Environmentalists slam UN inaction at ocean conference

Experts and activists said delegates at a UN conference did little in the way of making real progress in protecting the world's crucial oceans. Ocean ecosystems are on the brink of collapse due to climate change.

Environmental-protection groups called a UN conference to protect oceans a missed opportunity

Environmental protection groups called out the United Nations on Friday, calling the UN ocean conference a missed opportunity to promise real action in an ecosystem struggling under overfishing, warming temperatures, pollution and acidification.

In a statement, numerous NGOs, including BUND, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Germany-based Brot für die Welt criticized the conference's closing declaration as non-committal and therefore meaningless.

"We have seen many declarations before, we have heard many promises, pledges and voluntary commitments," said Laura Meller of Greenpeace. "But if declarations could save the oceans they wouldn't be on the brink of collapse."

Marco Lambertini, director-general of the WWF, said, "The ocean, climate and coastal communities worldwide need real progress, not promises."

Treaty expected in August

The environmentalists added that the five-day conference in Portugal did not even present a report on the progress of the goals set out at the last UN oceans summit, which took place in New York in 2017. 

The only positives outcomes, according to the statement, were the numerous individual initiatives announced in Lisbon in areas such as deep-sea mining, fishing and underwater noise pollution.

In August, UN member states hope to finally hammer out a new treaty, which has been in talks for more than a decade, to protect critical ocean ecosystems. Greenpeace said the success of the Lisbon conference could only be measured after the treaty had been adopted.

es/sms (dpa, Reuters)

Why Germany's socialists are failing

Socialist political parties have been celebrating election victories in Portugal, Spain and Colombia, and are on the rise in France. In Germany, the far-left can only dream of such successes.


The post-communists from Germany's Left Party have seen voter support dwindling


Germany's socialists have been enviously eyeing their colleagues in neighboring France. The French left-wing alliance forged by Jean-Luc Melenchon emerged as the second-strongest force in the June parliamentary elections. In southern Europe, socialist parties have been in government for several years: Pedro Sanchez in Spain, Antonio Costa in Portugal. And then there's ex-guerrilla Gustavo Pedro, who was recently elected president in Colombia.

The far-left message can still resonate with voters, it seems. But not in Germany.

Germany's socialist Left Party is the smallest in the Bundestag and has seen a string of election failures in recent years, and they are currently represented in only nine of Germany's 16 state parliaments.

Constant infighting has not helped. In April, the party was shaken by sexism accusations, after news magazine Der Spiegel published allegations of sexual misconduct in the Left Party's branch in the state of Hesse over a number of years. The former partner of co-chair Janine Wissler was among those accused of wrongdoing.

Since June 2022, Martin Schirdewan and Janine Wissler are the co-chairs of Germany's socialist Left Party

The Left Party has also been hurt by its contradictory position on foreign and security policy, especially in response to Russia's war on Ukraine.

At the party conference in June, the majority of Left Party delegates supported a motion labeling Vladimir Putin a "brutal aggressor and conqueror" and supported sanctions against Russian oligarchs and war profiteers.

"The criminal war of aggression cannot be justified by anything," said the newly re-elected party co-chair Wissler.

But the 41-year-old politician also reiterated the Left Party's anti-NATO stance. She argued that the party was justified in criticizing NATO's expansion eastward after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. "It was a mistake not to dissolve NATO," according to Wissler. Some delegates went even further, speaking of Western "imperialism."

Before the party conference, foreign policy spokesman and former party leader Gregor Gysi accused the left-wing of his party of holding on to their "old ideology" of "NATO is evil, the US is evil, the German government is evil." However, Gysi stressed that NATO had "not committed a single mistake that justifies Russia's war."

But despite these divisions, all delegates stood united in their rejection of plans to boost Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, and the planned special fund of €100 billion ($105 billion) to buy new equipment.

In 2020, Left Party lawmakers Gregor Gysi (r) and Sevim Dagdelen traveled to Moscow and met with US whistleblower Edward Snowden

The Left Party traditionally has good relations with Moscow, partly because its roots lie in East Germany's communist dictatorship, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which ended with the peaceful revolution of 1989/90 and the country's reunification.

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which had ruled East Germany for decades, reformed and renamed itself, initially as the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS).

From 1998 to 2005, a coalition government of center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens radically restructured the labor market, introducing a series of business-friendly labor-market reforms that significantly toughened the conditions under which people could claim welfare or unemployment benefits.

