North

North Korea has intensified its criticism of Japan’s military expansion and its growing security cooperation with the United States and South Korea, portraying the developments as a threat to regional stability.

More than a dozen North Korean state media attacks since early July have focused on Japan’s defence buildup, including its acquisition of long range weapons, rising military spending and closer security ties with Washington and Seoul.

The campaign has also coincided with unusual silence from Pyongyang over its own recent missile launches, raising questions about what North Korea is trying to achieve with its latest messaging.

Why Is North Korea Targeting Japan?

North Korean statements have focused heavily on Japan’s acquisition of counter strike capabilities, its testing of U.S. made Tomahawk cruise missiles, increased defence spending and its annual defence white paper.

Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, warned last week of “additional military options” in response to what she described as Japan’s transformation into a military power.

North Korea’s KCNA later described Japan’s 2026 defence white paper as a document aimed at justifying military expansion and preparing for what it called a “re invasion.”

Pyongyang has also criticised the annual U.S. South Korean Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises, accusing Washington, Seoul and Tokyo of developing what it called a “nuclear alliance.”

The United States and South Korea maintain that the exercises are defensive.

How Has Japan Changed Its Defence Policy?

Japan announced in 2022 that it planned to double defence spending to 2% of gross domestic product in response to growing security concerns involving China, Russia and North Korea.

A major part of that expansion has involved acquiring long range missile capabilities, including U.S. made Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking targets more than 1,000 km away.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to revise Japan’s national security strategy this year, potentially leading to further increases in defence spending and investment in drones and domestic weapons production.

For Pyongyang, these developments represent a significant change in Japan’s traditional defence posture and provide another basis for portraying the regional security environment as increasingly hostile.

Is North Korea’s Campaign Really About Japan?

Analysts say Japan is only one part of a broader strategic message.

Park Won-gon of Ewha Womans University said North Korea is attempting to frame Northeast Asia as a confrontation between two opposing camps.

The objective, he said, is to create a U.S. South Korea Japan versus North Korea China Russia framework.

Such a narrative could serve several purposes for Pyongyang. It can strengthen North Korea’s argument that its nuclear weapons are necessary for self defence, while also encouraging closer political and military support from China and Russia.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry has expressed a similar assessment, saying North Korea appears to view Japan’s changing security posture, South Korea’s plans for nuclear powered submarines and trilateral military cooperation as part of a broader shift in the regional balance of power.

Why Is North Korea Silent About Its Missile Tests?

One of the more unusual aspects of the latest campaign is that North Korean state media has remained silent about recent missile launches.

North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests last week and again this week, but state media has not reported them, despite the launches being condemned by South Korea, Japan and the United States.

That differs from Pyongyang’s usual practice of publicising missile tests shortly after they take place.

Analysts believe the launches may have involved improvements to existing missile systems rather than entirely new weapons, making them less valuable as domestic propaganda.

Shin Jong-woo of the Korea Defense and Security Forum suggested that some tests could involve upgraded short range ballistic missiles developed with Russian technical assistance and potentially intended for Russia.

Another possibility is that North Korea does not want to publicise launches that could be connected to prospective military exports.

What Role Does Russia Play?

North Korea’s expanding military relationship with Russia is increasingly important to understanding its weapons development.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly accused Russia of using North Korean missiles in Ukraine and Pyongyang of supplying Moscow with missiles, ammunition and troops.

Analysts say cooperation with Russia may also be helping North Korea improve the performance and accuracy of its missile systems through battlefield experience and technical assistance.

Recent launches could therefore represent tests of upgraded variants before they are deployed by North Korea or potentially supplied to Russia.

Analysis: What Is Pyongyang Trying to Achieve?

North Korea’s intensified criticism of Japan appears to be part of a broader attempt to reshape the strategic narrative around the Korean Peninsula.

By portraying the United States, South Korea and Japan as an increasingly integrated military and nuclear bloc, Pyongyang can present its own weapons development as a defensive response rather than an independent escalation.

The strategy also fits North Korea’s growing alignment with China and Russia. As security cooperation between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo deepens, Pyongyang has an incentive to emphasise the emergence of rival blocs and strengthen its position within the opposing camp.

Japan’s military expansion therefore provides North Korea with a useful political target. The immediate issue may be Japanese defence policy, but the larger objective is regional positioning.

If Japan continues expanding its military capabilities while U.S. South Korean and Japanese security cooperation deepens, Pyongyang is likely to use those developments to justify further weapons development and closer cooperation with Beijing and Moscow. The result could be a reinforcing cycle in which each side’s security measures become evidence for the other side that greater military preparedness is necessary.

With information from Reuters.

Pyongyang has accused the US of pushing the world ‘to the brink of nuclear war’.

North Korea has denounced major United States-South Korea military drills set to start next week as a provocation that heightens tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The US-Japan-South Korea military cooperation is turning into a nuclear alliance, and North Korea will respond to a new level of threat with a new level of deterrent, a spokesperson for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday, according to Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Pyongyang routinely denounces military drills in the south as a provocation that heightens tensions.

The drills – named “Ulchi Freedom Shield” – are due to start on August 17 and will last until August 27. They will incorporate exercises to counter drones, GPS disruption, and cyberattacks as the US and its allies adapt to North Korea’s evolving capabilities.

“The US announced that the forthcoming exercises are quite different from the ones of the past five years and intended to master the ability of fighting a war on the basis of the new aspects of modern warfare,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in the statement.

“It is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent,” the statement, published by KCNA, added.

Lessons learned in Russia-Ukraine

North Korea sent an estimated 12,000-15,000 soldiers to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine, and the country is now thought to be preparing the deployment of another 10,000.

Thousands died, but the deal provided North Korea with valuable battlefield experience, as well as payment in arms, energy and direct financial support, according to reports.

Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesperson for the US and South Korean Combined Forces Command, said this week that North Korea’s deployment to the European war had changed the threat his soldiers may face on the Korean Peninsula.

“They’ve taken those lessons they learned there and brought them back to North Korea,” he told reporters. “Our training accounts for that threat.”

Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry statement said the US-South Korea drills are being staged “at a time when military and political situation is becoming more serious with each passing day in Europe, the Middle East and other parts of the world”.

North Korea also said on Friday that it would further strengthen its nuclear deterrence, accusing the US of lowering its threshold for nuclear weapons usage and pushing the world “to the brink of nuclear war”.

On Wednesday, North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the sea off the Korean Peninsula’s east coast, just six days after firing another missile.

The Ulchi Freedom Shield drills will include 18,000 South Korean soldiers and counterparts from the 28,500-strong US contingent in the country.

SEOUL, Aug. 11 (UPI) — North Korea fired a ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday, the militaries of Seoul and Tokyo said, its second such launch in less than a week as the United States and South Korea gear up to kick off their major summertime joint military drill.

The missile was fired from the Wonsan area on North Korea’s east coast at around 6 a.m., South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters.

“The detected North Korean missile flew over 700 kilometers (435 miles), and South Korea and the U.S. are currently conducting a detailed analysis regarding its exact specifications,” the JCS said.

The military did not specify the type of missile involved, although the distance the projectile traveled falls within the range of short-range ballistic missiles.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities tracked and shared information on the launch from its initial stage, while Seoul also exchanged information related to the ballistic missile with Japan, the military added.

