#SEOUL, November 30. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said at a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov that strikes inside Russia with longer-range Western weapons represent direct interference in the conflict in Ukraine, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

"Comrade Kim Jong Un said the fact that the US and the West, with the hands of the Kiev government, struck Russia's territory with their long-range weapons constitutes direct military intervention in the conflict," the report said.

"Kim Jong Un mentioned that the retaliatory strike on Ukraine that was recently launched by the Russian government and the military is a timely and effective measure to notify the US, the West and Ukraine, which are clinging to unwise military recklessness, of the seriousness of the situation and Russia's will for harsh countermeasures," the KCNA reported.

According to the North Korean leader, it should be shown to the "US-led provocative forces" that they will achieve nothing useful if they ignore Russia's warning.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on November 21 that the US and its NATO allies had announced authorizing the use of longer-range weapons. Following the announcement, US and UK missiles attacked Russian targets in the Kursk and Bryansk regions, according to the president.

Russia responded by firing its newest Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile with a non-nuclear warhead at a Yuzhmash Ukrainian defense industry plant in the city of Dnepr, Putin said. The Russian leader said the West could bring upon itself heavy consequences, should its inflammatory policies prompt further escalation of the conflict.

#BEIRUT, #Lebanon -Insurgents breached Syria's second-largest city Aleppo after blowing up two car bombs on Friday and were clashing with government forces on the city's western edge, according to a Syria war monitor and fighters. Residents were fleeing neighborhoods on the city's edge because of missiles and gunfire, according to witnesses in Aleppo.

The insurgents' advance on Aleppo followed a shock offensive they launched on Wednesday, as thousands of fighters swept through villages and towns in Syria's northwestern countryside.

The surprise attack added new uncertainly to a region already reeling from the dual wars in #Gaza and Lebanon with Israel, and other conflicts including the unresolved Syrian civil war that began in 2011.

It was the first time the city has been attacked by opposition forces since 2016, when they were ousted from Aleppo's eastern neighborhoods following a grueling military campaign in which Syrian government forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups.

But this time, there was no sign of a significant pushback from government forces or their allies. Instead, there were reports of government forces melting away in the face of advances, and insurgents have posted messages on social media, calling on troops to surrender. The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, primarily Lebanon's Hezbollah, who had backed Syrian government forces since 2015, have been preoccupied with their own battle at home.

A ceasefire in Hezbollah's two-month-long war with Israel came into force Wednesday, the day the Syrian opposition factions announced their offensive. Israel has also escalated its attacks against Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria during the last 70 days.

The attack on #Aleppo came after weeks of simmering low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas. Turkiye, which has backed Syrian opposition groups, failed in its diplomatic efforts to prevent the government attacks, which were seen as a violation of a 2019 agreement sponsored by Russia, Turkiye and Iran to freeze the line of the conflict.

Biden says he hopes Trump rethinks tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

#NANTUCKET, Massachusetts -U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said he hoped president-elect Donald Trump would rethink his plan to impose tariffs on Mexico and Canada, saying it could "screw up" relationships with close allies.

"I hope he rethinks it. I think it's a counterproductive thing to do," he told reporters in Nantucket.

"We have a unusual situation in America - we're surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and two allies: #Mexico and #Canada. The last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships."

Trump on Monday said he would impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico until they clamped down on drugs and migrants crossing the border, in a move that would appear to violate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free-trade deal.

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday she did not specifically discuss tariffs in a call she held with Trump on Wednesday, adding the two had agreed there would be good relations between the two nations.

Following the call, Trump said Sheinbaum had "agreed to stop migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border."

Sheinbaum, however, said she had laid out a strategy that "attended to" migrants before they reached the U.S. border.

#WASHINGTON -Muddy footprints left on a Kenyan lakeside suggest two of our early human ancestors were nearby neighbours some 1.5 million years ago.

The footprints were left in the mud by two different species “within a matter of hours, or at most days,” said paleontologist Louise Leakey, co-author of the research published Thursday in the journal Science.

Scientists previously knew from fossil remains that these two extinct branches of the human evolutionary tree – called Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei – lived about the same time in the Turkana Basin.

But dating fossils is not exact. “It’s plus or minus a few thousand years,” said paleontologist William Harcourt-Smith of Lehman College and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was not involved in the study.

Yet with fossil footprints, “there’s an actual moment in time preserved,” he said. “It’s an amazing discovery.”

The tracks of fossil footprints were uncovered in 2021 in what is today Koobi Fora, Kenya, said Leaky, who is based at New York’s Stony Brook University.

Whether the two individuals passed by the eastern side of Lake Turkana at the same time – or a day or two apart – they likely knew of each other’s existence, said study co-author Kevin Hatala, a paleoanthropologist at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.

“They probably saw each other, probably knew each other was there and probably influenced each other in some way,” he said.

Scientists were able to distinguish between the two species because of the shape of the footprints, which holds clues to the anatomy of the foot and how it’s being used.

H. erectus appeared to be walking similar to how modern humans walk – striking the ground heel first, then rolling weight over the ball of the foot and toes and pushing off again.

The other species, which was also walking upright, was moving “in a different way from anything else we’ve seen before, anywhere else,” said co-author Erin Marie Williams-Hatala, a human evolutionary anatomist at Chatham.

Among other details, the footprints suggest more mobility in their big toe, compared to H. erectus or modern humans, said Hatala.

#Mozambican zama zamas emerged from a disused Stilfontein mine, describing gruelling conditions and forced labour under gang control. Miners recount coerced labour, brutal treatment, and survival struggles as authorities crack down on underground operations.

