Tuesday, January 14, 2020


Philippine volcano spews lava, ash for 3rd day, 30,000 flee



Joeal Calupitan and Jim GomezThe Associated Press
Published Monday, January 13, 2020

TAGAYTAY, PHILIPPINES -- A volcano near the Philippine capital spewed lava, ash and steam and trembled constantly Tuesday on the third day of an eruption that could portend a much bigger and dangerous eruption, officials warned as tens of thousands of people fled ash-blanketed villages in the danger zone.

The continuing restiveness of the Taal volcano after it rumbled to life Sunday indicates magma may still be rising to the crater, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. It raised the alert level to 4, indicating a hazardous eruption is possible in hours to days. Level 5, the highest, means such an eruption is underway.

The volcano was spurting fountains of red-hot lava 500 metres (1,640 feet) into the sky with dark-gray plumes of ash-laden steam that reached 2 kilometres (more than 1 mile) high. The massive volcanic column at times flashed with streaks of lightning.

IN PICTURES


Volcanic ash covers parts of the Philippines

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More than 200 earthquakes have been detected in and around Taal, 81 of which were felt with varying intensities. "Such intense seismic activity probably signifies continuous magmatic intrusion beneath the Taal edifice, which may lead to further eruptive activity," the volcanology institute said.

The picturesque volcano in the middle of a lake in Batangas province south of Manila rumbled to life Sunday in a powerful explosion that blasted a 15-kilometre (9-mile) column of ash, steam and pebbles into the sky. Clouds of volcanic ash blowing over Manila, 65 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, closed the country's main airport Sunday and part of Monday until the ashfall eased.

The government's disaster-response agency counted more than 30,400 evacuees in Batangas and nearby Cavite provinces. Officials expected the number to swell.

Government work was suspended and schools closed in a wide swath of towns and cities, including Manila, because of the health risks from the ash. The eruption has not directly caused deaths or major damage. The death of a driver in a crash on an ash-covered road was linked to slippery conditions.

The small island where the 1,020-foot (311-meter) volcano lies has long been designated a "permanent danger zone," though fishing villages have long existed there. Those villages were all evacuated, though volcanology officials have called for a total evacuation of endangered communities within a 14-kilometre (8.7-mile) radius of Taal.

Taal's last disastrous eruption, in 1965, killed hundreds of people. It is the second-most restive of about two dozen active volcanoes in the Philippines, which lies along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where most of the world's seismic activity occurs.

A long-dormant volcano, Mount Pinatubo, blew its top north of Manila in 1991 in one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century, killing hundreds of people.

------

Gomez reported from Manila. Associated Press journalists Kiko Rosario in Manila and Aaron Favila in Tagaytay contributed to this report.


Maple Leaf Foods boss attack on Trump pits ethics against shareholder value:

As stock falls, the 'shareholder primacy' rule argues McCain should have stayed mum

Don Pittis · CBC News · Posted: Jan 14, 2020
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a statement on Iran's missile attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Maple Leaf Michael McCain traces the cause of the latest dispute, that led to the airline missile strike, back to the U.S. withdrawal from the international nuclear pact with Iran. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

So when should a company CEO take a stance?

According to the business principle of shareholder primacy, there is an argument that Sunday's Twitter attack on U.S. President Donald Trump by the CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, Michael McCain, was dead wrong.

A lot of the debate over McCain's outspoken tweets revolves around the detail of what he said and where he assigned blame, a subject exhaustively addressed in the hashtag #BoycottMapleLeafFoods trending on Twitter Monday.


While the Canadian food company boss did not mention Trump by name, reference in his series of tweets to "a narcissist in Washington" seemed like a dead giveaway to most people. According to the Twitter response, even Trump fans recognized the description.
Blame Trump

Essentially the case McCain made in his angry attack was that by pulling out of the multi-country agreement that had forced Iran to stop its nuclear program, Trump had intentionally reopened a geopolitical wound the world had found a route to heal.

But McCain didn't stop there. The company boss drew a straight line from Trump's action in tossing out the international "path to contain" a "dangerous" Iran, to the latest round of tit-for-tat violence that led to the killing of a plane load of innocents, including the family of a Maple Leaf Foods employee.

Even more contentious was his implication that the latest U.S. attack on Iran was politically motivated, intended by the Trump administration to divert attention away from his "political woes," including a growing wave of evidence that Trump had colluded with Russia against the interests of the United States.
Shares tumble

While many, especially die-hard Trump supporters, will disagree with McCain's depiction of how events have unfolded, it is by no means crazy talk. The same contention has been widely reported in news stories and commentary easily found in various credible media outlets. 

