New Millennium book brings Nordic noir even further north

Viken Kantarci and Alma Cohen
Thu, November 3, 2022 


The latest instalment in the Nordic crime saga Millennium hits Swedish bookstores Friday, with a new author seeking to shift the story's focus to the far north of the country.

Karin Smirnoff, who already had four novels under her belt, is continuing the celebrated series originally created by Stieg Larsson.

His fame came posthumously -- he died in 2004, a year before the release of the first book in the saga, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".

"It was quite easy to say yes to the project," Smirnoff told AFP, adding she had a special fondness for rogue hacker Lisbeth Salander, one of the main characters.

The Millennium books were some of the breakout hits of the 21st century. More than 100 million copies were sold, with the titles published in over 50 countries and adapted several times for the cinema.

Larsson, an investigative journalist specialising in extreme right-wing movements, died of a heart attack just after submitting his first three manuscripts.

He would never know the success of his work or enjoy the fortune it generated.
- Controversy -

His partner, Eva Gabrielsson, found herself excluded from the proceeds because they were not married.

The controversy over the inheritance reared its head again years later when the decision was made to write a first batch of sequels after Larsson's death, consisting of three novels by the best-selling author David Lagercrantz.

The author wrote the books with the blessing of Larsson's brother and father, the heirs to his work.

Another two books are planned, but for Smirnoff the goal wasn't to reinvent Larsson's work in the new trilogy.

"I'm trying to continue this with respect to what's been done before," the 58-year-old author said.

But she still aims to put her "own point of view" forward while exploring themes of violence, politics and abuse of power present in the series.

In her opinion, works of art by necessity transcend their creators.

"I don't think that art belongs to anyone in that sense. Because if it was like that, art wouldn't progress at all," she said.

Picking up the pen was to continue "a project which is huge", she said, admitting the mission was "quite a task".

"I know a lot of people, they're thinking that this is only done for money. I don't think that David Lagercrantz did this only for money. I'm not doing it" for money, she said.
- Far north -

The seventh instalment of the grim series, "Havsornens skrik" ("The Cry of the White-tailed Eagle"), is set in Sweden's far north where the adventures of Salander and Mikael Blomkvist will continue.

"I live up in the north of Sweden, so I wanted it to take place here," Smirnoff explained.

Setting the story more than a thousand kilometres north of the capital Stockholm, where most of the previous books have taken place, was also an opportunity to point out the injustices suffered by the region.

The ancestral land of the indigenous Sami people, which holds much of Sweden's natural resources, has been undergoing an industrial boom in recent decades.

Smirnoff notes the region "has a history of people from the south coming here", exploiting its resources and disappearing with the spoils.

Billions are also currently being pumped into the region in so-called green industries.

"With the billions come the problems as well," she told AFP.

Now, Smirnoff awaits readers' judgements.

"It's only like three weeks ago I wrote the last word. So for me, it's too close. I can't decide whether it's a good book," she said.

"It's going to be quite exciting when it's coming out to hear what other people think."

vk-aco/jll/lcm/smw

Gentrification fuels ire in iconic Athens neighbourhood

John HADOULIS
Fri, November 4, 2022 


The historic Athens district of Exarcheia has been a famed anti-establishment haven to some and a hideout for firebomb-wielding anarchists and drug dealers to others.

Now two regeneration projects are sparking controversy, protests and fears that a gentrification drive will forever alter the 19th century district's bohemian character.

Construction is underway on a new metro station on Exarcheia Square -- for years iconic as the culmination point of countless demonstrations in the volatile political culture of the Greek capital.

There is also an ongoing makeover of nearby Strefi Hill, a rare, albeit run-down spot of greenery in congested Athens with a panoramic view.

Protesters say the two projects combined will "kill off" Exarcheia's libertarian spirit.

With discontent bubbling under the surface, multi-million-euro investments at stake and demonstrations, locals now complain that Exarcheia has more police guarding its streets than outside parliament or government offices.

City and government officials are taking no chances in a neighbourhood synonymous to most Greeks with far-left unrest.

Under Strefi Hill, motorcycle police watch a group of teenagers shoot hoops at an outdoor basketball court. Others stand guard around the metro construction site.

- 'Political obsession' -

"We have more police than the prime minister's office," quips 66-year-old Thodoris Kokkinakis, a lifelong Exarcheia resident who says he sees around 200 officers in his neighbourhood at any given time of the day.

Residents accuse city officials of neglecting the heavily graffitied Strefi Hill for over two decades. The local playground is gutted, pathways are eroding, fire hydrants are faulty and there is no garbage collection.

Residents have often banded together in the past to clean up garbage, douse fires and discourage drug trading, Kokkinakis told AFP.

"We would repeatedly call the police. They claimed not to know where the hill was... or never turn up," he said.

