TDG

‘Why are they being hush-hush?’ Ohio villagers anxious, enraged after toxic train spill

Issued on: 16/02/2023 -

Residents of an Ohio village upended by a freight train derailment packed a gymnasium demanding reassurances after toxic chemicals spilled and burned in a huge plume over their homes and businesses.

“I have three grandbabies,” said Kathy Dyke, who came with hundreds of her neighbors to a meeting Wednesday where representatives of Norfolk Southern were conspicuously absent. “Are they going to grow up here in five years and have cancer?”

State officials insisted yet again that testing shows the air is safe to breathe around East Palestine, where just under 5,000 people live near the Pennsylvania state line. They promised that air and water monitoring would continue.

Many who had waited in a long line snaking outside the gym came away frustrated that they didn't hear anything new. Some booed or laughed each time they heard the village mayor or state health director assure them that lingering odors from the the huge plumes of smoke aren't dangerous and the water is fine to drink.

In the nearly two weeks since the derailment forced evacuations, residents have complained about suffering from headaches and irritated eyes and finding their cars and lawns covered in soot. The hazardous chemicals that spilled from the train killed thousands of fish, and residents have talked about finding dying or sick pets and wildlife.

With the community in the national spotlight, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan prepared to visit Thursday to assess the ongoing response and hear from residents.

Those attending Wednesday's informational session, originally billed as a town hall meeting, had many questions over health hazards, and demanded more transparency from the railroad operator, which did not attend, citing safety concerns for its staff.

“They just danced around the questions a lot," said Danielle Deal, who lives a few miles from the derailment site. “Norfolk needed to be here.”

In a statement, Norfolk Southern said it didn't attend alongside local, state and federal officials because of a “growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event."

Deal called that a “copout." She and her two children left home to stay with her mother, 13 miles (20 kilometers) away “and we could still see the mushroom cloud, plain as day,” she said.

Even with school back in session and trains rolling again, the people remain worried.

“Why are they being hush-hush?" Dyke said of the railroad. “They’re not out here supporting, they’re not out here answering questions. For three days we didn’t even know what was on the train."

The hundreds of families who evacuated said they want assistance figuring out how to get the financial help the railroad has offered. Beyond that, they want to know whether the railroad will be held responsible.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost advised Norfolk Southern on Wednesday that his office is considering legal action.

“The pollution, which continues to contaminate the area around East Palestine, created a nuisance, damage to natural resources and caused environmental harm,” Yost said in a letter to the company.

Norfolk Southern announced Tuesday that it is creating a $1 million fund to help the community of some 4,700 people while continuing remediation work, including removing spilled contaminants from the ground and streams and monitoring air quality. It also will expand how many residents can be reimbursed for their evacuation costs, covering the entire village and surrounding area.

“We will be judged by our actions," Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw said in a statement that also said the company is "cleaning up the site in an environmentally responsible way.”

At least five lawsuits have been filed against the railroad and attorneys from several firms met with dozens of residents this week at an information session to offer advice.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday asked the White House for on-the-ground help from a federal health and emergency response team and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

No one was injured when about 50 cars derailed in a fiery, mangled mess on the outskirts of East Palestine on Feb. 3. As fears grew about a potential explosion, officials seeking to avoid an uncontrolled blast had the area evacuated and opted to release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five rail cars, sending flames and black smoke billowing into the sky again.

The state’s Environmental Protection Agency said the latest tests show five wells supplying the village’s drinking water are free from contaminants, but recommended testing private water wells that are closer to the surface.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates spilled contaminants affected more than 7 miles (11 kilometers) of streams and killed some 3,500 fish, mostly small ones such as minnows and darters. Precautions are being taken to ensure contaminants that reached the Ohio River don’t make it into drinking water, officials said.

There have been anecdotal reports that pets or livestock have been sickened. No related animal deaths have been confirmed, state officials said, but that confirmation would require necropsies and lab work.

The suspected cause of the derailment is a mechanical issue with a rail car axle. The National Transportation Safety Board said it has video appearing to show a wheel bearing overheating just beforehand. The NTSB expects to issue its preliminary report in about two weeks.

Misinformation and exaggerations spread online, and state and federal officials have repeatedly offered assurances that air monitoring hasn't detected any remaining concerns. Even low levels of contaminants that aren’t considered hazardous can create lingering odors or symptoms such as headaches, Ohio’s health director said Tuesday.

(AP)

EPA seeks to calm fears over toxic chemicals in Ohio train derailment

Environmental Protection Agency administrator visits site as rail operator Norfolk Southern faces 'potential liability' over incident









Michael Regan, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, sought on Thursday to quell mounting frustration with the Biden administration's response to a freight train derailment that unleashed toxic chemicals in eastern Ohio earlier this month, vowing in a visit to the site to “be here as long as it takes to ensure the health and safety of this community”.

