Kenya’s Ruto ready for ‘conversation’ with protesters

The protesters have called for a national strike on Tuesday.

By AFP
June 23, 2024

Kenya's President William Ruto says he is ready for talks with protesters who took to the streets to oppose tax hikes - Copyright AFP Eyad BABA
Ammu KANNAMPILLY, Hillary ORINDE

Kenya’s President William Ruto said Sunday that he was ready for “a conversation” with thousands of “peaceful” young anti-tax protesters, prompting new calls from the movement’s organisers to accept their demand to cancel the levies.

Organised on social media and led largely by Gen-Z Kenyans who have livestreamed the demonstrations, the protests by thousands of people have caught Ruto’s government off guard, as discontent mounts over his economic policies.

“I am very proud of our young people… they have stepped forward peaceful and I want to tell them we are going to engage them,” Ruto said in his first public comments on the protests.

“We are going to have a conversation so that together we can build a greater nation,” Ruto said during a church service in the Rift Valley town of Nyahururu.

His characterisation of the protests as “peaceful” came after rights campaigners reported two deaths following Thursday’s demonstrations in Nairobi.

A protest organiser, Hanifa Adan, who told AFP that she was in hiding to avoid arrest, said Ruto needed to “respond publicly” to demands that the proposed hikes be cancelled.

“President Ruto can’t claim to support us while his police brutalise peaceful protesters,” she said.

“We’re past the talking stage and won’t be silenced. We demand an end to police violence, respect for our constitutional rights, and the freedom to speak up without fear of arrest or harm.”

Amnesty International Kenya said Sunday that “in the last 72 hours, protest organisers, content creators, medics and protesters have been profiled, abducted and detained in violation of our laws”.

The rights watchdog did not elaborate on the number of detainees, and there was no immediate comment by the police.

– Two dead –

Thursday’s demonstrations were mostly peaceful, but officers fired tear gas and water cannon throughout the day to disperse protesters near parliament.

A Kenya Human Rights Commission official told AFP on Saturday that 21-year-old Evans Kiratu was “hit by a tear gas canister” during the protests and died in hospital.

On Friday, a police watchdog said it was investigating allegations that a 29-year-old man was shot by officers in Nairobi after the demonstrations.

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) said it had “documented the death… allegedly as a result of police shooting” on Thursday.

Several organisations, including Amnesty International Kenya, said that at least 200 people were injured in the protests in Nairobi, as thousands of people took to the streets across the country.

The protesters have called for a national strike on Tuesday.

– Cash-strapped government –

After smaller demonstrations in Nairobi last Tuesday, the cash-strapped government agreed to roll back several tax increases laid out in a new bill.

But Ruto’s administration still intends to raise some taxes, saying they are necessary for filling the state coffers and cutting reliance on external borrowing.

Kenya has a huge debt mountain whose servicing costs have ballooned because of a fall in the value of the local currency over the last two years, making interest payments on foreign-currency loans more expensive.

The tax hikes will pile further pressure on Kenyans struggling with cost of living surges, with well-paid jobs remaining out of reach for young people.

Ruto said Sunday that the annual budget included measures to tackle youth unemployment and improve access to higher education.

After the government agreed to scrap levies on bread purchases, car ownership and financial and mobile services, the treasury warned of a budget shortfall of 200 billion shillings ($1.56 billion).

The government now targets an increase in fuel prices and export taxes to fill the void left by the changes, a move critics say will make life more expensive in a country already saddled with high inflation.

Kenya has one of the most dynamic economies in East Africa but a third of its 51.5 million people live in poverty.

Taking the leap: How to quit your job


By Dr. Tim Sandle
June 21, 2024

Working people. — Image by © Tim Sandle

There are over 3,300 searches per month in the UK for variations of ‘how to quit my job’? This statistic highlights a growing trend of individuals seeking guidance on making a significant career change.

Quitting a job is not just about leaving a role; it is often a transformative step towards unlocking one’s true potential, according to James Dooley, founder of FatRank.

Dooley provides advice to Digital Journal about quitting your job and pursuing your dreams.

Before making any decision, it is essential to plan your exit strategy carefully, says Dooley, who recommends conducting a thorough self-assessment to identify your strengths, weaknesses, and career goals.

Dooley advises:Determine your financial needs and create a budget to support yourself during the transition period.
Set specific milestones and timelines to keep yourself accountable.

