US, Australia, Philippines set for largest ever Drill amid China’s rhetoric against Taiwan President’s visit with McCarthy

McCarthy and Taiwan President

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • US-Philippines military exercise to be the largest ever amid rising tensions with China
  • Roughly 12,000 U.S. troops, 5,400 Philippine personnel and over 100 Australian military members are set to participate in the annual Balikatan Exercise between the countries, far surpassing the 9,000 that participated in the event last year, according to reporting from the Navy Times Wednesday.
  • The 17-day exercise, which is set to kick off on April 11, comes amid rising tensions with China in Asia, most recently after an announced deal struck between the Philippines and U.S. that gives the U.S. military access to four additional military installations in the country, a few of which will face the South China Sea.
  • Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said of the event, which was announced last month. “This is part of our effort to modernize our alliance, and these efforts are especially important as the People’s Republic of China continues to advance its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea.”
  • The announced plans also come after China vowed “strong and resolute measures” in response to a meeting between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California.
  • We will take resolute measures to punish the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and their actions, and resolutely safeguard our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement Thursday morning.
  • McCarthy and a group of bipartisan lawmakers met with Tsai Wednesday, with McCarthy vowing “unwavering” support for Taiwan.

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AUKUS deal gives Australia access to stealthy submarines as counterweight to China’s military buildup

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • China says U.S.-U.K.-Australia nuclear submarine deal puts allies on “path of error and danger”
  • China warned Tuesday that the U.S. and its nuclear allies Australia and the United Kingdom were heading down a “path of error and danger” after they unveiled a deal that will see Australia purchase nuclear-powered attack submarines. The submarine purchase is aimed at modernizing Australia’s fleet amid growing concern about China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
  • The partnership between the three nations, announced in 2021, enabled Australia to access nuclear-powered submarines, which are stealthier and more capable than conventionally powered vessels, as a counterweight to China’s military buildup.
  • China has argued that the AUKUS deal violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It contends that the transfer of nuclear weapons materials from a nuclear-weapon state to a non-nuclear-weapon state is a “blatant” violation of the spirit of the pact. Australian officials have pushed back against the criticism, arguing that they are working to acquire nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed, submarines.

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US Plans to send B-52s to Australia to counter China’s growing threat

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • US to put Nuclear-Capable B52s in Australia as Taiwan Invasion Fears Grow
  • The long-range heavy bombers will be provided as part of a $1 billion-plus upgrade of military assets across northern Australia.
  • Australian broadcaster’s current affairs program, Four Corners, revealed U.S. documents detailing an expansion plan at the Tindal air base, south of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory, which included a “squadron operations facility” in addition to a maintenance center and parking area for the B-52s.
  • The upgrade is viewed as a provocative response by Washington to growing tensions and fears around a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy claimed by Beijing.

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An act of aggression: Chinese ship spotted hugging coast of Australia

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • Peter Dutton confirms Chinese spy ship is off the Australian coast as he labels PLA Navy’s movements ‘an aggressive act’
  • “Its intention of course is to collect intelligence right along the coastline, it has been in close proximity to military and intelligence installations on the west coast of Australia,” he told reporters on Friday.
  • Dutton said Australia has not “seen a ship from the People’s Liberation Army Navy come this far south” and said it has been on a “strange course,” causing authorities concern.
  • “But clearly its intention is to gather intelligence and we’re very conscious of that, that’s why we’ve had the P-8s in the air and the other surveillance techniques that we’ve been able to deploy.

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Troops head to Australia in anticipation of conflict with China

Revelations 6:3-4 “ when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • Biden sending THOUSANDS of Marines to Australia in Anticipation of Conflict with China
  • 1,000 Marines have already arrived in the country
  • The Pentagon is to deploy over two thousand troops to Australia by September to join an established rotational force of 200
  • Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton warned Wednesday that Beijing may look to annex Taiwan while the eyes of the world are on the conflict in Ukraine.
  • China has signaled that it could use nuclear weapons in response to the AUKUS security pact between Australia, America and Britain, which sees the former receiving nuclear powered submarines in years to come.
  • China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded but saying “the US … creating and spreading false information”.

