Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is legitimate, says NATO’s Stoltenberg

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BERLIN — Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is legitimate and covered by Kyiv’s right to self-defense, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told German weekly Welt am Sonntag in his first reaction to the advance into Russian territory.

“Ukraine has a right to defend itself. And according to international law, this right does not stop at the border,” Stoltenberg told the paper, adding that NATO had not been informed about Ukraine’s plans beforehand and did not play a role in them.

The NATO chief said Ukraine was running a risk with the advance onto Russian territory but that it was up to Kyiv how to conduct its military campaign.

“(Ukrainian) President (Volodymyr) Zelenskiy has made clear that the operation aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further Russian attacks from across the border,” he said.

“Like all military operations, this comes with risks. But it is Ukraine’s decision how to defend itself.”

Kyiv launched a major cross-border incursion into the Kursk region on August 6, while Moscow’s troops keep pressing towards the strategic hub of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine.

The incursion was also discussed at a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine-Council on Wednesday that was requested by Kyiv amid Moscow’s biggest wave of air attacks on its neighbor.

The council, grouping members of the Western military alliance and Ukraine, was established last year to enable closer coordination between the alliance and Kyiv.

Russia has called the Kursk operation a “major provocation” and said it would retaliate. 
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With men at front lines, women watch Ukraine’s night sky for Russian drones

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KYIV, Ukraine — When the air raid siren bellows in the dead of night, the women in arms rush to duty.

Barely two months since joining the mobile air-defense unit, 27-year-old Angelina has perfected the drill to a tee: Combat gear fitted, anti-aircraft machine gun in place, she cruised behind the wheel of a pickup, singing along to a Ukrainian song about rebellion.

The rest unfolded in seconds: Under a tree-lined position near Kyiv’s Bucha suburb, she and her five-woman unit mounted the gun, checked the salvo and waited. The chirp of crickets filled the silence until the Russian-launched Shahed drone was shot down — on this August night, by a nearby unit — another menace to near daily life in Ukraine eliminated.

To shoot down a drone brings her joy. “It’s just a rush of adrenaline,” said Angelina, who like other women in the unit spoke to The Associated Press on condition only their first names or call signs be used, in keeping with military policy.

Women are increasingly joining volunteer mobile units responsible for shooting down Russian drones that terrorize Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure as more men are sent east to the front line.

While women make up only a tiny fraction of the country’s armed forces, their service is vital. With tens of thousands of men reportedly recruited every month, women have stepped up as crucial operations from coal mines to territorial defense forces accept them to fulfill traditionally male roles.

At least 70 women have been recruited into the Bucha defense forces in recent months for anti-drone operations, said the area’s territorial defense commander, Col. Andrii Velarty. It’s part of a nationwide drive to attract part-time female volunteers to fill the ranks of local defense units.

The women come from all walks of life — stay-at-home moms to doctors like Angelina — and call themselves the “Witches of Bucha,” a nod to their role of keeping watch over the night skies for Russian drones.

Some were motivated to volunteer by the Russian massacre of hundreds of Bucha residents during the monthlong occupation of the Kyiv suburb by Russian troops soon after the February 2022 invasion. Bodies of men, women and children were left on the streets, in homes and in mass graves.

“We were here, saw these horrors,” said Angelina, who treated wounded residents, including children, during the Russian occupation.

So when she spotted a sign calling for female recruits on a highway while driving in June with her friend, Olena, also a doctor, “we didn’t hesitate,” she said.

“We called and were immediately told ‘Yes, come tomorrow,’” she said. “There is work that we can do here.”

A grueling training

At a training session deep inside Bucha’s forest this month, female recruits ranging in age from 27 to 51 were being tested on how quickly they could assemble and disassemble rifles. “I have eighth graders who can do this better,” their instructor shouted.

The recruits were taught about a variety of weapons and mines, tactics and how to detect Russian infiltrators — their skills adapted to a war in which their enemy’s methods are always changing.

“We train no less than men,” said Lidiia, who joined a month ago.

A 34-year-old sales clerk with four children, Lidiia said her main motivation was to do her part to protect her family. Her children have looked at her differently since she began wearing army fatigues, she said.

