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A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Issue 1797- April - 24/04/2020

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Editorial

A Weekly Political News Magazine

www.majalla.com/eng As many governments in Asia and Europe are looking to ease Coronavirus lockdown measures, many countries in the Middle East are still awaiting the number of cases and deaths to hit their peaks. During the past decade, the Middle East had become a highly volatile region as revolutions, civil wars and economic recessions became widespread. As such, many governments in the region are highly unprepared to cope with the pandemic. Countries like Syria and Yemen, which have been through a period of constant military engagement for the past decade, lack the necessary infrastructure required for treating COVID-19 patients and implementing effective social distancing.

This week’s first cover story by Yasmine El-Geressi discusses the problems refugees in Lebanon face in accessing healthcare and treatment for the virus.

The writer cites the discriminatory measures, which make it difficult for both Palestinian and Syrian refugees to find healthcare, and how authorities are abusing curfew laws to implement extra measures on the refugees.

Yasmine El-Geressi has also written this week’s second cover story which centres on how the Syrian civil war has effectively destroyed the country’s health sector, as many hospitals and health centres were hit during the wars many battles. Moreover, she focuses on the regime’s lack of resources, which would be necessary to treat patients, as she notes that the regime is relying on foreign allies to provide basic necessities (such as wheat) to address Syria’s debilitating shortages.

Joseph Braude writes on how the Coronavirus pandemic has paved the way for the US and Turkey to reconcile after months of tensions, which saw the NATO allies drift apart. The writer notes how the Turkish government underestimated the pandemic, and how its policies led it to become the second worst affected country in the Middle East after Iran. Turkey has offered to delay the activation of a Russian weapons system in exchange for an aid package from the US. The reason why Ankara is in need of monetary aid is due to the fact that the pandemic came right after in recovered from a yearlong recession.

Continuing from last week’s story on the prospect of Arab-Israeli reconciliation talks, Majalla places a spotlight on the Arab-Israeli doctors who are on the front line of Israel’s battle against the Coronavirus. For years, Arab doctors have played an integral role in the Israeli health sector, as Arab physicians make up 20 per cent of all doctors in the country. Amal Shahada writes on how Arab doctors are putting their lives at risk by treating COVID-19 patients, and how a wide campaign has arisen in the country thanking Arab-Israeli doctors for their efforts. The article does, however, take note of the discrimination many Arab-Israelis face in everyday life and politics, as Arab members of the Knesset are often side-lined and ignored by the government.

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Editor-in-Chief

Ghassan Charbel Editorial secretary Mostafa El-Dessouki HH Saudi Research and Marketing (UK) Ltd 10th Floor Building 7 Chiswick Business Park 566 Chiswick High Road London W4 5YG Tel : +44 207 831 8181 Fax: +44 207 831 2310

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

34 The Pandemic Won’t Make China the

World’s Leader

Issue 1797- April - 24/04/2020

14 War-Weary Syrians Brace for Disaster as

They Face a New Kind of Enemy

and Arab Doctors United Against 20 Jewish a Common Foe

30 Mass Consumption Is What Ails Us

26 The Pandemic and the Toll of Transatlantic Discord

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Shanghai, Jazz Struggles Amid 48 In the Coronavirus

Understanding Inflammation 3

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Healthcare workers stand in the street in counterprotest to hundreds of people who gathered at the State Capitol to demand the stay-at-home order be lifted in Denver, Colorado. - Reuters

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Thai Monks wear face masks and face shields to protect themselves from the coronavirus during their Pali language in 2020 ,17 course at Wat Molilokkayaramon April Bangkok, Thailand - Getty 6

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eekly news

ferred to hospital in Beirut for treatment that will be covered by the relief agency, a statement said. The Lebanese government has worried about the virus hitting camps for Syrian and Palestinian refugees where high population densities are likely to accelerate its spread. UNRWA said it was “taking all necessary steps to provide the required assistance to the patient’s family to allow them to isolate themselves inside the house”.

U.S. Protests Call for Lifting Coronavirus Restrictions as Governors Push Back Protests flared in U.S. states on Sunday over stay-at-home orders while governors

Oil Price Crashes into Negative Territory for the First Time in History Amid Pandemic U.S. crude oil futures collapsed below $0 on Monday for the first time in history, amid a coronavirus-induced supply glut, ending the day at a stunning minus $37.63 a barrel as desperate traders paid to get rid of oil. Brent crude, the international benchmark, also slumped, but that contract was nowhere near as weak because more storage is available worldwide. While U.S. oil prices are trading in negative territory for the first time ever, it is unclear whether that will trickle down to consumers, who typically see lower oil prices translate into

cheaper gasoline at the pump. As billions of people around the globe stay home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, physical demand for crude has dried up, creating a global supply glut.

Lebanon to Test for Coronavirus at Refugee Camp After First Case Found A team from Lebanon’s Rafik Hariri University Hospital will test for the new coronavirus at a refugee camp on Wednesday after a resident was found to be infected, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said. A Palestinian refugee from Syria at the Wavel refugee camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley was trans-

disputed President Donald Trump’s claims they have enough tests for the novel coronavirus and should quickly reopen their economies. An estimated 2,500 people rallied at the Washington state capitol in Olympia to protest Democratic Governor Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order, defying a ban on gatherings of 50 or more people. Despite pleas from rally organizers to wear face coverings or masks as public health authorities recommend, many did not. “Shutting down businesses by picking winners and losers in which there are essential and non-essential are violations of the state and federal constitution,” rally organizer Tyler Miller, 39, an engineer from Bremerton, Washington, told Reuters.

UN Says World Risks ‘Biblical’ Famines Due to Pandemic The world is at risk of widespread famines “of biblical proportions” caused by

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the coronavirus pandemic, the UN has warned. David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), said urgent action was needed to avoid a catastrophe. A report estimates that the number suffering from hunger could go from 135 million to more than 250 million. Those most at risk are in 10 countries affected by conflict, economic crisis and climate change, the WFP says. The fourth annual Global Report on Food Crises highlights Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Nigeria and Haiti.

Addressing the UN Security Council during a video conference, Mr Beasley said the world had to “act wisely and act fast”.

Dubai Opens Restaurants and Cafes, Resumes Public Transportation

Dubai on Thursday allowed cafes and restaurants to resume business, and shopping malls to be opened partially from 12 p.m until 10 p.m, but with a maximum capacity of 30%, Dubai’s media office announced in a statement. The statement added that it would also allow resuming public transportation services including subways starting April 26.

shots at Iranian vessels when they got too close. “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Trump wrote in a tweet, hours after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had launched the country’s first military satellite into orbit. While the Navy has the authority to act in self-defense, Trump’s comments appeared to go further and were likely to stoke tensions between Iran and the United States.

Trump Tells Navy to Destroy Iranian Gunboats if They ‘Harass’ American Ships President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had instructed the U.S. Navy to fire on any Iranian ships that harass it at sea, but said later he was not changing the military’s rules of engagement. Close interactions with Iranian military vessels were not uncommon in 2016 and 2017. On several occasions, U.S. Navy ships fired warning

Iran Says it Puts first Military Satellite Into Orbit, Triggers U.S. Condemnation Iran said on Wednesday it successfully launched the country’s first military satellite into orbit, triggering protests from the United States and stoking already high tensions over Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said the satellite “Noor”, or “Light”, was orbiting 425 km (264 miles) above the earth’s surface. The Pentagon declined to confirm whether Noor was in orbit and operational, saying it would take time to make such an assessment. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the launch, however.

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Lebanon’s Refugees Left Behind in Coronavirus Crisis Palestinian and Syrian refugees Face Discriminatory Restrictions and Barriers to Healthcare

by Yasmine El-Geressi A Palestinian woman from Syria has become the first refugee living in a camp in Lebanon to test positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday. The woman resided in the only

Palestinian camp in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa region. The UN and authorities in the region had seen such an outcome as almost inevitable. For the country’s 1.5 million Syrians who’ve fled from conflict and repression, and the 475,000 Palestinian refugees whose circumstances were already

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bleak pre-COVID-19, the situation could become rapidly catastrophic.

As of this writing, the small, cash-strapped country has recorded 22 deaths from among 688 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. The outbreak comes at a time in which Lebanon is already struggling with its worst economic and financial crisis in a generation which has had dreadful consequences on the country’s medical care system. As recent as this February, public officials, including doctors, announced that there is a shortage of lifesaving drugs and medical supplies, which can no longer be obtained from international suppliers due to Lebanon’s shortage of U.S. dollars. The rampant spread of coronavirus through developed nations with advanced health systems, has caused deep alarm in the country.

BEARING THE BRUNT As the virus hits at a time when Lebanon is least prepared, fears are growing that refugees who have been struggling in poverty for years will bear the brunt of the pandemic.

Lebanon’s refugees exist in extraordinarily cramped, fetid conditions without access to clean water or safe sanitation.

A lockdown is a luxury they cannot even implement properly, let alone afford. This poses the greatest threat to not only refugees themselves, but the community at large.

A Syrian refugee woman puts a face mask on a boy as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus, in al-Wazzani area, in southern Lebanon, March 14, 2020. (Reu)ters

“As is the case for most refugees across the world, Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are at increased risk of contracting the disease due to the overcrowded context in which they often live, combined with poor access to basic services, which challenges their ability to apply precautionary measures such as social distancing, self-isolation and proper hand hygiene practices. The informal tented settlements and Palestinian camps in Lebanon are illustrative examples of such conditions.” Elena Dikomis, spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Lebanon, told Majalla.

“Additionally, refugees’ very limited access to income, including but not exclusively because of COVID-19 related movement restrictions, makes it very challenging for them to cover additional expenses in the context of the coronavirus outbreak, such as hygiene and disinfection items,” she added.

So far, there is only one public hospital being used to quarantine and treat COVID-19 patients for free – the Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RFUH) in Beirut. UNRWA, the agency responsible for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, which is in the grips of the worst funding crisis in its history, announced that it would coordinate with the Lebanese health ministry to provide COVID-19 testing and treatment for Palestinian refugees at Rafik Hariri Hospital.

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“A number of local authorities use the Covid19- measures to impose further discriminatory measures and restrictions on refugees. This blocks access to essential goods and services,” Elena Dikomis, spokesperson for (NRC), told Majalla.

Similarly, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said it will assist with the cost of these services for Syrian refugees.

On March 28, Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan declared that Lebanon will share responsibility with the appropriate UN agencies for refugee healthcare. However, it is unclear whether access to services will be on an equal basis or if there will be discrimination in care as in the past the Lebanese government has systematically left out Palestinian and Syrian refugees from public health initiatives.

BARRIERS TO HEALTHCARE Palestinian refugees, whose forefathers fled the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, are subject to a wide range of discriminatory laws, preventing them from accessing public education and health services, and from working in at least 36 professions, including medicine.

