Philippines: Rights groups fear rollback of reproductive care

Many fear that the US move to overturn Roe v. Wade could curb tenuous rights gains in the Philippines. Abortion policies in the country are some of the most restrictive in the world.

In the Philippines, having an abortion is punishable with imprisonment —

 for both the pregnant person and medical provider

Women's rights advocates in the Philippines fear that the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States could also reverse precarious gains in reproductive and sexual health rights in the Southeast Asian country. The US ruling, which was made in 1973 and overturned in June, guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.

Many believe that the United States' approach to reproductive health care could set the stage for the Philippines. 

Abortion policies in the predominantly Catholic Philippines are among the most restrictive in the world, originally derived from the penal code under Spanish colonial rule. There are no clear exceptions even in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the pregnant person.

Meanwhile, having an abortion is punishable with imprisonment — for both the pregnant person and the medical provider. 

"There is nothing worse than our abortion policies. Those opposed to decriminalizing abortion will be emboldened to use the overturning of Roe v. Wade to sway public opinion," Marevic Parcon, executive director for Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR), told DW. 

WGNRR, together with the Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN), a coalition of non-government organizations, has been advocating for the decriminalization of abortion as well as an end to fines and imprisonment for pregnant people who seek abortions, and the medical providers who perform the procedure. 

A news report on the government website quoted Bishop Crispin Varquez, head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) as welcoming the overturning of the US ruling as a "piece of good news and one that is enlightened by the Holy Spirit."

Fears over limited access to birth control

Shebana Alqaseer, co-founder of the Young Feminist Collective, recalled the horror she felt when the US Supreme Court announced its decision to reverse the 1973 ruling, which granted a constitutional right to an abortion across the United States.

"If a country as free as the US continues to revert to archaic laws, what hope is left for us? Banning abortions won't stop them from happening. What it does is make abortion unsafe, putting people's lives at risk just for attempting to access the care they need," Alqaseer told DW.

Data compiled by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRC) shows that illegal and unsafe abortions in the Philippines increased from 560,000 in 2008 to up to 610,000 in 2012. Meanwhile, PINSAN estimates that three pregnant people die every day from complications related to unsafe abortions, often performed in unsanitary conditions and using outdated techniques. 

Limited access to birth control and reproductive health care put poor women, young women and those in rural areas at a higher risk of unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortions. 

Several domestic laws and policies allow women the right to receive health care for complications related to unsafe abortion. However, the abortion ban has stigmatized the procedure.

According to the CRC, pregnant people who seek post-abortion care are denied care or harassed and intimidated by health care workers who threaten to report them to the police.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), under proper health care guidelines and when performed by a skilled healthworker, abortion is "a simple and extremely safe procedure."

"Being able to obtain a safe abortion is a crucial part of health care," Craig Lissner, the WHO's acting director for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, said in a statement. An estimated 25 million unsafe abortions occur globally each year. 

In 2011, people in the Philippines took to the streets to call for a reproductive health care bill,

 but abortion restrictions in the country remain harsh.

Divided public opinion

April, a 48-year-old woman from Manila, is against abortion but would not pass judgment against women who need access to it. "I understand why women may need an abortion, but as someone who actually attempted abortion when I was younger, I'm glad my attempt failed," she told DW.

April, who asked that only her first name be used for privacy reasons, said that instead of abortion, reproductive health care services and birth control should be made more available to women. "For example, I asked my doctor to perform a tubal ligation on me, but she refused because of religious reasons." A tubal ligation prevents women from getting pregnant by closing a woman's fallopian tubes. 

Rom Dongeto, the chairperson of the Philippine Legislators' Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD) told DW that with the US poised to review other legislation related to birth control and same-sex marriage, gender rights advocates need to plan counter strategies. 

Dongeto's committee is also aiming to liberalize teen access to birth control through a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Bill. Under current laws, minors are unable to access contraceptives in government clinics without parental consent, even as teen pregnancies surge.

"It will be a more difficult battle from here on. We need to brace ourselves," he added. 

Edited by: Leah Carter

Monkeypox in kids is rare but infections can be serious

The number of children who've caught monkeypox is tiny compared to infections among adults. But at least four European countries have reported cases in kids.

