World
Germany's Weber supports Macron’s call for European nuclear deterrent
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With fears over NATO’s credibility, the idea of a homegrown alternative is playing into Germany’s domestic political debate.
A French plan to offer a nuclear umbrella to Europe has met with support from the German MEP who heads the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, playing into the domestic political debate ahead of June EU elections.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the prospect that a second Donald Trump presidency might weaken the transatlantic alliance, has raised the salience of having a homegrown alternative to NATO.
In a TV clip which issued on Thursday (9 May), Weber suggested he favoured plans put forward by French President Emmanuel Macron, and criticised left-wing Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his failure to engage.
“This is an offer of France which we must talk about,” Weber said on a panel hosted by Bavarian TV station BR24, after Macron proposed to extend security guarantees based on nuclear deterrence, adding: “I am disappointed that Olaf Scholz, the federal government, is voiceless, that there is absolutely no answer for this proposal.”
Macron “is broadening the conception of France’s national security from a purely territorial concept into a European one,” Weber said. “He is ready to say: the security order of France is attacked when Lithuania is attacked.”
In a wide-ranging speech on European policy in late April, Macron said France’s nuclear deterrent was an “indispensable element of the defence of the European continent”.
Fears over Europe’s ability to defend itself were raised after Trump suggested he wouldn’t leap to the rescue of allies who didn’t spend enough on their militaries, undermining the treaty commitments that underpin NATO.
France is the only remaining nuclear power within the EU, though it isn’t immediately clear what role Brussels, or MEPs such as Weber, might play in developing the idea.
The European Commission is attempting to coordinate military production by its members to help arm Ukraine, and its President Ursula von der Leyen has said she’ll make defence a central plank of a hoped-for second term in office.
But the EU also includes neutral members such as Ireland and Austria, and is precluded under its founding treaties from buying weapons directly.
In February, Scholz – a socialist who leads a coalition that also includes the green and liberal parties – told German newspaper the Süddeutsche Zeitung, “I don’t think much of this debate” concerning a European nuclear guarantee, citing NATO membership and the country’s decision not to seek its own atomic weapons.
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered tests of tactical nuclear weapons, in an apparent warning to Ukraine’s allies to back off.
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World
American tourist arrested in Paris after allegedly throwing newborn baby out of hotel window: reports
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An American woman was arrested in Paris after she allegedly threw a newborn baby out of a hotel window, according to reports.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed the incident, first reported by local outlet Paris Match, with the New York Post on Monday. The child was thrown out of the window earlier that morning.
The fall reportedly took place from a second-floor window. The newborn was given emergency medical care but did not survive.
The hotel is located in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, a neighborhood popular with tourists seeking to visit the Père Lachaise Cemetery, where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, Frédéric Chopin and other notable people are buried.
LAW STUDENT KILLED BY ELEPHANT DURING VACATION TO THAILAND: OFFICIALS
The 20th arrondissement of Paris, France, in a picture taken on November 18, 2024. (Getty Images)
The American woman, who is currently detained, was allegedly part of a group of young adults traveling in Europe. The Paris Match described her as being part of a “study trip.”
Officials are investigating the case as a possible instance of “pregnancy denial,” in which a woman is unaware of her pregnancy or unable to accept it.
EXPERT WARNS AMERICANS ABOUT ELEPHANT TOURISM AFTER YOUNG STUDENT IS KILLED IN THAILAND: ‘RECIPE FOR DISASTER’
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A street in Paris’s 20th arrondissement on May 15, 2024. (Getty Images)
Paris’ Child Protection Brigade was assigned to the case, which will be investigated as a homicide, according to NEXSTAR.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Paris prosecutor’s office for additional comment.
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Police cars seen in Paris on July 24, 2024. (Getty Images)
Authorities are actively investigating the incident. No additional details are known at this time.
World
MSF halts operations in camp in Sudan’s Darfur region as violence rages
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Doctors Without Borders says increased fighting in and around Zamzam camp has made it too dangerous to operate.
Doctors Without Borders has said it is suspending its work in a famine-stricken camp for displaced people in Sudan’s North Darfur region, as an increase in violent attacks has made it too dangerous to operate.
In a statement on Monday, the medical charity – known by its French-language acronym MSF – said fighting in and around Zamzam camp near the town of el-Fasher had made it “impossible … to continue providing medical assistance”.
“Despite widespread starvation and immense humanitarian needs, we have no choice but to take the decision to suspend all our activities in the camp, including the MSF field hospital,” the group said.
MSF was one of the few humanitarian groups still working in the camp, which houses about half a million people displaced by Sudan’s devastating 22-month civil war.
Health workers at the organisation’s field hospital in Zamzam had helped treat people wounded in attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) this month, as well as provided care to thousands of malnourished children.
