Why silica dust could become the 'new asbestos'

Fred Schwaller

DW

08/08/24

If inhaled, silica dust from cut or drilled stone, can cause a fatal lung disease. Experts want better protections for workers exposed to it every day.

Daily exposure to silica dust, released from cement and stone, can lead to silicosis, which is a scarring and hardening of the lungs

Image: Md Rafayat Haque Khan/ZUMAPRESS/picture alliance

New limits to a person's daily exposure to silica dust in the construction, mining, dentistry and other industries could save about 13,000 lives worldwide.

That's what researchers in the UK recommend, having found that a worker's lifetime exposure to current, "acceptable" limits can result in serious risk of developing silicosis, a potentially fatal lung disease.

They warn that silicosis could become as big a health problem as exposure to asbestos.

"Our research supports the reduction of exposure to silica dust from 0.1 mg/m3 to 0.05 mg/m3 over a working day," said study author Patrick Howlett from London's Imperial College.

The study was published in the British Medical Journal title Thorax on August 8, 2024. It highlights a need for more data on silicosis risks because the total burden of the disease is unclear, especially in developing countries where data about silicosis is scarce.
What exactly is silicosis?

Silicosis is a respiratory disease which causes a hardening of the lungs. It is caused by silica dust or silica crystals, which are found in soil, sand, concrete, mortar, granite and artificial stone.

It is common in construction, mining, oil and gas extraction, kitchen engineering, dentistry, pottery and sculpting.

People working in these industries are often exposed to silica every day, and are at higher risk of developing silicosis as a result. The illness has, for instance, wreaked havoc in small mining communities in India.

Silicosis is a progressive disease and has no cure.

Why are workers inhaling silica?

When the materials are cut or drilled, crystalline silica is released into the air as a very fine dust. Workers breathe it in as they work, especially where industrial health and saftey standards are poor.

It can take a long time for silicosis to develop — typically 10 to 20 years of occupational exposure to silica dust.

"It's estimated that millions [of people] worldwide have silicosis, but data is very scarce. In the UK and Europe, we see hundreds of cases per year," Howlett told DW in an interview.

Silicosis can lead to other serious diseases, including lung cancer, but scientists aren't sure exactly how this happens. Some speculate that the silica dust forms deposits in the lungs and that those deposits cause persistent inflammation.

Call for silica dust exposure levels to be reduced

This new study, or meta-analysis, assessed eight existing studies that looked at the cumulative risk of silicosis.

The studies involved 8,792 cases of silicosis among 65,977 participants, and included evidence from x-ray analysis of lungs, postmortem examination results, and death certificates.

"We calculated the accumulated risk of silicosis over 40 years of work with exposure to silica dust. Most studies involved miners, and only two studies had non-miners," said Howlet.

The researchers found that if average exposure over a 40-year working lifetime in mining was halved, from 0.1 mg/m3 to 0.05 mg/m3, there would be a reduction of silicosis cases by 77%.

"It would also lower risk among non-miners, but the caveat was that [there were] only two studies included non-miners, so the data was less clear," said Howlett.

People working in the mining industry are likely to be exposed to high amounts of silica dust every day

Image: DW

Reducing silica dust exposure 'is achievable'

The UK's occupational limit for silica dust exposure is 0.1 mg/m3. That is in line with most European countries , including France, Austria, and Switzerland. Other countries, such as China, have much higher limits of around 1 mg/m3.

Lowering silica dust exposure limits to 0.05 mg/m3 would be in-line with US standards.

Howlett said it was an achievable goal to reduce silica dust exposure in the workplace. He cited experience from the US and Australia, where such health and safey meaures had proved effective.

Australia has banned the use of engineered stone due to its propensity to release high levels of silica dust when cut or drilled.

"There are established methods to follow, including using water suppression methods of foams and mists to precipitate dust out of air effectively, better ventilation, and personal protective equipment," said Howlett.

But he said the issue of silicosis was likely to be much worse in developing countries, where there are few or no safety measures for silica dust.

"Miners in developing countries are exposed to a lifetime's worth of dust in a year's work," he said.

