- All Blacks primed for 'hell' of a Wallabies clash
- Japan firm says no longer makes radio reportedly used in Lebanon blasts
- Zoom fatigue? Try some nature in your background: study
- Boeing to start large-scale furloughs with Seattle strike talks stalled
- Japan walkie-talkie maker says investigating after Lebanon blasts
- Slipper to become most-capped Wallaby in All Blacks clash
- Tokyo surges on weak yen as Asian traders cheer big US rate cut
- Vast France building project sunk by sea level rise fears
- UK campaigners in green energy standoff reject 'nimby' label
- Rainbow warriors: Three things to watch at cycling world championships
- Lebanon's Hezbollah in disarray after second wave of device blasts
- China's 'full-time dads' challenge patriarchal norms
- What we know about the fire 'pandemic' plaguing Brazil
- X says Brazil service restoration 'inadvertent' and 'temporary'
- Amazon drought leaves Colombian border town high and dry
- Some Cubans depend on sugar water as food shortages bite
- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
Coal phase-out fuels far right in rural eastern Germany
White clouds still billow from the cooling towers of a coal plant near Spremberg in Germany's ex-communist east but the end is in sight as Berlin phases out the dirty fossil fuel.
Thousands of jobs have already been lost in the region, where wind farms now rise near abandoned open-pit mines and many people look with dread towards 2038, the deadline for the "coal exit".
Their fears help explain the strong local support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which does not just rail against migrants but also rejects the green energy push and questions man-made climate change.
At local elections held in Spremberg in June, the AfD scored 39.3 percent -- an omen ahead of regional elections next Sunday in the state of Brandenburg, which polls suggest it could win.
Lignite, or brown coal, may be a climate killer, but since the 19th century it has been key to the identity of the Lusatia industrial region on the Polish border, known as the Lausitz in German.
"Thousands of people here have been linked to coal their whole working lives," said the town's mayor, Christine Herntier, an independent who has held the post for a decade.
"We are proud of our tradition," said Herntier, 67, pointing to a huge map on her office wall of the Schwarze Pumpe plant and its surrounding industrial complex.
Most people in Spremberg, population 25,000, have grudgingly accepted the coal phase-out plan, under which the government has earmarked billions for structural transition plans, she said.
But, she added, ahead of the state election the winding down of coal "is still a big issue".
- Anger over wind farm -
Michael Hanko, the AfD's top representative in Spremberg, said he is certain that the looming demise of the lignite industry is "one of the main reasons" residents are voting for his party.
"I don't think the government has really got them on board with this whole prescribed transformation, saying that we now have to do everything with renewable energies," Hanko said.
The AfD, founded about a decade ago, scored a triumph earlier this month when it won an election in the eastern state of Thuringia and came a close second in Saxony.
It now also has a good chance of winning in Brandenburg, the state that surrounds Berlin, where it is polling narrowly in first place at around 27 percent.
When the German government decided five years ago to phase out coal, it pledged around 40 billion euros ($44 billion) to help coal regions adapt, with 17 billion euros for the Lausitz alone.
Much of the money is intended to flow into developing the renewables and hydrogen sectors, helping the region maintain its identity as an energy hub.
But residents complain the investment has been too slow to materialise and is flowing into the wrong places.
In Spremberg, plans to extend a nearby wind park have caused outrage among some locals, who fear it will be a threat to 150-year-old trees, a protected swallow species and drinking water.
- 'Something different' -
Coal has long been synonymous with the Lausitz region, which takes in parts of Brandenburg and Saxony and a small strip of Poland, and where lignite was discovered in the late 18th century.
But the industry all but collapsed after German reunification in 1990, when most of the region's open pit mines were shut down and thousands of jobs vanished.
Today, only around 8,000 people are employed in the lignite industry across the Lausitz, with 4,500 of them in Brandenburg, though the industry is still one of the largest private employers in the state and coal remains a strong part of the region's identity.
Already weary from the problems caused by reunification, people in the region have felt "overwhelmed" by recent global challenges, said Lars Katzmarek, a board member of the Pro-Lausitz campaign group.
"The coronavirus, the energy crisis, the Ukraine war -- these are all very difficult things that people still haven't fully digested... and perhaps at some point they just close their ears," he said.
On a rainy morning in Spremberg, Joachim Paschke, 81, who used to work in mechanical engineering and welding, was buying bread rolls in the bakery opposite the town hall.
"I'm definitely not an AfD supporter but I can understand people who are," he said.
"The established parties have nothing concrete and the AfD is offering something different. People want change."
Y.Bouchard--BTB