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Tenerife wildfire : Tens of thousands evacuated as wildfire burns out of control on Spain’s Tenerife

Shasi Kumar
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Tenerife wildfire : Tens of thousands evacuated as wildfire burns out of control on Spain’s Tenerife

Tenerife wildfire: Tens of thousands evacuated as wildfire burns out of control on Spain’s Tenerife

TENERIFE, Canary Islands, Spain (Reuters) – Thousands more people were evacuated from their homes on the Spanish island of Tenerife on Saturday as a wildfire raging in the north of the island remained out of control, but the flames have so far avoided major tourist areas.

The Canary Islands emergency services said more than 26,000 people had been evacuated by Saturday afternoon, according to provisional estimates, a sharp rise from 4,500 on Friday. Some 11 towns are now affected.

READ MORE : Hawaii fires: Death toll climbs in Maui as historic town destruction surveyed

Fierce flames lit up the night sky overnight, and on Saturday helicopters were seen dropping water on areas close to homes where smoke was billowing into the air.

The blaze broke out on Wednesday in a mountainous national park around the Mount Teide volcano – Spain’s highest peak – amid hot and dry weather.

More evacuations were ordered on Saturday morning due to worsening weather overnight, including a rise in temperatures and stronger winds, regional leader Fernando Clavijo told a press conference.

He said thick smoke was hampering efforts to extinguish the fire from the air.

Some 5,000 hectares (12,000 acres) have been burned so far with a perimeter of 50 km (30 miles).

The fire was at a scale that has never been seen before in the Canary Islands, Tenerife Council President Rosa Davila told reporters.

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Russian missile attack kills 7 in northern Ukrainian city as Zelenskyy visits NATO candidate Sweden

Marietta Reformado
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Russian missile attack kills 7 in northern Ukrainian city as Zelenskyy visits NATO candidate Sweden

Russian missile attack kills 7 in northern Ukrainian city as Zelenskyy visits NATO candidate Sweden

CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile attack in the center of a northern Ukrainian city on Saturday killed seven people and wounded over a hundred others, including children, Ukrainian officials said.

The attack in Chernihiv happened as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Sweden on his first foreign trip since attending a NATO summit in Lithuania last month.

Images of the aftermath showed badly damaged buildings including a theater with its roof blown away, mangled cars and survivors walking amid the debris with bloodstained clothes. The dead in the daytime strike included a 6-year-old girl, while 15 children were among the 129 wounded, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.

READ MORE : US, Japan and South Korea agree to expand security ties at summit amid China, North Korea worries

The square in front of the theater building had been bustling with life, with people returning from church after celebrating the Apple Feast of the Savior religious holiday, baskets of consecrated apples in hand, Klymenko said. Following the strike, debris from the theater roof littered the square, along with shattered glass from the windows of nearby cars and restaurants.

The strike hit the theater during a gathering of drone manufacturers and aerial reconnaissance training schools, organizer Mariia Berlinska confirmed. Berlinska said that the event was officially agreed in advance with both the local authorities and the venue. The Chernihiv City Council denied that they had approved the event or issued any permits.

Zelenskyy said the attack showed Russia was a “terrorist state” and that the world must unite against it.

“A Russian missile hit right in the center of the city, in our Chernihiv,” he wrote on Telegram. “A square, the polytechnic university, a theater. An ordinary Saturday, which Russia turned into a day of pain and loss.”

Chernihiv was surrounded by Russian forces at the start of the war but they withdrew after Ukrainian forces retook control of areas north of Kyiv in April last year.

Zelenskyy arrived in Sweden on an unannounced visit Saturday — his first to the Scandinavian country since the start of the full-scale invasion. The war prompted Sweden to abandon its longstanding policy of military nonalignment to support Ukraine with weapons and apply for NATO membership, though it is still waiting to join the alliance.

At a joint news conference, Zelenskyy and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced the two countries had agreed to cooperate on the production, training and servicing of Swedish CV90 infantry fighting vehicles. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would start manufacturing the vehicles as part of the deal.

He also encouraged Kristersson to “share” Sweden’s Gripen fighter aircraft with Ukraine.

“We do not have superiority in the air, and we do not have modern aircraft. In reality, the Swedish Gripen is the pride of your country, and I believe that the prime minister could share this pride with Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.

Sweden has said it will allow Ukrainian pilots to test the Gripen planes but has so far ruled out giving any to Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said “appropriate actions” would be taken in coming weeks to help Ukraine obtain “appropriate aircraft.”

