Solar power investment overtakes oil for first time

The IEA said renewable energy is expanding faster than many people realize, but it warned that investment in fossil fuels is not slowing fast enough to reach goals to slash emissions by 2050.

DW

May 25,2023

Global investment in solar power is expected to overtake investment in oil production for the first time ever this year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.

The IEA projects investment in solar power to hit $380 billion (€354 billion) in 2023, compared to investments in oil exploration and extraction at $370 billion (€345 billion).

"This crowns solar as a true energy superpower," said Dave Jones, head of data insights at the energy think tank Ember.

But, he added, "the irony remains that some of the sunniest places in the world have the lowest levels of solar investment."

Renewable energy uptick

Annual investment in clean energy more broadly is expected to hit $1.7 trillion in 2023 — roughly a 25% increase compared to 2021.

Another $1 trillion was expected to be invested in fossil fuels. Spending in this field has increased by 15% since 2021, according to the Paris-based energy watchdog World Energy Investment.

"Clean energy is moving fast — faster than many people realize," said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. "For every dollar invested in fossil fuels, about $1.7 are now going into clean energy. Five years ago, this ratio was one-to-one."

Photovoltaic solar panels account for the bulk of green energy investment.

The best places to put solar panels  06:23

Investment in fossil fuels still rising

Despite the gains for solar and renewable energy in general, the IEA warned that investment in fossil fuels is rising when it should be falling fast in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

For example, spending on upstream oil and gas is still projected to grow by 7% in 2023, largely due to a handful of national oil companies in the Middle East investing more than they did before the coronavirus pandemic.

The IEA also said that advanced economies and China accounted for more than 90% of new investment in renewables, which presents "a serious risk of new dividing lines in global energy if clean energy transitions don't pick up elsewhere."

Scientists agree that countries need to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, for example by transitioning away from fossil fuels, in order to avoid catastrophic global warming.

zc/nm (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

Russia summons 3 ambassadors over Nord Stream probe



Moscow has summoned the German, Danish and Swedish ambassadors in protest of what it says are delayed efforts to investigate the cause of the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions last year.

Russia has summoned the ambassadors of Germany, Denmark and Sweden to protest a "complete lack of results" in a joint investigation into the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions last year.

Russia's Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused the three countries of dragging their feet and refusing to engage with Moscow.

"It has been noted that these countries are not interested in establishing the true circumstances of this sabotage. On the contrary, they are delaying their efforts and trying to conceal the tracks and the true perpetrators of the crime behind which we believe are well-known countries," it said.

The move also comes a month after Russia expelled more than 20 German diplomats in what it said was retaliation for Germany expelling Russian diplomats fairly soon after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Nord Stream probe ongoing

The United States and NATO have called the Nord Stream explosions "an act of sabotage" by an unknown actor, while Russia has blamed the West.

Neither side has provided evidence for their claims.

"It is no coincidence that 'leaked' improbable versions [of what happened] are dumped in the media to try to muddy the waters," Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Several different reports have emerged on the pipeline's destruction in recent months, some seeming to implicate Russian involvement and others — perhaps most famously from US journalist Seymour Hersh — suggesting US involvement.

On November 2022, Swedish authorities announced that traces of explosives had been found at the site of the leaks and confirmed the cause to be sabotage.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said it would keep trying to ensure that Germany, Denmark and Sweden would allow Moscow to participate in investigations.

German lawmaker on Nord Stream blasts: 'These are rumors, there is no proof'

09:23

zc/msh (Reuters, Interfax)

Germany: Last Generation plan further protests after raids


May 25,2023

The group appeared defiant a day after police raids, launching a new website and rerouting their crowdfunding via a different organization. Labeling the group as possibly criminal also triggered a political debate.

Last Generation, or Letzte Generation, the group raising climate awareness using often controversial protest methods in Germany, continued to collect funds and call for protests on Thursday, a day after raids against members suspected of helping finance a criminal enterprise.

The group, whose website was blocked amid the raid, launched a new website with the domain .org, instead of the German .de domain. It also continued to rally for protests on its Twitter account.

The raids have sparked a political debate across Germany's spectrum, with some Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politicians staunchly supporting the legal action, and others opposing the group's "criminal" classification.

