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More infectious coronavirus mutation may be 'a good thing'
Lebanon's Hezbollah 'got power but lost the country'
LORD RANGER
FROM A BARN TO BARON
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EDITOR'S NOTE
A Bleak Horizon
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wet market in Wuhan opened the proverbial Pandora’s box, bringing the world to its knees and causing the global economy to go on an unprecedented tailspin. The novel coronavirus has infected more than 17 million people around the world and more than two-thirds of a million have succumbed to it. Resurgence of infections around the globe has forced governments to tighten curbs, spurring recessions, which are in no mood to beat a retreat. The shadow of gloom over the global economy still remains and a recent Reuters poll involving 500 noted economists reveals that there is no glimmer of hope anytime soon.
the IMF’s prediction of -4.9 per cent. It will expand by just 2.0 per cent in 2021.
One of the mega growth engines of the global economy, the US could be one of its biggest drags as the dollar has hurtled to a two-year low with the virus surging across states and the Federal Reserve coming out with a deluge of stimulus measures.
Given the major downturn expected this year, the economic outlook for major economies such as the US, the UK, Japan and Australia for 2021 looks muted. Things are slightly different for the euro zone as the EU has reached an agreement to roll out a stimulus package of 750 billion euros.
Things are no different in other major economies such as India, Australia, Brazil and Spain where new infections are surging ahead at lightning speed. Experts predict that the global economy, in a worst-case scenario, will shrink 6.5 per cent this year, worse than
Six months since the pandemic bared its fangs, sucking the lifeblood out of economies worldwide, economists believe the global economy will look totally different and there are marked changes in the attitude towards fiscal and monetary policy, global trade and travel. Experts say that only if there is a breakthrough in COVID-19 treatment with an effective vaccine will there be a reason to believe that the world economy will show signs of growth by 5.3 per cent in 2021. Until then, we will have to sail through the storm.
Based on the findings of the Reuters survey of economists, one can safely presume that it would take at least two more years for the global economy to reach its pre-pandemic level. The lowering of value of the US dollar has also caused
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concerns to investors. Financial experts blame increased bond purchases through the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing and the increase in currency supply for the value of the greenback taking a hit. On the other hand, bullion is outperforming because of the debasement of the greenback. This year, gold has soared 33 per cent fuelled by lower interest rates and safehaven purchasing on the assumption that the dollar value will further slide because of the Federal Reserve policy and US government stimulus measures, say experts. In what is seen as a move sending shockwaves in the investment world, US-based investor and business tycoon Warren Buffett did the unthinkable. The Oracle of Omaha’s behemoth Berkshire Hathaway, which owns more than 60 companies including Duracell and Geico, placed a bet on the gold market. In a regulatory filing explaining in detail its US-listed investments as of June 30, Berkshire revealed that it had sold its shares of some of the biggest American banks. It cut its stakes in Wells Fargo & Co and JPMorgan Chase & Co and quit an investment in Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Surprisingly, Berkshire disclosed it had bought 20.9 million share investment which is valued at $563.6 million in Barrick Gold Corp, one of the biggest gold mining companies in the world. Buffett, who once derided investing in bullion, shocked the world with this sudden change in strategy and the media went gaga over his new tryst with the Toronto-based mining entity. Although one of the world’s top ten richest persons has not directly invested in gold, the lure of the yellow metal and its bright future this year made Buffett, whose assets have a net worth of 78.9 billion dollars, go for the investment. After all, if gold goes higher, stock goes higher too.
Best,
ANSIF ASHRAF Managing Editor, British Herald ansif@britishherald.com
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BRITISH HERALD
CONTENTS
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 | VOLUME 02 | ISSUE 05
6
21
6 | Lord Ranger - From A Barn To Baron
21 | Australian anti-aircraft gunner recounts WW2 bombing of Darwin
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25
32
19 | Tech fuelled 'everything's awesome' rally looks unstoppable
25 | 'Polishing the gun': China, US tensions raise Taiwan conflict fears
32 | US schools revamp curricula in response to Black Lives Matter
34 | Kenya elephant numbers more than double in 1980-2018
42 | Europe faces high hurdles to make hydrogen hype reality
71 | As other doors close, some Rohingya cling to hope of resettlement
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LORD RANGER
COVER STORY
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COVER STORY
LORD RANGER FROM A BARN TO BARON
In Short
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fter the long hours of business at Westminster, when Lord Ranger, who is the patron of British Herald, steps out of the magnificent edifice of the temple of British democracy, he adjusts his Alexandre of England jacket and gets into his pewter-colour RollsRoyce Ghost for the ride back home. He takes in the sights as the vehicle glides through the streets of the
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The millionaire owner of an award-winning London-based FMCG firm, a titan of the Indian community in Britain, a Commander of the British Empire, a distinguished member of the House of Lords, philanthropist, community leader and champion of education and communal amity… Lord Ranger has many accolades to his credit. But it was no cakewalk to win the jewel-studded crown of success in the entrepreneurial world. Behind his glittering achievements is a little-known saga, which began on the dusty plains of Punjab in India, marked by travails, bitterness, challenges, setbacks, determination and courage.
British capital. As the car passes the KFC outlet on the way, Ranger’s eyes rest for a moment on the celebrated logo featuring the smiling visage of the bespectacled Colonel Sanders. For a moment, he closes his eyes and a beatific smile comes to his face. After all, his tumultuous journey clocking milestones on the highway to success in the British business sector began in a humble KFC outlet in
the early 1970s. And those memories flash through his mind.
A young lad in the land of opportunity Like any migrant, dreams of higher studies and a rosy future led young Ranger to the land of opportunity, the UK, in 1971. It was a
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COVER STORY by the young Indian, the management made him district manager in charge of 10 outlets. That was when he got the opportunity to interact with none other than the legendary Colonel Sanders himself. By that time, his dream of becoming a barrister had taken the backseat. During his six-year stint with KFC, he got married to Renu, the daughter of an Indian Air Force officer.
Ranger with Col Sanders
time when the country was progressing by leaps and bounds. Coming from a different culture, the young man soon came to realise that the streets of London of his dreams were not paved with gold and neither did money grow on trees. The spiralling unemployment and high inflation made landing a job in Britain an uphill task and this came as a rude jolt to Ranger, who also got a bitter taste of racial prejudice. That was when he realised that respect does not come for free. Instead, it has to be earned by sheer hard work. “Whenever I applied for a job, they would ask if I had experience. I had none and there was nobody willing to give me experience,” Ranger said in an interview with a publication for the Indian diaspora. He was left with no option but to accept the job
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of a car cleaner. Determined not to remain in that role for long, he was always on the lookout for better openings. Thus, one morning, while on his way to work, he chanced upon a job posting, seeking a chef for a KFC outlet. He applied and to his luck, he was appointed. Diligence and industriousness, which are two of his many sterling qualities, paid off that the district manager spotted the hardworking Indian among their staff and made him the assistant manager of the outlet in Norwood. While KFC opened another branch in Brixton, the astute Ranger found a golden opportunity to prove his mettle. His hard work brought rich dividends to the outlet, making it the number one in the country, breaking all sales records. Mighty impressed
move on. It was a time when the country was witnessing the flow of the Indian diaspora from Uganda and they struck roots by opening corner shops. The judicious entrepreneur joined the bandwagon.
A short-lived transatlantic dream
He lost no time in buying a sub post office, which his wife managed, while he devoted his time to a sweet shop. His mother, who had joined him by then, took care of the children. However, they felt that they could achieve a lot more in Canada.
At a time when KFC began selling its outlets to individual franchisees, Ranger knew it was time to
But fortune did not smile on the Rangers there and their Canadian dream fizzled out because of recession,
During his stint at Dixons
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tougher immigration regulations and difficulty in finding a good job. Perhaps, it was destiny that made Ranger return to the bosom of England and go on to conquer greater heights. It was while working for Dixons that they bought a house in Harrow. His unflinching adherence to ethics and his hard work soon made him the number one manager in the firm, which later came to be known as Currys. But again, ill-luck came in the form of hostile behaviour from a regional manager and he called it quits.
From £2 to multimillion business empire Perhaps, Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho’s immortal words in his bestseller ‘The Alchemist’ - And when you want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you achieve it – ring true if one has a look at the amazing saga of Ranger. His first big step as an entrepreneur was when he started a freight forwarding company with his friend. Again when the ties between them slowly started getting frigid, the young businessman thought of forging ahead alone. With just two pounds in his pocket and an old typewriter, he singlehandedly rolled out Sea Air and Land Forwarding Ltd from a barn in Hayes in 1987. As they say, fortune favours the brave. Indeed, Lady Luck smiled benignly on Ranger, who slowly built an empire, brick by brick,
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KFC days
with courage, foresight, dedication and above all honesty, and he became the
“Whenever I applied for a job, they would ask if I had experience. I had none and there was nobody willing to give me experience”
proud owner of yet another enterprise – Sun Mark Ltd in 1995, which has an enviable position among British firms. With the support of Sea Air and Land Forwarding, Sun Mark became a global brand and a leader in the segment buoyed by its hallmarks of quality and success. It exports merchandise to 120 countries across the globe thanks to its expanding logistics operations and warehouses.
Sun Mark has the unique distinction of winning the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade for an unprecedented five consecutive years – 2009 till 2013, setting a record in Britain. The fifth award was personally presented to him in his office by none other than the then Prime Minister David Cameron. Lord Ranger outlines his entrepreneurial journey in the autobiography "From Nothing to Everything" which was published last year.
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COVER STORY of the Punjabi Society of the British Isles. His close association with the Conservative Party, which is keen to promote the racial diversity of the country and preserve harmony among communities, has brought him laurels in the form of Deputy Treasurer of the party and Chairman of the Conservative Party’s Annual Foreign & Commonwealth Dinner. Ranger is also the founding member of the Hindu Forum and Patron of Combat Stress, which is a leading British charity for veterans’ mental wellbeing.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II confers the Most Excellent Order of Commander of the British Empire to Dr Ranger in January 2016
No full stops for accolades When Ranger started in London, working for just 35 pence an hour cleaning cars, he knew hard work was the only key to success and the way to earn respect. And he was right. He rose in stature in the business world and in society banking on self-respect, work ethics, commitment, vision, empathy and, above all, humaneness. It would not be wrong to call Lord Ranger a bridge builder metaphorically as he goes out of his way to foster good relations between the diverse communities that make up British society. Be it the Indian, Pakistani or Sikh communities, he is a notto-be-missed personality when it comes to building
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amity, trust and fellowship among them. What’s more, he also plays a proactive role in promoting Indo-UK ties. There are only a few stalwarts from the Indian community who have won so many accolades and recognitions as Ranger, who is the patron of the
Prince’s Trust and the Prime Minister’s Ambassador for Apprenticeship for the Food and Drink Industry. The chairman of the British Sikh Association, the peer also chairs the Pakistan, India and UK Friendship Forum and is the Patron
He is also the Co-Chairman of the Conservative Friends of India, which seeks to foster solidarity between the party, the British Indian community and India as well. Lord Ranger, who has a profound veneration for the Indian Father of the Nation, is the Trustee of the Gandhi Memorial Foundation Trust and is the Vice-Chairman of the Indian Gymkhana. Lord Ranger, who built a business empire without graduating from a fancy business school, was awarded two honorary doctorates.
Dr Ranger receives the Member of British Empire for services to British business & the British Asian community from HRH Prince of Wales in 2005
In July 2016, he was bestowed with a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) from the University of West London. Earlier, the Preston University in the US awarded him a honorary doctorate in recognition for his contribution to business.
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Dr Ranger awarded Hon DLitt by Laurence Geller, Chancellor, & Professor Peter John, Vice-Chancellor, of the University of West London
Lord Ranger flanked by Chris Merry, CEO of RSM Tenon, on his left and Adrian Tripp, CEO, the European Business Awards, on his right while receiving the award for 2012-2013
The Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiers MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, opens the Dr Rami Ranger CBE Centre for Graduate Entrepreneurship at London South Bank University in 2014
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COVER STORY
Lord Lieutenant of Greater London Sir David Brewer CMG, JP, presenting the third Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade to Dr Ranger
Dr Ranger receiving the “Man of the Year Award” from PM David Cameron at the GG2 Leadership Awards, 2014
Munificence knows no bounds Lord Ranger values education so much so that he has opened his coffers for the welfare of the student community. He donated £250,000 to London South Bank University to establish “The Rami Ranger CBE Entrepreneurship Centre’ to provide succour to aspiring businessmen of tomorrow.
Another £200,000 went to the University of West London for a students’ hostel apart from £40,000 to set up a new group pavilion in the varsity’s library. He also supported the cause of the Gandhi monument in London by donating £100,000 to the Gandhi Memorial Foundation Trust. The Indian Gymkhana also got a taste
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COVER STORY Britons of Indian origin. He is one of the most decorated persons in Britain. Her Majesty the Queen feted him a record eight times - six times for business and twice for community service.
Forged in the fire of Partition Lord Ranger has always been a vocal advocate of dialogue and peace and leaves no stone unturned to build bonds with communities. Perhaps, many are unaware of what makes him so passionate about such initiatives. He grew up in a family whose collective psyche bears the scars of the horrors of Partition, displacement and the trauma of striking roots in a new land with thousands of other refugees.
Baron Ranger of Mayfair with Prime Minister Boris Johnson
of his munificence when it received £75,000 for accommodation facilities for athletes. Likewise, £150,000 went to the Prince’s Trust of which he is a Fellow to help young men nurture their dreams of becoming successful businessmen. The Thames Hospice in Maidenhead received £100,000 from Ranger. Firmly believing that philanthropy should go hand in hand with business growth, Ranger, who is also the patron of the ‘Great Walk’ undertaken by the Chairman of the India Association UK, has helped raise £100,000 for research into finding a
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cure for AIDS and cancer at Northwick Park and St Mark’s Hospital in Harrow.
Road to Westminster
came calling in 2005 when he was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his stellar services to British business and the Asian community.
In his eventful journey, which started from Patiala in India, Ranger witnessed with pride how he went on to shatter the glass ceiling in the classconscious British society. His charisma, business acumen, contribution to society, philanthropy and goodwill among top politicians, entrepreneurs and community leaders did not go unnoticed. One of the highest honours of Britain
Eleven years later, he was made a Commander of the British Empire. Recognising his overall contributions, he was nominated to life peerage and membership in the House of Lords in Prime Minister Theresa May’s resignation honours in 2019. On October 11 the same year, he was created Baron Ranger of Mayfair in the City of Westminster, which was also a proud moment for the
Soon after Sardarni Harbans Kaur gave birth to Raminder Singh aka Rami Ranger in Gujranwala in what was then part of British India, the country was partitioned into a Hindu-dominant India and Muslim-majority Pakistan on August 15, 1947. What was supposed to be a watershed event in the history of the subcontinent became known for the bloodbath that took place on both sides of the newly-demarcated Radcliffe Line dividing the new dominions. Even before the ink had dried on the newly redrawn map of the subcontinent, blood literally flowed on the streets in both countries
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COVER STORY
Prime Minister David Cameron presenting the fifth consecutive Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade to Baron Ranger
triggered by the worst episodes of communal violence. Hindus and Sikhs, who lived in peace shoulder to shoulder with their Muslim brethren in what is now Pakistan for centuries, suddenly found themselves at the receiving end, forcing them to embark on one of the biggest exoduses in human history. While millions of Sikhs and Hindus from Pakistan fetched all what they could salvage and made it to India by train, on foot and on carts drawn by oxen, the same scene took place across the border where millions of Muslims embarked on a journey to their promised land to start a new life. Carnage was the order of the day as thousands, including newborns, fell prey to scimitars and bullets before they could reach their destinations and countless homes and buildings were torched. According to estimates, more than 70,000 women were raped. Trains going to Pakistan from India and the ones coming
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back were littered with decaying, blood-soaked corpses.
Mother courage Ranger is a posthumous child. His mother was widowed when her freedom fighter husband Shaheed Nanak Singh was assassinated by a pro-Partition mob while trying to protect 600 students of a college in Multan. Clutching infant Ranger to her bosom and trailed by her seven children, Kaur undertook the arduous journey fraught with danger to Patiala in present-day Punjab state of India to begin life anew. In an overcrowded, stifling train compartment, she huddled together with her kids during the perilous journey, which took three days instead of three hours as the locomotive was attacked by looters and mobs during the trip.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II greets Lord Ranger, the winner of the Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade from 2009 to 2013, at the Buckingham Palace
Worse, she had to brave floods before reaching Patiala, where the woman with a steely resolve found a job as a teacher and brought up her children showering them with love and at the same time ensuring they grow up with values outlined by her late husband. “From an affluent family, losing her ancestral home, she came to a refugee camp with eight kids. You can never give up no matter what fate throws at you, she used to tell us,” said Ranger in an earlier interview with a publication for the Indian diaspora. She brought up her children in an exemplary manner that five sons went on to become commissioned officers in the Indian armed forces and the Tribune daily hailed her as the “Proudest Indian Mother”. It was in Modern School Patiala that Ranger had his schooling after which he joined Mohindra College. He bagged a BA from Government College, Chandigarh, the capital of the state of Punjab.
Glowing tributes to his biggest inspiration As they say, behind every great man is a great woman and for Baron Ranger, it is his mother, who moulded him into the man he is today. Perhaps, it was destiny that made him auspiciously begin his innings in the House of Lords on March 10, 2020, with an inspiring speech during a debate to mark International Women’s Day. On the occasion, the love and reverence for his mother gushed forth as a loving tribute by narrating her sacrifices and contributions in moulding him. The august assembly of peers was all ears when he brought in the example of his mother to lend weight to his argument on the necessity to provide quality education to the girl child. “She was lucky to be educated at a time when not many taught their
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COVER STORY The vice president of the Bar Association and president of the Post and Telegraph Union, Nanak Singh was fiercely opposed to the dismembering of his motherland and had even given a speech the previous day, stressing the need to preserve communal amity and unity.
Lord Ranger with former Prime Minister David Cameron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
girls and was thus able to gain employment at a local primary school. Our future would have been different if our mother was not educated. Her words to us were, ‘you may starve, but you will study,” he said. Lord Ranger warned that those who do not treat women as equals themselves become unequal and also expressed concern that gender pay gap still exists in the country and elsewhere in the world. He also stressed the need to give utmost importance to the education of the
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girl child, as he believes it transforms family and society in a positive way. “Educating girls is not just good for them. It marks the end of poverty for her family, her community and eventually her country,” he said.
