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North Korea has unveiled a new warship it claims is a destroyer armed with the “most powerful weapons”, at a launch ceremony attended by leader Kim Jong Un, state media said Saturday.

The announcement comes about a month after Kim oversaw the test of new suicide and reconnaissance drones featuring AI technology, adding to concerns over North Korea’s deepening military cooperation with Moscow.

The warship, named “Choe Hyon” after a deceased North Korean anti-Japanese fighter, is a 5,000-ton destroyer-class vessel that took more than a year to build, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Given its size, experts believe the ship can carry both ship-to-surface and ship-to-air missiles, with specialist outlet NK News reporting it is “likely to be equipped with short-range tactical nuclear missiles”.

The North Korean navy can now serve as a “core service for national defence and a component of nuclear war deterrent”, Kim said, according to KCNA, adding that the ship will “enter into operation early next year”.

He also accused Washington of “conducting aggressive exercises that simulate nuclear strikes against” the North through its joint-military operations with the South.

At the launch ceremony, held at the Nampho Dockyard on the country’s west coast Friday, the warship “received the honour of being first reviewed” by Kim, it added.

Nuclear weapons state

Images released by state media showed Kim, accompanied by his daughter Ju Ae, being enthusiastically welcomed by navy personnel in white uniforms in front of the new warship, with colourful confetti scattered across the ground.

Ju Ae, who is considered by many experts as Kim’s likely successor, was also photographed whispering to her father dressed in a formal black suit in front of the vessel.

Kim inspected a project in March to build a nuclear-powered submarine, asserting that “radically” boosting the navy was a key part of Pyongyang’s defensive strategy.

At the time, Kim called for the modernisation of the country’s surface and underwater naval forces, including the development of warships.

Washington — Seoul’s key security ally — has in recent years ramped up joint military exercises and increased the presence of strategic US assets, such as an aircraft carrier and a nuclear-powered submarine, around the Korean Peninsula to deter the North.

Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear weapons state and routinely denounces joint US-South Korea drills as rehearsals for invasion.

US President Donald Trump, who met Kim three times during his first administration, said this month that he is in “communication” with Kim and intends to “do something at some point”, according to Seoul’s Yonhap news agency.

A summit between the two in Hanoi collapsed in 2019 over talks on sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.

The launch of the vessel appears to “contain the intention to reiterate the position that nuclear abandonment is not possible for Kim”, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.

Kim also appears to be “presenting preconditions for possible future North Korea-US negotiations,” Yang added.

President Trump is backing Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth even as the Pentagon is rocked by a second leak scandal involving Signal app messages about airstrikes in Yemen, Reuters reported. 

According to reports, Hegseth discussed strike plans — including sensitive flight schedules — in a private group chat with his wife, brother, and lawyer. 

Some chat participants are Pentagon-affiliated, but others were not cleared for classified information.

The controversy follows a previous incident in which a journalist was mistakenly added to a similar Signal group, sparking outrage over the breach. 

Trump dismissed the latest uproar, calling media reports “just fake news” and praising Hegseth’s performance.

The backlash has intensified, with several Democratic lawmakers calling for Hegseth’s removal. 

Representative Jim McGovern accused him of leaking classified plans, while Senator Slotkin criticised him for distracting from military operations.

Hegseth has responded defiantly, blaming former staffers and the media for attacking his character. 

Meanwhile, a Pentagon probe into the leaks is ongoing, and recently ousted advisors have criticised their dismissals as unjust.

Despite Trump’s vocal support, speculation about Hegseth’s future continues.

Former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot described the situation as “total chaos,” casting doubt on Hegseth’s ability to remain in his post.

India has summoned Pakistan’s senior-most diplomat to New Delhi, local media reported on Thursday, a day after it unveiled steps to downgrade diplomatic relations with Islamabad. 

