Iran is getting a boost to its status as an international arms supplier.

Tehran hosted defense ministers from Bolivia and Belarus in July and early August to discuss military cooperation with its fellow anti-American allies.

Bolivia later said it is interested in obtaining Iranian drone technology, while U.S. research group the Institute for the Study of War said the visit likely indicates Belarus wants to do the same.

The U.S. and Ukraine say Iranian drones have been a key weapon for Russia in the war it has waged against Ukraine since last year, something both Moscow and Tehran have denied.

James Rogers, a war historian who advises the United Nations and NATO on drone warfare and serves as executive director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, discussed Iran’s efforts to expand the market for its drones in this week’s edition of VOA’s Flashpoint Iran podcast.

The following transcript of Rogers’ August 6 interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: What can you say about the strength of international demand for Iran’s military drone industry?

James Rogers, Cornell Tech Policy Institute: The demand for Iranian drones is growing at a record rate. And this is something that is happening globally. It’s not just an Iranian phenomenon. Any nation that has pivoted its industry toward the production of drones is seeing a massive increase in demand for those systems. Turkey is another example. China also produces a large array of drone systems.

As I said to the United Nations Security Council in August 2022, we are starting to worry about the current and future state of international security. By our latest calculations, my colleagues and I think around 113 nation states have access to military drone technologies or have a military drone program. And that is just the nation states. We believe at the very least that 65 violent nonstate actor groups have access to these systems as well. So this is the proliferation of violent airpower globally.

VOA: What is making Iranian drones particularly appealing to countries like Bolivia and maybe even Belarus?

Rogers: It is a question that is steeped in history and goes back to the 1980s. So Iran, after the shah is deposed [in the 1979 Islamic revolution], is left with these big-ticket, high-tech items of piloted aircraft and tanks. But with the withdrawal of Western technical support for these systems [after the revolution], they are pretty much useless. And any pilot who could fly away, did.

Iran is left in a very difficult situation. It quickly gets embroiled in the Iran-Iraq War and it needs to have the capacity to fight that war. So from the early 1980s, Iran turns towards these cheaper, easier to manufacture, easy to use systems that will give them a rudimentary, albeit powerful, air power capability. And this is where the drones are born. So Iran is not new to this game. They have been developing drones for decades.

Skipping ahead to the current day, we can see that Iranian drones are having a massive impact in Russia’s offensive war against Ukraine. This war has acted as a shop window for Iran, showing just how powerful its Shahed 136 and Shahed 131 loitering munitions can be, in terms of fulfilling Russian military aims. This is exactly why other countries want to buy Iranian drones, because they believe the drones are effective systems and want to get a slice of that pie.

VOA: Russia’s ally, Belarus, apparently is interested in having Iranian drones produced on its territory, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War this month. Belarus did not immediately confirm that report. What do you think is the reality?

Rogers: There are two points to make. First, there is a relationship between Belarus and Iran in which Iranian drones are being launched, we believe, from Belarus into Ukraine. That likely means there are Iranian personnel either inside Belarus training Russian operatives or stationed further back inside Russia. Either way, we can see that there already is a direct link between these Iranian military systems and Belarus.

Second, one problem Russia has had is making sure that there are secure supply lines of Iranian drones. Russia needs hundreds, if not thousands, of them. Securing those supplies has become incredibly difficult because the U.S. has put very stringent and heavily enforced trade embargoes on Russia and Iran. So how do you get around this?

One of the options is to build a Shahed 136 loitering munition factory in Belarus. Then you can make the drones exactly where you are firing from, and you are reducing the distance from the tail of your logistics to the teeth of your firepower. That is exactly what Russia is going to want to do to make gains in the war against Ukraine.

VOA: Looking elsewhere, Bolivia has said publicly that it is interested in Iranian drones. How likely is it that Bolivia will acquire them?

Rogers: It is certainly a possibility. We have seen attempts by Bolivia and Venezuela to strengthen their connections with Iran as allies against what they see as the imperialism of the United States and the West. So sharing expertise and even military equipment is plausible. In Venezuela, they were talking about building Iranian drone factories there 12 years ago. Some reports say these have become quite successful drone factories.

For me, it is a worrying prospect. We have seen the proliferation of drones across Europe. We are increasingly seeing that proliferation across Africa. We saw that Iran supplied drone systems to Ethiopia [in 2021] when the West and the United States would not get involved in their civil war against Tigray rebels. So, what we are seeing now is the even further spread of drone systems to South America.

VOA: Bolivia says it wants these drones to monitor its border regions. How concerning would its acquisition of Iranian drones be for the security of the region and the U.S.?

Rogers: For the United States, it will be a worrying prospect. Iranian operatives, training and technology will follow these military systems into Bolivia if it purchases them. Iranians would be involved in training Bolivian officials or officers in piloting these drone systems.

But it all depends on what type of Iranian drone they purchase. Bolivia’s Defense Minister Edmundo Novillo Aguilar has said that these drones would be used to monitor its border regions and provide real time footage for its armed forces. If that is the case, there is less to worry about.

If these are armed systems or loitering munitions that have an extended range of up to 2,500 kilometers, that brings a number of targets theoretically into range. Argentina is more worried about this. It shares a border with Bolivia and has demanded more information and transparency about what drone systems the Bolivians want to buy. Argentina wants to know what capability would be bordering it. Because of this, Argentina is looking to acquire Israeli systems. [Editor’s note: Argentina signed a contract to buy Israeli company Uvision’s Hero-120 and Hero-30 loitering munitions in December.] So, you can see ideological divides playing out through the different acquisitions of military technologies across South America.  
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China’s plans to build a new embassy near the Tower of London have stalled following local opposition to what would be the biggest diplomatic compound in Britain.

