NICOSIA, Cyprus — In a Cypriot National Guard camp, Ukrainians are being trained on how to identify, locate and dispose of landmines and other unexploded munitions that litter huge swaths of their country, killing and maiming hundreds of people, including children.
Analysts say Ukraine is among the countries that are the most affected by landmines and discarded explosives, as a result of Russia’s ongoing war.
According to U.N. figures, some 399 people have been killed and 915 wounded from landmines and other munitions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, equal to the number of casualties reported from 2014-2021. More than 1 in 10 of those casualties have been children.
The economic impact is costing billions to the Ukrainian economy. Landmines and other munitions are preventing the sowing of 5 million hectares, or 10%, of the country’s agricultural land.
Cyprus stepped up to offer its facilities as part of the European Union’s Military Assistance Mission to Ukraine. So far, almost 100 Ukrainian armed forces personnel have taken part in three training cycles over the last two years, said Cyprus Foreign Ministry spokesperson Theodoros Gotsis.
“We are committed to continuing this support for as long as it takes,” Gotsis told the Associated Press, adding that the Cyprus government has covered the 250,000 euro ($262,600) training cost.
Cyprus opted to offer such training owing to its own landmine issues dating back five decades when the island nation was ethnically divided when Turkey invaded following a coup that sought union with Greece. The United Nations has removed some 27,000 landmines from a buffer zone that cuts across the island, but minefields remain on either side. The Cypriot government says it has disposed of all anti-personnel mines in line with its obligations under an international treaty that bans the use of such munitions.
In Cyprus, Ukrainians undergo rigorous theoretical and practical training over a five-week Basic Demining and Clearance course that includes instruction on distinguishing and safely handling landmines and other explosive munitions, such as rockets, 155 mm artillery shells, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells.
Theoretical training uses inert munitions identical to the actual explosives.
Most of the course is comprised of hands-on training focusing on the on-site destruction of unexploded munitions using explosives, the chief training officer told the Associated Press. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to disclose his identity for security reasons.
“They’re trained on ordnance disposal using real explosives,” the officer said. “That will be the trainees’ primary task when they return.”
Cypriot officials said the Ukrainian trainees did not want to be either interviewed or photographed.
Defusing discarded munitions or landmines in areas where explosive charges can’t be used — for instance, near a hospital — is not part of this course because that’s the task of highly trained teams of disposal experts whose training can last as long as eight months, the officer said.
Trainees, divided into groups of eight, are taught how to operate metal detectors and other tools for detecting munitions like prodders — long, thin rods which are used to gently probe beneath the ground’s surface in search of landmines and other explosive ordnance.
Another tool is a feeler, a rod that’s used to detect booby-trapped munitions. There are many ways to booby-trap such munitions, unlike landmines which require direct pressure to detonate.
“Booby-trapped munitions are a widespread phenomenon in Ukraine,” the chief training officer explained.
Training, primarily conducted by experts from other European Union countries, takes place both in forested and urban areas at different army camps and follows strict safety protocols.
The short, intense training period keeps the Ukrainians focused.
“You see the interest they show during instruction: they ask questions, they want to know what mistakes they’ve made and the correct way of doing it,” the officer said.
Humanitarian data and analysis group ACAPS said in a Jan. 2024 report that 174,000 sq. kilometers (67,182 sq. miles) or nearly 29% of Ukraine’s territory needs to be surveyed for landmines and other explosive ordnance.
More than 10 million people are said to live in areas where demining action is needed.
Since 2022, Russian forces have used at least 13 types of anti-personnel mines, which target people. Russia never signed the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning the use of anti-personnel mines, but the use of such mines is nonetheless considered a violation of its obligations under international law.
Russia also uses 13 types of anti-tank mines.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines said in its 2023 Landmine Monitor report that Ukrainian government forces may have also used antipersonnel landmines in contravention of the Mine Ban Treaty in and around the city of Izium during 2022, when the city was under Russian control.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In the final moments before he took his own life, 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III took out his phone and messaged the chatbot that had become his closest friend.
For months, Sewell had become increasingly isolated from his real life as he engaged in highly sexualized conversations with the bot, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in a federal court in Orlando this week.
The legal filing states that the teen openly discussed his suicidal thoughts and shared his wishes for a pain-free death with the bot, named after the fictional character Daenerys Targaryen from the television show “Game of Thrones.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
On Feb. 28, Sewell told the bot he was ‘coming home’ — and it encouraged him to do so, the lawsuit says.
