Month: April 2019

Nato has kicked off its largest military exercises since the Cold War across northern Europe as the West tries to keep up with Russia’s growing military presence in the Arctic and the Baltic Sea. 

Some 50,000 soldiers, 250 aircraft, 65 ships and 10,000 tanks and other ground vehicles are taking part in the Trident Juncture war games that began Thursday at locations from Iceland to Finland.

With 31 countries involved, they are meant to test Nato’s response to an attack on Norway, where most of the drills are taking place. 

Footage showed treaded vehicles barrelling down muddy forest tracks, soldiers marching through barren northern landscapes and F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets taking off from remote runways.

While the envisioned aggressor state has been dubbed “Murinus,” a “fictional near-peer adversary on the north-eastern flank of the Alliance,” it’s clear that the manoeuvres are rehearsal for a potential conflict with Russia. 

They follow the massive Vostok exercises Russia held along its eastern borders last month. The defence ministry claimed that they included 300,000 troops, the country’s largest war games ever. 

Chinese soldiers also participated in a sign of the strengthening ties between Moscow and Beijing. 

Norway shares an Arctic border with Russia and has received a permanent deployment of US marines following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine. It has hosted a number of smaller Nato exercises with names like “Cold Response” and “Dynamic Mongoose” in recent years. 

Russia for its part has created an Arctic motorised rifle brigade, developed a fighting snowmobile and established several military bases and radar stations on northern islands and along the Arctic coast.

London said last month it would deploy 800 commandos to Norway and establish a base in the north of the country in response to Russia’s rising Arctic activity.

The UK has sent 2,700 troops to Trident Juncture, as well as six ships to train diving, bomb disposal and antisubmarine capabilities off the coast of Norway.

Secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday the exercises would show that Nato was ready to defend its allies amid a “significantly deteriorated” security environment in Europe. Sweden and Finland are taking part even though they are not Nato members.

The focus of the war games has not been missed in Moscow. A deputy foreign minister said on Thursday the exercises were “anti-Russian” and would be “taken into account in our military planning”. The defence minister called the level of Nato activity near Russia’s borders “unprecedented since the times of the Cold War”. 

Awarding medals to officers in the Kremlin on Thursday, Vladimir Putin promised Russia would continue to modernise its military and “do everything necessary to reliably defend the motherland from any potential threats”.

The size of Trident Juncture was ratcheted up in recent months as concerns about Russia’s military actions heightened. The USS Harry Truman with its crew of 6,000 was brought in, becoming the first American aircraft carrier to travel to the Arctic since the Soviet breakup.

Independent military analyst Alexander Golts said Trident Juncture was reminiscent of 1980s Nato drills against a Soviet threat in the north and showed the alliance was following through on promises to ramp up its capabilities in eastern and northern Europe. 

“They’re the biggest Nato exercises since the end of the first Cold War and the fact that they are being held just shows that a new Cold War has started,” he told The Telegraph. “This means the confrontation is becoming more harsh.”

With 50,000 US troops involved, the exercises also provide a reassurance that Washington remains the leading force behind Nato. That had come into question when Donald Trump, who has frequently praised Mr Putin, lashed out in July at Nato members he said weren’t spending enough on their militaries. 

Tensions with Russia have also been stoked by the United States’ planned exit from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a decision Mr Trump’s national security advisor personally informed Mr Putin of on Tuesday.

The next day, Mr Putin said Russia would target European countries if the United States deployed nuclear missiles there.

Besides the Arctic, Nato forces are holding manoeuvres in the Baltic Sea, where increased activity by both Russia and Western countries has resulted in an uptick in close encounters between aircraft and flyovers of military ships. Increasing numbers of Nato troops have been deployed to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, including several hundred British soldiers.

Despite lofty rhetoric from Nato commanders, the Trident Juncture exercises got off to a rough start when four US soldiers were injured in a collision between supply trucks in Norway on Tuesday. 

Malaysia’s anti-corruption body is hunting for a British PR consultant in connection with a multi-billion-dollar financial scandal that helped bring down the previous government.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) appealed on Thursday for the public’s help in locating Paul Stadlen, 39, who reportedly handled press operations for Najib Razak, the former prime minister.

Mr Najib is facing multiple charges of money-laundering and criminal breach of trust over the handling of the state-run 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund, which he created. If convicted, he could be jailed for decades. 

Accusations of massive corruption at the 1MDB fund were a major factor behind the electoral earthquake in May that toppled his long-ruling coalition and ushered in a reformist alliance headed by his former mentor Mahathir Mohamad, 93. 

The MACC suggested that Mr Stadlen could be a key witness in the high-profile case, reported the Malay Mail. “We are looking for him and we issued the statement this morning on our website,” Zuhaila Arip, a senior investigation officer told the paper. 

The MACC did not respond to questions from The Telegraph, and Mr Stadlen could not be reached. 

