Russia launched its largest war games since the Cold War on Tuesday with hundreds of thousands of troops, including Chinese soldiers taking part for the first time, in eastern Siberia.

The massive military manoeuvres come as tensions between the West and Russia have intensified to the highest level since the days of the Soviet Union. The drills have been condemned by NATO as a rehearsal for a “large-scale conflict”.

Dubbed Vostok-2018, the war games involve more than 300,000 troops, 36,000 tanks, 1,000 aircraft and 80 warships and support vessels, according to Russia’s defence ministry.

It broadcast images of military trucks being transported on trains, columns of tanks, armoured vehicles and naval vessels on the move, and combat helicopters and fighter aircraft taking off. 

Watched attentively 

The main aim was to check the military’s readiness to move troops large distances, to test how closely infantry and naval forces cooperated, and to perfect command and control procedures, the ministry said. Later stages will involve rehearsals of both defensive and offensive scenarios.

Russia said 24 helicopters and six jets belonging to the Chinese air force had moved to Russian air bases for the exercise.

Beijing has said 3,200 members of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will join in the operations, about 5,000km east of Moscow.

NATO has said it will monitor the exercise closely as will the United States, which has a strong military presence in the Asia-Pacific region. It is likely to be watched attentively by Japan and North and South Korea.

‘Sends a message’

The start of Vostok-2018 coincided with a meeting between Russia‘s President Vladimir Putin who met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

Putin said Moscow has a “trusting relationship” with Beijing “in politics, security and defence”, while Xi said both countries would continue to “make joint efforts to … push the China-Russia relationship up to a new height”.

The three-day meeting in Vladivostok brings together the leaders of Russia, China, Japan and South Korea, as well 5,000 delegates from 60 countries.

It is the two leaders’ third meeting and comes amid an escalating US-China trade war and US-led sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.

Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs, said the coming together of Moscow and Beijing was a direct response to moves by the United States.

“Clearly we can see a growing rapprochement between Russia and China because of the very assertive line against both countries by the United States. And in this regard we can say that Donald Trump is the major patron of the Russian-Chinese closer relationship,” said Lukyanov.

Dmitri Trenin, a former Russian army colonel and director of the Carnegie Moscow Center think-tank, agreed.

“With its Vostok 2018 exercise Russia sends a message that it regards the US as a potential enemy and China as a potential ally,” wrote Trenin.

Wednesday will see war games featuring anti-aircraft technology, while the main event will be on Thursday.

The Russian army compared the show of force to the USSR’s 1981 war games that saw between 100,000 and 150,000 Warsaw Pact soldiers take part in Zapad-81 – the largest military exercises of the Soviet era.

But Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu noted these exercises were far larger.

“Imagine 36,000 military vehicles moving at the same time: tanks, armoured personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles – and all of this, of course, in conditions as close to a combat situation as possible,” Shoigu said.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

As of June this year, actor Emma Thompson can officially call herself Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

But, she told Seth Meyers on Late Night, she accepted the honour mainly because wanted to secure a nice piece of royal metal for herself.

“You can choose to say: ‘Well, of course we don’t have an empire anymore and thank God because it was [a] ghastly, colonial, racist, dreadful, undertaking on every level,’ and actually have some moral principle about it,” Thompson told Meyers. 

“Or you can be like me and think, ‘it’s going to be a really nice badge.’”

Eh, at least she’s honest about it?   

Although the focus on where Hurricane Florence makes landfall is drawing lots of attention, another looming threat could be the worst impact of this monster storm: Disastrous, deadly flooding from days of relentless rain. 

“It appears a major flood event is on the way in the Middle Atlantic region,” said meteorologist Mike Smith said. “It is likely some areas will flood that have never flooded before.” 

With “monumental” rainfall totals of up to 40 inches possible, “the rain from Florence may break all-time state records for rainfall from a hurricane or tropical storm,” Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters said. It could potentially become the “Harvey of the East Coast.” 

Although the storm’s winds will likely diminish rapidly after making landfall, the heavy rain will persist as it stalls over portions of North Carolina and Virginia.

“All indications are that the storm will slow down and just crawl or meander over the inland sections and the coastal Piedmont,” Weather Channel hurricane expert Bryan Norcross said. “We don’t know exactly where the center will go, but it’s not really relevant. It’s more like a (Hurricane) Harvey situation, where it’ll just slowly wind down.” 

Tracker: Follow Hurricane Florence

More: Why mandatory evacuations don’t always chase away everybody

Last year, Harvey made landfall north of Corpus Christi, then stalled over the Houston area, dropping as much as 5 feet of rain across the metro area.

“It will be worse than a Harvey in the sense that the terrain is not like Houston, which is flat. If you put 2, 3, 4 feet of rain over flat ground, you have a certain kind of problem.

“But if you put a foot or two – or maybe in some isolated places more – of rain over hills and mountains, you have a very different kind of problem which is really more dangerous than the flat situation, as bad as that was,” he said.

Norcross said the soggy summer will exacerbate the flooding:  “And then you add to that the fact that they’ve had very heavy rain in the Mid-Atlantic this year already, and the ground is quite saturated,” he said.

