World
North Korean officials looking to import treatment for Kim's obesity-related health issues: Seoul
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has regained weight and appears to have obesity-related health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and his officials are looking for new medicines abroad to treat them, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Monday.
The 40-year-old Kim, known for heavy drinking and smoking, comes from a family with a history of heart problems. Both his father and grandfather, who ruled North Korea before his 2011 inheritance of power, died of heart issues.
Some observers said Kim, who is about 5 feet, 8 inches tall and previously weighed 308 pounds, appeared to have lost a large amount of weight in 2021, likely from changing his diet. But recent state media footage show he has regained the weight.
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On Monday, the National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency, told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Kim is estimated to weigh about 308 pounds again and belongs to a high-risk group for heart disease, according to Lee Seong Kweun, one of the lawmakers.
Lee said the NIS told lawmakers that Kim has shown symptoms of high blood pressure and diabetes since his early 30s. Another lawmaker, Park Sunwon, said the NIS believes Kim’s obesity is linked to his drinking, smoking and stress.
In this photo provided on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivers a speech during a meeting of Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea held from June 28 until July 1, in Pyongyang, North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
Lee and Park quoted the NIS as saying it obtained intelligence that North Korean officials have been trying to get new medicines abroad for Kim’s suspected high blood pressure and diabetes.
North Korea is one of the most secretive countries in the world, and there is virtually no way for outsiders to know Kim’s exact health conditions. The NIS also has a spotty record in confirming developments in North Korea.
Kim’s health is the focus of keen attention outside North Korea since he hasn’t formally anointed a successor who would take charge of the country’s advancing nuclear arsenal targeting the United States and its allies if he was incapacitated.
The NIS in its Monday briefing also maintained its assessment that Kim’s preteen daughter, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae, is likely bolstering her status as her father’s heir apparent. But the NIS said it cannot rule out the possibility that she could be replaced by one of her siblings because she hasn’t been officially designated as her father’s successor.
Speculation about Kim Ju Ae, who is about 10 years old, flared as she has accompanied her father on high-profile public events starting in late 2022. State media called her Kim Jong-un’s “most beloved” or “respected” child and churned out footage and photos proving her rising political standing and closeness with her father.
The NIS told lawmakers that at least 60% of Kim Ju Ae’s public activities have involved attending military events with her father.
Published on •Updated
A tragedy unfolded in the night between Friday and Saturday on the island of Lampedusa, where a newborn migrant baby girl just a few weeks old died of hypothermia immediately after disembarking and while being rushed to the island’s outpatient clinic.
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At 4.30 a.m., after being rescued by the V1307 patrol boat of the Guardia di Finanza, 55 people from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone landed at Favarolo pier. Among them were seven women and six minors. The baby girl, whose condition immediately appeared critical, was taken together with her mother to the medical facility, where doctors could do nothing but declare her dead.
Investigation opened into the baby girl’s death
The Agrigento prosecutor’s office has opened an inquiry into the tragic case and ordered a post-mortem examination of the child’s body, a necessary step to confirm hypothermia as the actual cause of death.
The body is being transferred to the mortuary at the Cala Pisana cemetery, while in the coming hours the mother will be questioned by investigators to reconstruct the details of the crossing and establish exactly how and when the baby fell ill.
According to accounts from other migrants on board, the group had set off from Sfax-El Amra in Tunisia at around two o’clock yesterday morning, making the journey in a seven-metre metal boat that cost between 400 and 600 euros per person.
The baby girl’s mother, originally from Côte d’Ivoire, was later taken to the hotspot in the Imbriacola district together with her other daughter, aged around two. According to reports, the woman is currently in a severe state of shock over the loss of her child and is receiving continuous support from staff of the Italian Red Cross, which manages the island’s reception centre.
The centre’s director, Imad Dalil, confirmed to Italian media that psychosocial support measures had been activated. “The mother and the sister are here in the hotspot and are in good physical condition; for them and for the other people psychological support was activated immediately and in the coming hours the medical and psychosocial teams will continue their work,” he said.
NGOs’ reaction
The German NGO Sea-Watch voiced its outrage in a strongly worded post on X. “While the state attacks those who save lives at sea, investigating the captain of Sea-Watch, a one-month-old baby has arrived in LAMPEDUSA, dead in her mother’s arms, after a three-day crossing. Who will be held responsible for this injustice?” The outburst refers to the news, received by the NGO after arriving in Brindisi with 166 rescued people, that a criminal investigation has been opened against the captain of the Sea-Watch 5 on suspicion of aiding illegal entry.
The UN agency specialising in the protection and assistance of people forced to flee war, violence and persecution (UNHCR) also intervened to express deep condolences and grave concern over yet another victim claimed along the Mediterranean routes.