The consultant, who previously worked for an international public affairs firm in Kuala Lumpur before going independent, acted as a spokesman for Mr Najib until the day of the election on May 10. As news began to break of the shock results, Mr Stadlen no longer responded to media queries. 

According to the MACC statement, the long-term resident’s last known Kuala Lumpur address was the luxurious Loft Sentral Condominium in the city centre which, according to property websites, is furnished with an outdoor jacuzzi and “sky gym.”

Mr Stadlen was a well-known figure in Malaysia’s political and media circles, where he was accused by investigative news website The Sarawak Report in 2015 of being a “lady’s man” who enjoyed cash and a lavish lifestyle. 

Kuala Lumpur’s top nightspots held tables for him, Sarawak reported, quoting an anonymous source as saying: “He’s always out partying in bars, clubs getting dead drunk.” The report was accompanied by pictures of Mr Stadlen with scantily clad women in bunny outfits and having vodka poured down his throat by a friend. 

More serious questions were asked by the parliament and press, including Sarawak, about Mr Stadlen’s exact role and who was paying his salary after he entered Mr Najib’s communications team. 

Mr Stadlen’s history with the Malaysian government dates back to 2009, when he arrived to work on a government contract awarded to public relations firm Apco Worldwide, reported the Malaysian Star. 

The company reportedly lost the contract after disquiet in the majority-Muslim country over its perceived links to Israel, but Mr Stadlen stayed on. 

By 2015, he was said to be working directly for the prime minister’s office, prompting questions in the national parliament about whether taxpayers were footing a large bill for his services.  The prime minister’s department was forced to deny that Mr Stadlen was being paid an allowance or salary by the government. 

The queries surfaced around the time that Mr Stadlen was blamed for a statement in response to a New York Times enquiry about 1MDB and the prime minister’s trappings of wealth, in which it was claimed that he had “received inheritance.” Mr Najib’s siblings were said to have been incensed by the insinuation that their father had accumulated such wealth. 

Mr Stadlen acted as a gatekeeper between the prime minister’s office and foreign journalists but was himself somewhat non-committal about the exact nature of his role when asked in April by The Telegraph and always refused to be quoted by name. 

In an hour-long meeting at a chic restaurant on the 51st floor of a skyscraper he fiercely defended Mr Najib’s innocence in the 1MDB scandal, was effusive about his likeability and bullish about his election prospects. 

Malaysia was now his home, he said in an unguarded personal moment, admitting that he had little desire to return to the UK. 

Mr Stadlen played a key role in defending his boss from claims from US investigators that his associates stole and laundered £3.4bn from the 1MDB fund between 2009 to 2014. Allegations of money-laundering and graft in connection to the fund have been probed in at least six countries and widely reported in the media. Recent charges brought against Mr Najib concern millions of dollars that were allegedly transferred directly into his personal bank account. 

Mr Stadlen’s written responses to questions about the scandal and other government policies could be rambling and cavalier.

He denounced Mr Mahathir as a “self-confessed dictator” and his Pakatan Harapan coalition – now in government – as a “motley group of political has-beens.” He accused the Western media of “one-sided attacks."

His WhatsApp media missives continued until the day before the election, when he sent out a report alleging the phones of the then ruling coalition were under “technical attack” from calls overseas that were spamming their communication lines. 

By election day, as it started to become apparent that the Malaysian electorate had turned on the Najib regime, Mr Stadlen’s phone went silent.    

North Korea imported at least $640 million (£493 million) worth of luxury goods from China last year, in defiance of UN sanctions outlawing such trade over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, a South Korean politician said on Monday.

The United States has urged strict implementation of sanctions as part of a "maximum pressure" campaign which Washington has credited with bringing impoverished North Korea to the negotiating table.

But there have been signs the campaign has been losing steam since North Korea suspended nuclear and missile tests and leader Kim Jong-un vowed steps towards denuclearisation at a US-North Korean summit in June – and as China and Russia called for relaxed sanctions.

"Kim has bought lavish items from China and other places like a seaplane for not only his own family, and also expensive musical instruments, high-quality TVs, sedans, liquor, watches and fur as gifts for the elites who prop up his regime," opposition MP Yoon Sang-hyun said in a statement.

"With the growing loophole, Kim would be able to near his goal of neutralising sanctions soon without giving up the nuclear weapons."

Last year, North Korea spent at least $640 million on luxury goods from China, according to Yoon.

China does not provide breakdowns of its customs figures. Yoon compiled data based on a list of banned items crafted by Seoul in line with a 2009 UN resolution.

Beijing’s customs agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Beijing has said it strictly abides by international sanctions against North Korea.

The 2017 luxury trade volume was down from the 2014 peak of $800 million, but was only a 3.8 percent drop from $666.4 million in 2016, according to Yoon.

The luxury items accounted for 17.8 percent of North Korea’s entire imports from China last year which totalled $3.7 billion, Yoon said.

