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North Korea conducted what was suspected to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile test ever on March 24, South Korean and Japanese authorities said, marking an end to a self-imposed moratorium on long-range testing and drawing international condemnation.

It would be the first full-capability launch of the nuclear-armed state’s largest missiles since 2017, and represents a major step in Pyongyang’s development of weapons that might be able to deliver nuclear warheads anywhere in the United States.

It was not immediately clear which missile was launched, but Ian Williams, deputy director of the CSIS Missile Defense Project in Washington, said signs pointed to the Hwasong-17, which was displayed during a North Korean military parade in October of 2020.

“We’re likely looking at a missile that can carry, for example, more than one warhead, so it could strike multiple targets with a single missile,” Williams explained. It may also be adept at skirting missile defences, he added.

Amid a flurry of diplomacy in 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un declared a moratorium on testing ICBMs and nuclear weapons but later suggested the North could resume such testing amid stalled denuclearization talks.

That moratorium had often been touted as a success by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who held historic summits with Kim in 2018 and 2019, but never secured a concrete pact to limit the North’s nuclear or missile arsenals.

Williams said Kim has a pattern of taking provocative actions near the beginning of new U.S. administrations but said he may also be trying to capitalize on the West’s preoccupation with Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“Either North Korea is trying to refocus attention on itself, or it thinks that because we are so preoccupied…they may incur fewer repercussions because of all the bandwidth that Ukraine is taking up right now,” he said.

Williams said he expects the U.S. and others to slap North Korea with more sanctions, but should not expect Russia to go along as it did after the ICBM launch five years ago.

“I’d be very surprised if we get any diplomatic cooperation from Russia,” he said. “In fact, moving forward, Russia is going to be looking at all the pressure points and all the ways it can kind of poke the West and poke the United States and make our situation more complicated.”

Williams added that he has long suspected Russia of supporting Russia’s missile developments.

On Tuesday (March 22), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov met with North Korea’s ambassador to Russia and discussed developing bilateral relations “in the context of changes happening on the international arena,” the Russian foreign ministry said.

Williams said the new ICBM test may spur the U.S. to renew investment in its homeland missile defence.

Washington currently has a program in the works that could be effective against the Hwasong-17, he said, but it is not likely to be ready for another decade.

“Unless we do…something else to augment our current missile defences, I think our current homeland defences are going to be quite strained by this new threat,” he said.

Published : March 25, 2022

By : Reuters

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Swarms of crabs emerged near the Cuban city of Matanzas on March 24 after its numbers dramatically increased during the two years of reduced traffic during the pandemic.

As spring rains arrived, millions of red, yellow and black land crabs started their migration from the forest to cross the road and down to the bay to spawn in the sea.

Most years, thousands fall victim to the tires of passing motorists. But for the past two years, the crabs have had the place to themselves, residents say, boosting in size and numbers.

Scientists have yet to confirm initial reports of a pandemic-induced recovery,

but Reinaldo Santana, a scientist with Cuba’s Environment Services Center, said the onslaught of crabs this year speaks for itself.

“This density of crabs possibly responds to the little traffic flow that there was due to COVID. That transportation was quite limited, people spent a lot of time at home, and it is very likely that this has caused the recovery of the crab population,” Aguilar told Reuters.

Tourists were treated to one a spectacular and largely intact, animal migrations.

“I have travelled quite a bit… but here in Cuba, I think this species is typical of the place,” said Italian tourist Dayana Zanona.

For the crabs, however, the post-pandemic return of tourists, and the cars, buses and vans in which they travel, is a rude awakening. As vehicles speed by, some swerving to avoid the 10-legged crustaceans, their rigid, fire-red carapaces crunch and crackle.

The stench of crushed crab fills the air and their sharp shells often puncture car tyres.

Similar crab migrations occur in other parts of Cuba at the same time of the year, as well as in other special ecosystems such as Christmas Island in the South Pacific.

Published : March 25, 2022

By : Reuters

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Taiwan has raised its alert level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but has not reported any signs of an imminent attack from China.

