PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron called Tuesday for a “real European army” as the continent marks a century since the divisions of World War I, to better defend itself against Russia and even the United States.
Macron, who has pushed for a joint EU military force since his arrival in power last year, said Europe needed to reduce its dependence on American might, not least after US President Donald Trump announced he was pulling out of a Cold War-era nuclear treaty.
“We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” Macron told Europe 1 radio.
“When I see President Trump announcing that he’s quitting a major disarmament treaty which was formed after the 1980s euro-missile crisis that hit Europe, who is the main victim? Europe and its security,” he said.
“We will not protect the Europeans unless we decide to have a true European army,” he said in the interview, recorded Monday night in Verdun, northeast France, as Macron tours the former Western Front during week-long World War I centenary commemorations.
Faced with “a Russia which is at our borders and has shown that it can be a threat,” Macron argued: “We need a Europe which defends itself better alone, without just depending on the United States, in a more sovereign manner.”
The EU launched a joint multi-billion-euro defense fund last year designed to develop Europe’s military capacities and make the continent more strategically independent.
France has also spearheaded the creation of a nine-country force designed to be capable of rapidly mounting a joint military operation, an evacuation from a warzone, or providing aid in a natural disaster.
“Peace in Europe is precarious,” Macron told Europe 1.
“We have been hit by intrusion attempts in cyber-space and multiple interventions in our democracies,” he said in an apparent reference to Russia.
He also warned of “authoritarian powers which are reemerging and rearming within the confines in Europe.”
Macron has been warning of rising nationalism as he prepares to host dozens of world leaders, including Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Sunday to mark 100 years since the World War I armistice.
He repeated his warning Tuesday that he was struck by similarities between the world today and the financial crisis and “nationalism playing on people’s fears” of the 1930s.
“The peace and prosperity which Europe has enjoyed for 70 years are a golden moment in our history,” he said, warning that this was the exception rather than the rule.
“For millennia, it has never lasted so long.”
Macron urges European army to defend against Russia, US
Macron urges European army to defend against Russia, US
- France has also spearheaded the creation of a nine-country force designed to be capable of rapidly mounting a joint military operation
- Macron has been warning of rising nationalism as he prepares to host dozens of world leaders, including Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin
Motorways hit by Portugal forest fires
Further to the south, at least two homes were burned in two villages in the Albergaria-a-Velha area, said mayor Antonio Loureiro
LISBON: Forest fires halted traffic on motorways in the Aveiro region of northern Portugal Monday as homes were engulfed by a string of blazes that broke out over the weekend, local authorities said.
Nearly 1,600 firefighters were battling 20 fires Monday, with the country placed on alert from Saturday to Tuesday evening because of high temperatures and strong winds.
More than 500 have been battling the largest fire near Oliveira de Azemeis, south of the city of Porto, since Sunday.
Further to the south, at least two homes were burned in two villages in the Albergaria-a-Velha area, said mayor Antonio Loureiro.
“We already have houses in flames at the moment,” he told Portuguese news agency Lusa.
Traffic has been halted on three motorways in the area, police said.
Drivers were told not to try to get to Aveiro. “That is the best way to not to put lives at risk,” said mayor Vitor Ribero.
One firefighter died “suddenly” Sunday while taking a break from efforts to contain the fire, the interior ministry said Monday.
Portugal has seen less wildfires than usual so far this year. Some 10,300 hectares (25,500 acres) were lost to the flames by the end of August — a third of what was destroyed last year and seven times less than the average over the last decade.
Lisbon has upped fire prevention funding ten-fold and doubled the budget to fight wildfires since deadly blazes in 2017 claimed hundreds of lives.
Scientists say human-caused fossil fuel emissions are increasing the length, frequency and intensity of global heatwaves, raising the risk of wildfires.
The Iberian peninsula is particularly vulnerable to global warming, with heatwaves and drought exposing the region to blazes.
Philippines vows to maintain presence in contested South China Sea shoal
- Manila suspected China carried out small-scale land reclamation activities in Sabina Shoal
- For months, Philippines-China confrontations have increasingly taken place at the atoll
MANILA: The Philippines will continue to deploy vessels to Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea, its coast guard said on Monday, after the withdrawal of a Philippine ship from the contested area prompted fresh concerns of Chinese land reclamation.
In April, the Philippine Coast Guard deployed one of its largest ships, Teresa Magbanua, to Sabina Shoal to monitor what Manila suspects to be China’s small-scale land reclamation activities in the area.
The ship returned to port in Palawan on Sunday, after months of pressure from Beijing, which claimed that the vessel was “illegally stranded” at the atoll that it asserts as part of its broader claim to nearly the entire South China Sea.
