Kariba Dam was built in a gorge between Zambia and Zimbabwe holding back the Zambezi River to create a man-made lake
Despite having the mighty Zambezi River and the massive hydro-powered Kariba Dam, Zambia is currently grappling with the worst electricity blackouts in living memory.
The crisis is so severe that cities and towns across the country are sometimes without electricity for three consecutive days, with people counting themselves lucky if the lights come on for an hour or two.
The power cuts have come as a shock to the 43% of Zambians who are connected to the grid and have taken electricity for granted all their lives.
But one of the severest droughts in decades – caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon – has decimated Zambia’s power-generation capacity.
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Nowadays, I sometimes go to bars and restaurants to find people not eating or drinking – they are there just to charge their phones amid the pounding noise of generators.
There is also a booming business of people making money by charging the phones of those without power.
Zambia sources up to 84% of its electricity from water reservoirs such as lakes and rivers, while only 13% comes from coal.
Contributions from solar, diesel and heavy fuel oil are even lower, accounting for 3%.
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EPA
The drought has been described as “crippling” by government ministers
For several weeks, the crisis was compounded while the country’s only coal-fired power plant, Maamba Energy, was not operating at maximum capacity as it underwent routine maintenance work.
On Wednesday, there was finally some good news when Minister of Energy Makozo Chikote said the plant was now fully operational, and Zambians would have at least three hours of electricity a day.
President Hakainde Hichilema declared the drought a national disaster in February but the government has been unable to solve the energy crisis because Zambia is heavily reliant on the Kariba Dam for its electricity.
A financial crunch also severely restricted the government’s ability to import power as suppliers wanted payment upfront, though a spokesman for state-owned power utility Zesco, Matongo Maumbi, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa podcast that electricity was being imported from Mozambique and South Africa to ease the crisis, especially in the mining industry – Zambia’s main export earner and source of foreign currency.
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Located on the Zambezi, the fourth-longest river in Africa, Kariba was built in the 1950s and is the reservoir for the country’s largest underground power station, Kariba North Bank Power Station. A power station on the other bank serves Zimbabwe.
But because of the drought that has led to parts of the river drying up, only one of the six turbines at Zambia’s power station is operating, resulting in the generation of a paltry 7% of the 1,080 MW installed at Kariba.
Engineer Cephas Museba – who has been working for the state-owned power utility Zesco for 19 years – says he has never seen water levels so low at Kariba.
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BBC / Kennedy Gondwe
The Kariba Dam is one of the biggest in the world
“I think we stopped receiving the rains as early as February. It’s supposed to rain up to April. If we compare the history of this basin, this is the lowest we have received,” he told me.
It has triggered an electricity crisis that is being felt in every business and home.
Some companies are opening for fewer hours, and retrenching staff.
It can even be difficult to find bread – bakeries are making fewer loaves because they find it too expensive to keep generators running.
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Fortunately, the government has installed huge generators in some markets, government offices and hospitals, though stories are still being shared on social media of how kidney patients are struggling to cope.
Some patients need to be hooked up to a dialysis machine for up to three hours a day but power only gets restored for about an hour or two, sometimes after midnight.
On other occasions, there is no electricity at all for 72 hours in a row.
On those days, I wear the same clothes as the previous day, rather than a washed but wrinkled shirt that has not been ironed.
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Life has become more difficult for everyone.
One day recently, I woke up to be greeted by a foul smell as blood flowed from under the fridge.
All the meat we had bought had gone off and we had to give it to our German Shepherd dog, the happiest member of our household these days.
BBC / Kennedy Gondwe
Kennedy’s dog is the only one benefiting from the electricity crisis in their home
The other day I bought relish from a supermarket – but when I opened the package at the dinner table I realised that it was more food for our dog.
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My food budget, already tight because of the cost-of-living crisis, is now even tighter. Buying perishable items in bulk at a cheaper price is completely out of the question as they will just rot.
The government has been encouraging homes and businesses to switch to solar, and has scrapped import taxes for solar equipment to make it cheaper to buy.
But some people say their solar panels do not generate enough electricity when there is little sunlight – and they cannot afford to install more panels. Most Zambians cannot afford solar panels at all.
Now, many families have resorted to cooking and heating water on portable gas stoves – but shops have been running out of gas too because of high demand.
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So in desperation and because it is cheaper, they buy charcoal to cook and heat water – despite its negative impact on the environment and the climate.
The electricity crisis has also had an impact on the boreholes that middle-class families have dug on their properties.