Maple Leaf Foods CEO takes aim at U.S. government over downing of PS752 by Iran How the U.S. got to the brink of war with Iran
But quite apart from the CEO's political analysis of events, the question from the business point of view is whether, as the boss of a company owned by shareholders, he should have spoken out at all. The question was especially relevant as the share price fell on Monday, closing down about one per cent on the day.

As outlined by the conservative economist Milton Friedman in his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, the principle of shareholder primacy insists that "corporations have no higher purpose than maximizing profits for their shareholders."

According to that point of view, the purpose of a company is not to make the world a better place. At least not on purpose. The job of the capitalist is to do anything legal to make money, and as the representatives of those shareholders, corporate bosses have the same duty.

A sign for the Maple Leaf food processing plant in Toronto. Milton Friedman argues the purpose of a company is not to make the world a better place, but to make money. (Mark Blinch/REUTERS)

But with the growing power and influence of global corporations and the powerlessness of governments to step in and solve problems like gross inequality and climate change, the shareholder primacy principle seems to be slipping.

Just last summer a powerful group of 200 corporate stars, including Apple's Tim Cook, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and Mary Barra of General Motors, announced they were withdrawing from that shareholder-only point of view.

Instead, the influential Business Roundtable announced the responsibility of member companies would also include "generating good jobs, a strong and sustainable economy, innovation, a healthy environment and economic opportunity for all."
CEO activism trend

As the Harvard Business Review has reported in the past, it's a trend that has been growing for about five years. Companies often align with the interests of their employees and customers and against government. When companies objected to state laws forcing workers to use washrooms that matched the gender on their birth certificates, North Carolina lost billions in new investment says the review.

Harking back to an earlier form of capitalism, sometimes scorned as paternalistic, these corporate leaders have expressed the view that they have a much wider form of accountability — to employees, to society, and in the case of climate change, to the entire planet.

To truly gigantic corporations that have more clout than many governments, the concept has a certain self-serving rationale. As a company becomes bigger and bigger, its interests begin to merge with the population as a whole.
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As many in the tech world have noted, there is no point in having a wonderful product if the masses of consumers are too poor to buy it. And, while some companies profit from instability, history shows that war, revolution and displaced populations have often been bad for corporations.

In the current example, with this series of tweets, McCain showed Maple Leaf Foods workers that he was willing to stake his own and the company's reputation in support of one of their fellow employees. Although it appears McCain's comments were motivated by sincere grief and anger, not a cynical plot to increase productivity, it is well documented that workers who feel loyalty to their bosses help to build stronger businesses.


And as to the Boycott Maple Leaf Foods campaign, in a politically divided world, so far McCain's tweets also seem to be attracting many outspoken supporters who promise to buy more of the company's products.

Certainly McCain is not alone in expressing public alarm about the direction Trump is taking the United States and the world. Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz said something similar last week. Many U.S. business leaders, including Bloomberg's Michael Bloomberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, have not hurt their respective businesses by opposing the U.S. president.

Between motivated employees knowing McCain has their backs and the many buyers of Maple Leaf Foods products who are glad the company executive has taken what he saw as a moral stance in an immoral world, it is very possible shareholders will benefit in the longer term.

As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding — or in this case the prepared meats — will be in the eating.

Follow Don on Twitter @don_pittis

IRAN UPDATES 1/14/2020

Iran announces arrests over downing of plane

The Associated PressPublished Tuesday, January 14, 2020

A rally in solidarity with Iranian protests takes place in Mel Lastman Square in Toronto on Monday January 13, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- Iran's judiciary said Tuesday that arrests have been made for the accidental shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger plane that killed all 176 people on board just after takeoff from Tehran last week.

The announcement came amid an upswell of anger and protests by Iranians in recent days over the downing of the jetliner last Wednesday and apparent attempts by senior officials in Iran to coverup the cause of the crash.

Iran, which initially dismissed allegations that a missile had brought down the plane, acknowledged only on Saturday -- three days after and in the face of mounting evidence -- that its Revolutionary Guard had shot down the plane by mistake.

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Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili was quoted by Iranian state media saying that "extensive investigations have taken place and some individuals are arrested." He did not say how many individuals had been detained or name them.

Iran's president on Tuesday also called for a special court to be set up to probe the incident.

"The judiciary should form a special court with a ranking judge and dozens of experts," President Hassan Rouhani said in a speech televised in Iran. "This is not an ordinary case. The entire the world will be watching this court."

