STOCKHOLM: Sweden is ready to manage a future NATO land force in neighboring Finland, which shares a border with Russia, the two newest members of the military alliance announced on Monday.
The two Nordic nations dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied for NATO membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Finland become a member in 2023 and Sweden this year.
NATO said in July that a so-called Forward Land Forces (FLF) presence should be developed in Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia.
“This kind of military presence in a NATO country requires a framework nation which plays an important role in the implementation of the concept,” Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen told a press conference.
The countries said Finland had asked Sweden to manage the force.
“The Swedish government has the ambition to take the role as a framework nation for a forward land force in Finland,” Hakkanen’s Swedish counterpart Pal Jonson told reporters.
Jonson stressed the process was still in an “early stage” and details would be worked out inside NATO.
There would also be further consultations with the Swedish parliament, he said.
Hakkanen said details about the actual force would be clarified through planning with other NATO members, adding that the number of troops and their exact location had not yet been decided.
NATO says it currently has eight such forward presences, or “multinational battlegroups,” in Eastern Europe — in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
Sweden says willing to lead NATO presence in Finland
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Sweden says willing to lead NATO presence in Finland
- The two Nordic nations dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied for NATO membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
- The countries said Finland had asked Sweden to manage the force
Qantas plane returns to Australia airport due to ‘engine failure’
The Qantas flight, QF520, was bound for Brisbane and was circling for a “short period of time” before landing safely at Sydney Airport, Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano said in the statement.
“Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine and confirmed it was a contained engine failure,” the airline said.
“While customers would have heard a loud bang, there was not an explosion.”
A Sydney Airport spokesperson said it was not yet clear whether the plane’s emergency landing and a grassfire on a nearby runway were linked, but investigations were ongoing.
The grassfire was brought under control by the Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting Service, the spokesperson said.
“With the safe arrival of the aircraft, Sydney Airport’s priority is to conduct a full inspection of its parallel runway and to return it to service as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.
Plane passenger Georgina Lewis told local outlet Channel Nine that she was onboard the flight.
“We were taking off, and we heard a bang. One of the engines appeared to have gone. The pilot came on 10 minutes later to explain that they had a problem with a right-hand engine on take-off,” she said.
Tobiano of Qantas said his staff were “highly trained” to respond to such emergency situations.
“We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support,” he said in the statement.
“We will also be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue,” he added.
Customers were being moved to alternate flights, Qantas said.
Philippines cleans up after Typhoon Yinxing slams north coast
- But while nearly 30,000 people took cover in government-run facilities in the days and hours before Yinxing made landfall
MANILA: Authorities cleared uprooted trees and debris in the northern Philippines on Friday as Typhoon Yinxing blew out to sea after pounding the coast overnight, ripping roofs from homes and forcing thousands to seek shelter.
But while nearly 30,000 people took cover in government-run facilities in the days and hours before Yinxing made landfall, there were no reported casualties from the typhoon, which came just two weeks after a major storm killed more than 150.
Yinxing’s 175 kilometers (109 miles) per hour winds knocked down power lines, tore trees from the ground and shattered windows as it slammed into the country’s north coast on Thursday, the national weather agency, residents and rescuers said.
Officials reported 242.6 millimeters (0.80 ft) of rain dumped in a 24-hour window.
“Many trees were uprooted. There was also soil erosion in some areas. We are lucky they were not full-blown landslides,” said Cagayan province disaster chief Rueli Rapsing, whose agency has so far reported no casualties.
In the province’s Pamplona municipality, strong winds sent roofs flying through the air and residents scrambling for shelter.
“The fierce wind that we experienced last night was the strongest I’ve ever felt and seen in this town,” 35-year-old resident Patrick Maquiraya told AFP by phone.
“The roof of the house that was being constructed in front of our home suddenly went flying.”
Maquiraya said friends who sought shelter at a gymnasium had to relocate to a nearby church after strong winds shattered the building’s glass windows.
A live video seen by AFP on Thursday showed fierce winds blowing merchandise from store shelves in Santa Ana town, where the typhoon made landfall.
As of 8 am Friday (0000 GMT), Typhoon Yinxing’s center was estimated to be northwest of Laoag city and moving out across the South China Sea, according to the state weather agency.
