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Tag: Military and defense

  • Biden says America’s veterans are ‘the steel spine of this nation’ as he pays tribute at Arlington

    Biden says America’s veterans are ‘the steel spine of this nation’ as he pays tribute at Arlington

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    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said America’s veterans are “the steel spine of this nation” as he marked Veterans Day during a visit to Arlington National Cemetery.

    In remarks at the Memorial Amphitheater, the commander in chief recounted famous battles fought by U.S. troops and said those deployments of soldiers are “linked in a chain of honor that stretches back to our founding days. Each one bound by a sacred oath to support and defend. Not a place, not a person, not a president, but an idea, to defend an idea unlike any other in human history. That idea is the United States of America.”

    Nov. 11, once known as Armistice Day, is the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I in 1918. Biden said that was “unlike any war the world had ever seen before.”

    The ceremony was personal for Biden and first lady Jill Biden.

    Biden’s son Beau enlisted in 2003 in the Delaware Army National Guard and deployed to Iraq in 2008 for a year as a member of the 261st Theater Tactical Signal Brigade. A captain, he earned the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star. Beau Biden later served two terms as the state’s attorney general. He died in 2015 of brain cancer.

    “We miss him,” the president told the crowd, recounting how he pinned the bars on his son on the day he joined the National Guard.

    “We come together today to once again honor the generations of Americans who stood on the front lines of freedom. To once again bear witness to the great deeds of a noble few who risked everything, everything, to give us a better future,” he said, paying tribute to “those who have always, always kept the light of shining bright across the world.”

    Biden said that as commander in chief, “I have no higher honor. As the father of a son who served, I have no greater privilege.’’

    He said that “our veterans are the steel spine of this nation and their families, like so many of you, are the courageous heart.”

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  • A military jet crashes in eastern Myanmar. Ethnic resistance groups claim they shot it down

    A military jet crashes in eastern Myanmar. Ethnic resistance groups claim they shot it down

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    BANGKOK — A Myanmar military jet fighter crashed Saturday in a combat zone in the eastern state of Kayah, a military officer and a member of an anti-military resistance organization said. The resistance group said the plane had been shot down, but its claim could not immediately be confirmed.

    A spokesperson for the ethnic armed group, the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, said it had shot down the plane during heavy fighting near Loikaw, the capital of Kayah state, which is also known as Karenni.

    However, an officer in Myanmar’s military, while confirming that one of its aircraft crashed somewhere in Kayah, said he did not know whether it was shot down or crashed due to technical failure.

    The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information, said a search for the crashed aircraft and two pilots was underway.

    Loosely organized resistance groups have sprung up around Myanmar since the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

    No warplanes are reliably known to have been shot down previously by resistance forces, though another ethnic armed group reportedly shot down a helicopter in May 2021.

    The spokesperson of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force resistance group said the plane was shot down near an area controlled by the military in Hpruso township at around 5 p.m., shortly after shooting broke out near Loikaw. He spoke on condition of anonymity to safeguard his personal security.

    Hpruso is about 300 kilometers (185 miles) northeast of Yangon, the country’s largest city.

    A statement posted on the Karenni group’s Facebook page said fire from heavy machine guns had hit the fighter in its fuselage and a wing, and it crashed a great distance from the battlefield after emitting smoke.

    The joint statement by two resistance groups, the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force and the Karenni Army — the armed wing of the Karenni National Progressive Party — credited their members for downing the plane.

    Mizzima, an online news site sympathetic to the resistance, said one of its reporters in Kayah state saw parachutes float down in the sky after hearing an explosion and seeing flames coming from the jet fighter.

    Its report said two parachutes had been found on the ground by resistance forces. It published photos of one parachute and a flight helmet, along with breathing apparatus that a pilot would use. However, neither the pilots nor any bodies were found.

    Kayah state has experienced intense conflict between the military and local resistance groups since the army takeover in 2021.

    After security forces cracked down violently on nationwide peaceful protests against the takeover, armed pro-democracy resistance forces were established, which joined hand with some ethnic armed organizations representing minorities including the Karennai, the Karen and the Kachin.. Fighting takes place in many of Myanmar’s rural areas, especially along the borders, where the ethnic guerrilla groups are strongest.

    Major offenses by the military, including airstrikes, have driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. The resistance forces have no effective defense against air attacks.

    Most combat aircraft in Myanmar’s military come from China or Russia, which also supply other armaments. Many Western nations maintain an arms embargo, in addition to other sanctions on the ruling military, and are making efforts to block the supply of aviation fuel.

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  • Mobile and resilient, the US military is placing a new emphasis on ground troops for Pacific defense

    Mobile and resilient, the US military is placing a new emphasis on ground troops for Pacific defense

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    BANGKOK — As Chinese missile testing in the waters around Taiwan grew increasingly aggressive in 1996, the U.S. sailed two aircraft carrier groups to the island that Beijing claims as its own, and China was forced to back down.

    It employed a similar response to Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel a month ago, dispatching two carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean in a rapid and massive show of force meant to deter other countries or Iran-backed proxy groups such as Hezbollah from joining the fight.

    But what is still viable in the Mideast is increasingly less practical with China, which in 1996 had no carriers of its own and little means to threaten the American ships, but now has the world’s largest navy, including three aircraft carriers, and a coastline bristling with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles.

    Instead, ongoing exercises in Hawaii, which conclude Friday, highlight part of a new American approach to Pacific defense and deterrence, with a focus on small groups of mobile land forces operating from islands like those off China’s coast.

    In the exercises, the largest-scale training held in Hawaii so far, more than 5,000 troops from the 25th Infantry Division, along with units from New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand and Britain and supported by the U.S. Air Force, have been practicing fighting in an island jungle environment against an advanced enemy force, with exercises including paratrooper drops, a long-range air assault, and re-supply by air and sea.

    “All of those are examples of the importance of being able to project force here in the Pacific, which first requires seizing and holding ground and building up a base of operations where you can consolidate gains, secure and hold key infrastructure such as an airfield, and then introduce additional combat power,” said Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commanding general of the 25th Infantry Division, in an interview from Wheeler Army Airfield on Oahu.

    While the exercises are not officially directed against a specific threat, the U.S. Department of Defense in its report last month to Congress reiterated that it considers China its “pacing challenge” as “the only competitor to the United States with the intent and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order.”

    Even though China’s navy is now larger than that of the U.S. in terms of numbers of ships, the U.S. Navy is still more capable and has 11 carriers to China’s three, among other advantages. But where China’s main focus is on its nearby waters, the U.S. Navy operates globally and in the event of a Taiwan conflict, it would take time for many of its assets to get to the region.

    As part of its “Operation Pathways” revamp of Pacific defense set in motion nearly a decade ago, the U.S. has been increasing its number of exercises with partners in the Indo-Pacific. It has also been re-thinking the way its soldiers and Marines operate in the first island chain off of China, which includes southwestern Japanese islands, Taiwan and the northwest Philippines, and the second island chain, which includes the Mariana Islands and the heavily fortified American territory of Guam.

    Those islands give them platforms from which anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles can be launched by mobile units that can quickly relocate to avoid counter battery fire, said Euan Graham, a defense analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

    “The U.S. already has a positional advantage by being forward deployed and having allies there, so it wants to utilize that geography in its favor,” Graham said. “And that helps the U.S. to overcome its numerical disadvantages as China’s navy is continuing to expand. The U.S. has to do what it can to try and close the gap, and land forces are part of the equation.”

    Beyond just being able to take and hold positions, the military has to overcome what Evans called a “tyranny of distance” in the Pacific where troops may find themselves on remote islands many hundreds of kilometers (miles) away from new supplies of water, fuel and ammunition. Among several new technologies being tested in the ongoing exercises in Hawaii are three variants of an “atmospheric water generator” to produce potable water in field conditions.

    Operating from the first and second island chains would require the consent of the countries they belong to, and the U.S. has also been working hard to shore up and expand alliances in the region.

    It runs large-scale training exercises with the Philippines, where earlier this year it signed an agreement to expand its use of bases, as well as with South Korea, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and India.

    The exercises provide experience in technical and procedural interoperability and also build human bonds that can be critical in times of crisis.

    “We are just finishing up a defense here on the island of Oahu and watching soldiers from Indonesia, Thailand and New Zealand alongside soldiers from the United States Army dig fighting positions together, experience a crucible of privation — that challenges, but most importantly forges relationships,” Evans said.

    On the political level, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is on his ninth trip to the Indo-Pacific this week with stops in India, South Korea and Indonesia, in which he is to “underscore the depth of the longstanding U.S. commitment to strengthening the Indo-Pacific’s dynamic security architecture.” Austin’s travels overlap with Secretary of State Antony Blinken ’s own visits to Tokyo, Seoul and New Delhi.

