US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will hold a trilateral meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo on Sunday local time, the first of its kind in 15 years, a senior US defense official said.

The trilateral meeting came nearly one year after President Joe Biden held the first stand-alone summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at Camp David in August 2023. Following the summit, Kishida announced that annual recurring summits will be held among several of the nations’ highest officials, including the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, and national security advisers, along with the financial, industry, and commerce ministers.

“We’ve made enormous progress, trilateral since the Camp David summit, with early warning missile data sharing real time with a trilateral exercise plan,” the US senior defense official said.

According to the defense official, Secretary Austin is expected to announce the US intends to reconstitute US Forces Japan (USF-J) as a joint force headquarters to serve as a counterpart to Japan’s Joint Operations Command (J-JOC). Details of this implementation will be figured out in working groups led by US Indo-Pacific Command. There is no intention to integrate Japanese forces into the US commands, according to the official.

“The intent here is for USF-J to become a standalone three-star joint force headquarters. Eventually separate and apart from 5th Air Force,” the official said.

“We view this as a historic announcement among the strongest improvements to our military ties in 70 years. Bottom line is that this is a transformative change. And that’s because when this transition is complete, USF-J will have a direct leadership role in planning and leading US forces in both peace time and potential crises. And they’ll be doing that side by side with Japanese forces like never before.”

At least 11 people have been injured after projectiles were reportedly fired from Lebanon into Majdal Shams, Golan Heights on Saturday, according to the Israel Defense Forces and Israel’s national emergency service.

“A short while ago, sirens sounded in the area of Majdal Shams. One projectile was identified crossing from Lebanon toward the area. A hit was identified in the area. Injuries were reported,” the IDF said, adding that “approximately 30 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory.”

A spokesperson for Magen David Adom (MDA) said that five people are in critical condition and six in serious condition in Majdal Shams, according to initial reports.

Searches of the area continue, the spokesperson said.

A large team from MDA has been sent to the scene. Paramedics are treating victims they say are aged between 10 and 20 years old.

Some are being treated at the scene and others have been transferred to local clinics. Evacuation helicopters, ambulances and intensive care vehicles have also been dispatched to the scene.

Idan Avshalom, a senior medic from MDA said, “We arrived at a soccer field and saw destruction and objects on fire. Injured people were lying on the grass and the sights were dire. We immediately began triaging the injured, some of the injured were sent to local clinics and our teams were also directed to the clinics. During the incident there were additional alerts and the medical treatment of the injured is still ongoing.”

Israeli police said that munitions have fallen in “multiple sites in the northern Golan.”

Police are “securing the area and searching for additional remnants to eliminate any further risk to the public,” the Police Spokesperson’s Unit said.

Manu Solidaire is quick to admit that he is not a real chef. Yet the cooking livestreams that he broadcasts from his tiny Paris apartment have attracted a huge audience on TikTok. They aren’t watching to see complicated cooking techniques; it’s his generosity that’s on full display.

The 33-year-old spends hours preparing dozens of meals before hopping on his bike and distributing the food to people living on the streets of Paris. Solidaire takes his online audience along every step of the way.

“When I wake up in the morning,” he said, “I’m thinking about, ‘What do I want to make today?’”

From prep to packaging, Solidaire’s cooking sessions last four to eight hours. His kitchen is only about 30 square feet, so there is little room for others to keep him company. Instead, he often has an audience of thousands interacting online in a party-like atmosphere.

“We laugh, we dance, we move, we are like a family on the live session,” he said.

When Solidaire first began delivering his meals in 2022, he said that he wore a GoPro camera on his bike helmet for his own security. After a few months, he started asking people if they would mind being in his videos. He says he uses these videos to change perceptions around homelessness.

“It’s to show to the world some homeless people … they work all their lives and right now they have some problems,” he said. “And maybe you can understand their situation.”

Solidaire’s TikTok account has 352,400 followers and 5.6 million likes. His social media audience helps fund his efforts through links on the account and by donating during his livestreams. Last year, Solidaire won TikTok’s L’award d’honneur for his work.

Solidaire first got to know people experiencing homelessness when he was running a pair of e-cigarette businesses. He would allow people in need to charge their phones in his store and would offer free coffee. Then, during the pandemic, he says “the business decreased, and the happiness decreased, too.”

“I was thinking, ‘I have to find a new way to be happy,’” he said.

One day, he made pasta for his family and had three portions leftover. He spent 20 minutes walking the streets and found three people who would not have eaten had he not offered the meals.

