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Ukraine military to collapse without U.S. aid, experts warn
Defense and national security experts are sounding the alarm on the cutting of United States assistance to Ukraine’s military after the US Congress passed a stopgap budget law without funding for Kyiv. “It would be devastating for the Ukrainians” if US aid is halted, Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the national security think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, said. “The Ukrainian military would weaken and then ultimately perhaps collapse,” though it “might be able to just hold on on the defensive,” Cancian said. The United States has committed more than $43 billion in security aid since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 — over half the total from all Western donors. It has supplied a vast arsenal to help Kyiv fight to regain territory seized by Russia, ranging from small arms ammunition and artillery rounds to vehicles, sophisticated rocket launchers, tanks and mine-clearing equipment. “Militaries in conflict need a continuous flow of weapons and supplies and munitions to replace what’s destroyed and gets used up,” Cancian said. The European Union is prepared to stand by Ukraine “for as long as it takes” and the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell reiterated this during the gathering of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Kyiv on Monday. Dozens of countries — especially in Europe — have provided military aid to Ukraine, and while they could increase support, picking up all the slack left by Washington would be a major long-term challenge. It would require a “years and decades-long effort to get Europe to a place where (it) could fully replace the US as a kind of military power, or a defense industrial power,” James Black, assistant director of the defense and security research group at RAND Europe, said. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — who played a key role in forging an international coalition to back Ukraine, and then in coordinating assistance — called over the weekend for Congress to take action. Lawmakers should make good on “America’s commitment to provide urgently needed assistance to the people of Ukraine as they fight to defend their own country against the forces of tyranny,” Austin said in a statement. “America must live up to its word and continue to lead.” WITH AFP The post Ukraine military to collapse without U.S. aid, experts warn appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Kim oversees N. Korea military parade showcasing new drones, ICBMs
Flanked by visiting Russian and Chinese officials, Kim Jong Un oversaw a North Korean military parade featuring new drones and Pyongyang's nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, state media reported Friday. At least four new North Korean military drones were towed on trailers through Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung square at the parade late Thursday, state media images showed, while another drone appeared to conduct a flyover overhead. Standing between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese politburo member Li Hongzhong in the VIP viewing stands, Kim smiled and saluted as thousands of soldiers marched past, trailed by the country's most powerful ICBMs, which are banned under UN sanctions. The event, featuring Kim's first-known foreign guests since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, was to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, which ended open hostilities and is celebrated as Victory Day. Kim "extended warm militant greetings" to the parade, the official Korean Central News Agency said, and North Korea's defense minister Kang Sun Nam made a speech. The United States has no chance "of survival in case they use nuclear weapons against the DPRK", Kang said, referring to the North by its official name. He warned that any attempts by the United States to use armed force against the North would cause an "unimaginable and unforeseen crisis". The parade featured an array of new weaponry, including some first unveiled at a defense expo on Wednesday in Pyongyang, visited by Kim and Shoigu. North Korea's new underwater nuclear attack drone, called the "Haeil", appeared at the parade for the first time, Seoul-based specialist site NK News reported. "The strategic reconnaissance drone and the multi-purpose attack drone which was newly developed and produced... made circular flights in the sky above the (Kim Il Sung square," KCNA said. The "excitement and great joy of the spectators reached its height" when the nuclear-armed country's newest ICBM -- the solid-fuel Hwasong-18, tested in April and July this year -- was paraded through the square, KCNA said. The tests were roundly condemned by Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, and violate UN sanctions banning the North from any tests using ballistic missile technology. 