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A man is seen climbing the Eiffel Tower, prompting an evacuation hours before closing ceremony

Police evacuate the area around the Eiffel Tower after a man was seen climbing the historic landmark, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Paris France. (AP)
Police evacuate the area around the Eiffel Tower after a man was seen climbing the historic landmark, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Paris France. (AP)
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Updated 11 August 2024
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A man is seen climbing the Eiffel Tower, prompting an evacuation hours before closing ceremony

A man is seen climbing the Eiffel Tower, prompting an evacuation hours before closing ceremony
  • Eiffel Tower was a centerpiece of the opening ceremony
  • Police escorted visitors away from the area around 3 p.m local time
Updated 11 August 2024
AP
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PARIS: French police have evacuated the area around the Eiffel Tower after a man was seen climbing the Paris landmark hours before the Olympics closing ceremony Sunday.
The shirtless man was seen scaling the 330-meter (1,083-foot) tall tower in the afternoon. It’s unclear where he began his ascent, but he was spotted just above the Olympic rings adorning the second section of the monument, just above the first viewing deck.
Police escorted visitors away from the area around 3 p.m. Some visitors who were briefly locked on the second floor were allowed to exit around 30 minutes later.
The Eiffel Tower was a centerpiece of the opening ceremony, with Celine Dion serenading the city from one of its viewing areas. The Tower is not expected to be part of the closing ceremony, which was set to begin at Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis at 9 p.m.
The incident occurred as the Olympic competition winds down and security services in Paris and beyond are shifting their focus to the closing ceremony that will bring the curtain down on the Games.
More than 30,000 police officers have been deployed around Paris on Sunday. France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said about 3,000 police officers will be mobilized around the Stade de France, and 20,000 police troops and other security personnel in Paris and the Saint-Denis area will be mobilized late into Sunday night to ensure safety on the last day of the Olympics.

Topics: Paris Olympics Paris 2024 Olympics France Paris

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S. Korean ex-defense minister arrested after martial law fiasco: media

S. Korean ex-defense minister arrested after martial law fiasco: media
Updated 7 sec ago
AFP
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S. Korean ex-defense minister arrested after martial law fiasco: media

S. Korean ex-defense minister arrested after martial law fiasco: media
  • Late Saturday Yoon survived an impeachment motion in parliament despite huge street protests outside
Updated 7 sec ago
AFP

SEOUL: South Korea’s former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun has been arrested over his role in a martial law declaration that plunged the country into turmoil, local media reported Sunday.
Kim had already resigned after the brief imposition of martial law late Tuesday by President Yoon Suk Yeol, which saw soldiers and helicopters sent to parliament.
Yoon was forced to rescind the order hours later and parliament voted down his decree.
Kim had already been slapped with a travel ban.
Police have launched an investigation into Yoon and others for alleged insurrection.
The prosecutors’ office was not immediately available for comment on Kim’s arrest, reported by the Yonhap news agency and other local media outlets Sunday morning.
Late Saturday Yoon survived an impeachment motion in parliament despite huge street protests outside.
Opposition parties proposed the impeachment motion, which needed 200 votes in the 300-member parliament to pass, but a near-total boycott by Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) doomed it to failure.
The PPP said after the vote that it had blocked the impeachment to avoid “severe division and chaos,” adding that it would “resolve this crisis in a more orderly and responsible manner.”
Party leader Han Dong-hoon said that the party had “effectively obtained” Yoon’s promise to step down, and said until this happened he would “be effectively excluded from his duties,” leaving the prime minister and party to manage state affairs.
The impeachment outcome disappointed the huge crowds — numbering 150,000 according to police, one million according to organizers — demonstrating outside parliament for Yoon’s ouster.
 

 

Topics: South Korea

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Trump says US should stay out of fighting in Syria as opposition forces gain ground

Trump says US should stay out of fighting in Syria as opposition forces gain ground
Updated 13 min 4 sec ago
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Trump says US should stay out of fighting in Syria as opposition forces gain ground

Trump says US should stay out of fighting in Syria as opposition forces gain ground
  • The insurgents are led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, which the US has designated as a terrorist group and says has links to Al-Qaeda, although the group has since broken ties with Al-Qaeda
Updated 13 min 4 sec ago
AP

WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the US military should stay out of the escalating conflict in Syria as a shock opposition offensive closes in on the capital, declaring in a social media post, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.”
With world leaders watching the rapid militant advance against Syria’s Russian- and Iranian-backed president, Bashar Assad, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser separately stressed that the Biden administration had no intention of intervening.
“The United States is not going to ... militarily dive into the middle of a Syrian civil war,” Jake Sullivan told an audience in California.
He said the US would keep acting as necessary to keep the Daesh — a violently anti-Western extremist group not known to be involved in the offensive but with sleeper cells in Syria’s deserts — from exploiting openings presented by the fighting.
Insurgents’ stunning march across Syria sped faster Saturday, reaching the gates of Damascus and government forces abandoning the central city of Homs. The government was forced to deny rumors that Assad had fled the country.
Trump’s comments on the dramatic militant push were his first since Syrian militants launched their advance late last month. They came while he was in Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral.
In his post, Trump said Assad did not deserve US support to stay in power.
Assad’s government has been propped up by the Russian and Iranian military, along with Hezbollah and other Iranian-allied militias, in a now 13-year-old war against opposition groups seeking his overthrow. The war, which began as a mostly peaceful uprising in 2011 against the Assad family’s rule, has killed a half-million people, fractured Syria and drawn in a more than a half-dozen foreign militaries and militias.
The insurgents are led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, which the US has designated as a terrorist group and says has links to Al-Qaeda, although the group has since broken ties with Al-Qaeda.
The insurgents have met little resistance so far from the Syrian army, the Russian and Iranian militaries or allied militias in the country.
The Biden administration says Syrian opposition forces’ capture of government-held cities demonstrates just how diminished those countries are by wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon.
“Assad’s backers — Iran, Russia and Hezbollah — have all been weakened and distracted,” Sullivan said Saturday at an annual gathering of national security officials, defense companies and lawmakers at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
“None of them are prepared to provide the kind of support to Assad that they provided in the past,” he later added.
The US has about 900 troops in Syria, including US forces working with Kurdish allies in the opposition-held northeast to prevent any resurgence of the Daesh group.
Gen. Bryan Fenton, head of US Special Operations Command, said he would not want to speculate on how the upheaval in Syria would affect the US military’s footprint in the country. “It’s still too early to tell,” he said.
What would not change is the focus on disrupting IS operations in Syria and protecting US troops, Fenton said during a panel at the Reagan event.
Syrian opposition activists and regional officials have been watching closely for any indication from the incoming Trump administration, in particular on how the US would respond to the militant advances against Assad.
Robert Wilkie, Trump’s defense transition chief and a former secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, said during the same panel that the collapse of the “Assad government” would be a major blow to Iran’s power.
The United Nations’ special envoy for Syria called Saturday for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition” in Syria.
In his post, Trump said Russia “is so tied up in Ukraine” that it “seems incapable of stopping this literal march through Syria, a country they have protected for years.” He said militants could possibly force Assad from power.
The president-elect condemned the overall US handling of the war but said the routing of Assad and Russian forces might be for the best.
“Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & THE UNITED STATES SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT. LET IT PLAY OUT. DO NOT GET INVOLVED!” he wrote in Saturday’s post.
An influential Syrian opposition activist in Washington, Mouaz Moustafa, interrupted a briefing to reporters to read Trump’s post and appeared to choke up. He said Trump’s declaration that the US should stay out of the fight was the best outcome that the Syrians aligned against Assad could hope for.
Militants have been freeing political detainees of the Assad government from prisons as they advance across Syria, taking cities. Moustafa pledged to reporters Saturday that opposition forces would be alert for any US detainees among them and do their utmost to protect them.
Moustafa said that includes Austin Tice, an American journalist missing for more than a decade and suspected to be held by Assad.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham renounced Al-Qaeda in 2016 and has worked to rebrand itself, including cracking down on some Islamic extremist groups and fighters in its territory and portraying itself as a protector of Christians and other religious minorities.
While the US and United Nations still designate it as a terrorist organization, Trump’s first administration told lawmakers that the US was no longer targeting the group’s leader, Abu Mohammed Al-Golani.

 

Topics: Syria The United States President-elect Donald Trump

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Clintons urge voters agitated by today’s politics to remain involved in public service

Clintons urge voters agitated by today’s politics to remain involved in public service
Updated 36 min 20 sec ago
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Clintons urge voters agitated by today’s politics to remain involved in public service

Clintons urge voters agitated by today’s politics to remain involved in public service
  • The Clintons spoke during a panel discussion with journalist Laura Ling, who the former president helped free in 2009 when she was detained in North Korea with another journalist
Updated 36 min 20 sec ago
AP

