The Kao Gong Ji, the oldest known technical encyclopedia, was written around 300 BC and is part of a larger text called The Rites of Zhou. The ancient text includes six chemistry formulas for mixing bronze and lists items like swords, bells, axes, knives and mirrors, as well as how to make them.
For the past 100 years, researchers have struggled to translate two of the main ingredients, which are listed as “jin”and “xi.” Experts believed these words translated to copper and tin, which are key components in the bronze-making process. When researchers tried to re-create the recipes, however, the resulting metal didn’t match up with the composition of ancient Chinese artifacts.
Now, two researchers believe they have accurately identified the true meaning behind the mystery ingredients. The journal Antiquity published their findings on Tuesday.
The revelation allows for a better understanding of ancient bronze production — and opens up new questions about when this process began, given that large-scale bronze production happened long before the six recipes were shared in the Kao Gong Ji, said study coauthor Ruiliang Liu, curator of the Early China Collection at the British Museum in London.
In modern Chinese, jin means gold. But the ancient meaning of the word could be copper, copper alloy or even just metal, which is why it has been difficult to determine the specific ingredients.
“These recipes were used in the largest bronze industry in Eurasia during this period,” said Liu in a statement. “Attempts to reconstruct these processes have been made for more than a hundred years, but have failed.”
Chemical analysis
Liu and lead study author Mark Pollard analyzed the chemical composition of Chinese coins minted close to when the Kao Gong Ji was written. Pollard is the Edward Hall Professor of Archaeological Science at Oxford University and director of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art.
Previously, researchers had thought the coins were made by diluting copper with tin and lead.
The analysis showed that the chemical composition of the coins was a result of mixing two pre-prepared metal alloys, one made of copper, tin and lead, and the other copper and lead.
The two researchers concluded jin and xi were likely premixed metal alloys.
“For the first time in more than 100 years of scholarship, we have produced a viable explanation of how to interpret the recipes for making bronze objects in early China given in the (Kao Gong Ji),” Pollard said in a statement.
The findings have shown that ancient Chinese bronze-making relied on combining alloys instead of pure metals and that metalsmithing was more complex than previously thought.
“It indicates an additional step — the production of pre-prepared alloys — in the manufacturing process of copper-alloy objects in early China,” Liu said. “This represents an additional but previously unknown layer in the web of metal production and supply in China.”
Archaeologically, this additional step would have remained invisible if not for chemical analysis, the researchers said.
“Understanding the alloying practice is crucial for us to understand the exquisite bronze ritual vessels as well as the underlying mass production in Shang and Zhou societies,” Liu said.
Using this type of analysis could help researchers decipher other texts about ancient metallurgy from different cultures and regions in the future, the researchers said.
Over a month-long investigation, CNN has spoken to inmates caught up in Russia’s newest recruitment scheme, along with their relatives and friends. Activists believe hundreds have been approached in dozens of prisons across Russia — from murderers to drug offenders. Some have even been taken from the prison where one high-profile American jailed in Russia, Paul Whelan, is held. His brother David said in a statement in July he had heard ten volunteers had left IK17 in Mordovia for the frontlines in Ukraine
Dozens of chat messages between relatives, reviewed by CNN, detail the tempting rewards offered to fight in Ukraine, where the risk of death is high. The latest Western assessments suggest up to 75,000 Russian troops have been killed or injured since the invasion began (a claim the Kremlin has denied).
One prisoner spoke to CNN from his cramped jail cell, a cat crawling across bunk beds, and a fan clamped on top of an ageing television tried to cool the air between heavily barred windows. Imprisoned for multiple years for drugs offenses, he spoke on condition of anonymity using a contraband smartphone — quite common in Russia’s prison system — to outline the conditions on offer.
“They will accept murderers, but not rapists, pedophiles, extremists, or terrorists”, he said. “Amnesty or a pardon in six months is on offer. Somebody talks about 100,000 rubles a month, another 200,000. Everything is different.” He said the offer was made when unidentified men, believed to be part of a private military contractor’s firm, came to the prison in the first half of July, and that acceptance into the program would lead to two weeks of training in the Rostov region in southern Russia. While he had two years’ service in the military, he said the recruiters did not seem to insist on military experience.
“In my case, if it’s real, then I’m all for it,” the prisoner said. “It can make a real difference for me: be imprisoned for nearly a decade, or get out in six months if you’re lucky. But that’s if you’re lucky. I just want to go home to the children as soon as possible. If this option is possible, then why not?”
The prisoner said 50 inmates had already been selected for recruitment and placed into quarantine in the prison, but he had heard that 400 applied. Rights activists working in the Russian prison system said since the start of July they had been flooded with reports from across Russia from anxious relatives, concerned of the fate of their inmates.
