Weather’s unwanted guest: Nasty La Nina keeps popping up

By SETH BORENSTEIN

May 28, 2022

The Manayunk neighborhood in Philadelphia is flooded Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021, in the aftermath of downpours and high winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. La Nina, the natural but potent weather event linked to more drought and wildfires in the western United States and more Atlantic hurricanes, is becoming the nation’s unwanted weather guest and meteorologists said the West’s megadrought won’t go away until La Nina does. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Something weird is up with La Nina, the natural but potent weather event linked to more drought and wildfires in the western United States and more Atlantic hurricanes. It’s becoming the nation’s unwanted weather guest and meteorologists said the West’s megadrought won’t go away until La Nina does.

The current double-dip La Nina set a record for strength last month and is forecast to likely be around for a rare but not quite unprecedented third straight winter. And it’s not just this one. Scientists are noticing that in the past 25 years the world seems to be getting more La Ninas than it used to and that is just the opposite of what their best computer model simulations say should be happening with human-caused climate change.

“They (La Ninas) don’t know when to leave,” said Michelle L’Heureux, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast office for La Nina and its more famous flip side, El Nino.

An Associated Press statistical analysis of winter La Ninas show that they used to happen about 28% of the time from 1950 to 1999, but in the past 25 winters, they’ve been brewing nearly half the time. There’s a small chance that this effect could be random, but if the La Nina sticks around this winter, as forecast, that would push the trend over the statistically significant line, which is key in science, said L’Heureux. Her own analysis shows that La Nina-like conditions are occurring more often in the last 40 years. Other new studies are showing similar patterns.

What’s bothering many scientists is that their go-to climate simulation models that tend to get conditions right over the rest of the globe predict more El Ninos, not La Ninas, and that’s causing contention in the climate community about what to believe, according to Columbia University climate scientist Richard Seager and MIT hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel.

What Seager and other scientists said is happening is that the eastern equatorial Atlantic is not warming as fast as the western equatorial Atlantic or even the rest of the world with climate change. And it’s not the amount of warming that matters but the difference between the west and east. The more the difference, the more likely a La Nina, the less the difference, the more likely an El Nino. Scientists speculate it could be related to another natural cycle, called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, or it could be caused by human-caused climate change or both.

“At this point we just don’t know,” L’Heureux said. “Scientists are watching and I know, are actively studying. But it’s really important because of regional conditions. We need to get this right.”

La Nina is a natural and cyclical cooling of parts of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather patterns worldwide, as opposed to El Nino’s warming. Often leading to more Atlantic hurricanes, less rain and more wildfires in the West and agricultural losses in the middle of the country, studies have shown La Nina is more expensive to the United States than the El Nino. Together El Nino, La Nina and the neutral condition are called ENSO, which stands for El Nino Southern Oscillation, and they have one of the largest natural effects on climate, at times augmenting and other times dampening the big effects of human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas, scientists said.

“They really have a very, very strong” effect, said research scientist Azhar Ehsan, who heads Columbia University’s El Nino/La Nina forecasting. “So a third consecutive La Nina is not at all a welcome thing.”

He said the dangerous heat in India and Pakistan this month and in April is connected to La Nina.

The current La Nina formed in the late summer of 2020 when the Atlantic set a record for the number of named storms. It strengthened in the winter when the West’s drought worsened and in the early summer of 2021 it weakened enough that NOAA said conditions were neutral. But that pause only lasted a few months and by early fall 2021 La Nina was back, making it a double dip.

Normally second years of La Nina tend to be weaker, but in April this La Nina surprised meteorologists by setting a record for intensity in April, which is based on sea surface temperatures, Ehsan said.

“These are very impressive values for April,” L’Heureux said. Still, because La Ninas historically weaken over summer and there are slight signs that this one may be easing a bit, there’s the small but increasing chance that this La Nina could warm just enough to be considered neutral in late summer.

La Nina has its biggest effect in the winter and that’s when it is a problem for the West because it’s the rainy season that is supposed to recharge areas reservoirs. But the West is in a 22-year megadrought, about the same time period of increasing La Nina frequency.

Three factors — ENSO, climate change and randomness — are biggest when it comes to the drought, which is itself a huge trigger for massive wildfires, said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain. Without climate change, La Nina and bad luck could have made the drought the worst in 300 years but with climate change it’s the worst in at least 1,200 years, said UCLA climate hydrologist Park Williams.

La Nina “is a pretty important player; it may be the dominant player,” said Swain, who has a blog on Western weather. “It could be responsible for one-third, maybe one-half of the given conditions if it is pronounced enough.”

“It’s much less likely that the Southwest will see at least even a partial recovery from the megadrought during La Nina,” Swain said.

La Nina “amps up your Atlantic storms” but decreases them in the Pacific, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

It’s all about winds 6 to 7 miles (10 to 12 kilometers) above the water surface. One of the key factors in storm development is whether there is wind shear, which are changes in wind from high to low elevations. Wind shear can decapitate or tip over hurricanes, making them hard to strengthen and at times even stick around. Wind shear can also let dry air into hurricanes that chokes them.

