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South Korea hosted summit warns of AI risks to democracy

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South Korea hosted summit warns of AI risks to democracy

South Korea hosted summit warns of AI risks to democracy

Seoul, SOUTH KOREA (Reuters) – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday called fake news and disinformation based on AI and digital technology threats to democracy, as some officials attending a global summit accused Russia and China of conducting malicious propaganda campaigns.

Speaking at the opening of the Summit for Democracy in Seoul, Yoon said countries had a duty to share experiences and wisdom so that artificial intelligence and technology could be employed to promote democracy.

“Fake news and disinformation based on artificial intelligence and digital technology not only violates individual freedom and human rights but also threatens democratic systems,” Yoon said.

READ MORE : South Korea says presumed North Korean hackers breached personal emails of presidential staffer

South Korea is hosting the third Summit for Democracy conference, an initiative of U.S. President Joe Biden aimed at discussing ways to stop democratic backsliding and erosion of rights and freedoms.
On Monday, China hit back at Seoul for inviting Taiwan Digital Minister Audrey Tang to give a video address.

Though a presenter said Tang was speaking in a private capacity, her participation was not announced ahead of time by either Taiwan or South Korea, which has boosted ties with Washington but also sought to prevent major impact to its deep economic ties with China.

China claims Taiwan as its own, but the island rejects its sovereignty stance.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said efforts to “expand the space for Taiwan independence activities under the banner of democracy and human rights” were doomed to fail.

DIGITAL THREATS

Digital threats to democracy, and how technology can promote democracy and universal human rights, were expected to be the main agenda of the three-day meetings in Seoul, attended by representatives from more than 30 countries, ranging from Costa Rica to the United States and Ghana.

“As authoritarian and repressive regimes deploy technologies to undermine democracy and human rights, we need to ensure that technology sustains and supports democratic values and norms,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the summit, opens new tab.

Blinken later said 2024 was an “extraordinary election year” to highlight risks of disinformation and falsehoods in cyberspace. He also repeated Washington’s accusations that Russia and China were behind global campaigns aimed at manipulating information.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during an opening ceremony for the 3rd Summit for Democracy in Seoul, South Korea 18 March 2024. KIM MIN-HEE/Pool via REUTERS

Blinken said Washington was releasing the first guidance of its kind for tech companies to help prevent attacks on human rights defenders online.

In addition, he said at the summit that a half-dozen more countries, including South Korea and Japan, were joining a U.S.-led crackdown on the misuse of commercial spyware to surveil journalists or human rights defenders.
Some European officials also accused Russia of conducting disinformation campaigns using AI.

“The only thing more gruesome than the Russian actions during their ongoing invasion of Ukraine is the disgusting web of lies spun by Russian propaganda, accelerated by social media, deep fake techniques and omnipresent bots,” said Robert Kupiecki, undersecretary of state at Poland’s foreign ministry.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied accusations of spreading false or misleading information.
A spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington had said it was “typical bias and double standard to allege that the pro-China contents and reports are ‘disinformation’, and to call the anti-China ones ‘true information'”.

PUTIN VICTORY

Hours before the summit started, North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the sea for the first time in two months in its latest show of force.

The conference also kicked off just after Russian President Vladimir Putin was declared victor in a record post-Soviet landslide in a presidential election.

The result means Putin, who rose to power in 1999, is set to start a new six-year term that will see him overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader in more than 200 years if he completes it.

A White House National Security Council spokesperson criticised the election and said they were “obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him”.

Putin told reporters he regarded Russia’s election as democratic and said protests organised by supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison last month, against him had no effect on the election’s outcome.

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Pakistani aerial strikes on Afghan villages kill 5 women, 3 children

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Pakistani aerial strikes on Afghan villages kill 5 women, 3 children

Pakistani aerial strikes on Afghan villages kill 5 women, 3 children

Kabul, AFGHANISTAN (EFE) – Pakistani fighter jets bombed several Afghan villages on Monday, killing at least five women and three children, the Taliban government said.

The incident marks the latest episode of deadly violence amid growing tensions along the border between the two neighboring nations, even as Pakistan has not confirmed the strike.

Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that Pakistani planes targeted three residential houses in the western provinces of Paktika and Khost in the pre-dawn strike.

READ MORE : Pakistan says children killed in Iranian strike

“Three women and three children were killed and a house destroyed in Paktika, as well as, two women killed due to the collapse of a house in Khost province,” Mujahid said.