“I will also have negotiations with several other states tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. I am confident that we, together with our partners, will do everything and achieve the appropriate result in the sky so that the Russians do not have an advantage there,” he said.

Denmark and the Netherlands said Friday that the United States had given its approval for the countries to deliver U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.

Sweden says it has provided 20 billion kronor (1.7 billion euros) in military support to Ukraine, including Archer artillery units, Leopard 2 tanks and CV90 armored vehicles.

Zelenskyy met with Kristersson and other Swedish officials at Harpsund, the prime minister’s official summertime residence, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Stockholm. He and first lady Olena Zelenska later met Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia at a palace in the area.

Kyiv this week has claimed counteroffensive gains on the southeastern front, regaining control of the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Wednesday.

The leader of the Russian battalion fighting to maintain control of Urozhaine called for “freezing the front” on Thursday, saying his troops “cannot win” against Ukraine.

“Can we bring down Ukraine militarily? Now and in the near future, no,” Alexander Khodakovsky said in a video posted to Telegram.

Overnight into Saturday, Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 15 out of 17 Russian drones targeting northern, central and western regions.

The deputy governor of the western Khmelnytskyi region, Serhii Tiurin, said two people were wounded and dozens of buildings damaged by an attack.

In the northwestern Zhytomyr region, a Russian drone attack targeted an infrastructure facility and caused a fire, but no casualties were reported, said Gov. Vitalii Bunechko.

— Ritter reported from Stockholm. Morton reported from London.

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US, Japan and South Korea agree to expand security ties at summit amid China, North Korea worries

Diplomat Times
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US, Japan and South Korea agree to expand security ties at summit amid China, North Korea worries

US, Japan and South Korea agree to expand security ties at summit amid China, North Korea worries

CAMP DAVID (AP) — President Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea agreed Friday to expand security and economic ties at a historic summit at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David, cementing a new agreement with the allies that are on an increasingly tense ledge in relations with China and North Korea.

Biden said the nations would establish a communications hotline to discuss responses to threats. He announced the agreements, including what the leaders termed the “Camp David Principles,” at the close of his talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

“Our countries are stronger and the world will be safer as we stand together. And I know this is a belief that all three share,” Biden said.

READ MORE : China confirms Xi will attend BRICS summit in South Africa followed by state visit

“The purpose of our trilateral security cooperation is and will remain to promote and enhance peace and stability throughout the region,” the leaders said in a joint statement.

Biden maintained, as have US, South Korean and Japanese officials, that the summit “was not about China” but was focused on broader security issues. Yet, the leaders in their joint summit concluding statement noted China’s “dangerous and aggressive” action in the South China Sea and said they “strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific.”

Yoon noted in particular the threat posed by North Korea, saying the three leaders had agreed to improve “our joint response capabilities to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, which have become sophisticated more than ever.”

He said as the three appeared before reporters that “today will be remembered as a historic day, where we established a firm institutional basis and commitments to the trilateral partnership.”

Japan’s Kishida said before the private talks that “the fact that we, the three leaders, have got together in this way, I believe means that we are indeed making a new history as of today. The international community is at a turning point in history.”

The visitors spoke in their home languages, their comments repeated by a translator.

The U.S., Japan and South Korea agreed to a new “duty to consult” security pledge committing them to speak with each other in the event of a security crisis or threat in the Pacific.

The pledge is intended to acknowledge that they share “fundamentally interlinked security environments” and that a threat to one is “a threat to all,” according to a senior Biden administration official. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcement.

Under the pledge, the three countries agree to consult, share information and align their messaging with each other in the face of a threat or crisis, the official said.

The Camp David retreat, 65 miles (104.6 kilometers) from the White House, was where President Jimmy Carter brought together Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978 for talks that established a framework for a historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in March 1979. In the midst of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at the retreat — then known as Shangri-La — to plan the Italian campaign that would knock Benito Mussolini out of the war.

Kishida and Yoon were mindful of Camp David’s place in U.S. and world history, making repeated references to its past and now their place in it during their comments at the news conference after the meeting with Biden. The leaders arrived in Washington on Thursday and, as guests of Biden, on Friday were flown separately to Camp David on U.S. military helicopters like the ones Biden uses.