Disenchanted members of the SPD and trade unions then joined forces with the eastern German post-communists and gave themselves a new name: the Left Party.

Its greatest national success came with the 2013 federal election, when it became the largest opposition party. But the Left's best results were at the state level in eastern Germany, where the disgruntled who felt left behind after reunification found a home in the Left Party.

Left Party pragmatist Bodo Ramelow has been heading the state government of Thuringia since 2014

The Left sought to establish themselves to the left of the SPD throughout the country, though in some places, like the wealthy regions of southwestern Germany, the party failed to make headway, and have never made it into any state parliament.

The Left Party can take comfort in the fact that it is a coalition partner in four of Germany's 16 state governments: Berlin, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and Thuringia.

In the latter, Bodo Ramelow, the first and only Left Party state premier to date, has long been urging greater unity: "A party that is only interested in its ideological conflicts, which have no relevance to the outside world, can very quickly disappear from the scene altogether," he warned.

Party leader Janine Wissler, however, draws hope from a recent study by the party-affiliated Rosa Luxemburg Foundation — which surveyed 2,300 individuals in April 2022.

Some 18% of respondents in cities and urban areas, but also in smaller towns said they could imagine voting for the Left Party. And even up to 24% of those living in low-income households with a monthly income of up to €2,500 ($2,600), for whom the Left Party's core issues, like combatting social injustice, are potentially a top priority.

"But we have to ask ourselves: why are we not using this to our advantage?" Wissler said. Her own answer is sobering: In the face of key issues such as the COVID pandemic, refugee policy, and climate protection, the Left has been more concerned with itself rather than taking on "our political opponents."

This article was originally written in German.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.

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European flights canceled and delayed amid ongoing strikes

Airlines hoping to cash in on renewed demand are facing labor agitation after firing swathes of workers during the pandemic.


Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport is Europe's second-biggest after London's Heathrow


Hundreds of flights from various European airports were canceled or delayed on Saturday as the industry struggles with ongoing worker strikes.

Labor action by cabin crews at the two low-cost airlines EasyJet and Ryanair as well as by airport workers in Europe's second-busiest airport — Roissy-Charles de Gaulle in Paris — are causing major headaches for airlines just as the first school summer holidays begin after two years of pandemic restrictions.

One in five flights from the main Paris airport were canceled on Saturday morning, while the EasyJet and Ryanair strike led to the cancellation of 15 flights to and from Spain with another 175 delayed.

Ryanair's cabin crew also announced another 12 days of work stoppages. Paris airport workers said they will walk out again on July 8 to 10.
Low-cast airlines facing further strike disruptions

The striking cabin crews are demanding improvements to their working conditions and pay to put them in line with other European airlines.

Ryanair employees have been striking since June 24, with the aim of bringing the company to the negotiation table, while EasyJet cabin crews joined the strike on Friday.

"After six days of strike and in view of the unwillingness of the company to listen to its staff and its preference for leaving thousands of passengers grounded rather than sitting down to negotiate an agreement under Spanish law, we have been forced to call new strike days," Lidia Arasanz from the USO union that has organized the Ryanair workers was quoted by AFP as saying.

Arasanz said that the initial strike had seen a total so far of "more than 200 flights canceled and almost 1,000 delays," adding that the new strike could cause even more disruptions.


Strike action in France and Scandinavia

Airport workers at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle are fighting for a wage hike to balance out rising costs from inflation.

They had been offered a 4% pay increase on the condition that they end the strike on Friday, but this was rejected.

"A majority of workers think the offer is not good enough," Daniel Bertone, who represents the CGT union, was quoted by Reuters as saying. "They don't trust management and they don't accept the 'it's this or nothing' blackmail."

The industry slashed thousands of jobs during the pandemic when people were unable or unwilling to fly, but they have been unable to refill positions as the new post-restrictions demand has soared.

Airports in the UK and the Netherlands struggled to deal with the surge in traffic earlier in the year, while France was largely spared.

Pilots for the Scandinavian SAS airline delayed a planned strike on Saturday after negotiations with company management showed some progress. If the 900 pilots go ahead with their strike, hundreds of flights per day will likely be canceled.

ab/rs (dpa, AFP, AP, Reuters)

GASTARBITER

Will Turkish workers ease Germany's airport chaos?

