RENT HIKES=INFLATION

Facing soaring rents, some US tenants are fighting back

2022/5/7 
© Agence France-Presse

Anh-Thu Nguyen of Brooklyn, New York has sued her landlord after being notified by the new owner that her lease was ending

New York (AFP) - Before the start of each month, Anh-Thu Nguyen and her two roommates send rental checks to their landlord. A few days later, the checks are mailed back.

The bizarre ritual began soon after the March 2021 purchase of Nguyen's Brooklyn building by a shadowy real estate firm called Greenbrook Partners, which told residents they had to leave by June 30.

Some neighbors moved out, but Nguyen and tenants from four other units sued the financially connected Greenbrook, one of several investor-backed rental housing firms to draw scrutiny in Washington.

"We have to fight back," said Nguyen, who has helped organize tenants in other buildings that belong to Greenbrook, which has more than 150 properties in Brooklyn and Queens, most bought during the pandemic.

"This has been my home for 13 plus years. It's a wonderful community and I want to stay here... it's also the right thing to do," said Nguyen, 39, a trained attorney who works on labor organizing for an NGO.

Nguyen and other activists back a pending tenant protection bill in the New York state legislature. The battle comes as rising rent adds to today's historic inflation surge, with horror stories abounding of landlords in the unregulated portion of New York's rental market seeking increases of 30 percent or higher.

"The market has bounced back, and that has led to rent increases and lease renewals that are really burdensome for tenants," said Charles McNally, director of external affairs at the Furman Center, a New York University urban policy research organization.

"It's a really difficult market for renters, and the inflationary pressures for owners are real as well."

'Suboptimal tenant'

Greenbrook was one of the actors highlighted in a February event organized by Senate Democrats, where Nguyen described herself as a "suboptimal tenant" for such firms.

"Their goal is maximizing profit, not the stability that comes with a long-term tenant," she told the panel.

Housing experts told senators that a frequently changing cast of shell companies and subsidiaries appearing on official ownership documents hinders accountability for tenants.

They also said some of the firms target traditionally non-white areas where home values have risen steeply.

The rental firms' defenders say restrictions on landlords can discourage needed investment and that the industry is being scapegoated for the housing affordability problem, a complex issue with many factors.

They also point to estimates that Wall Street-backed firms comprise a tiny stake of the US rental housing stock -- figures that housing experts say are based on outdated pre-pandemic data.

Recent news reports abound of the shift in cities such as Atlanta and Jacksonville, where Wall Street-backed rental firms snap up available stock, pricing out some first-time homeowners.

'Good cause eviction'

Greenbrook tenants have also garnered support from leading New York politicians, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and state Senator Jabari Brisport, who led a rally last month where Greenbrook was booed.

"Fight, fight, fight! Housing is a human right," the group chanted in support of "good cause eviction" legislation, which would limit evictions to cases where tenants don't pay rent or behave egregiously. The bill would also limit rent increases on apartments with market-based leases.

Many in real estate oppose the legislation, including Bryan Liff, who is selling two condo units rather than risk renting them under such a bill, which would come on top of soaring costs during the pandemic that he says are driving out mom-and-pop landlords.

"I'm not willing to take the risk that the state will basically give away our property," said Liff, a 50-year-old software engineer, who also owns an eight-apartment Harlem building in which he rents units.

The rally was held outside the Brooklyn home of Aneta Molenda, who also is in housing limbo with no active lease after fighting Greenbrook's 50 percent rent increase.

"I feel incredibly insecure in my housing situation," Molenda told AFP.

Greenbrook Partners has generally avoided comment and didn't respond to multiple queries from AFP.

The company's website says it targets "poorly maintained, undermanaged and undercapitalized assets located in growth-oriented and transitional submarkets of New York City."

Greenbrook and its affiliates own 153 properties, according to a New York City real estate database.

The properties are currently listed under "Freestone Property Group," after previously appearing under the name Greg Fournier, a principal at Greenbrook. Nguyen believes Freestone is a Greenbrook subsidiary.

As a private company, Greenbrook does not release its financial statements. Real estate trade press has described partnerships with the private equity behemoth Carlyle Group and the British investment company NW1 Partners.

Neither Carlyle nor NW1 responded to AFP request for comment.