Biden’s focus for the gathering was to nu dge the United States’ two closest Asian allies to further tighten security and economic cooperation with each other. The historic rivals have been divided by differing views of World War II history and Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

But under Kishida and Yoon, the two countries have begun a rapprochement as the two conservative leaders grapple with shared security challenges posed by North Korea and China. Both leaders have been upset by the stepped-up cadence of North Korea’s ballistic missile tests and Chinese military exercises near Taiwan, the self-ruled island that is claimed by Beijing as part of its territory, and other aggressive action.

Yoon proposed an initiative in March to resolve disputes stemming from compensation for wartime Korean forced laborers. He announced that South Korea would use its own funds to compensate Koreans enslaved by Japanese companies before the end of World War II.

Yoon also traveled to Tokyo that month for talks with Kishida, the first such visit by a South Korean president in more than 12 years. Kishida reciprocated with a visit to Seoul in May and expressed sympathy for the suffering of Korean forced laborers during Japan’s colonial rule, The effort to sustain the trilateral relationship won’t be without challenges.

Beijing sees the tightening cooperation efforts as the first steps of a Pacific-version of NATO, the transatlantic military alliance, forming against it. U.S. officials expect that North Korea will lash out—perhaps with more ballistic missile test and certainly blistering rhetoric.

Polls show that a solid majority of South Koreans oppose Yoon’s handling of the forced labor issue that’s been central to mending relations with Japan. And many in Japan fear that bolstering security cooperation will lead the country into an economic Cold War with China, its biggest trading partner. Biden’s predecessor (and potential successor) Republican Donald Trump unnerved South Korea during his time in the White House with talk of reducing the U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula.

“If an ultra-leftist South Korean president and an ultra-right wing Japanese leader are elected in their next cycles, or even if Trump or someone like him wins in the U.S., then any one of them could derail all the meaningful, hard work Biden, Yoon and Kishida are putting in right now,” said Duyeon Kim, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security ’s Indo-Pacific Security Program.

__

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Hyung-Jin Kim in Seoul contributed to this report. Lee reported from Washington.

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China confirms Xi will attend BRICS summit in South Africa followed by state visit

Shasi Kumar
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China confirms Xi will attend BRICS summit in South Africa followed by state visit

China confirms Xi will attend BRICS summit in South Africa followed by state visit

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend next week’s summit of the BRICS nations in Johannesburg, to be followed by a state visit to South Africa, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying also said in a statement that during his Aug. 21-24 visit to South Africa, Xi will co-chair the China-Africa Leaders’ Dialogue with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa.

China is a core member of the BRICS nations, which also include Brazil, Russia and India.

READ MORE : BRICS foreign ministers : Jaishankar meets Russian counterpart Lavrov in South Africa

The grouping was predicated on linking the interests of the world’s leading emerging economies but has sought to expand into other civil and governmental fields.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided not to attend the summit because of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for him, according to South African authorities.

The development could be viewed as embarrassing for Putin, who is expected to be the only leader of a country in the bloc not to attend. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin “has decided to take part” in the summit via video link, without confirming if he had intended to attend in person.

The BRICS summit is the first to be held in person since 2019 and comes as the bloc seeks new relevance amidst Russia’s war in Ukraine, South Africa’s crashing economy and sharpening competition between Asian giants China and India.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said that he supports more countries joining the group and intends to raise the topic at the summit.

Around 20 countries have formally applied to join, Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira said following the comments by Lula, who since taking office has repeatedly bucked the existing Western-dominated international structure. Among the hopefuls are Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran and Venezuela, Vieira said.

Facing isolation by the U.S. and European Union, China and Russia have sought to expand their economic influence in developing countries. Beijing has done so partly through the Chinese-backed New Development Bank, commonly known as the BRICS bank, which is funding infrastructure projects in Brazil and elsewhere in the developing world.

Asked at a daily briefing about China’s expectations for the summit, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said BRICS had been “taking on increasing international influence,” but did not mention the issue of expansion. He said China looks forward to working with South Africa to “jointly pursue development and revitalization and make a positive contribution to a multipolar world and greater democracy in international relations.”

“All sides will have an in-depth exchange of views on prominent global challenges, enhance coordination and cooperation in international affairs, and inject stability and positive energy into today’s world,” Wang said.

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Broadcaster Rick Jeanneret Dead at 81, After Multi-Organ Failures

Roshan Bilung
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Broadcaster Rick Jeanneret Dead at 81, After Multi-Organ Failures

Broadcaster Rick Jeanneret Dead at 81, After Multi-Organ Failures

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The Buffalo Sabres hockey team’s play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret has died at the age of 81.

