UK

FCA staff to vote on strike action as negotiations dry up

CEO Rathi has dismissed staff concerns as ‘noise’

Staff at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are voting on whether or not to take industrial action in an indicative ballot call by Unite the Union, following  claims “management has refused to negotiate”.

James Baxter-Derrington
24 January 2022• 

The FCA's headquarters in East London

The union accuses management at the regulator of embarking on a programme of "severe cost-cutting", which it said is set to turn the FCA into a "bargain basement regulator".

This programme includes cutting staff pay by 10-12% and imposing an appraisal system that "punishes strong performers", while the FCA has also recently refused to allow staff representation by an independent trade union.

Other key concerns raised by Unite in its statement include a "botched" consultation process in order to rush through changes, staff outside London being placed on lower pay scales, and plans to cut staff pensions.

Chief executive Nikhil Rathi was directly acknowledged in the statement over his previous dismissal of employee complaints as "noise" and claims a reduction in pay would improve staff performance, Unite said.

Unite national officer Dominic Hook said: "Unite members will today start voting in an indicative ballot for industrial action at the FCA. The ballot will deliver a clear sense just how dire workforce morale and employee confidence is within the FCA leadership.

"Management at the FCA are attempting to implement a program of pay cuts, which has come after two years in which the staff at the FCA have worked gruelling hours to provide financial protection against Covid for borrowers, investors, small businesses and people with mortgages.

"Unite has made it clear that if introduced these cuts will make it even less likely that the FCA will be able to deliver this high standard of public service in the future. Experienced employees have been quitting the regulator in droves. More are expected to follow, as in a recent Unite survey 89.8% of staff described their morale as ‘low' or ‘very low'."

He added: "You cannot regulate the British financial system on a bargain basement basis as Nikhil Rathi clearly wishes to do. Management must enter into immediate negotiations with Unite the union in order to avoid further damage and risk to the FCA."

The update today (23 January) comes after Unite general secretary Sharon Graham wrote to the FCA in November remanding trade union recognition for its workforce, giving the regulator ten days to respond by law.

It also follows the Treasury Select Committee's announcement of a planned investigation into workplace culture practices at the FCA last June, to which the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association also gave its support.

Boeing to pour $450 million into program for self-driving air taxi


Wisk is one of several companies working on an electric vertical takeoff and landing air vehicle, or eVTOL. Photo courtesy Wisk/Twitter

Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Aviation company Boeing announced on Monday that it's investing almost a half-billion more dollars into its sky taxi startup Wisk Aero, in a bid to bring the first self-flying air taxi to the market before the start of the 2030s.

Boeing formed Wisk Aero in 2019 with its air vehicle company Kitty Hawk. Monday, the company said it will invest $450 million more in the WIsk Aero venture to develop the vehicles.

There are a number of other similar companies and air vehicle prototypes in development, but Boeing said its focus with Wisk Aero is to introduce the first autonomous air taxi.

"As we enter this next stage of our growth, this additional funding provides us with capital while allowing us to remain focused on our core business and our number one priority, safety," Wisk CEO Gary Gysin said in a statement.

Wisk is one of several companies working on an electric vertical takeoff and landing air vehicle, or eVTOL.

The Federal Aviation Administration has not yet certified any eVTOL for commercial operation, and some experts expect it will take a few years to certify that the new aircraft are safe for passengers.

Last year, Wisk Aero announced a deal with charter company Blade to operate a fleet of 30 autonomous air taxis on its U.S. network.

It's unknown precisely how long it will be before Wisk introduces its autonomous air vehicle, but CNBC reported that the target date is around 2028.

Russian YouTuber's retractable lightsaber earns Guinness World Record

Jan. 24 (UPI) -- A Russian YouTuber has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the inventor of the world's first retractable lightsaber.

Alex Burkan, who runs the Alex Lab channel on YouTube, unveiled his Star Wars-inspired invention, which produces a plasma blade that measures more than 3 feet in length and burns at a temperature of 5,072 degrees -- hot enough to cut through steel.

"The key component of my lightsaber is an electrolyzer. An electrolyzer is a device that can generate a huge amount of hydrogen and oxygen and compress the gas to any pressure without a mechanical compressor," Burkan told Guinness World Records.

He said it took hundreds of experiments to get his apparatus to match the size and shape of a lightsaber hilt.

