Biden administration moves to expand solar power on US land
By MATTHEW BROWN

 In this Dec. 11, 2017, file photo, solar arrays line the desert floor of the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone as part of the 179 megawatt Switch Station 1 and Switch Station 2 Solar Projects north of Las Vegas. The Biden administration on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021, issued a solicitation for interest in developing solar power on public lands in Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)


BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials announced approval Tuesday of two large-scale solar projects in California and moved to open up public lands in other Western states to potential solar power development, as part of the Biden administration’s effort to counter climate change by shifting from fossil fuels.

The Interior Department approved the Arica and Victory Pass solar projects on federal land in Riverside County east of Los Angeles. Combined they would generate up to 465 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 132,000 homes, according to San Francisco-based developer Clearway Energy. Approval of a third solar farm planned for 500 megawatts is expected in coming days, officials said.

The Interior Department also Tuesday issued a call to nominate land for development within “solar energy zones” in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico that combined cover about 140 square miles (360 square kilometers).

The invitation to developers comes as officials under Democratic President Joe Biden promote renewable wind and solar power on public lands and offshore to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. That’s a pronounced change from Republican President Donald Trump’s emphasis on coal mining and oil and gas drilling.

Biden suffered a huge blow to his climate agenda this week, as opposition from West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin tanked the administration’s centerpiece climate and social services legislation. The administration also has been forced to resume oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and numerous western states, after a federal judge sided with Republican-led states that sued when Biden suspended the sales.

During a Tuesday conference call with reporters, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland did not directly address a question about the faltering climate bill and instead pointed to clean energy provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law last month.

“We fully intend to meet our clean energy goals,” Haaland said. She said the Trump administration stalled clean energy by shuttering renewable energy offices at the Bureau of Land Management and undermining long-term agreements, such as a conservation plan tied to solar development in the California desert.

“We are rebuilding that capacity,” Haaland said.

But without the climate bill, tax incentives to build large-scale solar will drop to 10% of a developer’s total capital costs by 2024, instead of rising to 30%, said Xiaojing Sun, head solar researcher at industry consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.

Incentives for residential-scale solar would go away completely by 2024, she said.

“It will significantly slow down the growth of solar,” Sun said.

However, she added that streamlining access to federal land could help the industry, as large solar farms on non-federal lands face growing local opposition and cumbersome zoning laws.

The Bureau of Land Management oversees almost a quarter-billion acres of land, primarily in Western states. Agency director Tracy-Stone Manning said boosting renewable energy is now one of its top priorities.

Forty large-scale solar proposals in the West are under consideration, she said.

The agency in early December issued a draft plan to reduce rents and other fees paid by companies authorized to build wind and solar projects on public lands. Officials were unable to provide an estimate of how much money that could save developers.

In Nevada, where the federal government owns and manages more than 80% of the state’s land, large-scale solar projects have faced opposition from environmentalists concerned about harm to plants and animals in the sun- and windswept deserts.

Developers abandoned plans for what would have been the country’s largest solar panel installation earlier this year north of Las Vegas amid concerns from local residents. Environmentalists are fighting another solar project near the Nevada-California border that they claim could harm birds and desert tortoises.

Stone-Manning said solar projects on public lands are being sited to take environmental concerns into account.

The solar development zones were first proposed under the Obama administration, which in 2012 adopted plans to bring utility-scale solar energy projects to public lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Officials have identified almost 1,400 square miles (3,500 square kilometers) of public land for potential leasing for solar power.

If all that land were developed, the bureau says it could support more than 100 gigawatts of solar power, or enough for 29 million homes.

That’s almost equal to all U.S. solar capacity now in place.

The power generation capacity of solar farms operating on federal lands is a small fraction of that amount — just over 3 gigawatts, federal data shows.

In November the land bureau awarded solar leases for land in Utah’s Milford Flats solar zone. Solar leases are expected to be finalized by the end of the month for about land at several sites in Arizona.

Solar power on public and private lands accounted for about 3% of total U.S. electricity production in 2020. After construction costs fell during the past decade, that figure is expected to grow sharply, to more than 20% by 2050, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects.

Developers warn costs have been rising due to constraints on supplies of steel, semiconductor chips and other materials.

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Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Carson City, Nevada, contributed to this report.

INDONESIA

Development and conservation clash at Komodo National Park

By VICTORIA MILKO

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This undated photo provided by researcher Bryan Fry shows a Komodo dragon at Komodo National Park in Indonesia. In 2021, construction for tourism in Komodo National Park has raised concerns from the United Nations officials, environmental activists and residents about damage to habitat of the Komodo dragon.

 (Bryan Fry via AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — On a dirt path, forked yellow tongue darting from its mouth, a member of world’s largest lizard species lazes on an island in eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park as tourists snap photos. And about 18 miles (30 kilometers) away on another park island that harbors Komodo dragons, trees have been removed and concrete poured for new tourist facilities that have aroused the ire of residents and environmental activists.

The construction is part of an ambitious Indonesian initiative that has generated tensions between a government that wants to develop natural attractions for luxury tourism and conservationists who fear habitat for the endangered Komodo dragon will be irreparably harmed. United Nations officials have also voiced concerns about potential tourism impacts on this unique wildlife-rich park.

Encompassing about 850 square miles (2,200 square kilometers) of land and marine area, Komodo National Park was established in 1980 to help protect the famed dragons. Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry estimates around 3,000 of the reptiles live there today, along with manatee-like dugongs, sea turtles, whales and more than a thousand species of tropical fish.

Because of its biodiversity and beauty, the park became a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site in 1991. And it’s one of Indonesia’s crown jewels for tourism, typically drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world each year.

For years the government has been trying to figure out how to best capitalize on the park, most recently designating it part of the country’s “10 New Balis” initiative — an effort to draw more tourists, as the island of Bali did before border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are embarking into a new era of tourism in Indonesia based on nature and culture, focusing on sustainability and quality tourism,” Indonesian Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno told The Associated Press.