    Planning and training by the U.S. and its allies have not been going on in a vacuum, and China has been working hard to extend the operational capability of its navy. It has also developed so-called “carrier killer” missiles able to hit targets at long distances, and a ballistic missile capable of striking Guam.

    It launched its first domestically designed a nd manufactured aircraft carrier in 2022, and that same year signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, which many say could be used as a port to re-supply Chinese navy ships.

    That could give the Chinese navy a better ability to operate well beyond the second island chain and disrupt American supply lines or reinforcements coming from Hawaii — making it even more important for forward units to buy time in the event of a conflict.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping has not ruled out the use of force to take Taiwan, and while the American policy on whether it would come to Taiwan’s aid is that of “strategic ambiguity,” or not saying how far it is willing to go, U.S. President Joe Biden has said that Washington would intervene militarily.

    With tensions rising over Taiwan, the U.S. use of the island chains could both deter China from considering an invasion, and also exact a heavy price if they tried, Graham said.

    “Having long-range anti-ship missiles and long-range air defense missiles operated by small groups that are designed to be resilient, and logistically able to operate without resupply under distress, they could do a lot to deter the Chinese from ever thinking about operating in that scenario,” he said. “But if push comes to shove, they could impose a cost in terms of attrition of those forces as they move closer to Taiwan.”

    Aircraft carrier groups would still likely play a large role in a conflict but would more likely be surged in and then quickly moved out, putting them at greater risk than in the past, he added.

    “But then,” he said, “aircraft carriers are designed to be risked.”

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  • Ukraine takes credit for car bomb killing of a Russia-backed official in Luhansk

    Ukraine takes credit for car bomb killing of a Russia-backed official in Luhansk

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s intelligence agency claimed responsibility for a car bombing Wednesday that killed a member of the Russia-backed authority in the illegally annexed Luhansk region.

    Mikhail Filiponenko was a member of the local legislature and previously served as police chief. He had survived a car bombing on Feb. 21, 2022, three days before Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    Local officials announced Filiponenko’s death.

    Filiponenko had organized and participated in the torture of prisoners of war and civilians, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense said on Telegram.

    It said that the killing was a warning that “traitors to Ukraine and collaborators with terrorist Russia in temporarily occupied territories … will receive just retribution! The hunt continues!”

    The agency said that members of the resistance movement helped carry out the killing.

    Russia-backed insurgents declared a separatist Luhansk People’s Republic in 2014 and fought Ukrainian forces relying on Moscow’s military and political support. Russia illegally annexed it in 2022 along with three other eastern Ukrainian regions after invading Ukraine.

    Ukraine received good news, meanwhile, on its bid to join the European Union. The EU’s executive branch recommended it should be permitted to open membership talks once it’s addressed shortfalls that include corruption.

    In a setback that had been anticipated, Slovakia’s new government of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico rejected a proposal by its predecessor to send Ukraine another package of weapons aid as it fights Russia’s invasion.

    Fico had vowed to end his country’s military aid for Ukraine.

    The rejection of a package worth more than 40 million euros ($42.7 million) would have included ammunition and air defense missiles.

    The previous government was a staunch supporter of Ukraine, sending it arms worth 671 million euros ($717 million).

    Fighting, shelling and airstrikes continued in the southern and eastern regions, where five civilians were killed and five were wounded in the past day, the presidential office reported.

    In the Donetsk region, three residents in the village of Bahatyr were killed in shelling. In the neighboring Kharkiv region, a man was killed in the city of Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi, where fighting is taking place. In the southern Kherson region, near Beryslav, a tractor driver was killed by a mine and another resident was wounded in a drone attack.

    A drone attack around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant wounded a woman and damaged 27 houses and power lines.

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    Karel Janicek in Prague, and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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    Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • North Korea likely sent missiles, ammunition and shells to Russia, Seoul says

    North Korea likely sent missiles, ammunition and shells to Russia, Seoul says

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    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has likely supplied several types of missiles to Russia to support its war in Ukraine, along with its widely reported shipments of ammunition and shells, South Korea’s military said Thursday.

    In a background briefing for local journalists, South Korea’s military said that North Korea is suspected of sending an unspecified number of short-range ballistic missiles, anti-tank missiles and portable anti-air missiles to Russia, in addition to rifles, rocket launchers, mortars and shells.

    The contents of the briefing were shared with The Associated Press.

    North Korea has been pushing to expand cooperation with Russia and China in the face of protracted security tensions with the United States and pandemic-caused domestic hardships. In an apparent sign of its economic troubles, the country is moving to close some of its overseas diplomatic missions.

    Last week, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan strongly condemned North Korea’s alleged supplying of munitions and military equipment to Russia, saying such weapons shipments sharply increased the human toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Any weapons trade with North Korea would be a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions that Russia, a permanent U.N. Security Council member, previously endorsed.

    Both Russia and North Korea dismissed the weapons shipment accusations as baseless.

    Outside speculation about North Korean arms shipments flared after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia in September to meet President Vladimir Putin and visit key military facilities. The U.S. and its allies accused North Korea of seeking high-tech Russian technologies to modernize its arsenal of nuclear weapons and missiles in return for its shipments of conventional arms.

    In a private briefing with lawmakers Wednesday, the National Intelligence Service — South Korea’s main spy agency — said that more than a million North Korean artillery shells have been sent to Russia since August via ships and transport planes. The NIS said the deliveries roughly amounted to two months’ worth of shells for the Russians, according to lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, who attended the NIS briefing.

    The NIS assessed that North Korea has been operating its munitions factories at full capacity to meet Russian munition demands and has also been mobilizing residents to increase production.

    The NIS said North Korea, for its part, is likely receiving Russian technological assistance over its plan to launch its first military spy satellite into space. North Korea’s two recent attempts to launch a spy satellite ended in failure due to technical issues. The North failed to follow through with its vow to make a third launch attempt in October, without giving any reasons.

    South Korea’s military said North Korea also seeks to receive nuclear-related technologies, fighter jets or related aircraft equipment and assistance on the establishment of anti-air defense networks from Russia.

    North Korea is currently focusing on enlarging its nuclear arsenal while refusing to return to talks with the U.S. and South Korea. The country’s economy is reeling from major setbacks caused by draconian curbs imposed during the coronavirus pandemic and stringent U.S.-led sanctions.

    South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it confirmed North Korea’s plan to close its embassies in Uganda, Angola and Spain and a consulate in Hong Kong. The Foreign Ministry said North Korea may close additional diplomatic missions.

    North Korean state media said earlier this week that its ambassadors to Angola and Uganda paid “farewell” visits to those countries’ leaders last week.

    South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Tuesday that the closures reflect North Korea’s financial difficulties. It said the country has diplomatic relations with more than 150 countries but operates just around 50 diplomatic posts abroad.

    The NIS said North Korea is preparing to expand its economic cooperation with China, its biggest trading partner and economic pipeline, before pushing to fully reopen its international borders. The NIS said it obtained intelligence indicating that North Korea sent an economic delegation to China last month to attract investors.

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  • As vacancies grow, Senate Democrats work to circumvent Tuberville’s blockade on military nominees

    As vacancies grow, Senate Democrats work to circumvent Tuberville’s blockade on military nominees

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    WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are trying a new workaround to confirm hundreds of military officers blocked by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, ten months after the Alabama Republican first said he would object to the nominations over a Pentagon abortion policy.

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday that the Senate will consider a resolution in the near future that would allow the quick confirmation of the nearly 400 officers up for promotion or nominated for another senior job. The Senate is currently at a stalemate on the nominations because Tuberville is objecting to the routine process of confirming the nominations all at once by unanimous consent, and voting on them individually could monopolize weeks or months of the Senate’s time.

    Schumer separately moved to hold votes as soon as this week on three top Pentagon officers affected by the holds — Adm. Lisa Franchetti to be the chief of naval operations, Gen. David Allvin to be chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force and Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney to serve as assistant commandant for the U.S. Marine Corps.

    The Senate maneuvers come amid a new war in Israel and as members of both parties are growing increasingly frustrated with Tuberville’s holds. Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican, had gathered enough signatures to force a vote on Franchetti and Allvin and spoke out in frustration about the issue at the weekly GOP lunch on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with Sullivan’s comments who requested anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.

    Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said after the lunch that the holds are “a bad idea” and said he’d tried to convince the Alabama Republican to express his opposition some other way.

    The new efforts to get around Tuberville come after an announcement by the Marine Corps that Gen. Eric Smith, the commandant, has been hospitalized. Smith was confirmed to the top job last month, but had been holding down two high-level posts — commandant and assistant commandant — for several months because Mahoney’s nomination for the No. 2 job has been held up by Tuberville. Smith himself was blunt about the demands of serving as both assistant commandant and acting commandant for months in the wake of Gen. David Berger’s retirement after four years as the top Marine.

