SEOUL (AP) – North Korea said Saturday it found nearly 220,000 more people with feverish symptoms even as leader Kim Jong-un claimed progress in slowing a largely undiagnosed spread of COVID-19 across a population of 26 million. The outbreak has caused concern in the country. Around 219,030 North Koreans with fevers were identified in the 24 hours through 6 p.m. Friday, the fifth straight daily increase of around 200,000, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency, which attributed the information to the government’s anti-virus headquarters. North Korea said more than 2.4 million people have fallen ill and 66 people have died since an unidentified fever began quickly spreading in late April. The North has mobilized more than a million health workers to find people with fevers and isolate them at quarantine facilities. Kim also imposed strict restrictions on travel between cities and towns and mobilized thousands of troops to help with the transport of medicine to pharmacies in the country’s capital, Pyongyang, which has been the center of the outbreak. During a ruling party Politburo meeting on Saturday, Kim insisted the country was starting to bring the outbreak under control and called for tightened vigilance to maintain the “affirmative trend” in the anti-virus campaign, KCNA said.

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SRINAGAR (AP) – Rescuers on Saturday found the bodies of eight more workers in Kashmir, officials said, taking the death toll to nine after part of a tunnel collapsed in the Himalayan region. The tunnel is part of a mountainous highway tunnel system that was under construction when it collapsed Thursday night in the southern Ramban district. The body of one worker was recovered Friday. Aamir Ali, an official at the government’s disaster management department, said one worker was still missing. Emergency crews were using earthmovers to clear the wreckage and find the trapped worker. Officials said the section that collapsed was an approach tunnel used for ventilation and moving supplies and equipment to the main, under-construction tunnel. The tunnel is part of a vast network of bridges and tunnels on the strategic highway that connects two key cities of Srinagar and Jammu in the disputed region.

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NEW YORK (AFP) – Former U.S. president Donald Trump has paid a $110,000 fine for obstructing a major tax evasion investigation led since 2019 by New York state authorities, a spokesperson has announced. Trump was ordered April 25 by New York state’s Supreme Court to pay $10,000 a day for as long as he refused to provide accounting and tax documents as part of a civil investigation by the Attorney General of the state, Letitia James, against the Trump Organization family business. “On May 19, Donald Trump paid the attorney general’s office $110,000, “a spokesperson for James’s office said, AFP reported. James and the Republican billionaire have been engaged in a fierce procedural battle for months. On February 17, James was able to get a New York judge to order Trump and his children Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump to testify under oath in the context of this investigation, in which she suspects fraudulent tax practices.

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LONDON (Dispatches) – British Home Secretary Priti Patel is said to be controlled by a shady group that manages spy agency MI6-inspired research and influence operation. Investigative news website, The Grayzone, says leaked emails clearly show the cabal’s apparent influence on Patel and her policies. It says the group is being guided in its covert operation, in part, by former spy chief, Richard Dearlove. The Grayzone says the cabal also sought to seize power over energy policy and displace a government minister. The revelations raise serious questions about Patel’s fitness to rule on WilkiLeak founder, Julian Assange’s extradition to the U.S. Earlier this month, The Grayzone exposed a plot against former UK Prime Minister Theresa May. It said, a shadowy intelligence cabal conspired to replace May with Boris Johnson to secure a hard Brexit deal with the EU. Further communications reviewed and verified by The Grayzone point to more recent, shockingly diabolical schemes. These include plots to smear environmental activists as communist agents of Chinese influence, paint Ukrainian refugees as potential Russian double agents seeking to carry out terror attacks on British soil, and “displace” Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng.

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CHICAGO (Xinhua) – One person has been killed and more than 40 people have been injured after a tornado ripped through Gaylord City in the northern part of U.S. state of Michigan, the Detroit Free Press reported. The tornado, coming in the midst of a thunderstorm, touched down at 3:45 p.m. (0845 GMT) and traveled several miles over the course of several minutes, said Jim Keysor, meteorologist at the National Weather Service. It ripped through both residential and commercial areas. The tornado has ripped off the roof of a building, and put traffic lights out of function. Thousands of residents in the Gaylord area have lost power, according to the Consumers Energy Outage Map. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has declared a state of emergency for the area. Tornado was a rare occurrence in this part of Michigan, according to the National Weather Service. The last time Gaylord saw extreme severe weather was a windstorm in 1998.