AFP UK

Holding a V-shaped branch point down, David Sagouspe examines the cracked soil of a California farm. Under the blazing sun, he takes a breath and sets off, mechanically turning the branch five times towards the sky and five times towards the ground.

He stops, marks the spot with a pink flag and nods. “People would pay a lot of money for that strata right there,” he says, referring to underground water.

For more than 40 years, Sagouspe has worked as a dowser, also known as a “water witch,” offering to help the largest farmers in central California find groundwater. 

Proudly claiming to live in “America’s orchard” but desperate in the face of increasingly extreme droughts, farmers are turning to him more and more.

In order to find water in a region that severely lacks it, Sagouspe can’t use just any piece of wood. “Some people use willow, but it is too fast-reacting for me,” he says, as if it were obvious.

His tool of choice is a piece of olive wood, wrapped with black tape around the bottom, that he keeps on the dashboard of his white pickup truck.

“The stick, it becomes almost bonded to me,” he says. “When I witch from my truck, it starts tingling in my hands when i know there’s going to be water.”

– A ‘renegade’ –

Sagouspe swears he doesn’t use any tools, maps or geological surveys in his work. “I’m a renegade,” the 70-year-old says mischievously.

Instead, he bases his work on very precise knowledge of the region and the neighboring mountain range that irrigates the valley with water — when there is any. His father, who transferred this “energy” to him, also worked as a dowser in the area.

Sagouspe offers to “pass that energy down” to AFP, but without much success.

For each supposed water source that he marks with his little pink flags, Sagouspe makes $1,000.

During the severe drought in 2014, “I paid for my daughter’s wedding, I had so many people calling me,” he says. In 2021, with orchards parched, animals dehydrated and farmers panicked, he also stands to make record revenues.

Farmers who hire the dowser have no guarantee of actually finding water at the spots he marks. They then have to pay tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars to build wells and extract water — or come home empty-handed.

But they take that risk because specialized companies cost more, without necessarily being more precise, says Bikram Hundal, a farmer who in the past dug an expensive well nearly 900 feet (300 meters) deep without finding even a drop of water.

– ‘Successful’ –

During his first meeting with the dowser, Hundal — whose company packages 20 million pounds (nine million kilograms) of almonds per year — said he didn’t take Sagouspe seriously.

“Are we doing a probe, are we using a satellite?” Hundal, standing in the middle of his almond field, recalls asking. “He said, ‘No, I can feel the electromagnetic currents of the water.'”

“I was like, ‘This is BS,'” says Hundal, who has an engineering background.

But then…

“I’ve used him five times, and he’s been successful five times,” says Hundal.

– ‘Call me’ –

Experts bristle at such examples, arguing that if you dig deep enough, you can find a certain amount of water almost anywhere.

But it won’t necessarily be of high quality, and digging it up can endanger already fragile water tables.

“The dowser commonly implies that the spot indicated by the rod is the only one where water could be found, but this is not necessarily true,” warns the United States Geological Survey.

Sagouspe insists that the wand doesn’t lie. “Sure, you’re going to have your skeptics,” he says, shrugging.

“Until you have a ranch that is completely dry,” he adds, smiling. “Then, call me.”

Boeing delayed an uncrewed flight of its Starliner capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday over a propulsion issue, pushing back by at least a day a key test it last attempted in 2019.

The spaceship had been due to launch on an United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida early in the afternoon.

But just over two hours before lift-off, the company tweeted it was scrubbing the flight.

A statement by NASA said the test was canceled not because of inclement weather but “due to unexpected valve position indications in the Starliner propulsion system.” 

The next available launch opportunity is at 12:57 pm Eastern time (1657 GMT) on Wednesday, pending resolution of the problem.

“We’re disappointed with today’s outcome and the need to reschedule our Starliner launch,” said John Vollmer, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s commercial crew program.

“Boeing and NASA teams will take the time they need to ensure the safety and integrity of the spacecraft and the achievement of our mission objectives.”

The test flight was supposed to take place Friday but had to be rescheduled after a new Russian science module inadvertently fired its thrusters following docking with the ISS, pushing the orbital outpost off kilter. 

After NASA ended the Space Shuttle program in 2011, it gave both Boeing and SpaceX multi-billion dollar contracts to provide its astronauts with taxi services to the space station and end US reliance on Russian rockets for the journey.

SpaceX’s program has moved forward faster, having now undertaken three crewed missions. 