While the metro station project has been on the drawing board for over a decade, opponents accuse the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of weaponising the project as part of its law-and-order agenda.

"The government has a political obsession, a vendetta towards youths living or enjoying themselves in this historic district," wrote Nikos Belavilas, an architecture professor at the National Technical University of Athens, on Facebook.

After police in October beat up a protesting resident in front of his children, Greece's main opposition Syriza party said there was an "explosive mix" of "chronic neglect, unchecked real estate and police barbarity" in Exarcheia.

Yet others welcome the extension of the metro line.

- 'Nihilists' -

"The nearest stations are too far to walk," said a 75-year-old Exarcheia pensioner.

"A lot of people here want the metro" but are reluctant to speak openly, she added, declining to give her name to avoid antagonising neighbours who disagree.

Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, whose office did not respond to an AFP request for an interview, has dismissed protesters as "a few dozen" wandering "nihilists" in comments to Skai TV last August.

He told the municipal council last month that the regeneration project was aimed at "mums with prams".

Greece is banking hard on tourism to shore up its economy ahead of a tough winter compounded by soaring energy prices.

After slashing most of its coronavirus restrictions, tourism arrivals more than doubled year-on-year in the first eight months of 2022, to over 19 million.

But residents fear Exarcheia may soon follow the fate of Koukaki, another historic Athens district that saw rents skyrocket due to short-term property rentals and holiday lets owing to its proximity to the Acropolis.

A study by the Greek realtor group Remax last month showed Exarcheia rents rising on average 18 percent since last year.

- Rent hikes -

"The shop next door had to shut down after the landlord hiked the rent from 600 to 900 euros," says Angelos, a bookstore owner a short distance from Exarcheia Square.

Critics also view with suspicion the awarding, without tender, of the Strefi works to a major Greek real estate investment company.

Athens' mayor -- a nephew of Mitsotakis -- has also drawn fire and comparisons to France's 16th and 17th century spendthrift King Louis XIV over an ambitious pedestrianisation project.

A key part of the 50-million-euro ($49 million) Great Walk project, sold as "Europe's loveliest promenade", involved sealing off a lane on one of Athens' busiest avenues with large palm trees, flower planters and benches.

The mayor has promoted the project, which began in 2020, as necessary to modernise and revitalise downtown Athens. "Fewer cars, more greenery, less noise, more pedestrians and cyclists," he told Kathimerini newspaper last month.

But a year into the four-year project, a survey found in 2021 that over 85 percent of residents and local business owners were dissatisfied with the initiative.

Much of the criticism has been levelled at the cost. According to a municipal budget sheet published at the time, some six-metre palm trees cost 3,200 euros each and the largest planters a hefty 5,000 euros.

jph/jm

THE GREAT REPLACEMENT
Jordan Bardella: heir of France's Le Pen at just 27


Adam PLOWRIGHT
Fri, November 4, 2022 


Jordan Bardella, a self-confident 27-year-old, looks set this weekend to confirm he is the rising star of France's far-right politics and the favoured heir to veteran leader Marine Le Pen.

The Paris-born politician is odds-on to be selected by members of the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party as their new president at a congress on Saturday. Le Pen decided to step back from the role after 11 years at the helm.

Formerly known as the National Front, the party had been run by Le Pen's father Jean-Marie for 40 years before that.

Bardella would be the first party chief outside the family dynasty in a half-century.


"The fact the party president will not have the name Le Pen is the sign of openness and confidence that Marine has in the new generation," Bardella told AFP during a recent trip to eastern France.

Not that the ultra-loyal protege, who was elected to the European parliament in 2019, is planning to try to overshadow her.

"I am a continuity candidate, with the aim of building on the incredible legacy that Marine is handing over," he added.

He expects and wants Le Pen to take a fourth run at the presidency in 2027 after her record 41.5 percent in April's election run-off against President Emmanuel Macron.


She then fronted the party's parliamentary election campaign in June which saw the RN capture 89 seats, a 10-fold rise making it the biggest opposition party in the national assembly.
- 'Drug dealers' -

His only opponent is Louis Aliot, the mayor of the southwestern city of Perpignan who lacks Bardella's profile despite being a party member for more than 30 years.

Le Pen's 32-year-old niece Marion Marechal, long seen as the long-term family successor, is out of the picture having left the party before the presidential vote to back rival far-right candidate Eric Zemmour.

Bardella has been acting president since September 2021 when Le Pen stepped back, supposedly temporarily.

"He's got everything right and is respected by everyone," far-right MP Laurent Jacobelli told AFP at a mid-October campaign stop at Hayange in the Moselle region.

"And he knows how to make different people work together, so why would we change anything?