“Under a robust South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture, the military is closely monitoring North Korea’s various movements and maintaining the capability and readiness to overwhelmingly respond to any provocation,” the JCS said.

Japan’s Defense Ministry also detected the launch, saying the missile flew about 429 miles, reached a maximum altitude of roughly 56 miles and fell outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi condemned the launch at a press briefing, saying the North’s weapons tests “threaten the peace and security of our country, the region, and the international community.”

Koizumi said the launch violated relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and noted that Japan had lodged a strong protest with North Korea through diplomatic channels at its embassy in Beijing.

Hawaii-based U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said it detected the launch and was consulting with regional allies and partners.

“Based on current assessments, this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies,” the command said in a statement.

The launch came days before the United States and South Korea are set to begin their annual summertime joint military drills. The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise kicks off Monday and will focus on preparing for evolving threats from North Korea, military officials said earlier this week.

North Korea routinely denounces the allies’ joint exercises as rehearsals for an invasion and frequently responds with weapons tests. On Thursday, Pyongyang fired a short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea.

The allies stressed that the joint exercise is defensive in nature.

“We’re up here today announcing Ulchi Freedom Shield to the entire world before it even starts,” U.S. Forces spokesman Col. Ryan Donald said at a press briefing Monday. “UFS is not a pretext, it’s not a provocation. It’s a transparent, longstanding defensive training event.”

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole, disagreeing sharply with Vice President George Bush, has blasted the Iranian arms sale as contrary to American principles and declared that Lt. Col. Oliver L. North is no hero.

Bush supported President Reagan’s covert plan of selling arms to Iran in exchange for American hostages held in Lebanon. And the vice president has hailed North, who has admitted lying to Congress and destroying official records in an effort to conceal his role in the Iran-Contra scandal, as someone who will go down in history as a hero.

Dole, in a television interview with British journalist David Frost, to be broadcast nationwide on Sunday, said the Iranian arms sale “runs against the grain of everything we stand for in America.”

When pressed on whom he blames for “the whole Iran-Contra mess,” Dole pointed out that Reagan had accepted responsibility for it and said the President “gets a little of that . . . . Everybody around him gets a little of that.”

History will regard North as a patriot with an exemplary record, Dole said, but as an agent for Reagan in the Iran-Contra affair the Marine officer “overstepped his bounds,” did not serve the President well and “is not a hero in that regard.”

In a program broadcast on Dec. 6, Bush told Frost that North did a better job even “than our great communicator of a President” in expressing what was at stake in Central America during the Iran-Contra hearings and that “the American people in every bar in Chicago and every bowling alley in Texas and every little home said: ‘Hey, this guy believes in something, and I can identify with it.’ ”

Public opinion polls show Bush with a substantial lead in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, with Dole holding a firm grip on second place and the other four candidates trailing far behind.

Dole and his wife, Elizabeth, who resigned as Reagan’s transportation secretary to campaign for her husband, both were interviewed by Frost for the hourlong program. It is the sixth of a 13-part series, called “The Next President,” which features interviews with presidential candidates and their wives and is co-produced by Frost and U.S. News & World Report.

The senator said it is possible that his wife, a former Federal Trade Commission member and presidential assistant who has frequently been mentioned as a candidate for vice president, will be selected as a running mate for the Republican presidential nominee.

‘Some Interest’

Although there is “some interest” in her being on the ticket, he said, it “probably is not going to happen unless she is on the ticket with someone else. Now that could happen.”

The senator, who has frequently drawn attention to Bush’s prep school and country club background, described his own working-class upbringing in Russell, Kan., in the Frost interview and said the Republican Party needs to reach out to “hard-working, real people” to dispel its image as a party of the privileged.

As the older brother of his family, Dole said, he handed down his clothes to his brother, Kenny, and his sister Gloria handed down her clothes to her younger sister, Norma Jean.

“There weren’t a lot of wealthy families in our little hometown,” he said. “My father wore overalls every day to work. So we . . . certainly didn’t have much money, but I remember my dad had an old car called a Whippet, which is quite an automobile.”

With other young boys in Russell, he said, he “raked the leaves and mowed the lawns and delivered handbills and newspapers and sacked groceries and worked in my father’s cream and egg station.”

In recalling the eight years he served as county attorney while still a young man in Russell, Dole said that every month he had to approve welfare claims and every month he found his grandparents on the welfare list.

“And you know,” said Dole, who frequently stresses the need for government assistance to the disadvantaged, “they weren’t lazy, but they were poor and they were old. And they’d been farmers. And I think that’s another dimension. Seems to me leadership is about a lot of things.

“But it’s got to stem from who you are and where you’re from and all those things. I mean, your own life is the key to whatever you’re going to do later on.”

Dole said he went through a “fairly dark” period right after Jimmy Carter defeated then-President Gerald R. Ford in the 1976 election. As Ford’s running mate, Dole made several harsh attacks on the Carter-Mondale ticket that some political observers thought were counterproductive and may have even cost Ford the election.

“But I remember Richard Nixon calling me the day after the election and saying: ‘Now, Bob, get ready. Somebody is going to be looking for a scapegoat,’ ” Dole said. “They are going to be saying Ronald Reagan didn’t work hard enough, Nelson Rockefeller didn’t work enough, Bob Dole didn’t work hard enough, Jerry Ford made the gaffe about Poland. So I was already prepared.”

Reshaping Image

Mrs. Dole has been widely credited with helping to soften her husband’s image since the 1976 election, and the senator said that, although he could not say whether this was true, his wife had been helpful in consulting with him after reviewing tapes of all his appearances on television during the 1976 campaign.

“All the tapes where people said Bob Dole had been harsh and some even said a ‘hatchet man,’ ” the senator said. “She concluded they were not accurate. But, in any event, I think from that standpoint it’s been very helpful.”

Frost asked Mrs. Dole whether she understood the “troubled reaction” of a minority of women who questioned her giving up her career to help her husband in his quest for the presidency.

“Well, you know, as you said, it was a minority,” she said. “The overwhelming response that I had was yes, you did the right thing. My feeling about it is that we women have worked hard for the right to make our own career decisions, to make our own decisions generally, to do what we feel is right and best. And this was very much a personal decision.”

Citing an article in a Washington publication that compared Mrs. Dole to Jackie Kennedy, “a glamorous feminine figure draped in a frame of steel,” Frost asked if she liked that description.

“Oh, my goodness,” Elizabeth Dole said. “Well, I’m a believer in being yourself, and I don’t think that women have to make themselves over into the image of a man to be successful at what they do. I really think we should all be ourselves.”

Aug. 11 (UPI) — At least nine people were killed and 25 injured in Russian strikes targeting Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that Zaporizhzhia, where six people were killed and 19 injured, was hit with North Korean-made missiles.

In a post on X on Tuesday morning, Zelensky said emergency response efforts were still in progress dealing with the aftermath of a “vicious” attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia that involved North Korean ballistic missiles, Zircon hypersonic missiles and guided aerial bombs.

“It was a vicious attack, calculated to inflict maximum damage specifically on civilian infrastructure. Unfortunately, as of now, six people have been reported killed and nineteen wounded in the city. First responders are continuing to extinguish a fire at one of the impact sites,” wrote Zelensky.