Peerless son of an illustrious father Though his achievements have taken him all the way to Westminster, Ranger has not lost his moorings with India. He deeply cherishes the country where he was born
and its diversity, going the extra mile to promote IndoBritish relations. It is only natural as he is a chip off the old block. His illustrious father, Shaheed Nanak Singh, is much revered as a freedom fighter and a martyr for preserving national unity. At the young age of 43, he fell prey to the bloodlust of a pro-Partition mob of religious fanatics on March 5, 1947, while protecting 600-odd students of DAV College in Multan. He died leaving behind a young wife and eight children, the eldest being just 14.
Nanak Singh was also a highly respected officer with the British Police with 29 Gold Commendation Certificates for exemplary performance of duty. However, he resigned in protest when he was transferred to a tribal outpost in the North West Frontier Province in punishment for defying an order to open fire on a peaceful procession of freedom activists. He then took up a flourishing legal practice in Multan and bravely took up cases of soldiers of the Indian National Army, who fought against Britain with Japanese aid during World War II to liberate India. The proof that the Sikh community reveres him as a martyr is evident from the fact that his portrait graces the Hall of Martyrs at Sikhism’s holiest shrine – the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab.
Monumental intervention to protect Gandhi’s monument Though Baron Ranger is proud to be a part of
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COVER STORY and as a result, are revered by the people of every faith,” said Ranger, who is a spiritual person as well.
multicultural Britain, the land that nurtured him, he is equally zealous about maintaining close ties with the land of his birth and has profound reverence for the towering persona and lofty ideals of its Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
Pillar of support
The world took notice of it when he vociferously denounced the act of vandalism against the Gandhi monument in London amid the wave of Black Lives Matter protests and the campaign to remove other Gandhi statues. His indignation and righteous anger flowed out as strong words, condemning the barbaric act. His strongly worded statement appeared in the media, including the British Herald. “This cannot be allowed to happen,” he said, adding that he was appalled by the “campaign launched in the UK by a misguided and ill-informed few”. The Baron said that “If Britain wishes to acknowledge the contribution of a leader who was also the architect of the end of British rule in India, then it speaks volumes about the vision and values of this great man. I shudder to think what our world would have been today without Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle for racial equality which started in South Africa. To call him a racist is totally out order when he dedicated his entire life fighting racism, imperial rule and shaped the world as we see it today.”
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The patron of British Herald with the prime minister during the release of the issue featuring Boris Johnson on the cover
A beacon for the Sikh community
community has a sizeable presence and clout.
While managing his business enterprises and responsibilities as member of the House of Lords, Ranger finds time to be involved with the activities of his Sikh community. The Chairman of the British Sikh Association, he is ever vigilant of the wolves in sheep’s clothing who masquerade as messiahs of the community.
“We are still trying to get over the fall-out from the lack of vision and leadership of Khalistani leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Now another “visionary”, Pannu, has appeared from the US, wishing to lead the Sikhs by carrying forward Bhindranwale’s legacy. No one has divided Sikhs more than Bhindranwale and also poisoned the minds of our youth,” he told British Herald, adding that the selfproclaimed leader professes that Sikhs are a different race with a different DNA. “Pannu is trying to divide the community by peddling hatred against non-Sikhs of Punjab. The Sikh Gurus have always stood for humanity
Sikhs around the world took notice when Baron Ranger courageously stood up and denounced the sinister agenda of Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, the self-styled leader of the Sikh separatist Khalistani movement, to foment trouble in the Indian state of Punjab, where the
Ask him who is his biggest supporter, Ranger would point to his better half, Lady Renu, who has been with him through thick and thin, sharing his trials, tribulations and moments of glory and achievement, for four decades. An alumnus of the prestigious Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi, she plays a key role in managing Sun Mark and is also associated with several philanthropic activities. The couple is blessed with four daughters – Reena Ranger, Sabina Ranger, Amita Sabharwal and Reena Ranger-Ahuja. On weekends and holidays, Lord Ranger becomes the doting father of his daughters and loving husband of Lady Renu and spends quality time with them. Age is just a number for Lord Ranger who manages his multiple roles with finesse and explores avenues to take his establishments to greater heights. The Baron of Mayfair is always on the lookout for issues and areas that need his intervention as a bridgebuilder armed with his charisma, experience and influence in society and the echelons of power. That fire lit deep within by his illustrious mother still burns bright.
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BUSINESS
From carats to peanuts: how a pandemic upended the global diamond industry from affluent investors, according to financiers and sales data. "There are a lot more enquiries from people seeking to buy these luxury stones as a hedge," said Chris Del Gatto, CEO of the DelGatto Diamond Finance Fund, the largest non-bank lender to the diamond, jewellery and watch industries.
A
s the coronavirus pandemic upended the global diamond industry, shuttering mines from Lesotho to Canada and disrupting supply chains, Rajen Patel swapped diamond polishing for peanut farming. Patel, who worked for a decade in India's Surat where about 80% of the world's diamonds are polished, joined the exodus of gem workers leaving the city as cases of the virus shot up. After taking up farming in his home village, he has no plans to return in the coming months.
pandemic, freezing sales and squeezing prices. With temporary mine closures at risk of becoming permanent, diamond miners are seeking ways to extract more value from their stones. The lone bright spot has been steady demand for large, high-quality diamonds
Prices for high quality onecarat diamonds are rising steadily and are currently around 12% higher than at the start of the year, in contrast to still-depressed prices for lower-quality stones of the same size, data from trading platform RapNet shows. "If you are in that top end, the demand
is still there because the people who go for these type of goods feel the pressure of the market downturn less," said Gus Simbanegavi, CEO of Bluerock Diamonds. But only a few miners are lucky enough to have deposits of large, highquality diamonds, leaving some producers at risk.
Grim Year COVID-19 has forced miners to cancel or delay sales, with major diamond shows scrapped due to health and travel restrictions. The few sales that have taken place showed rough diamond prices down between 15% and 27%. "What has happened in the second quarter, I have never seen in my life," De Beers Chief Executive Bruce Cleaver said. "There was no really properly functioning rough market."
"I won't earn as much I was earning in Surat, but I won't starve and there is no fear of getting infected with coronavirus," he said. Demand for diamonds has plummeted during the
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BUSINESS
Indian imports of rough diamonds plunged from $1.5 billion in February to just $1 million (766,049 pounds) in April, data from the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council shows. Antwerp, another diamond hub, saw rough imports drop 20% year-on-year in the first half, according to data from Antwerp World Diamond Centre. The city's exports of polished diamonds fell 46%.
Real Opportunity In a bid to survive, some miners are trying to change the traditional pricing game by securing a cut of onward polished diamond sales, and miners may eventually have direct tie-ups with luxury jewellery brands, RCC Diamond Consultants managing director Richard Chetwode predicts. Australia's Lucapa Diamond Co inked a deal with an unnamed "high-end diamantaire" to sell some of its high-value diamonds from the Mothae mine in Lesotho for $505 per carat plus a 50% share of the margin on the future polished diamond sale. Lucara Diamond Corp,, which mines in Botswana, struck a deal in July with Antwerp manufacturer HB Group under which the miner's diamonds larger than 10.8 carats are sold for a portion of the estimated polished price. "There is real opportunity within the
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diamond business as a whole to modernise the sales system," said Lucara CEO Eira Thomas. Lucara has also set up an online diamond sales platform. In the meantime, miners are hoping production cuts will help prices recover. With Rio Tinto's massive Argyle diamond mine in Australia among those coming offstream soon, global diamond production will likely be reined in until 2025, independent analyst Paul Zimnisky forecasts.
Several diamond mines shuttered due to the pandemic have also yet to reopen, including Stornoway Diamonds' Renard mine in Canada, Petra Diamonds' Williamson mine in Tanzania, and Firestone Diamonds' Liqhobong mine in Lesotho, which the company said would likely stay closed until April to preserve cash. Meanwhile, Africa-focused Petra Diamonds is in restructuring talks with creditors, while in Canada's Northwest Territories, Rio Tinto's Diavik mine
partner has sought creditor protection, saying it cannot afford the miner's cash calls. Even De Beers is feeling the pain, saying job cuts are likely, as it remains unclear whether supply will shrink enough to meet plunging demand in the global diamond jewellery market, which Bain estimated was worth $80 billion in 2019. Industry hopes that the pandemic would boost sales of engagement rings as people reassessed life priorities and more made plans to get married have not borne out. In retailer Tiffany & Co's FebruaryApril quarter, engagement jewellery was the worstperforming category, with sales almost halving. Overall, fine jewellery sales are expected to drop 19% this year, compared to a 3% rise last year, according to Euromonitor.
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BUSINESS
Cham-pain: grape harvest cut as pandemic crushes bubbly sales
caused some pain," JeanMarie Barillere, co-president of the CIVC and head of UMC, a grouping of major champagne houses, said by telephone. "But for us it was the best decision to help the cashflow of the vineyards and to protect the champagne brand internationally." The champagne sector has been flattened this year by lockdown measures to curb the pandemic, with
F
rance's champagne makers reached a last-minute agreement to cut the volume of grapes they will harvest this year by more than a fifth as they try to cope with a collapse in sales caused by the coronavirus crisis. With harvesting off to an early start after warm, dry weather this year, producers struck a deal to reduce grape volumes to 8,000 kg
per hectare, down nearly 22% from 10,200 kg in 2019, the CIVC industry body said. Producers have been locked in talks for weeks over harvest output. Leading champagne houses have pushed for a steep fall to shore up prices, while some growers wanted a smaller reduction to take advantage of a promising 2020 crop. With the world still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic
ahead of the crucial yearend period for champagne sales, the industry took the unprecedented step of agreeing that some of this year's harvest could be held back from use, the CIVC said. A 1,000 kg per hectare portion of the harvest will only be used this season if demand is sufficient, it said, potentially cutting the volume of pressed grapes to 7,000 kg per hectare. "It was a compromise that
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sales drying up as hotels, restaurants and bars closed, and hospitality events were cancelled. CIVC has estimated that as many as 100 million bottles will go unsold this year, representing lost turnover of 1.7 billion euros ($2 billion). Harvesting of champagne grapes officially got under way after some initial cuttings last week, marking the earliest start on record, the CIVC said.
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BRITISH HERALD
FINANCE
Tech fuelled 'everything's awesome' rally looks unstoppable
Benjamin Jones, a senior multi-asset strategist at State Street Global Markets. With technology stocks holding on to their eyepopping gains, investors say the next leg of the rally is likely to come from value stocks - so called because they trade at cheaper valuations than their growthoriented peers. Stocks are benefiting of course from above-average equity-risk premiums, the return one can earn by holding stocks compared with risk-free assets. Global stocks carry an ERP of 4.6%, while for US stocks, it's at 4%. That might erode over time, but for now interest rates appear firmly stapled to the floor.
T
oday's $72 trillion question for investors: To buy or not to buy into the global equities rally? Notwithstanding inflated share prices, politics and the pandemic, the answer from many is a resounding "yes." That's not just because unprecedented stimulus $20 trillion and counting - is forcing a structural change in how financial assets are valued. It's also down to years of societal shifts, innovation and now, the pandemic, which could transform forever the way people work, study and shop - playing into the dominant hand of tech stocks. So while renewed
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coronavirus outbreaks and looming US elections have made some investors cautious, many equity bulls are hanging in there, having already boosted the value of stocks globally by $24 trillion since end-March. As global equities near record highs, strategists say the quickfire
bear-to-bull switch was not only justified but deserves to go further. "The COVID pandemic has taken existing trends – greater dependency on tech, online shopping, remote working, etc. – and supercharged them," said
As for valuations, they are hovering near 22 times forward earnings for the US S&P 500 index, the highest since the dotcom bubble in early 2000. But then, the index too has changed dramatically with technology by far its biggest sector component. Making up around a third of the benchmark index, they are the ultimate pandemic stay-at-home beneficiaries, especially those known as FANGMAN - an expanded tech group comprising Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and chipmaker Nvidia. Their multiples of 80-100 times forward earnings have
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FINANCE risk assets even after the rally." Many others would seem to agree. On derivative markets, the put-to-call ratio for US stocks, a measure of positioning sentiment, is the lowest since 2010. The ratio is inversely related to equity performance. Some caution is although warranted, given that asset classes of all stripes have gained.
led the broader market higher. Until a few decades ago, bank, oil & gas, and industrial stocks made up a bulk of the S&P 500. These sectors typically trade at lower multiples, given commodity price volatility and high capex needs - a major reason behind this year's underperformance of Britain's FTSE benchmark. "What's odd about the market debate is that it's set up as follows: look at the S&P 500 and the response is the equity market is expensive. Then you ask people what they like and they favour a lot of the secular-growth, highmultiple stocks," said Morgan Stanley chief cross-asset strategist Andrew Sheets. A ratio of US stocks on a market weighted basis to an equally weighted index of shares is at its highest levels since the 2008 crisis,
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indicating the dominance of the handful of large tech stocks in the market. The valuations make all the more sense because of the
lower for longer interest rate environment, said Maximilian Kunkel, CIO of Global Family Offices at UBS. "As a result we remain constructive on
A portfolio with a 25% split in stocks, bonds, cash and gold would have earned a record 18% in the last 90 days, BofA analysts calculate. But the edifice is vulnerable to a rise in inflation, many argue, with investors' holdings of yield-sensitive investments up $8.1 trillion over 18 months, according to Morgan Stanley. Though prices have rebounded from deflationary territory fairly quickly, inflation remains far below central bank estimates, indicating equity valuations will remain attractive. Latest flows data shows investors are switching from cash to equities. "I would still say investors are underweight equities and that provides a fairly decent backdrop for risk assets to rally," said Jason Borbora-Sheen, portfolio manager at Ninety One Asset Management.
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HISTORY
Australian anti-aircraft gunner recounts WW2 bombing of Darwin in the army. Shortly after his arrival, 240 Japanese aircraft bombed the city in two raids on Feb. 19, killing 240 civilians and Australian and US troops. Japanese forces sank eight ships in the harbour, Australian government records show.
L
indsay Dufty remembers seeing the pilots' faces as Japanese bombers descended on Darwin in February 1942, the first ever enemy attack over Australian soil. He remembers that, with no artillery experience at the time, he felt worried he might let down his mates in an anti-aircraft gun team. "Unfortunately, we were totally unprepared," said the spry, white-haired Dufty, 97, who now lives in Sydney's northern beach area. "There was no radar, we had no fighters, we had no Bofors, the light anti-aircraft guns for low flying aircraft. We just had to handle as best we could." Today he remembers the quiet relief he felt when World War
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"There were heavy bombers and there were dive bombers and there were Zero fighters and they were right down at treetop level," Dufty said, referring to the long-range fighter aircraft. Two ended in the Pacific theatre 75 years ago, on Sept. 2. Japan had invaded and occupied parts of Asia and the Pacific during the war, after aligning itself with Germany and Italy to become one of the socalled Axis powers. From Feb. 19, 1942 until November 1943, dozens of air raids pounded the northern port city of Darwin,
sometimes described as Australia's Pearl Harbour. Darwin was a major base for Allied forces, with ships and planes supporting operations in the nearby South Pacific islands. Dufty, a wool classer trained in examining the quality of fleeces, was sent to Darwin as an 18-year-old in 1942 soon after enlisting
His crew of about 10 had little protection, Dufty said, with the ground too rocky for a trench, and explosives piled up nearby. Dufty smiles as he recalls being sprayed with rocks from a nearby blast during one of the scores of raids he weathered. He emerged from the indirect hit clasping the hand of a crew mate, "much to my embarrassment". He was working at an ordnance depot north of Sydney in 1945, when he learnt of the surrender of the Imperial Japanese Army, following atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There were no celebrations, said Dufty, adding, "Just a sense of quiet relief."
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HISTORY
Study sheds light on Continental's role as pillar of Nazi war machine
G
ermany's Continental, the world's thirdbiggest auto parts supplier, played a big part in the Nazi's armaments and war economy, using forced labourers to make products such as gas masks, a study presented by the company showed.
consumer society to arms. Conti used 10,000 forced labourers during World War Two from occupied Belgium and France as well as Soviet prisoners of war, the study showed, which is entitled "Supplier to Hitler's War. The Continental Group in the Nazi Era". In the last years of the war, concentration camp inmates made gas masks and shifted production to underground sites with inhumane living and working conditions, it said.
Conti commissioned the independent research by historian Paul Erker to explore the darkest chapter of the company's history. It provides an opportunity to learn from the past to create a better future, the company said.
important part of Hitler's war machine," Conti Chief Executive Elmar Degenhart said.
"The study shows that Continental was an
The research, which included units VDO, Teves,
Phoenix and Semperit, which were not part of Conti at the time, exposed how corporate culture was distorted and how the firm shifted from making products for the Nazi's
Many German companies profited from forced labourers who toiled in abominable conditions for little or no pay. Many died. It took Germany until 2000 to create a forced labour compensation fund which had paid more than 4.37 billion euros (£3.91 billion) to around 1.7 million victims by 2007. Contributors included Volkswagen, Deutsche Bank and Bayer. Thousands of firms supported Hitler's war economy. Some bankrolled the effort, others manufactured arms or even chemicals like ZyklonB, used in gas chambers. "Business has a responsibility to help preserve democracy," Degenhart told journalists, adding the study would feed into training programmes to promote social responsibility and help tackle racist and radical views.
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BRITISH HERALD
GEOPOLITICS
Does this village in Niger hold a key to defeating African jihad?
rebels, clerics and peace committees - formed in response to an armed uprising seeking greater political autonomy for Tuaregs in the 1990s - has stopped jihadists gaining a foothold by monitoring grievances and people with extreme ideas. With thousands of French troops struggling to contain the bloodshed elsewhere, and the United States mulling a drawdown of forces, Agadez leaders say their methods offer a possible blueprint for defeating militants - without weapons.
