World
How EU sanctions won't stop Putin getting six more years in power
President Vladimir Putin is all but guaranteed to win six more years of power in Russia’s upcoming elections. Opponents – many of them behind bars, exiled abroad, or dead – say EU officials must intensify their efforts to hit Moscow where it hurts.
Critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin say the EU must do more to help them crack the elite’s grip on power ahead of a presidential election so tightly controlled by the current Kremlin resident that it leaves no room for any opposition to his 25-year rule.
Despite EU efforts to sanction Russian authorities for their full-scale invasion of Ukraine and ongoing crackdown on dissent, the ballot will be held weeks after Moscow gained significant territory in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the ruling elite is getting richer, Russia has been selling oil for more than the price cap established by the G7, Moscow’s army is securing sanctioned military technology via allied countries, and the voice of Putin’s fiercest critic, Alexei Navalny, was forever silenced last month when he died in the penal colony he was held in.
Russia may be the most sanctioned country in the world, but “there were a lot of mistakes” in the restrictive measures implemented by Western allies, Russian politician and opposition leader Dmitry Gudkov told Euronews. Sanctions, he also said, have enefited Putin but are hurting ordinary Russians.
European officials are just now realising that “something went wrong,” he added.
Last month, a Moscow court barred Putin’s main challenger, Boris Nadezhdin, an opponent of the war in Ukraine, from running in the election.
Gudkov, the leader of the opposition Party of Changes, was exiled to Ukraine in 2021 after being detained— and released shortly after— for what he claims was a “fake” criminal case against him. A Moscow court issued in February an arrest warrant against him under charges of distributing “fake” information about Russia’s military. The former politician faces up to 10 years in prison.
For Russian dissidents, Putin’s illegitimacy should not be questioned: the Russian leader has been the subject since March 2023 of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes committed in Ukraine; the 2020 referendum that allowed him to run for two more six-year presidential terms was considered a sham by international observers; and these elections will be conducted in the illegally annexed territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia
How has the West failed to implement sanctions efficiently?
According to Rasa Juknevičienė, a Member of the European Parliament from Lithuania, the EU does not have an “effective structure” to implement sanctions against Russia due to the bloc’s lack of experience.
The 27-country Union rolled out its 13th package of sanctions against Russia last month to further restrict Moscow’s access to military technologies and prevent sanction circumvention.
But Western leaders, Juknevičienė added, are “afraid to punish Putin, to crush Putin’s regime, and provide all necessary support to Ukraine.”
Forbes announced last year that the overall wealth of Russia’s super-rich had increased by $152 billion (€139 billion) since 2022. It also counted 110 billionaires in Russia — 22 more than the previous year.
Speaking to EU foreign affairs ministers in February, Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said that sanctions have not targeted Russia’s elite enough. She claims they have transferred their belongings to family and friends to avoid the seizure of their assets. “Putin’s friends are simply laughing at you,” Navalnaya said.
Since Ukraine’s full-scale invasion, Russia has been able to sell oil above the $60 per barrel price cap established by the G7 countries in December 2022, according to the Atlantic Council. The Kremlin is moving over 70 percent of its oil “through a shadow fleet,” it said.
A report by researchers from King’s College London found that Russia has been able to evade sanctions by importing banned products via friendly countries such as Georgia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
“We see how sanctions do not work, and this is obvious for the West,” Russian dissident Anastasia Shevchenko told Euronews. While she believes the concept of sanctions in general can be effective, Shevchenko argued allies have “a lot of work to do” for them to affect Putin.
How can the European Union help the Russian opposition?
Shevchenko was the first person in Russia to be criminally prosecuted under the Kremlin’s “undesirable organisations” law. While arrested, her eldest daughter, Alina, fell ill. Russian authorities allowed Anastasia to see her daughter only hours before she died.
For Shevchenko, one of the most important things European officials can do in the upcoming elections is to recognise Putin’s regime as illegitimate. “This is a crucial point for us,” Shevchenko told Euronews.
In the 2018 elections, countries such as the United States, Hungary, and Israel congratulated Putin for his reelection. France and Germany acknowledged his victory but refrained from using the word “congratulate.”
ADVERTISEMENTDissidents also emphasise the need for Western support for Russians that have escaped the regime.