Airports in Germany face dire staff shortages. That's why many are thinking about hiring experienced airport personnel from Turkey. Turkish media have welcomed the plan.

Crowds of holidaymakers wait in line at German airports these days, like here in Düsseldorf.

Germany has faced serious labor shortages in a range of sectors. That is hardly news. Most recently, however, German airports have been affected, too. After two years of travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, many people in Germany are now eager to go on holiday. Yet once holidaymakers reach airports, they are all too often confronted with long queues, delayed or even cancelled flights — all because of staff shortages.

Given this tense situation, German airports are thinking about recruiting Turkish workers to help out. There are plans to temporarily hire some 2,000 people, chiefly for baggage handling. None of these foreigners would, however, be permitted to help screen passengers as they pass security. And that's the sector in which staff have been especially hard to come by.

Time to cut red tape

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Wednesday said the government will support the aviation industry in these tough times.

"We are providing short-term relief, allowing companies to use foreign workers, mainly from Turkey," she said during a press conference. "We will quickly issue residency and work permits."

At the same time, Faeser said, foreign workers must pass the same demanding background checks as everyone else.

German Labor Minister Heil, Transport Minister Wissing and Interior 

Minister Faeser (pictured left to right)

This was confirmed by the German Aviation Association (BDL), which told DW German authorities should speed up checks for potential staff from countries that aren't EU members so they can be employed if and when needed this summer. BDL spokeswoman Julia Fohmann told DW that screenings should be completed in two to four weeks, rather than "two to three months," as is the norm.

Germany has yet to reach out

Turkish labor unions and ground handling companies in Istanbul and Ankara have not yet been approached by German authorities about the possible recruitment drive, says Emre Eser, a Turkey-based DW correspondent. TAV Airports Holding, a Turkish airport operator, and Turkish Airlines have neither. The German embassy in Ankara told DW it is not part of the recruitment scheme.

Mustafa Kocabayraktar, founder of Turkey-based Bonnair Tours travel agency, which helps organize work visas, says many people are asking about employment in Germany. But he says he has little information about the envisioned hiring drive.

Turkey cannot afford to lose airport staff

In any case, workers so highly sought-after by Germany are also desperately needed at Turkish airports ― in particular, as German Interior Minister Faeser says, those with knowledge of and "experience in aviation and ground handling at Turkish airports."

Turkish DW correspondent Eser says Turkey cannot afford to lose airport staff, especially during the tourist season. Highly qualified personnel that speak German or English are currently in high demand at Turkish airports.

Istanbul airport is a major aviation hub

Tourism is a key pillar of the Turkish economy. As such, expectations are up after two years of coronavirus pandemic, says Eser. He says Turkey would face serious challenges if skilled workers were to leave for Germany.

Broad media coverage

In any case, Germany's idea to hire Turkish workers has sparked broad media coverage in Turkey. Many publications have run headlines announcing Germany is set to hire Turkish laborers and plans to pay handsomely. Some reports have claimed workers will receive €4,000 ($4,170) a month, while others have said as much as €6,000 ($6,250) can be expected.

These early reports left many Turks ecstatic, says Emre Eser. "Many workers thought they can move to Germany and stay there, living there permanently, or for a long time, at least." 

But as time passed, and more details of the recruitment drive became clear, this euphoria vanished. Germany wants to hire Turkish workers on a short-term basis only. In fact, the German Airports Association (ADV) wants to employ Turkish workers for no more three months.

History repeating itself?

The current situation reminds many of the German-Turkish recruitment agreement of 1961. Then, like now, Germany was keen to make up for acute labor shortages by temporarily hiring Turkish workers. 

The deal saw scores of Turkish workers and their families relocate to Germany, where they greatly contributed to the country's post-war boom.

Many Turkish media outlets covering the latest recruitment drive have drawn parallels to the historic deal. 

So can one expect Germany's new recruitment drive will be broadened to encompass other sectors as well? The official answer is no. In a joint press conference, Germany's Transport Minister Volker Wissing, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil and Interior Minister Faeser stressed the hiring drive will remain a temporary measure only. Heil said it would not cause "permanent immigration into Germany."

Similarities and differences

Yunus Ulusoy, a scholar at Essen's Center for Turkish Studies and Integration Research, says comparing the 1961 deal and today's recruitment drive is not helpful. That is because the circumstances are very different.