“I come back home with a really huge smile,” he said. “It’s good for me and good for them.”

Solidaire found a new mission and started up his TikTok livestreams hoping to share recipes and sharpen his cooking skills.

His first deliveries proved that he had some lessons to learn. When he would approach people, he said they did not know what to make of a stranger alone on his bike saying, “Hello, are you hungry? I have free food.” Then he realized, “’Manu, did you really ask about homeless people if [they] are hungry?’ Sure, [they] are hungry.” So, Solidaire changed his approach, instead saying, “I deliver free food for you. Do you need it?” He found people were far more accepting of his offer.

When he saw that their needs went beyond food, he began distributing hygiene supplies. He also sometimes offers to pay for hotel rooms.

Now, with the world’s eyes on Paris for the Olympic Games, many homeless people have been moved out of the city. Solidaire says he fears that the government is sending them to areas where they have no connection or resources. He argues this does not solve the underlying problems.

“We can’t just hide the poverty of the country without any solution,” Solidaire said, adamant that he will still feed the people who depend on him. “If I can’t find them on the streets … I will take the train to continue to deliver my food.”

One thing hasn’t changed for Solidaire since the first pasta meal he gave away: the joy that this work brings.

“When I see the smile I (get) on the street, when I see the smiles I have (doing this), and when I see the smiles (from) my followers … thank you for that.”

France’s high-speed train lines were targeted by multiple “malicious” acts including arson on Friday, in what has been described as “an attack on France” and “coordinated sabotage” to disrupt travel ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

The French state railway company SNCF called the overnight disruption a “massive attack aimed at paralyzing the high-speed line network.”

In a post on X, SNCF said that “a large number of trains were diverted or canceled,” and asked “all travelers who can to postpone their trip and not go to the station.”

The operator said the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines were impacted, with damage caused to several of its facilities, adding that one of the acts was “foiled” in the east after SNCF agents scared off several individuals.

SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou told journalists on Friday that cables – which are there to ensure the security of train drivers – were set on fire and taken apart but that authorities “don’t know who is behind it.”

Travel on the affected lines is “very disrupted,” with the railway network needing to divert and cancel a large number of trains, SNCF said. Disruptions – which it estimates could impact around 250,000 travelers today – were expected throughout the weekend, affecting 800,000 passengers, as work crews oversee repairs, it added.

The Rémi Train Centre Val de Loire said travel on its railway lines would be disrupted until at least Monday, with a fire near the tracks in Courtalain, northern France impacting services to Paris.

Farandou explained that they have to pull the damaged cables back together one by one, reconnect and test them. “It’s a question of security,” he said. “We have to make sure we test them so when trains are back up and running, they are safe.”

Brittany, a region in the northwest France, and the north of the country are the most impacted areas, SNCF said, though some trains have started running again, notably in eastern France. There would be no trains from Paris’ Gare Montparnasse, however, until at least 1 p.m. local time, Christophe Fanichet – the CEO of SNCF Voyageurs – told reporters.

Eurostar, the high-speed train service that connects the United Kingdom with France, has been forced to cancel and divert trains due to the “coordinated acts of malice,” on French lines.

The French Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castera said the disruption to the train lines are “a sort of coordinated sabotage.”

Speaking BFMTV, Oudéa-Castera condemned the attacks in the “strongest possible terms,” and said it is “truly appalling.”

“We will assess the impacts on travelers, athletes, and ensure the proper transport of all delegations to the competition sites,” she said.

Other French officials echoed her description of the attacks being intentional. Outgoing French transport minister Patrice Vergriete and Valerie Pecresse, head of the Île-de-France region, in which Paris lies, said on Friday that “all elements” pointed towards it being a “deliberate attack.” Vergriete added those elements were “the coincidental timing, the vans found after the people had fled (and) the arson materials found on location.”

Outgoing French prime minister Gabriel Attal said in a post on X that the consequences are “massive and serious” while SNCF called the disruption an “attack on France.”

In response to the attacks, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said Friday that police are stepping up security and focusing manpower on the capital’s train stations.

Security in Paris had already been bolstered in recent weeks.

The cause of the disruptions is currently unclear. But there has been growing domestic unrest, powered in part by recent national elections that saw a battle between the left and far-right.

Interior Minister Darmanin confirmed security forces had detained a “member of the extreme-right” this week who was “suspected of wanting to commit violent action during the Olympic Games.” According to Darmanin, the man had an “intention to intervene during a phase of the torch relay.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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