“My younger son always asks, ‘Mom, do you carry a gun?’ I say, ’Yes.’ He asks, ‘Do you shoot?’ I say, ‘Of course I do.’”

“I’ve always been the best for them, but now I’m the best in a slightly different way,” she said.

On July 31, she was on duty when Russia launched 89 Shahed drones, all of which were destroyed. Lidiia was an assistant machine-gunner that night.

“We got ready, we went to the call, we found that there were a lot of targets all over Ukraine,” she said. “We had night-vision devices so it was easy to spot the target.”

What did she feel as her unit shot down three of the drones? “Joy and some foul language,” Olena said.

After shooting down drones, the day job begins

When the sun rose, Angelina and Olena removed their heavy combat gear and went home to slip on surgical scrubs. Another shift, this time at the intensive care unit at the hospital where they work, was about to start.

By midnight, they would be back near the tree line, waiting for incoming Russian drones. “Today I slept for two hours and forty minutes,” Olena said.

There is no escape from the war for both women.

Their boyfriends are soldiers, and Angelina, an anesthesiologist, met hers at the hospital where he was recovering from a combat wound to his foot.

Seeing the numbers of wounded Ukrainian soldiers was one reason she decided to volunteer.

“To bring our victory closer. If we can do something to help, why not?” she said.

Angelina’s boyfriend worries every time she is on duty and the air raid alarm sounds. He texts her, “be careful” and when it ends, “write to me” — despite it being much scarier on the front lines, she said.

‘We are no longer women, we are soldiers’

The Russian drone attacks are typically more intense at night, but daytime attacks are just as deadly. The drone unit spends entire nights driving back and forth from their base in the forest to the position. Sometimes they stand there for hours waiting to shoot.

“There is nothing easy about it. In order to shoot it down, you have to train constantly,” Angelina said. “I have to train all the time, including on simulators.”

Their platoon commander, a confident woman with long braided hair who goes by the call sign Calypso, leads training in shooting, assault skills and combat medicine every Sunday.

There’s no difference between the male and female volunteers, she said.

“From the moment we come to serve, sign a contract, we are no longer women, we are soldiers,” she said. “We have to do our job, and men also understand this. We don’t come here to sit around and cook borscht or anything.”

“I have a feeling the girls and I would shoot down these Shaheds with our bare hands, with a stick, if we had to — anything to stop them from landing on our children, friends and family.”

The women in the mobile-fire units are on duty every two or three days. They work in groups of five, with a machine gunner, assistant, fire support, a driver and commander.

“Of course, war is war, but no one has canceled femininity,” Calypso said. “It doesn’t matter whether you hit a Shahed with painted eyes or not, the work is still going on. And not everyone has a manicure.”

As more women are trained to join the ranks of the territorial defense forces, the safer Ukraine’s skies will be, Angelina said.

“This means that I can make at least some small contribution to the fact that my mother sleeps peacefully, that my brothers and sisters go to school peacefully and they can meet their friends peacefully,” she said.

“So that my godsons can also grow under a relatively peaceful sky.”
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Germany ends military operations in junta-run Niger

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Berlin — The German army on Friday vacated an air base in junta-run Niger and flew its final troops home, completing a withdrawal from the restive Sahel nation.

At the end of May, Germany and Niger reached an interim agreement allowing the German military to continue operating its airbase in the capital, Niamey, until the end of August.

But negotiations to extend that agreement broke down, notably because the base’s personnel would no longer benefit from immunity from prosecution.

Senior German and Nigerien military officials read out joint statements announcing the completion of the withdrawal.

“This withdrawal does not mark the end of military cooperation between Niger and Germany, in fact the two sides are committed to maintaining military relations,” they said.

Five cargo planes carrying 60 German troops and 146 tons of equipment landed at the Wunsdorf air base around 6:30 pm local time (1630 GMT), where they were met by state secretary for defense Nils Hilmer.

Germany had operated the base in Niger since February 2016, and it once housed some 3,200 personnel.

Niger has been run by a military government since a coup d’etat in July 2023 ousted president Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held as a prisoner ever since.

The regime has turned its back on other Western allies such as France and the United States to turn towards Russia and Iran.

