World Geography And Politics Daily News

World Geography And Politics Daily News | 31 May 2023

Posted by Author : Creative World , at May 31, 2023, 11:02 a.m.

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UN technical vessel arrives at rusting oil tanker off Yemen's coast as salvage operation begins

The first technical salvage vessel arrived Tuesday near the rusting Safer oil tanker floating off the coast of war-ravaged Yemen, the United Nations said. The arrival of Ndeavor, which set off from neighboring Djibouti on Monday, marks the first step of an estimated four- to six-week U.N. operation aiming to avert a major oil spill from the tanker, representatives from the international body announced. Experts say the tanker poses a major environmental threat.

CAIRO (AP) — The first technical salvage vessel arrived Tuesday near the rusting Safer oil tanker floating off the coast of war-ravaged Yemen, the United Nations said. The arrival of Ndeavor, which set off from neighboring Djibouti on Monday, marks the first step of an estimated four- to six-week U.N. operation aiming to avert a major oil spill from the tanker, representatives from the international body announced. Experts say the tanker poses a major environmental threat. A team of experts on the Cypriot-flagged Ndeavor are expected to begin pumping inert gas to remove atmospheric oxygen from the oil chambers of the Safer on Wednesday, said David Gressly, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen. Transferring the estimated 1.14 million barrels of oil to a different tanker could start in around two weeks, he said from aboard the Ndeavor. After the transfer is complete, the Japan-made oil tanker will eventually be towed away and scrapped, he said. The Safer was built in the 1970s and sold to the Yemeni government in the 1980s to store up to 3 million barrels of oil pumped from fields in Marib, a province in central Yemen. But the impoverished South Arabian Peninsula nation has been engulfed for years in civil war and no annual maintenance has been carried out on the ship, which is 360 meters (1,181 feet) long with 34 storage tanks, since 2015. The Safer is anchored around 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the port city of Hodeida. Yemen’s ruinous conflict began in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile. The following year, a Saudi-led coalition entered the war to fight the Houthis and try to restore the internationally recognized government to power. .

Ukraine Recap: Russia to Boost Air Defense After Moscow Targeted

(Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin pledged to boost air defenses around Moscow after the Kremlin blamed Kyiv for the biggest attack on the Russian capital since the invasion of Ukraine started. Russia said it downed eight drones. Most Read from Bloomberg UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly backed Ukraine’s right to strike into Russia in self-defense, edging closer to support of such actions than the US or some other NATO allies. “Legitimate military targets beyond its own border are part of Ukraine’s self-defense,” he told reporters in Estonia, although he said he wasn’t commenting on the most recent attacks. The bipartisan agreement to avert an American debt default won’t constrain the Biden administration’s ability to provide more aid for Ukraine, a White House official said Tuesday, as the US looks to reassure Kyiv that weapons and other assistance will keep flowing. Any additional military assistance would move through Congress in a supplemental measure that wouldn’t be subject to the deal’s caps on federal spending, according to the official, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. Earlier, Russia carried out another night of attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, the 17th so far this month. One person was killed and seven were injured, Serhiy Popko, the head of the city’s military administration, said on Telegram. Latest Coverage Debt-Limit Agreement Won’t Restrict US Power to Aid Ukraine Putin Orders Tighter Air Defenses After Drone Strikes on Moscow Ukraine, IMF Reach Agreement for $900 Million Loan Disbursement Russian Oil Flows Stay High Three Months Into Pledged Output Cut Here Is What’s Behind Rising Serbia-Kosovo Tensions: QuickTake Markets Russian crude oil flows to international markets are edging lower, but still show no substantive sign of the output cuts that the Kremlin insists the country is making. The output reduction was announced in retaliation for Western sanctions and price caps on Russia’s oil exports designed to punish Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine. Coming Up (All times CET) UN nuclear watchdog expected to brief Security Council on the Zaporizhzhia atomic plant NATO foreign ministers meet in Oslo on Wednesday and Thursday Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek ©2023 Bloomberg L.P.

