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  • Soldiers, police search for missing plane carrying Malawi vice president

    Soldiers, police search for missing plane carrying Malawi vice president

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    BLANTYRE, Malawi — Soldiers, police officers and forest rangers continued to search Tuesday for a missing military plane carrying Malawi’s vice president, a former first lady and eight others that is suspected to have crashed in a mountainous region in the north of the country.

    The plane carrying 51-year-old Vice President Saulos Chilima and former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri went missing Monday morning while making the 45-minute flight from the southern African nation’s capital, Lilongwe, to the city of Mzuzu, around 370 kilometers (230 miles) to the north.

    Air traffic controllers told the plane not to attempt a landing at Mzuzu’s airport because of bad weather and poor visibility and asked it to turn back to Lilongwe, President Lazarus Chakwera said. Air traffic control then lost contact with the aircraft and it disappeared from radar, he said.

    Seven passengers and three military crew members were on board. The president described the aircraft as a small, propeller driven plane operated by the Malawian armed forces.

    Around 600 personnel were involved in the search in a vast forest plantation in the Viphya Mountains near Mzuzu, authorities said. They said 300 police officers had been mobilized to join soldiers and forest rangers in the search operation. Malawi Red Cross spokesperson Felix Washoni said his organization also had team members involved in the search and they were using a drone to help with efforts to find the plane.

    In a live television address to the nation late on Monday night, the president vowed that search operations would continue through the night and until the plane was found. He said authorities had used telecommunications towers to track the last known position of the plane to a 10-kilometer (6-mile) radius in one of the plantations. That area was the focus of the search and rescue operation, he said.

    “I have given strict orders that the operation should continue until the plane is found,” Chakwera said.

    “I know this is a heartbreaking situation. I know we are all frightened and concerned. I too am concerned,” he said. “But I want to assure you that I am sparing no available resource to find that plane. And I am holding onto every fiber of hope that we will find survivors.”

    Chakwera said the U.S., the U.K., Norway and Israel offered assistance in the search operation and had provided “specialized technologies” that the president hoped would help find the plane sooner.

    The U.S. Embassy in Malawi said it was assisting in the search operation and had offered the use of a Department of Defense small C-12 plane.

    Chakwera said Dzimbiri, the ex-wife of former President Bakili Muluzi, was also one of the passengers. The group was traveling to attend the funeral of a former government minister. Chilima had just returned from an official visit to South Korea on Sunday.

    Chakwera asked Malawians to pray for all those onboard and their families.

    Chilima has been vice president since 2020. He was a candidate in the 2019 Malawian presidential election and finished third, behind the incumbent, Peter Mutharika, and Chakwera. The vote was later annulled by Malawi’s Constitutional Court because of irregularities.

    Chilima then joined Chakwera’s campaign as his running mate in an historic election rerun in 2020, when Chakwera was elected president. It was the first time in Africa that an election result that was overturned by a court resulted in a defeat for the sitting president.

    Chilima had previously been facing corruption charges over allegations that he received money in return for influencing the awarding of government contracts, but prosecutors dropped the charges last month. He had denied the allegations, but the case led to criticism that Chakwera’s administration was not taking a hard enough stance against graft.

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    Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

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    AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • US lifts weapons ban on a high-profile Ukrainian military unit with a checkered past

    US lifts weapons ban on a high-profile Ukrainian military unit with a checkered past

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    KYIV, Ukraine — The U.S. has removed restrictions on the transfer of American weapons and training to a high-profile Ukrainian military unit with a checkered past, the State Department said on Tuesday.

    The move will help the Azov Brigade, among Ukraine’s most effective and popular fighting units, move beyond its reputation as a far-right movement, a perception its commanders have been trying to dispel as Russian propaganda.

    The State Department applied the Leahy vetting process to the Azov Brigade, which has been absorbed into Ukraine’s National Guard as the 12th Special Forces Brigade. U.S. laws prohibits providing providing equipment and training to foreign military unit or individuals suspected of committing gross human rights violations. The State Department found “no evidence of Gross Violations of Human Rights (GVHR) committed by the 12th Brigade Azov,” according to a statement.

    “This is a new page in our unit’s history,” the Azov Brigade wrote in a statement on Instagram. “Azov is becoming even more powerful, even more professional and even more dangerous for occupiers.”

    “Obtaining western weapons and training from the United States will not only increase the combat ability of Azov, but most importantly, contribute to the preservation of the lives and the health of personnel,” the statement said.

    Up until the State Department’s decision, a provision in the U.S. appropriations law prohibited the Azov from sending fighters to Western military exercises or access weapons bought with American funds. Lifting the ban will likely bolster the brigade’s fighting capacity at a difficult time during the war against Russia’s invasion. Ukraine suffers from persistent ammunition and personnel shortages.

    In the years since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the brigade has tried to recast its public image away from the controversy surrounding its ultranationalist origins to that of an effective and skillful fighting force.

    Azov soldiers played a key part in the defense of Mariupol, holding out in a siege and low on ammunition for weeks at the southern port city’s steel mill despite devastating attacks from Russian forces. In Ukraine they are hailed as heroes, remembered for defense of the sprawling plant that became a symbol of Ukrainian tenacity in the war against Russia, and people take to the streets for weekly rallies calling for the release of hundreds of Azov POWs who remain in Russian captivity for two years now.

    Moscow has repeatedly portrayed the Azov as a Nazi group and accused it of atrocities, but has publicly given no evidence. In 2022, Russia’s top court officially designated Azov a terrorist group.

    The brigade grew out of a group called the Azov Battalion, formed in 2014 as one of many volunteer brigades created to fight Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The battalion drew its initial fighters from far-right circles.

    While its current members reject accusations of extremism and any ties with far-right movements, the Kremlin has seized on the regiment’s origins to cast Russia’s invasion as a battle against Nazi influence in Ukraine.

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    Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • North Korea is sending more trash-carrying balloons to South Korea

    North Korea is sending more trash-carrying balloons to South Korea

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    North Korea launched more trash-carrying balloons toward the South after a similar campaign earlier in the week, according to South Korea’s military, in what Pyongyang calls retaliation for activists flying anti-North Korean leaflets across the border.

    South Korea’s Defense Ministry did not immediately comment on the number of balloons it had detected or how many have landed in South Korea. The military advised people to beware of falling objects and not to touch objects suspected to be from North Korea, but report them to military or police offices instead.

    In Seoul, the capital, the city government sent text alerts saying that unidentified objects suspected to be flown from North Korea were being detected in skies near the city and that the military was responding to them.

    The North’s balloon launches added to a recent series of provocative steps, which include its failed spy satellite launch and test-firings of about 10 suspected short-range missiles this week.

    South Korea’s military dispatched chemical rapid response and explosive clearance teams to recover the debris from some 260 North Korean balloons that were found in various parts of the country from Tuesday night to Wednesday. The military said the balloons carried various types of trash and manure but no dangerous substances like chemical, biological or radioactive materials.

    In a statement on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, confirmed that the North sent the balloons to make good on her country’s recent threat to “scatter mounds of wastepaper and filth” in South Korea in response to leafleting campaigns by South Korean activists.

    She hinted that balloons could become the North’s standard response to leafletting moving forward, saying that the North would respond by “scattering rubbish dozens of times more than those being scattered to us.”