“In the last three weeks [in July], there is a very big wave of this project to recruit thousands of Russian prisoners and send them to the war,” said Vladimir Osechkin, head of Gulagu.net, a prisoner advocacy group.
Osechkin said some were promised a pay-out to their families of five million rubles ($82,000) if they died, but all the financial rewards might never be honored. “There is no guarantee, there’s no real contract. It is illegal”, he said.
“It can make a real difference for me: be imprisoned for nearly a decade, or get out in six months if you’re lucky. But that’s if you’re lucky.”
A prisoner who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity
Some of the prisoners and their family members appeared keen for the recruitment to go ahead, Osechkin said, echoing the responses of some inmate families seen by CNN.
Osechkin speculated the prisoners were used effectively as bait, to attract the fire of Ukrainian positions and enable the regular Russian military to strike accurately back. “They go first, and when the Ukrainian army sees them, and they strike. Then Russian soldiers see where the Ukrainians are, and bomb the place”.
CNN reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry and penitentiary service (FSIN) for comment on allegations that prisoners are being recruited to fight in Ukraine. Neither responded.
While recruitment is in its early days, the first reports have emerged among family members of injured prisoners being hospitalized in the Russian-backed separatist area of Luhansk.
CNN has viewed chat messages exchanged between relatives of inmates already apparently sent to the frontline. One wife details how she contacted her husband, who lay injured in one Luhansk hospital. The wife said only three prisoners from her husband’s unit of ten were still alive. CNN is aware of the identity of the injured prisoner, but has been unable to confirm his hospitalisation, as separatist medical facilities are veiled in secrecy.
Other messages between relatives also detailed the quiet desperation of prisoners, caught up in a Russian justice system where 99% of cases brought to trial result in conviction, and corruption weighs heavy on an over-burdened penal system. This month, one prisoner messaged his brother on WhatsApp about his decision to go.
Prisoner
I am going. But don’t tell mother either way. It’s better that way. Or else she’ll worry a lot and react to every piece of news.
Brother
That’s it, we will react to every news. If you tell us where you are, what you’re doing, we will be calmer as at least we will know where to look.
Prisoner
I don’t even know. Everything will be decided by the facts.
Prisoner
I do know we are going to the 12th prison and once gathered there to Rostov for 2 weeks, where there is a center, and then to the territory.
Prisoner
I am willing to go. Lots of options [in life], but now there is only one. That’s why I agreed.
Brother
You could work at the prison, read books, get qualifications in IT or languages.
Prisoner
I am already too old for that sh*t.
Moscow’s manpower options have ebbed over five-plus months of clumsy and gruelling invasion. Russian President Vladimir Putin initially stated no conscripts had been deployed in the war, before his ministry of defense admitted they had withdrawn some from the frontlines after their deployment in apparent error. The Kremlin has said there will be no general mobilization in Russia, perhaps fearing the policy would prove unpopular, especially if losses spread across the population did not significantly alter the battlefield dynamic.
Prison recruitment is, activists and prisoners said, under the auspices of the Wagner private military contractor, which is not subject to the Russian military’s ban on employing convicts. The prisoners have not shared any copies of their contracts with their relatives or activists, so the precise terms or employer remain unclear. Wagner — which works globally and is run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a man known as Putin’s chef — is Russia’s most ubiquitous military contractor. Prigozhin denies ties to Wagner.
The lack of clarity, coupled with the silence of their loved ones, only adds to relative’s anxieties. Oksana, the half-sister of a Russian prisoner who had been offered deployment, said his mother had initially been keen to receive the salary from her son’s service, but, since he vanished from their messaging apps, was beside herself with worry.
“These are the least protected part of the population. Putin said no conscripts would be sent, but they were. With convicts, it will be very hard to reveal they have been sent.”
Oksana, the half-sister of a prisoner who had been offered deployment
“We know he was in Rostov Oblast,” Oksana said, adding he had claimed he was in another prison’s factory. “He rang her on a new WhatsApp number on 10th July and asked her to send a copy of her passport so she would get his wages,” she said. This meant it was less likely he was in prison, she said, as an inmate’s wages from prison labor are usually paid into their own account.
“I am in contact with many relatives and they all have the same scenario: Send passport details. No contact,” she said. “These are the least protected part of the population. Putin said no conscripts would be sent, but they were. With convicts, it will be very hard to reveal they have been sent.” Oksana’s name has been changed due to security concerns.
In late July, the mother received a message from another new number, familiarly written in her son’s broken Russian. It insisted he was healthy, and OK, but gave no details as to his whereabouts. “There is some time left but it is going quickly”, he wrote. “When I can I will call you.”