Handle the resignation

When resigning from your job, Dooley recommends: “Resigning from a job can be emotional, but it’s essential to remain professional. Maintain open lines of communication and leave on good terms to preserve your reputation.”

Utilise the notice period

During your notice period, use your time wisely to tie up loose ends and hand over responsibilities smoothly. Dooley says: “The notice period is your chance to leave a positive lasting impression. Use this time to demonstrate your professionalism and dedication to your work.”

Explore New Opportunities

While job searching, be proactive in exploring new opportunities that align with your skills, interests, and career aspirations.

Dooley recommends:Update your resume and LinkedIn profile, and reach out to your network for job leads and referrals.
Attend industry events, job fairs, and networking meetings to expand your professional connections and uncover hidden job opportunities.

Consider entrepreneurship

If you are considering starting your own business, take the time to research and plan your venture carefully, notes Dooley.

He recommends:Identify a niche market or industry where you can offer unique value and differentiate yourself from competitors.
Develop a comprehensive business plan outlining your mission, target market, revenue projections, and marketing strategies.
Seek guidance from mentors, industry experts, and business advisors to refine your business concept and set yourself up for success.

Dooley states: “Entrepreneurship offers unparalleled freedom and opportunity for those willing to take the leap. Take the time to develop a solid business plan and surround yourself with a supportive network of mentors and advisors.”

A 2000 year-old vintage: The world’s oldest wine discovered

By Dr. Tim Sandle
June 22, 2024
DIGITAL JOURNAL

French wine consumption has been on the decline for decades - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File JUSTIN SULLIVAN

A white wine dated to over 2,000 years old, of Andalusian origin, has been declared the oldest wine ever discovered. The discovery comes from University of Córdoba researchers.

The discovery comes from a Roman tomb in Carmona. Here the skeletal remains of a man were immersed in a liquid inside a glass funerary urn. This liquid, which over time has acquired a reddish hue, has been preserved since the first century AD.

This enabled researchers from the Department of Organic Chemistry to identify the liquid as the oldest wine yet discovered.

The previous record for the oldest wine was held by the Speyer wine bottle, which was discovered in 1867 and which dates to the fourth century CE. This wine is preserved in the Historical Museum of Pfalz (Germany).

With the discovery a Carmora the main reason why the wine has lasted relates to the tomb remaining fully intact and well-sealed. Particular environmental conditions within the tomb allowed the wine to maintain its natural state.

One of the few visitors to the ancient Roman city of Leptis Magna in Libya looks at the Arch of Septimius Severus – Copyright AFP Mahmud TURKIA

To show that the liquid was wine, the chemists studied the liquid’s pH, absence of organic matter, mineral salts, the presence of certain chemical compounds that could be related to the glass of the urn, or the bones of the deceased; and compared the data to current Montilla-Moriles, Jerez and Sanlúcar wines. These are the wines associated with Carmona and this region produces mainly sweet dessert wines using similar techniques to those used for the production of sherry.

The most important part of the analysis related to assessing for polyphenols, biomarkers present in all wines. These were found to be present although the absence of a specific polyphenol, syringic acid, served to identify the wine as white.

Furthermore, the mineral salts present in the tomb’s liquid were determined to be consistent with the white wines currently produced in the territory – including the Montilla-Moriles wines of today.

It is thought the wine, together as other items such as the rings and perfume, were part of a funerary trousseau intended to accompany the deceased in their voyage into the afterlife.

The chemical analysis confirmed the liquid was, in fact, wine. The research appears in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, with the paper titled “New archaeochemical insights into Roman wine from Baetica.”

S.Africa to dish up more zebra to boost jobs and conservation


AFP
June 22, 2024

South Africa currently produces around 60,000 tonnes of game meat a year

 - Copyright AFP MARCO LONGARI

Umberto BACCHI

Carcasses of impala, kudu and wildebeest hang from a slaughterhouse rail, ready to be turned into steaks, sausages and burger patties of the kind South Africa wants to see more of on the dinner table.

The abattoir in Bela Bela, north of Johannesburg, is among only a handful in the country dedicated to game meat.

Authorities say the untapped sector could create jobs and help preserve wildlife — while pleasing the palates of climate- and health-conscious meat eaters.