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Unprecedented Storm Hit Queensland Australia

Important Takeaways:

  • Australia flooding: Torrential rain in Brisbane kills eight people after river peaks and floods homes
  • Thousands of homes and businesses in Queensland are underwater and police say several people are still unaccounted for. “I think everyone would agree no one has seen this amount of rain in such a short period of time,” the state premier said.
  • 2,145 homes and 2,356 business submerged and a further 10,827 properties flooded above their floorboards.
  • Emergency services have rescued more than 130 people in the past 24 hours, according to officials, with searches still under way.
  • Around 15,000 people have been evacuated.

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Massive quake strikes near Australia

Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

Important Takeaways:

  • Northern Australia rocked by magnitude-7.2 earthquake in Indonesia
  • The quake is believed to have been a magnitude-7.2 quake and hit north of East Timor at 5.25am AEDT
  • There is no tsunami threat to anywhere in Australia.
  • Northern Territory’s Chief Minister has reacted to the region’s early morning earthquake, saying it was the most dramatic he’s felt.

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Washington caps year of drills to deter China with ten-day military exercise

By Tim Kelly

USS CARL VINSON (Reuters) – The United States on Tuesday completed ten days of joint military drills in Asian waters with Japan and other allies as it ups the ante on deterring China from pursuing its territorial ambitions amid growing tension in the region over Taiwan.

The ANNUALEX drill included 35 warships and dozens of aircraft in the Philippine Sea off Japan’s southern coast. The U.S. and Japanese forces were led by the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson carrier, which was also joined by ships from Canada, Australia, and for the first time, Germany. On Tuesday, the Vinson was being shadowed by a Chinese navy ship.

“We try to deter aggression from some nations that are showing burgeoning strength that maybe we haven’t experienced before,” U.S. Seventh Fleet commander Vice Admiral Karl Thomas said at a briefing aboard the carrier.

The exercise was meant to “tell those nations that maybe today is not the day,” he said.

Thomas was accompanied by the commander of the exercise, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Vice Admiral Hideki Yuasa. Home to the biggest concentration of American forces outside the United States, Tokyo is Washington’s key ally in the region.

Increasing pressure by China on Taiwan is causing concern in both Japan and the United States. Japan worries that key sea lanes supplying it will come under Beijing’s sway should it gain control of the island. That move would also threaten U.S. military bases in the region.

China, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province, says its intentions in the region are peaceful.

The ten-day exercise caps a year of drills between the United States, Japan and other countries, including Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

London this year deployed its new $4.15 billion aircraft carrier the HMS Queen Elizabeth to the region, culminating in a visit to Japan in September along with two destroyers, two frigates and a submarine.

To get there, it sailed through the contested South China Sea, of which China claims 90%. Also in September, Britain’s HMS Richmond passed through the Taiwan Strait separating the island from mainland China, prompting a rebuke from Beijing.

Tokyo, in its latest annual defense strategy paper, identifies China as its main national security threat and said it had a “sense of crisis” regarding Taiwan as Chinese military activity around the island intensifies.

The British carrier joined a Japanese carrier, along with the Vinson – which operates F-35 stealth jets – and the USS Ronald Reagan, for a rare four-carrier training exercise in the waters around Japan.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Biden meets with France’s Macron, calls U.S. ‘clumsy’ in submarine deal

By Jeff Mason and Michel Rose

ROME (Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Friday called U.S. government actions “clumsy” during his first meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron since a diplomatic crisis erupted last month over a U.S. security pact with Britain and Australia.

Biden used the meeting at the G20 summit in Rome, Italy, to try to turn the page on a relationship that came under strain over the U.S.-Australia security alliance, known as AUKUS, which also includes the United Kingdom. The pact effectively canceled a 2016 Australian-French submarine deal.

The U.S. decision to secretly negotiate a new agreement drew outrage from Paris. France temporarily recalled its ambassador from Washington, canceled a gala in the U.S. capital and officials accused Biden of acting like former President Donald Trump.

“I think what happened was, to use an English phrase, what we did was clumsy. It was not done with a lot of grace,” Biden said. “I was under the impression certain things had happened that hadn’t happened. And – but I want to make it clear: France is an extremely, extremely valued partner – extremely – and a power in and of itself.”

