UK and Germany sign ‘milestone’ defense deal

Update UK and Germany sign ‘milestone’ defense deal
Britain’s Defense Secretary John Healey arrives to attend a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 23 October 2024
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UK and Germany sign ‘milestone’ defense deal

UK and Germany sign ‘milestone’ defense deal
  • Europe’s two biggest defense spenders said the Trinity House Agreement would strengthen NATO’s “European pillar” at a time of increased threat from the east
  • An eye-catching part of the deal is the prospect of German Boeing P-8 aircraft patrolling the skies of the North Atlantic from a base in northern Scotland

LONDON: London and Berlin on Wednesday hailed a “milestone” in military cooperation, as they signed a new defense pact that would see German submarine-hunting planes operate from British bases and counter threats from Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Europe’s two biggest defense spenders said the Trinity House Agreement, signed by defense ministers John Healey and Boris Pistorius, would strengthen NATO’s “European pillar” at a time of increased threat from the east.

An eye-catching part of the deal is the prospect of German Boeing P-8 aircraft patrolling the skies of the North Atlantic from a base in northern Scotland.

Another will see German arms giant Rheinmetall open a UK factory making artillery gun barrels, using British steel.

Healey told a joint news conference that European allies needed to take on more responsibility for European security “and this is the driving force behind our NATO-first UK defense strategy.

“We share the same threats: war in Ukraine, conflict in the Middle East, growing Russian aggression. We share the same values: democracy, individual freedom, rule of law,” he said.

Pistorius added that it was “our responsibility in Europe to strengthen the European angle, the European pillar of NATO.

“The US will shift their focus more to the Indo Pacific... so it is only a matter a question of, ‘will they do much less in Europe because of that, or only a little bit less?’.

“But anyway, we would have to do more, and this is our task.”

The agreement is the first between the UK and Germany and aims to put previously ad hoc cooperation between the two countries on a more regular footing.

The artillery factory would support more than 400 jobs, while the two countries will undertake joint work to develop deep strike weapons that can travel further with more precision than current systems, including Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

The two armies will train together more often in a bid to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank, with fears for security in Baltic states and Scandinavia because of Russia’s actions against Ukraine.

“The Trinity House Agreement is a milestone moment in our relationship with Germany,” Healey said.

The deal “will be the first pillar” of a “new and wider friendship treaty for us,” he added.

Pistorius said the deal was evidence that “the UK and Germany are moving closer together,” following 14 years of Conservative rule that saw the UK exit the European Union.

“We must not take security in Europe for granted,” he warned.

“Russia is waging war against Ukraine, it is increasing its weapons production immensely and has repeatedly launched hybrid attacks on our partners in Eastern Europe.

“With the Trinity House Agreement, we are showing that the NATO Allies have recognized what these times require,” he added.

But former UK defense minister Ben Wallace said on X that if the deal “is to mean anything then Germany would have agreed with UK requests to send Taurus to Ukraine... otherwise it is pretty hollow and made up of stuff we are already doing or had started.”

Germany is currently refusing to supply Ukraine with Taurus missiles with a range of over 500 kilometers (310 miles) over fears that they could hit Russian territory.


China and Russia start joint drills in Sea of Japan

China and Russia start joint drills in Sea of Japan
Updated 03 August 2025
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China and Russia start joint drills in Sea of Japan

China and Russia start joint drills in Sea of Japan
  • Moscow and Beijing have strengthened their military cooperation in recent years
  • After the drills, the two countries will conduct naval patrols in ‘relevant waters of the Pacific’

BIJING: China and Russia began joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan on Sunday as they seek to reinforce their partnership and counterbalance what they see as a US-led global order.

Alongside economic and political ties, Moscow and Beijing have strengthened their military cooperation in recent years, and their relations have deepened since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The “Joint Sea-2025” exercises kicked off in waters near the Russian port of Vladivostok and would last for three days, China’s defense ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The two sides will hold “submarine rescue, joint anti-submarine, air defense and anti-missile operations, and maritime combat.”

