Slovakia to test entire population for coronavirus in global first

Issued on: 31/10/2020 - 

People at a café in Bratislava, Slovakia, on May 6, 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Slovakia on Saturday begins a programme to screen its entire population for coronavirus with antigen tests in what would be a global first, but critics have said the plan is poorly thought out.

Some 45,000 medical workers, army and police are being deployed to carry out the tests in the EU member state of 5.4 million people, collecting swabs at around 5,000 testing points.

"The world will be watching," Prime Minister Igor Matovic said earlier this week, adding that the measure would save "hundreds of lives".

Antigen tests give quick results -- sometimes within minutes -- but are not seen as being as reliable as the PCR test for which nasal swabs have to be sent to a lab for analysis.

Participation in the testing is not mandatory but anyone who is not able to produce a negative test certificate if stopped by police could get a heavy fine

Anyone who tests positive has to go immediately into quarantine for 10 days.

"This will be our road to freedom," Matovic said, hinting that virus restrictions could be eased once testing is complete or reinforced if the programme is not carried out in full.

Slovakia would be the first country of its size to undergo nationwide testing, although mass testing has taken place in entire Chinese cities.

Smaller European states such as Luxembourg and Monaco have also announced mass testing programmes.

Government 'threatening people'

Like other countries, Slovakia has seen a sharp rise in coronavirus cases although it is below the EU average.

On Friday it reported a record of 3,363 new daily infections, bringing the total to 55,091. The death toll currently stands at 212.

The government is hoping to complete the nationwide testing over two days and carry out another round of mass tests next weekend.

But it has struggled to find medical workers to staff all the testing sites and has been forced to offer cash bonuses for doctors.

During pilot testing in four high-risk regions last weekend, people had to queue for up to two hours in some cases.

The Slovak Association of General Practitioners has criticised the government's plan, saying it is ill-prepared.

The association said that the "mass concentration of millions of people" at testing sites "is at odds with the recommendations of infectious disease experts to reduce public contacts and mobility as much as possible".

Many ordinary people -- like Radovan Babincak, an unemployed man living in the capital Bratislava -- want to stay away.

"The government and the prime minister are threatening people," the 40-year-old told AFP.

Anton Dubovsky, a 67-year-old petrol station operator, said he and his son would not go.

"I am not convinced this testing is a good idea at all," he said.

(AFP)

Scorched jaguar returns home after Brazil fire ordeal

Issued on: 22/10/2020 - 

A female jaguar rescuers have named Amanaci was found two months ago with third-degree burns, and is receiving stem cell treatments in a bid to help her heal EVARISTO SA AFP

Brasília (AFP)

A jaguar badly burned in the fires that ravaged Brazil's Pantanal wetlands this year has been returned to the wild after more than a month of intensive treatment for his burns.

Members of the veterinary team that treated the jaguar's scorched paws with ozone and laser therapies released him Tuesday at the same spot where he was rescued, along a river in the Encontro das Aguas nature reserve in central-western Brazil.

Named Ousado, which means "daring" or "bold" in Portuguese, the five-year-old jaguar was placed in a crate on the river bank

A video of the release made by the wildlife protection organization that treated him, the Nex Institute, shows his handlers pulling a rope to open the door of the crate from the safe distance of a boat on the river.

Ousado tentatively left the crate, examined his surroundings, then bounded off into the forest, prompting his veterinary team to burst into applause.

"When we found him, he was in a lot of pain. He couldn't walk properly. Today, he was back to normal. He ran right up the bank. We're very happy with the result," veterinarian Jorge Salomao told AFP.

Known for its stunning biodiversity, the Pantanal is the largest tropical wetlands on Earth, stretching from Brazil into Bolivia and Paraguay.

An estimated 23 percent of the Brazilian Pantanal has gone up in smoke this year, amid the region's worst drought in nearly half a century.

Images of charred landscapes strewn with animal carcasses have shocked the world, drawing criticism of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's government.

Ousado got a happier ending than that of another wounded jaguar rescued from the Pantanal, Amanaci.

She was found two months ago with third-degree burns, and is receiving stem cell treatments in a bid to help her heal.

But veterinarians say the fire damaged her tendons so badly she can no longer extend her claws, meaning it is unlikely she can be released back into the wild.

Africa 1960: Four faces of independence from France

Issued on: 31/10/2020 - 10:27

Ahmed Sékou Touré, Guinea's first president. © FRANCE 24
By:Florence GAILLARD
30 min

Sixty years ago, most of the French colonies in sub-Saharan Africa became independent nations. Between January 1 and December 31, 1960, some 17 countries, including 14 under French rule, gained their statehood. Senegal's first post-independence president, Léopold Sédar Senghor, referred to 1960 as the "magical year", while others hailed a peaceful decolonisation process.

But behind the scenes, negotiations were bitter. For France, in the midst of the Algerian War of Independence, there was no question of losing its prerogatives, nor its interests in Africa. And in the context of the Cold War, each country had to choose its side or its political orientation.

By following the path of four charismatic leaders – Senegal's Léopold Sédar Senghor, the Ivorian Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Guinea's Ahmed Sékou Touré and Central African Republic's Barthélemy Boganda – FRANCE 24's journalist Florence Gaillard offers viewers a look back at the eventful history of these African countries' path to statehood.

NEW BERLIN AIRPORT WELCOMES ITS FIRST PASSENGERS – NINE YEARS LATE
The first touchdown at BER was an easyJet aircraft, just ahead of Lufthansa
Simon Calder
Travel Correspondent@SimonCalder

Nine years late and billions of euros over budget, Berlin’s new airport has finally welcomed its first passengers.

At 2pm a special easyJet flight from the old Tegel airport touched down at BER, as it is known, just ahead of an arrival by Lufthansa. The first arrival was met by a “water salute’ from the airport firefighters. But the celebrations were muted, due both to the coronavirus pandemic – which has traumatised airlines and airports – and a delay that has become a national embarrassment.