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany

Sources:

Relationship between cumulative silica exposure and silicosis: a systematic review and dose response meta-analysis. Published by Howlett et al. in the journal BMJ Thorax (August 2024) https://thorax.bmj.com/content/early/2024/07/04/thorax-2024-221447

Global and national burden and trends of mortality and disability-adjusted life years for silicosis, from 1990 to 2019: results from the Global Burden of Disease study 2019. Published by Chen S, Liu M, Xie F. in BMC Pulmonary Medicine (June 2022) https://bmcpulmmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12890-022-02040-9

Army stands by Venezuela's Maduro despite opposition

The Venezuelan military has rejected calls by the opposition to intervene after President Nicolas Maduro won another term in a contested vote.

Despite unrest following the July 28 presidential vote, the Venezuelan military still stands behind Nicolas Maduro

Image: Matias Delacroix/AP Photo/picture alliance

DW
08/06/2024

The Venezuelan military on Tuesday reiterated their "absolute loyalty" to President Nicolas Maduro amid controversy over his recent election win.
Opposition seeks to 'undermine our unity,' military says

Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Venezuela's defense minister and army head, said the military strongly rejects "the desperate and seditious approaches" that "seek to undermine our unity and institutionality, but will never succeed."

The comments are a rejection of calls coming from the opposition to intervene after the presidential election on July 28, where incumbent Maduro won a third consecutive term against former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

The opposition has rejected the electoral results, with Western countries such as the US and Germany also not recognizing Maduro's win or expressing skepticism. China, Iran and Russia, however, have lauded Maduro's victory.

A letter released Monday by Gonzalez and opposition figure Maria Corina Machado called on the armed forces "to stand at the side of the people" amid protests and mass arrests in recent days following the election.

Venezuela's attorney general announced a criminal investigation into Machado and Gonzalez after the letter was published.

Machado: 'Fear is not going to paralyze us'

Earlier, Machado was considered the top candidate to face off against Maduro in this year's election. In July 2023, she was banned from politics by the comptroller general of Venezuela, which accused her of ties with Juan Guaido, an opposition politician living in exile.

In a message posted on social media platform X on Tuesday, Machado called on the opposition movement to stay resilient amid persistent threats from the Maduro government.

"Fear is not going to paralyze us, we are going to overcome it as we have done until now and we will not leave the streets," she said.

wd/rmt (Reuters, AFP)

Hate speech targets Kamala Harris on social media

Ines Eisele

DW

8/8/24

Racist and sexist disinformation has targeted Harris for years, worsening since she entered the presidential race. This hate speech raises questions about whether her treatment would differ if she were a white male.

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has been targeted by a slew of disinformation for years

Image: Laura Brett/ZUMAPRESS/picture alliance

Kamala Harris is running for the Democrats against Donald Trump in the US presidential election in November. And she is facing perhaps the greatest barrage of disinformation and defamation ever directed at a presidential candidate in the United States.

There are claims that she worked as a prostitute and offered her "services" to politicians to advance her own career. Some viral posts also claim she was involved with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And for some, the fact that the 59-year-old has no biological children is an indication that she is a trans woman.

The false claim by some internet users that Harris was not born in the US and, therefore, cannot legally be president is also widely known. For others, she is not "black" enough to call herself "Black." Other claims about Harris have already been debunked by DW's fact check team.

The extent of disinformation — or the deliberate spread of false information — can be explained in part by the rapid development of social networks in recent years. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, which can be used to fabricate or manipulate images, videos and audio tracks, have certainly played their part as well.

In addition, society and politics in the United States are extremely polarized. What's more, foreign actors such as Russia, China and Iran also have an interest in influencing US politics and have already been busy spreading fake news in past elections.
Study: Gender-specific disinformation is widespread

But all the fakes directed at Harris are not only due to the fact that she is currently running in the 2024 presidential election. If the 59-year-old were a white male, the disinformation targeting her would be different. What circulates online about the politician and lawyer often has to do with her gender, her skin color and her Indian and Jamaican roots.

The Wilson Center in Washington analyzed disinformation targeting 13 female politicians of different political and ethnic affiliations and varying degrees of popularity, including Harris, in a 2020 study. In addition to the finding that gender-specific disinformation narratives are widespread overall, it emerged that 78% of the keywords found referred to the then-senator.

How misogynists take over social media  03:24

Nina Jankowicz, former head of the Disinformation Governance Board, which was an advisory body to the US Department of Homeland Security, is one of the co-authors of the Wilson study.

