
North Korean troops suffer over 6,000 casualties in Ukraine War: UK intelligence
advertisement"On 04 June 2025, Russian Security Council Secretary and ex-Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu reportedly visited DPRK for a meeting with DPRK leader Kim Jong Un, his second in less than three months. Shoigu has highly likely been a key interlocutor with DPRK regarding DPRK's support to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine," it added.
"DPRK operations have thus far been confined to the Kursk region. Any decision to deploy into internationally recognised, sovereign Ukrainian territory in support of Russian forces would almost certainly require sign-off from both Russia's President Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un. The total casualties represent over 50% of the North Korean troops originally deployed. Open sources suggest that North Korea has sent a small number of extra soldiers to support their forces in the region," the statement said.NORTH KOREA WILL ALWAYS STAND WITH RUSSIA, KIM TELLS PUTINadvertisementEarlier this week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country will always stand with Moscow, state media reported.In a message for Russia Day, a patriotic holiday celebrating Russia's independence, Kim called Putin his "dearest comrade" and praised their bilateral relations as a "genuine relationship between comrades-in-arms," KCNA reported."It is an unshakable will of the government of the DPRK and of my own steadfastly to carry on the DPRK-Russia relations," Kim was quoted as saying.With inputs from ReutersTrending Reel
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First Post
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'Actively involved' in India-US BTA talks: Govt tells Parliament amid spat with Trump over tariff
Regarding the efforts being taken by the government to protect critical industries such as agriculture, Prasada stated that international trade agreements allow for the inclusion of sensitive, negative, or exclusion lists - groupings of commodities that get restricted or no tariff concessions read more President Trump has threatened to hike tariffs on India 'substantially' for importing Russian oil, accusing New Delhi of benefitting from Moscow's fuel during the continuing war in Ukraine. File image/Reuters India is 'actively involved' in discussions for a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the United States, with the goal of expanding trade and investment and deepening the commercial relationship to promote growth, national security, and job creation, said Jitin Prasada, Minister of Commerce, in a written response to the Lok Sabha on August 5. The answer came only hours after India issued a strong statement in response to US President Donald Trump's social media post threatening New Delhi with extra tariffs on its oil trade with Moscow. President Trump has threatened to hike tariffs on India 'substantially' for importing Russian oil, accusing New Delhi of benefitting from Moscow's fuel during the continuing war in Ukraine. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Trump administration has yet to elaborate on the extra taxes. Negotiations for a trade agreement between India and the United States began in March 2025, and five rounds of discussions have been place thus far, the most recent in July. Talks for a mini-version of a deal before August 1 appear to have failed, as divergences continued, particularly on agriculture. Regarding the efforts being taken by the government to protect critical industries such as agriculture, Prasada stated that international trade agreements allow for the inclusion of sensitive, negative, or exclusion lists - groupings of commodities that get restricted or no tariff concessions. On August 5, Prasada said, 'In addition, in case of surge in imports and injury to the domestic industry, a country is allowed to take recourse to trade remedial measures such as anti-dumping and safeguards on imports within the periods as mutually agreed to by the parties under FTAs.' On July 30, Trump declared a 25 percent tax and an undisclosed fine on India for acquiring Russian energy supplies and defence equipment. Responding to the ongoing trade discussions with the United States, MoS for Agriculture Ramnath Thakur stated that the government has always prioritised farmers' livelihoods and interests, as well as food security concerns, while negotiating deals with international partners, including the United States.


Indian Express
27 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Can't we say ‘good genes' anymore? The backlash to the Sydney Sweeney jeans ad explained
When clothing retailer American Eagle launched its new ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney, it was merely trying to revive its declining fortunes and appeal to its consumer base of predominantly young women. However, it found itself at the centre of the latest public debate surrounding an ad featuring the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actress. The offending ad drew concerns from critics for the language used, who claimed that it was a racial dog whistle, intentional or otherwise. 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour,' Sweeney says in the ad as the camera pans over her denim jeans and jacket. 'My jeans are blue.' And just as the company attempted to play down the controversy, the White House decided to weigh in with its full strength. Spokesperson Steven Cheung characterised the criticism as 'cancel culture run amok', Vice President JD Vance called Sweeney an 'All-American beautiful woman', and President Donald Trump on Monday (August 4) wrote, 'Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the HOTTEST ad out there.' Is it a bad thing to say someone has good genes? The phrase 'good genes' is used today often to compliment someone's physical attributes. However, it has a complicated history with direct ties to eugenics and white supremacist propaganda. Eugenics is a discredited scientific theory which argues for selective breeding, meaning intentional human reproduction to increase the presence of genetic traits viewed as 'desirable'. The term was coined in Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development (1883) by Francis Galton, a British natural scientist who drew on Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. Darwin's theory suggests that as species evolve, individuals with traits that can adapt to their environmental requirements are more likely to survive and reproduce, thus passing these traits on to their offspring. Galton advocated for selective breeding to give 'the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable'. In the US, eugenics was introduced by Charles Davenport, who founded the Eugenics Record Office on Long Island, New York, in 1910 to 'improve the natural, physical, mental, and temperamental qualities of the human family', according to its brochure. What was initially an academic interest in identifying 'undesirable' traits, like dwarfism, mental ability, and criminality, extended into a larger social movement in the 1920s and '30s. This had political implications too, with states such as Indiana and California implementing sterilisation laws targeting the poor and disabled, as well as Native Americans, Latin Americans, and Black people. Between 1907 and the 1970s, more than 60,000 people across 32 states were forcibly sterilised for being 'mentally deficient'. In 2003, then-California Governor Gray Davis apologised for the state's role after it was revealed that the state's forced sterilisation campaign had inspired Nazi Germany's efforts at ethnic cleansing of its