"This is a first prototype so it has lots of limitations. It works for only 30 seconds on full power, the hydrogen torch is not as stable as it could be and you can easily see it when it moves. Sometimes the lightsaber just blows up in your hand because of hydrogen flashback," he said.

Fellow YouTuber Hacksmith Industries, aka James Hobson, previously earned a Guinness World Record for creating the world's first retractable proto-lightsaber. Hacksmith's version of the Jedi weapon requires an external power source -- hydrogen and oxygen tanks attached to a backpack -- while Burkan's lightsaber is entirely self-contained.

"The Hacksmith version is much more powerful, it definitely works longer than 30 seconds. Our duel would be extremely fast and furious, because I have only 30 seconds to win," Burkan said.

Burkan said he and Hobson have a friendly rivalry.

"Sometimes we discuss our current projects. Sometimes we threaten each other with our new inventions, but we always support each other," he said.

Hippos can recognize familiar voices, new study finds

By Calley Hair

Hippopotamuses can differentiate between neighbors and strangers based only on the sound of their "wheeze honk" calls, a new study finds. Photo by Nicolas Mathevon

Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Hippopotamuses can tell the difference between strangers and their neighbors based only on the sound of their voices, according to a study published Monday in Current Biology.

The study indicates that the giant herbivores can identify each other by their signature, noisy "wheeze honk." When hippos hear a familiar call, they're less likely to respond with aggression than when they hear a new call for the first time.

The results suggest that hippos, which are famously territorial, still rely on communication networks and form complex social groups.

"We found that the vocalizations of a stranger individual induced a stronger behavioral response than those produced by individuals from either the same or a neighboring group," one of the researchers, Nicolas Mathevon, of the University of Saint-Etienne in France, said in a press release.

"In addition to showing that hippos are able to identify conspecifics based on vocal signatures, our study highlights that hippo groups are territorial entities that behave less aggressively toward their neighbors than toward strangers."

To study the animals, the team worked in Mozambique's Maputo Special Reserve, a 400-square-mile nature reserve that includes several lakes inhabited by groups of hippos. They recorded "wheeze honk" calls from each group. Then they would play the recording back -- to the same group, to other groups in the same lake and to groups in a distant lake.

The hippos would respond by approaching the sound, issuing their own returning call or spraying dung. They reacted to unfamiliar calls from different lakes with more intensity, researchers found, and were more likely to mark their territory by spraying dung if they didn't recognize the vocalization as belonging to their own family or neighbors.

Researchers on the study hope that their findings can help others learn more about hippo calls, like whether the animals can use them to determine size, sex or age. They also hope that their study will be useful in conservation efforts.

"Before relocating a group of hippos to a new location, one precaution might be to broadcast their voices from a loudspeaker to the groups already present so that they become accustomed to them and their aggression gradually decreases," Mathevon said.

Communication and socialization in the animal kingdom has long been a subject of fascination among researchers. In many species, communication tools are surprisingly nuanced and complex -- dogs, for example, can tell when a human switches between languages, a study published earlier this year found.

Analysis: Crisis in Ukraine a showdown of two world views- NEITHER PROLETARIAN

By JOHN DANISZEWSKI

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FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a parade marking the Victory Day in Sevastopol, Crimea, on May 9, 2014. Russia's present demands are based on Putin's purported long sense of grievance and his rejection of Ukraine and Belarus as truly separate, sovereign countries but rather as part of a Russian linguistic and Orthodox motherland. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — The crisis in Ukraine is hardly going away — a showdown of two world views that could upend Europe. It carries echoes of the Cold War and resurrects an idea left over from the 1945 Yalta Conference: that the West should respect a Russian sphere of influence in Central and Eastern Europe.

Since coming to power in 2000, Russian President Vladimir Putin has worked steadily and systematically to reverse what he views as the humiliating breakup of the Soviet Union 30 years ago.

While massing troops along Ukraine’s border and holding war games in Belarus, close to the borders of NATO members Poland and Lithuania, Putin is demanding that Ukraine be permanently barred from exercising its sovereign right to join the Western alliance, and that other NATO actions, such as stationing troops in former Soviet bloc countries, be curtailed.

NATO has said the demands are unacceptable and that joining the alliance is a right of any country and does not threaten Russia. Putin’s critics argue that what he really fears is not NATO, but the emergence of a democratic, prospering Ukraine that could offer an alternative to Putin’s increasingly autocratic rule that Russians might find appealing.

