‘Dead people and tourists’: Carnage at the world’s highest peak

Lauren McMah, news.com.au January 12, 2020 

Conquering mighty Mt Everest is famously challenging. It is one of the most gruelling endurance tests on the planet.

Since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first ascended the world’s highest peak 66 years ago, thousands of ambitious mountaineers have attempted the same. Many tapped out early. More than 300 people died trying.

Last year, the difficult trek to the 8850m summit brought a scary new set of challenges.

Mt Everest experienced one of its deadliest years in 2019 as a record number of climbers created human traffic jams and unruly conditions in the already-dangerous trek to the top.

An astonishing photograph taken at the summit during May’s climbing season showed a massive queue of climbers snaking to the peak, as if they were queuing at a theme park and not the highest place on earth.

Last year, the mountain’s death toll rose to 11. One of those victims died days after warning about the chaotic conditions.

Heavy traffic at the summit of Mt Everest on May 22, 2019. Picture: @nimsdai Project Possible/AFP

Elia Saikaly’s disturbing photograph of a body on the side of Mount Everest. Source:Supplied

Several factors contributed to the horror season. Poor weather cut short the May climbing window, leaving fewer days of suitable conditions. So when it was clear to climb, there was a fast scramble to the top.

That was worsened by Nepal issuing a record number of climbing permits for the trek on its side of the mountain. (China caps permits on the Tibet side, which is also less popular as it’s considered less challenging.)

Nepal asks climbers for a doctor’s note verifying physical fitness, but there is no test of their skill, experience or stamina at extreme heights. The ease of getting permits has put more rookie climbers on the mountain, who tend to falter, slow queues and contribute to chaotic human pile-ups kilometres into the sky. Last year, that proved extra deadly.

‘IT WAS JAM-PACKED AT THE TOP’

In a lengthy new piece for GQ, journalist Joshua Hammer spoke to several 2019 climbers about what it was like up there.

Austrian mountaineer Reinhard Grubhofer described crowded scenes in the so-called “Death Zone” – the final push before the summit – during what was his second Everest expedition.

He and his team left base camp on May 22 – along with about double the usual number of climbers – and reached the summit early on May 23.
Mt Everest, which stands at a massive 8848 metres, claimed 11
 lives in 2019. Picture: Prakash Mathema/AFP

He said conditions were extra tough last year as warmer weather caused snow to melt and expose bare rock and gravel.

“You are trying to dig in your crampons, but you are often sliding back, fighting to keep your balance, expending a lot of energy,” he said, adding he frequently asked himself, “Should I turn around?”

On the climb down after reaching the summit, Mr Grubhofer hit a snag at the notorious Second Step – a steep and difficult 40m drop made slightly easier by a fixed aluminium ladder.

He said an inexperienced climber ahead of him in the queue panicked and refused to climb down the ladder, apparently frozen in terror. She left a line of climbers stuck behind her for more than 45 minutes, leaving them exposed for even longer to the extreme conditions at high altitude.

“For God’s sake, why is she not moving?” Mr Grubhofer heard an angry climber yell.

Separately, Indian climber Kuntal Joisher said he’d been held up by three teenagers who struggled ascending the Second Step, which took them three times longer than it could have.

“I was thinking, man, I’m freezing to death and you guys are causing a traffic jam,” he said.

“You are standing on the edge of a giant boulder, and it’s just wide enough to hold your boots, with a sheer drop on one side. You are totally exposed.”

Mr Joisher made it to the top, but it was so crowded he lasted just 10 minutes before starting his descent.

“It was jam-packed at the top. It was crazy,” he said.
Nepali Army personnel collect waste from Mt Everest on May 27, 2019 during a chaotic year. Picture: Prakash Mathema/AFP

Rookies frustrated many experienced climbers on the mountain last year. Some blamed “cheaper” climbing companies that made the climb more affordable and accessible and typically had looser safety standards than elite agencies.

Others pointed the finger at cash-strapped, tourism-reliant Nepal.

Australian adventurer Alyssa Azar, who was 19 when she first climbed Everest in 2016, said in May the Nepalese government needed to restrict who went up there.

“There are inexperienced climbers who don’t know the basics of putting their gear on,” Ms Azar told the Today show.

“That (Death Zone) is dangerous already without those sort of accidents happening. When you get to Camp 4 and you are officially in that Death Zone, you really have sort of a 24-hour time limit.

“So if you haven’t reached the summit within 12 hours, you have to turn around because you are going to run out of oxygen.”

“Let’s not make it a tourist mountain,” Nepali climber Nirmal Purja, who took a famous photo of the human traffic jam at the summit, told GQ. “Let’s not spoil it even more (and) reduce it to dead people and tourists.”

WORLD’S HIGHEST GRAVEYARD

Delays on the climb can have deadly consequences. The longer people are exposed to the extreme conditions, the higher the risk of developing frostbite, heart attack, stroke and pulmonary or cerebral oedema.

It is believed there are about 200 frozen bodies of climbers on Mt Everest, still there because of the difficulty and great expense of bringing them down. They are mostly in the Death Zone.

