Marines and soldiers will no longer need to use "Kentucky windage" to put 40 mm grenades on target if the two branches field Raytheon's laser guided Pike munition.
The new 40 mm round is guided by semi-active laser designators, meaning the munition will home in on a target that has been lased and destroy it with precision, according to Townsend Blanchard, a senior manager with Raytheon's land warfare systems.
The Pike is an anti-personnel and anti-light skinned vehicle precision munition that boasts an extended range of nearly 2 km — far surpassing the roughly 300–400 meter range of standard unguided 40 mm grenades, Blanchard told Marine Corps Times. The round also has counter-defilade capabilities.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China May 28, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Pool
BEIJING (Reuters) - China is not seeking a sphere of influence in Pacific Ocean island states, President Xi Jinping told the visiting prime minister of Vanuatu amid fears in Western capitals of China's growing role in the region. Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the Great Hall
China has offered to help developing countries, including those in the Pacific, and many see Chinese lending as the best way to develop their economies. Critics say Chinese loans can lead countries into a debt trap, which Beijing denies.
The United States and Australia have looked on with particular concern at China's growing role in the Pacific. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison will visit the Solomon Islands next week.
WNU Editor: The aid that China is promising to these island nations have strings attached. If that is not creating a mechanism to influence these nations, then I have a different definition of "sphere of influence" from the Chinese.
President Donald Trump wants the Navy to replace these electromagnetic catapults on Ford-class aircraft carriers with steam variants. (Mark D. Faram/Staff)
President Donald Trump kicked off a Tuesday speech to the crew of the amphibious assault ship Wasp with a question — electric or steam?
"So then let me ask you a question — catapult — right, the catapult system. Do you like electric or steam?" Trump said while calling for an audience voice vote during his roughly 20-minute address in Yokosuka, Japan.
The president treated his appearance on board the Wasp as a Memorial Day event because it still was Monday in the United States, but Trump's address conveyed the same pro-steam theme he's sounded since early 2017, when he entered the White House.
WNU Editor: S.L.A. Marshall's book Pork Chop Hill is a stunning account of men in action during a battle that lasted 48 hours in the Korean War. You can download the book from here.
Everest's most fatal years on record have generally been related to a single event. But this climbing season's 11 deaths so far are believed to be linked to several factors that've caused overcrowding in the most dangerous areas of the route to the summit. https://t.co/qc7hp3MmjN
I can still recall the exhilaration I felt in the reading room of the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.
It was mid-April 2009. I was scrolling through roll after microfilm roll of the War Department's " Opinion Surveys Relating to the Morale of U.S. Army Personnel."
What I had discovered were tens of thousands of statements written by World War II American soldiers about their military experiences. Not only were they uncensored, but they were also composed during the conflict – not afterward, from re-created memories.
A postdoctoral fellow at the time in modern U.S. history, I felt confident that no other collection of WWII records compared to what had been saved on these unreproduced 44 microfilm rolls. Neither had I ever seen these documents used in any history of WWII.
I had just discovered a historian's gold mine.
If only the public had access to these, I thought to myself.
This configuration is also commonly known to pilots as the "beast mode." It reduces stealth capabilities significantly and is usually reserved to the third day of war and later.
A video uploaded online shows F-35 planes stationed in UAE — right across the Persian Gulf from Iran — taking off carrying a full payload of weapons, known informally as "beast mode" or "bomb truck."
These armed-to-the-teeth sorties are conducted as part of "deterrence missions" in the US Central Command Area of Responsibility, which spans from northeast Africa all the way up to Turkey.
The Air Force is assessing whether it can use the Skyborg artificial intelligence technology it is creating to allow an F-35 or F-15EX pilot to control drones like the XQ-58 Valkyrie. (Jeff Martin/Staff)
WASHINGTON — The F-35 and F-15EX fighter jets could get drone wingmen in the coming years, the U.S. Air Force's top acquisition official revealed to Defense News.
The service is exploring ways to team Lockheed Martin's F-35 and Boeing's new F-15EX with the XQ-58 Valkyrie drone — a low-cost attritable fighter made by Kratos Defense — or similar unmanned platforms. Attritable means that an asset is reusable, but inexpensive enough that the service can afford to lose it in battle.
The Air Force is in discussions with Boeing and Lockheed on the prospect, and the Air Force Research Laboratory is working on the technology, Will Roper said May 21 in an exclusive interview.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former British spy who produced a dossier describing alleged links between Donald Trump and Russia will not cooperate with a prosecutor assigned by U.S. Attorney General William Barr to review how the investigations of Trump and his 2016 election campaign began, a source with knowledge of the situation said.
Christopher Steele, a former Russia expert for the British spy agency MI6, will not answer questions from prosecutor John Durham, named by Barr to examine the origins of the investigations into Trump and his campaign team, said the source close to Steele's London-based private investigation firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.
Trump has given Barr broad authority to declassify intelligence materials related to the investigations. Last week Trump ordered the heads of U.S. spy and law enforcement agencies to cooperate with Durham.
Although the long-suffering people of Venezuela have endured much, and interim president Juan Guaidó is recognized by more than fifty countries, their ordeal is not over.
The illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro averted its demise on April 30 after a showdown with the democratic forces of that nation under Guaidó. Americans cannot trivialize the apparent short-term success of the despot Maduro and his cohorts to continue to plunder Venezuela's country. Nonetheless, the efforts to restore democracy and the rule of law were not in vain, and the resolve by Guaidó and his internal and external allies should not wane. Additional pressure must be brought to bear on Maduro's unlawful government.
Airmen onboard the USS WASP wearing patches on their jumpsuits that read "Make Aircrew Great Again." The patches include an image in the center in the likeness of President Trump. pic.twitter.com/rQKAyrcDte
The Navy is reportedly reviewing whether some service members violated Defense Department policy by wearing "Make Aircrew Great Again" patches during President Trump's visit to the USS Wasp stationed in Japan.
The Navy said in a statement that the matter was under review by leadership, according to The Associated Press. The department said it was reviewing the patches to ensure they didn't violate any regulations administered by the Defense Department.
