Polls in Bangladesh opened on Sunday for a general election that is being boycotted by the main opposition party, with the country’s leader Sheikh Hasina – the world’s longest serving female prime minister – set to win her fourth consecutive term.

Bangladesh, a country of some 170 million people, is the first in South Asia this year to head to the polls. Around 120 million people are registered to vote.

The country has seen political unrest leading up to Sunday’s general election. Polling booths were set ablaze on the eve of the vote, with four people, including two children, killed in a train fire, reported Reuters.

The country is also beset by economic problems, requiring a nearly $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund last year.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in power since 2009, cast her vote in the capital Dhaka. A win would mark a fifth overall victory for her Awami League-led alliance.

“Our country is a sovereign and independent country – maybe we’re small but we have a big population,” she told reporters at a press conference in Dhaka. “We have established people’s democratic rights and also the right to a better life. That is our main aim”

“I want to make sure that democracy should continue in this country,” she continued, adding that “without democracy, you cannot make any development.”

Overseas watchdogs have expressed concerns the country was heading towards a one-party system.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party is boycotting the elections after Hasina denied calls to resign and let a neutral caretaker government run the election.

An elderly woman in her 90s has been rescued from under the rubble of a two-story house more than five days after a powerful earthquake struck Japan.

Rescuers found the woman in Suzu City in Ishikawa prefecture on Saturday evening – 124 hours after the quake struck – and took her to a nearby hospital, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.

On Sunday, a doctor told reporters that the woman is well enough to have conversations, but her legs are injured.

Kume Takanori, a member of the emergency rescue team, told NHK that the woman’s knees had been stuck under furniture within a very narrow space between the first and second floor. It took hours to free her, Takanori said.

The 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck central Japan on January 1 triggered tsunami alerts as far away as eastern Russia. Thousands living in coastal areas were forced to evacuate their homes as buildings and roads collapsed. Many structures also burned down.

The death toll from the disaster is at least 126, according to the latest figures shared by Japanese authorities on Saturday.

In the event of a natural disaster, the first 72 hours are “absolutely critical” for search and rescue efforts. Experts call this the “golden period” for finding survivors, as the conditions of people trapped and injured can deteriorate quickly afterward.

It has been a race against time for teams on the ground to save people trapped under rubble.

The full extent of the damage is still unknown but more than 200 people remain unaccounted for, Japanese officials say. Search and rescue operations are continuing in Ishikawa.

NHK reported that many roads are still blocked, posing difficulties for emergency personnel and vehicles to reach survivors.

Addressing this in a statement shared on X, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said traffic restrictions would be implemented around the earthquake zone from Sunday.

Traffic will be barred from entering the affected areas to allow for disaster recovery-related vehicles to pass freely.

Three months ago, speaking to citizens rocked by a horrific day of attacks by Hamas, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a promise.

“The IDF will immediately use all its strength to destroy Hamas’s capabilities,” Netanyahu said. “We will destroy them.”

Now, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is shifting to a new phase of its war on Hamas in Gaza – and there are signs its objectives are changing too.

“IDF leadership understands very well that the most they can do is severely degrade the military capabilities of Hamas,” Saab said.

Israel has seen some successes in that regard; its forces claim to have killed thousands of Hamas fighters, including some high-ranking members, and have dismantled some parts of the group’s vast tunnel network under the enclave.

But challenges remain and an endgame is far from sight. Few countries at war set deadlines. Israeli officials have warned of a lengthy war that could stretch through the entirety of 2024 and beyond.

It will unfold in front of an international community that is increasingly aghast at the extraordinary humanitarian crisis and spiraling civilian deaths in Gaza.

And as international pressure increases, so too could domestic unease towards Netanyahu – an embattled prime minister eager to point to tangible victories.

“There is a race against time,” said Saab, outlining the key questions facing Israel’s leadership. “At what price is this tactical success going to come, and how much time do the Israelis have to achieve that tactical success without suffering from more significant international outrage?”

