers of Finance of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), have convened to discuss the group’s achievements and plans for the upcoming year. The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), a dedicated initiative of 68 climate-vulnerable countries focused on financing initiatives, advocacy and partnership efforts for countries most threatened by climate change, convened virtually on Tuesday, according to a press release. The V20 expressed condolences with Morocco after the devastating earthquake struck the North African nation and member of the Group. In light of the V20’s Accra to Marrakech Agenda, and the V20 Ministerial Dialogue XI scheduled for October 15 during the annual Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Marrakech, the V20 reaffirmed its commitment to advancing climate resilience across vulnerable economies. Furthermore, the V20 lauded the inclusion of the African Union (AU) in the G20 and anticipated the formal recognition of the V20 as an official Group within the IMF. As the world's attention shifts further towards climate action, the V20 also announced the upcoming CVF Leaders Meeting, themed "Advancing Climate Prosperity: Building A Resilient Global Financial Architecture for the Climate Vulnerable," which will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on September 21, the release also said. The meeting presented an update on the V20 activities and work program, including critical concerns of funding and liquidity to deal with the climate, debt, energy, and food security crises, highlighting critical actions that the international public finance community, including the IMF, multilateral development banks, and key central banks should undertake, it added. Discussions also included the CVF Leaders Declaration, Accra to Marrakech Agenda, and next steps of the Emergency Coalition on Debt Sustainability and Climate Prosperity. V20 senior officials also covered the Climate Prosperity Plans and financing initiatives to push the frontiers of possibility with regard to economic and financial solutions to fight the climate crisis, secure sustainable development, and advance the shared prosperity of climate vulnerable people, their economies and ecosystems. These initiatives included the G7/V20 Global Shield against Climate Risks, the V20 Loss and Damage Funding Program, the Sustainable Insurance Facility, the Global Risk Modelling Alliance, Carbon Exchanges, and the Accelerated Financing Mechanism.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un rolled into Russia on an armored train Tuesday to see President Vladimir Putin, a rare meeting between isolated leaders driven together by their need for support in escalating standoffs with the West. Kim is expected to seek economic aid and military technology for his impoverished country, and, in an unusual twist, appears to have something Putin desperately needs: munitions for Russia's grueling war in Ukraine. This meeting is a chance for the North Korean leader to get around crippling U.N. sanctions and years of diplomatic isolation. For Putin, it's an opportunity to refill ammunition stores that the war has drained. North Korea says it has deployed a new nuclear attack submarine to counter US naval power Any arms deal with North Korea would violate the sanctions, which Russia supported in the past. North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said Kim boarded his personal train bound for Russia on Sunday afternoon, accompanied by members of the ruling party, government and military. His final destination is uncertain. Many had assumed Kim and Putin would meet in Vladisvostok, a Russian city close to the border where the two leaders had their last meeting in 2019, and which Putin is visiting this week for an economic forum. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed only that Kim has entered Russia, and state news agency RIA-Novosti later reported his train had headed north after crossing the Razdolnaya River, taking it away from Vladivostok. The South Korean news agency Yonhap later published a photo that it said showed the train in Ussuriysk, a city about 60 kilometers north of Vladivostok that has a sizeable ethnic Korean population. North Korea's Kim orders sharp increase in missile production, days before US-South Korea drills Some Russian news media speculate that he is headed for the Vostochny spaceport, which Putin is to visit soon. Putin declined during the forum to say what he intended to do there. The launching facility is about 900 kilometers (550 miles) northwest of Ussuriysk, but the route there is circuitous and it is unclear how long Kim's slow-moving train would take to get there. Peskov said Putin and Kim will meet after the Vladivostok forum, and that the meeting would include a lunch in Kim's honor. Officials identified in North Korean state media photos may hint at what Kim might seek from Putin and what he would be willing to give. Kim is apparently accompanied by Jo Chun Ryong, a ruling party official in charge of munitions policies who joined the leader on recent tours of factories producing artillery shells and missiles, said South Korea's Unification Ministry. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will be part of the Russian delegation, according to Peskov. North Korea may have tens of millions of aging artillery shells and rockets based on Soviet designs that could give a huge boost to the Russian army in Ukraine, analysts say. North Korean leader Kim tours weapons factories and vows to advance his arms and his war readiness Also identified in photos were Pak Thae Song, chairman of North Korea's space science and technology committee, and Navy Adm. Kim Myong Sik, who are linked with North Korean efforts to acquire spy satellites and nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarines. Experts say North Korea would struggle to acquire such capabilities without external help, although it's not clear if Russia would share such sensitive technologies. Kim Jong Un may also seek badly needed energy and food supplies, analysts say. Deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko said Russia may discuss humanitarian aid with the North Korean delegation, according to Russian news agencies. Kim's delegation also likely includes his foreign minister, Choe Sun Hui, and his top two military officials, Korean People's Army Marshals Ri Pyong Chol and Pak Jong Chon. Data from FlightRadar24.com, which tracks flights worldwide, showed an Air Koryo Antonov An-148 took off from Pyongyang on Tuesday and flew for about an hour to reach Vladivostok. North Korea's national airline has only just resumed flying internationally after being grounded during the COVID-19 pandemic. There had been speculation that North Korea could use a plane to fly in support staff. Kim is making his first foreign trip since the pandemic, during which North Korea imposed tight border controls for more than three years. After decades of hot-and-cold relations, Russia and North Korea have drawn closer since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Lim Soo-suk, South Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said Seoul was maintaining communication with Moscow while closely monitoring Kim's visit. "No U.N. member state should violate Security Council sanctions against North Korea by engaging in an illegal trade of arms, and must certainly not engage in military cooperation with North Korea that undermines the peace and stability of the international community," Lim said during a briefing. U.S. officials released intelligence last week that North Korea and Russia were arranging a meeting between their leaders. According to U.S. officials, Putin could focus on securing more supplies of North Korean artillery and other ammunition to refill declining reserves as he seeks to rebuff a Ukrainian counteroffensive and show that he's capable of grinding out a long war of attrition. That could potentially put more pressure on the U.S. and its partners to pursue negotiations as concerns over a protracted conflict grow despite their huge shipments of advanced weaponry to Ukraine in the past 17 months. "Arms discussions between Russia and the DPRK are expected to continue during Kim Jong Un's trip to Russia," said White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson, using the abbreviation for North Korea's official name of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "We urge the DPRK to abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia." State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington will monitor the meeting closely, reminding both countries that "any transfer of arms from North Korea to Russia would be a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions," and that the U.S. "will not hesitate to impose new sanctions." Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that Tokyo will be watching the outcome of the Kim-Putin meeting with concern, including the "impact it could have on Russia's invasion of Ukraine." The United States has accused North Korea of providing Russia with arms, including selling artillery shells to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Both Russian and North Korean officials denied such claims. But speculation about the countries' military cooperation grew after Shoigu, the defense minister, made a rare visit to North Korea in July, when Kim invited him to an arms exhibition and a massive military parade in the capital where he showcased ICBMs designed to target the U.S. mainland. Following that visit, Kim toured North Korea's weapons factories, including a facility producing artillery systems where he urged workers to speed up the development and large-scale production of new kinds of ammunition. Experts say Kim's visits to the factories likely had a dual goal of encouraging the modernization of North Korean weaponry and examining artillery and other supplies that could be exported to Russia.  

SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s refusal to allow Ukraine to use Starlink internet services to launch a surprise attack on Russian forces in Crimea last September has raised questions as to whether the U.S. military needs to be more explicit in future contracts that services or products it purchases could be used in war, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Monday. Excerpts of a new biography of Musk published by The Washington Post last week revealed that the Ukrainians in September 2022 had asked for the Starlink support to attack Russian naval vessels based at the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Musk had refused due to concerns that Russia would launch a nuclear attack in response. Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and claims it as its territory. Read: End the Ukraine war thru negotiations: PM Hasina tells Russian foreign minister Musk was not on a military contract when he refused the Crimea request; he'd been providing terminals to Ukraine for free in response to Russia's February 2022 invasion. However, in the months since, the U.S. military has funded and officially contracted with Starlink for continued support. The Pentagon has not disclosed the terms or cost of that contract, citing operational security. But the Pentagon is reliant on SpaceX for far more than the Ukraine response, and the uncertainty that Musk or any other commercial vendor could refuse to provide services in a future conflict has led space systems military planners to reconsider what needs to be explicitly laid out in future agreements, Kendall said during a roundtable with reporters at the Air Force Association convention at National Harbor, Maryland, on Monday. Read: Biden declares in State of Union US is 'unbowed, unbroken’ “If we’re going to rely upon commercial architectures or commercial systems for operational use, then we have to have some assurances that they’re going to be available,” Kendall said. “We have to have that. Otherwise they are a convenience and maybe an economy in peacetime, but they’re not something we can rely upon in wartime.” SpaceX also has the contract to help the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command develop a rocket ship that would quickly move military cargo into a conflict zone or disaster zone, which could alleviate the military’s reliance on slower aircraft or ships. While not specifying SpaceX, Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command, said, “American industry has to be clear-eyed on the full spectrum of what it could be used for.” As U.S. military investment in space has increased in recent years, concerns have revolved around how to indemnify commercial vendors from liability in case something goes wrong in a launch and whether the U.S. military has an obligation to defend those firms' assets, such as their satellites or ground stations, if they are providing military support in a conflict. Until Musk’s refusal in Ukraine, there had not been a focus on whether there needed to be language saying a firm providing military support in war had to agree that that support could be used in combat. Read: India hopes for progress on global agenda as G20 leaders meet despite rifts over the war in Ukraine “We acquire technology, we acquire services, required platforms to serve the Air Force mission, or in this case, the Department of the Air Force,” said Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. “So that is an expectation, that it is going to be used for Air Force purposes, which will include, when necessary, to be used to support combat operations.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chastised China’s premier on Sunday for “unacceptable” interference in British democracy, after a newspaper reported that a researcher in Parliament was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of spying for Beijing. Sunak said he raised the issue with Premier Li Qiang when the two met at a Group of 20 summit in India. He told British broadcasters in New Delhi that he’d expressed “my very strong concerns about any interference in our parliamentary democracy, which is obviously unacceptable.” The two men met after the Metropolitan Police force confirmed that a man in his 20s and a man in his 30s were arrested in March under the Official Secrets Act. Neither has been charged and both were bailed until October pending further inquiries. A Chinese Embassy statement called the allegations “completely fabricated and nothing but malicious slander.” China urges “relevant parties in the U.K. to stop their anti-China political manipulation,” the statement said. The Sunday Times reported that the younger man was a parliamentary researcher who worked with senior lawmakers from the governing Conservatives, including Alicia Kearns, who now heads the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, and her predecessor in that role, Tom Tugendhat, who is now security minister. The newspaper said the suspect held a pass that allows full access to the Parliament buildings, issued to lawmakers, staff and journalists after security vetting. Tensions between Britain and China have risen in recent years over accusations of economic subterfuge, human rights abuses and Beijing’s crackdown on civil liberties in the former British colony of Hong Kong. Britain’s Conservatives are divided on how tough a line to take with Beijing and on how much access Chinese firms should have to the U.K. economy. More hawkish Tories want Beijing declared a threat, but Sunak has referred to China’s growing power as a “challenge.” Former U.K. Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith said news of the March arrests “gives the lie to the government’s attempt not to see China as a systemic threat.” U.K. spy services have sounded ever-louder warnings about Beijing’s covert activities. In November, the head of the MI5 domestic intelligence agency, Ken McCallum, said “the activities of the Chinese Communist Party pose the most game-changing strategic challenge to the U.K.” Foreign intelligence chief Richard Moore of MI6 said in July that China was his agency’s “single most important strategic focus.” In January 2022, MI5 issued a rare public alert, saying a London-based lawyer was trying to “covertly interfere in U.K. politics” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. It alleged attorney Christine Lee was acting in coordination with the Chinese ruling party’s United Front Work Department, an organization known to exert Chinese influence abroad. An opposition Labour Party lawmaker, Barry Gardiner, received more than 500,000 pounds ($685,000) from Lee between 2015 and 2020, mostly for office costs, and her son worked in Gardiner’s office. Lee and the Chinese government both deny wrongdoing. China has repeatedly criticized what it calls British interference in its internal affairs and denied meddling in the politics of foreign nations. Sunak and Li met days after Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited Beijing, the highest-level trip by a British politician to China for several years. Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend the G20 meeting in India. Sunak defended his approach of cautious engagement, saying, “There’s no point carping from the sidelines — I’d rather be in there directly expressing my concerns, and that’s what I did today.”

