Month: December 2022

Two additional vessels are being deployed in what the French Coastguard describes as an "unprecedented" move. It follows criticism of the French response to the incident in November 2021 in which 27 people drowned trying to cross to the UK in a dinghy. More than 40,000 people have made such crossings this year - a record number. The French Coastguard says the Lapérouse survey vessel has just arrived in the port of Calais, while the Kermorvan patrol ship will be there in the next few days. It says that their deployment will strengthen the coastguard's rescue capabilities in the Channel-North Sea sector. Last month, the UK agreed to increase payments to France by £8m ($10m) more a year to £63m to try to stop channel crossings in sm...

Japan announced Friday that it will jointly develop its next-generation fighter jet with the U.K. and Italy as Tokyo looks to expand defense cooperation beyond its traditional ally, the United States. The Mitsubishi F-X fighter jet will replace the aging fleet of F-2 that Japan previously developed with the United States. Japan’s F-X and Britain’s Tempest, a successor to the Eurofighter Typhoon, will be combined into the next-generation combat aircraft for deployment in 2035. The deal will give Japan greater support in countering China’s growing assertiveness and allow Britain a bigger presence in the Indo-Pacific region. Friday’s fighter jet announcement came four days after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced spending targets aimed at building up Japan’s military capability, includ...

An unprecedented crisis of confidence is shaking a historic center of Catholicism in Germany — the Archdiocese of Cologne. Catholic believers have protested their deeply divisive archbishop and are leaving in droves over allegations that he may have covered up clergy sexual abuse reports. While Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki’s personal fate is in the hands of Pope Francis, the drama has reverberations nationwide, given that the Cologne archdiocese has more Catholics than any other in Germany -- about 1.8 million. Its double-domed cathedral is an iconic tourist attraction and one of the oldest, most important pilgrimage sites of Northern Europe. And the crisis in Cologne, in which many thousands of Catholics in the region have left the church, is in some ways a microcosm of the issues playi...

Explosions that struck two military airbases deep inside Russia on Monday were the result of drone attacks launched by Ukraine, according to Russian and Ukrainian officials, in what appeared to be an audacious attempt to hit the long-range bombers Russia has used to devastate Ukraine’s power grid. Russia’s defense ministry on Monday confirmed the attacks on the bases that are located hundreds of miles from the frontline, saying two of its aircraft were damaged and three military personnel killed. The unprecedented strikes were the first time Ukraine has hit so far into Russia, targeting bases that had generally been thought of as untouchable, according to military experts. A senior Ukrainian official from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s circle, speaking on the condition of anonymity, to...

 Australia's central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-point to 3.1% as it continues trying to wrestle down inflation. The increase was the bank's eighth in a row and took the rate to its highest level in 10 years. Still, Australia's rate hikes have remained relatively modest and its key rate remains lower than in many other countries including the United States, where the Federal Reserve has raised its key interest rate to a range of 3.75% to 4%. Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said inflation remained too high at 6.9%. That's well above the bank's target inflation rate of between 2% and 3%. “Global factors explain much of this high inflation, but strong domestic demand relative to the ability of the economy to meet that demand is also playing a ro...

The big reveal for the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber finally took place Friday night in a glitzy unveiling worthy of a Hollywood production as the aircraft was rolled out of a California hangar, but every effort was made to ensure that details about the new aircraft will continue to remain shrouded in secrecy. Taking place under the cover of night, the plane emerged slowly from the hangar bathed in dramatic blue lighting that did not reveal much beyond the plane's similar shape to the B-2 stealth bomber it is intended to replace. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was among the 600 VIP's and 2,000 Northrop Grumman employees, who have worked on the new bomber for the past seven years, on hand for the big reveal at Northrop Grumman's Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. "The B-21 looks imp...