When there’s an El Nino, there’s lots of Atlantic wind shear and it’s hard for hurricanes to get going. But La Nina means little wind shear in the Atlantic, making it easier for storms to intensify and do it quickly, said University of Albany hurricane researcher Kristen Corbosiero.

“That’s a really huge factor,” Corbosiero said.

“Whatever is the cause, the increasing incidence of La Ninas may be behind the increasing hurricanes,” MIT’s Emanuel said.

Some areas like eastern Australia and the arid Sahel region of Africa do better with more rain during La Nina. India and Pakistan, even though they get extra spring heat, also receive more needed rain in La Ninas, Columbia’s Ehsan said.

A 1999 economic study found that drought from La Nina cost the United States agriculture between $2.2 billion to $6.5 billion, which is far more than the $1.5 billion cost of El Nino. A neutral ENSO is best for agriculture.

Columbia’s Seager said even though there may be some chance and some natural cycles behind the changes in La Nina, because there’s likely a climate change factor he thinks there will probably be more of them.

___

Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

CBD doesn't appear to affect driving, study suggests

By HealthDay News

Researchers from the University of Sydney found that even 1,500 mg, the highest daily medicinal dose of cannabidiol (CBD) tested, did not seem to affect study participants' thinking skills or driving when tested in a simulated driving situation. Photo by Julia Teichmann/Pixabay

Though it is a cannabis component, very high doses of CBD don't appear to affect driving, a small Australian study reports.

Researchers from the University of Sydney found that even 1,500 mg, the highest daily medicinal dose of cannabidiol (CBD) tested, did not seem to affect study participants' thinking skills or driving when tested in a simulated driving situation.

"Though CBD is generally considered 'non-intoxicating,' its effects on safety-sensitive tasks are still being established," said lead author Danielle McCartney, a research associate at the university's Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics.

"Our study is the first to confirm that when consumed on its own, CBD is driver-safe," she said in a university news release.

RELATED CBD tablet seems to relieve pain after shoulder surgery, study finds

CBD does not appear to intoxicate people, researchers said. That's unlike THC, another cannabis component that can induce sedation, a "high" and impairment.

Use of CBD is increasing in Western nations.

Around 55,000 requests to access medicinal CBD have been approved in Australia since 2016, according to a recent study. It is most commonly prescribed for pain, disorders and anxiety.

RELATED Most parents would use CBD to treat a child, survey finds

For the new study, 17 participants did simulated driving tasks after consuming either a placebo or 15 mg, 300 mg or 1,500 mg of CBD in oil. These amounts represent often-used dosages.

Participants were asked to try to maintain a safe distance between themselves and a lead vehicle, and then "drive" along highways and rural roads. They completed the task between 45 and 75 minutes after taking their assigned treatment.

They did it again between 3-1/2 and four hours after dosing, which was meant to cover the range of blood plasma concentrations at different times. They repeated this under each of the four treatments -- a placebo plus three different doses.

RELATED CBD has potential as COVID-19 treatment, but more study needed, experts say

The researchers measured participants' control of the simulated car, how much it weaved or drifted, as well as their thinking function, subjective experiences, and the CBD concentrations in their blood plasma.

The examinations found that no dose of CBD induced feelings of intoxication or appeared to impair either driving or thinking.

"We do, however, caution that this study looked at CBD in isolation only, and that drivers taking CBD with other medications should do so with care," McCartney said.

The findings were published Monday in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. A similar look at CBD and driving was published last year.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more on CBD.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

ABOLISH THE MONARCHY
In Commonwealth, queen’s jubilee draws protests and apathy

By JILL LAWLESS

yesterday

1 of 13

A man waves a British union flag and a flag bearing the image of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II ahead of the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in London, Monday, March 9, 2020. After seven decades on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II is widely viewed in the U.K. as a rock in turbulent times. But in Britain’s former colonies, many see her as an anchor to an imperial past whose damage still lingers. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

LONDON (AP) — After seven decades on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II is widely viewed in the U.K. as a rock in turbulent times. But in Britain’s former colonies, many see her as an anchor to an imperial past whose damage still lingers.

So while the U.K. is celebrating the queen’s Platinum Jubilee — 70 years on the throne — with pageantry and parties, some in the Commonwealth are using the occasion to push for a formal break with the monarchy and the colonial history it represents.

“When I think about the queen, I think about a sweet old lady,” said Jamaican academic Rosalea Hamilton, who campaigns for her country to become a republic. “It’s not about her. It’s about her family’s wealth, built on the backs of our ancestors. We’re grappling with the legacies of a past that has been very painful.”

Queen Elizabeth II walks past Commonwealth flags in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle, England to mark Commonwealth Day. (Steve Parsons/Pool via AP, File)

The empire that Elizabeth was born into is long gone, but she still reigns far beyond Britain’s shores. She is head of state in 14 other nations, including Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Bahamas. Until recently it was 15 — Barbados cut ties with the monarchy in November, and several other Caribbean countries, including Jamaica, say they plan to follow suit.

Britain’s jubilee celebrations, which climax over a four-day holiday weekend starting Thursday, aim to recognize the diversity of the U.K. and the Commonwealth. A huge jubilee pageant through central London on Sunday will feature Caribbean Carnival performers and Bollywood dancers.