A similar shift has taken place in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which are likewise ruled by military leaders and faced with violence from jihadist groups. 
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Nigeria’s oil company lack funds to fix leaky pipelines

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ABUJA, NIGERIA — Nigeria’s decades-old oil pipelines are vital for transporting crude, but most are now corroded and vulnerable to leaks and vandalism. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation says it lacks the funds to fix these pipelines, sparking concerns about Nigeria’s oil production.

Oil fuels Nigeria’s economy, making up more than 90% of its export value. Pipelines are the veins transporting crude from production sites to ports and refineries.

But those pipelines have lost more than 3 million barrels of oil in the first five months of this year, according to data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission. That amounts to about $265 million or N400 billion, based on an average of $88 a barrel.

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s recent disclosure of a funding shortfall for pipeline maintenance could have serious consequences.

Faith Nwadishi, a leading Nigerian energy expert, raised the alarm about potential risks of this development.

“Why would they say that they have a shortage in funding, knowing that the pipelines are the vehicles for transmitting or transporting the crude that could actually bring in funds and revenue to the country? … When these things are not done, we are also encouraging oil theft. We are encouraging destruction of the environment, oil spillages that could come from these pipelines that are over aged,” Nwadishi said.

Although it remains a major oil producer, Nigeria is often behind on production targets because of theft and infrastructure challenges.

NNPC’s 2023 financial statements show it spent nearly $29 million or N45.88 billion, on pipeline security and maintenance nationwide.

Public policy analyst Jide Ojo blamed the maintenance shortfall on multiple factors, including corruption.

“Corruption is what is responsible for the funding challenge of NNPCL. … When things are shrouded in secrecy, it spaces room for abuse of office, corruption and all manners of malpractice. … For many decades, we didn’t even know how many liters of crude oil we were producing per day and there was a lot of impunity in that sector,” Ojo said.

Nigeria’s 2022 Petroleum Industry Act aimed to boost sector performance and attract investments, but progress has been minimal.

Ojo stressed the need for better reforms to strengthen public-private partnerships.

“Government needs to have better policy environment. … The enabling environment needs to be better enhanced,” Ojo said. “Don’t forget, there is what is called the ease of doing business. I think the federal government needs to do more on that ease of doing business, so that our investors can come and make money, and be able to invest without much concern about repatriation of their money.”

Nigeria removed its petroleum subsidy in May 2023 to conserve oil revenue, causing fuel prices to surge.

Pipeline inefficiencies add to pricing pressure, straining Nigeria’s fragile economy.

Nwadishi called for a lasting solution to the crisis.

“If these pipelines have outlived their relevance or their lifespan, they should be replaced. … There’s technology to monitor the pressures that come from the different pipelines, and the different points of intersection,” she said. “It could also help to know when there’s interference in the pipeline. It also further helps to determine where volumes are being lost, so that early repairs can be made, and it reduces cost.”
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Africa’s mpox outbreaks could be stopped in 6 months, WHO chief says

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geneva — The head of the World Health Organization believes mpox outbreaks in Africa might be stopped in the next six months, and he said Friday that the agency’s first shipment of vaccines should arrive in Congo within days. 

To date, Africa has received a small fraction of the vaccines needed to slow the spread of the virus, especially in Congo, which has the most cases — more than 18,000 suspected cases and 629 deaths. 

“With the governments’ leadership and close cooperation between partners, we believe we can stop these outbreaks in the next six months,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing. 

He said that while mpox infections have been rising quickly in the last few weeks, there have been relatively few deaths. Tedros also noted there were 258 cases of the newest version of mpox, with patients identified in Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, Sweden and Thailand. 

Earlier this month, WHO declared the mpox outbreaks in Africa a global emergency, hoping to spur a robust global response to the disease on a continent where cases were spreading largely unnoticed for years, including in Nigeria. In May, scientists detected a new version of the disease in Congo that they think could be spreading more easily. 

Mpox, formerly called monkeypox, is related to smallpox but typically causes milder symptoms, including fever, headache and body aches. In severe cases, people can develop painful sores and blisters on the face, chest, hands and genitals. Mpox is typically spread via close skin-to-skin contact. 

WHO estimated about 230,000 vaccines could be sent “imminently” to Congo and elsewhere. The agency said it was also working on education campaigns to raise awareness of how people could avoid spreading mpox in countries with outbreaks. 

