🇰🇷🇰🇵North Korea defectors in SK public sector at record high
There are now more North Korean defectors working in the South's public sector than ever before, Seoul has said.
By the end of 2024, 211 North Korean defectors held jobs in the public sector, 17 more than the previous year, the Ministry of Unification said in a statement on Wednesday.
That number is the highest since 2010, when North Korean defectors "began to enter the public service in earnest", the ministry said.
Seoul has been widening its support for North Korean defectors who struggle with unemployment and social isolation as they adjust to their new lives in the South.
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🇮🇪🇺🇸Irish exports to US surged 400% in March ahead of tariffs
Ireland's goods exports to the United States increased by almost 400% in March as manufacturers raced to get products into the country ahead of President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Sales to the US were worth just over €25bn, compared to €5bn during March 2024.
It made March a record month for overall goods exports from Ireland with sales worth €37bn, almost double the €19bn achieved in March 2024.
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🇸🇾Trump expected to meet Syrian leader after announcing he will lift sanctions
US President Donald Trump has said he will lift sanctions on Syria, ahead of an expected meeting with its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Trump has agreed to "say hello" to Syria's interim president on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia as part of his tour of the Middle East, the White House said.
The announcement of the lifting of sanctions was met with elation in the Syrian capital of Damascus, where cheering, dancing and celebratory gunfire were heard.
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🇿🇲🇺🇸Zambia warns diplomats after US reveals 'systematic' aid theft
Zambia's foreign minister has warned diplomats against interfering in the country's affairs, days after the US ambassador raised concerns about the "systematic theft" of drugs donated to the southern African state.
Mulambo Haimbe said there was an "increasing tendency" by envoys to ignore diplomatic channels, and this could undermine the "spirit of mutual respect".
He did not name anyone, but his comments were seen as being directed at the US ambassador to Lusaka, Michael Gonzales.
Last week, Gonzales called a press conference to announce that the US was cutting $50m (£37m) of health aid to Zambia because of the theft of life-saving medications that the US had provided for patients.
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🇦🇺Liberal Party names first female leader after historic Australia election loss
Australia's Liberal Party has for the first time chosen a woman as its leader, with Sussan Ley to take over from Peter Dutton after he led the party to a bruising election loss.
Ley, from the moderate faction of the party, beat Angus Taylor - who ran on a promise to restore conservative values - by four votes.
At the election on 3 May, the Liberal-National coalition, currently Australia's main opposition party, suffered what many are calling the worst defeat in its history.
Pundits and MPs have blamed the result on polarising leaders, a messy campaign and "Trumpian" policies, which alienated women and young people in particular.
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🇺🇸🇨🇳Markets rise as US and China agree to slash tariffs
Share markets jumped on Monday after President Trump said weekend talks had resulted in a "total reset" in trade terms between the US and China, a move which goes some way to defuse the high stakes stand-off between the two countries.
The talks in Switzerland resulted in significant cuts to the tit-for-tat tariffs that had been stacked up since January on both sides.
The US will lower those tariffs from 145% to 30%, while China's retaliatory tariffs on US goods will drop to 10% from 125%.
President Trump told reporters, that, as some of the levies have been suspended rather than cancelled altogether, they might rise again in three months time, if no further progress was made.
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🇨🇦Canada's Liberal Party one seat closer to majority after Quebec recount
A single vote in a Quebec riding has brought Canada's Liberal Party one seat closer to holding a majority in parliament.
A judicial recount in the Terrebonne riding declared Liberal candidate Tatiana Auguste the victor with 23,352 votes, ahead of Bloc Québécois incumbent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, who received 23,351.
The result gives the Liberal Party 170 seats in the House of Commons, two seats shy of the 172 required for a majority.
In a statement on social media, Auguste thanked the citizens of Terrebonne for their trust and promised to "get to work".
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🇬🇧Care worker recruitment from abroad to end, Cooper says
Care workers will no longer be recruited from overseas as part of a crackdown on visas for lower-skilled workers, the home secretary has told the BBC.