The Pentagon has regulations against partisan political acts by service members while in uniform.
Conservative MPs are throwing their hats into the ring to become the next Tory leader and prime minister, after Theresa May announced she would be stepping down on 7 June.
Housing minister, Kit Malthouse has become the latest MP to join the race - alongside Michael Gove, Dominic Raab, Matt Hancock, Jeremy Hunt, Boris Johnson, Esther McVey, Andrea Leadsom, Rory Stewart and Sajid Javid.
Here is a list of the confirmed contenders and some who are believed to be seriously considering entering the contest.
Tehran, Iran -- Iran's influential Revolutionary Guard said Tuesday it doesn't fear a possible war with the United States and claimed that America hasn't grown in power in recent years -- the latest tough talk from Tehran amid escalating regional tensions and a crisis with Washington.
"The enemy is not more powerful than before," said the Guard spokesman, Gen. Ramazan Sharif.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared unimpressed with Japan's offer to mediate in the crisis, saying Mr. Trump should make his intentions clear about any talks with Iran through actions, not words.
GENEVA (Reuters) - North Koreans are forced to pay bribes to officials to survive in their isolated country where corruption is "endemic" and repression rife, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday in a report that Pyongyang dismissed as politically motivated.
The report said officials extorted money from a population struggling to make ends meet, threatening them with detention and prosecution - particularly those working in the informal economy.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the formal name for North Korea, rejected the report, saying it was "politically motivated for sinister purposes".
"Such reports are nothing more than fabrication ... as they are always based on the so-called testimonies of 'defectors' who provide fabricated information to earn their living or are compelled to do so under duress or enticement," its Geneva mission said in a statement to Reuters.
Chinese military will develop a custom OS for improved security
As tensions between the US and China grow due to an escalating trade war, the Chinese military has decided to stop using Microsoft Windows in favor of its own custom operating system.
The decision was revealed in a recent issue of the Canadian military magazine Kanwa Asian Defence which reported that Chinese military officials will not be using Linux as their new OS but will develop their own custom operating system for improved security.
As a result of Edward Snowden and other big leaks, the Chinese government knows full well what the US is capable of when it comes to hacking devices running Windows, Mac and Linux.
WNU Editor: I am surprised that it has taken them this long to do so. And here is an easy prediction. This new Chinese OS will just be a semi-copy of Windows.
"If any country wants to use products made of China's #rareearth exports to contain China's development, the Chinese people would not be happy with that," a Chinese official said when asked about whether rare earth will be used as a countering weapon in the China-US #tradewar. pic.twitter.com/AH1XpgUrew
* A Chinese official warned that products using China's rare earth minerals should not be used against China's development. * The comment from the official, from the Chinese economic planning agency, was seen as a veiled threat aimed at the U.S. and its technology industry. * But analysts believe it would be difficult for China to immediately use the materials against the U.S. since U.S. imports of rare earths are relatively small, but the minerals are embedded in all sorts of technology, like cell phones and computers.
Speculation that China could use its dominance in rare earth minerals as a weapon in the trade war intensified after a Chinese official warned that products made from the materials should not be used against China's development.
The comment, reported by CCTV, was taken as a veiled threat aimed at the U.S. and its technology firms who are dependent on the materials. Last week, China President Xi Jinping visited rare earth mining and processing facilities, adding to speculation that China could make the minerals more expensive or unavailable if the trade war continues to expand.
WNU Editor: This is the second time that China has issued this threat. Are they serious? I think they are bluffing. Blocking exports of rare earths is only going to motivate other world suppliers to step in and expand their production of these minerals.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) attends a signing ceremony following talks with President of Congo Republic Denis Sassou Nguesso (L) at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia May 23, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo
Russia has signed a bilateral agreement to send military "specialists" to the Republic of Congo to advise their counterparts and repair Soviet equipment in a move that further increases Moscow's footprint on the continent.
The Republic of Congo is the latest sub-Saharan African nation where Russia has stepped up its presence recently. Since Western nations sanctioned Russia for annexing Crimea in 2014, Moscow has signed at least 20 military cooperation deals in sub-Saharan Africa, including with Ethiopia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
WNU Editor: There are now 20 African countries that have a military cooperation deal with Russia. Here is an easy prediction. This number is still going to increase.
More News On Moscow Sending Military Specialists To Republic Of Congo
Kosovo broke away from Serbia following a U.S.-led NATO bombing campaign in 1999 and declared independence in 2008.
Tensions flared in the Balkans on Tuesday after police in Kosovo raided Serb-populated areas.
Dozens of people were arrested, including a Serbian and a Russian working for the United Nations, officials said. Some 90 percent of people living in Kosovo are ethnically Albanian, with ethnic Serbs making up a tiny minority.
In response, neighboring Serbia ordered its troops near the border to be on high alert, and said it would be ready to protect its people if necessary.
Authorities said Tuesday's operation targeted organized crime and smuggling, which is rampant in the area following a 100 percent tariff on all Serbian goods was imposed by Kosovo last year.
WNU Editor: The Serb minority in Kosovo are rebelling against the high-tariffs that Kosovo has imposed on goods from Serbia, and in turn the Kosovo government is cracking down.This is far from over.
More News On Growing Tensions Between Serbia And Kosovo
* Taliban co-founder and political leader Mullah said they want end to conflict * Group are 'really committed to peace' according to Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar * 'The obstacle is the occupation of Afghanistan, and that should end,' he added
Senior Taliban officials including the group's top political advisor met with Afghan political figures in Moscow Tuesday, saying they were committed to peace in Afghanistan - even as US-led talks appear to have stalled.
In a message the Taliban have not altered since talks with the US started last autumn, Taliban co-founder and political leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said the insurgents want an end to 18 years of conflict - but would only sign a deal after foreign forces quit Afghanistan.
A sharp rise in attacks on schools in Afghanistan is preventing a generation of children from getting an education, UNICEF reports. Threats from the Taliban and "Islamic State" mean hundreds of schools remain shuttered.
Schoolgirls sitting in a classroom in Kandahar
Attacks on schools in Afghanistan almost tripled in 2018, the United Nations children's fund UNICEF warned Tuesday.