Planning for a new hub for the German capital began shortly after unification three decades ago. The site was chosen in 1996: south of the old East Berlin airport, Schoenefeld, which is currently used by a range of budget airlines.


Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt, to give it the full name, was originally due to open in 2011.

Two villages, Diepensee and Selchow, were relocated and the residents compensated.

But poor planning and multiple construction blunders delayed the opening by almost a decade, while the cost of the new airport rose to €10bn (£9.1bn) – almost four times the original estimate.

Many of the problems stemmed from flawed design coupled with shoddy workmanship – but bribery and corruption was also involved.

The fire protection system, and the smoke exhaust process, was at the heart of the delays.

At one stage it was proposed to have a team of 700 human fire spotters while the necessary engineering work was completed.

A member of the Lufthansa supervisory board recommended that the whole airport should be torn down and rebuilt, while an airport spokesman was sacked after saying: “Only someone dependent on medication will give you any firm guarantees for this airport.”

Some fixtures including display screens have already had to be replaced because they have reached the end of their design life.

The airport authority hopes that the catalogue of expensive errors will quickly be forgotten once passengers become accustomed to BER, as it has become known.

It replaces the old Tegel airport in former West Berlin, which is to close within a week. The old Schoenefeld terminal, a scruffy hangover from the days of the German Democratic Republic, will continue to function as Terminal 5 of the new airport and remain the home to Europe’s biggest budget airline, Ryanair.

The honour for the first flight to the new terminal, though, went to easyJet flight 3110 (signifying the date), which landed just ahead of Lufthansa’s flight 2020.

The easyJet Airbus had flown from Tegel airport, crossing the former Berlin airport at Tempelhof. On board was the airline’s chief executive, Johan Lundgren.

Speaking exclusively to The Independent before the flight, he said: “We’re extraordinarily delighted today. This is something that we’ve been waiting quite a long time for, as you can imagine.

“We consider ourselves the home carrier for Berlin. We’ve been operating here since 2004. Last year we had 12 million customers here.”

Following the collapse of Air Berlin in 2017, easyJet consolidated its position at the German capital.

It has the logistical challenge of moving 34 aircraft from Tegel to BER, of which the maiden passenger flight was one.

BER was originally intended to be a major hub airport to rival Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris CDG and London Heathrow. But Lufthansa has shown little interest, with the only destinations being Frankfurt and Munich.

The main customers will be easyJet and Ryanair, along with Lufthansa’s budget subsidiary, Eurowings, flying “point-to-point” within Europe.

The only long-haul destinations are Beijing and Ulan Bator.

The list of airlines that are not flying to BER is as significant as those which are. Giant carriers such as Emirates, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines are not on board, and no American carrier is present – though United may start flying to New York Newark in March 2021.

After the original opening date of October 2011 was missed, an elaborate opening ceremony was planned for June 2012. The first departure was intended to be a Lufthansa Airbus A380 flying from Berlin to Frankfurt. But the opening was postponed with less than four weeks to go, and the airport was plunged into eight more years of redesign, rebuilding and recrimination.

Instead of the Lufthansa “superjumbo,” the maiden flight is an easyJet Airbus A320 going to Gatwick at 6.45am on 1 November.

Berlin's new airport is ready. But will it go bankrupt before it takes off?

Twenty-eight years and 550,000 faults later, Berlin's new airport is finally set to open to air traffic on October 31. However, serious questions remain about the financial situation of the company that owns it.


Nearly 10 years later than its original planned opening date, Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) finally opens to planes this Saturday, October 31. Few could begrudge those still involved in the project some mild celebration, given the decade of disaster that has defined the most famous unfinished airport in the world.

But even once the marshalers have finally beckoned the first planes to the gates, there is still one major, potentially unfixable snag facing the airport — its finances.

It's not just the fact that the project has dramatically gone over budget to the tune of more than €4 billion ($4.67 billion), although that remains a serious problem.

Since the pandemic struck, Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg Gmbh (FBB), the company that owns the new airport as well as the soon-to-be former Tegel and Schönefeld airports, has seen its revenues dramatically hit as a result of the global crisis in aviation.
Taxpayers on the hook

FBB is funded entirely by taxpayers in Germany. The German states of Berlin and Brandenburg each own 37%, with the remaining 26% owned by the federal government. This year the company required emergency additional funding on top of its normal funding. That amounted to €300 million, with about one-third given as a grant and two-thirds as loans.

Watch video03:59
Is Berlin's BER Airport finally taking off?

That money was needed to stave off insolvency. "Without the financing commitment of the shareholders, FBB's solvency would not have been secured for 2020," Federal Finance State Secretary Bettina Hagedorn wrote in a letter to the German parliament's budget committee.

That's not all. Even before the pandemic collapsed global aviation, FBB had already signaled that it would need €375 million in funding for 2021, mostly due to the fact that various bills for the construction of the new airport have yet to be settled.

The dramatic fall in airline passengers and therefore revenues means much more money will be needed in 2021. Earlier this month, FBB's supervisory board agreed that it would take out loans of €552 million from its tax-funded backers next year.

This all comes on top of the fact that the extra billions already required to finish the airport have already been funded by the state in the form of loans and investments.

The company has been quite up front about its problems. Speaking on RBB's Inforadio on Thursday, Rainer Bretschneider, chairman of the FBB supervisory board said: "It's not a question of delayed bankruptcy. But the situation is serious."
New airport, no passengers

Even though FBB itself has been the primary author of its own downfall over the years, the particular circumstances it finds itself in now are not entirely its own fault, according to Tomaso Duso, head of firms and markets at DIW Berlin, an economic institute.

"FBB is facing the same dramatic situation as any other airport around the world," he told DW. "The formidable reduction of passengers following the COVID pandemic substantially reduced the profitability of airports not only because there are less flights but also because a large amount of the airports' revenues, especially for large airports as BER, stems from non-aviation activities like parking, shopping, restaurants."


Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, CEO of FBB, says the pandemic currently defines the company's financial situation

The pandemic clearly defines the severity of the current circumstances. Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, the CEO of FBB, said recently: "As long as the coronavirus determines travel and air traffic, the economic effects are considerable."

Daso says that, should the aviation sector become "normalized" again during the course of 2021, BER could become profitable. However, as he acknowledges, the airport's history makes such predictions highly uncertain. Lütke Daldrup only expects the airport to be functioning at 50% of normal capacity next year, up from what would have been around 30% this year.

The idea that BER, even when long open and functioning, will become a black hole for German taxpayers' money is palpable in political circles.

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz from the Social Democrats (SPD) says he is confident that FBB will generate profits eventually. Members of the political opposition in the German parliament though, namely the Green Party and the Free Democrats, have been scathing about the drain the airport has been and could continue to be on public finances.
Holding (company) out for a hero

When the BER saga was dragging on to incomprehensible lengths, the amount of time between its planning and eventual opening led to fears it would not have the required capacity to handle the increase in Berlin air passengers.


Dig faster: work started in earnest on the new airport back in September 2006

Now it has the opposite problem. Last year, around 36 million passengers used Tegel and Schönefeld. This year, the total volume for the city's airports, old and new, will be just 10 million. Next year FBB expects around 18 million.

With such uncertainty over the core part of the airport's business model, the possibility of private investment has been floated. Bretschneider himself suggested he was open to it but says the "shareholders see it differently." However, he said that first of all the airport would have to get out of the crisis and become profitable in order to be attractive for investors.

Publicly owned airports are not uncommon says Duso, though there is no guarantee that a privately run BER, especially one that is only partially private, would automatically be more profitable.

"While, in theory, private owners are considered to be more efficient caretakers of the assets, the existing evidence does not allow a definitive conclusion on this issue," he said.

"Yet, some studies indicate that partially privatized airports are less efficient than fully publicly owned ones as, overall, managerial autonomy stands out as a key factor in increasing airport efficiency."

The new airport is set to finally open on October 31

Flying out of the storm

Even if BER goes down the road of seeking private investment, the big question is whether it can become profitable in its own right in a post-pandemic world. At the moment there is considerable uncertainty over how the aviation sector itself can even return to pre-pandemic levels.

On top of that is the fact that BER has its own special non-pandemic financial problems related to its much-delayed opening.

Given the airport's now critical importance for the city of Berlin, it is very hard to imagine a scenario where the three government stakeholders would not continue to bail it out, so bankruptcy or insolvency seems highly unlikely.

Their best hope is that the airport eventually turns a profit on its own. For those of little faith, the fact that the airport has opened at all might offer some comfort.

DW RECOMMENDS


'Ready, set, test!': Berlin's long-delayed airport undergoes dress rehearsal for October opening

Several hundred volunteers have put Berlin's new airport to the test, launching a series of trial runs ahead of its planned opening in October. The thorough scrutiny of operations came — you guessed it — after a delay.

Opinion: The Shame of Berlin. Why can't the city build an airport?

Berlin's unfinished airport just started adding a new terminal, even though the original structure is still not open. Despite a major test run of systems in the first building DW's Henrik Böhme just isn't convinced.

Now it's firewalls at Berlin's ill-fated BER airport

It has been discovered that 600 fire-resistant walls were improperly installed at the folly-plagued BER airport. Last week, it was found that ceiling panels were dangerously fitted with ventilators that were too heavy. 

Berlin's new airport finally opens: A story of failure and embarrassment

Conception to operation has taken 30 years, with seven missed opening dates — rather than a symbol of a revitalized German capital, the new airport has been one of Germany's most glaring public scandals in recent memory.

Watch video03:59
Is Berlin's BER Airport finally taking off?


The Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER) was slated to open on June 3, 2012. It wasn't the first time the project missed its deadline, but it was the most memorable.

So great was the anticipation, public broadcaster rbb planned to go live for 24 hours covering it. So great was the disaster thereafter, the German satire site, The Postillon, proposed a new grammatical form for discussing the airport's conditional opening — an event repeatedly kicked down the tarmac never to actually happen.

Just before the opening date, inspectors reported some 120,000 defects, including fire safety issues, automatic doors that didn't open and sagging roofs. Around 170,000 kilometers (106,000 miles) of cable installed in and around the airport were found to be dangerously wired. Some lights couldn't turn on; others couldn't turn off.

It has taken more than nine years, and a series of well-paid airport company managers, to sort out the problems at Berlin's new international airport — also called Willy Brandt Airport, after the late leader of West Berlin and then West Germany. And now that airport officials say it is ready for takeoff, few airplanes are likely to do so. The coronavirus pandemic has thrown the airline and travel industries into disarray. Through August, Berlin's air passenger traffic is down nearly 70% from the same period last year.

Read more: 'Ready, set, test!': Berlin's long-delayed airport undergoes dress rehearsal

BER's previous opening date was in 2012

Under capacity and overpriced

In terms of capacity, that may be good news, even if it's for the wrong reason. BER was designed to handle 27 million passengers a year. In 2019, more than 35 million people passed through Tegel and Schönefeld, Berlin's existing overburdened airports, which are set to respectively close and merge with BER. Pandemic fears aside, tourism analysts project steady growth in visitors to the German capital.

An expansion is already in the works to meet the extra demand, should it ever return. That could cost another €2.3 billion ($2.7 billion) by 2030, or about as much as the entire project's original budget. Actual costs stand at over €7 billion ($8.2 billion), a bill shared between the states of Berlin and Brandenburg and Germany's federal government. Together they back the FBB, the company that operates Berlin's airports and has overseen construction of the new one.

The delays and cost overruns have dovetailed with the pandemic losses. Without an additional €300 million in grants and loans from the state, Germany's Finance Ministry reported in September that the FBB would be bankrupt before the airport opens on October 31. It may need more than €1 billion over the next few years to stay aloft. If the state does not want to — or cannot — find a way to privatize the company, even partially, those costs remain the taxpayers' to cover.
Inauspicious start

The globally recognized Made-in-Germany brand has taken a beating. The airport was meant to stand for everything Berlin has hoped to become — a reunited global city worthy of serving as the capital of one of the world's largest economies. Instead, the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport has come to represent everything Berlin has been long mocked for: inept public administration and financial mismanagement, incapable of seeing big projects through.

