New Zealand: Chinese naval vessel fires live rounds in new drill

New Zealand: Chinese naval vessel fires live rounds in new drill
Above, the Australian navy ship HMAS Arunta, lower left, sails near the Chinese Fuchi-class replenishment vessel and Weishanhu Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang in the Tasman Sea on Feb. 13, 2025. (Australian Defence Force/AFP)
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New Zealand: Chinese naval vessel fires live rounds in new drill

New Zealand: Chinese naval vessel fires live rounds in new drill
  • It was the Chinese warships’ second exercise in two days in international waters of the Tasman Sea
  • Australia said Saturday it had not yet received a satisfactory explanation from Beijing for Friday’s drill

WELLINGTON: A Chinese naval cruiser fired live rounds Saturday during a task force drill in the sea between Australia and New Zealand, government officials said, prompting an alert to commercial air traffic.
It was the Chinese warships’ second exercise in two days in international waters of the Tasman Sea, held despite Canberra and Wellington raising concerns over a lack of prior notice.
Australia and close ally New Zealand have been monitoring the three Chinese navy vessels – a frigate, a cruiser and a supply tanker – since they were spotted off Australia’s shores last week.
Personnel on a New Zealand naval frigate “observed live rounds being fired from the Zunyi’s main gun, as would be expected during the course of such an exercise,” New Zealand Defense Minister Judith Collins’ office said in a statement.
The three Chinese ships were in international waters in the Tasman Sea at the time, her office said.
“As happened yesterday, the Chinese Task Group advised via radio channels of its intent to conduct live firing,” it said.
“Defense is working with the NZ Civil Aviation Authority to ensure all aircraft are notified. The safety of all people, aircraft and vessels in the area remains our paramount concern.”
New Zealand said its concerns over notification times and best practice would be “communicated appropriately.”
Australia said Saturday it had not yet received a satisfactory explanation from Beijing for Friday’s drill, in which the warships broadcast a “disconcerting” live-fire warning that forced commercial flights to change course.
In Friday’s exercise, “no weapon firings were heard or seen” from the Chinese task force despite it temporarily deploying a floating firing target, Canberra said.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said that while China abided by international law, it did not follow best practice of giving 12-24 hours’ notice, and Canberra had raised this with Beijing.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong had also discussed it directly with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Johannesburg.
Beijing has described Friday’s maneuvers as training exercises that were “safe, standard and professional” and in line with international law, without commenting on whether live ammunition was used.
It was the latest in a string of tense encounters between China and Australia in the increasingly contested airspace and shipping lanes of the Asia-Pacific region.
Last week, Canberra rebuked Beijing for “unsafe” military conduct, accusing a Chinese fighter jet of dropping flares near an Australian air force plane patrolling the South China Sea.
A Chinese fighter jet was accused of intercepting an Australian Seahawk helicopter in international airspace in 2024, dropping flares across its flight path.
In 2023, a Chinese destroyer was accused of bombarding submerged Australian navy divers with sonar pulses in waters off Japan, causing minor injuries.
The Australian government says it respects the right of all states to pass through international waters and airspace.
The United States and its allies including Australia frequently cross through the 180-kilometer Taiwan Strait to reinforce its status as an international waterway, angering China, which claims jurisdiction over the waters.


US proposes Ukraine UN text omitting mention of occupied territory: diplomats

US proposes Ukraine UN text omitting mention of occupied territory: diplomats
Updated 11 sec ago
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US proposes Ukraine UN text omitting mention of occupied territory: diplomats

