News

North Korea Flies Trash Balloons Over The South As Leader Kim Doubles Down On Satellite Ambitions

Published

6 months ago

2024-05-29

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched hundreds of balloons carrying rubbish and excrement at South Korea in one of its most unusual provocations in years, causing the South Korean military to deploy chemical and explosive response teams to gather objects and waste around the country.

State media reported Wednesday that the balloon campaign occurred as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged his military scientists to overcome a failed satellite launch and continue developing space-based reconnaissance capabilities, which he described as critical for countering US and South Korean military activities.

In his first public comments regarding the launch failure, Kim also threatened South Korea with unspecified “overwhelming actions” following an exercise involving 20 fighter jets near the inter-Korean border hours before North Korea’s failed launch on Monday. In a speech Tuesday, Kim labeled South Korea’s response as a “hysterical attack formation flight and strike drill” and a “direct military challenge” to North Korea, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea | AP news Image

North Korea Flies Trash Balloons Over The South As Leader Kim Doubles Down On Satellite Ambitions

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea has been floating a huge number of trash-carrying balloons toward the South since Tuesday night in retribution for South Korean activists who flew anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets over the border.

The South Korean military reported that over 260 North Korean balloons had been discovered in various regions of the country as of Wednesday afternoon and were being recovered by military fast reaction and explosive clearance teams. According to the military, the balloons carried various forms of rubbish and manure, but no human waste had been discovered thus far. It warned residents not to touch North Korean objects and to report them to the military or police if discovered.

In a statement issued over the weekend, North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang Il stated that the North planned to scatter “mounds of wastepaper and filth” over border areas and other parts of South Korea in a “tit-for-tat” response to South Korean activists’ leafleting.

Later Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, used state media to mock a South Korean military statement asking that the North cease its “inhumane and vulgar activity.” She claimed the North was expressing its freedom of expression, which the Seoul administration has cited as the reason for its inability to prevent anti-North Korean activists from flying leaflets across the border.

“Once you experience how nasty and exhausting it feels to go around picking up dirty filth, you will realize that you shouldn’t talk about freedom of expression so easily when it comes to (leafletting) in border areas,” she stated. “We will make it clear that we will respond with tens more times the amount of filth to what the (South Koreans) spray to us in the future.”

The South Korean military released photos showing rubbish littered across highways and roads throughout the country. In Seoul, military officials discovered what looked to be a timer designed to pop trash bags in flight. Two large balloons holding an unpopped plastic bag packed with dirt-like material were seen on a road in central South Chungcheong province.

There were no early indications of balloon-related damage. However, Similar North Korean balloon activities damaged autos and other property in 2016.

North Korea | AP News Image

North Korea Flies Trash Balloons Over The South As Leader Kim Doubles Down On Satellite Ambitions

Kim Jong Un’s remarks on the satellite came during a speech at the North’s Academy of Defense Sciences, which he attended the day after a rocket carrying what would have been his country’s second military reconnaissance satellite exploded shortly after launch. The North Korean aerospace technology agency stated that the explosion was potentially caused by the reliability of a newly built rocket engine powered by petroleum and using liquid oxygen as an oxidizer.

Animosities between the Koreas have reached their highest point in years, as the tempo of both Kim’s nuclear demonstrations and South Korea’s joint military exercises with the United States and Japan has increased since 2022.

The failed satellite launch set back Kim’s plans to launch three additional military surveillance satellites in 2024, following the launch of North Korea’s first military reconnaissance satellite in November. The November launch came after two failed efforts.

South Korea, Japan, and the United States condemned Monday’s launch because the United Nations prohibits North Korea from performing such rocket launches, perceiving them as a cover for testing long-range missile technologies.

North Korea has persistently maintained that it has the right to launch satellites and test missiles in response to what it sees as US-led military threats. Kim has defined spy satellites as critical for monitoring US and South Korean military activity and increasing the threat posed by his nuclear-capable missiles.

“Although we failed to achieve the results we had hoped to get in the recent reconnaissance satellite launch, we must never feel scared or dispirited but make still greater efforts,” Kim stated. “It is natural that one learns more and makes greater progress after experiencing failure.”

