News in Brief
North Korea warns US over spy planes violating its airspace
REUTERS – North Korea accused the United States on Monday of violating its airspace by conducting surveillance flights and warned that, while Pyongyang was exercising restraint, such flights may be shot down.
Provocative military actions by the United States were bringing the Korean peninsula closer to a nuclear conflict, said an unnamed spokesperson of North Korea’s Ministry of National Defence in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
The report also cited the use of US reconnaissance planes and drones and said Washington was escalating tensions by sending a nuclear submarine near the peninsula.
Putin met with Wagner chief in Moscow: Kremlin
AFP – The Kremlin said Monday that President Vladimir Putin had met with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin days after the mercenary group attempted to topple Russia’s military leadership.
The meeting in the Kremlin took place on June 29, several days after the short-lived rebellion.
“Indeed, the president had such a meeting,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding 35 people had taken part including Wagner’s top leaders and Prigozhin himself.
Study: Heat killed 61,000 in Europe’s 2022 summer
AFP – More than 61,000 people died due to the heat during Europe’s record-breaking summer last year, a study said on Monday which called for more to be done to protect against even deadlier heatwaves expected in the coming years.
The world’s fastest warming continent experienced its hottest summer on record in 2022, as countries were hit by blistering heatwaves, crop-withering droughts and devastating wildfires.