The development comes amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours following a deadly attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

A day after suspected militants killed 26 men at a tourist destination in the occupied territory’s Anantnag district in the worst attack on civilians in the rejoin in nearly two decades, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri claimed there was cross-border involvement in the attack and New Delhi would suspend a six-decade-old river-sharing treaty (Indus Water Treaty) as well as close the only land crossing between the neighbours.

India will also pull out its defence attaches in Pakistan and also reduce staff size at its mission in Islamabad to 30 from 55, Misri said.

India has summoned the top diplomat in the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi, local media reported, to give notice that all defence advisers in the Pakistani mission were persona non grata and given a week to leave, one of the measures Misri announced on Wednesday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for an all-party meeting with opposition parties on Thursday, to brief them on the government’s response to the attack.

In Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scheduled to hold a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) to discuss Pakistan’s response, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a post on X.

The Indus Water Treaty, mediated by the World Bank, split the Indus River and its tributaries between the neighbours and regulated the sharing of water. It had so far withstood even wars between the neighbours.

India would hold the treaty in abeyance, Misri said.

Diplomatic ties between the two countries were weak even before the latest measures were announced as Pakistan had expelled India’s envoy and not posted its own ambassador in New Delhi after India revoked the IIOJK in 2019.

Tuesday’s attack is seen as a setback to what Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have projected as a major achievement in revoking the special status of IIOJK enjoyed and bringing peace and development to the long-troubled Muslim-majority region.

The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Reuters, saying the proposal was being lined up for announcement during US President Donald Trump’s visit to the kingdom in May.

The offered package comes after the administration of former president Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to finalise a defence pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi Arabia normalising ties with Israel.

The Biden proposal offered access to more advanced US weaponry in return for halting Chinese arms purchases and restricting Beijing’s investment in the country. Reuters could not establish if the Trump administration’s proposal includes similar requirements.

The White House and Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A US Defence official said: “Our defence relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is stronger than ever under President Trump’s leadership. Maintaining our security cooperation remains an important component of this partnership and we will continue to work with Saudi Arabia to address their defense needs.”

In his first term, Trump celebrated weapons sales to Saudi Arabia as good for US jobs.

Lockheed Martin Corp could supply a range of advanced weapons systems including C-130 transport aircraft, two of the sources said. One source said Lockheed would also supply missiles and radars.

RTX Corp, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, is also expected to play a significant role in the package, which will include supplies from other major US defence contractors such as Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Atomics, said four of the sources.

All the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

RTX, Northrop and General Atomics declined to comment. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions. Questions about sales to foreign governments are best addressed by the US government.

Reuters could not immediately establish how many of the deals on offer were new. Many have been in the works for some time, two of the sources said. For example, the kingdom first requested information about General Atomics’ drones in 2018, they said. Over the past 12 months, a deal for $20 billion of General Atomics’ MQ-9B SeaGuardian-style drones and other aircraft came into focus, according to one of the sources.

Several executives from defense companies are considering traveling to the region as a part of the delegation, three of the sources said.

The US has long supplied Saudi Arabia with weapons. In 2017, Trump proposed approximately $110 billion of sales to the kingdom.

As of 2018, only $14.5 billion of sales had been initiated and Congress began to question the deals. In 2021, under Biden, Congress imposed a ban on sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia.

Under US law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are finalised.

The Biden administration began to soften its stance on Saudi Arabia in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacted global oil supplies. The ban on offensive weapons sales was lifted in 2024, as Washington worked more closely with Riyadh in the aftermath of October 7 attack.

A potential deal for Lockheed’s F-35 jets, which the kingdom has been reportedly interested in for years, is expected to be discussed, three of the sources said, while downplaying the chances for an F-35 deal being signed during the trip.

The United States guarantees that its close ally Israel receives more advanced American weapons than Arab states, giving it what is labeled a “Qualitative Military Edge” (QME) over its neighbors.

Israel has now owned F-35s for nine years, building multiple squadrons.

In a sigh of relief for overseas students, the Trump administration said on Friday that it is restoring the student visa registrations of potentially thousands of foreign students in the United States whose legal status had recently been abruptly terminated.