At the event, Bardella spoke confidently on stage, without notes, for 40 minutes, sharing details about his childhood on the eighth floor of a drab tower block in the crime-ridden Seine-Saint-Denis area northeast of Paris.

He lived with his mother, an Italian immigrant and single mum.

"Every day from my window and when I entered the building I would see that there were drug dealers checking if you were from the police," he said.

There was also an Islamic school across the road, he said.

"I used to see groups of girls aged five, six or seven leaving with veils over their heads," he added.

Personal harassment and riots in 2005, led by mostly black and north African youths angry about police violence, pushed him to join Le Pen's party aged just 16.

"I got involved in politics very early because I didn't want the whole of France to resemble what I had experienced," he told the crowd.
- 'Jordan, President! -

Bardella likes to stress that he is from a new generation of nationalists with little in common with the racist, anti-Semitic thuggery associated with Jean-Marie Le Pen and the National Front.

Marine Le Pen has gone to great lengths to try to distance herself from this toxic legacy although critics say racism remains rife at the grassroots level and accuse Le Pen of simply spinning old ideas with new language.

Bardella is the image of the clean-cut and controlled modern party that she now promotes: conspicuously neat, always dressed in immaculate shirts, polished shoes, with hair cut short.

"Without Jean-Marie Le Pen, the National Front wouldn't exist, but without Marine it wouldn't still be here," Bardella told AFP. "She transformed it from having a protest culture to having a culture of government."
- 'Step aside' -

Opponents from within the party, including Aliot, have expressed discomfort with an alleged readiness to embrace ideas espoused by Le Pen's far-right rival the pundit Eric Zemmour.

Last year, Bardella came close to embracing Zemmour's mantra of the "Great Replacement", a conspiracy theory that suggests white Europeans are being deliberately replaced by immigrants.

He also hastily backtracked from a plan to attend a demonstration organised by Zemmour's party after the killing of a 12-year-old by an Algerian woman facing expulsion shocked France.

There are also questions over what value the presidency of the RN has for Bardella, given Le Pen formally leads its cohort in parliament and is widely expected to be its presidential candidate in 2027.

But many expect the party position to be a stepping stone.

"At some point Marine will step aside and he's got every chance," said Alice Orsudci, a 52-year-old local business owner watching his campaign tour.

"I don't know if we're allowed to say it, and I don't want to flatter him, but I sincerely believe Jordan will be president one day," said MP Jacobelli.

adp/sjw/bp

'New Orleans is under threat from extreme weather events'

New Orleans is under threat from extreme weather events. To protect itself from hurricanes, the city invested 14.5 billion dollars in a levee system. The city is now surrounded by a 560 kilometre-long and 8 metre-high wall. The system survived its first big test in 2021 with Hurricane Ida but it remains fragile. 

Brazil's Bolsonaro asks supporters to 'unblock' roads

Bolsonaro's supporters are rallying in front of military installations in Brazil's major cities and have blocked highways

By AFP
November 03, 2022

Brazil's outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro.— AFP

SAO PAULO: Brazil's outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro asked participants in what he said were "legitimate" protests to "unblock the roads" and demonstrate elsewhere Wednesday as they push for military intervention to keep him in power.

The far-right leaders' supporters are rallying in front of military installations in Brazil's major cities and have blocked highways in more than half the country´s states.

The demonstrators, unwilling to accept the results of Bolsonaro's Sunday election defeat to leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, have now clogged autoroutes and caused nationwide disruptions for three straight days.

"I want to make an appeal to them: Unblock the roads," Bolsonaro said late Wednesday. The blockages do "not seem to me to be part of legitimate demonstrations."

"Other demonstrations that are taking place throughout Brazil in squares... are part of the democratic game. They are welcome," he added.

After days of silence, Bolsonaro on Tuesday gave a short speech in which he neither accepted defeat nor congratulated Lula on his weekend win, although his chief of staff took the podium afterward to say the president had authorized the transition to a new government.

"Federal intervention now!" chanted some of the thousands who gathered in front of the Southeastern Military Command in the country´s biggest city, Sao Paulo.

"We want a federal intervention because we demand our freedom. We do not admit that a thief governs us," Angela Cosac, 70, told AFP, alluding to the fact that Lula served time in prison for corruption.

The day of mobilization was marred by violence, however. At a roadblock near the town of Mirassol in Sao Paulo state, a motorist drove into a crowd of demonstrators, injuring at least seven people, according to CNN.

Some supporters of Bolsonaro, himself a retired army captain, made threatening gestures to journalists in Sao Paulo, where crowds of demonstrators swelled later in the day.

In the southern state of Santa Catarina, protesters were filmed on Wednesday raising Nazi salutes.