But Britain’s image of itself as a welcoming and diverse society has been battered by the revelation that hundreds, and maybe thousands, of people from the Caribbean who had lived legally in the U.K. for decades were denied housing, jobs or medical treatment — and in some cases deported — because they didn’t have the paperwork to prove their status.

The British government has apologized and agreed to pay compensation, but the Windrush scandal has caused deep anger, both in the U.K. and in the Caribbean.

A jubilee-year trip to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas in March by the queen’s grandson Prince William and his wife Kate, which was intended to strengthen ties, appears to have had the opposite effect. Images of the couple shaking hands with children through a chain-link fence and riding in an open-topped Land Rover in a military parade stirred echoes of colonialism for many.

Britain's Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge attend the Commonwealth Service on Commonwealth Day at Westminster Abbey in London. (Daniel Leal/Pool via AP, File)

Cynthia Barrow-Giles, professor of political science at the University of the West Indies, said the British “seem to be very blind to the visceral sort of reactions” that royal visits elicit in the Caribbean.

Protesters in Jamaica demanded Britain pay reparations for slavery, and Prime Minister Andrew Holness politely told William that the country was “moving on,” a signal that it planned to become a republic. The next month, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told the queen’s son Prince Edward that his country, too, would one day remove the queen as head of state.

William acknowledged the strength of feeling and said the future “is for the people to decide upon.”

“We support with pride and respect your decisions about your future,” he said in the Bahamas. “Relationships evolve. Friendship endures.”

When then Princess Elizabeth became queen on the death of her father King George VI 1952, she was in Kenya. The East African country became independent in 1963 after years of violent struggle between a liberation movement and colonial troops. In 2013, the British government apologized for the torture of thousands of Kenyans during the 1950s “Mau Mau” uprising and paid millions in an out-of-court settlement.

Memories of the empire are still raw for many Kenyans.

“From the start, her reign would be indelibly stained by the brutality of the empire she presided over and that accompanied its demise,” said Patrick Gathara, a Kenyan cartoonist, writer and commentator.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II arrives for a church service at St. John's Cathedral, Antigua, Feb. 20, 1966. (AP Photo, File)

“To this day, she has never publicly admitted, let alone apologized, for the oppression, torture, dehumanization and dispossession visited upon people in the colony of Kenya before and after she acceded to the throne.”

U.K. officials hope countries that become republics will remain in the Commonwealth, the 54-nation organization made up largely of former British colonies, which has the queen as its ceremonial head.

The queen’s strong personal commitment to the Commonwealth has played a big role in uniting a diverse group whose members range from vast India to tiny Tuvalu. But the organization, which aims to champion democracy, good governance and human rights, faces an uncertain future.

As Commonwealth heads of government prepare to meet in Kigali, Rwanda, this month for a summit delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, some question whether the organization can continue once the queen’s eldest son, Prince Charles, succeeds her.

“Many of the more uncomfortable histories of the British Empire and the British Commonwealth are sort of waiting in the wings for as soon as Elizabeth II is gone,” royal historian Ed Owens said. “So it’s a difficult legacy that she is handing over to the next generation.”

The crisis in the Commonwealth reflects Britain’s declining global clout.

Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth under its authoritarian late President Robert Mugabe, and is currently seeking readmission. But many in its capital of Harare have expressed indifference to the queen’s jubilee, as Britain’s once-strong influence wanes and countries such as China and Russia enjoy closer relations with the former British colony.

“She is becoming irrelevant here,” social activist Peter Nyapedwa said. “We know about (Chinese President) Xi (Jinping) or (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, not the queen.”

Sue Onslow, director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, said the queen has been the “invisible glue” holding the Commonwealth together.

But she says the organization has proven remarkably resilient and and shouldn’t be written off. The Commonwealth played a major role in galvanizing opposition to apartheid in the 1980s, and could do the same over climate change, which poses an existential threat to its low-lying island members.

“The Commonwealth has shown a remarkable ability to reinvent itself and contrive solutions at times of crisis, almost as if it’s jumping into a telephone box and coming out under different guise,” she said. “Whether it will do it now is an open question.”

Q&A: Cronenberg on bodies, death and the future of movies

By JAKE COYLE

1 of 10

David Cronenberg poses for portrait photographs for the film 'Crimes of the Future', at the 75th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)


CANNES, France (AP) — David Cronenberg is sitting on a balcony when a squawking seagull flies overhead.

“Full of plastic, that bird,” Cronenberg says, smiling.

The 79-year-old Canadian auteur has long been fascinated by what’s in our bodies and what we put in them. His latest film, “Crimes of the Future,” which opens in theaters Friday, stems partly from his interest in the ubiquity of microplastics.

Cronenberg, who sat for a recent interview at the Cannes Film Festival where “Crimes of the Future” was premiering, first wrote the film’s script in 1998. Sensing it had grown only more relevant, Cronenberg unearthed it for his first film in eight years, and, he says, didn’t change a word.

It revolves around the performance artist couple of Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) and Caprice (Léa Seydoux). In a near-future where plastics have changed human biology, they artfully remove tumorous organs from Tenser in surgical performances. It co-stars Kristen Stewart as a bureaucrat turned super-fan after witnessing a performance.