He said a missile strike also damaged an infectious diseases hospital building and businesses in Kyiv and the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Donetsk regions also came under attack.

The other fatalities were all in Dnipropetrovsk, where five districts were attacked with artillery and drones, with Gov. Oleksandr Ghanza reporting in an online update that a middle-aged man was killed in the Synelnyky area, east of Dnipro, a teenage boy was killed In Kryvyi Rih and one person was killed in Pavlohrad.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it launched strikes against hubs for transport and logistics in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, as well as “defense industry” targets. Officials in Russia’s southwest said a man was killed and two were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Voronezh Region with two warehouses belonging to e-commerce giant Wildberries set ablaze.

Zelensky said more than 120 drones were sent into Ukraine as frontline regions continued to experience what he described as “drone terror” on an almost daily basis, with power outages in Kherson and Kharkiv after strikes overnight.

“Every step Russia takes — increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilization — all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation. And the world needs to respond now, not wait. More sanctions pressure specifically on enterprises that fuel Russia’s war, more air defense assistance for Ukraine — all of this is needed to give peace a chance,” said Zelensky.

Tuesday’s strikes came hours after Zelensky warned in a televised address Monday that North Korea was gaining battlefield experience and boosting its military capabilities through its support for Russia, posing a growing threat to U.S. allies and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Zelensky said North Korea had supplied the Russian military with additional ballistic missiles and was preparing to deploy tens of thousands of troops to Russia.

On Sunday, Zelensky called for increased co-operation between Seoul and Kyiv, particularly on air defense systems, warning that North Korea was preparing to send an additional 30,000 to 50,000 personnel to Russia on top of the 15,000 it already provided.

Aug. 7 (Asia Today) — South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Friday that broader public discussion should come before any government move to routinely use North Korea’s official state name, taking a cautious position on a proposal outlined during a recent presidential policy briefing.

Chung made the remarks during a meeting of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council, an advisory body under the unification minister, at the government complex in Seoul.

“Because the policy briefing was compressed for time, the explanation that we would proceed only after public discussion was omitted,” Chung said.

He said the ministry had already explained at a media briefing before the presidential report that it did not intend to lead the change unilaterally and that any move should come only after public discussion and greater public acceptance.

President Lee Jae Myung also expressed caution during a government policy briefing Wednesday, saying a proposal for the two Koreas to use each other’s official state names remained open to debate.

South Korea ordinarily refers to the North as North Korea, or “Bukhan” in Korean. North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, while it commonly refers to itself in Korean as “Joseon.”

The question has political and constitutional implications in South Korea because Seoul does not formally treat inter-Korean relations as conventional state-to-state relations. The two governments, however, have used their official names in numerous inter-Korean agreements over the past several decades.

Chung defended the rationale for discussing the change.

He noted that guidelines issued in 1995 by three South Korean media organizations – the Journalists Association of Korea, the National Union of Media Workers and the Korean Producers and Directors Association – recommended that each side use the other’s official name.

Chung said the guideline has not been consistently followed.

He also cited similar calls from South Korea’s seven major religious organizations, civic groups and the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council, saying broader acceptance by the media would be an important factor in determining whether the terminology becomes more widely used.

Former Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun argued at the meeting that the government should move more actively toward using the official names.

“Since the Inter-Korean Basic Agreement, more than 100 summit agreements and other documents have used the official state names,” Jeong said.

He questioned why South Koreans should be reluctant to use the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in speech when the same name has already appeared in formal documents.

Former Unification Minister Lim Dong-won said using the term “Joseon” may sound new to many South Koreans but is not historically unprecedented.

He said there was a need to gradually change public perceptions of the terminology.

Paik Nak-chung, professor emeritus at Seoul National University, also noted that since the two Koreas joined the United Nations simultaneously in 1991, presidential documents and numerous inter-Korean agreements have used each other’s official state names.

He described the proposal as essentially calling each side by the name already recorded in official documents.

The meeting was also attended by former Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, National Museum of Korean Literature Director Lim Heon-young and Ham Se-woong, chairman of a memorial organization honoring Korean independence activist Ahn Jung-geun.

The Unification Ministry launched the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council in January as a ministerial advisory body bringing together senior figures and active experts to develop proposals for peaceful coexistence and shared growth on the Korean Peninsula.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260807010002452

The Westin Turtle Bay Resort & Spa

Lifestyle Editor Catherine Bennion-Pedley and her family found a knockout pool and fab food in the north-west.

SITTING among the fragrant herbs and lush veg of the Chef’s Garden, our lunch table is laden with local produce.

To get a real taste of a country, you can’t beat a cooking class, and this one, £40 per person, is a proper treat.

Chef Vishal helps us to whip up an array of seasonal, plant-based dishes, chargrilling aubergine and throwing together tantalising salads, including one using okra.

Even our kids, Poppy, seven, and Raffy, five, are tucking in, despite usually removing any sign of a green leaf from their plate.

As his final winning move, Vishal gets us to caramelise bananas for pud, using rich brown sugar from the isle and a portable stove top.

RETREAT YOURSELF

From St Lucia to Ibiza – we tried 2 adults-only retreats for perfect reset

MED FOR IT

We test two adults-only Mediterranean escapes from rooftop cool to beach bliss

The Westin prides itself on its wellness offerings, and is certainly nailing its Eat Well pillar.

There are five restaurants – our favourite is Fusion, serving up Japanese cuisine, including mouth-watering sushi we all devour.

Indian offering Kangan also makes for a memorable meal with highlights such as crispy lentil and rice dumplings with mint chutney and a taste explosion of a Goan fish curry.

Meanwhile, Seasonal Tastes’ buffet is brimming with choices, often with live musicians performing, too.

We spend most of our days at the main pool, which is so huge there’s ample room for both water aerobics classes and family ball games, plus there’s a giant poolside chessboard.

While there are undoubtedly resorts with more impressive beaches on the island – volcanic rock outcrops dot the coves here – on the largest stretch we make use of the free kayaks, plus we spot plenty of sea creatures while rockpooling.

Well worth a trip out is our visit to L’Aventure du Sucre, set in an historic sugar factory a 15-minute drive away.

We take a walk through the island’s fascinating history, from the Dutch settlement here in the 17th century right up to the current day, and learn about the importance of both the indigo and sugarcane crops.

The kids follow a quiz trail – a tube of sugar is the prize at the end – and we all dig in at the jam and sugar tasting stations.

Then, after sampling rums, we splurge on a bottle of Lazy Dodo, £26, and lychee jam, £6, as mementoes. Adult entry costs £19, kids over six cost £9.50 (Aventuredusucre.com).

Back at the hotel’s Heavenly Spa, nestled within tropical gardens, I feel much more flexible after a 60-minute signature massage, £80, and later, husband Andy joins therapist Selvi for a private yoga class on the jetty with just the sound of waves lapping beneath them, £56.

An hour later, he returns more serene than I’ve seen him in months. No wonder we meet so many returning guests – and one tips us off about a fire show on the beach that evening.

The spectacular tricks performed to an atmospheric soundtrack leave us in awe. A bit like Mauritius itself.