    North Korea is extremely sensitive about any outside attempt to undermine Kim Jong Un’s absolute control over the country’s 26 million people, most of whom have little access to foreign news.

    In 2020, North Korea blew up an empty South Korean-built liaison office on its territory after a furious response to South Korean civilian leafleting campaigns. In 2014, North Korea fired at propaganda balloons flying toward its territory and South Korea returned fire, though there were no casualties.

    In 2022, North Korea even suggested that balloons flown from South Korea had caused a COVID-19 outbreak in the isolated nation, a highly questionable claim that appeared to be an attempt to blame the South for worsening inter-Korean relations.

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  • French authorities regain full control of New Caledonia’s capital after days of deadly unrest

    French authorities regain full control of New Caledonia’s capital after days of deadly unrest

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    French authorities in New Caledonia regained full control of their Pacific territory’s capital, the French interior and overseas minister said on Friday after two weeks of unrest that had left seven people dead and significant destruction in the archipelago that has seen decades of tensions between those seeking independence and those loyal to France.

    Gerald Darmanin said in a post on X Friday that “a major police operation has taken place successfully” in the Riviere-Salee district of Noumea, the last area of New Caledonia’s capital that was under the protesters’ control.

    Darmanin said 400 members of French and New Caledonia’s security forces were involved in the operation, including members of the French elite anti-terrorism and anti-organized crime police unit and its counterparts of the French military. Twelve people were arrested in the operation and 26 roadblocks were dismantled and cleared, the minister said.

    The violence flared on May 13 in response to attempts by French President Emmanuel Macron’s government to amend the French Constitution and change voting lists in New Caledonia. France declared a state of emergency in its Pacific territory on May 15 and rushed hundreds of troop reinforcements to help police quell the revolt that included shootings, clashes, looting and arson.

    Both sides of New Caledonia’s bitter divide — Indigenous Kanaks, who want independence and those loyal to France — erected barricades, either to revolt against authorities or to protect their homes and properties. Pro-independence protesters built up barricades of charred vehicles and other debris, turning parts of the capital, Noumea into no-go zones.

    French President Emmanuel Macron decided on Monday to lift the state of emergency in New Caledonia to help facilitate dialogue between local parties and French authorities for the future of the 270,000 residents of the archipelago and restore peace.

    Pro-independence parties and Kanak leaders have urged Macron to withdraw the electoral reform bill if France wants to “end the crisis.” Opponents fear the voting legislation will benefit pro-France politicians in New Caledonia and further marginalize the Indigenous Kanaks who have long pushed to be free of French rule amid sharp economic disparities and decades of discrimination.

    Although violence has subsided in the past days, tensions remain as pro-independence leaders have called on supporters to and “remain mobilized” and “maintain resistance” against France.

    While emergency measures have been lifted, an evening and overnight curfew is still in place. Travel is banned in New Caledonia between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. except for health emergencies, and a ban on public gatherings, transport and carrying of weapons and sale of alcohol remains in place.

    The main international airport, La Tontouta, will remain closed to commercial traffic at least until Monday, and schools will not resume before mid-June, according to local authorities.

    New Caledonia became French in 1853 under Emperor Napoleon III, Napoleon’s nephew and heir. It became an overseas territory after World War II, with French citizenship granted to all Kanaks in 1957.

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  • South Korea says North Korea has fired barrage of missiles toward its eastern waters

    South Korea says North Korea has fired barrage of missiles toward its eastern waters

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    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Thursday fired a barrage of suspected ballistic missiles toward its eastern sea, according to South Korea’s military, days after its attempt to launch a military reconnaissance satellite ended in failure but still drew strong condemnation from its rivals.

    South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the North firing around 10 projectiles that appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles from an area near its capital, Pyongyang. It said the suspected missiles flew around 350 kilometers (217 miles) before landing in waters off the North’s eastern coast. It said the South Korean military has increased surveillance and vigilance and is closely sharing information with the United States and Japan.

    Japan’s coast guard issued a maritime safety advisory over the North Korean launches and urged ships to exercise caution if they find any fallen objects. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that the suspected missiles were believed to have landed in waters outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone and there were no immediate reports of damages. He said Tokyo “strongly condemns” the launches, which are in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions against the North.

    Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have increased in recent months as the pace of both North Korea’s weapons testing and South Korea’s combined military exercises with the United States and Japan have intensified in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

    Thursday’s launches came after North Korea flew hundreds of trash-carrying balloons toward the South since Tuesday night in a retaliation against South Korean activists flying anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has also warned of unspecified “overwhelming actions” against South Korea after it staged an aerial exercise involving 20 fighter jets near the inter-Korean border hours before North Korea attempted to launch its second military reconnaissance satellite.

    The rocket exploded shortly after liftoff, but Kim has urged his military scientists to overcome the failure and continue developing space-based reconnaissance capabilities, which he described as crucial for monitoring U.S. and South Korean military activities and enhancing the threat of his nuclear-capable missiles. Also on Thursday, North Korea hit back at international condemnation of its failed satellite launch, which drew strong rebukes from the United Nations and other countries as it involves technologies used for developing intercontinental range ballistic missiles. The North had successfully launched its first military spy satellite in November, but Monday’s failure posed a possible setback to Kim’s plans to launch three more military spy satellites in 2024. “We will never tolerate any moves of the hostile forces to violate the inviolable sphere under the exercise of sovereignty nor step back from having access to the space reconnaissance capability which should be done surely no matter what others may say,” North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Son Gyong said in a statement published on state media.

    Kim Son Gyong’s statement came as response to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ condemnation of Monday’s launch, which he called a violation of Security Council resolutions that prohibit the North from conducting any launches involving ballistic missile technology.

    Thursday’s launches were the latest in a series of weapons tests by North Korea.

    On May 17, South Korea’s military said that North Korea fired suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast. North Korea later said it tested a tactical ballistic missile with a new autonomous navigation system.

    The North this year tested various cruise missiles and artillery systems and flight-tested what it described as a solid-fuel intermediate range missile with hypersonic warhead capabilities. Experts say it is designed to reach remote U.S. targets in the Pacific, including the military hub of Guam. — AP writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed from Tokyo.

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  • North Korean leader Kim doubles down on satellite ambitions following failed launch

    North Korean leader Kim doubles down on satellite ambitions following failed launch

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    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged his military scientists to overcome a failed satellite launch and continue developing space-based reconnaissance capabilities, which he described as crucial for countering U.S. and South Korean military activities, state media said Wednesday.

    In a speech Tuesday, Kim also warned of unspecified “stern” action against South Korea over an exercise involving 20 fighter jets near the inter-Korean border hours before North Korea’s failed launch on Monday. Kim called the South Korean response “hysterical insanity” and “a very dangerous provocation that cannot be ignored,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

    Kim visited the North’s Academy of Defense Sciences a day after a rocket carrying what would have been his country’s second military reconnaissance satellite exploded shortly after liftoff. North Korea’s aerospace technology administration said the explosion was possibly related to the reliability of a newly developed rocket engine that was fueled by liquid oxygen and petroleum.

    The failed launch was a setback to Kim’s plan to launch three more military spy satellites in 2024 after North Korea’s first military reconnaissance satellite was placed in orbit last November. The November launch followed two failed attempts.

    Monday’s launch drew criticism from South Korea, Japan and the United States, because the U.N. bans North Korea from conducting any such rocket launches, viewing them as covers for testing long-range missile technology.

