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Major Warship Deal To Be Announced By Greece, France

Angel Gimalo
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0
Major Warship Deal To Be Announced By Greece, France

Leaders of Greece and France are expected to announce a major, multibillion-euro deal in Paris on Tuesday involving the acquisition by Greece of at least six French-built warships, Greek state ERT TV reports.

ERT said Monday that Greece was planning to acquire three French FDI frigates — with the option of later buying a fourth —and another three corvettes.

Greece has already bought 18 French Rafale fighter jets and plans to purchase another six under a program to modernize its armed forces amid tensions with neighboring Turkey.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who flew to Paris on Monday for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, said in an interview with ERT that “we are heading towards a substantive deepening of the strategic cooperation between Greece and France.”

He declined to comment on the reported warship deal — which Greek media say would be worth about 5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) — only saying that announcements would be made Tuesday.

“I have no intention to enter an arms race with Turkey,” Mitsotakis added. “But there are key issues of modernizing our military after a decade of (economic) crisis.”

Tensions with historic regional rival Turkey have increased in recent years over gas exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean and waters between the two countries.

Greece had announced plans to upgrade its fleet, discussing potential frigate purchases with countries including France, the U.S. and Britain.

Greek media said the deal that Mitsotakis and Macron are expected to announce at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Tuesday follows an improved French offer.

They linked the offer with France’s loss of a $66 billion deal this month to sell diesel submarines to Australia, which instead chose to acquire nuclear-powered submarines provided by the U.S.

Satellite Maker, Terran Orbital To Build $300m Facility In Florida

Angel Gimalo
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0
Satellite Maker, Terran Orbital To Build $300m Facility In Florida

Satellite manufacturer Terran Orbital announced Monday that it will build a $300 million facility on Florida’s Space Coast that will bring more than 2,000 jobs to the area.

The 660,000 square-foot facility will be able to produce more than 1,000 satellites a year and 1 million satellite components, said Terran Orbital CEO Marc Bell.

One of the satellites it’s developing will use radar to be able to see through clouds and smoke to get a clear image that could help respond to storms and wildfires and can be used by the military, according to a company video Bell showed Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and other attending the announcement.

“We will build not only vehicles that will go into orbit, that will go to the moon, they will go to Mars into deep space and the stars beyond,” Bell said.

DeSantis said employees at the facilit, which should be completed in 2025, will earn an average salary of $84,000.

Earth-monitoring Landsat 9 Carried Into Space

Angel Gimalo
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0
Earth-monitoring Landsat 9 Carried Into Space

The latest in a series of U.S. satellites that has recorded human and natural impacts on Earth’s surface for decades was launched into orbit from California on Monday to ensure continued observations in the era of climate change.

Landsat 9 was carried into space aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket that lifted off from foggy Vandenberg Space Force Base at 11:12 a.m.

The satellite successfully separated from the rocket’s upper stage more than an hour later.

A project of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, Landsat 9 will work in tandem with a predecessor, Landsat 8, to extend a nearly 50-year record of land and coastal region observations that began with the launch of the first Landsat in 1972.

Landsat 9 will take the orbital track of Landsat 7, which will be decommissioned.

Landsat 9 carries an imaging sensor that will record visible and other portions of the spectrum. It also has a thermal sensor to measure surface temperatures

U.S. Asks Iran to Grant Inspectors Access To Workshop

Zoe Maven
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2
U.S. Asks Iran to Grant Inspectors Access To Workshop

Iran must stop denying the U.N. nuclear watchdog access to a workshop making centrifuge parts as agreed two weeks ago or face diplomatic retaliation at the agency’s Board of Governors within days.

A U.S. statement to the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors on Monday said they were deeply troubled by Iran’s refusal to provide the IAEA with the needed access to service its monitoring equipment, as was agreed in the September 12.

It was responding to an IAEA report to member states on Sunday that said Iran had granted access to sites as agreed on Sept. 12 but not to the workshop, where IAEA inspectors were denied access on Sunday.

They had planned to check if the workshop was ready to operate and re-install cameras if it was.

The workshop at the TESA Karaj complex makes components for centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, and was hit by apparent sabotage in June in which one of four International Atomic Energy Agency cameras there was destroyed.

Iran removed them and the destroyed camera’s footage is missing.

