«Поки заявки на членство розглядаються, Сполучені Штати працюватимуть з Фінляндією та Швецією, щоб пильнувати будь-які загрози нашій спільній безпеці»
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Germany’s three governing parties plan to strip former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of his office and staff after he maintained and defended his long-standing ties with Russia despite the war in Ukraine.
Schroeder’s own Social Democratic Party said Wednesday that lawmakers on the parliamentary budget committee had agreed to link some of the former German leader’s privileges to actual duties, rather than his status as former chancellor.
They planned to submit a proposal to lawmakers on Thursday.
Schroeder has become increasingly isolated in recent months due to his work for Russian state-controlled energy companies.
The 78-year-old is chairman of the supervisory board of Russian state energy company Rosneft and also has been involved with the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline projects.
Earlier this year his office staff quit and Schroeder faced a fresh wave of outrage from former political allies after the New York Times quoted him saying that the massacre of civilians in Bucha “has to be investigated” but he didn’t think the orders would have come from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is a longtime friend.
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Прокурор АРК уточнив, що «з метою переслідування корінного народу Криму, окупанти… обмежують право сповідувати свою релігію та знищують культурну спадщину»
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За словами Подоляка, Європа має «більш коректно» ставитись до того, як має завершитись ця війна
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Pope Francis recently joked with seminarians about needing some alcohol to deal with severe pain in his knee. He recently cancelled a foreign trip because of the ailment, sparking speculation about his declining health.
Pope Francis has been suffering from pain in his right knee due to strained ligaments in recent weeks which has also forced him to use a wheelchair on more than one occasion. Doctors have also prescribed physical therapy to help him with his ailment.
But following his general audience this week, he seemed to think there was something else that could help him with his pain.
He was riding on his popemobile at the end of the audience when some Mexican seminarians shouted out to him asking him how he was doing with his knee. The exchange between the pope and the seminarians went viral when Francis said he could use some tequila to deal with his knee pain.
The seminarians asked him in his native Spanish how his knee was doing, and Francis responded it was “capricious.”
The pope said: “Do you know what I need for my knee? A little tequila.” The Mexicans laughed heartily and promised to bring Pope Francis a bottle of the potent liquor — considered Mexico’s national drink — the next time they pay a visit to the Santa Marta house in the Vatican where Francis lives.
The faithful saw the pope limping badly when he was presiding at ceremonies recently for the Easter festivities. He uses a cane to walk.
There have been concerns that at 85-years of age the pope’s health is not what it used to be when he was elected more than nine years ago. But close advisers have rejected any speculation that the pope is generally unwell.
Argentine Bishop Victor Manuel Fernandez from La Plata met with the pope on May 14 and later tweeted: “He’s in very good health and the same lucid reflection as always.”
Pope Francis has a busy travel schedule for the remainder of this year with confirmed trips to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan in early July and a separate trip to Canada later the same month.
Still, doubts have persisted after he recently cancelled a planned two-day trip to Lebanon in June due to his knee problem.
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The fall of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol to Russia appeared imminent Tuesday as Ukraine moved to abandon the city’s sprawling steel plant, and hundreds of Kyiv fighters who had been holed up there turned themselves over to Russian forces in a deal reached by the warring parties.
The capture of Mariupol, a prewar city of 430,000 people along the north coast of the Sea of Azov, would be Moscow’s biggest success in its nearly three-month offensive against Ukraine.
But Russia is struggling to capture more territory in eastern Ukraine and has failed to topple the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or take the capital, Kyiv.
Under constant Russian shelling, which Ukraine estimates has killed 20,000 civilians in Mariupol, much of the city has been reduced to rubble. What’s left of it is situated between the Russian mainland and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
More than 260 Ukrainian fighters — some of them seriously wounded and lying on stretchers — left the ruins of the Azovstal steel plant on Monday and turned themselves over to Russian forces. Ukrainian authorities said they were working to remove its remaining soldiers from the steel mill, but it was not clear how many remained.
Russia called the operation a mass surrender. The Ukrainians, in contrast, said its garrison had completed its mission.
“The goal was that our guys, who heroically defend the city and restrain the enemy directly in Mariupol, did not allow them to pass through Mariupol,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko told VOA’s Ukrainian Service. “That is, they saved the nation, they allowed the Armed Forces of Ukraine to prepare and other cities to be more prepared for this terrible war that has already taken place in Ukraine.”
It was not clear what would happen to the Ukrainian fighters. A Russian official cast doubt on a full-scale prisoner exchange.
Fifty-three seriously injured fighters were taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk, east of Mariupol, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said. Novoazovsk is under the control of Russian troops and Russian-backed separatists.