“We want to add a dimension into your dinner plate by giving you an organic game meat from the wild,” Khorommbi Matibe, the environment ministry’s biodiversity economy chief, told AFP.

A top wildlife tourism destination, South Africa produces around 60,000 tonnes of game meat a year — equivalent in weight to roughly 60,000 giraffes.

But only a fraction ends up in butcheries and supermarkets. Ninety percent is hunted and consumed informally, according to the government.

Even less is exported.

In 2019, just over 3,000 tonnes of ostrich, crocodile and zebra were shipped to the European Union, China and the UAE, it said.

Authorities would like to serve up much more.

In March, they said they want to grow the sector from 4.6 billion rand ($250 million) in 2020 to 27.6 billion rand by 2036, adopting a strategy published late last year.


– Less methane –

With unemployment sitting at 32.9 percent nationally, this could create jobs in rural, economically deprived areas.

Matibe said there are good reasons for barbecuing more springboks.

Game animals release less methane — a greenhouse gas — than cattle, whose burps are a top source of global warming emissions from agriculture.

Foraging in the wild, their meat is by definition free-range and lean.

A 2023 study by researchers at Stellenbosch University, found that zebra meat in particular was highly nutritious and very low in fat.

Eating more of it could also help conservation efforts, the government argues.

South Africa has long adopted a market-oriented approach to conservation, based on the belief that farmers have a better incentive to look after wildlife if they can profit from it.

Critics say the model exploits and commoditises animals. But it has proved largely successful.

The country’s wildlife population has grown from about 500,000 in the 1960s to more than 20 million today. About 80 percent is in private game reserves that attract tourists and hunters.

Some meat could come from the hundreds of herbivores that are culled every year to keep numbers within sustainable levels, the government says.

And it wants to convert one million hectares of communal land to game meat production, which could boost black ownership in a sector where, 30 years after the end of apartheid, more than 94 percent of operators are white males, said Matibe.

Requiring little equipment, game has “really low” input costs — an advantage for newcomers, added Darren Horner, owner of producer Aloes Meat.

– Meaty problems –

Yet, in a country mad for barbecue, locally known as braai, little currently ends on the grill.

This is partially due to the belief that game is less tender than beef and tastes unusual, according to the strategy, which envisages marketing campaigns to boost consumption.

“Our grandmothers used to stuff it with bacon and leave it in red wine for three days to get rid of that wild taste. To me it only needs a bit of olive oil and salt,” said Charl de Villiers, head of Game SA, an industry group.

There are other hurdles.

Authorities plan to draw up quality standards so that all meat can be traced to the source and trusted by supermarkets and restaurants.

But these can’t be too stringent or risk scaring away informal producers, said Horner.

Meanwhile, exports of cloven-hoofed animals to Europe have been banned for years as South Africa struggles to contain outbreaks of the foot and mouth disease that farmers blame on inadequate border controls.

State laboratories to test meat are small and outdated, which further limits export potential, producers say.

De Villiers currently has to ship his ostrich meat to Britain for testing, which ups costs.

– Big disappointment –


Stephen Nel, owner of the Camo Meat abattoir in Bela Bela, said he applied for an export licence in 2017 but has since given up on it.

“It was a very big disappointment for me. The government failed us,” Nel said, wearing khaki shorts and a matching shirt inside his refrigerated facility.

About 4,000 animals a year are skinned, weighed, deboned, processed and packaged there.

Almost all are brought in by hunters keen on eating some of their prey.

Expanding production to supply supermarkets would require investments, but these are hard to come by, amid scepticism around the sector’s potential, he said.

The government has been talking about growth for over a decade, but “nothing gets laid down”, said Nel.

Yet, Matibe is confident the strategy will soon start to bring results and will remain on track even after elections in May that forced the ruling African National Congress to form a coalition government.

“In the next three years, we should be able to see a ramp up of this product coming to the market,” he said.

Dutch app supermarket boss eyes tech boom in online delivery


AFP
June 22, 2024

Online deliveries will see a 'massive' boost from AI, says Picnic boss Michiel Muller - Copyright AFP Nick Gammon

Richard CARTER

Advances in artificial intelligence are poised to drive a “massive” boom in online grocery deliveries, according to the head of Picnic, a Dutch app-only supermarket rapidly expanding into Germany and France.

Picnic has disrupted the Dutch supermarket landscape with its offer of free delivery in a time window of 20 minutes — made possible by squeezing efficiency out of huge amounts of data.