The Group of 20 top world economies added the African Union as a member at their annual summit Saturday, and host India was able to get the disparate group to sign off on a final statement, but only after softening language on the contentious issue of Russia's war in Ukraine. In the months leading up to the leaders' summit in New Delhi, India had been unable to find agreement on the wording about Ukraine, with Russia and China objecting even to language that they had agreed to last year at the G20 summit in Bali. The final statement, released a day before the formal close of the summit, highlighted the “human suffering and negative added impacts of the war in Ukraine,” but did not mention Russia's invasion. It cited the U.N. charter, saying "all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.” By contrast, the Bali declaration had cited a U.N. resolution condemning “the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” and said “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine.” Nazia Hussain, an associate research fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the statement showed a “softening of the language on the war in Ukraine.” “However, for New Delhi, getting out a joint statement with some reference to Ukraine, or a joint statement at all especially with both the United States and its western allies as well as China and Russia toughening their stance on the war, is a win.” Many had been skeptical that there would be a final communique, which would have been the first time one was not released and have been a blow to the prestige of the G20. Western delegations applauded the agreement, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz calling it a “success of Indian diplomacy.” He told reporters it was significant that in the end Russia had “given up its resistance” and signed on to the agreement that mentioned the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. A senior European Union official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to be candid about the discussions, said the EU had not given up any of its position, and the fact that Russia had signed on to the agreement was important. “The option we have is text or no text, and I think it's better text,” he said. “At least if they don't implement, we know once more that we cannot rely on them.” Russian negotiator Svetlana Lukash described the discussions on the Ukraine-related part of the final statement as “very difficult,” adding that the agreed text had a “balanced view” of the situation., Russian media reported. She said Ukraine wasn't the only point of contention in reaching a statement, and charged that Western powers had tried to enforce the idea that “it’s the Ukrainian conflict that provokes all the crises in the world now." By contrast, there was widespread support for adding the AU to the G20, making it the second regional bloc to become a permanent member after the EU and adding momentum to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive to give a greater voice to the Global South. The continent was thrust into the spotlight as well by the earthquake in Morocco, which happened while most of the delegates gathered in New Delhi were asleep. Modi offered condolences and support in his opening remarks. “The entire world community is with Morocco in this difficult time and we are ready to provide them all possible assistance," he said. He told leaders they must find “concrete solutions” to the widespread challenges that he said stemmed from the “ups and downs in the global economy, the north and the south divide, the chasm between the east and the west,” and other issues like terrorism, cybersecurity, health and water security. Modi addressed the delegates from behind a nameplate that listed his country not as India but as “Bharat,” an ancient Sanskrit name championed by his Hindu nationalist supporters. India had made directing more attention to addressing the needs of the developing world a focus of the summit. at the summit — though it proved impossible to decouple many issues, such as food and energy security, from the war in Ukraine. The summit came just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said a landmark deal brokered by the U.N. and Turkey allowing Ukraine to export grain safely through the Black Sea will not be restored until Western nations meet his demands on Russia’s own agricultural exports. The G20 urged the resumption of grain, foodstuffs and fertilizer shipments from Russia and Ukraine, saying it was necessary to feed people in Africa and other parts of the developing world. Russia has been attacking Ukrainian port facilities, and the G20 in its final statement also called for an end to attacks on infrastructure related to the grain exports, and expressed “deep concern” about the effect of conflicts on civilians. The G20 includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. Spain holds a permanent guest seat. Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's leader Xi Jinping opted not to come this year, ensuring no tough face-to-face conversations with their American and European counterparts. Participants arriving in the Indian capital were greeted by streets cleared of traffic, and graced with fresh flowers and seemingly endless posters featuring slogans and Modi's face. Security was intensely tight, with most journalists and the public kept far from the summit venue. Hundreds of Tibetan exiles held a protest far from the summit venue to condemn Chinese participation in the event and urge leaders to discuss Sino-Tibetan relations. The G20 agenda featured issues critical to developing nations, including alternative fuels like hydrogen, resource efficiency, food security and developing a common framework for digital public infrastructure. Human Rights Watch urged the G20 leaders not to let international disunity over Ukraine distract them at the summit from the other issues. In addition, Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy director of the organization’s Asia division, said