AFP

Western governments are mobilizing their arms manufacturers to ramp up production and replenish stockpiles heavily diminished by supplying Ukraine’s six-month-old battle against Russia’s invasion.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced this week a meeting of senior national armaments directors from allied countries to make long-term plans for supplying Ukraine and rebuilding their own arms reserves.

“They will discuss how our defense industrial bases can best equip Ukraine’s future forces with the capabilities that they need,” he said at a meeting at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany of the Ukraine Contact Group, 50 countries currently supporting the war effort.

On Friday, the Pentagon’s arms acquisition chief Bill LaPlante said the meeting would take place in Brussels on September 28.

The goal is to determine “how we can continue to work together to ramp up production of key capabilities and resolve supply chain issues and increase interoperability and interchangeability of our systems,” LaPlante told reporters at the Pentagon.

– Billions more for arms –

NATO countries do not all have the same weapons, but their arms are compatible. So ammunition manufactured in one country in the Atlantic alliance can be used by another.

At the start of the war, Ukraine’s military mostly used weapons and munitions that matched Russian standards. But within a few months those were exhausted — especially in crucial artillery and missile systems — and it has grown to depend on Western allies with NATO-standard arms.

But that in turn has drawn down large amounts of munitions the allies had kept for their own defense.

Rebuilding those supplies is now crucial. 

In July, the European Union announced 500 million euros for joint purchases over the next two years to replenish arms provided to Kyiv.

The priority is more anti-armor and anti-aircraft missile systems, and 155mm artillery pieces and ammunition.

EU countries “have drawn on their stocks of ammunition, light and heavy artillery, anti-aircraft and anti-tank defense systems, and even armored vehicles and tanks,” European Commissioner Thierry Breton said at the time.

“This has created a de facto vulnerability that now needs to be addressed urgently,” he warned.

The United States, the primary defense supplier of Ukraine since the war began, has pledged $15.2 billion worth of weaponry, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, artillery and ammunition compatible with NATO weaponry.

– Boosting production –

The Pentagon has furnished some 800,000 155mm artillery rounds to Ukraine, while United States has just one factory making them, the General Dynamics plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania that produces only 14,000 rounds a month.

“We have plans…  to get that in increments ultimately up to 36,000 a month in about three years,” said LaPlante.

But that would take annual production to just over half of what Washington has given the Ukrainians in less than six months.

The Pentagon wants allies to ramp up their own production lines to help replenish stockpiles.

The US military has recently announced a slew of new contracts with arms manufacturers inside and outside the United States to do this. 

It includes $364 million for 250,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition from multiple makers, $624 million for Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, $324 million for Javelin anti-tank missiles, and millions more for other weapons systems, ammunition and defense supplies.

Dave Butler, spokesman for the Pentagon’s joint chiefs of staff, said the decision is guided by but not determined specifically by US manufacturing capacities.

“Ukraine’s needs for a given weapon are the ultimate driving factor,” he said.

The United States on Sunday observed the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, with President Joe Biden recalling Americans’ sacrifice and honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes hit the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

Relatives of victims, police officers, firefighters and city leaders gathered at the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, where the names of those who died there were read aloud in an hours-long ritual that has occurred annually since the deadliest single attack on US soil.

They rang bells and held moments of silence six times, including at 8:46 am and 9:03 am (1246 and 1303 GMT), the precise minutes the passenger jets struck the World Trade Center’s North and South Towers.

Biden commemorated the anniversary at the Pentagon, where Al-Qaeda hijackers crashed a plane into the massive building that serves as Defense Department headquarters.

In a steady rain, the president approached a wreath of flowers and placed his hand over his heart.

“I know for all those of you who lost someone, 21 years is both a lifetime and no time at all,” Biden said in a somber speech.

“The American story itself changed that day,” he said. “What we cannot change, never will, is the character of this nation” the attackers sought to wound.

“The character of sacrifice and love, of generosity and grace, of strength and resilience,” he said.

Biden also recalled how in the hours after the attacks, Queen Elizabeth II — who died Thursday at age 96 — sent a touching message to the American people.

“She pointedly reminded us: ‘Grief is the price we pay for love,'” Biden said.

