Germans revive Cold War Monday demonstrations amid inflation

Protesters from Germany's left and the right have called for regular Monday protests against the rising cost of living. These evoke the peaceful revolution in East Germany but also of recent anti-immigrant rallies.

By helping bring down communist East Germany, Monday demonstrations have a storied history in Germany

Parties on both the left and right of the political spectrum in Germany have announced a "hot autumn" with regular Monday demonstrations.

The socialist Left Party was the first to announce the new series of protests against Germany's rising prices for gas, energy and food. 

It chose Leipzig, a city in former East Germany, as the location for its first Monday march on September 5. 

The choice of Leipzig has a powerful symbolic resonance: This is where East Germans played a decisive role in toppling the dictatorship in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) with their Monday demonstrations.

THERE WAS ONCE A WALL...
The Wall that no one feared anymore
Just 48 hours after the borders were opened, the so-called "death strip" had lost its power to terrify. Berliners celebrated in front of, behind and on top of the concrete wall that had divided the city. East and West Germans were one people again.
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What were Cold War Monday demonstrations?

It all started with prayers meetings at Leipzig's St Nicholas Church that evolved into demonstrations in September 1989. These peaceful protests eventually spilled into other towns and cities across East Germany. 

Protests around the 40th anniversary celebrations of the GDR on October 7, 1989, were met with a forceful response by the state. Despite the increased international attention at the time, some 3,500 people were arrested and many others injured throughout East Germany.

The next day, October 8, some 8,000 police and armed military units gathered in Leipzig. This triggered fears that the state would crack down on the Monday demonstration by using the "Chinese Solution" —  a term East Germans used to refer to the Chinese massacre of pro-democracy protesters in Tianamen Square, which had occured only a few months previously. 

More than 70,000 protesters, out of Leipzig's population of 500,000, turned out and marched peacefully on that date. Across the country, hundreds of thousands protested against the communist regime of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) at the time, chanting "We are the people!"

The security forces backed down.

In 2004, East German protesters took to the streets of Leipzig on Mondays 

to show their anger against labor market reforms

AfD and Free Saxons compete with the Left Party

The fact that Monday was chosen for this week's marches obviously enhances that symbolism, something that has not gone down well with some.

The Green Party criticized Sören Pellmann, a Leipzig-based member of the Bundestag and Left Party's eastern Germany representative, for using the term "Monday demonstration," as he believed it had a  symbolic meaning that was directed against the SED, the Left's precursor party.

The Greens also accused the Left Party of accepting "that far-right appropriations of the Monday demonstrations in the center of the city could become acceptable."

That was an allusion to the fact that in addition to the Left Party, several right-wing parties have also called for demonstrations, including the far-right splinter party called Free Saxons and far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is represented in the Bundestag and under surveillance by Germany's domestic intelligence agency.

The Left Party leadership has defended itself against the accusations. They are aware of the danger coming from the right, said Janine Wissler, who shares the party leadership with Martin Schirdewan.

As for Schirdewan, he defended the plan for the Leipzig demonstration as a "powerful, peaceful protest" for a political course correction.

The protest slogan translates as "Unburden people. Cap prices. Tax excess profits." Wissler argued: "Protests against the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine should not be left to the right. After all, the Left is the party of social justice."

But right-wing extremists have already demonstrated the danger of appropriation. "Together against those up there": Under this slogan, the smallest party had registered its rally at the same location as the Left near Leipzig's main train station, giving the impression that it was pulling together with its political opponents. The Left Party successfully took legal action against this.

Far-right xenophobic demonstrations by the PEGIDA movement turned violent 

like here in Chemnitz on Monday August 27,2018

The far-right appropriates the battle cry: 'We are the people'

The label "Monday demonstration" has been appropriated many times since Germany's reunification in 1990, by both the left and the right. In 2004, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), another forerunner of today's Left Party, mobilized against what was known as "Agenda 2010," the then government's reforms of unemployment benefits.

In 2014, the xenophobic"Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident" (PEGIDA) launched demonstrations against immigration every Monday, first in the state of Saxony and later throughout Germany. The movement reached its peak when Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed around a million refugees in 2015 and 2016, mainly from war-torn countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, to enter Germany to claim asylum.

In the Saxon capital of Dresden alone, up to 25,000 people took to the streets, specifically echoing the tradition of the GDR's peaceful revolution with the slogan: "We are the people." PEGIDA protests still take place today, though more than 200 people rarely take part.

Protesters against COVID regulations appropriated the Monday demonstrations 

in 2021, labeling their far-right protests as 'Monday evening strolls'

COVID protest disguised as a 'stroll'

Another mass movement emerged temporarily at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when protests against the government's policies to contain the virus were called "Monday strolls" in an attempt to evade and satirize lockdown restrictions. However, with falling infection figures and the removal of almost all restrictions, such as mandatory masks in stores, cinemas or concert halls, this variant of the Monday demonstrations has also died down.

Now the Monday demonstrations are set to bloom again. The dispute about the alleged or actual misuse of the original from the fall of 1989 will probably continue.

This article was originally written in German.