Thousands meanwhile gathered in the capital, Brasilia, chanting "civil resistance," while in rainy downtown Rio de Janeiro, demonstrators were filmed by Brazilian media shouting: "Lula, thief, your place is in prison."

Disruptions nationwide

The number of road blockades throughout the country decreased from 271 on Tuesday to 146 on Wednesday, according to police.

In Sao Paulo, military police used tear gas to disperse a blockade on the main highway connecting the state with the central-west region of the country, after the Supreme Federal Court ordered the use of "all necessary measures" to open the roads.

Rodrigo da Mata, a 41-year-old salesman, told AFP that he wanted a military intervention "so that our country does not become communist."

"We do not accept the election result because we know it was fraudulent. Like everything that the PT does," he added, in reference to Lula's Workers' Party.

Trucks sounded their horns, while demonstrators wearing yellow football jerseys waved flags in front of passing vehicles, in scenes broadcast on local television.

The blockades have caused disruptions nationwide. The main airport in Sao Paulo cancelled 48 flights due to the protests, according to its press office.

Bolsonaro´s vice president, Hamilton Mourao, told the O Globo daily that "it´s no use crying, we´ve lost the game."

The National Confederation of Industry warned on Tuesday of an imminent risk of fuel shortages if blocked roads were not quickly cleared.

Infrastructure minister Marcelo Sampaio had asked late Tuesday for protesters to unblock the highways to allow medicine, supplies and fuel to circulate.

Many Brazilian supermarkets reportedly were already experiencing some supply shortages.

'Dream is still alive'

Demonstrations calling for military intervention in front of military buildings took place Wednesday in 11 of the country's 27 states, according to news site UOL.

Bolsonaro on Tuesday said protesters should not "use the methods of the left... that prevent freedom of movement," but added that the roadblocks were "the fruit of indignation and a feeling of injustice at how the electoral process took place."

"Peaceful protests will always be welcome," he said.

That was interpreted by some supporters as a call to maintain the demonstrations.

"The dream is still alive," said a message by one supporter Tuesday on Telegram. "Fill the streets tomorrow."

India's capital to shut schools as toxic smog chokes city

Primary schools in India's capital New Delhi will shut to protect children from the toxic smog choking the megacity of 20 million people, authorities said Friday

By AFP
November 04, 2022

The burning of rice paddies after harvests across northern India takes place every year. — AFP

New Delhi: Primary schools in India's capital New Delhi will shut to protect children from the toxic smog choking the megacity of 20 million people, authorities said Friday.

Smoke from farmers burning crop stubble, vehicle exhaust and factory emissions combine every winter to blanket the capital in a deadly grey haze.

On Friday, levels of the most dangerous PM2.5 particles -- so tiny they can enter the bloodstream -- were almost 25 times the daily maximum recommended by the World Health Organization, according to monitoring firm IQAir.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, under fire from residents and political opponents for failing to address the crisis, said primary schools would be closed from Saturday until "the pollution situation improves".

"No child should suffer in any way," Kejriwal told reporters.

Delhi is frequently ranked as one of the world's most polluted cities. On Friday it again topped IQAir's list of major cities with the worst air quality.

A Lancet study in 2020 attributed 1.67 million deaths to air pollution in India during the previous year, including almost 17,500 in the capital.

Authorities regularly announce different plans to reduce the pollution, for example by halting construction work, but to little effect.

Tens of thousands of farmers across north India set fire to their fields at the start of every winter to clear crop stubble from recently harvested rice paddies.

The practice is one of the key drivers of Delhi's annual smog problem and persists despite efforts to persuade farmers to use different clearing methods.

Farm fire smoke accounted for a third of Delhi's air pollution on Thursday, according to India's air quality monitoring agency.

The problem is also a political flashpoint -- with Delhi and the northern state of Punjab governed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a rival to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.

But Kejriwal called for an end to "blame games and finger-pointing" over responsibility for tackling the smog, after India's environment minister lambasted the AAP for presiding over an increase in farm fires.

"It won't help in finding solutions. We can blame them, and they can blame us, but that would lead to nothing," he said.

"Farmers need solutions," he added. "The day they get a solution, they will stop burning the stubble."

CO2 capture and storage: Environmental lifeline or blank cheque for polluters?

Grégoire SAUVAGE -

CO2 capture and storage technologies are gaining momentum as the world struggles to reduce emissions enough to avoid a climate catastrophe. Some climate activists are sceptical and see this technology as a cop-out. But others say its use could well be necessary.


CO2 capture and storage: Environmental lifeline or blank cheque for polluters?

© Alexiane Lerouge, AFP

For years, carbon capture and storage (CCS) was outside the mainstream, hindered by prohibitive costs and a lack of political support. But now the CCS industry is booming.

The French Institute of International Relations counted a record 76 CCS projects on the go in Europe in a 2021 report.