Al-Qaeda hijacked a total of four planes. The third hit the Pentagon and the fourth, United Flight 93, was reportedly headed to the US Capitol Building when passengers and crew onboard fought the hijackers.

The plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all aboard.

First Lady Jill Biden attended a ceremony there Sunday. September 11 “touched us all,” she said. “It changed us all. It reminds us that, with courage and kindness, we can be a light in that darkness.”

She has said that the passengers’ actions on Flight 93 saved scores of lives — possibly including that of her husband, then a US senator who was headed to the Capitol that day.

– ‘Secure our democracy’ –

Vice President Kamala Harris and Mayor Eric Adams were among dignitaries attending the New York event, where relatives hugged and wept, placed flowers at the memorial and held placards with images of their lost loved ones.

“While the grief recedes a bit with time, the permanent absence of my father is just as palpable as it ever was,” the son of Jon Leslie Albert said after reading several victims’ names, including his father’s.

September 11 marked a foreign attack on American soil, but Biden has warned the country faces anti-democratic turmoil from within, notably from his predecessor Donald Trump’s supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

On Sunday, he subtly touched on the issue, urging Americans to “secure our democracy together.”

“It’s not enough to stand up for democracy once a year or every now and then,” he said. “It’s something we have to do every single day.”

Condolence messages arrived from foreign dignitaries including NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who called September 11 “one of the most tragic days” for the US and the world.

“Facing missile attacks daily, Ukraine knows well what terrorism is and sincerely sympathizes with the American people,” Zelensky tweeted.

New York was illuminated late Saturday by a “Tribute in Light” that showed two blue beams, symbolizing the Twin Towers, projecting into the night sky.

In addition to those killed on September 11, thousands of first responders, construction workers and residents have since fallen ill, many of them terminally, as a result of inhaling the toxic fumes.

“Barbarian,” a new horror film with a modern twist, has scared its way to the top of North America’s box office, earning an estimated $10 million on yet another slow movie weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations said Sunday.

The film, from 20th Century and New Regency, tells the story of a woman (played by English actress Georgina Campbell) who checks into an AirBnB-type house in a sketchy Detroit neighborhood only to find it has also been booked by Bill Skarsgard — yes, the diabolical clown in the fright-filled “It” movies. Justin Long also stars.

“Barbarian” has enjoyed strong reviews, with Variety calling it a “new horror classic.” David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research said its debut was “a good opening” for a low-budget horror film.

Another new release, fantasy adventure film “Brahmastra: Part One — Shiva” from Disney subsidiary Star Studios, took in $4.4 million for second place — a surprisingly strong showing for a Hindi-language Bollywood production playing in only 810 theaters.

It follows a young man named Shiva in modern-day India where his love for young Isha is complicated by his unexpected connection to a secret society. This is the first chapter in a trilogy.

In third place, down one spot from last weekend, was Sony action thriller “Bullet Train,” at $3.3 million. Brad Pitt stars as a paid killer on a high-speed Japanese train.

Meantime, Paramount’s enduring action flick “Top Gun: Maverick” — which placed a surprising first last weekend in its 15th week out — lost a bit of altitude. It took in $3.2 million for fourth place, even while nearing the $750 million mark overseas.

And in fifth, down one notch from last weekend, was Warner Bros.’ family-friendly animation “DC League of Super-Pets,” at $2.8 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

“The Invitation” ($2.6 million)

“Lifemark” ($2.2 million)

“Beast” ($1.8 million)

“Minions: The Rise of Gru” ($1.7 million)

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($1.3 million)

The United States on Sunday observed the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, with President Joe Biden recalling Americans’ sacrifice and New Yorkers honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes destroyed the Twin Towers.

Relatives of victims, police officers, firefighters and city leaders gathered at the National September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan, where the names of those who died were read aloud in an hours-long ritual that has occurred annually since the deadliest single attack on US soil.

They rang bells and held moments of silence six times, including at 8:46 am and 9:03 am (1246 and 1303 GMT), the precise minutes the passenger jets struck the World Trade Center’s North and South Towers.

