War in Ukraine Breathes New Life into NATO

Social Issues, Endless Crises in Iran

A Weekly Political News Magazine

Abe’s Assassination Sheds Light on Growing Hazards of Gun Usage

A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Suella Braverman: Indian-origin Attorney General Expected to Run for UK PM

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War in Ukraine Breathes New Life into NATO www.majalla.com

Editorial The NATO Summit in Madrid drew to a close on June 2022 ,30 with decisions to transform and strengthen the Alliance.

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said: “The decisions we have taken in Madrid will ensure that our Alliance continues to preserve peace, prevent conflict, and protect our people and our values.

Europe and North America, standing together in NATO.” In the cover story, Maia Otarashvili said that the heads of state and government were in the Spanish capital to discuss the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s most pressing security concerns and endorse its new Strategic Concept – a key guiding document that was last updated 12 years ago.

All acknowledged the new security environment, in view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine war, and agreed that it merited serious reflection of NATO’s posture going forward.

According to the official Summit Declaration, now that war had returned to the European continent, the need to stay committed to upholding the rules-based international order was now greater than ever. “We face a critical time for our security and international peace and stability,” it read. “We stand together in unity and solidarity and reaffirm the enduring transatlantic bond between our nations.”

In the politics section, Jiwan Soz interviewed a Syrian researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, based in the US capital, on the agreement made by members of the Security Council earlier this week to extend cross-border humanitarian aid delivery to Syria for 6 months only.

The decision was in response to Russia’s intent to confront Western countries, which were demanding an extension of one year or at least 9 months, one day after the expiry date of that mechanism.

Under this extension, humanitarian aid will be allowed to enter Syria through the Bab alHawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey, which is located in the countryside of Idlib governorate, where aid has been transferred since 2014.

The Syrian researcher said that “details of the UN extension decision will be revealed later.” He denied that Western countries had made concessions to Russia that would contribute to economic recovery in the areas under the control of the Syrian regime led by President Bashar al-Assad.

Mohamed Ali Salih also commented in the politics section on the rare incident of gun killing in Japan last week. He said that when former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated by a homemade gun, America took notice.

Particularly because, recently, almost every few weeks, there has been a mass killing in the US: in small communities like Highland Park (Illinois) and Uvalde (Texas), and in big cities like Buffalo and Chicago.

But recent nation-wide research by the Washington Post, with the help of the federal government’s data, showed that the big media and political uproars about mass killing have obscured the rising number of gun deaths “nearly every day inside homes, outside bars and on the streets.”

Salih said that the rate of gun deaths in 2020 and 2021 hit the highest level, with more than 45,000 fatalities each year.

In the feature section, Salwa Samir writes about Egypt’s first “beach for the blind” which is located in Alexandria and aims to provide the blind with the opportunity to enjoy the sea like other members of the community.

Samir said that the Blind Beach is part of a larger beach in Alexandria opened last year called the “People of Determination Beach,” the first of its kind in Egypt. The beach contains a space that allows people with mobility disabilities to go to the sea in wheelchairs, on top of a box that has been prepared for this purpose.

In the sports section, Sarah Gamal interviews Neama Said who created an epic in only six months by combining gold medals from the World Championships for youth and adults, as well as the Mediterranean Games in Oran.

Read these articles and more on our website eng.majalla.com. As always, we welcome and value our readers’ feedback and we invite you to take the opportunity to leave your comments on our website.

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Editor-in-Chief

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

20 Assad Regime Accused of Blackmailing over UN Aid Entrance Resolution

Issue 1913- July- 15/07/2022

26 The End of Magic Money

44 Refined Out of Existence

Egypt Opens First Beach

42 for Blind People

6 Ways Apple Updated iOS to Be 50 Ready for a Mixed Reality Metaverse

Neama Said: Egypt’s “Queen 54 of Gold” in Weightlifting 5

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58 Grab Your Paddle

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Baalbek International Festival Spanish flamenco guitarist and composer Jose Quevedo ‹Bolita› (C) performs on stage during a concert at the Baalbek International Festival, in Baalbek, Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, 11 July 2022. The festival runs from 08 to 17 July 2022. EPA

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NASA Space Telescope An image of the Carina Nebula, captured on the James Webb Space Telescope, is shown at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Tuesday, July 12, 2022, in Pasadena, Calif. /APz

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UDI ARABIA

nt Joe Biden departed Washington for East on Tuesday night as speculation srael that he would deliver a gh in ties between the Jewish state and region’s most prominent Muslim

set to touch down at Ben-Gurion airport day afternoon local time. There he will ur-day trip to Israel, the West Bank and ia aimed at further solidifying bilateral rusalem, providing assurances to the s that his administration is still committed to the two-state solution, g the Gulf kingdom to increase its oil and coordinate with regional partners

UAE

The leaders of Israel and the United States aired their differences on how to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons Thursday even as President Joe Biden pledged America's “ironclad commitment” to Israel's security.

IRAQ Iraq’s oil minister said on Thursday the government will take steps to enforce a recent court decision to annul oil contracts the semiautonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish region made with international companies.

The minister, Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail, told The Associated Press the deals, which circumvent the government in Baghdad, are illegal and amount to oil smuggling.

His remarks were the strongest yet by a senior government official since Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court issued a landmark ruling in February against the northern region’s independent oil sector. Ismail said in total 17 oil companies will be targeted for their dealings with the Iraqi Kurdish region.

IRAN The United States believes Iran is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred drones, including some that are weapons capable, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.

Sullivan also said the United States has information that shows Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these drones.

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SAU

LEBANON

EGYPT Egypt on Wednesday increased the price of its widely used diesel and other fuels in a move expected to further drive up prices of other goods and services. The country, like others, faces steep inflationary pressures in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

In a statement, the country’s petroleum ministry said it would increase prices immediately. The price for a liter of diesel has been hiked from 6.75 Egyptian pounds (.36 USD) a liter to 7.25 Egyptian pounds (.38 USD), an increase of 7.4%. Other types of gasoline saw hikes of the same amount, with higher octane gasoline being hiked by 1 Egyptian pound, or 5 U.S. cents per liter.

The ruins of the Beirut Port silos, shredded in a massive explosion two years ago, are at risk of collapse because of a fire that ignited last week and is still smoldering inside the structure, a Lebanese minister warned Thursday.

The latest fire at the silos’ damaged north block was due to fermenting wheat and grains still trapped inside the building, outgoing Economy Minister Amin Salam told reporters.

Plumes of smoke rose from the silo and small flames crackled as he spoke Thursday while firefighters observed from a distance after struggling to contain the blaze earlier this week.

“We don’t want to try to fix something, only to make it worse,” Salam said, adding that experts are trying to find a solution.

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US Presiden the Middle E peaked in Is breakthroug one of the r countries.

Biden was s on Wednesd kick off a fou Saudi Arabi ties with Jer Palestinians proactively and coaxing production on Iran.

T S h n P A I

A WEEK ACROS CANADA.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday discussed Iran’s rapidly progressing nuclear program, with the Israeli leader vowing afterward that “there will be no nuclear Iran.”

The U.S. president, who is set to travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday, said he also stressed to Lapid the importance of Israel becoming “totally integrated” in the region.

Their one-on-one talks are the centerpiece of a 48-hour visit by Biden aimed at strengthening already tight relations between the U.S and Israel.

Canada will return a repaired turbine to Germany that is needed for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline and could help to ensure continued flows of energy until Europe can end its dependency on Russian gas, Canada's minister of natural resources said.

Ukraine's energy and foreign ministries said the decision amounted to adjusting sanctions imposed on Moscow "to the whims of Russia" and called for it to be reversed.

The Canadian government said in a statement on Saturday it was issuing a "time-limited and revocable permit" to exempt the return of turbines from its Russian sanctions and also announced new measures against Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

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,

UK.

British minister Penny Mordaunt(p would win a runoff to become the next leader of the Conservative Pa and prime minister if she makes it the final two candidates, a poll by Yougov showed on Wednesday.

The snap poll of 876 Conservative Party members, who will decide between the final two candidates replace Boris Johnson, showed Mordaunt ahead on 27%. Second place was Kemi Badenoch on 15% followed by Rishi Sunak and Liz Tru on 13%.

SS THE WORLD UKRAINE.

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CHINA.

Oleksandr Chubuk’s warehouse should be empty, awaiting the new harvest, with his supply of winter wheat already shipped abroad.

Instead, his storage bins in central Ukraine are piled high with the grain he cannot ship out because of the war with Russia.

The green spikes of wheat are already ripening.

Soon, the horizon will look like the Ukrainian flag, a sea of gold beneath a blue sky. Chubuk expects to reap 500 tons, but for the first time in his 30 years as a farmer, he’s uncertain about what to do with it.

“Hope is the only thing I have now,” he said.

SRI LANKA. to

%, uss

A weekend of political chaos in Sri Lanka stretched into Monday, with opposition leaders yet to agree on replacements for embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his prime minister, whose residences remain occupied by protesters angered by the country’s economic collapse.

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India is set to surpass China as the world's most populous country in 2023, with each counting more than 1.4 billion residents this year, a United Nations report said on Monday, warning that high fertility would challenge economic growth.

The world's population, estimated to reach 8 billion by Nov. 15 this year, could grow to 8.5 billion in 2030, and 10.4 billion in 2100, as the pace of mortality slows, said the report released on World Population Day. India's population was 1.21 billion in 2011, according to the domestic census, which is conducted once a decade. The government had deferred the 2021 census due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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War in Ukraine Breathes New Life into NATO

As Alliance Meets in Madrid, A Worsening European Security Reality Focuses Minds Over two days at the end of June, the leaders of NATO member states met at a summit in Madrid amid a palpable sense that the alliance they were there to discuss had suddenly become a lot more important.

By Maia Otarashvili

The heads of state and government were in the Spanish capital to discuss the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s most pressing security concerns and endorse its new Strategic Concept – a key guiding document that was last updated 12 years ago. All acknowledged the new security environment, in view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine war, and agreed that it merited serious reflection of NATO’s posture going forward.

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According to the official Summit Declaration, now that war had returned to the European continent, the need to stay committed to upholding the rules-based international order was now greater than ever. “We face a critical time for our security and international peace and stability,” it read.

“We stand together in unity and solidarity and reaffirm the enduring transatlantic bond between our nations.”

The Declaration reaffirmed that NATO is a “defensive” alliance and “poses no threat to any country”, but that it “remains the foundation of our collective defence and the essential forum for security consultations and decisions among Allies”. In other words, NATO is still the West’s principal security alliance. There are no other games in town.

Banners displaying the NATO logo are placed at the entrance of new NATO headquarters during the move to the new building, in Brussels, Belgium April 2018 ,19. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

According to the official Summit Declaration, now that war had returned to the European continent, the need to stay committed to upholding the rulesbased international order was now greater than ever.

“Our commitment to the Washington Treaty, including Article 5, is iron-clad,” the Declaration continued, highlighting the allies’ mutual assurance that they would ride to the aid of any other member under attack. To many, this is what NATO is best known for, but the famous guarantee had, just four years earlier, been called into question by the then US president Donald Trump, who also threatened to withhold weapons from Ukraine if its president did not investigate the son of a political rival. To the Alliance’s other states, the word “iron-clad” must have been reassuring.

legitimate security concerns of all Allies should be “properly addressed” in any accession process, NATO said. To that end, members welcomed the conclusion of the trilateral memorandum between Turkey, Finland, and Sweden to that effect. Having the two Scandinavians as part of the Alliance “will make them safer, NATO stronger, and the EuroAtlantic area more secure,” they said, adding – perhaps as a warning to Putin - that the security of Finland and Sweden “is of direct importance to the Alliance, including during the accession process”.

Attendees in Madrid were clear that today’s geostrategic theatre, particularly Europe, amounted to “a radically changed security environment”, and said the Summit “marks a milestone in strengthening our Alliance and accelerating its adaptation”. Gone is the Trump era NATO-skepticism.

Arguments over defence spending now seem like distant memories. Today’s NATO is enlarging and refocusing.

Having spent most of the last decade in an identity crisis, NATO is now on a comeback.

Russia could not have invaded Ukraine without consequence and, as might have been predicted, the impact has been felt on both sides economically, resulting in Russian isolation and a European energy crisis, due in large part to European states’ over-reliance on Russian gas. Western sanctions against Russia have therefore not been as effective as they might have been, because Europe cannot fully halt its Russian energy imports. Perversely, Moscow stands to make more money than it did last year from its gas and oil sales thanks to the skyrocketing energy prices. Now more than ever, European and transatlantic unity and resolve are crucial in defeating Vladimir Putin’s regime, with NATO’s revival a key factor in this newly complicated security environment.

Fueling all this, of course, is Russia’s war in Ukraine, which was itself primarily inspired by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s need to rival the Western alliance, which - ironically – has breathed new life into NATO. Nor did the Madrid summiteers hold back in their denunciations of Russia’s expansionist policies and Putin’s revanchist behaviour, while expressing their firm support for Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has emerged as a war hero, but whose calls for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone went unanswered.

What was extraordinary about the Madrid summit was the welcoming of two new NATO members – Sweden and Finland. The last country to be invited to join NATO was Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2010. With Helsinki and Stockholm beginning their accession processes, NATO’s “open door policy” once again seems real.

Turkey was initially worried about the duo’s invite, and the

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NATO’s responsibilities are huge, not least the protection of the one billion citizens living under its security blanket, and there are signs from Madrid that it is taking its role more seriously. “We want to live in a world where sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights and international law are respected and where each country can choose its own path, free from aggression, coercion or subversion,” read the 2022 Strategic Concept. “We work with all who share these goals.

We stand together, as Allies, to defend our freedom and contribute to a more peaceful world.”

According to the document, NATO will aim to fulfil three core tasks: deterrence and defense; crisis prevention and management; and cooperative security. Moreover, it will do so while being realistic about the situation on the ground.

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“The Euro-Atlantic area is not at peace,” the document says. “The Russian Federation has violated the norms and principles that contributed to a stable and predictable European security order. We cannot discount the possibility of an attack against Allies’ sovereignty and territorial integrity. Strategic competition, pervasive instability and recurrent shocks define our broader security environment.

The threats we face are global and interconnected.”

Unsurprisingly, much of the document is devoted to underlining just how significant the Russian threat is to NATO’s collective security. Russia is “the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area”, it says, adding that Moscow “seeks to establish spheres of influence and direct control through coercion, subversion, aggression, and annexation… using conventional, cyber and hybrid means against us and our partners”.

