Latest news with #VictoryInEuropeDay
National Post
10-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
Michael Murphy: U.S.-U.K. trade deal offers little substance
LONDON — As America signed its first trade deal since threatening to rip up the postwar economic order, I was reminded of Shakespeare's famous line: 'All the world's a stage.' Rarely has global trade felt more theatrical. Article content Article content The announcement was made live on television, with the screen split between officials in their respective countries. On one side sat British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, hunched with advisers in London's blandest, most claustrophobic conference room. It looked like a space launch: boffins squinting at screens, willing the mission into orbit. Article content On the other side sat U.S. President Donald Trump, in the leather-upholstered throne of the Oval Office, unmistakably leading the performance. The U.S. president hailed the deal as 'comprehensive' and 'historic.' Announced on the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, it was a symbolically loaded assurance that the United Kingdom remains, in Trump's words, 'truly one of our great allies.' Article content Article content These were welcome words, no doubt, just weeks after the United States seemed ready to declare economic war on the world. Perhaps the fallout from Trump's so-called Liberation Day, with U.S. economic growth dipping in the first quarter of this year, prompted the president to expedite the U.K. deal to lift the mood at home. Article content Free-market Conservatives were quick to hail the deal as a 'win for Brexit.' It would not have been possible , after all, to skip to the front of the queue in bilateral trade talks had Britain still been inside the European common market. It was another reminder that Trump's America is nothing like former president Barack Obama's, who once warned Britain it would be 'at the back of the queue' if it left the European Union. America's preference to deal with Europe as one entity had its day, but has now been eclipsed by Trump's Euroscepticism. Article content Article content He underlined the point himself. 'That was always a big part of your decision on Brexit, they were never able to make that deal,' he told Starmer, a staunch Remainer. Article content Article content In any case, the substance of the agreement was far thinner than either leader let on. Most tariffs, including the 10 per cent global baseline, stayed in place. For those hoping for a return to free trade, the olive branch looked more like a birch switch — one Trump shows no sign of putting down. Article content Britain's economic outlook remains far gloomier than it was just two months ago, with the deal offering only minor relief on tariffs overall. British car manufacturers received some relief, with the tariff on the first 100,000 vehicles cut to 10 per cent from the 25 per cent rate initially touted; and levies on steel and aluminum were reduced to zero. Article content This is positive for Britain, and may provide, as ambassador Peter Mandelson optimistically put it, a 'springboard' for future concessions. But ultimately, it is thin gruel: as Sam Ashworth-Hayes wrote in the Telegraph, 'The net effect is that between lower export volumes and lower prices, we'll still likely be £9.5 billion worse off than we were before.'
Malay Mail
09-05-2025
- General
- Malay Mail
She fought the Nazis, flew a Spitfire at 100 — and now teaches yoga every week
HARLOW (UK), May 9 — Centenarian Dorothea Barron recalled the wave of relief she felt when she heard World War II had finally come to an end. 'Thank goodness that's over,' the British Navy veteran remembers thinking. Eighty years on, the sprightly 100-year-old — who now teaches yoga and celebrated her milestone birthday with a flight in a Spitfire fighter plane — is among an ever-shrinking number of veterans with firsthand memories of the war. Exactly how many former WWII servicepeople remain in the UK is unknown. While experts estimate several thousand are still alive, the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, marked on 8 May, may be among the last major British wartime commemorations with a notable veteran presence. As Britain marked the anniversary with four days of celebrations from Monday — including military parades, flypasts and street parties — Barron told AFP how it felt to hear that the war which had overshadowed her teenage years was over. The news came as 'a release, a tremendous weight off your shoulders'. But it also marked an abrupt shift for members of the armed forces. 'It was 'keep the uniform, here are a few clothing coupons, a few food coupons, go home.' And that was all,' Barron said. Aged 20, she did not anticipate how tough life in post-war Britain would be. It was a 'terribly difficult' period, Barron said. I won't say unhappy, but there were uncertain times. You never knew what was going to hit you the next day.' 'Can you feel it?' Speaking from her home near Harlow, north of London, Barron recalled the years of post-war reconstruction with extraordinary energy. She has been teaching yoga for 60 years, and every Monday she holds a class close to her home. Her flexibility — as demonstrated by her downward dog pose, with heels on the floor and back perfectly flat — impresses even her young students. 'Can you feel it in the back of your legs?' she asked at a recent class. 