CANADIANS DIED TOO 

Families of crash victims challenge Boeing settlement in US court
2022/5/3
© Agence France-Presse

Catherine Berthet (L) whose daughter died in the Boeing 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia, arrives at court in Fort Worth, Texas, to challenge the aircraft maker's settlement deal with the US Department of Justice

Fort Worth (United States) (AFP) - The families of victims of the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 asked a Texas judge Tuesday to overturn a $2.5-billion settlement between the aircraft manufacturer and the US government.

Under that agreement, Boeing admitted to having committed fraud in exchange for the Department of Justice dropping some of the proceedings against it over the deadly crashes of Lion Air in Indonesia and Ethiopian Airlines, which killed 346 people total and caused the MAX to be grounded globally for 20 months.

This January 7, 2021 arrangement was the focus of a court hearing Tuesday in Fort Worth, Texas.

"They messed up by making the crime fraud rather than manslaughter," said Catherine Berthet, a French woman who lost her 28-year-old daughter when the Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed near Addis Ababa on March 10, 2019.

"We believe that the rights of the victims' families have not been respected," she told AFP. "We have not been consulted. We ask to be heard."

The January 2021 agreement included a $500 million compensation fund for victims' relatives, $1.77 billion in compensation to the airlines and a $243 million criminal fine.

Boeing has admitted that two of its employees had misled a group within the Federal Aviation Authority that was to prepare training for pilots in using Boeing's new MCAS flight software, which was implicated in both crashes.

"The judge listened carefully and I think had a lot of concerns about how was it that the Justice Department can seal this agreement from the families," said Paul Cassell, lawyer for the families in the audience.

Relatives of the victims are now hoping for a quick decision from the Fort Worth judge.

"It's been three years and I never go to sleep before four or five in the morning," Berthet said. "I still have panic attacks. There are things I don't do anymore. There are films that I can no longer see, music that I can no longer listen to."

"I would like to see that the US Department of Justice is responsible enough to make sure that corporations don't get away with murder," said Paul Njoroge, who lost his 33-year-old wife, his children aged nine months, four and six, as well as his mother-in-law in the Ethiopia crash.

Collapse at French cliffs scaled by US troops on D-Day

2022/5/6 
© Agence France-Presse

Part of the Pointe du Hoc cliffs -- site of a daring vertical assault by US Army Rangers on D-Day in 1944 -- has collapsed on France's northern coast

Cricqueville-en-Bessin (France) (AFP) - A large section of the Pointe du Hoc cliffs has collapsed on France's northern coast, damaging the site of a daring vertical assault by US Army Rangers on D-Day in 1944.

"Part of the outcrop overlooking the English Channel collapsed" on Friday, the American Battle Monuments Commission, which has cared for the site since 1956, said in a statement.

"No one was injured in the landslide, which fell into the sea, and there is no risk for visitors," it added.

An AFP photographer saw around 100 tourists present on a sunny day at the site in Normandy in northern France.

A force of 225 rangers scaled the cliffs on June 6, 1944 to destroy German artillery emplacements that threatened the Allied amphibious landings.

Ascending the 25-metre (82-foot) cliff face in foul weather and under German fire, just 90 of the attackers escaped unharmed.

"The base of the cliffs has become increasingly fragile over time," said Scott Desjardins, superintendent of Normandy American cemetery and the Pointe du Hoc.

"We continue to study the situation in order to find ways to mitigate the risk and preserve the site," he added.

Normandy conservation official Regis Leymarie said that collapses had been expected at the site as "these cliffs have been eroding since they were created".

"About 12 years ago, we agreed with the Americans and the French state that reinforcing the foot of the cliff should aim to slow the erosion but never to stop it," he added, saying that already by then "the site was no longer as it was in 1944".

Around 500,000 people each year visit the Pointe du Hoc, one of the most famous sites of World War II's massive D-Day landings.

The arrivals were the first step to freeing France and western Europe from Nazi German occupation.

CAPITALI$M IS ADDICTION
Biographer says Mickelson had $40mn in gambling losses in four years

2022/5/5 
© Agence France-Presse

Six-time major winner Phil Mickelson plays a shot at the US PGA Tour's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in January 2022

Los Angeles (AFP) - US federal auditors probing Phil Mickelson’s role in an insider trading case found he had gambling losses of more than $40 million from 2010 to 2014, according to an excerpt from Alan Shipnuck’s forthcoming biography of the US golfer.