Russia’s “coercive military posture, rhetoric, and proven willingness to use force to pursue its political goals undermine

Russia’s “coercive military posture, rhetoric, and proven willingness to use force to pursue its political goals undermine the rules-based international order”.

the rules-based international order”, NATO says, before warning that the Russian Federation “is modernising its nuclear forces and expanding its novel and disruptive dualcapable delivery systems, while employing coercive nuclear signalling”. The aim, NATO leaders write, is “to destabilise countries to our East and South”, while in the High North, “its capability to disrupt Allied reinforcements and freedom of navigation across the North Atlantic is a strategic challenge to the Alliance”. Further challenges to NATO’s security and interests can be found in Moscow’s “military buildup, including in the Baltic, Black and Mediterranean Sea regions, along with its military integration with Belarus”.

Be that as it may, NATO says it still seeks no confrontation with Russia and poses no threat to Moscow. The Allies’ preferred posture vis-à-vis Russia and states like China is one of “proportionate” defence and deterrence, they said, adding that this was “based on an appropriate mix of nuclear, conventional, and missile defence capabilities, complemented by space and cyber capabilities”.

Noting the Alliance’s international commitments, they said: “We will employ military and non-military tools in a proportionate, coherent, and integrated way to respond to all threats to our security in the manner, timing and in the domain of our choosing.”

NATO Allies say they want “a -360degree approach, across the land, air, maritime, cyber, and space domains, and against all threats and challenges,” adding that NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism “is an integral part of this approach”.

The document adds that Allies “have committed to deploy additional robust in-place combat-ready forces on our

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds up a letter of commitment to innovation at a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain on Thursday, June ,30 2022. North Atlantic Treaty Organization heads of state will meet for the final day of a NATO summit in Madrid on Thursday. (AP Photo/Paul White)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, speaks with U.S. President Joe Biden during a round table meeting at a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain on Thursday, June 2022 ,30.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization heads of state will meet for the final day of a NATO summit in Madrid on Thursday. (AP Photo/ Bernat Armangue)

eastern flank, to be scaled up from the existing battlegroups to brigade-size units where and when required, underpinned by credible rapidly available reinforcements, prepositioned equipment, and enhanced command and control”.

That enhancement includes a new NATO Force Structure, a new generation of military plans, and collective defence exercises, “to prepare for high intensity and multi-domain operations and ensure reinforcement of any Ally on short notice”. In other words, member states are going to be more joined up and more ready to move in if needed. “This will help to prevent any aggression against NATO territory by denying any potential adversary success in meeting its objectives,” they say.

Some analysts suggest that Putin has, until now, used NATO as a phantom threat behind which to hide his desire for violence and bloodshed. Yet his actions mean that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may now have morphed into the formidable challenger he always portrayed it as - just as his regime’s expansionist ambitions peak.

Symbolically, NATO members will next meet in Vilnius, just miles from the Russian and Belarusian borders. It will be another uncomfortable reminder for Putin that NATO has not turned its back on Baltic members, nor does it see them as a liability.

Major challenges loom before that Vilnius summit, however.

War is ongoing in Ukraine and Russia is gaining ground. The sanctions are having effects but not on Putin’s war effort.

Both sides are haemorrhaging resources and personnel, such that it is becoming a war of attrition. In some ways, this is not the only war of attrition that Putin is fighting. He is testing

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Attendees in Madrid were clear that today’s geostrategic theatre, particularly Europe, amounted to “a radically changed security environment”.

NATO’s endurance. Who can hold out longer? The Russian people bear the brunt of the sanctions and international isolation but the regime itself remains financially stable while its armed forces are making gains in the Donbas. On the other side of the fence, Western unity and resolve is strong – for now. Whether a winter of energy supply shortages changes all that remains to be seen.

Maia Otarashvili is a Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI). She is co-editor of FPRI’s 2017 Democracy Matter? The United States and Global Democracy Support.

Her research interests include the geopolitics of the Black SeaCaucasus region, the post-Communist CEEE countries, EU’s eastern enlargement policies, and Russian foreign policy. Maia is a regular contributor for the Majalla Magazine. She holds an M.A. in Globalization, Development and Transition from the University of Westminster in London. Maia is currently pursuing her PhD at the Department of War Studies, King’s College, London, researching the post-Soviet conflicts of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria.

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pinion

Madrid NATO Summit, Ideals and Reality

By Saif Al-Abri

The recent Madrid NATO summit has been labelled as historical, “with far-reaching decisions to transform NATO”, which apparently will “preserve peace, prevent conflict, and protect our [western] people and our [western] values”. During this summit, they indicated that there are two significant threats to the security of western interests and values: which are Russia and China. This article will inspect the claims of the new strategic concept and how it contradicts the values they have claimed to carry.

Yet the basics of diplomacy is compromise, not the continuation of the NATO project of “military integration with Belarus “ .

Firstly, let›s start with the pressing matter of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The strategic concept states that they are open to communication with Moscow, meaning diplomacy. Yet the basics of diplomacy is compromise, not the continuation of the NATO project of “military integration with Belarus”. In addition, the relationship status change depends on Russia “fully complying with international laws”, which the US has broken several times and is made to serve the interest of only the west. Furthermore, diplomacy efforts such as one proposed

by Zelensky to constitutionally neutralise Ukraine, which the UN Secretary-General António Guterres labelled as a breakthrough, have been dismissed. Although Russia wanted Crimea and for Ukraine to recognise separatist states. They could’ve reached a middle ground. They claim to want to preserve peace, prevent conflict, and protect their people; however, closing the door for diplomacy will harm the Ukrainian people and will lead to millions of others starving as energy and commodities prices rise. An analyst hit the nail on the head when he said US goals “are less to force Russia out of Ukraine than to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian.”

China›s rise is the second critical threat

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to NATO security and economic interests.

They stated that China is trying to “subvert the rules-based international order, including in the space, cyber and maritime domains”. To counter the rise of China, they’ve invited countries surrounding it, such as “Japan, Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand”. Such deepening relations of countries off the coast of China allow them to execute the RIMPAC program.

According to the political researcher and analysis Gavan McCormack (Australian), this program is “the largest air, land, and sea war manoeuvres in the world. They would assemble a staggering 238 ships, 170 aircraft, four submarines and 25,000 military personnel from 26 countries.… To China, scarcely surprisingly, these exercises are seen as expressions of an anti-China ‘Asian NATO design.’ They are war games, and they are to include various simulations engaging ‘enemy forces,’ attacking targets and conducting amphibious landings on Hawaii (Hainan) Island and in Hawaiian waters.” The US and the west try to label this as freedom of navigation, and as pointed out by Noam Chomsky, when countries such as China and India contest, they appeal to the law of the sea, which prevents violence in such areas. As professor Clinton Fernandes stated, such intrusion involves military espionage and the instalment of sensing devices. This clearly violates the values they hold of preserving peace and preventing conflict unless they plan to do it through complete domination.

It seems the recent NATO summit in Madrid is, in fact, historical as it involves the Natoization of Europe in addition to increasing expansion to the east, which contradicts their claims that NATO›s purpose is to defend its border, not act as a tool for imperial ambition.

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olitics

Assad Regime Accused of Blackmailing over UN Aid Entrance Resolution Samir al-Taqi Speaks to Majalla on Russian Recovery in Assad-controlled Areas

By Jiwan Soz - Qamishli

has been transferred since 2014.

Members of the Security Council earlier this week agreed to extend cross-border humanitarian aid delivery to Syria for 6 months only.

The decision was in response to Russia’s intent to confront Western countries, which were demanding an extension of one year or at least 9 months, one day after the expiry date of that mechanism.

A Syrian researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, based in the US capital, said that “Details of the UN extension decision will be revealed later.” He denied that Western countries had made concessions to Russia that would contribute to economic recovery in the areas under the control of the Syrian regime led by President Bashar al-Assad.

Under this extension, humanitarian aid will be allowed to enter Syria through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey, which is located in the countryside of Idlib governorate, where aid

It is likely that this mechanism will be implemented until next January, before a new decision is adopted in early 2023.

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The latest extension stipulates that the United Nations will resume the use of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, which is the only corridor through which UN aid reaches civilians without the need to pass through Assad-controlled areas.

The draft resolution presented by Ireland and Norway also calls for a special report to be submitted to the UN Secretary-General on the humanitarian needs in Syria by December 10 at the latest, and also for the submission of a regular report every 60 days on the cross-border mechanism and on delivering humanitarian aid from Damascus across the front lines.

Samir al-Taqi, a researcher at the Washington Institute, pointed out that there is a preliminary agreement between Russia and Western countries on the mechanism for bringing humanitarian aid into Syria.

Below is the full transcript of Majalla’s telephone interview with Washington-based Taqi: * What are the details of extending the UN resolution on the entry of aid into Syria?

An aerial view shows children attending a class at a camp for internally displaced people in northern Idlib, Syria, June 2021 ,10. (Credit: Reuters)

Taqi: A preliminary agreement has been reached between Russia and Western countries regarding bringing aid into Syrian territory, and the details will be revealed later. However, I believe that Western countries have not made the required concessions, especially regarding Moscow’s request to contribute to the recovery in the areas controlled by the regime, which benefits from a basic share in the current aid. * Why did Western countries oppose the Russian proposals regarding this extension?

“The regime is playing a game of blackmail, but it benefits greatly from the aid. When Russia found out the extent of the West’s intransigence, it was possible to come up with a compromise decision.”

Taqi: Western countries have been preparing for this moment for more than three years, and they have been preparing a number of non-UN organizations to transport aid to Syrian areas west and east of the Euphrates River. This time, those countries were able to exert pressure. Amidst the current situation, and in the event that a final agreement is not reached, the issue will be subject to Turkish-Western cooperation with NGOs, and thus Ankara, as a platform, will have a decisive role in managing aid to the areas west and east of the Euphrates, which Moscow and the regime may not want. * What is the role of the Syrian regime in this issue? And where does it stand on it?

Taqi: The regime is playing a game of blackmail, but it benefits greatly from the aid. When Russia found out the extent of the West’s intransigence, it was possible to come up with a compromise decision. The battle has been postponed to a later round due to the current global affairs. In principle, some of the aid goes to the regime’s areas, and there is also the topic of the recovery project. * To what extent does this aid contribute to solving the daily living crises of the residents of Idlib and its countryside?

Taqi: Aid is crucial for the displaced in Idlib, estimated at 2 million, most of whom are women and children. Eventually, however, we have to realize that in principle, humanitarian aid to civilians in war zones is an unshakable right regardless of political considerations, especially when the Syrian regime uses starvation and siege as a military weapon against its own people. This is the basis for the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations. However, former US President Barack Obama, as part of his mandate to Russia in the Syrian issue, introduced the matter to the Security Council, while aid was delivered to civilians even in ISIS-controlled areas.

Of course, civilians fleeing Russian and regime bombs will now face another period of hardship and starvation. Nonetheless, this may be an acceptable price in order to get rid of the Russian strategic blackmail in Syria.

Samir al-Taqi, a researcher at the Washington Institute.

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olitics

Abe’s Assassination Sheds Light on Growing Hazards of Gun Usage

American Experts Highlight Existence of 45,000 Annual Gun Deaths

By Mohammad Ali Salih – Washington Last week, when, in a rare incident of gun killing in Japan, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated by a homemade gun, America took notice. Particularly because, recently, almost every few weeks, there has been a mass killing in the US: in small communities like Highland Park (Illinois) and Uvalde (Texas), and in big cities like Buffalo and Chicago.

But recent nation-wide research by the Washington Post, with the help of the federal government’s data, showed that the big media and political uproars about mass killing have obscured the rising number of gun deaths “nearly every day inside homes, outside bars and on the streets.”

The rate of gun deaths in 2020 and 2021 hit the highest level, with more than 45,000 fatalities each year.

More alarming were figures that showed gun purchases rose to record levels during those two years, with more than 43 million guns estimated to have been purchased.

Last week, Forbes magazine, in a comparison of gun ownership, laws and violence in both the US and Japan, said that “Japan’s strict firearms regulations have kept the number of gun-related deaths incredibly low.”

In 2018, there were nine gun deaths in Japan, compared to 39,740 in the U.S. (including 24,432 by suicide and 13,958 by homicide).

In 2017 in Japan, there were 377,000 civilian guns, pistols and other firearms (0.3 per 100 people) and 79 million (0.16 per 100 people) in South Korea. In the West, Britain had 2.73 million (4.46 per 100 people), but the US was a category by itself: 393.34 million (120.48 per 100 people).

There were more guns in the US than the number of

people, counting children.

In Japan, according to Forbes, guns are outlawed across the country. Obtaining a gun or a pistol requires a full-day class every three years, passing a shooting range test with at least %95 accuracy, a background check that includes interviews with family members, as well as mental health evaluations, drug tests and a report of where the guns and ammunition will be stored.

In the US, during the recent long weekend of the Fourth of July national independence celebrations, beside the seven people who were killed and dozens wounded at a parade in Highland Park (Illinois), numerous other fatal shootings played out across the country. In Chicago, 10 people were killed and more than 60 wounded in a string of shootings. During that same weekend, one person was killed and four were wounded in a shooting outside a nightclub in Sacramento (California); two people were

The Washington-based Brady Center Logo.

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Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes a speech before he was shot from behind by a man in Nara, western Japan July 2022 ,8. Credit: The Asahi Shimbun/via REUTERS

shot to death at a home in Haltom City (Texas); and a man was fatally shot in Clinton (North Carolina), in addition to six people, including two children, injured in separate shootings there.

Why has the US been extraordinarily violent, and why are Americans obsessed with buying and owning guns, even if it would not have led to these killings?

Following are excerpts from three American experts, from their tweets, websites and statements to the media: First, Alex Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Miami (Florida) and a consultant in fighting crimes in other cities, including Dallas (Texas), explains the “Why?” Second, Reverend Eileen Smith, executive director of the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Coalition for Peace, described the “How?” Third, the Washington-based Brady Center, chaired

by Kris Brown, answered the “Who,” particularly the high percentage of gun violence committed by Black Americans.

Piquero: “Why More Killing”: “There is not one clear answer as to what is driving the rise in bloodshed, but possible factors include: (1) The mental stress of the coronavirus pandemic. (2) Fraying ties between the police and the public. (3) Mounting anger. (4) The sheer number of guns in America …

You put all that into a pressure cooker, and you let the pressure cooker blow up.

It starts and ends with guns. The lethality of guns when they›re used in altercations is much higher than a fist or a

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More alarming were figures that showed gun purchases rose to record levels during those two years, with more than 43 million guns estimated to have been purchased. knife. So, a simple disagreement, traffic quarrel or office anger could lead to shooting, hurting and killing …

For years, I have worked as a consultant to the mayor of Dallas (Texas) about safe communities, and it is not difficult to speculate why murders are climbing. And Dallas isn’t unique on the issue.

It it’s important that Dallas police continue to engage with community-violence interrupters and conduct tracing analyses on firearms. Many guns used in homicides are also used in other crimes.

I advised Dallas’ mayor not to give-up because of the continuous rising in gun violence, and cautioned him not to dismiss crime fighting plan because of the murder increasing.