'If you want firm boobs, that's the pose,' she told her dozen or so students aged 20 to 95, unfazed by their groans. 'I feel lovely, relaxed and stretched,' she said as she walked home afterwards. Spitfire flight Barron celebrated her 100th birthday in October 2024 by flying in a Spitfire, a Royal Air Force aircraft that played a crucial role in the Battle of Britain in 1940 against the German Luftwaffe. 'It really was so wonderfully exciting,' she said, beaming. With such energy today, it is easy to imagine Barron's determination at 18. She 'desperately' wanted to join the Women's Royal Naval Service, or Wrens, as they were known. 'We weren't going to have the Nazis taking over our country,' she said. But Barron feared she was too short to make the cut. 'I cheated like mad and cut out cardboard heels to make me look taller, and I built my hair up, puffed it up,' she said. 'I was only 157 centimetres, but I think they saw I was so keen to become a Wren that they thought 'we'll let her through'.' Barron taught troops how to communicate using visual signals and Morse code. Ahead of the D-Day Normandy landings, she helped test the portable Mulberry harbours, which were towed across the English Channel and allowed large numbers of troops and vehicles to reach France. But she did not know what the structures were for at the time, and only later realised how they were deployed. 'I was rather delighted,' she said. 'I thought: 'Oh, I did do something useful then'.' She planned to mark Victory in Europe Day in the Netherlands for Dutch Liberation Day, before taking part in a service at Westminster Abbey on 8 May, which will also be attended by the British royal family. During the war, Barron met her husband Andrew, who was in the Royal Air Force. They had two daughters, and Barron is now a great-grandmother. Andrew died in 2021, and Barron still talks about him lovingly. It takes a lot to stop Barron from being cheerful, but she is concerned about current events — especially Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has left conflict raging in Europe once more. 'Nobody wins a war,' she said. — AFP
Free Malaysia Today
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
King Charles calls for global peace as UK commemorates VE Day
King Charles said in a speech yesterday that the world has a duty to prevent warfare. (AP pic) LONDON : Britain's King Charles said yesterday the world had a duty to commit to seeking lasting peace and preventing warfare in a speech to mark the end of four days of commemorations for the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. Following a sombre thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey, Charles and senior royals joined 10,000 guests including veterans for a music concert at Horse Guards Parade near Buckingham Palace as part of events to remember Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender, which took effect on May 8, 1945. The anniversary, which comes at a time of ongoing conflict in Europe with Russia's war in Ukraine, was also marked with events in France and Germany, while Moscow will hold a major military parade today. In a speech at the concert, the British monarch echoed the words of his grandfather George VI from 80 years earlier, saying how those who had died in the cause of freedom in World War II should never be forgotten. 'As we reach the conclusion of the 80th anniversary commemorations, we should remind ourselves of the words of our great wartime leader, Sir Winston Churchill, who said 'Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war',' Charles said. 'In so doing, we should also rededicate ourselves not only to the cause of freedom but to renewing global commitments to restoring a just peace where there is war, to diplomacy, and to the prevention of conflict.' Earlier the 76-year-old king and heir to the throne Prince William, standing beside elderly veterans in wheelchairs, laid wreaths at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior at the Abbey, while Britain observed a two-minute silence at midday. 'Sacred' In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of the 'sacred' victory over Adolf Hitler, and said his country was standing against 'neo-Nazism', a characterisation of the current conflict in Ukraine that is strongly rejected by Kyiv. Putin was holding talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is joining Russia's celebrations. French President Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath at the statue of French wartime hero Charles de Gaulle in Paris, where there was also a military parade down the Champs-Elysees avenue. In Berlin, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier addressed the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's parliament, when he too warned against forgetting the lessons of World War II. VE Day's 80th anniversary will be one of the last major celebrations with living veterans attending events, as most are now in their 90s or older. During his speech Charles also reflected on how his late mother Queen Elizabeth, then a 19-year-old princess, had joined the crowds on VE Day to celebrate, believed to be the only time during her 96 years she mingled with the public unrecognised. In her diary she wrote how she had 'Conga-ed into House. Sang till 2am. Bed at 3 am,' he said. 'I do hope your celebrations tonight are almost as joyful, although I rather doubt I shall have the energy to sing until 2am, let alone lead you all in a giant conga from here back to Buckingham Palace,' he told the crowd.