Another 211 fighters were taken to the town of Olenivka, an area also controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Malyar said, adding that the evacuees would be subject to a potential prisoner exchange with Russia.
During his nightly video address to the nation, Zelenskyy discussed the evacuation of soldiers from Mariupol.
“The operation to rescue the defenders of Mariupol was started by our military and intelligence officers. To bring the boys home, the work continues, and this work needs delicacy. And time.”
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters it is “difficult to know” what the end of combat operations in Mariupol means.
“We have long talked about the significance of Mariupol as a major economic port on the Sea of Azov and also geographically relevant to the fighting in the east,” Kirby said.
He added that Russia has a clear intent “to encircle and to occupy the Donbas and the eastern part of the country,” but that “they have not succeeded in that.”
NATO expansion
Sweden and Finland presented their applications to join the NATO military alliance Wednesday in Brussels, with ambassadors from both countries meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“This is a good day at a critical moment for our security,” Stoltenberg told reporters. “Thank you so much for handing over the applications for Finland’s and Sweden’s membership in NATO. Every nation has the right to choose its own path. You have both made your own choice after thorough democratic processes, and I warmly welcome the requests by Finland and Sweden to join NATO.”
The moves come in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and represent major shifts for both Sweden and Finland which have long stayed out of such alliances.
Their applications must be approved by all 30 of the existing NATO members. Turkey has expressed its opposition, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing Sweden and Finland of giving safe haven to “terrorists” and imposing sanctions on Turkey.
Discussion of Turkey’s position will continue Wednesday as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in New York.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Tuesday that after talks with NATO allies there is “strong consensus” for admitting Sweden and Finland, and that “we are confident we’ll be able to preserve that consensus.”
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:
4:10 a.m.: Reuters reported that Israel has delivered 2,000 helmets and 500 protective vests for emergency and civilian organizations in Ukraine.
3:00 a.m.: Russian gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM said it continues to supply gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point, with volumes on Wednesday seen at 51.6 million cubic meters (mcm), up from 49.3 mcm on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Gazprom said an application to supply gas via the main Sokhranovka entry point, the Reuters report added, was rejected by Ukraine.
2:17 a.m.: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the decision of Finland and Sweden to apply for membership in the alliance is “a good day at a critical moment for our security.” Speaking alongside the ambassadors of both nations at NATO headquarters in Brussels. the secretary-general said:
“You have both made your own choice after thorough democratic processes, and I warmly welcome the requests by Finland and Sweden to join NATO,” Stoltenberg said to them.
“All allies agree on the importance of NATO enlargement,” said Stoltenberg. “We all agree that we must stand together. And we all agree that this is an historic moment which we must seize.”
2:00 a.m.: In its latest battleground intelligence report Wednesday, the British defense ministry said “staunch Ukrainian resistance delayed Russia’s ability to gain full control over” Mariupol despite encircling the city for over ten weeks. “This frustrated its [Russia’s] early attempts to capture a key city and inflicted costly personnel losses amongst Russian forces,” the ministry said.
1:20 a.m.: A Ukrainian court held a preliminary hearing on Friday in the first war crimes trial arising from Russia’s February 24 invasion, after charging a captured Russian soldier with the murder of a 62-year-old civilian.
The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said the defendant was a 21-year-old tank commander in the Kantemirovskaya tank division from the Moscow region. The prosecutor general had published a photograph of him ahead of the hearing. The defendant identified himself as Vadim Shishimarin, and confirmed that he was a Russian serviceman.
Prosecutors said Shishimarin and four other soldiers stole a car after their convoy came under attack. As they were travelling near the village of Shupakhivka in the Sumy region, they encountered the man on a bicycle.
“One of the soldiers ordered the accused to kill the civilian so that he would not denounce them,” the prosecutor’s office said.
In a video released earlier this month by authorities announcing his arrest, Shishimarin said he had come to fight in Ukraine to “support his mother financially.”
The court will reconvene on May 18, the judge said.
1:15 a.m.: Lawmakers in Finland voted overwhelmingly Wednesday in favor of the country joining NATO by a vote of 188-8, marking a dramatic reversal of Finland’s military non-alignment policy dating back more than 75 years. Agence France-Presse has the video:
12:30 a.m.: The fall of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol to Russia appeared imminent Tuesday as Ukraine moved to abandon the city’s sprawling steel plant, and hundreds of Kyiv fighters who had been holed up there turned themselves over to Russian forces in a deal reached by the warring parties.
The capture of Mariupol, a prewar city of 430,000 people along the north coast of the Sea of Azov, would be Moscow’s biggest success in its nearly three-month offensive against Ukraine. But Russia is struggling to capture more territory in eastern Ukraine and has failed to topple the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or take the capital, Kyiv. VOA’s National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin reports.