As boreholes work with electricity and solar-powered pumps, homes are now also without a constant supply of water, making it impossible to even flush the toilet.
In some schools, children are advised to take five litres of water each day to reduce the possibility of a sanitation crisis – and the outbreak of waterborne diseases like cholera, which hit the country at the start of the year.
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Many families now fill buckets – or bath tubs – with water, hoping it will last until the lights are back, and toilets can be flushed.
All of this has left Zambians frustrated and angry. They point out that the blackouts highlight the failure of successive governments to plan ahead – something that President Hichilema’s administration has now pledged to do.
Mr Maumbi said that Zesco was investing in more energy sources, including solar plants, so that dependency on hydro-power falls to around 60%.
But Zambia’s focus is not only on green energy – coal is also in the mix.
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In July, the energy regulator approved plans to build only the country’s second coal-fired power plant.
It is the dirtiest fossil fuel, producing the most greenhouse gases when burnt, but the government feels that to avoid a similar crisis in the future, it has little option but to press ahead.
Vice President Kamala Harris will be joined on the campaign trail by former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney on Thursday, according to a senior Harris campaign official.
The event in Ripon, Wis.—the town in which the Republican Party was formed in 1854—will be aimed at increasing support for Harris among disenchanted Republicans. It comes less than a month after Cheney, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, endorsed Harris’ presidential bid and called on her fellow Republicans to prioritize the Constitution and accountability in the upcoming election. Harris has said that she was “honored” to have her endorsement.
The event will mark Cheney’s first appearance with Harris on the campaign trail. During her remarks, Harris plans to deliver a message that champions patriotism and the importance of putting country over party, the campaign official says, appealing to both Republican and independent voters who may feel alienated by Trump.
Harris will also highlight the historical significance of Ripon and the roots of the traditional GOP, emphasizing that while there may be differences in policy, her dedication to upholding the Constitution and fundamental American principles remains steadfast, according to the official. She also plans to denounce any calls to undermine the Constitution, asserting that those who threaten its integrity should be barred from holding office.
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Cheney, who represented Wyoming in Congress for six years before she lost in the GOP primary to a Trump-backed candidate, has emerged as one of the most prominent anti-Trump Republicans in the country, positioning herself as a leader of a growing faction of Republicans who reject Trump’s approach and seek to restore traditional conservative values. While in Congress, she co-chaired the House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, drawing Trump’s ire and straining her relationship with the far-right wing of her party.
“I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” Cheney said last month to students in North Carolina. “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Her father, former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, announced he would also be supporting Harris, calling it a duty to “put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution.”
Their support for Harris is echoed by a number of other Republicans who have chosen to endorse Harris over Trump, including former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, and more than 200 people who worked for President George W. Bush, former Arizona Sen. John McCain, and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. Romney and former Vice President Mike Pence have said they will not be voting for Trump.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
It’s a sleepy August morning when I meet husband-and-wife design duo Mafalda Muñoz and Gonzalo Machado at their gallery Machado-Muñoz in Madrid’s Justicia, the fashionable barrio with a similar feel to Manhattan’s West Village.
Muñoz and Machado met as teenagers in Madrid. Together for 16 years, they have been married for 11 and are parents to two children. They share a passion for design that was nurtured throughout their childhoods: Muñoz’s late father Paco established his design firm Casa & Jardin in 1951 (at its zenith it utilised the skills of more than 300 artisans) and eight years later founded the furniture company Darro. Many consider him to be the founder of modern Spanish design.
The gallery opened in May with a soft-launch party: it’s what Muñoz calls “an evolution” of the gallery of the same name the pair launched 10 years ago with a focus on contemporary design. The couple have a close, almost symbiotic connection, and there’s also a lot of laughter. “We are together on everything,” says Muñoz. “My parents used to work together too, so it was kind of natural.” The original gallery was about to move to a new city space when the Covid-19 pandemic struck and it was forced to close. But this did not stall the couple’s creative output, and their interior-design business Casa Muñoz has continued to thrive. Among its projects are the apartment of Spanish model Eugenia Silva, an Ibiza townhouse, the restaurant at the Fondation Beyeler art museum in Switzerland and the Casa Taberna hotel and restaurant in Pedraza, Spain, which is run by Muñoz’s half-sister, Samantha Vallejo-Nágera.
