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Tag: War and unrest

  • Shooting at police facility in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula kills at least 4 officers, officials say

    Shooting at police facility in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula kills at least 4 officers, officials say

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    Security and health officials say a shooting at a heavily fortified security facility in the restive part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has killed at least four police officers, including a senior officer

    ByASHRAF SWEILAM Associated Press

    This is a locator map for Egypt with its capital, Cairo. (AP Photo)

    The Associated Press

    EL-ARISH, Egypt — A shooting Sunday at a heavily fortified security facility in the restive part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula killed at least four police, including a senior officer, two security and health officials said.

    At least 21 other forces were wounded in the shooting at the National Security headquarters in el-Arish, the capital city of North Sinai province, they said.

    A list of casualties obtained by The Associated Press showed that some forces suffered from gunshots and others faced breathing difficulties from tear gas that was fired inside the facility. There were eight officers among the wounded, the list showed.

    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

    The circumstances surrounding the shooting were not immediately clear, and there was no immediate comment from the Interior Ministry, which oversees police forces.

    North Sinai is the scene of a yearslong battle against an insurgency led by Islamist militants who have carried out scores of attacks, mainly targeting security forces and Christians.

    The pace of militant attacks in Sinai’s main theater of operations and elsewhere has slowed to a trickle since February 2018, when the military launched a massive operation in Sinai and parts of the Nile Delta as well as desert areas along the country’s western border with Libya.

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  • Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain

    Russian missile attacks leave few options for Ukrainian farmers looking to export grain

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    PAVLIVKA, Ukraine — The summer winds carried the smell of burned grain across the southern Ukrainian steppe and away from the shards of three Russian cruise missiles that struck the unassuming metal hangars.

    The agricultural company Ivushka applied for accreditation to export grain this year, but the strike in mid-July destroyed a large portion of the stock, days after Russia abandoned the grain deal that would have allowed the shipments across the Black Sea without fear of attack.

    Men shirtless and barefoot, with blackened soles from ash, swept unburnt grain into piles and awaited the loader, whose driver deftly steered around twisted metal shrapnel, bits of missile and craters despite his shattered windshield.

    They hoped to beat the next rain to rescue what was left of the crop. According to the Odesa Regional Prosecutor’s Office, Russia struck the facility July 21 with three Kalibr- and Onyx-class cruise missiles.

    “We don’t have a clue why they did it,” explained Olha Romanova, the head of Ivushka. Romanova, who worked in the debris alongside the others, wore a red headscarf and an exhausted expression and was too frazzled to even estimate her losses.

    She cannot comprehend why the Russians targeted Ivushka, as there are no nearby military facilities and the frontlines are far from the village in the Odesa region.

    “They spent so much money on us,” she said, puzzled. The missiles that ruined the silos are worth millions of dollars — far more than the crop they destroyed.

    But Ivushka wasn’t the only target in Odesa. The main port also was struck, leaving Black Sea shipping companies that relied upon the grain deal to keep them safe and food supplies flowing to the world at a standstill.

    The Black Sea handled about 95% of Ukrainian grain exports before Russia’s invasion and the U.N.-brokered initiative allowed Ukraine to ship much of what farmers harvested in 2021 and 2022, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.

    Ukraine, a major supplier of corn, wheat, barley and vegetable oil, shipped 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million U.S. tons) of grain under the nearly yearlong deal designed to ease a global food crisis. It has been able to export an additional 2 million to 2.5 million metric tons (2.2 to 2.7 million U.S. tons) monthly by the Danube River, road and rail through Europe.

    Those are now the only routes to ship grain, but have stirred divisions among nearby European countries and generated higher costs to be absorbed by Ukrainian farmers, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    Russian missiles strikes against the Danube port last Monday also raised questions about how much longer that route will remain viable.

    That’s a disincentive to keep planting fields already threatened by missiles and strewn with explosive mines. Corn and wheat production in agriculture-dependent Ukraine is down nearly 40% this year from prewar levels, analysts say.

    From the first of July last year until June 30 this year, Ukraine exported 68 million tons of grain, according to data from Mykola Horbachov, the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Ukrainian farmers shipped 11.2 million tons via railways, 5.5 million tons by road transport and around 18 million tons through Danube ports. Additionally, nearly half of the total exported grain, 33 million tons, was delivered through seaports under the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

    Ihor Osmachko, the general director of Agroprosperis Group, was unsurprised by Russia’s withdrawal from the deal leading to its collapse. His company had never considered it a reliable or permanent solution during wartime.

    He said Russians frequently stymied the deal, even while it was functioning, by delaying ship inspections until the cargos were sent back, leading to $30 million in losses for his company alone. Now, they are once again forced to pay to reroute 100,000 tons of grain trapped in ports that are no longer safe, Osmachko said.

    “We have been preparing for this whole time,” Osmachko said. “We haven’t stopped. We are moving forward.”

    Osmachko estimated around 80% to 90% of the approximately 3.2 million tons of grain Agroprosperis exported to China, Europe and African countries during the past year went through the grain corridor.

    “The most significant problem today is the cost of logistics,” explained Mykola Horbachov, president of the Ukrainian Grain Association. Before the war, farmers paid approximately $20 to $25 per ton to transport grain to the Odesa ports. Now, logistics costs have tripled as they are forced to pay more than $100 to transport a single ton via alternative routes through the Danube port to Constanta, Romania.

    “If we were to go on the Danube with the grain corridor closed, practically all our production would be unprofitable,” Osmachko said.

    The Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports. The most Agroprosperis has sent through this route is 75,000 tons per month, compared with a monthly average of 250,000 tons through Black Sea ports.

    The Ukrainian harvest this year is the lowest in a decade, according to a July report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Horbachov said shipping costs to export around the world and uncertainty about the length of the war will last could quickly make new planting unprofitable for Ukrainian farmers.

    Ukraine currently produces three times more grain than it consumes, while global prices will inevitably rise if the country’s exports decrease.

    “I think you’re looking at a diminished Ukraine for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer,” said Glauber, the former U.S. agricultural official. “That’s something the rest of the world just needs to make up.”

    The war from all sides poses risks for Agroprosperis.

    In the Sumy region on the Russian border, farmers harvest their crops wearing body armor. Sometimes they must stop their combines in the middle of the wheat fields to pick up shrapnel from Russian projectiles.

    “It can get tough at times,” Osmachko acknowledged. “But there are responsibilities — some have duties on the front. Some must grow food and ensure the country’s and world’s security.”

    ___

    Volodymyr Yurchuk in Lviv, Ukraine, and Courtney Bonnell in London contributed.

    ___

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

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  • China says US military aid to Taiwan will not deter its will to unify the island

    China says US military aid to Taiwan will not deter its will to unify the island

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    China has accused the United States of turning Taiwan into an “ammunition depot” after the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taipei

    ByHUIZHONG WU Associated Press

    FILE – The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One as it flies over Washington, March 2, 2022. The U.S. is set to announce $345 million in military aid for Taiwan, two U.S. officials said Friday. It would be the Biden administration’s first major package drawing on America’s own stockpiles under a new policy intended to speed up military aid to help Taiwan counter China. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

    The Associated Press

    TAIPEI, Taiwan — China accused the United States of turning Taiwan into an “ammunition depot” after the White House announced a $345 million military aid package for Taipei, and the self-ruled island said Sunday it tracked six Chinese navy ships in waters off its shores.

    China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement late Saturday opposing the military aid to Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory.

    “No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office.

    “Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” the statement said.

    China’s People’s Liberation Army has increased its military maneuvers in recent years aimed at Taiwan, sending fighter jets and warships to circle the island.

    On Sunday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it tracked six Chinese navy ships near the island.

    Taiwan’s ruling administration, led by the Democratic Progressive Party, has stepped up its weapons purchases from the U.S. as part of a deterrence strategy against a Chinese invasion.

    China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and Taiwan has never been governed by China’s ruling Communist Party.

    Unlike previous military purchases, the latest batch of aid is part of a presidential authority approved by the U.S. Congress last year to draw weapons from current U.S. military stockpiles — so Taiwan will not have to wait for military production and sales.

    While Taiwan has purchased $19 billion worth of weaponry, much of it has yet to be delivered to Taiwan. Washington will send man-portable air defense systems, intelligence and surveillance capabilities, firearms and missiles to Taiwan.

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  • It’s a miracle, say family of Japanese soldier killed in WWII, as flag he carried returns from US

    It’s a miracle, say family of Japanese soldier killed in WWII, as flag he carried returns from US

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    TOKYO — Toshihiro Mutsuda was only 5 years old when he last saw his father, who was drafted by Japan‘s Imperial Army in 1943 and killed in action. For him, his father was a bespectacled man in an old family photo standing by a signed good-luck flag that he carried to war.

