PERTH: In the control room of the American Virginia class attack submarine USS Minnesota, off the Western Australian coast, sonar operators adjust to the chatter of dolphins in new waters where the US submarine presence will soon grow significantly.
On a training exercise from its home port in Guam, USS Minnesota is a forerunner to four Virginia class submarines that will be hosted at a Western Australian naval base from 2027, under the AUKUS partnership to transfer nuclear submarine capability to Australia.
Crew use video game joysticks to interrogate screen images from a photonic mast that has replaced a periscope. Life aboard can mean up to 100 days without seeing sunlight, and intermittent communication with families via email to maintain stealth.
Commanding officer Jeffrey Corneille says the Virginia class submarine is “the most advanced warship in the world.”
“If someone wakes up and they say ‘Is today the day?’, we make sure that they say ‘Maybe not’,” he says, describing its deterrent role.
Around 50-80 United States navy personnel will arrive by the middle of the year at Western Australia’s HMAS Stirling base, which is undergoing an A$8 billion ($5 billion) upgrade to prepare for the “Submarine Rotational Force West,” Australian officials have said.
In two years, those numbers will swell to hundreds of US navy personnel and support crew.
The location of HMAS Stirling, closer to Asia and the Indian Ocean than the US Pacific fleet headquarters in Hawaii, is strategically important to the United States, said Peter Dean, director of Foreign Policy and Defense at the United States Studies Center at the University of Sydney.
“Defending the Indian Ocean against rising Chinese capabilities and power is important,” he said.
The Virginia submarine program has been exempted from Pentagon budget cuts as the Trump administration focuses less on the Middle East and Europe, and more on the Indo Pacific, he said.
The Trump administration’s number three Pentagon official, Elbridge Colby, told a US Senate confirmation hearing this month the attack submarines are “absolutely essential” for making the defense of Taiwan viable, and production rates must be lifted to first meet US needs and also to fulfill its obligations to sell submarines to Australia under the AUKUS pact.
The USS Minnesota moved its home port from Hawaii to the US Pacific territory of Guam, closer to Taiwan and the only forward-deployed US submarine base, in November.
A Chinese navy task group that circumnavigated Australia in February and March, holding unprecedented live fire drills off the east coast that disrupted commercial airlines, before passing Western Australia to coincide with the USS Minnesota’s port call and heading into the Indian Ocean, has highlighted China’s ambition to operate more frequently in Australia’s neighborhood, Australian officials said.
Under AUKUS, Australia’s most expensive defense project, Australia will buy two used Virginia class submarines next decade, and build a new class of nuclear powered submarine with Britain, to replace its aging diesel powered fleet.
In preparation, there are 115 Australians in the US nuclear navy training pipeline or on Virginia submarines, plus 130 training for nuclear submarine maintenance at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, US navy officials said.
US starts to build submarine presence on strategic Australian coast under AUKUS
https://arab.news/r3e65
US starts to build submarine presence on strategic Australian coast under AUKUS
- Virginia class submarine is 'the most advanced warship in the world'
- It has been exempted from Pentagon budget cuts as Trump administration focuses less on the Middle East and Europe, and more on the Indo Pacific
Detained Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil appears in immigration case
He smiled at two observers as they came into the room, where just 13 people ultimately gathered, including the judge, attorneys and court staff
LOUISIANA: Detained Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil appeared briefly Friday in immigration court at a remote Louisiana detention center as his lawyers fight in multiple venues to try to free him.
Khalil, 30, a legal US resident with no criminal record, sat alone next to an empty chair through a brief court session that dealt only with scheduling. His lawyer participated via video.
Khalil swayed back and forth in his chair as he waited for the proceeding to begin in a windowless courtroom inside an isolated, low-slung Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention complex. Ringed by two rows of tall barbed-wire fences and surrounded by pine forests, the facility is near the small town of Jena, roughly 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Louisiana’s capital, Baton Rouge.
Khalil smiled at two observers as they came into the room, where just 13 people ultimately gathered, including the judge, attorneys and court staff. Two journalists and a total of four other observers attended.
By video, lawyer Marc Van Der Hout said he’d just started representing Khalil and needed more time to speak to him, get records and delve into the case. An immigration judge set a fuller hearing for April 8.
Khalil’s lawyers also have gone to federal court to challenge his detention and potential deportation, which looms as his wife, a US citizen, is expecting their first child. A federal judge in New York ruled Wednesday that Khalil can contest the legality of his detention but that the case should be moved to a New Jersey federal court.
The Columbia University graduate student was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on what he calls antisemitic and “anti-American” campus protests. Khalil served as a spokesperson and negotiator last year for pro-Palestinian demonstrators who opposed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Protesters, some of them Jewish, say it’s not antisemitic or anti-American to criticize Israeli military actions and advocate for Palestinian human rights and territorial claims.
