CNN
 — 

Iranian officers stated they’ve identified the “Iran International agent” arrested Thursday as Elham Afkari, the sister of well-known Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari, who was executed two years in the past, in line with state news company IRNA.

London-based news channel Iran International has grow to be one of the go-to sources for a lot of Iranians in search of news on the nation’s ongoing protests in the country.

The opposition tv broadcaster, which was known as a “terrorist” group by the Iranian intelligence minister on Tuesday, has denied any affiliation with Elham.

In an announcement despatched to CNN, the London-based broadcaster stated Elham “is not an employee of Iran International, nor is she an associate or agent of the company.”

Her brother, Navid Afkari, was convicted of killing Hassan Torkman, a water firm safety worker, throughout a protest in Shiraz in 2018.

Initially, Afkari confessed to the crime, however in courtroom he retracted these phrases, arguing that he had been tortured into making a false confession.

“It should be noted that she [Elham Afkari] is the sister of Navid Afkari, the killer of martyr Torkman, an employee of the regional water company of Fars province,” IRNA reported.

“Intelligence operatives have been monitoring the activities of Elham Afkari for the past few years,” IRNA stated, including that “she was one of the main leaders in organizing recent riots.”

State media shared footage allegedly displaying Elham’s arrest. The footage present a lady seated within the backseat of a car with barred home windows, with a black blindfold over her face.

Saeed Afkari, Elham and Navid’s brother, confirmed his sister’s arrest on Twitter on Thursday, saying that Elham’s three-year-old daughter was additionally lacking.

He later stated Elham had been taken to a division of Iran’s intelligence ministry, and that his sister’s partner and daughter had been launched.

“Elham was taken to No.100 intelligence ministry department,” he tweeted.

Since Navid Afkari was executed, his household has confronted many courtroom circumstances over involvement within the demonstrations in 2018.

Vahid Afkari, one of his brothers, stays in solitary confinement, in line with the rights group Iran Human Rights.

Founded in 2017, Iran International has been on the forefront of masking current demonstrations following the dying in custody of Mahsa Amini – a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian lady detained by morality police for allegedly not carrying her hijab correctly.

However, the 24-hour news channel’s protection of the demonstrations has introduced it underneath the scrutiny of the Iranian authorities.

This week, Iran International stated two of its British-Iranian journalists working within the United Kingdom have been warned by police of a “credible” plot by Iran to kill them.

In an announcement Monday, the Farsi-language broadcaster stated it was “shocked and deeply concerned” by the alleged deadly threats, whereas accusing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of being half of a “significant and dangerous escalation” of Tehran’s “campaign to intimidate Iranian journalists working abroad.”

“Two of our British-Iranian journalists have, in recent days, been notified of an increase in the threats to them,” Iran International stated within the assertion.

“The Metropolitan Police have now formally notified both journalists that these threats represent an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families.”

Iran International didn’t identify the journalists for safety causes.

The Committee to Protect Journalists stated that as of Monday not less than 61 journalists have been arrested in Iran for causes together with masking the protests, reporting on the dying of protesters, and taking images of demonstrations, in line with a report from the group.

Editor’s Note: A model of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China e-newsletter, a three-times-a-week replace exploring what you have to know in regards to the nation’s rise and the way it impacts the world. Sign up here.

Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

China’s southern metropolis of Guangzhou has locked down greater than 5 million residents, as authorities rush to stamp out a widening Covid outbreak and keep away from activating the type of citywide lockdown that devastated Shanghai earlier this 12 months.

Guangzhou reported 3,007 native infections on Wednesday, accounting for over one third of latest instances throughout China, which is experiencing a six-month excessive in infections nationwide.

The metropolis of 19 million has turn out to be the epicenter of China’s newest Covid outbreak, logging greater than 1,000 new instances – a comparatively excessive determine by the nation’s zero-Covid requirements – for 5 straight days.

As the world strikes away from the pandemic, China nonetheless insists on utilizing snap lockdowns, mass testing, in depth contact-tracing and quarantines to stamp out infections as quickly as they emerge. The zero-tolerance strategy has confronted growing problem from the extremely transmissible Omicron variant, and its heavy financial and social prices have drawn mounting public backlash.

The ongoing outbreak is the worst because the begin of the pandemic to have hit Guangzhou. The metropolis is the capital of Guangdong province, which is a serious financial powerhouse for China and a worldwide manufacturing hub.

Most instances in Guangzhou have been centered in Haizhu district – a principally residential city district of 1.8 million individuals on the southern financial institution of the Pearl River. Haizhu was locked down final Saturday, with residents informed to not depart dwelling except essential and all public transport – from buses to subways – suspended. The lockdown was initially presupposed to final for 3 days, however has since been prolonged to Friday.

Two extra districts – with a mixed inhabitants of three.8 million – had been locked down on Wednesday as the outbreak widened.

Residents in Liwan, an previous district within the west of the town, woke to an order to remain at dwelling except completely essential. College and universities within the district had been informed to lock down their campuses. Restaurant eating was banned and companies ordered to close, other than these offering important provides.

