SEOUL, South Korea – A top Russian security official met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Friday and thanked him for the country’s support of Moscow’s war efforts in Ukraine, according to Russian state media.
The meeting came after South Korea’s spy agency said in late February that North Korea appeared to have sent additional troops to Russia after its soldiers fighting in the Russian-Ukraine war suffered heavy casualties.
Russia’s state-run news agency Tass reported that Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Security Council secretary, during a meeting with Kim, expressed gratitude for North Korea’s “solidarity with Russia’s position on all critical geopolitical issues, particularly on the Ukrainian issue.”
KYIV, Ukraine – Russian drones pummeled the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa, injuring three people and sparking massive fires, officials said Friday, an attack that underlined Moscow's intention to pursue aerial strikes even as it agreed to temporarily halt strikes on energy facilities.
The head of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said the city suffered “local emergency power outages” in three of its districts, an indication that the energy infrastructure of the city could have been damaged.
Reacting to the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “joint pressure on Russia, strengthening sanctions and defense support for our state … is the way to stop such terror and Russia’s prolongation of the war.”
JAKARTA, Indonesia – The Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano in south-central Indonesia erupted three times into Friday, sending an ash column 26,000 feet high and prompting authorities to expand the danger zone around the volcano.
Body text: The volcano on the remote island of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara province has had hundreds of earthquakes and visible volcanic activity has significantly increased in the last seven days.
An eruption followed by an explosion was heard Thursday evening as far away as Larantuka and Maumere, two cities about 30 miles to 53 miles from the volcano. The eruption was recorded at several monitoring stations on Flores island, Muhammad Wafid, chief of Indonesia’s Geology Agency, said in a statement.
DEIR-AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – Israeli strikes killed at least 85 Palestinians across the Gaza strip overnight and into Thursday, according to local health officials. Hours later, Hamas fired three rockets at Israel without causing casualties, in the first such attack since Israel broke their ceasefire.
Israel resumed heavy strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, shattering the truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January. Israeli bombardments in the past three days have killed at least 592 people, said Zaher al-Waheidi, the head of the records department at the Gazan Health Ministry.
WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from Social Security systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans, calling their work there a “fishing expedition.”
The order also requires the team to delete any personally identifiable data in their possession.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland found that the team got broad access to sensitive information at the Social Security Administration to search for fraud with little justification.
COSTA NAVARINO, Greece – Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday and became the first woman and first African to get perhaps the biggest job in world sports.
“It is a signal that we are truly global,” the Zimbabwe sports minister and two-time Olympic swimming gold medalist said.
It was a stunning first-round win for Coventry in the seven-candidate contest after voting by 97 IOC members.
– The Associated Press
