Xi Tells Lukashenko China Will Hold Military Parade on Sept. 3
President Xi Jinping said China will hold a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II on Sept. 3, an event that's expected to bring his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to Beijing.
The Chinese leader disclosed the plan for the first time during a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday at the Communist Party's leadership compound known as Zhongnanhai. Xi invited Lukashenko to attend the September celebration as well as a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Belarus's state-run news agency Belta reported.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Russia says its strike against Kyiv and other centres was a response to Ukrainian 'terrorist acts'
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had carried out a massive and successful strike on military and military-related targets in Ukraine overnight in response to what it called Ukrainian "terrorist acts" against Russia. Russia's military released the statement after Ukrainian officials said Russia had launched an intense missile and drone barrage at Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, in the early hours of Friday and that three people had been killed. Russia has accused Ukraine of being behind a deadly bomb attack on a bridge over a railway line in western Russia at the weekend that was blown up just as a train carrying 388 passengers to Moscow was passing underneath. Seven people were killed and 155 injured in the incident which Kyiv has not taken responsibility for. Separately, Ukraine attacked Russian nuclear-capable bomber planes at airfields over the same weekend, causing significant damage. President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President Donald Trump this week that he would retaliate. The Kremlin confirmed on Friday that the big overnight strikes had been a response to what it called Kyiv's "acts of terrorism". "Everything that is taking place within the framework of the special military operation (in Ukraine), everything that is being done by our military on a daily basis, is a response to the actions of the Kyiv regime, which has acquired all the characteristics of a terrorist regime," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Ukraine has frequently accused Russia of terrorism, citing attacks in which thousands of civilians have been killed. Both sides say they do not target civilians. The Russian military said in its statement that it had used long-range weapons to strike Ukraine. "In response to terrorist acts by the Kyiv regime, the Russian Armed Forces carried out a massive strike overnight with long-range air, sea and land-based precision weapons," the ministry said. It said the strike had targeted "Ukrainian design bureaus, enterprises for the production and repair of weapons and military equipment, assembly workshops for strike drones, flight training centres, and Ukrainian armed forces weapons and military equipment depots." "The objective of the strike was achieved. All designated targets were hit." Russian troops had also taken control of the settlement of Fedorivka in eastern Ukraine, the Defence Ministry said. Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Trump got this one right: A smaller National Security Council staff is actually a good thing
President Trump's decision to downsize the National Security Council staff has evoked howls of protest from members of the media and from former NSC staffers under President Joe Biden — at times they are one and the same. These critics argue that Trump is 'removing part of his government's brain' and increasing the risk of America being unable to address and respond to a developing crisis. Their case would be much stronger if the NSC had, for example, understood the risks of a hurried withdrawal from Afghanistan and planned a more deliberate departure from that country. Biden had reduced the size of the National Security Council staff, which at its apogee under President Barack Obama stood at 400. Yet the Obama administration failed to stop Bashar Assad's chemical attacks on Syrian rebels and negotiated an agreement with Iran that Tehran began to violate before its ink had even dried. Nor did a 200-person NSC staff under President George W. Bush successfully coordinate the warring State and Defense Departments — a contributing factor to U.S. failures in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It is noteworthy that President George H.W. Bush — who managed a highly successful foreign and national security policy, including an outright victory over Saddam Hussein — relied upon no more than 60 NSC professionals. Their leader, Brent Scowcroft, is widely acknowledged to have been the most capable of all post-World War II national security advisors. Bill Clinton's NSC staff coordinated a relatively successful national security policy that included the expansion of NATO and the successful defenestration of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and the end of the Balkan Wars. Clinton had increased the NSC staff by 50 percent from the previous administration, but it still numbered less than 100 officials and was half the size of Biden's NSC cohort. What emerges from this tale of fluctuating numbers is that the size of the National Security Council staff matters not nearly as much as both its mission and the cohesion — or lack thereof — of the agency heads that constitute the council itself. For the elder Bush, as well as for Clinton, the NSC staff functioned as a true coordinating body, offering the president top-level policy choices while allowing the agency heads to manage their own respective operations. Biden, and even more so Obama, sought to usurp the operational responsibilities that rightly resided with the agencies that constituted the NSC, and essentially micromanaged foreign and national security policy. Of course, there was no way that a staff that at most numbered 400 people could do the job of agencies with several orders of magnitude more personnel. Trump's approach to downsizing the NSC staff certainly involves risk. That is not because of the smaller number of staff, since a small staff would have no option but to focus on coordinating the activities of Cabinet agencies. Rather, it is the manner with which the staff has been reduced, and the capabilities of those personnel who will populate it. Laura Loomer, the conspiracy theorist and gadfly, is hardly an expert in either national security policy or personnel management, and her attacks on several highly talented NSC staffers should have been ignored by the president. On the other hand, it is not as if the remaining NSC staffers will necessarily be a bunch of incompetent dunderheads. Moreover, if, as it appears, the leading agency heads in Trump's second administration will cooperate with one another — much like Secretary of State James Baker, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Scowcroft worked hand-in-hand, even as they offered H.W. Bush alternative approaches to policy — then all that Trump needs is a small staff that coordinates the agencies that constitute the NSC. Some have argued that Marco Rubio's multi-hatted role as Secretary of State and acting National Security Advisor gives the State Department an upper hand in policy making. Many of those making this case are the very people who previously expressed concern that State had been sidelined by the Pentagon and was a shell of its former policy-making self. In fact, although Rubio is no Henry Kissinger (and many of Trump's older critics hated Kissinger too), he certainly can ensure that State's concerns receive the same due consideration as those of Defense, or for that matter Treasury. That is not a bad thing at all. Finally, some argue that the NSC staff will simply offer up to Trump whatever it is that he wishes to hear. Perhaps. But a smaller staff by definition will be unable to stifle the views of agency heads, all of whom will offer the president what they view are the best possible choices in any given circumstance. National Security Council staffs, like the agency heads, serve at the pleasure of every president, not only this one. It is their job to ensure that his policies meet with success. They may have different views about which policies accomplish his objectives, but they all share the same goal. One can argue the wisdom or correctness of Trump's policy decisions, but like all his predecessors, the last word will always be his. And the job of the NSC staff is not to preempt the Cabinet and other top agency heads but to ensure that the president has the most viable alternatives from which to choose before he decides upon a given course of action, whatever it may be. Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy undersecretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.
Bloomberg
2 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Russia Hits Kyiv with Missile Wave After Putin Vowed Reprisals
Russian drone and missile attacks killed at least three people in Kyiv and wounded more than a dozen others, in a wave of overnight strikes including civilian targets that followed President Vladimir Putin's vow to retaliate for a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian air bases. Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv military administration, posted the casualty figures on Telegram. Kyiv Metro — whose deep tunnels are used as shelters — said that its infrastructure had been damaged and one of the key lines was partially closed, with repairs expected to take 24 hours.