    On Saturday, when the flag was returned to him from a U.S. war museum where it had been on display for 29 years, Mutsuda, now 83, said: “It’s a miracle.”

    The flag, known as “Yosegaki Hinomaru,” or Good Luck Flag, carries the soldier’s name, Shigeyoshi Mutsuda, and the signatures of his relatives, friends and neighbors wishing him luck. It was given to him before he was drafted by the Army. His family was later told he died in Saipan, but his remains were never returned.

    The flag was donated in 1994 and displayed at the museum aboard the USS Lexington, a WWII aircraft carrier, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Its meaning was not known until it was identified by the family earlier this year, said museum director Steve Banta, who brought the flag to Tokyo.

    Banta said he learned the story behind the flag earlier this year when he was contacted by the Obon Society, a nonprofit organization that has returned about 500 similar flags as non-biological remains, to the descendants of Japanese servicemembers killed in the war.

    The search for the flag’s original owner started in April when a museum visitor took a photo and asked an expert about the description that it had belonged to a “kamikaze” suicide pilot. When Shigeyoshi Mutsuda’s grandson saw the photo, he sought help from the Obon Society, group co-founder Keiko Ziak said.

    “When we learned all of this, and that the family would like to have the flag, we knew immediately that the flag did not belong to us,” Banta said at the handover ceremony. “We knew that the right thing to do would be to send the flag home, to be in Japan and to the family.”

    The soldier’s eldest son, Toshihiro Mutsuda, was speechless for a few seconds when Banta, wearing white gloves, gently placed the neatly folded flag into his hands. Two of his younger siblings, both in their 80s, stood by and looked on silently. The three children, all wearing cotton gloves so they wouldn’t damage the decades-old flag, carefully unfolded it to show to the audience.

    “After receiving the flag today, I earnestly felt that the war like that should never be fought again and that I do not wish anyone else to go through this sadness (of separation),” Toshihiro Mutsuda said.

    The soldier’s daughter, Misako Matsukuchi, touched the flag with both hands and prayed. “After nearly 80 years, the spirit of our father returned to us. I hope he can finally rest in peace,” Matsukuchi said later.

    Toshihiro Mutsuda said his memory of his father was foggy. However, he clearly remembers his mother, Masae Mutsuda, who died five years ago at age 102, used to make the long-distance bus trip almost every year from the farming town in Gifu, central Japan, to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where the 2.5 million war dead are enshrined, to pay tribute to her husband’s spirit.

    The shrine is controversial, as it includes convicted war criminals among those commemorated. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially China and the Koreas, see Yasukuni as a symbol of Japanese militarism. However, for the Mutsuda family, it’s a place to remember the loss of a father and husband.

    “It’s like an old love story across the ages coming together … It doesn’t matter where,” Banta said, referring to the Yasukuni controversy. “The important thing is this flag goes to the family.”

    That’s why Toshihiro Mutsuda and his siblings chose to receive the flag at Yasukuni and brought the framed photos of their parents.

    “My mother missed him and wanted to see him so much and that’s why she used to pray here,” he said. “Today her wish finally came true, and she was able to be reunited.”

    Keeping the flag on his lap, he said, “I feel the weight of the flag.”

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  • It’s a miracle, say family of Japanese soldier killed in WWII, as flag he carried returns from US

    It’s a miracle, say family of Japanese soldier killed in WWII, as flag he carried returns from US

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    TOKYO — Toshihiro Mutsuda was only 5 years old when he last saw his father, who was drafted by Japan‘s Imperial Army in 1943 and killed in action. For him, his father was a bespectacled man in an old family photo standing by a signed good-luck flag that he carried to war.

    On Saturday, when the flag was returned to him from a U.S. war museum where it had been on display for 29 years, Mutsuda, now 83, said: “It’s a miracle.”

    The flag, known as “Yosegaki Hinomaru,” or Good Luck Flag, carries the soldier’s name, Shigeyoshi Mutsuda, and the signatures of his relatives, friends and neighbors wishing him luck. It was given to him before he was drafted by the Army. His family was later told he died in Saipan, but his remains were never returned.

    The flag was donated in 1994 and displayed at the museum aboard the USS Lexington, a WWII aircraft carrier, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Its meaning was not known until it was identified by the family earlier this year, said the museum director Steve Banta, who brought the flag to Tokyo.

    Banta said he learned the story behind the flag earlier this year when he was contacted by the Obon Society, a nonprofit organization that has returned about 500 similar flags as non-biological remains, to the descendants of Japanese servicemembers killed in the war.

    The search for the flag’s original owner started in April when a museum visitor took a photo and asked an expert about the description that it had belonged to a “kamikaze” suicide pilot. When Shigeyoshi Mutsuda’s grandson saw the photo, he sought help from the Obon Society, group co-founder Keiko Ziak said.

    “When we learned all of this, and that the family would like to have the flag, we knew immediately that the flag did not belong to us,” Banta said at the handover ceremony. “We knew that the right thing to do would be to send the flag home, to be in Japan and to the family.”

    The soldier’s eldest son, Toshihiro Mutsuda, was speechless for a few seconds when Banta, wearing white gloves, gently placed the neatly folded flag into his hands. Two of his younger siblings, both in their 80s, stood by and looked on silently. The three children, all wearing cotton gloves so they wouldn’t damage the decades-old flag, carefully unfolded it to show to the audience.

    The soldier’s daughter, Misako Matsukuchi, touched the flag with both hands and prayed. “After nearly 80 years, the spirit of our father returned to us. I hope he can finally rest in peace,” Matsukuchi said later.

    Toshihiro Mutsuda said his memory of his father was foggy. However, he clearly remembers his mother, Masae Mutsuda, who died five years ago at age 102, used to make the long-distance bus trip almost every year from the farming town in Gifu, central Japan, to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, where the 2.5 million war dead are enshrined, to pay tribute to her husband’s spirit.

    The shrine is controversial, as it includes convicted war criminals among those commemorated. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially China and the Koreas, see Yasukuni as a symbol of Japanese militarism. However, for the Mutsuda family, it’s a place to remember the loss of a father and husband.

    “It’s like an old love story across the ages coming together … It doesn’t matter where,” Banta said, referring to the Yasukuni controversy. “The important thing is this flag goes to the family.”

    That’s why Toshihiro Mutsuda and his siblings chose to receive the flag at Yasukuni and brought the framed photos of their parents.

    “My mother missed him and wanted to see him so much and that’s why she used to pray here,” Toshihiro Mutsuda said. “Today her wish finally came true, and she was able to be reunited.”

    Keeping the flag on his lap, he said, “I feel the weight of the flag.”

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  • Indian opposition lawmakers visit violence-wracked state in bid to pressure Modi’s government

    Indian opposition lawmakers visit violence-wracked state in bid to pressure Modi’s government

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    NEW DELHI — A group of Indian opposition lawmakers on Saturday visited a remote northeastern state where deadly ethnic clashes have killed at least 130 people, in a bid to pressure the government to take action against the violence which began in May.

    The delegation of 20 lawmakers from 15 political parties, who are part of a new opposition alliance called INDIA, arrived in Manipur state for a two-day visit to assess the situation on the ground as the ongoing violence and bloodshed have displaced tens of thousands in recent months.

    The conflict in Manipur has become a global issue due to the scale of violence, said Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, a lawmaker belonging to the opposition Congress party. “Our delegation is here to express solidarity with the people of Manipur in this time of distress. The top priority now is to restore normalcy as soon as possible,” he added.

    Tucked in the mountains on the border with Myanmar, Manipur is on the brink of a civil war. Mobs have rampaged through villages, torching houses and buildings. The conflict was sparked by an affirmative action controversy in which Christian Kukis protested a demand by mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a share of government jobs.

    After arriving in the state capital, Imphal, the lawmakers went to Churachandpur district, where they visited two relief camps and spoke to community leaders.

    The conflict has triggered an impasse in India’s Parliament, as opposition members demand a statement from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the violence roiling the state. On Wednesday, the opposition moved a no-confidence motion against the Modi government. This means the government will soon face a no-confidence vote in Parliament, which is likely to be defeated, as Modi’s party and its allies have a clear majority.

    But opposition leaders say the move could at least force Modi to speak on the conflict and open a debate.

    Two weeks ago, Modi broke more than two months of public silence over the conflict in Manipur when he condemned the mob assaults on two women in the state who were paraded naked – but he did not directly refer to the larger violence. He has also not visited the state, which is ruled by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, since the violence broke out.

    Both houses of Parliament were adjourned at various times last week as the opposition stopped proceedings with their demand for a statement from Modi.

    Despite a heavy army presence and a visit earlier by the home minister, when he met with both communities, the deadly clashes have persisted.

