Philippines, US begin two-week joint military drills

A US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter prepares to land near an assault amphibious vehicle during the joint US and Philippine troops live fire exercise on April 30, 2015. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 11 April 2021
Follow

Philippines, US begin two-week joint military drills

  • 1,000 Filipino and 700 American troops will participate in the Balikatan exercises this year

MANILA: Nearly 1,700 Filipino and American military personnel will take part in a two-week joint exercise from Monday.

The exercises are taking place amid rising tensions over Beijing’s increasingly aggressive behavior in the South China Sea and a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases across the Philippines.

Unlike in previous years, the Balikatan exercises 2021 (BK-21) will not be open to the public as part of safety protocols to limit the coronavirus outbreak’s spread.

“The exercises officially start tomorrow and will last for about two weeks,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana told reporters on Sunday.

“We will be conducting (the exercises), but it will be different from previous years because of the pandemic. There will be a virtual (portion) of the exercise,” he said.

The opening ceremonies for BK-21 will be held at the AFP General Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City on Monday, Sobejana said, adding that 700 American and 1,000 Filipino troops would take part.

This year’s resumption of the annual BK-21 event, which was called off last year due to the pandemic, follows a phone call between the two countries’ defense chiefs on Sunday to “reaffirm their shared commitment to the US-Philippines alliance.”

In a statement, Pentagon spokesperson, John Kirby, said that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III and his Filipino counterpart, Delfin Lorenzana, “discussed the situation in the South China Sea, and the recent massing of People’s Republic of China maritime militia vessels at Juan Felipe (Whitsun) Reef.”

The boomerang-shaped Julian Felipe Reef is about 175 nautical miles west of Bataraza, Palawan, within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and Continental Shelf (CS).

Austin proposed several measures to “deepen defense cooperation between the United States and the Philippines, including by enhancing situational awareness of threats in the South China Sea,” according to Kirby.

He also “reiterated the US commitment to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific, rooted in international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”

The two leaders also affirmed the value of the US-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), with Department of National Defense (DND) spokesperson, Arsenio Andolong, saying that the US official “reiterated the importance of the VFA and hopes that it would be continued.”

“Secretary Lorenzana committed to discussing the matter with the president as the final approval lies with him,” Andolong said.

In February last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte unilaterally terminated the VFA after Washington canceled the visa of one of his close political allies and former police chief, Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa.

He extended the withdrawal period twice “to allow both sides to find a more enhanced, mutually beneficial, mutually agreeable . . . and lasting arrangement.”

In December, however, he demanded that the US pay for the VFA.

The VFA provides a legal framework within which US troops can operate on a rotational basis in the Philippines.

Besides the VFA, Andolong confirmed that the two defense chiefs also “discussed the situation in the West Philippine Sea and recent developments in regional security.”

He said that the Balikatan exercises “would be a very scaled-down version” of the annual event.

“It will be just tabletop exercises, just a handful of people doing planning and simulation. There will be no amphibious exercises, and we won’t be seeing various (US military) assets rolling and flying here and there,” he told Arab News on Sunday.

“American forces participating in the activities will be subject to COVID-19 health protocols and guidelines that are used for all foreigners coming into the country. No exemption,” he added.

When asked about the significance of the exercises this year, Andolong said: “It’s really important because . . . in light of recent developments in the West Philippine Sea, I think it’s an affirmation that our (US-Philippines) alliance with our only defense treaty ally is still alive and well.”

“I think that’s important especially now that there are doubts not only due to (current) defense (issues), the pandemic, and all other reasons,” he said.

The Balikatan is an annual US-Philippine military training event focused on various missions, including humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, counter-terrorism, and other combined military operations.

Philippine and US service members will conduct humanitarian civic action (HCA) activities throughout Luzon during BK-2021. The exercise will also demonstrate cooperation and interoperability between the Philippines and the US, consistent with the Mutual Defense Treaty and the VFA.


