Oxford Researcher Defends AstraZeneca Vaccine

Libyans Hope for Democracy, Stability and Peace

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White House Foreign Policy Moves Defy Expectations

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Oxford Researcher Defends AstraZeneca Vaccine www.majalla.com

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Despite spikes in numbers of Covid10- cases worldwide, some European countries abruptly decided to halt the use of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine earlier this week due to reports of blood clots. In response, on Thursday March 18, the European Medicine Agency announced that the vaccine is safe as the cases were not linked to the inoculation. With ongoing careful review of all vaccination data and results, various world drug regulators decided that the benefits of continuing immunization processes “outweigh” the risks.

In this week’s cover story, Amany M. Salem highlights the official scientific data submitted by the Oxford team to the regulators who recommended the resumption of the vaccination process.

As 10 years have passed since the start of the civil war in Syria, the Islamic State or Da’esh is making use of the Covid19- pandemic to restore its activities and claw back to key areas. ISIS still uses the Syrian Desert as a safe haven and is staging hideouts to carry out terrorist operations. It is still moving between the Iraqi-Syrian borders, despite the efforts made by Iraqi and coalition forces. In his article, Jassim Mohamed gives us an account of ISIS activities in Al-Hol camp in north eastern Syria and warns that a new coalition is needed to fight the militant group.

The Libyan House of Representatives gave an overwhelming vote of confidence to the new Unity government last week with 132 votes out of the 133 lawmakers who were present and voting. The newly elected government led by Interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh vowed to restore stability and unify the ranks of Libyans as well as support the High National Election Commission and hold elections as planned next December. In his article, Hatem Khedr explores Libya’s “historic moment” and hopes for the future.

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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Want to Raise Emotionally Healthy Kids ?

Issue 1844- March- 19/03/2021

48 Development Depends on

More Than Aid

22 Egypt Cements Red Sea Security

in the Face of Houthi Threats

50 Five Years After Prince’s Death

56 Will Tokyo Olympics Be Rescued

by Chinese Vaccine ?

46 ”She is a Mother“ 4

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54 Depression Hacks to Lighten Your Life 19/03/21

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Kyrgyzstan Tradition Festival Artists perform near a Soviet-era monument during celebration of Maslenitsa, also known as Pancake Week, which is a pagan holiday marking the end of winter, in Yevpatoriya, Crimea March 14, 2021. YEVPA TORIYA, , UKRAINE )Reuters Photos(

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Sarah Everard protest Protestors holding placards stand in the road on Westminster Bridge as they demonstrate against the Government›s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, being debated in the Houses of Parliament in London on March 15, 2021. - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday backed London›s police chief following outrage over her officers› handling of a vigil for a woman who was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by a member of the same force London, , United Kingdom )AFP Photos(

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A WEEK IN THE MIDDLE EAST

PALESTINIANS The Biden administration is crafting a plan aimed at resetting U.S. ties with the Palestinians that all but collapsed under former President Donald Trump, according to an internal draft memo, according to a Reuters report.

Two people familiar with the State Department document, which was first reported by the United Arab Emirates-based newspaper The National, said it was still in an early “working stage” but could eventually form the basis for rolling back parts of Trump’s approach that Palestinians denounced as heavily biased

LEBANON The collapse of Lebanon’s currency has forced many grocery shops to temporarily shut within the last 24 hours, raising fears that a country reliant on imports could soon face shortages of food, according to a Reuters report.

Food shops around the country were locking their doors, halting online deliveries or restricting customers’ orders. Others stayed open, but could not say for how long.

“There’s a big possibility we will close if it stays like this. I don’t know where will we get supplies, and no one is helping us,” said Beirut grocer Mohieldin Fayed, who has kept his shop open.

The pound tumbled to 15,000 to the dollar on Tuesday, losing a third of its value in the last two weeks. It has now sunk by 90% since late 2019.

SYRIA Syria will take delivery within weeks of its first COVID-19 vaccines from the global vaccine sharing platform COVAX, allowing it to kick off its national inoculation programme as early as next month, the U.N. health agency’s country head said this week, according to a Reuters report.

The first shipments are from a consignment of one million doses of AstraZeneca Serum Institute India (AZSII) vaccines, Akjemal Magtymova, head of the World Health Organisation’s Syria mission told Reuters from Damascus in a phone interview.

The COVAX drive to ensure equitable access to COVID vaccinations globally was a relief for a war-torn country whose health system and financial resources have been severely strained, Magtymova said.

KUWAIT

MIDDLE EAST

Arms imports to the Middle East rose by a quarter in the decade to 2020 even though arms sales globally remained stable over the same period, a Swedish watchdog said this week, according to AP. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, said the Middle East figures were driven chiefly by the world’s largest arms importer, Saudi Arabia, which increased its purchases by 61%. Egypt’s imports rose 136% and Qatar’s 361%. SIPRI said the international sale of major arms stayed at the same level during the period from 2011-2020. The watchdog said “substantial increases in transfers by three of the top five arms exporters — the United States, France and Germany — were largely offset by declining Russian and Chinese arms exports.”

Kuwait’s government backed down this week after threatening legal action this month against lawmakers from the elected parliament for violating COVID-19 rules by holding private gatherings and a press conference.

Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah said in a statement the interior ministry had withdrawn a decision to refer members of parliament to prosecutors.

The move was a step back from a months-long standoff between the elected parliament and the appointed prime minister, which has posed a political challenge for Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who assumed power in September.

Although the emir has final say over state matters, Kuwait is the only one of the Gulf Arab countries to give substantial powers to an elected parliament, which can block laws and question government ministers.

EGYPT Turkey’s actions must show alignment with Egypt’s principles and goals for relations between the two countries to return to normal, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said this week, according to Reuters.

Shoukry confirmed contacts between Cairo and Ankara after years of tensions but indicated that dialogue was limited. “(There is) no communication outside the normal diplomatic framework. If real actions from Turkey show alignment with Egyptian principles and goals then the groundwork will be laid for relations to return to normal,” Shoukry said.

Top Turkish officials said last week that diplomatic contacts had resumed and that Ankara was seeking further cooperation. Erdogan said contacts were “not at the highest level, but right below the highest level”.

Shoukry also told lawmakers there were positive messages from Qatar indicating a desire to further repair relations following a summit in Saudia Arabia’s al-Ula in January.

YEMEN Yemen’s Houthi forces fired a missile this week at a school in the Taiz region where pro-government forces are stationed, killing 15 soldiers, as well as three children who were nearby, two residents and military sources said, according to AP. The residents told Reuters the children - two brothers and their relative - were in the area when the missile struck the school in Kadha district in the west of Taiz governorate.

Two military sources said 15 soldiers were killed. They said the school had previously been used by Houthi forces and was taken over after pro-government fighters seized Kadha last week.

A Houthi official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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JORDAN Protests erupted across many of Jordan’s cities and provincial towns against the government’s coronavirus restrictions, a day after oxygen ran out at a state hospital leading to the deaths of at least six COVID-19 patients, witnesses said this week, according to Reuters.

Hundreds of people spilled into the streets in defiance of a night curfew in the northern city of Irbid and several other provincial cities including a neighbourhood in the capital and the city of Salt. Protesters also gathered further south in Karak city and the port city of Aqaba.

Jordan’s economy has been particularly hard hit by the shutdowns aimed at containing the virus with unemployment surging to a record 24 % and poverty deepening. It witnessed its worst contraction in decades last year.

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UK

A WEEK ACROSS THE WORLD

INDIA

The British government is under pressure to do more to protect women and ensure the right to protest as Parliament prepares to debate a sweeping crime bill amid anger over the way police broke up a vigil for a young murder victim abducted on the streets of London, according to a Reuters report.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week called a meeting of his Crime and Justice Taskforce, including government ministers, senior police officers and prosecutors, to discuss the issue of women’s safety. Among the items on the agenda is a recent decline in successful prosecutions for rape and sexual assault. But the opposition Labour Party called on the government to stop talking, toughen penalties for rapists and take action against street harassment and stalking. The party has directed its lawmakers to vote against the crime bill, noting that women aren’t mentioned once in its 296 pages.

LIBYA Libya’s first unity government in years was sworn in this week in the eastern city of Tobruk, charged with unifying the country after years of violence and division and overseeing the run-up to national elections, Reuters reported.

The government, which emerged through a United Nations dialogue process and was ratified last week in a frontline city, is seen as providing Libya’s best hope in years for an end to a decade of chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi.

“I swear by God almighty to perform my duties with honesty and sincerity,” said Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, taking the oath of office in front of members of parliament.

India will propose a law banning cryptocurrencies, fining anyone trading in the country or even holding such digital assets, a senior government official told Reuters in a potential blow to millions of investors piling into the red-hot asset class, according to a Reuters report.

The bill, one of the world’s strictest policies against cryptocurrencies, would criminalise possession, issuance, mining, trading and transferring crypto-assets, said the official, who has direct knowledge of the plan.

TANZANIA Tanzania’s President John Magufuli, one of Africa’s most prominent coronavirus sceptics, has died aged 61,Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said this week after a more than two-week absence from public life that led to speculation about his health, according to Reuters.

She said he died from the heart disease that had plagued him for a decade. She said burial arrangements were under way and announced 14 days of mourning and the flying of flags at half staff. State television broadcast mournful and religious songs.

Magufuli, had not been seen in public since Feb. 27, sparking rumours that he had contracted COVID-19. Officials denied on March 12 that he had fallen ill and on Monday the vice president urged Tanzanians not to listen to rumours from outside the country and said it was normal for a human being to be checked for the flu or fever.

U.S.

MYANMAR

President Joe Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin will face consequences for directing efforts to swing the November 2020 U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump, and that they would come soon, according to Reuters.

“He will pay a price,” Biden told ABC News in an interview broadcast this week. Asked what the consequences would be, he said, “You’ll see shortly.”

A U.S. intelligence report bolstered longstanding allegations that Putin was behind Moscow’s election interference, an accusation Russia called baseless.

At the same time, Biden noted that “there’s places where it’s in our mutual interest to work together” such as renewing the START nuclear agreement, adding that the two leaders have a known history.

“I know him relatively well,” Biden said, adding that “the most important thing dealing with foreign leaders in my experience ... is just know the other guy.”

Myanmar faced growing isolation this week with increasingly limited internet services and its last private newspaper ceasing publication as the military built its case against ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to Reuters.

Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi was overthrown and detained in a Feb. 1 military coup, triggering mass protests across the country that security forces have struggled to suppress with increasingly violent methods.

The total documented number of people killed in the unrest stood at 217 but the actual toll was probably much higher, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group said.

Western countries have condemned the coup and called for an end to the violence and for the release of Suu Kyi and others. Asian neighbours have offered to help find a solution, but the military has a long record of shunning outside pressure.

AFGHANISTAN U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast this week that it will be “tough” for him to meet a May 1 deadline to withdraw the last troops from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war, according to a Reuters report.

Biden’s comments to ABC News were his most extensive to date about the deadline set in an accord struck with the Taliban under former President Donald Trump in February 2020.

His interview aired a day before Russia, China, the United States, Pakistan, a delegation of top Afghan officials and opposition leaders and Taliban negotiators meet in Moscow in an attempt to kickstart deadlocked peace talks.

