'An army of robots' and zero human workers will build a dam in China

MAY 09, 2022BySTEPHEN CHEN

Chinese scientists say the Yangqu dam on the Tibetan plateau will be built using AI-controlled machinery applying 3D printing techniques.

Weibo

China is using artificial intelligence (AI) to effectively turn a dam project on the Tibetan Plateau into the world's largest 3D printer, according to scientists involved in the project.

The 180 metre (590 feet) high Yangqu hydropower plant will be built slice by slice - using unmanned excavators, trucks, bulldozers, pavers and rollers, all controlled by AI - in the same additive manufacturing process used in 3D printing.

When completed in 2024, the Yangqu dam will send nearly five billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year from the upper reaches of the Yellow River to Henan, the cradle of Chinese civilisation and home to 100 million people.

The power will travel via a 1,500km (932 miles) high voltage line built exclusively for green energy transmission.

According to the project's lead scientist Liu Tianyun, in a paper published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Tsinghua University (Science and Technology), dam construction and 3D printing are "identical by nature".

After years of development testing, 3D print technology for large, filled infrastructure had matured enough for mass applications and would "free humans from heavy-duty, repetitive and dangerous work", he said.

Liu, an associate researcher with the state key laboratory of hydroscience and engineering at Tsinghua University, and his team came up with the idea of "printing" large-scale building projects about ten years ago.

They thought an entire construction site could be turned into a giant printer, with a large number of automated machines working seamlessly together as different components.

The 3D printer was initially developed as a less wasteful way to manufacture components from precious materials. Printing - or adding - materials produces less waste than cutting and grinding.

Since then, some architects have started to apply the technology to buildings, although projects have so far been small. The first 3D-printed office building, the Dubai Future Foundation headquarters, stands at just six metres (20 feet).

Chinese civil engineers are no strangers to AI, which was used to build Baihetan, the world's second-largest dam, in just four years. But until now, it has mainly played a coordinating role in projects.

Testing of the technology in previous construction projects suggested smart machines could do a better job than humans, ", especially in some harsh and dangerous environments", said Liu and his colleagues.

Liu did not immediately respond to questions about Yangqu dam's progress, but according to state media reports work started at the end of last year in Hainan Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Qinghai province.

After "slicing" a computer model of the dam into layers, the AI at the heart of the project would assign a team of robots to add one layer at a time, the paper said.

Unmanned excavators will be able to identify and load materials from a stockpile yard into a fleet of automated trucks, some powered by electricity.

Some of the automated machinery that will be used in the 3D-print construction of Yangqu dam. 
PHOTO: Tsinghua University

Following an optimised route calculated by the central AI, the trucks will deliver the right materials to the right locations, at the right time, to be located by robotic bulldozers and pavers and turned into a layer of the dam structure.

Automated rollers press the added layer until it is tight and firm, but they are also equipped with sensors. The central AI uses these to monitor build quality by analysing ground vibration and other data.

Breakthroughs in AI technology, including deep reinforcement learning, mean the machines can now recognise nearly all objects on site, deal with uncertainties in a changing environment, and perform various tasks flexibly, according to the paper.

They also do not make human errors. Liu said truck drivers often delivered materials to the wrong location, while shocks and strong vibration prevented roller operators from maintaining a perfectly straight path. And most workers were unable to read the technical design papers correctly, he added.

But where the machines shine is their ability to work in a life-threatening environment, without getting headaches from a lack of oxygen or exhausted after working continuously for 24 hours, according to the researchers.

Not all jobs in the dam's construction will be handled by machines. The team said the mining of fill-rocks from nearby mountains would be done manually because of the task's complexity.

Liu's team said the technology could also be used in other infrastructure projects, such as airport and road construction.

"AI-based on knowledge, information and data is a new tool … that will shape our future," they said.

A Nanjing-based civil engineering scientist, who asked not to be named because of his role in the technical evaluation of some major infrastructure projects, said there were limits to 3D print technology but it would find more uses in the future.

ALSO READ: As robot dogs take to the streets of China, could they ever replicate the companionship of man's best friend?

"It cannot print a structure consisting of different materials, such as reinforced concrete made of steel and cement," the scientist said.

"An army of construction robots can offset the sharp decline of manual labour caused by low birth rates," he added.

This article was first published in South China Morning Post.

