KYIV: Ukraine said on Friday it had received the bodies of 563 soldiers from Russian authorities, mainly troops that had died in combat in the eastern Donetsk region.
The exchange of prisoners and bodies of killed military personnel remains one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv since Russia invaded in 2022.
“The bodies of 563 fallen Ukrainian defenders were returned to Ukraine,” the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on social media.
The announcement represents one of the largest repatriations of killed Ukrainian servicemen since the beginning of the war.
The statement said that 320 of the remains were returned from the Donetsk region and that 89 of the soldiers had been killed near Bakhmut, a town captured by Russia in May last year after a costly battle.
Another 154 of the bodies were returned from morgues inside Russia, the statement added.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine publicly disclose how many military personnel have been killed fighting.
Kyiv says Russia has returned bodies of 563 soldiers
https://arab.news/zubwf
Kyiv says Russia has returned bodies of 563 soldiers
- The exchange of prisoners and bodies of killed military personnel remains one of the few areas of cooperation
- The announcement represents one of the largest repatriations of killed Ukrainian servicemen
’Companions’ ease pain of China’s bustling, bamboozling hospitals
Yawning funding gaps and patchy medical coverage have long funnelled many Chinese people toward better resourced city hospitals for much-needed care.
Sprawling, overcrowded and noisy, the facilities can be exhausting for patients and their families, especially the elderly.
The problem has fueled the rise of patient companions, or “peizhenshi,” a lucrative and unofficial service in the country’s growing gig economy.
Tian, 83, said most Beijing hospitals were “overwhelmingly confusing.”
“We have to go up and down all the floors, wait for elevators, wait in lines... it’s really troublesome,” he told AFP.
Elsewhere at the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in the Chinese capital, patients faced long queues, myriad check-ins and a whirl of digital payment codes.
Hospital aides wearing bright red sashes rattled off directions into headsets as hundreds of patients filed through the colossal lobby.
Armed with a sheaf of papers at a traditional Chinese medicine ward, Meng breezed through check-in before joining Tian and wife Gao Yingmin in a consultation room.
Leaving Gao to rest in a waiting area, Meng then brought Tian to a payment counter before explaining to the couple how to pick up prescribed medications.
For a four-hour service, patient companions like Meng charge around 300 yuan ($40).
It is worth every penny for Gao, 78, who is undergoing treatment for complications from throat surgery.
The helpers are “convenient, practical and (give us) peace of mind,” she said, straining against a breathing tube.
“We no longer have to worry... they do all the work for us.”
Hundreds of advertisements for patient companions have sprung up on Chinese social media in recent years.
Authorities appear to allow the companions in hospitals because they are broadly in line with the government’s promotion of health services for seniors.
Meng, 39, had no medical background before enrolling in a weeklong training program run by Chengyi Health, an online platform that connects patients and companions.
Founder Li Gang, a former anaesthesiologist, said “there’s a big knowledge gap when it comes to medical care.”
Large Chinese hospitals can have over 50 clinical departments, each with numerous sub-specialities.
That means many people “don’t know how to go to the doctor,” Li said.
While some young people — such as expectant mothers — hire companions, some two-thirds of Chengyi’s clients are aged 60 or older.
Trainee Tao Yuan, 24, said he left his job at an Internet company to pursue a vocation “more valuable than money.”
A generation born under China’s now-abolished one-child policy are approaching middle age and caring for their elderly parents alone.
Increasing work and family pressure had left them with a “real need” for help, Tao said.
China’s health care system has long struggled to tackle deep-seated regional funding gaps and inconsistent access to equipment and medical staff.
Limited treatment options, especially in rural areas, push many patients into municipal hospitals for comparatively minor ailments.
“It’s a perennial structure problem,” said Wang Feng, an expert on Chinese demographics at the University of California, Irvine.
Working adults have no time to take elderly parents to hospital, while technology cannot yet replace human caregivers, he said.
China “will have a larger... demand for personal assistance” as the elderly account for an ever bigger proportion of the population, Wang said.
Authorities are betting big on the “silver economy” — products and services for older people, which totalled seven trillion yuan ($970 billion) last year, according to the nonprofit China Association of Social Welfare and Senior Service.
The figures are a bright spot in an economy struggling to maintain strong growth and robust youth employment.
Xiao Shu, who asked to be identified by a nickname for privacy, told AFP he made around 10,000 yuan ($1,400) per month — a tidy wage in China’s competitive capital.