Several spots in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast had one of their wettest summers on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This includes cities in the path of Florence such as Wilmington and Cape Hatteras in North Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia.

“As I tweeted with Harvey last year …. it is important to understand the potential 1-2 punch from Hurricane Florence,” University of Georgia meteorologist Marshall Shepherd said. “The full brunt of a major hurricane (Category 4 or so) then perhaps 30 to 40 inches of rainfall if the storm stalls. I found that people struggle with the part 2.”

“Prepare NOW to evacuate you and your family,” Shepherd tweeted Monday. “If you are given an evacuation order, please comply immediately before roads get clogged and chaos commences.”

Contributing: Rick Neale, Florida Today

 

 

 

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ATLANTA — An Alabama farm has recalled its eggs after the CDC linked them to a multi-state salmonella outbreak.

According to the Atlanta-based CDC, eggs from Gravel Ridge Farms in Cullman, Alabama could possibly be contaminated.

On Sept. 8, the CDC said Gravel Ridge Farms recalled packages of a dozen and 2.5 dozen eggs in cardboard containers with UPC code 7-06970-38444-6. Recalled eggs have “best if used by” dates of July 25, 2018 through Oct. 3, 2018.

Recalled eggs were sold in grocery stores and to restaurants in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee.

Photo: CDC

The CDC is urging anyone who may have bought the eggs affected by the recall to any Gravel Ridge Farms eggs to the store for a refund or throw them away, regardless of the “best if used by” date. The CDC says even if some eggs were eaten and no one got sick, do not eat them. In addition, the CDC is encouraging consumers to wash and sanitize drawers or shelves in refrigerators where recalled eggs were stored.

As of Sept. 7, 14 people have been infected with the strain of Salmonella Enteritidis in both Tennessee and Alabama. No deaths have been reported.

Most people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps 12 to 72 hours after being exposed to the bacteria. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most people recover without treatment.

© 2018 WXIA

Watch: Scottish FA announces Hampden purchase – BBC Sport

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Game of Thrones is a record breaking, successful show, in terms of viewership and certainly in terms of budget. But the show’s popularity wasn’t always that obvious — not even to the cast.  

Game of Thrones actor Maisie Williams just shared an interview with the podcast The Disruptive Entrepreneur, that it wasn’t until the third season of the show she realised just how huge Game of Thrones actually was. 

The specific moment that made the success of Game of Thrones dawn on her was when she was attending the Season Three premiere in 2013 when she was 15 years old. 

“I remember getting out of the car with my mum and there were just like crowds and crowds of people behind barriers and they were all screaming and they all knew who I was,” Williams said. “It was that moment that I was like ‘oh, this is pretty big.’”

“I looked at my mum and said: ‘My life is never going to be the same again,’” she added.

Williams said she felt that sort of popularity came with a great responsibility not to “ruin” it, which was “terrifying.” 

In the interview she also revealed that her initial contract with the show, which she signed when she was 12, was for six seasons, and not the eight that the show will have in total.

“At the beginning I would have payed them for me to be in it, I was so excited,” she joked. 

At this point, wouldn’t we all pay good money to be in Game of Thrones? 

Ferocious Hurricane Florence marched toward the U.S. East Coast on Tuesday, a massive storm expected to further strengthen as more than 1 million people flee the anticipated devastation.

An ominous 8 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center reported that Florence was driving maximum sustained winds of almost 130 mph, a Category 4 storm out of a possible five on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

The storm had eased slightly from a few hours earlier, but the modest reprieve was not expected to last for long.

“Some strengthening is expected during the next day or so, and Florence is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane through Thursday night,” the hurricane center’s update said. A “major” hurricane is one with sustained winds of more than 110 mph. Any Category 3, 4 or 5 hurricane is classified as a major hurricane.

The storm was centered more than 900 miles east-southeast of Cape Fear, N.C., heading west-northwest at 15 mph. The storm was forecast to roll across the southwestern Atlantic between Bermuda and the Bahamas through Wednesday before approaching the coast of North Carolina or South Carolina on Thursday.

Florence is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 15 to 20 inches in some areas and possibly with 30 inches in isolated locations along the storm’s track over portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

“Life-threatening” flash flooding is possible, the hurricane center warned.

More: Why mandatory evacuations don’t always chase away everybody

More: Hurricane Florence: Full list of fee waivers at U.S. airlines

More: More than 1 million to flee as Hurricane Florence rips toward East Coast

Tracker: Follow Hurricane Florence as storm barrels toward East Coast

In South Carolina alone, more than 1 million residents and tourists are expected to flee from coastal areas, Gov. Henry McMaster said Monday. 

The hurricane roared from a Category 1 (90 mph) to a Category 4 (130 mph) in just 13 hours, an extremely quick intensification, Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach said. That’s the most rapid hurricane intensification since Hurricane Humberto in 2007, he said. 

In North Carolina, officials in coastal Dare County ordered everyone to leave Hatteras Island on Monday. Residents and visitors in popular tourist spots such as Duck and Corolla faced a Tuesday deadline.