When I see increases like this in gun violence, I always pause for concern, though not panic …

At the same time, I encouraged the mayor to increase studies about the relations between rising gun violence and the community’s social aspects, so as to try to decrease, if not to stop, this violence.

This will be important in order to determine whether there

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are any unique linkages between violent places, violent people and the risk factors that are associated with the interaction between violent places and violent people…”

Rev. Smith: “Killing Instead of Fighting”: “Local leaders, law enforcement officials and anti-violence workers say they have seen a worrisome trend recently, in which disputes that would have previously led to fistfights instead escalated rapidly to gunfire …

What we are seeing is a different type of violence here in Pittsburgh. They’re not fighting, at least not outside of schools; they are killing.

The ample access to guns plays a significant role.

Americans are arming themselves because of deepening fears and divisions, because of frightening public incidents involving gunfire or violence, and because, simply, they know others may also have guns …

‘Stop the Violence’ rallies have been held in Pittsburgh’s communities that are infected with gun violence. Also, ‘South Pittsburgh Coalition for Peace’ has been holding prayer vigils at the Lighthouse Cathedral because there have been several shootings in that neighborhood.

Some of the shootings happened within days of each other in some South Pittsburgh neighborhoods …

It is like the killers don›t care. They are that cold-hearted.

I challenge organizations and churches to end this violence pandemic …”

A man, believed to have shot former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is tackled by police officers in Nara, western Japan July 2022 ,8 in this photo taken

by The Asahi Shimbun.

The Asahi Shimbun/via REUTERS

Brady Foundation: “Blacks Suffer More”: “Brady Foundation, uniting Americans against gun

It it’s important that Dallas police continue to engage with community-violence interrupters and conduct tracing analyses on firearms.

Many guns used in homicides are also used in other crimes.

Alex R. Piquero is the Ashbel Smith Professor of Criminology and Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas.

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Tetsuya Yamagami, center, holding a weapon, is detained near the site of gunshots in Nara, western Japan, Friday, July 2022 ,8. (Nara Shimbun/Kyodo News via AP, File)

violence, invites everyone who wants to end our epidemic of gun violence by taking actions, not sides …

Gun homicide (mass shootings, so-called ‘everyday’ violence, and police-involved shootings) is a universal American threat. But Black Americans are 10 times more likely than White Americans to die from it.

And Black youth fare even worse. Black children and teens are14 times more likely to die from gun homicide than their White counterparts.

The United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights Committee, in report titled “The Elimination of Racial Discrimination”, urged the U.S. government to take action, including implementing universal background

Reverend Eileen Smith, executive director of the Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Coalition for Peace.

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Why has the US been extraordinarily violent, and why are Americans obsessed with buying and owning guns, even if it would not have led to these killings? checks for all private sales, prohibiting concealed carry in public and increasing transparency concerning crime guns …

Black people are not inherently more violent. Sadly, violence is a capacity that all humans share.

White men, for instance, commit the majority of mass shootings.

We must instead consider how public policy has made it so that Black people are more likely to face conditions that facilitate gun violence …

The same cities that experience disproportionate gun homicide — Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Newark, St. Louis, Chicago — all have large, segregated Black communities with a history of disinvestment. This segregation and disinvestment didn’t happen by nature, but by design. Discriminatory housing practices and Whites’ flights from where Blacks moved in rushed many blacks into poverty.

Today, many metropolitan areas remain just as segregated as they were in 1968 …”

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The End of Magic Money Inflation and the Future of Economic Stimulus

By Sebastian Mallaby Two years ago, I predicted in Foreign Affairs that the COVID19recession, coming on top of the financial crisis of 2008, would lead rich democracies to redefine the outer limits of their monetary and fiscal power, ushering in an “age of magic money.”

Because central banks had a long record of containing inflation, the penalty for profligacy would likely not materialize; supersized stimuli could coexist with stable prices. Of course, the success of this experiment would depend on the continued inflation-fighting credibility of central banks, the Federal Reserve foremost among them. “If the Fed loses its independence, the age of magic money could end in catastrophe,” I noted.

Since then, the idea of magic money has been discredited.

Although the Federal Reserve has yet to lose its independence, it has fumbled the inflation challenge in ways that I failed to take sufficiently seriously. For the first time in about two decades,

the imperative of price stability will complicate central banks’ ability to achieve other objectives, from financial stability (it will be hard to cut interest rates to help weak borrowers) to employment stability (as it plays catch-up against inflation, the Fed will probably cause a recession). A few years ago, cartoonists regularly portrayed central bankers in Superman outfits. Now that inflation has returned, the monetary superheroes have lost their powers.

How long this fall to earth will endure depends on two questions.

First, was the whole idea of magic money doomed from the getgo, or could it have succeeded if managed differently? Second, if some other approach could have worked, can the Fed learn lessons from its experience?

THE ROAD TAKEN Start with the first question, which is the more straightforward.

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Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell in Washington, D.C., June 2022.

Under the right conditions, magic money can undoubtedly be deployed successfully.

Both theory and experience teach that large economic stimuli— delivered by central bankers or budget authorities or both—need not destabilize prices. If a financial crash or a pandemic causes private spending to collapse, governments can print money and run budget deficits to push spending up again. If this intervention is well calibrated, demand will remain in balance with supply, causing no change in inflation. To be sure, the calibration is difficult, not least because government largess puts money into the hands of private companies and households, whose eagerness to spend is uncertain. But stimulus at least has a shot at balancing supply and demand. In contrast, not stimulating guarantees that demand will be too low, ushering in deflation and recession.

The government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis provides an illustration of this process. Central banks printed trillions of dollars, leading their critics to predict terrible inflation. But in the 36 quarters from 2009 to 2017, core inflation never exceeded the Fed’s two percent target, averaging only 1.5 percent. Far from being reckless, this first experiment with magic money was actually too timid: given the inflation undershoot, an even larger stimulus would have been appropriate. Even so, the stimulus was a success. It saved the U.S. economy from a repeat of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

At first, the response to COVID19- was even more impressive.

The pandemic caused U.S. GDP to collapse in the second quarter of 2020: output shrank at an annualized rate of 32 percent. This fall was four times deeper than the hit from the financial crisis in the fourth quarter of 2008; indeed, it was the sharpest ever contraction in the post–World War II period. The Fed responded aggressively, creating twice as much money as it had from 2008 to 2009. Likewise, the president and Congress delivered a budget stimulus that was twice as big as the 2009 version. By acting so vigorously, authorities demonstrated that they had learned the lesson of the last recession, when they undershot with their spending. They were also emboldened by the fact that inflation expectations were low, reducing the risk that a stimulus would set off an upward price spiral.

In the second half of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, this megastimulus worked perfectly. The U.S. economy bounced back, almost recovering its pre-pandemic level of output. And despite the lavish money-printing, there was no sign of inflation. In the first quarter of 2021, the Fed’s preferred index of “core” prices was up just 1.7 percent from the previous year. As of March, the broader consumer price index remained well within the comfort zone.

If the authorities had been able to stop there, they would have pulled off a textbook example of macroeconomic stabilization.

But from the spring of 2021 the experiment started to go wrong.

How it failed provides lessons for policymakers attempting to navigate the current macroeconomic moment.

DON’T BLAME THE BULLY PULPIT When I proposed the idea of magic money back in 2020, the

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Both theory and experience teach that large economic stimuli— delivered by central bankers or budget authorities or both—need not destabilize prices. likeliest source of economic misjudgment appeared to reside in the White House. U.S. President Donald Trump had scant respect for the independence of the central bank, tweeting about it on more than 100 occasions. “My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?” he fulminated in the summer of 2019, at a time when Fed Chair Jerome Powell was hiking interest rates more than Trump found congenial. The closest historical precedent for this bullying illustrated how serious the consequences could be. In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon slandered Fed Chair Arthur Burns. The browbeating contributed to the chronically timid monetary policy of that decade, and hence to stagflation.

Given this experience, Trump’s intemperate Fed commentary seemed to present the chief risk of magic money. It was easy to imagine a situation in which, because of the difficulty of calibrating the stimulus, there might be an initial spurt of inflation.

Once that happened, the Fed might flinch from clamping down, allowing inflation to persist out of fear of pressure from the White House.

The 2020 election changed this calculus. Unlike his predecessor, President Joe Biden showed no inclination to browbeat the Fed, on Twitter or elsewhere. His Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, was herself a former Fed chair, and would therefore be the last person to attack the institution. In May 2022, with the inflation threat intensifying, Biden went out of his way to emphasize the independence of the central bank. “My predecessor demeaned the Fed, and past presidents have sought to influence its decisions inappropriately during periods of elevated inflation,” he wrote in The Wall Street Journal. “I won’t do this,” he added.

But it turns out that presidential bullying is not the only reason why central banks lose their grip on inflation. Starting in the spring and summer of 2021, the Fed committed three mistakes, opening the door to today’s price surge. Regrettably, very few observers, and certainly not this one, anticipated all three. But the good news is that two of these errors point to ways in which the Fed can reform its approach in the future, perhaps allowing an eventual return to the use of magic money.

NOT A PASSING PHASE The Fed’s first error has received by far the most attention, but it is also the hardest to learn from. It consisted in miscalibrating the balance between supply and demand, a challenge that, as noted

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already, is necessarily hard, given the unpredictable spending decisions of private citizens and companies.

The miscalibration began with the passage of the American Rescue Plan in March 2021. This was the third budgetary stimulus delivered by the U.S. Congress, and it crossed the line from appropriate support to dubious overreach. In March and April 2020, Washington had enacted a fiscal stimulus worth 2.4$ trillion; in December it had followed up with a further 900$ billion. With this extra spending in the pipeline, the U.S. economy was expected to grow by four percent between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2021, a respectable performance.

The March 2021 stimulus sloshed an extra 1.9$ trillion of fuel onto the fire. Commenting on the likely upshot before the passage of the bill, the Brookings Institution forecast that by the end of 2021 the economy would be “operating above its maximum sustainable level.”

Confronted with this risk of inflationary overshoot, the Fed declined to raise interest rates or dial back its quantitative easing—the bond-buying program by which it affects longer-term interest rates. To some Fed critics, this was a clear error. If the central bankers had listened to forecasters such as the Brookings team, they would have headed off today’s inflation. But the truth is that forecasting in the midst of the pandemic was more art than science, and the Fed’s wait-and-see attitude was arguably understandable. Although the 1.9$ trillion stimulus presented an obvious risk of overreach, it remained possible that other forces would conspire to dampen demand. To cite just one wild card, the contagious Delta variant of COVID19- spread rapidly in the summer of 2021, leading to a surge in the total infection rate in August and September.

As the Fed sat on the sidelines, core inflation drifted up, reaching an annual rate of 3.4 percent by the second quarter of 2021 and 3.6 percent in the third quarter. Again, with the benefit of hindsight, the Fed should have hiked interest rates, snuffing out the inflation before it became serious. But the Fed justified procrastination by arguing that the inflation was merely “transitory.” COVID-19related supply-chain snafus seemed to explain the upward pressure on prices; as workers returned to jobs and ports reopened, these bottlenecks would surely correct themselves.

To bring inflation down, the Fed can raise the short-term interest rate as much as it likes: there is no upper bound, and therefore no pressing .need for forward guidance

And to be fair to the central bankers, respected private economists shared this optimistic view. As late as November, the economics team at Goldman Sachs opined that “underlying supply-demand imbalances will … largely work themselves out, leaving inflation near the Fed’s goal.” That same month, Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman ascribed the inflation to supply-chain bottlenecks and called it “an excusable and manageable problem.”

Of course, in retrospect, Team Transitory was wrong, and I shared in this error. Those who correctly predicted the price surge are entitled to their victory lap. If there’s a lesson from this episode, it’s that stimulus is inflationary when an economic shock damages supply more than demand: in hindsight, the striking fact about the emergence from the pandemic is that people resumed spending faster than they resumed work. But the larger point is that responding to an unprecedented health crisis combined with a record GDP shock is inescapably hard, and the familiar insight that supply shocks are different from demand shocks won’t make the response easier. The Fed already retains an economics faculty nearly eight times larger than Harvard University’s; if it had been obvious that people were going to return to work slowly, constraining supply, the central bankers would have tightened earlier. Telling the Fed to distinguish supply shocks from demand shocks is like instructing a sprinter to run fast. The advice is so obvious as to be useless.

Whatever the merits of the “transitory” debate, by the end of November 2021 it was over. Core inflation came in at 4.2 percent for the year to October, a marked acceleration since the summer.

On November 30, Powell testified to Congress that it was time to retire the T word.

But then the Fed committed its second error. Rather than admitting its misjudgment and raising interest rates quickly, it waited more than three months to do so. When the hike finally came, in March 2022, it was the smallest it could be: 25 basis points, or a quarter of a percentage point. This was all the more remarkable because by the time of the March meeting the case for stronger medicine was clear: core inflation had climbed steadily, to 5.3 percent over the year through February, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 was set to boost the cost of food and energy. Yet it was not until the Fed’s June meeting that it finally got serious, delivering a -75basis-point hike. By then, more than six months had elapsed since Powell had given up on “transitory.”

Unlike the Fed’s wait-and-see approach in 2021, the excruciatingly slow course correction in the first half of 2022 was inexcusable.

Faced with a negative shock to the economy, the Fed has always been quick to provide stimulus. But when it came to fighting inflation, it refused to provide the bitter medicine of rate hikes with anything like the same urgency.

Why was the Fed so languid? The reason lay in its misguided attachment to “forward guidance,” the practice of signaling interest-rate moves well ahead of implementing them. This speakwait-act triple jump is useful when inflation is too low and the

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The Federal Reserve is sure to increase interest rates by 0.75 percentage points later this month and could consider a 1 percentage point rise. Credit: (AFP via Getty Images)

Fed, having already slashed the short-term interest rate to zero, has no room to cut further. In such circumstances, when policy has hit what central bankers call the zero lower bound, forward guidance allows the Fed to promise an extended period of rock-bottom short-term interest rates. A long period of guaranteed low short rates makes for lower long-term rates. Forward guidance thus becomes an additional way to provide stimulus to the economy.

This logic ceases to matter when the Fed faces the opposite challenge of high inflation. To bring inflation down, the Fed can raise the shortterm interest rate as much as it likes: there is no upper bound, and therefore no pressing need for forward guidance. But in the wake of its admission that inflation was non-transitory, the Fed stuck to forward guidance anyway, floating the idea of raising rates, then waiting, then acting. The best rationalization of this behavior is that the Fed feared that a sudden rate hike would upset investors and cause a panicky market fall. But this concern is overblown. When the goal is to cool the economy and get inflation down, a market decline is desirable.

In short, the Fed’s fondness for forward guidance needs rethinking.

By refusing to hike interest rates promptly, and by waiting half a year before delivering a -75basis-point rise, the Fed allowed bad inflation to get worse, an error for which the economy will now pay dearly. But the good news is that the lesson from this mistake is straightforward.

