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I hadn’t even gotten off the plane in Calgary before two young men, coming home from a church mission trip, were asking me what was going on with President Donald Trump’s aggressive, on again, off again, tariffs on our neighbor to the north.

‘I like Trump,’ one of them told me, ‘but I don’t understand why he is doing this to Canadians.’

What struck me is that he didn’t ask why Trump was doing this to Canada, or the soon-to-be-replaced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but rather, to Canadians.

After talking to them, and more Canadians around Calgary on Saturday, I started to get the sense that even if Trump thinks the tariffs are strictly business, the denizens of the Great White North are clearly taking it personally.

Signs on the way into town urged Canadians to boycott American goods. Above one store was a somewhat confusing sign that read, ‘Our orange Cheetos don’t impose tariffs,’ and even as Canada’s Liberal Party moves to name a new prime minister this week, the tariffs are the thing on the top of everyone’s mind.

Calgary has an active and fun nightlife. On a pedestrian-only stretch of 8th Ave SW, under the shadow of the famous tower, restaurants abound and the sound of the Flames vs Canadiens hockey game spilled from bars out onto the street.

The James Joyce Restaurant and Pub is a classic Irish joint. Under the sign it says, ‘since 1882,’ not because the bar is that old, but because that is the year of the great novelist’s birth, a subtle play on words he would have enjoyed. Once inside, I found more ire.

Kelly is in his 60s and retired. He likes the place because it has no TVs, and when he realized I was American, I didn’t have to bring up the tariffs, he did, ‘Nothing Trump is doing seems rational,’ he told me.

Kelly also said that the ‘trade war,’ as it is called up here, had sparked a resurgence of nationalism in Canada, noting the recent hockey games against America. ‘We have our elbows up now,’ he said.

I asked if this situation was hurting conservative politicians, specifically Pierre Poillievre, who will run for prime minister for the Conservative Party. He looked skywards, shook his head a bit and said, ‘Oh yeah, a lot. It’s a problem.’

Here in the conservative province of Alberta, Kelly did not seem happy about it.

Later in the evening, I met David O’Brien, who immigrated to Calgary about a decade ago from Ireland. ‘You have to understand,’ he said in a lilting brogue, ‘the cost of living here is out of control. That’s why so many people hate Trudeau, but it also makes the tariffs even more scary.’

He said that Canada has become incredibly politically divided of late, but the tariffs and Trump’s teasing about it becoming the 51st state have created a kind of national unity. ‘There are a few I know that talk about joining America, but I think they know it’s not real, it’s more about the sad state of affairs in Canada,’ he said.

For its part, the state-controlled Canadian news media is all in on bashing Trump and his tariffs, and it is absolutely pervasive. Imagine a country in which basically every news channel is MSNBC and you get pretty close to the situation in Canada.

One thing that is important to understand is that in the U.S., or ‘down south,’ as they call it here, the Canada tariffs are at the back of the newspaper and in the D block of the news shows. After all we have the Ukraine war, Trump’s battle with the bureaucracy, and our own economic worries to contend with.

In Canada, these tariffs are the only story penetrating the news cycle, and what Americans see as little more than a tough trade negotiation, many Canadians see as an unexpected betrayal from a nation they have always held among their closest allies.

So far, from what I can tell, the confusion and frustration over the tariff situation in Canada has not turned to anger, at least not towards the American people. But the strain on the relationship is palpable and quite evident.

Not just the next four years of Trump’s presidency, but even the next four months could fundamentally change the relationship between our two countries, which share everything from trade, to a language, to sports leagues. 

Whether this change to U.S. and Canadian relations turns out to be positive remains to be seen, but the mood in Canada today is not very optimistic.

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U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday that his department ‘does not do climate change crap,’ but instead focuses on things like warfighting and training.

The secretary was responding to a post from CNN’s Haley Britzky, who shared a story about the DOD and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cutting programs in the Pentagon that deal with climate change.

‘The DOD and DOGE have said they plan to cut climate programs in the Pentagon – but officials & experts are warning that climate efforts at DOD are directly linked to military readiness, and say cuts could put troops and military operations at risk,’ Britzky wrote.

CNN reportedly reached out to the Pentagon with a list of questions about military readiness, Britzky added.

‘…Pentagon Spox John Ullyot said ‘Climate zealotry and other woke chimeras of the Left are not part’ of DOD’s mission,’ Britzky posted.

After seeing the post, Hegseth weighed in.