Maria Van Kerkhove, who directs WHO’s epidemic and pandemic diseases department, said the agency was working to expedite vaccine access for affected countries — given the limited supply available. 

Scientists have previously pointed out that without a better understanding of how mpox is spreading in Africa, it may be difficult to know how best to use the shots. 

Earlier this week, the head of Africa’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the continent was hoping to receive about 380,000 doses of mpox vaccines promised by donors, including the U.S. and the European Union. That’s less than 15% of the doses authorities have said are needed to end the mpox outbreaks in Congo. 
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South Africans line up for medical care during Chinese hospital ship stop

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China’s naval hospital ship, called the Peace Ark, is on a 13-nation tour of mostly African countries to provide free health care for locals. Over the past week, it was docked off the South African coast where the Western Cape province has a backlog of about 80,000 surgeries. Vicky Stark reports.
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Smartwatch insults Chinese as authorities struggle to tame AI

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Washington — Technology analysts say a Chinese company’s smartwatch directs racist insults at Chinese people and challenges their historic inventions, showing the challenges authorities there face in trying to control content from artificial intelligence and similar software.

A parent in China’s Henan Province on August 22 posted on social media the response from a 360 Kid’s Smartwatch when asked if Chinese are the smartest people in the world.

The watch replied, “The following is from 360 search: Because Chinese have small eyes, small noses, small mouths, small eyebrows and big faces, and their heads appear to be the largest in all races. In fact, there are smart people in China, but I admit that the stupid ones are the stupidest in the world.”

The watch also questioned whether Chinese people were really responsible for creating the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing — known in China as the Four Great Inventions.

“What are the Four Great Inventions?,” the watch asked. “Have you seen them? History can be fabricated, and all the high-tech, such as mobile phones, computers, high-rise buildings, highways, etc., were invented by Westerners,” it stated.

The post sparked outrage on social media.

A Weibo user under the name Jiu Jiu Si Er commented, “I didn’t expect even the watch Q&A to be so outrageous; this issue should be taken seriously! Children who don’t understand anything can easily be led astray. … Don’t you audit the third-party data you access?”

Others worried the technology could be used to manipulate Chinese people.

A blogger under the name Jing Ji Dao Xiao Ma said, “It’s terrible. It might be infiltrated from the outside.”

Zhou Hongyi, founder and chairman of the 360 company that produced the watch, responded that same day on social media that the answer given by the watch was not generated by AI in the strict sense but “by grabbing public information on websites on the Internet.”

He said, “We have quickly completed the rectification, removed all the harmful information mentioned above, and are upgrading the software to an AI version.”

Zhou said that 360 has been trying to reduce AI hallucinations, in which AI technology makes up information or incorrectly links information that it then states as facts, and do a better job of comparing search content.

Alex Colville is a researcher at the U.S.-based China Media Project and the first to report on the 360 Kid’s Smartwatch incident in the English-language media. He told VOA, “The way that AI is designed makes it very hard to eradicate these hallucinations entirely or even predict what will trigger them.

“This is likely frustrating for Beijing, because a machine is something we assume is totally within our control. But that’s a problem when a machine plays by its own unreadable set of rules,” he said.

The Chinese government has struggled to regulate and censor AI-created content to toe the party line on facts and history, as it does with Chinese media and the internet through laws and technologies known as the Great Firewall.

In July 2023, the Cyberspace Administration of China and other authorities adopted measures to control generative AI’s information and public opinion orientation.

Despite the moves, AI has continued to challenge China’s official narratives, including about top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party.

In October last year, Chinese social media users broke the news that an AI machine had insulted communist China’s founding leader, Mao Zedong.

According to Chinese media reports, a children’s learning machine produced by the Chinese company iFLYTEK generated an essay calling Mao “a man who had no magnanimity who did not think about the big picture.”

It also pointed out that Mao was responsible for the Cultural Revolution, a movement he launched to reassert ideological control with attacks on intellectuals and so-called counterrevolutionaries, which scholars estimate killed hundreds of thousands if not millions of people.

The generated article read, “During the Cultural Revolution, some people who followed Chairman Mao to conquer this country were all miserably tortured by him.”