“Everyone in Dare County is encouraged to evacuate as soon as possible regardless of the established time frames,” the county announced.

Concerns about the monster storm extended even into Virginia. Gov. Ralph Northam ordered a mandatory evacuation to begin at 8 a.m. Tuesday for 245,000 people in parts of the Hampton Roads area and the Eastern shore. The evacuation zone includes the most flood-prone coastal areas, Northam said.

The hurricane center’s description of a Category 4 hurricane begins with “catastrophic damage will occur.” The center warns that such storms will snap or uproot most trees and down power poles and that power can be out in some areas for weeks or months.

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WASHINGTON – The picture Bob Woodward paints in his new book of a White House, where top aides engage in “an administrative coup d’etat” to block President Donald Trump’s most dangerous impulses, rarely includes his vice president.

“As usual, (Vice President Mike) Pence was staying out of the way,” the Washington Post journalist writes in “Fear: Trump in the White House.”

That particular observation was made regarding one of economic adviser Gary Cohn’s attempts to enlist Pence’s help. Trying to stop Trump from imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum, Cohn reminded Pence that no state would be hurt worse than his home state of Indiana.

The nation’s most manufacturing-intensive state includes Elkhart, the boat and RV capital of the world, which would be killed by higher prices for steel and aluminum, Cohn argued. 

“Doing everything I can,” Pence told Cohn, according to the book.

Bob Woodward on Donald Trump and ‘Fear’: Is it time to feel afraid?

More: Release of Bob Woodward’s book ‘Fear’ on Trump White House makes international splash

But Woodward writes that Pence’s default mode is to not do anything that would prompt Trump to tweet about him or call him an idiot.

“If he were advising Pence,” Woodward adds, “Cohn would have had him do exactly that – stay out of it.”

Pence appears to have done his best to stay out of Woodward’s book. 

Pence was also largely absent from Michael Wolff’s  “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.”

“Little leaked out of the Pence side of the White House,” Wolff wrote in his January book that similarly described a chaotic and dysfunctional administration.

The few appearances Pence makes in Woodward’s book are in scenes with others who presumably provided the details. For example:

• Pence was among the Oval Office participants when Trump, in April of 2017, said he wanted to sign within days an executive order withdrawing the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement. According to Woodward, Pence was among those who were “silent and only seemed to be encouraging Trump.”
• After The Washington Post reported in February 2017 that then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had discussed sanctions against Russia with the Russian ambassador – contrary to what Flynn had told Pence – the vice president joined White House Counsel Donald McGahn and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in the Situation Room to review FBI transcripts of Flynn’s communications. But the book doesn’t say how Pence reacted to that revelation.
• When Cohn wanted to resign over Trump’s reluctance to condemn the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, Pence helped Trump convince him to stay. The president didn’t want Cohn to leave before Congress completed a package of tax cuts. Trump gave Cohn permission to speak out about Charlottesville, which Pence also encouraged both in the Oval Office meeting and again in Cohn’s own office. “Say whatever you need and want to say, and continue to serve your country,” was the gist of Pence’s message, according to Woodward.
• Pence was ready to serve his party by replacing Trump on the ticket after publication of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump bragged about groping women, according to the book. The Atlantic reported last year that within hours of the tape becoming public, Pence had made it clear to the Republican National Committee that he was ready to take Trump’s place as the party’s nominee. Both that article, and Woodward’s book, state that Priebus told Trump that Pence was prepared to step up with Condoleezza Rice as his running mate if Trump withdrew. Pence’s spokeswoman has previously denied that account. 

Pence, on Sunday, called Woodward’s book a “complete misunderstanding of how this White House works.”

Trump has called it “a joke…using now disproven unnamed and anonymous sources.”

 

 

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The Scottish FA will be staying at Hampden after agreeing to buy the national stadium from Queen’s Park.

A deal has been struck to pay the League Two club £5m for the Glasgow ground.

The SFA were contemplating moving to Murrayfield, the home of Scottish Rugby, once their Hampden lease expires in 2020.

But instead they will now take ownership of the ground in two years’ time.

Half of the money to complete the cash takeover was pledged by Scottish businessman Lord Willie Haughey, with Queen’s Park set to move their matches to Lesser Hampden.

While the Glasgow side will receive £5m for the deal, it is believed the total cost to the SFA will be in the region of £19m due to liabilities going back to when the stadium was redeveloped in 1998.

“Today’s announcement has been the conclusion of a four-year process to review our national stadium beyond 2020,” said SFA president Alan McRae.

“It was a hugely difficult decision and I would like to place on record our thanks to Scottish Rugby for their professionalism throughout the process.

“They made a truly compelling case to move to Edinburgh and gave us a very difficult decision to make. I would like to pay tribute to the inspiration, energy and hard work of Scottish Rugby Chief Executive, Mark Dodson, and his Chief Operating Officer, Dominic McKay – both are true leaders in Scottish sport.”

“This decision is about what was best for Scottish football and our members. It is about the future of football in Scotland.

“I would also like to thank everyone who has been part of this process and to recognise the enormous generosity of Lord Haughey.”

More to follow.

More to follow.