Austria's parliament legalizes assisted suicide

Austrian lawmakers have approved a law that legalizes assisted suicide for seriously ill people, subject to tight rules. A law banning the practice was set to expire, which would have left the matter unregulated.



The practice would have effectively become unregulated, had there been no legislation

The Austrian parliament on Thursday voted to legalize assisted suicide from January after a court ruling said its ban breached fundamental human rights.

The ban would have expired at the end of this year anyway, and the new legislation means it can only take place in accordance with strict criteria.
What conditions must be met?

The Assisted Suicide Act gives the option of an advance directive — similar to a living will — only to people over 18 who are terminally ill or suffer from a permanent, debilitating condition.

Each case is to be assessed by two doctors, one of whom would have to be an expert in palliative medicine. As part of their duties, they must determine whether a patient is opting for euthanasia independently.

At least 12 weeks must pass before a patient is granted access to the procedure, to ensure that euthanasia is not being sought due to a temporary crisis. However, for patients in the "terminal phase" of an illness, the period can be shortened to two weeks.

The individual would then draw up their will with a notary or a patient advocate before being able to obtain a lethal drug from a pharmacist.

Why is this happening now?

The new regulation became necessary after Austria's Constitutional Court lifted the ban on assisted suicide. Judges said the prohibition violated the individual's right to self-determination.

Had it not been passed, euthanasia would no longer have been banned from the end of this year and the practice would effectively have become unregulated.

Austria's governing conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) partnered Greens supported the law in the National Council, along with the opposition Social Democrats and the liberal Neos party. The only disagreement came from the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). (DROP FREEDOM FROM THEIR NAME)

Strengthening the alternatives

Justice Minister Alma Zadic of the Greens said that, alongside the legislation, measures would be taken to offer alternatives to suicide.

Part of this was a planned law to expand hospice and palliative care, while the Austrian government is also making more money available for suicide prevention initiatives.

Elsewhere in Europe, assisted suicide has been decriminalized in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Spain. It is more of a legal gray area in countries like France and Germany, where it has been legalized by court ruling but is not legislated for or regulated.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa last month refused to sign a parliament-sanctioned bill allowing euthanasia, effectively shelving the legislation there until next year.

Meanwhile, critics have described the procedure in Switzerland — one of only a handful of countries in the world that allows assisted suicide for non-resident foreigners — as a form of "suicide tourism."

rc/fb (AFP, dpa)

UNESCO adds traditions to its Intangible Cultural Heritage List

Music, performances and ancient crafts: UNESCO has added different customs to its list of global cultural treasures to be protected. Here a selection in pictures.

    

The devil is part of celebrations at the Corpus Christi religious festivity in Panama

On December 15-16, UNESCO added dozens of traditions it deemed worthy of being cherished and preserved to its Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

Here are just a few of them. 

Dances and expressions associated with Corpus Christi festivities

Panama's Corpus Christi religious festival, which celebrates the body and blood of Christ, combines elements of Catholic tradition with music, theater and burlesque performances involving colorful costumes and masks.

One of the main performances is held a day before the festival, and depicts a battle between good and evil, with an archangel taking on the devil and his legion. Participants then dance in a procession led by a priest carrying the Eucharistic bread, or host, which in Catholic tradition represents the body of Christ.

San Juaneros, who celebrate Saint John the Baptist in Venezuela, held a procession following 

the UNESCO announcement

Festive cycle of devotion and worship of Saint John the Baptist

In Venezuela, the feast of Saint John the Baptist is accompanied by drumming, dancing, storytelling, singing and processions dedicated to the saint.

The celebration is anchored in Catholicism but is also deeply connected with other forms of expression transmitted from sub-Saharan Africa, as the tradition was developed by Afro-Venezuelan communities under colonial rule in the 18th century.

The exact dates of the cycle of festivities vary according to regions; in many communities they start in early May and end mid-July, climaxing on June 23 and 24, the latter marking the day the saint was born. 

A nora performer in the southern province of Narathiwat, Thailand

Nora dance

Nora performers wear long, metallic fingernails curling out from their fingertips and colorful costumes, headdress and wings that give them a bird-like appearance.

Through acrobatic dance theater and improvisational singing, accompanied by ensemble music, nora performances depict stories about the former lives of Buddha or other legendary heroes. 

