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Russia conducted a massive strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure across the country on Wednesday, the local authorities have said, confirming damage to several facilities.
Moscow has yet no comment on the reported long-range attacks. Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in a Facebook post that Moscow attacked power generation and transmission facilities in Poltava, Kirovograd, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnitsa Regions, as well as the Kiev-controlled part of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region. The minister also urged people to save energy. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky confirmed the strikes, noting that the attack also took place in Kiev Region. He claimed that the barrage included more than 50 missiles and 20 drones targeting infrastructure, adding that emergency services were dealing with the aftermath on the ground. The Ukrainian Air Force claimed to have shot down 39 missiles and almost all of the drones. National power grid operator Ukrenergo said, “there has been damage to power-generating facilities,” adding that equipment at one site in the central region was affected. Calling the development “another extremely difficult night for the Ukrainian energy industry,” power grid operator DTEK said Russia attacked three of its thermal power plants, adding that “equipment has been seriously damaged.” Transport operator Ukrainian Railways reported an attack on the “civilian railway infrastructure” in the Kiev-controlled city of Kherson, which damaged the tracks and the station, causing traffic disruptions. Maksim Kozitsky, the head of the military administration of Lviv Region, said one of the attacks targeted a local underground natural gas storage and a thermal power plant. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said last week that the recurring Russian strikes have disrupted half of the country’s energy system. Moscow first began targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in autumn 2022, in response to what it called the terrorist bombing of the Crimean Bridge in October of that year. While Kiev initially denied responsibility, it later acknowledged its role in the attack, saying it was intended to undermine Russian logistics. Moscow insists that the strikes are only aimed at military targets and facilities that support their operations and never at the civilian population. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Kiev wants TikTok’s help to counter Moscow’s “dominance” on the social media platform, one of Ukraine’s top information warfare officials said on Tuesday.
Russians are advancing in cyberspace as well as on the battlefield, Andrey Kovalenko, the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) at the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, told the outlet. “Russia is dominating us on TikTok” due to the sheer scale of its effort, Kovalenko said. “We need to adjust our approach and consider focusing on this social network as well.” According to Kovalenko, the Russians are “working systematically,” creating fake accounts with Ukrainian SIM cards, and “gaming” TikTok algorithms to reach a wider audience in Ukraine. Meanwhile, there aren’t many Ukrainian creators on the platform, Kovalenko said. His own account, with 543,000 followers, features videos that “underscore Ukraine’s views on the war,” . Kovalenko has previously pushed back on demands by Ukrainian officials to ban Telegram, arguing this would be impossible and actually harm Kiev’s propaganda operations. He doesn’t favour banning TikTok either, but would prefer the company to open an office in Kiev to “help fight disinformation more effectively.” Ukraine has already forced TikTok owner ByteDance to ban 24 “pro-Russian” channels by complaining to its representatives in the EU, he added. Estimates indicate that only 25% of social media users in Ukraine have TikTok, while over 70% use Russian-made messaging app Telegram. By way of comparison, only 8% are on X (formerly Twitter). According to Kovalenko, the “disinformation” on the platform amounts to questioning President Vladimir Zelensky’s legitimacy. Videos by Russian “bots” are focusing on May 20, when Zelensky’s term is due to expire. Kiev has postponed all elections, citing martial law imposed due to the conflict with Russia. TikTok’s quarterly reports show that the company blocked 2 million videos in Ukraine during the last three months of 2023, suspected of being part of “covert influence operations” by artificially pushing either pro-Russian or pro-Ukrainian narratives. Kiev’s sudden interest in TikTok follows the passage of a bill in the US Congress that allocated some $61 billion in aid to Ukraine. Tucked into the bill was the requirement for ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company or be banned as a national security risk. ByteDance has said it will challenge the requirement in court. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Airports across the United Kingdom were struck with delays on Tuesday evening after a nationwide “technical issue“ made the UK Border Force electronic systems glitch for more than four hours.