‘John is, of course, correct,’ the defense secretary wrote. ‘The @DeptofDefense does not do climate change crap. We do training and warfighting.’

DOGE, which is being led by billionaire Elon Musk, and the DOD have been working together to slash wasteful spending, DOD spokesman Sean Parnell said in a video posted to social media last week.

He listed some of the initial findings flagged by DOGE, which consisted of millions of dollars given to support various diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, including $1.9 million for holistic DEI transformation and training in the Air Force and $6 million to the University of Montana to ‘strengthen American democracy by bridging divides.’

Also, among the findings was $1.6 million to the University of Florida to study the social and institutional detriment of vulnerability in resilience to climate hazards in Africa.

‘This stuff is just not a core function of our military,’ Parnell said. ‘This is not what we do. This stuff is a distraction from our core mission.’

‘We believe these initial findings will probably save $80 million in wasteful spending,’ he added. 

Hegseth said his agency would work with DOGE, which has conducted reviews of the Treasury, Labor, Education and Health departments, as well as at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of Personnel Management and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

He added that many DOGE workers are veterans, and it is a ‘good thing’ that they will find deficiencies.

‘They care just like we do, to find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities — the DEI, the woke, the climate change B.S., that’s not core to our mission, and we’re going to get rid of it all,’ Hegseth said.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

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Romania’s central election authority has banned Calin Georgescu, a populist candidate and frontrunner, from running in May’s presidential election re-run.

‘Europe is now a dictatorship, Romania is under tyranny!’ Georgescu said in a post on X, following the decision. ‘I have one message left! If democracy in Romania falls, the entire democratic world will fall!’

Trump’s administration has taken an interest in Romania’s presidential election since it was canceled in May because of Russian collusion allegations in Georgescu’s favor. 

SpaceX CEO and DOGE leader Elon Musk chimed in and shared his reaction to the decision.

‘This is crazy,’ Musk wrote on X.

Kari Lake, Trump administration senior advisor for the US agency for global media, also reacted and compared what is happening in Romania to what ‘they tried with Trump here in America.’

‘Do you love your country & want to put it first?’ Lake posted on X. ‘Then, the Globalists want you removed from the ballot & silenced. They tried it with Trump here in America. They did it to Bolsanaro in Brazil. Now, they’re doing it to Georgescu in Romania. The people should dictate their country’s future. Not the international order & their captured court.’

Georgescu, who won the first round of Romania’s canceled presidential election last year, was taken into custody for questioning by the country’s top prosecutors back in February.

Romania’s Constitutional Court made the unprecedented move to annul the election two days ahead of the Dec. 8 runoff after Georgescu’s first-round win. He had polled in single digits and declared zero campaign spending, according to The Associated Press. Allegations of Russian interference and electoral violations quickly emerged. After the election cancelation, prosecutors launched an investigation into alleged campaign funding fraud, as well as alleged antisemitism and hate speech. 

The Trump administration has criticized Romania for canceling last year’s presidential election, with Vice President JD Vance alleging that the court’s ruling was based on ‘flimsy suspicions’ and ‘enormous pressure’ from Romania’s neighbors.

Vance said in December, ‘Romania straight up canceled the results of a presidential election based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors.’ 

He also warned European leaders that they cannot win a ‘democratic mandate’ by ‘censoring your opponents or putting them in jail,’ nor by ‘disregarding your basic electorate on questions like who gets to be a part of our shared society.’ 

‘To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old, entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election,’ Vance said. 

Georgescu, a staunch critic of NATO and Western support for Ukraine, has sparked controversy in the past for describing Romanian fascist and nationalist leaders from the 1930s and 1940s as national heroes, according to The AP. 

He has also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past as ‘a man who loves his country,’ and has called Ukraine ‘an invented state.’

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com

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Health and Human Services Department (HHS) employees have been offered up to $25,000 to part ways with the agency in order to help it downsize under President Donald Trump’s plans to shrink the federal workforce.

In the email sent on Friday, the HHS, which is led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said it has received authorization from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to offer Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments.

The OPM ‘allows agencies that are downsizing or restructuring to offer employees lump-sum payments up to $25,000 as an incentive to voluntarily separate,’ according to the email. This incentive is aimed at those who are in surplus positions or have skills that are no longer needed within their department.

 

The payment is available to most employees within the HHS, which includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Employees also have the option to take the payment if they are eligible for optional or early retirement, according to the OPM’s website.

 

‘By allowing employees to volunteer to leave the Government, agencies can minimize or avoid involuntary separations through the use of costly and disruptive reductions in force,’ the website stated.