Art as an organ cut out and displayed is a fitting metaphor for Cronenberg, whose early films (“Videodrome,” “The Fly”) made him a master of body horror. The director is simultaneously auctioning an NFT of his recently passed kidney stones. Mortensen, who’s starred in Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises” and “A Dangerous Method,” calls “Crimes of the Future” Cronenberg’s most autobiographical film.

“Each time when I watch one of his movies,” Mortensen says, “I see more.”

For Cronenberg, the layers of “Crimes of the Future” were a way to probe both the nature of being an artist and the way our increasingly unnatural environment is transforming our bodies — not to mention seagulls. It’s an evolution that doesn’t frighten but excites Cronenberg. He marvels at how scientists are already working on whether plastics might be made edible — and maybe even taste good.

“That’s actually happening,” he says. “It’s not sci-fi anymore.”  

Viggo Mortensen, from left, Lea Seydoux, director David Cronenberg, and Kristen Stewart pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Crimes of the Future' at the 75th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 24, 2022. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

___

AP: As you’ve aged, has your relationship to your body changed?

CRONENBERG: Oh, of course. Usually dismay, but it’s not so bad. It’s very interesting. It’s a part of life that you’ve anticipated and read about and blah, blah, now you’re experiencing. It hasn’t been as bad as one as it could be, let’s put it that way. I’m 79. I don’t feel that age at all.

AP: Do you take care of yourself?

CRONENBERG: I’ve been lifting weights since I was 16. Not to be a bodybuilder, but just to stay in shape. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. Not out of any political or sociological agenda. I just have never been attracted to those things. Maybe that helps.

AP: So you think about what you put in your body?

CRONENBERG: Not obsessively.

AP: Much of your work is about the connection or disconnection between one’s body and the world around it. In the years you’ve been making films, technology has increasingly entered our bodies, even if it’s not a videocassette in our torso.

CRONENBERG: Well, I just had cataract surgery. Now, that’s amazing. Basically, they’re destroying the lenses in your eyes, sucking them out and then putting in plastic lenses that unfold and become your eyes. I’ve been looking through my lenses for my whole career as a moviemaker. And now the reason I’m wearing sunglasses is because I get more light in my eyes because of the cataracts being gone. Everything’s brighter. The colors are different, quite different. I joked with my director of photography that we’ll have to recolor the whole movie now that I have different lenses in my eyes. That’s pretty intimate. Technology in your eyeballs. I’ve got hearing aids. I’m totally bionic. Years ago this would be all be problematic. My career would have ended a lot sooner because if you can’t hear and you can’t see, it’s hard to make movies, you know?

AP: Do you imagine what we can do to our bodies, and what will be judged acceptable, will only increase in time?

CRONENBERG: Absolutely. We’re now realizing that just drinking water from a plastic bottle is depositing microplastics into our bloodstream. Even before that, it was posited that maybe 80% of the human population has microplastics in their flesh. So our bodies are different than human bodies have ever been before in history. This is not going away.

Pawel Pawlikowski, left, Malgorzata Bela, Peter Sarsgaard, David Cronenberg, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Isabelle Huppert pose for photographers upon arrival at the 75th anniversary celebration of the Cannes film festival and the premiere of the film 'The Innocent' at the 75th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 24, 2022. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

AP: Do you foresee battles over things like computers implanted in our brains?

CRONENBERG: There’s a Nobel Prize winner named Gerald Edelman who said the brain is not at all like a computer. It’s much more like a rainforest because there’s a struggle for dominance in your brain with your neurons that’s constantly changing. The thing that people are afraid of with mRNA because it’s a new thing and they say Bill Gates is inserting microchips in our body, it’s fantastic! It’s such a breakthrough. CRISPR is fantastic. Now, can it be used for evil? Well, yeah, like the atomic bomb. But beautiful things absolutely are possible from that.

AP: In presenting “Crimes of the Future,” do you feel like you’re putting an organ out for display?

CRONENBERG: (Laughs) I’m presenting my kidney stones to the audience. I’m saying “This came from inside my body.” How more intimate could it possibly be? Yeah, I mean, that’s the metaphor. That’s the surgical organ metaphor in the movie, an artist putting out their inner-most intimate thoughts and feelings and visions and whatever else. Definitely you are vulnerable. You are incredibly vulnerable.

AP: This is your first film in eight years. How do you feel about how the movie landscape has changed?

CRONENBERG: One of the things that brought me back to moviemaking was Netflix and the idea of streaming and a streaming series. I tried to make one. I thought, well, this is not really movie making, but it’s still cinema. It’s a different kind of cinema, seriously different. I thought, well, this is a whole different ballgame, and yet it’s still cinema. I mean, my idea of cinema. I think theaters are dead. I think they’ll be a niche thing for superhero movies. I haven’t gone to the cinema for decades. You know, I just prefer to watch it at home. And the TV sets have gotten so good, the sound systems have gotten so good that I defy those who say that you can’t have a true cinematic experience at home. I completely don’t agree.

AP: “Crimes of the Future” hinges in part on how far Saul Tenser is willing to go for his art. Are you thinking much about death?

