South Korea may send team to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops

South Korea has said it is considering sending a military team to Ukraine to monitor the expected deployment of North Korean troops on the frontlines by Russia.

North Korea has sent some 11,000 soldiers to Russia and over 3,000 of them have been moved close to the frontlines, Reuters quoted an unnamed South Korean official as saying.

The official said North Korea will gain military knowledge from its troops helping the Russian war effort which poses a military threat to South Korea. “So it is incumbent upon us to analyse and monitor the activities of North Korean troops against our ally, Ukraine,” the official added.

South Korea’s spy agency said last week the North has deployed 3,000 soldiers to Russia’s far east for training, with plans to send 12,000 troops in total.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon said the North has sent 10,000 troops to its ally and some of them are reportedly heading to Kursk to join Russian forces in fighting the Ukraine invasion of the border region.

This came barely hours after Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said that North Korean military units were already in Kursk.

“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” Mr Rutte said.

The deployment of North Korean troops to Kursk is “also a sign of Putin’s growing desperation”, he added, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol said the deployment of the North Korean troop has been quicker than expected and caused a dangerous situation, his office reported, relaying remarks made during a phone call with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Mr Trudeau said the deployment of North Korean troops is likely to escalate the conflict and greatly impact the security situation in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region, according to Mr Yoon’s office.

North Korean soldiers are being incorporated into Russian military units and given Russian uniforms to try to hide their identities, South Korea’s presidential official said, adding that issues like language barriers may be slowing their entry into battle.

South Korea and the US have raised alarm over North Korea sending troops to join the Russian war in Ukraine, likely in return for technology that could advance Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

Russia and North Korea initially denied these allegations but later adopted a vaguer stance, stating that their military cooperation conforms with international law.

Mr Putin sidestepped questions about the North deploying troops, saying: “This is our sovereign decision.”

“Whether we use it or not, where, how, or whether we engage in exercises, training, or transfer some experience. It’s our business,” he told reporters.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that North Korean officers and technical personnel have been spotted in Russian-occupied territories but did not specify when.

“I believe they sent officers first to assess the situation before deploying troops,” Mr Zelensky said, warning that the participation of a third country could escalate the conflict into a world war.

Mr Zelensky also claimed, without providing details, that his government has intelligence that around 10,000 soldiers from North Korea are being prepared to join the Russian forces fighting in his country.

North Korea beefs up Kim Jong-un security due to assassination threat

North Korea is beefing up security around leader Kim Jong-un, likely for fear of assassination, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service informed lawmakers on Tuesday.

The upgrade includes deploying communication jammers and considering drone detection systems, Yonhap news agency reported.

The spy agency said that Mr Kim’s public appearances have significantly increased this year, up by about 60 per cent from last year.

It did not mention any specific threats against Mr Kim, however.

The spy agency further reported that North Korea has stopped using its “juche” calendar—a year-numbering system honouring its late founder Kim Il-sung—and is intensifying efforts to solidify Mr Kim’s role as the country’s sole leader.

Mr Kim’s daughter Kim Ju-ae appears to have seen an elevation in status, the agency added, noting her recent public appearances, including one where she was accompanied by Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of the leader.

The news of enhanced security for Mr Kim came soon after the Pentagon reported on Monday that North Korea had sent about 10,000 soldiers for training to Russia and some of them were advancing towards the Ukrainian frontlines to support the Russian war forces against Kyiv.

South Korea and the US have expressed concerns about reports suggesting North Korea may be sending troops to support Russia in its war, potentially in exchange for technology that could enhance Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile capabilities.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Monday that some North Korean military units were already in the Kursk border region, where Russia has been fighting off an incursion by the Ukrainian forces.

This follows Russian president Vladimir Putin’s June visit to Pyongyang where he and Mr Kim signed a mutual assistance pact strengthening diplomatic and diplomatic ties.

In phone calls with European commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Mr Rutte, South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol shared intelligence assessments indicating that North Korean troops could reach the frontlines “more quickly than anticipated”.

He called for strengthened coordination with European governments aimed at “monitoring and blocking” any illicit exchanges between Pyongyang and Moscow, according to a statement from his office.

Meanwhile, South Korean officials warned on Tuesday that North Korea may launch an intercontinental ballistic missile as early as November, potentially coinciding with the US presidential election.