There are around 80,000 people currently working for the HHS in some capacity, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The offer becomes available on Monday and forms must be submitted to local HR offices by Friday at 5 p.m.

The HHS is the second-costliest federal agency and accounts for 20.6% of America’s budget for Fiscal Year 2025 with $2.4 trillion in budgetary resources, according to USASpending.gov. Most of that money is spent by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

The only agency with more spending power is the Department of the Treasury.

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Russian missiles killed 11 people overnight in strikes on Ukraine’s eastern city of Dobropillia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, saying such attacks “prove that Russia’s goals are unchanged.”

The attacks come as the Ukrainian war is at a critical point, with the United States having halted military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv as part of efforts to pressure it into accepting a peace agreement. The move has left Ukraine even more vulnerable to Russian attacks.

On Friday, after threatening Russia with sanctions to force through a ceasefire, US President Donald Trump said that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was “doing what anybody else would do” in taking advantage of the current battlefield dynamics.

In addition to those killed, the latest strikes injured more than 30 others, Zelensky said, including five children.

Authorities said that more people could be trapped under the rubble, with at least eight residential buildings in the area damaged in the attack.

The Ukrainian president described the strikes as “a vile and inhumane tactic of intimidation that Russians often use.”

“Therefore, it is crucial to continue to do everything to protect lives, strengthen our air defense, and increase sanctions against Russia,” Zelensky said, adding that “everything that helps Putin finance the war must break.”

Zelensky has said he will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia next week ahead of negotiations between Kyiv and Washington. After that, his team will stay in Saudi Arabia “to work with our American partners,” he added.

Local officials said on Saturday that over the past day, Russian attacks had killed at least 23 people and injured more than 50 in eastern and southern Ukraine.

In addition to those killed in Dobropillia, Russian attacks elsewhere in Donetsk killed nine others and wounded 13, according to local authorities.

Ukraine’s emergency service said that a drone attack in the eastern Kharkiv region also killed three people and injured seven, while five people were injured in attacks on the southern Kherson region, according to local officials.

Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 79 out of 145 drones launched by Russia overnight, while 54 drones did not reach their target.

Russia also used at least three missiles in its attack, the air force said, adding that it shot down at least one of the projectiles.

The attacks came just days after a deadly Russian airstrike on Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Zelensky.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

The Apostolic Palace in the Vatican is home to the Holy See’s Secretariat of State, the engine room of the Catholic Church’s central administration. Entering the offices on the third floor of the Renaissance palazzo, you walk past frescoes of some of the first maps of the world, a reminder that the church had a global vision and influence long before globalization came into fashion.

Now, with Pope Francis entering his fourth week in hospital, those working in the Apostolic Palace are grappling with the continuing uncertainty over the pope’s health. The same is true for everyone working in the Vatican.

The two highest-ranking secretariat officials are Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the “sostituto,” or “substitute,” who acts as a papal chief of staff. They have seen Francis in hospital on at least two occasions. During normal times, they would individually have a scheduled weekly audience with the pope and remain in regular contact with him.

Parolin, a mild mannered, thoughtful prelate, is an experienced diplomat from northern Italy who leads engagement in geopolitics and has been instrumental in brokering the Holy See’s agreement with China. Some talk about him as a future pope and it was Parolin who led the first of the daily prayer sessions for Francis’ health in St. Peter’s Square.

Peña Parra, a church diplomat from Venezuela, coordinates the work of the Roman Curia, the church’s central administration. A decisive and resilient character, he underwent a fierce cross-examination last summer in London in a landmark legal case brought against the Vatican over a real estate deal dispute. The judge sided with the Vatican – and Peña Parra – on the key points.

It is these two officials who oversee much of the day-to-day church government as Francis remains hospitalized. The Roman Curia is made up of different departments – known as dicasteries – located in offices in and around Vatican City State and Rome. The departments, such as those for appointing bishops, continue to hold meetings and carry out their day-to-day tasks.

While the work continues, it does so at a slower pace. Heads of state coming to Rome to meet the pope stay away, as do groups of bishops travelling to the Eternal City. Major events which rely on the convening power of the papacy are put on hold. The prevailing mood in the Vatican is anxiety and a sense of uncertainty.

“(We are) very used to him suddenly ringing for an opinion or to share some observation that he’s made. So, in that sense, things have gone very quiet.”

The cardinal, who is from the United Kingdom, explained that “the work goes on” even though it is an “uncertain period” with raised levels of anxiety.