Chinese scientists develop robot fish that gobble up microplastics

JULY 12, 2022PUBLISHED AT 7:54 PM

A fish-shaped robot, which researchers say can suck up microplastics in shallow water, moves under the direction of a near-infrared (NIR) light, in this screen grab taken from a handout video provided to Reuters on July 12, 2022.

Reuters

AsiaOne has launched EarthOne, a new section dedicated to environmental issues — because we love the planet and we believe science. Find articles like this there.

---

BEIJING - Robot fish that "eat" microplastics may one day help to clean up the world's polluted oceans, says a team of Chinese scientists from Sichuan University in southwest China.

Soft to touch and just 1.3 centimetres in size, these robots already suck up microplastics in shallow water.

The team aims to enable them to collect microplastics in deeper water and provide information to analyse marine pollution in real time, said Wang Yuyan, one of the researchers who developed the robot.

"We developed such a lightweight miniaturised robot. It can be used in many ways, for example in biomedical or hazardous operations, such a small robot that can be localised to a part of your body to help you eliminate some disease."

The black robot fish is irradiated by a light, helping it to flap its fins and wiggle its body. Scientists can control the fish using the light to avoid it crashing into other fish or ships.

If it is accidentally eaten by other fish, it can be digested without harm as it is made from polyurethane, which is also biocompatible, Wang said.

The fish is able to absorb pollutants and recover itself even when it is damaged. It can swim up to 2.76 body lengths per second, faster than most artificial soft robots.

"We are mostly working on collection (of microplastics). It is like a sampling robot and it can be used repeatedly," she said.

HUBRIS
‘I’m very proud’ – French president Emmanuel Macron bites back at criticism after ‘Uber files’ revelations

French president Emmanuel Macron visits the STMicroelectronics company in Crolles, southeastern France. Photo: Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AP


Sophie Louet and Benoit Van Overstraeten
July 13 2022 

French president Emmanuel Macron has said he would not change a thing in the approach he took to US ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies when he served as economy minister, after political foes said they would seek a parliamentary inquiry.

“I would do it again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow... we created thousands of jobs... I’m very proud,” he told journalists whilst visiting a plant in the French Alps where STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries will build a new semiconductor facility.

The Guardian and Le Monde newspapers reported on Sunday that Uber broke laws and secretly lobbied politicians as part of an aggressive campaign to expand into new markets from 2013 to 2017.

Mr Macron’s office told Le Monde that as economy minister at the time, he frequently had contact with many companies disrupting the service industry, and that it was appropriate to facilitate the lifting of red tape.

The new left-wing opposition Nupes alliance, headed by the anti-capitalist France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party, said it would seek a parliamentary investigation into Mr Macron’s role in helping the Californian company in France.

Olivia Gregoire, minister of small and medium companies, told parliament Mr Macron just “did his job” when he served as economy minister.

“He spoke with Uber. But also with Netflix, with Airbnb, Tesla (...) And why? Because those companies are at the core of today’s economy,” Ms Gregoire said.

The Guardian reported that while other members of the then-Socialist government had misgivings about Uber’s push onto taxis’ turf, Mr Macron exchanged text messages with Uber executives, who identified him as a key behind-the-scenes ally.

In response to the Guardian and Le Monde reports, Uber said in a statement: “We have not and will not make excuses for past behaviour that is clearly not in line with our present values.”

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for UBER 

NASA Reveals Webb Telescope’s First

Images of Unseen Universe

This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

Learn more about this image.

Lee esta nota de prensa en español aquí.

The dawn of a new era in astronomy is here as the world gets its first look at the full capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

The full set of the telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data, which uncover a collection of cosmic features elusive until now, released Tuesday, are available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

“Today, we present humanity with a groundbreaking new view of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope – a view the world has never seen before,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “These images, including the deepest infrared view of our universe that has ever been taken, show us how Webb will help to uncover the answers to questions we don’t even yet know to ask; questions that will help us better understand our universe and humanity’s place within it.

“The Webb team’s incredible success is a reflection of what NASA does best. We take dreams and turn them into reality for the benefit of humanity. I can’t wait to see the discoveries that we uncover – the team is just getting started!”

NASA explores the unknown in space for the benefit of all, and Webb’s first observations tell the story of the hidden universe through every phase of cosmic history – from neighboring planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe. 