Syrians likewise face serious bureaucratic difficulties. According to Human Rights Watch, due restrictive Lebanese residency policies, only 22 percent of Syrian refugees have the legal right to live in the country, leaving the vast majority to live under the radar, subject to arbitrary arrest, detention, and harassment. Their lack of legal status means they cannot move freely through the ubiquitous checkpoints that predate COVID19, have difficulty getting services such as health care or education, and find it difficult to register births, deaths, and marriages.

Given the persistent barriers with access to services and the fragmented nature of health care provision in Lebanon, it is unlikely that refugees would have adequate and equal health care services during the current health crisis.

Claudio Cordone, UNRWA’s Lebanon director, told The Independent that they were working with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres to turn one of UNRWA’s centres

into a dedicated refugee isolation centre to treat mild cases and take the load off Lebanon’s ailing health system. “We have been given assurances from the Lebanese authorities that all residents of Lebanon would be treated in the hospitals,” Cordone said, adding: “The test will be when the healthcare system is overwhelmed and there is a choice between a Palestinian and Lebanese patient.”

Nadia Hardman, refugee rights researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch, says that Lebanon has a “duty to ensure the health of Syrian and Lebanese residents alike, and it won’t be successful against COVID-19 unless it ensures everyone has access to information, testing, and treatment.”

Refugees themselves are raising concerns about their ability to access health care. In focus group discussions conducted on March 5 and 6 with Syrian refugees in Bekaa

Refugees expressed fear of further discrimination and stigmatisation if they contracted COVID19-. They cited this fear as a deterrent from seeking medical care, even if they experienced symptoms.

and Tripoli, Oxfam found that the costs associated with access to health care was a major concern. The refugees expressed fear of further discrimination and stigmatisation if they contracted COVID-19. They cited this fear as a deterrent from seeking medical care, even if they experienced symptoms.

In a recent survey by the Norwegian Refugee Council, when respondents were asked about access to health services, (not related to COVID-19 per se but rather general access), 34% stated that there were barriers such as financial constraints and transport challenges. One of the main concerns by respondents was the fear of being discriminated against in hospitals and Primary Healthcare Centers.

Additionally, 80 percent of the refugees surveyed had not received awareness-raising sessions related to COVID-19 and are thus “unlikely to have accurate information on accessing testing and treatment.”

”DISCRIMINATORY RESTRICTIONS“ Several Lebanese municipalities have imposed curfews to further restrict the movement refugees because of the virus.

Authorities have threatened Syrians with legal action and the confiscation of their legal documents if they violate the curfew. The restrictions do not apply to Lebanese citizens and could both undermine the country’s public health response and endanger the refugees’ health by further impeding treatment.

“You have these additional restrictions on Syrian refugees: only allowing movement between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. In informal tented settlements, only one person, possibly two,

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A Syrian refugee woman holds a bag of gloves, due to coronavirus spread, in al-Wazzani area in southern Lebanon, March ,14 2020. (Reuters)

Syrian refugee children play outside their family tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the eastern city of Baalbek, ,20 Lebanon on June )AP( .2017

have to be appointed to go out and get supplies for the rest of the informal tented settlement. In other places this must be done in coordination with the municipality. In other instances, fines also and confiscation of ID,” Hardman told VOA. HRW says that is no evidence that extra curfews for Syrian refugees will help limit the spread of COVID-19 and these “discriminatory restrictions” on refugees risk the virus spreading if Syrians are too scared to seek medical help after 1 p.m.

These sentiments were echoed by Dikomitis: “The government has been proactive in implementing social distancing and the general mobilisation which has helped to contain the spread of Covid-19, However, as highlighted

by Human Rights Watch, we have seen a number of local authorities use the Covid-19 measures to impose further discriminatory measures and restrictions on refugees. This leads to unjustifiable restrictions of movement beyond what the Government is requesting, and blocks access to essential goods and services,” she told me.

A report by HRW said that at a time when trust is most needed, “the Lebanese authorities are conducting business as usual and adopting policies that fail to alleviate the refugee populations’ mistrust of the authorities. This lack of trust could easily undermine efforts to prevent control and spread of the disease.”

“The government should simultaneously push an information campaign to provide refugees with all the facts that they need to protect themselves against infection and to

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Given the persistent barriers with access to services and the fragmented nature of health care provision in Lebanon, it is unlikely that refugees would have adequate and equal health care services during the current health crisis. seek healthcare in a timely manner.”

Dikomitis told me that despite restrictions, NRC Lebanon is continuing its education and Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) programmes through remote modalities while taking the necessary preventative measures to minimize the risk of exposure to field staff and refugees in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations.

“For awareness raising on-site, we use vehicles with megaphones and we also spread information through phone calls, text, video and audio messages,” she said. This is combined with “follow-up phone calls to provide guidance and support and to safely refer people to other specialised organisations.”

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War-Weary Syrians Brace for Disaster as They Face a New Kind of Enemy Taking Precautions Against Coronavirus is Impossible for Many in Syria

by Yasmine El-Geressi After nearly a decade of war that has demolished health care systems, driven up to 70 per cent of medical staff out of the country and left behind a practically non-existent institutional capacity to provide necessary medical care, millions of war-weary Syrians are bracing themselves for disaster as they face a new kind of enemy.

Coronavirus was first officially announced in Syria on March 22 and on March 29, the country recorded its first Covid-19 death. At the time of writing, there were only officially 3 recorded coronavirus deaths, but the United Nations has described these initial figures as the “tip of the iceberg� and the true number is believed to be much higher.

The UN says the country is at a high risk of

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Living conditions for millions is further deteriorating and finding refuge is a daily struggle. Keeping a physical distance and washing hands regularly with soap and water are simply not possible. all non-essential business, halt public transport, impose curfews and limit travel between the regions under his control. With the help of the World Health Organization, it also has set up quarantine zones in areas under government control.

However, the economically crippled regime has stopped short of giving the financial support needed to keep the economy going and provide for Syria’s poor. According to a United Nations report from 2019, 83 percent of people across both government and rebel parts of the country were already living in poverty, with at least 11 million people in need humanitarian assistance to survive and almost eight million who do not have reliable access to food. Syrians must already stand in long queues to purchase bread and other daily necessities as even subsidised bread is sometimes unavailable as Damascus runs out of flour and wheat reserves, relying on its Russian allies for emergency shipments.

Syrian children watch a member of the Syrian civil defence, known as the White Helmets, disinfecting a former school building currently inhabited by displaced families in the rebel-held town of Binnish in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, on March ,26 2020. (Getty)

a major outbreak because of a fragile health system, dire state of infrastructure, lack of sufficient equipment to detect the virus and large numbers of vulnerable people, alongside the collapse of what is left of Syria’s economy.

A CRIPPLED ECONOMY The virus prompted President Bashar al-Assad to pause mandatory military conscription and

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Since January the value of the Syrian pound – last year trading at 500 to the dollar – has dropped off a cliff, reaching a record low of 1,360 to the dollar on the black market in late March. As a result, inflation and the cost of basic goods are soaring.

As the U.S, France, China and many other developed economies are have shown, containing a health crisis is an arduous process under the best of circumstances, and comes with remarkable economic costs. With its economy already in ruin, Syria isn’t in a position to deal with the financial fallout from the coronavirus.

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A HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN PIECES The Covid-19 pandemic risks leaving even the most advanced and well-funded healthcare systems teetering on the edge of collapse. In Syria, where there’s not much health care infrastructure left to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, the prospects are grim.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) say that since the start of the 2011 civil war, there have been at least 595 documented attacks on over 300 hospitals across the country, with 85 health facilities attacked in the north of the country just last year alone, mostly perpetrated by the Syrian government and its allies Russia and Iran.

Much of that destruction has not been repaired, particularly in former opposition strongholds.

According to the World Health Organization, only 64 percent of public hospitals are fully functioning and there is a considerable shortage of trained staff.

In the Idlib, the last opposition-held area in the Northwest, where fighting recently led to the largest displacement of civilians of the entire war, there are just 105 ICU beds and 30 adult ventilators for a population of 1.5 million.

This specialist equipment is needed to support patients with respiratory problems like those

Containing a health crisis is an arduous process under the best of circumstances, and comes with remarkable economic costs. With its economy already in ruin, Syria isn’t in a position to deal with the financial fallout from the coronavirus.

caused by the virus but nearly all are already in use. “If we face this situation here, I think it will be endless,” Mohamed Twaish, a field coordinator for Relief Experts Association, a humanitarian organization working in Idlib province, told Vox. It would be a disaster if the coronavirus pandemic reached Idlib, says Misty Buswell, a spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee (IRC). “An outbreak would be devastating for thousands whose health status is already compromised due to lack of sufficient food, clean water and exposure to cold weather,” she told the AFP news agency.

Medical and humanitarian aid supplies such

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Children wear masks as a preventive measure against coronavirus (Covid19-) as Idlib Health Directorate and Civil Defense Crews along with local charities carry out disinfection works at schools and tent cities in Idlib, Syria on March 2020 ,18. (Getty)

In the Idlib, where fighting recently led to the largest displacement of civilians of the entire war, there are just 105 ICU beds and 30 adult ventilators for a population of 1.5 million, ulation, according to the Financial Times.

SOCIAL DISTANCING NOT AN OPTION There are six million internally displaced people in Syria who fled the frontlines and are now living in crammed displacement camps or temporary housing, making preventative measures like social distancing, lockdowns and the tracing of the virus transmission impossible.

as personal protection equipment and soap bars are being distributed across Syria, while the World Health Organization (WHO) is training medical staff and preparing laboratories to carry out coronavirus tests, with testing due to begin soon. “This is an important first step towards the Ministry of Health achieving their goal of a working laboratory in each of Syria’s 14 governorates,” said Imran Riza, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria.

Last month 39 aid organisations asked the WHO for more support, questioning the transparency of the government’s reporting on the extent of coronavirus in Syria and warning of potentially “horrific repercussions” for the pop-

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Idlib has suffered some of the worst violence in the nine-year war, with nearly 1 million people fleeing their houses and villages in the province since the government’s military offensive began in December 2019, most of them women and children. The province has also absorbed people displaced from other parts of Syria. Living conditions for millions is further deteriorating and finding refuge is a daily struggle. Often, 10 people share a small tent, sleeping, eating and living in close proximity. Some have even been forced to live in graveyards. Keeping a physical distance and washing hands regularly with soap and water are simply not possible.

“How can I tell these people to keep their distance? These people barely have access to clean water, there are few toilets for far too many people and there are no masks, no gloves, Huda Khayti, director of the Women Support and Empowerment Center Idlib and head of an awareness campaign on COVID-19 told DW.

