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Russia begins building road bridge to North Korea

Russia begins building road bridge to North Korea
Students participate in a commemorative march near the Chollima Statue in Pyongyang. (File/AFP)
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Updated 30 April 2025
Reuters
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Russia begins building road bridge to North Korea

Russia begins building road bridge to North Korea
  • The new road bridge, which has been under discussion for years, will be 850 meters (2789 ft) and link up with the Russian highway system
Updated 30 April 2025
Reuters
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MOSCOW: Russia and North Korea on Wednesday began construction of a road bridge between the two countries that will span the Tumen river, part of an effort to strengthen their strategic partnership, Russia’s prime minister said.
The bridge is being built near the existing “Friendship Bridge,” a rail bridge which was commissioned in 1959 after the Korean war.
At a ceremony dedicated to the start of the new bridge’s construction, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said it was a significant event in Russian-North Korean relations, the TASS state news agency reported.
“The significance goes far beyond just an engineering task,” Mishustin was quoted as saying. “It symbolizes our common desire to strengthen friendly, good-neighborly relations and increase inter-regional cooperation.”
The new road bridge, which has been under discussion for years, will be 850 meters (2789 ft) and link up with the Russian highway system. Its construction was agreed during a visit by President Vladimir Putin to North Korea in 2024.
Russia’s Kommersant newspaper said the bridge will be ready by the summer of 2026.
Mishustin said the bridge “will allow entrepreneurs to significantly increase transportation volumes and reduce transportation costs, ensure reliable and stable supplies of various products, which will contribute to the expansion of trade and economic cooperation,” TASS reported.
About 600 North Korean troops have been killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine out of a total deployment of 15,000, South Korean lawmakers said on Wednesday, citing the country’s intelligence agency.

Topics: Russia North Korea

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Trump selects concept for $175 billion ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system

Trump selects concept for $175 billion ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system
Updated 21 sec ago
AP
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Trump selects concept for $175 billion ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system

Trump selects concept for $175 billion ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense system
  • Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack
Updated 21 sec ago
AP

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has announced the concept he wants for his future Golden Dome missile defense program — a multilayered, $175 billion system that for the first time will put US weapons in space.
Speaking Tuesday from the Oval Office, Trump said he expects the system will be “fully operational before the end of my term,” which ends in 2029, and have the capability of intercepting missiles “even if they are launched from space.”
It’s likelier that the complex system may have some initial capability by that point, a US official familiar with the program said.
Trump, seated next to a poster showing the continental US painted gold and with artistic depictions of missile interceptions, also announced that Gen. Michael Guetlein, who currently serves as the vice chief of space operations, will be responsible for overseeing Golden Dome’s progress.
Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack: detecting and destroying them before a launch, intercepting them in their earliest stage of flight, stopping them midcourse in the air, or halting them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target.
For the last several months, Pentagon planners have been developing options — which the US official described as medium, high and “extra high” choices, based on their cost — that include space-based interceptors. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to detail plans that have not been made public.
The difference in the three versions is largely based on how many satellites and sensors — and for the first time, space-based interceptors — would be purchased.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated this month that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years. Trump has requested an initial $25 billion for the program in his proposed tax break bill now moving through Congress.
The Pentagon has warned for years that the newest missiles developed by China and Russia are so advanced that updated countermeasures are necessary. Golden Dome’s added satellites and interceptors — where the bulk of the program’s cost is — would be focused on stopping those advanced missiles early on or in the middle of their flight.
The space-based weapons envisioned for Golden Dome “represent new and emerging requirements for missions that have never before been accomplished by military space organizations,” Gen. Chance Saltzman, head of the US Space Force, told lawmakers at a hearing Tuesday.
China and Russia have put offensive weapons in space, such as satellites with abilities to disable critical US satellites, which can make the US vulnerable to attack.
Last year, the US said Russia was developing a space-based nuclear weapon that could loiter in space for long durations, then release a burst that would take out satellites around it.
Trump said Tuesday that he had not yet spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Golden Dome program, “but at the right time, we will,” he told reporters at the White House.
There is no money for the project yet, and Golden Dome overall is “still in the conceptual stage,” newly confirmed Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told senators during a hearing Tuesday.
While the president picked the concept he wanted, the Pentagon is still developing the requirements that Golden Dome will need to meet — which is not the way new systems are normally developed.
The Pentagon and US Northern Command are still drafting what is known as an initial capabilities document, the US official said. That is how Northern Command, which is responsible for homeland defense, identifies what it will need the system to do.
The US already has many missile defense capabilities, such as the Patriot missile batteries that the US has provided to Ukraine to defend against incoming missiles as well as an array of satellites in orbit to detect missile launches. Some of those existing systems will be incorporated into Golden Dome.
Trump directed the Pentagon to pursue the space-based interceptors in an executive order during the first week of his presidency.