    North Korea has steadfastly maintained it has the right to launch satellites and test missiles in the face of what it perceives as U.S.-led military threats. Kim has described spy satellites as crucial for monitoring U.S. and South Korean military activities and enhancing the threat posed by his nuclear-capable missiles.

    Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have increased in recent months as the pace of both Kim’s weapons demonstrations and the United States’ combined military exercises with South Korea and Japan have intensified in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

    “The acquisition of military reconnaissance satellites is an essential task for our country to further strengthen our self-defense deterrence … in the face of serious changes to our nation’s security environment caused by U.S. military maneuvers and various provocative acts,” Kim said.

    North Korea hasn’t commented on when it would be ready to attempt a satellite launch again, which some experts say could take months.

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    Follow AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

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  • Sunak’s plan to make 18-year-olds do national service grabs attention on UK election trail

    Sunak’s plan to make 18-year-olds do national service grabs attention on UK election trail

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    LONDON — All 18-year-olds in Britain will have to perform a year of mandatory military or civilian national service if the governing Conservative Party wins the July 4 national election, the party said Sunday.

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to bring back a form of national service for the first time in more than 60 years, seeking to energize his election campaign after a faltering start.

    The U.K. introduced military conscription for men and some women during World War II, and imposed 18 months of mandatory military service for men between 1947 and 1960. Since then Britain has had an all-volunteer military whose size has steadily shrunk.

    Under the plan, a small minority of 18-year-olds — 30,000 out of an estimated 700,000 — would spend 12 months in the military, working in areas such as logistics or cyber defense. The rest would spend one weekend a month working for charities, community groups, or organizations such as hospitals, the police and the fire service.

    Sunak said the program would help “create a shared sense of purpose among our young people and a renewed sense of pride in our country.”

    It remains unclear how it will be made compulsory. Home Secretary James Cleverly said no one would be forced to serve in the military.

    Cleverly said Sunday that the main goal of the new plan was not boosting the military but building “a society where people mix with people outside their own communities, mix with people from different backgrounds, different religions, different income levels.”

    The Conservatives estimated the cost of the national service plan at 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) a year. They said it would be paid for partly by taking 1.5 billion pounds ($1.9 billion) from the U.K. Shared Prosperity Fund, which was set up in 2022 to regenerate poor communities.

    Labour said the national service announcement was a “desperate 2.5 billion pound unfunded commitment” from a party “bankrupt of ideas.”

    Former Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the Tory plan amounted to “compulsory volunteering” and predicted “it’ll never happen.”

    Elections in the United Kingdom have to be held no more than five years apart. The prime minister can choose the timing within that period and Sunak, 44, had until December to name the date.

    He took most people – including those in his own party – by surprise when he announced on Wednesday that the election would be held on July 4. The Conservatives, who have been in office for 14 years, are trailing the opposition Labour Party led by Keir Starmer in opinion polls and are trying to overcome a widespread sense that voters want change.

    Sunak’s election announcement outside 10 Downing Street saw him drenched with rain and drowned out by protesters blasting a Labour campaign song. One of his first campaign stops was at the Belfast shipyard where the doomed ocean liner Titanic was built — another detail seized on gleefully by opponents.

    Voters will elect lawmakers to fill all 650 seats in the House of Commons. The leader of the party that can command a Commons majority – either alone or in coalition – will become prime minister.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    By Jill Lawless | Associated Press

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  • The US defense secretary will visit Cambodia, one of China’s closest allies, after regional talks

    The US defense secretary will visit Cambodia, one of China’s closest allies, after regional talks

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    PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is scheduled to make an official visit to Cambodia, one of China‘s closest allies in Southeast Asia, after holding talks with his Chinese counterpart at an annual security conference in Singapore, officials said.

    A U.S. Defense Department statement issued in Washington on Friday said Austin would travel next week to Singapore, Cambodia and France.

    He will visit Cambodia June 4 after attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Among the talks he is planning there is one with his Chinese counterpart Adm. Dong Jun, the Defense Department said. The encounter would be part of an effort to patch up ties that have deteriorated over Beijing’s aggressive policies toward Taiwan and its vast territorial claims in the South China Sea.

    U.S. relations with Cambodia have been frosty for years, in large part because of Phnom Penh’s close ties with China. Washington has also been vocal about what it sees as Cambodia’s poor human rights record, which has seen continuing clampdowns on political dissidents and critics.

    Cambodia is Beijing’s closest ally in Southeast Asia, and Washington is particularly concerned that a naval base in southern Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand has been upgraded with Chinese assistance to serve as a strategic outpost for China’s navy.

    Cambodian officials deny China will have any special basing privileges and say their country maintains a neutral defense posture.

    The Defense Department statement said that Austin will meet with senior officials in Cambodia on his first visit there since attending a gathering of Asian defense ministers in November 2022.

    “We are now working with the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh to arrange his meetings with the Cambodian leaders,” Cambodian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Chum Sounry said Saturday in response to a query from The Associated Press. “The visit will be another important step to advance the Cambodia-U.S. relations.”

    It will also be Austin’s first visit to Cambodia since Hun Manet became prime minister last year, succeeding his father Hun Sen, who held office for 38 years. The handover has led to speculation of a reset in U.S.-Cambodian relations, though so far Hun Manet has maintained his father’s policies.

    Hun Manet was Cambodia’s army commander before becoming prime minister last August. Both Austin and he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point — Austin in 1975 and Hun Manet in 1999, as Cambodia’s first cadet there.

    From Cambodia, Austin will go to France to attend events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the World War II D-Day landing, the Defense Department said.

    On Friday, Austin underwent a medical procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, resuming his duty after temporarily transferring power to his deputy, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.

    Austin is continuing to deal with bladder issues that arose in December following his treatment for prostate cancer, Ryder said.

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  • An Afghan military helicopter crash in western Afghanistan kills at least 1 person, the Taliban say

    An Afghan military helicopter crash in western Afghanistan kills at least 1 person, the Taliban say

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    ISLAMABAD — An Afghan military helicopter crashed on Wednesday in Ghor province in western Afghanistan, killing at least one person, the Taliban defense ministry said.

    The crash of the MI-17 was caused by a technical problem, according to a statement.

    The helicopter was on a rescue mission after a vehicle carrying civilians plunged into a river near the city of Feroz Koh, the provincial capital of Ghor, the ministry said in post on the social media platform X.

    Twelve passengers were injured in the crash, according to the statement. The crew tried to make an emergency landing but the helicopter hit a wall and crashed, it added.

    The statement did not identify the individual who was killed in the accident and it was not clear how many people were on board.

    Images posted on X show the crash site along a river, where dozens of people gathered to try to help the survivors.

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  • US aims to stay ahead of China in using AI to fly fighter jets, navigate without GPS and more

    US aims to stay ahead of China in using AI to fly fighter jets, navigate without GPS and more

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    WASHINGTON — Two Air Force fighter jets recently squared off in a dogfight in California. One was flown by a pilot. The other wasn’t.

    That second jet was piloted by artificial intelligence, with the Air Force’s highest-ranking civilian riding along in the front seat. It was the ultimate display of how far the Air Force has come in developing a technology with its roots in the 1950s. But it’s only a hint of the technology yet to come.

