ACCELERATIONISM

Brain–spine interface allows paralysed man to walk using his thoughts

The device provides a connection between the brain and spinal cord, 

allowing thought to control movement.

• Dyani Lewis

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• 24 May 2023

Gert-Jan Oskam walks with the assistance of a crutch. A spinal cord injury paralysed him below the neck 12 years ago, but a new device has given him mobility.Credit: CHUV/Gilles Weber

Twelve years ago, a cycling accident left Gert-Jan Oskam, now 40, with paralysed legs and partially paralysed arms, after his spinal cord was damaged in his neck. But these days, Oskam is back on his feet and walking thanks to a device that creates a ‘digital bridge’ between his brain and the nerves below his injury1.

The implant has been life changing, says Oskam. “Last week, there was something that needed to be painted and there was nobody to help me. So I took the walker and the paint, and I did it myself while I was standing,” he says.

Gert-Jan, who is paralysed, walks using new technology that decodes his brain's signal

The device — called a brain–spine interface — builds on previous work2 by Grégoire Courtine, a neuroscientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and his colleagues. In 2018, they demonstrated that, when combined with intensive training, technology that stimulates the lower spine with electrical pulses can help people with spinal-cord injuries to walk again.

Oskam was one of the participants in that trial, but after three years, his improvements had plateaued. The new system makes use of the spinal implant that Oskam already has, and pairs it with two disc-shaped implants inserted into his skull so that two 64-electrode grids rest against the membrane covering the brain.

When Oskam thinks about walking, the skull implants detect electrical activity in the cortex, the outer layer of the brain. This signal is wirelessly transmitted and decoded by a computer that Oskam wears in a backpack, which then transmits the information to the spinal pulse generator.

The previous device, “was more of a pre-programmed stimulation” that generated robotic stepping movements, says Courtine. “Now, it’s completely different, because Gert-Jan has full control over the parameter of stimulation, which means that he can stop, he can walk, he can climb up staircases.”

Gert-Jan with the researchers who have been working towards the breakthrough for more than a decade 

“The stimulation before was controlling me and now I am controlling stimulation by my thought,” says Oskam. “When I decide to make a step, the simulation will kick in, as soon as I think about it.”

Enhanced rehabilitation

After around 40 rehabilitation sessions using the brain–spine interface, Oskam had regained the ability to voluntarily move his legs and feet. That type of voluntary movement was not possible after spinal stimulation alone, and suggests that the training sessions with the new device prompted further recovery in nerve cells that were not completely severed during his injury. Oskam can also walk short distances without the device if he uses crutches.

Bruce Harland, a neuroscientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand says that this continued improvement in spinal function is great news for anyone with a spinal-cord injury, “because even if it’s a longer-term chronic injury, there’s still a few different ways that healing could happen”.

Gert-Jan said the device had given him the 'simple pleasure' of standing at a bar having beers with friends 

“It’s certainly a huge jump” towards improved function for people with spinal-cord injuries, says neuroscientist Anna Leonard at the University of Adelaide in Australia. And she says there is still room for other interventions — such as stem cells — to improve outcomes further. She adds that although the brain–spine interface restores walking, other functions such as bladder and bowel control are not targeted by the device. “So, there’s certainly still room for other areas of research that could help progress improvements in outcomes for these other sort of realms,” she says.

Antonio Lauto, a biomedical engineer at Western Sydney University, Australia, says less invasive devices would be ideal. One of Oskam’s skull implants was removed after about five months because of an infection. Nevertheless, Jocelyne Bloch, the neurosurgeon at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology who implanted the device says that the risks involved are small compared with the benefits. “There is always a bit of risk of infections or risk of haemorrhage, but they are so small that it’s worth the risk,” she says.

Courtine’s team is currently recruiting three people to see whether a similar device can restore arm movements.

 https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01728-0

PHOTOS © Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

Paralysed man walks again thanks to electrodes in his spine

After a crash, Michel Roccati lost all movement in his legs – but his new implants mean he can now ride a bike

This article is more than 1 year old
Ian Sample

 Science editor

THE GUARDIAN

@iansample

Mon 7 Feb 2022 

A man who was paralysed in a motorcycle accident in 2017 has regained the ability to walk after doctors implanted electrodes in his spine to reactivate his muscles.

Michel Roccati lost all feeling and movement in his legs after the crash that severed his spinal cord, but can stand and walk with electrical stimulation that is controlled wirelessly from a tablet.

The research team said the electrical implant had helped Roccati and two other patients – all men aged 29 to 41 – to stand, walk, ride a bike and even kick their legs in a swimming pool, raising hopes that small, implantable devices can help paralysed people regain more independence.

Rocatti uses the device as part of his routine training and rehabilitation to help strengthen his muscles and keep fit. “Now it’s a part of my daily life,” he said.

Developed by Prof Grégoire Courtine, a neuroscientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, and Prof Jocelyne Bloch, a neurosurgeon at Lausanne university hospital, the system uses a soft, flexible electrode that is laid on top of the spinal cord nerves, underneath the vertebrae.

The electrode delivers electrical pulses to spinal cord nerves that control different muscles in the legs and torso. The pulses, in turn, are controlled by software on a tablet that issues instructions for a certain action, such as standing, walking, cycling, or kicking the legs for swimming.

The device helped all three patients to stand within hours of the operation, but their performance improved with three to four months of practice and training. “It was not perfect at the beginning, but they could train very early to have a more fluid gait,” said Bloch. She added that she expected similar results in women.