"Back then, Germany needed skilled workers but was not in a position to invite them [into the country], which is why bilateral agreements were made; today, Germany has a legal framework in place to attract skilled workers from all over the world," says Ulusoy.

In 2021, German President Steinmeier talked to workers on the 60th anniversary

 of the German-Turkish recruitment agreement.

And yet, Ulusoy does see certain similarities between then and now. Back in the 1960s, "Turkey was regarded as a stopgap solution: It would send thousands of workers to Germany for a limited time. There were no plans for them to be reunited with their families," says Ulusoy. "But the workers proved their mettle, and German employers did not want to let them go." 

In light of the latest labor shortages, Germany's aviation industry hopes authorities will soon ease restrictions for foreign workers wishing to come to the country. "For years, we — in conjunction with the German economy — have been calling for labor migration rules to be simplified in Germany," BDL spokeswoman Fohmann told DW.

Then, like today, German recruitment drives are fueling the hopes of many Turkish people. After all, Turkey finds itself mired in an economic crisis and faces rampant inflation.

 

This article was originally written in German.

Being LGBTQ in Africa still draws stigma, violence and criminal charges

In Africa, same-sex partnerships are only legal in about half of the continent's 54 states. Many countries outlaw homosexuality and LGBTQ people still live in fear of attacks, imprisonment and even the death penalty.



A participant at a protest by the LGBTQ community in Kenya


The persecution of LGBTQ people by the state is brutal in Africa. In some countries, sexual minorities fear for their lives due to the threat of the death penalty or lengthy prison sentences.

There are also drastic restrictions on LGBTQ freedom of expression, as well as discrimination.

That was evident on a football field in France recently.

In mid-May, Senegalese international and Paris Saint-Germain soccer club player Idrissa Gana Gueye refused to wear a rainbow jersey as a symbol of greater tolerance and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, also known as LGBTQ, and people with other sexual minorities.

 

TOP 10 MOST QUEER-FRIENDLY TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

Canada

Canada is considered the most queer-friendly travel destination in the world. It legalized same-sex marriage in 2005, making it one of the earliest countries to do so. Canada is also well-known for staging numerous LGBTQ events, such as Toronto Pride in June (pictured), and Fierte Montreal Pride Festival in August of each year.

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The rhetoric against LGBTQ people has increased among Senegalese social media users since the incident at a league match in France.

In France, Gueye was criticized but in Senegal the player has received much support for his behavior, even at the highest level.

" I support Idrissa Gueye," Senegal's President Macky Sall tweeted. "His religious beliefs must be respected."

Around 95% of Senegal's population is Muslim and so-called "unnatural acts" with a person of the same sex are punishable by law with prison terms of one to five years.
Increase in attacks

Members of the LGBTQ community report that attacks and homophobic incidents in the West African country have increased in recent years.

Meanwhile, violence against LGBTQ people in Cameroon is also on the rise, according Human Rights Watch.

The country still criminalizes same-sex relationships, according to Lewis Mudge, the organization's director for Central Africa.

"This law creates this atmosphere in which LGBTQ people are targets," Mudge told DW.

"Homosexuality, same-sex conduct, is difficult for some people in Cameroon to accept, as it is in other African countries," he said.

The police are also not on their side, he added.
Where in Africa do LGBTQ people have rights?

In the past decade, five African countries have legalized homosexuality. Angola now allows same-sex relationships after passing a new law that came into force in February 2021.

In a landmark ruling in 2019, Botswana's Supreme Court decriminalized both male and female same-sex relationships.

The new law overturned legislation that dated back to 1965, when the country was still under British rule.

In 2015, Mozambique removed a colonial era clause from its penal code that banned same-sex relationships. It had designated them a "vice against nature."

Lesotho and Seychelles are also among the frontrunners in terms of acceptance, according to a 2020 global overview by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

Uganda held its first LGBTQ pride march in 2012

Same-sex partnerships are only legal in 22 of Africa's 54 countries, according to the overview.

In some countries, they are punished with imprisonment, in others even with death — that includes Mauritania, a dozen states in Nigeria and Somalia where Sharia law applies.

The maximum sentence is life imprisonment in Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, while in Gambia, Kenya and Malawi, prison sentences of up to 14 years are possible, according to the overview.

In Zambia, President Hakainde Hichilema has just reaffirmed at a church service that his government would not stand up for the rights of homosexuals in the country.

