SYDNEY — Australia will begin co-manufacturing guided weapons with the US next year to boost supply for allies in the Indo Pacific and increase a US military presence in the country, including bomber aircraft, the two nations said after annual defense talks.

Australia and the United States are already working to upgrade air bases in northern and western Australia, which are closer to potential flashpoints with China in the South China Sea than Australia’s capital of Canberra.

After annual AUSMIN talks in Annapolis, Maryland, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there would be an increase in the presence of rotational US forces in Australia.

“This will mean more maritime patrol aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft operating from bases across northern Australia. It will also mean more frequent rotational bomber deployments,” he said.

In opening remarks Mr. Austin said the two allies faced shared security challenges including “coercive behavior” by China.

A joint statement released after the AUSMIN talks expressed concern over Chinese military activity around Taiwan, and China’s excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea.

They “noted grave concern about China’s dangerous and escalatory behavior toward Philippine vessels lawfully operating within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone”.

There are no US military bases in Australia, but the northern city of Darwin hosts a US Marine Rotational Force six months of each year and the US is building facilities for its marines and visiting air squadrons within Australian bases.

Australia’s Defense Minister Richard Marles said the presence of United States forces in Australia contributed to deterrence in the Indo Pacific region, and there would be closer collaboration on guided weapons manufacture in Australia.

Australia will begin co-manufacturing guided missiles next year, including the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) used in Ukraine.

Australia is also testing a Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) with the United States, which Australia said it will consider fielding as its first hypersonic weapon for fighter jets, the joint statement said.

“The presence of American force posture in our nation provides an enormous opportunity to work with our neighbors in the region,” Mr. Marles said.

Japan would increase exercises with US Marines in Darwin, while Australia and the US would hold regular exercises in the Philippines exclusive economic zone, the statement said.

The statement mentioned Australia’s strategic Indian Ocean territory, Cocos Islands, for the first time, saying the United States welcomed Australia’s planned infrastructure upgrades there and supported Australia’s completion of this work.

The Cocos Islands, with a population of 600, sits 3,000 km (1,864 miles) west of the Australian mainland and is described by the Australian Defense Force as key to its maritime surveillance operations in the Indian Ocean, where China is increasing submarine activity.

Australia has said it will start construction on an expanded airfield on the island this year, to carry heavier military aircraft, including the submarine-hunting P-8A Poseidon. — Reuters

PARIS — Parisians will swim in the River Seine by the foot of the Eiffel Tower next year, Paris City Hall has pledged, although the high bacteria levels that delayed Olympic triathlon events this summer have left some residents and tourists hesitant over diving in.

France spent 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) turning a river frequently laden with sewage into one clean enough to swim in. Holding outdoor swimming events in the Seine would demonstrate its transformation to a global audience, Paris had hoped.

The triathlon events did go ahead. But earlier torrential rains led to a spike in bacteria in the river beyond safe levels, forcing the cancelation of training sessions and a days-long delay to the men’s race.

That and Be lgium’s decision to withdraw its team from the mixed triathlon relay after an athlete fell ill — even if there was no proof the river water was to blame — have not helped convince doubters of the Seine’s cleanliness.

“I don’t think we would swim in the river after all the coverage,” said British tourist Jack Wolper after his young daughter and wife took a dip in Paris’ Ourcq canal.

“This felt a bit more acceptable, but I don’t think we’ll be jumping in the Seine. If they delay an elite race by two days, that’s reason enough for us not to go swimming,” he added.

Paris resident Pedro Couri, 29, said he would wait for President Emmanuel Macron to fulfil his promise of swimming in the Seine before having a go himself.

“That might reassure me,” he told Reuters.

Others were more trusting in the Paris authorities.

“It’s reassuring that they postponed some races, it shows they don’t take any risk with quality water,” Jade Goasguen, 34, from the Paris suburb of Clichy said, adding she would happily try swimming in the Seine next year.

‘PLAN A WORKED’
The green light to hold the triathlon events hung on whether the concentration of the E.Coli and Enterococcus faecalis bacteria had fallen below European safe limit thresholds.

However, some scientists have said a broader range of bacteria should be tested to be certain the river is safe.

“E. coli doesn’t reliably tell you when the water quality has recovered to a safe level, and I think that’s the mistake that authorities in Paris have been making,” said Professor Stuart Khan of the University of Sydney.

Paris authorities say they comply with European safety guidelines and have been testing water in the Seine and other swimming facilities for years rigorously.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo and her team remain sanguine about their plans to open three swimming facilities along the Seine, including near the Notre-Dame cathedral and Eiffel Tower.

“I’ve been asked 777 times whether we had a plan B, plan C, plan E. We had just plan A, we stuck to it and it worked,” Pierre Rabadan, the official in charge of the Seine program at City Hall told reporters.

Funded by the government and Paris City Hall, the ambitious project to modernize the capital’s sanitation system included digging new pipes to houses and houseboats that once pumped raw sewage into the river, additional treatment plants and a cavernous reservoir underneath the capital’s Gare d’Austerlitz.

More work will be done upstream by 2025 to ensure other houseboats and towns outside Paris do not pollute water going through the capital, Mr. Rabadan said.

He added that Paris had faced a barrage of skepticism when it opened the Ourcq canal bathing facility, just outside the city center, seven years ago, but that it had been a huge success in the end.

“We’ll soon have the same issue we had with other facilities: we won’t have enough space for all the people who want to swim in the Seine next year,” he added. — Reuters

NEW YORK — A Chinese academic was convicted on Tuesday of illegally acting as a foreign agent in the United States by collecting information about New York-based activists supporting democracy in China and sharing his findings with Beijing.

A jury found Wang Shujun guilty on four counts including acting as a foreign agent without notifying the US attorney general and lying to US authorities, following a week-long trial in Brooklyn federal court.

Mr. Wang could face up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 9, 2025.

Federal prosecutors said Mr. Wang, a naturalized US citizen, portrayed himself as a fierce opponent of the ruling Chinese Communist Party to gain the trust of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, advocates for Taiwanese independence and campaigners for Uyghur and Tibetan rights.

Prosecutors said Mr. Wang was actually spying on the activists and sharing his findings with four officials in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), an intelligence service.

“The indictment could have been the plot of a spy novel, but the evidence is shockingly real,” Breon Peace, the top federal prosecutor in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, said in a statement. “Wang was willing to betray those who respected and trusted him.”

Mr. Wang, who emigrated to the United States in 1994, was arrested in March 2022.

Defense lawyer Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma said Mr. Wang spoke to the intelligence officials about the pro-democracy movement to win their support and promote social change, and was not acting as their agent.

Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma said he respected the jury’s verdict and would request a sentence that spares Mr. Wang the “agony” of prison.

“We look forward to sentencing,” Margulis-Ohnuma told reporters after the verdict. “He’s a 76-year-old man. He certainly didn’t mean to hurt anyone. He’s spent his life fighting the communist regime.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has in recent years cracked down on what it calls “transnational repression” by U.S. adversaries such as China and Iran.

That term refers to the surveillance, intimidation and in some cases attempted repatriation or murder of activists against those governments.

Last year, a former New York City police sergeant was convicted of acting as a Chinese agent by intimidating a U.S.-based fugitive to return to his homeland and face charges.

U.S. prosecutors have also charged four Chinese intelligence officers who allegedly acted as Wang’s handlers. Those officers are at large and believed to be in China. — Reuters