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Russia on Tuesday aligned itself with its ally Iran in rejecting Western attempts to maintain curbs on Iran despite the collapse of a 2015 deal intended to restrain Tehran’s nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions. 

After a meeting between their respective deputy foreign ministers in Tehran, Russia’s foreign ministry said Moscow and Tehran were unanimous in believing that the failure to implement the deal stemmed from the “erroneous policy of ‘maximum pressure’ pursued by the United States and those who think similarly.” 

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump quit the deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 while leaving economic sanctions in place. Iran’s relations with the West have been deteriorating ever since, as it has accelerated its nuclear program. 

But Russia, which signed the deal alongside the U.S., China, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, has been deepening ties with Iran since its invasion of Ukraine. 

The war, which Russia calls a “special military operation,” has driven its own relations with the West to their lowest level in decades. 

Sources told Reuters in June that European diplomats had informed Iran that they planned to join the U.S. in retaining sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program that are set to expire in October under the nuclear deal. 

They gave three reasons: Russia’s use of Iranian drones against Ukraine; the possibility that Iran might transfer ballistic missiles to Russia; and depriving Iran of the benefits of the nuclear deal, which it violated after the U.S. withdrew. 

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov met his Iranian counterparts Ali Bagheri Kani and Reza Najafi. 

Russia’s foreign ministry said the meeting had emphasized “the unacceptability of any attempts on the part of the West to impose some new schemes and approaches to solving problems related to the JCPOA, which imply damage to legitimate and mutually beneficial Russian-Iranian cooperation in various fields.” 

It said there was still “no reasonable alternative” to implementing the JCPOA, as approved by the U.N. Security Council. 
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Dozens of second-hand Leopard 1 tanks that once belonged to Belgium have been bought by another European country for Ukrainian forces fighting Russia’s invasion, the arms trader who did the deal said Tuesday. 

The German-made Leopards were at the center of a public spat earlier this year after Belgian Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder said the government had explored buying back tanks to send to Ukraine but had been quoted unreasonable prices. 

The clash highlighted a predicament faced by Western governments trying to find weapons for Ukraine after more than a year of intense warfare — arms they discarded as obsolete are now in high demand, and often owned by private companies. 

‘More than happy to take them’

Freddy Versluys, CEO of defense company OIP Land Systems, bought the tanks from the Belgian government more than five years ago. 

He told Reuters he had now sold all 50 tanks to another European government, which he could not name due to a confidentiality clause. He said he also could not disclose the price. 

Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper reported Tuesday that arms maker Rheinmetall had acquired the tanks and would prepare most of them for export to Ukraine. 

The company declined to comment. 

“The fact that they leave our company proves that we asked for a fair market price, and someone was more than happy to take them,” Versluys said in a post on LinkedIn, accompanied by a picture of tanks next to a bottle of Ukrainian vodka. 

Battlefield ready in months

He said the tanks were now being transported to a factory for a substantial overhaul. Some of the tanks would be used for spare parts, while others would be repaired, he said. He estimated it could be four to six months before they were on the battlefield in Ukraine. 

A defense source told Reuters that the German government was paying for 32 of the Leopard 1 tanks to be restored and sent to Ukraine and that this was part of a support package for Ukraine that Germany announced at the NATO summit July in Vilnius.  

The German Defense Ministry had no immediate comment. 

Several of Kyiv’s Western allies agreed earlier this year to send modern Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and also to send older Leopard 1 models. 

The Leopard 1 was made by German firm Krauss-Maffei starting in the 1960s. It is lighter than the Leopard 2 and has a different type of main gun. The models sold by Versluys were last upgraded in the 1990s. 

A spokesperson for the Belgian Defense Ministry declined to comment on the sale of the tanks. 
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Poland’s president announced Tuesday that the country would hold its parliamentary election on Oct. 15, marking the official start of an electoral campaign that has informally been underway for months and is being shaped by Russia’s war against Ukraine.

President Andrzej Duda said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the elections for the 460-seat lower house of parliament, the Sejm, and for the 100-seat Senate will both take place on that Sunday. Lawmakers will be elected for a four-year term.

The election campaign begins during rising anxieties in Poland over the presence of Russia-linked Wagner mercenaries across the NATO nation’s northeastern border in Belarus, where they have arrived by the thousands since a short-lived mutiny in Russia in June. Tensions have also been growing with ally Ukraine, to the country’s southeast, over grain imports and historical memories of past ethnic conflicts.

