NV ranks among top news sources in Ukraine, Russia creates draft office on Georgian border, Disney uses Ukrainian tool for Vader’s voice
Newsletter by Romeo Kokriatski, Managing Editor, New Voice of Ukraine Wednesday, September 28th, 2022
• NV ranks among the highest quality media in Ukraine.
The Institute of Mass Information has released a list of the highest quality and most responsible online media, including nine national online media that scored the highest points in the assessment of compliance with professional standards and had the lowest rates of error and bias as of September 2022. NV has been on the "White List" of Ukrainian online media for several years. In the fall of 2021, NV was included in the list of 10 editorial offices with the highest level of compliance with journalistic standards in Ukraine — also according to the results of the Institute of Mass Information monitoring.
• Russia will set up a mobilization point on the Russian-Georgian border to catch draft dodgers.
Russian men trying to flee to Georgia to evade mobilization for the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine will soon have a new obstacle in their way to safety – a military mobilization point right on the border. The point will be deployed at the Verkhny Lars border point, the border crossing closest to the Georgian capital Tbilisi, where thousands of Russian men have already sought refuge. However, the message didn’t say when the mobilization point would open.
• Meanwhile, protestors in the Russian province of Dagestan continue to clash with the authorities as a result of Russia’s mobilization.
• Ukraine plans to create a special international tribunal for Russian war crimes.
The Zelenskyy administration has presented these plans to the ambassadors of 30 countries, the President revealed in his evening address to the nation. “I have no doubt this tribunal will take place. Everyone who unleashed this criminal war against Ukraine and freedom in Europe will be held to account,” Zelenskyy said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte made the promise to President Zelenskyy during phone talks between the two on Sept. 26, the two leaders reported via Twitter. The Ukrainian leader wrote on Twitter that he had discussed with Rutte the situation at the front and further defense aid for Ukraine, as well as support for Ukrainian initiatives within the UN. In his later evening address, Zelenskyy added that he and Rutte had also discussed the criminal mobilization that Russia is conducting, in particular in the occupied territories, as well as the sham referendums.
Stefan Schaller, manager of state-owned energy company Energie Waldeck-Frankenberg in Hessen, Germany, illegally entered Ukraine to conduct his “observation”, Der Spiegel reports. The federal state of Hessen said that the removal of Schaller was a reaction "to his work as an observer at illegal fictitious Russian referendums in Ukraine.” The decision was made unanimously, after which the issue of Schaller's dismissal will be discussed, Hessen officials said.
• One of Tajikistan’s biggest banks stops supporting the Russia “Mir” payment system.
Dushanbe City Bank – the country’s second-largest bank by cardholders, said the reason was down to “technical issues”, adding that failures in the operation of Mir cards have been going on since Sept. 24. No schedule for the resumption of the system has been revealed. The banks of some countries have already suspended work with cards of the Mir payment system amid possible sanctions from the United States. In particular, Turkish banks Is Bankasi and DenizBank, as well as the Uzbek unified bank processing center Uzcard have refused to deal with the Russian cards.
• A Ukrainian-made A.I. voice modeling tool will help shape the voice of Darth Vader for Disney.
Ars Technica, a website covering news and opinions in technology, said in a report on Sept. 26 that the ground-breaking tool is called Respeecher. Respeecher is a voice cloning product from a company in Ukraine that uses deep learning to model and replicate human voices that produces results practically indistinguishable from the real thing – in this case, to replicate the voice of storied Darth Vader actor James Earl Jones.
• The day’s long read: Ex-State Duma member says ‘dumb’ bureaucracy, mobilization may lead to revolution in Russia
Ilya Ponomarev, a former member of Russia’s State Duma and now a citizen of Ukraine, in an interview with Radio NV said the bureaucracy of Russian officials, their misunderstanding of the Ukraine, and mobilization in Russia are beginning to strengthen revolutionary sentiments in the country.
• Don’t miss: European rights agency polls people fleeing war in Ukraine
The ongoing war in Ukraine has forced millions of people to seek refuge in the EU. The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)is conducting a survey to determine the concerns and needs of these people in order to inform EU policy-making.
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