Qatar Faces Accusations of Terrorist Funding

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Editorial

A Weekly Political News Magazine

www.majalla.com/eng On June 10, 2020, a lawsuit was filed in New York against various Qatari charities and financial entities, particularly Qatar Charity. The lawsuit was filed by bereaved family members of American troops who died as a result of terror attacks conducted by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in Palestinian territories. The lawsuit alleges that Qatari charities and banks have been illicitly funnelling funds to Islamist groups in Gaza and the West Bank. This isn’t the first time in which Qatari entities have been accused of funding terrorist groups as Majalla conducts an investigative cover story on the history of Qatari financing of Islamist groups and how these institutions have thus far escaped sanctions and punitive measures.

The 2020 US Presidential is well on the way, and polls don’t show promising signs for Trump. While at the beginning of the year, economic factors such as low unemployment and a growing economy were assured signs of Trump’s re-election, the current pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests have had an almost reversing outcome for the incumbent president. Joseph Braude writes on this recent shift in the polls as he notes how minority voters, particularly AfricanAmericans, in various swing states can make or break Trump’s reelection hopes.

On June 5, a video showing a burning Afghan refugee calling for water went viral. The incident came as Iranian security forces shot a car carrying Afghan refugees causing it to explode. This prompted a debate over the mistreatment of Afghan migrants in Iran, as the Islamic Republic has one of the world’s highest numbers of Afghan migrants and refugees. Yasmine El-Geressi writes on the history of Afghan migrants in Iran, and how recent economic woes have forced the Iranian regime to expel Afghan workers who mostly work in the informal economic sector. She also focuses on how the Iranian regime uses Afghan refugees as political leverage against Kabul.

Scientist’s and doctors in the UK have recently made two huge breakthroughs with regards to the war against COVID-19. Recently, Oxford University and AstraZeneca have entered the third phase of its vaccine trial, hoping to make it available for wide medical use by the end of this year or the beginning of next year. Moreover, doctors in the UK have discovered dexamethasone might be an effective life saving drug for those hospitalized for COVID-19. Yasmine ElGeressi writes on these recent developments.

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

am Burning’: The Deadly Treatment of‘ 16 IAfghan Refugees in Iran

Issue 18054- June - 19/06/2020

Shifting Winds in America’s Presi-

14 dential Contest

28 The International Order Didn’t

Fail the Pandemic Alone

24 A New Civil Rights Movement Is a

Foreign Policy Win

32 China Has Designs on Democracy in Southeast Asia

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PlayStation 5 Revealed

52 Step Up Your Fitness and Safety 3

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West Point graduating cadets celebrate at the end of their commencement ceremonies at Plain Parade Field at the United States Military Academy on June 13, 2020 in West Point, New York. U.S. - Getty

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A person holds a red ballon during the performance «Whoever left is someone›s love» made by artists from the Federal District in honor of the victims of coronavirus (COVID-19) amidst the coronavirus pandemic at Brasília›s Catedral on June 15, 2020 in Brasilia, Brazil. - Getty

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U.S. Hits Syria with Toughest Sanctions Yet to Push Assad to End War The United States on Wednesday imposed its toughest sanctions ever targeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to choke off revenue for his government in a bid to force it back to United Nations-led negotiations and broker an end to the country’s nearly decade-long war. The fresh round of sanctions on Syria which Washington dubbed as the first taste of a deeper and broader pressure campaign against Assad come at a time when the Syrian leader is grappling with a deepening economic crisis after a decade of war and amid a rare outbreak of protests in government-held areas. The new travel restrictions and financial sanctions strike Assad’s inner circle, including his wife Asma, whom along with her family Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described as “one of Syria’s most notorious war profiteers.” They also target Assad’s brother, sister, a few senior gen-

ening our people and our borders, our Air Force, along with fire-support equipment, helicopters and our commandos, supported by armed and unarmed drones, have mobilised to the region with air operations,” the ministry said.

Wednesday’s strike came just days after Turkey revealed an operation it called “Claw-Eagle” had struck PKK targets in various regions of northern Iraq. Turkey regularly targets PKK militants, both in its mainly Kurdish southeast and in northern Iraq, where the group is based. The two latest airstrikes come amid what Ankara says is an increase in militant attacks on Turkish army bases.

erals and Iranian militia. In a statement announcing the designations imposed under an executive order and the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act - the latter signed by President Donald Trump in December - Pompeo said the new steps were the start of a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure against Assad, and vowed more in the coming weeks.