The airstrikes were allegedly aimed at Pakistani Taliban militant commander Abdullah Shah, who is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan.

A Taliban security personnel stands guard as trucks carrying goods cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan, after the Pakistani government announced the reopening of Torkham border following nine-day closure, in Torkham, Afghanistan, 15 September 2023. EFE-EPA/FILE/STRINGER

However, Mujahid denied these claims, asserting that Shah was in Pakistan.

“The person named Abdullah Shah, who according to the Pakistani side was the target of the incident, is in Pakistan,” he said.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan also refuted the claim, stating that Shah, supposedly killed in the strikes, is currently in Pakistan’s South Waziristan district. They released a video purportedly showing the militant commander alive in Pakistan.

The Taliban strongly condemned the “cowardly and unjustifiable act of aggression and violation of Afghan territory” by the Pakistan Air Force.

“The people of Pakistan and the new government should stop their army generals from continuing their wrong policies … and spoiling the relationship between the two neighboring Muslim nations,” Mujahid said.

In response, the Taliban said Monday it attacked several Pakistan military centers on the border with Afghanistan.

“The border forces of the National Islamic Army of Afghanistan targeted Pakistan’s military centers” along the Durand Line, the porous border that divides the two countries, Afghanistan’s defense ministry said in a statement on the social media platform X.

“The country’s defense and security forces are ready to respond to any aggressive actions and will defend their territorial integrity,” the ministry added.

The attacks, the first since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, comes amid deteriorating ties between the two nations, which share a nearly 2,500 km (1,500 miles) border known as the Durand Line.

The landlocked Afghanistan has never recognized the Durand Line, which divides ethnic Pashtun and Baloch tribes in the tribal regions.

Bilateral tensions have often erupted along the border, sometimes escalating into violence and leading to closures that impact cross-boundary trade.

Pakistan alleges that Islamist insurgents seek refuge in Afghanistan, contributing to a surge in militant attacks targeting Pakistani civilians and security forces.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to eradicate insurgency from the country following the deaths of seven soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel and a captain, in a suicide attack over the weekend in the North Waziristan district of the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. EFE

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President Zoran Milanović announced Friday, Croatia will hold a parliamentary election on April 17

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President Zoran Milanović announced Friday, Croatia will hold a parliamentary election on April 17

President Zoran Milanović announced Friday, Croatia will hold a parliamentary election on April 17

Croatia will hold a parliamentary election on April 17, the country’s president said on Friday.

President Zoran Milanovic scheduled the parliamentary vote after Croatia’s parliament dissolved on Thursday.

The ballot next month will pit the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union against a group of centrist and left-leaning parties who have announced they will run as an alliance.

Just hours after setting the election date, Milanovic announced a surprise bid to run for prime minister as the candidate of the opposition Social Democratic Party.

READ MORE : Russians are voting in an election that holds little suspense after Putin crushed dissent

“I promise a determined and (corruption) clear government,” said Milanovic, who has served as prime minister in the past. “I’m inviting all honorable people and parties to come together (for the election.)”

Croatia is also slated to hold a presidential election by the end of the year. Milanovic said later he would resign as president after the parliamentary “victory.”

Milanovic will challenge the current conservative Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and his ruling Croatian Democratic Union, known by its Croatian initials as the HDZ.

The HDZ have largely held power since Croatia gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. The party has faced mounting accusations of corruption from the opposition ahead of the ballot but has denied the claims.

Milanovic also set the country’s voting for the European Parliament on June 7.

The Adriatic Sea nation became the newest member of the European Union in 2013 and joined Europe’s free travel and euro zones last year.

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US, G-7 allies warn Iran to back off deal to provide Russia ballistic missiles or face new sanctions

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US, G-7 allies warn Iran to back off deal to provide Russia ballistic missiles or face new sanctions

US, G-7 allies warn Iran to back off deal to provide Russia ballistic missiles or face new sanctions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and allies warned Iran on Friday that major Western economies will pile new sanctions on Tehran if it moves forward with an advancing plan to provide ballistic missiles to Russia for its war with Ukraine.

The Biden administration has raised alarms for months that Russia is seeking close-range ballistic missiles from Iran as Moscow struggles to replenish its dwindling supplies.

The U.S. has yet to confirm that missiles have moved from Iran to Russia. But U.S. officials are alarmed by comments by Iranian officials that suggest that a deal is imminent.