“But we are hopeful that the good Lord will help him along and restore his health,” he added. “And if not, we can at least back him up by our prayers in sustaining his health at a moment when he needs our support. He’s always willing… to help us and it’s a wonderful opportunity for us to help him when he’s in need.”

The 88-year-old pope is still signaling that he’s governing the church from the hospital. Even as he battles pneumonia in both lungs, Francis is signing off documents “from the Gemelli hospital,” appointing bishops and a NASA scientist as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences and calling the Catholic parish in Gaza.

It is also the pope himself who asked the doctors and the Vatican communication apparatus to provide the detailed daily bulletins on his health. And, on Thursday night, people heard the pope’s voice for the first time since his hospitalization. In what must have taken a big effort, Francis, struggling to get his words out after weeks of respiratory issues, thanked the people in St. Peter’s Square for their prayers.

Each night cardinals and senior Vatican officials gather in St. Peter’s Square to pray for Francis. The mood has been quiet and somber. Anthony Ekpo, a Vatican official and author of “The Roman Curia: History, Theology, and Organization,” said that the curia’s job had become focused on “prayerful support for the pope” along with “continuing the task of assisting him in the work of governing the Universal Church.”

The pope’s hospitalization has changed the tenor of the Catholic Church’s jubilee year, a once-in-every-25-years event focused on pilgrimage and forgiveness. A jam-packed schedule of events with the pope had been planned, but in Francis’ absence, senior cardinals have been tasked with leading the celebrations.

All of this is creating a pre-conclave atmosphere. Vatican observers watch to see how each cardinal deputizing for the pope acts, and whether they are papabile (literally “pope-able,” or a potential candidate to be pope).

Interest in papal elections has become intensified by the popularity of the movie “Conclave,” which several senior church figures have watched.

Francis, who despite physical difficulties has always remained mentally alert, has ensured no figure exercises outsize influence in his absence.

He has two personal secretaries, both priests, assisting him up at the hospital but they remain out of the public eye. Throughout his pontificate, he has rotated secretaries, refused a personal spokesman and never allowed a figure to emerge as “deputy.”

In contrast, John Paul II’s long periods of ill-health and hospitalization created a power vacuum in Rome. As his health faltered, top officials in the Vatican took control of key decisions with his private secretary, now Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, becoming a powerful gatekeeper. A similar role was carried out for Benedict XVI by Archbishop Georg Gänswein.

No one knows how long Francis will remain in hospital and the prognosis of his complex condition remains “reserved,” according to Vatican sources.

Friends of the pope say he is determined to get out of hospital and return to the Casa Santa Marta, his residence since the 2013 conclave. The Santa Marta is also where the cardinals stay during a conclave. Francis’ recovery could take many weeks, and the prospect he might resign has been speculated upon.

From March 9 to 14, the leaders of the Roman Curia will embark on spiritual exercises for the season of Lent, which this year focuses on “the hope of eternal life.” During this period, believers seek to spiritually follow Christ into the wilderness of the desert for a time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in preparation for Easter.

For the Vatican, the Lent of 2025 takes place in a desert of uncertainty as the pope’s health hangs in the balance. They are hoping – and praying – that a way ahead emerges.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

The seismic shift of the past fortnight is hard to digest.

Ukraine and its allies hope, deeply, that the plank Kyiv has been slammed in the face with, is – to paraphrase US President Donald Trump’s presidential envoy to Ukraine – just to get its attention. That the White House is merely pausing military aid and intelligence sharing, demanding about half of the country’s mineral wealth to repay an alleged debt, and expecting a public apology from its president, as a negotiating ploy. That this is just tough talk ahead of a hard deal.

But a deeper change is apparent, and one that Europe has been reluctant to accept, and is scrambling to adjust to. The Trump administration sees itself not as an ally to Ukraine and its European backers, but as an intermediary between them and Moscow, hoping to rehabilitate Russia on the world stage. Trump has said he is “seriously considering” more sanctions on Moscow. Yet he has not applied them. So far, Russia has only tasted carrots and felt no sticks.

The pressure applied so far ahead of any deal is that of the contractor on its subcontractors – America on Ukraine and Europe – squeezing their terms to create a more attractive proposition for Russia. Hopes are high that a summit in Riyadh on Tuesday, between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s team, will heal the Kyiv-Washington relationship.