 

Topics: Trump Returns

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Immigrant rights advocates claim US violated court order by deporting migrants to South Sudan

Immigrant rights advocates claim US violated court order by deporting migrants to South Sudan
Updated 20 May 2025
Reuters
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Immigrant rights advocates claim US violated court order by deporting migrants to South Sudan

Immigrant rights advocates claim US violated court order by deporting migrants to South Sudan
  • The advocates made the request in a motion directed to a federal judge in Boston
Updated 20 May 2025
Reuters

BOSTON: Immigrant rights advocates accused the Trump administration on Tuesday of deporting around a dozen migrants from countries including Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan in violation of a court order and asked a judge to order their return.

The advocates made the request in a motion directed to a federal judge in Boston who had barred the Trump administration from swiftly deporting migrants to countries other than their own without first hearing any concerns they had that they might be tortured or persecuted if sent there.

Topics: Trump Returns South Sudan migrants

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Maritime security under threat from ‘emerging dangers,’ UN chief warns

Maritime security under threat from ‘emerging dangers,’ UN chief warns
Updated 20 May 2025
Caspar Webb
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Maritime security under threat from ‘emerging dangers,’ UN chief warns

Maritime security under threat from ‘emerging dangers,’ UN chief warns
  • Houthi Red Sea campaign ‘increased tensions in an already volatile region’
  • Antonio Guterres calls for three-point plan to address challenges
Updated 20 May 2025
Caspar Webb

NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of rising threats to global maritime transport at a high-level Security Council meeting on Tuesday.

It follows almost two years of turmoil in the Red Sea, a vital shipping lane connecting global trade via the Suez Canal.

Yemen’s Houthi militia launched a campaign in late 2023 to prevent Israel-linked shipping from transiting the Red Sea, claiming to act in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The US responded with Operation Prosperity Guardian, a military campaign to target Houthi launch sites and infrastructure.

The EU contributed with EUNAVFOR Aspides, while Israel later responded to Houthi attacks with extensive strikes on Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, and the Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeidah.

Tuesday’s Security Council meeting was chaired by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister.

Guterres told the meeting: “Without maritime security, there can be no global security.

“From time immemorial, maritime routes have bound the world together. They have long been the primary means for the trade and transport of not only people, goods and commodities, but also cultures and ideas.”

However, maritime spaces are “increasingly under strain” from traditional threats and “emerging dangers,” Guterres added.

He highlighted contested boundaries, the depletion of natural resources, conflict and crime as key issues affecting maritime security.

The first quarter of 2025 saw a “sharp upward reversal” in reported piracy and armed robbery at sea, Guterres said.

He highlighted the Houthi Red Sea campaign, warning it had “disrupted global trade and increased tensions in an already volatile region.”

Earlier this month, the US reached a ceasefire deal with the Houthis following mediation by Oman.

However, the militia and Israel continue to trade strikes.

Guterres called for three measures to improve global maritime security: Respect for international law; efforts to address the root causes of maritime insecurity; and partnerships involving “everyone with a stake in maritime spaces.”