Poland’s conservative ruling party, Law and Justice, has been seeking to present itself as strong on national defense given the turmoil across its eastern borders. It has ordered more soldiers to beef up security at the Belarus border and is planning a large military parade on the Aug. 15 Army Day holiday next week to show off new tanks and other military equipment it has been purchasing.

The ruling party — whose leaders have made multiple visits to Kyiv to support the Ukrainian war effort — has also been taking a more confrontational stance with Ukraine of late, as a far-right political group that has been critical of helping Ukraine has been rising in the opinion polls.

Polls show that Law and Justice, which has governed Poland since 2015, is heading toward the election as the most popular party, but is likely to fall short of an outright majority in parliament.

Its main challenger is a liberal-centrist bloc, the Civic Coalition, headed by Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister and former president of the European Council. Support for Tusk’s party has grown in past months but mostly at the expense of other opposition parties.

Poland’s geographical position and support for Ukraine and acceptance of large numbers of Ukrainian refugees have attracted two visits since the war started from President Joe Biden.

The praise it won for helping Ukraine has allowed the government to avoid some of the scrutiny it has faced in past years over concerns in the West that its approach to the judiciary, media and LGBTQ+ people and other minorities amounts to democratic backsliding.
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China’s exports plunged by 14.5% in July compared with a year earlier, adding to pressure on the ruling Communist Party to reverse an economic slump.

Imports tumbled 12.4%, customs data showed Tuesday, in a blow to global exporters that look to China as one of the biggest markets for industrial materials, food and consumer goods.

Exports fell to $281.8 billion as the decline accelerated from June’s 12.4% fall. Imports sank to $201.2 billion, widening from the previous month’s 6.8% contraction.

The country’s global trade surplus narrowed by 20.4% from a record high a year ago to $80.6 billion.

Chinese leaders are trying to shore up business and consumer activity after a rebound following the end of virus controls in December fizzled out earlier than expected.

Economic growth sank to 0.8% in the three months ending in June compared with the previous quarter, down from the January-March period’s 2.2%. That is the equivalent of 3.2% annual growth, which would be among China’s weakest in three decades.

Demand for Chinese exports cooled after the U.S. Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia started raising interest rates last year to cool inflation that was at multidecade highs.

The export contraction was the biggest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, according to Capital Economics. It said the decline was due mostly to lower prices, while volumes of goods were above pre-pandemic levels.

“We expect exports to decline further over the coming months before bottoming out toward the end of the year,” said Capital Economics in a report. “The near-term outlook for consumer spending in developed economies remains challenging.”

The ruling party has promised measures to support entrepreneurs and to encourage home purchases and consumer spending but hasn’t announced large-scale stimulus spending or tax cuts. Forecasters expect those steps to revive demand for imports but say that will be gradual.

“Domestic demand continues to deteriorate,” said David Chao of Invesco in a report. “Policymakers have pledged further policy support, which could buoy household spending and lead to an improvement in import growth for the coming few months.”

Exports to the United States fell 23% from a year earlier to $42.3 billion, while imports of American goods retreated 11.1% to $12 billion. China’s politically sensitive trade surplus with the United States narrowed by 27% to a still-robust $30.3 billion.

China’s imports from Russia, mostly oil and gas, narrowed by just under 0.1% from a year ago to $9.2 billion. Chinese purchases of Russian energy have swelled, helping to offset revenue lost to Western sanctions imposed to punish the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine.

China, which is friendly with Moscow but says it is neutral in the war, can buy Russian oil and gas without triggering Western sanctions. The United States and French officials cite evidence that China is delivering goods with possible military uses to Russia but haven’t said whether that might trigger penalties against Chinese companies.

Exports to the 27-nation European Union slumped 39.5% from a year earlier to $42.4 billion, while imports of European goods were off 44.1% at $23.3 billion. China’s trade surplus with the EU contracted by 32.7% to $19.1 billion.

For the first seven months of the year, Chinese exports were off 5% from the same period in 2022 at just over $1.9 trillion. Imports were down 7.6% at $1.4 trillion.
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Britain on Tuesday imposed sanctions on an Iranian drone maker and a range of other foreign businesses, accusing them of supplying Russian forces with weapons and components for use against Ukraine.

Britain, the United States and the European Union have imposed a range of sanctions since February 2022 to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation.”

