Senate confirms Michael Regan as EPA chief

ANNA M. PHILLIPS LOS ANGELES TIMES
MARCH 10, 2021 

WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Michael Regan on Wednesday to run the Environmental Protection Agency, putting an environmental regulator known for consensus building at the helm of the agency that will lead President Joe Biden’s efforts to combat climate change through tougher rules on power plants, car emissions and pollution from the fossil fuel industry.

Senators voted 66-34 to confirm Regan, North Carolina’s top environmental regulator, whose reputation for working with Democrats and Republicans in his home state made him an attractive candidate to Biden. Sixteen Republicans crossed party lines to vote for him, while Democrats backed his nomination unanimously.

Though little known outside Washington and North Carolina, Regan has been embraced by Democrats and environmentalists in part because he represents a complete departure from the last four years.

Whereas his immediate predecessors, Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler built careers on fighting against major federal pollution rules, Regan, 44, has a history of environmental advocacy and no known ties to the fossil fuel industry. Unlike Pruitt and Wheeler, who sought to downplay the threat of climate change, Regan hasn’t been shy about backing the scientific consensus linking greenhouse gas emissions to warming temperatures and echoing the Biden administration’s pledge to make it a focus.

After graduating from North Carolina A&T State University with a degree in environmental science, Regan spent nearly a decade working in the EPA’s air quality and energy programs during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. He also worked for the advocacy organization Environmental Defense Fund and, for the last four years, has held the top post at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality where he was credited with brokering the largest coal ash cleanup settlement in the country.

As EPA administrator, Regan will lead an agency suffering from low morale after enduring a complete philosophical shift under the Trump administration. Dozens of environmental regulations protecting the nation’s air and water quality were rolled back and replaced with rules favored by the industries the agency is responsible for regulating. The administration weakened limits on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, relaxed pollution regulations on coal-fired power plants and significantly watered down the Endangered Species Act.

Dozens of scientists and career employees quit, leaving the agency understaffed. Enforcement of the nation’s environmental regulations declined, as did civil and criminal prosecutions against accused polluters.

During his confirmation hearing, Regan said he would work quickly to return the agency to its mission of protecting the environment and public health.

“We will restore the roles of science and transparency at EPA, and support the talented, dedicated career officials,” he told senators. “We will move with a sense of urgency on climate change. We will stand up for environmental justice and equity.”

Sean Hecht, an environmental law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Regan’s experience working on environmental policy at the federal and state level is likely to give him credibility both with career EPA employees and state regulators responsible for implementing many of the most important federal pollution regulations.

His accomplishments in North Carolina, where a Democratic governor has faced a legislature dominated by Republicans, may also serve him well in Washington.

“He’s somebody who’s able to get things done in the face of a very complicated political environment,” Hecht said. “And even if not everybody is happy with the outcome, I think that’s a very important skill to have.”

Regan has also promised to elevate environmental justice issues within the agency, directing more funding and attention to low-income communities disproportionately affected by toxic chemicals and air pollution from heavy industry and transportation. Biden has pledged to devote 40% of spending in his $2 trillion climate plan to these communities, though it’s unclear how that process will work.

“We’re feeling very hopeful,” said Juan Parras, co-founder of the Houston-based advocacy group Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services.

Parras and his wife Ana organize residents in predominantly working-class Latino and Black communities in southeastern Houston that border chemical refineries, major highways and the heavily polluted Houston Ship Channel. Like many other local activists, they are eager for Biden’s EPA to restore the National Environmental Policy Act, one of the nation’s most significant environmental laws. It was weakened by the Trump administration in effort to speed the approval of projects such as roads and oil and gas pipelines.

“We have a complexity of issues down here. Our public officials are going to push against anything Biden does,” Parras said. “But we feel we finally have the ear of the administration.”

Journalist Andrea Sahouri, Arrested at Black Lives Matter Protest in Iowa, Found Not Guilty of 'Bogus Charges'

"If reporters are arrested and hauled away from protests, that denies people the right to know what's going on in their community."

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer



Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri, arrested while doing her job at a protest last year, was acquitted of two misdemeanor charges. 