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Coronavirus Could Offer Avenue to Ease US-Turkey Tensions In its Bid for Closer Ties with Washington, Ankara Seeks to Secure Economic Aid in Exchange for Delaying S400- Activation 18

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by Joseph Braude An unanticipated side effect of the coronavirus pandemic has been the upending of traditional regional dynamics in favor of new, ad hoc coalitions to contain the effects of the virus. One particularly salient example is Washington’s relationship with Ankara, characterized by both chronic and deep strains in the Erdogan era.

TURKEY SEEKS DETENTE WITH WASHINGTON Earlier this year, Turkish officials expressed optimism that Turkey would weather the coronavirus pandemic with only minimal damage to its population and economy. Just over a month ago, Turkish ministers remained in denial that the virus had even entered Turkey. But over the next several weeks, the virus spread rapidly to over 80,000, the highest of any Middle Eastern country after Iran.

In this new, starker environment, President Erdogan has extended an olive branch to his critics in Washington, announcing a new understanding with U.S. President Donald Trump to work together to counter the threat posed by the coronavirus outbreak. The heart of this new entente, it has emerged, is Ankara’s attempt to secure economic aid in exchange for dropping plans to immediately activate a Russian air defense system that had been a sticking point between the two governments.

US President Donald Trump greets Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an(L) upon arrival outside the White House in Washington, DC on November 2019 ,13.

(Getty)

The pandemic has arrived at a particularly difficult time for Erdogan. Turkey has only recently emerged from recession, and several of its economic indicators are fragile. The Turkish currency has fallen 14 percent against the dollar over the past year, and many of Turkey’s financial institutions are heavily overleveraged.

Ankara appears unprepared for the inevitable economic slowdown. As a consequence of the weakened economy, Ankara was unable to provide more than a relatively modest $15 billion stimulus plan on March 18 — a plan that, even on a per capita basis, is dwarfed by the stimulus packages recently unveiled in the U.S., Germany, and Brazil.

A STICKING POINT DEFERRED In his bid for closer ties with the U.S., Erdogan has had one major concession to offer: deferring the activation of the Russian S-400 air defense system. According to a senior Turkish official who spoke on condition of anonymity, “There is no going back on the decision to

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President Erdogan is reportedly keen to secure funding from the U.S. central bank if that would enable him to avoid pursuing a loan from the IMF, given the ostensibly negative domestic perceptions of working with the Fund. activate the S-400s [but] due to COVID-19 ... the plan for them to be ready in April will be delayed.” The delay in operationalizing the Russian system could drag on for several months, or indefinitely, the official said, adding that Turkey had in any case to overcome numerous technical difficulties.

NATO and the U.S. have long maintained steadfast opposition to Turkey’s acquisition of the Russian air defense system, even raising the specter of sanctions on Turkey if Ankara should move forward over American objections. Both sides had been on a trajectory toward an inexorable confrontation in April, when President Erdogan had announced that the S-400 would be activated.

Other sources have confirmed that economic calculations are decisive in Ankara’s thinking. As Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat, who heads the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies think tank, put it, “The economic shock is such that Turkey may indeed down the line seek some kind of external financing.” Ulgen went on to add, “If and when that time comes there will be more pressure on the Turkish government to permanently sideline the S400s.”

In recent days, Turkish officials acknowledged that Ankara has reached out to contacts within the American administration to explore the possibility of setting up a swap line from the U.S. Federal Reserve as well as other funding options to mitigate the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak. President Erdogan is reportedly keen to secure funding from the U.S. central bank if that would enable him to avoid pursuing a loan from the IMF, given the ostensibly negative domestic perceptions of working with the Fund.

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Jewish and Arab Doctors United Against a Common Foe

How the Coronavirus Pandemic Made Jewish-Israelis Recognise the Role tha Arab-Israelis Play in Society

by Amal Shahada What would happen if Arab doctors decided to stay at home?

This is a question which former director of the Mossad, Efraim Halevy, posed amidst the current Coronavirus

pandemic. Efraim was referring to the Arab-Israeli (sometimes referred to as the “1948 Arabs�) doctors, who make up twenty per cent of all physicians in Israel. Arab-Israeli doctors can be found in hospitals throughout all regions of Israel, and many of hold high positions in their fields. For instance, a large percentage

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Arab-Israeli doctors make up twenty per cent of all physicians in Israel. saw her become the Director of the «Epidemiology and Infection Prevention» unit at Poria Hospital in Tiberias.

Shortly after the initial outbreak, it became evident just how vital Arab-Israeli doctors are for the Israeli healthcare sector. Furthermore, many Arab-Israeli doctors were and currently are putting their lives at risk by being at the frontline of the fight against COVID19-, especially considering the fact of how contagious the virus is. Most Arab-Israeli doctors live in Arab towns mostly located in the Northern District and the Ijlil Village. Both of these regions are situated far from most Israeli hospitals. As such, not only are these Arab doctors risking their lives by doing their jobs, they also have to make long daily journeys to and from work. The sacrfices that these doctors make have been recognised in recent weeks, as many campaigns have been held thanking them for the service they provide to the public.

of Arab-Israeli doctors are head directors at hospitals, or heads of departments at clinics and health centres.

The current crisis has shone a spotlight on Arab-Israeli doctors’ importance for the health sector. One of the earliest incidents that sparked the public’s interest on the topic was when a significant Israeli individual went to a hospital in Tel Aviv. At said hospital he found that an Arab doctor was the one who was ensuring that the Coronavirus wasn’t spreading through the clinic. He did so by testing all the patients, all of whom were Jewish, who came into the clinic. Another news story that made headlines was one of the -38year-old Dr Heba Ziad who works for a hospital in Nazareth. Dr Ziad successfully treated the 16th Coronavirus patient in Israel, despite the fact that he was in a critical condition. The patient was a young -38year-old man who was placed in the ICU and was put on a ventilator.

Treating the 16th patient is only the latest of her accomplishments. Dr Ziad is a mother of three children, but she nevertheless successfully balanced her domestic and professional life. Her hard work and perseverance

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In an interview with Majalla, Dr. Heba Ziad said: “There is still so much we don’t know about the Coronavirus, however we are in constant conact with health authorities in Europe and East Asia since these countries have had more exposure to the virus and the best way to treat its patients. So far, we only use experimental treatments that have no known side effects, and thankfully one of said treatments worked with my patient.

Dr. Heba Ziad was one of the first physicians to be recognised in the national solidarity with doctors campaign, as a photo of her was published all around the country. In the photo, she was standing by an Arabic sign that read: “Thank you to Dr Heba Ziad for rescueing Coronavirus patient number 16”.

The campaign spread photos of doctors and medical staff who were treating COVID19- patients, and many of the most prominent doctors featured were Arab. In spite of the recognition Arab doctors are getting now, Arab-Israeli citizens have historically struggled in Israel for several reasons. During the first week of the Coronavirus outbreak in Israel, the Israeli right-wing was doing an defamatory campaign against the ArabIsraeli Joint List movement. The main reason behind

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the campaign was because of the movement’s stance on Benny Gantz forming a government.

In an extraordinary turn of events, many establishment Israeli politicians and security officials joined with the Joint List’s solidarity campaign which thanked the efforts of Arab-Israeli doctors. It should also be noted that the overwhelming majority of Arab-Israelis are Joint List supporters, as a matter of fact 90 percent of the “1948 Arabs” who voted in the latest election voted for the Joint List. This leads us to a critical question: Why do Arab-Israeli doctors face many incidences of defamation, despite the fact that they do their huminatarian duty of treating the ill? The fact that they never descriminate between an Arab patient and a Jewish patient also makes this a valid question that

A recent study conducted by the INSS noted that the fight to save lives would be “fatally compromised” without Arab health professionals.

needs to be addressed.

From here, Efraim Halevy said: “Whoever rejects the Arab members of the Knesset, rejects their supporters.

Those supporters include Arab-Israeli doctors who are currently saving the lives of many Israelis.”

Halevy would go on to say: “Many from the Arab community are working for the Israeli health sector.

Many of them are heads of hospitals, and specialists.

Many of the nation’s top surgeons, oncologists, and cardiologists in the country are Arabs. Thousands of Arabs work as nurses, equipment maintenance staff, and janitors in hospitals. Arab-Israelis also play a huge role in the pharmacy field; most pharmacists in Tel AvivYafo and its surrounding cities are Arab. Moreover, only two members of the Knesset are physicians, one of whom is Ahmad El Teeby who earned his medical degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.“ On the question of what would happen to the health sector if Arab doctors stayed at home Halevy said: “Today, the Israeli health sector is dependent on many factors, among them is the presence of its Arab staff.

If the thousands of Arab doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health workers decided to stay home, then our entire healthcare system would collapse”. Halevy

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would praise the efforts of Arab doctors during this crisis, as many of them have opted to rent properties closer to the hospitals they work at, some have spend more than two weeks working at their hospitals, while others have been working 7/24 responding to emergencies.

AN ARAB DOCTOR AND DEPUTY MAYOR OF A JEWISH CITY Shukri Awawdeh is an Arab doctor who resides in Nof HaGalil, a Jewish city overlooking the Arab city of Nazareth. Before the Coronavirus pandemic, Awawdeh was heavily involved in politics. In his ethinically diverse city, he was able to establish a movement that joined all Arab political parties and this movement became known as the Joint List. The Joint List successfully gained the votes of most Arab-Israeli citizens, and it became the official representative for Arabs in the Knesset. He was then appointed to become the Deputy Mayor of Nof HaGalil and he is the medical director of Nazareth’s Kupat Holim Meuhedet office.

He has played a huge role in the fight against the Coronavirus in Nof HaGalil. This city, and the North District by extension, didn’t receive as much attention as it needed from the health sector during the crisis.

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Arab-Israeli doctors can be found in hospitals throughout all regions of Israel, and many hold high positions in their fields.

As Deputy Mayor, Awawdeh worked tirelessly with the Israeli health sector to establish a testing centre in Nof HaGalil. This centre opened a month after the virus initially spread in the city and it has benefitted both Jewish and Arab inhabitants in Nof HaGalil and Nazareth.

In an interview with Majall, Dr Awawdeh reiterated the vital role of Arab-Israeli doctors in the Israeli health sector: “Arabs make up 5/1 of all employees in the health sector. In the North District, 40 per cent of doctors, health workers, nurses and emergency responders are Arab, that means that any Jewish-Israeli who is admitted at a hospital in the North District is likely to be treated by an Arab doctor or nurse. The Israeli right wing’s defamation campaign did not make

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an impact on how patients interact with Arab doctors.”

UNITED AGAINST A COMMON ENEMY Dr Awawdeh thinks that the Coronavirus has effectively broken many of the barriers that politicians built to separate communities. In his opinion, Arab doctors, health workers and Jewish-Israeli citizens in the Northern and Central District have collectively broken these barriers. Arab doctors did this by doing their sworn duties despite the risk it could have on their lives, while Jewish citizens did that by participating in these appreciation campaigns.

major in Immunology and Allergy. Her husband also works at the hospital and specializes in neurosurgery.

