Andy Burnham's dithering over Heathrow expansion threatens to scupper billions of pounds-worth of investment in UK as investors 'cannot wait forever', airport's boss warns

Health officials have issued a warning

The presidential National Security Office (NSO) demanded Monday that North Korea immediately stop its ballistic missile launches, calling them a grave violation of international sanctions. The NSO issued the call during an emergency meeting, shortly after the South Korean military detected multiple ballistic missiles launched from the Pyongyang area over the East Sea. "North Korea's repeated ballistic missile launches are grave acts that violate U.N. Security Council resolutions and are of no help to managing the current situation on the Korean Peninsula, and (the NSO) demanded they be halted immediately," presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a written briefing. The meeting brought together officials from the defense ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and reviewed the country's readiness posture and security situation in light of North Korea's recent successive missile launches, according to the spokesperson. The NSO called for taking all necessary measures while analyzing and assessing the latest launch's impact on South Korea's security. North Korea last fired a ballistic

A delegation from Russia's emergency ministry visited Pyongyang to discuss ways to expand cooperation in disaster management, the North's state media reported Monday. The delegation, led by Aleksandr Kurenkov, minister of extraordinary situation, arrived in Pyongyang on Sunday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The delegation was greeted by Kim Chol-nam, the North's minister of disaster management, and Vladimir Topekha, charge d'affaires ad interim of the Russian Embassy in North Korea. The same delegation visited Pyongyang in July last year, inspected the North's disaster prevention and response sites and held discussions on cooperation in science and technology. Pyongyang and Moscow have stepped up cooperation in a number of fields, including military and economy, following back-to-back summits between their leaders in September 2023 and June 2024. The ongoing visit by the Russian delegation comes after the Russian ministry and the North's corresponding ministry signed an agreement on specialist training and scientific and technical cooperation in December. North Korea,

North Korea launched multiple ballistic missiles toward the East Sea on Monday, South Korea's military said, in an apparent show of force against the South's recent successful test-fire of a hypersonic missile. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launch at about 9:20 a.m. from the Pyongyang area and that at least one of the missiles flew more than 900 kilometers. "Initial analysis suggests (Monday's launch) was seen as a protest against the successful launch of our hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) and a display of the North's achievements under its five-year plan to bolster defense capabilities and a deliberate show of its missile capabilities," JCS spokesperson Jang Do-young told a press briefing. When asked if the missiles launched were hypersonic or intermediate-range missiles, Jang declined to comment, saying the military needs to further analyze the specifications of the launch. South Korea conducted its first test launch of a HGV on Thursday in an apparent show of force against North Korea following the Sept. 21 mine blast on the South's side of the Demilitarized Zon

Korea has decided to provide $500,000 in humanitarian assistance to Honduras to help the country cope with a persistent drought, the foreign ministry said Monday. A severe drought has affected the Central American country since May, leaving some 620,000 people facing severe food insecurity and suffering from malnutrition, according to the ministry, citing an appeal by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "We hope the assistance would help affected communities return to normal life as soon as possible," the ministry said in a release.

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young rejected claims Monday that his remarks on a suspected North Korean uranium enrichment site prompted the U.S. to restrict intelligence sharing with Seoul, as the opposition stepped up calls for him to resign. Chung told reporters that Washington misread the situation, arguing that his reference to the North's Kusong region was first made at his July 2025 confirmation hearing, not in March this year, when he raised it as a minister at a parliamentary session. "The U.S.' misunderstanding was that intelligence had been shared, passed on to the unification minister and then somehow leaked by the minister. What I want to point out is that I made those remarks in July last year as a lawmaker, not as unification minister. The U.S. may have overlooked that. Had they known, they would not have raised the issue. They saw it as a leak because they thought I was speaking as minister. Even the U.S. can get the facts wrong," he said. “The U.S. should have taken action against the National Assembly or the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), because I was a DPK lawm

Twenty-four Koreans have been arrested in Nepal for participating in a religious program while visiting the country on tourist visas, local media reported Monday. According to Nepalese online news outlet Ratopati, the arrests were recently made after they took part in a religious training program at New Covenant College, a Christian educational institution in the Morang district of Koshi province in eastern Nepal. New Covenant College operates with support from a Korea-based Christian missionary organization and provides religious studies and education, according to local reports. Nepalese police reportedly arrested the Koreans after determining that some of their activities may have violated the terms of their tourist visas. Foreign nationals entering Nepal on tourist visas are not permitted to engage in religious education or missionary activities. Seoul's foreign ministry said it was aware of the arrests and had been in close contact with Nepalese authorities through the Korean Embassy in Nepal since learning of the incident. The ministry said it could not disclose further details to pr

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Azerbaijan and three Balkan countries amid Beijing’s push to shore up its trade corridors and geopolitical influence in the regions. Wang will attend the seventh summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Thursday “as special representative of President Xi Jinping”, according to China’s foreign ministry. Aside from Azerbaijan, Beijing’s top diplomat will visit Croatia, Montenegro and...

Police said he's appeared in court

There were emotional scenes viewers didn't get to see on the BBC following the latest results show of Strictly's 2026 series

The US Navy aims to field a relatively low-cost hypersonic missile on its carrier-based fighters, a weapon that could pose a new challenge to the air defences protecting Chinese warships and coastal military installations, experts said. California-based defence company Castelion’s Blackbeard is designed to fly at more than five times the speed of sound and strike ships and land targets. Unlike more expensive hypersonic weapons, it is being developed with an emphasis on affordability and mass...

2006 suicide case resurfaces, with state govt exploring legal action against senior bureaucrat over abetment claims.