Turkish Warplanes Strike Kurdish Targets in Northern Iraq

Biden Opens 13-Point Advantage as Trump Popularity Drops to Seven-Month Low

Turkey’s Defence Ministry said its warplanes struck Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq’s Haftanin region on Wednesday, the second such operation launched against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in recent days. “Our heroic commandos are in Haftanin,” the ministry said on Twitter, dubbing the new operation “Claw-Tiger”. “In order to neutralise the PKK and other terrorist elements threat-

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has opened up a 13-point lead over President Donald Trump - the widest margin this year - according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll as Americans grow more critical of Trump over the coronavirus pandemic and protests against police brutality. n the June 10-16 poll, 48% of registered voters said they would back Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in the Nov. 3 election, while 35% said they would support Trump. Biden’s advantage is the biggest recorded by the Reuters/Ipsos poll since Democrats began their state nominating contests this year to pick their party’s nominee to challenge Trump in November. A similar CNN poll from earlier this month showed Biden with a 14-point lead over Trump among registered voters.

Best News So Far’: UK Hails Steroid‘ Treatment for Coronavirus Britain’s health minister on Wednesday hailed the use of a steroid called dexamethasone for treat-

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ing coronavirus patients as the best news so far of the outbreak. Trial results announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases such as arthritis, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital.

“It does increase your chances of survival quite significantly,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky News. “It is one of the best pieces of news we’ve had through this whole crisis.” “It reduces your chances of dying when you are on a ventilator,” Hancock said. “It is brilliant news for everybody.”

workers, recent visitors and anyone they came into contact with — up to 200,000 people, on top of the 90,000 residents who live in the surrounding neigh-

with Chinese troops at a disputed border site between the two countries on Monday in the worst fighting between India and China in 60 years, three Indian government sources said on Tuesday.

The Indian army said in a statement earlier on Tuesday that one of its officers and two soldiers were killed in a “violent faceoff” on the contested border with China. China and India have traded accusations over who was to blame for the fight in the Ladakh region of the western Himalayas.

India has reacted with shock and caution, with images of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, burned in Indian cities. In his first public comments on the dispute, prime minister Narendra Modi led a two-minute silence for the killed soldiers and said India would “defend every stone, every inch of its territory.”

Players Take a Knee as Premier League Restarts

Neighbourhoods in Beijing Not Al� 277 lowed to Leave as Spike Continues Millions of people in Beijing are living under renewed restrictions, as a spike in virus cases continues. The city reported another 31 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 137 in the past week.

Before the recent spike, the Chinese capital had gone 57 days without a locally transmitted case. The outbreak is believed to have started in the massive Xinfandi food market that supplies 80% of the city’s meat and vegetables. Authorities moved quickly, erecting barricades to isolate neighborhoods known to heave infected people while launching a massive testing campaign targeting all of the market’s

borhoods. At least as many people were also back on lockdown across Beijing by Tuesday. Authorities placed massive housing blocks under quarantine.

Food deliveries were blocked from going no further than perimeter roadblocks.

At Least 20 Indian Soldiers Killed in Border Clashes with China At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in clashes

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Premier League players, including champions Manchester City, took a knee before kickoff in support of the “Black Lives Matter” movement as the English season restarted on Wednesday. The league returned after a 100-day hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the teams and match officials sent out a strong statement of support for the worldwide protests against racism. Players at the opening game at Villa Park between Aston Villa and Sheffield United, which ended goalless, took a knee just before the kickoff along with the referee. The same happened before Manchester City’s home game against Arsenal and came after a video presentation with anti-racist messages featuring City forward Raheem Sterling and manager Pep Guardiola. All the players’ names on the back of their shirts were replaced with the words “Black Lives Matter” as the league formally joined the international protest campaign sparked by the death last month of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

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Qatar Faces Accusations of Terrorist Funding A Recent Lawsuit Against Qatari Charities Sheds New Light

by Majalla-London The summer of 2017 was a tumultuous time in the Middle East as it saw the beginning of the on-going diplomatic boycott on Qatar.