The project got off to a rocky start. First dreamed up in 1990, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, it took six years to settle on a spot to build. The official groundbreaking didn't happen for another decade. Private investors scattered when their risk alarms flashed red, leaving the state alone to finance and oversee construction. Even the airport's original code, BBI (Berlin-Brandenburg International), had to be changed because an airport in India was already using it.

Whether due to new requests from the state or updated safety regulations from the European Union, the airport's architects had to regularly amend their plans. The original opening in October 2011 had to be pushed back eight months, in large part due to one of the project's main contractors going under. More bankruptcies would follow.

In his book "Black Box BER," chief architect Meinhard von Gerkan blamed political pressure to get the job done, despite "protest from project management." He and others have accused the FBB of trying to cover up problems, manipulating reports before they reached the oversight board, which was at the time led by then Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, a big-time airport advocate.

Watch video02:33
Berlin's new airport on test amid coronavirus pandemic

Things fall apart

In May 2012, just weeks before the scheduled opening, BER was denied operating approval. Wowereit had resigned from the oversight board by the end of 2014. Gerkan and his team were sent packing. Their replacements searched in vain for the building plans, only for some of them to turn up in a dumpster, an incident that triggered a police investigation. Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, a mid-level career civil servant, has been FBB chairman since 2017 — the fourth person to fill that role since the airport's initial delayed opening.

Aside from public shaming, three parliamentary committee investigations along with years of general uproar and eye-rolling have led to no consequences for anyone involved in the decades-long, state-funded debacle. Daldrup was under investigation for allegedly mischaracterizing the FBB's financial situation, but the case was dropped by state prosecutors.

The fiasco may not end with BER's opening on October 31. Critics wonder whether an airport designed in the early 2000s is compatible with the technology and travel habits of 2020 and beyond.

The airport is named after former Berlin Mayor and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt

Germany's rail company, Deutsche Bahn, has no immediate plans to offer a high-speed rail connection, as other major German airports enjoy. Just one long-distance train will stop at BER; otherwise, passengers will have to take commuter or regional rail into Berlin and change at the central station for onward travel — or go the climate-unfriendly route by connecting to a domestic flight.

Government officials including Chancellor Angela Merkel may face some travel inconvenience, too. When Germany moved its capital from Bonn to Berlin after reunification, its fleet of aircraft did not come along, due to lack of space at Berlin's smaller airports. BER was meant to change that, but Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, says there is only enough space to keep seven of its 19 planes there. The rest will have to keep flying in, empty, from the Cologne-Bonn Airport — on the other side of the country — to pick up VIP passengers, much to the dismay of climate activists and government accountants.

The most airport investigators and oversight authorities have been able to conclude from years of setbacks and unmet promises is that the BER epic is a top-to-bottom, start-to-finish failure. Many of those responsible for it will be on hand to celebrate its unfashionably late opening.

It may be a more muted moment for those close to the airport's famous namesake, Willy Brandt. While a spokesman for the Willy Brandt Foundation told DW it welcomes the airport's opening and its association with the late chancellor, his children reached for comment preferred to stay silent.

Sabine Kinkartz contributed to this report.

Meet Germany's 'bee-master' from Sierra Leone

In response to restrictive COVID-19 measures, a Sierra Leonean man in Germany's Bad Belzig is winning the hearts of the townsfolk by becoming a beekeeper. He's already turning his venture into a sweet success.



Christopher O'Neill has moved far in his life. Originally from Sierra Leone, he has been living in Bad Belzig near Germany's capital Berlin for over 20 years.

But when the coronavirus pandemic struck Germany in the spring, O'Neill found his movements severely restricted — and this was bad news. Used to being active most of the time, he quickly put on weight, which worried him.

It also gave him an idea.

"I stopped drinking coffee with sugar and looked for an alternative — it was honey," he told DW. "Because I have a very nice backyard, I had another idea: Produce the honey yourself!"

Read more: Buzz of success in Zimbabwe's forests
A sweet idea

A few months — and a few bee stings — later, O'Neill's beekeeping hobby has flourished. It's also captured the attention of other local honey lovers like Madelle Ngnintedem, a Cameroonian working as an accountant in Bad Belzig.

"Being from Africa, I know what real honey is," she told DW. "So when I came to Germany, I found it difficult to find good quality honey."

Until she tasted a jar of honey from O'Neills' bees.

Christopher O'Neill working his honey making magic

More bees, more honey

O'Neill credits his daughter for encouraging him to turn his backyard hobby into a business.

"I saw that I had too much honey, and my daughter said to me: 'Well Daddy, why don't you sell it?' And that's how it all started."

Beekeeping requires a lot of time, energy and passion. Chef Waldemar Dawid from the nearby town of Linthe, knows a thing or two about good food. He thinks O'Neill has what it takes to become a "bee master."

"He's an energetic guy," Dawid told DW. "Whatever he does, he does it to perfection and that's exactly how it is with the honey. I find it beautiful how he manages to capture a part of the sun and the bees. That's why my first choice for honey will always be Christopher, because I am 100% convinced [of its quality] ."


Fresh honey is tasty, but needs lots of work

O'Neill frequently drives about 25 kilometres away from Bad Belzig, where he has a few hives in the forest near the village of Jeserigerhütten. There, he ensures the bees are in good shape.

Read more: European top court upholds French ban on bee-harming pesticides
Pride and good taste

Kirsten Schmeisser, a dentist from Bad Belzig, is proud of her town's home-made honey.

"For me the honey tastes good," she told DW. "It is also a nice gift, so I offer it to friends when I visit them. A gift from Bad Belzig."