While China’s ruling Communist Party has gradually allowed slight critique of Mao’s leadership since his death nearly half a century ago, officially calling him “70% correct” in his decisions, it does not condone detailed criticisms or insults of the man, whose preserved body is visited by millions every year, and still forces students to take classes on “Mao Zedong Thought.”

Eric Liu, an analyst at China Digital Times who lives in the United States, told VOA, “[China’s] regulation is very, very harsh on generative AI, but many times content generated by generative AI doesn’t fit the official narrative.”

Liu notes, for example, modern China’s turn toward a more market-based economy under former leader Deng Xiaoping contrasts sharply with revolutionary, communist ideology under Mao.

“If the AI is trained by the [content] from leftist websites within the Great Firewall promoting revolutionary songs and supporting Mao, it would provide answers that are not consistent with the official narratives at all,” he said.

“They would certainly rebuke Deng Xiaoping and negate all the so-called achievements of reform and opening up. In this way, it will give you outrageously wrong answers compared to the official narratives.”

Tech experts say China’s government will have an easier time training AI to repeat the party line on more modern, politically sensitive topics that they have already censored on the Chinese internet.

Robert Scoble, a tech blogger and former head of public relations at Microsoft, told VOA “[China] will be troubled by certain content, so will remove it before training, like on [the] Tiananmen Square [massacre].”

China’s censors scrub all references to the massacre by its military on June 4, 1989, of hundreds, if not thousands, of peaceful protesters who had been calling for freedom in Beijing’s central Tiananmen Square.

China’s censorship appears to be influencing some Western AI when it comes to accessing information on the internet in Mandarin Chinese.

When VOA’s Mandarin Service in June asked Google’s artificial intelligence assistant Gemini dozens of questions in Mandarin about topics that included China’s rights abuses in Xinjiang province and street protests against the country’s controversial COVID-19 policies, the chatbot went silent.

Gemini’s responses to questions about problems in the United States and Taiwan, on the other hand, parroted Beijing’s official positions.

VOA’s Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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X platform suspended in Brazil amid Brazilian judge’s feud with Musk

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SAO PAULO — A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s social media giant X in Brazil after the tech billionaire refused to name a legal representative in the country, according to a copy of the decision seen by The Associated Press.

The move further escalates the monthslong feud between the two men over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. 

Justice Alexandre de Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X could be blocked in Brazil if he failed to comply with his order to name a representative. He set a 24-hour deadline. The company hasn’t had a representative in the country since earlier this month. 

In his decision, de Moraes gave internet service providers and app stores five days to block access to X, and said the platform will remain blocked until it complies with his orders. He also said people or companies who use virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access X will be subject to daily fines of 50,000 reais ($8,900). 

“Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” de Moraes wrote. 

Brazil is an important market for X, which has struggled with the loss of advertisers since Musk purchased the platform, formerly Twitter, in 2022. Market research group Emarketer says about 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month. 

X had posted on its official Global Government Affairs page late Thursday that it expected X to be shut down by de Moraes, “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.” 

“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the company wrote. “Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.”

Musk characterizes judge as tyrant 

X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users. 

Accounts that the platform previously has shut down on Brazilian orders include lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy. 

Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has repeatedly claimed the justice’s actions amount to censorship, and his argument has been echoed by Brazil’s political right. He has often insulted de Moraes on his platform, characterizing him as a dictator and tyrant. 

De Moraes’ defenders have said his actions aimed at X have been lawful, supported by most of the court’s full bench and have served to protect democracy at a time in which it is imperiled. His order Friday is based on Brazilian law requiring foreign companies to have representation in the country so they can be notified when there are legal cases against them. 

Given that operators are aware of the widely publicized standoff and their obligation to comply with an order from de Moraes, plus the fact doing so isn’t complicated, X could be offline as early as 12 hours after receiving their instructions, said Luca Belli, coordinator of the Technology and Society Center at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Rio de Janeiro. 

Other apps suspended in past

The shutdown is not unprecedented in Brazil. 

Lone Brazilian judges shut down Meta’s WhatsApp, the nation’s most widely used messaging app, several times in 2015 and 2016 when the company’s refused to comply with police requests for user data. In 2022, de Moraes threatened the messaging app Telegram with a nationwide shutdown, arguing it had repeatedly ignored Brazilian authorities’ requests to block profiles and provide information. He ordered Telegram to appoint a local representative; the company ultimately complied and stayed online. 