“Thanks to this technology, we’ve been able to target individuals with the most serious spinal cord injuries,” Courtine said. “By controlling these implants, we can activate the spinal cord like the brain would do naturally to have the patient stand, walk, swim or ride a bike.”

The patients are following a training programme that has let them rebuild lost muscle and move around more independently, even allowing them to stand and drink in a bar. To perform a particular movement, the person selects the appropriate option from their tablet.

The tablet then contacts a pacemaker-like device in their abdomen that sends signals to the implanted electrode. This stimulates the different sets of muscles for the right time and duration to push up into a standing position, or swing the legs to walk, for example. Details of the system are reported in Nature Medicine.

THE OLYMICS;ARISTOCRATS.ORG

Homeless to be moved out of Paris ahead of 2024 Olympics

 24/05/2023


Paris (AFP) – The French government plans to move homeless people out of Paris ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in the capital, sparking criticism from some mayors of regional towns and villages which are expected to house them.

From mid-March, the government began asking officials around France to create "temporary regional accommodation facilities" that can handle an outflux of homeless people from the capital, many of them migrants.

Housing Minister Olivier Klein explained to parliament earlier this month that the changes were necessary because of an expected accommodation crunch in the City of Light during the Rugby World Cup from September and the Olympics next July and August.

Many low-end hotels that authorities use to provide emergency accommodation to homeless people plan to rent their rooms at market rates to sports fans and holiday makers.

The government estimates that hotel capacity available to accommodate the homeless "will fall by 3,000-4,000 places due to these events," Klein told MPs on May 5.

He said the expected fall "obliges us to ask questions and prepare for the situation... It's about opening accommodation spaces in provincial areas for people who require emergency accommodation."

But some of the proposed locations are already sparking concern among local elected figures.

The mayor of Bruz in northwest Brittany, Philippe Salmon, voiced his opposition on Tuesday to the idea of a new centre in his town of 18,000 people near regional capital Rennes.

"We are not in favour of the creation of a facility in our area, in conditions that we consider unacceptable," he said.

The proposed site was next to a railway line and "polluted by hydrocarbons and heavy metals," he said.

'Positive in principle'

Pascal Brice, the head of the Federation for Solidarity Workers, a homelessness charity, said that "putting people up in good conditions all over France rather than in the streets of the Paris region is positive in principle.

"But will they put in the necessary resources?"

He said there was danger of "putting people on buses" then failing to look after them.

Hadrien Clouet, an MP from the hard-left France Unbowed party, accused the government of adopting "the method of all authoritarian regimes: moving the homeless by force to hide them from sight of those taking part in the 2024 Olympics."

Authorities in China cleared an unknown number of beggars, hawkers and the homeless from the streets of China before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with many shipped back to their home regions, reports said at the time.

Brazilian campaign groups also said Rio de Janeiro’s homeless were being forced out of tourist areas in the middle of the night as the city hosted the games in 2016.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games logo emblazoned across the offices of the Paris Organising Committee for next year's games © Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP

The French initiative to create emergency housing capacity in small towns around the country fits a pattern under President Emmanuel Macron of trying to disperse migrants and others requiring social support from the densely populated Paris region.

Efforts to create housing facilities for asylum seekers in provincial areas have already proved an explosive issue, sparking fierce resistance from some local people, far-right activists and mayors.

A French mayor who supported a migrant centre in his area of northwest France had part of his house burned down in an arson attack, leading him to resign earlier this month.

Housing Minister Klein said the fight against homelessness was "a priority" of the president and that funds allotted to solving the problem had "increased by five between 2012 and 2022."

After coming to power in 2017, Macron gave himself to the end of the year to end rough sleeping once and for all.

He later admitted that he had failed, citing an influx of migrants from Africa and South Asia as the reason.

Many of Paris's bridges and parks are used for shelter by the homeless, with camps and tents regularly cleared away by security forces.

Swiss court acquits Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan on charges of rape, sexual coercion

A Swiss court on Wednesday acquitted Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan on charges of rape and sexual coercion, finding no evidence against the former Oxford University professor.

Issued on: 24/05/2023

03:18 Swiss leading Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan arrives at the Geneva court house on May 24, 2023, to hear the verdict of his trial for "rape and sexual coercion" in a case dating back 15 years. 

Text by: NEWS WIRES

The academic was also awarded around 151,000 Swiss francs ($167,000) in compensation from the Swiss canton of Geneva over the case.

After the verdict was read in the Geneva Criminal Court, the 60-year-old Swiss preacher smiled and was hugged by one of his daughters.

Ramadan's 57-year-old accuser, identified under the assumed name of "Brigitte", left the courtroom before the end of the verdict.

Her lawyers immediately vowed to appeal the ruling.

Prosecutors had last week called for a three-year sentence against Ramadan. The case was the first time he has been tried for rape, although he risks facing a trial in France on similar charges.

The Swiss trial presented two diametrically opposed versions of what happened in a Geneva hotel room in October 2008.

The lawyer representing Brigitte, a convert to Islam, said she was repeatedly raped and subjected to "torture and barbarism".

Ramadan, a charismatic yet controversial figure in European Islam, rejected the charges, insisting there was no sexual activity between him and Brigitte, and saying he was the victim of a "trap".

Brigitte was in her forties at the time of the alleged assault in 2008. She filed a complaint 10 years later, telling the court she felt emboldened to come forward following similar complaints filed in France.
'Ramadanphobia'

Both parties agreed that Ramadan and Brigitte spent the night together in the hotel room, which she left early the following morning.