(Photo: Kelsey Kremer/Des Moines Register)

Supporters of press freedom celebrated Wednesday after a six-member jury in Iowa acquitted Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri in a three-day trial resulting from her arrest while covering a Black Lives Matter protest last year.

"Reporting is not a crime, and journalists should not be punished for doing their jobs and covering matters of public interest."
—Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ

Sahouri was arrested in the Iowa capital on May 31, 2020 while she was reporting on the uprising sparked by the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man. The Polk County prosecutor then charged the journalist with two simple misdemeanors—failure to disperse and interference with official acts—that could have resulted in a fine, a 30-day jail sentence, or both.

"The acquittal of journalist Andrea Sahouri in Iowa today is a welcome relief, but Polk County prosecutors never should have filed charges against her in the first place," declared Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) program director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. "Reporting is not a crime, and journalists should not be punished for doing their jobs and covering matters of public interest."

Amnesty International USA's Denise Bell said the human rights group is "incredibly relieved and heartened" to learn that Sahouri was found not guilty of the "bogus charges" and also put her case into a broader context.

"Clearly, the jury saw these charges for what they are—completely ridiculous," she said. "This case should never have gone to trial. In much the same way Sahouri's unfounded arrest is a part of a larger pattern of police abuses, the decision of Polk County prosecutors to bring her to trial on these charges fits a larger pattern of practices undermining human rights within the United States justice system."

"Reporting at a protest as a working member of the media is not a crime, and treating it as one constitutes a human rights violation," Bell continued. "This fits into a larger trend of police forces across the United States committing widespread and egregious human rights violations in response to largely peaceful assemblies protesting systemic racism and police violence, including the killing of Black people."

The Amnesty researcher emphasized that "journalists must be able to report on scenes of protest without fear of retribution. The right of the media to do their work is essential to the right of freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly."

Sahouri said last year in a video recorded in a police transport vehicle that she was pepper-sprayed in her face and arrested after identifying herself as a journalist, saying: "I'm press. I'm press. I'm press."

In a tweet Wednesday highlighting comments from the ACLU of Iowa, the reporter noted that her acquittal "will set precedent for other unjust arrests during protests."

Sahouri said in a statement after the verdict, "I'd like to thank my family and friends, my Des Moines Register and Gannett colleagues and people around Des Moines, nationally and globally, who have supported me for nearly a year after I was unjustly assaulted and arrested."

She also discussed the case in an interview with the Register, saying that "it's really a tough feeling to go through this trial and have the State of Iowa trying to bring you down and trying to make you seem like you're doing something wrong, when you're really just doing your job."

Spenser Robnett, Sahouri's boyfriend last year, was arrested with her; though Robnett faced the same charges, he was also acquitted, according to the newspaper. The journalist explained that although prosecutors offered to drop the other charge if she pleaded guilty to failure to disperse, she felt it was important to go to trial.

"Andrea was assaulted, arrested, charged, and ultimately tried for doing her job."
—Maribel Perez Wadsworth, Gannett Media

"One, I did nothing wrong, regardless of if I'm a journalist or not, but two, I know I'm not going to be the last journalist arrested, by any means," she said. "This will continue. We've seen an upward trend of journalists being arrested just in the past year, in 2020, and it's really important to stand by your convictions and set this kind of precedent."

Gannett Media, the newspaper's parent company, paid for Sahouri's defense, according to president of news Maribel Perez Wadsworth.

"It was clear Andrea was at that protest as a working journalist. It was clear that police were allowing other journalists to do exactly what Andrea was doing that day—reporting from a breaking news scene," said Perez Wadsworth. "Andrea was assaulted, arrested, charged, and ultimately tried for doing her job."

Register executive editor Carol Hunter, who testified at Sahouri's trial, warned of the impact of such arrests.

"Newsgathering is a fundamental part of press freedom. Reporters need to be at protests as the public's eyes and ears, to conduct interviews, take photos, and witness for themselves the actions of protesters and law enforcement," she said. "If reporters are arrested and hauled away from protests, that denies people the right to know what's going on in their community."