Rouhani called the incident "a painful and unforgivable" mistake and promised that his administration would pursue the case "by all means."

"The responsibility falls on more than just one person," he said, adding that those found culpable "should be punished."

"There are others, too, and I want that this issue is expressed honestly," he said, without elaborating.

Rouhani called the government's admission that Iranian forces shot down the plane the "first good step".

The plane, en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians, 57 Canadians -- including many Iranians with dual citizenship -- and 11 Ukrainians, according to officials. There were several children among the passengers, including an infant.

Iran shot down the plane when it was bracing for possible U.S. retaliation for a ballistic missile attack on two military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq. No one was hurt in that attack, which was carried out to avenge the stunning killing of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in an American airstrike in Baghdad.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guard's aerospace division, said over the weekend his unit accepts full responsibility for the shootdown. He said when he learned about the downing of the plane, "I wished I was dead."

The incident raised questions about why Iran did not shut down its international airport or airspace the day it was bracing for U.S. military retaliation.

The shootdown and the lack of transparency around it has reignited anger in Iran at the country's leadership. Online videos appeared to show security forces firing live ammunition and tear gas to disperse protests in the streets.

Also Tuesday, Iran's judiciary said that 30 people had been detained in the protests, and that some were released, without elaborating further.

Iranian authorities briefly arrested British Ambassador Rob Macaire on Saturday evening. He's said he went to a candlelight vigil to pay his respects for the victims of the Ukrainian plane shootdown and left as soon as the chanting began and it turned into a protest.

Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador on Sunday to protest what it said was his presence at an illegal protest. Britain, in turn, summoned Iran's ambassador on Monday "to convey our strong objections" over the weekend arrest.


---30---

Canada investigates reports that Iran is harassing families trying to repatriate remains of crash victims

Identification, repatriation process for PS752 crash probe could take months, says Ukraine's ambassador
Kathleen Harris · CBC News · Posted: Jan 13, 2020
People gather for a candlelight vigil to remember the victims of the Ukraine plane crash at the gate of Amri Kabir University in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020. 
(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne says Canada is looking into "disturbing" allegations that Iran is harassing family members of PS752 airline crash victims who are desperately trying to bring home their loved ones' remains.

Responding to a video posted on Twitter of a woman pleading for Canada's help in bringing home the body of her son, Champagne tweeted back that the government is looking into the matter. The video was posted by an Iranian journalist/activist who said Iranian authorities are telling families of crash victims not to speak to journalists.

Champagne's office confirmed the minister is looking into allegations that families are being harassed.

Iranian leaders said Saturday that Iran's Revolutionary Guard shot down the Boeing 737-800 using surface-to-air missiles, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board. Of those passengers, 138 were destined for Canada, but it's not known how many were permanent residents or were travelling on visitor or student visas.

Champagne confirmed Friday that 57 of the victims were Canadian citizens.

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The process to identify the remains will require DNA or dental records. Canadian officials, most likely including the RCMP, will assist in the operation on the ground.

Little is known at this point about how the repatriation process will play out. Iran does not recognize dual citizenship, something that's been an issue in past consular cases; a government official said it's too early to say what impact that factor could have in this case.
Repatriation a 'complicated procedure'

Ukraine's ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko said the identification and repatriation process will be "quite a complicated procedure" — because of the technical nature of DNA collection and comparison and the legal complications arising from the fact that many of the victims held dual citizenship.

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He said families could have to wait some time before their loved ones' remains are returned to Canada.

"It's a very difficult thing to speculate because it might be days and weeks, but it also might be months," he told CBC's Robyn Bresnahan, host of Ottawa Morning, in an interview Monday.

"It is a legal issue because we need to make sure Iran gives all the necessary permits to do this, and obviously it is up to the families to decide what should be done to the remains."

Champagne said today the Standing Rapid Deployment Team (SRDT) — a group of staffers from Global Affairs Canada trained and ready to deploy in response to overseas emergencies — and a team from the Transportation Safety Board will be in place in Tehran by tonight. Two members of the SRDT will provide support from Ankara in Turkey, while other experts may be dispatched as needed, the minister said on Twitter.
Canada's victims of Flight PS752

Champagne also has scheduled an in-person meeting of the International Coordination and Response Group at Canada House in London, U.K. for Thursday. The Canada-led group, which includes participants from Ukraine, Sweden, Afghanistan and the U.K., was struck to ensure transparency and accountability in the wake of the crash.