“I promise I will come home to you. I love you so much, Dany,” Sewell told the chatbot.
“I love you too,” the bot replied. “Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love.”
“What if I told you I could come home right now?” he asked.
“Please do, my sweet king,” the bot messaged back.
Just seconds after the Character.AI bot told him to “come home,” the teen took his own life, according to the lawsuit, filed this week by Sewell’s mother, Megan Garcia, of Orlando, against Character Technologies Inc.
Charter Technologies is the company behind Character.AI, an app that allows users to create customizable characters or interact with those generated by others, spanning experiences from imaginative play to mock job interviews. The company says the artificial personas are designed to “feel alive” and “human-like.”
“Imagine speaking to super intelligent and life-like chat bot Characters that hear you, understand you and remember you,” reads a description for the app on Google Play. “We encourage you to push the frontier of what’s possible with this innovative technology.”
Garcia’s attorneys allege the company engineered a highly addictive and dangerous product targeted specifically to kids, “actively exploiting and abusing those children as a matter of product design,” and pulling Sewell into an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that led to his suicide.
“We believe that if Sewell Setzer had not been on Character.AI, he would be alive today,” said Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, which is representing Garcia.
A spokesperson for Character.AI said Friday that the company doesn’t comment on pending litigation. In a blog post published the day the lawsuit was filed, the platform announced new “community safety updates,” including guardrails for children and suicide prevention resources.
“We are creating a different experience for users under 18 that includes a more stringent model to reduce the likelihood of encountering sensitive or suggestive content,” the company said in a statement to The Associated Press. “We are working quickly to implement those changes for younger users.”
Google and its parent company, Alphabet, have also been named as defendants in the lawsuit. The AP left multiple email messages with the companies on Friday.
In the months leading up to his death, Garcia’s lawsuit says, Sewell felt he had fallen in love with the bot.
While unhealthy attachments to AI chatbots can cause problems for adults, for young people it can be even riskier — as with social media — because their brain is not fully developed when it comes to things like impulse control and understanding the consequences of their actions, experts say.
James Steyer, the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Common Sense Media, said the lawsuit “underscores the growing influence — and severe harm — that generative AI chatbot companions can have on the lives of young people when there are no guardrails in place.”
Kids’ overreliance on AI companions, he added, can have significant effects on grades, friends, sleep and stress, “all the way up to the extreme tragedy in this case.”
“This lawsuit serves as a wake-up call for parents, who should be vigilant about how their children interact with these technologies,” Steyer said.
Common Sense Media, which issues guides for parents and educators on responsible technology use, says it is critical that parents talk openly to their kids about the risks of AI chatbots and monitor their interactions.
“Chatbots are not licensed therapists or best friends, even though that’s how they are packaged and marketed, and parents should be cautious of letting their children place too much trust in them,” Steyer said.
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Associated Press reporter Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco contributed to this report. Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
The death rattle was last week’s confirmation of an alliance between the South African and New Zealand national unions for reciprocal tours from 2026 onwards. It signalled the sad demise of a coalition designed to foster all of Southern Hemisphere rugby.
In that goal, Sanzar (an acronym for South Africa New Zealand Australia Rugby, later altered to Sanzaar to add Argentina) has failed miserably.
And now the two biggest boys are taking their ball and playing elsewhere, ending the Rugby Championship as a true rival to Europe’s Six Nations tournament and condemning Australia and Argentina (and Japan) to bleak commercial futures.
All Blacks lock Tupou Vaa’i following the defeat to the Springboks. Photo / Photosport
The annual Southern Hemisphere tournament is already truncated every four years due to the World Cup. Now it will be reduced further every second year to accommodate South Africa and New Zealand’s self-interest and greed.
There’s a certain irony in New Zealand and South Africa’s joint turning-of-the-back on Rugby Australia, given it was the prize of domination of the Australian pay-TV market that forced rugby to turn professional in 1995 following a monumental scrap between Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer.
“Sanzar”, then comprising the three founding unions, emerged from the chaos as the shiny new hope for international professional rugby, creating the annual Tri Nations test tournament and Super Rugby franchise competition as its prized jewels.
And, for a while there, it worked incredibly well. The Tri-Nations regularly produced more spectacular rugby than the Six Nations. And the thought that any European club team could hold a candle to the winning Super Rugby champions was considered laughable.
