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Six vessels set to leave Ukraine carrying 96,181 metric tons of agricultural products

ISTANBUL, TURKIYE - AUGUST 09: An aerial view of "Glory" named empty grain ship as Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkiye and the United Nations (UN) of the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) conduct inspection on vessel in Istanbul, Turkiye on August 09, 2022. The UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal on July 22 to reopen three Ukrainian ports -- Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny -- for grain that has been stuck for months because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which is now in its sixth month. (Photo by Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The organization overseeing the export of agricultural products from Ukraine said it has approved six vessels to leave the besieged country.

The Joint Coordination Center, an initiative of Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said that the vessels are carrying a total of 96,181 metric tons of grain and other food products.

The ships are expected to depart Saturday and are destined for Spain, Italy, Greece, Libya and Turkey.

Amanda Macias

A Russian serviceman stands guard the territory outside the second reactor of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Energodar on May 1, 2022.

Andrey Borodulin | AFP | Getty Images

The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog said that the infrastructure that powers the city of Enerhodar has been destroyed due to shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

"Enerhodar has gone dark and we have seen that once infrastructure is repaired, it is damaged once again," International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement.

"This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious. This is completely unacceptable. It cannot stand," he said, adding that the city has no running water, power or sewage.

"I therefore urgently call for the immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area. Only this will ensure the security of operating staff and allow the durable restoration of power to Enerhodar and to the power plant," he said.

Earlier this month, Grossi lead a group of IAEA investigators to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

Amanda Macias

EU lawmakers have repeatedly accused Russia of weaponizing energy exports to drive up commodity prices and sow uncertainty across the bloc. Moscow denies using energy as a weapon.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

European Union nations struggled to find full consensus on ways to shield the population fromdramatically increasing energy pricesthat threaten to plunge millions into cold and poverty over the winter as Russia chokes off natural gas supplies.

As tensions with Moscow mount overthe war in Ukraine, the energy ministers of the EU's 27 nations could not paper over differences on whether and how to impose a price cap on Russian natural gas, with ever-recalcitrant Hungary refusing to agree, saying it would go against its supply interests.

Other countries differed on whether a price cap should apply only to Russia or to other producers, too.

An immediate solution on allproposals to bring natural gas and electricity prices back to affordabilityhad not been anticipated, but energy ministers gave general recommendations to the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, on options like instituting windfall levies on some energy companies whose profits have risen along with skyrocketing prices.

Associated Press

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, US President Joe Biden, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and France's President Emmanuel Macron pose for a G7 leaders' family photograph during a NATO summit at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels on March 24, 2022.

Michael Kappeler | AFP | Getty Images

Two months after they agreed to explore price limits on Russian oil sales, G-7 countries are still trying to recruit more countries to join their efforts before they enter more detailed discussions about the policy's specifics, according to U.S. and European officials.

"The coalition has to be broader, and this is the diplomatic phase [negotiators] are entering into," said one European official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.

They aim to restrict the amount of revenue the Kremlin receives, but keep Russian oil on the market to avoid supply disruptions.

Key importers of Russian oil China, India, and Turkey have not yet said whether they will join in the coordinated price cap or negotiate their own side deals with Russia. Their participation could determine how much leverage Western nations have to set prices.

"It's premature to start discussing the price before the coalition comes together," a senior Treasury official told CNBC.

Read more here.

Kayla Tausche

Firefighters at the rubble of a building destroyed by Russia's missile strike in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Sept. 06, 2022.

Metin Aktas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The government of Ukraine, European Commission and the World Bank assessed that it will cost at least $349 billion to reconstruct Ukraine after Russia's invasion.

The joint report named "Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment" covers the effects of the war between Feb. 24 and June 1. The report lists physical damage to Ukrainian infrastructure totaling more than $97billion.

"The destruction was concentrated in the Chernihivska, Donetska, Luhanska, Kharkivska, Kyivska, and Zaporizka oblasts," the authors of the report wrote.

Amanda Macias

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (R) in Brussels on September 9, 2022, a day after his unannounced visit to Ukraine.

Jonathan Ernst | AFP | Getty Images

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg took a moment to honor Queen Elizabeth II's reign ahead of their meeting about the ongoing war in Ukraine.