The team released a statement on social media from his family announcing the news on Thursday night. Jeanneret’s family said the Hall of Fame broadcaster died earlier that day with his family by his side “after a two-year battle with multi-organ failures.”

The family concluded its statement writing that Jeanneret “will be loved forever.”

The Buffalo Sabres’ team shared its own post remembering Jeanneret following the news. It said the Sabres “mourn the life of our legendary broadcaster and a member of our family, Rick Jeanneret, who passed away today. We send all of our love to his family and friends, and the entire Sabres community.”

READ MORE : Tony Bennett, legendary singer and master of the American songbook, dies at 96

“Rick was indeed a very special and very loved man, to and by all, who knew him and listened to him, his magic, and his command,” Sabres owner Terry Pegula said. “How glad I am to have known him. How lucky were we all to have been around him and to have listened to him.

It was in part through Jeanneret how Pegula became a fan of the Sabres and their famed French Connection line of the 1970s by listening to the team’s games on radio while living in Pittsburgh. Pegula and his wife bought the franchise in February 2011.

“Growing up in Buffalo, Rick Jeanneret was not just the voice of the Sabres, he was the voice of our city. He helped foster my love of hockey,” added Sabres GM Kevyn Adams.

“Rick was an incredible man that was loved by all,” Adams added. “His wit and humor was unmatched, and we are all lucky to have known him.”

In retirement, Jeanneret still attended Sabres games last season in making the trip from his home in nearby Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Jeanneret was known for having various signature calls including, “Top shelf, where mama hides the cookies,” whenever a Sabres player scored by roofing a shot high into the net.

One of his most memorable calls was “May Day! May Day!” after Brad May scored the decisive goal in a 6-5 overtime win to clinch a four-game series sweep of Boston in the first round of the 1993 playoffs. It was also Buffalo’s first playoff series win in 10 years.

His other notable calls included “La-la-la-la-Fontaine!” which followed whenever former Sabres captain Pat LaFontaine scored in the 1990s. And there was his, “Now do you believe?” call during the 2006 playoffs, during the Sabres’ run to the Eastern Conference final.

He achieved the NHL’s highest broadcasting honor in 2012, upon earning the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Foster Hewitt Memorial Award.

The Sabres honored Jeanneret during his final season by raising a banner bearing his name to the arena rafters. He is one of 11 people to have been honored by the team, and third non-player, joining team founders, brothers Seymour and Northrup Knox.

Jeanneret did his best to keep his emotions in check during the ceremony, and amidst a sold-out crowd chanting “RJ! RJ! RJ!”

“I stood down here 10 years ago upon my induction into the Sabres hall of fame, and I remember saying that night, this is the only job I ever wanted. This is the only place I wanted to be,” Jeanneret said during a 15-minute ceremony. “I meant every word on that particular night. And boy, do I mean it now.”

He grew up in nearby St. Catharines, Ontario, and spent much of his life in the Niagara region. He called his first Sabres game on the radio on Oct. 10, 1971, and then joined the team’s TV broadcast in 1995.

Jeanneret had several health scares, which led to him reducing his travel schedule In 2014, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, but missed just a few games during the 2014-15 season after receiving treatment. In 2016, he was fitted with a pacemaker due to a slow pulse.

He is survived by his wife, Sandra, his children, Mark, Chris and Shelly, and numerous grandchildren. Funeral arrangements were not available.

BY JOHN WAWROW

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Vivek Ramaswamy to headline Dorchester County GOP dinner Saturday

Mikey Peres
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Vivek Ramaswamy to headline Dorchester County GOP dinner Saturday

Vivek Ramaswamy to headline Dorchester County GOP dinner Saturday

SUMMERVILLE (WCBD) – Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is visiting Dorchester County on Saturday to continue his campaign in South Carolina. Ramaswamy will be a headline speaker at the Dorchester County GOP fundraiser named the Faith, Family & Freedom Dinner at the Dorchester Shrine Club.

Ramaswamy’s return comes amid Democratic Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s visit to South Carolina. The biotech entrepreneur from Ohio has previously been campaigning in Iowa; hosting events at the Iowa state fair.

Saturday’s GOP event is sold out with roughly 300 people expected to be in attendance. The event begins at 5:30 PM.