Reopening the gallery after a five-year hiatus has allowed the pair to reflect on their singular perspective. “We feel more mature now,” says Muñoz. Machado adds: “At the time, we were fascinated with the contemporary design world. We wanted to give a voice to Spanish design. Now we want to be without restriction.” The curation at their space spans 20th-century classical design, antiquities, art and objets. “We feel that this is the kind of gallery we would like to visit. A place where you can be amused by an artefact, an artwork or a piece of furniture,” says Machado. “It’s more about our point of view on the arts.”
The upholsterer we currently work with made my cradle
This flair is evident as we walk through the gallery, a peaceful, inspiring but very comfortable space. We sink into woven cord Audoux Minet armchairs to appreciate the Machado- and Muñoz-designed furniture, placed beside both originals and re-editions by Paco Muñoz. Beside us is a vintage Danish cabinet displaying handblown glass orbs and a simple lamp, which catches my eye. Muñoz explains its provenance: “It’s a very important lamp by Paul Dupré-Lafon that was designed for Hermès. It’s one of the few with the original parchment lampshade.” The couple see the gallery as a platform to source furnishings for their interiors projects. Muñoz continues: “We can buy things for the gallery that we can later use.”
The front half of the gallery is dedicated to rotating exhibitions. Currently displayed is the hand-carved work of Moisès Villèlia, the late Catalan sculptor known for experimenting with bamboo, and lighting by London-based designer Michael Anastassiades. His limited-edition piece from the Cheerfully Optimistic About the Future exhibition at the ICA in Milan works harmoniously with Villèlia’s mobile sculptures. “It’s different uses of the same material and we felt they work together incredibly well,” Muñoz explains.
Anastassiades refers to the pair as “passionate, absolute perfectionists”. Recalling his first meeting with them in 2015 when he was invited to participate in their inaugural exhibition, he says: “I knew from the start that what they intended to deliver was going to be of exceptional standard. We have continued to work together ever since.”
With the studio and gallery, the pair’s output is prolific: they juggle 10 or so interior projects at any one time. Their time is split between two offices, one in Madrid and the other in Gstaad, Switzerland. And they keep expanding their interests. They are currently working with Belgian lighting brand Authentage on a line of architectural lights. “And we want to do faucets next,” says Machado, hinting they also have interior work in the pipeline from Madison Avenue to Madrid.
The duo, however, bring their own talents to each project. Muñoz is a skilled interior architect, while Machado, who also studied interior design, is a successful photographer who honed his skills as an assistant for Mario Testino before establishing a career shooting editorial for magazines. He acts as the studio’s creative visualiser. “Gonzalo has special vision,” says Muñoz. “It’s super-intuitive and very impressive.”
“I’m always framing. It’s a disease,” laughs Machado, who enjoys work assignments but finds photographing his own work “torture”. His perfectionism means he sometimes refuses to release the images. Thankfully, Muñoz is more than understanding: “We think precision is one of the most important things when you create.”
Abrdn Adviser has today (3 October) announced the appointment of Derek Smith to the newly created role of chief technology & product officer.
The CTPO role will bring together Abrdn Adviser’s technology and product teams.
Smith will be responsible for executing the technology strategy and ensuring the continuous enhancement and scalability of the Abrdn Adviser business.
He will join in November from Morningstar Wealth, where he is currently chief technology officer, a role he has held for the past two years.
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His previous roles include head of engineering at Virgin Money and Lloyds Banking Group.
Smith’s appointment follows a busy few weeks on the recruitment front for Abrdn Adviser.
Last month, it announced that industry veteran Verona Kenny will join as chief distribution officer and Louise Williams as chief financial officer.
Abrdn Adviser CEO, Noel Butwell, said: “Our ambition is to deliver a market-leading proposition with exceptional client service and we’ve set out to create the best senior leadership team in the market to achieve this.
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“Technology is a critical enabler in realising our goals and aligning to continuously evolving customer needs, and Derek brings a wealth of experience to the role of chief technology & product officer.
“He will lead the implementation of our strategy and next phases of platform upgrades as we embark on our next stage of growth and evolution during a period of disruption and digital transformation in the market.”
Smith added: “I am thrilled to join Abrdn Adviser at such a pivotal time.
“My passion lies in leading the creation of innovative digital solutions and journeys that empower financial advisers to deliver high-quality, personalised service to their clients.
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“Together, we will build solutions with service excellence and interconnectivity at their heart, supporting advisers to navigate and thrive in the ever-evolving financial landscape with confidence.”
TOURIST attraction owners and hoteliers break their backs to get spotless reviews online, often go above and beyond to please demanding customers.