The decision follows near-daily protests and demonstrations around Germany, particularly in Berlin in recent months, for the most part seeking to disrupt traffic and roads. The group says it is doing this to raise awareness on climate issues; its critics allege that it's annoying ordinary people and regularly wasting police time and resources.

German police carry out raids against climate protest group  02:17

Divided opinions on 'criminal' classification in law

When blocking Last Generation's official website on the .de domain, German authorities briefly redirected the website to a Bavarian police page which classified the group as a "criminal organization."

Why do some see Last Generation as a criminal organization?  01:36

The authorities later retracted the move, whose legality stirred controversy.

Green Party legal expert Helge Limburg told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) that the "blanket assumption" of labeling the group Last Generation as criminal as a whole was legally dubious.

Sebastian Hartmann, the Social Democratic Party's (SPD) legal expert, meanwhile stressed that for the moment law enforcement was only investigating "an initial suspicion" — the German term for evidence deemed sufficient to launch formal investigations or possibly proceedings.

Left-wing politician Lorenz Gosta Beutin told Bavarian broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk that the Bavarian prosecutors' office had overstepped its bounds on Wednesday. He said that the linking to a website describing the group as "criminal" as a statement of fact was prosecutors "putting themselves above our judiciary and courts," considering that for now only the prosecutors' suspicions exist.

Meanwhile, CDU leader Friedrich Merz supported the police and public prosecution's moves against the group, in statements on Twitter.

He said that "massive damage to property, graffiti on memorial plaques and gluing [oneself onto] streets or cars are quite simply criminal offenses."

Speaking to broadcaster RTL, the conservative politician described the group members as "criminals" rather than "interlocutors," saying he had no intention to meet with the activists over their climate demands.

Last Generation protest plans defiant

The group has meanwhile continued to plan and mobilize for further protests on its various platforms. A rally in Berlin late on Wednesday saw several hundred people join, the group said, calling it the largest protest to date.

Last Generation called for another rally in the capital later on Thursday.


It also announced receiving numerous donations in the wake of the raids. Climate activist and group member Henning Jeschke announced on Twitter that the group received over €162,000 (roughly $173,774) in less than 24 hours, calling on more to donate.



A professional and well-funded organization, the group regularly advertises training sessions for would-be protesters and other such activities, offers support paying any possible fines for protesters and even compensates some of its protesters financially for their time via third party organizations.

Germany's Last Generation group has repeatedly blocked traffic in Berlin and other cities in its campaign to press for more strident action to counter global warming.

The group is demanding that the German government formulate a plan to meet an international goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times.

As well as gluing themselves to busy intersections and highways, its members have targeted various artworks and exhibits.

Climate campaigners block Berlin traffic 01:22

rmt/msh (AFP, dpa)

German economy enters recession amid worsening outlook

Ashutosh Pandey | Richard Connor
May 25,2023

Inflation has taken a heavy toll on the German economy, with consumers spending less on items such as food and clothing. To make matters worse, the outlook for the rest of the year isn't looking much brighter.

Germany's economy shrunk slightly in the first quarter of 2023 compared with the previous three months, thereby entering a technical recession, data showed on Thursday.

A preliminary estimate had shown gross domestic product (GPD) stagnating at zero growth in the first quarter — meaning Germany would have narrowly escaped a recession. But recession fears were spurred again after data published earlier this month showed that German industrial production fell more than expected in March, hurt by a weak performance by the key automotive sector.

"It took a couple of statistical revisions, but at the end of the day, the German economy actually did this winter what we had feared already since last summer," ING economist Carsten Brzeski said in a note to clients. "The warm winter weather, a rebound in industrial activity, helped by the Chinese reopening and an easing of supply chain frictions were not enough to get the economy out of the recessionary danger zone."

 
What did the data show?

GDP fell by 0.3% for the quarter when adjusted for price and seasonal effects, according to the data from the Federal Statistical Office, Destatis.

"After GDP growth entered negative territory at the end of 2022, the German economy has now recorded two consecutive negative quarters," said Destatis President Ruth Brand.



The January to March figures follow a drop of 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2022. A recession is commonly defined as two successive quarters of contraction.