The more than 500-year-old tradition from southern Thailand has great cultural importance for local communities, as the art form allows them to strengthen social bonds and develop regional music and literature.

A genre popular beyond Congo: Here people in Côte d'Ivoire pay tribute to the late 

Congolese rumba star Papa Wemba

Congolese rumba

Practiced at home, in public and in religious spaces, rumba is a dance and a musical genre that is part of all types of celebrations, including mourning rituals. 

Women have played an important role in developing the religious and romantic styles of the rumba.

The smooth, groovy musical genre also significantly contributes to the economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, with musicians making a living not only from performances but also by manufacturing instruments.

Rumba is an essential element of the identity of Congolese people, with all generations finding a common language in the tradition.

Beyond books: Arabic calligraphy is an art with endless potential for diversity, from 

embroidery to calligraffiti

Arabic calligraphy

Arabic script is characterized by a fluid cursive style, offering countless possibilities for calligraphic expression.

The 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet, written from left to right, take on four different forms depending on their position in words and sentences.

Traditionally, it uses calligraphic ink made from a mixture of honey, black soot and saffron; natural materials are also used to make qalam, or reed pens.

Arabic calligraphy also appears as a decorative element in various forms, from wood carvings to embroidery. Its modern variant includes "calligraffiti" painted on walls, signs and buildings.

Traditionally a sport for royals, today falconry competitions are held internationally

Falconry

Training falcons — as well as various other birds of prey — is a more than 4,000-year-old tradition, with documents detailing how it was practiced in different parts of the world in early and medieval periods.

Falcons were initially flown to obtain food, but the art of falconry has since developed into a social and recreational activity allowing people to connect with nature.

Practiced in various parts of the world — including Germany and many European countries, but also Asian countries like Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia or Korea, as well as different Gulf countries — falconry involves creating a bond between the falconer and the bird through breeding, training and rearing.

A traditional tbourida performance in Rabat, Morocco

Tbourida

Tbourida, a Moroccan equestrian performance, dates back to the 16th century. 

Following ancient rituals, riders and horses perform an acrobatic routine that simulates a succession of military parades. 

Dressed in period costumes representing their tribe or region, riders often give spiritual significance to the event, in which customs are learned through oral tradition and observation. 

This vessel is a faithful reconstruction of a 30-meter Viking longboat

Nordic clinker boat traditions

These elongated wooden boats have been built by Indigenous peoples in Nordic regions for almost 2,000 years and are a trademark of Viking navigation.

Boat makers still use traditional techniques today, fastening thin planks to a keel and strengthening the shell of the boat with frames.

Clinker boats were traditionally used for fishing and transportation but today they are mainly used in traditional festivities and sporting events.

Social practices linked to the clinker boat include ceremonies held before a maiden voyage. Traditional songs are also associated with their sailing and rowing.

The complete list of UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage can be found here.

Edited by: Sarah Hucal

Authorities accused of spying on journalists in Greece

Following attacks on journalists, a new law that many feel is a threat to independent reporting and reports that authorities in Greece are spying on journalists, concern about media freedom in Greece is growing.

    

Greece ranks 70th on the Press Freedom Index, with only 

Hungary (92) and Bulgaria (112) ranking lower in the EU

On November 13, 29-year-old investigative journalist Stavros Malichudis was scrolling through Facebook and enjoying his morning coffee when he stumbled across a report by the Greek media outlet EFSYN. The headline read "Greek authorities spy on citizens." He immediately ran outside and bought the newspaper. What he read confirmed his suspicions: the article was about him and his employer, Solomon, an investigative media outlet based in Athens.

Malichudis had been reporting on a 12-year-old refugee on the island of Kos, whose artwork had been featured in the French newspaper Le Monde. The journalist's name appeared in e-mails leaked from the National Security Service, showing that the authorities had him under surveillance.

Greece's National Security Service had investigative journalist Stavros Malichudis under surveillance

According to Malichudis, the intimidation of journalists is on the rise. He also believes that he is not the only journalist under surveillance. "The government in general is not happy with people reporting on issues relating to migration, especially on how the government handles migration in Greece," he says.