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas: Voters dejected by the presidential election results need to find a way to give back and remain involved, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday as they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Clinton presidential library.
The former president urged audience members in a packed theater to remain engaged and find ways to communicate with those they disagree with despite a divisive political time. The two spoke about a month after former President Donald Trump’s win over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
“We’re just passing through, and we all need to just calm down and do something that builds people up instead of tears them down,” Bill Clinton said.
Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state who was defeated by Trump in the 2016 election, said she understands the next couple of years are going to be challenging for voters who don’t agree with the decisions being made.
“In addition to staying involved and staying aware, it’s important to find something that makes you feel good about the day because if you’re in a constant state of agitation about our political situation, it is really going to shorten your life,” she said.
The Clintons spoke during a panel discussion with journalist Laura Ling, who the former president helped free in 2009 when she was detained in North Korea with another journalist. The event was held as part of a weekend of activities marking the 20th anniversary of the Clinton Presidential Library’s opening in Little Rock. The library is preparing to undergo an update of its exhibits and an expansion that will include Hillary Clinton’s personal archives.
Hillary Clinton said part of the goal is to modernize the facility and expand it to make it a more open, inviting place for people for convene and make connections.
When asked about advice he would give for people disappointed by the election results, Bill Clinton said people need to continue working toward bringing people together and improving others’ lives.
“If that’s the way you keep score, then you ought to be trying to run up the score,” he said. “Not lamenting the fact that somebody else is winning a different game because they keep score a different way.”
“And in addition, figure out what we can do to win again,” Hillary Clinton added, eliciting cheers.
The program featured a panel discussion with cast members of the hit NBC show “The West Wing” and former Clinton White House staffers.
The weekend amounted to a reunion of former Clinton White House staffers, supporters and close friends, including former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and adviser James Carville.
McAuliffe said he and Carville ate Friday at Doe’s Eat Place, a downtown restaurant that was popular with Clinton aides and reporters during Clinton’s 1992 White House run. He said he viewed the library and its planned expansion as important for the future.
“This is not only about the past, but it’s more importantly about the future,” McAuliffe said. “We just went through a very tough election, and people are all saying we’ve got to get back to the Clinton model.”

 

Topics: Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton

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US unveils $988m aid package for Ukraine including rockets and drones

US unveils $988m aid package for Ukraine including rockets and drones
Updated 08 December 2024
Reuters
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US unveils $988m aid package for Ukraine including rockets and drones

US unveils $988m aid package for Ukraine including rockets and drones
  • The package nearly halves the available $2.21 billion remaining in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative
  • The USAI funds will be put toward buying ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)
Updated 08 December 2024
Reuters

CALIFORNIA: The United States unveiled a $988 million aid package of new arms and equipment to Ukraine for its ongoing fight against Russia’s invasion on Saturday.
The package nearly halves the available $2.21 billion remaining in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative as the Biden administration works to commit to buying weapons from industry, rather than pulling from US weapons stocks.
The USAI funds will be put toward buying ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) made by Lockheed Martin as well as drones and spare parts to maintain artillery equipment, according to the Pentagon.
Announcement of the package came on Saturday as the defense industry and policy makers meet at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in California.
The Biden administration has often used Presidential Drawdown Authority, which authorizes President Joe Biden to transfer excess articles and services from US stocks without congressional approval during an emergency.
The USAI funds are separate and will go to purchase new weapons from industry.
The Biden administration still has about $6 billion of congressionally granted presidential drawdown authority, including funds authorized in 2024 and funds discovered by the Pentagon after overestimating the value of arms shipped to Ukraine.
Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, the US has committed more than $62 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine.

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Earthquakes under a volcano near Alaska’s largest city raise concerns

Earthquakes under a volcano near Alaska’s largest city raise concerns
Updated 07 December 2024
AP
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Earthquakes under a volcano near Alaska’s largest city raise concerns

Earthquakes under a volcano near Alaska’s largest city raise concerns
Updated 07 December 2024
AP

ANCHORAGE: An increase in the number of earthquakes under a volcano near Alaska’s largest city this year has geologists paying attention.

Mount Spurr, about 129 kilometers northwest of Anchorage, last erupted in 1992, spewing an ash cloud nearly 19 kilometers into the air, prompting flights to be canceled and people to don masks. Another eruption at the 3,383-meter stratovolcano could be severely disruptive to the city, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The observatory raised its alert status for Mount Spurr in October — from green to yellow — when the increase in seismic activity became pronounced and a ground deformation was spotted in satellite data. Observatory scientist David Fee said Friday there have been about 1,500 small earthquake below the volcano this year, compared to about 100 in a normal year.

While that might seem like a lot, it’s “not an enormous amount,” Fee said. It could be a precursor to an eruption — or not. Similar seismic unrest occurred from 2004 to 2006 before subsiding without an eruption.

“We don’t see any significant change in our data that would tell us that an eruption is imminent,” Fee said. “Things have been kind of this low-level unrest for a while now and we’re, of course, watching it very closely to detect any changes and what that might mean.”

Scientists are monitoring seismic stations, global satellite data and a webcam for additional changes that would signal an impending eruption. If magma is moving closer to the surface, there would be an increase in earthquakes, ground deformations, the creation of a summit lake or fumaroles, which are vents that open in the surface to vent gas and vapors. 

Topics: Alaska volcano earthquakes

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