Zelenskyy says talks with Putin possible only if Russia withdraws all troops from Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said a meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would only be possible after the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.

The Ukrainian president said he thought that Putin has “nothing important to say.” “Putin is clearly aware that his efforts to seize Ukraine by force are indisputable,” he said. “So what can you talk to me about? Putin only wants to seize Ukraine by war and destroy Ukrainian statehood.” Zelenskyy said that it would be very difficult for him to communicate with Putin until Russian troops are completely withdrawn from the territory of Ukraine. In addition, the Ukrainian leader pointed out the next goal the Russian dictator set for himself. “Belarus is Putin’s next goal,” Zelenskyy said. “It (Russia) is absorbing Belarus.” Zelenskyy also answered a question about what he sees as Putin’s ultimate goal. In his opinion, it is the revival of the Soviet Union, which the dictator is trying to achieve through aggression and intimidation. “His life’s goal is to restore the Soviet Union,” the Ukrainian president said. “Since they (Russians) have no way of achieving this through diplomacy, they tried all kinds of intimidation and turning energy into weapons. Most of them were unsuccessful. Then they chose to be the outright aggressor. They’re killing and torturing thousands of civilians, occupying nuclear power plants and even threatening a nuclear disaster.”

South Africa to dodge calls for Putin’s arrest by moving summit

Senior South African government figures are urging Pretoria to move an upcoming Brics summit to China, so the country can avoid the dilemma of whether to arrest Vladimir Putin for war crimes, The Telegraph understands.

Leading African National Congress (ANC) politicians want President Cyril Ramaphosa to skip hosting the Russian leader, amid fears that the country’s stance over war in Ukraine is harming its economy. On Monday, the government said it was granting diplomatic immunity to attendees, but denied it was deliberately shielding Putin, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. Pressure mounted as the opposition Democratic Alliance party launched court action to compel South Africa to act on the warrant if he sets foot in the country. Leaders of the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) bloc of nations are due to meet in South Africa in August for a summit that Pretoria sees as a cornerstone of its foreign policy. But the arrival of Putin would leave the country facing a choice of whether to abide by international law and arrest the leader of a powerful nuclear-armed ally, or become a pariah among its Western trading partners. South Africa’s central bank this week warned that any falling-out with the US risked damaging the country’s financial sector. A senior government insider told The Telegraph: “We are hoping the president will listen to all this concern and will approach China. “We are suffering from this whole Russian matter. It is worrying to many people including some in senior positions in the government.” Pretoria says it is charting a neutral course in the Ukraine war and refuses to be pressured by Europe or America. Many of the ANC old guard also claim solidarity with Moscow because the USSR supported their struggle against apartheid. The country has repeatedly hosted Sergey Lavrov, the Kremlin’s top diplomat, and he is expected in Cape Town again later this week. But Western diplomats have become increasingly concerned that some in the government are leaning heavily towards Moscow. Earlier this month, Reuben Brigety, the US ambassador, alleged that a sanctioned Russian freighter picked up a consignment of arms from South Africa in December. The rand tumbled in the days after the allegation despite South African denials. Mr Ramaphosa has now launched a judge-led inquiry into the accusations. Moscow has already declared that it would consider any attempt to arrest Putin on foreign soil as an act of war. John Steenhuisen, leader of the Democratic Alliance, is seeking a court ruling that the government would be breaking the law if it failed to arrest Putin. His court petition argues the country is “duty-bound in terms of the Rome Statute and the Implementation Act to arrest President Putin upon his arrival in South Africa”.

Biden Accuser Tara Reade Claims She Fled to Russia Fearing for Her Life

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Wikimedia CommonsTara Reade, a former Senate aide who accused President Joe Biden of sexual assault, announced Tuesday she defected to Russia.The shocking confession was made during a Russian state press conference, where Reade was sitting next to alleged Kremlin spy—and pal—Maria Butina. Reade told the pro-Putin press the “very difficult” decision to move came after the realization that she no longer feels safe in Biden's America.“I'm still k

“I'm still kind of in a daze a bit but I feel very good,” Reade told Sputnik. “I feel very surrounded by protection and safety. And I just really so appreciate Maria [Butina] and everyone who's been giving me that at a time when it's been very difficult to know if I'm safe or not.” “You have U.S. and European citizens looking for safe haven here,” Reade added. “And luckily, the Kremlin is accommodating. So we're lucky.” In the hours-long Tuesday conversation—which was live-streamed on Twitter that garnered about 500 viewers—Reade touched upon a litany of topics, ranging from Russia's ongoing war with Ukraine to her critiques of America's “terrible” roads. She asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for citizenship, although she denied any pre-existing ties to Russia. “To my Russian brothers and sisters, I’m sorry right now that American elites are choosing to have such an aggressive stance. Just know that most American citizens do want to be friends and hope that we can have unity again,” she added, before personally thanking Butina. “I am enjoying my time in Moscow, and I feel very at home.” About three years ago, Reade alleged that then-Democratic presidential nominee Biden had sexually assaulted her in 1993 in a Capitol Hill office when she was his staff assistant. Biden “unequivocally” denied the allegations that quickly became a focal point of the 2020 presidential race. Media outlets have since found inconsistencies in her and witnesses' accounts of the allegations, which were made public in March 2020. Reports also put a harsh spotlight on Reade’s educational credentials. “Your name was too toxic for them and they did everything they could to block you from participating,” Dimitry Polyanskiy told Reade in the interview. Reade later told Semafor that the Russian UN diplomat reached out to her because of her online commentary on the war in Ukraine. She also called herself a “longtime anti-imperialist” and expressed her frustrations with “Russophobia.”

Artificial intelligence raises risk of extinction, experts say in new warning

Scientists and tech industry leaders, including high-level executives at Microsoft and Google, issued a new warning Tuesday about the perils that artificial intelligence poses to humankind. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the statement said. Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and Geoffrey Hinton, a computer scientist known as the godfather of artificial intelligence, were among the hundreds of leading figures who signed the statement, which was posted on the Center for AI Safety's website.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the statement said. The latest warning was intentionally succinct — just a single sentence — to encompass a broad coalition of scientists who might not agree on the most likely risks or the best solutions to prevent them, said Dan Hendrycks, executive director of the San Francisco-based nonprofit Center for AI Safety, which organized the move. “There’s a variety of people from all top universities in various different fields who are concerned by this and think that this is a global priority,” Hendrycks said. “So we had to get people to sort of come out of the closet, so to speak, on this issue because many were sort of silently speaking among each other.” He compared it to nuclear scientists in the 1930s warning people to be careful even though “we haven’t quite developed the bomb yet.” “Nobody is saying that GPT-4 or ChatGPT today is causing these sorts of concerns,” Hendrycks said. “We’re trying to address these risks before they happen rather than try and address catastrophes after the fact.” “Given our failure to heed the early warnings about climate change 35 years ago, it feels to me as if it would be smart to actually think this one through before it’s all a done deal,” he said by email Tuesday. An academic who helped push for the letter said he used to be mocked for his concerns about AI existential risk, even as rapid advancements in machine-learning research over the past decade have exceeded many people’s expectations. David Krueger, an assistant computer science professor at the University of Cambridge, said some of the hesitation in speaking out is that scientists don’t want to be seen as suggesting AI “consciousness or AI doing something magic,” but he said AI systems don’t need to be self-aware or setting their own goals to pose a threat to humanity. “I’m not wedded to some particular kind of risk. I think there’s a lot of different ways for things to go badly," Krueger said. "But I think the one that is historically the most controversial is risk of extinction, specifically by AI systems that get out of control.” ___ O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. AP Business Writers Frank Bajak in Boston and Kelvin Chan in London contributed.

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