Part of that multimillion dollar tourism development is a project on Rinca Island, where more than one-third of the park’s dragons are estimated to live on generally hot and dry terrain. The construction includes an expanded ranger station, viewing platform, boat dock, toilets and other infrastructure.

The project worries local environmental activists and residents within park boundaries who say their livelihoods as tour guides, boat drivers and souvenir sellers depend on the draw of the area’s natural beauty.

“When we talk about the development in the conservation area, we have to think ... whether this is a wisely considered economic effect for the local people — or the environmental effect,” said Gregorius Afioma, a member of the local non-governmental organization Sun Spirit for Justice and Peace. “The situation now is like collective suicide.

“We think that this kind of business will eventually kill others’ businesses and even themselves because they destroyed the environment,” Afioma said, adding that local residents also fear they won’t get construction jobs for the luxury tourist destination the Indonesian government is promoting.

UNESCO — the United Nations body that designates World Heritage Site status — has also raised concerns about development in the park.

“The state party did not inform us, as required by the operational guidelines,” said Guy Debonnet, chief of the body’s natural heritage unit. “This is definitely a project of concern, because we feel that the impacts on the universal value (of the park) have not been properly evaluated.”

During a meeting in July, UNESCO expressed other concerns, such as the project’s reduction of the park’s wilderness zone to one-third the previous area, addition of tourism concessions within the property, lack of an adequate environmental impact assessment, and a target to dramatically increase visitors.

“Third-party information transmitted to the State Party indicates that a target of 500,000 annual visitors for the property has been proposed, which is more than double the pre-COVID-19 pandemic visitor numbers,” said a report from the meeting. “This raises the question of how this tourism model fits (Indonesia’s) vision of moving away from mass tourism to more sustainable approaches.”

At UNESCO’s request, the country submitted more information about the project. But after reviewing it, the U.N. agency requested in October 2020 that Indonesia not “proceed with any tourism infrastructure project that may affect the Outstanding Universal Value of the property prior to a review of the relevant environmental impact assessment” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

IUCN is an international, non-governmental organization that provides UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee with technical evaluations of natural heritage properties.

After multiple attempts to get permission from government authorities, The Associated Press was unable to gain access to the construction site, which has been closed to the public for months. But satellite imagery shows construction continued after UNESCO requested the project be paused. The government did not respond to an email last week seeking comment.

As of Dec. 6, UNESCO still had not received the requested revised assessment, said Debonnet, the world heritage unit chief.

The Indonesian government also granted at least two business permits in Komodo National Park, including for projects on Rinca, Komodo and Padar islands, according to an email to the AP from Shana Fatina, president director at the Labuan Bajo Flores Tourism Authority, which helps coordinate government tourism efforts.

Some experts fear tourism expansion in the park could lead to disturbance of Komodo dragon habitat.

The predatory lizards, which can reach a length of 10 feet (3 meters) and more than 300 pounds (135 kilograms), were recently moved from “vulnerable” to “endangered” status on the IUCN list of threatened species. The organization cited the impacts of climate change and deterioration of the dragons’ habitat — including human encroachment — as reasons for the change.

Unless carefully managed, tourism projects could “have a big impact, not just from the number of people disturbing the behavior of the dragons and disturbing their prey, but also how much freshwater is being siphoned off,” said Bryan Fry, an associate professor at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland in Australia. “That could dramatically impact the very delicate balance of these islands.”

The opening date for the new Rinca Island facilities has yet to be announced. UNESCO’s Debonnet said it is engaged in talks with Indonesian officials to arrange a monitoring mission to assess the impact of ongoing development on the park and review its state of conservation.

And while World Heritage sites are usually discussed by the UNESCO committee on two-year cycles, Komodo National Park will be discussed in 2022, said Debonnet. “That is kind of an indication that we see there is some urgency in this issue,” he said.

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Follow Victoria Milko on Twitter: @thevmilko

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Gaza’s old battery pileups pose risk to health, environment

By FARES AKRAM

A Palestinian worker carries a discarded battery at a warehouse in Jebaliya, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021. In a territory suffering from chronic power outages, batteries are needed to keep most Gaza households running. But huge mounds of used batteries are piling up at makeshift outdoor landfills, posing a threat to public health and the environment. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Virtually every household in the Gaza Strip relies on batteries to keep their home running -- a result of years of chronic power outages.

These batteries, fueling everything from lights to internet routers to solar panels, have helped mitigate one crisis. But they are causing another one as huge mounds of old and used batteries pile up in a territory lacking the ability to safely dispose of them.

“There is a real danger that these batteries are collected and stored randomly in the open air; not in warehouses,” said Mohammed Musleh, an official with Gaza’s Environment Authority.

The most pressing threat, he said, is that “the batteries break and ooze liquid that includes sulfuric acid and leaks into the soil and then the water aquifer.”

Gaza’s Environment Authority estimates that there are 25,000 tons of old batteries piled up at several locations across the tiny and overcrowded coastal territory. There are no recycling facilities in Gaza and a punishing blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt prevents shipping the batteries abroad for safe disposal.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, used batteries create a number of risks to public health and the environment. Different types of batteries contain potentially dangerous types of metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium, while some can catch fire.

Such risks are especially acute in Gaza, where the health care system has been ravaged by years of conflict and lack of funds and where the environment is already in dire condition. Nearly all of Gaza’s water is undrinkable due to high saline levels caused by overextraction.

Israel bombed Gaza’s sole power plant during a round of fighting in 2006 and imposed the blockade with Egypt the following year after the Hamas militant group seized power in the strip from rival Palestinian forces. The result: a daily blackout of at least eight hours, punctuated with longer outages that can last for days during winter storms or conflicts.

This has turned batteries into an integral part of day-to-day life for the territory’s 2 million residents.

The Gaza City municipality has a hazardous waste unit that is meant to safely dispose of old batteries. But Ahmed Abu Abdu, head of the unit, says very few batteries reach him. Instead, a small private industry has sprouted up.

