Kim Jong-un’s newest car shows North Korea can get around sanctions

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un seems to have added a new luxury car to his collection of premium rides, raising doubts about the effectiveness of stringent sanctions banning export of luxury items to the country.

The latest model of Mercedes-Benz SUV was seen rolling out of Mr Kim’s armoured train during his visit to flood-hit areas, Yonhap news agency reported.

Arriving in Uiju county in North Phyongan province on 9 August, Mr Kim addressed the public from inside a carriage of his train.

Pictures shared by North Korean media showed him standing near a Mercedes Maybach GLS 600, the top model of the car’s facelifted version launched in South Korea in April.

The car is priced between $175,500 (£137,080) and $227,400 (£1,77,618) in America and over £108,000 in the UK.

The North Korean leader is known to have Mercedes-Maybach S600 Guard, fifth-generation US-made Cadillac Escalade, Rolls Royce Phantom and Lexus armoured sedan vehicles in his car collection.

North Korea is banned from procuring luxury goods under a broader set of international sanctions aimed at containing the country’s nuclear weapons programme.

The sanctions are supposedly meant to limit the resources available to the North Korean government, particularly those that could be used to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The sanctions were first imposed in 2006 after the country conducted its first nuclear test.

Mr Kim’s use of foreign cars goes against his government’s policy of discouraging foreign influence through music, art, news and films on the public. Authorities in the country have previously cracked down on K-pop music and films from rival South Korea.

According to the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, which tracks smuggling networks, luxury foreign cars reach North Korea through port transfers, secret high-seas shipping and shadowy front companies.

In a report, the centre said 90 countries served as the source of luxury goods to North Korea from 2015 to 2017.

This year, Russian leader Vladimir Putin gifted two cars to the North Korean leader as their countries deepened ties.

In February, Mr Putin sent Mr Kim an Aurus Senat limousine, which he had shown him when they met for a summit in Russia in September.

In June, Mr Putin gifted another Russian-made Aurus Senat, retro-styled after the Soviet-era ZIL limousine, which the Russian leader himself uses as his official presidential car, during his state visit to North Korea.

Japan airport runway closed after cargo plane makes emergency landing

A runway at Japan’s Narita airport was closed on Tuesday after an American cargo plane made an emergency landing.

Authorities said one of the two runways at the airport in Chiba prefecture was shut down after a Boeing 747 jet of Atlas Air made an emergency landing due to an issue with its hydraulic system.

The cargo plane was en route to Los Angeles when the problem became apparent at about 1.10am, a transport ministry spokesperson said.

The runway was closed for about seven hours. The crew on the Atlas Air plane was unharmed.

“The seven crew members of the Boeing 747 were not injured, but tyres were found ruptured and the wheels damaged,” the spokesperson said.

The plane’s “tyres were changed” at the Narita airport.

The emergency landing of the cargo jet, however, did not have much impact on other flights, authorities said.

The Independent has reached out to Atlas Air for comment.

The Atlas Air emergency landing came a day after a Singapore Airlines plane faced a “technical issue” upon landing at Narita airport. The Boeing 787-10 aircraft reportedly had white smoke coming out of its engine when it landed.

The incident involving flight SQ638 forced the other runway at Narita airport to be closed for just under an hour on Monday. There were no signs of fire and no one was injured.

Singapore Airlines later said the flight had “experienced a technical issue with its brakes upon landing”.

Gibbon and flying lemur among exotic animals seized at Indian airport

Customs officials in India seized 22 live exotic animals from a man arriving on a flight from Thailand.

The seized animals included an endangered siamang gibbon, two sunda flying lemurs, two green tree pythons, a white-lipped python, nine four-eyed turtles, a red-footed tortoise, an Indochinese box turtle, and a keeled box turtle.

They were hidden inside ventilated boxes brought in by a Thai Air Asia passenger named Mohamed Meera Sardharali, who landed at the Chennai international airport from Bangkok on Saturday. He was taken for questioning after security officials noticed suspicious behaviour.

He reportedly led the officials to another man, Mohammed Idris, who was waiting outside the airport to receive the package, The Times of India reported.

He was handed over to the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau while Mr Sardharali was detained and remanded in judicial custody under the provisions of the Customs Act and the Wildlife Protection Act.

“All the exotic wildlife species alive were safely handed over to airlines for deportation to their place of origin. Further investigation is in progress,” the customs department said in a statement.

The questioning of Mr Idris and Mr Sardharali reportedly helped police and wildlife officials expose a ring of animal traffickers. They raided a house in Kolathur, Chennai, and found hundreds of native and exotic species.

They seized as many as 240 Indian-roofed and tricarinate hill turtles, three black pond turtles and 383 star tortoises, the newspaper said. However, there was no one at the house.

