The German and French foreign ministers yesterday made their first visit to Ukraine’s war-torn east since the beginning of the conflict between government forces and pro-Russian rebels in April 2014.
German Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault, arrived in Kramatorsk, a city controlled by the Ukrainian army, a correspondent reported.
Both Ayrault and Steinmeier have urged Kiev’s pro-Western leaders to commit themselves more fully to a 13-point plan agreed in February last year under which the rebels would get partial autonomy within a unified Ukraine, an initiative unpopular among many Ukrainians.
The ministers were met by about 40 demonstrators in front of the office of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, who were protesting against the prospect of giving partial autonomy to the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Protesters brandished signs that said: “We are Ukraine” and “No to a special status for Donbass,” referring to eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland.
In a meeting with OSCE monitors, the ministers were briefed about ceasefire violations and shown fragments of mines, grenades and other explosive devices found in the area.
The visit comes after one of the bloodiest days in weeks saw government forces and the separatists lose three fighters each.
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
RSS