Some U.S. officials and many experts fear that if U.S.-led international forces depart before a peace deal is reached, Afghanistan could plunge into a new civil war, giving al Qaeda a new sanctuary.

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CHINA China said this week it will simplify visa applications for foreign nationals who have been inoculated with Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines, its latest small step towards normalising international travel.

Vaccinated passengers travelling to China by air will still need to show negative tests as under current rules, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, according to an official transcript of a daily briefing. The transcript did not provide further details on how visa applications would be simplified.

Travellers “should abide by China’s relevant regulations on quarantine and observation after entering China,” Zhao said, adding that China was willing to carry out mutual recognition of vaccination with other nations.

GERMANY

German voters looked set to punish the ruling Christian Democrats in two regional elections this week for a long coronavirus lockdown and face mask procurement scandal, denting their prospects of retaining power later this year, according to a Reuters report.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, in power since 2005, is not seeking re-election in September and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is already missing the "Merkel bonus" she has brought them with four consecutive national election victories.

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over story more than 142 countries, with 70 countries using it already,” Dr. Salman, a member of Oxford’s Jenner Institute research group working on the Covid19vaccine, told Majalla.

The vaccine has been administered to approximately 100 million people all over the world, sometimes under the name of Covishield. In the EU, almost 17 million people received the jab, out of whom only 37 cases reported blood clots or thrombosis.

Dr. Salman remarked, “All statistics and scientific data indicate that normally every year a thousand out of each one million people, with or without medical history, suffer blood clots. Accordingly, every day three in every million people show symptoms of blood clots. This means 51 cases out of 17 million in normal conditions.”

“Thus, 37 cases in 17 million is just coincidence,” he added. “In England between 12 to 13 million people were inoculated. None of them showed any signs of thrombosis or severe adverse effects. All our scientific and official data prove that the vaccine is safe and effective with no serious side effects or death cases,” he confirmed.

Oxford Researcher Defends AstraZeneca Vaccine

Here is the Evidence Drug Regulators Relied On Amany M. Salem After a week-long confusion in Europe over the safety of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid19- vaccine, Oxford immunologist-vaccinologist Dr. Ahmed Salman spoke

to Majalla about the scientific and statistical data which was submitted to European and international regulators to prove the safety and efficacy of the jab.

“The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is authorized in

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Dr. Ahmed Salman, senior immunologistvaccinologist and a member of Oxford’s Jenner Institute research group working on the Covid-19 vaccine.

He explained that the decision by health authorities to temporarily the vaccine can be considered as precautionary measures to make sure that this is coincidence and not linked with the inoculation.

On Thursday, March 18, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has finally announced its support for continuing the AstraZeneca vaccination process after reviewing the most recent scientific and statistical data. The revision was conducted following a decision taken earlier this week by more than a dozen European countries to temporarily suspend the use of AstraZeneca vaccine due to some reports of unusual blood clots in some people who took the jab.

The European regulator’s safety committee announced in a «clear scientific conclusion» that the inoculation’s benefits “outweigh” the risks. Emer Cooke, the executive director of the EMA, said in a press briefing that the AstraZeneca vaccine is a «safe and effective option to protect citizens from Covid19-,” although she remarked that the EMA could not «definitively rule out a link» between the vaccine and blood clots.

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Dr. Salman made clear that symptoms tracked so far are acceptable and don’t have long term impact, other than rise in temperature, or swelling of the injection site, or the feeling of mild cold for a day or two at most.

She also added that agency will continue to study possible links between rare blood clots and the vaccine.

After the regulator’s announcement, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and several other European countries are set to resume the inoculation with AstraZeneca.

The AstraZenera inoculation pause is similar to another temporary suspension - that of the Pfizer vaccine which took place in mid-January in Norway. Twenty-three elderly patients died after receiving Pfizer jabs in a care center. The vaccination process was halted for two or three days, to conduct a probe and review data, then the inoculation resumed after announcing that the incident is not related to the vaccine.

Dr Salman emphasized that “Vaccines are usually given to elderly people in their 70s, 80s or 90s. Of course, this category naturally has higher risk of blood clots. But it was coincidence. As scientifically evident, the vaccine is completely safe and effective.”

OTHER ADVERSE EFFECTS Asked about how any other side effects are detected, the Oxford immunologist described the current inoculation processes as the fourth stage tests, in which “any person who receive the vaccine and shows any kind of symptoms can record them. We collect periodical statistics, and research papers are published about all types of vaccines.”

“We are now witnessing what is called emergency use authorization of vaccines, where the vaccine work should be followed up for a year or two, until we can

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definitively confirm the expected adverse effects, even in very low rates, 1 in a million or 1 in 10 million cases,” he explained.

He also made clear that symptoms tracked so far are acceptable and don’t have long term impact, such as rise in temperature, or swelling of the injection site, or the feeling of mild cold for a day or two at most. “In the worst case scenario, the patient may need to take paracetamol, which is definitely acceptable,” he said.

CONCERNS COULD LINGER There is no denying though, that European countries’ decision to halt the AstraZeneca immunization process would have negative impact on the people’s confidence in the vaccine and may affect their readiness to take the shots even after the regulator’s assurance.

Underlying political reasons may have played a role in the suspension, given the problems that took place between the pharmaceutical company and the EU over delayed vaccine supply on one hand, and between UK and EU over the Brexit deal on another.

However, Dr. Salman ruled out a conspiracy theory and said that science should have the final word in resolving any suspicions.

He said, “The reasons behind the suspension vary between scientific and non-scientific. Scientifically speaking, most European states still have the luxury of choice, they still have Pfizer, Janssen and Novavax.

But the impact will extend to other people who will fear the shot. Even after conducting the investigation,

The European regulator’s safety committee announced in a «clear scientific conclusion» that the inoculation benefits “outweigh” the risks.

denying the reports, and proving the vaccine is safe, there would be a long-term effect, and there would be some skepticism, which will delay the immunization and cause subsequent loss of lives.”

Dr. Salman also pointed out that in the “follow-up of numbers vaccinated in England, the jab caused no casualties. However, among four million people who contracted the Covid10- virus in England 130,000 died. Thus, out of 20 or 30 million people, the vaccine could be said to have saved 800,000 the lives.

Moreover, given the spread of new Covid19- strains, rapid vaccination is very crucial.”

According to risk assessment, the researcher said that

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An elderly man gets inoculated by a medical staff with the Covishield vaccine as part of the nationwide Covid-19 coronavirus vaccination drive at the SRCC hospital in Mumbai on March 19, 2021 as coronavirus cases continue to increase )Getty(

the inoculation benefits outweighs the risks, which was the same conclusion reached by EMA late on Thursday.

“Results of 100 million people who received the vaccine will influence the final decision on that matter.

Their data will be reviewed and it will be seen whether symptoms appeared in other people who are already vaccinated,” he added.

How effective will these combinations be? Have any results emerged yet?

Further studies are announced to combine between various types of vaccines. One of these studies combines Oxford/AstraZeneca and the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

He concluded, “We need to finish the study and analyze the findings in order to assess their combined efficacy and how long will it will last, then we will have to submit and review the results.”

In this regard, Dr. Salman revealed that all vaccines target the spike protein of the virus, though they use different techniques.

“In theory, as long as the individual vaccine is safe, they are safe when combined,” he COMBINING DIFFERENT VACCINES commented.

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Jassim Mohamad - Bonn

10 Years of Syrian War – ISIS Exploiting Covid - 19 to Restore Activities

New International Coalition to Fight Extremism Urgently Needed 18

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Syrians wait to leave the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp, which holds relatives of alleged Islamic State (IS) group fighters, in the Syrian northeastern alHasakeh governorate on December ,10 2020. (Getty)

As 10 years have passed since the start of the civil war in Syria, the Islamic State, or Da’esh, is making use of the COVID19- pandemic to restore its activities and claw itself back into key areas.

ISIS still uses the Syrian Desert as a safe haven and is arranging hideouts from which to carry out terrorist operations. It is still moving between the Iraqi-Syrian borders, despite the efforts made by Iraqi and coalition forces.

ISIS is still active in several regions in Iraq – east of Samarra, in the Hamrin Basin, south of Kirkuk, in Wadi Al-Shay, and in the Anbar desert at Wadi Houran.

The challenges facing the Iraqi government were mostly in the wake of US withdrawals from Iraq as well as the withdrawal of some coalition forces from Iraq, most notably the German and French soldiers. These troop drawdowns encouraged ISIS to return thereby taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic.

Though ISIS may be currently unable to mount sophisticated attacks or operations outside of Iraq and Syria, data show that it is expanding its presence in both countries.

ISIS continues to press forward with online recruitment and remains well-funded, with reserves estimated at between 50$ million and 300$ million.

A recent U.N. assessment estimates ISIS manpower to be more than 10,000 fighters while the Pentagon Inspector General estimates that the numbers are anywhere from 18,000-14,000.

HISTORY OF ISIS The Islamic State is a transnational Islamist insurgent and a terrorist group that controlled large areas of Iraq and Syria from 2014 through 2017.

As a reaction, the U.S. announced in 2014 the formation of a broad international coalition to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)., The coalition comprises more than 80 states and organizations and was established to militarily eliminate ISIS. The coalition managed to make gains against ISIS in key areas. However, on October ,16 2019, President Trump ordered a withdrawal of

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The conditions that sparked ISIS’ massive growth in 2014 are unlikely to reoccur, but the coalition should get ahead of the problem while it can. Even a low-level ISIS insurgency in Iraq and Syria will be detrimental to the coalition’s gains and strategic interests in both countries.

American forces from northern Syria, a decision that effectively ceded control of the area to the Syrian government and Russia, which allowed a resurgence of the Islamic state.

The withdrawal has been described as a “major victory” for Trump’s national security team.

Britain has agreed to deploy additional special forces in Syria alongside French commandos to allow the US to withdraw its ground troops from the ongoing fight against the remaining ISIS forces in the country.

US officials indicated that Britain and France would contribute %10 to %15 more elite soldiers, although the exact numbers involved remain secret. At the time, about 2,000 to 2,500 US troops were in the country. Trump then partially reversed the decision in February, which meant that about 400 soldiers would remain as a peacekeeping force for an indeterminate period.

Although the coalition has made strides in its fight against ISIS, there are wider challenges regarding combating extremism and terrorism in the region.

Critically required is support for reconstructing what ISIS destroyed, rebuilding the infrastructure, and implementing policies and measures in order to fight terrorism.

This means that a new international or regional coalition is urgently needed to fight extremism and terrorism, especially since experience has revealed that no country is safe from terrorism.

The conditions that sparked ISIS’ massive growth in 2014 are unlikely to reoccur, but the coalition should get ahead of the problem while it can.

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Even a low-level ISIS insurgency in Iraq and Syria will be detrimental to the coalition’s gains and strategic interests in both countries.

RECREATING DA’ESH FIGHTERS in Al-HOL In March 2019, with the geographical elimination of ISIS, the Syrian Democratic Forces started to

ISIS women still raise the organization›s slogans and impose its teachings on the rest of the camp›s women. This comes in an attempt to recreate a new generation of ISIS children inside the camp.

transfer the families of the mercenaries to Al-Hol camp‬.‫‬‬‬‬‫‬ But ISIS is trying to create new Islamic Caliphate fighters in the camp.