Pentagon working group to address climate change as national security threat

In a memo this week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced he was establishing a Climate Working Group at the Pentagon as the threats from climate change constitute a threat to national security. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

March 10 (UPI) -- The Defense Department supports a White House executive order prioritizing climate change, the Secretary of Defense said in a memo released Wednesday by the Pentagon.

Austin's letter directs the establishment of a Climate Working Group within the Defense Department to coordinate Pentagon responses to a January executive order from President Joe Biden, as well as a tracking protocol to measure implementation of climate and energy goals.

"Climate change presents a growing threat to U.S. national security interests and defense objections. The changing climate is altering the global security and operating environments, impacting our missions, plans and installations," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told senior Pentagon leadership and commanders of combatant commands in a memo dated March 9.

"The department will act immediately to include the security implications of climate change in our risk analyses, strategy development and planning guidance," Austin said in the memo, which directs the establishment, as well as spells out membership, of the DoD Climate Working Group.

RELATED 12 GOP states sue Biden over order that sets 'social costs' of climate change

Biden's executive order includes a comprehensive approach to cooperation between government agencies, countries and non-governmental organizations.

Biden specifically charged the Secretary of Defense with coordinating with cabinet members, technological offices and other agencies to develop "an analysis of the security implications of climate change (Climate Risk Analysis) that can be incorporated into modeling, simulation, war-gaming, and other analyses" within 120 days.

Biden signaled his intent to seriously consider climate considerations on Jan. 20, the day of his inauguration, when one of 17 executive orders he signed mandated that the United States will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change.
RELATED Naval Postgraduate School to study surprise climate issues in $2.4M award

Austin's action follows a 2020 report after a study on military supply chains by the General Accountability Office.

The 45-page report called for Defense Department incorporation of "climate adaptation into its acquisition and supply guidance."

"Whether it is increasing platform efficiency to improve freedom of action in contested logistics environments, or deploying new energy solutions to strengthen resilience of key capabilities at installations, our mission objectives are well aligned with our climate goals," Austin said in the March 9 memo.

France to declassify long-secret documents related to war in Algeria


A group of French soldiers pose for a group photo in Algeria during the war that lasted for eight years in the 1950s and 1960s. File Photo/Wikipedia Commons

March 10 (UPI) -- French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered the release of a trove of long-secret government documents relating to France's eight-year war with Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s, which ended with full independence for the African nation.

Macron said in his order that the public will ultimately be able to access documents before 1970, which were long kept secret on national security grounds.

Macron said his order will speed up the declassification of the secret archives, which are decades old and will shine greater light on France's activities during the Algerian War between 1954 and its end in 1962.

Elysee Palace said in a statement that Macron's order will "significantly shorten the time required for the declassification procedure" to "encourage respect for historical truth."

Macron had commissioned historian Benjamin Stora to create a report on the secret documents. The release of documents relating to the years up to 1970, particularly those connected to French colonization and the Algerian War, was a key element of the report.

Officials say legislation will be created to detail the declassification process and is expected to receive a vote in the coming months.

France ruled Algeria for 132 years before the North Africa nation gained its independence in 1962. The death toll from the war varies among French and Algerian officials, but most independent experts agree that more than a million Algerians were killed.

Wednesday's announcement came a week after France admitted involvement in the torture and death of Algerian independence activist Ali Boumendjel during the war in 1957.


RELATED Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy convicted of corruption

FACTS VS FICTION/OPINION

Report: Japanese scholars raise objections to

 HARVARD 'comfort women' paper

IN SOLIDARITY WITH KOREA

Japanese academics have signed a petition showing strong concern about a paper authored by a Harvard Law School professor on “comfort women,” according to a South Korean press report. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

March 10 (UPI) -- Japanese historians and scholars condemned a Harvard Law professor's controversial paper on "comfort women," as protests grow in South Korea and the United States.

Ryuta Itagaki, a professor of sociology at Doshisha University, told South Korean network KBS that the paper by J. Mark Ramseyer, the Mitsubishi professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School, is an example of denial regarding the abuse of women and girls forced to serve in wartime brothels.

NEO LIBERALISM PRO PRIVATIZATION IDEOLOGY NOT FACTUAL 

Itagaki said he and others request the journal, the International Review of Law and Economics, re-evaluate Ramseyer's work and withdraw the paper, "Contracting for sex in the Pacific War," from publication.