Ramadan insisted that Brigitte invited herself up to his room, then let herself be kissed, before quickly ending the encounter.

The indictment accused Ramadan of sexual coercion and of committing rape three times during the night.

During the trial, the defence insisted on Ramadan's innocence and stressed there was no scientific evidence in the case.

His lawyers also accused Brigitte and the women who have brought charges against him in France of forging links to bring down the Islamic scholar, citing "Ramadanphobia".

During his final statements in court last week, Ramadan asked not to be tried on his "real or supposed ideology" and urged the judges not to be "influenced by the media and political noise".

"Forget I'm Tariq Ramadan!" he said.

Controversial among secularists who see him as a supporter of political Islam, Ramadan obtained a doctorate from the University of Geneva, with a thesis focused on his grandfather, who founded Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement.

He was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford until November 2017 and held visiting roles at universities in Qatar and Morocco.

He was forced to take a leave of absence when rape allegations surfaced in France at the height of the "Me Too" movement, over suspected attacks between 2009 and 2016.

(AFP)

HE IS IN THE COMPANY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS

Rolf Harris: Convicted pedophile and family entertainer dies
May 23, 2023

The Australian-born television star rose to fame in the United Kingdom, but he lived his final years in disgrace after he was convicted of sexually assaulting multiple young girls.

Convicted pedophile Rolf Harris, who was a mainstay of British and Australian family entertainment for more than 50 years before his career ended in disgrace, has died aged 93.

The Australian-born Harris died peacefully surrounded by relatives and friends, his family said in a statement on Tuesday.

The statement said he "has now been laid to rest" and added that "no further comment will be made."

His death certficate showed that he died on May 10 of "metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of neck" and "frailty of old age."

From stardom to prison

Harris got his start on British television in 1958 and went on to become one of the country's most beloved light entertainers, as well as in his home country of Australia.

He was known for hosting shows such as "Rolf's Cartoon Club" and "Animal Hospital," writing hit songs like "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport," and inventing a novelty musical instrument called the wobble board.

In 1985, Harris hosted a short educational film called "Kids Can Say No!" designed to educate children aged between five and eight about how to avoid situations where they might be sexually abused.

In 2014, he was found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault on four young girls between 1969 and 1986.

Prosecutors said the television star had a "Jekyll and Hyde" personality who used his fame to exploit his victims.

Harris maintained his innocence and was supported by family and friends throughout the trial.

The entertainer was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison. He was released after serving three years.

The conviction prompted widespread revulsion and soul-searching in the UK and Australia. Harris was removed from the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame and was stripped of his CBE — a British honor one step below a knighthood.

Harris was convicted as part of Operation Yewtree, the British police investigation which posthumously revealed children's entertainer Jimmy Saville to be a prolific child abuser and resulted in the conviction of glam rocker Gary Glitter.

Failing health

Harris lived his final years in disgrace away from the limelight.

In October 2022, it was reported that Harris was "gravely ill" with neck cancer that left him unable to speak and requiring 24-hour care.

Ahead of his secret funeral, British newspapers reported that a private ambulance with blacked-out windows was spotted outside his home west of London.

Such vehicles are typically used by undertakers.

zc/wd (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Demonized inventions: From railroads to AI

Paula Onusseit
DW

May 19, 2023

New technologies are not always well-received, drawing skepticism, worries and fears. But why? A look at the history of technology provides some insight.

Technological advancements are polarizing. It's not a new phenomenon for innovations to be sneered at, criticized or even demonized. "We find skepticism about technology even in the earliest written records that we have about technology theory," technology philosopher and historian Christian Vater told DW.

He said there were various reasons for this skepticism, including the complexity of technological inventions and the associated lack of knowledge or understanding, for example the fear of losing control or even emotionality.

But skepticism toward new technologies is not proof of a general fear of technology, according to Helmuth Trischler, head of research at Deutsches Museum in Munich. "Behind this assumption is a limited perception — it's good that people examine things rationally," he said.

The difference between a rational assessment of possible consequences to technology and an irrational, uncontrolled defensiveness toward technology is also emphasized by Vater, who distinguishes between concern and panic. "I consider 'concern' to be very legitimate and extraordinarily necessary, especially if we want to actively, jointly shape a future shaped by technology in an informed democracy," he said. "'Panic', however, typically leads to uncontrolled running away."

The fact that technological inventions can inspire both concern and panic in equal measure can be seen in the example of the railroad.

Diabolical conveyance: The railroad

Some 200 years after its invention, the railroad is a completely ordinary form of transportation for people and goods around the world and a part of the fabric of modern society. But in its early days, some people perceived the railroad as the work of the devil.

In 1825, the Locomotion No 1 became the first public railroad in England

United Archives/picture allaince

The world's first public railroad was inaugurated in England in 1825. After that, the steam locomotive made its fast, loud and smoky way across Europe — and with it, the fear of trains and of what was known in Germany as "Eisenbahnkrankheit" or "railway sickness." This was thought to be caused by the speed of up to 30 kilometers per hour (18.6 miles per hour) — considered fast back then — and the bone-rattling vibrations felt while sitting in the carriages.

Even as the railway network grew throughout Victorian England, the criticism of this mode of transportation remained strong, as evidenced by satirical caricatures and illustrated police reports.

Trischler said these reactions are "completely understandable" within the context of their time. Technological advancements require reorientation, which can spark fears to which people react with dire prognoses and apprehension. "The new does, after all, arouse emotions. Technology is basically always associated with emotions," he explained.