The World Health Organization has named monkeypox a global emergency, 

the UN body's highest level of alert

Germany's health authority, the Robert Koch Institute, has reported the country's first case of monkeypox in a child (August 9, 2022).

The RKI says the case was detected in a 4-year-old girl living in a household with two infected adults in Pforzheim, a city in Germany's southwestern federal state of Baden-Württemberg.

The child was tested for monkeypox after a close contact in the household had fallen ill with it.

Baden-Württemberg's health ministry told DW that the child had had no close contacts outside the home and had not exhibited any symptoms.

Monkeypox in children outside Germany 

Other cases in children have been reported in the US, France, the Netherlands and Spain.

Globally, there are 25 cases in children aged four and younger, according to the World Health Organization.

In the next age bracket, up to 17 years, the WHO says monkeypox is relatively uncommon, with just 98 cases in the world among about 17,400 cases for which the patient's age is known.

Overall, there are an estimated 31,800 cases of monkeypox.

How monkeypox affects kids

There is little evidence from countries where monkeypox is non-endemic to understand how the virus could affect kids.

During a 2003 monkeypox outbreak in the US (which officials think could have been caused by human contact with prairie dogs), 28 people were reported to have been infected and only two experienced serious clinical illness — both were children. They recovered.

Aside from that, information about pediatric cases is sparse outside Africa, where monkeypox is endemic in at least eight countries. But studying how the illness affects kids in Africa can offer some potential insight.

Between 2001 and 2021, monkeypox death rates in the Central African Republic were higher in children than in adults: 9.6% of kids versus 5.2% of adults died, according to Paul Hunter, a professor of health protection at the Norwich Medical School in the UK. This information was shared at a WHO conference.

And during a 1985 outbreak in Zaire, death rates were highest among children aged four and under, at a rate of 14.9%, followed by 6.5% in kids aged 5-9 years, according to a study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. There were no deaths in kids aged 10 years and up.

"Children, especially children under 5, remain at higher risk of severe disease," said Hunter. "But we are seeing a much lower overall mortality in the current pandemic and I suspect a significant part of that is down to better access to health care."

Overall, Hunter said that although the risk of severe disease and death in very young children is indeed greater than in healthy adults, it will still be "quite a bit lower than we have seen in Africa in recent years."

Monkeypox cases in children are rare, with just 25 cases in kids under

 the age of four around the world (at time of writing)

The mysterious Dutch case

In late June 2022, researchers in the Netherlands were made aware of a monkeypox case in a 10-year-old boy.

The boy's illness was especially interesting given the fact that over the course of the global outbreak, which started in May, it hadn't been clear to researchers exactly how the virus spreads.

Although the overwhelming majority (over 98%) of reported cases are among men who have sex with men, research hasn't indicated that the virus is spread exclusively through semen or sexual contact.

Rather, most investigations have concluded that it is spread through very close contact with the lesions that monkeypox causes, or other bodily fluids from an infected person.

Investigators first confirmed that the boy had not experienced sexual abuse — as sexual contact is a means of transmitting monkeypox — and then tested the rest of the boy's family members for the virus.

All were negative, not only for the virus itself but also in serological testing, which would have shown whether the boy's case had been caused by a recent infection or a vaccination in another family member.

The researchers remained unable to figure out where, or how, the child had gotten infected.

According to study author Matthijs Welkers, the boy's infection was very mild. The boy developed around 20 of the virus's trademark "pocks" on his body.

"During his isolation period at home, he mainly was bored and really wanted to go back to school," Welks told DW. "After the three weeks [of isolation], the scabs of the lesions fell off and he [went] back to school."

A monkeypox vaccine for school kids and teachers

Now, with the start of a new school year rapidly approaching in many countries, some people are asking whether special precautions should be taken to protect kids and teachers, where kids learn and play in close contact all day.

There is good reason for it. Health department officials in the US state of Illinois reported a potential exposure to monkeypox in a daycare, where a teacher had tested positive in early August. None of the children had tested positive for the virus at time of writing, but American health officials are offering them the Jynneos vaccine — also known as the Imvanex vaccine as a precaution.

The Jynneos/Imvanex vaccine is being produced around the world to

 distribute to people at risk of catching monkeypox

Jynneos/Imvanex is the only vaccine approved to specifically treat monkeypox, although some countries are also using older vaccines designed to prevent smallpox.