A ‘new combat approach’

The destruction of Hamas – the goal that Netanyahu touted on October 7 – was lofty, elusive and, according to many analysts, impossible.

“This kind of mission cannot be completed – we’ve seen it fail over the years many times,” Saab said.

Hamas’ influence extends far beyond Gaza, meaning a total defeat of the group is at least highly ambitious for Israel, if it can be achieved at all.

In a speech marking the anniversary of the attacks, Netanyahu reiterated his goals for the conflict: “To eliminate Hamas, return our hostages and ensure that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel.”

But it remains unclear whether IDF leadership places eliminating Hamas atop its priorities. IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva left out the destruction of Hamas when listing military goals in a speech on Thursday, Israeli media noted.

And also on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant unveiled plans for the next phase of the war in Gaza, emphasizing a new combat approach in the north and a sustained focus on targeting Hamas leaders suspected to be present in the enclave’s southern territory.

In the third phase, IDF operations in northern Gaza will encompass “raids, the destruction of terror tunnels, aerial and ground activities, and special operations,” according to Gallant.

If the more realistic target is a severe reduction in Hamas’ fighting capabilities, many analysts say that tangible progress has been made in the past three months.

“The definition of success will not be to catch or kill all Hamas operatives, but to ensure that Hamas can no longer effectively govern the Gaza Strip,” Plesner said. “Hamas is organized like an army, with command and control centers, regiments and brigades. This command structure is being seriously challenged and dismantled.”

Addressing reporters in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said last week that the Israeli military is “fighting with force and new systems above and below the ground” and claimed to have killed 8,000 Hamas fighters in Gaza, according to Army Radio.

A hunt for Hamas’ leaders

Israel has also claimed some success in targeting Hamas’ tunnel shafts, a complex notoriously difficult for IDF troops to infiltrate. The IDF released a video this week which it says showed the dismantlement of one tunnel route under Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza, that it accused Hamas of excavating.

Last month, it released other videos it said showed a network of tunnels which connect to residences and offices of senior Hamas leadership including Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, and Muhammad Deif.

But the bigger goal of finding and killing Hamas’ most important leaders in Gaza has eluded Israel to date.

“This is where intelligence is king,” Saab said. Gallant and other officials have repeatedly emphasized the importance of their efforts to eliminate senior Hamas commanders, with the defense minister vowing in late December that Sinwar would “meet the barrels of our guns soon.”

A longtime figure in the Islamist Palestinian group, Sinwar was responsible for building up Hamas’ military wing before forging important new ties with regional Arab powers as the group’s civilian and political leader.

“Organizations like these replace commanders pretty easily. I don’t think anyone is irreplaceable in Hamas,” Saab said. “But if you take out the symbolic heads of the organization, who knows if that might have a trickle down effect, especially with people who have military responsibilities.”

It seems unlikely that the new phase of Israel’s war will bring relief for the Palestinians trapped in Gaza, where a humanitarian crisis has spiraled to extraordinary levels.

But Netanyahu may be more likely to be bow in the face of domestic pressure, which has been rising in particular over the continued captivity of more than 100 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7.

The return of those hostages remains a goal in the war’s new phase, but failure to deliver would intensify political pressure on a decisive leader whose popularity among Israelis has only plunged since October 7.

“From day one, there was a clear disparity – there is support for the war goals and for the IDF, (but) the trust in the Israeli government is at an all-time low,” Plesner said, “There’s a huge gulf.”

Improve your life in 2024 by following our Life, But Better advice for sleep, food, fitness, stress reduction and more. Start with our science-backed guidance on how to make your life greener.

It sounds like such a great resolution for the new year: I’m going to live greener. But what would it actually take to live a life that’s better for our planet, when so much of the harm done is beyond our control?

The climate crisis is not your fault, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do. Collectively, we can have a positive impact by making some pretty basic lifestyle changes.

Here are five easy ways to get started in 2024.