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dispute between Fulani herders and their nomadic Tuareg neighbours over stolen cattle and motorbikes threatened to turn violent in the village of Amataltal when one man grabbed his rifle and fired skywards. It was a rare outburst in the quiet commune of a few hundred people in north Niger, residents said, and sent a warning: disputes like this have opened a door for jihadists expert at exploiting conflict to boost recruitment and spread chaos. Wary of escalation, Amataltal's leaders called in a regional peacekeeping committee to mediate
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in June last year. Within days, rivals sat opposite each other at tables in a eucalyptus grove. They aired concerns and agreed to keep peace, according to a video of the event and two witnesses. Islamist violence has overrun large parts of West Africa's Sahel, the arid region south of the Sahara desert, since 2017 when militants linked to Islamic State ambushed and killed four US soldiers in Niger.
few hundred miles north, the Agadez region where Amataltal is located - an area the size of France that borders Algeria, Libya and Chad - has remained largely peaceful. Local leaders say a network of influential ex-
"Agadez shows that it can be done. With the right leadership and the right relationships, you can have stability," agreed Hannah Armstrong, analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank. Agadez's fortunes stand in stark contrast to the Tillaberi region in southwest Niger, which borders Mali and Burkina Faso. Last year, attacks by militants with links to Islamic State and
Six French aid workers and two locals were shot dead in a giraffe reserve 65 km (40 miles) from Niger's capital Niamey, in a zone previously considered safe. But a
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BRITISH HERALD al Qaeda killed at least 367 people, nearly all in that border zone - four times the number in 2018, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a US based research organization. In the first half of 2020, 482 died. Agadez is not invulnerable: militants exploded a car bomb outside a military base in 2013, killing at least 20 soldiers. In 2010, a local al Qaeda affiliate kidnapped seven foreigners in the region's uranium mining zone around the town of Arlit. Similar peacekeeping efforts elsewhere in the Sahel including Mali before Tuareg rebels took over the north and began advancing on the capital in 2012 - have shown signs of promise before falling apart. A French-led intervention pushed the rebels back the following year, but Islamist militants have since regained a foothold in the north and centre, tapping into rivalries between Tuaregs and Fulanis.
GEOPOLITICS
A Tale Of Two Regions For now, though, Agadez leaders are confident. "The jihadists are far from here. They are not here because we are paying attention," said Silymane Hiyan Hiyar, an ex-rebel who spent years living in mountain caves fighting government forces during the 1990s uprising. He is now a member of the peace committee that visited Amataltal and lives in a compound with his family in the regional capital Agadez, where he spoke. A peace agreement reached in 1995 gave communities in northern Niger a voice by integrating Tuareg rebels into the army and promoting Tuareg politicians. Ex-rebels are members of peace committees and keep the government informed of disputes. Religious leaders travel in caravans, preaching peace on the government's behalf.
The changes have not brought continuous peace to Agadez - another Tuareg uprising broke out in the north from 2007-2009 but experts say the region learned from past struggles. "The people have seen atrocities in Agadez. Now, as soon as there is conflict, the people come together to discuss the problem," said Issouf Sibi-Moussa, assistant coordinator at HED Tamat, a local aid group. In the Tillaberi region, a lack of local leadership, peace mechanisms or strong ties with Niamey have allowed ethnic rivalries to fester and attacks to continue, security experts said. Jihadist groups have won recruits among disaffected locals who believe the state has abandoned them. "It is dangerous for local officials in Tillaberi to liaise with the state because the jihadists' intelligence networks are very sophisticated. Their calls and
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meetings are listened to," said Armstrong. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the border commune of Inates, where militants killed over 70 soldiers in an attack on a camp in December. Much of the surrounding area is in the hands of jihadists. Many residents fled. Algateig Mohamed was driving with the local chief to a neighbouring town in July last year when gunmen on motorcycles encircled their car and opened fire, he said. The assailants tied his hands behind his back and knocked him unconscious with a rifle butt, he said. He woke alone and walked all night to get home. When he arrived, he found out the chief was dead. Mohamed fled the next day with his wife and six children. "There is death there," said Mohamed, who sleeps on the unswept floor of a friend's house in Niamey. "I cannot go back."
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GEOPOLITICS
'Polishing the gun': China, US tensions raise Taiwan conflict fears
N
umerous Chinese and US military exercises, Taiwan missiles tracking Chinese fighters and plummeting China-US ties make for a heady cocktail of tension that is raising fears of conflict touched off by a crisis over Taiwan. China has announced four separate exercises along its coast, from the Bohai Gulf in the north to the East and Yellow Seas and South China Sea, along with other exercises it said were aimed at "the current security situation across the Taiwan Strait". Meanwhile Taiwan, claimed by China as its "sacred" territory, said its surfaceto-air missiles had tracked approaching Chinese fighters - details Taiwan does not normally give - as US Health Secretary Alex Azar was visiting the island. Addressing the Chinese exercises, Taiwan's defence ministry said the closer Chinese jets get to the island the "more actively" Taipei would respond, though it would "not escalate conflict" nor "trigger an incident". The United States sent another warship through the Taiwan Strait, a few days after a US carrier group conducted an exercise in the disputed South China Sea, and China complained a US spy plane had observed Chinese live-fire exercises. Chinese military expert Ni Lexiong, a retired professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and
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Law, said it was very rare and possibly the first time multiple Chinese exercises were taking place at the same time. "By simultaneously conducting drills in the three seas, it means China is testing its ability to fight enemies coming from three directions at the same time - for example from Taiwan, from Japan and from the US from the south," he said.
to stop any activities aimed at separating Taiwan from China".
a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Michael Morrell, former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has made the rounds in Taiwan security circles.
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that China was becoming more assertive and more aggressive in
In their suggested sequence of events, set out in the Proceedings of the US Naval Institute, a disputed US election gives China the opportunity to move on Taiwan while Washington and the world are distracted.
the region and there was concern its military could miscalculate, leading to unexpected consequences.
In Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen has responded to the tension with pledges to defend the island.
"This is an issue that is broader than Taiwan and broader than just the United States," the official said.
She and her government have denounced as scaremongering and kowtowing to Beijing a campaign by former president Ma Ying-jeou, who held a landmark meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015, to warn that Taiwan is courting disaster by needling China and would not last long in a war.
"Historically, frequent drills are a clear predictor of war."
'Dismay And Concern' Taiwan-based security and diplomatic sources say the chances of "firing off a shot while polishing the gun" - a Chinese saying for an accidental encounter setting off a broader conflict - are rising mainly because of increased US and Chinese military activity in the region. "Neither side wants to start a conflict. The fundamentals have not changed much," said a Western diplomat looking into military activities across the Taiwan Strait. "But the frequent activities do increase the chances of an accidental conflict," the diplomat said. China's defence ministry and its Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to requests for comment, and neither did the Pentagon nor US State Department. China's foreign ministry said in: "We have the determination and capability
"I would argue that there are many like-minded countries in the region that are viewing with dismay and increasing concern the trend lines coming out of Beijing."
'To The Last Soldier'
Still, Taiwan has been keen to show its teeth.
The Trump administration has been taking an escalating array of measures against China in the runup to the US presidential election, adding to the uncertainty.
Its defence ministry issued two slickly produced videos showing missiles being fired and F-16s in the air to demonstrate their resolve to defend the island.
A hypothetical scenario spelled out in a recent essay by James Winnefeld,
"Dare to fight, and fight to the last soldier," the ministry said in a caption for the latest video.
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HOSPITALITY
South African speakeasies boost calls for end to COVID booze ban 'Non-Alcoholic?' Introduced in March, restrictions on alcohol sales have spawned a thriving underground industry, complete with bootleggers and online traders offering doorstep delivery. More recently, as authorities allowed sit-down dining to resume, some restaurants have joined the illicit trade. Just doors down from the Italian bistro, there are at least two more restaurants flouting the ban, seating drinkers in back rooms or serving wine in bottles labelled "non-alcoholic".
I
n an Italian bistro in an upmarket Johannesburg neighbourhood, smiling patrons chat at candle-lit tables in a scene reminiscent of less-troubled times before the COVID-19 pandemic. But there's no alcohol on the menu. Instead, diners order red or white "coffee" served in grey mugs, the tell-tale sign of a modern-day South African speakeasy. Under one of the world's strictest lockdowns, South Africa banned alcohol to lower hospital admissions for injuries from drink-related violence and accidents and ease the burden on
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healthworkers facing the worst coronavirus outbreak in Africa. But businesses from wine makers to restaurants to informal taverns say the ban is costing jobs at a time when the economy is on its knees and President Cyril Ramaphosa is coming under pressure to end the prohibition as infection rates fall. "Am I happy with what I'm doing? No," said the bistro owner, who asked not to be named, adding that alcohol sales had saved him from firing half a dozen staff. "They've turned everybody into criminals." Restaurant
workers, among the hardest hit by layoffs, protested last month calling for the right to sell alcohol while lobby group Agri SA said the ban had cost the wine industry 3.3 billion rand ($189 million) and 117,000 jobs. Local media reported that the government body charged with managing the health crisis has recommended loosening lockdown restrictions and that has fuelled speculation the ban might be lifted, possibly as soon as this weekend. The presidency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to statistics through July, South African police had arrested over 6,000 people on charges related to the ban. But with alcohol now so readily available to thirsty South Africans, some question whether the measure is still enforceable - and bootleggers who once thrived under the ban are taking a hit to their business. "A lot of people have their own contacts now," one 27-year-old bootlegger said. As the underground trade flourishes, however, legitimate businesses complain they are paying
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BRITISH HERALD
HOSPITALITY "Going back to business as usual will go back to trauma carnage as usual," said Professor Leslie London, head of public heath medicine at the University of Cape Town. Before the lockdown, alcohol-related cases accounted for roughly 40% of hospital trauma admissions, according to the South African Medical Research Council.
the price. Since the ban came in, Dutch beer maker Heineken has dropped plans to build a new 6 billion rand ($345 million) brewery while Anheuser-Busch InBev's South African Breweries has postponed a 5 billion rand investment. In recession
even before the pandemic, South Africa's economy is now set to contract by more than 7% this year with a unemployment rate above 30%.. The growing economic fallout, coupled with indications the outbreak may be receding, have
piled pressure on President Ramaphosa to end the prohibition. "Illicit alcohol trading is shooting through the roof and government is losing billions in tax and excise income," Mihlali Xhala, head of the corporate chamber of Agri SA, said in a statement. "If our main priority is economic recovery, this is definitely not helping."
'Trauma Carnage As Usual' South Africa has recorded more than 560,000 coronavirus cases and more than 10,700 deaths, by far the highest recorded total on the African continent. Daily new cases have now fallen to their lowest level since mid-June. But despite progress in curbing the spread of the disease, some experts warn that repealing the alcohol ban risks eroding the benefits that have allowed the health system to cope.
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In the two months after the ban was introduced, the health department in Western Cape province - an early epicentre of the virus recorded a 40% to 50% drop in trauma cases. "It substantially removed an unnecessary burden on the health services, which enabled hospitals to ready themselves for COVID-19. There is no dispute possible about that," said the University of Cape Town's London. Four months into the lockdown, however, some South Africans now say they too need relief. "You're locked up in one space," said one drinker, who asked not be named, served wine from a bottle labelled "non-alcoholic" at a tapas bar down the road from the Italian bistro. "The main reason for buying alcohol is just to kind of regain some of those moments of just letting loose."
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HEALTH
More infectious coronavirus mutation may be 'a good thing', says disease expert
early as February and it has circulated in Europe and the Americas, the World Health Organization said. The WHO has also said there is no evidence the mutation has led to more severe disease. Malaysia's director-general of health Noor Hisham Abdullah urged greater public vigilance after authorities detected what they believe was the D614G mutation of the coronavirus in two recent clusters. Sebastian Maurer-Stroh of Singapore's agency for science, technology and research said the variant has also been found in the city-state but that containment measures have prevented large-scale spread.
A
n increasingly common mutation of the novel coronavirus found in Europe, North America and parts of Asia may be more infectious but appears less deadly, according to a prominent infectious diseases doctor. Paul Tambyah, senior consultant at Singapore's National University Hospital and president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, said evidence suggests the proliferation of the D614G mutation in some parts of the world has coincided with a drop in death rates, suggesting it is less lethal.
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"Maybe that's a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly," Tambyah. Tambyah said most viruses tend to become less virulent
as they mutate. "It is in the virus' interest to infect more people but not to kill them because a virus depends on the host for food and for shelter," he said. Scientists discovered the mutation as
Malaysia's Noor Hisham said the D614G strain detected there was 10 times more infectious and that vaccines currently in development may not be effective against this mutation. But Tambyah and MaurerStroh said such mutations would not likely change the virus enough to make potential vaccines less effective. "(The) variants are almost identical and did not change areas that our immune system typically recognise, so there shouldn't be any difference for vaccines being developed," said MaurerStroh.
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HEALTH
Delay routine dental checkups in areas of COVID spread - WHO
D
ental patients and staff need to be protected from any potential infection by aerosol-generating procedures, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, as dentists return to work in areas where the COVID-19 pandemic is easing. There is currently no data on the spread of coronavirus from the dentist's chair, it said, calling for more research into common procedures that produce tiny floating particles that may cause infection if inhaled.
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These include three-way air/water spray, ultrasonic cleaning equipment that removes deposits from the tooth surface, and polishing, the WHO said in new guidance. "WHO guidance recommends in case of community transmission to give priority to urgent or emergency oral cases, to avoid or minimise procedures that may generate aerosol, prioritise a set of clinical interventions that are performed using an instrument and of course to delay routine non-essential
oral health care," Benoit Varenne, a WHO dental officer, told a news briefing. He added: "The likelihood of COVID-19 being transmitted through aerosol, microparticles or airborne particles ... today I think is unknown, it's open to question at least. This means that more research is needed." The WHO last month released general guidelines on the transmission of the coronavirus which acknowledged some reports
of airborne transmission, but stopped short of confirming that the virus spreads through the air. Dental facilities must have adequate ventilation to reduce the risk of the virus spreading in closed settings, it said. "We think that the most pressing issue is related to the availability of essential personal protective equipment, PPE, for all health care personnel undertaking or assisting in the clinical procedures," Varenne said.
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HEALTH
Nightmares, flashbacks, fatigue: Beirut faces mental health crisis after blast Daou, a volunteer with Lebanese mental health NGO Embrace, who mans the phones at its crisis clinic. "A lot of people are feeling hopeless about the entire situation here in Lebanon." The explosion was a tipping point. Embrace, which usually receives between 150-200 calls a month, says more people have been reaching out since the blast. The group has stationed volunteers in one of the affected neighbourhoods and has started home visits.
A
fter a massive explosion tore through Beirut killing 181 people and leaving entire neighbourhoods in ruins, Sandra Abinader still jumps at the slightest sound.
"The other day, I was trying to open a jar and the popping sound made me jump back and scream. I felt for a second I needed to run away." Despite recognising the magnitude of her ordeal, Sandra, 18, said she was not interested in seeking professional help. "We're used to dealing with our problems on our own," she said, stoically.
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Her attitude is common in Lebanon, a country hardened by past wars and sectarian conflict and where stigma still rules attitudes towards mental health. But the blast caught Lebanon at an extremely vulnerable point following months of severe economic crisis compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
constant stream of images on Lebanese TV and social media showing the blast and its bloody aftermath.
Many mental health professionals have mobilised in the wake of the blast to offer their services and post tips on social media, but some are struggling to cope themselves.
"Every time we say it can't get worse in Lebanon, it somehow does," said Jad
"I never had psychologists say, 'we are not ready to talk at this moment. I need
Now practitioners are warning of a national mental health emergency as people begin to show signs of trauma from the explosion, including nightmares, flashbacks, crying, anxiety, anger and exhaustion. Psychologists say this is being exacerbated by the
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HEALTH
works to her home in the Karantina neighbourhood near the port, one of the worst affected, fearing that her family had been killed.
time to heal for myself,'" said psychologist Warde Bou Daher. "But the trauma affected everyone … they need to heal their own wounds before being able to help others." While Sandra insists she has not cried once since it happened, her cousin
cannot hold back tears as she recounts her experience of the explosion, which wounded 6,000 people and was so loud it could be heard as far as Cyprus, 100 miles (160 kms) away. When the blast hit, Lourdes Fakhri ran from the supermarket where she
"There was rubble everywhere, so high. I could picture them all lying there on the floor, with our house on top of them." Lourdes' parents and six siblings survived but the feeling of terror has remained with her. For older Lebanese, the blast triggered memories of the 1975-1990 civil war and the 2006 war with
Israel among others. Many have never dealt with their traumas and don't know how to help their children, said Ola Khodor, a 25-year-old child psychologist. "A lot are telling their children that nothing happened, that it was a game," Khodor said. "The child deserves to know the truth – not the very detailed truth, but they deserve to know what exactly happened to allow them to grieve and to process the event like they need to." Experts say trauma begins to set in several weeks after an event, as people progress out of a period of "acute stress". Unicef estimated that half of the children they have surveyed in Beirut are already showing signs. One father said that when his four-year-old son came back home for the first time after the explosion, he invented a game called "pretend boom" in which his playhouse was hit by an explosion and rabbits needed rescue from the broken glass.
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EDUCATION
US schools revamp curricula in response to Black Lives Matter
millions of students will return to US classrooms in coming weeks - virtually or in person - that focus more on Black history and experiences, according to interviews with teachers, officials, publishers and others. "We're not just talking about a couple of lesson changes," said Marshall. "We're getting to the quintessential work of trying to put race, equity and inclusion inside of our curriculum." A survey by the EdWeek Research Center, which is affiliated with the prominent trade publication Education Week, found that 81% of US teachers support the Black Lives Matter movement.
J
ohn Marshall keeps a picture of Breonna Taylor in his office at the headquarters of Kentucky's largest school district, a visual reminder, he says, of the need for curriculum changes that better honor and focus on Black stories. Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician, spent her senior year of high school at Kentucky's Jefferson County Public Schools, where Marshall, the district's chief diversity
32 SEP-OCT 2020
officer, has been leading a system-wide revamp of teaching materials and practices. Taylor was shot dead by police officers in March. Her death and that of George Floyd, killed by Minneapolis police in May, and others have set off a national reckoning over race and race relations. No criminal charges have been filed against the officers involved in Taylor's
death, infuriating many in the school district, where a majority of the nearly 100,000 students are students of colour. For educators in Jefferson County and across the United States, the deaths have jump-started demands for teaching materials and practices that help Black students better understand their history and place in the country. After a summer of teacher workshops focused on updating curricula,
"We can't control what happens with the police, but we can control what happens in our school systems," said Michael McFarland, head of the National Alliance of Black School Educators and a superintendent of the Crowley Independent School District in Texas. Some of the changes don't necessarily involve new material, but rather teaching the same material from a new perspective. In the Jefferson County schools, for instance, teachers discussing the Space Race of the 1960s plan now to focus on the Black women mathematicians whose computations underpin
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EDUCATION Other school boards either bought different textbooks or didn't offer the same course.
