TOP NEWS

Political crisis in South Korea
Opposition has chosen leader – likely president

Lee Jae-Myung was elected as the opposition party’s presidential candidate in South Korea on Sunday, AP reports. He is the most likely candidate to take over the role of president in the country since Yoon Suk-Yeol was convicted earlier in April for imposing martial law in December.

Lee Jae-myung was behind the vote in parliament that led to Yoon being impeached, before a court finally formally removed him.

Lee received 90 percent of the votes within the Democratic Party when they chose their candidate and is a clear favorite for the presidential election. Voters see him as an anti-establishment figure and a politician who can eliminate corruption. But critics say he is populist and fuels polarization in the country, AP writes.

North Korea crisis
Trump wants to reconnect with Kim – with Swedish help

The Trump administration has secretly discussed resuming contact with North Korea and has, with the help of experts on the issue, explored the possibilities for a meeting, several sources told Axios.

No direct contacts have reportedly taken place between the White House and North Korea, but it goes through the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang. Sweden represents US interests in the Asian country and recently Ambassador Andreas Bengtsson is said to have visited Washington.

During Trump's last term, he met with dictator Kim Jong-un, but hardly anyone who was involved in arranging it from the North Korean side is still in Kim's staff, the news site writes.

- We are bringing together authorities to understand where the North Koreans are today. A lot has changed in the past four years. We are evaluating, analyzing and discussing possible ways forward, including dialogue, says a diplomatic source.

European security policy
Europe wants landmines – several warn: Innocents die

Non-profit organizations are raising the alarm that several European countries want to withdraw from the treaty on anti-personnel mines, reports The Guardian.

Finland, Poland and the Baltic states want to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention from 1997, which bans the use of anti-personnel mines. The background is the threat from Russia. But critics say that anti-personnel mines do “terrible things to innocent people”, and they have facts to support them. Between 70 and 85 percent of those who die annually from anti-personnel mines are civilians, the newspaper writes.

Bosnian Zoran Ješić leads a group for survivors of landmines. He lost his leg after stepping on his own army’s landmine during the Bosnian war and is very critical of their use.

– It feels like a slap in the face, he tells The Guardian.

Pope Francis 1936–2025
The EU summit succeeded in its funeral diplomacy – finally got a Trump meeting

The EU Commission has been trying for several months to arrange a meeting between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump, without success. But at the Pope's funeral, they were caught on camera shaking hands – and now the Commission announces that a meeting has been scheduled, reports Euractiv.

- During their brief conversation, President von der Leyen and President Trump agreed to meet, says a spokesperson.

The spokesperson adds that a full conversation will take place at a later date and not in Rome. However, the Commission does not want to answer whether von der Leyen has yet received a formal invitation from the White House.

In a post on X, von der Leyen herself writes that she met several world leaders at the funeral.

“I had good conversations with several of them,” she writes, including a picture of Trump.

Relations with the US and the EU are strained due to both the tariff crisis and the Ukraine negotiations.

Israel has bombed Hezbollah targets in the suburbs of Beirut

Israel has carried out an airstrike on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said, according to AFP.

According to the statement, the attack was directed at a location where Hezbollah is said to have stored rockets.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemns the attack and calls on France and the United States to take their responsibility as guarantors of the ceasefire signed on November 27.
 

Port explosion in Iran
Rocket fuel exploded - at least 40 dead in Iran

The death toll after the powerful port explosion in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas has risen to 40 victims, Iranian state media reported according to Reuters. About 1,000 people were injured and the firefighting effort continued throughout the night, writes AP.

According to security company Ambrey, the explosion was linked to containers containing chemicals used to manufacture rocket and missile fuel. The chemicals were to be used to restore Iran's dwindling missile arsenal after the many attacks on Israel during the Gaza war.

Back in January, the Financial Times reported that Iran had received the chemicals. It is unclear why the flammable substances have not been removed from the port area since then, especially given the huge explosion that occurred in the port of Beirut in 2020 and killed more than 200 people.

Iran's customs authority also blamed the explosion on dangerous goods. So far, no one has officially suggested that the explosion was due to an attack, although Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said that the security services are on high alert given previous attacks.