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Renate Mattar

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Image of a man in protective gear hiking on a snowy mountain and holding onto a rope
Ideas

"Nature Is Pure Chaos" — Walking The Alps With Pioneering Mountaineer Reinhold Messner

At the age of 78, the Italian-born, German speaking Reinhold Messner is a climbing legend, who was the first climber to ascend all fourteen peaks over 8,000 metres (26,000 ft) above sea level — without supplementary oxygen. Today he keeps moving, and thinking.

SULDEN AM ORTLER — Is it okay to talk while walking? What is the secret of an adventure? And why have the "Last Generation" climate activists not understood nature? On a winter hike, 2248 meters up Ortler mountain, Italian mountaineer and former politician Reinhold Messner reveals his most important rule.

"These are good shoes!" Messner says in greeting, looking at my old leather boots. His remark is not praise, merely a sober observation. He also acknowledges the poles I have strapped to the side of my backpack with a nod. "Sunglasses?" I nod. Then, already on the move: "Crampons?"

I knew I would make a mistake in preparing for this winter hike, but why the most important thing, the snow chains for the shoes? I had spent a lot of money on Gore-Tex and down clothing in the outdoor store so that I could meet the most famous mountaineer in the world, the man who looked down at me from the tattered dust jacket of the book "Solo: Nanga Parbat" in my nursery. He was younger then than I am now.

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Image of a father watching his child play with water, carrying a child on his back, and holding his other kid's hand.
Society

Which Countries Have The Best Paternity Leave

Leave policies for new fathers differ widely around the world — and some men still worry they'll be perceived as less masculine if they take time off after having a kid. But change iis coming, and in some places where you might not expect.

PARIS — When we think of the countries worldwide which offer the best paternity leave, the Nordic countries immediately come to mind: Finland, Sweden, Norway. There's a good reason for that: after the birth of their child, Finnish fathers can take paternity leave for a maximum of 54 working days — one of the best paternity leave allowances around the world.

But since the beginning of 2023, other countries seem to be catching up — and there are various reasons for it. Of course, paternity can be considered a feminist policy and an improvement for women’s conditions, as women too often are stuck with the majority of a family’s chores and mental workload.

But that is not the only reason why, around the world, some governments are now establishing or extending paternity leave.

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Image of people walking in the street.
Society

Sweden Has One Of The Best Social Welfare Systems. Why Are So Many People Lonely?

Hygge dreams and happy extended families are increasingly fading away.

-Analysis-

Even if Sweden has one of the world's best social systems, more and more people say they are becoming lonely. Instead of idyllic extended families, more individualistic ways of living are becoming more common. This is having serious consequences, especially for those over 60.

If you believe in individualism, you should be in favor of a strong state. That sounds paradoxical, and it is. But while ideologies strive to erase contradictions, the real world is often contradictory.

Sweden, which is still the country with the world's most comprehensive welfare system, is also the country with the second-highest proportion of single-person households, just after Finland. Almost half of Swedes live alone.

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Image of an elderly woman in the countryside wiping hear tears with her hand, under a sky filled with smoke due to the bombing of a train station
Society

How Trauma Causes Premature Aging — With Fresh Evidence From Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has been going on for a year. Many have died, fled or been traumatized — day after day and night after night. Such harrowing experiences leave deep wounds. But there are ways to overcome traumatic experiences.

BERLIN — For Nathalia, New Year’s Eve was never good. The loud bangs of the fireworks shocked her so much that she ran as fast and as far as she could. She ran as if in a trance, not even realizing that she had left behind her husband, who was older and had a heart condition.

Nathalia — her name has been changed in this article — is almost 50 years old. About six months ago, her and her husband ran as fast as their feet could carry them, with just a few belongings they had quickly gathered. Away from the border with Russia, to Donbas, in the direction of Kyiv. Behind them, the sounds of Russian artillery bombardment, and bombs that seemed so close.

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They arrived in Poland on an overcrowded train from Kyiv, surrounded by exhausted people with fearful, desperate faces. In Poland, relatives waited to take them to Germany, and safety. But for their children, there was no escape from their fear.

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Image of two officers sitting next to and talking to one another on the couch in an office .
Society

Syria's TV Industry Takes Another Crack At Comedy — Is That A Joke?

After a decade of conflict, once-popular Syrian comedies have lost their shine. New shows are trying to revive the country's golden era of TV, but comedy is a tough sell in a country still living under a brutal dictatorship.