    The violence in Manipur and the assault on the two women triggered protests across the country last week. In Manipur, thousands held a sit-in protest recently and called for the firing of Biren Singh, the top elected official in the state, who also belongs to Modi’s party.

    The European Parliament also recently adopted a resolution calling on Indian authorities to take action to stop the violence in Manipur and protect religious minorities, especially Christians. India’s foreign ministry condemned the resolution, describing it as “interference” in its internal affairs.

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  • Mounting job vacancies push state and local governments into a wage war for workers

    Mounting job vacancies push state and local governments into a wage war for workers

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    FULTON, Mo. — At the entrance to Missouri prisons, large signs plead for help: “NOW HIRING” … “GREAT PAY & BENEFITS.”

    No experience is necessary. Anyone 18 and older can apply. Long hours are guaranteed.

    Though the assertion of “great pay” for prison guards would have seemed dubious in the past, a series of state pay raises prompted by widespread vacancies has finally made a difference. The Missouri Department of Corrections set a record for new applicants last month.

    “After we got our raise, we started seeing people come out of the woodwork, people that hadn’t worked in a while,” said Maj. Albin Narvaez, chief of custody at the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center, where new prisoners are housed and evaluated.

    Public employers across the U.S. have faced similar struggles to fill jobs, leading to one of the largest surges in state government pay raises in 15 years. Many cities, counties and school districts also are hiking wages to try to retain and attract workers amid aggressive competition from private sector employers.

    The wage war comes as governments and taxpayers feel the consequences of empty positions.

    In Kansas City, Missouri, a shortage of 911 operators doubled the average hold times for people calling in emergencies. In one Florida county, some schoolchildren frequently arrived late as a lack of bus drivers delayed routes. In Arkansas, abused and neglected kids remained longer in foster care because of a caseworker shortage. In various cities and states, vacancies on road crews meant cracks and potholes took longer to fix than many motorists might like.

    “A lot of the jobs we’re talking about are hard jobs,” said Leslie Scott Parker, executive director of the National Association of State Personnel Executives.

    Lingering vacancies “eventually affects service to the public or response times to needs,” she added.

    Workforce shortages worsened across all sorts of jobs due to a wave of retirements and resignations that began during the pandemic. Many businesses, from restaurants to hospitals, responded nimbly with higher wages and incentives to attract employees. But governments by nature are slower to act, requiring pay raises to go through a legislative process that can take months to complete — and then can take months more to kick in.

    Meanwhile, vacancies mounted.

    In Georgia, state employee turnover hit a high of 25% in 2022. Thousands of workers left the Department of Corrections, pushing its vacancy rate to around 50%. The state began a series of pay raises. This year, all state employees and teachers got at least a $2,000 raise, with corrections officers getting $4,000 and state troopers $6,000.

    The Georgia Department of Corrections used an ad agency to bolster recruitment and held an average of 125 job fairs a month. It’s starting to pay off. In the first week of July, the department received 318 correctional officer applications — nearly double the weekly norm, said department Public Affairs Director Joan Heath.

    Almost 1 in 4 positions — more than 2,500 jobs — were empty in the Missouri Department of Corrections late last year, which was twice the pre-pandemic vacancy rate in 2019.

    Missouri gave state workers a 7.5% pay raise in 2022. This spring, Gov. Mike Parson signed an emergency spending bill with an additional 8.7% raise, plus an extra $2 an hour for people working evening and night shifts at prisons, mental health facilities and other institutions. The vacancy rate for entry level corrections officers now is declining, and the average number of applications for all state positions is up 18% since the start of last year.

    At the Fulton prison, where staff shortages have led to a standard 52-hour work week, newly hired employees can earn around $60,000 annually — an amount roughly equal to the state’s median household income. The prison also is proposing to provide free child care to correctional officers willing to work nights.

    If prison staffing is too low, “it can get dangerous” for both inmates and guards, Narvaez said.

    Public safety concerns also have arisen in Kansas City, where a country music fan attacked before a concert last month waited four minutes for a 911 call to be answered and an hour for an ambulance to arrive. About one-quarter of 911 call center positions are vacant — “a huge factor” in the longer wait times to answer calls, said Tamara Bazzle, assistant manager of the communications unit for the Kansas City Police Department.

    In Biddeford, Maine, a 15-person roster of 911 dispatchers dipped to just eight employees in July as people quit a “pressure cooker job” for less stress or better pay elsewhere, Police Chief JoAnne Fisk said. The city is now offering fully certified dispatchers $41 an hour to help plug the gaps on a part-time basis — $10 an hour more than comparable new workers normally would earn.

    This month, Biddeford also launched a $2,000 bonus for city employees who refer others who get jobs. That comes a year after Biddeford adopted a four-day work week with paid lunch periods to try to make jobs more appealing, said City Manager Jim Bennett.

    To attract workers, other governments have dropped college degree requirements and spiced up drab job descriptions.

    Nationally, the turnover rate in state and local governments is twice the average of the previous two decades, according federal labor statistics.

    Uncompetitive wages were the most common reason for leaving cited in exit interviews, according to a survey of 249 state and local government human resource managers conducted by MissionSquare Research Institute, a Washington, D.C. -based nonprofit. The hardest positions to fill included police and corrections officers, doctors, nurses, engineers and jobs requiring commercial driver’s licenses.

    Along Florida’s east coast, the Brevard County transit system and school district have been competing for bus drivers. On days when drivers are lacking, the transit system has cut the frequency of bus stops on some routes. The school system, meanwhile, has asked some bus drivers to run a second route after dropping children off at school, often resulting in the second busload arriving late.

    Since 2022, the county has twice raised bus driver wages to a current rate of $17.47 an hour. The school board recently countered with a $5 increase to a minimum $20 an hour for the upcoming school year. The goal is to hire enough drivers to regularly get kids to class on time, said school system communications director Russell Bruhn.

    In Arkansas, the goal is to get foster kids into permanent homes in less than a year. But during the first three months of this year, the state met that target for just 32% of foster children — well below the national standard of over 40%. More than one-fifth of the roughly 1,400 positions in the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services are vacant.

    Many new employees leave in less than two years because of heavy caseloads and the “very difficult, emotionally tolling work,” Mischa Martin, the Department of Human Services’ deputy secretary of youth and families, told lawmakers last month.

    “If we had a knowledgeable, experienced workforce,” she said, “they would be able to work cases in a better way to get kids home quicker.”

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  • Mounting job vacancies push state and local governments into a wage war for workers

    Mounting job vacancies push state and local governments into a wage war for workers

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    FULTON, Mo. — At the entrance to Missouri prisons, large signs plead for help: “NOW HIRING” … “GREAT PAY & BENEFITS.”

    No experience is necessary. Anyone 18 and older can apply. Long hours are guaranteed.

    Though the assertion of “great pay” for prison guards would have seemed dubious in the past, a series of state pay raises prompted by widespread vacancies has finally made a difference. The Missouri Department of Corrections set a record for new applicants last month.

    “After we got our raise, we started seeing people come out of the woodwork, people that hadn’t worked in a while,” said Maj. Albin Narvaez, chief of custody at the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center, where new prisoners are housed and evaluated.

    Public employers across the U.S. have faced similar struggles to fill jobs, leading to one of the largest surges in state government pay raises in 15 years. Many cities, counties and school districts also are hiking wages to try to retain and attract workers amid aggressive competition from private sector employers.

    The wage war comes as governments and taxpayers feel the consequences of empty positions.

    In Kansas City, Missouri, a shortage of 911 operators doubled the average hold times for people calling in emergencies. In one Florida county, some schoolchildren frequently arrived late as a lack of bus drivers delayed routes. In Arkansas, abused and neglected kids remained longer in foster care because of a caseworker shortage. In various cities and states, vacancies on road crews meant cracks and potholes took longer to fix than many motorists might like.

    “A lot of the jobs we’re talking about are hard jobs,” said Leslie Scott Parker, executive director of the National Association of State Personnel Executives.

    Lingering vacancies “eventually affects service to the public or response times to needs,” she added.

    Workforce shortages worsened across all sorts of jobs due to a wave of retirements and resignations that began during the pandemic. Many businesses, from restaurants to hospitals, responded nimbly with higher wages and incentives to attract employees. But governments by nature are slower to act, requiring pay raises to go through a legislative process that can take months to complete — and then can take months more to kick in.

    Meanwhile, vacancies mounted.

    In Georgia, state employee turnover hit a high of 25% in 2022. Thousands of workers left the Department of Corrections, pushing its vacancy rate to around 50%. The state began a series of pay raises. This year, all state employees and teachers got at least a $2,000 raise, with corrections officers getting $4,000 and state troopers $6,000.