Biden commemorated the anniversary at the Pentagon, where Al-Qaeda hijackers crashed a plane into the massive building that serves as Defense Department headquarters.

In a steady rain, the president approached a wreath of flowers and placed his hand over his heart.

“I know for all those of you who lost someone, 21 years is both a lifetime and no time at all,” Biden said in a somber speech outside the Pentagon.

“The American story itself changed that day,” he said. “What we cannot change, never will, is the character of this nation” the attackers sought to wound.

“The character of sacrifice and love, of generosity and grace, of strength and resilience,” he said.

Biden also recalled how in the hours after the attacks, Queen Elizabeth II — who died Thursday at age 96 — sent a touching message to the American people.

“She pointedly reminded us: ‘Grief is the price we pay for love,'” Biden said.

Al-Qaeda hijacked a total of four planes. The third hit the Pentagon and the fourth, Flight 93, crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers launched a revolt onboard.

First Lady Jill Biden attended a ceremony there Sunday.

– ‘Secure our democracy’ –

Vice President Kamala Harris and Mayor Eric Adams were among dignitaries attending the New York event, where relatives hugged and wept, placed flowers at the memorial and held placards with images of their lost loved ones.

“While the grief recedes a bit with time, the permanent absence of my father is just as palpable as it ever was,” the son of Jon Leslie Albert said after reading several victims’ names, including his father’s.

September 11 marked a foreign attack on American soil, but Biden has warned the country faces anti-democratic turmoil from within, notably from his predecessor Donald Trump’s supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 seeking to overturn the 2020 election.

On Sunday he subtly touched on the issue, urging Americans to “secure our democracy together.”

“It’s not enough to stand up for democracy once a year or every now and then,” he said. “It’s something we have to do every single day.”

Condolence messages arrived from foreign dignitaries including NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who called September 11 “one of the most tragic days” for the US and the world.

“Facing missile attacks daily, Ukraine knows well what terrorism is and sincerely sympathizes with the American people,” Zelensky tweeted.

New York was illuminated late Saturday by a “Tribute in Light” that showed two blue beams, symbolizing the Twin Towers, projecting into the night sky.

In addition to those killed on September 11, thousands of first responders, construction workers and residents have since fallen ill, many of them terminally, as a result of inhaling the toxic fumes.

When Jennifer Lawrence was offered a script about a wounded US Army engineer who returns from Afghanistan to a strained relationship with her mother, she was on a sabbatical from acting and not yet a parent.

The Oscar-winning “Silver Linings Playbook” star, 32, whose fame had rocketed ever since the wildly popular “The Hunger Games” movies, had been a near-ubiquitous presence with a prolific run of movies, before announcing a pause because “everybody had gotten sick of me.”

But when she read a script for “Causeway” — then entitled “Red, White, and Water” — something changed.

“It was really just something that came from the gut, just like this urgency,” she told AFP at the Toronto film festival.

“I was very clear that I didn’t want to work, and then somehow it landed on my desk, and I just had this sense of urgency, like ‘let’s make it, let’s do this.'”

The subtle, character-driven indie movie — which also became the first project for Lawrence’s fledgling production company — follows military engineer Lynsey’s return to her mother’s home in New Orleans.

A debilitating brain injury following an IED explosion in Afghanistan is not the only trauma she must overcome, as issues from her childhood and family life flood to the surface.

Lawrence chose the film in part to showcase “what these heroes go through to keep us safe.”

“It was wonderful to be able to talk to the amazing men and women who have served, to try to get some more information and background,” she said on the red carpet of the film’s world premiere Saturday.

– Motherhood –

But she also partly drew on her own childhood for the role in “Causeway,” in which Lynsey has a fractious relationship with her unreliable mother.

“I have complications in my childhood just like everybody else does — so it was more kind of working that out,” she said of the film, which began shooting in 2019 before it was interrupted by the pandemic and eventually resumed in 2021.

During that delay Lawrence also filmed and promoted doomsday comedy “Don’t Look Up.”

And she has since become a mother herself, giving birth earlier this year to her son Cy.

“Oh God, everything changes after you become a mom!” she told AFP.

“How am I complicating his life? I don’t know yet,” she joked.

