MOSCOW: Russia protested to Japan on Friday about Tokyo’s plans to hold joint military exercises on the island of Hokkaido and accused Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of placing his country “on a path to dangerous escalation.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry, in a note on its website, said a protest had been issued to Japan’s embassy in connection with the announcement that drills would be held with Germany and Spain later this month.
The note said Tokyo was told it was “categorically unacceptable” to engage in military activity off Russia’s far eastern coast, particularly taking into account the participation of NATO members located far from the region.
“We view such activity as a potential threat to the security of the Russian Federation,” the ministry statement said.
“It was stressed that the irresponsible policy of the administration of Prime Minister F. Kishida is placing Tokyo on a path of dangerous escalation in Northeast Asia and throughout the Asia-Pacific region.”
Russia, the statement said, had warned of counter-measures to be taken to ensure the country’s defense capability.
Japan has thrown its support behind Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor more than two years ago.
Tokyo and Moscow have failed to resolve a territorial dispute over four islands off Hokkaido described by Japan as the Northern Territories and by Moscow, which controls them, as the Kuril islands.
The dispute has prevented the two sides concluding a peace treaty since the end of World War Two, when the islands were seized by the Soviet Union.
Japan has periodically expressed unease about Russia strengthening its military infrastructure on the disputed islands.
Russia protests to Japan about joint exercises with NATO countries
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Russia protests to Japan about joint exercises with NATO countries
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry said a protest had been issued to Japan’s embassy in connection with the announcement
- Tokyo was told it was “categorically unacceptable” to engage in military activity off Russia’s far eastern coast, particularly taking into account the participation of NATO members
UNICEF warns of rise in sexual deepfakes of children
- The findings underscored the use of “nudification” tools, which digitally alter or remove clothing to create sexualized images
UNITED NATIONS, United States: The UN children’s agency on Wednesday highlighted a rapid rise in the use of artificial intelligence to create sexually explicit images of children, warning of real harm to young victims caused by the deepfakes.
According to a UNICEF-led investigation in 11 countries, at least 1.2 million children said their images were manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes — in some countries at a rate equivalent to “one child in a typical classroom” of 25 students.
The findings underscored the use of “nudification” tools, which digitally alter or remove clothing to create sexualized images.
“We must be clear. Sexualized images of children generated or manipulated using AI tools are child sexual abuse material,” UNICEF said in a statement.
“Deepfake abuse is abuse, and there is nothing fake about the harm it causes.”
The agency criticized AI developers for creating tools without proper safeguards.
“The risks can be compounded when generative AI tools are embedded directly into social media platforms where manipulated images spread rapidly,” UNICEF said.
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has been hit with bans and investigations in several countries for allowing users to create and share sexualized pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.
UNICEF’s study found that children are increasingly aware of deepfakes.
“In some of the study countries, up to two-thirds of children said they worry that AI could be used to create fake sexual images or videos. Levels of concern vary widely between countries, underscoring the urgent need for stronger awareness, prevention, and protection measures,” the agency said.
UNICEF urged “robust guardrails” for AI chatbots, as well as moves by digital companies to prevent the circulation of deepfakes, not just the removal of offending images after they have already been shared.
Legislation is also needed across all countries to expand definitions of child sexual abuse material to include AI-generated imagery, it said.
The countries included in the study were Armenia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Serbia, and Tunisia.