Sometimes the Fed should act without guiding the markets. Sometimes speed is the priority.

PAY ATTENTION TO MARKETS The Fed’s last error was to ignore the financial bubble that inflated during 2021, signaling that trouble was brewing. As with the excessive fealty to forward guidance, the policy of ignoring the bubble reflected a deeply ingrained reflex among central bankers. Its origin dates back to 1996, when Fed Chair Alan Greenspan gingerly questioned Wall

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Street’s “irrational exuberance.” Stock prices proceeded to boom over the next year, and the Fed’s leaders concluded that commenting on markets was a fool’s errand. The best policy, they decided, was to keep quiet about booms, then cut interest rates after the busts to cushion the economy.

Calling market tops is hard, and the Fed’s caution is understandable.

Given that central banks have one main policy instrument—the interest rate—they can’t respond to two separate signals if these point in different ways: if, for example, the economy looks weak while the stock market looks bubbly. But the Fed’s see-no-evil stance on bubbles has been taken too far. The last two recessions before the 2020 COVID19- shock followed traumatic market corrections—the dot-com bust of 2001-2000 and the mortgage collapse of -2007 8. In modern financialized economies, asset prices are simply too important to ignore. They are both a signal of pressures to which the Fed ought to respond and a warning of disruption if the Fed does nothing.

In debates about this issue over the past twenty years, the see-no-evil camp has pointed to cases in which a central bank has raised interest rates to prick a bubble, only to reverse course when the hike harms the real economy. But this is a straw man. Nobody is suggesting that central bankers should tighten when unemployment is elevated, inflation is substantially below target, or growth is below trend: of course the real economy must be the priority. But sometimes the Fed confronts circumstances in which real-economy indicators are solid while financial ones look positively exuberant. Under these conditions, bubbly asset prices are a signal that the Fed should tighten more than if it were simply targeting inflation. Past examples include late 1998 and early 1999, when the Fed allowed the dot-com mania to run wild; and 5–2004, when it ignored the mortgage bubble.

This article was originally published by Foreign Affairs.

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Social Issues, Endless Crises in Iran By: Firoozeh Nordstrom There are numerous and various social issues in Iran. The list goes on and on, starting with poverty, unemployment, drug addiction, divorce, child labor, school dropouts, the high rate of brain drain, the spread of slums on the outskirts of major cities, overnight stays on carton boxes and in graveyards, in containers and abandoned train cars, sewage networks, drug smuggling, human organ trafficking, and the spread of street vendors.

POVERTY

Even though Iran is rich in oil, the majority of the people suffer from several issues. For years, they have been languishing in inappropriate informal housing that lacks basic services and facing unemployment. Today, they are at risk of “severe hunger,” which

has made them climb atop trash containers in search of food to eat or something to wear.

Iranians’ banquets have dramatically grown smaller. This is partly due to the repercussions of poverty. The family budget in Iran has long been unable to afford expenses such as sports, books, cinema, travel, entertainment programs and even medical treatment costs.

Nonetheless, Lotfollah Dezhkam, the Friday sermon preacher of Shiraz, says, “Livelihood problems are there, and there is no other way.” Even an expert on a state television program who claimed to have a PhD in psychology advised people to “.. adapt to the circumstances; it is not the end of the world, if, for example you did not eat fruits.”

In March 2022, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said, “Extreme poverty must be eradicated this year.” Former President Hassan

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An Iranian man holds stacks of bread as he walks along a street in Tehran, Iran May 1, 2022.

Majid Asgaripour/ WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Rouhani made the same promise in 2017. However, statistics show that the annual inflation rate is greater for the lower decile compared to the upper decile, as the inflation rate reached 40% for the lowest (low-income) quintiles, while the inflation rate for the upper quintiles reached 38%.

Iran’s rulers have taken the country backward 40 years ago, the period of the Iran-Iraq war when purchase vouchers were distributed in the eighties due to “war conditions.” Today, they announced their plan to launch “electronic” purchase vouchers to enable the people to secure primary commodities.

The Iranian society is witnessing the collapse of the middle class, which has fallen into the trap of poverty on the one hand, while a minority of the wealthy who earn billions is thriving. The latter can afford travelling abroad for treatment and drive foreign cars that come with elements of entertainment and safety. Pictures of members of the ultra-rich class are circulated on social media and show their involvement in sports and recreational activities in sports clubs and nightclubs abroad. The majority of officials and their children belong to this high class, and they own villas and apartments in other countries. At the same time, they release official statements calling on the people to be patient, to stand firm against enemies, to support local products and to buy locallymanufactured cars, which lack security and safety standards.

There has been wave of widespread protests on social media in Iran, sparked by the disclosure of a visit by a “religious” family. The circulating photos show two women who wear the full Islamic veil (the chador) with a large number of bags while trying to get them into Imam Khomeini Airport. It soon turned out that the two women are the wife of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and his daughter Zahra Musheer and Maryam Ghalibaf. The family of the Iranian parliament speaker was accompanied by his brotherin-law, Amir Reza Bahrayi, and had returned from a flight from Istanbul where they were on a shopping spree for a newborn.

It is noteworthy that Ghalibaf had stressed during the televised debates among the candidates for the presidential elections in 2017, his vehement opposition to the import of newborn supplies and children’s clothing.

tution have even pushed many women to sell their hair. The price of rice has skyrocketed, and we now have bread rations. Pasta has become an expensive food commodity that is not available in the markets. This is not to mention sugar and oil, which have become non-existent in the markets. All of this to name a few among many, many problems of daily living. However, officials in the Islamic Republic do not hold themselves responsible for the situation that people have reached. They promote via their media platforms that pasta is harmful to health. You would see an actor in a TV series aired by a government channel making fun of the high prices and the shortage of pasta in the markets. These do not feel the pain of the people and do not suffer from the problems that the people suffer from. They are ruthless and unscrupulous, and they live at the expense of the plight of the people.”

He continued, “The majority of the people are not able to provide for all their daily living needs, but the ruling class continues to broadcast cooking programs via their TV channels and promote in the media that people’s expectations have become very high.”

The nutrition quality for thousands of families has gone down the drain as they had to eliminate their regular meals and replace them with cheaper meals that have low nutritional benefits.

Statistics have shown that the annual average per capita share of essential food items such as meat, chicken, eggs, dairy products, fruits and vegetables has decreased significantly in Iran.

UNEMPLOYMENT

SPREAD OF SLUMS

Statistics issued by the Statistical Center of Iran show that the unemployment rates among the labor force in January, February and March 2022 were 4.8% for men and 9.14% for women. Also among men and women, 8.26 percent and 8.71 percent of the unemployed respectively hold university degrees.

Amir Kalhour, a Tehran-based journalist, told Majalla, “Iranian officials claim that Iran is a hub for the Islamic world and the global missile epicenter. Iranian officials want nuclear energy for the country. Officials had promised the Iranian people during the revolution to provide free water and electricity services. However, these poor people have now reached a stage where they stand helpless, unable to sustain themselves. The destitution has pushed these poor people to try different forms of miserable life such as renting rooftops or staying overnight in cars, which have become very popular methods in the country. Poverty and desti-

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Iran’s rulers have taken the country backward 40 years ago, the period of the Iran-Iraq war when purchase vouchers were distributed in the eighties due to “war conditions.”

The migration of the rural population and the residents of small towns to the outskirts of the major cities has increased over the past years. Migrants from the countryside are turning to the outskirts of the big cities because of their inability to pay house rent, which has increased three times. Rising rent rates have pushed a large number of renters in the big cities to migrate to their outskirts. Government statistics indicated that the residents of the outskirts of the cities now constitute about a quarter of the country’s population.

Prefabricated residential properties, rooftops, tents, and abandoned and disabled cars have become housing options for a large segment of low-income people who cannot afford house rents.

“Shared housing” has been a growing phenomenon as well, according to local media. The Iranian newspaper “Dunya Eqtesad” published a report on June 14 tackling “the crazy rise in rent

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prices in Tehran,” noting that “large waves of displacement from the countryside to the outskirts of major cities such as the city of Karaj forced a significant number of tenants to opt for shared housing due to their inability to afford rent. Shared housing means that two families share one apartment. This phenomenon is spreading even in some wealthy neighborhoods in the capital as well.

ISNA News Agency reported that the average price per square meter of an apartment in Tehran exceeded 29 million tomans at the beginning of the year 1400 AH (April 2021). This figure rose to 35 million tomans within 11 months.

RISE IN SUICIDE RATE

Suicide rates have risen dramatically in Iran after the pandemic, due to reasons such as poverty, discriminatory practices, class differences, and social and family chaos, according to local media. Dozens of primary and secondary school students have committed suicide during lockdown period when schools switched to remote teaching, because families were unable to provide learning tools such as smartphones and tablets for their children. The

According to statistics provided by the Iranian Ministry of Education on the psychological and social health of students, 30 percent of Iranian schoolchildren suffer from psychological and behavioral disorders.

relevant government agencies have not yet provided official statistics on the suicide rate during the past two years. However, following up on local news and reports indicate that Iran witnessed a large suicide wave among the under-18 age group during the pandemic.

DRUG ADDICTION

The Sixth Development Plan, declared in 2016, set the year 2021 a deadline to achieve a number of national goals, including reducing drug use by 25 percent. However, this goal was not only not achieved, but the rate of drug addiction increased in the country.

In May 2022, a member of the Parliamentary Social Committee Salman Zaker deemed the large spread of drugs in society worrying, saying, “The age of addicts and drug users has decreased to an age group between 10 to 12 years old.”

Akram Masouri, Hassan Rouhani’s Vice President for Women’s Affairs, had previously warned in October 2018 that the age range of drug users had dropped sharply in the country, saying, “Addiction is the most vital social issue for Iranian women, and statistics indicate that the age of addiction and drug abuse has dropped to less than 15 years old for girls.”

Officials did not provide statistics on the rate of drug addiction among schoolchildren in the country, but social workers and experts believe that the prevalence of drug addiction in schools is high.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS AT SCHOOLS

Iran regime officials have begun to blame the pandemic for structural problems such as the absence of an efficient educational infrastructure, poverty, sectarian fanaticism, family disputes, early marriage, migration to cities, spread of shantytowns, among others. This is because dropouts in schools in Iran is not a new phenomenon in the first place and has been around for many years.

While it was not caused by the pandemic, it worsened during the

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An Iranian couple looks at fruits in a market in Tehran, Iran May 1, 2022. Majid Asgaripour/ WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iranians walk in a market in Tehran, Iran May 1, 2022. Majid Asgaripour/ WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

outbreak.

Schools reopened their doors in April 2022 after officials confirmed that the country had passed the sixth wave of the pandemic. However, the drop in the proportion of students in schools in all regions of the country, especially in poor governorates, has become a concern for experts and observers. Families are no longer to provide school supplies for their children. The spread of the pandemic has exacerbated the child labor crisis and pushed a greater number of children, not only in big cities, but also in small towns, to the streets in search of a livelihood.

Child rights activists and social workers in Iran say that the increasing percentage of child labor and children roaming the streets in search of food for themselves and their families is alarming. However, the Iranian regime continues its policy of indifference and failure to adopt an appropriate policy to curb this crisis. It did not provide official statistics on the percentage of child labor either.

Mahdi Issa Zadeh, head of the Parliamentary Social Committee, said in 2021, “Thirteen government agencies are in charge of managing and following up on the issue of child labor. However, these 13 agencies have not provided transparent statistics on the percentage of these children 42 years after its formation, and this is a cause for shame.”

According to statistics provided by the Iranian Ministry of Education on the psychological and social health of students, 30 percent of Iranian schoolchildren suffer from psychological and behavioral disorders.

In October 2018, Mohammad Hatami, deputy of the Iranian Mental Health Organization, said that more than 1.5 million students are in immediate need of psychological treatment, and that 10 percent of them suffer from severe psychological stress.

COMMUNITY VIOLENCE

The country is witnessing the spread of community violence such

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Officials did not provide statistics on the rate of drug addiction among schoolchildren in the country, but social workers and experts believe that the prevalence of drug addiction in schools is high. as theft, pickpocketing and theft of public property on the roads and streets. This is one of the consequences of the worsening poverty in Iran. The Tehran Police Commander said that the perpetrators of such crime do not have a criminal record, but rather that poverty prompted them to resort to such practices and were arrested while carrying out the “first robbery” in their lives!

Kalhour told AMajalla: “While Saudi Arabia and the UAE are striving in various sectors such as development, air transport, space, among others, and have recorded many achievements, Iran, which was once the jewel of the region, is now drowning in a sea of corruption and crime and has come to the fore in the list of worst passports, weakest currencies, etc. Iran has also come to the fore in the list of countries that are hostile to the world and is facing massive popular resentment. The people have become preoccupied with securing a loaf of bread, gallon of oil and a bag of sugar with ration cards, while worried about tomorrow. The Iranian citizen thinks to himself every night, will the price of chicken and eggs rise again tomorrow? Can I secure my family’s livelihood tomorrow? The Iranian citizen is overwhelmed with anxiety and turmoil about what might happen the next day.”

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Egypt Opens First Beach for Blind People Important Beginning for Increased Accessibility

By Salwa Samir Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria has recently opened the first “beach for the blind” in the country.

It aims to provide the blind with the opportunity to enjoy the sea like other members of the community.

The head of the Central Administration for Tourism and Resorts in Alexandria, Gamal Rashad, told local media that the beach for the blind in Mandara neighborhood has paths through the water with an entry hole that allows the person to move and swim inside the water, using his hands to identify the lines of cork buoys along which he knows the path of movement is within a safe water depth.

They feel these lane lines with their hands and on their own and enjoy the water as much as they want and go out alone without the need for anyone›s help. They are monitored by rescue teams.

hole and an exit hole. There is a presence of lifeguards on the beach.

The Blind Beach is part of a larger beach in Alexandria opened last year called the “People of Determination Beach,” the first of its kind in Egypt. The beach contains a space that allows people with mobility disabilities to go to the sea in wheelchairs, on top of a box that has been prepared for this purpose. It is designed as a submersible floor with a certain depth that allows wheelchairs to walk. Above them there are water sprinklers that allow them to enjoy themselves.

Hassan Ali Abdel Kader, head of the Association of the Blind in Alexandria, said that state agencies are interested in the issue of people with special needs, in order to integrate them into society.

“On opening day of the beach, the people, especially young ones, were high in the sky. They were laughing and in a happy

He explained that the beach was developed for the visually impaired by establishing corridors in the water with a descent

It aims to provide the blind with the opportunity to enjoy the sea like other members of the community.

