US defense chief says Russia invasion spells ‘tyranny and turmoil’

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Saturday Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers a preview of a world where nuclear-armed countries could threaten other nations and said Beijing, like Moscow, seeks a world where might makes right.

Austin made the remarks, targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the annual Halifax International Security Forum, which attracts defense and security officials from Western democracies.

“Russia’s invasion offers a preview of a possible world of tyranny and turmoil that none of us would want to live in. And it’s an invitation to an increasingly insecure world haunted by the shadow of nuclear proliferation,” Austin said in a speech.

“Because Putin’s fellow autocrats are watching. And they could well conclude that getting nuclear weapons would give them a hunting license of their own. And that could drive a dangerous spiral of nuclear proliferation.”

Austin dismissed Putin’s claims that “modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia,” calling it a vision of “a world in which autocrats decide which countries are real and which countries can be snuffed out.”

He added that the war “shows the whole world the dangers of disorder. That’s the security challenge that we face. It’s urgent, and it’s historic. But we’re going to meet it . ... The basic principles of democracy are under siege around the world,” he said.

While U.S. officials for months have warned of the prospect that Russia could use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine in the face of battlefield setbacks,

Biden administration officials have repeatedly said nothing has changed in U.S. intelligence assessments to suggest that Putin has imminent plans to deploy nuclear weapons.

Austin also compared Russia to China, saying Beijing is trying to refashion both the region and the international system to suit its authoritarian preferences. He noted China’s increasing military activities in the Taiwan Strait.

“Beijing, like Moscow, seeks a world where might makes right, where disputes are resolved by force,” he said.

Defense meeting in Asia:

The defense chiefs of rival powers China and the U.S. will attend this week’s expanded meeting of Southeast Asian security ministers in Cambodia, though it’s unclear whether they would meet face to face.

China’s Defense Ministry said Gen. Wei Fenghe will attend, and the Department of Defense said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will also attend.

Both officials plan to meet with participants on the margins of the main gathering of ministers from the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Their two countries are chief rivals for influence in the region, where China is seeking to smooth over disputes stemming from its determination to assert its claim to the South China Sea, including the construction of artificial islands equipped with airstrips and other infrastructure.

The two countries are also at odds over Russia, which China has refused to condemn or sanction over its invasion of Ukraine, and the status of Taiwan, which China claims as its territory and threatens to attack.

NKorea’s new ICBM: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un boasted that a recently tested intercontinental ballistic missile is another “reliable and maximum-capacity” weapon to contain U.S. military threats, state media reported Saturday.

The United States responded by flying supersonic B-1B bombers over South Korea in a show of force.

The North’s Korean Central News Agency said Kim oversaw the launch of the Hwasong-17 missile, a day after its neighbors said they had detected the launch of an ICBM that showed a potential to reach anywhere in the United States.

Friday’s launch was part of the North’s ongoing barrage of missile tests that are seen as an attempt to expand its arsenal and boost its leverage in future diplomacy. Some foreign experts said the Hwasong-17 missile is still under development but is the North’s longestrange ballistic weapon designed to carry multiple nuclear warheads to defeat U.S. missile defense systems.

Mideast tensions: Israeli airstrikes hit central and coastal regions of Syria early Saturday, killing four soldiers and wounding one, the Syrian military said.

State media quoted an unidentified Syrian military official as saying that Israeli warplanes flying over the Mediterranean fired missiles toward military positions in coastal and central Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported that loud explosions were heard in the coastal province of Latakia as well as the Hama and Homs regions of central Syria. It gave no further details.

NC parade tragedy: A truck pulling a float for a holiday parade in North Carolina crashed Saturday, striking and killing a girl participating in the event, news outlets reported.

People attending the Raleigh Christmas Parade heard the pickup truck’s driver screaming that he had lost control of the vehicle and couldn’t stop it before the crash, witnesses told WTVD-TV.

The girl struck by the truck was part of a dance troupe participating in the holiday parade, The News & Observer reported.

The parade was canceled after the crash.

The driver was one of three people in the vehicle towing the float at a low rate of speed, police said.

Investigators interviewed the driver, who was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, careless and reckless driving, using improper equipment, unsafe movement, and carrying a firearm in a parade, the Raleigh Police Department said in a news release.

The names and ages of the girl and the pickup truck’s driver weren’t immediately released.

Papal homecoming: Pope Francis made a rare personal getaway Saturday, returning to his father’s birthplace in northern Italy for the first time since ascending the papacy to celebrate the 90th birthday of a second cousin who long knew him simply as “Giorgio.”

Francis’ two-day visit to his ancestral homeland underscored some of the keystones of his papacy, including the importance of honoring the elderly and the human toll of migration. The private visit Saturday will be followed by a public one Sunday to celebrate Mass, where Francis could well reflect on his family’s experience migrating to Argentina.

Often citing his own family story, Francis, now

85, has made the welcoming and integration of migrants a hallmark of his papacy, often facing criticism as Europe in general, and Italy in particular, are consumed with the debate over how to manage

21st century mass migration.

ISABEL INFANTES/GETTY-AFP Whistleblowers: British-Iranian women protest Saturday near the Houses of Parliament in London, ahead of Iran’s match against England on Monday at the World Cup in Qatar. The women were calling on people in Iran and around the world to protest at the start of every match played by Iran at the tourney by blowing a whistle for one minute.