The animals had either been smuggled in from abroad or were in the process of being trafficked to foreign countries, officials said.

The house allegedly belonged to a police constable S Ravi Kumar, who was dismissed from service after being accused of involvement in animal trafficking.

Former Hong Kong governor calls Jimmy Lai’s conviction ‘unjust’

The conviction of media mogul Jimmy Lai and six other people for their role in the 2019 anti-government protests is “unjust” and underlines the “rapidly deteriorating state of the rule of law” in Hong Kong, former governor Chris Patten said.

Mr Lai, Democratic Party founding chairman Martin Lee, and five former lawmakers were found guilty in 2021 of organising and participating in an unauthorised rally in August 2019 that reportedly drew nearly a fourth of the city’s 7.3 million population.

The Court of Final Appeal upheld the conviction on Monday.

Mr Lai, 76, a British citizen who founded the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, is facing the prospect of life in jail if found guilty of sedition and collusion with foreign powers under the national security law. He has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020.

Lord Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, told The Guardian the “unjust verdict” against Mr Lai and his fellow accused was made worse “by the fact that Lord Neuberger, a former head of Britain’s Supreme Court, was a party to this decision”.

“This is particularly surprising since when he was a member of the judiciary in Britain, Lord Neuberger was keen to establish that the English common law could accommodate fundamental aspects of human rights protection,” he said.

David Neuberger was one of five judges on the Court of Final Appeal that heard the matter, renewing the debate about whether foreign judges should continue to sit on Hong Kong’s highest court amid a national security crackdown.

The appeal of Mr Lai and the other accused centred on whether their conviction was proportionate to the fundamental human rights protections set out in a pair of non-binding decisions by Britain’s supreme court known as “operational proportionality”.

“He was also always keen that judges should be keen to explain their reasoning. In this case, perhaps some of his views on the law changed between the first-class waiting room at Heathrow and the arrival terminal of Hong Kong international airport,” Lord Patten said, referring to Lord Neuberger.

The judgment upholding the conviction of Mr Lai and the other accused came nearly two months after the resignation of two British judges from the Court of Final Appeal, Lawrence Collins and Jonathan Sumption.

Mr Sumption said at the time that Hong Kong was becoming a totalitarian state and its rule of law had been “profoundly compromised”.

Mr Neuberger told Reuters in mid-June he would remain on Hong Kong’s highest court “to support the rule of law in Hong Kong, as best I can”.

China has allowed non-permanent foreign judges to sit on the Court of Final Appeal even after it took the then British colony back in 1997 to enable continuity with British common law tradition, provide expertise to local lawyers and reassure businesses and financial markets.

Nearly half of foreign judges in Hong Kong have stepped down since China enacted the national security law in the wake of the 2019 protests. The overseas judges are reportedly paid about £40,000 per visit to the city.

Taiwan deploys F-16 fighter jets for gold medal-winning boxer home

Taiwan marked the grand return of its Olympic athletes, including gold medal winning boxer Lin Yu-Ting, by deploying F-16 fighter jets to escort their incoming flight into Taipei on Tuesday.

At least three F-16 jets were used to express Taiwan’s gratitude to the Olympic athletes who won seven medals for the island nation, including two golds and five bronzes, the Ministry of National Defence said.

The athletes were aboard a EVA Air charter flight on Tuesday morning, returning from Paris. Photos and videos shared by Taiwan’s defence ministry showed three F-16 jets taking off to join the athletes’ flight inbound for Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei.

The jets took off at 5am from an airbase, joined the EVA Air flight in the air and released fire flares in the sky as they flew alongside the plane to greet the incoming winners. The plane with the group of athletes touched down in Taipei at 7.10am.

Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te instructed the defence ministry to escort the athletes coming home and celebrate their achievements.

This is the second highest number of medals Taiwan has won at the Olympics, where the self-governed island competes under the name of Chinese Taipei.

Photos also showed Taiwan’s first ever Olympic gold medal winner in boxing, Lin Yu-ting, aboard the flight. Lin was seen watching a video of president Lai’s short message for the athletes.

Lin routed Julia Szeremeta of Poland 5:0 in their 57kg category in the final, capping her four-fight unbeaten run through Paris. Like Algerian boxer Imane Khaleif, Lin faced an avalanche of criticism and uninformed speculation about her sex during the Paris tournament to deliver the best performances of their boxing careers.

Their detractors questioned their eligibility to compete in women’s competitions by claiming they were men, and forcing both women to take unwanted starring roles in a debate over changing attitudes toward gender identity and safety regulation in sports.

Lin said she minimised this potentially enormous distraction by managing to avoid learning about it almost entirely. She also said she’ll speak with her team about whether to take legal action against some of the claims.

Both fighters were disqualified last year from the world championships organized by the International Boxing Association, a Russian-dominated governing body that has been banished from the Olympics since 2019.