However, some Jewish students have said the demonstrations didn’t just criticize Israel’s government but launched into rhetoric and behavior that made Jews feel unwelcome or outright unsafe on the Ivy League campus. A Columbia task force on antisemitism found “serious and pervasive” problems at the university.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has asserted that Khalil organized disruptive protests that harassed Jewish students and “distributed pro-Hamas propaganda.” Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and attacked Israel in October 2023, is designated by the US as a terrorist organization.
The US government is seeking to deport Khalil under a rarely used statute that allows for removing noncitizens who pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
Khalil, an Algerian citizen who was born in Syria to a Palestinian family, has said in a statement that his detention reflects “anti-Palestinian racism” in the US Before his detention by the government, he said that a Columbia disciplinary investigation was scapegoating him for being an identifiable figure at the protests.
Columbia now is contending with broader pressure to address the Trump administration’s assertions of antisemitism, including demands for unprecedented levels of government control over the private university if it wants to continue receiving federal grants for research and other purposes.
Heathrow says some flights will resume after a fire cut power to Europe’s busiest airport
- The London airport said it would begin flights for passengers stranded when their flights were diverted to other airports in Europe and to get airplanes back in the right place
- At least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24 said
LONDON: Heathrow Airport said it planned to resume some flights Friday after a large fire at an electrical substation knocked out power to Europe’s busiest flight hub and disrupted global travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
The London airport said it would begin flights for passengers stranded when their flights were diverted to other airports in Europe and to get airplanes back in the right place. It hopes to be in full operation on Saturday.
At least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24 said, and the impact was likely to last several days as passengers try to reschedule their travel and airlines work to get planes and crew to the right places.
Authorities do not know what caused the fire but so far found have no evidence it was suspicious.
Residents in west London described hearing a large explosion, followed by a fireball and clouds of smoke, when the blaze ripped through the electrical substation near the airport.
Some 120 flights were in the air when the closure was announced, with some turned around and others diverted to Gatwick Airport outside London, Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris or Ireland’s Shannon Airport, tracking services showed.
Lawrence Hayes was three-quarters of the way to London from New York when Virgin Atlantic announced they were being diverted to Glasgow.
“It was a red-eye flight and I’d already had a full day, so I don’t even know how long I’ve been up for,” Hayes told the BBC as he was getting off the plane in Scotland. “Luckily I managed to get hold of my wife and she’s kindly booked me a train ticket to get back to Euston, but it’s going to be an incredibly long day.”
Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports for international travel. It had its busiest January on record earlier this year, with more than 6.3 million passengers, up more than 5 percent from the same period last year.
Still, the disruption Friday fell short of the one caused by the 2010 eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and created trans-Atlantic air travel chaos for months.
Unclear what caused the fire but foul play not suspected
It was too early to determine what sparked the huge blaze about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the airport, but there’s “no suggestion” of foul play, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said.
The Metropolitan Police force said counterterrorism detectives were leading the investigation because of their ability to find the cause quickly and because of the location of the electrical substation fire and its impact on critical national infrastructure.
Heathrow said its backup power supply designed for emergencies worked as expected, but it was not enough to run the whole airport. It said it had no choice but to close the airport for the day.
“We expect significant disruption over the coming days, and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens,” the airport said.
The widespread impact of the fire that took seven hours to control led to criticism that Britain was ill prepared for disaster or some type of attack if a single blaze could shut down Europe’s busiest airport.
“The UK’s critical national infrastructure is not sufficiently hardened for anywhere near the level it would need to be at to give us confidence this won’t happen again,” said Alan Mendoza, the executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, a security think tank. “If one fire can shut down Heathrow’s primary systems and then apparently the backup systems, as well, it tells you something’s badly wrong with our system of management of such disasters.”
Tom Wells, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, acknowledged that authorities had questions to answer and said a rigorous investigation was needed to make sure “this scale of disruption does not happen again.”
Heathrow — where the UK government plans to build a third runway — was at the heart of a shorter disruption in 2023 when Britain’s air traffic control system was hit by a breakdown that slowed takeoffs and landings across the UK on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Disruption could last days
Heathrow had said it expected to reopen Saturday, but that it anticipated “significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”
Even after the airport reopens, it will take several days to mobilize planes, cargo carriers, and crews and rebook passengers, said aviation consultant Anita Mendiratta.
“It’s not only about resuming with tomorrow’s flights, it’s the backlog and the implications that have taken place,” she said. “Crew and aircraft, many are not where they’re supposed to be right now. So the recalculation of this is going to be intense.”