On Wednesday afternoon, a 3rd district, the outlying Panyu, introduced a lockdown that may final until Sunday. The district additionally banned non-public automobiles and bicycles from the streets.

Starting from Thursday, all major and center faculties within the metropolis’s eight city districts are shifting class on-line, with kindergartens closed. Tutoring lessons, coaching establishments and daycare facilities can even droop companies, the town’s schooling officers informed a information convention Wednesday.

Mass testing has been rolled out in 9 districts throughout the town, and more than 40 subway stations have been closed. Residents deemed shut contacts of contaminated individuals – which in China can vary from neighbors to these dwelling in the identical constructing or even residential compound – have been transferred en masse to centralized quarantine services.

The outbreak has additionally led to mass cancellations on the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, one of many busiest within the nation. As of Thursday morning, 85% of the almost 1,000 flights arriving and departing from Guangzhou had been canceled, in accordance with knowledge from flight monitoring firm Variflight.

“At present, there is still the risk of community spread in non-risk areas, and the outbreak remains severe and complex,” Zhang Yi, deputy director of the Guangzhou municipal well being fee, informed a information convention Tuesday.

So far, the lockdown seems to be extra focused and fewer draconian than these seen in lots of different cities. While residents dwelling in neighborhoods designated as high-risk can’t depart dwelling, these in so-called low-risk areas inside locked down districts can exit to purchase groceries and different every day requirements.

But many worry a blanket, citywide lockdown could possibly be imminent if the outbreak continues to unfold. On WeChat, China’s tremendous app, residents share charts evaluating Guangzhou’s surging caseload with that of Shanghai’s in late March, within the days earlier than the japanese monetary hub’s bruising two-month lockdown.

Shanghai officers initially denied a citywide lockdown was essential, however then imposed one after the town reported 3,500 every day infections.

Anticipating that worse is to return, many residents in Guangzhou have stocked up on meals and different provides. “I’ve been buying (groceries and snacks) online like crazy. I’ll probably end up eating leftovers for a month,” stated one resident, whose space of Haizhu district was categorized as low-risk by authorities.

Others, angered by the restrictions and testing edicts, have taken to social media to vent their frustration. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, posts utilizing slang and expletives within the native Cantonese dialect to criticize zero-Covid measures have proliferated, seemingly largely evading the eyes of on-line censors who don’t perceive it.

“I learn Cantonese curse words in real-time hot search everyday,” one Weibo person stated.

Meanwhile native authorities nationwide are below strain to ramp up Covid management measures regardless of mounting public frustration.

This week, movies of Covid employees dressed head to toe in hazmat fits beating up residents went viral on-line. Following an outcry, police in Linyi metropolis, Shandong province stated in a statement Tuesday that seven Covid employees had been detained following a conflict with residents.

London
CNN Business
 — 

Three years in the past, a hurricane devastated the Bahamas, claiming dozens of lives. Today, the nation is constructing what it claims to be the world’s first carbon-negative housing group to scale back the probability of future climate disasters and to ease the scarcity of houses brought on by the storm.

Rick Fox, a former Los Angeles Lakers participant, is the lynchpin of the new housing mission. The former basketball participant and Bahamian citizen was spurred into motion after he witnessed the destruction brought on by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Fox teamed up with architect Sam Marshall, whose Malibu dwelling was severely broken by wildfires in 2018, to develop Partanna, a constructing materials that removes carbon dioxide from the environment.

The know-how is being put to the take a look at in the Bahamas, the place Fox’s firm, Partanna Bahamas, is partnering with the authorities to construct 1,000 hurricane-resistant houses, together with single-family homes and flats. The first 30 items shall be delivered subsequent yr in the Abaco Islands, which had been hardest hit by Dorian.

“Innovation and new technology will play a crucial role in avoiding the worst climate scenarios,” Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas, mentioned in an announcement. He is due to formally announce the partnership between the Bahamian authorities and Partanna Bahamas on Wednesday at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

As a rustic on the frontline of the climate crisis, the Bahamas understands that it’s “out of time,” Fox instructed CNN Business. “They don’t have time to wait for someone to save them,” he added.

“Technology can turn the tide, and at Partanna we have developed a solution that can change how the world builds,” Fox mentioned.

Partanna consists of pure and recycled substances, together with metal slag, a by-product of metal manufacturing, and brine from desalination. It incorporates no resins and plastics and avoids the air pollution related to cement manufacturing, which accounts for around 4%-8% of world carbon emissions from human actions.

The use of brine, in the meantime, helps remedy the desalination business’s rising waste drawback by stopping the poisonous resolution from being discarded again into the ocean.

Almost all buildings naturally soak up carbon dioxide by a course of referred to as carbonation — which is the place CO2 in the air reacts with minerals in the concrete — however Partanna says its houses take away carbon from the environment at a a lot sooner charge due to the density of the materials.

The materials additionally emits nearly no carbon throughout manufacturing.

A 1,250 sq. foot Partanna dwelling will contribute a “negligible amount” of CO2 throughout manufacturing, whereas eradicating 22.5 tons of CO2 from the environment after manufacturing, making it “fully carbon negative within the product’s lifecycle,” in accordance to the firm.