The firm already uses AI for a vast range of operations, explained CEO Michiel Muller, 59, at the firm’s 43,000-square-metre distribution hub in Utrecht, central Netherlands.

“For instance, predicting how many bananas we will sell in three weeks’ time. Or what happens when the weather is good or bad. Or doing our whole route planning,” he told AFP.

As technology improves and datasets grow, predictions will become more accurate, further reducing food waste and offering even more precise time slots for customers, he forecast.

“Don’t forget that supermarkets weren’t there 60 years ago. You only had smaller stores. So there’s always a movement around new technology and new ways of delivering goods.”

“The supermarket will remain. That’s for sure. Stores will remain. But the online part will grow massively,” he said.

Picnic has developed its own in-house software to fine-tune every element of the delivery process, from processing and packing stock at the warehouse to the famously complex “last mile” of dropping off the goods.

Delivery times are calculated with extraordinary precision, with reams of information crunched by 300 data analysts and 300 software engineers at Picnic’s headquarters.

“We know exactly how long it takes to walk around the vehicle and when it’s dark outside, we add six seconds to the delivery time,” said Muller.

Unlike a physical supermarket, every order comes through on the app, so the firm knows exactly what it needs to order, deliver, and how long that should take.

The firm estimates this results in seven times less food waste than at regular supermarkets.

“There’s not a single baguette that is ordered and not delivered,” said Gregoire Borgoltz, head of Picnic’s operations in France.

The firm’s drivers in the ubiquitous white Picnic vans receive a rating after every trip based on their driving, even assessing whether they have sped too fast around corners.

– ‘Level of automation’ –

The huge investments required in bespoke software, plus the firm’s distribution hubs with 14 kilometres (nine miles) of conveyor belts, means profits have been hard to come by.

Sales have risen from 10 million euros in 2016 to 1.25 billion in 2023, with staff levels soaring from 100 employees to 17,000 over the same period.

But Muller said the firm suffered losses of “around 200 million euros” last year due to expanding in Germany — opening slots in Berlin, Hamburg and Hannover.

For the first time since its 2015 founding, it finally turned in a gross profit this year in its home market. “It took eight years to be profitable in the Netherlands,” he said.

Earlier this year, the firm raised 355 million euros from investors to fund its push into Germany and France, notably from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation and German retail giant Edeka.

When it comes to profits, it’s again all down to technology, said Muller.

“Basically, the level of automation determines our level of profitability,” he said.

“Today, we have about 30 percent automated in Holland. We will grow to 100 percent in a couple of years’ time,” with Germany and France following soon behind.

So far, Picnic is mainly operating in the northern French city of Lille and the greater Paris suburbs. Central Paris is a “big opportunity but also has some of the worst traffic jams”, said Borgoltz.

“We will go to Paris but we have to find the right moment.”

Muller has ambitions to spread the company further. “Well, there are 183 countries in the world,” he jokes when asked where Picnic will expand to next.

But for the moment, he said the firm would consolidate its activities in Germany and France before looking further afield — not ruling out a push outside Europe.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/business/dutch-app-supermarket-boss-eyes-tech-boom-in-online-delivery/article#ixzz8e2TJKPSh

Who profits from the soaring price of cocoa?


By AFP
June 22, 2024

In March, cocoa prices rocketed to more than $10,000 a tonne in New York after a poor harvest in West Africa - Copyright AFP/File Issouf SANOGO
Juliette MICHEL

Though cocoa prices on the financial markets have soared, the rise is benefiting cocoa growers, bean processors, speculators and chocolatiers in unequal measure.

In March, prices rocketed to more than $10,000 a tonne in New York after a poor harvest in West Africa due to a combination of bad weather conditions and disease devastating ageing plantations.

They have since fallen back from the peak, yet are still three times higher than last year.

– Wide gaps between producers –

In Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world’s largest cocoa producers, prices are set by the authorities in October on the basis of the previous months.

But by that point the harvests “have already been largely pre-sold”, said Tancrede Voituriez of the French agricultural research and cooperation organisation CIRAD.

This reduces the impact of cocoa price fluctuations — whether upwards and downwards.

As a result, small-scale producers, who generally earn barely enough to live on, did not immediately benefit from the surge.