“EPA will exercise our oversight and our enforcement authority under the law to be sure we’re getting the result that the community deserves,” Mr Regan said in a news conference in East Palestine, Ohio, following meetings with local officials and residents.

“We are absolutely going to hold Norfolk Southern Corp accountable — and I can promise you that.”

READ MORE
More chemicals found at site of Ohio train derailment

The EPA already notified Norfolk Southern of its “potential liability” to pay for clean-up and the agency’s response costs under federal law.

Monitoring so far shows the air does not contain hazardous levels of chemicals, Mr Regan said, including vinyl chloride that was vented from one rail car in a controlled release on February 5.

Indoor air screenings are available to local residents, and round-the-clock monitoring of the air and water also will continue.

President Joe Biden's administration and state officials have come under scrutiny amid lingering odours, reports of animal deaths and continued complaints of headaches and other ailments potentially tied to the hazardous chemical release in the community near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.

Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, lashed out on Thursday, calling Mr Regan’s visit overdue.

“While I am glad EPA Administrator Regan will visit the site today, it is unacceptable that it took nearly two weeks for a senior administration official to show up,” Mr Manchin said in a news release.

Updated: February 16, 2023

Erin Brockovich: Ohio 'community is left to fend for themselves' on toxic train risk

Climate, ice sheets & sea level: the news is not good

by Marlowe HOOD

Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have shed more than half-a-trillion tonnes 

annually since 2000 -- six icy Olympic pools every second.

Parts of Earth's ice sheets that could lift global oceans by meters will likely crumble with another half degree Celsius of warming, and are fragile in ways not previously understood, according to new research.

The risk, which will play out over centuries, may also be greater than expected for a significant portion of the world's population in coastal regions.

New research suggests that the number of people threatened by sea level rise has been underestimated by tens of millions because of poorly-interpreted satellite data and a lack of scientific resources in developing countries.

Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have shed more than half-a-trillion metric tons annually since 2000—six icy Olympic pools every second.

These kilometers-thick ice cubes have replaced glacier melt as the single biggest source of sea level rise, which has accelerated three-fold over the last decades compared to most of the 20th century.

A 20 centimeters increase since 1900 has boosted the destructive wallop of ocean storms made more powerful and wide-ranging by global warming, and is driving salt water into populous, low-lying agricultural deltas across Asia and Africa.

Up to now, climate models have underestimated how much ice sheets will add to future sea level rise because they mostly looked at the one-way impact of rising air temperatures on the ice, and not the complicated interaction between atmosphere, oceans, ice sheet and ice shelves.

Using so-called active ice sheet models, scientists from South Korea and the US projected how much ice sheets would raise global oceans by 2150 under three emissions scenarios: swift and deep cuts as called for by the UN's IPCC advisory panel, current climate policies, and a steep increase in carbon pollution.

Looking only at a 2100 horizon is misleading, because oceans will continue to rise for hundreds of years no matter how quickly humanity draws down emissions.

If rising temperatures—up 1.2C above preindustrial levels so far—can be capped at 1.5C, the additional impact of ice sheets will remain very small, they found.

The number of people threatened by sea level rise has been underestimated by tens of 

millions.

Doomsday glacier

But under current policies, including national carbon-cutting pledges under the 2015 Paris Agreement, Greenland and Antarctica would add about half-a-meter to the global watermark.

And if emissions increase—from human or natural sources—under a "worst case" scenario, enough ice would melt to lift oceans 1.4 meters.

Perhaps the most striking finding from the study, published this week in Nature Communications, was a red line for runaway ice-sheet disintegration.

"Our model has a threshold between 1.5C and 2C of warming—with 1.8C as a best estimate—for acceleration of ice loss and sea level increase," co-author Fabian Schloesser from the University of Hawaii, told AFP.

Scientists have long known that the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets—which together could lift oceans 13 meters—have "tipping points" beyond which complete disintegration is inevitable, whether in centuries or millennia. But pinpointing these temperature trip wires has remained elusive.

A pair of studies this week in Nature, meanwhile, showed that Antarctica's Thwaites "doomsday glacier"—a slab the size of Britain sliding toward the sea—is fracturing in unsuspected ways.

Thwaites is one of the fastest moving glaciers on the continent, and has retreated 14 kilometers since the 1990s. Much of it is below sea level and susceptible to irreversible ice loss.

But exactly what is driving the march to the sea has been unclear for lack of data.

Change in sea levels since 1993 and forecast rise up to 2023.

Misinterpreted data

An international expedition of British and US scientists drilled a hole the depth of two Eiffel towers (600 meters) through the thick tongue of ice Thwaites has pushed out over the Southern Ocean's Amundsen Sea.

Using sensors and an underwater robot, called Icefin, threaded through the hole, they examined the ice shelf's hidden underbelly.

There was less melting than expected in some places, but far more in others.

