resumes

Russian President Vladimir Putin has told top Kremlin officials to draft proposals for the possible resumption of nuclear weapons testing, as Moscow responds to President Donald Trump’s order that the United States “immediately” resume its own testing after a decades-long hiatus.

The Russian leader told his Security Council on Wednesday that should the US or any signatory to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) conduct nuclear weapons tests, “Russia would be under obligation to take reciprocal measures”, according to a transcript of the meeting published by the Kremlin.

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“In this regard, I instruct the Foreign Ministry, the Defence Ministry, the special services, and the corresponding civilian agencies to do everything possible to gather additional information on this matter, have it analysed by the Security Council, and submit coordinated proposals on the possible first steps focusing on preparations for nuclear weapons tests,” Putin said.

Moscow has not carried out nuclear weapons tests since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. But tensions between the two countries with the world’s largest nuclear arsenals have spiked in recent weeks as Trump’s frustration with Putin grows over Russia’s failure to end its war in Ukraine.

The US leader cancelled a planned summit with Putin in Hungary in October, before imposing sanctions on two major Russian oil firms a day later – the first such measures since Trump returned to the White House in January.

Trump then said on October 30 that he had ordered the Department of Defense to “immediately” resume nuclear weapons testing on an “equal basis” with other nuclear-armed powers.

Trump’s decision came days after he criticised Moscow for testing its new Burevestnik missile, which is nuclear-powered and designed to carry a nuclear warhead.

According to the Kremlin transcript, Putin spoke with several senior officials in what appeared to be a semi-choreographed advisory session.

Defence Minister Andrei Belousov told Putin that Washington’s recent actions significantly raise “the level of military threat to Russia”, as he said that it was “imperative to maintain our nuclear forces at a level of readiness sufficient to inflict unacceptable damage”.

Belousov added that Russia’s Arctic testing site at Novaya Zemlya could host nuclear tests at short notice.

Valery Gerasimov, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, also cautioned that if Russia does not “take appropriate measures now, time and opportunities for a timely response to the actions of the United States will be lost”.

Following the meeting, state news agency TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Putin had set no specific deadline for officials to draft the requested proposals.

“In order to come to a conclusion about the advisability of beginning preparations for such tests, it will take exactly as much time as it takes for us to fully understand the intentions of the United States of America,” Peskov said.

Russia and the US are by far the biggest nuclear powers globally in terms of the number of warheads they possess.

The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation (CACNP) estimates that Moscow currently has 5,459 nuclear warheads, of which 1,600 are actively deployed.

The US has about 5,550 nuclear warheads, according to the CACNP, with about 3,800 of those active. At its peak in the mid-1960s during the Cold War, the US stockpile consisted of more than 31,000 active and inactive nuclear warheads.

China currently lags far behind, but has rapidly expanded its nuclear warhead stockpile to about 600 in recent years, adding about 100 per year since 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea comprise the remaining nuclear-armed countries.

The US last exploded a nuclear device in 1992, after former Republican President George HW Bush issued a moratorium on nuclear weapons testing following the collapse of the Soviet Union a year earlier.

Since 1996, the year the CTBT was opened for signatures, only three countries have detonated nuclear devices.

India and Pakistan conducted tests in 1998. North Korea has carried out five explosive tests since 2006 – most recently in 2017 – making it the only country to do so in the 21st century.

Such blasts, regularly staged by nuclear powers during the Cold War, have devastating environmental consequences.

Trump has yet to clarify whether the resumption he ordered last week refers to nuclear-explosive testing or to flight testing of nuclear-capable missiles, which would see the National Nuclear Safety Administration test delivery systems without requiring explosions.

Security analysts say a resumption of nuclear-explosive testing by any of the world’s nuclear powers would be destabilising, as it would likely trigger a similar response by the others.

Andrey Baklitskiy, senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, said that the Kremlin’s response was a prime example of the “action-reaction cycle”, in which a new nuclear arms race could be triggered.

“No one needs this, but we might get there regardless,” he posted on X.