“This is a singular and historic moment,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “It took decades of drive and perseverance to get us here, and I am immensely proud of the Webb team. These first images show us how much we can accomplish when we come together behind a shared goal, to solve the cosmic mysteries that connect us all. It’s a stunning glimpse of the insights yet to come.”

“We are elated to celebrate this extraordinary day with the world,” said Greg Robinson, Webb program director at NASA Headquarters. “The beautiful diversity and incredible detail of the Webb telescope’s images and data will have a profound impact on our understanding of the universe and inspire us to dream big."

Webb’s first observations were selected by a group of representatives from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. They reveal the capabilities of all four of Webb’s state-of-the-art scientific instruments:

• SMACS 0723: Webb has delivered the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe so far – and in only 12.5 hours. For a person standing on Earth looking up, the field of view for this new image, a color composite of multiple exposures each about two hours long, is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. This deep field uses a lensing galaxy cluster to find some of the most distant galaxies ever detected. This image only scratches the surface of Webb’s capabilities in studying deep fields and tracing galaxies back to the beginning of cosmic time.
• WASP-96b (spectrum): Webb’s detailed observation of this hot, puffy planet outside our solar system reveals the clear signature of water, along with evidence of haze and clouds that previous studies of this planet did not detect. With Webb’s first detection of water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, it will now set out to study hundreds of other systems to understand what other planetary atmospheres are made of.
• Southern Ring Nebula: This planetary nebula, an expanding cloud of gas that surrounds a dying star, is approximately 2,000 light years away. Here, Webb’s powerful infrared eyes bring a second dying star into full view for the first time. From birth to death as a planetary nebula, Webb can explore the expelling shells of dust and gas of aging stars that may one day become a new star or planet.
• Stephan’s Quintet: Webb’s view of this compact group of galaxies, located in the constellation Pegasus, pierced through the shroud of dust surrounding the center of one galaxy, to reveal the velocity and composition of the gas near its supermassive black hole. Now, scientists can get a rare look, in unprecedented detail, at how interacting galaxies are triggering star formation in each other and how the gas in these galaxies is being disturbed.
• Carina Nebula: Webb’s look at the ‘Cosmic Cliffs’ in the Carina Nebula unveils the earliest, rapid phases of star formation that were previously hidden. Looking at this star-forming region in the southern constellation Carina, as well as others like it, Webb can see newly forming stars and study the gas and dust that made them.

“Absolutely thrilling!” said John Mather, Webb senior project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The equipment is working perfectly, and nature is full of surprising beauty. Congratulations and thanks to our worldwide teams that made it possible.”

The release of Webb’s first images and spectra kicks off the beginning of Webb’s science operations, where astronomers around the world will have their chance to observe anything from objects within our solar system to the early universe using Webb’s four instruments.

The James Webb Space Telescope launched Dec. 25, 2021, on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America. After completing a complex deployment sequence in space, Webb underwent months of commissioning where its mirrors were aligned, and its instruments were calibrated to its space environment and prepared for science.

The public can also view the new Webb images Tuesday on several digital screens in New York City’s Times Square and in London’s Piccadilly Circus beginning at 5:30 p.m. EDT and 10:30 p.m. GMT, respectively.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.

NASA Headquarters oversees the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages Webb for the agency and oversees work on the mission performed by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, and other mission partners. In addition to Goddard, several NASA centers contributed to the project, including the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and others.

For a full array of Webb’s first images and spectra, including downloadable files, visit:

https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-images

-end-

Robert Reich: How To Handle Radical Republicans – OpEd

 July 13, 2022 

By Robert Reich

I heard a commentator allude to “Mitch McConnell and other conservative senators.” The other day, a news report described the upcoming Alaska Republican primary as pitting Trump’s “conservative wing against Murkowski’s more moderate base.” I keep seeing references to the “conservative majority” on the Supreme Court.

Can we get real? There is nothing conservative about these so-called “conservatives.” They don’t want to preserve or protect our governing institutions — the core idea of conservatism extending from Edmund Burke to William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater. They are radicals, intent on wrecking these institutions to impose their ideology on everyone else.