This is the chasm that lies beneath Trump’s insistence that Zelensky “commit to peace.” Does Trump mean an indefinable vibe only he can determine? Does he mean the germs of a European peace plan, which so far involves a prisoner swap, a partial ceasefire at sea, in the air and on energy infrastructure, followed by a limited European peacekeeping force? (Russian officials have rejected much of this already). Or does he mean another version of peace that may be concocted between Moscow and Washington, without Europe or Ukraine at the table?

This last idea should be the most troubling for European security and Ukrainian sovereignty. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine and Russia, denied that a draft deal discussed in March 2022 in Istanbul – a rushed peace bid which fell apart in the early stages of the war due to the massacres in Irpin of Ukrainian civilians – would be the framework. But he called it a “departure point, at least.”

These proposed accords demanded that Ukraine relinquish its ambitions to join NATO, an aim which is now enshrined in the country’s constitution. The draft deal also demanded major cultural changes, the least of which was Russian being made an official language.

But above all, it tried to set limits on the armed forces Ukraine could retain which would have made them significantly smaller than Russia’s vast military. Its essence was capitulation. Not in terms of submitting to peace. But in removing Ukraine’s ability to convincingly defend itself in the event that Russia, as Ukraine says it has done more than 20 times in the last decade, violates a ceasefire and attacks again.

The pressure being laid onto Ukraine would suggest Tuesday’s meeting in Riyadh – already extremely high stakes after the Oval Office catastrophe just over a week ago – is not intended to be a simple, glad-handing moment of making up. We may learn the kind of peace Trump envisions, and how much of that mirrors Moscow’s ambitions.

Europe’s future security depends on how much “art of the deal” there is in this deal. Trump’s accustomed business world is one where he would seek to make a purchase or a contract attractive to the other side. Perhaps he might fire the head of the subcontractor if the other side didn’t like them (hence the loose talk of Zelensky’s fitness for office). He might screw down on their terms to improve margins (pausing military aid). He might flatter his prospective client (his reluctance to speak ill of Putin).

But the deal would ultimately involve the purchase of bricks and mortar, or their construction: a simple and predictable future course of actions or change in ownership of property, protected and cosseted by lawyers and courts – by the rule of law. If the other side broke the deal, Trump could sue. The precedents and courses of action were well-defined, and the rule of law on his side in ensuring the terms of the deal were kept.

Russia is not a massive fan of the rule of law. It negotiates normally to buy time to pursue its military goals. It seized the eastern Ukrainian town of Debaltseve literally during the first days of a ceasefire in 2015, negotiated following its limited invasion of Ukraine the previous year. Putin was raised in the KGB, lives on a diet of “maskirovka” (masking) and openly denied it was his troops who invaded Crimea in 2014, before laughingly accepting they were actually his a few years later. Were he a business, his credit rating would probably be distressed.

But Trump’s belief, his hunch, that Putin can be trusted and wants peace, is now guiding US policy, and rewriting America’s role in the largest war in Europe since the 1940s.

Signs of the damage this psychological blow has inflicted are already bubbling to the surface. Ukrainian forces are in peril in the Kursk region, and may lose this sliver of Russian land that was their only territorial card at the negotiating table. If they fall, the North Korean and Russian troops engaged there can then turn their attention to the rest of the eastern frontline where Moscow has made slow progress for months.

Ballistic missile and drone attacks have caused a horrific loss of civilian life this weekend, even after Trump threatened sanctions for Moscow “pounding” Ukraine, and may worsen as the pause in military aid reduces the US-supplied Patriots that Ukraine has depended on for air defense for its cities.

So far, the collapse in American support for Ukraine has mostly been confined to wild theater in foreign capitals. This week, we may learn details of the unclear peace Trump seeks. And then the grim toll of these remote, sanitary hotel meetings in suits will likely turn into dust and loss across Ukraine.

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This follows a statement from the Vatican press office on Saturday that described “a good response to therapy” and a “gradual, slight improvement” since his episodes of acute respiratory failure on Monday.

The Vatican source said that this improvement was due to the “gas exchange” in the lungs and the oxygenation of the blood. However, the risk remains of another breathing crisis remains and the prognosis is still reserved, the source emphasized.

The pope continues to alternate between high flow oxygen therapy during the day and non-invasive ventilation at night, the Vatican press office said.

On Saturday morning, Francis prayed inside a chapel. In the afternoon, he rested and engaged in work activities, the office said, adding that Sunday’s Angelus prayer will again be released in written form.

Since Monday’s incident, the pope has remained in stable condition and received respiratory and motor physiotherapy. He released a pre-recorded audio message on Thursday thanking his supporters for their prayers.

