21/08/2026

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Trump planning to meet North Korean leader

that provide a ‘common experience’, a concept accepted by the European Court of Human Rights,“ he added. Amnesty International Portugal has criticised the law as discriminatory, saying it threatens the rights of Muslim women who choose to cover their faces. Portugal joins several European countries, including France, Belgium, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands, with full or partial restrictions on face coverings in public. – Bernama-Anadolu Spain to relocate lone Ceutan minors to mainland MADRID: Spain plans to transfer about 500 particularly vulnerable unaccompanied minors from the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in North Africa to child protection facilities in mainland Spain, said Migration Minister Elma Saiz in an interview with public broadcaster RNE on Wednesday, reported German Press Agency. Saiz said the central government in Madrid is working with Ceuta authorities and Spain’s regional governments on a plan to relocate the children from Ceuta to mainland Spain, where they would be placed under the care of child protection organisations. Spanish media reported that the plan envisages “the binding and solidarity-based reception of minors by all regions” of Spain, as well as placements with foster families. The move comes as Spain’s pro-immigration government seeks to respond to the mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta at the end of July, when up to 80,000 people entered the tiny Spanish territory bordering Morocco. Official figures say 83 bodies were recovered from the sea after the incident, although NGOs put the death toll at well over a hundred. The vast majority of those who arrived in July returned to Morocco shortly afterwards. State broadcaster RTVE reported that Spain’s national police has identified 2,168 unaccompanied minors in Ceuta and handed them to the exclave’s authorities. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said about 5,000 migrants remain in Ceuta. Providing for and housing these people – who come not only from Morocco but also from sub-Saharan African countries – continue to pose major challenges for authorities. – Bernama-dpa Bus-lorry collision kills 23 in Brazil RIO DE JANEIRO: Twenty-three people have died in a road crash in southern Brazil after a minibus collided with a lorry on Wednesday on a national road in the state of Paraná, reported German Press Agency. “Preliminary findings suggest that the lorry may have veered into the oncoming lane and collided head-on with the minibus,” news portal G1 quoted the Brazilian National Highway Police as saying. The exact circumstances remain under investigation. The collision occurred near Ipiranga in the Campos Gerais region, killing 13 women, eight men and two children, including the lorry driver, according to authorities. Another five individuals were injured and taken to hospital, the Paraná State Secretariat for Public Security said. The minibus reportedly belonged to the health service and was carrying patients to hospitals in the greater Curitiba area, about 200km away. The national highway connects several regions in southern Brazil and is only a two-lane road in some places. – Bernama-dpa

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would meet Kim Jong Un later this year, seeking to revive the bond he claims to have forged with the leader of nuclear-armed North Korea in his first term. He said it was important to “get along” with Kim, adding that Pyongyang now has 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons. But Trump’s sudden focus on Kim and his scaling back of joint US-South Korean military drills have alarmed Asian allies, while sparking speculation that he is seeking a foreign policy win as his Iran war stalls. He defended planning to meet Kim even as he wages a war with Iran that he has justified on the grounds of preventing Tehran from getting a nuclear bomb. “He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen. If I were president, I would not have allowed it,” he said, referring to Kim. “But he has got them. I get along with him very well. I cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And I know Kim very well, and he is going to be fine.” Trump gave no details but the Wall Street Journal reported that he is eying a meeting when he travels to Shenzhen in China for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Defence minister said yesterday North Korea is estimated to have between 80 and 120 nuclear weapons. Ahn Gyu-back said Seoul remains opposed to officially recognising the North as a nuclear weapons state. Asked whether Washington has “given up” on North Korea’s denuclearisation, he said he does not believe so. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who has long pushed for stronger homegrown defences to reduce South Korea’s reliance on the United States, said on Wednesday he would “do his utmost” to support and contribute to Trump’s peacemaking efforts with the North. While acknowledging that Pyongyang possesses nuclear weapons, the United States does not officially recognise North Korea as a nuclear state, and it is unusual for a president to publicly offer such a specific assessment of its stockpiles. But Trump’s mention of North Korea o President eyeing meeting when he travels to China for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November

US soldiers at a military training field in Yeoncheon during joint US-South Korean military exercises. – AFPPIC

Washington about communication between the leaders of North Korea and the United States, I am completely unaware of it,” said Kim Yo Jong in a statement. She nevertheless said her brother still has “good memories and feelings” about Trump and the relationship between the two leaders remains “excellent”. Her statement came hours after Seoul announced that the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises with the United States would end about a week earlier than planned “at the suggestion of the US side”. The Pentagon said the reduced drills would cause “no degradation to US training objectives”. The exercises are designed to prepare for a possible attack by North Korea. Kim Yo Jong dismissed the reduction, saying “we do not consider it worth commenting on and find it completely uninteresting”. Nuclear-armed North Korea has long voiced outrage at the exercises, considering them dress rehearsals for an invasion. The United States stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to bolster the country’s defences, a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War that ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. – AFP

having 57 nuclear weapons is in line with previous assessments by the US government and think tanks that Pyongyang has an arsenal of between 50 and 60. After initially mocking Kim as “rocket man” and threatening “fire and fury” against North Korea, Trump met the him three times during his first term. Their last meeting was in 2019. Trump said they “fell in love” after exchanging “beautiful letters” but the headline-grabbing summits produced few tangible developments on the nuclear issue and they have not yet met in Trump’s second term. Trump has now pushed the issue back up the agenda since suddenly announcing on Sunday that he had ordered Washington to scale back “hostile” military drills with Seoul, citing his relationship with Kim. He said on Wednesday the drills were “very insulting” to Kim, adding that the North Korean leader – the third generation of a totalitarian dynasty that has ruled the country for nearly 80 years – has been “very well behaved”. The powerful sister of Kim said on Wednesday she did not know about the reported communication between her brother and Trump. “Regarding the recent news from

Portugal introduces ban on face coverings in public LONDON: Portugal has banned face coverings in public spaces after President Antonio Jose Seguro signed a law originally proposed by the right-wing Chega party. sign the law. Seguro cited social integration, non-discrimination and public security in supporting the measure, as well as European Court of Human Rights rulings concerning face coverings. establishing a direct relationship between people,“ he said in a statement. “And to admit that women, and only women, must hide their entire faces implies an asymmetry incompatible with the values of parity and equal dignity between men and women, values that shape European democracies.

Seguro approved the measure on Tuesday, saying it addresses an issue of “great social and cultural sensitivity”, Anadolu Ajansi reported, citing a note by the Belem Palace, the presidential seat in Lisbon. He said amendments made during the parliamentary process had persuaded him to

“For the president of the Republic, the uncovered face constitutes a structuring dimension of social trust, a characteristic of Portuguese society. Daily coexistence is based on mutual recognition and the possibility of

“On the other hand, in a free society such as ours, each person should be able to live their identity and beliefs within a set of common rules