The London Fire Brigade sent 10 engines and around 70 firefighters to control the blaze and about 150 people were evacuated from their homes near the power station.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said in a post on X the power outage affected more than 16,300 homes.
Diverted, canceled and in limbo
At Heathrow, a family of five traveling to Dallas showed up in the hopes their flight home — still listed as delayed — would take off.
But when Andrea Sri brought her brother, sister-in-law and their three children to the airport, they were told by police that there would be no flight.
“It was a waste of time. Very confusing,” said Sri, who lives in London. “We tried to get in touch with British Airways, but they don’t open their telephone line until 8 a.m.”
Travelers who were diverted to other cities found themselves trying to book travel onward to London. Qantas airlines sent flights from Singapore and Perth, Australia, to Paris, where it said it would bus people to London, a process likely to also include a train shuttle beneath the English Channel.
Budget airline Ryanair, which doesn’t operate out of Heathrow, said it added eight “rescue flights” between Dublin and Stansted, another London airport, to transport stranded passengers Friday and Saturday.
National Rail canceled all trains to and from the airport.
Blaze lit up the sky and darkened homes
Matthew Muirhead was working Thursday night near Heathrow when he stepped outside with a colleague and noticed smoke rising from an electrical substation and heard sirens crying out.
“We saw a bright flash of white, and all the lights in town went out,” he said.
Flights normally begin landing and taking off at Heathrow at 6 a.m. due to nighttime flying restrictions. But the skies were silent Friday morning.
“Living near Heathrow is noisy, there are planes every 90 seconds or so, plus the constant hum of traffic, but you get used to it, to the point of no longer noticing,” said James Henderson, who has lived next to the airport for more than 20 years. “Today is different, you can hear the birds singing.”
Indian students protest for Gaza, urge government to end arms deals with Israel
- Protest comes in wake of Israel’s new massacres after unilaterally breaking Gaza ceasefire
- Demonstrators call for return of India’s historical support for Palestine
NEW DELHI: Hundreds of people gathered for a protest organized by Indian university students in New Delhi on Friday to demand that the government act against Israel’s breaking of the ceasefire in Gaza and renewed deadly strikes on its population.
Israel unilaterally broke the ceasefire with the Palestinian group Hamas on Tuesday by bombarding displaced people sleeping in tents. At least 400 — half of them children — were killed, while hundreds more were severely injured.
The ceasefire was mediated by the US administration in January. Israel earlier violated the agreement by stopping all aid, electricity and water from entering Gaza — days before it launched the wave of deadly airstrikes. About 700 people have been killed since.
“The Indian government should take a stand. They should reassert our traditional stand on Palestine,” Dhananjay, president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union, told Arab News.
The union is part of the All India Students’ Association, which organized the protest at the Jantar Mantar site in the center of New Delhi.
“The way Israel keeps on pounding Gaza and kills more than 400 people in one day despite the ceasefire, this I feel is an attack on humanity and all civilizational values.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates that at least 49,617 Palestinians have been confirmed dead and 112,950 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023. The real toll is likely to be much higher as thousands of people are missing under the rubble.
About 500 people, including students and members of other groups such as the All India Progressive Women’s Association, joined the protest to demand a return of India’s historical support for Palestine.
Many years before the establishment of Israel, Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s freedom movement against British rule, had opposed a Jewish nation-state in Palestine, deeming it “inhumane.” For decades, other Indian leaders also viewed Palestinian statehood as part of the country’s foreign policy.
The support has only waned recently, with the current government in New Delhi being mostly quiet in the wake of Israel’s deadly siege and onslaught on Gaza and forging partnerships with Tel Aviv.
“We are registering our resistance, our voices in support of Palestine and against the kind of partnership that we are seeing between India and Israel … India and Israel have partnerships on each front — we are the second largest exporter of Israeli arms, several Indian companies are manufacturing arms in partnership with Israeli companies … and we are sending workers to Israel,” said Ambika Tandon, doctoral student at a university in Delhi.
“These partnerships of arms manufacturing are making India directly complicit in the ongoing war crimes in Gaza.”
Anjali, another student and member of the India for Palestine collective, said links with Israel were affecting Indians too, especially young people.
“Young people should be very concerned … The Indian state is playing a role in this genocide, and its friendship with Israel is harming citizens of India,” she told Arab News.
“Israel has broken the ceasefire. They don’t understand the meaning of ceasefire … We have gathered here today to create some pressure on the Indian government to take a stand against what Israel is doing.”
The protesters believe that India has the leverage to play a meaningful role in stopping Israeli massacres.
