Por Jessie Yeung y Yoonjung Seo, CNN

Una joven adolescente envuelta en misterio e intriga podría muy bien ser la próxima líder de la aislada nación ermitaña de Corea del Norte .

Algunos expertos creen que el líder Kim Jong Un está preparando a su hija para que sea su sucesora, llevándola consigo a excursiones cada vez más frecuentes y de alto perfil, lo que ha alimentado la especulación en los últimos años.

Se desconoce la edad exacta de la niña, cuyo nombre se cree que es Kim Ju Ae, pero se cree que es una adolescente.

La teoría de la sucesión recibió nuevo impulso el jueves después de que la agencia de espionaje de Corea del Sur dijera que cree que el líder ha “entrado en la etapa de nominarla como sucesora”.

El Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional (NIS, por sus siglas) presentó esta evaluación actualizada en una reunión informativa a puertas cerradas con legisladores, quienes luego compartieron sus hallazgos con los periodistas.

Además de simplemente aparecer en eventos importantes, Ju Ae ahora parece haber “expresado opiniones sobre algunas medidas” políticas, dijo el NIS, según los legisladores.

Nada de esto ha sido confirmado oficialmente y aún se desconoce mucho sobre la familia Kim. Es escasa la información que entra o sale de Corea del Norte, uno de los países más herméticos y represivos del mundo.

La pandemia profundizó este aislamiento, con las fronteras cerradas y la salida de la mayoría de las misiones diplomáticas y organizaciones internacionales sin fines de lucro que seguían en el país.

Pero las agencias de inteligencia observan de cerca cualquier acontecimiento que pueda ofrecer una pista, especialmente sobre el futuro de la dinastía Kim, que ha gobernado Corea del Norte durante generaciones.

Uno de esos eventos será una importante reunión política que se espera tenga lugar a finales de febrero, la primera en cinco años, en la que el país posiblemente establecerá nuevas prioridades y reorganizará sus funcionarios.

Los legisladores dijeron que el NIS monitoreará de cerca si Ju Ae asiste a la reunión, el nivel de protocolo que se le dio, así como cualquier título simbólico y otras pistas.

Los expertos occidentales creen que Kim tiene tres hijos y que Ju Ae es la hija del medio, aunque no hay forma de verificarlo.

El mundo se enteró de la existencia de Ju Ae en 2013, cuando la estrella estadounidense de baloncesto Dennis Rodman realizó una controvertida visita a la capital, Pyongyang. Posteriormente, declaró a The Guardian: “Sostuve en brazos a su bebé, Ju Ae, y también hablé con (la esposa de Kim)”.

Ju Ae permaneció oculta hasta su primera aparición pública en 2022, cuando acompañó a su padre a supervisar el lanzamiento de un misil balístico intercontinental (ICBM). Fotos memorables muestran a la líder de la mano de una joven de mejillas regordetas, flequillo y una larga cola de caballo, con un imponente misil de fondo.

En los años siguientes hizo más apariciones públicas, incluso en eventos militares, como un desfile en la capital donde contempló filas de misiles balísticos intercontinentales.

Su primer viaje público al extranjero tuvo lugar en septiembre pasado, cuando acompañó a su padre a Beijing para asistir al desfile militar del líder chino Xi Jinping.

En una demostración de fuerza durante el desfile, Kim y el presidente de Rusia, Vladimi

By Kara Fox, CNN

London (CNN) — The UK High Court has ruled that the government’s decision to ban activist group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization last summer was unlawful.

Friday’s judgment marks a significant victory to civil liberties campaigners, who had argued the ban represented a sweeping overreach of government power, risked criminalizing political dissent and set a far-reaching precedent for the use of anti-terror laws against protest movements.

The co-founder of the group, Huda Ammori, had brought the legal challenge against the British government’s decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws.

In its judgment, the court found that then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to ban the group last summer was disproportionate. However Judge Victoria Sharp ruled that the ban remains in place pending an appeal process.

It follows one of the largest campaigns of nonviolent civil disobedience in recent history, with nearly 3,000 people – many of them pensioners or the elderly – arrested at solidarity protests nationwide since July.

Most of those arrests were for holding signs that read: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action,” at the demonstrations, according to Defend Our Juries – which has been instrumental in organizing the protests.

This is a developing story. More details to follow…

The-CNN-Wire
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The post Terror ban on Palestine Action ruled unlawful by UK High Court appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—Fans went crazy once they caught a glimpse of Michael B. Jordan.

It was a sold out tribute with roughly 2,000 people in attendance inside the Arlington Theater.

Exposure Magazine Editor-in-Chief Goldyn P. Smith said she traveled from Qatar for the chance to interview Michael B. Jordan.

“I’m happy to be here. I’m jet lagged. but for Michael B. Jordan… Sinners… Ryan Coogler I’ll do anything,” said Goldyn P. Smith

We even stumbled upon a Michael B. Jordan fan club with members who flew out from all over including New Jersey, Michigan, and Virginia.

From “Black Panther” and “Creed” to “Sinners” Michael B. Jordan has proven his versatility as an outstanding performer.

Fans like Buffie Beasley says she loves Jordan’s dedication to his craft.
  
In “Sinners” he plays a set of twins, for which he’s nominated for an Oscar.

“What I love is the way they went back to take us back to our culture to what it was like back in the 30s. and how the people loved and came together to make the best with what they have,” said Veronica Williams from the Michael B. Jordan Fan Club.
 
