Poland, Baltics call for EU defense line on border with Russia, Belarus

A soldier stands guard near the fence on the Belarusian-Polish border in the forest near Bialowieza, Poland, June 4, 2024. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 27 June 2024
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Poland, Baltics call for EU defense line on border with Russia, Belarus

BRUSSELS: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia called on Wednesday for the European Union to build a defense line along the bloc’s border with Russia and Belarus to protect the EU from military threats and other harmful activities from Moscow.

In a letter to the chairman of the EU to be discussed at a summit in Brussels starting on Thursday, the leaders of the four countries that share borders with Russia and Belarus said the project, to protect the 27-nation bloc of 450 million people, would also need the financial support of all members.

“Building a defense infrastructure system along the EU external border with Russia and Belarus will address the dire and urgent need to secure the EU from military and hybrid threats,” said the letter of the four leaders, seen by Reuters.

Hybrid threats refer to a combination of military and nonmilitary as well as covert and overt means, including disinformation, cyberattacks, economic pressure and the pushing of migrants across borders.

“The scale and costs of this joint endeavour require a dedicated EU action to support it both politically and financially,” the letter said.

Some EU diplomats estimated the cost of building such a defensive line on the ground along the 700 km EU border with Russia and Belarus at around 2.5 billion euros ($2.67 billion).

European investment in defense and its financing will be one of the main topics of discussion among EU leaders at the summit, as Russia’s war against Ukraine has entered its third year and Moscow is stepping up hybrid operations against the West.

The call for a jointly funded ground defense line on the eastern border of the European Union comes on top of an earlier initiative by Greece and Poland to create an EU air defense system, modelled on the Israeli Iron Dome, that would coordinate the now separate air defense systems of EU countries.

“Extraordinary measures need to be employed as the EU’s external border must be protected and defended with military and civilian means,” the letter of the four countries said.

The letter said the planning and execution of the defense line on the EU’s eastern border should be done in coordination with NATO and its military requirements.


North Korea denies warship was severely damaged as full investigation underway on its failed launch

Updated 5 sec ago
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North Korea denies warship was severely damaged as full investigation underway on its failed launch

  • North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un expressed fury over an incident that he said was caused by criminal negligence
  • Satellite imagery on the site showed vessel lying on its side and draped in blue covers, with parts of it submerged
SEOUL: North Korea is seeking to arrest those responsible for the failed launch of its second naval destroyer, as it denied the warship suffered major damage – a claim quickly met with outside skepticism.
A statement from North Korea on its handling of the botched launch came after leader Kim Jong Un expressed fury over an incident that he said was caused by criminal negligence. The main military committee said Friday that those responsible would be held responsible for an “unpardonable criminal act.”
Satellite imagery on the site showed vessel lying on its side and draped in blue covers, with parts of it submerged. North Korea says it’ll take about 10 days to repair its damage, but outside observers question that timeframe because damage to the ship appeared much worse than what North Korea claims.
Here is what you need to know about the failed ship launch:
How much damage was there to the ship
North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, said Friday that the severity of the damage to the 5,000-ton-class destroyer was “not serious” as it canceled an earlier assessment that the bottom of the hull had been left with holes.
It said the hull on the starboard side was scratched and some seawater had flowed into the stern section. But it said it’ll take a total of 10 days to pump up the seawater, set the ship upright and fix the scratches.
It’s almost impossible to verify the assessment because of the extremely secretive nature of North Korea. It has a history of manipulating or covering up military-related setbacks, policy fiascoes and other mishaps, though it has periodically acknowledged some in recent years.
Lee Illwoo, an expert with the Korea Defense Network in South Korea, said the North Korean warship likely suffered much worse damage, including the flooding of its engine room located in the stern section, and holes in the starboard. He said North Korea could simply set the ship upright, paint it and claim the ship has been launched, but that repairs could take more than a year as the replacement of an engine requires cutting the hull.
Why the ship’s launch failed
According to the North Korean account, the destroyer was damaged when a transport cradle on the ship’s stern detached early during a launch ceremony at the northeastern port of Chongjin on Wednesday.
Moon Keun-sik, a navy expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University, said North Korean workers are probably not familiar with launching a 5,000-ton-class warship, which is nearly three times heavier than its existing main navy ships.
Observers say North Korea tried to launch the destroyer sideways, a method it has never used for warships, although it has previously employed it with big cargo and passenger ships.
Compared with those non-military vessels, Lee sad it would be more difficult to maintain balance with the destroyer because it’s equipped with heavy weapons systems. He suspected North Korean scientists and workers likely did not factor that in.
How Kim has reacted
The damaged ship is assessed as the same class as North Korea’s first destroyer, launched with great fanfare last month with a floating dry dock at a western shipyard. It is North Korea’s biggest and most advanced warship to date, and Kim called its construction “a breakthrough” in modernizing North Korea’s naval forces to cope with what he calls US-led security threats.
Subsequently, a failure to launch the second destroyer was an embarrassment for Kim. But by disclosing it to both internally and externally, Kim could be trying to show his resolve in modernizing naval forces and boost discipline at home. He ordered officials to thoroughly investigate the case and repair the warship before a high-level ruling Workers’ Party meeting in late June.
North Korea said Friday the country’s Central Military Commission summoned Hong Kil Ho, manager of the Chongjin shipyard, as it begun its investigation of the failed launch.
“No matter how good the state of the warship is, the fact that the accident is an unpardonable criminal act remains unchanged, and those responsible for it can never evade their responsibility for the crime,” the commission said, according to state media.
Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said North Korea appears to be using the failed launch as a chance to strengthen the ruling party’s control over science and technological sectors.
Lee Choon Geun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute, said that North Korea’s handling of the damaged warship could have long-term consequences for its defense science sector, especially if military scientists face harsh punishment.
“If scientists are held severely accountable, I would say the future of North Korea’s defense science doesn’t look very bright, as it would be a sign that political responsibility is being prioritized over technical accountability,” Lee wrote on Facebook.

