Greece’s conservative government promised late Thursday to continue a multi-billion euro defense modernization program during its second term in office, setting its sights on acquiring F-35 fighter jets in five years. “Our priority is to safeguard the country,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament at the start of a debate to approve a new government after his conservative New Democracy party won a general election last month. Athens is acquiring 24 advanced French-built Rafale jets, and upgrading 58 F-16 fighters from its aging fleet. It wants to add 20 F-35s with an option to buy as many as 28 more at a later date – requests that still require final approval from the Unites States. Greece has long-standing disputes with neighbor and fellow-NATO member Turkey and is modernizing its military after emerging from a severe financial crisis in 2018. It currently has the largest defense budget in the alliance relative to the size of its economy, at 3.54% of gross domestic product in 2022, according to NATO’s annual report published in March. It is one of seven members that spends above the 2% NATO guideline, along with the United States, Lithuania, Poland, the United Kingdom, Estonia and Latvia. Mitsotakis said the high spending on defense would continue despite a welcome thaw in tension with Turkey in recent months. He is due to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan next week on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Lithuania. Concluding a three-day debate, the Greek parliament will hold a vote of confidence Saturday, to back the new Mitsotakis government. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide

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If you happen to be near the iconic Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, then you stand a chance of getting a photo taken with a ‘giant human poo’ which has been dumped on the shore to mark World Environment Day on Monday. You may well think that plopping a poo on the coastline isn’t exactly a good look on a day designed to draw attention to protecting nature and the planet, but it’s actually made of rescued plastic from south east Asia, and intended to spread a pretty important message. On a webpage explaining their publicity stunt, the New Zealand-based company Better Packaging said: “We’re kicking up a stink because humanity has a problem. We just can’t seem to stop making more and more new plastic, most of it never gets recycled and far too much of it ends up in our oceans. “Basically, we treat plastic like s***.” We see what you did there. They continued: “This giant poop represents the amount of plastic that enters the ocean every 30 seconds. Scary huh. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “Most of it enters via land, and most of that from Asia. These regions don’t have any formal waste management or recycling infrastructure – plastic just gets thrown ‘away’, buried or burnt. “Eventually, with the next monsoon rains, that plastic will get washed into a ditch, then a stream, a river, and then the ocean. We want to stop that happening!” Hence the four-metre high turd, which is made mostly of recycled plastics and second-hand fishing nets, with a wooden tree structure at its base to “keep it upright”. You wouldn’t want a floppy plop, after all (sorry). The artwork – if we can call it that – is titled "Plastic Pile of S***, 2023". Its unveiling follows a report by the United Nations’ Environment Programme (UNEP) in May which it said plastic pollution could fall by as much as 80 per cent by 2040 if both countries and companies make “deep” shifts in policies and markets through the use of “existing technologies”. “The way we produce, use and dispose of plastics is polluting ecosystems, creating risks for human health and destabilising the climate,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UNEP. Oh, and if you fancy witnessing the ‘excrement’ but are nowhere near Australia, then you might be in luck, as Better Packaging have said they’d “love to take it ‘on tour’” after going into temporary storage. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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England boss Sarina Wiegman felt the Lionesses exhausted every effort to win their first Women’s World Cup final despite coming up just short with a 1-0 loss to Spain in Sydney. The Dutch boss, who led England to their first major trophy at last summer’s European Championship, finds herself with a silver medal in two consecutive attempts after steering 2019 runners-up the Netherlands to the title-decider four years ago in France. Second place is still a best-ever finish for the Lionesses in a global showpiece, beating their bronze medal from 2015, but the three-time FIFA Best winning coach knows from experience it may take some time before the sting subsides. Wiegman, who reiterated her commitment to remaining in England on multiple occasions this week, said: “That’s hard to take now, and of course we did everything, we gave everything, we’ve overcome lots of challenges and today we did everything we could to win. “It feels really bad, of course, and very disappointed, but still very proud of the team. “I’m just hurt about this moment. Losing a game and in a final, when you’re in a final you want to win it. I guess you mean because it’s a second final, I don’t see it (like that), this was a different game, a different team. “I was totally convinced before the game that it would be a very tight game but we were confident that we were able to win it. I hope in the future I get a new moment with the team I work with, that would be amazing, because it’s very special to play finals.” Lauren Hemp came inches away from scoring an opener with a first-half attempt that clipped the crossbar, and it remained England’s best chance of the contest. Spain took a 1-0 lead when Mariona Caldentey slipped the ball to the onrushing Olga Carmona, who finished past Mary Earps with a left-footed effort into the bottom right corner after 29 minutes. Wiegman initially employed the 3-5-2 shape that had been so successful in England’s 6-1 victory over China, but reverted to a 4-3-3 in the second half, when she brought in Lauren James – available for the first time following her two-match ban – and Chloe Kelly after the break. Spain could have doubled their advantage in the second half when Keira Walsh was punished for a handball inside the penalty area following a lengthy VAR check, but the competition’s Golden Glove winner Earps read Jennifer Hermoso’s spot-kick perfectly and produced a fine save to keep England in the contest. Wiegman said: “I think we played better in the second half. We changed shape, we got momentum, we got more in their half. Then they got the penalty and when Mary saved it I thought, ‘OK, now we’re going to score a goal and get the 1-1’, but we didn’t.” The 2027 Women’s World Cup hosts will be announced at the 74th FIFA Congress in May, while England will defend their European title in Switzerland in 2025. First comes UEFA’s newly launched Nations League, which also serves as a qualifier for next summer’s Olympic Games in Paris. England, Scotland or Wales would need to reach the final to qualify as Team GB, or finish third if automatically qualified hosts France are one of the last two. Wiegman managed the Netherlands during the postponed 2020 Tokyo Games, but was disappointed by the Covid-19-impacted experience, remarking earlier in the week that “it felt like a jail. We were stuck in a hotel.” So rather than thinking about the next World Cup in an as-yet-undecided location, Wiegman was looking ahead to just over a month’s time when England will kick off their Nations League campaign against Scotland at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light on September 22. She added: “Four years is a little bit of a long time. We will start in September in the Nations League to try to qualify for the Olympics. “You want to improve all the time. This team and this group of players are so eager to be successful. We want to grab every moment to be better. We hope we come back and play good games again to win.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live World Cup final in pictures: England fall to agonising defeat against Spain Katarina Johnson-Thompson on course for world championship gold Jac Morgan in line to captain Wales at Rugby World Cup