Shipnuck posted the excerpt from the unauthorized biography on the Firepit Collective website on Thursday.

The book, "Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar," is due to be released on May 17.

That's two days before the start of the PGA Championship, where Mickelson is the defending champion.

Mickelson became the oldest major winner in golf history when he won the PGA at Kiawah Island last year at the age of 50, but it's not yet known if he will defend the title at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Mickelson has not played since an uproar in February followed Shipnuck's publication of the player's explosive remarks concerning the Saudi-backed LIV golf tour spearheaded by Greg Norman.

The six-time major champion called the Saudi partners "scary," citing the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

But he said he was willing to work with them if the breakaway tour provided "leverage" in efforts to force the US PGA Tour to alter policies that Mickelson said rob players of deserved money-making opportunities.

Mickelson was a relief defendant in a 2016 criminal insider trading case that sent gambler Billy Walters to prison.

Mickelson wasn't charged, but repaid almost $1 million made in the deal.

In the excerpt posted Thursday, Shipnuck, citing a source with direct access to the documents, writes that government auditors working the case investigated Mickelson's finances over four years from 2010 to 2014.

"In those prime earning years, Mickelson’s income was estimated to be just north of $40 million a year," Shipnuck wrote. "That's an obscene amount of money, but once he paid his taxes (including the California tariffs he publicly railed against), he was left with, what, low-20s? Then he had to cover his plane and mansion(s), plus his agent, caddie, pilots, chef, personal trainer, swing coaches and sundry others.

"Throw in all the other expenses of a big life -- like an actual T. Rex skull for a birthday present -- and that leaves, what, $10 million? Per the government audit, that's roughly how much Mickelson averaged in annual gambling losses."

Mickelson's management company confirmed in April that he had sought a release from the US PGA Tour to play in the first event of the LIV tour, the LIV Golf Invitational near London June 9-11.

But in a statement Steve Loy, co-president of Sportfive management, stressed the player had not yet confirmed his participation.

Activists urge ad boycott if Musk turns Twitter toxic
2022/5/3
© Agence France-Presse

Twitter makes most of its money from ads, which could flee the platform if it allows vitriol and misinformation to flourish once in the hands of billionaire Elon Musk

San Francisco (AFP) - Activist groups called on Twitter advertisers Tuesday to boycott the service if it opens the gates to abusive and misinformative posts with billionaire Elon Musk as its owner.

The Tesla chief's $44-billion deal to buy the global messaging platform must still get the backing of shareholders and regulators, but he has voiced enthusiasm for dialing back content moderation to a legal minimum and no longer banning people for using the platform to instigate real-world harm.

Facebook accused of blocking Australian health sites

2022/5/6 
© Agence France-Presse

Facebook parent Meta says blocking Australian government websites was a glitch, not a negotiating tactic, when it was lobbying against a law there in 2021

San Francisco (AFP) - A whistleblower group is accusing Facebook of deliberately blocking websites for Australian hospitals and emergency services as part of a negotiating tactic last year.

The social network owned by Silicon Valley tech giant Meta was lobbying to weaken a proposed law requiring it to pay news providers in Australia when it blocked all such content from its platform in February 2021.

But the algorithm also blocked other websites in what the company maintained was an accident, telling AFP on Friday that "any suggestion to the contrary is categorically and obviously false."

"We intended to exempt Australian government pages from restrictions in an effort to minimize the impact of this misguided and harmful legislation," a Meta spokesperson said.

"When we were unable to do so as intended due to a technical error, we apologized and worked to correct it."

However, US-based organization Whistleblower Aid alleged it was actually a Meta ploy in filings with the US Department of Justice and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, first reported in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

The organization said in a statement that Facebook's five-day blackout of news content providers had deliberately "overblocked" local governments, health services and other sites that were providing support for vulnerable people.

The intention was to force the government to weaken the proposed law, the group said.

"This wasn't just an example of a corporate actor behaving recklessly," said Whistleblower Aid chief Libby Liu.

"Facebook intentionally put lives at risk to protect its bottom line."

Shortly after the blackout, Australia passed a law forcing Facebook to negotiate with news content providers, but politicians watered down some of the most onerous proposals.