The stunned scientists discovered up-side-down staircase formations—like an underwater Escher drawing—with accelerated erosion, along with long fissures being forced open by sea water.

"Warm water is getting into the cracks, helping wear down the glacier at its weakest point," said Britney Schmidt, lead author of one of the studies and an associate professor at Cornell University in New York.

A fourth study, published last week in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth's Future, found that rising oceans will destroy farmland, ruin water supplies and uproot millions of people sooner than thought.

"The time available to prepare for increased exposure to flooding may be considerably less than assumed to date," Dutch researchers Ronald Vernimmen and Aljosja Hooijer concluded.

The new analysis shows that a given amount of sea level rise—whether 30 or 300 centimeters—will devastate twice the area projected in most models to date.

Remarkably, a misinterpretation of data is mostly to blame: radar measurements of coastal elevations used until recently, it turned out, often mistook tree canopy and rooftops for ground level, adding meters of elevation that were not in fact there.

Most vulnerable will be tens of millions of people in the coastal areas of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Thailand, Nigeria and Vietnam.

Earlier research taking into account more accurate elevation readings found that areas currently home to 300 million people will be vulnerable by mid-century to flooding made worse by climate change, no matter how aggressively emissions are reduced.

Journal information: Nature Communications , Earth's Future

© 2023 AFP

Runaway W. Antarctic ice sheet collapse not 'inevitable': study

Colombia mulls proposal to benefit repentant narcos

Issued on: 16/02/2023 

Bogotá (AFP) – Colombia's government on Thursday said it would submit a bill to parliament offering reduced sentences and other benefits to drug traffickers who quit and compensate victims.

Drug traffickers who cease their activities would see their prison sentences limited to between six and eight years.

It is part of leftist President Gustavo Petro's "total peace" strategy to end more than half a century of armed conflict involving radical left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitaries, drug traffickers and the security forces.

"These criminal organizations must acknowledge responsibility, tell victims the truth, dismantle criminal apparatus, hand over hostages, recruited children, weapons, inventories of assets, drug trafficking routes, money laundering mechanisms, say who their collaborators are and if this happens then they can submit themselves to justice," legislator Alirio Uribe, who coauthored the bill, told Blu Radio.

The bill was to be submitted later in the day to a government assessment body that reviews criminal policy before an expected debate in Congress at a later date.

Among the other benefits the government is offering to repentant drug traffickers is keeping up to six percent of their ill-gotten gains.

"After their prison sentences they would have an additional period of four years ... a type of conditional release with reparative activities for victims," said Justice Minister Nestor Osuna.

The offer would be open to nonpolitical hierarchical armed groups, but not to those considered political or belligerent.

It would not include, for example, the National Liberation Army (ELN) Marxist guerrillas, with whom the government has restarted peace negotiations that stalled under the government of conservative Ivan Duque.

Petro has blasted Duque's "failed" antidrug trafficking policies, which were far more bellicose, and says he wants to focus on dissuading drug consumption in developed countries.

Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine, with the United States its main market.

Discovery of tsetse fly mating behavior may help curb sleeping sickness

Issued on: 16/02/2023 -

Washington (AFP) – Researchers have identified chemicals in tsetse flies that control their mating behavior, a discovery that may well aid the fight against the disease-causing insects in sub-Saharan Africa.

"It could be used in traps to make them more effective in trapping tsetse flies," said John Carlson, a biology professor at Yale University and one of the authors of a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

Trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, is caused by parasites transmitted by the tsetse fly. It affects humans and domestic animals.

The disease threatens millions of people in dozens of countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Animal trypanosomiasis, known as Nagana, kills some three million cattle each year, an annual cost of $1.2 billion, according to a companion article in Science.

It is considered a major cause of rural poverty and the authors warned that the geographic range of the tsetse fly is expected to grow as a result of climate change.

For the study, the researchers focused on pheromones, chemical compounds an animal releases that affect the behavior of others of the same species.

Pheromones allow insects to identify each other in an environment where there are potentially thousands of other species.

The Yale researchers identified volatile sex pheromones that had not previously been isolated in tsetse flies despite more than a century of study.

Pheromones are currently used to control a wide variety of other insect pests such as moths.

Pantry moths, for example, can be caught using sticky traps baited with a plastic disc soaked with an attractive pheromone.

'The flies stop moving'

For the study, the researchers soaked tsetse flies in liquid and then used a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer to identify specific chemicals.

A child looks away as a health worker draws blood in a screening for African trypanosomiasis, also known as sleeping sickness, in a village in Ivory Coast © ISSOUF SANOGO / AFP/File

One of them, methyl palmitoleate (MPO), acted as an aphrodisiac, attracting male tsetse flies.

In tests, male tsetse flies were attracted to decoys -- knots in yarn doused with MPO -- and, unusually, to females of another tsetse fly species.