The IBA said they failed an eligibility test for women’s competition, but it has struggled to defend its claims since they resurfaced at the Olympics, occasionally giving contradictory information or saying they were asked not to give details by the boxers’ national federations. That didn’t stop the criticism and speculation from proliferating online, apparently stoked by Russian disinformation networks.

“As an elite athlete, during the competition it’s important to shut myself off from social media,” she said.

“That’s extremely important. Some of the noises or some of the news articles, of course I heard some of the information through my coach, but I didn’t pay too much mind to it. And I was invited by the IOC to participate in the Games. This is what I focused on.”

Lin has been circumspect in her public handling of the uproar, largely limiting herself to comments on her performances and praise of both her opponents and her many fans. Her quarterfinal and semifinal opponents in Paris outwardly showed moderate sportsmanship but also made it clear they felt Lin should have been ineligible to compete.

Lin has been strongly backed by her home country, including its former president, Tsai Ing-wen, who posted a message of support on social media.

Additional reporting by agencies

South Korea deploys bedbug sniffer dog to keep away Paris critters

South Korea has introduced a bedbug-detection dog at its main international airport to prevent the insects from entering the country after the Paris Olympics.

A two-year-old beagle named Ceco is the only dog in South Korea trained to sniff out bedbugs by detecting their pheromones.

At Incheon international airport, Ceco can reportedly search a hotel room for bedbugs in under two minutes, Kim Min-su from pest control company Cesco said.

The move comes after last year’s panic in Paris over bedbugs, which were found in public places and hotel rooms. The insects are known to hide away in suitcases.

Authorities in Paris warned that “no one is safe” from the critters and videos on social media appeared to show them crawling over seats on the Paris Metro.

To avoid a similar problem, South Korea is taking precautionary measures by working with pest control, transportation, security, and health agencies to monitor and disinfect flights from Paris more frequently.

The South Korean government said it is taking a “preemptive response to intercept the entry of the bugs through the Incheon international airport, which is the main gateway to the country”.

“As the global community is gathering in Paris, France, on the occasion of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, there’s a chance bedbugs will enter the country following the event,” the government said.

Ceco will reportedly be deployed to sniff out bedbugs until 8 September as athletes, fans and officials return from the Olympics.

In 2023, South Korea experienced a wave of national concern following reports of suspected bedbug infestation in micro-apartments, motel rooms, and traditional spas known as “jjimjilbang”, leading to a disinfection campaign.

Seoul even allocated a budget of 500 million won (£310,000) to tackle the infestation, the Yonhap news agency reported at the time.

Additional reporting by agencies.

The numbers behind the staggering wealth of Asia’s richest family

The Ambanis have topped the list of the most valuable family businesses with a valuation that is equivalent to 10 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to a Barclays-Hurun India report.

Reliance Industries, which is part of the Ambani family’s Rs25.75 trillion (£239.47bn) empire, runs India’s leading conglomerates in petroleum refining and marketing, oil and gas, organised retail, telecommunication, and other digital streaming services.

The Ambanis and their wealth have been a source of both fascination and outrage over this year.

Mukesh Ambani’s 29-year-old son Anant’s over-the-top wedding festivities started in March and finally culminated in a three-day extravagant celebration in July that saw the likes of Rihanna, Katy Perry, Andrea Bocelli, and Justin Bieber flown in as performers and global celebrities from Kim and Khloé Kardashian to former world leaders Tony Blair and Boris Johnson attending.

According to reports, Bieber charged $10m (£7.84m) to perform at one of the wedding functions, Rihanna was paid anywhere between $8-$9m (£6-7m) for a pre-wedding celebration, while Katy Perry charged between $4-$5m (£3.1-3.9m) to perform during a second pre-wedding celebration.

The exact cost of the Ambanis’ wedding festivities continues to be undisclosed, but Indian media and wedding planners estimated that the wedding celebrations alone would easily exceed $300m (£235m). If taken into account both pre-wedding events, The Guardian estimated that the total could reach up to $600m (£470m).

The Ambanis are followed by the Bajaj family in second position with a valuation of Rs 7.13 trillion (£66.31bn), and the Birla family in third place, with a Rs5.39 trillion (£50.31bn) valuation. Together, these top three families are valued at $460bn (£361bn) – equal to the GDP of Singapore – according to the report.

These rankings are based on the company valuations as of 20 March 2024, and the methodology excludes all private investments and liquid assets and adjusts for cross-holdings to prevent double counting.

Mukesh Ambani, 67, who is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, and Asia’s richest man, is worth $120bn (£94bn), according to Forbes in July 2024.

His wife, Nita Ambani, is the founder and chairperson of Reliance Foundation, Reliance Industries’ corporate social responsibility arm. She was elected by the International Olympic Committee to join as an individual member in August.