Kenya is often a destination for LGBTQ people fleeing other parts of Africa

While same-sex relationships are not criminalized in Rwanda, members of the LGBTQ community criticize the government for not protecting them enough from stigma and violence by security agencies.

This is confirmed by the Kigali-based Health Development Initiative.
Fighting discrimination and stigmatization

The initiative's director, Aflodis Kagaba, commissioned a study on the challenges facing the LGBTQ community in Rwanda.

"Leaving no one behind means addressing stigma and discrimination," Kagaba told DW.

"We must ensure that all those inequities that make some of us feel unwelcome or condemned in our society are eliminated."

Institutions that support women should also consider LBGTQ people, one Rwandan activist told DW.

"We want to see ways they can improve their social or economic status, in the private or public sphere, without paying attention to gender identity or sexual orientation because we are more than that."

Prejudices are also evident in schools, workplaces or in the health care system, according to Jean Claude Cedric, an LBGTQ activist from Rwanda.

"The employees in health centers openly refuse to treat us. This forces many people in our community to stop visiting these facilities. Our government must enact laws that improve our lives and fight those in the community who harass us," Cedric told DW.

QUEER LIFE IN SOUTH AFRICA: ZANELE MUHOLI'S PHOTOGRAPHY

Black is beautiful

Zanele Muholi, shown here in a self-portrait, celebrates the lives of the LGBTQ communities of South Africa through photography and other kinds of visual art. The language of Muholi's depictions of queer African identities builds on visual contrast, and also focuses on the explicit portrayal of acts of introspection.

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South Africa as a role model

Many persecuted people seek refuge outside their home country, especially in comparatively more liberal South Africa.

Although violence and social discrimination against LGBTQ people is still widespread there, the rights of sexual minorities are enshrined in the country's Constitution.

In this respect, South Africa is a role model in Africa.

Other countries are also seeing some progress.

The small kingdom of Eswatini, which neighbors South Africa, held its first gay pride parade in 2018 — an event that has been on the public calendar in South Africa for years.

In 2006, South Africa became the first country in Africa — and one of just a few nations worldwide at the time — to legalize same-sex marriage.

Nasra Bishumba contributed to this article. It was originally written in German and has been adapted by Benita van Eyssen.

Russians fleeing war and repression seek solace in Istanbul

Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine has prompted thousands of people critical of the war to leave Russia. Istanbul has proved a popular choice, either for transit or a new home.

Like hundreds of other Russians, Anneliya Garifulina and Ruslan Bobrik

moved to Istanbul after the Russian invasion of Ukraine

In an elegant patisserie on the Asian side of Istanbul, I am waiting for Irina Gaisina to come back from the immigration office. The 39-year-old psychologist and politician left Russia for Turkey in early March, leaving behind her three children and husband.

The reason was her work in politics — she was elected to the municipal council of St. Petersburg from Russia's opposition Yabloko Party in 2019. Gaisina attended rallies for jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny and signed anti-war petitions after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

"The last demonstration I participated in was at the end of February. I was not arrested but some of my friends were," she says. "I woke up and read news about my friends accused of terrorist activities. Their homes were raided. I was next."

Her husband agreed to stay with their children and told her to leave Russia. The next day, she took a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul where she knew a journalist friend from St. Petersburg who was already there. For Gaisina, Turkey had been a frequent destination for business and leisure until the war in Ukraine began.

She went directly to a shelter managed by "The Ark," a support group for Russians fleeing their country in the wake of the war, in the conservative Istanbul district of Fatih.

"I really got along with people there because we were coming from the same background, sharing the same political opinions," Gaisina told DW Turkish. "It is nice to be in touch with people who are in the same situation as you and speak your language."

Psychologist and politician Irina Gaisina is waiting for her family to join her in Istanbul

With international financial companies suspending operations in Russia and cutting off transactions, her credit cards are blocked. Only the debit card works from time to time.

Gaisina has a Turkish bank account now, and managed to find her own apartment with the help of a Turkish friend as she waits for her family to join her in Istanbul. Since her children don't speak Turkish and private Russian schools are expensive in Istanbul, they will attend online school after arriving Turkey.

But Gaisina hopes to return to Russia when the war is over and Putin leaves office.

"I got a one-year residence permit," she said. "We want to move to Europe, preferably Germany. I will miss my friends. Some already left, some are in jail. We fell apart and it is not going to be restored. This is so sad."