Olfactory neurons on the antennae of the flies were found to increase their firing rates in response to MPO.

"Not only is MPO an attractant, but it causes tsetse flies to freeze -- the flies stop moving," Carlson said.

Current traps for tsetse flies use animal odors but MPO tends to last longer and could "enhance the effectiveness of traps," he said.

Carlson said field tests using MPO were getting underway in Kenya.

The type of pheromone identified in the study may not be effective against all types of tsetse flies, however.

The study focused on the species Glossina morsitans, a major vector of the disease in cattle, not on Glossina fuscipes, which causes the most human cases of the disease.

But Carlson said he was optimistic that the research methods used could lead to identifying pheromones from other tsetse species.

© 2023 AFP

'Abandoned': Turkish town awaits help 11 days after quake

"There is no state. We are all volunteers," potato peeler Seal Yuves said.

Issued on: 16/02/2023 

Samandag (Turkey) (AFP) – Dozens of arms frantically reach for heaters and blankets handed out by a private donor, illustrating the desperation and rage gripping swathes of Turkey 11 days after its disastrous quake.

Many in the Syrian border region town of Samandag listened to their relatives and friends slowly die under the rubble as they waited for rescuers who came too late.

And those who survived the February 6 disaster have been living on the streets, freezing when the winter temperatures plunge after dark.

Hasan Irmak saw five family members -- including his six-year-old daughter Belinda -- buried under his flattened house.

"She was alive for two days," the 57-year-old said of his daughter.

"I was talking to her in the ruins. Then she lost all her energy. On the third day, she was dead. Help arrived on the fourth."

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pushed back hard against accusations that his government floundered in its response to Turkey's deadliest natural disaster of modern times.

The 7.8-magnitude tremor and its aftershocks have claimed the lives of more than 36,000 people in southeastern Turkey and nearly 3,700 in Syria.

Survival

Erdogan has admitted to some initial "shortcomings" that he blamed on stormy weather and quake-damaged airports and roads.

But he has also argued that he has now mobilised the full force of the state to help millions of victims who were left either homeless or displaced.

Samandag's much bigger neighbour Antakya -- an ancient city of nearly 500,000 people that was almost completely destroyed -- is starting to receive its first shipments of government aid.

Survivors in quake-hit Samandag have been relying on private donations instead of state help © BULENT KILIC / AFP

But the people of 40,000-strong Samandag have been fending for themselves and accepting handouts from private campaign drives.

Hasan survived, but since the first pre-dawn tremor he feels he is not really living.

"We have no water, no toilets, no medicine, no doctors. I have been wearing the same clothes for eleven days," he said.

He buried his relatives without anyone's help. Some of the survivors have been living in a small metal cabin that Hasan built himself.

"I have 25 liras left ($1.35) for my family," Hasan said. "The government said they would help us financially. But nothing came."

'Third-class citizen'

Semir Ayranci's house in Samandag survived seemingly unscathed.

But the government is barring people across quake-stricken regions from moving back into surviving buildings until proper assessments are made.

This has forced Ayranci and his 23 relatives to move into a tent on an adjacent plot of land. They eat whatever well-wishers ferry in by truck.

Ayranci bitterly compares himself to a "third-class citizen".

"All these distributions are private initiatives. We have been abandoned by the state," he said.

Yet this sense of solitude has prompted many to pull together and start helping each other out any way they can.

The February 6 tremor has become Turkey's deadliest natural disaster of modern times © Ozan KOSE / AFP

One baker used an appeal on social media to secure huge supplies of flour. He is now working hard to provide free bread.

A steamroller was levelling ground before installing mobile homes and tents provided by a generous donor.

And four women were peeling potatoes for a neighbourhood soup kitchen.

"There is no state. We are all volunteers," potato peeler Seal Yuves said.

"Eleven days have already passed," said the 44-year-old. "It's terrible."

© 2023 AFP

UN launches $1 billion appeal to help Turkey earthquake victims

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

The United Nations launched an appeal for $1 billion Thursday to help victims in Turkey of last week's catastrophic earthquake that killed thousands of people and left millions more in desperate need of aid.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the funds would provide humanitarian relief for three months to 5.2 million people.

The money would "allow aid organizations to rapidly scale up vital support," including in the areas of food security, protection, education, water and shelter, he added.

"The needs are enormous, people are suffering and there's no time to lose," Guterres implored.

"I urge the international community to step up and fully fund this critical effort in response to one of the biggest natural disasters of our times."

The 7.8-magnitude tremor early on February 6 has killed more than 35,000 people in southeast Turkey, with several thousand more losing their lives across the border in Syria.

More than 9 million people in Turkey have been directly impacted by the disaster, according to Ankara.

Turkey's people have experienced "unspeakable heartache," the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said in a separate statement announcing the flash appeal.