US proposes Ukraine UN text omitting mention of occupied territory: diplomats
  • US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urges UN members to approve the ‘simple, historic’ resolution
  • Washington’s proposal comes amid an intensifying feud between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky
UNITED NATIONS, United States: The United States proposed Friday a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged UN members to approve the “simple, historic” resolution.
Washington’s proposal comes amid an intensifying feud between President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky which has seen Trump claim it was “not important” for his Ukrainian counterpart to be involved in peace talks.
It also appeared to rival a separate draft resolution produced by Kyiv and its European allies, countries that Trump has also sought to sideline from talks on the future of the three-year-old war.
The Ukrainian-European text stresses the need to redouble diplomatic efforts to end the war this year, noting several initiatives to that end, while also blaming Russia for the invasion and committing to Kyiv’s “territorial integrity.”
The text also repeats the UN General Assembly’s previous demands for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Those votes had wide support, with around 140 of the 193 member states voting in favor.
Washington’s text, seen by AFP, calls for a “swift end to the conflict” without mentioning Kyiv’s territorial integrity, and was welcomed by Moscow’s ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia as “a good move” — but stressed that it did not address the “roots” of the conflict.
“The United States has proposed a simple, historic resolution in the United Nations that we urge all member states to support in order to chart a path to peace,” Rubio said in a statement Friday, without commenting in detail on the contents of the proposed resolution.
In a break with past resolutions proposed and supported by Washington, the latest draft, produced ahead of a General Assembly meeting Monday to coincide with the third anniversary of the war, does not criticize Moscow.
Instead the 65-word text begins by “mourning the tragic loss of life throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”
It then continued by “reiterating” that the United Nation’s purpose is the maintenance of “international peace and security” — without singling out Moscow as the source of the conflict.
France’s ambassador to the UN, Nicolas De Riviere, the EU’s only permanent member of the council, said he had no comment “for the moment.”
“A stripped-down text of this type that does not condemn Russian aggression or explicitly reference Ukraine’s territorial integrity looks like a betrayal of Kyiv and a jab at the EU, but also a show of disdain for core principles of international law,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.
“I think even a lot of states that favor an early end to the war will worry that the US is ignoring core elements of the UN Charter.”

At least 3 dead, 74 injured after food court roof collapses in Peru

At least 3 dead, 74 injured after food court roof collapses in Peru
Updated 9 min 12 sec ago
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At least 3 dead, 74 injured after food court roof collapses in Peru

At least 3 dead, 74 injured after food court roof collapses in Peru
  • The collapse occurred at the Real Plaza shopping complex in Trujillo, the country’s third largest city
  • Search for survivors ongoing, with more than a hundred firefighters and police officers searching through debris

LIMA: At least three people are dead and around 74 injured after the roof of a food court at a busy shopping center collapsed in northern Peru, authorities said Friday.
“So far we have three deceased, two men and a woman,” fire department Commander Gelqui Gomez said on America TV.
The number injured had risen to 74, said local government health official Anibal Morillo, after the health ministry earlier reported 20 injured.
“We have evacuated 74 injured to hospitals and clinics, 10 of whom are children. There are 11 seriously injured,” Morillo told RPP radio.
Dozens of families were in the food court of the shopping mall when the roof collapsed, according to local media reports.
The collapse occurred at the Real Plaza shopping complex in Trujillo, the country’s third largest city, located about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the capital Lima.
The search for survivors was ongoing, with more than a hundred firefighters and police officers searching through the debris.
“There is a child trapped” under the roof’s metal structures, Morillo told broadcaster Panamericana.
Interior Minister Juan Jose Santivanez estimated the collapsed roof area was 700 to 800 square meters.
“We need hydraulic cranes to lift part of the roof that has not yet been removed because it is so heavy and to continue rescue operations for those who may be trapped,” the minister told Canal N television channel.
According to the Regional Emergency Operations Center, the collapse occurred at 8:41 pm, but was only reported about half an hour later.


US exempts security funds from aid freeze but little for humanitarian programs

US exempts security funds from aid freeze but little for humanitarian programs
Updated 22 February 2025
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US exempts security funds from aid freeze but little for humanitarian programs

US exempts security funds from aid freeze but little for humanitarian programs
  • The Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, received 17 exemptions worth more than $30.4 million
  • Also released was $397 million for US-backed program in nuclear-armed Pakistan that a congressional aide said monitored Islamabad’s use of US-made F-16 fighter jets