Yvette Cooper said it is "time to end that care worker recruitment from abroad" and rules will change this year - instead requiring firms to hire British nationals or extend visas of overseas workers already in the country.
The government plans to unveil changes to visa and recruitment laws on Monday in a bid to cut net migration, and says measures will cut up to 50,000 lower-skilled and care workers coming to the UK over the next year.
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🇺🇸New Jersey mayor arrested in protest at migrant centre
The mayor of New Jersey's largest city has been released following his arrest on Friday after allegedly trying to force his way into a migrant detention facility.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka "committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings" to leave Delaney Hall, a facility being run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to acting US attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba.
Baraka was accompanied by three Democratic members of Congress who were not arrested. They say they were there to conduct "oversight" to ensure the facility was not violating any building safety ordinances.
Baraka told CNN he did not break any laws and was "exercising my right and duty as an elected official".
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🇬🇧UK to announce fresh sanctions on Putin's 'shadow fleet'
A fleet of Russian oil tankers which have been used to avoid existing sanctions on oil and gas exports are set to be hit with new restrictions.
Downing Street has said action will be taken against up to 100 vessels which have carried more than £18 billion worth of cargo since the start of 2024.
Sir Keir Starmer is due to make the announcement at a summit of north European leaders known as the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) in Oslo, Norway.
The PM has vowed the UK will do everything in its power to "destroy" Russian President Vladimir Putin's "shadow fleet operation, starve his war machine of oil revenues and protect the subsea infrastructure".
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🇦🇺Australia Greens leader loses seat, cites 'Trump effect'
The leader of Australia's third-largest political party, the Greens, has conceded his seat in Melbourne after a tight electoral vote count that lasted several days.
Adam Bandt, who had safely held the seat of Melbourne since 2010, told reporters on Thursday afternoon that he had called Labor candidate Sarah Witty to congratulate her on her victory.
Australia's centre-left Labor party won Saturday's federal election by a landslide, decimating the conservative Liberal-National Coalition while also gutting the left-leaning Greens.
While the Greens got the highest vote in Melbourne, Bandt said the main reason for their loss was the preference votes for Liberal and the far-right One Nation party.
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🇿🇦South African opposition politician hits out after failing to get UK visa
South African firebrand opposition politician Julius Malema says he has been denied a visa to attend a conference in the UK on 10 May.
Malema said the UK had no "substantial justification" for its decision, and he saw it as an "attempt to silence a dissenting political perspective".
In a leaked letter to Malema's deputy, the UK High Commissioner to South Africa, Antony Phillipson, said the Home Office had been unable to process his visa application in time for his trip.
Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, is a fierce critic of what he sees as "Western imperialism", and also advocates the nationalisation of white-owned land in South Africa.
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🇮🇳India to stop water flowing across international borders, Modi says
India has announced that it will stop its water from flowing over international borders.
"Now, India's water will flow for India's benefit, it will be conserved for India's benefit, and it will be used for India's progress", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday.
While he did not mention Pakistan specifically, Modi's comments come about two weeks after India suspended a 65-year-old water sharing treaty with its neighbour.
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💶EU plans to end 🇷🇺Russian gas imports by end of 2027
The European Commission has published a "roadmap" outlining its plans to end Europe's reliance on Russian energy in the coming years.
Under the plans, imports of all Russian gas and liquefied natural gas to European Union member states will be banned by the end of 2027.
"No more will we permit Russia to weaponise energy against us... No more will we indirectly help fill up the [Kremlin's] war chests," European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen said in a news conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
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🇩🇪Germany's Merz falls short of majority in vote for chancellor
Germany's conservative leader has unexpectedly fallen short of the numbers needed to form a majority in parliament to become chancellor.
Friedrich Merz needed 316 votes in the 630-seat Bundestag but only secured 310, in a significant blow to the Christian Democrat leader, two and a half months after winning Germany's federal elections.
