Month: October 2022

It comes as intelligence suggests North Korea is preparing to hold its first nuclear weapon test in five years.

In recent weeks, Pyongyang has launched seven sets of missiles in response to US and South Korea drills.

On Monday, state media published extensive reports claiming the missiles were designed to carry nuclear weapons.

They said the military practised loading the missiles with tactical nuclear warheads, which are small short-range weapons aimed for use on the battlefield.

They also claimed to have successfully simulated hitting South Korea’s military bases, ports and airports, and said the launches were a warning to US and South Korea.

State news agency KNCA ran photos of leader Kim Jong-un overseeing and “guiding” the tests.

US and South Korea intelligence officials have been suggesting that the North may soon test a nuclear weapon for the first time since 2017.

Experts believe it could also use the opportunity to detonate a smaller tactical device for the first time – the sort which would fit into the missiles it has been testing.

Last month North Korea revised its nuclear laws, expanding the range of scenarios in which it could deploy nuclear weapons. Mr Kim also declared North Korea an “irreversible” nuclear power.

It has also markedly stepped up its frequency of missile firings this year, carrying out over 40 missile launches this year so far – its most ever.

Most of the launches in the past fortnight have been short-range missiles, which landed in the sea between North Korea and Japan.

But North Korea also fired a longer-distance missile over Japan last Tuesday – which analysts say is a new intermediate-range ballistic missile, based on the weapon’s design.

This year has seen the North test-fire missiles from a variety of launch sites including trains and convoys – moving platforms which would make it harder for the weapons to be destroyed in a strike, analysts have suggested.

They also noted that Monday’s state media reports framed the recent launches as “tactical nuclear operations units” – instead of describing them purely as missile tests – suggesting that North Korea has now developed a system for deploying nuclear weapons.

The 25 September-October 9 barrage were a response to the US deploying its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagan to waters around the Korean peninsula, and holding joint drills with Seoul and Tokyo.

The acceleration marks a significant change from when Pyongyang pursued denuclearisation talks with then US President Donald Trump between 2018 and 2019.

Analysts say North Korea is also reacting in response to South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was elected in May and has pursued a more hawkish stance to the North and closer ties with the US.

Two CNN reporters entered the building where the attack took place and filmed on the premises.

They were accused of trespassing and filming a crime scene without permission.

Both of them were later cleared of the charges but fined for working as journalists while on tourist visas.

CNN International’s executive vice-president and general manager Mike McCarthy said in a statement that his reporters had sought permission to enter the building, but understand that “officials were not authorised to grant this permission”. He added that CNN had since stopped broadcasting the report and removed the video from its website.

The journalists – reporter Anna Coren and cameraman Daniel Hodge – have agreed to leave the country. They have also apologised in a video that has since been widely circulated by local news outlets. It appeared to be taken inside a police station.

“My deepest apologies… especially the families of victims of this tragedy – we are so sorry to have caused you more pain and suffering,” said Ms Coren, who along with Mr Hodge were fined 5,000 baht ($133; £120).

“We know your country is going through a painful time and we never came here to cause more grief.”

Thai police investigated the incident after journalists raised concerns. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand and Thai Journalists’ Association issued statements criticising the CNN crew for ” a serious breach of journalistic ethics in crime reporting”.

“Would one of their crews have behaved in the same way at a serious crime scene in the United States?” the statement asked.

There was also a widely shared picture on social media from the weekend that showed a CNN crew member climbing over a low fence to leave the compound.

Ms Coren and Mr Hodge were later taken to the police station in Nong Bua Lam Phu province, where the attack took place, for questioning.

Two Thai ministers have said that the CNN crew did not have official permission, but the police accepted that they believed they had permission and decided not to prosecute them.

CNN said in a tweet that their crew were told by three public health officials that they could film inside. They said the premises had been cordoned off while they were inside, so they needed to climb over the fence to leave. Police found that village health volunteers had granted the team entry despite having no authority to do so, according to local news outlet The Nation.

Thailand is still in shock over the attack by a former policeman who stormed the childcare centre, killing children as young as two while they slept.

Police say the 34-year-old attacker – a local named Panya Kamrab – killed his wife and his step-son, before killing himself after a manhunt. The motive for the attack is not yet known.

The first minister will set out details of her economic prospectus during her SNP conference speech in Aberdeen.

She will tell delegates that Scotland’s “massive renewable energy resources” could form the basis of a new system.

And she will attack the UK government’s “aggressive unionism” as undermining the very thing it seeks to protect.

The UK government has refused to engage with Ms Sturgeon’s calls for an independence referendum in 2023, something she says is a “denial of democracy”.

Ms Sturgeon has already promised to publish a new paper setting out the economic case for independence in the days following the conference.

This is expected to cover issues including currency and how quickly institutions such as a central bank could be set up.