Itagaki is one of 4,400 Japanese academics who have signed a statement requesting a retraction, according to KBS. The journal, published by Netherlands-based Elsevier, is likely to go ahead with plans to make the article available in print.

Scholars in Japan opposed to the paper's publication said there was nothing consensual about the recruitment and retention of comfort women at Japanese military outposts during World War II, a main argument of Ramseyer's paper.

"The fact that women were forcibly subjected to acts against their own intention is itself an involuntary act," said Yoshiaki Yoshimi, professor of Japanese modern history at Chuo University. Yoshimi said Ramseyer's decision to "ignore this simple fact" is the greatest source of controversy.

Protests have taken place in the United States and Korea. On Saturday, about 100 demonstrators assembled outside Harvard to denounce Ramseyer, the Harvard Crimson reported.

Rally participants included representatives of the Korean American Society of Massachusetts and students from across the United States, the report said.

Protesters charged Ramseyer with distorting historical facts and "failing to meet research integrity."

A local official from Suffolk County, Linda Champion, said the paper "hit a nerve" in the Korean community.

"It was important for them to come out to express to Harvard University it was not OK for someone to bear a name as prestigious as Harvard and to write propaganda," Champion said, according to The Crimson.

Myanmar bans 5 media companies amid crackdown on protests



Burmese protesters carry signs during a demonstration against the military coup in Mandalay, Myanmar, Sunday, February. 28. Photo by Xiao Long/UPI | License Photo

March 9 (UPI) -- Myanmar's military junta has revoked the licenses of five independent media outlets amid reports that some of their offices were raided as military forces crackdown on protesters opposing its Feb. 1 coup.

Mizzima Media confirmed that it along with four other media companies Myanmar Now, 7 Day, Khit Thit media and Democratic Voice of Burma had their licenses to publish and broadcast news revoked.

Myanmar Now also said its downtown Yangon office, which was evacuated days ahead of the coup, was raided earlier Monday by armed soldiers and police who arrived at the location via motorcade.

The news organization's editor-in chief Swe Win said they had expected the raid to have occurred earlier.

"We are now at a point where continuing to do our jobs means risking being jailed or killed," he said. "What is certain is that we will not stop covering the enormous crimes the regime has been committing throughout the country."

State media The Global New Light of Myanmar reported the Ministry of Information had banned the companies "from publishing or broadcasting with the use of a kind of media or technology" on Monday night, after the military, known as the Tatmadaw, confronted protesters with lethal force, killing at least three people nationwide.

Two protesters were were fatally shot by security forces in northern Myanmar while a third was shot dead in the southern Ayeyarwady region as protesters took to the streets in a countrywide strike, Myanmar Now reported.

More than 60 people have been killed and 1,857 have been arrested, charged or sentenced since the coup, Myanmar's Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said in its daily update.

Human Rights Watch early Tuesday also called for the junta to "promptly and impartially" investigate and hold accountable those responsible for the death of Khin Maung Latt, 58, a local politician in Yangon who died in police custody.

AAPP said Latt was arrested Saturday from his home and was tortured to death in his cell that night.

The next day, his family recovered his body from the hospital, HRW said.

"Myanmar's junta runs the security forces and can quickly find out who killed Khin Maung Latt if they want to," Brad Adams, Asia director at HRS, said in a statement. "If they want to show they believe in the rule of law, all those responsible should be held to account. Sadly, Myanmar's security forces seem intent on using nighttime raids and brutal mistreatment to create fear and break popular resistance to military rule."

Late last week, Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, called for punitive measures to be imposed against the junta for its escalation in violence against protesters who have taken to the streets since it ousted the civilian-elected government in a coup early last month.

With green energy, Japanese governor wants to take Fukushima out of nuclear shadow
By Yuka Obayashi 
3/10/2021

© Reuters/YUKA OBAYASHI Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R) and an adjoining solar power farm are pictured in Namie Town

NAMIE, Japan (Reuters) - A decade after Japan's devastating nuclear meltdown, the governor of Fukushima hopes the prefecture can step out of the shadow of disaster and become a symbol for green energy, although some residents are sceptical.