The borough of Tower Hamlets, the local government council in London responsible for the area, blocked the project in February, citing concerns about the increased risk of terror attacks, protests and traffic in an area visited by millions of tourists each year.

Chinese authorities had until Thursday to appeal the decision to the U.K. government but did not, Tower Hamlets said.

“If the applicant wanted to appeal through the public inquiry procedure then they would have already needed to have given notice to us as the local planning authority,” Tower Hamlets said in a statement. “We haven’t received any such notification from the applicant.”

China’s plans called for comprehensive redevelopment of a 5.2-acre site that was home to the Royal Mint from 1811 to 1968, demolishing some of the existing buildings and restoring others. The new embassy compound would include some 57,000 square meters of floor space, including offices, a cultural exchange building and 225 apartments.

That’s about 18% bigger than the new U.S. Embassy in London, which opened in 2018 with 48,000 square meters of space.

While Tower Hamlets planning officials recommended authorizing the project, the borough council voted on Feb. 10 to refuse planning permission.

The Chinese Embassy in London called on the British government to intervene.

“It is the international obligation of the host country to provide facilitations and support for the construction of diplomatic premises,” the embassy in a statement. “We urge the U.K. side to fulfill its relevant international obligations.”

British authorities did not comment on the Chinese Embassy proposal, which in theory could come before the central government, where the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities oversees the planning system.

But the government said it takes its “obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations extremely seriously and we will continue to do so,” and stressed that planning decisions are made by local councils, which give applicants the opportunity to appeal.

There is growing concern in the U.K. about Chinese investments in critical infrastructure, as well allegations that it has attempted to influence British politicians and university researchers.

The decision in February to block the embassy project came four months after a pro-democracy protester had to be rescued by police after he was dragged onto the grounds of the Chinese consulate in Manchester. After that incident, Britain’s foreign secretary summoned the Chinese ambassador’s deputy to his office and demanded an explanation.

The Tower Hamlets council said the proposed embassy compound would strain local police resources, increase road congestion and have a negative impact on the area surrounding Tower of London.

“The proposed embassy would result in adverse impacts on local tourism, due to concerns over the effect of potential protests, acts of terrorism and related security mitigation measures on the sensitive backdrop of nationally significant tourist attractions,” the council said in announcing its decision.
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IPVM, a U.S.-based security and surveillance industry research group, says the Chinese surveillance equipment maker Dahua is selling cameras with what it calls a “skin color analytics” feature in Europe, raising human rights concerns. 

In a report released on July 31, IPVM said “the company defended the analytics as being a ‘basic feature of a smart security solution.'” The report is behind a paywall, but IPVM provided a copy to VOA Mandarin. 

Dahua’s ICC Open Platform guide for “human body characteristics” includes “skin color/complexion,” according to the report. In what Dahua calls a “data dictionary,” the company says that the “skin color types” that Dahua analytic tools would target are ”yellow,” “black,” and ”white.”  VOA Mandarin verified this on Dahua’s Chinese website. 

The IPVM report also says that skin color detection is mentioned in the “Personnel Control” category, a feature Dahua touts as part of its Smart Office Park solution intended to provide security for large corporate campuses in China.  

Charles Rollet, co-author of the IPVM report, told VOA Mandarin by phone on August 1, “Basically what these video analytics do is that, if you turn them on, then the camera will automatically try and determine the skin color of whoever passes, whoever it captures in the video footage. 

“So that means the camera is going to be guessing or attempting to determine whether the person in front of it … has black, white or yellow — in their words — skin color,” he added.  

VOA Mandarin contacted Dahua for comment but did not receive a response. 

The IPVM report said that Dahua is selling cameras with the skin color analytics feature in three European nations. Each has a recent history of racial tension: Germany, France and the Netherlands.

‘Skin color is a basic feature’

Dahua said its skin tone analysis capability was an essential function in surveillance technology.  

 In a statement to IPVM, Dahua said, “The platform in question is entirely consistent with our commitments to not build solutions that target any single racial, ethnic, or national group. The ability to generally identify observable characteristics such as height, weight, hair and eye color, and general categories of skin color is a basic feature of a smart security solution.”  

IPMV said the company has previously denied offering the mentioned feature, and color detection is uncommon in mainstream surveillance tech products. 

In many Western nations, there has long been a controversy over errors due to skin color in surveillance technologies for facial recognition. Identifying skin color in surveillance applications raises human rights and civil rights concerns.  

“So it’s unusual to see it for skin color because it’s such a controversial and ethically fraught field,” Rollet said.  

Anna Bacciarelli, technology manager at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told VOA Mandarin that Dahua technology should not contain skin tone analytics.   

“All companies have a responsibility to respect human rights, and take steps to prevent or mitigate any human rights risks that may arise as a result of their actions,” she said in an email.

“Surveillance software with skin tone analytics poses a significant risk to the right to equality and non-discrimination, by allowing camera owners and operators to racially profile people at scale — likely without their knowledge, infringing privacy rights — and should simply not be created or sold in the first place.”  

Dahua denied that its surveillance products are designed to enable racial identification. On the website of its U.S. company, Dahua says, “contrary to allegations that have been made by certain media outlets, Dahua Technology has not and never will develop solutions targeting any specific ethnic group.” 