What made iconic Aboriginal Australian weapons so deadly?

A first-of-its-kind study has finally revealed how Indigenous Australians delivered deadly strikes with their two iconic weapons.

The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports last week, shows how Aboriginal Australians deployed the kodj and the leangle.

Kodj is an indigenous invention that is part hammer, part axe and part poking weapon, and its design is likely thousands of years old. The leangle is a fighting club with a hooked striking head that is used along with a parrying shield, both typically carved from hardwood.

Researchers at Griffith University in Australia used modern biomechanics technology to determine where the striking power of these weapons comes from, and what makes their ancient designs so deadly.

For the study, Larry Blight, an Indigenous Menang Noongar man from Western Australia, made a kodj using wattle wood for the handle and a sharpened stone for the blade.

The leangle and parrying shield were made from hardwood by Brendan Kennedy and Trevor Kirby from Wadi Wadi Country.

The researchers used wearable instruments to track human and weapon movement, including shoulder, elbow and wrist motions, as well as the power generated during kodj and leangle strikes.

They then studied the kind of coordinated movement and energy expenditure needed by humans to use these weapons effectively.

“We present the world’s first evaluation of striking biomechanics and human and weapon efficiency regarding this class of implement,” they said in the study.

The leangle was found to be far more effective at delivering devastating blows than the kodj, which the researchers said was an easier-to-manoeuvre multi-functional tool but still capable of delivering severe blows.

“There were no previous studies describing human and weapon efficiency when striking with a handheld weapon, so we were starting from scratch,” study co-author Laura Diamond said.

“Although the design is critical for weapon efficiency, it is the human who must deliver the deadly strike.”

The findings also shed more light on archaeological evidence of ancient interpersonal violence documented over the years in Australia.

Such evidence mainly comprises fossil human skulls with depressions or “parrying fractures” to arm bones above the wrist.

These injuries are akin to what one might get while defending against weapons similar to the ones used in this experiment, scientists said.

They said they hope the methods employed in the study can be used to analyse the striking physics of other archaic weapons from other parts of the world.

Village with low population places dolls to ease loneliness

With fewer than 60 people living in the Japanese village ofIchinono, and a majority past retirement age, residents have installed handcrafted stuffed mannequins to recreate the once bustling community.

According to data from the internal affairs ministry, only one baby was born in Ichinono in the last two decades.

The youngest member of the village is two-year-old Kuranosuke, who came to the village in 2021 with his parents, Rie Kato, 33, and Toshiki Kato, 31. The couple chose to move to the rural area from Osaka because of the sense of community, which they found lacking in the city.

The Katos stand in stark reflection to the youth of Ichinono, who were encouraged by parents to move to the city to pursue better opportunities for education, jobs, and then marriage. The youth moved to the cities, but never returned.

“We were afraid they would become unmarriageable if they remained stuck in a remote place like this. Out they went, and they never came back, getting jobs elsewhere. We’re now paying the price,” 88-year-old widow Hisayo Yamazaki told AFP.

“We’re probably outnumbered by puppets,” she added.

The puppets, all handcrafted by residents, are placed on swings or bikes, positioned as if they are pushing a cart of firewood, or prepare to work in the fields, an eerie replica of what families must have once done.

“If the village is left as it is now, the only thing that awaits us is extinction,” said 74-year-old Ichiro Sawayama, head of Ichinono’s governing body.

Ichinono is one of more than 20,000 communities in Japan where a majority of the residents are aged 65 and above, underscoring the formidable task ahead of the country as it sees a rapidly declining birth rate.

Preliminary government data released earlier this year showed that the number of babies born in Japan fell for an eighth straight year to a fresh record low in 2023. The number of births fell 5.1 per cent from a year earlier to 758,631, while the number of marriages slid 5.9 per cent to 489,281.

In 2023, Japan recorded more than twice as many deaths as new babies.

This is the first time in 90 years the number fell below 500,000, foreboding a further decline in the population as out-of-wedlock births are rare in Japan.

“The declining birthrate is in a critical situation,” chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in February. “The next six years or so until 2030, when the number of young people will rapidly decline, will be the last chance to reverse the trend.”