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Visually-impaired vacationers seen in Alexandria’s ElMandara beach which is the first beach for the blind and visually-impaired in Egypt

El-Mandara beach in Egypt’s Alexandria is the first beach for the blind and visually impaired. (Credit: Alexandria Governorate’s Facebook official page)

mood. Every day, the association›s members come to enjoy the beach and we find great interaction and great happiness with the idea,” Abdel-Kader told the Majalla.

He said that the association sponsors more than 2,000 blind people of different ages.

“They have a love of curiosity and the ability to use the paths designated for them in the beach with great proficiency,” he added.

Visually-impaired vacationers seen in Alexandria’s ElMandara beach which is the first beach for the blind and visually-impaired in Egypt Credit: Mohamed Hossam Eldin

Abdel Kader pointed out that the depth is suitable for all heights, so that the blind or visually impaired do not need a companion, and even children need escorts only to warn them of an area whose depth may not be suitable for them.

“They put a whistle on their necks when they go down to the beach, and we ask them to use it when they sense any danger, but in general we found them enjoying the experience and using the ropes as paths in the water very skillfully,” he pointed out.

The Blind Beach is part of a larger beach in Alexandria opened last year called the “People of Determination Beach,” the first of its kind in Egypt.

According to the State-owned Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), there are roughly 20 million Egyptians with special needs nationwide in 2020.

Dina Helali, a member of the Human Rights and Social Solidarity Committee in the Senate, described that the opening of the first beach for the blind in Alexandria as an important step to achieving more rights of people with disabilities, and a reflection of the national human rights strategy which pays special attention to the gains of people with disabilities.

In a press release, she called to normalize this experience on all beaches in Egypt, in implementation of Law No. 10 of 2018 addressing the rights of people with disabilities regarding the provision of all facilities in the state for the use of the disabled in order to achieve the principle of community integration and create a decent life for them.

Helali highlighted the necessity of preparing a unified and updated database on persons with disabilities, inclusively with all conditions, and setting more effective plans to guarantee their rights, improve their conditions, and work to develop integrated services provided to persons with disabilities.

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Issue 1913- June- 15/07/2022

Suella Braverman: Indian-origin Attorney General Expected to Run for UK PM www.majalla.com

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Super Heroes: No Fathers, No Sons Stream of Comics Does Not Stop; New As Old

By Mohammed Rouda Eight of the ten highest-grossing films this year are sequels from previous films. Four of them are based on comics.

The arrangement is as follows: The first five are “Top Gun: Maverick”, a new part of “Top Gun” nearly 30 years ago, and it made $602 million in the United States alone. It is followed in second place by “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, a follow-up to the comics series “Doctor Strange”, which made $411 million, then “Batman” with a collection of $369 million, and it is also from the comics cinema like “Spider-Man: Now Way Home” which is in fifth place with $232 million.

Between the third and fifth films, Jurassic World Domination is worth $353 million, the sixth part in the popular series.

various stages of production: a second part of “Black Panther” finished filming on the 9th of November this year. A new part of Spider-Man titled “Spider-Man: Lotus” ended filming in Britain at the end of this year as well.

In the process of preparing to start shooting are “Fantastic Four”, “Blade”, “Captain America 4”, and “Venom 3”, among others.

This large number of comics-based films confirm the demand for them as we mentioned above, and hence the dominance of these films over all other productions.

We must also remember that serial/sequel films that are not linked to the characters of popular comics magazines, are no less in number and contain every film that has proven its commercial viability in the last five years at least.

No wonder director Martin Scorsese and others warned against this dominance, as

The other comic book in this ranking is in second place, recording $170 million in US screenings. This situation - for this film - is temporary because the new film continues to collect millions at the time of writing this report.

Scorsese Warning On the other hand, there are new comics in

Black Panther 2

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it prevents the appearance of other films that do not belong to these successes and gives the audience only one type of production.

Not that comics are a novelty of the twenty-first century or even the last ten years of the last century, they have followed cinema since the twenties as cheap productions adapted from popular comics magazines.

Tarzan films in the twenties of the last century were numerous and continued for decades. The character “Popeye” witnessed three cycles in the thirties, as well as the character “Blondie” (1938).

The first Superman movie was released in 1941, and it is also based on the most famous comics character at the time. “Superman” appeared in two other films in the fifties, as well as “Batman”, which appeared on the screen for the first time in 1966.

Spider-Man- Lotus

Many of these films were popular soap operas that appeared in the 2000s. The series at that time, and until the fifties, were weekly episodes preceding the main movie, each lasting about 12 minutes, except for the first episode, which was up to 20 minutes.

that was stopped in the previous episode.

“Nick Carter” (1908) was the first series of this kind and was produced in France, as in the case of “Phantom” (1913) and “Les Vampires” in 1915, both of which were directed by Los Voillad.

Each episode completed a dangerous scene

In the United States, the audience there

enjoyed comics series, including “Flash Gordon” (the first of which was in 1936), “Zorro” (1939) and “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” (1941).

Before that, and in the era of silent cinema, there were serial films whose heroes appeared on the pages of comics and popular novels (Pulp Fiction), such as “The Phantom”, “Tarzan”, “King of the Congo” and dozens of others.

When the cinema appeared, the production of these films increased, including The Shadow, The Phantom of the Air, The Phantom Empire, The New Adventures of Tarzan, Flash Gordon, The Shadow and hundreds of others in a stream that continued until these series stopped in the midfifties.

They Are All Orphans The love of the American public (and now the world) for comics characters has not ceased. It is an expression of the need for an exceptional hero who is able to fly effortlessly, move from one place to another

Flash Gordon

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ron Man’s Robert Downey Jr in the suit in “Iron Man”

in the blink of an eye, confront the bad guys, achieve American justice and support the weak.

To give them these qualities, masks and gowns were required: Superman in blue, Batman in black, and Spider-Man in multiple colours. He had to be made as alien from this universe as possible. In some analysis, he is the “Awaited Messiah” and he has returned with supernatural and unnatural abilities. What confirms this is that many comics’ super heroes who were turned into films (both old and new) do not have fathers.

Batman, Superman, Ironman and SpiderMan have three characteristics in common.

The first is the similarity of the names and the second is that they are basically the heroes of comics magazines, as none of them is a character written specifically for cinema. The third characteristic is that they are without fathers.

These, Captain Marvel, Captain America

and all the Avengers characters, are orphans. Even the villain “Joker” is somewhat orphaned although, in the movie these days, he got acquainted with what his mother told him was his father, but this man represented by a very rich politician named Thomas Wayne denies knowing him.

Wayne, according to the writing, gave birth to Bruce Wayne, who was bitten by a juvenile bat, and turned into “Batman”.

When Bruce was young, he witnessed the murder of his father, Thomas Wayne, which forced him to live as an orphan.

This situation is based on the question “Who am I?” It is not related to Batman and Joker only, but spreads as a common denominator between many superhero characters, including its great elder “Superman”.

Legend has it that Superman was born on a planet called Krypton. This was mentioned

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in the first issue of the magazine named after him by Action Comics in 1938 and that his father saved his life when he sent him to Earth after the destruction of that planet became inevitable.

His father thus died in that distant world.

The chariot that carried little Superman to Earth lands in the American countryside, where he is discovered by a man and his childless wife. They took him and started taking care of him. But the story did not want its hero to live under the care of a kind father, so the adoptive father died as well when Superman was still young.

The absent father and adoption are also the background for “Iron Man”, which first appeared in print in 1963, and like Batman, Superman and Joker, he has another nickname, Tony Stark. He was born to a wealthy father (like Thomas Wayne), but his father was killed in a car accident while he was working in Afghanistan.

After a while he would discover that his father was not really his father but that he

Superman had adopted him as a child.

a home and family.

If we include here the rest of the characters with super heroic abilities from SpiderMan to “The Phantom”, “Flash Gordon” and “Captain Marvel”, we will find that they all belong to the same orphan club.

Creating Fear

The character of Captain Marvel in turn (which first appeared in 1939) is a character double turn. He’s a super strong captain as usual. But he grew up an orphan since he was fourteen and lives his ordinary life under the name of William Billy Batson, but he will turn, after a few years, into a strong warrior for the oppressed as soon as he utters the magic word “Shazam”.

All the superheroes are definitely childless. The journalist is in love with Superman (who is her colleague in the newspaper) but he will not marry her. Iron Man has some relationships but does not have children. Batman has no confirmed sexual orientation. Spider-Man will not marry the girl he loves, have a baby with her, or start

This is absolutely correct, but it depends on the philosophy of pre-selling a possible case. Not that the security situation around the world (yesterday and today) does not require people to yearn for salvation represented by the character of “Super Hero”, but on the contrary, this abnormal creature appears to be the savior. In doing so, he follows a principle applicable in many areas: creating a dangerous possibility; turning it into reality, creating fear through it and then dealing with the solution.

This we find practiced in many cases, starting with TV advertisements (“Hurry up and get rid of acne forever” or “Are you afraid that your hair will fall out? etc…) and ending with many other forms of life, such as the situation in which the world found itself when the coronavirus pandemic spread, so fear moved to humans to hear instructions that proved their impotence.

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In this regard, people have accepted vaccine (it seems as if its makers were there even before the pandemic) on the understanding that a single injection is sufficient.

Suddenly people started talking about two shots, then three. In some news, vaccines have caused unreported deaths.

Fear produces a solution because people want to live. Comics characters are the answer. Imaginary, of course, but it’s a typical haven.

The spectator in his chair cannot stop a train with his hand, nor save the life of a woman who fell from the ninetieth floor, nor redirect a nuclear missile and throw it where the sea fish live, nor even fly at a height of one meter. So, what he sees is his lack of these abilities and his hopes that his heroes will succeed in saving life on Earth from destruction within at least two hours of the show.

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NEW MOVIES

By Mohammed Rouda

[Weekly tour of cinema halls and specialized sites around the world] THE SEA BEAST ★★★★

◆ Directed by: Chris Williams ◆ Genre: Animation [US] ◆ Shows: Netflix

girl who doesn’t care (family members deserted her in every direction and for no apparent reason) in a world that must scare her.

A fun adventure from start to finish. The events take place in a bygone era when the seas were still a mystery. Captain Crowe and his assistants dedicated their lives to hunting sea monsters, especially this red dragon that attacks and overthrows other sailing ships. Among the film’s captivating characters is a young girl who loves sea adventures and insists on riding its horrors.

THE PRINCESS ★★

◆ Directed by: Le-Van Kiet ◆ Genre: Fantasy ◆ International Trade Shows.

The story is based on an ancient mythical history, but it is treated according to the latest animation techniques and in a work style that does not know the mistakes and pays attention to all the details so that the characters appear as if they are natural.

◆ Best animated movie in a while

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING ★★★

◆ Directed by: Olivia Newman ◆ Genre: Drama, Fantasy [US] ◆ Limited commercials.

Based on a novel that has sold 12 million copies in the United States (written by Dalia Owens), director Newman adapts a suspenseful film that revolves around the girl Kia, who is different from the rest of her peers in the town where she lives.

Her difference makes her unpopular, and when a man’s murder is discovered, they point an accusing finger at her. She is brought to trial, and here the director deliberately moves from the trials to the flashback scenes in order to recount the life of the film’s heroine before this stage. It’s a movie about the loneliness of a

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Nothing new under the sun of this movie; a tale in a bygone era about a princess whom the film wants to be fierce and unfit for a peaceful life.

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Her father imprisoned her in his castle, but she escaped and then demonstrated her great abilities in fighting against those who wanted her harm. There’s a revamp in the characters we’re seeing, especially in the character of The Princess (newer, Joey King), but nothing more.

The story starts exciting, but the point of excitement moves from the foundation of the main character to the fighting scenes and the ingenuity of execution only.

The movie is like a “gum” that was hanging on the wall before someone found it and tucked it in again. This is a reproduction of a movie that gets more than it deserves, but it is many times better. The movie is Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles (1974) and the current movie is an adaptation with major changes such as transforming the previous movie’s heroes from humans into dogs and other animals. It deals with some social situations (such as racism), but only as a way to trade them.

◆ Gargi

Amohom (Their Uncle) ★

◆ Directed by: Gautam Ramachandran ◆ Genre: Courts Drama [India] ◆ Shows: Gulf.

◆ Directed by: Husain Elminbawi ◆ Genre: Action [Egypt] ◆ Gulf Shows.

“Gargi is a successful teacher and works without problems until her father is arrested for murder. The 140-minute film is mostly about her attempts to assert his innocence amidst various difficulties. With just a little bit of the right synthesis, a movie could have been made a much more successful movie. Sometimes blind justice and sometimes crying scenes take turns appearing whenever the film needs to confirm what has already been confirmed.

PAWS OF Fury: The Legend of Hank ★

◆ Directed by: Rob Minkoff, Mark Koetsier, Chris Bailey ◆ Genre: Animation [USA] ◆ Gulf and international commercial shows.

Two friends (Mohamed Imam and Mohamed Salam) are unemployed and they gave up on the future that each of them previously dreamed of. Things turn for the better (for the two of them and worse for the viewer) when they discover a counterfeit currency printing press run by the name of Samra. The goal is the broad audience, especially those who gathered around Imam’s previous films (and his TV series), but the road to that is strewn with thorns of failure to achieve a well-written and well-executed work.

Ratings: ★ Weak or average | ★★: Mediocre with merits| ★★★: Good | ★★★★: Excellent | ★★★★★: A masterpiece 43

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Refined Out of Existence Has ‘woke’ finally caught up with Brown Sugar?

‘Flagellation of a Female Samboe Slave’ by William Blake, 1796

By Bryn Haworth It is well known that in antique times the institution of slavery was pervasive. The ancient Athenians may have invented democracy, but the voters still depended on slaves to serve the wine at the symposium. As for the Romans, they may have been marvellous engineers, but it was their slaves who ran the plumbing.

What isn’t so generally known is that some of the most influential philosophies of the classical age derived from slavery: the cynics and the stoics both drew their inspiration from it. Epictetus, one of the foremost stoic theorists, was actually an ex-slave, one of the few philosophers with firsthand experience of Hegel’s master-slave dialectic. Another was Diogenes the Cynic. That old dog (cynic comes from κυνικός, meaning doglike)

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had a constant fixation with slavery and may well have died in bondage, albeit bondage of a very paradoxical kind.

From early on in Diogenes’ story there is a slave involved. Forced to leave his native Sinope under a cloud – he was accused of having debased the currency – Diogenes headed for Athens and promptly lost his companion, a slave by the name of Manes. Apparently, Manes felt that hanging around his master was incurring too much reputational damage. His ex-master’s reaction to this misfortune was typically unruffled: “If Manes can live without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without Manes?”

