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NATO chief discusses ‘global security’ with Trump

NATO chief discusses ‘global security’ with Trump
NATO chief Mark Rutte held talks with US President-elect Donald Trump in Florida on the “global security issues facing the alliance,” a spokeswoman said November 23, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 23 November 2024
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NATO chief discusses ‘global security’ with Trump

NATO chief discusses ‘global security’ with Trump
  • NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security
Updated 23 November 2024
AFP
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Brussels: NATO chief Mark Rutte held talks with US President-elect Donald Trump in Florida on the “global security issues facing the alliance,” a spokeswoman said Saturday.
The meeting took place on Friday in Palm Beach, NATO’s Farah Dakhlallah said in a statement.
In his first term Trump aggressively pushed Europe to step up defense spending and questioned the fairness of the NATO transatlantic alliance.
The former Dutch prime minister had said he wanted to meet Trump two days after Trump was elected on November 5, and discuss the threat of increasingly warming ties between North Korea and Russia.
Trump’s thumping victory to return to the US presidency has set nerves jangling in Europe that he could pull the plug on vital Washington military aid for Ukraine.
NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security.
“What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine,” Rutte said recently at a European leaders’ meeting in Budapest.
“At the same time, Russia has to pay for this, and one of the things they are doing is delivering technology to North Korea,” which he warned was threatening to the “mainland of the US (and) continental Europe.”
“I look forward to sitting down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively,” Rutte said.

Topics: NATO US US President Donald Trump Donald Trump

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India declares seven-day mourning for ex-PM Manmohan Singh

India declares seven-day mourning for ex-PM Manmohan Singh
Updated 14 sec ago
AP
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India declares seven-day mourning for ex-PM Manmohan Singh

India declares seven-day mourning for ex-PM Manmohan Singh
  • Singh, widely regarded as the architect of India’s economic reform program, died late on Thursday at age 92
  • Officials canceled cultural, entertainment events for the week, national flag flew at half-mast at government buildings
Updated 14 sec ago
AP

NEW DELHI: Authorities in India have declared a seven-day mourning period to honor Manmohan Singh, officials said Friday, as politicians and public paid tributes to the country’s former prime minister widely regarded as the architect of India’s economic reform program.
Officials canceled all cultural and entertainment events for the week, with government buildings flying the national flag at half-staff across India. Singh, who died late Thursday at age 92, is scheduled to be cremated on Saturday.
Singh’s body was put in a glass casket, adorned with flowers and wrapped in the Indian flag, as leaders and mourners paid their respects.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited his home and offered condolences to his family.
Later, Modi in a video message said Singh’s life “was a reflection of his honesty and simplicity.”
“He saved the country from an economic crisis by providing a road toward a new economy. As a prime minister, his contribution toward the development and progress of the country will always be remembered,” Modi said.
A mild-mannered technocrat, Singh was prime minister for 10 years and leader of the Congress Party in the Parliament’s upper house, earning a reputation as a man of great personal integrity. He was chosen to fill the role in 2004 by Sonia Gandhi, the widow of assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Singh was reelected in 2009, but his second term as prime minister was clouded by financial scandals and corruption charges over the organization of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. This led to the Congress Party’s crushing defeat in the 2014 national election by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party under the leadership of Narendra Modi.
Singh adopted a low profile after relinquishing the post of prime minister.

Topics: Manmohan Singh

Howe hopes Newcastle have ‘moved on’ in last two seasons

Howe hopes Newcastle have ‘moved on’ in last two seasons
Updated 1 min 30 sec ago
AFP
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Howe hopes Newcastle have ‘moved on’ in last two seasons

Howe hopes Newcastle have ‘moved on’ in last two seasons
  • Newcastle reached the Champions League for the first time in 20 years when they qualified for last season’s competition
  • Newcastle slipped to 12th place after a 4-2 defeat at Brentford on December 7, but have since rallied
Updated 1 min 30 sec ago
AFP