But the former dentistry worker said there were limits to the service.
The 36-year-old once refused to take a client’s nearly 90-year-old father to a post-surgery check-up.
“If something happened to him, who would be responsible for it?” he said.
World facing ‘most complex’ situation in decades: WEF
TIANJEN: The world is facing the “most complex” geopolitical situation seen in decades, the head of the World Economic Forum (WEF) told AFP Tuesday, warning that turmoil was “impacting global growth.”
“It is the most complex geopolitical and geo-economic backdrop we’ve seen in decades,” WEF President and CEO Borge Brende said ahead of a meeting of the multilateral forum in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.
“If we are not able to revive growth again, we can unfortunately see a decade of lower growth,” he warned.
Officials including Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will attend this week’s WEF meeting in the port city of Tianjin — known colloquially as the “Summer Davos.”
The meeting comes hard on the heels of the United States’ involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict and follows months in which the global economy has been battered by a tariff war launched by US President Donald Trump.
Brende told AFP it was still too soon to predict the impact of Trump’s swingeing tariffs.
It is “too early to say what these tariffs will end with because the negotiations are still ongoing,” he said.
“I think the jury is still out, but the traditional globalization we saw is now changed into a different system,” he said.
“That is a new chapter... especially since trade was the engine of growth.”
Brende also warned mounting conflict could have a “very negative impact” on global growth.
Truckers practice English skills as US language policy takes effect
- Requiring truck drivers to speak and read English isn’t new, but the penalty for not meeting the proficiency standard is becoming more severe
NEW JERSEY: At a trucking school in New Jersey, students are maneuvering 18-wheelers around traffic cones. Other future drivers look under hoods to perform safety checks, narrating as they examine steering hoses for cracks and leaks.
An instructor glides between speaking Spanish and English as he teaches Manuel Castillo, a native Spanish speaker, how to inspect a school bus. They’re using a printed script of English phrases to practice what Castillo would say during a roadside inspection.
Brushing up on English has taken on new urgency for future and current truck drivers after President Donald Trump issued an executive order saying truckers who don’t read and speak the language proficiently would be considered unfit for service.
“A driver who can’t understand English will not drive a commercial vehicle in this country. Period,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last month while announcing enforcement guidelines that take effect on Wednesday.
Updated US Department of Transportation procedures call for enhanced inspections to determine if commercial motor vehicle operators can reply to questions and directions in English, as well as understand highway traffic signs and electronic message boards.
Truckers who learned English as a second language are concerned they may lose their jobs if they make a mistake or speak with a heavy accent while under questioning. Some have worked to improve their English fluency by taking classes, reciting scripts and watching instructional videos.
“If it’s not the language that you prefer to use daily, you may get a little nervous and you may feel, ‘What if I say the wrong thing?’” said Jerry Maldonado, chairman of the board of the Laredo Motor Carriers Association, a trade association in Laredo, Texas, that represents approximately 200 trucking companies. “It’s going to be, at the end of the day, the interpretation of the officer, so that makes people nervous.”
The guidance applies to truck and bus drivers engaged in interstate commerce. It aims to improve road safety following incidents in which truck drivers’ inability to read signs or speak English may have contributed to traffic deaths, the Transportation Department said.
English requirement isn’t new
Requiring truck drivers to speak and read English isn’t new, but the penalty for not meeting the proficiency standard is becoming more severe.
To get a commercial driver’s license, applicants must pass a written test and be able to name the parts of a bus or truck in English as they check tire inflation, tread depth, lug nuts and coolants.
The revised policy reverses guidance issued nine years ago, near the end of then-President Barack Obama’s final term, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. In 2016, the agency said drivers whose English skills were found lacking could receive a citation but not be prohibited from working. Before that, the penalty was getting placed on “out-of-service status.”
“We have bridges that get hit because drivers don’t understand the signs on the bridges for things like height clearance,” Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer said.
Practicing English phrases
In Laredo, a border city where many residents speak a mix of English and Spanish, Maldonado’s association is offering free English classes on weekends to help truckers feel more confident in their ability to communicate.
“Everybody knows what a stop sign looks like,” Maldonado said. “But if there’s construction or if there is an accident five miles down the road, and they have to put up a sign — ‘Caution, must exit now, road closed ahead,’ and you are not able to read that or understand that, that could potentially be a safety issue.”