The honey's organic character stands out. Erika Moritz is well-established in the local beekeeping scene and runs her own honey business. She lives in the nearby village of Grabow, and was immediately impressed after tasting O'Neill's honey.

"Christopher is still a young professional beekeeper," she told DW. "He has a few years-old bees and has a good harvest. He does everything as naturally as possible."

Madelle Ngnintedem is a fan of O'Neill's honey

The perfect texture

Moritz explains the fine skill involved in finding the perfect honey texture.

"At a certain time the liquid gets creamier or firmer," he says. "The honey is whipped; otherwise, it crystallizes or becomes too sugary and that doesn't have a nice feeling on the tongue."

Despite the considerable skill and patience required, O'Neill doesn't think he'll be passing on his honey business to his children.

"At the moment, my kids are not really interested. The only thing my daughter said was 'I'll help to count the money'," he laughs.

Read more: Kenya: Honey for money

This has not stopped O'Neill from wanting to grow his business. Currently, he has five hives, and plans to buy another five.

O'Neill's fresh honey comb before being processed

In the meantime, O'Neill enjoys the overwhelming encouragement and heartening feedback from his customers, including chef's like Dawid.

"I tasted the honey as a cook...it is flowery and malty,"Dawid explains. "I would use Christopher's honey for cooking, but also for delicacies."

Moritz believes O'Neill can turn his hobby into a commercial success.

"It takes a couple of years to learn the specific details of bee-keeping," she says. "Every year is different, but if you work on it, you can make it. And I have no doubts he could become a professional bee master."

Watch video 03:21 The delicate art of beekeeping in Germany

This article was translated from German by Cai Nebe.

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Coronavirus pandemic leads to rise in FGM across Africa

Campaigners against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) say that the coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on efforts to curb the practice. FGM remains common despite being criminalized in many countries.

Domtila Chesang is from West Pokot County in northwestern Kenya, a region where Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is still common practice. She became a campaigner against FGM and child marriage after witnessing her cousin be subjected to the practice. The nightmarish experience made her not anxious, but determined: In 2017, she received a Queen's Young Leaders Award at Buckingham Palace in London for her work raising awareness.

"I use my voice and my influence to fight for the rights of girls and against gender-based violence," she told DW.

Long-term psychological and physical damage

But Chesang's work has become all the harder since the coronavirus pandemic struck. "Our campaigns are not very effective," she said. "We can't move freely because Kenya is in lockdown and also has a nighttime curfew."

"The focus is on COVID-19. That's what most funding is going towards. So, there are more girls who are being subjected to harmful cultural practices in their communities."

She said that over 500 girls had been subjected to FGM in the months of April, May and June, when the lockdown measures were at their strictest. This was a major setback: "The girls will suffer their whole lives, both psychologically and physically."

Girls are sometimes married off as young as 12 or 14 and thus robbed of any chance of making their own decisions. FGM is considered by some communities to be a necessary rite of passage before a woman marries.


Education and outreach has come to a near-complete standstill due to the pandemic.

Read more: Russia's first trial on female genital mutilation restarts after coronavirus lockdown

Marriage seen as path out of poverty

Daniela Gierschmann from the women's rights organization Medica Mondiale said that the coronavirus pandemic had led to a similar situation in West Africa, particularly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast: "Such crises are particularly difficult for girls and women. They exacerbate already existing inequalities," she told DW.

"There is less protection from institutions and a significant rise in sexual and domestic violence. Teenage pregnancies and FGM are increasing."

Gierschmann explained that families were more likely to try to marry off a daughter in difficult times when it became harder to feed all children — and FGM was part of the marriage ritual.

"COVID-19 has had a negative effect on human rights," agreed Asita Maria Scherrieb from the women's rights organization Terre des Femmes. "We've seen that in West Africa. Because of the coronavirus, there are no more awareness-raising campaigns in schools and nobody is keeping an eye on the girls. It doesn't get noticed if they don't turn up," she told DW. She also explained that healthcare was limited because COVID-19 patients were being prioritized, and that distancing regulations meant there were fewer spots in protective institutions than usual.


Despite being criminalized, FGM is still practiced in many countries.

Read more: Sierra Leone anti-FGM activist wins German human rights prize

Human rights violation

"FGM is a grievous violation of human rights and considered a crime by international law," she added. It is actually prohibited in many countries but according to the World Health Organization, the practice continues to exist in almost 30 African countries. Across the world, over 200 million girls and women are thought to have been subjected to the practice. Schierrieb estimated that the figure might well have increased by two million during the coronavirus pandemic alone.

Nonetheless, there was a small flicker of light in the parts of West Africa which had learned from prior epidemics, said Gierschmann from Medica Mondiale: "Many women have used their experience from the Ebola outbreak and set up decentralized telephone hotlines for girls and women at risk." She also said that though women's refuges were offering more protection and some extracurricular classes, these measures did not suffice.


It is estimated that around 200 million girls and women are victims of female genital mutilation

Domtila Chesang doubts that Kenya will be able to put an end to FGM by 2022 as the president has pledged. She is very worried about the future of all the girls who "have been married off by force, cut off from education and are now completely dependent on their husbands."

"They have no voice and nobody hears them."

Belgium's COVID-19 health care collapse: 'It will happen in 10 days'

More than 300,000 of Belgium's 11 million people have COVID-19 right now. The president of Belgium's medical union tells DW how desperate and precarious the country's health system has become.

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Belgium's COVID-19 collapse 'will happen in 10 days'

On October 29, Belgium recorded its highest daily infection number on record: more than 20,000. The epicenter is Liege, where surrounding boroughs have seen more than 10% of the population infected. DW spoke with Philippe Devos, the president of Belgium's association of medical unions, who works as an intensivist in the critical care unit at the CHC Montlegia hospital (pictured).

DW: Dr. Devos, how many people have COVID-19 at CHC Montlegia?

Devos: Around 250.

And how many doctors are in there treating them?

More than 100. We have to do shifts, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

And how many of those doctors have the coronavirus right now?

