Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims on Saturday “to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime (of Israel).”

North Korea is expanding its list of crimes punishable by death, according to reports.

Supreme leader Kim Jong Un’s regime expanded the list of offenses warranting the death penalty from 11 to 16 via revisions of criminal law, according to Yonhap News Agency.

New offenses warranting execution as a punishment include: anti-state propaganda and agitation acts, illegal manufacturing, and the illicit use of weapons are included in the new codes. 

KIM JONG UN PROMISES TO ‘STEADILY STRENGTHEN’ NORTH KOREA’S ‘NUCLEAR FORCE’

The legal modifications were codified via multiple amendments between May 2022 and December 2023, according to a report from the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU). 

The tightening of the criminal code is intended to strengthen the Kim regime’s grip on the population through its continued monopolization of the marketplace and military. 

Earlier this month, North Korea promised to refine its weapons development and strengthen its nuclear capabilities. 

NORTH KOREA’S KIM JONG UN REPORTEDLY ORDERED DOZENS OF OFFICIALS EXECUTED AFTER DEADLY FLOODS

Kim Jong Un made the comments Monday at a state event celebrating the country’s 76th anniversary.

“The obvious conclusion is that the nuclear force of the DPRK and the posture capable of properly using it for ensuring the state’s right to security in any time should be more thoroughly perfected,” the dictator said.

A 24-hour Yonhapnews TV broadcast at Yongsan Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un overseeing the test-fire of a new tactical ballistic missile, the Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5. (Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“DPRK” is an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Kim Jong Un warned that the United States’ increased involvement in the region has forced the regime to pursue more powerful weapons as a deterrence mechanism.

“The DPRK will steadily strengthen its nuclear force capable of fully coping with any threatening acts imposed by its nuclear-armed rival states and redouble its measures and efforts to make all the armed forces of the state, including the nuclear force, fully ready for combat,” the supreme leader said.

The 14th Supreme People’s Assembly, the unicameral legislative body of the country, amended the national constitution last year to enshrine nuclear weaponization as a core principle.

The second attack hit the hospital in northeastern Ukraine as patients evacuated, authorities and witnesses say.

At least eight people have died in two consecutive Russian drone attacks on a medical centre in the northeast Ukrainian city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials have said.

The first attack on Saturday morning killed one person, and it was followed by another attack while patients and staff were evacuating, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel that Russia had hit the hospital using Shahed drones, stating that eleven people were injured.

Sumy lies just across the border from Russia’s Kursk region where Kyiv launched a shock offensive on August 6, which it says is aimed partly at creating a “buffer zone” inside Russia.

Regional prosecutors said the first attack in Sumy on Saturday took place at about 7:35am (04:35 GMT), hitting the hospital where there were 86 patients and 38 staff.

The second attack took place at about 8:25am (05:25 GMT) as rescuers and police were providing assistance and evacuating patients at the scene, prosecutors said.

Dobrobat, a volunteer group that helps repair damaged homes, wrote on Facebook that its volunteers were working at the scene when the second attack came.

It posted a video showing thick smoke, explosions and people rushing to shelter as sirens wailed.

“People are just lying on the street dead,” a volunteer said, filming himself at the scene on his phone.

‘Victory plan’

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 69 of 73 Russian drones launched overnight as well as two of the four missiles. City authorities in Kyiv said about 15 drones had been shot down over the Ukrainian capital and its outskirts.

In Russia, the Defence Ministry said Saturday that air defences overnight had shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region and one over the Kursk region, both areas bordering Ukraine.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy visited the United States to lobby support for Ukraine, meeting with US President Joe Biden and Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris to detail what he has described in recent weeks as his “victory plan”.

He had previously described the five-point plan as a “bridge” towards a strong enough negotiating position for Ukraine to force Russia to end the war on Kyiv’s terms.

Before the meeting, Biden announced an additional $8bn in military aid for Ukraine, a package including the provision of Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) munitions to “enhance Ukraine’s long-range strike capabilities”.