The number of incidents rose from 68 in 2017 to 192 last year — the first time an increase has been recorded since 2015.
Operation launched on Monday aim to neutralize terrorists, destroy their caves and shelters
The Turkish Armed Forces have launched a counter-terrorism operation in Hakurk, northern Iraq, the National Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
The military offensive, initiated Monday, aims to neutralize terrorists in the area. It began with artillery shelling and continued with airstrikes and commando operations.
Airstrikes destroyed weapons positions, shelters, caves and ammunition depots used by the terrorists with support from combat drones.
The ministry underlined that the operation was ongoing, as planned.
* Tornadoes first touched down in the city of Trotwood, just outside Dayton, at about 11pm on Monday night * National Weather Service described tornado as 'extremely dangerous' and told residents to remain in shelters * Photos showed widespread damage with severely damaged homes and buildings and downed power lines * There were reports of houses being cut in half and others were completely flattened during the storms * Authorities confirmed at least one death in Celina, Ohio, which is about 75 miles northwest of Dayton * At least 35 people in and around Dayton went to hospitals with injuries, most of them minor, officials said * As of Tuesday morning, five million people are without power in Ohio alone, according to local authorities
At least one person has died and 35 more were injured in Ohio after 'rapid-fire' tornadoes ripped through the state, leaving more than five million people without power
Weather experts said 51 tornadoes were reported across eight states overnight and residents of Idaho, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, are still not in the clear as severe weather is forecast to continue through Tuesday and into Wednesday.
A tally of storm reports posted online by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center shows that 14 suspected tornadoes touched down in Indiana, 10 in Colorado and nine in Ohio.
YOKOSUKA, KANAGAWA PREF. - Peppered with pomp and decorum, U.S. President Donald Trump's four-day visit to Japan ended with a symbolic gesture highlighting the long-standing military ties between the U.S. and Japan, with Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe jointly boarding the Japanese helicopter carrier Kaga to give an address to both the U.S. Navy and the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
According to Japan's Defense Ministry, Trump is the first U.S. president to board an MSDF vessel. Tuesday's boarding by the pair underlines Abe's long-standing efforts to further strengthen the bilateral military alliance, and show it off to the world in hopes of keeping China and North Korea in check.
USS Independence (LCS 2) of the General Dynamics Independence Class (front right) and USS Freedom (LCS 1) of the Lockheed Martin Freedom Class littoral combat ships. Naval-Technology.com
The U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship was supposed to be cheap, fast, flexible and easy to build.
But after spending $30 billion over a period of around two decades, the U.S. Navy has managed to acquire just 35 of the 3,000-ton-displacement vessels.
Sixteen were in service as of late 2018. Of those 16, four are test ships. Six are training ships. In 2019 just six LCSs, in theory, are deployable.
ANGELA MERKEL'S Christian Democratic Union took a heavy blow in the European Parliament elections as nationalist and eurosceptic parties saw strong gains across the bloc – now, newly-resurfaced reports argue that the CDU's foreign policy has long supported a "United States of Europe".
IRAN is "almost certainly" behind attacks on four tankers docked of the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates earlier this month, US National Security Adviser John Bolton has claimed, further ratcheting up tension between Washington and Tehran.
MICHEL BARNIER's chances of becoming the next European Commission President may be trashed by people's demand for a German leader at the head of the European powerful institution, claimed think tank contributor Jacob Haesler.
CHERNOBYL survivors risked their lives and broke the law in order to return home to the buildings they called home after the worst nuclear disaster in human history fundamentally changed the local landscape.
MUSLIMS around the world are observing a month of fasting for Ramadan. Eid al-Fitr is the festival that marks the end of Ramadan. But when is Eid al-Fitr 2019 and how do you wish someone a happy Eid?
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Wednesday there was “no reason” for Iran to back out of its nuclear deal with world powers other than to seek atomic weapons, a year after the U.S. president unilaterally withdrew America from the accord.
John Bolton, long a hawk on Iran, also claimed — without offering evidence — that the alleged sabotage of four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates came from naval mines placed “almost certainly by Iran.”
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital, Bolton told journalists that there had been a previously unknown attempt to attack the Saudi oil port of Yanbu as well.
However, Bolton stressed that the U.S. has not seen any further Iranian attacks in the time since, something he attributed to military deployments — America recently sent an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf.
He warned the U.S. would strike back if attacked.
“The point is to make it very clear to Iran and its surrogates that these kinds of action risk a very strong response from the United States,” Bolton threatened, without elaborating.
Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Bolton’s claim on Yanbu, which is the terminus, or end point, of the kingdom’s East-West Pipeline. That pipeline was attacked in recent days in a coordinated drone assault launched by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
In recent weeks, tensions have soared as the U.S. beefed up its military presence in the Persian Gulf in response to a still-unexplained threat from Iran.
The U.S. also has accused Iran of being behind a string of incidents, including the alleged sabotage of oil tankers near the UAE coast and a rocket that landed near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, while Yemen’s Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels have launched a string of drone attacks targeting Saudi Arabia.
Iran, meanwhile, has announced it was backing away from the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw it limits its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the accord as he believes it didn’t go far enough in limiting the Iranian nuclear program, nor did it address Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Bolton said that without more nuclear power plants, it made no sense for Iran to stockpile more low-enriched uranium as it now plans to do. But the U.S. also earlier cut off Iran’s ability to sell its uranium to Russia in exchange for unprocessed yellow-cake uranium.
Iran has set a July 7 deadline for Europe to offer better terms to the unraveling nuclear deal, otherwise it will resume enrichment closer to weapons level.
Bolton declined to say what the U.S. would do in response to that but he criticized Iran’s actions.
“There’s no reason for them to do any of that unless that’s part of an effort to reduce the breakout time to produce nuclear weapons,” Bolton said. “That’s a very serious issue if they continue to do that.”
Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. However, Western powers pushed for the nuclear deal to limit Iran’s ability to seek atomic weapons.
“This is just more graphic evidence that it hasn’t constrained their continuing desire to have nuclear weapons,” Bolton added. “It certainly hasn’t reduced their terrorist activities in the region that we just discussed or their other malign behavior in their use of conventional forces.”