Boeing’s program is lagging behind, and needs to complete a successful uncrewed mission before it can carry astronauts.

During an initial uncrewed test flight in December 2019, the Starliner capsule experienced software glitches that caused problems with the way it fired its thrusters.

As a result, Starliner did not have enough fuel to reach the ISS and had to return to Earth prematurely, and a subsequent investigation showed it almost experienced a dire flight anomaly while reentering the atmosphere.

NASA later called the mission a “high visibility close call,” a rare designation reserved for near-catastrophes.

Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, told reporters last week he had confidence this time around. 

“We want it to go well, we expect it to go well, and we’ve done all the preparations we can possibly do,” he said.

“Starliner is a great vehicle, but we know how hard it is, and it’s a test flight as well and I fully expect we’ll learn something on this test flight.”

When it flies, the spacecraft will carry more than 400 pounds (180 kilograms) of cargo and crew supplies to the ISS and will return more than 550 pounds of cargo, including air tanks, when it lands in the western US desert at the end of its mission.

Hundreds of firefighters, water-bombing planes and helicopters battled forest fires near Athens on Tuesday that saw villages evacuated and part of a major motorway closed, officials said.

With the country reeling under a severe heatwave, a blaze spread at the foot of Mount Parnitha, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Athens, sending thick smoke over the city.

The fire service said about 300 people had to be evacuated because of the approaching flames. Police reported helping 70 people to escape from homes threatened by fire.

“Our priority is to save lives hence the decision to evacuate villagers,” Civil Protection Minister Michalis Chryssohoidis told reporters in the evening.

Local media reported dozens of children had been rescued from a holiday camp near the Athens suburb of Varympompi, while the motorway linking the capital with the north and south of the country was cut for safety reasons.

The fire brigade said seven water-bombing aircraft, five helicopters, 70 fire trucks and more than 500 firefighters were battling the flames in a zone that includes the former Greek royal family’s summer palace of Tatoi and several monasteries.

“There was no wind,” one resident told the Open TV channel. “How come the firemen couldn’t quickly extinguish the blaze?”

NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo said he had called off a planned meeting with fans in his home suburb of Sepolia Tuesday evening because of the fires.

“We hope there are no casualties. Obviously we have postponed the party in Sepolia,” the Greek-Nigerian tweeted.

Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias listed 40 active fires on Tuesday.

– ‘Coming hours decisive’

“We are facing extreme conditions with temperatures around 45 degrees Centigrade (113 Fahrenheit),” he said.

“The coming hours will be decisive. The heatwave will last, we are asking people to remain vigilant.”

Experts have warned climate change is increasing both the frequency and intensity of the wildfires.

“We are facing the worst heatwave since 1987,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said this week.

In the southern Peloponnese region, 300 kms from the capital, three villages were evacuated after a fire started Tuesday afternoon.

And on the Aegean island of Kos, firefighters were also tackling a blaze.

More than 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of pine and olive were burned out by a fire that erupted Saturday near the city of Patras, 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Athens. It was brought under control on Monday.

A blaze on the Greek island of Rhodes, near the Turkish coast, has been burning since Sunday with firefighters struggling to gain the upper hand.

Turkey is suffering its worst fires in at least a decade, claiming the lives of eight people and forcing hundreds to evacuate in southern areas popular with tourists.

Roaring blazes encircled a Turkish thermal power plant Tuesday and forced farmers to herd panicked cattle toward the sea, as wildfires that have killed eight people raged for a seventh day.

The nation of 84 million has been transfixed in horror as the most destructive wildfires in generations erase pristine forests and rich farmland across swaths of Turkey’s Mediterranean and Aegean coasts.

Tourists have been forced to escape on boats for safety and dozens of villages have been evacuated as wild winds and soaring heat fan the flames.

An AFP team in the Aegean city of Hisaronu saw farmers pulling their screaming animals out of burning barns and shepherding them to the relative safety of the beach.

“The fire happened in an instant,” local farmer Mevlut Tarim said after managing to pull some of his panicked herd through pitch-black smoke and patches of burning turf encircling his farm.

“One of my cows died. It burned,” he added. “I had never seen anything like it. You can’t even call it a fire. It was really like a bomb.”

– Blazes across the region –

Officials in neighbouring Greece have blamed two blazes on the island of Rhodes and the Peloponnese peninsula on a record heatwave they link to climate change.

Hundreds of firefighters, water-bombing planes and helicopters were battling forest fires near Athens, that have already forced the evacuation of villages and closed a section of the main motorway there.