    The Georgia Department of Corrections used an ad agency to bolster recruitment and held an average of 125 job fairs a month. It’s starting to pay off. In the first week of July, the department received 318 correctional officer applications — nearly double the weekly norm, said department Public Affairs Director Joan Heath.

    Almost 1 in 4 positions — more than 2,500 jobs — were empty in the Missouri Department of Corrections late last year, which was twice the pre-pandemic vacancy rate in 2019.

    Missouri gave state workers a 7.5% pay raise in 2022. This spring, Gov. Mike Parson signed an emergency spending bill with an additional 8.7% raise, plus an extra $2 an hour for people working evening and night shifts at prisons, mental health facilities and other institutions. The vacancy rate for entry level corrections officers now is declining, and the average number of applications for all state positions is up 18% since the start of last year.

    At the Fulton prison, where staff shortages have led to a standard 52-hour work week, newly hired employees can earn around $60,000 annually — an amount roughly equal to the state’s median household income. The prison also is proposing to provide free child care to correctional officers willing to work nights.

    If prison staffing is too low, “it can get dangerous” for both inmates and guards, Narvaez said.

    Public safety concerns also have arisen in Kansas City, where a country music fan attacked before a concert last month waited four minutes for a 911 call to be answered and an hour for an ambulance to arrive. About one-quarter of 911 call center positions are vacant — “a huge factor” in the longer wait times to answer calls, said Tamara Bazzle, assistant manager of the communications unit for the Kansas City Police Department.

    In Biddeford, Maine, a 15-person roster of 911 dispatchers dipped to just eight employees in July as people quit a “pressure cooker job” for less stress or better pay elsewhere, Police Chief JoAnne Fisk said. The city is now offering fully certified dispatchers $41 an hour to help plug the gaps on a part-time basis — $10 an hour more than comparable new workers normally would earn.

    This month, Biddeford also launched a $2,000 bonus for city employees who refer others who get jobs. That comes a year after Biddeford adopted a four-day work week with paid lunch periods to try to make jobs more appealing, said City Manager Jim Bennett.

    To attract workers, other governments have dropped college degree requirements and spiced up drab job descriptions.

    Nationally, the turnover rate in state and local governments is twice the average of the previous two decades, according federal labor statistics.

    Uncompetitive wages were the most common reason for leaving cited in exit interviews, according to a survey of 249 state and local government human resource managers conducted by MissionSquare Research Institute, a Washington, D.C. -based nonprofit. The hardest positions to fill included police and corrections officers, doctors, nurses, engineers and jobs requiring commercial driver’s licenses.

    Along Florida’s east coast, the Brevard County transit system and school district have been competing for bus drivers. On days when drivers are lacking, the transit system has cut the frequency of bus stops on some routes. The school system, meanwhile, has asked some bus drivers to run a second route after dropping children off at school, often resulting in the second busload arriving late.

    Since 2022, the county has twice raised bus driver wages to a current rate of $17.47 an hour. The school board recently countered with a $5 increase to a minimum $20 an hour for the upcoming school year. The goal is to hire enough drivers to regularly get kids to class on time, said school system communications director Russell Bruhn.

    In Arkansas, the goal is to get foster kids into permanent homes in less than a year. But during the first three months of this year, the state met that target for just 32% of foster children — well below the national standard of over 40%. More than one-fifth of the roughly 1,400 positions in the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services are vacant.

    Many new employees leave in less than two years because of heavy caseloads and the “very difficult, emotionally tolling work,” Mischa Martin, the Department of Human Services’ deputy secretary of youth and families, told lawmakers last month.

    “If we had a knowledgeable, experienced workforce,” she said, “they would be able to work cases in a better way to get kids home quicker.”

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  • 6 killed in Damascus suburb bombing near Shiite Muslim shrine ahead of the holy day of Ashura

    6 killed in Damascus suburb bombing near Shiite Muslim shrine ahead of the holy day of Ashura

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    Syrian state media, citing the interior ministry, say six people have been killed and dozens wounded when a motorcycle planted with explosives detonated in a Damascus suburb near a Shiite Muslim shrine one day before the solemn holy day of Ashura

    ByKAREEM CHEHAYEB Associated Press

    BEIRUT — A motorcycle planted with explosives detonated in a Damascus suburb near a Shiite Muslim shrine Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens a day before the solemn holy day of Ashura, state media reported, citing the interior ministry.

    Syrian Health Minister Hassan al-Ghabash said in a statement that 26 people wounded in the blast in the Sayida Zeinab neighborhood were being treated at several hospitals. Twenty others were treated on site or discharged, he said.

    Authorities had initially said the bomb was hidden in a taxi, but later reported that the explosives were on a motorcycle that exploded next to the cab.

    The Britain-based opposition war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that a woman was among those who died and that her three children were wounded. The Observatory said the explosion occurred close to positions of Iranian militias, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad alongside Russia in Syria’s civil conflict now in its 13th year.

    Photos shared by Al-Ikhbariya and pro-government media show a charred taxi surrounded by large crowds of people and men in military fatigues. Green, red and black Ashura flags and banners hung from buildings in the area.

    In a video shared on social media, people carried two men covered in blood and dust off the ground while calling for help. The glass facades of shops nearby had shattered, while one was on fire.

    The neighborhood is named after the shrine for Sayida Zeinab, the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad. Protecting the shrine became a rallying cry for Shiite fighters backing Assad in the early years of the conflict as it turned from an anti-government uprising into a sectarian civil war.

    Ashura is the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram, which is one of the holiest months for Shiite Muslims. It marks the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein, and his 72 companions in the battle of Karbala in the 7th century in present-day Iraq. Ashura marks the peak of the mourning procession.

    The explosion was the second in the Sayida Zeinab neighborhood in the days leading to Ashura. On Tuesday, Syrian state media citing a police official said that two civilians were wounded when a motorcycle laced with explosives was detonated.

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  • Kyiv is said to have launched a major push against Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine

    Kyiv is said to have launched a major push against Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Kyiv has launched a major push to dislodge Russian forces from southeastern Ukraine as part of its weeks-long counteroffensive, committing thousands of troops to the battle in the country’s southeast, according to Western and Ukrainian officials and analysts.

    The surge in troops and firepower has been centered on the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, a Western official said late Wednesday.

    The official was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Fighting has intensified in recent weeks at multiple points along the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line as Ukraine deploys Western-supplied advanced weapons and Western-trained troops against the deeply entrenched Russian forces who invaded 17 months ago.

    Ukrainian officials have been mostly silent about battlefield developments since they began early counteroffensive operations, though Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said troops are advancing toward the city of Melitopol in Zaporizhizhia region.

    Though that movement could be a tactical feint, and both governments have used disinformation to gain battlefield advantages, such a maneuver would be in line with what some analysts had predicted.

    They envisioned a counteroffensive that would try to punch through the land corridor between Russia and the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, moving towards Melitopol, which is close to the coast of the Azov Sea.

    That could split Russian forces into two halves and cut off supply lines to the units that are located further to the west.

    The intense fighting is taking place in areas in the south and east of Ukraine, far from the capital Kyiv, and it was not possible to verify either side’s claims.

    The Institute of Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, reported that Ukrainian forces launched “a significant mechanized counteroffensive operation in western Zaporizhzhia region” on Wednesday, adding that they “appear to have broken through certain pre-prepared Russian defensive positions.”

    It cited Russian sources, including the Russian Ministry of Defense and several prominent Russian military bloggers.

    U.S. officials, who have provided Kyiv with weapons and intelligence, declined to comment on the latest developments, though they have previously urged patience as Ukraine seeks to grind down the deep Russian defenses featuring minefields, trenches and anti-tank obstacles.

    U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said during a visit to Papua New Guinea that Kyiv’s effort to retake land seized by Russia since its February 2022 full-scale invasion would be “tough” and “long,” with successes and setbacks.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “an intense battle” is taking place but declined to provide details.

    “We believe that tools, the equipment, the training, the advice that many of us have shared with Ukrainians over many months puts them in good position to be successful on the ground in recovering more of the territory that Russia has taken from Ukraine,” Blinken said during a visit to New Zealand.

    ___

    Aamer Madhani in Washington D.C., Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia and Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand contributed.

    ___

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

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  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with Russian defense minister on military cooperation

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with Russian defense minister on military cooperation

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    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to discuss military issues and the regional security environment, state media said Thursday as the country celebrated the 70th anniversary of an armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.

    The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim and Shoigu talked Wednesday in the capital, Pyongyang, and reached a consensus on unspecified “matters of mutual concern in the field of national defense and security and on the regional and international security environment.”

    During the meeting, Shoigu conveyed to Kim a “warm and good letter” signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, KCNA said. The report did not specify the military matters that were discussed.