And we can all use basic hygiene ideas, as we have during the COVID pandemic.

Health experts stress that people should wash their hands frequently — if you touch a contaminated surface, the virus can infect you if you touch your mouth, eyes or nose. And you should avoid extended skin-to-skin contact with people who suspect they could have been exposed to, or are confirmed to have, monkeypox.

Research doesn't show any evidence of airborne transmission of monkeypox, and surface transmission — although potentially possible — is less likely than transmission through skin-to-skin contact or contact with saliva, such as through kissing, for example.

So, bear that in mind and watch out for the symptoms:

The WHO says typical monkeypox symptoms include fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes. The rash, or "pocks", typically show up one to three days after the initial symptoms. 

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany

Germany: Rhine water levels expected to drop even further

Already critically low water levels in Germany's most important waterway could drop even lower next week. Shipping costs have climbed as much as five times as barges are forced to carry fewer goods.

 low water levels have increased the chance of a recession in Germany

Water levels are expected to keep dropping in the Rhine, a key shipping route for Germany

German authorities are bracing for further shipping disruptions due to low levels in busy waterways.

The Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) has forecast that water levels in the Rhine River will continue dropping until the beginning of next week.

BfG expert Bastian Klein told Germany's dpa press agency that shallow-draft barges can pass through the Middle Rhine in levels as low as 30 to 35 centimeters. But, by next week, levels at the Kaub gauge, the most important water level measurement station in the Middle Rhine, could slip to 30 centimeters, potentially bringing traffic to a standstill.

The Kaub gauge is located around 50 kilometers downstream from the city of Mainz. 

Fully loaded ships generally need a level of at least about 1.5 meters, but a persistent lack of rain and high temperatures have led to low water levels.

Barges on the Rhine — which carry critical supplies for German industrial giants and coal for power plants — are already being loaded at just one-quarter to one-half capacity, to keep them higher in the water. 

Boats are also in shorter supply than normal, due to increased demand for coal amid the energy crisis, and some ships being diverted to pick up Ukrainian grain via the Danube.

This has pushed up shipping costs by as much as five times, according to industry reports.

Normally covered by water, the banks of the Rhine grow larger in Cologne

Rerouted to rail

Germany's Transport and Economy Ministries are working to divert supply chains to rail, and are considering intervening to prioritize critical goods, a transport ministry spokesman told Reuters agency.

In 2018, even lower water levels led to production problems and supply bottlenecks for German companies.

Other rivers have faced similar problems, leading to problems for the tourist industry. For example, low water levels in the Weser, in Germany’s northwest, have led to the cancellation of tourist ferries.

And in Lake Constance, on the border with Switzerland and Austria, pleasure boats have been left stranded as water levels drop to lows not seen since 2003. 

Shipping issues may also affect the upcoming grain harvest in Germany, with the Raiffeisen Association telling public broadcaster SWR that storage areas in southern Germany are already full and the grain cannot be transported away in sufficient quantities.

To replace one barge, up to 40 trucks are required to carry the same load of grain.And the trucking industry has long complained of a shortage of drivers, a situation only exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Increased chance of recession

A study by British analysis firm Capital Economics released on Thursday found that the low water levels have increased the chance of a recession in Germany, potentially costing 0.2 percentage points of economic growth in the third and fourth quarters.

Capital Economics' chief economist Andrew Kenningham said Germany is particularly reliant on its rivers to transport freight, especially for industrial raw materials such as coal, crude oil, coke and basic chemicals. 

Separately, masses of dead fish were reported in the eastern Oder river. Reports from Brandenburg said several tons of dead fish washed up on the banks of the river in Brandenburg.

Water levels are currently low in the Oder, but authorities are investigating whether the river, which runs through Poland, was polluted. Workers dealing with the dead fish reported skin rashes from contact with the water.

aw/wmr (dpa, Reuters)

JOHN DILLENGER OF BEIRUT

Lebanese gunman holds bank staff hostage to access his savings

A crowd of protesters gathered outside the bank to support the gunman, with some hailing him as a hero. Lebanon is grappling with a severe economic crisis — the country's worst in modern history.

Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein said he wanted to withdraw his own savings to pay for his father's medical bills

A gunman who held 10 people hostage inside a Lebanese bank in order to access his own savings has turned himself into police on Thursday after an seven-hour standoff. Nobody was injured during the ordeal.

Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, a food-delivery driver, said he needed to withdraw his money to pay for his father's medical bills.

On Thursday, the 42-year-old entered a Federal Bank branch in Beirut with a shotgun and a jerrycan of gasoline. He had around $210,000 (€204,000) deposited there, according to his family.

Inside, Hussein held seven or eight staff hostage, plus two customers, and demanded access to his savings. One security source told the AFP news agency that he also poured the gasoline "all over the bank."

Bank withdrawals restricted

Lebanon is in the midst of a severe economic crisis — the country's worst in modern history. Essential goods are in short supply, while a plummeting local currency has led banks to impose tight restrictions on withdrawals.

Lenders have also prevented customers from transferring money overseas.

A crowd of anti-bank protesters gathered outside the branch to show support for the gunman

"What led us to this situation is the state's failure to resolve this economic crisis and the banks' and Central Bank's actions, where people can only retrieve some of their own money as if it's a weekly allowance,'' said Abou Zour, who is with the legal advocacy group the Depositors' Union is representing the gunman and his family.

"This has led to people taking matters into their own hands,'' he added.

Gunman hailed a 'hero'

Outside the bank, supporters of Hussein gathered to protest against the country's dire economic situation. Some even called him a hero.

"My brother is not a scoundrel. He is a decent man. He takes what he has from his own pocket to give to others,'' Hussein's brother Atef said during the standoff.

Hussein's wife, Mariam Chehadi, told reporters outside the bank that her husband "did what he had to do.''

Onlookers gathered for seven hours as the gunman negotiated with police

After hours of negotiations, Hussein's lawyer said he agreed to receive $35,000 of his savings and hand himself over to police.

"Similar incidents keep happening," said George al-Hajj, head of Lebanon's bank employee's union. "We need a radical solution."

"Depositors want their money, and unfortunately their anger explodes in the face of bank employees because they cannot reach the management," he added.

zc/jcg (AFP, AP, Reuters)

WAIT, WHAT?!

Finns say yes to nuclear waste

Finland is building the world's first permanent disposal site for nuclear waste. As Teri Schultz finds, there's no shortage of people wanting to be its neighbors.

She is somewhat shocked to be asked if she's concerned about environmental risks from the nuclear site, saying it had not occurred to her — "no, never!"

The Olkiluoto nuclear island near Eurajoki contains three reactors and the 

world's first permanent storage site for high-level radioactive waste

It's inconceivable to people in most parts of the world that anyone would actively want to live near a nuclear waste site. But in the western Finnish town of Eurajoki, there's no NIMBYism ("Not In My Backyard") as the municipality actually campaigned against other cities to have the disposal site located there, next to the existing Olkiluoto nuclear power plant.

Authorities determined that this area had best mix of a bedrock of public support and actual bedrock to become spent nuclear fuel's final resting place, almost half a kilometer underground.

Don't worry, be Finnish?

Mayor Vesa Lakaniemi explains that being home to three reactors and the repository — called Onkalo, which means "little cave" in Finnish — provides long-term security for his residents. Real-estate taxes from the nuclear site bring in about 20 million euros per year, almost half the municipality's annual revenue.

"That's how we can plan our future investments," Lakaniemi says. He gestures to the school that's just been renovated behind city hall and a large new library just across the parking lot, explaining that an eight-million euro sports facility is in the works. "When you have steady income, it's much easier to plan those those future investments. And of course, it's it's very big thing for us that we can also also have very good services for our inhabitants, schools and and health care."

Lakaniemi notes the particularly Finnish characteristic of citizens having high levels of trust in their authorities, but he emphasizes that's been earned here over the last four decades of incident-free nuclear plant management and extensive outreach by Olkiluoto to residents. In addition, he notes, the two decades of planning for the Onkalo repository did not start with politicians.

"First scientists and engineers and experts in that area figure out how it is secure to do final disposal," he explained. "After that came political decision-making and and I think that's the only right way to do it."

Tests of time

Johanna Hansen is one of those scientists. The geologist with Posiva, the waste-management company responsible for Onkalo, has been working on the project half her life. Deep in one of Onkalo's tunnels, Hansen marvels that this bedrock is two billion years old and explains that its stability is what made this location geophysically ideal for the site.