“Currently, CCS is progressing along two tracks in Europe; there’s a lot of enthusiasm in northern Europe and a lot less enthusiasm in southern Europe, where there’s a lack of political will to implement these technologies,” said Thomas Le Guénan, a geologist at the French Geological and Mining Research Bureau.

The market for CO2 capture and storage equipment is expected to quadruple over the next three years, reaching some $50 billion in 2025, according to Norwegian research firm Rystad Energy. Thanks to surging investment in Europe and North America, the CCS industry should be able to sequester 150 million tonnes per year, up from 40 million at present. This is nevertheless a drop in the ocean when compared to the 38 billion tonnes of CO2 emitted by humans in 2019.

Piloted by oil supermajors Total, Shell and Equinor, the Northern Lights project is expected to make Norway a CO2 storage powerhouse. Near the island of Bergen, a terminal is set to capture nearly 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year produced by European industry. “The ship will unload its CO2 in liquid form; it’s like water, odourless and colourless,” explained Cristel Lambtone, the project's technical director, speaking to France Info. The CO2 will then be transported through pipelines to be stored 2,500 metres below the North Sea in wells currently being drilled.

How does CO2 capture work?

Needless to say, CO2 needs to captured before it is buried. The easiest way to do this is while fossil fuels or wood are being burned. There are various processes, but the one the CCS sector has mastered best is called “post-combustion” – using a solvent to isolate the CO2 from the industrial fumes. This technique is especially effective on the most polluting manufacturing sites, like power stations, steelworks, chemical plants and cement plants.

The next step is to transport the compressed CO2 to storage sites such as old oil reservoirs or saline aquifers. “These are not holes but deep formations with porous rocks that allow CO2 to be injected,” Le Guénan explained. “We also look for formations with impermeable rock on top to prevent CO2 from rising up.”

Related video: Shipping industry feeling increased pressure to reduce carbon emissions

Duration 4:17 View on Watch

It is also possible to suck CO2 straight from the atmosphere using giant hoovers. The largest operation using this technology is the Orca site in Iceland. Although still in its infancy, this technology has won a lot of investment over the past two years, especially in the US. Tech titans like Elon Musk and Bill Gates have poured in money.

A gigafactory capturing CO2 directly from the atmosphere is due to start work in the US state of Wyoming, a big coal producer. This “Bison” project aims to capture 5 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.

Limits of CO2 capture

CCS looks like a godsend as countries around the world struggle to wean themselves off fossil fuels.

But while prices have reduced significantly, the high costs of these energy-intensive technologies still place a ceiling on what the sector can do. “As things stand, the price of the carbon allowance issued under the EU’s CO2 emissions trading scheme is still lower than the costs for manufacturers of CCS technology,” said Florence Delprat-Jannaud, head of the CCS programme at the French Institute of Petroleum. “Subsidies are needed to accelerate the implementation of this technology.”

The cost is even higher for direct capture from the air – up to €335 per tonne of CO2 – because the process requires a lot of energy, since CO2 is not highly concentrated in the air.

Nevertheless, costs could fall below €100 per tonne by 2030 for facilities benefitting from large renewable energy resources, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

And it takes a long time to make storage locations operational. “You’ve got to collect a lot of data to have enough confidence in a site; all in all, it can take about a decade,” said Le Guénan, who is currently studying a potential storage area in Grandpuits in the Paris region as part of an EU project.

‘Essential’ or a ‘risky bet’?

At the same time, many people do not like the idea of CO2 storage sites in their local area due to fears of gas leaks and lower house prices. Fierce opposition from local populations to proposed projects has already been seen in Germany and The Netherlands.

Many environmentalists are also sceptical. “Manufacturers see CCS as a way of carrying on with the same production model, when it would be better to reduce energy consumption while recycling industrial materials,” said Léa Mattieu, head of the heavy industry programme at the NGO Climate Action Network.

“It’s a risky bet,” Mattieu continued. “Manufacturers have been talking about this technology for several decades – and we haven’t really seen the results come to fruition. CCS is still too expensive and it may well end up being a last resort solution, just for heavy industry.”

Indeed, as things stand CCS plays a marginal role in reducing CO2 emissions and its potential for development remains unproven. At present only around 30 large-scale installations are at work across the globe, capable of capturing and storing some 40 million tonnes a year. In order to achieve carbon neutrality, according to the IEA, 50 or even 100 times more than that needs to be captured and stored by 2035.

All that said, as countries struggle to bring enough renewable and nuclear energy on line, scientists from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say CCS is essential to averting a climate catastrophe – while highlighting that nothing must distract from the imperative of drastically reducing emissions.

This article was adapted from the original in French.