The SNP leader is expected to tease further details during her party conference speech, including promises to repeal legislation regulating trade unions and expanding the minimum wage to young workers.

She will promise not to lift her government’s effective ban on fracking, and will paint renewable energy as the potential basis for a whole new system.

She will say: “Our economic prospectus will set out how we can build a new, sustainable economy based on our massive renewable energy resources.

“It will show how in an independent Scotland, we can deliver lower energy prices and stronger security of supply.

“With independence we will show how we can break with the low productivity, high inequality Brexit-based UK economy – and use the full powers of independence to build an inclusive, fair wellbeing economy that works for everyone.”

Ms Sturgeon ran into controversy on Sunday after telling the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that “I detest the Tories and everything they stand for”

Conservative minister Nadim Zahawi described this as “dangerous language”, while former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said it “traduced a quarter of the Scottish voting population”.

But Ms Sturgeon later told the BBC she did not regret her choice of words, insisting that she was “referring to Tory policies and values, not individuals or Tory voters”.

She will continue this criticism in Monday’s speech, accusing the UK government of “aggressive unionism” which is undermining the partnership between nations.

She will claim that it is “Westminster’s denial of Scottish democracy, full frontal attacks on devolution and basic lack of respect” which are “causing tension and fraying the bonds between us”.

The Scottish Conservatives said this claim was “incoherent nonsense”, insisting that a referendum was “the wrong priority at the worst possible time”.

Meanwhile Scottish Labour MP Ian Murray said Ms Sturgeon was “right to highlight the Tories’ failure”, but said she had ignored her own government’s “deplorable record over the last 15 years”.

The economy has always been viewed as a pivotal, yet tricky issue in the debate over independence.

But amid market turmoil and UK government u-turns, we have arrived at the point where the SNP feels it might be a campaign asset rather than a challenge to overcome.

The worse the economic outlook under the present system, the more they can present independence as a sensible investment rather than a gamble.

There are still many questions to answer, and there will be intense scrutiny of Ms Sturgeon’s latest paper when it is eventually published.

But right now if a UK government minister were to ask the SNP leader what her currency plan is, she might feel she could ask them back: “What’s yours?”

Mr Hands had backed Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss’s rival for prime minister. But his appointment comes amid calls for the Conservatives to unite following policy disagreements.

Ms Truss is due to hold a series of lunches with Tory MPs this week.

Mr Hands said it was an “honour” and “privilege” to serve the government and thanked the PM for “the confidence”.

The MP for Chelsea and Fulham, previously served as a trade minister when Boris Johnson and Theresa May were at No 10. He was most recently a minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

In a tweet, he said he was looking forward to being back at the Department of International Trade and working with International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch.

Mr Hands had supported Mr Sunak in the Conservative Party leadership race, which ended in September with Ms Truss taking over as prime minister.

After arriving in Downing Street, Ms Truss removed all Sunak supporters from their cabinet positions including Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps and George Eustice. But she later appointed some supporters of her defeated rival to positions in her junior team.

Writing on Twitter, Mr Shapps, the former Transport Secretary, said “no one is more experienced and knowledgeable than Greg Hands on trade”.

He said Mr Hands was a “welcome addition back to… government”.

The appointment follows appeals over the weekend by several cabinet ministers for the party to unite and rally behind Ms Truss after weeks of unrest over her policies.

During the party’s conference in Birmingham there have been interventions from former ministers and backbenchers forcing a U-turn over plans to scrap the top 45p rate of tax on the highest earners. Disagreements also emerged over calls to raise benefits in line with inflation.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Nadhim Zahawi, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said division would delay the government’s growth plan and risk defeat at the next election.

Conor Burns was dismissed from his ministerial post on Friday after a complaint of serious misconduct. He denies any wrongdoing and says he looks forward to clearing his name.

Mr Burns, who was also suspended as a Tory MP, was seen by eyewitnesses touching a young man’s thigh at a hotel bar during the party’s conference, the BBC has been told.

Some of Liz Truss’s Conservative critics have been making it clear that while they are not seeking to oust her, they want to see evidence of better decision making and more discussion with colleagues.

In what was seen as an olive branch to supporters of her defeated opponent, Rishi Sunak, she made Greg Hands a trade minister.

And this week she will inaugurate a series of policy lunches with MPs from each region of the country.

If this is to be a charm offensive then it is crucial that her MPs feel more charmed rather than offended.

After a shaky start to her time in No 10, she will have to convince them that she is indeed in listening mode.

One of the touchy topics will be whether to increase benefits in line with inflation, or by the lower measure of earnings.

Some of her allies are convinced she will now look for other savings from the welfare budget, rather than take the political risk of cutting benefits in real terms.

But Downing Street insists that she has not made a decision and will not rush in to doing so.