Fear of the split atom

But not every technological invention inevitably evokes negative emotions. For instance, when nuclear energy was new, the attitude was different. The first German research reactor was built in Munich in 1957, and four years later, nuclear energy was fed into the country's power grid for the first time. In the 1960s, atomic energy was seen as an inexpensive and clean alternative to oil and coal and encouraged hopes for a renewed industrial upswing.
The German anti-nuclear movement gained momentum in the 1970s and '80sImage: Dieter Klar/picture alliance

The first critical voices grew loud in Germany in 1975, when the construction site of a planned nuclear plant was occupied by protesters. Critics in the southwestern German town of Wyhl warned of climate change, groundwater drawdown and possible security problems in connection with nuclear plants. The anti-nuclear movement gained momentum and incidents such as the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979 in the United States or the meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986 further spread fear and worry among parts of the population. Nuclear energy was a subject of debate in Germany for decades, until the accident at Fukushima in Japan in 2011 finally led to the German government deciding to phase it out for good.

While in some parts of the world, nuclear energy is still seen as a good alternative to fossil fuels, in other countries it evokes almost existential angst. "When we think about why people are concerned when it comes to nuclear energy, we can point to the question of nuclear waste, to Chernobyl or Fukushima. In other words, to man-made or nature-dependent situations with technological failures and unsolved technical problems," said Vater.

He and Trischler see a democratic success story in the debate over nuclear energy. Vater said that a society, "if it does not want to become technocratic, but wants to remain a participatory democracy," is dependent on goodwill, understanding and support from its members. Trischler added that "something can emerge from the debate about technology skepticism," and said that it's about a society's struggle for co-determination and joint negotiation

Man vs. machine?

How fine the line can become between goodwill and skepticism, support and rejection, is illustrated by the current debate over AI. The American computer and cognitive scientist John McCarthy coined the phrase "artificial intelligence" in 1956 to describe a discipline of computer science whose goal was to create machines with human-like intellectual capabilities.

After decades of developments in the field, debate over the topic has focused of late on, among other things, the chatbot ChatGPT, which was released in November 2022 and immediately sparked controversy. In March, Italy responded by becoming the first country to block the software, at least temporarily. It's now allowed again, but only after proof of the user's age is presented.

Despite the many advantages AI promises — for example improved health care or increased road safety — there is also a great deal of criticism of the technology. The fears seem to run in two directions: Some worry about possible misuse, fakes or disinformation and about their professional future and intellectual property, while others are afraid of future technical developments that could gradually give AI more power and thus result in a loss of human control.

Can AI blur the lines between man and machine?

Knut Niehus/CHROMORANGE/picture alliance

Trischler sees the fear of AI in general as rooted in the complexity of the technology. "Worries arise especially with regard to large technical systems that seem anonymous," he said. According to Vater, questions about, for instance, what impact AI might actually have on one's profession are rational concerns as opposed to a blanket fear of the machine.

"To predict that the spread of AI will make all human creative effort superfluous, and that machines will take over the world in the near future, that would be panic," he said.
Skepticism raises questions

So is a certain degree of skepticism toward new technologies a normal, understandable human reaction? Christian Vater and Helmuth Trischler think so.

"In hindsight, we often see that these fears have not materialized," said Trischler, adding that they are understandable when seen in the context of their time.

The ability to make predictions is useful "because it helps us to tune in to the next steps in development as a group, as a society, perhaps even as humanity," said Vater. "It's actually the normal situation that things then don't turn out as we expected."

This article was originally written in German.

Germany: More 'Reichsbürger' suspects arrested



Members of the "Reichsbürger" group believe the current state is no more than a construct still occupied by Western powers. For them, the German Empire founded in 1871 still exists and so do Germany's pre-WWII borders.

DW

May 23, 2023

More than five months after initial raids against a suspected terrorist network linked to the "Reichsbürger" movement, Germany's Criminal Police Office has arrested two more men and a woman, the Federal Prosecutor's Office announced in the southern city of Karlsruhe on Tuesday.

A large-scale raid in three countries in December highlighted the threat posed by the so-called "Reichsbürger" — a radical and violent group that does not recognize Germany as a democratic state. The number of suspects as part of the network with ambitions of overthrowing the state has now risen to 63.

'Reichsbürger' often not opposed to violent tactics

The latest three suspects are from the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony, according to a spokesman for the federal Federal Prosecutor's Office.

The three arrested this week, like most of the other suspects, are accused of being members of the terrorist network while others are allegedly supporting the movement.

A substantial number of the self-proclaimed "Reichsbürger" — which translates as "Citizens of the Reich" — are not averse to violence to reinstate the Reich.

Germany: Fresh raids on Reichsbürger group 01:34

German interior minister lambasts 'terrorist organization'

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) told the Deutschlandfunk media group on Tuesday that the "terrorist organisation" is "characterized by fantasies of overthrow by force of arms."

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), estimated in 2022 that there are around 23,000 "Reichsbürger" in Germany, with 5% of them classified as far-right extremists.

Though this week's arrest included a female, most of the group are male. On average they are over 50 years old and ascribe to right-wing populist, antisemitic and Nazi ideologies and are spread across the country. A district court judge in Saxony-Anhalt has described them as "conspiracy theorists" and "malcontents."

jsi/wd (dpa, AFP)

ENGELS WEEPS

German SPD struggling as they celebrate 160 years

Sabine Kinkartz
May 23, 2023

Germany's oldest political party leads its coalition government and occupies the chancellor's office with Olaf Scholz. So why are the Social Democrats not celebrating as they mark 160 years? DW explains.

https://p.dw.com/p/4RhK4

There are precious few opportunities to celebrate at the Berlin headquarters of the Social Democrats (SPD) these days, so one would think its 160th birthday, being celebrated for three days this week, would be treasured all the more.