Bolton declined to offer any evidence in blaming Iran for the attacks, citing ongoing investigations.
“Who else would you think is doing it?” he asked rhetorically at one point. “Somebody from Nepal?”
Australian navy helicopter pilots were reportedly hit with laser beams from fishing boats during a recent military exercise on the South China Sea, leading experts to believe they were being monitored by Chinese maritime militia on the disputed waters.
The pilots were “followed at a discreet distance by a Chinese warship,” according to Euan Graham, an academic with Australia’s La Trobe University.
Graham, who was invited aboard the Royal Australian Navy flagship HMAS Canberra during a voyage from Vietnam to Singapore, referred to the episode as “coordinated harassment.”
“[This was] despite the fact that our route didn’t take us near any feature occupied by Chinese forces or any obviously sensitive areas,” Graham wrote in a blog post for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Strategist.
While interactions between the Royal Australian Navy and People’s Liberation Army Navy were cordial, Graham said the Australian pilots were told to notify the Chinese in advance of any amendments to their course.
The U.S. has observed a rise in Chinese military activity in the South China Sea, a disputed body of water that China lays large claims to but is also partially claimed by several other countries including Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.
Last year, a U.S. military official said 20 incidents of lasers hitting U.S. aircrafts in the Pacific were recorded.
But this appears to be the first time that the Australian military has been targeted, maritime law expert Don Rothwell told the Guardian.
“Their sole purpose appears to be disruption,” he said, adding that it didn’t matter that the Australian navy ships were not near any of the Chinese artificial islands as any aerial presence in the South China Sea would alert China regardless.
More than 50,000 teachers across New Zealand took to the streets on strike Wednesday to demand pay rises and better working conditions following fruitless negotiations with the government, the Guardian reports.
The “mega-strike” is the largest education walkout the country has seen, joined by both elementary and high school teachers across major cities including Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. More than 700,000 children were affected as schools closed for the day.
Lynda Stuart, the president of teachers’ union NZEI Te Riu Roa, said teachers wanted issues such as large class sizes, lack of funding for special needs students and pastoral care obligations to be addressed.
“Our children cannot wait and neither can our teachers,” Stuart said.
The government had previously offered teachers pay rises of 3%, which Education Minister Chris Hipkins said is “it” and that the the country is not able to increase their salaries by any more than that. But the unions say that is not enough, demanding at least 15% or more, according to the Guardian.
“Teachers are overwhelmed and we don’t have time to teach,” Khali Oliveira, a primary teacher at Gladstone primary in Auckland, told the Guardian. “We want the government to invest in the future of teachers and the country’s children – we’re sick of Band-Aid solutions.”
A lack of teaching staff has also led to the government recruiting teachers from Australia and the U.K., but even so, schools have been forced to request retired teachers to come back and principals forced to take over classrooms to make up for the shortfall.
The strike comes a day before Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government’s plans to unveil the nation’s first “wellbeing” budget, which aims to allocate funding towards tackling inequality, mental health and other social issues.
(BRUSSELS) — A decades-old royal paternity scandal is setting Belgium abuzz again.
Lawyers said Tuesday that Belgium’s former King Albert II, 84, has finally agreed to a DNA test demanded by a woman who claims to be his daughter in what could be a decisive breakthrough in the long-running case.
By the evening, news of the former king’s acquiescence had already pushed Sunday’s Belgium election results with its extreme right gains into second place on the local news.
King Albert II, who abdicated in 2013 for health reasons, had been facing a daily fine of 5,000 euros ($5,600) for failing to provide his DNA in the case brought by 51-year-old Delphine Boel.
Boel has been trying to establish paternity for years and her story has often made headlines. Albert has never publicly denied being her father but so far had refused to provide DNA.
A statement from Albert’s lawyer, delivered to the Belgian media, said after the former monarch had taken note of the judgment two weeks ago, which imposed the daily fine, he would submit to the test “out of respect to the judicial authorities.” It was made clear the move did not imply any admission of guilt.
Boel’s lawyer, Yves-Henri Leleu, said she “reacted very positively, because with the DNA test, the biological evidence is now there.”
The lawyer for the former monarch said the DNA results would have to be sealed until later in the legal case.
Rumors about Albert and Boel’s mother, the aristocratic wife of a well-heeled industrialist, had been around for years. But the news the king may have had a child with her broke out into the open when a biography of Albert’s wife, Queen Paola, was published in 1999.
The test is a major moment in the long battle between Albert II and sculptor Delphine Boel, who launched legal proceedings in 2013 to have Albert's paternity recognised https://t.co/AYfXKvj7ub
In his Christmas message to the nation that year, King Albert indirectly confessed to a past infidelity and said he and Queen Paola lived through a “crisis” in the late 1960s that almost wrecked their marriage but that “a long while ago” they overcame their marital problems.
Six years ago, Boel, who has a striking resemblance to some members of the royal family, opened court proceedings to prove that Albert is her father.
An artist and sculptor, Boel has always said that she brought the paternity case due to anger since she was being cold-shouldered by the royal family.
For the last day of President Donald Trump’s highly stage-managed state visit to Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took him to tour the Japanese warship JS Kaga.
The Kaga, along with sister ship the Izumo, is the biggest warship that Japan’s navy, The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, has built since the end of the Second World War. And last December, Abe’s government announced plans to convert the Kaga and the Izumo to launch American-made F-35B stealth fighter jets. The conversion would effectively give the vessels many of the same capabilities as aircraft carriers––also a first for post-war Japan.
Aboard the Kaga, Trump praised the decision, along with the announcement that Japan plans to purchase 105 American-made F-35 fighters.
“And soon, this very ship will be upgraded to carry that cutting-edge aircraft. With this extraordinary new equipment, the JS Kaga will help our nations defend against a range of complex threats in the region and far beyond,” Trump said Tuesday aboard the ship.
That may be overstating Japan’s military ambitions. Japan’s constitution forbids the use of offensive weapons, which aircraft carriers have long been considered.