His coalition with the centre-left has enough seats in parliament but it appears 18 MPs who had been expected to back him dissented. Merz's failure in the first vote is seen as unprecedented in modern German history.
The Bundestag will now have another 14 days to choose either Merz or another candidate as chancellor.
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🇺🇸NYU withholds diploma of graduate who condemned Gaza war
New York University (NYU) has withheld the diploma of a student who used his graduation speech to accuse the US of supporting "genocide" in Gaza.
Undergraduate Logan Rozos told the crowd on Wednesday that he condemned the "atrocities currently happening in Palestine", drawing cheers and some boos.
An NYU spokesperson accused Mr Rozos of lying about what he had planned to say in the address in order to "express his personal and one-sided political views".
Pro-Palestinian advocacy on college campuses has become heavily politicised in the US, as the Trump administration cracks down on what it has called antisemitism at elite institutions, stirring a fraught debate about free speech.
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🇺🇸🇮🇷US and Iran close to nuclear deal, Trump says
US President Donald Trump says that Iran has "sort of" agreed to the terms of a nuclear deal with the United States.
Trump described the latest talks between the two countries, which ended on Sunday, as "very serious negotiations" for "long-term peace".
Earlier, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader told NBC News that Tehran was willing to make concessions on its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
The US has insisted that Iran must scrap its uranium enrichment to prevent the country developing nuclear weapons - though Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful.
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🇺🇾Uruguay's José Mujica, world's 'poorest president', dies
Former Uruguayan President José Mujica, known as "Pepe", has died at the age of 89.
The ex-guerrilla who governed Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 was known as the world's "poorest president" because of his modest lifestyle.
Current President Yamandú Orsi announced his predecessor's death on X, writing: "thank you for everything you gave us and for your deep love for your people."
The politician's cause of death is not known but he had been suffering from oesophageal cancer.
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🇺🇸🇸🇦Watch: President Trump arrives in Saudi Arabia
US President Donald Trump has landed in Saudi Arabia, for the first major diplomatic trip of his second term.
The president is hoping to secure significant new investment in the US in the four-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE.
Saudi Arabia was also the first country that Trump visited during his first term of office, going against the modern practise of US presidents to start with the UK, Canada or Mexico.
Securing new investments in the US from Gulf states, and particularly from their state-backed sovereign wealth funds, will help Trump to signal back home that his "America First" agenda is delivering results.
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🇵🇭Marcos' hold on senate grows shaky while Duterte wins mayor race from jail
Dominated by a fiery feud between two political dynasties, the Philippine mid-term elections have thrown up unexpected results that may shake President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr's hold on the senate.
According to the latest count of 80% of the votes, Marcos allies appear to have captured fewer senate seats than expected.
Meanwhile his rival, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte who is detained in The Hague over his drug war that killed thousands, has been elected mayor of his family's stronghold.
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🇮🇳🇵🇰India-Pakistan top military officials to speak as ceasefire holds
Top military officials from India and Pakistan are due to speak later on Monday to discuss finer details of the ceasefire agreed between them on Saturday.
The US-brokered ceasefire between the nuclear-armed neighbours appears to have held overnight after nearly four days of intense shelling and aerial incursions from both sides.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, saying "it was time to stop the current aggression that could have led to the death and destruction of so many, and so much".
Both nations have ceased hostilities since then but say they remain vigilant, warning each other of the consequences of violating the ceasefire.
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👀Watch: Crowds cheer as Pope holds first Sunday address
Pope Leo XIV appealed for "no more war" in a message to world powers during his first Sunday address at the Vatican.
The Pope also recited the Regina Caeli prayer, in honour of the Virgin Mary, to the crowd in St Peter's Square.
Thousands of worshippers turned out to see the new pontiff, greeting his appearance with loud cheers.
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🇷🇺🇺🇦Putin calls for 'direct talks' with Ukraine as European leaders demand ceasefire
Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited Ukraine to take part in "direct talks" on 15 May, hours after European leaders urged Moscow to agree to a 30-day ceasefire.