Lawyers have told CBC that family members of those killed on Flight PS752 likely are entitled to monetary compensation through civil action, the International Court of Justice or international diplomacy.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that he expects Iran to take full responsibility for the downing of the jetliner and indicated that he would press Iran to provide compensation on behalf of those killed.

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Rouhani says Iran must 'punish' all responsible for air disaster

AFP•January 14, 2020


Iran denied Western claims that the airliner had been downed by a missile for days before acknowledging that version was correct and now faces huge international pressure to ensure the rest of its investigation is transparent (AFP Photo/-)More


Tehran (AFP) - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that everyone responsible for the accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner last week must be punished.

"For our people it is very important in this incident that anyone who was at fault or negligent at any level" face justice, he said in a televised speech.

"Anyone who should be punished must be punished," said Rouhani.

"The judiciary must form a special court with high-ranking judge and dozens of experts... The whole world will be watching."

The Ukraine International Airlines plane was brought down by a missile shortly after takeoff from Tehran last Wednesday, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board.

Iran for days denied Western claims based on US intelligence that the airliner had been downed by a missile before acknowledging that version was correct on Saturday.

It has come under mounting international pressure to ensure its investigation into the tragedy is full and transparent.

The authorities' handling of the air disaster and has also angered people in Iran.

Videos posted on social networks on Monday purported to show people taking to the streets for a third consecutive day, with demonstrators apparently shouting slogans against the Islamic republic.

---30---

‘We are not alone’: Confirmation of alien life ‘imminent and inevitable’


Scientists are on the verge of confirming we are not alone in the universe, with two probes 
being sent to a mystery moon near Earth.

Jamie Seidel news.com.au JANUARY 12, 2020

NASA's under-ice robot may be used in a future space mission to look for signs of extraterrestrial life.

In just a few short years, we may know if we’re not alone.

Two probes are being sent to a mysterious moon bursting with the ingredients of life. And expectations are high we’ll find it.

Once it was thought life could not exist without the sun’s warming rays.

We were wrong.

The equation for life (as we know it) is surprisingly simple: soluble water, an energy source, and organic compounds.

Jupiter’s moon Europa appears to have all three.

That’s why we’re going there.



In August, NASA confirmed it would build a space probe – the Europa Clipper – to investigate this glistening gem of a world early in the 2030s. It followed the announcement in April by the European Space Agency to put the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) in place by 2029.

It’s a gamble.

But the odds of finding life is surprisingly high.

“Discovery now seems inevitable and possibly imminent,” says University of Melbourne researcher Cathal O’COnnell.

And finding living creatures – even microbes – outside Earth may have huge social, religious and scientific implications.

Perhaps it is time to prepare.

It may not be far off at all.

“It seems inevitable other life is out there, especially considering that life appeared on Earth so soon after the planet was formed,” O’Connell says. “And the definition of ‘habitable’ has proven to be a rather flexible concept too.”

SECOND GENESIS

“A discovery, if it came, could turn the world of biology upside down,” O’Connell says.

“Bacteria, fungus, cacti and cockroaches are all our cousins and we all share the same basic molecular machinery: DNA that makes RNA, and RNA that makes protein.

“A second sample of life, though, might represent a ‘second genesis’ – totally unrelated to us.”

Biologists would be able to examine what parts of the machinery of life are fundamental. And they’d discover how much is the result of evolutionary accidents.


The JUICE probe launching to investigate Europa's mysterious surface. Picture: ESASource:Supplied

“A second independent ‘tree of life’ would mean that the rapid appearance of life on Earth was no fluke; life must abound in the universe.

“It would greatly increase the chances that, somewhere among those billions of habitable planets in our galaxy, there could be something we could talk to.”

In some ways, however, discovering similarities would be even more radical.

It would mean the idea of panspermia – that formulas for life are seeded between worlds and even stars through comets and meteorites – has merit.

“As Mars was probably habitable before Earth, it is possible life originated there before hitchhiking on a space rock to here. Perhaps we’re all Martians.”

Either way, Europa will hold the key.

“The ancient question ‘Are we alone?’ has graduated from being a philosophical musing to a testable hypothesis. We should be prepared for an answer.”


The bright material is likely pure water ice, where life is highly likely to reside. Picture: NASA/JPL/DLR Source:Supplied

SALT OF THE EARTH

Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa is a jewel of our solar system.

It’s shiny and bright. That’s because it’s encased in a shell of water ice.

But when the Voyager 1 space probe flashed past in 1979, Europa’s beauty proved more than skin deeper. It had shapely canyons, troughs and ridges. And there were very, very few craters.

Did this mean liquid water regularly welled up from beneath, remoulding and refreshing the surface?