Still, all of the signals from Japan’s military are that it has no intention of using the Kaga or the Izumo like traditional aircraft carriers, says Jeffrey W. Hornung, a political scientist with the RAND Corporation who specializes in Japanese security and foreign policy.
“Given its history, it’s significant that Japan has come this far and they have the capability now that looks like an aircraft carrier … once it’s reconfigured,” he says. “But, then again, they’re not [aircraft carriers]. They don’t have any of the infrastructure for it to be deployed as such. They don’t have the strike capability. They don’t have any sort of intention to go further then what it is right now.”
Abe has been working for many years to strengthen Japan’s military and expand its ability to use force, including a push to amend the constitution to formally recognize the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. However, it’s delicate business in Japan, where the constitution is explicitly pacifist following the country’s surrender in World War II. In Japan’s military heyday, aircraft carriers were some of its most potent military weapons––and were used to launch the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, which drew the United States into that war.
Here’s what to know about the JS Kaga and Japan’s military buildup.
What is the JS Kaga and is it really an aircraft carrier?
At 812 feet long and weighing in at 24,000 tons, the Kaga and the Izumo are the size of some World War II aircraft carriers. The last time Japan had a warship called the Kaga, named after a former province, it was an aircraft carrier that launched planes on Pearl Harbor.
The ships have a flat flight deck, were designed to carry up to 28 helicopters, and are officially classed as “helicopter destroyers.” Their primary job is anti-submarine warfare and quickly deploying Japanese military assets at sea. They also serve as command ships and can be used to quickly ferry humanitarian relief to far-flung places in Asia.
In part because of Japanese taboos about building offensive weapons, even after the vessels are upgraded to carry F-35 fighters, they still won’t be called aircraft carriers, but rather “multi-purpose destroyers.”
But even with the ability to launch sophisticated stealth jets, these ships won’t be like the aircraft carriers that the U.S. uses to project military power around the world, says Hornung. “They’re not geared toward anything like a carrier strike group,” he says. “The planes are not going to be permanently deployed on the ship. They’re actually going to be deployed on land, they’re only going to be used when necessary.”
And, he cautions, the Japanese likely won’t have the Kaga and the Izumo upgraded and able to deploy fighters for five to 10 years. It’s been notoriously difficult and costly, even for the U.S., to get ship flight decks ready to to field the F-35B, which can take off and land vertically thanks to a powerful swiveling jet engine.
As big as Japan’s new ships are, they are dwarfed by America’s super carriers, which are nearly 1,100 feet long and 114,000 tons. Even smaller aircraft carriers, like the U.K.’s HMS Queen Elizabeth and France’s Charles de Gaulle, are significantly larger by weight.
Hornung adds that in his talks with Japanese military officials, he’s seen no interest in developing an actual aircraft carrier similar to what the U.S. has.
Why did Trump visit the Kaga?
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty ImagesMarine One with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on board lands on Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier JS Kaga in Yokosuka on May 28, 2019.
Trump’s visit to the Japanese warship, which he said made him feel “very safe,” came near the end of a state visit that was widely seen as Abe’s attempt to placate the American president.
Going to the Kaga, along with the announcement of a F-35 purchase order that Trump said would make Japan’s fleet “the largest of any U.S. ally,” is a signal to the U.S. leader that Japan is working to step up its efforts to defend itself, Hornung says.
“I just think the majority of this is all symbolic and pomp, but it’s meant to show how Japan is being a good ally and buying American,” he says.
Trump has repeatedly criticized U.S. allies for not spending enough on their own defense. He says it amounts to taking advantage of the U.S. military.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump told the New York Times, “We’re basically protecting Japan… And there’ll be a point at which we’re just not going to be able to do it anymore.”
Some 50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, but Japan has also increased its defense budget in recent years. Japan plans to spend about $48 billion a year on defense, about 1% of its GDP.
Why is Japan developing aircraft carrier capabilities now?
Japan’s military buildup, including the future conversation of the Izumo and the Kaga to carry fighter jets, is part of a growing wariness about China, especially when it comes to its outlying islands.
The focus of Japan’s concern has been what it calls the Senkaku Islands. Japan says they are sovereign territory. But the Chinese, who call them the Diaoyu Islands, also claim them. The rocky islands are about 560 miles from the Japanese mainland and 255 miles from the nearest Japanese air base on Okinawa.
Japan hopes to use the new capability in case its air base in Okinawa is unable to operate, Hornung says. It could also move fighter jets closer to the Senkakus, and other outlying islands, to shorten response times.
“When it comes to China and the Senkaku Islands, Japan will not back down no matter what,” says Hornung.
The dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands is part of China’s bigger push to assert its dominance in its own neighborhood. China has been drawn into conflict with the Philippines, as well as other neighbors, over claims it owns islands in the South China Sea and East China Sea that other countries see as theirs.
China has been increasingly testing Japan, with hundreds of military plane flights that have caused Japanese fighters to scramble, as well as incursions by Chinese fishing boats into waters under Japanese control, he says.
“Their feeling is that by having these ‘multipurpose destroyers,’ they’ll be able to disperse a limited number of planes and at least complicate things for Chinese [military] planners by knowing that well we have these two ships that are out there,” he says.
The World Health Organization (WHO) will no longer categorize being transgender as a “mental disorder”, after a major resolution to amend its health guidelines was approved May 25.
The United Nations’ health agency approved a resolution to remove “gender identity disorder” from its global manual of diagnoses, in a move that will have a “liberating effect on transgender people worldwide,” says Human Rights Watch. According to the newly-revised version of the International Classification of Diseases (known as ICD-11), published by the WHO, “gender identity disorders” have been reframed as “gender incongruence.” Gender nonconformity is now included in a chapter on sexual health, rather than being listed with “mental disorders” as was the case previously. Activists are now hoping that the ICD-11 will be implemented by the WHO’s 194 member states over the next three years.
In several countries around the world, the process of medically transitioning gender is based on the now-outdated ICD framework, which classifies being transgender as a “gender identity disorder” under the category of “mental disorders.” In Japan for example, the law requires those seeking to transition gender to have a diagnosis of “gender identity disorder” and to be sterilized before their new gender identity can be reflected on official documentation. U.N. member states, of which Japan is one, are now responsible for putting ICD-11 into practice at a national level, a lengthy process that has been given a target deadline of January 1, 2022.
