North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered his country to quickly start mass producing self-detonating explosive drones, calling their development an “essential requirement,” after overseeing a test of the deadly aerial weapon, state media reported Friday.

Images published by North Korean state media show Kim and various officials at the launch site. Images show a car and a tank being destroyed by what appears to be unmanned aerial vehicles, which have been heavily blurred by the news agency.

State media reported that drones “of various types precisely hit the targets” as part of the test. They can be “used within different striking ranges” and are designed “to precisely attack any enemy targets on the ground and in the sea,” it said.

Kim said the use of such drones in military activities is being expanded around the world and authorities are recognizing that “drones are achieving clear successes in big and small conflicts,” state media reported.

Such self-detonating drones, also sometimes referred to as suicide drones, have been widely used to great effect on the battlefield in Russia’s war in Ukraine and in the Middle East.

Comparatively cheap to produce and usually deployed in swarms making their numbers difficult to shoot down, drones such as the Iranian-made Shahed 136 have transformed modern combat, providing an asymmetric advantage when deployed against technically superior adversaries.

Kim “underscored the need to build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production,” state media reported, adding that “such objective change urgently calls for updating many parts of military theory.”

The order comes as concern in the West grows over North Korea’s military cooperation with Russia.

The US State Department said Tuesday that 10,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to Russia and “have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces” in Kursk region, where Ukraine’s three-month military incursion into Russian territory has stalled.

The North Korean troops dispatched to Russia are deemed to have not had suitable training for drone warfare, according to a South Korea’s Defense Intellectual Agency evaluation shared by lawmakers briefed on the issue.

South Korea’s defense minister last month expressed concern that Pyongyang is “very likely to ask” Moscow for advanced technology related to nuclear weapons in exchange for deploying troops to Ukraine.

Thursday’s drone test came after North Korea on Tuesday ratified a mutual defense treaty with Russia in which the two countries pledged to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked.

The move cements the two countries’ deepening alignment in the face of their international isolation over Russia’s war in Ukraine and Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile program.

The defense pact was signed in June by Kim and Vladimir Putin during a rare state visit by the Russian leader to Pyongyang.

Kim previously oversaw the test of self-detonating drones in August, where he stressed the need to equip the North Korean army with them “as early as possible.”

In October, North Korea threatened “retaliation” after accusing South Korea of flying propaganda-filled drones over Pyongyang. Seoul did not confirm or deny the accusations after North Korea’s state-run KCNA published images of what it claimed was a drone, as well as leaflets that said, “a comparison of the food you can buy,” and “North Korea’s economic situation falling into hell.”

In 2022, North Korea sent five drones into South Korea, four of which flew around Ganghwa island and another that flew over capital Seoul’s northern airspace.

Anger, fear and anxiety are still simmering in Amsterdam.

Last week, Israeli soccer fans were attacked in the streets, Palestinian flags ripped off walls and antisemitic slurs yelled during riots.

While the Dutch capital now feels calm, residents and legislators fear that tensions still haven’t peaked.

“And I don’t even think, I’m sorry to say, that we have reached our boiling point, because the root causes of the tensions going on have not been addressed.”

Khan said the biggest underlying issue for his constituents is the Dutch government’s complicity in funneling weapons and money to Israel’s war in Gaza. The Netherlands’ Muslim community is roughly 1 million people strong, and many have been vocal in their support of Palestinians.

“Next to that, we have a far-right government, which is hell-bent on blaming societal problems on minorities, especially Muslims,” Khan added.

But the timeline of how tensions ignited in Amsterdam is different depending on which community you ask.

Some residents argue the spark was just last week, when Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans pulled down Palestinian flags, vandalized taxis and paraded through the streets yelling racist slogans, including “f**k the Arabs,” and celebrating Israeli military attacks in Gaza.

What followed were violent attacks on the Israeli fans, with several people injured and five receiving hospital treatment. The city’s mayor said last week that rioters moved in small groups in “hit-and-run” antisemitic attacks, searching the city and targeting Maccabi supporters.