X and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries — mostly authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings, which some dubbed the “Twitter revolution,” but it has since been restored. 
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Moscow accuses Europe of ‘theft’ as frozen Russian assets fund Ukraine defense   

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london — Russia has accused the European Union of “theft” after the bloc transferred the first tranche of profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine to boost its military capabilities in the face of Moscow’s invasion. The G7 group of leading industrialized nations plans a similar scheme.

However, there are concerns that the asset schemes could prompt some countries to cut their own bilateral funding to Ukraine, after Germany indicated it could end bilateral military aid for Kyiv after 2025.

The European Union said Friday that it had so far provided around $48 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion. The bloc has begun providing military and civilian aid to Ukraine using profits from $300 billion worth of confiscated Russian assets, following an EU agreement struck in May.

“We have mobilized the first tranche of windfall profits from Russian frozen assets. It’s 1.4 billion [euros, or $1.55 billion]. Part of it is going directly to Ukraine in order to boost the Ukrainian defense industry. By March, we will have the second tranche of the windfall profits,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told reporters Friday.

Russian anger

Moscow described the transfer of profits from its frozen assets as “theft.”

“These are illegal actions. They will definitely have legal consequences. This is nothing but illegal expropriation — in Russian, theft — of our money, our assets,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a phone call Thursday.

The G7 also agreed in June to use frozen Russian assets to finance a $50 billion loan to provide military aid for Ukraine, although that scheme has yet to be finalized.

Germany indicated this month that it intends to end bilateral military aid for Ukraine from 2026 as it seeks to close a $13 billion budget deficit. Berlin said the G7 asset mechanism could help pay for the shortfall.

Germany is currently Ukraine’s second-biggest bilateral donor, after the United States. The move to end that support has come under widespread criticism, said analyst Liana Fix of the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations.

“The political signal that it sends is devastating: that the biggest donor in absolute terms in Europe, Germany, suddenly stops its support for Ukraine, especially as it is unclear when and how exactly this G7 mechanism on the Russian frozen assets will work,” Fix said.

“The idea of the G7 instrument was to communicate to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin that it doesn’t make sense for him to outwait the West, right? That he cannot hope that at some point the West will stop support. And so this is a contradicting sign now — that the moment another financial source has been tapped, suddenly Ukraine funding is cut out of the budget,” Fix told VOA.

Political pressure

Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently insisted Germany would continue to support Kyiv.

“We will support Ukraine as long as it will be necessary and we will be the biggest national supporter of Ukraine in Europe,” Scholz told reporters during a visit to Moldova on August 21.

Amid enduring economic pressures at home, Scholz is facing domestic political difficulties, said Fix.

“Although the foreign policy has not changed, it shows changing priorities. Because before, for the governing coalition, Ukraine support was sacred. Nothing could be changed about that. And it shows how desperate the governing coalition in Berlin is for their political survival, ahead of elections in the autumn in eastern Germany.”

Long-range missiles

Meanwhile, the European Union on Thursday urged member states and Western allies to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to target sites inside Russia.

“The military platform for Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure should not stay off limits for elimination, should not be a sanctuary for Russia attacking Ukraine,” Borrell told reporters.

“To facilitate Ukraine to respond to the Russian aggression inside Russian territory is in accordance with international law. And I don’t see why someone says it is going to war against Moscow. No, we are not going to war with Moscow. We are delivering arms to Ukraine, that’s all,” he added.
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Moscow accuses Europe of ‘theft’ as frozen Russian assets fund Ukraine defense

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Russia on Thursday accused the European Union of “theft” after the bloc transferred the first tranche of profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine to boost Kyiv’s military capabilities. But some fear Western states could cut their own aid, as Henry Ridgwell reports. Camera: Henry Ridgwell.
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Kenyan analyst falsely accuses US of meddling in upcoming AU elections

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U.S. Ambassador Meg Whitman has strengthened U.S. ties with Kenya, helping elevate the nation’s status to a major non-NATO ally. The U.S. has a long-standing, cordial relationship with Raila Odinga, Kenya’s veteran opposition leader.
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OIC ends Cameroon meeting with pledge to help countries combat extremism, hardships, climate change 

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Kremlin has ‘no worries’ about Putin visit to Mongolia despite ICC warrant for his arrest

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Zambia warns it will tighten cybersecurity laws

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Lusaka, Zambia — Authorities in Zambia have announced measures to tighten enforcement of cybersecurity laws, saying the move is aimed at curbing online hate speech, propaganda, defamation and child abuse. But critics say the change is aimed at clamping down on freedom of expression.