    In public remarks in early September, Smith described his grueling schedule as he juggled the strategic and oversight responsibilities of commandant and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the personnel and management duties of the No. 2 job. “It is not sustainable,” Smith said. “What doesn’t stop is the clock. The adversary doesn’t take a pause.”

    With Smith hospitalized and no confirmed assistant commandant, Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl is performing the duties of commandant. Heckl, who is the deputy commandant for combat development, can’t serve as an “acting commandant” because he is not currently in a Senate-confirmed position. As a result, he doesn’t have all of the power or authority that a confirmed officer would have.

    Schumer said Smith’s sudden medical emergency is “precisely the kind of avoidable emergency that Sen. Tuberville has provoked though his reckless holds.”

    Tuberville has shown no signs of lifting the blockade since he first announced it in February. Despite several high-level vacancies, he has said he will continue to hold up the other nominations unless the Pentagon ends its policy of paying for travel when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care. The Biden administration instituted the policy after the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to an abortion and some states have limited or banned the procedure.

    The Alabama senator has challenged Schumer to put each individual nomination on the floor, but Democrats have said that could take months to finish and delay other Senate priorities.

    Democrats have also been hoping to force Tuberville’s hand as the number of stalled nominations has grown. “There’s an old saying in the military, leave no one behind,” Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed said in July.

    But that strategy has become more difficult as months have passed, and as Tuberville has dug in.

    “Every day that Sen. Tuberville continues his blanket holds our military preparedness is degraded,” Schumer said.

    A host of military officers have spoken out about the damage of the delays for service members. While Tuberville’s holds are focused on all general and flag officers, they carry career impacts on the military’s younger rising officers. Until each general or admiral is confirmed, it blocks an opportunity for a more junior officer to rise.

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  • More than 1,000 pay tribute to Maine’s mass shooting victims

    More than 1,000 pay tribute to Maine’s mass shooting victims

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    LEWISTON, Maine — Authorities in Maine spent Monday continuing to piece together the events that led to the worst mass shooting in the state’s history — with the suspect’s record of interaction with police and warning signs involving mental illness and violent threats emerging as key threads.

    Robert Card — the suspected shooter who was found dead Friday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound — underwent a mental health evaluation last summer after he began acting erratically at an Army training facility in New York, officials said. A bulletin sent to police shortly after last week’s attack said Card had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks after “hearing voices and threats to shoot up” a military base.

    At a news conference last week, police said there was no evidence that the 40-year-old Card — who was also a firearms instructor — had ever been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, which could’ve made it illegal for him to posses guns.

    But family members of Card told federal investigators that he had recently discussed hearing voices and became more focused on the bowling alley and bar where the shootings took place, according to law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss details of the investigation. Card’s Oct. 25 rampage killed 18 and injured 13, shocking both the nation and a community where guns are prevalent, but gun violence is rare.

    Police across Maine were alerted just last month to the “veiled threats” by the U.S. Army reservist. Two local law enforcement chiefs told The Associated Press that a statewide awareness alert was sent in mid-September to be on the lookout for Robert Card after he made threats against his base and fellow soldiers. But ultimately, after a visit to Card’s home, police moved on.

    The body of suspected gunman Robert Card was found late Friday in a trailer at a recycling center in Lisbon Falls. Card died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound though it was unclear when, authorities said.

    Authorities recovered a multitude of weapons while searching for Card and believe he had legally purchased his guns, including those recovered in his car and near his body, said Jim Ferguson, the special agent in charge of the Boston office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He declined to discuss any specifics.

    Investigators are still searching for a motive for the massacre, but have increasingly focused on Card’s mental health history.

    State Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck has said Card believed “people were talking about him and there may even have been some voices at play.”

    A stay-at-home order in place during the massive search for Card was lifted Friday afternoon, hours before authorities announced they had found Card’s body. On Monday, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said she planned to address the state that afternoon about its coordination with federal and local governments in response to the shooting.

    Residents of Lewiston returned to work Monday, the morning after coming together to mourn those lost in Maine’s worst mass shooting.

    More than 1,000 people attended Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul for a vigil in Lewiston. Some put their heads in their hands as the names of the people who died in Wednesday’s shooting were read. Others quietly wept.

    Hundreds more watched a livestream of the vigil shown on a huge screen in front of the church. Some held American flags and others had lit candles in cups marked with the names of the dead and injured.

    Christian leaders along with a rabbi and an imam spoke of the pain from the shooting but also the healing process and the resilience of the community of 40,000. There was also a speaker from Lewiston’s deaf and hard of hearing community, as four of its members were killed in the shooting.

    Meanwhile, Lewiston was slowly reopening. Lewiston Public Schools released a limited schedule for the week “with room for reflection as we move forward.” Only the staff was returning Monday; students were due back Tuesday. The Lewiston City Hall planned to reopen on Monday afternoon.

    The deadliest shootings in Maine’s history stunned a state of 1.3 million people that has relatively little violent crime and only 29 killings in all of 2022.

    Three of the injured remained in critical condition at Central Maine Medical Center, and a fourth was stable, hospital officials said. Another was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, and the rest were discharged.

    The Lewiston shootings were the 36th mass killing in the U.S. this year, according to a database maintained by AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. The database includes every mass killing since 2006 from all weapons in which four or more people, excluding the offender, were killed within a 24-hour time frame.

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    Whittle reported from Portland. Associated Press journalists David R. Martin and Matt Rourke in Lewiston, Maine and Michael Casey in Boston contributed.

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  • A spiderweb of Hamas tunnels in Gaza Strip raises risks for an Israeli ground offensive

    A spiderweb of Hamas tunnels in Gaza Strip raises risks for an Israeli ground offensive

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    JERUSALEM — As an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip looms in its most devastating war yet with Hamas, one of the greatest threats to both its troops and the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped inside the seaside enclave is buried deep underground.

    An extensive labyrinth of tunnels built by the Hamas militant group stretches across the densely populated strip, hiding fighters, their rocket arsenal and over 200 hostages they now hold after an unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

    Clearing and collapsing those tunnels will be crucial if Israel seeks to dismantle Hamas. But fighting in densely populated urban areas and moving underground could strip the Israeli military of some of its technological advantages while giving an edge to Hamas both above and below ground.

    “I usually say it’s like walking down the street waiting to get punched in the face,” said John Spencer, a retired U.S. Army major and the chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point.

    Urban defenders, he added, “had time to think about where they are going to be and there’s millions of hidden locations they can be in. They get to choose the time of the engagement — you can’t see them but they can see you.”

    Overnight on Saturday, the Israeli military said its warplanes struck 150 underground Hamas targets in northern Gaza, describing them as tunnels, combat spaces and other underground infrastructure. The strikes — what appeared to be Israel’s most significant bombardment of tunnels yet — came as it ramped up its ground operations in Gaza.

    Tunnel warfare has been a feature of history, from the Roman siege of the ancient Greek city of Ambracia to Ukrainian fighters holding off Russian forces in 24 kilometers (15 miles) of Soviet-era tunnels beneath Mariupol’s Azovstal Iron and Steel Works for some 80 days in 2022.

    The reason is simple: tunnel battles are considered some of the most difficult for armies to fight. A determined enemy in a tunnel or cave system can pick where the fight will start — and often determine how it will end — given the abundant opportunities for ambush.

    That’s especially true in the Gaza Strip, home to Hamas’ tunnel system that Israel has named the “Metro.”

    When Israel and Egypt imposed a punishing blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007, the militant group expanded construction of its tunnel network to smuggle in weapons and other contraband from Egypt. While Egypt later shut down most of those cross-border tunnels, Hamas is now believed to have a massive underground network stretching throughout Gaza, allowing it to transport weapons, supplies and fighters out of the sight of Israeli drones.

    Yehia Sinwar, Hamas’ political leader, claimed in 2021 that the militant group had 500 kilometers (310 miles) of tunnels. The Gaza Strip itself is only some 360 square kilometers (140 square miles), roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C.

    “They started saying that they destroyed 100 kilometers (62 miles) of Hamas tunnels. I am telling you that the tunnels we have in the Gaza Strip exceed 500 kilometers,” Sinwar said following a bloody 11-day war with Israel. “Even if their narrative is true, they only destroyed 20% of the tunnels.”

    The Israeli military has known of the threat since at least 2001, when Hamas used a tunnel to detonate explosives under an Israeli border post. Since 2004, the Israeli military’s Samur, or “Weasels,” detachment has focused on locating and destroying tunnels, sometimes with remote-controlled robots. Those going inside carry oxygen, masks and other gear.

    Israel has bombed from the air and used explosives on the ground to destroy tunnels in the past. But fully dislodging Hamas will require clearing those tunnels, where militants can pop up behind advancing Israeli troops.

