The US military said on Wednesday it would move its headquarters out of Stuttgart, Germany to Belgium, as it outlined broader plans to shift around 12,000 US troops out of Germany on orders from President Donald Trump.

Trump announced plans last month to cut the number of US troops in Germany to 25,000, faulting the close US ally for failing to meet NATO’s defence spending target and accusing it of taking advantage of America on trade.

Of the 34,500 US military personnel in Germany, some 6,400 will be sent home while nearly 5,600 others will be moved to other NATO countries, US Defence Secretary Mark Esper announced Wednesday.

A key aim of the rotation is to reinforce NATO’s southeastern flank near the Black Sea, Esper said.

Some could also go to Poland and the Baltic states if Warsaw follows through on an agreement already sketched out by the two sides, Esper said.

US officials said some of the moves will begin in months and would likely send air and ground forces to countries that already have an American troop presence.

Shift to Poland

The announcement is closely tied to the plan to increase the US troop presence in Poland, a shift long-desired by Warsaw and Polish President Andrzej Duda.

The moves are expected to cost “billions” of dollars, according to US officials, and require construction at bases in the US to accommodate the additional forces. The officials said that in the future other troops would rotate in and out of Europe.

Members of Trump’s own political party have criticised the troop move as a gift to Russia and a threat to US national security. Twenty-two Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee fired back with a letter to Trump saying a reduced US commitment to Europe’s defence would encourage Russian aggression and opportunism.

It’s also unclear if the plan would survive if Trump is not re-elected in November.

A message to Russia

Germany is a hub for US operations in the Middle East and Africa. The decision to keep nearly half the forces in Europe is a clear move by the Pentagon to assuage allies by avoiding the complete withdrawal of 10,000 troops out of the region. And by spreading forces into the East, it sends a message to Russia that the US is not reducing its commitment to the region and remains ready to protect Eastern Europe from any Moscow aggression.

Shifting forces out of Germany had long been rumoured and is in line with Pentagon efforts to put more troops in the Indo-Pacific. But Trump’s comments indicated the move was tied more directly to his anger over Germany’s failure to meet NATO defence spending goals.

Trump has branded Germany “delinquent” for failing to meet a NATO goal set in 2014 for members to halt budget cuts and move toward spending at least two percent of gross national product on defence by 2024. And he asserted that the Germans had long shortchanged the United States on trade and defence, declaring that “until they pay” more for their own defence, he will reduce US troops.

At a White House event last month with Duda, Trump said that some of the troops from Germany would go to Poland and some would go to “other places”.

Under an agreement announced last year, the US already said it was sending about 1,000 more troops to Poland, and progress is being made, officials said, to lay the groundwork for those moves. Based on that agreement, the US will add a division headquarters, a combat training centre, an unmanned aircraft squadron and structure to support an Army brigade that could rotate in and out of the country.

Overall, the US has about 47,000 troops and civilian personnel in Germany, spread out across a number of bases, headquarters and smaller installations. Most of the 35,000 on active duty are in a handful of larger Army and Air Force bases including Ramstein Air Base, a hub in the region. There also are 2,600 National Guard and Reserve forces in Germany, and almost 12,000 civilians working for the services or the Defense Department.

Several NATO defence ministers had expressed concern about the decision to pull thousands of troops out of Germany, particularly since Trump has talked repeatedly about bringing troops home and getting the US out of “endless wars”.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and REUTERS)

A bridge over a lake in Arizona partially collapsed on Wednesday after a freight train derailed and caught fire.

The incident happened just before 6:30 a.m. local time in Tempe, located east of Phoenix. The Tempe Police Department said on Twitter that officers and the Tempe Fire Department were on the scene of a train derailment and “large fire” over Tempe Town Lake.

“Several roads are restricted near Tempe Town Lake and west of downtown Tempe,” the department said. “Please avoid the area.”

Fire and smoke could be seen along the length of the train bridge, including a portion that collapsed in a park area.

Aerial images from FOX10 showed the fire continuing to burn as first responders arrived at the scene.

It’s not clear what the train was carrying, but lumber could be seen in the water below.

Camille Kimball, who was riding her bike under the bridge before it collapsed, told CBS 5 the noise of the train got extremely loud and as she came off the bridge.