Even what victories there have been double-edged. "It is a wonderful evening for us tonight. We are incredibly proud of the SPD in Bremen," the party's General Secretary Kevin Kühnert enthused, after the SPD won local elections in the northern German city state on May 14.

That win was not a given. Bremen's SPD Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte rounded off his election campaign with something that sounded like a musical plea for loyalty, singing his own rendition of the 1960s Ben E. King classic "Stand by Me." SPD co-chair Lars Klingbeil, who traveled from Berlin in support, accompanied him on the guitar. In the end, the SPD won, but with only 29.8% of the vote — its second-worst result in Bremen in more than 70 years.

Berlin Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte got the voters of Bremen to stand by him, perhaps thanks to the help of party leader Lars Klingbeil on guitar

Sina Schuldt/picture alliance/dpa

Chancellor's party sinking in the polls

Back at headquarters in Berlin, the party is trying to learn what had happened in Bremen. The party wanted to get a clear picture of how the victory came about, Kühnert said.

As things stand, the SPD can only dream of such a high result at national level, where the party is competing with the Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) for second place at around 17% to 19%, behind the opposition conservative alliance led by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at more than 30%. Never in the history of post-war Germany has a chancellor's party had such low approval ratings.

There is a suspicion that Olaf Scholz and the SPD only won the federal election in September 2021 because the CDU's candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, was too weak and made too many gaffes on the campaign trail.
Short-lived honeymoon

A look at the polls from the election year and afterwards shows that the Social Democrats experienced an enormous boost in support before the election. They went from polling 16% in July 2021 to almost 26% in that September's election. The honeymoon lasted until early 2022, and the party's poll numbers have been dropping ever since. That is bitter for the SPD, not least because German political analysts define a major party as one that can rely on at least 20% of the votes.

Is what the SPD once celebrated as the "comeback of social democracy" already dead? Party membership is declining, including in the main cites where the SPD used to have a lot of support. The latest example: In the city-state of Berlin, the CDU is now occupying the city hall after 22 years of a Social Democrat government.

The situation looks particularly appalling in eastern Germany. In the states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, the SPD's approval ratings are in the single digits.

The CDU was hampered by Armin Laschet's gaffe-riddled chancellor candidacy

Marius Becker/dpa/picture alliance

A return to social issues

The 160th birthday of the SPD comes amidst this period of low morale. The oldest still-existing political party in Germany is in the middle of three days of celebrations, with speeches, exhibitions, and awards ceremonies. It is a welcome opportunity for the party to take a breath and reenergize – as well as an occasion to become more visible within the governing coalition. The motto of the celebrations in Willy Brandt House, the SPD Berlin headquarters named for its party's first post-WWII chancellor, is "progress needs justice."

Tackling social issues is still seen as the SPD's core competency, but one year into its new term in government the war in Ukraine and its consequences have taken precedence. Scholz is being kept busy with foreign policy, the SPD interior minister with migration, and the SPD labor minister is grappling with a shortage of both specialist and blue-collar workers. There is no longer any talk of the SPD's election promise to build 400,000 homes per year, because of inflation and the tense situation in the construction sector.

Coalition infighting

In the media, the SPD seems rather pale in the governing coalition it is leading alongside the business-oriented Free Democrats (FDP) and environmentalist Greens. Headlines are dominated by the quarrel between the FDP and the Greens over climate protection. Many people are afraid of Germany's phasing out of oil and gas heating from 2024, which is being pushed for by the Greens, driving voters toward the opposition.

The cost of living has already risen drastically because of inflation, and people without money to spare are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. The SPD now apparently wants to put brakes on the energy act for buildings, creating another rift in the coalition. Climate protection is important, the SPD says, but the cost cannot overwhelm people. It must be repaired; solutions must be "technically feasible and socially acceptable," as Labor Minister Hubertus Heil put it.

Olaf Scholz's government has been struggling with infighting as polling for all three parties stagnate

 Joerg Carstensen/picture alliance

Rumblings of discontent

If the SPD wants to raise its profile in the coalition, that could lead to even more tension, and voters are rarely impressed by government infighting. This must be causing concern at SPD headquarters. Throughout the party's history, poor performance has often led to intra-party disputes, followed by self-flagellation. This can bring down even SPD leaders that the party loved.

And there are signs that dissatisfaction within the SPD is growing. Rumors are swirling mostly in the left-wing faction of the party, which has always been pugnacious. In 2019, the party's left wing prevented Olaf Scholz, who sits the more conservative end of the social democratic spectrum, from becoming party chair. Since Scholz became chancellor, the left wing has remained silent for the sake of party unity.
A personality for politics?

Though Scholz was never especially popular in the SPD, he remains respected and appreciated as chancellor for now. That goodwill, however, remains dependent on success. The party will back him only as long as he can deliver.

In this situation, it could be helpful to take a closer look at the SPD's election victory in Bremen. The city state was won over by a Social Democrat with a down-to-earth attitude, approachability, and popularity. The personality factor has become increasingly important in German elections – that was demonstrated in other state ballots in recent years. But Olaf Scholz has little to offer on this front: He often seems aloof and is perceived as unemotional and unapproachable. Learning from Bremen could prove difficult after all.