Dimitri Androssow, a Putin critic who currently lives in Berlin, told Euronews that some programmes and opportunities worldwide have been closed for Russians. One of them was an internship in the German Bundestag that changed his career 10 years ago but that was restricted to Russian nationals in the wake of the country’s assault on Ukraine two years ago.
“The West should concentrate on those who dare to show somehow that they are against this regime,” Androssow said. “This is our future. This is that democratic chance for our Russia. Those people who are against this regime and who are not afraid to speak about this.”
Androssow is a board member of Russia’s People’s Freedom Party. He left the country in 2022 due to political persecution.
For the now exiled Gudkov, EU officials should also include Russian dissidents in the policy-making of the sanctions. He claims he has presented some proposals to European colleagues, but they were not taken into consideration.
ADVERTISEMENT“Nobody knows Putin better than us. Nobody knows our country better than us. Nobody knows the elites and the civil society in Russia better than us,” Gudkov said. “But unfortunately, our expertise is not considered while some of the sanction policy is being carried out.”
Pushing for change from exile
In the meantime, opposition leaders are calling Russians to show up to the polls on 17 March at noon and write ‘Navalny’ or tear up their ballot as a form of protest. While this might not have a direct effect on the regime, the goal is to “affect the perception of these so-called elections,” Gudkov said. Domestically, it will undermine Putin’s legitimacy, he added.
“We want to demonstrate that a lot of people taking to the street and coming to the polling stations are against Putin and the war,” Gudkov said. “It’s the only safe format for people to demonstrate and express their position without being detained.”
Shevchenko said she already sees a change in Russian society. Images and videos from Navalny’s funeral this month showed hundreds queuing to pay their respects to the opposition leader despite threats of arrests from Russian police.
“When people see how many people like them are around, it helps get rid of fear,” Shevchenko said. “ I think it means that step by step, they stop being afraid.”
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Veteran politician Andy Burnham has taken another step towards becoming the UK’s next prime minister, after the majority of Labour MPs nominated him to replace Keir Starmer.
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The 56-year-old’s Labour leadership bid was backed by 322 Labour MPs on Thursday and he remains the only person to publicly declare themselves a candidate to replace Starmer, who announced he was quitting last month.
Burnham appeared on course to be crowned Labour leader unchallenged on the first day of nominations.
If Burnham reaches at least 323 nominations then it would no longer be mathematically possible for another challenger to get the 81 signatures required to join the race out of the total of 402 Labour MPs.
“It is all starting to feel very real,” Burnham said in a social media video posted shortly after the process opened on Thursday morning.
Nominations close on 16 July. In the absence of a contest, Burnham will be crowned Labour leader and prime minister in waiting at a special conference the following day.
He would then replace Starmer at 10 Downing Street on 20 July after meeting King Charles, becoming Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade.
“There’s no one else,” one Labour MP told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity after nominating Burnham.
Armed forces minister Al Carns, thought to be Burnham’s final remaining potential challenger, ruled himself out of the running late on Wednesday.
He had expressed hope a leadership contest would give the party the “opportunity for a proper debate.”
“But months of internal Labour politics isn’t what the country needs right now,” he said.
Burnham, nicknamed the “King of the North” for winning three consecutive Greater Manchester mayoral elections, has vowed to “bring about the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen.”
His signature proposal is the creation of a “No. 10 North” to coordinate greater devolution, a reference to the UK prime minister’s address at 10 Downing Street.
Burnham has pledged fiscal discipline and to reduce the country’s ballooning welfare bill, having already sought to calm markets by committing to the government’s current borrowing limits.
But he will face the same challenges that buffeted Starmer’s premiership, notably anaemic growth, a cost-of-living squeeze and an unpredictable US president in Donald Trump.
He has also indicated he could stake out a different path to Starmer on Israel, which enjoyed solid backing from the Labour government even as criticism grew of its war in Gaza.
“I am sorry about that,” Burnham told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published on Thursday. “The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better.”
Starmer, under pressure for months over policy U-turns and questions about his judgement, announced on 22 June that he was resigning after losing the support of Labour MPs.
His move came after Burnham won a by-election that allowed him to return to parliament to launch a widely expected leadership challenge.
On the day Starmer announced his resignation, Burnham was sworn into parliament, becoming an MP again following his stint between 2001-2017.