On June 5 of that year, the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan decided to sever its diplomatic ties with Qatar over its government’s funding of terrorist activities throughout the region. Although this is not the first time diplomatic boycotts have happened in the region, the reason why this particular severing of ties is significant is mainly due to the fact that this marks the first time that states making up the Gulf

Cooperation Council (GCC) have clashed in such a manner. The GCC is a political and economic union consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It was formed in1981 to counter the then newly founded Islamic Republic of Iran, which aimed to “spread the Islamic revolution” across the Middle East. Throughout most of its history, the GCC has shown to be an effective entity in the region as it facilitated cooperation in the Arabian Gulf on a micro-level, as well as dialogue and concord in the wider region. While Qatar has for the most part been cooperative member in the alliance, over the past decade it has displayed policies that have come in contention with the GCC’s

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principals. The first concrete signs of discord between Qatar and the rest of the GCC at the beginning of the 2010s decade, when Qatar allied with various violent Islamist groups which rose to prominence following the Arab Spring. Over the years Qatar has also grown closer to Iran and Turkey both of which have governments that seek to establish hegemonic influence over the region and will threaten to infiltrate the security and sovereignty of Middle Eastern states in order to fulfil said goals. While many believe Qatar’s support for Islamist and terrorist groups to be a new phenomenon, in reality government of Qatar’s ties have spanned years and go as far back to the 2000s.

QATAR’S PASSIVE COOPERATION

A portrait of Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on the wall of the Qatar National Bank building in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Valery Sharifulin/TASS (Photo by Valery Sharifulin\TASS )via Getty Images

The post-9/11 political order saw a massive shift in the dynamic of the US’s relations with the Middle East. While many feared that the US and its regional allies would become more confrontational, however the reality was far from the truth. Most US allies in the region set up a close intelligence and informationsharing cooperative with Washington. An example of this cooperation was the US Treasury Department’s establishment of the Illicit Finance Task Force (IFTF). This new task force was made to cooperate with intelligence and finance institutions of several countries in the Middle East and South Asia in order to thwart illicit funding to terrorist groups located in Pakistan and Afghanistan. States that cooperated within the IFTF included Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Pakistan. In a leaked 2009 cable the then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton discussed the efforts of the IFTF member states to disrupt financing towards terrorist groups, while she was largely appreciative of most member states she did not have similar sentiments towards Qatar. The cable stated that the US embassy in Doha was already dealing with the Qatari government’s illicit financing of Hamas, and as such it could not shift its focus towards its financing of other terrorist groups in South Asia. This shows that Qatar has had a long history of funding multiple violent groups across the region and that the Obama administration was well aware of that fact, but still chose to keep its criticism quiet. The leaked cable also stated that the Qatari government has been passive in its cooperation with the US’s efforts against terrorist financing, and that it’s overall level of counterterrorism cooperation with the US is the worst in the region. Moreover, groups like Al-Qaida and the Taliban have used Qatar as a fundraising hub. Clinton did note that Doha had the capabilities to deal with such terrorist groups, however it did not posses the political will to do so because it did not want to appear aligned with the United States. In spite of the Obama administration’s knowledge of Qatar’s compliance with terror groups, it has done next to nothing to sanction the government and instead opted for a privately written slap on the wrist.

ARAB SPRING: A TURNING THAT DISPLAYED QATAR’S COLOURS In December 2010, mass protests swept across the Middle East

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The leaked cable also stated that the Qatari government has been passive in its cooperation with the US’s efforts against terrorist financing, and that it’s overall level of counterterrorism cooperation with the US is the worst in the region. causing long time leaders such as Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Mubarak to resign from their posts. The leadership vacancies left in many states were soon occupied with Islamist elements, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928, with the goal of establishing a modern pan-Islamist Caliphate across the world. One of the group’s principals is to provide poor communities with charities in order to gain public support and popularity, as such it can then utilise said popularity to garner political power. While the Brotherhood does approve of democratic means to obtain power, its ultimate goal and vision is largely undemocratic and oppressive. Furthermore, the group does not stray away from violence; one of the most influential members of the group was Sayyed Qutb who effectively wrote the manifesto used by most modern jihadist groups today.

