Middle Eastern Business Headlines at 4:05 p.m. GMT
Yemen's Houthi rebels launch a missile that strikes an oil tanker in the Red Sea, US military says
Yemen's Houthi rebels launch a missile that strikes an oil tanker in the Red Sea, US military says
Ukraine is using US-supplied Bradley fighting vehicles in unorthodox ways and making an impact.
Strike Fighter Squadron 105 was stationed aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and racked up a number of firsts during combat missions.
The US has restricted Ukraine from using its powerful long-range missiles to strike air bases inside Russia.
A Ukrainian commander said Russia will be forced to scale back its frontline assaults in under 2 months due to losses, and will switch to defense.
There is an air of the Old Testament prophets over the latest dire military and strategic warnings in Britain and America about the need to prepare for war with Russia and China by 2027. The new chief of the British Army, General Sir Roly Walker, told his London conference this week that his troops need to double their “lethality”, the ability to kill and destroy the enemy, within three years and triple it by 2030. Prophecy is a mug’s game in preparing for what is needed for security and resilience — key components of national defence and wellbeing — right now.
STORY: From above, it's clear to see that Tindal Air Base, set in remote shrub-land of northern Australia, was designed as a small airfield with fast jets in mind.Now, it's buzzing with new construction.The United States has quietly begun overhauling it...... constructing hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of facilities there to support B-52 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters, and refueling and transport aircraft.The expansion aims to help U.S. ally Australia project power into the South China Sea, if any crisis erupts with Beijing.The Australian government also has its own program of new projects at Tindal...... spending US$980 million on hangars, a new airport terminal, and other facilities, which are near completion.Fiona Pearce is a Royal Australian Air Force Wing Commander."What we are moving towards is a multi-purpose base so we are going to be big enough to take any aircraft in the world and to park and fly every different variant of aircraft. So there's runway increases, fuel increases and a whole bunch of other facilities that are being worked on as well."Australia is the top overseas location for U.S. Air Force and Navy construction spending under 2024 and 2025 U.S. Congressional Defense Authorizations, totalling over $300 million.A few hundred miles north, a base in Darwin is also being upgraded with U.S. help.Tender documents show intelligence briefing rooms, runway upgrades, warehouses and maintenance hangars are in the works. U.S. Marine Corps have routinely trained in Darwin since a 2011 agreement between Canberra and Washington.Commanding officer of the U.S. Marine Rotational Force Colonel Brian Mulvihill says that's now evolved into a regional deterrence role of about 2,000 Marines each year, and future upgrades to RAAF Darwin aim to support specific needs of the Marines."The United States paid to have larger fuel storage put in place at RAAF Darwin in support of our aviation assets. As well as, that's done, and then the next project is to expand the parking apron for the MV-22 Ospreys to give them more space in and around the busy airport that is Darwin and RAAF Darwin."While remote locations pose challenges to sourcing materials and a workforce...... Indigenous Australian residents also have complaints about the new developments.Seventy-five-year-old Tibby Quall, is among several Traditional Owners who say growing demand for defense-related housing in Darwin has led to land-clearing of forests they want protected, while rising prices have pushed Indigenous families out of the city.While U.S. and Australian officials say they can visit sacred sites on the bases...Quall says his family has no real voice on how the land is used.
Ukrainian forces said they destroyed 25 Russian attack drones out of 38 launched overnight
Four Russian and Chinese bombers have been intercepted operating together for the first time by American and Canadian fighters near Alaska.
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine said on Friday its missile forces struck a Russian military airfield in Crimea that has been used for long-range attacks against it, the latest in a series of blows to the Russian military on the occupied peninsula. Ukraine has ramped up long-range attacks on Crimea in recent months and says the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet, which is headquartered in Sevastopol, has been forced to move its combat vessels to safer harbour elsewhere. The Ukrainian military's general staff said in a statement that Russia's Saky airfield in western Crimea was the latest target to be struck and that it was assessing the aftermath.
India and China have agreed to work urgently to achieve the withdrawal of tens of thousands of troops stationed along their disputed border in a long-running standoff, India's government said. Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Thursday on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings in Laos, where they stressed the need for an early resolution of outstanding issues along the disputed Line of Actual Control, the long Himalayan border shared by the two Asian giants.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday a recently announced guideline on the operation of U.S. nuclear assets on the Korean peninsula is certain to add security concern in the region, South Korean and Russian news agencies reported. Speaking at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos, Lavrov said he had not been briefed on the details of the plan but said that it is of concern to Russia, Yonhap agency reported. "Another element of concern is that the United States recently concluded an agreement with the Republic of Korea on joint nuclear planning," Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian state-run RIA new agency.
Anthony Esan, 24, is accused of repeatedly stabbing Lieutenant Colonel Mark Teeton in Gillingham, Kent, on Tuesday.
New law disallows the transmission of any information that could be used to identify any Russian troops or their location
Vice Adm. Eduardo Santos discussed grounding the BRP Sierra Madre in the South China Sea to create an obstacle and disrupt China's territorial claims.
Greece formally approved an offer to buy 20 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters from the United States as part of a major defense overhaul, government officials said Thursday. Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said while visiting a military air base near Athens that the purchase would create “a powerful deterrent presence in our region.” A letter of acceptance for the deal has been signed and sent to the U.S., he said.
"Thanks to our valiant defenders, all airborne targets were intercepted and destroyed," Governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod region, also on Ukraine's border further to the southeast, said three drone attacks and a number of shelling incidents had smashed windows and caused some other damage to buildings. Ukrainian forces have regularly attacked Russian border regions, particularly Belgorod, in a bid to reduce Russian strikes on targets inside Ukraine's border.
Anthony Esan, 24, appears in court charged with attempted murder of Lieutenant Colonel Mark Teeton
Ethnic armed groups claimed on Thursday to have captured two strategically important towns in northeastern Myanmar: Lashio, which houses the major regional military headquarters, and Mogok, the center of the country’s lucrative gem-mining industry. The ruling military council denied its Lashio headquarters had been taken over, and two town residents contacted by phone said fighting there was continuing.
Myanmar's junta and an ethnic minority armed group both claimed on Thursday they were in control of a town and regional military command in northern Shan state following days of clashes. Northern Shan state has been rocked by fighting since late last month when an alliance of ethnic armed groups renewed an offensive against the military along the highway to China's Yunnan province.
Netanyahu made a number of claims about the war in Gaza that were either false, lacked context or were presented without evidence to support them.