“I turned around to look and got the fright of my life,” she told the television station. “Now there’s fire pouring into the lake from the middle of the bridge. … It’ looks like a scene from hell, truly. A scene from hell. … The flames are intense and the sky is filled with black smoke.”

It’s not yet known if any injuries have been reported due to the derailment and subsequent fire.

Valley Metro, who operates the light rail system in the Phoenix area, said due to the incident involving the freight train, Valley Metro trains were prevented from crossing the Tempe Town Lake Bridge.

Buses were being arranged to transport passengers through the area.

Source: Fox News

Senate Republicans on Monday proposed a $1 trillion coronavirus aid package hammered out with the White House, paving the way for talks with Democrats on how to help Americans as expanded unemployment benefits for millions of workers expire this week.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the proposal a “tailored and targeted” plan focused on getting children back to school and employees back to work and protecting corporations from lawsuits, while slashing the expiring supplemental unemployment benefits of $600 a week by two-thirds.

The plan sparked immediate opposition from both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats decried it as too limited compared to their $3 trillion proposal that passed the House of Representatives in May, while some Republicans called it too expensive.

McConnell said the package would include direct $1,200 payments to Americans, as well as incentives for the manufacture of personal protective equipment in the United States, rather than China.

It also includes $190 billion for loans to help small businesses, and $100 billion for loans to businesses that operate seasonally or in low-income areas.

Republicans want to reduce the expanded unemployment benefit from the current $600 per week, which is in addition to state unemployment payments and expires on Friday, to $200 in addition to state unemployment.

After two months, states would pay unemployed people a total of 70% of their previous wages, but only to a maximum of $500 per week, less than half of what many workers have been getting.

The supplemental unemployment has been a financial lifeline for laid-off workers and a key support for consumer spending. The extra funds – exceeding the former wages of some workers – have been a sticking point for many Republicans, who say they encourage Americans to stay home rather than go back to work.

Democrats, in turn, have decried the Republican delay in writing more legislation as confirmed U.S. coronavirus cases passed the 4 million mark. The pandemic has killed roughly 150,000 people in the United States.

Liability protections and defence spending

The Democratic-led House in May passed its $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill known as the “HEROES Act,” but the Republican-led Senate refused to consider it.

McConnell on Monday called the House bill a “socialist manifesto” and urged Democrats to work with Republicans on their plan, called the “HEALS Act.”

“We have one foot in the pandemic and one foot in the recovery,” McConnell said. “The American people need more help. They need it to be comprehensive, and they need it to be carefully tailored to this crossroads.”

The proposal included “strong legal liability protection” for corporations, a top Republican priority.

It includes nearly $30 billion for the military and defense industry, in addition to nearly $760 billion already enacted for defense this year – including more than $10 billion in previous coronavirus relief bills.

Immediate opposition from some of McConnell’s fellow Republicans, as well as from Democrats, signaled a tough round of negotiations ahead.

“The answer to these challenges will not simply be shoveling cash out of Washington. The answer to these challenges will be getting people back to work,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz told reporters.

Some Republicans had complained about the high price tag. The federal government has already spent $3.7 trillion to cushion the economic blow from pandemic-forced shutdowns.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the Republican plan did too little, too slowly, to help Americans facing joblessness and eviction. “The Republican plan is weak tea, when our problems need a much stronger brew,” Schumer said.

He said many states had warned they would have a hard time implementing unemployment changes. Many Americans waited weeks for previous coronavirus benefits, as outmoded state computer systems adjusted.

Democrats had warned they would oppose a Republican proposal to protect businesses and schools from liability lawsuits as they reopen with the coronavirus pandemic still raging.

The Republican proposal also includes measures not directly related to the COVID-19 outbreak, including $1.8 billion for construction of a new FBI headquarters in Washington, something championed by President Donald Trump, who owns a hotel across the street from the current building.

(REUTERS)

China launched its most ambitious Mars mission ever on Thursday in a bold attempt to join the United States in successfully landing a spacecraft on the red planet.

The Tianwen-1 was launched on a Long March-5 carrier rocket from a launch site on Hainan Island.

It marked the second flight to Mars this week, after a United Arab Emirates orbiter blasted off on a rocket from Japan on Monday. And the U.S. is aiming to launch Perseverance, its most sophisticated Mars rover ever, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, next week.