We have around 10% of doctors and nurses that are symptomatic, and they're at home, sick. At other hospitals in Liege, we have around 25% of doctors and nurses who are symptomatic. So we are lucky in my hospital compared to the other ones in the city. And for this reason, we are forced to use asymptomatic doctors and nurses in the COVID-19 wards.

So you have doctors, right now, in hospitals here in Liege, who are working — even though they have the coronavirus?

Yes, they are infected, but not sick. So they don't have COVID-19 disease. They are like you and me, asymptomatic. But we don't have any solution anymore. We are forced to ask them to work, if they agree, only in COVID-19 wards in order not to infect other patients. And it's now the rule in the whole country. The ministry of health passed this rule yesterday.

So even though these doctors and nurses are asymptomatic, doesn't that mean they can increase the viral load of the patients they're caring for?

Actually, they're authorized to work only if their own viral load is low. So they must be asymptomatic with a low viral load. This means that they cannot increase the viral load of a patient.

Are you sure about that? What is the risk if I'm a patient with COVID-19 and my doctor or nurse comes in to treat me, and even though they're asymptomatic, they're breathing out virus (maybe through their mask somehow). Couldn't I get more of a viral load that way?

So we are not silly. They are using FFP2 masks, and they know how to wear them to not let the virus get out. So they use protection everywhere they go in the hospital. And when they have to remove their mask for eating, for example, they have to do it in a specific room that is washed every hour – to not disseminate their own virus. The only other solution is not to admit a patient into the hospital. They are forced to choose between dying, or being treated by a "positive" doctor. All the patients are choosing not to die.


Devos is the president of Belgium's medical union

Are you and your colleagues afraid for your lives?

For my own life, of course not. Because I was infected in April. But some of my colleagues are frightened for their own lives. And it's a problem, because we have many doctors that are more than 60 years old. They are very frightened about that. So we try to send them in non-COVID wards, and to send younger doctors in COVID wards.

If I'm sick, or in need of medical attention here in Belgium, is it possible that I can't come to a hospital right now because of this situation?

Last Monday, there was a medical helicopter that came to a car crash. And he asked for a place in a hospital. And all the hospitals refused to receive him. So he decided to go to the closest hospital, and he gave the patient without authorization. He was forced to do it. So we are in a very difficult situation at this time in Belgium.

The numbers are going up, they will probably continue to go up when it comes to COVID-19 infections. When will this implode?

Mathematical models are saying that it will happen in 10 days. So, in 10 days, we will have only two choices available: Transfer patients to Germany and hope we won't do triage…. or we'll have to do triage. [That means] there will be only one bed remaining, and two patients. And the doctors will have to choose which one of the two patients will be able to be in the only bed we have. That's triage. Usually, it's done in terrorism, in war, in catastrophes like a nuclear explosion.

You've been working for many years, in your position. Now you're confronted with… this. How do you feel?

Sad. Sad because I've hoped now, for six months, that it would never happen. That people would have understood the risk. And that people would have changed their habits for one year. Just to avoid that. But it's a failure of the solidarity between people in Belgium — and a question of balance between solidarity and individual rights. Some people choose their own rights compared to solidarity. And the result is now here. I've seen people dying and regretting that they didn't wear the mask. I saw that. I saw families that had big parties with all the family members. And all the family members were infected. And I've got a family right now where 80% of the family is in the beds here. Right now, just after a birthday party. That's what I'm seeing now. But the danger now in Europe is everywhere. If people don't take hard measures soon, then you will live a nightmare like we are living right now.

What are you going to do when Germany says, "We don't have space anymore."

We will work until we run out of nurses.

Philippe Devos is the president of the medical union of Belgium. He works at the CHC Montlegia hospital as an intensivist in the critical care unit. He is also a member of the Standing Committee of European Doctors.

Listen to the full interview on DW's podcast Science unscripted on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

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US election: Climate crisis struggles to influence voters

Despite raging wildfires and a historically destructive hurricane season, the climate crisis ranks low as an election issue, way behind the economy and COVID-19. But could climate yet decide the vote?

A day after voters go to the polls to elect the next president, the US will officially withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. With Joe Biden pledging to immediately reverse Donald Trump's exit from the landmark climate accord, the stage had been set for climate to define the election. But then came COVID-19.

Though the presidential candidates sparred on climate change during their final debate, only 42% of voters say climate will be very important to their vote, well behind the economy (79%), health care (68%) and the coronavirus pandemic (62%), according to a Pew Research poll.
A marginalized issue that could yet decide the election

As the pandemic worsens, these interconnected issues have distracted from the existential threat of the climate crisis, even in regions affected by extreme fires and a record hurricane season. A University of Southern California poll published in September, at the peak of the West Coast wildfires, found that only 4% of eligible voters considered climate change to be their biggest concern when voting — in contrast to 33% of respondents who said the coronavirus crisis-hit economy was their top voting priority.

Climate skeptics such as Fox News commentator Steve Milloy have rejoiced in the seeming drop-off in climate concern.

Though climate may not be a key election issue, there has in fact been a broader growth in concern about the climate in the United States. A Pew Research Center poll conducted in summer found that 62% of Americans see climate change as a major threat, up from 44% who said that in 2009 and marking a 2 point rise since January — despite the pandemic.

For this reason Edward Maibach, the director of George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication in Washington, DC, is hopeful that climate will have more influence on the election than polls suggest.

"An increasing number of American voters say that the candidate’s positions on climate change will influence their vote for president this year," he told DW, referring to a near 10 percentage points increase since the 2016 election.

Though climate is not dominating the actual election issue agenda, Maibach believes it could yet decide the next president.

"It’s true that while only a minority of voters say climate change will be important in determining their vote this year, even a tiny fraction of that minority have the potential to determine the outcome of the election," he said, a reference to the razor-thin margins in swing states that decided the 2016 election.

Indeed, despite the glee among Trump-supporting climate deniers that global heating is a minor election issue, Joe Biden is contrasting his commitment to strong climate action as a way to sway votes in the final days of the election. 

