Estonian defense forces prepare for Spring Storm exercise with NATO participation

Estonian defense forces prepare for Spring Storm exercise with NATO participation
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French troops will be among those taking part in the Spring Storm exercise. (AN Photo by Ali Salman)
Estonian defense forces prepare for Spring Storm exercise with NATO participation
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Maj. Gen. Veiko-Vello Palm, commander of the division of the Estonian Defense Forces, and Peeter Kuimet, head of the international cooperation department at Estonia’s Ministry of Defense. (AN Photo by Ali Salman)
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Updated 14 May 2023

Estonian defense forces prepare for Spring Storm exercise with NATO participation

Estonian defense forces prepare for Spring Storm exercise with NATO participation
  • The upcoming annual war game hosted by Estonia is expected to involve 14,000 troops from 11 countries
  • Spring Storm is one of several NATO military exercises designed to send a clear message to the Kremlin

TALINN: As the Russia-Ukraine conflict rages on, NATO members are preparing for any scenario, with representatives arriving in Estonia for an upcoming annual war game, expected to involve 14,000 troops from 11 countries.

The site of the military exercise, Tapa base, is Estonia’s largest and one of the closest of any NATO member to the Russian border. As the Lennart Meri Conference brings experts from around the world to the capital Tallinn, British, French, Estonian and other country forces are descending on the base in preparation for Spring Storm.

The exercise is meant to test how allied forces will perform in the event of a Russian military attack. Reports say the UK has dispatched Wildcat and Apache attack helicopters, while France has sent VBMR Griffon armored personnel carriers, AMX-10 RC fighting vehicles and Caesar self-propelled howitzers.

“Here we’re in a defensive mission alongside our other allies,” including NATO troops, French Maj. Jean Christophe told Arab News. “We’re maybe about 400 French people on this exercise, and we’ll do the exercise with British troops and the Estonians.”

The UK has confirmed its participation, as part of a bilateral agreement with Estonia, in “a multilateral exercise supporting the Estonian Defense Forces and the aircraft we deployed.”

Col. Al Rivett of the British Army Air Corps said: “One of the key reasons that we do deployments such as this is to provide aviation support to the Estonian Defense Forces so they get effectively used to operating with aircraft such as these.”

Spring Storm will involve “combined arms,” an approach to warfare that seeks to integrate different combat arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects — for example, using infantry and armor in an urban environment in which each supports the other.

“The enhanced forward presence battle group is a force that is assigned to NATO under SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander Europe),” Rivett said.

“Under that agreement and, effectively, that force is always aligned to NATO and is formally attributed to him for the SACEUR to use as he sees fit.”

Spring Storm is one of a number of military exercises that NATO countries intend to hold with the objective of sending a clear message to Kremlin. The exercises have grown bigger and more elaborate since last year when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Data from NATO shows it plans to stage 18 military exercises, involving thousands of troops, between May and September this year.

 


South Korea’s Yoon says alliance with US ‘nuclear-based’

South Korea’s Yoon says alliance with US ‘nuclear-based’
Updated 13 sec ago

South Korea’s Yoon says alliance with US ‘nuclear-based’

South Korea’s Yoon says alliance with US ‘nuclear-based’
  • Upgrade in alliance in the face of North Korea’s growing military threat
  • North Korea this year test-fired its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile
SEOUL: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Tuesday he has upgraded the country’s alliance with the United States to one that is “nuclear-based” in the face of North Korea’s growing military threat.
Yoon was referring to his talks with US President Joe Biden in April on Washington’s willingness to give Seoul more insight into its nuclear planning in the event of potential conflict with nuclear-armed North Korea.
“North Korea is enhancing its nuclear and missile capabilities, and has legislated the use of nuclear weapons,” Yoon said in a speech marking South Korea’s Memorial Day.
At their summit in Washington, the two leaders agreed to strengthen the so-called US extended deterrence, which envisions the use of US nuclear weapons to defend the South.
“The South Korea-US alliance has now been elevated to ‘nuclear-based’ alliance,” Yoon said.
North Korea this year test-fired its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile and last week attempted to launch its first spy satellite, although the rocket and the payload plunged into the sea.
North Korea made a rare and swift admission of the launch’s failure but vowed to try again and put a satellite in orbit to increase its military surveillance capabilities.
The launch was widely condemned as violating UN Security Council resolutions that ban the use of ballistic missile technology by the North.
Pyongyang has rejected the ban as an infringement of its sovereign right to self-defense and space development.
While Yoon characterized his talks with Biden as an agreement to use US nuclear weapons in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack, Biden reiterated a pledge “to make every effort to consult” with allies on the use of a nuclear weapon.
Yoon did not elaborate further on the subject and devoted most of his Memorial Day speech to honoring those who had made sacrifices in defense of the country.
South Korea’s military has been undertaking a salvage operation at sea off the west coast to recover a substantial segment of the rocket launched by the North on May 31.

