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Straits Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
South Korea stops decades-old propaganda broadcast into North Korea
Find out what's new on ST website and app. In June, President Lee Jae-myung ordered a halt to loudspeaker broadcasts near the border that criticise the Kim regime. SEOUL – South Korea has suspended decades-old radio broadcasts into North Korea in its latest move to ease tensions, marking a symbolic win for Pyongyang by cutting off a rare source of uncensored information for its citizens. South Korea's presidential office said on July 23 the radio broadcasts have been suspended 'for some time now,' saying such a move is better than witnessing inter-Korean ties deteriorating. That confirmed a recent report by the 38 North programme at the Stimson Centre that said that four radio stations believed to have been operated by South Korea's National Intelligence Service went silent in early July. 'In most of the world, cross-border broadcasting is a relic of a bygone era,' Mr Martyn Williams, a senior fellow for the Stimson Centre, said in the report. 'But North Korea is not like most of the world. It is one of the few places where people don't have access to the internet and are banned from accessing foreign media.' The move is especially notable because the programmes, some of which date back to the 1970s, 'have never paused broadcasting since their start, no matter the political relationship between the two Koreas being warm or frosty,' Mr Williams said. The move aligns with South Korea's President Lee Jae-myung's broader effort to improve relations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, signalling a departure from the hardline policies of his conservative predecessor. In June, Mr Lee ordered a halt to loudspeaker broadcasts near the border that criticise the Kim regime. While the impact of the suspended broadcasts is hard to measure, North Korea's consistent attempts to jam the signals suggest they were effective in reaching listeners, Mr Williams said.
South China Morning Post
05-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Think Trump ‘obliterated' Iran's nuclear programme? Don't be so sure
Two weeks after the United States launched air strikes on three of Iran's key nuclear sites, mounting evidence is puncturing President Donald Trump 's boasts that the facilities were ' obliterated '. Advertisement From the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog to leading American non-proliferation experts, scepticism is growing over Washington's assertions that the strikes set back Tehran's nuclear weapons ambitions 'by years'. Trump 'appears to have already lost interest', according to Barbara Slavin, a distinguished Middle East fellow at the Washington-based Stimson Centre think tank – apparently believing that a public declaration of victory renders negotiations with Iran unnecessary. But nuclear experts agree: no one outside Iran can say with any certainty what has become of the country's 900lb (409kg) stockpile of 60 per cent-enriched uranium. While this enrichment level falls one step short of weapons-grade, it is – by the UN's reckoning – enough to produce as many as nine nuclear warheads were Tehran to take that final leap. Instead of halting Iran's progress, the US and Israeli attacks have triggered a retaliatory ban on International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors, cutting off the UN Security Council's oversight of the country's nuclear sites and, crucially, its cache of highly enriched uranium (HEU). Advertisement Before the strikes, the IAEA had what it described as a 'comprehensive' picture of Iran's HEU reserves and the centrifuges spinning to enrich uranium. But now, as Director General Rafael Grossi told US news network CBS last Sunday, 'there is nothing'.
Time of India
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Iran-Israel conflict: The Conflict that Just Doesn't End
Morning Brief Podcast | Iran-Israel conflict (ET Online) The Conflict that Just Doesn't End Anirban Chowdhury | 15:54 Min | June 26, 2025, 7:29 AM IST LISTEN 15:54 LISTENING... What happens when long-simmering tensions between two regional powers erupt into a flashpoint for global concern? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury is joined by Barbara Slavin, distinguished fellow at the Stimson Centre to unpack the fragile but ferocious dynamic between Iran and Israel. Framed by the October 7th Hamas attacks and the Gaza War, the conversation traces the deeper history of Iran's relationship with Israel and the rise of the so-called Axis of Resistance. From regime stability in Tehran to nuclear ambitions, Barbara offers insight into whether this conflict marks a shift in Iran's regional strategy or simply a episode also probes the role of the United States, questioning why it acts as a combatant rather than a mediator and whether its long-standing 'maximum deterrence' doctrine still holds water. Is there still hope for peace?
South China Morning Post
30-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
US visa crackdown echoes Trump's first term, while China's response marks shift in tone
Washington's visa crackdown on Chinese students with ties to the Communist Party closely mirrors restrictions imposed during US President Donald Trump's first administration, which at the time prompted Beijing to accuse the US of 'regime change'. However, this time, Beijing's response has been notably restrained, with China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday denouncing the move as 'discriminatory' and lodging diplomatic protests. Despite Beijing's unease over discussions about party connections, observers suggested China's measured approach stemmed from its focus on crucial trade negotiations with the Trump administration, and a belief that such policies would ultimately backfire and harm the US. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a brief statement on Wednesday that the US would 'aggressively revoke' visas for Chinese students, specifically those with connections to the ruling party or studying in 'critical fields', while tightening scrutiny of visa applications from mainland China and Hong Kong. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Thursday called the move 'politically motivated and discriminatory', saying it had used ideology and national security as a pretext and would 'further damage' America's global image and reputation. Yun Sun, director of the China programme and co-director of the East Asia programme at the Stimson Centre in Washington, said much remained unclear about the latest plan, as specific criteria for visa revocation and its potential scope had yet to be disclosed.
Mint
21-05-2025
- Science
- Mint
What a giant stingray says about the Mekong
The Economist Published 21 May 2025, 03:49 PM IST It took a dozen men to load Boramy, a giant stingray, onto the scales. At just under 300kg, she is the biggest freshwater fish ever weighed. She was caught by a Cambodian fisherman on the Mekong, South-East Asia's longest river, on June 13th. She was the fourth giant stingray recorded in the area in the past few months. She swam away tagged. The discovery of such a large fish has cheered conservationists. The Mekong river, which starts in the Tibetan plateau and snakes through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, feeding some 66m people along the way, is home to more species of huge freshwater fish than any other in the world. But they are suffering. In the past 50 years the population of giant fish has dropped by 94%. Dams are part of the problem. Over 140 of them have been built on the Mekong and its tributaries to feed the region's growing demand for electricity. Dozens more are under construction. Dams alter the amount and quality of water and nutrients in the river. They also block fish from migrating. Changing weather patterns do not help. The wet season is shorter than it used to be and tends to start later, says Courtney Weatherby of the Stimson Centre, a think-tank. Between 2019 and 2021, the water level in the Mekong was the lowest since records began 60 years ago. Poor dam management, climate change and El Niño, a weather pattern that affects rainfall in the region, are all thought to contribute to the problem. That Boramy is both massive and alive shows that pockets of the river remain resilient and worth protecting. Her discovery also points to improving relations between fishermen and conservationists. Her captor could have sold her as food. Instead he called Wonders of the Mekong, a local conservation group, which paid him some $600 to keep Boramy alive so that she could be tagged and released. Villagers along the river are also paid modestly to maintain the acoustic receivers that pick up signals from the group's tags. Conservationists hope that by tracking Boramy, they will learn which parts of the river to protect, including breeding and birthing spots. But big fish may yet lose out to big hydropower. A new dam is being proposed just upstream of where Boramy was found.
