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PARIS — Jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on Monday urged the international community to act to end the oppression of women in Iran, two years after the start of a women-led protest movement. "I call on international institutions and people around the world... to take active action," she said in a letter written in Tehran's Evin prison on Saturday, and published by her foundation on Monday. "I urge the United Nations to end its silence and inaction in the face of the devastating oppression and discrimination by theocratic and authoritarian governments against women by criminalizing gender apartheid," she said. The "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests were sparked by the death in custody of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd called Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, after she was arrested for allegedly breaching the country's strict dress code for her gender. Mohammadi — who has campaigned against the compulsory wearing of the headscarf for women and the death penalty in Iran — has been in Tehran's Evin prison since November 2021. She has spent much of the past decade in and out of jail.  On Sunday she was one of 34 women in the Evin prison to stage a 24-hour symbolic hunger strike on the second anniversary of the protest movement "in solidarity with the protesting people of Iran, against the government's oppressive policies," her foundation said. Mohammadi's children received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf in 2023 while she was incarcerated. Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, women in Iran have to cover their hair and neck in public. The "Woman, Life, Freedom" demonstrations were crushed by the authorities, with rights group Amnesty International saying security forces used assault rifles and shotguns in the crackdown. Human rights groups say at least 551 people were killed. Thousands more were arrested, according to the United Nations. But Mohammadi was defiant. "Despite the challenging road ahead, we all know that nothing is as it was before," she wrote. "The people feel the greatest change in their beliefs, lives, and society. A change that, while it has not yet toppled the Islamic Republic regime, has shaken the foundations of religious tyranny."

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CARACAS/GENEVA — President Nicolas Maduro's government escalated repressive tactics to crush peaceful protests and keep power after Venezuela's disputed election in July, a U.N. report said on Tuesday. Electoral authorities awarded the vote to Maduro, without showing all tallies, but the opposition said its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez won by a landslide with counts proving that. More than two dozen people died in protests with 2,400 arrested. The U.N. fact-finding mission, which interviewed several hundred people remotely or in third countries as it is denied access to Venezuela, said authorities tried to dismantle the opposition, block independent information, and stop protests. "We are facing a systematic, coordinated and deliberate repression by the Venezuelan government, which responds by a conscious plan to silence any form of dissent," mission head Marta Valinas told journalists in Geneva. "The government has instrumentalized the entire state apparatus, including especially the justice system, with a view to silencing any difference of opinion that opposes its scheme and to staying in power at any price." According to the mission, 24 out of 25 deaths were caused by gunshot wounds, mostly to the neck. Arrests under the feared "knock knock" operation - referring to the unexpected arrival at houses of government critics - often affected ordinary citizens in poor neighborhoods. The Maduro government has blamed right-wing, foreign-instigated "extremists" and "fascists" for the latest bout of violence in the South American oil producer that has seen waves of protests crushed during his more than decade-long rule. There was no immediate statement from Venezuelan authorities in response to the U.N. mission, which said it had tried to contact them for its investigation to no avail. The U.N. report said repression around the election was orchestrated from Maduro down and marked a new milestone in the deterioration of rule of law in Venezuela. "The main public authorities abandoned all semblance of independence and openly deferred to the executive," it said, noting that a climate of fear had been created. Allegations of disappearances, torture and other cruel treatment have increased since 2019, the report said. Opposition candidate Gonzalez has gone to Spain and requested asylum after a warrant was issued for his arrest in Venezuela. U.N.-mandated investigations do not have legally binding powers but the abuses they document are sometimes used in international courts.

