SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Monday fired multiple ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters, South Korea’s military said, adding to a recent streak of weapons demonstrations that has heightened tensions during a prolonged freeze in diplomacy. Jang Do-young, spokesperson of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said missiles of various types were fired from an area around the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, where the country’s main airport has been a major launch site in recent years. Jang said one of the missiles flew more than 900 kilometers (559 miles) before falling into the sea but didn’t comment on the flight details of the other weapons. 

 

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has blocked the Trump administration from using taxpayer money to pay for political advertisements, after publicly funded television ads glorifying U.S. President Donald Trump began airing in late September and sparked a bipartisan backlash. Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon temporarily barred the advertisements after plaintiffs including watchdog group Common Cause brought a lawsuit alleging the ads were political propaganda designed to help Republican candidates in the November 3 midterm elections, not public service announcements. The Trump administration was already planning to stop running the ads before Rochon’s order, according to a separate statement filed with the court on Saturday. The decision caps days of controversy over the taxpayer-funded advertisements, which were aired in the final weeks before the midterm elections.

 

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PARIS (AFP) - A principal and a teacher were shot and wounded at a middle school in Aubagne, southern France, on Monday, officials said. “A student is suspected of being responsible,” Education Minister Edouard Geffray said in a post social media company X. He added that he was heading to the Lakanal middle school with Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and Sabrina Roubache, a lawmaker representing the Bouches-du-Rhone department. The principal, 53, was shot in the right hip, while a 37-year-old teacher was wounded in the thigh, French broadcaster BFMTV reported. Their injuries were not life-threatening, according to a source close to the case cited by the broadcaster.

 

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. authorities conducted a predawn Monday raid on the Washington-area home of Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar as part of an ongoing investigation, the Justice Department said. The raid followed a criminal fraud investigation into the Somali-born lawmaker’s immigration paperwork, which was filled out by her late father when she was a child, Fox News Digital reported, citing unidentified sources. “Today in the Washington, D.C. area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation,” a Department of Justice spokesperson said in an email.

 

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GENEVA (AFP) - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned Monday that protecting people forced to flee is essential, but displacement must not become permanent, as prolonged conflicts and shrinking humanitarian resources deepen the global refugee crisis. Addressing the UNHCR Executive Committee in Geneva, Barham Salih said more than 117 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide by conflict, violence, persecution, and other threats. “We must protect people when they are forced to flee. But we cannot accept indefinite displacement as their future,” he said.