There are aspects of the old dog’s character that suggest he went on to imitate Manes, or at least the likely career path of his escaped bondsman. The philosopher is famous for having lived in a barrel, though more properly we should picture it as a large ceramic pot, or pithos. He considered An15/07/22

tisthenes the true disciple of Socrates and disdained Plato. The feeling was mutual, with Plato calling his rival ‘Socrates gone mad.’ It turned out that when Diogenes followed Antisthenes, his puppylike devotion was unwelcome and the older man attempted to beat him off with a stick. Diogenes merely invited his blows, declaring “you will find no wood hard enough to deter me, so long as I think you have something to say.” Eventually, with some reluctance, Antisthenes accepted him as his pupil. Indeed, according to Epictetus, “Diogenes was set free by Antisthenes, and said that from that point forward he could never be enslaved by anyone again” (Discourses, 4.1).

Now Epictetus was well aware of Diogenes’ biography. What he meant was that Diogenes was set free mentally by the philosophical teachings of Antisthenes. Thus, the theme of enslavement appears again. Intellectual bondage is worse than any other; for a cynic or stoic, freedom from it is also the antidote to literal bondage.

None of Diogenes’ writings have survived, which is a great loss to us all.

As a result, we only really have the anecdotes (which may well be apocryphal) and the sayings (which may have been misattributed). It’s a semimythical personality that comes down to us, which is possibly appropriate to a man who saw himself as following Hercules as a man of action, though while the big man was famous for his labours, Diogenes is best known for his dirty protests against the conventions of Athenian society and for not doing what that society expected of him. Hence, he famously undertook the herculean task of carrying a lamp around in broad daylight in search of an honest man.

Diogenes was, in plain truth, the anti-Hercules, anti-action hero. His posture of choice was undoubtedly supine. Even in the context of Raphael’s School of Athens, he sprawls in the attitude of a renaissance beatnik, primed to trip Aristotle over as he attempts to descend the stairs. He’s an accident waiting to happen. I suppose we have to be grateful that on this occasion he only has a sheet of parchment in his hand.

Perhaps because his extensive works are all lost, it’s hard to imagine him doing much for most of the time, and the most well-known story about him, concerning his encounter with Alexander the Great in Corinth, underlines this. Alexander was, of course, the ultimate man of action. Learning that Diogenes was in town, and that the philosopher could not be arsed to come and meet the great prince, Alexander decided to go and see him. According to one story, he found Diogenes on the ground, sifting through a pile of human bones. When asked why, Diogenes somewhat churlishly replied that he was “searching for the bones of your father, but I cannot distinguish them from the bones of a slave.” It’s that slavery motif again.

Another fragment of the conversation has the young monarch declaring that, if he were not Alexander, he would want to be Diogenes, to which the old dog replies that if he were not Diogenes, he would still wish to be Diogenes.

At this point, no doubt, some edgy member of the royal entourage was itching to unsheathe their sword and plunge it between the old boy’s shoulder blades. Alexander, however, is unfazed, and the most famous part of the ex-

What isn’t so generally known is that some of the most influential philosophies of the classical age derived from slavery: the cynics and the stoics. change is yet to come. He offers to do the philosopher whatever favour he desires, and Diogenes, presumably still from the recumbent position, asks him to stop blocking the light. The wording is usually given as “Stand out of the sunlight!” As you’d expect, the armed entourage instantly descend on him, raining down blows.

Actually, this is not the case. In fact, Alexander takes the philosopher’s insolence on the chin, recognising that he has met his match and that Diogenes is incapable of flattery. The master-slave dichotomy has been unmasked as a worthless fiction. One wonders why, after learning a lesson quite so persuasive as this one, Alexander bothered to pursue his conquests at all, when he could simply have taken out a mortgage on a nice little twoup-two-down pithos of his own.

The story could easily have ended there for Diogenes. Aging gracefully in his barrel, he could easily have dined out for the rest of his days on the Alexander story. However, one afternoon, while on his way to Aegina, he is captured by pirates. This is where the slavery motif returns with a vengeance. In the clutches of Skirpalos and his crew, Diogenes and his fellow captives experience great brutality. They are given barely enough food to survive. Unintimidated as always, Diogenes rebukes his captors, saying that if one has pigs or sheep to sell, one fattens them up and keeps them healthy, yet they keep the finest of animals, human beings, on sparse food, until they are reduced to skeletons and quite worthless. Listening to reason, the pirates begin to feed all their prisoners better.

Then the captives, by now distinctly plump, are taken to Crete to be put up for auction as slaves. Diogenes is asked where he is from, to which he gives his standard reply, that he is from “everywhere”, being a citizen of the world. Diogenes is credited with coining (as only he knew how) the word ‘cosmopolitan’. He then lectures the slaveowners on how to go about buying men. He says that if they are buying a pot or a plate, they first make certain it is of good quality, but when buying men, they merely look them over; they make no effort to test their character. Persuaded by this reasoning, the auctioneer asks him what he is skilled at, and Diogenes replies “Governing men.” He then points at a wealthy Corinthian in the audience, called Xeniades, who is dressed in rich garb, and says “Sell me to that man, as he looks like he could do with a master!”

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A cynical posture. Diogenes, School of Athens

You have to hand it to Diogenes, he’s no respecter of persons. There he is, brought to a pretty pass as the overweight captive of a scoundrel called Skirpalos, paraded before a bunch of ruffians with the power of life or death over him, who could have him flogged for winking in a way they didn’t like, and he has the nerve to pick one of them out in the crowd and say “I’ll take him!”

Perhaps surprisingly, Xeniades purchases Diogenes and takes him back to Corinth. He puts the cynic in charge of his children and indeed his whole household. Diogenes immediately sets about telling them how to run their lives, what clothes not to wear, which social conventions to despise most, etc. Unsurprisingly, the children warm to their instructor. But he also oversees their athletic training, and he teaches them to live simply and to endure hardship. Apparently, the boys love him for this too. Diogenes has such a good time teaching them everything he knows that he turns down an offer from his friends to pay a ransom for his liberty. Xeniades sometimes complains that it doesn’t seem right being bossed around by one’s own slave, but Diogenes placates him with the philosophical reply that his master should obey his instructions, based on his expertise in the art of living.

After all, even if a doctor or a navigator were a slave, their advice would still be worth following. In short, he ‘cynically’ subverts the entire institution of slavery. Is it the man who walks the dog, or the dog that walks the man? It boils down to a question of perspective.

Diogenes’ wisdom and virtue make him a true master. The moral is that when someone has expertise we should listen to them, regardless of their status or somewhat repellent personal habits. Michael Gove would disagree of course, allergic as he is to expertise of any kind. As for the prime minister, his critics might say that, for all his classical education, he shows little sign of emulating the old Greek philosophers. One only has to look at the rampant materialism. Difficult to imagine Diogenes having his abode

decorated by Lulu Lytle or planning to spend £150,000 on a treehouse at Chequers. But is this entirely fair? Boris Johnson has referred to himself as Big Dog, after all, and he is unimpeachably cynical. Sometimes it’s as if one of the ancient sages is living among us.

Speaking of which, my mind naturally turns to the Sixties and the ancients that survive from that golden age. As I write, a sex scandal is paralysing the Tory government worthy of the ‘permissive age’ and the ‘Glimmer Twins’ (as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are sometimes known) are playing in Hyde Park. It feels just like that hallowed decade when London was swinging, apparently. Mick is almost certainly strutting his septuagenarian stuff, ‘Keef’ is more than likely sporting his bandana, and there’s every chance a host of butterflies could be released at any minute. But one thing is absolute proof, beyond all these things, that we are not in a Sixties time warp. Unlike back then, the crowd will not be treated to one of the Rolling Stones’ most famous riffs. For over a year now, Brown Sugar has been absent from their repertoire. Such is the age we are living through. Just as slavery troubled the minds of the ancient philosophers, so its legacy troubles the conscience of Western societies, and a perfect illustration of that troubled conscience is the fate of one of the most iconic tracks from the back catalogue of one of the world’s most iconic rock bands.

It’s as well to digress for a moment here on the subject of the Glimmer Twins’ creative process. One of the characteristics of a typical Stones lyric is the tendency to court scandal and one of the forms this takes is hyperbole.

There is usually a certain archness to the hyperbole, too. You only have to consider the lyrics to Sympathy for the Devil and the catalogue of atrocities Jagger describes, as if they were (given that he is impersonating Satan) of his own devising. Yet, despite his lurid accounts of destruction and suffering, this is a fallen angel who insists on certain verbal refinements, of the kind satirised by David Low in this famous cartoon from the time of the Nazi-Soviet Pact: It isn’t really sympathy Jagger’s Devil demands, so much as respect: So if you meet me, have some courtesy, Have some sympathy, and some taste, Use all your well-learned politesse Or I’ll lay your soul to waste.

Diogenes was, in plain truth, the antiHercules, anti-action hero. His posture of choice was undoubtedly supine.

The Rolling Stones

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Diogenes’ wisdom and virtue make him a true master. The moral is that when someone has expertise we should listen to them, regardless of their status or somewhat repellent personal habits.

Impeccable manners

That word ‘politesse’ jars in just the right way, coming as it does from a pitiless destroyer of civilisation. It’s the very tone adopted by Putin’s diplomats, for instance, when they object to an undiplomatic formulation by their president’s critics. When Joe Biden, for example, referred to Putin as a ‘war criminal’, the Russian foreign ministry complained that the remark was ‘unworthy of a state figure of such a high rank’ (Guardian, 21 March 2022), as if bombing defenceless civilians in Mariupol was perfectly worthy of a high-ranking individual. Since then, the G7 leaders have mocked the Russian president’s habit of baring his torso, whether on horseback or while wrestling Siberian tigers. A more secure individual might have shrugged the comments off, but Putin is as thin-skinned as the Devil himself – he could not resist commenting that these same leaders would be a ‘disgusting sight’ if they disrobed, owing to their lack of exercise and abuse of alcohol.

But I digress. The same songwriters who had revelled in impersonating the voice of The Fiend, had adopted the attitude of a serial killer in Midnight Rambler and a palace revolutionary in Street Fighting Man. This tendency to project themselves into the minds and attitudes of violent men accounts for the controversial first verse of Brown Sugar, where the singer describes the whipping of women with unsavoury enthusiasm. After all, the Stones present us with the unsavoury as a matter of routine. And they usually sing about lust. In Bitch, jagger salivates like a Pavlovian dog if a woman calls his name. It’s never really love with the Stones; that was strictly Beatles territory. In the few instances where they attempt something more tender, it comes across as syrupy. The credentials of rock depend on its Satanic heritage. Robert Johnson, arguably the greatest master of the blues, famously met the devil at the crossroads and sold his soul for the sake of his music.

Brown Sugar, then, is not just quintessential Stones; in its wickedness, it draws on a tradition in black music, itself a by-product of slavery. It is doubly ironic, therefore, that the one example of their creative output that was not permitted to survive in the repertoire, is the one with a passing reference to that peculiar institution. Ironic, also, as they have always been explicit in their reverential attitude to black music. Keith Richards has been known to claim he is black, despite the obvious visual evidence to the contrary. The blues were written right through the heart of early British rock and roll.

Chuck Berry was a demigod who Keith Richards would eventually work with, though Chuck was harder work than he’d anticipated. Surely, no one could accuse of racism the founders of that derivative British sound they sent back to America with such explicit gratitude – cultural appropriation perhaps, but racism?

And yet, despite their form when it came to provocative lyrics, Brown Sugar was always on a different level of controversy. Its subjects included interracial sex, cunnilingus and drug use, but it was the graphic content of the first verse that stuck in the craw, so much so that this most pungent verse had already undergone small alterations over the years, dropping any reference to whipping. Jagger himself seemed slightly embarrassed by the song. After noting that the lyrics could mean so many lewd subjects, he suggested that the combination of these subjects, the lyrical ambiguity, was partially why the song was considered successful. “That makes it... the whole mess thrown in. God knows what I’m on about on that song. It’s such a mishmash. All the nasty subjects in one go... I never would write that song now.” When interviewer Jann Wenner asked him why, Jagger replied, “I would probably censor myself. I’d think, ‘Oh God, I can’t. I’ve got to stop. I can’t just write raw like that.’” It sounds exactly as if the lyrics came straight out of his unconscious, uncensored, or else from another source altogether, way beyond Jagger himself. As another music critic puts it, ‘After a peerless guitar intro, Jagger strikes up thus: “Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields / Sold in the market down in New Orleans / Skydog slaver know he’s doin’ all right / Hear him whip the women, just around midnight.” It’s as if the song were by not Jagger and Richards, but the song writing duo Edward Colston and Harvey Weinstein.’

I have some minor issues here. Firstly, apt as the Colston and Weinstein quip undoubtedly is, the evidence suggests that Jagger wrote this one himself. There are also clear indications that he was dating a black woman at the time, if not more than one, hence the inspiration for what is a remarkably sexualised lyric even by his libidinous standards.

The other issue I have is with ‘Skydog slaver.’ I have always heard ‘Scarred old slaver’ myself, and the decrepitude of the slaver contributed something to the perversity of the image. Jagger had pulled off the same grotesque combination in Jumpin’ Jack Flash when he wrote of being ‘raised by a toothless bearded hag. / I was schooled with a strap right across my back.’

It’s a juxtaposition only, but is it too far-fetched to presume that the toothless hag was doing the strapping here? Age play, in short.

What was required with Brown Sugar was a kind of doublethink inherent to the Stones and to Jagger’s persona in particular – that we are listening to a fictional character’s innermost thoughts, the internal workings of a

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rt

Robert Johnson, devilishly good

demonic mind, and that Jagger is that demon. He isn’t though, is he? He’s a relatively well-spoken, rather intellectual sounding Englishman who has a penchant for cricket. Yes, but he’s also the man who wrote Brown Sugar when he was sleeping with black women and acting like a proper rake and a hellraiser. This one musical effusion brings to an almost obscene aporia the dispute between art as a projection of the imagination – the reason why Midnight Rambler did not require its writer to be an actual serial killer – and art as the unimpeded communication of the artist’s soul. Could this be because the relationship of master to slave in the Cynic’s improbable story is the same as the artist’s relationship to his own art work? That is to say, it’s unclear who is at what end of the leash. Brown Sugar is a victim of this paradox.

If the warning signs had always been there, outright cancellation from the Stones’ set would take decades. Now, finally, it’s a goner. What was rightly described by its creator as a ‘good grove’ is no more. What Robert Christgau once characterised as “a rocker so compelling that it discourages exegesis” has finally received its exegetical reckoning. Fifty years down the line,

the surrounding culture has finally abandoned the effort involved in the Stones’ dangerous doublethink and come down on the side of the angels.

The lyric is complicit with slavery, ergo Mick Jagger and his hot ‘English blood’ are the agents of oppression. As if it was as archaic in its worldview as The Sun Has Got His Hat On, Tom Taylor has recently concluded that Brown Sugar “does not offer one considered thought to the subject matter that it sings of” and that “the atrocity of the slave trade, rape and the unimaginable suffering therein should not be adorned with gyrating, glib lyrics, guitar solos and no redeeming features in the way of discerned appraisal.”