China’s tandem spacecraft — with both an orbiter and a rover — will take seven months to reach Mars, like the others. If all goes well, Tianwen-1, or “quest for heavenly truth,” will look for underground water, if it’s present, as well as evidence of possible ancient life.

This isn’t China’s first attempt at Mars. In 2011, a Chinese orbiter accompanying a Russian mission was lost when the spacecraft failed to get out of Earth’s orbit after launching from Kazakhstan, eventually burning up in the atmosphere.

This time, China is going at it alone. It also is fast-tracking, launching an orbiter and rover on the same mission instead of stringing them out.

China’s secretive space program has developed rapidly in recent decades. Yang Liwei became the first Chinese astronaut in 2003, and last year, Chang’e-4 became the first spacecraft from any country to land on the far side of the moon.

Joining elite club

Conquering Mars would put China in an elite club.

“There is a whole lot of prestige riding on this,” said Dean Cheng, an expert on Chinese aerospace programs at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Landing on Mars is notoriously difficult. Only the U.S. has successfully landed a spacecraft on Martian soil, doing it eight times since 1976. NASA’s InSight and Curiosity rovers still operate today. Six other spacecraft are exploring Mars from orbit: three American, two European and one from India.

Unlike the two other Mars missions launching this month, China has tightly controlled information about the program — even withholding any name for its rover. National security concerns led the U.S. to curb cooperation between NASA and China’s space program.

In an article published earlier this month in Nature Astronomy, mission chief engineer Wan Weixing said Tianwen-1 would slip into orbit around Mars in February and look for a landing site on Utopia Planitia — a plain where NASA has detected possible evidence of underground ice. Wan died in May from cancer.

The landing would then be attempted in April or May, according to the article. If all goes well, the 240-kilogram (530-pound) golf cart-sized, solar-powered rover is expected to operate for about three months, and the orbiter for two years.

Though small compared to America’s hulking, car-sized 1,025-kilogram (2,260-pound) Perseverance, it’s almost twice as big as the two rovers China has sent to the moon in 2013 and 2019. Perseverance is expected to operate for at least two years.

Mars-launching season every 26 months

This Mars-launching season — which occurs every 26 months when Earth and Mars are at their closest — is especially busy.

The UAE spacecraft Amal, or Hope, which will orbit Mars but not land, is the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. NASA’s Perseverance rover is up next.

“At no other time in our history have we seen anything like what is unfolding with these three unique missions to Mars. Each of them is a science and engineering marvel,” the Space Foundation’s chief executive officer Thomas Zelibor said in an online panel discussion earlier this week.

China’s road to Mars hit a few bumps: A Long March-5 rocket, nicknamed “Fat 5” because of its bulky shape, failed to launch earlier this year. The coronavirus pandemic forced scientists to work from home. In March, when instruments needed to be transported from Beijing to Shanghai, three team members drove 12 hours to deliver them.

While China is joining the U.S., Russia and Europe in creating a satellite-based global navigation system, experts say it isn’t trying to overtake the U.S. lead in space exploration.

Instead, Cheng of the Heritage Foundation said China is in a “slow race” with Japan and India to establish itself as Asia’s space power.

Source: AP

US President Donald Trump has urged Americans to wear masks, warning that the coronavirus pandemic in the United States may “get worse before it gets better.”

In what seems to be a shift in rhetoric and tone, Trump encouraged Americans on Tuesday to use face coverings if they cannot maintain social distance.

“It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better – something I don’t like saying about things, but that’s the way it is,” he told reporters in his first press briefing in months focused on the outbreak.

“We’re asking everybody that when you are not able to socially distance, wear a mask, get a mask. Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact. They’ll have an effect. And we need everything we can get,” he added.

He also asked young people to avoid going to crowded bars, but noted that that the virus would disappear at some point.

“We are in the process of developing a strategy that’s going to be very, very powerful. We have developed it as we go along,” he claimed.

The president, who himself was not wearing a mask at the briefing, also said he was getting used to masks and that would wear one in groups or when on an elevator.

“I will use it, gladly,” said the president, who has previously disparaged masks as unsanitary. “Anything that potentially can help … is a good thing.”

This comes as the Republican president’s aides have reportedly pressed him to adopt a more measured approach amid an ongoing spike in the virus infections across the country.

