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Get you up to speed: Trump orders scale-back of military exercises with South Korea after refusal to help with Iran’s denuclearization
President Trump announced on Sunday that he has ordered the Pentagon to significantly reduce joint military exercises with South Korea, citing the country’s recent refusal to join U.S. efforts to denuclearise Iran. The exercises, involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers, are designed to enhance readiness against threats from North Korea.
President Trump has directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to significantly reduce joint military exercises with South Korea due to their perceived costs and implications for North Korea. The exercises, which have included participation from 18,000 South Korean soldiers, were initially intended to enhance readiness against North Korean threats and have been scheduled for 11 days.
President Trump stated that he has requested Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea, citing their high cost and the perception of hostility toward North Korea. North Korea responded by threatening unspecified actions against the U.S. and South Korea, labelling the exercises a “rehearsal for an aggressive war,” fuelling further regional instability.
What remains unclear — It is uncertain how much the reduction in military exercises will impact U.S.-North Korea relations.
Trump directs Pentagon to reduce military exercises with South Korea after its refusal to aid Iran’s denuclearisation efforts
President Trump announced Sunday that he has ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, saying that the country recently declined to join the U.S. effort to denuclearize Iran.
Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the exercises are costly and they “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which has been “unthreatening and respectful” as long as he has been president.
“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea,” Mr. Trump said.
The president said “it is too late to cancel” the joint military exercises, adding that he ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” them.
Mr. Trump also said that he “recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and the country declined.
However, he said his decision to reduce military partnership with South Korea is “somewhat unrelated.”
The 11 days of exercises involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats.
North Korea on Friday threatened unspecified stern steps against the U.S. and South Korea, describing their military drills as a “a rehearsal for an aggressive war” that are triggering greater instability in the region.
The warning was typical of the harsh rhetoric that North Korea often deploys ahead of major U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Experts say North Korea has often used its rivals’ drills as a pretext to ramp up testing activities to expand its weapons arsenal and promote public support for leader Kim Jong Un.
U.S. and South Korean forces were expected to practice joint operations in complex scenarios, including a live-fire exercise to test joint precision targeting and manoeuvre, a wet gap crossing, and distribution of prepositioned military equipment, according to the U.S. military.
The U.S. military has said the exercise “reinforces the role of the alliance as the linchpin for regional peace and security” and reaffirms “the ironclad commitment between the United States and the Republic of Korea to defend their homelands.”
Mr. Trump met with the reclusive North Korean leader three times during his first term to discuss the country’s nuclear program, most recently in 2019. “I believe North Korea has tremendous potential,” Mr. Trump said at the time.
Since returning to office, President Trump has expressed interest in continuing those discussions.
His announcement came a day after he posted a photo of himself standing next to North Korea’s Kim, writing that the two leaders get along great “despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture.”
This is not the first time that Mr. Trump has sought to end the exercises. During his first term, he also issued a surprise announcement that called the war games “provocative.”
“We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should,” Mr. Trump told reporters after his 2018 meeting with Kim Jong Un in Singapore.
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs.
To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
G20 waters down support for Ukraine amid pressure for peace talks
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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