members should not “shy away from openly discussing challenges like gender discrimination, racism and other entrenched barriers to equality, including with host India, where civil and political rights have sharply deteriorated under the Modi administration.” On Friday evening, before the meeting got formally underway, Modi met with U.S. President Joe Biden. White House aide Kurt Campbell told reporters afterward that there was an “undeniable warmth and confidence between the two leaders.” As India's regional rival China has become growingly assertive in the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. has been seeking to strengthen ties with India and others. The U.S., India, the EU and others unveiled ambitious plans Saturday to build a rail and shipping corridor linking India with the Middle East and Europe that aims to strengthen economic growth and political cooperation. “This is a really big deal,” Biden said.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi touted his country as well-placed to bridge gaps in the Group of 20 top economies and solve global problems, but many were skeptical ahead of the weekend's summit given grave divisions within the bloc over the Russia’s war in Ukraine. He was able to dispel those doubts, announcing a unanimous final agreement a day before the G20 summit ended Sunday that included language on the European war which both Russia and China signed off on. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the group agreed to a “very strong” message. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it a “success of Indian diplomacy,” adding “many did not think that would be possible beforehand.” And India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said the declaration “responds to the situation as it stands today.” Read more: PM Hasina returning home after G20 summit in New Delhi The statement had softer wording than last year’s G20 communique and failed to directly denounce Moscow. Instead, it cited a United Nations charter, saying “all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state.” But all countries agreed on the declaration, allowing India to claim diplomatic success. “This is the first declaration without a single footnote or a chair’s summary,” said Amitabh Kant, India’s top G20 negotiator. Some experts saw the agreement as a win for Russia, while others read it as an achievement for the West. But most concurred it was a foreign policy triumph for Modi as he pushes to increase India’s influence on the world stage. “India’s statement embodies the voice of the emerging Global South” said Derek Grossman, an analyst focused on the Indo-Pacific at the RAND Corporation. “That is a coup for New Delhi, especially within the context of strategic competition against Beijing, helping it to become the leader of this bloc.” Read more: Biden, Modi and G20 allies unveil rail and shipping project linking India to Middle East and Europe At the summit Modi also announced the group had agreed to add the African Union as a permanent member and made progress on other key issues important to the developing nations of the Global South. “We are seeing the G20 finally come into its own as a truly global entity, and emerging from the shadow of the G7,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, referring to the Group of Seven major industrial nations. “It’s emerging as a successful case study of Western and non-Western powers and the Global South working together to pursue shared goals,” he said. The summit came at a time when Russia and China have been trying to put more emphasis on the more like-minded BRICS group — made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — which agreed at its summit last month to expand with six new members. Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's leader Xi Jinping skipped the G20 summit this year. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who took Putin's place at the summit, told reporters the “G20 is going through a crisis” and likened India's “absolute success” to an ”internal reform." “This was manifested in the significant activation of members of the Group of 20 from the Global South with the leading role of India, who, very clearly and persistently, sought to take into account their interests,” Lavrov said. Beijing has been seeking to rally the Global South around a China-centric bloc, and Xi's absence from the meetings meant that Modi and others were able to “promote their own ideas and goals,” said Michael Schuman, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. With his diplomatic approach, Modi emerged as “probably the summit’s big winner,” and someone who is becoming an increasingly important player in international affairs, he said. Read more: G20 leaders vow commitment to growth, development goals “Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi showed that he is a force in the developing world as well and has a different vision of the relationship between the developed and developing worlds that is not as confrontational,” Schuman said. A senior European Union official who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly about the talks said it was important not to have ended the summit for the first time without a final communique. “I think India’s strong leadership has preserved the G20 and opened the space for Brazil in the next presidency to work on global issues,” he told reporters in New Delhi. Heading into the summit, Modi had argued that the developing countries should have more say, noting that they are disproportionately impacted by many crises including climate change, food shortages and rising energy prices. Many see that India has laid the groundwork for Brazil and South Africa – both influential members of the Global South – to continue along the same path as they take the G20 presidency for next two years. “With the world facing so many borderless challenges and shortages of multilateralism, that type of truly global cooperation is the need of the hour,” Kugelman said.