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The Week In News

Europe’s Jewish Numbers Fall 90%

A new study has found that Europe’s Jewish population is vanishing, with the total number of Jews on the continent falling to a low not seen for almost 1,000 years.

The findings are the result of a study commissioned by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), which hired demographers Prof. Sergio Della Pergola and Dr. Daniel Staetsky to look at how many Jews remain in Europe. To reach their conclusions, the two academics studied population records and membership data in Jewish communities in Europe, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Russia.

According to the study, only 1.3 million Jews currently reside in Europe, a 60% drop over the past 50 years and the lowest number in 1,000 years. While 88% of world Jewry lived in Europe by the end of the 19th century, today the number has dwindled to 9% in what the demographers say is an “unprecedented” decrease.

The decline is particularly dramatic in France, which long was home to Europe’s largest Jewish population. Rising anti-Semitism and terrorism in the country have led 51,000 Jews to immigrate to Israel since 2000, leading France to be overtaken by Canada as home to the world’s second-largest Diaspora population.

“Jews in Europe had grown to constitute 83 percent of world Jewry in 1900. They now account for merely 9 percent of the total number of Jews worldwide,” wrote the authors. “The proportion of Jews residing in Europe [in 2020] is about the same as it was at the time of the first Jewish global population account conducted by Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish medieval traveler, in 1170.”

The researchers listed a number of factors to explain the drop-off, including the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. Another reason cited is the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, which resulted in 1.5 million Jews immigrating to Israel and the United States.

Adding to the continent’s demographic downfall is the soaring intermarriage rate in western European countries such as Britain and the UK. With assimilation in the aforementioned states now above 50%, hundreds of thousands of Jews have been lost in what Jewish leaders call

a “silent” or “second Holocaust.”

Samsung Group Titan Dies

Lee Kun-hee, the South Korean industrialist who headed Samsung Group, died this week at the age of 78.

Born under the Japanese occupation of Korea, Lee inherited Samsung after his father’s death in 1987. Samsung was then a small company founded by the older Lee in order to export dried fish and fruit.

Over the next three decades, Lee transformed Samsung from a manufacturer of low-quality goods to one of the world’s biggest tech firms. Lee was known for his radical approach in transforming Samsung, famously telling employees, “Let’s change everything except our wives and kids.”

After deciding that the company’s mobile phone offerings were inferior in 1993, he ordered Samsung to burn its entire stock, setting 150,000 handsets ablaze. Lee would also order products made by leading competitors and put them on display at Samsung headquarters, telling subordinates that he “wanted our employees to see how other companies think.”

Lee’s unorthodox methods paid off; by 2014, Samsung had overtaken Apple to become the biggest maker of smartphones and computer chips.

Lee’s business success made Lee South Korea’s richest man, with a net worth of $21 billion. However, he of-

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ten found himself on the wrong side of the law, including being convicted of bribing former President Roh Taewoo.

In 2008, the reclusive tycoon was forced to resign as Samsung chairman after being indicted for tax evasion and embezzlement. He was later sentenced to three years behind bars but was pardoned in 2009. He returned to Samsung in 2010 and remained titular chairman until his death.

Sheikh Adnan Al-Afyouni, the Mufti of Damascus and one of Syrwas killed after an explosive device placed under his car detonated.

Photos of the blast scene showed his black sedan completely destroyed by the bomb and the resulting conresponsible for the assassination or why they wanted the mufti killed.

The cleric was laid to rest last Friday in a funeral procession attended by thousands at the famed Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. The funeral was attended by a representative of President Bashar Al-Assad and Minister of Endowments, Muhammad Abdul Sattar Al-Sayed.

Al-Afyouni was considered close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad despite being a Sunni Muslim, a stream of Islam that is frequently at odds with Assad. He played a pivotal role in hammering out agreements between warring separatists throughout Syria and the central government in Damascus.

Al-Afyouni’s high stature and the respect he was afforded by all sectors of Syria’s fractured society enabled him to be a trusted mediator in the aforementioned negotiations. After marathon talks in 2016, Al-Afyouni successfully brokered a deal that saw thousands of rebels leave the city of Darayya in exchange for legal immunity.

In a ceremony celebrating the agreement, Al-Afyouni called on all Syrians to unite and end the devastating civil war that has torn apart the country. The cleric said in a nationally televised speech that the successful negotiations between the rebels and the regime in Darayyah “are living proof for all Syrians that the only option available to you is reconciliation and abandoning fighting.”

Mass Protests in

Damascus Mufti Killed

ia’s most senior Islamic officials,

flagration. It is not clear who was

Thailand

Tens of thousands of demonstrators flooded Bangkok on Sunday after Prime Minister Prayuth ChanOcha refused to step down.