The country's leading lawmakers are trying to maintain a positive narrative about how well Greece is using the €3.3 billion it received from the European Union to manage migration as a first reception country, Malichudis explains. Countless media reports have, however, raised serious doubts about this apparent success story. International media outlets, including Der Spiegel, The New York Times and Deutsche Welle, have presented evidence that Greek authorities illegally deport asylum-seekers to Turkey on a regular basis.

Dutch journalist publicly confronts Greek PM

Most Greek media ignore reports about illegal activities and refrain from asking the government uncomfortable questions. The result is a continuous tiptoeing around taboos that only a few journalists dare to disregard. Recently, however, long-standing Dutch correspondent Ingeborg Beugel did just that.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis

Beugel caused a scandal when she confronted Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a joint press conference with his Dutch counterpart, Mark Rutte, on November 9. "When, at last, will you stop lying, lying about pushbacks, lying about refugees in Greece," she asked Mitsotakis before criticizing both the EU and the Netherlands for tolerating Athens' violent migration policy and for not allowing more asylum-seekers into the country.

Angry response

The Greek prime minister initially replied that he understood that "in the Netherlands you have a culture of asking exact direct questions to politicians, which I very much respect." Then, however, he got angry and accused her of insulting both him and the country. The incident led to a series of aggressive attacks against Beugel that depicted her as a Turkish agent and sought to undermine her credibility as a journalist. She received numerous death threats and was even physically assaulted.

Greece has been sealing its land borders with Turkey with a five-meter tall concrete filled fence

International organizations, among them Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders, are increasingly concerned about media freedom in Greece. A new law, which makes the sharing of fake news a criminal offense, is fueling their concern. According to legislation passed on November 11, anyone found guilty of spreading "false news that is capable of causing concern or eroding public confidence in the national economy, the country's defense capacity or public health" can be sentenced to "imprisonment of at least six months and a fine."

Lawsuits against journalists

"It's extraordinarily vague," says Pavlos Eleftheriadis, professor of public law at the University of Oxford, pointing out how the new law could be used against journalists. His main concern, however, is rooted in the country's judicial power: "The Greek court system has proven to be unreliable in the protection of human rights." Eleftheriadis fears that the judiciary in Greece is highly politicized. "We have systemic problems in our judicial system, but unfortunately, this government is not interested in this."

According to Eleftheriadis, the system should have been reformed years ago, but nothing has been done. This is why he sees the new law as a "threat to free speech."

Greek journalist Stavroula Poulimeni is one of the founders of Alterthess, 

a small cooperative news website

Stavroula Poulimeni and a group of Greek journalists that is committed to free speech and independent journalism founded Alterthess, a small cooperative news website, in 2010. Since then, Poulimeni has been covering the environmental and social impact of gold mining activities in Halkidiki, a region of outstanding natural beauty in northern Greece.

In October 2020, she reported on the conviction of two senior executives of Hellas Gold over the pollution of surface waters and environmental damage. A year later, after the Court of Appeal confirmed the verdict, Stavroula Poulimeni and Alterthess were served with a lawsuit on behalf of Efstathios Lialios, one of the convicted executives, requesting €100,000 compensation for publication of the story and the illegal processing of personal data related to a criminal conviction. If the sum is not paid, Poulimeni could face a year in prison.

Attempt to muzzle independent reporters

"It is a clear attempt to make us stop covering the environmental crime that is happening in Halkidiki," Poulimeni told DW, adding that the lawsuit is a SLAPP, a strategic lawsuit against public participation. SLAPPs seek to intimidate critics and silence people who are trying to report on matters of public interest. Alarmingly, use of these SLAPPs seems to be increasing in the EU.

Poulimeni admits that dealing with such lawsuits not only takes a huge amount of time, but also a psychological toll. She is quick to stress, however, that she is not afraid. "The company is trying to intimidate us but so far, it has succeeded in doing quite the opposite: it has motivated us to engage more with this topic," she says. Alterthess is one of a very small number of media covering the topic of gold extraction in Halkidiki and monitoring Hellas Gold's activities. "There is a weird silence around gold in Halkidiki imposed by mainstream media," she says, adding that many media are in favor of the company, as it funds them through advertising.

Financially independent press

The financial viability of Greek media is one of the challenges threatening press freedom that worries Nikos Panagiotou, associate professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. "When the press is not financially independent, its credibility and independence will be undermined in the long run. The media outlets will depend on other sources of funding to survive," he told DW.