Biden also said the United States does not have an older and more loyal ally than France and that there is no place in the world where the United States cannot cooperate with France.

“I was under the impression that France had been informed long before that the deal was not going through. I, honest to God, did not know you had not been,” Biden told Macron.

Macron said his meeting with Biden was “important” and that it was essential to “look to the future” as his country and the United States work to mend fences.

“What really matters now is what we will do together in the coming weeks, the coming months, the coming years,” Macron said.

Since the rift erupted, Washington has taken several steps to fix the relationship.

Biden and Macron spoke to each other last week. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also visited Paris, where he acknowledged the United States could have “communicated better.” Vice President Kamala Harris also announced that she would travel to Paris in November and meet with Macron.

Biden and Macron met at the Villa Bonaparte, the French embassy to the Vatican, which a French diplomat said was a significant mark of goodwill from Biden.

“It’s an important gesture,” the French diplomat said, adding that the United States recognized that it underestimated the impact of its actions.

France now wants to see if Biden follows his words with actions. “Trust is being rebuilt. This is one step. Tokens of goodwill were given, we’ll see whether they follow through over the long term,” the diplomat said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Michel Rose in Rome, Writing by Nandita Bose and Patricia Zengerle in Washington, Editing by Franklin Paul, Heather Timmons, David Gregorio and Marguerita Choy)

Sydney to tighten COVID-19 curbs, Australian capital to enter lockdown

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Extra Australian military personnel may be called in to ensure compliance with lockdown rules in Sydney, the New South Wales state government said on Thursday, as the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant spreads into regional areas.

The move comes as Australia’s capital city, Canberra, 260 km (160 miles) southwest of Sydney, announced a snap one-week lockdown from Thursday evening after reporting its first locally acquired case of COVID-19 in more than a year. Authorities later confirmed an additional three cases, all close contacts of the first case, an unnamed man.

Australia is battling to get on top of the fast-moving Delta strain that has plunged its two largest cities – Sydney and Melbourne – into hard lockdowns.

“We are making sure that we do not leave any stone unturned in relation to extra (military) resources,” New South Wales (NSW) state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said at a media conference in Sydney, the state capital.

Some 580 unarmed army personnel are already helping police enforce home-quarantine orders on affected households in the worst-affected suburbs of Sydney, Australia’s most populous city.

Several regional towns scattered across NSW have also been forced into snap lockdowns after fresh cases, raising fears the virus is spreading out of control.

Despite seven weeks of lockdown in Sydney, daily infections continue to hover near record highs. NSW on Thursday reported 345 new locally acquired cases, most of them in Sydney, up from 344 a day earlier.

Lockdown rules were tightened in three more local council areas in Sydney, limiting the movement of people to within 5 km (3 miles) of their homes.

Joe Awada, the mayor of Bayside Council, one of the areas placed under additional restrictions, questioned why more targeted curbs were not introduced.

“I mean to lockdown 200,000 residents because of three suburbs is not acceptable to me,” Awada told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Officials also reported the deaths of two men in their 90s, taking the total deaths in the latest outbreak to 36. A total of 374 cases are in hospitals, with 62 in intensive care, 29 of whom require ventilation.

In Canberra, authorities said the one-week lockdown was needed as they were unsure how the man is his 20s acquired COVID-19.

Canberra has largely escaped any COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, and confirmation of a Delta variant saw panic buying at the supermarkets and long lines at testing sites.

Neighboring Victoria state on Thursday reported 21 new locally acquired cases, up from 20 a day earlier, as 5 million residents of Melbourne, the state capital, prepare to enter a second week of lockdown.

Of the new cases, six spent time outdoors while infectious, a number which authorities have said must return to near zero before restrictions can be eased.

Australia has largely avoided the high coronavirus numbers seen in many other countries, with just over 37,700 cases and 946 deaths, and several states remain almost COVID-free despite the outbreaks in Sydney and Melbourne.

But the rapid spread of the Delta variant in New South Wales and a slow vaccine rollout has left the country vulnerable to a new wave of infections.

Only around 24% of people above 16 years of age are fully vaccinated.

(Reporting by Renju Jose; additional reporting by Colin Packham in Canberra, Editing by Stephen Coates, Richard Pullin and Sam Holmes)