Purchases of electronic products such as high-end TVs made up for more than half of the total transactions, worth $340 million, followed by cars with $204 million and liquors with $35 million.

China’s trade with North Korea from January to August this year tumbled 57.8 percent from the year-earlier figure to $1.51 billion, China’s customs agency said last month.

But Yoon’s analysis also shows North Korea funnelled more than $4 billion into luxury shopping in China since Kim took power at the end of 2011.

Yoon accused China of loosening enforcement of sanctions, and criticised South Korea’s recent request for UN and US exemptions to restart inter-Korean economic cooperation.

When asked on Monday about the possibility of discord with the United States over sanctions, a senior official at South Korea’s presidential office said the two countries would "eventually be on the same path" towards denuclearisation though there might be a "procedural difference".

Last week, Singapore charged a citizen, a North Korean and three companies with supplying prohibited luxury items to North Korea.

The charges involve hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of perfumes, wines and watches, court documents seen by Reuters show. 

Asia Bibi never expected to become a global poster-woman for the cause of religious tolerance. A farm worker from Pakistan’s Punjab heartlands, she cannot read or write, and describes herself as a "nobody" with little knowledge of the world outside her village.

Today, though, the 47-year-housewife has come to symbolise the harshness of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, having spent nearly a decade on death row over what was never more than a chance remark.

Most of that time has been spent in a filthy, muddy, windowless cell – so squalid she felt ashamed to have her children visit. Besides the threat of the gallows, she also lived in daily fear of being killed by vigilantes – either through an attack…

A scaled-down version of Emmanuel Macron’s plan to restore compulsory national service will be tested next year, but military involvement will be minimal after army chiefs dismissed the scheme as an extravagant “folly”.

The top brass feared the original plan for young people to serve in the armed forces for one month would offer little benefit while eating into the already stretched defence budget. 

They were also concerned that officers would be distracted from operational missions such as protecting France from terrorists and fighting Islamists in Africa. Mr Macron first mooted the idea in an apparent attempt to woo Right-wing voters during last year’s election campaign, when security was a major concern after a string of terror attacks. 

But he has now shifted the focus to community rather than military service. Generals have welcomed the decision to transfer oversight of the project from the defence ministry to the education ministry. 

Military involvement will be minimal and it will have little impact on the defence budget.

France abolished military service under a conservative president, Jacques Chirac, in 1997, but some 3,000 teenagers will take part in the month-long trial during the school holidays next year.

They will live together for two weeks, but instead of being lodged in former army barracks as first planned, they will be accommodated in holiday camps and school dormitories. 

The scheme will be extended gradually to include all 16-year-olds by 2026.  They will spend the first two weeks learning first aid, how to use a compass, read maps and inform emergency services of a natural disaster by radio. 

Teachers and military reservists will supervise the youngsters, with limited involvement of serving members of the armed forces.

“This will bring together teenagers from different backgrounds and give them a shared experience that will help to forge a sense of national identity and responsibility.”

The cost will be “far less” than an estimate of £1.5 billion per year reported by French newspapers in June, the official said.

Opposition politicians said it was typical of Mr Macron, who said he wanted to rule like Jupiter, king of the Roman gods, to announce a grand scheme only to be forced to back down.

Lydia Guirous, spokeswoman for the centre-Right Republicans, said: “When this government proposes something, the mountain often gives birth to a mouse. Two parliamentary reports have revealed how difficult it will be to put this into practice.”

Ms Guirous said the government should be focussing on fulfilling Mr Macron’s pledge to reduce unemployment. Instead, unemployment rose slightly in the third quarter of this year, official figures showed last week.

Generals described the scheme as an expensive “folly” even before Mr Macron was elected.

A Senate report a month after the election said it would be “a colossal effort in terms of human resources, which we fear would absorb the energy of the armed forces.”

Teenagers wishing to extend the experience will have the option of spending three to twelve months serving with reserve armed forces, the fire brigade or community groups. The reduced military component is far from Mr Macron’s original election pledge to give all young people a taste of life in the armed forces. 

However, Gabriel Attal, the junior defence minister in charge of the project, insisted that it remained faithful to the president’s vision.

“This is not a return to military service, but soldiers will participate fully, as supervisors and instructors, with their proven organisational capability and ability to provide a national framework with working methods that facilitate the inclusion of all," he said. 

The scheme has been criticised for lacking focus.

Olivier Vial, head of the conservative students’ union UNI, told Le Figaro newspaper: “The risk is that it will turn into a huge party for teenagers… while diluting the resources that could have gone into the reserve armed forces.”   The Left-wing sixth formers’ union Fidl argues that compulsory service is unacceptable. 

Its vice-president, Marouane Majrar, said: “Commitment should be voluntary. If not, it becomes naff. To make it attractive, the government is selling it as free training in first aid and the Highway Code. That’s what we want for all young people, but without the military context.”