That said, the authorities raised the price of the intermediate crop in April by 50 percent to between $2,300 and $2,500 per tonne — a modest rise compared to what the farmers could charge on the international exchanges.

In countries with less regulated systems, such as Cameroon, Nigeria, Ecuador and Brazil, growers managed to pocket more from the trend.

There, farmers have been allowed to sell their beans to buyers willing to approach the prices paid on the financial markets.

But that deregulated approach comes with risks of its own.

“Soaring prices have made production more attractive,” David Gonzales, coordinator of the Peruvian Chamber of Coffee and Cocoa, told AFP.

The fear is that there will be an excess of cocoa in three to five years’ time — the time needed for farmers hoping to cash in to grow new trees — causing prices to tumble back to earth.

– Middlemen in the hunt –

The major processors who grind the beans into butter, liquor or powder — notably Switzerland’s Barry Callebaut, America’s Cargill, Singapore’s Olam — generally negotiate a large part of their supplies in advance.

But some contracts have not been honoured, forcing them to scour for urgently needed cocoa at high cost and in some cases to slow down production.

Barry Callebaut reported in early April that it had drawn more than usual from its cash reserves to finance bean purchases, but had enough cocoa on hand to meet demand.

Other smaller intermediaries may find it difficult to advance the funds needed to adapt to the higher prices.

Yet there is one group of middlemen who would have been delighted at the price rises.

“The smugglers would have done very nicely there,” Steve Wateridge of commodity firm Tropical Research Services told AFP.

He said black marketeers could have taken advantage of the system in Ivory Coast and Ghana by buying cocoa at slightly above the fixed prices and selling the beans on the open market in Togo, Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone.

– Mixed fortunes on the markets –

Cocoa prices have risen because supply has fallen short of demand for the third year running, according to the International Cocoa Organization.

Investment funds that sensed the changing wind bet on higher prices, pocketing a profit in the process.

But from January onwards, prices became very erratic, even beyond the liking of funds with a taste for speculation.

Many investors withdrew from the market altogether: the number of traded contracts fell from 334,000 in mid-January to 146,000 in April, according to Saxo Bank’s Ole Hansen.

“You can’t blame the speculators for artificially inflating the prices,” Wateridge added.

On the other hand, trading houses and chocolate makers tend to guard against price reversals by betting against the financial markets, in this case on falling prices.

After the markets proved right and prices soared, several had to bank more funds to cover their potential losses.

Others short on cash have had to abandon their bets, which technically obliges them to buy back contracts on the market.

This, in turn, automatically pushes up the price of cocoa even further.

– Chocolatiers adapt –

Given the time lag between the cocoa harvest and the production of a finished bar, the cost of chocolate on the supermarket shelves should not in theory have soared for industry giants Mars, Mondelez, Nestle, Hershey’s and Ferrero.

“We are largely covered as part of our forward contracting for the remainder of the year,” Nestle’s chief executive Ulf Schneider confirmed in April.

But as time goes on, rising raw cocoa prices will eventually hit their bottom line.

To avoid passing on the cost to consumers already hit by soaring inflation, manufacturers could alter their recipes — increasing the proportion of hazelnuts in Nutella, for example — or reduce portion size.

Even for artisan chocolate makers, the cost of the raw cocoa represents only a small part of the finished product.

“There’s a big margin” on chocolate bars, Sebastien Langlois, the co-founder of French Cocoa Company, told AFP, dampening the impact of soaring bean costs.

His company, which sells organic and fair-trade products, has not yet raised its prices, he added.

'Flat as a pancake': Trump supporters claim Earth isn't round in viral video

David Edwards
June 13, 2024 

The Good Liars/screen grab

A new viral video showed supporters of Donald Trump arguing that the Earth is flat.

According to The Good Liars, a comedy duo, the video was filmed at a rally for Trump. It had over a million views by Thursday.

"Is the Earth round or flat?" Jason Selvig of The Good Liars asked one Trump supporter.

"It's flat," the supporter stated.

Another Trump fan insisted the U.S. "didn't go to the moon" because "you can't get out of the atmosphere."

One supporter claimed NASA used computer graphics to trick the public into believing the Earth was a sphere.

"From NASA's pictures, right? And you know of CGI, right?" he said. "So I believe in the Bible, in Genesis, under the dome. It plainly tells you there, a firmament, dome."