In a rare televised late-night address from the Kremlin, Putin said Russia was seeking "serious negotiations" aimed at "moving towards a lasting, strong peace".
Earlier on Saturday, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer travelled to Kyiv with counterparts from France, Germany and Poland to put pressure on Russia to commit to an unconditional ceasefire, starting Monday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said Moscow would "have to think this through" - but warned that "trying to pressure us is quite useless".
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🇺🇸US cuts aid to 🇿🇲Zambia over 'systematic' medicine theft
The US has announced that it is cutting $50m (£37m) in aid to Zambia's health sector, due to the country's failure to address the "systematic theft" of donated drugs and medical supplies.
This "difficult" decision was taken after repeated warnings to the Zambian government to safeguard vital drugs meant for the country's most vulnerable patients, said US ambassador to Zambia Michael Gonzales.
"We are no longer willing to underwrite the personal enrichment of fraudsters or the corrupt when patients go without or have to buy life-saving medications that we have provided for free," he added.
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🇺🇸🇬🇧US and UK agree deal slashing Trump tariffs on cars and metals
The US has agreed to reduce import taxes on a set number of British cars and allow some steel and aluminium into the country tariff-free, as part of a new agreement between the US and UK.
The announcement offers relief for key UK industries from some of the new tariffs President Donald Trump has announced since his return to the White House in January.
But it will leave a 10% duty in place on most goods from the UK.
Though hailed by the leaders of the two countries as significant, analysts said it did not appear to meaningfully alter the terms of trade between the countries, as they stood before the changes introduced by Trump this year.
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🇺🇸Fed holds rates because of tariff 'uncertainty'
The US central bank has warned that President Donald Trump's tariffs have created "so much uncertainty" that it is unsure what to do about interest rates.
The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday it would keep interest rates unchanged, despite pressure from Trump to lower borrowing costs.
But Fed chairman Jerome Powell said the economic fallout from Trump's tariffs meant it was "not at all clear" what the bank should do next.
The decision marked the third in a row without action, leaving the bank's key lending rate hovering around 4.3%.
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😍Disney to open theme park in the Middle East
Walt Disney has announced plans to open its first theme park in the Middle East.
The resort, which will be in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Abu Dhabi's Yas Island, is a collaboration between Walt Disney and local leisure and entertainment company Miral.
Disney already has six theme parks spanning North America, Europe and Asia. Its most recent opening was in 2016 in Shanghai.
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🇨🇦🇺🇸Carney tells Trump that Canada 'won't be for sale, ever'
Mark Carney has told Donald Trump that Canada "is not for sale" as the president raised the prospect of the country becoming the 51st US state while welcoming the prime minister to the White House.
Carney won the election last month promising to "stand up" to Trump, who has imposed tariffs on some Canadian products and sometimes talks about annexing the country.
The former central banker responded with a firm but measured tone after the president proposed a "wonderful marriage" of incorporating Canada into the US.
Despite a strained relationship recently between the once-close neighbours, the two men also lavished praise on each other in what was a largely cordial Oval Office meeting.
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🇬🇧Visa applications for some nationalities could be restricted
Visa applications from nationalities thought most likely to overstay and claim asylum in the UK could be restricted under a new government crackdown.
Under Home Office plans, first reported in the Times, people from countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka may find it more difficult to come to the UK to work and study.
Ministers believe there is a particular problem with those who come to the UK legally on work or study visas and then lodge a claim for asylum - which if granted, would allow them to stay in the country permanently.
A Home Office spokesperson said: "Our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system."
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🇸🇩Sudan paramilitaries escalate attacks on key city
Explosions have been heard in the Sudanese city of Port Sudan as a paramilitary force targeted the de-facto capital of the country's military-led government for the third consecutive day.
Thick black smoke could be seen at dawn on the skyline of the previously safe city where thousands of people fleeing the two-year civil war have sought refuge.
Flights have been cancelled after drones hit the international airport and a hotel near the current presidential palace, reports say.
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