© Reuters/YUKA OBAYASHI 

Aizu Electric Power's Oguni solar power station is pictured in Kitakata

The March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami ravaged northeast Japan and crippled the Dai-ichi nuclear plant. It also triggered widespread opposition to nuclear power, complicating energy policy for resource-poor Japan.

Helped by about 250 billion yen ($2.3 billion) in government support, Fukushima has become Japan's biggest commercial-scale solar power generator and home to one of the world's largest green hydrogen plants, the 10 megawatt (MW) Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field.

© Reuters/YUKA OBAYASHI Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R) is pictured in Namie Town

"Fukushima needs to achieve 100% renewable power, as we will not rely on nuclear energy," Governor Masao Uchibori told Reuters on Wednesday.

GRAPHIC: Fukushima renewable energy capacity - https://graphics.reuters.com/JAPAN-FUKUSHIMA/yzdvxeymkpx/chart.png

The government and major corporations are pushing hydrogen. A Toshiba-developed hydrogen plant opened last year in Namie, a town evacuated after the meltdown, using an adjoining 20 megawatt (MW) solar farm to power the process.

A new transmission line will eventually add 360 MW of wind power, putting Fukushima on track for 100% renewable energy by 2040, Uchibori said.

"By making Namie the town of hydrogen, we want to support the regional economy and create a new symbol," Uchibori said.

Toyota Motor Corp's president visited last week and pledged new pilot projects. But some residents say they need support with everyday life, not green energy projects.

"Namie needs more basic infrastructure such as hospitals that are open for 24 hours and care homes for the elderly," said one 27-year-old man.

He returned last year, but without his parents because hospitals aren't open on the weekends. He declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Uchibori said the local government wants to restore infrastructure, develop new projects and attract residents.

Tokuko Shiga, 73, a shopworker, said projects weren't providing enough local jobs. Even if there were jobs, many evacuees live elsewhere, she said.

Many green projects are geared towards big companies and supplying Tokyo with power, just as the nuclear plant did, said Yauemon Sato, a Fukushima sake brewer who started a renewable power company.

His company has built 6 MW of solar farms and plans more.

"We need a business model that helps the local community and promotes autonomy," he said.

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Gavin Maguire and David Dolan)

Missile Defense Agency to consider two sites for Hawaii-based radar

MARCH 8, 2021 

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is considering two sites for the Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii, including the Kahuku Training Area, pictured. Photo by Sgt. Sarah Anderson/U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific

March 8 (UPI) -- The Missile Defense Agency is again considering a radar defense array in Hawaii, with two sites under consideration, after previously dropping plans to build it because of adverse public reaction.

The proposed Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii, which MDA is accepting public comment on through April 12, would face North Korea and have properties similar to the Long-Range Discrimination Radar in Alaska, a facility largely completed with initial operating plans scheduled for the end of 2021.

A $1.9 billion cost for the potential Hawaii facility was included in the 2017 defense bill, which called for a radar array to defend Hawaii and quickly identify missile threats as lethal or non-lethal.

This time, two sites are under consideration, at the Army's Kahuku Training Area on Oahu and at the southern end of the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai island.

RELATED First all-Black crew flies JSTARS surveillance mission

An additional $133 million was added to the project by Congress in 2020, and the Hawaiian congressional delegation has pushed for the project to be constructed.

Input in 2018, "scoping meetings" for three sites on Hawaii's Oahu island brought considerable public objection, with concerns about overdevelopment, an additional military facility on an island already hosting thousands of service personnel, and cultural concerns by Native Hawaiians.

The project was complicated by recent Chinese and Russian advances in hypersonic missiles and low-flying, radar-evading cruise missiles, as well as Pentagon plans to involve outer space as a defense platform, according to officials.

RELATED Congress adds $1.3B to Missile Defense Agency's budget in spending bill

The most recent defense bill includes an authorization for the MDA to continue Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii development and siting efforts.

The array would include several buildings, each 85 feet tall and emitting high-intensity electrical radiation, and restricted airspace arcs would fan out over the ocean to a distance of 9 miles.