'Most Russians want to go to Europe'

Eva Rapoport, photographer and cultural anthropologist, is one of the coordinators of the "The Ark." They have helped hundreds of Russians since March, providing temporary shelter and psychological support in the Armenian capital Yerevan as well as Istanbul.

"We ask people to fill out an online application form to confirm their political background," Rapoport says. "We have to make sure everybody is safe in shelters and no one has a hidden agenda."

Rapoport, who has been living in Istanbul since 2020, left Russia when she decided not to pursue her career in a country that she says has "no future." She estimates that around 3,000 Russians moved to Turkey after the war.

Some had to leave Turkey soon after they arrived because of financial problems. "For Russians in exile, it is quite difficult to survive financially," she says. "Most people want to go to Europe to seek political asylum. It is not easy to find a job in Turkey. Integration is not easy too."

Eva Rapoport is a photographer and cultural anthropologist who helps

 Russian dissidents arriving in Istanbul

'When we moved to a nice apartment here, it felt like home'

Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey have been the three main destinations for Russian political exiles after the war. Russians in Istanbul connect on virtual chat groups, organizing events and sharing experiences about how to build a new life in Turkey. Thousands of people join Telegram groups to ask each other about how to rent a cheap apartment and open a bank account in Istanbul.

Anneliya Garifulina and Ruslan Bobrik also moved to Istanbul after the war. They already had plans to leave Russia, but the war accelerated their flight.

"The situation was getting worse and the future was not bright," Garifulina, a model and blogger, says. "When the war began, we did not want to be stuck in Russia. I was also afraid Ruslan would be enlisted in the army."  

She was in a wheelchair with a broken leg at the time. When she was asked at the airport about their plans, the 35-year-old-said they were leaving to get treatment in Turkey. They left Moscow with their three dogs.

The Russian couple signed a lease for a year in the Sisli district, a commercial area in downtown Istanbul. They are both taking Turkish classes right now.

"When we moved to a nice apartment here, it felt like home. Ruslan is here, my dogs are here and I feel safe," Garifulina says now. "I won't be going back to Russia until big changes happen. But I don't see a possibility of change in the foreseeable future."

'We say 'save it for the dark day,' and the dark day came'

When the beauty blogger posted on her Instagram account "maquillage_diary" that she had left Russia because of the war using the #MakeLoveNotWar hashtag, she says she lost around 1,000 followers. She wanted to share that post before leaving Russia but her husband stopped her.

"At (airport) security, they were checking phones," she says. "Some people were deleting their messages and social media posts. I didn't feel safe in Russia because of the free speech situation. It is not safe to say you are against the war."

Ruslan Bobrik, a 43-year-old finance and IT consultant, defines himself as a digital nomad, and he worked in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before moving to Moscow.

"After moving to Istanbul, I realized that I miss Moscow. It is actually surprising because I am too rational to miss something," he says.

The two say they didn't have any negative experiences as Russian citizens while looking for a place through real estate agencies. The high inflation in Turkey hasn't affected them much, though they have grown used to surging prices since March.

"The economic crisis was coming so I made some savings for the future. Our savings saved us," Bobrik says. 

"We say, 'Save it for the dark day,'" Garifulina adds. "And the dark day came."

Artist and curator Olesia Bessmeltseva says she felt good leaving

 Russia and plans to stay on in Turkey

'I felt so good leaving Russia'

Olesia Bessmeltseva studied IT engineering and German literature and was a curator in St. Petersburg. She got a new job just two days before the war started.

Feeling depressed, 36-year-old Bessmeltseva had already wanted to leave because of the deteriorating political situation. Moreover, her critical works made it harder to make money as an artist. In March, she left Russia for Istanbul with a political activist friend who was in danger.

"At St. Petersburg airport, I shot a video of myself to show my friends I am actually okay and it is still possible to feel better. I felt so good leaving Russia," she says.

Putin's decision to invade Ukraine brought her to a point in her life when political activism no longer felt useful. Unlike most Russian exiles, she is planning to stay in Turkey instead of going to Europe. And she does not miss her homeland.

"Wars ruin lots of people's lives. If you can't save people, you can save yourself and still keep doing something for people in need," Bessmeltseva says.

Edited by: Sonia Phalnikar

Is nuclear fusion the key to fighting climate change?

 

WAR

 

COLD WAR REDUX
Why U.S. science needs costly supercomputers; China could overtake US

Carolyn Krause
Wed, June 29, 2022 

Jack Dongarra spoke to the Friends of ORNL recently.