The slowed service led to delays and long queues among arrivals in airports around the country. Footage circulating online showed the extensive queues that built up as services slowed to a crawl. Some customers complained that the unexpectedly long queues were straining infrastructure, reportedly leaving some customers without adequate water and toilet access. Others also showed blank screens at the eGates. Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh airports confirmed problems with the Border Force system, which resulted in the long delays with arriving travelers on Tuesday, the BBC wrote. The system network issue was detected at 7:44 on Tuesday evening, the Home Office said in a statement on Wednesday. “E-gates at UK airports came back online shortly after midnight,” they announced, adding that “at no point was border security compromised and there is no indication of malicious cyber activity.” But it still stays open what really happened. There are 3 options:
In the course of the day it will clear which of the 3 really happened. The effected airports didn't give any update so far. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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US plays down Rafah assault5/8/2024 The United States has played down the deadly Israeli assault on Rafah, saying the offensive appears to be “limited” despite concerns over the fate of the more than 1.5 million Palestinians sheltering in the southern Gaza city.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday that the US still opposes a major Israeli offensive against Rafah. Israel had stepped up its bombardment of Rafah on Monday, killing dozens of people after ordering about 100,000 residents in its eastern areas to evacuate. Israeli troops also stormed the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, which serves as a major gateway for humanitarian aid. “This military operation that they launched last night was targeted just to Rafah gate,” Miller said on Tuesday. “It wasn’t an operation in the civilian areas that they had ordered to be evacuated. So we will continue to make clear that we oppose a major military operation in Rafah.” Still, Miller acknowledged that the attack on the crossing “does look like the prelude” to a larger offensive. The Israeli attack closed the Rafah crossing, further straining the already inadequate flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Since October 9, Israel has intensified its existing blockade on the territory, bringing the Palestinian enclave to the verge of famine. The Rafah crossing also serves as an entry point for humanitarian workers going into Gaza, and critically sick and injured people use it to leave the territory and receive treatment abroad. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said 120 patients who were set to cross from Gaza to Egypt for treatment were prevented from leaving on Tuesday. Shutting down the crossing also has blocked medical supplies and fuel needed to operate the remaining medical centres in the territory, the ministry said. “The situation of patients in Gaza hospitals has been very difficult since the beginning of the war due to the loss of medical equipment and the total collapse of the health system,” the ministry said in a statement. “We have travel lists for sick and injured people in the thousands. And now they are prevented from leaving.” At the US State Department, Miller called for reopening the crossing, but he also appeared to justify the Israeli attack that closed it. “Hamas did control the Gaza side of Rafah crossing, and Hamas was continuing to collect revenue from that crossing being open,” he told reporters. “So it is a legitimate goal to try and deprive Hamas from revenue, money that they could use to continue to finance their terrorist activities. That said, we want to see the crossing open, and we’re gonna work to try to get it back open.” On Saturday, Israel also closed the Karem Abu Salem border crossing, also known as Kerem Shalom, barring aid trucks after Hamas launched a rocket attack on Israeli troops nearby, killing four soldiers. On Tuesday, Miller falsely said the crossing between Gaza and Israel was “bombed” by Hamas when the crossing itself was not targeted. When pressed about his assertion, Miller said: “You could make that argument it was that strike at Kerem Shalom that precipitated its closure.” “But that said, you should be very clear about what our position is: We want to see it open. We want to see it open as soon as possible. They said that they’ll open it tomorrow. We’re going to work to see that that happens.” The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Still kidnapped by Hamas5/8/2024 The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Does zero Exist?5/7/2024
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Uttar Pradesh resident Nikhil Yadav, 25, is unimpressed with the talk from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) about the government ushering in speedy economic growth. It has not brought him and his college mates the one thing they desire most – jobs.“ Only two out of around 150 of my batch mates have found employment. Out of that, one has been recruited as an Agni Veer, which means he will be out of a job after four years,” Yadav said, referring to a new government programme to promote nationalism and skill building through a tour of duty in the military. As voting began on Tuesday in the third out of seven phases in India’s ongoing national election, one burning question facing voters is whether the higher economic growth achieved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is translating into better livelihoods for young people. Over 40 per cent of India’s population is under the age of 25. That huge pool of young people should be a competitive advantage for India – the fastest growing major economy in the world – especially when compared to the rapidly ageing populations of many Western countries as well as Asian competitors like China and Japan. But across a number of interviews with residents of Uttar Pradesh – the state that accounts for the most seats in parliament’s lower house – This Week in Asia found that much of the public is worried about a lack of job opportunities and rising prices. While the government has undertaken a number of initiatives to speed up the country’s development – including the building of expressways, the launch of high speed trains and the introduction of fiscal incentives for manufacturing – industries in many outlying areas continue to lag, despite buzz about India becoming the next factory to the world after China. Uttar Pradesh has typically lagged its more prosperous counterparts such as Tamil Nadu in the south and Gujarat and Maharashtra in the west, but residents have seen major infrastructure improvements since the BJP came to power a decade ago, including a network of new highways and a steady electricity supply. Yet many said they still struggle to make ends meet due to a lack of high income job opportunities and higher living costs.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday that he would support an international Ukraine peace conference only if it’s recognized both by Moscow and Kiev with equal participation of all parties.