Rapsing, the Cagayan disaster chief, said power lines were being restored as the province shifted into cleanup mode, with police, firemen and rescuers using excavators and other equipment to clear major roads.
Yinxing is the third storm in less than a month to threaten the Philippines after Severe Tropical Storm Trami and Super Typhoon Kong-rey together left 158 people dead, the national disaster agency said, with most of that tally attributed to Trami.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year, damaging homes and infrastructure and killing dozens of people.
A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change.
Republicans pick up more key House seats while Democrats insist they still have a path to a majority
Republicans pick up more key House seats while Democrats insist they still have a path to a majority
- Seeing their options narrow, Democrats focused on flipping a handful of seats in Arizona, California and possibly Oregon to close the gap
- Trump is consolidating power in Washington, returning to the White House a much more dominant force than in his first term
WASHINGTON: Republican leaders projected confidence Thursday that they will keep control of the US House as more races were decided in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still see a path toward the majority and sought assurances every vote will be counted.
The GOP picked up two more hard-fought seats in Pennsylvania, which became a stark battlefield of Democratic losses up and down the ticket. Democrats notched another win in New York, defeating a third Republican incumbent in that state.
Both parties in the House huddled privately on conference calls to assess the political landscape as Congress prepared to return next week to a changed Washington, where a sweep of MAGA-infused GOP power is within reach for President-elect Donald Trump.
“The latest data indicates that we will also hold — and likely grow — our Republican majority in the House,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a letter to colleagues, seeking their support to keep the gavel.
But Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “it has yet to be decided” which party will control the House as several key races remained uncalled.
Seeing their options narrow, Democrats focused on flipping a handful of seats in Arizona, California and possibly Oregon to close the gap.
“We must count every vote,” Jeffries said.
A final tally in the House will almost certainly have to wait until next week, at the soonest, when Congress is back in session and prepares to elect its new leaders, including nominees for House speaker and the senator who will replace outgoing GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The election results were beyond what Republicans had even hoped for, including a majority in the Senate, where two races were still undecided — in Arizona between Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake and in Nevada between Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown.
The Associated Press called more races Thursday. In Pennsylvania, Republican Ryan Mackenzie defeated incumbent Democratic Rep. Susan Wild in the Allentown-area district, and Republican Robert Bresnahan dislodged Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright in the Northeast part of the state.
Pennsylvania’s Senate race between Sen. Bob Casey and wealthy businessman Dave McCormick was decided in McCormick’s favor, giving Republicans a 53rd seat in the chamber.
Democrats made up some ground in New York, where Laura Gillen beat incumbent GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, the third flip for Democrats in Jeffries’ home state.
Attention increasingly focused on the West, where Democrats were eyeing what’s left of their path to the majority.
Democrats would need to sweep the most contested races, including two in Arizona and several in California, to win power. But tallies are expected to drag on as California, in particular, counts mail-in ballots that are arriving in the week after the election.
Republican Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told lawmakers on a private call that he’s confident the GOP will hold the House majority, according to a Republican who is familiar with the call but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details.
Trump is consolidating power in Washington, returning to the White House a much more dominant force than in his first term, when Republicans split over their support for him and some were openly skeptical of if not opposed to his rise.
This time, Johnson and Senate GOP leaders have drawn closer to Trump, relying on his power for their own as they drive a common Republican agenda more aligned with his “Make America Great Again” priorities.
Johnson, in his letter to colleagues, used a football metaphor to say he’s “ready to take the field with all of you” to play “the biggest offense of our lives.”
While Johnson is in line to remain House speaker in the new Congress, if Republicans keep control, the question of who will replace McConnell, who led his party in flipping Senate control, is its own intense contest.
The choices facing Republican senators for a new leader are between the “Johns” — No. 2 Republican Sen. John Thune and Texas Sen. John Cornyn — and a longshot, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who is favored by hard-right Senate conservatives who want Trump to weigh in on the race.
Cornyn and Thune, who both campaigned for Trump, are building support among senators in what is expected to be a close race on private ballots.