“When you have a system that sets up someone’s very existence and identity in a diagnosis as a mental health condition, that feeds an enormous amount of stigma and drives people away,” Kyle Knight, researcher in the LGBT rights program at Human Rights Watch, tells TIME. “We have interviewed transgender people in Japan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Indonesia to name a few countries, and they don’t even want to begin to undergo the process of legal recognition because it requires them to go see a psychiatrist who will tell them they have a so-called mental disorder; something that they don’t feel corresponds with their own reality. People don’t feel like their gender identity is something diagnosable or needs a diagnosis.”
While ICD-11 is being celebrated by many as a step in the right direction, activists are keen to highlight that there is still work to be done. GATE, an organization advocating on issues of gender identity, gender expression and bodily diversity, will be focusing their efforts on contributing to the WHO’s forthcoming reviewing and updating process and encouraging people to put pressure on their own governments to adopt ICD-11 in the coming years. “There’s a sense of happiness, but at the same time, while we are seeing these advances, there are countries where trans people find it more and more difficult to get access to basic healthcare, like the U.S.,” says Argentinean intersex and trans rights activist Mauro Cabral, GATE‘s executive director.
As recently as May 24, a new rule issued by the Trump administration proposed the roll back of sex discrimination protection for transgender people in health services, a move that U.S. LGBT rights groups have cautioned could result in a denial of needed medical care.
Cabral tells TIME that among his own activist network, the WHO’s resolution is viewed as a much-needed improvement, but is seen as an imperfect stepping stone to ensuring beneficial outcomes such as trans-related healthcare being included in universal healthcare coverage worldwide.
The use of ‘gender incongruence’ is also seen as an expression of international solidarity with people in parts of the world whose health systems might otherwise exclude them if different language was used. “I personally don’t consider myself, and I don’t know anyone that considers themselves to be a person with ‘gender incongruence,'” Cabral tells TIME. “In that sense, we are accepting this as a way of people in different countries getting access to the healthcare that they need.”
“It’s now time to start working on the discriminatory policies that were erected on the basis of this absurd, abusive and now scientifically invalidated and outdated scientific diagnostic system,” Knight tells TIME. “Those are going to take a while to dismantle, but now more than ever, that’s what makes this really urgent.”
(NAMCHE, Nepal) — Scaling Mount Everest was a dream few realized before Nepal opened its side of the mountain to commercial climbing a half-century ago. This year the government issued a record number of permits, leading to traffic jams on the world’s highest peak that likely contributed to the greatest death toll in four years.
As the allure of Everest grows, so have the crowds, with inexperienced climbers faltering on the narrow passageway to the peak and causing deadly delays, veteran climbers said.
After 11 people died this year, Nepal tourism officials have no intention of restricting the number of permits issued, instead encouraging even more tourists and climbers to come “for both pleasure and fame,” said Mohan Krishna Sapkota, secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation.
Nepal, one of the world’s poorest countries, relies on the climbing industry to bring in $300 million each year. It doesn’t cap the number of permits it issues or control the pace or timing of the expeditions, leaving that to tour operators and guides who take advantage of brief clear weather conditions whenever they come, leading to pileups near the peak.
On May 22, a climber snapped a photo from a line with dozens of hikers in colorful winter gear that snaked into the sky.
Climbers were crammed crampon-to-crampon along a sharp-edged ridge above South Col, with a 7,000-foot (2,000-meter) drop on either side, all clipped onto a single line of rope, trudging toward the top of the world and risking death as each minute ticked by.
“There were more people on Everest than there should be,” said Kul Bahadur Gurung, general secretary of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, an umbrella group of all expedition operators in Nepal. “We lack the rules and regulations that say how many people can actually go up and when.”
The death toll this season is the highest since 2015. Most of those who died are believed to have suffered from altitude sickness, which is caused by low amounts of oxygen at high elevation and can cause headaches, vomiting, shortness of breath and mental confusion.
Once only accessible to well-heeled elite mountaineers, Nepal’s booming climbing market has driven down the cost of an expedition, opening Everest up to hobbyists and adventure-seekers. Nepal requires climbers to have a doctors’ note deeming them physically fit, but not to prove their stamina at such extreme heights.
Because of the altitude, climbers have just hours to reach the top before they are at risk of a pulmonary edema, when the lungs fill with liquid. From Camp Four at 8,000 meters (26,240 feet) to the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) peak, the final push on Everest is known as the “death zone.”
The conditions are so intense at such times that when a person dies, no one can afford to expend energy on carrying the body down from the mountain.
“Every minute counts there,” said Eric Murphy, a mountain guide from Bellingham, Washington, who climbed Everest for a third time on May 23. He said what should have taken 12 hours took 17 hours because of struggling climbers who were clearly exhausted but had no one to guide or help them.
Just a handful of inexperienced climbers, he said, is “enough to have a profound effect.”
The deaths this year on Nepal’s side of the mountain included Don Cash, a sales executive from Utah, and Christopher Kulish, an attorney from Colorado, who both died on their way down from the peak.
Kulish, 62, had just reached the top with a small group after crowds of climbers congested the peak last week, according to his brother, Mark Kulish.
He described his brother as an attorney who was an “inveterate climber of peaks in Colorado, the West and the world over.”
Just before he died, Kulish made it into the so-called “Seven Summit Club” of mountaineers who have reached the highest peaks on every continent, his brother said.
Cash, 55, collapsed at the summit and was given CPR and massages by his two Sherpa guides. He got up only to fall again in the same way at Hillary Step, the first cliff face down from the summit. His body was left near there.
Cash had said on his LinkedIn page that he left his job as a sales executive to try to join the seven summits club.
Nepal doesn’t have any regulations to determine how many permits should be issued, so anyone with a doctor’s note can obtain one for an $11,000 fee, Sapkota said.
