WASHINGTON: The White House condemned Monday an upsurge in violence in Myanmar that has sent 300,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh, saying it was “deeply troubled” by attacks on both sides.
“The United States is deeply troubled by the ongoing crisis in Burma,” said Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, condemning attacks on Burmese military positions and subsequent spasm of deadly ethnically tinged violence.
“At least 300,000 people have fled their homes in the wake of attacks on (a) Burmese security post on August 25,” without directly accusing the Burmese military of carrying out a crackdown.
We “reiterate our condemnation of those attacks and ensuing violence.”
The Trump White House had been facing questions about its silence in the face of a crisis that a UN envoy has called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
White House says ‘deeply troubled’ by Rohingya crisis
White House says ‘deeply troubled’ by Rohingya crisis
NATO wants ‘automated’ defenses along borders with Russia: German general
- That zone would act as a defensive buffer before any enemy forces advanced into “a sort of hot zone,” said Lowin
- The AI-guided system would reinforce existing NATO weapons and deployed forces, the general said
FRANKFURT: NATO is moving to boost its defenses along European borders with Russia by creating an AI-assisted “automated zone” not reliant on human ground forces, a German general said in comments published Saturday.
That zone would act as a defensive buffer before any enemy forces advanced into “a sort of hot zone” where traditional combat could happen, said General Thomas Lowin, NATO’s deputy chief of staff for operations.
He was speaking to the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
The automated area would have sensors to detect enemy forces and activate defenses such as drones, semi-autonomous combat vehicles, land-based robots, as well as automatic air defenses and anti-missile systems, Lowin said.
He added, however, that any decision to use lethal weapons would “always be under human responsibility.”
The sensors — located “on the ground, in space, in cyberspace and in the air” — would cover an area of several thousand kilometers (miles) and detect enemy movements or deployment of weapons, and inform “all NATO countries in real time,” he said.
The AI-guided system would reinforce existing NATO weapons and deployed forces, the general said.
The German newspaper reported that there were test programs in Poland and Romania trying out the proposed capabilities, and all of NATO should be working to make the system operational by the end of 2027.
NATO’s European members are stepping up preparedness out of concern that Russia — whose economy is on a war footing because of its conflict in Ukraine — could seek to further expand, into EU territory.
Poland is about to sign a contract for “the biggest anti-drone system in Europe,” its defense minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Kosiniak-Kamysz did not say how much the deal, involving “different types of weaponry,” would cost, nor which consortium would ink the contract at the end of January.
He said it was being made to respond to “an urgent operational demand.”
