Catherine, princess of Wales, says she’ll return to public duties

Catherine, princess of Wales, says she’ll return to public duties
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Updated 09 September 2024
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Catherine, princess of Wales, says she’ll return to public duties

Catherine, princess of Wales, says she’ll return to public duties
  • The princess announced in March that she was being treated for an undisclosed type of cancer

LONDON: Catherine, the Princess of Wales, says she has completed chemotherapy and will return to some public duties in the coming months.

The 42-year-old wife of Prince William is expected to undertake a light program of engagements until the end of the year.

The princess announced in March that she was being treated for an undisclosed type of cancer.

Kate attended a ceremonial birthday parade for her father-in-law King Charles III in June, and the following month presented the men’s winner’s trophy at the Wimbledon tennis championships.


Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida steps down to make way for likely successor Shigeru Ishiba

Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida steps down to make way for likely successor Shigeru Ishiba
Updated 01 October 2024
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Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida steps down to make way for likely successor Shigeru Ishiba

Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida steps down to make way for likely successor Shigeru Ishiba
  • Kishida took office in 2021 but is leaving so his party can have a fresh leader after his government was dogged by scandals
  • Ishiba plans to call a parliamentary election for Oct. 27 after he is formally chosen as prime minister later in the day

TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida resigned with his Cabinet on Tuesday, paving the way for his likely successor Shigeru Ishiba to take office.
Kishida took office in 2021 but is leaving so his party can have a fresh leader after his government was dogged by scandals. Ishiba plans to call a parliamentary election for Oct. 27 after he is formally chosen as prime minister later in the day.
“I believe it is important to have the new administration get the public’s judgment as soon as possible,” Ishiba said Monday in announcing his plan to call a snap election. Opposition parties criticized Ishiba for allowing only a short period of time for his policies to be examined and discussed in parliament before the vote.
Ishiba was chosen as the governing Liberal Democratic Party’s leader on Friday to replace Kishida, who announced in August he would resign at the end of his three-year term.
Ishiba is assured of becoming prime minister later Tuesday in a vote by parliament because it is dominated by his party’s ruling coalition.
Kishida and his ministers stepped down at a Cabinet meeting in the morning, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
Hayashi, who is Kishida’s top confidante, said the world has high expectations for Japan’s diplomatic role, noting a deepening global divide over Russia’s war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East. “We hope the next administration will pursue an active and powerful diplomacy while placing importance on (Japan’s) main pillars such as achieving a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Hayashi said.
Ishiba earlier announced his party’s leaders ahead of naming his Cabinet, once he becomes prime minister. Former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who came in third in the party leadership race, will head the party’s election task force. He is expected to name defense experts Takeshi Iwaya as foreign minister and Gen Nakatani as defense chief.
The majority of his Cabinet ministers, like Ishiba, are expected to be unaffiliated with factions led and controlled by party heavyweights, and none are from former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s powerful group linked to damaging scandals.
Ishiba’s lack of stable power base could also mean a fragility of his government, and “could quickly collapse” even though Ishiba hopes to build up party unity as it prepares for the upcoming election, the liberal-leaning Asahi newspaper said.
The move is also seen as a revenge by Ishiba, who was largely pushed to the side during most of Abe’s reign.
Ishiba has proposed an Asian version of the NATO military alliance and more discussion among regional partners about the use of the US nuclear deterrence. He also suggested a more equal Japan-US security alliance, including joint management of US bases in Japan and having Japanese Self Defense Force bases in the United States.
Ishiba outlined his views in an article to the Hudson Institute last week. “The absence of a collective self-defense system like NATO in Asia means that wars are likely to break out because there is no obligation for mutual defense. Under these circumstances, the creation of an Asian version of NATO is essential to deter China by its Western allies,” he wrote.
Ishiba proposes combining of existing security and diplomatic groupings, such as the Quad and other bilateral and multilateral frameworks involving the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and the Philippines.
He also noted that the Asian version of NATO can also consider sharing of the control of US nuclear weapons in the region as a deterrence against growing threats from China, North Korea and Russia.
Ishiba on Friday stressed Japan needs to reinforce its security, noting recent violations of Japanese airspace by Russian and Chinese warplanes and repeated missile launches by North Korea.
He pledged to continue Kishida’s economic policy aimed at pulling Japan out of deflation and achieving real salary increases, while tackling challenges such as Japan’s declining birthrate and population and resilience to natural disasters.
The LDP has had a nearly unbroken tenure governing Japan since World War II. The party members may have seen Ishiba’s more centrist views as crucial in pushing back challenges by the liberal-leaning opposition and winning voter support as the party reels from corruption scandals that drove down Kishida’s popularity.
Ishiba, first elected to parliament in 1986, has served as defense minister, agriculture minister and in other key Cabinet posts, and was LDP secretary general under Abe.


