Follow the latest news on the earthquake in Turkey and Syria
Siblings holding hands under mangled concrete blocks; families lying crushed under collapsed buildings; desperate parents squeezing through rubble to reach their children.
White Helmets volunteers told The National that the situation on the ground in north-west Syria is “difficult as hell.”
“We pulled out 1,300 bodies in the last 48 hours alone,” Ismayil Al Abdallah, who is involved in the rescue operations in Syria's Idlib province, told The National by phone.
The organisation has so far managed to rescue more than 3,000 people from under the rubble, but cannot tell how many bodies may lie beneath it.
The White Helmets is among the few humanitarian groups involved in rescue in rebel-held areas of Syria.
The Assad regime and many foreign governments will not provide aid to these areas. The death toll from the earthquake that hit near the border with Turkey has crossed 11,000 and is expected to continue to rise.
'Finding people alive keeps us going'
Mr Abdulla said about 2,000 White Helmet volunteers are working round the clock at roughly 100 different sites across north-west Syria, amid freezing temperatures in many areas.
“Rescue operations are still ongoing. We do not know when to stop” he said, exhausted after days on his feet.
“We are still finding people alive and waiting to be rescued.
“Even this morning we found a young man under the rubble, more than 48 hours after the earthquake. This keeps us going.”
War has raged in Syria since 2011, but even after gassings and barrel bombs, many of the volunteers have not seen this scale of death and destruction.
“This is unimaginable,” said Mr Abdallah, one of the original volunteers in 2012.
“That was different. We had to deal with maybe one bombed building a day. Now, we are looking at hundreds of collapsed buildings all over north-west Syria.
One of the worst affected areas is Jindires, in the district of Afrin.
“The whole town is reduced to rubble. There are several streets where rows of buildings have collapsed at once. Whole families got wiped out,” he said.
“One of our difficulties is that we have never handled a natural disaster before.”
Digging with bare hands
Mr Abdalla said his team is running desperately short of heavy equipment.
“We are digging with our bare hands. We are using everything around us like steel bars and iron rods to reach people.”
The team, he said, is currently operating with just 10 pieces of heavy equipment, such as diggers, rotating them among the most affected sites.
“We need more cranes and bulldozers. We need generators, solar lamps and diesel to work during the night,” he said.
“Our biggest fear now is that time is running short. We have to scale up the rescue. There are still many more lives to be saved. Those rescued needs clothes, tents, food, medicines and hygiene kits. It is a catastrophe.”
He said no international organisations or volunteers have reached out to help his team.
“But we cannot wait. There are so many lives to be saved.”
About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
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- Have a plan for your savings.
- Decide on your emergency fund target and once that's achieved, assign your savings to another financial goal such as saving for a house or investing for retirement.
- Decide on a financial goal that is important to you and put your savings to work for you.
- It's important to have a purpose for your savings as it helps to keep you motivated to continue while also reducing the temptation to spend your savings.
- Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
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The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