Thanks to Frontier, the Department of Energy’s first $600 million exascale supercomputer — located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory — the United States ranks first on the Top500 supercomputer list in the number of calculations that can be performed per second. But Jack Dongarra noted that China, which has two supercomputers ranked sixth and ninth on the list, could overtake the United States' computing capacity for solving scientific and technological problems.

Dongarra, who has appointments at the University of Tennessee, ORNL, and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, is this year’s winner of the prestigious A.M. Turing Award from the Association of Computing Machinery, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computing. It carries a $1 million prize.

Dongarra recently spoke to Friends of ORNL (FORNL).

Jack Dongarra is photographed inside his office on the University of Tennessee at Knoxville campus on Monday, May 2, 2022. Dongarra is the 2021 Turing Award recipient.

In 1993, he explained, he provided a software standard or benchmark for evaluating the relative performances of the world’s top 500 supercomputers twice a year by having them address a problem of solving linear equations. He and two others manage the Top500 list.

Jack Dongarra

Dongarra told FORNL that Frontier has executed calculations at a rate of 1.1 exaflops, or 1.1 quintillion calculations per second — that is, a billion times a billion floating point operations per second, or FLOPS (e.g., addition and multiplication of numbers with decimal points). Frontier is five times faster than the most powerful supercomputers in use today.

The latest TOP500 list shows that DOE’s Frontier supercomputer at ORNL is ranked No. 1 in the world.

To help his audience grasp the power of Frontier, which takes up the space of two tennis courts, Dongarra suggested that we imagine that UT has 60 Neyland Stadiums, each with 100,000 filled seats. To perform the number of calculations per second you can get on Frontier, you must give each person a laptop capable of 166 billion FLOPS and connect the laptops in all the stadiums together.

China

Dongarra has been out of touch with Chinese computer scientists in the past two years, but he has heard rumors that China may have built two exascale computers, but chooses to keep its achievement under wraps. He said that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. supplies American and Chinese companies with state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication for supercomputers. Taiwan is an independent democracy that has a strong partnership with the U.S. and resists becoming part of Communist China.

Dongarra noted that China leads the world with 173 supercomputers used for science. The U.S. comes in second with 126 supercomputers. One of the American supercomputers is Summit at ORNL, which once ranked first and now is fourth in the Top500. Dongarra said it will be disassembled when it is five years old because its maintenance cost will be too high.

Teams of dedicated people overcame numerous hurdles, including pandemic-related supply chain issues, to complete Frontier’s installation. Despite these challenges, delivery of the system took place from September to November 2021. 

Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

The cost

The U.S. Department of Energy's Exascale Computing Program will cost taxpayers $3.6 billion over seven years. Next year, in addition to Frontier at ORNL, two more $600 million DOE exascale supercomputers — Aurora at Argonne National Laboratory and El Capitan at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — should be in operation, running 21 science applications.

Thanks to Frontier, a $600 million exascale supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the United States ranks first on the Top500 supercomputer list in the number of calculations that can be performed per second.

These exascale supercomputers will test mathematical models that simulate complex physical phenomena or designs, such as climate and weather, evolution of the cosmos, small modular reactors, new chemical compounds that might be used in vaccines or therapeutic drugs, power grids, wind turbines, and combustion engines.

Although rapid calculations can be made using cloud computing, Dongarra said that large, powerful supercomputers are needed to provide “better fidelity and more accuracy in our calculations” and to get “three-dimensional, fully realistic implementation of what scientists are trying to model, as well as better resolution as they find out at a deeper level what is going on at a finer scale.”

The equations being solved are based on the laws of physics, and most supercomputers are programmed using the Fortran and C++ languages.

Another purpose for bigger supercomputers, he added, is to “optimize a model” of, say, a combustion engine by “running thousands of different models with adjusted parameters” to identify an engine design that uses fuel with maximum efficiency and minimum emissions of pollutants.

Dongarra said that computational simulations are the third pillar of science after theory and experimentation. He noted that researchers use computer models to get answers to some questions because, for example, it is too difficult to build large wind tunnels and too dangerous to try a new chemical on humans to see if it would be an effective drug.

We would have to wait too long to find out how much the climate would change if we doubled our combustion of fossil fuels, he indicated.