While international organizations such as the International Press Institute have expressed their grave concern over this SLAPP, and two parties have raised questions about it in parliament, coverage of the lawsuit has been limited to leftist and independent media outlets.

Panagiotou also points to another important factor that is shrinking media pluralism: media ownership. "We have only a small number of people owning a big percentage of media outlets," he says.

These incidents, together with the killing of veteran journalist Giorgos Karaivaz, attacks on reporters and government attempts to restrict media access have led Media Freedom Rapid Response, a mechanism that monitors press freedom violations in Europe, to recently launch an online fact-finding mission to Greece to assess media freedom and the safety of journalists in the country.

Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan

Is the media crackdown in Kashmir escalating?

Journalists based in Indian-administered Kashmir have reported a rise in threats and intimidation tactics since the Modi-led government brought the region under its direct control in 2019.

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

'People with disabilities need survival skills'

Nematullah Ahangosh has watched with concern as people with disabilities have become invisible in Afghanistan. He wants to teach specialist survival skills to allow people to help themselves out of crisis situations.

    

Nematullah Ahangosh is founder of the initiative Stretch More

Nematullah Ahangosh, 29, was living in Kabul in 2016 when doctors told him he had muscular dystrophy.

Almost immediately, his thoughts turned to survival.   

"At first I was a bit sad," he tells DW over a video call. "But very soon I started to think very differently. I started to ask myself what I could do in a disaster situation or in the event of a civil war. How can I survive?"

Nematullah is worried about the lack of support people with disabilities receive in crisis situations

‘No one is talking about this'

There was, and still is, no easy answer. There is not much help and very little infrastructure for people with disabilities in Afghanistan, even when the country is not in a crisis situation.

"Right now no one is talking about this. There is almost nothing in the media. I believe the situation for people is really bad right now,” he explains. "But before August [when the Taliban seized control] there was very little to help accessibility.

The ruling Taliban appointed a deputy minister to continue running the country's Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled Affairs after taking over Afghanistan, but Nematullah says it has been a long time since he heard any news about people with disabilities in Afghanistan.

"People that I know who were working in jobs they can do, for example as teachers, they are just stuck at home now. Hunger is everywhere, and for people with disabilities the situation is twice as hard,” he laments.

But he can just as easily rattle off examples from other countries where people have been left stranded – or worse – during natural disasters.

"For example, last year in Japan 14 elderly people drowned in a nursing home," he says. "This year in July, 12 people with disabilities lost their lives in a care facility in Germany because they were not evacuated in time."

"It's not the first time people with disabilities are facing these problems."

Keeping active and increasing people's mobility is a key part of Nematullah's strategy to help them

‘People with disabilities have different solutions'

Back in 2016 Nematullah came to realize that he, and others in similar situations, would have to learn to rely on themselves. The idea stuck with him that the best thing to do would be to provide people with a form of tailored crisis training, enabling people to make the most of their skills.

"We need to have confidence to help ourselves, mobility skills to get out of difficult situations and find refuge and negotiation skills, for example if we have to negotiate with the Taliban," he says. "We need survival skills like everybody else."

People with disabilities respond differently but also effectively in a crisis, Nematullah says. He mentions Michael Hingson and his guide dog Roselle, who led 30 people to safety from the 78th floor of Tower 1 during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

"People with disabilities can help people in new ways and come up with different solutions. I want to do the same," he adds.

Nematullah is receiving support from kanthari

‘You look like you're dancing when you're walking'

A lot of Nematullah's motivation for empowerment comes from his own experiences. When was 12 and living in Kabul, his father suffered a stroke. The family tragedy meant that he and his older brother were forced to look for work to make ends meet.

But while his brother found work at a tailoring shop and factory, Nematullah worked too slowly and was turned away. Instead, he sold what he could on the streets, from chewing gum to cigarettes to dry cell batteries.

At the same time, he was worried something was wrong with him. He was often subjected to mean comments.

"People used to make fun of me and say things about how I looked like I was dancing when I walked. It really hurt me," he remembers.

People with disabilities are more than just a number

To reach his aims, Nematullah has founded his own organization Stretch More. He started in India, where natural disasters also pose risks to people with disabilities, but he is aiming to expand training in survival skills, physical mobility and entrepreneurship to other areas of Asia, including his homeland. His goal is to give people the skills they need to save themselves but also recover more quickly after a disaster.