So far, more than 4,028,700 have tested positive and over 144,900 died across the country.

Meanwhile, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has told CNN that Trump’s new embrace of mask-wearing indicated that he was realizing his mistakes in dealing with the virus.

“This is not a hoax – it is a pandemic that has gotten worse before it will get better because of his inaction, and in fact clearly it is the Trump virus,” Pelosi said.

Trump has been under fire for publicly downplaying the threat of the pandemic  and his handling of the worsening COVID-19 crisis which has killed more than 143,000 people in the United States and crippled the country’s economy.

On Monday, hundreds of scientists from the US National Academy of Sciences had rebuked Trump’s “denigration of scientific expertise” over coronavirus response and other affronts.

In an unusual move by the scientific community, more than 1,200 members of the National Academy of Sciences signed an open letter seeking to “restore science-based policy in government,” The Guardian reported.

Source: Presstv

Kuwait’s crown prince stepped in as partial ruler on Saturday after the hospitalisation of the 91-year-old emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, state news agency KUNA said.

“The crown prince (Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah) is to temporarily execute certain prerogatives of the emir,” his half-brother, the head of state’s office announced, quoted by KUNA.

The agency reported earlier that Sheikh Sabah, ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state since 2006, was hospitalised “to undergo medical tests”.

In September 2019, Sheikh Sabah underwent medical tests shortly after arriving in the United States, leading to a meeting with President Donald Trump being called off.

The emir had his appendix removed in 2002, two years after having a pacemaker implanted. In 2007, he underwent urinary tract surgery in the United States.

Sheikh Sabah argued last year for de-escalation in the Gulf as tensions surged between the US and its arch-foe Iran.

He is widely regarded as the architect of modern Kuwait’s foreign policy.

Sheikh Nawaf, 83, is an elder statesman who has held high office for decades, including the defence and interior portfolios.

Source: AFP

US President Donald Trump wore a face mask in public for the first time Saturday, finally yielding to intense pressure to set a public health example as the coronavirus rampages across America.

Trump had on a black mask as he walked through the corridors of Walter Reed military hospital outside Washington to meet with wounded veterans.

Trump walked past reporters and did not stop to speak to them about what had become a hotly anticipated moment — his possible change of heart on a practice recommended by the government’s own medical experts, even as he resisted.

“I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask. I’ve never been against masks but I do believe they have a time and a place,” Trump said as he left the White House.

News reports this week said aides practically begged the president to relent and wear a mask in public — and let himself be photographed wearing it — as coronavirus cases soar in some states and as Trump trails Democrat Joe Biden badly in polls ahead of the November election.

Trump has steadfastly defended his administration’s handling of the pandemic even though the US is the hardest-hit country in the world.

The country has recently seen several days of more than 60,000 new cases, nearly 135,000 people have died and states have been left to figure out on their own how to reopen without a clear and coherent strategy from the White House.

Source: AFP

Chinese and EU leaders will hold a video summit Monday amid tensions over new tariffs on Chinese firms and Beijing’s actions on Hong Kong as well as concerns that Beijing will buy up European companies weakened by the Covid-19 crisis. The talks come against the backdrop of a rise in bellicose rhetoric toward China from the United States.

Chinese leaders and senior EU officials hold a video summit Monday with tensions rising over new tariffs targeting Chinese firms and European disquiet at Beijing’s assertiveness on the world stage.

The heads of the EU’s main institutions will discuss the coronavirus with top Chinese leaders, after Brussels infuriated Beijing by accusing it of a campaign of disinformation around the pandemic.

The EU will be represented by European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen.

Premier Li Keqiang will be the main Chinese representative and President Xi Jinping is also expected to make a video statement.

China and the EU both say they want to strengthen ties, but the relationship is tangled in a thicket of disagreements on topics ranging from trade and investment rules to human rights and national security.

Beijing’s ambassador to the EU said last week that Monday’s talks were a chance to make relations “more productive and substantive by seizing opportunities and addressing challenges”.

But he rapped Brussels over plans for tougher rules for heavily subsidised foreign companies, which would particularly target Chinese firms, saying the EU was not practising the openness it preached to others.

US President Donald Trump has pursued a bruising trade war with China, and warned last week of “complete decoupling” while suggesting the novel coronavirus is sometimes called “Kung Flu”, in a jibe at China.

