
North Korea conducts second missile test in 2 days as Blinken visits region — this one was hypersonic, Pyongyang claims
CBSN
Seoul, South Korea — North Korea said Tuesday its latest weapons test was a new hypersonic intermediate-range missile designed to strike remote targets in the Pacific as leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further expand his collection of nuclear-capable weapons to counter rival nations.
The North Korean state media report came a day after South Korea's military said it detected North Korea launching a missile that flew 1,100 kilometers (685 miles) before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The launch, conducted weeks before Donald Trump returns as U.S. president, came off a torrid year in weapons testing.
North Korea demonstrated multiple weapons systems last year that can target its neighbors and the United States, including solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles, and there are concerns that its military capabilities could advance further through technology transfers from Russia as the two countries align over the war in Ukraine.

In August 2021, Tamim Satari raced to the Kabul International Airport to evacuate Afghanistan after working with the American military as an intelligence officer, helping U.S. forces coordinate aerial bomb campaigns against the Taliban. But in the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal, his wife and newborn son were left behind.

It's a confusing time for American diplomacy. After yesterday's meeting in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. appeared on Tuesday to be back in Ukraine's corner — and calling on Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire in the war it started more than three years ago. It remained entirely unclear on Wednesday, however, whether Vladimir Putin might agree to a temporary ceasefire. His forces currently have the momentum on the battlefield but, like Ukraine, Russia is thought to have suffered hundreds of thousands of military casualties.

Quetta, Pakistan — Pakistani security forces were battling hundreds of separatist militants holding roughly 300 hostages Wednesday on a train they hijacked in the country's remote southwest, officials said. At least 30 of the militants had been killed, security officials said, while about 190 of the roughly 450 passengers initially on the train had been rescued.

British police on Tuesday arrested the captain of a cargo ship on suspicion of manslaughter as they searched for answers about why it hit a tanker transporting jet fuel for the U.S. military off eastern England a day earlier, setting both vessels ablaze. One sailor was presumed dead in the collision.

Johannesburg — President Trump doubled down Friday on his offer to grant U.S. citizenship to White Afrikaner farmers in South Africa, accusing their government of treating them "terribly." Mr. Trump said the U.S. would offer them "safety" and that they would be given a "rapid pathway to citizenship."