At Driving Academy in Linden, New Jersey, multilingual instructors teach students how to inspect vehicle parts in their first language and then provide explanations in English, according to founder Jonathan Marques. The school created scripts so students could practice what to say if they’re stopped, he said.
Students are advised to watch training videos as homework, while licensed truckers can listen to English language apps instead of music when they’re on the road, Marques suggested.
Instructor Paul Cuartas helps students prepare but worries that inspectors will now expect truckers and bus drivers to have perfect English. “I’m concerned because now for all the Spanish people it’s more difficult,” he said.
Castillo, who moved to the US from Ecuador in 1993, said he has no problem understanding English but has been watching videos to study industry terms. “Some words I don’t understand, but I try to learn more English,” he said.
Asked whether he supports the president’s executive order, Castillo said he voted for Trump but doesn’t agree with the president’s push to deport some immigrants who haven’t committed crimes.
“He makes a lot of problems, especially for Hispanic people,” Castillo said.
GTR Trucking School in Detroit also has offered students ESL classes. Co-owner Al Myftiu drove a truck after moving to the US from Albania in 1993. He said he wants to create a small book of phrases that truckers need to learn.
For students with a thick accent, “I tell them, ‘Slow down, speak slowly and people can understand you, and if you don’t understand something, you can ask,’” Myftiu said.
How it will work
Roadside inspections can be initiated over issues such as a faulty brake light or on a routine basis, and often take place at weigh stations.
The guidance directs inspectors who suspect a driver doesn’t understand what they’re saying to administer an English proficiency test, which includes both an interview and a highway traffic sign recognition component.
In the past, some drivers used translation apps to communicate with federal inspectors. The updated policy bars the use of interpreters, smartphones, cue cards or other aids during interviews.
Several truck drivers taking a break at Flying J Travel Center in New Jersey said they support Trump’s order, adding that drivers who heavily rely on translation programs probably wouldn’t be able to read important signs.
“We try to ask them questions about the business just to strike a conversation, ... and they’re not able to communicate with us at all,” Kassem Elkhatib, one of the drivers at Flying J, said.
Fear of discrimination
It’s unclear how safety inspectors will decide whether a driver knows enough English because that portion of the instructions was redacted from the guidance distributed by Transportation Department.
The department advised motor carriers that drivers should be able to answer questions about shipping documents, the origin and destination of trips, and how long they’ve been on duty.
A trucker placed out of service and the company they work for are responsible for ensuring a language violation is corrected before the driver hits the highway again, the Transportation Department said.
Truck drivers who practice the Sikh religion already face discrimination in hiring and at loading docks, according to Mannirmal Kaur, federal policy manager for Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group. Now they are worried about inspectors making subjective, non-standardized determinations about which of them are proficient in English, she said.
“A truck driver who does speak English sufficiently to comply with federal standards but maybe they speak with an accent, or maybe they use a different vocabulary that the inspector isn’t used to hearing: Is that person then going to be subject to an English language violation?” Kaur asked. “And under the new policy, are they then going to be designated out-of-service, which could result in unemployment?”
The Republican attempt to discourage Trump lawsuits has hit a big obstacle
- As Trump faces lawsuits nationwide, GOP lawmakers had sought to bar federal courts from issuing temporary restraining orders
WASHINGTON: Republicans have hit a roadblock in an effort that could deter nonprofits, individuals and other potential litigants from filing lawsuits to block President Donald Trump over his executive actions.
As Trump faces lawsuits nationwide, GOP lawmakers had sought to bar federal courts from issuing temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions against the federal government unless the plaintiffs post what in many cases would be a massive financial bond at the beginning of the case.
The proposal was included in the Senate version of Trump’s massive tax and immigration bill, but ran into trouble with the Senate parliamentarian, who said it violates the chamber’s rules. It is now unlikely to be in the final package.
Federal judges can already require plaintiffs to post security bonds, but such funds are commonly waived in public interest cases. The GOP proposal would make the payment of the financial bond a requirement before a judge could make a ruling, which critics said would have a chilling effect on potential litigants who wouldn’t have the resources to comply.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer hailed the parliamentarian’s ruling in a press statement and called the GOP effort “nothing short of an assault on the system of checks and balances that has anchored the nation since it’s founding.”
“But Senate Democrats stopped them cold,” Schumer said.
Lawmakers are running scores of provisions by the Senate parliamentarian’s office to ensure they fit with the chamber’s rules for inclusion in a reconciliation bill. The recommendations from Elizabeth MacDonough will have a major impact on the final version of the legislation.