The EU has taken a more balanced approach, characterising China as a “systemic rival” and competitor but also as a partner on some issues. The bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has urged a hard-headed approach.

At talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week, Borrell proposed a dialogue with Washington aimed at forging a common trans-Atlantic front against Beijing — though he has also stressed the EU must pursue its own interests and not simply toe the American line.

Human rights  

The bloc has sought to challenge China on human rights issues such as Tibet and Hong Kong, where European capitals are extremely concerned about Beijing’s proposed new security law.

On Friday, the EU demanded the immediate release of a Chinese human rights lawyer jailed for “inciting subversion of state power” after penning an open letter calling for constitutional reforms.

But while such calls have occasionally irritated Beijing, they have done nothing to alter China’s course and it is not expected to budge on Monday.

Cui Hongjian of the China Institute of International Studies said officials would defend their position on Hong Kong and explain the need for the new law — as Foreign Minister Wang Yi did in recent talks with EU counterparts.

The EU’s efforts to stand up to President Xi’s increasingly assertive China have been stymied by a lack of unity among its 27 member states, many of which have been courted assiduously by the Asian giant.

A meeting of EU foreign ministers last month dedicated to China highlighted the bloc’s struggles — Borrell voiced “grave concern” at Beijing’s security clampdown in Hong Kong but said sanctions were all but out of the question.

Trade and investment      

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, has announced plans for new legislation aimed at ensuring foreign firms backed by heavy state subsidies do not distort competition in Europe.

There is particular concern about Chinese companies swooping in to buy European companies weakened by the coronavirus-triggered recession.

Specifically targeting China’s global reach, the EU on Monday last week imposed an unprecedented tariff on Chinese subsidies to exporters, but not those in China itself.

The measure involved EU imports from Egypt of glass-fibre fabrics that were made by subsidiaries of two Chinese firms.

This was the first time the EU took aim at subsidies granted by a country to exporters located in another state.

Meanwhile, talks towards a China-EU investment agreement remain at a standstill, despite a joint pledge to try to get somewhere by the end of the year during the German EU presidency.

Source: AFP

Donald Trump said Wednesday that US police have “not been treated fairly” and appeared to defend a white officer charged with the murder of a black man.

Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe was charged with murder Wednesday for shooting African American Rayshard Brooks in the back, and aggravated the case by kicking the 27-year-old as he lay on the ground bleeding.

The death of Brooks came less than three weeks after George Floyd died while being pinned down by Minneapolis police officers, fuelling a national uproar and anti-police brutality protests across the country.

“I thought it was a terrible situation, but you can’t resist a police officer,” Trump said of Brooks’ death in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

“I hope he gets a fair shake because police have not been treated fairly in our country.

“But, again, you can’t resist a police officer like that. And they ended up in a very terrible disagreement and look at the way it ended. Very bad. Very bad.”

Trump also mentioned Floyd, saying he had been unable to watch the nearly nine-minute clip of Floyd’s death.

“Who could watch that?” he said.

On Tuesday Trump issued an order to improve policing — calling for a ban on dangerous chokeholds — but he has stopped well short of demands made at nationwide protests against racism and police brutality.

Critics, including the Democrat speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, have derided his efforts.

“The president’s weak executive order falls sadly and seriously short of what is required to combat the epidemic of racial injustice and police brutality,” she said in a statement this week.

Trump derided the Democrats during the Fox News interview, claiming: “They do nothing and they want to defund and they want to abolish, they want to abolish police departments.”

Source:  AFP

A video shows a restaurant in the US city of Atlanta in flames as protests escalate following the police killing of a 27-year-old African American there.

Protests erupted in Atlanta in the state of Georgia on Saturday after a video emerged showing the fatal police shooting of Rayshard Brooks who had fallen asleep in his car at a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant drive-thru line and who the officers wanted to take a sobriety test because he was suspected of being intoxicated.

Brooks was shot in the restaurant’s parking lot on Friday night after he allegedly scuffled with police officers. The incident was caught on tape.

The Wendy’s surveillance video didn’t show the scuffle, but showed the victim running away from where police cars were parked.

 Police said he resisted arrest and fled while grabbing a taser from one of the officers and was therefore shot to death.