"We found in our research, and other research studies have echoed this, that women who are representing intersectional identities — they're both a woman and gay, or a woman and Black, or, in Kamala's case, representing three identities, a woman, a Black woman, and a South Asian woman — are subject to compounded abuse and compounded disinformation as well," she told DW.


Intimidation, shaming, discrediting

A distinction can be made between different types of online sexism. In a 2018 study, sociologist Sarah Sobieraj identified three overlapping strategies to limit the influence of women in the digital public sphere: intimidation, shaming and discrediting.

Jankowicz and her co-researchers, on the other hand, differentiated between sexist, transphobic and racist narratives with regard to gender-specific disinformation. The political scientist knows what she's talking about: She herself has been a victim of sexist online hate and has even been targeted by rape and death threats.

Just how much more women have to put up with than men also becomes clear when Harris is compared with current US president Joe Biden or former US president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump. Who has ever taken such a meticulous interest in the dating pasts of these men or claimed that they prostituted themselves or "slept their way to the top?" Shouldn't Trump, in particular, who was convicted of sexual abuse and paid hush money to a porn actress, be of much more interest in this regard than Harris?

And how many social media posts have claimed that Biden or Trump were trans people? Or that they're not legal US citizens or are, in fact, not white?

According to Jankowicz, the comparison makes it even clearer to what extent the Harris-related disinformation is misogynistic. "Women who are in positions of power can't possibly have gotten there on their own, and they must secretly be men, which is absurd," she said.

Harris is not an isolated case — but she has been hit particularly hard

Another comparison reveals the structural nature of gender-specific and racist disinformation. People who are more similar to Harris in this respect — such as Michelle and Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton — have been or are confronted with similar misinformation. For example, some also claim that Michelle Obama is a trans woman.

The associated LGBTQ+ and misogynistic conspiracy myth is called "transvestigation." And Barack Obama was also confronted with false claims that said he was not born on US territory. This gave rise to an entire conspiracy theory, adherents of which called themselves "birthers."

All this shows that women tend to be degraded to sexual objects because they are women. People of color are more frequently judged based on their family or educational backgrounds, with allegations and false claims rarely relating to individual attributes of the people in question.

AI-generated footage has attempted to ridicule presidential candidate Harris, for example, by claiming she has made ridiculous statementsImage: X/@MonicaLaredo2

And these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Countless other narratives are sexist and racist in more subtle ways, such as manipulated videos that put nonsense in Harris' mouth, or statements taken out of context that portray her as incompetent.

They also have the effect of discrediting Harris as a woman, as a person of color and as a politician, and can therefore be assigned to the field of gender- and identity-specific disinformation.

This article was originally written in German.

German lawmakers skeptical over sending forces to aid Israel

I WOULD HOPE SO

Jens Thurau

DW

AUGUST 8, 2024

Will Germany help Israel militarily, in the event of an attack by Iran? German politicians have been very cautious about this possibility, although refueling aircraft is conceivable.

At the end of July, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who belongs to the center-left Social Democrats, visited Hawaii where two German warships, including the Baden-Württemberg frigate, were participating in the US-led naval Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) military exercise.

Despite the distance, Pistorius could not ignore the escalation between Israel, Hamas and Iran. With regard to a potential Iranian attack on Israel, Pistorius told DW correspondent Michaela Küfner that "we don't need that. We don't want that."

"It needs to be prevented because nobody can wish or can even imagine the further escalation of the region," he said. "We have to do everything to get peace back in that region as soon as possible."

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (center) visited Hawaii for a joint military drill in late JulyImage: Soeren Stache/dpa/picture alliance

CDU lawmaker says government should 'wake up'

Back in Germany, meanwhile, there has long been an ongoing debate as to whether the country's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, should be deployed to protect Israel should Iran attack. Germany already supplies weapons to Israel and supports the government in many other areas, but the idea of deploying German troops has always been inconceivable. No Israeli government has ever issued such a request either.

Yet German lawmaker Roderich Kiesewetter, security spokesperson for the center-right Christian Democrats, recently told German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that the German government should "finally wake up" to the escalating situation. He said it would be conceivable to have German forces help refuel fighter jets from allied nations, and also for Eurofighter aircraft to be deployed to fend off Iranian drones. But he made clear that German forces should not attack targets within Iran.


