
Greece signs deal to buy 16 anti-ship missiles from France
ATHENS, Greece — Greece signed a deal Monday to purchase anti-ship missiles from France as it seeks to bolster its defenses in a procurement program aimed mainly at addressing tensions with neighboring Turkey.
Greece's Defense Minister Nikos Dendias signed the agreement for the 16 Exocet missiles with his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu, who was on a one-day visit to Athens. The two did not disclose the cost of the deal.

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Padilla arrest was a grave mistake by Kristi Noem
In Los Angeles, the Trump administration has been doing the right thing. Trump was right to call out the National Guard after protesters assaulted police, set their vehicles on fire, attacked unmanned Waymos and threatened to overwhelm local law enforcement. Trump is right in keeping his promise to make the removal of undocumented immigrants an overwhelming national priority. But there is no way that arresting United States Senator Alex Padilla is in the same vein. Yeah, he was rude in interrupting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's disquisition on 'alien removal operations' in Los Angeles. But if rudeness were a crime, Donald Trump would have faced the electric chair long ago. Every U.S. citizen has the right to question public officials about government actions, but United States Senators even more so. Their job, like all members of Congress, is literally to oversee and question the executive branch on behalf of the particular interests of their state or district. If a senator can't get a little frisky in raising questions, then nobody can. That's dangerous. The danger is not that one older guy gets roughly handled; Padilla's bruised arms and ego will recover. No, the danger is that peaceful protesters see that even staying within the bounds of the First Amendment gets you treated in exactly the same way as violent insurgents. Once they see that, some, maybe many, will join the protesters who are already bent on vandalism and violence. Once that happens, there are not enough National Guardsmen to bring order back to our cities. The fact that the Department of Homeland Security released an official statement falsely stating that Padilla didn't identify himself during his rude outburst only adds fuel to the fires of suspicion. Some normally level-headed conservative leaders such as Erick Erickson are dismissing the mishandling of Padilla as a 'stunt intended to go this way,' as if the predictability of Trump administration overreactions makes them ok. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson condemned Padilla's actions as 'wildly inappropriate,' as if the Trump administration and Republicans were sitting around eating crudites before a fancy French meal at which everyone will mind their manners. The mildest thing one could say about some of the Trump administration's actions is 'wildly inappropriate.' Accepting $400 million gifts from a foreign monarchy, appointing a quack as head of the Department of Health and Human Services and getting into Twitter brawls with former supporters are just some of the things Trump has done that might be called 'inappropriate.' Democrats were quick to rush to condemn the actions of federal officers. ''This is the stuff of dictatorship,' said Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, according to The New York Times. That's a bit much. Emperor Palpatine hasn't crushed the Senate. And Padilla was healthy and free enough afterward to address the assembled cameras. What is true is that if a United States Senator can be treated this way while his staff films the abuse of power, the Trump administration is on the threshold of authoritarianism. As Padilla said in a video released after his arrest, regular Americans who have done nothing more than speak can expect to receive much worse treatment from law enforcement when cameras are not around or the scrum makes figuring out what happened harder to do. That, too, will fuel escalation by protesters. The Trump administration, led by the president and Kristi Noem, need to step back. The treatment of Sen. Padilla will be a rallying cry and a recruiting tool for the rioters who threaten to get out of control. It was a mistake for Noem to allow this to happen. David Mastio is a national columnist for the Kansas City Star and McClatchy.
Yahoo
an hour ago
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France says supports Harvard, welcomes foreign students
France's foreign minister on Saturday said his country supported students and staff at Harvard, after President Donald Trump tried to ban foreign students from the prestigious US university. "We stand with universities facing the threat of government control, restriction to their funding, constraints on their curricula or research projects," Jean-Noel Barrot said during a commencement address at the high-profile HEC business school in Paris. "We stand with Harvard faculty, with Harvard students, facing unjustified stress and anxiety right now," he added in English. "Should US courts uphold decisions to ban international students, France will offer (them) a safe place to complete their degrees," he said. Universities and research facilities in the United States have come under increasing political and financial pressure under Trump, including with threats of massive federal funding cuts. Harvard has been at the forefront of Trump's campaign against top American universities after it defied his calls to submit to oversight of its curriculum, staffing, student recruitment and "viewpoint diversity". A US court last week put a temporary stay on Trump's latest effort to stop foreign students from enrolling at Harvard. A White House proclamation a day earlier had sought to bar most new international students at Harvard from entering the country, and said existing foreign enrollees risked having their visas terminated. The US government has already cut around $3.2 billion of federal grants and contracts benefiting Harvard and pledged to exclude the institution from any future federal funding. France and the European Union are seeking to encourage disgruntled researchers to relocate from the United States to Europe. European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said last month that the EU would launch a new incentives package worth 500 million euros ($580 million) to make the 27-nation bloc "a magnet for researchers". French President Emmanuel Macron in April unveiled plans for a funding programme to help national universities and other research bodies cover the cost of bringing foreign scientists to the country. ah/rmb
Yahoo
2 hours ago
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Nine Ukrainian students hospitalized after deadly bus crash in France
Nine Ukrainian students remain hospitalized following a deadly bus accident in France that killed three Ukrainian nationals and injured dozens more, Ukrainian officials confirmed on June 14. The group, made up of students and teachers from Chernivtsi Oblast, was returning from an academic exchange when their bus veered off the road in the Sarthe department of France on June 13. While en route to Paris, the bus veered off the road for reasons still under investigation and flipped into a ditch. In addition to the four fatalities, French media reported nine people were seriously injured and 18 sustained minor injuries. According to Ruslan Zaparaniuk, governor of Chernivtsi Oblast, nine Ukrainian students remain hospitalized, though their conditions are stable. "All other people have received the necessary support, food, and temporary shelter and are now in safe locations," he wrote on Facebook. Zaparaniuk noted that Ukraine's Embassy in France is organizing the logistics to help the children return home and is assisting parents wishing to travel to France to visit their hospitalized children. Ukraine's Embassy in France said that a diplomatic team, led by Ambassador Vadym Omelchenko, traveled to the crash site and remains in Sarthe to support victims and coordinate with French authorities. According to the embassy, two people injured in the crash remain in critical condition. All other victims are receiving medical treatment and support from Ukrainian and French teams. President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed condolences in a June 13 statement, calling the accident "terrible news" and thanking French authorities for their solidarity and rapid response. Read also: Three Ukrainians killed in bus accident in France, Zelensky confirms We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.