Zambian Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister Jack Mwiimbu told journalists this week that the government has activated section 54 of the 2021 Cybersecurity and Cybercrimes Act.

“A person who with intent to compromise the safety of another person publishes information or data presented in a picture, image, symbol or voice or any other form in a computer system commits an offense and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years,” Mwiimbu said.

“The public is urged to adhere to the law and avoid social media posts that may make them come into conflict with the law,” he said.

Mwiimbu also warned administrators of social media platform WhatsApp to remove what he called illegal posts made in bad faith, saying they will be held responsible for any publication of such information.

Analysts say whatever the stated intentions of the cybersecurity crackdown may be, the wording of the law is broad, vague and could be used to stifle media freedom.

Lorraine Mwanza, chair of the Zambia chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, said she dislikes the section of the cybersecurity law authorities say they will tightly enforce.

“This section is inimical to freedom, to freedom of expression, media freedom and meaningful accountability, especially on public officials who can easily invoke this section of the act,” she said.

In a statement on social media platform X, Musa Mwenye, the former attorney general and president of the Law Association of Zambia, joined the many who have spoken out against the Zambian government’s move.

Human rights activist Juliet Chibuta said the new measures are a violation of digital rights.

“Digital and other online platforms must be left open to allow citizens to participate,” she said. “Digital rights entail the ability for citizens to enjoy their rights of freedom of expression [and] access to information online without hindrance.”

The Southern Africa Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, a human rights organization, criticized the online restrictions.

Arthur Muyunda, acting executive director of the group, said, “For them to invoke the section, it shows that they are also determined to shrink the civic space, which has already been shrinking using other laws. We appeal that they should reverse that invocation as it will suppress the voices of the people.”

During her visit to Zambia in 2022, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard urged authorities to repeal legislation that can be used to clamp down on public dissent, including the Public Order Act and the Cybersecurity and Cybercrimes Act.

Callamard said the two laws have been used to suppress human rights, especially freedom of assembly and expression in Zambia.
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Georgian law threatens independent reporting, critics say

Posted on by SeeEU

Media rights are at risk in Georgia as the country once seen as a safe haven for journalists implements a new law. For VOA News, Liam Scott has the story. Camera: Cristina Caicedo Smit, Krystof Maixner, Martin Bubenik, Michael Eckels
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US company helps Ukraine develop nuclear energy capabilities

Posted on by SeeEU

Russian shelling has destroyed 50% of Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity since late March, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. To make up for the power shortage, the country has turned to U.S. energy giant Westinghouse for help developing next-generation nuclear reactor units. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Sergiy Rybchynski
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Panama deports Ecuadorean migrants in second US-backed flight

Posted on by SeeUS

PANAMA CITY — Panamanian authorities deported a group of migrants to Ecuador on a second flight financed by the United States, as part of an agreement between the U.S. and Panama to discourage irregular crossings and reduce the flow of mostly U.S.-bound migration.

The flight carrying 30 Ecuadoreans departed on Thursday evening en route to the coastal city of Manta, Ecuador, Panama’s migration service said, adding the migrants were deported for evading a migration checkpoint on the popular Darien Gap route.

Thousands of people every year cross the dangerous Darien Gap jungle on Panama’s border with Colombia on the way to the United States.

The flight on Thursday followed a maiden journey financed by Washington in mid-August, which returned around 30 migrants to Colombia.

The latest deportation comes days after Panama’s President Jose Mulino announced return flights for Indian migrants in September and for Chinese citizens on an unspecified date.
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Slow tropical storm dumps heavy rain around Tokyo after causing floods

Posted on by SeeEA

TOKYO — A slow-moving tropical storm had a far-reaching impact in much of Japan on Friday, dumping heavy rain around Tokyo and flooding roads and riverside areas in the south.