Russia’s present demands are based on Putin’s long sense of grievance and his rejection of Ukraine and Belarus as truly separate, sovereign countries, rather than as part of a much older Russian linguistic and Orthodox motherland that should be joined with, or at least friendly toward, Moscow.

In a millennium-spanning treatise last summer titled, “The Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” Putin tipped his hand. He insisted that the separation of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus into separate states today is artificial, due largely to political mistakes during the Soviet period and, in the case of Ukraine, driven by a malevolent “anti-Russia project” supported by Washington since 2014.

His Russo-centric view of the region poses a crucial test for U.S. President Joe Biden, who already is grappling with crises on multiple domestic fronts — the coronavirus pandemic, resurgence of inflation, a divided nation in which a large segment of the electorate refuses to acknowledge his presidency and a Congress that has blocked many of his social and climate goals.

Biden has ruled out military intervention to support Ukraine, and instead has employed intense diplomacy and rallied Western allies to support what he promises will be severe and painful sanctions against Russia if it dares to invade Ukraine. But depending on how the situation plays out, he has admitted he could have trouble keeping all the allies on board.

The Russian leader has already invaded Ukraine once, with little reaction. Russia took Crimea back from Ukraine in 2014 and has supported pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists fighting the Kyiv government in the Donbass region, a quiet war that has killed 14,000 people, more than 3,000 of them civilians.

Putin’s strategy has been to try to recreate the power and a defined sphere of influence that Russia lost with the fall of the Berlin Wall, at least in the area of the former Soviet Union. He has bristled at what he sees as Western encroachment into the countries of the former Warsaw Pact -- which had once formed a pro-Soviet buffer between the USSR and NATO.

Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were allowed to join NATO in 1999, followed in 2004 by Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia.

Subjected to post-World War II Soviet domination, the countries were eager to join the Western defensive alliance and the Western free-market system to secure independence and prosperity after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

For similar reasons, both Ukraine and Georgia also want in, and have been recognized by NATO as aspiring members of the alliance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked Western leaders to take on Ukraine’s request for membership with greater urgency as a signal to Moscow that the West will defend Ukraine’s independence.

Russia contends that NATO expansion violates commitments made to it after the Berlin Wall’s collapse in exchange for Moscow’s acceptance of the reunification of Germany. U.S. officials deny any such promises were made.

Early in his presidency, Putin did not show adamant opposition to NATO. He suggested in a 2000 BBC interview that Russia might even be interested in joining; years later, he said he had raised that prospect with U.S. President Bill Clinton before Clinton left office in 2001.

Now, however, Putin sees the alliance as threatening Russia’s security.

But the newer NATO countries take the opposite view. They regard Russia, which boasts the region’s largest military and a vast nuclear arsenal, as the real threat, which is why they rushed to join NATO — afraid that a strengthened Russia might someday try to reimpose its dominance.

A disputed election in Belarus led to months-long mass demonstrations against longtime Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. Alienated from his own people and unrecognized as a legitimate president in the West, Lukashenko has been driven closer into Putin’s protective embrace.

Similarly, after civil unrest in Kazakhstan just weeks ago, Russia sent in troops to help that former Soviet republic’s president restore order as part of a peacekeeping mission of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization alliance. The troops have since departed the country.

Putin’s aim has been to reimpose ties with Russia’s former Soviet neighbors, while challenging and dividing the West. Rather than leading Russia in a more democratic direction, he appears to now reject the very idea of liberal democracy as a sustainable model, seeing it rather as a conceit the West uses to pursue its own aims and humiliate its foes.

He came to power vowing to restore to Russia a sense of greatness. He seized back economic control from the oligarchs, crushed rebels in Chechnya, gradually strangled independent media and upped investment in the military. More recently, he has banned Russia’s few remaining human rights organizations.

Beyond Russia’s borders, his secret services have overseen the assassinations of critics and meddled in foreign elections, including offering clandestine support to the election of Donald Trump in 2016, the pro-Brexit campaign in Britain and various right-wing European parties that oppose European integration.

He told an interviewer in 2019 that “liberalism is obsolete,” implying that the dominant Western ideal of liberal democracy no longer has a place in the world. The idea that Ukrainians are independent and could be freely choosing their own alliances is to him a charade.