On Monday, a tram in west Amsterdam was set ablaze and police officers were pelted with stones. In video circulating on social media, the small group of rioters can be heard yelling an antisemitic slur. Police said Tuesday they had arrested 68 people across the city in total in relation to the riots, including 10 Israelis.

Other Amsterdam residents say a fire has been kindling in the city for 15 to 20 years, with the rise of the far-right, and an increase in antisemitism and xenophobia throughout Europe.

“I feel some people are underplaying antisemitism by not mentioning it even or saying that because of the Maccabi hooligans that the violence was justified, or that the violence was only directed at the Maccabi hooligans,” Garmy said. He added that fear is palpable among Jewish residents here, especially after last Thursday when social media posts emerged where people discussed a “hunt on Jews,” according to a report from Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema.

Constituents and friends have told Garmy that they’re now afraid to wear a Star of David or kippah in public, and some have changed their names on taxi and ride-sharing apps to avoid being identifiably Jewish.

“But saying that, I do feel that there are leaders, for instance, the Israeli prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) who is overplaying it for his own internal politics, and also the far-right leader here, Geert Wilders, is also overplaying it,” the city councilor added.

Mayor Halsema and other local authorities have also received criticism from Muslim and pro-Palestinian communities for failing to highlight the racist and threatening actions of Maccabi supporters in the immediate aftermath of the violence, and giving what they see as a skewed version of events.

Last November, a month after the Israel-Gaza war began, far-right populist Wilders and his Freedom Party (PVV) won the most seats in Dutch parliament – a shock for many people given Wilders’ anti-Islam, anti-immigration and anti-European Union manifesto.

On Wednesday, Wilders requested a lawmakers’ debate on the violence against Maccabi fans, and his party floated the idea of revoking Dutch citizenship for certain people involved in the attacks.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on Israelis, Netanyahu urged Dutch authorities to act firmly, and even said he would organize evacuation flights. Senior Israeli officials said the violence recalled “pogrom” attacks of previous centuries on European Jews. But in Amsterdam, many local Jewish officials as well as the mayor have urged against using that description.

“What certain politicians are doing on the right wing, what Netanyahu and Israeli politicians are doing… is only throwing oil on the fire,” Stranders said, adding that certain people in the Jewish community using charged rhetoric has also increased fear. “You’re only frightening your own community.”

There are about 40,000 Jewish people in the Netherlands – far fewer than before World War II – and it’s not a singular community. There are secular Jews, orthodox Jews, Israeli Jews, those from the wider diaspora and others. Stranders said a key focus now is getting people within this disparate group to agree to dial down the tension.

As far as antisemitism goes, some comes from the far-right, he said, but antisemitism from the far-left and Muslim communities can’t be ignored either.

“What you see is when the critique that people have on policy of Israel and how they conduct their war – sometimes that critique is addressed to Jewish people and even in a hostile way,” he said. Stranders noted that the pro-Palestinian movement sometimes has a “blind eye” for how that makes the Jewish community feel, in a city where Jewish life has constantly been under threat, and where synagogues and schools historically required security protection.

“Maybe first it started as criticizing Israel, but then it becomes antisemitism,” he said.

At a pro-Palestinian protest on Wednesday, which went ahead in Amsterdam’s Dam Square despite the police banning demonstrations in the area, some of the chants were distinctly anti-war. “Stop the bombing,” protesters in the primarily young, left-wing crowd yelled, as officers eventually forcibly cleared them from the square and moved them to a park where protest was permitted.

“I’m here because of the bombing of the children and the women in Gaza,” said Said Alawi, an older man standing off to the side before police asked people to disperse.

Alawi lives in Amsterdam but grew up in Morocco. “I’m asking to free these people, to free Palestine, that is all.”

But other chants, like “f**k Israel,” were distinctly more hostile.

Faith leaders in the Muslim community are working alongside police and city hall officials to encourage de-escalation and even speak to youth at protests.

A local Imam and the leader of Moroccan mosques in the Noord-Holland region, Abdelaziz Chandoudi, is holding a dialogue with taxi drivers in Amsterdam on Friday to try to ease tensions. He is also using his sermons this week to urge fathers to speak to their sons and other youth, calling for peace and compassion.