The protests took place in Bangkok’s central shopping district and were the first demonstrations since Prayuth removed the emergency measures banning demonstrations on October 15. During the rally, speakers called on Prayuth to step down and for Thailand to adopt a more democratic constitution.

“If he doesn’t resign, then we must come out to ask him to quit in a peaceful way,” said rally leader Jatupat “Pai” Boonpattararaksa.

The protests calling on Prime Minister Prayuth to step down first exploded over the summer, leading the unpopular leader to pass emergency regulations banning demonstrations. Protesters allege that Prayuth, a former army chief of staff who led a coup in 2014, was illegitimately elected last year because laws had been changed to favor a pro-military party.

The premier has refused to resign despite the mounting protests and has committed to only discussing the matter in parliament.

“The only way to a lasting solution for all sides that is fair for those on the streets as well as for the many millions who choose not to go on the streets is to discuss and resolve these differences through the parliamentary process,” said Prayuth.

Other demands on behalf of the protesters include reforming the Thai monarchy to limit its power and immunity from the law. The demand is virtually unprecedented and breaks a longtime taboo against criticizing the royal family.

Public anger against the monarchy’s power has increased due to the provocative behavior of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is currently widely unpopular due to the explosion of his personal wealth since taking over for his father. The king has also come under withering criticism for intervening in Thai political affairs, breaking tradition that kept the royal family out of governmental matters.

“Such open criticism of Thailand’s monarch by non-elites at a public place within Thailand with the police simply standing by is the first of its kind in Thai history,” noted Paul Rogers, a southeast Asia expert who teaches at Thailand’s Naresuan University.

A Real-Life James Bond

Could James Bond have been a real spy all along?

While the famed British secret agent with the 007 code name remains strictly the stuff of Hollywood, recently declassified files turned up a real-life spy with the iconic name.

The find was discovered by a historian sifting through mountains of declassified Cold War-era documents in Warsaw. While rummaging through the outdated files, he found evidence of an English diplomat named James Bond who was posted to the Polish capital in 1964.

Once there, Bond successfully evaded the KGB agents who were trailing him. Later, he was caught snooping around Soviet military bases on the border with Russia without a convincing explanation of what he was doing there.

Bond’s counterintelligence prowess, and the fact that British MI6 officers have long posed as diplomats, has led people to suspect that the embassy secretary was, in fact, a secret agent.

“I mean, come on,” said Marzena Kruk, who directs Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance. “He was a spy, doing spying things.”

Bond’s widow, Janette Bond, told the press that she was unaware if her deceased husband was involved in espionage. In an interview with Fox News, she recalled helping James give his tails the slip by leaving parties with the wrong man, allowing him to escape out the back window.

“If it didn’t work, it was aborted,” she recalled.

The UK’s MI6 has refused to comment on the matter. However, a former senior official in Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service said that the mysterious Bond was likely an innocent diplomat used as a decoy by experienced intelligence officers.

Rather than being a secret agent like his famous namesake, Bond had probably been sent to scope out Soviet military installations to divert KGB agents from more sensitive operations. “They were sending him to make him some kind of bait. To make counterintelligence chase him instead of other persons,” said Filip Hagenbeck, who formerly commanded the MI6’s Counterintelligence Branch Ten. “It was a game which was played, you know?”

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UN Anti-Nuke Treaty Ratified

An international treaty banning the use of nuclear weapons will now come into force after getting the necessary 50 countries to ratify the agreement.

The milestone was reached on Saturday when Honduras became the 50th UN member state to approve the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). As per the UN’s bylaws, international treaties need at least 50 countries to ratify it for it to become law.

The TPNW will now take effect within the next 90 days. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the news, calling “the culmination of a worldwide movement to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.”

Guterres added that the treaty “represents a meaningful commitment towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons, which remains the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations.”

The treaty, which bans the manufacture and usage of nuclear weapons, had been passed in 2017 with the approval of 122 countries. However, it has been strongly opposed by virtually all of the world nuclear powers, including the U.S., UK, Russia, China, and India.

The United States had fired off missives to all of the Treaty’s signatories imploring them to reverse the “strategic error” and reminding them that the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France “stand unified in our opposition to the potential repercussions.”

Japan, which remains the only country to ever be the recipient of a nuclear attack, voted against the treaty out of consideration of its deep security ties with the U.S. The decision not to ratify the treaty was controversial in Japan, which still bears the scars of the two atomic bombs the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Despite the opposition of the world’s major powers, proponents of the treaty hailed its ratification as an important step in preventing the future use of the terrifying weapons.

“This moment has been 75 years coming since the horrific attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the founding of the UN, which made nuclear disarmament a cornerstone,” said Beatrice Fihn, who directs the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. “The 50 countries that ratify this Treaty are showing true leadership in setting a new international norm that nuclear weapons are not just immoral but illegal.” Violence Intensifies in Nigeria

Nigeria’s police chief has ordered the full mobilization of the country’s law enforcement units in order to crack down on rampant rioting and looting.