    The United States is competing to stay ahead of China on AI and its use in weapon systems. The focus on AI has generated public concern that future wars will be fought by machines that select and strike targets without direct human intervention. Officials say this will never happen, at least not on the U.S. side. But there are questions about what a potential adversary would allow, and the military sees no alternative but to get U.S. capabilities fielded fast.

    “Whether you want to call it a race or not, it certainly is,” said Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Both of us have recognized that this will be a very critical element of the future battlefield. China’s working on it as hard as we are.”

    A look at the history of military development of AI, what technologies are on the horizon and how they will be kept under control:

    AI’s roots in the military are actually a hybrid of machine learning and autonomy. Machine learning occurs when a computer analyzes data and rule sets to reach conclusions. Autonomy occurs when those conclusions are applied to take action without further human input.

    This took an early form in the 1960s and 1970s with the development of the Navy’s Aegis missile defense system. Aegis was trained through a series of human-programmed if/then rule sets to be able to detect and intercept incoming missiles autonomously, and more rapidly than a human could. But the Aegis system was not designed to learn from its decisions and its reactions were limited to the rule set it had.

    “If a system uses ‘if/then’ it is probably not machine learning, which is a field of AI that involves creating systems that learn from data,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Berardi, who is assigned to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to assist with the Air Force’s AI development.

    AI took a major step forward in 2012 when the combination of big data and advanced computing power enabled computers to begin analyzing the information and writing the rule sets themselves. It is what AI experts have called AI’s “big bang.”

    The new data created by a computer writing the rules is artificial intelligence. Systems can be programmed to act autonomously from the conclusions reached from machine-written rules, which is a form of AI-enabled autonomy.

    Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall got a taste of that advanced warfighting this month when he flew on Vista, the first F-16 fighter jet to be controlled by AI, in a dogfighting exercise over California’s Edwards Air Force Base.

    While that jet is the most visible sign of the AI work underway, there are hundreds of ongoing AI projects across the Pentagon.

    At MIT, service members worked to clear thousands of hours of recorded pilot conversations to create a data set from the flood of messages exchanged between crews and air operations centers during flights, so the AI could learn the difference between critical messages like a runway being closed and mundane cockpit chatter. The goal was to have the AI learn which messages are critical to elevate to ensure controllers see them faster.

    In another significant project, the military is working on an AI alternative to GPS satellite-dependent navigation.

    In a future war high-value GPS satellites would likely be hit or interfered with. The loss of GPS could blind U.S. communication, navigation and banking systems and make the U.S. military’s fleet of aircraft and warships less able to coordinate a response.

    So last year the Air Force flew an AI program — loaded onto a laptop that was strapped to the floor of a C-17 military cargo plane — to work on an alternative solution using the Earth’s magnetic fields.

    It has been known that aircraft could navigate by following the Earth’s magnetic fields, but so far that hasn’t been practical because each aircraft generates so much of its own electromagnetic noise that there has been no way good to filter for just the Earth’s emissions.

    “Magnetometers are very sensitive,” said Col. Garry Floyd, director for the Department of Air Force-MIT Artificial Intelligence Accelerator program. “If you turn on the strobe lights on a C-17 we would see it.”

    The AI learned through the flights and reams of data which signals to ignore and which to follow and the results “were very, very impressive,” Floyd said. “We’re talking tactical airdrop quality.”

    “We think we may have added an arrow to the quiver in the things we can do, should we end up operating in a GPS-denied environment. Which we will,” Floyd said.

    The AI so far has been tested only on the C-17. Other aircraft will also be tested, and if it works it could give the military another way to operate if GPS goes down.

    Vista, the AI-controlled F-16, has considerable safety rails as the Air Force trains it. There are mechanical limits that keep the still-learning AI from executing maneuvers that would put the plane in danger. There is a safety pilot, too, who can take over control from the AI with the push of a button.

    The algorithm cannot learn during a flight, so each time up it has only the data and rule sets it has created from previous flights. When a new flight is over, the algorithm is transferred back onto a simulator where it is fed new data gathered in-flight to learn from, create new rule sets and improve its performance.

    But the AI is learning fast. Because of the super computing speed AI uses to analyze data, and then flying those new rule sets in the simulator, its pace in finding the most efficient way to fly and maneuver has already led it to beat some human pilots in dogfighting exercises.

    But safety is still a critical concern, and officials said the most important way to take safety into account is to control what data is reinserted into the simulator for the AI to learn from. In the jet’s case, it’s making sure the data reflects safe flying. Ultimately the Air Force hopes that a version of the AI being developed can serve as the brain for a fleet of 1,000 unmanned warplanes under development by General Atomics and Anduril.

    In the experiment training AI on how pilots communicate, the service members assigned to MIT cleaned up the recordings to remove classified information and the pilots’ sometimes salty language.

    Learning how pilots communicate is “a reflection of command and control, of how pilots think. The machines need to understand that too if they’re going to get really, really good,” said Grady, the Joint Chiefs vice chairman. “They don’t need to learn how to cuss.”

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  • Israel orders new evacuations in Rafah as it expands military offensive

    Israel orders new evacuations in Rafah as it expands military offensive

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    RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israel ordered new evacuations in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah on Saturday, forcing tens of thousands more people to leave as it prepared to expand its military operation deeper into what is considered Gaza’s last refuge, in defiance of growing pressure from close ally the United States and others.

    As pro-Palestinian protests continued against the war, Israel’s military also said it was moving into an area of devastated northern Gaza where it asserted that the Hamas militant group has regrouped after seven months of fighting.

    Israel has now evacuated the eastern third of Rafah, and top military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said dozens of militants had been killed there as “targeted operations continued.” The United Nations has warned that the planned full-scale Rafah invasion would further cripple humanitarian operations and cause a surge in civilian deaths.

    Rafah borders Egypt near the main aid entry points, which already are affected. Israeli troops have captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, forcing it to shut down. Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel on the delivery of aid though the crossing because of “the unacceptable Israeli escalation,” the state-owned Al Qahera News television channel reported, citing an unnamed official.

    U.S. President Joe Biden has said he won’t provide offensive weapons to Israel for Rafah. On Friday, his administration said there was “reasonable” evidence that Israel had breached international law protecting civilians — Washington’s strongest statement yet on the matter.

    In response, Ophir Falk, foreign policy adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told The Associated Press that Israel acts in compliance with the laws of armed conflict and the army takes extensive measures to avert civilian casualties, including alerting people to military operations via phone calls and text messages.

    More than 1.4 million Palestinians — half of Gaza’s population — have been sheltering in Rafah, most after fleeing Israel’s offensives elsewhere. The latest evacuations are forcing some to return north, where areas are devastated from previous attacks. Aid agencies estimate that 110,000 had left before Saturday’s order that adds 40,000.

    “Do we wait until we all die on top of each other? So we’ve decided to leave,” Rafah resident Hanan al-Satari said as people rushed to load mattresses, water tanks and other belongings onto vehicles.

    “The Israeli army does not have a safe area in Gaza. They target everything,” said Abu Yusuf al-Deiri, displaced earlier from Gaza City.

    Many people have been displaced multiple times. There are few places left to go. Some Palestinians are being sent to what Israel has called humanitarian safe zones along the Muwasi coastal strip, which is already packed with about 450,000 people in squalid conditions.

    Georgios Petropoulos, with the U.N. humanitarian agency in Rafah, said that aid workers had no supplies to help people set up in new locations.