British Airways Holidays offers a seven-night family stay at five-star The Westin Turtle Bay Resort & Spa from £4,439 half-board, with flights (Ba.com/mauritius).

Veranda Paul et Virginie Hotel & Spa

Assistant Editor Kelly Allen and friends checked into an adults-only gem on the island’s north-east coast.

LOOKING out from the hotel’s scenic Poudre d’Or bar with its views of the infinity pool and, further out, the pristine sands and ombre water of the idyllic Grand Gaube Lagoon, it takes no time for the stresses of life to dissipate with a welcome rum punch in hand.

This place has just 81 rooms, so it feels intimate and is particularly popular with couples.

There’s a standard buffet with an excellent tropical fruit selection at the Isle de France eatery, but it’s à la carte restaurant Le Saint Géran, sitting at the end of the pier, that really wows.

One night, we tuck into a feast of Mauritian-style cod with satini pomme de terre, a local delicacy.

It’s essentially “potato chutney” of mashed potato, crispy fried red onions, dried red chillies, garlic and oil.

It goes without saying that I also have to leave room for the impressive smoky banana flambé.

The activities schedule is packed, too, with seafront sega classes – the traditional dance of the island – as well as rum mixing and Creole cookery classes.

Learning to make farata (Mauritian roti) from scratch using plain flour, salt and a splash of oil is so easy I’m convinced I’ll be recreating it at home.

It’s also ideal for soaking up the plethora of cocktails on offer, including a top-notch dark & stormy, before I retreat for a nap back at my room, which is rustic with a quaint thatched roof that feels like something from a different time.

One morning, we leave the serenity of our sunloungers to visit the Pamplemousses district, 20 minutes’ drive away, where we wander through Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens.

As well as an array of tropical plants, including giant lily pads, white lotuses and a medicinal spice garden, there is so much wildlife to spot, from fruit bats to deer, but my favourites are the giant tortoises.

Entry costs £4.75 per adult (Ssrbg.govmu.org).

Grand Baie, a famously lively area of restaurants and bars, is also nearby, and I pick up souvenirs of a cute shell hair clip and a bracelet in the bustling Bazar de Grand Baie.

As they say in Creole, for a dose of sun and plenty of rum, this place is ”bon bagay” – great stuff!

Stays for two at Veranda Paul Et Virginie Hotel & Spa cost from £243 per night all-inclusive (Veranda-resorts.com).

Return flights from the UK to Mauritius cost from £575.

Ukraine’s military intelligence says North Korea is preparing to deploy a missile unit to western Russia, which would mark another major expansion of military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. The report comes as Kyiv warns its dwindling ballistic missile defenses are costing civilian lives.

Andrii Cherniak of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) told Reuters that the deployment will involve approximately 90 North Korean personnel stationed in Russia’s Voronezh region — which borders Ukraine — alongside the Russian military’s 112th Guards Missile Brigade. Ukrainian intelligence assesses the unit could ultimately field six launchers and as many as 120 KN-23 and KN-24 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs), although the final composition is expected to be determined during senior-level talks next month.

The Ukrainian intelligence assessment has not been independently verified.

If confirmed, the deployment would represent a further deepening of North Korean support for Russia, after supplying Russia with ammunition, smaller numbers of ballistic missiles, and troops.

The Ukrainian Air Force today said Russia launched another major overnight strike combining drones with ballistic missiles. Preliminary figures showed Ukrainian air defenses shot down 98 of the 115 drones launched, but failed to intercept a single ballistic missile. As well as the inherent difficulty of intercepting these threats, this statistic also points to the exhaustion of its Patriot interceptor stockpiles.

The attack killed at least 17 people and injured dozens more after strikes hit multiple locations across Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky directly linked the casualties to continued shortages of advanced air-defense systems.

“Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today,” Zelensky wrote on social media. “It is very important that our partners understand that delays in supplying them, or an unwillingness to provide anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.”

Ukraine has spent months urging Western partners to provide additional Patriot batteries and interceptor missiles, which remain among the few systems capable of defeating ballistic missile threats such as Russia’s Iskander and North Korea’s KN-23 and KN-24. While Ukrainian forces routinely claim to intercept the majority of incoming drones and many cruise missiles, ballistic missiles continue to present one of the most difficult threats to defend against.

Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Washington might grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot interceptors domestically before later appearing to back away from the proposal, saying the technology was “a hard thing to give away.”

According to Ukraine’s military administration, seven sites across Kyiv were struck during the latest attack, which began shortly after midnight. Zelensky said the primary targets included civilian industrial facilities, among them a brewing company and warehouses storing construction materials.

“Partners who are not yet ready to play a more active role in supplying interceptors can help by implementing new sanctions. A significant share of Russia’s ballistic missile production is still not under sanctions,” Zelensky wrote on X. “Even now. New steps are needed — from the G7, the European Union, and everyone who supports the protection of life. Thank you to those who are willing to help in this way.”

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said rescue operations continued throughout the day.

“There may still be people under the rubble,” he said.

Emergency crews rescued two survivors from a destroyed warehouse near the city center. Klitschko said 24 people were injured, including an ambulance driver, while four remained in critical condition. The strikes also ignited multiple fires at warehouses and industrial sites, while Ukrainian authorities reported an ammonia leak triggered by one of the impacts.

The latest attack coincides with what Ukrainian intelligence says was Russia’s first use of North Korean ballistic missiles since August 2025.

Cherniak told Reuters that Pyongyang recently delivered another batch of 40 KN-23 and KN-24 missiles to Russia, along with additional personnel. He said Russia ultimately expects to receive 120 North Korean ballistic missiles and six launchers.

According to Ukrainian authorities, one of the newly delivered North Korean missiles struck the central Ukrainian village of Radushne last week, flattening a residential home and killing at least five members of the same family.

In the strike on Radushne, for the first time in a while, the Russians used a North Korean missile, according to preliminary data. Of course, more examinations will follow, and everything will be verified, but as of now – it is a North Korean ballistic missile. The alliance… pic.twitter.com/UtTTNGwBUb

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 30, 2026

Clearly, any increase in Russia’s ballistic missile inventory poses a serious challenge for Ukraine’s already strained air defenses. The situation is likely to become more difficult heading into the coming winter, when Russia normally steps up its strikes against Ukraine’s electrical grid.

The KN-23, known in North Korea as the Hwasong-11A, is a traditional SRBM that can reach out to around 800 kilometers (497 miles) and has a 500-kilogram (1,102-pound) class unitary high-explosive warhead. It offers greater range than Russia’s 9M723 Iskander SRBM, which carries a similarly sized warhead but has a range of 500 kilometers (311 miles). This weapon has also been fired from adapted railcars, a concept you can read more about here.

As for the KN-24, or Hwasong-11B, this has a range of approximately 410 kilometers (255 miles), making it more of a battlefield support SRBM, but still sufficient for Russia to strike many targets within Ukraine. It is often considered a North Korean analog of the U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS).

However, the North Korean SRBMs are considered less accurate than their Russian-made counterparts and have been associated with strikes causing significant civilian casualties.

According to a report from Ukrainian state prosecutors, around half of the KN-23s that had been launched by Russia between late December 2023 and late February 2024 not only deviated from their trajectory but also exploded in midair.