The “Golden Era” of Syrian comedies, when shows produced in the country were a sought-after commodity on Arab satellite stations, has been over since the 90s. Since then, the Syrian conflict has clearly hastened the decline of the medium.

Now, a new batch of Syrian comedies are trying to revive the style — but is it too late?

The series Bokaat Daw ("Spotlight"), which went on the air in 2001, was a landmark of Syrian drama. The show dared to take on forbidden themes and subjects, at a time when TV shows were more often propaganda disguised as entertainment, and when everything was subject to strict government control, with whole episodes sometimes censored.

The oppression and violence Syria experienced during the first years of the revolution pushed some filmmakers away from comedy, which some felt didn't fit the dramatic experiences the country's people were living through. Confronting the Syrian regime through comedy also became more complex than ever.

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Photo of The gate of the Heihe Area of China (Heilongjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
Geopolitics

Heihe Postcard: Where The China-Russia "Friendship Of Convenience" Reveals Its Limits

Facing Russia, just across the Amur River, the Chinese border city of Heihe has complicated ties with its neighbor, revealing the scars of history and a shifting power dynamic between Moscow and Beijing.

HEIHE — Perched in the cab of his truck, Sacha is about to enter the customs clearance area, his lorry loaded with car parts and equipment made in China. "I make the trip two or three times a week," explains the Russian driver, his eyes as blue as the winter sky over the Amur River which marks the border between China and Russia.

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A road bridge spanning the river links the Chinese city of Heihe to Blagovechtchensk, on the eastern edge of Russia. The goods in Sacha's truck will be on Russian soil in just another kilometer's worth of road.

The two-lane bridge was inaugurated with great fanfare last June, with fireworks going off as the first trucks passed. Authorities in both countries presented it as a symbol of their rapprochement, and an example of the "unlimited friendship" sealed between the two in February, shortly before Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his army into Ukraine.

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Germany's Far Right Extremists Are Using AI Images To Incite Hatred
Future

Germany's Far Right Extremists Are Using AI Images To Incite Hatred

Bogus images of angry dark-skinned men and bloodied blond women were quickly flagged as fakes, but the quality of the artificial intelligence is only bound to improve.

You have seen those AI-generated images circulating on the Internet in the last few weeks: Pope Francis in a puffy white parka, Emmanuel Macron in the mud, Donald Trump being forcibly arrested… Those images went viral. Such pranks, of course, might seem mostly harmless, and have been quickly flagged as fakes.

However, AI-generated images will no doubt be used for more dangerous purposes.

In Germany this week, we already saw it taken further than an innocent joke. Norbert Kleinwaechter, a deputy chairman from the far-right party Alles für Deutschland (AfD), recently posted on his Twitter account, several AI-generated images: one depicted a young blond woman, her face covered in blood, another showed a climate activist screaming.

Yet one particular image stands out, with an inscription — “No more refugees!”

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What The West Gets Wrong About Orbán's Stance On Russia
Geopolitics

What The West Gets Wrong About Orbán's Stance On Russia

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán appears to be courting Vladimir Putin, and turning his back on the EU. There is a clear strategy behind his rhetoric — but it is not any personal affinity for Russia.

-Analysis-

BERLIN — In its latest "public information campaign" just in time for the first anniversary of Russia's attack on Ukraine, Hungary's government portrays its own country as a peacekeeping power fighting against the Western war machine.

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This rhetoric, along with continued attacks on the "Brussels superstate," are prime examples of pure Viktor Orbán propaganda, which Hungary's prime minister has been peddling for years.

Orbán's pro-Russian stance, however, is often misunderstood. It is purely strategic, not personal, aimed at weakening European support for Ukraine for other reasons. It is a relatively new position vis a vis Moscow, an expression of his self-serving political style and his willingness to take risks to strengthen Hungary's position on the international stage.

Ultimately, Orbán is not pro-Russian; he is simply pro-Orbán.

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Image of a ​close up of a one dollar American bill.
Economy

A Cold French Shower On All The De-Dollarization Hysteria

Sure, financial instability in the U.S. and the weaponization of the dollar have raised crucial questions about how long the dollar can remain the world's de-facto currency. But France's leading business daily says don't expect major changes any time soon.

-Analysis-

PARIS — Americans are a strange bunch. Fifteen years after allowing the eruption of the largest global financial crisis in nearly a century, they were not even able to prevent a bank with more than $200 billion in assets from collapsing in a few hours.