Posiva Communications Director Pasi Tuohimaa and Geologist Johanna Hansen 

check out progress in an Onkalo tunnel half a kilometer below ground.

Spent nuclear fuel from Finland's two power plants will be transported to the site, then transferred into steel canisters at the above-ground part of the facility. Those are put into copper capsules and lowered meters into the carved-out bedrock, where they are packed in bentonite, with the tunnel backfilled and sealed.

Hansen says while there's a lot of confidence already that the system is nearly ready to go, it will still be tested for the next couple of years to "ensure that also in the far future that there are no pathways to the surface. So this facility will store the canisters for 100,00 years."

With obvious pride, she adds, "It's of course nice to see that here in Finland we can show an example also for other countries."

Boost from Brussels

And there are more countries showing interest lately, due in part to the European Union's decision to designate nuclear power as a "green fuel” and to its increasing desire to reduce energy dependence on Russia as it wages war on Ukraine.

Pasi Tuohimaa, head of communications for Posiva, says the EU decision was important to help change other countries' views on nuclear power in general. The potential for a safe permanent solution for waste adds to the appeal. Sweden decided earlier this year to build a site based on the same principles as Onkalo. Tuohimaa expects others will follow suit, and said he's watching the polls move in Germany too.

"A lot of people say, 'okay, nuclear is good, but then you have this waste of used nuclear fuel,'" he explained. "What we are saying is that, no, that's not true. We do have the solution for that, and it's completely safe."

Finns flock just for fun

Of course, that's been an easy sell domestically for decades. "[Finnish] environmentalists already support nuclear power, which is quite remarkable," Tuohimaa said.

Thousands of Finns take a tour of the Olkiluoto nuclear facility every year.

It’s the region’s second most popular tourist site.

Far from being afraid, Finns come to the Olkiluoto power plant for tours. Heli Blomroos, whose family has a summer house nearby, brought her young son Juho, hoping to spark his interest in the nuclear industry as a career.

She is somewhat shocked to be asked if she's concerned about environmental risks from the nuclear site, saying it had not occurred to her — "no, never!"

Blomroos is confident authorities have taken all the necessary precautions. "I trust my fellow citizens. They are professionals in this — they can do it in a safe way," she said. "And it's the first one in the world so it's great!"

Edited by: Rob Mudge

ZIONIST WAR OF ETHNIC CLEANSING

Gaza and South Israel: How are people coping after the latest offensive?

Residents in southern Israel and Gaza are returning to their lives. But the situation remains volatile.



In Gaza, residents emerged from three days of airstrikes and artillery fire by the Israeli military

When the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Israel and militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Gaza came into effect late on Sunday night, relief set in at kibbutz Nirim in southern Israel, a few kilometers away from the Gaza Strip.

"By Sunday it got really difficult, because of the intensity, and the times between the alarms were really short," said Michal Rahav.

Together with her three children and two dogs, the 45-year-old Israeli spent three days sheltering in their safe room, a protected space in their one-story house. Sirens warning of incoming rockets or mortar shells from Gaza blared intensely. Some families had left the kibbutz at the beginning of the offensive, but Rahav and her family remained.

Standing in the safe room next to stacks of clothes and bedding, Rahav shared with DW how the family have frequently experienced similar situations in recent years. "It takes its toll. By 10 p.m. we were all agitated and we just wanted it to end."

Getting back to normal: Michal Rahav (right) and her children

Nearby, Adele Raemer walked DW around her house. "You don't get used to this. Nobody gets used to this, having zero to 10 seconds to run to a safe place," she said. She remembers when circumstances were different, such as in the 1980s, when her house was built by Gazans who came to work in Israel.

Operation Breaking Dawn

On August 5, Israel's military launched Operation Breaking Dawn with what it described as a preemptive airstrike that killed one of the PIJ's senior commanders in Gaza. Earlier the same week, Israel had received threats from the militant group after it arrested a PIJ senior leader in the occupied West Bank.

The escalation was the most serious since May 2021, when Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, fought an 11-day war. Israeli analysts believe that Hamas, while expressing support for PIJ, abstained from getting involved in the confrontation as they are still regrouping. On top of that, the analysts say, there is public and economic pressure not to get involved in another conflict.

Mobile bomb shelters are set up every few hundred meters. 