Cut meat from just one meal a week

Rib-eye steaks and juicy cheeseburgers are huge contributors to the climate crisis. Raising beef generates a large amount of methane — a powerful planet-warming gas. It also takes a lot of energy to grow food to feed animals, which is why lamb, pork and poultry also have a significant climate impact.

Eating a plant-heavy diet tops the list of Earth-friendly changes, but you don’t need to give up meat entirely to have an impact. If you’re eating meat every day, try cutting it from the menu one day a week.

If you can’t stand the thought of giving up meat entirely, stick with poultry — it has the lowest climate impact.

Practice eco-driving

Living car-free is one of the best things you can do to help rein in the climate crisis, but doing so is not possible for most people.

Instead, try to master the art of eco-driving. High speeds, hard acceleration and hard braking wastes fuel and can reduce your car’s fuel efficiency by up to 30% on the highway. Using four-wheel drive also decreases efficiency, so turn that off when you don’t really need it.

Speeds around 55 miles per hour (88 kilometers per hour) are great for fuel efficiency if you’re driving a non-hybrid, gas-powered car. Anything over that, and you’re burning more gas than you need to.

Call your utility to ask for a clean energy option

Homes are becoming more energy efficient, but they are also getting bigger. Combine this size with higher summer temperatures and more electronics to power, and you have a recipe for an upward trend in home electricity use.

Whether you own or rent, resolve to call your electric utility and ask if you can pay for renewable energy such as solar or wind. Even if it doesn’t offer renewable energy, you’ve at least shown your utility that you’re interested in it and it’s something for which you’re willing to pay.

Take one less flight this year

Could you create the kind of trip you’re aiming for within driving or train distance? Driving has a lower climate impact than flying, especially as cars become more fuel efficient. Driving also costs less than flying, even when gas prices are at record highs.

It also helps to avoid business- or first-class seats, because those sections carry fewer people and thus come at a climate premium.

And be strategic about your travel. Consider taking one long vacation a year instead of two shorter ones if they require flying. You still get the same amount of fun in the sun but with half the number of flights.

Start a conversation

Personal action is necessary to help solve the climate crisis. But it’s not sufficient. We should minimize our climate impact wherever possible, but policymakers and industry leaders also need to make big strides as soon as possible.

In the meantime, start a conversation in your city, church or workplace about how your community can do better.

“We need companies to change, as well as cities and churches, schools and universities, businesses and organizations,” said Katharine Hayhoe, a distinguished climate professor at Texas Tech University and chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy.

“And no matter who they are, or where they are, that change begins when someone starts a conversation — about why climate change matters to them, and what they can do to make a difference.”

Editor’s note: Not sure how to establish a habit? Try out behavioral scientist Katy Milkman’s five strategies for nailing your New Year’s resolutions.

Dinosaurs are all around us, figuratively and literally speaking.

Most of these diverse creatures went extinct 66 million years ago, but the ancient ancestors of modern birds are ingrained in the fabric of both scientific intrigue and pop culture.

Colorful dinos romp around in animated shows — and their more lifelike counterparts in “Jurassic Park” offer a menacing “what if” look at life alongside the massive reptiles.

Paleontologists uncover dozens of previously unknown dinosaur species each year, enriching the view of what the world was like before humans set foot on it.

Scientists don’t always get it right the first time as they try to envision long extinct creatures by piecing together their bones.

But imagine living during a time — only 200 years ago — when the existence of dinosaurs wasn’t common knowledge.

Dino-mite!

When massive fossilized bones were found jutting from the slate quarries in England’s Oxfordshire in the late 1600s, people thought they were once part of a Roman war elephant. The concept of dinosaurs, and even the word dinosaur, was centuries away from entering the public imagination.

But William Buckland, Oxford University’s first professor of geology, changed all of that in 1824 when he named the first known dinosaur: Megalosaurus.

The initial illustrations of the giant reptile weren’t entirely accurate, but Buckland’s discovery was the beginning of a new scientific field that is still growing today.

Paleontologists believe only a fraction of fossils have been found of dinosaurs that once populated the globe, meaning thousands or millions more species may await discovery.