“All the subterfuges associated with the anti-Russia project are clear to us. And we will never allow our historical territories and people close to us living there to be used against Russia. And to those who will undertake such an attempt, I would like to say that this way they will destroy their own country,” he wrote in his essay last summer.

“I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia.”

The challenge for Biden, NATO and the European Union is whether their collective resolve and solidarity can protect Ukraine’s vision of itself as part of the West, and whether Putin’s Russian nationalist ambitions in the region will succeed or fail.

___

EDITOR’s NOTE: John Daniszewski, an Associated Press vice president and editor-at-large, covered Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Russia during the breakup of the Soviet Union and the early years of Putin’s presidency.

   

German Catholic priests come out as queer, demand reform

Over 120 priests and employees with the Catholic church community in Germany came out as queer and launched a campaign demanding an end to institutional discrimination against LGBTQ people.

LGBTQ Catholics in Germany have launched an "'OutInChurch' initiative to call for support

The Roman Catholic Church in Germany on Sunday faced renewed calls for better protection of LGBTQ rights and an end to institutional discrimination against queer people.

Around 125 people, including former and current priests, teachers, church administrators and volunteers, identified themselves as gay and queer, asking the church to take into account their demands and do away with "outdated statements of church doctrine" when it comes to sexuality and gender.

The members of the church community published seven demands on social media under the "OutInChurch" initiative. These demands range from queer people saying they should be able to live without fear and have access to all kinds of activities and occupations in the church without discrimination.

They said their sexual orientation must never be considered a breach of loyalty or reason for dismissal from their occupation. They ask the church to revise its statements on sexuality based on "theological and human-scientific findings."

Besides asking for equal rights, employees also put down demands that the church takes accountability for their discrimination against people of the community throughout history, calling on the bishop to take responsibility on behalf of the church.

What has been the Vatican's stance?

The Vatican, home of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church, ruled last year that priests cannot bless same-sex unions and that such blessings weren't valid.

But the ruling also reignited a debate on the matter, and there was considerable resistance against it in some parts of Germany.

Last year, at least two bishops in Germany, including Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, one of the pope's top advisers, showed some support for a kind of "pastoral" blessing for same-sex unions.

In Germany and the United States, parishes and ministers also began blessing same-sex unions in lieu of marriage, with growing calls for bishops to institutionalize gay marriage.

However, in response to formal questions from a number of dioceses on whether the practice was allowed, the Vatican's doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) made clear it wasn't, ruling: "negative."

Pope Francis approved the response, adding that it was "not intended to be a form of unjust discrimination, but rather a reminder of the truth of the liturgical rite" of the sacrament of marriage.

rm/fb (dpa, KNA)

India: Community health workers bear brunt of COVID efforts

Women who work in pandemic care services often work long hours for low wages. Their labor has bolstered the health care system and helped increase the rate of vaccination.



ASHA workers have initiated several protests due to low pay and long working hours


Suman Belhara, 47, an accredited social health activist (ASHA) in Delhi's congested Neb Sarai area, was offering instructions to a man who had tested positive for COVID-19.

"Please quarantine for a week and avoid contact with others. Take these tablets if the fever goes up, drink fluids, and I will come back in a couple of days to check on you," Belhara told the patient.

Belhara is one of the million-strong female social health activists who have formed the core of India's community health care in recent years. Such workers often risk theiq12r own health and safety to assist others, carrying out long working hours for low wages.

It was nearing the end of shift for Belhara, whose area covers more than 450 households. She has gone to 25 different houses in the last nine hours, conducting surveys and checking for coronavirus symptoms.

She and several other women have worked throughout the pandemic to offer health care services and information in rural communities and urban slums.


Belhara says she has worked nonstop to offer health services since the pandemic began
'We work relentlessly'

"I have no fixed hours. Sometimes, work spills over until well past nightfall. We work relentlessly," Belhara, a mother of two, told DW.

"In April, it will be two years since I started doing this work, tracing and testing people with COVID symptoms in their communities and providing the first response," Belhara said.

"When we ASHA workers started off, there was no formal or elaborate training," she added. "There was just a briefing at a local hospital, where I was given instructions on how to conduct surveys, take notes and create awareness around the virus."

Women such as Belhara have risked their own personal safety to go door to door for several months, trying to persuade people to get COVID-19 vaccines in some of India's most remote corners, as well as crowded urban slums.