    In a rare case of diplomatic opening since the start of the pandemic, North Korea invited delegations from Russia and China to attend the events marking the armistice of July 27, 1953. While the truce left the Korean Peninsula in a technical state of war, the North still sees it as a victory in the “Grand Fatherland Liberation War.”

    KCNA said Kim also took Shoigu to an arms exhibition that showcased some of North Korea’s newest weapons and briefed him on national plans to expand the country’s military capabilities. Photos from the exhibition showed Kim and Shoigu walking near a row of large missiles mounted on launcher trucks.

    Some of the weapons in the images appeared to be intercontinental ballistic missiles that the North has flight-tested in recent years as it pursues an arsenal that can pose a viable threat to the continental United States. Kim and Shoigu also walked past what were possibly new surveillance and attack drones that had not been publicly announced by the North.

    Lee Sung Joon, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a briefing that the South Korean military was analyzing the military assets shown in the North Korean photos but did not share specific assessments.

    North Korea has been aligning with Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the “hegemonic policy” of the U.S.-led West forced Moscow to take military action to protect its security interests. The Biden administration has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia to aid its fighting in Ukraine, although the North has denied the claim.

    When asked about the possibility that Shoigu’s visit was to discuss importing weapons from North Korea, John Kirby, the White House’s National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, didn’t answer directly but said it was clear Putin is reaching out to other countries for support in fighting his war in Ukraine.

    “Mr. Putin knows he’s having his own defense procurement problems, his own inventory problems, that his military remains on the back foot, and he’s trying to shore that up,“ Kirby said.

    The North Korean festivities were widely expected to be capped later Thursday by a giant military parade in Pyongyang, where Kim could showcase his most powerful, nuclear-capable missiles. State media, however, had not confirmed plans for a military parade.

    Some experts say North Korea sees U.S. confrontations with China and Russia over regional influence and the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to break out of diplomatic isolation and insert itself into a united front against Washington. Both Moscow and Beijing have been derailing U.S. efforts to strengthen U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea over its flurry of missile tests since 2022.

    The last time North Korea invited foreign government delegates for a military parade was in February 2018, when it held a low-key event that excluded Kim’s ICBMs. North Korea at the time was initiating diplomacy with Seoul and Washington as Kim attempted to leverage his nukes for badly needed economic benefits.

    Those efforts led to a summit between Kim and then-U.S. President Donald Trump that June, but the diplomacy collapsed after their second meeting in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of their nuclear capabilities.

    Kim has since ramped up the development of the nuclear arms that he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival while berating “gangster-like” U.S. sanctions and pressure.

    Beijing’s delegation to North Korea is headed by mid-level official Li Hongzhong, a politburo member of China’s ruling Communist Party.

    KCNA said senior North Korean officials led by Choe Ryong Hae, chairman of the standing committee of the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, held a reception for Li’s delegation in Pyongyang on Wednesday at which they honored Chinese soldiers who died while fighting alongside the North Koreans during the war.

    Li said in a speech at the event that China is ready to promote the “sound and stable” development in relations with the North, KCNA said.

    Analysts say Kim sharing the center stage with Shoigu and Li at a military parade would be a key accomplishment he could show to his domestic audience as well as a statement of defiance toward the United States.

    On Wednesday, Shoigu also held talks with North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam that were aimed at “strengthening cooperation between our defense departments,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

    KCNA reported that at a reception hosted by Kang, Shoigu praised the North Korean People’s army under the leadership of Kim, saying it “has become the strongest army in the world.” Russian media reports did not include that comment.

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  • DNA test helps identify body of Korean War soldier from Georgia

    DNA test helps identify body of Korean War soldier from Georgia

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    DNA analysis has helped scientists identify the remains of a U.S. Army soldier from Georgia who was killed during the Korean War

    ATLANTA — DNA analysis has helped scientists identify the remains of a U.S. Army soldier from Georgia who was killed during the Korean War, U.S. officials announced Wednesday.

    Scientists used mitochondrial DNA along with a chest X-ray and other tools to identify Army Sgt. 1st Class James L. Wilkinson late last year, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting agency said in a news release. Wilkinson was from Bowdon, a town near the Georgia-Alabama state line about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Atlanta.

    He was 19 when he went missing in September 1950 during fighting along the Naktong River near Yongsan, South Korea. He was presumed dead but his body could not be immediately recovered, according to the accounting agency news release.

    The Army began recovering remains from the area in 1951. Wilkinson’s body was initially declared unidentifiable and was buried along with other unknown remains at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

    They were dug up in 2019 as part of a plan to try to identify 652 sets of remains from the Korean War.

    Wilkinson will be buried on Sept. 16 in Barrow County, Georgia, the accounting agency said.

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  • Chinese and Russian officials to join North Korean commemorations of Korean War armistice

    Chinese and Russian officials to join North Korean commemorations of Korean War armistice

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    SEOUL, South Korea — Russia and China are sending government delegations to North Korea this week for events marking the 70th anniversary of the armistice that halted fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.

    The visits suggest North Korea is further opening up after years of pandemic isolation and is eager to showcase its partnerships with authoritarian neighbors in the face of deepening nuclear tensions with Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.

    North Korea’s state media said Wednesday that a Russian delegation led by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday evening, where they were greeted by senior North Korean officials including Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam. Shoigu’s ministry said the delegation’s visit will help strengthen relations and mark “an important stage” in the development of bilateral cooperation.

    China’s ruling Communist Party is also sending a midlevel official, Li Hongzhong, in hopes of restoring exchanges between the allies.

    North Korea has been preparing huge celebrations of the anniversary that are likely to be capped off by a military parade in the capital, Pyongyang, where leader Kim Jong Un could showcase his most powerful, nuclear-capable missiles designed to target neighboring rivals and the U.S.

    Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim and his top defense and foreign policy officials visited two cemeteries, including one for Chinese troops who died while fighting alongside North Korea during the war.

    Kim expressed gratitude for the Chinese soldiers who dedicated their lives to repel imperialist aggression, calling them “martyrs” who would be “immortal in the hearts of the Korean people.”

    North Korea launched the Korean War, an unsuccessful attempt to conquer its southern rival. No peace treaty ending the conflict has ever been signed, and the border between the Koreas remains one of the most tense in the world. The North still celebrates the armistice as a victory in the “Grand Fatherland Liberation War.”

    The conflict brought in forces from the newly created People’s Republic of China, aided by the then-Soviet air force, while South Korea, the U.S. and troops from various countries under the direction of the United Nations battled to repulse the invasion.

    The visits by Russian and Chinese delegations mark only the second known time foreign government officials were invited to enter North Korea since the start of the pandemic, following the arrival of Chinese ambassador to Pyongyang Wang Yajun in March, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.

    North Korea had spent the first two years of the pandemic in a self-imposed lockdown to shield its poor health care system. But since last year, the country has gradually reopened trade with China to improve its dismal economy.

    “For now, it’s premature to say whether or not North Korea further opens its borders in the future, but considering their measures to ease virus controls and signs that they are preparing to send athletes to international sporting events again, it’s possibly only a matter of time,” the South Korean ministry said in a statement to The Associated Press.

    The anniversary comes during a time of heightened tensions in the region as the pace of both North Korea’s weapons tests and the United States’ military exercises with South Korea have intensified in a tit-for-tat cycle.

    Some experts say North Korea might ramp up its weapons tests around the anniversary of the armistice on Thursday, July 27. North Korea has conducted three separate rounds of missile firings since last week, apparently in protest of the United States sending naval vessels — including a nuclear-armed submarine — to South Korea in a show of force.

    Since the start of 2022, North Korea has test-fired around 100 missiles as Kim exploits the distraction created by Russia’s war on Ukraine to accelerate the expansion of the nuclear-capable weapons he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival.

    North Korea has also been aligning with Russia over the war in Ukraine, insisting that the “hegemonic policy” of the U.S.-led West has forced Russia to take military action to protect its security interests. The Biden administration has accused North Korea of providing arms to Russia to aid its fighting in Ukraine, although the North has denied the claim.

    Both Moscow and Beijing have been thwarting U.S. efforts to strengthen U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea over its flurry of missile tests.

    When asked whether Washington had any concerns about China and Russia showing support for North Korea with the visits, Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson at the State Department, called for Beijing and Moscow to play a more constructive role in defusing tensions and bringing Pyongyang back to dialogue.

    “They can use their influence over (North Korea) to encourage them to refrain from threatening, unlawful behavior, behavior that will not just incite tensions in the immediate region but also the region broadly,” he said.

    Li is a member of the party’s high-level Politburo and a deputy chairperson of the ceremonial parliament, giving him national office, but not the level of status that would convey a full-bore expression of Chinese backing for North Korea at an ambiguous time in relations.