Unearthed

Authorities have relocated the installation of a power plant near Rome after workers uncovered an ancient necropolis.

Archaeologists found 67 skeletons, many bedecked in gold jewelry, that had been laid to rest surrounded by precious items inside elaborate tombs designed to look like their homes.

“We found several skeletons still wearing their expensive stockings and shoes,” said Emanuele Giannini, lead excavation archaeologist at the site. “All these riches, and the fact that the bones show no sign of stress or physical labor, (leads us to believe) these weren’t local farmers, but upper-crust members of Roman families coming from cities.”

Many of the tombs were built for those who shared a family connection, and some skeletons were found wrapped around one another.

Defying gravity

The race to the moon has heated up in the past few years, and now Japan’s lunar spacecraft will soon aim to demonstrate “pinpoint” landing technology. The SLIM lander, aka the “Moon Sniper,” is slated to touch down on the lunar surface on January 19.

And after a long wait, some of the most anticipated space missions are preparing to lift off in fall 2024.

The NASA Europa Clipper will set off in October to see if Jupiter’s icy moon Europa has what it takes to support life in its subsurface ocean.

In November, the Artemis II mission is expected to send four astronauts on a journey around the moon. If the lunar venture is successful, it will pave the way for NASA and its partners to launch Artemis III — returning humans to the moon’s surface for the first time since 1972.

The night sky

Prepare to see a sky filled with celestial wonders this year.

In addition to meteor showers and full moons, there will be multiple types of lunar and solar eclipses visible from different points around the globe.

One of the most anticipated is the total solar eclipse that will cross Mexico, the US and Canada on April 8.

And keep an eye out for the northern lights and southern lights in unexpected places as the sun’s activity heats up before it reaches solar maximum later this year.

Curiosities

A “living skin” is protecting the Great Wall of China against deterioration and erosion.

Scientists studied rammed earth portions of the iconic landmark. Builders made these sections by compressing natural materials with soils, and they have been considered a weak point in the structure.

Instead, researchers discovered that protective biocrusts, or networks of tiny, rootless plants and microorganisms, cover the soil surfaces. By studying samples, scientists determined the biocrust-covered portions are three times stronger than rammed earth sections without it.

“They thought this kind of vegetation was destroying the Great Wall. Our results show the contrary,” said Bo Xiao, a professor of soil science at China Agricultural University.

Discoveries

Take a closer look at these riveting reads:

— The Navajo Nation’s objection to landing human remains on the moon prompted a last-minute meeting at the White House.

— To answer the need for clean energy, some experts believe it’s time to build solar farms in space that beam sunlight to Earth’s surface — but others say the plan is too far-fetched.

— During expeditions to a remote part of North Greenland, researchers uncovered fossils of previously unknown predator worms called “terror beasts” that ruled the seas half a billion years ago.

— Newly processed versions of Voyager 2 images show the true hues of Neptune and Uranus, revealing that the two worlds are more similar in color than previously believed.

Eleven people including five children were killed in Russian S-300 missile strikes on Saturday in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, according to the local military administration.

“Eleven dead, including five children – these are the preliminary results of the strikes on Pokrovsk district. Russians hit the area with S-300 missiles, killing 11 people and wounding 8 others. The main hit was on Pokrovsk and Rivne of the Myrnohrad community,” Vadym Filashkin, the head of the Donetsk region military administration said in a post on Telegram.

“The enemy cynically hits civilians, trying to bring as much grief to our land as possible,” he said.

Photos posted by the official showed rescue workers searching through the rubble of single story houses and at least one blown out car.

Donetsk is on the frontline of the fighting in the east, and is partially-occupied by Russian forces.

State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES) said search and rescue efforts at the scene of the strikes, which completely destroyed three private houses, is ongoing.

“As a result of rescue operations, 1 man was rescued from the rubble,” SES said. “Rescuers also extinguished a fire in a residential building on the area of 100 square meters. A total of 38 personnel and 10 pieces of equipment were engaged in the work,” the SES statement said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky offered condolences to the families who lost their loved ones in the strike in his nightly address.