READ MORE : Biden aide urges Bejing to press Iran over Houthi attacks. China warns US over Taiwan independence

One action that the Group of Seven countries are mulling is to prohibit Iran Air, the country’s national air carrier, from flying to Europe, according to a senior Biden administration official. The official, who was not authorized to comment and insisted on anonymity, declined to preview other sanctions that the U.S. is mulling beyond describing the potential action as “significant measures.”

“Were Iran to proceed with providing ballistic missiles or related technology to Russia, we are prepared to respond swiftly and in a coordinated manner including with new and significant measures against Iran,” the G-7 leaders said in a statement.

Iran’s U.N. Mission said last month that there are no legal restrictions to prevent it from making ballistic missile sales but that is “morally obligated to refrain from weapon transactions during the Russia-Ukraine conflict to prevent fueling the war.”

The U.S. and Europe already impose extensive sanctions against Iran targeting individuals as well as limiting the country’s access to trade, financial services, energy, technology and other sectors. The sanctions on Iran are arguably the most extensive and comprehensive set of sanctions that the United States maintains on any country, with thousands of individuals and entities targeted.

The Democratic administration in January said that U.S. intelligence officials had determined a Russian-Iran deal had not been completed but that they were concerned that Russia’s negotiations to acquire missiles from Iran were actively advancing.

In September, according to the White House, Iran hosted Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to show off a range of ballistic missile systems — a moment that sparked U.S. concern that a deal could come together.

Asked why the deal hasn’t already been consummated, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said he could not “speak for the mullahs.”

Iran last year completed a deal to buy Su-35 fighter jets from Russia and has been looking to buy additional advanced military equipment from the country, including attack helicopters, radars and combat-trainer aircraft, according to the White House.

The U.S. and other countries have taken steps aimed at thwarting the supply, sale or transfer involving Iran and ballistic missile-related items, including issuing guidance to private companies about Iranian missile procurement practices to make sure they aren’t inadvertently supporting Iran’s development efforts.

“We’ve sent very clear messages to Iran to not do it, this is a subject of considerable conversation among a number of countries in Europe and the United States and I think that the concern about that eventuality and the need to address it, if necessary, is very real and very strong,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a news conference on Friday in Vienna.

The Biden administration has repeatedly sought to make the case that the Kremlin has become reliant on Iran and North Korea for the arms it needs to fight its war against Ukraine and has disclosed intelligence findings that it says show as much.

Russia has acquired and used North Korean ballistic missiles against Ukraine. Ukrainian officials, however, say that North Korean missiles when deployed by Russian forces have frequently missed targets.

Russia has received hundreds of one-way attack drones, as well as drone production-related equipment, from Iran, according to the White House. The Biden administration also has accused Tehran of providing Russia with materials to build a drone manufacturing plant east of Moscow.

Iran initially denied supplying drones to Russia. Tehran later only acknowledged providing a small number before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine

— AP Diplomatic correspondent Matthew Lee contributed from Vienna.

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Russians are voting in an election that holds little suspense after Putin crushed dissent

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Russians are voting in an election that holds little suspense after Putin crushed dissent

Russians are voting in an election that holds little suspense after Putin crushed dissent

Russia began three days of voting Friday in a presidential election that is all but certain to extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule for six more years after he stifled dissent.

At least half a dozen cases of vandalism at polling stations were reported, including a firebombing and several people pouring green liquid into ballot boxes — an apparent nod to the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who in 2017 was attacked by an assailant splashing green disinfectant in his face.

Voting is taking place through Sunday at polling stations across the vast country’s 11 time zones, in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine and online. Putin cast his ballot online, according to the Kremlin.

READ MORE : The hallmark of Putin’s 24 years in power: A crackdown on dissent

The election comes against the backdrop of a ruthless crackdown that has crippled independent media and prominent rights groups and given Putin full control of the political system.

It also comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine enters its third year. Russia has the advantage on the battlefield, where it is making small, if slow, gains. A Russian missile strike on the port city of Odesa killed at least 14 people on Friday, local officials said.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has made Moscow look vulnerable behind the front line with long-range drone attacks deep inside Russia and high-tech drone assaults that put its Black Sea fleet on the defensive.

Russian regions bordering Ukraine reported a spike in shelling and repeated attacks this week by Ukrainian forces, which Putin described Friday as an attempt to frighten residents and derail the vote.

“Those enemy strikes haven’t been and won’t be left unpunished,” he vowed at a meeting of his Security Council.