Site consideration comes as the Defense Department reduced the current funding for a radar array on Hawaii to zero, citing a shift in priorities.

RELATED Space companies use Earth-imaging satellites to combat climate change

Although the MDA may find an appropriate location for its radar array, it may be eliminated in what MDA Vice Admiral Jon Hill called, in 2020 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, the "need for a persistent space-based global sensor capability."

THAT OTHER GEORGIA NOT IN USA

Georgia emerges as unlikely hotspot for digital nomads

AFP

© Andrey BORODULIN Georgia has become a cool hotspot for digital nomads, offering something for both those seeking to ski and relax by the sea, as well as its rich culture

American travel addict Candy Treft radiates enthusiasm while she extols the virtues of her new home country Georgia as one of the world's best locations for digital nomads. Georgia has become a cool hotspot for digital nomads, offering something for both those seeking to ski and relax by the sea, as well as its rich culture

The 51-year-old medical professional arrived in Georgia in 2019 and is now running a co-working and co-living space for foreign remote workers flocking to the tiny former Soviet republic nestled between the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea.

© Vano Shlamov Georgia's Black Sea port city of Batumi is also a draw for digital nomads

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, a growing number of people who could work fully remotely were striking out and adopting a digital nomad lifestyle -- answering emails from the beach or a picturesque town square.

© Vano SHLAMOV Candy Treft, who runs a co-working and co-living space for foreign remote workers in Tbilisi, says the country 'ticks off all of a digital nomad's boxes'

Bali has long been a favourite of digital nomads, and for European destinations Lisbon and the Estonian capital Tallinn have been popular.

Besides distinctive cuisine, rich culture and nature, Georgia "ticks off all of a digital nomad's boxes", Treft told AFP in her three-storey house in Tbilisi's old town, where she provides lodging and workspaces to nomadic professionals.

"The cost of living is more than affordable here, Internet access is very good, and safety -- safety in Georgia is better than one can experience in most other places in the world."

Georgia emerged as a top tourist destination around 2004 after former president Mikheil Saakashvili launched major infrastructure projects, rebuilding entire cities such as Batumi on the Black Sea or the Mestia ski resort

.

© Vano SHLAMOV Digital nomad Andrew Braun, a 28-year-old web developer from the US state of New Jersey, says he appreciates the friendliness of Georgians

Some nine million tourists visited the country of 3.7 million 2019, but after the coronavirus pandemic struck, its economy shrank by six percent last year and lost more than 100,000 jobs.

In an effort to boost the devastated tourism industry, which accounts for nearly a fifth of the gross domestic product, the Georgian government launched a programme last summer to lure high-income foreign remote workers.

Dubbed Remotely from Georgia, the scheme allows nationals of 95 countries who can prove a monthly income of at least $2,000, have tested negative for coronavirus or have been vaccinated to live and work in Georgia for a year.

- A 'desire to explore' -

Thousands of people have applied and hundreds have already arrived under the programme, National Tourism Administration spokeswoman, Tea Chanchibadze, told AFP.

"The programme aims at attracting long-term high-income visitors in a situation when massive tourist inflow is impossible," she said.

Digital nomad Andrew Braun, a 28-year-old web developer from the US state of New Jersey who works for a financial management firm, said Georgia is a "great place to explore even in the time of Covid".

"There are growing numbers of digital nomads in Georgia," he said.

"What I like most in Georgia is friendliness and flexibility in the culture. I am a foreigner, but I never feel too out of place here."

Digital nomads "are different kinds of people, but united by their desire to explore things and experience new stuff -- curiosity is a big driving force," Braun said.

Treft described her fellow nomads as people who "get bored of the mundane, want to mix it up, to see things different."

Compared to being on vacation, "as a digital nomad, you are much more able to dig a little bit deeper into the countries and cultures and experience it on a deeper level."

But a nomad's remote work also comes with specific challenges.

A study carried out by Britain's Cranfield University showed that employers often "intensify remote workers' workload with requests that can't be accomplished within certain timeframes."

Nomads in Georgia agreed that living and working abroad was not a one-stop solution to drastically improving anyone's quality of life.