The Supreme Court’s Republican appointees have all but obliterated stare decisis — the conservative principle that the Court must follow its precedents and not change or reverse them unless clearly necessary, and with near unanimity. Recent decisions reversing Roe v. Wade, elevating religious expression over the Constitution’s bar on established religion, questioning Congress’s ability to delegate rule making to the executive branch, and barring states from regulating handguns, all call into question the legitimacy of the Supreme Court as an institution.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell, are abusing the filibuster and undermining the legitimacy of the Senate.

Throughout much of the 20th century, filibusters remained rare. But after Barack Obama moved into the Oval Office in 2009, McConnell and his Republican senate minority blocked virtually every significant piece of legislation. Between 2010 and 2020, there were as many cloture motions as during the entire 60-year period from 1947 to 2006. Now McConnell and his Republicans are stopping almost everything in its tracks. Just 41 Senate Republicans, representing only 21 percent of the country, are blocking laws supported by the vast majority of Americans.

At the same time, Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress and in the states have upended the centerpiece of American democracy, the peaceful transition of power, and undermined the legitimacy of our elections.

They continue to assert without any basis in fact that the 2020 election was stolen. Trump encouraged an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and threatened the life of the Vice President. Republican state legislatures are enacting legislation to suppress votes and take over election machinery.

Make no mistake: Republican appointees to the Supreme Court, most Republicans in Congress, and Trump Republican lawmakers across America are not conservative. They are radicals. They have embarked on a radical agenda of repudiating our governing institutions and taking over American democracy.

It is time to stop using the term “conservative” to describe them and their agenda.

And it is time it to fight back: Enlarge the size of the Supreme Court and limit the terms of justices. Abolish the filibuster and then pass laws most Americans want — protecting voting rights and reproductive rights, and controlling guns. Criminally prosecute Trump and his insurgents.

These are conservative measures. They are necessary to conserve and protect our governing institutions from the radicals now bent on destroying them.

Robert Reich

Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, and writes at robertreich.substack.com. Reich served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common Good," which is available in bookstores now. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.

Pig organ transplants inch closer with testing in the dead

12 Jul, 2022

Dr Nader Moazami, right, and cardiothoracic physician assistant Amanda Merrifield, prepare for the transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into a recently deceased donor. Photo / AP

AP

New York researchers transplanted pig hearts into two brain-dead people during the past month, the latest in a string of developments in the long quest to one day save human lives with animal organs.

The experiments announced Tuesday come after a historic but failed attempt earlier this year to use a pig's heart to save a dying Maryland man — sort of a rehearsal before scientists try again in the living.

Among the lessons: Practice with the deceased is important.

"We learned so much from the first one that the second one is much better," said Dr Nader Moazami, who led the operations at NYU Langone Health. "You stand there in awe" when the pig heart starts to beat in a human body.

This time around, Moazami's team mimicked how heart transplants routinely are done. Once last month and once last week, researchers travelled to a facility housing genetically modified pigs, removed the needed hearts, put them on ice and flew them hundreds of miles back to New York.

They used special new methods to check for any worrisome animal viruses before sewing the heart into the chest of each deceased recipient — a Vietnam veteran from Pennsylvania with a long history of heart disease and a New York woman who'd benefited from a transplant earlier in life.

Then came three days of more intense testing than living patients could tolerate — including frequent biopsies of the organ — before doctors disconnected life support.

Keep up to date with the day's biggest storiesSign up to our daily curated newsletter for the day's top stories straight to your inbox.
SIGN UP
By signing up for this newsletter, you agree to NZME’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
I’m not interested in Top News Stories newsletter. Please don’t show me this again.

Already the Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to allow a small number of Americans who need a new organ to volunteer for rigorous studies of either pig hearts or kidneys. NYU Langone is among three transplant centres planning trials — and has a meeting planned with the FDA in August to discuss requirements.

Testing in the deceased could help fine-tune how the first trials in the living are designed, said Dr David Klassen of the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation's transplant system.

"They serve as an important sort of stepping stone," said Klassen, who wonders if researchers next might consider tracking the organs for a week or so in a donated body rather than just three days.

One of the deceased recipients, Lawrence Kelly, had suffered heart disease for most of his life and "he would be so happy to know how much his contribution to this research will help people like him" in the future, his longtime partner Alice Michael told reporters Tuesday.

Animal-to-human transplants, what scientists call xenotransplantation, have been tried for decades without success, as people's immune systems almost instantly attacked the foreign tissue. Now, pigs are being genetically modified so their organs are more human-like — increasing hope that they might one day help fill a shortage of donated organs. More than 100,000 people are on the national waiting list for a transplant, most of them kidney patients, and thousands die every year before their turn comes.