Lin Jih-shou was brewing tea last month in his popular breakfast joint when he heard the buzz of a plane – a rare sound on the remote Taiwan-controlled island of Dongyin near China’s coast, which does not have an airport.

Lin, 64, rushed outside, but only saw the shadow of what the government later described as a small, propeller-driven Chinese aircraft that most likely was testing Taiwan’s military response.

It was a stark reminder to residents of Dongyin and Taiwan’s other islands off China’s coast of the threat from their huge neighbour, which considers Taipei’s democratically elected government illegitimate and Taiwan a rogue province to be taken by force if needed.

Matsu was regularly bombarded by China at the height of the Cold War, and the history of conflict has focused minds on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and whether the same fate may befall them.

“Even if they (China) provoke us, we still can’t touch them. If they want to fly over (the island of Dongyin), just let them fly. If you shoot them down, everything will be over, I’m not kidding you, it would be the start of the third or fourth world war,” Lin told Reuters. “It’s really too scary.”

Taiwan has raised its alert level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but has not reported any signs of an imminent attack.

Held by Taiwan since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing the Chinese civil war, Matsu would probably be an immediate target for Beijing in a conflict, especially Dongyin’s missile base, analysts say.

Yet even with China’s increased military pressure in recent years, the archipelago has seen trendy businesses and a nascent art scene spring up.

Dongyin native Tsai Pei-yuan, born in 1993, the year after Matsu’s strict military rule ended, is part of a generation for whom war feels distant. Two years ago, Tsai and two former classmates co-founded Salty Island Studio, a cafe and community hub that has hosted arts workshops and plays.

“To continue preserving some cultures and traditions that are on the brink of disappearing, while also preserving our ocean, this is really what we young people actually care about,” Tsai said before a wine-tasting event last week. “The presence of war in our lives is not such a strong one.”

Chung Jing-yei, 26, who manages Xiwei Peninsula restaurant on the main island of Nangan, said it was only after she moved to Nangan that she understood why so many here want to maintain the status quo.

“Because they are on the frontline. In case something really happens, this place here might be the first to come under fire,” she said.

Published : March 25, 2022

By : Reuters

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Moscow Exchange on Thursday (March 24) partially resumed trading of stocks halted days after the Russian troops began what is officially called “a special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24.

Volatility soared as Moscow Exchange with the benchmark MOEX stock index climbing 11% on the day to 2,742.2.IMOEX.

Shares in gas giant Gazprom GAZP.MM jumped around 20% in early trade, while oil majors Rosneft ROSN.MM and Lukoil LKOH.MM were both up 19% as Brent crude oil LCOc1, a global benchmark for Russia’s main export, hovered near $121 per barrel.

Shares in mining giant Nornickel were also performing well, up 23% GMKN.MM.

With most of the European airspace closed to Russian planes, flagship carrier Aeroflot AFLT.MM plunged around 20% at one point before recovering somewhat to be down 5%.

Sanctioned lender VTB VTBR.MM opened in the red but soon recovered to add 1% on the day. Major lender Sberbank SBER.MM gained 19% on the day.

The Russian rouble extended recovery gains early on Thursday.

At 0713 GMT, the rouble was 1.4% stronger against the dollar at 96.37 RUBUTSTN=MCX, extending overnight gains driven by President Vladimir Putin saying Russia would start selling its gas to “unfriendly” countries in roubles.

Against the euro, the rouble was 1.9% higher at 106 EURRUBTN=MCX, still far away from levels of around 90 seen before Russia started its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Published : March 24, 2022

By : Reuters

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Madeleine Albright, who fled the Nazis as a child in her native Czechoslovakia during World War Two but rose to become the first female U.S. secretary of state and, in her later years, a pop-culture feminist icon, died on March 23 at the age of 84, her family said.

Albright was a tough-talking diplomat in an administration that hesitated to involve itself in the two biggest foreign policy crises of the 1990s – the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

“We are heartbroken to announce that Dr Madeleine K. Albright, the 64th U.S. Secretary of State and the first woman to hold that position, passed away earlier today. The cause was cancer,” the family said on Twitter.