The Central Council of Jews in Germany holds a similar view. Its president, Josef Schuster, told news group Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland that "Germany's historical responsibility for Israel's security is not legally binding, but from my point of view this, of course, means that in the event of an attack of the magnitude currently looming, Germany will also stand with the Jewish state militarily."

Germany's 'reason of state'

By "Germany's historical responsibility for Israel's security" after the Holocaust, the murder of millions of European Jews during World War II, the concept of "Staatsräson," or "reason of state" is meant.

This is often understood as being Germany's voluntary commitment to take responsibility for Israel's security and existence. Though the "reason of state" is not enshrined in law, the maxim has been constantly repeated by the current and previous government.

The latest escalation in the Middle East was triggered by the deadly attack on the Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, while visiting Tehran. Hamas is a militant, Islamist group that the European Union, the US, Germany and others classify as a terrorist organization.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is right in the heart of Berlin

Image: Bildagentur-online/Joko/picture alliance

Israel has not requested Bundeswehr support

So does Germany's "reason of state" also mean deploying German soldiers to protect Israel in the event of an attack?

No other German politician seems willing to go as far as Kiesewetter, neither from the opposition, and certainly not from the government. Johann Wadephul, deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, gave an evasive answer to Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland when he said that "as far as we know, scenarios such as military support are not on the agenda. A parliamentary mandate would be required for this anyway."

Marcus Faber from the neoliberal Liberal Democrats, who chairs the parliamentary defense committee, gave a similarly technical answer. "Israel has clearly communicated how we can help," he said. "We should do this, for example by quickly approving arms exports. The Bundeswehr has not been requested in Israel and could do little to help."

In June 2022, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck visited German soldiers at Jordan's Muwaffaq Salti airbase

Image: Britta Pedersen/dpa/picture alliance

Bundeswehr fighting IS in Iraq, Jordan

The Bundeswehr would barely be in a position to help Israel. Like Kiesewetter, however, FDP foreign policy expert Ulrich Lechte believes it would be possible for the German army to help refuel fighter jets of allied states. And for the Greens, who are also in the ruling coalition, lawmaker Sergey Lagodinsky pointed out to the Berlin-based daily Tagesspiegel that the Bundeswehr was already present in the Middle East given the military operation against the extremist Islamic State (IS) group.

"Since 2015, the Bundeswehr has deployed up to 500 soldiers in Iraq and Jordan to refuel US aircraft for example," he said.

The German government remained largely silent on the issue at Wednesday's routine press conference in Berlin. Arne Collatz, spokesman for the German Defense Ministry, told reporters "that is not a question that has been asked at the moment. This is not a topic of debate for the Bundeswehr. And we know what needs to be done politically before the question is even put to the Bundeswehr."

In other words, a deployment of German troops alongside Israel would have to be approved by a parliamentary majority in the Bundestag, and this majority does not currently exist.

This article was originally written in German.

'Increasingly likely' that 2024 will be warmest year on record, EU monitor says

2024 has seen each month surpass its temperature record for the time of year, spawned the two hottest days on record and contributed to the intensification of hurricanes, heatwaves, and wildfires across the world – all signs that it will likely go down as the hottest year on record.


Issued on: 08/08/2024 - 

A man shields from the sun with a paper umbrella in front of Rome's Pantheon during a heat wave on Thursday, July 11, 2024.

 © Andrew Medichini, AP

It is "increasingly likely" 2024 will be the hottest year on record, despite July ending a 13-month streak of monthly temperature records, the EU's climate monitor said Thursday.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said last month was the second warmest on record books going back to 1940, only slightly cooler than July 2023.

Between June 2023 and June 2024, each month eclipsed its own temperature record for the time of year.

"The streak of record-breaking months has come to an end, but only by a whisker," said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of C3S.

Last month the global average temperature was 16.91 degrees Celsius, only 0.04C below July 2023, according to C3S's monthly bulletin.

But "the overall context hasn't changed, our climate continues to warm," said Burgess.

"The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net zero," she said.

From January to July global temperatures were 0.70C above the 1991-2020 average.

This anomaly would need to drop significantly over the rest of this year for 2024 not to be hotter than 2023 -- "making it increasingly likely that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record", said C3S.
'Too hot to handle'

July 2024 was 1.48C warmer than the estimated average temperatures for the month during the period 1850-1900, before the world started to rapidly burn fossil fuels.