ISIS women still raise the organization›s slogans and impose its teachings on the rest of the camp›s women. This comes in an attempt to recreate a new generation of ISIS children inside the camp.

The Islamic State is also carrying out smuggling attempts in conjunction with Turkey to get some ISIS families out of the camp.

These smuggling attempts are carried out by a smuggling network which requires the payment of funds amounting to more than 5,000 dollars per person.

The military operations by Turkey are considered as an invasion of Syrian territories. They are contrary to the Security Council resolutions on the transfer of foreign fighters as well as the movement of funds.

ISIS is also extending support to their followers in Al-Hol camp by sending money and remittances at a rate of 500$ per month that are used in smuggling and terrorist operations.

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Syrians wait to leave the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp, which holds relatives of alleged Islamic State (IS) group fighters, in the Syrian northeastern al-Hasakeh governorate on December 10, 2020. (Getty)

A boy looks out from a door in Douma, in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, Syria on March 9, 2021.

(Reuters)

the lack of diligence in taking them back from their “homelands,” and this means a disposition towards violent extremism in no small way.

A Security Council report released in early February 2021 confirmed the existence of ISIS›s intentions during 2021 to expand its capacity to plan escapes and enlarge the network which has been assisting fugitives since August 2020.

The report of the Security Council clearly warned that the internal displacement camps and detention facilities in the main area of ISIS, especially in northeastern Syria (Al-Hol camp), which are guarded by the Syrian Democratic ISIS CHILDREN VOW REVENGE Forces (SDF), represent an underlying threat, The curriculum of the “ISIS schools” in Al-Hol and that the camp is considered the last remnant camp is preparing a future terrorist generation of of the «caliphate.»

ISIS women.

The number of camp guards decreased from 1,500 Investigations carried out by some TV channels in mid2019- to 400 in late 2020. Al-Hol camp still from inside Al-Hol camp during 2020 and contains about 65,000 people, a population much 2021 showed that ISIS children were vowing greater than its intended capacity, with 10,000 foreign women and children in an annex to the revenge.

ISIS fighters feel that the ISIS has «let them down» camp. It is said that some minors are indoctrinated and now are disappointed and frustrated with and prepared as future agents of ISIS. This has left foreign fighters and ISIS families in camps in northern Syria and possibly in Iraq which is an indication that they may be exploited by some of the extremist organizations and recycled or transferred to other conflict areas in order to spread extremism and terrorism.

There are also members of ISIS who managed to escape from the camps in Syria and return to Europe illegally, which complicates the problem.

Therefore, it became necessary for European and other countries to repatriate their citizens and assume legal and moral responsibility.

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olitics «These repeated drills serve to deliver a clear message to the Houthis and other inimical forces that Egypt is always ready to defend itself against potential attacks,» retired Egyptian army general Nasr Salem told Majalla.

The Houthis threatened more than one time to target vessels transiting the Red Sea on the way to the Suez Canal.

In December 2020, the Iran-backed militia attacked a cargo vessel with a sea mine in the Red Sea. In October 2016, the militia attacked an Emirati civilian ship off the Yemeni coast.

In July 2017, the Houthis attacked another Emirati ship off the coast of Yemen.

In October 2016, the Iran-backed militia staged a failed missile attack on a US Navy guided missile destroyer. These were only a few examples of attacks launched by the Houthis in the past few years and include assaults on Saudi oil tankers.

Egypt Cements Red Sea Security in the Face of Houthi Threats Drills Are Part of Larger Egyptian Strategic Plan Amr Emam CAIRO – The Egyptian and French navies have just wrapped up maritime exercises in the Red Sea, having conducted a series of naval activities with participation by some important assets from the two navies, including the French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.

The training, which came to an end on March 14, included a number of combat exercises, landing helicopters on board of each countries’ naval units, and establishing near and distant security perimeters, according to Egyptian army

spokesman Brig -Gen. Tamer al-Rifae.

The training with the French navy came hard on the heels of another exercise with the Spanish navy in the Red Sea as well.

DEEP FEARS The deeply underlying reason for these repeated drills in the region are Egyptian fears of a spillover from the situation in Yemen and fear of attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on vessels crossing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on the way to the Suez Canal or from the Canal to other parts of Africa, security analysts said.

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A container ship sails through the new section of the Suez Canal in the Egyptian port city of Ismailia, 135 kms northeast of the caital Cairo on October ,10 2019. (Getty)

GETTING READY After the Houthi takeover of most of the Arab country in 2015, Egypt reacted to the turmoil in Yemen by beefing up security in the Red Sea, particularly the area in close proximity to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Apart from deploying units of its navy near the southern entrance of the Red Sea, Egypt opened its southernmost naval/air base on the Red Sea coast in January 2020.

The Barnice base, near Egypt›s border with Sudan, serves the southern Egyptian fleet which was installed a short time later.

The fleet is made up of a number of frigates, speedboats, submarines, corvettes and also a helicopter carrier. Egypt has spent billions of dollars on acquiring and manufacturing this equipment over the past few years.

«The southern fleet is there to protect the southern Egyptian Red Sea coast against security threats,» retired Egyptian air force general Hesham alHalabi told Majalla. «It also aims to secure the Bab el-Mandeb Strait which functions as the southern entrance to the Suez Canal.»

PART OF WIDER PLAN Egypt has been providing verbal and

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The strengthening of Red Sea security is one detail in the larger picture of Egypt’s military reawakening, which aims to protect Egypt’s strategic interests in the region and includes huge investments together with the procurement of military equipment worth tens of billions of dollars. practical support to Saudi Arabia and Arab Gulf nations in the face of Houthi threats, ever since the Yemeni militia overran the Yemeni capital of Sana›a in late 2014 and most of Yemen later.

In April 2017, Gen. Ahmed al-Aseri, an advisor to the Saudi Minister of Defense, revealed that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had proposed sending around 40,000 Egyptian ground troops to participate in the liberation of Yemen from the Houthis.

In November of the same year, the Egyptian president said the security of the Arab Gulf region is a «redline» for Egypt.

However, the strengthening of Red Sea security is one detail in the larger picture of Egypt›s military reawakening, which aims to protect Egypt›s strategic interests in the region and includes huge investments together with the procurement of military equipment worth tens of billions of dollars.

Egypt, which has the most powerful Arab military, has modernized this military to protect its territorial waters and their newly-found gas reserves, especially in the Mediterranean, and also to cushion itself against rampant regional unrest, particularly in neighboring Libya with which it shares an extended border.

«The modernization of the army is an issue of extreme importance for the protection of Egypt›s strategic interests and national security in a region

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among certain quarters of the Left.

This week, in a move that gave pause to many veteran Washington observers, senior Middle East adviser to former President Trump, Jared Kushner took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to offer a surprisingly laudatory assessment of Biden’s emerging Middle Eastern posture. “While many were troubled by the Biden team’s opening offer to work with Europe and rejoin the Iran deal,” Kushner noted, “I saw it as a smart diplomatic move. The Biden administration called Iran’s bluff. It revealed to the Europeans that the JCPOA is dead and only a new framework can bring stability for the future.”

Kushner also celebrated the Biden administration’s steadfast refusal to accede to Iranian demands for preemptive concessions, and urged Biden to maintain a posture of strategic patience, noting, “Iran is feigning strength, but its economic situation is dire and it has no ability to sustain conflict or survive indefinitely under current sanctions. America should be patient and insist that any deal include real nuclear inspections and an end to Iran’s funding of foreign militias.”

White House Foreign Policy Moves Defy Expectations

Unusual Praise, Critique from the Right

by Joseph Braude The Biden administration has weathered its first series of tests abroad and offered glimpses

of an emerging foreign policy. Dismissing the temptations of immediate disengagement from the region, the administration has garnered tentative praise from the Right, even as skepticism mounts

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U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) talks with Secretary of State Antony Blinken following Blinken›s testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Capitol Hill on March 2021 ,10 in Washington, DC. Blinken discussed the Biden administration›s priorities for U.S. foreign policy. (Getty)

From another segment of the Right, veteran foreign policy expert Kori Schake offered praise for Biden’s change of tone: “The America First xenophobia of President Donald Trump [has been] replaced by a humility that is appealing for the hegemon of the international order, and by a commitment that the values animating America’s domestic compact will return to its international conduct.”

Schake’s article adds the caveat that the administration’s rhetoric is at odds with some of its conduct, citing Biden’s abrupt cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline — favored by Canadian exporters — and his condemnation of the Nordstream II pipeline, ardently supported by many Germans. She concludes, “The administration’s strategy appears to rely fundamentally on alliance participation without committing to policies that will produce it.”

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In a move that gave pause to many veteran Washington observers, senior Middle East adviser to former President Trump, Jared Kushner took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to offer a surprisingly laudatory assessment of Biden’s emerging Middle Eastern posture.

DISCONTENT ON THE LEFT California Democratic Representative Ro Khanna, a prominent figure among his party’s more progressive elements, has signaled his discontent with the early indications of Biden’s foreign policy. Biden’s centrist approach, Khanna contends, is like “conceding defeat of the aspiration” to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

“Obama strove for greatness. He, at least, tried.» Khanna was also fiercely critical of Biden’s recent airstrike against facilities in Syria linked to Iran-backed militia groups. He argues, “There is absolutely no justification for a president to authorize a military strike that is not in self-defense against an imminent threat without congressional authorization.

We need to extricate from the Middle East, not escalate.”

Simmering discontent also manifests among progressive journalists. Katrina Vanden Heuvel, publisher and part-owner of The Nation, recently sounded a cautionary note: “Although the new president deserves kudos for his domestic policy, when it comes to foreign policy initiatives, the new era looks hauntingly like the old … Biden’s campaign pledge to revive the Iran nuclear deal has wavered thanks to a dispute about which country will take the first step.”

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Baitullah Mehsud, a veteran of the Afghan “jihad,” was killed in a drone strike in August 2009 and was replaced by Hakimullah Mehsud, another ruthless commander from the Mehsud clan, as the group’s new leader. However, Hakimullah Mehsud’s killing, also in a drone strike, in November 2013 opened cracks in the TTP alliance.

Several factions parted ways with the TTP following the appointment of Mullah Fazlullah, a non-Mehsud and non-tribal, as head of the banned militant group. Already weakened by its internal rifts and the separation of various factions and splinters, the TTP received what was perceived as a final blow when Pakistan launched a massive military operation, Zarb-eAzb, in June 2014.

The TTP leadership fled across the border to hide in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan. The Taliban under Fazlullah struggled for survival.

However, Fazlullah’s death in June 2018, also in a drone strike, once again returned the TTP leadership to the Mehsud Taliban.

Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, who is considered a writer and strategist rather than a hardened fighter, focused on bringing the various factions together under the TTP umbrella again over the next two years.

The Pakistani Taliban is Back Reunification of Militant Factions After Rifts Due to Leadership Daud Khattak

nessmen and government contractors.

Six years after their defeat, the once-dreaded Pakistani Taliban have staged a gradual comeback in their former territories in Waziristan, the rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan, by carrying out targeted killings, attacking Pakistani security forces, kidnapping government officials, and collecting protection money from local busi-

The visible uptick in Taliban attacks over the past year in north and south Waziristan is believed to be the result of the re-unification and merger of several Taliban factions and splinters in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a loose alliance of militant groups founded by the thenTaliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in 2007.