Russian MOD Belousov suggests Russia should start to prepare for a full-scale nuclear test in response to the US statements. Action-reaction cycle at its best. No one needs this, but we might get there regardless

— Andrey Baklitskiy (@baklitskiy) November 5, 2025

The Palestinian group Hamas has handed over two bodies it said were of deceased Israeli captives, a day after the fragile Gaza ceasefire was shattered by a series of deadly Israeli strikes across the besieged enclave.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the two bodies had been received by Israeli forces via the Red Cross in Gaza and would be transported into Israel for identification.

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Under the US-brokered accord to halt Israel’s two-year war on Gaza, Hamas released 20 living captives in exchange for Israel releasing nearly 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Israeli forces have also completed a partial withdrawal from urban centres in Gaza.

But since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, Israeli attacks have killed dozens of Palestinians across the enclave. From Tuesday into Wednesday, the Health Ministry in Gaza said Israeli attacks killed 104 people, including 46 children and 20 women.

As part of the agreement, Hamas committed to returning the remains of all 28 captives, in exchange for the bodies of Palestinians killed in the war. By Thursday, it had handed over 15 sets of remains, saying it continues to press for proper equipment and support to comb through vast mounds of rubble and debris — where thousands of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardments are still buried.

Israel claims Hamas has been too slow to hand over the remaining bodies of Israeli captives still in Gaza.

Reporting from az-Zuwayda in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said Hamas is still facing “logistical and operational challenges regarding the retrieval of the bodies, specifically in areas that have been impacted by the Israeli bombardment”.

“Hamas has been calling for the entry of heavy bulldozers and machines in order to facilitate the process of recovering bodies. But on the ground, Israel is still accusing Hamas of deliberately procrastinating the release of the bodies,” Abu Azzoum said.

The dispute over the recovery and handover of bodies has been one of the difficulties complicating US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war for good.

Numerous major obstacles still lie ahead, including the future administration of Gaza and the demand for Hamas to disarm.

‘Essential role of NGOs’

Earlier, witnesses said Israeli planes carried out 10 air strikes in areas east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, and tanks shelled areas east of Gaza City in the north before dawn.

The Israeli military said it carried out “precise” strikes against “terrorist infrastructure that posed a threat to the troops” in the areas of Gaza where its forces are still present.

Meanwhile, a UN official said more than 24,000 tonnes of UN aid have reached Gaza since the start of a ceasefire, while calling for NGOs to be allowed to assist in its distribution.

While aid volumes are significantly up compared with the period before the ceasefire, humanitarians still face funding shortfalls, the UN says, as well as issues coordinating with Israeli authorities, which are continuing to seal vital border crossings.

The World Food Programme’s Middle East Regional Director Samer Abdel Jaber said in 20 days of scale-up following the ceasefire, they “have collected about 20,000 metric tons of food inside Gaza”.

“The implementation of the 20-point [ceasefire] plan remains to be the central point and the central condition for us to be able to deliver humanitarian assistance in a holistic manner,” Alakbarov said.

He called on Israel to allow more NGOs to participate in the delivery of aid in Gaza, which Israel has banned.

“The persisting issue of registration of NGOs remains to be a bottleneck issue. We continue to emphasise the essential role of NGOs and national NGOs, which they play in humanitarian operations in Gaza, and we have escalated this now,” he said.

Israel’s assault has displaced most of Gaza’s more than two million people, many of them several times. The majority haven’t yet returned to their ravaged neighbourhoods, fearing they could soon be displaced once again or killed by Israeli forces.

Sources told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army carried out home demolitions east of the Tuffah and Shujayea neighbourhoods in eastern Gaza City on Thursday.

Israel has been demolishing homes since the start of its renewed ground incursion in the area earlier this month, part of what residents describe as a systematic campaign to clear large swaths of residential blocks.

Entire streets have been levelled, with bulldozers flattening homes and infrastructure as Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza City’s eastern districts.

South Korea resumed a project to excavate the remains of soldiers killed at a battle site in the DMZ, its military said Wednesday. The move was intended to help reduce inter-Korean tensions in the heavily militarized DMZ, as seen in 2019. File Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI | License Photo

SEOUL, Oct. 15 (UPI) — South Korea on Wednesday resumed an excavation project for the remains of soldiers killed in the Korean War at a battle site in the demilitarized zone, its military said, as Seoul looks to improve frosty inter-Korean relations.