American Donald Cash died on Mt Everest in 2019, less than an hour after climbing each of the tallest summits on every continent.

Irish climber Seamus Lawless’ presumed death on Mt Everest has been described as a ‘freak accident’.

Mr Grubhofer described seeing some of those corpses on his climb.

“They seemed to be reaching toward me,” he told GQ. “You just move on. You refuse to let it affect you.”

Most of the 11 people who died climbing Mt Everest in 2019 were experienced trekkers. Among them was American solo climber Chris Daly, 35, who died after falling on the climb down from base camp. Dublin man Seamus Lawless, 39, was presumed dead from a fall – he had apparently unclipped himself for a toilet break and was taken by a gust of wind. American man Donald Cash, 54, died from altitude sickness as he headed back down the mountain after having just celebrated conquering Mt Everest – and finally completing his goal of climbing the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents.

Many of the 2019 victims died of exhaustion on descent.

One of them was experienced Austrian climber Ernst Landgraf, 65, a friend of Reinhard Grubhofer, who was in the same expedition.

After the two had reached the summit and were heading down again, a particularly exhausted Mr Landgraf slipped while climbing down a ladder and was left dangling from the line.

More and more people want to scale the world’s most iconic mountain.

Kuntal Joisher, who was there, told GQ that frustrated climbers yelled for Mr Landgraf to be cut off the rope, otherwise they would all die. When rescuers determined he was dead, Mr Landgraf’s body was pushed aside and the climbers continued.

Mr Grubhofer, who was ahead of Mr Landgraf, was devastated to learn of his friend’s death. He also had issues of his own. GQ reported he’d exhausted his oxygen while waiting for other climbers to move and collapsed just shy of Camp 3.

His sherpa replenished his oxygen but Mr Grubhofer had a difficult night, having accidentally opened the valve and run out of oxygen again.

Struggling, he woke his sherpa who came to his rescue once more. Without the back-up oxygen Mr Grubhofer “would have died”, his sherpa said.

In August, after the year’s extra deadly season, Nepal introduced a new set of rules for climbers on Mt Everest. To get a permit, they had to prove they’d scaled another major peak and tourism companies had to have at least three years’ experience with high-altitude expeditions.

“Everest cannot be climbed just based on one’s wishes,” Nepal’s Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai said, The New York Times reported.

“We are testing their health conditions and climbing skills before issuing climbing permits.”

When next year’s climbing season begins, the world will see whether new rules will improve congestion at the increasingly popular peak of the world’s tallest mountain.

But there’s little question something must be done.

One of the strongest reminders of that is a tragic final Instagram post from British climber Robin Haynes Fisher, 44, who died from exhaustion just 45 minutes after reaching the summit on May 25.

Days earlier, Mr Fisher posted about delaying his climb as he was worried about overcrowding.

“With a single route to the summit delays caused by overcrowding could prove fatal so I am hopeful my decision to go for the 25th will mean fewer people,” he posted.

“Unless of course everyone else plays the same waiting game.”

Originally published as Mt Everest traffic: ‘Jam-packed’

OPINION  Nation-states — have they served their purpose?

Are nation-states the only conceivable construction to bond people together? In an era marked by both globalization and separatism on the other, nations are feeling the pressure from all sides, says Alexander Görlach.


China has accused the West of hypocrisy, claiming that on the one hand Western-style democracies condemn its handling of unrest in Hong Kong, but on the other hand take a hard line against the Catalan independence movement. Beijing wonders why Europeans readily support Spain's government, but not China's. After all, both countries are merely defending themselves against separatists trying to split from the nation illegally.

Seeking an answer to that inevitably leads to a debate that's all too familiar: What actually constitutes a nation? A common language, history, and geography are all a part of what makes up a national identity. But beyond that, in my opinion, there is also the question of how someone can feel they are a member of a nation.

Whether in Spain or China, a nation is an abstract size. No single Spaniard will ever meet every other person who identifies as Spanish. And of course the same goes for the Chinese.

Read more: The quest for national sovereignty

Catalan pro-independence demonstrators block a road outside the Camp Nou stadium

Those who pray together stay together

Benedict Anderson eloquently describes the origins of the notion of belonging to a modern nation. In his book "Imagined Communities," he says it arose at the moment when the old abstractions that held people together no longer applied. When beliefs became divided, the "imagined community" of all believers was lost.

"Christianity" consisted of French people, Germans, Poles and Italians, but was held together by the ritualistic (and political) Latin language that also gave this sense of togetherness a practical nature.

The age of discovery in modern Europe laid the cornerstone for new communities far away from the aristocratic societies, from which "explorers" set out to discover the new world. In the respective national languages, a new sense of belonging was established in a very secular and administrative fashion. And it endures to this day, even though people on both sides of the Atlantic speak the same languages — English, Spanish, Portuguese — share the same religious beliefs and celebrate the same cultural and institutional heritage.

The technological advance of the printing press made all this possible. Translations of the bible gave rise to national languages, which in turn defined areas within which the same printed books could be sold. This digression is relevant because we currently live in a time when once again technological change raises questions about affiliation, paving the way for new "imagined communities" to emerge.