CRONENBERG: I’ve always thought about death. I don’t think you can be a human being without thinking about death. Ever since I was a kid and I had a pet die, you think, what just happened? Where’s that cat? You realize that not only are you going to die, but your parents are going to die. I can still remember the moment when I had that discussion with my parents. So it’s always a question. At my age, I wouldn’t say it’s more of a question, except that you have many friends who are now dying, who are exactly your age. Every time I look in the newspapers there’s a guy that I knew — William Hurt, for example, or Ivan Reitman — and they’re younger than I am. There’s not much you can do with it other than to acknowledge that, yes, you will die. Beyond that, what can you say? I always thought in novels where it would say for a living author “Born 1943—.” It’s like the dash is waiting for you. It’s waiting for you so that it could be filled in. And I’m saying, “(Expletive) you, I’m not going to die. I’m not going to tell you when I’m going to die.”

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

Many young sarcoma patients continue using opioids after treatment
By HealthDay News

After their cancer treatment was done, about 14% of patients overall and 23% of those who used opioids during treatment continued to use opioids. Photo courtesy of West Virginia Attorney General's Office/Twitter

When a teen or young adult has sarcoma, a type of cancer in the bones or soft tissues, a doctor will often prescribe opioids for the pain.

A new study found that nearly a quarter of those young people continue to take opioids after their treatment is done.

"These results highlight the need to monitor young patients with sarcoma for post-treatment opioid use, given the potential negative impacts of long-term opioid use, including misuse and overdose," said study lead author Melissa Beauchemin, an assistant professor at Columbia University School of Nursing in New York City.

"Age- and developmentally appropriate strategies to effectively manage pain while minimizing opioid exposure are urgently needed," she said.

Beauchemin noted that teens and young adults are a vulnerable population because they have benefitted less than younger and older cancer patients from recent advances.

For the new study, the researchers used a large insurance claims database to analyze information on patients aged 10 to 26 years old who had not received prior opioids and who were diagnosed with sarcoma between 2008 and 2016.

Among the 938 patients in the analysis, 64% received opioid prescriptions during treatment.

After their cancer treatment was done, about 14% of patients overall and 23% of those who used opioids during treatment continued to use opioids. They met the criteria for new persistent use, which was defined as at least two opioid prescriptions in the 12 months after treatment ended.

The findings were published online recently in Cancer, a journal of the American Cancer Society.

Factors associated with persistent opioid use included being covered by Medicaid versus commercial insurance having bone tumors versus soft tissue tumors and taking lorazepam, a medication often used to treat anxiety and sleeping problems.

Patients who have sarcoma often develop damaged and fractured bones. They typically undergo major surgeries.

Beauchemin said doctors should prioritize safe and early discontinuation of opioids for those young patients who require them for pain management.

"Further, there is a critical need for clinical practice guidelines to support clinical decision making to safely and effectively manage pain specifically for adolescents and young adults with cancer," she said in a journal news release.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more on opioids.

Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Top German court considers removing antisemitic medieval relief from church

A Jewish German is calling for the removal of a so-called "Judensau" sculpture at the church from which Martin Luther launched the Reformation. It is estimated that 50 such sculptures exist at churches across Europe.


Presiding BGH Judge Stephan Seiters called the 700-year-old relief, 'Anti-Semitism, carved in stone'

Germany's Federal Court of Justice (BGH) on Monday began hearings on the fate of a 700-year-old sandstone relief adorning the facade of the town church of Wittenburg, where Martin Luther once preached.

The case was brought on appeal by plaintiff-lawyer Michael Düllmann, who argued in lower courts that the sculpture is, "a defamation of, and an insult to, the Jewish people." Düllmann, who converted to Judaism in 1978, has been fighting for the object's removal since 2018, saying it should be taken to the nearby Luther House museum.

The sculpture is a so-called "Judensau" (Jew sow) motif, in this case depicting a man in the garb of a rabbi lifting the tail of a pig — which is considered an unclean animal in Judaism — and inspecting its anus, while other figures suck at its teats. In 1570, after the Protestant Reformation, a text inscription referring to anti-Jewish writings by Luther was added to the 13th-century sculpture.

Düllmann, 79, said: "The Church made the German people ready for Auschwitz."

He also referred to Wittenberg's own Martin Luther (1483-1546) as an "arch-Antisemite."

Judge calls sculpture 'antisemitism carved in stone'

Although a lower court in the city of Naumburg found the sculpture exhibited no "slanderous character" in its current context and that Düllmann's rights as a citizen were not infringed by it, BGH Judge Stephan Seiters called the relief, "Anti-Semitism, carved in stone," and noted that as a Jew living in Germany after the Holocaust, Düllmann was well within his rights to call for its removal.

Seiters added that the court must decide whether the information plaque mounted beneath the sculpture in 1988 should be "converted into a memorial." The plaque, which has both German and English texts, refers to the persecution of Europe's Jews and the six million people who died during the Holocaust.

The sculpture itself was restored in 2017, and rests some four meters (13 feet) above street level.