The British government set out 25 new sanctions on individuals and businesses in Iran, Turkey, Belarus, Slovakia, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Russia.

“Today’s landmark sanctions will further diminish Russia’s arsenal and close the net on supply chains propping up [President] Putin’s now struggling defense industry,” British Foreign Minister James Cleverly said.

Iranian drone maker Paravar Pars and seven of its executives, already subject to U.S. sanctions announced in February, and two Turkey-based exporters of microelectronics were among those targeted by Britain.

The sanctions prohibit United Kingdom entities from providing trust services — the creation of a trust or similar arrangement — to those sanctioned and also impose asset freezes, which block their assets held in the U.K.

The government also imposed sanctions on a number of individuals, including Swiss national Anselm Oskar Schmucki, who it says is the chief of the Moscow office of a Switzerland-based crypto asset manager, DuLac Capital Ltd.

It alleged that Schmucki’s involvement in “obtaining a benefit from, or supporting the Government of Russia, by carrying on business in a sector of strategic significance, namely the Russian Financial Services Sector,” as the reason for targeting him.

DuLac did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for a comment on the sanctions on Schmucki, who was sanctioned by the U.S. in May.

The British government, which has sanctioned over 1,600 individuals and entities since the start of the Ukraine conflict, said the latest round of sanctions marked its biggest action on military suppliers in third countries.
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Eugenie Le Sommer netted a brace to lead France to a 4-0 victory over debutant Morocco in their last-16 match at the Women’s World Cup. France is in the quarterfinals for the third consecutive time.

Kadidiatou Diani’s fourth goal of the tournament, a header in the 15th minute, sparked an eight-minute, three-goal Les Bleues blitz, with Kenza Dali and Le Sommer also scoring at Hindmarsh Stadium, ending the North African side’s fairytale run.

France next faces host Australia in the quarterfinals on Saturday in Brisbane.

Morocco became the lowest-ranked team (72) to play in the last 16, bouncing back from a 6-0 rout by Germany to beat South Korea and Colombia. But it was no match for fifth-ranked France, which went unbeaten in the group stage, capped by a dramatic 6-3 win over Panama.

Le Sommer increased her all-time leading goalscoring record for France to 90, while the game marked the first time Les Bleues had scored four goals in a World Cup knockout game.

Diani, who netted a hat-trick against Panama, was unmarked in the box for an easy header from Sakina Karchaoui’s cross that kicked off the scoring and had Moroccan keeper Khadija Er-Rmichi smacking her fists on the pitch in frustration.

There was more frustration to come. Dali connected five minutes later when she struck Diani’s cross, her long shot ricocheting off the inside of the far post and in.

Le Sommer was able to get a boot on the ball for her first goal in the 23rd minute after Diani pressured a Moroccan defender.

The 34-year-old Olympique Lyonnais forward netted her second in what had been an otherwise quiet second half for France, heading in a long cross from Vicki Becho from the far post in the 70th minute.

This World Cup marked the first time three African nations made the last 16 in Morocco, South Africa and Nigeria. Morocco was hoping to become the first African nation to win a knockout game.

Nouhaila Benzina had also made history as the first player to wear a hijab in the Women’s World Cup.
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A Moscow court sentenced Russian writer Dmitry Glukhovsky on Monday to eight years in prison, finding him guilty of deliberately spreading false information about Russia’s armed forces.

Glukhovsky, who is not in Russia and who was tried in absentia, is best known for writing a science fiction series and is the latest artist to be handed a prison term in a relentless crackdown on dissent in Russia. On Friday, imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was convicted on charges of extremism and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, lawmakers passed a bill that imposes prison sentences of up to 15 years on those spreading “fake” information that goes against the Russian government’s narrative on the war.

Glukhovsky was found guilty of posting texts and videos on his social media channels that accused Russian servicemen of committing crimes in Ukraine and that Russian prosecutors said were fake.

In April 2022, when he was already outside Russia, Glukhovsky wrote that the war in Ukraine, “unleashed by Putin is becoming more terrible and inhuman every day, and the pretexts under which it was started look more and more insignificant and false.”

Glukhovsky is a Russian journalist and writer who rose to prominence as an author of a widely popular post-apocalyptic novel, Metro 2033, which was followed by several sequels. Glukhovsky has been vocally critical of the Kremlin and was labeled a “foreign agent” in October 2022.