“Russia must feel – and always feel – that none of these strikes will be without consequences for the terrorist state. We have to ensure this – with our strength, our own defense and political capabilities,” Zelensky said.

A couple from the French-speaking part of Belgium wanted to become naturalized French citizens but found themselves with the most French of problems – a bureaucratic struggle to prove they speak their mother tongue.

The documents they provided to their local prefecture were deemed insufficient to demonstrate that they speak French.

He has been living in the southern French department of Drôme for 24 years and his wife Martine for nine. After having lived in the country for so long, they felt like the time had come for them to become French.

But their path of becoming naturalized ran into a most unlikely obstacle – they can’t prove that they speak French.

They submitted their degrees from French-speaking universities and were told these could not prove that they speak B1-level French, intermediate level under the current European Union system.

“You can see that I’m talking to you [in French] in a correct way, but unfortunately a priori that’s not enough for our administration,” Lenoir said.

Yet the local prefecture also has a strong case – they were simply following the law.

“It is totally inaccurate to state that the Lenoirs’ application for naturalization was rejected for ‘lack of knowledge of the French language,’” the Drôme government office said in a statement published Thursday.

Instead, the reason why Lenoir and his wife failed to obtain French citizenship was because they provided documents “that do not comply” with what was required by French law.

Unlike the United States or Canada, who recognize university degrees earned in other Anglo-Saxon countries, France doesn’t recognize university degrees earned in other francophone countries as a way of proving language proficiency.

There are basically two ways of proving one’s proficiency in French according to the current French nationality law – earn a middle school degree or above in France or pass a language exam, either conducted by other European countries or a take an official TCF/ TEF exam.

For the latter, the exam result must be no older than two years.

“It is therefore necessary for applicants to provide valid documents for their applications to be in proper shape,” the local government statement said.

But for Vincent Lenoir, the reality is more complicated than simply taking another exam.

“You can only take this exam in January and get the result in March, while our appeal to the government’s appeal is only valid for two months. So by the time we get the result it will be useless,” he told BFMTV, meaning they will have restart the whole process all over again.

Ironically, if a French person wants to become Belgian, his or her university degree earned in France will be sufficient to prove language proficiency in French, one of the three national languages of Belgium.

But anyone who has lived in France will agree that for one person to go to the local government for an administrative task only to be told that one didn’t bring the right type of document is probably the most French interaction one can ever have.

Additional reporting from Maya Szaniecki.

China has protested to Myanmar after five people were injured by artillery shells lobbed during battles between its ruling junta and rebel groups that strayed into a small town near their border, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

Armed conflict has surged in Myanmar’s north between the military and rebel groups since late October, spurring calls for a ceasefire from neighboring China, which has also facilitated dialogue between the two sides.

“China … strongly deplores the Chinese casualties caused by the conflict and has already lodged serious representations with the relevant parties,” said Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson.

“China once again asks all parties to the conflict to cease fire and stop fighting, and take measures to prevent the recurrence of such vicious incidents,” Wang told a regular news briefing.

China would take the necessary steps to safeguard the lives and property of its citizens, he added.

Earlier, the state-run Global Times newspaper said five people in Nansan, a subtropical town near Myanmar, were taken to hospital after being wounded on Wednesday by the stray shells.

A video of the incident circulated on social media by the paper showed one person lying on a pavement as people shouted, “Call the police!”

In the video, the paper added that officials in Zhenkang, a city in the southwestern province of Yunnan, had confirmed shelling had strayed from Laukkai, in Myanmar’s northern region of Kokang, at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

The incident comes after China’s embassy in Myanmar urged its nationals last week to leave Laukkai as soon as possible, citing growing security risks.

Restive region

For years, Kokang in Myanmar’s Shan state has been a volatile and restive region.

In 2015, shells from the area also landed across the border in Yunnan amid fighting between Myanmar government troops and rebels, injuring one Chinese and four Myanmar nationals and angering Beijing.