But it turns out all you really have to do is…. nothing. Because there’s a place in Wadhurst, East Sussex, with a faultless run of five-star reviews – called simply the ‘Magic Bench’.
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The ‘Magic Bench’ is located by Bewl Water and is tucked next to the bushesCredit: Katrina Turrill
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The bench doesn’t look too special, slightly weathered, but it’s in a prime spot for viewing the waterCredit: Katrina Turrill
The pictures online show an ordinary-looking bench, a memorial one, and one that’s perhaps seen better days.
But bizarrely, it has five stars on Google and gleaming reviews spanning back three years.
Is this a targeted campaign by a bunch of locals or an in-joke among mates? Quite possibly, but three years is an impressive length of time to keep a campaign going.
Someone who visited this year wrote: “The most magical bench I’ve ever sat upon. Beautiful view, lovely serene setting and magic all round!”
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They visited on a weekday, experienced no wait time, but did recommend reservation.
Other visitors wrote: “If sitting is your thing, then this bench is a must.”
Also: “A wonderful place! An absolutely magical view over the lake! The highlight in the UK.”
And: “Believe the hype! Truly magical!”
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Baffled by such positive words, I had to go check out the bench for myself, to see if it truly was magical or just an online hoax.
I live in a village named one of the best places to live in the UK
The bench can be found by Bewl Water – a location attraction which is a great place for walks or water activities.
The best way I found to get to the bench was to park at The Old Vine pub and to follow the track there leading down to the reservoir.
The walk takes about 20 minutes, and once you reach the circular track that goes around the water and start walking anti-clockwise, you’ll find a small opening between the bushes and trees.
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It was easy to find and a welcome sight after a tricky walk down in wellies.
I took a seat and waited to see if some ethereal feeling came over me.
It didn’t.
But with no other benches nearby, and after a fast-paced walk down to find it, it was a great place to perch and rest and admire the view.
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The bench is tucked in close to the bushes, so feels very much secluded.
And the view is amazing overlooking the still stretch of water, with nothing but the sound of birds and the wind rustling through the leaves…
Maybe this is what everyone meant when they described the bench as “magic”.
Whether the online reviews are a joke or actually real I think is yet to be determined.
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Nonetheless, if you’re looking for some beautiful walks and cosy pubs to warm up in this Autumn, I definitely recommend visiting Wadhurst – named ‘Best Place to live in the UK’ by The Sunday Times last year.
Equally great places near Wadhurst to visit
Tunbridge Wells
A 17 minute drive away from Wadhurst is Tunbridge Wells – the closest big town if you’re looking for more shops and restaurants. The Pantiles walkway is an iconic feature in the town, famous for its Georgian architecture and independent shops and restaurants.
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Hastings
Not far away is the seaside town of Hastings. You can hop on the train at Wadhurst and it’s at the end of the line (about 30 minutes away). Hastings’ medieval Old Town is a main attraction, with its narrow streets, antique shops, boutiques and cafes. The beach is pebbly, but the perfect place to sit down and enjoy some fish and chips.
Bodiam
Less than half an hour away is Bodiam, a small village but with a rather large castle. The castle is owned by the National Trust, and it another good place to head for an Autumn walk. If you’re looking for a bite to eat, there’s the Castle Inn across the road or The Hub @ Quarry Farm, which has the Kent & East Sussex Railway nearby.
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The bench offers incredible views of the water at Bewl Water and is a lovely quiet spotCredit: Katrina Turrill
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The bench is definitely a welcome place to rest after a long walkCredit: Katrina Turrill
The New York Times will this month begin drawing its popular podcasts behind its online subscriptions barrier.
Listeners will be able to pass through the paywall if they have a New York Times news, All Access or NYT Audio login. And for the first time it will also be possible to purchase an audio-only subscription directly through third-party hosting platforms.
New York Times head of subscription growth Ben Cotton told Press Gazette the launch hopes to find revenue in previously untapped audiences – and lure new subscribers into its All Access bundle.
“What we’ve seen is that we have millions of listeners who continue to engage with us exclusively on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or another third-party platform,” Cotton said.
“We see it as a natural evolution to extend subscription rules and offerings that we started to put in place on our own products to third-party platforms.”
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Thanks for subscribing.
The New York Times already has its own paywalled audio app, NYT Audio, which is accessible to anyone with an All Access or news subscription. A standalone subscription to NYT Audio is also available, Cotton said, but “it’s not something we’ve emphasised”.