Four Chinese vessels, including guided-missile destroyers Shaoxing and Urumqi, are participating in the exercises alongside Russian ships, the ministry said.

After the drills, the two countries will conduct naval patrols in “relevant waters of the Pacific.”

China and Russia have carried out annual drills for several years, with the “Joint Sea” exercises beginning in 2012.

Last year’s drills were held along China’s southern coast.

The Chinese defense ministry said Friday that this year’s exercises were aimed at “further deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership” of the two countries.

China has never denounced Russia’s more than three-year war nor called for it to withdraw its troops, and many of Ukraine’s allies, including the United States, believe that Beijing has provided support to Moscow.

China insists it is a neutral party, regularly calling for an end to the fighting while also accusing Western countries of prolonging the conflict by arming Ukraine.


Thousands join pro Palestinian march over Sydney Harbor Bridge

Thousands join pro Palestinian march over Sydney Harbor Bridge
Updated 59 min 30 sec ago
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Thousands join pro Palestinian march over Sydney Harbor Bridge

Thousands join pro Palestinian march over Sydney Harbor Bridge
  • Some of those attending the march, called by its organizers the ‘March for Humanity’, carried pots and pans as symbols of the hunger
  • New South Wales police said they were deploying hundreds of personnel and urged marchers to remain peaceful

SYDNEY: Thousands of demonstrators braved pouring rain to march across Sydney’s iconic Harbor Bridge on Sunday calling for peace and aid deliveries in the war-torn Gaza Strip, where a humanitarian crisis has been worsening.

Nearly two years into a war that Palestinian authorities say has killed more than 60,000 people in Gaza, governments and humanitarian organizations say a shortage of food is leading to widespread starvation.

Some of those attending the march, called by its organizers the ‘March for Humanity’, carried pots and pans as symbols of the hunger. Among the marchers was Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

New South Wales police and the state’s premier last week tried to block the march from taking place on the bridge, a city landmark and transport thoroughfare, saying the route could cause safety hazards and transport disruption. The state’s Supreme Court ruled on Saturday that it could go ahead.

New South Wales police said they were deploying hundreds of personnel and urged marchers to remain peaceful.

Police were also present in Melbourne, where a similar protest march was taking place.

Diplomatic pressure ramped up on Israel in recent weeks. France and Canada have said they will recognize a Palestinian state, and Britain says it will follow suit unless Israel addresses the humanitarian crisis and reaches a ceasefire.

Israel has condemned these decisions as rewarding Hamas, the group that governs Gaza and whose attack on Israel in October 2023 began an Israeli offensive that has flattened much of the enclave.

Australia’s center-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he supports a two-state solution and Israel’s denial of aid and killing of civilians “cannot be defended or ignored,” but has not recognized Palestine.


Dormant Russia volcano erupts for first time in 450 years

Dormant Russia volcano erupts for first time in 450 years
Updated 03 August 2025
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Dormant Russia volcano erupts for first time in 450 years

Dormant Russia volcano erupts for first time in 450 years
  • Pictures released by Russian state media show a towering plume of ash spewing from the Krasheninnikov volcano, which last erupted in 1550, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program

MOSCOW: A volcano erupted for the first time in 450 years in Russia’s eastern Kamchatka region, the nation’s emergency authority said Sunday, days after one of the strongest earthquakes on record hit the region.

Pictures released by Russian state media show a towering plume of ash spewing from the Krasheninnikov volcano, which last erupted in 1550, according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program.

The plume is estimated to have reached an altitude of 6,000 meters (19,700 feet), Kamchatka’s Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a post on Telegram.

“The plume is spreading eastward from the volcano toward the Pacific Ocean. There are no populated areas along its path, and no ashfall has been recorded in inhabited localities,” the ministry said.

The volcano has been assigned an “orange” aviation hazard code, the ministry added, meaning flights in the area may be disrupted.