Uncertainty has continued to swirl in the Vatican throughout Francis’ extended hospital stay.

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North Korea unveiled for the first time a nuclear-powered submarine under construction, a weapons system that can pose a major security threat to South Korea and the US.

State media on Saturday released photos showing what it called “a nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine,” as it reported leader Kim Jong Un’s visits to major shipyards where warships are built.

The Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, didn’t provide details on the submarine, but said Kim was briefed on its construction.

The naval vessel appears to be a 6,000-ton-class or 7,000-ton-class one which can carry about 10 missiles, said Moon Keun-sik, a South Korean submarine expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University. He said the use of the term “the strategic guided missiles” meant it would carry nuclear-capable weapons.

“It would be absolutely threatening to us and the US,” Moon said.

A nuclear-powered submarine was among a long wishlist of sophisticated weaponry that Kim vowed to introduce during a major political conference in 2021 to cope with what he called escalating US-led military threats. Other weapons were solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, spy satellites and multi-warhead missiles. North Korea has since performed a run of testing activities to acquire them.

North Korea obtaining a greater ability to fire missiles from underwater is a worrying development because it’s difficult for its rivals to detect such launches in advance.

Questions about how North Korea, a heavily sanctioned and impoverished country, could get resources and technology to build nuclear-powered submarines have surfaced.

Moon, the submarine expert, said North Korea may have received Russian technological assistance to build a nuclear reactor to be used in the submarine in return for supplying conventional weapons and troops to support Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine.

He also said North Korea could launch the submarine in one or two years to test its capability before its actual deployment.

North Korea has an estimated 70-90 diesel-powered submarines in one of the world’s largest fleets. However, they are mostly aging ones capable of launching only torpedoes and mines, not missiles.

In 2023, North Korea said it had launched what it called its first “tactical nuclear attack submarine,” but foreign experts doubted the North’s announcement and speculated it was likely a diesel-powered submarine disclosed in 2019. Moon said there has been no confirmation that it has been deployed.

North Korea has conducted a slew of underwater-launched ballistic missile tests since 2016, but all launches were made from the same 2,000-ton-class submarine which has a single launch tube.

Many experts call it a test platform, rather than an operational submarine in active service.

In recent days, North Korea has been dialing up its fiery rhetoric against the US and South Korea ahead of their upcoming annual military drills set to start Monday.

During his visits to the shipyards, Kim said North Korea aims to modernize water-surface and underwater warships simultaneously.

He stressed the need to make “the incomparably overwhelming warships fulfill their mission” to contain “the inveterate gunboat diplomacy of the hostile forces,” KCNA reported Saturday.

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Clashes between government security forces and supporters of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad have killed at least 311 people in Syria since Thursday, according to a monitoring group that warns the actual death toll could be “much higher.”

Meanwhile, militants loyal to Assad have killed a further 147 people – 26 civilians and 121 security forces – SNHR’s director Fadel Abdul Ghani said.

“We expect the death toll to be much higher,” Ghani added.

The ongoing clashes are the worst outbreak of violence since Assad – a member of the minority Alawite sect – was toppled in December by Sunni Islamist militants who sought to reshape the country’s political and sectarian order.

Syria’s transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, in a televised speech on Friday evening, vowed to pursue those responsible for killing the government’s security personnel. However, he also urged his security forces to “ensure no excessive or unjustified responses occur” following reports of the high number of civilian casualties.

The latest surge in violence highlights the challenges Syria’s new regime faces in appeasing disenfranchised groups, especially those that remain heavily armed.

Latakia and Tartous on the Mediterranean coast are areas where support among Syrian Alawites for Assad was strong. Alawites – some 10% of the population – were prominent in the Assad regime, and while many Alawites have surrendered their weapons since December, many others have not.

Assad, who fled to Russia in December, has not commented on the escalating clashes.

On Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed extreme concern over reports of the high numbers of people being killed and injured in the two provinces.

It called for both sides to treat detainees “humanely and in a dignified manner,” and protect healthcare facilities and water and electricity infrastructure.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday said he “strongly condemns all violence in Syria and calls on the parties to protect civilians and cease hostilities.”

Guterres said he was “alarmed by the risk of escalating tensions among communities in Syria at a time when reconciliation and peaceful political transition should be the priority.”

Syria’s civil war began during the Arab Spring in 2011 as a peaceful uprising against Assad. The conflict killed more than 300,000 in the first decade of fighting, according to the United Nations, and has left the country deeply fractured.

This post appeared first on cnn.com