Online content fuelling divisions and global tensions, media watchdog says

Unregulated online content has spread disinformation and propaganda that have amplified political divisions worldwide, fanned international tensions and even contributed to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a media watchdog warned Tuesday.

© Petras Malukas, AFP

Reporters Without Borders said democratic societies are increasingly fractured by social media spreading disinformation and more opinion media pursuing a so-called "Fox News model", referring to the controversial right-wing television network in the United States.

At the same time, despotic and autocratic regimes that tightly control information in their societies are using their "asymmetric" position to wage "propaganda wars" against democracies and fuel divisions within them, the watchdog said in the 2022 edition of its annual World Press Freedom Index.

"Polarisation on these two levels is fuelling increased tension," Reporters Without Borders, widely known by its French acronym RSF, said in a five-page summary.

It noted Russia, where state-run media overwhelmingly dominate and independent outlets are increasingly stifled, invaded Ukraine following a propaganda war.

"The creation of media weaponry in authoritarian countries eliminates their citizens' right to information but is also linked to the rise in international tension, which can lead to the worst kind of wars," RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said.

He added the "Fox News-isation" of Western media also poses a "fatal danger for democracies because it undermines the basis of civil harmony and tolerant public debate".

Deloire urged countries to adopt appropriate legal frameworks to protect democratic online information spaces.

 
Record 'very bad'

The situation is "very bad" in a record 28 countries, according to this year's ranking of 180 countries and regions based on the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists.

The lowest ranked were North Korea (180th), Eritrea (179th) and Iran (178th), with Myanmar (176th) and China (175th) close behind.

Russia (155th) and ally Belarus (153rd) were also on its red list of the most repressive.

Hong Kong's position plummeted dozens of places to 148th, reflecting Beijing's efforts to use "its legislative arsenal to confine its population and cut it off from the rest of the world", RSF said.

Nordic countries Norway, Denmark and Sweden again topped the index, serving as a democratic models "where freedom of expression flourishes".

The NGO commended Moldova (40th) and Bulgaria (91st) this year due to government changes and "the hope it has brought for improvement in the situation for journalists".

But it noted "oligarchs still own or control the media" in both.

Media polarisation was "feeding and reinforcing internal social divisions in democratic societies" such as the United States (42nd).

That trend was even starker in "illiberal democracies" such as Poland (66th), a European Union country where suppression of independent media was also noted by RSF.

The NGO, launched in 1985 and which has published the yearly index since 2002, has become a thorn in the side of autocratic and despotic regimes around the world.

This year's listing was developed with a new methodology redefining press freedom and using five new indicators -- political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context, and security -- to reflect its "complexity".

Older adults more likely than young to be fooled by 'fake news,' study says

By HealthDay News

Older people have a tougher time deciphering "fake news" from the real thing, according to researchers at the University of Florida. 

Photo by kaboompics/Pixabay


Older adults are no more likely to believe fake news than younger adults, with the exception of the very oldest, a new study finds.

Falling for fake news can have significant physical, emotional and financial consequences, especially for older adults who may have their life savings or serious medical issues at stake, the researchers said.

"We wanted to see if there was an age difference in determining whether news is true versus false," said lead author Didem Pehlivanoglu, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at the University of Florida, in Gainesville.

"We specifically wanted to look at this because we know that with aging, most people show some decline in their cognitive abilities. But we also know some information-processing abilities are preserved or even improved," Pehlivanoglu said in a university news release.

The study, published this week in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, was conducted between May and October of 2020. It included a group of older adults, aged 61 to 87, and a group of college students.

Participants were asked to read and evaluate 12 full-length news articles about COVID-19 and non-COVID topics. Some of the articles were real and some were fake.

Older and young adults had similar levels of ability to detect fake news, according to the study. The results were published online May 2 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.

Both groups were less likely to identify fake news about COVID-19 than news not related to the pandemic. That may be due to low familiarity with COVID-related information in the early months of the pandemic, the researchers suggested.

"People have this perception that older adults are going to perform worse than young adults across the board but that is not the case," said study co-author Brian Cahill, a psychology professor at the University of Florida.

The study did find that adults older than 70 were less likely to ferret out fake news about COVID-19 or other topics. But that's likely because they didn't look as closely at information or pay attention to details, the study authors added.