The most ambitious attempt so far came in January, when doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Centre transplanted a pig heart into a dying 57-year-old. David Bennett survived for two months, evidence that xenotransplantation was at least possible. But initial testing missed that the organ harboured an animal virus. What caused Bennett's new heart to fail and whether that virus played any role still isn't known, the Maryland researchers recently reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Months earlier, the NYU team and researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham separately were testing pig kidney transplants in the deceased, people who'd donated their bodies for science.

NYU's recent heart experiments will add to the evidence as the FDA decides whether to allow formal studies in living patients.

But NYU Langone's Dr Robert Montgomery, a kidney transplant surgeon who received his own heart transplant, said continuing careful experiments in the deceased is critical to figuring out the best methods "in a setting where a person's life isn't at stake".

"This is not a one-and-done situation. This is going to be years of learning what's important and what's not important for this to work," said Montgomery, who has a list of almost 50 people who've called desperate to volunteer for a pig kidney transplant.

The FDA hasn't signalled how soon it might decide whether to allow such studies. At a recent two-day public meeting, the agency's scientific advisers said it was time to try despite a long list of questions. They include how best to modify the pigs, as several biotech companies — including Revivicor, which supplied the NYU organs — are pursuing different options.

It's not even clear which organ to attempt first in a clinical trial. If a pig kidney fails, the patient can always survive on dialysis. Yet some of the FDA's advisers said starting with the heart might be better. Experiments with pig kidneys in deceased humans showed the organs produced urine. But still unknown is whether pig kidneys do another important job — processing medications — the same way human kidneys do.

Read More

US surgeons transplant pig heart into human patient, ...
US man with pig heart transplant dies two months after ...

Iran Arrests Third Outspoken Filmmaker in Escalating Crackdown
July 12, 2022
Associated Press

FILE - In this file photo taken on Aug. 30, 2010, Iranian film director Jafar Panahi stand

s on a balcony overlooking Tehran during an interview with Agence France-Press
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES —

Iran has arrested an internationally renowned filmmaker, several newspapers reported Tuesday, the third Iranian director to be locked up in less than a week as the government escalates a crackdown on the country's celebrated cinema industry.

The arrest of award-winning director Jafar Panahi and wider pressure on filmmakers follows a wave of recent arrests as tensions escalate between Iran's hardline government and the West. Security forces have detained several foreigners and a prominent reformist politician as talks to revive Tehran's nuclear accord with world powers hit a deadlock and fears grow over the country's economic crisis.

Panahi, one of Iran's best-known dissident filmmakers, had gone to the prosecutor's office in Tehran on Monday evening to check on the cases of his two colleagues detained last week, when security forces scooped him up as well, the reports said.

A colleague of Panahi, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals, told The Associated Press that authorities sent him to Iran's notorious Evin Prison to serve out a prison term dating back years ago.

In 2011, Panahi received a six-year prison sentence on charges of creating anti-government propaganda and was banned from filmmaking for 20 years. He was also barred from leaving the country.

However, the sentence was never really enforced and Panahi continued to make underground films — without government script approval or permits — that were released abroad to great acclaim.

Panahi has won multiple festival awards, including the 2015 Berlin Golden Bear for "Taxi," a wide-ranging meditation on poverty, sexism and censorship in Iran, and the Venice Golden Lion in 2000 for "The Circle," a deep dive into women's lives in Iran's patriarchal society.

FILE - Jury president Darren Aronofsky, center, holds the Golden Bear for Best Film for the film "Taxi" by Jafar Panahi at the Berlinale International Film Festival on Feb. 14, 2015. Panahi was not at the ceremony because he was not allowed to leave Iran.

The Berlin International Film Festival said it was "dismayed and outraged" to hear of Panahi's arrest, calling it "another violation of freedom of expression and freedom of the arts."

His detention came after the arrest of two other Iranian filmmakers, Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad.

Authorities accused Rasoulof and al-Ahmad of undermining the nation's security by voicing opposition on social media to the government's violent crackdown on unrest in the country's southwest.

Following the catastrophic collapse of the Metropol Building that killed at least 41 people in May, protests erupted over allegations of government negligence and deeply rooted corruption. Police responded with a heavy hand, clubbing protesters and firing tear gas, according to footage widely circulating online.