A student leaves a voting booth at a polling station during a presidential election in Vladivostok, Russia, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo)

“I’m sure that our people, the people of Russia, will respond to that with even greater cohesion,” Putin said. “Whom did they decide to scare? The Russian people? It has never happened and it will never happen.”

By the time polls closed Friday night at Russia’s westernmost region of Kaliningrad, more than a third of the country’s eligible voters had cast ballots in person and online, according to the Central Election Commission. Online voting, which began Friday morning, is available around the clock in Moscow and 28 other regions until 8 p.m. local time Sunday.

Officials said voting proceeded in an orderly fashion, but in St. Petersburg, a woman threw a Molotov cocktail on the roof of a school that houses a polling station, local news media reported. The deputy head of the Russian Central Election Commission said people poured green liquid into ballot boxes in five places, including Moscow.

No significant international observers were present. The Organization for Security and Cooperation Europe’s monitors were not invited, and only registered candidates or state-backed advisory bodies can assign observers to polling stations, decreasing the likelihood of independent watchdogs. With balloting over three days in nearly 100,000 polling stations, any true oversight is difficult anyway.

“The elections in Russia as a whole are a sham. The Kremlin controls who’s on the ballot. The Kremlin controls how they can campaign. To say nothing of being able to control every aspect of the voting and the vote-counting process,” said Sam Greene, director for Democratic Resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington.

Students attend a voting at a polling station during the presidential election in Vladivostok, Russia, March 15, 2024. (AP Photo)

Ukraine and the West have also condemned Russia for holding the vote in Ukrainian regions that Moscow’s forces have seized and occupied.

In many ways, Ukraine is at the heart of this election, political analysts and opposition figures say. They say Putin wants to use his all-but-assured electoral victory as evidence that the war and his handling of it enjoys widespread support. The opposition, meanwhile, hopes to use the vote to demonstrate its discontent with both the war and the Kremlin.

How well this strategy will work remains unclear.

Golos, Russia’s renowned independent election observer group, said in a report this week that authorities were “doing everything so that the people don’t notice the very fact of the election happening.”

The watchdog described the campaign ahead of the vote as “practically unnoticeable” and “the most vapid” since 2000, when Golos was founded and started monitoring elections in Russia.

Putin’s campaigning was cloaked in presidential activities, and other candidates were “demonstrably passive,” the report said.

State media dedicated less airtime to the election than in 2018, when Putin was last elected, according to Golos. Instead of promoting the vote to ensure a desired turnout, authorities appear to be betting on pressuring voters they can control — for instance, Russians who work in state-run companies or institutions — to show up at the polls, the group said.

The watchdog itself has been swept up in the crackdown: Its co-chair, Grigory Melkonyants, is in jail awaiting trial on charges widely seen as an attempt to pressure the group ahead of the election.

“The current elections will not be able to reflect the real mood of the people,” Golos said in the report. “The distance between citizens and decision-making about the fate of the country has become greater than ever.”

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Tornadoes have killed at least 3 people in Ohio. Crews are searching for others

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Tornadoes have killed at least 3 people in Ohio. Crews are searching for others

Tornadoes have killed at least 3 people in Ohio. Crews are searching for others

Lakeview, OHIO (AP) — Tornadoes tore through several central U.S. states, flattening homes and trailers in an RV park and killing at least three people, authorities said. Crews and cadaver dogs searched for more victims in the rubble Friday.

Thursday night’s storms left trails of destruction across parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas. About 40 people were injured and dozens of homes damaged in one Indiana community. Tornadoes were also suspected in Illinois and Missouri.

READ MORE : Landslide and flash floods hit Indonesia’s Sumatra island as At least 19 dead and 7 missing

It appeared the worst hit was the Indian Lake area in Ohio’s Logan County, northwest of Columbus, with the villages of Lakeview and Russells Point devastated. At least three people died, said Sheriff Randy Dodds.

Search crews went into neighborhoods that had been blocked by gas leaks and fallen trees overnight and made a second pass in areas that were checked in the darkness right after the storm, Dodds said.

“It’s going to take a long time,” he said, adding he wasn’t aware of anybody unaccounted for. Earlier, the sheriff told NBC’s “Today” show that he expected more victims would be found.

In Lakeview, Sandy Smith was walking down the stairs with her cat to seek shelter in a laundry room with her family when the roof came down.

“A couple flashes of light, and then everything just peppered against the house,” she said. Her husband then saw their garage blow away.

The storm sheared off the tops of homes and damaged a campground and laundromat, leaving twisted metal wrapped in the tops of trees. Snowplows cleared debris from roads.

