Herne Bay butcher shop scoops top prize for its boozy banger

WASHINGTON — The prospects of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the near future remain slim, U.S. experts said, citing Pyongyang's demands for a shift in Washington's policy toward the North, including its approach to denuclearization. Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, and Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, offered their assessments during a podcast discussion hosted by Victor Cha, Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, published Thursday. Town said the North has made clear that they reject the notion of any kind of denuclearization agenda. "The question isn't, 'Will North Korea come to the table?' The question is, 'Is the U.S. willing to do those things (change its North Korean policy)?'" she said, referring to North Korea's demands for changes in what it considers Washington's hostile policy. "I think the prospects of meeting, you know, I think are fairly low," she added, putting the likelihood of a meeting at less than 50 percent. Panda o

South Korea has donated eight decommissioned military helicopters to Kenya after an overhaul, delivering on its pledge to support the U.N. peacekeeping missions in the region, officials said Friday. A ceremony marking the donation of the eight MD 500 Defenders was held at the Kenya Army Corps of Aviation in Nairobi on Friday (local time), according to the defense ministry. The move comes as South Korea pledged to provide choppers to the U.N. peacekeeping operations across Africa during the U.N. peacekeeping ministerial meeting held in Seoul in 2021. The United States vowed to conduct maintenance work on the helicopters and help transport them to the East African country. Since late 2023, eight MD 500 Defenders have been transported to the U.S., where they underwent maintenance and repair work for about two years. The upgraded choppers arrived in Kenya last month, pending deployment after successfully completing all flight tests, according to officials. The defense ministry plans to continue to expand its contributions to U.N. peacekeeping missions. Friday's event was attended by some 200 p

The spy agency on Friday reported to a parliamentary committee that recent unverified rumors circulating social media claiming North Korean leader Kim Jong-un might have died are false, sources said. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) delivered the assessment during a closed-door meeting with ruling and opposition lawmakers on the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee, according to sources who attended the meeting. The rumors, which claimed Kim had suffered a severe brain hemorrhage, fallen into a coma and died, have spread widely on overseas social media and been picked up by several foreign media outlets earlier this week. No evidence has been provided to substantiate the claims. North Korean state media have not directly addressed the speculation but reported Tuesday that Kim visited a garment and footwear exhibition in Pyongyang a day earlier. Photos released by the state media showed him touring the exhibition with his daughter Ju-ae. During the briefing to the committee late last month, the NIS said Kim, who weighs more than 140 kilograms, was at high risk of cardiovascul

The European Union (EU) has sharpened its Indo-Pacific strategy around three core priorities — security, economic security and climate action — as geopolitical tensions reshape the bloc’s approach to the region, according to the EU special envoy. Maria Castillo Fernandez, European External Action Service's Special Envoy of the European Union for the Indo-Pacific, said the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy, launched in 2021, initially covered a broad range of areas but has since grown more focused in response to a changing security landscape. "Security in Europe is interconnected to what is happening on security in the Indo-Pacific," she said, pointing to military cooperation between Russia, China and North Korea. The first pillar also includes maritime security, freedom of navigation and protection of critical maritime infrastructure from hybrid threats — concerns that have grown more urgent following recent tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint through which a significant share of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes. The second pillar is economic securi

North Korea has planted an estimated 960,000 land mines along the inter-Korean border since 2024, according to multiple lawmakers Friday, a move seen as part of its border fortification work after Pyongyang declared a "two hostile states" policy toward Seoul. The South Korean military has reported the estimate to the National Assembly, lawmakers affiliated with the parliamentary intelligence and defense committees told Yonhap News Agency. North Korea has stepped up border reinforcements since April 2024, after its leader Kim Jong-un declared relations with Seoul as "two states hostile to each other" in late 2023. The South's military has since detected increasing movements of North Korean troops installing barbed-wire fences, laying mines and erecting anti-tank barriers along the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), the inter-Korean border line that sits inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). North Korean troops have moved close to or even crossed the MDL on numerous occasions, prompting the South's military to blare warning broadcasts or fire warning shots in line with operational standards. T

WASHINGTON — South Korea has sent a letter to the president of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) over last month's land mine explosion incident near the inter-Korean border that injured three South Korean soldiers, calling for North Korea to apologize and take responsibility for the incident, according to officials Thursday. South Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Cha Ji-hoon sent the roughly two-page letter to his Greek counterpart, who holds the rotating Security Council presidency, outlining the findings of an investigation into the Sept. 21 explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), according to the South Korean mission to the U.N. The letter is said to emphasize that the explosion was caused by a land mine planted by North Korean troops and constituted a violation of the Korean War Armistice Agreement. It also called on Pyongyang to take responsible measures and engage in dialogue to prevent further escalation and restore trust. A South Korean government official said the letter was expected to be circulated among Security Council members following approval by the council pre

Damien Woolfenden, 18, appeared at the Old Bailey

A yellow wind warning is in force covering Greater Manchester and Cheshire

Jaiden Hassan-Agard was found guilty of the manslaughter of Tia Langdon

'He should have respected and loved Carla as his own child. He completely abused that trust, harbouring a perverted infatuation with her, before ultimately killing her'

Huge waves are battering Kent’s seafront and fallen trees have caused travel disruption as Storm Austen brings strong winds to the county.

Mainland Chinese shipyards delivered more than twice as much naval tonnage as their US counterparts in 2024 and 2025, according to a new survey, exposing a growing production gap that analysts say could weigh heavily in a prolonged conflict over Taiwan. Tonnage alone is an imperfect measure of naval power, specialists cautioned, pointing to ongoing US advantages in submarine technology, aircraft carriers and operational experience. They also highlighted China’s ability to draw on commercial...