    “We simply have no tents, we have no blankets, no bedding,” he said.

    The World Food Program had said it would run out of food to distribute in southern Gaza by Saturday, Petropoulos said — a further challenge as parts of Gaza face what the WFP chief has called “full-blown famine.” Aid groups have said that fuel will be depleted soon, forcing hospitals to shut down critical operations.

    Heavy fighting was also underway in northern Gaza, where Hagari said that the air force was carrying out airstrikes. Palestinians in Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and surrounding areas were told to leave for shelters in the west of Gaza City, warned that Israel would strike with “great force.”

    Northern Gaza was the first target of Israel’s ground offensive launched after Hamas and other militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250 hostage. They still hold about 100 captives and the remains of more than 30. Hamas on Saturday said that hostage Nadav Popplewell had died after being wounded in an Israeli airstrike a month ago, but provided no evidence.

    Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives have killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties, accusing it of embedding in densely populated residential areas.

    Civil authorities in Gaza gave more details of mass graves that the Health Ministry announced earlier at Shifa hospital, the largest in northern Gaza and the target of an earlier Israeli offensive. Authorities said most of the 80 bodies were patients who died from lack of care. The Israeli army said “any attempt to blame Israel for burying civilians in mass graves is categorically false.”

    At least 19 people, including eight women and eight children, were killed overnight in central Gaza in strikes that hit Zawaida, Maghazi and Deir al-Balah, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and an AP journalist who counted the bodies.

    “Children, what is the fault of the children who died?” one relative said. A woman stroked the face of one of the children lying on the ground.

    Another round of cease-fire talks in Cairo ended earlier this week without a breakthrough, after Israel rejected a deal that Hamas said it accepted.

    Tens of thousands of people attended the latest anti-government protest in Israel on Saturday evening amid growing pressure on Netanyahu to make a deal.

    “I think the (Rafah) operation is not meant for the hostages and not meant for killing the Hamas, it’s meant for just for one thing, save the government,” protester Kobi Itzhaki said.

    ___

    Sam Mednick reported from Tel Aviv and Samy Magdy from Cairo. Jack Jeffery contributed to this story from Jerusalem.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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  • WWII soldiers posthumously receive Purple Heart medals 79 years after fatal plane crash

    WWII soldiers posthumously receive Purple Heart medals 79 years after fatal plane crash

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    PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — The families of five Hawaii men who served in a unit of Japanese-language linguists during World War II received posthumous Purple Heart medals on behalf of their loved ones on Friday, nearly eight decades after the soldiers died in a plane crash in the final days of the conflict.

    “I don’t have words. I’m just overwhelmed,” Wilfred Ikemoto said as he choked up while speaking of the belated honor given to his older brother Haruyuki.

    The older Ikemoto was among 31 men killed when their C-46 transport plane hit a cliff while attempting to land in Okinawa, Japan, on Aug. 13, 1945.

    “I’m just happy that he got recognized,” Ikemoto said.

    Army records indicate only two of the 31 ever received Purple Heart medals, which the military awards to those wounded or killed during action against an enemy.

    Researchers in Hawaii and Minnesota recently discovered the omission, leading the Army to agree to issue medals to families of the 29 men who were never recognized. Researchers located families of the five from Hawaii, and now the Army is asking family members of the other 24 men to contact them so their loved ones can finally receive recognition.

    The older Ikemoto was the fourth of 10 children and the first in his family to attend college when he enrolled at the University of Hawaii. He was a photographer and developed film in a makeshift darkroom in a bedroom at home.

    “I remember him as probably the smartest and most talented in our family,” said Wilfred Ikemoto, who was 10 years old when his brother died.

    On board the plane were 12 paratroopers with the 11th Airborne Division, five soldiers in a Counter-intelligence Detachment assigned to the paratroopers, 10 Japanese American linguists in the Military Intelligence Service and four crew members.

    They had all flown up from the Philippines to spearhead the occupation of Japan after Tokyo’s surrender, said Daniel Matthews, who looked into the ill-fated flight while researching his father’s postwar service in the 11th Airborne.

    Matthews attributed the Army’s failure to recognize all 31 soldiers with medals to administrative oversight in the waning hours of the war. The U.S. had been preparing to invade Japan’s main islands, but it formulated alternative plans after receiving indications Japan was getting ready to surrender. Complicating matters further, there were four different units on the plane.

    Wilfred Motokane Jr. said he had mixed feelings after he accepted his father’s medal.

    “I’m very happy that we’re finally recognizing some people,” he said. “I think it took a long time for it to happen. That’s the one part that I don’t feel that good about, if you will.”

    The Hawaii five were all part of the Military Intelligence Service or MIS, a U.S. Army unit made up of mostly Japanese Americans who interrogated prisoners, translated intercepted messages and traveled behind enemy lines to gather intelligence.

    They five had been inducted in January 1944 after the MIS, desperate to get more recruits, sent a team to Hawaii to find more linguists, historian Mark Matsunaga said.

    Altogether some 6,000 served with the Military Intelligence Service. But much of their work has remained relatively unknown because it was classified until the 1970s.

    During the U.S. occupation of Japan, they served crucial roles as liaisons between American and Japanese officials and overseeing regional governments.

    Retired Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, who recently stepped down as head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, presented the medals to the families during the ceremony on the banks of Pearl Harbor. Nakasone’s Hawaii-born father served in the MIS after the war, giving him a personal connection to the event.

    “What these Military Intelligence Service soldiers brought to the occupation of Japan was an understanding of culture that could take what was the vanquished to work with the victor,” Nakasone said. “I’m very proud of all the MIS soldiers not only during combat, but also during the occupation.”

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  • Ukraine says Russia is trying to break through its defenses in the northeastern Kharkiv region

    Ukraine says Russia is trying to break through its defenses in the northeastern Kharkiv region

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine rushed reinforcements to its northeastern Kharkiv region on Friday to hold off a Russian attempt to breach local defenses, authorities said, signaling a tactical switch in the war by Moscow that Ukrainian officials had been expecting for weeks.

    Kharkiv’s regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said intense overnight shelling targeted Vovchansk, a city with a prewar population of about 20,000 that is less than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Russian border. The barrage, which used powerful guided aerial bombs, artillery, rockets, tanks and mortars, killed at least one civilian and wounded five others, prompting authorities to begin evacuating about 3,000 people.

    Then, around dawn, Russian infantry tried to penetrate Ukrainian defenses near Vovchansk, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said, adding that it had deployed reserve units to fend off the attack.

    Russian military bloggers said the assault could mark the start of a Russian attempt to carve out a “buffer zone” that President Vladimir Putin vowed to create earlier this year to halt frequent Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod and other Russian border regions.

    By mid-afternoon, Ukrainian troops were still holding firm against the assault, Syniehubov said.

    “Active combat is ongoing in the settlements located 1-2 kilometers (miles) away from border with Russia,” he told Ukrainian television.

    Ukraine previously said it was aware that Russia was assembling thousands of troops along the northeastern border, close to the Kharkiv and Sumy regions. Although Russia’s most recent ground offensive had been focused on parts of eastern Ukraine farther south, Ukrainian intelligence officials said they had expected an attack in the northeast, too. The Kremlin’s forces stepped up their bombardment of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in late March.

    President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s military had anticipated this latest attack and had calibrated its response.

    “Now there is a fierce battle in this direction,” Zelenskyy was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne.