    During a 2014 war, Hamas militants killed at least 11 Israeli soldiers after infiltrating into Israel through tunnels. In another incident, an Israeli officer, Lt. Hadar Goldin, was dragged into a tunnel inside Gaza and killed. Hamas has been holding Goldin’s remains since then.

    Ariel Bernstein, a former Israeli soldier who fought in that war, described urban combat in northern Gaza as a mix of “ambushes, traps, hideouts, snipers.”

    He recalled the tunnels as having a disorienting, surreal effect, creating blind spots as Hamas fighters popped up out of nowhere to attack.

    “It was like I was fighting ghosts,” he said. “You don’t see them.”

    Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday said he expected a difficult ground offensive, warning it “will take a long time” to dismantle Hamas’ vast network of tunnels. As part of the strategy, Israel has blocked all fuel shipments into Gaza since the war erupted. Gallant said that Hamas would confiscate fuel for generators that pump air into the tunnel network. “For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us,” he said.

    The Israeli military also said Friday it had carried out “very meaningful” airstrikes on underground targets.

    Typically, modern militaries have relied on punishing airstrikes to collapse tunnels. Israeli strikes in Gaza so far in this war have killed over 7,300 people, according Gaza’s Health Ministry. But those strikes can inflict only limited damage on the subterranean network.

    U.S. forces fighting the Vietnam War struggled to clear the 120-kilometer (75-mile) network known as the Củ Chi tunnels, in which American soldiers faced tight corners, booby traps and sometimes pitch-dark conditions in the outskirts of what was then Saigon, South Vietnam. Even relentless B-52 bombing never destroyed the tunnels. Nor did Russian strikes on the Ukrainian steel mill in 2022.

    Underlining how tough tunnels can be to destroy, America used a massive explosive against an Islamic State group tunnel system in Afghanistan in 2017 called “the mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military.

    Yet in all those cases, advancing militaries did not face the challenge that Israel does now with Hamas’ tunnel system. The militant group holds some 200 hostages that it captured in the Oct. 7 assault, which also killed more than 1,400 people.

    Hamas’ release on Monday of 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz confirmed suspicions that the militants had put hostages in the tunnels. Lifshitz described Hamas militants spiriting her into a tunnel system that she said “looked like a spider web.”

    Clearing the tunnels with hostages trapped inside likely will be a “slow, methodical process,” with the Israelis relying on robots and other intelligence to map tunnels and their potential traps, according to the Soufan Center, a New York security think tank.

    “Given the methodical planning involved in the attack, it seems likely that Hamas will have devoted significant time planning for the next phase, conducting extensive preparation of the battlefield in Gaza,” the Soufan Center wrote in a briefing. “The use of hostages as human shields will add an additional layer of complexity to the fight.”

    The potential fighting facing Israeli soldiers also will be claustrophobic and terrifying. Many of the Israeli military’s technological advantages will collapse, giving militants the edge, warned Daphné Richemond-Barak, a professor at Israel’s Reichman University who wrote a book on underground warfare.

    “When you enter a tunnel, it’s very narrow, and it’s dark and it’s moist, and you very quickly lose a sense of space and time,” Richemond-Barak told The Associated Press. “You have this fear of the unknown, who’s coming around the corner? … Is this going to be an ambush? Nobody can come and rescue you. You can barely communicate with the outside world, with your unit.”

    The battlefield could force the Israeli military into firefights in which hostages may be accidentally killed. Explosive traps also could detonate, burying alive both soldiers and the hostages, Richemond-Barak said.

    Even with those risks, she said the tunnels must be destroyed for Israel to achieve its military objectives.

    “There’s a job that needs to get done and it will be done now,″ she said.

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  • Search for Maine shooting suspect leveraged old-fashioned footwork and new technology

    Search for Maine shooting suspect leveraged old-fashioned footwork and new technology

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    Hundreds of law enforcement officers descended on southern Maine this week, searching for a military-trained outdoorsman who vanished after police say he killed 18 people in two separate shootings Wednesday.

    The deceased ranged in age from 14 to 76. A teen bowler, a shipbuilder and a sign language interpreter were among the dead.

    The search for Robert Card, 40, of Bowdoin, involved both old-fashioned footwork and advanced technology, but for almost two days after the shooting there was still no sign of Card by air, water or land.

    Then, Friday evening, authorities said Card was found dead. Card is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

    Here is a look at the agencies involved and the resources they used in the search for Card:

    The most visible search efforts Friday focused on the Androscoggin River near the town of Lisbon Falls, Maine. Card’s vehicle was located at a boat ramp nearby.

    Maine Public Safety Commissioner Mike Sauschuck said the search included “air resources” flying over the river and attempting to look through the water from above to identify the best areas to send divers.

    Dive teams with the state police and other agencies searched from below, Sauschuck said, with some of the divers being towed behind boats. Other equipment included trawlers, which use nets or other devices to sift through the water, and a robotic submarine equipped with sonar to detect objects using sound waves.

    Maine’s wildlife game wardens were among the officers taking part in the water search. A regional power company that operates two dams on the river lowered the water level in the area to assist searchers, Sauschuck said.

    Others combed the shoreline along the river, he said, meticulously searching for any clues on the river banks or nearby.

    On Thursday morning, the U.S. Coast Guard sent out a patrol boat along the Kennebec River but found nothing out of the ordinary after hours of searching, Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith said.

    A spokesperson for Maine’s Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to questions about the exact types of tools that were used for the land search.

    David Carter, a criminal justice professor and the director of the intelligence program at Michigan State University, said law enforcement agencies typically try to narrow a search area by analyzing what is known about a suspect, interviewing family or friends about the suspect’s habits, and scouring reports and law enforcement tips for any suspicious activity in the region like stolen vehicles or missing food or clothing.

    During a Friday afternoon press conference, Sauschuck said police received more than 530 tips and leads and were looking at each one.

    Some were reported sightings, and others have been “as simple as, ‘I’ve got a vacant house that’s in this location,’ ‘I own a barn that I’m afraid to go into,’ ‘There’s something over here that concerns me,’” he said.

    A digital tip line set up by the FBI so that people could submit security camera footage and other media that could reveal clues about the shooting or Card’s movements had received more than 100 submissions, Sauschuck said.

    Agencies often use artificial intelligence software with facial recognition capability to go through security videos, street light cameras or other video footage, Carter said.

    “That AI technology can be used to search the video faster,” Carter said. “It’s not definitive, but it helps narrow it down.”

    License plate readers can also help track vehicles that might be used by the suspect, he said.

    Colder temperatures expected this weekend would have made it easier to use thermal search equipment, Sauschuck said during the afternoon press conference.

    “If it’s sunnier, you can get a better look into the water,” he said. “If it’s colder, there’s an argument that your thermal style of equipment, where you’re looking for body temperatures or heat signatures, may work better in that scenario.”

    Infrared cameras and other search-and-track thermal imaging equipment can be especially helpful for searching forested areas by air, Carter said.

    “Helicopters and drones, given how wooded it is there, using infrared technology can help you look through the canopy,” Carter said. “It’s going to pick up your body temperature. But you’re also going to locate deer and squirrels, all sorts of things.”

    Neighbors said Card knew the land well, because his family has lived in the area for generations and various family members own hundreds of acres in the region.

    Flight tracking websites showed state police helicopters flying over the region in the days after the shooting.

    With a multitude of agencies assisting in the search, communication is key, Carter said, and that’s where fusion centers come into play.

    The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife paused deer hunting season in the area and the Canada Border Services Agency issued an “armed and dangerous” alert to officers stationed along the U.S. border. State and federal law enforcement officers from the FBI, the Lewiston Police Department and other agencies are carrying out the footwork, paperwork and analysis.

    Federal agents searched several properties associated with Card, and investigators were analyzing his financial information and digital fingerprint, including social media posts.

    The Maine Information and Analysis Center serves as the state’s fusion center, tasked with providing analytical and investigative support for complex crimes. That often means connecting the dots for various agencies involved in large-scale searches, Carter said.

    “You can only do so much with technology. You really need an analyst at the fusion centers who can say, ‘these points correlate,’” Carter said. “The analysts can stay on top of it all and keep it all together.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Michael Balsamo in New York contributed.

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  • Israeli air and ground strikes intensify in Gaza; internet collapse cuts territory off from outside

    Israeli air and ground strikes intensify in Gaza; internet collapse cuts territory off from outside

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    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel knocked out internet and communication in the Gaza Strip in stepped-up bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from contact with each other and the outside world and creating a near-blackout of information, as the military said it was “expanding” ground operations in the territory.

    The military’s announcement signaled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

    Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall. The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused “complete disruption” of internet, cellular and landline services. The cut-off meant that casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.

    Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out.

    Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

    “I was so scared this was going to happen,” said Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah. She said she hadn’t heard for hours from family in central Gaza.

    “We’ve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when it’s live on TV, so now what will happen when there’s a total blackout?” she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by airstrikes over the past weeks.

    Lynn Hastings, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that without phone lines and internet, hospitals and aid operations would be unable to operate. The Red Crescent said it could not contact its medical teams and that residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers would have to chase the sound of explosions to find the wounded. International aid groups said they were only able to reach a few staff using satellite phones.

    The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm, saying the world “is losing a window into the reality” of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum “can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.”

    Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said ground forces were “expanding their activity” Friday evening in Gaza and “acting with great force … to achieve the objectives of the war.” Israel says its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

    Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive. Earlier Friday, the military said ground forces conducted their second hours-long incursion inside Gaza in as many days, striking dozens of militant targets over the past 24 hours.

    The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, more than 60% of them minors and women, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies, and the U.N. warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was “crumbling” amid near-depleted fuel.

    More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people.

    The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

    Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told foreign reporters that Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon. It “will take a long time” to dismantle Hamas’ vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expected a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys “pockets of resistance.”

    His comments pointed to a potentially grueling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas’ rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas’ defeat will be measured and an invasion’s endgame remain unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory of 2.3 million Palestinians but not who it expects to govern — even as Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

    The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Arab nations — including U.S. allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalized ties with Israel — have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion, likely to bring even higher casualties amid urban fighting.

    Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi warned on X that the “outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come.”

    U.S. warplanes struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on American forces. Two mysterious explosions hit coastal towns in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, wounding six people. Egypt said they were caused by drones coming from the south over the Red Sea, and Israel blamed Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have tried to fire rockets toward Israel since the war began.

    The loss of internet and phones deals a further blow to a medical and aid system that relief workers say was already on the verge of collapse, overwhelmed by wounded and running out of supplies under Israel’s weeks-long seal. More than 1.4 million people have fled their homes, nearly half crowding into U.N. schools and shelters. Aid workers say a trickle of aid Israel has allowed to enter from Egypt the past week is a tiny fraction of what is needed.

    Gazan hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment.

    Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

    “For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us,” he said.

    Late Friday, the army released photos showing what it claimed were Hamas installations in and around Gaza’s largest Shifa Hospital. Israel has made such claims before, but they declined to say how they obtained the photos.

    Little is known about Hamas’ tunnels and other infrastructure. Claims by the military and Gallant couldn’t be verified.

    Speaking at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Hamas media chief Salama Moussa called Israel’s claims “lies” and said they were “a precursor for striking this facility.”

    “I ring the alarm bell. There is imminent danger hovering above the medical facility” and those in it, Moussa said. The hospital has been overwhelmed by thousands of patients and wounded, and around 40,000 displaced Gaza residents have crowded in and around its grounds for shelter, the U.N. says.

    Asked if the military plans to target Shifa, Hagari said, “We will not be able to allow terror activity against Israel from hospitals and we will have to, together with the rest of the world, confront this red flag.” He said Hamas uses “its own population as a human shield.”

    Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, unable or unwilling to evacuate to the south as Israel has ordered. Israeli leaflets dropped in Gaza have said those who remain might be considered “accomplices” of Hamas.

    ___

    Federman reported from Tel Aviv and Mroue from Beirut. Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Jack Jeffery in Cairo, Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem, and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.

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  • US military says Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of B-52 bomber over South China Sea

    US military says Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of B-52 bomber over South China Sea

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    BANGKOK — A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the U.S. military said, underscoring the potential for a mishap as both countries vie for influence in the region.

    In the night intercept, the Shenyang J-11 twin-engine fighter closed on the U.S. Air Force plane at an “uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of a collision,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement released late Thursday.

    “We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision,” the military said.

    China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in a similar incident in May, the Chinese government dismissed American complaints and demanded that Washington end such flights over the South China Sea.

    China has been increasingly assertive in advancing its claims on most of the South China Sea as its territorial waters, a position rejected by the U.S. and other countries that use the vast expanse of ocean for shipping.

    China’s claims have led to longstanding territorial disputes with other countries in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest trade routes. A Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel last week rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat off a contested shoal in the waterway.

    Following that incident, President Joe Biden renewed a warning that the U.S. would be obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, aircraft or vessels come under armed attack. He spoke in a news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday at the White House.

    China reacted by saying the U.S. has no right to interfere in Beijing’s disputes with Manila.

    “The U.S. defense commitment to the Philippines should not undermine China’s sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, nor should it support the illegal claims of the Philippines,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Thursday in a news conference in Beijing.

    The U.S. and its allies regularly conduct maritime maneuvers in the South China Sea, and also regularly fly aircraft over the area to emphasize that the waters and airspace are international.

    The B-52 was “lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace” when it was intercepted by the J-11 on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

    Intercepts are common, with the U.S. saying that there have been more than 180 such incidents since the fall of 2021.

    They are not often as close as Tuesday’s incident, however, and with tensions already high between Beijing and Washington, a collision would have had the potential to lead to an escalation.

    The U.S. military said in its statement that the incident will not change its approach.

    “The U.S. will continue to fly, sail and operate — safely and responsibly — wherever international laws allow,” the military said.

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  • US strikes Iran-linked sites in Syria in retaliation for attacks on US troops

    US strikes Iran-linked sites in Syria in retaliation for attacks on US troops

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    WASHINGTON — The U.S. military launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against U.S. bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

    The U.S. strikes reflect the Biden administration’s determination to maintain a delicate balance. The U.S. wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the U.S. as strongly as possible to deter future aggression, possibly fueled by Israel’s war against Hamas, while also working to avoid inflaming the region and provoking a wider conflict.

    Information about the specific targets and other details were not yet provided.

    According to the Pentagon, there have been at least 12 attacks on U.S. bases and personnel in Iraq and four in Syria since Oct. 17. Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said 21 U.S. personnel were injured in two of those assaults that used drones to target al-Asad Airbase in Iraq and al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.

    In a statement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the “precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups that began on October 17.”

    He said President Joe Biden directed the narrowly tailored strikes “to make clear that the United States will not tolerate such attacks and will defend itself, its personnel, and its interests.” And he added that the operation was separate and distinct from Israel’s war against Hamasa.

    Austin said the U.S. does not seek a broader conflict, but if Iranian proxy groups continue, the U.S. won’t hesitate to take additional action to protect its forces.

    According to the Pentagon, all the U.S. personnel hurt in the militant attacks received minor injuries and all returned to duty. In addition, a contractor suffered a cardiac arrest and died while seeking shelter from a possible drone attack.

    The retaliatory strikes came as no surprise. Officials at the Pentagon and the White House have made it clear for the past week that the U.S. would respond, with Ryder saying again Thursday that it would be “at the time and place of our choosing.”

    “I think we’ve been crystal clear that we maintain the inherent right of defending our troops and we will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and our interests overseas,” he told reporters during a Pentagon briefing earlier in the day.

    The latest spate of strikes by the Iranian-linked groups came in the wake of a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital, triggering protests in a number of Muslim nations. The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Hamas rampage in southern Israel nearly three weeks ago, but Israel has denied responsibility for the al-Ahli hospital blast and the U.S. has said its intelligence assessment found that Tel Aviv was not to blame.

    The U.S., including the Pentagon, has repeatedly said any strike response by America would be directly tied to the attacks on the troops, and not connected to the war between Israel and Hamas. Such retaliation and strikes against Iranian targets in Syria after similar attacks on U.S. bases are routine.

    In March, for example, the U.S. struck sites in Syria used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard after an Iranian-linked attack killed a U.S. contractor and wounded seven other Americans in northeast Syria. American F-15 fighter jets flying out of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar struck several locations around Deir el-Zour.

    U.S. officials have routinely stressed that the American response is designed to be proportional, and is aimed at deterring strikes against U.S. personnel who are focused on the fight against the Islamic State group.

    U.S. officials have not publicly tied the recent string of attacks in Syria and Iraq to the violence in Gaza, but Iranian officials have openly criticized the U.S. for providing weapons to Israel that have been used to strike Gaza, resulting in civilian death.

    The Pentagon, meanwhile, has beefed up air defenses in the region to protect U.S. forces. The U.S. has said it is sending several batteries of Patriot missile systems, a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional fighter jets.

    The THAAD is being sent from Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Patriot batteries are from Fort Liberty in North Carolina and Fort Sill in Oklahoma. An Avenger air defense system from Fort Liberty is also being sent.

    Officials have said as much as two battalions of Patriots are being deployed. A battalion can include at least three Patriot batteries, which each have six to eight launchers.

    Ryder said Thursday that about 900 troops have deployed or are in the process of going to the Middle East region, including those associated with the air defense systems.