Dr. Yehia said that she gets annoyed and upset when the Prime Minister states that Israel needs to form a unified government that excludes Arab-Israelis. She is especially upset given the fact that Arab doctors are a central part in this fight against the virus. While Arab and Jewish doctors are standing side by side in solidarity, Dr Yehia states that she has experienced some incidents of prejudice from Jewish patients. She recalled one incident when one patient was transferred to her from a different department. The patient had told her that she did not want to be treated at that first department because it had Arab doctors. When Dr. Yehia told her that she herself was Arab, the patient was surprised and told her that she didn’t look Arab. The patient then subsequently requested to be transferred to another department, but the hospital refused. Dr Yehia refuses to be fazed by such attacks: “I chose to ignore such incidents, and treat all patients with all my heart.

I am proud to be Arab, I am also proud to be a doctor who saves lives. I also believe in living in peace and harmony.”

Professor Ravi Valden, who works for Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv, shared Dr Awawdeh’s sentiments. He said that Jewish and Arab doctors work together harmoniously in Sheba, as well as other hospitals and health centres around the country. “Everyone loves and respects them (the Arab doctors), without them the Israeli health sector would collapse.” With regards to Netanyahu’s defamatory attacks Valden said: “I’ve grown tired of them, he knows the important role Arabs play in the Israeli health sector, yet he unashamedly continues with these attacks.” Solidarity between Arab and Jewish doctors has increased during the time; recently 680 Arab and Jewish physicians signed a petition aimed at the Prime Minister’s defamatory comments. Dr Awawdeh was one of the signatories of the petition. This petition led to more stories being published about Arab doctors in the Israeli health sector, an aspect of daily life in Israel that the public largely ignored. Among the Arab doctors who were prominently featured in news stories was Dr Soad Hajj Yehia.

Professor Jihad Bishara also received attention during the doctors› support campaign. He is the director of the Epidemiology Unit at Plenson Hospital in Petah Tikva. Most of the doctors who work at that hospital are Jewish. At work, Bishara separates his duties from politics. “I do my job without thinking of what happens outside this hospital.” As a doctor, he is treated fairly by his Jewish colleagues. However, outside the hospital he is subject to many racial attacks. But he doesn’t let that come in the way of his work.

Dr. Soad Yehia works in the internal medicine department of Sheba Hospital, and is about to end her

THE CRISIS WITHOUT ARAB PROFESSIONALS

One Arab doctor, Dr Heba Ziad, successfully treated the 16th Coronavirus patient in Israel, despite the fact that he arrived at hospital in a critical condition.

In light of this crisis, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conducted research that exposed the descrimination Arab citizens face in Israel. The study showed that health services in Israel were harder for Arabs to access, fewer Coronavirus tests were being conducted among Arabs and informational material about COVID19- wasn’t even available in Arabic. The study also noted that the fight to save lives would be “fatally compromised” without Arab professionals.

THE INSS’S RECOMMENDATIONS At the end of the study, the INSS listed some policy

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recommendations to the government: 1) Jewish and Arab medical teams alike are combat soldiers in the shared war against the pandemic. The Arab population must be treated as equals and full partners in dealing with the danger, and given the sense that they and their welfare are taken seriously.

2) In the wider context of Jewish-Arab relations, the sense of shared destiny should be seen as an opportunity not to be missed to create a new and positive basis for the full integration of Arabs into the social fabric of Israel.

3) There should be an end to exclusionary and racist discourse and statements that call into question Arab loyalty to the state; Arabs’ wish to participate in the political levels and the legitimate integration of their representatives in the decision making processes should be recognized and respected.

4) Ensure equal provision of medical services, such

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as the drive-in testing center, while granting adequate representation to Arabs at decision making levels in the Ministry of Health and other ministries that are relevant to the crisis. It is also necessary to appoint a senior Arab spokesperson behalf of the Ministry of Health who can appear before the Arab public as a credible professional authority and encourage the appearance of Arab health experts in the principal media channels, including the Hebrew stations.

5) Launch a public information campaign in Arabic to educate people on how to deal with the virus. The information also should be presented by religious leaders and other influential figures, and address each community according to its customs, culture, and needs. Different Bedouin populations need specific kinds of information conveyed, preferably orally, by religious and communal leaders, as well as by doctors who come from tribes and families that are seen by the

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The Pandemic and the Toll of Transatlantic Discord At a Time of Crisis, the U.S.-European Relationship Can- and Must - Be Saved

by Karen Donfried, Wolfgang Ischinger As if anyone needed another reminder of fraying transatlantic ties, the novel coronavirus pandemic has made abundantly clear just how bad relations between the United States and Europe have become. After years of mutual grievance—over defence spending, trade, and much more—divergent national responses to this latest

crisis have brought new sources of tension and complaint.

In the face of medical-supply shortages, both the United States and Europe have turned inward. Washington ordered the 3M company to halt its exports of N95 masks and to reroute its overseas production to the United States as part of a broader effort to meet domestic demand, loosening restrictions only in the face of a vocal backlash.

The European Union banned the export of face shields,

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gloves, masks, and protective garments for the same reason. These beggar-thy-neighbor policies threaten to make the virus’s toll even worse. U.S. President Donald Trump’s unilateral transatlantic travel ban also sparked anger among European leaders, who lamented the United States’ failure to consult with them first.

Yet the pandemic should make another reality equally clear: transatlantic cooperation is essential to finding effective solutions to shared challenges—for the United States and Europe, and for the world. Accordingly, even as the pandemic has spawned the latest round of transatlantic grievance, it can—and should—also provide countries a needed spur to move beyond ongoing disputes and focus on a new transatlantic project: forging cooperative responses to the pandemic. Crisis brings opportunity, to both develop more effective policies and build a renewed sense of transatlantic solidarity that can last through this emergency and beyond.

FRIENDS IN NEED

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) attends a videoconference with G7 leaders on coordination of the COVID19- pandemic response at the Elysee presidential Palace in Paris on April ,16 2020. (Getty)

The first step the United States and the European Union should take is to lift all export bans and tariffs on medical equipment. In March, roughly three dozen countries restricted exports of critical products such as hospital masks, medical protective clothing, and other personal protective gear. Europe is the main source of U.S. imports of breathing masks, CT scanners, hand sanitizers, patient monitors, and x-ray equipment. Any protectionist impulse to limit such trade is self-defeating and threatens lives on both sides of the Atlantic.

These trade barriers have also damaged existing alliances.

During the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, France and Germany blocked the export of needed medical equipment to other EU members, despite the fact that the EU is supposed to be a single market. Only after pressure from Swedish officials did the French government lift its export restrictions on masks and rubber gloves (a Swedish company was trying to send these products to Italy and Spain from a storage center in France). Sweden’s foreign minister, Ann Linde, reminded her EU counterparts in a tweet about the importance of showing “that the internal market works even in times of crisis.” Meanwhile, the United States was slow to offer any help to its counterparts, including Italy, its hardest-hit European ally.

This harsh reality created an opening that Russia and China rushed to exploit. On March 22, just 24 hours after speaking to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent nine planes loaded with medical supplies to Italy. Russia’s aid has been controversial—some reports claim that most of the

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In the face of medical-supply shortages, both the United States and Europe have turned inward. equipment was of little or no use—but Italians, feeling abandoned by their traditional allies, embraced the help.

China was even quicker to respond to Italy’s situation, shipping specialized medical staff, gloves, masks, and ventilators. Luigi Di Maio, the Italian foreign minister, praised the effort, rejoicing that “there are people in the world who want to help Italy.” Other countries, including the Czech Republic, France, Greece, and Spain, also expressed appreciation for Chinese help. In April, the EU began to mobilize, announcing significant financial, economic, and medical support programs, but considerable damage to European cohesion had already been done.

Americans and Europeans have championed an open trading system since the end of World War II; the coronavirus should not be allowed to undo it by exacerbating already existing transatlantic trade tensions. The pandemic should instead be a moment for the transatlantic community to reaffirm and recommit to shared principles of serving citizens and allies—whether it means getting health-care workers the protective equipment they need or helping the sick to recover. Lifting these harmful bans and tariffs would make good policy and good geopolitics.

TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY THREATS The United States and Europe should also use the virus as an opportunity to broaden their definitions of national and international security to include public health. COVID19(the disease caused by the novel coronavirus) has made crystal clear that a germ can kill as easily as a bullet.

To that end, the United States and Europe should expand NATO’s capacity. The organization has already proved vital during the current pandemic, delivering urgent medical equipment and using its military transport capacities for relief efforts. But given the collective need for medical supplies that has arisen during the COVID19crisis, NATO should provide further assistance by creating public health stockpiles. If NATO can stockpile military equipment, it can also stockpile medical equipment on a collective basis, with the guarantee that all partners will make those medical necessities available to others when the need arises.

This shift would not only permit greater cooperation

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where it is sorely needed but also alleviate fissures in the transatlantic security alliance. The scramble for medical equipment among NATO members is deeply damaging cohesion. French and German officials, for example, complained about being outbid for supplies by U.S. buyers. And earlier this month, Berlin accused the United States of seizing its shipment of 200,000 masks in Thailand. Berlin’s interior minister, Andreas Geisel, called this “an act of modern piracy.” (Geisel later backtracked on his claim, but the bitterness was already clear.)

Mandating NATO to stockpile medical supplies would also reaffirm that the organization is relevant to twenty-firstcentury threats. Over the past decade, public enthusiasm for the alliance has fallen. According to Pew Research Center data, favorable views of NATO have dropped 16 percentage points in Germany—from 73 percent in 2009 to 57 percent in 2019—and 22 percentage points in France—from 71 percent in 2009 to 49 percent in 2019. Expanding NATO’s stockpiles to include personal protective equipment and other medical supplies would allow the organization to step up its assistance during a pandemic, and it would make clear that the alliance stands ready to protect its members from today’s most immediate existential threats, whether from an aggressive Russia, an unstable Middle East, or a pandemic.

DEMOCRATIC SURVEILLANCE Finally, Americans and Europeans should respond to future international pandemics by creating a shared system of global medical surveillance.

This harsh reality created an opening that Russia and China rushed to exploit. On March 22, just 24 hours after speaking to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent nine planes loaded with medical supplies to Italy.

When transatlantic allies detect a disease outbreak trending toward an epidemic at the local or national level, they must be prepared to send rapid-response medical teams to assess the extent of the threat and the response needed. This policy must be based on an agreed transatlantic pandemic strategy that defines what constitutes a pandemic, explains protocols for early containment and mitigation, and details how to manage the outbreak collectively if it spreads globally.