PCG spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the ship’s return was unrelated to China’s demands, citing bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care for the withdrawal.
“We have not lost anything. We can still patrol and maintain our presence in Escoda Shoal,” Tarriela told a press conference on Monday.
“It’s not a defeat … It’s (neither) the coast guard abandoning our post in Escoda Shoal; we are just repositioning our own vessels.”
Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, is a resource-rich atoll within Manila’s exclusive economic zone and close to the Philippine mainland.
For months, confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels have taken place at this location.
One of the more recent collisions damaged the Teresa Magbanua and another one of Manila’s vessels, while other incidents have involved China’s coast guard bombarding Philippine boats with powerful cannons and its crew members flashing high-powered lasers at Filipino troops.
The Philippines “did not surrender anything” by pulling out Teresa Magbanua, Tarriela said.
“We did not surrender … It’s also wrong to say that if we leave the vicinity, they will already reclaim it. Again, the reclamation would take four years. If we leave for one, two or three days, even one week, will they be able to build a runway there?”
Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and international studies lecturer at De La Salle University in Manila, said the ship’s withdrawal is part of “a continuing process of ensuring” that the Philippine presence in Sabina Shoal will remain intact.
“The Philippines is doing what it can based on its limited capacity to ensure the full operationalization of its sovereignty and sovereign rights,” Gill told Arab News.
The PCG had “prevailed” despite the Chinese coast guard’s efforts to “push the Philippines out as fast as possible,” he said.
“I believe that the Philippines would also be sending an alternate ship to ensure that our presence is continued there,” Gill said.
“But more importantly, Manila needs to supplement the efforts of physical presence there with other forms of activities, such as joint maritime drills along the area to make sure that it is free and open and rules-based.”
Nigerian flood victims face long wait for medical help
- More than 30 people have been killed by the floods, which authorities say affected about one million people
MAIDUGURI: People in Nigeria’s flood-hit northeastern Borno state are struggling to get medical care as overwhelmed aid agencies warn of an outbreak of waterborne disease following the worst floods to hit the region in three decades.
More than 30 people have been killed by the floods, which authorities say affected about one million people, most of whom are housed in camps without food and clean water.
The deluge threatens not only the health and safety of the displaced but puts a strain on aid agencies and government resources, exacerbating an already critical humanitarian crisis.
The floods in Borno, the birthplace of Boko Haram militants in the Lake Chad basin, started when a dam burst its walls following heavy rainfall that has also caused floods in Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger, all part of Africa’s Sahel region that usually receives little rain.
In the last two weeks of August, more than 1.5 million people were displaced across 12 countries in West and Central Africa due to floods, and about 465 have been killed, according to the United Nations humanitarian affairs office.
Over the weekend, an additional 50,000 people were displaced in northeastern Nigeria as the floods intensified, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Monday.
“The situation in the Sahel and Lake Chad region is increasingly dire, as the compounding effects of conflict, displacement and climate change take a severe toll on vulnerable populations,” said Hassane Hamadou, NRC’s Central and West Africa regional director. The floods in West Africa come at a time of flooding in Europe after days of torrential rain that caused rivers to burst their banks in several parts of the region.
In a camp in Maiduguri, Borno’s state capital, Bintu Amadu was among hundreds of frustrated people waiting for hours to see a doctor because her son had diarrhea.
“We have not received any aid, and our attempts to see a doctor have been unsuccessful. We have been waiting for medical attention since yesterday, but to no avail,” she said.
Ramatu Yajubu was happy she had obtained an appointment card after waiting for days, but quickly added: “I am uncertain about receiving attention due to the overwhelming number of people seeking care.”
Mathias Goemaere, a field coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres, said that even before the floods, residents in Borno were struggling with malnutrition, following years of an Islamist insurgency that has driven people from their farms.
“They are exposed to their environment, so what do we see? A lot of waterborne diseases, diarrhea, diarrheal diseases ... Malaria is around with a lot of mosquitoes,” Goemaere told Reuters.
“So a lot of people, because of malnutrition, are immuno-suppressed, which makes them more susceptible to diseases.”
Nigeria’s government has separately warned of rising water levels in the country’s largest rivers, the Benue and Niger, which could cause floods in the oil-producing Niger Delta region in the south.
Central European flooding widens as death toll rises
- First Czech death report as toll in central Europe rises, Czech town Litovel submerged in water overnight
- Polish government meets to decide state of disaster
JESENIK: More rivers in central Europe burst their banks on Monday and the number of deaths increased from the worst flooding in at least two decades, with some authorities starting to count the costs and others preparing for waters rising further.