In places like Nirim, people have only seconds to seek shelter

PIJ fired an estimated 1,175 rockets mainly toward Israeli communities close to Gaza, and a few toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Around 200 stray rockets exploded inside Gaza, according to the Israeli military. The Israeli Defense Forces reported that the Iron Dome missile defense system had successfully intercepted 97% of PIJ's rockets.

Growing approval for Lapid

Israel's caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid, lauded the operation as successful and a decisive deterrent. Some analysts believe he could use it as leverage in his attempt to form the next coalition government after the election on November 2. Three opinion polls released by Israeli news channels on Monday showed his approval ratings were climbing.

"In Gaza this weekend, Lapid won the respect of many Israelis by taking the initiative instead of waiting for the other side to make a move and then respond," wrote Amir Tibon, a journalist with the Haaretz daily.

In the absence of a negotiated political solution, residents in Israel's south remain realistic. "It's not the end of it, definitely. This was a round with [Islamic] Jihad. We have a round with Hamas that's coming up sometime in the near future. It is just a plaster," said Rahav, sitting outside on her porch.

Devastation in the Gaza Strip

A few kilometers across the border in the Gaza Strip, residents emerged from three days of airstrikes and artillery fire by the Israeli military. Over three days, the military said it struck over 170 targets in the Gaza Strip.

The deep crater at the site of a bombing in the middle of his neighborhood, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, was an all too familiar sight for Mohammed Shaath. Here, a targeted airstrike killed a second PIJ senior commander on Saturday night. Two militants and five civilians, including a child, were also killed.

Picking up the pieces: Residents in Gaza City are slowly recovering from the clashes

"My life is wars. In 2008, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2022. I wish our life in this city could change," said Shaath, who is 24 and unemployed. "Most houses here have corrugated metal roofs, so there was a lot of damage obviously. All these wars have affected us so much."

Mahmoud, another youth who was helping to clear the rubble, echoed that sentiment. "Our life is full of wars. Economical, social, political wars, always wars, our daily life is war," he said. He hadn't slept for the past three days, trying to comfort his younger brothers who were scared from the sound of bombing.

"I just wish to be like other youths, to live in safety and feed my family. Normal life. It's a very simple dream," the 22-year old added.
Crippling restrictions in Gaza

The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 46 people were killed, among them militants and 16 children. That was confirmed by the The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 46 people were killed, among them 16 children, as well as militants. Over 360 people were injured, and according to the UN-OCHA, several hundred housing units were damaged. Islamic Jihad said 12 militants had been killed.

Residents of the small territory have experienced four wars and numerous shorter military escalations since Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group by the EU and the United States, seized power from the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Israel, and at times Egypt, have imposed a crippling closure on Gaza, limiting access to the territory via land, air and sea. This includes tight restrictions on the movement of most residents and the flow of goods.

While the rubble was being cleared once again in Gaza, Israel on Monday reopened its crossing points with the Strip and allowed the passage of fuel supplies and other humanitarian aid.

The territory's sole power plant was shut down during the conflict after it ran out of fuel on Saturday, cutting an already meager electricity supply during the summer heat. Thousands of Palestinian workers are expected to use the reopened Erez border crossing to resume work in Israel in the coming days.

"The situation of Gaza is indescribable — there are too many crises like the war a few days ago, too many losses. It is draining in all aspects," said Aya Malahi, a 24-year-old graduate in media studies from Gaza City. "There is no work. No one can create or build a future in Gaza."

Ayman Mghamis contributed reporting from Rafah and Gaza City.

Edited by: Rob Mudge

CHINA'S MIDDLE CLASS STRIKE

'Hopeless': Chinese homebuyers run out of patience with developers

Beiyi SEOW
Thu, August 11, 2022


Newly married and with his first child on the way, auto worker Wang wanted to move into the apartment he bought in Wuhan three years ago but those hopes were dashed by China's ballooning property crisis.

Saddled with $300,000 in debt and with his unit nowhere near completion, the 34-year-old decided he had had enough and stopped making mortgage payments.

He is among numerous homebuyers across dozens of cities in China who have boycotted payments over fears that their properties will not be completed by cash-strapped, debt-laden developers.

"They said construction would resume soon," Wang told AFP, only giving his surname. "But no workers showed up."


Beijing-based Wang was planning to start a family after purchasing the home.