This medical surveillance should be followed up by joint efforts to help other countries contain future outbreaks, and it should be designed as the nucleus of a more effective global system operated by the World Health Organization. The WHO currently lacks the power and the resources to operate such a system, and Trump’s recent decision to suspend the WHO’s funding will only make matters worse. The United States and Europe should instead strive to strengthen the role of the WHO through initiatives such as a comprehensive global “responsibility to report”—an early-warning commitment made not only by national governments but also by regional health authorities, research labs, and companies to report outbreaks of epidemic diseases.

As the coronavirus crisis has spread, citizens have stepped up. When the British government sought volunteers to help the National Health Service fight COVID19-, more than

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Some Russian soldies prepare to sanitize the retirement on home for elderly in Lovere on 11 April 2020 in Bergamo, Italy. The government of the Russian Federation has sent medical equipment, mobile laboratories and disinfection units, doctors and even military experts in bacteriological warfare to help the Italian military in the areas most affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

(Photo by Pier Marco Tacca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

750,000 people signed up within four days, marking the largest surge of volunteers since World War II. Billionaires are also answering the call: the Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has pledged 1$ billion to pandemic relief. But none of this can make up for the void left by governments.

Now is the moment for the United States to draw on its immense global leadership potential. The United States, together with its closest allies in Europe, can form the core of a worldwide response to the pandemic and push others to work together, as well.

Citizens on both sides of the Atlantic increasingly recognize that they need more, rather than less, international cooperation. Citizens expect their governments to protect them, and many feel that their leaders have failed them during the current pandemic.

The United States government and its European counterparts urgently need to work together to tackle the coronavirus. These proposed initiatives are one way to express transatlantic solidarity when, as now, allies are in serious need. They are also a mechanism for ensuring that the world does not face a recurrence of COVID19- and that allies will not fight the next pandemic alone.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

Members of the Army National Guard work at a recently opened coronavirus testing site on 2020 ,19 April in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

New York City, which was hit especially hard ,19-by COVID is just now beginning to see a drop in cases. (Photo by Spencer Platt/ )Getty Images

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Mass Consumption Is What Ails Us To Avoid Pandemics, Our Whole Economy Needs to Change

by Sonia Shah The effectiveness of our protections against future pandemics will hinge upon how we think about where they come from.

The emerging conventional wisdom casts pandemics as

fundamentally inscrutable and unpredictable, comparable to natural disasters and acts of terror. The most society can do to gird itself, in that case, is hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Bill Gates recommends researching and developing vaccines and mobilizing soldiers and medical workers.

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Former White House biodefense adviser Rajeev Venkayya suggests a permanent ban on the wild animal trade and improved disease surveillance. And Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, calls for more funding for government health agencies.

But a wide range of potentially more effective and lasting interventions becomes possible when pandemics are understood in a different light: not as arbitrary calamities but instead as probabilistic events, made more likely by human agency. This means that humans can do more to avert pandemics, reducing the risk that pathogens erupt in our bodies in the first place and minimizing the probability that they will spread. But doing so will require a fundamental restructuring of the global economy and the current way of life, which rests upon the accelerating consumption of natural resources.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE Since 1940, hundreds of new pathogens have caused outbreaks around the world, most of them originating in the bodies of animals. The novel coronavirus is just the latest, and it is unlikely to be the last. As I have written elsewhere, industrial expansion—driven by mass consumption—has helped many of today’s novel pathogens emerge. Industrialization increases the probability that animal microbes will find their way into human bodies by providing opportunities for them to spread in growing cities and by facilitating their transit to susceptible populations around the globe.

There are about several stalls in every wet market in Guilin, trading in different species of dogs live and dead - including Chinese rural dogs and pet-like dogs. 19JUN14 (Photo by David Wong/ South China Morning Post via Getty Images)

Microbes become pathogenic when they can colonize novel habitats, feasting on a new host’s tissues before that host can mount a targeted immune response. The microbes most successful at colonizing human bodies are those that live inside the bodies of animals—especially other mammals, such as bats and pigs, and birds—which have acted as reservoirs of human pathogens for millennia.

Historically, zoonotic microbes have made only slow incursions into the human body. For an animal microbe to move from its wild host to a human, the two species must come into intimate, prolonged contact. Further, to cause a pandemic, that microbe must reach sufficient numbers of susceptible human hosts, often by being ferried into large and distant populations. In the preindustrial world, such opportunities were scarce. Just a few hundred years ago, the world was dominated by forests and wetlands. Urban centers were few, and transport between them was slow and uncertain. A 2010 study estimates that most of the planet’s surface was wild or semiwild in 1700. These conditions offered relatively few opportunities for animal microbes to turn into human pathogens and cause pandemics.

But as industrial activities expanded, the landscape transformed. Today, human settlements and activities

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Since 1940, hundreds of new pathogens have caused outbreaks around the world, most of them originating in the bodies of animals.

The novel coronavirus is just the latest, and it is unlikely to be the last. dominate more than half the planet’s land. Less than a quarter of the global landscape is still wild. This shrinkage of habitats forces the remaining species to cram into patches of land closer to towns, cities, farms, and mines, increasing the probability that an animal microbe will come into intimate contact with a human body. Once such microbes spill over into humans, they can spread around the world on fast-moving trains, trucks, ships, and airplanes—the transportation systems humans have devised to ferry goods and commodities from one part of the planet to another.

Industry’s domination over the planet has paved a wide path for animal microbes to turn into human pathogens.

Human consumption, not population growth, has driven these changes in land use. Over the past 50 years, human populations have doubled, but consumption of the planet’s natural resources has tripled. Traditionally, people living in high-income, industrialized countries consume most of the world’s natural resources. Despite efforts to recycle and increase efficiency, these populations consume more than 13 times as much per capita as populations living in low-income countries. Since 2000, a rise in global household incomes has led people in middle-income countries, such as China and India, to become major consumers, as well. Instead of relying on locally sourced staples and minimally processed foods, wealthier households purchase more animal products, which, per calorie, require 76 percent more land to produce than plant-based foods. The business of growing, processing, and transporting these resource-intense products paves over more wildlife habitats and increases the likelihood of a pathogen spreading from animals to humans.

Tropical developing countries—which grow the luxury products that the rising middle class demands, such as coffee, tea, and cacao—fulfil about a quarter of the global demand for natural resources. The tropics have greater biodiversity than the temperate regions but more limited disease-surveillance and health-care systems that could spot and contain outbreaks.

Not surprisingly, two of the most successful pandemiccausing pathogens—cholera and HIV—erupted during the era of colonial expansion into tropical regions; cholera was

prompted by the spread of rice farming into the Bangladeshi wetlands (known as the Sundarbans) under the British Raj in the nineteenth century, and HIV emerged after the city of Leopoldville expanded into the jungles of Belgian Congo in the early twentieth century.

This expanding industrial footprint has accelerated the flow of pathogens into new territories around the world. In

In China, the growing prosperity of the middle class has led to an increased demand for the luxury “yewei” cuisine, which revolves around the consumption of rare, exotic wild animals; live animal (or “wet”) markets, where such wild animals are sold, have grown accordingly.

Central Africa, the growth of bush meat hunting—linked to a dearth of local fish due to Chinese and EU overfishing— has spread monkey pox, a smallpox-like virus, from rodents to humans. In China, the growing prosperity of the middle class has led to an increased demand for the luxury “yewei” cuisine, which revolves around the consumption of rare, exotic wild animals; live animal (or “wet”) markets, where such wild animals are sold, have grown accordingly. These wet markets facilitated the emergence of SARS-CoV1- in bats, civet cats, and humans in 2002 and, some speculate, the novel coronavirus in 2019. And in Southeast Asia, rising incomes have led to the increased consumption of pork and the growth of pig farms. The expansion of swine farming in Malaysia precipitated the transmission of Nipah virus from bats to pigs and then humans in 1998; similarly, in China, the expansion of swine farming has led to the frequent emergence of highly virulent forms of avian influenza viruses and antibioticresistant pathogens.

Humans are not the only victims of novel pathogens as boundaries between habitats erode. Pathogens have also been carried by humans into animals. Since the late 1990s, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a fungus most likely spread by humans, has decimated amphibians around the world.

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Health officer uses a thermal head to detect a monkeypox virus on arriving passengers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang near Jakarta, Indonesia on May ,15 2019. Monkeypox is an infectious disease by monkeypox virus endemic from parts of Central and Westerns Africa that make humans lesions, fever, muscle aches, and chills.

(Getty)

At the busy RT Mart discount supermarket Taiwanese shoppers stock up on supplies 2020 ,20 on March in Taipei, Taiwan.

Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong have had more successful approaches in battling the pandemic given their experience with )Getty( .2003 SARS in

Spelunkers and other people visiting caves have introduced Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or white-nose syndrome, to North American bats, millions of which have died of the fungal pathogen since 2007. And in 2014, a highly virulent strain of avian influenza—hatched in Asia’s booming factory farms—decimated North American poultry, causing what the U.S. Department of Agriculture called the worst animal disease epidemic in U.S. history.

Humans are not the only victims of novel pathogens as boundaries between habitats erode. Pathogens have also been carried by humans into animals.

GOING GREEN For years, expanding human appetites and growing industrialization have helped unleash a steady stream of pathogens, from cholera and the Ebola virus to SARS and the novel coronavirus. Preventing these pathogens from emerging and spreading in the first place requires taming the underlying drivers that allow them to do so.

Mass consumption would be impossible without the global bonfire of fossil fuels, which powers the machines that cut down the forests, provides the petro fertilizers for industrial farms, and fuels the airplanes that spread pathogens around the world, just as it thickens the blanket of carbon in the atmosphere. Preventing the next pandemic, then, will be impossible without greener policies.

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To date, neither the growing toll of the climate crisis nor the thousands of extinctions caused by habitat destruction have convinced political leaders to embrace sustainable consumption of energy and other natural resources. Perhaps the mass graves being excavated to bury COVID19- victims and the economic devastation suffered by tens of millions of people who have lost their livelihoods due to nationwide lockdowns will. If so, the COVID19- pandemic may present a unique opportunity for the kind of transformative lifestyle changes that could save lives, livelihoods, wild species, and our shared ecosystems.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

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The Pandemic Won’t Make China the World’s Leader Few Countries Are Buying the Model or the Message From Beijing

by Michael Green and Evan S. Medeiros Early this year, as the novel coronavirus began to spread in China, the predictions were immediate and stark: the outbreak was China’s “Chernobyl moment,” perhaps even “the beginning of the end” for the Chinese Communist Party, with geopolitical consequences that, at a time of growing U.S.-Chinese tension, would play to Washington’s considerable advantage. But then, almost as quickly, the

predictions went into reverse. As China appeared to contain the spread of the coronavirus while the United States and Western Europe suffered large outbreaks of their own, the pandemic and the resulting global recession were said to mark a geopolitical reordering that would leave China as the victor. Beijing certainly saw such an opportunity, launching an international campaign stressing the failures of democratic governance and casting itself as the leader of the global pandemic response.