"We did not have adequate health safeguards and protective gear to start off with, and this made us vulnerable to the virus. I contracted COVID in June, and it was awful. Two months later, my brother-in-law died during the second wave," she said.

Because of the duties spurred by the pandemic, ASHA workers across India have been putting in up to 14 hours a day, as well as on weekends.
Broken promises made to ASHAs

Authorities in several states had assured them earlier that they would have improved wages, but did not keep those promises. ASHA workers called a national strike in September of last year in response.

Over the past year, there have been sporadic protests in several parts of the country as ASHA workers demanded more pay and the working status of government employees.

Most workers earn 10,000-15,000 Indian rupees (€120-180, $135-200) per month, and receive performance-based incentives for health care services instead of fixed salaries.

For instance, the government pays them $4 for every institutional delivery that they facilitate in rural India, and $1.50 for the full immunization of a child younger than 1 year old.

Created in 2005 by the National Rural Health Mission to help provide health care services to people, especially women and children in far-flung areas, these front-line workers are usually tasked with carrying out prenatal and newborn care, encouraging immunization, family planning, and treating basic illnesses.

In the central state of Chhattisgarh, Rekha Sahu, 36, has often had to wade through rough waters, trek rugged terrain and walk for kilometers to reach villages in the district of Sukma.

On average, Sahu covers a 40-kilometer (25-mile) distance, partly by public buses and partly on foot. A married mother of two children, Sahu lives in Gumma village where, since 2010, she has worked with 11 others to serve about 80 families in the area.

"It was extremely difficult to convince people to take the vaccine. Though every panchayat (village council) set up vaccination centers, convincing villagers was a real task," Sahu told DW.

"Hesitancy and misconceptions are common among villagers, particularly women," she said.


ASHA workers have been instrumental in furthering India's vaccination campaign
'Mitanins' help tackle vaccine hesitancy

In Chhattisgarh, these female health workers are referred to by their colloquial name: mitanin. Door-to-door campaigns and the work carried out by mitanins have helped ward off rumors and get villagers inoculated.

On some occasions, medical teams were chased away when they tried to approach locals, and women fled to forests.

"I was lucky, but my colleagues in other districts were abused and sometimes pelted with stones during their COVID-19 surveys last year," Sahu said.

Sahu added that some standard services that the organization provides, such as family planning, have taken a backseat during the pandemic.

This includes sharing information with mothers on the newest contraceptives and educating women on healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies.

Sahu said her personal journey as an ASHA worker began with a strong desire to have a positive impact on her community — especially for rural women in her state who have limited access to medical facilities.

UNICEF, which has provided training to many front-line workers across India, has also acknowledged the importance of ASHA workers.

"The training has ensured that the lifesaving work continues for the most vulnerable mothers, pregnant women and tribal community members, even under the most difficult circumstances," Yasumasa Kimura, UNICEF's India representative, told DW.

Edited by: Leah Carter

BELARUS

Alexievich: 'It's a shame the road to freedom is so long'

Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich speaks to DW about the heroes of her new book, reflects on the Belarusian opposition's mistakes in August 2020, and considers the final outcome of the revolution in Belarus.

    

The Belarusian writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Svetlana Alexievich left Belarus over a year ago — for just a few months, she thought. It hasn't turned out like that. She now lives in Berlin, where she is working on a new book about the aftermath of the internationally disputed presidential election in Belarus in 2020.

DW: Ms. Alexievich, what did you expect of Belarus's presidential election on August 9, 2020?

Svetlana Alexievich: I was totally skeptical. But I saw it as my duty to go and vote, although it was clear that it was utterly pointless. To be honest with you, I personally did not have faith in my people. It seemed to me that people would not take to the streets and that we would carry on living as before, as if time had stood still. After three days of beatings and humiliations, after stun grenades and rubber bullets, which have the impact of a rifle bullet when they're fired from 10 meters (33 feet) away, after three days that shook the world, when women took to the streets, followed by hundreds of thousands of people, I was overwhelmed. We were all ecstatic.

What did you find most astonishing and overwhelming at the time?

Hundreds of people who were arrested were held in the prison on Okrestina Street in Minsk. You could hear them being beaten. But their parents sat outside the walls and did nothing. I believe Georgians would have taken that prison apart stone by stone. But our people simply waited for their children.