Judge Seiters noted that the court would also be charged with determining whether the church had in fact done enough to distance itself from the anti-Semitic intent of the original relief: "We must also determine whether an insult remains an insult, regardless of any new context it is placed within."

The parish of Wittenberg says it has indeed distanced itself from the message of the sculpture, with Pastor Matthias Keilholz saying: "Over the centuries, we have needed a thorn in the side to repeatedly find new ways to address the hate of Jews and the Church's role in it." The parish has called the "Wittenberger Judensau" part of a "difficult legacy, but also a record of history."

HOW THE NAZIS PROMOTED ANTI-SEMITISM THROUGH FILM
Hitler's favorite director
Leni Riefenstahl was among the Nazi filmmakers who tried to redeem their reputations after 1945. She was responsible for filming the Nazi party's massive rallies and was an integral part of the propaganda machine. Anti-Semitism was inseparable from the party's ideology.
123456789

Jewish leader Schuster: Removing shameful object would only render it invisible

Parish Chairman Jörg Bielig says the church has plans to more clearly explain the object and its historical context. Yet Düllmann has argued against such an approach, saying explanatory texts will only serve to confuse readers and minimize the Church's true role in promoting anti-Semitism.

Moreover, Düllmann is calling on German churches to accept their historical responsibility for the persecution of Jews and remove such sculptures, otherwise "Church anti-Judaism simply carries on."

"The anti-Jewish history of the Church cannot be undone," said Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, who suggested that an explanatory text would indeed be preferable to removing the shameful object, which would only render it invisible.

Christian Staffa, the German Protestant Church's official charged with combating and addressing antisemitism, underscored the fact that the issue of what to do with the sculpture could not be determined in a court of law but rather must be negotiated through public debate.

It is estimated that as many as 50 such depictions exist at churches across Germany and Europe.

The BGH, Germany's highest civil court, says it expects to deliver a verdict on the case by June 14.

Düllmann has said that he will take the case to Germany's Constitutional Court and even to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) should he fail to win a legal victory before the BGH.

Watch video 03:00 Holocaust survivor takes to TikTok to combat anti-Semitism

js/jsi (AP, dpa, KNA)

A tiny republic with a big heart: Exploring Uzupis in Lithuania

The self-proclaimed republic of Uzupis could be seen as a joke, but its foundation in Lithuania's capital has serious roots. DW's Heidi Fuller-Love meets with locals to learn more.

Let's take a tour through the self-proclaimed republic of Uzupis in Vilnius

Vilija Dovydenaite is the only official tour guide of Uzupis, one of the world's smallest republics, covering an area of less than 1 square kilometer, with barely 7,000 inhabitants. It's situated in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Dovydenaite explains that Uzupis means "over the river" as we cross the Vilnele river on a narrow bridge and enter the republic at the heart of Vilnius. Dovydenaite points to a bronze mermaid sculpture tucked into a gap in the wall above the fast-flowing river. "Be careful — if you look into her eyes you'll never want to leave," she warns.  

The bronze mermaid by sculptor Romas Vilciauskas

Down at heel neighborhood...

Home to a thriving Jewish population before World War II, the small independent neighborhood of Uzupis was left derelict after the Holocaust. Empty houses were used as brothels and squats. "At first, artists moved here because rents were cheap," explains Dovydenaite. 

It was a local photographer, Saulius Paukstys, who then got the ball rolling. Paukstys hit on the idea of replacing one of Lenin's statues, which had been torn down at the end of the Soviet regime, with a Frank Zappa bust, despite the fact that the rockstar had never visited Lithuania. Two years later, on April Fool's Day 1997, Paukstys, along with the republic's current president, filmmaker Roman Lileikis, declared independence for the Republic of Uzupis, saying they wanted to create a place where people could be themselves without worrying about social mores. "It was all completely absurd, but it seemed to be a good test of our newfound democracy and freedom," Dovydenaite says. 

Attention, you're now crossing the border to the republic of Uzupis

She tells me that the self-proclaimed Republic of Uzupis has its own president, its own constitution, its own currency and four national flags — one for each season.

"In bad times the last thing you think of is art or poetry, so life was difficult for people who were creative and not adapted to life's daily struggles. This group of people were looking for a way to survive — they were looking for a new way to live together after the Soviet times when tolerance and respect did not exist," she says.

...transforms into an upmarket district

Although the Lithuanian government was initially hostile to the project, they soon got onboard. Within a few decades, the runaway republic had become accepted — although it's not recognized as an official nation by foreign governments. 

You never know what you'll find when strolling the streets of Uzupis

Despite being close to the city's old town, Uzupis, which was surrounded by the river on three sides, was cut off from the rest of Vilnius until the 16th century when a bridge was built to link it to the larger city beyond. Today, there are designer boutiques, trendy cafes and secret courtyards which are decorated with quirky objects. "Ironically, this is now the second most expensive part of the city after the old town — no struggling artist could afford to buy an apartment here now," Dovydenaite says. 

The statue of Archangel Gabriel is an important landmark in Uzupis

A tourist magnet

We visit the Uzupis Art Incubator, the first of its kind in the Baltic States. Artists from around the world come here to create experimental works. Next, we stop at a long wall covered in metal signs. Dovydenaite tells me this is Uzupis' constitution, which has been translated into over 50 different languages. There are more than forty articles, including: "Cats have the right to not love their owners" and "everyone has the right to be in doubt, but this is not an obligation."