This year, permits were issued to 381 people in 44 teams, the highest number ever, according to the government. They were accompanied by an equal number of guides from Nepal’s ethnic Sherpa community. Some climbers were originally issued permits in 2014 that were revoked mid-season when 16 Sherpa guides died in an avalanche and other Sherpas, whose support as guides and porters is essential, effectively went on strike.
Another factor was China’s limit on the number of permits it issued this year for routes in its territory on the north side of Everest for a clean-up. Both the north and south sides of the mountain are littered with empty oxygen canisters, food packaging and other debris.
Instead of the overcrowding, Sapkota blamed the weather, equipment and inadequate supplemental oxygen for this year’s deaths.
“There has been concern about the number of climbers on Mount Everest but it is not because of the traffic jam that there were casualties,” Sapkota said in Namche, the town that serves as the staging area for Everest trips.
Still, he said, “In the next season we will work to have double rope in the area below the summit so there is better management of the flow of climbers.”
Mirza Ali, a Pakistani mountaineer and tour company owner who reached Everest’s peak for the first time this month, on his fourth attempt, said such an approach was flawed.
“Everybody wants to stand on top of the world,” but tourists unprepared for the extremes of Everest endanger the entire industry, he said.
“There is not a sufficient check on issuing the permits,” Ali said. “The more people come, the more permits, more business. But on the other side it is a lot of risk because it is costing lives.”
Indian climber Ameesha Chauhan, soaking her frostbitten toes in medicine at a hospital in Kathmandu, described the agony of turning away from the peak when she realized her supplemental oxygen supply was low.
Two of her team members died on the May 16 ascent.
She returned and scaled the peak a week later.
“If you look at it, the inexperienced climbers do not even know how to tie on the oxygen masks around their face,” she said. “Many climbers are too focused on reaching the summit.”
A giddy sense of triumph has taken hold among Europe’s strident right-wing nationalists since Sunday night, after they won the European Union’s parliamentary elections in the U.K., France and Italy—three powerhouse economies—potentially setting the stage for a shakeout on parts of the Continent.
But despite the individual victories, the populist and nationalists parties remain splintered across several political groupings in the E.U’s legislative body and are more likely to continue battling against the establishment than replacing it completely.
“The people took back the power tonight,” France’s Marine Le Pen thundered late Sunday, after her National Rally, or RN, party narrowly beat President Emmanuel Macron’s group in France’s biggest E.U. election turnout in decades.
The elections, held every five years across 28 countries for 751 delegates to the European Parliament in Brussels, are crucial in shaping policy on bitterly divisive issues like migration, trade, and public spending.
The impact of the results reverberated within their individual nations. In Italy, the League Party led by Interior Minister Matteo Salvini took 34% of the vote, far exceeding expectations and confirming its status as the most powerful political movement in the country. And after the new hardline Brexit Party came first in the E.U. elections in the U.K. on Sunday night, its leader Nigel Farage insisted he had earned the right to participate alongside the government in Brexit negotiations with the E.U.
In France, the results marked a powerful symbolic reversal of the 2017 presidential election that delivered power to Macron. About 200,000 more French voters opted for Le Pen’s fervently anti-immigrant message than Macron’s liberal, business-friendly policies.
Yet for all the celebrations among far-right leaders on Sunday, the victory will not herald the populist takeover of the European Union that some had predicted. In fact, when the new European Parliament convenes in Brussels on July 2, the nationalists and populists could struggle to push through their election promises, or to halt decisions against which they campaigned.
For one thing, the nationalist parties remain deeply divided; The Fidesz party of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, for example, which won a huge 52% vote on Sunday, sits in a different political bloc in Brussels than Le Pen and Salvini; other nationalist leaders are split over issues like Russian sanctions, the environment, and migrant quotas.
And even if they succeed in uniting on some decisions, they still have too few seats in the European Parliament to make a profound impact, despite their strong showing on Sunday. “There are a bit more than 200 members among the nationalists and populists, all put together,” says Fabrice Pothier, Chief Strategy Officer of political consultancy Rasmussen Global, who is French and a strong Macron supporter. “It is not a blocking majority.”
That might be one reason Macron appears unmoved by Le Pen’s election victory. Le Pen’s new RN party beat Macron’s Republic on the March (LREM) by less than one percent, and is likely to have the same number of seats in the European Parliament as before. Meanwhile, Macron—whose party is too new to have had any seats in Brussels until now—will now have 23 delegates, the largest number in a new liberal-democratic bloc.
In a measure of the deep disaffection against Macron, about 44% of supporters of the Yellow Vest protest movement voted for Le Pen’s party, while many others supported the environmental party, Europe Ecology—the Greens. Yet Macron’s razor-thin loss was not as bad as it might have been given the recent popular upheavals in France, analysts said. “It was a kind of victory for Macron,” says Dominique Moisi, analyst for the French Institute of International Relations, or IFRI, in Paris. “Of course it is not a victory when you come number two. But it is not a defeat, given the huge hostility to Macron.”
The E.U. elections signaled a likely rematch between Macron and Le Pen in the 2022 presidential elections—one that polls suggest Le Pen is virtually certain to lose again. “There is no majority of French who want to see her take charge,” Moisi says. “The chances of Macron being reelected in 2022 are still strong.”
By then, Macron and other centrists might well have taken some lessons from their losses this month. Crucially, Macron, like mainstream politicians elsewhere, will now need to show he grasps the deep frustrations felt by Europeans living not in the glittering capitals, but in provincial areas severely hard-hit by stagnant or declining growth, and the disappearance of industrial jobs. “You have everywhere in Europe, and I would say everywhere in the Western world, a split between two parts of the nations,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told TIME earlier this year, as the E.U. campaign took off. “One part is benefiting from globalizing, and the other part is suffering from globalization.”
Much like in President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, Le Pen masterfully tapped into that frustration in the E.U. campaign, portraying Macron as a disconnected elitist. After Sunday’s loss, Moisi says, “I would hope there will be at least a humility effect now, about how people perceive things outside Paris.”
Then around midnight on the main election day of May 26, the count confirmed that even Portugal—which, like much of southern Europe, has been a longtime wasteland for environmentally-focused parties—had elected Francisco Guerreiro of the People-Animals-Nature (PAN) party.