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But it is doubtful that Beijing’s gambit will succeed in turning a pandemic that likely started in a Chinese city into a major step in China’s rise. There are real limits to China’s capacity to take advantage of the current crisis—whether through disingenuous propaganda or ineffective global action. And just as the potential for China to benefit from the coronavirus is too easily overstated, the ability of the United States to show global leadership even after its initial missteps is too easily discounted.

As deeply flawed as Washington’s response to the pandemic has been so far, the United States’ power—distinct from any particular president—rests on an enduring combination of material capabilities and political legitimacy, and there are few signs that the pandemic is causing power to shift rapidly and permanently to China’s side of the ledger.

CHINESE PROPAGANDA

A pedestrian walks by a bus stop screen showing a video clip of of Chinese president Xi Jinping wearing a protective mask on February 2020 ,29 in Shanghai, China. (Getty)

China’s initial propaganda offensive was stunningly aggressive, but it now appears clumsy and unlikely to work. The Chinese Communist Party’s narrative is limited by the simple fact that too many people know about the outbreak’s origins in Wuhan and Beijing’s bungled initial response—in particular, its efforts to suppress information and silence many of the doctors who first warned of the emergence of a dangerous new virus. In the face of calls for greater transparency, Beijing ejected American journalists working for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. On Twitter, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry accused the U.S. military of bringing the coronavirus to Wuhan. Although Beijing has backed away from this reprehensible claim in recent weeks, its approach has a whiff of desperation, which hints at Beijing’s own insecurity about the mishandling of the outbreak.

Global scepticism extends, with good reason, to China’s coronavirus statistics. Indeed, while China’s official tally of new COVID19- cases indicates effective containment (by March 19, the number of new local infections had fallen to near zero), some in China fear that the central government has simply stopped reporting all the test results in order to keep its official count low and to maintain the narrative that it has won the war against the virus; it wouldn’t be the first time Beijing has suppressed unfavorable data.

Some leaders, of course, are embracing Beijing’s narrative and applauding its methods in combating the outbreak—including officials in Cambodia, Iran, Pakistan, and Serbia. But few of these governments have been newly persuaded by recent Chinese messaging; they have a long record of accepting Chinese political narratives and economic assistance, often at the service of their own power at home. Indeed, some early recipients in Europe of Chinese-made testing kits and protective equipment rejected them as substandard. Just this week, Finland’s prime minister fired the head of the country›s emergency supply agency for spending millions of euros on defective Chinese facemasks.

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As China appeared to contain the spread of the coronavirus while the United States and Western Europe suffered large outbreaks of their own, the pandemic and the resulting global recession were said to mark a geopolitical reordering that would leave China as the victor.

Meanwhile, other leaders are already pushing back against China’s attempt to rewrite the global narrative about its COVID19- response. European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell openly criticized Chinese efforts as “a struggle for influence through spinning and the ‘politics of generosity.’” Leaders in Brazil and India, who are facing challenges at home, have quickly turned to criticizing China and eschewing its aid. In Africa, public attention has been riveted by stories of widespread racism against African expats in southern China. And even before the pandemic started, Beijing faced a large trust deficit among its Asian neighbors. A survey of public opinion in six Asian countries, conducted by the Pew Research Center between May and October 2019, and published in late February, found significantly higher percentages of people held favorable views of the United States when compared with China.

In pushing its narrative of triumph against the coronavirus, Beijing’s approach will be compared not only to that of the United States but also to the impressive actions of many Asian countries, including several democracies. Beijing failed badly at first—due to a striking and predictable lack of transparency— and Washington is failing now. But democratic South Korea and Taiwan have performed better than both. South Korea’s impressive testing and contact-tracing regime and Taiwan’s early detection and containment efforts reflect both their governance choices and their ability to learn from past experience with pandemics. Citizens and governments looking for models are more likely to choose those democratic successes than China’s vaunted authoritarian alternative and draconian containment efforts—the real costs of which remain unknown.

Moreover, China’s economy can’t ride to the rescue as it did during the global financial crisis. Although there is a partial uptick on the supply side as Chinese factories reopen, the demand side drivers for China’s growth are in real trouble. China’s economy is too dependent on external demand from the United States and Europe to become the sole savior of the global economy. The

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12 countries hardest hit by the virus today account for about 40 percent of China’s exports. Many of these countries are also China’s top suppliers of intermediate goods. China’s economy will not be able to return to its prior growth trajectory of some five to six percent annually until the economies of the United States and the European Union recover, as well. Chinese policymakers will have to hold back some of their domestic stimulus efforts until that happens, knowing such stimulus will have a limited impact if global demand is down. Funding another credit-fueled stimulus as the Chinese did in 9–2008 is off the table due to China’s high overall debt levels and the real risk of triggering a collapse of its financial system. In this crisis, the American and Chinese economies must sink or swim together.

THE PERILS OF PREDICTION In the middle of a global crisis, the pressures to forecast the longterm, strategic implications of the emergency are legion. The problem with drawing early conclusions is that they are often wrong: analysts focus on the immediate consequences of recent events and discount the structural features of global order.

To be sure, there has been a catastrophic failure of U.S. political and diplomatic leadership in the current crisis that could cost the United States dearly in lives and international influence over the coming months. But to argue that this may portend a “Suez moment” for the United States, as Kurt M. Campbell and Rush Doshi recently did in Foreign Affairs, goes too far. It is worth examining the Suez analogy more closely. The British intervention in the Suez in 1956 was the last gasp of an empire that had long since lost the power and legitimacy to impose its will on its former colonial states. The United States had surpassed the United Kingdom on every diplomatic, economic, and military metric a generation before the Suez crisis. China’s rising military and technological power today is impressive, but China’s currency does not approach the hegemony that the dollar enjoyed in 1956 or that it enjoys today. Indeed, the United Kingdom’s share of global GDP at that time was only a fraction

Some leaders, of course, are embracing Beijing’s narrative and applauding its methods in combating the outbreak— including officials in Cambodia, Iran, Pakistan, and Serbia.

of the United States’ today. As the Chinese Leninists would say, the international correlation of forces in 1956 were decidedly not in the United Kingdom’s favor.

That is not the case today for the United States. Even as the United States stumbles in the current crisis, Beijing faces internal and external challenges that stem from its choices about economic and political governance at home and global governance abroad.

There is scant evidence that China’s authoritarian model today has more attraction than the democratic norms embraced by many of China’s neighbors. The twenty-first century is hardly certain to be “the Chinese century,” no matter what the United States does. Rather, it is more likely to be an Asian one given the effective and efficient governance demonstrated in recent weeks, in addition to the region’s substantial and growing contributions to global innovation, productivity, and growth.

RESTORING AMERICAN LEADERSHIP Although China’s position of global leadership is hardly assured, the United States should not be complacent—far from it. There may not be a shift of power to China, but there is an ongoing crisis of American leadership, as Campbell and Doshi rightly note in their piece in Foreign Affairs. It is essential that the United States reestablish competent leadership on this pandemic at all levels. The world clearly needs a global system of surveillance, detection testing, and pharmacological response. So far, China’s rhetoric and diplomacy have generated limited gains, but the

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Members of Barcelona›s Guardia Urbana, ‹Barcelona›s Local Police› checks a man at Rambles boulevard on April 2020 ,19 in Barcelona, Spain. (Getty)

security treaties with Australia, Japan, and others were signed at the height of the Korean War; the Quad framework with Australia, India, and Japan was organized in less than 72 hours in response to the 2004 tsunami; the G20- leaders gathered for the first time in November 2008, in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis. Even after the 98–1997 financial crisis, when the United States and the International Monetary Fund demanded tough conditions that alienated much of Asia as Beijing won points for not devaluing its currency, the long-term result was more resilient and market-based economies in the region, not a shift to Chinesestyle state capitalism.

United States and its allies must remain vigilant lest Beijing further expand its role in global governance and institutional design at a time when Washington is stepping back.

Previous global and regional crises dating back to the 1950s offer important lessons for restoring U.S. leadership. Indeed, many enduring patterns of cooperation and institutional development have grown out of moments of great duress: the United States’

A close up of President Donald J. Trump›s notes shows where Corona was crossed out «Corona» and replaced with «Chinese» Virus as he speaks with his coronavirus task force in response to the coronavirus 19-COVID pandemic during a briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House ,19 on Thursday, March in Washington, 2020 DC. - Getty

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If the United States is in strategic competition with China, then effective U.S. leadership should be at the service of building something positive out of the crisis rather than trying to use it to isolate and alienate Beijing. The failure of the G7- foreign ministers to reach agreement on a joint statement (because the U.S. delegation insisted on calling the novel coronavirus the “Wuhan virus,” going against the guidelines of the World Health Organization and the positions of Washington’s closest allies) hardly constitutes an example of effective leadership. For decades, the United States has maintained power, credibility, and influence not only by virtue of its size and capabilities but also by attracting other nations to its vision for security and prosperity. A United States that is churlish and defensive about China right now is not a United States that will earn respect among its friends and allies.

A United States that learns from the experiences of Germany, South Korea, Taiwan and others in pandemic management; that embraces practical and meaningful cooperation with China; and that engages with global organizations, such as the WHO, to help them reform is a United States that can use the pandemic as an opportunity to remind the world of what American leadership looks like.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

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Hezbollah Doesn’t Want Any Reforms Recently a paper rumoured to be the government’s economic reform plan was leaked, and apparently it intends to present this plan to all parties involved in the crisis. The parties in the crisis include the Lebanese people, banks, international creditors that hold treasury bonds and finally the institutions and countries that seek to assist Lebanon in the form of loans, which would only be given on the condition of reducing the public budget deficit by reforming the electricity sector and imposing additional taxes on Lebanese citizens. It should be noted that this leaked paper lacked any serious reforms that would adjust the structure of the Lebanese economy and halt its downward spiral. Why is that?

by: Elie Fawaz

Simply put, any structural economic reforms will come at odds with the current political structure in Lebanon. The first entity that would be hurt by any reforms in the country’s political and economic apparatuses is Hezbollah.

This is because the group is the biggest government entity that exploits state corruption and it also the largest captor of state funds. Moreover, other political entities in the country, such as Gebran Bassil, get a piece of the pie by promising complete obedience to the group.

So what reforms should the government seek to take in order to ensure economic recovery?

First, there is the problem of surplus employment in the public sector. A third of the state budget goes to cover public sector pensions. Part of this money is paid to thousands of imaginary employees who do not show up to work. This has been a problem that has been informally discussed among many political blocs, but it has not been officially addressed.

A report by Ibrahim Kanaan, a member of President Aoun’s bloc, indicated that therr is about 40,000 imaginary jobs in the public sector. These jobs are divided among the leaders of Lebanon’s religious sects. The reason why thousands of people are getting paid (with state funds) for doing nothing is because leaders distribute these jobs among their sects, and clans to ensure their loyalty. Addressing this issue would require leaders from sects to forgo their ability of keeping their clans and electorate happy and satisfied.