Indeed, there is a lively debate about the relevance of the nation-state these days. Everything that's implied by the catchwords globalization and digitalization reinforces the impression that the nation state has little to contribute in terms of progress, at least in its current form.

Supranational entities such as the European Union are based on nation-states. Harmonization attempts to establish a common rule of law over an area encompassing 27 nation-states. At the same time, there is a trend toward regionalization within those states.

More from Alexander Görlach

- Opinion: Democracies unite!

- Opinion: Is the crisis of capitalism a crisis of democracy?

- Opinion: Is today's digital society democratic or authoritarian?

Not every struggle for autonomy is equal

The Catalans and Basques do indeed have their own language and a checkered past with the rest of Spain. But because they are not deprived of any constitutional rights, their struggle for independence seems outdated and out of synch in a world in the midst of revising itself, especially in terms of its "imagined communities."

In Chna, the reverse is true. There, the people in Hong Kong are NOT granted guaranteed rights. It's for that very reason that many people in China's special administrative region now call themselves "Hong Kongers" and no longer consider themselves Chinese. Their distinct language and culture have become a unifying symbol against the external superpower. Incidentally, with the same effect that is common practice in European nation-states — a racist sense of superiority over others out there, but in the case of Hong Kong, over the people of mainland China.

Read more: Hong Kong protests: 'This discontent is really about China'

The world today thus finds itself in a constant state of tension between communities of the past and those of the future. The nation-state is enduring pressure from all sides. In that sense, further fragmentation of national identities, as Anderson puts it, is likely to persist.

At the same time, though, there is debate over whether a new international institution should be created to represent all democratic forces and build a safeguard against populist illiberalism. The new decade just dawning is set to be defined by this debate.

Alexander Görlach is a senior fellow with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and a senior research associate at the Cambridge Institute on Religion and International Studies. He has also held a number of scholarly and advisory positions at Harvard University. He holds doctorate degrees in comparative religion and linguistics and is a guest columnist for several publications, including The New York Times, Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung and business magazine Wirtschaftswoche.



MICRONATIONS: RUN YOUR OWN COUNTRY
Principality of Sealand

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Opinion: The death of Indian democracy

India's Jawaharlal Nehru University is famous for its liberal environment and critical ethos. The attack by masked assailants on its students is an attempt to silence India's secular forces, says DW's Debarati Guha.


New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is one of the most prestigious educational institutions in India.

It was a dream project of Jawaharlal Nehru, the South Asian country's first prime minister. Nehru wanted to combine excellence and equality at JNU, offering quality education to students from all parts of the country, even from the underdeveloped states.

I remember the day when I first entered the JNU campus and took the small pathway to the Center of Social Sciences. On the way was an old banyan tree under which renowned scholars like Romila Thapar, Sudipta Kaviraj, Rajeev Bhargava, and even the country's latest Nobel laureate, Abhijit Banerjee, had sat.

Fellow students told me stories about the historic student protests at JNU when former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed emergency rule in the 1970s, or how JNU students protected Sikhs during the 1984 riots. I myself participated in several hunger strikes during a brief stint as the student councilor.

I would never have imagined that masked goons, armed with sticks and stones, would one day storm the university campus, assaulting students and teachers

Debarati Guha, head of DW Asia


Widening gulf between intellectuals and masses

It is alarming that Indian universities, including JNU, have become a center stage of an ideological conflict, in which the right-wing groups are increasingly using the "nationalism card" to stifle dissent.

JNU has repeatedly been accused of promoting anti-government activities, which could be the reason for police inaction during the January 5 attack on secular students by the members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (AVBP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's mother organization.

The masked attackers said their assault was part of their "united front against the left," as they unleashed terror on peaceful students that were protesting against a fee hike as well as a new citizenship law that discriminates against Muslims.


Read more: Opinion: India's new citizenship act is unconstitutional

The current situation is definitely not conducive to progressive learning. Mahatma Gandhi's speeches on civil disobedience, Michel Foucault's texts on discipline, and Partha Chatterjee's lectures on good and bad nationalism ring hollow now.

The distance between intellectuals and the masses is rapidly increasing in India, posing a serious threat to the country's secular values and constitutional supremacy.

India finds itself in this quagmire not just because the BJP's government is trying to undermine India's secular ethos; it is also due to the fact that people have become skeptical of secularism in the past few years. This is also happening because of a lack of intellectual culture in the country and an attack on political decency.


Read more: India's Modi refuses to budge on citizenship law despite mass protests


Indian democracy could paralyze

I find it disturbing that a spate of anti-Muslim measures by the government is being hailed not only by Hindu supremacists but also a growing number of people from the "moderate" middle-class.

This relatively large group of people includes many "liberal Hindus," who are not necessarily anti-Muslim. But unfortunately, the fear-mongering has made them vulnerable to the Hindu nationalists' anti-secular propaganda. Hence, it is no longer a domain of the far-right groups to challenge special privileges for Muslims.

This trend can paralyze the world's largest democracy. It is time that India's secular people form a united front and confront the fundamentalist discourse.