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Anyone with a standalone NYT Audio subscription can use it to pass the Spotify and Apple Podcasts paywalls, and likewise anyone who buys a sub through the third-party platforms can use those same credentials for NYT Audio. Access through either route will cost $6 a month or $50 for a year.
To some extent, Cotton said, the new paywall will be a leap in the dark.
“People who are listening on other platforms – they are not authenticated with The New York Times in any way on those platforms, and so we don’t really have any way of knowing for sure how many of them are subscribers already. We expect there’s a meaningful number who are. And that’s not the goal of this program, but one interesting thing we will learn is how many of those people are already subscribers.”
He would not go into details on how many subscribers the NYT was targeting with the new paywall, but said: “We do have ambitious goals about the growth of new subscribers we’ll get from this… We expect to start and then be able to build over time.”
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What will be inside and outside the paywall?
The paywall, which does not yet have a public launch date, will not cover all NYT audio output. For always-on podcasts like flagship NYT news show The Daily or lifestyle feature Modern Love, the two or three most recent episodes will remain open to the non-paying public.
Similarly for old seasons of longform narrative podcasts like those made by Serial Productions, the first few episodes will be available outside the paywall as tasters. Each episode from new seasons, on the other hand, will be made available to subscribers earlier than non-subscribers, in an approach similar to that of audio-first newsroom Tortoise. Other enticements may include subscriber-only episodes across the portfolio.
New podcasts will not be paywalled, Cotton said, because they need “a chance to build up an audience”.
None of the above were strict rules, he added: “I’m trying to emphasise as much as I can that we expect that to be flexible – not because we’re not sure what to do, but because we naturally expect that we will learn things once we launch this and we’ll evolve.”
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NYT podcast subscription priced to ‘incentivise anybody who is interested in the bundle to give it a shot’
Cotton said podcasts are “quite important” as a funnel for getting new people into the NYT ecosystem.
“In some ways it’s one of our biggest bets and best opportunities for reaching new audiences that we might not be reaching in other ways.
“To some extent, that’s part of the job of each of the products in our portfolio – not just audio, but Games or Cooking or The Athletic…
“A critical part of that is having a subscription offering that speaks just to where they are right now, and if we require somebody to pay for all of The New York Times just to get access to the podcast they’re really passionate about now, we know that some people might not do that.”
There is a caveat there, however: canny prospective NYT podcast subscribers may notice that the monthly subscription price is 50% higher than the $4 a month it costs for a promotional (i.e. temporary) New York Times “All Access” sub, which grants access not only to the audio product but news on nytimes.com, Games, Cooking, The Athletic and consumer advice service Wirecutter.
Asked whether the audio paywall was intended as a new route to guide people into the bundle, Cotton said that was “consistent with what we do on Games or Cooking or The Athletic or anywhere else that we sell an individual, standalone subscription offering.
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“We have seen, more broadly, that the low introductory rate for All Access – that gives you a chance to come in at a low price and engage and sample across the bundle for a meaningful period of time – makes it much more likely that you will stick with us and will stick with us even when we raise your price up.
“So we do do that intentionally to try to incentivise anybody who is interested in the bundle to give it a shot. We’ve had success doing that on our other products, too, and I expect we can do that here.
“But we expect, as I was saying earlier, that some people will just be interested in continuing to listen to that podcast that they don’t have full access to anymore, or those few shows that they’re interested in, and so we we’ll give them a chance to start there and then hopefully upgrade to the full bundle over time…
“At first, the goal is just to make this program successful – that second part only comes if we get a lot of people subscribed to the audio to begin with.”
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Why is the New York Times podcast paywall launching now?
The Times is introducing the paywall now partially because its audio product is mature enough, Cotton said: “We have a fair amount of experience launching other subscription businesses, and what we look for is to try to build out an offering that can find an audience and then can deeply engage an audience.
“And once we’ve built up a deeply engaged audience and feel like we have made something that we’ve proven, that is strong enough that people will be willing to pay for, we want to actually go ahead and do that.”
But he added it was also happening now because “these particular platforms have made meaningful advancements in the way that their technology for people who want to sell subscriptions works. They’re in a much better place than when we might have talked about this a year or two or three ago.”
“We have a pretty high bar when we introduce a subscription offering anywhere for wanting that to feel like a seamless and high quality experience for our potential customers,” Cotton said. “We feel like the offerings on Apple Podcasts and Spotify meet that bar now.”
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our “Letters Page” blog
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