BUSINESS  EUROPE
How company profits are keeping prices high

Mathis Richtmann
04/05/2023

Supply chain bottlenecks and the war in Ukraine caused inflation to soar. Now, policymakers are pointing to high corporate profits as another driver of increased consumer prices. Will governments intervene?

When major oil companies announced record earnings in February, even US President Joe Biden was appalled. The White House said it was "outrageous" that ExxonMobil had raked in a profit of $56 billion (€51 billion) in 2022 as consumers were grappling with inflation rates not seen in decades.

Top policymakers in Europe have also weighed in on the issue, imposing windfall taxes on energy firms. Even though price pressures have eased lately from their record levels, the eurozone is still reeling from elevated inflation levels. Consumer prices in the common currency area rose 6.9% in March from a year earlier, keeping inflation at more than three times the European Central Bank's target of 2%.

What is causing inflation?

The reopening of the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in pent-up demand even as supply disruptions caused by lockdowns persisted. The high demand coupled with supply troubles fueled inflation. Consumer prices climbed further after Russia's invasion of Ukraine which sent energy and food prices soaring.

While the impact of the reopening has largely faded out and supply bottlenecks have eased, inflation still remains stubbornly high.

Policymakers are concerned that increased profit margins may have a big role to play.

Speaking at a conference in Frankfurt last week, Fabio Panetta, a member of the ECB's executive board, put up a remarkable chart. It showed how companies' profits in the eurozone rose faster than wages.

"Opportunistic behavior by firms could also delay the fall in core inflation," Panetta said. "We should monitor the risk that a profit-price spiral could make core inflation stickier," he added with an apparent wordplay on the much dreaded wage-price spiral.

The ECB's Panetta says profits contributed to "more than half of domestic price pressures" in the last quarter of 2022Image: European Central Bank/picture alliance/dpa

According to a Reuters report, consumer goods companies in Europe boosted operating margins to an average of 10.7% in 2022, up by a quarter over 2019, before the pandemic.

"Companies in certain sectors have been able to take advantage of the state of emergency of pandemic and war to raise prices in ways that are not possible in normal times. When prices rise more than costs, profit margins increase," Isabella Weber of the University of Massachusetts Amherst told DW.

Ulrich Kater, chief economist at Deka Bank, says it was the fog of uncertainty during the pandemic and war that led companies to hike prices.

"You want to implement a safety margin so that you are not buried by the cost increases afterward," he told DW.
Wage growth trails rise in profits

In the United States, companies are now recording the highest profits since the end of World War II. That is according to a recent study by Weber, who also masterminded the German cap on energy prices.

In Europe, "the effect of profits on domestic price pressures has been exceptional from a historical perspective," economists at the ECB wrote in a blog in March. Profit growth outstripped wage growth especially in agriculture, manufacturing, trade, transportation and food and mining and utilities, according to ECB calculations.

With an eye on recent profits driving up inflation, Weber said supply-chain disruptions have altered competition dynamics. Usually, consumers can switch to other suppliers if a company hikes prices to maximize profits, Weber explains, but "if all competitors know that the competition cannot serve their own customer base, a price increase does not threaten the loss of market share as it would otherwise."

Will inflation be lower in the future?

The ECB expects high inflation to eventually taper off in the eurozone. It expects price increases to come down to 2% annually by 2025.

"The fact that profits have risen more than wages so far doesn't mean that has to be the course going forward," Kater said.

For Weber, companies' ability to set prices is alarming and it needs to be checked. She said laws that limit excessive price increases by corporates, such as the proposed revamping of a price gouging law in New York, could be a part of the solution. The rules prohibit companies from taking advantage of a crisis to charge excessive prices for essentials.

Additionally, antitrust authorities would have to check for price manipulation if suspicions of market dominance were to manifest, Kater adds.

On Wednesday, the German government opted to strengthen its antitrust agency. Robert Habeck, the economy minister, had initiated the move last year after fuel prices had remained stubbornly high.

Edited by: Ashutosh Pandey

ERITREA

Liberator to oppressor: 30 years under Isaias Afwerki

ANOTHER SAD TALE OF STALINISM


Isaac Kaledzi

DW
May 23, 2023

Isaias Afwerki once was hailed as Eritrea's independence hero. But over the past three decades, his policies have pushed the country into isolation, leading to two-thirds of the country living below the poverty line.

Isaias Afwerki was celebrated as a national hero in his country in 1991 after he had led the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) into victory, gaining independence from Ethiopia after 30 years of civil war.

Eritreans had long felt a desire to split from Ethiopia under the heavy-handed leadership of Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Marxist army officer who was Ethiopia's head of state from 1977 to 1991.

"It was a very, very hopeful time. … (A)ll of the fighters who had been part of the EPLF were demobilizing. They felt they had liberated the country and that they didn't want to be fighters or rebels anymore," Michela Wrong, a British author and journalist reporting about Eritrea at the time, told DW.

Wrong said she observed at the time that Eritreans living in the diaspora across the world were excited to return home after having to flee abroad under Mengistu's rule.

"They hadn't felt safe, and they hadn't felt they had any future in Eritrea. And all those people who had settled in America and Canada and Sweden and Norway, in Europe, they were all coming back, and they wanted to invest. And they were bringing their skills from the diaspora," she explained about the mood at the time.

Isaias was Eritrea's first president after independence — a position he has held since 1993 when the United Nations supervised the country's referendum on independence.

"There was also a political discussion taking place because there was a multi-party constitution that was being drawn up, and then it was being debated, and this was going to be the new constitution of Eritrea.