Every day, collectors in cars or donkey-drawn carts roam around Gaza, calling over loudspeakers for people wishing to sell old batteries. Depending on their size, old batteries can fetch up to $2 apiece.

Khaled Ayyad is one of dozens of merchants who buy the old batteries. For eight years, he has collected and stored them at a warehouse in northern Gaza.

Ayyad has one goal in mind: to export the batteries and make a decent profit.





“As the Israeli side allows them (batteries) into Gaza, it has to let them go out,” he said. “We can sell them to factories in Israel, European countries and all over the world.”

But exporting batteries is still banned, and Ayyad is facing a new dilemma: He has about 500 tons of batteries accumulated in the warehouse.

He can’t resell, export or dump them, and he has been paying storage fees. So, he has a message to Hamas: “We call on the officials in Gaza to speak to the Egyptian side to let us export them there.”

There is a precedent. Hamas and Egypt have boosted trade cooperation in recent years through a crossing in the border town of Rafah. The crossing is used mainly to deliver goods like construction materials, fuel and tobacco products into Gaza. But it has also been used to ship scrap metal out to Egypt.

While Ayyad’s warehouse has a concrete floor, most other storage locations are outdoors, risking spills of hazardous materials straight into the soil.

There have been no studies conducted on the threat to the environment, but research carried out in 2013 by a Gaza neurologist and an environmental science expert warned that children of people dealing with discarded batteries have “different degrees” of poisoning from exposure to lead.

Trying to reduce the danger, Hamas authorities have banned the import of secondhand batteries since 2017.

The Gaza-based al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, which in 2018 issued a report warning of the threat of batteries, said the danger is “far-reaching.”

“There is a problem,” said Hussein Hammad of the rights group. “Here, the batteries have started to affect human rights: the right to health, the right to clean environment and the right to life.”

Argentina's vanished persons and the long quest for justice

During Argentina's dictatorship, the regime "disappeared" and killed some 30,000 opponents. One of them was Omar Marocchi. An alleged perpetrator, a former military commander, has been tracked down in Berlin.

September 18, 1976 is a day Anahi Marocchi can't forget. She and her mother were living in Tandil, a town located 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of the capital Buenos Aires, when she learned that her beloved brother Omar — who was two years her junior — had disappeared.

To this day, Marocchi remembers how she and her mother collapsed after receiving the news. Since that fateful day Omar and his girlfriend, Susana Valor, who was three months pregnant at the time, remain missing and unaccounted for.

Nearly 44 years later, Marocchi hopes justice will ultimately prevail. "This is not just about Omar, about one individual. I'm representing all the victims of Argentina's military dictatorship and all those who are fighting for justice," she said.

Anahi Marocchi wants justice, not only for her brother but for all who were killed during the military dictatorship

Alleged perpetrator living in Germany

Recently, a man allegedly involved in Omar's murder was tracked down in Berlin, where he has been living with impunity for seven years. Luis Esteban Kyburg was the deputy commander of an elite naval unit which was demonstrably involved in crimes punishable under international law: Members of the opposition — people like Omar Marocchi — were abducted and carried away to a secret jail in Mar del Plata, a coastal town in the Buenos Aires province, where they were sexually abused, tortured and killed.

Read more: US files illuminate Argentina's 'dirty war'

Kyburg, now 72, has been the subject of an international arrest warrant for years. He is accused of being complicit in the abduction and murder of 152 people. Whereas other military personnel have been convicted for their crimes in Argentina, Kyburg remains at large, living in the heart of the German capital.

He fled to Berlin in 2013, after being called to testify in a court case in Argentina. Although the South American country demanded his extradition as early as 2015, Kyburg is protected by his German passport. However, Berlin's public prosecutor's office is now looking into the case and cooperating with counterparts in Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires.

Wolfgang Kaleck represents relatives of those killed during the military dictatorship

"Kyburg's nationality must not protect him from criminal prosecution. The Omar Marocchi case is just one of many thousands, in which people were abducted, tortured, sexually abused and killed in Argentina," said lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck, the founder and general secretary of the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. "Germany must live up to its responsibility and put him on trial here." 

Read more: Kaleck: Dealing with Argentina's past is the 'prime objective'

1976: Regime starts murdering opponents

During the military dictatorship in Argentina, General Jorge Videla's regime was responsible for "disappearing" some 30,000 opponents. Security forces kidnapped those "desaparecidos," took them to secret torture centers and killed them.

These victims were frequently thrown into the Atlantic Ocean from aircraft, either sedated or already dead, in the dictatorship's notorious death flights ("vuelos de la muerte"). Some 100 Germans and ethnic Germans — the most well-known was Elisabeth Käsemann, the daughter of a renowned German theologian — were among the victims.

Elisabeth Käsemann, civil rights activist and daughter of German theologian Ernst Käsemann,

 was killed in Argentina on March 24, 1977

Shortly after her brother disappeared, Anahi Marocchi joined human rights organizations. For decades, she has also been in contact with the "Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo," an association of women who lost children and grandchildren during Argentina's military dictatorship. "All of this is not a brief fight. I've been busy searching for those who were responsible for decades," she said.

According to Marocchi, Kyburg was an important figure in a perfectly organized network. "We've always been convinced that, in order for the junta's systematic plan to work, there had to be a gigantic organization of people. And, as a rule, those responsible were nowhere to be found," she said.

Anahi Marocchi appeals to German judicial system

Marocchi has received plenty of encouraging online messages during the last few weeks, with her brother's schoolmates calling on her to persevere. "That did me a lot of good," she said. Argentinian media are now covering the Kyburg case as well.

"It's likely he knows a great deal about my brother," said Marocchi. Of course, defendants have consistently refused to pass on information and claim innocence, but she's still hopeful she will learn more. "I'm looking for answers. I want to know how my brother died."