After feud with Trump, role of Musk’s SpaceX in Golden Dome missile shield in question

Updated 6 sec ago
Follow

After feud with Trump, role of Musk’s SpaceX in Golden Dome missile shield in question

  • Trump in May said the defense shield should be operational by the end of his presidency, January 2029
  • The White House had considered a plan for SpaceX to play a key role in Trump's “Golden Dome" program

WASHINGTON: The role of Elon Musk’s SpaceX in an ambitious new US missile defense system is in question following the dramatic feud last week between the billionaire entrepreneur and President Donald Trump, according to three people familiar with the project.
The White House until recently had considered a plan for SpaceX, Musk’s rocket and satellite venture, to partner with software maker Palantir and drone builder Anduril to construct crucial elements of the project, dubbed “Golden Dome.” The administration had instructed the Pentagon to prioritize a network of satellites for the purpose, these people said.
But a new framework for the system, which would seek to track and prevent possible missile attacks against the United States, is now being considered that could reduce the role of SpaceX. One possibility, the three people said, could initially forego SpaceX’s satellite capabilities and focus on the expansion of existing ground systems for missile defense instead.
In a statement, a White House spokesman said “the Trump Administration is committed to a rigorous review process for all bids and contracts.” A senior Defense Department official said the Pentagon “has no announcements regarding future contracts associated with the Golden Dome effort.”
SpaceX, Anduril and Palantir didn’t respond to requests for comment.
A reduced role for SpaceX would represent the first known setback to Musk’s huge volume of business with the US government since his break with Trump last week. The shift in plans, especially for a project that Trump has touted as paramount for US defense strategy, also underscores the highly personalized nature of the president’s leadership, aerospace and defense experts said.
“That people guiding the program or building it are approved based on their political affiliation signals a real concern that the project itself is very politicized and not being conducted on the technical merits,” said Laura Grego, a missile defense expert and research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In its statement to Reuters, the White House said any decision would be made “prioritizing the best deal for America and leveraging the most advanced and innovative technology.”
Trump in May said the defense shield should be operational by the end of his presidency, January 2029. But industry experts have said that timeframe, and a projected cost of some $175 billion, could be too optimistic.
The change in the proposed “architecture” of the system, the three people said, could have the political advantage of allowing the current administration to deliver at least a portion of it. It isn’t clear how soon a final decision on the project could come or whether the ultimate role of any company, including SpaceX, has been determined.
Trump’s efforts to roll out the project fast have led to uncertainty about the project’s details and a scramble by contractors to be involved, industry experts and some of those involved in its development told Reuters. “To this day, no one knows what the requirements are,” said one of the people familiar with the process. “There isn’t a coordinated effort with a true vision. All of these companies are just grabbing at this pot of money.”
SpaceX, Anduril and Palantir were all founded by entrepreneurs who have been major political supporters of Trump. The three companies had previously met with top administration officials and decisionmakers from the Defense Department to discuss Golden Dome, according to people familiar with those discussions.
Before his high-profile falling out with the president, Musk served as a key Trump adviser and donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect him. But the recent dispute, which included Musk calling for Trump’s impeachment and accusing the president of improper involvement with disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, triggered the change in direction, the three people told Reuters.
“Because of the blowup, the Pentagon has been given the space to look at other alternatives,” one of the people said.
In recent days, Musk has sought to temper the dispute, saying he regretted some of his comments and taking down some of his social media criticism of Trump, including the call for impeachment. Earlier this week, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump appreciated Musk’s apology and that she was unaware of any administration efforts to review Musk contracts because of the dispute.
Reuters couldn’t determine whether Musk’s conciliatory overtures might improve SpaceX’s chances of winning Golden Dome contracts or securing further new business with the US government.
SpaceX had pitched for a part of the Golden Dome initiative called the “custody layer,” a constellation of between 400 and 1,000 satellites that would detect missiles, track their trajectory, and determine if they are heading toward the US, Reuters reported in April. In a January 27 executive order, Trump mandated the selection of a proposed “architecture” for Golden Dome and an implementation plan by the end of March.
The order called a missile attack “the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.”


United Nations overwhelmingly demands immediate Gaza ceasefire over US, Israel opposition

Updated 53 min 48 sec ago
Follow

United Nations overwhelmingly demands immediate Gaza ceasefire over US, Israel opposition

  • Resolution drafted by Spain ‘strongly condemns any use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare’
  • Experts and human rights workers say hunger is widespread in Gaza

NEW YORK CITY: The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly demanded an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza and aid access, after the United States vetoed a similar effort in the Security Council last week.

The 193-member General Assembly adopted a resolution that also demands the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, the return of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The text garnered 149 votes in favor, while 19 countries abstained and the US, Israel and 10 others voted against.

The resolution “strongly condemns the use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access and depriving civilians ... of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supply and access.”

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the General Assembly this was “blood libel.” He had urged countries not to take part in what he said was a “farce” that undermines hostage negotiations and fails to condemn Hamas.

“It must be acknowledged that by failing to condition a ceasefire on the release of the hostages, you told every terrorist organization that abducting civilians works,” he said.

General Assembly resolutions are not binding but carry weight as a reflection of the global view on the war. Previous demands by the body for an end to the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas have been ignored. Unlike the UN Security Council, no country has a veto in the General Assembly.

TWO-STATE CONFERENCE
Libya’s UN Ambassador Taher El-Sonni told the General Assembly before the vote that for “those pressing the red button today to vote against this resolution (it) will become a blood stain on their fingers.”

The US last week vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution that also demanded an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” and unhindered aid access in Gaza, arguing it would undermine US-led efforts to broker a ceasefire.

The other 14 member states voted in favor of the draft as a humanitarian crisis grips the enclave of more than 2 million people, where the UN warns famine looms and aid has only trickled in since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade last month.

Acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea told the General Assembly before the vote that the resolution “does nothing to free the hostages, improve the lives of civilians in Gaza, or bring us closer to a ceasefire, and is yet another performative action that erodes the credibility of this body.”

The vote came ahead of a UN conference next week that aims to reinvigorate an international push for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. The US has urged countries not to attend.

In October 2023, the General Assembly called for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza with 120 votes in favor. In December 2023, 153 countries voted to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. Then in December 2024, it demanded — with 158 votes in favor — an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire.

The war in Gaza has raged since 2023 after Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel in an October 7 attack and took some 250 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Many of those killed or captured were civilians.

Israel responded with a military campaign that has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. They say civilians have borne the brunt of the attacks and that thousands more bodies have been lost under rubble.


Sweden accuses Israel of war crimes over Gaza aid blockade

Updated 12 June 2025
Follow

Sweden accuses Israel of war crimes over Gaza aid blockade

  • Lifesaving humanitarian help must never be politicized or militarized, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard says

STOCKHOLM: Israel’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and its targeting of aid distribution points is causing civilians to starve, which constitutes a war crime, Sweden’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

In early June, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said deadly attacks on civilians around aid distribution sites in the Gaza Strip constituted “a war crime,” while several rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accused Israel of genocide.
Israel has vehemently rejected that term.
“To use starvation of civilians as a method of war is a war crime. Lifesaving humanitarian help must never be politicized or militarized,” Maria Malmer Stenergard said at a press conference.
“There are strong indications right now that Israel is not living up to its commitments under international humanitarian law,” she said.
“It is crucial that food, water, and medicine swiftly reach the civilian population, many of whom are women and children living under wholly inhumane conditions,” she said.
Sweden announced in December 2024 that it was halting funding to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, after Israel banned the organization, accusing it of providing cover for Hamas militants.
Swedish International Development Minister Benjamin Dousa told Thursday’s press conference that Stockholm was now channeling aid through other UN organizations, and was “the fifth-biggest donor in the world ... (and) the second-largest donor in the EU to the humanitarian aid response in Gaza.”
The country’s humanitarian aid to Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023 currently amounts to more than 1 billion kronor ($105 million), while funding earmarked for Gaza for 2025 totals 800 million kronor, he said.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority said Internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza following an attack on the territory’s last fiber optic cable.
“All Internet and fixed-line communication services in the Gaza Strip have been cut following the targeting of the last remaining main fiber optic line in Gaza,” the PA’s Telecommunications Ministry said in a statement, accusing Israel of attempting to cut Gaza off from the world.
“The southern and central Gaza Strip have now joined Gaza City and the northern part of the Strip in experiencing complete isolation for the second consecutive day,” the ministry said  in a statement.
It added that its maintenance and repair teams had been unable to safely access the sites where the fiber optic cable  was damaged.
“The Israeli occupation continues to prevent technical teams from repairing the cables that were cut yesterday,” it said, adding that Israeli authorities had prevented repairs to other telecommunication lines in Gaza “for weeks and months.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the communication lines were “directly targeted by occupation forces.”
It said the Internet outage was hindering its emergency services by impeding communication with first responder teams in the field.
“The emergency operations room is also struggling to coordinate with other organizations to respond to humanitarian cases.”
Maysa Monayer, spokeswoman for the Palestinian Communication Ministry, said that “mobile calls are still available with very limited capacity” in Gaza for the time being.
Now in its 21st month, the war in Gaza has caused massive damage to infrastructure across the Palestinian territory, including water mains, power lines and roads.