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Taliban carrying a gun stock photo (Getty)

Besides his re-unification efforts, Mufti moved the TTP headquarters from eastern Afghanistan – Kunar and Nangarhar provinces – to the southeast in Paktika province, where the remote Bermal district provides his men easy access across the border into the former TTP stronghold of south Waziristan.

Being a Mehsud himself, Mufti Noor Wali not only managed to bring in the Mehsud factions of the TTP, but also win over the support of Taliban from Mohmand, Bajaur, and other tribal districts, besides bringing in groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Punjabi Taliban.

In July and August 2020, a Taliban spokesman announced the merger of the Amjad Farouqi group and one faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi under the commander of Maulvi Khush Muhammad Sindhi, in the TTP.

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The re-emergence and reunification of the Pakistani Taliban in the PakistanAfghanistan border region is of deep concern not just for Pakistan but also for Afghanistan, India, China, and the United States, which is struggling to end its twodecade-long war in Afghanistan.

In November 2020, the TTP claimed the joining of Maulvi Aleem Khan, another Waziristanbased commander, along with nine commanders, while the same month, another TTP pamphlet suggested that Umar Izzam, known as Ghazi Umar Izzam, from Miami tribe joined the TTP along with his group “Musa Shaheed Karwan.”

The biggest success for the TTP under Mufti, however, was the rejoining of two strong factions – Jamat ul Ahrar (JuA) under Omar Khalid Khorasani and Hezb ul Ahar (HeA) of Omar Khorasani – in August 2020. The JuA is a breakaway faction of the TTP, while the HuA is a splinter of the JuA. Both operate in the Mohmand tribal district and the separation came as a result of the TTP leadership rivalries that followed the death of Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013.

It was the JuA faction of the TTP under Omar Khalid Khorasani that carried out the February 2016 Easter Sunday terrorist attack in Lahore, which killed around 75 and injured about 350 people, mostly women and children.

The re-emergence and re-unification of the Pakistani Taliban in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region is of deep concern not just for Pakistan but also for Afghanistan, India, China, and the United States, which is struggling to end its twodecade-long war in Afghanistan.

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olitics Afghanistan is already reeling from Taliban violence while India is facing a jihadist threat in the part of Kashmir under the Indian control.

The multi-headed monster may also affect China, given the country’s very visible presence and huge investments in Pakistan

Afghanistan is already reeling from Taliban violence while India is facing a jihadist threat in the part of Kashmir under the Indian control. The multi-headed monster may also affect China, given the country’s very visible presence and huge investments in Pakistan. In addition, the TTP still has connections with Uyghurs, some of which migrated to Afghanistan from Waziristan in the aftermath of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in June 2014.

The TTP has also expanded its financial resources, with local sources suggesting that group is levying taxes on contractors working on developmental projects such as road construction and the building of schools and hospitals in Waziristan and the adjacent districts.

According to local sources, the Taliban charge 5 percent of the total amounts of contracts from local contractors in Waziristan. The group has recently expanded its extortion network to the neighboring district of Tank and the more distant city of Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial capital.

Image building is another area for the re-organized TTP leadership and unlike his predecessors, Mufti Noor Wali regularly issues pamphlets and statements. Some use nationalist slogans to win the support of his fellow tribesmen.

In one recent Urdu-language statement, when the government security agencies issued a threat warning in February 2021 asking pro-government elders, government officials, and journalists to beware of Taliban attacks, a TTP spokesman quickly reacted, mocking the government for being “unable to ensure safety of its citizens.”

In the same statement, the TTP spokesman said “we would like to inform the people of Waziristan along with other Pakistanis that we are not targeting the common people.” This is in contrast with the polices of the previous TTP chiefs who cared less for the safety of civilians.

Mufti Noor Wali has closer links with the Afghan Taliban, leaders of the Haqqani Network, and remnants of al-Qaeda in the border region.

This is in contrast with his predecessor Fazlullah,

the TTP was June 2014’s Operation Zarb-e-Azb which pushed the militants out of the tribal areas and shattered their command and control structure. However, that push incurred heavy losses on the tribal people as over a million were displaced and their properties and businesses were destroyed.

Many of those tribesmen still live outside their home areas and hold protest demonstrations demanding compensation for their losses. The reemergence of the Taliban in areas promised to have been cleared of militants is a source of serious concern. who was believed to be closer to the Afghan security agencies.

It was Mufti’s closer links with the Haqqanis and Afghan Taliban that, according to an unofficial source, prompted Pakistani security agencies to contact him to start peace talks and put an end to the violence. The source said that while the Haqqani Network and the Afghan Taliban may advise the TTP leadership to declare a ceasefire, they can not and would not force him to accept their advice.

Although the TTP has yet to prove its presence in the cities, its increasing attacks in Waziristan are reminiscent of its 2007 emergence in the tribal region and their gradual expansion to cities.

Another worrying aspect of the TTP’s re-emer-

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Armed Pakistani Taliban gather at a hideout in the semi-autonomous tribal district of Orakzai on April 22, 2009.(Getty)

gence is the Afghanistan end game. Regardless of whether the Afghan government and the Taliban agree on a durable peace deal or the situation worsens in the case of no deal, the Pakistani Taliban will find solid ground for maintaining their presence and expanding their operations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

The Pakistani Taliban will be encouraged and inspired to continue their militancy in case the Afghan Taliban, as is expected by some, manages to score a significant role in Afghanistan’s future governments. However, the continuation of the Afghan insurgency, in the case of no deal, would be equally inspirational for TTP fighters and commanders mainly because they will continue to find a cause for their “jihad.”

The last time Pakistan struck a serious blow to

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Despite rendering huge sacrifices as a frontline state in the global war against terrorism, Pakistan has earned a bad name for what is called a “double game” by the country’s security agencies concerning the Taliban.

At a time when international forces are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, critics believe the re-emergence of Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal areas points to a new twist in Pakistan’s Taliban policy.

Pakistan won a hard battle against the TTP, sacrificing thousands of lives and suffering huge financial losses. The Taliban’s return would not only spoil those gains, but also damage the trust in state power that was restored by defeating Taliban in the region.

This article is originally published in The Diplomat.

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to restore stability and unify the ranks of Libyans as well as support the High National Election Commission and hold elections as planned next December.

The new move in Libya was seen by observers and officials as well as international organizations as a good step towards steadiness, security, fairness and peace.

HISTORIC MOMENT

Libyans Hope for Democracy, Stability and Peace New Government Stresses “War Won’t Be Repeated”

By Hatem Khedr Under the new government which obtained parliament’s confidence a few days ago, the Libyan people are longing for the permanent stability, peace and democracy that was lost since the ouster of strongman Muammar al-

Qaddafi in 2011.

The Libyan House of Representatives gave an overwhelming vote of confidence to the new unity government last week with 132 votes out of the 133 lawmakers who were present and voting.

The new elected government led by Interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh vowed

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Libya›s new interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah speaks after being sworn in on March 2021 ,15 in the eastern coastal city of Tobruk where Libya›s new interim prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah is to be sworn in to lead the war-torn country›s transition to elections in December, after years of chaos and division. (Getty)

After gaining the parliament’s confidence, Dbeibeh described the vote as a “historic moment” and vowed to end war in his country.

He told local media that the war in Libya will not be repeated and called on the legislature to pursue unity.

The PM stressed that he would work hard to back the Presidential Council and achieve transitional justice in the country.

Dbeibeh declared the government will prioritize improving services in the country, unifying the state’s institutions and fulfilling the goal of the transitional period by holding planned polls.

The new government is facing several challenges including providing good services, restoring the facilities affected by the war, increasing the oil production that makes up about %97 of the country’s total revenues, unifying Libyans and promoting the economy in all sectors.

CONTINUING OIL OUTPUT IS NECESSARY “All parties in Libya agreed on the new government which was also supported internationally and regionally as capable of achieving its domestic missions which are topped by restoring stability nationwide and holding new elections,” Dr. Reem Abohussien, a specialist in African affairs, told Majalla.

“A few years ago, I published a study related to Libyan affairs that included some recommendations and primarily proposed following up the UN experiment in Mozambique. I called for withdrawing

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Dbeibeh declared the government will prioritize improving services in the country, unifying the state’s institutions and fulfilling the goal of the transitional period by holding planned polls. weapons from the armed groups in Libya and integrating them into a national inclusive army,” she stated.

Asked about the key step to be taken by the new government, Abohussien stressed the necessity of maintaining the production of oil to secure the inflow of major income to help the country continue spending on education, health sectors, and government salaries.

She demanded, at the same time, providing financial aid to the Libyan families to help them overcome the deteriorating economic conditions caused by the armed conflict and Covid19-.

As long as the local, regional and international parties have the desire to back the new government in the next phase, this will enable the cabinet to progress towards security, she affirmed.

She called for conducting a wider national reconciliation and implementing transitional justice similar to the steps taken in South Africa.

Libya is seeking to raise its oil production to 1.45 million barrels per day (b/d) by the end of the year, a level not achieved since 2012.

«In September we produced 700,000 b/d, today we are producing more than 1.3mn b/d, and our target is to increase production by the end of this year to 1.45mn b/d … provided that two variables remain fixed—an adequate budget and sufficient security,» Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in an interview with Bloomberg TV last week.

“Our projection for two years from now is to produce 1.6mn b/d and, within 4-3 years

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olitics “Undoubtedly, this will be favorable to the neighboring countries in terms of combating cross-border terrorism, increasing trade and investment, as well as taking part in the reconstruction in Libya.”

from now to produce 2.1mn b/d,» he said.

ADVANCED STEP TOWARDS RECONCILIATION Some diplomats consider what has recently happened in Libya as a key step.

“I see this as an advanced step towards an actual peace and reconciliation in Libya,” Egypt’s former ambassador to Qatar and former Assistant Foreign Minister Mohamed Morsi told Majalla.

“It is the first actual chance to pave the way for the unification and rebuilding of the Libyan State, especially if the international partners pledge their commitment regarding the withdrawal of armed groups and militias from the Libyan territories,” he argued.

Undoubtedly, this will be favorable to the neighboring countries in terms of combating cross-border terrorism, increasing trade and investment, as well as taking part in the reconstruction in Libya, the ambassador noted.

After the Libyan parliament voted its confidence in the new government, many countries and organizations all over the world welcomed it and commented that this step that was a key move on the way to democracy and stability as well as to the unification of Libyans.

“As long as the local, regional and international parties have the desire to back the new government in the next phase, this will enable the cabinet to progress towards security.”

He said he looks forward to founding foreign ties based on mutual interests and partnership, respecting sovereignty as well as avoiding intervention in domestic affairs.

UN PRAISE OF PARLIAMENT VOTE

Egypt’s presidency announced this week its full support to the new Libyan government.

In a telephone call with Dbeibeh, Egypt’s President Al-Sisi congratulated him on the parliament›s vote of confidence, saying it was a «historic step” on the way to settling the Libyan crisis.

Al-Sisi affirmed his country›s readiness to provide its experience in fields that will contribute to achieving political stability and to implementing development projects in Libya, according to an Egyptian presidential statement.

Moreover, Al-Sisi reiterated his trust in Dbeibeh›s potential to run the current transitional phase and to achieve reconciliation among Libyans as well as unification of Libya›s institutions, in preparation for national elections next December.

Commenting on the call with Al-Sisi, Dbeibeh voiced his optimism about his future relations with Egypt.