He had no teaching. He was self taught. To do this from 12 years old that’s a long time in the industry to just be amazing. We’re so proud of him and congratulations on this award,” said Michael B. Jordan Fan Keneisha Dixon.
 
We surprised the Michael B. Jordan fan club by revealing that the film fest had reserved priority seating for them.

They also got to get up close and personal with Michael B. Jordan who gave several fans a warm embrace.
 
“Sinners” has made Oscars history with a record breaking 16 nominations.
 

The post Fans Fawn over Film Festival Fave: Michael B. Jordan is “Outstanding” appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN

(CNN) — On the surface, the Trump administration’s bet on immigration and jobs seems like simple math: If a swath of workers are removed from the country, employers will need to turn to the workers still in the United States to backfill those jobs.

That’s not what’s happening, though. American workers, citizen or not, are seeing slower wage growth, fewer job openings and a higher unemployment rate.

As it turns out, there are a lot of complicated factors keeping unemployed Americans on the sidelines. Chief among them is lower demand overall from removing people from the United States and stopping new immigrants from entering.

“In President Trump’s first year in office, all job growth went to American-born workers while job growth declined for foreign-born workers,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told CNN in a statement.

One million new jobs went to native-born workers, while foreign employment declined by 100,000 during Trump’s first year, according to Labor Department data. “The President continues to deliver on his promise to put American workers first,” Rogers said.

Less supply, less demand

Last year, between 200,000 and more than 1 million immigrants in the United States stopped working, according to different analyses of Census Bureau data.

The decline came as the Trump administration ramped up deportations and staged raids everywhere from car factories to Home Depot parking lots in search of people who entered the country illegally.

But as immigrants left the workforce, the unemployment rate for native-born Americans didn’t fall. In fact, the rate jumped to 4.7% in January from 4.1% the year before, according to Wednesday’s jobs report. That not only exceeds the overall unemployment rate of 4.3%, but also the 4.6% rate for foreign-born workers.

Meanwhile, January’s average hourly earnings for private-sector workers rose more slowly than last year.

Removing people from the country led to fewer workers and fewer people to buy the goods and services those workers produced, said Stan Veuger, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

“As net migration goes down and as deportations from the interior go up, you’re not just losing workers, you’re also losing people on the demand side,” Veuger told CNN. “You’re losing customers of businesses that hire workers.”

Jobs native-born Americans aren’t rushing to take

Even when jobs don’t get eliminated entirely due the immigration crackdown, that doesn’t mean more employment for the people who are left.

In some sectors, native-born workers aren’t necessarily rushing in for jobs, even if they’re currently unemployed, said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM.

“Immigrants are willing and able to do jobs that the overwhelming majority of our native-born population are simply not willing to do,” he said.

Agriculture, for example, relies on a labor force that’s Read more

By Matt Egan, CNN

New York (CNN) — Chocolate lovers are experiencing sticker shock this Valentine’s Day.

Consumer prices for chocolate have spiked 14.4% year-over-year during the January 1 to early February window, according to market intelligence firm Datasembly.

That’s a significant acceleration from the 7.8% price hike during the same period last year and 10.5% in 2024, according to the research firm, which tracked the best prices for more than 4,000 chocolate products across 57,000 stores across the United States.

The higher chocolate prices reflect the linger effects of a global shortage in the primary ingredient: cocoa beans. That shortage, driven in part by poor harvests caused by extreme weather in West Africa, sent cocoa prices skyrocketing to unthinkable heights.

“Supply suddenly dropped even as demand stayed largely the same. Prices went through the roof,” David Branch, sector manager at the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute, said in an interview.

West Africa, which produces around 70% of the world’s cocoa, suffered such a loss of supply that cocoa bean futures skyrocketed from around $2,500 per metric ton in mid-2022 to above $12,600 in late 2024.

“We saw unprecedented cocoa inflation,” Stacy Taffet, chief growth officer at The Hershey Company, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan this week.

The Hershey executive said the company is focused on keeping items “as affordable as possible,” noting that around 75% of the company’s products are priced at less than $4.

The good news for consumers (and chocolate companies) is that cocoa prices have since crashed back to earth, recently dropping below $4,000 a metric ton for the first time in years.

The bad news: The chocolate on the shelves today were made with beans priced at or near those crisis-level highs.

“Retail prices remain sticky because candy makers buy cocoa months in advance and work through existing inventory,” Branch wrote in a report.

‘Slow and uneven’ relief coming

Valentine’s Day shoppers in certain cities are facing even bigger price hikes on chocolate.

According to Datasembly data shared with CNN, chocolate prices have surged by 17% in Denver and Los Angeles, while they are up 19% in the Dallas-Ft. Worth region.

For Americans at large, however, Branch said chocolate price hikes may cool by the time of Easter. By Halloween, he suspects chocolate prices will be falling because of the recent plunge in cocoa prices.

“Retail relief will be slow and uneven for consumers,” he said.

Branch said he does not view steep tariffs on US imports as a primary factor behind the chocolate price increases.

After affordability resurfaced as a major political challenge last November, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that shielded cocoa and other agricultural products not made in the United States from his historic tariffs.

“We can’t make cocoa in the US, so we were happy about that,” Taffet, the Hershey executive, said of the tariff relief.

The chocolate price spike is another reminder of how while the overall rate of inflation has eased from the four-decade high in 2022, prices for some items continue to rise rapidly.

Chocolate is a go-to candy purchased around Valentine’s Day, accounting for about 75% of all candy sold, according to the National Confectioners Association.

Americans are expected to spend