However, in February 2021, IPVM and the Los Angeles Times reported that Dahua provided a video surveillance system with “real-time Uyghur warnings” to the Chinese police that included eyebrow size, skin color and ethnicity.  

IPVM’s 2018 statistical report shows that since 2016, Dahua and another Chinese video surveillance company, Hikvision, have won contracts worth $1 billion from the government of China’s Xinjiang province, a center of Uyghur life. 

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission determined in 2022 that the products of Chinese technology companies such as Dahua and Hikvision, which has close ties to Beijing, posed a threat to U.S. national security. 

The FCC banned sales of these companies’ products in the U.S. “for the purpose of public safety, security of government facilities, physical security surveillance of critical infrastructure, and other national security purposes,” but not for other purposes.  

Before the U.S. sales bans, Hikvision and Dahua ranked first and second among global surveillance and access control firms, according to The China Project.  

‘No place in a liberal democracy’

On June 14, the European Union passed a revision proposal to its draft Artificial Intelligence Law, a precursor to completely banning the use of facial recognition systems in public places.  

“We know facial recognition for mass surveillance from China; this technology has no place in a liberal democracy,” Svenja Hahn, a German member of the European Parliament and Renew Europe Group, told Politico.  

Bacciarelli of HRW said in an email she “would seriously doubt such racial profiling technology is legal under EU data protection and other laws. The General Data Protection Regulation, a European Union regulation on Information privacy, limits the collection and processing of sensitive personal data, including personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin and biometric data, under Article 9. Companies need to make a valid, lawful case to process sensitive personal data before deployment.” 

“The current text of the draft EU AI Act bans intrusive and discriminatory biometric surveillance tech, including real-time biometric surveillance systems; biometric systems that use sensitive characteristics, including race and ethnicity data; and indiscriminate scraping of CCTV data to create facial recognition databases,” she said.  

In Western countries, companies are developing AI software for identifying race primarily as a marketing tool for selling to diverse consumer populations. 

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2020 that American cosmetics company Revlon had used recognition software from AI start-up Kairos to analyze how consumers of different ethnic groups use cosmetics, raising concerns among researchers that racial recognition could lead to discrimination.  

The U.S. government has long prohibited sectors such as healthcare and banking from discriminating against customers based on race. IBM, Google and Microsoft have restricted the provision of facial recognition services to law enforcement.  

Twenty-four states, counties and municipal governments in the U.S. have prohibited government agencies from using facial recognition surveillance technology. New York City, Baltimore, and Portland, Oregon, have even restricted the use of facial recognition in the private sector.  

Some civil rights activists have argued that racial identification technology is error-prone and could have adverse consequences for those being monitored. 

Rollet said, “If the camera is filming at night or if there are shadows, it can misclassify people.”  

Caitlin Chin is a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank where she researches technology regulation in the United States and abroad. She emphasized that while Western technology companies mainly use facial recognition for business, Chinese technology companies are often happy to assist government agencies in monitoring the public.  

She told VOA Mandarin in an August 1 video call, “So this is something that’s both very dehumanizing but also very concerning from a human rights perspective, in part because if there are any errors in this technology that could lead to false arrests, it could lead to discrimination, but also because the ability to sort people by skin color on its own almost inevitably leads to people being discriminated against.”  

She also said that in general, especially when it comes to law enforcement and surveillance, people with darker skin have been disproportionately tracked and disproportionately surveilled, “so these Dahua cameras make it easier for people to do that by sorting people by skin color.”  
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China, Iran and Russia are engaged in foreign interference in New Zealand, the nation’s domestic intelligence agency said Friday after making its threat assessment report public for the first time.

In the report, Director-General of Security Andrew Hampton said the Security Intelligence Service sees enormous value in sharing more of its insights publicly.

The agency had previously taken a secretive approach. It decided to change course after it and other agencies were criticized for focusing too much on the perceived threat from Islamic extremism and being blindsided when a white supremacist shot and killed 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques in 2019.

In the report, the agency says the most notable case of foreign interference is the continued targeting of the nation’s diverse Chinese communities by people with links to the intelligence arm of China’s ruling Communist Party.

It said China’s efforts to advance its political, economic and military involvement in the Pacific was driving strategic competition. The agency said it was aware and concerned about ongoing Chinese intelligence activity “in and against New Zealand.”

The report said Iran had been engaged in societal interference by monitoring and reporting on Iranian communities and dissident groups in New Zealand.

The agency linked Russia’s war in Ukraine to a number of problems, including increased geopolitical competition, supply chain disruptions, and efforts to spy on other countries and seed disinformation.

“Russia’s international disinformation campaigns have not targeted New Zealand specifically, but have had an impact on the views of some New Zealanders,” the report found.

Domestically, the agency found that violent extremism continued to pose a threat. The report said there were likely some people in New Zealand with the intent and capability to carry out domestic terror attacks, although the agency wasn’t aware of any specific or credible plans.

“We continue to see inflammatory language and violent abuse online targeting a wide variety of people from already marginalized communities,” the report found.

 
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A new generation of stars has emerged at the Women’s World Cup.

While the likes of Brazil’s Marta, Canada’s Christine Sinclair and America’s Megan Rapinoe have played in the tournament for the last time, there is a rich flow of talent coming through to take their places.

“We are on the cusp, and what a special moment to be able to sit in a stadium and watch a superstar like Marta and watch her final matches for her national team at a World Cup and watch an up-and-comer like Lauren James,” FIFA’s head of women’s football, Sarai Bareman, told The Associated Press. “Those young athletes that are coming through now, they’re picking up the challenge from those senior players.”

