International
Ukraine attacks second bridge in Russia’s Kursk, heads for buffer zone
Ukraine attacks second bridge in Russia’s Kursk, heads for buffer zone
Ukraine says it has destroyed a second bridge across the River Seym which winds through Russia’s Kursk region.
It is the second attack on a bridge in the region in a matter of days and comes as Ukraine presses a cross-border offensive that began on August 6.
On Friday, it said it had struck a bridge in the Russian town of Glushkovo.
“Minus one more bridge,” Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram on Sunday, publishing an aerial video of a blast tearing through the bridge near the Russian town of Zvannoye.
He said the attacks were designed to disrupt Russian supply lines.
“The Air Force aviation continues to deprive the enemy of logistical capabilities with precision air strikes,” Oleshchuk said, without giving a date for the attack.
Hours after the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the military’s incursion and stated its aims for the first time.
“Our guys are doing a great job in all areas,” he said in his evening address on Sunday.
“It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall: to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions. This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory -– our operation in the Kursk region.”
Pro-Kremlin military bloggers acknowledged the destruction of the first bridge near Glushkovo, which is about 12km (7.5 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, saying it would disrupt supply lines.
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Zvannoe is located a further 8km (5 miles) to the northwest.
According to Russia’s Mash news site, the attacks left only one bridge in the area intact, potentially complicating further Moscow’s attempts to replenish its forces and evacuate civilians.
Until now, Kyiv has said little about the goals of the surprise incursion, which began with tanks and other armoured vehicles, the largest attack on Russia since World War II.
Ukraine’s military chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, claimed last week that his forces had advanced across 1,000sq km (390sq miles) of Kursk, although it was not possible to independently verify the extent of its control.
The incursion has helped boost Ukrainian morale as Russia pushes forward in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
On Sunday, Moscow claimed to have taken the village of Svyrydonivka, about 15km (nine miles) from Pokrovsk, which is a key logistics hub for Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front.
Zelenskyy has urged Kyiv’s allies to lift the remaining restrictions on the use of Western weapons on targets deeper inside Russia, including in Kursk, saying his troops could deprive Moscow “of any ability to advance and cause destruction” if granted sufficient long-range capabilities.
Ukraine says bases inside Russia have been used to launch long-range attacks on Ukraine’s cities and energy infrastructure, causing significant damage and casualties.
On Sunday, Moscow targeted the capital Kyiv with ballistic missiles for a third time this month, according to the head of the municipal military administration, Serhiy Popko.
Zelenskyy said Russia had launched more than 40 missiles, 750 guided aerial bombs and 200 attack drones against Ukrainian villages and cities in the past week alone.
Ukraine attacks second bridge in Russia’s Kursk, heads for buffer zone
International
$100m coin collection buried for decades to be auctioned
$100m coin collection buried for decades to be auctioned
A coin collection, much of which remained buried underground for over 50 years, is expected to surpass $100 million at auction, according to experts.
Named the Traveller Collection, this extraordinary assemblage is believed to be the most valuable coin collection ever brought to auction.
The coins will be sold gradually over the next three years, with the first auction set for May 20.
Beyond its immense value, the collection’s origins make for a fascinating tale.
Spanning over 100 territories and encompassing coins from ancient times to the modern era, the collection is being auctioned by Numismatica Ars Classica.
What sets it apart is that most of the coins remained hidden underground for half a century before resurfacing.
According to a press release shared with CNN, the anonymous collector behind the collection began acquiring gold coins after the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Over time, he developed “a taste for coins with great historical interest, beauty and rarity” and eventually amassed approximately 15,000 coins.
During the 1930s, he and his wife traveled extensively across the Americas and Europe, acquiring rare and historically significant coins while meticulously documenting their purchases.
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Despite settling in Europe at a time when Hitler’s Nazi party loomed over the continent, the collector sensed the impending danger. In response, he carefully packed the coins into cigar boxes, which were then placed inside aluminum containers and buried underground, where they remained undisturbed for five decades.
Among the collection is a 50 Toman coin, part of an “exceedingly rare” set minted in Tehran and Isfahan during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
International
AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates
AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates
Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft, has claimed that improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) over the next decade may render humans superfluous for the majority of work.
In a recent interview with comedian Jimmy Fallon on NBC’s The Tonight Show in February, the billionaire philanthropist discussed how AI may take over many facets of life and business.
Gates remarked that expertise is currently “rare”, emphasising the continuous reliance on human specialists in industries such as medicine and education.
For example, we continue to rely on highly trained individuals, such as “a great doctor” or “a great teacher”, whose knowledge cannot be simply replaced by AI.
However, “with AI, over the next decade, that will become free, commonplace — great medical advice, great tutoring,” Gates said.
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In other words, Gates believes that the world is entering a new era of “free intelligence”, as he described in a recent interview with Harvard University professor and happiness specialist Arthur Brooks.
According to Gates, this transition will result in rapid breakthroughs in AI-powered technology, making them more accessible and affecting almost every part of our lives.
These breakthroughs will vary from more effective treatments and diagnoses to widely available AI instructors and virtual assistants.
“It’s very profound and even a little bit scary — because it’s happening very quickly, and there is no upper bound,” Gates told Brooks.
The discussion of how humans will fit into an AI-powered future continues.
Some analysts suggest that artificial intelligence will improve human productivity rather than completely replacing labour, hence driving economic growth and creating new jobs.
However, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman cautions that technological improvements in the coming years will disrupt the nature of most occupations across nearly all industries, potentially exerting a “hugely destabilising” influence on the workforce.
AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates
International
Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum
Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum
Poland has temporarily suspended the right of migrants arriving in Poland via its border with Belarus to apply for asylum.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced it would be happening after the controversial bill, which will allow Polish authorities to suspend this right for up to 60 days at a time, was signed into law by President Andrzej Duda.
Tusk had said it would be adopted “without a moment’s delay” while Duda said the changes were needed to strengthen security on the country’s borders.
But the law has been criticized by rights groups including Human Rights Watch, which said the EU should take legal action against Poland if it was implemented.
The group urged the country’s parliament last month to reject the bill, saying it “flies in the face of Poland’s international and EU obligations” and could “effectively completely seal off the Poland-Belarus border, where Polish authorities already engage in unlawful and abusive pushbacks”.
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The government said previously the suspension would only be applied temporarily to people who pose a threat to state security, for example large groups of aggressive migrants trying to storm the border.
Exemptions will be made for unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, the elderly or unwell, anyone exposed to “real risk of serious harm” by being returned and citizens of countries accused of conducting the instrumentalization of migration – like Belarus
Tusk has dismissed criticism from human rights groups.
“Nobody is talking about violating human rights, the right to asylum, we are talking about not granting applications to people who illegally cross the border in groups organised by Lukashenko,” he said in October.
Since 2021, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland have seen a huge increase in the number of people crossing into their countries illegally from Belarus and Russia.
Polish authorities have sent thousands of troops and border guards to police its border with Belarus and built a 5.5-metre-high steel fence along 186 km of the frontier where at times several thousand migrants have been left stranded.
Rights groups estimate more than one hundred people have died on the borders between Belarus and Poland, Lithuania and Latvia since 2021.
EU eastern flank countries and the European Commission have accused the Belarusian and Russian authorities of weaponising migration to create a new route into the EU to destabilize the bloc.
Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum
BBC
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