Inflation continued to take its toll on the German economy during the quarter, the office said. This was reflected in household consumption, which was down 1.2% quarter-on-quarter after price and seasonal adjustments. Consumers have seen high inflation erode their purchasing power, reducing demand in the economy. Although the upward price trend has recently eased, the annual inflation rate of 7.2% recorded in April was still relatively high.

Private households spent less on food, drink, clothing, shoes and furniture than in the previous quarter. They also bought fewer new cars, possibly due to the discontinuation of government subsidies at the end of 2022. Government spending also slumped in the first three months of the year.

There was a ray of light when it came to investment, which was up in the first three months of the year after a weak second half of 2022, helped by a temporary rebound in the construction sector in unseasonably warm weather.

"The fall in GDP by 0.3% q/q [quarter-on-quarter] is much more in line with expectations at the beginning of the year as Germany has been hit by both high inflation and rising interest rates," Andrew Kenningham, chief Europe economist at Capital Economics, told DW.

Recession: Calamity or economic cleanser?   02:14

Germany avoids severe recession but outlook remains murky

Heavily reliant on Russian energy imports, Germany was left particularly exposed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A mild winter in Germany meant that the worst scenarios — such as a gas shortage, which would have ravaged the economy — did not occur.

Germany's last recession came as the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of 2020 prompted governments to effectively shutter whole sectors of the economy.

The latest GDP figures are the latest in a series of data highlighting Germany's economic troubles. The country's crucial manufacturing sector is struggling amid weak demand for goods. A gauge of business climate published by the ifo Institute fell more than expected in May, marking the first decline after six consecutive increases.

The ifo Export Expectations fell to the lowest level since November 2022 with automotive companies severely curbing their export plans.

"The optimism at the start of the year seems to have given way to more of a sense of reality," Brzeski said. "A drop in purchasing power, thinned-out industrial order books as well as the impact of the most aggressive monetary policy tightening in decades, and the expected slowdown of the US economy all argue in favor of weak economic activity."

What does a German recession mean for the eurozone?

An economic contraction and bleak outlook in Europe's biggest economy is bad news for the entire eurozone with the most obvious implication being a downward revision of the common currency area's first-quarter GDP.

Kenningham expects eurozone GDP to be revised down to 0.0% in the first quarter from 0.1%, meaning that the bloc will avoid a technical recession by the slimmest of margins.

The eurozone is also reeling from high inflation and rising interest rates which are squeezing household consumption and business investment. The manufacturing sector is struggling with a sharp decline in new orders. The services sector, however, remains a bright spot as families hit by inflation prioritize spending on travel and leisure over buying goods.

The economic situation is expected to remain grim as the European Central Bank continues hiking interest rates to dampen demand in order to bring down prices. Inflation in the eurozone area, which came in at 7% in April, remains well above the central bank's 2% target.

With inputs from dpa, AFP, Reuters

Ashutosh Pandey Business editor with a focus on international trade, financial markets and the energy sector.@ashutoshpande85

Recession in Germany: What does that mean?

Klaus Ulrich
May 25,2023

Germany has entered a technical recession with data showing that the economy contracted in the first quarter of 2023. What constitutes a downturn and what does that entail?

Germany's economy is facing extreme testing times. First, the coronavirus pandemic took a toll, and now the impact of the war in Ukraine is pushing the economy to the brink.

Inflation, rising energy prices and supply bottlenecks all add up to a perfect storm for the economy — which, according to economists' theories, goes up and down in waves. A distinction is usually made between four phases:Upswing, also called expansion or prosperity
Boom
Recession
Depression

A recession marks a downturn when, for example, production capacities are no longer being utilized because exports are falling and demand for goods and services is shrinking at home.

GDP is the key guide

The benchmark here is GDP. This is the value of all services and goods produced in a given period.

If GDP shrinks for two quarters in a row, this is referred to as a "technical recession," which already loomed at the end of 2021 after GDP shrank by 0.3% in the last quarter of the year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the first three months of 2022, economic output increased by 0.2%. However, the situation now looks much different. Both in the last quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of this year Germany's economy contracted.

If a recession persists over a sustained period, it can turn into a tangible economic crisis. Unemployment and the number of insolvencies rise, goods pile up in warehouses, and financial crises, stock market crashes and bank failures round off a nightmare scenario.
A recession's antidote: government aid

The government's task is therefore to prevent the economy from sliding into depression and thus into the lowest phase of the economic cycle. It will try to counter emerging recessions in advance or to keep them as short as possible.

