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Despite long-strained ties between the rivals over the North’s nuclear weapons program, South Korea’s new government proposed a meeting with North Korea on Thursday to reunite families separated during the 1950-53 Korean War. AP reports that family reunions are highly emotional and humanitarian issues because they typically involve people who are in their 80s and older who want to reunite with their long-lost relatives before they die. It is unlikely that North Korea will accept the offer. This is because it is refusing Seoul and Washington’s offers to resume talks about its nuclear program and other issues. Instead, it focuses…

Albania has cut diplomatic ties with Iran and expelled its embassy staff. This is because of an alleged cyberattack carried out by Tehran on Albanian government websites nearly two months ago, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said. A country cutting diplomatic ties over a cyberattack was the first known instance of a country taking such action. In response to what it called a troubling precedent in cyberspace, the White House threatened unspecified retaliation against Iran. According to a White House statement, the White House has been helping Albania for weeks and has concluded that Iran was behind the “reckless and irresponsible”…

During the southern Bay region of Somalia this year, “concrete indications” suggest famine is imminent. That was the conclusion of the UN, which said “famine is on its way.” This is just short of a formal declaration of famine, as thousands of people are dying from a drought exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict. U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths was “shocked to my core” when he visited Somalia and saw starving babies too weak to cry. In the affected areas, more than 850,000 people are living, and tens of thousands more will arrive in the months to come, according to United…

German government scrambles to find solutions to its energy woes as winter approaches. It puts two of its last three nuclear power plants on standby instead of shutting them down at the end of the year. Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the two power stations in southern Germany will be kept on reserve in case they are needed to stabilize the electricity grid this winter. In response to a stress test conducted on grid operators, the announcement has been made. Even if the remaining three plants continued to operate, they would only be able to make a limited contribution in…

A suicide bomber detonated explosives near the entrance to the Russian embassy in Kabul on Monday, killing six and injuring at least 10, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry and Afghan officials. Reuters reports that an armed guard shot and killed the attacker as he approached the gate. This was one of the first such attacks since the Taliban took power last year. According to Mawlawi Sabir, the head of the police district where the attack occurred, “the suicide attacker was recognized and shot by guards of the Russian embassy (Taliban). According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, an unknown militant…

At least 65 people have died and hundreds of others have been injured as a result of the powerful earthquake. It triggered landslides and shook buildings in southwestern China, state media reported on Tuesday. There are at least 16 people unaccounted for a day after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Luding county in Sichuan province. This county is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Tibetan Plateau where tectonic plates meet. The earthquake shook buildings in Chengdu, the provincial capital, and its 21 million residents are already living under a COVID-19 lockdown. The historic town of Moxi in…

In south Korea, Typhoon Hinnamnor made landfall on Tuesday, leaving thousands displaced and one dead, authorities said. Reuters reports that the typhoon left the Korean peninsula around 7:10 a.m. after landing in Geoje, off the coast of Ulsan in the southeast, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration. As of 11 a.m., the typhoon was moving northeast at 38 mph and expected to pass some 420 km west of Sapporo, Japan, by 9 p.m. Typhoon warnings have been lifted for most parts of the country, with the exception of Ulsan, North Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces in the east. Until the typhoon…

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck China’s Sichuan province on Monday according to the China Earthquake Networks Centre (CENC), the strongest earthquake to hit the region since 2017. More than 30 people were killed as a result of the earth quake, which also shook Chengdu, the capital of the province, and other distant provinces. There were landslides near the epicentre that damaged some roads and homes, while communications were down in at least one area, state television reported. Dams and hydropower stations within 50 km (31 miles) of the epicentre were not damaged, but the provincial grid was damaged, affecting about…

As Pakistan deals with a relief and rescue operation of near unprecedented scale, the death toll from the cataclysmic floods continued to rise on Saturday with 57 more deaths, 25 of them children. Reuters reported that a high-level relief committee chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met in Islamabad for the first time on Saturday to assess the disaster. As a result of record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains, floods have affected 33 million people and killed at least 1,265 people, including 441 children. It is still not over yet. Climate change is blamed for the inundation.…

Several parts of eastern Australia were under severe weather and flood warnings on Sunday, months after the country’s east coast was devastated by massive floods. Reuters reported that extreme weather in Queensland and New South Wales killed at least 13 people and forced tens of thousands to evacuate. This was due to submerging town centres, washing away homes and cutting power. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, damaging gusts of wind with peaks around 100 kph (60 mph) are possible throughout the day in parts of southeast Queensland. The agency advised people to seek shelter indoors, preferable indoors, and to…