“It was a big surprise because we had been disregarded by the traditional media,” says Guerreiro, who seems a little shell-shocked at the prospect of travelling back and forth to Brussels as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). But he is excited about the future, he tells TIME in a phone interview. “We have to be confident and know that we are leading a new way of making policy and politics, and each day we see the support of society grow.”
The challenge for Guerreiro and his Green colleagues is translating these record successes into concrete policies that benefit the environment, at a time when the European political landscape is more fractured and polarized than ever. “The Green issue has grown up”, says Susi Dennison, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a pro-E.U. think tank. “Now it needs to become a core part of the agenda and I expect to see national governments responding to that.”
The European Green Party — the federation of national parties that focus on environmental policies — surpassed all expectations in the Europe-wide vote. Buoyed by protest movements, increasingly stark reports from climate scientists, and galvanizing figures like Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg, the party won at least 69 seats in the European Parliament, up from their current 50 seats. They will be the fourth largest group in the 751-seat body, which works with the European Union’s executive arm to propose and approve laws for the bloc.
Across much of northern Europe they made record gains, coming close to doubling their share of the vote in France, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Finland.
It was not just their environmental policies which captured the public’s attention, the group’s leaders say, but a focus on social justice and fairness, and a desire among the E.U. electorate to shake up the traditional parties and vote for people promising change. “Everyone was talking about the rise of the far right and was very concerned about that and were looking for a force of courage and positive change,” says Ska Keller, a German Green MEP who is the group’s co-leader in the European Parliament. “And we have been able to provide a positive vision of the future of Europe.”
For the first time, the big center-left and center-right groups – which traditionally worked together to dominate European policy-making – have lost their majority. So the first task for the European Greens is to work out their alliances in this uncharted parliamentary landscape, and figure out how to leverage their newfound influence.
“The dynamic is going to be completely different and this is playing in our favor,” says Terry Reintke, a German Green MEP. “We have much more power in terms of making demands, and if they are not met it is going to be difficult for any group to form a pro-European coalition.”
Big policy promises include a Green New Deal to create jobs through sustainable investments, a carbon tax, a move to 100 % renewables and an overhaul of the bloc’s agriculture policy to focus on environmentally friendly practices.
The party could push for one of the top portfolios in the E.U’s cabinet – for example, the energy portfolio – meaning they can really force their agenda from within.
Another lasting impact will be on national politics. In Germany, the traditional parties have conceded that they should have had a more coherent climate policy, and centrist parties in Ireland, France and Denmark will also look at ways to win back votes from green rivals. After the Green-Left party had a big win at the Netherlands’ general elections in 2017, the Dutch government was moved to adopt one of the world’s toughest climate bills.
But it will be a difficult balance, especially for center-right parties which have shifted their rhetoric towards the extreme right to placate populist and nationalists, who despite slightly worse-than-expected results on Sunday remain a political force. In some areas of Germany, the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) had a strong showing and has already announced that the Greens are now their “main competitors”.
In the past the Greens have struggled to build the coalitions needed to make a difference in the E.U. Parliament, in party because of their immovability on many issues. For now, they are adamant that their bigger mandate means it is the centrist parties that need to compromise. “In a way it’s the same tactic as the extremist parties have used on migration – if you want to work with us then move in our direction,” Dennison says.
But the party is confident that Green issues will continue to climb the agenda. In the months leading up to the election, polls showed that climate change is now one of the top three concerns in ten E.U. countries. Even in areas such as eastern Europe where there is very little formal representation of Green parties, pollution and air quality are issues of concern.
And Greens are not just poaching voters from the left. In Germany they took votes from all parties including the AfD and have performed strongly in industrial areas. Across Europe, the Greens are polling strongly among young voters. By the next European Parliament election in 2024, many of the school children out on the streets for climate strikes will be of voting age, and the Green Wave may become a deluge.
“Everybody is always talking about the far right, and yes they are a big concern, but there are also all these other things happening – the climate strikes, the pro-European marches, the anti-corruption movements,” Keller says. “It shows there is also this other Europe to which we need to pay much more attention.”
(BELGRADE, Serbia) — Serbia put its troops on full alert Tuesday after heavily armed police in northern Kosovo entered Serb-populated Mitrovica, firing tear gas and arresting nearly two dozen people.
It was the latest flare-up in long-simmering tensions between Serbia and its former province, which declared independence from Belgrade in 2008 after a bloody 1998-99 war that ended only with NATO intervention. Ninety percent of population in northern Kosovo are Serbs who don’t want to be part of independent Kosovo. Action by Kosovo special police there is rare and always triggers Serb anger.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Kosovo police arrested 23 Serbs and Bosnians after “bursting” into the northern area with armored vehicles. He said he had seen video of the police firing “live ammunition” over the heads of unarmed Serbs, and said the operation was designed to intimidate minority Serbs in Kosovo, whose population is mostly ethnic Albanians.
Vucic said he has ordered soldiers near the border to be on “combat alert” to protect Serbs if tensions escalate.
“Serbia will try to preserve peace and stability, but will be fully ready to protect our people at the shortest notice,” Vucic told parliament.
Serbian state TV reported movements of Serb troops stationed near the border. Any Serbian armed incursion into Kosovo would mean a direct clash with NATO-led peacekeepers there.
Kosovo’s prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, confirmed on Twitter that police had carried out “an anti-smuggling and organized crime operation.” President Hashim Thaci called on the ethnic Serb minority to remain calm and support the police.
“Those involved in illegal activities will go behind bars,” he wrote on his Facebook page, insisting that the police operation was not targeting people from specific ethnicities.
The spokesman for the NATO peacekeeping mission, Col. Vincenzo Grasso, said the force is monitoring the situation and coordinating with authorities.
Serbia, and its allies Russia and China, do not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence. The United States and most other countries do. The dispute has stalled both countries’ efforts to become members of the European Union.
The two sides had been participating in an EU-facilitated dialogue, but Serbia walked away in November after Kosovo slapped a 100% tax on Bosnian and Serbian imports, saying it will be lifted only when the two countries recognize Kosovo’s sovereignty.
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