Albright was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997 and U.S. President Bill Clinton’s secretary of state from 1997 to 2001.

Born Marie Jana Korbelova in Prague on May 15, 1937, her family fled in 1939 to London when Germany occupied Czechoslovakia. She attended school in Switzerland at age 10 and adopted the name Madeleine.

Albright attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts and got a doctorate from Columbia University. She became fluent or close to it in six languages including Czech, French, Polish and Russian as well as English.

She was nominated to become the first woman secretary of state and confirmed unanimously in 1997. She was in the post until 2001.

While at the United Nations, she pressed for a tougher line against the Serbs in Bosnia after Bosnian Serb military forces laid siege to the capital Sarajevo.

During efforts to press North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program, which was eventually unsuccessful, Albright travelled to Pyongyang in 2000 to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the secretive Communist-run country.

Once the Clinton years and the 1990s were over, Albright became an icon to a generation of young women looking for inspiration in their quest for opportunity and respect in the workplace. Albright was fond of saying: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.

Published : March 24, 2022

By : Reuters

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A Russian-drafted call for aid access and civilian protection in Ukraine that does not mention Moscow’s role in the crisis failed at the U.N. Security Council on March 23, with only Russia and China voting yes and the remaining 13 members abstaining.

“If Russia cared about the humanitarian situation, it would stop bombing children and end their siege tactics. But they haven’t,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council after the vote. Russia denies attacking civilians.

A Security Council resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, Britain, France or the United States to be adopted. Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused those who abstained on Wednesday of doing so “for political reasons.”

Explaining China’s yes vote, Ambassador Zhang Jun said Beijing had a “strong expectation” that there should be an immediate ceasefire, but that while pushing for a halt to the fighting, the council should “also respond to the humanitarian crisis in a positive, pragmatic and constructive manner.”

China abstained last month in a Security Council vote on a draft resolution that would have deplored Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, a move Western countries viewed as a win for showing Russia’s isolation. Russia vetoed the resolution.

Moscow had scrapped a planned council vote on the draft aid resolution last Friday after accusing Western countries of an “unprecedented pressure” campaign against the measure. The United States rejected Russia’s allegation.

“Russia alone is to blame for the war in Ukraine,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council on Wednesday. “Russia’s disingenuous efforts to deny the truth of its actions will continue to fail.”

A diplomatic tit-for-tat has been escalating since Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” that it says aims to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure. U.N. chief Antonio Guterres has blasted Russia’s “absurd war.”

Russia proposed the Security Council text after France and Mexico withdrew their own push for a council resolution on Ukraine’s humanitarian situation because they said it would have been vetoed by Moscow. That draft would have criticized Russia for its role in creating the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

Ukraine and its allies are instead planning to put a similar draft resolution to a vote this week in the 193-member General Assembly where no country wields a veto. General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight.

Published : March 24, 2022

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The U.S. side was told that any hostile actions against Russia will receive a decisive and adequate response.

Russia said Wednesday that it is expelling U.S. diplomats in response to Washington’s recent expulsion of Russian diplomats from the United Nations (UN).

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it summoned a senior diplomat of the U.S. embassy in Moscow on Wednesday and declared a list of American diplomats “persona non grata.”

The U.S. side was told that any hostile actions against Russia will receive a decisive and adequate response, it said.

The ministry did not disclose how many U.S. diplomats are targeted and the deadline of their departure.

The United States on Feb. 28 announced the expulsion of 12 staff members of the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN in New York and a Russian national working with the UN Secretariat.

Published : March 24, 2022

By : Xinhua

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Worse yet, an increased energy price cap was expected to push inflation even higher and deal yet another blow to household finances.

Britain announced tax cuts on Wednesday as the latest official statistics showed its inflation rose to a 30-year high in February, but industry leaders and analysts have said the measures could play a limited role in stopping the worsening cost-of-living crisis.
 

In the 12 months to February 2022, Britain’s Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 6.2 percent, up from 5.5 percent in January, according to the country’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday.

On a monthly basis, the CPI rose by 0.8 percent in February 2022, compared with a rise of 0.1 percent in February 2021, and that was the largest monthly CPI increase between January and February since 2009, the ONS added.