It's only in very late old age -- when declines in thinking abilities can no longer be offset by life experience and world knowledge -- that people may become especially vulnerable to fake news and other misinformation, the investigators noted.

Study co-author Natalie Ebner, a psychology professor at the university, said, "It is a particularly high-risk population with high stakes for wrong decision making, not just for themselves but also for society at large."

Detained Griner to be honored at all venues: WNBA
2022/5/3 
© Agence France-Presse

US basketball star Brittney Griner will be honored at WNBA venues to mark her detention in Russia

New York (AFP) - Detained US women's basketball star Brittney Griner will be honored at all WNBA venues when the new season gets under way later this week, the league said Tuesday.

Griner has been in custody in Russia since being stopped at Moscow's airport on February 17 after vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage.

The United States government said Tuesday that Griner's detention was unwarranted, describing her as a "wrongfully detained US citizen". Washington had previously stopped short of commenting on the nature of her detention.

The WNBA said in a statement on Tuesday that all 12 venues across the league would feature Griner's initials and jersey number (42) emblazoned on the sidelines when the new season tips off on Friday.

"As we begin the 2022 season, we are keeping Brittney at the forefront of what we do through the game of basketball and in the community," WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said.

"We continue to work on bringing Brittney home and are appreciative of the support the community has shown BG and her family during this extraordinarily challenging time."

US basketball officials had previously taken a discreet approach to Griner's detention, preferring to allow behind-the-scenes diplomacy to play out.

Griner's wife Cherelle Griner had also called for supporters to "honor our privacy as we continue to work on getting my wife home safely".

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and WNBA champion, is regarded as one of the best women basketball players in the world.

She had been in Russia to play club basketball before the WNBA season resumed on May 6.

US says basketball star 'wrongfully detained' in Russia
2022/5/3 
© Agence France-Presse
Brittney Griner of the Phoenix Mercury, who has since been detained in Russia, puts a shot over Azura Stevens of the Chicago Sky during the 2021 WNBA Finals in Phoenix in October 2021

Washington (AFP) - The United States said Tuesday that Russia has unjustly detained basketball star Brittney Griner, as her league announced plans to honor her at all venues for the start of the season.

More than two months after she was seized amid soaring tensions over Ukraine, the State Department said that her case was being turned over to Roger Carstens, the US special envoy in charge of hostages.

"The Department of State has determined that the Russian Federation has wrongfully detained US citizen Brittney Griner," a State Department spokesperson said.

Calling American citizens' safety "among the highest priorities of the US government," the spokesperson said the State Department would "provide appropriate support" to Griner.

Washington had earlier been granted consular access but had stopped short of commenting on the nature of her detention.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and WNBA champion, was detained at Moscow's airport on February 17 on charges of carrying in her luggage vape cartridges with cannabis oil, illegal in Russia.

The arrest came days before Russia defied US warnings and invaded Ukraine, prompting Western powers to impose sweeping sanctions and send military aid to Kyiv.

The WNBA, the Women's National Basketball Association, announced that all 12 venues would feature Griner's initials and jersey number 42 emblazoned on the sidelines when the new season tips off Friday.

"As we begin the 2022 season, we are keeping Brittney at the forefront of what we do through the game of basketball and in the community," WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a statement.

"We continue to work on bringing Brittney home and are appreciative of the support the community has shown BG and her family during this extraordinarily challenging time," she said.

The State Department finding comes nearly a week after the United States and Russia exchanged prisoners, a scene reminiscent of the Cold War.

Russia in the last exchange freed Trevor Reed, a former US Marine accused of drunkenly fighting with police.

The United States also says Russia has unjustly detained Paul Whelan, a former security official at a vehicle parts company who was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges.

Griner, 31, is considered among the greatest female basketball players with her skill at "dunking" a ball.

She was playing club basketball in Russia before the resumption of the US season, a common practice for American stars seeking additional income.

Ukraine: How drones are changing the way of war

The war in Ukraine shows that unmanned aerial vehicles are part of modern warfare. Drones have various tasks from aerial surveillance to missile defense.


The Switchblade is known as a backpack drone because of its convenient travel-size when folded

Drones meet the requirements of modern warfare — that's the line from the US Department of Defense. And the Pentagon says it has just the drone to meet all of Ukraine's requirements. It's a new drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), called Phoenix Ghost.