The international legal framework for maritime security “is only as strong as states’ commitment” to its implementation, he said.

Globally, more must be done “to reduce the likelihood that desperate people will turn to crime and other activities that threaten maritime security,” he added.

Guterres said: “We must involve everyone with a stake in maritime spaces. From coastal communities to governments and regional groups. To shipping companies, flag registries, the fishing and extraction industries, insurers and port operators.

“Let’s take action to support and secure maritime spaces, and the communities and people counting on them.”

Topics: UN Antonio Guterres Maritime security

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Indonesian gig drivers protest demanding lower app fees

Indonesian gig drivers protest demanding lower app fees
Updated 20 May 2025
AFP
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Indonesian gig drivers protest demanding lower app fees

Indonesian gig drivers protest demanding lower app fees
  • Motorbike and scooter drivers who form the backbone of Indonesia’s sprawling gig economy earn up to 150,000 rupiah ($10) a day
Updated 20 May 2025
AFP

JAKARTA: Thousands of drivers from ride-hailing and food delivery apps protested in Indonesia on Tuesday, demanding a 10-percent cap on commission fees.

Hundreds of drivers gathered in the streets of the capital Jakarta, driving their motorbikes and waving flags.

Thousands more in Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya drove to the offices of ride-hailing apps GoJek and Grab, before rallying in front of the governor’s office, an AFP journalist saw.

“Many of our friends got into accidents on the road, died on the road because they have to chase their income,” Raden Igun Wicaksono, chairman of the driver’s union Garda Indonesia, told AFP.

“It’s about lives, not about business calculation.”

Drivers are also demanding the end of discounted fare programs and calling on lawmakers to meet with the drivers’ association and app companies.

Motorbike and scooter drivers who form the backbone of Indonesia’s sprawling gig economy earn up to 150,000 rupiah ($10) a day, but costs including app commissions and fuel eat into their income.

Gojek — which alongside Singapore’s Grab is among Asia’s most valuable startups — said it was committed to “supporting the long-term welfare of our driver partners.” 

But lowering its 20-percent commission fee, which complied with regulations, was “not a viable solution,” according to Ade Mulya, head of public policy for Gojek’s parent company GoTo.

Topics: Indonesia delivery apps Jakarta gig economy

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Pentagon chief orders review of US withdrawal from Afghanistan

Pentagon chief orders review of US withdrawal from Afghanistan
Updated 20 May 2025
AFP
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Pentagon chief orders review of US withdrawal from Afghanistan

Pentagon chief orders review of US withdrawal from Afghanistan
  • A special review panel will “thoroughly examine previous investigations,” Hegseth said in a memo
  • “This team will ensure ACCOUNTABILITY to the American people”
Updated 20 May 2025
AFP

WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday ordered a Pentagon review of the chaotic 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has long been a target of Republican criticism.

“I have concluded that we need to conduct a comprehensive review to ensure that accountability for this event is met and that the complete picture is provided to the American people,” Hegseth wrote in a memo.

A special review panel will “thoroughly examine previous investigations, to include but not limited to, findings of fact, sources, witnesses, and analyze the decision making that led to one of America’s darkest and deadliest international moments,” the memo said.

“This team will ensure ACCOUNTABILITY to the American people and the warfighters of our great Nation,” it added.

The US withdrawal saw Taliban fighters sweep aside Afghan forces, forcing the last American troops to mount an evacuation from Kabul’s airport that got more than 120,000 people out of the country in a matter of days.

On August 26, 2021, a suicide bomber targeted crowds of people on the perimeter of Kabul airport who were desperate to get on a flight out of the country, killing more than 170 people, among them 13 American troops.

Joe Biden, who was US president during the withdrawal, defended the decision to leave Afghanistan, which critics have said helped cause the catastrophic collapse of Afghan forces.

That paved the way for the Taliban to return to power two decades after their first government was toppled by American forces in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Topics: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Afghanistan Pentagon Kabul

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