Greg McDougle walks near debris Friday, March 15, 2024, following a severe storm in Lakeview, Ohio. Photo : Joshua A. Bickel/AP

The storm produced fires in some spots and draped power lines through home windows, said Amber Fagan, president of the local chamber of commerce.

Many of the homes in the area are used as summer cottages by people who come for fishing and boating.

Blaine Schmidt, 34, sifted through broken glass and splintered wood, looking for anything salvageable. He rescued a guitar. Most everything else, including his furniture and a crib, was destroyed. Toy dinosaurs were scattered in his lawn near the front of the house, which had been peeled open, exposing a couch that has been torn apart.

He heard tornado sirens moments before the storm hit Lakeview. He took shelter in his bathtub, using the shower curtain to protect him and his roommate from shattered glass. “I’m lucky to be alive,” Schmidt said.

Weather officials had yet to confirm many of the tornadoes, but across the region, awestruck residents captured funnels on video.

In Indiana, a tornado injured 38 people in Winchester, officials said, but it appears no one died.

Residents of the town of 4,700 about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Indianapolis picked tree branches and sheet metal from their yards Friday. Shingles littered streets and fields. The high school was serving as a temporary shelter.

Carey Todd, 55, said the tornado looked like a “a bunch of black birds.”

Debris is visible near a damaged home following a severe storm Friday, March 15, 2024, in Lakeview, Ohio. Photo : Joshua A. Bickel/AP

A church was destroyed. A few remnants still stood, as well as a mural depicting a flowing river, with a white awning still attached. A sign below the mural read, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

The storm damaged or destroyed about 130 homes and a Taco Bell restaurant, Mayor Bob McCoy said. He and his wife hunkered in a closet when the twister hit around 8 p.m.

“I’ve never heard that sound before; I don’t want to hear it again,” McCoy said.

West of Winchester, officials said as many as half the structures in the town of Selma, population 750, might have been damaged. Only minor injuries were reported, emergency officials said in a news release.

Gov. Eric Holcomb praised first responders in Indiana, saying: “By the grace of God, everyone has lived through it all.”

Another tornado damaged homes and toppled trees in Huron County in northern Ohio, officials said, but no deaths or injuries were reported. Storms also damaged homes and trailers in the Ohio River communities of Hanover and Lamb in Indiana.

In Milton, Kentucky, two people were injured when their car was hit by debris from a tornado that damaged as 100 homes and businesses, said Trimble County Emergency Management Director Andrew Stark.

In Arkansas, a probable tornado struck the retirement community of Hot Springs Village, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Little Rock, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Erik Green.

Baseball-sized hail also fell and some buildings were destroyed, but there were no reports of fatalities or injuries, Green said.

There were reports of tornadoes in Jefferson County, Missouri, and Monroe County, Illinois.

More severe weather was forecast Friday for parts of the South, with the possibility of damaging winds and isolated tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service.

Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Isabella Volmert in Winchester, Indiana; Lisa Baumann; Sarah Brumfield; Rick Callahan; Stefanie Dazio; Kathy McCormack; Ken Miller; and Patrick Orsagos.

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Russian missiles kill at least 16 people in the latest strike on southern Ukraine’s Odesa

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Russian missiles kill at least 16 people in the latest strike on southern Ukraine’s Odesa

Russian missiles kill at least 16 people in the latest strike on southern Ukraine’s Odesa

Kyiv, UKRAINE (AP) — A Russian ballistic missile attack blasted homes in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa on Friday, followed by a second missile that targeted first responders who arrived at the scene, officials said. At least 16 people were killed.

The attack occurred as Russians began voting in a presidential election that is all but certain to extend Vladimir Putin’s rule by another six years after he crushed dissent, and as the war in Ukraine stretches into its third year.

The dead included a paramedic and an emergency service worker. At least 53 other people were wounded by the Iskander-M missiles, officials said.

READ MORE : US, G-7 allies warn Iran to back off deal to provide Russia ballistic missiles or face new sanctions

At least 10 houses in Odesa and some emergency service equipment were damaged in the strike, which started a blaze, according to emergency officials and regional Gov. Oleh Kiper.

The tactic of firing a second missile at the same location, aiming to hit rescuers, is known in military terms as a double tap. Such strikes often hit civilians.

Kiper announced that a day of mourning in Odesa would be held on Saturday — the second such observance in less than two weeks.

On March 2, a Russian drone struck a multistory building, killing 12 people, including five children.