North Korea has yet to state when it will be ready to attempt a satellite launch again, which some analysts believe might take months.

North Korea | AP News Image

North Korea Flies Trash Balloons Over The South As Leader Kim Doubles Down On Satellite Ambitions

According to some South Korean experts, mentioning a liquid oxygen-petroleum rocket engine in state media signals that the North is developing a more powerful space launch vehicle capable of handling greater payloads.

It is thought that North Korea’s prior space rockets used unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine as fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide as an oxidizer. Chang Young-keun, a missile researcher at South Korea’s Research Institute for National Strategy, believes the country’s rapid transformation in space rocket designs may suggest external technological assistance, most likely from Russia.

Kim has increased the exposure of his connections with Russia in recent months, including a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September, as they converge in the face of their conflicts with Washington. Kim’s meeting with Putin took place at a spaceport in the Russian Far East following North Korea’s repeated failures to launch its first spy satellite. Putin then told Russian media that Moscow was eager to assist North Korea in the development of satellites.

The United States and South Korea have also accused North Korea of helping Russia with artillery shells, missiles, and other military equipment to prolong the conflict in Ukraine.

SOURCE – (AP)

News

Pam Bondi Is Appointed US Attorney General Following Gaetz’s Resignation.

Published

4 hours ago

2024-11-22

Salman Ahmad

Photo via Reuters

(VOR News) – President-elect Donald Trump selected Pam Bondi, a former Florida Attorney General and ally, to succeed Matt Gaetz on Thursday after the latter withdrew from consideration.

Gaetz’s drug use and sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old girl were the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. He denies any wrongdoing.

During Trump’s first administration, Pam Bondi, 59, served on the Opioids and Drug Abuse Commission. He served as police chief of the third-most populous state from 2011 to 2019.

She was also a member of Trump’s defense team at his first impeachment hearing, where he was charged with use military assistance to get Ukraine to look into the wrongdoing of his opponent, now President Joe Biden. The Senate cleared Trump on all charges.

The right-wing America First Policy Institute, which has collaborated with Trump’s campaign to create government concepts, most recently had Pam Bondi as its leader of the legal branch.

Unlike Pam Bondi, Gaetz lacks the experience necessary to serve as attorney general and is likely to encounter resistance from Senate Democrats and some Republicans.

According to Jones Walker defense attorney David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Florida, “She is unequivocally qualified for the position on paper.” Throughout her life, she battled in court. She stood out from the previous nominee because to her resume.

In a tweet announcing his intention to nominate Bondi, Trump praised her skills as a prosecutor and her firm stance against crime as Florida’s first female attorney general. Trump said that even though Bondi was elected on November 5th, while numerous state and federal criminal investigations were underway, he pledged to keep federal prosecutions from being politicized.

According to Trump, “The biased Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans for an excessive duration.” Not true anymore.

Discussion about Pam Bondi and Trump’s history before 2016.

In 2013, the Trump Foundation may have broken federal law by giving $25,000 to a political action committee that supported Pam Bondi. Bondi thought about looking into the for-profit Trump University.

Pam Bondi disputed that her decision to end her legal actions against Trump University following the 2016 disclosure of Trump’s $25,000 gift had anything to do with her decision to withdraw from those actions. According to her, all pertinent material was made public by her office.

The erroneous money disclosure was attributed by the Trump team to a “series of unfortunate coincidences and errors.” New York state fraud investigations resulted in the dissolution of both Trump University and the Trump Foundation.

After misleading Trump University students, he settled for $25 million and was fined $2 million for misusing charitable funds.

Following Special Counsel Jack Smith’s acquisition of two indictments against him for his interference in the 2020 election and his possession of secret materials after leaving office, Trump has voiced his displeasure with the present leadership of the Justice Department and pledged retaliation.

AFPI’s Pam Bondi remains loyal to Trump.

She and a number of other lawyers claimed that Smith’s appointment was illegal in an amicus brief they prepared in support of Trump in the secret information litigation. The Justice Department filed an appeal after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, rejected the case.

According to a long-standing rule against charging a sitting president, Smith and other top Justice Department officials are examining how both of the Trump criminal cases were resolved.