US Embassy officials visit Brittney Griner in Russian prison

It was the first consular access to the WNBA star since early August, when she was imprisoned in Russia on drug charges. Washington and Moscow are discussing a potential prisoner swap.

Officials of the United States Embassy in Moscow visited imprisoned WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday.

State Department spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter that the American representatives, "saw firsthand her tenacity and perseverance despite her present circumstances."

"We are told she is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Air Force One.

The visit comes after a Russian court last week rejected Griner's appeal of her nine-year sentence for drug possession.

She has been imprisoned since her arrest in February after being caught bringing less than a gram of cannabis oil into the country.

Once the appeals process is over, she could be transferred to a penal colony.

Russian court rejects Brittney Griner's appeal

02:00

Potential prisoner exchange?

According to Jean-Pierre, President Joe Biden's administration is pressing Russia, "to resolve the current unacceptable and wrongful detentions," of Griner and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine also imprisoned in Russia

He was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison in Russia on espionage-related charges that he and his family say are bogus.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said over the summer that the US had made a "substantial proposal'' to Russia to try to secure their release.

Biden told relatives of Griner and Whelan in a White House meeting in September that his administration was committed to bringing them home.

The US has offered to exchange Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer currently serving a 25-year prison sentence, for the two Americans.

The US described the Russian court proceedings against Griner as a 'sham'

Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters/AP/picture alliance

On Thursday Russia's ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said Moscow would seek the release of as many of its citizens as possible in any future prisoner exchange with Washington.

This came despite Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's saying last week that a potential prisoner exchange could only be negotiated quietly.

lo/msh (AP, Reuters)

GLOBAL HEALTH CARE CRISIS

How to save Germany's hospitals

The government has pledged billions to help hospitals face rising inflation and energy costs. It has also promised "the biggest hospital reform in 20 years" to fix the system. That is badly needed, but will it work?


Ben Knight C-DW - TODAY

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach revealed on Tuesday that German hospitals would be receiving an extra €8 billion ($7.9 billion) as a buffer against spiraling energy costs.

The planned special funds "should come very quickly," Lauterbach said in Berlin, adding that the money was also meant to cover additional needs to offset inflation.

The German Hospital Federation (DKG) had warned that the sharp rise in costs would send many hospitals to the brink of insolvency.
Wrong incentives?

But the hospitals' immediate cash-flow troubles are overshadowed by larger structural issues, which Lauterbach has made it his task to resolve: Germany's understaffed and over-bureaucratic hospital system, where doctors and patients have for many years complained of too many financial incentives to "over-treat" patients, resulting in long hospital stays, unnecessary operations, unnecessary antibiotic treatments.

The number of operations on the spine has increased dramatically in Germany

 Felix Kästle/dpa/picture alliance

A recent documentary by public broadcaster ARD related several such stories. One was told by gynecologist Katharina Lüdemann, who described a patient who had developed a so-called placental insufficiency in the first 25 weeks of her pregnancy.

Following two weeks of daily assessments on whether or not her baby had more chance of surviving inside or outside her womb, a colleague at a conference told her: "You do know that if the child weighs more than 1,500 grams, then we make only half as much money. So what are you waiting for?"

"That really knocked me off my feet at the time," Lüdemann recounted. "What does it mean when it isn't even about that anymore about what is medically reasonable?" Premature babies are one of the most lucrative income sources for hospitals, and Germany has a network of 170 hospital centers for premature babies, far more than other countries.

There are similar stories in all hospital departments: Artificial ventilation, a treatment that was needed more than ever during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, costs nearly €11,000 for the first 24 hours, but anything over 25 hours, and the hospitals can earn twice as much and the sum goes up with time. And yet prolonged ventilation can cause significant damage to the lungs and heart.

Ventilation of patients has become a lucrative business

Jeff Pachoud/dpa/picture alliance

Diagnosis-Related Groups

The villain in this is the classification according to Diagnosis Related Group (DRG), the system by which hospitals in many countries classify cases and how they are paid by health insurers. This "Fallpauschale," or case fee, was introduced in Germany in 2003 partly to reduce the length of hospital stays and the ensuing pressure on hospital staff: Hospitals are now paid based on the case itself, not on how long the patient stayed in the hospital. It worked: The average length of a hospital stay in Germany has dropped from 10 days to 7 days since the introduction of the case fee. The occupancy of hospital beds remained low in 2021, despite the pandemic.

But this has only brought its own detrimental incentives with it: Namely, a pressure to get to treat as many patients as possible, and a pressure to over-treat them. There's an old medical joke about this, which the doctor and journalist Werner Bartens repeated in the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper last year: "There are no healthy people, there are only people who haven't been examined thoroughly enough." That, Bartens said, "was not irony anymore, but dangerous reality."