37 months in prison for ex-CIA analyst Asif Rahman who leaked docs on Israeli strike

Updated 12 June 2025
Follow

37 months in prison for ex-CIA analyst Asif Rahman who leaked docs on Israeli strike

  • Rahman worked for CIA since 2016, held top secret security clearance
  • Rahman was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia in November last year

WASHINGTON: A former CIA analyst who leaked top secret US intelligence documents about Israeli military plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran was sentenced to 37 months in prison this week, the Justice Department said.

Asif Rahman, 34, who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency since 2016 and held a top secret security clearance, was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia in November last year.

In January, Rahman pleaded guilty at a federal courthouse in Virginia to two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.

He faced a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Iran unleashed a wave of close to 200 ballistic missiles on Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the killings of senior figures in the Tehran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups.

Israel responded with a wave of strikes on military targets in Iran in late October.

According to a court filing, on October 17 Rahman printed out two top secret documents “regarding a United States foreign ally and its planned kinetic actions against a foreign adversary.”

He photographed the documents and used a computer program to edit the images in “an attempt to conceal their source and delete his activity,” it said.

Rahman then transmitted the documents to “multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them” before shredding them at work.

The documents, circulated on the Telegram app by an account called Middle East Spectator, described Israeli preparations for a possible strike on Iran but did not identify any actual targets.

According to The Washington Post, the documents, generated by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, described aviation exercises and movements of munitions at an Israeli airfield.

The leak led Israeli officials to delay their retaliatory strike.


British passenger Vishwash Kumar Ramesh named as sole survivor of Air India plane crash

Updated 12 June 2025
Follow

British passenger Vishwash Kumar Ramesh named as sole survivor of Air India plane crash

  • Indian media widely reported the survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh had been sitting in seat 11A
  • BBC spoke to his cousin in the city of Leicester, Ajay Valgi, who reported that Ramesh had called his family to say he was “fine”

AHMEDABAD: The miracle report of a lone survivor from a London-bound passenger plane that crashed Thursday in the Indian city of Ahmedabad with 242 on board offered a glimmer of hope.

Indian rescue teams with sniffer dogs clawed through smoldering wreckage through the night searching for clues for what had caused the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London’s Gatwick Airport to explode in a blazing fireball soon after takeoff from the western city of Ahmedabad.

Bodies from Air India’s flight 171 were lifted out of the torn fuselage, as well as being pulled out of the charred buildings of the medical staff hostel that the airplane smashed into, killing several there too.

The death toll currently stands at 260, police said.

But hours after police said that there “appears to be no survivor in the crash,” officials reported the initially seemingly impossible account that one man had walked out alive.

“One survivor is confirmed,” Dhananjay Dwivedi, principal secretary of Gujarat state’s health department, told AFP.

The person was being treated in hospital, he added without further details.

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah, who visited the crash site and then the hospital, said he was “pained beyond words by the tragic plane crash” in Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat state, where Shah is a lawmaker.

But he also told reporters he had heard the “good news of the survivor” and was speaking to them “after meeting him.”

Indian media widely reported the survivor had been sitting in seat 11A, after videos shared on social media showed a man — in a bloodied t-shirt and limping, but walking toward an ambulance.

He shared a boarding card that named him as Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national, one of 53 UK citizens on board.

AFP was not able to confirm the reports, but the BBC spoke to his cousin in the city of Leicester, Ajay Valgi, who reported that Ramesh had called his family to say he was “fine.”

Britain’s Press Association news agency also spoke to his brother, Nayan Kumar Ramesh, 27, also in Leicester.

“He said, I have no idea how I exited the plane,” his brother told PA.

But while Ramesh’s reported survival offered a chance of hope, stories also flooded in of heartbreaking loss: elderly parents going to visit children in Britain, or family returning home.

Air India is organizing relief flights — one from the capital New Delhi and another from financial hub Mumbai — to Ahmedabad for “the next of kin of passengers and Air India staff,” the information ministry said in a statement.

They will have to take part in the grim task of identifying the bodies, many of which were reported to have been badly burned.

The plane, which was full of fuel as it took off for a long-haul flight to London, exploded into a burst of orange flame, videos of the crash showed.

Dwivedi, the health official, said DNA collection facilities had been set up at BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad.

“DNA testing arrangements have been made,” he told reporters.

“Families and close relatives of the flight passengers, especially their parents and children, are requested to submit their samples at the location so that the victims can be identified at the earliest.”