Leaders depart UN facing prospect of a wider Mideast war — but with a blueprint for a better future

Leaders depart UN facing prospect of a wider Mideast war — but with a blueprint for a better future
Updated 01 October 2024
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Leaders depart UN facing prospect of a wider Mideast war — but with a blueprint for a better future

Leaders depart UN facing prospect of a wider Mideast war — but with a blueprint for a better future
  • In the last few days, Yang said, the world has seen “an extremely dramatic escalation” between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that risks war in the entire Middle East

UNITED NATIONS: They gathered at the United Nations surrounded by unsettling warnings of an escalating conflict that could engulf the Middle East and further shatter international relations that are based on “multilateralism” — nations working together and sharing power. A week later, world leaders headed home with the prospect of a broader war intensifying and global divisions front and center, not only in the Mideast but elsewhere.
There was no expectation of major breakthroughs in the public and private meetings at the annual UN General Assembly meeting of presidents, premiers and other leaders. There rarely is. But this year was especially grim, with no end in sight to the three major conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, and Israeli military action in Lebanon escalating.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ warning that multilateralism needs to be brought back “from the brink” added to the gloom, along with speech after speech decrying failures to tackle climate change and address growing inequalities between rich and poor nations, and warning of artificial intelligence with no guardrails and the potential of killer weapons with no human control.
General Assembly President Philémon Yang concluded the weeklong, high-level meeting Monday afternoon, calling it “particularly tumultuous” and pointing to the “violent conflicts” that are raging.
“This is, unfortunately, not an exhaustive list of the crises and conflicts affecting member states of the United Nations,” he lamented.
Parts of the world are broken
There was no disagreement that multilateralism is broken, that this founding principle of the United Nations – established in 1945 on the ashes of World War II — needs urgent resuscitation to deal with the challenges the world faces today.
One example: During the very hour on Friday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the General Assembly that his country genuinely wants peace — a goal stressed by virtually every leader — Israeli warplanes were bombing areas around Beirut in a lethal barrage.
In the last few days, Yang said, the world has seen “an extremely dramatic escalation” between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that risks war in the entire Middle East. “As we speak, peace in the Middle East is hanging delicately on a shoestring,” he warned..
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this year’s meeting of leaders – with its marquee speeches known in UN-speak as the “general debate” – took place at “a very serious and a very intense time.”
“The world doesn’t stop for the general debate,” he told reporters Monday. “So we were focused very much on what member states said, but we continue to be very much focused on what is going on in the world outside of this building.”
There was one positive development welcomed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and many leaders: The adoption of a “Pact for the Future” at a summit just before world leaders began their addresses to the General Assembly. The 42-page blueprint aims to bring the 193 UN member nations together to meet today’s challenges, from climate change and artificial intelligence to escalating conflicts and increasing inequality and poverty.
It challenges leaders of countries large and small, rich and poor, to turn promises into actions. Whether that happens remains to be seen. Yang, the assembly president, said his office has already instituted “an awareness-raising campaign” to spur implementation.
Screeds against selfishness abounded
In an illustration of the blend of woe and weary hope that percolated through the gathering, Burundi’s foreign minister, Albert Shingiro, on Monday decried an international community where “most of us act like we were alone in the world, like others didn’t exist or didn’t count.”
Still, he said, the consensus on the Pact for the Future “shows that multilateralism is not dead and buried.”
From the vantage points where leaders of smaller or less powerful nations sit, the UN can’t change the world without changing itself. Founded with 51 member countries, it now has 193, and many feel included only to a point.
“We must ensure that global institutions give developing countries, especially small, vulnerable ones like my own, seats at the tables of decision-making,” said Barbados’ prime minister, Mia Mottley. “The anger and mistrust of our citizens in institutions, in leaders and in multilateralism and its processes which exclude, while yielding much talk and little action, is very real.”
Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, head of Bangladesh’s interim government, said “time demands new attitudes, new values, new compacts, across communities and countries.”
“I believe, the world needs to engage on a shared vision of ‘three zeroes’ that we can materialize together, targeting zero poverty, zero unemployment, and, zero net carbon emissions — where a young person anywhere in the world will have opportunities to grow, not as a job seeker but as entrepreneur,” he told the assembly.
During the global gathering, the assembly heard from 190 countries – all but Brunei, Myanmar and Afghanistan. The speakers included 71 heads of state, 42 heads of government, six vice presidents and crown princes, eight deputy prime ministers, 53 ministers, three vice-ministers and seven heads of delegations. Usually, the UN Security Council holds one meeting during the high-level week, but this year the council met about a half-dozen times because of the global conflicts and crises.
For all the alarm, leaders here are politicians, and many made a point of appealing at least somewhat to optimism. Perhaps none stressed it as much as US President Joe Biden, making his last speech at the annual meeting after more than a half-century in public life.
He noted that humanity has brought to a close some of the seemingly intractable threats, conflicts and injustices that beset the world when he was elected as a senator in 1972, from the Cold War to apartheid in South Africa.
“Things can get better,” Biden said. “We should never forget that.”