Rasoulof won the Berlin Film Festival's top prize in 2020 for his film "There Is No Evil" that explores four stories loosely connected to the themes of the death penalty in Iran and personal freedoms under tyranny. In 2011, Rasoulof's film "Goodbye" won a prize at Cannes but he was not allowed to travel to France to accept it.

Cannes sharply condemned the arrests of the three filmmakers and "the wave of repression obviously in progress in Iran against its artists."

PEN America, a literary and free speech organization, said their detention marks a "brazen violation of their human right to free expression and speech."

Several foreigners have also landed in Iranian prison in recent weeks, including two French citizens, a Swedish tourist, a Polish scientist and others, spurring concerns that Iran is trying to leverage them as bargaining chips in negotiations.

It's a tactic Iran has used in the past, including in 2014 when authorities arrested Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. He was released a year and a half later in a prisoner swap with the United States as the landmark nuclear accord took effect.
On Monday, the family of a Belgian humanitarian worker being held in Iran, Olivier Vandecasteele, appealed to Brussels to do "everything" to secure his release from Evin Prison. They said he was arrested in late February after working for more than six years in Iran to help its Afghan migrant community.

The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the AP on Tuesday it had asked Iran for his release on "several occasions" and still had "no information on the reasons of his arrest." It said the government was providing him with consular assistance.

Dissident Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi arrested 

Jul 11, 2022

FRANCE 24 English

Award-winning dissident Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi has been arrested, the third director to be detained in less than a week, the Mehr news agency said Monday.

 

Iran: Arrest of High-Profile Critics
New Crackdown Against Dissidents

Click to expand Image
Mostafa Tajzadeh, Iranian reformist politician, speaks during an interview in Tehran, Iran on June 15, 2021. © 2021 The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images

(Beirut) – Iranian authorities’ recent arrests of high-profile critics are part of a fresh crackdown on peaceful dissent, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities arrested a reformist critic, Mostafa Tajzadeh, and two film directors, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, on July 9, 2022, followed on July 11, by another film director, Jafar Panahi.

“Unable or unwilling to tackle the many severe challenges facing Iran, the government has resorted to its repressive reflex of arresting popular critics,” said Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “There is no reason to believe these recent arrests are anything but cynical moves to deter popular outrage at the government’s widespread failures.”

Agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Intelligence Organization arrested Tajzadeh at 11:30 p.m. on July 9 at his home, his wife, Fakhrossadat Mohtashamipour, posted on her Instagram account. Fars News Agency, which is close to intelligence services in Iran, reported on July 9 that Tajzadeh, a former deputy interior minister, was arrested on accusations of “acting against national security” and “publishing lies with the intent to disturb the public mind.”

The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) accused Rasoulof and Al-Ahmad of collecting signatures for a support letter for protestors demanding accountability after a building collapsed in the city of Abadan in Khuzestan province on May 23 that resulted in more than 40 deaths.

The authorities have prosecuted Rasoulof, an award-winning filmmaker and outspoken critic, for his work on several occasions. Most recently in 2020 a court sentenced him to one year in prison and a two-year ban on making films on the charge of “propaganda against the system” for the content of his movies.

On July 11, Mehr News Agency, owned by the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization, reported that Panahi, another prominent director, had been arrested, after he went to the Tehran prosecutor’s office to inquire about Rasoulof’s detention.

The authorities had previously arrested Tajzadeh on June 13, 2009, immediately following the disputed presidential elections that generated massive protests. A court sentenced him to six years in prison on the charge of “assembly and collusion to disrupt national security.” He was released in June 2016.

The recent arrests are part of a crackdown since May on peaceful dissent, amid the deterioration of economic conditions and what appears to be a deadlock in reviving the international community’s nuclear deal with Iran. The authorities have arrested, sentenced, and returned to prison over a dozen activists, including Narges Mohammadi, Saeed Madani, Keyvan Samimi, Mohammad Habibi, and Reza Shahabi. During the last week of June alone, the authorities arrested, sentenced, or summoned several journalists and activists, including Vida Rabani, Ahmad Reza Haeri, Amir Salar Davoudi, and Masoud Bastani.

The Iranian authorities should halt the crackdown on dissent and free people detained for their peaceful activism and criticism of the state, Human Rights Watch said.

