Seoul, South Korea
CNN
 — 

Poland has finalized a deal to acquire a second batch of 180 South Korean tanks under a 2022 agreement that will eventually see Warsaw boost its arsenal with almost 1,000 of the armored vehicles.

The deal underlines Poland’s emergence as a substantial European military force, as well as South Korea’s status as a major arms supplier – especially to US allies as wars around the world exhaust American stockpiles.

It comes as Russia ramps up attacks on Ukraine, some of which have come within 100 miles of Polish territory on Ukraine’s western border.

Warsaw has been increasing defense spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, acquiring new weaponry while also helping Kyiv with its defense.

As a NATO member bordering Ukraine, it is seen part of the alliance’s first line of defense should Russian leader Vladimir Putin decide to expand his aggression beyond Ukraine.

Poland’s Defense Ministry announced the tank deal, which still needs to be formally signed, in a post on social media platform X earlier this month.

It put the price tag at $6.7 billion and said that includes 80 support vehicles, ammunition, and logistics and training packages for the Polish Army.

The deal for the K2 main battle tanks, regarded as among the world’s most powerful, includes units to be made in South Korea by defense giant Hyundai Rotem and the establishment of a production line in Poland for a Polish variant, the K2PL, according to South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), which oversees Seoul’s foreign military sales.

Sixty of the batch of 180 tanks will be built in Poland, the Polish Defense Ministry’s post on X said. The first 30 of the South Korea-made tanks included in the new contract are expected to arrive in Poland next year, it said.

In 2022, the two countries signed a deal for Poland to get 180 K2s. All but about 45 of those have been delivered, with the remainder expected to arrive in Poland by the end of the year, Hyundai Rotem said.

That framework was considered South Korea’s biggest overseas defense deal ever. It included a total of 980 K2s, 648 self-propelled K9 armored howitzers, and 48 FA-50 fighter jets, the Polish Defense Ministry said at the time.

The ministry said the armored vehicles would, in part, replace Soviet-era tanks that Poland has donated to Ukraine to use in its fight against Russia.

A March report from the Wilson Center based in Washington, DC, said Poland has given Ukraine more than 300 tanks and more than 350 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.

Poland has been on edge in recent days after Russia ramped up drone attacks on Ukraine.

A Russian drone barrage against the northwestern Ukrainian city of Lutsk was so intense it caused Warsaw to scramble fighter jets as a precaution. Lutsk is about 50 miles from the Polish border.

A NATO report from April cited Polish efforts to dramatically increase defense spending in the face of the Russian threat. Warsaw’s defense spending has grown from 2.7% of GDP in 2022 to an expected 4.7% in 2025, according to the report.

“Of all NATO allies, it spends the highest percentage of its GDP on defense,” the NATO report said.

It noted Poland’s purchase of South Korean arms to quickly fill gaps left by donations to Ukraine.

The Wilson Center report said Poland has “arguably emerged as Europe’s most capable military power.”

But a May report from the RAND Corp think tank expressed caution over the financing of Poland’s arms buildup.

Many of its purchases are “financed through direct loans from countries supplying equipment,” RAND said, adding: “If securing such loans proves impossible, market financing might be too expensive to turn framework agreements into binding contracts.”

RAND also said Poland faces recruitment challenges, needing to increase troop strength by almost 50% in the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, South Korea has emerged as the world’s 10th-largest arms exporter over the past five years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Over that span, Poland has received 46% of South Korean military exports, followed by the Philippines at 14% and India at 7%, according to the SIPRI’s Trends in International Arms Transfers 2024 report.

As the war in Ukraine has dragged on, as well as Israel’s war in Gaza, US military aid for Ukraine and Israel has drained its arms stockpiles. South Korea is therefore increasingly seen as an option for US allies in need of weapons, according to a 2024 report from the DC-based Stimson Center.

And Seoul’s arms industry may become important to Washington in the future, the report said.

“Increased South Korean defense industrial base capacity, particularly in arms and shipbuilding, has the potential to directly support the United States,” the report said.

Shipbuilding is seen as a particular area of South Korean military industrial strength, and Washington has already seen contracts for maintenance of US Navy supply ships go to South Korean yards as the Navy grapples with a backlog in US shipyards.