This has translated into punishing heat for hundreds of millions of people.

The Earth experienced its two hottest days on record with global average temperatures at a virtual tie on July 22 and 23 reaching 17.6C, C3S said.

The Mediterranean was gripped by a heatwave scientists said would have been "virtually impossible" without global warming as China and Japan sweated through their hottest July on record.

Record-breaking rainfall pummelled Pakistan, wildfires ravaged western US states and Hurricane Beryl left a trail of destruction as it swept from the Caribbean to the southeast of the United States.

Temperatures for the oceans, which absorb 90 percent of the excess heat caused by human activities, were also the second warmest on record for the month of July.

Average sea surface temperatures were 20.88C last month, only 0.01C below July 2023.


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This marked the end of a 15-month period of tumbling heat records for the oceans.

However, scientists at C3S noted that "air temperatures over the ocean remained unusually high over many regions" despite a swing from the El Nino weather pattern that helped fuel a spike in global temperatures to its opposite La Nina, which has a cooling effect.

On Wednesday, World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo reflected on a year of "widespread, intense and extended heatwaves".

"This is becoming too hot to handle," she said.

(AFP)

Australia: Great Barrier Reef waters warmest in 400 years

Record water temperatures have led to more and more mass bleaching events along the Great Barrier Reef. Experts warn the reef is running out of time.

Rising water temperatures can cause coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef

Image: Supplied/CSIRO/dpa/picture alliance

Water temperatures along the Great Barrier Reef off the northeast coast of Australia have hit a 400-year high, according to a major new study, which concludes that human-induced climate change is the most likely cause.

Using coral samples to reconstruct sea temperatures dating back as far as the 17th century, scientists found that temperatures before 1900 had been relatively stable, but that they had been increasing on average by 0.12 degrees Celsius (0.2 degrees Fahrenheit) per year since 1960.

"These are corals that have lived for 400 years and these are the warmest temperatures they've experienced," said Helen McGregor, co-author of the study which was published in the science journal Nature in Australia on Thursday.

Great Barrier Reef under threat as ocean temperatures rise 02:09

What is coral bleaching?

McGregor, a climate researcher at the University of Wollongong, said the "unprecedented" temperature increases had left her "extremely concerned" about the health of the famous 2,300-kilometer (1,400-mile) long reef, which is home to more than 600 types of coral and 1,625 species of fish.

This year, a mass "coral bleaching" event – which occurs when water temperatures rise by more than one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), causing the coral to shed nutrients and color – left 81% of the reef with extreme or high levels of damage, according to the report.

"The world is losing one of its icons," said Benjamin Henley, an academic at the University of Melbourne and another one of the study's co-authors, calling the situation "an absolute tragedy."

"It's hard to understand how that can happen on our watch in our lifetime," he added.

Can coral reefs recover?

Corals have shown that they can recover, but McGregor said that increasingly high temperatures and almost annual bleaching events were pushing them to their limits.

"These changes, from what we're seeing so far, appear to be happening too rapidly for the corals to adapt to so it really threatens the reef as we know it," she warned.

At least 54 countries and regions have experienced mass bleaching of reefs since February 2023 as climate change warms the ocean's surface waters, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The Great Barrier Reef is not currently on UNESCO's list of endangered world heritage sites that are in danger, although the UN recommends it should be added.

"Coral reefs, as an ecosystem, are the first ecosystem on the planet to be existentially threatened by climate change," said Richard Leck, World Wide Fund Australia's head of oceans, reacting to the new study.

"At the moment, we can see the reef is resilient. It's bounced back from previous coral bleaching events but at some point that elastic band will snap," he told the AFP news agency.

"I think we have to be hopeful that the world is not going to stand by and let that happen."

What are governments doing to protect reefs?

Governments around the world are indeed ramping up efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and invest in reef protection measures.

Australia has invested about $3.2 billion in improving water quality and protecting threatened species. But it's also one of the world's largest gas and coal exporters and has only recently agreed targets to become carbon neutral.

"It is a fraction of a second to midnight," warned Leck.

mf/wd (AFP, Reuters)

Indian wrestler Phogat retires after Olympic disqualification

New Delhi (AFP) – India's heartbroken Vinesh Phogat on Thursday announced her retirement from wrestling, a day after being disqualified from the women's 50kg competition at the Paris Olympics for being overweight for the final.