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration released $5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, mostly for security and counternarcotics programs, according to a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters that included only limited humanitarian relief.
President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on January 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe.
The freeze sparked a scramble by US officials and humanitarian organizations for exemptions to keep programs going. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers in late January on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the top US allies in the Middle East, and for life-saving humanitarian aid, including food. The waivers meant those funds should have been allowed to be spent.
Current and former US officials and aid organizations, however, say few humanitarian aid waivers have been approved.
Reuters obtained a list of 243 further exceptions approved as of February 13 totaling $5.3 billion. The list provides the most comprehensive accounting of exempted funds since Trump ordered the aid freeze and reflects the White House’s desire to cut aid for programs it doesn’t consider vital to US national security.
The list identifies programs that will be funded and the US government office managing them.
The vast majority of released funds — more than $4.1 billion — were for programs administered by the US State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military affairs, which oversees arms sales and military assistance to other countries and groups. Other exemptions were in line with Trump’s immigration crackdown and efforts to halt the flow of illicit narcotics into the US, including the deadly opioid fentanyl.
More than half of the programs that will be allowed to go forward are run by the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, or INL, and are aimed at helping fight drug trafficking and illicit migration to the US, according to the list.
Those exemptions were worth $293 million and included funds for databases to track migrants, identify possible terrorists and share biometric information.
A State Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters could not determine if some exemptions had been granted but were not on the list.
Trump has long railed against foreign aid, which has averaged less than 2 percent of total federal spending for the past 20 years, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Trump has described the US “foreign aid industry” as “in many cases antithetical to American values.”
Billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has led an effort to gut the United States Agency for International Development, the main delivery mechanism for American foreign assistance and a critical tool of US “soft power” for winning influence abroad.
In contrast to security-related programs, USAID programs received less than $100 million in exemptions, according to the list. That compares to roughly $40 billion in USAID programs administered annually before the freeze.
Exempted USAID programs included $78 million for non-food humanitarian assistance in Gaza, which has been devastated by war. A separate $56 million was released for the International Committee of the Red Cross related to the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, the list showed.
The list did not include specific exemptions for some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, including Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Myanmar and Afghanistan, which means funds for those places appeared to remain stopped.
Security exemptions included $870 million for programs in Taiwan, $336 million for modernizing Philippine security forces and more than $21.5 million for body armor and armored vehicles for Ukraine’s national police and border guards, the list showed.
The biggest non-security exemption was $500 million in funding for PEPFAR, the flagship US program fighting HIV/AIDS, which mainly funds health care services in Africa and is credited with saving millions of lives. That compares with PEPFAR’s annual budget in 2024 of $6.5 billion. PEPFAR is administered by the State Department’s global health bureau.
‘DYSFUNCTIONAL’
A current USAID employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the process for requesting exemptions as “very dysfunctional” and said the agency’s remaining staff have sought clarity on what criteria are being used. Rubio has said the Trump administration reached out to USAID missions overseas to identify and designate programs that will be exempted.
J. Brian Atwood, USAID’s administrator from 1993 to 1999, said reducing foreign aid to a narrow set of exemptions was shortsighted. “When people are starving or feeling desperate, they are going to become a security problem eventually,” he said. “They’ll migrate or become an immigration problem, or they will be more inclined to move to terrorism.”
The foreign aid that was paused by Trump had previously been approved by Congress, which controls the federal budget under the US Constitution. As a candidate and as president, Trump has said he opposes foreign aid for “countries that hate us” and would prefer to instead spend the money at home. The exemptions in the list were granted before a federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for foreign aid contracts and awards that were in place before January 20. Reuters was unable to establish what exemptions, if any, had been granted since February 13.
Many of the unfrozen programs reflect Trump’s focus on drug trafficking, including funds supporting fentanyl interdiction operations by Mexican security units and efforts to combat transnational criminal organizations. Trump’s aid freeze has thrown a wrench into those efforts, however.
Reuters reported last week that the pause halted anti-narcotics programs funded by the INL Bureau in Mexico that for years had been working to curb the flow of the synthetic opioid into the United States. More than $64 million was released to support Haitian police and a UN-approved international security force that is helping Haiti’s government fight escalating gang violence that has displaced more than one million people.
The money covers supplies of small arms, ammunition, drones, night vision goggles, vehicles and other support for the force, according to the list. The force is led by Kenya and includes personnel from Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas, Guatemala and El Salvador.
The Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, focused on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, received 17 exemptions worth more than $30.4 million, the list showed.
Also released was $397 million for a US-backed program in nuclear-armed Pakistan that a congressional aide said monitored Islamabad’s use of US-made F-16 fighter jets to ensure they are employed for counterterrorism operations and not against rival India.
Some of the released funds were for small expenditures — including $604 for Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet system to run biometrics registration programs in the Darien Gap, a treacherous 60-mile route linking South and Central America used by US-bound illegal migrants.