It came after Klyuchevskoy, another volcano in the region — the highest active in Europe and Asia — erupted on Wednesday.

Eruptions of Klyuchevskoy are quite common, with at least 18 occurring since 2000, according to the Global Volcanism Program.

Both recent eruptions followed one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded, which struck on Wednesday, sparking tsunami warnings and evacuations of millions of people from coastal areas from Japan to Hawaii to Ecuador.

The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged a fishing plant, officials said.

The magnitude 8.8 quake struck off Petropavlovsk on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula and was the strongest since 2011 when a magnitude 9.1 quake off Japan caused a tsunami that killed more than 15,000 people.


At this summer camp run by grandmas, kids learn cooking skills and life advice

At this summer camp run by grandmas, kids learn cooking skills and life advice
Updated 03 August 2025
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At this summer camp run by grandmas, kids learn cooking skills and life advice

At this summer camp run by grandmas, kids learn cooking skills and life advice
  • The camp's held at a community center in Fullerton, a city in Orange County that’s home to a large Arab population, and many of the campers and grandmas come from those communities

LOS ANGELES: The smell of frying garlic and ginger is inescapable as it wafts through the room, while a row of fidgety kids watches an older woman in a blue plaid apron cooking in front of them.

“When I was growing up my mom used to make this a lot,” she says, showing a chicken stir fry recipe.

At this “Intergenerational Summer Camp” in a Southern California suburb, the grandmas are in charge. Every week, they taught a group of 8-to-14-year-olds how to cook a new dish and a do a handicraft such as sewing, embroidering, clay jewelry and card marking.

“Isolation and loneliness is something that seniors are challenged with, and they love having younger people around them,” said Zainab Hussain, a program manager at Olive Community Services, a nonprofit aimed at bringing older adults together that hosted the camp.

The camp was held at a community center in Fullerton, a city in Orange County that’s home to a large Arab population, and many of the campers and grandmas come from those communities. In between activities, the small room bustled with energy as the girls chatted and munched on snacks. Some of the volunteer grandmas milled around and watched, content to just be around the youngsters.

In July, during the final week of camp, Janna Moten and her friends were learning how to use a sewing machine and make pouches.

“Slowly, slowly,” one grandma chided as Moten stomped on the machine’s pedal, causing the needle to rapidly jerk up and down.

She pressed her foot down again, gingerly, and managed to sew a straight line.

“Honestly, I’m just here for the food,” the 9 year old quipped. Still, she beamed as she showed the two pieces of fabric she sewed together and turned inside out, forming a rectangular pocket.

Moten said she’s been practicing hand-stitching at home after learning embroidery a previous week.

“Sewing’s pretty easy, it’s just hard keeping the lines straight,” she said. She added that her own grandma was stricter than the ones at summer camp.

Haqiqah Abdul Rahim, the instructor for sewing, said many kids don’t learn these skills at school anymore through home economics classes, so they’re “filling in a gap.”

She stood in front of the room at the start of the activity, holding up various tools and explaining what they were: seam roller, thread snipper, rotary fabric cutter.

Rahim also doesn’t get to spend a lot of time with her grandchildren because they don’t live close.

“It is heartwarming to be able to interact with those who love being around you,” Rahim said.

The kids have learned about kitchen safety and how to cook with a grandma’s touch — such as mixing spices with water before adding them to a dish so they don’t burn, or using fresh turmeric.

The summer camp was held in partnership with the Golden Connections Club, started by high school student Leena Albinali last year to foster interactions between teens and elders.

The 14-year-old lives with her grandma but realized other students didn’t have the same opportunity to spend as much time with their grandparents. She also learned about ageism and other challenges faced by senior adults in one of her classes.

At monthly lunches, they invite seniors to the school and discuss topics where both groups can learn from each other, Albinali said.

“They treat us like we’re their grandchildren,” she said. The teens share what they know about artificial intelligence and its impact on their lives, and the elders share life stories and advice.