From May 2020 to March 2021, Belarusians repeatedly took to the streets to call on President Lukashenko to resign. (Photo: TUT.by/AP/dpa)

What was overwhelming was that so many young people, the ones we were always complaining about, took part in the protests. The older generation was also astonishing. These events were so much about human dignity, and I want to write a book about that. I'm collecting testaments to our dignity. It's important for all of us, especially now, when we are in the hands of the military and our civil society has been annihilated. I wouldn't describe it as a defeat, rather as a halt in the movement. Because all we went through is not going to disappear. But, as we now understand, there is still a long way to go along the road to freedom.

Are people such as Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko capable of giving up power?

I don't believe so. Power was always what he secretly dreamed of. But what I remember is people going on marches with absolutely no thought of armed uprising. For us, it was a celebration, a celebration of discovery and excitement. Excitement about ourselves. But then, of course, we lost time. We have to admit that the protests had no leadership as such. The Coordination Council [the opposition: Ed.] didn't control what went on. We should have stayed on the streets until Lukashenko stepped down.

But I didn't want blood to be shed, and I say this again and again. Otherwise we would have come to a point where we no longer occupied the moral high ground. At the time, we prevailed through wisdom and nonviolence. This was how we got international public opinion on our side. It was impossible to crush us like in Tiananmen Square in China. If we'd acted differently, we would have given Lukashenko the right to do it. And, most importantly, the best of our young people would have died. I understand Maria Kolesnikova [opposition politician and civil liberties campaigner, currently in prison: Ed.], who was at the front, and halted thousands of people a few hundred meters from Lukashenko's residence. Like her, I didn't want any bloodshed. I'm more sympathetic to Gandhism. Gandhi, not Lenin.

Protests intensified after the disputed election on August 9, 2020, before being brutally suppressed by the security forces

A lot of people are now saying that the Belarusian revolution is lost. Is that true?

No, I don't think so. Firstly, you have an elite there who are joining forces in a completely new kind of way. Then you have the Belarusian people, whose eyes have been opened. The people will never forget how they sat in backyards drinking tea, how they went out on the marches together. Many of the heroes of my book say this: "We lived from one Sunday to the next, and we got so much energy from it that it strengthened our backbones." We have started to become a nation.

Secondly: It's true that we can't demonstrate on the street now. Things only happen in our heads. But the people still expect changes. At some point everything will change, either as a result of sanctions, or because of Lukashenko himself, because he's his own worst enemy. I think that then it will happen very fast.

What we mustn't do now is wrap ourselves in a cocoon of powerlessness; we must prepare ourselves for a new era. We must help those who are in prison, their families and children. I have no hesitation in saying that they are children of heroes, the best among us.

Is Svetlana Alexievich before and after 2020 still the same person?

I don't think it's a case of different personalities, because my convictions haven't changed. I've simply understood that life is short, and that it's a shame the road to freedom is so long.

You know, I dream of my fellow Belarusians living like people in Germany. When I get up from my desk and go out into the street, I see them sitting in cafes, laughing. Will such nonchalance ever be the norm for us? Germans talk about life. We sit at a table, and we don't talk about what we've read, where we were, who we've fallen in love with, or who we've left; we talk about Lukashenko, about the nightmare in our country. I would never have thought that military vehicles would confront us on the streets of my hometown, and that I myself would have to live in exile.

You said that, days before you left the country, you observed minivans with tinted windows and plainclothes policemen outside your house.

In September 2020, plainclothes security forces were stationed outside my house for 10 days. Even the concierge called me and asked me not to go out: "It's not safe here, there are strange people wandering about and buses standing around." On a couple of occasions, diplomats from European countries, 18 people in all, came to me at home. Later, each of them in turn stayed a night at my house. I am very grateful to all of them for that and for everything they're doing for all of us.

Lukashenko was elected the first president of Belarus in 1994, and has ruled ever since

When I left the country, I wasn't on my own: I was escorted by diplomats. It would hardly have been possible for me to fly otherwise. I was detained for about an hour at the border. My passport was taken away. They said: "Oh, our computer has crashed. Oh, I can't get through on the phone." I asked, "What's the matter?" There was silence. But eventually they let me go.

Did it help that you are a Nobel laureate?

I was at least able to leave the country, just as a criminal proceedings were initiated against the Coordination Council. Lukashenko hates me. When I turned 70, it wasn't mentioned in a single newspaper.