England forward James and Colombia star Linda Caicedo have been among the brightest talents in the tournament so far.

South Korea’s Casey Phair, meanwhile, made history by becoming the youngest person to play at a World Cup when she went on against Colombia in the group stage, aged 16 years and 26 days. While she only had a cameo role at this tournament, she is a name to watch in the future.

The AP takes a look at the rising stars of the World Cup:

Lauren James (England)

It has been a tournament of highs and lows for Chelsea star James.

Having been tipped to be the Lionesses’ breakout star at the World Cup, she started on the bench for their opening game against Haiti.

She started the following game against Denmark and scored within six minutes to earn England a 1-0 win.

James wasn’t finished yet. She scored two stunning goals and assisted on three others in a 6-1 win against China. Her side-footed volley was one of the goals of the tournament so far, and she was denied a hat trick only when a potential wonder goal was ruled out on video assisted referee review for offside.

But the 21-year-old forward was sent off in England’s round-of-16 game after receiving a red card for standing on Nigeria defender Michelle Alozie. She will miss the quarterfinals because of a mandatory minimum one-game ban. The suspension could also be extended after a review by a FIFA disciplinary committee.

Linda Caicedo (Colombia)

Caicedo has lit up the tournament with her dazzling footwork and goals.

Her big moment came in her country’s 2-1 win against Germany in the group stages when beating two players in the box and curling a shot into the top corner.

Caicedo’s performances have helped her team advance to the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first time, with Colombia being the only team from the Americas left in the tournament.

But there have also been concerns around the health of the 18-year-old Real Madrid forward.

Caicedo, who recovered after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the age of 15, has shown signs of serious fatigue and exhaustion at times during the tournament. She was seen holding her chest and then dropping to the ground during a practice session. In a group game against Germany, she dropped to her knees behind play before lying face down on the grass as team medical staff went to her aid.

Precautionary medical tests came back clear, and there were no obvious signs of problems in her following two games against Morocco and Jamaica.

A child sensation who made her senior debut at 14, Caicedo has lived up to her billing as one of the brightest prospects in soccer at this World Cup and will pose a big attacking threat to England in the quarterfinals.

Mary Fowler (Australia)

In the absence of star striker Sam Kerr for most of the tournament so far, Australia has had to look to others for inspiration.

Step forward, Manchester City striker Fowler, who has grown into the World Cup and produced arguably her best performance of the competition in Australia’s 2-0 win over Denmark to advance to the quarterfinals.

Fowler’s perfectly weighted pass set up Caitlin Foord’s opening goal in the game in Sydney. She was involved again as Hayley Raso scored in the second half.

The 20-year-old Fowler was on target herself in Australia’s 4-0 win over Olympic champion Canada in its final group game.

“I think Mary has been class this whole tournament. When she’s on the ball she’s going to create or get a shot off or score a goal,” Foord said.

It is not clear how much of a role Fowler will play once Kerr fully recovers from a calf injury she sustained on the eve of the World Cup, but it will be difficult for Australia coach Tony Gustavsson to bench her.

Sophia Smith (United States)

It all started so well for Smith, who is part of a new generation of American stars.

She scored twice in the United States’ opening 3-0 win over Vietnam but struggled along with her teammates after that.

Smith didn’t score again in the tournament as the back-to-back defending champions were eliminated in the round of 16 on penalty kicks against Sweden. To make matters worse, she missed her spot kick in the shootout and was in tears as the Americans made an early exit.

The 22-year-old Smith can still return to her peak despite failing to live up to expectations placed on her heading into the tournament.

The fact that U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski kept Smith on for the entire knockout match against Sweden, while substituting Alex Morgan in extra time, was evidence that she is part of the future for the country.

Melchie Dumornay (Haiti)

Dumornay was a near-constant threat to England in Haiti’s opening game on debut at the World Cup.

While Haiti lost 1-0 after a twice-taken Georgia Stanway penalty, the 19-year-old Dumornay repeatedly had the Lionesses on the back foot.

Haiti, ranked 53rd by FIFA, was eliminated after finishing bottom of Group D. It lost all three of its games and was one of only two teams not to score in the tournament, along with Vietnam.

But Dumornay, who will play for European powerhouse Lyon next season, appears to be a star in the making.
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Paris has recently been shivering under the kind of summer for which it was once infamous — before climate change entered mainstream lexicon and thinking. As temperatures soared in parts of southern Europe, rain has lashed the French capital, sending tourists and locals scrambling for umbrellas and thick sweaters.

It’s certain to be a short-term reprieve. By 2050, one recent study said, Paris could have the highest number of heat wave-related deaths of any European capital, with temperatures possibly hitting a scorching 50 degrees Celsius.

“We have to maintain the beauty of Paris, while also finding new tools, new materials to adapt Paris against the heat waves,” said Paris City Councilor Maud Lelievre, who authored a recently released report, Paris at 50C, that calls for dramatically adapting the metropolis to a future of sizzling summers.

“A catastrophic situation,” she added, “could be a city where only the poor and old people stay, without any solutions.”

Paris is hardly alone. A series of alarming climate reports are sending municipal planners worldwide back to the drawing board. That is especially so in Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, which endured its hottest summer and second-hottest year in 2022.

Recent weeks alone saw near-record-breaking temperatures in parts of Italy, Spain and Greece. Worldwide, last month was likely the hottest on record, according to the European Union-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization.