"So it's as flat as a pancake."

Watch the video below from The Good Liars.

 

Gray whales shrinking fast as climate warms

Agence France-Presse
June 13, 2024 

Breaching Gray Whale (ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP)

Pacific coast gray whales have shrunk in length an astonishing 13 percent since 2000, adding to evidence that climate change and other human activities are making marine mammals smaller, a study says.

Their diminished size could have big impacts on survival rates and reproductive success -- and trigger ripple effects throughout their entire food webs.

For the paper, researchers focused on the Pacific Coast Feeding Group (PCFG) -- around 200 whales that are part of the wider Eastern North Pacific (ENP) population of around 14,500.

Considered "ecosystem sentinels," they stay closer to shore, feeding in shallower, warmer waters, than the wider population that inhabits colder, deeper Arctic seas. Prior research had shown they are in worse shape than their counterparts, with smaller bodies, heads and flukes.

"Now we know they have been shrinking in body size over the past 20-40 years, which may be an early warning sign that the population is at risk of declining," Kevin Bierlich, an assistant professor at Oregon State University and co-author of the paper in Global Change Biology, told AFP on Thursday.

By analyzing drone images taken from 2016-2022 of 130 individuals whose age was estimated or known, the scientists found a striking trend: a gray whale born in 2020 is likely to reach a full-grown adult length of approximately 1.65 meters (5ft 5in) less than a counterpart born in 2000.

This represents a significant 13 percent decrease in the total length of mature gray whales, which typically measure between 38-41 feet in length.

Notably, the decline was more pronounced in females, who historically exceeded males in size but are now comparable.

It would be the equivalent of seeing the average height of an American woman plummeting from 5ft 4in to 4ft 8in over two decades.

- Size matters -

"In general, size is critical for animals," said Enrico Pirotta, lead author on the study and a researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

"It affects their behavior, their physiology, their life history, and it has cascading effects for the animals and for the community they're a part of."

Smaller whale calves may have lower survival rates when they stop weaning, while for adults, the major concern is reproductive success.

The species relies on energy reserves stored during the feeding season to support the demands of migration and reproduction during winter -- and the question arises whether they are able to put enough energy towards reproduction and keeping the population growing.

Importantly, the study found the trend was correlated with changes to the balance of "upwelling" and "relaxation" cycles of the ocean.

Upwelling transports nutrients from deeper waters to shallower areas. During relaxation periods, these nutrients remain in the shallower zones, where light enables plankton and other small species that whales feed on to grow.

Climate change is known to be an important factor affecting the dynamics of this delicate balance, through changes in wind patterns and water temperature.

A smaller stature may not only hinder whales' ability to thrive, but also increase their vulnerability to threats such as collisions with boats and entanglement in fishing gear, which can be deadly.

North Macedonia's beekeepers face climate change challenge

Agence France-Presse
June 14, 2024 

Petroski has for 13 years spent his free time caring for 120 beehives

 (Robert ATANASOVSKI/AFP)

Every day, Magda Miloseska dons a white, protective suit and enters the domain of the honeybees in the backyard of her small weekend house in North Macedonia.

She has been producing honey in this picturesque corner of the country for more than 20 years. But climate change and disease have made what used to be a simple pleasure much harder work, she says.

Stence is a hillside village in the west of the country, surrounded by mountains and at a level of 650 meters (2,130 feet). Temperatures in June already exceed 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), three-degrees higher than usual, according to the state meteorological office.

"In the past, beekeeping was much easier," said 63-year-old Miloseska. "Beekeeping was a treat.

"Now, we simply have to fight both the climate conditions and the diseases that have entered the beekeeping."

Just a hobby for some, but a source of income for others, beekeeping has surged in recent years in all regions of the country.

There were 6,900 beekeepers with 306,000 beehives registered across the country in 2023, according to the Food and Veterinary Agency.

But according to a European Commission study issued in July 2023, 10 percent of bees and butterflies are threatened with extinction in Europe -- largely due to human activities.

- Honey production down -

Miloseska may not have the data at her fingertips, but her everyday experience has made it clear to her something is wrong.

"Older beekeepers say that in the past they could get 30-50 kilograms (44-66 pounds) of honey from one beehive," she said.

"In this period, with these climate conditions, that is substantially decreased."

Today, in ideal conditions, the most you could hope for would be around 30 kilograms over one season, she added -- with average production between 10 and 20 kilos.