Also on Monday, Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, announced that the politician was placed in solitary confinement immediately after he was convicted on extremism charges.  

Yarmysh said Navalny has been placed in solitary confinement for two weeks, bringing his total time in confinement to 207 days. In addition to his 19-year sentence, Navalny is already serving a nine-year term on a variety of charges that he says were politically motivated.
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London’s Brick Lane, famed for its street art, appears to be the scene of the latest face-off between pro-democracy supporters and Chinese loyal to President Xi Jinping’s rule.

Over the weekend, big red Chinese characters painted on a white background, extolled “core socialist values,” sentiments first expressed by Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao, and embraced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

Most of the slogans have since been covered by anti-CCP sentiments, and a Chinese student who led the sloganeers says he has received death threats. 

Early on Saturday, people whitewashed a section of the street art wall, then spray painted a set of 12 two-character words in Chinese. The words included “Democracy,” “Civility,” “Freedom,” “Equality,” “Justice” and “The Rule of Law.” 

As the slogans attracted negative comments online, people went to Brick Lane to paint comments critical of Beijing such as “Free Uighurs” and “Free Tibet.” There were references to the bloody Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989.  

When Voice of America visited the site on Monday afternoon, only the word “Friendly” remained on the wall with the other sentiments covered up by slogans targeting the CCP.  

It remains unclear if the people who painted the original slogans were being serious or ironic. 

Wang Hanzheng, a Royal College of Art student who signs his art with name Yi Que, named the piece “East London’s Socialist Core Values” and said the graphic slogans “did not carry a strong political message.” 

“I wanted to see how the core values of socialism could bring a different impact to Brick Lane, which has long been symbolized and commercialized as a space of freedom. I wanted to explore a new way of commercialized artwork,” he said. 

A point of contention was whether it was reasonable for Yi Que to cover multiple artworks at once with white paint, even though local graffiti artworks are usually replaced by others every few weeks. 

Yi Que issued a statement on Monday afternoon, stating that he held “no political stance.”

He said the work aimed to provoke discussions and it showcased conflicts arising from two extreme views. He said he loved China, but he also has the right to reflect on the country through art. 

He defended his work and said the group had consulted local graffiti artists before whitewashing the wall and that the artists did not mind their work being covered. 

Yi Que also said he and his team were facing cyberbullying and death threats. His personal information and that of his parents had been put online.  

“My parents are already quite old. I implore you not to do this. I am very concerned about their safety. Some of my social media accounts have been restricted, but at this moment, I cannot remain silent or back down. I really don’t want to affect my family and friends. I am willing to bear all the doubts and consequences,” he said. “At the same time, I hope people from all walks of life and scholars can offer some assistance. I am in the midst of severe persecution,” he said.

The whitewashed area of slogans covered a tribute to a popular street artist, Marty, painted by his fellow artist and friend, Benzi Brofman. 

On Instagram, Brofman said painting over works like his was part of the street art culture. 

Brofman told VOA Cantonese on Sunday that he was focused on creating new artwork and that Monday was also his birthday; thus, he would “prefer not to waste my time and energy on this issue.” 

“My mind is set on my future art projects that will, hopefully bring joy and comfort to people,” he said.

In an interview with VOA Cantonese, Australia-based Chinese political cartoonist Badiucao called the graffiti “a crude piece of work.” 

Regardless of whether Yi Que was trying to be patriotic or satirical, said Badiucao, the real cost was not borne by them, but the local street artists who have put in weeks or even months of effort for their work. 

“Some may ask, isn’t graffiti about free expression? Aren’t all artworks eventually covered by new ones? Yes, indeed, street art is like a carousel, but street artists don’t cover other artworks randomly,” he said. “Often, we choose to cover old works or ones that have been tagged as heavily damaged. For new works, especially those with commemorative significance, artists tend to choose to show respect.” 

“Perhaps in the eyes of many, this act has caused a thousand waves and is therefore a success,” said Badiucao. “It gave almost everyone what they wanted – Yi Que gained massive fame through the spectacle, ‘little pinks’ patriots got the pride of their slogans being seen in the heart of London, dissenters got evidence exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s threat to freedom of speech. 

“However, after the carnival of chaos, it’s the local artists who are forced to pay the price. They have involuntarily born the cost of this publicity stunt,” Badiucao said.
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European carriers on Monday reported disruptions and suspended flights across the African continent after Niger’s junta had closed its airspace on Sunday.