Deputy governor of northern Afghan province killed in car bomb attack

Deputy governor of northern Afghan province killed in car bomb attack
Updated 2 min 49 sec ago

Deputy governor of northern Afghan province killed in car bomb attack

Deputy governor of northern Afghan province killed in car bomb attack

KABUL: The deputy governor of Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan province was killed by a car bomb on Tuesday, the provincial spokesperson said.
“Nissar Ahmad Ahmadi, with his driver, has been killed and six civilians were injured,” said the head of the provincial information office, Mahzudeen Ahmadi.
It was not clear who was behind the attack, which was the first known major blast in Afghanistan in several weeks.
The Taliban administration has been carrying out raids against members of Daesh, which has had claimed several major attacks in urban centers, including Kabul.


Ukraine accuses Russia of destroying major dam near Kherson, warns of widespread flooding

Ukraine accuses Russia of destroying major dam near Kherson, warns of widespread flooding
Updated 59 min 26 sec ago

Ukraine accuses Russia of destroying major dam near Kherson, warns of widespread flooding

Ukraine accuses Russia of destroying major dam near Kherson, warns of widespread flooding
  • Both sides blamed the other for destroying the dam
  • President Volodymyr Zelensky called an emergency meeting to deal with the crisis

KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russian forces of blowing up a major dam in a part of southern Ukraine they control, alerting residents further along the Dnipro River to evacuate and warning of flooding downstream. President Volodymyr Zelensky called an emergency meeting to deal with the crisis.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry wrote on Telegram that the Kakhovka dam, had been blown up, and called for residents of 10 villages on the river’s right bank and parts of the city of Kherson downriver to gather essential documents and pets, turn off appliances, and leave, while cautioning against possible disinformation.
Footage from what appeared to be a monitoring camera overlooking the dam that was circulating on social media purported to show a flash, explosion and breakage of the dam.
Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said in a video posted to Telegram shortly before 7 a.m. that “the Russian army has committed yet another act of terror,” and warned that water will reach “critical levels” within five hours.
Zelensky moved to convene an emergency meeting of the country’s security and defense council following the dam explosion, the council’s secretary, Oleksiy Danilov, wrote on Twitter.
Ukraine and Russia have previously accused each other of targeting the dam with attacks, and last October Zelensky predicted that Russia would destroy the dam in order to cause a flood.
Authorities, experts and residents have for months expressed concerns about water flows through — and over — the Kakhovka dam.
In February, water levels were so low that many feared a meltdown at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, whose cooling systems are supplied with water from the Kakhovka reservoir held up by the dam.
By mid-May, after heavy rains and snow melt, water levels rose beyond normal levels, flooding nearby villages. Satellite images showed water washing over damaged sluice gates.
Ukraine controls five of the six dams along the Dnipro River, which runs from its northern border with Belarus down to the Black Sea and is crucial for the entire country’s drinking water and power supply. The Kakhovka dam — the one furthest downstream in the Kherson region — is controlled by Russian forces.


Federal monitor: Too many people in New York City are stopped, searched and frisked illegally

Federal monitor: Too many people in New York City are stopped, searched and frisked illegally
Updated 06 June 2023

Federal monitor: Too many people in New York City are stopped, searched and frisked illegally

Federal monitor: Too many people in New York City are stopped, searched and frisked illegally
  • NYPD ‘s Neighborhood Safety Teams were engaging in ‘unconstitutional policing’ by stopping and frisking too many people without justification

NEW YORK: New York City’s reliance on the tactic known as “stop and frisk” as part of a new initiative to combat gun violence is harming communities of color and running afoul of the law, a court-appointed federal monitor reported Monday.
Monitor Mylan Denerstein said the NYPD ‘s Neighborhood Safety Teams — special units deployed in the past 14 months to seize guns in high-crime areas — were engaging in “unconstitutional policing” by stopping and frisking too many people without justification.
In one police precinct, Denerstein said, only 41 percent of stops, 32 percent of frisks and 26 percent of searches were lawful.
The Neighborhood Safety Teams, a replacement for the anti-crime units that the NYPD disbanded in 2021, operate in 34 areas that account for 80 percent of the city’s violent crime — largely communities of color. Of the people the teams have stopped, Denerstein said, 97 percent are Black or Hispanic.
A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said city officials “have serious concerns” with Denerstein’s methodology and that they only learned of her findings after news outlets reported on them.
The spokesperson, Fabien Levy, said shootings have fallen since the Neighborhood Safety Teams were created.
Officers assigned to the units “have enhanced training and oversight to ensure we are not only keeping New Yorkers safe, but protecting their civil liberties as well,” Levy said, adding that “any unconstitutional stop is unacceptable, and we will strive to do better for New Yorkers every day.”
Denerstein said she began her review after Adams announced in March 2022 that the NYPD was deploying Neighborhood Safety Teams in some precincts to combat gun violence. Team members, wearing modified uniforms and driving unmarked cars, conduct stops, frisks and searches in their assigned neighborhoods.
“Unfortunately, the results are disappointing,” Denerstein wrote.
Despite their training and experience, officers assigned to Neighborhood Safety Teams “overall appear to be stopping, frisking, and searching individuals at an unsatisfactory level of compliance. Too many people are stopped, frisked, and searched unlawfully.”
In 2013, a federal judge ruled that the NYPD had violated the civil rights of Black and Hispanic New Yorkers with stop and frisk, which was part of an effort to get guns and drugs off the street by frequently stopping and searching people on the street.
US District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled the stops were a form of indirect racial profiling. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, once a champion of the tactic, has since apologized for its use.
Since the ruling, the department claimed a sharp drop in stops, reporting an average of around 11,730 per year from 2016 to 2022, compared with a high of nearly 686,000 stops in 2011.
Black and Hispanic people continue to be the targets of the vast majority of stops, accounting for 89 percent of all stops in 2022, according to NYPD data compiled by the New York Civil Liberties Union.