Second, there is the problem of customs evasion, which is something that Hezbollah is directly involved in. Most businesspeople and merchants with close ties to Hezbollah have American sanctions placed on them. To help these businesses, Hezbollah ensures that goods going to their loyalist merchants pass through airports and harbours without any customs fees. As a result, these merchants can flood markets with goods at low prices that other businesses can’t compete with. Ghazi Al-Aridi, the former Minister of Public Works and Transportation, spoke about this issue stating that such actions have deprived the state from billions of dollars in revenue. Moreover, merchant tax evasion has hurt the economy, what is worse is the fact that most businesspeople seek tax evasion, especially those who are loyal to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah cannot and will not enforce any policies that will improve the Lebanese economy because it benefits from the curruption that is rampant within the state

Then there’s the issue of the electrical energy crisis, which is a huge rabbit hole in of itself since this issue has exhausted public funds and has cost the state tens of billions of dollars over the last three decades. Up until this moment, Lebanon has not found a sustainable solution to this electricity crisis and yet the Lebanese population still annually pays two billion dollars for such a poor service. Gebran Bassil and his Free Patriotic Movement have been in charge of this portfolio for the past decade and he has thus far failed to address the issue.

Any economic policy that addresses the issues above would hurt Hezbollah and its allies since it would deprive them from their sources of income. Any resolution of these problems would also hurt the group’s illicit activities in Latin america and its efforts to circumvent the Trump administration’s policies towards Iran.

As such, Hezbollah cannot and will not enforce any policies that will improve the Lebanese economy because it benefits from the curruption that is rampant within the state. So the real question is the following: if the Diab government ignores all these issues and forces the people to bear the burden of economic reform by making them to pay higher taxes, would they accept that?

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Issue 1797- April - 24/04/2020

Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayeb: Imam of Al-Azhar and Leader of Moderate Sunni Islam www.majalla.com

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Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayeb: Imam of Al-Azhar and Leader of Moderate Sunni Islam Majalla – London Ahmed Al-Tayeb was born in 1946 in AlKurna village in the governorate of Luxor.

He received his basic education at Al-Azhar school, where he memorized and studied the Qur’an and Islamic major works and texts. He studied Doctrine and Philosophy at Al-Azhar University, where he graduated in 1969. He then earned a Master›s degree and Ph.D. in Islamic philosophy in 1971 and 1977 respectively. Al-Tayeb is a hereditary Sufi shaykh and has expressed support for a global Sufi league.

He became a lecturer in 1977 and an associate professor in 1982. Since January 1988, he had been a professor of philosophy at Al-Azhar University. In addition to his academic career, Al-Tayeb served as the Grand Mufti of the Arab Republic of Egypt from March 2002 until September 2003. He became president of Al-Azhar University in September 2003 until he was appointed in 2010 as Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the second-oldest university in the world, where teaching has continued without interruption since 975 CE. Al-Azhar represents the centre of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. The university is considered one of the most

prominent Islamic educational institutions, and the foremost centre of Sunni Muslim scholarship worldwide.

Prior to his appointment as the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and president of alAzhar University by former president Hosni Mubarak, he was a member of Mubarak›s National Democratic Party›s Policies Committee. He initially refused to resign from his position in the National Democratic Party (NDP) by saying that there was no conflict between his role at Al-Azhar and membership in the party.

Al-Tayeb’s scholarly influence as a leading intellectual of Sunni Islam spans the globe.

He has served as the Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies in Aswan, and the theology faculty of the International Islamic University in Pakistan. He has also taught in universities in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. He speaks English and French languages fluently, and he has translated several books from French to Arabic.

Al-Tayeb has emphasized his mission to promote traditional Islam since becoming Grand Sheikh. He has stressed

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the importance of teaching students about Islamic heritage—considering Al-Azhar graduates as ambassadors of Islam to the world. On 29 August 2016 during the World Islamic Conference held in Grozny, Chechnya, Sheikh Tayyeb defined the Sunni community (Ahl Sunnah wa Jama’a) as those who follow Imam Abul-Hasan Al-Ash’ari and Imam Abu Mansur Al-Maturidi and the scholars of Hanafi, Maliki, and Shafi’i jurisprudence, as well as the moderate scholars of Hanbali school. He also included the Sufis following in the way of Imam Al-Junayd.

Al-Tayeb has been active in trying to diffuse the influence of ISIS, organizing many initiatives and conferences. He has strongly condemned the group, stating that it is acting «under the guise of this holy religion and have given themselves the name ‹Islamic State› in an attempt to export their false Islam.”

He has also tried to improve foreign relations and met with many foreign religious leaders and heads of states (including the Pope and Queen Elizabeth).

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Understanding Inflammation

The Right Kind of Inflammation is Essential to Your Body›s Healing System. But Chronic Inflammation Can be a Problem

by Harvard Men›s Health Watch The saying «too much of a good thing» applies to much of life, but especially to inflammation.

«People think inflammation needs to be stomped out at all times, but it plays an essential role in healing and injury repair to keep your body safe

and healthy,» says Dr. Robert H. Shmerling, medical editor of Understanding Inflammation from Harvard Health Publishing and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. «Some inflammation is good. Too much is often bad. The goal is to recognize when inflammation is simply doing its job, and when it can potentially cause problems.»

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There are two types of inflammation: acute and chronic.

People are most familiar with acute inflammation. This is the redness, warmth, swelling, and pain around tissues and joints that occurs in response to an injury, like when you cut yourself.

ACUTE AND CHRONIC

There are two types of inflammation: acute and chronic. People are most familiar with acute inflammation. This is the redness, warmth, swelling, and pain around tissues and joints that occurs in response to an injury, like when you cut yourself. When the body is injured, your immune system releases white blood cells to surround and protect the area.

«Acute inflammation is how your body fights infections and helps speed up the healing process,» says Dr. Shmerling. «In this way, inflammation is good because it protects the body.» This process works the same if you have a virus like a cold or the flu.

In contrast, when inflammation gets turned up too high and lingers for a long time, and the immune system continues to pump out white blood cells and chemical messengers that prolong the process, that›s known as chronic inflammation. «From the body›s perspective, it›s under consistent attack, so the immune system keeps fighting indefinitely,» says Dr. Shmerling.

Signs of inflammation are like a car›s dashboard engine light. It tells you that something is wrong.

But your response is not to take out the bulb, because that›s not the problem. Instead, you look at what caused the light to turn on. «It›s the same with inflammation,» says Dr. Shmerling. «It›s telling you that something bigger is going on that requires attention.»

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When this happens, white blood cells may end up attacking nearby healthy tissues and organs.

For example, if you are overweight and have more visceral fat cells - the deep type of fat that surrounds your organs - the immune system may see those cells as a threat and attack them with white blood cells. The longer you are overweight, the longer your body can remain in a state of

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inflammation.

Research has shown that chronic inflammation is associated with heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and bowel diseases like Crohn›s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Yet, because chronic inflammation can continue for a long time, it›s not easy to know its exact impact. «It›s a chicken-and-egg scenario,» says Dr. Shmerling. «Does chronic inflammation increase the risk of these ailments, or is it a byproduct? It is not always clear.»

MAKE LIFESTYLE CHANGES

Here are some other steps you can take to prevent and reduce chronic inflammation: • If your gums bleed when you brush or floss, you may have gum inflammation. Make an appointment to see your dentist for a check-up and step up your oral hygiene.

• Get your cholesterol tested. High amounts of «bad» LDL cholesterol can lead to an inflammatory response in the arteries and restrict blood flow.

• Quit smoking. The toxins from smoking have a direct link to inflammation.

WHEN TO WORRY

Most of the time, you don›t need to worry too much about acute inflammation, says Dr. Shmerling. You can take an over-the-counter pain reliever to help relieve symptoms, or apply cold compresses to reduce swelling. «Otherwise, it is usually best to let the inflammation do its

How do you know if you have chronic inflammation? A blood test measures a protein produced by the liver, C-reactive protein (CRP), which rises in response to inflammation.

work to help with healing,» says Dr. Shmerling.

Of course, the cause of acute inflammation may need treatment. For example, a bacterial infection may require antibiotics, so if you have a fever or significant symptoms - such as severe pain or shortness of breath - see your doctor.

Chronic inflammation is trickier to deal with.

The problem is that chronic inflammation is often «invisible,» since it does not show telltale physical signs the way acute inflammation does.

So how can you prevent or reduce inflammation you cannot necessarily see or feel?

The only way to detect chronic inflammation is to have an evaluation by your doctor. He or she will review your symptoms, perform a physical exam, and perhaps check your blood for signs of inflammation. (See «A test for inflammation.»)

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In contrast, when inflammation gets turned up too high and lingers for a long time, and the immune system continues to pump out white blood cells and chemical messengers that prolong the process, that›s known as chronic inflammation. impact on managing chronic inflammation since they both also can help control weight and improve sleep.

The evidence is not clear that a specific type of diet can prevent chronic inflammation.

However, certain foods are associated with either promoting or inhibiting the inflammatory response. These foods also are linked to a lower risk of problems related to chronic inflammation, such as heart disease, weight gain, and cancer.

Otherwise, the best approach is to prevent conditions related to chronic inflammation. «It goes back to the basics: maintaining a healthy weight, choosing a good diet, getting plenty of sleep, and exercising regularly,» says Dr. Shmerling.

A TEST FOR INFLAMMATION

How do you know if you have chronic inflammation? A blood test measures a protein produced by the liver, C-reactive protein (CRP), which rises in response to inflammation. A CRP level between 1 and 3 milligrams per liter of blood often signals a low, yet chronic, level of inflammation. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate is another blood test for inflammation. It is used for people with inflammatory conditions, like rheumatoid arthritis.

EAT RIGHT, MOVE MORE

Diet and exercise have an especially strong

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For instance, cut back or eliminate foods high in simple sugars like soda, fruit juices with added sugars, sports drinks, processed meat, and refined carbs like white bread and pasta. «These foods can spike blood sugar levels, which can lead to overeating and weight gain,» says Dr. Shmerling.

Also, eat more foods high in the antioxidants known as polyphenols, which can lower inflammation. Examples include all types of berries, cherries, plums, red grapes, onions, turmeric, green tea, and dark green leafy vegetables like spinach and kale.

Regular exercise can help protect against conditions linked with chronic inflammation, especially heart disease and obesity. A 2017 study in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity found that just 20 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (in this case, walking on a treadmill) can have an anti-inflammatory effect.

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In Shanghai, Jazz Struggles Amid the Coronavirus How the Pandemic is Affecting Live Music in Shanghai

by Howard Reich Jazz put down roots in Shanghai as early as the 1920s, the city’s cosmopolitan character and booming nightlife an ideal setting for a new

American music that was starting to sweep the world.