"We must stand with them in their darkest hour and ensure they receive the support they need," added Griffiths, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

OCHA said in its statement that hundreds of thousands of people, including small children and elderly people, are without access to shelter, food, water, heaters and medical care in freezing temperatures.

It added that some 47,000 buildings have been destroyed or damaged across Turkey, with thousands of people having sought refuge in temporary shelters.

The UN is delivering hot meals, food, tents, warm winter clothing, blankets, mattresses, kitchen sets and medical supplies to affected areas, OCHA said.

On Tuesday, the UN launched a $397 million appeal to help quake victims in Syria.

The United Nations earlier provided $50 million to relief efforts through its central emergency response fund.

UN appeals for 1 billion dollars to help earthquake victims

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

01:56
Video by:Catherine VIETTE

The United Nations has launched a fund drive for the more than 5 million directly impacted by last week's earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. The world body calling for donors to deliver one billion dollars. The appeal coming as Nato's secretary general prepared to tour quake-stricken areas of southern Turkey. FRANCE 24's Catherine Viette tells us more.

Earthquake in Turkey, Syria: NATO's worst natural disaster

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

02:08© france 24
Video by:Shona BHATTACHARYYA

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has described the powerful earthquakes that struck Turkey ten days ago as the military alliance's worst natural disaster. The NATO chief added that the alliance will be setting up temporary housing for thousands of people displaced by the quake while also using its airlifting capabilities to transport tens of thousands of tents. Listen to his speech at a joint news conference with the Turkish Foreign Minister in Ankara and to FRANCE 24's correspondent Shona Bhattacharyya who reports from Istanbul.

Turkey quake tests Erdogan's all-powerful rule

Fulya Ozerkan with Burcin Gercek in Ankara
Thu, February 16, 2023 


When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assumed sweeping powers in 2018, he swore the state would deliver more under a centralised system that his critics compare to one-man rule.

Five years on, an agonisingly slow response to a catastrophic quake has undermined that idea, boosting the opposition's case in polls planned for May, experts say.

Erdogan has acknowledged "shortcomings" in the government's handling of Turkey's deadliest disaster of its post-Ottoman history.

More than 36,000 people have died in Turkey and nearly 3,700 in neighbouring Syria. The toll is expected to keep climbing for days to come.

Under pressure like at few points in his two-decade rule, Erdogan blamed obstacles such as freezing temperatures and quake-damaged airports and roads.

No government in the world could have done better, Erdogan said.

The opposition counters that the February 6 quake underlines why Turkey must switch back to a parliamentary system under which agencies have more freedom to act on their own.

"You have centralisation in all Turkish institutions, which is reflected in institutions that specifically should not have it," such as the disaster agency, said Hetav Rojan, a disaster management expert who follows Turkey closely.

- 'Critical hours' -

Rojan argued that the system, which Erdogan secured through a constitutional referendum in 2017, had hamstrung disaster response agencies that need to make snap decisions on their own.

Help took days to arrive in many areas, with distressed residents forced to use their bare hands to try and pull relatives from the rubble.

Others were left without water, food or shelter in freezing temperatures.

Many volunteers who rushed to the region shared on social media how they were forced to wait for authorisations or how equipment was slow to arrive.

The government has since dispatched tens of thousands of soldiers to the scene, reinforcing support for millions of people left homeless by a 7.8-magnitude quake.

But many are still fuming at the initial delay.

The main opposition leader, who is running neck-and-neck with Erdogan in opinion polls, has spearheaded the criticism.

"There wasn't any coordination. They were late in the critical hours," Kemal Kilicdaroglu thundered this week.

"Their incompetence cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of our citizens."

- Unseemly arguments -

For example, it was impossible for crane operators -- who offered critical assistance to rescuers -- to be deployed without the disaster agency's approval.

This cost crucial time, Erdogan's critics say.

Others point to unseemly arguments between state agencies and independent rescue and relief workers on the ground.

AFP journalists witnessed disputes between volunteers and AFAD state disaster responders in Elbistan, near the epicentre of a huge aftershock in Turkey's southeast.

"We started working on this rubble even though the disaster agency discouraged us from it," a volunteer, who did not wish to be named for fear of retribution, told AFP.

"When we finally heard the voice of a survivor, AFAD teams pulled us away and took over our work," he added.

Murat, 48, waiting for news of his loved ones under the rubble in Kahramanmaras, witnessed similar scenes.

"When miners discovered a person alive under the rubble, they were pushed away and people who wanted to appear on camera took their place," he said, also fearing to disclose his last name.

- Controlling the narrative -

Even a non-profit group run by rock star Haluk Levent, as well as opposition-run municipalities that sent in their own rescue teams, have provoked the government's ire.

"The necessary actions will be taken against anyone that tries to rival the state," threatened Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.

"The (ruling party) government and its institutions are really trying to control the narrative of the current rescue management," Rojan said.