The decision was announced during a court hearing before a federal judge in Boston who was hearing a challenge by one of the many international students nationally suing over the administration’s actions.

Those students status had been revoked as a result of their records being terminated from a database of the approximately 1.1 million foreign student visa holders, putting them at risk of deportation.

Since Trump took office on January 20, records for more than 4,700 students have been removed from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement -maintained database known as Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

The database monitors compliance with visa terms and records foreign students’ addresses, progress toward graduation and other information. To remain in the database, student visa holders have to obey conditions like limits on employment and avoiding illegal activity.

Shortly before Friday hearing in Boston University student Carrie Zheng’s case, US District Judge F Deniss Saylor said he had received an email from a lawyer from the government alerting him to a change in position by ICE.

According to that email, ICE was now “developing a policy that will provide a framework for SEVIS record terminations.” Until that policy is issued, the SEVIS records for Zheng and similarly situated plaintiffs will remain active or will be restored, the email said.

US President Donald Trump this week said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president and that he thinks the two countries will strike a new deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.

However, Trump, who in 2018 pulled the US out of a now moribund nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, repeated a threat of military action against Iran unless a new pact is swiftly reached to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.

Trump, in an April 22 interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said, “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran” following indirect US-Iranian talks last week in which the sides agreed to draw up a framework for a potential deal.

The Republican US president, speaking separately to reporters at the White House on Friday, reiterated his positive prognosis, saying: “Iran, I think, is going very well. We’ll see what happens.”

A US official said the discussions yielded “very good progress.”

Asked by Time whether he was open to meeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on all major state policies, or President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure.”

Expert-level talks are set to resume on Saturday in Oman, which has acted as an intermediary between the longtime adversaries, with a third round of high-level nuclear discussions planned for the same day.

Israel, a close US ally and Iran’s major Middle East foe, has described Tehran’s escalating uranium enrichment programme — a potential pathway to nuclear bombs — as an “existential threat”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, saying partial measures will not suffice to ensure Israel’s security.

Asked in the interview if he was concerned Netanyahu might drag the United States into a war with Iran, Trump said: “No.”

‘I’ll be leading the pack’

However, when asked if the US would join a war against Iran should Israel take action, he responded: “I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”

In March, Iran responded to a letter from Trump in which he urged it to negotiate a new deal by stating it would not engage in direct talks under maximum pressure and military threats but was open to indirect negotiations, as in the past.

Although the current talks have been indirect and mediated by Oman, US and Iranian officials did speak face-to-face briefly following the first round on April 12.

The last known face-to-face negotiations between the two countries took place under former US president Barack Obama during diplomacy that led to the 2015 nuclear accord.

Western powers accuse Iran of harbouring a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy programme.

Tehran says its nuclear programme is wholly peaceful. The 2015 deal curbed its uranium enrichment activity in exchange for relief from international sanctions, but Iran resumed and accelerated enrichment after the Trump walkout in 2018.

A car bomb killed a senior Russian military officer in the town of Balashikha just east of Moscow on Friday, Russian investigators said, in an attack that Russian war bloggers blamed on Ukraine.

The killing, on the same day as US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, followed the assassinations of several high-ranking Russian military figures since the start of the war in Ukraine, which Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, named the dead officer as 59-year-old Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

It said it had opened a criminal case into the incident.

State media said Moskalik held the rank of lieutenant general. His position at the defence ministry would have given him an important role in planning Russian military operations, including in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.

The body of a man, partially covered in a white sheet, could be seen on the pavement outside the entrance to a residential apartment building near the burnt-out wreckage of a car.

The Kommersant newspaper said a second person had also been killed.

“According to available data, the explosion occurred as a result of the detonation of a homemade explosive device filled with destructive elements,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The statement did not say who might be behind the incident.

Rising star

Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service similarly killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov last December. Trump’s Ukraine envoy, General Keith Kellogg, said that the attack violated the rules of warfare.