An investigation by Conflict Armament Research (CAR) into the wreckage of a KN-23/KN-24 missile used by Russia in Ukraine found that the missile contained more than 290 foreign-made electronic components, with approximately 75 percent linked to U.S. companies, 16 percent to European firms, and the remainder to Asian manufacturers. This suggests that North Korea continues to obtain critical Western technology despite longstanding international sanctions and points to continued limitations in Pyongyang’s high-technology production capabilities.

🚨 🇺🇦🇷🇺🇰🇵 Analysis of the debris from one of the North Korean ballistic missiles fired by Russia at Ukraine found it was constructed with more than 290 non-domestic electronic components. Many of them were produced by US companies in the last 3 years.

This analysis was conducted… pic.twitter.com/YHwwAZG0Wo

— Colby Badhwar (@ColbyBadhwar) February 20, 2024

North Korea first began supplying KN-23 and KN-24 missiles to Russia in late 2023. Cherniak said Pyongyang delivered approximately 150 ballistic missiles between late 2023 and August 2025. Ukraine also says North Korea has supplied millions of much-needed artillery projectiles and deployed around 14,000 troops to Russia’s Kursk region under the countries’ 2024 mutual defense agreement.

Cherniak said roughly 9,500 North Korean troops remain in Kursk but are not currently engaged in combat operations against Ukraine. Zelensky said last month that Russia is seeking an additional 30,000 North Korean troops and is preparing facilities in the Voronezh region to receive them.

Overall, North Korean-supplied missiles make up only a very small fraction of the weapons used in Russian strikes on Ukraine, but there has long been concern about the direction the burgeoning military relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang could take. There have been particular concerns that Russian expertise in the development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons — as well as other weapons and technologies — could be provided to North Korea.

North Korea: Kim Jong-un shows unseen nuclear weapons to Russia’s defence minister

The reported new deployment comes as Russia appears to be increasing its reliance on ballistic missiles to exploit one of Ukraine’s most significant military vulnerabilities. With few signs that Russia has been able to further ramp up production of its own Iskander missiles, an increased supply of North Korean ballistic missiles would take advantage of a gap in Ukrainian air defenses and further threaten its cities, energy infrastructure, and other targets. The bigger concern is not simply another shipment of missiles, but the prospect of Russia tapping into an expanding North Korean production base financed by Moscow, allowing it to sustain high-volume ballistic missile attacks for far longer than it otherwise could.

Ukraine’s ability to defeat ballistic missiles of any origin has become increasingly constrained by the availability of interceptor missiles. Patriot remains the primary system capable of reliably engaging Iskander, KN-23, and KN-24 ballistic missiles, but the U.S.-made interceptors are expensive, produced in relatively modest numbers, and are also needed to meet U.S. and allied needs around the world. European-supplied SAMP/T batteries also provide a limited anti-ballistic capability, but have been provided in only limited numbers so far.

Global demand for Patriot interceptors has surged amid conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, straining U.S. and allied inventories and production capacity. Those constraints have become significant enough that Congress has questioned whether the Pentagon can sustain higher transfer rates to Ukraine even as Kyiv presses for more interceptors. Meanwhile, although the United States continues discussing licensed Patriot production with Ukraine, any domestic manufacturing effort would take many months—if not years—to produce missiles in meaningful numbers, leaving Kyiv dependent on allied deliveries for the foreseeable future.

Whether or not the reported North Korean missile unit deployment materializes, the operational trend is becoming increasingly clear. Russia is continuing to expand the scale and complexity of its long-range strike campaigns, pairing mass drone attacks with growing numbers of ballistic missiles specifically intended to exploit one of Ukraine’s most difficult defensive challenges. As Kyiv’s leadership continues to press for additional Patriot batteries and interceptor missiles, the consequences of those shortages are becoming increasingly evident with every large-scale strike.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Law enforcement in the US state of North Carolina has reported a fatal mass shooting in the city of Prospect Hill.

“Deputies arriving on scene found multiple people who had been shot. One person was transported to Duke University Hospital with a gunshot wound, and there are multiple other fatalities,” the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation said in a statement on Wednesday.

“SBI Crime scene investigators are on scene processing evidence and conducting interviews. There is NO THREAT to the general public.”

More to come…

Spain’s two tiny enclaves on the north coast of Africa have long been a flashpoint in its relationship with Morocco, which the territories border.

The only such European territories on African soil, they include the autonomous city enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, as well as Plazas de Soberanía – a group of rocky islands off the Moroccan coast, which include the Chafarinas Islands, Alhucemas Islands and Penon de Velez de la Gomera.

While Spain says it owns these enclaves, Morocco does not recognise Spain’s sovereignty over them and has been demanding their return since independence from France in 1956.

The territorial dispute has resulted in long-standing political tensions between Spain and Morocco.

Last week, after more than 50,000 migrants surged over the border into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, those tensions between Madrid and Rabat intensified. While most have since returned to Morocco, several thousand remain in Ceuta this week.

So why does Spain have these territories at all and what does their future hold?

Here’s what we know:

Why does Spain have enclaves in North Africa?

The enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, along with a few islets off the coast of Morocco, constitute the last vestiges of the Spanish colonial empire.

Ceuta first came under Portuguese rule in 1415 before becoming part of Spain in 1580, while Melilla was conquered by a Spanish nobleman in 1497. Ceuta remained under Spanish control after Portugal regained independence in 1640 following a long war.

“Spain reached its greatest extent in Latin America, and with the loss of Cuba, Costa Rica and the Philippines in 1898, it shifted its influence to Africa, although most European colonial powers had already divided it among themselves,” explained Yolanda Aixelà Cabré, an anthropologist at IMF-CSIC in Barcelona.

After the decolonisation of Africa in the last century, Ceuta and Melilla remained the only European-held territories on the African mainland. Although geographically in Africa, the enclaves are considered Spanish territory and form part of the EU’s external border.

“For Spain, maintaining these enclaves [on the northern coast of Africa] is fundamental on a symbolic level because they reinforce Spanish grandeur, its imperial past which the State continues to consider a bearer of civilisation in contrast to barbarism, a notion perfectly encapsulated by the repetitive discourse that [Christopher] Columbus, representing the Catholic Monarchs, ‘discovered’ America,” she said.

Why didn’t the enclaves pass to Morocco on independence?

Selim Balouati Lakhloufi is a historian and researcher specialising in the history of North Africa and the Rif mountainous region in northern Morocco, which stretches along the Mediterranean coast from Tangier to the border with Algeria. He said Ceuta and Melilla continue to exist as separate territories because their origins “predate modern Morocco”.

“They are enclaves that have been occupied for centuries,” he told Al Jazeera.

But since gaining independence from France in 1956 – which Spain recognised while retaining its enclaves – Morocco has consistently maintained that the territories of Ceuta and Melilla, which it calls “Sebtah and Melilah”, and the Plazas de Soberanía, are part of its territory and has been demanding their return.

“This has always been used by the Moroccan political class as a point of criticism against Spain,” Lakhloufi said.

Samir Bennis, a Washington, DC-based senior political adviser who is also the co-founder of Morocco World News and an expert on Morocco’s foreign policy, said since independence, Morocco’s territorial claims over Ceuta and Melilla have frequently been at the centre of tricky relations between Spain and Morocco.