Under constant Russian shelling, which Ukraine estimates has killed 20,000 civilians in Mariupol, much of the city has been reduced to rubble. What’s left of it is situated between the Russian mainland and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
More than 260 Ukrainian fighters — some of them seriously wounded and lying on stretchers — left the ruins of the Azovstal steel plant on Monday and turned themselves over to Russian forces. Ukrainian authorities said they were working to remove its remaining soldiers from the steel mill, but it was not clear how many remained.
Russia called the operation a mass surrender. The Ukrainians, in contrast, said its garrison had completed its mission.
12:01 a.m.: In an interview with VOA’s Ukranian Service Tuesday, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko spoke of the courage of Ukrainian forces who defended the once-thriving Southeastern seaport besieged by Russian artillery for 82 days.
“There is still a Ukrainian flag over Mariupol. And they were doing it against the powers that were [a] dozen times stronger. They were working professionally, almost without food or water. Without [much] weapons,” Boychenko said.
He praised Denys Prokopenko, commander of Azov special regiment, who was in charge of the defense and others who supported Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion.
“They were not only holding Mariupol, but they’ve held back an immense power of 20-30 professional Russian military, said Boychenko. “It has allowed the other [Ukrainian] military groups, other cities to better prepare for this war.”
Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Загалом Австралія запровадила санкції проти 827 фізичних та 62 юридичних осіб через військове вторгнення Росії в Україну.
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Збитки від російського вторгнення в Україну оцінюють у сотні мільярдів доларів, порахувати їх точно наразі неможливо, оскільки російська агресія і руйнування, які вона завдає, не припиняються
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Радіо Свобода вимагає від уряду Таджикистану вжити заходів, щоб припинити переслідування незалежних журналістів
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In February, the Nigerian technology startup CrowdForce announced a big break: It had received $3.6 million from investors to expand its financial services operations to many more underserved communities.
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Tomi Ayorinde said new funding will boost its mobile agent network from 7,000 to 21,000 this year.
“We were looking to scale faster and really gain market share,” Ayorinde said. “And what we’re doing is also very impact-related because we’re creating jobs, avenues for people to make extra income in their communities. So, it was also very interesting for impact investors to be part of what we’re trying to do.”
When Ayorinde helped launch CrowdForce seven years ago, he intended it to be a data collection company. But after about two years, the company overhauled its business model when Ayorinde realized it could fill a need for bank accounts.
“When we collected data of 4.5 million traders what we saw was, a lot of them didn’t have bank accounts and the ones that have bank accounts had a very tough time accessing the cash that was sent to them,” said Ayorinde.”That’s when we kind of realized that there’s a bigger problem to solve here.”
Experts say about 60% of Africa’s 1.2 billion people lack access to banks or financial services. Technology startups in Africa are trying to fix that, said the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association known as AVCA.
In a recent report, the industry group said African startups attracted $5.2 billion in venture capital last year, and that West Africa – led by Nigeria – accounted for the largest share of investments.
AVCA research manager Alexia Alexandropoulou said investors are looking to tap into Africa’s huge population of young people.
“Africa is the world’s most youthful population, so as the proportion of skilled labor increases, then the result will be more human capital in order to power African businesses and also the industrial development within the continent,” said Alexandropoulou.
AVCA’s report also cites increased internet penetration in Africa and more favorable government policies as contributing to increased investments in financial technology services knwoFintech.
But Fintech Digital Marketing Expert Louis Dike said there are obstacles to overcome, such as weak currencies and policies.
“Africa is not a perfect place because it’s still made up of virgin markets,” said Dike. “The standard of living is quite low, our regulations are not consistent, today the government will say this and tomorrow they will change the law and restrict some startup activities.”
But with new talents emerging in technology, more startups with big dreams are emerging in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.
your ad hereThe fall of the Ukrainian port of Mariupol to Russia appeared imminent Tuesday as Ukraine moved to abandon the city’s sprawling steel plant, and hundreds of Kyiv fighters who had been holed up there turned themselves over to Russian forces in a deal reached by the warring parties.
The capture of Mariupol, a prewar city of 430,000 people along the north coast of the Sea of Azov, would be Moscow’s biggest success in its nearly three-month offensive against Ukraine.
But Russia is struggling to capture more territory in eastern Ukraine and has failed to topple the government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or take the capital, Kyiv.