Susana Valor, Omar Marocchi's girlfriend: The fate of her and her child remains unknown

Kyburg, however, may still get off scot-free, because Berlin's public prosecutors must prove he murdered Omar Marocchi. To do so will require witness and expert testimonies from Argentina. The Kyburg court case could still go on for years.

Even so, Anahi Marocchi won't give up. In Argentina it took decades to hold the military personnel who were responsible to account.

"Germany must not be a haven for a man who has committed crimes against humanity," she said. "Kyburg must face the punishment he deserves. That would also be a signal for the future, because otherwise such crimes will be repeated."

'Hitler in Hell': George Grosz masterwork unveiled in Berlin

The exiled painter described his 1944 work as "Hitler as a fascist monster or as an apocalyptic beast." After more than 75 years in a private collection, the masterpiece is now in public hands.


George Grosz was a pioneer of irreverent Dada art in Berlin, an ardent critic of war and nationalism who went into exile before Hitler seized power in 1933.

In 1944, while living in the US, he completed a painting that portrays Hitler as a monster dictator reigning over an underworld of mass death and destruction. Titled Cain or Hitler in Hell, the masterwork has been privately owned (by the Grosz family) since its creation, but in 2019 was acquired by the German Historical Museum in Berlin (DHM).

The painting was officially unveiled today in Berlin, with Minister of Culture, Monika Grütters, Raphael Gross, President of the German Historical Museum Foundation, and Markus Hilgert, General Secretary of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States, in attendance.

Purchased by the DHM with the support of the federal government and the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States, the acquisition marks a major coup for the institution as the painting is considered one of the outstanding works created by a German artist in exile after the rise of the Nazi regime.

Hitler in Hell, as it is known, will soon be on view to the public as part of the museum's permanent collection.

Confronting Hitler

"We are very grateful that this important testimony of German exile art during National Socialism could be secured for our collection," said Raphael Gross on February 4 at the official unveiling at the DHM in central Berlin. "Especially with regard to our new permanent exhibition, which we are currently designing, it will be a central object that tells us a lot about the artistic confrontation with Hitler and National Socialism."

Read more: New Objectivity art: The anti-expressionism Weimar movement

Grosz, who gained a reputation for his highly political Dada art during the Weimar Republic, was a World War One veteran who became a trenchant critic of German nationalism and joined the Sparticist uprising in 1918.

As a communist and fierce anti-Nazi who condemned the emergence of fascism throughout Europe, it was no wonder that he emigrated to the US shortly before Hitler came to power in 1933. Soon after, the Nazis labelled his work "degenerate art" and removed it from the public collections in the so-called German Reich.

George Grosz' Dada collage from 1918 mocks the Prussian generals and religious leaders at the heart of a disastrous war

By the late 1930s, Grosz began to work again in his New York home, reviving many of his former themes as Hitler fomented world war and news of the Nazi death camps spread. Cain or Hitler in Hell is considered one of the main works of this era. Grosz himself described the picture as a representation of "Hitler as a fascist monster, or as an apocalyptic beast, consumed by his own thoughts."

The artist equated Hitler with the figure of Cain, who in the bible is presented as the archetypal murderer and the first in human history

Repatriating 'degenerate art'

The German Minister of State for Culture, Monika Grütters, noted at the unveiling that many of George Grosz' paintings were in fact destroyed by the Nazis after they confiscated 285 of his works from public collections.

"By purchasing one of his most important paintings, we are making a mark for reparation, and honoring one of the most talented artists in the Weimar Republic," she said. "Since its creation in 1944, the work Cain or Hitler in Hell has lost none of its power."

George Grosz at work in his Long Island studio in 1940

"On the contrary: George Grosz' apocalyptic vision of terror looks like an appeal, like a warning against forgetting, in view of the renewed anti-Semitism in our society," she continued. "It is works of art like this that help us learn the right lessons from history."

Back in Berlin

"This decidedly political picture shows how Grosz develops his critical formal language in exile," said Markus Hilgert of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States. "It is important to me that young people in particular have access to the painting and are able to deal with the artist's critical view of National Socialism."

He added that it was important to fulfill the Grosz family's wish that the painting is shown permanently where Grosz was born and also died. Though the artist became a US citizen in 1938, he returned to his home city with his wife in 1958, where he died a year later.


'AFTERMATH: ART IN THE WAKE OF WORLD WAR ONE' REFLECTS ON THE BRUTALITY OF THE GREAT WAR
Ypres After the First Bombardment: Christopher R. W. Nevinson, 1916
The British landscape painter presents an aerial view of the Belgian city of Ypres after it was first bombed in 1915, employing the abstract motifs used by cubists and futurists. Nevinson, a devotee of Italian futurism, initially believed the conflict was a sign of progress in the machine age. But after serving as an official war artist in France, he became ardently anti-war.
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Why Germany's nudist culture remains refreshing

From lakes to saunas and parks: Is Germany's nudist culture, known as FKK, dying out or still making waves? It's still strong enough to inspire a change of attitude for Berlin-based expats.

NAKED FACTS: GERMANY'S NUDISM MOVEMENT
A 'free body': Germany's nudist culture
It's a part of German culture, just like techno music and "Spargelzeit," the asparagus season. Even though the practice of Freikörperkultur (FKK), which translates as "free body culture," is dwindling among the younger generations of Germans, you'll still find lots of FKK areas on beaches as well as nude culture enthusiasts in spas — and even parks.
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At first glance it seems like a regular beach scene: Children running in and out the water, sandwiches being passed around families and couples sunning themselves.

But on closer inspection most people at Krumme Lanke, a lake in the south west of Berlin have something in common.

They aren't wearing a scrap of clothing. And it's a non-event. No one cares and no one is surprised. There's nothing sexy about it. It's 25C; it's a very hot spring day and there's really no need for clothing if you don't feel like wearing it.

Three letters allowing everyone to get naked: FKK

Germany has a tolerance of and, in some cases, a fondness for being "textile free." Whether it's one of the country's hundreds of spas and wellness resorts, parks or lakes, many citizens here are known for having no qualms about taking their clothes off.

Read more: Where to get naked in Germany

In certain parts of Germany, this is still a normal scene today

This is the country of FKK — Freikörperkultur — an informal movement that translates to free body culture.

But with bans on public nudity and the popularity of naked swimming in decline in Germany, advocates of nudist culture fear FKK is on its way out.

A declining tradition?

East Berlin-born Gregor Gysi, president of the European Left, spoke out last year on the decline of FKK and called for more designated areas for nudists.

Gregor Gysi, a key politician of The Left party, at the opening of a photo exhibition in 2017

The politician said that according to a sex researcher it was the "pornographic gaze" of Westerners after reunification in Germany that destroyed the pleasure of nude bathing that had always been more widespread in East Germany.

"It think it's a pity because FKK has class," says Gysi, 70.

An expat's perspective

Back at the lake a cyclist has just arrived, peeled off his bodysuit to reveal bare skin and jumped into the water. I'm not surprised at all the bums on show but it's taken some time to become accustomed to this laid-back attitude to nudity.

Why? Because I'm from Scotland, and, like other parts of the UK, there isn't the same attitude towards stripping off. To put it bluntly, if you take your clothes off in public you'd probably be accused of being a pervert. It's just not that common.

For Scotland the reluctance to go nude could be blamed on year-round terrible weather, but it's also something deeper. The British attitude to bare skin differs hugely from the continent. We're not used to seeing naked bodies unless they are highly sexualized in advertisements, music videos or porn.

So "normal" nudity in saunas or beaches can make expats giggle or feel embarrassed.

Put your cameras away: FKK beaches are not for Instagram

"In Anglo culture, people tend to have a very different relationship to the body, says Annegret Staiger, associate professor of anthropology at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. "Where as if you go to Germany, Bulgaria, France, Austria… it's a different story.

"In the US people are scandalized about skin and at the same time make such a hype about showing it," adds Staiger, who grew up in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, before leaving to study in the US in 1987.

A counterweight to sexualized nudity

For me, the thought of baring all in public was unimaginable until I visited Berlin to take part in a journalism fellowship in 2015. Along with learning the language I was trying to embrace German culture — and quickly found out that FKK and not wearing any clothes in spa environments was part of that.

You don't need a bathing suit to feel the heat in a sauna

It took a lot of courage but I did it. After years of feeling uncomfortable in my skin, feeling that my body was ugly or something to be hidden away, it felt empowering to lie on the wooden slats of the sauna, with the heat prickling across my skin.

I found the attitude to nudity in Germany refreshing.

I had battled body confidence issues for years and embarked on numerous diets as I struggled with my changing body shape after puberty. But here people of all shapes and sizes could take their clothes off and feel comfortable.

It was such a different concept compared to what I'd grown up with. Taking your clothes off isn't necessarily a sexual thing and it's not about looking good.

Politician Gysi agrees, saying nudism "isn't really erotic." "I see FKK as a possible counterweight to the ubiquitous sexualization in advertising, but also in society in general," he adds

The English Garden in Munich and the Tiergarten in Berlin are two of the most famous parks in Germany with nude areas

A brief history of a movement

The country's first FKK organization was created in 1898 and the idea, connected to the pursuit of good health, quickly spread, especially around Berlin, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

"Even at the turn of the century there was this movement away from the cities," says Staiger. "It was part of a broader movement connected to not having the body constrained by things like corsets, and letting it breathe."

Rather than sexualizing the body, the naturist movement was about health as well as freeing people from shame, social inequality and from the unhealthy living environments in the crowded cities of early industrialization.

At the time there were dozens of magazines and films dedicated to FKK culture.

FKK was initially banned by the Nazis during the war era, but the practice soon returned. Staiger says it could be argued that the party adopted the culture in some ways through their obsession with bodies.

"By the time Hans Suren's book Mensch und Sonne (1936) and Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda film Olympia (1938) came about, nudism had become incorporated — at least to some extent — into the racial ideology of the Nazis," she says.

Leni Riefenstahl's film Olympia celebrated the aesthetics of the Aryan athletic body

FKK culture persisted after the war and, although it existed in both East and West Germany, it took on a new meaning in the East where it became a symbol for people to escape a repressive state.

"FKK culture has a long tradition in Germany," says Gysi. "Partly, it also had ties to the workers' movement. In the GDR (German Democratic Republic), FKK beaches on the Baltic Sea were the norm."

Gysi says there were no separate nude beaches — everyone, whether they chose to wear clothing or not — bathed together. "This way of dealing with nudity was lost after the country's reunification," he adds.

Not the spirit of FKK: Sex sauna clubs

Staiger says a darker side connected to FKK has emerged in recent years in the form of sauna clubs that sell sex.

"We have the issue of these sauna clubs or brothels that call themselves FKK sauna clubs, but they're hiding behind the FKK label. It's another cycle of co-optation of an idea or maybe an ideology."

These clubs, according to Staiger, "don't have the spirit of FKK," she says. "They're purely a euphemism to make it (prostitution) more acceptable."

"FKK and nudist culture was about celebrating the body unencumbered by clothes, in nature and sunlight," adds Staiger. "In FKK sauna clubs, only sex workers are naked, except for their six-inch high heels. That is not what the idea of FKK is about.

"

There are however still many German spas that are textile-free facilities without being brothels, such as the Vabali Spa

A culture worth protecting

So how can naturist culture get back to its roots and does it have a place in modern German life?

The way forward, Gysi says, lies with local politics — and to ignore those against it. "They (politicians) can easily declare certain areas on beaches and in spas to be FKK areas and in doing so they should not be misled by investors (who don't want nude people there)," he says.

Gysi says nudism stands for "self-confidence and the departure from social constraints" and I have to agree. "That's important and worth supporting," he adds.

As a non-German I feel there's something special about naturist culture.

And I like living in a country where you're likely to find pensioners in the buff, friends chilling without clothes, and naked yoga. No one cares what you look like, it's just bodies — we all have them.

You'll find more from Meet the Germans on YouTube or at dw.com/MeettheGermans.

UN confirms second death, multiple rapes in Sudan crackdown

The UNHCR has said Sudanese security forces shot a man in the head and raped several women during protests against the country's military leaders. More protests are expected over the coming days.

Hundreds of civilians were injured by security forces Sunday while protesting Sudan's military coup

The UN Human Rights Office (UNHCR) on Tuesday confirmed that a second person had died in the wake of Sunday's brutal crackdown on protests across Sudan. UNHCR spokeswoman Liz Throssell also said her office had received more than a dozen allegations of rape and gang rape carried out by security forces.

The incidents occurred as hundreds of thousands of Sudanese gathered to protest the army's October 25 military coup as well as a November 21 agreement that saw Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok return to his post after being removed from office on October 25.

In the capital, Khartoum, protesters were dispersed by security forces after they converged on the presidential palace for a sit-in.

Speaking of the violence of the crackdown and the rape allegations that the UNHCR had received, Throssell said, "We urge a prompt, independent and thorough investigation into the allegations of rape and sexual harassment as well as the allegations of death and injury of protesters as a result of the unnecessary or disproportionate use of force in particular the use of live ammunition."

How long have protests been going on in Sudan?

The death of the first protester was reported Monday. Details of the death of a second man, a 28-year-old, were released by the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, which said he had died from "a bullet in the head." A total of 47 people have died since protests began in the country in October.

Moreover, the committee previously put the number of injured from Sunday's protests at 300. Doctors said that most injuries were the result of live ammunition fire and tear gas.

A spokesman for Sudanese military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan claimed the army was determined to uphold security and that it was firmly behind the people's desire for democracy, promising "free and fair elections" in 2023.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who says he only signed the November 21 agreement with the army to end violence and save the economy, has yet to comment on Sunday's events.

Sunday's protests marked the three-year anniversary of mass demonstrations that ultimately forced Omar al-Bashir, who ran the country from 1989 to 2019, from power.

A major protest organizer, the umbrella group Forces for Freedom and Change, has called for renewed demonstrations on December 25 and 30.

Africa sees hike in detentions, arrests of journalists

Press freedom in Africa has suffered in 2021 due to growing authoritarianism and insecurity, especially in East Africa — the region most hostile to journalists on the continent.


Journalists in Somalia, one of the world's most dangerous place for the profession, wear body armor and helmets

Journalists in many parts of Africa are working in increasingly difficult and dangerous circumstances.

Political instability, such as the 2021 coups in Sudan, Mali, Guinea and Chad, has lead to widespread crackdowns on media workers.

Journalists are also being targeted by both governments and armed groups seeking to control the flow of information in regions wracked by violence and conflict, such as Cameroon, the Sahel, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Somalia.

In its round-up of abuses against journalists released every December, Reporters without Borders, commonly referred to by its French acronym RSF, sounded the alarm over the growing number of journalists being detained worldwide.

Africa is no exception, with more than 100 journalists arbitrarily arrested and 26 detained from January 1 to December 1, the RSF report found.
Dangers of reporting in East Africa

East Africa is the region most hostile to media freedom on the continent, said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF's Africa desk.

Eritrea, where President Isaias Afwerki banned all independent media back in 2001, and Djibouti have no media freedom, making them news and information deserts.

In 2021, Eritrea even beat North Korea to take the last place worldwide in RSF's Press Freedom Index.

The three African countries which detained the most journalists in 2021, namely Eritrea, Ethiopia and Rwanda, are also all in East Africa.

Media freedom backslides in Ethiopia

Ethiopia, in particular, has been heavily criticized by rights organizations and the United Nations in the last month for clamping down on press freedom during the ongoing war between federal forces and Tigray and Oromo fighters.

Last week, three journalists were charged with "promoting terrorism" after interviewing members of the Oromo Liberation Army, designated a terrorist group by the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

A government decree, introduced in November, bars people from using media platforms to support terrorists and also bans the distribution of information about military movements unless they are published by the government.

"The only thing reporters are able to report are the official figures and the official narratives of the government," Froger, from Reporter without Borders, told DW.

"If they go to the other side of the battlefield, they face arrest, or deportation if they're foreign journalists, so no independent journalism is allowed," he said.

Communication blackouts in the northern Tigray region and government restrictions on reporters' movements are further curbs to Ethiopia's press freedom, which had "greatly deteriorated" in the past year, Froger said.

Communications blackouts and restrictions on reporters' movements have made it hard to report on the extent of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in northern Ethiopia

Cost of reporting in Somalia

East Africa also has the ignominious honor of being home to the most dangerous country for media workers in the whole of Africa — namely Somalia.

Two journalists have been killed so far this year, bringing the total number of reporters killed since 2010 to more than 50.

Somalia is also the worst in the world for solving the killings of journalists, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' 2021 Global Impunity Index.

In the most recent killing, journalist Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, the director of the government-owned Radio Mogadishu, died when a suicide bomber exploded on the front of his car in Mogadishu in November.

The al-Shabab militant group took responsibility for the assassination, saying they had been "hunting" Abdiaziz for a long time.

Attacks like this one make Somalia one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists

In addition, more than 30 journalists have been arrested and or attacked this year, reports the National Union of Somali Journalists.

"Harassment of journalists has become institutionalized in this country," said Omar Faruk Osman, the union's Secretary General.

As well as the threat of violence from Islamist groups, media workers face increasing legal threats from authorities, "such as arbitrary arrest or being taken to court ... on trumped up charges," he told DW in a telephone interview from Mogadishu.

Somalia is currently holding much delayed elections and this has triggered an upsurge of hostility towards media workers, said Osman, adding that the situation was "very worrisome."

Ghana's downward trend

Even some African countries with strong media freedoms seem to be backsliding.

Prominent Ghanaian journalist Manasseh Azure, who heads the non-profit investigative journalism project The Fourth Estate, feels that the media freedom environment in his country has become more "oppressive" since President Nana Akufo-Addo was elected in 2016.

Ghana has slipped down the Press Freedom Index from 22nd in 2015 to 30th this year, with increasing reports of torture and abuse of journalists at the hands of security agencies.

Officials also seem reluctant to condemn or prosecute those who threaten or attack media workers, Azure told DW, adding to the climate of fear for reporters.

In 2019, investigative reporter Ahmed Suale was shot dead in broad daylight in the capital Accra, just months after a member of parliament called on his supporters to attack Suale.

"Ghana is basking in past glory," Azure told DW in a phone interview from Accra. "Perhaps because media freedom on the continent is so bad that even though the situation in Ghana isn't good enough, we still celebrate it."

A free press is necessary to hold authorities and individuals in power to account

Speaking out regardless

But the situation isn't stopping some from continuing to uncover corruption and fight for justice on the continent.

Manasseh Azure has had to leave Ghana twice in recent years because of death threats against him.

"There's a lot of injustice ongoing, there's a lot of corruption happening, and so somebody has to do it," he said. "The option is not to fold our arms and allow the bad ones to take over and continue to do the things they have been doing."

In Somalia, DW reporter Mohamed Odowa files reports on topics such as armed conflicts, organized crime or politically motivated violence from across the country.

"I know Somalia is a hostile reporting environment," he said from the capital Mogadishu, "but many veteran journalists like me opt to be courageous so that we can share the developments in our country with our citizens and with outside audiences."

Edited by: Cristina Krippahl

Toxic waters in war-torn Ukraine: How not to phase out coal

Around the world, coal-producing countries are struggling for a "just transition" away from fossil fuels. But for Donbas in war-torn Ukraine, shuttered mines threaten ecological disaster.


Winding up the coal mining industry in the Donbas region and ensuring a 'just transition' remains a challenge

"Before the war started, I used to water my garden with it, but now it's unusable," said 82-year-old pensioner Lyudmila Ivanovna Tarasova, sighing as she gestured toward the Komyshuvakha River, where the flowing water is an unsettling orange.

Tarasova lives in a little wooden house on the outskirts of Zolote, in eastern Ukraine. The Komyshuvakha that runs close by is a tributary of the Severskiy Donets River, itself the main freshwater source for the war-torn region of Donbas. In recent weeks, the easternmost part of Ukraine has found itself once again in the spotlight, with fears of a Russian invasion mounting following an unprecedented buildup of troops at the border.

Retiree Tarasova lives by the polluted Komyshuvakha River, and can no longer use it to water her garden

Home to some 6.5 million inhabitants, Donbas has long been Ukraine's biggest industrial hub and a major coal producer. Over 200 years, an estimated 15 billion tons of the fossil fuel has been extracted from the region.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, many of Donbas' mines became unprofitable and shuttered. Since conflict broke out between the Ukrainian state and Russian-backed separatists nearly seven years ago, many more have fallen into disuse and disrepair.

What might initially sound like a win for the environment has become a testament to the ecological disaster that can ensue when mine closures are poorly managed.
Hundreds of thousands at risk from contaminated waters

When a mine ceases to operate, water must be constantly pumped out of the underground shafts and chambers to prevent them from flooding. Groundwater that does enter can become contaminated with heavy metals, which may then permeate underground aquifers and the surrounding soils, rendering them unusable for farming.

A 2019 report by Ukraine's National Institute for Strategic Studies called chemical contamination from flooded mines an "urgent threat" to at least 300,000 people in separatist-held-areas, while every fourth resident near the contact line — a stretch of land that separates government and non-government-controlled territories — already lacks a reliable source of drinking water.

The Komyshuvakha River has been colored orange by highly mineralized mine water, and is no longer drinkable

"The incidence of diseases such as acute gastrointestinal infections, especially in children under 4 years old, is already dozens of times higher than the average in Ukraine," said hydrogeologist Evgeny Yakovlev, a senior research fellow at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, of the situation in Donbas.

In 2017, Yakovlev led the last comprehensive survey of coal mine flooding and its impact on water quality in Donbas. Its findings were dire. "Ninety percent of the water sampled outside of the centralized supply system is not drinkable," he told DW.

Most of the Donbas region's water originates from the 300-kilometer (186-mile) Siverskyi Donets–Donbas canal, run and maintained by Ukrainian municipal public company Voda Donbasu. However, the waterway is located within the front-line zone and therefore regularly damaged by fighting. This has forced people to rely on contaminated well waters.

Yakovlev's study was the last one to be conducted on both side of the front line and, since 2017, no data has been made available on environmental degradation in the territories outside of Ukrainian control.

However, over the past few years, the Ukrainian government has repeatedly accused the authorities of the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk of closing mines without the necessary environmental precautions.

Mine tailings near the city of Zolote are visible from a distance

Radioactive rivers?

Of particular concern is the Yunkom coal mining complex in Yenakiieve, where in 1979 Soviet authorities detonated a 0.3 kiloton nuclear bomb underground in a bid to free methane gas.

In 2018, separatist authorities decided to end the costly maintenance of the mine. Ukrainian officials have said that move has led to water pouring into the complex's lower levels, with groundwater already contaminated and potentially carrying active radionuclides, formed by the bomb, into the Kalmius and Seversky Donets rivers and even beyond to the Black Sea.

The Energy Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), meanwhile, has denied there is any problem. "Environmental degradation in the DPR, unlike the difficult environmental situation in modern Ukraine, is not occurring," it told DW.
Dumping polluted water into the Komyshuvakha

Yet, some believe that it's easier for the Ukrainian authorities to blame the separatists than to address the problems that also exist on their side of the front line. Representatives from the government seem at times more concerned with fiery rhetoric than cross-border cooperation to solve those issues, according to Benoit Gerfault, coordinator for French humanitarian NGO ACTED.

And with networks of mines interconnected, damage and neglect on one side of the conflict line can quickly become a problem for the whole country.

The Karbonit coal mine, located in the city of Zolote, is still operational

In May 2018, water from the flooded Rodina and Holubovska coal mines, located behind separatist lines, rushed into the Zolote mine in government-held territory at a speed of 2,000 cubic meters per hour.

Unable to cope with the deluge, treatment facilities at Zolote have been pumping out contaminated mine water around-the-clock ever since — and dumping it, untreated, into the Komyshuvakha River, according to local media reports.

Recent analysis by investigative nonprofit Truth Hounds found that the Komyshuvakha far exceeded Ukrainian legal safety standards for chlorides, sulfates and manganese.

"Even for technical purposes, for livestock, there's no more water," said Oleksii Babchenko, head of the civil-military administration of Zolote. "No way to water the crops, either."

As the river's contamination has grown increasingly visible, locals are seeking water elsewhere.

"For my garden, I now use collected rainwater," said pensioner Tarasova. For cooking she boils water from a local stream, but for drinking she relies on bottled water from the store in Zolote — a considerable walk away for a woman of 82.

"It's not easy, but what choice do I have?" she said.

Explosions and subsidence

The flooding of Donbas' coal mines has also led to the displacement and buildup of methane gas, increasing the risk of explosions and earthquakes. When groundwater levels rise, the submerged soils lose density and start shifting, causing seismic activity.

"When you go down in the mines here in Zolote, it smells of gas, as if someone had left the stove on in a kitchen," said Babchenko.

And then there is subsidence.

When shafts in heavily mined regions collapse due to flooding, the ground surface above them begins to shift and sink. According to some estimates a total area of 12,000 hectares (around 29,000 acres, or 46 square miles) in Donbas is threatened with subsidence.

The OSCE has warned that this could lead to landslides and sinkholes, as well as the failure of engineering and communication infrastructure — gas lines, sewage and water supply systems. Hydrogeologist Yakovlev said entire cities could become uninhabitable.

"As the ground is sinking, cracks have started appearing on the buildings," Babchenko said of Zolote. "One of the local schools is in need of constant repairs."
Just transition in a war zone

At the UN climate conference in Glasgow last month, Ukraine committed to giving up coal by 2035. But officials say winding up the two-century industry in Donbas and ensuring a "just transition" away from fossil fuels that would secure workers' rights and livelihoods is a challenge unlike that faced by other coal-producing countries.

This mural honors the miners of Zolote, where a 'just transition' away from fossil fuels remains difficult

Despite regular shelling, Zolote's remaining coal mines still employ around 3,500 people, according to Babchenko. The official said shuttering them without massive investment would be a socioeconomic disaster.

"We need to invest both in an environmentally safe way to close down the mines, and in social and employment programs for the workers," he said.

"Many people talk to us about the experience of France, Germany and England," Babchenko added. "But let's not forget that in none of these regions was there an active military conflict."

Edited by: Ruby Russell and Holly Young

Opinion: Erdogan is pulling the wool over voters' eyes

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have pulled a financial rabbit out of the hat to stop the lira's free fall. But that will not help him secure another presidential term, writes Banu Güven.

Money for nothing? Observers say Erdogan's new scheme could backfire

At the end of a long day, as the Turkish lira had plunged to another record low against the euro and the US dollar, the Turkish president announced a spate of measures to prop up the lira and guaranteed that the government would cover losses by lira deposit holders in cases where the lira's depreciation against foreign currencies exceeds banks' interest rates.

On Tuesday, the lira managed to rebound against foreign currencies and regained its losses of the last month. Erdogan supporters started celebrating the return of the lira on Twitter with the hashtag #HeWasRightAgain. 

The president appears to have saved the day, but can he really save the country and his future in politics through his new deposit scheme? I very much doubt it. 

Ordinary households will miss out

First, in this model, there is no justice. It is the treasury that will compensate for possible losses of depositors in lira. That means households who do not have any savings in the banks will have to share the burden of a further depreciation of the lira. 

And what about those people who sold their dollars early enough, to buy dollars at a much lower rate the next day and made enormous gains — there's speculation that some investors close to the government received hints prior to Erdogan's announcement.

Banu Güven

Second, it is not a sustainable model. In case of a further depreciation, the new scheme could raise public debt to record levels and drive up inflation even further.

According to the state-owned Turkish Statistical Institute, inflation was hovering just above 21% last month. Independent researchers put it at 60%.

The 'Turkish Dollar Scheme'

Third, this move prioritizes the US dollar over the lira. Prior to the announcement of the new deposit scheme, 64% of bank deposits were in a foreign currency. We do not know how much of these deposits was transferred into lira. Not that it matters, if your lira are essentially being treated as if they were US dollars. Some observers have already coined it the "Turkish Dollar scheme" on social media.

Critics also argue that Erdogan's move is essentially a "hidden" interest rate hike, a measure he had refused to entertain — arguing that Islam demands lower rates — despite warnings that sticking to interest rate cuts to control inflation would backfire.  

Nobody, except his loyal voters, trusts him anymore. Investors may be cautiously optimistic about the financial impact, however they know very well that he is stubborn, illogical and also unpredictable. 

Erdogan for president again?

We know that Erdogan sees himself as the master in all walks of life. These days he's an economist who wants to control the economy and will stop at nothing to reach his short-term political goals. 

He is fixated on securing a third presidential term in the 2023 election that coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic. His campaign will focus on driving home the message to voters that he has preserved the country from foreign interference that would ruin Turkey financially. 

He will point to the increase in exports, positive GDP growth, and the success of his megaprojects. However, people, who have become poorer in recent years through his economic incompetence will never forgive him. 

Pulling a rabbit out of the hat may have saved the day, but whether that will be enough to secure another presidential term is another matter. 

Banu Güven is a Turkish journalist and television presenter. She writes for various German and Turkish media outlets. She has been living and working in Germany since 2018.

Edited by: Rob Mudge