"Today the NATO flag and the flags of 30 allies are at half mast to honor her majesty Queen Elizabeth the second," Stoltenberg said alongside Blinken in Brussels. "She was a strong supporter of the transatlantic alliance of our armed forcesand our values. She knew and worked with all NATO Secretary Generals since the founding of NATO.

"She was a powerful, unifying force, a source of comfort and resilience to millions of people from all walks of life. On behalf of the United States, I extend our deepest condolencesto our British friends, to the government of the United Kingdom and to the royal family," Blinken said.

Amanda Macias

The cargo ship Razoni, which departed from Ukraine's Odessa Port within the framework of the grain shipment agreement, is pictured in the Bosphorus on August 3, 2022, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Hakan Akgu | Getty Images

The organization overseeing the export of agricultural products from Ukraine said 100 vessels have left the besieged country since ports reopened.

The Joint Coordination Center, an initiative of Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey that was established in July, said the ships transported 2,334,850 metric tons of grain and other food products.

Amanda Macias

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the region is facing an extraordinary situation.

Thierry Monasse | Getty Images News | Getty Images

European Union energy ministers met in Brussels to hold emergency talks about how to shield households from surging gas and electricity prices ahead of the colder months.

Ahead of the meeting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid out a five-point plan to tackle skyrocketing energy bills. This included a price cap on Russian gas, a windfall tax on fossil fuel profits, a mandatory target for reducing electricity use and emergency credit lines for power companies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that he's prepared to let Europe "freeze" this winter by ripping up existing supply contracts if a cap on Russian energy exports is imposed.

Sam Meredith

Ukraine's Defense Ministry posted a list of Russian military personnel and equipment losses since the start of the war on Feb. 24, along with a quote from the late Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Sept. 8.

The quote, which was delivered in 1940 in a radio broadcast by Queen Elizabeth II to the children of the commonwealth when she was still a princess, read: "When peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place."

The ministry claimed that Russian forces had lost an additional 650 troops, bringing the total to 51,900 Russian troops killed since the start of the invasion. It also said thatRussia had so far lost 2,122 tanks, 4,575 armored combat vehicles, 239 military jets, 211 helicopters, and 15 warships or boats.

CNBC could not independently verify the information.

Natasha Turak

A tank of Ukrainian Army advances to the fronts in the northeastern areas of Kharkiv, Ukraine on September 08, 2022.

Metin Atkas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

More than 1,000 square km (386 square miles) of Ukrainian territory has been retaken from Russian forces, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, following a surprise counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region in the country's northeast.

"Our heroes have already liberated dozens of settlements. And today this movement continued, there are new results," Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

"In total, more than a thousand square kilometers of our territory have been liberated since 1 September."

A view of a Russian tank captured by Ukrainian forces being carried in Kharkiv, Ukraine on September 08, 2022.

Metin Atkas | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

He thanked his armed services and the soldiers involved in the operations, and also thanked the U.S. for its latest commitment of $675 million in military aid.

"Each of these steps of our partners has a real impact on the strength of our state and the whole of Europe in defense against Russian terror," he said.

Natasha Turak

Thu, Sep 8 20224:53 PM EDT

A. Russian serviceman guards an area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in territory under Russian military control, southeastern Ukraine, May 1, 2022.

AP

The head of Ukraine's atomic energy operator accused Russia of trying to "steal" Europe's largest nuclear plant by cutting it off from the Ukrainian electricity grid and leaving it on the brink of a radiation disaster.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been without an outside source of electricity since Monday and receives power for its own safety systems from the only one of its six reactors that remains operational, Enerhoatom chief Petro Kotin told The Associated Press.

"We are trying to keep this unit running as much as possible, but eventually it will have to be shut down and then the station will switch to diesel generators," he said, adding that such generators are "the station's last defense before a radiation accident."

Associated Press

Thu, Sep 8 20223:06 PM EDT

A women shop for souvenirs in Budva, the main summer tourist destination Montenegro May 24, 2022.

Stevo Vasiljevic | Reuters

Four European countries that border Russia will take regional steps this month to limit people from Russia from entering Europe's visa-free zone by land because they "are increasingly concerned about the substantial and growing influx of Russian citizens."