Along with the K2 tanks, South Korea has sent 174 K9 howitzers to Poland under the 2022 framework, with 38 remaining to be delivered, according to contractor Hanwha Aerospace.

A second tranche of 152 K9s is in the works, Hanwha said.

Of the 48 FA-50 jets ordered, only 12 have been sent so far, according to manufacturer Korean Aerospace Industries.

CNN
 — 

In a quiet corner of Glasgow’s East End, a radical public health experiment is underway. For the first time in the United Kingdom, people who inject illicit drugs such as heroin and cocaine can do so under medical supervision – in a safe environment and indoors.

No arrests. No judgment. No questions about where the drugs came from – only how to make their use less deadly.

The facility, known as the Thistle, opened in January amid mounting political and public health pressure to confront Scotland’s deepening drug crisis. With the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe, Scottish health officials say, there have long been calls for a more pragmatic, compassionate response.

Funded by the devolved Scottish government and modelled on more than 100 similar sites across Europe and North America, the pilot safe drug consumption facility marks a significant departure from the UK’s traditionally punitive approach to illegal drug use.

Dorothy Bain, who heads Scotland’s prosecution service and advises the government, told a UK parliamentary committee in May that “it would not be in the public interest to prosecute users of the Glasgow safer drug consumption facility for possession of drugs for personal use.”

She added that the approach would be kept under review to ensure it “is not causing difficulties, raising the risk of further criminality or having an unlawful impact on the community.”

Supporters describe it as a long-overdue shift toward harm reduction. Critics warn it risks becoming a place where damaging addiction is maintained, not treated.

Located in a low-slung clinical building near the city center, the Thistle is a space where individuals bring their own drugs, prepare them on site, and inject under the watchful eyes of trained staff.

The service provides no substances, nor does it allow drug sharing between users. What it offers instead is clean equipment, medical oversight, and a protected environment for a population who might otherwise use in alleyways, public toilets or dumpster sheds, with the associated risks for themselves and the wider community.

“We’ve had almost 2,500 injections inside the facility,” Dr. Saket Priyadarshi, the clinical lead of the Thistle, told a CNN team who visited the facility in early June. “That’s 2,500 less injections in the community, in parks, alleyways, car parks.”

Melbourne, Australia
AP
 — 

German tourist Carolina Wilga was found alive in Australia’s remote Outback on Friday, 12 days after she went missing and a day after her abandoned van was discovered, police said.

The last known sighting of the 26-year-old backpacker, and the last day family and friends heard from her, was June 29. She was seen at a general store in the wheat farming town of Beacon, 320 kilometers (200 miles) northeast of the Western Australia state capital Perth. Beacon had a population of 123 during the 2021 census.

A member of the public found Wilga wandering on a forest trail late Friday, Western Australia Police Force Insp. Martin Glynn said.

She was in a “fragile” state but had no serious injuries and was flown to a hospital in Perth for treatment, Glynn told reporters.

“I think once we do hear her story, it will be a remarkable story,” Glynn said, adding it was a “great result” for the backpacker’s family and those involved in the search.

“You know, she’s obviously coped in some amazing conditions,” he said. “There’s a very hostile environment out there, both from flora and fauna. It’s a really, really challenging environment to cope in.”

The reserve where Wilga was lost covers more than 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres). The Thursday-Friday overnight temperature was 2.6 degrees Celsius (36.7 Fahrenheit) in the area with no rain.

The crew of a police helicopter spotted her van Thursday in wilderness in the Karroun Hill Nature Reserve, 36 kilometers (22 miles) north of Beacon, Glynn said.

“Very difficult country. Huge area. So it’s a miracle they’ve actually spotted the car, to be honest,” Glynn told reporters before she was found.

Ground searchers on Friday scoured a heavily wooded radius of 300 meters (1,000 feet) beyond the van. Police assume Wilga’s van, a 1995 Mitsubishi Delica Star Wagon, became stuck in mud on the day she left Beacon, Glynn said.

The van, which has solar panels and reserves of drinking water, had recovery boards under its rear wheels that are used to give vehicles traction when they are stuck.

Police believed Wilga became lost and was not the victim of crime.

Australian serial killer Ivan Milat, who died in prison in 2019, notoriously kidnapped and murdered seven backpackers from 1989 to 1992, including three Germans, two Britons and two Australians.