Roll the dice
Afterwards, some 200 Labour MPs feted Burnham during a group photo in Westminster, in a clear sign that they expect him to take over.
Former health minister Wes Streeting announced he was dropping his intention to run and backing Burnham.
Burnham, seen as slightly to the left of the more centrist Starmer and more charismatic, is Labour’s most popular politician, surveys show.
Many MPs feel he is the party’s best chance of clawing back support from Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party before the next general election, expected in 2029.
Reform has led Labour in national opinion polls for well over a year, although the gap has narrowed in recent weeks amid questions over Farage’s finances.
One Labour MP, who asked not to be named, said the party was right to “roll the dice” on Burnham, saying “he couldn’t be worse than Starmer.”
“I hope he’s a breath of fresh air,” the lawmaker told AFP.
NEW YORK (AP) — Launching an artificial intelligence tool to take notes and summarize important information from a virtual meeting can be alluring. Seconds after one of the agents attends an hour-long video conference, it can deliver a recap of key points and outline a to-do list for all the participants.
But the way popular AI notetakers accomplish those tasks makes some people avoid using them. The technology turns everything said during meetings into data. Confidential personnel information, corporate strategies, trade secrets and remarks that could later be seen as incriminating — all of it could end up in the wrong hands.
“There are huge risks to the organization on AI notetakers,” Amy Dufrane, the chief executive of human resources training and certification provider HRCI, said. “I don’t think companies should use it at all.”
An AI notetaker is a software application or device that uses artificial intelligence, speech recognition and large language models to record, transcribe and summarize conversations. The tools are intended to save time and improve participation, but professionals in a number of fields say there are reasons to be wary.
This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.
Chief among them is uncertainty about where the collected data is stored and for how long. Privacy advocates worry the companies behind the AI notetakers are creating voiceprints without consent. Voiceprints — a type of biometric profile similar to a fingerprint but tuned to the unique intonations and characteristics of one’s voice — can be used to access restricted or confidential information, including the contents of bank accounts.
Some tech companies resell data from the notetaking tools they created or use confidential meeting transcripts and recordings to train their AI models. There’s also the risk that conversations between an attorney and client could become fair game in legal proceedings; a New York federal judge in February ordered a criminal defendant to provide prosecutors with documents he created for his lawyers because it already had been shared with a third party, which was Anthropic’s Claude.
“People who use AI notetakers, they don’t always know where the data goes,” said Justin Daniels, an Atlanta-based corporate attorney at law firm Baker Donelson. “And in my context, if the data goes anywhere else and they’re not aware of it, that attorney-client-privileged conversation may not be attorney-client-privileged anymore.”
Here are some tips on the etiquette of kicking an AI notetaker out of a meeting, the risks of using one and how to protect yourself.
The first step when you join a meeting is check for bots
When you join a meeting, make it a habit to check whether an AI notetaker is present. It might appear as a meeting attendee, often labeled as an AI notetaker, or a pop-up message on the screen informing participants the meeting is being recorded. The latter could signal the presence of an AI notetaker.
Virtual meeting platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet let users know when recording is underway, but some meeting software does not make it clear when a notetaker is present, according to Thorin Klosowski, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s senior security and privacy analyst.
Participants also may use personal notetaking devices that are separate from the meeting platform, in which case the other attendees wouldn’t necessarily know a discussion was being recorded and transcribed.
“You hope the other person would tell you that they’re doing that,” Klosowski said. “Asking everyone for consent before doing a sensitive meeting would be the most polite approach to take.”
If you’re unsure whether someone has deployed an AI notetaker, you can ask. You can also state at the beginning that a meeting is not authorized for recording.
A polite way to establish such a boundary is to say, “Our company policy is that this meeting cannot be recorded,” Dufrane suggested. This relieves the employee, such as a salesperson who wants to make a good impression, of having to be the “bad guy,” putting the onus on the company instead, she said.
Another option is to allow the notetaker for part of the gathering but turn if off at the end to dedicate time for more delicate topics.
“I won’t start talking about anything substantive until it’s shut off, because I just don’t want to take the risk,” Daniels said.
Assert your privacy rights to protect voiceprints
Many AI notetakers determine unique acoustic signatures, or voiceprints, for each speaker in the room, said Chris Pluymers, associate attorney at The Dillon Law Group in East Lansing, Michigan. That’s how the companies distinguish one speaker from another, labeling them with monikers “Speaker 1” or “Speaker 2.”