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LONDON — Less than two months ahead of the COP29 United Nations Climate Summit, the Azerbaijani leadership laid out its plans on Tuesday for what it hoped to achieve, as countries continue to wrestle with how to raise ambitions for a new financing target. The main task for the November summit is for countries to agree on a new annual target for funding that wealthy countries will pay to help poorer nations cope with climate change. Many developing countries say they cannot upgrade their targets to cut emissions faster without first receiving more financial support to invest in doing this. With countries remaining far from agreement on the financing goal, the COP29 presidency this week outlined more than a dozen side initiatives that could raise ambitions, but do not require party negotiation and building consensus which can hamper progress. These take the form of new funds, pledges, and declarations that national governments can adopt. Notably, this includes a fund with voluntary contributions from fossil fuel producing countries and companies for the public and private sectors working on climate issues, as well as grants that can be doled out to assist with climate-fueled natural disasters in developing countries. Such side agendas use "the convening power of COP and the hosts’ respective national capabilities to form coalitions and drive progress," said Mukhtar Babayev, who holds the rotating COP presidency, in a letter to all parties and stakeholders. Over 120 countries pledged at last year's COP28 summit in Dubai, for example, to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030. The COP29 presidency also hopes to build support around a pledge to increase global energy storage capacity six times above 2022 levels, reaching 1,500 gigawatts by 2030. This would include a commitment to scale up investments in energy grids, adding or refurbishing more than 80 million km by 2040. Babayev, who is Azerbaijan's minister of ecology and natural resources, said the agenda would "help to enhance ambition by bringing stakeholders together around common principles and goals." "We hope to address some of the most pressing issues while also highlighting remaining priorities," he said. Another declaration would see countries and companies create a global market for clean hydrogen, addressing regulatory, technological, financing and standardization barriers. COP29 leaders have also appealed for a "COP Truce" that would highlight the importance of peace and climate action. Despite countries' existing climate commitments, carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels hit a record high last year, and the world just registered its hottest summer on record as temperatures climb.

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PARIS — When French prosecutors took aim at Telegram boss Pavel Durov, they had a trump card to wield - a tough new law with no international equivalent that criminalizes tech titans whose platforms allow illegal products or activities. The so-called LOPMI law, enacted in January 2023, has placed France at the forefront of a group of nations taking a sterner stance on crime-ridden websites. But the law is so recent that prosecutors have yet to secure a conviction. With the law still untested in court, France's pioneering push to prosecute figures like Durov could backfire if its judges balk at penalizing tech bosses for alleged criminality on their platforms. A French judge placed Durov under formal investigation last month, charging him with various crimes, including the 2023 offence: "Complicity in the administration of an online platform to allow an illicit transaction, in an organized gang," which carries a maximum 10-year sentence and a $556,300 fine. Being under formal investigation does not imply guilt or necessarily lead to trial, but indicates judges think there's enough evidence to proceed with the probe. Investigations can last years before being sent to trial or dropped. Durov, out on bail, denies Telegram was an "anarchic paradise." Telegram has said it "abides by EU laws," and that it's "absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform." In a radio interview last week, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau hailed the 2023 law as a powerful tool for battling organized crime groups who are increasingly operating online. The law appears to be unique. Eight lawyers and academics told Reuters they were unaware of any other country with a similar statute. "There is no crime in U.S. law directly analogous to that and none that I'm aware of in the Western world," said Adam Hickey, a former U.S. deputy assistant attorney general who established the Justice Department's (DOJ) national security cyber program. Hickey, now at U.S. law firm Mayer Brown, said U.S. prosecutors could charge a tech boss as a "co-conspirator or an aider and abettor of the crimes committed by users" but only if there was evidence the "operator intends that its users engage in, and himself facilitates, criminal activities." He cited the 2015 conviction of Ross Ulbricht, whose Silk Road website hosted drug sales. U.S. prosecutors argued Ulbricht "deliberately operated Silk Road as an online criminal marketplace ... outside the reach of law enforcement," according to the DOJ. Ulbricht got a life sentence. Timothy Howard, a former U.S. federal prosecutor who put Ulbricht behind bars, was "skeptical" Durov could be convicted in the United States without proof he knew about the crimes on Telegram, and actively facilitated them - especially given Telegram's vast, mainly law-abiding user base. "Coming from my experience of the U.S. legal system," he said, the French law appears "an aggressive theory." Michel Séjean, a French professor of cyber law, said the toughened legislation in France came after authorities grew exasperated with companies like Telegram. "It's not a nuclear weapon," he said. "It's a weapon to prevent you from being impotent when faced with platforms that don't cooperate." Tougher laws The 2023 law traces its origins to a 2020 French interior ministry white paper, which called for major investment in technology to tackle growing cyber threats. It was followed by a similar law in November 2023, which included a measure for the real-time geolocation of people suspected of serious crimes by remotely activating their devices. A proposal to turn on their devices' cameras and mouthpieces so that investigators could watch or listen in was shot down by France's Constitutional Council. These new laws have given France some of the world's toughest tools for tackling cybercrime, with the proof being the arrest of Durov on French soil, said Sadry Porlon, a French lawyer specialized in communication technology law. Tom Holt, a cybercrime professor at Michigan State University, said LOPMI "is a potentially powerful and effective tool if used properly," particularly in probes into child sexual abuse images, credit card trafficking and distributed denial of service attacks, which target businesses or governments. Armed with fresh legislative powers, the ambitious J3 cybercrime unit at the Paris prosecutor's office, which is overseeing the Durov probe, is now involved in some of France's most high-profile cases. In June, the J3 unit shut down Coco, an anonymized chat forum cited in over 23,000 legal proceedings since 2021 for crimes including prostitution, rape and homicide. Coco played a central role in a current trial that has shocked France. Dominique Pelicot, 71, is accused of recruiting dozens of men on Coco to rape his wife, whom he had knocked out with drugs. Pelicot, who is expected to testify this week, has admitted his guilt, while 50 other men are on trial for rape. Coco's owner, Isaac Steidel, is suspected of a similar crime as Durov: "Provision of an online platform to allow an illicit transaction by an organized gang." Steidel's lawyer, Julien Zanatta, declined to comment.

