World Briefing: September 7, 2024

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says that no single military weapon will be decisive for Ukraine to defeat Russia's full-scale invasion and that the use of donated U.S. weapons for long-range strikes into Russia would not turn the tide of the war in Ukraine's favour. In a potentially game-changing statement, he told reporters that Russia had moved its glide bombs back to positions beyond the range of U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS). He also noted that Ukraine itself had significant capabilities to attack targets well beyond the range of the British Storm Shadow cruise missile. Austin made the comments after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy personally appealed to the group for more weapons support from its Western allies and called on allies to allow Ukraine to use the weapons they provided to strike deeper inside Russia. - RFE/RL

My comment: the decision by Washington came just after the Zelensky team ousted its widely-respected minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba. Also on the heels of some other decisions that prompted head scratching overseas, including the firing of the head of state-owned UkrEnergo. President Zelensky and his team appear to be fighting headwinds that are, in part, self-inflicted.

A devastated Ukrainian father said farewell to his wife and three daughters who were killed by a Russian missile strike at a tearful funeral in Lviv. Utter sorrow overcame the western Ukrainian city yesterday as mourners bade farewell to four members of a family killed by a missile strike on civilians. Only Yaroslav Bazylevych remained alive - his wife Evgeniya, 43, and three daughters Yaryna, 21, Darya, 18 and Emilia, seven, all perished in their own home. During the heartbreaking funeral service, the broken husband and father stood close to the open coffins of a family torn apart by a deadly strike. The tragic mother and daughters were later buried following today's funeral at the Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Lviv - Daily Mail

France’s defence ministry says it will use a share of €1.4 billion euros in revenue from frozen Russian assets to finance the purchase of military equipment for Ukraine. EU member states agreed in May to use the interest generated by seized assets belonging to the Russian central bank to support Kyiv, a decision Russia has denounced as "illegal" - France 24

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Turkish-American woman taking part in an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank on Friday, another protester who witnessed the shooting told The Associated Press. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the death of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, but did not say whether she had been shot by Israeli troops. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said that Turkey would exert “all effort to ensure that those who killed our citizen is brought to justice”

Israeli forces appeared to have withdrawn from three refugee camps in the occupied West Bank by Friday morning, after a more than weeklong military operation that left dozens dead and a trail of destruction. The military’s raids in the three refugee camps, involving hundreds of troops, have been the deadliest operation in the territory since the Israel-Hamas war began. Overnight, Israeli armored personnel carriers were seen leaving the Jenin refugee camp from a checkpoint set up on one of the main roads. An Associated Press reporter inside the camp saw no evidence of any remaining troops inside as dawn broke Friday. - AP

Boeing’s Starliner is finally came home, but the two NASA astronauts who traveled in the spacecraft to the International Space Station are not. The mission, which launched in June, was the first time Starliner carried people to orbit. The flight was intended as a final shakedown before NASA certified the spacecraft for once-a-year missions taking astronauts to and from the space station.The vehicle’s propulsion system experienced problems during its approach to the space station, including several balky thrusters and leaks of helium, a gas used to push propellant in the weightlessness of orbit. Although Starliner was able to dock successfully, the cause of the problems is still not fully understood, and NASA officials decided it would be safer for Starliner to return without anyone aboard. - NYT

A U.S. judge says he plans to deliver a punishment for Google’s internet search monopoly by August 2025, kicking off a new phase in an antitrust case that could reshape the tech giant and change competition on the internet, the New York Times reported. Judge Mehta also signaled that he would take into account the swiftly changing technology landscape, including potential new competition from artificially intelligent chatbots from companies like OpenAI and Microsoft. “The world has changed since discovery closed two years ago,” Judge Mehta said, adding that Google and Microsoft have added A.I. into their search and that OpenAI’s chatbot is being used for search.

More than 99 percent of humanity is now breathing polluted air, leading to more than 8 million annual deaths, including more than 700,000 children under five. The statistics were issued on the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies by the UN.Dirty air disproportionately affects more vulnerable populations such as women, children and older people. Air pollution has become the second leading risk factor for early death globally, overtaking tobacco for adults and second only to malnutrition for children under five. Yet despite already high and still rising economic, environmental and existential impact of air pollution, which each year costs the world USD $ 8.1 trillion in health damages alone, less than 1 per cent of international development funding is dedicated to tackling it.“

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