The tools at its disposal include relief packages for companies and citizens, such as government grants and tax cuts — much like what the German government has introduced to tackle the fallout from the energy crisis.

This article was originally published in German. It has been updated to reflect the latest news about Germany entering a technical recession.

South Korea hails successful launch of homegrown rocket

ICBM BY ANY OTHER NAME

Issued on: 25/05/2023 - 

Seoul (AFP) – South Korea said Thursday it had successfully launched its homegrown Nuri rocket and placed working satellites into orbit, hailing a key step forward for the country's burgeoning space programme.

South Korea launched its homegrown Nuri rocket on Thursday, officials said, a day after it was forced to postpone due to a technical glitch 

© Handout / Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI)/AFP

It was the third launch of the Nuri, which successfully put test satellites into orbit last year after a failed 2021 attempt saw the rocket's third-stage engine burn out too early.

The three-stage rocket, more than 47 metres (155 feet) long and weighing 200 tonnes, soared into the sky at 6:24 pm (0924 GMT) from the Naro Space Center in South Korea's southern coastal region, leaving a huge trail of white smoke.

"We report to the public that the third launch of Nuri, which was independently developed to secure domestic space transportation capacity, has been successfully completed," said Lee Jong-ho, minister of science and technology.

The main satellite made communication with South Korea's King Sejong Station in Antarctica, he said, adding that the launch confirmed "our potential for launch services for various satellite operations and space exploration".

South Korea will carry out three more launches of Nuri by 2027, Lee added.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hailed Nuri's launch, saying it will give the country a competitive edge in the global space race.

"The success of Nuri's third launch is a splendid achievement that declares South Korea has joined the G7 space powers," he said in a statement.

The launch came a day after initial plans were called off over a computer communication error which was resolved by Thursday.

In previous tests, the rocket carried payloads mainly designed for verifying the performance of the launch vehicle.

This time, the rocket was topped with eight working satellites, including a "commercial-grade satellite", according to the science ministry.

More than 200,000 viewers were watching the livestream of the launch on YouTube, with one commenting: "Fly high Nuri! Let's go to space!"
Space race

South Korea has laid out ambitious plans for outer space, including landing spacecraft on the Moon by 2032 and Mars by 2045.

In Asia, China, Japan and India all have advanced space programmes, and the South's nuclear-armed neighbour North Korea was the most recent entrant to the club of countries with their own satellite launch capability.

Ballistic missiles and space rockets use similar technology and Pyongyang claimed to have put a 300-kilogram satellite into orbit in 2012 in what Washington condemned as a disguised missile test.

The South Korean space programme has a mixed record -- its first two launches in 2009 and 2010, which in part used Russian technology, both ended in failure.

The second one exploded two minutes into the flight, with Seoul and Moscow blaming each other.

Eventually, a 2013 launch succeeded, but still relied on a Russian-developed engine for its first stage.

Last June, South Korea became the seventh nation to have successfully launched a one-tonne payload on their own rockets.

The three-stage Nuri rocket has been a decade in development at a cost of two trillion won ($1.5 billion).

Sierra Leone’s historic tree, a symbol of freedom, lost in rainstorm

A before and after photo shows Sierra Leone's “Cotton Tree” damaged in storm.

 (Twitter)

Reuters
Published: 25 May ,2023

A giant tree that towered over Sierra Leone’s capital for centuries and symbolized freedom to its early residents came down overnight during a heavy rainstorm.

President Julius Maada Bio called the toppling of the famed tree “a great loss to the nation” as crowds gathered to look at the wrecked trunk.

The “Cotton Tree” was the most important landmark in the West African country which was founded by freed American slaves.

It is believed that when those slaves arrived by boat in the late 1700s, they gathered under its branches to offer prayers before moving into their new home.

“It was regarded as a symbol of liberty and freedom by early settlers,” the president wrote on Twitter.

“We will have something at the same spot that bears testament to the great Cotton Tree's place in our history. All voices will be brought together for this.”

The kapok tree stood in the middle of a roundabout in central Freetown near the national museum and the president’s office.