The declining birth rate has left the island nation grappling with a diminishing workforce, which may have significant implications for funding pensions and healthcare services, especially as demands from an ageing population continue to rise.

Approximately 36.23 million individuals in Japan were aged 65 or older as of 15 September 2023, according to government data. This represents a record-breaking 29.1 per cent of the total population – marking a 0.1-point increase from the previous year.

The statistics were released by Japan’s internal affairs ministry on the eve of “Respect-for-the-Aged Day”, a public holiday celebrated across Japan on 18 September.

Japan’s population will likely decline by about 30 per cent to 87 million by 2070, with four out of every 10 people aged 65 or older, according to estimates by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

The government has launched various initiatives to combat the declining birth rate, including financial incentives for couples to have children, expanded childcare facilities, and even a state-backed dating app in Tokyo that uses AI to match singles.

The decline in birth rates is a growing issue in East Asia, with neighbouring South Korea and China facing similar challenges, as they are faced with the daunting task of motivating young individuals to have more children, even as they grapple with the rising cost of living and mounting social discontent.

Last year, South Korea set a new record for the lowest fertility rate in the world, while China’s population shrank for the first time since the 1960s early this year.

As Japan’s government tries to figure out a way out of the crisis, the Katos in Ichinono don’t seem too worried about their son’s lack of playmates.

The village head calls the toddler “our pride”, while Yamazaki said he is “practically my great-grandchild – such a sweet thing”.

“Just by being born here, our son benefits from the love, support and hope of so many people — even though he has achieved absolutely nothing in life yet,” said his father Toshiki.

Seoul to spend over £3bn to help residents raise children

The Seoul city government plans to invest 6.7 trillion won (£3.7bn) over the next two years to boost the South Korean capital’s birth rate through housing support and household subsidies.

The initiative comes as Seoul’s birth rate shows signs of recovery, with a 6.6 per cent increase in newborns from April to August compared to the previous year, according to officials cited by Yonhap news agency.

The new investment plan is nearly double the money spent by the city government over the past two years, the officials added.

The South Korean government has been working to develop solutions to tackle the country’s birth rate crisis. In 2023, the rate dropped to 0.72 children per woman, the lowest in the world.

The latest plan includes providing 5,000 long-term rental homes for newlyweds, monthly housing subsidies for parents without homes, and financial assistance for couples to help with wedding and furnishing costs.

The project’s first phase supported caregivers with financial aid for infertility treatments and easier access to social benefits for larger families. In the newly announced second phase, the city will add 35 initiatives, totalling 87 policies.

A key part of the initiative supports non-homeowner newlyweds and prospective parents with a housing subsidy totalling 720,000 won (£400) over two years. Starting in January 2025, this aid will ease financial pressures that deter family growth, initially helping 1,380 families and expanding to 4,140 by 2026, officials said.

According to the new plan, the city will raise the rental deposit loan limit for newlyweds from 200m to 300m won (£111,370 to £167055), with interest rate support extended for 10 years, The Korea Herald reported.

In addition, long-term lease apartments will be given, including 1,000 units in 2024 and 4,000 units per year from 2026 in places like Dunchon-dong in Gangdong-gu.

Seoul will offer a 100,000 won (£55.70) monthly allowance to employees covering for colleagues on parental leave, aiming to foster a supportive work culture, local media reported.

To address income gaps during maternity leave, the city will pay up to 900,000 won (£501) for the last 30 days of the 90-day leave period, which employers don’t typically cover.

Starting in 2025, Seoul will extend maternity and paternity leave support to freelancers and solo entrepreneurs, providing 900,000 (£501) won to pregnant self-employed women and 800,000 won (£445) to self-employed individuals with pregnant spouses.

Struggling newlyweds will receive up to a million won (£557) for wedding and home furnishing costs, benefiting over 20,000 couples in 2025.

To support family-friendly spaces, the city will expand its Seoul Kids Cafe network by 400 locations by 2026 and establish early-morning childcare centres in all 25 districts, allowing parents to drop off children before school.

Couple’s hack saves them £50k on holidays from Thailand to Iceland

A couple who traded family holidays for home swaps have said the travelling hack has saved them up to £50,000 across 35 countries.