Frontier was built by Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) using an interconnect from Cray (which HPE recently purchased), and almost eight million compute processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) made by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) that must be coordinated. GPUs, which are used for videogames and video editing and have more transistors than CPUs, perform complex mathematical and geometric calculations needed for graphics rendering.

“The GPUs are providing 98% of the performance capability of Frontier,” Dongarra said. He added that the calculation speed could be quadrupled if the sizes of the numbers with decimal points were represented in a compressed way (e.g., in the case of pi, from 3.14159265 to 3.14). That could increase Frontier’s peak performance of 2 exaflops for modeling and simulation to 11.2 exaflops.

To explain supercomputer performance, Dongarra used a car analogy.

“When driving your car, your speedometer might indicate you can go up to 160 miles per hour. That’s the theoretical potential of your car. But the highest speed you can achieve safely on the road is 120 mph. That’s what we are trying to measure — the achievable rate of execution in the supercomputer’s performance," he said.

In his summary, Dongarra said that supercomputer hardware is constantly changing, so programmers must keep developing algorithms and designing software to match hardware capabilities. He added that a major revolution in high-performance computing will be the upcoming increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI), the ability of a computer program or machine to learn and think like humans by finding patterns in a vast database.

An example is the supercomputers behind weather predictions, Dongarra said.

“Weather forecasting starts by constructing a three-dimensional model of today’s weather. AI learns by searching data on all the weather conditions over the past hundred years to get insights. Based on knowledge of those conditions and of physical laws, it can predict with accuracy what the weather will be in the next few days," he said.

At ORNL, Summit has already used AI for some of its simulations.

The future is here.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Why U.S. science needs costly supercomputers

RENT INCREASES = INFLATION
Tenants struggle with rising rent spikes, prices at all time highs

RENTIER CAPITALI$M

Sara Edwards, USA TODAY
Fri, July 1, 2022 

At a time when rising gasoline and food prices are already straining Americans’ budgets, many apartment tenants are grappling with soaring rents.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan area in Florida saw overall median rent soar over 50% in April from a year ago, to $3,045 a month, according to Realtor.com.

The next biggest increase? The central Florida metropolitan area made up of Orlando, Kissimmee and Sanford, where the median rent jumped 32.9% from April last year to $1,927, the firm said.

Nationally, the median rent climbed to $1,827, an increase of about 17% versus the same month last year, according to Realtor.com, which tracks rental listings in the 50 biggest U.S. metropolitan areas.

PANDEMIC PROFITEERING PRICE GOUGING

“The fact that rents are rising much higher than we’ve seen historically is a reflection of the unique time that we’re in, where the economy is adjusting to a couple of extraordinary years and shifts in preferences,” said Danielle Hale, Realtor.com’s chief economist.

National median rent has set new all-time highs for 14 months in a row. At the current pace of increases, it could hit $2,000 by August, Hale said. Rents as measured by the U.S. consumer price index haven’t risen this fast since May 1991.

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In a recent survey of renters and landlords by Realtor.com more than 66% of tenants said higher rents were the biggest strain on their finances, while about 76% noted they’re unable to save as much money every month as they did a year ago.

Tenants are likely to see further rent hikes this year. About 72% of the landlords surveyed said they were planning to increase rents within 12 months.

Landlords have the leverage to ask for higher rents because demand is strong. Years of rising home prices and the recent surge in mortgage rates have left many would-be homebuyers with little choice but to keep renting.

Developers are responding by ramping up apartment construction to the fastest pace in decades.

Developers are ramping up apartment construction, but these likely 

won't hit the market for a few years

NOT APARTMENTS;CONDOS!!!

Newly started construction of apartment buildings climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 612,000 units in April, according to the Commerce Department. That’s up 42.3% from a year earlier and the fastest seasonally adjusted annual rate since April 1986.

That additional supply should help eventually, but it can take months or years for projects to hit the market, especially given supply chain and labor constraints that have delayed all manner of construction during the pandemic.

While the national homeownership rate is around 65%, there are more renters than homeowners in many large metropolitan areas, such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, Hale said.

And the burden of sharp rent increases tends to fall mostly on a segment of the population that tends to be younger and less financially flexible.

“The renter population tends to be different than the homeowner population,” Hale said. “They tend to be younger, they tend to have less wealth, and also be lower income, generally speaking, which can make it more difficult for them to navigate price increases.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rent prices across US at all-time high; tenants struggle with hikes