    China was invited to send a “high-level delegation” to attend commemorative activities in North Korea, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing Tuesday.

    “We believe the visit will be conducive to promoting the sound and stable development of (bilateral) relations, contributing to regional peace and stability, and creating conditions for a political settlement of the (Korean) peninsula issue,” Mao said.

    China has joined United Nations sanctions against North Korea over its missile and nuclear programs but remains its most important economic and political ally. Little is known about discreet contacts between the two, but Beijing has long been committed to preventing the collapse of North Korea’s three-generation-old Kim regime.

    Dangerous and uncertain factors resulting from a collapse could include a wave of refugees crossing into China, a scramble for control of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and the sudden presence of South Korean and American troops along China’s border.

    Kim has visited China in past years, while Chinese leader Xi Jinping traveled to the North in 2019 in what was seen as partly an effort to use their ties to leverage concessions from the U.S. and its allies on their security arrangements in the region.

    Such visits came to a halt as an increasingly isolated and impoverished North Korea closed its borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

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  • Yemeni police say they’ve arrested 2 suspects in the killing of a senior World Food Program official

    Yemeni police say they’ve arrested 2 suspects in the killing of a senior World Food Program official

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    CAIRO — Yemeni police on Saturday arrested two suspects in the killing of a senior World Food Program official the previous day, authorities said.

    Ten others were also detained for their alleged involvement in the killing of Moayad Hameidi, who had recently arrived in the country to take the post of the head of the World Food Program in the southwestern province of Taiz.

    Taiz police did not provide further details.

    On Friday, two gunmen riding on a motorbike shot Hameidi in the town of Turbah. He died shortly after reaching a hospital. The attackers fled the scene.

    Hameidi, a Jordanian, was the latest aid worker to be killed in Yemen, which has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014. He had just arrived in Taiz a few days ago to assume his role as head of the WFP office in the province.

    “The loss of our colleague is a profound tragedy for our organization and the humanitarian community,” said Richard Ragan, WFP’s director in Yemen. “Any loss of life in humanitarian service is an unacceptable tragedy.”

    Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels swept across much of the north and seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile.

    A Saudi-led coalition entered the war the following year on the side of the government, and over the years, the conflict turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the Houthis’ main foreign backer.

    Yemen’s conflict has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, have been killed.

    Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city and the provincial capital, has been under a siege by the Houthis since 2016, as part of the country’s brutal conflict. The blockade has severely restricted freedom of movement and impeded the flow of essential goods, medicine, and humanitarian aid to the city’s residents.

    In May 2021, an aid worker with the Oxfam charity died and another wounded when they were caught in crossfire in the country’s south.

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  • Russia comes under pressure at UN to avoid global food crisis and revive Ukrainian grain shipments

    Russia comes under pressure at UN to avoid global food crisis and revive Ukrainian grain shipments

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    UNITED NATIONS — UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia came under pressure at the United Nations Security Council on Friday from its ally China and developing countries as well as Western nations to avert a global food crisis and quickly revive Ukrainian grain shipments.

    Moscow was also criticized by the U.N. and council members for attacking Ukrainian ports after pulling out of the year-old grain deal and destroying port infrastructure — a violation of international humanitarian law banning attacks on civilian infrastructure.

    In response to Russia declaring wide areas in the Black Sea dangerous for shipping, the U.N. warned that a military incident in the sea could have “catastrophic consequences.”

    Russia said it suspended the Black Sea Grain Initiative because the U.N. had failed to overcome obstacles to shipping its food and fertilizer to global markets, the other half of the Ukraine grain deal. The Kremlin said it would consider resuming Ukrainian shipments if progress is made in overcoming the obstacles, including in banking arrangements.

    China’s deputy U.N. ambassador Geng Shuang noted U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ commitment to make every effort to ensure that both Ukrainian grain and Russian food and fertilizer get to world markets. He expressed hope that Russia and the U.N. will work together to resume exports from both countries “at an early date” in the interest of “maintaining international food security and alleviating the food crisis in developing countries in particular.”

    U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of using the Black Sea as “blackmail” and playing political games, pointing to Moscow’s export of more grain than ever before at higher prices. She called on the Security Council and all 193 U.N. member nations to come together and urge Russia to resume negotiations in good faith.

    Several developing countries warned of the impact of the cutoff in Ukrainian grain shipments, which has already led to a rise in wheat prices.

    Gabon’s U.N. Ambassador Michel Biang said the grain deal had avoided a spark in grain prices and calmed the risk of food insecurity in the drought-affected Horn of Africa and other regions. He urged talks “to break the current deadlock” and avoid a humanitarian crisis.

    Mozambique’s U.N. Ambassador Pedro Afonso said Russia’s action is certain “to amplify global socio-economic stresses in a world already grappling with a perfect storm of conflict, climate change” and a loss of confidence in multilateral solutions.

    Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said Russia stands ready to consider rejoining the deal if seven principles from the Russia-U.N. memorandum are implemented. He listed them as “the real not theoretical” lifting of Western sanctions on Russian grain and fertilizer exports, and the lifting of obstacles to Russian banks that service exports, including the immediate connection to the SWIFT global banking system.

    Russia also wants the delivery of spare parts for agricultural production to resume, a resolution to issues related to chartering vessels for Russian exports including insurance, the war-damaged ammonia pipeline from Russia to Ukraine to be fixed and other fertilizer issues resolved, Russian assets linked to agricultural production unfrozen, and “the resumption of the initial humanitarian nature of the grain deal,” he said.

    Under the deal, Ukraine was given a green light to ship grain from three Black Sea ports, but following Monday’s withdrawal Russia said it will consider a ship traveling to Ukrainian ports as being laden with weapons and will treat the country of its flag as a participant in the conflict on Kyiv’s side. Ukraine announced that it will also treat ships traveling to Russian Black Sea ports as military targets.

    Thomas-Greenfield told the council the United States has information that Russia laid additional sea mines in the approaches to Ukrainian ports and that Russia’s military may attack civilian shipping in the Black Sea “and lay blame on Ukraine for these attacks.”

    U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo strongly condemned Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and urged Moscow to stop them immediately. She said threats to target civilian vessels “are unacceptable” and warned that sea mines can endanger civilian navigation.

    “We strongly urge restraint from any further rhetoric or action that could deteriorate the already dangerous situation,” she said. “Any risk of conflict spillover as a result of a military incident in the Black Sea – whether intentional or by accident – must be avoided at all costs, as this could result in potentially catastrophic consequences to us all.”

    China’s Geng called on the parties “to remain calm and exercise restraint,” abide by international humanitarian law and refrain from attacking civilian infrastructure, “and make every effort to curb the expansion of the conflict to prevent a larger scale humanitarian crisis.”

    U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told the council that a record 362 million people in 69 countries need assistance, “a number that has never been reached anywhere before,” requiring an unprecedented $55 billion. He said the cutoff of Ukrainian grain shipments has already brought not only killings and injuries to civilians and damage to port infrastructure but a 9% spike in wheat prices on Wednesday, the largest since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

    The “humanitarian catastrophe” in Ukraine continues to reverberate around the world, Griffiths said, and for many of the 362 million people who need help, a cutoff in critical Ukrainian and Russian grain threatens the future of their families. “Some will go hungry, some will starve, many may die as a result of these decisions,” he said.

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  • India’s Modi breaks silence over Manipur violence after viral video shows mob molesting women

    India’s Modi breaks silence over Manipur violence after viral video shows mob molesting women

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    Prime Minister Narendra Modi has broken his public silence over deadly ethnic clashes in India’s northeast after a video went viral showing two women being assaulted by a mob

    BySHEIKH SAALIQ Associated Press

    Indian paramilitary soldiers stand guard to enforce curfew in Imphal, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Monday, June 19, 2023. Deadly clashes, which have left at least 130 dead by the authorities’ conservative estimates, persist despite the army’s presence in the state that now remains divided in two ethnic zones. The two warring factions have also formed armed militias and isolated villages are still raked with gunfire. More than 60,000 people have fled to packed relief camps. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

    The Associated Press

    NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke more than two months of public silence over deadly ethnic clashes in India’s northeast, saying Thursday that the assaults of two women as they were being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur state were unforgivable.

    A video showing the assaults triggered massive outrage and went viral late Wednesday despite the internet being largely blocked and journalists being locked out in the remote state. It shows two naked women being surrounded by scores of young men who grope their genitals and drag them to a field.

    “The guilty will not be spared. What has happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,” Modi told reporters ahead of a parliamentary session in his first public comments related to the Manipur conflict.

