SOUTH KOREA
Ties established with Cuba
South Korea has established formal diplomatic relations with Cuba, a country whose steadfast loyalty to North Korea had for decades apparently kept it from forging ties with Seoul. The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement the two countries’ representatives to the UN exchanged diplomatic notes in New York on Wednesday to establish ambassador-level relations. Cuba became the 193rd country to establish official ties with South Korea, it said. Havana had been one of the few global outliers when it came to forging ties with South Korea, setting itself apart from North Korea’s two biggest backers — the Soviet Union and China, which established formal relations more than 30 years ago as the Cold War ended and they looked to South Korea as a powerful partner for trade. The announcement had been kept secret to prevent any interruption by North Korea, Yonhap news agency reported, citing sources it did not name.
EGYPT
Al-Sisi meets Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first visit to Egypt in more than a decade, as the two Middle Eastern powers looked past years of acrimony and pledged to work together on economic and security issues. Erdogan met his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Wednesday for talks they said focused on the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the entry of more humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory. They also discussed greater cooperation in the energy-rich eastern Mediterranean and war-torn Libya. The visit means “together we can open a new page between our countries” and set relations “on their right track,” al-Sisi said in televised comments, flanked by Erdogan. The two signed a joint declaration to formally resume cooperation in fields ranging from diplomacy to banking, energy, tourism and defense. Egypt and Turkey had been at odds for much of the past decade, following the 2013 military-backed overthrow of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist favored by Ankara.
AUSTRALIA
PM announces engagement
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday revealed his Valentine’s Day engagement to girlfriend Jodie Haydon, after “she said yes” to a carefully planned marriage proposal. The words “Canberra” and “romance” are rarely twinned, but yesterday the centre-left leader one-upped Valentines across Australia, with a morning message that the pair had agreed to wed. “It is such a joy to be able to share this news with people,” a beaming and slightly bashful Albanese said, after walking hand-in-hand with Haydon from the prime minister’s official residence. “It’s wonderful that I’ve found a partner who I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
RUSSIA
Gummies prompt arrest
A Moscow court on Wednesday remanded a German citizen into custody after his arrest over possession of cannabis gummies and accusations of smuggling drugs, Russian state news agency TASS said. Patrick Schobel, 38, was detained at Pulkovo Airport in St Petersburg late last month and is to remain in custody until at least March 15, Tass said. The Federal Customs Service said the German national arrived in the country to visit a friend, and when searched, a packet of “Fink Green Goldbears” with six cannabis gummies inside was found on him. Both Tass and the customs service said Schobel faces up to seven years in prison for smuggling drugs.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home