“Perhaps this issue would not have had the same detrimental effect on bilateral relations had Moroccan leaders shown greater determination in the early 1960s, during the height of the decolonisation period, to bring the matter before the United Nations and seek recognition of these two cities as colonial territories that should be liberated from any foreign presence,” he said.

He explained that there are, however, two important factors which led the Moroccan authorities to refrain from pursuing this course in their efforts to restore the country’s territorial integrity.

“The first was the sheer scale of the territorial disputes between Spain and Morocco. Given the difficulty Morocco faced in simultaneously contesting Spanish control over several territories, the Moroccan government decided to proceed gradually in its efforts to recover the parts of Moroccan territory that remained under Spanish rule.”

“The second factor that led the Moroccan leadership to postpone addressing the question of Ceuta and Melilla was the willingness shown by the Spanish authorities to resolve their territorial disputes with Morocco progressively. In the end, this strategy proved highly beneficial for safeguarding Spain’s interests in the two cities,” Bennis added.

How strong is Morocco’s claim to these enclaves?

Morocco’s claim to the territories is relatively weak, Bennis said. But “the country can invoke a range of historical, geographical and human arguments that cast doubt on Spain’s position”.

Jamie Trinidad, a fellow and director of studies in law at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, also said that Morocco’s claim to the territories is weak under international law. “It is a political, rather than a legal, claim, similar to Spain’s claim to Gibraltar, which lies across the strait from Ceuta,” he said. Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory.

“In the 1970s, Morocco asked the UN to include the territories on the list of ‘Non-Self-Governing Territories’ overseen by the UN’s Special Committee on Decolonisation, but the Moroccan request was ignored by the UN,” he added.

What do people living in these enclaves want?

Around 84,000 people live in Ceuta and 86,000 in Melilla.

In Spanish possession since 1580, Ceuta is home to a mixed population of Christian and Muslim, Spanish and Moroccan residents and day workers who live and work in relative harmony.

But after more than 50,000 migrants entered Ceuta illegally last week, divisions and tensions in the enclave have risen.

Hundreds of residents rallied on Sunday – two days after the surge of migrants to Ceuta – to oppose a planned far-right anti-migrant rally, forcing organisers to cancel the event.

“I am half Christian, half Muslim, as many in Ceuta are. We live peacefully together. But the numbers this time were scary,” Ceuta resident Isabel told Al Jazeera over the weekend.

Melilla, which has been in Spanish possession since 1497, is also home to Spanish and Moroccan residents, as well as small Jewish and Sindhi communities, the latter a diaspora of Hindu merchants who arrived following the 1947 partition of India.

The Plazas de Soberania is mainly populated by Spanish military personnel.

Lakhloufi noted that polling shows an overwhelming majority of people living in Ceuta and Melilla wish to remain part of Spain.

“This has been reflected consistently in public opinion and in the absence of any significant political movement advocating a change in sovereignty,” he said. “Even the population with Moroccan origin want to stay as Spanish and European. This is because the social welfare difference between Morocco and the cities it’s really high,” he said.

“At the same time, both cities maintain strong historical, cultural and economic ties with Morocco, making cooperation across the border an important aspect of daily life,” he added.

According to the Spanish government, Ceuta and Melilla are part of the Schengen area, which guarantees freedom of movement within the EU, but are subject to a special Schengen regime. People travelling between the enclaves and mainland Spain undergo separate border checks.

“Schengen checks are carried out on exit by sea or air, the only two routes available. Therefore, no one can travel from Ceuta or Melilla to mainland Spain without being identified by the National Police at the port or the airport. In addition, ferry operators and airlines are required to verify travel documents,” a Spanish government document states.

Will Spain give up these enclaves?

Analysts are divided.

In March 2022, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote to the Moroccan king, confirming Spanish support for Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara, which Spain gave up control of in 1975. Sanchez said this was “the most serious, realistic and credible” initiative for resolving the decades-long dispute over the vast African territory and declared “a new stage” in Spain’s strained relations with Morocco.

Cabre said, therefore, that after last week’s overwhelming migrant influx into Ceuta, Spain could ultimately cede sovereignty to Morocco.

“Their [the enclaves] mere presence is an unsustainable historical anomaly at a time when the decolonisation of European states is being promoted at all levels, like European countries returning of items stolen during colonialism and recognising the citizenship rights of their former colonies,” she said.

But Lakhloufi does not expect a fundamental change in Spain’s policy on the enclaves.

“What may change is the way Spain manages its relationship with Morocco, particularly regarding border management, migration and security cooperation. However, tactical adjustments should not be confused with a shift in Spain’s long-standing position on sovereignty. It’s usually Morocco that puts pressure on the borders, not Spain,” he said.

July 31 (Asia Today) — Nearly half of the North Korean defectors tested last year after living near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site showed chromosomal changes above a minimum detection threshold, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Friday.

The ministry cautioned, however, that the findings did not establish a connection between the individuals’ radiation exposure and North Korea’s nuclear tests.

The Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences conducted biological radiation tests on 59 defectors from eight cities and counties near Punggye-ri in North Hamgyong Province.

The group included former residents of Kilju, Hwadae, Kimchaek, Myonggan, Myongchon, Orang, Tanchon and Paekam.

Tests found stable chromosomal abnormalities above the minimum detection level in 26 people, or 44.1% of those examined.

Stable chromosomal abnormalities can reflect radiation accumulated from birth until the date of testing. The measurement can include exposure from natural sources, medical procedures and work environments.

The institute said the test cannot determine when the exposure occurred or identify its source.

Age, smoking, alcohol use, heavy metals and other factors can also affect the results, it said.

Researchers conducted an additional test for unstable chromosomal abnormalities among the 26 people whose initial readings exceeded the detection threshold.

That second test, which is more useful for identifying relatively recent radiation exposure, produced above-threshold results in six people.

Older age complicates findings

The average age of the 26 people with elevated results was 52.8, or 13.2 years older than the average age of the 33 participants whose results remained within the normal range.

The group with elevated readings had also spent less time near Punggye-ri than the group with normal results.

Researchers found differences in drinking-water sources as well. Piped water was more common among participants with elevated readings, while a greater share of the normal group reported using water from mountain streams.

The findings did not demonstrate that the 26 participants were exposed to radiation from underground nuclear explosions, the institute said.

“There are limitations to interpreting the stable chromosome-aberration test results as exposure caused by past nuclear tests,” the institute said.

It said the participants with elevated readings were older on average and had several possible contributing factors, including medical radiation exposure.

The institute recommended continued health examinations and long-term monitoring for participants whose biological dose assessments exceeded the minimum detection level.

It said the results should be interpreted carefully because of possible confounding variables.

More environmental information would be needed to conduct a reliable assessment, including radiation measurements around former residential areas, drinking-water tests and radioactivity measurements from local food, the institute said.

No cancer cases identified

The Unification Ministry also provided detailed medical examinations to five defectors whose radiation tests conducted from 2017 through 2024 had produced readings above the detection threshold.

The ministry said no confirmed or suspected cancer cases were identified among the people examined during the latest program.

South Korea conducted similar examinations of defectors from areas near Punggye-ri in 2017, 2018, 2023 and 2024 after concerns were raised about possible radiation leakage from the test site.