Some battles took place as close as 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the China-Myanmar border at the time.

In 2009, clashes in the same area forced tens of thousands to flee across the border into China, Chinese state media and rights groups have said.

In mid-December, the United Nations estimated more than 660,000 people had been displaced in Myanmar since October 27, and put the corresponding nationwide total at a record 2.6 million.

China has urged citizens to avoid travel to northern Myanmar, and advised those already there to seek safety or return home.

China saw its hottest year on record in 2023, state media reported this week, as the world’s biggest polluter confronted a series of relentless heat waves and other extreme weather events driven by the human-caused climate crisis.

Daily and monthly temperature records were repeatedly shattered as the year wore on while the country grappled with scorching heat waves, which authorities said had arrived earlier and been more widespread and extreme than in previous years.

China’s exceptional warmth echoed global trends – with scientists confirming that 2023 will officially be the hottest year on record, the result of the combined effects of El Niño and climate change.

The average temperature in China last year stood at 10.7 degrees Celsius – the highest since records began in 1961, according to the National Climate Center, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

It breaks the previous record of 10.5°C set in 2021.

Across the country, 127 weather stations recorded their highest ever daily temperatures, state-run newspaper China Daily reported.

The highest of those was 52.2°C on July 16 in Turpan’s Sanpu town, in the far western Xinjiang region.

The prolonged and persistent heat affected hundreds of millions of people and put huge strain on the country’s power grid. In July, China Energy Investment Corporation, one of the world’s largest generators of coal-fired power, said the volume of electricity it produced had hit a daily record.

There were also reports of farm animals, including pigs, rabbits and fish, dying from the searing temperatures and wheat fields in central China being flooded by heavy rainfall, raising concerns about food security in the world’s second largest economy.

A similar story played out across the world in 2023, with a series of deadly heat waves and remarkable record temperatures hitting several continents, while unprecedented ocean heat blanketed much of the globe.

Analysis from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found 2023’s global temperature will be more than 1.4 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels — close to the 1.5-degree threshold in the Paris climate agreement, and beyond which scientists say humans and ecosystems will struggle to adapt.

Extreme highs and lows

At the other end of the scale, China also recorded its lowest ever temperature last year on January 22, when Jintao town in Mohe, northeastern Heilongjiang province dropped to -53° C.

And in December, the capital Bejing recorded its longest cold wave since records began in 1951, as sub-zero temperatures stretched heating capacity of some cities in northern China to its limit.

China’s extreme weather also saw some of the heaviest rainfall in decades, with flooding bringing devastation to millions of people’s lives and causing billions of dollars in damage.

A total of 55 national weather stations recorded their highest daily rainfall in 2023, according to the National Climate Center.

Typhoon Doksuri slammed into southeastern Fujian province on July 28, bringing rains that soaked Hebei, a province of 75 million, and the neighboring cities of Beijing and Tianjin.

Flooding in those regions killed about 30 people, displaced more than 1 million and  washed away houses, bridges and highways, according to Chinese authorities.

The storm also brought the heaviest rainfall Beijing has experienced in 140 years, marking a significant test of the region’s capacity to handle extreme weather that experts warn will become more frequent with climate change.

Scientists are clear that the climate crisis is making extreme weather events – such as heat waves, storms and heavy rainfall – more frequent and intense, and they will continue to become more frequent and severe as the planet heats up while humans burn more fossil fuels.

China is the world’s biggest polluter, making up nearly 30% of global emissions and accounting for over half of global demand for coal, according to the International Energy Agency.

The World Bank has said that without China successfully reducing its planet-heating emissions and transitioning to clean energy, the world will have little chance of achieving its climate goals.

China has been accelerating production of sustainable energy and the country is on track to double its wind and solar energy capacity and hit its 2030 clean energy targets as soon as 2025, a June report found.

In November, China pledged a major ramp-up of renewable energy, alongside the United States, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The country also played a key role in climate negotiations at the COP28 summit in Dubai in December, which made an unprecedented call to transition away from fossil fuels.