British king to visit Ottawa amid Trump-Canada tension

Updated 19 min 54 sec ago
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British king to visit Ottawa amid Trump-Canada tension

  • The 76-year-old monarch is also Canada’s head of state as part of the Commonwealth
  • Queen Camilla will accompany him on the 24-hour visit to the capital Ottawa

LONDON: Britain’s King Charles III will travel to Canada early next week for a brief but “impactful” visit, at a time when President Donald Trump is floating the idea of making his northern neighbor the 51st US state.
The 76-year-old monarch, who is also Canada’s head of state as part of the Commonwealth, has never publicly commented on the ambitions of the US president, a noted admirer of the royal family.
Despite battling cancer for over a year, Charles accepted an invitation from Canada’s newly appointed Prime Minister Mark Carney to deliver the “speech from the throne” at the reopening of parliament on May 27, outlining the new center-left government’s priorities.
Queen Camilla will accompany him on the 24-hour visit to the capital Ottawa.
“The King and Queen are very much looking forward to the program, mindful that it is a short visit but hopefully an impactful one,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said as the couple’s May 26-27 itinerary was released this week.
The throne speech is expected to draw close scrutiny, especially on sovereignty and trade, amid Trump’s renewed rhetoric about annexing the country of 41 million and his recent imposition of higher tariffs.
Charles “will outline our government’s plan to build Canada strong,” Carney said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Earlier he said: “This is a historic honor which matches the weight of our times.”
Traditionally, the speech is read by the governor general, the monarch’s representative in Canada.
The last British sovereign to deliver the speech in Canada was Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.
Carney, who became prime minister in late April, made defending Canada’s sovereignty central to his campaign.
During a May 6 meeting at the White House, he told Trump that Canada “is not for sale.”
“It won’t be for sale, ever,” he said, responding to the US president’s talk of the “tremendous benefits” of a “wonderful marriage.”
This will be Charles’s 20th visit to Canada, but his first since becoming king in September 2022. It is Camilla’s sixth visit and her first as queen.
The visit will begin Monday afternoon with a community event at the city’s Lansdowne Park celebrating Canada’s diversity and cultural heritage through music and crafts.
The king will also meet with Carney and Governor General Mary Simon.
At Rideau Hall, the official residence of the governor general, the king will plant a tree before a short reception with the lieutenant governors of Canada’s 10 provinces and the territorial commissioners.
On May 27, the king and queen will ride in a carriage pulled by 28 horses to the Senate for the throne speech, scheduled around 1500 GMT, with full military honors.
The visit will conclude with a wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
A Canadian doctor has been assigned to the king, who is undergoing weekly treatment for an unspecified cancer.


Paris court will deliver the verdict in Kim Kardashian jewelry heist trial

Updated 44 min 40 sec ago
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Paris court will deliver the verdict in Kim Kardashian jewelry heist trial

  • At the heart of the trial is Aomar Aït Khedache, a veteran of Paris’ criminal underworld
  • Prosecutors have asked for a 10-year sentence, the loot was never found