'Send the US a signal' The parade is a key part of "promoting Kim Jong Un's ruling legitimacy and internal unity in this economically challenging time", Yangmo Ku, a political science professor at Norwich University, told AFP. But this year, with the inclusion of high-level guests from Moscow and Beijing, Pyongyang is also sending America "a signal that under strengthened ties with Russia and China, North Korea is militarily ready to cope with strategic threats from its enemies", he said. "All these acts mean the emergence of the new Cold War surrounding the Korean Peninsula," Ku added. Beijing is North Korea's most important ally and economic benefactor, their relationship forged in the bloodshed of the Korean War in the 1950s. "China's representation at North Korea's parading of nuclear-capable missiles raises serious questions about Beijing enabling Pyongyang's threats to global security," said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. Russia, another historic ally, is one of a handful of nations with which Pyongyang maintains friendly relations, and experts said it was noteworthy that Moscow had sent Shoigu to the anniversary celebrations -- a rare visit by a Russian defense chief in the post-Soviet era. Kim has been steadfast in his support for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, including, Washington says, supplying rockets and missiles -- a charge Pyongyang has denied. Russia's President Vladimir Putin sent a speech, read out by Shoigu at an anniversary event, according to KCNA, in which Moscow's leader hailed North Korea for its "firm support for special military operations against Ukraine". Easley said that "given Russia's need for ammunition for its illegal war in Ukraine and (Kim's) willingness to personally give the Russian defense minister a tour of North Korea's arms exhibition, UN member states should increase vigilance for observing and penalizing sanctions violations". The inclusion of foreign guests at this year's celebrations is a post-pandemic first, and hints at new flexibility toward enforcing border controls. North Korea has imposed a rigid Covid-19 blockade since early 2020, preventing even its own nationals from entering the country. It only resumed some trade with China last year and allowed new Beijing envoy Wang Yajun to take up his position this year. He is the first known senior diplomat to cross into North Korea since the border closure in January 2020. The post Kim oversees N. Korea military parade showcasing new drones, ICBMs appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Mexican mayor weds a reptile — and couldn’t be happier!
As onlookers clapped and danced, a mayor of a small southern Mexico town entered into holy matrimony with a female reptile in a traditional rite to bring good fortune to his people. Victor Hugo Sosa, mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, a town of Indigenous Chontal people in the Tehuantepec isthmus of Mexico, took as his betrothed a reptile named Alicia Adriana, re-enacting an ancestral ritual. The reptile is a caiman, an alligator-like marsh dweller endemic to Mexico and Central America. Sosa swore to be true to what local lore calls "the princess girl." "I accept responsibility because we love each other. That is what is important. You can't have a marriage without love... I yield to marriage with the princess girl," Sosa said during the ritual. Marriage between a man and a female caiman has happened here for 230 years to commemorate the day when two Indigenous groups came to peace -- with a marriage. Tradition has it that frictions were overcome when a Chontal king, embodied these days by the mayor, wedded a princess girl of the Huave Indigenous group, represented by the female alligator. The Huave live along coastal Oaxaca state, not far from this inland town. The wedding allows the sides to "link with what is the emblem of Mother Earth, asking the all-powerful for rain, the germination of the seed, all those things that are peace and harmony for the Chontal man," explains Jaime Zarate, chronicler of San Pedro Huamelula. Before the wedding ceremony, the reptile is taken house to house so that inhabitants can take her in their arms and dance. The alligator wears a green skirt, a colorful hand-embroidered tunic and a headdress of ribbons and sequins. The creature's snout is bound shut to avoid any pre-marital mishaps. Later, she is put in a white bride's costume and taken to town hall for the blessed event. As part of the ritual, Joel Vasquez, a local fisherman, tosses his net and intones the town's hopes that the marriage may bring "good fishing, so that there is prosperity, equilibrium and ways to live in peace." After the wedding, the mayor dances with his bride to the sounds of traditional music. "We are happy because we celebrate the union of two cultures. People are content," Sosa told AFP. As the dance winds down, the king plants a kiss on the snout of the "princess girl." str/jla/dga/tjj/acb © Agence France-Presse The post Mexican mayor weds a reptile — and couldn’t be happier! appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Rody: China can attack U.S. via EDCA sites
Former President Rodrigo Duterte said the Philippines will only serve as a “buffer zone” should the brewing tension between the United States and China escalate. Duterte believes the US wanted to establish a military presence in the Philippines, through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, only with the “intention to make the country a buffer zone” to prevent Chinese forces from advancing into the Pacific. “EDCA means soldiers and arms. That’s about it. It has nothing to do with economic grants or any other relationship between nations. It simply means the presence of foreign troops in our country,” Duterte said recently on his program, “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa,” live streamed over SMNI News. Duterte questioned the decision of the current administration to allow the United States to expand its EDCA sites in