However, China did not sign an official agreement to triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency, both by 2030, according to Carbon Brief.

Russia has fired North Korean-supplied short-range ballistic missiles into Ukraine twice in the past week, an “escalation” of Pyongyang’s support for Moscow that has serious implications for both the war in Europe and security on the Korean Peninsula, the White House said Thursday.

The North Korean-made missiles were fired at Ukraine on December 30 and January 2, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at a White House briefing. They were among at least 500 missiles and drones fired at Ukraine around the New Year’s holiday, according to Kyiv.

The December 30 attack involved a lone missile that fell into a field, while Russia’s January 2 assault involved multiple missiles, he said. The impacts of missiles fired on January 2 are still being assessed, Kirby said, adding they were part of a “massive” Russian assault.

“Due in part to our sanctions and export controls, Russia has become increasingly isolated on the world stage and they’ve been forced to look to likeminded states for military equipment,” Kirby said in the briefing. “As we’ve been warning publicly, one of those states is North Korea.”

“This is a significant and concerning escalation in the DPRK’s support for Russia,” Kirby said, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“We expect Russia and North Korea to learn from these launches,” Kirby said.

Analysts echoed that sentiment, saying the use of North Korean missiles on the battlefield in Ukraine can give Pyongyang data it can’t get from a testing program that has seen dozens of the weapons fired over the past few years under the missile program of leader Kim Jong Un.

“It will be interesting to see how these missiles perform in a more operational environment and outside of North Korea’s propaganda machine, particularly any indication of accuracy and indeed the guidance systems utilized,” said Joseph Dempsey, research associate for defense and military analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Ankit Panda, senior fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Russia’s use of the missiles against Ukraine allows North Korea to gather data on how they penetrated defenses similar to those South Korea and the United States might field on the Korean Peninsula.

“In technical terms, I suspect the North Koreans will be quite interested in how their missiles fare against Western missile defense systems,” he said.

Speaking at the White House, Kirby said the consequences for South Korea and the region go beyond Pyongyang’s ability to refine its missile programs.

“In return for its support we assess that Pyongyang is seeking military assistance from Russia including fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, ballistic missile production equipment, war materials and other advanced technologies,” Kirby said.

“This would have concerning security implications for the Korean Peninsula and the Indo-Pacific region.”

The areas Kirby ticked off are ones where North Korea’s adversaries in East Asia – most notably South Korea, the US and Japan – are considered to have big advantages over the isolated nation.

For instance, all three possess advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets that would give them big advantages in trying to breach North Korean air defenses. But if Pyongyang were to acquire more modern Russian surface-to-air missiles with advanced tracking radars to go with them, the F-35 advantage could be cut back significantly.

Russia is also likely sending money to Pyongyang, said Lee Jang Wook, research fellow at the Center for Security and Strategy in the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA).

“And this revenue can be another monetary support to mass create more nuclear weapons,” Lee said.

Meanwhile, Kirby and the analysts say Russia is likely seeing immediate benefits from any influx of North Korean armaments.

“The North Korean SRBMs are unlikely to provide a qualitive edge over anything already in the Russian inventory. Instead, the main benefit being quantitative, by boosting Russia’s depleting missile stocks and providing an additional supply line,” Dempsey said.

The North Korean missiles “will allow Russia to continue deep strikes without drawing down its own stocks of missiles,” Panda said. The North Korean missiles have a range of up to 900 kilometers (about 550 miles), Kirby said, allowing them to be fired from deeper in Russian territory where Moscow’s air defenses can keep launchers better protected from Ukrainian counterstrikes.

And a North Korean supply has another advantage for Moscow, Panda said.

“Given the land border between Russia and North Korea, it will be nigh impossible for Western states to interrupt transfers as long as Pyongyang is willing to continue cooperating with Russia,” he said.

For Ukraine, it all adds up to a troubling picture ahead.

“We anticipate that Russia will use additional North Korean missiles to target Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians,” Kirby said.