An advertising campaign, called "disaster of the century", had been prepared by an agency close to the government, Turkish media reported.

The aim, critics say, was to convince Turks that any shortcoming is because of the gigantic size of the disaster -- that no one could handle such a catastrophe.

In the face of a public outcry, the campaign was withdrawn.

For Rojan, it's still "too soon" to see if the government's narrative will work.

"It is definitely a political test for Erdogan with upcoming elections," he said.

fo-bg/raz/zak/bp

‘A political quake as well’: Will Turkey’s calamity rattle Erdogan’s rule?

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 
Text by: Pierre AYAD

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared last week’s earthquake the deadliest catastrophe since the country’s inception a century ago. With elections on the horizon and anger at the government rising, FRANCE 24 spoke to political analyst Taha Ouda Oglo about the calamity’s possible implications for Turkish politics and the country’s longtime ruler.

Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power on the heels of the 1999 quake that killed more than 17,000 people and displaced countless more. The new government pledged change, promising that Turkey would be ready for the next quake.

However, this was not the case.

Last week’s disaster exposed a collapse of Ankara’s response capabilities to a natural event of this magnitude. It also left in shambles Erdogan’s rhetoric following the 1999 quake, as promises to make the country quake-proof were not kept. With tens of thousands dead and millions more wounded, homeless or lacking basic facilities, coupled with a possible loss of 1% of the country’s GDP in a time of economic crisis, the calamity has proven to be the worst disaster to face Turkey in its modern history.

With general elections due in May and Erdogan's own future on the line, FRANCE 24 spoke to Turkish political analyst Taha Ouda Oglo about the political repercussions of Turkey's devastating earthquake.

FRANCE 24: The region stricken by the quake has traditionally favoured Erdogan's party at the polls. Is there a specific reason why?

There is a reason why people in this region vote for the AKP. On top of a large population of ethnic Turks, the region is also home to many Kurds who tend to have more conservative views than Kurds elsewhere. This has helped sustain support for the party even as tensions have risen between the government and the Kurdish community.

Erdogan and other government officials have made numerous trips to the area ahead of the elections. Lots of pro-AKP rallies were held there before the earthquake as the region has historically been a large reservoir of votes for the ruling party. That being said, the situation has changed dramatically since the earthquake as anger and despair grip the region. At the moment, supporting the AKP is the least of these people’s concerns.

FRANCE 24: How could the earthquake affect Erdogan's image and that of his party, both in stricken areas and the broader country?

Erdogan and his government benefited from a broadly positive image before the quake as several efforts were directed to improve the economy. This made Erdogan confident enough to seek an early general election in May. The AKP was hoping to capitalise on economic progress to ensure its re-election. However, after this unforeseeable calamity, all bets are off.

The people in quake-stricken areas are now resentful. They feel that money was used to revamp Istanbul’s infrastructure and make it quake-resistant but that nothing was allocated to the regions where the disaster actually hit.

Moreover, there is an admission of guilt by the government, which acknowledged failings in its response to the disaster. But there is more to it. The government did not hold people accountable over buildings with glaring code violations. At the moment, the authorities are arresting many contractors responsible for building deficient structures, but this isn’t enough.

Across Turkey, people are asking what happened to money that was earmarked to upgrading the country's infrastructure. They are asking why the authorities failed to enforce modern construction codes and turned a blind eye to code violations. (...) The fact that Turkey is now relying on international help, including from countries Ankara doesn't get along with, has only increased the people's anger and the country's sense of helplessness.

FRANCE 24: What impact could this have on the May elections, assuming they take place?

This is not just an earthquake; it's a political quake as well. The opposition will definitely use this as ammunition against the government. On the other hand, the authorities are now in a race against time to do what good they can ahead of the elections to ensure their political survival.

There is talk of postponing the elections until June – or even later if the government cannot get out of this situation. We have no idea, it is too soon to tell. What is certain is that the government is in a very tight spot not just because of the earthquake and the ensuing human tragedy, but also because of its electability. We will have a clearer picture within the coming weeks, when the full scope of this catastrophe becomes apparent. But at the moment, the people are angry and sad, and no one wants to think about the political implications.

Syria quake survivors battle cold in tents and vehicles

A Syrian family has sheltered inside a small truck since the deadly February 6 earthquake hit Turkey and Syria - Rami al SAYED

by RAMI AL-SAYED
February 16, 2023 — Jindayris (Syria) (AFP)

Since the earthquake destroyed her home, Syrian teacher Suzanne Abdallah has lived in a small truck crammed with her family members, just a stone's throw from where their house stood.

"Ten of us pile into this truck. We sleep sitting up," said the 42-year-old, wearing multiple layers of clothes and a wooled scarf wrapped around her head against the biting winter cold.