READ MORE : At Camp David, Biden aims to nudge Japan and South Korea toward greater unity in complicated Pacific

News 2 spoke with the Dorchester County Republican Chairman, Steven Wright, ahead of his parties event on Saturday.

“Dorchester Republicans are excited to host our 3rd annual Faith Family and Freedom Dinner and this year we are even more excited to host the person who is running for president of the United States,” he said. “Vivek Rameswamey is going to be our keynote speaker this year, he is polling second place in many poles, third place in most poles. We are very excited to have somebody who is a rising star within the republican party be our keynote speaker this year,” said Wright.

News 2 spoke with the South Carolina Democratic Party and is waiting on a written statement from them regarding Ramaswamy’s arrival. News 2 also reached out to the Dorchester Democratic Party who declined an interview.

By Walker Simmons for Nexstar Media Inc.

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At Camp David, Biden aims to nudge Japan and South Korea toward greater unity in complicated Pacific

Shasi Kumar
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At Camp David, Biden aims to nudge Japan and South Korea toward greater unity in complicated Pacific

At Camp David, Biden aims to nudge Japan and South Korea toward greater unity in complicated Pacific

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden aims to further tighten security and economic ties between Japan and South Korea, two nations that have struggled to stay on speaking terms, as he welcomes their leaders to the rustic Camp David presidential retreat Friday.

Historically frosty relations between South Korea and Japan have rapidly thawed over the last year as they share concerns about China’s assertiveness in the Pacific and North Korea’s persistent nuclear threats. Biden is now looking to use the summit in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains to urge South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to turn the page on their countries’ difficult shared history.

The Japan-South Korea relationship is a delicate one because of differing views of World War II history and Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. Past efforts to tighten security cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo have progressed with fits and starts.

But the White House is hoping the current rapprochement offers an opportunity for a historic shift in the relationship.

READ MORE : Biden dispatches top adviser for talks with Saudi crown prince on normalizing relations with Israel

“We have entered a new and more ambitious era of trilateral partnership,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday. She added that Yoon and Kishida “have seized the moment” and are ushering in a “new era” for their countries.

The leaders will announce in their summit communique a series of joint efforts that aim to “institutionalize” cooperation among the three countries as they face an increasingly complicated Pacific, according to a senior Biden administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss summit planning.

The idea, the official added, is to formalize cooperation on issues of defense, technology and beyond, making it as “irreversible as possible” for the three countries to back away from cooperation on significant issues in the years to come. Among the expected major announcements are plans to expand military cooperation on ballistic defenses and technology development.

“The world is changing rapidly, and I think this is apparent to both the Japanese and South Koreans,” said Sheila Smith, a senior fellow for Asia-Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In picking Camp David, where presidents over 80 years have hosted historic peace summits and intimate leader-to-leader talks, Biden is looking to demonstrate the importance of relations with South Korea and Japan.

His administration says it remains determined to place greater foreign policy focus on the Pacific even as the U.S. grapples with the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this year, Biden honored Yoon with a state visit and picked Kishida’s predecessor, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, for the first face-to-face visit of his presidency.

The retreat was where President Jimmy Carter brought together Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978 for talks that established a framework for a historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in March 1979. In the midst of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at the retreat — then known as Shangri-La — to plan the Italian campaign that would knock Benito Mussolini out of the war.

Biden frequently visits Camp David with family, but Friday’s summit will be the first time he has used the retreat to host international leaders.

Kishida before departing Tokyo for Washington on Thursday called the summit a “historic occasion to bolster trilateral strategic cooperation based on our stronger-than-ever bilateral relations with the United States and South Korea.”

The relationship mending has come with a significant measure of political risk for Yoon as bitterness in his country over Japan’s colonial rule from 1910 to 1945 lingers. Polls show a majority of South Koreans oppose Yoon’s handling of the forced labor issue with Japan.

Biden is expected to impress on Yoon and Kishida that the U.S., Japan and South Korea are at a crucial moment and need to stay on the same page.

“I think it’s fair to say that a few months ago both President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida might have been a bit uncomfortable with the prospect of a meeting at Camp David,” said Christopher Johnstone, a senior adviser and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Both would have been hesitant to endorse any implication that somehow the U.S. was brokering an improvement in Japan-ROK ties,” he said, referring to the Republic of Korea. “But we’re in a very different stage now.”

Kishida and Yoon came to office months apart in late 2021 and early 2022 as their countries’ relationship was in one of the roughest periods since the two countries officially normalized relations in 1965.