The mother was later rang by a person introducing themselves as an “accountant,” who pledged to bring her son’s salary in cash to her a week later.
Sticker reads crude oil on the side of a storage tank in the Permian Basin in Mentone, Loving County, Texas, U.S. November 22, 2019. REUTERS/Angus Mordant
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Russia oil exports halted via southern leg of Druzhba pipeline
EU puts forward ‘final’ text to resurrect Iran nuclear deal
API data shows crude oil inventories up last week – sources
Dollar edges lower as traders await U.S. inflation report
Recession, demand expectations also weigh on market
NEW YORK, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Oil prices settled slightly lower on Tuesday after a see-saw session as worries that a slowing economy could cut demand vied with news that some oil exports had been suspended on the Russia-to-Europe Druzhba pipeline that transits Ukraine.
Crude prices have been under pressure for weeks as fears mounted that a recession could cut oil demand.
Brent crude settled at $96.31 a barrel, losing 34 cents, or 0.4%. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled at $90.50 a barrel, shedding 26 cents, or 0.3%. During the session, both benchmarks rose and fell by more than $1 a barrel.
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Ukraine halted oil flows on the Druzhba oil pipeline to parts of central Europe because Western sanctions had prevented a payment from Moscow for transit fees from going through.
Flows along the southern route of the Druzhba pipeline have been affected while the northern route serving Poland and Germany was uninterrupted.
Oil initially moved higher on the pipeline news and expectations that the shutdown would tighten supplies, but prices reversed course as details became clearer around what caused the disruption and that flows were expected to resume within days. read more
“Considering the fact it is not the Russian side shutting down pipe, but the Ukrainian side, it would figure to be a situation that can resolved sooner rather than later,” Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York, said in a note.
Prices were pressured by talks of a last-ditch effort by European nations to revive the Iran nuclear accord. On Monday, the European Union put forward a “final” text to revive the 2015 Iran deal. A senior EU official said a final decision on the proposal, which needs U.S. and Iranian approval, was expected within “very, very few weeks”.
Talks have dragged on for months without a deal.
Iran’s crude exports, according to tanker trackers, are at least 1 million barrels per day below their rate in 2018 when former U.S. President Donald Trump exited the nuclear agreement.
Oil is now down more than $40 from its peak following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which took Brent briefly to $139 a barrel.
U.S. crude oil inventories were also signaling slacking demand, according to market sources citing American Petroleum Institute figures. Crude stocks rose by about 2.2 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 5. Analysts had forecast a small 400,000-barrel drop in crude inventories. Official government data is due on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
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Additional reporting by Alex Lawler, Sonali Paul and Emily Chow
Editing by Louise Heavens, Mark Potter, Barbara Lewis and David Gregorio
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
It has been barely three weeks since a historic spate of extreme temperatures baked western Europe, smashing all-time records in Britain. Now a new heat wave is building over the continent, with alerts issued and more records in jeopardy.
By Thursday, much of France and southern parts of the England are expected to see high temperatures 18 to 27 degrees (10 to 15 Celsius) above normal — with highs in the 90s (above 32 Celsius) rather than the 70s (above 21 Celsius).
Amber warnings, the second-highest level, have been hoisted in southern parts of England by the U.K. Met Office.
In mid-July, the Met Office issued its first-ever red warning for “extreme” heat, with more than 40 weather stations surpassing the previous record 101.7 degrees (38.7 Celsius) in Britain. Several stations even spiked to 104 degrees (40 Celsius), a feat that was made 10 times more likely because of human-caused climate change.
Human-caused climate change made U.K. heat wave 10 times more likely, study says
A large stretch of western and northwestern Europe will be affected by the upcoming heat wave, with the risk of wildfires accompanying the spiking temperatures. It follows Europe’s sixth-hottest July on record.
Driving the heat is a ridge of high pressure, colloquially known as a heat dome, which will be parked directly over Britain by Tuesday night into Wednesday. In addition to bringing hot, sinking air, it will deflect any inclement weather — making for incessant sunshine.
In Britain, temperatures are expected to peak Friday into Saturday before easing next week. Highs will generally range between 85 and 95 degrees (29 to 35 Celsius), although a few locales may approach 96 or 97 (35.5 to 36 Celsius). It’s unlikely that anyplace will hit the century mark.
A Level 3 out of 4 heat wave action alert has been issued by health officials, who urged residents to “look out for others, especially older people, young children and babies and those with underlying health conditions.” Officials also recommended that the public limit alcohol consumption.