Ex-VP Pence jumps into 2024 White House race

Ex-VP Pence jumps into 2024 White House race
Updated 06 June 2023

Ex-VP Pence jumps into 2024 White House race

Ex-VP Pence jumps into 2024 White House race
  • Pence is framing himself as a traditional Republican, concerned with fiscal responsibility and family values

WASHINGTON: Republican former vice president Mike Pence launched his bid for the 2024 presidential nomination on Monday, offering a traditionalist alternative to the battle royale being waged by populists Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.
The evangelical Christian filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission ahead of an official declaration Wednesday in the early voting state of Iowa — joining an already crowded field.
Pence, 63, honed his reputation as an unstintingly loyal deputy who stuck with Trump throughout a scandal-plagued four years and brought the religious right into the tent.
But he became a pariah in Trumpworld after rejecting the Republican leader’s demands that he overturn the 2020 election in his role as president of the Senate.
Berated constantly by Trump after Joe Biden’s victory — and even heckled at a conservative conference with chants of “traitor!” — Pence continued to praise the tycoon in public.
That eventually changed after Trump’s torrent of false claims of election fraud led to a mob chanting for Pence to be hanged at the US Capitol.

Pence has spent much of the last two years touring early-nominating states such as Iowa and New Hampshire to reinforce his political vision as a “Christian, conservative, Republican — in that order.”
His entry doesn’t much change the dynamics of the race, which is divided into three lanes — runaway leader Donald Trump, Trump’s closest rival and sitting Florida governor DeSantis, and everyone else.
Pence is framing himself as a traditional Republican, concerned with fiscal responsibility and family values, who can deliver Trump’s economic policies without the drama.
But he has also pointed to some clear blue water between the pair, as he allies himself strongly with Ukraine and refuses to rule out cuts to welfare payments.
While his politics are popular among Republicans, critics question whether Pence has a constituency in a party that is more focused now on populism and cultural politics than traditional conservatism.
And voters sympathetic to his decision to stand up for the Constitution have other candidate choices, such as the proselytizing Christian Tim Scott who do not bring with them the baggage of the Trump years.
“We all give (Pence) credit for certifying the election,” Republican strategist Sarah Longwell told Politico.
“But he also stood next to Donald Trump and normalized and validated him for four years while Trump ran roughshod over the presidency.”

DeSantis has consistently been polling almost 20 points above Pence and is hoping to outflank Trump from the right.
But the Florida governor’s poor showing in head-to-head polls has opened the floodgates, with Chris Christie due to announce on Tuesday, joining former governors Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum in the race.
Like Haley and DeSantis, Pence has appeared determined to avoid conflict with Trump in hopes of wooing his former supporters should the cascade of criminal investigations targeting the former president take him out of the race.
The lower-ranked candidates have also pointed out that there is a long way to go in the race, and that Trump was trailing in the low single digits at this point in the 2016 cycle.
Democrats watching from the sidelines pointed to Pence’s socially conservative agenda as an abortion hard-liner who has opposed same-sex marriage as evidence that he would drag the contest to the right.
“In Mike Pence’s own words, he was a member of the extreme Tea Party ‘before it was cool,’ and he hasn’t slowed down since,” said Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.
Zee Cohen-Sanchez, a left-leaning election strategist who has worked with progressives like Bernie Sanders, said Pence’s break with Trump over the insurrection was a double-edged sword.
“Despite allegations and charges against Trump, his base remains strong and given Pence essentially turned against Trump, these voters will not support him,” she told AFP.
“The majority of other Republicans support DeSantis, who has a track record conservatives are excited about and they see him as a powerful alternative to Trump.”