TESA Karaj was one of several sites to which Iran agreed to grant IAEA inspectors access to service IAEA monitoring equipment and replace memory cards just as they were due to fill up with data such as camera footage.

The Sept. 12 accord helped avoid a diplomatic escalation between Iran and the West.

The European Union told the IAEA board that Iran’s failure to grant the IAEA access to the workshop was “a worrying development, contrary to the Joint Statement reached on 12 September 2021.”

A resolution criticising Iran at the Board of Governors could kill hopes of resuming indirect talks between Iran and the United States to bring both sides back into compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

EU Would Be Our Trade Priority, UK Opposition Labour Party Says

Zoe Maven
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0
EU Would Be Our Trade Priority, UK Opposition Labour Party Says

The opposition Labour Party says it would make rebuilding Britain’s ties with the European Union its top trade priority, putting the bloc above U.S and Indo-Pacific deals in the post-Brexit era.

Trade policy chief Emily Thornberry said on Monday she would focus on fixing trade partnerships closer to home which have been hit by increased bureaucracy and a deterioration in diplomatic relations caused by the rancorous EU exit negotiations.,

Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson is only two years into a possible five-year term, but Labour is using its annual conference in southern England to bill itself as a credible alternative government with Britain beset by fuel shortages, empty shelves and soaring energy prices.

The government has made a push into the Indo-Pacific its trading priority, eyeing premium exports to its rapidly expanding middle classes and a surge in demand for British professional services.

She described the free trade agreement signed with the EU on Christmas Eve 2020 as “thin” and “desperate”, but said there was scope to build on it and restore a better functioning arrangement with Britain’s largest export market.

Since leaving the EU, British exporters in some sectors have either been priced out of EU markets or cut off entirely by the demands of new customs rules.

Thornberry’s first step would be to strike an agreement with the EU to resolve problems with the transportation of food between Britain and the EU, and Britain and Northern Ireland.

The government has said it wants to find solutions, but will not tie its food standard permanently to EU law.

Belarus Leader Warns On NATO Troops In Ukraine

Zoe Maven
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1
Belarus Leader Warns On NATO Troops In Ukraine

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned on Monday of a joint response with Russia to military exercises involving troops from NATO member countries in neighbouring Ukraine.

Lukashenko, who gave no details of the response, also blamed the West for what he said was a looming humanitarian catastrophe this winter after migrants were left stranded and freezing on the Belarusian-Polish border.

Ukraine is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation but has long sought closer integration with Western militaries in the hope of one day joining the alliance, a move opposed by Belarus’ main ally, Russia.

Ukraine began joint military exercises with U.S. and other NATO member troops last week, while Russia and Belarus held large-scale drills that alarmed the West.

Lukashenko said he had discussed the situation in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin several times, and the Kremlin said on Monday that expansion of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine crossed a red line for Putin.

Relations between Belarus and the West have deteriorated since Lukashenko cracked down on mass protests following a disputed election in August 2020, triggering U.S., European Union and British sanctions but support from Moscow.

Belarus and its EU neighbours have also traded blame over the plight of migrants. The EU has accused Minsk of encouraging migrants, mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan, to cross the borders in retaliation for the sanctions.

German SPD Seeks Three-Way Alliance To Succeed Merkel

Zoe Maven
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0
German SPD Seeks Three-Way Alliance To Succeed Merkel

German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz vowed on Monday to strengthen the European Union and keep up the transatlantic partnership in a three-way coalition government he hopes to form by Christmas to take over from Angela Merkel’s conservatives.

Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) came first in Sunday’s national election, just ahead of the conservatives, and aim to lead a government for the first time since 2005 in a coalition with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).

The SPD, Germany’s oldest party, won 25.7% of the vote, up five percentage points from the 2017 federal election, ahead of Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservative bloc on 24.1%, provisional results showed. The Greens came in with 14.8% and the FDP won 11.5%.

Scholz, who served as finance minister in Merkel’s outgoing ‘grand coalition’, said a government led by him would offer the United States continuity in transatlantic relations.

Scholz said he hoped to agree a coalition before Christmas, “if possible”. However, his conservative rival Armin Laschet, 60, said he could still try to form a government despite leading his CDU/CSU bloc to their worst ever national election result.