"It wasn't easy for us to buy this home. It all came from my savings," said Wang.

"Now there's no home, and we still owe two million yuan ($300,000) in mortgage payments."

After years of explosive growth fuelled by easy access to loans, Chinese authorities launched a crackdown on excessive debt in 2020.


That squeezed financing options for property sector giants such as Evergrande, as they struggled to make repayments and restructure mountains of debt.

Now they are facing mortgage boycotts and government pressure to deliver pre-sold homes.

In Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, buyers such as Wang said they received multiple postponement notices on their apartments from developer Myhome Real Estate, months past the promised delivery date in late 2021.

The builder said in a notice this week that it had managed to release some frozen funds, adding that it expects to complete the Wuhan project in late 2022.

Wang said he stopped repayments this month, and that complaints to authorities in the city did not make a difference.

"There's no hope in life, carrying on with payments like this."
- 'Our hearts are cold' -

The "crisis of confidence" in China's housing market points to structural flaws, said Andrew Batson of Gavekal Dragonomics in a recent report.


Because of their heavy reliance on selling apartments in advance, developers pursued business models that exposed buyers to the risk of not getting their homes, he added.

As financially stressed firms halt construction on projects, "those risks have dramatically materialised".

The crisis has left homebuyers in limbo.

"I thought it would never happen," a Wuhan homebuyer surnamed Hu said of his unfinished home.

The 25-year-old said his family took out loans to help with the down payment for a three-room flat in 2018.

At that time, Wuhan was encouraging college graduates such as Hu to get household registrations in the city, he said.

Known as "hukou", these all-important government registrations allow access to healthcare and schools.

"Everyone was buying property back then... people were vying for it," he said.

Another young homebuyer Xue said almost all of his salary now goes to rent and mortgage payments.

"I don't want to pay any more," the 24-year-old said. "Our hearts are cold."

"It's not that we disregard the law or contracts, but this situation puts us under too much pressure."

Xue's family put down 800,000 yuan for the flat while he took on a 600,000 yuan loan that he has been repaying for two years.

Buyers in Wuhan told AFP there have been protests over unfinished pre-sold homes in the city.
- Vicious cycle -


Homebuyers in around 100 cities -- involving more than 300 housing projects -- have boycotted mortgage payments, according to a crowdsourced document named "WeNeedHome".

Many are in central Henan's provincial capital Zhengzhou, where authorities have set up a fund to help developers complete projects.

Other affected cities include Chongqing and Changsha.

There have also been allegations of financial mismanagement, and some cities have called on banks to tighten their oversight of escrow accounts, according to local media reports.

Nomura analysts estimate that Chinese developers have only delivered around 60 percent of homes they pre-sold between 2013 and 2020.

In those years, China's outstanding mortgage loans rose by 26.3 trillion yuan, Nomura added.

The property sector's woes were thrown into sharp relief last year when it emerged that Evergrande was having trouble repaying its creditors, sparking panic that the industry, which accounts for around a quarter of China's GDP, was on the brink of collapse.

Homebuyers' ability to make mortgage payments is not the main issue, said Oxford Economics lead economist Tommy Wu in a report.

But a loss of confidence in developers will worsen the real estate downturn, he added.

"The chance of a vicious cycle -- declining housing sales and prices, mounting developers' distress, and deteriorating local government finances -- developing is concerning."

Swiss mountain pass set to lose all ice within weeks

The pass between Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron in western Switzerland has been iced over since at least the Roman era.

The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will have melted away completely within a few weeks, a ski resort said Thursday.

Following a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate.

The pass between Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron has been iced over since at least the Roman era.

But as both glaciers have retreated, the bare rock of the ridge between the two is beginning to emerge—and will be completely ice-free before the summer is out.

"The pass will be entirely in the open air in a few weeks," the Glacier 3000 ski resort said in a statement.

While the ice measured around 15 meters (49.5 feet) thick in 2012, the ground underneath "will have completely resurfaced by the end of September".

The ridge is at an altitude of 2,800 meters in the Glacier 3000 ski domain and effectively marks the border between the Vaud and Wallis cantons in western Switzerland.

Skiers could glide over the top, from one glacier to the other, but now a strip of rock between them has emerged, with just the last remaining ice left.