Even before this latest bout of hot weather, many EU cities had drafted action plans to adapt. More than 100 of them, including Paris, have vowed to become climate neutral by 2030. But turning plans into action is another matter.

“We have approximately 80,000 cities and towns in Europe, and all of them are still lagging behind in regard of the necessity to adapt to a changing climate,” said Holger Robrecht, the Europe region’s deputy regional director of ECLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability, a global network of local and regional governments.

“We don’t have any city in the European region that at this moment is 100% climate resilient,” he added.

Still, Robrecht and other climate experts praise Paris, under leftist Mayor Anne Hidalgo, for strides in greening the city. Recent changes include expanded tramway and metro lines, a raft of pedestrian-only zones and 130 kilometers of bike lanes, with another 50 kilometers expected to be added by next July.

Paris also plans to make next summer’s Olympic Games the most eco-friendly in history, with promises to slash carbon emissions by half compared with those of previous games in London and Rio de Janeiro.

A much more drastic overhaul is needed, experts say, to make the city livable in the years to come. Some draw parallels to the kind of urban revolution nearly two centuries ago under Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann, which demolished a tangle of medieval neighborhoods to build elegant avenues that crisscross much of the city today.

City of Lights, and green

“In the next 20 years, we need to adapt all the streets around us with trees and with vegetation to create green corridors,” Lelievre said, adding, “We could have a real green city like Singapore — and also a light city.”

Today, however, the very architecture that makes Paris iconic also makes it a heat trap. The city is densely populated, short on large parks like London has, and despite Haussmann, still has many narrow streets with few if any trees.

Despite Hidalgo’s drive to green the capital, some recent urban renewal plans, including those inherited from her predecessor, favor heat-absorbing concrete over grass and plants. The city’s famous zinc rooftops, candidates for UNESCO World Heritage status, could make top-floor apartments unbearably hot in future summers, if unaltered.

“During a lot of years, we had no idea it was an obligation to adapt cities and especially Paris against heat waves,” Lelievre said, adding, ”We had emergency plans for the winter, but not for summer.”

Adopted unanimously earlier this year, the City Council’s plan sees widening green oases of air corridors and plants now being built in front of schools to all city neighborhoods; reopening fountains and renewing thousands of apartments; and replacing zinc roofs and other surfaces with lighter-colored materials that are more suited for hotter climates.

Some proposals, like creating rooftop terraces with plants and water catchment systems, have already been proposed by Hidalgo. Key to the latest plan — which doesn’t include a price tag — is loosening up strict French building codes. Paris lawmakers hope parts of the plan will be integrated into upcoming urban renewal and biodiversity legislation.

2003 memories 

Other European cities are also getting climate revamps.

Copenhagen, vulnerable to sea-level rise, has rolled out an ambitious flood adaptation management plan after being hit by record-breaking rainfall in 2011.

Barcelona’s climate plan aims to increase solar power and green spaces, sometimes by revamping whole neighborhoods.

Many cities have not forgotten the punishing heat wave of 2003, when an estimated 70,000 people died in Europe, including 15,000 in France. But recent findings also show as many as 60,000 people died in Europe’s 2022 heat wave, suggesting much more needs to be done.

“Cities want to get prepared” for climate change, said ECLEI’s Holger, “but it’s not always reflected in daily decision-making — which may turn a green space into a parking lot, or fell a tree that’s 80 years old and gives shade to its citizens.”

Still, he remains optimistic. “We are still in the early years of our response,” Holger said. 
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Wednesday marks three years since the contested elections in Belarus that resulted in a widescale crackdown on dissent and opposition voices.

When longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a presidential election in which members of the opposition were jailed or threatened, mass protests broke out across the country.

Security forces responded with violence and mass arrests of journalists, protesters and others, with large numbers of opposition voices still being detained or silenced, according to international rights organizations.

“Three years after the start of mass pro-democracy protests in Belarus, there is no end in sight to the horrendous crackdown on free media and journalists in the country,” said International Press Institute deputy director Scott Griffen in a statement. “The Lukashenko regime is determined to silence any independent reporting in the country as part of its effort to cling to power.”

Belarus ranks as the worst jailer of journalists in Europe, with 35 journalists and media workers imprisoned as of August 2022, including some who had contributed to VOA’s sister network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

The media arrests are part of a sweeping number of detentions with nearly 1,500 people currently detained, according to the Belarusian rights group Viasna.

The Belarus Foreign Ministry did not respond to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Following the presidential election, Minsk banned most if not all independent news outlets and branded them “extremist.” Most independent journalists have either fled the country to continue working from exile — or stopped reporting altogether.

The government has even targeted journalists at media outlets that have not taken an overly critical stance against the Lukashenko administration, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF.  

Yulia Davletova, a journalist who had worked for the local TV channel Ranak, surrendered to the police outside her apartment on August 3.

Ranak had never directly contradicted the government, says RSF. But after covering an industrial accident in June, the media outlet was labeled “extremist” and forced to close.

Davletova was forced to record a video repenting for her “errors” before being released from custody later that same day.

In response to the targeting of state and non-critical reporters, RSF’s Jeanne Cavelier said in a statement that as Belarus “continues to step up its censorship, it is now carrying out a purge within its own media of those who fall under the slightest suspicion of a lack of loyalty.”

RSF ranks Belarus as 157 out of 180 on its press freedom index, where 1 shows the best media environment.