"I want to help people around the world. We are increasingly represented in statistics, numbers and pictures, but I want to look at a bigger problem that we face that is not represented well, which is the inability to cope in a crisis,” he argues.

His efforts have been supported by kanthari, an Indian organization that aims to train leaders from different backgrounds and help them start social organizations and initiatives in their countries.

"Being affected by Muscular Dystrophy, Nematullah knows what it means to be swept to the sidelines. He however refuses to become a victim of circumstance, instead he takes the lead to make a difference for those who have a similar fate," said Sabriye Tenberken and Paul Kronenberg, founders and directors of kanthari.

Nematullah and other program participants are presenting their initiatives on December 17-18. The event can be viewed online here: www.kantharitalks.org/

Edited by Kristin Zeier

#ENDANIMALTESTING

Berlin's Charite hospital kills over 1,000 test animals

The prominent Berlin medical institution said the animals had to be killed due to contamination risks. Charite claimed it consulted with city authorities prior to making the decision.



Animal experiments, such as testing on mice, are legal in Germany

Berlin's Charite hospital said Friday it had killed over 1,000 test animals due to contamination concerns from the Coxiella bacteria.

What do we know so far?

The medical institution said that "around 1,200 small rodents" were killed in the testing laboratory after contaminants were repeatedly traced to the area where the animals were kept.

Coxiella is asymptomatic in animals, but it can cause Q fever in humans. Humans infected by Q fever typically experience flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills and tiredness.

Humans near the animals who carry Coxiella bacteria can be infected by inhaling dust or droplets. The bacteria is not transmissible from human to human.

The area where the bacteria was found has been closed off from further research until it can be completely decontaminated, the hospital said.

Charite said it consulted with the Berlin State Office for Health and Social Affairs and other city authorities prior to making the decision to kill the animals.

Hospital regrets killing of test animals

The hospital said it regrets the "necessity of killing the test animals."

Animal testing is legal in Germany, but methods must comply with the Animal Welfare Act, which was enacted in 1972. Animal experiments can be conducted if they are necessary to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases in humans or animals.

At the same time, animal welfare groups, such as the German Animal Welfare Foundation, have criticized the rise of animal testing in Germany in recent years and called for the government to fund more research into alternative methods.

The EU has effectively banned animal testing for cosmetics since 2009. EU lawmakers approved a non-binding resolution in September calling on the executive to draw up a plan to phase out all forms of testing across the bloc.

Edited by: Sean Sinico

From Celtic coins to cave paintings: Archaeological finds of 2021

More than 2,000 years old, the coins were found far away from where the Celts were typically active, making this yet another notable archaeological find in 2021.



Celtic gold tells a story of migration

DW
The discovery of 41 Celtic gold coins in the German village of Baitz in the state of Brandenburg, made public on December 13, has been deemed a "sensation." Coin researcher Marjanko Pilekic said that since the over 2,000-year-old coins were found far from the Celts' actual distribution area, "the find could provide new insights into migration movements in the Iron Age."
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Charlemagne Prize: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya among three winners from Belarus

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Maria Kolesnikova and Veronika Tsepkalo were announced as the winners to recognize their fight for "freedom, democracy and human rights" in Belarus. The prize was awarded in Aachen on Friday.


Veronika Tsepkalo (left), Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (center) and Maria Kolesnikova (right) received the award for their 'commitment to democracy'

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was one of three winners of the 2022 Charlemagne Prize announced on Friday.

The chairman of the Charlemagne Prize Directorate, Jürgen Linden, said the panel wanted to recognize the "courageous commitment to freedom, to democracy, to the preservation of human rights and thus to European values" of Maria Kolesnikova and Veronika Tsepkalo, along with Tsikhanouskaya.

The laureates formed a "unique role model" against dictatorship, oppression and an unjust state, Linden said.

The recipients received the award "with great pleasure," the former mayor of Aachen added.

The trio will receive the honors in an award ceremony on May 26, 2022, at Aachen City Hall.

'Stay united': Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks to DW

Opposition to Lukashenko

Tsikhanouskaya, 39, has become the face of the opposition to Alexander Lukashenko, who has led Belarus since 1994. Tsikhanouskaya contested last year's election in Belarus in place of her husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a blogger and critic of Lukashenko who was sentenced to 18 years in prison earlier this week.

The outcome of the 2020 election in Belarus, which saw Lukashenko secure a large majority, has been rejected by the United States and the European Union.
Who is Maria Kolesnikova?

Kolesnikova, meanwhile, is serving an 11-year sentence in Ukraine. Linden said her sister would join the other two award winners at the ceremony in Aachen next year.

Always at the forefront of the post-election protests in Minsk, Kolesnikova rose to become one of the most recognizable faces of the opposition movement that has accused Lukashenko of rigging the ballot.

In an interview with DW, Kolesnikova said it was always clear to her that she could be arrested at any time.

Who is Veronika Tsepkalo?

One of the three leaders of the democratic movement in Belarus, Tsepkalo succeeded in bringing together an unprecedented number of people to protest against Lukashenko, accusing his regime of violating human rights, falsifying elections and using brutality to quell dissenting voices.

Tsepkalo is currently working to protect women's rights in Belarus.

What is the Charlemagne Prize?

The prize, which was first awarded in 1950, is to recognize special services to European unification. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis was the most recent winner for his pro-European stance.

Former German chancellors Konrad Adenauer and Angela Merkel, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron and Pope Francis, are among previous award winners.

jsi/msh (dpa, AFP)

Explained: What causes a tornado?

Tornadoes can be destructive and hard to predict. We know why they form and that climate change can play a part — but we can't always see them coming. Here's why.



Supercell thunderstorms can produce more than one tornado at a time

Tornadoes can be terrifying — whether you experience them or only see images of the aftermath.

Most tornadoes are harmless and brief. But when a tornado falls outside the norm and collides with humans, it can cause severe damage and even death.

That is what happened when a series of tornadoes hit the United States in early December, leaving a trail of destruction from Arkansas to Kentucky. Dozens of people were killed and many are still missing.

The US National Weather Service described one of the tornadoes as "potentially historic" — due to it possibly being on the ground for the longest distance on record.


THOUSANDS STILL WITHOUT SHELTER AFTER US TORNADOES
Struggling to survive
A drone shot shows the extent of destruction: in Mayfield, Kentucky, the water tower collapsed like a house of cards. "Our infrastructure is so damaged. We have no running water. [...] Our wastewater management was lost, and there's no natural gas to the city. So we have nothing to rely on there,'' Mayor Kathy Stewart O'Nan told broadcaster CBS, adding that many people were struggling to survive.
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How does a tornado form?

Scientists know the basic ingredients for a tornado, but they are still trying to work out exactly what causes them.

"The truthful answer is we don't know," says Walker Ashley, an atmospheric scientist at Northern Illinois University.

Ashley is — what you might call — a storm chaser.

"I spend about a month and a half out of the year chasing these weather events, and they never want to [turn into a tornado] when I'm sitting there," Ashley told DW.

Specific weather conditions

Tornadoes form in very specific weather conditions. It usually starts with a kind of rotating thunderstorm called a supercell. A supercell can bring lightning, strong winds, hail and flash floods.

If the wind speed and its direction are different at different altitudes, you can then get a "wind shear."

Wind shears are often harmless but they can cause air currents to spin and create a horizontal tube of air. That's common in supercell thunderstorms, but it's not a tornado yet.

Sometimes a storm will suck up that tube of air until it becomes vertical. And when that happens it's called a mesocyclone.

That's still not a tornado. For a tornado to form, there also needs to be spinning air near the ground.

The stronger the tube of air rotates, the closer it can get to the ground and the more likely it is that it will turn into a tornado. Ashley says: Think of it like a figure skater.

"When a figure skater brings their arms out, they slow down. When a figure skater brings their arms in, they speed up," says Ashley. "And what a storm does is it takes that rotation, tilts it into the vertical and stretches it. And when it stretches it, it increases the rotation even more."

When that happens, gusts of warm air rise and gusts of cool air sink, blowing across the land. If there are enough rising and sinking gusts, the air near the ground starts spinning.

Once it's vertical, the tornado becomes darker. It picks up dust, debris and anything else that gets in its way. A really intense tornado will pick up cars, animals and even houses.

Why are tornadoes hard to predict?

Spring is considered to be tornado season in the US, but it can strike at any time, such as the ones in December 2021.

But they are hard to predict because compared to other extreme weather events, tornadoes are relatively small. That makes them difficult to observe.

"If we think about all the different hazards we have like hurricanes, droughts, floods, tornadoes might be one of the smallest," says Ashley, "even the most violent tornadoes are, at most, a half-mile (800 meters) wide — they occur typically in the order of seconds to minutes."

So, tornadoes often occur below particular levels that researchers generally use for observing, modeling and predicting weather events. Scientists can simulate tornadoes using computers, but "it requires an immense amount of computing power," says Ashley.

It's important to be able to predict extreme weather events so that authorities can issue warnings and give people a chance to get to safety. So, what do they do?

To issue warnings, scientists look out for supercell thunderstorms and use radar technology to measure how fast the mesocyclone is rotating. The faster it's rotating and the closer it is to the ground, the more likely it is that it will turn into a tornado.

"A majority of the storms and tornadoes [we observe] are on the cusp, like a storm is rotating like crazy in the mid-levels, but just because it's rotating up there doesn't necessarily mean it's going to come to the ground," says Ashley.

But researchers "don't have very good observations in the lowest levels of the atmosphere," says Ashley, and that seems to be a critical piece in the puzzle."
How does climate change affect tornadoes?

The role of climate change in tornadoes is complex. But Ashley says it's not a question of whether climate change causes tornadoes. The question is whether climate change contributes to the exact "ingredients" needed for tornadoes to form.

"As it relates to climate change, we know that some of the fundamental ingredients that [contribute to] severe thunderstorms and go on to produce hail and tornadoes are increasing," says Ashley.

And the modeling shows that that is particularly true in the United States, but it may also be happening in the UK and Europe.

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany


CYCLONES, TYPHOONS, HURRICANES - THE POWER OF DEVASTATION
Social distancing impossible during Cyclone Amphan
Residents along Bangladesh's coast are being moved to safety as one of the strongest cyclones in years strikes the region. Millions of people had to be evacuated from low-lying regions along the Bay of Bengal on May 19. But plans are complicated by the coronavirus precautions. Maintaining social distancing is nearly impossible.
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Philippines: Typhoon Rai leaves trail of devastation

Typhoon Rai triggered landslides, floods and other accidents in southern and central Philippines, killing at least three people. Emergency services have been working around the clock.



The storm also hit major population centers like Cebu city, home to almost 1 million people

At least three people had died and two others were injured as typhoon Rai continued to batter southern and central Philippines on Friday, according to the country's national disaster agency.

The tropical storm, one of the most powerful of the year, made landfall on Thursday, with winds up to 195 kilometers (120 miles) an hour. Rai has weakened since making landfall, being downgraded from a Category 5 storm — the highest classification — to a Category 3.

More than 332,000 people had evacuated high-risk villages and around 15,000 of them had sheltered in evacuation centers, presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles said.

The powerful winds have greatly damaged towns and cities, with trees uprooted, roofs torn off, and electricity lines cut.

Several villages were flooded in the wake of the storm as well.


Aid workers clear out city streets as strong winds bring down civic structures

The mayor of Mindanao island, the second-largest island of the archipelago, told a local media outlet that the typhoon had ravaged Surigao city, in Mindanao's northeast, for several hours, causing "severe" damage. Surigao city has a population of around 170,000 people.

Scores of flights were canceled and dozens of ports temporarily closed to offset the impact of the typhoon.


Strong winds have uprooted trees, seen here is the destruction on Friday on coastal town of Dulag, Leyte island, central Philippines

Wind speeds slightly ease, typhoon heads for exit

Rai, locally known as Odette, was a super typhoon, the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane in the United States, when it slammed into Siargao island on Thursday.

But wind speeds had eased to 155 kilometers an hour (96 miles an hour) by Friday. At 1 p.m. local time on Friday, the eye of the storm was in the vicinity of the island province of Palawan, moving westward towards the South China Sea, according to the Philippines' storm warning agency.

Typhoon Rai hit the Philippines quite late in the typhoon season, with most storms developing between July and October in the region.

rm/msh (Reuters, AFP)