Also on Monday, the junta braced for a response from the West African regional bloc after ignoring its deadline to reinstate the country’s ousted president or face the threat of military intervention.

The disruption adds to a band of African airspace facing geopolitical upheavals, including in Libya and Sudan, with some flights facing up to 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in detours.

“The closure of Niger’s airspace dramatically widens the area over which most commercial flights between Europe and southern Africa cannot fly,” tracking service FlightRadar24 said in a blog post.

Air France has suspended flights to and from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso and Bamako in Mali until Friday, the company said Monday, with longer flight times expected in the West African region.

A spokesperson added that Air France expected longer flight times from sub-Saharan hub airports, and that flights between Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and Accra in Ghana were set to operate nonstop.

But aviation analyst James Halstead said that airlines would mostly have to find alternative routes, and that difficulties should be limited given the small number of African air connections.

“I’m not sure this is huge disruption. … It will affect routes from Europe to Nigeria and South Africa and probably from the Gulf of the Ethiopia to West Africa,” he said.

Spokespeople for Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines said that flight times could be between 1½ and 3½ hours longer for rerouted flights.

British Airways in an emailed statement said that it “apologized to those customers affected for the disruption to their journeys,” and that it was working hard to get them on their way again as quickly as possible.

 
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The use of sophisticated spyware to hack into the devices of journalists and human rights defenders during a period of conflict in Armenia has alarmed analysts.

A joint investigation by digital rights organizations, including Amnesty International, found evidence of the surveillance software on devices belonging to 12 people, including a former government spokesperson.

The apparent targeting took place between October 2020 and December 2022, including during key moments in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Amnesty reported.

The region has been at the center of a decades-long dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which have fought two wars over the mountainous territory.

Elina Castillo Jiménez, a digital surveillance researcher at Amnesty International’s Security Laboratory, told VOA that her organization’s research — published earlier this year — confirmed that at least a dozen public figures in Armenia were targeted, including a former spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a representative of the United Nations.

Others had reported on the conflict, including for VOA’s sister network Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; provided analysis; had sensitive conversations related to the conflict; or in some cases worked for organizations known to be critical of the government, the researchers found.

“The conflict may have been one of the reasons for the targeting,” Castillo said.

If, as Amnesty and others suspect, the timing is connected to the conflict, it would mark the first documented use of Pegasus in the context of an international conflict.

Researchers have found previously that Pegasus was used extensively in Azerbaijan to target civil society representatives, opposition figures and journalists, including the award-winning investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova.

VOA reached out via email to the embassies of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington for comment but as of publication had not received a response.

Pegasus is a spyware marketed to governments by the Israeli digital security company NSO Group. The global investigative collaboration, The Pegasus Project, has been tracking the spyware’s use against human rights defenders, critics and others.

Since 2021, the U.S government has imposed measures on NSO over the hacking revelations, saying its tools were used for “transnational repression.” U.S actions include export limits on NSO Group and a March 2023 executive order that restricts the U.S. government’s use of commercial spyware like Pegasus.

VOA reached out to the NSO Group for comment but as of publication had not received a response.

Castillo said that Pegasus has the capability to infiltrate both iOS and Android phones.

Pegasus spyware is a “zero-click” mobile surveillance program. It can attack devices without any interaction from the individual who is targeted, gaining complete control over a phone or laptop and in effect transforming it into a spying tool against its owner, she said.

“The way that Pegasus operates is that it is capable of using elements within your iPhones or Androids,” said Castillo. “Imagine that it embed(s) something in your phone, and through that, then it can take control over it.”

The implications of the spyware are not lost on Ruben Melikyan. The lawyer, based in Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, is among those whose devices were infected.

An outspoken government critic, Melikyan has represented a range of opposition parliamentarians and activists.

The lawyer said he has concerns that the software could have allowed hackers to gain access to his data and information related to his clients.

“As a lawyer, my phone contained confidential information, and its compromise made me uneasy, particularly regarding the protection of my current and former clients’ rights.” he said.

Melikyan told VOA that his phone had been targeted twice: in May 2021, when he was monitoring Armenian elections, and again during a tense period in the Armenia and Azerbaijan conflict in December 2022.

Castillo said she believes targeting individuals with Pegasus is a violation of “international humanitarian law” and that evidence shows it is “an absolute menace to people doing human rights work.”