'Difficult Conversations'
modern rocket science. In Houston, teachers at YES Prep public charter schools will dissect James Baldwin's iconic book of essays "The Fire Next Time" less as a history of racial struggle and more as a guide for Black students to overcome injustice. These and other recommendations came after school districts spent summer months updating educational materials because most public school textbooks are only updated by publishers on a fixed schedule.
How and what US students learn about American history depends on the school. The country's public K-12 education system is run by more than 98,000 local and state school board members, who nearly always have the final say on which textbooks are bought for classrooms.
The National School Boards Association, which advises school districts on curriculum changes, said requests for advice on crafting racially diverse educational material doubled this summer from the same period last year.
Staff at Houston's YES Prep said their returning 15,000 students can expect to spend more time reflecting on how the deaths of Taylor, Floyd and others connect to a timeline of injustice. The goal for YES Prep students, nearly all of whom are Black or Latino,
In 2014, the Texas State Board of Education came under fire when it considered approving a Mexican-American studies textbook that critics decried as riddled with mistakes and demeaning stereotypes.
"They're making sure teachers are teaching the right history in their classrooms," said Anna Maria Chavez, the association's executive director. Scholastic Corp, which publishes educational material to supplement textbooks, said it has seen a surge in demand for books that focus on diversity
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and equity. "Schools are wanting to have these more difficult conversations about race and social justice," said Michael Haggen, Scholastic's chief academic officer.
is to consider how they can not only oppose racism, but be part of broader cultural change, said Kiara Hughes, YES Prep's director of organisational strategy and initiatives. "This isn't a singular moment in time," said Hughes. "This is a fight that people have been fighting for a hundred of years."
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WILDLIFE
Kenya elephant numbers more than double in 1980-2018
he told reporters during a visit to the Amboseli National Park. The number of elephants poached so far this year stood at seven, down from 34 in all of 2019, and 80 in 2018. While at the park, Balala participated in attaching a tracking collar to a bull elephant and naming of a pair of twin calves, as part of a naming campaign for elephants to be done. Poaching had surged in past years in Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries, where gangs killed elephants and rhinos to feed Asian demand for ivory and horns for use in folk medicines. In 2016, President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to thousands of elephant tusks and rhino horns, destroying a stockpile that would have been worth a fortune to smugglers and sending a message that trade in the animal parts must be stopped.
K
enya's elephant numbers more than doubled between 1989 and 2018, thanks to increased anti-poaching efforts, the tourism minister said.
The government has put in place stiffer penalties longer jail terms and bigger fines - on anyone convicted of poaching or trafficking in wildlife trophies, saying poaching was harming tourism, a major foreign exchange earner.
Kenya had just 16,000 elephants in 1989, and this
rose to more than 34,000 in 2018, Minister Najib Balala said. "In the last couple of years, we have managed to tame poaching in this country,"
34 SEP-OCT 2020
Balala said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of foreign tourists visiting Kenya was expected to drop by 80% to 90% in 2020 and 2021.
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WILDLIFE
Nigeria's wet markets thrive despite coronavirus pandemic vendor Kunle Yusaf. "We do eat the meat, even during this coronavirus, and we do not have any disease."
J
ust a few months after Epe Fish Market was under lockdown to stem the spread of the new coronavirus, vendors at the site in the southern Nigerian state of Lagos are back buying, selling and trading animals. A vendor descales an endangered pangolin with a machete. Nearby, grasscutter rodents are
Nigeria's National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) did not respond to requests for comment.
University of Cambridge epidemiologist Dr Olivier Restif called for more education around safe animal trade and hygiene.
The WWF said the economic strain of the pandemic has sapped conservation budgets in many countries.
"We're very concerned with the risk that it poses," he
Chinedu Mogbo, founder of Green Fingers Wildlife
said of markets where live animals are kept in close quarters. But he warned that simply banning markets could alienate people and drive trade underground.
Conservation Initiative, a wildlife sanctuary near Epe, hopes to encourage Nigerians to cut bushmeat consumption and avoid animal-based traditional medicine, which can fuel the unhygienic animal handling that can aid virus transmission.
skinned. Most of the sellers wear masks. Experts say COVID-19, which has killed around 1,000 people in Nigeria, jumped from animals to humans, possibly at a wet market in China. But few in Epe were worried. "We are not afraid of it because the coronavirus is not inside the meat," said
The WWF International wildlife charity said the pandemic "should be a wake-up call." But the booming trade at Epe illustrated unchanged attitudes despite the nearly
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800,000 killed worldwide by the virus. Nigeria is also a hub for illegal wildlife trade to Asia.
"I believe they will appreciate them more, coming up close to see them," Mogbo said.
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WILDLIFE
Most condors survive California wildfire that destroyed sanctuary redwood trees are quite fire resistant," said Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society, which ran the sanctuary and is raising funds to rebuild it. As biologists hunted for signals from the condors' radio transmitters, fire authorities began going through burned communities to quantify the number of homes destroyed.
A
t least 90% of condors on the central California coast survived a wildfire that tore through their forest range and destroyed a sanctuary for the endangered birds, a wildlife group said. Word that 90 of the 100 condors in California's Big Sur had been accounted for came as home losses mounted from much larger blazes burning to the north in the San Francisco Bay Area. A siege of dry-lightning strikes during a record heat wave sparked blazes that have raced through coastal redwood forests, destroying hundreds of homes and burning California's oldest state park in the Santa Cruz mountains. Cooler temperatures for a second straight day helped firefighters battle
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the largest blazes, as state wildfire authority Cal Fire reported 1,700 houses and other structures burned in fires that have killed seven people. There were no condors inside pens at the sanctuary when it was destroyed last week, but 10 free-flying birds are missing and four nesting chicks are unaccounted for, said biologist Kelly Sorenson, who is hopeful they may be alive. "They often nest in redwood trees high off the ground and
"We anticipate that number to grow substantially in the coming days and weeks," Governor Gavin Newsom told a news briefing. "Once the fires are suppressed and we get back in and start seeing repopulation we're likely to discover additional fatalities." Over 120,000 people remained under evacuation orders and some like Bryan Miller learned their homes had been lost. "I have one remaining picture of my parents," said Miller, 31, who
stuffed the photograph in a backpack as he fled the fire that burned his studio in Brookdale, one of 538 homes and structures destroyed in the Santa Cruz mountains fire. Across Northern and Central California over 15,000 firefighters from around a dozen states battled dozens of fires sparked by the barrage of over 14,000 drylightning strikes that have scorched an area larger than the state of Delaware. Newsom pointed to the CZU fire, the largest in recorded history in the area's coastal rainforests, as a consequence of rising temperatures. "This is again another testament, a demonstrable example of the reality, not just the assertion, the reality of climate change in this state," he said. In the north Bay Area, nearly 1,000 homes and structures, many in farms and vineyards, were incinerated in the wine country of Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties. The so-called LNU Lightning complex fire, the thirdlargest in California history, jumped to 33% containment. In the south Bay Area evacuation orders were lifted for communities across four counties where the state's second largest fire in history was 25% contained after burning an area larger than Los Angeles.
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WILDLIFE
Scientists urge more protection for platypus in Australian state
A
ustralian scientists have called for the platypus to be listed as a vulnerable species in Victoria state, after research found dwindling numbers of the semi-aquatic mammal because of loss of habitat and a warming climate. Ecologist Joshua Griffiths, who supervised the collection of data that led to the recommendation by a scientific advisory panel, said the platypus population across the state had likely fallen by about 30% in the last 20 to 30 years.
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"We have seen major declines in population in Victoria's western regions, localised extinctions and the kind of things that are affecting the platypuses are going to increase in future," Griffiths. Land-clearing for agriculture, mining and forestry had been the biggest factor in the destruction of habitat over several decades but last summer's bushfires have greatly compounded the impact. "A lot of that area got burned by the recent
bushfires, so the situation could actually be worse than what we think at the moment," he said. The bushfires, which lasted from September last year until February, killed nearly 3 billion koalas, kangaroos and other Australian animals and destroyed a wilderness area the size of South Korea. A vulnerable tag is given to animals that face a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term, though are not considered critically endangered.
Once on the vulnerable list, the government can deploy more resources to protect the animal's habitat. Each state in Australia makes their own classifications of vulnerable or endangered. The platypus is already listed as endangered in South Australia. The strange-looking, duckbilled animals with webbed feet that lay eggs are mostly seen across Australia's eastern seaboard, from the far north of Queensland state to the island state of Tasmania.
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ENVIRONMENT
Drying Brandenburg lake is symbol of climate change, say scientists
enough to flow naturally into a smaller neighbouring lake. In 2020, piers along the water's edge stand high and dry. The state has the third most lakes in Germany relative to its size, but is the second most arid, according to the German Weather Agency. After the drought years of 2018 and 2019, Kaiser said the lake will likely lose a massive amount of water in 2020 for the third year running. "This is a bad sign! You could put it more starkly: It is a horror story for the region's water landscape," he said.
A
fter years of summer heatwaves and minimal rainfall, eastern Germany's lakelands are drying out, local scientists say, to the detriment of fish and plant life as well as fishermen. Seddiner lake, in the state of Brandenburg, south-west of Berlin, has sunk 60 cm annually on average over the past few years, with local geographer Knut Kaiser calling it the beginning of the end for the region's lakes. "You could say that Seddiner is a symbol of a situation, or to put it more dramatically, it has become a portent
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for climate change here in Brandenburg," Kaiser, from the German Research Centre for Geosciences, told. Spanning 218 hectares,
it is fed from groundwater, leaving it at the mercy of rainfall and human water usage. At a high point in 2013, the lake was full
While scientists agree that the main problems facing Brandenburg's lakes are linked to climate change, human influence also plays a role. Reeds, which clean the lake and act as a place for fish to spawn, have been exposed by low water and are often trampled by people heading to beaches, Kaiser said. Falling water levels pose a problem for locals like Mannfred Mannheim. He used to catch enough fish for the family smokery business from the lake, but now has to source it elsewhere. "For the last three years I have been waiting and things are just getting worse," Mannheim said. "One day this lake won't be here anymore."
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ENVIRONMENT
Overfishing in Congo threatens endangered sharks, report warns things," said Alain Pangou, a 54-year-old fisherman. "It's difficult to live." In a short film released alongside the report Pangou and his small crew lament bygone days of plentiful fish, as they clear a net of juvenile hammerheads – too young to have had any offspring to replace their numbers.
E
ach day, fishmongers in Congo Republic pile up hundreds of dead sharks on the shore and begin lopping off fins and bartering over hammerheads and other endangered species. The bustling seaside business could be jeopardising the marine environment in the Gulf of Guinea, wildlife trade group TRAFFIC warned. Artisanal
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At the nearby Songolo Beach market, in PointeNoire, traders haggle over fins for export to Asia, while
due to industrial fishing and the practice of 'finning' – or slicing off shark fins for a soup considered a Chinese delicacy. Demand for fins has spurred a global raid on these apex predators. A global ocean survey in the journal Nature found that sharks were “functionally extinct” at one fifth of 371 coastal reefs monitored since 2015. In Congo, fishermen say their catches have declined since the Chinese boats began appearing in 2000. Oil platforms set up in the Gulf have also drastically
fishermen are harvesting 400-1,000 sharks and rays per day, according to surveys it conducted last year. The fishermen say they don't have a choice. A rise in industrial fishing by dozens of mainly Chinese trawlers in Congolese waters is eroding their livelihoods. "Since the Chinese trawlers arrived, it's complicated the rest of the meat is sold for local consumption.
reduced the area open for fishing.
"The artisanal shark fishers shouldn't be targeted as the bad boys here, they're getting squeezed by an unregulated industrial fisheries sector," said Emma Stokes who heads the regional office of another environmental group, the Wildlife Conservation Society. Worldwide, shark populations are in trouble
The country's waters have yet to be surveyed; officials say they need outside financing and expertise. "We fish them, we know how to do that, but the stock is unknown," said Fisheries Director Benoit Atsango in the video, which was financed by charitable fund Arcadia.
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CLIMATE
'Life or death': Baking US cities legislate for air conditioning
O
ver the 15 years that she has lived in her seniors' apartment building in Maryland, Victoria Price has lost several neighbours to a worsening scourge: heat. The building in Montgomery County, just outside Washington, was constructed in the 1960s and has seen deferred maintenance, she said. "We've had electrical failures, heating outages, air conditioning failures," Price, 70, said. "For a senior citizens' building to experience this can be tragic."
In 2015, some of the residents even picketed outside the building to warn about what she described as dangerous indoor conditions. "Year after year, neighbours would end up being transported to the hospital for heat exhaustion," Price said, attributing the problem to both unseasonable warmth and faulty air conditioning.
health experts say, as many public and private cooling spaces - from malls to libraries and pools - are closed or limiting entry numbers. To tackle the problem Montgomery County is now mandating that rental buildings such as Price's not only have air conditioning but also that they be maintained to cool to a certain level, in residential units as well as common areas. "We see safe and healthy housing as a human right," said Tom Hucker, vice president of the Montgomery County Council, who sponsored the law change that passed in February. "We realised decades ago we need to require landlords to require heat, but in a world with climate change, we realised we need to provide air conditioning, as well," he said.
A spokesman for AHC Inc., the building's current owner, did not respond to a request for comment.
Cities like Dallas and Phoenix - both of which have far hotter climates than Maryland - have similar laws, and others are mulling such changes.
The coronavirus pandemic has made matters worse for vulnerable city residents,
As cities prepare for the effects of climate change, Hucker said, that needs to
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include making sure that all housing is safe for tenants. "Air conditioning used to be seen as a comfort issue, but these days it's really a lifeor-death issue," he said. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has "strongly encouraged" public housing agencies to purchase and install air conditioning equipment "where appropriate and feasible", according to a copy of a letter it sent in November
No Luxury US landlords have long been required to provide working heat, but air conditioning was seen as a luxury, said Matt Losak, executive director of the Montgomery County Renters Alliance. "Historically, the inconsistency was that everyone agreed you can't freeze to death, and there are laws that require heat in apartments, but no laws you can't cook to death in the summertime," he said. Montgomery County is a huge jurisdiction of more than a million people, and the proportion of renters has risen from 23% to nearly 40% since 2007, said Losak,
whose organization was a key proponent of the new law. That mirrors a rise in renting across the country - nearly 44 million people, up 21% from 2004, according to a Harvard University study, driven in part by families who can no longer afford to buy their own homes. Officials elsewhere are taking notice of Montgomery's moves, and Hucker said he has received queries from neighbouring counties, New York City and elsewhere. In Philadelphia, the main landlords association has also noted its support for such a measure. Amid record heat this summer and coronavirus restrictions, some cities are fixing air conditioning units or even distributing new ones, in addition to ramping up public cooling centres. In Chicago, Alderman George Cardenas, chairman of the city's committee on health and environmental protection, in June introduced a measure that would also require landlords to provide working air conditioning. Two decades ago, a major heat wave killed more than 700 of the city's residents, many of whom were seniors and minority communities without access to air conditioning in their homes, said Samira Hanessian, a
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CLIMATE on streets and parking lots. Such "passive" forms of air conditioning are a key but often overlooked part of reacting to rising temperatures, said Brian Dean, who leads the cooling programme at international energy access body Sustainable Energy for All. While globally there is rising recognition that cooling is a right, he said, it is important to see that right as linked to the need rather than the equipment. Air conditioning is a major portion of peak energy use, he said. Yet currently there are one billion people globally who lack access to cooling, while another 2.3 billion are "on the verge of buying inefficient air conditioning".
research and policy analyst for the committee. "We don't want to see a repeat situation," Hanessian said. "Knowing that our summers are just going to get hotter and hotter, we need to make sure residents are able to stay in place and have a comfortable indoor climate." Cardenas's measure has not yet been voted on, in part because of disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but he made a "moral call" for landlords and property managers to provide air conditioning to tenants.
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Hanessian said officials plan to work with utility companies to examine what financial offsets could be offered to purchase new air conditioning units if required. Yet some warn air conditioning mandates could negatively affect renters. "The cost to retrofit properties without air conditioning systems is extremely high, raising costs for renters and property owners alike," said Bob Pinnegar, president and CEO of the National Apartment Association. "Such mandates, while well-
intentioned, ultimately hurt housing affordability and saddle renters with added expense and utility bills," he said in emailed comments.
A New Right For Hanessian and others, the bigger concern is around air conditioning itself, as a major contributor to climate change. The committee plans to host a hearing on urban "heat island" effects to counter this in Chicago, Hanessian said, such as planting trees, creating green roofs and installing cooler materials
Instead of mandating working air conditioning, he said, city officials could decide to require better home insulation, encourage the use of external window shutters, or create cooling "corridors" using trees and waterways. "All of those can make our homes much more comfortable," Dean said, and most are notably costeffective - for residential use as well as offices, classrooms and factories. "Cooling is definitely a new trend," he added, "but it should be more about the temperatures than the equipment itself."
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ENERGY
Europe faces high hurdles to make hydrogen hype reality hydrocarbon energy but the resulting emissions are captured. Barclays estimates global capital costs just for production equipment over the next 30 years could be $500 billion for green and blue hydrogen. Additional investment in infrastructure, including distribution networks, could double that figure to $1 trillion.
A
European Union goal to boost the use of zero-carbon hydrogen is likely to be a pipe dream unless the bloc can find billions in investment and persuade member states, under strain from the pandemic hit to their economies, to give their backing. The European Commission mapped out a plan to expand the production and use of "green hydrogen" - a zero-carbon fuel made by electrolysis, using renewable power from wind and solar, that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. The aim is to scale up European green hydrogen projects across polluting sectors - from chemicals to steel - to meet a net zero emissions goal by 2050 and become a leader in a market
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analysts expect to be worth $1.2 trillion by that date. "This was never going to be easy ... You need everything: scaling up on the production side and the demand side at the same time; you need to have the infrastructure in place. A lot of things have to come together," said Noe van Hulst, hydrogen envoy for the Dutch government. Europe's heavy industry already consumes millions of tonnes of hydrogen each year, but it is mostly produced from coal or natural gas and therefore contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Green hydrogen costs much more than other forms of the gas, referred to as grey hydrogen, which is produced from fossil fuels and blue hydrogen, which relies on
Analysts say the challenge may be the toughest so far of the European Union's many efforts to reduce carbon emissions. "Potentially, that infrastructure challenge is much greater than with any of the other technologies that have emerged for decarbonisation over the last 10-15 years," consultancy Wood Mackenzie's Ben Gallagher said.