On July 1, Lukashenko — in power since 1994 — signed a new law that permits authorities to expel foreign outlets from countries that Minsk deems “unfriendly.” Just days later, Justyna Prus, the Minsk correspondent for Poland’s national press agency PAP, was forced to leave the country.

“If we fail to protect Belarusian writers and artists, including those in exile, we will jeopardize the last brave and independent voices from Belarus and as a result, the battle for freedoms and democracy in the region,” Polina Sadovskaya, free expression group PEN America’s Eurasia and advocacy director, said in a statement.

Media and civil rights groups have called for global solidarity with Belarusian news outlets, with the IPI’s Griffen saying the international community must ensure “the proper support and conditions for journalists in exile, keeping the foundations for journalism in a future democratic Belarus alive.”
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At a youth forum near the Moscow region last week , Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Western media take orders and “professionally prepared falsehoods” from intelligence services.

Aside from the remarks being false, Peskov’s comments are an example of what is known as an “accusation in a mirror” where an aggressor accuses others of taking the actions it instead is taking.

In his remarks, Peskov said that the West has “a lot of talented journalists,” but “since they unleashed this war against us, they absolutely live in a state of military censorship.”

Yet media analysts have documented how it is Russia, not Western governments, that has imposed laws and restrictions, along with a widespread disinformation campaign, as part of its war effort.

And unlike the West — where media are independent and have structures and policies in place to prevent undue political or business influence — independent journalism in Russia has been largely stamped out, data from media watchdogs show.

The country currently ranks 164 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 shows the best environment for media.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, which compiles the index, says that since the war “almost all independent media [in Russia] have been banned, blocked and/or declared ‘foreign agents’ or ‘undesirable organizations.’ All others are subject to military censorship.”

Ukraine, meanwhile, ranks at 79 out of 180 countries on the index, with RSF saying that Russia’s war there “threatens the survival of the Ukrainian media” and that the country is “at the frontline of resistance against the expansion of the Kremlin’s propaganda system.”

Years of attacks

Even before the war, independent media in Russia faced harassment, attacks and legal challenges from the state.

Dozens of media outlets and journalists in recent years have been forced to register as “foreign agents,” a designation that forces them to mark all content and social media posts — even personal ones — with a lengthy disclaimer.

Daniel Salaru, a contributor to the Vienna-based International Press Institute, described the foreign agent law as a “key tool for repressing independent media.”

And the European Court of Human Rights in 2022 ruled that the legislation had violated the rights of the groups designated as such.

Investigative journalists in Russia who took on sensitive issues or looked into official corruption have long been targeted with threats, attacks or even killings.

War heightened acrimony

The hostile environment only ramped up when Russian invaded Ukraine. Now, reporting on anything that the Kremlin deems to be false information about the war or the armed forces can be punished by up to 15 years in prison.

Russia’s media regulator has ordered news outlets to use only “information and data” from “official Russian sources.” And access to dozens of websites, including VOA, and social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, have been blocked.

The rash of new laws had an immediate effect, with several prominent independent media outlets shuttering or moving their operations into exile.

Estimates from the legal aid group Setevye Svobody, or Net Freedoms Project, earlier this year estimated that in the first year after the invasion at least 1,000 journalists left Russia “because of the threat of criminal prosecution and a ban on the profession.”

Harassment from afar

But exile is not always a barrier to harassment, as Dozhd TV, which relocated to the Netherlands, has found.

In July, authorities designated the station an “undesirable” organization, meaning that anyone deemed a member of it risks imprisonment.

Already, journalists, social media users and others who are refusing to toe the Kremlin line have faced prosecution.

In April, two Russian journalists from republics in Siberia were arrested on charges of “knowingly publishing false information” about the armed forces. Both could face up to 10 years in prison.

A court in February handed down a six-year sentence to Maria Ponomarenko, another journalist from the Siberian region, over a social media post about Russia’s deadly airstrike on a theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in which civilians were sheltering.

She and four others have been recognized with the Boris Nemtsov Award for their “brave defense of democratic rights and freedoms” by speaking out against the war.

The award is named for Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader assassinated near the Kremlin in Moscow in February 2015. Nemtsov was working on a report, published posthumously, about Russian soldiers secretly fighting in Ukraine at that time.

Others have faced more hefty sentences. A court in April sentenced Vladimir Kara-Murza, an opposition politician and columnist, to 25 years in prison, in part for spreading what authorities called “false” information” about the army.

Amnesty International said the charges against Kara-Murza stemmed “solely from his right to freedom of expression.”

And on August 2, a 67-year-old named Takhir Arslanov was sentenced to three years in prison for saying that “Kremlin fascists” were waging a war of aggression in Ukraine, and for calling for the burning of draft offices.

This article originated in VOA’s fact-checking initiative, Polygraph.info.
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Eleven people are missing and feared dead after a fire broke out early Wednesday morning at a vacation cottage in the eastern French town of Wintzenheim.

Authorities say the cottage was rented by an association that assists disabled people. The missing residents, including 10 adults with learning disabilities and a staff member, were from the nearby eastern city of Nancy.

Christopher Marot, the secretary-general of the Haut-Rhin district, told reporters it is likely the 11 missing people were unable to escape the blaze.

The BBC says the bodies of three people have been recovered from the rubble.

The fire was quickly brought under control, but Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that “several casualties are reported” from the scene and that rescue operations were still ongoing.

Seventeen others were evacuated from the blaze, with one person transported to a nearby hospital.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on X that she was heading to the site of the fire. “My first thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones,” she wrote.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse.
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Russia on Tuesday aligned itself with its ally Iran in rejecting Western attempts to maintain curbs on Iran despite the collapse of a 2015 deal intended to restrain Tehran’s nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions. 

After a meeting between their respective deputy foreign ministers in Tehran, Russia’s foreign ministry said Moscow and Tehran were unanimous in believing that the failure to implement the deal stemmed from the “erroneous policy of ‘maximum pressure’ pursued by the United States and those who think similarly.” 

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump quit the deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 while leaving economic sanctions in place. Iran’s relations with the West have been deteriorating ever since, as it has accelerated its nuclear program. 

But Russia, which signed the deal alongside the U.S., China, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, has been deepening ties with Iran since its invasion of Ukraine. 

The war, which Russia calls a “special military operation,” has driven its own relations with the West to their lowest level in decades. 

Sources told Reuters in June that European diplomats had informed Iran that they planned to join the U.S. in retaining sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program that are set to expire in October under the nuclear deal. 

They gave three reasons: Russia’s use of Iranian drones against Ukraine; the possibility that Iran might transfer ballistic missiles to Russia; and depriving Iran of the benefits of the nuclear deal, which it violated after the U.S. withdrew. 

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met his Iranian counterparts Ali Bagheri Kani and Reza Najafi. 

Russia’s foreign ministry said the meeting had emphasized “the unacceptability of any attempts on the part of the West to impose some new schemes and approaches to solving problems related to the JCPOA, which imply damage to legitimate and mutually beneficial Russian-Iranian cooperation in various fields.” 

It said there was still “no reasonable alternative” to implementing the JCPOA, as approved by the U.N. Security Council. 
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Paris has recently been shivering under the kind of summer for which it was once infamous — before climate change entered mainstream lexicon and thinking. As temperatures soared in parts of southern Europe, rain has lashed the French capital, sending tourists and locals scrambling for umbrellas and thick sweaters. 

It’s certain to be a short-term reprieve. By 2050, one recent study finds Paris could have the highest number of heat wave-related deaths of any European capital, with temperatures possibly hitting a scorching 50 degrees Celsius. 

“We have to maintain the beauty of Paris, while also finding new tools, new materials to adapt Paris against the heat waves,” said Paris City Councilor Maude Lelievre, who authored a recently released report, Paris at 50C, that calls for dramatically adapting the metropolis to a future of sizzling summers.

“A catastrophic situation,” she added, “could be a city where only the poor and old people stay, without any solutions.” 

Paris is hardly alone. A series of alarming climate reports are sending municipal planners worldwide back to the drawing board. That is especially so in Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent, which endured its hottest summer and second hottest year in 2022. 

Recent weeks alone saw near-record breaking temperatures in parts of Italy, Spain and Greece. Worldwide, last month was likely the hottest on record, according to the European Union-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization. 

Even before this latest bout of hot weather, many EU cities had drafted action plans to adapt. More than 100 of them, including Paris, vow to become climate neutral by 2030. But turning plans into action is another matter. 

“We have approximately 80,000 cities and towns in Europe, and all of them are still lagging behind in regard of the necessity to adapt to a changing climate,” said Holger Robrecht, the Europe region’s deputy regional director of ECLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability, a global network of local and regional governments. 

“We don’t have any city in the European region that at this moment is 100% climate resilient,” he added.

Still Robrecht and other climate experts praise Paris, under leftist mayor Anne Hidalgo, for strides in greening the city. Recent changes include expanded tramway and metro lines, a raft of pedestrian-only zones and some 130 kilometers of bike lanes — with another 50 kilometers expected to be added by next July. 

Paris also plans to make next summer’s Olympic Games the most eco-friendly in history, with promises to slash carbon emissions by half compared to previous Games in London and Rio de Janeiro. 

A much more drastic overhaul is needed, experts say, to make the city livable in the years to come. Some draw parallels to the kind of urban revolution nearly two centuries ago under Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, which demolished a tangle of medieval neighborhoods to build elegant avenues that crisscross much of the city today.

City of lights, and green

“In the next 20 years, we need to adapt all the streets around us with trees and with vegetation to create green corridors,” City Councilor Lelievre said, adding, “we could have a real green city like Singapore — and also a light city.” 

Today, however, the very architecture that makes Paris iconic also makes it a heat trap. The city is densely populated, short on large parks like London has, and despite Haussmann, still has many narrow streets with few if any trees. 

Despite Hidalgo’s drive to green the capital, some recent urban renewal plans, including those inherited from her predecessor, favor heat-absorbing concrete over grass and plants. The city’s famous zinc rooftops, candidates for UNESCO World Heritage status, could make top-floor apartments unbearably hot in future summers, if unaltered. 

“During a lot of years, we had no idea it was an obligation to adapt cities and especially Paris against heat waves,” Lelievre said, adding “We had emergency plans for the winter — but not for summer.” 

Adopted unanimously earlier this year, the City Council’s plan sees widening green oases of air corridors and plants now being built in front of schools to all city neighborhoods; reopening fountains and renewing thousands of apartments; and replacing zinc roofs and other surfaces with lighter-colored materials that are more suited for hotter climates.

Some proposals, like creating rooftop terraces with plants and water catchment systems, have already been proposed by Mayor Hidalgo. Key to the latest plan — which doesn’t include a price tag — is loosening up strict French building codes. Paris lawmakers hope parts of the plan will be integrated into upcoming urban renewal and biodiversity legislation.

2003 memories

Other European cities are also getting climate revamps. 