"We believe that this is becoming a serious threat to our public security and to the overall shared Schengen area," Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said. "There are people coming with the aim of undermining the security of our countries."

Poland and the three Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have agreed on a common regional approach with the "political will and firm intention to introduce national temporary measures for Russian citizens holding EU visas."

Such measures should take effect in each of the four countries by Sept. 19.

Associated Press

More here:
Ukraine recaptures nearly 400 square miles of territory; rebuilding Ukraine would cost estimated $349 billion - CNBC

Motherboard explores UFOs, UFO culture, and the paranormal.

Ukraines airspace has been busy this yearthats the nature of war. But scientists in the country are looking to the skies and seeing something they didnt expect: An inordinate number of UFOs, according to a new preprint paper published by Kyivs Main Astronomical Observatory in coordination with the countrys National Academy of Science.

The paper does not specifically address the war, but in the United States, the Pentagon has long hinted, speculated, and warned that some UFOs could be advanced technology from foreign militaries, specifically China and Russia (though it hasnt really given any evidence this is actually the case). The Ukraine paper is particularly notable because it not only shows that science has continued to occur during the war, but also explains that there have been a lot of sightings.

We see them everywhere, the research said. We observe a significant number of objects whose nature is not clear.

The paper is titled Unidentified aerial phenomena I. Observations of events come from observations made at NAS Main Astronomical Observatory in Kyiv and a village south of Kyiv called Vinarivka. According to the papers authors, the observatories took on the job of hunting for UFOs as an independent project because of the enthusiasm around the subject.

It describes a specific type of UFO the researchers call phantoms that is an object [that] is a completely black body that does not emit and absorbs all the radiation falling on it. The researchers also observed that the UFOs its seeing are so fast that its hard to take pictures of them.

The eye does not fix phenomena lasting less than one-tenth of a second, the paper said. It takes four-tenths of a second to recognize an event. Ordinary photo and video recordings will also not capture the [unidentified aerial phenomenon]. To detect UAP, you need to fine-tune the equipment: shutter speed, frame rate, and dynamic range.

So the researchers did just that using two meteor monitoring stations in Kyiv and Vinarivka. We have developed a special observation technique, taking into account the high speeds of the observed objects, the paper said. The exposure time was chosen so that the image of the object did not shift significantly during exposure. The frame rate was chosen to take into account the speed of the object and the field of view of the camera. In practice, the exposure time was less than 1 ms, and the frame rate was no less than 50 Hz.

The scientists divided the phenomenon they observed into two different categories: cosmics and phantoms. We note that Cosmics are luminous objects, brighter than the background of the sky. We call these ships names of birds (swift, falcon, eagle), the paper said. Phantoms are dark objects, with contrast from several to about 50 percent.

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Using the cameras, stationed roughly 75 miles apart, allowed the scientists to make repeated observations of strange objects moving in the sky. The paper didnt speculate on what the objects were, merely noted the observations and mentioned the objects incredible speeds. Flights of single, group and squadrons of the ships were detected, moving at speeds from 3 to 15 degrees per second, the research said. Phantoms are observed in the troposphere at distances up to 10 - 12 km. We estimate their size from 3 to 12 meters and speeds up to 15 km/s.

The easy explanation would be that these are missiles, or rockets, or something else associated with the war. But the scientists insist that their nature is not clear.

UFOs are back in the public consciousness after a string of sightings were caught on camera by Navy pilots. Congress has demanded answers and the Pentagon responded by saying it has seen some strange stuff but needed more time and money to study the phenomenon appropriately. Congress gave them both and the Pentagon opened the AARO to study the strange objects in the sky. A recent addendum in a Senate intelligence budget report said that the threat of UFOs was increasing exponentially and that the Pentagons new office needed to focus on the UFOs that arent man-made.

Boris Zhilyaev, the lead researcher on the paper, declined to comment.

Update 9/13/22: The original version of this article stated that the Kyiv study was a joint venture with the Pentagon and NASA. It was not. VICE has corrected the story and regrets this error.

Link:
Ukraines Astronomers Say There Are Tons of UFOs Over Kyiv - VICE

Ukraine's military has a chance of removing Russian troops from all the territory they have claimed since February, a senior military analyst has told Sky News.