TEL AVIV — Ahead of Russia hosting the 2024 BRICS Summit from Oct. 22-24, Turkey’s application to join the group of major emerging economies is coming under scrutiny.  The BRIC, or Brazil, Russia, India and China, platform was initiated by Russia in 2009 as an informal club to provide members with a conduit for challenging the world order dominated by the U.S. and its Western allies. South Africa joined in 2010, making them BRICS. While analysts say Turkey’s membership bid is more about playing both sides than challenging its Western allies, some also voice concerns that Ankara is moving away from the West.  “Turkey’s BRICS bid is one more example of the country’s drift away from the Transatlantic community,” Asli Aydintasbas, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center on the United States and Europe, told VOA Mandarin. Turkey’s formal application last week for membership in the BRICS bloc of emerging economies confirmed speculation of the plan after the Kremlin in June welcomed “Turkey’s interest in the work of BRICS” and promised to support Ankara’s aspirations to join it. Ankara’s move marks the first time a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and a candidate to join the European Union has applied to join a group dominated by Russia and China.  NATO is a political and military alliance of 32 countries created by the U.S. for collective security against the former Soviet Union. The body also serves as a medium for member-state consultation, cooperation, dispute resolution and crisis management.  BRICS aims to challenge the political and economic dominance of mainly Western, developed nations. Critics say it struggles to accomplish much and is uniting authoritarian and corrupt governments that seek to silence opposition. In January 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates were formally added to the group. “There’s a process of enlarging BRICS that China and Russia are engaged in,” Gallia Lindenstrauss, a fellow at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies Turkey Policy Research, told VOA Mandarin. “This bid announcement is directly tied to the S-400 sales to Turkey, and it comes as a prelude to the upcoming October BRICS meeting in Russia.” In 2020, the Trump administration slapped sanctions on Turkey for a $2.5 billion acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile system, which is said to pose a risk to the NATO alliance and to U.S. F-35 fighter jets. Despite the Russian missile deal, Turkey still has clear differences with the BRICS members and summit host concerning Moscow’s war on Ukraine, a key NATO concern. While most BRICS members have taken a neutral or Russia-leaning stance on Moscow’s invasion, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week expressed “unwavering” support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and said Russia must return annexed Crimea to Kyiv, prompting a mild rebuke from Moscow. “Turkey is going through an anti-Western mood at the moment,” Aydintasbas says. “This is made worse by events in Gaza.”  Turkey, whose citizens are mostly Muslims, has been an outspoken critic of U.S. ally Israel’s fight against Hamas in Gaza. The conflict began after Hamas’ attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 and took as hostages 250 people. Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to the territory's health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.  Analysts say Turkey’s impatience over stalled negotiations to join the EU has also fueled its desire to form closer relations with BRICS. Ankara’s EU bid launched in 2005 has been delayed by concerns about its crackdown on Turkish opposition. Muhdan Saglam, Ankara-based Russian Energy and Russia-Turkey relations commentator, told VOA Mandarin that Turkey’s BRICS bid is a way to show it has different faces — one for the East and another facing West. “Erdogan is using this to show the West Turkey has alternatives,” Saglam explains. “But BRICS is not an alternative and Western authorities know that. It is important, though, because not one NATO member has applied for membership in a different organization. In this case, the political impact may be more important than economic or defense implications.” But Saglam says the BRICS bid is also a means for facilitating deals with business partners like China. BRICS member countries make up about 45% of the world’s population and 28% of the global economy.  