Gyrating is good. Reminds me of Charlie Watts complaining about how he’d spent four decades watching “Mick’s bum running around in front of me.”

There you have it, the true verdict of posterity.

Everyone should have their own Stones anecdote. The closest I got to an actual band member was during a year I spent living in a shoe box on the King’s Road, and it was a glimpse of Charlie Watts stepping out of a chauffeur-driven car with his granddaughter and visiting a toy shop. He looked incredibly dapper in a brown suit, but who would have expected anything less of him.

Actually, greedy as I am for Stones anecdotes, I have an even better one, though it doesn’t involve quite such a literal brush with fame as the Kings Road anecdote. It is, however, very pertinent to the Brown Sugar theme.

Back towards the close of the last century, and at a time when it was far safer to do so, I went on a three-month truck ride to West Africa. On the trip with me were about forty English people, one of whom was a young black woman – her mother was black, that is, while her father was white. As a consequence of this mixed heritage, the local people had a habit of referring to her as ‘white’, which was something she had never encountered before.

The relationships I formed over the course of three months, crossing from Senegal to Ghana in a truck, covered the full spectrum. In the case of this young woman, the relationship was cordial, and I went to visit her somewhere in London after the trip. She still lived with her mother and the kitchen was the focus of the house. We sat there with her mum, exchanging memories of the trip, and then I noticed the black and white pictures on the

What was required with Brown Sugar was a kind of doublethink inherent to the Stones and to Jagger’s persona in particular – that we are listening to a fictional character’s innermost thoughts.

Charlie Watts. Incredibly dapper

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Young Marsha Hunt

kitchen wall. They were of her mum’s youth, and one showed her beaming alongside the Stones. Two of them had an arm round her shoulder. “Oh my God,” I said. “You knew the Stones!” “Yes, a long time ago,” she said, “before they were really famous. Mick was my boyfriend, but I wasn’t prepared to go to bed with him unless he married me…” Then the bombshell: “And that’s why he wrote Satisfaction.”

This was a photograph taken on the brink of superstardom, as well as the image of a snag in Jagger’s career as a womaniser. Satisfaction is generally recognised as the beginning of the Stones, the song that marked them out as a unique phenomenon. It was the moment the Glimmer Twins arrived. It is one of the most universally recognised songs in rock history, but I’d never heard before that a young black woman had inspired it, and here I was, sitting in her kitchen three decades later – the woman who had loved Jagger so much she turned him down.

I don’t think the later, more notorious song is deserving of oblivion, any more than I think the attitude of the Stones to race is, in the post-classical sense, cynical. But the problem with Brown Sugar is there in the Satisfaction story too: its inextricable connection to biographical fact. Two black women are speculatively associated with the song. One was an Ikette by the name of Claudia Lennear. The other, Marsha Hunt, was the mother of Jagger’s first child: If either of these women were the inspiration for the erotic enthusiasm of Brown Sugar, then Jagger’s use of the word ‘raw’ to describe the lyric would look similar to ‘unrefined’ in the literary sense. James Joyce spoke about this quality, paradoxically enough, in the ‘portrait’ of an artist based explicitly on his own biographical reality: “The mystery of aesthetic like that of material creation is accomplished. The artist, like the god of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.”

It’s as if Jagger regrets the artistic carelessness of his younger self, even though this would have led to self-censorship and threatened to unravel the song, probably at the expense of its power. In the pact at the crossroads, the artist offers up his or her identity to the Devil. Robert Johnson becomes the subject of his own songs, his pain or pleasure is inseparable from them, as

in the oddly titled Kind Hearted Woman: Ain’t but the one thing makes Mr Johnson drink I’s worried about how you treat me, baby, I begin to think “Oh babe, my life don’t feel the same.

You break my heart when you call Mr So-and-so’s name.

Try listening to this extraordinary passage. The reference to himself in third person is a warning. Then on “Oh babe” something uncanny happens.

There is no possibility from that moment, which is essentially the blues moment, of privacy such as Joyce describes, the kind that allows the artist to pare their nails, indifferently. The blur between creator and creation, like some pantheistic paradox, can never be clarified.

And so, the girl who tastes so good in Brown Sugar is, and isn’t, a real black woman who Jagger once knew. Like Jagger himself, she has been swept up in the artifice of a song that gives and takes away her identity in equal measure. Just as the case of Diogenes shows us, there is a paradoxical aspect to the whole relationship, an element of mastery that belongs to the enslaved and of slavishness that belongs to the master. That was surely the moral basis of Cynicism, the intellectual ancestor of Stoicism. It is also a paradox in art that no censorship can resolve. It’s the nature of art to go there. The Devil has the best tunes, after all.

Edwin Landseer, the man responsible for the lions in Trafalgar Square, gifts to posterity his canine version of the encounter between Alexander the Great and Diogenes.

This scandalous secret was already familiar to William Blake, long before the blues were born, which brings me to the picture at the top of this essay, the one showing the ‘Flagellation of a Female Samboe Slave’. We can readily believe that, despite his outdated use of the pejorative word ‘Samboe’, Blake sympathised with the fate of this woman, and not merely because of his habitual opposition to manacles, both literal and mind-forged. His sympathy is confirmed by the fact that the slave etchings were based on sketches by John Gabriel Stedman, a prominent writer on slavery who may, nonetheless, have been given too much benefit of the doubt by the abolitionists.

Nothing is ever quite straight forward with Blake. In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the famously observed that ‘The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it.’ A bit late now for the eternal bad boys of rock to feign the same ignorance.

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echnology

6 Ways Apple Updated iOS to Be

Ready for a Mixed Reality Metaverse

Apple’s Headset Will Lay Graphics Over the Real World

By Mark Wilson For years, we’ve known that Apple was working on a mixed reality headset. And at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple spent yet another event not talking about it at all.

Or didn’t they?

In fact, as I watched the WWDC keynote—which

outlined the latest software updates coming to iOS 16, WatchOS, and the iPad this fall—I saw a slew of changes that seemed to be the building blocks for updating Apple’s screen-based UX into something that could work in our 3D world.

The following ideas are purely speculative on my part, but it appears that Apple is updating iOS’s user interface in ways that will directly translate to the way we use an Apple headset in the future. (I was largely inspired by a recent concept developed by Argode-

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sign, a design firm that’s consulted for the mixed reality startup Magic Leap for two years.) And if I were the betting type, I’d put my money on all of these features being built into an Apple headset to come next year.

Apple’s headset will lay graphics over the real world.

However, I imagine that people in your vision will be able to walk in front of these graphics so they aren’t so distracting. Apps will be consolidated into bite-size widgets, and depending on the time of day and where you’re at, Apple will arrange your mixed reality world differently for work or leisure. To top all this off, Apple will integrate Siri more than she’s ever been on the iPhone, allowing her to type up full emails on your behalf, and giving you the option to easily edit her work.

Apple will integrate Siri more than she’s ever been on the iPhone, allowing her to type up full emails on your behalf, and giving you the option to easily edit her work. technology further.

Apple also demonstrated how iOS 16 will use AI to let you cut a person or pet right out of a photo, dragging that clean cutout into Messages or wherever else you’d like to share it. In mixed reality, it’s easy to These are all just bets, of course. But go ahead and get imagine how these could be used in real time, for silly your wallet out while you scrutinize my circumstan- messages in your eyeballs, or even teleconferencing with someone who can stand in your room without a tial evidence. big frame around them.

PEOPLE OVER GRAPHICS . . .

LITERALLY Credit: (TNS)

WIDGETS ARE THE NEW APPS

If we do end up relying on mixed reality, we need to reimagine apps. With most things you do on a phone, you start by opening an app like Spotify, Gmail, or Snapchat, and then you can listen to music, send an email, or post an update. This approach doesn’t really make sense for mixed reality, though. Why have a holographic computer integrated into your living This trick hides what I believe will become the pre- room just to open a single app and use it as you do dominant UI rule for an Apple headset—that graphics your phone? You’ll likely want lots of apps working appearing in the real world will generally not cover together at any given time. human beings, cementing that the people in your life It seems more likely that widgets—or bite-size verare more important than apps and the internet. sions of apps—could fill your view in mixed realWhy do I think this? Federighi demonstrated how ity. And Apple announced major upgrades to its the lock screen will cut out the shape of a person, al- widgets this week, as they’re coming to the iOS 16 lowing you to slide that person right over the clock. lock screen for the first time. You’ll be able to, at (I find myself wondering, would this trick work for a glance, check if you’ve filled your Activity Rings the photo of a flower, too?) It’s a subtle effect that’s (Apple’s exercise graph), see the next appointment been used in reality TV and other programming for on your calendar, check the temperature, and know years, which integrates graphics to feel like they’re your battery life. more part of the photography. Apple already understands how to decipher human figures; its camera These widgets could easily come right to any mixed uses AI in portrait mode, for instance, to outline reality headset, allowing users to put their most imsomeone’s body and keep them in focus while blur- portant information in their eyes, always ready to be ring the background. Now Apple is pushing that seen at a glance.

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, kicked things off by showing how the new iOS 16 lock screen will work. He took a photo of his daughters and dragged them right over the time, so their heads were peaking over the numbers just a bit.

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echnology

NOTIFICATIONS THAT DON’T DISTRACT OUR EYES The way Apple handles notifications is objectively terrible: Every app can ping you as many times a day as it wants, and if you don’t deactivate them, these notifications pile up into one giant list that grows as endless as Twitter. No one has time to read them all, and if you’re anything like me, you just regularly purge the whole thing without checking.

While iOS 16 doesn’t solve Apple’s notification problem by any means, it will consolidate notifications into one big stack rather than a list, which makes them a less visually overwhelming pile. (It’s worth noting that iOS does use stacking today, organizing by app within its giant list. The new update seems to consolidate all these stacks into one simpler pile.)

For mixed reality to be sustainable, notifications simply can’t continue to steal our attention through their sheer pushiness, because these notifications will live in our eyes. Sweeping them all into one stack is a sensible way for Apple to mitigate the problem while, hopefully, figuring out a more sustainable solution long term.

FOCUS FILTERS TO SWAP BETWEEN WORK, PLAY, AND MORE Apple’s Focus feature is supposed to add boundaries

For mixed reality to be sustainable, notifications simply can’t continue to steal our attention through their sheer pushiness, because these notifications will live in our eyes.

to your phone. It allows you to swap from work, personal, driving, and sleep modes, each of which will change the apps that appear on your home screen, and which can bug you with updates at any given moment.

With iOS 16, Apple is adding more to Focus with a tool called Focus Filters. Now, you’ll be able to set up rules like who can reach you via Messages or email depending on the context. Maybe that’s colleagues during the week, but only friends and family on the weekend.

These Focus features make perfect sense for mixed reality because, even if you’re stuck in one room all the time, that room could look and work differently depending on your Focus. What do I mean? Say you’re using mixed reality in your home office. During work, you might want your space to be covered in serious computational apps.

If you’re a stock trader, you might want to follow trades, with many widgets working in tandem.

But on the weekend, maybe you just want to play video games in that office, and put all those stocks away. Focus Filters take us half a step there. They leverage the digital interface to redefine how a physical space works.

3D SOUND FROM REAL LIFE IMAGES I’ve never quite understood Apple’s obsession with its spatial audio, which, if you’re using Airpods, allows you to turn your head and hear music as if it’s moving around in a concert hall rather than perfectly placed into your ears. I get that this is a neat gimmick. But listening to recordings in headphones often sounds better than concert audio! Why recreate the

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Credit: (Apple)

These widgets could easily come right to any mixed reality headset, allowing users to put their most important information in their eyes, always ready to be seen at a glance.

Credit: (Apple)

Credit: (Apple)

worst parts of real life?

The answer is likely Apple’s mixed reality ambitions. iOS 16 will get a big upgrade to spatial audio. Now, the phone will let you use its True Depth (3D camera) to map personal audio tuned to you in real time. How will this even work with iPhone apps? I can’t tell yet, honestly. But take that same technology and put it into a mixed reality headset?

Suddenly, Apple can give every widget you see sound, and it’ll sound like it’s coming from the ex-

act right spot perceptually. This one feature could do a ton to increase the immersion of an Apple headset.

SIRI IS NO LONGER A VOICE INTERFACE; SHE’S A THIRD HAND Finally, the Siri voice assistant has been one of Apple’s sleepiest projects since it acquired the technology in 2010. Over that time, the technology went from cutting edge to status quo. And aside from texting while driving, Siri isn’t all that useful. That’s a problem for Apple, as mixed reality will almost certainly require us to use our voice to jump between functions, lest we flail at the sky all day.

In iOS 16, Siri is getting a new trick. You’ll be able to dictate long messages complete with proper punctuation. But as you speak, if you see Siri get something wrong, you’ll be able to tap on the word, say it again, and have Siri retry spelling the word. This sounds like a small detail, but watching the brief demo, it’s clear that Apple is pushing voice forward as a tool you can use while typing or tapping. This new Siri operates more like a third hand than a typing alternative. That will be key for complicated mixed reality tasks.

If that’s not enough to convince you, know that Apple is also updating its Siri API, allowing developers to automatically add more Siri functions into their apps without adding extra development time. Perhaps Apple never forgot Siri. Perhaps she’s been sleeping, waiting for mixed reality to take over.

This article was originally published by Fast Company.

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port

Neama Said: Egypt’s “Queen of Gold” in Weightlifting Said Speaks to Majalla after Winning Gold in Mediterranean Games

By Sarah Gamal Weightlifting was used by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks to assess a person’s strength and toughness. It became an international sport in the nineteenth century. It is one of the few sports on the program of the first modern games, held in Athens in 1896.

Neama Said, the people’s girl, created an epic in only six months by combining gold medals from the World Championships for youth and adults, as well as the Mediterranean Games in Oran.

The girl began her journey below the zero line in a small room with the help of her older brother.

In 2012, Said began the game in a run-down room at the Mahsama Youth Center in Ismailia. While still in her third year of middle school, the champion won three gold medals at the World Junior Championships in Las Vegas, USA, in 2019.

The heroine’s dream came to an end when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) banned Egypt’s Weightlifting Federation for two years due to doping, preventing Egypt

from competing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games until the ban was lifted last December.

Said was fully prepared after the ban was lifted. She won the world adult championship and gold weightlifting with a total of 233 kilos after completing her 19th year by about

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Neama Said won the gold medal in the women’s 71 kg Snatch and Clean & Jerk events at the 2022 Mediterranean Games held in Oran, Algeria. (Photo Courtesy of Neama Said).

Neama Said set new African youth records at this competition for the Snatch, Clean & Jerk and Total events. (Photo Courtesy of Neama Said).

a month, surpassing the world and Olympic champions.

Neama also won gold and silver in Snatch and Clean to qualify for the World Youth Championships in May in Greece, where she finished first after winning gold in Jerk events, silver in snatch, and gold overall.

