Day: August 9, 2024

Flying cars, long the dream of futurists, may finally be here. From California, Matt Dibble has our story about the rise of electric aircraft.
…

GENEVA — United Nations aid agencies warn climate change is wreaking havoc throughout large parts of eastern and southern Africa, worsening the plight of millions of people struggling to survive conflict, poverty, hunger and disease.

Since mid-April, El Nino-related heavy rainfall has led to extreme weather events across East Africa, including flooding, landslides, violent winds and hail.

In Sudan

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, reports climate-induced heavy rains and flooding have upended the lives of tens of thousands of people in war-torn Sudan this year, displacing, injuring and killing many.

The agency warns that heavy seasonal rains are creating further misery for thousands of displaced, including refugees in dire need of humanitarian aid.

UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado told journalists in Geneva Friday that torrential rains and severe floods in the past two weeks are having a devastating effect on the lives of thousands of refugees and internally displaced, noting that more than 11,000 people in the eastern Kassala state are in desperate straits.

“They include many families who recently arrived after fleeing violence in Sennar state,” she said. “Some have been displaced three or four times already since the start of the conflict.

“They have lost their belongings, including food rations, and are facing significant challenges in accessing clean water and sanitation facilities, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases,” she said.

The International Organization for Migration reports that more than 10 million people have become displaced inside Sudan and 2 million have sought refuge in neighboring countries since mid-April 2023, when rival generals from Sudan’s Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces plunged Sudan into war.

The UNHCR reports Sudan continues to host about 1 million refugees and asylum seekers from other countries.

Sarrado said the UNHCR is prepositioning core relief items and shelter kits in the eastern and western parts of the country where more rainfall is expected. She added that flooding in the Darfur region is causing concern among aid agencies, as this will further limit their ability to reach thousands of destitute people.

“The humanitarian needs are reaching epic proportions in the region, as hundreds of thousands of civilians remain in harm’s way and famine has been recently confirmed in a displacement site, as you all know,” she said. “The conflict has already destroyed crops and disrupted livelihoods. The climate crisis is making those displaced even more vulnerable now.”

In Southern Africa

While the heavy rains continue to pound refugees and displaced communities in Sudan, the World Food Program reports that more than 27 million people across Southern Africa, devastated by an El-Nino-induced drought are going hungry.

“I have just returned from Zimbabwe and Lesotho, two of the worst-affected countries, where 50% and 34% of the countries’ respective populations are food insecure,” said Valerie Guarnieri, WFP assistant executive director, program operations.

Speaking from Rome, she said the drought sweeping across the region has decimated crops, causing food prices to spiral and triggering a hunger crisis at a time when their food stocks are at the lowest.

She noted that the onset of this year’s lean season, which is usually from October to March, has come early this year.

“People are facing an early and much deeper lean season,” she said, adding that the situation is likely to get worse, “given production shortfalls and dwindling supply.”

She said that 21 million children, 1 out of 3 in southern Africa, are stunted and 3.5 million children are struggling with acute malnutrition and require nutrition treatment.

“These numbers are not as stark as they are in other parts of the region. Countries that are facing famine — Sudan, for instance. However, we should not have these kind of numbers in Southern Africa,” she said.

“We know that to deal with stunting, to prevent wasting, we need to be ensuring that all children and all women of child-bearing age, in particular, have access to the nutrients that they require in order to grow and to thrive.”

To deal with this crisis, Guarnieri said WFP is scaling up its operation to provide emergency food and nutrition support to 5.9 million people in seven countries between now and March.

She said that WFP is facing a $320 million funding shortfall “that jeopardizes our ability to mount a response at the scale required.”

UNHCR’s Sarrado also expressed concern that her agency’s appeal for nearly $40 million to assist and protect 5.6 million refugees, returnees, internally displaced and local communities in Sudan and five countries of refuge “has so far received only $5 million in funds.”
…

United Nations — U.N. member states on Thursday approved a treaty targeting cybercrime, the body’s first such text, despite fierce opposition from human rights activists who have warned of potential surveillance dangers.

After three years of negotiations and a final two-week session in New York, members approved the United Nations Convention Against Cybercrime by consensus, and it will now be submitted to the General Assembly for formal adoption.

“I consider the documents … adopted. Thank you very much, bravo to all!” Algerian diplomat Faouzia Boumaiza Mebarki, chairwoman of the treaty drafting committee, said to applause.

The committee was set up, despite U.S. and European opposition, following an initial move in 2017 by Russia.

The new treaty would enter into force once it has been ratified by 40 member nations and aims to “prevent and combat cybercrime more efficiently and effectively,” notably regarding child sexual abuse imagery and money laundering.

Hailing a “landmark convention,” South Africa’s delegate said, “the provisions of technical assistance and capacity building offer much needed support to countries with less developed cyber infrastructures.”

But the treaty’s detractors — an unusual alliance of human rights activists and big tech companies — denounce it as being far too broad in scope, claiming it could amount to a global “surveillance” treaty and be used for repression.

In particular, the text provides that a state may, in order to investigate any crime punishable by a minimum of four years’ imprisonment under its domestic law, ask the authorities of another nation for any electronic evidence linked to the crime, and also request data from internet service providers.

Warning of an “unprecedented multilateral tool for surveillance,” Deborah Brown of Human Rights Watch told AFP the treaty “will be a disaster for human rights and is a dark moment for the UN.”

“This treaty is effectively a legal instrument of repression,” she said. “It can be used to crack down on journalists, activists, LGBT people, free thinkers, and others across borders.”

Human rights clause

Nick Ashton-Hart heads the Cybersecurity Tech Accord delegation to the treaty talks, representing more than 100 technology companies, including Microsoft and Meta.