Passerby Victor Tutu Rogers told Reuters he saw the tree fall around 9:40 p.m. (2140 GMT) on Wednesday.

“The wind was blowing, the rain got heavy. I dashed round the cotton tree on my way from work, because I feared the branches might fall,” he said.

“Shortly after that there was a heavy lightning and I heard a heavy bang - the sound of the tree falling behind me.”

By Thursday, the branches and debris had been cleared away, leaving only a stump.

“As a municipality it was very much symbolic, the place where we hold our annual thanksgiving every November to offer prayers and for many other events,” the city’s Chief Administrator, Festus Kallay, said.

“The Freetown skyline will hardly be the same again.”

Sierra Leone's iconic Cotton Tree destroyed by storm


The centuries-old tree that towered over the skyline of Freetown was a symbol for the country's resilience. The President of Sierra Leone has vowed to erect a monument in its place

A giant, 400-year-old tree that served as a symbol of freedom in Sierra Leone has been destroyed in a storm, authorities said on Thursday.

Lovingly referred to as "Cotton Tree," the 70-meter (230-foot) tall, 15-meter (50-feet) wide Ceiba pentandra has long been a symbol of the country.

It is believed that the enslaved people who won their freedom by fighting with the British in the American War of Independence prayed under the tree when they eventually settled in West Africa in the end of the 18th century.

"All Sierra Leoneans will pause for thought at the loss of such a prestigious national symbol as Cotton Tree," President Julius Maada Bio said on Thursday.

Workers cleared rubble from the Freetown intersection on Thursday

TJ Bade/AP/picture alliance

"For centuries, it has been a proud emblem of our nation, a symbol of a nation that has grown to provide shelter for many," he added.

Freetown residents continued to pray beneath the tree in the decades that followed as it towered over a busy roundabout near the national museum, the central post office and the country's highest court.
An icon of Freetown

Cotton Tree has appeared on bank notes, is celebrated in children's nursery rhymes, and was visited by Queen Elizabeth II to mark the country's independence in 1961.

Government press agency Zabek International compared the loss to the fire that destroyed the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris in 2019.

After diggers cleared the wreckage on Thursday, all that was left behind was a stump.

"The Freetown skyline will hardly be the same again," said Freetown's Chief Administrator Festus Kallay.

Cotton Tree towered above the skyline of Freetown for centuries

 Michael Duff/AP/picture alliance

Preserving the spirit of Cotton Tree

Bio promised to include "all voices" to create a new monument at the same spot, and also discussed preserving remnants of the tree.

"There is no stronger symbol of our national story than the Cotton Tree, a physical embodiment of where we come from as a country," Bio told the Associated Press.

"Nothing in nature lasts forever, so our challenge is to rekindle, nurture, and develop that powerful African spirit for so long represented."

zc/lo (Reuters, AFP, AP)

French Olympic Committee in turmoil as president resigns

Issued on: 25/05/2023 - 

03:41

Sports Minister Amelie Oudea Castera on Thursday called on the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF) to rally together after their president Brigitte Henriques quit her post only 14 months before Paris hosts the Olympic Games.Henriques' dramatic resignation at the committee's general assembly comes after a year-and-a-half of internal squabbling and a very public disagreement with her predecessor Denis Masseglia.

Meandering along the river Seine: France's roving plastic rubbish


Isabel MALSANG et Madeleine PRADEL
Thu, 25 May 2023 

An item of plastic waste can roam through the river system for years

The scrap of red plastic in among the waterside reeds in northern France could be any fragment of the throwaway consumerism piling up across the planet, flowing into rivers, choking animals, even seeping into our bloodstreams.

But this otherwise unremarkable litter caught in the foliage not far from the mouth of the river Seine has both a name -- EF56308 -- and a history.

It was tossed into the water on September 26, 2018, in Rouen, 70 kilometres upstream.

Romain Tramoy should know. He threw it.

Tramoy, a specialist in sediments, tours the riverbanks making an inventory of the plastic that now splashes garish colours in landscapes once beloved of impressionist painters.

Sometimes he marks the plastics with pink or fluorescent yellow paint so he can perhaps find them again one day, somewhere else on their journey towards the sea.

"No waste goes to the sea in a linear way," he told AFP, along a riverside strewn with litter.

