Iran: Human rights groups sound alarm against draconian Internet Bill

POSTED ON MARCH 17, 2022 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn

A collective of Iranian graffiti artists took a stand against the aggressive Internet censorship policies being implemented by the Islamic Republic. Photo: Khiaban Tribune

Today, ARTICLE 19, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Access Now, along with over 50 other organisations, call on Iranian authorities and those engaged in bilateral dialogue with Iran to pressure the Iranian parliament to rescind the ‘User Protection Bill’.

We, the undersigned human rights and civil society organisations, are alarmed by the Iranian parliament’s move to ratify the general outlines of the draconian ‘Regulatory System for Cyberspace Services Bill,’ previously known as the ‘User Protection Bill’ and referred to hereafter as ‘the Bill’. If passed, the Bill will violate an array of human rights of people in Iran, including the right to freedom of expression and right to privacy. We urge the Iranian authorities to immediately withdraw the Bill in its entirety. We further call on the international community, along with states engaged in dialogue with Iranian authorities, to ensure that the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran is prioritised, including by urging Iran’s parliament to rescind the Bill as a matter of urgency. 

As UN Human Rights Council member states prepare to vote on whether to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Iran, the Iranian parliament is attempting to further curtail the rights of people inside Iran with passage of this Bill. If implemented, this will carry grave risks of increased and even complete communication blackouts in Iran, and it is likely to be used as a tool to conceal serious human rights violations.

While we welcome the Iranian parliament presidium’s decision to annul the 22 February 2022 ratification attempt by the special parliamentary committee, we are still alarmed at the ratification attempt following a vote of only 18 parliamentarians. The threat of this Bill passing looms. In July 2021, parliament voted to allow the Bill to pass under Article 85 of the Iranian constitution. This would mean a small 24-person committee (with a majority vote of 18 to pass) within parliament could ratify the Bill for an experimental period of between three and five years, circumventing typical parliamentary procedures. This unusual Article 85 process, and the moves to ratify it on 22 February, demonstrate that the authorities remain adamant to take forward this regressive legislation despite the domestic and international outcry. We are still concerned the Bill’s enforcement is at the whim of a small committee attempting to circumvent the rights of an entire country. 

The Bill introduces alarming changes to Internet controls

The undersigned civil society groups are gravely concerned that the passage of the Bill will result in even further reductions in the availability of international Internet bandwidth in Iran and violate the right to privacy and access to a secure and open Internet. Particularly alarming are provisions of the Bill that place Iran’s Internet infrastructure and Internet gateways under the control of the country’s armed forces and security agencies. In the latest draft of the Bill, the Secure Gateway Taskforce will control international gateways that connect Iran to the Internet. This Taskforce, newly created as part of the Bill’s specifications, in turn will be under the authority of National Center of Cyberspace (NCC), which is under the direct oversight of the Supreme Leader. The Secure Gateway Taskforce is to be composed of representatives from the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC Intelligence Organization), the Ministry of Intelligence, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the Passive Defense Organization, the Police Force, and the office of the Prosecutor General. 

Delegating such control over Internet and communications access to entities that repeatedly commit serious human rights violations with complete impunity will have chilling effects on the right to freedom of expression in Iran. As documented by human rights organisations, Iran’s security forces, including the Revolutionary Guards and the Ministry of Intelligence, perpetrated gross violations of human rights and crimes under international law, including the unlawful use of lethal force, mass arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and torture and other ill-treatment to crush nationwide protests in 2017, 2018, and November 2019. Alarmingly, passage of the Bill will make Internet shutdowns and online censorship even easier and less transparent. We note that Internet shutdowns not only constitute violations of human rights, such as the right to access information and freedom of expression, but also act as a tool to facilitate the commission and concealment of other gross violations. Indeed, Iran’s deadly repression of nationwide protests in November 2019 took place amid the darkness of a week-long near total Internet shutdown. 