the Philippines. “You know America is hostile to China. Before America gets to China, they have to pass through the Philippines,” he said. Duterte said he would have decided the other way around if he were still president. “In my time, our ties with America were at their lowest. I really ignored them during my administration. I never allowed any concession to them. They did not ask me for anything because I knew, they knew, I wouldn’t really allow them, for example, EDCA,” he said. The former president said the Philippines would be caught in the crossfire should China attack US military installations in the country. “With due respect to the President, when they allowed EDCA, they thought that was all, but slowly the wanted military bases in this country, from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao, there will be a fallback position. America doesn’t want to listen to that. They are irritated and angry,” he said. The post Rody: China can attack U.S. via EDCA sites appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Four dead, 28 injured in Alabama teen birthday party shooting
At least four people were killed and more than 20 others injured, mostly teens, in a Saturday night shooting at a birthday party in Alabama, officials said, in the latest spasm of American gun mass violence. Local news reports said the shooting occurred at a Sweet 16 party at a dance studio in Dadeville, a small town northeast of the state capital Montgomery. "There were four lives tragically lost in this incident, and there's been a multitude of injuries," Sergeant Jeremy Burkett, a spokesman for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), told reporters Sunday. He specified later that 28 people had been wounded, some of them critically, and urged residents to come forward with any information they might have related to the attack. But Burkett provided no further details on how the shooting unfolded or why. Annette Allen told the Montgomery Advertiser that her grandson Phil Dowdell was among those who died: he had been celebrating his sister Alexis's 16th birthday when gunfire ripped through the party. "He was a very, very humble child. Never messed with anybody. Always had a smile on his face," Allen said of her grandson, a high school senior and football player due to graduate within weeks. "Everybody's grieving," Allen said of the small community of some 3,000 residents. President Joe Biden, who was briefed on the shooting, said the nation was again grieving over young Americans killed in gun violence. "What has our nation come to when children cannot attend a birthday party without fear?" Biden, who has long sought tighter gun safety measures, asked in a statement. "Guns are the leading killer of children in America, and the numbers are rising -- not declining," he added. "This is outrageous and unacceptable." The nearby Lake Martin Community Hospital received 15 individual gun-shot wound patients, mostly victims in their teens, Heidi Smith, marketing director for the rural health facility's operator IvyCreek Healthcare, told AFP. Six of the patients were discharged and nine have been transferred to facilities with higher levels of care. Of those, five were in critical condition, Smith said. "It's been terrible," she said. More than 12 hours after the tragedy, neither Burkett nor other law enforcement officials provided any details on who may have perpetrated the shooting and why, or whether a suspect has been detained. "We can't share anything further at this time," the sergeant said, adding only that "it was tied to a birthday party." Dadeville Chief of Police Jonathan Floyd called the town "a tight-knit community full of wonderful people." The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said its State Bureau of Investigations has launched a probe together with Dadeville police and federal agencies including the FBI. Television station WRBL of nearby Columbus, Georgia reported heavy police activity overnight and crime scene tape around a building in Dadeville, where it said white sheets could be seen covering parts of the floor. State leaders took to Twitter Sunday offering prayers and decrying violence but they did not provide details on what happened. "This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians," Governor Kay Ivey posted. "Violent crime has NO place in our state." The United States, a country of around 330 million people, is awash with some 400 million guns, and deadly mass shootings are a regular occurrence. The latest deaths came on the 16th anniversary of the deadliest US school shooting on record, in which 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech in 2007. Separately, police confirmed two people were killed and four others wounded in a shooting late Saturday at a crowded park in Louisville, Kentucky, the same city where a bank employee slaughtered five people at his workplace last Monday. There have been 163 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The non-profit group defines a mass shooting as having a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, excluding any shooter. Efforts to tighten gun controls have for years run up against opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms. The political paralysis endures despite widespread outrage over recurring shootings. The post Four dead, 28 injured in Alabama teen birthday party shooting appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
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