Not Enough In The Pipeline Though So far, Wood Mackenzie found European companies have announced a pipeline of 9.4 gigawatts (GW) of green hydrogen projects, most of which is due onstream by 2030. Analysts assume some projects will fail, meaning two to three times as many
are needed to reach an interim EU goal to have 6 GW of capacity by 2024. With a typical success rate of 20%-30% for large infrastructure development projects to go from feasibility to a positive investment decision, achieving the EU 2024 target would require 20–30 GW of projects to be in the pipeline by early 2021, Martin Lambert at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies said. So far, there has been little economic incentive to switch to the cleaner forms of hydrogen. The cheapest grey hydrogen costs 1.5 euros per kilogram to produce, European Commission figures show. Blue hydrogen costs 2 euros/kg and green up to 5.5 euros/kg. At least two-thirds of the cost of hydrogen production is the energy used to make it, meaning green hydrogen should become cheaper as renewable energy costs continue to fall. But a scaling up of the small green hydrogen industry is also necessary and for that, analysts say, governments will need to step in with incentives to make people use green hydrogen. These could include quotas for its use in industry, or mechanisms, such as carbon contracts for difference, which would guarantee a
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ENERGY and dispensed at industrial sites or refuelling stations for vehicles.
carbon price to a project developer, irrespective of the price of carbon on the EU's Emissions Trading System.
But it also has the advantage of being a replacement that can use existing infrastructure as well as requiring new structures to be built.
While the policymakers at the European Commission, the EU executive, can lay out their vision, it is up to member states to implement it on the ground and they are "the barrier," says Mike Parr, director of PWR Consultants.
Eleven European gas infrastructure companies, including Spain's Enagás, the Netherlands' Gasunie, and Italy's Snam, have drawn up a plan for a 6,800 km hydrogen pipeline network by 2030, rising to 23,000 km by 2040.
"If the incentives aren't there or if the member states aren't making it possible, then it won't happen. And I don't see the ambition from the member states at the moment," he said. There is nevertheless support in industry as it responds to political and shareholder pressure to
cut emissions and looks to hydrogen to rescue business models that could become obsolete. Hydrogen offers
a major technical challenge as it is less dense than natural gas and must be safely compressed, stored
Seventy-five percent of that will consist of converted gas pipeline. Last year, Snam said it would blend 10% of hydrogen with natural gas in its network in a test area in southern Italy.
German Chancellor Merkel says world needs to do more to combat climate change
G
erman Chancellor Angela Merkel said that global efforts to combat climate change were insufficient, and that she would accelerate the fight to combat it in coming years.
compared with an existing goal for a 40%.
At a news conference, she said the European Union needed to adjust the climate goals it has set for 2030, and that she wanted a carbon pricing mechanism for the industry and transport sectors.
The push for tougher goals has faced opposition from some eastern European countries concerned about the economic cost.
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As current EU presidency holder, Germany is looking to steer talks between member states to attempt to strike a deal this year.
The European Commission will propose a new 2030 climate target for a 50% or 55% emissions reduction against 1990 levels,
Germany is Europe's largest greenhouse gas emitter, and
the country's environment ministry said that, while it can meet its climate target for 2020, it would have missed the goal if the economic havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic had not caused a large drop in emissions. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg urged Merkel "to be brave enough to think long-term" in a meeting where they discussed the climate crisis and measures to fight global warming.
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ENERGY
Bill Gates' nuclear venture plans reactor to complement solar, wind power boom United States and abroad, Levesque said. By 2050 "we would see hundreds of these reactors around the world, solving multiple different energy needs," Levesque said. The 345-megawatt plants would be cooled by liquid sodium and cost about $1 billion (760 million pounds) each.
A
nuclear energy venture founded by Bill Gates said it hopes to build small advanced nuclear power stations that can store electricity to supplement grids increasingly supplied by intermittent sources like solar and wind power. The effort is part of the billionaire philanthropist's push to help fight climate change, and is targeted at helping utilities slash their emissions of planet-warming gases without undermining grid reliability. TerraPower LLC, which Gates founded 14 years ago, and its partner GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, plan to
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commercialise stations called Natrium in the United States later this decade, TerraPower's President and Chief Executive Chris Levesque said. The project has not previously been reported. Levesque said the companies are seeking additional funding from private partners and the US Energy Department, and that the project has the support of PacifiCorp, owned by billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, along with Energy Northwest and Duke Energy. If successful, the plan is to build the plants in the
Nuclear power is a top source of virtually emissionsfree electricity, but many plants are shutting in the United States because of high costs and competition from solar and wind. Critics of advanced nuclear have also warned that smaller nuclear is even more expensive than conventional. The new plants, however, are designed to complement a renewable power because they will store the reactor power in tanks of molten salt during days when the grid is well supplied. The nuclear power could be used later when solar and wind power are low due to weather conditions. Molten salt power storage has been used at thermal solar plants in the past, but leaks have plagued some of the projects. Levesque said the Natrium design would provide more
consistent temperatures than a solar plant, resulting in less wear and tear. Gates, chairman of TerraPower's board, said in a statement that Natrium innovation was "extremely difficult" but its team had "the expertise, commercial experience, and the resources necessary" to develop viable reactors. Levesque said Natrium plants would first be built in the United States and other developed countries, but could later spread to countries that do not have yet have nuclear power. Nonproliferation experts have warned that advanced nuclear projects could become targets for attack because their uranium fuel would be more highly enriched and more easily converted to fissile material than conventional fuel. Levesque said the plants would reduce proliferation risks because they reduce overall nuclear waste. Gates had initially hoped to build an experimental nuclear plant near Beijing with state-owned China National Nuclear Corp. But last year, TerraPower was forced to seek new partners after the Trump administration restricted nuclear deals with China.
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AGRICULTURE
Bosnia's fruit growers prove resilient amid pandemic downturn
P
lum season is upon us, and in the orchards of northern Bosnia fruit growers are busy with the harvest, most of which will be processed at local factories and shipped to buyers in the European Union and Russia. Despite being in urgent need of reform, Bosnia's agricultural sector has weathered the global pandemic better than others, and was among the few industries to record growth
in exports in the first half of the year - albeit a meagre 2.5%.
manufacturers Dr Oetker, Zott and Muller.
lacks systemic government support."
Benjamin Vukotic, the director of the Zeraa Agriculture Investment Group which owns Bosnaplod, said group's revenues were up 30% in the first half of 2020 from the same period a year ago.
The sector employs 18% of Bosnia's labour force and accounts for around 10% of its exports. But it is crying out for change, said Vjekoslav Vukovic, the head of Bosnia's Foreign Trade Chamber.
The holdings of the group, founded by a subsidiary of the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), include a vineyard in the southern
"We have to modernise it, provide subsidies, harmonise regulations with EU standards and fight for foreign markets."
Herzegovina region, which suffered heavy losses due to the pandemic.
Standing in his plum orchard at the foot of the Majevica mountain, fruit grower Nermin Kopcalic says all he cares about right now is the harvest.
"During the coronavirus pandemic, the output has not decreased nor exports stopped," said Fatima Halilcevic, quality manager at Bosnaplod, Bosnia's biggest fruit processor which is based in the town of Brcko. "We even won a new market in Russia." Bosnaplod's clients include the likes of German food
"We signed contracts with our subcontractors during the period of the strictest (COVID 19) lockdown without knowing what is going to happen," said Vukotic. "We could afford such risk because we have an investor willing to support us, but agriculture in Bosnia
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"Coronavirus has affected us, but as far as our business is concerned, the virus has to stay to one side. We have to pick the fruit - we live from it. Not just me, but this whole community," he said.
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SCIENCE
Back from the dead? Stem cells give hope for revival of Malaysia's extinct rhinos be all that good," said John Payne of the Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), who has campaigned for about four decades to save Malaysia's rhinos. "It was obvious that, to increase the chances of success, one should get sperm and eggs from the rhinos in Indonesia. But right till today, Indonesia is still not keen on this."
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ome skin, eggs and tissue samples are all that remain of Malaysia's last rhino, Iman, who died last November after years of failed breeding attempts. Now scientists are pinning their hopes on experimental stem cell technology to bring back the Malaysian variant of the Sumatran rhinoceros, making use of cells from Iman and two other dead rhinos. "I'm very confident," molecular biologist Muhammad Lokman Md Isa said in his laboratory at the International Islamic University of Malaysia. "If everything is functioning, works well and everybody supports us, it's not impossible." The smallest among the world's rhinos, the Sumatran
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species was declared extinct in the wild in Malaysia in 2015. Once it had roamed across Asia, but hunting and
forest clearance reduced its numbers to just 80 in neighbouring Indonesia. Iman, 25, died in a nature reserve on Borneo island, following massive blood loss caused by uterine tumours, within six months of the death of Malaysia's last male rhino, Tam. Efforts to get the two to breed had not worked. "He was the equivalent of a 70-yearold man, so of course you don't expect the sperm to
Across The Border Indonesia's environment ministry disputed accusations of crossborder rivalry as a reason why Malaysia's rhinos died out, saying talks continue on ways to work with conservationists in the neighbouring southeast Asian nation. "Because this is part of diplomatic relations, the implementation must be in accordance with the regulation of each country," said Indra Exploitasia, the ministry's director for biodiversity conservation. The Malaysian scientists plan to use cells from the dead rhinos to produce sperm and eggs that will yield test-tube babies to be implanted into a living animal or a closely related species, such as the horse.
The plan is similar to one for the African northern white rhinoceros, which number just two. Researchers in that effort reported some success in 2018 in producing embyronic stem cells for the southern white rhino. But the process is still far from producing a whole new animal, say Thomas Hildebrandt and Cesare Galli, the scientists leading the research. And even if it worked, the animals' lack of genetic diversity could pose a threat to long-term survival, Galli, said. Indonesian scientist Arief Boediono is among those helping in Malaysia, hoping success will provide lessons to help his country's rhinos. "It may take five, 10, 20 years, I don't know," Arief added. "But there has already been some success involving lab rats in Japan, so that means there is a chance." Japanese researchers have grown teeth and organs such as pancreas and kidneys using embryonic stem cells from rats and mice in efforts to grow replacement human organs. For now, however, Iman's hide will be stuffed and put on display alongside Tam in a Borneo museum.
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BRITISH HERALD
TECHNOLOGY
Virtually identical: Grounded Japanese try 'foreign' holidays with a difference
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June. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicted last month that it would take until 2024 for global passenger numbers to recover.
apanese businessman Katsuo Inoue chose Italy for this year's summer vacation, and he enjoyed the trimmings of a business class cabin and soaked up the sights of Florence and Rome without ever leaving Tokyo.
At First Airlines, where "passengers" are even given a pre-flight safety demonstration with a life vest and oxygen mask, bookings are up about 50 percent since the pandemic began, according to the company.
Inoue, 56, and his wife "flew" as clients of Tokyo entertainment company First Airlines, which is tapping into a growing virtual reality travel market for Japanese holidaymakers grounded by coronavirus restrictions.
"We get some customers who normally travel to Hawaii every year and they can experience some of that here," its president, Hiroaki Abe, said.
"I often go overseas on business, but I haven’t been to Italy," he said. "My impression was rather good because I got a sense of actually seeing things there." Grounded travelers sit in first or business class seats in a mock airline cabin where they are served in-flight meals and drinks, with flat panel screens displaying aircraft exterior views including passing clouds.
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Virtual reality goggles provide immersive tours at destinations including - as well as Italy's cities of culture - Paris, New York, Rome and Hawaii.
The coronavirus has stopped most travel from Japan. The country's biggest airline, ANA Holdings, said numbers flying to foreign destinations on its planes fell by 96% in
Japan has recorded over 50,000 coronavirus cases, with just over a thousand deaths, according to public broadcaster NHK. A second wave of infections that gathered pace in July has dimmed expectations for a recovery in domestic travel.
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TECHNOLOGY
Keeps out rain and COVID-19, Seoul tries smart bus shelter to fight virus
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esigned to combat summer heat, monsoon rain and the coronavirus, the smart bus shelter has arrived on the streets of the South Korean capital. The glass cube "Smart Shelter" has air-conditioning and ultraviolet light sterilisers to clean and cool the air, surveillance cameras and digital screens to warn when your bus approaches. It is equipped with hand sanitiser and you can charge a laptop or mobile phone while using the free Wi-Fi. "I felt uncomfortable at first as
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I had to take my temperature before I entered, but it didn’t take that long," said 25-yearold university student Park Sung-yeon. "I hope we can have more of these so that we can overcome the coronavirus." A thermal imaging camera on the doors allows entry only to those with temperatures lower than 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 degrees Fahrenheit). A separate camera is installed at a lower height for children. A solar panel on the roof provides back-up power.
But it comes with a hefty price tag of $84,000 (100 million won) for each shelter. "We also share real-time updates of the situation with police and fire station by using intelligent CCTV, alert bell and AI noise sensor, so that we can respond to an emergency immediately," said Kim Hwan-gyun, the Seongdong district official in charge of the shelter. Ten such bus stops have been set up in Seongdong district in eastern Seoul, known for its innovative public facilities such as
traffic lights beamed onto pedestrian crossings, and more are planned. The high-tech innovation, the brainchild of the local district office which collaborated with LG Electronics, was launched earlier this month. Although South Korea deployed wide testing and tracing to contain the first wave of the coronavirus, Asia's fourth-largest economy has suffered persistent outbreaks in recent weeks, mostly in the densely populated capital area.
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BRITISH HERALD
LIFESTYLE
Pandemic behaviour - Why some people don't play by the rules
also tend to form pro- and anti-camps. Optimism and fear are also crucial. A little of both can be positive, but too much of either can be damaging. "In a situation like a pandemic, (optimism) can lead you to take risks that are incredibly dangerous," said Van Bavel.
Why Is Social Distancing Difficult?
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ockdowns and social distancing measures introduced around the world to try and curb the COVID-19 pandemic are reshaping lives, legislating activities that were once everyday freedoms and creating new social norms. But there are always some people who don't play by the rules. Rule-breaking is not a new phenomenon, but behavioural scientists say it is being exacerbated in the coronavirus pandemic by cultural, demographic and psychological factors that can make the flouters seem more selfish and dangerous. Here are some questions and answers on the science of human behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic:
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What Makes Some People Flout And Others Obey The Rules? A key factor is individualism versus collectivism. "Some countries...tend to be higher on individualism, which is about expressing your sense of identity and who you are as an individual," said Jay Van Bavel, an associate professor of psychology at New York University. People in individualist cultures tend to reject rules and ignore attempts by public health authorities to "nudge" behaviour change with risk messages or appeals for altruism. "If you say, for example, that wearing a mask will
help protect others, people in individualistic cultures just care less," said Michael Sanders, a expert at the Policy Institute at King's College London. In collectivist cultures, people are more likely to do what's best for the group. Researchers said the United States and Britain were examples of individualist cultures while Asian cultures tended to be collectivist.
"We are truly social animals," said Van Bavel. "Our bodies and brains are designed for connection and the pandemic in many ways goes against our instincts to connect." That's partly why local outbreaks can crop up in bars and nightclubs, or religious ceremonies, weddings and parties. "People have a hard time resisting that tendency for social and group connection."
Are Trust And Fear Important?
If Rule-Breakers Are A Minority, Why Does It Matter?
Yes. These and other instincts are significant influences on human behaviour. In societies with more political division, for example, people are less likely to trust advice from one side or the other, and
"The problem is that, in a massive collective problem like the one we're facing now, if everybody breaks the rules a little bit, then it's not dissimilar to lots of people not following the rules at all," said Sanders.
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LIFESTYLE
Another American ritual the pandemic has warped: college arrivals
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randon Vergel stood outside his new student dormitory at Texas Tech University, grappling with the bittersweet nature of yet another American rite of passage warped by the COVID pandemic -parents dropping their kids off at college. Under a scorching afternoon sun, Vergel lugged his earthly belongings into the Hulen Hall residence he would now call home, nervously excited at the freedom of college life that awaited, but confronting an age-old conundrum: a mom that doesn't want to let go. "My parents are being a little overbearing," Vergel said in a hushed voice as his father, Arturo, unloaded items from his black pick-up truck, and his mom, Nancy, stood nearby. "They don't think we can protect ourselves in a pandemic. But we do know how to take care of ourselves and we would like to start. Like, now." How to safely and productively conduct courses is a challenge that university administrators, parents and students are trying to wrap their heads around. Nearly a quarter of American universities will have classes either fully or primarily in person this fall, according to data collected by the College Crisis Initiative at
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ability to break the ice with their new neighbours. Inside the residence halls it was eerily quiet. A handful of families checked in with residence hall student assistants, got room assignments, and then silently hauled belongings into rooms. The same scene is playing out at universities across the United States, as teenagers' dreams of freedom are slamming up against the realities of college in the time of a pandemic.
Davidson College, which tracks how colleges are changing amid the pandemic. But another quarter of universities have not yet determined what they will do, while 32% are either primarily or fully online, 15% will have a hybrid of inperson and online course work, and the rest planning some alternative form of instruction. At Texas Tech, the course work will be primarily in person, as it will be at most universities in the state. Some freshmen students will be living in dorms they are required to live on campus their first year - but have a majority of their classes conducted online.
'Breaking Rules' Under a scorching afternoon sun outside the Texas Tech residence halls, students wore carefully
chosen outfits, hoping to casually make fantastic first impressions. They lugged suitcases stuffed with clothes, mini refrigerators and new televisions into the selfcoloured brick buildings, all the while huffing under their face masks in the 104-degree heat. In an effort to discourage crowding, families could only arrive at the Texas Tech dorms during pre-scheduled time slots and were given 90 minutes to move in. There was ample space in the parking lots that in a normal year would be scenes of joyous chaos, with hordes of students arriving all at once. Everyone was asked to wear face masks both inside and outside the buildings, despite few other people around. Students said the masks were making communication more difficult - and chilling their
Hopes that many hold out for wild keg parties have been dampened by being the first students in a century - going back to the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 - to have been ordered to wear masks and stand apart. Those safety precautions will be tested in places like Lubbock, a dusty west Texas town where generations of students have maintained a reputation for being the Lone Star state's hardest partying school. "This is so weird because I cannot see anyone's face. I cannot meet them properly," said Kaitlyn Abercia, 18, from Cypress, Texas, as she moved into Gates Hall at Texas Tech. "I hope I can make a lot of friends." Kaitlyn's mom, Denise, right then glanced at her daughter sideways and let out a chortle. "Come on, you guys will be having parties tonight," she said. "I suspect plenty of students will be breaking rules."