In south and central Albania, a heatwave sparked dozens of forest fires over the last week, with the first death reported on Tuesday.

A 64-year-old man died and his wife was seriously injured when they were trapped by a forest fire around their home in the southern region of Gjirokastra, near the Greek border, said police. 

Police and soldiers in the region began evacuating three villages there, and at least 500 soldiers, firefighters and three helicopters were fighting fires in the southern Albanian region of Vlora.

Italy and Spain have also had to battle recent forest fires. And in northern Europe, Finland has been battling its worst blaze in half a century.

– Power station threatened –

Temperatures higher than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Farenheit) across the south of Turkey have set off a record surge in electricity use that caused power outages Monday in cities such as Ankara and Istanbul.

But Muhammet Tokat, mayor of the Aegean coast city of Milas, said he was more worried about an uncontrolled fire threatening the local thermal power plant.

Tokat posted an increasingly urgent series of tweets showing the blazes spreading up a hill toward the presumed location of the plant.

He later reported briefing Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu on the unfolding crisis before sheltering with other local officials by the beach.

– Anger at Erdogan –

Tokat is a member of Turkey’s main opposition party and one of a growing chorus of voices critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s response to the disaster.

Erdogan came in for a torrent of abuse and ridicule on social media for tossing out bags of tea to confused locals while visiting the affected region under heavy police escort last weekend.

He also tweeted a message of thanks to “all friendly countries” after being criticised for being slow or unwilling to accept foreign offers of help.

Many Turks turn to social media for news after a crackdown that followed a failed 2016 coup against Erdogan saw top TV channels and newspapers fall under government influence.

Erdogan’s media aide Fahrettin Altun warned that “information spread on social media platforms, instant messaging groups and forums is fake news” designed to make Turkey look weak.

And HaberTurk television released a letter from the media regulator telling broadcasters they might be fined if they continue airing live footage of the fires and running stories “that provoke fear and worries in the public”.

The government said Tuesday it had contained 147 fires and was still fighting nine.

Turkey’s defence and interior ministers said they were mobilising their forces to help firefighters.

But the mayor of Milas suggested help was arriving too late.

“It was obvious that this would happen,” he tweeted as the fire neared the power plant. “I am going to cry in anger.”

Hundreds of firefighters, water-bombing planes and helicopters battled forest fires near Athens on Tuesday that saw villages evacuated and part of a major motorway closed, officials said.

With the country reeling under a severe heatwave, a blaze spread at the foot of Mount Parnitha, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Athens, sending thick smoke over the city.

The fire service said about 300 people had to be evacuated because of the approaching flames. Police reported helping 70 people to escape from homes threatened by fire.

“Our priority is to save lives hence the decision to evacuate villagers,” Civil Protection Minister Michalis Chryssohoidis told reporters in the evening.

Local media reported dozens of children had been rescued from a holiday camp near the Athens suburb of Varympompi, while the motorway linking the capital with the north and south of the country was cut for safety reasons.

The fire brigade said seven water-bombing aircraft, five helicopters, 70 fire trucks and more than 500 firefighters were battling the flames in a zone that includes the former Greek royal family’s summer palace of Tatoi and several monasteries.

“There was no wind,” one resident told the Open TV channel. “How come the firemen couldn’t quickly extinguish the blaze?”

NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo said he had called off a planned meeting with fans in his home suburb of Sepolia Tuesday evening because of the fires.

“We hope there are no casualties. Obviously we have postponed the party in Sepolia,” the Greek-Nigerian tweeted.

Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias listed 40 active fires on Tuesday.

– ‘Coming hours decisive’

“We are facing extreme conditions with temperatures around 45 degrees Centigrade (113 Fahrenheit),” he said.

“The coming hours will be decisive. The heatwave will last, we are asking people to remain vigilant.”

Experts have warned climate change is increasing both the frequency and intensity of the wildfires.

“We are facing the worst heatwave since 1987,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said this week.

In the southern Peloponnese region, 300 kms from the capital, three villages were evacuated after a fire started Tuesday afternoon.

And on the Aegean island of Kos, firefighters were also tackling a blaze.

More than 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of pine and olive were burned out by a fire that erupted Saturday near the city of Patras, 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Athens. It was brought under control on Monday.

A blaze on the Greek island of Rhodes, near the Turkish coast, has been burning since Sunday with firefighters struggling to gain the upper hand.