The couple have three children: Akash Ambani, 38, chairman of Reliance Jio, the telecommunications giant; daughter Isha, 38, who oversees the retail arm, and Anant, who is taking care of the energy business.

The Ambani family home in Mumbai, named Antilia after a phantom island in the Atlantic Ocean, is the world’s second most expensive residence after Buckingham Palace. Located in the posh Altamount Road in South Mumbai, popularly called the Billionaire’s Row, the 27-storey private apartment building stands 568ft in height and is valued at $2bn (£1.56bn). The building has three helipads, a 168-car garage, multiple swimming pools, four levels of energy-saving gardens, a 50-seater movie theatre, and a fitness centre.

The Ambanis also own a 100-year-old ancestral mansion in Chorwad, in the Junagadh district of the western Indian state of Gujarat, where Reliance founder Dhirubhai Ambani grew up. Spread over 1.2 acres, the home has been restored and renovated several times over the years, and parts of it have also been open to visitors.

In Dubai, Mukesh Ambani owns a beach villa on the Palm Jumeirah Island, which he purchased in August 2022 for reportedly $80m (£63m). The villa, that was gifted to Anant, is spread over 3,000sqft, has 10 bedrooms and a 70m-long private beach.

In 2021, Mukesh Ambani drew the ire of the local community, when he bought Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire, then a popular and storied golf and country club, and shut it down for renovation. The iconic estate has been featured in two James Bond films, Goldfinger and Tomorrow Never Dies, Aishwarya Rai-starrer Bride and Prejudice, and Netflix’s hit series The Crown shot here as well.

Stoke Park, which once belonged to Queen Elizabeth I, was bought for reportedly £57m ($72m). After the local council raised concerns that the proposed renovations were allegedly unauthorised and that the Ambanis were not respecting leasehold terms that state it must be a commercial property, the management said that the estate will reopen and be turned into a 7-star hotel with a new clubhouse and a revamped golf course, reported the Financial Times.

In 2022, Mukesh Ambani bought a controlling stake of 73.4 per cent in the Mandarin Oriental in New York City for $98.2m (£76.96m). The 248-room hotel, with a state-of-the-art fitness centre and a 75ft lap pool overlooking the Hudson River, is the first pick of Hollywood royalty and hedge fund billionaires.

Reliance Industries bought Mumbai Indians, a franchise cricket team that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL), in 2008 for $112m (£88m). In 2017, the team became the first IPL franchise to cross the $100m (£78m) in brand value, and according to Forbes is valued at $1.3bn (£1bn).

The conglomerate also owns the Mumbai Indians team that plays in the Women’s Premier League, the MI Cape Town team that plays in SA20 in South Africa, MI Emirates that competes in International League T20 (ILT20) in UAE, and MI New York that competes in the Major League Cricket (MLC).

YouTuber lands in trouble with viral video of ‘peacock curry’

A YouTuber has found himself in trouble with the law after sharing a recipe video featuring the meat of peacock – India’s national bird.

Kodam Pranay Kumar, a YouTuber from the state of Telangana with 277,000 subscribers, is under investigation for allegedly violating laws that protect peacocks from hunting and killing. He typically garners 500 to 1,000 views on his recipe videos.

Mr Kumar is charged with posting a video titled “traditional peacock curry” on his YouTube channel.

Akhil Mahajan, the superintendent of police for the Rajanna-Sircilla district, stated: “A case has been registered under the relevant laws, and the strictest action will be taken against him and anyone else involved in such activities.”

He further added: “He (Kumar) will also be remanded.”

Animal rights activists claimed that Mr Kumar frequently shared similar videos on his channel.

Officials investigating the case reported that a team of forest officials visited his village and detained him under the Wildlife Protection Act, according to India Today.

A sample of meat, purported to be chicken curry, found in his house has been sent for forensic analysis.

In India, peacocks are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The Indian peafowl, the animal group that includes the male peacock, enjoys one of the highest levels of protection under the law as the national bird. The hunting, killing, or capturing of the bird is strictly prohibited, and those found in violation face imprisonment for a minimum term of three years, up to a maximum of seven years, along with a fine.

This is not the first instance of individuals being apprehended for consuming peacock meat.

In June, two farmers from Telangana’s Vikarabad district were arrested for allegedly eating a peacock. Forest officials alerted authorities after discovering peacock feathers in an open field with the bird’s body missing. The peacock was believed to have died of electrocution before the two farmers took it away.

In 2023, three labourers in Odisha were arrested for hunting a peacock and eating its meat. Forest officials raided a brick factory after receiving a tip-off to arrest the professional hunters who used to lay traps to hunt birds and animals.

The officials recovered 1.5kg of peacock meat as well as feathers along with snares and net from the possession of the three men.