Promising the "biggest hospital reform in 20 years," Lauterbach has said he is determined to replace case fees with a better system and has instituted a 16-person experts' commission, made up of leading doctors and legal experts, to come up with radical solutions.

When there is not enough money for nursing staff, hospital beds have to stay empty

 Fabian Sommer/dpa/picture alliance

Gerald Gass, board chairman at the German Hospital Federation (DKG), is happy enough with the government's approach, but skeptical that the case fee system should be scrapped altogether. "We share the minister's opinion that there's a need to reform the financing of hospitals," Gass told DW. "But we aren't calling for the scrapping of the case fee system. We want it to be extended and adapted."

The parallel often drawn by doctors is that of firefighters: They are not paid per fire, but to be ready for all fires. In a medical context, that would mean giving hospitals a basic budget. Gass says the best path would be a flexible one: Give hospitals a budget but also case fees for certain individual cases — especially out-patient treatments.

This, says Gass, would negate the incentive to "permanently treat new patients." "This hamster wheel effect, which puts a massive strain on staff, would be reduced because the financing would also include other incentives," he said.
More out-patients

Such a flexible approach would bring with it another reform that the DKG is calling for: Equipping hospitals to better mix out-patient and in-patient services — something that Gass says is already standard in many European countries. It would mean getting rid of hospitals that only treat in-patients with a variety of ailments and creating more specialized hospitals able to take more out-patients.

German nurses demand better conditions

05:51

Other countries, including Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway, already have some kind of mixed system like the one Gass describes. Denmark has recently instituted a drastic reform of its hospital system that has resulted in the closure of some hospitals to make way for so-called "super-hospitals," some of which required the building of new roads and infrastructure.

Something similar, though not quite as far-reaching, could also be possible in Germany: Fewer in-patient-only hospitals, some fusion of hospitals, and other hospitals specialized in certain conditions.

"I am convinced that the minister and the commission are aiming for such a major reform," Gass concluded. "But I'm also skeptical whether the path they are choosing is the right one."

His worry is that, since Germany's health policy is largely determined at the state level, the state governments will block reforms like closing certain hospitals that might make them look like they mismanaged things for years. "The states aren't represented in the current commission," he said, "so everything that is being decided and proposed now will have to be approved later by the states." As always with ambitious plans, the political hurdles may be the toughest ones.

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

ETHIOPIAN WAR OF AGGRESSION

Cease-fire agreed to stop Ethiopia's Tigray conflict

Isaac Kaledzi - DW

After previous truces failed, there is cautious optimism about the latest deal meant to end a two-year conflict that has caused a humanitarian crisis.

All warring parties involved in the conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region must now show strong commitment towards achieving long lasting peace, security and political analysts have advised.

Ethiopia's government forces on Wednesday reached a truce with rebel Tigrayan forces, mediated in South Africa by the African Union (AU) .

The deal is meant to end a two-year conflict that has caused a humanitarian crisis in the region with a population of 6 million.

A previous five-month cease-fire between the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan forces broke down in August, leading to fresh clashes.

In a joint statement, both sides said they "agreed to permanently silence the guns and end" the conflict, something that has been welcomed around the world.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that he welcomed "the signing of a cessation of hostilities between the government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People's Liberation Front."

Blinken commended the African Union "for its extraordinary efforts to bring peace to northern Ethiopia."



"The accord struck in South Africa is an important first step," said Ludger Schadomsky, head of DW's Amharic service, but cautioned that "as the mediators have rightly pointed put: The devil is now in the implementation."

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had sent government troops into Tigray in November 2020 after accusing the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) of attacking military camps.

The TPLF had dominated Ethiopia's ruling political alliance for decades before Abiy took power in 2018.

The ensuing conflict has killed thousands of civilians, uprooted millions and left hundreds of thousands facing famine.

Ethiopia's warring parties agree to peace deal

04:14

What did they agree on?

In order to end two years of misery for ordinary Ethiopians, the parties agreed that the "government of Ethiopia will further enhance its collaboration with humanitarian agencies to continue expediting aid to all those in need of assistance."

Both sides had pitted their strengths against each other for the past two years. The latest deal stipulates that the two forces have agreed to "stop all forms of conflicts, and hostile propaganda."

There would be a "program of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration for the TPLF combatants into the national defense force," according to the joint statement.

Again, the parties intend implementing "transitional measures that include the restoration of constitutional order in the Tigray region, a framework for the settlement of political differences, and a Transitional Justice Policy framework to ensure accountability, truth, reconciliation, and healing."

The conflict cut off Tigray's communications and transport links, which severely impacted the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia's northernmost region.

The agreement noted that Ethiopian government "will continue the efforts to restore public services and rebuild the infrastructures of all communities affected by the conflict."