Moscow has repeatedly claimed that its forces do not target civilian areas, despite substantial evidence to the contrary.

Since last summer, Russia has intensified its attacks on Odesa, a southern port city with a population of around 1 million.

The attacks have primarily targeted port infrastructure, aiming to disrupt the export of goods after Ukraine managed to restore maritime navigation with a series of successful operations in the Black Sea.

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, an emergency serviceman sits shocked after a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Friday, March 15, 2024. Photo : Emergency Service via AP

Moscow officials have also claimed they are aiming at facilities where Ukrainian sea drones are stored for attacks on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

The Odesa region’s ports were key to last year’s international agreement that let Ukraine and Russia ship their grain to the rest of the world.

Odesa residents largely speak Russian, and the city’s past is intertwined with some of Russia’s most revered figures, including Catherine the Great, author Leo Tolstoy and poet Anna Akhmatova.

Its Orthodox cathedral belongs to Moscow’s patriarchate and — at least until the Kremlin illegally annexed the nearby Crimean Peninsula in 2014 — its beaches were beloved by Russian tourists.

Meanwhile, in the Russian border region of Belgorod, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said a member of the regional territorial defense forces was killed and two people were injured in Ukrainian shelling Friday.

Overnight in Ukraine, two people were also killed and three wounded in the central Vinnytsia region after Russia struck a building with a drone, according to regional Gov. Serhii Borzov.

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down all 27 Shahed drones that Russia launched over the Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi and Kyiv regions.

BY HANNA ARHIROVA FOR ASSOCIATE PRESS

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A plan to find new leadership for Haiti is moving forward, Caribbean officials say

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A plan to find new leadership for Haiti is moving forward, Caribbean officials say

A plan to find new leadership for Haiti is moving forward, Caribbean officials say

Port-Au-Prince, HAITI (AP) — A plan to create a transitional presidential council is moving forward after a majority of Haitian parties and coalitions submitted the names of those charged with finding new leaders for the country, Caribbean officials said Thursday.

The names were provided to a regional trade bloc known as Caricom that is helping lead the transition.

“It is all up now to the Haitians as they are the ones who want a Haitian-led solution,” Surinamese Foreign Minister Albert Ramdin told The Associated Press. “It is for them to pick up the ball and run with it, being responsible for their own destiny.”

READ MORE : Gangs in Haiti try to seize control of main airport in newest attack on key government sites

He spoke a day after Haitian politicians and influential figures bickered publicly about the plan and what names to submit, seemingly putting creation of the council at risk.

Caribbean leaders had announced plans to create the council after meeting in Jamaica Monday behind closed doors with officials including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Shortly after the meeting, Prime Minister Ariel Henry pledged to resign once the council is created.

The council will be responsible for choosing an interim prime minister and a council of ministers, as well as help organize general elections, which haven’t been held in nearly a decade.

“We hope this is a breakthrough for Haiti,” Ramdin said.

He said Caricom officials met Wednesday night for an update on the situation.

The names haven’t been made public, although a senior Caribbean official not authorized to speak to the media told the AP that the Dec. 21 Agreement group, which backs the current prime minister, has not submitted a name.

In addition, Jean-Charles Moïse, who leads the Petit Desalin party and has allied with former rebel leader and convicted money launderer Guy Philippe, announced Wednesday that his party would not join the council despite the offer of a voting position.

The others awarded a spot on the council are EDE/RED, a party led by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph; the Montana Accord, a group of civil society leaders, political parties and others; Fanmi Lavalas, the party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide; the Jan. 30 Collective, which represents parties including that of former President Michel Martelly; and the private sector.

Of the remaining two nonvoting positions, one would go to a representative of Haiti’s civil society and the other to its religious sector.

It wasn’t immediately clear what would happen to the position rejected by Moïse and his party.

Front table from left, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Guyana’s President Irfan Ali and Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness attend meeting on Haiti at the conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Kingston, Jamaica, on Monday, March 11, 2024. Photo : Andrew Caballero-Reynolds, via AP

U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Thursday that the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, María Isabel Salvador, remains in contact with many key political and civil society representatives and is “encouraging them to act in the best interest of the people of Haiti to resolve this crisis as quickly as possible.”

The push to create a council comes as Haiti’s capital and other areas become increasingly overrun by powerful gangs that control around 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

On Feb. 29, gunmen launched a series of attacks on key state institutions, including police stations, the main international airport and Haiti’s two biggest prisons, where more than 4,000 inmates were freed. Scores of people have died in the attacks, and more than 15,000 people have been left homeless.