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  • China said the US is a disruptor of peace in response to Pentagon report on China’s military buildup

    China said the US is a disruptor of peace in response to Pentagon report on China’s military buildup

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    China said the United States is the “biggest disruptor of regional peace and stability” in the world in a scathing response to a Pentagon report on China’s growing military buildup

    ByHUIZHONG WU Associated Press

    October 24, 2023, 10:51 PM

    FILE – United States and Chinese flags are set up before a meeting between Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, on July 8, 2023. China said the United States is the “biggest disruptor of regional peace and stability” in the world in a scathing response Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023 to a Pentagon report on China’s growing military buildup. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool, File)

    The Associated Press

    BANGKOK — China said the United States is the “biggest disruptor of regional peace and stability” in the world in a scathing response Wednesday to a Pentagon report on China‘s growing military buildup.

    The annual report that is required by Congress is one way the Pentagon measures the military capabilities of China, which the U.S. government sees as its key threat in the Asia-Pacific region and America’s primary long-term security challenge.

    The statement China’s Ministry of Defense issued in response called the Pentagon report’s findings false and used it in turn to hit back at the U.S.’ recent actions in helping Israel and Ukraine, as well as its buildup of military installations worldwide.

    “The U.S. has sent depleted uranium munitions and cluster bombs to Ukraine, sent its carrier battle groups to the Mediterranean and weapons and munitions to Israel, is this the so-called ‘gospel’ the ’human rights defender is bringing to the area?” said Wu Qian, the spokesperson for China’s defense ministry.

    The Pentagon report builds on a warning last year that China was expanding its nuclear force rapidly, in line with a general buildup of its military. The earlier warning said Beijing was on track to nearly quadruple the number of warheads it has to 1,500 by 2035.

    China’s top diplomat Wang Yi will visit the United States on Thursday ahead of a possible meetup between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in November. U.S.-China relations have deteriorated since 2018, initially over a trade dispute but expanding to the pandemic, China’s actions in Xinjiang and over Taiwan.

    China also made sure to address Taiwan in its response. The Pentagon report said China is intensifying military, diplomatic and economic pressure toward the self-ruled island.

    China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has become more overt with this claim in recent years. This claim has become one of the main points of tension between China and the U.S. as U.S. support for Taiwan has grown. The U.S. has also sold billions of dollars in weapons to Taiwan, which the island’s government has said is for self-defense and deterrence.

    “We urge the U.S. to stop using any excuse, any method to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan military links and illegally arm Taiwan in any way,” the spokesperson said.

    The U.S. provides Taiwan sales under the Taiwan Relations Act, passed by Congress in 1979 to ensure the island is able to defend itself.

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  • Pentagon rushes defenses and advisers to Middle East as Israel’s ground assault in Gaza looms

    Pentagon rushes defenses and advisers to Middle East as Israel’s ground assault in Gaza looms

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    WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has sent military advisers, including a Marine Corps general versed in urban warfare, to Israel to aid in its war planning and is speeding multiple sophisticated air defense systems to the Middle East days ahead of an anticipated ground assault into Gaza.

    One of the officers leading the assistance is Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Glynn, who previously helped lead special operations forces against the Islamic State and served in Fallujah, Iraq, during some of the most heated urban combat there, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss Glynn’s role and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

    Glynn will also be advising on how to mitigate civilian casualties in urban warfare, the official said.

    Israel is preparing a large-scale ground operation in an environment in which Hamas militants have had years to prepare tunnel networks and set traps throughout northern Gaza’s dense urban blocks. Glynn and the other military officers who are advising Israel “have experience that is appropriate to the sorts of operations that Israel is conducting,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday. The advisers will not be engaged in the fighting, the unidentified U.S. official said.

    The military team is one of many fast-moving pieces the Pentagon is getting in place to try and prevent the already intense conflict between Israel and Hamas from becoming a wider war. It also is trying to protect U.S. personnel, who in the last few days have come under repeated attacks that the Pentagon has said were likely endorsed by Iran.

    Kirby said Iran was “in some cases actively facilitating these attacks and spurring on others who may want to exploit the conflict for their own good, or for that of Iran. We know that Iran’s goal is to maintain some level of deniability here. But were not going to allow them to do that.”

    On Monday, the U.S. military garrison at an-Tanf, Syria, came under attack again, this time by two drones. The drones were shot down and no injuries were reported. It was the latest episode of more than a half-dozen times in the last week that U.S. military locations in the Middle East had come under rocket or drone attack since a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital.

    Last Thursday the destroyer USS Carney shot down four land-attack cruise missiles launched from Yemen that the Pentagon has said were potentially headed toward Israel.

    In response, over the weekend the Pentagon announced it was sending multiple Patriot missile defense system battalions and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system to the Middle East, as well as repositioning the Eisenhower strike group to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. The ship had previously been en route to the Eastern Mediterranean.

    The shift means that the Navy will have a carrier strike group off the shore of Israel — the Ford carrier strike group — and another, the Eisenhower, potentially maneuvered to defend U.S. forces and Israel from the Red Sea or the Gulf of Oman.

    “We’re going to continue to do what we need to do to protect and safeguard our forces and take all necessary measures,” Ryder said. “No one wants to see a wider regional conflict. But we will not hesitate to protect our forces.”

    The U.S. has also advised Israeli officials to consider a delay in any ground assault, saying it would give more time to allow the U.S. to work with its regional partners to release more hostages, according to a U.S. official familiar with Biden administration thinking on the matter. The official, who requested anonymity to discuss the private discussions, said it was unclear how much the argument will “move the needle” on Israeli thinking.

    The official noted that with the help of Qatar mediating with Hamas, the U.S. was able to win the release of two captives, Judith and Natalie Raanan. The process that led to their release — just two of more than 200 people in Israel who were taken hostage in the Oct. 7 attacks — started soon after the Hamas operation. The official noted arranging for the release of the Raanans took longer to come together than many people realized.

    Asked during a brief exchange with reporters at the White House on Monday if the U.S. would be supportive of a ceasefire-for-hostage deal, President Joe Biden replied, “We should have those hostages released and then we can talk.”

    The International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday that Hamas had released two more hostages. They were identified by Israeli media as Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper of the Israeli kibbutz of Nir Oz.

    Glynn’s assignment to Israel was first reported by Axios.

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  • Sydney court postpones extradition hearing of former US military pilot until May

    Sydney court postpones extradition hearing of former US military pilot until May

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    SYDNEY — A Sydney court on Monday postponed an extradition hearing for a former U.S. military pilot accused of illegally training Chinese aviators until May as his lawyers attempt to further build their case.

    Boston-born Dan Duggan, 55, was scheduled to fight his extradition to the United States at a Nov. 23 hearing in the downtown Downing Center Local Court.

    But a magistrate decided to use that date to rule on what additional information that the Australian defense department and security agencies should provide defense lawyers.

    U.S. lawyer Trent Glover told the court the United States was ready to proceed with the extradition, but had agreed with defense lawyers the hearing should take place after November.

    Duggan’s lawyer, Dennis Miralis, told reporters outside court that the stakes were high for his client, who faces up to 65 years in prison if convicted.

    “This is existential, which means that every right that Dan has under the Australian legal system on the basis that he’s presumed innocent … needs to properly and carefully be considered,” Miralis said.

    Duggan’s wife, Saffrine, has said she asked Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to advocate against the extradition when he meets President Joe Biden in Washington this week.

    But in a news conference on Sunday before departing for the United States, Albanese said Duggan, who became an Australian citizen in 2012, was not on the agenda of his meetings with U.S. officials.

    “I don’t discuss things that are legal matters on the run, nor should I,” Albanese told reporters.

    Duggan has been in custody since Oct. 21 last year when he was arrested near his home in Orange, New South Wales.

    Duggan’s grounds for resisting extradition include his claim that the prosecution is political and that the crime he is accused of does not exist under Australian law. The extradition treaty between the two countries states that a person can only be extradited for an allegation that is recognized by both countries as a crime.

    Duggan’s lawyers say they expect additional material will demonstrate the overtly political aspects of the extradition request.

    They claim the former U.S. Marine Corps flying instructor was lured by Australian authorities from China in 2022 so he could be arrested and extradited.

    Duggan maintains he has done nothing wrong and is an innocent victim of a worsening power struggle between Washington and Beijing.

    In a 2016 indictment, prosecutors allege Duggan conspired with others to provide training to Chinese military pilots in 2010 and 2012, and possibly at other times, without applying for an appropriate license.

    Prosecutors say Duggan received about nine payments totaling around 88,000 Australian dollars ($61,000) and international travel from another conspirator for what was sometimes described as “personal development training.”