“Halting our project in the midst of a worsening disaster in Zamzam is a heartbreaking decision,” said Yahya Kalilah, MSF’s Sudan country director.
“The sheer proximity of the violence, great difficulties in sending supplies, the impossibility to send experienced staff for adequate support, and uncertainty regarding routes out of the camp for our colleagues and civilians leave us with little choice.”
We’ve taken the difficult decision to suspend our activities in Zamzam camp, North Darfur, Sudan. Violence has engulfed the camp, which hosts around 500,000 people.
We urge all armed actors in the area to protect civilians..
The details: https://t.co/7zb32yoe5d
— MSF International (@MSF) February 24, 2025
The war in Sudan broke out between the RSF and the Sudanese military in April 2023.
Both parties have been accused of war crimes as the United Nations says the violence has killed tens of thousands of people, forced 14 million to flee their homes and spurred a humanitarian crisis.
On February 11, the RSF stormed Zamzam, triggering two days of clashes with the army and allied armed groups and forcing about 10,000 families to flee, according to the United Nation’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).
MSF said its teams had treated 139 patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds in its field hospital so far this month. But 11 people – including five children – died because the facility lacked the necessary equipment.
The organisation also said its ambulances were targeted in recent months.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday of a “further escalation” after the RSF and its allies agreed to form a parallel government.
Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said the UN chief was “deeply concerned” by Sunday’s announcement. “This further escalation in the conflict… deepens the fragmentation of the country,” Dujarric said.
The RSF-led government is not expected to receive widespread recognition, with the group accused of carrying out war crimes, including genocide.
But it is a sign that the splintering of Sudan could be cementing as the RSF focuses on the western region of Darfur while it loses ground elsewhere.
World
Japan and Philippines agree to deepen defense ties due to their mutual alarm over Chinese aggression
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Japan and the Philippines agreed Monday to further deepen their defense collaboration and talk about protecting shared military information in the face of mutual alarm over China’s increasing aggressive actions in the region.
Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, forged the agreements in a meeting in Manila where their concern over China’s actions in the disputed South China Sea and East China Sea was high in the agenda.
Japan and the Philippines are treaty allies of the United States, and the three have been among the most vocal critics of China’s assertive actions in the region, including in the contested waters.
At the opening of his meeting with Nakatani, Teodoro said the Philippines was looking forward to boosting defense relations with Japan “against unilateral attempts by China and other countries to change the international order and the narrative.”
Nakatani said after the meeting that he agreed with Teodoro “to strengthen operational cooperation,” including joint and multinational defense trainings, port calls and information-sharing.
“We also agreed to commence discussion between defense authorities on military information protection mechanism,” Nakatani said.
The Philippines signed an agreement with the United States, its longtime treaty ally, last year to better secure the exchange of highly confidential military intelligence and technology in key weapons to allow the sale of such weaponry by the U.S. to the Philippines.
Then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Teodoro signed the legally binding General Security of Military Information Agreement in Manila at a time when the U.S. and the Philippines were boosting their defense and military engagements, including large-scale joint combat drills, largely in response to China’s increasingly aggressive actions in Asia.
Nakatani said that he and Teodoro “firmly concurred that the security environment surrounding us is becoming increasingly severe and that it is necessary for the two countries as strategic partners to further enhance defense cooperation and collaboration in order to maintain peace and stability in Indo-Pacific.”
Japan has had a longstanding territorial dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea. Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy ships, meanwhile, have been involved in a series of increasingly hostile confrontations in the South China Sea in the last two years.
Also high in the agenda of Nakatani and Teodoro, a copy of which was seen by The Associated Press, was the “expansion of bilateral cooperation, especially in the context of the Reciprocal Access Agreement.”
Last year, Japan and the Philippines signed the agreement allowing the deployment of Japanese and Philippine forces for joint military and combat drills in each other’s territory. The Philippine Senate has ratified the agreement, and its expected ratification by Japan’s legislature would allow the agreement to take effect.
The agreement with the Philippines, which includes live-fire drills, is the first to be forged by Japan in Asia. Japan signed similar accords with Australia in 2022 and with Britain in 2023.
Japan has taken steps to boost its security and defensive firepower, including a counterstrike capability that breaks from the country’s postwar principle of focusing only on self-defense. It’s doubling defense spending in a five-year period to 2027 to bolster its military power.
Many of Japan’s Asian neighbors, including the Philippines, came under Japanese aggression until its defeat in World War II, and Tokyo’s efforts to strengthen its military role and spending could be a sensitive issue.
Japan and the Philippines, however, have steadily deepened defense and security ties largely due to concerns over Chinese aggression in the region.
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Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report.
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