The Met Office is forecasting that London will see highs in the upper 80s to near 90 (30 to 32 Celsius) Thursday through Sunday. Showery weather will arrive to kick off the workweek. The average early August high temperature in London is closer to the lower 70s (low 20s Celsius).
Met Éireann, Ireland’s equivalent to the U.S. National Weather Service, also issued a weather advisory for the country, warning of “heat stress, especially for the more vulnerable of the population,” in addition to a high UV index. It’s worth noting that relatively few residents have air conditioning installed in their homes.
Northern Mexico has a historic water shortage. These maps explain why.
Eighteen departments in France also are under orange heat alerts, and Météo France is calling for temperatures in southwestern parts of the country reaching 97 to 102 degrees (36 to 39 Celsius), with an isolated 104-degree (40 Celsius) reading not improbable.
Paris is predicted to hit 93 on Wednesday, 92 on Thursday and 94 for Friday.
In Spain, which had its hottest July on record, an orange warning for heat is in effect just south of Madrid — where maximum temperature could approach 104 degrees, with many other areas under yellow alerts. But the core of the heat dome should remain farther north in western Europe.
Exacerbating the heat is ongoing severe drought, plaguing many parts of western Europe.
According to climate historian Maximiliano Herrera, it was record dry in some parts of England, including in London. He tweeted that the city had seen “virtually no rain” during the month of July, with less than a millimeter recorded. July typically features closer to 1.8 inches (45 millimeters) of precipitation, with an average of 8 rainy days during the month.
July 2022 in the United Kingdom had an average temperature of 16.6C ,+1.3C above the 1991-2020 normal. It was record dry in parts of England,including London where virtually no rain fell (less than 1mm). Only Northern Scotland had near normal conditions. Maps by UK Met Office. pic.twitter.com/gklXW8VvsW
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) August 8, 2022
The Met Office reported 13 counties across southern and eastern England posted their driest July on record.
There are concerns that the hot, dry atmosphere, combined with parched antecedent conditions, could support the risk of wildfire. The Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service wrote that fire risk “is now very high to exceptional” and that firefighters were especially busy over the past weekend. They urged individuals participating in outdoor recreation to avoid campfires and bonfires.
#EFFIS Fire Danger Forecast for 9 August
🔥Very Extreme Danger forecasted in a few areas of 🇪🇸🇵🇹🇧🇬 🇫🇷🇬🇷& 🇹🇷
🔥Extreme Danger remains forecasted in parts of: 🇫🇷🇵🇹🇪🇸🇮🇹🇦🇹🇸🇮🇭🇷🇧🇦🇲🇪🇽🇰🇲🇰🇬🇷🇦🇱🇹🇷🇩🇿🇹🇳🇲🇦
More at👇https://t.co/2PjdHyXOpI pic.twitter.com/wehXjqwACO
— Copernicus EMS (@CopernicusEMS) August 9, 2022
France is also enduring an exceptional drought, one of its worst on record, according to Météo France. Rainfall was the country’s lowest observed in July and 85 percent below normal.
Nearly 40,000 residents in France were forced to evacuate from wildfires during the third week of July, with similar blazes raging in Spain and Greece.
The very dry conditions are again generating a very high fire danger, especially in southern France.
At least 8 dead in Seoul-area flooding amid record rainfall
While the core of the heat will be situated over southern Britain and France from Thursday through Sunday, above-average temperatures will also swell from the Netherlands through southern Scandinavia. The heat will retreat from western Europe early next week shifting toward Eastern Europe.
It’s well-established that human-caused climate change is amplifying the severity, duration and frequency of high-end heat events. In addition to the ultrarare heat that baked Britain last month, a similar-magnitude event brought record-shattering temperatures, including a high of 109 degrees in Paris, in late July 2019.
In the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city that hosts Europe’s largest nuclear-power plant, residents are taping up windows in fear of a radioactive leak and sticking close to home as fighting rages around the complex and Moscow-installed authorities gear up for a possible annexation of the region by Russia.
Residents in Enerhodar, a city that has been under Russian occupation for more than five months, paint a picture of a pitched battle on the front lines in Ukraine’s south that risks sparking Europe’s biggest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
Enerhodar has become the focus of an international crisis as Russia and Ukraine trade blame for attacks on the city’s sprawling Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. The plant is being defended by hundreds of Russian soldiers—effectively transforming it into a military garrison—who are facing off against Ukrainian soldiers stationed just a few miles away.
There has been no reported damage to the reactors and no radioactive release so far, but Ukraine said plant staff had to close one of six reactors over the weekend after a high-voltage power line was severed and three radiation monitors damaged.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear-power plant is being defended by hundreds of Russian soldiers.