“Regretably,” he said Thursday, the committee “adopted a convention without addressing many of the major flaws identified by civil society, the private sector, or even the U.N.’s own human rights body.”

“Wherever it is implemented the Convention will be harmful to the digital environment generally and human rights in particular,” he told AFP, calling for nations not to sign or implement it.

Some nations however are complaining the treaty actually includes too many human rights safeguards.

A few days ago, Russia, which has historically supported the drafting process, complained the treaty had become “oversaturated with human rights safeguards,” while accusing countries of pursuing “narrow self-serving goals under the banner of democratic values.”

During Thursday’s session, Iran attempted to have several clauses with “inherent flaws” deleted.

One paragraph in question stipulated that “nothing in this Convention shall be interpreted as permitting suppression of human rights or fundamental freedoms,” such as “freedoms of expression, conscience, opinion, religion or belief.”

The deletion request was rejected with 102 votes against, 23 in favor (including Russia, India, Sudan, Venezuela, Syria, North Korea and Libya) and 26 abstentions.

Neither Iran nor any other country, however, chose to prevent approval by consensus. 
…

NEW YORK — Iran is ramping up online activity that appears intended to influence the upcoming U.S. election, in one case targeting a presidential campaign with an email phishing attack, Microsoft said Friday.

Iranian actors also have spent recent months creating fake news sites and impersonating activists, laying the groundwork to stoke division and potentially sway American voters this fall, especially in swing states, the technology giant found.

The findings in Microsoft’s newest threat intelligence report show how Iran, which has been active in recent U.S. campaign cycles, is evolving its tactics for another election that’s likely to have global implications. The report goes a step beyond anything U.S. intelligence officials have disclosed, giving specific examples of Iranian groups and the actions they have taken so far. Iran’s United Nations mission denied it had plans to interfere or launch cyberattacks in the U.S. presidential election.

The report doesn’t specify Iran’s intentions besides sowing chaos in the United States, though U.S. officials have previously hinted that Iran particularly opposes former President Donald Trump. U.S. officials also have expressed alarm about Tehran’s efforts to seek retaliation for a 2020 strike on an Iranian general that was ordered by Trump. This week, the Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against a Pakistani man with ties to Iran who’s alleged to have hatched assassination plots targeting multiple officials, potentially including Trump.

The report also reveals how Russia and China are exploiting U.S. political polarization to advance their own divisive messaging in a consequential election year.

Microsoft’s report identified four examples of recent Iranian activity that the company expects to increase as November’s election draws closer.

First, a group linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in June targeted a high-ranking U.S. presidential campaign official with a phishing email, a form of cyberattack often used to gather sensitive information, according to the report, which didn’t identify which campaign was targeted. The group concealed the email’s origins by sending it from the hacked email account of a former senior adviser, Microsoft said.

Days later, the Iranian group tried to log into an account that belonged to a former presidential candidate but wasn’t successful, Microsoft’s report said. The company notified those who were targeted.

In a separate example, an Iranian group has been creating websites that pose as U.S.-based news sites targeted to voters on opposite sides of the political spectrum, the report said.

One fake news site that lends itself to a left-leaning audience insults Trump by calling him “raving mad” and suggests he uses drugs, the report said. Another site meant to appeal to Republican readers centers on LGBTQ issues and gender-affirming surgery.

A third example Microsoft cited found that Iranian groups are impersonating U.S. activists, potentially laying the groundwork for influence operations closer to the election.

Finally, another Iranian group in May compromised an account owned by a government employee in a swing state, the report said. It was unclear whether that cyberattack was related to election interference efforts.

Iran’s U.N. mission sent The Associated Press an emailed statement: “Iran has been the victim of numerous offensive cyber operations targeting its infrastructure, public service centers, and industries. Iran’s cyber capabilities are defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces. Iran has neither the intention nor plans to launch cyber attacks. The U.S. presidential election is an internal matter in which Iran does not interfere.”

The Microsoft report said that as Iran escalates its cyber influence, Russia-linked actors also have pivoted their influence campaigns to focus on the U.S. election, while actors linked to the Chinese Communist Party have taken advantage of pro-Palestinian university protests and other current events in the U.S. to try to raise U.S. political tensions.

Microsoft said it has continued to monitor how foreign foes are using generative AI technology. The increasingly cheap and easy-to-access tools can generate lifelike fake images, photos and videos in seconds, prompting concern among some experts that they will be weaponized to mislead voters this election cycle.

While many countries have experimented with AI in their influence operations, the company said, those efforts haven’t had much impact so far. The report said as a result, some actors have “pivoted back to techniques that have proven effective in the past — simple digital manipulations, mischaracterization of content, and use of trusted labels or logos atop false information.”

Microsoft’s report aligns with recent warnings from U.S. intelligence officials, who say America’s adversaries appear determined to seed the internet with false and incendiary claims ahead of November’s vote.

Top intelligence officials said last month that Russia continues to pose the greatest threat when it comes to election disinformation, while there are indications that Iran is expanding its efforts and China is proceeding cautiously when it comes to 2024.

Iran’s efforts seem aimed at undermining candidates seen as being more likely to increase tension with Tehran, the officials said. That’s a description that fits Trump, whose administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of the top Iranian general.

The influence efforts also coincide with a time of high tensions between Iran and Israel, whose military the U.S. strongly supports.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said last month that the Iranian government has covertly supported American protests over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Groups linked to Iran have posed as online activists, encouraged protests and provided financial support to some protest groups, Haines said.

America’s foes, Iran among them, have a long history of seeking to influence U.S. elections. In 2020, groups linked to Iran sent emails to Democratic voters in an apparent effort to intimidate them into voting for Trump, intelligence officials said.
…