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North Korea continues spate of weapons tests, firing multiple suspected short-range ballistic missiles, South says

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Seoul, South Korea — North Korea fired suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Friday, South Korea’s military said, a day after South Korea and the U.S. flew powerful fighter jets in a joint drill that the North views as a major security threat.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches were made from the Wonsan region of the North’s east coast around 3:10 p.m. It said South Korea’s military had bolstered its surveillance posture and was maintaining readiness.

In recent months, North Korea has extended its run of weapons testing as part of its efforts to enlarge and modernize its arsenal while diplomacy with the United States and South Korea remains dormant. Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised the test firing of a new multiple rocket launch system, according to the North’s state media.

North Korea says it’s been forced to boost its nuclear and missile programs to deal with U.S.-led hostilities. North Korea cites expanded U.S.-South Korean military training, which it calls an invasion rehearsal.

Many foreign experts say North Korea uses its rivals’ military drills as a pretext for building a larger weapons arsenal in the belief that it would boost its leverage in future diplomacy with the U.S.

South Korea Koreas Tensions
A TV screen shows a file image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, on May 17, 2024.

Ahn Young-joon / AP


On Thursday, two South Korean F-35As and two U.S. F-22 Raptors were mobilized for combined aerial exercises over the central region of South Korea. North Korea is extremely sensitive to the deployment of sophisticated U.S. aircraft.

Earlier Friday, Kim’s sister and senior official Kim Yo Jong said North Korea’s recent weapons tests were part of the country’s five-year arms buildup plan launched in 2021. She said the recently tested weapons are designed to attack Seoul, the South Korean capital, and denied outside speculation that the tests were meant to display weapons that North Korea plans to export to Russia to use in its war with Ukraine.

“We don’t conceal the fact that such weapons will be used to prevent Seoul from inventing any idle thinking,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which deals with North Korea, responded that it is fully ready to repel any military threats from North Korea in conjunction with its military alliance with the United States. Deputy ministry spokesperson Kim Inae also said that “illegal” arms deals between North Korea and Russia must be stopped immediately.

Agence France-Presse notes that Seoul claimed in March that Pyongyang had sent some 7,000 containers of arms to Russia for use in Ukraine since roughly July 2023.

Experts say North Korea wants a range of military aid from Russia in return, such as satellite technology and the upgrading of its Soviet-era military equipment.



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GOP Rep. French Hill says it’s up to House Ethics Committee to decide on releasing Gaetz report

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GOP Rep. French Hill says it’s up to House Ethics Committee to decide on releasing Gaetz report – CBS News


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Rep. French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, tells “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that “the decision is theirs” about whether the House Ethics Committee should release their report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who resigned last week after being selected by President-elect Donald Trump to be Attorney General.

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Calvin Klein model charged with murder in stabbing death in New York City

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NYPD reports drop in overall crime, but uptick in hate crimes


NYPD reports drop in overall crime, but uptick in hate crimes

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A model who has appeared in campaigns for Calvin Klein and Levi’s has been formally charged in the stabbing death of a man in New York City, prosecutors said Saturday.

Dynus Saxon was arraigned in Bronx criminal court late Friday in connection with the Nov. 10 killing of Kadeem Grant, according to Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office.

Police say they found the 35-year-old victim stabbed in the chest in an apartment in the New York City borough of the Bronx.

They haven’t disclosed a motive or any other details surrounding the incident other than to say that Grant was pronounced dead at the scene and that a knife was recovered. The knife was discovered near the victim’s body and a trail of blood was seen on the front steps of apartment building, the New York Post reported.

US-NEWS-MALE-MODEL-STABBING-NY
Male model Dynus Saxon was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court on Nov. 15, 2024, for a stabbing murder. 

Kerry Burke/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images


Saxon was arrested Monday on charges of murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.

At his arraignment Friday, the 20-year-old resident of Manhattan’s East Harlem neighborhood was held without bail until his next court date on Dec. 3, Clark’s office said.

Saxon, who has also appeared in fashion publications such as Vogue Italia and L’Officiel Baltic, didn’t speak during the proceedings, the Daily News reported.

Prosecutors said he had a large bandage over his right hand because of an injury he sustained while repeatedly jamming the knife into Grant’s chest, the newspaper said.

Grant’s father, Christopher Grant, told the Daily News that his son cared for his young daughter and his grandmother.

“He was just a loving kid who was there for his family and his daughter. It’s just so sad that she has to grow up without a father,” Christopher Grant told the Daily News.

Bronx Defenders, a public defender nonprofit representing Saxon, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.

Saxon’s Instagram profile, which has since been made private, featured photos of his modelling work, as well as attending red carpet events, including the New York premiere of the Marvel film “Deadpool & Wolverine” this summer.



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Transcript: Rep. French Hill on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Nov. 17, 2024

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The following is a transcript of an interview with Rep. French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 17, 2024.


MARGARET BRENNAN: And we are joined now by Republican Congressman French Hill. He joins us from his district in Little Rock. Good morning to you, Congressman.

REP. FRENCH HILL: Good morning, Margaret. Thanks for having me. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Glad to have you here. You served with Congressman Gaetz. You heard the Speaker who has said, while he doesn’t want to specifically wade in to the ethics matter, he also thinks it would set a bad precedent to release a report on a former member. Do you think the Ethics Committee should make that decision for itself?

