A group of French and German economists has urged Europe to identify which industries to support in the face of Chinese competition and boldly abandon those where the battle had already been lost, such as the solar power sector. The recommendations were presented in five memos to the Franco-German Council of Ministers at the request…
China is on a mission to turn its military into a modern fighting force. In the second of this four-part series, we look at how its massive defence industry can support China’s military goals, and during wartime could be further bolstered by the civilian manufacturing sector. In the northeastern city of Shenyang, the future of…
The United Kingdom and Australia will sign a new five-decade treaty to cement the AUKUS submarine pact and bolster shipbuilding in both countries as the Trump administration continues to scrutinise the ambitious technology-sharing deal. The new pact is expected to be announced by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard…
The advice Harold Macmillan gave to Alex Douglas-Home in 1963 not to invade Afghanistan is worth recalling in the aftermath of revelations that the names of 25,000 Afghanis who cooperated with the British there from 2001 to 2021 were leaked, endangering them and their relatives. The British state’s extraordinary measures to keep the leak secret…
WASHINGTON: MP Materials MP.N unveiled a multibillion-dollar deal with the US government on Thursday (July 10) to boost output of rare earths and help loosen a stranglehold by top producer China on the minerals vital for military applications, electric vehicles and wind turbines. The US Department of Defense (DoD) will become the biggest shareholder in MP, the only integrated US producer of the 17 minerals, of…
The Armed Forces are in the midst of a recruiting crisis due to an inability to process applications quickly and effectively. Last year, the British Army, Royal Navy and RAF received 177,510 applications to join the forces, but were able to only recruit just 10,930 as the three services failed to meet recruitment targets. The…
The Co-op will stop sourcing carrots from Israel and a number of other products from other “countries of concern” such as Russia. The supermarket chain said it would stop sourcing produce, where possible, from countries where there are “internationally recognised community-wide human rights abuses and violations of international law”. The 17 countries on its list…
SDR will not ‘cut the mustard’ Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager. Enable cookiesAllow cookies once Analysis: Aspirations rather than pledges By Oliver Wright On Saturday the defence secretary John Healey could not have been clearer. “In the next parliament…