"So those were the good years," Wrong highlighted.

The turning of the tides

But just a few years later, in 1998, war broke out between Ethiopia and Eritrea over the small border village of Badme.

"That was the trigger. It was a dispute over a contested area of land, but underlying that were other tensions," Wrong told DW, stressing that the economy was only one of many such tensions.

The war over who got to control Badme only ended in 2018 with the signing of a joint statement at the Eritrea–Ethiopia summit. Ethiopia's prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, decided to end the war and restore peace after coming to power.

However, that 20-year war left tens of thousands of people dead, and many fleeing the country. During the two decads, Isaias Afwerki had also become a different leader compared to how he was viewed at during the beginning of his tenure.

African security analyst Fidel Amakye Owusu told DW that Afwerki had become firmly focused on consolidating power under his leadership. "So, his 30 years [in power] have been just for himself," Owusu highlighted.

"As in whether [this time has been] good or not, we see it in the human rights abuses: There are a lot of Eritrean dissidents or people who have fled Eritrea, not because of any internal conflict but because they are escaping authoritarianism and autocracy," he further explained.

Being a journalist in Eritrea  03:20

Human rights: abuse upon abuse

Isaias created a system whereby there was no room for dissent, even severely penalizing ministers who stood up to him and criticized him.

"[The group if ministers] were known as the G-15. In fact, they were all arrested. The ones who were in Asmara were arrested. … They haven't been seen since. They've been in jail ever since. And we know that some of them have died," Wrong said, adding that ministers who had managed to escape abroad have never been able to go back to their home country.

Religious freedom has also been curtailed: Churches that were active in the country were forcibly closed overnight. As were universities, which were turned into military technical colleges.

"So, these were all areas where Isaias sort of felt uneasy because people might have stood up to him, challenged his power, his hold on the country," Wrong said.

"And more and more, you see power just focusing in his hands."

Africa's very own hermit kingdom

Analysts like Owusu say that under Isiais Afwerki's leadership, Eritrea has become the most reclusive state in Africa.

"If we are looking at Eritrea, you are looking at what North Korea means to the world. That's what Eritrea means to Africa. It is reclusive, secretive and isolated," Owusu told DW.

The strongest evidence of this can be found in the country's relationship with free speech: Press freedom under President Isaias has become non-existent, with countless media houses being closed and journalists getting arrested — to this day.

Last year, Eritrea took up the penultimate position on the RSF World Press Freedom index — one spot above North Korea.

The regime's repressive methods have also forced many young people to flee the country, driven above all by Eritrea's mandatory national service, which requires all graduates to join the army — for an unspecified period of time.

"Young people … realized that they have no future in Eritrea because of one of key policies that Afwerki has stood by for years, that is obligatory, open-ended military conscription," Wrong said.

"So if you're a young person, doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, you are expected after you finish your education to go and start training and to learn how to be a soldier."

Analysts stress that this kind of conscription has had a terrible impact on a whole generation of young Eritreans, who feel increasingly disconnected from their country.

The regime meanwhile tries to justify this continued policy by citing the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia — which officially ended five years ago.

Survivor recounts Tigray civilian massacres   03:25  

Reemerging unto the global scene

Since international sanctions against Eritrea were lifted following the 2018 peace with Ethiopia, the Eritrea president has been trying to alter his image, and the war between Ethiopia's federal forces and Tigrayan rebels offered him the perfect opportunity to pursue that endeavor.

Despite sharing its immediate border with the Tigray region, Isaias Afwerki supported the Abiy regime in its fight against Tigrayan separatists.

"[That] could have given him a clean slate, to legitimize his power or his influence in the region," Owusu said. "[Isaias] in a way came to be seen as someone who was supporting Ethiopian stability."

According to Wrong, Isaias even got to emerge "ahead of the game" after the last few turbulent years witnessed at the Horn of Africa. And he has proven his cunning in forging and deepening relationships beyond the region as well.

In 2018, Afwerki signed an agreement with Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed to end a 20-year old conflict

Eduardo Soteras/AFP/Getty Images

Deepening ties with authoritarian allies

China and Russia remain among the only few allies that Eritrea has — something Isaias Afwerki has been building on recently with a number of foreign visits.

But according to Owusu, Isaias disposition as a totalitarian leader also means that he can only possibly attract allies like China and Russia, which also are known for using authoritarian tactics against their citizens.

"Those are going to be his natural allies. … (H)e can identify with Putin, who has left office and come back and for the foreseeable future, is likely to be in charge of Russia," Owusu told DW, highlighting that Eritrea is one of the few countries that has refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"And [there's] Xi Jinping, who has ended the rotational presidency that China has practiced for some time, and he's now going for a third term," Owusu added.

Meanwhile for China, the interest may be mutual: Eritrea's location on the Red Sea — one of the world's key shipping corridors with access to both to the Suez Canal and Europe to the north and the Indian Ocean to the southeast — excites China, as the country continues to expand its influence across Africa.

"A strong China-Eritrea relationship is not only in line with the common and long-term interests of both countries but also for maintaining regional peace," Xi said during Isais' state visit to the country earlier this month.

No succession plan

Even after 30 years in power, there is no talk of succession plans for Isaias; in fact, despite being 77 years old, it rather looks like he's just getting started: Owusu believes that he will continue to hang on to power for a long time: "Afwerki is not going anywhere. There is no clear succession plan in Eritrea," he told DW.

Wrong meanwhile stressed that this firm grip on power "is doing his own population a lot of damage," and that by "hanging on and failing to share power, [Isaias] failing to open up the economy," effectively keeping Eritrea as isolated as ever.