Issued on: 08/08/2024 - 

Wrestler Vinesh Phogat (centre) was last year part of a long-running protest against the then-chief of Indian wrestling who was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal 

© Arun THAKUR / AFP

World bronze medallist Phogat, 29, was in the public eye for months last year as part of a long-running protest against the then-chief of Indian wrestling when he was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal.

Phogat, who has won three Commonwealth Games gold medals, had been due to face Sarah Hildebrandt of the United States for the gold medal on Wednesday in Paris but was found to be 100 grams over the 50kg limit.

"Mother wrestling won against me, I lost. Your dreams and my courage are shattered," Phogat wrote on social media platform X.

"I don't have any more strength now. Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024. I will forever be indebted to you all. Sorry."

Hildebrandt took gold in Wednesday final against Cuba's Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who was reprieved after losing her semi-final to Phogat on Tuesday.

Indian media reported Phogat has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against her disqualification and demanded a joint silver to be awarded.

CAS is expected to announce its verdict on the case later Thursday in Paris.
'A winner for us'

Videos of Phogat with chopped hair and sunken eyes, working out to cut her weight down in a last bid to compete in the final went viral on Wednesday.

Phogat helped lead a weeks-long sit-in protest in New Delhi last year against then-Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, at the time a lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party.

Singh is being tried on accusations of groping female athletes and demanding sexual favours from them -- charges he denied.

Wrestling is hugely popular in rural northern India and images of Phogat and other athletes being detained as they tried to march to parliament during the protest went viral on social media.

"You will always remain a winner for us," Bajrang Punia, a fellow leader of last year's protests, and a Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist, said on social media.

"Apart from being India's daughter, you are the pride of India."

Another fellow protest wrestler and Olympic bronze-medallist, Sakshee Malikkh, said "every daughter has lost for whom you fought and won".

Phogat, who passed the weigh-in on day one, stunned four-time world and defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan in the opener with a late takedown to claim a 3-2 decision en route to the final.

But Phogat was overweight on the morning of the final, despite the wrestler and her team working overnight to cut the kilos through exercising and sauna.

Modi had backed Phogat in a social media post, saying: "I wish words could express the sense of despair that I am experiencing".

© 2024 AFP

CONTORTIONIST

Super-bendy breakdancer is star of Olympics closing ceremony

Paris (AFP) – Arthur Cadre is an extremely flexible man, both physically and in his range of talents -- breakdancer, acrobat, architect and much more -- and he will play a central role in the Paris Olympics closing ceremony Sunday.


Issued on: 08/08/2024 -

The multi-talented Arthur Cadre will be 'the common thread' in the closing ceremony © JOEL SAGET / AFP
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The 32-year-old has sport in the blood, born to a mother who was part of the French volleyball team and a father who competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympics in windsurfing.

Cadre fell into breakdancing at the age of nine after seeing a clip on TV, later adding contortion to his skill set, followed by acrobatics and circus arts.

Not forgetting "a bit of ballet, tap-dancing" and freerunning, which involves creatively throwing yourself around obstacles and urban environments, like parkour.

Cadre got into breakdancing at age nine © JOEL SAGET / AFP

His talents don't end there: he is also a photographer, model, architecture graduate, and director.

All this has earned him a huge following online. One YouTube video showing off his contortion skills has more than a million views.

And it has taken him around the world from Montreal to Macau, via San Francisco and Dubai.

Recently, he put on a show in Saudi Arabia, "with the princess's horses and 40 dancers".

And he has designed a show based on Bob Marley, which will open in Las Vegas in December.

Cadre describes his style as "a mixture of movement art and visual art", and emphasises the point by swinging his leg up behind his ear in a standing split, then perching on one hand.

He has been working with a team of dancers since early June on Sunday's ceremony at the Stade de France, where the athletics events are held.
Tom Cruise stunt

While he is keeping details of the 30-minute show under wraps, he told AFP his character is "the common thread" recounting the story on a large stage featuring many performers and lots of visual effects.

"It will be something that people are not used to seeing in France," he said.

"Here in the studio, I've been doing a whole physical preparation to develop and create this character," he added.

Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the Games, gave him "a lot of freedom... I suggest a lot of things and we work together to select the moments and emotions that he likes. It's great," said Cadre, who comes from Brittany in western France.