"'Leave, do my work online, live in a different country and my life will be better...' Sometimes it is, but sometimes... you bring all your problems with you too," said Braun.

im/jbr/rl/oh

Thriving in German car region, Greens set sights higher

AFP 

At first glance, the affluent southwestern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg with its booming automobile industry might look like an unlikely stronghold for the Green party

.

© THOMAS KIENZLE "You know me" says Baden-Wuerttemberg state premier Winfried Kretschmann, the Green's candidate for re-election

But the Greens, who have headed the government in the conservative industrial region for ten years, are set to consolidate their grip in the state, opinion polls in the run-up to the next state election on Sunday show

.

© THOMAS KIENZLE Baden-Wuerttemberg's regional transport minister Winfried Hermann says "we have proven that it can work, even if it is complicated at times" to govern in a coalition with the conservative CDU

"We have proven that it can work, even if it is complicated at times," said Winfried Hermann, Baden-Wuerttemberg's transport minister -- a key post in a region that Mercedes, Daimler and Porsche call home.

The regional poll, which comes just six months before a general election on September 26, is seen as a bellwether of what might lie ahead as Chancellor Angela Merkel prepares to bow out of politics

.

© THOMAS KIENZLE Green territory? The parent company of Mercedes Benz has fared fairly well in Baden Wuerttemberg

The state's Green-led coalition government with Merkel's CDU could in fact be replicated on the federal level, albeit with the conservatives as the senior partner.

In Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Greens are now up to 10 points ahead of the conservatives, who are under pressure because of frustration with the government's pandemic management and a corruption scandal.

As a result, the ecologists could score their best result since they first came to power in the state in 2011, propelled by fear and anger over the Fukushima disaster.

After five years in coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens formed an unlikely partnership with the CDU in 2016, the only coalition partner available to them as the left imploded and the far-right AfD sucked votes away from the centre.

- 'Not as radical' -

"Who could have imagined this years ago, when the differences between black and green were so great and personal animosity so strong," 60-something transport minister Hermann told AFP, referring to the parties' traditional colours.

© THOMAS KIENZLE It would be "hasty" to predict how a coalition between the Greens and the conservatives might work at the national level based on the regional picture, political scientist Ursula Muench said

"We can see that the CDU has moved on climate issues, while the Greens are not as radical as they were 10 or 15 years ago," he said.

Arthur Roussia, 28, a deputy for a CDU candidate in industrial state capital Stuttgart, agrees that "on the whole, the collaboration has worked well".

Roussia puts this down to the "pragmatism" of Baden-Wuerttemberg state premier Winfried Kretschmann, who he credits with being "more reasonable" than many Green colleagues.

The 72-year-old, with his crop of white hair and rectangular glasses, features prominently on the party's main campaign poster for the election, accompanied by the slogan: "He knows what we can do."

"I appreciate that he is always looking for dialogue and consensus, whether with the business world or farmers," said one Stuttgart resident, Julia, as she passed a campaign stand.

- 'Common sense' -

For political scientist Ursula Muench, director of the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing, Bavaria, Kretschmann's political style has been a decisive factor in the success of the Greens in this prosperous region.

"As a Catholic who is attached to his roots, someone who represents a certain common sense, he speaks to traditional CDU voters," Muench said.

The former biology and chemistry professor is a founding member of the Greens, though his politics sometimes appear out of step with the party's general ethos.

Last year, for example, Kretschmann supported a scrappage scheme to incentivise the purchase of new cars to help automobile companies struggling in the coronavirus pandemic.

Such stances have angered the region's more hardcore environmentalists, who have proposed their own "climate list" of candidates for the election.

Peculiarities like these mean it would be "hasty" to predict how a coalition between the Greens and the conservatives might work at the national level based on the regional picture, Muench said.

The Greens at the federal level are also significantly to the left of those in Baden-Wuerttemberg and must appeal to a much more diverse electorate.

Johanna Molitor, a candidate for the liberal FDP party in Stuttgart, warned that "such a coalition at the national level would be too unstable".

Even Hermann admits that "there have been conflicts".

But he noted that in the end, "everyone knew that there was no alternative but to carry on" and find a compromise.

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