BEIJING: U.S. continues to strengthen its military deployment in the South China Sea and is deliberately pushing up regional tensions, China’s defence ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.
Spokesperson Tan Kefei made the remark in response to media reports about a U.S.-Philippines joint statement objecting to China’s maritime claims and “provocative activities” in the South China Sea.
SEOUL: For the first time since the 1980s a U.S. Navy nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) will visit South Korea to help demonstrate Washington’s resolve to protect the country from a North Korean attack.
The visit was announced in a joint declaration during a summit between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on Wednesday. Because U.S. SSBNs rely on secrecy and stealth to ensure their survival and preserve their ability to launch nuclear missiles during a war, they rarely make public stops in foreign ports.
“That could be a huge pressure on North Korea, because usually they don’t share where those submarines are,” said Moon Keun-sik, a retired South Korean submarine captain and squadron leader. The United States has pledged to deploy more so-called “strategic assets” such as aircraft carriers, submarines, and long-range bombers to South Korea to deter North Korea, which has developed increasingly powerful missiles that can hit targets from South Korea to the mainland United States.
The submarine visit is also seen as a way to reassure South Korea and quell talk in Seoul of developing homegrown nuclear weapons. “If a U.S. SSBN visits and docks in South Korea, that is very unusual and symbolic … the U.S. wants to show it is going for stronger deterrence in a visible way and to calm South Koreans’ concerns,” Choi Il, another retired South Korean submarine captain, told Reuters.
Pyongyang has condemned the recent deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers and joint South Korea-U.S. military drills as proof of the allies’ hostile intent. The U.S. Navy fields 14 SSBNs, often referred to as “boomers”. Each of the Ohio-class submarines carry 20 Trident II D5 missiles, each of which can deliver up to eight nuclear warheads to targets as far as 12,000 kilometres (7,500 miles) away.
There were regular SSBN visits to South Korea in the 1970s, during another period when South Korea was debating the strength of U.S. commitments and the need for its own nuclear arsenal, according a report by the Federation of American Scientists. “For a few years the boomers arrived at a steady rate, almost every month, sometimes 2-3 visits per month,” wrote the report’s author, Hans Kristensen. “Then, in 1981, the visits stopped and the boomers haven’t been back since.”
No further details were provided about the South Korea visit but it the declaration said it would be evidence of the United States’ commitment to “further enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula”. A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that the visit would be part of more frequent trips to the peninsula by strategic assets, but that there is “no vision for any regular stationing or basing of those assets and certainly not nuclear weapons” in South Korea.
Ohio: A 24-year-old student from Andhra Pradesh, who was studying for his master’s degree, was shot at a fuel station in the US on Thursday (local time), according to the Columbus Division of Police. Saish Veera, who worked at a petrol pump in Ohio, was shot dead by unknown assailants while on the job, police said.
“At 12:50 AM on April 20, 2023, Columbus Police Officers were dispatched to a reported shooting in the 1000 block of W Broad St. Upon arrival, officers located an adult male victim, identified as Saish Vira, Reported as M/O./24, Columbus Fire medics arrived with a gunshot wound and transported the victim to a local hospital.
Despite life-saving measures, the victim was pronounced dead at 1:27 AM. This incident is being investigated. Read the Columbus Division of Police incident summary. Police also released a picture of the suspect and asked for help in identifying the person.
“Homicide detectives are asking for help identifying this man related to a fatal shooting that occurred on April 20, 2023. Sayesh Veera, 24, was shot and killed at a gas station located in the 1000 block of W Broad St., it tweeted.
The United States will begin training Ukrainian forces on how to use and maintain Abrams tanks in the coming weeks, as the it continues to speed up its effort to get them onto the battlefield against Russia as quickly as possible, U.S. officials said Friday.
The decision comes as defense leaders from around Europe and the world are meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany in the ongoing effort to coordinate the delivery of weapons and other equipment to Ukraine. An announcement is expected later Friday.
According to the officials, 31 tanks will arrive at Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany at the end of May, and the troops will begin training a couple of weeks later. Officials said the troop training will last about 10 weeks. The training tanks will not be the ones given to Ukraine as it fights against Russia’s invasion. Instead, 31 M1A1 battle tanks are being refurbished in the United States, and those will go to the frontlines when they are ready.
The goal has been to have the troops trained by the time the refurbished tanks are ready so they can then immediately move to combat. The tanks are being refitted to meet Ukraine’s needs.
According to officials, about 250 Ukrainian troops will be trained — with some learning to operate the tanks and others learning to repair and maintain them. Additional training on how to fight and maneuver with the tanks could also be provided after the initial 10 weeks. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not publicly released.
President Joe Biden’s administration announced in January that it would send Abrams tanks to Ukraine — after insisting for months that they were too complicated and too hard to maintain and repair. The decision was part of a broader political maneuver that opened the door for Germany to announce it would send its Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and allow Poland and other allies to do the same.
Under intense pressure from Ukraine and others to get the tanks into Ukraine faster, the Biden administration announced last month that it would speed up the delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, opting to send a refurbished older model that can be ready faster. The goal is to get the 70-ton battle powerhouses to the war zone by the fall.
The U.S. also made clear at the time that it would begin training Ukrainian forces on how to use, maintain and repair the tanks and that the instruction would coincide with the refurbishment of the tanks, so that both would be ready for battle at the same time later this year.
At the same time, the Pentagon must make sure that Ukrainian forces have an adequate supply chain for all the parts needed to keep the tanks running.
The Russian and Ukrainian forces have been largely in a stalemate, trading small slices of land over the winter. The fiercest battles have been in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russia is struggling to encircle the city of Bakhmut in the face of dogged Ukrainian defense. But both sides are expected to launch more intensive offensives in the spring.
Chicago (IANS) | An 85-year-old white man has been charged with shooting a black teenager last week in the US state of Kansas City, Missouri. Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said. Andrew Lester shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl Thursday night in a north Kansas City neighborhood, Thompson said at a news conference on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Yarl was sent to collect his twin younger brothers. He reached the wrong house and rang the doorbell. Local media reported that Lester came to the door and shot Yarl in the head.
The injured Yarl was released from the hospital on Sunday and is recuperating at home.
Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said at a news conference on Sunday that Lester was taken into custody on Thursday but was released the next day after consulting with the prosecutor’s office. The weapon used in the incident has been found from his house.
Protests were held in Kansas City on Sunday to protest the incident.
–IANS
Washington (IANS) | At least four people were killed and 28 others injured in a shooting at a birthday party in the US state of Alabama. The officers provided this information. The Alabama law enforcement agency said in a statement on Sunday that the fatal shooting occurred late Saturday night in the city of Dadeville, CNN reported.
With a population of approximately 3,200 people, Dadeville is a small, rural town approximately 45 miles northeast of the state capital, Montgomery.
Sergeant Jeremy J. Burkett said. Four people lost their lives in the incident, and many more were injured,
Burkett was quoted as saying by CNN that some of the people injured during the incident remain in critical condition.
Burkett said they are trying to gather information about the shooting.
Among the dead was Philstavius Dowdell, a high school football player. He was the brother of the girl whose birthday was being celebrated. Football team heads Ben Hayes and Keenan Cooper told CNN that Dowdell was set to graduate high school next month and have earned a scholarship to play football at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama.
There have been 163 incidents of mass shootings in the US in 15 weeks.
–IANS