Turkey is suffering its worst fires in at least a decade, claiming the lives of eight people and forcing hundreds to evacuate in southern areas popular with tourists.

Boeing delayed an uncrewed flight of its Starliner capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday over a propulsion issue, pushing back by at least a day a key test it last attempted in 2019.

The spaceship had been due to launch on an United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida early in the afternoon.

But just over two hours before lift-off, the company tweeted it was scrubbing the flight.

A statement by NASA said the test was canceled not because of inclement weather but “due to unexpected valve position indications in the Starliner propulsion system.” 

The next available launch opportunity is at 12:57 pm Eastern time (1657 GMT) on Wednesday, pending resolution of the problem.

“We’re disappointed with today’s outcome and the need to reschedule our Starliner launch,” said John Vollmer, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s commercial crew program.

“Boeing and NASA teams will take the time they need to ensure the safety and integrity of the spacecraft and the achievement of our mission objectives.”

The test flight was supposed to take place Friday but had to be rescheduled after a new Russian science module inadvertently fired its thrusters following docking with the ISS, pushing the orbital outpost off kilter. 

After NASA ended the Space Shuttle program in 2011, it gave both Boeing and SpaceX multi-billion dollar contracts to provide its astronauts with taxi services to the space station and end US reliance on Russian rockets for the journey.

SpaceX’s program has moved forward faster, having now undertaken three crewed missions. 

Boeing’s program is lagging behind, and needs to complete a successful uncrewed mission before it can carry astronauts.

During an initial uncrewed test flight in December 2019, the Starliner capsule experienced software glitches that caused problems with the way it fired its thrusters.

As a result, Starliner did not have enough fuel to reach the ISS and had to return to Earth prematurely, and a subsequent investigation showed it almost experienced a dire flight anomaly while reentering the atmosphere.

NASA later called the mission a “high visibility close call,” a rare designation reserved for near-catastrophes.

Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, told reporters last week he had confidence this time around. 

“We want it to go well, we expect it to go well, and we’ve done all the preparations we can possibly do,” he said.

“Starliner is a great vehicle, but we know how hard it is, and it’s a test flight as well and I fully expect we’ll learn something on this test flight.”

When it flies, the spacecraft will carry more than 400 pounds (180 kilograms) of cargo and crew supplies to the ISS and will return more than 550 pounds of cargo, including air tanks, when it lands in the western US desert at the end of its mission.

A polar bear in Greenland may be shot dead next time it endangers people after several close encounters, including one where it bit the hand of a documentary team member, authorities said.

The attack on the documentary team near an army base comes as the autonomous Danish Arctic territory experiences a record heatwave and as polar bears wander further for food.

Early on Monday, while the sun does not set in summer at this latitude, the bear poked his head through a poorly closed window of a research station where the documentary team was staying about 400 metres from the small base of Daneborg.

A Danish Artic military unit based in Greenland said the bear bit the hand of one of the three male team members before they used warning pistols to force the animal to flee.

Transported first to Daneborg, the injured documentary maker had to be evacuated to Akureyri, a town in Iceland.

Already blamed for five incidents until now, the bear returned again later in the morning and then again overnight Monday to Tuesday when it broke a window of the research station before fleeing.

“The local authorities have from now on categorised the bear as ‘problematic,’ which allows for it to be shot dead, if it returns,” the Danish military unit said.

The incident comes as the northeast of Greenland experiences a heatwave, with a new record temperature of 23.4 degrees Celsius (74.2 Fahrenheit). 

Experts say the retreat of the ice pack, the hunting ground of the polar bear, forces them to stay on land more often and they find it harder to find food and sustain a species already considered vulnerable.

Although still rare, the close encounters with humans are increasing as bears more frequently approach inhabited areas in their search for food, environmental protection officers say.

A study that appeared in July 2020 in the publication Nature Climate Change warned that polar bears faced extinction around 2100. They currently number around 25,000 individuals.

A polar bear in Greenland may be shot dead next time it endangers people after several close encounters, including one where it bit the hand of a documentary team member, authorities said.

The attack on the documentary team near an army base comes as the autonomous Danish Arctic territory experiences a record heatwave and as polar bears wander further for food.

Early on Monday, while the sun does not set in summer at this latitude, the bear poked his head through a poorly closed window of a research station where the documentary team was staying about 400 metres from the small base of Daneborg.

A Danish Artic military unit based in Greenland said the bear bit the hand of one of the three male team members before they used warning pistols to force the animal to flee.