Mohammed Rasool in Amsterdam contributed to this report.

As US President-elect Donald Trump continues to make heads turn with nominations for key roles in his incoming administration, Russians are trying to understand the appointments and what impacts they might have for Moscow.

Russian state TV has spent the last few days using their slickly produced talk shows to tell the Russian people what they should make of the incoming administration – in particular what it might mean for Russians and the war in Ukraine.

Evgeny Popov, a well-known face on Russian state TV and Duma representative used his show, co-hosted with his wife, to tear into Mike Waltz, Donald Trump’s pick for his national security adviser.

Waltz has previously expressed reservations about continued congressional support for Ukraine, and is a proponent of a peace plan for Ukraine – but has not ruled out applying pressure on Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin to force him to the table. Waltz also described Russia as “a gas station with nukes” in an interview with NPR on November 4.

Popov was quick to point out the potential threat to Moscow, “(Waltz) at the Republican convention proposed deploying more American drones in the Black Sea and bragged about how Trump threatened to bomb, as he put it, ‘Putin’s Kremlin.’ That is what’s called the Russophobic Dream Team or the American dream team.”

But across the studio floor, Olga Skabeeva, Popov’s wife, was a little more welcoming of the pick of former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. Gabbard had been “clear on the reason for Russia’s special operation in Ukraine,” Skabeeva said, praising Gabbard’s criticism of US support for Kyiv.

Elena, who was walking with her daughter, said of Musk: “Everything he’s done is very interesting, and the fact that he has such ideas is also, in principle, good for development in general.”

The tech tycoon’s status as a super-rich maverick who purchased X, formerly Twitter, and who wants to put civilians into space, means he’s more familiar to Russians than nominees for other prominent posts.

Asked about how they viewed the incoming administration and future relations between old adversaries, people were a little more divided.

Vladimir Kostyukevich, however, said that Trump makes a good impression as a politician, citing his age and apparent energy – a barb perhaps at outgoing President Joe Biden.

Elena said, “I don’t know how Donald Trump can resolve this. But I would really like this to be resolved as soon as possible and resolved in the most peaceful way possible, through negotiations, and not through the actions that are happening now.”

Tatiyana meanwhile hoped for peace and spoke warmly of Ukraine, a reminder of the bonds that tie the two nations together.

“It’s a good question. Ukraine is our brotherly nation. It has always been so. And despite the fact that relations are so complicated now, we still love Ukraine as before, they are our brothers, our relatives,” she said.

And Kostyukevich hoped for even more. “I don’t know if Trump will stick to his line. But I hope, that there will be a good agreement between Russia and Ukraine. And in general, to stop all this madness that’s happening in the world, well, in Israel, Palestine and Ukraine-Russia,” he said.

At least 10 people died and others were injured in a blaze at a nursing home near Zaragoza, Spain, before firefighters managed to extinguish the flames, local authorities said Friday.

The alarm was raised early Friday morning in Villafranca de Ebro, about 28 kilometers (18 miles) from the northeastern city.

Two people remained in critical condition, officials said. At least 10 people died in a blaze at a nursing home in Zaragoza, Spain, before firefighters managed to extinguish it, local authorities reported on Friday.

The cause of the fire was not yet known, local media reported.

Local media said 82 people had been living in the nursing home, which focused on treating people with dementia and mental health issues.

Volga Ramírez, mayor of Villafranca de Ebro, told reporters outside the center on Friday morning that intense smoke from the blaze was likely responsible for the deaths.

“It is due to smoke inhalation,” Ramírez said, “not because they were burned.”

Jorge Azcón, head of the regional government of Aragon, which includes Villafranca de Ebro, confirmed the deaths and said on X, formerly Twitter, that all government events in the region were cancelled for the day.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also expressed his shock.

The fire took place just weeks after after flash floods in the Spanish region of Valencia killed more than 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes. The floods were the worst natural disaster in Spain’s recent history.