India's future remains uncertain under the incumbent government. I am afraid that even if opposition parties eventually regain power, they will struggle to roll back the BJP's right-wing policies.

Read more: Protesters killed as India's Modi meets lawmakers over citizenship bill


INDIA'S NEW CITIZENSHIP LAW IGNITES RELIGIOUS TENSIONS

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Indian universities at the center of an ideological war
The recent attack by masked assailants at a university in New Delhi has alarmed secular and liberal Indians, who see it as part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's scheme to push the country toward Hindu supremacy.


Indian students are protesting against a violent attack by masked assailants at a university in New Delhi. Videos circulating on social media show "gang members" beating Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students and teachers with rods and bricks in an assault that opposition lawmakers say is linked to the government.

Sunday's violence was particularly blamed on the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Protests against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have spread across many parts of the country, with liberal and secular Indians slamming the Hindu nationalist leader for enforcing a new citizenship law, alleging that it discriminates against Muslims.

Student organizations are at the forefront of these anti-government protests. But the attack on students has alarmed many in the South Asian country.

Many students and organizers at JNU have protested Modi's policies in recent years. Protests against the fee hike, which students said would make education too expensive, kicked off in November.

Growing violence in campuses

Violence at the university campuses is not a new phenomenon in India, but the situation has worsened since BJP came to power in 2014. Critics say the Hindu nationalist party is using its student arm to target left-leaning teachers and pupils.

Activists also accuse the BJP of unleashing police violence to crush dissent.

On December 15, 2019, police raided the Jamia Millia University (JMU) in the capital and used force against the protesting university students. On the same day, the security forces launched a crackdown against the students of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

"Students' rights are being curbed [in India]. The students are angry and they are not going to accept it anymore. That is why they are protesting. The government wants to silence them," Yousuf Saeed, a documentary filmmaker, told DW.

Human rights activists and civil society campaigners say the government has been using various tactics to intimidate the students.

"Students have refused to surrender. That is why we see that authorities have become more brutal in handling them. The violence at the universities is a proof of that," Prabhat Patnaik, a JNU professor, told DW.

JNU is known for its active left-leaning and secular student groups. Deepak Nayyar, a former vice chancellor of the Delhi University, believes it was "not a coincidence" that the ABVP activists targeted the students.

Read more: India's Modi says new citizenship law is not against Muslims

Secularism vs. nationalism

Clashes between liberal student organizations and the BJP's student wings have spiked in the past few years. Analysts say it is a sign that university students are increasingly resorting to violence instead of indulging in healthy political debates.

"Whenever we raise secular slogans in campuses, the ABVP counters them by Hindu nationalism chants. They call us anti-state Maoists," Mayank Gupta, a doctoral student at the Jamia Millia University, told DW.

Rajeev Pandey, a former student activist, says the universities must be free of the government's influence to ensure a vibrant academic environment.

"Universities prepare future political leaders. That is why they need to be free and independent. The BJP does not want it," according to Rajeev Pandey, another former student activist.

Modi's BJP, however, denounced the attacks in a tweet. "This is a desperate attempt by forces of anarchy, which are determined to use students as cannon fodder, [to] create unrest to shore up their shrinking political footprint. Universities should remain places of learning and education," the party said.

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FILM

Werner Herzog: The extreme is his normal

The German movie director will will be honored by the American Society of Cinematographers. Herzog told DW why he thinks film schools are a waste of time and when he has faced his own limits.


European Film Award for Werner Herzog
The director is shown here receiving the German Film Award's honorary prize in 2013. On December 7 he is being honored in Berlin with the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. Having directed over 60 feature and documentary films, his oeuvre comprises a wide variety of genres — and many influential works.

After the Lifetime Achievement Award awarded by the European Film Academy in December 2019, veteran German filmmaker Werner Herzog (shown above left with actor Klaus Kinski) will also be honored by the American Society of Cinematographers on January 25, as reporter by Variety on Thursday.

DW's Hans Christoph von Bock spoke to Herzog in Munich ahead of the European Film Awards.

DW: You've already been obtaining awards for your body of work for 10 years now. How does it feel to be receiving new ones now?

Werner Herzog: A bit strange, because I'm still immersed in work and my film output is higher than it was 30 or 40 years ago. In the past year I've released three feature-length films: one about Gorbachev [Meeting Gorbachev], one about the writer Bruce Chatwin [Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin] and another fiction film shot in Japan [Family Romance, LLC]. All that within 12 months. Other people would need six or eight years to achieve as much. I mean, I'd rather expect this award to be thrown at me after having spent 10 years without making a movie, and I'd be rolled onto the stage on a wheelchair.


Herzog has also directed operas, such as the 2002 production in Erfurt of 'The Flying Dutchman' by Wagner (above, with Herzog at left)

Do you still see Bavaria in southeast Germany as your home, even though you haven't lived there for the past 20 years?

My cultural roots are here, even though my family comes from other areas. My father's side is of Swabian [south-central German] and Huguenot [French Protestant] origins, and my mother's family is from Austria and Croatia. But growing up in the mountains made it clear to me that Bavarian is my first language. When I'm traveling around the world, the thing I miss the most is that I never hear the Bavarian dialect.