That relative scarcity has pushed prices up from to between 15 and 20 euros ($16-22) compared to 10 euros just two or three years ago.

Vladimir Petroski, who for the past 13 years has spent his free time caring for 120 beehives, has noted the same problem.

Whereas in the past they could expect 30-40 kilograms, he said, these days they had to be satisfied with 15 kilos per season.

And he agreed that climate change had fuelled the rise of the parasites and viruses that threaten wild and honey bees.

"Beekeepers need to educate themselves and adapt according to the conditions and the micro-climate where they work."

- Educate and adapt -

In fact, the beekeepers are already trying to find solutions themselves.

Their hive mind is made up of the regional beekeepers' associations, which promote good practice and organize honey festivals.

They agree the main challenges are the warm winters, swift changes of the temperature in spring -- and the long, dry periods that come with summer now stretching into September and October.

Environmental groups have called for government ministries and agencies to coordinate to tackle the problems that climate change pose for bees.

So far however, they say their warnings have gone largely unheeded.

The agriculture ministry is just as concerned about intensive agriculture, pesticides, loss of diversity and pollution.

While acknowledging the threat climate change poses, it has simply recommended closer monitoring of the bees' behaviour.

More data is certainly needed, says Frosina Pandurska Dramikjanin of the Macedonian Ecological Society, part of a project trying to understand the effect of climate change on bees.

But it also needs to be share between the relevant state institutions, she argued.

Without that, she told AFP, "it is harder to issue measures and recommendations".

A recent report from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) underlined the stakes, highlighting the key role bees play in food production and biodiversity.

Out of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of all food consumed worldwide, 71 are pollinated by bees, it reported.

The high-tech art lab hidden underneath Paris

Agence France-Presse
June 14, 2024 

A bronze statue is tested with the centre's particle accelerator

 (JULIEN DE ROSA/AFP)

It looks like the lair of a Bond villain: behind armored doors, buried underground below the Louvre Louvre in Paris, lies one of the most high-tech art labs in the world.

Across three floors and nearly 6,000 square meters, the Centre for Research and Restoration of Museums of France (C2RMF) includes its own particle accelerator called AGLAE, and is bustling with radiologists, chemists, geologists, metallurgists, archaeologists and engineers.

The 150-strong team examines around 1,000 artworks per year, discovering precisely which materials and methods went into making them, their origin and age, and how the years have altered them.


Their analyses inform restoration teams within the centre, at the Louvre, Versailles and beyond.

Many great artworks have passed through the lab since its creation in 1999, including the Mona Lisa, the stained-glass windows of Notre-Dame Cathedral or Napoleon's saber.

- Like 'CSI' -

When AFP was granted a rare visit recently, an 11th century bronze sculpture of the Hindu god Vishnu had recently arrived from Cambodia ahead of exhibitions in France and the United States next year.

A masterpiece of Khmer art, the "Vishnu of Western Mebon" was found at Angkor Wat in 1936, a rare reclining depiction of the Hindu god that would have measured some six metres when it was complete.

Behind thick, lead doors, a team of 10 specialists was carrying out X-rays and 3D scanning on the statue.

Certain parts would then be tested with techniques such as X-ray fluorescence and spectrometry that bombard it with gamma rays and electrons to discover its detailed chemical and molecular composition.

"We're a bit like NASA, each with our own skills, or 'CSI: Miami', the scientific police," said team leader David Bourgarit, an archaeo-metallurgical research engineer.

"Our crime scenes are archaeological discoveries. We try to understand who made them, how and why, like a police investigation," he added.

He pointed to little white dots around the eyebrows of the statue that he said were said were another metal, "denser than copper", which will require further analysis to identify.

The team also wants to identity the clay used to make the initial mould for the statue, traces of which are still inside.

That should allow them to pinpoint exactly where it was made by comparing to earth samples.

Some fragments may also pass through AGLAE (the French acronym for the Grand Louvre Accelerator of Elemental Analysis), installed in the 1990s and the only one in the world to work exclusively on artworks.

In a room packed with machinery, the straight-line accelerator gives off a powerful roar as it creates and blasts particles at artworks and artifacts.

It allows the scientists to ascertain the amounts and combinations of elements in the objects, adding another layer of analysis for dating and verifying their authenticity.