Irregularities in Europa's surface suggest the discovery of life could be 'imminent'. Picture: Supplied Source:Supplied

It wasn’t until the 1990s that the full extent of Europa’s enigma was revealed. The Galileo probe found strong evidence there were oceans twice as big as Earth’s beneath the ice. And that water seemed salty.

What’s so significant about salt water?

It’s a sure sign of active geological processes. The water must be interacting with rocks. It’s leeching nutrients and minerals out of the moon’s solid core.

“It may well be normal table salt (sodium chloride) – just like on Earth, says Lancaster University researcher Chris Arridge.

“This has important implications for the potential existence of life in Europa’s hidden depths.”

In fact, it makes Europa a potential microbial Garden of Eden.

FIRE BENEATH THE ICE

We have some idea what to expect.

Europa’s slightly off-kilter orbit causes Jupiter’s gravity to fluctuate. The moon’s core is constantly being squeezed and released, generating friction – and a molten core.

We’ve seen how hydrothermal vents enrich the depths of our own planet’s deepest, darkest seas. They support thriving communities of microbes converting the mineral-laden fluids into energy.

And the ingredients for life aren’t exactly rare.

“Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and so on are among the most abundant elements in the universe,” Arridge says. “Complex organic chemistry is surprisingly common.”

Unexpectedly common, in fact.


This composite image of the Jupiter-facing hemisphere of Europa was obtained on Nov. 25, 1999 by two instruments on-board NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Picture: NASA/JPL Source:Supplied

This shouldn’t be surprising: Some 6500 light years away is a massive floating cloud of alcohol.

That’s a bit further than the average drive-through. But, interstellar comets such as 2I/Borisov and Oumuamua may have done something just like that.

Does Europa have enough? Or the right mix?

That’s what the Clipper and JUICE are being sent to find out.

And the odds are good.

In 2017, sea ice researchers from the University of Tasmania calculated that some microbes they had found in the Antarctic already had what it takes to thrive in Europa’s oceans.

So why wouldn’t something evolve there also?

SPIES IN THE SKY

Both the Europa Clipper and JUICE probes will carry a variety of sensors to peer beneath the ice.

They will measure the minute fluctuations in the moon’s gravity. These are caused by changes in the density of whatever is beneath – such as a mountain range, or a mineral deposit.

Both also carry ground-penetrating radars.

These are expected to be highly effective: the colder ice gets, the more transparent to radar it becomes.

Europa’s surface at the height of day is a frosty -170C.

Planetary scientists expect the ice to be somewhere between 15 and 25km thick. But it may be much thinner in some places.

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured fuzzy indications of plumes of water may be erupting from Europa’s South Pole. The evidence isn’t as strong as that for another ice moon, Saturn’s Enceladus. But it’s promising.

If so, deep fractures must be obvious in the icy crust – pointing to shallow lakes of liquid water.

This is a core component of the space probes’ mission: to scout the ideal location for a potential lander mission. It would have to drill through the surface to see what lurks beneath.

DEEP DIVE

The Europa Clipper and JUICE probes are well suited to finding the telltale traces of life. But they can’t get up close and personal.

Planetary scientists around the world have been advocating for decades that a second mission must be prepared.

One that will touch down on Europa’s icy surface. And dig deeper.

It’s no easy task.

Europa has only a thin atmosphere. So parachutes won’t work. Any lander must use heavy rocket motors to land. There’s also the intense, relentless radiation from nearby Jupiter.

All this must be overcome before the granite-hard ice can be tackled.

Drills won’t cut it.

So scientists are exploring the potential of lasers – or even an unshielded nuclear reactor – to melt its way through.

“One way or another, we will get there,” says University of Birmingham space sciences researcher Gareth Dorrian.

“The final challenge might then be ensuring that the spacecraft or submarine, having finally reached the ocean, doesn’t get eaten by something swimming around in the deep!”

Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @JamieSeidel

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

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

This micronation with a superb ocean view looks to be the size of two tennis courts. Paddy Bates and his family occupied the old WWII North Sea anti-aircraft fortress Roughs Towers in 1967 - and claimed it as an independent state a few years later. Not recognized by any state in the world, Sealand nevertheless has its own flag and currency, and is ruled today by Prince Michael.


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Micronations: Run your own country




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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

Shutdown in parts of India
The Indian government suspended internet services and tightened security on Friday in several parts of the country, including the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The government is expecting another wave of violent protests against the controversial new Citizenship Amendment Act, which was enacted on December 11.

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Date 08.01.2020
Author Debarati Guha
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3Vu0M