Disconnecting foreign social media and Internet services

In the latest draft of the Bill, all tech companies offering services inside Iran are required to introduce representatives in the country, collaborate with the Islamic Republic of Iran in surveillance and censorship efforts, and pay taxes. They are also required to store ‘big data and critical information inside Iran’ belonging to users in the country and can face legal penalties if they do not. Access to services provided by companies that do not comply will be throttled and the Committee Charged with Determining Offensive Content (CCDOC)1 can eventually decide to outright ban them from operating in Iran. Compliance by companies with such requirements will carry severe repercussions for all Internet users in Iran. The Bill therefore places platforms in a position to choose between throttling or complying with regulations that undermine the right to privacy and freedom of expression. Such requirements are meant to further consolidate the National Information Network (NIN), a domestic Internet infrastructure hosted within Iran. This will place information and communications under the monitoring and censorship of the authorities and may result in Iran’s eventual disconnection from the global Internet. Either foreign services comply and become partially integrated into the national network (at least in terms of data storage) or they refuse, and users will be forced to seek out their alternatives on the NIN. The Bill also introduces new criminal measures against those failing to comply with its terms. Proxy or Virtual Private Network (VPN) service development, reproduction or distribution can result in two years’ imprisonment under Article 20 of the proposed Bill. Article 21 also stipulates Internet Service Providers who allow unlicensed foreign services to access the data of users in Iran can face up to 10 years’ imprisonment. 

 

Domestic and international backlash against the Bill

Since the advancement of the Bill, Internet users, along with businesses and guilds representing them, as well as human rights defenders, digital rights activists, international human rights organisations and United Nations experts have raised grave concerns. In October 2021, four UN Special Rapporteurs sent a Communication to the Iranian authorities (OL IRN 29/2021) expressing concerns about the Bill and the lack of transparency that permeated its processing within parliament and calling for it to be withdrawn. Criticisms of the Bill and parliament’s decisions to proceed with the legislation without any regard for due process have not been limited to civil society actors. As of 23 February 2022, 150 Iranian parliamentarians had signed a letter to parliament’s board of presidents requesting the Bill to be considered and voted on in a general session of parliament rather than in a special committee. 

Members of the international community, including the states engaged in bilateral and multilateral negotiations and dialogues with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Human Rights Council member states must press Iran to uphold its human rights obligations. Without urgent action, people in Iran will be at even graver risk of isolation and human rights violations. 

Signatories:

1. Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran
2. Access Now
3. Advocacy Initiative for Development (AID)
4. All Human Rights for All in Iran
5. Amnesty International 
6. Arc Association for the Defence of Human Rights of Azerbaijanis of Iran – ArcDH
7. Article18
8. ARTICLE 19
9. Association for the human rights of the Azerbaijani people in Iran (AHRAZ)
10. 10.Azerbaijan Internet Watch
11. 11.Center for Democracy & Technology
12. 12.Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI)
13. 13.Commission on Global Feminisms and Queer Politics, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES)
14. 14.Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
15. 15.Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) 
16. 16.Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) 
17. 17.Freedom Forum
18. 18.Front Line Defenders 
19. 19.Global Voices
20. 20.Human Rights Activists (in Iran) (HRA)
21. 21.Human Rights Consulting Group, Kazakhstan
22. 22.Human Rights Watch
23. 23.Ideas Beyond Borders
24. 24.IFEX
25. 25.Impact Iran
26. 26.Internet Protection Society, Russia
27. 27.INSM Network
28. 28.Iran Human Rights
29. 29.Iran Human Rights Documentation Center 
30. 30.Justice for Iran
31. 31.Kijiji Yeetu
32. 32.Kurdistan Human Rights Association – Geneva (KMMK-G)
33. 33.Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN)
34. 34.Kurdpa Human Rights Organization
35. 35.Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
36. 36.Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)
37. 37.Miaan Group
38. 38.Mnemonic
39. 39.Open Net 
40. 40.OutRight Action International
41. 41.PEN America
42. 42.Queer Kadeh
43. 43.Ranking Digital Rights
44. 44.RoskomSvoboda
45. 45.Sassoufit collective
46. 46.Siamak Pourzand Foundation (SPF)
47. 47.SMEX
48. 48.SOAP
49. 49.Spectrum 
50. 50.Wikimédia France
51. 51.WITNESS (witness.org)
52. 52.Ubunteam
53. 53.United for Iran
54. 54.Xnet
55. 55.6Rang (Iranian Lesbian and Transgender network)

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  The CCDOC was established in 2009 as per the Computer Crimes Law that was ratified in the same year. It is a multi-agency oversight body in charge of online censorship in Iran. 
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Baloch, Sindhi leaders raise voice against Pakistan, China for using 'brutal military machines' for suppressing minorities

Highlighting the gross human rights violations by Pakistan and China using the 'brutal military machines', the Baloch, Sindhi and other leaders provided insights about how the respective governments are exploiting the resources of the region and eliminating their communities by way of keeping them undernourished and illiterate.

ANI | Geneva | Updated: 17-03-2022

Press conference on WHY IT MATTERS FOR THE WORLD Human Rights

 Situation In China And Pakistan. Image Credit: ANI

Highlighting the gross human rights violations by Pakistan and China using the 'brutal military machines', the Baloch, Sindhi and other leaders provided insights about how the respective governments are exploiting the resources of the region and eliminating their communities by way of keeping them undernourished and illiterate. Speaking at the conference at the Press Club in Geneva, Dr Lakhumal Luhana, General Secretary of the World Sindhi Congress (WSC) said that during the partition in 1947, Sindh came to Pakistan and that was the start of a "very darkest era".

Sindh, according to the official figures, provides 70 per cent of the resources of the wealth of the revenue of Pakistan. However, the situation is such that 7 million children under the age of 10 are out of education, he said. Luhana further said that the real figures are that 67 per cent of girls are out of education. About 80 per cent of the schools don't have water or sanitation facilities.

He said that according to the Supreme Court, the drinking water that the people of Sindh use is not even suitable for animal consumption and it is creating a pandemic of hepatitis and tuberculosis. Talking about the land captured by the Pakistani government, he said they are taking over millions of acres of land, they are settling people from outside so Sindhis can be converted into a minority on their own motherland.

World Sindhi Congress leader continued saying that currently, 60 per cent of the youth who have passed through universities are out of employment. "Level of malnutrition, according to the UN, on an average 70 per cent of people in Sindh suffer from malnutrition. 10 children die of malnutrition every day in Sindh," he added.

He highlighted that if you raise the voice, "you are abducted, you're gone. You're missing". There are hundreds of Sindhi youth who are missing for many, many years. Earlier there was 29 per cent of the population was of Sindhis but today they constitute only 6 per cent due to the atrocities being committed on them," he noted.

On the other hand, talking about gross human rights violations in China, Marco Respinti, Director-in-Charge of Bitter Winter Magazine, said China is a totalitarian state in which people exist only as functions of the ruling elite. "Basic Rights are blatantly denied, and liberty is severely restricted as a mere concession of the government for the sake of the government itself," he said.

Talking about the Chinese government, he said in China, the government is not "instituted for serving the common good it is merely the other name of the Chinese Communist Party or CCP and democratically in power since October 1, 1959, which was then responsible for millions and millions of death, possibly killer number one in all human history". The only historical rival of the CCP in this staggering slaughter of human beings fellow was the communist Soviet Union but while USSR is gone, Communist China is still there growing in the world prominence, Respinti added.

Focusing on human rights violations in Balochistan, Dr Naseer Dashti, Executive President of the Baloch Human Rights Council (BHRC) said since the occupation of Balochistan, by Pakistan in 1948, the history of the Baloch is a tale of "blood and tears". As efforts are being made by Baloch nationalists to regain their independence, Pakistan has unleashed a reign of terror for the last many decades.

Talking about the aspects of human rights violations in Balochistan, he said, "The one aspect is the genocidal act, which includes enforced disappearances, the phenomenon where the Pakistani military and its security agencies, they pick up human rights activists, political activists, doctors, Indian students, teachers, and they keep them incommunicado for years." "The families are unaware about the whereabouts of their loved ones," he added.

He stated that estimated 4,833 persons have been disappeared since 2006. There is another aspect of human rights violation which is called the "kill and dump policy", he said.

"The Pakistani security agencies, with the help of their collaborative auxiliary organization. They pick up people torture them, and throw their mutilated bodies in desolate areas. And this is a routine affair in Balochistan," Dashti said. "Hundreds of students, teachers, political activists, social activists, journalists have been killed in such ways. And there is a phenomenon of mass graves, found in many locations and Balochistan since 2011," he added.

He said that there is another aspect of human rights violation which is the "conversion of secular Baloch society into a religious fundamentalist one". "Thousands of religious schools are sponsored by the Pakistani military where the children are taught a very medieval version of religion and they are trained to become jihadis or to convert humanity into Islam, he further said.

He continued saying that there is another aspect of human rights violation, which is "resource exploitation". He highlighted that Balochistan is one of the richest regions and Pakistan and China are collaborating, extracting gold uranium, gas, oil etc.

Dashti said another aspect of human rights violation is "cultural genocide where alien language has been imposed in Balochistan". In all practical purposes, the Balochs are leaving under the shadow of the Pakistani military with its religious, fundamentalists, and human rights violations and genocide acts, he said.

"It's high time for the international community to raise voices against these brutal military machines of the region, he added.

 (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Record high number of migrants are dying on the way to the Canary Islands

More than 4,000 African migrants died in 2021 while trying to reach the Canary Islands by boat, according to some sources. There have never been so many deaths as now, aid workers are saying.

Tiananmen Square protester killed in his New York law office

March 14, 2022

NEW YORK (AP) — A dissident legal scholar who was jailed for two years in China after participating in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement was killed Monday in his law firm’s office in New York, where he had settled after seeking asylum in the U.S., police said.

Li Jinjin, 66, was stabbed to death in the city where he had long worked as an immigration lawyer, even as he continued to advocate publicly for the many people jailed or killed by Chinese authorities during the nation’s democracy movement.

An arrest was made in his killing. Police said Xiaoning Zhang, 25, was taken into custody and faces a murder charge. It wasn’t immediately clear when she would be arraigned or if she had retained an attorney.

Chuang Chuang Chen, the CEO of the China Democracy Party, and lawyer Wei Zhu, a friend of Li’s, both told The New York Daily News that the killing might have stemmed from Li’s refusal to take Zhang on as a client.

Zhang came to the U.S. in August on an F-1 student visa to go to school in Los Angeles, Chen told the Daily News.

Li, who also went by the first name Jim, was often quoted in recent years by news organizations looking for insight or commentary on the Chinese dissident community or on relations between China and the West. As an immigration lawyer, he also represented some Chinese expatriates living in the U.S. who were considered fugitives by that country.

Prior to his imprisonment for protesting, Li had been a legal adviser to an independent labor union that had challenged China’s government on worker rights.

“I can’t believe it. She not only destroyed his life, but the hope of our community,” Zhu told the newspaper. “He wanted to realize democracy in China. He will never realize that dream.”

AMERIKA LAND OF THE DEAD
Violence against Asians decried on spa shootings anniversary

By KATE BRUMBACK

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A child holds a sign at the beginning of a rally on Wednesday, March 16, 2022, in Atlanta. The Atlanta Asian Justice Rally was held on the anniversary of violence that left eight people shot and killed at various massage businesses on March 16, 2021, in the Atlanta area. Many family members and friends of the victims have been struggling with grief, trying to heal and making sure their loved ones aren't forgotten. (AP Photo/Ron Harris)

ATLANTA (AP) — A year after the fatal shootings at three Georgia massage businesses, crowds gathered at rallies across the country Wednesday to remember the victims and denounce anti-Asian violence that has risen sharply in recent years.

Six women of Asian descent were among the eight people killed in and near Atlanta on March 16, 2021. The slayings contributed to fear and anger among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and motivated many to join the fight against the rising hostility.

At the Atlanta Asian Justice rally, which drew some 100 people, speakers railed against the stereotypes of Asian women as either docile or exotic and said those harmful perceptions contribute to the violence.

MASSAGE BUSINESS SHOOTINGS

A year later, spa shooting victims' families grieve and heal

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“Being an Asian woman, you are hypersensitive to the fetishization that occurs. It just reminds me that there’s so much work to be done,” said Jennifer Fero, a school administrator of Korean descent who attended the rally.

Fero lamented that “it is up to us to educate the general public on the AAPI experience and what microaggressions and hate crimes look like.”

In New York, a few hundred people gathered to mark the occasion and remember the victims. Anqi Wang, 24, who has lived in New York for five years, was one of them. She said she now does things like avoiding crowded places and keeps her hand on her pepper spray. She described herself as shy and quiet but she felt it was important to come to Wednesday’s event so her voice could be heard.

“We’re here. We deserve to be seen, we deserve to feel safe and we deserve to feel like we belong,” she said.

Georgia Rep. Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the state House, told the crowd in Atlanta that the killings hit home for people like her, the child of Asian immigrants. Those who died, she said, were victims of “racism, xenophobia, gender-based violence.”

“It should not take a tragedy such as this one for us to wake up,” she said.

Stop AAPI Hate has been tracking incidents nationwide based on victims self-reporting. From March 19, 2020, through the end of last year, it recorded a total of 10,905, with 4,632 occurring in 2020 and 6,273 in 2021. Women reported 61.8% of the incidents.

In the rampage a year ago, Robert Aaron Long killed four people — Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54 — and seriously injured a fifth person at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County. Authorities say he then drove about 30 miles (48 kilometers) to Atlanta, where he killed three women — Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; and Hyun Jung Grant, 51 — at Gold Spa, crossed the street and killed Yong Ae Yue, 63, at Aromatherapy Spa.

The somber anniversary was noted by politicians across the country including President Joe Biden.

“These horrific murders shook communities across America and underscored how far we have to go in this country to fight racism, misogyny, and all forms of hate — and the epidemic of gun violence that enables these extremists,” he said.

In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu, her voice trembling at times, said the pain and emotions from last year still felt fresh as she reflected on the anniversary during a virtual event earlier this week.

“What we saw a year ago was, in some ways, the conclusion or another step in the escalation of attacks that our communities have been facing since the pandemic began, as we saw the horrifying videos of elders pushed to the ground, women attacked while waiting for the bus,” said the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, who made history in November when she became the first woman and first person of color elected mayor in the city’s history.

Prejudice and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. are not new, but racist verbal and physical attacks increased sharply after the coronavirus first appeared in China just over two years ago. Many believe former President Donald Trump’s use of racial terms to talk about the virus contributed to the trend.

Shortly after the Georgia shootings, police said Long blamed his actions on a “sex addiction,” which isn’t recognized as an official disorder, and targeted the spas as a source of temptation. That explanation rankled many Asian Americans and their allies, who saw the killings as hate crimes.

Long, who is white, pleaded guilty in July to murder and other charges in the Cherokee County shootings. He’s pleaded not guilty in Fulton County, where the district attorney is seeking the death penalty and pursuing a sentencing enhancement under the state hate crimes law, saying she believes race and gender played a role.

Those taking part in Wednesday’s commemoration events noted that violence against Asian women continues. Initial figures from individual police agencies indicate anti-Asian hate crime overall in the U.S. increased 339% in 2021, compared with a 124% rise in 2020, according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. But the actual numbers could be much higher since many victims hesitate to report and not all incidents are charged as hate crimes.

Last week a Black man used an anti-Asian slur before punching a 67-year-old Asian woman in an apartment building vestibule in Yonkers, New York, more than 125 times, police said. Earlier this month, a 28-year-old white man was charged with hate crimes after police said he randomly punched seven women of Asian ethnicity over two hours.

Susanna Jaramillo, a 25-year-old Chinese American woman who attended the New York event, said her mother who lives in New Jersey worries for Jaramillo. Her mother tries to comfort Jaramillo by suggesting strangers might not recognize her Asian features, since she’s also half-Colombian.

“That’s really upsetting to hear because she’s always raised me to be very proud of the fact that I’m Chinese American. It’s just heartbreaking that she’s at the point where she thinks maybe we should suppress that a little bit,” she said.

___

Associated Press writers David B. Caruso and Noreen Nasir in New York, Alan Fram in Washington and Philip Marcelo in Boston contributed reporting.

DUCK AND COVER

Talking to kids about nukes: Parents, experts suggest truth

By LEANNE ITALIE

1 of 8

A child holds a drawing as she and others demonstrate in support of the Ukraine outside the United Nations' top court in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, March 16, 2022, where judges where expected to rule on a request by Ukraine to order Russia to halt its devastating invasion. But it remains to be seen if Moscow would comply with any order made by the International Court of Justice. Russia snubbed a hearing last week at which lawyers for Ukraine accused the country's powerful neighbor of "resorting to tactics reminiscent of medieval siege warfare" in its brutal assault. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

NEW YORK (AP) — Jillian Amodio went with the truth when her 10-year-old daughter had some pointed questions about the war in Ukraine.

“When she asked what nuclear weapons were, I explained in simple terms that they’re explosive devices used in warfare that are capable of releasing tremendous amounts of energy and causing widespread harm and damage,” said the Annapolis, Maryland, founder of a support group called Moms for Mental Health.

But her daughter wasn’t finished there.

“She asked if we were in danger of being hit with nuclear weapons,” said Amodio. “And I explained that leaders around the world are responsible for ensuring that nuclear warfare doesn’t occur, and that we have learned from past instances just how devastating the effects of nuclear warfare can be.”

She did what many parents and experts recommend: She led with the truth, though she chose her details based on what she knew her child could handle emotionally.

The day Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his nuclear forces placed on high alert late last month was a big one for some parents with inquisitive kids.

On social media, in classrooms and at the playground, children who hear about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are wondering where the war could lead. It’s a moment that can feel similar to growing up during the Cold War, when there was talk of nuclear winter, radiation and the atomic bomb.

Unlike in the past, however, today’s kids have greater unchecked access to both accurate images, video and information but loads of disinformation, too. What some also have are loved ones with personal experiences of tense nuclear times.

“With younger kids, speak simply and avoid discussing scary topics in detail. With adolescents, honesty is the best policy. Always be transparent,” said Dr. Beth Oller, a family physician in Stockton, Kansas, and mom of four kids, ages 2 to 9. “Speak to what’s actionable to help put their minds at ease.”

Fear of nuclear devastation can have a lifelong impact on children, said Nathaniel N. Ivers, an associate professor of counseling at Wake Forest University. During the Cold War, studies showed that vulnerable populations, including children and caregivers, experienced greater fear and anxiety over the nuclear threat than others, he said.

And parents who expressed more anxiety about a nuclear threat, he said, “tended to have children who were more anxious about nuclear bombs.”

A threat of nuclear detonation — something like the Cuban Missile Crisis, for instance — may create in children a profound awareness of their mortality and vulnerability. “Children know there is very little they can do to protect themselves if a nuclear bomb were to hit their area, which can create feelings of helplessness and hopelessness,” Ivers said. ”It also can create a sense of nihilism, especially in older children and adolescents.”

Henry Williams, a digital designer in Brooklyn, reached for film when his 11-year-old son came to him with questions about nuclear weapons and the war. Not the nuclear submarine spy thriller “The Hunt for Red October.” Not “The Sum of All Fears,” another thriller in the Jack Ryan series that tracks a sinister plot to draw the United States and Russia into World War III.

He chose the unflinching “Threads,” an apocalyptic war drama that follows a young couple in Sheffield, England, in the deadly and chaotic aftermath of a nuclear bombing. The film, filled with realistic horrors, was made for BBC television and first broadcast in 1984. Now, it has cult status.

Williams, who grew up near Sheffield, was home in the U.K. on vacation with his kids when the war in Ukraine broke out.

“We had BBC news on all day long every day. That prompted questions,” he said. “It’s a much more realistic movie. Like, this is what it’s like on the ground.”

His 11-year-old wasn’t visibly shaken, Williams said. As for his younger son, who’s 5 and didn’t watch the film, the questions were far simpler: “So, we’ll just all be dead?”

To which his father responded: “Well, yes, but that’s very unlikely. He had that notion in his head, that that could happen, which I thought was incredible. Even then, he wasn’t freaked out by it. I said, we’ll be there if it ever happens, and that comforted him, I think.”

Dr. Jessica Griffin, a child psychologist and executive director of the Child Trauma Training Center at the UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts, said it’s important to make sure children aren’t consumed by their worries or what’s on the news.

“Children can be encouraged to ask questions but also encouraged to engage in their daily routines of schoolwork, play and bedtime,” she said. “Routines can send signals to the brain that children are safe, and are calming for children in anxiety-provoking situations.”

After Putin ordered his forces on alert, Ricardo Groll took a straightforward approach with his two girls, ages 9 and 12.

“I decided to explain what ‘nuclear’ was and how it could hurt people in Europe,” said Groll, in the southern Brazil city of Novo Hamburgo. From the 9-year-old, he said, came: “Daddy, is that man bad? Is he going to hurt our family? How?”

“As I always do with my kids, I told the truth,” Groll said. “Now I’m pretty sure if anybody asks Giovanna what a nuclear weapon is, she will say to them, ‘It’s a bomb that could destroy the world.’ She doesn’t seem to be traumatized by my straight-to-the-point explanation, but I confess that I’m not so sure she knows what ’destroying the world’ is.”

Things are different, of course, for children already touched by war or other traumas.

“For children who have a prior history of trauma, seeing disturbing images may be even more distressing and triggering” and they might “require increased reassurance and support,” Griffin said.

JR Guerrieri in Lavallette, New Jersey, has two girls, ages 8 and 13. As the founder of a digital communications platform, he does business in Ukraine, and has friends and colleagues there. His daughters have been asking questions about the war and the possibility of nuclear weapons being used.

He showed them photos of the devastation in Hiroshima after the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb in 1945. They learned about it in school, he said, but without real depth.

“Up until now, there was no reason to really talk about it,” Guerrieri said. “You want them to learn history, of course. But, you know, to instill that fright in a child is not really necessarily the best thing in the world.”

Lake Powell hits historic low, raising hydropower concerns

By SAM METZ and FELICIA FONSECA

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FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2012, file photo, water is released into the Colorado River at the Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Ariz. The elevation of Lake Powell fell below 3,525 feet (1,075 meters), a record low that surpasses a critical threshold at which officials have long warned signals their ability to general hydropower is in jeopardy. (Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via AP, File)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A massive reservoir known as a boating mecca dipped below a critical threshold on Tuesday raising new concerns about a source of power that millions of people in the U.S. West rely on for electricity.

Lake Powell’s fall to below 3,525 feet (1,075 meters) puts it at its lowest level since the lake filled after the federal government dammed the Colorado River at Glen Canyon more than a half century ago — a record marking yet another sobering realization of the impacts of climate change and megadrought.

It comes as hotter temperatures and less precipitation leave a smaller amount flowing through the over-tapped Colorado River. Though water scarcity is hardly new in the region, hydropower concerns at Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona reflect that a future western states assumed was years away is approaching — and fast.

“We clearly weren’t sufficiently prepared for the need to move this quickly,” said John Fleck, director of the University of New Mexico’s Water Resources Program.

Federal officials are confident water levels will rise in the coming months once snow melts in the Rockies. But they warn that more may need to be done to ensure Glen Canyon Dam can keep producing hydropower in the years ahead.

“Spring runoff will resolve the deficit in the short term,” said Wayne Pullan, regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages water and power in more than a dozen states. “However, our work is not done.”

Though both Lake Powell and its downstream counterpart, Lake Mead, are dropping faster than expected, much of the region’s focus has been on how to deal with water scarcity in Arizona, Nevada and California, not electricity supply.

For Glen Canyon Dam, the new level is 35 feet (11 meters) above what’s considered “minimum power pool” — the level at which its turbines would stop producing hydroelectric power.

If Lake Powell drops even more, it could soon hit “deadpool” — the point at which water likely would fail to flow through the dam and onto Lake Mead. Arizona, Nevada, California, and Mexico already are taking a combination of mandatory and voluntary cuts tied to Lake Mead’s levels.

About 5 million customers in seven states — Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — buy power generated at Glen Canyon Dam.

The government provides it at a cheaper rate than energy sold on the wholesale market, which can be wind, solar, coal or natural gas.

For the cities, rural electric cooperatives and tribes that rely on its hydropower, less water flowing through Glen Canyon Dam can therefore increase total energy costs. Customers bear the brunt.

The situation worries the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, one of the 50 tribal suppliers that rely on the dam for hydropower. It plans to spend $4.5 million on an alternative energy supply this year.

“It’s a very sensitive issue for all of us right now,” said Walter Haase, the tribal utility’s general manager.

Bureau of Reclamation officials last summer took an unprecedented step and diverted water from reservoirs in Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado in what they called “emergency releases” to replenish Lake Powell. In January, the agency also held back water scheduled to be released through the dam to prevent it from dipping even lower.

Anxieties stretch beyond hydropower. Last summer, tourism and boating were hobbled by falling lake levels. The Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is taking advantage of the low levels at Lake Powell to extend boat ramps. Most are now closed or come with warnings to launch at your own risk.

In Page, Arizona, which benefits from recreation at Lake Powell, officials launched a campaign this month to highlight that lower levels aren’t necessarily bad for visitors, noting receding shorelines have revealed sunken boats, canyons and other geographic wonders.

“There’s tremendous amounts of history out there,” City Councilman Richard Leightner said. “You can see some of the old dwellings, and parts of the Old Spanish Trail are accessible now. It’s an opportunity, but it just depends on the person’s frame of mind.”

The record low also comes after a tough year for hydropower. Last year, as U.S. officials worked to expand renewable energy, drought in the West drove a decline in hydropower generation, making it harder for officials to meet demand. Hydropower accounts for more than one-third of the nation’s utility-scale renewable energy.

Nick Williams, the bureau’s Upper Colorado Basin power manager, said many variables, including precipitation and heat, will determine the extent to which Lake Powell rebounds in the coming months.

Regardless, hydrology modeling suggests there’s roughly a 1 in 4 chance it won’t be able to produce power by 2024.

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Fonseca reported from Flagstaff, Arizona.

Utah biologists capture, collar and release wolverine for first time

Stephen Smith 

Scientists in Utah have captured, collared and released a wolverine for the first time, in what wildlife officials are calling a "once-in-a-lifetime" event. Officials with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said it was just the eighth confirmed wolverine sighting in Utah since 1979.

"It's amazing to get a chance to see a wolverine in the wild, let alone catch one," said Jim Christensen, DWR northern region wildlife manager. "This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

© Provided by CBS News Scientists in Utah have captured, collared and released a wolverine for the first time. / Credit: Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

Officials said that on March 10, an aircraft piloted by personnel from USDA-Wildlife Services was flying over Rich County, Utah when they noticed an animal feeding on a dead sheep. They flew a bit closer and confirmed the animal was a wolverine.

The dead sheep was one of 18 sheep the wolverine had killed or wounded in the area that morning, officials said

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© Provided by CBS News Biologists determined the animal was a male between 3–4 years old. It weighed 28 pounds and was 41 inches long. / Credit: Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

Three traps were set using parts of a sheep carcass, and on March 11, one of them trapped the first wolverine ever captured by biologists in the state.

Officials said the wolverine was brought back to their Ogden office, where it was sedated and examined. Biologists determined the animal was a male between 3–4 years old. It weighed 28 pounds and was 41 inches long.

"The animal had good, sharp teeth," Christensen said. "It was in really good condition."

A GPS collar was attached to its neck before biologists transferred it to the North Slope of the Uinta Mountains where it was released on the evening of March 11.

Officials said the GPS data will show when and where the animal travels, the size of its home range and the type of habitats it uses at different times of the year.

"Having a collar on this wolverine will teach us things about wolverines in Utah that would be impossible to learn any other way," Christensen said. "Four different wolverine sightings were confirmed in Utah in 2021. Were we seeing the same animal or different animals last year? Having a collar on this animal will help us solve that riddle."

The unprecedented capture comes just days after a tour guide was able to photograph a wolverine in Yellowstone National Park. "With no other vehicles around, we were able to spend 3 full minutes in the presence of this unique and rare animal," he wrote.

According to the National Wildlife Federation, wolverines are the largest land-living species in the weasel family, or mustelids. The group says about 60% of the wolverines' habitat in the lower 48 states will be eradicated in the next seven decades because of climate change.

The federation says the rare animal also has a colorful array of nicknames, including woods devil, Indian devil, nasty cat and skunk bear.

Kidnapped Ukrainian mayor freed in 'special operation,' officials say

The mayor of Melitopol was allegedly abducted by Russian forces on March 11.

ByMeredith Deliso

16 March 2022, 19:06

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CCTV footage appears to show Russian forces apprehending Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol, a city in southeastern Ukraine that fell under Russian control during the invasion, at Taras Shevchenko Palace of Culture in Melitopol's Victory Square, in a still image from video released on March 11, 2022.

The mayor of an occupied Ukrainian city allegedly kidnapped by Russian forces last week has been freed, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.

Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov was freed from captivity in a "special operation," according to Kirilo Timoshenko, an advisor to Ukraine's presidential office. Timoshenko did not provide any further details.

Melitopol has been occupied since the first days of Russia's invasion. Ukrainian officials said Fedorov, who had insisted that the southeastern Ukrainian city remain free and backed daily pro-Ukrainian protests, was kidnapped on March 11 after resisting takeover.

Fedorov disappeared after he was purportedly shown being led away with a bag over his head by a large group of heavily armed Russian soldiers in Melitopol's Victory Square in a CCTV video shared by Timoshenko on Telegram. Russian-controlled separatists then announced they were bringing charges against Fedorov for "aiding terrorism."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video of himself on Telegram Wednesday reportedly talking on the phone with Fedorov. The mayor thanked Zelenskyy and said he needed a couple of days to recover from his ordeal and then would be ready to fulfill any orders.

A smiling Zelenskyy said he was very glad to speak with Fedorov and that "we don’t leave ours behind."

Zelenskyy referenced the call during a national address Wednesday night.

"We have finally managed to release the mayor of Melitopol from captivity," he said. "Ivan Fedorov is free. I talked to him today. The Russian military abducted him on March 11, trying to persuade him to collaborate. But our man withstood. He did not give up. Just as we all endure."

MORE: Russia-Ukraine live updates

The president had demanded the release of Fedorov in several video messages, calling it a "crime against democracy."

"The actions of the Russian invaders will be equated with the actions of ISIS terrorists," he said last week.

Following the alleged kidnapping, a pro-Russian administration appeared to have been installed in Melitopol. A local lawmaker from a pro-Russian party made a television address Saturday, during which she said a "committee of the chosen" is now taking over the running of the city. The lawmaker, Galina Danilchenko, called protesters "extremists" and urged people not to allow activists to "destabilize" the situation.

Russian riot police were also deployed in Melitopol to block protests there.

MORE: Ukraine's Zelenskyy invokes Pearl Harbor, 9/11, calls out Biden in plea to Congress for more US help

Russian forces allegedly kidnapped another mayor in an occupied city in the region. Dniprorudne Mayor Yevgeny Matveyev was kidnapped on Sunday, according to Oleksandr Starukh, head of the regional military administration.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials claimed a third southern Ukrainian mayor -- Oleksandr Yakovlyev of Skadovsk -- and his deputy Yurii Palyukh were "abducted" by Russian forces.

"Russian invaders continue to abduct democratically elected local leaders in Ukraine," Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, said on Twitter. "States & international organizations must demand Russia to immediately release all abducted Ukrainian officials!"

ABC News' Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.