PARIS: A decade after robbers stormed Kim Kardashian’s luxury residence and tied her up at gunpoint, a Paris court is set Friday to decide the verdict in one of the most audacious celebrity heists in modern French history.
Nine men and a woman stand accused of carrying out — or aiding — the crime during the 2016 Paris Fashion Week, when masked men dressed as police entered Kardashian’s Paris home, bound her with zip-ties and vanished with $6 million in jewels.
At the heart of the trial is 70-year-old Aomar Aït Khedache, a veteran of Paris’ criminal underworld. Prosecutors have asked for a 10-year sentence. His DNA, found on the zip-ties used to bind Kardashian, cracked open the case. Wiretaps captured him giving orders, recruiting accomplices, and arranging to sell the diamonds in Belgium. The loot was never found.
Khedache claims he was only a foot soldier. He blamed a mysterious “X” or “Ben” — someone prosecutors say never existed.
The accused became known in France as “les papys braqueurs” — the grandpa robbers. Some arrived in court in orthopedic shoes and one leaned on a cane. Some read the proceedings from a screen, hard of hearing and nearly mute. But prosecutors warned observers not to be seduced by soft appearances.
The trial is being heard by a panel of three judges and six jurors, who will need a majority vote to reach a verdict.
The defendants face charges including armed robbery, kidnapping and gang association. If convicted, they could face life in prison.
Kardashian’s testimony earlier this month was the emotional high point. In a packed courtroom, she recounted how she was thrown onto a bed, zip-tied, and had a gun pressed to her on the night of Oct. 2, 2016.
“I absolutely did think I was going to die,” she said. “I have babies. I have to make it home. They can take everything. I just have to make it home.”
She was dragged into a marble bathroom and told to stay silent. When the robbers fled, she freed herself by scraping the tape on her wrists off against the sink, then she hid with her friend, shaking and barefoot.
She said Paris had once been her sanctuary — a city she would wander at 3 a.m., window shopping, stopping for hot chocolate. That illusion was shattered.
The robbery echoed far beyond the City of Light. It forced a recalibration of celebrity behavior in the digital age. For years, Kardashian had curated her life like a showroom: geo-tagged, diamond-lit, public by design. But this was the moment the showroom turned into a crime scene. In her words, “People were watching… They knew where I was.”
Afterward, she stopped posting her location in real time. She stripped her social media feed of lavish gifts and vanished from Paris for years. Other stars followed suit. Privacy became luxury.
Defense attorneys have asked the court for leniency, citing the defendants’ age and health. But prosecutors insist that criminal experience, not frailty, defined the gang.
On Friday morning, the accused will speak one final time before the court withdraws to deliberate.
Even for France’s painstakingly thorough legal system, observers commented about how long it took for the case to be tried.
Kardashian, who once said “this experience really changed everything,” hopes the verdict will offer a measure of closure.


Guests died of organ failure after toxic mushroom lunch, Australian court hears

Updated 46 min 59 sec ago
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Guests died of organ failure after toxic mushroom lunch, Australian court hears

  • Erin Patterson is charged with murdering the parents and aunt of her estranged husband in 202
  • Patterson served them a hearty lunch laced with lethal death cap mushrooms

SYDNEY: Three Australians died of organ failure after eating a beef Wellington dish laced with toxic mushrooms, a medical specialist said Friday during a triple-murder trial sparked by the deaths.
Erin Patterson, 50, is charged with murdering the parents and aunt of her estranged husband in 2023 by serving them a hearty lunch laced with lethal death cap mushrooms.
She is also accused of attempting to murder her husband’s uncle, who survived the meal after a long stay in hospital.
Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges in a trial that has drawn intense interest from around the world.
Intensive care specialist Stephen Warrillow told the high-profile trial on Friday how doctors had scrambled to save the lunch guests.
But as the toxins coursed through their bodies, causing multiple organs to shut down, there was little they could do.
“It was very apparent that this was not survivable,” Warrillow said, talking about one of the victims he treated.
Another victim got “relentlessly worse” even after receiving a liver transplant, he said.
“We had no other treatments to offer, no other therapies. He was dying,” the doctor said.
Warrillow was asked if the organ failure was caused by mushroom poisoning.
“That’s correct, yes,” he told the court.
Patterson was estranged from her husband Simon, who turned down the invitation to the July 2023 lunch.
But his parents, Don and Gail, died days after eating the beef-and-pastry dish.
Simon’s aunt Heather Wilkinson also died, while her husband Ian fell seriously ill but later recovered.
The court earlier heard how Erin Patterson had sent messages to a Facebook group chat in December 2022, several months prior to the lunch, saying she wanted “nothing to do” with her in-laws.
Patterson and estranged husband Simon were at odds over finances and child support, the court heard, and she had sought help from his parents, who refused to intervene.
“I’m sick of this shit I want nothing to do with them,” Patterson wrote in one message.
The prosecution alleges Patterson deliberately poisoned her lunch guests and took care that she did not consume the deadly mushrooms herself.
Her defense says it was “a terrible accident” and that Patterson ate the same meal as the others but did not fall as sick.
The trial is expected to last another two weeks.