During his first administration, Trump was incensed with the Justice Department’s obstructionism. Bill Barr specifically refuted Trump’s baseless claims that he lost the 2020 election due to fraud, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions permitted an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Trump’s overarching objectives for the Justice Department have been delineated through his public remarks, interviews with former department lawyers, and Mark Paoletta, a conservative lawyer who develops the department’s policy.

Federal prosecutors may give illegal immigration cases priority.

To obtain a portion of the department’s $291 million justice assistance award, cities might have to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

It is probable that the Civil Rights Division will refocus its attention from legal challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the public and commercial sectors to police accountability to religious freedom.

SOURCE: EAT

News

PayPal’s Technical Challenges Are Affecting Thousands Of Customers Globally.

Published

19 hours ago

2024-11-21

Salman Ahmad

(VOR News) – PayPal is a software program that enables the sending and receiving of monetary orders and transactions.

According to the corporation, which has taken responsibility for the incident that was mentioned before, PayPal is apparently experiencing problems in every region of the world in which it conducts business. This information was provided by the company.

In addition, PayPal noted on its service status website that it was experiencing “a system issue” which may affect a variety of PayPal Products, such as the ability to withdraw money from an account and the ability to complete an express checkout. This issue may even hurt the ability to complete an express checkout.

This problem may also affect other PayPal products.

In light of the fact that this vulnerability is present, there are further PayPal products that have the potential to be affected by it.

One of the remarks that was made was that “Our technical teams are actively working towards resolving the issue,” which was stated in the email that was distributed. This was one of the comments that individuals made. A number of assertions were made, and this was one of them all.

Several customers from various regions of the world have stated that they are unable to access their accounts or that they are having difficulty when it comes to making payments. These customers have also mentioned that they are encountering difficulties making payments.

These clients have informed us that they are experiencing difficulties obtaining their orders by communicating their concerns. As an additional point of interest, a number of customers have reported that they are currently having trouble processing payments. This is something that should be taken into consideration.

Up to the moment that the clock struck twelve twelve Central European Time (GMT), the platform outage monitor known as Downdetector had already received more than seven thousand alerts from users. When the clock reached twelve o’clock, this was the situation that existed.

As indicated by a dashboard that provides an overview of the current state of the services that are being offered by the organization, the crisis started at roughly 10:53 UTC.

PayPal gathered this information via the dashboard.

Among the services that were impacted by the outage, the business asserts that its bitcoin services and the peer-to-peer payment platform Venmo were among those that were affected. Venmo is a form of cryptocurrency that enables users to send and receive payments from one another.

This information suggests that these services were among those that were impacted by the circumstances. This information has been provided.

There are consumers who have voiced their frustration on social media over the fact that they are unable to access their accounts, and some of these customers have expressed their frustration over this issue. A number of users have stated their frustration about this issue.

The discontentment that users are experiencing has been communicated through posts that have been published on various social media platforms as of late.

Users of X, which was once known as Twitter, have submitted screenshots of a notification that flashed when they attempted to log into the platform.

The notification appeared after logging in.

The message was flashed on the screen whenever they attempted to log in by entering their credentials. For those individuals who were fortunate enough to receive the notification, it was strongly recommended that they “please check your entries and try again.”

Since its beginning in 1998, PayPal has developed into a global financial institution that is associated with a significance level that is significant enough to be considered noteworthy. The occurrence of this evolution took place virtually immediately following the establishment of PayPal.

Investors were informed that the total number of active accounts across all of the company’s companies had increased to $432 million for the month that ended on September 30th.

This information was provided to investors. Following the conclusion of the month, this information was made available to the public.

During the course of the month of October, investors were provided with this information for the purpose of their consideration. For those individuals who were interested in investing, the material in question was made available to them.

SOURCE: BBC

News

Thousands of Asylum Seekers in Canada Get Free Housing

Published

1 day ago

2024-11-21

Geoff Brown

With a large increase in the number of asylum seekers in Canada, several communities have begun to create free accommodations for new immigrants, while many Canadians remain homeless.

The city of Ottawa is attempting to build a sprung building, which will function as both a temporary shelter and a center for settlement services such as language training and job placement.

These facilities are intended to host refugees in the city for the first few weeks before transitioning to more suitable housing in Ottawa’s settlement infrastructure.