On Twitter, Dbeibeh wrote: “We are buoyant about a better future and strong relations as they should be between the two countries –

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Outgoing head of the council Fayez Al-Sarraj (C), Mohammad Menfi (L), the new president of the Libyan Presidential Council, and Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh (R), the head of the National Unity Government attend the transition of power ceremony in Tripoli, Libya on March 2021 ,16. (Getty)

Egypt and Libya.”

This clearly mirrors Egypt’s positive response to the new authority in Libya and its willingness to promote cooperation with Dbeibeh and his government in the future, according to political analysts. Stability in Libya will positively benefit Egypt and all neighboring countries.

RESPECTING SOVEREIGNTY Furthermore, head of Libya’s new Presidential Council Mohamed al-Menfi vowed to work with the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission (JMC) so as to unite the military forces across the country.

Al-Menfi proposed working on unifying the military institution on a professional basis and with a national ideology.

In a televised speech, he prioritized national reconciliation and turning a new chapter to move towards peace and build a democratic state that maintains the rights, freedoms and dignity of humans as well as enforces the law.

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On its Twitter account, The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said “Libya has now a genuine opportunity to move forward towards, unity, stability, prosperity, reconciliation and to restore fully its sovereignty”.

“UNSMIL congratulates the Libyan people on the approval of a new unified government and applauds the House of Representatives, its leadership and its members for coming together on this historic day and for upholding the interests of their country & people,” it added.

The Mission also commends the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum for their patriotic efforts that led to this landmark moment in the history of Libya, as well as all parties who supported this process including the 5+5 JMC and elders and notables of Sirte and all of Libya, it noted.

However, some Libyans criticized the formation of the new government, saying it was based on some tribal quotas.

They are afraid that the new government will not be able to impose its will and power on all territories across Libya due to these quotas.

But many Libyans, representing several parties, are at the same time optimistic about the new government and its plans after it obtained the parliament confidence vote.

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olitics since he was a former member of the ruling Justice and Development Party led by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Thousands of Boğaziçi students created rooms on Clubhouse, the audio-only application, to discuss university education mechanisms and support the protest movement which is likely to persist, particularly now that Ankara is intending to separate female students from male students in some Turkish universities, a move that opposition parties consider as a step in the transformation of Turkey’s “secular” identity.

Turkish lawyer Ülkü Şahin said, “Intensive downloads of Clubhouse is due to its novelty. During their protests, people need it to exchange their ideas, and students need it in particular.”

She told Majalla that authorities detained seven students who used Clubhouse, but released them later, which means that the new platform does not protect its users and does not differ much from other social media applications that are prevailing in Turkey.

The lawyer, who works in the Turkish Bars Association where she focuses on violations against media people and defends them if detained over social media activities, added that “voice broadcasts of students via clubhouse are within the statutes governing freedom of expression which should not be punished by authorities.”

Boğaziçi’s Students Resort to Clubhouse Online Opposition Platform in Pandemic Times Jiwan Soz Ankara – Students of Boğaziçi University have recently found a new safe haven in the recently grow-

ing platform of Clubhouse, after their protests were crushed by Turkish authorities. In early January, students took to the streets following the appointment of Melih Bulu as the rector of Boğaziçi University,

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Turkish plain clothed police officers hold a group of protesters during a demonstration in support of Bogazici University students arrested as they were protested against the nomination of a university rector appointed by the Turkish President in front of the Istanbul›s courthouse, on February 11, 2021. (Getty)

Şahin ruled out the possibility of the app being banned in Turkey as it happened in China. However, she revealed that “Ankara may impose some restrictions” on the new app within the framework of the government’s social media law imposed last year.

Given the restrictions caused by Covid-19, Turkish students found in the American app a platform to exchange ideas and opinions, especially after the government imposed curfew several times in some areas.

Some of those who participated in the Boğaziçi protests told local media that Clubhouse has prevented circulation of false news about their recent activities since media people joined their rooms.

Remarkably, the app provided them with opportunities to meet influential figures who joined the platform, such as Ahmet Davutoğlu, the former prime minister, and Canan Kaftancıoğlu of the opposing Republican People’s Party (RPP), as well as other officials.

The Boğaziçi protests broke out in early January as a rejection of Bulu’s appointment by Erdogan’s party, as the head of the university which is one of the most prestigious in Turkey. The law prevents appointing

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Thousands of Boğaziçi students created rooms on Clubhouse, the audio-only application, to discuss university education mechanisms and support the protest movement which is likely to persist. incumbent or former party members as university rectors, but it has not been applied since the failed coup attempt to oust Erdogan in 2016, when the elections of university heads were cancelled.

Since then, the Turkish President has been appointing rectors through presidential decrees. Last February, he appointed 11 rectors across the country’s universities.

Last Wednesday, the Republican People’s Party leading figure Canan Kaftancıoğlu held a press conference in Istanbul to reveal that her party will listen to the testimonies of the seven participants of the demonstrations, two of whom have been detained by authorities.

“Protests of Boğaziçi’s students are tentatively going on against a backdrop of university shutdown due to Covid-19. Universities are closed and education is taking place online, which reduces the number of student protestors,” University Professor Vahap Coşkun told Majalla.

Coşkun, who is a lecturer in a Turkish state university, added, “The authorities did nothing to address the students’ demands and their refusal to accept the appointment of someone who is close to the Turkish President. Even some professors have joined the Boğaziçi protests.”

The Turkish President’s ally and Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahçeli, who leads the Nationalist Movement Party, called for punishing professors who reject Melih Bulu’s appointment. He even demanded that authorities interrogate and fire them, thus increasing their participation in the protests.

Despite over two months of protests, the rector whose appointment is rejected by students is still holding office.

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ociety involved, and more emotionally healthy kids.

First, a little background.

A classic study by professors Stewart Friedman and Jeff Greenhaus showed the number of hours busy professionals spend with their kids each day is not the best predictor of their children›s physical and emotional health.

Instead, a better predictor was whether the parents were distracted when with their kids, like being in the same room but also answering emails.

As the researchers write, «Time and attention are not the same thing; there›s a big difference between physical presence and psychological presence ... if you›re not psychologically present, you›re not doing anybody any good.”

«Even so: Between the business of work and the business of life, regularly carving out undistracted, fully present time can be really hard.”

Enter grandparents.

Want to Raise Emotionally Healthy Kids?

A Classic Study Shows Children Need More «Grandparent Time» Jeff Haden According to a BYU study, grandparents can help kids be kinder, more involved, and sometimes even a little smarter.

It takes a village to run a successful business.

To thrive, your business needs a community of people to pitch in: employees, vendors, suppliers, key partners ... While the buck may stop with you, no one ever accomplishes anything worthwhile on their own.

It also takes a village to raise kinder, more

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In a 2011 Brigham Young University study, children in both two-parent and single-parent homes who felt close to at least one grandparent exhibited «higher pro-social behavior.» (Prosocial behaviors tend to benefit others: helping, sharing, donating, volunteering, cooperating, etc).

Grandparents talking to children. (Getty)

«Time and attention are not the same thing; there›s a big difference between physical presence and psychological presence ... if you›re not psychologically present, you›re not doing anybody any good.”

And, for both of those reasons, feel better about ourselves.

«The bottom line,» the researchers say, «is that grandparents have a positive influence on their grandkids that is distinct from the effect of the parent-child relationship.» Which leads to two basic conclusions. One, focus on how you spend time with your kids, not just the amount of time. Fifteen focused minutes has more impact than a distracted thirty.

Two, take responsibility for getting grandparents more involved.

(Many would love to spend more time with their grandkids, whether in person or virtually, but hesitate to do more than gently hint because they don›t want to seem pushy).

While the effect was measurable, the underlying reason was less clear. «Maybe grandparents teach certain social skills,» the researchers say, «like how to treat other people. (Or) maybe they model certain behavior.»

Invite them over. Go for visits. Set up FaceTime or Zoom calls.

Interestingly, grandkids whose grandparents helped out financially tended to pay better attention in school, complete their homework on time, and generally be happier and more excited about school -- even if they weren›t aware a grandparent was providing financial assistance. Again, the underlying cause isn›t clear. Maybe help is usually linked with caring, and caring leads to greater focus.

Then let the grandparents know how big an impact they can make on their grandchildren›s lives. Once they understand the objective impact they can make, they›ll be even more likely to dive in. (Then it›s not just you asking them; it›s research telling them).

Or maybe parents who feel less financial stress have greater emotional bandwidth to apply to their kids. Or maybe we›re all really good at sensing when other people care about us. And when other people care, we›re more likely to care about other people.

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Once you get the relationship ball rolling, you›ll be able to step out of the way.

And then there›s this: Research shows two out of three grandparents think being a grandparent is the most important and satisfying thing in their lives -- and that being a grandparent helps them feel closer to their adult children.

That›s a win-win-win for any child-raising village.

This was originally published in the Inc. Magazine.

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conomy such progress had to concede that inclusive and sustainable development remained elusive.

Still today, nearly 700 million of the world’s people live below the international poverty line, unemployment in low-income countries is spiraling, and the world’s 47 poorest countries count for less than one percent of global trade.

Aid alone cannot—and should not—be called upon to address this problem at scale.

Development Depends on More Than Aid BUILD Act Paves the Way for U.S. Investment Overseas

By Gayle E. Smith In the quarter century preceding the global COVID19- pandemic, the world achieved something astonishing: worldwide poverty fell by more than 60 percent. Foreign aid played an

important role in ameliorating the conditions of life for millions of people—helping to slash child mortality by more than half between 1990 and 2019, for example, and providing 26 million people with lifesaving HIV medications in 2020.

But even the most enthusiastic champions of

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An Ethiopian boy refugee who fled the Tigray conflict walks carrying a container of oil contributed by USAID, at Village Eight transit centre near the Ethiopian border in Gedaref, eastern Sudan, on December 2020 ,2.

(Getty)

In 2018, the United States Congress addressed this concern by passing into law Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development, or BUILD, Act, with strong bipartisan support.

Private-sector investment in developing countries is critical to achieving sustained and inclusive economic growth, but foreign direct investment in low-income countries is low, partly because of the real and perceived risks of investing in weak economies. The BUILD Act supplied a framework for encouraging and channeling significant U.S. private-sector investment to development overseas, including in large-scale infrastructure projects and other ventures beyond the scope of traditional foreign aid. Through the creation of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the BUILD Act paves the way for American businesses to increase their investments in developing countries by limiting risk and creating new tools to help the government support and partner with promising entrepreneurs. The BUILD Act reinforced a growing understanding that foreign aid is an investment that not only reflects the United States’ values but also serves its interests by cultivating a strong national and viable global economy.

Because of the BUILD Act, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden inherits an agency that has the support of both parties and the capacity to achieve far-reaching global change. The DFC is a new agency, and this administration has an opportunity to deliver on its mission, refine its operations, and re-envision development investment on a scale equal to the president’s ambitions.

Empowering the DFC to authorize more loans, grants, and other guarantees for investment

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Still today, nearly 700 million of the world’s people live below the international poverty line, unemployment in low-income countries is spiraling, and the world’s 47 poorest countries count for less than one percent of global trade. projects will make a difference for people living in extreme poverty and for stability around the world, which will have a long-term positive impact. As President Biden recently said, “When we invest in economic development of countries, we create new markets for our products and reduce the likelihood of instability, violence, and mass migrations.”