One of the most important things they’ve shared with her is to live in the moment, something that’s taken on new meaning for her.

“The people we have right now, they’re not going to be with us forever,” she said.


A Tunisian musician was detained in LA after living in US for a decade. His doctor wife speaks out

A Tunisian musician was detained in LA after living in US for a decade. His doctor wife speaks out
Updated 03 August 2025
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A Tunisian musician was detained in LA after living in US for a decade. His doctor wife speaks out

A Tunisian musician was detained in LA after living in US for a decade. His doctor wife speaks out
  • The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has ensnared not only immigrants without legal status but legal permanent residents like Othmane who has green cards

LOS ANGELES: Dr. Wafaa Alrashid noticed fewer of her patients were showing up for their appointments at the Los Angeles area hospital where she works as immigration raids spread fear among the Latino population she serves.

The Utah-born chief medical officer at Huntington Hospital understood their fear on a personal level. Her husband Rami Othmane, a Tunisian singer and classical musician, began carrying a receipt of his pending green card application around with him.

Over the past few months, immigration agents have arrested hundreds of people in Southern California, prompting protests against the federal raids and the subsequent deployment of the National Guard and Marines. Despite living in the US for a decade as one of thousands of residents married to US citizens, he was swept up in the crackdown.

On July 13, Othmane was stopped while driving to a grocery store in Pasadena. He quickly pulled out his paperwork to show federal immigration agents.

“They didn’t care, they said, ‘Please step out of the car,’” Alrashid recalled hearing the officers say as she watched her husband’s arrest in horror over FaceTime.

Alrashid immediately jumped in her car and followed her phone to his location. She arrived just in time to see the outline of his head in the back of a vehicle driving away.

“That was probably the worst day of my life,” she said.

The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has ensnared not only immigrants without legal status but legal permanent residents like Othmane who has green cards. Some US citizens have even been arrested. Meanwhile, many asylum-seekers who have regular check-in appointments are being arrested in the hallways outside courtrooms as the White House works toward its promise of mass deportations.

Alrashid said her husband has been in the US since 2015 and overstayed his visa, but his deportation order was dismissed in 2020. They wed in March 2025 and immediately filed for a green card.

After his arrest, he was taken to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in downtown Los Angeles where he was held in a freezing cold room with “no beds, no pillows, no blankets, no soap, no toothbrushes and toothpaste, and when you’re in a room with people, the bathroom’s open,” she said.

The Department of Homeland Security in an emailed statement noted the expiration of his tourist visa but did not address the dismissal of the deportation order in 2020 nor his pending green card application.

The agency denied any allegations of mistreatment, and said “ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE.”

Alrashid said for years her husband has performed classical Arabic music across Southern California. They first met when he was singing at a restaurant.

“He’s the kindest person,” Alrashid said, adding that he gave a sweater she brought him to a fellow detainee and to give others privacy, he built a makeshift barrier around the open toilet using trash bags.

“He’s brought a lot to the community, a lot of people love his music,” she said.

More than a week after his arrest, fellow musicians, immigration advocates and activists joined Alrashid in a rally outside the facility.

A few of his colleagues performed classical Arabic music, drumming loud enough that they hoped the detainees inside could hear them. Los Jornaleros del Norte musicians, who often play Spanish-language music at rallies, also were there.

“In Latin American culture, the serenade — to bring music to people — is an act of love and kindness. But in this moment, bringing music to people who are in captivity is also an act of resistance,” said Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Leading up to the rally, Alrashid was worried because she hadn’t received her daily call from her husband and was told she couldn’t visit him that day at the detention facility. She finally heard from him that evening.

Othmane told her over the phone he was now at an immigration detention facility in Arizona, and that his left leg was swollen.

“They should ultrasound your leg, don’t take a risk,” she said.

Alrashid hopes to get her husband out on bail while his case is being processed. They had a procedural hearing on Thursday where the judge verified his immigration status, and have a bail bond hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

Until then, she’ll continue waiting for his next phone call.