You never went to a film school and you generally have a poor opinion of them. Why?

I think their direction is wrong and basically students are held captive there for too long. In the three or four years of their program, they could shoot three feature films instead of learning random film theory. What they need to know, they could learn in a week.

You offer your own master classes. What do people learn there in a week?

I founded the Rogue Film School as an alternative to what is being done in film schools around the world. There are only two things students really need to learn: First, how to crack security locks. Second, how to fake a film permit convincingly enough that you won't get caught. All the rest is dialogue and examples from film, music and literature.

Lately, I've been focusing on giving workshops in which participants have to direct a very short film within nine days — without a previously written script, because they do not know ahead of time the general topic I will be assigning. They're allowed to do anything they want; I only set the narrative frame.

I did one recently in the Peruvian Amazon jungle. The theme was "Fever dreams in the jungle." They had to come up with a story, find locations and actors, shoot the film, edit it themselves on their laptops and present it after nine days. Great movies came out of it.

Your own filmmaking work, whether documentary or drama, has always embodied extreme cinema: extreme landscapes, extreme situations, extreme characters. What drives you to keep looking for these extremes?

Actually, I'm not looking for extremes but rather for what I see as normal. People keep saying that it's extreme to shoot in the Amazon. But look, it's just a forest. That's nothing special.
Werner Herzog, Claudia Cardinale and Klaus Kinski (L to R) on the set of 'Fitzcarraldo'

In Fitzcarraldo you created one of cinema's most iconic sequences with this ship in the middle of the jungle that's being carried over a mountain at the demand of an obsessed opera lover, played by Klaus Kinski. The actor's outbursts of rage were just as legendary as the love-hate relationship between the two of you. How do you look back at this today

Kinski worked with me on five feature films, and I describe how I see him in the documentary My Best Fiend (1999). Kinski was a singular figure, in a way. But he wasn't the best actor I worked with — that was Bruno S. [Schleinstein] in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) and Stroszek (1976). I've worked with the best actors in the world, including Christian Bale, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, but none of them has ever come close to depth, charisma, loneliness and truth of Bruno S.

You filmed one of your most successful films, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), with Nicolas Cage, in the US, and in Jack Reacher (2012) with Tom Cruise, you starred as the main villain. How was it to embody the bad guy?

Effortless. Completely effortless work. I knew I'd be good, too. The director and Tom Cruise wanted me, and I didn't need to do any screen tests either. I just did something similar in The Mandalorian, the Star Wars spin-off series.

In front of the camera, not behind it: Herzog acted in the 2012 film 'Jack Reacher'

You have been living in Los Angeles, the center of the dream factory, for many years. You have often said that you didn't feel you belonged to the German film scene. But in the US you enjoy cult status, as a "Bavarian in Hollywood." How does that work?

You'd better used the "cult status" term with a pinch of salt. It's actually way stronger when I show up in Brazil, Poland, Ireland or Algeria. All hell breaks loose when I go there with a film.

And even though I live in Los Angeles, I don't really belong to the "dream factory." I really don't belong to the German film scene either. To me, that's a false categorization. I belong to something way more regional. It's Bavarian cinema — based on its fundamental character, its baroque style and mores. That's why I sometimes say that the only other person who could have made Fitzcarraldo would have been Ludwig II of Bavaria, the 19th century Bavarian kind

10 Bavarian filmmakers 
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog, born in 1942 in Munich, is currently the world's most famous Bavarian filmmaker. Ever since "My Best Fiend," his 1999 documentary about his favorite actor Klaus Kinski, Herzog has mostly directed in the US, combining fiction and documentary films, and charming the world with his unmistakable Bavarian accent. In Hollywood he has worked with stars such as Nicole Kidman.

Your films are often about borderline experiences, such as in your TV documentary mini-series On Death Row, in which you interview inmates facing capital punishment, or in your documentary Grizzly Man (2005), which portrays the life and death of a grizzly bear enthusiast. Were there moments when you faced your own limits?

There's a tape recording of the moment when Timothy Treadwell, who lived for years among grizzly bears, and his girlfriend are both eaten alive by bears, one piece at a time. The distributors and the producers of the film absolutely wanted to include this recording in the documentary. I listened to it and it was so incredibly horrifying that I said, "No, over my dead body!" That is an ethical limit, because the dignity and the privacy of a person's death must not be violated.

And if you talk to and film people on death row, knowing that they will be executed within eight days, there are also very specific limits of respect and human dignity. I always treated the convicts with great respect as I tried to peer into the abyss with them. Behind the camera I wore a formal suit and tie — which I otherwise never do — as a token of respect. The formal dress is also a way to protect yourself from personally getting too close


DW's von Bock spoke (L) to Herzog (R) in Munich. Herzog lives in Los Angeles

You were under water, in the jungle, in the desert, on Antarctica's ice. Is there anything else you are looking for or that you'd like to research?


I would like to join a space station mission. Or go to the moon or even to Mars, if that's possible some day.