Though the music has had its twists and turns there during the last century, recent years have

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seen a resurgence. Three major venues champion the art form (JZ Club, Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai and Blue Note China), and young musicians and listeners increasingly are drawn to it.

But just as everywhere else, the coronavirus has injured music and life in China. An email dialogue with Shanghai jazz writer Jiaowei Hu illuminated just how much. She contributes to the allaboutjazz.com website and other publications, serving as an eyewitness to events in a Chinese jazz nexus.

“COVID19- totally caught us unprepared! Just like other places on this planet,” she said to me on April 11 by email.

Members of the «Old Jazz Band» perform at Shanghai›s ornate Fairmont Peace Hotel on Aug. 2017 ,8 in Shanghai. (Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

“I heard about what had been going on in Wuhan around the middle of January,” she added, referring to where the disease emerged.

“I remember several days before January 23 when Wuhan was sealed off, many people in Shanghai had already been wearing masks.

We were all getting increasingly concerned about the situation there and also worried about ourselves. In my whole -28year lifetime, I have never heard of (such) measures by the Chinese government, such as closing down the whole city. We immediately realized this time was really serious. …

“Looking back, the end of January and the whole (of) February was very tough for all Chinese, including the local jazz industry. … JZ Club was one of the first jazz venues in Shanghai to announce an event cancellation. It happened on January 23, the same day that Wuhan was sealed off. … According to their later cancellation announcement, they even hoped to reopen as originally planned on January 28. … But the announcement had been removed later, as they gradually realized that a short recovery was impossible.”

Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai and Blue Note China also shuttered as the situation’s gravity became apparent.

How have Shanghai’s jazz musicians survived?

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But just as everywhere else, the coronavirus has injured music and life in China.

“The impact of COVID19- on (the) jazz scene in Shanghai and China is very direct,” said Hu. “Musicians lost their gigs. … So many of them have regular students, and some are on the faculty of conservatories. So economically, most of our jazz musicians – which were active on the scene before the pandemic – don’t have to ‘starve.’ But it definitely curbs their income.

“And Chinese jazz musicians are mostly young.

Many of them were born in (the) late ’80s and ’90s and (are) currently based in Beijing or Shanghai, away from the (Wuhan) epicenter.

I haven’t heard any jazz musician had been infected or had to suffer more.”

The Shanghai jazz institutions wasted no time in turning to streaming, said Hu. It’s a pale alternative to the real thing, of course, but apparently the primary alternative for musicians around the world.

For just as in the U.S., life in China has been dramatically reordered.

“I’ve found that different provinces actually dealt with this issue differently, even back in the peak period,” said Hu. “Some provinces like Henan even used excavators to cut down the road in their villages … to prevent people from going out. A friend of mine living in Anhui Province said that people were not allowed to go out from the apartment buildings after 8 p.m. There are just different rules issued by the local governments – much like your state governments.

“But Shanghai actually was at least one of the province-level administrations that had the most loose policy. We were not banned from going out, but the government repeatedly advocated us to (stay inside). But if you go out any time during the day, there wouldn’t be any punishment

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actually. But everyone self-consciously wears a mask, even till today. And it’s also true that the city was almost emptied, for there literally was almost no one on the street.”

The quarantine in China has been lifted, said Hu, with Wuhan having reopened on April 8.

Most other provinces ended their quarantines in February and March, she added.

A new kind of life is emerging, its gradual nature perhaps foreshadowing how the U.S. might gingerly rebuild after the pandemic.

“Recently we are slowly getting back to normal,” she said. “The subway is getting crowded again – still less than before the pandemic.

“Resumptions are taking place in the restaurant industry too. The authorities have issued resumption guidelines for different sectors. For example, certain limit of people sitting (at) one table, the mask rules, temperature checks at the entrances, etc.

“According to my observation, there are still staff standing at the doors of many shopping malls and buildings and holding digital thermometers to test everyone that goes through the doors or gates.

only thing that I don’t feel like getting back to normal.”

“In Shanghai, we are basically able to do a lot actually, especially since the resumption in February. Everything is ‘almost’ getting back to Hu said she became interested in jazz about a normalcy. For me, the absence of concerts, and decade ago when she heard “Jasmine,” a 2010 actually the whole entertainment activities, is the ECM album by Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden.

That drew her into the music, a bit of a leap from the classical piano training she had since childhood.

Shanghai jazz writer Jiaowei Hu: “Recently we are slowly getting back to normal. The subway is getting crowded again – still less than before the pandemic.”

But jazz spoke to her in a way that no other music did.

“It’s not just the freedom that I’ve been so much attracted to,” she said. “The diversity it has to offer is even enlightening to me.

“Back then, jazz was definitely not a mainstream

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Passengers wear protective masks while riding a subway train on April 2020 ,13 in Shanghai, China.

(Getty)

music type in China — it still isn’t. You had to learn about the music by yourself, because there was very little possibility that someone was going to promote the genre to you, unlike our increasing jazz venues today.”

Yet Hu persevered, building her knowledge of the music and later deciding to write about it as “a way to express the listener’s feelings and understanding of music. I love jazz almost as an aficionado, so this fondness for writing — almost exclusively on jazz — just naturally happens.”

That she does so in both English and Chinese attests to her potential as a bridge between two cultures.

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And what of the future of jazz in Shanghai?

“Most of us are still uncertain of what ‘future’ means at this moment,” said Hu. “How far is this ‘future’ away from us now? Sure, the day will come when everything is back into their original positions in the show business. Many of us thought it was February, and then March, and then April. Now we are even unsure about June. Many jazz practitioners might have never thought about how connected China really is with the whole world, especially the U.S. “Now we are aware of that.”

As are we.

Originally published in the Chicago Tribune

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Hezbollah: A Brief Overview of the Group’s Illicit Activities

by Alia Mansour

Taking into* consideration Lebanon’s poor economic performance, the collapse of its financial institutions and the dwindling value of the Lebanese Lira, it is rather strange that some people still do not consider Lebanon a corrupt entity, and insist that the group is actually trying to deter and counter .corruption

Many opposition voices within Lebanon have been calling for action, which would counter government corruption and bring back money that has been embezzled out of the country. Interestingly, many of these voices excluded Hezbollah from their lists of corrupt ruling institutions. Some even went further by stating that Hezbollah should be a part of investigative tribunals on corruption and some even said that Hezbollah should lead such investigations. Most of these opposition figures that are softer on Hezbollah argue that the only controversial aspect of the group is its weapons supply and its close ties with Iran and its policies. As such, they argue that the group has no incidents of corruption in Lebanon. However, in reality the group is one of the most corrupt entities in the state, and its corrupt activities have cost the country’s reserves billions of dollars. Here’s an overview of the group’s corrupt activities: Illegal border crossings: Recently, an Israeli agent called Amer El Fakhoury managed to escape Lebanon by boarding an American military helicopter at the Cypriot embassy in Lebanon. Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, would go on to address this breach of borders by stating that the group has now taken full control of the countries borders and is aware of individuals entering Lebanon and individuals leaving Lebanon. These illegal border crossings are one of the activities that have been costing Lebanon, as money launderers and customs dodgers have managed to embezzle 600 million dollars through Lebanon’s insecure borders. At the Lebanese-Syrian border there are tens of illegal border crossings, as a matter of fact the former Finance Minister (who was a member of the Amal Movement, an ally of Hezbollah) once stated at a ministerial meeting that there are 136 illegal crossing check points at the border. What he didn’t mention is that Hezbollah is fully in control of these border crossings, which it uses to move weapons to and from Syria.

The group also uses the crossings to import other goods from Syria in order to evade any customs charges. While the Syrian regime benefits from such illegal trade practices, the Lebanese state is deprived from customs duties that it is legally meant to receive. Furthermore, Lebanese markets get flooded with Syrian farm goods, which only hurts local farmers who are forced to compete with cheaper Syrian food. Hezbollah also uses the illegal crossings for drug smuggling. In my previous opinion article (Hezbollah’s Drug Dealing and Money Laundering) I wrote that drug dealing is one of the group’s main sources of income. The crossings are also used to transfer Iranian weapons into Lebanon via Syria, and there have been many Israeli raids in recent years targeting shipments that were transporting weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In addition to the issue illegal crossings, there is also the issue of customs evasion, which take place through the Beirut port and the Rafic Hariri International Airport. It is no secret to anyone that these two main facilities are under the control of Hezbollah, as they are used to transport weapons from

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Iran and drug smuggling. The facilities are also used to bring in cheap goods to merchants affiliated with the group. These goods come into the country without passing through any of the standard quality checks and without any customs charges placed on them. It should be noted that in 2008 the government of Fouad Siniora took the decisions to dismiss the head of the airport security apparatus, Brigadier General Wafik Choucair, and dismantle Hezbollah’s telecominucations network. In response to those decisions the group decided to stage a military invasion on Beirut.

Hezbollah is also implicated on charges of distributing faulty medication in Lebanon. A few years ago, the Ministry of Health and the Health Committee in the Lebanese Parliament revealed an underground operation which manufactred counterfiet versions of 150 items of medication. These authorities also revealed that unusable medicines were being imported from Southeast Asia into Lebanon. This was done by forging the Minister of Health’s signature and then subsequently distributing the medicines to clinics and hospitals. One of the vital ring leaders of the operation was Abd El Latif Fneish, whose brother, Mohamed Fnesih was a minister and Hezbollah’s representative in the Lebanese government. This scandal has recently come under scrutiny again as some media outlets have leaked the current Health Minister’s, Hassan Hamd, rejections over the use of “rapid tests” to test for Coronavirus, and has instead opted for the the PCR testing method. It should be noted that Abd El Latif Fneish is the one who is in charge of the deals that should bring in PCR testing kits into the country.

Moreover, there is a captagon manufacturing scandal. In 2012, the Lebanese customs seized a substance coming from China which is used to manufacture captagon pills. Investigations later revealed that those responsible for this captagon pills operations were Hussein al-Musawi, Hashem al-Musawi and Jihad alMusawi the brothers of the Vice-Chairman of Hezbollah. The operation was located in southern Lebanon and the pills were to be supplied later to the markets of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. The Vice Chairman’s other brother was running a car theft and counterfeiting gang, which stole cars and forged their paperwork, then finally sold them legally in the vehicle market. Last but not least, there’s Hezbollah’s money laundering and emebezzlement activities which have greatly hurt the country’s banking sector. This is something that needs further investigation.

Taking into consideration Lebanon’s poor economic performance, the collapse of its financial institutions and the dwindling value of the Lebanese Lira, it is rather strange that some people still do not consider Lebanon a corrupt entity, and insist that the group is actually trying to deter and counter corruption. Lebanon will never get out of its current crisis as long as it is controlled by a corrupt group that is loyal to a foreign power that will not hold it accountable for its actions.