INVESTING IN DEVELOPMENT From 1971 until the BUILD Act, the United States supported private investment in overseas development through a little-known agency called the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, or OPIC, which promoted U.S. investment in emerging economies. The BUILD Act transformed OPIC into a full-fledged development finance institution by deliberately reorienting the agency toward development.

The new DFC has debt and equity authority, an increased budget, and greater flexibility than OPIC ever had, making it a powerful tool for global change in the hands of the U.S. executive branch.

Government-owned development finance institutions invest primarily in low- and lowermiddle-income markets, where access to capital is constrained. At their best, these institutions catalyze enough foreign direct investment to create jobs and revenue and strengthen markets.

Worldwide, development finance institutions marshal roughly 50$ billion in investment

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conomy Private investment is critically important to the sustainable development of the world’s poorest countries. Aid is important, too, as it can build capacity, fill gaps, and, in cases of extreme humanitarian need, save lives.

capital. And while governments capitalize them, development finance institutions yield profits, returning more funds to national treasuries than they receive. OPIC repaid money into the U.S. Treasury every year for nearly 40 years. In 2020, the DFC’s revenue exceeded its costs by 232$ million.

Private investment is critically important to the sustainable development of the world’s poorest countries. Aid is important, too, as it can build capacity, fill gaps, and, in cases of extreme humanitarian need, save lives. But to tackle poverty and achieve self-reliance, according to the Addis Ababa Action Agenda signed by 193 countries in 2015, three streams of capital are necessary: aid, domestic revenues, and private investment.

Foreign direct investment in the world’s poorest countries is dismally low and falling further on account of the pandemic’s economic shock.

Globally, foreign direct investment collapsed by 42 percent in 2020, slipping below 1$ trillion for the first time since 2005. It is projected to decrease by a further five to ten percent in 2021.

And as is the case with any exogenous shock, developing countries are hit the hardest: flows to Africa, for example, declined by 18 percent in 2020, after having already declined by ten percent the previous year. Globally, the least developed countries received just 1.4 percent of all foreign direct investment in 2019. Even before the pandemic struck, potential investors often balked at the political risk—and perceived risk—associated with investing in developing countries, alongside macroeconomic instability, weak institutions, and red tape.

Development finance institutions can break through the logjams that inhibit foreign and domestic investment. They have the convening power to bring together different actors, unlocking capital to make sure resources are

meaningful scale.

The DFC’s primary mission is development, and to reinforce it will mean focusing investments on developing countries, where access to global capital markets is most constrained. The Biden administration should work with Congress to increase funding for credit subsidies, so that the DFC can do more deals in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, where risk is often high, and fund the staff and overhead budgets these deals require.

flowing to where they are most needed and can have the greatest impact. Power Africa, for example, is a U.S. initiative that has brought electricity to nearly 18 million homes and businesses since 2013, using both on- and offgrid technology to supply first-time power to 82 million people across sub-Saharan Africa.

Getting there has meant closing more than 120 deals between private- and public-sector partners, in order to generate an aggregate capacity of more than 11,000 megawatts, at a value of 22$ billion. Private-sector capital was not making its way to African energy investment opportunities at scale, in some cases because Africa is a new market, unfamiliar to many investors, but also because of real and perceived risk. OPIC and now the DFC have enabled the

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Tigray people, fled due to conflicts and taking shelter in Mekelle city of the Tigray region, in northern Ethiopia, receive the food aid distributed by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on March 8, 2021. (Getty)

flow of private capital and have thus not only yielded meaningful returns but also, in doing so, furnished the “proof of concept” that can overcome those perceptions of risk and make other investments more likely.

UNLOCKING THE POWERHOUSE The DFC is a potential powerhouse. It can help expand the renewable energy sector in developing countries, stimulate the tourism sector, and finance the infrastructure that allows countries to build and sustain highly productive economies. But in order for the agency to achieve its potential, policymakers must clearly define its mission, refine some operational issues, and leverage its investments to achieve

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But the administration also needs to decide where the agency should fit into its foreign policy agenda. Should the DFC be deployed in the service of short-term foreign policy objectives— for example, deals that seek to shore up relations with particular countries? Or is it better suited to securing long-term foreign policy goals— for instance, through investments in renewable energy that further the administration’s climate policy? Realistically, the DFC’s portfolio will include a combination of tactical and strategic investments, but the scales should tip far in favor of the latter.

In the last year, the DFC has taken on a domestic role that also requires the new administration’s attention. In May 2020, President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) and called on the DFC to help the country mobilize its industrial base to reshore supply chains disrupted by the pandemic and produce supplies to respond

to domestic COVID19- needs. Some of the DFC’s greatest proponents felt that this role was the wrong one for the institution and argued that domestic financing, particularly where focused on onshoring manufacturing, was a marked departure from the agency’s statutory mandate.

The DFC went on to sign a letter of interest to

The DFC could in this way help address the growing concern among policymakers that China has outstripped the United States as an investor in the developing world. The Chinese government is investing twice as much in Africa, for example, as U.S. companies.

provide a 765$ million loan to Eastman Kodak so that the company might open a pharmaceutical manufacturing arm. Some members of Congress called for an investigation into the Kodak deal and potential insider trading, alleging that Kodak disclosed the deal prior to the public government announcement. As the Biden administration has invoked the DPA in support of its own pandemic policies, it should promptly reassess and end the DFC’s current DPA mandate.

Other problems have come to light that require largely technical fixes. The DFC needs Congress or the Office of Management and Budget to address the underresourcing of its equity authority. The BUILD Act gave the DFC a limit of 21$ billion for equity financing, but the fiscal year 2020 appropriation allowed it only 150$ million. This extreme discrepancy came about because rather than scoring equity investments at fair market value, as loans that generate returns, the Office of Management and Budget made a determination to score equity investments on a dollar-for-dollar basis, as if they were grants that did not produce returns. In July

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U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (RID) (R) talks with (L-R) Garrett Grigsby, director of the U.S. Health and Human Services› Office of Global Affairs; Chris Milligan, counselor with the U.S. Agency for International Development; and James L. Richardson, director of the State Department›s Office of Foreign Assistance, at the conclusion a hearing of the committee on June 18, 2020 in Washington, DC )Getty(

Construction of a new bridge over omo river by chinses company, omo valley, kangate, Ethiopia on March 15, 2016 in Kangate, Ethiopia )Getty(

2020, Representatives Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.) introduced bipartisan legislation (H.R. 7570) to amend the BUILD Act and provide instructions for scoring equity as an investment tool expected to produce financial returns. Either the passage of this legislation or a new determination on scoring from the Office of Management and Budget could resolve this issue.

The DFC has the potential to help bring about broad and sustained economic change. It currently aims to mobilize 75$ billion in private capital by the end of 2025. But it can extend its impact even further by striking lateral agreements with the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the U.S. Agency for International Development to bring foreign aid investments in alongside it. Moreover, the DFC can collaborate with its counterparts around the world. Global development finance institutions could devise a shared strategy—one that approaches change not project by project but at scale, thereby transforming rural infrastructure, for example, or renewable energy, or the tourism sector.

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The DFC could in this way help address the growing concern among policymakers that China has outstripped the United States as an investor in the developing world. The Chinese government is investing twice as much in Africa, for example, as U.S. companies.

Sounding the alarm at this trend will avail the United States little unless it can present a viable alternative. African countries need investment capital and would prefer to draw it from multiple sources and countries— North America and Europe can render that possible by making more investment capital available.

The Biden administration has an ambitious agenda, at home and abroad, and the DFC offers an easy win: it enjoys strong bipartisan support and can deliver results. A few small reforms will allow the United States to achieve more than many thought possible, and to do so with a new and improved government agency that pays for itself.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Issue 1844- March- 19/03/2021

Mohamed Al Khaja: The First UAE Ambassador to Israel www.majalla.com

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ulture “Traditional stories reflect real life characters while epics tends to focus on knights and royalty, Helal noted, adding that the heritage stories spoke of symbols of bad mothers as well.”

“She is a Mother”

Khadra El-Sharifa made sure that they did not fight one another and resolved all the differences.

How Legends Keep Alive the Inspiration of Maternal Values

By Amira El-Noshokaty “She is a Mother” is a statement that is usually followed by a graceful pause. In Arab and Egyptian societies, motherhood is an honorable status. This bliss, however, is usually affiliated with complex, responsibilities, tasks and challenges that frame such portrait of a Mother.

Celebrating the mother figure materialized in 1956 when renowned writer and journalist Mostapha Amin launched the first national celebration of Egyptian Mother’s day on the 21st of March. Amin was influenced by the modern Western tradition that first celebrated motherhood with an exclusive day on the second Sunday of May in 1914. The idea was the brain child of Anna Jarvis, American mother and social worker.

VIRGIN MARY The story of Khadra el-Sharifa, reflects some traits of the story of Virgin Mary, added Helal, explaining how the Virgin Mary was able to clear her honour when God made Baby Jesus talk as an infant and defend her, as stated in the Quran.

father and disowned him in the forest where a deer breastfed him and he grew up to be a great epic warrior.”

On the other hand, Helal highlighted the key mother figures in our Arabic and Egyptian traditional culture.

PRINCESS ZAT AL-HEMMA )PRINCESS OF WILL-POWER(

OMENA KHADIJA )OUR MOTHER KHADIJA(

Our Mother or the mother of all believers, is Khadija Bent Khowailed, Prophet Mohamed’s first wife and the first woman Moslem. She is a great mother figure in Islamic culture. Known for her honesty and honour, Khadija Bent Khowailed chose prophet Mohamed to manage her trade. Despite their age difference, they were married and she was his beloved, mother of his first born child and held a dear spot in On a parallel note, the mother figure has always his heart even after she passed away. “Years after been celebrated in traditional Arab and Egyptian her death, in a traditional story stated by Saida Aiheritage. “There is a difference between the mother sha, prophet Mohamed explained how he remains figure’s portrayal in traditional stories and in epics, grateful to her saying: for when I was poor, God “explained Dr. Mohamed Helal, professor of folk made her my richness, and when people hurt me, heritage and mawal (rhymed stories) in faculty of she was my shelter, and when people denied me, she arts, Beni Sweif University. “Traditional stories re- gave me all that I needed,” goes the traditional tale. flect real life characters while epics tends to focus on knights and royalty, he noted, adding that the herit- KHADRA EL-SHARIFA age stories spoke of symbols of bad mothers as well. )HONOURABLE KHADRA( Omena Al-Ghoula (Mother Guru) is portrayed as the villain of all stories. Also the ungrateful mother In the Beni Helal Epic, Khadra El-Sharifa is an of Seif Ibn Zi Yazan, who was forced to marry his icon of piety and resilience. “According to the epic,

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Vintage engraving from the 1870 of a scene from the Old Testament by Gustave Dore showing the Courage of a Mother )Getty(

Khadra was married to the great tribal chieftain Rizk Ibn Nayel, and she gave birth to several girls. However he wanted a boy to be knight like him, and she was in great despair. One day she was walking beside a pond where she found a magnificent black bird who managed to push away all other birds and drank quietly alone from the pond. She wished to have a son as graceful and as dominant as this bird, even if her son would be dark skinned like the bird. God granted her wish and she finally gave birth to a dark skinned boy. However her husband and the whole tribe accused her of adultery. She then opposed the accusations, took her child and went to live among her own maternal tribe. Abu Zeid Al-Helali’s mother made sure he grew up to be a fierce warrior and knight. He became a key figure of his mother’s maternal tribe, where he grew up.