“As part of measures to ease military tensions between the South and the North, the Ministry of National Defense has resumed the excavation of remains around White Horse Ridge in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, which was suspended in 2022,” the ministry said in a message to reporters.

“This is an effort to return the remains of soldiers killed in the Korean War to their families … and is a practical measure to transform the DMZ into a zone of peace,” the ministry said.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has made efforts to rehabilitate relations between the two Koreas since he took office in June, with conciliatory gestures such as removing propaganda loudspeakers from border areas.

Lee has also said he would take “proactive and gradual steps” to restore the 2018 inter-Korean military pact that was suspended amid tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang during the administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2024.

The pact established buffer zones along the border and included measures such as the removal of some guard posts in the DMZ and the banning of live-fire exercises in certain areas.

In April 2018, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to launch a joint project to retrieve remains of soldiers killed during the Korean War from Arrowhead Ridge, the site of one of the fiercest battles of the 1950-53 Korean War.

However, after the failed 2019 summit in Hanoi between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the North refused to participate.

South Korea began excavation work alone on the site in 2019 and retrieved remains of some 424 soldiers. Seoul later expanded efforts to White Horse Ridge, where teams found the remains of 67 soldiers, but the project was suspended in 2022 amid deteriorating ties with the North.

Oct. 4 (UPI) — Germany’s Munich International Airport resumed flights on Saturday morning after drone sightings closed the airport for 7 1/2 hours, the second disruption in 24 hours.

Drones have affected aviation throughout Europe with Russia suspected of launching them. Several European Union members want a multi-layered “drone wall” to quickly detect, track and destroy drones.

The airport said flights stopped at 9:30 p.m. Friday, affecting around 6,500 passengers.

It reopened at 5 a.m. local time when flight arrivals and departures were deemed safe, a call handler fielding passenger inquiries told CNN.

In a statement Saturday, the airport said 23 arriving flights were diverted and 12 into Munich were canceled. And 46 outbound flights were canceled or postponed.

On Thursday night, 17 flights were grounded because of several drone sightings near the airport.

“As on the previous night, Munich Airport worked with the airlines to immediately provide for passengers in the terminals,” airport officials said in a statement. “Camp beds were set up, and blankets, drinks and snacks were distributed.

“When a drone sighting is suspected, the safety of travellers is the top priority. Reporting chains between air traffic control, airports and police authorities have been established for years. It is important to emphasise that the detection and defense against drones are sovereign tasks and are the responsibility of the federal and state police,” the officials said.

Also Thursday, authorities in Belgium were investigating 15 drones spotted above the Elsenborn military site near the German border, according to Belgian media. The drones then reportedly flew from Belgium to western Germany.

Recently, Russian drones reportedly crossed into Poland and Russian MiG-31 jets entered Estonian airspace in separate incidents.

Russia has denied involvement in the drones in southern Germany in Bavaria, about 18 miles northeast of Munich, is the second-busiest in Germany, behind the one in Frankfurt, handling 41.6 million passengers in 2024.

Munich International is a hub for German flag-carrier Lufthansa. The first flight to touch down after the delay was Lufthansa’s flight from Bangkok at 5:25 a.m., according to the airport’s tracking website. Then starting at 6 a.m., several other flights landed.

The first seven departures were at 5:50 a.m.

The German airport says that 46 flights had been cancelled or delayed, affecting 6,500 passengers.

Germany’s Munich airport has reopened after authorities shut it down the previous night for the second time in less than 24 hours after more suspected drone sightings, as fears heighten across Europe that Russia’s war in Ukraine could spill over across the continent.

The airport, one of Germany’s largest, reopened gradually from 7am local time (05:00 GMT) on Saturday.

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Forty-six departures from the airport had to be cancelled or delayed until Saturday, affecting 6,500 passengers.

Munich airport said that on Friday, “from 9:30 pm air traffic was restricted and then cancelled due to drone sightings”, meaning 23 incoming flights were diverted and 12 bound for Munich were cancelled, leaving nearly 3,000 passengers stranded.