BRICS countries produce more than a third of the world’s crude oil. If Saudi Arabia joins the group, which it has indicated it may, BRICS nations would produce some 43% of global crude oil.  But analysts note while Turkey’s trade with China has grown, to more than $48 billion in 2023, the vast majority were imports from China while Ankara has a more balanced trade with its top partner — the European Union. “Turkey may ultimately be in BRICS,” Lindenstrauss said. “But there’s no practical serious meaning here in terms of trade partners and it doesn’t change export/import trade factors.” In June, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, during a talk at London’s Chatham House think tank, referred to BRICS as “a dialogue platform” versus a formal economic bloc like the EU.  “The EU remains our core partner in terms of trade investments, tourism flows ... so we remain focused (on the EU), but that doesn’t mean we do not look at alternatives if they present value,” he told the forum. Aydintasbas, of the Brookings Institution, said Turkey’s bid to join BRICS should not be dismissed.  “BRICS membership may not mean much in practical terms and Turkey is still keen to retain its NATO membership. But it is gradually, inch-by-inch, drifting from the West — and that requires greater strategic thinking on the part of U.S. and other NATO allies, given Turkey’s regional heft and geographic location. Is this an outcome we want?” The presidents of China and Iran have already confirmed they will attend the October summit in Russia. Although Russian and Chinse state media report the Turkish president has said he will attend the summit, Erdogan’s office has to make an official confirmation.

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RIO DE JANEIRO — The Brazilian government confirmed on Monday it was in talks on a potential $18 billion payout from a trio of miners involved in a deadly 2015 dam collapse, saying the deal could also involve further repair work by the companies themselves. Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Brazilian mining giant Vale and Australia's BHP, together with their joint venture Samarco, could soon reach a deal to pay around $18.2 billion in additional funds for repairs, with final terms of the agreement expected in October. Energy and Mining Minister Alexandre Silveira confirmed the story in a Monday interview with local radio broadcaster Itatiaia, based in Minas Gerais state where the toxic spill took place. Beyond the reparations under discussion, Silveira said the talks also cover some $7 billion in remediation the firms would implement themselves, such as removing toxic mining waste from a local river. The collapse of the dam at a Samarco iron ore mine near the city of Mariana nine years ago unleashed a wave of toxic tailings that killed 19 people, left hundreds homeless, flooded forests and polluted the length of the Doce River. The miners have already paid out some $8 billion on remediation and compensation for the collapse of the tailings dam, Silveira said. A previous proposal from the miners, which was not fully accepted by officials, had set a $15 billion payout to authorities in new resources plus another $3.7 billion in repairs the miners would implement. Vale did not mention the amount of a potential deal in a response to a request for comment on Monday but repeated that it expected to reach a deal in October. BHP and Samarco, meanwhile, confirmed the talks were ongoing in separate statements, adding they believe an agreement could be reached soon.