Across tests conducted since 2017, researchers have identified chromosomal abnormalities in some former residents of the region, but they have not established that North Korea’s nuclear tests caused them.

North Korea carried out six underground nuclear tests at Punggye-ri between 2006 and 2017.

The country has not allowed international nuclear inspectors to conduct an independent environmental assessment at the site.

North Korea has maintained that its nuclear tests were conducted safely and did not release radioactive material into surrounding communities.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260731010011734

July 31 (UPI) — British oil giant BP announced plans Friday to sell off its North Sea business, ending six decades of exploration and extraction in the U.K. Continental Shelf since the company first struck gas there in 1964.

The firm said that nothing would change for the time being while a buyer was found, vowing in a news release that it was fully committed to continuing to run its operations, prioritizing safety and dependability, while delivering for its customers, partners and investors.

The outcome of a review of its portfolio, BP said the goal was to enhance the value of the company by making it simpler and stronger through adhering to its approach of allocating capital in a rigorous fashion.

“The North Sea remains integral to the U.K.’s energy system. However, as we focus our portfolio and direct capital to our highest-value opportunities, we believe our North Sea business will be better positioned as part of another company. It has world-class people, resilient assets and a proud heritage, and it is precisely these qualities that can attract an owner ready to back its next chapter,” said BP.

“We are seeking an outcome that recognizes that value.”

CEO Meg O’Neill stressed that Britain would remain of key importance to the company going forward, saying BP was proud of the employment it generated, its input to the economy and its role in keeping energy flowing every day.

As recently as May, O’Neill described the North Sea basin as one of “untapped potential.”

The share price gained slightly on the news, rising a little more than 1% to $7.36 in mid afternoon trade on the London Stock Exchange on Friday.

BP has 24 fields across five main nodes in the North Sea, including its key Clair Ridge and Schielhallion fields of the Shetland Islands, with 1,100 workers pumping a little under 100,000 barrels of gas and oil daily.

Energy consultant Rystad, which estimates the North Sea business was worth $2.6 billion, told the Financial Times that it believed that the TotalEnergies-HitecVision-Repsol joint venture Neo Next +, Delek Group of Israel or Eni of Italy were in the running to buy it.

Extreme heat and strong winds are fuelling a wave of wildfires across North Africa, with major fires burning in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Tunisia has called in international firefighting aircraft as crews battle fires threatening forests, farmland and nearby communities.

July 24 (UPI) — New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham held his first meeting at No. 10 North, his project to have official space in his hometown of Manchester, England, instead of keeping everything official in London.

Burnham, who was once mayor of Greater Manchester, said the new office will get “growth in every corner of the country,” the BBC reported.

The idea is to shift power from Whitehall and Westminster — the center of the British government — to other parts of the country. Manchester is about two hours by train from London.

Burnham told staff that the shift north showed he was rewiring the state.

“No 10 North is going to take that up to the next level. It’s not just a new office — through this place, power is going to flow, energy is going to flow, new ideas are going to come through,” Burnham said.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called it a “gimmick”, and said it “does not make decision-making any better, it’s just creating another branch of the civil service in a different place.”

“It’s sending a message to everybody here who has come in to No 10 North in its early days that you’ve got the full support of government from the very top — prime minister, chancellor, first secretary of state — that’s a very powerful message that we’re sending today, that the political commitment is there,” Burnham said.

No. 10 North is at Heron House in Manchester temporarily while a new Civil Service Campus just outside of the city is being developed.

Burnham has faced some opposition to the project over costs, but he dismissed it as criticism from London.

Dai Davies, a former head of royal protection, has named Burnham’s Manchester base “Number 10A.”

“Number 10A will have to be strengthened,” he said. “And, of course, there’ll have to be a 24-hour-7 protection. So it’s going to cost us taxpayers millions in terms of technical security, surveillance, cameras,” The Guardian reported.

“Depending on where it is, it may have to have underground detection systems, it probably will have to have a safe room, and Manchester police will have to bear the burden of protection, in the uniform sense, 24-7, I suspect. So the real cost is many millions of pounds,” he said.

Burnham has pledged several progressive reforms, such as capping the cost of public transportation, cutting taxes on home electricity bills and easing the cost of living.

Opening the new Manchester center, Burnham described it as the best day of his life.

“I cannot tell you what a proud moment this is. I think this might be the best day of my life. I’m not joking either. I know you think I am, but I’m not,” Burnham said. “Things are just completely coming full circle here for me, and to be here with you all in the heart of Manchester this Friday morning, at the end of a fairly big week, is just everything to me.”

London, United Kingdom — On his fourth day as prime minister, Andy Burnham did not stay at Downing Street in London. Nor did he go to Manchester, the home of Number 10 North. He went to Glasgow.

Hours before King Charles and Queen Camilla opened the 2026 Commonwealth Games, Burnham held his first in-person meetings with Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney and Wales’ First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth. The talks were meant to demonstrate, in Burnham’s own words, that growth is needed “in every postcode across the whole of the UK”. A meeting with Northern Ireland’s First and Deputy First Ministers, Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly, is pencilled in for a wider UK tour in August.

Notably absent from the agenda, at Burnham’s insistence, was any discussion of a second Scottish independence referendum.

Just days after being appointed prime minister, Burnham is testing a proposition that will define his premiership. He’s selling a vision that the office itself can be partly relocated out of London to Manchester, the city he governed as mayor from 2017 until his return to UK Parliament in the Makerfield by-election last month.

What Number 10 North actually is

Stripped of rhetoric, Number 10 North is a written ministerial statement. On July 21, Baroness Smith of Basildon, Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal, confirmed on the government’s behalf that devolution and local growth policy functions are moving out of the housing ministry and the Treasury and into a new Manchester-based operation. There, civil servants will work inside a restructured Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, led by Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo.

The interim headquarters is Heron House, in the New Islington area of Manchester, chosen partly for its proximity to a planned Manchester Digital Campus.

Caroline Simpson, the outgoing chief executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, has been named Burnham’s deputy chief of staff, and will be in charge of day-to-day office operations. Downing Street says Burnham himself expects to work from Manchester “at least one day a week”, though officials caution his diary may change, and insists the arrangement carries no additional cost to taxpayers.

Burnham calls it “the nerve centre of a rewired Britain” and rejects suggestions it is symbolic. “Not a gimmick,” he told his first Cabinet meeting about Number 10 North.

Plumbing, but no water

Number 10 North “establishes the plumbing, but the water isn’t flowing yet”, said Mirte Boot of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) North. The institutional architecture is firming up, but fiscal devolution – ie, the transfer of money and tax-raising power – that would make such a policy meaningful doesn’t yet exist, she added.

Still, she calls it “a step in the right direction” after what she describes as “too much power condensed into one postcode”. Leaving Westminster isn’t enough; Number 10 North will need “strong political leadership aside from the prime minister”, she added.

The verdict that Number 10 North contains vision and ambition but currently lacks a detailed plan and delivery mechanism is a recurring response from independent voices.

Jonathan Carr-West of the Local Government Information Unit calls Burnham’s devolution agenda “the most ambitious statement … from a senior politician in a generation”, while warning that English councils are so financially hollowed out that the vision “requires a vehicle” it does not yet have.