Photo:
ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/REUTERS
“God forbid something irreversible happens,” Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky
said in a video address Sunday. “No one will stop the wind that will spread radioactive pollution.”
The city, with a prewar population of 53,000 and whose name means “the giver of energy,” has been running out of food supplies and begun circulating the Russian ruble as reserves of Ukraine’s hryvnia currency run out, residents say.
Andriy, a former car salesman and a 36-year-old resident of Enerhodar, said that occupying authorities told residents the area around the plant is mined and that unexploded ordnance from cluster munitions litters the city.
“They told us that the Ukrainians were shelling the plant and that it was necessary to seal window frames with Scotch tape so that if they hit the warehouse of radioactive waste, the dust would not enter our homes,” he said by phone. “They say that the first day will be the most dangerous, so you have to stay at home and not go out. Everyone is afraid that something will happen to the plant.”
Occupation authorities in Enerhodar have begun circulating the Russian ruble as reserves of Ukraine’s hryvnia currency run out.
Photo:
ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/REUTERS
Andriy said Russian forces positioned beside the plant are firing artillery from the city at Ukrainian forces positioned across the Dnipro River near Nikopol. At night he sees what look like tracer bullets in the sky as the Russians fire antiaircraft guns from the territory of the station.
Communications with Enerhodar residents are steadily worsening as the occupying authorities tighten their control and fear spreads among locals. Many people worry that their phones have been tapped. Russia is also gradually disconnecting Ukrainian telecom providers and attempting to roll out Russian cell service. Sim cards from major Ukrainian providers no longer work properly.
“People are afraid,” said the Ukrainian mayor of Enerhodar,
Dmytro Orlov,
who fled after the occupation. “Workers of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant go to work not knowing if they’ll return home after their shift, or whether everything is fine with their loved ones while they’re away.”
One Enerhodar woman in her early 60s said shelling of the city has become much more frequent in recent days, adding that she has seen trucks and armored personnel carriers driving regularly toward the plant complex. The woman said residents are trying to go about their daily lives, buying produce from local markets because supermarket prices have become too high, and increasingly paying in Russian rubles circulated by occupation authorities as supplies of Ukraine’s hryvnia run out.
Himars—long-range rocket launchers from the U.S.—have helped Ukraine target Russian ammunition stores, command posts and fuel depots, slowing down Moscow’s forces. As Washington sends more weapons, WSJ looks at why Kyiv is asking for other advanced tools. Photo composite: Eve Hartley
People fear speaking in public, she said, afraid that a passerby could inform on them to the occupation authorities. The woman said her son, a city council member before the war, is now in hiding after having failed to escape to Ukrainian-controlled territory. He was sleeping in friends’ garages and basements, escaping both the Russian-installed government and the constant shelling.
“Most people keep their opinions to themselves because you can’t know what your interlocutor might do,” said Yury, a local resident. He added that many Russian-installed officials and security service members now appear in civilian clothing, making residents even more afraid of inadvertently saying something that could be used against them.
“Sometimes people you know disappear,” the woman said. “We think they probably said something wrong.” Mr. Orlov, the mayor, said several hundred residents of the city have been abducted and are being held in Russian custody, and months have passed in some cases with no information about their whereabouts. The Kremlin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
When Russia took control of Enerhodar in early March, residents like Andriy and Yury came out to stage protest rallies and shout “Ukraine!” and “Go home!” at the occupying troops. The last protest, on April 2, was violently dispersed by Russian troops and outward signs of dissent quickly disappeared as Russia installed a collaborationist administration in the city and clamped down, residents say.
The Russian-installed head of the surrounding Zaporizhzhia region, Evgeny Balitsky, on Monday announced a coming referendum on whether the region should join Russia. Andriy, the local resident, said police are checking courtyards and building entrances for posters and leaflets against the referendum and searching for anyone who distributes them.
The woman in her 60s said fear is rising that battles raging in the area could cause damage that would leak radioactive chemicals.
“It’s scary to live near the plant,” she said. “Some fear that storage facilities have already been destroyed and are emitting radiation, and we just don’t know about it. People are afraid that if it explodes, we will all die here.”
She said most residents still hold out hope that Ukraine, which has announced a major counteroffensive on southern areas taken by Russia, will liberate Enerhodar too. But the occupation is becoming entrenched.
“It feels like most people are on Ukraine’s side,” she said. “But they are getting tired of waiting.”
A serviceman with a Russian flag on his uniform standing guard near the nuclear-power plant in early August.
Johannesburg — When eight young models headed off on a film shoot on the morning of July 28, they were excited. The coronavirus pandemic had kept them out of work for a long time, and they’d been chosen to perform in a music video.