 


Ukraine’s Zelensky: Front line ‘very, very difficult,’ must do what we can in autumn

Ukraine’s Zelensky: Front line ‘very, very difficult,’ must do what we can in autumn
Updated 01 October 2024
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Ukraine’s Zelensky: Front line ‘very, very difficult,’ must do what we can in autumn

Ukraine’s Zelensky: Front line ‘very, very difficult,’ must do what we can in autumn
  • Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday that its forces had captured the village of Nelipivka, south of the city of Toretsk, one of Moscow’s targets in the area

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that the situation on the front line of the war against Russia was “very, very difficult,” and Ukraine’s forces had to do everything they could over the autumn period.
“Reports on each of our frontline sectors, our capabilities, our future capabilities and our specific tasks: The situation is very, very difficult,” he said in his nightly video address, referring to a more than 2-1/2 hour meeting with top commanders.
“Everything that can be done this autumn, everything that we can achieve must be achieved,” he said.
It was the second time in less than a week that Zelensky referred to the need to act quickly in the coming months in terms of military action.
Ukrainian military bloggers have reported in recent days that Russian forces have been advancing on the hilltop town of Vuhledar, which Ukrainian forces have defended over the course of the war, in the south of the Donetsk region.
The popular blog Deepstate quoted Russian reports as saying Russian forces were shelling the town and “their infantry was moving in the city and among high-rise blocks. The Russians have raised their flag in western districts of the city.”
Russian forces have also been advancing slowly for months further north, with the aim of capturing the entire Donbas region, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday that its forces had captured the village of Nelipivka, south of the city of Toretsk, one of Moscow’s targets in the area.
Ukraine’s General Staff made no acknowledgement of the village changing hands, but said Russian forces had launched 10 attacks in and around it.
Zelensky made similar comments about the need for fast military action after meeting US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in New York on Friday.
Zelensky has taken great care to steer clear of controversy and suggestions of preference in the US presidential election and made no reference to the poll in his calls for fast action.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party candidate, has pledged continuing steadfast support for Kyiv.
Zelensky said in an interview with Fox News after his meeting with Trump that he received “very direct information” from Trump that the former US president would support Ukraine if re-elected.
Trump has questioned US spending on Ukraine’s war effort. During Zelensky’s visit to the United States last week, he repeated earlier statements that he would find a rapid resolution to the conflict if he won the election, without providing details.