LONDON: Eddie Howe hopes his current Newcastle team have “moved on” from the one which finished fourth in the Premier League two seasons ago.
The Magpies continued an impressive run of results on Thursday by beating 10-man Aston Villa 3-0 at St. James’ Park — their fourth straight win in all competitions.
Newcastle climbed to fifth in the table and within six points of second-placed Chelsea.
Newcastle reached the Champions League for the first time in 20 years when they qualified for last season’s competition.
“I’d hope we’ve moved on from that team,” Howe said.
“You can never go back in time and replicate what that team was. That team was an outstanding side...
“But you can never go back. It’s all about the future. We’ve signed some new players, the dynamic is slightly different and for me, the evolution of the team always had to be that we wanted to be better with the ball, we wanted to control the game more with the ball.”
Newcastle went ahead in just the second minute through Anthony Gordon’s strike before Villa striker Jhon Duran was controversially sent off.
Further goals from Alexander Isak — his 10th in as many league games — and Joelinton secured all three points.
Newcastle slipped to 12th place after a 4-2 defeat at Brentford on December 7, but have since rallied.
“We’re shooting for whatever we can shoot for,” Howe said when asked about Newcastle’s top-four hopes.
“We’ll take small steps, we’ll go game-by-game, but I’m really heartened by how the team is playing.”

Topics: Newcastle United football Eddie Howe

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Germany’s president dissolves parliament, sets national election for Feb. 23

Germany’s president dissolves parliament, sets national election for Feb. 23
Updated 30 min 9 sec ago
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Germany’s president dissolves parliament, sets national election for Feb. 23

Germany’s president dissolves parliament, sets national election for Feb. 23
  • President reported no agreement among Germany’s political parties
Updated 30 min 9 sec ago
AP

FRANKFURT, Germany: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Friday ordered parliament dissolved and set new elections for Feb. 23 in the wake of the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, saying it was the only way to give the country a stable government capable of tackling its problems.
Scholz lost a confidence vote on Dec. 16 and leads a minority government after his unpopular and notoriously rancorous three-party coalition collapsed on Nov. 6 when he fired his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalize Germany’s stagnant economy.
Steinmeier said he made the decision because it was clear after consultation with party leaders that there was no agreement among Germany’s political parties on a majority for a new government in the current parliament.
“It is precisely in difficult times like these that stability requires a government capable of taking action and a reliable majority in parliament,” he said as he made the announcement in Berlin.
“Therefore I am convinced that for the good of our country new elections are the right way.”
Since the post-World War II constitution doesn’t allow the Bundestag to dissolve itself, it was up to Steinmeier to decide whether to dissolve parliament and call an election. He had 21 days to make that decision. Once parliament is dissolved, the election must be held within 60 days. Leaders of several major parties agreed earlier on the election date of Feb. 23, seven months earlier than originally planned.
Steinmeier warned about outside interference in the poll, saying it is “a danger to democracy, whether it is covert, as was evidently the case recently in the Romanian elections, or open and blatant, as is currently being practiced particularly intensively on platform X.”
A top Romanian court annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.
The campaign is already well underway. Polls show Scholz’s party trailing the conservative opposition Union bloc led by Friedrich Merz. Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the environmentalist Greens, the remaining partner in Scholz’s government, is also bidding for the top job — though his party is further back. If recent polls hold up, the likely next government would be led by Merz as chancellor in coalition with at least one other party.
Key issues include immigration, how to get the sluggish economy going, and how best to aid Ukraine in its struggle against Russia.
The populist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which is polling strongly, has nominated Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor but has no chance of taking the job because other parties refuse to work with it.
Germany’s electoral system traditionally produces coalitions, and polls show no party anywhere near an absolute majority on its own. The election is expected to be followed by weeks of negotiations to form a new government.
It’s only the fourth time that the Bundestag has been dissolved ahead of schedule under Germany’s post-World War II constitution. It happened under Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1972, Helmut Kohl in 1982 and Gerhard Schroeder in 2005. Schroeder used the confidence vote to engineer an early election narrowly won by center-right challenger Angela Merkel.

Topics: Germany

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Kremlin says no comment on Azerbaijani plane crash until investigation completed

Kremlin says no comment on Azerbaijani plane crash until investigation completed
Updated 50 min 31 sec ago
AFP
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Kremlin says no comment on Azerbaijani plane crash until investigation completed

Kremlin says no comment on Azerbaijani plane crash until investigation completed
  • Pro-government website Caliber cites unnamed officials as saying they believed a Russian missile fired from a Pantsir-S air defense system downed the plane
Updated 50 min 31 sec ago
AFP

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said Friday that it would not comment on the deadly crash of an Azerbaijani passenger plane until an inquiry was completed, after reports the jet was targeted by a Russian air defense missile.
The Azerbaijan Airlines jet crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau, an oil and gas hub, on Wednesday after going off course for undetermined reasons.
Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board died.
“An investigation is underway, and until the conclusions of the investigation, we do not consider we have the right to make any comments and we will not do so,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The Embraer 190 aircraft was supposed to fly northwest from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny in Chechnya, southern Russia, but instead diverted far off course across the Caspian Sea.
An investigation is underway, with the pro-government Azerbaijani website Caliber citing unnamed officials as saying they believed a Russian missile fired from a Pantsir-S air defense system downed the plane.
Azerbaijan Airlines said Friday that it was suspending flights to a total of seven Russian cities, “taking into account flight safety risks,” after earlier saying it had stopped flights to Grozny and to Makhachkala in Dagestan, which neighbors Chechnya.
Rasim Musabekov, an Azeri lawmaker, urged Russia to apologize for the incident.
“They have to accept this, punish those to blame, promise that such a thing will not happen again, express regrets and readiness to pay compensation,” Musabekov said in an interview. “We are waiting for Russia to do this.”
He said the plane “was damaged in the sky over Grozny and asked to make an emergency landing.”
“According to all the rules of aviation, they should have allowed this and organized it.”
Instead the plane was not allowed to land at Grozny or nearby Russian airports and was “sent far away” across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan with “GPS switched off,” Musabekov said.
If air defenses were operating near Grozny airport, “they should have closed the air space. The plane should have been turned around as it approached Grozny. Why wasn’t this done?” he added.
Some aviation and military experts said the plane might have been accidentally shot by Russian air defense systems because it was flying in an area where Ukrainian drone activity had been reported.

Topics: Azerbaijan Azerbaijan Airlines Russia

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Ukraine sends food aid to Syria, says Zelensky

Ukraine sends food aid to Syria, says Zelensky
Updated 54 min 29 sec ago
Reuters
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Ukraine sends food aid to Syria, says Zelensky

Ukraine sends food aid to Syria, says Zelensky
Updated 54 min 29 sec ago
Reuters

KYIV: Ukraine, a global producer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, has sent its first batch of food aid to Syria, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday.
Zelensky said that 500 metric tons of wheat flour were already on their way to Syria as part of Ukraine’s humanitarian “Grain from Ukraine” initiative in cooperation with the United Nations World Food Programme.
“The wheat flour is planned to be distributed to 33,250 families or 167,000 people, in the coming weeks,” Zelensky said on X, adding: “Each package weighs 15 kilograms and can feed a family of five for one month.”
After the ouster of Bashar Assad, a close Russian ally, Ukraine has said it wants to restore relations with Syria.
Kyiv traditionally exports wheat and corn to countries in the Middle East, but not to Syria.
During Assad’s era, Syria imported food from Russia. But Russian wheat supplies to Syria have been suspended because of uncertainty, Russian and Syrian sources said earlier this month.
Ukraine’s exports were disrupted by Russia’s February 2022 invasion, which severely reduced shipments via the Black Sea. Ukraine has since broken a de facto sea blockade and revived exports from its southern port of Odesa.

Topics: Fall of Assad Ukraine

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Latest updates

Howe hopes Newcastle have ‘moved on’ in last two seasons
Howe hopes Newcastle have ‘moved on’ in last two seasons
Germany’s president dissolves parliament, sets national election for Feb. 23
Germany’s president dissolves parliament, sets national election for Feb. 23
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Kremlin says no comment on Azerbaijani plane crash until investigation completed
Kremlin says no comment on Azerbaijani plane crash until investigation completed
Ukraine sends food aid to Syria, says Zelensky
Ukraine sends food aid to Syria, says Zelensky

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