Forbes
08-05-2025
- General
- Forbes
Why The Quiet Heroism Of Norway's War Sailors Is As Relevant As Ever
D/S Hestmanden, one of Norway's many cargo ships that played a key role in the Allied war effort. On the Shetland Islands today, a poignant 80th commemoration of Victory in Europe Day in 1945 has been going on all day. Alongside the harbour in Lerwick are five fishing boats, once part of the clandestine Anglo-Norwegian Shetland Bus mission, and the wartime cargo ship Hestmanden. Among the Norwegians who have sailed the boats over to thank the people of Scotland for their help in the World War II are the descendants of crews from the Shetland Buses and many other Norwegian war sailors. The story of the Norwegian war sailors is one of courage, resilience and humility. Although Norway's population was fewer than 3mn when the war began, it had the fourth largest merchant naval in the world. Norwegian ships carried oil, coal, wool, food, medical and other essential supplies from the Arctic to the Antarctic. 'Britain and Norway have always had a close friendship," observes Jorn Madslien, the grandson of a Norwegian war sailor. 'It's particularly relevant today when maritime co-operation is essential. But without the Norwegian merchant navy, the U.S. could not have got involved in the war." Over the Second World War, more than 4,000 ordinary Norwegian sailors - mostly men - were killed. Yet they went unrewarded and unrecognised even by their own government. Many died before an incremental pension contribution was made many years later while the government only issued an official apology in 2003. Many of the survivors remained deeply traumatised by what they saw and experienced during the war. Most barely spoke about it, some never. Besides, few Norwegians wanted to talk much about the war, with recriminations over collaboration fresh. Today, however, with the help of service archives, the families involved and tales handed down from survivors, we know more. More recently, War Sailor, the most expensive Norwegian film ever made, has told the story on Netflix. Jorn Madslien, grandson of Norwegian war sailor Jorge Maslien. Jorgen Madslien was a policeman in the Norwegian police force when Germany invaded Norway. When he was offered promotion to a senior level, he chose to go to sea rather than remain in the police force under the Nazis. Sailing may have been helpful in his work with the Norwegian Resistance; only last summer did the family realise that Madslien had played a far greater role in the than he had let on. Madslien became the commander of a small local group. Archives reveal Madslein's cell was betrayed. He was arrested, tortured and imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp until the end of the war, when he weighed just 42 kilos. 'We only know this because he wrote a letter to my grandmother when he was freed,' his grandson Jorn Maslien says.'He never spoke about it to anyone other than his next-door neighbour.' In total, over 2,000 men and women from the Resistance were executed or died in died concentration camps. Reprisals against civilians following Resistance Operations were also often harsh. Yet theirr activities forced Germany to keep as many as 300,000 - 350,000 men in Norway, preventing them from fighting elsewhere. When German troops landed in Norway's key ports in April 1940, the command was given that all Norwegian sailors should sail their boats back into Norwegian waters or German ports. None did. Most of the Norwegian fleet was at sea, and so beyond German control. Many sailors initially headed for Norway's northern ports, which were close to an early counteroffensive brought to an end by the fall of France and the Allied withdrawal. The King, Crown Prince and government escaped to London, where they set up the Norwegian government in exile. Crown Prince, later King Olav, was appointed Chief of Defence. Throughout the war, the Norwegians worked closely with the British government and Allied forces. Control of the merchant fleet was vested in the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission, Notraship, a joint organisation run from the U.K. by Norwegian and British officials. An encounter between the factory vessel "Jan Wellem" of the German whaling fleet and the "Norvinn" ... More of the Norwegian merchant fleet, 1930s. (Photo by: United Archives/M-Verlag Berlin/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) In June 1940, the Allies requested that Norwegian boats outside Norway sail to Allied or neutral ports if safe to do so. Not all, but the majority did. Several Norwegian ships were in Swedish ports. Among them were vessels containing steel and ball bearings, badly needed by the U.K. to make aircraft and tank parts. Germany demanded that Sweden seize the ships, but Sweden, a neutral country, replied that it had no powers to prevent these ships from sailing to England. Between 1940 - 41, five ships made the voyage successfully. Swedish and British lawyers also strengthened the law concerning vessels from an occupied country sailing from a neutral third country. Germany tried to put a kvarstad (stay put in Swedish) order on the remaining vessels. Operation Performance, the second effort to get the ships out of Sweden was however a disaster. Many of the ships sunk as soon as they reached Karingon, the last island in the Gothenburg archipelago. Ragnhild Bie's grandfather was on board only one of the two out of ten British and Norwegian ships that made it. 'They were called the Lucky Ships.' Her grandfather then returned to for the third and final operation. This time, his ship was hit and sunk. He escaped on a lifeboat to Norway and made it back to neutral Sweden, from where he flew to England, where he spent the remainder of the war running refugee camps as well as working for the Special Operations Executive (who masterminded the Shetland Bus missions). 