    Though Russia likely couldn’t capture Kharkiv without a massive buildup of troops and armor, it could compel Ukraine to send more troops to the region, leaving other areas of the country more vulnerable. Forcing Ukrainian authorities to evacuate civilians will also likely cause disruptions and divert resources.

    The Russian military could also try to cut key supply routes in the area and try to blockade Kharkiv, which is home to roughly 1.1 million people and is only about 30 kilometers (about 20 miles) south of the border.

    The Kremlin’s forces are seeking to exploit Ukraine’s shortages of ammunition and manpower after the flow of Western military aid to Kyiv tapered off in recent months and before promised new support arrives. In a post on X Friday, Zelenskyy said: “Not all of our partners are currently fulfilling the agreements in a timely manner,” though he didn’t specify which.

    The Ukrainian army is on the defensive along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and is scrambling to build fortified defensive lines ahead of what officials believe will be a bigger Russian offensive. Ukraine’s forces are outnumbered in infantry, armor and ammunition.

    In the opening days of the war, Russia made a botched attempt to quickly storm Kharkiv but retreated from its outskirts a month later. Seven months after that, Ukraine’s army pushed the Kremlin’s forces out of Kharkiv in the fall of 2022. The bold counterattack helped persuade Western countries that Ukraine could defeat Russia on the battlefield and merited military support.

    In Vovchansk, local officials said the Russian assault had damaged numerous buildings.

    “The entire town is under massive shelling now. It is not safe to stay here,” Vovchansk administration head Tamaz Hambarishvili told Ukraine’s Hromadske Radio.

    The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said fighting against Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups had continued into the afternoon.

    Meanwhile, Russian officials said a Ukrainian long-range drone struck an oil refinery inside Russia on Friday. The drone hit a refinery near the city of Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, setting four oil storage tanks ablaze, according to Vladislav Shapsha, the regional governor. He said there were no casualties.

    The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses downed seven Ukrainian drones early Friday in the Moscow, Bryansk and Belgorod regions.

    The attack Friday came a day after one on a petrochemical facility in what appears to have been Ukraine’s deepest strike into Russia. A senior official in Russia’s Bashkortostan region, about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the Ukrainian border, said Thursday’s drone strike in the city of Salavat caused a fire at the petrochemical facility.

    The Russian Emergencies Ministry said that a pumping station building on refinery land was damaged, but there was no fire. Ukrainian military intelligence refused to comment.

    Ukraine has repeatedly targeted refineries, hoping to disrupt the Kremlin’s war machine. Russia is one of the world’s biggest oil producers.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Mixing games and education, Prince Harry and Meghan arrive in Nigeria to promote mental health

    Mixing games and education, Prince Harry and Meghan arrive in Nigeria to promote mental health

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    ABUJA, Nigeria — ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, arrived in Nigeria amid pomp and dancing on Friday to champion mental health for young people affected by conflicts and to promote the Invictus Games, which the prince founded to aid the rehabilitation of wounded and sick servicemembers and veterans.

    The couple, in the West African nation for the first time on the invitation of its military, began their three-day visit by going to the Lightway Academy school which receives support from their Archewell foundation to train young girls affected by conflicts in Nigeria, before going on to meet with the nation’s military officers.

    Harry and Meghan will also be meeting with wounded soldiers and their families in what Nigerian officials have said is a show of support to improve the morale of the soldiers, including those fighting a 14-year war against Islamic extremists in the country’s northeast.

    Harry served in Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter copilot gunner, after which he founded the Invictus Games in 2014 to offer wounded veterans and servicemembers the challenge of competing in sports events similar to the Paralympics. Nigeria was among the nations that participated in last year’s edition of the games.

    At the Abuja school where they kicked off an inaugural mental health summit organized by local non-profit GEANCO, which partners with their foundation, the couple were received by a dancing troupe and a crowd of excited students and teachers.

    “We’ve got to acknowledge those amazing dance moves!” Meghan said. “My husband was excited to jump up!”

    They then went into the classrooms to interact with the children, who showed robot cars they had built.

    They spoke to the students about mental health, and about their own children, Archie and Lilibet.

    “In some cases around the world … there is a stigma when it comes to mental health. Too many people don’t want to talk about it,” Harry said. “So will you promise to us that after today, no more being scared, no more being unsure of mental health?”

    Meghan praised her husband’s openness.

    “You see why I’m married to him?” she said of Harry amid cheers, before urging the schoolchildren to never be ashamed of their experiences in life. “It is a complete honor to have our first visit to Nigeria; be here with all of you. We believe in you. We believe in your future,” she said.

    Student Nnenna Okorie couldn’t hide her excitement at meeting the couple. “She is the prettiest human being ever,” said Okorie, a senior student at the school. “I admire her so much and then Harry. I love how he is so supportive,” she said.

    The couple then went to Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters where they were received by servicemen and their wives before going into a private meeting with Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, Gen. Christopher Musa.

    During their stay, Harry and Meghan will also attend basketball and volleyball matches in Abuja and Lagos. Meghan will co-host an event on women in leadership with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organization, according to the couple’s spokesperson, Charlie Gipson.

    The news of Meghan’s visit excited some in Nigeria where her life — and association with the British royal family — is closely followed. Meghan has also said in the past that she found out through a genealogy test that she was 43% Nigerian.

    The Nigerian military has touted the Invictus Games as one which could help the recovery of thousands of its personnel who have been fighting the homegrown Boko Haram Islamic extremists and their factions since 2009 when they launched an insurgency.

    “Eighty percent of our soldiers that have been involved in this recovery program are getting better (and) their outlook to life is positive,” Marquis, the military’s sports director, said.

    “The recovery program has given them an opportunity to improve their personal self-esteem, to improve their mental health and emotional intelligence.”

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  • Prince Harry, Meghan arrive in Nigeria to champion the Invictus Games

    Prince Harry, Meghan arrive in Nigeria to champion the Invictus Games

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    ABUJA, Nigeria — ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, arrived in Nigeria on Friday to champion the Invictus Games, which he founded to aid the rehabilitation of wounded and sick servicemembers and veterans, among them Nigerian soldiers fighting a 14-year war against Islamic extremists.

    The couple, visiting the West African nation for the first time on the invitation of its military, arrived in the capital, Abuja, early in the morning, according to defense spokesman Brig. Gen. Tukur Gusau.

    Harry and Meghan will be meeting with wounded soldiers and their families in what Nigerian officials have said is a show of support to improve the soldiers’ morale and wellbeing.

    “This engagement with Invictus is giving us the opportunity for the recovery of our soldiers,” Abidemi Marquis, the director of sports at Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters, told reporters on Thursday.

    Harry served in Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter copilot gunner, after which he founded the Invictus Games in 2014 to offer wounded veterans and servicemembers the challenge of competing in sports events similar to the Paralympics. Nigeria was among the nations that participated in last year’s edition of the games.

    During their stay, they will attend basketball and volleyball matches and will meet with local non-governmental organizations in Abuja and Lagos that are receiving support from them. Meghan will also co-host an event on women in leadership with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organization, according to their spokesman Charlie Gipson.

    The news of Meghan’s visit excited some in Nigeria where her life — and association with the British royal family — is closely followed.

    The Nigerian military has touted the Invictus Games as one which could help the recovery of thousands of its personnel who have been fighting the homegrown Boko Haram Islamic extremists and their factions since 2009 when they launched an insurgency.