Some Trump backers want no-term limit for him as president. He is thrilled

Some Trump backers want no-term limit for him as president. He is thrilled
Updated 22 February 2025
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Some Trump backers want no-term limit for him as president. He is thrilled

Some Trump backers want no-term limit for him as president. He is thrilled
  • “We love the idea of Trump as our Julius Caesar-type figure,” says Shane Trejo, from a group called Republicans for National Renewal
  • Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon says: “A man like Trump comes along only once or twice in a country’s history”

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump, yes.
But what about King Trump or even Donald Caesar?
The thoroughly un-American idea has been aired repeatedly in Washington since the Republican began his second term a month ago.
And it’s not just radiating from the wild fringes of Trump’s nationalist-populist Make America Great Again movement known as MAGA.
It’s coming from the 78-year-old billionaire himself.
“LONG LIVE THE KING!” Trump crowed Wednesday on his Truth Social platform to celebrate his government’s nixing of the New York City congestion pricing plan.
The White House then posted a fake magazine cover on its official X account, repeating the slogan and showing Trump wearing a golden crown.

 

Trump has a long history of suggesting he might serve more than the two terms allowed by the US Constitution.
What was often dismissed as joking during his first term looked darker after Trump refused to concede his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, then stoked his millions of followers to believe the election was rigged — culminating with the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.
As Trump launches his second presidency with an unprecedented demonstration of executive power — using the world’s richest man Elon Musk to dismantle swaths of the government — giddy supporters want even more.
Much more.

American emperor?
“We love the idea of Trump as our Julius Caesar-type figure,” Shane Trejo, from a group called Republicans for National Renewal, told reporters at the conservative CPAC conference in Washington.
Trejo stood alongside a poster showing the elderly Trump as a rather more youthful Roman emperor with a chiseled face, laurel wreath and a toga.
Mixing his imperial metaphors, Trejo also described Trump as a “Napoleonic figure” capable of leading “our country out of perdition and into greatness.”
Republicans for National Renewal is lobbying Congress to approve a constitutional amendment to the two-terms limit.
According to the House Republican who introduced the resolution, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Trump is “the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness” and therefore should be given more time in power.
Amending the constitution would require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate. That’s all but impossible to achieve.
But Republicans for National Renewal’s website proposes emulating a trick used by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and working around the term limits by getting a placeholder elected instead.
In the US version, Trump’s son Don Jr. “could run on a Trump/Trump ticket before gracefully resigning on Jan. 21, 2028 after securing victory,” the website says.
“This plan while unorthodox would show that MAGA cannot be stopped by any procedural rule.”
Another supporter calling to extend the Trump era is former adviser and highly influential right-wing strategist Steve Bannon.
“We want Trump in ‘28,” Bannon said at CPAC. “A man like Trump comes along only once or twice in a country’s history.”
Bannon, who emulated a viral Musk moment from January in making what looked like a Nazi salute from the stage, led the crowd in chants of, “We want Trump!“
Trump has done nothing to tamp down the talk, even if it goes against the grain of the founding US principles.
Just this Thursday, Trump asked guests at a White House event: “Should I run again?“
The response was shouts of “Four more years!“
No chance, say the constitutionalists.
But Trump clearly is thrilled by the controversy — and sure that the crown fits.
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week.

Screen grab of President Donald Trump's post on Truth Social


The origin of the phrase, according to some historians? Napoleon Bonaparte — the French general who crowned himself emperor in 1804.
 


Trump fires chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and two other military officers

Trump fires chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and two other military officers
Updated 22 February 2025
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Trump fires chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and two other military officers

Trump fires chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and two other military officers
  • Nominates retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign led by his defense secretary to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.
The ouster of Brown, only the second Black general to serve as chairman, is sure to send shock waves through the Pentagon. His 16 months in the job had been consumed with the war in Ukraine and the expanded conflict in the Middle East.
“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family,” Trump posted on social media.
Brown’s public support of Black Lives Matter after the police killing of George Floyd had made him fodder for the administration’s wars against “wokeism” in the military. His ouster is the latest upheaval at the Pentagon, which plans to cut 5,400 civilian probationary workers starting next week and identify $50 billion in programs that could be cut next year to redirect those savings to fund Trump’s priorities.
Trump said he’s nominating retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman. Caine is a career F-16 pilot who served on active duty and in the National Guard, and was most recently the associate director for military affairs at the CIA, according to his military biography.