Climate skeptics such as Fox News commentator Steve Milloy have rejoiced in the seeming drop-off in climate concern.   

Communicating climate during a pandemic

Since the coronavirus outbreak, climate campaigners around the world have been bracing for a declining focus on the climate crisis issue.

"Campaigners face a constrained ability to protest, a delayed policy process, and crucially, citizens overwhelmed by more immediate concerns of health, jobs and livelihoods," state Climate Outreach in its report, Communicating climate change during the COVID-19 crisis.

Released in May by the UK climate communications group, the report also pointed out that "citizens who are already struggling emotionally, socially or financially are not likely to have the capacity to think about another problem."

Edward Maibach disagrees with this view, saying that "most people are fully capable of dealing with more than one concern at a time."

A survey in April by Maibach's own George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication and the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication confirmed overwhelming voter concern about global warming, concluding that there is not a "finite pool of worry," as social scientists have suggested.

Why then is climate not registering as a very important election issue in these polls? The answer might lie in America's extreme two-party tribalism.

'The most polarized country in the world on climate change'

The 2020 US election is the most polarized in terms of climate change concern, says Alec Tyson, associate director of research at Pew Research Center. Only 11% of Trump supporters say climate change is very important to their vote, the issue ranking last in importance out of 12 issues. This compares to 68% of Biden voters — though climate is outranked by racial and ethnic inequality (76%), among other concerns.

The widespread lack of concern about climate change among Trump supporters has helped sideline the issue, Tyson argues. "Issues that are important to both campaigns, where they are vigorously engaged with one another, are going to get more visibility," he said.

Climate is far less polarized in Britain, for example, and even Germany — despite a rising tide of climate denialism pushed by far right political parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD) — according to Susie Wang, a researcher at Climate Outreach. After over a decade of work communicating climate change issues to center-right and conservative voters in the UK to avoid polarization, the broad British political spectrum that was so divided on the issue of Brexit is more unified on climate action.

By contrast, the climate message in the US can fall victim to a stark political partisanship that "pushes people apart rather than bring them together," Wang told DW. This ideological divide "doesn't leave any space" for conservatives to state their support for climate change action.

"The US is probably the most polarized country in the world on climate change," said Wang.



Climate polarization: Climate deniers gather in Oregon to oppose climate change legislation


Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama meets with climate activist Greta Thunberg as a symbol of climate change's importance for Democratic voters
Could bipartisanship on climate be possible?

Nonetheless, Tyson says that Republicans and Democrats do in fact cross over on some environmental issues. The plan to give a tax credit to businesses for developing carbon capture and storage, for example, has 70% and 90% support among Republicans and Democrats respectively, he explains.

Yet extreme polarization continues to limit the impact of a climate issue that also needs to overcome broader anxieties.

"While people are still concerned about climate change, they are now understandably also concerned about other issues — health, whether they have a job, ongoing pressures of lockdown such as social isolation", said Susie Wang. "In this context, their sense of efficacy — the sense that they can do something that makes a difference — might drop."

Based on recent polls in the UK and other countries, Wang also speculates that the pandemic response might reshape how people view the climate crisis.

"Because of COVID-19, people may realize that together, individual actions can make a difference, and governments can mobilize quickly to address a global problem," she said.

However, given the discord in mobilization efforts on both COVID-19 and the climate crisis, it remains to be seen whether a divided America can unite post-election to address either of these crises.

Watch video 26:04
https://www.dw.com/en/us-election-climate-crisis-struggles-to-influence-voters/a-55437637
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Southern Africa faces new locust plague

Biblical locust swarms are laying waste to southern Africa's crops. But lessons learnt from a similar plague in East Africa show that regional cooperation and early detection are key to avoiding an equally big disaster.


As the rainy season approaches in southern Africa, fears are rising of a locust infestation. This year, a similar plague swept through East Africa, with swarms decimating grasslands and trees.

Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and most recently Angola have already been affected. The livelihoods of farmers and cattle herders, who are already dealing with food shortages caused by a crippling drought, are at stake.

Read more: East Africa: Why are locusts so destructive?

According to Mathew Abang, southern Africa's Crop Production Officer for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the effects in rural areas is already substantial. In Zambia alone, locusts have already infested some 300,000 hectares (741,000 hectares). Meanwhile, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) reports 45 million people could be facing food shortages.

Experience of the locust plague in East Africa has shown that both regional cooperation and finances are lacking, making it even more difficult to stop the insatiable swarms.


Kenya was badly hit by a locust plague earlier this year
Insecticides in short supply

As farmers prepare to plant their crops ahead of the November rainy season, newly hatched locusts are lying in wait. This means the already strained humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is likely to get even worse.

"The harvests in May were bad," Regina Feindt from the German NGO Welthungerhilfe told DW from Zimbabwe. "The country has been going through a two-year long drought, and the economy is on its knees."

The lockdown measures implemented to stem the coronavirus pandemic have not helped matters, either.

"The Ministry of Agriculture does not have enough insecticides and has already asked us if we can deliver these," Feindt adds.

The locusts have already infested previously unaffected areas in Zimbabwe's southern and western regions.

Read more: Tiny bugs with destructive powers

Meanwhile in neighboring Zambia, the locust infestation has spiralled. The FAO emergency plan involves Zambia and affected neighboring countries identifying and monitoring hotspots better. This includes killing the locusts before they can gather in swarms.

The FAO has made technology and funds available so that the locust swarms can be subdued with chemicals. However, topping-up stocks of insecticide remains a major challenge.

Adult locusts can eat can eat three times their own body-weight per day and travel hundreds of kilometers

Namibia also urgently needs insecticides, says Farayi Zimudzi, leader of the FAO-bureau in Windhoek. Because most of southern Africa buys insecticides from the same supplier, deliveries have been delayed. But time is running out, particularly in Namibia's eastern Kavango and Zambezi regions.

