Macron sends out a warning to yellow vest protesters as Elizabeth Warren kick starts her 2020 presidential bid.

Kim Jong-un threatens to stop progress on denuclearisation

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in his New Year address, has stated that Pyongyang may be forced to take an “alternative path” on denuclearisation if the US persists with sanctions against his country.

He, however, added that he is willing to meet the US president anytime this year. “North Korea would have no option but to explore a new path in order to protect our sovereignty if the United States miscalculates our people’s patience, forces something upon us and pursues sanctions and pressure without keeping a promise it made in front of the world,” CNBC quoted Kim as saying.

The address comes after Kim and US President Donald Trump’s meeting at Singapore in June 2018 where both countries signed an agreement to build ‘lasting and stable’ regimes.

But the progress on the vaguely worded pledge has not been made as Washington slapped addition sanctions on Pyongyang, reported BBC.

Kim also demanded that South Korea stop conducting joint military exercises with the United States. While Donald Trump is said to have said that a meeting of the two leaders will happen sometime in February but nothing definitive has come out of it.

French president Macron rebukes the protesters in his New Year address

French President Emmanuel Macron has warned the “yellow vest” protesters – who have been on the streets for the past six weeks – stating that while he “understood their anger”, henceforth order would be “applied without compromise”.

In his New Year address, Macron promised people their rights but said that he also expected citizens to fulfil their duties. He promised to keep order “without complacency” and decried self-appointed “spokespeople for a hateful mob”.

The yellow vest protests that started as a protest against the rise in fuel taxes spread quickly across the country with people showing their dissatisfaction with economic inequality and slow growth in the country.

Vox reported that Macron was looking towards clamping down on tax evasion as well. He was quoted saying, “France needs to make sure that the rich and the big corporations pay the taxes they owe.”

BBC described his speech as an attack on the ‘extremists’.

Democrat Elizabeth Warren steps up 2020 presidential race bid

The Democratic governor of Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, announced her presidential aspirations on the last day of 2018 inciting excitement in the American media. “The Massachusetts Democrat’s long-expected announcement that she had filed legal paperwork to open a campaign did not reshape the race so much as mark an official start to a presidential nominating contest expected to feature one of the largest and most diverse fields of candidates in the history of either major party,” The Washington Post reported.

Warren was previously goaded by Trump into a DNA test to prove her American heritage. She released a video on Monday outlining her vision, saying that she wanted to offer opportunities to all Americans.

President Donald Trump reacted bitterly to the video. In an interview with The Fox News, he reportedly said “that only U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s psychiatrist knows whether she thinks she can win the White House in 2020”.

WFP accuses Houthis of stealing food aid sent for 20 million Yemenis

The World Food Programme (WFP) has accused the rebel Houthis in Yemen of diverting desperately needed food aid from people in areas under its control.

The UN agency claimed that it had photographic evidence to prove that food was being moved illegally, with rations being sold in the open market or handed to unentitled beneficiaries.

In a report, the BBC stated that the theft came to light in a review conducted in the past few months. The WFP realised that a major part of the food aid was for sale in an open market in Sanaa, it said.

Aljazeera, however, pointed out that before WFP, Associated Press claimed that both sides in the conflict are stealing aid. The report also pointed out that apart from Houthis, forces loyal to the government has also siphoned off food sent for families in Taiz.

The four year war in Yemen has destroyed economic stability in the country. As Aljazeera pointed out, food prices have increased by an average of 68 per cent and prices of commodities such as petrol, diesel and cooking gas have risen by at least 25 per cent in the past year.

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