One way voiceprints are used is to verify the identities of bank account holders over the phone. If bad actors got ahold of a person’s vocal signature, they could use it to access files, commit fraud or take over accounts, he said.
Laws in some states govern how voiceprints can be created and stored and provide rights that individuals can assert to object to the use of an AI notetaker during meetings they attend.
In Illinois, voiceprints are considered biometric identifiers, similar to fingerprints, and are covered under the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act, which requires written notice and informed consent before an AI notetaker or other agent collects voiceprints. The law also mandates a documented data retention schedule and destruction policy, Pluymers said. But most companies using the tools have none of those systems in place, Pluymers said.
“In the world of AI, the world of data and privacy, the world of biometric identification, I don’t think you can have such a lax approach to it,” Pluymers said. “I think getting out ahead of it is crucial.”
Under the Illinois law, employees can say they don’t want to attend a meeting with an AI notetaker until they have assurances of where and why the data is being stored, and when it will be deleted, Pluymers said. They can also ask if there is a policy and written consent form to sign.
If an AI notetaker shows up at a meeting unexpectedly, a participant could say, “I prefer we keep this meeting without AI recording or transcript tools and I’d be happy to take my own notes and share a recap if that’s helpful,” Pluymers suggested. “Just being warm and genuine about it and asking them to respect your wishes.”
Know where your data goes
When working with AI notetaking apps, find out whether the companies that built them retain recordings, transcripts or metadata indefinitely or use them to train AI models, said Danielle Kays, a partner at Fisher Phillips who represents businesses on privacy and employment law matters.
“If there is some sort of speaker ID or voice recognition, really understand what that is and how it works,” Kays said.
Even when content is deleted, metadata about meetings can remain stored with the vendor, meaning sensitive business information could influence how the model behaves and in some cases could be memorized or reproduced, she said.
AI notetakers generate text, and that’s easier for outsiders to search through than video or audio files, according to EFF.
“Storing a bunch of video isn’t easy, it’s costly and hard to look through, but text is much easier to search and cheaper to store,” said Klosowski of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at [email protected]. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well
World
Argentinian flight instructor jumps to death from plane, 22-year-old student forced to land alone
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A flight instructor jumped to his death out of a small aircraft over Argentina, forcing the student pilot he was teaching to land the plane herself.
Leandro Andrés Bertazzo, 42, was on board a two-seat Cessna 150G on Saturday when he made the decision to jump out over the province of Córdoba, according to CNN, which cited its Argentinian affiliate TN.
“He made this tragic decision on board an aircraft with another person by his side,” Eduardo Álvarez, director of the Flying Parrot Córdoba flying school where Bertazzo worked, told TN. “It’s impossible to think about it or understand it, but the human mind is so complex.”
An undated photo of Leandro Andrés Bertazzo, a 42-year-old pilot who jumped to his death from a plane on Saturday, July 4 in Argentina. (Instagram/Leandro Bertazzo)
PILOT DECLARES MAYDAY BEFORE SEAPLANE COMES DOWN IN NEW YORK CITY’S EAST RIVER
Rosario, the 22-year-old student, later told authorities that Bertazzo told her, “You know what you have to do, carry on,” before taking off his gear, opening the door and leaping out, according to Álvarez.
Opening the door of a plane midair is incredibly difficult. Álvarez said it would be akin to trying to open the door of a car traveling 124 miles per hour.
Cessna 150m FRA150M climbing out after take-off with flaps deployed and hills behind. (aviation-images.com/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
FRANTIC SEARCH UNDERWAY FOR CREW AFTER BOEING 737 WRECKAGE FOUND BY OFFICIALS
Álvarez said that Rosario managed to land the plane safely, despite being in “complete shock.” There was no damage to the plane, according to TN.
Álvarez noted that Bertazzo had gone on a flight with another student earlier in the day.
A view from the main road of the flight school Bertazzo worked at, Flying Parrot Córdoba. (Google Maps)
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Álvarez also told TN that Bertazzo had visited a psychiatric institute, something that was only known by his family prior to his death.
Prosecutors in Córdoba will lead the investigation into Bertazzo’s death. The plane he jumped from is now in police custody.
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