Professor Michael Clarke said such a development would be a "huge victory" - adding that while recent gains in Kharkiv are important, retaking Kherson in the south would be "very significant".

Kherson sits just north of the Crimea peninsula and is the only major Ukrainian City that Moscow has captured.

Were Ukraine to take it back, the whole of Crimea - which Russia annexed in 2014 - would be within range of Kyiv's artillery and missiles, Prof Clarke said.

That could make Crimea "impossible for the Russians to operate from militarily", he added.

Signs are emerging that the Russian defence in Kherson is beginning to crumble and troops may be running out of ammunition.

"The Ukrainians have got momentum on their side and in battle, momentum matters hugely.

"There are reports - unconfirmed, but a lot of them - that local ceasefires, or local surrenders are being arranged, particularly in the north of the Kherson sector," Prof Clarke said.

"The Russians seem to be out of food and everything. Once they run out of ammunition, they've got no choice but to surrender or run.

"And they can't run because they can't get across the Dnipro River."

Read more:What does Putin do now?

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He added: "The Russians are clearly under pressure and they may or may not crack, in the same way that they've cracked in the Donbas.

"But the troops that the Russians have got in Kherson are better quality troops in general. So if they do crack, in that area, that would be very significant."

At some stage, the "Ukrainian offensive will run out of steam, but not for a while yet", Prof Clarke said.

And as the Russians reset it will become more difficult. "The Russians are capable of digging in across a front line of 2,400km," he added.

Prof Clarke explained that Kherson "controls access to Crimea" and "controls some of the hydro electric power that goes into Crimea".

He went on: "If the Ukrainians are able to grab the whole of the coast of Kherson region back, then the whole of Crimea is within range of their artillery and missiles.

"They could make Crimea impossible for the Russians to operate from militarily if they chose to."

Prof Clarke is predicting, next year, an "unstable ceasefire which may now be on more favourable terms than the Ukrainians could have guessed even a week ago".

He commented: "I think the Ukrainians may have a chance, the other side of winter, to throw the Russians out of all the territories they've taken since February this year.

"And that would be a huge victory."

Continued here:
Ukraine may have chance to 'throw Russians out', military analyst says - Sky News

News Release

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

The National Institutes of Health will invest $130 million over four years, pending the availability of funds, to accelerate the widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) by the biomedical and behavioral research communities. The NIH Common Funds Bridge to Artificial Intelligence (Bridge2AI) program is assembling team members from diverse disciplines and backgrounds to generate tools, resources, and richly detailed data that are responsive to AI approaches. At the same time, the program will ensure its tools and data do not perpetuate inequities or ethical problems that may occur during data collection and analysis. Through extensive collaboration across projects, Bridge2AI researchers will create guidance and standards for the development of ethically sourced, state-of-the-art, AI-ready data sets that have the potential to help solve some of the most pressing challenges in human health such as uncovering how genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors influence a persons physical condition throughout their life.

Generating high-quality ethically sourced data sets is crucial for enabling the use of next-generation AI technologies that transform how we do research, said Lawrence A. Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D., Performing the Duties of the Director of NIH. The solutions to long-standing challenges in human health are at our fingertips, and now is the time to connect researchers and AI technologies to tackle our most difficult research questions and ultimately help improve human health.

AI is both a field of science and a set of technologies that enable computers to mimic how humans sense, learn, reason, and take action. Although AI is already used in biomedical research and healthcare, its widespread adoption has been limited in part due to challenges of applying AI technologies to diverse data types. This is because routinely collected biomedical and behavioral data sets are often insufficient, meaning they lack important contextual information about the data type, collection conditions, or other parameters. Without this information, AI technologies cannot accurately analyze and interpret data. AI technologies may also inadvertently incorporate bias or inequities unless careful attention is paid to the social and ethical contexts in which the data is collected. In order to harness the power of AI for biomedical discovery and accelerate its use, scientists first need well-described and ethically created data sets, standards, and best practices for generating biomedical and behavioral data that is ready for AI analyses.