    The violence depicted in the video was emblematic of the near-civil war in Manipur that has left more than 130 people dead since May, as mobs rampage through villages killing people and torching houses. The ethnic violence was sparked by an affirmative action controversy which saw Christian Kukis protest a demand from the mostly Hindu Meiteis of a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a share of government jobs.

    The clashes have persisted despite the army’s presence in Manipur, a state of 3.7 million people tucked in the mountains on India’s border with Myanmar that is now divided in two ethnic zones. The two warring factions have also formed armed militias, and isolated villages are still raked with gunfire. More than 60,000 people have fled to packed relief camps.

    Police said the assault on the two women happened May 4, a day after the violence started in the state. According to a police complaint filed May 18, the two women were part of a family attacked by a mob that killed its two male members. The complaint alleges rape and murder by “unknown miscreants,” and no arrests have been made yet.

    The two women are now safe in a refugee camp.

    They are from the Kuki-Zo community, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, a tribal organization in Manipur, said in a statement.

    India’s Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani called the incident “condemnable and downright inhuman.” She said Thursday investigations were underway and that “no effort will be spared to bring perpetrators to justice.”

    India’s main opposition Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge, however, accused the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of “turning democracy and the rule of law into mobocracy.”

    Kharge said Modi should speak about Manipur in Parliament, a demand that has been made by other opposition parties and right activists.

    “India will never forgive your silence,” he wrote on Twitter.

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  • North Korea not responding to US attempts to discuss American soldier who ran across border

    North Korea not responding to US attempts to discuss American soldier who ran across border

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    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea wasn’t responding Thursday to U.S. attempts to discuss the American soldier who bolted across the heavily armed border and whose prospects for a quick release are unclear at a time of high military tensions and inactive communication channels.

    Pvt. Travis King, who was supposed to have been heading to Fort Bliss, Texas, after finishing a prison sentence in South Korea for assault, ran into North Korea while on a civilian tour of the border village of Panmunjom on Tuesday. He is the first known American held in North Korea in nearly five years.

    “Yesterday the Pentagon reached out to counterparts in the (North) Korean People’s Army. My understanding is that those communications have not yet been answered,” Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, told reporters Wednesday in Washington.

    Miller said the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department are working together to gather information about King’s well-being and whereabouts. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. government will continue to work to ensure his safety and his return to his family.

    The motive for King’s border crossing is unknown. A witness on the same civilian tour said she initially thought his dash was some kind of stunt until she heard an American soldier on patrol shouting for others to try to stop him. But King had crossed the border in a matter of seconds.

    King, 23, was serving in South Korea as a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division. He could be discharged from the military and face other potential penalties after being convicted of crimes in South Korea.

    In February, a Seoul court fined him 5 million won ($3,950) by convicting him of assaulting an unidentified person and damaging a police vehicle in Seoul last October, according to a transcript of the verdict obtained by The Associated Press. The ruling said King had also been accused of punching a man at a Seoul nightclub, though the court dismissed that charge because the victim didn’t want King to be punished.

    It wasn’t clear how King spent the hours from leaving the airport Monday until joining the Panmunjom tour Tuesday. The Army realized he was missing when he did not get off the flight in Texas as expected.

    North Korea has previously held a number of Americans who were arrested for anti-state, espionage and other charges. But no other Americans were known to be detained since North Korea expelled American Bruce Byron Lowrance in 2018. During the Cold War, a small number of U.S. soldiers who fled to North Korea later appeared North Korean propaganda films.

    “North Korea is not going to ‘catch and release’ a border-crosser because of its strict domestic laws and desire to deter outsiders from breaking them. However, the Kim regime has little incentive to hold an American citizen very long, as doing so can entail liabilities,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

    “For Pyongyang, it makes sense to find a way of extracting some compensation and then expel an American for unauthorized entry into the country before an isolated incident escalates in ways that risk North Korean diplomatic and financial interests,” he said. “In the best-case scenario, the American soldier will return home safely at the cost of some propaganda victory for Pyongyang, and U.S and North Korean officials will have an opportunity to resume dialogue and contacts that went stagnant during the pandemic.”

    Other experts say North Korea won’t likely easily return King as he is a soldier who apparently voluntarily fled to North Korea, though many previous U.S. civilian detainees were released after the United States sent high-profile missions to Pyongyang to secure their freedom.

    The U.S. and North Korea, who fought during the 1950-53 Korean War, still have no diplomatic ties. Sweden provided consular services for Americans in past cases, but Swedish diplomatic staff reportedly haven’t returned since North Korea ordered foreigners to leave the country at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “What I will say is that we here at the State Department have engaged with counterparts in South Korea and with Sweden on this issue, including here in Washington,” Miller said.

    Jeon Ha-kyu, a spokesperson of South Korea’s Defense Ministry, said Thursday his ministry is sharing related information with the American-led U.N. Command in South Korea, without elaborating.

    Currently, there are no known, active dialogues between North Korea and the U.S. or South Korea.

    King’s case happened as North Korea has been stepping up its criticism of the United States over its recent moves to bolster its security commitment to South Korea. Earlier this week, the U.S. deployed a nuclear-armed submarine in South Korea for the first time in four decades. North Korea later test-fired two missiles with the potential range to strike the South Korean port whether the U.S.. submarine docked.

    King’s family members said the soldier may have felt overwhelmed by his legal troubles and possible discharge from the military. They described him as a quiet loner who did not drink or smoke and enjoyed reading the Bible.

    “I can’t see him doing that intentionally if he was in his right mind,” King’s maternal grandfather, Carl Gates, told The Associated Press from his Kenosha, Wisconsin, home. “Travis is a good guy. He wouldn’t do nothing to hurt nobody. And I can’t see him trying to hurt himself.”

    Carl Gates said his grandson joined the military three years ago out of a desire to serve his country and because he “wanted to do better for himself.”

    King’s mother, Claudine Gates, told reporters outside her Racine, Wisconsin, home that all she cares about is bringing her son home.

    “I just want my son back,” she said in video posted by Milwaukee television station WISN. “Get my son home.”

    King’s grandfather called on his country to help rescue his grandson.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Melissa Winder in Kenosha, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

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  • An American soldier is detained by North Korea after crossing its heavily armed border

    An American soldier is detained by North Korea after crossing its heavily armed border

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    SEOUL, South Korea — An American soldier crossed the heavily armed border from South Korea into North Korea, U.S. officials said Tuesday. He went “willfully and without authorization,” the U.S. military said, becoming the first American detained in the North in nearly five years at a time of heightened tensions over its nuclear program.

    There were no immediate details about why or how the soldier crossed the border or whether he was on duty. The five U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter ahead of a public announcement.

    The American-led U.N. Command overseeing the area tweeted earlier Tuesday that the detained soldier was on a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom. The soldier purposefully separated himself and ran away from the rest of the group, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment. The official added that it’s “not normal” for active duty service members to go on such tours.

    The U.S. military in South Korea also said in a statement that he “willfully and without authorization” crossed the military demarcation line into North Korea.

    It said that he is believed to be in North Korean custody and that the U.N. Command is working with its North Korean counterparts to resolve the incident. North Korea’s state media didn’t immediately report on the border crossing.

    Cases of Americans or South Koreans defecting to North Korea are rare, though more than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea to avoid political oppression and economic difficulties since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

    Panmunjom, located inside the 248-kilometer-long (154-mile-long) Demilitarized Zone, has been jointly overseen by the U.N. Command and North Korea since its creation at the close of the Korean War. Bloodshed and gunfire have occasionally occurred there, but it has also been a venue for numerous talks and is a popular tourist spot.

    Known for its blue huts straddling concrete slabs that form the demarcation line, Panmunjom draws visitors from both sides who want to see the Cold War’s last frontier. No civilians live at Panmunjom. In the past, North and South Korean soldiers faced off within meters (yards) of each other.

    Tours to the southern side of the village reportedly drew around 100,000 visitors a year before the coronavirus pandemic, when South Korea restricted gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19. The tours resumed fully last year. During a short-lived period of inter-Korean engagement in 2018, Panmunjom was one of the border sites that underwent mine-clearing operations by North and South Korean army engineers as the Koreas vowed to turn the village into a “peace zone” where tourists from both sides could move around with more freedom.

    In November 2017, North Korean soldiers fired 40 rounds as one of their colleagues raced toward the South. That soldier was hit five times before he was found beneath a pile of leaves on the southern side of Panmunjom. He survived and is now in South Korea.

    The most famous incident at Panmunjom happened in August 1976, when two American army officers were killed by ax-wielding North Korean soldiers. The U.S. officers had been sent to trim a 40-foot-tall (12-meter-tall) tree that obstructed the view from a checkpoint. The attack prompted Washington to fly nuclear-capable B-52 bombers toward the DMZ to intimidate North Korea.