“Inflation rose steeply in February as prices increased for a wide range of goods and services, for products as diverse as food to toys and games,” ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said.

Clothing and footwear saw a return to traditional February price rises after last year’s falls when many shops were closed, and furniture and flooring also contributed to the rise in inflation as prices started to recover following new year sales, Fitzner added.

People dine outside at Covent Garden in London, Britain, Jan. 19, 2022. (Photo by Stephen Chung/Xinhua)

Amid the soaring prices, a cost-of-living crisis was aggravated. Record high inflation now means a typical single parent will face paying out an estimated additional 315 pounds (415 U.S. dollars) in food and heating this year compared to 2019, while bills for a family of four are likely to jump 580 pounds, according to Matt Whittaker, chief executive officer at British charity Pro Bono Economics.

“With inflation driven by staples such as food and fuel, the everyday impacts of inflation will be felt most sharply by the poorest,” Whittaker added.

Worse yet, an increased energy price cap was expected to push inflation even higher and deal yet another blow to household finances.

Britain’s energy regulator has announced that the cap would jump from the current 1,277 pounds to reach 1,971 pounds per year in April for about 22 million customers.

Inflation is likely to hit at least 8 percent this spring, reaching the highest in 40 years, said Jack Leslie, senior economist at British think tank Resolution Foundation.

“This prolonged period of high inflation — which millions of people have simply never experienced before — is a complete disaster for living standards,” he said.

Britain’s central bank, the Bank of England, lifted the benchmark interest rate to 0.75 percent earlier this month to bring down the inflation that was far above its 2-percent target. But analysts have expressed concerns that rate hikes would not be helpful.

“Energy prices are set on a global or at least continental basis, so raising UK interest rates will do nothing to reduce energy prices and help calm inflation,” said Tom Pugh, an economist at business advisory firm RSM UK.

Against such a backdrop of soaring prices across the board and the deepening cost-of-living crisis, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said Wednesday in his Spring Statement speech that the government will raise the income threshold for people to start paying National Insurance by about 3,000 pounds to 12,570 pounds in July.

It is a 6-billion-pound tax cut for 30 million people across the country, and a tax cut for employees worth over 330 pounds a year, Sunak added.

Fuel duty has also been cut by five pence per liter, which took effect on Wednesday. And the Employment Allowance, which cuts small businesses’ tax bills and makes it cheaper to employ workers, will increase from 4,000 pounds to 5,000 pounds in April.

Nevertheless, financial hardship facing British households was expected to continue.

People walk near the Big Ben in London, Britain, Feb. 24, 2022. (Photo by Andy Hall/Xinhua)

With the energy price cap rising in April, and inflation running at a 30-year high, “households are likely to see a fall in their discretionary income over the course of 2022,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium.

Businesses were also under pressure. Noting that firms will welcome some positive announcements, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce Shevaun Haviland said it “did not fundamentally address the huge cost pressures they are facing.”

“The cut in fuel duty, though very welcome, is just a drop in the ocean compared to the larger tsunami of surging costs that is bearing down on firms and households,” Haviland added.

“Smaller businesses are particularly exposed as they have neither the protections or financial support provided to households, nor the negotiating power of larger businesses.”

Also on Wednesday, the Office for Budget Responsibility published the latest update of its economic and fiscal forecasts. “In the medium term, a sustained increase in global energy prices could lower potential output for a net energy importer like the UK,” it noted.

And while vaccines have reduced the COVID-19 pandemic-related uncertainties, “the recent rise in hospitalisations demonstrate that Covid remains a risk,” it added. (1 pounds= 1.32 U.S. dollars)

Published : March 24, 2022

By : Xinhua

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40013747

Boy students from grade one to grade 12 and girls from grade one to grade six will attend their classes after the academic year started. However, female students in girls’ secondary schools and high schools were denied from attending schools until further notice.

The Ministry of Education of Afghanistan’s caretaker government on Wednesday started the new educational year as millions of Afghan children head to schools, the state-run news agency reported.
 