The show will combine 'wonder' and 'dystopia' © JOEL SAGET / AFP/File

Jolly has said the closing show will combine "wonder" and "dystopia", suggesting some more darker elements than the joyful and impertinent tone of the opening ceremony on the River Seine.

Offering a sneak peak to journalists recently, Jolly said he saw the Games as a "fragile monument" and wanted to imagine what would happen if they "disappeared and someone was rebuilding them in a distant future".

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is also expected to make an appearance, with US media reporting that he has prepared a daredevil stunt to pick up the Olympic flag and transfer it to Los Angeles, which is hosting the 2028 Games.

HETEROSEXUAL HEGEMONY

Politics makes its mark on dating in Putin's Russia

Moscow (AFP) – Sitting at a cafe in Moscow, Yulia swiped through a carousel of men on her phone's dating app, trying to guess if the people in the pictures shared her views.


Issued on: 08/08/2024 -

Dating can be difficult because of the gulf between those backing Russia's offensive and those who oppose it 

© Alexander NEMENOV / AFP

"I started to include the artists that I listen to in the bio. It's kind of a hint at my thinking," the 21-year-old freelance photographer said, choosing her language carefully.

Since Russia launched its full-scale military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, thousands of people have been denounced, fined or thrown in jail for expressing opposition to the conflict.

According to opinion polls, only a minority of young people living in Russia disapprove of the offensive.

A June poll by the independent Levada centre suggested 30 percent of 18-24 year-olds disapprove, compared with 59 percent who approve.

For young, liberal Russians who want to avoid hooking up with hardline pro-army patriots, dating has become a minefield.

"After 2022, I stopped giving links to any publications that I read," Yulia said of her online dating profile.

Gone were any articles expressing tolerance towards LGBTQ people or opposition to the Ukraine conflict -- opinions that can land you in jail.

Instead, she listed her favourite musicians as Zemfira and Monetochka, singers who have criticised Russia's offensive in Ukraine and have been declared "foreign agents" by Moscow.
'Very classy'

The dating scene can also be tricky to navigate for those who back the offensive.

Several groups on social media organise "patriotic meetings" for supporters of the Kremlin and military to search for potential matches offline.

Arseny Blavatsky, a 24-year-old PR manager and self-confessed admirer of President Vladimir Putin, said he was looking for "an ideologically close partner".

"Since February 2022, nobody can be apolitical," he told AFP at a speed-dating event held in a Moscow restaurant, his fourth so far.

For Arseny, avoiding ideological conflict in a relationship is a must.

He recalled his frustration after meeting one girl whom he called "very classy" but politically incompatible.

"I was getting on very well with this one girl, everything was cool. On the same wavelength, the same language," he said.

But after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison in February, she became extremely upset -- to his dismay.

"She was in absolute hysterics. I told her that changed nothing between us. And she says, 'Well, that's it, we can't go on'. I mean, that's a bit rubbish, isn't it?" he told AFP.

After meeting a dozen girls at the speed-dating event, Arseny chose two to follow up with.

Arseny said he doesn't know if it's going to work out this time.
'Unexpected joy'

To avoid encountering such differences, other young people have found partners within political movements.

Katya Anikievich and Matvei Klestov, both 21, met in January while campaigning for Boris Nadezhdin, an opposition politician who wanted to challenge Putin in March's presidential election.

"Thousands of people, often my age, spoke freely. It was an unexpected joy," Matvei said of the campaign.

In the end, the authorities blocked Nadezhdin from running.

But life changed for Katya and Matvei.

Hand in hand, they have gone on to support jailed anti-offensive activists in court and taken part in gatherings to write letters to prisoners.

"Katya shares my opinions, it makes me want to go on living," Matvei said.
'I'll follow him'

Maria Smoktiy and Mikhail Galyashkin also found love through politics.

They met at a demonstration organised by the "Other Russia" party, an offshoot of the far-left National Bolshevik movement founded by the late activist and writer Eduard Limonov.

The party backs Russia's military operation in Ukraine. But its politics is generally more hardline than that of the government, which has sometimes brought it into conflict with the authorities.

Maria, 18, said she gave up her Arabic studies to deliver aid to parts of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia with the 24-year-old Mikhail, whom she called "an accomplished adventurer".