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BRITISH HERALD
LIFESTYLE
Peking duck chain urges diners to eat less as China fights food waste offer smaller portions while some eateries have rolled out penalties for wasting food. One restaurant even started weighing diners to decide how much they can order, but later backtracked after coming under heavy online criticism. "We reacted proactively," said Wang Xiaoshan, the general manager of the Quanjude outlet in Beijing's Qianmen district.
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t popular Peking roast duck restaurant chain Quanjude in Beijing, staff have been passing on a new message to diners: do not order more than you can eat. The eatery is the latest business to join a campaign
China's catering industry wastes between 17 to 18 million tonnes of food a year, enough to feed a population of 30 to 50 million, state media has reported. The anti-food waste campaign, known as "Clear Your Plate", comes after Beijing has raised concerns about
against food waste, which began nationwide in earnest after Chinese President Xi Jinping said such practices were "shameful" while the country battles a pandemic. Local governments and catering associations have been urging restaurants to
Servers at Quanjude, known for a Beijing delicacy of crispy slices of roast duck wrapped in a thin pancake, now tell customers to order according to their guest numbers and even urge them to order one less dish than their total head count, he said. They also ask them to pack up any leftovers to bring home. "We're lucky we have enough food, and we
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shouldn't waste it," said a diner, a 54-year-old Beijing resident surnamed Liu. "I'm very supportive of this call."
ensuring food security due to disruptions caused to the agriculture supply chains from the global pandemic. Livestreaming stars known for their ability to eat large amounts of food were warned against encouraging food wastage on platforms such as Kuaishou and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, which said they could be banned or face penalties if found to do so.
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LIFESTYLE
After dining ban, takeaway waste clutters Hong Kong's pavements, parks and waterways coffee cups spilling out from bins, while plastic bags and wrappers are seen floating at popular swimming sites. "For many people, the biggest issue is they don't deal with their own waste on a daily basis so they aren't realising the scale of their own consumption," said Tracey Read, founder of Plastic Free Seas in Hong Kong.
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deluge of trash from takeaway containers and disposable cutlery is cluttering the streets and parks of Hong Kong as coronavirus restrictions on dining in restaurants eat away at the city's capacity to dispose of its garbage. The dining restrictions in the China-ruled Asian financial hub ban eating in any outlet after 6 pm. At other times in the day, restaurants can only operate at half-capacity and with two people per table. As a result, plastic from eating out has doubled from last year since takeaway food is the only option for many people who do not
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cook at home. Hundreds of thousands of people in the crowded city live in compact apartments with tiny or nonexistent kitchens. Pavements in residential and office areas are littered with Styrofoam boxes and
The city's residents are consuming more than 101 million disposable plastic items for takeaway every week, according to environmental group Greeners Action, more than double the amount discarded last year. Hong Kong's government said existing landfills will reach capacity this year and in June it announced it was disposing of human graves to further extend one site.
Single use plastic tableware is one of the top ten categories of marine litter in Hong Kong, according to the World Wildlife Fund Hong Kong. "Emerging food delivery online platforms are definitely one of the contributors exacerbating the severity of the problem," said June Wong, an executive at WWF Hong Kong who focuses on marine litter and plastic. WWF-Hong Kong said it was working with delivery companies, Deliveroo and Foodpanda, to combat disposable plastic cutlery. The government is promoting minimising the use of disposable tableware "wherever practicable", such as not asking for plastic bags or disposable tableware when ordering takeaways, an official said. A waste charging bill, proposed over a decade ago and aimed at tackling soaring waste, was put off the legislative agenda again in June due to time constraints. Edwin Lau, executive director at the Green Earth NGO, said the city needed much stronger measures, for instance expanding a plastic collection and recycling scheme to all districts and a landfill ban for plastic. "Hong Kong cannot afford to keep ignoring its own waste crisis," he said.
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BRITISH HERALD
ENTERTAINMENT
Leap of faith: Nigerian boy captivates the world with his ballet Academy, went viral. More than 15 million people have watched his joyful leaps and pirouettes, undeterred by the rain and coarse surface. The video caught the eye of the elite American Ballet Theatre, which gave him a scholarship and arranged internet access for virtual training this summer. Next year, he will train in the United States on a scholarship from Ballet Beyond Borders.
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racefully spinning among a group of dancers clad in pink, 11-year-old Anthony Mmesoma Madu stands out in black leggings, a white turtleneck and poise beyond his years. His parents in Lagos, Nigeria's teeming lagoon city, wanted him to become a priest. Instead, he has captivated millions with his ballet. "When I am dancing, I feel as if I am on top of the world," he told. A video of him dancing barefoot in the rain on concrete outside the studio where he trains, the Leap of Dance
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"When my friends see me dancing, they feel like, what is this boy doing, is he doing a foreign dance?" he said. "Now I have won a grand prize to go to the US. I will be in the plane and this is what I am waiting for, and ballet has done it for me." The video also sparked a flood of donations to the academy, which teaches its students for free. Founder Daniel Ajala Owoseni said he will use the money, and fame, to promote ballet in Nigeria, a country where it is not yet widely practised. "I saw the need to bring a form of art that shows discipline, dedication and commitment," he said. "Students who are able to learn all of these can ... transfer (them) into other spheres of their lives."
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ENTERTAINMENT
Child bride to elite police, the Pakistan film focusing on female pioneers
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Pakistani police woman battling rising levels of violence against women in her country is one of three women featured in an Emmy-nominated movie that high-profile filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy hopes will inspire other women. Obaid-Chinoy, winner of two Oscars and seven previous Emmys, said "Freedom Fighters" tells the stories of elite police officer Saima Sharif, former child bride Tabassum Adnan, and Syed Ghulam Fatima, an activist who took on the brick industry. Known for films that highlight women's inequality, Obaid-Chinoy said all three women's lives were shaped by their own experiences which drove them to push for change, despite facing threats along the way. "We need leaders like these three, emerging from the grassroots, from the neighbourhood and communities they come from and work in, and who are invested in them," she said. Every year thousands of women in Pakistan face some form of violence, ranging from acid attacks, to sexual assault, to kidnapping, rape or murder, often in the name of honour. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent watchdog, stated in its annual report of 54 SEP-OCT 2020
2019 that "despite legislation enacted to protect and promote women's rights in recent years, violence against women has escalated". Obaid-Chinoy, who was the first Pakistani to win an Academy Award with her 2012 film "Saving Face" inspired by the life of acid victim Fakhra Younus, said "Freedom Fighters" continued her focus on resilient Pakistani women. She also won an Oscar in 2016 for her documentary "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" about a so-called honour killing in Pakistan which prompted then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to declare his commitment to eliminate such murders.
Childhood Experiences "Freedom Fighters" was named on the shortlist of the 2020 Emmys with the winners to be announced on Sept. 21. "It is important for girls to be inspired. Such films open their minds to the multitude of possibilities there are," said Obaid-Chinoy.
their own futures, but the futures of generations to come," Sadiq said. Syeda Ghulam Fatima, founder of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front who campaigns for the rights of bonded labourers, said her work stemmed from her childhood when she noticed the extreme living conditions that brick kiln workers faced. "I was in Grade 8 and was used to seeing brick kiln workers coming from the periphery, to seek help from my trade unionist father," Fatima, 65, said from the eastern city of Lahore in a phone interview. "They would be in tatters and half-starved, and my father would ask us to provide meals and clothes for them.
The film's co-producer, Maheen Sadiq, agreed.
"I would find it very painful and failed to understand why no one listened to their grievances. I later found out it's a modern form of slavery and existed in agriculture as well."
"We can all take inspiration from these powerful women who have braved their past and are now standing up for change, shaping not just
Fatima estimates there are about 4.5 million people engaged in making bricks in Pakistan of which about 60% are women who are routinely
harassed. "Things are much better now than when I began work 40 years ago but rape and sexual abuse continues," she said. Obaid-Chinoy also tells the story of Adnan who escaped 20 years of domestic abuse after being married off as a child and now lobbies powerful men in the community to stop this abuse. Pakistan has the sixthhighest rate of child marriage in the world, according to UNICEF, with 21% of girls married before 18. The third woman in the film, Sharif, was accepted into the Pakistan Elite Force, refusing to let the violence and discrimination she faced on the job deter her from ensuring women play a greater role in her conservative country. Obaid-Chinoy said one of the main challenges was ensuring the filming did not put the women at risk. "Both Fatima and Tabassum have always been at the receiving end of threats for taking on the superstructures," she said.
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BRITISH HERALD
ART
A life’s work shattered: stained glass artist counts cost of Beirut blast in broken glass. Damaged buildings included the Sursock Museum, a modern and contemporary art museum reopened in 2015, whose vibrant stained glass had been painstakingly restored by Husseini. Its windows, which were particularly eye-catching at night when they were illuminated, were blown out by the blast. At least 10 of the projects Husseini
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wo decades of Maya Husseini's work to restore stained glass windows destroyed in the Lebanese civil war was lost in an instant in the seismic port explosion in Beirut. "I can say that in this blast, 20 years of my professional life was on the ground," said Husseini, 60, who has worked on historic
The windows of the church, which was destroyed in the war, were restored by Husseini over two years in a project completed around four years ago. "I had tried, as much as possible, to feel the history of this church," she said. "At that point I broke down, it was as if I was injured,
landmarks including many of Beirut's churches. "Part of me has gone." The Aug. 4 detonation of a massive quantity of explosive chemicals stored unsafely at Beirut port killed at least 178 people, injured some 6,000 and damaged buildings across a swathe of Beirut, carpeting streets
has worked on since the 1975-90 civil war have been destroyed. "Every day I am getting phone calls," she said at her workshop on the outskirts of Beirut. Husseini learnt her craft in France, sent by her father, a church engineer who used to order stained glass from overseas as leaded, stained glass was not common in
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Beirut prior to the war. One of the projects in which she took greatest pride was the 19th century St Louis Capuchin Cathedral in the Bab Idriss district of Beirut's historic city centre, an area where she recalls going to drink lemonade with her friends as a child.
certainly not physically, but emotionally." Husseini said she had been thinking about stopping work in two years but her plans had now changed. "Even if 20 years of my work has gone - and perhaps I won't last in this work for another 20 years ... we will rebuild."
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FASHION
Coronavirus crisis threatens to unravel Japanese artist's kimono ambitions She persisted until she was selling 100 to 200 madeto-order yukata a month - remarkable success in an industry so steadily declining that sales now hover around 16 percent of what they were in 1981, according to government data.
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apanese artist Hiroko Takahashi fought through sexism and suspicion from traditional kimono artisans to establish a globally known brand that sold hundreds of her original garments every month - until the coronavirus devastation hit. Takahashi has tried to regroup by selling handmade masks sewn from kimono fabric. "My designs are kind of strong, so there are people who resist the idea of wearing them in something full body," the 42-year-old said. "But they'd love to wear it as a mask." But the masks are a long fall from her original business. Noted for her bold, unisex prints for both kimono and yukata, a lighter kimono, and her refusal to accept conventional limits on wearing them, Takahashi this year was part of an exhibit at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. She also has a 56 SEP-OCT 2020
contract to provide yukata for a new, luxury hotel as Japan gears up to host the Olympics. Success took time. When she began, traditional dyers hated her designs and refused to work with her. When she called to check on progress, they'd hang up. "Being a woman and young can make it hard to work in Japan," she said.
The coronavirus changed everything. Department stores shut for weeks, the Olympics were postponed until 2021 and the hotel opening was put off. Summer festivals and fireworks displays, usually prime yukata-wearing occasions, were cancelled nationwide.
yukatas started at 60,000 yen (£429) and kimono at 3 million yen, but the masks go for just 1,400 yen each. The coronavirus could devastate the kimono industry, where aging artisans, each specialising in one stage of the process, are finding it impossible to envision future work. "There are a lot of people who expected to hang in there, but with the virus, and not enough work coming in, they're deciding to call it quits," said Kazumi Furuoya, 44, a third-generation kimono tailor who works with his wife and parents in the Den-en-chofu area of Tokyo. A generation ago, the Furuoya workshop was so busy it scrambled to keep up with orders.
"We have absolutely nothing," she said. "I've done nothing new this year. No new designs, no new colours."
A recent survey by Aeru, a company promoting traditional crafts, found that unless demand improves, about 40 percent of artisans may be forced to quit by the end of the year.
Though Takahashi is teaching and eking out income making kimono fabric masks, her income has taken a major hit. Her
"If a fabric-maker goes under there's nothing to dye, and if the dyers quit we can't make kimonos," Takahashi said. "If one goes down, we all do." Even if demand picks up, the impact may be lasting. A lack of orders means new tailors can't practice enough. "Kimonos are part of Japanese culture and as long as even one artisan remains, I want to work with them to keep things going - because once something vanishes, bringing it back is really hard," Takahashi said. "I don't know how much strength I have, but if I can contribute even a little to this, it'll be good." www.britishherald.com
BRITISH HERALD
FASHION
Coronavirus dampens celebrations in China's wedding gown city
the coronavirus pandemic. The manufacturing hub in eastern China also hosts factories belonging to Apple suppliers as well as a technology center for Microsoft, but wedding dresses are a major part of its business. And it is big business. Wedding market sales in China surged from 923 billion yuan to 1.64 trillion yuan from 2014 to 2018, according to Frost & Sullivan, and the annual compound growth rate reached 15.5 percent. By 2023, the industry is expected to be worth 3 trillian yuan.
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tore windows in the five-storey Huqiu Wedding Dress Mall in the Chinese city of Suzhou gleam with the reflection from rows and rows of elaborate gowns to entice potential buyers. But there are few shoppers in the modern mall, a glitzy
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showcase of the city's huge wedding gown production industry that usually attracts visitors not only from across China but abroad. "Sales this year have so far not been good, I hope they will recover a little in the second half," Ma Li, the owner of the Hua Qing Yu
Wedding Dress Store in the mall said as she dressed mannequins. Suzhou, one of the world's largest bridal goods exporters, is feeling the chill as couples all over the world delayed, downsized or cancelled their nuptials because of
That speedy growth was interrupted by the discovery of the first coronavirus cases in Wuhan, about 740 kilometres (460 miles) west of Suzhou, in late 2019 and lockdown measures began to be imposed in China and other parts of the world from late January. While China recently began allowing the resumption of some large wedding gatherings following a sharp fall in the number
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FASHION of the company's sales, all but disappear. "I hope that the epidemic abroad can get under control which will allow wedding dress studios to reopen. That can in turn drive consumption," said founder Xu Chuanhai. The China Wedding Expo 2020, an annual event that draws wedding gown resellers, exporters and bridal studios descend went ahead in Shanghai last month but exhibitors said there were few visitors.
of new COVID-19 cases, companies in Suzhou said sales were far from reaching usual levels as many couples were downsizing their celebrations due to budget or lingering guest restrictions. "We basically have no clients," Zhu Yuan, the chairman of Romen's
Wedding Dress, speaking from her showroom where dozens of embellished ivory dresses were crammed against each other on clothing racks. "Out of a hundred only 1020% survived," said of her client businesses, including bridal studios and exporters. Suzhou Jusere Wedding &
Evening Dress Co Ltd, one of Suzhou's largest gown manufacturers, tried to mitigate the downturn by ramping up direct sales to brides and travelling to their customers. But the escalation of the virus to a global pandemic saw foreign orders, which used to account for a tenth
Jiang Xin, a representative of Hermosa Trading, said increasing costs of transportation because of the pandemic made exporting gowns expensive. "The tariff is fixed but transportation costs rose because many flights were cancelled," he said. "The ordering cycle is longer so costs are rising." Elsewhere in Shanghai, Wei Jiawen and her husband Pan Wenjun celebrated their nuptials with their family and friends in midAugust in a ceremony that was downsized from their originally planned celebration in February. "We were under pressure both physically and mentally for half a year because of the delayed wedding," said Wei, who gave birth to a daughter while waiting to reschedule the wedding.
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LUXURY
For the art collector with everything, the $1.5 million COVID mask
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rt rather than ostentation is the rationale behind the world's most expensive coronavirus mask, say the Israeli jewellers who are crafting the $1.5 million object for an unnamed US based client.
in the United States. "He is a young-old customer of ours, very charming, very outgoing, very wealthy and he likes to stand out," Levy said. The jeweller plans to deliver the mask personally when it is completed, in October.
Made out of 18 carat gold and studded with 3,600
The mask, which a team of around 25 artisans is working on, might be viewed a vulgar display of wealth during hard economic times, but for Levy it is above all a work of art.
black and white diamonds, the mask will be fitted with an N99 filter to offer a high level of protection, said Isaac Levy, owner of the Yvel jewellery brand. "I don't think (the customer is) going to use it going to the supermarket but he is going to use it here and there, I'm sure," said Levy. He described the client as a Chinese art collector living
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"For a lot of people around the world it may be the most expensive mask in the world and maybe that's a really big thing," he said. "For us, it's a way to protect the positions of the people in the factory in order for them to be able to support their families."
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GENDER
Polish 'LGBT-free' town gets state financing after EU funds cut
A
Polish town that lost European Union funding after it set up a zone free of "LGBT ideology" will receive government financial support, Poland's justice minister said. The ruling nationalists' position against gay rights has become a flash-point in a culture war pitting the religious right against more liberal-minded Poles. Critics, including the European Union, have accused the Law and Justice (PiS) government of backtracking on womens' and LGBT rights and running a campaign laced with
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homophobic rhetoric in the run-up to last month's presidential election. "We are supporting a municipality that has a profamily agenda, promotes support for well-functioning families, and fights against the imposed ideology of LGBT and gender, which is being pushed by the European Commission," Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro told a news conference. The town of Tuchow in southern Poland will now receive 250,000 zlotys ($67,800) from the ministry's Justice Fund. Tuchow had its application
for a European twinning programme rejected after it passed a motion rejecting "LGBT ideology". Under the programme the town could have applied for a grant of up to 25,000 euros. EU Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli had said six town-twinning applications involving Polish authorities that adopted "LGBTI free zones" or "family rights" resolutions were rejected. "We tried find out if there are any other municipalities mentioned by Commissioner Dalli. If we find any, we will reach out to them," Ziobro said. Since the European Parliament elections
last year, about d 100 municipalities across Poland have signed declarations saying they are free of "LGBT ideology". These have fuelled concern in Brussels, although they appear not to have been followed by legislation to discriminate against gay residents. Figures from the arts including Nobel Prizewinning author Olga Tokarczuk, director Pedro Almodovar and writer Margaret Atwood signed a letter to the European Union calling on Poland's government to stop targeting the LGBT community.