How the wheel has turned.
After bringing in Argentina, Sanzaar flirted for decades with Japan and exploited rather than assisted the Pacific Island nations (with New Zealand and Australia the main beneficiaries).
But in the end, the opportunity to build a southern version of the Six Nations alliance was squandered. And for that, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has to shoulder most of the blame.
NZR’s hubris before and during the Covid pandemic when it attempted to become the sole owner of the Super Rugby competition to entice a bigger fee from private-equity suitors Silver Lake has bitten it back harder than anybody could have predicted.
It resulted in the South Africans taking their Super Rugby teams to Europe, kicking off an unforeseen but predictable decline in New Zealand rugby standards through the loss of regular contact with the Republic. And it alienated the Australians and Argentines.
Little wonder what we’ve ended up with: a limp Super Rugby Pacific competition still dominated by Kiwi franchises, a Wallabies team that are a mere shadow of the John Eales-led era when they (temporarily) became the All Blacks’ greatest foes and Argentina stalled as a growing superpower by being handed fewer games against the Boks and All Blacks.
Murdoch paid US$555 million ($903m) for the first 10 years of Sanzar’s broadcasting rights, which at roughly a third each per national union represented around US$18m ($29m) to Rugby Australia annually.
Three decades on, the same Australian rights are only worth an extra two million dollars at A$29m ($31m) – a massive failure by Sanzaar given the explosive growth of sports rights globally.
Sanzar’s inability to work collectively to develop the most lucrative broadcasting market available to it is a glaring example of its negligence as a meaningful rugby body.
‘Desperate’ NZR hitches a ride on the Springboks express
In the wake of Sanzaar’s implosion, NZR has thrown its arms up in despair and headed for the exit door on the arm of South Africa, who suddenly is our new beau.
That, of course, has everything to do with short-term opportunism.
With the Richie McCaw-Dan Carter era consigned to fading memories, the Springboks have suddenly stepped forward as the game’s new giants.
Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, an era “consigned to fading memories”, Sports Insider writes. Photo / Photosport
That’s inconvenient for us, given the narrative NZR sold to gain private equity investment (you know, “you’re buying into the best team in the history of world sport”). But it also presented the only real commercial growth opportunity identified since jumping in bed with Silver Lake.
That’s what last week’s announcement of a “strategic alliance” with the South Africans was really about.
There’s money to be made out of the historical battle between both nations. Indeed, should we be surprised that the marketing theme for the new pact is “The Greatest Rugby Rivalry”?
It makes sense because fans in both nations have a hankering for the nostalgic return of “old-style tours” and All Blacks-Springboks clashes are consistently a cut above all other tests (when not ruined by match officials).
What doesn’t make sense is how the commercials worked back in the tour days.
Under International Rugby Board (the IRB, before it became World Rugby) rules, host nations retain all commercial rights including broadcasting from tours while paying the visiting team’s travel and accommodation expenses.
It is also why an extra test – beyond the three to be played in the Republic in 2026 and three here when the Boks tour in 2030 – has been scheduled. It will be played offshore, probably in the US or Europe, to further raise the revenue haul for the two unions.
It is also why an extra test – beyond the three to be played in the Republic in 2026 and three here when the Boks tour in 2030 – has been scheduled. It will be played offshore, probably in the US or Europe, to further raise the revenue haul for the two unions.
Sports Insider moles say the deal is already paying off. South African broadcaster SuperSport has written out a massive cheque for rights to the reciprocal tours and offshore tests.
A desperate NZR is also likely to use the alliance to beef up the content supplied to Sky NZ in the next tranche of broadcasting rights, hopefully minimising an anticipated fall in value during negotiations currently under way.
New Zealand is fortunate we are flavour of the month with South Africa right now. We saw the passion of the fanbase at Ellis Park and Newlands over the past fortnight over a clash with the rugby nation they respect the most.
That’s lucky for us, even if it adds substantial pressure to stop the rot against the Boks. After all, a rivalry is only a rivalry when neither side is regularly dominating the other.
But where does all of this leave Australia?
Australian rugby has every right to be ‘seriously pissed off’
Sports Insider’s spies across the ditch tell me that Rugby Australia is “seriously pissed off” with their New Zealand colleagues over the diminishing of the Rugby Championship as an annual product.