Trump credited Caine for being “instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate.”

“Despite being highly qualified and respected to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the previous administration, General Caine was passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden. But not anymore!” he wrote.

Caine’s military service includes combat roles in Iraq, special operations postings and positions inside some of the Pentagon’s most classified special access programs.
However, he has not had key assignments identified in law as prerequisites for the job, including serving as either the vice chairman, as a combatant commander or a service chief. That requirement could be waived if the “president determines such action is necessary in the national interest.”

More firings
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a statement praising both Caine and Brown, announced the firings of two additional senior officers: Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Jim Slife.
Franchetti becomes the second top female military officer to be fired by the Trump administration. Trump fired Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan just a day after he was sworn in.
A surface warfare officer, Franchetti has commanded at all levels, heading US 6th Fleet and US Naval Forces Korea. She was the second woman ever to be promoted to four-star admiral, and she did multiple deployments, including as commander of a naval destroyer and two stints as aircraft carrier strike group commander.
Slife led Air Force Special Operations Command prior to becoming the service’s vice chief of staff and had deployed to the Middle East and Afghanistan.

In his Truth Social post, Trump signaled that more firings in key posts are to be expected.

“I have also directed Secretary (Pete) Hegseth to solicit nominations for five additional high level positions, which will be announced soon,” he said.

Trump has asserted his executive authority in a much stronger way in his second term, removing most officials from the Biden administration even though many of those positions are meant to carry over from one administration to the next.
The chairman role was established in 1949 as an adviser to the president and secretary of defense, as a way to filter all of the views of the service chiefs and more readily provide that information to the White House without the president having to reach out to each individual military branch, according to an Atlantic Council briefing written by retired Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro. The role has no actual command authority.
Trump acted despite support for Brown among key members of Congress and a seemingly friendly meeting with him in mid-December, when the two were seated next to each other for a time at the Army-Navy football game.
Sen. Roger Wicker, GOP chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, didn’t mention Caine’s name in a statement Friday.
“I thank Chairman Brown for his decades of honorable service to our nation,” Wicker said. “I am confident Secretary Hegseth and President Trump will select a qualified and capable successor for the critical position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
Brown’s future was called into question during the confirmation hearing for Hegseth last month. Asked if he would fire Brown, Hegseth responded, “Every single senior officer will be reviewed based on meritocracy, standards, lethality and commitment to lawful orders they will be given.”
Hegseth had previously taken aim at Brown. “First of all, you gotta fire, you know, you gotta fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs,” he said flatly in a podcast in November. And in one of his books, he questioned whether Brown got the job because he was Black.
“Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn’t really much matter,” Hegseth wrote.
As he walked into the Pentagon on his first day as defense chief on Jan. 27, Hegseth was asked directly if he planned to fire Brown.
“I’m standing with him right now,” said Hegseth, patting Brown on the back. “Look forward to working with him.”
Brown, who spent Friday visiting troops at the US-Mexico border, drew attention to himself for speaking out about the death of George Floyd in 2020. While he knew it was risky, he said, discussions with his wife and sons about the killing convinced him he needed to say something.
As protests roiled the nation, Brown posted a video message to the Air Force titled, “Here’s What I’m Thinking About.” He described the pressures that came with being one of the few Black men in his unit. He recalled pushing himself “to perform error-free” as a pilot and officer his whole life, but still facing bias. He said he’d been questioned about his credentials, even when he wore the same flight suit and wings as every other pilot.
Brown’s path to the chairmanship was troubled — he was among the more than 260 senior military officers whose nominations were stalled for months by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. But when the Senate vote was finally taken in September 2023, Brown easily was confirmed by a vote of 89-8.
It had been 30 years since Colin Powell became the first Black chairman, serving from 1989 to 1993. But while African Americans made up 17.2 percent of the 1.3 million active-duty service members, only 9 percent of officers were Black, according to a 2021 Defense Department report.
Brown’s service as chairman made history in that this was the first time that both the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, and the Joint Chiefs chairman were Black.