According to the Bakhtar News Agency, boy students from grade one to grade 12 and girls from grade one to grade six will attend their classes after the academic year started. However, female students in girls’ secondary schools and high schools were denied from attending schools until further notice.

“Whenever girls’ school uniforms are designed in accordance with Sharia, Afghan customs and culture, then the girls’ schools would be reopened after order of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s leadership,” the report said.

Afghan girls arrive to attend class on the first day of new academic year in Herat city, western Afghanistan, March 23, 2022. (Photo by Mashal/Xinhua)

Since the Taliban’s takeover of the power of the country on Aug. 15, 2021, public girls’ schools and high schools had remained closed in most of the country’s 34 provinces. However, female students returned to their classes in a few provinces before the end of last academic year.

Published : March 24, 2022

By : Xinhua

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Sunflower oil supplies in Spain have been slashed by the invasion of Ukraine leading some supermarkets to limit sales to five litres per person. With limited supply, prices have also surged taking their toll on consumers and businesses.

Javier Alvarez, owner of a small Madrid-based cafeteria specializing in churros, deep-fried dough traditionally consumed in Spain at breakfast, says rising prices mean his business is no longer profitable.

“A year ago we used to buy oil at 0.80 cents (euro) per litre and now it is 2.60 euros per litre, it has increased more than 300 per cent. This (war) was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said, adding prices of flour have also risen.

Sunflower oil from Ukraine represents around 40% – or 400,000 tonnes – of the total Spain imports to supplement the 300,000 tonnes it produces in the country.

The crisis, however, also is an opportunity for producers of one of the nation’s best-known exports: olive oil.

Primitivo Fernandez, president of the national association of edible oil bottlers, said in Spain bottled oil consumption is guaranteed because the country has enough olive oil.

Spain produces more olive oil than it consumes and exports a third of its production of virgin and refined oils.

The industry estimates it will have 1.5 million tonnes of olive oil and another 250,000 tonnes of olive pomace oil (a more refined by-product) to cover the shortfall of Ukrainian imports, while it looks for other replacement markets.

Spain also hopes to sell more olive oil to its neighbours such as France and Germany. “We are confident that this is an opportunity,” Fernandez said. “We will probably be able to reach new consumers in markets where we already are.”

The Spanish government has been proactive in talking up olive oil as a solution for shortages, with Agriculture minister Luis Planas telling local television that sunflower oil could be easily exchanged for the locally-produced version.

But, while for consumers willing to accept the higher price of olive oil it means one less headache, some restauranteurs and manufacturers of processed foods, fish canneries and bakeries, don’t agree that the two oils are interchangeable.

At the Mallorca patisserie factory in southern Madrid, the teamwork at full pelt frying torrijas, a sweet bread, milk and sugar confection cooked in huge cauldrons of sunflower oil.

Jacobo Moreno, one of the owners of a chain established in Madrid 90 years ago, said that rather than using olive oil, he was swallowing the cost of sunflower oil rising from 1.2 euros to 2.60 euros per litre over four days to ensure the quality of output for the special Easter season.

“It is true that in Spain what we have most and are most famous for is olive oil, but the reality is that it’s not suitable for baking because of its aggressive flavour,” he said.

Ruben Moreno Pardo, secretary-general of the Spanish Confectionery Association predicted the industry is two weeks, maximum of three weeks away from running out of sunflower oil stock.

Biscuits, chocolate spreads and filling, as well as packaged bread, must also be prepared with sunflower oil, he added.

The sweet industry is looking at using other vegetable oils like corn or coconut, but Spain does not yet have a stable supply.

Meanwhile chef Alejandro Aguilar plans to reluctantly make the switch to olive oil when his stock of sunflower oil runs out to fry fish in his restaurant in the southern city of Ronda.

“The plan is to fry with olive (oil), there’s no other option, I don’t like any other oils,” he said.

(Production: Michael Gore, Guillermo Martinez, Marco Trujillo, Horaci Garcia, Jon Nazca, Juan Antonio Dominguez, Mariano Valladolid, Silvio Castellanos, Miguel Gutierrez)

Published : March 23, 2022

By : Reuters