But the size of the South African SuperSport cheque has allowed NZR to throw the Australians a token gesture.
The Wallabies will miss out as New Zealand and South Africa make their own rugby deal. Photo / Photosport
To compensate the Australians while the Boks and All Blacks wander off to play their own games and the Wallabies and Argentina’s Pumas twiddle their thumbs, we’ve come up with the genius idea of an Anzac Day test.
The All Blacks will play the Wallabies in Perth on Anzac weekend in 2026, giving the Aussies a sap the same year the full tour of South Africa occurs.
Rugby Australia will get much-needed income, including the Western Australian state government hosting Super Rugby Pacific’s “Super Round”, involving all teams, the same weekend as the test.
It means taking All Blacks and Wallabies contenders out of Super Rugby for two rounds and effectively ruining the competition even further, but what the heck… the Aussies needed to be pacified somehow.
If it all sounds crazy and cynical, it might be because it is.
Sanzaar has failed to understand scarcity can be a winner in elite sport. The Six Nations works because each country only plays each other once a year. It’s an occasion and every test counts.
Instead we try to jam in as many as three Bledisloe Cup tests most years and wonder why they have lost their lustre.
The US podcaster taking shots at Auckland
Sometimes you need an outsider to point out the bleeding obvious.
Cue American podcaster Ryen Russillo from the huge American sports and popular culture site, The Ringer.
His popular Russillo On The Road podcasts regularly draw massive audiences among sports fans interested in travelling the world to experience new sport and cultural experiences.
Russillo was a guest of the New Zealand Breakers. His almost two-hour long podcast on his Kiwi experiences is at times funny, sometimes insightful and occasionally piercing.
In short, he loved New Zealand, especially Queenstown, but Auckland… meh!
The City of Sails simply didn’t do it for him. In fact, he likened it to being similar to the “outskirts of a small Canadian city”.
His ultimate advice to his huge audience – “spend a day in Auckland and then get out and go to the South Island”.
Russillo wasn’t being uncharitable. He admitted to long harbouring a desire to visit New Zealand and had anticipated Auckland being the highlight of his trip.
Instead, after a 13-hour flight and checking into a CBD hotel, he went walking and was delighted to find a beautiful harbour at the bottom of the street. The only trouble was “it was all industrial”.
“So got to the hotel, did the excited energy walk… the city of Auckland? Not blown away,” he said. “It reminded me of some of the outskirts of small cities in Canada.”
“It’s got all this incredible water at the north part of the city… but there’s no park. The problem is the waterfront is all very industrial. It’s all just ports… the port is almost the entire line of walking this main northernmost part of the street closest to the water.
“It doesn’t have the layout it should for the waterline that it has… I’m just being honest.”
Russillo was disappointed with how Auckland’s waterfront presented itself. He had expected better. Where’s the sporting precinct? Why aren’t there more public facilities for people to enjoy along the harbour?
At the same time, those of us who tuned into the live rugby in Cape Town last Sunday morning were greeted with spectacular images surrounding Newlands Stadium with fans enjoying food and drinks in brilliant sunshine by the water before a leisurely stroll to a magnificent venue basking in a stunning sunset.
Cape Town’s waterfront venue looked great last weekend – a stark contrast with Auckland. Photo / 123rf
Call South Africa a third world country all you like… Cape Town didn’t present like that to the world last weekend. The stadium and its surrounding areas were vibrant and pulsing.
And so we continue to miss a trick: Eden Park advocates denigrate a waterfront stadium option while expecting the likes of Russillo to check into a motel in Kingsland if he wants to have a sports experience in our biggest city.
So instead of talking up Auckland as a sports destination, Russillo laments the lack of vision while driving past Eden Park as a taxi passenger on his way to the airport to cut short his visit so he can head elsewhere in Aotearoa.
Aucklanders, are you listening?
Team of the Week
Anna Grimaldi: Spared New Zealand blushes at the Paralympics by ensuring the team returned with a gold medal and showed off her bountiful personality along the way.
St Thomas of Canterbury College: The little Christchurch school that can successfully defended their national rugby league championship, beating Auckland’s De La Salle in the final and showing the Warriors where the best young talent currently lies.
Aaron Gate: The reigning New Zealand Sportsman of the Year is taking his spectacular mullet and stepping away from the cycling track to concentrate on road racing, signing for a leading European team competing on the UCI World Tour.