These people are as careless with their public accounts as they are with their private finances. This year, the U.S. public deficit is expected to approach 6% of GDP, almost double that of the European Union. As if this impasse were only a minor problem.

Can we continue to trust a country's currency so inconsistent with money?

More and more countries are answering this question by buying gold. After beginning their return to the yellow metal in 2009, just after the great financial crisis, central banks acquired 1,136 tons last year. A record for over half a century!

And if they have increased their purchases, especially in emerging countries, it is not only to protect their reserves from inflation or banking crises. It may also be with monetary plans in mind.

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Image of a man trying to measure the offset of a crevasse on a glacier
Green

How Climate Change May Be Triggering More Earthquakes — And Vice Versa

Researchers have identified a possible link between climate change and the frequency of earthquakes — and the quakes may also start a vicious circle of accelerating climate change.

PARIS — Between 1900 and 1950, the Earth recorded an average of 3.4 earthquakes per year with a magnitude greater than 6.5. That figured doubled to 6.7 a year until the early 1970s, and was almost five times that in the 2000s.

Their intensity would also have increased with more than 25 major earthquakes per year, double the previous periods. This is according to the EM-DAT emergency events database, which compiled the occurrence and effects of 22,000 mass disasters worldwide in the 20th century.

Can we conclude that there is a causal relationship with the rise of human activities, as some experts suggest? The idea was first suggested in 2011 by an Australian research team led by geology professor Giampiero Iaffaldano. At the time, it reported that it had found that the intensification of the monsoon in India had accelerated the movement of the Indian tectonic plate by 20% over the past 10 million years.

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LNG Carriers, Europe's Floating Response To Russia's Gas War
Economy

LNG Carriers, Europe's Floating Response To Russia's Gas War

From Croatia to Spain, Portugal, Germany and France, revamped LNG gas routes are providing an agile European energy response to the cutting off of Russian gas since the war in Ukraine began.

KRK — Tourists know the island of Krk, in northern Croatia, for its heavenly coves that open onto the Adriatic Sea’s translucent waters. But now, Krk will also be known for its strategic role in the energy security of Croatia and Central Europe.

Not far from the beaches, a 280-meter-long ship carrying natural gas is moored in a bay, protected from storms. This blue and white ship, known as the “LNG Croatia” has been completely reconfigured to become a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

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Over the past two years, more than fifty LNG carriers have unloaded their valuable cargo in Krk — mainly from the Gulf of Mexico, in the United States, but also from Qatar, Egypt, Nigeria, Trinidad and elsewhere.

In the countries where it is produced, the gas is cooled at a temperature of minus 160°C, so it can be transported in liquid form. After arriving at Krk, it is transferred to the "LNG Croatia” ship, where it is heated with seawater and becomes gaseous again, and then transported ashore through a large pipe. Once ashore, the gas is pressurized and injected into a pipeline that flows into the Croatian gas network, as well as pipelines that connect to neighboring Slovenia and Hungary.

The LNG Croatia is a boat that no longer sails. But Boris Martic, its captain, is still surprised by his country’s new situation. “All around here, it’s crowded with tourists in the summer,” he says, pointing from the sunny deck of the vessel. "I would have never imagined, only a few years ago, that Croatia was going to become an LNG import hub.”

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Minerals And Violence: A Papal Condemnation Of African Exploitation, Circa 2023
Geopolitics

Minerals And Violence: A Papal Condemnation Of African Exploitation, Circa 2023

Before heading to South Sudan to continue his highly anticipated trip to Africa, the pontiff was in the Democratic Republic of Congo where he delivered a powerful speech, in a country where 40 million Catholics live.

-Analysis-

PARIS — You may know the famous Joseph Stalin quote: “The Pope? How many divisions has he got?” Pope Francis still has no military divisions to his name, but he uses his voice, and he does so wisely — sometimes speaking up when no one else would dare.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (the former Belgian Congo, a region plundered and martyred, before and after its independence in 1960), Francis has chosen to speak loudly. Congo is a country with 110 million inhabitants, immensely rich in minerals, but populated by poor people and victims of brutal wars.

That land is essential to the planetary ecosystem, and yet for too long, the world has not seen it for its true value.

The words of this 86-year-old pope, who now moves around in a wheelchair, deserve our attention. He undoubtedly said what a billion Africans are thinking: "Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Hands off Africa! Stop choking Africa: It is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered!"

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