Music talent agent among dead after jet crashes into San Diego neighborhood

Updated 49 min 17 sec ago
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Music talent agent among dead after jet crashes into San Diego neighborhood

  • The music agency says the dead include Dave Shapiro, the agency’s co-founder. Shapiro is listed as the owner of the plane and has a pilot’s license
  • Sound Talent Group has represented artists including Hanson, Sum 41 and Vanessa Carlton

SAN DIEGO: A private jet carrying a music talent agent and five others hit a power line in foggy weather early Thursday and crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, slamming into a home and killing multiple people on the flight.
With the home engulfed in flames and jet fuel rolling down the streets, half a dozen vehicles ignited while residents in the neighborhood of US Navy-owned housing were shaken awake just before 4 a.m. by the thunderous crash and subsequent explosions. Out their windows, they saw a wall of fire.
“I can’t quite put words to describe what the scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street, and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.
No one in the neighborhood died, but eight were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and injuries that were not life-threatening, including a person who was hurt climbing out a window, police officer Anthony Carrasco said.
Dave Shapiro, co-founder of Sound Talent Group, and two employees were among those killed, the music agency said in a statement. Sound Talent Group has represented artists including American pop band Hanson, American singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton and the Canadian rock group Sum 41. Hanson is perhaps best known for its earworm 1990s pop hit, “MMMBop.” Shapiro also owned Velocity Records.
“We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends. Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by today’s tragedy,” the agency said.
Six people were on board the plane, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities were still combing the scene and recovering the bodies before releasing an official number and identifying the dead, though there were not believed to be any survivors aboard the flight.
Daniel Williams, former drummer for metal band The Devil Wears Prada, posted on his Instagram on Wednesday afternoon that he was boarding the plane with Shapiro. The band posted a tribute to Williams on their Instagram page.
“No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever,” the band wrote.
A representative for the band referred to their social post when asked about Williams’ death.
Parts of Shapiro’s 1985 Cessna 550 Citation littered a large area, including fragments under the power lines and a section of wing on a road behind the homes, said Elliot Simpson of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Neighborhood hit hard
The home that was struck was destroyed, with its front heavily burned and its roof partially collapsed, and about 10 others were damaged in Murphy Canyon, the largest neighborhood of Navy-owned housing in the country, officials said.
Ben McCarty and his wife, who live in the home that was hit, said they felt heat all around them.
“My wife was screaming, and she’s like, ‘There’s a fire,’” McCarty, who has served in the Navy for 13 years, told local ABC affiliate KGTV.
When he walked toward the front of the house, he saw that the roof had fallen off and flames blocked their exit. They grabbed their children and dogs and ran to the back, where their neighbors helped them climb over the fence to escape.
The plane also hit both of the couple’s vehicles, which burned.
“It put my truck into our living room,” McCarty said.
Other vehicles along the block were melted and scorched into burned shells. One stubborn car fire sent smoke billowing up for hours.
Ariya Waterworth said she woke up to a “whooshing sound” and then saw a giant fireball outside. She screamed for help as firefighters arrived and helped her get out with her two children and their family dog.
One of the family’s cars was “completely disintegrated,” and the other had extensive damage. Her yard was littered with plane parts, broken glass and debris.
“I definitely do feel blessed, because we’ve been spared,” she said.
At least 100 residents were evacuated. Hours after the crash, jet fuel rolled down Salmon Street. The smell of fumes lingered throughout the day, and officials said it was unclear when it would be safe for people to return.
“We have jet fuel all over the place,” Assistant San Diego Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said.
Eddy added that the fog was so thick in the morning that “you could barely see in front of you.”
The plane originated from a small Ne
w Jersey airport
The flight took off from Teterboro, New Jersey, near Manhattan, at about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday and made a fuel stop in Wichita, Kansas, before continuing on to San Diego, according to Simpson.
Based on the flight path, it was bound for Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport when it struck power lines about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) southeast of the airfield, Simpson said.
Audio recorded by www.liveATC.net includes a brief transmission from the pilot saying he was on final approach to the airport and was about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) out at 3:45 a.m.
NTSB investigators planned to spend Thursday and Friday at the scene gathering evidence, Simpson said. He welcomed video or other details from any witnesses.
The plane was attempting t
o land in foggy weather
At that hour and in foggy weather, the plane was likely operating on an instrument flight rules plan, which is typically used during reduced visibility, said Barry Newman, a board-certified aviation attorney.
However, for that airport, once an aircraft reaches 673 feet (205 meters), the pilot also has to rely on sight.
“If a pilot descends to that level and he can’t see the runway, he has to call for a missed approach or divert to another airport,” Newman said.
In October 2021 a twin-engine plane plowed into a San Diego suburb, killing the pilot and a UPS delivery driver on the ground and burning homes. It was preparing to land at the airport.
And in December 2008, a Marine Corps fighter jet slammed into a house in San Diego’s University City neighborhood, causing an explosion that killed four people inside. The Marine Corps blamed the crash on mechanical failure and human error.