Kremlin on Trump's 'playing with fire' comments: National interests paramount for Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a statement to the media at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia May 11, 2025. Sergey Bobylev/Host agency RIA Novosti/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
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The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Russia's new drone strikes hit Kyiv, maternity ward in Odesa, Ukraine says
KYIV (Reuters) -Russia launched another large drone attack on Ukraine, striking Kyiv and damaging a maternity ward in the southern port of Odesa, regional officials said early on Tuesday. The overnight attacks follow Russia's biggest drone strike on Ukraine on Monday - part of intensified operations that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv's recent brazen attacks inside Russia. Medics were called to four districts of Kyiv a couple hours after midnight on Tuesday, including the historic Podil neighbourhood, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. The military said the strikes were still ongoing and urged people to seek bomb shelters. The full scale of the attack was not immediately clear. "Enemy drones are simultaneously attacking several districts of the city," Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration said on the Telegram messaging app. "There is damage to residential buildings and fires. Rescuers are working at the sites." Reuters' witnesses heard a series of loud explosions throughout the city. In the southern port of Odesa, a "massive" drone attack targeted an emergency medical building and a maternity ward, as well as residential buildings, Oleh Kiper, governor of the broader Odesa region said on Telegram. Regarding the maternity hospital there were no casualties and patients and staff were evacuated, Kiper said. He posted photos of broken windows in what looked like a medical facility and of damages to facades of several buildings. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched against Ukraine more than three years ago. But thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the chief majority of them Ukrainian. (Reporting by Oleksandr Kozhukhar in Kyiv; Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Chris Reese and Michael Perry)
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
US State Department cable says agency using AI to help staff job panels
FILE PHOTO: The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, U.S., January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. State Department will use an artificial intelligence chatbot to help it select the people who will perform annual reviews of promotions and moves, according to a cable issued Monday and reviewed by Reuters. The cable said that StateChat, an in-house chatbot which works using technology from Palantir and Microsoft, will be employed to pick foreign service officers for participation on the Foreign Service Selection Boards, the annual evaluation panels which decide whether and how to promote and shuffle around State Department employees. In a statement, a department spokesperson said the evaluations themselves "will not be done by AI." The boards, whose role is governed by the 1980 Foreign Service Act, play a critical role in the State Department's personnel promotion decisions, managing the annual process by which diplomats and others jump from one professional grade to the next. By statute, the boards are meant to include "a substantial number of women and members of minority groups." The State Department has been using StateChat since last year to transcribe notes, draft emails, and analyze diplomatic cables. Last week the agency's acting chief data and AI officer, Amy Ritualo, told a Palantir conference that StateChat had about 40,000 users across her agency. The program's role in the human resources process, however, has not previously been disclosed. Last month the State Department abruptly postponed the boards, and previously selected members received emails saying their services were no longer required. Monday's cable said that StateChat's technology would instead be used to "perform unbiased selection" for the boards based on employees' internally adjudicated skill codes and grades. That list would then be screened - for example for disciplinary and security issues - before being used to create the panels. There was no mention of female or minority representation. President Donald Trump's administration has repeatedly attacked what Republicans refer to as "DEI," a catch-all term covering work protecting civil rights, fighting discrimination, and boosting diversity. The American Foreign Service Association, which represents State Department employees, did not directly comment on the use of AI but said it was seeking clarification from agency leadership about how it intends to comply with its legal obligations around women and minority group representation. Palantir and Microsoft didn't immediately return messages. Although the deployment of AI by officials precedes Trump's reelection in 2024, his administration has aggressively expanded its use since his return to power. Last month Reuters reported that tech tycoon Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service was expanding its use of the AI chatbot Grok across the U.S. federal government. In April, Reuters reported that Trump administration officials had told some U.S. government employees that DOGE was using AI to monitor at least one federal agency's communications for hostility to the president. (Reporting by Raphael Satter and Humeyra Pamuk; editing by Edward Tobin)
The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
Glory days, gritty lives
TAMARA pointed to her dilapidated wooden house in a town outside Moscow and lamented the economic hardships of daily life in small town Russia. 'Our fathers fought hard and we are left to live in these shacks,' she said in Ivanteyevka, a town of around 80,000 people some 30km from central Moscow. As Russia celebrated the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany with a grand military parade in front of some 25 foreign leaders, Tamara said she wanted politicians to remember how Russians like her are struggling. 'Our authorities have no shame,' said the 65-year old, declining to give her surname. 'They tell us it's tough for them to see us living here. Well, try living here instead of us.' Her anger is not directed at the Kremlin, less than an hour's drive away, or Russian President Vladimir Putin, but rather at the local administration. They had 'promised to tear down our shacks and relocate us', she said. Her crumbling wooden dormitory was built for workers in 1906, during the reign of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II. It stands in the centre of the town, next to a few others but surrounded by more modern apartment blocks. She occupies a 12 square metre bedroom in the 29-room dormitory. Residents share a single kitchen and bathroom. Orthodox icons hang on the walls, as does a picture of Putin on a horse. Tamara, who used to work in a now-shut textile factory, spends a quarter of her monthly US$240 pension on utilities. 'Perhaps our country has enough money for our retirees to receive a decent pension, not the miserable one we get,' she said. 'We are a great and rich country.' Russia's economy has grown strongly since it launched its military offensive on Ukraine, buoyed by high government spending on soldiers and weapons. But inflation has soared – and for those like Tamara who are not benefitting from the boom in state spending, higher prices mean a struggle to find enough money to cover basic necessities. Despite her own difficulties, Tamara believes the grandiose celebrations in Moscow were worth it. Like many of her generation, her father fought in World War II and the public holiday is important to her. However, in Ivanteyevka, Russia's offensive on Ukraine still casts a shadow. Victory Day 'is a good celebration', said Nina Murashova, a 67-year-old businesswoman. 'But I have a heavy heart because of what is happening these days,' she added. 'I'm worried for our guys who are dying. We're waiting for a victory, a second victory,' she said, echoing the wave of patriotism sweeping across Putin's Russia. Putin ordered Russia's troops into Ukraine in February 2022 – a campaign that has since killed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. Russia controls around one-fifth of Ukraine's territory, including the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014. Putin has used the Soviet Union's victory in World War II as one of the rallying cries for his Ukraine campaign. He said that the offensive was launched to 'de-Nazify' Ukraine – a claim Kyiv has called 'incomprehensible'. Inside Russia, criticism of the army has been outlawed, with dissenters arrested or forced into exile. Murashova said she is kept up at night by worries that her grandson, who has just completed his compulsory 12-month military service, could be sent to fight in Ukraine. She said it is painful to see soldiers returning from Ukraine 'without legs, without arms'. Elena Maximkina, a 56-year-old security guard, was walking with her granddaugther, donning a Soviet-era military cap that is popular around Victory Day. 'I only see the war on TV and on my mobile phone. But I don't really feel it here,' she said, before pausing: 'Though it is true that drones are flying overhead.' The Kremlin has tried to shield Russians from the fallout of its offensive. But in the run-up to the parade, Ukraine fired dozens of drones at Russia. Little damage has been recorded, but it caused travel chaos across the country, disrupting more than 350 flights. Despite the patriotic fervour whipped up by Putin, some still question the offensive on Ukraine. 'What's the point of this war?' asked Nadezhda, a 76-year-old born amid the post-WWII devastation. — AFP