“India should immediately pressurize Israel, the US, and Western powers to stop the bombardment. It should bring the third-world countries united,” said N. Sai Balaji, former president of the JNU Students Union.
“The open, brazen violation of the ceasefire unilaterally by Israel — supported by the US — clearly shows that they were never intended to bring any peace … The silence of leaders across the world, even our own Indian prime minister and Indian government, (is) not just shameful but a disgrace on the history of India’s solidarity with Palestine.”
Indian students protest for Gaza, urge government to end arms deals with Israel
- Protest comes in wake of Israel’s new massacres after unilaterally breaking Gaza ceasefire
- Demonstrators call for return of India’s historical support for Palestine
NEW DELHI: Hundreds of people gathered for a protest organized by Indian university students in New Delhi on Friday to demand that the government act against Israel’s breaking of the ceasefire in Gaza and renewed deadly strikes on its population.
Israel unilaterally broke the ceasefire with the Palestinian group Hamas on Tuesday by bombarding displaced people sleeping in tents. At least 400 — half of them children — were killed, while hundreds more were severely injured.
The ceasefire was mediated by the US administration in January. Israel earlier violated the agreement by stopping all aid, electricity and water from entering Gaza — days before it launched the wave of deadly airstrikes. About 700 people have been killed since.
“The Indian government should take a stand. They should reassert our traditional stand on Palestine,” Dhananjay, president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union told Arab News.
The union is part of the All India Students’ Association, which organized the protest at Jantar Mantar site in the center of New Delhi.
“The way Israel keeps on pounding Gaza and kills more than 400 people in one day despite the ceasefire, this I feel is an attack on humanity and all civilizational values.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates that at least 49,617 Palestinians have been confirmed dead and 112,950 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023. The real toll is likely to be much higher as thousands of people are missing under the rubble.
About 500 people, including students and members of other groups such as the All India Progressive Women’s Association, joined the protest to demand a return of India’s historical support for Palestine.
Many years before the establishment of Israel, Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s freedom movement, had opposed a Jewish nation-state in Palestine, deeming it “inhumane.” For decades, other Indian leaders also viewed Palestinian statehood as part of the country’s foreign policy.
The support has only waned recently, with the current government in New Delhi being mostly quiet in the wake of Israel’s deadly siege and onslaught on Gaza and forging partnerships with Tel Aviv.
“We are registering our resistance, our voices in support of Palestine and against the kind of partnership that we are seeing between India and Israel ... India and Israel have partnerships on each front — we are the second largest exporter of Israeli arms, several Indian companies are manufacturing arms in partnership with Israeli companies ... and we are sending workers to Israel,” said Ambika Tandon, doctoral student at a university in Delhi.
“These partnerships of arms manufacturing are making India directly complicit in the ongoing war crimes in Gaza.”
Anjali, another student and member of the India for Palestine collective, said links with Israel were affecting Indians too, especially young people.
“Young people should be very concerned ... The Indian state is playing a role in this genocide and its friendship with Israel is harming citizens of India,” she told Arab News.
“Israel has broken the ceasefire. They don’t understand the meaning of ceasefire ... We have gathered here today to create some pressure on the Indian government to take a stand against what Israel is doing.”
The protesters believed that India had the leverage to play a meaningful role in stopping Israeli massacres.
“India should immediately pressurize Israel, the US, and Western powers to stop the bombardment. It should bring the third-world countries united,” said N. Sai Balaji, former president of the JNU Students Union.
“The open, brazen violation of the ceasefire unilaterally by Israel — supported by the US — clearly shows that they were never intended to bring any peace ... The silence of leaders across the world, even our own Indian prime minister and Indian government, it not just shameful but a disgrace on the history of India’s solidarity with Palestine.”
North Macedonia orders detention for 13 people over nightclub fire that killed 59
- Authorities have said the club’s license was obtained illegally
- State prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski said a total of 24 suspects were being held and three were still in hospital after the fire
SKOPJE: Thirteen people including a former government minister were remanded in custody for 30 days in North Macedonia on Friday over a nightclub blaze, believed to have been caused by pyrotechnics, that killed 59 people including six minors.
The incident, in which another 197 people were injured, has shattered Kocani, a town of 25,000 people east of the capital Skopje.
Authorities have said the club’s license was obtained illegally, and that the venue lacked fire extinguishers and emergency exits and was made of flammable materials.
State prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski said a total of 24 suspects were being held and three were still in hospital after the fire, which he said had been caused by a “chain of omissions and illegal actions by officials.”
The suspects include officials responsible for the operating licenses, the club owner, a member of a band that played in the club, police officers, and security guards who let in minors and pyrotechnics, he said.
Authorities have been inspecting nightclubs and cafes around the country this week for safety violations.