Retired teachers Tim Moynihan, 67, and his wife Elizabeth, 66, joined HomeExchange in 2008 – a platform which allows users to exchange their homes over dates of mutual choosing, or if a member wishes to lend their home without reciprocity, their guest can offer GuestPoints to thank them for their hospitality.

In search of more affordable ways to holiday with their now grown-up children – Matthew, 38, Hannah, 36, Helen, 34, and Rory, 31 – Tim said home swapping has allowed the family to travel the world and stay in properties with “all the home comforts”.

Tim and his wife have since visited 35 countries over the past 16 years, including Iceland, Sweden and New Zealand, completing 84 home swaps in total – and they believe they have saved up to £50,000 by doing so.

The arrangement has also seen more than 40 guests, including couples and families, stay in their four-bedroom semi-detached home in Hadleigh, Essex, which is beside the country park and has views across the local estuary – and they have never had a bad experience.

The annual HomeExchange subscription is £180 and allows members unlimited exchanges, and the couple have stayed in properties including a seafront apartment in South Africa, where they spotted whales just yards away, Hot Springs in Arkansas, where Bill Clinton grew up, and a “James Bond-style villa” in Thailand.

“What we’ve discovered is that you’ve basically got a home away from home,” Tim told PA Real Life.

“The benefits of it are that you get a place that you want to go to, you’ve got all the home comforts, you’ve got people that know the area and, very often, people will leave a house book with tips on what to see and do and to help with managing the house during the exchange.

“Those sorts of things prove invaluable, really, so you get a fuller picture of what life is like in those countries when travelling abroad.

“You get a flavour of other people’s lives because you’re in their home and their personal possessions are there – their family photos, for example – and you can gauge their lifestyle.

“If you stay in a hotel, you don’t really get to experience that, which makes home swapping more special.”

Tim and his wife Elizabeth first joined the website in 2008 in search for more affordable ways to go on holiday as a family of six.

“The thing was, having four children, hotel holidays were a non-starter for us … and being teachers, we had the six-week holiday, so you’re tied to the peak times,” Tim said.

“So I was just looking for other options that would allow us to travel abroad.”

For Tim and Elizabeth’s first home swap, they travelled to Colmar in France, but they have since visited places such as San Francisco, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Thailand, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, creating long-lasting memories.

While in Oakland in San Francisco, Tim recalled staying in a shared living community, meeting a sex therapist who was living next door and waking up to an earthquake one morning.

One of their most memorable home swaps was a lavish “James Bond-style villa” in Ko Samui, Thailand, which had a swimming pool, and on another occasion, they stayed in an unusual property in Selfoss in Iceland.

Recalling the trip to Iceland, Tim said: “We arrived in the middle of the night.

“You’re driving through these lava fields, and there are little plumes of smoke, wisps of smoke, coming up.

“There are no lights, of course, it was such a bizarre experience … and the house was very interesting – there were dolls everywhere and African artworks and a gym in the main living area.

“It was just so different to our own home.”

The couple also stayed in various locations in South Africa and were able to see whales just yards from their seafront property in Hermanus.

“We drove along the coast to Hermanus from Cape Town in South Africa, and we had the most amazing apartment, which was right on the seafront,” he said.

“The next morning we looked out, and there were whales near the shore just 100 yards, 200 yards from where we were – a whale and its calf just literally in the bay outside our apartment.”

Tim said he believes he and Elizabeth have saved up to £50,000 by using HomeExchange – and it has allowed them to stay in places that they never dreamed they would visit. For more information, visit HomeExchange’s website homeexchange.com.

This includes Hot Springs in Arkansas, the largest gated community in North America, where US president Bill Clinton grew up, which Tim described as “fascinating”.

Tim and Elizabeth had use of a new 4×4, two Vespas, a Volkswagen Beetle Convertible and their own pontoon boat on the dock by the lake below the house, making it a very memorable trip.

The couple said that being able to use families’ cars and other vehicles has enabled them to save even more money when doing some reciprocal home swaps.

“The places are often spectacular,” Tim said.

“You don’t always end up in the places that you would want to go to for a holiday … but if you go with a spirit of adventure, you can have a lot of fun.”

Tim said one of the best things about home swapping is immersing yourself in new places and cultures and living like a local.