What would be your first shot there?


I don't know that. I'd like to be surprised. Is there dust at landing, or what happens? But I find the idea of populating Mars because we've grazed our planet away like locust swarms absolutely obscene. We will not be able to do that. And we won't become immortal through any genetic manipulation either.

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Majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, feel less safe after strike: POLL

KENDALL KARSON,Good Morning America•January 12, 2020

Majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, feel less safe after strike: POLL originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

In a week dominated by increased tension with Iran and speculation over when impeachment articles would be delivered to the U.S. Senate, a majority of Americans said they disapprove of President Trump's handling of the situation with Iran and feel less safe, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.

But when it comes to a key conflict at home, impeachment, attitudes are more mixed, with Americans split in their assessment of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's motivations for delaying the transmittal of the articles of impeachment.

(MORE: Iran fired more than 20 missiles at US targets in Iraq: What we know about the attack)

The poll, conducted by Ipsos in partnership with ABC News, using Ipsos' Knowledge Panel, asked Americans about their attitudes on two unfolding challenges for the Trump presidency -- escalating tensions with Iran and the impending impeachment trial in the Senate.
ABC News/Ipsos Poll_Do you approve or disapprove of the way President Trump is handling the current situation with Iran? (ABC News)

Overall attitudes about Trump and the consequences of his actions against Iran largely were driven by Independents, a critical target for both parties in electoral politics. The poll showed a majority of Independents, 57%, and all U.S. adults, 56%, disapproving of Trump's handling of the situation with Iran, with 43% of both Independents and U.S. adults approving.

(MORE: Pentagon to deploy roughly 3,500 more troops to Middle East with others placed on alert status, amid tensions with Iran)

Respondents also were asked about the fallout of the strike against Qassem Soleimani, the second-most-important official in Iran's government behind Ayatollah Khamenei, which marked a major escalation in months of tension between the U.S. and Iran, which launched retaliatory missile strikes on American bases in Iraq.
 
PHOTO: ABC News/Ipsos Poll_ Do you think the U.S. airstrike in Iraq that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani has made the United States (ABC News)

In the aftermath of the U.S. strike, only 28% of Independents, and 25% of Americans, said they felt more safe, while just over half, 51% of Independents and 52% of U.S. adults, said they felt less safe.

When it comes to attitudes on the conflict with Iran, partisanship drives opinions. An overwhelming 87% of Republicans approved of Trump's handling of Iran, and 54% say they feel safer. Among Democrats, 90% disapproved and 82% felt less safe.

Still, when asked about concerns over the possibility of the United States getting involved in a full-scale war with Iran, Democrats are more united in expressing concern than Republicans.

A net total of 94% of Democrats, and 52% of Republicans, are either very concerned or somewhat concerned about the possibility of entering into another war in the Middle East, compared with 6% of Democrats and 48% of Republicans who said they were not so concerned or not concerned at all.

PHOTO: ABC News/Ipsos Poll_How concerned are you about the possibility of the United States getting involved in a full-scale war with Iran (ABC News)

Independents once again tracked the country's positions as a whole, with 72% of Independents and 73% of Americans saying they're concerned about a new war, and 28% of Independents and 27% of U.S. adults dismissing such concerns.

Attitudes on the homefront's chief political conflict, impeachment, also are driven by partisanship, with 66% of Democrats and 10% of Republicans maintaining that Pelosi and Democrats were abiding by a constitutional duty to ensure a full and deliberate trial in the Senate, while 81% of Republicans and 8% of Democrats stood by the statement that not immediately transmitting the articles showed that allegations against Trump are not serious and that the Democrats are playing partisan politics.

PHOTO: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks ahead of a House vote on a war powers resolution, as she addresses her weekly news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 9, 2020. (Tom Brenner/Reuters, FILE)More

However, when it comes to gauging Pelosi's motivations around delaying the transmittal of the articles, independents were splintered, and their division drove overall attitudes. Identical percentages, 39%, of Independents and Americans each agree that Pelosi, by withholding the articles, was fulfilling a constitutional duty. But a similar number of Independents, 36%, and U.S. adults, 37%, agreed with the sentiment that the speaker and her party were playing politics by delaying the articles' transmission.
After three weeks of waiting and recent pressure from within her own party, the Democratic leader announced on Friday she planned to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate this coming week.

This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs‘ KnowledgePanel® Jan. 10-11, 2020, in English and in Spanish, among a random national sample of 525 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.8 points, including the design effect. See the poll's top-line results and details on the methodology here.

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Ocasio-Cortez sums up inequality in 5 words after Dow breaks through 29,000

Published: Jan 13, 2020

Getty Images/Mario TamaAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks at a fundraiser in Los Angeles.

By SHAWNLANGLOIS SOCIAL-MEDIA EDITOR

‘The Dow soars, wages don’t.’

That’s “inequality in a nutshell,” according to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who fired off those words in a tweet response to NBC’s coverage of a fresh high for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.29% on Friday.

The New York Democrat was making the point that while the blue-chip index rallied more than 20% last year, U.S. average hourly earnings gained less than 3%. And since stocks are generally held by those with higher wealth levels, the data would support her “rich getting richer” stance.

Of course, President Trump constantly touts record highs in the market — like his “409K” tweet last week — but critics like Ocasio-Cortez maintain that such a message is irrelevant to the working class, which has missed out on such gains.

Only about half of Americans own stock, according to the Fed.

Check out: It now costs the average U.S. worker a record 114 hours of pay to buy the S&P 500

These attacks on Trump are nothing new. Here’s a tweet from early last year when Ocasio-Cortez delivered the same message:

Economics 101 reminder: The stock market is NOT the economy.
Stocks aren’t jobs. Stocks aren’t wages.
That’s why stock prices can go up and normal people still won’t feel any more secure about their future.
Recessions are when real GDP growth falls for 2 quarters in a row.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 5, 2018

At last check, the Dow had yet to reclaim the 29,000 mark, but was still trading higher in Monday’s trading session, as were both the S&P 500 SPX, +0.70% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.04% .

The U.S. jobs market is healthy, but workers in these small towns are being left behind

Analysis finds significant slack in places like Mobile, Alabama, and Lexington, Kentucky

Getty Images

By CHRIS MATTHEWS MARKETS REPORTER
Published: Jan 13, 2020

The U.S. economy has been on a spectacular run of job creation.

During the past decade, it has created 22.3 million new jobs, or an average of 184,000 per month, well above the 100,000 or so necessary to keep up with the natural growth of the labor force, according to the Federal Reserve.

Read: Where the jobs were in 2019 — and how much they paid

But an important caveat to this success story is the geographic inequality of the distribution of these jobs, one that is well illustrated by a Monday analysis by Ben Breitholtz, data scientist at Arbor Research.
Arbor Research

Breiholtz used search and browser data from Google to calculate the relative activity of job seekers and labor seekers across 212 U.S. metro areas. In the above chart, cities that appear in the top left side have more job seekers than employers, while cities in the bottom right quadrant have more jobs than available labor.

“These data show that we’ve had a huge bowing out in job seeking post financial crisis,” he told MarketWatch. “The more you’re in a tech-heavy metro, from Los Angeles to Chicago to Dulles or San Francisco, job seekers are met with recruiters. But you can see that in a lot of smaller cities and towns, there’s a lot of slack in the labor market.”

Towns and cities with the most amount of job market slack include Mobile, Alabama, Lexington, Kentucky, Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Wheeling, West Virginia.

Breitholtz said that this geographic unequal distribution of jobs is helping to keep wage growth tame, even as the national unemployment rate has remained at historic lows. He found that historically, periods with a significant variance of job matching between metropolitan areas have correlated with weaker wage growth.

“It’s possible that businesses have abandoned these small cities,” Brietholz said, which would create fewer jobs in those areas, while the businesses that stay suffer from the flight of the most talented workers to large metropolises.

Other data reinforce this idea of rising geographic inequality in America.

“While wage inequality narrowed in 2019, geographic inequality has been widening,” wrote Indeed Hiring Lab economists Nick Bunker and Jed Kolko in a study released in December.

Indeed Hiring Lab

“The richest places in America — those in the top 1% — are pulling away from the rest and are near the highest level of this measure of inequality since the mid-2000s and well above 1990s levels,” they added. “The tech industry has boosted job growth even in the metros where housing is most expensive, and tech jobs increasingly are concentrated in a handful of top tech hubs.”

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Israel's left-wing parties unite ahead of elections

AFP•January 13, 2020


Head of the Meretz party Nitzan Horowitz attends the launch of the Democratic Union list on July 25, 2019 in Tel Aviv (AFP Photo/JACK GUEZ)More



Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's left-wing Meretz and Labor-Gesher parties announced Monday they have joined forces ahead of March 2 elections to boost their chances against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing base.

Israel's political scene is in turmoil ahead of the third national vote in less than a year after neither Netanyahu nor his centrist rival Benny Gantz were able to form a coalition following two polls last year.

With Israel's two major political blocs almost neck-and-neck, smaller parties and coalitions could emerge as potential kingmakers after the upcoming elections.

The new left-wing joint list called "Emet" -- "truth" in Hebrew -- was agreed by Labor-Gesher leader Amir Peretz and Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz, who want to join forces against the prime minister's Likud party.
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"Peretz and Horowitz stressed the message of union and hope of political change which will be at the social heart and the political direction of the next government after the end of the Netanyahu era," they said in a joint statement.

Labor-Gesher and Meretz won six and five seats respectively last September in the 120-seat Knesset and must clinch at least 3.25 percent of total votes cast in order to enter the legislature after the March polls.

"To have a chance at replacing Netanyahu, the things we have in common are more important than our differences," Peretz said at a press conference alongside Horowitz.

Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving leader and has vowed to continue his premiership despite being indicted in three separate corruption cases.

He has sought parliamentary immunity, but even if he faces court he does not have to step down until all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.

Netanyahu's main rival Gantz, who heads the Blue and White alliance, praised the leftist parties for coming together.