    “Eighty percent of our soldiers that have been involved in this recovery program are getting better (and) their outlook to life is positive,” Marquis, the military’s sports director, said.

    “The recovery program has given them an opportunity to improve their personal self-esteem, to improve their mental health and emotional intelligence.”

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  • Chad’s military ruler declared winner of presidential election, while opposition disputes the result

    Chad’s military ruler declared winner of presidential election, while opposition disputes the result

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    N’DJAMENA, Chad — Chad’s military leader, Mahamat Deby Itno, was declared the winner of this week’s presidential election, according to provisional results released Thursday. The results were contested by his main rival, Prime Minister Succès Masra.

    The national agency that manages Chad’s election released results of Monday’s vote weeks earlier than planned. The figures showed Deby Itno won with just over 61% of the vote, with the runner-up Masra falling far behind with over 18.5% of the vote. Gunfire erupted in the capital following the announcement.

    Preliminary results were initially expected on May 21.

    Chad held its long delayed presidential election following three years of military rule, a vote that analysts widely expected the incumbent to win. Deby Itno, also known as Mahamat Idriss Deby, seized power after his father, who spent three decades in power, was killed fighting rebels in 2021.

    The oil-exporting country of nearly 18 million people hasn’t had a free-and-fair transfer of power since it became independent in 1960 after decades of French colonial rule.

    Hours ahead of Thursday’s announcement, Masra published a speech on Facebook accusing the authorities of planning to manipulate the outcome.

    During the 11 minute speech, Masra appeared in a blue suit at a podium with the national flag in the background and claimed victory, saying the incumbent was planning to reverse the outcome of the vote. He called on Chad’s military, police and other security forces to stop following Deby Itno’s orders.

    “These orders will lead you to side with the wrong side of Chad’s history, these orders will lead you to fight your brothers and sisters, these orders will lead you to commit the irreparable and unforgivable,” he said in the speech. “Refuse to obey these unjust orders!”

    There was no immediate response from the president’s office.

    Masra, president of The Transformers opposition party, fled Chad in October 2022. The country’s military government at the time suspended his party and six others in a clampdown on protests against Deby Itno’s decision to extend his time in power by two more years. More than 60 people were killed in the protests, which the government condemned as “an attempted coup.”

    An agreement between the country’s minister of reconciliation and Masra’s political party late last year allowed the exiled politician and other opposition figures to return to Chad. He was later appointed prime minister.

    Chad is seen by the U.S. and France as one of the last remaining stable allies in the vast Sahel region following military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in recent years. The ruling juntas in all three nations have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance instead.

    ____

    Follow AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list

    Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list

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    Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.

    As of Saturday afternoon, both Zelenskyy and his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, featured on the ministry’s list of people wanted on unspecified criminal charges. The commander of Ukraine‘s ground forces, Gen. Oleksandr Pavlyuk, was also on the list.

    Russian officials did not immediately clarify the allegations against any of the men. Mediazona, an independent Russian news outlet, claimed Saturday that both Zelenskyy and Poroshenko had been listed since at least late February.

    In an online statement published that same day, Ukraine’s foreign ministry dismissed the reports of Zelenskyy’s inclusion as evidence of “the desperation of the Russian state machine and propaganda.”

    Russia’s wanted list also includes scores of officials and lawmakers from Ukraine and NATO countries. Among them is Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of NATO and EU member Estonia, who has fiercely advocated for increased military aid to Kyiv and stronger sanctions against Moscow.

    Russian officials in February said that Kallas is wanted because of Tallinn’s efforts to remove Soviet-era monuments to Red Army soldiers in the Baltic nation, in a belated purge of what many consider symbols of past oppression.

    Fellow NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have also pulled down monuments that are widely seen as an unwanted legacy of the Soviet occupation of those countries.

    Russia has laws criminalizing the “rehabilitation of Nazism” that include punishing the “desecration” of war memorials.

    Also on Russia’s list are cabinet ministers from Estonia and Lithuania, as well as the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor who last year prepared a warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges. Moscow has also charged the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, with what it deems “terrorist” activities, including Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian infrastructure.

    The Kremlin has repeatedly sought to link Ukraine’s leaders to Nazism, even though the country has a democratically elected Jewish president who lost relatives in the Holocaust, and despite the aim of many Ukrainians to strengthen the country’s democracy, reduce corruption and move closer to the West.

    Moscow named “de-Nazification, de-militarization and a neutral status” of Ukraine as the key goals of what it insists on calling a “special military operation” against its southern neighbor. The claim of “de-Nazification” refers to Russia’s false assertions that Ukraine’s government is heavily influenced by radical nationalist and neo-Nazi groups – an allegation derided by Kyiv and its Western allies.

    The Holocaust, World War II and Nazism have been important tools for Putin in his bid to legitimize Russia’s war in Ukraine. World War II, in which the Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people, is a linchpin of Russia’s national identity, and officials bristle at any questioning of the USSR’s role.

    Some historians say this has been coupled with an attempt by Russia to retool certain historical truths from the war. They say Russia has tried to magnify the Soviet role in defeating the Nazis while playing down any collaboration by Soviet citizens in the persecution of Jews, along with allegations of crimes by Red Army soldiers against civilians in Eastern Europe.

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  • An AI-controlled fighter jet took the Air Force leader for a historic ride. What that means for war

    An AI-controlled fighter jet took the Air Force leader for a historic ride. What that means for war

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    EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of U.S. airpower. But the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence, not a human pilot. And riding in the front seat was Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.

    AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning for an AI-enabled fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned warplanes, the first of them operating by 2028.

    It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances. Inside classified simulators and buildings with layers of shielding against surveillance, a new test-pilot generation is training AI agents to fly in war. Kendall traveled here to see AI fly in real time and make a public statement of confidence in its future role in air combat.

    “It’s a security risk not to have it. At this point, we have to have it,” Kendall said in an interview with The Associated Press after he landed. The AP, along with NBC, was granted permission to witness the secret flight on the condition that it would not be reported until it was complete because of operational security concerns.

    The AI-controlled F-16, called Vista, flew Kendall in lightning-fast maneuvers at more than 550 miles an hour that put pressure on his body at five times the force of gravity. It went nearly nose to nose with a second human-piloted F-16 as both aircraft raced within 1,000 feet of each other, twisting and looping to try force their opponent into vulnerable positions.

    At the end of the hourlong flight, Kendall climbed out of the cockpit grinning. He said he’d seen enough during his flight that he’d trust this still-learning AI with the ability to decide whether or not to launch weapons in war.

    There’s a lot of opposition to that idea. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are deeply concerned that AI one day might be able to autonomously drop bombs that kill people without further human consultation, and they are seeking greater restrictions on its use.

    “There are widespread and serious concerns about ceding life-and-death decisions to sensors and software,” the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned. Autonomous weapons “are an immediate cause of concern and demand an urgent, international political response.”

    Kendall said there will always be human oversight in the system when weapons are used.

    The military’s shift to AI-enabled planes is driven by security, cost and strategic capability. If the U.S. and China should end up in conflict, for example, today’s Air Force fleet of expensive, manned fighters will be vulnerable because of gains on both sides in electronic warfare, space and air defense systems. China’s air force is on pace to outnumber the U.S. and it is also amassing a fleet of flying unmanned weapons.