"Food security will be seriously impacted because newly planted crops and any crops that are currently standing in the fields right now are at risk of being totally annihilated," Zimudzi told DW.

Read more: How East Africa is fighting locusts and coronavirus

An early warning system would be a major weapon against locust invasions, but monitoring is difficult in remote areas, Zimudzi adds.
Lack of membership payments stunt monitoring efforts

Frances Duncan, head of the University of Witwatersrand's Institute for Animal, Plants and Environmental Sciences in Johannesburg, sees the situation more critically.

Theoretically, FAO member states pay scientists over time to monitor rural and farming areas. The body of work produced is used to create models which monitor climate, rainfall and cyclones.

This information is vital in predicting the probability of locust plagues. However, "when there are no locusts around, governments tend to forget that this is a problem," Duncan told DW.

"Recently member countries have actually not paid and there's no money to have people surveilling," she explains.


Pick-up trucks modified to spray insecticides have helped slow locust invasions, but they are in short supply

This cost-cutting can prove expensive in the long run. Detecting locust swarms early and taking action means swarms can be destroyed in their infancy when the hatchlings can only hop, covering just two or three kilometers a day. This is a far cry from the capabilities of adult flying locusts, which can cover hundreds of kilometers.

"When we have people on the ground looking to see what the local populations are doing, then we can try and chemically control them before they actually reach plague status," says Duncan.

This would require farmers to develop a centralised system where observations from remote rural areas can be shared quickly and action can be taken.
More regional cooperation needed

For Duncan, the lesson from East Africa is clear: Regional cooperation across borders is essential to stamping out locust infestations.

Atinkut Mezgebu Wubneh speaks from experience. The head of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tigray in northern Ethiopia has first hand knowledge of coordinating an inter-regional effort to stop a locust plague

"The sustainable solution is that the remedial measures can't be done separately. The countries should come together and act in a well-organised way," he told DW. "Otherwise it is difficult to combat the desert locust as the insect moves across countries."

This article was translated from German by Cai Nebe.

Watch video06:17
Why we're seeing the worst locust invasion in decades
https://www.dw.com/en/southern-africa-faces-new-locust-plague/a-55435551

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Keith Jarrett, a much beloved jazz legend ends an era

Keith Jarrett has brought his live career to an end, releasing a final live album, "Budapest Concert." A tribute to an extraordinary artist.


A man sits alone on a concert hall stage, his head lowered, focused on the black and white grand piano keys in front of him: this was the final live performance from revered pianist, Keith Jarrett.

On July 3, 2016, he gave a concert at the Bela Bartok Concert Hall in Budapest. He had barely changed in the 41 years since he put on the now famous improvised hour and a half concert at the Cologne Opera on January 24, 1975. The recording of that show, the "Köln Concert" album, went on to become the best-selling solo-artist jazz record of all time. It catapulted Jarrett to the status of jazz legend.

The pianist was born on May 8, 1945, the day WWII ended in Europe, in the eponymous town of Billy Joel's song "Allentown", an industrial city in the US state of Pennsylvania. Jarrett, the oldest of five sons from a Christian family, began playing the piano at the age of three. To the delight of his grandparents, immigrants from Eastern Europe, he picked up a classical repertoire, playing Bach, Brahms, Beethoven and Mussorgsky.
From Mussorgsky to Miles Davis

On April 12, 1953, at three o'clock in the afternoon, as his biographer Wolfgang Sandner wrote, the child prodigy climbed onto the stage of a community center in Allentown and held a solo concert, displaying his ability for the classical baroque and romantic works.


Keith Jarrett at a concert in 1972

And then came jazz. Jarrett's career skyrocketed into the world of jazz, via gigs in bars and at major jazz festivals, finally landing him the place as a side pianist next to the jazz titan Miles Davis in 1969.

But that collaboration didn't last long, Jarrett had set out to be a solo artist. He toured the world until 1975 and gave numerous solo concerts, including the "Köln Concert" that his like-minded producer Manfred Eicher released with the label ECM, which went on to become one of the albums of the century. For a while, the The "Köln Concert" was a must-have in many record collections.
Keith Jarrett — critics and fans in awe

Music critics agreed about Keith Jarrett's talent, regardless of the fact that his Cologne recording demonstrated a suitability for mass audiences. This accessibility proved a major contribution to the democratization of jazz.


Keith Jarrett's album "The Köln Concert"

He is "like a centaur — half man, half piano," the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently wrote about Jarrett's solo concerts, adding that he "melted into the instrument and bent the keys to make them wail like an old blues guitar." According to his biographer Wolfgang Sandner, he is the "greatest piano improviser of our time."

Anecdotes from the Cologne concert abound which shed light on the artist's demanding attitude with regards to both concert organizers and audiences alike. Reportedly, three grand pianos had to be placed at his disposal for every concert. Jarrett was also known to have interrupted concerts if someone in the audience coughed.

His unique demands also disrupted his status at Italy's largest jazz festival in Perugia, where Jarrett was for a long time a permanent fixture. In 2007, Jarrett insulted his audience and warned them to not even think about taking a picture. Furthermore, the stage had to be almost completely dark throughout the show, the audience sat in the dark too. As a result the festival organizers in Perugia dropped him from the line-up, and he was not invited back until 2013.
Farewell to the stage with the 'Budapest Concert'

A quieter phase followed, and fans were electrified when his label ECM announced a European tour for 2016. A tour which also took him to Budapest where the "Budapest Concert" album was recorded. Jarrett, who returned to his grandparents' native country for the concert, described the Budapest Concert as the "gold standard" by which all of his solo concerts to date would have to be measured.


Keith Jarrett's new album "Budapest Concert" was released on 30.10.2020.

A week before its release, the 75-year-old said in an interview with the New York Times that he is not likely to play live on stage ever again. After two strokes within three months in 2018, he said the left side of his body was paralyzed and the most he could do with his left hand was to maybe hold a cup. It seems like this live album will be his final farewell from the stage.

This article has been adapted by Dagmar Breitenbach.