Border areas between the Czech Republic and Poland were hit hard over the weekend as heavy rain seen since last week and surging water levels collapsed some bridges, forced evacuations and left a trail of destruction.
At least 15 people have died in flooding from Austria to Romania.
Poland’s government was due to meet on Monday to call a state of disaster.
Michal Piszko, mayor of the Polish town of Klodzko along the Czech border, said waters had receded there but help was needed.
“We need bottled water and dry provisions, because we have also set up a point for flood victims evacuated from flooded areas,” he told private broadcaster RMF FM.
“Children will not go to school until the end of the week. At the moment, half of the city has no electricity.”
Polish Education Minister Barbara Nowacka said that around 420 schools across four provinces had been closed. In the town of Nysa a hospital was evacuated.
In the Czech town of Jesenik, across the Polish border where floods ripped through the town on Sunday, clean-up was starting after waters receded to show damaged cars and debris left on streets.
In eastern Romania, where villages and towns were submerged over the weekend, Emil Dragomir, mayor of Slobozia Conachi, told television station Digi24 the flooding had devastating impact.
“If you were here you would cry instantly because people are desperate, their whole lives’ work is gone, there were people who were left with just the clothes they had on,” he said.
Preparation
While rivers in the Czech-Polish border area were starting to recede on Monday, flooding was widening and leaving bigger cities on alert.
Jacek Sutryk, mayor of Poland’s Wroclaw, said the city of some 600,000 was preparing water levels peaking on Wednesday.
“This high wave will pass through Wroclaw for several days,” he said.
In the Czech Republic, a rising Morava River overnight put Litovel, a city 230 km (140 miles) east of the capital Prague with a population of nearly 10,000, around 70 percent under water and shut down schools and health facilities, its mayor said in a video on Facebook.
Flooded parts of northeastern Czech regional capital Ostrava forced closures of a power plant supplying heat and hot water to the city as well as two chemical plants.
More than 12,000 people have been evacuated in the Czech Republic. A quarter of a million Czech households had been without power over the weekend although that figure had fallen to 118,000 on Monday, CTK news agency reported.
In Romania, the flooding killed six people over the weekend. An Austrian firefighter died on Sunday. In Lower Austria two men aged 70 and 80 were found drowned in their homes, a police spokesperson said on Monday.
State news agency PAP reported five deaths in Poland and in the Czech Republic one person died, a police official said.
Danube also rises
Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter said the government in Budapest was fully prepared to act and efforts for the time being focused on keeping the Danube River and its tributaries within their banks.
Pinter said up to 12,000 soldiers were on standby to help if needed.
Slovakia’s capital Bratislava and Hungarian capital Budapest were both preparing as the River Danube rose.
In Austria, the levels of rivers and reservoirs fell overnight as rain eased but officials said they were bracing for a second wave as heavier rain was expected in the coming hours.
Ukraine asks UN, ICRC to join humanitarian effort in Russia’s Kursk region
- Last week, Russian shelling killed three Ukrainians working for the ICRC and wounded two others in a village in the frontline Donetsk region
KYIV: Ukraine said on Monday it had asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to join humanitarian efforts in Russia’s Kursk region following a cross-border incursion by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine’s army remains in the Kursk region more than a month after launching the assault, in which President Volodymyr Zelensky says Kyiv has taken control of about 100 settlements.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he had instructed his ministry to formally invite the UN and ICRC to work in the Kursk region when he visited the northeast Ukrainian region of Sumy on Sunday. The ministry confirmed that it had issued the requests.
“Ukraine is ready to facilitate their work and prove its adherence to international humanitarian law,” Sybiha said on X after the visit to Sumy, from where Ukrainian forces launched the cross-borer attack.
He said the Ukrainian army was ensuring humanitarian assistance and safe passage to civilians in the Kursk region.
The Foreign Ministry said in a written statement that the invitations had been issued to the ICRC and UN, “taking into account the humanitarian situation and the need to properly ensure basic human rights in the territory of the Kursk region.”
The ministry said it had asked the ICRC to monitor Ukraine’s compliance with the principles of international humanitarian law in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, which cover the protection of victims of international armed conflicts.
Moscow, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, did not immediately comment on the invitations. It was not immediately clear how or whether the UN or ICRC had responded.
Russia’s state-run RIA news agency reported on Monday that ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric had arrived on a visit to Moscow and planned to meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Last week, Russian shelling killed three Ukrainians working for the ICRC and wounded two others in a village in the frontline Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials said. Spoljaric has condemned the attacks.