Startling video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of US F-16 near Alaska

Startling video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of US F-16 near Alaska
Updated 01 October 2024
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Startling video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of US F-16 near Alaska

Startling video shows Russian fighter jet flying within feet of US F-16 near Alaska
  • The video release of the close encounter Sept. 23, with the US pilot under the direction of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, comes after a series of Russian incursions into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone

ANCHORAGE, Alaska: Military officials have released new video of a startling encounter between a Russian fighter jet flying near Alaska and a US Air Force F-16 sent to intercept it.
In the video released Monday, the Russian plane comes from behind the camera and swoops by the US jet, just feet from the aircraft.
The video release of the close encounter Sept. 23, with the US pilot under the direction of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, comes after a series of Russian incursions into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone just beyond US sovereign airspace.
The interaction drew condemnation from NORAD’s top officer and one of Alaska’s US senators.
“The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander, NORAD and US Northern Command. The NORAD aircraft flew “a safe and disciplined” routine to intercept the Russian aircraft, he added.
A message sent to the Russian Embassy Monday seeking comment was not immediately returned.
The close pass of the Russian jet comes just weeks after eight Russian military planes and four of its navy vessels, including two submarines, came close to Alaska as China and Russia conducted joint drills.
None of the planes breached US airspace. However, about 130 US soldiers were sent along with mobile rocket launchers to Shemya Island, about 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. They were deployed to the Aleutian island for a week before returning to their bases.
In July, Russian and Chinese bombers flew together for the first time in international airspace off Alaska, a sign of cooperation that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said raised concerns.
In 2022, a US Coast Guard ship about 85 miles (137 kilometers) north of Alaska’s Kiska Island in the Bering Sea came across three Chinese and four Russian naval vessels sailing in single formation.
US Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican member of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, said the close pass of the Russian jet is another reason to build America’s military presence in Alaska and the Arctic.
“The reckless and unprofessional maneuvers of Russian fighter pilots — within just a few feet of our Alaska-based fighters — in Alaska’s ADIZ on September 23 put the lives of our brave Airmen at risk and underscore the escalating aggression we’re witnessing from dictators like Vladimir Putin,” Sullivan said in a statement.

 


Austria faces uncertainty after far-right historic election win

Austria faces uncertainty after far-right historic election win
Updated 30 September 2024
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Austria faces uncertainty after far-right historic election win

Austria faces uncertainty after far-right historic election win

VIENNA: Austria entered uncharted territory Monday after the far right scored a historic national election win, with parties facing an uphill task to form a new government.

The far-right Freedom Party, also known as FPOe, under Herbert Kickl has rapidly regained ground lost in a string of corruption scandals, winning 28.8 percent in Sunday’s vote, according to preliminary projections.

The FPOe beat the ruling conservative OeVP into second place and the left-wing Social Democrats, also known as SPOe, into third on 21.1 percent.

But all other parties have refused to work with Kickl because of his radical proposals.

“Winner — and what now?” said the daily Kurier’s main headline with a photo of Kickl giving a thumbs-up.

A vocal critic of the EU and its sanctions against Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Kickl’s abrasiveness has left him isolated among Austrian lawmakers — and beyond.

Uncertainty over what would happen next dominated the Alpine country, as Kickl’s FPOe could end up being sidelined like some of its far-right allies in Europe.

“Times are changing,” Dutch far-right firebrand Geert Wilders posted on the X social media platform after Austria’s election results were announced, listing 11 European countries where nationalist parties were “winning.”

In neighboring Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban hailed the FPOe victory as “another win for the #Patriots.”

With Sunday’s victory ahead of the OeVP, Kickl surpassed results bagged by his predecessors Joerg Haider and Heinz-Christian Strache.

But apart from a few hundred protesters, the far-right win did not trigger major demonstrations.

“We were expecting it, so we’re neither totally shocked nor delighted,” Isabella, a Vienna woman who declined to give her surname, said.

Austria’s powerful Kronen Zeitung tabloid noted that “something revolutionary hangs in the air,” adding that coalition talks would be “tough, long and turbulent.”