And when the time came and he stood in front of his father, as a rival representing another tribe,

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The epic story goes that Princess Zat Al-Hemma was a great warrior who refused to marry anyone who is not her match. After she had killed 700 knights of her father’s army who had proposed to her and faced her in a duel that they lost of course, her father tricked her.

“Her father sedated her and made her marry her cousin, “explained Helal, “ She got pregnant, but was so angry that she and took her son Prince Abdel Wahab and left the tribe to fight on the borders of Palestine against the Crusaders. Together with her son, they became legendary war heroine and hero of the tales of the Crusades.

FATEMAH AL-NABAWIA )FATEMAH THE TEACHER( She was the mother of famous Ali-El Zeibaq (Ali- the mercury man). According to the epic story, Fatemah was married to Hassan Ras ElGhoul a prominent figure in Baghdad. After losing his job because of a vicious conspiracy of a woman named Dalila, Hassan went to Egypt

and married Fatemah Al-Nabawiah. On the day Fatemah gave birth to Ali, Hassan was killed.

Since then she managed to protect her son and empower him with tricks and ideas that made him survive and retaliate. Known as Ali-mercury

The epic story goes that Princess Zat Al-Hemma was a great warrior who refused to marry anyone who is not her match.

After she had killed 700 knights of her father’s army who had proposed to her and faced her in a duel that they lost of course, her father tricked her.

man, because like mercury, he was not easily caught, he vanishes quickly and mastered the art of disguise. Throughout the epic, Fatemah was always there a few steps away from her son to help him.

ZEBIBA, THE ETHIOPIAN PRINCESS The mother of famous legendary knight and poet Antara Ibn Shadad was Zebiba, an Ethiopian princess who was taken into slavery at that time.

After being married to Prince Shaddad, and bearing his son Antara, the prince, his father refused to acknowledge him as his lawful son, because his mother was a slave.

Zebiba made sure her son was brought up as a great noble warrior and renowned poet whose poetry was among the poetry which decorated the holy shrine (moaalakat). Antara was also a hero of an epic love story with his cousin Abla.

When he was refused because of his dark skin, he fought the whole tribe and won the heart of his beloved and married her.

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Vintage engraving of a 1873 .Kabyle woman )Getty(

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rt

“This year is emotionally charged. Older Asian women are getting attacked. My mother’s been stressed this week seeing the rise: Is it safe out there?”

FROM JACKSON TO ‘VOICE ‘

Five Years After Prince’s Death His Protégée Judith Hill is a ‘Newborn Woman’

Jon Bream Judith Hill has issues. Don’t we all after a year in this pandemic?

Hill’s date back to her childhood as a biracial girl bullied at a mostly white school. To the death of her dear friend Prince five years ago. And to this very day, as her Japanese mother gets hassled for “the China flu.”

She addresses her issues on the powerful new album “Baby, I’m Hollywood,” a magnetic collection showcasing Hill’s rapturously passionate voice and remarkably diverse musicality.

“The driving message of [the album] is not running away from my life or any of the darkness,” Hill said last month from her Los Angeles home. “You’ve got songs that deal with mental health and what it’s like to deal with depression and just feeling lost and alone. I dig deeper into more personal emotions and inner thoughts on this record, but I also enjoy telling stories.”

Hill, 36, wrote these tunes on tour in 2019. That’s when she started to process her feelings and become a “newborn woman,” which is the title of one of the songs, a syncopated, Billy Prestonish piano jam about empowerment that she delivers with liberat-

ing sass.

“One day you can wake up feeling you’re a newborn woman and the next day you could feel like a total loser again,” she explained. “That’s the journey of this album, the ups and downs of how I feel.”

The 14-song album’s fieriest number, her recent single “Americana,” sounds as if it were written during the post-George Floyd racial unrest of 2020. Hill says the invigorating rock-soul slammer is about racial identity and the effects of capitalism on communities of color.

“Being a biracial woman in America, sometimes you feel you’re not American because you don’t fit in the classic image,” Hill explained. “They can’t figure you out, and you’re left on an island without a tribe. It’s an identity struggle.”

Hill has received blowback about the video for “Americana,” featuring her dressed in three distinct ethnic scenarios: a Black revolutionary with dynamite, a kimono-clad woman with a megaphone and an African tribal warrior with a spear.

“It almost offends others,” she said of the video. “It’s interesting how identity and race can feel like a threatening conversation.

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Judith Hill performs at the Prince Tribute Concert at the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016, in St. Paul, Minn )TNS(

Raised in North Hollywood, Hill is the daughter of a Black bassist, Robert (Pee Wee) Hill, and a Japanese classical pianist, Michiko Hill. (Both play in her touring band.)

“I grew up in an all-white conservative Presbyterian elementary school,” Hill said. “It shaped my feeling with not belonging and getting bullied a lot as a kid. And then trying to find my way in a country where if you act like this, you’ll get accepted, but if you act like this, you won’t. It applies to the Black community and the Japanese community.”

When Hill, a tall fashionista, walks down the street, she feels “like a Black woman. I have a huge Afro. In America, it goes way back — if you’re a quarter Black, you’re Black.”

Hill first gained attention as a backup singer for Michael Jackson’s planned 2009 world tour. She was going to be his duet partner on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” but he died just weeks before the tour was to start. Hill sang at his memorial service and appeared in the well-received documentary about tour rehearsals, “This Is It.” Hill garnered attention again in early 2013, getting voted off NBC’s “The Voice,” to the surprise of judges. That summer, her fortunes rebounded as a featured singer in “20 Feet from Stardom,” the Oscar-winning documentary about backup vocalists that earned her a Grammy.

In that ever-busy year, Hill signed a record deal with Sony but never released an album.

“How do you write a three-minute hit? That was depleting my soul,” said Hill, who toured with Josh Groban in fall 2013 as his opening act and duet partner.

Then along came Prince. After seeing a European TV interview in which Hill said she would like to work with him, Prince reached out to her, helped extricate her from the Sony contract and produced her 2015 debut, “Back in Time.”

“Baby, I’m Hollywood,” her third solo album, is a splendid showcase for her voice, songwriting and musicianship on piano and guitar.

As someone who has worked with Stevie Wonder, Elton John and John Legend, Hill can definitely sing. On the slinky blues “Burn It All,” she goes from her hypnotic deeper voice to her roof-raising upper register. She showcases her soulful chops on the nasty Synclavier-fueled disco funk of “Step Out.” She gets jazzy, assimilating African and Middle Eastern vibes on the seductively exotic “Silence.”

With its Tina Turner-ish swagger, the ebulliently rocking title track “Baby, I’m Hollywood” is Hill’s story, a tale of a boulevard of broken dreams that ends up with “an owning-it moment.”

PRINCE IS ‘IN MY BLOODSTREAM‘

While making the album, Hill said, she heard Prince figuratively whispering in her ear: Is that song for an arena or a club? Are all the parts playable for a band in concert?

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“Being a biracial woman in America, sometimes you feel you’re not American because you don’t fit in the classic image,” Hill explained. “They can’t figure you out, and you’re left on an island without a tribe. It’s an identity struggle.”

“I feel his energy,” she acknowledged. “I’m writing my truth. But he’s in my bloodstream.”

They were close. She was with him for his last concert in Atlanta in April 2016 and afterward on a private jet that made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, after he passed out. He died six days later of a fentanyl overdose.

Hill said she had no knowledge of his drug use or of any illness.

The last time she saw him was “sweet and solemn, just enjoying each other’s company. Just getting through a traumatic experience,” she said, declining to elaborate on the circumstances.

Hill was already downhearted after her mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2014. Then the spiral continued.

“With Prince’s death, the depression became this cloud that shrouded me,” said Hill. “I’d go to counseling, but I was just like suffocating. I couldn’t hear my own thoughts because they were so deafening.”

In March 2019, Hill returned to the concert stage at Prince’s Paisley Park as part of a private concert, #WomenWhoRock, featuring other Purple associates including Donna Grantis, Liv Warfield and Sheila E. “It was a bittersweet, intense experience,” Hill recalled. “The part I enjoyed was standing in the audience and hearing the music and mingling with people. But it’s tough to go back there when he’s not there. I cried a lot, and I also got to experience the love of a lot of people that I missed seeing.

“Paisley Park feels like it’s vacant. You start questioning your own sanity: Am I alive? There are too many memories and triggers everywhere.”

Nonetheless, Hill clearly gets strength from her relationship with Prince, a resilience she displays on the penultimate tune of her new album, “Candlelight in the Dark,” a modern-day spiritual dripping with gospel organ and soulful Southern guitar.

“After an entire album of ups and downs, I wanted ‘Candlelight’ to be the song of comfort,” Hill said. “I felt like it was such a powerful message everyone needs right now, just to know there’s someone out there looking out for you. I think it’s a message God would say to me. But people like my mom or my closest friends would just be there for me. It’s that ray of hope.”

This article was originally published in Star Tribune.

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Nomadland Is a Gorgeous Journey Through the Wreckage of American Promise

Story About The Sprawling American West

By David Sims Fern (played by Frances McDormand), the hardscrabble hero of Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, is the kind of resolute, independent protagonist that has

dominated American movies since the dawn of the Western genre. She drives around the country in her van, living as self-sufficiently as possible, and carries a flinty affect with people, revealing little about herself and the turmoil that has led to her life

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This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Frances McDormand in a scene from the film “Nomadland”.

on the road. But Fern is not a bullheaded cowboy fighting on the frontier. She’s a newly widowed woman in her early 60s searching for meaningful existence in a nation that’s become hostile to ordinary citizens in need of help.

Zhao’s epic sweep of a movie, which travels the American West from Nevada to South Dakota, is crammed with beautiful photography of some of the country’s most dramatic landscapes. It’s also overflowing with Zhao’s empathetic style of storytelling, and the ensemble largely features nonactors playing themselves, relaying stories of survival on the road in the aftermath of 2008’s Great Recession. As the United States weathers another seismic economic and humanitarian crisis, Zhao’s film offers insightful perspective on how terrifying and tenuous the American dream can be.

Zhao’s first two features, Songs My Brothers Taught Me and The Rider, were both set on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and focused on characters played by first-time actors in stories deeply inspired by their own lives. The Rider, in particular, is a staggering work that’s indebted to the stubborn spirit of classic Westerns, but told from the uncommon viewpoint of a Lakota Sioux rodeo star struggling to recover from injury.

Nomadland is inspired by real life too: It’s adapted from a nonfiction book by Jessica Bruder about Americans living out of their vans post-2008. This realism is anchored to arresting work from McDormand, who delivers achingly compassionate, rambling monologues, as well as the sharp attitude that won her an Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Though Fern is the fictional center of the movie, her backstory is rooted in reality—she is from Empire, Nevada, which once served as a company town for the United States Gypsum Corporation, before it closed its local mine. An opening title card reveals the toll this shutdown took on the actual community’s livelihoods: The town emptied out so quickly that its zip code was discontinued.