Her infant boy was sleeping in a makeshift hammock made from a blanket that was swinging from the packed vehicle's roof, as seven other children were sharing a basic breakfast inside.

"Conditions are difficult, especially as I have a toddler," said Abdallah. "I woke up this morning and found his hands were extremely cold, so I put him in the sun to warm him.

"We want a shelter; we need help for the sake of the little children."

Abdallah and her family are among several million Syrians made homeless, according to UN estimates, by the 7.8-magnitude quake that also devastated vast areas of Turkey.

More than 40,000 people were killed across the two countries by the February 6 disaster that flattened entire districts, including in Abdallah's home city of Jindayris on the Turkish border.

Syria's people have endured more than a decade of brutal civil war, and many fled to the rebel-held Idlib province from other regions now under the control of President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Survivors of the powerful quake have since huddled in whatever places they could find, many sleeping in tents and vehicles, others huddling around fires outside.

- 'Lives are tragic' -

Abdallah's father-in-law turned his vehicle into a makeshift home for his sons and their families, covering the top of the truck with blankets and rugs for added insulation.


"Living in a car is difficult; we are two households," Abdallah told AFP.

Around here, much of the district has been reduced to rubble, from which rescuers from the White Helmets group recovered more than 500 bodies.

Jindayris is among the cities worst-hit by the quake that killed more than 3,600 people across five Syrian provinces, claiming the highest death tolls in Idlib and Aleppo.

Families here have slept in schools, mosques and displacement camps or in basic shelters built in open spaces such as olive groves and public squares.

Across the town, the families of retired employee Abdelrahman Haji Ahmed and his neighbours now live in makeshift tents pitched in the middle of their demolished street.

At night, the women and children huddle inside them, under tattered plastic sheets and blankets, while Ahmed and the other men sleep under the stars.

"There is no electricity, no water, no sanitation," he told AFP, his ruined former home behind him. "The lives of all the families are tragic."

Ahmed held his little daughter, watched on by other children, and said that right now all his family needs is "one or two tents so that the families can rest.

"Then we will see what to do next, but this is what we ask for now," he added. "We are not thinking about the future. The situation we are in now does not allow it."

- 'No longer tolerable' -

Some international aid has arrived in the region, including in truck convoys that crossed the Turkish borders, but many here remain in desperate need.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says shelters are among the top priority needs, along with emergency food, heating and hygiene facilities.

The UN children's agency UNICEF stresses the urgent need for "access to safe drinking water and sanitation services, which are critical in preventing illness" following the quake.

In another camp, on the outskirts of Jindayris, 63-year-old Khawthar al-Shaqi now lives with her daughter and grandchildren after spending the first four nights in the open.

"We took refuge in the camp where we could find a shelter," said Shaqi, who years ago fled her home city of Homs and says she now lacks the means to meet even their most basic needs.

"We cannot afford to buy a bottle of water or clothes," she said as the little children played outside the tent. "If we want to go to the city, we do not have transportation or money."

"Conditions are no longer tolerable and we don't know what to do with the children. Here we are sitting in the cold... We have nothing but God's mercy."

Syria's Assad thanks 'Arab brothers' for quake aid

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 20:50Modified: 16/02/2023 - 20:48


Damascus (AFP) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday thanked his "Arab brothers" for aid supplied following last week's deadly earthquake, that saw countries in the region break with years of diplomatic silence.

The 7.8-magnitude quake hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, leaving a combined death toll of nearly 40,000 people.

Since then, Assad has received calls from the leaders of several Arab countries, including those that cut off ties with Syria over a decade ago over bloodshed during its civil war.

Some 120 planes laden with assistance have also landed in the country's airports, about half of them from the United Arab Emirates, which restored ties with Syria in late 2018.

"We cannot overlook expressing thanks to all the countries that stood by us since the first hours of the disaster from among our Arab brothers and our friends," Assad said, during a televised speech Thursday.

"Their aid had a major impact on enhancing our ability to confront the difficult conditions at critical hours," he continued.

At least 3,600 Syrians died in the quake, which came nearly 12 years into the country's civil war -- that has devastated swathes of the country, killed nearly half a million people and displaced millions more.

"The size of the catastrophe and the tasks that fall upon us are much greater than the available capacities," Assad said, adding that the country would continue to face deep social and economic challenges for years to come.

Aid efforts to Syria have been led by the UAE, which has been at the forefront of moves to break Damascus's isolation and bring it back into the Arab fold.

But the disaster also saw Saudi Arabia send two planes carrying aid to Syria since Tuesday -- a first in more than a decade.

Assad has also met the foreign ministers of the UAE and Jordan in Damascus, as well as receiving calls from the leaders of Egypt, Bahrain and Jordan.

© 2023 AFP

Ten deadliest quakes of the past 100 years

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

Paris (AFP) – With the estimated death toll still mounting, the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 is among the 10 deadliest of the past 100 years, with over 41,000 dead as of Friday.