The upcoming Swiss-proposed talks are scheduled to take place on June 15-16 at the Burgenstock resort near Lucerne. More than 160 delegations from around the world have been invited to take part, including members of the G7, G20, BRICS, EU, and others. Russian diplomats are not among them. Xi, who met with with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, warned against smearing China over the Ukraine conflict, insisting that Beijing was playing a “positive role” in trying to find a peaceful solution. Xi told reporters during a joint news conference: “We [China] are opposed to using this crisis to place the responsibilities on a third country and tarnish its image and incite a new Cold War.” China has also long urged peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, and issued a 12-point peace plan to end the hostilities one year into the conflict, in February 2023. The initiative, which was hailed by Moscow, includes a call for a cessation of hostilities, a resumption of peace talks, abandoning the “Cold War mentality,” and respecting the sovereignty of all nations. “History has shown conflicts can only be resolved by negotiations,” the Chinese leader stressed on Monday, noting there should be equal participation of all parties and fair discussion of all peace plans. The Swiss Foreign Ministry said recently Bern was “convinced” that a peace process without Russia is “unthinkable,” but Moscow had not been invited “at this stage.” Moscow has previously called the proposed conference “pointless” and said it would not participate, even if invited. Ukraine has indicated that Russia would only be invited if it agreed to a litany of preconditions which Moscow has branded as “absurd.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called the upcoming event a “parody of negotiations” at which Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will be promoted. Lavrov also stated in an interview on Monday the ‘peace plan’ on which the summit will be centered contains “an openly illusory and Russophobic essence.” In contrast to Beijing’s proposal to end the fighting, Kiev’s ten-point peace formula – first presented by Zelensky in the autumn of 2022 – demands the complete and unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces from all territories Ukraine considers its own, for Moscow to pay reparations, and for a war crimes tribunal. Russia has rejected the proposals as “unrealistic” and a sign of Kiev’s unwillingness to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict. Moscow has repeatedly said it is willing to resolve the Ukraine conflict peacefully but will not accept a deal that ignores its national interests. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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The Israeli army has taken over the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing. According to an army statement, soldiers killed at least twenty Hamas members and destroyed tunnels in fighting. At least two Israeli soldiers have been killed.
Israel carried out heavy air strikes on Rafah last evening and night. At least twelve people were killed, according to Palestinian media. There are great international concerns about the more than a million citizens who have sought refuge in the southern city. Humanitarian aid access through the Rafah border crossing has been halted, several sources confirmed to the Reuters news agency. This concerns the border post between the southern city in Gaza and Egypt. The border crossing at Kerem Shalom, which is essential for the access of emergency aid, will also remain closed for the time being. Hamas had attacked it with rockets the day before yesterday. It is unclear whether the capture of the border crossing is the prelude to a larger ground offensive in Rafah. The Israeli army says it is operating "in several locations" in eastern Rafah. Israel yesterday ordered citizens to leave the eastern part of the city. According to the army, most people have now left, but this information cannot be verified. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been threatening for weeks that Israel will invade the city to defeat Hamas. In the background are the advanced talks about a ceasefire with Hamas. The militant movement yesterday agreed to a ceasefire proposal, but Israel has not yet. It is not uncommon for warring parties to launch last-minute attacks on each other in this phase of negotiations in the hope of obtaining as many concessions as possible from the opposing side. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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