The Greens and FDP said late on Sunday they would first talk to each other to seek areas of compromise before starting negotiations with either the SPD or the conservatives.

Merkel, who did not seek a fifth term as chancellor, will stay on in a caretaker role during the coalition negotiations that will set the future course of Europe’s largest economy.

Meanwhile, German shares rose on Monday, with investors pleased that the pro-business FDP looked likely to join the next government while the far-left Linke failed to win enough votes to be considered as a coalition partner.

Afghanistan Envoy Withdraws From Assembly Debate – UN

Zoe Maven
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0
Afghanistan Envoy Withdraws From Assembly Debate – UN

Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United Nations Ghulam Isaczai, pulled out of delivering an address to world leaders at the General Assembly later Monday.

Ghulam Isaczai, who represented president Ashraf Ghani’s regime that was ousted last month, had been due to defy the Taliban with a speech but his name was removed from the list of speakers early Monday.

Monica Grayley, a spokeswoman for the assembly’s president, confirmed that the country has wirhdrawn its participation in the general debate but added that Afghanistan’s mission to the UN had not cited a reason for the withdrawal.

The Taliban wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week requesting that its new foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, be allowed to “participate.”

The letter insisted that Isaczai “no longer represents” Afghanistan at the global body.

The letter said that the Taliban had nominated their Doha-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as Afghanistan’s permanent representative to the UN.

The note came after Guterres had received a separate letter from Isaczai, dated September 15, containing the list of Afghanistan’s delegation for the session.

New Nyiragongo Lava Lake Lets Volcano ‘Breathe’ – Experts

Zoe Maven
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0
New Nyiragongo Lava Lake Lets Volcano ‘Breathe’ – Experts

Experts in DR Congo say the reappearance of a lava lake in the crater of the Nyiragongo volcano in eastern DR Congo is a good sign.

Celestin Kasereka Mahinda, the scientific director of the Goma Volcanology Observatory, said the “reappearance of the lava lake in Nyiragongo’s crater” dates from September 18.

He said it is not a phenomenon that presents an imminent risk of a new eruption, but rather a phenomenon that allows the volcano to breathe, adding that the appearance of this lake of fire in the crater will minimize earthquakes in the volcanic area of Goma.”

Nyiragongo’s eruption on May 22nd-23rd spewed out lava that buried homes in its wake, stopping just short of the northern outskirts of Goma, a city of some 600,000 people.

In the days following the eruption in May, mighty tremors shook Goma, and scientists feared a rare but potentially catastrophic event under nearby Lake Kivu that would send carbon dioxide gas, dissolved in the depths of the water, up to the surface and suffocate everyone in the vicinity.

The Democratic Republic of Congo authorities ordered the evacuation of 400,000 people as a precaution. The residents have largely returned since seismic activity fell back.

After the eruption, the disappearance of lava from the crater sparked fears that it remained buried under Goma.

In the previous major eruption in 2002, around 100 people died and swathes of eastern Goma were destroyed.

Nyiragongo’s deadliest eruption, in 1977, claimed more than 600 lives.

Sudan’s Burhan Vows Army Reforms After Coup Attempt

Zoe Maven
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0
Sudan’s Burhan Vows Army Reforms After Coup Attempt

Sudan’s Sovereign Council head and the country’s ruling transitional authority General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has pledged to reform the army, days after a failed coup.

Speaking at the opening of a military hospital in Khartoum, Al-Burhan said the armed forces would be reorganized, adding that partisan activities are banned in the army.

He said the armed forces are committed to holding elections on the date fixed for ending the transition” in 2023, after which the army will leave the political scene and its role will be limited to protecting the country.

Sudan is led by a civilian-military administration under an August 2019 power-sharing deal signed after president Omar Bashir’s ouster by the military in April that year following mass protests against his iron-fisted rule.

Sudan’s government said it thwarted a September 21 coup attempt involving military officers and civilians linked to the regime of imprisoned Bashir. At least 11 officers were among those arrested.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has since called for reforms within the army, a highly sensitive issue in Sudan.

A transition to full civilian rule has remained shaky, reeling from deep fragmentation among political factions, economic woes and a receding role for civilian leaders.

Paramilitary leader and Burhan’s deputy in the Sovereign Council, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has pointed a finger of blame at politicians after the failed coup.

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