- 1976: 242,000 dead, China -

A quake measuring 7.8, according to the Chinee authorities, (7.5 according to the US Geological Survey), strikes near the industrial city of Tangshan in northeastern Hebei province. The official death toll is given as 242,000 but is believed to be significantly higher.

Western experts put the toll as high as 700,000, which would make it the second most deadly in the history of mankind, after the huge 1556 disaster that struck northern Shaanxi province, with estimates of the toll put at more than 830,000 people.

2004: 230,000 dead, southeast Asia

On December 26, 2004, a massive 9.1-magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that kills more than 230,000 people throughout the region, including 170,000 in Indonesia alone.

Waves 30 metres (100 feet) high, travelling at 700 kilometres per hour (435 miles per hour), swallow everything in their path.

2010: 200,000 dead, Haiti

A magnitude 7 quake on January 12, 2010, devastates the capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region.

The quake cuts the country off from the rest of the world for 24 hours, killing over 200,000 people, leaving 1.5 million homeless and shattering much of Haiti's frail infrastructure.

In October the same year, Haiti is also hit by a cholera epidemic introduced by Nepalese peacekeepers who arrived after the quake. It kills more than 10,000 people.

1923: 142,000 dead, Japan

On September 1, 1923, two minutes before noon, a 7.9-quake shakes Kanto in Japan. More than 142,000 people die in the earthquake and resulting fire, which destroys Tokyo.

1948: 110,000 dead, Turkmenistan

On October 5, 1948, at least 110,000 people are killed in a 7.3-quake in and around Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, which at the time was part of the Soviet Union.

2008: 87,000 dead, Sichuan

More than 87,000 people, including 5,335 school pupils, are left dead or missing when a 7.9-magnitude quake strikes China's southwestern Sichuan province on May 12, 2008.

The quake causes outrage after it emerges that 7,000 schools were badly damaged, triggering accusations of shoddy construction, corner-cutting and possible corruption, especially as many other buildings nearby held firm.

2005: 73,000 dead, Kashmir

An earthquake on October 8, 2005, kills more than 73,000 people, most in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and the Pakistani-administered zone of Kashmir.

A further 3.5 million are displaced.

1932: 70,000 dead, China

On December 25, 1932, a 7.9-magnitude quake kills around 70,000 in Gansu province, in northwest China.

1970: 67,000 dead, Peru

On May 31, 1970, a 7.9-magnitude quake off Peru's north coast leaves some 67,000 dead, many in the mountain city of Huaraz that was buried by a mudslide.

2023: already 41,000 dead, Turkey and Syria

On February 6, a 7.8-magnitude quake strikes near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.

The biggest quake in Turkey in nearly a century, which is followed by a 7.5-magnitude tremor, reduces entire neighbourhoods of cities in southeastern Turkey and the north of war-ravaged Syria to rubble.

On February 17, officials and medics said 38,044 people had died in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria, bringing the confirmed total to 41,732.

© 2023 AFP

Spanish lawmakers give final approval to Europe's first 'menstrual leave' law

Issued on: 16/02/2023 - 

01:36

Text by: NEWS WIRES|
Video by: Sarah MORRIS

Spanish lawmakers on Thursday gave final approval to a law granting paid medical leave to women suffering severe period pain, becoming the first European country to advance 

The law, which passed by 185 votes in favour to 154 against, is aimed at breaking a taboo on the subject, the government has said.

Menstrual leave is currently offered only in a small number of countries across the globe, among them Japan, Indonesia and Zambia.

"It is a historic day for feminist progress," Equality Minister Irene Montero tweeted ahead of the vote.

The legislation entitles workers experiencing period pain to as much time off as they need, with the state social security system – not employers – picking up the tab for the sick leave.

As with paid leave for other health reasons, a doctor must approve the temporary medical incapacity.

The length of sick leave that doctors will be able to grant to women suffering from painful periods has not been specified in the law.

About a third of women who menstruate suffer from severe pain, according to the Spanish Gynaecology and Obstetrics Society.

The measure has created divisions among both politicians and unions, with the UGT, one of Spain's largest trade unions, warning it could stigmatise women in the workplace and favour the recruitment of men.

The main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) also warned the law risks "stigmatising" women and could have "negative consequences in the labour market" for them.

"Menstrual leave" is one of the key measures in the broader legislation, which also provides for increased access to abortion in public hospitals.

Less than 15 percent of abortions performed in the country take place in such institutions, mainly because of conscientious objections by doctors.

The new law also allows minors to have abortions without parental permission at 16 and 17 years of age, reversing a requirement introduced by a previous conservative government in 2015.

Spain, a European leader in women's rights, decriminalised abortion in 1985, and in 2010, it passed a law that allows women to opt freely for abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy in most cases.

(AFP)