Thune has worked to mend a rocky relationship with Trump, and the two spoke as recently as Wednesday, according to another Republican familiar with the private conversation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss it.
The South Dakota senator had been critical of Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election for stoking claims of fraudulent voting ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Thune and Trump have been in touch throughout the year, the person said.
Thune has suggested it might be best if Trump stayed out of the leadership race.
“It’s his prerogative to weigh in on that,” Thune said on Fox News. “Frankly, I think if he lets it play out, we’ll get the right person. I’ve had conversations with him and have told him that we want to get his team in place so that he can hit the ground running and get to work on an agenda to make sure that he and our team succeeds.”
The Republicans are eyeing quick action aligned with Trump’s day-one priorities, which revolve around cutting taxes, deporting immigrants who are in the country without certain legal status, and reducing federal regulations and operations.
But after the chaos of the past two years of GOP control of the House, it’s unclear how much Republicans will be able to accomplish, especially if they have another razor-thin majority with few seats to spare for dissent, in the face of resistance from Democrats.
Famine looming in Myanmar’s Rakhine state: UN
- Rakhine’s economy has stopped functioning and some 2 million people are at risk of starvation, said a new report from the UN Development Programme
UNITED NATIONS: Myanmar’s conflict-torn Rakhine state is heading toward famine, the United Nations warned on Thursday, as the country’s civil war squeezes commerce and agricultural production.
“Rakhine’s economy has stopped functioning,” a new report from the UN Development Programme said, projecting “famine conditions by mid-2025” if current levels of food insecurity are left unaddressed.
Some two million people are at risk of starvation, it said.
Amid the fighting roiling the country, international and domestic trade routes leading into the already impoverished state have been closed, leaving the entrance of aid and goods severely restricted.
In addition to intense fighting, people in Rakhine are facing “absence of incomes, hyperinflation (and) significantly reduced domestic food production,” the UNDP report warned.
Myanmar has been racked by conflict between the military and various armed groups opposed to its rule since the ruling junta ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February 2021.
Clashes have rocked western Rakhine since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked security forces in November 2023, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the junta’s 2021 coup.
With the farming economy in crisis, the UNDP predicted local food production would only cover 20 percent of the state’s needs by March or April.
Internal rice production is “plummeting,” it said, due to “a lack of seeds, fertilizers (and) severe weather conditions.”
Some 97,000 tons of rice are set to be cultivated in Rakhine this year, compared to 282,000 tons last year, according to the UNDP.
A “steep rise” in internally displaced people, meanwhile, means many fields are unable to be worked.
According to UN figures, Rakhine state recorded more than 500,000 displaced people in August, compared to just under 200,000 in October 2023.
Facing particular risk are populations including members of the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority and displaced people.
Biden to attend South America summits, in Trump’s shadow
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will attend two key summits and visit the Amazon rainforest in South America this month, the White House said Thursday, in a trip totally overshadowed by Donald Trump’s election win.
Biden’s swansong at the G20 summit in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and the APEC meeting in Lima, Peru will come as world leaders are more focused on how to deal with Trump’s stunning comeback.
“He is planning to attend both conferences,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing.
The return of Trump’s “America First” agenda to the global stage threatens to upend Biden’s embrace of international alliances on issues ranging from Ukraine and the Middle East to climate change and trade.
Jean-Pierre said in a statement that Biden will travel to Lima from November 14-16 for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) regional forum.
Last year he met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California, although there is no word on whether a similar meeting is possible this time.
Biden will then make what the White House said was the first visit by a sitting US president to Manaus in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest to meet indigenous leaders and others working to “protect this critical ecosystem.”
Finally, Biden will attend his last G20 group of nations summit in Rio on November 18 and 19, where the subjects will include climate change, it said.
Biden has spent his four years in office trying to reshape US leadership on the world stage, after the disruption of Trump’s first term as he criticized US allies and courted dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Uncertainty now reigns about what Trump 2.0 will mean for the world.
Trump’s plans for huge tariffs could trigger a trade war with China and badly affect Canada, Mexico, Europe and other trading partners.
Trump is also mooting talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, amid speculation that he will try to push through a peace deal with Ukraine.
Putin has said he will not attend this G20 because it would “wreck” the conference.
