The European information TV channel Euronews today, May 28, 2024, published an article by the head of state Kasym-Jomart Tokayev. In it, the president of Kazakhstan spoke about the role of middle powers, reports Zakon.kz.
The full translation was distributed by Akorda.
“Countries like Kazakhstan should come forward with new strength and declare their role not only as participants, but also as responsible players in the global arena.
In today’s world, marked by extreme geopolitical turbulence and constant conflicts, the need for multilateral solutions is more urgent than ever.
Wars in Europe, the Middle East and Africa are claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, while climate change is leaving millions hungry, vulnerable and homeless. These conflicts seem intractable, with no hope for improvement. Against this backdrop of global discord, traditional powers – the world’s economic and political giants – are increasingly less able to work together.
The conflict in Ukraine has created a diplomatic stalemate, the ongoing situation in Gaza is a huge humanitarian disaster, and tensions in the Indo-Pacific region are pushing risky actions at the expense of more constructive engagement. Meanwhile, structures established to promote international consensus, such as the United Nations, face paralysis and stalemate.
Middle powers, flexible key players
The veto power held by the permanent members of the UN Security Council often leads to stalemates, preventing decisive action on the global crisis and leading to recurring scenarios where unilateralism (unilateral action) is favored over collective action. This further undermines the spirit of multilateralism (multilateralism) and reduces confidence in international institutions. Against this backdrop, middle powers such as Kazakhstan emerge as key players with growing opportunities to bring about greater stability, peace and development in their regions and beyond.
Unencumbered by the complexities of superpower politics, we have the flexibility to successfully navigate complex diplomatic landscapes and pave the way for compromise and reconciliation. Even without as much global influence as the world’s superpowers, countries like ours have the economic power, military capabilities and, perhaps more importantly, the political will and diplomatic skill necessary to make a significant impact on the global stage on issues of food and energy security, green transition and IT, and supply chain sustainability.
Moreover, middle powers are deeply committed to multilateralism. Unlike superpowers, which may feel constrained by these institutions, charting their own course, our countries depend on these critical global mechanisms to resolve disputes, protect territorial integrity, and address common challenges such as climate change and pandemics.
Agenda: peacemaking and sustainable development
Kazakhstan has always been deeply committed to multilateralism, constantly seeking new venues for international dialog and joint action.
In addition to our ongoing work on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, we are actively promoting the establishment of a new multilateral agency focused on biosecurity to prevent the devastating effects of man-made pandemics and bioterrorism on a global scale.
We are also proud to co-chair this year, along with France, the first One Water Summit, which aims to bring together countries and communities around the world facing the challenges of water scarcity and desertification. In addition, we have offered to host the new UN Regional Center for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Central Asia and Afghanistan to coordinate regional efforts to combat the effects of climate change.
We are also not afraid to offer our assistance in finding solutions to protracted conflicts. This is evidenced by our recent commitment to peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia – an effort that underscores our belief in the power of middle powers to advance dialogue and promote peace.
Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, a valuable opportunity to reflect on the return and resurgence of divisions among the world’s great powers in the post-Cold War era.
More importantly, however, the road to global unity is not off the beaten track – it has been traveled successfully before. The world has overcome differences before and can do so again through diplomacy and dialog.
We must all work together to breathe new life into our world
With the multilateral system under severe strain, it takes countries of all sizes – large, medium and small – to breathe new life into it. However, with the big powers less and less willing to trust the process and the small countries lacking influence, it is the duty of the middle powers to lead the way.
Countries like Kazakhstan must step up and assert their role not only as participants but also as responsible players on the global stage.
At this critical moment, we call on all our international partners to join us in strengthening multilateralism – to revitalize and invest in a global system in which we have achieved much.
Let our collective action reflect our commitment not only to a more peaceful present, but also to a prosperous and harmonious future. The task is difficult, but with determination, leadership and a strong commitment to dialogue, we can turn today’s challenges into tomorrow’s successes. Let us lead the way to an era of multilateral renewal.”