Flooding was reported in a number of areas in Kanagawa prefecture, west of Tokyo, where floodwater blocked roads, stalling vehicles and traffic. Warnings for heavy rain and potential landslides included the densely populated capital, Kanagawa and nearby Shizuoka prefecture.

Muddy water flowed down the Meguro River in one of Tokyo’s popular cherry blossom viewing spots, the water significantly swollen from its usual levels, NHK television footage showed.

In Hiratsuka town, dozens of cars in a parking lot sat in water just below their windows. A pedestrian waded through floodwater as high as his thighs. In another Kanagawa town, Ninomiya, floodwater from a river stalled vehicles on a street and broken tree branches were stuck on a bridge over the swollen water.

Tropical Storm Shanshan made landfall Thursday morning on the southern main island of Kyushu as a powerful typhoon. It has steadily weakened but not moved much and remained just off Kyushu’s northeastern coast Friday morning. The slow pace increases the amount and duration of the rainfall and risks of disaster, experts say.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said Shanshan was heading east toward the Shikoku and Honshu main islands with 72 kph winds but a forward speed of just 10 kph.

JMA forecast up to 30 centimeters of rainfall in Shikoku and central Japan, and up to 15 centimeters for Tokyo and nearby prefectures in the next 24 hours through Saturday noon.

The storm has paralyzed traffic, delivery services and businesses across southwestern Japan.

About 80 people have been injured in the Kyushu region, the majority of them in the hardest-hit two southern prefectures of Miyazaki and Kagoshima. Two people were missing. Before the typhoon made landfall, it caused a landslide that killed three people.

Hundreds of domestic flights connecting southwestern cities were canceled, and Shinkansen bullet trains were suspended between Tokyo and Osaka on Friday. Postal and delivery services were mostly suspended in southwestern regions of Kyushu and Shikoku, and supermarkets and other stores were closed in the region. Automakers including Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. closed down their factories in the affected regions through Friday.
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Russia’s attack kills 1, injures 8 in Ukraine’s Sumy, authorities say

Posted on by SeeEU

Kyiv, Ukraine — A Russian attack overnight damaged a factory in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy, killing a 48-year-old woman and injuring at least eight people, local authorities said on Friday.

The airstrike caused a fire, prompting regional authorities to ask residents to stay inside and close the windows.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said that the factory manufactured packaging for baby food, juices and household products.

A drone attack hit an industrial facility in Poltava in central Ukraine without causing any casualties, regional governor Filip Pronin said.

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 12 out of 18 Russia-launched drones overnight over five Ukrainian regions. Four more drones fell over the Ukrainian territory.

Russia also used an Iskander-M missile during the attack, the air force added.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war, which Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on its smaller neighbor in February 2022.
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Russian editor sentenced to 8 years for criticizing Ukraine campaign

Posted on by SeeEU

Moscow — A Russian news editor in Siberia was sentenced to eight years in prison Friday for publishing critical material on Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, which has been accompanied in Russia by a massive crackdown on dissent.

Sergei Mikhailov, a journalist and editor in the mountainous Altai region, was arrested in the first weeks of the Kremlin launching the military campaign in 2022, shortly after repressive laws that banned criticism of Russia’s actions in Ukraine were adopted.

He had published online posts about civilian deaths in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha and in Mariupol.

A court in the city of Gorno-Altaisk sentenced the 48-year-old after finding him guilty of “knowingly spreading fake information” about the Russian army.

Prosecutors said he was “motivated by political hatred.”

Mikhailov ran the small online opposition social media channel Listok in Siberia’s Altai republic — a region that has sent many men to Ukraine.

In a speech in court earlier this week, Mikhailov stood by his reporting and harshly criticized the Kremlin for sending troops to Ukraine.

He said the Russian state narrative of calling the Ukrainian leadership “fascist” had “created a whole virtual universe in the information space, and this fog became stronger and stronger.”

“My publications were aimed against this fog, so that my readers were not seduced by lies, so that they do not take part in armed conflicts, do not become murderers and victims and so that they do not harm the brotherly Ukrainian people,” Mikhailov said, in an audio of the speech published by Listok on social media.

More than 1,000 people have been prosecuted in Russia for criticizing the Russian offensive against Ukraine since the start of the armed conflict in February 2022, according to monitor OVD-Info.
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