Mohammed Adamu vowed to put an end to the “violence, killings, looting and destruction of property” on Sunday. In a meeting with Nigerian police commanders, Adamu said that “enough is enough” and ordered officers to “use all legitimate means to halt a further slide into lawless-

ness.”

Looting continued unabated throughout Nigeria on Sunday, with shops and malls being torched in Lagos, the country’s largest city. Homes and businesses belonging to prominent lawmakers were attacked while the city’s largest prison was set ablaze.

The looting spread to the central city of Jos, followed by the states of Adama and Taraba. In the city of Bukurum, a large market was

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destroyed, with looters making off with food and electronics.

The looting comes after two weeks of demonstrations across the country deteriorated into violence and anarchy, At least 70 people have been killed since tens of thousands of Nigerians took to the streets on October 7 to protest what they say is the consistent violence meted out by the police’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS. The unit is accused of engaging in a slew of illegal activities, including extrajudicial killings, kidnapping, and extortion.

The protests have continued despite President Buhari ordering the police unit shuttered, with demonstrators demanding additional reforms in Nigeria’s government and the legal system. Last Tuesday, the African country was rocked when police and the military killed 12 unarmed citizens in the city of Lagos.

The protests turned violent after the shootings, with the looting spreading from Lagos to cities throughout the African country. The disturbances continued despite a 24-hour curfew the government imposed in an effort to curb the rioting.

Mashup in Malaysia?

Malaysia’s King Sultan Abdullah refused a request by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to implement a state of emergency in order to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

The King explained his refusal by saying that he did not see the need for embarking on such a disruptive measure.

“Al-Sultan Abdullah is of the opinion that there is no need at the moment for His Majesty to declare an emergency in the country or in any part of the country of Malaysia,” said the palace. “His Majesty is confident in the ability of the government under the leadership of the prime minister to continue to implement policies and enforcement efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The King’s opposition is another blow for Muhyiddin’s bid to remain in power, as the government is slated to vote on the 2021 budget next month. With only a razor-thin minority in parliament and a coalition marked by rampant division and infighting, the budget’s passage is not guaranteed.

Should it fail to pass, the government would automatically dissolve and new elections would be triggered. The State of Emergency would have delayed the vote, granting Muhyiddin more time to marshal support. With the King’s refusal to approve the move, Muhyiddin faces the prospect of being ousted by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim,

Indian Child Labor Rises

Children’s rights activists are worrying that the harsh economic fallout caused by the coronavirus in India is making millions of children vulnerable to child trafficking.

India has long had a problem with child labor. Despite laws prohibiting employing children under the age of 14, the Indian government found in 2010 that upwards of 33 million children are illegally employed, often in dangerous industries such as construction and mining.

The prevalence of underage labor has resulted in a flourishing child trafficking industry, in which minors are fooled or forced to enter the workforce. Traffickers bait children with false promises of the extraordinary sums they could earn if they leave school, often without the knowledge of their parents. The children are then sold to unscrupulous labor managers, who force them to work long hours for low pay.

In recent years, India has cracked down on child labor, raiding factories and markets which were suspected of employing children under the age of 18. In 2017, the government also launched the Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labor, escalating the battle against child traffickers and raising the penalties handed out to those found guilty.

Then came the coronavirus. All of India’s 1.3 billion people had been locked down since the pandemic hit in March, resulting in hundreds of thousands of businesses going bankrupt. With schools remaining closed, millions of children are now being forced by their parents to work in order to help their family make ends meet.

With the Indian economy teetering into a recession, children’s rights activists are warning that all of the recent progress in battling child labor is likely to be reversed. According to Pramila Kumari, who heads Bihar’s Commission for Protection of Child Rights, complaints of child trafficking have surged since the onset of the pandemic. The most egregious violations are often in poor rural areas in outlying states such as Jharkhand or Bihar.

A study by Satyarthi’s Children’s Foundation found that 21% of respondents who reside in 5 poverty-stricken states would consider sending their children to work. Another worrying sign is the surge of children rescued by authorities from traffickers, with 1,127 minors taken in by police since April alone.

“Now, post the lockdown, factories are reopening and the migrant labor is returning [and] what we are seeing is that children are coming with them,” noted Shiv Narayan, a police officer responsible for the industrialized state of Jaipur.

Senior Al-Qaeda Leader Killed

Abu Muhsin al-Masri, a high ranking al-Qaeda terrorist on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, was killed in a raid by Afghani special forces last week.

Al-Masri, an Egyptian who was al-Qaeda’s second-in-command in India, was located in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province. He was killed in the resulting shoot-out with security forces while his personal assistant was taken into custody.