The pay was minimal — they were virtually doing it for free — but it wasn’t the money that thrilled them, it was the opportunity. Maybe this would be the chance they’d been waiting for, when their careers would finally take off.
But there were no lucky breaks. Instead, it would turn out to be the worst day of their lives.
South Africa is a country at war with its women. It has one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the world, and on that day in July, eight more names were added to its long list of survivors.
I met four of the young women who bravely shared their harrowing story. They were accompanied by their mothers, who fought back tears as they listened to their daughters recount the horrific ordeal. CBS News has changed their names at their request to protect their identities.
The 22-person film crew was shooting at an abandoned mine dump in Krugersdorp, near Johannesburg. As they were wrapping up the final scene — a gang of armed men stormed onto the set and forced everyone to lie on the ground, explained sisters Bontle and Amanda. The sisters often finished each other’s sentences, when one became too distressed to speak.
Authorities conduct a raid to detain illegal mine workers, August 3, 2022, in Krugersdorp, South Africa, after eight women who were filming a video at an unused mine dump in the area were raped by a gang of armed men.
Fani Mahuntsi/Gallo Images/Getty
“Some of us tried to run,” Bontle, 19, said. “But you know, we weren’t able to, because they were shooting.”
“And there were men spreading all over,” interrupted her elder sister Amanda. “They were expanding, maybe 15 or more of them.”
The women were encircled by the attackers, who wore balaclavas and forced them to lie face down in a deep pit. The male members of the crew were stripped naked and held captive in a separate area.
First everyone was robbed of their phones and cash. Then came the rapes. The women told CBS News the attackers took turns with all eight of the women, who were tortured and brutalized for more than three hours before their captors fled.
“We were crying, you know, some of the girls. They were also screaming while they were raping them,” said Bontle.
“And in front of our eyes,” continued Amanda, “the other one, they raped her in front of us.”
The men threatened to shoot the women if they refused to cooperate.
“Telling me that he will kill me and all those things if I don’t listen to him,” recounted Amanda. “And then I’m like, let me do as he says, because I don’t have a choice. And then he took me to somewhere, like… next to the hole.”
She broke down sobbing at that point, unable to continue, her eyes wide with horror and battling to get the words out as she remembered how they tried to bury her alive.
Her sister Bontle was dragged to another area and raped twice. When a third man approached her, she thought she was going to die.
“I saw that he was he was actually going to rape me. And then I told him: ‘I’m bleeding, I can’t.’ I faked that I’m having a miscarriage.”
They led her back to the pit and left her alone after that.
As the women were attacked, their friend Zintle managed to climb into a tree and hide for about an hour. When she could no longer hear anything, she jumped down — only to be grabbed by one of the men and raped.
Then there was Anita, 26, the leader of the group and the one who’d recruited her friends for the video shoot. She lives now with terrible guilt, blaming herself for what happened. She pleaded with the men to take her instead of her friends.
“I was just begging them to not touch any of the ladies,” she said. “If it has to be me, then let it be me.”
But nobody was spared and she, too, was gang raped multiple times.
For Anita, it reopened old wounds. She told CBS News she was raped when she was a teenager. And now this.
“But now, with it happening again, it’s like, why am I even in this world? Am I made or put in this world to be a rape victim? And every time I would try to make something good, it just has to come again and start…” She couldn’t go on. Her wrenching sobs filled the room.
When their attackers finally fled the scene, the battered and broken women went straight to the police station to report the crimes. Then they were violated a second time: Their names and address were leaked on social media. Anita was devastated.
“I just thought, why didn’t I just die? Because I mean, what’s the use? You’re killing me again. Now, you’ve already killed me and taken, and taken like, my innocence, my purity. And now you just want to kill me physically, where I can’t even go outside and just take a breather without people in my neighborhood seeing me, seeing my frustration, seeing that I’m not OK.”
August is traditionally the month when this country commemorates South African women’s heroic fight against apartheid. But of late, there hasn’t been much to celebrate. It’s turned into a month of mourning. A woman is raped nearly every 12 minutes in the country — and those are only the ones that are reported to authorities.
African National Congress members protest outside Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court, August 3, 2022, in Krugersdorp, South Africa, after eight women who were filming a video were gang raped by an armed gang.
Fani Mahuntsi/Gallo Images/Getty
But this latest gang rape has tipped a country worn down by gender violence over the edge. It has sparked outrage and protests against what many see as ineffective, even blundering policing.
It has been alleged that the suspects in the attack did not speak a South African language. Police have rounded up more than 120 men, all of whom are in the country illegally. None have been charged with rape. Authorities claim they will test their DNA to see if there’s a match with evidence collected from the victims.