Moskalik has in the past participated in several high-level Russian delegations that have met Western officials to try and negotiate a settlement to the conflict in Ukraine.

He also dealt with Syria, presenting a report on military-technical cooperation in Africa and the Middle East at a security forum in Moscow in 2021.

Russian war bloggers accused Ukraine of being behind the killing and described Moskalik as a rising star in the defence ministry.

Rybar, a blogger with over 1.2 million subscribers on Telegram, said he was viewed as “one of the most intelligent and demanding officers” in his directorate.

The blogger said Moskalik was being considered to serve as head of the National Defence Management Centre, the supreme command and control centre of the Russian Armed Forces, due to his “systematic approach and thoughtfulness.”

The United Nations has called on Pakistan and India to exercise “maximum restraint” amid escalating diplomatic tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours following a deadly incident in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

Relations have plunged to their lowest level in years, with India accusing Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism” after gunmen carried out the worst attack on civilians in contested Muslim-majority IIOJK for a quarter of a century.

“We very much appeal to both the governments […] to exercise maximum restraint, and to ensure that the situation and the developments we’ve seen do not deteriorate any further,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Thursday.

“Any issues between Pakistan and India, we believe, can be and should be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagement”.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday vowed to hunt down the gunmen responsible for killing 26 men at the popular tourist site of Pahalgam.

“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” Modi said, in his first speech since Tuesday’s attack in the Himalayan region.

“We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.”

Denying any involvement, Islamabad called attempts to link Pakistan to the Pahalgam attack “frivolous” and vowed to respond to any Indian action.

“Any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty and to the security of its people will be met with firm reciprocal measures in all domains,” a statement from the PM’s Office said, after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired the high-level National Security Committee meeting with top military chiefs.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since its independence in 1947. India still has not fulfilled its promise of holding a UN-mandated plebiscite.

Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in IIOJK since 1989, demanding independence. India’s air force and navy both carried out military exercises on Thursday.

Indian police offered a two million rupee ($23,500) bounty for information leading to each man’s arrest.

A day after the attack, New Delhi suspended a water-sharing treaty, announced the closure of the main land border crossing with Pakistan, downgraded diplomatic ties, and withdrew visas for Pakistanis.

In response, Islamabad ordered the expulsion of Indian diplomats and military advisers, cancelling visas for Indian nationals, with the exception of Sikh pilgrims, and closing the main border crossing from its side.

Pakistan also warned that any attempt by India to stop the supply of water from the Indus River would be an “act of war”.

‘Reduce it to dust’

Pahalgam marks a dramatic shift in recent Kashmiri rebel attacks, which typically target Indian security forces.

Experts say that a military response may still be in the pipeline, with some speculating that it may come within days, while others say weeks.

In 2019, a suicide attack killed 41 Indian troops in IIOJK and triggered Indian air strikes inside Pakistan, bringing the countries to the brink of all-out war.

“Whatever little land these terrorists have, it’s time to reduce it to dust,” Modi said on Thursday, after holding two minutes of silence in memory of those killed, all but one of whom was Indian.

Tuesday’s assault occurred as tourists enjoyed tranquil mountain views at the popular site at Pahalgam, when gunmen burst out of the forests and raked crowds with automatic weapons.

Indian security forces have launched a vast manhunt for the attackers, with large numbers of people detained.

The attack has enraged Hindu nationalist groups, and students from Kashmir at institutions across India have reported experiencing harassment and intimidation.

The Vatican is set to finalise preparations for Pope Francis’ funeral on Friday, as thousands of mourners continue to pay their respects at St Peter’s Basilica, where his open coffin is on display.

A significant gathering of dignitaries, including 50 heads of state and 10 monarchs, is expected to attend the ceremony in St Peter’s Square on Saturday, with notable figures like United States President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arriving in Rome on Friday.

In anticipation of the funeral, Italian and Vatican authorities are implementing stringent security measures, including drone restrictions, rooftop snipers, and fighter jets on standby.

Further checkpoints will be activated Friday night, police said.

Tens of thousands of people have already queued for hours to pay their last respects to Francis, whose coffin will be closed at 8:00pm in a ceremony attended by senior cardinals.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo who is running the Vatican’s day-to-day affairs until a new pope is elected, will preside over the so-called “Rite of the Sealing of the Coffin”.

The Catholic Church’s first Latin American pope died on Monday aged 88, less than a month after spending weeks in hospital with severe pneumonia.

Veronique Montes-Coulomb, a tourist from Toulouse in France, who attended the lying-in-state Thursday at St Peter’s, said she had been at the mass on Easter Sunday, the pontiff’s last public outing.

“We saw the pope passing by in the ‘popemobile’; he seemed relatively healthy, and we were surprised to learn that he had died on Monday morning,” she told AFP.

The Argentine pontiff, who had long suffered failing health, defied doctors’ orders by appearing at Easter, the most important moment in the Catholic calendar.

Condolences have flooded in from around the world for the Jesuit, an energetic reformer who championed those on the fringes of society in his 12 years as head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

He used his last speech to rail against those who stir up “contempt… towards the vulnerable, the marginalised, and migrants”.

At least 130 foreign delegations are expected at his funeral and a no-fly zone will be in force.

‘Brief but intense’

The pope’s coffin was set before St Peter’s altar for his three days of lying-in-state, with Francis dressed in his papal vestments — a red chasuble, white mitre and black shoes.

“It was a brief but intense moment next to his body,” Italian Massimo Palo, 63, told AFP after his visit.

“He was a pope amongst his flock, amongst his people, and I hope the next papacies will be a bit like his,” he added.

Italy’s civil protection agency estimates that “several hundred thousand” people will descend on Rome on what was already set to be a busy weekend due to a public holiday on Friday.

After the funeral, Francis’s coffin will be driven at a walking pace to be buried at his favourite church, Rome’s Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

The pontiff was a champion of underdogs, and a group of “poor and needy”, will be there to welcome the coffin, the Vatican said.

He will be interred in the ground, his simple tomb marked with just one word: Franciscus.

People will be able to visit the tomb from Sunday morning.

Following that, all eyes will turn to the process of choosing Francis’ successor.

Cardinals from around the world have been returning to Rome for the funeral and the conclave when a new pontiff will be elected.

In the absence of a pope, the cardinals have been meeting every day to agree on the next steps, with another meeting due on Friday at 9:00am.

They have yet to announce a date for the conclave, but it must begin no fewer than 15 days and no more than 20 days after a pope’s death.

Only those under the age of 80 — currently some 135 cardinals — are eligible to vote.

Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was number two to Francis, is the favourite, according to British bookmaker William Hill.

They put him ahead of Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle, the Metropolitan Archbishop emeritus of Manila, followed by Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson, and Matteo Zuppi, the Archbishop of Bologna.

Archaeologists in Peru said Thursday they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest centre of civilization in the Americas.

“What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archaeologist David Palomino told AFP.

The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for over 30 years until becoming an archaeological site in the 1990s.

Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000 years BC, contained skin, part of the nails and hair and were wrapped in a shroud made of several layers of fabric and a mantle of macaw feathers.

Macaws are colourful birds that belong to the parrot family.

The woman´s funerary trousseau, which was presented to reporters at the culture ministry, included a toucan´s beak, a stone bowl and a straw basket.

Preliminary analyses indicate that the remains found in December belong to a woman between 20 and 35 years old who was 1.5 metres (five feet) tall, and wearing a headdress that represented her elevated social status.

Palomino told reporters the find showed that while “it was generally thought that rulers were men, or that they had more prominent roles in society” women had “played a very important role in the Caral civilization.”

Caral society developed between 3000 and 1800 BC, around the same time as other great cultures in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.

The city is situated in the fertile Supe valley, around 180 kilometres (113 miles) north of Lima and 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Pacific Ocean.

It was declared a UN World Heritage Site in 2009.