Japan suspended South Korea’s preferred trade status in 2019 in apparent retaliation for South Korean court rulings in 2018 that ordered Japanese companies to compensate Korean workers for abusive treatment and forced labor during World War II, when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese occupation.

Japan also tightened export controls on key chemicals used by South Korean companies to make semiconductors, prompting South Korea to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization and remove Japan from its own list of countries with preferred trade status.

The ties have improved significantly in recent months. Yoon proposed an initiative in March to resolve disputes stemming from compensation for wartime Korean forced laborers. He announced that South Korea would use its own funds to compensate Koreans enslaved by Japanese companies before the end of World War II.

Yoon also traveled to Tokyo in March for talks with Kishida, the first such visit in more than 12 years. Kishida reciprocated with a visit to Seoul in May and expressed sympathy for the suffering of Korean forced laborers during Japan’s colonial rule,

Yoon in remarks this week to mark the 78th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan’s colonial rule said the summit “will set a new milestone in trilateral cooperation.” He also made plain that improved ties with Japan was crucial for regional stability.

Associated Press writers Hyung-Jin Kim in Seoul and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed reporting.

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Heavy rain in Germany causes flooding and leads to flight cancelations in Frankfurt

Andy Sengiah
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Heavy rain in Germany causes flooding and leads to flight cancelations in Frankfurt

Heavy rain in Germany causes flooding and leads to flight cancelations in Frankfurt

BERLIN (AP) — Heavy rain in parts of Germany caused flooding and led to dozens of flight cancelations at Frankfurt Airport, the country’s busiest and a major European hub, authorities said Thursday.

The airport said large quantities of water accumulated on the tarmac Wednesday evening and ground handling was suspended for more than two hours, German news agency dpa reported.

The airport website showed about 70 flights were canceled by 11 p.m., when flying is ordinarily halted for the night, while 23 flights headed for Frankfurt were diverted to other airports.

Downpours in parts of southwestern and central Germany led to flooded basements and streets. In Gelsenkirchen, in the western Ruhr district, the fire service said people were rescued from their cars where several highway underpasses were under water.

READ MORE : Italy floods leave 13 dead and force 13,000 from their homes

Local media reported, the storm swept over southwest Germany yesterday evening, dumping huge quantities of water and reportedly unleashing lightning for about an hour.

Frankfurt airport spokesman today said, it was forced to cancel 90 flights while 23 more were re-routed to land at other airports. Some passengers slept on camp beds while many spent the night at the airport hotel.

The fire service said, it launched more than 500 operations from yesterday evening to today morning related to the storm.

It said, streets, cellars and lower-lying residential areas were rapidly flooded, while trees toppled over, hitting vehicles. The storm also affected other areas, with Gelsenkirchen, in the region North Rhine-Westphalia, hard hit.

Emergency service workers rescued people from vehicles at several highway underpasses.

AccuWeather shared a video on Social Media about flash flooding in Germany.

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Israel clinches largest-ever defense deal with Germany for $3.5 billion after securing US approval

Shasi Kumar
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Israel clinches largest-ever defense deal with Germany for .5 billion after securing US approval

Israel clinches largest-ever defense deal with Germany for $3.5 billion after securing US approval

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it has secured its largest-ever defense deal selling a sophisticated missile defense system to Germany for $3.5 billion after the United States approved the deal.

Although Israel has long had close economic and military links with western European countries, the deal with Germany could draw the attention of Russia. Israel has maintained working relations with Russia throughout the war in Ukraine and has repeatedly rebuffed requests to sell arms to Kyiv for fear of antagonizing Moscow.

Germany will buy the advanced defense system, coined Arrow 3, which is designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles. Israel sought approval for the deal from the U.S. State Department because the system was jointly developed by the two countries. Israeli defense officials said the system would extend Germany’s defense capability while strengthening the defense relationship between Israel and the United States.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deal “historic.”

READ MORE : Amazon to invest $7.2 billion in Israel, launches AWS cloud region

“Seventy-five years ago the Jewish people were ground to dust on the soil of Nazi Germany,” Netanyahu said. “Seventy-five years later, the Jewish state gives Germany — a different Germany — the tools to defend itself.”

The sale still requires additional procedural steps by both Israel and Germany, including approval by both parliaments, according to the director of the Israeli Missile Defense Organization, Moshe Patel. Patel told reporters Thursday that the components of the missile system will be fully delivered to Germany by 2025, with the system reaching full capability by 2030.