    Panmunjom also is where the armistice that ended the Korean War was signed. That armistice has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula technically in a state of war. The United States still stations about 28,000 troops in South Korea.

    There have been a small number of U.S. soldiers who went to North Korea during the Cold War, including Charles Jenkins, who deserted his army post in South Korea in 1965 and fled across the DMZ. He appeared in North Korean propaganda films and married a Japanese nursing student who had been abducted from Japan by North Korean agents. He died in Japan in 2017.

    But in recent years, some American civilians have been arrested in North Korea after allegedly entering the country from China. They were later convicted of espionage, subversion and other anti-state acts but were often released after the U.S. sent high-profile missions to secure their freedom.

    In May 2018, North Korea released three American detainees — Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song — who returned to the United States on a plane with then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a short-lived period of warm relations between the longtime adversaries. Later in 2018, North Korea said it expelled American Bruce Byron Lowrance. Since his ouster, there have been no reports of other Americans detained in North Korea before Tuesday’s incident.

    The 2018 releases came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was engaged in nuclear diplomacy with then-President Donald Trump. The high-stakes diplomacy collapsed in 2019 amid wrangling over U.S.-led sanctions on North Korea.

    Their freedoms were a striking contrast to the fate of Otto Warmbier, an American university student who died in 2017 days after he was released by North Korea in a coma after 17 months in captivity. Warmbier and other previous American detainees in North Korea were imprisoned over a variety of alleged crimes, including subversion, anti-state activities and spying.

    The United States, South Korea and others have accused North Korea of using foreign detainees to wrest diplomatic concessions. Some foreigners have said after their release that their declarations of guilt were coerced while in North Korean custody.

    Tuesday’s border crossing happened during tensions over North Korea’s barrage of missile tests since the start of last year. A U.S. nuclear-armed submarine visited South Korea on Tuesday for the first time in four decades in deterrence against North Korea.

    ___

    Copp reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.

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  • Divisions over the Ukraine war cause a rift at the EU-LatAm summit that was supposed to be a love-in

    Divisions over the Ukraine war cause a rift at the EU-LatAm summit that was supposed to be a love-in

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    BRUSSELS — High anxiety set in on the closing day of a summit between European Union and Latin American leaders that was supposed to be a love-in but turned into a diplomatic fracas over the war in Ukraine.

    Ambassadors worked through much of the night and into Tuesday morning to find even the blandest text to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, with talks hung up over the reservations of some Central and South American nations like Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

    “It would be a shame that we are not able to to say that there is Russian aggression in Ukraine. It’s a fact. And I’m not here to rewrite history,” an exasperated Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said.

    Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar pushed it even further. “Sometimes it’s better to have no conclusions at all than to have language that doesn’t mean anything,” he said.

    The long-anticipated summit, eight years after the previous one, descended into a standoff over who would blink first over an issue that a vast majority of the 60 nations attending had already agreed on in several votes at the United Nations and other international institutions.

    While the 27-nation EU wanted the summit to center on new economic initiatives and closer cooperation to stave off surging Chinese influence in the region, several leaders of the 33-nation Community of Latin American and Caribbean States brought century-old recriminations over colonialism and slavery to the table.

    “Most of Europe was, and still is, overwhelmingly the lopsided beneficiary in a relationship in which our Latin America, and our Caribbean, have been and are unequally yoked,” said St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who holds the CELAC presidency.

    The diplomatic defense of Ukraine and the condemnation of Moscow is everyday staple for EU nations, but many Latin and Central American governments have taken a more neutral view to a conflict in Europe that for them in only one of many blighting the world.

    While the EU pushes for strong words on the war, Gonsalves said that “this summit ought not to become another unhelpful battleground for discourses on this matter, which has been and continues to be addressed in other, more relevant fora.”

    The result was that long-stalled trade agreements — like a huge EU-Mercosur deal — will likely be no closer to resolution when the leaders wrap up their summit Tuesday afternoon.

    If something were on show, it was Central and South America’s increased confidence, boosted by a huge injection of funds from China and the knowledge that their critical raw materials will become ever more vital as the EU seeks to end an excessive reliance on Beijing’s rare mineral resources.

    Their last such encounter was in 2015, and since then the COVID-19 pandemic and Brazil’s three-year departure from the 33-nation CELAC group had made the Atlantic Ocean separating the two sides seem wider.

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  • Ukraine bides its time in its counteroffensive, trying to stretch Russian forces before striking

    Ukraine bides its time in its counteroffensive, trying to stretch Russian forces before striking

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    The first phase of Ukraine’s counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory began weeks ago without fanfare. Apart from claiming that its troops are edging forward, Kyiv has not offered much detail on how it’s going.

    Taking place mostly out of sight of impartial observers, the fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine pits troops equipped with new Western-supplied weapons against Kremlin forces that spent months digging formidable defenses and honing tactics.

    Here’s a look at what’s happening after more than 16 months of war:

    WHAT ARE UKRAINE’S TACTICS?

    Fighting has intensified at multiple points along the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line. Ukrainian forces are making steady progress along the northern and southern flanks of the wrecked city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces have been occupying since May.

    Battles are also raging along the southern front in Zaporizhzhia, where Ukrainian forces are making minimal gains and coming up against formidable Russian fortifications.

    Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy minister of defense, recently claimed that Kyiv’s forces had destroyed six Russian ammunition depots in the space of 24 hours, a remark that hinted at Ukrainian tactics.

    “We inflict effective, painful and precise blows and bleed the occupier, for whom the lack of ammunition and fuel will sooner or later become fatal,” she said.

    Britain’s top military officer says that is Ukraine’s first goal: starve Russian units of supplies and reinforcements by attacking logistic and command centers in the rear, including with U.K.-supplied Storm Shadow missiles. Ukraine is also trying to stretch Russia’s resources by simultaneously badgering multiple points along the front line, said Admiral Tony Radakin, chief of the U.K. defense staff, earlier this month.

    Ukraine’s full-scale offensive will come, he said, when one point on the front line collapses. Kyiv’s reserve troops can then pour through the breach.

    “I would describe it as a policy of starve, stretch and strike,’’ Radakin told a British parliamentary committee.

    He noted that Ukraine lacks vital air cover for its attacks. Kyiv has won pledges from its Western allies of F-16 fighter jets, but they aren’t expected to be seen over the battlefield until next year. Ukraine is also asking for long-range weapons and more ammunitions.

    The U.S. sent Ukraine cluster munitions this week to help bolster its offensive. President Joe Biden said he hoped the controversial bombs will provide a temporary fix to help stop Russian tanks because “the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition.”

    WHAT ARE RUSSIA’S TACTICS?

    The Kremlin’s forces are using large numbers of anti-tank mines to slow Ukraine’s armored counteroffensive operations in southern Ukraine. That puts exposed Ukrainian attackers at the mercy of Russian drones, helicopters and artillery.

    Even when entrenched behind many kilometers (miles) of trenches, anti-tank ditches and other obstacles, reportedly up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) deep in some places, Russian forces face plenty of difficulties.

    Battlefield attrition has diminished Moscow’s military heft. The war has also exposed incompetence and a lack of initiative in Russian ranks, as well as poor coordination.

    Radakin, Britain’s commander in chief, said Russia has lost about half its combat strength since its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Also, Russian factories aren’t able to supply enough munitions to replace those lost on the battlefield, he said.

    For example, Russia has used about 10 million shells in Ukraine, while producing only 1 million new ones, according to Radakin. Similarly, it has lost more than 2,000 tanks but manufactured just 200 replacements, he said.

    Russians are reportedly conducting offensive operations and making minimal gains in the northern Kreminna forest area.

    WHAT NEXT?

    The Ukrainian counteroffensive will be “very long” and “very bloody,” U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently.

    Ukrainian soldiers say the sheer weight of Russian shelling of their positions has been surprising and is slowing Kyiv’s advance.

    In the open fields of Zaporizhzhia in particular, where finding cover is difficult, commanders are exposing fewer soldiers in order to limit the number of casualties from heavy artillery.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged last week that the counteroffensive “isn’t going fast.”

    It started later than many expected, apparently as Kyiv waited for the delivery of Western arms and the arrival of Western-trained soldiers. That delay meant that the operation began in the summer instead of the spring.

    Military planners have to bear in mind that the Ukrainian winter brings muddy conditions that bog down armor and troops. The notorious mud season even has its own name: “rasputitsa.”

    Once the weather deteriorates, the warring sides will have to take stock and get ready for what could be another round of attritional warfare over the coming winter.

    Western analysts say the counteroffensive, even if it prospers, won’t end the war. But it could prove to be a decisive episode and strengthen Kyiv’s hand in any negotiations. Ukraine is also keen to show the West that sending aid was worthwhile.

    ___

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

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