They can hang around "for years", flowing from one bank to another, where they snare in the foliage.

The scientist, who works at the Water Environment and Urban Systems Laboratory, has spent years studying the life of plastics in the Seine, trying to trace the origins of the trash, how these items can make their way to the sea and how much there is.

The Seine River begins its life on the Langres plateau in eastern France before flowing to Paris, where it waters the feet of the Eiffel Tower before wending its way to the city of Rouen and ultimately spilling out into the English Channel.

With plastics tossed around by the currents over long periods, the estuary is "a machine for manufacturing microplastics", he said.

- Global scourge -

Concern is growing around the world about the potential impacts of this persistent rubbish on ecosystems, people and animals.

Microplastic fragments have now been found from the deepest oceans trenches to the top of Mount Everest. In humans, they have been detected in blood, breast milk and placentas.

Next week, France will host negotiators from nearly 200 countries for a new round of talks in Paris aimed at reaching a historic, legally binding agreement by next year to end plastic pollution.

Global production of the mainly fossil-fuel-based material has doubled in 20 years, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which predicts production could triple again by 2060 without action.

France has an advantage over poorer countries when dealing with plastics, Tramoy said.

Refuse collection is highly organised and the sewage system is largely effective, other than when there are overflows linked to storms.

"We find much less plastic in the rivers than in countries without collections, and with steep gorges, like in South-East Asia for example," Tramoy said.

The Seine is also cleaned, notably by the Vinci Construction Maritime et Fluvial group, which collects floating waste. Other organisations focus on shoreline cleanup.

But still the plastic gets through.

- 'Everywhere' -

As a result of experiments between 2017 and 2020, Tramoy's team estimated that some 100 to 200 tonnes of plastic per year reach the sea along the Seine.

That was much fewer than his initial assumptions but it is still enough to keep him busy.

Tramoy has placed nets at the exit of storm overflow pipes, which can disgorge into the river after heavy rains.

The contents are washed, dried, weighed and listed in his laboratory.

This yields an array of plastics -- drinks bottles and cigarette butts thrown onto the streets and washed into the sewage system, as well as items flushed directly into toilets.

Like an archaeologist of the Anthropocene, the researcher uses certain common products to date the flows of rubbish.

One is the small plastic applicator for the single-dose laxative "microlax". Enough people flush them down their toilets to make these abundant in the river rubbish and they are each marked with a telltale expiry date.

One day in February this year, Tramoy showed AFP some of his earlier finds on a stony bank on the river’s edge, tossed up by the tides among driftwood and branches.

Detergent bottles, cans, yoghurt pots, sweet wrappers, lids, sandals. The items are an inventory of modern consumption.

Macro plastics, microplastics, even nanoplastics.

"We find them everywhere," he said.

im/klm/mh/gil

Children in quake-hit Syria learn in buses turned classrooms

Jindayris (Syria) (AFP) – In a dusty Syrian camp for earthquake survivors, school pupils line up and wait for a colourful bus to pull up. Since the disaster hit, they go to a classroom on wheels.

Issued on: 25/05/2023 

Pupils board a bus turned into a travelling classroom in northwest Syria © Rami al SAYED / AFP

School bags on their backs and notebooks in hand, the children took off their shoes before entering the bus, then sat down along rows of desks fitted inside.

A teacher greeted them in the mobile classroom, decorated with curtains bearing children's designs, before they broke into a song for their English class.

The February 6 quake killed nearly 6,000 people in Syria, many of them in the war-torn country's rebel-held northwest, and also left tens of thousands dead in Turkey.

The region was hit by a devastating earthquake more than three months ago 

© Rami al SAYED / AFP

The Syrian town of Jindayris, in Aleppo province near the Turkish border, was among the worst hit, with homes destroyed and school buildings either levelled or turned into shelters.

"We were living in Jindayris and the earthquake happened... and then we didn't have homes anymore," said 10-year-old Jawaher Hilal, a light pink headscarf covering her hair.

"We came to live here and the school was very far away," said the fifth-grader now staying with her family at the displacement camp on the outskirts of town.

As relief services were set up, she told AFP, "the buses came here and we started to study and learn. The buses are really nice, they teach us a lot."