Malcolm Morgan, a transport researcher at the University of Leeds, puts it more bluntly: genuine devolution means spending, taxation and regulatory power, not just relocated functions, and “devolution does not create more funding”.

That funding question sits unresolved alongside the national one. The 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act expanded mayors’ control over transport, planning and housing, but left fiscal devolution to a separate Treasury “roadmap” due alongside the autumn budget. According to Centre for Cities, a UK urban policy think tank, the UK remains the most fiscally centralised country in the G7: some 95 percent of tax revenue flows straight to Whitehall.

Devolution, or recentralisation?

For Scotland’s SNP government, the Number 10 North framing is beside the point. First Minister Swinney responded that “rhetoric alone will not cut it” and argued that four consecutive Holyrood elections have handed his party a mandate for Scottish self-determination, something Westminster keeps ignoring, he said. In Glasgow, Burnham declined to engage with that argument directly.

Meanwhile, Wales’ Ap Iorwerth struck a more cooperative note but still said he expected “that Number 10 North would not become Whitehall with a different postcode”.

He also used the meeting with Burnham to press for a new Wales Bill granting policing and justice powers, and a replacement for the Barnett Formula funding mechanism, which Westminster uses to calculate annual changes to the block grants allocated to the UK’s devolved governments, so Wales would have funding parity with Scotland.

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage, from the opposite political direction, warned that a Number 10 in the south and one in the north would simply “fight against each other”.

What it means in Manchester

In Bury, Greater Manchester, Scottish-born Debe Conway sells children’s books at markets and has lived in the area for 56 years, but remains unconvinced about the new prime minister.

Her biggest concern is immigration, which she called Burnham weak on. And as for Number 10 North, she wants to know how it’s being paid for, and asks how long it will last, considering that the UK has had seven prime ministers in the last 10 years.

Rich Carver, who has run pizza restaurants in Manchester for 15 years and is currently “soaking up the energy in the city”, says he cares more about what will happen in the next 10 years.

He’s also tired of the succession of governments and wants this one to last. He likes Burnham and is optimistic enough about the city’s trajectory that he is opening a new restaurant in the coming weeks, something he would not have done five years ago.

“We are all one country,” he says, hoping the rest of the UK (and the media) give the new prime minister time and the chance to implement his vision. Whether that time produces growth, or just relocated offices, is the question Number 10 North still has to answer.

Burnham’s first day as prime minister in No 10 North will include talks with business leaders, including representatives of the Federation of Small Business, the Confederation of British Industry and the British Chambers of Commerce, about how to generate growth and investment.

Labour wants to create a plan that would pull from existing devolution strategy and local growth policy, to allow civil servants, mayors, councils and businesses to work together more closely.

Burnham’s first week in power has seen him make a series of interventions aimed at easing the cost of living, including announcing a 20% cut in business rates for pubs, social clubs and live music venues from April next year.

However, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has criticised his ambitions for being “too small”.

Speaking on Thursday, she urged him to tackle high energy costs for businesses as well as a gap in defence funding.

“When you are mayor of Manchester, you are handed a big pot of someone else’s money, and you decide where to spend it,” she said.

“I’m sure this is great fun. It can make you very popular. But it is not the same as being prime minister.

“Andy Burnham needs to do better. He is behaving like he’s still the mayor of Manchester. He is now the prime minister of the United Kingdom, he needs to start acting like it.”

England and Australia will not play Tests in the north of England after Old Trafford and Headingley not chosen to host.

There will be no Ashes matches in the north of England next year, when Australia arrive for Test cricket’s oldest rivalry.

Headingley in Leeds and Manchester’s Old Trafford have both staged some of the most dramatic clashes in the long history of Ashes cricket.

Don Bradman, arguably cricket’s greatest batsman, scored two triple centuries at Headingley in the 1930s.

Both grounds played host to remarkable individual feats by England hero Ian Botham during the 1981 Ashes series.

Headingley was also the venue for a remarkable unbeaten century by England’s Ben Stokes in a one-wicket win during the 2019 series.

But both venues have been left off the schedule for the 2027 Ashes – a decision criticised by new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, then the mayor of Greater Manchester – when it was announced in 2023.

The England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed on Thursday the exact fixture list for next year’s Ashes, with all five matches limited to the Midlands and south of England.

Hampshire’s Rose Bowl, near Southampton, will stage its first Ashes Test from July 21 – the fourth of the series.

It will become the 10th ground in the United Kingdom to stage a men’s Ashes Test.

The series will start at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on June 18, with Lord’s – as is traditional – staging the second Test on June 30 and Edgbaston in Birmingham the third on July 8.

The Ashes will conclude at the Oval in south London with the July 29-August 2 Test.

Old Trafford and Headingley are both set to stage Ashes Tests in 2031.

Australia triumphed 4-1 on home soil during the 2025-26 Ashes. The last Ashes series in England ended in a 2-2 draw in 2023.

England’s last Ashes series success was a 3-2 home victory in 2015.

They are also due to play a one-off Test against Bangladesh at Lord’s from May 28.

The 2027 World Test Championship final will be held at the Oval starting on June 9, the second time the venue has hosted the title match.

SEOUL, July 23 (UPI) — South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff on Thursday warned that landmines laid by North Korea in the Demilitarized Zone may have been washed into the South after recent heavy rainfall.

“There is a very high possibility that these washed-away landmines could flow into our territory via the rivers shared between the two Koreas, and an explosion of these landmines could cause significant damage,” JCS spokesman Capt. Jang Do-young said during a regular press briefing.

Jang urged the public to be cautious when near inter-Korean rivers and to report any suspected landmine to police or a nearby military unit.

The alert comes days after South Korean authorities issued a flood warning for the Imjin River following heavy downpours and North Korea’s release of water from a dam without advance notice.

Seoul’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment said Monday that satellite imagery confirmed water had been released from North Korea’s Hwanggang Dam on the upper reaches of the Imjin River.

A Unification Ministry official on Tuesday said joint responses to natural disasters should be treated as humanitarian matters.

“Responsible cooperation between the two sides is necessary,” the official told reporters.

An unannounced discharge from Hwanggang Dam in September 2009 caused flooding that killed six South Koreans. The following month, North Korea agreed to provide advance notice before future releases. Pyongyang sent notifications on a handful of occasions in 2010 and 2013 but has not done so since.

North Korea released water from the dam several times during last year’s monsoon season, prompting the Unification Ministry to publicly urge Pyongyang to provide advance notice. A ministry spokeswoman said the appeal served as a form of “indirect communication” because Pyongyang had cut off inter-Korean communication channels in April 2023.

Thursday’s warning also comes as Pyongyang continues an extended campaign to fortify the border and harden its military posture toward South Korea, including laying large numbers of landmines inside the DMZ.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the South a “hostile state” and scrapped an inter-Korean military agreement in late 2023.

Beginning in April 2024, Pyongyang ramped up activity along the DMZ by clearing land, laying mines, reinforcing tactical roads and installing anti-tank barriers near the Military Demarcation Line.

South Korean military officials have said North Korea increased the number of troops assigned to the work from roughly 1,000 last year to about 5,000 this year.

Seoul’s Defense Ministry last month described the activity as a violation of the armistice agreement that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War, an assessment later contradicted by the U.S.-led United Nations Command.