'Setting up barricades, having a family, I want to do everything with him,' Maria Smoktiy says of Mikhail Galyashkin

 © Alexander NEMENOV / AFP

"When some turbulent historical events happen, you immediately realise who's on your side and who's on the other side," she said, speaking to AFP in the kitchen of their small Moscow flat.

The couple have travelled a lot in Russia and organised unauthorised demonstrations that have often landed Mikhail in prison for a few days.

"Setting up barricades, having a family, I want to do everything with him," Maria said, stroking a bust of Lenin on the table with one hand.

"I'll follow him all the way to Siberia," she added.

"Maria is a diamond like no other in the world," Mikhail replied, unabashedly proud.

But for some in Moscow, the adage that opposites attract still applies.

Lev, a 28-year-old salesman at a patriotic bookshop in Moscow, and Yevgenia, а 20-year-old English teacher, say they found love even though they are ideologically opposed.

A "stubborn conservative" by his own admission, Lev said he was about to marry a "liberal open to the West".

"She contradicts me and I often take her side," he confessed, surprised.

© 2024 AFP

HOROLOGY

Jeweller's eye-popping watch is love letter to Albania

Tirana (AFP) – Albanian jeweller Pirro Ruco laboured day and night for five years to capture the essence of his country in a spectacular luxury watch.


Issued on: 08/08/2024

The timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November 

© ADNAN BECI / AFP

Now the timepiece, worth roughly $1.4 million, is set to face off against the best watches from across the world at the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix in November.

Set under a sapphire dome, the hours are marked by 12 golden folk dancers -- each in different regional dress -- set on Murano glass, the minute and hour hands adorned with eagle talons in homage to Albania's national symbol.

Ruco's rollercoaster rise mirrors that of Albania, from poverty and isolation as the most closed communist regime in Europe, to rollicking capitalism.

Along the way the jeweller overcame jealousy, the secret police and being sent into internal exile to rise to the pinnacle of his profession.

It all began for Pirro -- as he is known in his homeland -- in 1985 when he was asked to make a medal in red and gold bearing the head of Enver Hoxha, the paranoid dictator who ruled the small Balkan nation with an iron fist for more than four decades.

"That saved me," he told AFP from his workshop tucked away in an alley in the capital Tirana.

The medals were awarded to the regime's most loyal supporters and later caught the eye of Hoxha's wife.

The turn of fortune saw thousands more produced and worn by communist cadres across Albania.

"All the congressional delegates had to wear it. I made a name for myself with it," he said. It also saved him from the textile mills where he had been sent because his family had been deemed "rebellious".
'Priceless'

All this, however, was nearly derailed by an anonymous letter sent to authorities accused Pirro of working with foreign agents.

He was questioned by intelligence agents and his workshop raided.

Set under a sapphire dome, the hours are marked by 12 golden folk dancers -- each in different regional dress -- set on Murano glass 

© ADNAN BECI / AFP

Down but not out, he was able to bounce back after crafting a ring bearing the image of the late husband of a member of the communist politburo and in July 1990 won a prize for a piece featuring Albania's 15th-century national hero Skanderberg.

But the very next day history intervened. The regime began to crumble and the collapse of Albania's communist rule in 1991 was followed by years of violent tumult as the country transitioned to a free-market economy.

Amid the ups and downs, Pirro stayed busy designing pieces for officials and celebrities.

During a trip to Basel in Switzerland in 2016, something new caught his eye.

"I wanted to make a watch. It was my new dream," he told AFP.

For the next five years, Pirro said he focused on "doing something special, Albanian, and at the same time completely new and never before seen in the watch industry."

The new timepiece which he calls Primordial Passion was designed in collaboration with the Swiss watchmaker Agenhor.

The minute and hour hands adorned with eagle talons in homage to Albania's national symbol 

© ADNAN BECI / AFP

"I never wanted to make jewellery, but art," the jeweller said.

"Sculptures, images of the country, pieces of culture... This watch is the culmination of all that, of this love for Albania," he added.

"It is more than just a watch. It combines the rich heritage of ancient Albanian culture with the notion of chronometry."

Pirro refuses to divulge the methods used to craft the watch, but remains hopeful the painstaking details will be recognised by the judges at the Grand Prix in Geneva.

Several collectors have already contacted him about buying the timepiece, he said, though it would be difficult to part with his creation.

"I set a price because I had to. But for me, it is priceless."

© 2024 AFP