"I am glad that things worked out and applaud the unification," he said.

"There should be a party to the left of Blue and White, which is a party at the centre of the political stage."

But Horowitz rebuffed Gantz's comments, suggesting right-wing Israelis "can vote for Blue and White".

Three far-right alliances were in talks Monday aimed at uniting ahead of polls, according to Israeli media.

Defence Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday ruled out his New Right party joining an election pact.

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Canada Strong Campaign launched to raise $1.5M for families of victims of downed plane in Iran

CBC January 13, 2020

A Canada-wide campaign to raise funds for family members of those killed on Flight PS752 in Iran was launched Monday with a call for people across the country to support those left behind with "the unexpected expenses that have tragically fallen upon them."

Iran's Revolutionary Guard shot down the Boeing 737-800 using surface-to-air missiles, Iranian leaders said Saturday, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board. Fifty-seven of those who died were Canadian citizens, while dozens of others were travelling to Canada.

"I'm here to announce the Canada Strong Campaign, a national campaign to raise, hopefully, $1.5 million for the families of the victims — all Canadian victims all across the country," Mohamad Fakih, president of Paramount Fine Foods and founder of the Fakih Foundation said at the launch in Toronto.

"They leave behind spouses, colleagues and friends who need your support during this life-altering period. If there was ever a time, the time is now for all of us to come together and support one another."

Fakih called on Canadians to find it in their hearts to donate, and also to help by sharing the campaign with everyone they know.

"Let's all stand together united in ensuring that those we lost are never forgotten and that their families and friends feel Canada's embrace," he said.

Michael Wilson/CBCMore

Fakih said he wants the families and friends of the victims to know that he recognizes it's not always easy to accept financial help.

But he also assured them, "You are not accepting any help from strangers. We are one family, one big family, a Canadian family."

The campaign will be overseen by a charitable fund that also raised money for the families of victims of the Toronto van attack.

"We will ensure that this initiative is very well governed and managed with full transparency and accountability," Fakih said.

"I will take care personally of all the expenses and costs of the campaign and I will make sure, along [with] all our partners, that 100 per cent of the money donated will be given to the victims' families and friends," Fakih said.

'Please step forward'

Mayor John Tory took part in Monday's campaign launch, and he too encouraged Canadians and companies to step forward with donations.

"I think many, many Canadians, [corporations] and individual will want to contribute to this because they understand the fact that beyond their outpouring of affection and grief … the other thing that is needed is some degree of financial help," Tory said.

"This is a national initiative. This is meant to ask Canadians … to please follow through on the generosity of spirit that you've demonstrated with respect to all of the vigils and commemorations, which have happened across the country … and to stay to the corporate community, please step forward."

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Walmart and The Walmart Foundation announce $500,000 commitment to assist Puerto Rico with earthquake relief and recovery

John Jannarone CorpGov.com January 13, 2020

BENTONVILLE, Ark.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In response to the devastation caused by the recent earthquakes in Puerto Rico, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are committing up to $500,000 in cash and in-kind support for relief and recovery.


The commitment will support the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, World Central Kitchen and Mercy Corps through both cash grants and in-kind product donations. These organizations are actively engaged in responding to the needs of the communities impacted by the earthquakes.

“Our hearts go out to the people of Puerto Rico as they work to recover from the impact of the earthquakes,” said Julie Gehrki, vice president, philanthropy at Walmart. “In times like these, it’s so important to help meet the needs of our associates and our customers in the devastated area, as well as support the non-profits, first responders, local officials and government organizations that are working tirelessly to provide relief.”

In emergencies like this, the company’s priority is the safety of its associates. Walmart has more than 12,600 associates and 37 facilities in Puerto Rico, all of which are currently operational. Stores are assisting associates that have been displaced from their homes due to the damage caused by the disaster. Walmart and Sam’s Club teams are also assisting those affected by the earthquake by delivering much needed supplies to impacted communities.

Walmart has a long history of providing aid in times of disasters, helping communities prepare and recover by donating emergency supplies, such as food and water, home and personal products. In the last few years, for example, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation gave nearly $50 million in cash, water, food and other products to support victims of hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes.

To learn more about how Walmart and the Walmart Foundation respond in times of disaster visit Walmart.org.

About Walmart

Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better – anytime and anywhere – in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, over 275 million customers and members visit our more than 11,300 stores under 58 banners in 27 countries and eCommerce websites. With fiscal year 2019 revenue of $514.4 billion, Walmart employs over 2.2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com, on Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart.

About Philanthropy at Walmart

Walmart.org represents the philanthropic efforts of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation. By leaning in where our business has unique strengths, we work to tackle key social issues and collaborate with others to spark long-lasting systemic change. Walmart has stores in 27 countries, employing more than 2 million associates and doing business with thousands of suppliers who, in turn, employ millions of people. Walmart.org is helping people live better by supporting programs that work to accelerate upward job mobility for frontline workers, address hunger and make healthier, more sustainably-grown food a reality, and build strong communities where Walmart operates. To learn more, visit www.walmart.org or find us on Twitter @walmartorg.