The violence has somewhat subsided, although a fire was reported Thursday at the National Penitentiary in downtown Port-au-Prince, one of two prisons attacked more than a week ago. It wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was injured or killed in the blaze or how it started.

Dujarric said some of the U.N.’s 267 international staff whose presence in Haiti is not essential are being moved to the neighboring Dominican Republic to work remotely, given “the volatile security situation.” He added that other U.N. staff needed to deal with the ongoing humanitarian crisis will be going to Haiti.

The U.N. political mission announced that an air bridge was being established between Haiti and the Dominican Republic including to bring in some supplies and staff, but Dujarric said it isn’t operational yet.

When the attacks began, Prime Minister Henry was in Kenya to try and secure a U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country. The deployment, however, has been put on hold. Meanwhile, Henry remains in Puerto Rico, unable to return home.

Schools, gas stations and airports remain closed in Port-au-Prince and beyond, although public transportation has resumed, and a growing number of Haitians have been seen on previously empty streets.

Wilkinson reported from Georgetown, Guyana. Associated Press reporter Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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Thousands of Indian farmers protest in New Delhi demanding a law guaranteeing minimum crop prices

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Thousands of Indian farmers protest in New Delhi demanding a law guaranteeing minimum crop prices

Thousands of Indian farmers protest in New Delhi demanding a law guaranteeing minimum crop prices

New Delhi, INDIA (AP) — Thousands of farmers protested in India’s capital on Thursday to press their demand for a new law that would guarantee minimum crop prices, after weeks of being blocked from entering the city.

They rode crowded buses and trains instead of their tractors to New Delhi after authorities barricaded highways into the capital with cement blocks and barbed wire. Police also banned use of farm vehicles as a condition for granting permission for the rally in the city. Participants were also barred from carrying sticks or swords to avoid clashes with police.

READ MORE : Indian farmers orchestrate a ‘tractor chain’ to encircle the capital

The protesters held placards demanding free electricity for farming. They contended that without minimum price guarantees for their crops, they would be at the mercy of the markets and that would spell disaster, especially for the more than two-thirds of them who own less than 1 hectare (2 1/2 acres) of land.

The rally, organized by the United Farmers Front, was held at Ramlila Ground, which is used for religious festivals, major political meetings and entertainment events.

Police also set a condition for the rally that no more than 5,000 people would participate, the Press Trust of India news agency said. The rally was scheduled to end later Thursday.

Chitwant Singh, a protester, said farmers didn’t earn enough to cover their costs. “The traders and middlemen take away all our profits,” he said.

The protests come at a crucial time for India, which has a national election in April-May in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing party is widely expected to secure a third successive term. Farmers are a particularly influential voting bloc because of their numbers. More than 60% of India’s 1.4 billion people depend on farming for their livelihoods.

The farmers are also pressing the government to keep its promises to waive loans and withdraw legal cases brought against them during earlier protests in 2021. Several rounds of talks have failed to break the deadlock.

Separately, thousands of farmers have been protesting in Shambhu, a town about 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the capital, since Feb. 13.

Authorities have barricaded highways leading to New Delhi with cement blocks, metal containers, barbed wire and iron spikes to prevent the farmers from entering the capital. The farmers have brought bulldozers and excavators to try and push through.

Indian farmers who have been protesting to demand guarnteed corp prices gather at Ramlila ground in New Delhi, India, Thursday, March 14,2024. AP Photo

On Feb. 21, clashes between farmers and police left one protester dead as the farmers tried to resume their march to the capital after talks with the government failed to end an impasse over their demands for guaranteed crop prices.

Police said 12 officers were injured after protesters attacked them with sticks and pelted them with stones.

The farmers paused their protest and have camped near Shambhu, close to the border between Punjab and Haryana states, as their unions engaged in discussions with government ministers.

They rejected a proposal offering them five-year contracts with guaranteed prices for certain crops including maize, grain, legumes and cotton.

Two years ago, tens of thousands of farmers camped out on the outskirts of New Delhi for months, forcing Modi to repeal new agriculture laws in a major reversal for his government.

Jagjit Singh Dallewal, one of the farmers leading Thursday’s protest, said they did not want any violence and condemned the government for the massive security measures.

Protest organizers say the farmers are seeking a law that would guarantee minimum prices for 23 crops to help stabilize their incomes.