Ukraine war and the long tradition of deception

Deceiving the enemy is an important war tactic. Throughout history, military strategy has involved the use of dummies — be it fake guns, tanks, airplanes or soldiers. The current conflict in Ukraine is no different.

Dummy weapons, vehicles and soldiers are being deployed in the war in Ukraine

There have been numerous reports that the Ukrainian military is outfoxing the Russians on the battlefield in a modern adaptation of deception tactics that go back to ancient times. Videos posted on social media platforms seem to show Ukrainian forces using US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, against Russian forces — with a devastating effect.

Strikes with the long-range rocket artillery system have indeed destroyed large ammunition and fuel dumps deep behind Russian lines in southern Ukraine in recent weeks, wreaking havoc on Russian logistics. So targeting HIMARS is a high priority for Russia.

But now media reports indicate Ukrainian has a fleet of wooden HIMARS replicas set up to draw Russian fire, which reveals the location of Russian weapon placements and leads the Russian military to squander its finite supply of precision missiles. Though made of wood, the HIMARS reproductions bear a strong enough resemblance to their real counterparts, which may well help even the odds Ukraine faces against a larger, better-equipped Russian army.

The ancient tactics

Though the Ukrainian subterfuge replicates some of the most modern American equipment on the battlefield today, their imitation game is hardly new.

The Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun Tzu recommended this tactic in his military treatise The Art of War, written in the 5th century BCE. There, he called on military commanders to "set up decoys and feign confusion" and cause an enemy to miscalculate the opposing force. "All warfare is based on deception," Sun Tzu wrote.

While at camp during Rome's Gallic Wars in what is today France and Belgium in the 50s BCE, Julius Caesar stationed some of his legionaries in such a way that they appeared to be a much larger force than they actually were and thereby exaggerated Roman strength. Caesar's accounts of his wars in Europe describe approaching and destroying Gaulish forces that had been distracted by his deceptively large forces at camp.

For centuries, military commanders also sought to dupe enemy forces with fake equipment. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Confederate troops employed "Quaker guns” — large wooden logs painted black to look like cannons and named after the pacifist Quaker religious group — to trick Union generals. At Centreville, in Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee built extensive fortifications with many rows of Quaker guns, appearing from a distance to be a heavily fortified defensive line.

Wooden so-called Quaker Guns were used in the American Civil War

World War I

After the advent of the internal combustion engine and its more widespread application in war, battlefield decoys gained new importance. The tank made its combat debut during World War I (1914-1918). With it, the British Army attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare. Quickly, both the British and Germans employed dummy tanks, made of wood and painted burlap cloth, to deceive the other side and lead the opponents to overestimate the adversaries' strength.

Although motorized military machines made their widespread operational debut during World War I, Europe's armies were not yet fully motorized but still relied partly on horses to move material across the battlefield. So the armies erected dummy horses made of wooden, blanket-covered frames to deceive enemy reconnaissance pilots' observations from the air.

World War II

During World War II (1939 - 1945), Nazi Germany and its allies, as well as the alliance of their opponents practiced deception on a much grander scale. Before the Western Allies crossed the channel and landed in Normandy, France, in 1944, troops in England had already made extensive use of inflatable tanks.

These dummies inflated German estimates of Allied strength, and in combination with false intelligence, this served to convince the Germans that the Allied invasion would take place elsewhere, which helped draw German forces away from the Normandy beaches.

So great was the importance placed on tactical trickery that the United States Army created the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops — also known as the Ghost Army — which was described as a "traveling road show of deception.” Armed with inflatable tanks, trucks, and airplanes, and audio recordings of troop and vehicle movements which blasted out via powerful speaker systems, the American Ghost Army staged large deception operations in Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg and is credited with saving the lives of thousands of US soldiers through their reception.

Both parties to World War Two used dummy tanks made of wood to dupe their enemies

Islamic State tactics

Wartime trickery extends to nonstate actors as well. In 2016, the Iraqi Army captured wooden replicas of Humvees and tanks built by the terrorist Islamic State militia, intended to draw fire from the US-led air campaign. Though they were made primarily of wood, the imitation vehicles appeared genuine from a distance — some even had bearded mannequins in the driver seats to complete the deception.

Lacking any airpower, the Islamic State hoped to distract coalition warplanes, negate the allied coalition's advantage in the air, and preserve the Islamic States' fleet of captured trucks, tanks, and personnel carriers.

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

India: Why are suicides among farmers on the increase?

Financial burdens caused by climate change and government polices have led to a rise in the number of suicides among agricultural workers. Maharashtra state has suffered more than most.


Some experts have criticized the Narendra Modi government and its farming policies

In India, over 600 farmers in the region of Marathwada, Maharashtra state, have died from suicide this year, according to official figures, with a majority of deaths blamed on rains that damaged thousands of hectares of agricultural land.

Some agricultural experts believe the death toll could be even higher.

The figure is almost certain to eventually exceed last year's official figure of 805 suicides across Marathwada's eight districts, despite two consecutive state governments waiving farm loans in 2021.

Some 65% of the population living in this region are solely dependent on agriculture and similar activities for their livelihood and vocational needs. With climate change having drastic effects on crop production, many are beginning to suffer.

"When it comes to agriculture, the sector is tethered to poverty and distress," Joginder Singh, a prominent farm union leader, told DW. "The deaths are a reflection of the extremely fragile nature of farming communities and a multiple set of crises affects them."

This year, however, extreme rainfall events in Maharashtra damaged crops across 800,000 hectares, affecting farmers in 24 districts, mostly in the regions of Marathwada and Vidarbha.

Paddy, corn, soyabean, cotton, pigeon peas and banana crops and other vegetables have been heavily damaged, according to the state agriculture department, and half the damage has been reported in the state of Marathwada alone.
Suicides up almost 30% since 2019

The latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in India, published earlier this week, said 5,563 agricultural laborers committed suicide last year and the number of people killing themselves in the industry increased by 9% from 2020, and up 29% from 2019.

Most suicides were reported in Maharashtra, with 1,424 cases, followed by Karnataka with 999, and Andhra Pradesh with 584.

"It is unfathomable that farmers' suicides are increasing every year, especially in the cotton growing belts," Indra Shekhar Singh, independent agriculture policy analyst told DW. "Crop failures, rising inputs costs and low market prices often trap the farmers in a cycle of debt. Farmers haven't fully recovered from the lockdowns yet too."

Experts point out that, through direct benefit transfers (DBT), the government can help farmers to diversify and move away from water-guzzling crops such as BT cotton and sugarcane to better newer climate-suited crops such as millets, legumes, or oilseeds.

"If DBTs are successfully implemented the government may score points with the farmers and also help mitigate climate change and save the precious water in this dry region," added Singh.

Problems are compounded by a lack of support from banks, especially in the face of inclement weather and market fluctuations.

"Farmers are hence prompted to turn to local moneylenders who charge them a much higher rate of interest," Singh said.

Agriculture: India's economic backbone

India is an agrarian country where over 50% of the population is reliant on agriculture to make a living. Apart from the rising farmers' suicides in vast swaths of the country, millions of mostly small-scale farmers have been squeezed by falling prices for their crops and the rising transportation and storage costs.

Outbreaks of rural discontent pose a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who promised to double farm incomes in five years when he came to power in 2014.

Many believe the suicides expose the precarious state in which the country's struggling farmers and impoverished agricultural laborers currently find themselves.

Last year, the Modi government was forced to repeal contentious agriculture laws that were proposed to modernize the farm sector after a nationwide agitation by farmers.

"Farmers withstand instability and an absence of security especially in Maharashtra," Darshan Pal Singh, leader of the Krantikari Kisan Union, told DW. "Their crop holdings are smaller than the farmers in Punjab. Debt cycles and erratic weather patterns like this year only add to their woes."

"The magnitude of the problem is so big that no government has ever tried to understand the increasing burden on the farmers due to inflated prices of agricultural inputs," he added.

Farmer groups point out that the government decides the market rates and argue that it is failing to meet the Minimum Support Price (MSP) – the price at which the government is supposed to buy that crop back from farmers if the market price falls below it.

Ketki Singh, vice president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union's women's wing, maintains that many sales do not even cover the production costs, leaving farmers facing massive losses.

RECORD TEMPERATURES HIT INDIA'S FARMERS
Air conditioners and blocks of ice
India is currently experiencing an exceptional heat wave. Rajgarh, a city of 1.5 million people in central India topped out at 46.5 degrees C (116 degrees F) while thermometers in nine other cities also climbed above the 45 degree mark. No wonder that anything to fight the heat is an easy sell on the streets of New Delhi.
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Climate change heaps misery on farmers

"Climate change has acted as the last nail in the coffin by resulting in furthering of the uncertainties associated with the already uncertain monsoon system and hence agricultural production," Ketki told DW.

"Can you imagine that nearly 30 people in the farming sector die by suicide daily?" she said.

According to government figures, two-thirds of India's population of 1.3 billion depends on farming for their livelihood, but agriculture makes up just around 17% of the nation's total economic output, amounting to around $2.3 trillion (€2.3 trillion).

China tightens control over civil society amid rising nationalism

By stirring up nationalistic sentiment, Beijing wants to create a social echo chamber in China where there is no space for alternative voices, say experts.



Analysts say the timing of the rise of anti-foreign sentiments in China likely reflects Beijing's political needs

Nationalistic sentiment appears to be on the rise in China, at a time when countries in the Indo-Pacific region are already expressing concerns about Beijing's aggressive military posture.

Over the past week, two incidents associated with anti-Japanese sentiments have sparked widespread discussion on the Chinese internet.

On August 15, a video emerged of a Chinese woman being arrested by police for wearing a traditional Japanese kimono dress while taking photos in the city of Suzhou. She was reportedly cosplaying a character from a manga series.

In the video, the police official was seen shouting at the woman that if she had worn a Hanfu (traditional Chinese clothing), he wouldn't have stopped her from posing for photos. "But you are wearing a Kimono. Are you Chinese? If you don't comply, you are provoking trouble. Please come with us," the police shouted angrily at the woman.

The woman, who is an active user on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, later wrote that she was "educated" at the police station for five hours and police searched content on her phone. She was released around midnight the next day.
Negative sentiments toward Japan on the rise?

Millions of netizens in China viewed the video and some questioned whether the police has overreacted. "I would never imagine that someone could be arrested for wearing a Japanese kimono in Suzhou. This huge country can't tolerate a woman wearing a kimono," wrote one Chinese netizen on Weibo.

"Who is the one that's provoking trouble? If this (wearing a kimono in public) is provoking trouble, should they first close down all Japanese restaurants on the street?" another netizen wrote.

Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief of China's state-run tabloid Global Times, wrote on Weibo that there is no legal reason to ban a kimono, but he also noted that given the rising tension between Japan and China over Tokyo's close cooperation with the US over issues related to Taiwan, negative sentiments toward Japan are rising in China.

While it's unclear if the police's arguments reflect China's official position, the fact that he wasn't disciplined for over-exercising his power shows that Beijing doesn't want to punish people within their own system, said Yaqiu Wang, a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"In order to ensure the loyalty of people in the system, Chinese authorities are willing to protect those who have violated regulations," she noted, adding: "This is one way for Beijing to protect the system."

Brand apologizes for suspected attempt to be 'Japanese'

On August 18, the Chinese retail brand Miniso, which has characterized itself as a product retailer inspired by Japan, apologized through a statement after its Spanish Instagram account posted a picture of dolls in which Chinese netizens argued the brand had mislabeled a doll wearing a traditional Chinese outfit called qipao as a "Japanese geisha doll."

Facing an intense online backlash, Miniso issued a lengthy statement, apologizing for "taking the wrong path" in the founding stage with its brand positioning and vowing to "do a good job of Chinese culture and values exportation."

The latest incidents reflect the anti-Japan sentiment that has existed in China for decades, Ting Guo, a Chinese Studies scholar at the University of Toronto. "This is not that new, as we have seen waves of anti-Japan sentiment played out in China," she underlined.

Analysts say the timing of the rise of anti-foreign sentiments in China likely reflects Beijing's political needs. "When the Chinese government needs anti-Japanese sentiment as a symbol of its declaration to the outside world, it will stir up such sentiment," said Teng Biao, a US-based Chinese human rights lawyer.

"Even when there is no specific incident, the Chinese Communist Party may need anti-Japanese sentiment to divert domestic political conflicts or the public's attention," he added. "It's a common practice in authoritarian regimes and the timing is often carefully chosen."

Since Miniso issued the statement, Chinese netizens have continued to question the sincerity of the brand's apology. "How about also clarifying the brand's country of origin? Why does a Chinese brand keep claiming that it is 'from Japan,'" one netizen wrote on Weibo.

"Even if the company thinks designing their package based on Japanese style can help with their sales, it is only a concept. Please don't pretend to be a Japanese company. Japanese style is not flawless. Our own culture is more beautiful," another netizen commented under Miniso's Weibo post.
Using nationalism to create a social echo chamber

Apart from using nationalism to achieve certain political goals, Teng Biao said Chinese authorities' attempt to interfere with citizens' personal choices is a phenomenon that typically happens in a totalitarian country. "While many people will resent the government's intervention, the majority of the Chinese people are unable to criticize the authorities' improper behavior," he stressed.

"Although many people feel very worried about the logic behind the kimono incident in Suzhou, such reflection and worry will not become mainstream. Fervent patriotism and anti-Japanese sentiment are much stronger," the lawyer added.

Wang from HRW and Guo from the University of Toronto both believe that by stirring up nationalistic sentiment, Beijing wants to create a social echo chamber in China where there is no space for alternative voices, say experts. "Many people are afraid of being targeted by nationalistic netizens online, so they choose to remain quiet," Wang said. "One of the effects of nationalism is the chilling effect."

Guo said that while support for China's MeToo movement and other similar issues remain active, pressure from the government, censorship, and control of the public sphere will still turn China into a more monotone civil society. "It cultivates an awareness of what you can do and what you can't do," she said. "That's one of the byproducts of top-down nationalism today."

Teng Biao said that the Chinese government will continue to reinforce nationalism and anti-West sentiment in the near future, and it also means that there will be more government intervention in Chinese citizens' everyday life, as the kimono incident has shown. "Authorities will do more to interfere with the Chinese people's thoughts and ideas, and there will be more and more of this in the future."

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

UK's Liz Truss hopes to follow in the footsteps of Iron Lady Thatcher

Liz Truss wants to be British prime minister at all costs, and is wooing the right wing of the Conservative Party in her bid to get the job. But many have questioned her competence following several gaffes.

Liz Truss is looking to become the UK's next prime minister

She is certainly no stranger to making farcical appearances: At the Conservative Party Conference in 2014, Liz Truss, speaking as secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, addressed the quality of British food, and went into raptures over British wheat and the sale of Yorkshire Tea to China. But all of a sudden, she thundered out that Britain was importing two-thirds of its cheese from abroad: "That is a disgrace!" The delegates almost choked on their sandwiches.

Then there is what she once said during her tenure as justice minister, when she was asked in parliament about the measures being taken to combat drones used to smuggle drugs into prisons. There were now special patrol dogs at one of the prisons in question, Truss said, and they barked, which helped to deter the drones.

Social media is full of videos of this and similarly bizarre appearances by Truss that are used by her critics to call into doubt her intelligence and her suitability as a prime minister.

Steady rise

Truss has shown herself to be a survival artist during the Conservative governments of the past 12 years. Her career path has been unswerving in its upward trajectory, from positions at the Ministry of Justice, Treasury and Department of International Trade to her current job as foreign secretary.

While dozens of her colleagues have fallen victim to party infighting and intrigues, she even survived the wave of resignations after the downfall of Theresa May and emerged unscathed from Boris Johnson's last big Cabinet reshuffle. Truss has always been seen as loyal and hard-working, without anyone really scrutinizing whether she has achieved anything.

But her party colleague Rory Stewart, speaking of their time together at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in his political podcast The Rest is Politics, related that Truss' leadership style was like "IBM business management of the 1980s."

Among other things, he said, she liked to annoy her colleagues with random math problems because that was probably what her father, a professor of math, "did to her when she was at the breakfast table."

Stewart called his experience with Truss "traumatizing."

Nonetheless, she has always worked indefatigably on her public image. Since joining the Foreign Office, she has been a constant presence on Instagram and Twitter, with a photographer always at hand, whether posing with fur hat in Moscow's Red Square or sitting atop a tank in military gear while visiting British troops in Estonia.

And, if critics called her competence into question, for once confusing the Baltic Sea with the Black Sea, for instance, she hit back with photos of her visit to Ukraine and vowed to stand up to Putin. In the Conservative Party, that counts for more than the occasional rhetorical or factual slip-up.

180-degree turns

However, her career with the Conservatives was by no means a foregone conclusion. At her last campaign appearance in London's Wembley Arena, where Truss and her opponent Rishi Sunak presented themselves once again to a few thousand party members, she admitted that she did not have a "traditional Conservative background." Her father was a professor of mathematics, her mother a nurse, and the family was politically rather left-leaning.

As a child, Liz was taken along to anti-nuclear demonstrations — but she has long turned her back on this aspect of her past. The same goes for her first steps in politics, which she made as a student, into the centrist Liberal Democrats. She now dismisses this as youthful indiscretion.

She is similarly casual about her transformation from a pro-European before the 2016 Brexit referendum to one of the most ardent defenders of Britain's exit from the EU. In the past few years, Truss has been shifting more and more to the right and is now seen as one of the most convinced advocates of pure Conservative doctrine — something that goes down well with party members in traditional Tory constituencies in southern England.

Vague program

In Wembley, Truss made clear once more what she did not want: Tax hikes. Once again, she frustrated all those who tried to prise out of her how she intends to combat the multiple crises of rising energy prices and galloping inflation. While many in the country fear that a large number of Britons will have to choose between "heating or eating" this winter, Truss says only that she is against "handouts" from the state, maintaining that lowering taxes is the proven way to create growth.

The fight between the rival candidates has been a rough one

She sees herself as the successor to Margaret Thatcher, who put the British economy on course for growth in the 1980s by means of drastic privatizations and deregulation. Truss also wants to bring down the current rate of inflation by lowering taxes, even if the economists at the Bank of England reject the idea, fearing that it could push already spiraling prices even higher.

Economics researcher Simon Lee, of the University of Hull, also believes that it is "entirely reasonable to expect the UK government to provide millions of individuals, households and companies with the immediate direct financial support they need to survive the cost of living crisis." After all, he says, Britain spent more than 2 trillion pounds ($2.3 trillion; €2.3 trillion) during the financial crisis of 2008 and the recent coronavirus pandemic to prevent the country from falling into ruin.

Truss, however, has left open the question of how she intends to help impoverished families, saying that will be the task of the new treasurer. But he or she will only be able to raise the billions needed by taking on more debt. British national debt already shot up rapidly during the coronavirus crisis; if further large-scale aid programs now become necessary, the burden on the state will grow.

Iron silence instead of Iron Lady?

On this point, however, Truss simply makes no promises at all. She will present her budget when she is in office, she says curtly. Lower taxes will ensure that people have "more money in their pockets."

They are, however, of no use to the masses of low-earners who now have to find thousands of extra pounds to pay drastically higher gas and electricity bills. Here, Truss puts forward the idea that there simply has to be more supply on the energy market. She intends to award dozens of new exploitation concessions for oil and gas in the North Sea. Environmental concerns play no role for her — just as questions of reforming the energy market do not interest her.

With regards to foreign policy, however, it is clear that Truss, if she becomes prime minister, intends to seek a quarrel with the EU and immediately rescind the Northern Ireland Protocol from the Brexit treaty.

Rising energy prices have triggered several protests in Britain

Adam Harrison, of the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations, believes that Truss is looking to follow through on Brexit "with the zeal of a convert." Besides this, he says, her politics are "Reaganite in flavor, with a foreign policy world view in which Britain stands alongside America against Russia and China, unsupported by its wimpish European neighbors." Among other things, he says this is shown by her habit of spicing her comments on the international situation with references to the Cold War and liberty.

That might sound disturbing. But Truss does not have to convince a majority of Britons with her plans - only the 160,000 or so Conservative Party members, who represent around 1.5% of the British population. There will not be regular elections for another two years, even if many doubt whether a government led by Truss can survive that long. A majority of Conservative MPs would, in fact, prefer her rival, Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is unclear whether and how long they will submit to Truss — they have already shown in the cases of Theresa May and Boris Johnson how they deal with failing prime ministers.

The coming winter of discontent in Britain, with media headlines about hunger and poverty, the faltering health care system and waves of strikes that have been signaled, will be a major test for an inexperienced head of government. It remains to be seen whether Truss, when confronted with adversity, will jettison her conservative ideology as fast as she did her earlier convictions.

At any rate, the clash between her free-market principles and harsh reality will produce an interesting spectacle.

This article has been translated from German.

Plastic certificates: Greenwashing or a step to climate neutrality?

A new brand of offsetting allows companies to call themselves "plastic-neutral" while continuing to use plastic themselves. What's it all about?

Plastic waste has become a feature of seas and beaches around the world

Plastic waste and microplastics are everywhere. On Mount Everest, in Arctic ice and the deepest ocean trenches, in the stomachs of animals, in our food, drinking water and even our blood. Such ubiquity is a reflection of how much plastic we make, which is now 200 times more than back in 1950. And so far, we have only managed to recycle around 9% of it.

Experts have long been warning that we can't recycle our way out of the global plastic crisis, but some companies and NGOs are now offering companies the chance to become "plastic neutral" by offsetting. It's a growing industry.

How plastic offsetting works 

Companies looking to offset their plastic pay a fee to NGOs and companies in the plastic offset sector. This money is used to collect a corresponding amount of plastic either from the service providers themselves or from third-party providers in developing countries. In some cases the plastic is also recycled. 

Marine life is also endangered by plastic waste

These service providers offer their customers so-called plastic neutral certificates or plastic "collection credits." 

One of the pioneers in the market is the New York-based company rePurpose Global. When companies invest in its collection and recycling programs, they receive a "plastic neutral” certificate which means they can then market their own products as such. Conversely, however, they can continue to use plastic at the same time.

In a statement to DW, rePurpose Global said it does not certify companies that don't share "a genuine commitment to reducing plastic use," and that it provides brands and companies with "ethically recycled plastic" from its "impact projects, to support their move towards 100% circular supply chains." 

Alix Grabowksi, Director of Plastic and Material Science at conservation group WWF, says it would be logical to expect that products claiming to be plastic neutral have no impact in terms of waste. "But that's not really the case."

"I think it's quite misleading for a company to make a claim like plastic neutral when you could still find their products in nature," she says. 

Companies certified as "plastic neutral" support better waste concepts,

 but they can continue to use plastic packaging

Is plastic-offsetting just greenwashing? 

Market analysis by the US NGO "The Circulate Initiative" sees a clear risk of greenwashing, above all due to a lack of transparency. Of 32 offsetting projects studied, just three make the connection between climate change and plastic consumption. 

Tom Zoete from the environmental organization Recycling Netwerk Benelux is also skeptical.

"The entire life cycle of plastic is associated with resource consumption, petroleum and energy to produce plastic, transport and so on," Zoete told DW, adding that only those who do not consume plastic can be "plastic neutral."

What is not always clear with such offsetting schemes, is what happens to the plastic itself, and so far there have been no studies detailing the impacts. 

rePurpose Global claims to collect seven million kilograms of plastic per year that would otherwise have ended up in the environment. Of that, it says 100% of the recyclable plastic is made into clothing, trash cans or materials for road and housing construction. 

What can't be recycled is burned to create a source of energy for the cement industry, replacing coal in the process. Critics say this merely amounts to one dirty fuel being replaced by another, and that it adds to air pollution. 

For Grabowski of WWF, the marketing tools are more of a problem than the actual projects, many of which she says are working to improve waste management and wages in the places most affected by plastic pollution.

This March, 200 countries reached the first ever consensus on mandatory rules for plastic production, consumption and disposal by 2024. WWF called the agreement historic.

Recycling 'myth'

Products and packaging made of plastic: The petrochemical industry earns as well

99% of plastic is made using fossil fuels, and the industries involved in its manufacture have a vested interest in continued manufacture. Not least since the International Energy Agency predicts that petrochemicals will soon be the biggest driver of petroleum demand. 

This spring, Rob Bonta, the Attorney General of the State of California, launched a far-reaching investigation against ExxonMobil.

He has accused the oil giant of having known for decades about the dangers posed by plastics and of engaging in an "aggressive campaign" to perpetuate the "myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis."

ExxonMobil denies the allegations.

This article was originally published in German.

GERMANY

Lufthansa pilots decide on second strike starting Wednesday

The two-day strike is set to start on Wednesday. However, unions have said industrial action could still be averted if Lufthansa presents a "serious offer."

Lufthansa pilots are ready for a second strike in a week

Pilots from Germany's Lufthansa airline have decided on a second round of strike action, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union said on Monday night.

The union said Lufthansa could avert the two-day action, set to start on Wednesday, with a "serious offer." Another round of talks will take place Tuesday, according to media reports.

Pilots already paralyzed Lufthansa's core operations on Friday last week after negotiations on a new collective agreement had failed.

"We very much regret that the union is continuing on the path of escalation," a Lufthansa spokesperson said following the announcement.

Which flights will be affected?

The strike was expected to affect passenger flights out of Germany on Wednesday and Thursday, while Lufthansa's cargo subsidiary was set to be affected just on Wednesday.

For legal reasons, the strike only applies to Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo departures from German airports. Lufthansa subsidiaries such as Swiss, Austrian, Brussels and Eurowings were not included in the strike.

The all-day pilots' strike on Friday brought most flight operations to a halt. Around 130,000 passengers were affected by the cancellation of more than 800 flights. Lufthansa said the action cost it €32 million ($32 million).

What are the pilots demanding?

Vereinigung Cockpit said last week it was demanding a 5.5% pay rise for its more than 5,000 pilots alongside automatic inflation adjustments for 2023.

Spokesperson Matthias Baier said they hadn't received a "sufficient offer" on Thursday, calling it a "sobering and missed opportunity" on side of Lufthansa.

Lufthansa published details of the offer it said the trade union had walked away from. The last offer proposed a blanket increase of €900 per employee.

The company said this would signify an increase of 15% for pilots early in their career and 5% for experienced captains, based on salaries from the latest 18 months.

The airline was arguing that VC's demands would increase staff costs in the cockpit by 40%, describing the increase as "unreasonable," as it doesn't take into account the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

dh/rt (dpa, Reuters)

Ukrainian wins top photojournalism prize for Mariupol coverage

Ukrainian photographer Evgeniy Maloletka poses in front of his 

photos at the photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France. 

PHOTO: AFP

SEP 4, 2022, 

PERPIGNAN, France - Ukrainian photojournalist Evgeniy Maloletka won the Visa d'Or, one the profession's most prestigious prizes on Saturday, for his work during the devastating Russian siege of Mariupol.

Maloletka, visibly moved, dedicated his prize to the Ukrainian people, at a ceremony in the southern French city of Perpignan.

The 35-year-old journalist, who works for the Associated Press news agency, was - along with his AP colleague video journalist Mstyslav Chernov, one of the first journalists to enter Mariupol on Feb 23, an hour before the first Russian bombs fell.

He was also one of the last to leave, finally quitting the city on March 15, by which time it had been almost entirely destroyed by Russian shelling.

Those 20 days he spent there, he told AFP, were like one long, unending day, "becoming worse and worse".

His pictures showed the full horrors of the conflict there: children killed during the siege, heavily pregnant women lying among the ruins of bombed-out buildings, hastily improvised common graves

The Russian bombardment of this port city of 400,000 inhabitants, in particular a direct hit on a maternity hospital, provoked outrage around the world.


The other two photographers nominated were Daniel Berehulak, an Australian of Ukrainian origin, for "People lived here", his reportage for the New York Times on the massacre of civilians in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv; and Marcus Yam's assignment for the Los Angeles Times: "The fall of Afghanistan."

The war in Ukraine has been one of the dominant themes at the International Festival of Photojournalism, which opened on Aug 27. AFP

‘When I write, I exist and so does my community,’ says Rohingya poet Mayyu Ali

Cyrielle CABOT - Sunday

Mayyu Ali is one of the 700,000 or so Rohingya who had to flee Myanmar in the summer of 2017 following abuses committed by the Burmese army. Five years later, the 31-year-old poet continues to give voice to his people through his writings.


‘When I write, I exist and so does my community,’ says Rohingya poet Mayyu Ali© Munir Uz Zaman, AFP

"The earth revolves around two very different worlds; hell and heaven. I left one to discover the other." One year ago, in September 2021, Mayyu Ali wrote these words as he walked through the door of his new flat in Ontario, Canada, with his wife and young daughter. It marked the end of a long ordeal for the 31-year-old Rohingya poet, who had spent four years in the world's largest refugee camp, Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.

By chance or a twist of fate, he will be heading to university to study committed literature (littérature engagée) on September 6, five years to the day since he left Myanmar – like 700,000 other Rohingya – to flee army persecution. Since adolescence, he has dreamed of becoming a spokesperson for his community and telling its story. He has already published dozens of poems and, more recently, an autobiography in French, "L'Effacement" (Éditions Grasset), which he co-wrote with journalist Émilie Lopes. "Discrimination, flight, violence... I have seen and experienced everything. It is my duty to tell the world about it," he tells FRANCE 24 from Canada.

'To the Burmese government, I don't exist'

Ali was born in 1991 in Maungdaw, Arakan, a Burmese region on the Indian Ocean. The son of a fisherman and the youngest of six children, he recalls "a joyful childhood" spent bathing in the river and playing with his Buddhist and Hindu friends.

"But the joy soon turned to fear," he says. Since a 1982 citizenship law, the Rohingya, who are mostly Muslim, have been stateless, as Myanmar considers them to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh. This status has resulted in them being targeted by the army and Buddhist religious extremists. "One day, when I was about 10 years old, the military raided the homes of all the Rohingya in my neighbourhood. Including my house," he says. "They had a gun in their hands, it was terrifying. That's when it hit me: when I learned that they had not gone to my Buddhist or Hindu friends' homes, I realised that we were being discriminated against."

In the years that followed, the list of injustices faced by his family and friends seemed endless. "My brother was beaten and then thrown in jail for allegedly not paying a tax on his house, my grandfather's land was confiscated. People around me were prevented from working for no reason," he says.

In 2010, Ali was banned from studying English at university because of his ethnicity. Introduced to poetry by his high school English teacher, he had developed a passion for Shakespeare and the Indian author Rabindranath Tagore. The teenager, who had been writing secretly and for pleasure, thus began to take his writing more seriously.

"At the beginning, I wrote a lot about nature, friendship, family...", he explains, immediately smiling again at the mention of his profession. "And then, little by little, I understood that writing could be an act of rebellion. I am Rohingya. To the Burmese government, I don't exist. I am a human being without citizenship, without rights. But when I write, I exist and so does my community."

At a time when abuses against the Rohingya were increasing in Arakan in 2012, this young man took on the challenge of publishing his texts, which he wrote in English and Burmese. A few months later, one of his poems appeared in an English-speaking Burmese literary magazine. "I experienced it as a rebirth. All of a sudden, I became a recognised person with a name."

"That year was a turning point," he explains. "The Rohingya had always been discriminated against, but now the authorities' aim was to make us disappear," he says. He remembers violent riots, deadly fires, the first villages destroyed and the first people that fled to neighbouring Bangladesh. He decided to stay and get involved with associations, notably Action Against Hunger, to help the local population.

A collection of work

Things changed on the evening of August 25, 2017. "I was living in Maungdaw at the time, which was a two-hour bus ride from my parents' home. I was sleeping when my mother called me," he says. "Crying on the phone, she explained to me that the military had set fire to the village. Everything was destroyed." In the days that followed, he witnessed what he describes as "ethnic cleansing". "There was smoke everywhere, bullets were flying, screams were heard, women were being raped," he says, his voice full of emotion.

Like 700,000 other Rohingyas, Ali and his family resigned themselves to fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh. They had to cross a river and walk for three days. "We had to swim among the dead bodies in the river I used to play in as a child," he recalls. Even today, every August 25th, the Rohingya commemorate those days of violence.

As a refugee at Cox's Bazar, Ali kept up his writing. But his verses began to take on another dimension, as he also wanted to remember everything he was seeing. Through his work with humanitarian organisations and journalists, whom he guided through the makeshift shelters, he collected hundreds of testimonies. "I wrote everything down in notebooks. Little girls raped, murders, corruption, hunger, deplorable sanitary conditions," he says. "And I hope that one day it will serve to bring justice."

Because of these actions, armed militias stationed within the camp threatened to kill him. "I had to hide for several months," he says. "But it was also thanks to this that I was able to leave Bangladesh. The associations mobilised to offer me a way out."

Keeping the Rohingya culture alive at all costs

Even though Ali was able to reach Canada a year ago, he continues to be reminded of his experiences at Cox’s Bazar every time he speaks to his relatives. "My parents and siblings are still there," he says. "They tell me that conditions are getting worse month after month. There is more and more insecurity. Every time there is bad weather, the shelters are destroyed. Diseases are proliferating," he says.

According to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), cases of dysentery have increased by 50% compared to 2019 in the camps and skin infections, such as scabies, are exploding. The Rohingya are also concerned about the increase in crime, as around 100 murders have been committed in five years, according to an AFP count. Some of the victims include community leaders who are probably targeted by insurgent vendettas. Young people, with no prospects for the future, are not allowed to leave the camps or to work. To relieve the camps, the Bangladeshi authorities have transferred some 30,000 refugees to Bhashan Char, an island off the Bay of Bengal.

The young writer remains keen to help. When he is not lobbying the international community to recognise the "genocide" of his people, he is working hard to provide access to education for the children of Cox's Bazar, some of whom were born inside the makeshift camps. "Some of the children have been there for five years, during which time they have been deprived of an education. I refuse to let this be a sacrificed generation," he says. He has managed to set up two schools, with the help of local associations, where the pupils study the Burmese curriculum. "If one day, by some miracle, they return to Burma [Myanmar], they will be able to go back to school," says Ali.

"When we talk about the massacre of the Rohingya, we think of the physical abuse and violence. But our culture and language are also being attacked," he says. "By being refugees, we lose our cultural roots. We have to fight against that. If our culture survives, so does our ethnicity."

Ali continues to devote the rest of his time to his passion – filling in pages. "I want to continue writing, be published in several countries, continue fighting for my people and encourage the international community to act," he says. In March 2022, the US was the first country to recognise the "genocide" perpetrated by the Burmese army against the Rohingya. The poet concludes : "A people, for decades, for being a Muslim minority, still remain under the blade and the bullets. Still and always oppressed, still and always raped and imprisoned. Again and again burned and terrified. Ah, what violence!"

This article is a translation of the original in French.