"It's written in a funny way, but if you put it in the right context it has a lot of meaning," Dovydenaite says. "It's all about people learning to think for themselves again and express themselves freely after 70 years of oppression. You could say this is the first written document of human rights in post-Soviet Lithuania."

From quirky installations to colorful street art, there's plenty to see in Uzupis. The best time to visit this district, which is the most popular area for tourists in Vilnius, is on April Fool's Day. On the anniversary of the republic's independence, the borders are manned by special guards who stamp visitors' passports, while a former water fountain flows with beer, and the art and music events take place in the streets.

Street art can be found all around Uzupis

Artists lead anti-war protests

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, many of the republic's 7,000 inhabitants have been involved in organizing city-wide protests and initiatives to demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine.

I meet Neringa Rekasiute, a local artist who has been involved in a number of art activism projects, such as her video "Swimming Through," set in the pond outside the Russian embassy.

"We dyed the pond red and then Ruta Meilutyte, an Olympic athlete, swam across it," she explains. "I wanted to show that the Russians have blood on their hands, but I also wanted to show hope, to show Ukrainians swimming through all this blood to reach freedom."


EXPLORING EASTERN EUROPE: LITHUANIA
Vilnius: Pearl of the Baltic
Vilnius, the exciting, multicultural capital, has sidewalk cafes, pubs and bars with live music, picturesque lanes, a castle complex and a great number of churches. Its historical center was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. One of the best-known sights in Vilnius is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Stanislaus and St. Ladislaus, seen here.
1234567891011

Edited by: Benjamin Restle

Tobacco industry severely damages environment: WHO

Tobacco products are the most littered item on the planet, and they contain thousands of toxic chemicals that can end up in the environment, according to the World Health Organization.



Tobacco products are the most littered items on the planet, the WHO says

Smoking not only kills people, but also severely impacts the environment, the World Health Organization said in a report released Tuesday.

The report, Tobacco: poisoning our planet, published to coincide with World No Tobacco Day, said smoking kills 8 million people every year.

Along with that, the production and consumption of tobacco leads to the loss of around 600 million trees, 200,000 hectares of land, and 22 billion tons of water every year, it said.

Smoking industry is a massive CO2 emitter

Tobacco use and production also contributes significantly to global greenhouse gases, emitting around 84 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.

"The industry's carbon footprint from production, processing and transporting tobacco is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year, further contributing to global warming," the report warns.

Watch video 02:26 Recycling cigarette butts with mushrooms

Cigarette filters also severely damaging

Around 4.5 trillion cigarette filters — which contain non-biodegradable microplastics — end up in oceans, rivers and beaches every year, said Rüdiger Krech, the WHO's director of health promotion.

Tobacco products are the most littered item on the planet, Krech said, adding they contain over 7,000 toxic chemicals "which leech into our environment when discarded."

Krech said the cost of cleaning up discarded tobacco items almost always falls on taxpayers and called on the tobacco industry to do more. Germany pays around $200 million (€186 million) to clean up tobacco waste.

Watch video 01:49 Doing Your Bit: Less smoke and more smoked fish

The report called on policymakers to consider banning cigarette filters because of their harmful impact on the environment.

The WHO also calls attention to the plight of tobacco farmers exposed to harmful emissions throughout the course of their work and life. Krech said some farmers were poisoned by the nicotine they absorbed through their skin.

It is important, Krech said, that "the industry pay actually for the mess that they are creating."

rm/nm (dpa, Reuters)

Climate change puts agrivoltaic projects in Northern Africa in the spotlight

With record-high temperatures in Northern Africa and worries over food security rampant from Egypt to Morocco, agrivoltaic projects in the region are getting ever more attention.

Installing solar panels without losing agricultural areas seems like a sound idea

As food and energy security emerge as top priorities in several regions, an innovative use of existing technologies might help serve both: Agrivoltaic projects allow energy production and agricultural activity on the same land, potentially increasing farming productivity.

Several agrivoltaic pilot programs, in partnership with mainly  European research centers and agencies, are underway on the African continent. Results are nearly in for the research phase of one such one project in Algeria, Watermed4.0, according to German research organization Fraunhofer ISE, one of eight institutions involved.

"We only had the first harvest of potatoes so far. Early data had some promising results: under the agrivoltaic installation there was a significantly higher yield and size of the crop compared with an uncovered reference field — about 16% more," Brendon Bingwa, project manager of Agrivoltaics Africa at Fraunhofer, told DW. Additional work will provide more data and evidence, he added.

The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) noted that sharing experiences is essential for new processes like agrivoltaic programs. "It would be desirable if data and experiences on projects in this field were shared publicly for further assessment," a spokesperson told DW. 

Helpful change in microclimate

The shading effect and ensuing improvement of the microclimate in the areas below photovoltaic modules are among the main benefits of agrivoltaic projects, which could not only increase agricultural productivity, but also allow the cultivation of new crops.