The film sees Lynsey build an unlikely friendship with James, played by Brian Tyree Henry, an auto repair worker who fixes her truck when it breaks down. 

While both grew up in New Orleans, their backgrounds are very different.

But he too has a family trauma buried deeply in his past, which the two bond over, in a relationship which soon forms the emotional anchor of the film.

– ‘Invisible injury’ –

“This film is an excavation of how we begin to process, how we manage, how we actually change, how we start to connect again,” said director Lila Neugebauer, making her film debut after success on Broadway.

“Both Jen and Brian connect so deeply with their characters on this film, as actors and as human beings.”

For Lawrence, there was “something about this woman who has been through so much, and is suffering from this invisible injury, and trying to rebuild her home and where she belongs.”

“There was something that deeply connected with me,” she said. 

“Causeway” will be released November 4 in select theaters and on Apple TV+. The Toronto International Film Festival runs through September 18.

Steven Spielberg finally turned the camera on his own childhood — from his parents’ troubled marriage to anti-Semitic bullying — as his new movie “The Fabelmans” received its world premiere on a star-studded Saturday at the Toronto film festival.

Considered one of Hollywood’s greatest living directors, with classics from “Jaws” to “E.T.”, Spielberg told a rapturous audience how he had long wanted to make such a deeply personal movie, but had eventually been motivated by the “fear” of the pandemic.

“I don’t think anybody knew in March or April of 2020 what was going to be the state of the art, the state of life, even a year from then,” said Spielberg.

“I just felt that if I was going to leave anything behind, what was the thing that I really need to resolve and unpack about my mom and my dad and my sisters?” he said after the screening at North America’s biggest film festival.

“It wasn’t now or never, but it almost felt that way,” said the 75-year-old.

The movie — which will be released in November — is technically semi-autobiographical, following young Sammy Fabelman and his family, although the parallels to Spielberg’s own life could hardly be more clear.

Like the real Spielberg, the Fabelmans move from New Jersey to Arizona and eventually California, with Sammy falling in love with filmmaking and honing his craft as a young director with the help of willing friends and improvised camera tricks.

“It was really using glue and spit, trying to figure out how to put things together,” recalled Spielberg after the film, which recreates many of the amateur movies he made as a teenager.

“I made all the behind-the-scenes stuff in this movie much better than the actual 8mm films I shot… it was a great do-over!”

– ‘Outsider’ –

While directing and filmmaking are a source of comfort and escapism for young Sammy, the movie tackles head-on his problems at home, including within the marriage of his parents — played by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano.

Another sequence recalls anti-Semitic taunts by two bullies at his California high school — a real-life incident Spielberg said he wanted to include in the film, without placing it center stage.

“Bullying is only a small aspect of my life. Anti-semitism is an aspect of my life but it isn’t any kind of a governing force in my life,” he said.

“It made me very, very aware of being an outsider growing up.”

Before the screening, Spielberg noted that “The Fabelmans” is his first-ever film to be officially entered at a film festival, marking a coup for the Toronto event.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), renowned for its large cinephile crowds as well as A-list stars, was hit badly by the pandemic, but this year has seen the return of packed audiences and red carpets.

– No ‘swan song’ –

Earlier on Saturday, Jennifer Lawrence drew screaming fans to the red carpet for “Causeway,” an indie drama in which she plays a wounded Army engineer struggling to recover from conflict-zone trauma back in her hometown of New Orleans.

Daniel Craig and the star-studded cast of “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” arrived in Toronto for the whodunit sequel’s premiere.

Director Rian Johnson and Craig’s gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc return for a new case featuring Edward Norton’s shady billionaire and his wealthy friends on a private Greek island.

Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae and Leslie Odom Jr co-star in the second installment of a budding “Knives Out” franchise which has been taken over by Netflix.

“I’m gonna keep making these until Daniel blocks me on his phone,” joked Johnson after the premiere. 

Similarly, Spielberg assured the Toronto audience that reports he could step away from Hollywood after finally making the “The Fabelmans” were wide off the mark.

“It is not because I have decided to retire and this is my swan song… don’t believe any of that!” he said.

TIFF runs until September 18.