AUSTRALIA–CHINA CLIMATE COOPERATION CAN THAW THE DIPLOMATIC ICE
JULY 12 2022


By Xunpeng Shi, Qinhua Xu and Zha Daojiong

Note: This article appeared in East Asia Forum on July 12 2022.

Despite the Labor Party’s recent federal election victory, challenges in the Australia–China relationship continue. Few, if any, of the political disputes that led to the diplomatic impasse show any signs of abating. Still, a change in government presents an opportunity to recalibrate the Australia–China relationship. But an ice-breaker is needed. A proactive offer from Australia to engage China on climate cooperation ought to be meaningful.

Climate change is one issue that China has demonstrated consistency on in international engagement. Despite the Biden administration broadening areas of competition with China, cooperation nonetheless continues on climate change issues. China and the European Union have even broader cooperation on environmental issues such as climate, energy, biodiversity, green economy and technology, despite their differences in a growing number of areas — from sanctions over alleged forced labour in Xinjiang to the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war.

In recent years, China has maintained an active profile in global climate diplomacy. Its pledge in September 2020 to strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 came as a surprise. Beijing evidently values international recognition for its carbon control efforts, with its chief climate diplomat heading China’s small delegation to the May 2022 World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

While Australia has long been criticised for its unambitious climate targets, the recent election marks a new start for the country’s climate policy. Labor’s 2030 target of a 43 per cent cut below 2005 levels is significantly higher than the previous government’s 26 per cent. The new government also promises to spend US$14.2 billion to upgrade Australia’s electricity transmission network, fund electric car discounts and provide batteries for communities across the country by 2030.

As such, Australia and China’s interests in climate change and energy cooperation are actually converging. There is significant potential for climate and energy cooperation in fossil fuel and renewable sectors, investment and technology. Some of these opportunities for cooperation will not require much preparation, as long as both governments do not stand in the way.

As Australia is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter and a major coal exporter, and China is the world’s largest coal and LNG importer, this complementarity of interests provides an opportunity to establish a stable, long-term relationship. By importing Australian coal, which is of higher quality than Chinese domestic coal, carbon emissions can be reduced in power generation and the steel industry. As such, lifting its restrictions on coal imports from Australia is in China’s interest. Switching from coal to natural gas is also a cost-effective way to reduce emissions in China’s energy transition in the short run.

And Labor’s energy and climate plan can be further boosted by trade and cooperation with China, given that China is a significant supplier of renewable energy products, including batteries and solar photovoltaic panels. As such, Labor’s goals to increase the share of renewables in the National Electricity Market to 82 per cent by 2030, its US$14.2 billion upgrade of the electricity grid and the US$70 million solar banks initiative and other initiatives can be achieved at lower costs.

These benefits of cooperation are underscored by domestic demand in Australia to deliver more ambitious climate action — evidenced by significant support for the Greens and Teal Independents in the recent federal election — and international expectations for Australia to go beyond its 2 degrees Celsius commitment.

Australia and China have significant potential as key players in the future development of hydrogen, a key product of the future low carbon world. Australia could become an economic superpower in the post-carbon future due partly to its export potential of green hydrogen and green hydrogen products, such as green steel and green ammonia. By 2030, Australia aims to be among the top three exporters of hydrogen to Asia, while in the next ten years, China is expected to be the world’s largest investor in hydrogen.

Australia and China could also cooperate in third countries, with the Pacific an obvious area of choice. Both China and Australia are showing their willingness to help Pacific countries address their climate change concerns, with ongoing trilateral cooperation in malaria control in Papua New Guinea offering a useful precedent.

The two governments can also encourage collaboration within universities and the private sector as bilateral investments in emission reduction technologies and projects are considered less sensitive than energy infrastructure projects.

Unlike Australia’s climate change engagements with many other developing countries, climate change cooperation with China does not entail Australia providing aid. But it does take courage on the part of the government to refrain from further exchanges of acrimony. Doing so will free up space for Australian and Chinese business and educational institutions to explore tangible and mutually beneficial ways of cooperation.

Professor Xunpeng Shi is Research Principal​ at the Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney.

Dr Qinhua Xu is Professor of International Political Economy and International Relation at the School of International Studies, Renmin University of China.

Dr Zha Daojiong is Professor of International Political Economy at the School of International Studies, Peking University.