Skiers could glide over the top from one glacier to the other. But now a strip of rock between them has emerged, with just the last remaining bit of ice left.

Glaciologist Mauro Fischer, a researcher at Bern University, said the loss of thickness of the glaciers in the region will be on average three times higher this year compared to the last 10 summers.Austrian scientists race to reveal melting glaciers' secrets

© 2022 AFP

Swiss Mountain Pass Ice to Melt Completely Within Weeks

Voice of America
12th August 2022,

GENEVA - The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will have melted away completely within a few weeks, a ski resort said Thursday.

Following a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate.

The pass between the Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron glaciers has been iced over since at least the Roman era.

But as both glaciers have retreated, the bare rock of the ridge between the two is beginning to emerge and will be completely ice-free before the summer is out.

'The pass will be entirely in the open air in a few weeks,' the Glacier 3000 ski resort said in a statement.

While the ice measured about 15 meters thick in 2012, the ground underneath 'will have completely resurfaced by the end of September.'

The ridge is at an altitude of 2,800 meters in the Glacier 3000 ski domain and effectively marks the border between the Vaud and Wallis cantons in western Switzerland.

Skiers could glide over the top from one glacier to the other. But now a strip of rock between them has emerged, with just the last remaining bit of ice left.

'No one has set foot here for over 2,000 years; that's very moving,' said Glacier 3000 chief executive Bernhard Tschannen.

The Scex Rouge glacier is likely to turn into a lake within the next 10 to 15 years. It should be about 10 meters deep with a volume of 250,000 cubic meters.

Covers have been put on sections of the Tsanfleuron glacier by the pass to protect them from the sun's melting rays.

Glaciologist Mauro Fischer, a researcher at Bern University, said the loss of thickness of the glaciers in the region will be on average three times higher this year compared with the past 10 summers.

Swiss mountain pass ice to melt completely within weeks

Issued on: 11/08/2022 -

Geneva (AFP) – The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will have melted away completely within a few weeks, a ski resort said Thursday.

Following a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate.

The pass between the Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron glaciers has been iced over since at least the Roman era.

But as both glaciers have retreated, the bare rock of the ridge between the two is beginning to emerge -- and will be completely ice-free before the summer is out.

"The pass will be entirely in the open air in a few weeks," the Glacier 3000 ski resort said in a statement.

While the ice measured around 15 metres (50 feet) thick in 2012, the ground underneath "will have completely resurfaced by the end of September".

Land unseen in centuries

The ridge is at an altitude of 2,800 metres in the Glacier 3000 ski domain and effectively marks the border between the Vaud and Wallis cantons in western Switzerland.

Skiers could glide over the top from one glacier to the other. But now a strip of rock between them has emerged, with just the last remaining bit of ice left.

"No-one has set foot here for over 2,000 years; that's very moving," said Glacier 3000 chief executive Bernhard Tschannen.

The Scex Rouge glacier is likely to turn into a lake within the next 10 to 15 years. It should be about 10 metres deep with a volume of 250,000 cubic metres (8.8 million cubic feet).

The ski resort is working out how to adapt to the new reality if people cannot ski between the two glaciers.#photo1

"We are planning to renew the facilities in this area in the coming years, and one idea would be to shift the route of the current chairlift to allow more direct access to the Tsanfleuron glacier," said Tschannen.

Covers have been put on sections of the Tsanfleuron glacier by the pass to protect them from the Sun's melting rays.

Glaciologist Mauro Fischer, a researcher at Bern University, said the loss of thickness of the glaciers in the region will be on average three times higher this year compared to the last 10 summers.

Bodies emerge from ice

The melting of the glaciers makes them more unstable, which makes them less viable for winter sports and hiking, but it also means that things buried in the ice for years -- even decades -- can re-emerge.

In the past two weeks, two human skeletons were found on glaciers in Wallis.

Work is underway to try to identify the remains. According to the Swiss news agency ATS, the Wallis police have a list of some 300 people who have gone missing since 1925.

In July 2017, the Tsanfleuron glacier turned up the bodies of a couple who disappeared in 1942.

The bones of three brothers who died in 1926 were found on the Aletsch glacier in June 2012.

And last week the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the Alps in 1968 was discovered on the Aletsch glacier.

The bodies of the three people on board were recovered at the time but the wreckage was not.

© 2022 AFP