You're currently living in Berlin. Do you feel at home there?

I've lived in Berlin before, in the years of my first exile, when Vasil Bykau [Belarusian writer – Ed.] and I had to leave the country. I love the spirit of Berlin and the diversity of life here. I love Germany and am grateful to it. During my first exile, I had the possibility of having an apartment in Vienna and staying there. But I want to live in Belarus. I travel around the world with interest, and I've seen a great deal, but returning home is important to me.

If the Lukashenko regime were to guarantee your safety, would you go back?

When you're a writer, you can live in your own world, and it doesn't matter where in the physical world this is. I've already heard thoughts or suggestions from diplomats along these lines, but I answered that this was impossible. How could I look people in the eye who had to leave behind young children and sick mothers in Belarus? They'll remain in exile, and I'll go home? I can't imagine it; it would be a betrayal.

In June, President Steinmeier presented Alexievich with Germany's highest honor, the Order of Merit

You've been working on a new book for a year now. What are the questions to which you're seeking answers?

There are many. The question of war and peace is one. Were we right in seeking to avoid bloodshed? I ask everyone this. People respond differently, incidentally. I would like to write about the masked men, and the temptation of the dark; about why we're still living as if we're in the books of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Why is our entire history flanked by people under arrest, with plastic bags over their heads? Why did some people hide demonstrators, while others led special forces to them?

And one more question: We will have to live with those who beat and tortured us — how can we understand them so that we don't degenerate into hatred? And so on, and on ... Where did they come from, all these wonderful people who took to the streets? How did they become the people they are? Who are their parents? It's important to me to recount as much as I can about them.

What's it like to write a book when the story is not yet complete and the end is yet to come?

I hope that the end will come while I'm writing the book.

The interviewer was Vera Nerusch.

The Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015. Alexievich is known for her opposition to the Lukashenko regime, but after receiving the Nobel Prize she returned from exile to live in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. During the protests in 2020, she was part of the opposition's Coordination Council, whose the members were persecuted by the Belarusian regime. In September 2020, Alexievich went into exile in Germany.

This interview was translated from Russian.                    

Burkina Faso: Why citizens are disenchanted with their president

Burkina Faso's military has reportedly seized power and detained President Roch Marc Christian Kabore. The military takeover comes after months of protests over the government's failure to curb terrorist attacks.


The whereabouts of Burkina Faso's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore is unknown

The situation in Burkina Faso remains unclear amid reports that the military has seized power and President Roch Marc Christian Kabore has been detained in the capital, Ouagadougou.

For months, the president has been under pressure from protesters who demanded he step down over the inability of his government to curb rapidly escalating insecurity and violence in the West African country.

Burkina Faso's crisis erupted with little to no warning in 2016.

Initially, the nation was spared the conflict and violence that had flared in other Sahel countries such as Mauritania, Niger and Chad following the disintegration of the Libyan state in 2011 and Mali's 2012 civil war.

But this changed in 2016 when gunmen attacked a hotel and restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, killing at least 30 people.

It was the West African country's first large-scale terrorist attack, coming some two weeks after Kabore was inaugurated as president in 2015.

Many more attacks would follow.

Initially, strikes by groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) primarily targeted the military in Burkina Faso's far north in the three-border zone to Mali and Niger.

But since 2019, the number of attacks has risen sharply, with violence also spreading to "previously unaffected areas" in its northern and eastern provinces, according to the UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Islamist armed groups are now also increasingly targeting civilians.

At least 132 civilians were massacred in the northeastern village of Solhan in June 2021, in what was Burkina Faso's deadliest attack since the beginning of the violence.
Weak state

The roots of this violence run deep.

"The violence is a symptom of deeper, unresolved issues, namely ineffective governance, impunity for government officials who abuse civilians, a lack of job opportunities, and extreme climate shifts," wrote Nosmot Gbadamosi in a December 2021 article for Foreign Policy.

"Youth anger on those issues provides a powerful stimulus for jihadi groups that seek to recruit among the local population," she added.


Burkina Faso has seen months of anti-government protests

Other observers have long expressed similar convictions.

In a 2017 analysis of the violence in northern Burkina Faso, theInternational Crisis Group foundthat the violence has "strong local dynamics" and in its early stages was a manifestation of widespread discontent at the social order in Soum province, in the country's Sahel region.

The insecurity is generating an immense humanitarian crisis in a country that is already one of the world's poorest. Burkina Faso ranks 182 out of 189 countries on the United Nation's 2020 Human Development Index.

So far, the conflict has internally displaced nearly 1.5 million people out of a population of just 21 million.
Kabore reforms

Kabore initially came to power in 2015 after the ousting of authoritarian leader Blaise Compaore, who had ruled the country for 27 years.

There have long been rumors that Burkina Faso was spared Islamist attacks during Compaore's rule because he had colluded with the jihadists for many years.

Amid growing violence, Kabore declared a state of emergency in 2018 for 14 of the country's 45 provinces, giving security forces extra powers to search homes and arrest and detain people. It remains in place in six regions and has been prolonged several times.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have reported numerous violations by security forces and self-defense groups in the provinces under the state of emergency.

This, in turn, has increased the local population's disenchantment with the federal government.

Afterwinning re-election in 2020, Kabore attempted several reforms in an attempt to defuse people's anger over the escalating violence.

Following severe criticism of his leadership following the June Solhan massacre, Kabore fired his defense and security ministers.

This was followed by the firing of his prime minister in December — a move that triggered the replacement of the entire cabinet.


Burkina Faso's forces lack resources to fight armed groups
Under-resourced military

Burkina Faso's military is widely viewed as insufficiently equipped and poorly trained to combat the escalating violence.

In a televised address back in November 2021, President Kabore pledged to end the "dysfunction" within the military.

"We must put an end to the unacceptable dysfunction that is sapping the morale of our combat troops and hampering their capacity to fight armed terrorist groups," Kabore said.

"We must no longer hear about food issues in our army," he added, referring to reports that dozens of gendarmes killed in a strike near the northern town of Inata had gone two weeks without supplies prior to the attack and were forced to trap animals to eat.

The gendarmes had been waiting in vain for several days for a relief force when they came under attack from hundreds of fighters, according to reports by Reuters news agency.

"We must put our men in conditions that allow them to counter terrorism with all the courage and determination it takes," Kabore said in his address.

Syrian prison battle death toll tops 150, concern over fate of minors


A Syrian Democratic Forces affiliate points a gun outside a prison while in clash with the Islamic State militants in Hasaka, Syria January 22, 2022. (Reuters)

AFP, Hasakeh
Published: 24 January ,2022

Kurdish forces locked down a Syrian city Monday to trap ISIS fighters who attacked a prison there five days earlier, leaving more than 150 dead in fierce battles.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) charged that the ISIS militants were using hundreds of minors as “human shields” inside the Ghwayran prison in the northeastern city of Hasakeh.

The UN childrens’ agency UNICEF called for the protection of some 850 minors detained inside the jail, some as young as 12, warning that they could be “harmed or forcibly recruited” by ISIS.

More than 100 ISIS fighters late Thursday stormed Ghwayran prison using suicide truck bombs and heavy weapons, setting off days of clashes both inside the facility and in surrounding neighborhoods.

The fighting died down Sunday evening as the US-backed SDF consolidated control over areas around the jail and declared the entire city locked down for a week.

“To prevent terrorist cells from escaping... the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria announces a complete lockdown on areas inside and outside Hasakeh city for a period of seven days starting on January 24,” the administration said.

Businesses were ordered to close with the exception of essential services, such as medical centers, bakeries and fuel distribution centers.

Civilians were hunkering down Monday in their homes as Kurdish fighters backed by the US-led coalition combed the area for hideout terrorists, reported an AFP correspondent.

The SDF erected several checkpoints at the entrances to Hasakeh, with even tighter security measures imposed in neighborhoods adjacent to the jail, the correspondent revealed.

The SDF said in a statement its advances inside the prison were stymied by the use of hundreds of minors as “human shields” by IS jihadists holed up in a dormitory.

The group said the adolescents, who had been detained over suspected links to ISIS, were being kept in a “rehabilitation center” in the jail.

The Britain-based group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday that a precarious lull in fighting continued to hold, as holdout terrorists were refusing to surrender.

The group raised the death toll from the clashes to 154 killed since Thursday, including 102 terrorists, 45 Kurdish fighters and seven civilians.

In other parts of Syria’s northeast under the administration’s control, a nighttime curfew was set to go into force Monday from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m.