Germany launched the European Sky Shield Initiative last year with 17 other nations, including the United Kingdom and Sweden, which is a joint European air defense system after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius welcomed the U.S. approval allowing the deal to move forward.

Ministry of Defense of Israel tweets, The US government has approved the historic procurement of the Arrow 3 defense system to Germany. The IMOD, German Federal MOD and Israel Aerospace Industries will sign the landmark $3.5 billion defense agreement, marking Israel’s largest ever defense deal.

“This procurement plan is essential for us in order to be able to protect Germany from ballistic missile attacks in the future,” he said in a statement posted by his ministry on the social platform X, formerly known as Twitter. He added that “the project also constitutes a signal of our special German-Israeli relations.”

Uzi Rubin, the former director of Israel’s missile defense program, said Arrow 3 could be moved to act as a long-range ballistic missile shield for other European countries. He said it was the best defense available against the threat of ballistic missiles but does not protect against cruise missiles or others flying at lower altitudes.

While Israel has turned down requests to provide Ukraine with weapons, it has sent humanitarian aid.

Israel has a delicate relationship with Russia, with which it coordinates on security issues in neighboring Syria. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes against Iranian military positions in recent years in Syria. Russia is also home to a large Jewish community.

By moving ahead on Arrow 3 with Germany, Israel appears to be counting on the fact that the deal, as well as a sale of a different missile defense system to NATO member Finland, involves only defensive weapons — and will not fundamentally disrupt cordial relations with Russia.

“Relations are a bit strained,” said Rubin, who is also an expert at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, a think tank. “But still, we are not supplying Ukraine with any weapons. We do that because we want to keep relations with Russia at an acceptable level.”

Reporting by JULIA FRANKEL

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More than 60 Senegalese migrants feared dead on monthlong voyage to Spain

Mark Kenya
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More than 60 Senegalese migrants feared dead on monthlong voyage to Spain

More than 60 Senegalese migrants feared dead on monthlong voyage to Spain

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — More than 60 migrants are feared dead after a Spanish fishing vessel rescued a boat off the Atlantic archipelago of Cape Verde that originally had more than 100 people aboard, authorities and migrant advocates said Thursday.

Seven bodies were found on the boat and an estimated 56 people are missing at sea and presumed dead, said International Organization for Migration spokesperson Safa Msehli. According to Senegal’s foreign affairs ministry, 38 people were rescued earlier in the week near Cape Verde, about 620 kilometers (385 miles) off the coast of West Africa.

The Spanish migration advocacy group Walking Borders said the vessel was a large fishing boat, called a pirogue, which had left Senegal on July 10.

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Families in Fass Boye, a seaside town 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital, Dakar, reached out to Walking Borders on July 20 after 10 days without hearing from loved ones on the boat, group founder Helena Maleno Garzón said.

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Cheikh Awa Boye, president of the local fishing association, said survivors called home from Cape Verde after the rescue. Boye said two of his nephews are among those missing.

Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service confirmed that a Spanish fishing boat named the Zillarri rescued 38 people and recovered seven bodies from a Senegalese pirogue on Aug. 14 after spotting it adrift northeast of Cape Verde.

An official of the tropical tuna fishing company PEVASA, which operates the Zillarri, said the survivors were asking for help and were in a “bad state.”

The route from West Africa to Spain is one of the world’s most dangerous, yet the number of migrants leaving from Senegal on rickety wooden boats has surged over the past year. The boats try to reach Spain’s Canary Islands, an archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa that has been used as a steppingstone to continental Europe.

Nearly 1,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by sea in the first six months of 2023, Walking Borders says. Worsening youth unemployment, political unrest, violence by armed groups and climate change push migrants across West Africa to risk their lives on overcrowded boats.

Nearly 10,000 people have reached the Canary Islands by sea from the northwest coast of Africa so far this year, according to Spanish Interior Ministry figures.

On Aug. 7, the Moroccan navy recovered the bodies of five Senegalese migrants and rescued 189 others after their boat capsized off the coast of Western Sahara.

In 2021, an AP investigation found at least seven migrant boats from northwest Africa had become lost in the Atlantic and were found drifting across the Caribbean and even off Brazil, carrying only lifeless bodies.

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This story corrects the spelling of the fishing company’s name to PEVASA.

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Associated Press writers Babacar Dione, Renata Brito, Sam Mednick and Barry Hatton contributed to this report.

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