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GENDER
Kenya woman's ordeal highlights newly identified sex trafficking route first time it said it had been asked to help Kenyans there.
J
's cousin promised her a well paid job in India as a housekeeper. Instead, she found herself in a brothel until the United Nations brought her home to Kenya when it was alerted to the human trafficking route.
When she got there, her passport was confiscated and she was forced into sex work to pay off $9,000 her traffickers, fellow East Africans, told her she owed them for her travel and lodging, she said.
"When I heard there were job vacancies in India, I was so happy," said J, asking that only her initial be used to protect her privacy.
In the past year, the International Organization of Migration (IOM) repatriated 12 Kenyan women who had been trafficked to India, the
Most Kenyans who have been trafficked end up in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, according to Kenya's National Crime Research Center, which did not have a more specific countryby-country breakdown available. Now IOM worries that the economic fallout of the coronavirus lockdown in East Africa will make people more vulnerable to exploitation, at home or abroad. Nearly a third of low-income Nairobi residents lost their
jobs and another 15% who had been self-employed are without work, a survey from Nairobi-based market research firm Tifa Research showed. It flew J home weeks before Kenya's closure of its borders against the spread of the coronavirus. "With the economic losses that we are experiencing as a result of the pandemic we are potentially going to see more cases (of people) being trafficked or re-trafficked," said Sharon Dimanche, head of the IOM in Kenya. J, who had been diagnosed with cancer and had leapt at the chance to save money for treatment, said her experience shows that Kenyans should be wary of job offers abroad. "I never thought I would get back to my kids," she said. "When they took me to the embassy, I could not believe I am going to see family again and not return in a coffin."
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US
As US schools reopen, concerns grow that kids spread coronavirus
U
S students are returning to school in person and online in the middle of a pandemic, and the stakes for educators and families are rising in the face of emerging research that shows children could be a risk for spreading the new coronavirus. Several large studies have shown that the vast majority of children who contract COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, have milder illness than adults.
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And early reports did not find strong evidence of children as major contributors to the deadly virus that has killed more than 780,000 people globally. But more recent studies are starting to show how contagious infected children, even those with no symptoms, might be. "Contrary to what we believed, based on the epidemiological data, kids are not spared from this
pandemic," said Dr. Alessio Fasano, director of the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and author of a new study. Schools across the United States and elsewhere are trying out a wide range of strategies to reopen, from all online classes to all in person. They are asking whether reopening schools with stringent mitigation measures is worth the
risk to students, families and educators, given that keeping schools closed will likely harm academic progress, social and emotional development, mental health and food security. “We can't just sit back and assume that there'll be no problems with schools… I think we have to reopen schools, but we have to reopen them cautiously,” said Dr. Matthew Snape, Associate Professor in
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US likely to contract the new coronavirus from members of their own households, with children aged nine and under least likely to be the first identified case. Since most children infected with the coronavirus have very mild symptoms, they were largely overlooked as a demographic in the earlier stages of the pandemic, Dr. Fasano said. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a pediatric COVID-19 hospitalisation rate of 8 per 100,000 for March 1 to July 25, compared with a rate of 164.5 per 100,000 for adults.
General Paediatrics and Vaccinology at University of Oxford. Dr. Fasano and colleagues at Boston's Massachusetts General and MassGeneral Hospital for Children found that infected children have a significantly higher level of virus in their airways than adults hospitalised in intensive care units for COVID-19 treatment. The high viral levels were found in infants through young adults. The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, involved 192 participants ages 0-22 who were seen at urgent care clinics for suspected COVID-19. Fortynine of them - a quarter of the total - tested positive for the virus. Another 18 were included after being diagnosed with multisystem
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inflammatory syndrome, a serious COVID-related illness than can develop several weeks after an infection.
"Nobody Is Spared"
The research suggests that children can carry a high viral load, meaning they can be very contagious, regardless of their susceptibility to developing a COVID-19 illness.
A separate study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that older children hospitalised with COVID-19 had similar levels of the virus in their upper respiratory tract as adults, but children younger than five carried significantly greater amounts.
"There has been some conflicting data out there about the degree to which children can be contagious," said Dr. Marybeth Sexton, assistant professor of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, who was not involved in the study. "This is further evidence that we may see children as sources of infection." She added more extensive research is needed.
However, other medical groups show differing information over children's potential to spread the virus. The American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidelines to reflect "that children under 10 years may be less likely to become infected and spread infection, while those 10 years and older may spread it as efficiently as adults." A recent South Korean study found that people were most
Experts say the incidence of a related disease, which can develop after COVID-19 infection, multisystem inflammatory syndrome, is concerning. "The number of these patients is growing," Dr. Fasano added. Concerns have also been raised about cases of type 1 diabetes among children diagnosed with COVID-19. A small UK study found that the rate of diabetes almost doubled during the peak of Britain’s COVID-19 epidemic, suggesting a possible link between the two diseases that needs more investigation. "The more we understand, the more it boils down to nobody is spared in this pandemic," Dr. Fasano said.
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Egypt's sex assault accusations spotlight social stigmas
sex crimes. A United Nations' survey in 2013 found that 99% of Egyptian women had experienced harassment. "We are always told that we are the reason for all the wrongdoing happening to us ... whether it's because of what you are wearing or the place you went to," said Amina Salah El-Din, a 25-year-old internet content creator who says she was a victim of assault last year. The recent testimonies stemmed from the case of Ahmed Bassam Zaki, a former student at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in his early 20s, who was charged with indecent assault against at least three women.
W
hen dozens of Egyptians began posting accounts of sexual assault on social media, activists sensed a "#MeToo" moment in a nation where women have long felt disadvantaged. Like high-profile trials in the United States where the now global women's rights hashtag took off, prosecutors launched charges in Egypt's best-known recent case: a student from a wealthy background facing multiple accusations. To encourage victims to come forward, the government approved
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a bill to better protect their identity. Yet when the administrator of the Instagram page that attracted the first testimonies tried to expose a second high-profile case, death threats came and she suspended the account at the end of July out of fear, she said.
and appealing for help. Campaigners say there remains a deep-rooted bias in the conservative, Muslimmajority nation to place more blame on women for behaviour deemed provocative than on men for
Allegations against Zaki were posted in previous years on a private Facebook group run by AUC students. Authorities reacted after the accusations surfaced on an Instagram account named @assaultpolice. The volume of testimonies, and the fact they targeted someone from an elite background, was unusual.
Furthermore, in what activists see as a move undercutting women's rights, prosecutors have recently charged several women for "inciting debauchery" with songs and dances in TikTok videos. One had posted a video saying she had been raped and blackmailed
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MIDDLE EAST the system unable to deal with this issue," said Mohamed Fouad, a member of parliament who pressed for action on Zaki's case. A Justice Ministry spokesman was unavailable to comment and Egypt's state press centre and an Interior Ministry spokesman did not respond to questions.
"There is this stereotype that sexual harassment only happens in certain (poorer) environments," said Azza Solaiman, an activist and lawyer who helped document the complaints. Zaki has not addressed the accusations publicly but denied some of them during questioning, according to a prosecution statement.
Growing Caseload After Egypt's top Sunni Muslim authority - known as Al-Azhar - and the state-run National Council for Women urged more victims to come forward, accusations surfaced against three rights activists, one of whom publicly confessed and was fired, and a Coptic Church priest who was also dismissed. Attention also fell on an alleged gang rape at a luxury Cairo hotel in 2014, with more testimonies on @assaultpolice, before it was taken down. Accounts continued on other pages, however, and the
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public prosecutor's office announced an investigation. Even so, judicial authorities remain ill-equipped to deal with harassment and assault crimes, according to activists, some of whom have been highlighting Egypt's assault problems since long before #MeToo trended in the West. Egypt did introduce jail terms of at least six months or fines of at least 3,000 Egyptian pounds ($188) for harassment in 2014, after attacks on women near Cairo's Tahrir Square during
celebrations for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s inauguration. Female police officers now patrol on public holidays or celebrations. But the definitions of rape, assault and harassment still often let defendants get off lightly, campaigners say. Only forced vaginal intercourse is considered rape, with other forms defined as sexual assault. "The problem is largely related to the legislative environment, which makes
With their pursuit of the TikTok stars, prosecutors have called themselves "guardians of social morality" in targeting women deemed to be wearing suggestive clothes. Activists say the prosecutions violate freedom of expression. Salah El-Din's case shows how women who confront social stigma by coming forward seldom have it easy. Chasing the man who assaulted her outside her apartment in a workingclass Cairo neighbourhood, she said she had to accuse him of theft to encourage bystanders to catch him. She then battled to persuade police to take on the case, though the man eventually got a three-year prison sentence. "They see it's rare for women to report sexual harassment and that no one follows this through to the end, so they thought it only natural that I would drop it, or file a robbery complaint instead," she said at an interview at a friend's home.
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Cautious hopes for slum dwellers relocated in Egypt housing project
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n a compound in southeastern Cairo, Elham Fouad walks through a clean, organised street full of colourful buildings with her husband and young daughter. The scene in the Mokattam suburb is a far cry from el-Deweika, a sprawling slum in the Egyptian capital, where she used to live in a dilapidated house with her family. "We were always at risk of landslides and we barely had access to many of the basic services like water and electricity," 32-year-old Fouad said from a small grocery store. "Now, it is a whole different life. We are living like all other humans in a good house with access to all services," said Fouad, who now lives the el-Asmarat compound in Mokattam. She is one of about 750,000 slum dwellers who have been relocated in the past four years to social housing units across the country, according to Khaled Sedeek, executive director of the government's Informal Settlements Development Fund (ISDF). About 22 million Egyptians – roughly a quarter of the population – live in
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slums, including 850,000 people who live in unsafe settlements at risk of landslides and floods, says the ISDF. Sixty percent of slum dwellers live in the greater Cairo area, including an estimated 1.5 million in a sprawling cemetery known as the City of the Dead. But relocated residents point to challenges such as higher overall expenses in the new housing units and an uncertain future for the informal businesses they used to run in slums.
Modern Housing The housing scheme is part of a five-year government project started in 2016 to either demolish or upgrade unsafe slums and relocate some 850,000 people. It is part of Egypt's commitment to globally agreed sustainability goals, which include making cities safer and more resilient by 2030. The new homes are fully-furnished, include household appliances and are let on a symbolic rent between 300-350 Egyptian pounds ($19 -22), depending on the standard of the unit. New compounds include
gardens, schools, sports facilities, medical centres, shops, places of worship and access to public transport. Modernising Cairo is also part of efforts by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to attract investment and boost Egypt's economy still reeling after the Arab Spring upheaval of 2011. Since taking office in 2014, Sisi has sought to transform the city, building a new administrative capital on its outskirts and aiming to attract investors to its centre. The Maspero triangle, a slum amid high-end buildings in the heart of Cairo, is being developed into a commercial and entertainment hub, with money generated from land sales providing cash for the government to finance relocation and compensation costs. The government also demolished about a dozen slums in Egypt's secondlargest city of Alexandria and Port Said, on the Suez Canal, Sedeek said in a phone interview.
Housing Costs But such housing changes come at a cost, some of those who have benefited
from relocation or slum upgrading have found. Saber Ahmed, 41, said it is a better life for his family, but their expenses have significantly increased since they were relocated from the Ezbet Khairallah neighbourhood near Old Cairo to the el-Asmarat compound. "We pay rent of 300 Egyptian pounds in addition to electricity, water and household gas bills. For me, it is too much," said Ahmed, who works as a factory worker. "It was better living in our house which we owned. We did not have such expenses," he noted, adding he now needs to take public transport to get to his workplace, an additional cost. Even though Sisi raised the minimum wage last year to 2,000 Egyptian pounds ($125) from 1,200 Egyptian pounds, poverty is among the highest in the world, with one in four Egyptians living on less than $1.65 a day. While the elite lives in gated communities with blossoming gardens and artificial lakes or in luxury flats overlooking the Nile, the poor set up homes anywhere they can. Many
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say they have no clean water or sanitation.
Economic Challenges Those relocated to social housing compounds also fear they may not be able to keep the informal businesses they used to run in the slums. About two out of three jobs in Egypt are in the informal sector, according to a study released by the International Labour Organization in 2018. "The majority of slum dwellers belong to the informal economy and many of them lost their jobs when they were relocated to the
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MIDDLE EAST
new sanitised areas where they are not allowed to do the same," Atef Amin, head of the Egyptian Coalition for Upgrading Slums, an NGO, said. Given these challenges, some civil society groups have started to pay visits to the new compounds and offer citizens food and financial assistance. Sedeek said the government had allocated 38 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.4 billion) to destroy all unsafe areas by the end of the year. A total of 157,000 out of 240,000 housing units have been built so far to relocate residents from unsafe areas, he added. Consultations with residents is part of the
relocation process, said Sedeek. "We made surveys with slum dwellers and we adjusted our plans according to their demands. Not all of them were met, but we tried as much as we could to satisfy all needs," he said. Reda Haggag, professor of urban planning at Cairo University, said Egypt is facing an uneasy task as some slum dwellers are restoring slums or building new ones because they do not want to leave or in order to avoid paying rent in the new houses. "It is very important for the government to monitor
these practices and put an end to them because it can't work on upgrading or demolishing informal settlements while at the same time there are people who are building other slums," he said. The government has suspended issuing permits for new buildings to help end an illegal construction boom which started after the 2011 uprising. Meanwhile Fouad has hopes for a better life in her new home, and plans to send her daughter to a school nearby for the first time. "We had no hopes for our daughter before we came here. But now we are full of hope," she said.
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MIDDLE EAST
Lebanon's Hezbollah 'got power but lost the country'
F
ifteen years after the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik alHariri, Hezbollah has risen to become the overarching power in a country that is now collapsing under its feet amid a series of devastating crises. A UN-backed tribunal convicted a member of the Iranian-backed group of conspiring to kill Hariri in a 2005 bombing and acquitted three others. The verdict came at a time when Lebanon's economy has collapsed. Institutions from the security services to the presidency, occupied by a Hezbollah ally, have been found wanting, and people are struggling with the aftermath of the massive explosion that shredded central Beirut last month. Added to this, there is no functioning government and there is a spike in the COVID-19 pandemic. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has denied that the group has ever controlled Lebanese governments or that it has a majority that would allow it to act on its own. But Lebanon is slipping from Hezbollah's hands, said a political source familiar with
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the thinking among the group's Christian allies. "By getting the majority (in parliamentary elections) and a president on their side, they thought they controlled the country, but what happened now with Hezbollah and its allies is that they got power but they lost the country and the people." Hezbollah has faced growing criticism for its perceived failure to deliver on promised reforms since winning a parliamentary majority with its allies in 2018. The government nominated by Hezbollah and its allies after the previous administration led by Saad al-Hariri, son of the slain PM, was toppled by a civic uprising last October - resigned over the Aug. 4 blast. It had tried to negotiate a rescue package with the International Monetary Fund, but was blocked by the very powerbrokers who appointed it. "There are so many problems internally apart from the port explosion," says Magnus Ranstorp, a Hezbollah expert. "The country is breaking under their feet." Fawaz Gerges,
Middle East expert at the London School of Economics, adds: "This is one of the most fundamental challenges facing Lebanon since its independence from (France) in 1943 as you have now multiple crises facing Lebanon and Hezbollah." "I fear this (the tribunal verdict) could provide a trigger. The country, which is already divided, will become more polarised along sectarian lines as opposed to political and ideological lines." Western donors say they will not bail out Lebanon without fundamental reforms to a corrupt system. Mohanad Hage Ali, fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said Hezbollah had "failed miserably" to keep its election promise to fight corruption. "They literally delivered nothing on this promise. In fact, their anticorruption campaign is now a popular joke." "As is the case with most of this political class, Hezbollah hasn't been in a weaker position than they are right now," he said. The Shi'ite movement, which has acted as a spearhead for Tehran in Syria's civil war and across the region, is also facing public anger over the
explosion in the Beirut port that has traumatised the country. The detonation of what authorities say was 2,700 tonnes of unsafely stored ammonium nitrate fuelled outrage over government negligence, incompetence and inaction. Hezbollah is not only the predominant power in Lebanon but is seen as protecting a corrupt political class that has driven Lebanon into the ground. "What Hezbollah doesn't understand about the port explosion, the outcry, the protests, is that people view it as the latest manifestation of the corrupt elite and they hold Hezbollah responsible for safeguarding this elite," said Gerges. "Hezbollah is losing the narrative inside Lebanon," he said. Many Lebanese, including some Christians who once supported Hezbollah, have turned against the group even though it is not responsible for an economic crisis that had piled up for years under previous governments.
Different Priorities The mood changed after Nasrallah gave a televised address denying responsibility for the blast and warning protesters that any more attacks on
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MIDDLE EAST judges said Hariri's killing was clearly a politically motivated act of terrorism. The verdict, analysts say, is likely to exacerbate the difficulties of Hezbollah, already designated by the United States and several others as a terrorist group. "More and more countries will likely view Hezbollah as a paramilitary terrorist organisation," Gerges said. Ranstorp says even before the Hariri verdict the mood in Europe and Washington had swung against a Hezbollahdominated Lebanon, because of the axis of Shi'ite power Iran has built across Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The challenge to Hezbollah comes as it and its forces in Syria are being regularly attacked by Israeli warplanes, and powerful allied militias in Iraq are under pressure.
the system and its leaders would meet a robust response. "You would have expected him to have reached out to the public by saying he would do anything to find out what has happened, that 'we are with the people'," Gerges said. But Hezbollah's priorities are geo-strategic rather than Lebanon-centric. It fears change in Lebanon might undermine its ability to influence a political system
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that allows it to maintain its weapons and fighters, analysts say. As a result, Hezbollah has become bogged down in Lebanon. "They want to maintain their powerful position in the country, they want to maintain their weapons, they want to maintain a veto in the decision-making process while at the same time they want to tell people they are against corruption and they are different from the corrupt ruling elite. These contradictions have caught
up with Hezbollah," Gerges said. Khalil Gebara, Senior Policy Fellow at Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, said: "After the blast, it is clear that the political system is also close to collapse ... Hezbollah's objective today is to extend the life of the Lebanese political system." Although the court found no evidence of direct involvement by the leadership of Hezbollah, the
Most analysts say Hezbollah will sit tight, hoping that time will work in its favour, either through a new US president or a possible new understanding between Tehran and the Trump administration ahead of the November election. "They want to preserve the (Lebanese) state as it stands today. They don't want a strong state. But they don't want a fragmented weak one because that means more headaches, more challenges for them," Hage Ali said.