A police spokesman told the AFP news agency that there were “two simultaneous confirmed drone sightings by police patrols just before 11pm around the north and south runways”.

“The drones immediately moved away, before they could be identified,” he added.

Authorities were not immediately able to provide any information about who was responsible for the overflights.

Airports in Denmark, Norway and Poland have recently suspended flights due to unidentified drones, while Romania and Estonia have pointed the finger at Russia for drone incursions on their territory. Drones were also spotted overnight in Belgium above a military base.

Some experts have noted, however, that anybody with drones could be behind them.

Earlier on Friday, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told newspaper Bild that the first night’s incident was a “wake-up call” on the threat from drones, adding that “more financing and research” on the issue was urgently needed at the national and European levels.

The disruptions came as the country celebrated German Unity Day on Friday – a national holiday – and as Munich geared up for the final weekend of Oktoberfest.

The annual beer gala and fun fair had already closed for half a day on Wednesday after a bomb scare.

The German government is expected on Wednesday to sign off on plans for a change in the law to let the army shoot drones down if necessary.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Europe on Thursday that the recent drone incursions showed Moscow was looking to “escalate” its aggression.

Germany is on high alert, saying a swarm of them had flown over the country last week, including over military and industrial sites.

Denmark also raised the alarm, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reiterating last week that only one country “poses a threat to Europe’s security – and that’s Russia”.

Moscow said it “firmly rejects” any suggestion of involvement, with Russian President Vladimir Putin accusing Europe of stoking “hysteria” to justify rising military spending.

Putin, speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday, joked about European claims that Russian drones had invaded NATO airspace, saying that he promised he would not do it again, in the case of Denmark, and that he did not have drones that could fly all the way to Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.

“I will not. I will not [send] any more drones, neither to France nor to Denmark, Copenhagen. Where else do they fly to?” Putin quipped.

Control over lucrative exports was a major point of contention between Baghdad and Kurdistan region, with a key pipeline to Turkiye shut since 2023.

Iraq has resumed crude oil exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to Turkiye after an interim deal broke a two-and-a-half-year deadlock over legal and technical disputes.

The resumption started at 6am local time (03:00 GMT), according to a statement from Iraq’s oil ministry on Saturday. “Operations started at a rapid pace and with complete smoothness without recording any significant technical problems,” the ministry said.

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Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar also confirmed the development in a post on X.

The agreement between Iraq’s federal government, the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) and foreign oil producers operating in the region will allow 180,000 to 190,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude to flow to Turkiye’s Ceyhan port, Iraq’s oil minister told Kurdish broadcaster Rudaw on Friday.

The resumption follows a tripartite agreement reached earlier this week between the ministry, the Kurdish region’s natural resources ministry, and international oil companies operating in the region.

The United States had pushed for a restart, which is expected to eventually bring up to 230,000 bpd of crude back to international markets at a time when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is boosting output to gain market share. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the deal in a statement, saying it “will bring tangible benefits for both Americans and Iraqis”.

Iraq’s OPEC delegate, Mohammed al-Najjar, said his country can export more than it is now after the resumption of flows via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, in addition to other planned projects at Basra port, state news agency INA reported on Saturday.

“OPEC member states have the right to demand an increase in their [production] shares especially if they have projects that led to an increase in production capacity,” he said.

Companies operating in the Kurdistan region will receive $16 per barrel to cover production and transportation costs. The eight oil companies that signed the deal and the Kurdish authorities have agreed to meet within 30 days of exports resuming to work on a mechanism for settling the outstanding debt of $1bn the Kurdistan region owes to the firms.

Control over lucrative oil exports has been a major point of contention between Baghdad and Erbil, with the deal seen as a step towards boosting Iraq’s oil revenues and stabilising the relationship between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish region.

Oil exports were previously independently sold by the Kurdish authorities, without the approval or oversight of the federal authorities in Baghdad, through the port of Ceyhan in Turkiye.

The Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline was halted in March 2023 when the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris ordered Turkiye to pay Iraq $1.5bn in damages for unauthorised exports by the Kurdish regional authorities.

The Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan, which represents international oil firms operating in the region, put losses to Iraq since the pipeline closed at more than $35bn.

Aug. 18 (UPI) — A court in Hong Kong resumed closing arguments in the criminal trial of media mogul Jimmy Lai on charges of sedition and collusion with foreign powers.

The trial had paused Friday because Lai, 77, was having heart issues. Lai was given medication and a Holter monitor, which tracks the heart’s electrical activity. The trial had also been delayed Thursday because of torrential rain in the city.

Judge Esther Toh said extra breaks could be allowed for Lai if needed.

Lai, a citizen of the United Kingdom, founded Apple Daily, a Chinese-language newspaper published in Hong Kong from 1995 to 2021. The tabloid has been described as anti-government, pro-democracy and anti-China.

He is accused of collusion with foreign forces and sedition. He has been in solitary confinement since December 2020. He faces life in prison.

Prosecutors have accused Lai of requesting foreign countries to engage in “hostile activities,” such as imposing sanctions, against authorities in Hong Kong and mainland China.

He allegedly conspired with senior editorial staff of Apple Daily and was the “mastermind and financial supporter” of the Fight for Freedom; Stand with Hong Kong advocacy group, which lobbied for international sanctions against Hong Kong and China.

Lai denied in court that he had ever sought to influence the Hong Kong policies of other countries via his high-level contacts overseas, including former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.

Questioned about meetings with Pence and then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019, Lai said the meeting with Pence was more of a briefing where he updated him and answered questions about what was going on in Hong Kong

Lai, who was noticeably thinner Monday than when the trial began in late 2023, was dressed in a white jacket in the glass dock and pressed his palms together in a prayer gesture several times to his family and supporters, the Independent reported.

The prosecutor discussed the security law concerning the collusion charges, arguing that the request to impose sanctions must include officials and not just states.

He planned to lay out other issues in the afternoon and make his closing statement on Tuesday.

Lai is among hundreds of people who have been detained and charged under the controversial National Security Law, which critics say have silenced dissent in Hong Kong. Beijing justifies that the law is needed to maintain stability in the city.

The United Nations Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) warns that the situation in the country could ‘spiral out of control’.

The United Nations has called for calm as fighting has resumed in Libya’s capital, Tripoli, a day after authorities declared order had been restored.

The UN Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) warned on Wednesday that the situation in the country could “spiral out of control”.

“UNSMIL reiterates its calls for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in all areas, allowing safe corridors for the evacuation of civilians trapped in intense conflict zones,” the mission wrote on X.

“Attacking and damaging civilian infrastructure, physically harming civilians, and jeopardising the lives and safety of the population may constitute crimes under international law. Those responsible will be held accountable for their actions,” it added.

Clashes erupted between the Rada militia and the 444 Brigade, loyal to Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, in key areas of Tripoli, including the port, the AFP news agency reported, quoting a security source.

The official called the ongoing fighting “urban warfare” with intermittent clashes in residential areas and the use of light and medium weapons.

The fighting calmed down later on Wednesday after the government announced a truce, Tripoli residents told the Reuters news agency.

“Regular forces, in coordination with the relevant security authorities, have begun taking the necessary measures to ensure calm, including the deployment of neutral units,” the government’s Ministry of Defence said.

Fighting across Tripoli

Clashes broke out on Monday night after reports that Abdelghani al-Kikli, leader of the Support and Stability Apparatus (SSA), a militia that controls the southern district of Abu Salim, was killed.

According to local authorities, at least six people were killed in Monday’s fighting.

While Tuesday morning was calm, the fighting restarted overnight with major battles in the capital.

For residents, the uncertainty brought by the attacks was “terrorising”, a father of three told Reuters from the Dahra area.

“I had my family in one room to avoid random shelling,” he added.

Al-Dbeibah ordered what he called irregular armed groups to be dismantled, including Rada.

With the seizure of the SSA territory by factions allied with al-Dbeibah, including the 444 and 111 brigades, Rada is the last significant faction not allied with the prime minister.

Since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has struggled to recover.

In 2014, the country split between a UN-recognised government in Tripoli, led by al-Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east dominated by commander Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libyan National Army.