On Friday, she determined that a proposal to shift some food stamps costs from the federal government to states would violate the chamber’s rules. But some of the most difficult questions are still to come as Republicans hope to get a bill passed and on Trump’s desk to be signed into law before July 4th.
Republicans could still seek to include the judiciary provision in the bill, but it would likely be challenged and subject to a separate vote in which the provision would need 60 votes to remain. The parliamentarian’s advice, while not binding, is generally followed by the Senate.
Republicans and the White House have been highly critical of some of the court rulings blocking various Trump orders on immigration, education and voting. The courts have agreed to block the president in a number of cases, and the administration is seeking appeals as well.
In April, the House voted to limit the scope of injunctive relief ordered by a district judge to those parties before the court, rather than applying the relief nationally. But that bill is unlikely to advance in the Senate since it would need 60 votes to advance. That’s left Republicans looking for other avenues to blunt the court orders.
“We are experiencing a constitutional crisis, a judicial coup d’etat,” Rep. Bob Onder, R-Missouri, said during the House debate.
Turkiye sandwiches and stealth: Preparing for B-2 bomber missions
- Pilots are trained to be cognizant of foods and how they slow or speed digestion — critical in an aircraft with a single chemical toilet
- The Air Force plans to replace the B-2 and B-1 fleets with at least 100 B-21 Raiders over the coming decades
WASHINGTON: Before strapping into the cockpit of the US Air Force’s B-2 Spirit stealth bomber for missions that can stretch beyond 40 hours, pilots undergo weeks of preparation that focuses not only on flight plans, but what to eat.
The B-2, a $2 billion flying wing built by Northrop Grumman , played a key role in delivering strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites on Saturday. It demands extraordinary endurance from its two-person crew. That starts with understanding how nutrition affects alertness and digestion during intercontinental flights that can span nearly two full days.
“We go through sleep studies, we actually go through nutritional education to be able to teach each one of us: one, what wakes us up and then what helps us go to sleep,” said retired Lt. Gen. Steve Basham, who flew the B-2 for nine years and retired in 2024 as deputy commander of US European Command.
Pilots are trained to be cognizant of foods and how they slow or speed digestion — critical in an aircraft with a single chemical toilet. Basham’s go-to meal: turkey sandwiches on wheat bread, no cheese. “As bland as you possibly can,” he said.
With a 172-foot (52.4 m) wingspan and stealth profile, the B-2 can fly 6,000 nautical miles without refueling, but most missions require multiple mid-air refuelings. That process becomes increasingly difficult as fatigue sets in.
Refueling is done blind — pilots can’t see the boom extending from a tanker full of gas attaching to the B-2 16 feet behind their heads. Instead, they rely on visual cues from the tanker’s lights and memorized reference points. At night, especially on moonless flights, the task becomes what Basham called “inherently dangerous.”
“Adrenaline kept you going before you went into country,” he said. “The adrenaline goes away. You try to get a little bit of rest and you still got that one last refueling.”
The B-2’s cockpit includes a small area behind the seats, where pilots can lie down on a cot. Sunflower seeds help some stay alert between meals.
Despite its cutting-edge design — features that make it stealthy reduce infrared, radar and acoustic signatures — the B-2’s success hinges on human performance. The aircraft’s two-person crew replaces the larger teams required for older bombers like the B-1B and B-52, placing more responsibility on each member of the flight crew.
The B-2’s fly-by-wire system, which relies entirely on computer inputs, has evolved since its 1989 debut. Early software lagged behind pilot commands, complicating refueling, Basham said. Updates have improved responsiveness, but the challenge of flying in tight formation at high altitude remains.
During Operation Allied Force in 1999, B-2s flew 31-hour round trips from Missouri to Kosovo, striking 33 percent of targets in the first eight weeks, according to the Air Force. In Iraq, the aircraft dropped more than 1.5 million pounds of munitions across 49 sorties.
The Air Force plans to replace the B-2 and B-1 fleets with at least 100 B-21 Raiders over the coming decades. The B-2 costs about $65,000 per hour to operate, compared to $60,000 for the B-1, Pentagon data shows.
“Our pilots make it look easy, but it’s far from easy,” Basham said. The B-2’s complicated missions can’t be done “without a massive, massive array of planners on the ground throughout the world and maintainers that make sure you’ve always got a good aircraft.”