The government protects agricultural producers against sharp falls in farm prices by setting a minimum purchase price for certain essential crops, a system that was introduced in the 1960s to help shore up food reserves and prevent shortages. The system can apply to up to 23 crops, but the government usually offers the minimum price only for rice and wheat.

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SpaceX Starship disintegrates after completing most of third test flight

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SpaceX Starship disintegrates after completing most of third test flight

SpaceX Starship disintegrates after completing most of third test flight

Boca Chica, TEXAS (Reuters) – SpaceX’s Starship rocket, designed to eventually send astronauts to the moon and beyond, completed nearly an entire test flight through space on its third try on Thursday, getting farther than ever before, but disintegrated on its return to Earth.

During a webcast of the flight, SpaceX commentators said mission control lost communication with Starship from two satellite systems simultaneously while the spacecraft was re-entering the planet’s atmosphere at hypersonic speed.

The spacecraft at that point was nearing a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean, about an hour after launch from south Texas.

READ MORE : Japan’s ‘Moon Sniper,’ successfully lands on the moon but encounters a power-related issue

Contact with Starship cut out moments after a live video feed from a camera mounted on the vehicle showed high-definition images of a reddish glow enveloping the silvery spacecraft from the heat of re-entry friction as it plunged earthward.

SpaceX’s next-generation Starship spacecraft, atop its powerful Super Heavy rocket, lifts off on its third launch from the company’s Boca Chica launchpad on an uncrewed test flight, near Brownsville, Texas, U.S. March 14, 2024. REUTERS/Cheney Orr


A few minutes later, SpaceX confirmed that the spacecraft had been “lost” – meaning incinerated or broken apart – during the stress of re-entry.

For reasons that were left unclear, SpaceX opted to skip one of the test flight’s core objectives – an attempt to re-ignite one of Starship’s Raptor engines while it coasted in a shallow orbit. That milestone is considered key to its future success.
Still, completion of many of Starship’s intended flight objectives represented progress in the development of a spacecraft crucial to the growing satellite launch business of SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk in 2002, and NASA’s moon program.

NASA chief Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on what he called “a successful test flight” in a statement posted on social media platform X. The U.S. space agency is SpaceX’s biggest customer.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell wrote in an X post that the test marked an “incredible day.”
The two-stage spacecraft, consisting of the Starship cruise vessel mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, blasted off from the company’s Starbase launch site near Boca Chica Village on the Gulf Coast of Texas. The upper-stage Starship reached peak altitudes of 145 miles (234 km).

The spacecraft far exceeded its two past performances, both of which were cut short by explosions minutes after launch. The company had acknowledged in advance a high probability that its latest flight might similarly end with the spacecraft’s demise before the mission profile was finished.

SpaceX’s engineering culture, considered more risk-tolerant than many of the aerospace industry’s more established players, is built on a flight-testing strategy that pushes spacecraft to the point of failure, then fine-tunes improvements through frequent repetition.

ENGINEERING GOALS

Thursday’s flight achieved many of the engineering goals set for the mission: a repeat of successful stage separation during initial ascent; the first test of Starship’s ability to open and close its payload door in orbit; and the transfer of super-cooled rocket propellant from one tank to another during spaceflight.
What SpaceX failed to demonstrate on top of Starship’s re-entry failure and the skipped engine re-ignition test was an attempt to fly the Super Heavy rocket back to Earth, part of SpaceX’s routine strategy of recovering its launch boosters for re-use.
SpaceX officials have said they plan to conduct at least six more test flights of Starship this year, subject to regulatory approval.
The company is required to investigate each test mission failure and deliver its findings and corrective actions to the Federal Aviation Administration for the agency’s approval before the vehicle can fly again.

On the whole, Thursday’s test encompassed a fraction of the remaining demonstrations and missions the vehicle must get through before it is proven safe enough to fly people to space.

Still, Musk is counting on Starship to fulfill his goal of producing a large, multipurpose next-generation spacecraft capable of sending people and cargo to the moon later this decade, and ultimately flying to Mars.

Closer to home, Musk also sees Starship as eventually replacing the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as the workhorse in the company’s commercial launch business. It already lofts most of the world’s satellites and other payloads to low-Earth orbit.

NASA also has a lot riding on the success of Starship, which the agency is giving a central role in its Artemis program, successor to the Apollo missions that put astronauts on the moon for the first time more than 50 years ago.
While NASA executives have embraced Musk’s frequent flight-testing approach, agency officials in recent months have made clear their desire to see greater progress with Starship’s development as the United States races with China to the lunar surface.

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