He said he would encourage anyone to give it a try – and although people may have reservations about strangers coming into their home, Tim said thorough checks take place and they have never had a bad experience.

Speaking about his advice to others, he added: “I would say, just do it. I mean, what have you got to lose?”

There is still no snow on Mount Fuji – first time in 130 years

Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji has stayed snowfree well into autumn this year, something that hasn’t happened since recordkeeping began 130 years ago.

Japan’s highest mountain is generally snowcapped by mid-October, signalling the start of winter. This year, however, warmer temperatures have kept Fuji bare, breaking the previous record for latest snowfall, set on 26 October 1955 and tied in 2016.

Meteorologists from the Kofu Local Meteorological Office, located about 40km from Fuji, confirmed that unseasonably high temperatures have delayed snowfall.

They announce the first snowcap of the season as soon as it is visible from their observation point, a tradition dating back more than a century.

Although seasonal weather patterns occasionally lead to delays, officials attribute this year’s unusually late snowfall to ongoing climate trends which have increased average autumn temperatures in recent decades.

The delayed snowfall on Fuji is part of a pattern of unpredictable seasonal changes around the world due to the climate crisis. The longer summers are impacting both snow cover and precipitation. In fact, 2024 is set to be the hottest year on record for the world for the second straight year.

Japan’s coastal and mountain regions have seen similar impact, with warmer autumns and milder winters becoming more common.

The country suffered its hottest summer on record for the second straight year in 2024, with temperatures 1.76C higher than the average from 1991 to 2020. Now, unseasonably warm autumn weather is delaying the first snowfall.

Dozens of cities in Japan have recorded high temperatures, close to or over 30C, in the early days of October, according to analysis from the nonprofit research group Climate Central.

The unusual heat Japan has experienced was made three times more likely because of the climate crisis, the study found.

In 2024, a record number of people died from heatstroke in Tokyo, with 252 people dying between June and September. Most of the victims were elderly people who were found dead in their homes without air conditioning. Earlier this year, Japan’s early bloom of cherry blossoms had also sparked concerns.

Beyond climate concerns, Fuji has faced other challenges, including overtourism. This year, local authorities implemented a tourist tax to help manage the influx, aiming to mitigate the environmental strain from millions of visitors who trek to the iconic mountain each year.

China launches youngest astronauts to its space station

China has claimed success in launching a new three-person crew to its space station – including the youngest astronauts sent to its orbiting outpost – amid plans by the country to expand its space programme.

The crew consisting of two men and only the country’s third female astronaut, were launched aboard the Shenzhou-19 spaceship at 4:27 am Beijing time on Wednesday.

The crew will replace the astronauts who have lived on the Tiangong space station for the last six months and are expected to stay until April or May of next year.

The new mission commander, Cai Xuzhe, went to space in the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022, while the other two, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, are first-time space travellers, born in the 1990s.

China built its Tiangong space station after it was excluded from the International Space Station, mainly due to concerns raised by the US over the Chinese program’s control by the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese Communist Party’s military arm.

In recent years, China has rigorously expanded its space programme, announcing this month an ambitious plan to become a global leader in space science by 2050.

The unveiled program aims to “achieve high-quality development in space science, drive breakthroughs in space technology innovation, upgrade space applications, rank among the world’s leading space nations, and establish China as a global leader in space science,” according to the China Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Besides building its space station and launching astronauts to it, China‘s space agency has landed an explorer on Mars, and aims to put boots on the moon before 2030 – a feat that would make it only the second nation after the US to do so.

It aims to expand research on areas including black holes, Mars and Jupiter, as well as the search for habitable planets and signs of alien life as part of a three-phase strategy.

The first phase, with a completion target by 2027, would focus on China operating its space station and continuing its lunar exploration programme.

The “manned lunar exploration is a strategic endeavour that promotes the progress of human civilisation and demonstrates the responsibility of a major power”, Lin Xiqiang, China’s Manned Space Agency (CMSA) spokesperson said.

The country’s Moon program is part of its growing rivalry with the US, which is still considered the leader in space exploration, as well as with others, including Japan and India.

As part of the latest launch to the Chinese space station, the orbiting outpost will receive resupplies, aiding the crew in performing spacewalks, and replacing and instal equipment to protect them from space debris.