By comparability, a typical cement dwelling of the identical dimension usually generates 70.2 tons of CO2 throughout manufacturing.

The use of salt water signifies that Partanna houses are additionally resistant to corrosion from seawater, making them ultimate for residents of small island international locations resembling the Bahamas. That may make it simpler for householders to get insurance coverage.

The carbon credit generated from every dwelling shall be traded and used to fund varied social influence initiatives, together with selling dwelling possession amongst low-income households.

Correction: An earlier model of this text incorrectly acknowledged losses suffered by Rick Fox and Sam Marshall as a consequence of Hurricane Dorian and wildfires.

CNN
 — 

A feminine Iranian rock climber, who didn’t put on a hijab at a global competitors in South Korea, has returned to Iran as Iranian teams primarily based overseas raised alarms over her destiny back residence.

Elnaz Rekabi, 33, competed without a hijab through the International Federation of Sport Climbing’s Asian Championships in Seoul on Sunday. Videos of her sporting a scarf along with her hair in a ponytail whereas competing unfold on social media.

Rekabi arrived in Tehran early on Wednesday morning, state media IRNA reported. Videos posted to social media present her arriving on the capital’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. She was additionally seen talking to media.

More movies posted to social media appeared to point out crowds gathered each inside and out of doors of the airport, chanting “Elnaz the hero.”

It is unclear whether or not Rekabi is below detention or if she is going to face repercussions.

Her return to Iran comes amid nationwide protests in the country calling for higher freedoms for ladies, following the death of a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody after her arrest for allegedly sporting her hijab improperly.

In a narrative posted on Rekabi’s Instagram web page on Tuesday, the athlete mentioned she was known as to climb the wall “unexpectedly” which “unintentionally” created an issue along with her hair masking.

“Due to bad timing and unexpectedly being called to climb the wall, I inadvertently created a problem with my head covering,” she wrote.

“Apologizing for the worries that I caused … currently, according to the pre-determined schedule I am returning to Iran with the team,” the IG story put up mentioned.

She reiterated that she had “accidentally” competed without a jihab in an interview with state media IRNA on her arrival in Tehran on Wednesday.

“Regarding this topic, as I already explained on my social media stories – it totally happened accidentally,” Rekabi mentioned, when requested by the interviewer in regards to the incident.

“I was unexpectedly called upon and I attended the competition. I somehow got busy with the equipment, and it made me negligent to the hijab,” she continued.

Iran mandates ladies put on a hijab when formally representing the nation overseas.

In an interview Tuesday, earlier than the climber arrived back in Tehran, her brother Davoud Rekabi instructed state-aligned Tasmin information company that his sister would “always play wearing the national team’s uniform.”

“My sister had a hijab but was wearing a headband and unfortunately some people [took advantage] of this issue,” he mentioned.

“My sister is a child of Iran, and she will always play wearing the national team’s uniform. Elnaz belongs to this land, and she will always play for this country,” he continued.

It is unclear whether or not his feedback had been made below duress.

A information web site crucial of the Iranian regime, IranWire, alleged that Rekabi can be transferred to jail upon arrival, prompting rights teams to fret about what would occur to her.

Amnesty International mentioned Monday it was alarmed by the prospect of Rekabi’s return.

“Elnaz Rekabi should not be forcibly returned to Iran,” Amnesty mentioned in an announcement, including that “she is at real risk of arbitrary arrest, torture, and other ill-treatment for violating the authorities’ compulsory veiling rules,” Amnesty wrote.

CNN can’t independently confirm stories of Rekabi being pressured to return to Iran.

The Iranian embassy in Seoul mentioned that Rekabi departed on Tuesday together with “other members of the team” and “strongly denied all the fake, false news and disinformation.”

In the Twitter put up, the embassy posted an image of Rekabi from earlier video games in Russia the place she was competing sporting the hijab.

“It is understood that all members of the Iranian delegation including Elnaz Rekabi have already left Korea after attending the sport event,” South Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry instructed CNN in an announcement.

“The punishment has already started,” director of Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights Mahmood Reza Amiry-Moghaddam instructed CNN on Tuesday.

“You know, the fact that she was incommunicado for one full day…and then she just wrote this one message on her Instagram. So, the pressure on her started already from South Korea,” he mentioned, “I don’t think anyone believes in what Iranian authorities say.”

The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) mentioned it’s “fully aware of news” concerning Rekabi and it’s their “understanding” that she is returning to Iran.

“There is a lot of information in the public sphere regarding Ms Rekabi and as an organisation we have been trying to establish the facts. We have also been in contact with Ms Rekabi and the Iranian Climbing Federation,” an announcement by the IFSC mentioned.

“We will continue to monitor the situation as it develops on her arrival,” the assertion mentioned.

Calls positioned to 2 Iranian workforce coaches at present in Seoul weren’t answered.

Correction: an earlier model of this story incorrectly acknowledged the day Rekabi was mentioned to depart Seoul.