“A mother has lost her newborn daughter, who arrived dead this morning together with 54 other people in Lampedusa. Deep sorrow and concern for the many children and adults who should not be dying in the Mediterranean,” reads a post published on social media by UNHCR, which explains that the agency is on the ground providing assistance to the mother and all the other survivors of the landing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Virginia’s bid to restore a congressional map that would have given Democrats a chance to pick up four seats in the closely divided House of Representatives.
The court’s order, issued without any noted dissent, is the latest twist in the nation’s mid-decade redistricting competition. It was kicked off last year by President Donald Trump urging Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines and was supercharged by a recent Supreme Court ruling severely weakening the Voting Rights Act that opened up even more winnable seats for the GOP.
In recent days, the justices have sided with Republicans in Alabama and Louisiana who hope to redo their congressional maps to produce more GOP-leaning seats following the court’s voting rights decision.
But the Virginia situation was different, stemming from a 4-3 ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court that struck down a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly passed just last month.
The state court found that the Democratic-controlled legislature improperly began the process of placing the amendment on the ballot after early voting had begun in Virginia’s general election last fall.
The Supreme Court typically doesn’t intervene in state court proceedings unless they present an issue of federal law. Virginia Democrats had hoped to persuade the justices that the Virginia court misread federal law and Supreme Court precedent that hold that, even if early voting is underway, an election does not happen until Election Day itself.
Virginia’s amendment had been intended as a response to Republican gains in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and to blunt a new map in Florida that just became law. Once the Virginia amendment passed, it briefly turned the nationwide redistricting scramble into a draw between the two parties.
That was unraveled by the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision.
The state’s attorney general, Democrat Jay Jones, slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, saying it was another example of what he described as a national attack on voting rights and the rule of law.
“Let’s be clear about what is happening. Donald Trump, Republican state legislatures, and conservative courts are systematically and unabashedly tilting power away from the people for Trump’s political gain,” Jones said in a statement issued late Friday night.
The state’s top Democrats had disagreed about whether it was even too late for help from the Supreme Court. “Time grows short, but it is not yet too late,” lawyers for the Democratic leaders of the legislature as well as the state told the justices in a brief filed Friday.
A day earlier, the office of Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger already had confirmed that the state will hold this year’s elections under the current districts established in 2021. Last month, Virginia Commissioner of Elections Steve Koski said a court order was needed by this past Tuesday to set the district lines for primary elections on Aug. 4.
Spanberger reacted to Friday’s decision by saying both courts had nullified the votes of the more than 3 million Virginians who cast ballots in the April 21 special election.
“These Virginians made their voices heard — casting their ballots in good faith to push back against a President who said he’s ‘entitled’ to more seats in Congress before voters go to the polls,” she posted on her X account.
The leader of the state Republican Party said the justices made the right call.
“Wisely, the Supreme Court of the United States has confirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Virginia,” state party chairman Jeff Ryer said. “This should once and for all put to rest the Democrats’ effort to disenfranchise half of Virginia.
___
Associated Press writer Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.
World
Trump says Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, killed in US-Nigerian operation
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President Donald Trump announced late Friday that U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out an operation that killed a global ISIS leader.
Trump identified the terrorist as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he described as ISIS’s second-in-command globally.
“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump continued. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans.”
100 US TROOPS LAND IN NIGERIA AS ISLAMIC MILITANTS THREATEN WEST AFRICA REGIONAL SECURITY
President Donald Trump sits at a table monitoring military operations during Operation Epic Fury against Iran at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 2. (The White House via X Account/Anadolu/Getty Images)
Trump also thanked the Nigerian government for its cooperation in the mission.
“With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished,” he added.
Additional details surrounding the mission were not immediately available.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
US MILITARY IN SYRIA CARRIES OUT 10 STRIKES ON MORE THAN 30 ISIS TARGETS: PHOTOS
The announcement comes after U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried out multiple strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria in February as part of a joint military effort to “sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network.”
CENTCOM said U.S. forces struck ISIS infrastructure and weapons-storage targets using fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft.
DEADLY STRIKE ON US TROOPS TESTS TRUMP’S COUNTER-ISIS PLAN — AND HIS TRUST IN SYRIA’S NEW LEADER
The U.S. military carried out ten strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria following a December ambush that killed U.S. troops. (CENTCOM)
Trump told reporters on Jan. 27 that he had a “great conversation” with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“All of the things having to do with Syria in that area are working out very, very well,” he said at the time. “So, we are very happy about it.”
CENTCOM announced in February that more than 50 ISIS terrorists had been killed or captured and more than 100 ISIS infrastructure targets struck during two months of targeted operations in Syria.
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The U.S. launched Operation Hawkeye Strike in response to an ISIS ambush that killed two U.S. service members and an American interpreter Dec. 13, 2025, in Palmyra, Syria.
Fox News Digital’s Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.
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