    Future war scenarios envision swarms of American unmanned aircraft providing an advance attack on enemy defenses to give the U.S. the ability to penetrate an airspace without high risk to pilot lives. But the shift is also driven by money. The Air Force is still hampered by production delays and cost overruns in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which will cost an estimated of $1.7 trillion.

    Smaller and cheaper AI-controlled unmanned jets are the way ahead, Kendall said.

    Vista’s military operators say no other country in the world has an AI jet like it, where the software first learns on millions of data points in a simulator, then tests its conclusions during actual flights. That real-world performance data is then put back into the simulator where the AI then processes it to learn more.

    China has AI, but there’s no indication it has found a way to run tests outside a simulator. And, like a junior officer first learning tactics, some lessons can only be learned in the air, Vista’s test pilots said.

    Until you actually fly, “it’s all guesswork,” chief test pilot Bill Gray said. “And the longer it takes you to figure that out, the longer it takes before you have useful systems.”

    Vista flew its first AI-controlled dogfight in September 2023, and there have only been about two dozen similar flights since. But the programs are learning so quickly from each engagement that some AI versions getting tested on Vista are already beating human pilots in air-to-air combat.

    The pilots at this base are aware that in some respects, they may be training their replacements or shaping a future construct where fewer of them are needed.

    But they also say they would not want to be up in the sky against an adversary that has AI-controlled aircraft if the U.S. does not also have its own fleet.

    “We have to keep running. And we have to run fast,” Kendall said.

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  • Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s Odesa for the third time in a week, injuring 14

    Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s Odesa for the third time in a week, injuring 14

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    KYIV, Ukraine — The situation on the front line in eastern Ukraine is worsening but local defenders are so far holding firm against a concerted push by Russia’s bigger and better-equipped forces, a senior Ukrainian military official said Thursday.

    Nazar Voloshyn, spokesperson for Ukrainian strategic command in the east of the country, said Russia has amassed troops in the Donetsk region in an effort to punch through the Ukrainian defensive line.

    “The enemy is actively attacking along the entire front line, and in several directions they have achieved certain tactical advances,” he said on national television. “The situation is changing dynamically.”

    Russia has pushed Ukraine onto the back foot on the battlefield as Kyiv grapples with shortages of troops and ammunition. Ukrainian forces are now racing to build more defensive fortifications at places along the around 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.

    Ukraine’s difficulties have been deepening for months as the military waited for vital new military aid from the United States. The support was held up in Washington for six months.

    Ukrainian soldiers withdrew from Avdiivka, a city in the Donetsk region, in February under a withering Russian barrage that had sapped their fighting strength and morale. Since then, the Kremlin’s forces have used their military might to take village after village in the area, bludgeoning them into submission, as they look to capture the parts of Donetsk they don’t already occupy.

    In France, President Emmanuel Macron reiterated in an interview published Thursday that he doesn’t exclude sending troops to Ukraine.

    ‘’I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out,’’ he told the Economist, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. ″If the Russians penetrate the front lines, if there is a Ukrainian request — which is not the case today — we should legitimately ask ourselves the question″ of sending troops, Macron was quoted as saying.

    Macron drew criticism from Russia and Western allies when he first floated the possibility earlier this year. “If Russia wins in Ukraine we will no longer have security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia would stop there?’’ he said in the interview.

    Cities in Russia’s crosshairs, including recent target Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine, are pulverized by Moscow’s missiles, drones and glide bombs.

    The Donetsk and Luhansk provinces together make up the Donbas, an expansive industrial region bordering Russia that President Vladimir Putin identified as a focus from the war’s outset and where Moscow-backed separatists have fought since 2014.

    Also, Russia launched its third attack in a week on Odesa, firing ballistic missiles at the southern Ukrainian port city and injuring 14 people, local officials and emergency services said.

    The attack hit a sorting depot belonging to Ukraine’s biggest private delivery company, Nova Poshta. No staff were injured, the company said, but the strike started a major fire.

    On Monday, six people were killed in a Russian missile strike on Odesa, and two days later three people died there when the Kremlin’s forces targeted civilian infrastructure.

    Long-range strikes have been a feature of Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, which mostly has focused on attrition. Kyiv officials have pleaded for more air defense systems from Ukraine’s Western partners, but they have been slow in coming.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russia had launched more than 300 missiles of various types, almost 300 Shahed-drones, and more than 3,200 guided aerial bombs at Ukraine in April alone.

    Odesa, a key export hub for millions of tons of Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea, has been repeatedly targeted by Russia. Thursday was the 10th anniversary of clashes in the city between pro- and anti-Russia demonstrators that left 48 people dead.

    Ukraine has deployed increasingly sophisticated long-range drones to hit back, aiming at targets on Russian soil, especially infrastructure that sustains the Russian economy and war effort.

    The governors of three Russian regions reported that energy facilities were damaged by Ukrainian drone strikes overnight. Oryol region Gov. Andrei Klychkov said energy infrastructure was hit in two communities. The Smolensk and Kursk governors reported one facility damaged in each region.

    The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Bryansk, Krasnodar, Rostov and Belgorod regions. Most were intercepted in Bryansk, where five were brought down, it said.

    In other developments, Zelenskyy confirmed that a peace summit for Ukraine will take place at the lakeside Bürgenstock resort near Lucerne, Switzerland on June 15 and 16.

    Zelenskyy said he expected that heads of states and governments from all continents would attend the meeting “to discuss ways to achieving comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine in accordance with the U.N. Charter and international law.”

    The Swiss Foreign Ministry said more than 160 delegations are expected, including international bodies, but Russia has not so far been invited.

    Switzerland is open to inviting Russia, and is convinced that Russia must be involved, it said, but noted that the Kremlin has repeatedly said that it has no interest in participating.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Likely attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targets a vessel in the Red Sea

    Likely attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targets a vessel in the Red Sea

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    JERUSALEM — A suspected missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a container ship in the Red Sea on Monday, authorities said, the latest assault in their campaign against international shipping in the crucial maritime route.

    The attack happened off the coast of Mokha, Yemen, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said, without offering any other immediate details.

    It urged vessels to exercise caution in the area.

    The private security firm Ambrey said a salvo of three missiles targeted a Malta-flagged container ship traveling from Djibouti onward to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

    “The vessel was targeted due to its listed operator’s ongoing trade with Israel,” Ambrey said.

    CMA CGM, a Marseille, France-based shipper, had its Malta-flagged CMA CGM Manta Ray due to sail to Jeddah from Djibouti on Monday. However, the shipper said the vessel remained at harbor in Djibouti and could not have been targeted in the incident.

    The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge any attack, though suspicion fell on the group. It typically takes the rebels several hours to claim their assaults.

    The Houthis say their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war against Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage.

    The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

    Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has declined because of the threat.

    American officials have speculated that the rebels may be running out of weapons as a result of the U.S.-led campaign against them and after firing drones and missiles steadily for months. However, the rebels have renewed their attacks in the past week.

    The Houthis on Saturday claimed they shot down another of the U.S. military’s MQ-9 Reaper drones, airing footage of parts that corresponded to known pieces of the unmanned aircraft. U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bryon J. McGarry, a Defense Department spokesperson, acknowledged to The Associated Press on Saturday that “a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 drone crashed in Yemen.” He said an investigation was underway, without elaborating.

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