A fugitive wanted in the U.S. for a pair of bombings is arrested in the U.K. after 20 years on the run.

A suspected animal rights extremist wanted in the U.S. for bombings in the San Francisco area was arrested in Britain after more than 20 years on the run from the law, officials said Tuesday.

Daniel Andreas San Diego, one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives, was arrested Monday in a rural area in northern Wales, the National Crime Agency said. He was ordered held in custody after appearing Tuesday in Westminster Magistrates’ Court and faces extradition.

San Diego, 46, is charged in the U.S. with planting two bombs that exploded about an hour apart in the early morning of Aug. 28, 2003, on the campus of a biotechnology company in Emeryville, California. He’s also accused of setting off another bomb with nails strapped to it at a nutritional products company in Pleasanton, California, a month later.

The bombings didn't injure anyone, but authorities said the bomb at the biotechnology company was intended to harm first responders.

A group called Revolutionary Cells-Animal Liberation Brigade claimed responsibility for the bombings, citing the companies’ ties to Huntingdon Life Sciences. Huntingdon was a target of animal rights extremists because of its work with experimental drugs and chemicals on animals while under contract for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and other companies.

“Daniel San Diego’s arrest after more than 20 years as a fugitive for two bombings in the San Francisco area shows that no matter how long it takes, the FBI will find you and hold you accountable,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “There’s a right way and a wrong way to express your views in our country, and turning to violence and destruction of property is not the right way.”

In 2009, San Diego became the first person suspected of domestic terrorism to be added to the FBI’s Most Wanted #Terrorist List. A reward of $250,000 (200,000 pounds) was offered for information leading to his arrest.

Photos of him appeared on billboards from California to New York, including Times Square, the FBI said. He was featured on the TV program “America’s Most Wanted” several times.

San Diego grew up in an upper-middle class suburb of Marin County north of San Francisco. His father was the city manager of nearby Belvedere, a wealthy enclave.

San Diego had worked as a computer network specialist, was a skilled sailor and was known to carry a handgun, the FBI said.

The FBI had San Diego under surveillance on Oct. 6, 2003 when he parked his car near downtown San Francisco, and vanished into a transit station — not to be seen again.

There had been numerous sightings reported around the world and investigators announced searches at times as far apart as Massachusetts and Hawaii.

The NCA said it arrested San Diego at a property near woods in the Conwy area of Wales, a coastal area some 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) from San Francisco. No other details were provided.

#Mexico suggests it would impose its own tariffs to retaliate against any Trump tariffs.

President Claudia Sheinbaum suggested Tuesday that Mexico could retaliate with tariffs of its own, after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25 per cent import duties on Mexican goods if the country doesn't stop the flow of drugs and #migrants across the border.

Sheinbaum said she was willing to engage in talks on the issues, but said drugs were a U.S. problem.

"One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses," Sheinbaum said, referring to U.S. automakers that have plants on both sides of the border.

She said Tuesday that Mexico had done a lot to stem the flow of migrants, noting "caravans of #migrants no longer reach the border." However, #Mexico's efforts to fight drugs like the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl -- which is #manufactured by Mexican cartels using chemicals imported from China -- have weakened in the last year.

Sheinbaum said Mexico suffered from an influx of weapons smuggled in from the United States, and said the flow of drugs "is a problem of public health and consumption in your country's society."

Sheinbaum also criticized U.S. spending on weapons, saying the money should instead be spent regionally to address the problem of migration. "If a percentage of what the United States spends on war were dedicated to peace and development, that would address the underlying causes of migration," she said.

Sheinbaum's bristly response suggests that Trump faces a much different Mexican president than he did in his first term.

Back in late 2018, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was a charismatic, old-school politician who developed a chummy relationship with Trump. The two were eventually able to strike a bargain in which Mexico helped keep migrants away from the border -- and received other countries' deported migrants -- and Trump backed down on the threats.

But Sheinbaum, who took office Oct. 1, is a stern leftist ideologue trained in radical student protest movements, and appears less willing to pacify or mollify Trump.

"We negotiate as equals, there is no subordination here, because we are a great nation," Sheinbaum said, while adding, "I think we are going to reach an agreement."

But Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis of the financial group Banco Base, fears the personality clash could escalate things into brinkmanship; Trump clearly hates to lose.

"Trump may have just tossed the threat out there, as he does," Siller said. "But Mexico's response, that we're going to respond to you with tariffs, that will make Trump really impose them."

It's not clear how serious Trump's threat is. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement forbids just imposing tariffs on other member countries. And it's not clear whether the economy could even tolerate sudden levies on imports: Auto plants on both sides of the border rely on each other for parts and components, and some production lines could screech to a halt.

#West seeks to destabilize global order, Russia’s intelligence chief says.

"Euro-Atlantic elites are trying to convince the rest of the world that the only alternative to Western power is chaos, and for this purpose, they deliberately seek destabilization in key regions of the planet," Sergey Naryshkin said

#MOSCOW, November 24. A UK mercenary, identified as James Scott Rhys Andersen, was taken prisoner in Russia’s Kursk area, a military source told to #GlobalNews.

"A mercenary from Britain has been taken prisoner in the Kursk area," the person said.

A #Telegram channel called Troyka posted a video of a question-and-answer exchange with the captive. The man said in the video that he served in the 22nd Signal Regiment of the #UK armed forces from 2019 to 2023. After he was dismissed from service, he applied to join the #Ukrainian Foreign Legion because of #financial and family issues.