The city has identified two possible sites for these centers, both in the city’s west end. Planning records refer to them as “modular tension fabric buildings.”

The proposed placements for these structures have caused concern in the local areas. The city’s first proposed location was canceled due to strong community opposition. Subsequently, it proposed two alternative options and rallies for and against constructing the structures, which took place last weekend in both locations.

Many people protested that they had not been fully consulted on the location, while others grumbled that nothing was being done to assist Canadian citizens.

Canadian authorities opened a temporary housing center for migrants with 1,050 beds in the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

According to city data, one planned location is a federally owned tract of property near the Nepean Sportsplex, which serves around 1.5 million people annually. The other is near a public transport park-and-ride lot in Kanata’s western suburb.

City Councillor Sean Devine, whose constituency includes the Sportsplex site, stated that citizens have much to say about the problem.

“A lot of it is coming from the fact that it would have been preferable if the city of Ottawa had communicated the information sooner, perhaps in advance of the recommendations,” he told Global News during a telephone interview.

According to Devine, the number of migrants arriving in Ottawa has increased significantly in the last two years. This is consistent with national trends in refugee and asylum seeker rates.

Under Trudeua’s leadership, Canada had approximately 250,000 asylum petitions pending as of September 30, 2024, with more than 33,000 approved between January and the end of September.

International students in Canada filed nearly 14,000 asylum petitions in the first nine months of 2024, a roughly 14% increase over the same period last year. Compared to the present figures, approximately 12,000 asylum applications were lodged by international students in 2023—a tremendous surge from a mere 1,810 claims in 2018.

Devine stated that the city has been using two community center gymnasiums outfitted with bunk beds to temporarily lodge certain claimants before transitioning to other sorts of accommodation.

Asylum seekers get free housing in Quebec and Ontario.

According to a September release, the Ottawa Mission noticed a considerable increase in refugees filling its shelter beds in the summer of 2023. By October, asylum seekers were using 61% of the beds, a record high under Trudeau’s leadership.

The new structures will be funded under the federal interim housing aid program, which allows municipalities and provinces to reimburse the federal Government for expenditures incurred while temporarily hosting asylum seekers.

Since 2017, well over $1 billion has been distributed, largely in Ontario and Quebec, with the city of Ottawa getting $105 million to date.

Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children, and Social Development, who represents the Ottawa riding of Kanata-Nepean, expressed disappointment with how the plans were presented to people.

Louisa Taylor, executive director of Settlement Service Organization 613 Asylum Seekers, has collaborated with the city to coordinate resources for settlement assistance at future centers.

Taylor explained that many asylum seekers in an Ottawa homeless shelter prompted her and 613 refugees to organize a recent rally supporting the structure.

“For several years, hundreds of refugee claimants have been living and sleeping on bunk beds and cots in community centers and arenas throughout the city.”

Nobody has gone out protesting about it. “What they’re protesting is the concept of having a facility in their community that they don’t know much about,” she explained.

Homeless Canadians

Homelessness is not a problem that most people connect with within Canada, but it is becoming a growing one. The projected number of homeless persons in Canada fluctuates from 150,000 to 300,000, which is increasing.

According to the 2016 State of Homelessness study, Canada had at least 235,000 homeless people. According to the Homeless Hub, the number of homeless people in Canada varies each year, ranging from 150,000 to 300,000.

However, many more people may be without a permanent home in Canada. The actual number is impossible to determine because many homeless people live in concealed places.

They are so named because they temporarily reside in squats or with friends and relatives. An estimated 1.3 million Canadians have experienced insecure housing or homelessness.

Homelessness Statistics for Canadians

Between 25,000 and 35,000 people are homeless on any given night in Canada.
Toronto has the most homeless people in Canada.
62% of homeless people in Canada are males.
30% of Canadian homeless come from Indigenous communities.
90% of homeless shelters in Canada are in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, and Alberta, and 44% of them are in Ontario alone.
22% of shelters are aimed at young homeless in Canada, while 20% of people experiencing homelessness are 13-24 years old.
The annual cost of homelessness is over $7 billion.
The Canadian Government has invested $2.2 billion over ten years to expand funding for the homeless.