As it creates tools and best practices for making data AI-ready, Bridge2AI will also produce a variety of diverse data types ready to be used by the research community for AI analyses. These types include voice and other data to help identify abnormal changes in the body. Researchers will also generate data that can be used to make new connections between complex genetic pathways and changes in cell shape or function to better understand how they work together to influence health. In addition, AI-ready data will be prepared to help improve decision making in critical care settings to speed recovery from acute illnesses and to help uncover the complex biological processes underlying an individuals recovery from illness.

The Bridge2AI program is committed to fostering the formation of research teams richly diverse in perspectives, backgrounds, and academic and technical disciplines. Diversity is fundamental to the ethical generation of data sets, and for training future AI technologies to reduce bias and improve effectiveness for all populations, including those who are underrepresented in biomedical and behavioral research. Bridge2AI will develop ethical practices for data generation and use, addressing key issues such as privacy, data trustworthiness, and reducing bias.

NIH has issued four awards for data generation projects, and three awards to create a Bridge Center for integration, dissemination and evaluation activities. The data generation projects will generate new biomedical and behavioral data sets ready to be used for developing AI technologies, along with creating data standards and tools for ensuring data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, a principle known as FAIR. In addition, data generation projects will develop training materials that promote a culture of diversity and the use of ethical practices throughout the data generation process. The Bridge Center will be responsible for integrating activities and knowledge across data generation projects, and disseminating products, best-practices, and training materials.

The Bridge2AI program is an NIH-wide effort managed collaboratively by the NIH Common Fund, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the National Eye Institute, the National Human Genome Research Institute, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and the National Library of Medicine. To learn more about the Bridge2AI program, visit the Musings from the Mezzanine blog from the National Library of Medicine, and watch this video about the Bridge2AI program.

About the NIH Common Fund: The NIH Common Fund encourages collaboration and supports a series of exceptionally high-impact, trans-NIH programs. Common Fund programs are managed by the Office of Strategic Coordination in the Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives within the NIH Office of the Director in partnership with the NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices. More information is available at the Common Fund website: https://commonfund.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

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NIH launches Bridge2AI program to expand the use of artificial intelligence in biomedical and behavioral research - National Institutes of Health...

Casey Greene, PhD, chair of the University of Colorado School of Medicines Department of Biomedical Informatics, is working toward a future of serendipity in healthcare using artificial intelligence (AI) to help doctors receive the right information at the right time to make the best decision for a patient.

Finding that serendipity begins with the data. Greene said the Departments faculty works with data ranging from genomic-sequencing information, cell imaging, and electronic health records. Each area has its own robust constraints ethical and privacy protections to ensure that the data are being used in accordance with peoples wishes.

His team uses petabytes of sequencing data that are available to anyone, Greene said. I think its empowering, he said, noting that anyone with an internet connection can conduct scientific research.

Following the selection or creation of a data set, Greene and other AI researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus begin the core focus of AI work building algorithms and programs that can detect patterns. The goal is to find links in these large data sets that ultimately offer better treatments for patients. Still, human insight brings essential perspectives to the research, Greene said.

The algorithms do learn patterns, but they can be very different patterns and can become confused in interesting ways, he said. Greene used a hypothetical example of sheep and hillsides, two things often seen together. Researchers must teach the program to separate the two items, he said.

A person can look at a hillside and see sheep and recognize sheep. They can also see a sheep somewhere unexpected and realize that the sheep is out of place. But these algorithms don't necessarily distinguish between sheep and hillsides at first because people usually take pictures of sheep on hillsides. They don't often take pictures of sheep at the grocery store, so these algorithms can start to predict that all hillsides have sheep, Greene said.

It's a little bit esoteric when you're thinking about hillsides and sheep, he said. But it matters a lot more if you're having algorithms that look at medical images where you'd like to predict in the same way that a human would predict based on the content of the image and not based on the surroundings. Encoding prior human knowledge (knowledge engineering) into these systems can lead to better healthcare down the line, Greene said.

And when it comes to AI in healthcare, Greene said it is key to have open models and diverse teams doing the work. It gives others a chance to probe these models with their own questions. And I think that leads to more trust.

In the Q&A below, Greene provides a general overview of the terms and technology behind AI alongside the challenges he and his fellow researchers face.

Read more from the original source:
What Is Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare? - University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus