Sea of plastic: Med pollution under spotlight at conservation meet

Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

A turtle in Ajaccio on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica with the plastic pieces it has eaten, before having surgery to remove a hook from its throat

 Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA AFP/File

Marseille (AFP)

Plastic packaging and discarded fishing nets bob in the tranquil waters of the Mediterranean, signs of the choking pollution that has stirred strong feelings at the world conservation congress in the French port city Marseille this week.

"The Mediterranean is the most beautiful sea in the world... and one of the most polluted," said Danielle Milon, vice-president of the Calanques National Park on the edge of the city, where the International Union for Conservation of Nature is holding its congress.

While the quantity of rubbish in the sea is well documented -- the IUCN released a report on the issue last year entitled "Mare plasticum" -- it is driving growing alarm among countries whose economies rely on tourism drawn to pristine beaches and sparkling waters.

At the opening of the IUCN Congress, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to greatly increase the size of conservation areas off their Mediterranean coasts -- as well as the rigour with which they are preserved.

"Marine protected areas must no longer be paper parks but must have defined conservation measures," Mitsotakis said at the opening ceremony.

"We must promote sustainable tourism (and) put biodiversity at the heart of tourist coastal planning."

- 'Noah's Ark' -

Near the coasts the main types of plastic pollution in the almost closed sea are packaging and fishing debris, said Francois Galgani, a specialist on maritime waste at Ifremer, a top marine research centre in France.

"Turtles confuse the packaging with jellyfish and in some areas in the Mediterranean 80 percent of turtles have ingested plastic," he said.

Meanwhile, nets can kill long after the fishing boats leaves them behind.

Plastic waste can alter life cycles and the floating debris can even transport some species far from their habitats.

"A Noah's ark", said Galgani, adding there are "no other examples of species transport of this magnitude".

To change the situation, everyone needs to play their part, Philippos Drousiotis head of the Cyprus sustainable tourism initiative.

"I was in the tourism trade and very much liked the idea of being sustainable (but) environmentalists didn't care about people," he said, adding that he was driven by economic realism.

With initiatives like the "keep our sand and sea plastic free" project, his organisation tries to steer tour organisers, boat rental firms and hotels to stop using single use plastics.

It has also installed water fountains on beaches to make it easier for holidaymakers to give up their plastic bottles.

"The solutions are on land and not at sea," said Romy Hentinger of the Tara Ocean Foundation.

It is also necessary to increase knowledge of the sources of pollution and how it circulates.

The Tara Oceans schooner led an expedition in 2019 to trace plastic pollution in the major European rivers.

According to Nathalie Van Den Broeck, oceanographer and vice-president of Surfrider Europe, some "80 percent of waste on beaches and in the seas comes from rivers".

The French NGO has also launched a study using artificial intelligence to find waste in images taken on mobile phones by citizen scientists.

Volunteers have recently travelled along the banks of the Rhine, in the six countries crossed by the river.

There are a host of initiatives looking to use the Marseille congress to develop networks and partnerships.

Although Middle Eastern and North African countries from the southern shores of the Mediterranean -- which often have far fewer resources -- are conspicuous by their absence.

But more needs to be done, said Mercedes Munoz Canas, from the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation, who wants to bring in business interests.

We must "build a community", she said.

© 2021 AFP

PUTIN 💓GLOBAL WARMING

On thin ice: Near North Pole, a warning on climate change

Issued on: 08/09/2021 -

'The bears are the bosses here, this is their home,' says Dmitry Lobusov

 Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

North Pole (AFP)

A massive icebreaker cuts its way through the frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean, clearing a path to the North Pole, all white as far as the eye can see. But even here, the impact of climate change can be felt.

Dmitry Lobusov has seen it. For 13 years he has captained the "50 Let Pobedy" ("50 Years of Victory"), part of a growing fleet of icebreakers that Russia is using to assert its power in Arctic waters.

The vast, nuclear-powered ships clear paths through the ice for commercial vessels, helping Russia to deliver its oil, gas and minerals to the rest of world, and eventually to set up an Arctic shipping route between Asia and Europe that Moscow has touted as a rival to the Suez Canal.


Lobusov, a 57-year-old with a grey beard who often has a pipe in hand, stares out from the bridge as the red-and-black ship ploughs forward, so silent you can hear the ice cracking under its hull.

The melting of the Arctic ice pack Simon MALFATTO AFP

After nearly 30 years at sea, much of it in the Arctic, Lobusov has seen first hand the changes wrought by global warming.

"In the 1990s and early 2000s the ice was more difficult and thicker," says the sailor, his blue uniform immaculate.

"There used to be a lot of perennial ice," he says, referring to ice that forms on the surface of polar oceans and survives for multiple melting seasons.

"We hardly see that kind of ice anymore."

Perennial ice is thicker and stronger because it forms over several years and loses salt, Lobusov explains, making it harder for the icebreaker to cut a path. But today, most of the ice cover is formed during the year and quickly melts in the summer.

- Melting ice cover -

Scientists say there is no doubt that this is climate change at work.

Russia's Rosgidromet meteorological service said in a report in March that the Arctic ice cover is now five to seven times thinner than in the 1980s, and in the summer months the waters are becoming increasingly free of ice.

In September 2020, the ice cover in the Russian Arctic hit a low of 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 square miles) -- a record for that time of year -- the report said.

Vladimir Putin has moved away from climate scepticism and ordered his government to develop a plan to cut carbon emissions

 Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

Russia, a third of which is within the Arctic circle, is warming faster than the global average, it said, with temperatures having risen by half a degree per decade since 1976.

Long a sceptic of climate change, President Vladimir Putin has changed course in recent years, ordering his government to develop a plan to cut carbon emissions to below the level of the European Union by 2050.

As wildfires raged in Siberia this summer, Putin said he was alarmed by a series of "absolutely unprecedented" natural disasters in Russia.

Viktor Boyarsky, a 70-year-old seasoned Polar explorer who was travelling aboard the icebreaker, admits that global warming exists. But he says human activity "does not play a key role" and that its effects are not irreversible, despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary.

The former director of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Museum, Boyarsky says the region is stuck in a vicious circle as retreating ice cover allows the warmer waters of the Atlantic to enter the Arctic basin.

After nearly 30 years at sea, much of it in the Arctic, Dmitry Lobusov has seen first hand the changes wrought by global warming 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

"It's a chain reaction process. Less ice means more water and more heat," he says, standing in the mist that envelopes the ice shelves of the North Pole.

- 'We are just guests' -

After his many years at sea, icebreaker captain Lobusov says the changes in the Arctic are undeniable.

Along with the thinner Arctic ice, he says the North Pole is now covered in fog in the summer.

Russia, a third of which is within the Arctic circle, is warming faster than the global average, according to the Rosgidromet meteorological service

 Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

"I think it's also the effect of warming, there is more humidity in the air," he says.

He has also seen glaciers shrinking in the Arctic, like on the Franz Josef Land archipelago of more than 190 islands.

"Many glaciers are receding towards the centre of the islands from where they are on the map," he says.

"There are no questions here, without a doubt this is the effect of the heat."

Lobusov's "50 Years of Victory" -- part of a fleet of icebreakers operated by state atomic energy corporation Rosatom -- has reached the North Pole 59 times and on this trip is carrying a group of teenagers who won a contest to travel aboard.

As the 160-metre (525-foot) ship passes off the coast of Prince George Land -- an island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago -- a polar bear wanders across the ice, watching the vessel.

"The bears are the bosses here, this is their home," Lobusov says. "We are just guests."

© 2021 AFP

Moscow vies for Arctic clout with nuclear icebreaker fleet


Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

Moscow sees the development of the Arctic as a historic mission 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

Aboard the '50 Years of Victory' (Russia) (AFP)

As Arctic ice cover recedes with climate change, Russia is pinning its hopes for supremacy in the warming region on a fleet of giant nuclear-powered icebreakers.

Moscow sees the development of the Arctic as a historic mission and already has huge projects to exploit its natural resources.

Its next big plan is for year-round use of the Northern Sea Route, a shipping lane through Arctic waters Russia hopes could rival the Suez Canal.

Here are some key facts about Russia's plans for the Arctic:

- Historic ambitions -

As an icebreaker called the "50 Years of Victory" left the port of Murmansk for the North Pole this summer, its captain told an AFP journalist on board that Russia has a special role to play in the Arctic.

"A third of our territory lies above the Arctic Circle. Our ancestors have long mastered frozen waters. We are continuing this successfully," Dmitry Lobusov said.

President Vladimir Putin has made the development of the Arctic a strategic priority and state companies such as Gazprom Neft, Norilsk Nickel and Rosneft already have major projects in the Arctic to extract oil, gas and minerals.

"The Arctic region has enormous potential," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said earlier this month.

"In terms of resources, we're talking about 15 billion tonnes of oil and 100 trillion cubic metres of gas. Enough for tens if not hundreds of years," he said.

- Suez alternative -

The Northern Sea Route links the Pacific to the Atlantic through Russian Arctic waters.

It is not currently navigable year-round without the help of icebreakers, though in summer some specialised classes of ships can pass through.

With the ice cover receding, Moscow is aiming for year-round navigation by 2030.

The route between east Asia and Europe is considerably shorter than through the Suez Canal.

When a huge container ship blocked the busy Suez shipping lane in March, Moscow touted the Northern Sea passage as a "viable alternative".

Russia hopes to boost traffic through the route from nearly 33 million tonnes of cargo in 2020 to 80 million tonnes by 2024 and 160 million by 2035 -- still a long way off from the billion tonnes that pass through the Suez Canal every year.

Russia hopes to boost traffic through the Northern Sea Route over the coming years Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

Russia's state atomic energy corporation Rosatom, which is developing the route and icebreaker fleet, says 735 billion rubles ($10 billion/8.5 billion euros) will be invested by 2024, including 274 billion rubles in state money.

- Growing fleet -

Rosatom, which already has a fleet of five icebreakers and a container ship, is building four more nuclear-powered vessels within the next five years.

Each ship costs more than $400 million (340 million euros) to build. Construction requires more than 1,000 people and takes five to seven years.

Russia has a fleet of five icebreakers and a container ship and is building four more nuclear-powered vessels within the next five years 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

The ships are designed to resist extreme weather conditions, towering 52 metres (170 feet) high with a length of 173 metres (568 feet) and able to smash through ice up to 2.8 metres (9.2 feet) thick.

No other country operates a comparable fleet, with the United States and China mostly using diesel-electric icebreakers.

- Environmental worries -

Environmental groups have slammed the race for hydrocarbons and the increased presence of nuclear reactors in the Arctic -- an already fragile ecosystem dramatically affected by climate change.

Greenpeace has said that "the incident-ridden history of Russian nuclear icebreakers and submarines" should cause alarm.

Environmental groups have slammed the race for hydrocarbons and the increased presence of nuclear reactors in the already fragile

 Arctic Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

"Of course, risks arise when implementing projects in such a fragile ecosystem," Rosatom told AFP in a statement in response to environmental concerns.

But, it said, the "economic opportunities for both the local population and global economy" of the Northern Sea Route exceed environmental risks.

apo-ea-vvl-oc/jbr/mm/yad

© 2021 AFP

When a nuclear icebreaker stops at the North Pole

Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

Passengers, including a gaggle of high school students who won places on the trip in a competition, stepped onto the ice at the North Pole 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

North Pole (AFP)

Smoking a pipe and looking out over the vast, icy Arctic, captain Dmitry Lobusov sounds his ship's horn to signal to passengers they are near their destination: the North Pole.

The Arctic Ocean is too deep to drop anchor, but a thick ice embankment offers a dock for Lobusov's giant vessel -- one among Russia's growing fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers.

The 160-metre (525-foot) ship called "50 Let Pobedy" ("50 Years of Victory") reduces speed.

"Take a left, we'll stop here," Lobusov tells Diana Kidzhi, his second in command and the most senior woman in Russia's nuclear icebreaker fleet.

Thirty minutes later, the giant red-and-black ship is stopped within short walking distance of Earth's most northerly point.

"Well done," Lobusov says, shaking Kidzhi's hand and disembarking from the deck.

The passengers, including a gaggle of high school students who won places on the trip in a competition, step onto the slippery ice to take photos.

The ice they're standing on -- directly above the ocean floor marking the North Pole -- is shifting in Arctic currents, slowly taking them away from the Pole.

"You always find your own North Pole," says Viktor Boyarsky, a 70-year-old Russian explorer returning to the Arctic.

It has taken the icebreaker three and a half days to traverse the 2,400 kilometres (1,500 miles) to the North Pole from Murmansk, the base of Russia's Northern Fleet.

Dmitry Lobusov captains the Russian "50 Years of Victory" nuclear-powered icebreaker Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

The journey is only possible in summer, when ice cover is at its lowest. Climate change is making the trip gradually easier year by year.

Still, the 95-strong crew is alert for masses of ice that could impede the ship's progress.

The bridge is in constant contact with the crew controlling the ship's nuclear reactor.

Vladimir Yudin, the ship's chief mechanical engineer, is in charge of its 75,000-horsepower engine, the equivalent of about 75 Formula 1 racecars.

"We have 1,144 settings to manage and just as many sensors that need to be checked regularly," Yudin says.

The engine propels forward the ship's body, which is designed to cut through ice. The front is spoon-shaped, Lobusov explains.

"This allows us to get stuck in ice less often and to better penetrate it," says the 57-year-old, who has spent close to half his life in the Arctic.

© 2021 AFP

Breaking barriers: Russian woman leads the way on Arctic ship

Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

Diana Kidzhi, 27, is the most senior woman in Russia's growing nuclear icebreaker fleet

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

Aboard the '50 Years of Victory' (Russia) (AFP)

Peering through her binoculars at icebergs ahead, Diana Kidzhi shouts at the helmsman of a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker approaching the North Pole: "Ten degrees left!"

At just 27, Kidzhi is a chief mate -- second in command to the captain -- and sets the path the giant vessel will take through the frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean.

Standing on the bridge of the ship, she is surrounded by screens relaying information from dozens of sensors. One tells her the thickness of the ice several kilometres away.

A tiny white spot appears in her binoculars. Kidzhi immediately identifies a polar bear and tells the bridge crew -- all men and many much older -- to slow down so the ship does not disturb its hunting.

They follow her command and the sound of ice cracking beneath the ship begins to fade.

Kidzhi is the most senior woman in Russia's growing nuclear icebreaker fleet -- owned by state atomic energy corporation Rosatom -- which Moscow hopes will secure its supremacy over the Arctic as climate change makes it more navigable.

One of three chief mates aboard the "50 Let Pobedy" ("50 Years of Victory"), Kidzhi is breaking stereotypes in a country where many male-dominated professions are still off limits to women.

There are nine other women on the ship, working in the kitchen, the infirmary and as cleaners.

Kidzhi is breaking stereotypes in a country where many male-dominated professions are still off-limits to women 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

The rest of the 95-strong crew are men, several of whom said they were not very happy taking orders from a woman.

But Kidzhi is reluctant to talk about sexism, focusing instead on her determination to excel at her job.

- 'Knocking on a closed door' -

During four-hour shifts in the morning and evening, Kidzhi is in charge of the ship's heading as it sails through the Arctic for four months at a time.

Like most of the crew, Kidzhi is from Russia's second city and naval stronghold of Saint Petersburg.

As a child, she dreamed of working at sea.

Initially, she wanted to join the Russian navy. But while Saint Petersburg's Naval Institute was closed to women, another maritime university specialising in commercial shipping opened a course to women students just as she finished school.

One of Kidzhi's fellow chief mates says she is setting a precedent 

Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

"I took it as a sign. What's the point of knocking on a closed door when a path opens up in front of you," she says.

Shortly after graduating, she was invited to join an icebreaker fleet, "immediately falling in love".

In 2018, she joined the "50 Years of Victory" -- her first nuclear-powered ship.

She thrives on the "force you can feel" while operating the ship, which she says is incomparable to a diesel-powered vessel.

She quickly rose through the ranks on the icebreakers and has since sailed around the Arctic dozens of times and made nine voyages to the North Pole.

Kidzhi admits that when she first joined the ship, the crew looked at her with suspicion.

One of her fellow chief mates, 45-year-old Dmitry Nikitin, says she is setting a precedent.

"There are strong opponents of having a woman as part of the fleet. There is a feeling that a woman on a ship is bad luck," he says.

While Saint Petersburg's Naval Institute was closed to women, another maritime university specialising in commercial shipping opened a course to female students just as Kidzhi finished school

 Ekaterina ANISIMOVA AFP

"But we are slowly coming out of this belief."

Sergei Barinov, a 56-year-old deck officer on the icebreaker, says it's Kidzhi's age -- not her gender -- that is exceptional.

He hopes new icebreakers currently being built by Moscow will employ more young Russians.

Rosatomflot told AFP that a woman is serving on another one of its vessels, the "Yamal", but as a deck officer so in a lower-ranked position than Kidzhi.

"I aim to become captain one day," Kidzhi says.

video-ea-oc/mm/kjm

© 2021 AFP

Slovak Roma hope pope's visit will challenge stereotypes

Issued on: 08/09/2021 - 

Poverty and overcrowding are chronic issues at the Lunik IX estate, where 4,500 residents are squeezed into a space meant to accommodate half that number

 VLADIMIR SIMICEK AFP

Kosice (Slovakia) (AFP)

Crunching on sunflower seeds, a group of Roma children watch excitedly as builders work on the final preparations for a visit by Pope Francis to one of Europe's poorest regions in Slovakia.

The workers are erecting a power line in Lunik IX, a dilapidated housing estate in the eastern city of Kosice where people from the Roma minority have lived in abject poverty and faced stigma for decades.

"In Kosice, when an employer found out that I am Roma and live at Lunik IX, they refused to give me the job we agreed on over the phone," Maria Horvathova, 45, a mother of 12, told AFP.

"There is racism everywhere and people do not want to give us a chance," she said.

Poverty and overcrowding are chronic issues at Lunik IX, where 4,500 residents are squeezed into a space meant to accommodate half that number.

Many blocks have no electricity, heat, gas or running water as utilities were cut due to unpaid bills.

- 'Spiritual support' -

The Roma have big communities in Central and Eastern Europe and are considered the largest ethnic minority in Europe as a whole.

They have faced discrimination for centuries -- historians estimate that half a million Roma were killed by the Nazis, wiping out about a quarter of their population.

Horvathova has since found work at the local Salesian church that is helping to organise the papal visit and is now one of the few local inhabitants to have a job.

"People say that Lunik IX is the poorest and dirtiest place of all. I hope that the pope does not think so and that he will give us some spiritual support," she said, while cooking eggs on a gas canister-powered stove.

Maria Horvathova, 45, is one of the few locals to have a job

 VLADIMIR SIMICEK AFP

Pope Francis will visit Hungary and Slovakia next week and the trip to Lunik IX on September 14 will be a key moment, reflecting his message of closeness to impoverished communities.

The eastern part of Slovakia, an EU member state of 5.4 million people, ranks among one of the places in Europe with the lowest GDP per capita, along with parts of Bulgaria and Romania.

Despite the difficulties, Marcel Sana, the mayor of Lunik IX, is hoping to create a good first impression for the pope and is busy sprucing up the area ahead of the visit.

"We are fixing the road leading to the district, getting rid of potholes, renovating facades, revitalising the greenery," he said.

- 'Not some kind of trash' -

When the pope visits, a 35-member children's choir will sing for him in Romani.

"I hope his visit will make people understand that we are not some kind of trash and that also decent and fine people live here," said 19-year-old Monika Gulasova, one of the performers.

Gulasova is a member of the local Salesian community led by Peter Besenyei, who is responsible for the pastoral care of the Roma in the Kosice Archdiocese.

During his visit, Pope Francis will say some words in Romani

 VLADIMIR SIMICEK AFP

"The Roma are believers by their nature," Besenyei told AFP. "They do not have the slightest doubt about the existence of God."

The priest said that during his visit, Pope Francis would say some words in the Romani language and the Our Father prayer would also be recited in Romani.

"He will bring the hope to the Lunik IX Roma that if you want to change your life, you can," he said.

© 2021 AFP

‘An unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe’: The siege of Leningrad, 80 years on

Issued on: 08/09/2021 

Leningrad residents dig up water from a broken main in the winter of 1942.

 © AP archive

Text by: Stéphanie TROUILLARD

The Nazis began their siege of Leningrad on September 8, 1941 – trying to starve the USSR's second-largest city into submission just a few months after launching their invasion of the country in Operation Barbarossa. For 872 days, the inhabitants of this industrial centre (now known by its original name, Saint Petersburg), went through hell as hunger, cold and bombardments killed nearly a million people. FRANCE 24 looks back at the siege, 80 years on.

The simple statements of the extraordinary 11-year-old diarist Tania Savitcheva capture best the helplessness in Leningrad: “Jenia died on December 28 at midnight. Grandma died on January 25 at three in the afternoon. Leka died on March 5 at five in the morning. The Savichevs are dead. Everyone is dead. Tania is all alone.”

Evacuated before the end of the siege, Savitcheva died of exhaustion on July 1, 1944. She became a symbol of this 872-day siege – the longest in modern history until that of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1996 – after her elder sister Nina, who had managed to escape the surrounded city, discovered and published the diary.

A portrait of Tania Savitcheva with notes from her wartime diary. 

© Wikimedia creative commons

A symbol of Russia

Leningrad was a major target when Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

Peter the Great founded the city as St Petersburg (the original name returned in 1991 after the collapse of the USSR) in 1703 – as a “Window to the West”, where the Neva River’s swampy bank meets the Gulf of Finland.

As the capital of Tsarist Russia, the site of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and as an incarnation of the Russian nation in the eyes of many, Leningrad carried clear significance for Adolf Hitler as he attempted to destroy the Soviet Union. “The city was first and foremost a symbol,” noted French historian Pierre Vallaud, author of L’Étau, le siège de Leningrad (“The Vice: The Siege of Leningrad”).

“Besieging Leningrad also cut the USSR off from the Baltic,” Vallaud continued. “It was a very important strategic location for Hitler as he tried to conquer the Soviet Union and carve out Lebensraum (living space) for Germany there,” he said.

The Wehrmacht surged through Soviet territory after the start of Operation Barbarossa – taking two and a half months to arrive at the gates of Leningrad, with their Finnish allies cutting the city off from the north (Finland backed Nazi Germany against the USSR after successfully repulsing Joseph Stalin’s invasion in the 1939-40 Winter War).

German troops pictured during their advance on Leningrad in September 1941. 

© AP file photo

>> Hitler’s ‘war of annihilation’: Operation Barbarossa, 80 years on

The Nazis besieged Leningrad because capturing it would be more difficult. As the Wehrmacht advanced, the city “had time to set up barricades and prepare itself to resist the occupiers, so Hitler ordered the military to destroy it by either sea or land, without entering it”, Vallaud explained.

The siege’s slow torture began as the Nazis cut off the last road to Leningrad on September 8. Intense bombardments ravaged the city. Supplies were blocked – except for the “Road of Life”, an unreliable transport route across the frozen Lake Ladoga.

‘So easy to die’

Leningrad only had a month’s food reserves. It was an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”, said Sarah Gruszka, who recently completed a PhD thesis on the wartime diaries of Leningrad residents, collecting hundreds of testimonies.

“Rations became as meagre as 125 grams of bread per day for most Leningrad residents during the winter of 1941-42,” Gruszka said. “Bread was generally the only food allowed, and it was often made from ersatz substances like cellulose – hardly nutritious fare.”

“The rations the Soviet system managed to allocate were barely enough to survive on, so the people of Leningrad had to do everything they could to avoid starvation,” Gruszka continued.

>> Harrowing destruction, limited military impact: The Blitz, 80 years on

The bodies of dead Leningraders are carried to Volkovo cemetery in October 1942. 

© Wikimedia, RIA Novosti archive

Cannibalism was perhaps the siege’s most notorious feature. Some 2,000 people were arrested for eating human flesh in the first half of 1942, Vallaud pointed out in his book. Hunger became the all-pervading obession. Pets were eaten, cosmetics were eaten, then wallpaper paste; leather was boiled to make soup. Many people succumbed to starvation. Others just gave up trying to live. Dead bodies were lying on the streets.

“It’s so easy to die right now,” wrote one diarist, Elena Skriabina. “You start by losing interest in everything, then you just lie down in bed and never get up again.”

>> The smile at Auschwitz: The extraordinary story of a young girl in the French Resistance

“Famine was the main cause of death,” Gruszka observed. “It’s difficult to establish a precise figure, but historians agree that nearly a million people, mostly civilians, died during the siege – mainly of hunger, in the first winter – in a city that had over 3 million inhabitants on the eve of the Second World War.

Hunger was far from the only form of hardship the citizens of Leningrad faced, Gruszka added: “There was also the isolation, the cold, the German shelling, the Stalinist repression that preceded it all, the lack of running water, the need to go out and get water by tapping ice in the sub-zero Neva, various forms of disease, the miles and miles people had to walk because there were no other means of transport – et cetera.”

Resistance through culture

Yet daily life and even cultural life persisted in the face of these unspeakable conditions. Libraries, theatres and concert halls still managed to open intermittently.

Exhibiting remarkable pertinacity, iconic composer Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his 7th symphony, a tour de force, in besieged Leningrad. Musicians weakened by hunger performed it at the Grand Philharmonia Hall in August 1942. “I wanted to compose a piece about the men of our region, who became heroes in the fight against our enemy,” Shostakovich wrote in Pravda.

A Soviet press release of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich composing his 7th Symphony during the siege of Leningrad. © AFP file photo

The Soviet authorities soon started using Leningrad’s musicians and artists as propaganda tools. “The Soviet regime put a lot of emphasis on the cultural dimension of life under the siege of Leningrad,” Gruszka said. “The local authorities tried to hide the extent of the crisis, because the USSR didn’t want to sow panic among the rest of its population or demotivate them during a fight for national survival – and above all because the Stalinist regime didn’t want to call into question its capacity to protect and provide for its own citizens.”

The USSR’s totalitarian state apparatus maintained its repression in besieged Leningrad. The NKVD, the secret police, carried on in the same way. Its executions of supposed traitors continued.

‘No one has been forgotten’

Hope re-emerged for the people of Leningrad as a Soviet counter-offensive in January 1943 allowed the situation to ease somewhat. The tide had turned in the Second World War; the USSR was inching towards its February 1943 triumph in the Battle of Stalingrad amid inhuman conditions – while the British smashed Erwin Rommel’s forces at El Alamein in Egypt in November 1942.

The Red Army’s progress around Leningrad facilitated the opening of a land corridor to bring in supplies. But it took until January 27, 1944 for the Soviets to push the Nazis back and lift the blockade.

The Soviet regime hailed the heroism of the people of Leningrad – before it soon started to hide it. Stalin did not want to be overshadowed.

“Leningrad was the city of the Bolshevik revolution; Stalin was nevertheless not terribly popular there,” Vallaud said. “It was inconvenient for him that a million people died there and that the city owed its resistance in the face of the Nazis’ siege to its residents’ heroism.”

Thus Soviet historiography failed to give them their due until the late 1970s – when testimonies from besieged Leningrad entered the public sphere and illuminated the suffering and courage of its people.

In contemporary Russia’s collective memory, there is a contrast between public and private forms of remembrance, Gruszka observed – between the “militaristic tone” of President Vladimir Putin’s “revival of the Great Patriotic War cult”, on the one hand, and a “more nuanced” understanding of the siege amongst many Russians, “often focused on its traumatic qualities”.

A 2016 memorial ceremony at St. Petersburg's Piskaryovskoye Cemetery, where most victims of the siege were buried during the war. © Dmitry Lovetsky, AP

Private commemorations of the victims and heroes of the Leningrad siege often take place in the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery, where 470,000 civilians and 50,000 combatants who died in the blockade lie buried, watched over by the cold grandeur of Saint Petersburg’s Avenue of the Unvanquished.

Behind the cemetery’s statue of Mother Russia, the words of the poet Olga Bergoltts – who survived the siege – are inscribed in granite:

Here lie Leningraders

Here are the city’s people – men, women, and children

And next to them, Red Army soldiers.

They defended you, Leningrad,

The cradle of the Revolution

With all their lives.


We cannot list their noble names here,

There are so many of them under the granite’s eternal protection.

But everyone who comes to look at these stones – you should know this:

No one has been forgotten, nothing has been forgotten.

This article was translated from the original in French.

CATHOLICS LOVE BOOK BURNINGS

Book burning at Ontario francophone schools as 'gesture of reconciliation' denounced

Tyler Dawson 

© Provided by National Post Outdated history books, such as two biographies of French explorer Jacques Cartier, as well as others with

A book burning held by an Ontario francophone school board as an act of reconciliation with Indigenous people has received sharp condemnation from Canadian political leaders and the board itself now says it regrets its symbolic gesture.

The “flame purification” ceremony, first reported by Radio Canada , was held in 2019 by the Conseil scolaire catholique Providence, which oversees elementary and secondary schools in southwestern Ontario. Some 30 books, the national broadcaster reported, were burned for “educational purposes” and then the ashes were used as fertilizer to plant a tree.

“We bury the ashes of racism, discrimination and stereotypes in the hope that we will grow up in an inclusive country where all can live in prosperity and security,” says a video prepared for students about the book burning, Radio Canada reported.

In total, more than 4,700 books were removed from library shelves at 30 schools across the school board, and they have since been destroyed or are in the process of being recycled, Radio Canada reported.

Lyne Cossette, the board’s spokesperson, told National Post that the board formed a committee and “many Aboriginal knowledge keepers and elders participated and were consulted at various stages, from the conceptualization to the evaluation of the books, to the tree planting initiative.”

“Symbolically, some books were used as fertilizer,” Cossette wrote in an email.

The project, entitled Redonnons à la terre — “give back to the earth,” in English — was intended “to make a gesture of openness and reconciliation by replacing books in our libraries that had outdated content and carried negative stereotypes about First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.”

The school library, she said, is constantly updated, and the library books on shelves have “positive and inclusive messages about the diverse communities within our schools.”

“We regret that we did not intervene to ensure a more appropriate plan for the commemorative ceremony and that it was offensive to some members of the community. We sincerely regret the negative impact of this initiative intended as a gesture of reconciliation,” Cossette wrote.

Asked about the book burning, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau said it’s not up to non-Indigenous people “to tell Indigenous people how they should feel or act to advance reconciliation.”

“On a personal level, I would never agree to the burning of books,” Trudeau said.

Yves-François Blanchet, leader of the Bloc Québécois, said “we don’t burn books,” at a press conference.

“We expose ourselves to history, we explain it, we demonstrate how society has evolved or must evolve,” he said.

Asked about the report, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said, “Reconciliation is important for all Canadians and we have to have a system that does not discriminate.”

Later, O’Toole tweeted: “A Conservative government will be committed to reconciliation. But the road to reconciliation does not mean tearing down Canada. I strongly condemn the burning of books.”

Jagmeet Singh, the NDP leader, said the news calls for reflection.

“I have seen negative images, cartoons, and presentation that do not respect the dignity of Indigenous communities. So I think we really need to change our approach to teaching our children,” Singh said.

A 165-page school board document includes analysis of all the books removed from shelves, Radio Canada reported.

Among them are classic titles, such as Tintin in America, which was withdrawn for its “negative portrayal of indigenous peoples and offending Aboriginal representation in the drawings.”

Also removed were books that allegedly contain cultural appropriation, as well as outdated history books, such as two biographies of Jacques Cartier, a French explorer who mapped the St. Lawrence, and another of explorer Étienne Brûlé.

André Noël, a Quebec journalist, noted on Twitter that his book, Trafic chez les Hurons, published in 2000, was among those removed from shelves. In a Twitter thread, Noël wrote in French that the removal of his book “surprises me and seems excessive.”

“But I fear that this controversy will distract us from the real scandal, which we have not yet fully measured: the destruction of Indigenous lands and the oppression of Indigenous peoples by Europeans and their descendants, including in Canada and in Quebec,” he wrote.

Beading obsidian brings on the future

​“Doctrine of Discovery” is Kaska-Dene artist Sho Sho Belelige Esquiro’s first solo exhibit. It is meant to honour Indigenous strength while confronting and addressing the legacy of colonial atrocities.

In the multimedia exhibit, Esquiro’s art weaves together honour and prayer with themes of genocidal colonial practices, theft of resources and the murder of Indigenous women and children.

“These are things that have affected myself and my family from these policies that are upheld within Canada.”

“Doctrine of Discovery” premieres at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art from Sept. 22 and runs until June 5, 2022.

Esquiro has been crafting couture that celebrates connection to land, family and Indigenous community for 11 years. She works with a wide range of materials, including recycled and ethically sourced wool, fur, leather, and minerals. The result is an exhibit rich in paintings, photography, textiles and couture gowns.

Esquiro is from Tulidlini, where two rivers meet, also known as Ross River, Yukon. It’s a beautiful and grounding place for her, from which she has drawn peace and energy.

Many of her materials come from her lands: fox pelt, beaver tail, and shells. A fur from her Uncle Amos appears in her art.

“He’s our national treasure. He’s 95 and he still traps. He’s in the hospital with COVID-19 right now, so we’re calling for prayers.”

Although some techniques and materials are rooted in her heritage, Esquiro doesn’t call those materials “traditional.”

“I don’t like to think of our Kaska art as stagnant. We’re growing,” she says. “And so I incorporate other materials that wouldn't be found in that area. We used to trade for dentalium shells on the coast. We used to trade for seal skins.”

Esquiro has had family and community support, mentors, and she keeps them close to her heart as her audience. She shares ideas and plans with family. She provides as an example, her dad. She talks with him as a residential school survivor, listening to learn if an idea she has will be too triggering. With themes of genocide and resource theft core to her art, it was important that Indigenous people as viewers were considered, first and foremost, she says.

The show at Bill Reid Gallery will attract school tours, tourists and people who are new to this country.

“I'm hoping that people come and all colours, creeds, religions can really take something away, or it brings something up in them to keep these conversations going.

“It's for a non-Indigenous person to come in and get a glimpse. This is not historical, like ‘forget about it. Get over it already.’ No. This is still happening.”

Miranda Belarde-Lewis is a Zuni-Tlingit assistant professor at the University of Washington and curator of this exhibit. She says the show’s intent is to craft conversation starters, although she’s a big fan of unintended conversation.

“Everybody's bringing their own experiences into the gallery and who knows what they're going to bring. They're going to bring their own joy, their own eyes, their own trauma. And you just never know what people are going to talk about.”

This show was five years in the making, growing and shifting during pauses brought on by gallery renovations, pandemic, cancer and loss.

The foundation originated with Layers of Love: The Wearable Arts, a show with “amazing, trail-blazing artist Clarissa Rizal. It was like working with a rock star,” says Esquiro. Rizal had cancer and she passed just after the original show was meant to open at the Bill Reid Gallery in October 2016. “It was heartbreaking, just heartbreaking.”

The Bill Reid Gallery closed for renovations afterward, and that was followed by the pandemic restrictions.

“This show has had every possible hurdle,” says Belarde-Lewis.

The pauses allowed time and space for themes to crystallize, themes that included murdered and missing Indigenous women and men, residential schools and resource theft.

The timing now feels like confirmation to Esquiro to use her special gift to continue awareness building, as the painful recoveries from unmarked, undisclosed graves at former residential schools continue.

Esquiro prayed long and hard over how to create from these themes, she says. The healing process is woven into the show’s pieces, and for Esquiro, art and spirituality are one thing.

“Prayer guides my process.”

Similar to people bringing signage to protests, Esquiro has incorporated text in her recent work. One piece uses an infamous quote by an originator of Native American boarding schools in the United States, Richard Pratt.

“Kill the Indian to spare the man.” It’s heavy, Esquiro acknowledges.

“It’s been emotional. I mean, who wants to bead that quote? But it’s also been healing.”

Esquiro is concerned about the fading attention to the thousands of children’s graves recovered at residential schools. What happened to the uproar, she asks, when the first 215 children were recovered in Kamloops? It’s a conversation her show aims to continue. She is the first generation in her family to not be forced into residential schools.

“Sho Sho is capturing this widespread feeling of Indigenous peoples across the Americas through her fashion, which is such a unique viewpoint and unique expression that lures you in,” says Belarde-Lewis. “It's like a fish hook. You know, you see these shiny beads and you see the furs.”

The audience is drawn in, close, the materials are so tactile, she says. Memories and current events begin to rise, and conversations emerge.

“The last time Pope Francis refused to apologize, I saw so many people in my community so hurt,” says Esquiro. “It brought it all back for them. I just cried. It broke my heart. All the other churches apologized.”

Esquiro was invited to a fashion show in Paris, and she took her pieces NO APOLOGY NECESSARY, including a jacket with an image of Pope Francis placed on it upside down to express distress like inverted flags do. She took it to Notre Dame, one of the most famous symbols of Catholicism in the world.

“It would be amazing to get an apology,” said Esquiro, “but if we don’t get it, our healing isn’t going to be dependent on it. So that’s what I meant by no apology necessary.”

“Sho Sho’s not waiting for people to come to her so she can give them a piece of her mind,” says Belarde-Lewis.

After the Notre Dame event “I was referred to as an activist and I've never called myself that. So it was uncomfortable at first, because I'm not on the front line at all by any means,” says Esquiro. “And this collection is really honoring people that are on the front lines.

Protest Kokum is a piece created in tribute of the power in grassroots activism, communicated through leather, text, font and beadwork.

A piece called Land Back was created from copper beads, 24 karat gold beads, raw black diamonds, birchbark, black seed beads, obsidian, dentalium, ostrich feathers, home tanned moose hide, porcupine quills, and acid washed lambskin.

Curator Belarde-Lewis describes another piece, a child’s dress, to honour children who had to go to residential school. They got stolen from their families, from their land.

She considers the generations of women who crafted regalia for their loved ones with keen attention to detail. Not all had the privilege of owning regalia, or having Elders to learn from.

Through systematic oppression, connections to family and land were deliberately removed, Belarde-Lewis says. In describing the meticulous beadwork, her mind turns to the seven generations, and she passes along a teaching she received.

“We're always talking about the seven generations, whether that’s us being in the middle of seven generations, or we're planning for seven generations from now. We've endured 500 years of intense colonial oppression and we're still doing our thing. It's not going to be what it was 500 years ago. And that's okay. We can't romanticize the future as if it is something 500 years in the future. That veil between us and what the future is is thin. It really is just a veil. That future is just on the other side of that veil.”

“Whether we think about the responsibility of educating our allies or educating ourselves as a future project, we can’t wait,” said Belarde-Lewis. “We need to be part of that conversation right now. And so, interventions into public education like this exhibition are part of shaping that conversation right now.”

Esquiro takes her opportunity to use her voice seriously and passionately. She’s only 41, and to be offered a solo show is a tribute. She’s working day and night to ensure the best of her skill and talent are in this show, she says.

“I’m honoured to have this platform and talk about these issues that are important to myself, and in Indian country. I feel my work is my legacy, and nobody's promised another day. This collection is my life's work up to this point.”

“I believe Creator blesses you with a gift, and I feel like it's your responsibility to utilize that gift and to share that gift, and then make space for other people with your gift. Not just let it stop at you.”

​Windspeaker.com

By Odette Auger, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker, Windspeaker.com

AYN RAND HERO PROTAGONIST

Jeff Bezos, 57, reportedly invests in life-prolonging startup


Amazon ex-CEO Jeff Bezos has been looking to space for humanity's future. But the world's richest man is also trying to extend humanity's lifespan here on Earth, according to a report in MIT's Technology Review. 

© Tony Gutierrez / AP Blue Origin Bezos

Bezos, who is worth an estimated $200 billion, is one of several investors in Altos Labs, a Silicon Valley startup working on technology to rejuvenate cells and potentially prolong life, the Technology Review reported. The startup also counts Yuri Milner, a Russian tech billionaire and founder of the $3 million Breakthrough Prizes, as a backer.


Altos Labs is working on what's called reprogramming technology, a method of reverting adult, specialized cells into stem cells, which have the potential to turn into any kind of cell, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technology Review.

Scientists say reprogramming holds great potential to treat vision loss, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries and other age-related bodily degeneration. In a 2018 study, the Salk Institute biocmemist Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte declared it "the elixir of life" and said that "aging is not an irreversible process." The following year, Izpisua Belmonte was part of a team working in China that created monkey-human hybrids called chimeras, drawing criticism from medical ethicists.

Now, Izpisua Belmonte is set to join Altos Labs, according to the Technology Review. Other preeminent scientists are also joining the startup's staff, including Steve Horvath, a University of California geneticist who developed a way to detect the aging of cells from their molecular markers. Shinya Yamanaka, who received a Nobel prize for his work on reprogramming in 2012 will head Altos Labs' advisory board., Technology Review reported.

Stopping disease and prolonging life seems to be a key interest for Bezos. In his 2020 letter to Amazon shareholders, the 57-year-old Amazon founder quotes extensively from British evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, writing to his investors: "Staving off death is a thing that you have to work at. … if living things didn't work actively to prevent it, they would eventually merge into their surroundings, and cease to exist as autonomous beings. That is what happens when they die."

Concluded Bezos in his shareholder letter: "Never, never, never let the universe smooth you into your surroundings."

Bezos Expeditions, the billionaire's investment firm, did not reply for a request for comment from CBS MoneyWatch.

The multi-billionaire holds stakes in several other startups conducting cellular research, according to Bezos Expeditions, including Nautilus Biotechnology, Sana Biotechnology, Denali Therapeutics and Juno Therapeutics (now part of Bristol Myers Squibb).

Along with fellow tech billionaire Peter Thiel, Bezos has also invested in Unity Biotechnology, a startup developing technology to delay aging at the cellular level.

The project of staving off death is a popular one in Silicon Valley. In 2013, Google launched Calico, a research and development lab to treat aging. One year later, the Palo Alto Longevity Prize offered $1 million for researchers who could turn old organisms young or extend a living creature's lifespan by 50%. Today, researchers from 50 countries can take a crack at some $30 million in prizes available through the National Academy of Medicine's "healthy longevity" challenge.

Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, expects $4.5 billion to be invested in life-extending science this year, he told the New York Post.

NUKE FLUSH

IAEA seeks Japan transparency in release of Fukushima water


TOKYO (AP) — Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency asked Japan on Tuesday for full and detailed information about a plan to release treated but still radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean.

The three-member team, which is assisting Japan with the planned release, met Tuesday with government officials to discuss technical details before traveling to the Fukushima Daiichi plant for an on-site examination Wednesday. They will meet with Japanese experts through Friday.

Lydie Evrard, head of the IAEA's Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, said transparency and a full disclosure about the water and its treatment is key to ensuring safety for the project, which is expected to take decades.

The government and the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, announced plans in April to start releasing the water in the spring of 2023 so hundreds of storage tanks at the plant can be removed to make room for other facilities needed for its decommissioning.

The idea has been fiercely opposed by fishermen, local residents and Japan’s neighbors, including China and South Korea.

TEPCO plans to send the water through an undersea tunnel and discharge it from a location about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) away from the coastal power plant after further treating and diluting it with large amounts of seawater to bring it below releasable limits.

Evrard said her team wants to monitor the release to make sure it meets IAEA radiation and environmental safety standards, and proposed a discussion of monitoring methods and other details.

Government and TEPCO officials say tritium, which is not harmful in small amounts, cannot be removed from the water, but all other isotopes selected for treatment can be reduced to safe levels. Controlled release of tritium from normal nuclear plants is a routine global practice, officials say.

IAEA and Japanese officials on Tuesday discussed tritium monitoring methods.

Japan has requested IAEA’s assistance to ensure the discharge meets safety standards and to gain the understanding of the international community.

Trade and industry minister Hiroshi Kajiyama told reporters Tuesday that IAEA's involvement will help build trust in the Japanese effort. He said Japan will fully cooperate.

A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 severely damaged three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, causing contaminated cooling water to leak. The water has been stored in about 1,000 tanks which the plant's operator says will reach their capacity late next year.

Japanese officials say disposal of the water is required for the decommissioning of the plant, and that its release into the ocean is the most realistic option.

Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press

SWITCH THEM WITH SCOTUS

Mexico Supreme Court rules abortion criminalization is unconstitutional

Mexico's Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that penalizing abortion is unconstitutional, in a decision expected to set precedent for the legal status of abortion nationwide.

© Ulises Ruiz/AFP/Getty Images Activists supporting the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico march in Guadalajara, Mexico, on September 28, 2019.

By Karol Suarez and Sharif Paget, CNN

"Today is a historic day for the rights of all Mexican women," said Supreme Court Chief Justice Arturo Zaldivar.

The court ruled Tuesday against a law in the state of Coahuila, which threatened women who undergo abortions with up to three years prison and a fine.

The law, according to Coahuila Penal Code Article 196, allowed prosecution of both a woman seeking an abortion and the person who "causes her to have an abortion with her consent."

"I'm against stigmatizing those who make this decision [to undergo an abortion] which I believe is difficult to begin with, due to moral and social burdens. It shouldn't be burdened as well by the law. Nobody gets voluntarily pregnant thinking about getting an abortion later," said Supreme Court Justice Ana Margarita Ríos Farjat, one of only three women among the court's 11 justices.

The top court's decision against such penalization is "a historic step," Justice Luis Maria Aguilar said.

"Never again will a woman or a person with the capacity to carry a child be criminally prosecuted," he added. "Today the threat of imprisonment and stigma that weigh on people who freely decide to terminate their pregnancy are banished."

Elsewhere in Latin America, Argentina's Senate approved a bill to legalize abortion in December 2020. The Senate voted 38-29 to give millions of women access to legal terminations under the law supported by President Alberto Fernández.

The vote comes as US states just north of the border move to restrict abortion access, most notably in Texas

Volkswagen signals higher transition cost from autonomous shift


By Christoph Steitz and Jan Schwartz

© Reuters/Fabian Bimmer FILE PHOTO: 

Volkswagen CEO, Diess, chairman of the supervisory board Poetsch, Lower Saxony's PM Weil and head of VW works council, Osterloh, address the media in Wolfsburg

MUNICH (Reuters) - Volkswagen may have to spend more to deliver its planned transformation, the German carmaker's supervisory board chairman said, particularly a shift towards autonomous driving.

The world's second-largest automaker, which plans to invest 150 billion euros ($178 billion) in its business by 2025, has repeatedly said that it can fund the transition towards electric vehicles and autonomous driving based on current cash flows.

"We are in a phase where substantial free cash flows are being generated. That means we can pay out good dividends as well as comfortably fund our business going forward," Hans Dieter Poetsch told Reuters at the IAA Munich car show.

"But of course we are in an environment in which we cannot rule out that larger sums, for example in the field of autonomous driving, have to be invested," Poetsch, who is also chief executive of Porsche SE, which is Volkswagen's largest shareholder.

"It is therefore recommendable to think one or two steps ahead," Poetsch added, without specifying details.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday it expects to spend more than $13.5 billion by 2030 to develop batteries and a battery supply system as the world's largest automaker moves to deliver its first all-electric line-up next year.

Poetsch declined to comment on a potential initial public offering of luxury car division Porsche AG, which sources told Reuters in May is a scenario Volkswagen has contemplated should it require more money to pay for its strategy.

"From today's point of view our financial situation is relatively comfortable. And as part of our planning rounds, which we are holding each year, we are regularly reviewing where there is a need," Poetsch said.

Analysts reckon that a partial IPO of Porsche, speculation over which has regularly lifted Volkswagen's stock, could value the unit at 45 billion euros to 90 billion, a major lever Volkswagen could pull to fill its coffers.

"The clever finance executive will always have a list with options for how to provide extended financial flexibility for the company," Poetsch added.

($1 = 0.8421 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Jan Schwartz; Editing by Emma Thomasson and Alexander Smith)