REP. HILL: Well, I think the Ethics Committee does make that decision for itself, but I think Speaker Johnson makes a important point, which is, Mr. Gaetz has resigned from Congress. There are many investigations that the House Ethics Committee has done, and we don’t want to set a precedent where we, under any circumstances, will release documents from that committee, but that decision is theirs. Speaker Johnson has made his views known, and now it will be up to the Senate to conduct their advise and consent confirmation process. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, CBS News reported back in June that four women informed that committee they were paid to go to sex and drug fueled parties with Mr. Gaetz. Also the Ethics Committee has Venmo transactions showing Gaetz’s payments for the women, since taxpayers paid money for this report to be conducted and it was done, do you think if you were a Senate you would consider this material information to confirming the top lawmaker for the United States of America- law enforcement officer, I should say? 

REP. HILL: I don’t, I don’t have, I don’t, I don’t personally know any details about the ethics investigation or the allegations, because I haven’t, don’t serve on that committee. But your point is, would the Senate Judiciary Committee asked to see that report, and that may well be a decision that they take, and the ethics committee has a decision that they have to make, and Mike Johnson’s expressed his view on on that as well. So as I say, this is an important process that the Senate has to do, advise and consent for all the nominations, and President Trump has the prerogative to nominate the people that he thinks can best lead the change that he believes the American people are seeking in each of the agencies of the federal government. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have spoken to us before here on “Face The Nation” about your work around Syria and Bashar Al Assad’s oppressive regime there. You actually visited northern Syria, an area that he wasn’t in control of, back in 2017. The first lawmaker since John McCain to do so. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, when she was in office, went to Syria and met with Mr. Assad himself, then publicly, she came out and questioned U.S. intelligence assessments of his chemical weapons attacks that were carried out on civilian areas, not just once, multiple times. These were high confidence assessments by the intelligence community. Would you feel comfortable with her at the helm of all 18 of them?

REP. HILL: Well, I served on the House Intelligence Committee during this past Congress, and I know the important job that the DNI performs in coordinating, collecting and reporting on our intelligence. And I think should Tulsi Gabbard be confirmed, she would know with high confidence as to precisely how we collect intelligence, how we coordinate and collaborate on it, and how we then report it to the President of the United States and to the two intelligence committees. So again, this is an important assessment for the Senate to make, but I remind you Margaret, Donald Trump won the election. He wants people that he has a good relationship with, that he trusts, that he believes can do a good job in the agencies to send the message that we want change in Washington. And the Senate, too, has their important job, and we’re going to have to wait and see how the Senate handles each of these confirmations. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: So it was John McCain who went in 2017, you went in 2023 I may have misspoken there on the year, but so, you believe the US intelligence community conclusions, though? You don’t mean to question those?

REP. HILL: No, I don’t.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.

REP. HILL: I’m simply saying, as a member of the committee, I don’t question that public assessment that’s been made in the public domain over many, many years, and I’ve led the charge against the Assad regime. I do not support that the Arab League put him back into diplomatic standing by admitting him to the Arab League. And I think America has a lot to do to limit Assad’s influence in the region, which is a partner with the Russians and the Iranians. And that’s not in the interest of the United States, Iraq, Israel or peace in the region. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have also been a supporter of Ukraine, and you’ve been trying to find some creative ways to help allow them to gain access to continued U.S. support. There was a tremendous attack just overnight there by Russia. The Biden administration wants to provide a $20 billion loan backed up by frozen Russian assets. Will the Congress give them permission to use that money for military assistance?

REP. HILL: Well, the REPO Act that was included in the national security package I worked on very closely with Chairman Mike McCaul of the foreign affairs committee gives the United States the authority to not only take frozen assets, but confiscate them and use them for the benefit of Ukraine. The loan you’re referring to has been negotiated between the Europeans and the Americans to back the Ukrainian government. I believe that will go through in my judgment. But I would urge President Trump, as he takes office, to actually follow the law and confiscate those Russian assets, as I believe that gives both Ukraine, the United States and Europe a much stronger negotiating position with Russia. And I don’t believe Biden, nor the G7 countries, have been tough enough on Russian on sanctions, on the delivery of weapons that were needed to have ended this war long ago.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You’re gesturing to what we know, which is that this is a pretty dangerous world right now. One of the selections that the President-elect has made to run the Pentagon at this time is Pete Hegseth. He would be the defense secretary, 44 years old, decorated Army vet, TV commentator. Do you think experience is necessary, or is on the job training OK at the Pentagon?

REP. HILL: Well, again, I think this will be assessed by the Senate in their confirmation process. He has a distinguished background in the military, and that counts for a lot, and I think his plans, his thoughts, his leadership, will be exposed when he goes through that Senate confirmation process. But once again, I have to say, President Trump, when he came into office in 2017 had cabinet members that he really had no personal relationship with, had no working background with. He wants to correct that this time by finding people that he has a good working relationship with. He knows how they think. They know how he thinks, because he thinks it will lead to better decision making in his administration. He’s got that prerogative to nominate those men and women and the Senate will have their advice and consent function well underway, and majority leader-to-be John Thune has said look, he’ll be effective. He’ll be speedy. He’ll take it done, get it done in the right course of action. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman, thank you for your time today.

REP. HILL: You bet. Thank you, Margaret.



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