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LONDON — Malnutrition is the world's worst child health crisis and climate change will only make things more severe, according to Microsoft-co-founder turned philanthropist Bill Gates. Between now and 2050, 40 million more children will have stunted growth and 28 million more will suffer from wasting, the most extreme and irreversible forms of malnutrition, as a result of climate change, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said in a report on Tuesday. “Unless you get the right food, broadly, both in utero and in your early years, you can never catch up,” Gates told Reuters in an online interview last week, referring to a child’s physical and mental capacity, both of which are held back by a lack of good nutrition. Children without enough of the right food are also more vulnerable to diseases like measles and malaria, and early death. "Around 90% of the negative effect of climate change works through the food system. Where you have years where your crops basically fail because of drought or too much rain," he said. Gates was speaking ahead of the publication of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's annual Goalkeepers report, which tracks progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), around reducing poverty and improving health. The report includes the projections above. In 2023, the World Health Organization estimated that 148 million children experienced stunting and 45 million experienced wasting. Gates called for more funding for nutrition, particularly through a new platform led by UNICEF aiming to co-ordinate donor financing, the Child Nutrition Fund, as well as more research. But he said the money should not be taken away from other proven initiatives, like routine childhood vaccinations, for this purpose. “(Nutrition) was under-researched ... it's eye-opening how important this is,” he added, saying initiatives like food fortification or improving access to prenatal multi-vitamins could be as effective as some vaccines in improving child health in the world’s poorest countries. The Gates Foundation said in January it plans to spend more on global health this year than ever before - $6.8 billion – as wider funding efforts stall.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

NEW DELHI — India has condemned comments made by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the treatment of Muslims in the South Asian nation, calling his remarks "misinformed and unacceptable." "We cannot consider ourselves to be Muslims if we are oblivious to the suffering that a Muslim is enduring in Myanmar, Gaza, India, or any other place," Khamenei said in a social media post on Monday. In response, India's foreign ministry said it "strongly deplored" the comments. "Countries commenting on minorities are advised to look at their own record before making any observations about others," the foreign ministry spokesperson said. The two countries have typically shared a strong relationship, and signed a 10-year contract in May to develop and operate the Iranian port of Chabahar. India has been developing the port in Chabahar on Iran's southeastern coast along the Gulf of Oman as a way to transport goods to Iran, Afghanistan and central Asian countries, bypassing the ports of Karachi and Gwadar in its rival Pakistan. Khamenei, however, has been critical of India in the past over issues involving Indian Muslims and the troubled Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, has been charged by a criminal complaint in the Southern District of Florida with firearms charges related to an incident at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15. We talk to John Mark Hansen, a professor in Political Science at the University of Chicago. Gaza is “hell on Earth” says the UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza. And Southern Israel is seeing a rise in so-called dark tourism as an increasing number of people are visiting sites hit by the October 7 attack.

PHOENIX — A judge has rejected a bid by Mark Meadows, a former chief of staff to President Donald Trump, to move his charges in Arizona's fake elector case to federal court, marking the second time he has failed in trying to get his charges out of state court. In a decision Monday, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi said Meadows missed a deadline for asking for his charges to be moved to federal court, didn't offer a good reason for doing so and failed to show that the allegations against him related to his official duties as chief of staff to the president. Meadows faces charges in Arizona and Georgia in what authorities allege was an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in Trump's favor. He had unsuccessfully tried to move charges in the Georgia case last year. It's unknown whether Meadows will appeal the decision. The Associated Press left phone and email messages for two of Meadows' attorneys. While not a fake elector in Arizona, prosecutors said Meadows, while chief of staff, worked with other Trump campaign members to submit names of fake electors from Arizona and other states to Congress in a bid to keep Trump in office despite his November 2020 defeat. Meadows has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Arizona and Georgia. In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes. The decision sends Meadows' case back down to Maricopa County Superior Court. In both Arizona and Georgia, Meadows argued his charges should be moved to federal court because his actions were taken when he was a federal official working as Trump's chief of staff and that he has immunity under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps state law. Arizona prosecutors said Meadows' electioneering efforts weren't part of his official duties at the White House. Meadows last year tried to get his Georgia charges moved but his request was rejected by a judge whose ruling was later affirmed by an appeals court. Meadows has since asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling. The Arizona indictment says Meadows confided to a White House staff member in early November 2020 that Trump had lost the election. Prosecutors say Meadows also had arranged meetings and calls with state officials to discuss the fake elector conspiracy. Meadows and other defendants are seeking a dismissal of the Arizona case. Meadows' attorneys said nothing their client is alleged to have done in Arizona was criminal. They said the indictment consists of allegations that he received messages from people trying to get ideas in front of Trump — or "seeking to inform Mr. Meadows about the strategy and status of various legal efforts by the president's campaign." In all, 18 Republicans were charged in late April in Arizona's fake electors case. The defendants include 11 Republicans who had submitted a document falsely claiming Trump had won Arizona, another Trump aide and five lawyers connected to the former president. In August, Trump's campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation. The remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the forgery, fraud and conspiracy charges in Arizona. Trump wasn't charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator. The 11 people who were nominated to be Arizona's Republican electors met in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign a certificate saying they were "duly elected and qualified" electors and claimed Trump had carried the state. A one-minute video of the signing ceremony was posted on social media by the Arizona Republican Party at the time. The document was later sent to Congress and the National Archives, where it was ignored. Prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia and Wisconsin have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme.