100% compostable coffee balls bid to take on Nespresso

Issued on: 06/09/2022 - 

Switzerland's biggest retailer hopes its new balls of compressed coffee will challenge Nespresso coffee pods Fabrice COFFRINI AFP

Zurich (AFP) – Switzerland's biggest retailer launched a new coffee machine invention on Tuesday -- fully compostable coffee balls which it hopes will shake up the global market and take on Nespresso's global dominance.

The Migros supermarket chain hopes its innovation will cash in on consumers' environmental concerns by eliminating the aluminium and plastic waste of regular coffee capsules.

Rather than capsules, the new pods are balls of compressed coffee covered with a thin film made from algae.

With its new system, which took five years to develop, Migros is parking its tanks on the lawns of its Swiss compatriot Nestle, the giant in the coffee pod sector with its Nespresso brand.

The machines and coffee balls went on sale in Switzerland and France from Tuesday, but interest in other countries is "already huge", chief executive Fabrice Zumbrunnen said at the launch in Zurich, eyeing a wider rollout.

There are other compostable coffee pods on the market but Migros believes that this is the first system to use biodegradable balls.

The balls have to be used in the Migros CoffeeB system and are not compatible with other coffee machines.

Switzerland's largest employer said the new development was in response to the growing environmental consciousness of consumers, saying that some 63 billion coffee capsules are sold each year around the world, generating around 100,000 tonnes of waste.

Migros is currently a small player in the market.

According to market researchers Euromonitor International, the market share of its Cafe Royal brand was limited to 0.3 percent in western Europe in 2021, compared to 12.1 percent for Nespresso alone, while Nestle also owns the Nescafe and Dolce Gusto labels.

But Migros is hoping its compostable coffee system will gain it some market share.

It points out that the coffee beans used to make the biodegradale balls are sourced from sustainable crops, with fair trade and organic certification.

The cases the balls come in look like egg cartons and are made of recyclable materials. The coffee machines themselves are largely made from recycled materials, Migros said.

© 2022 AFP

G7 corporate climate plans spell 2.7C heating: analysis

Issued on: 06/09/2022 - 

In Montreal, protesters condemned Royal Bank of Canada's investment in pipelines last October Andrej Ivanov AFP

Paris (AFP) – The decarbonisation plans of some of the biggest corporations from G7 nations put Earth on course to heat a potentially catastrophic 2.7 degrees Celsius -- blowing Earth well past the Paris Agreement temperature goals, analysis showed Tuesday.

As more and more firms announce their intention to become carbon neutral by mid-century at the latest, scrutinising corporate claims of green action is increasingly important to check whether they are aligned with the latest climate science.

CDP, a non-profit that runs a global disclosure system for companies to manage their environmental impacts, looked at the climate plans of more than 4,000 firms across the world's seven largest economies.

They found that current plans would lead to a world by 2100 that is 2.7C hotter than currently -- a far cry from the temperature goals of the 2015 Paris deal, which enjoins nations to limit warming to "well below" 2C above pre-industrial levels.

Europe was the best performer, with rapid action since 2021 likely to have "cooled" the temperature prediction some 0.3C, the analysis showed.

Businesses in Canada, on the other hand, were the worst performing in terms of decarbonisation plans, with 88 percent of reported greenhouse gas emissions coming from firms that have no disclosed net zero plans.

Across all regions and sectors, only the European power generation sector achieved a temperature rating below 2C, driven by targets from renewable and nuclear energy companies.

Many companies have plans in place to reduce emissions directly produced from their business operations, such as vehicle exhausts and office heating.

Far fewer have plans covering emissions produced by the consumption or use of their products and which often count for most of their carbon footprints.

Companies in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands had policies to reduce their emissions across their entire value chain, which equated with a 2.2C temperature rise, according to the CDP.

"However, despite this progress, the average temperature ratings for corporates remain well above 1.5C across all major European economies," it said.

© 2022 AFP

Majority of trash in Great Pacific Garbage Patch linked to just five countries

Isabella O'Malley, M.Env.Sc -

VIDEO Duration 0:49 View on Watch

A study published in Scientific Reports states that most of the identifiable trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from just five nations.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located between Hawaii and California and is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic on Earth. Ocean currents transport the plastic until they eventually converge, leading the trash into a swirling gyre that continues to grow in size. The size of the garbage patch is estimated to be 1.6 million square kilometres — three times the size of France.

Through a collaboration with The Ocean Cleanup organization, over 6,000 pieces of plastic debris were collected from the garbage patch in the North Pacific Ocean in 2019. The trash was then counted, weighed, categorized, and analyzed for its origin and age.



Plastic extraction from System 002, The Ocean Cleanup’s ocean system cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Many crates and buoys originating from fishing activities can be seen in the catch. (The Ocean Cleanup)

The researchers analyzed 6,093 items that were larger than 5 cm, which had a total dry weight of 573 kilograms. Plastic fishing and aquaculture gear was the most common type of identifiable trash, which included fish boxes, oyster spacers, and eel traps. One-third of the trash collected in the study was fragments that were unidentifiable due to decomposition.

See also: Innovative ropeless fishing gear helps prevent whale entanglements

Floats and buoys made up just three per cent of the total number of plastic items found but were 21 per cent of the total mass due to the bulky size of these items. Bottle caps, lids, and other items related to food and drinks represented 13 per cent of the total plastic items. Household items such as containers, drums, jerry cans, and baskets were 14 per cent of the total number of plastic items.



Plastic items were analyzed for clues on their origin. (The Ocean Cleanup)

Of the objects that were inscribed with an identifiable language or another indicator of origin, such as brand name, the top five identified origins were Japan (34 per cent), China (32 per cent), Korea (10 per cent), United States (7 per cent), and Taiwan (6 per cent).

The researchers attribute Japan’s high contribution to the nation’s significant fisheries industry and the Tohoku tsunami (2011) that carried debris away from the land. The other countries are also active fishing nations.

Some of the trash had identifiable production dates and nearly half of the items were produced before 2000 with the oldest item being a buoy dated to 1966. Eight items originating from Japan ranged from 1975 to 2007.

Watch Largest river in Guatemala choked by garbage that causes "trash tsunamis"

Duration 1:06   View on Watch

Trawling, fixed gear, and drifting longlines were found to be responsible for more than 95 per cent of fishing activities that may have resulted in the floating plastics found.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch only represents a small amount of plastic trash that is dumped into the environment, which serves as a reminder that this long-lived type of pollution is continuously accumulating at a rapid pace. Current research indicates that several million tonnes of plastic flow into the oceans from coastal cities and rivers each year.

“Our findings further highlight that fisheries play an important role in the solutions to the ocean plastic pollution problem,” the study concluded.

Thumbnail image: The Ocean Cleanup

Tilda Swinton on the importance of believing in ghosts

WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FROM DR. STRANGE'S MENTOR

PUBLISHED BYSeptember 6, 2022

Tilda Swinton spoke on Tuesday about the “therapeutic importance” of believing in ghosts as she presented a haunting, semi-autobiographical new film about a woman dealing with the death of her mother.

Swinton’s latest collaboration with British director Joanna Hogg is “The Eternal Daughter”, competing at the Venice Film Festival, which draws heavily on both women’s experience of losing their mothers in recent years.

Set in a spooky country mansion, it is a deeply emotional film with a ghostly, haunted atmosphere.

“I certainly believe that we need to project ourselves into the idea of ghosts. There’s something very important and therapeutic about that relationship,” Swinton told AFP.

“One of the main motors of grief is the feeling that you have to give up that relationship. And then you come to realise, if you’re fortunate, that you can keep the relationship going,” she added.

“They may not be present but you can keep the conversation going.”

Hogg has become a favourite of the festival circuit following her two-part film “The Souvenir”, based on her younger years with a drug-addicted boyfriend and her attempts to turn the trauma into art.

But she told AFP that the new film was even more personal.

“It’s a bit terrifying to be honest,” she said of the imminent premiere of the film.

“All my films are personal but… I feel more exposed with this one than I have with the other ones.”

Swinton, who lost her mother in 2012, said the film was “a joint autobiography in a way”.

“We were very brave, there were no holds barred,” added Hogg.

“There was nowhere we weren’t going to go in looking at the minutiae of this relationship between mother and daughter.”

Hogg said she, too, believes in ghosts — or at least wants to.

“I think we project a lot as human beings and sometimes these projections are confused — is it coming from me or someone else?

“But I can believe that people hang around after they die, some are ready to go more easily than others.

“I feel that I’ve sensed things, seen things, heard things and I don’t think they were just coming from me.”

Double dose of Tilda Swinton in ghostly Venice flick

PUBLISHED BYSeptember 6, 2022

VENICE : Relations between parents and their children feature strongly in this year’s Venice Film Festival, but Tilda Swinton adds a new twist to the theme, playing both mother and daughter in “The Eternal Daughter”.

Directed by Britain’s Joanna Hogg, the ghostly two-hander had its world premier on Tuesday, offering the audience a haunting tale of a middle-aged daughter and her elderly mother confronting family secrets in a largely deserted country hotel.

The characters had already emerged in Hogg’s previous films “The Souvenir” and “The Souvenir Part II”. But whereas Swinton had only played the role of the mother before, this time she suggested she might tackle both parts in tandem.

“(It) took me less than a millisecond to realise that was the perfect choice to make,” Hogg told Reuters.

The drama takes place in the dead of winter in a converted stately home, complete with creaking floorboards and groaning joists, that had once belonged to the mother’s aunt. But from the very start, all is clearly not as it seems.

“There’s a lot of ghostly presences in the film, but it’s actually one of the most real films that I’ve made in many ways. So it’s very much rooted in one’s memory and experience,” said Hogg, making her debut in the main Venice competition.

Swinton, a veteran of international film festivals, swept into Venice with a crop of brightly dyed yellow hair – a tribute to Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag.

She told Reuters said it was easier for her to play the elderly mother, despite the great age difference, because she was able to build on her earlier work in the role.

But she needed to think harder about playing the daughter Julie – a part previously portrayed by her own daughter Honor Swinton Byrne in the two Souvenir movies.

“As Julie, I drew consciously on energies that my daughter brought to Julie, which was really interesting,” Swinton said.

Although her daughter does not appear in the new film, her dog Louis does, adding to the sense of foreboding as it whines and seeks to escape from the confines of the fog-bound hotel.

“He’s my dog. He’ll do anything I ask him to do,” said Swinton. “If you’re working with a pro dog and I work with pro dogs, they’re not really interested in you. They’re interested in the guy behind you who’s got the sausage in his pocket.”

27 dead as Al-Qaeda launches attack on Yemen separatists

AFP , Tuesday 6 Sep 2022

Twenty-one separatist fighters and six members of Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch were killed Tuesday, government and security sources said, as an attack by the jihadists punctured months of relative peace in the war-torn country.

In this 2017 file photo a Yemeni man looks at a burning vehicle following a reported suicide car bombing in Huta, the capital of the southern province of Lahj, Yemen. AFP

Related

 Rights groups urge Yemen's Houthis to end Taiz blockade

 Floods in Yemen kill at least 38 people in 2 days: Officials

 Yemen's warring parties renew truce for two months: UN

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) attacked positions held by the UAE-trained Security Belt group in Abyan governorate in Yemen's south, the sources told AFP.

About three hours of fighting "left 21 dead among the (Security Belt), including an officer, and six among the Al-Qaeda combatants", a government official said on condition of anonymity. Two security sources confirmed the death toll.

Yemen has been gripped by conflict since Iran-backed Huthi rebels took control of the capital Sanaa in 2014, triggering a Saudi-led military intervention in support of the beleaguered government the following year.

AQAP and militants loyal to the Islamic State group have thrived in the chaos.

Tuesday's fighting comes as the Huthis and forces supporting the ousted government observe a shaky ceasefire in the years-long civil war.

Riven by divisions, the groups opposing the Huthis, who originate from the north, include southern separatists who support the re-establishment of South Yemen.

The country was divided into North and South Yemen until reunification in 1990.

Underlining Yemen's parlous security, on Saturday AQAP released a video showing a United Nations worker who was abducted more than six months ago, the SITE Intelligence Group reported.

Five UN staff members were kidnapped in Abyan in February while returning to the port city of Aden after a field mission, UN spokesperson Eri Kaneko told AFP at the time.

In Saturday's video message, apparently recorded on August 9, Akam Sofyol Anam urges "the UN, the international community, the humanitarian organisations, to please come forward... and meet the demands of my captors", without outlining the demands.

Yemen's UN-brokered ceasefire has drastically reduced fighting since the truce began in April, but outbreaks of violence continue.

Last week, 10 Yemeni soldiers were killed in a Huthi attack near Taez, the country's third biggest city which has been blockaded by the rebels since 2015.

The assault, which also left several soldiers wounded, was aimed at cutting off a key route to the southwestern city of about two million, the government said.

On Thursday, the Huthis held a military parade in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, drawing a rebuke from the UN.

Chile's failed referendum: Progressive constitution 'was portrayed as a communist document'

Issued on: 06/09/2022 - 

© France 24

Video by:François PICARD

Chileans have overwhelmingly rejected a draft text to replace their constitution, which dates from Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship and is widely blamed for the country's deep-rooted social inequality. Analysts say some of the proposals it contained were too radical for most voters -- a majority of whom have made it clear they want a new constitution, just not this one. For more analysis on the failed referendum on a progressive constitution, FRANCE 24 is joined by Dr. Claudia Sylvia Heiss Bendersky, Head of Political Science of the Institute of Public Affairs at Universidad de Chile. She believes that voters rejected the constitution because it was portrayed as an "extreme" and "very radical proposal," a sentiment she does not agree with. "I think the Constitutional Convention was not successful in showing the document as a moderate constitution, as I think it was, with respect to private property, with an independent central bank, but with many new things regarding the environment, inclusion and social rights."

 

Lake Urmia risks fully drying up: Iran wetlands chief

Seen here in 2018, Iran's Lake Urmia has been drying up for years in one of the worst 

ecological disasters of recent decades.

Iran's Lake Urmia will dry out completely if rescue efforts are not prioritised over the needs of farmers in the drought gripping the region, an environment official said Tuesday.

The warning comes just four years after a Japanese government-funded programme had raised hopes of stabilising what was once the Middle East's largest lake and turning around one of the worst ecological disasters of recent decades.

"If the water quotas are not delivered and the approved plans are not fully realised, the lake will definitely dry up and there will be no hope of its recovery," said the head of the environment department's wetlands unit, Arezoo Ashrafizadeh.

"According to the law, the energy ministry is obliged to provide the environmental water needs of Lake Urmia," she told Iran's ISNA news agency.

"But the lake has not received its water entitlement due to a decrease in rainfall among other reasons."

Ashrafizadeh said there needed to be a halt to all new dam construction and measures to "stop agricultural activities" if the lake is to be restored.

Situated in the mountains of northwestern Iran not far from the Turkish border, Lake Urmia is designated as a site of international importance under the United Nations Convention on Wetlands that was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971.

The lake has no outlet to the sea and its former size was the result of the volume of water flowing into it matching or exceeding the volume being removed by humans or evaporating off.

The lake once covered 5,000 square kilometres (1,930 square miles). Since 1995, it has been shrinking, according to the UN Environment Programme, due to a combination of rising temperatures, reduced rainfall, dam-building and over-farming.

The drying out has threatened the habitats of shrimp, flamingos, deers and wild sheep and caused salt storms that pollute nearby cities and farms.

Ashrafizadeh said the lake "has not yet completely dried up, but its northern and southern parts have been separated and about 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) of the lake remain."

In 2013, Iran and the UN Development Programme launched a campaign to save the lake with funding from the Japanese government.

The plan saw some success as in 2017, the lake expanded in size to reach 2,300 square kilometres (888 square miles) before starting to shrink again in the face of a protracted drought.

In mid-July, police arrested several people for "destroying public property and disturbing the security of the population" after they demonstrated against the drying up of the lake.

It was one of spate of demonstrations in Iran this year against the drying up of rivers and lakes in drought-affected areas of the centre and west.

A largely arid country, Iran suffers from chronic dry spells that are expected to worsen with climate change.

Iran sees 'revival' of imperilled Lake Urmia

© 2022 AFP

China Logs Hottest August Since Records Began

September 06, 2022 
Agence France-Presse

People walk on a section of a parched river bed along the Yangtze River 

in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province, Sept. 2, 2022.

BEIJING —

China has logged its hottest August since records began, state media reported Tuesday, following an unusually intense summer heat wave that parched rivers, scorched crops and triggered isolated blackouts.

Southern China last month sweltered under what experts said may have been one of the worst heat waves in global history, with parts of Sichuan province and the megacity of Chongqing clocking a string of days well over 40° C (104° F).

The average temperature nationwide was 22.4° C in August, exceeding the norm by 1.2° C, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing the country's weather service.

Some 267 weather stations across the country matched or broke temperature records last month, the report said.

It was also China's third-driest August on record, with average rainfall 23.1 percent lower than average.

"The average number of high-temperature days was abnormally high, and regional high-temperature processes are continuing to impact our country," CCTV reported the weather service as saying.

Scientists say extreme weather like heat waves, droughts and flash floods is becoming more frequent and intense due to human-induced climate change.

Last month, temperatures as high as 45° C prompted multiple Chinese provinces to impose power cuts as cities battled to cope with a surge in electricity demand partly driven by people cranking up the air conditioning.

Images from Chongqing showed a tributary of the mighty Yangtze river had almost run dry, a scene echoed further east where the waters of China's largest freshwater lake also receded extensively.

'Severe threat'

Chongqing and the eastern megacity of Shanghai switched off outdoor decorative lighting to mitigate the power crunch, while authorities in Sichuan imposed industrial power cuts as water levels dwindled at major hydroelectric plants.

As local authorities warned that the drought posed a "severe threat" to this year's harvest, the central government approved billions of yuan in subsidies to support rice farmers.

"This is a warning for us, reminding us to have a deeper understanding of climate change and improve our ability to adapt to it in all respects," said Zhang Daquan, a senior official at China's National Climate Centre, in comments carried Monday by the state-run People's Daily newspaper.

"It is also necessary to raise awareness across all of society to adapt to climate change... and strive to minimize social and economic impacts and losses," Zhang said.

Higher-than-usual temperatures are also expected across China throughout September, CCTV cited the weather service's deputy director Xiao Chan as saying.

Coal boost

Scientists have said a rapid reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions is needed to avert potentially disastrous global heating and its associated climate impacts.

China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, has pledged to bring its carbon emissions to a peak by 2030 and cut them to zero by 2060.

But the record-busting summer heat and drought, combined with a power crunch last year, have pushed authorities to pivot back towards carbon-rich coal use in what they have portrayed as a bump on the road towards a more sustainable future.

Beijing said earlier this year it would raise coal mining capacity by 300 million tons and has stepped up approvals of coal plants and related infrastructure.

‘Dangerous’ W. Sahara showdown sparks diplomatic rifts

AFP
September 6, 2022

The UN’s Western Sahara envoy Staffan de Mistura, on the left, meets 

Polisario leader Brahim Ghali in Algeria’s southwestern city of Tindouf

 on September 4, 2022

Tunis – A bitter showdown between Morocco and its arch-rival Algeria over the disputed Western Sahara territory is causing diplomatic rifts with other nations and even risks sparking a full-blown conflict, analysts say.

“We’re seeing a diplomatic war, where both sides are resorting to anything short of open conflict,” said Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa project director at think-tank the International Crisis Group.

Western Sahara, a Spanish colony until 1975, is mostly desert but boasts immense phosphate resources and rich Atlantic fishing grounds.

About 80 percent of it is controlled by Morocco and 20 percent by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front which seeks self-determination for the local Sahrawi people.

The conflict has long simmered but its dynamics changed in 2020 when then US president Donald Trump recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in exchange for the kingdom’s normalisation of relations with Israel.

Emboldened by Washington’s backing, Rabat has been playing hardball ever since to persuade other states to follow suit, heightening tensions with Algiers, which has since cut diplomatic relations with Rabat.

Last week, Morocco reacted angrily when Tunisia’s President Kais Saied greeted Polisario head Brahim Ghali on a red carpet at Tunis airport as he arrived for a Japan-Africa investment summit.

Slamming the act as “hostile” and “unnecessarily provocative”, Morocco immediately cancelled its participation in the high-profile conference and withdrew its ambassador for consultations — prompting Tunisia to respond in kind.

The incident showed that “the Western Sahara conflict is starting to have repercussions beyond bilateral Morocco and Algerian relations,” Fabiani said. “From now on Morocco will consider Tunisia as part of the pro-Algerian camp.”

– ‘Unfreezing of conflict’ –

Morocco’s 2020 deal with Trump also reset Rabat’s ties with Israel and opened the door to military cooperation with the Jewish state.

Algeria, which has long supported the Palestinian cause and sees Israeli influence on its doorstep as a threat, cut ties entirely with Morocco the following August, citing “hostile acts” — including the alleged use of Israeli spyware against its senior officials.

Fabiani said the shifting dynamic had meant “the unfreezing” of the Western Sahara conflict.

On the ground, this has taken the form of repeated clashes since late 2020 between Morocco’s military and the Polisario, which had agreed to a ceasefire in 1991.

On the diplomatic front, Rabat’s more assertive stance was evident in a year-long diplomatic dispute with Madrid.

In April 2021, Ghali visited Spain to be treated for Covid-19, sparking a row that only ended after Madrid dropped its decades-long stance of neutrality over Western Sahara and backed a Moroccan plan for limited self-rule there.

And last month, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI demanded in a speech that his country’s other allies “clarify” their positions on the issue, calling it “the prism through which Morocco views its international environment”.

But observers say that Morocco is not the only party in the region to be behaving more assertively.

Algeria is Africa’s top natural gas exporter with pipelines directly to Europe, and in recent months has hosted a steady stream of top European officials hoping to win favour and new gas contracts.

Algeria, Africa’s largest country, has been flush with cash since energy prices soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“During the last decade, Morocco geared up its diplomacy, especially in Africa, and became more assertive with some EU members,” said Dalia Ghanem, a senior analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies.

At the same time Algeria, under late president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, “lagged behind,” she said. “Now, Algeria wants to get back on the regional arena and be the regional leader in Africa.”

– ‘Delicate and dangerous’ –

“There was a big Algerian campaign to recruit Tunisia to its side,” said Anthony Dworkin, a senior policy fellow at think-tank the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Tunisia, Algeria’s smaller neighbour, is struggling with a grinding economic crisis and has also seen political turmoil since Saied staged a dramatic power grab in July last year.

Dworkin warned that there was now “a disturbing trend of everything in the region being seen in a binary way through the prism of Algerian-Moroccan rivalry”.

“Morocco is pushing a narrative of ‘you’re with us or against us’, and there has been some similar rhetoric from Algeria,” he added, warning European governments to seek balanced relationships with all sides.

“It’s a delicate and dangerous moment.”

Last weekend, the United Nations’ Western Sahara envoy Staffan de Mistura visited the region, but few observers see any prospect of progress in long-suspended negotiations.

“The risk of a military conflict is low, because neither side wants it, but it shouldn’t be underestimated,” Fabiani warned, noting that Morocco and Algeria have no diplomatic ties through which to deescalate tensions.

“All it needs is a border incident and a miscalculation.”

Cheng Lei: Australian journalist's dire prison conditions

Australian journalist Cheng Lei is reportedly being held in cramped, difficult conditions in a Chinese prison more than two years after her arrest.


Cheng's eyesight has reportedly deteriorated in prison

More than two years after her detention in China, new details show that Australian journalist Cheng Lei has experienced tough prison conditions — and her health has also reportedly deteriorated.

Cheng, a former anchor for China's state-run broadcaster CGTN, was reported as missing in August 2020. She was arrested in February 2021 when she was formally charged with "suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas."

In March this year, she was tried behind closed doors but an official sentence has not yet been released.

Life behind bars

The Chinese-born Australian mother of two could face life imprisonment if she's found guilty of violating China's national security laws.

According to the documentary "Disappeared: The Cheng Lei Story" released last month by the Australian news outlet, The Daily Telegraph, Cheng told Australian diplomats during consular visits that she had to put sanitary pads into her shoes because of inadequate footwear.

Additionally, she told the diplomats that she was often pinned to chairs with wooden boards, and had to share a bed and a toilet with three other inmates in a tiny cell.

Her eyesight has also deteriorated due to the long hours spent in the cell but prison authorities told her that it would be a "hassle" to get her reading glasses, according to the documentary.

The documentary says this new information was based on consular reports produced by Australian diplomats in China.

Nick Coyle, Cheng Lei's partner, is unable to talk with her in prison

Denied phone calls with family

Cheng's partner Nick Coyle, who is a former head of the China-Australia Chamber of Commerce, told DW that Cheng is only allowed one 30-minute video call with the Australian consulate a month, but otherwise isn't allowed to call her family.

"She hasn't been allowed any phone calls or video calls or communication with her kids or family. She has had three visits from her lawyer during the preparation for her trial," Coyle said.

"Because we are not married, I don't have any visibility beyond that. I think she is allowed to write letters to her immediate family. Her kids and parents have received letters, but the process is that if the letters get screened, it often takes months for things to get back and forth."

Coyle said that the details in the Australian documentary were consistent how he saw Cheng's situation.

"Her conditions are difficult and there are no other ways to describe it," he told DW.

The most important thing, he said, was to get a quick resolution and to get Cheng home.

"At the end of the day, it's my job to give her as much encouragement and positivity as possible. Fortunately, she's been very strong and she's coping with it as best as she could," Coyle said.

He added that Cheng's two children were "resilient" and were getting on with their lives as best as they could.

"They need their mom and their mom needs her kids. Everyone is just trying to support each other as much as possible."

Cheng Lei's detention came during a time of deteriorating diplomatic relations between China and Australia

Staying positive in a Chinese prison

In the documentary, The Daily Telegraph also mentioned that Cheng tried to teach other inmates English with Shakespeare and English television series. She reportedly told Australian diplomats that her career teaching English as a second language was "flourishing."

"With my cellmates, I can see how much of a difference I am making to their lives. This is uplifting for me. I'm not wasting time, and I'm not valueless," she reportedly said.

Coyle told DW that Cheng has always been someone who cares about other people.

"Her personality and her dynamism and strength will mean she'll make the best out of every situation she can. That's how she's wired and that's a tremendous complement to her," he said.

"She'll be trying to get through every day trying to be as positive as possible and trying to have a positive impact on people around her."

Australian FM Penny Wong promises that Canberra will continue advocating for Cheng's interests and well-being

Australia urges humane treatment

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong promised that Canberra will continue to advocate for Cheng's interests and well-being in an August statement.

"Since Ms. Cheng was detained in August 2020, the Australian government has consistently called for basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment to be met, in accordance with international norms," Wong said.

Meanwhile, China's ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, claimed the rights of Cheng Lei and other Australian citizens currently detained in China were "well protected."

"There are a couple of Australian citizens in China that are under custody according to Chinese rules and laws, and their basic rights are well protected, don't worry about that," he said during an event at the National Press Club in the Australian capital, Canberra.

The Asia director at Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, believes the Australian government should stress that the release of Australian citizens detained in China is critical to resetting the soured relationship between the two countries.

"Obviously, [Cheng] is not the only Australian citizen that's wrongfully detained [in China,] and it's important that the Australian government makes it clear that releasing both of them [Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun] is absolutely critical to resetting the relationship with Beijing," Pearson told DW.

Graham Fletcher, Australia's ambassador to China, was denied access to Cheng's trial because 'it involved state secrets'

China's hostage diplomacy in play

Chinese Australian writer Yang Hengjun was arrested in January 2019 when he arrived in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou with his wife and child. He's been charged with espionage and there are ongoing concerns about his health conditions.

Yang's close friend Feng Chongyi, a professor at the University of Technology Sydney, told DW that both Yang and Cheng's cases show that China is prepared to detain specific people on trumped-up charges.

In the initial stages of detention, these individuals are often be put under "residential surveillance at a designated location" (RSDL) where authorities may use different ways to force them to confess to certain crimes, he added.

"When Yang was put under RSDL, they repeatedly deprived Yang of sleep and kept interrogating him," he said.

"Yang's case was heard more than a year ago, but there are still no official sentences. Both cases show that the trial process doesn't follow Chinese legal procedures. Rather, it is dominated by political considerations."

WHERE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS DOESN'T EXIST
Africa's very own North Korea: Eritrea
Eritrea ranks second-last in the World Press Freedom Index. Reports from the disastrous state of affairs in Eritrea are rare, and many journalists have been forced to leave the country. Radio Erena is the only one to broadcast independent information to the people of Eritrea — from Paris.
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Australians 'at risk'

Pearson from Human Rights Watch said that China does have a track record of using "hostage diplomacy", although it was hard to determine whether both cases were related to the worsening relationship between China and Australia.

"We do have concerns about these two cases and whether these Australians are effectively used as pawns in a greater battle between the two countries and for the Chinese government to get leverage over Australia," she told DW.

"I think the Australian government needs to work in coalition with other governments. It's important that they collectively raise concerns with the Chinese government. Ultimately, I think that will be more effective," Pearson said.

Currently, Australian warns its citizens to exercise a high degree of caution in China.

"As previously advised, authorities have detained foreigners on grounds of 'endangering national security'. Australians may be at risk of arbitrary detention," the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says on its website.

Pearson said there seemed to be a pattern of foreign nationals facing the risk of arbitrary detention in countries like China, Russia and Iran.

"I'm worried there seems to be a pattern here and probably that does make Australian citizens think long and hard before traveling to certain countries," she told DW.

"I think it's important that all governments need to make it clear that citizens can't be arbitrarily detained as means of punishing certain governments or in order to extract certain concessions from that government," she added.

Edited by: Keith Walker