At the 2019 Youth World Weightlifting Championship in Las Vegas, Nevada, Neama won gold in the women’s 59 kg event. In addition, at the 2019 African Weightlifting Championships in Cairo, Egypt, she won silver in the women’s 64 kg event. At this competition, she also set new African youth records in the Snatch, Clean & Jerk, and Total events.

She also represented Egypt at the 2019 African Games in Rabat, Morocco, where she won a bronze medal in the women’s 64 kg event.

Despite the fact that the Mediterranean Championship was less important than the World Championship, Neama was eager to compete, so she postponed her high school studies and exams in order to participate, which resulted in her victory. The Mediterranean Championship was covered by the media for its telepor-

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“Neama Said, the people’s girl, created an epic in only six months by combining gold medals from the World Championships for youth and adults, as well as the Mediterranean Games in Oran.” tation in Egypt, and thus it was followed and the attention of the masses was followed by the achievement of the young heroine with her colleagues.

“I have loved the game since I was a child and prefer it to all other games because it carries a spirit of challenge compared to the other games,” Neama began her speech with Majalla.

“My mother encourages me and is concerned about injuries, and Omar, my older brother, bears many burdens and supports me in every training session and never falls short.” She went on.

Said described her feelings after winning two gold medals as follows: “I was overjoyed when I won gold and raised the Egyptian flag. The weights I lifted were not new to me, but the championship itself is an accomplishment.”

At the Mediterranean Games in Oran, Algeria, Said lifted 121 kg in the women’s 71 kg clean and jerk competitions, defeating Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, and Spain to win first place and the gold medal.

After lifting 101 kg, she won her first gold medal in the women’s 71kg “clean” competition.

When asked to name the most difficult match, Neama said: “Because of the fans’ enthusiasm, the competition with the Alge-

rian champion was more difficult. The first medal is more difficult because it was the beginning, and I needed it to gain confidence.”

Concerning the media and weightlifting federation’s backing for her, she said, “So far, the Federation has provided me with everything I need, including preparation

“My ambitions are higher, and my greatest dream is to hang a medal in Paris, which would delight Egypt and, of course, my family.”

Neama Said with her coaching staff at the 2022 Mediterranean Games held in Oran, Algeria. (Photo Courtesy of Neama Said).

Neama Said won the gold medal in her event at the 2022 Junior World Weightlifting Championships held in Heraklion, Greece. (Photo Courtesy of Neama Said).

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Neama Said at the 2022 Mediterranean Games held in Oran, Algeria.

(Photo Courtesy of Neama Said).

camps. In terms of the media, I’ve felt neglected since winning gold at the World Senior Championships last winter, which saddens me.”

“The Minister of Sports is the one who supports me the most and always fulfils all my requests and promised me to solve the crisis

“So far, the Federation has provided me with everything I need, including preparation camps.” of transferring my papers from the College of Education,” she says of the Minister of Youth and Sports.

In terms of balancing her studies and playing the game, she said, “I am having difficulty transferring my papers to the College of Arts, Department of Psychology, and then to the Military College. My lifelong ambition is to attend a military academy. I’ve always wanted to be an officer, whether in the police or the army.”

In terms of her ambitions for Paris 2024, she said, “My ambitions are higher, and my greatest dream is to hang a medal in Paris, which would delight Egypt and, of course, my family. I am preparing for it starting now.”

“Have determination, persistence, patience, and do not listen to destructive opinions,” Neama advises all girls who want to be gold champions like her.

Egypt’s weightlifter Neama Said snatched the silver medal at the -58kg weightlifting competition at the Youth Olympic Games. (Photo Courtesy of Neama Said).

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ealth

Grab Your Paddle

Paddle Sports are Great Exercise for Both the Body and Soul

By Matthew Solan

signed for stable ponds, lakes, ocean inlets, harbors, and slow-moving rivers, are ideal for beginners.

Summer is the ideal time for water activities. If you’re looking for a new and exciting way to enjoy the water, take up a paddle sport like kayaking, canoeing, or paddleboarding.

While paddling can be a whole-body effort, the core, back, arms, and shoulders do the most work.

“Paddling sports help tone muscles that make everyday movements easier with less chance of injury,” says Kathleen Salas, a physical therapist with Spaulding Adaptive Sports Centers at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. “Plus, they get you outside with nature, which supports your mental and emotional health.”

WHOLE-BODY EFFORT Paddle sports use different types of paddles. Single paddles (with a flat blade at one end) are used in canoeing and paddleboarding (standing or kneeling solo on a paddleboard, which resembles a wide surfboard).

Double paddles (with blades at both ends) are used in kayaking. There are two main categories of kayaks: flat water and whitewater. Flat water kayaks, which are de-

Studies have shown that being close to water can produce a calming effect along with lowering heart rate and blood pressure.

Core. The core comprises several muscles, but the ones used most in paddling are the rectus abdominis (the “abs” or “six-pack”) at the front of the abdomen, and the obliques at the sides of your abdomen. The core acts as the epicenter around which every movement in paddling revolves -- twisting to bending to stabilizing your trunk to generate power.

Back. Paddling engages most of the back muscles, but the latissimus dorsi muscles, also known as the “lats,” and the erector spinae carry the greatest load. The lats, large V-shaped muscles that connect your arms to your vertebral column, protect and stabilize your spine and provide shoulder and back strength. The erector spinae, a group of muscles that run the length of the spine on each side, helps with rotation.

Arms and shoulders. Every paddle stroke engages your upper arm (biceps and triceps), as well as the top of your shoulder (deltoid).

Paddling also helps strengthen your muscles for everyday movements. For instance, during a stroke, the paddle’s angle and depth are almost always different, so your muscles have to react to the changes in resistance.

“This variety is similar to the real world, where you and your muscles have to quickly respond to different movements and tension,” says Salas.

Paddling also helps improve grip as you grab and hold the paddle’s handle. What’s more, studies have shown that being close to water can produce a calming effect along with lowering heart rate and blood pressure.

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People Paddling on White Row Boat. Credit: (Pat)rick Case/ Pexels

DRESS FOR SUCCESS Make sure you’re prepared for time on the water. Use plenty of sunscreen, and wear a long-sleeved dry-fit sun shirt that blocks the sun’s ultraviolet rays and quick-dry shorts. Wear a wide-brimmed hat to cover your face and neck and wraparound sunglasses that fully protect your eyes from reflected sunlight. Always wear a life jacket, too. And consider investing in water shoes. These are made from lightweight and breathable mesh material that allows water to drain and dries quickly. Choose ones with durable rubber soles for walking over rocky and slippery surfaces.

HIT THE WATER Which type of paddle sport should you begin with? It depends on your fitness, personal interest, and comfort level.

For instance, kayaks are closer to water level than canoes. They require less leaning and twisting, which makes them a better option for people with low back issues. Paddleboarding is more challenging than kayaking or canoeing, as it requires balancing skills and ankle stability.

No matter which you select, Salas suggests signing up for individual or group paddling lessons where all

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The core acts as the epicenter around which every movement in paddling revolves -- twisting to bending to stabilizing your trunk to generate power. equipment is provided.

“The experience teaches you the basics, like how to paddle and safely get in and out of the boat, and other rules and etiquette,” she says. “Experts also can explain how to navigate appropriate water and wind conditions.”

As with any new endeavor, go slow at first. “Keep your initial outings to an hour, and don’t push yourself, since the movements are unfamiliar and you don’t want to overdo it,” says Salas. “You may feel strain and stiffness in many parts of your body as it adapts to the new demands and forces. But as you progress, you can extend your time and effort.”

This article was originally published by Harvard Health.

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Governments Grapple with Visibility of Disability

Link Between Life-limiting Conditions and Poverty Hiding in Full View

By Luisa Markides

The prevalence of disability is matched by its impact. A staggering one billion people across the globe live with a physical or mental condition that limits their movements, senses, or abilities, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This equates to an incredible 15 percent of the world’s population. Of these one billion, 93 million children and 720 million adults experience “significant difficulties in functioning”.

It goes without saying that living with a disability can have a huge impact on someone’s life.

Their additional challenges are both numerous and daunting. Daily tasks that are easy for most can be insurmountable to the disabled. Add to that the great deal of remaining prejudice and discrimination in many societies, and it is a toxic mix.

and/or mobility) sensory (affecting one or more senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste and/ or spatial awareness) and mental health issues (thinking, emotional state and behaviours). The most common disability of people under the age of 60 is depression, a fact that surprises people.

Across the world, improved diagnoses are helping people understand - and live with - disabilities such as Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Autism-Spectrum Disorders. These are just some. The list is endless.

According to the WHO, most of those living with disability across the world are in developing countries. Women and children are most affected, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to violence, abuse, and/or rape. In some of The WHO defines a disabled person as some- the poorest countries in the world – Somalia, one who has “a problem in body functioning or Mali, Burkina Faso, Mozambique – disability structure, an activity limitation, and/or who has can an opportunity for those with bad intena difficulty in executing a task or action”. Fur- tions. thermore, the number of people who fall within this definition is increasing. This is partly due This is especially true when you consider that to ageing populations and the increasing preva- the disabled are far more likely to be at the lowlence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, car- er end of society’s socioeconomic scale. Study diovascular problems, and mental ill health. after study shows a significant link between disability and poverty. The disabled are more exThere are four types of disability: intellectual posed to poverty in part because they are more (difficulty communicating, learning difficulties likely to live in dangerous and unhealthy living and retaining information), physical (temporar- conditions, such as with inadequate housing or ily or permanently, someone’s physical capacity a lack of clean water.

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Credit: Unsplash :

Alas, that is just the beginning. Their access to education is more restricted - UNESCO says 90 percent of disabled children in developing countries do not attend any form of education. As a result, they fall easily into unemployment, and even when they do find a job, they tend to be paid less well than their non-disabled peers. Likewise, their ability to access treatment can be hindered, with higher healthcare costs making help simply unaffordable to many of the world’s disabled.

All of which makes them vulnerable to other diseases.

It is, in many ways, a vicious circle. Talking of vicious, the WHO says that in some countries, a quarter of all disabilities stem from injuries or violence. It is no surprise that UNICEF thinks that 30 percent of young people living homeless are disabled.

All of this matters at both the policy level and the personal level. Most of us, at some point in our lives, will face some sort of disability, whether temporarily or permanent. When we do, we will see for ourselves how this disadvantage is perceived by society. It was only comparatively recently that the disabled were not seen as complete human beings. They were marginalised and kept out of sight, often in closed care homes. For many, life was extremely isolated.

Today, by and large, people with disabilities are far better integrated into society, but they still face

the risk of ‘being forgotten’, and many still suffer discrimination. Sadly, their needs are too often overlooked by governments and international aid organizations, leaving the disabled to feel socially excluded.

In recent years, and at great cost, some countries have improved disabled access to public spaces. Others have gone to great lengths to make sure disabled voices are heard and not disregarded. But problems remain. For instance, not all disabilities are visible, and not every disability can be recognized by others. This inevitably leads to some people suffering in silence.

It should be a marker of every caring society that the disabled within it feel included, regardless of what they can or cannot do, regardless of their background or status. Governments should know that even the most vulnerable and severely affected can live fulfilling lives full of dignity.

Every life counts. Poverty should not be the cause of discrimination, isolation, or deterioration. It is up to each of us to ensure that the disabled have their needs met. And to those who are disinclined to help, remember: disability can strike anyone, anywhere, at any time. It could benefit you one day.

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Quote 1: It goes without saying that living with a disability can have a huge impact on someone’s life .

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Suella Braverman: Indian-origin Attorney General Expected to Run for UK PM

By Majalla Illustration by Jeannette Khouri Suella Braverman, the Attorney General for England and Wales, is the first person to make a bid to become the country’s next prime minister.

She announced her intention to be a candidate in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership election even before Boris Johnson quit formally.

Braverman has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Fareham since 2015. As a member of the Conservative Party, she chaired the European Research Group from 19 June 2017 to 9 January 2018. She also was appointed Queen’s Counsel as Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland in February 2020.

Braverman was born on 3 April 1980 to Christie and Uma Fernandes née Moutien-Pillay, both of Indian origin, who emigrated to Britain in the 1960s from Kenya and Mauritius, respectively. Her mother was a nurse and a councilor in Brent, and her father, of Goan ancestry, worked for a housing association. Her mother was the Conservative candidate in Tottenham in the 2001 general election and in the 2003 Brent East by-election.

She was born in Harrow, London, and grew up in Wembley. She attended the Uxendon Manor Primary School in Brent and the fee-paying Heathfield School, Pinner, on a partial scholarship, after which she studied law at Queens’

College, Cambridge.

Braverman lived in France for two years as an Erasmus Program student and then as an Entente Cordiale Scholar, where she completed a master’s degree in European and French law at Panthéon-Sorbonne University.

She married Rael Braverman in February 2018 at the House of Commons. Their first child was born in 2019, and their second in 2021.

Braverman is a member of the Triratna Buddhist Community (formerly the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order) and attends the London Buddhist Centre monthly.

Braverman’s name was already on the list of Conservative parliamentary candidates at the time of the 2003 Brent East by-election, and she had to be persuaded not to seek the nomination.

At the 2005 general election, Braverman contested Leicester East, finishing in second place behind Labour’s Keith Vaz. She sought selection as the Conservative candidate in Bexhill and Battle but was unsuccessful and was eventually selected as the Conservative candidate in Fareham. She was appointed to the Attorney General’s C Panel of Counsel in 2010.

Braverman also sought election to the London Assembly at the 2012 Assembly elections and was placed fourth on the Conservative Londonwide list; only the first three Conservative candidates were elected.

In the 13 February 2020 reshuffle, Braverman was appointed as Attorney General for England

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and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland, succeeding Geoffrey Cox, who had been dismissed from government. Braverman was made QC at the time of this appointment.

She was later criticized by members of the Bar Council for her poor choices in the role.

During the 2022 United Kingdom government crisis, Braverman remained a minister, though on 6 July 2022, she called Boris Johnson to resign and said she would stand in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership election.

If appointed prime minister, Braverman says, her priorities will be to deliver tax cuts, cut government spending, tackle the cost-of-living challenges, solve the problem of boats crossing the channel, deliver Brexit opportunities, and get rid of all of this woke rubbish.

Braverman stands on the right-wing of the Conservative Party, is a committed supporter of Brexit, and supports sending cross-Channel migrants to Rwanda. She said, “If I get trolled and provoke a bad response on Twitter, I know I’m doing the right thing. Twitter is a sewer of left-wing bile. The extreme left pile is often a consequence of good conservative values.”

She has described herself as a “child of the British Empire.” Her parents, from Mauritius and Kenya, came to the UK “with an admiration and gratitude for what Britain did for Mauritius, Kenya, and India.” She believes that, on the whole, “the British Empire was a force for good.”