Authorities conduct a raid to detain illegal mine workers at an abandoned mine in Krugersdorp, South Africa, August 3, 2022, after eight women who were filming a video in the area were raped and robbed by an armed gang.
Fani Mahuntsi/Gallo Images/Getty
Lisa Vetton, a researcher at the University of Johannesburg’s Gendered Violence and Urban Transformation project, believes the criminal justice system is failing women.
“You can actually see in the last decade how the number of rapes that are being put down for conviction, that are resulting in prosecution, has declined,” she told CBS News. “If you are looking at that — and that’s going hand-in-hand with the worsening treatment by the police of you — there is no incentive to report either. … Why put yourself through this when there’s no guarantee that you’re ever even going to see justice?”
ActionSA members protest outside Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court, August 3, 2022 in Krugersdorp, South Africa, after eight women who were filming a video were brutally gang raped by a group of armed men.
Fani Mahuntsi/Gallo Images/Getty
Since the attack, the young women CBS News spoke to have lived in fear. Anita said she wakes up every night feeling like “someone was grabbing my arm, and I felt the scent of one of the guys that was raping me.”
They say they jump every time they hear gunshots, and worry that now their names are known, their attackers will seek retaliation.
“We just don’t know what to do anymore, because we scared of our lives — not only our life, but our families’ lives, because we all not safe now,” said Bontle.
For them, like thousands of women in South Africa, long after the physical damage has healed, the emotional scars remain.
Rio police first took Hahn into custody on Saturday after his husband, Walter Henri Maximilien Biot, 52, was found dead in an apartment in the Ipanema neighborhood, police said. Video showed Hahn being escorted by Brazilian police outside a police station in Rio on Sunday.
Brazilian judge Rafael de Almeida Rezende cited alleged attempts to tamper with evidence among the factors in his decision to keep the diplomat in custody.
According to the decision, obtained by CNN, “the apartment was cleaned before the forensics team carried out its examination, a fact that by itself demonstrates that the release of the suspect in custody could lead to serious encumbrances to the collection of evidence.”
The judge’s order describes the crime scene and states “several lesions on the victim’s body originating from blunt-force trauma, with one of the [lesions] compatible with a foot stomp and the other with the deployment of a cylindrical instrument (supposedly a wooden club).”
The judge’s ruling also said that forensics “detected blood splatter on the property, markedly in the couple’s bedroom and in the bathroom, compatible with the dynamics of a violent death.”
Hahn’s defense argued to the court that the diplomat is entitled to diplomatic immunity, and for a writ of habeas corpus, reports CNN Brasil.
Habeas corpus is a legal principle that allows people who believe they are being held unlawfully in prison or detention to challenge it, and successful challenges can lead to a detainee’s release.
But the judge ruled that “an arrest due to an intentional crime against life, committed inside the couple’s apartment (so outside of the consular environment) has no relation whatsoever to consular duties.”
Video released to CNN Brasil shows Hahn explaining to police chief Camila Lourenço that Biot had shown signs of panicking, acting nervously or “strange” in the days leading up to his death.
In the video taped police interview, Hahn described how the couple were sitting on the sofa when Biot stood up suddenly and ran toward the balcony before falling face down on the floor.
He tells the chief that he thinks his husband slipped.
“It was very fast,” he said as he walks around the apartment the couple shared.
Hahn said he initially thought Biot was drunk and took a photo of his husband, which he sent to a friend along with the message, “Walter is drunk again.”
Hahn said he then tried to pick Biot up to take him to bed when he noticed his husband was bleeding.
CNN has reached out to Hahn’s lawyers but they were unavailable for comment.
German Foreign Office sources also confirmed to CNN the “arrest of an employee posted to the Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro.”
“Our Embassy in Brasilia and the Consulate General in Rio de Janeiro are in close contact with the Brazilian authorities investigating this case,” the foreign office sources said, adding that due to the ongoing investigations and for personal privacy reasons, they could not disclose additional information.
CNN’s Camilo Rocha in Sao Paulo and Benjamin Brown in London contributed to this report.
Russia has launched an Iranian satellite from Kazakhstan amid concerns it could be used for battlefield surveillance in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Iran has denied that the Khayyam satellite, which was delivered into orbit onboard a Soyuz rocket launched from Baikonur cosmodrome, would ever be under Russian control.
But the Washington Post previously reported that Moscow told Tehran it “plans to use the satellite for several months, or longer, to enhance its surveillance of military targets” in Ukraine, according to two US officials.
The satellite, named after the Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam, was built by Russia and will include a high-resolution camera that would give Tehran new capabilities to monitor sensitive facilities in Israel and the Gulf, the paper reported.