She also underscored the fact that Eritrea's presidnet is "the man who has centralized power in his own hands."

"I think he's going to be there to stay," Wrong added, recalling that all coup attempts against the autocrat leader in the past have been crushed.

Isaias Afwerki has given Eritrea its independence — a legacy that many still rightfully credit him with. However, in his belief that Eritrean society therefore owes him, Isaias is increasingly finding him is as much isolation as the country he created.

Mo Ibrahim: We must help Sudan 'before the fire spreads'  26:06

Isaac Kaledzi Freelance reporter based in Accra, Ghana.@isaackaledzi

Carbon emissions from transport still rising



Martin Kuebler

DW
10 hours ago

With more people on the move, carbon dioxide emissions from transport are increasing each year. To meet climate goals, the sector needs to slash its dependency on fossil fuels.

Despite efforts to make train travel more attractive, electrify airplanes and take the fossil fuels out of cars and transport trucks clogging city streets around the world, carbon dioxide emissions from the global transport sector aren't falling fast enough.

Even with current pledges and action to reduce emissions from transport, CO2 levels linked to transportation are expected to keeping rising over the next decade, said a new report released by the International Transport Forum (ITF) on Wednesday.

Without more ambitious goals and rapid deployment of new technologies, carbon emissions are only projected to be 3% lower than 2019 levels by 2050.

"The challenge is deploying technologies and implementing policies to sufficiently and quickly shift transport to more sustainable modes, to offset what we see as rapidly increasing demand for travel," said Matteo Craglia, a transport analyst at the ITF. "This is particularly the case in emerging economies, which are expected to increase travel demand very significantly."

The ITF, a global transport think tank within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, has projected that, as the world population grows and society becomes increasingly globalized, global passenger demand will rise 79% by 2050. Freight demand is expected to roughly double.

Passenger demand — measured by the transport of one person over a kilometer — is predicted to more than triple in sub-Saharan Africa and more than double in Southeast Asia.

These estimates take into account the lifestyle shift forced by COVID that has seen more teleworking and online shopping in certain parts of society. Although the ITF report stressed that shift should not be overlooked by policymakers as a chance to further the "green transition."

Transport responsible for 20% of annual CO2 emissions

Craglia told DW that the "system-wide change" across all sectors, from electricity generation to transport to manufacturing, is more challenging than anything the global economy has ever faced in the past, especially when considering regional differences.

"Not all countries are similarly placed to be able to decarbonize or have the governance to be able to push forward needed reforms and policies to help accelerate decarbonization," he said, highlighting the gap between high and low-income countries.

Electric vehicle sales have increased in the developed world and China in recent years

Torsten Sukrow/SULUPRESS.DE/picture alliance

To have any hope of meeting the Paris climate goals of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said total transport emissions will need to drop to 80% below 2015 levels by 2050. The transport sector — road, rail, shipping and aviation — is responsible for more than 20% of annual CO2 emissions, with passenger cars making up two-fifths of that.

Though the scale of change seems daunting, Craglia is confident that private vehicles are well on the way to making the switch and becoming cost competitive, citing the increase in electric vehicles sales in the developed world and China. The ITF report said that based on existing policy plans, zero-emission vehicles "should make up one-quarter of the global passenger car fleet by 2035."

"The business cases are making sense, and now it's just the case of deploying the infrastructure," he said. That includes the necessary green energy electricity grids and charging stations, especially high-power chargers for heavy-duty trucks, which emit a significant share of freight emissions around the world.

Shipping: An industry's slow boat to change 06:22

Aviation and shipping, however — which contribute more than a fifth of annual transport emissions — remain a major undertaking.

"The technologies to decarbonize them are still at an early stage of deployment, still often in [research and development]," said Craglia.

Craglia mentioned as examples research into low-carbon fuels for shipping and low-carbon, high-energy density fuels for aviation, like biofuels made from agricultural waste, algae and used cooking oil. Here, he emphasized the importance of other market-based measures to support development in these areas, such as carbon pricing.

Shifting demand to sustainable travel

Technology won't be the only way to cut carbon emissions from transport, said Craglia. Changing peoples' habits and encouraging a shift to more sustainable options will also be key, he said. That will be important in established transport networks and, especially, in fast-growing urban areas which have yet to build significant transport infrastructure in Africa and Asia. Sustainable options include public transport, ride-sharing, walking, cycling and scooters.

"Helping emerging economies to move to more sustainable transport systems with a higher reliance on shared transport modes and active mobility is particularly important," he said. "[These are] some of the low hanging fruits that really deserve policymakers' attention."

Why do we build cities around cars?   07:25

Policymakers will have a chance to exchange their ideas from May 24 to May 26 at the ITF summit, an annual forum for decision-makers and experts to discuss transport and climate policy at the global level.

This year's event, in Leipzig, eastern Germany, will host around 50 transport ministers, deputies and other officials from around the world. Organizers also aim to make transport one of the key issues at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai later this year, as nations review and renew their climate promises.

Craglia said the last few years have seen "a stepping up of policy ambition," pointing out US efforts to boost zero-emission transport with last year's Inflation Reduction Act and EU plans to phase out internal combustion engines by 2035. And he expects that movement to continue in other regions, both with passenger and freight travel.

"The challenge is that yet more ambition is necessary, in all countries across the world," he said. "And that has to accelerate very quickly if we are to meet the targets of the Paris climate accord."

Edited by: Jennifer Collins