Transported first to Daneborg, the injured documentary maker had to be evacuated to Akureyri, a town in Iceland.

Already blamed for five incidents until now, the bear returned again later in the morning and then again overnight Monday to Tuesday when it broke a window of the research station before fleeing.

“The local authorities have from now on categorised the bear as ‘problematic,’ which allows for it to be shot dead, if it returns,” the Danish military unit said.

The incident comes as the northeast of Greenland experiences a heatwave, with a new record temperature of 23.4 degrees Celsius (74.2 Fahrenheit). 

Experts say the retreat of the ice pack, the hunting ground of the polar bear, forces them to stay on land more often and they find it harder to find food and sustain a species already considered vulnerable.

Although still rare, the close encounters with humans are increasing as bears more frequently approach inhabited areas in their search for food, environmental protection officers say.

A study that appeared in July 2020 in the publication Nature Climate Change warned that polar bears faced extinction around 2100. They currently number around 25,000 individuals.

A forest fire broke out on Tuesday cutting a section of the main motorway linking Athens to northern and southern Greece, officials said, as the nation reels under a severe heatwave.

The civil protection service issued warnings to residents to be on the alert as the blaze spread at the foot of Mount Parnitha, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the capital.

The fire service advised some people living in the area to evacuate as the flames neared buildings.

Local media reported dozens of children had been evacuated from a holiday camp near the Athens suburb of Varympompi.

The fire brigade said five helicopters, five water-bombing aircraft, 70 fire trucks and 350 firemen were fighting the flames in the zone that includes the former Greek royal family’s summer palace of Tatoi and several monasteries.

In the southern Peloponnese region, 300 kms from the capital, three villages were evacuated after a fire started Tuesday afternoon.

And on the Aegean island of Kos, firefighters were also tackling a blaze — one of about 50 the authorities reported in the past 24 hours.

“We are facing the worst heatwave since 1987,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said this week.

Experts have warned climate change was increasing both the frequency and intensity of the wildfires.

More than 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of pine and olive were torched by a fire that broke out on Saturday near the city of Patras, 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of Athens. It was brought under control on Monday.

Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias announced there had been 1,584 fires across Greece in July compared to 953 in 2019, with 116 new blazes in just the previous 24 hours.

Temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) have been forecast for this week.

A fire on the Greek island of Rhodes, near the Turkish coast, has been burning since Sunday with firefighters struggling to gain the upper hand.

Turkey is suffering its worst fires in at least a decade, claiming the lives of eight people and forcing hundreds to evacuate in southern areas popular with tourists.

Boeing delayed an uncrewed flight of its Starliner capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday over a propulsion issue, pushing back a key test it last attempted in 2019.

The spaceship had been due to launch on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida early in the afternoon.

But just over two hours before lift-off, the company tweeted it was scrubbing the flight.

A statement by NASA said the test was canceled not because of inclement weather but “due to unexpected valve position indications in the Starliner propulsion system.” The next available launch opportunity is at 12:57 pm Eastern time (1657 GMT) on Wednesday, pending resolution of the problem.

The test flight was supposed to take place Friday but had to be rescheduled after a new Russian science module inadvertently fired its thrusters following docking with the ISS, pushing the orbital outpost off kilter. 

After NASA ended the Space Shuttle program in 2011, it gave both Boeing and SpaceX multi-billion dollar contracts to provide its astronauts with taxi services to the space station and end US reliance on Russian rockets for the journey.

SpaceX’s program has moved forward faster, having now undertaken three crewed missions. 

Boeing’s program is lagging behind. During an initial uncrewed test flight in December 2019, the Starliner capsule experienced software glitches that caused problems with the way it fired its thrusters.

As a result, Starliner did not have enough fuel to reach the ISS and had to return to Earth prematurely, and a subsequent investigation showed it almost experienced a dire flight anomaly while reentering the atmosphere.

NASA later called the mission a “high visibility close call,” a rare designation reserved for near-catastrophes.

Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program, told reporters last week he had confidence this time around. 

“We want it to go well, we expect it to go well, and we’ve done all the preparations we can possibly do,” he said.

“Starliner is a great vehicle, but we know how hard it is, and it’s a test flight as well and I fully expect we’ll learn something on this test flight.”

When it flies, the spacecraft will carry more than 400 pounds (180 kilograms) of cargo and crew supplies to the ISS and will return more than 550 pounds of cargo, including air tanks, when it lands in the western US desert at the end of its mission.