'In 1943, the U.S. government donated three submarine chasers, cutting losses on Norwegian cargo ships and ensuring the rest of the Shetland Bus missions were successful," says Bie, a war historian. The Berganger, torpedoed later in the Atlantic In 1940, Harald Lunde was a young Norwegian merchant navy sailor on board D/S Davanger when it was struck by a German U-boat (U-48) as it sailed from Curaçao on September 14 1940, carrying nearly 10,000 tons of fuel oil en route to Bermuda. The ship sank within four minutes. Lunde managed to escape onto a lifeboat, which drifted in the Atlantic for a week before reaching Ireland. Lunde saw friends die on the raft. Only 12 men out of a crew of 29 survived. He went back to sea, but on June 2 1942, his ship the Berganger was torpedoed en route from Buenos Aires and Santos to New York and Boston. This is the report he gave his superiors. By today's standards, it's a model of understatement. After a day, the two consignments of surviving crew were picked up by Norwegian cargo ship and a U.S. destroyer. Chart showing the position where Berganger was sunk Lunde had joined the merchant fleet as a seaman in 1934. He did not return home until 1946. From 1948 - 1973, he sailed for Westfal-Larsen, often as captain on the South American route. Communication between those at sea and their families was almsost entirely through letters. 'It could take months between each message,' says his granddaughter Vilde Regine Villnes. His sons, Oddvar and Gunnar, were only around two and a half years old when they first met their father. 'Of the 25 years he worked at sea, he was away for 20. The older children describe him as somewhat of a stranger, while my mother, the youngest, has a very different and more personal memory of him,' she says. The Norwegian government only officially acknowledged his wartime service in 1973. Lunde was given nothing by the Norwegian government until 1973. ''He received 9,000 NOK in compensation (equivalent to 180 kroner per month), which felt like a token sum considering the sacrifices he had made.' 'Whenever I face doubt or fear, I think of him — a young man adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, holding on to hope and refusing to give up,' Vilde says. The story of these quiet war heroes is about humility, courage and resilience - all qualities that make great leaders. Their history is as relevant today as ever.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Taiwan marks 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day by highlighting threats from China
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan marked the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on Thursday by making broad comparisons to threats from China, whose leader Xi Jinping was in Russia for commemorations as Moscow continues its invasion of Ukraine. 'Peace is priceless, and war has no winners. History has taught us that no matter the driving reason or ideology, military aggression against another country is an unjust crime that is bound to fail," Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te told diplomats in Taipei. 'Authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy, and greater inequality,' he added. Turning more directly to China's threats, Lai said that both Taiwan and Europe were 'now facing the threat of a new authoritarian bloc.' 'We are seeing our decades-old undersea cables, crucial for communications and cybersecurity, being sabotaged. We are seeing external interference in our elections, crucial for healthy democratic development, through the spread of misinformation and disinformation, sowing intentional division in society. We are seeing our fair, free and open international rules-based markets being tested by all manner of gray-zone activities, dumping, pressures and intrusions,' Lai said. Lai's remarks came during Taiwan's first-ever official commemoration of VE Day and at a time when Taiwan is making a diplomatic push for closer ties with fellow democracies that nevertheless have no formal ties with the island in deference to Beijing. Former President Tsai Ing-wen is visiting Lithuania and Denmark from Friday, while Foreign Affairs Minister Lin Chia-lung is visiting Texas. China fought alongside the Allies in Asia during World War II and received some military assistance from the then-USSR. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory to be annexed by force if necessary and says it has no right to international recognition. Just 12 countries, mostly small island nations in the South Pacific and Caribbean, have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Lai said that those who cherish peace 'cannot sit idly by and allow aggression. The outbreak of the war in Europe certainly had much to do with an authoritarian regime seeking to satisfy its expansionary ambitions, but its wider spread throughout Europe had much more to do with a lack of vigilance toward acts of aggression.' China's Xi, who has said Taiwan's absorption by his authoritarian Communist regime is inevitable, was meanwhile being lauded by Russian President Vladimir Putin as 'our main guest' at the Victory Day festivities. The Russian leader noted that he and Xi would discuss bilateral and global issues at their summit in Moscow. Xi is visiting for four days at a time when fighting with Ukraine, which Russia invaded more than three years ago, has closed airports in the Moscow region. The two leaders will also discuss Russia's supply of oil and gas to China, as well as cooperation within BRICS — the bloc of developing economies that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but has since expanded to more countries. Putin and Xi have met over 40 times as their governments align their foreign policies to challenge the Western-led liberal democratic world order. China has offered strong diplomatic support to Moscow since the 2022 invasion and has emerged as a top market for Russian oil and gas, helping fill the Kremlin's war chest. Russia also has relied on China as the main source of machinery and electronics to keep its drones and other parts of its military machine running after Western sanctions curtailed high-tech supplies. Beijing hasn't provided weapons to use in Ukraine, but has backed the Kremlin diplomatically, blaming Western threats against Russia's security for sparking the war. China also has strongly condemned Western sanctions against Moscow, while Russia has consistently voiced support for Beijing on issues related to Taiwan. Taiwan's government is the inheritor to the Nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek, which battled Japanese invaders throughout the 1930s and up to the war's end in 1945. It was ultimately driven from China by Mao Zedong's Communist forces in 1949 and has since transitioned to a full democracy with strong but unofficial ties to the U.S., the EU, Japan and other industrialized democracies. Chiang's regime also provided visa-free entry for thousands of European Jews, who settled in Shanghai during the war years, saving them from the Holocaust.