The speed at which aid deliveries can be restored to the region after the truce is not yet clear but there is a call for students to go to school, "farmers, and pastoralists to their fields, and public servants to their offices."

Olusegun Obasanjo, a member of the African Union negotiating team, said at the signing of the deal that "today is the beginning of the new dawn for Ethiopia, for the Horn of Africa and indeed for Africa as a whole."

Tigrayans living in Addis Ababa has called on the US for a long-lasting solution for the Tigray conflict

Seyum Getu/DW

WHO: Tigray 'a health crisis for 6 million people'

Cautious optimism

Despite both parties saying the latest truce provides "a new and hopeful chapter in the history of the country," some analysts are cautiously optimistic.

Solomon Tefera, Political Science Teacher in Ambo University, Oromia region, told DW that to ensure a lasting peace there must be transparency in implementing details of the deal.

"To ensure sustainable peace across the country, the Ethiopian government must open the door for discussion with all opponents and groups especially in Oromia to achieve the peace process."

He asked that room is made for activists, scholars and other interested parties to contribute towards achieving peace in the country.

"I think that it is good that the killing will stop, we welcome that but there are a lot of major outstanding issues yet unanswered," Professor Merera Gudina, Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) Party Chairman said in an interview with DW.

He said he is concerned about the absence of a framework on the kinds of dialogues that would take place which would be all inclusive for achieving peace.

"Let us see how it [the peace deal] will be implemented," Gudina noted while demanding that the entire Ethiopian population is carried along during the process.

A civil servant from Tigray, Dawit Geberemichel, who is hopeful the latest truce will be key in resolving the conflict, told DW he had some doubts.

"How secure is the peace agreement? Because we have had experiences that promised things that were not fulfilled. For this reason, we have doubts about its implementation," he said.

The unresolved Eritrean factor

During the war, the Ethiopian national defense forces have had support from neighboring Eritrea.

While peace talks were taking place in South Africa, Ethiopian government troops backed by the Eritrean army waged artillery bombardments and air strikes, capturing a string of towns from the rebels.

There was no mention by the AU mediators with regard to such calls from international community and Tigrayan forces for Eritrea's army to withdraw from the battlefield.

"The case of Eritrea has not been raised in the agreement," Geberemichel told DW.

"The Eritrean soldier committed many atrocities, killings of people in Ethiopia-Tigray. Therefore, we have doubts how the agreement will be fulfilled," he added.

DW's Schadomsky agreed on the subject of Eritrea's place in the conflict and the latest deal.

"The main obstacle to a lasting solution is the absence of the main aggressor, Eritrea, from the agreement," he said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who has welcomed the truce, is calling on Eritrea to "lay down its arms & withdraw."

Naomi Kikoler, a strategist on mass atrocity prevention, told Reuters that ensuring the agreement's implementation will require "the departure of Eritrean forces, whose government was not part of the negotiations," describing that element as "critical."

Assurances from warring parties

The head of the government team, Abiy's national security adviser, Redwan Hussein, praised both sides for their "constructive engagement to allow the country to put this tragic period of conflict behind us."

"It is now for all of us to honor this agreement, we must be through to the letter in the spirit of this agreement," Hussein said.

"The people of Ethiopia expected more than the text of this agreement. They demand peace and harmony, they desire development, they have chatted a promising hand, bright future."

He assured that "the government on its part will take various proactive measures to nurture democracy and inclusive development in the country."

Getachew Reda, TPLF representative is also hopeful.

"So, I hope our efforts to silence the guns will be followed through in earnest. And our people deserve all peace in the world, and we need to rebuild communities, which have already been shuttered," Reda said.

He assured that the TPLF is "ready to do everything, to make sure that no effort on the part of spoilers will set us back [on our commitment for peace]."
Humanitarian situation

Before last month's peace talks, the United Nations had said that the level of need in Ethiopia was "staggering".

It said even before hostilities resumed in August this year, 13 million people needed food and other support across Tigray and its neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Alyona Synenko, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in East Africa, told DW that since August when the fighting resumed it has been difficult getting access to the conflict zone to assist civilians was a challenge resulting in several deaths.

"After two years of conflict the humanitarian needs are very high," she said noting that replenishing their stock of supplies hasn't happened since fighting resumed in August.

"All the areas of life have been affected," Synenko said, highlighting the challenges civilians face in accessing food, medical care, and clean water.

Synenko explained though that "this positive development [the truce] will allow us to deliver much needed humanitarian supplies to people in Tigray and other areas of the north."

The Red Cross spokesperson however said the implementation of the deal will be crucial if any success is to be realized on the ground in terms of humanitarian aid.

Million Haileselassie, Abu-Bakarr Jalloh and Seyoum Getu Hailu contributed to this article.

Edited by: Keith Walker