Fern rebuilds an itinerant life from the ashes of that loss and the death of her husband. She pulls seasonal work at a local Amazon warehouse (where Zhao captures fascinating real-life footage), drives from campsite to campsite, and takes advice from fellow unsettled citizens. Zhao revels in the disparate connections that Fern forges, in a community that isn’t based on one location but on

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Nomadland is inspired by real life: It’s adapted from a nonfiction book

by Jessica Bruder about Americans living out of their vans post2008-.

This realism is anchored to arresting work from McDormand, who delivers achingly compassionate, rambling monologues, as well as the sharp attitude that won her an Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri a state of existence.

Nomadland is not a particularly romantic movie.

Though the cinematographer, Joshua James Richards, captures many a stunning vista on Fern’s travels (he even imitates, at one crucial moment, a famous shot from the classic Western The Searchers), Zhao also sheds light on the less glamorous parts of Fern’s new lifestyle. Personal hygiene, going to the bathroom, and other basic tasks such as doing laundry or staying warm: These are some of the mundane challenges that Fern faces, and Zhao cleverly injects them with life-and-death stakes.

Fern’s struggle to admit her own vulnerability, and her reluctance to delve into the lingering trauma of losing her job and her family, is the real tension of Nomadland, and McDormand plays that fear and sadness perfectly. Fern is not an excessively mean character, but she’s highly guarded, and there’s real drama in watching those barriers crumble over the course of her journey. Nomadland is a work of exploration, and not just across the sprawling American West. Fern is exorcising her darkest demons, which spring from the systemic neglect that has been visited on so many Americans in recent years. The odyssey makes Zhao’s film a transfixing mix of reckoning and catharsis.

This was originally published in the Atlantic Online.

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ealth

Depression Hacks to Lighten Your Life

)TNS(

on walks. Doing these things with your pet increases your bond, which will help to lessen your depression.

2. Realize that being in a comfortable environment is a gift. Every day, acknowledge to yourself that you are fortunate for a good home, if you have one. Those little daily acknowledgements add up to gratitude, which has the power to help you feel better about your life. And if you feel the need to increase the comfort in your life, put the effort into finding it. Discomfort leads to discontent and unhappiness.

3. Keep up your reading. Some people like books, newspapers, and magazines; others need their device.

Whatever your medium, reading every single day is generally necessary. Just add at least 10 minutes of something fun to read — not your work, research, or mindless scrolling, which is not the same as reading.

Neither is looking at guitars (note to self). Get engaged in a story, romp through a new world, and let your mind build a house there. Those minutes add up to hours of brainbuilding relaxation. Nonfiction is OK too.

4. Move. It is so easy not to do exercise — anyone can loaf about — and now that you’ve proven the point, it’s time to make getting exercise your number one priority.

Seriously. There is no more accessible, affordable, and effective antidepressant available anywhere on the planet than physically moving. The jury is in folks: mild exercise, like walking 20 minutes a day, will make you feel better, allow you to do more, and you might even start to enjoy it.

5. Give back to your fellow humans. No matter how bad off you feel you are, someone is worse off. Anything you can do to help another person will make you feel better about yourself; it usually works that way. Sometimes you

Those little daily acknowledgements add up to gratitude, which has the power to help you feel better about your life. And if you feel the need to increase the comfort in your life, put the effort into finding it. end up giving too much to an ungrateful wretch, but then you learn to make better choices. It’s rewarding to know that even though you have been struggling in your own life, you were able to reach out. That stuff stays with you.

You don’t have to do all of this at once, but if you did, it probably wouldn’t take that much time out of your day.

On the other hand, it could add years to your life and help make the time that you do have more worthwhile. These are little things, baby steps, but if you take them one day at a time, they can add up to helping you just feel a little bit better.

(Dr. Barton Goldsmith, a psychotherapist in Westlake Village, Calif., is the author of «The Happy Couple: How to Make Happiness a Habit One Little Loving Thing at a Time.»

Follow his daily insights on Twitter at @BartonGoldsmith, or email him at Barton@bartongoldsmith.com.)

This was published on Tribune News Service.

Small Steps to Help You Feel Better Barton Goldsmith Before the pandemic, more than 40 million people suffered with depression, and now you can likely double that number, maybe triple it. Fortunately, this problem is mostly situational, directly related to this plague-induced half-life in which we have been living for over a year now.

Here are five simple (for the most part) little things you can do to give your life a bit of a lift. They probably won’t change your life forever, but they may make it easier in the moment, and right now, that’s worth a lot. These hacks

are not going to change your entire world; they are meant to induce just a little bit more comfort during these very difficult times.

1. Get a pet. If you can’t get a dog or a cat, for whatever reason, consider a guinea pig. These little animals are very popular in Europe; in fact, in Switzerland, you have to buy two because they get very lonely and depressed when they are in a cage by themselves. Any creature that sensitive is going to add a little something to your day. Guinea pigs like being petted, and petting an animal is comforting for you too. Kitties like sitting in laps, and dogs love going

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Muto Toshiro stated, “I have not heard about this ahead of time. The vaccination program is run by the Japanese government and I’m not in a position to comment.”

The day before, IOC President Thomas Bach had revealed that the IOC will cover the cost of the vaccines and are “already working with the Chinese Olympic Committee to produce additional vaccines, which will be supplied through international partners.” Bach said he is grateful “for the offer of solidarity” and stressed it was “a new milestone in ensuring the safety of the Olympics.”

Will Tokyo Olympics Be Rescued by Chinese Vaccine?

Despite Its Slow Vaccine Rollout, Japan Insists on Holding Summer Games The Diplomat On March 11, Japan was caught by surprise by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s sudden decision to provide Chinese-made vaccines to athletes and officials participating in the Tokyo Summer Olympics and next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics.

The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee could

not hide their confusion, particularly after previously announcing that vaccines would not be a prerequisite for the Games. The IOC supported Japan’s decision to forgo vaccinations based on the successful delivery of world championships and World Cups in other countries, but has since backtracked on their initial position of “encouraging” vaccines rather than requiring them. On March 12, Tokyo Olympics CEO

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Women take photos of their dogs in front of the Olympic Rings installation at the Japan Olympic Museum in Shinjuku. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were moved to be held between ,8.8 - 7.23 2021. (Getty)

The announcement comes as public anxiety has increased, with more and more Japanese in favor of either postponing or cancelling the Olympics. That’s in part due to the current wave of coronavirus cases in Tokyo, which has seen the original six-week state of emergency extended until March 21, adding two weeks.

The Tokyo Summer Olympics is expecting the arrival of some 12,000 athletes from 200 countries.

But at this stage Japan is struggling to contain an alarming spike of coronavirus mutations, such as the more contagious U.K. variant and Philippine strain, despite strict immigration controls currently barring entry to all foreign tourists and new visa holders. The latest Mainichi Shimbun poll showed that only 7 percent of respondents want the Games to be held. But a previous Yomiuri Shimbun poll conducted in February found that 70 percent of respondents said a vaccination drive could help resolve their concerns.

Japan has insisted on holding the Olympics as a symbol of global unity and recovery, but it has not confirmed a vaccine timeline for the general population, let alone a separate rule for Olympic athletes. Japan’s minister in charge of the vaccine rollout, Kono Taro, stated that under the current schedule “it was virtually impossible to vaccinate athletes by the start of the Olympics.”

Japan has insisted on holding the Olympics as a symbol of global unity and recovery, but it has not confirmed a vaccine timeline for the general population, let alone a separate rule for Olympic athletes.

Covid19- countermeasures at the Tokyo Olympics will focus on frequent PCR testing and behavioral management. with confidence.”

In Hungary, Lithuania, and Mexico athletes have been given priority access to vaccines. However, the Olympic Committees of the U.S., U.K., and Germany have pointed out the ethical concerns of allowing young and healthy athletes to cut the queue for the highly sought after vaccines.

The safety of the two Chinese developed vaccines has also been called into question by Europe and the United States since China has yet to publicly release data from its clinical trials. In February French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the Chinesemade vaccines as not having any scientific backing.

Olympics Minister Marukawa Tamayo said Japanese athletes were not eligible to receive the Chineseoffered vaccine as the vaccine has not been approved

by Japanese health authorities but the shots are available to athletes from countries that have approved China’s vaccine.

Meanwhile, China’s vaccine diplomacy coincides with international calls to boycott the 2022 Beijing Due to Japan’s lagging vaccine rollout, vaccinations Olympics over criticism of the treatment of the are yet to play a sizable role in the country’s pandemic Uyghur ethnic minority. Canada has led calls to defense. COVID19- countermeasures at the Tokyo remove China as the host of the 2022 Winter Olympic Olympics will focus on frequent PCR testing and Games. behavioral management. Marukawa said they will “implement comprehensive measures to make sure This article was originally published in The Diplomat. that athletes who are not vaccinated can participate

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Mohamed Al Khaja: The First UAE Ambassador to Israel

By Majalla llustarion by Ali El-Manzalawi Mohamed Mahmoud Al Khaja took office on 14 February 2021 as the first ambassador to Israel in the country’s history, after the cabinet of the United Arab Emirates approved the opening of an embassy in Tel Aviv.

The move came following UAE agreement to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel last September under the Abraham Accords, a deal brokered by former US President Donald Trump. It was the first public normalization agreement between an Arab country and Israel since Egypt’s in 1979 and Jordan’s in 1994. Israel opened its UAE embassy in January and the two countries have already signed treaties on direct flights and visa-free travel, along with accords on investment protection, science and technology.

Al Khaja was sworn in as the Emirati Ambassador to Israel, before Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Deputy Premier Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed last month.

He vowed to respect the UAE’s constitution and laws, work sincerely to prioritize the Emirates’ interests, and keep the State se-

crets while performing his diplomatic tasks and Dubai Ruler wished Al Khaja success in his new role and called on him to strengthen a culture of peace, co-existence and tolerance between the countries.

Al Khaja has met with Israel’s temporary ambassador in the UAE Eitan Na’eh, in Abu Dhabi. The Israeli embassy is currently working from a temporary office until a permanent location can be found.

Mr Al Khaja was born in 1980 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and he is married and a father to four children. He has spent many years studying in several countries. He holds a degree in Political Science from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and a Master of Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Prior to his position as an ambassador, he was the chief of staff to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, where was appointed in 2010. In the ministry, he held a number of key positions such as being a member of the political affairs council and the diplomatic committee as well as serving as chairman of the budget committee.

Besides, he has taken roles in energy management, disarmament, business develop-

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ment for Mubadala Investment Company, Borouge, and The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. In his capacity as a member of the Board of Trustees of the prominent Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi, since 2018, Al Khaja is involved in academic activities, Al Khaja who is 40 years old, has a great career experience both in the field of diplomacy and in the business world. Earlier Monday, Khaja met Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi in Jerusalem, who wished him “success” in his “historic mission” and he said: “I am very proud and honored to be the first Emirati ambassador to the State of Israel”.

After he arrived to Tel Aviv on 1 March, Al Khaja tweeted that he met the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, to discuss growing bilateral relations since the signing of the Abraham Accords, as well as enhancing cooperation in various fields.

Al Khajah has opened a Twitter account that posts messages in both English and Hebrew.

So far he has gained nearly 32,000 followers.

Outside his office hours, he enjoys motocross, cycling and water skiing as well as running and football. However, most of his time now is expected to be spent on his important diplomatic mission.