In northwest Syria alone, more than 450 primary and secondary schools sustained quake damage, says the UN humanitarian agency OCHA © Rami al SAYED / AFP

The travelling classrooms are a project of the non-profit Orange Organisation and service more than 3,000 children at some 27 camps, said education officer Raad al-Abd.

"The mobile classrooms offer educational services as well as psychological support to children who were affected by the quake," he said.

'Desperate conditions'

More than three months after the quake, 3.7 million children in Syria "continue to face desperate conditions and need humanitarian assistance", says the United Nations children's agency UNICEF.
According to UNICEF, some 3.7 million children in Syria still 'face desperate conditions and need humanitarian assistance' following the earthquake © Rami al SAYED / AFP

"Almost 1.9 million children have had their education disrupted, with many schools still being used as shelters," it added in a statement this month.

In northwest Syria alone, "a minimum of 452 primary and secondary schools" were reportedly damaged to varying degrees, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said weeks ago.

"More than 1 million school-aged children need education support and are at risk of being out of school," it said, adding that at least 25,000 teachers are also in need of help, including "mental health and psychosocial support".

The deadly earthquake also disrupted schooling for almost 1.9 million children © Rami al SAYED / AFP

On another bus, boys and girls enthusiastically interacted with the teacher, balloons hanging from the ceiling, for lessons that included Arabic, math and science.

Outside in the bare dirt, children sang in a circle and clapped along with the educators.

As the buses left, pulling out through the road running between the camps' tents, adjacent structures and trees, the children yelled out and waved goodbye.

The Syrian town of Jindayris, in Aleppo province near the Turkish border, was among the worst hit, with homes destroyed and school buildings either levelled or turned into shelters © Rami al SAYED / AFP

Jawaher's father Ramadan Hilal expressed relief and gratitude for the initiative.

"After the earthquake there were no more schools or anything else," he said. "Even though they wanted to establish schools, they are far away."

Turkey kicks off Syria housing project for refugee returns

AFP
Thu, May 25, 2023

Anti-refugee sentiments have been running high in Turkey, with both presidential candidates vowing to boost returns

Turkey has launched the construction of nearly a quarter million housing units to resettle refugees in rebel-held northern Syria, Turkish media said, as repatriation efforts loom large in Turkey's presidential runoff.

An AFP correspondent on Wednesday saw builders working and heavy machinery being used at the side on the outskirts of the town of Al-Ghandura, in the Jarabulus area near the Turkish border.

"Syrian refugees living in Turkey will settle in the houses... as part of a dignified, voluntary safe return," Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Wednesday at the launch of the project, according to private Turkish news agency IHA.

He said that "240,000 houses will be built" in the region, expressing hope that the project would be completed in three years, IHA added.

Since Syria's war broke out in 2011, neighbouring Turkey has taken in more than three million people who fled the fighting.

Most have "temporary protection" status, leaving them vulnerable to a forced return.

Anti-refugee sentiments have been running high in Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hardened his once-accepting stance towards people displaced by war as he fights for re-election in a presidential runoff this weekend.

Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has pledged to send "all the refugees home" if he wins.

The construction site Soylu visited was formerly an air strip.

On a billboard, "Project for safe, voluntary and honourable returns" was written in Arabic and Turkish, while the names of organisations including Turkey's relief agency AFAD and the Qatar Fund for Development featured on the sign.

"Qatari emir (Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad) Al-Thani and our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have taken a big step toward addressing one of the world's most important issues," Soylu said, according to the IHA report.

Erdogan supported early rebel efforts to topple Assad, and Ankara maintains a military presence in northern stretches of the war-torn country that angers Damascus.

Since 2016, Turkey has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas of northern Syria.

Its troops and their Syrian proxies hold swathes of the border, and Erdogan has long sought to establish a "safe zone" 30 kilometres (20 miles) deep the whole length of the frontier.

"To date, there have been 554,000 voluntary returns," Soylu said. "There is a serious demand for a voluntary and dignified return to this safe area."

Earlier this month, Erdogan pledged to build some 200,000 homes in 13 locations in Syria, aiming to resettle some one million refugees, local media reported.

In November, Soylu paid a visit to open 600 basic homes in Syria's rebel-held Idlib region, saying 75,000 houses had been constructed in the previous two years.

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