Note that this is not the first article of the leader of Kazakhstan. For example, on September 20, 2023, the American print and online political publication The Hill published an article by Kasym-Jomart Tokayev about the UN.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has banned all types of advertising of gambling business, follows from the government decree № 583.
Thus, amendments were made to paragraph 1 of the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 566 of May 17, 2024 “Some issues of counteraction to the negative consequences of the functioning of gambling on the Internet”.
“Subparagraph one after the words ‘order of restriction’ is supplemented with the words ‘of all forms’, and after the words ‘by restriction’ – with the words ‘namely a ban’, – stated in the resolution.
According to the document, the ban will be in force until the entry into force of the law on combating game addiction, which is now under consideration by the Verkhovna Rada.
ADVERTISING, CABINET OF MINISTERS OF UKRAINE, GAMBLING BUSINESS
Large language models (LLM), on which ChatGPT and other generative (content-creating) artificial intelligence (AI) tools are based, will never reach the level of human intelligence, believes Jan Lekun, chief scientist of the American Meta in the field of AI.
In his opinion, such models have a very limited understanding of logic and will not be able to reason and plan like a human. In addition, they “do not understand the physical world, do not have permanent memory, are unable to reason in any reasonable sense of the word, and cannot plan … hierarchically,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.
Lecun argued against relying on LLM development in an effort to create human-level intelligence, as these models can only accurately respond to queries if trained on correct data, and are therefore insecure.
Instead, the expert is developing an entirely new generation of AI systems that he hopes will endow machines with “human” intelligence. However, this task could take a decade to complete, he explained.
Lecun leads a team of about 500 people at Meta’s basic AI research lab. They are working on creating an artificial intelligence that can develop a sense of common sense and study the structure of the world in a similar way to humans. This approach is called “world modeling.”
Import changes in % to previous period in 2023-2024
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Spain will provide Ukraine with €1 billion in military aid in 2024 and another €5 billion within 3 years
As part of a bilateral security agreement, Spain will provide Ukraine with €1 billion in military aid in 2024 and €5 billion over three years, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
“…Under the agreement, Spain will provide Ukraine with €1 billion in military aid already this year and €5 billion over three years. The countries have also agreed to provide assistance in economic recovery, support Ukrainian reforms on the way to membership in the EU and NATO and the Formula for Peace, as well as strengthening sanctions against Russia,” the ministry said in a statement published in its Telegram channel on Monday.
As reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez signed in Madrid a bilateral agreement on cooperation in the field of security.
Ukrainians have already lost more than 6.6 thousand phones in 4 months of 2024, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). For comparison, more than 29 thousand phones were stolen and lost in Ukraine last year. Most often, people lose XIAOMI, SAMSUNG, and IPHONE.
More than 6.6 thousand phones have been stolen and lost in Ukraine since the beginning of 2024. The number of smartphone thefts and losses is decreasing year on year: it is 2.5 times less than in the same period in 2021 and 1.3 times less than last year.
A total of 29,015 stolen and lost phones were recorded in 2023. This is almost half – 46% – less than before the start of the full-scale war.
The largest number of stolen or lost mobile phones this year was recorded in Kyiv – 790 cases (11.9% of the total). Dnipropetrovs’k region is in second place with 582 cases (8.8%), and Zaporizhzhia region ranks third with 566 cases (8.6%).
For comparison, in 2023, Donetsk region was the leader in the number of stolen or lost phones.
The top most popular phones among thieves have remained unchanged over the past three years: XIAOMI, SAMSUNG, and IPHONE. Thus, this year, more than 2.2 thousand XIAOMI phones (33.8% of the total), more than 1.4 thousand SAMSUNG phones (21.6%), and a little less than a thousand IPHONE phones (14.2%) have already been stolen or lost.
We decided to compare which smartphone brands are the most popular among thieves and customers. So, according to the Comfy chain of home appliance and electronics stores, it turned out that the most popular phone brands among buyers for three years in a row are the same brands, but in a different order of popularity: IPHONE, SAMSUNG and XIAOMI/REDMI.