"We believed this particular system would very nicely suit their needs, particularly in eastern Ukraine," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said in a press briefing.

Kirby said the US had started developing the Phoenix Ghost before the outbreak of war and that work would now be accelerated to meet Ukraine's requirements even better.

The plan is to deliver more than 120 of the drones as part of a $800 million (ca. €750 million) military assistance package.

But what does Phoenix Ghost do? How does it differ from other weapon systems?

Well, not much is known. There are no pictures. What we do know is that Phoenix Ghost was developed by US defense contractor Aevex Aerospace with the US Air Force. And that according to Kirby, personnel won't need a lot of training to operate it.

Kirby said the new drone was like older, Switchblade drones, which were made by US company AeroVironment for use by US special forces in Afghanistan in 2012.

Switchblade kamikaze drone

The Switchblade backpack drone belongs to the category of "loitering munitions" or "loitering weapons."

"It's a mix between a missile and a drone," Arthur Holland Michel, author and senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in Barcelona, told DW.

Watch video 03:31 Drone warfare in Ukraine explained

Loitering munitions get their name from the way they work. They are launched without a specific target and circle over an area until a target is assigned by an operator on the ground, and that's when it strikes.

It has sensors that can detect emerging targets. Depending on the model's size and weight, it can stay in the air for between 15 and 40 minutes, with a range of 10 to 40 kilometers (6-25 miles).

"Unlike a large drone, it doesn't need an airfield or lots of infrastructure to launch," Michel said. "And unlike a missile, it gives you time to identify the target, get situational awareness, and then literally drive the missile drone into the target."

The Switchblade 300 weighs roughly 5.5 pounds and can stay in the air for 15 minutes

Switchblade drones are also known as kamikaze drones because they self-destruct on impact.

Optimized: Phoenix Ghost

Phoenix Ghost drones have similar capabilities but are not exactly the same as the Switchblade, Kirby said.

David Deptula, a retired lieutenant general who sits on the board of directors at Aevex Aerospace, was quoted by Politico as saying that Phoenix Ghost can fly for longer than Switchblade — up to six hours.

Deptula is reported to have said that Phoenix Ghost was a single-use drone that launches vertically and that it can operate at night with infrared sensors. The drone was effective against "medium armored ground targets," Politico quoted Deptula as saying.

Vector: German technology for Ukraine

The Ukrainian armed forces also use a surveillance drone from the German company Quantum Systems.

"Our drones are already in Ukraine," Florian Seibel, CEO of the Bavaria-based company, told the German news network RND.

The German "Vector" drone is not a weapon as such — it cannot drop bombs but it can form part of a weapons system. It is said to be best used for its flight and video capabilities. Ukraine might use it to optimize the aim of its artillery, for example.

Vector delivers high-resolution real-time video over 15 kilometers and can remain airborne for up to two hours.

Japan has also supplied drones to Ukraine. But Ukraine uses local drones as well.

The most common Ukrainian drone is the Leleka-100, which weighs about five kilograms and is produced by Deviro, a company in Dnipro in central Ukraine.

The Vector drone is intended for surveillance and reconnaissance missions

Fewer Russian drones

The Russian military seems to rely less on drones, but does use them. Its main drone is the Orlan-10, a small reconnaissance and surveillance UAV made at the Center for Special Technology in St. Petersburg.

With a wingspan of 3.1 meters (10 ft), Orlan-10 can fly up to 100 kilometers. The reconnaissance system is simple in design: It uses commercial Canon EOS-D series cameras for aerial photography, as well as thermal imaging and video cameras.

But with all these developments in automated warfare, drone expert Michel says we should be aware there are risks and concerns with drones.

For example: Do users have sufficient situational awareness to make decisions about whether to use force? Are the weapons vulnerable to hacking? If a drone causes unintended damage, how can people be held accountable for that damage? How can civilians be protected?

"With each additional autonomous feature that gets added to such weapons, these concerns multiply," Michel wrote on Twitter.

UKRAINE'S CIVILIANS PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR THE WAR EFFORT
Anti-tank obstacles instead of sculptures
In peacetime, artist Volodymyr Kolesnykov creates metal sculptures in his workshop in Uzhhorod, near the Hungarian border. These days, his time is spent welding anti-tank obstacles, or "Czech hedgehogs," along with other artists and metalworkers.
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This article was originally written in German.