These technologies will be increasingly crucial amid climate change, said Ezio Terzini, manager of the photovoltaic and smart devices division at the NEA, Italy's public research agency. The agency has partnered in a proposed agrivoltaic project led by environmental organization Green Cross International to build a five-megawatt photovoltaic power plant in an agricultural region in Morocco. 

"Many formerly fertile agricultural areas located in mild climate zones now suffer from progressive infertility due to rising temperatures or water scarcity," Terzini told DW. "Other areas are exposed to extreme weather phenomena. Agrivoltaic projects could help with both, restoring fertile conditions to areas in progressive abandonment."

Agrivoltaic projects can also produce electricity to pump and desalinate water, opening the doors to agriculture in difficult regions and desert areas.

Export potential

Terzini pointed out that the southern shores of  Mediterranean countries have long boosted the spread of photovoltaic installations over large areas, exacerbating the trade-off between electricity and food production. While electricity is a medium-term necessity, food production is the short-term priority.
"The armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine is looming over a serious food crisis that will significantly affect Africa — we need to find solutions for increasing food production in this area," Terzini said.

This potential is significant. According to Fraunhofer's project manager Bingwa, the agrivoltaic projects would go beyond simply easing local food security concerns. "The project in Algeria is an example: Strawberries are the second crop. Production would satisfy local markets and allow exports, thanks to cold storage facilities, which are not part of the ongoing project, but would be an added advantage if implemented."

Future agrivoltaic projects could indeed use electricity to power cold-storage facilities to shield crops from high temperatures, prolonging the shelf life of the harvested crops.

This additional service would be controlled by data-based control systems, which are currently being tested to optimize water use.

"I hope that we will witness progress from this demonstrator phase to building them in communities in the next five years, with wider impacts on the region," Bingwa said.

A stronger local economy would also positively impact  job markets, eventually decreasing the probability of migration flows.

It may be a small project, but the Algeria agrovoltaic installation shows that the underlying concept has many benefits

Though a small project, the Algerian agrovoltaic installation shows that the concept has many benefits.

Business models

The Algerian  project shows  how institutions from different countries — including Algeria, Germany, Spain and Turkey — can successfully combine their technological know-how. Spain's University of Murcia, for example, brought its expertise in digitalization to Watermed4.0.

The next step is to find a suitable business model to make these experimental systems pay off. According to Bingwa, public funding is critical to the research, but private investors and local players are also needed to make these projects viable and replicable.

Solar-powered irrigation systems

The research-phase agrivoltaic projects combine several technologies, including solar-powered irrigation systems. The German development agency GIZ  and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations have already worked on these systems.

The UN said that these systems require reinforcing the technical capacities of local staff and farmers. They were designed to "enable advisers and service providers to provide broad hands-on guidance to end-users, policymakers, and financiers. Thus, risks related to system efficiency, financial viability and the unsustainable use of water resources can be minimized," a FAO spokesperson told DW.

FAO is currently working on three projects in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. The Rome-based organization said that projects in strategic regions could provide good practice examples, allowing operations to be scaled up. That will also require the collaboration of local policymakers, which will need to create the framework for investments.

"Strong institutions and clear policy vision help advance the adoption of such technologies," the spokesperson concluded.

European court condemns Turkey over Amnesty head's detention

Human rights defenders won the case, and Turkey was asked to pay costs and damages for detaining the head of Amnesty International's chapter in the country.



Taner Kilic was arrested in 2017 on suspicion of links with a Turkish dissident

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Turkey acted unlawfully in detaining the local head of the human rights group Amnesty International in 2017.

The court found no evidence that Taner Kilic had committed any offense.
Why was Kilic detained?

Authorities had detained Kilic in June 2017, charging him with having links to the US-based preacher and Turkish dissident Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey says staged a 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.

He was released after 14 months in detention, but in July 2020 was convicted of belonging to a terror group and given six years and three months in prison.

The ECHR now says that the original detention took place even though there was "no reasonable suspicion that Mr Kilic had committed an offense."

The court also ruled that his subsequent conviction on other charges was "directly linked to his activity as a human rights defender," and interfered with his freedom of expression.

Seven judges, including Saadet Yuksel from Turkey, unanimously ruled in Kilic's favor.

Turkey had accused him of belonging to the group due to his alleged use of a phone messaging app, his children's schooling, newspaper subscriptions and the fact that he held accounts in a bank linked to the Gulen movement.
What did the court rule?

"This long-awaited European Court ruling confirms what we have known from the start — that Taner Kilic was arbitrarily deprived of his liberty when jailed in a high security prison on trumped-up charges," said Amnesty International's Europe director, Nils Muiznieks.

Kilic is not currently in prison and has appealed the verdict, but Muiznieks says he could go back to jail if Turkey's Court of Cassation does not uphold his appeal.

Turkey was ordered to pay $26,300 (€24,500) in damages and $10,735 (€10,000) in costs.

The ECHR has recently ruled against Turkey over the detention of Selahattin Demirtas, an opposition leader, and Osman Kavala, a philanthropist and activist.

Demirtas has been in prison since 2016 on several charges, while Kavala was given life without parole for involvement in protests in 2013.

er/nm (AFP, Reuters)