Under constant Russian shelling, which Ukraine estimates has killed 20,000 civilians in Mariupol, much of the city has been reduced to rubble. What’s left of it is situated between the Russian mainland and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
More than 260 Ukrainian fighters — some of them seriously wounded and lying on stretchers — left the ruins of the Azovstal steel plant on Monday and turned themselves over to Russian forces. Ukrainian authorities said they were working to remove its remaining soldiers from the steel mill, but it was not clear how many remained.
Russia called the operation a mass surrender. The Ukrainians, in contrast, said its garrison had completed its mission.
“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes to be alive. It’s our principle,” Zelenskyy said in announcing that troops had begun leaving the mill, with its Cold War-era tunnels and bunkers.
It was not clear what would happen to the Ukrainian fighters. A Russian official cast doubt on a full-scale prisoner exchange.
Fifty-three seriously injured fighters were taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk, east of Mariupol, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said. Novoazovsk is under the control of Russian troops and Russian-backed separatists.
Another 211 fighters were taken to the town of Olenivka, an area also controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Malyar said, adding that the evacuees would be subject to a potential prisoner exchange with Russia.
During his nightly video address to the nation, Zelenskyy discussed the evacuation of soldiers from Mariupol.
“The operation to rescue the defenders of Mariupol was started by our military and intelligence officers. To bring the boys home, the work continues, and this work needs delicacy. And time.”
Malyar said efforts were being made to rescue the remaining fighters inside the plant, the last stronghold of resistance in Mariupol.
“Thanks to the defenders of Mariupol, Ukraine gained critically important time,” she said. “And they fulfilled all their tasks. But it is impossible to unblock Azovstal by military means.”
Also Monday, Ukraine said its forces had pushed back Russian troops in the Kharkiv region in a counteroffensive that allowed the Ukrainians to reach the Russian border.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry posted a video showing what it said were its troops at the border, with one soldier telling Zelenskyy, “We are here.”
A senior U.S. defense official said the Ukrainian troops were within 3 or 4 kilometers of the Russian border.
Western countries allied with Ukraine are continuing to send more weaponry to Kyiv’s forces, with 10 deliveries via airlift from seven nations in the past 24 hours, the U.S. defense official told reporters during a background call on Monday.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Метою програми єдокументування, перевірка та поширення доказів із відкритих джерел
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17 травня ангенція Reuters повідомила про вивезення з «Азовсталі» нової групи українських військових
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk says his deal to buy Twitter can’t move forward unless the company shows public proof that less than 5% of the accounts on the social media platform are fake or spam.
Musk made the comment in a reply to another user on Twitter early Tuesday. He spent much of the previous day in a back-and-forth with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who posted a series of tweets explaining his company’s effort to fight bots and how it has consistently estimated that less than 5% of Twitter accounts are fake.
In his tweet Tuesday, Musk said that “20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be much higher. My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate.”
He added: “Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of 5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does.”
Twitter declined to comment.
It’s Musk’s latest salvo over inauthentic accounts, a problem he has said he wants to rid Twitter of.
At a Miami technology conference Monday, Musk estimated that at least 20% of Twitter’s 229 million accounts are spam bots, a percentage he said was at the low end of his assessment.
The battle over spam accounts kicked off last week when Musk tweeted that the Twitter deal was on on hold pending confirmation of the company’s estimates that they make up less than 5% of total users.
Also at the All In Summit, Musk gave the strongest hint yet that he would like to pay less for Twitter than the $44 billion offer he made last month.
Musk’s comments are likely to bolster theories from analysts that the billionaire either wants out of the deal or to buy the company at a cheaper price. His tweet Tuesday came in reply to one from a Tesla news site speculating that Musk “may be looking for a better Twitter deal as $44 billion seems too high.”
“Twitter shares will be under pressure this morning again as the chances of a deal ultimately getting done is not looking good now,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, who covers both Twitter and Tesla, said in a research note. He estimated that there’s “60%+ chance” that Musk ends up walking away from the deal and paying the $1 billion breakup fee.
Musk made the offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share on April 14. Twitter shares have slid since then. They were down slightly in Tuesday morning trading to $37.28.
To finance the acquisition, Musk pledged some of his Tesla shares, which have slumped by about a third since the deal was announced.
In tweets on Monday, Agrawal acknowledged Twitter isn’t perfect at catching bots. He wrote that every quarter, the company has made the estimate of less than 5% spam. “Our estimate is based on multiple human reviews of thousands of accounts that are sampled at random, consistently over time,” Agrawal wrote.
Estimates for the last four quarters were all well under 5%, he wrote. “The error margins on our estimates give us confidence in our public statements each quarter.”
Twitter has put the under 5% estimate in its quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for at least the last two years, well before Musk made his offer last month.
But in the filings, Twitter expressed doubts that its count of bot accounts was correct, conceding that the estimate may be low.
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