Copenhagen, vulnerable to sea-level rise, has rolled out an ambitious flood adaptation management plan after being hit by record-breaking rainfall in 2011. 

Barcelona’s climate plan aims to increase solar power and green spaces, sometimes by revamping whole neighborhoods. 

Many cities have not forgotten the punishing heat wave of 2003, when an estimated 70,000 people died in Europe, including 15,000 in France. But recent findings also show as many as 60,000 people died in Europe’s 2022 heat wave — suggesting much more needs to be done. 

“Cities want to get prepared” for climate change, said ECLEI’s Robrecht, “but it’s not always reflected in daily decision making — which may turn a green space into a parking lot, or fell a tree that’s 80 years old and gives shade to its citizens.” 

Still, he remains optimistic. “We are still in the early years of our response,” Robrecht said. 
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LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: 

At least seven people killed in two Russian missile strikes in eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk Monday evening 
The Ukrainian Security Service said Monday that it had detained a Russian informant aiming to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while he was visiting the Mykolaiv region in July. 
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba requested ATACMS long-range missiles in a phone call Monday with his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken. 

 

Rescuers in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk are digging through the rubble of several buildings destroyed by two back-to-back Russian missile attacks Monday that killed at least seven people.

Pokrovsk is located in the Donetsk region, which has been the scene of some of the most intense fighting since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.  Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk, says the two missiles struck about 40 minutes apart, destroying residential buildings, restaurants, shops and administrative buildings and a hotel popular with foreign journalists.

The dead include an emergency official with the Donetsk regional government.  At least 25 people were wounded in the twin attacks.

Meanwhile two people were killed in Russian missile strikes in Kruhliakivka village in Kupiansk district, according to Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration.

 

Jeddah Summit

The United States characterized as productive China’s participation at the Jeddah peace summit on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia this past weekend.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland held a brief sideline meeting in Jeddah with China’s Special Envoy for Eurasian Affairs and former ambassador to Russia, Li Hui.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Beijing would uphold an independent and impartial position on a peace settlement.

Wang said China would serve as an “objective and rational voice” at any international forums and “actively promote peace talks.”

Western officials and analysts say Saudi diplomacy was important to securing China’s presence at the talks.

Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom has kept ties with both sides, presenting itself as a mediator and seeking a bigger role on the world stage.

Yermak, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said Monday that the talks dealt a “huge blow” to Russia as the participants agreed to a follow up meeting.

“We will hold another meeting within a month [to a] month-and-a-half and we will move towards [holding] a summit,” Yermak said at a news briefing.

Senior officials from 42 countries participated in the two-day Jeddah peace summit. Russia was not invited to the high-level talks.

Yermak said all the countries present at the talks fully supported Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity, and that only peace initiatives put forward by Ukraine were discussed at the meeting.

He acknowledged that participants had not come to an agreement on parts of Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace formula, which calls for the withdrawal of all Russian troops and return of all Ukrainian territory to Kyiv’s control.

With the exception of Russia the high-level talks included delegates from all other BRICS bloc nations: Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

Moscow chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful resolution for the Ukraine war without including Russia in the talks, which it described as lacking “the slightest added value.”

During the two-day summit, the head of Brazil’s delegation, foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim, stressed that “any real negotiation must include all parties,” including Russia, according to a copy of his statement shared with Agence France Presse.

Moscow dismissed the talks as a doomed Western attempt to align the Global South behind Kyiv.

Russia grain attacks

U.N. Spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a news briefing Monday that Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown visited the Danube port of Izmail Saturday, three days after it was hit in an attack on a grain storage facility that damaged thousands of tons of grain that would have been enough to feed approximately 66 million people for a day.

This attack, which is not an isolated incident, follows Russia’s decision to exit the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a move that is already impacting global food prices and is affecting the most vulnerable people.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned Russia’s intensification of attacks on Ukrainian ports, calling for the immediate cessation of all attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs continues to sound the alarm about the plight of civilians already facing a dire situation in Ukraine, as the intensification of attacks affecting critical civilian infrastructure in the country will likely worsen humanitarian needs.

Ukrainian counteroffensive

Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi on Monday said Kyiv’s counteroffensive is progressing at a steady pace, and that its defensive lines are stable as troops repel Russian attempts to counterattack and distract Ukrainian forces from other parts of the front.

“Heavy fighting is underway, and step-by-step, Ukrainian troops are continuing to create the conditions to advance,” Zaluzhnyi said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app after a telephone call with U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley. “The initiative is on our side.”

 

Ukraine has so far recaptured several villages in the south and regained some territory around the ravaged city of Bakhmut in the east but has not achieved a breakthrough yet against heavily entrenched Russian lines.

Ukraine’s deputy defense minister Hanna Maliar said Russia was using all its resources to stop Kyiv’s advance, but that Ukrainian troops were advancing steadily toward the southern cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov.

Ukrainian officials have responded to criticism that the counteroffensive is going slowly, saying they are trying to avoid high casualties as they attack well-fortified Russian lines that are strewn with landmines.

In its latest assessment on the war in Ukraine, Britain’s defense ministry said Tuesday that Russia’s national guard, Rosgvardia, will be equipped with heavy weaponry.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the new measure into law last week for the 200,000-member strong national guard.

The British defense ministry says the decision to boost the forces follows the brief mutiny of the private Wagner military company, which suggests the Kremlin is transforming Rosgvardia as one of the key organizations in Russia to ensure regime security.

Some information is from VOA’s U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer, The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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