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Northern Cyprus set to reopen Cypriot ghost town on ceasefire lines Varosha, a southern suburb of the city of Famagusta, has been a ghost town since the invasion, following a brief Greek-inspired coup, that partitioned the eastern Mediterranean island along ceasefire lines into Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides. The former holiday resort has been off limits to all but the Turkish military
N
orthern Cyprus is almost ready to begin reopening the town of Varosha, the breakaway state's premier said, a former resort area fenced off and abandoned in no-man's land since a 1974 Turkish invasion that split the island. Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ersin Tatar said
"Varosha lies within TRNC territory," he said, referring to Northern Cyprus, recognised as a state only by Turkey. "Nobody can take it from us. We are successfully continuing on our path. The inventory work is almost complete, we are in the opening phase."
the revival of Varosha, now an eerie collection of derelict hotels, churches and residences, would bring trade and tourism benefits. The move is likely to anger Greek Cypriots, 39,000 of whom once lived in Varosha before fleeing advancing Turkish forces 46 years ago, and stoke tensions between the two sides.
since 1974. Varosha has become a bargaining chip in the decades-long dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Ringed by a fence extending into the sea, the town is overrun by cacti and debris. "Varosha is most definitely going to be opened. The tide has shifted, a new page has been turned," Tatar said. (Northern Cyprus) will become stronger by opening Varosha to tourism."
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Tatar gave no specific time line for reopening Varosha.
In February, Turkish and Turkish Cypriot officials visited Varosha, marking one of the most concrete steps by either side towards reviving the ghost town. The island's Greek Cypriots live mainly in the south, a republic that is in the European Union. Several peacemaking efforts have made no significant progress and the discovery of offshore energy resources has complicated the picture further.
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ASIA
As other doors close, some Rohingya cling to hope of resettlement
O
n the third anniversary of a mass exodus of Rohingya to Bangladesh, prospects look bleak for about 1 million members of the Muslim minority from Myanmar living in bamboo and plastic shelters in refugee camps. Two attempts to get a repatriation process going, in 2018 and 2019, failed as the refugees refused to go back to Buddhistmajority Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship and considered outsiders, fearing violence. Some take the dangerous option of travelling with people-smugglers by boat to Southeast Asia. Scores of people have been killed in recent years as their overcrowded rickety boats have capsized or run out of water and food. But even that perilous route is getting more difficult now as countries like Malaysia shut their borders, threatening to push boats back out to sea, to protect jobs and resources amid novel coronavirus lockdowns. Some Rohingya are clinging to the hope of a third option - resettlement in a rich country. "I just pray and hope that one day my family will be settled in a Western country," said Mohammed Nur, who lives in a refugee camp in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district neighbouring Myanmar. Nur was on a short-list for resettlement under an
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those with the most acute vulnerabilities, if this option becomes available," UNHCR spokeswoman Louise Donovan said. Before the programme was suspended, the UNHCR had identified about 1,000 people for relocation, based on medical grounds or for reasons of family reunifications. The suspension left those people in limbo, some after they borrowed and even packed their bags in preparation for their move.
earlier programme. But Bangladesh, which has for decades given refuge to waves of Rohingya fleeing from Myanmar, ended the resettlement programme in 2010 out of fear it would become a hub for refugees seeking to move to the West.
resumption of resettlement, then his government would decide.
Nur lives in hope the programme will be revived and has even put off marriage because he worries a bigger family would see him dropped from the list.
From 2006 to 2010, the programme saw 920 Rohingya resettled in countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States.
"I'm 29 now but still not married as I don't want to expand my family," he said.
Bangladesh's foreign minister and the ministry's secretary did not respond to requests for comment.
Whether a resettlement programme gets going or not depends on Bangladesh. Bangladesh's refugee commissioner said the focus was on repatriation but his agency was ready to work to resettle refugees in other countries if his government decided to resume the programme. Talukder said it was up to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to request the
"If the government takes the decision, we're ready to implement it," the commissioner, Mahbub Alam Talukder, said.
"We dreamt of a better life when we got selected to be resettled in the UK," said Mohammed Ismail, 32, who fled to Bangladesh when he was only eight. "But my poor luck, we never could fly." Ismail and several others on the list with their families said they had heard nothing about the possibility of resettlement in recent years. But even if Bangladesh were to agree to resume the programme, it won't be easy for Rohingya to start new lives in the West.
The UNHCR said it was in "continuous dialogue" with the Bangladesh government over the Rohingya.
HT Imam, a political adviser to Bangladesh's prime minister, has in the past called the resettlement process unrealistic because of the reluctance of European countries and the United States to take Muslim refugees. He declined to comment.
"We continue to pursue durable solutions for the Rohingya refugees including repatriation in safety and dignity when conditions allow, as well as through third-country pathways for
The UNHCR said globally resettlements had decreased significantly over the past few years, from a peak of more than 126,000 in 2016 that it was involved in, to about 64,000 last year.
'Third-Country Pathways'
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ASIA
Back to the paddy fields. COVID smashes Indian middle-class dreams agrarian state. Of that, the young man was sending home around 9,000 rupees every month, much of which was helping to fund his younger brother's studies. No longer. Once a provider for his family, now he has become a financial burden.
U
ntil late March, Ashish Kumar was helping to make plastic boxes for Ferrero Rocher praline chocolates and the plastic spoons tucked inside Kinder Joy eggs to scoop out the milky sweet cream inside.
whose social progress has been halted by the new coronavirus that has infected more than two million people in India alone, and thrown the economy into reverse. With it, the aspirations of millions are fading.
With a diploma in plastic mould technology, the 20-year-old had a foot on his chosen career ladder. His younger brother Aditya chose law, but Ashish had his sights set on plastic.
For years, people in rural India have been gaining prosperity and moving into what economists call a burgeoning middle class of consumers – those who earn more than $10 a day, by some definitions. This group has been a keystone of plans for economic development in the world's second most populous country. In the COVID-19 pandemic, India's economy is forecast to shrink by 4.5% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. At least 400 million Indian workers are at risk of falling deeper into
"I want to start a business of my own," he said, explaining how he wants to recycle plastic to make day-to-day products at his own factory. India's coronavirus lockdown has thrown those plans into disarray. Educated but unemployed, Ashish Kumar is one of countless people across the globe
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poverty, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). Kumar is one of around 131,000 people who local officials estimate returned from working around India to Gonda, the district in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh that he left last June. Nationwide, about 10 million people made long, hard journeys back to rural villages they'd left. Some have gone back to the cities, but many of those who had been sending back funds are still stuck in the countryside. Working in a factory in Baramati in the western state of Maharashtra, Kumar was earning 13,000 rupees ($173) every month, more than twice his father's pay from a job in a grain market near Kumar's home village in Uttar Pradesh, a sprawling
Kumar whiles away his time back home in the village of Dutta Nagar, bantering with friends in the muddy courtyard – they jokingly call it their "office" – outside the ramshackle primary school where he studied. In Uttar Pradesh, around 60 million of the state's population of more than 200 million lives in poverty, according to the World Bank. He said he has applied for several jobs at plastic factories in western Gujarat state and other parts of northern India but hasn't found work. "No matter what," he said, sitting near his parent's single-storey home, surrounded by jade green paddy fields. "I need a job."
Plastic For Pralines As a schoolboy, Kumar was obsessed with plastics. A chance conversation with a cousin who had studied plastic engineering got him
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BRITISH HERALD hooked, Kumar said, and he started researching. In Dutta Nagar, where there were no internet connections, that often meant asking one of a handful of locals with a smartphone to Google the opportunities. Kumar's ambitions were a world removed from his father Ashok's early years. The 47-year-old, who assists with weighing and pricing grain harvests, remembers when the family had neither enough food, or proper clothes. A slight man with a weatherbeaten face, he never finished high school. "I thought that the children shouldn't fall into our rut. They should be pushed ahead," he said. Kumar, who says he has never tasted a Ferrero Rocher praline, finished his diploma in Gujarat last June, and took the train to start work as a technician at an Italian-owned factory 1,500 km (930 miles) away from home. The factory that employed him is run by Dream Plast India, a subsidiary of Gruppo Sunino SpA, an Italian plastics maker with 10 plants around the world. "The factory was first class," Kumar said. His contract included a monthly contribution from the company into a retirement fund and a bonus. Workers were served one meal every day, the supervisors were
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ASIA friendly, and the salary came on time, he said. Six days a week, his work typically involved overseeing two machines and a couple of contract workers. At the end of the day, he would relax with a game of badminton or watch wrestling on YouTube. His income over the past year helped his parents build a proper four-roomed brick home, after decades of living in a tumble-down mud hut where the roof let in heavy monsoon rains. It helped pay the fees for his brother to go to law school in Bahraich, an hour and a half's drive away from their home village. Then COVID-19 struck
Broke In Baramati Kumar first heard of the coronavirus in early March. When India's lockdown forced Dream Plast India to temporarily shut its plant in Baramati on March 21, he had enough cash to wait it out in town. As the pandemic swept through India, a survey of some 5,000 workers in April and May found 66% of participants had lost their jobs, and 77% of households were consuming less food than before. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government announced a 20 trillion rupee package promising free rice, wheat and pulses for millions of people and a programme to provide employment in rural areas.
Even for those with work, trade unions and labour experts say conditions are deteriorating, for migrants particularly. In May, India's state governments issued health and safety guidelines for factories as they re-opened after lockdown, which included compulsory face masks, thermal screening, social distancing and frequent sanitisation. Union leaders allege many companies did not follow all protocols and cut corners, but they have not identified Kumar's. Indian states including Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat said in May they were looking to relax workers' rights, including weakening regulations on wages and working hours, to support industry. That proposal drew criticism from workers' unions and the ILO. The amendments have only taken effect in some states. Kumar's factory, which reopened in early May, did not respond to a question on measures taken there, but Dream Plast India's managing director Nitin Gupta said in an email the "company takes utmost precautions to adhere to the laws at all times." He declined to elaborate further. Even so, Kumar and another worker said they didn't feel safe to return. Ferrero SpA,
the Italian confectioner, said it had audited the plant where Kumar worked in March 2020 and found no irregularities, but would further review subsequent months. By early June, Kumar's funds had run out. Even buying food became difficult. His parents grew increasingly worried. "Whatever little money I had here in the bank, I sent some of that so he could eat," said his father, Ashok. "At that time, I was very scared. The biggest challenge was for him to come home." India's railway network re-opened in early May. On June 3, Kumar borrowed money to pay for a 48hour journey home by train, bus and shared taxi. Then he went into a 14-day quarantine. On June 25, Dream Plast India sent him an email, asking him to report to work within four days or face termination. Instead, he resigned on July 20. His parents are apprehensive about him leaving home again, although they said they realise that without their elder son's earnings, his younger brother won't be able to finish law school. Kumar isn't ready to give up on his plastics factory. "I will do it," he said. "No matter what it takes, I will fulfil my dream."
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REAL LIFE HERO
'My life is a miracle': COVID-19 patient recuperates after four-month ordeal family watched helplessly as he was transferred between four different hospitals in total. "In the second hospital, they just told my dad that the only reason that he was still alive was because of the medication they're giving him," said Garcia's sister Lorena, explaining how the family had to make difficult
L
os Angeles resident Francisco Garcia tested positive for COVID-19 in April and says he doesn't know how he caught it. Now recuperating, the 31-year-old had avoided leaving the house because he was afraid of bringing the virus home and infecting his family. His mother has cancer and his sister has lupus. The symptoms seemed mild at first: fever and headache,
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life support. But his mother and sister never gave up hope, and eventually he woke up. The primary carer at home, Garcia was devastated when he was told he'd been in hospital for four months. "Just knowing that my mom and my sister are sick ... and I can't do nothing about it. That kind of hurt me," he said, fighting back tears. Released from hospital two weeks ago, Garcia is now recovering at home. He says he wants his old life back. "Before all this happened, I
but Garcia's condition quickly deteriorated. "A couple of days later, I couldn't breathe as much and I felt like I was having like a panic attack. My sister called the paramedics and they came and just took me to the hospital," he said in an interview at his home. Garcia doesn't recall being in pain. All he can remember is being at a hospital near his home. Then he woke up in a different hospital with a tube inserted into his nose. His
choices with his medical care. "Then two or three days passed and that's when he started bleeding from his brain." Garcia slipped into a coma and doctors recommended to his family they turn off his
was an active kid. I'd go play basketball, go hiking, bike riding," he said. "From now on, I will do everything possible to move on with my life and do everything I can to better my life and my family's life as well."
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BRITISH HERALD
ODDLY ENOUGH
Manholes get glowing anime makeover in Japan's Tokorozawa old resident Kotaro Kodaira. "I can look at them on the ground so the (walking) time seems shorter than before." The 27 designs are illuminated by solarpowered LED lights, according to the city's Waterworks and Sewerage department. City officials hope that the manholes, which are lit up from 5 pm to 2 am, will help to prevent crime during the night. "I think they are unique and nice. I hope a lot of people will visit to check it out," said Sumie Namiki, a 46-yearold from Tokyo working in Tokorozawa.
A
set of manhole covers in Japan's Tokorozawa city, north of Tokyo, has been decorated with anime characters that glow in the dark, to the delight of locals and city officials. The city installed the covers, which include designs from animation series such as Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gundam, this month to advertise a new entertainment complex focusing on Japanese popular culture that is scheduled to open in November. "My commute back home is enjoyable," said 22-year-
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ODDLY ENOUGH
Tokyo's new see-through toilets aim to enhance public spaces
Japan but across the world," Nippon Foundation Program Director Hayato Hanaoka said. Passers-by had mixed reactions. "It's really cool, but it wasn't very relaxing," said 28-year-old Arisa Komori, who was visiting the park with her friend and had used the toilet. "But it's also pretty," she added with a laugh. Some said that being able to see inside the toilets first made them feel safer about using them.
P
ublic toilets are usually a welcome sight to anyone who has had too much to drink, but some might do a double take when they come across the ones that have just opened in a Tokyo park. Made of special glass, the cubicles become opaque
when the lock is turned, but are otherwise completely see-through, with sinks, urinals and toilet bowls in full view.
non-profit organisation. By installing stylish toilets in public spaces the project
The toilets were designed by architect Shigeru Ban as part of the Tokyo Toilet Project, which is backed by The Nippon Foundation, a
hopes to change the common view that such facilities are dark and dirty places. "It would be great to see the Tokyo Toilets become a model for toilets not just in
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"You can see straightaway that there aren't any suspicious people lurking in the toilets, so I appreciate that I feel safer about letting my children use the toilets," said Chieri Kurokawa, 36, who lives nearby and had brought her two young
sons to play in the park. As part of the project, a total of 17 public toilets will be redesigned by renowned architects and designers, including Pritzker Prize winning Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma.
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BRITISH HERALD
ODDLY ENOUGH
Vietnamese man with five-metre hair says lifelong grow-out is divine calling of Ho Chi Minh City. "I only nurture it, cover it in a scarf to keep it dry and clean and looking nice." Chien, who worships nine powers and seven gods, believes it was his calling to grow his hair, which he bundles up under an orange turban.
W
hile coronavirus lockdowns caused many men across the world to grow their hair longer than usual, none compare with Vietnam's Nguyen Van Chien who has gone almost 80 years without a trim. The 92-year-old from the southern Mekong Delta
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"I touched my hair and overnight it has became really hard. It has attached to my head and became a thing of its own." Chien follows a nearobsolete faith known as "Dua", the coconut religion, named after its founder who claimed he survived only on coconuts to retain his vitality. Dua is banned in Vietnam and categorised as a false belief.
He was required to trim it when at school, but left after third grade and decided
Chien's fifth son, Luom, helps him to manage his giant locks. He too believes
never to cut, comb or wash it again. "I remembered my hair was black, thick and strong. I combed it, untangled it to make it smooth. But when I heard the calling from the divine power, I knew immediately that I was chosen," he said.
in the connection between hair and mortality, having seen a man pass away after trying to re-attach his hair with string.
region is the proud owner of five-metre long dreadlocks, owing to his belief in a faith that prescribes leaving untouched what a person is born with. "I believe if I cut my hair I will die. I dare not to change anything, not even combing it," Chien said in his village about 80km (50 miles) west
"These things look simple but they are sacred," said 62-year-old Luom.
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SPORTS
Olympics: Japanese trampolinist bounces back after pandemic scuppers dream Sotomura's gymnast father Koji won two bronze medals at the 1984 Olympics and Tetsuya just missed out on matching his feat when he finished fourth at the 2008 Beijing Games. Injuries had prevented Sotomura from returning to the Olympics since but the lure of one last shot at glory on home soil kept Sotomura competing well into his thirties.
J
apanese trampolinist Tetsuya Sotomura was pushing for his country's final qualification spot for the Tokyo Olympics earlier this year but his dream was shattered when the Games were postponed.
wanted to compete at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 but the Games moved to one year later. This effectively meant my retirement."
Sotomura isn't bitter about missing the Games and is instead focusing on new projects, such as working with Airbnb's athlete experiences programme
and starting his own trampoline centre. He said the pandemic made it even more important to focus on the future. "Of course my wife and my family hoped that I would go into the Olympics and they support me, so (they) are a little sad I retired," said Sotomura. "But, they are in a hard situation with corona so I am happy I can support them. "I think I have a dream now, so I don’t miss (trampolining). I can see the future, so now I am happy."
At 35, he had already decided that the Olympics would be his last event and when organisers made the decision to postpone the Games until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sotomura knew his body wouldn't hold up for another year. "Before corona, I already decided I would retire after the Tokyo Olympics, meaning this summer, 2020," Sotomura said at his office north of Tokyo. "The news was very shocking," he added. "I
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BRITISH HERALD
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