minorities, predominantly Jews, ethnic communities like the Sinti and Roma, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities. And the Nazis most infamously presented the archetype of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white person as having 'pure blood' and therefore, aspirational. Eugenics as an idea lost popularity in the 1940s after the actions of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler came to be reviled. However, subtler practices, such as involuntary sterilisation, forced institutionalisation and social ostracisation, have continued in the decades post-WWII. Such policies disproportionately targeted women and people of colour. Writing in The Conversation in 2020, academic Alexandra Minna Stern noted that Black women were sterilised over three times the rate of white women and over 12 times the rate of white men between 1950 and 1966. Federal programs like Medicaid funded forced sterilisation between the 1960s and 1970s, impacting over 100,000 Black, Latino and Indigenous women, Stern wrote. According to critics, the wordplay in the ad is malicious when viewed with the composite actions of the Trump administration, including its unprecedented crackdown on immigration. Since January, the president has imposed a national emergency at the country's shared border with Mexico, denied entry to asylum-seekers, authorised nationwide immigration raids, aggressively pushed for self-deportations, and has stepped up the ante on third-country deportations, despite legal challenges. This, coupled with other actions by the administration, such as the repeal of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, has caused concern that the administration has stepped beyond serving its primarily white, conservative, MAGA voter base. The president has been at the forefront of such messaging, telling a rally of his supporters that they had 'good genes'. Last October, he said that illegal immigrants who commit murder have 'bad genes.' Along the campaign trail, the president also claimed that illegal immigrants were 'poisoning the blood of our country', using language that directly echoed Adolf Hitler's 1925 autobiography, Mein Kampf. Such language has been endorsed by two-thirds of Republican voters across the country, according to an October 2024 poll by the University of Massachusetts. In recent years, conservative commentators, ranging from TV host Tucker Carlson to billionaire CEO Elon Musk, have also leaned into the controversial Great Replacement Theory, coined by French writer Renaud Camus in 2010. According to the theory, white Americans face the threat of becoming a minority and losing their jobs to non-white immigrants. The Republican Party leaned into such messaging in the run-up to the 2024 election, claiming that the Democratic Party was importing immigrants to win the election.
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First Post
27 minutes ago
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To Japan, via Jaipur. Why Ukraine's First Lady made a surprise stop in India
A plane ferrying Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska and officials made an unscheduled refuelling stop at Jaipur Airport en route to Tokyo to seek support for Ukraine's reconstruction. The high-level Ukrainian delegation was exempted from standard pre-embarkation checks, such as frisking, and extended VIP courtesies read more The plane landed at Jaipur International Airport at around 6:30 am, carrying a 23-member Ukrainian delegation, including First Lady Olena Volodymyrivna Zelenska. File image/ Instagram: Volodymyr Zelenskyy A plane carrying a high-level Ukrainian delegation, including First Lady Olena Volodymyrivna Zelenska, made an unexpected stop at Jaipur International Airport on Sunday while en route to Tokyo, Japan. On board were several senior members of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's administration, including Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Taras Andreyovich. The unscheduled landing quickly drew attention, given its high-profile passengers. So why did the plane stop in Jaipur? Here's what we know. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Why did the Ukrainian First Lady's plane land in Jaipur? The unexpected landing of Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska's plane in Jaipur on Sunday morning was for a refuelling, according to reports. The refuelling request had been pre-approved by India's Ministry of External Affairs, which directed the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) to ensure all necessary protocols were followed. As per the directive issued on August 1, special instructions were given to exempt the delegation from standard pre-embarkation checks such as frisking and to extend VIP courtesies. The plane landed at Jaipur International Airport at around 6:30 am, carrying a 23-member Ukrainian delegation, including high-ranking officials like Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Oleksii Sobolev, Ukraine's Minister for Economic Affairs. Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska's plane in Jaipur on Sunday morning was for a refuelling. File image/President of Ukraine During the stop, the delegation waited in the VIP lounge while the aircraft was refuelled. The group was served light refreshments and met with Ukrainian Embassy officials from New Delhi who had travelled to Jaipur to receive them. The visit was handled discreetly by airport authorities, despite the high-profile nature of the passengers. Immigration clearance was not required since it was a transit halt, and the plane resumed its journey to Tokyo at around 8:15 am. According to NDTV, the delegation is headed to Japan to reinforce diplomatic ties and seek greater support in Ukraine's reconstruction efforts and sanctions push against Russia. Who is Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska? Olena Zelenska, born Olena Volodymyrivna Kiyashko, is the First Lady of Ukraine and the wife of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Before stepping into the spotlight, Olena had a career as a screenwriter, working with Kvartal 95 Studio, a comedy and production group co-founded by Zelenskyy long before he entered politics. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Olena and Volodymyr met during their university years. He was studying law, while she was in engineering. Their friendship turned into a relationship in 1995, and after dating for nearly 8 years, they got married in 2003. The couple has two children, daughter Oleksandra, born in 2004, and son Kyrylo, born in 2013. They're also known to be animal lovers and share their home with several pets, including dogs, a cat, a parrot, and even a guinea pig. While she largely stayed away from politics early on, Olena has become a prominent voice since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She has spoken on international platforms, championing humanitarian support and mental health, especially for women and children affected by the war. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and First Lady Olena Zelenska's featured on cover of Vogue magazine. File image In September 2022, she launched the Olena Zelenska Foundation, aimed at rebuilding essential services and infrastructure in war-affected areas, particularly in and around Kyiv. Her efforts have earned her global recognition. In 2022, she appeared on the cover of Vogue and was named one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People. She also received the Hillary Rodham Clinton Award in December 2022 for her work supporting women and advocating for peace. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With input from agencies