She said the researchers are not able to confirm who commissioned the use of the spyware, but “we do believe that it is a government customer.”

When the findings were released this year, an NSO Group spokesperson said it was unable to comment but that earlier allegations of “improper use of our technologies” had led to the termination of contracts.

Amnesty International researchers are also investigating the potential use of a commercial spyware, Predator, which was found on Armenian servers.

“We have the evidence that suggests that it was used. However, further investigation is needed,” Castillo said, adding that their findings so far suggest that Pegasus is just “one of the threats against journalists and human rights defenders.”

This story originated in VOA’s Armenia Service.
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The European Union and NATO began sending urgent aid Monday to Slovenia after severe flooding over the weekend affecting two-thirds of the small European country killed at least six people and left hundreds homeless.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob on Monday, expressing his sympathy and NATO’s strong solidarity with Slovenia, a NATO statement said.

“I express my deepest condolences to the people of Slovenia for the loss of life and widespread devastation caused by this weekend’s floods,” Stoltenberg said.

On Sunday, Slovenia and Cyprus activated a European Union Civil Protection Mechanism because of the floods in Slovenia and wildfires in Cyprus that have affected those EU states.

The EU is sending to Cyprus two Canadair firefighting airplanes from the EU’s Civil Protection Pool stationed in Greece. Greece is also sending 20 tons of liquid retardant via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

The flooding in Slovenia was the worst in recent history in Slovenia, a country of some 2 million people, according to Slovenian officials.

France is sending two excavators with engineering units to Slovenia, while Germany is sending two prefabricated temporary bridges and two excavators with the accompanying staff, the European Commission said.

Bulgaria and Croatia have also offered support, including helicopters, excavators, prefabricated bridges and engineering teams. The United States has also deployed staff to Ljubljana to assess the situation and determine urgent humanitarian needs.

The German Interior Ministry said it was sending a team from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief to Slovenia. The first team, specialized in rescue, was expected to arrive Monday and additional teams were expected to follow.

The floods were caused by torrential rains Friday that caused rivers to swell swiftly and burst into houses, fields, villages and towns. Slovenia’s weather service said a month’s worth of rain fell in less than a day.

Experts say extreme weather conditions are partly fueled by climate change. Parts of Europe have seen record heat and wildfires this summer.

Entire villages are still under water in Slovenia. Crops have been destroyed and cars stuck in mud. Major highways in parts of Slovenia have been closed. Many bridges have also collapsed.

Slovenian authorities warned of danger from possible mudslides and swollen rivers that could overflow at any time, overtaking banks of sandbags placed by emergency teams.

Several severe storms in the Alpine nation earlier in the summer blew off roofs, downed thousands of trees and killed one person in Slovenia and four others elsewhere in the region.

Flash floods were also reported in neighboring Austria and Croatia and heavy rains and storms caused major damage farther east in Serbia, which is downstream from the swollen Sava river that flows from Slovenia and Croatia over the Balkans.
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A small group of asylum-seekers has been moved onto a barge moored in southern England as the U.K. government tries to cut the cost of sheltering people seeking protection in the country, British news media reported Monday.

The asylum-seekers were transferred to the Bibby Stockholm, a floating hostel that will ultimately house up to 500 men, from other sites around the country. More were expected to arrive later Monday as authorities seek to reduce the number of asylum-seekers housed in expensive hotel rooms that were requisitioned on an emergency basis as the number of arrivals has surged in recent years.

The barge, which is owned by UK-based Bibby Marine, is normally used to provide temporary housing for workers when local accommodation isn’t available. With three stories of closely packed bedrooms, the barge resembles a college dormitory, though the rooms are utilitarian. It also includes a kitchen, dining area, common rooms and laundry facilities.

The Bibby Stockholm is moored in Portland Port on the south coast of England, where some locals have opposed the plan because of concern about the impact on the small surrounding community, which already has a shortage of medical services and is connected to the mainland by a single road. Immigrants rights groups are also opposed, saying it is inappropriate to house asylum-seekers in such accommodation.

The U.K. government wants to use barges and former military bases to accommodate some migrants after the cost of housing them in hotels soared to 1.9 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) last year.

Home Office Minister Sarah Dines told the BBC that people arriving in the U.K. via unauthorized means should have “basic but proper accommodation” and that they “can’t expect to stay in a four-star hotel.”
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