Iran’s space agency has said it would control the satellite “from day one” and that “no third country is able to access its information”.
Russia’s launch of the satellite comes at a pivotal moment for its space agency Roscosmos, which has threatened to cut back on cooperation with western countries and bring in a top-level shake-up, with longtime head Dmitry Rogozin dismissed by Vladimir Putin.
Even as relations between Russia and the US cooled, Roscosmos and Nasa had maintained basic levels of cooperation including ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Russia has threatened to leave the ISS in 2025 if sanctions are not lifted.
Isolated by the west, Russia has increasingly turned toward Africa, the Middle East and Asia as sources of trade and diplomatic support. And it has touted its ability to launch satellites onboard its heavy-lifting Soyuz rockets as one benefit of cooperation.
“Due to Khayyam satellite’s weight of more than half a tonne and the very high success rate of the Soyuz launcher, the launch of the Khayyam satellite has been entrusted to Russia,” a statement on the Iranian space agency’s website noted, according to AFP.
“As ever before, today Russia is open to cooperation in the field of space exploration with all interested countries and partners,” said the Roscosmos chief, Yury Borisov, calling it “an important milestone for Russian-Iranian bilateral cooperation”.
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Russia has looked to Iran as a source of expertise on adjusting to the new sanctions that have been introduced by the US and other western countries. Russia is believed to be interested in tapping into Iran’s experience on topics from circumventing banking sanctions to maintaining aircraft without readily available western parts.
Putin met the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during a rare visit to Iran in July. While Russian media portrayed the trip as a signal that the Kremlin remains a power broker in the Middle East, a Pentagon spokesperson said the visit showed “the degree to which Mr Putin and Russia are increasingly isolated”.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on August 4. (Alexander Ermochenko/File/Reuters)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described recent artillery and rocket fire around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in central Ukraine as “suicidal,” further adding to fears of an accident at the plant, which is the largest of its kind in Europe.
“Any attack on nuclear power plants is a suicidal thing,” Guterres told reporters Monday in Tokyo. “I hope that these attacks will end,” he said, and called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be given access to the plant.
The Zaporizhzhia plant occupies an extensive site on the Dnipro river. It has continued operating at reduced capacity since Russian forces captured it early in March, with Ukrainian technicians remaining at work.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s state energy company Energoatom said that one worker had been injured by Russian shelling around the facility on Saturday.
Energoatom claimed that three radiation monitoring sensors were also damaged, saying “timely detection and response in case of aggravation of the radiation situation or leakage of radiation from spent nuclear fuel casks are currently impossible.”
“This time a nuclear catastrophe was miraculously avoided, but miracles cannot last forever,” the company added.
Speaking on Ukrainian television, Energoatom’s chairman Petro Kotin said one strike Sunday was up to 20 meters away from the processed fuel storage area.
“If they had hit the containers with the processed fuel, it would be a radiation accident,” he said.
This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Russia launched an Iranian satellite into orbit on Tuesday from southern Kazakhstan, just three weeks after President Vladimir Putin and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledged to work together against the West.
The remote Khayyam sensing satellite, named after the 11th Century Persian poet and philosopher Omar Khayyam, was launched by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and entered orbit successfully, Russia’s space agency said.
Iran’s space agency has received the first telemetry data sent from the satellite, the official IRNA news agency said. read more
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Tehran has rejected claims the satellite could be used by Moscow to boost its intelligence capabilities in Ukraine, saying Iran will have full control and operation over it “from day one.”
The Washington Post reported last week that U.S. officials are concerned by the fledgling space cooperation between Russia and Iran, fearing the satellite will not only help Russia in Ukraine but also provide Iran “unprecedented capabilities” to monitor potential military targets in Israel and the wider middle east.
Iran says the satellite is designed for scientific research including radiation and environmental monitoring for agricultural purposes.
Russia has sought to deepen its ties with Iran since Feb. 24, when the Kremlin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, prompting the United States and its allies to impose the most severe sanctions in recent history.
In July, Putin visited Iran in his first international trip outside the former Soviet Union since the start of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
While there, Khamenei told Putin that Tehran and Moscow needed to stay vigilant against “Western deception”. read more
Space has been one field where the United States and Russia have traditionally maintained cooperation and strong ties despite geopolitical tensions between Moscow and Washington.
Roscosmos and NASA recently inked a deal to carry each other’s astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), but Moscow has made noises about quitting the ISS at some stage in the future. read more
Putin recently removed the outspoken Dmitry Rogozin as head of Roscosmos, replacing him with a former defence advisor in a shake-up of the agency. read more
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Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