    Duggan has said the Chinese pilots he trained while he worked for the Test Flying Academy of South Africa in 2011 and 2012 were civilians, and nothing he taught was classified.

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  • 6 killed in Russian rocket strike on mail depot as Ukraine reports record bomb attack numbers

    6 killed in Russian rocket strike on mail depot as Ukraine reports record bomb attack numbers

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    KYIV, Ukraine — A missile strike on a mail depot in the eastern city of Kharkiv killed six people, Ukrainian officials said Sunday, as Ukraine reported a record number of bomb attacks in the southern Kherson region.

    A further 17 people were wounded in the blast late Saturday, which is believed to have been caused by a Russian S-300 rocket, Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on social media. All of the victims were employees of private Ukrainian postal and courier service Nova Poshta.

    The Ukrainian-held front-line city has been at the heart of fierce fighting as both Moscow and Kyiv push for battlefield breakthroughs amid the looming onset of wintry conditions. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his war against Ukraine in February last year.

    In a statement, Nova Poshta said the air raid siren had sounded just moments before the attack, leaving those inside the depot with no time to reach shelter. It announced that Sunday would be a day of mourning for the firm.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the strike as an attack on an “ordinary civilian object.”

    “We need to respond to Russian terror every day with results on the front line. And, even more so, we need to strengthen global unity in order to fight against this terror,” he wrote on social media. “Russia will not be able to achieve anything through terror and murder. The end result for all terrorists is the same: the need to face responsibility for what they have done.”

    Elsewhere in the Kharkiv region, three people were wounded in Russian shelling on the city of Kupiansk, Syniehubov said.

    Officials in southern Ukraine said Sunday the Russian military had used a record number of aerial bombs over the country’s Kherson region in the previous 24 hours.

    Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military’s Operational Command South, said that 36 missiles had been recorded over the area, with some villages being hit by several strikes.

    In a report released Saturday, the Institute for the Study of War said that Russian forces could be diversifying the mix of missiles, guided bombs, and drones used in strikes on Ukraine. The Washington-based think tank speculated that the change could be part of an attempt to find gaps in Ukraine’s air defenses ahead of further strikes over the winter.

    Ukrainian officials also reported Sunday that two people had been killed by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region. A 58-year-old man in the village of Kalinovka died in his home, while a 61-year-old man was killed in the town of Vasiukovka from a direct hit to his car, according to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office.

    In a separate incident, Nikopol military district chief Yevhen Yevtushenko said that a 71-year-old man had been killed the previous day while fishing at a local reservoir. He said the victim had been found with a fishing rod in his hand, and accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting him with artillery fire.

    Meanwhile, Moscow-appointed officials said Sunday that they had intercepted three Ukrainian missiles headed toward Russian-occupied Crimea. Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-installed leader of the Russian-occupied portion of Ukraine’s Kherson region, said all three missiles had been shot down.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • South Korea, US, Japan hold trilateral aerial exercise

    South Korea, US, Japan hold trilateral aerial exercise

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    The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries have held their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats

    ByHYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press

    October 22, 2023, 8:05 AM

    In this photo provided by the South Korea Defense Ministry via Yonhap News Agency, a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber is parked at an air base in Cheongju, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. (South Korea Defense Ministry/Yonhap via AP)

    The Associated Press

    SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries conducted their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise on Sunday in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea’s air force said.

    The training held near the Korean Peninsula was to implement the three countries’ earlier agreement to increase defense cooperation and boost their joint response capabilities against North Korean threats, the air force said in a statement.

    The drill involved a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber from the United States and fighter jets from South Korea and Japan, the statement said.

    South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies in Asia, which together host about 80,000 American troops.

    The three countries have occasionally held trilateral maritime drills, such as anti-submarine or missile defense exercises, but Sunday’s training marked the first time for them to perform a trilateral aerial drill.

    In South Korea, expanding military drills with Japan is a sensitive issue, because many still harbor strong resentment against Japan’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. But the North’s advancing nuclear program has pushed South Korea’s conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to move beyond historical disputes with Japan and beef up a trilateral security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan.

    In August, Yoon, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met at Camp David in their countries’ first stand-alone trilateral summit and agreed to bolster their defense cooperation to deal with North Korea’s nuclear threats. The three leaders decided to hold annual trilateral exercises and put into operation by year’s end the sharing of real-time missile warning data on North Korea.

    Sunday’s drill could draw a furious response from North Korea, which has long bristled at U.S. training exercises with South Korea, calling them an invasion rehearsal and responding with missile tests. The North slammed the Camp David agreement, accusing the U.S., South Korean and Japanese leaders of plotting nuclear war provocations on the Korean Peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called Yoon, Biden and Kishida “the gang bosses” of the three countries.

    Worries about North Korea’s nuclear program have deepened after it enacted a law that authorizes the preemptive use of nuclear weapons last year and has since openly threatened to use them in potential conflicts with the U.S. and South Korea.

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  • Philippines says its coast guard ship and supply boat are hit by Chinese vessels near disputed shoal

    Philippines says its coast guard ship and supply boat are hit by Chinese vessels near disputed shoal

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    MANILA, Philippines — A Chinese coast guard ship and one of its militia vessels separately bumped a Philippine coast guard ship and a military-run supply boat Sunday off a contested shoal, Philippine officials said, in a serious flareup that could heighten fears of an armed conflict in the disputed South China Sea.

    A top Philippine security official told The Associated Press there were no injuries among the Filipino crew members and an assessment of the damage to both vessels was underway.

    The official added that the incidents near the Second Thomas Shoal could have been worse if they were not able to maneuver rapidly away from the Chinese ships. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to a lack of authority to publicly discuss details of the incidents.

    The United States, a longtime treaty ally of the Philippines, immediately condemned the actions by China’s ships. The Philippine government also condemned the latest confrontations in “the strongest degree” and called them a violation of Manila’s sovereignty.

    The Chinese coast guard said the Philippine vessels “trespassed” into what it said were Chinese waters “without authorization” despite repeated radio warnings, prompting its ships to stop them. It blamed the Philippine vessels for causing the collisions.

    “The Philippine side’s behavior seriously violates the international rules on avoiding collisions at sea and threatens the navigation safety of our vessels,” the Chinese coast guard said in a statement posted on its website.

    The U.S. Ambassador to Manila, MaryKay Carlson, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “the United States condemns the PRC’s latest disruption of a legal Philippine resupply mission to Ayungin shoal, putting the lives of Filipino service members at risk.”

    She used the initials for China’s formal name, the People’s Republic of China, and the name the Philippines uses for the Second Thomas Shoal. She added that Washington was standing with its allies to help protect Philippine sovereignty and to support a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

    A Philippine government task force dealing with the South China Sea disputes said the collisions occurred as two Philippine supply boats escorted by two Philippine coast guard ships were heading to deliver food and other supplies to the atoll in the face of a years-long Chinese blockade.

    The task force said it “condemns in the strongest degree the latest dangerous, irresponsible, and illegal actions of the Chinese coast guard and the Chinese maritime militia done this morning in violation of Philippine sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction.”

    The actions by the Chinese ships were “in utter blatant disregard of the United Nations Charter, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” and international regulations that aim to prevent sea collisions, said the Philippine task force, which includes the country’s defense and foreign affairs departments, the military, national security council and the coast guard.

    Near-collisions have happened frequently as Philippine vessels regularly deliver supplies to Filipino marines and sailors stationed on the disputed shoal. But this was the first time Philippine officials have reported their country’s vessels being hit by China’s ships.

    In the first incident that happened Sunday morning, “dangerous blocking maneuvers of China coast guard vessel 5203 caused it to collide with the Armed Forces of the Philippines-contracted indigenous resupply boat Unaiza May 2,” the task force statement said. It said the “provocative, irresponsible, and illegal action” of the Chinese coast guard ship “imperiled the safety of the crew.”

    The Chinese coast guard gave a different version and said the Philippine supply boat deliberately crossed the bow of its ship, which was on a routine law enforcement patrol, “resulting in a slight collision.”

    Separately, Philippine coast guard ship BRP Cabra’s left side “was bumped by Chinese maritime militia vessel 00003 while it was lying to” northeast of the Second Thomas Shoal, the statement said.

    The Chinese coast guard said the Philippine ship “deliberately provoked trouble” by reversing its direction, causing its stern to collide with the Chinese vessel and “heating up the situation at the scene.” In the past, Chinese officials have played down claims that the Chinese vessels were military militia ships meant to look like fishing boats.

    Despite the Chinese coast guard blockade, one of the two Philippine navy-manned boats managed to maneuver past the Chinese vessels and deliver supplies to the small contingent stationed on board a long-marooned but still actively commissioned warship, the BRP Sierra Madre, the task force said.

    It was the latest flare-up in long-simmering territorial disputes in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest trade routes. The conflicts, which involve China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, are regarded as a potential flashpoint and have become a delicate fault line in U.S.-China rivalry in the region.

    In early August, a Chinese coast guard ship used a water cannon against one of two Philippine supply boats to prevent it from approaching Second Thomas Shoal. The move, which was caught on video, outraged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and prompted the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila to summon the Chinese ambassador to convey a strongly worded protest.

    Washington reacted by renewing a warning that it is obligated to defend the Philippines as a treaty ally.

    The Chinese Foreign Ministry accused Washington of “threatening China” by raising the possibility of activating the U.S.-Philippine mutual defense treaty. Beijing has repeatedly warned the U.S. not to meddle in regional territorial disputes.

    Later in August, the Philippines again deployed two boats that got past the Chinese coast guard blockade and delivered supplies to the Filipino forces at Second Thomas Shoal. Two Philippine coast guard ships escorting the supply boats, however, were prevented by Chinese coast guard ships from maneuvering closer to the shoal. A U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft flew in circles in support of the Philippine vessels as the standoff continued for more than three hours.

    A 2016 arbitration ruling set up under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea invalidated Beijing’s claims on historical grounds to virtually the entire South China Sea. China refused to participate in the arbitration sought by the Philippines, rejected the decision and continues to defy it.

    ___

    Associated Press journalist Huizhong Wu contributed to this report from Bangkok.

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  • Americans’ faith in institutions has been sliding for years. The chaos in Congress isn’t helping

    Americans’ faith in institutions has been sliding for years. The chaos in Congress isn’t helping

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    WASHINGTON — For many Americans, the Republican dysfunction that has ground business in the U.S. House to a halt as two wars rage abroad and a budget crisis looms at home is feeding into a longer-term pessimism about the country’s core institutions.

    The lack of faith extends beyond Congress, with recent polling conducted both before and after the leadership meltdown finding a mistrust in everything from the courts to organized religion. The GOP internal bickering that for nearly three weeks has left open the speaker’s position — second in line to the presidency — is widely seen as the latest indication of deep problems with the nation’s bedrock institutions.

    “They’re holding up the people’s business because they’re so dysfunctional,” said Christopher Lauff, 57, of Fargo, North Dakota.

    Part of that business, he said, is approving money for Ukraine to continue its fight against Russia’s invasion, something he says ultimately helps the U.S. — a point President Joe Biden stressed Thursday during an Oval Office address.

    “We’re usually the knight in shining armor, but we can’t be that now,” said Lauff, a Democrat.

    The disdain for Congress is just one area where Americans say they are losing faith. Various polls say the negative feelings include a loss of confidence or interest in institutions such as organized religion, policing, the Supreme Court, even banking.

    “Trust in institutions has deteriorated substantially,” said Kay Schlozman, professor of political science at Boston College. Schlozman said she believes in government and the things it provides, such as national defense and access to health care, but “I also can very much understand why the American people can be cynical about government.”

    The turmoil in the House and the federal case against Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, who is facing charges for bribery, show that both major parties are contributing to the dour outlook.

    The House has been without a permanent leader since early October after a small cadre of right-wing Republicans pushed out a member of their own party, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Subsequent attempts to replace him have failed.

    “That is an example of exactly the kind of thing that I would say can’t foster trust of government among the American people — the multiple votes, the fractiousness within parties, of people being personally ambitious and not being willing to compromise” Schlozman said.

    About half of adults (53%) say they have “hardly any confidence at all” in the people running Congress, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that was conducted in October. That’s in line with 49% who said that in March. Just 3% have a great deal of confidence in Congress, virtually unchanged from March.

    About 4 in 10 adults (39%) have hardly any confidence in the executive branch of the federal government, compared with 44% in March. Most Republicans (56%) have low levels of confidence in the executive branch — which is overseen by a member of the opposing party, Democrat Joe Biden — compared with just 20% of Democrats.

    About a third of adults (36%) say they have hardly any confidence in the conservative-majority Supreme Court, a figure that has remained steady in recent months. The polling reinforces that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say their confidence in the Supreme Court is low. Black Americans are more likely than Americans overall, as well as more likely than white or Hispanic adults, to have hardly any confidence in the nation’s highest court.

    One-third of U.S. adults (33%) continue to have low levels of confidence in the Justice Department, with Republicans having less confidence than Democrats. This comes as former President Donald Trump rails against the department after being charged with mishandling classified documents and attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

    Rick Cartelli, 63, a health care worker in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, who identifies as an independent, said he is happy with his local and state government but the current environment, especially the chaos on Capitol Hill, has wiped out what little confidence he had in that institution.

    “What is happening now is not good for the country at all,” he said.

    Cartelli also said he has little confidence in the executive branch, citing what he says are “mental lapses” by Biden that “are only probably going to become more and more pronounced.”

    Multiple AP-NORC polls from earlier this year find that the dearth of confidence is pervasive, spreading to organized religion, the government’s intelligence gathering and diplomatic agencies, as well as financial institutions. Slightly fewer than half (45%) in a study from AP-NORC and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights said they have little or no confidence that the news media is reporting news fully, accurately and fairly.

    Views on the military were best, with just 17% saying they have hardly any confidence in it.

    Kathleen Kersey, a 32-year-old health care worker in Brunswick, Georgia, who is a Republican, said she has little confidence in any of the federal entities, including Congress, but has more for the institutions closer to home. She also is a fan of Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, who she said is a moral man.

    “There’s only so much one person can do, and just with all the evil, it’s hard to have confidence in anything really, even the churches because everything works together as one,” she said.

    Confidence in the country’s foundational institutions has ebbed and flowed historically, though there’s been a long-term downward trend since at least the 1970s. Trust in government waned in the era of Watergate and the Pentagon Papers before making a slight recovery during Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s — despite Reagan’s famous declaration that the nine most terrifying words in the English language were: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

    David Bateman, an associate professor of government at Cornell University, said the tea party movement during former President Barack Obama’s term was the beginning of a steadier decline in confidence, as noted in polling from Gallup. But Bateman believes the most acute problem in recent years has been Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, despite dozens of courts rejecting his claims and multiple audits and reviews in the swing states where he disputed his loss.

    “The biggest threat to trust in institutions was the Trump campaign’s refusal to concede the election and insistence that they had won,” along with a large segment of the Republicans in Congress going along with the claim in the certification process, Bateman said.

    “That validated the idea that the whole institutional system is rigged, which it isn’t,” he said.

    He said an example of the fallout is the Republican attack on the Justice Department, including the FBI. The “weaponization” of the FBI has been a battle cry for Republicans who maintain it has targeted conservatives and who are incensed at the various investigations of Trump. Candidates vying against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination have said they would fire FBI Director Chris Wray.

    Distrust of the FBI had long been the purview of Democrats, especially those aware of civil rights-era monitoring.

    “If you told me in 2000 that Republicans are going to be saying you can’t trust the FBI, I would have been shocked,” Bateman said. “Going after the FBI has been a real ratcheting up of distrust.”

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Marine fatally shot at Camp Lejeune was 19 and from North Carolina, the base says

    Marine fatally shot at Camp Lejeune was 19 and from North Carolina, the base says

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    A Marine killed in a shooting at Camp Lejeune has been identified by officials as a 19-year-old lance corporal from North Carolina

    ByThe Associated Press

    October 20, 2023, 5:28 PM

    FILE – Signage stands on the main gate to Camp Lejeune Marine Base outside Jacksonville, N.C., on April 29, 2022. A Marine was killed in a homicide at Camp Lejeune on Wednesday night, Oct. 18, 2023, and a second Marine was held on suspicion of being involved, the base said. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed, File)

    The Associated Press

    CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — A Marine killed in a shooting at Camp Lejeune was identified by officials Friday a 19-year-old lance corporal from North Carolina.

    Austin B. Schwenk, of Onslow County, North Carolina, died Wednesday in an incident in a barracks room on the base, the base said in a statement. Schwenk enlisted in 2022 and he belonged to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, the base said.

    A second Marine was being held Friday on suspicion of being involved in the death, the base said. Officials called the death a homicide and described the other Marine as a suspect.

    The Naval Criminal Investigative Service will investigate the death, said the base, located in North Carolina.

    The sprawling Camp Lejeune covers about 240 square miles (621 square kilometers) and is home to the II Marine Expeditionary Force. Its beaches and ranges provide training in amphibious assaults and urban warfare and it is used both for U.S. Marine training and for exercises involving other military forces from around the world.

    The death came two days before the base was scheduled to conduct annual training known as Exercise Urgent Response that “provides an opportunity for tenant commands to develop and exercise emergency security procedures,” according to a press release.

    In 2021, a Marine was shot and wounded in a barracks at the base. Authorities later determined that the shooting was accidental.

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