Qutb’s writings justified violence against Muslims and Muslims who do not condone the Brotherhood, in order to untimely reach the goal of implementing Sharia law.

Qatar, along with Turkey, was one of the main supporters and allies of the former Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt.

According to the Counter Extremism Project, during the Brotherhood’s year in power, Qatar provided it with 7.5 billion dollars in aid. The Qatari government even remained an ally to the Brotherhood even after the latter had announced new extra-constitutional powers that were aimed at giving it more political power at the expense of other political opposition in Egypt.

Following popular protests in 2013, the Brotherhood regime was ousted. This resulted in on-going series of terror attacks across Egypt. The group’s attacks include bombing and burning churches, killing police and security forces and attacking tourist busses. The most recent attack that was carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood happened in August 2019, when a terrorist rammed an explosives filled vehicle into a cancer hospital in Cairo. Hasm, a militant group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, carried out the attack. Since 2013, the group has been designated as a terrorist organisation by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Russia.

Furthermore, last year the US’s President Trump announced that

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his administration was considering adding the Muslim Brotherhood to the country’s list of terrorist groups. It should be noted that Hasm, the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated militant group, was added to the US’s list in 2018.

In spite of this, Qatar has refused to add the Muslim Brotherhood to its list of terrorist group’s and has gone as far as to offer asylum to its leaders and members. Furthermore, the group’s spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi is based in Qatar and he presents a programme on Qatar’s Al Jazeera news channel. While the group isn’t banned in Europe, al-Qaradawi has been barred from entering the UK and France.

QATAR, THE GAZA STRIP AND THE LAWSUIT Qatar is one of Hamas’s largest financers in the region. Founded as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1988, Hamas has since then conducted countless attacks on Israel and across the Middle East. The attacks have intensified ever since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007. Qatar, along with Iran, has been one of the group’s main funders of the group. During an August 2007 visit to Israel the then US Under Secretary of the Treasury Stuart Levy met with Israeli and Palestinian officials to discuss developments in the region, particularly Iran’s growing influence.

During the visit Levy met with the former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad who warned him that Qatar was “wilfully bad on money” as it continues to financially support Hamas and other Islamist groups in the West Bank and Gaza.

He also stated that Qatar was using its charitable organisations to move funds to Gaza.

While there have been efforts to block funding to Hamas, such as

In 2012 Doha gave the Hamas controlled Gaza 400 million dollars in aid in order to “modernise” the territory. However, little evidence shows that the Hamas regime has to put the funds towards economic development since the strip’s economy has been on a downward spiral and is currently on the verge of collapsing.

Israel and Egypt’s blockade on the strip, Qatar has still managed to transfer millions to the group. For example, in 2012 Doha gave the Hamas controlled Gaza 400 million dollars in aid in order to “modernise” the territory. However, little evidence shows that the Hamas regime has to put the funds towards economic development since the strip’s economy has been on a downward spiral and is currently on the verge of collapsing. Furthermore, the group has been vastly increasing its weapons arsenal in spite of the blockade, which shows that the group’s priority has been development its terrorism apparatus rather than civil modernisation and economic development.

While Qatar’s funding of Islamist groups in Gaza has largely gone unpunished, recent developments might result into further investigations on Doha. In June 10 of this year, a lawsuit has been filed in New York against many Qatari charities and financial institutions. The lawsuit claims that Qatari groups, particularly Qatar Charity (formerly the Qatari Charitable Society), have been providing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) with millions of dollars over the years. Many American and Israeli soldiers were killed in attacks conducted by both these groups, and it is the families of said victims who have brought the case to court.

The lawsuit alleges that Qatar Charity worked with the Masraf Al Rayan Bank and the Qatar National Bank to transfer funds to Hamas and PIJ. It should also be noted that Masraf Al Rayan is currently under investigation in the UK for allegedly sending

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An Egyptian supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood shoots fireworks towards the police and army during clashes in Cairo’s working class district of Matariya on November 2014 ,28. (Getty)

The lawsuit alleges that Qatar Charity worked with the Masraf Al Rayan Bank and the Qatar National Bank to transfer funds to Hamas and PIJ. money to both Islamist groups. The lawsuit further claims that charitable money funnelled through New York based banks are then transferred to Qatar Charity’s bank accounts at the Bank of Palestine and the Islamic Bank of Ramallah. This money is then given out to associates of Hamas and PIJ. Allegedly, between March and September 2015, at least 28 million dollars have been transferred from Qatar Charity to Islamist groups in Gaza and the West Bank, and the lawsuit also claims that these funds have directly gone towards six terror attacks between 2014 and 2016.

It is still too early to tell if this lawsuit will result in any punitive measures or sanctions towards the Qatari government. Moreover, as governments are still trying to recover economic losses caused from the coronavirus, then a thorough investigation into illicit Qatari funding might not be in the works in the near future.

Nevertheless, this is an interesting development that might force Qatar to restructure its current foreign policy.

File photo showing Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Jabr AlThani, former Prime Minster and Foreign Minister of Qatar listening during a press conference with former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on at 2010 ,4 January the State Department in Washington, DC. (AFP PHOTO / Tim )Sloan

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Shifting Winds in America’s Presidential Contest The Coronavirus and George Floyd Protests Have Shifted the Momentum to Joe Biden

by Joseph Braude Between the devastation of the coronavirus and the energizing effect of the George Floyd protests on

minority voters, prominent American pollsters now contend that the momentum in this year’s forthcoming presidential election has shifted to Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

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CORONAVIRUS AND THE ECONOMIC DOWNDRAFT At the dawn of 2020, President Trump’s reelection campaign seemed to be riding high. Propelled by a strong economy, with the lowest unemployment and highest median income in decades, a near-consensus had developed among political analysts favoring him to win reelection. The onset of COVID19- profoundly altered the calculation, however. Closures enacted across the country devastated the U.S. economy, knocking down a pillar of the President’s case for reelection.

The pandemic’s impact on the U.S. economy has been both harsh and swift. The unemployment rate skyrocketed from a -50year low of 3.5 percent in February to a -90year high of 14.7 percent in April.

As a result, tax revenue has plummeted while relief spending has soared, creating an overhang of debt likely to weigh down an economy which suffered its largest contraction in a century. Nor are these effects limited to the short term. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdowns will shrink the size of the American economy by nearly 8$ trillion over the next decade.

Following the killing of George Floyd

by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, early indications show the African-American community appearing to enter a new phase of political mobilization, one which could bring higher voter turnout in November. out to have Trump removed. Unlike when Hillary was running, no one truly knew how bad Trump could be,” according to LaMar Lemmons, a former Democratic member of the Michigan State House. “The pandemic was really the last straw for many people. Of course now we’re talking about the protests, but Trump’s nonresponse to the pandemic has really alienated the African American community.» In the words of one Democratic activist, “I will chew on nails dipped in acid before I vote for Donald Trump or don’t vote at all, or let my friends and colleagues vote for Trump or not vote at all.”

BLACKLIVESMATTER AND THE QUESTION# THE AMBIGUITIES OF PRECEDENT OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN TURNOUT Former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden meets religious leaders at Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware on June 2020 ,1. (Getty)

In 2016, then-candidate Trump’s road to election ran through relatively narrow victories in three traditionally Democratic-leaning states: Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In all three, the AfricanAmerican community had provided the highest levels of support for Democratic presidential candidates, particularly during the Obama era. However, in 2016, African-American voter mobilization declined noticeably. According to one major academic study, in highly-contested battleground states, AfricanAmerican turnout declined by 5.3 percent from 2012 to 2016. And in two critical states — Wisconsin and Michigan — African-American turnout declined by over 12 percent. In the blunt assessment of Osita Nwanevu, “Low black turnout may have cost Clinton the election.”

Following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, early indications show the African-American community appearing to enter a new phase of political mobilization, one which could bring higher voter turnout in November. “The African American community is motivated to come

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Among modern American Presidents, Donald Trump’s polling has proved consistently idiosyncratic. His average approval rating has remained confined between 46-42 percent for most of his term, while his disapproval rating has stood above 50 percent for most of the same period.

Although this would seem to cast Trump’s reelection hopes in a dim light, as Charles Cooke, the highly regarded political analyst, recently noted, “Trump’s approval remains higher than those of Jimmy Carter or George H.W. Bush, the two post-World War II elected incumbents who lost second-term bids, at this point in their presidencies.”

Indeed, the hardening of party loyalties and dwindling ranks of swing voters point toward a highly competitive election, even if the polling of this week augurs poorly for the incumbent. As Cooke puts it, “the days of -49state landslides and 61 percent popular-vote wins are long gone.” While President Trump appears to be an underdog today, it is crucial to remember that an ever-shortening news cycle affords ample opportunity for multiple reversals of fortune.

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‘I am Burning’: The Deadly Treatment of Afghan Refugees in Iran Burned, Drowned, Persecuted, Forcibly Deported and Used as Political Pawns

by Yasmine El-Geressi “Bring Some Water; I’m Burning!” became a rallying cry for justice after a minute-long video, which went viral on social media, shows a harrowing scene in which a boy is seen begging for help after Iranian police are purported to have shot a car carrying Afghan migrants, causing it to explode in flames. Three passengers were killed while five others were hospitalised with burns. A video showed at least one of the injured handcuffed to a hospital

bed. The incident on June 5 came a month after Afghan officials said Iranian border guards killed 45 Afghan migrant workers by forcing them at gunpoint into a river along the two countries’ 900-kilometer frontier.

The two events have triggered a wave of outrage with Afghans taking to the streets and social media to denounce Iranian authorities, rekindling a long-running debate about the plight of Iran’s sizable Afghan community. Some Afghans have made comparisons with police brutality in the US, which has triggered world-

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Critics say the presence of the Afghan community has frequently been used as political leverage by Iranian authorities, accusing Tehran of using the threat of mass deportation of Afghans as a means of coercing the Afghanistan to adopt policies favourable to the Islamic Republic.

Afghan artists paint George Floyd and a sign of “We cannot breath” with Iran Flag to demonstrate the brutality of Iran police toward Afghans. (Photo credit Omaid Sharifi, Twitter)

wide protests in recent weeks “Afghans are burnt to death and thrown into water by the Iranian regime. There are tens of Afghan #GeorgeFloyd every week in Iran. Human rights violations by the Iranian regime are extremely alarming,” tweeted Hamid Hatsaandh, who describes himself as an activist.

DECADES OF DISPOSSESSION Forty years ago, Afghans began fleeing the violence in their country and seeking refuge across nearby borders. More than 400,000 people fled the violence of the Communist-led Taraki and Amin government, crossing over into Pakistan. The numbers progressively swelled after the Soviet invasion on Christmas Eve in 1979. By the end of 1980, there were more than four million Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Over the next four years, that number grew further still, creating one of the world’s largest and longest refugee situations with Iran becoming to the second largest population of Afghan refugees, after Pakistan. Today, Iran is home to nearly 3 million Afghans, including 1.5 to two million who are “undocumented”, According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates, – many of whom have been in Iran for the past forty years.

In recent years, Iran has been the source of the highest number

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of returns to Afghanistan. In 2019 alone, a total of 451,073 Afghans returned from Iran. The year 2018 saw 770,000 of them returned to Afghanistan, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Many of the returnees are forced through deportation. Abdul Ghafoor, Director at Afghanistan Migrants Advice and Support Organisation (AMASO), in Kabul told The National that those deported to Afghanistan are in a very vulnerable situation. “They have no social network or support, no money feed themselves, no place to go to. I have seen many cases where we had boys who were forced to live under the bridges in Kabul after their deportations, leaving them vulnerable to negative elements of society.”

The principal reason for the staggering numbers, according to the IOM, was “driven by recent political and economic issues in Iran, including massive currency devaluation”. Most Afghans are employed in informal sectors of the Iranian economy. Iran’s economy has been squeezed since President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran last year after pulling out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. The effect of these sanctions on Iran is having a serious effect on Afghans trying to make a living there.

When the coronavirus outbreak hit Iran—which has the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the Middle East— almost than 200,000 Afghans have fled the outbreak convulsing the Islamic replubic to return home to Afghanistan in one of the biggest cross-border movements of the pandemic. The wave of returning labourers and refugees - who are going back untested and unmonitored to cities, towns and villages around the country — brought new infections with them to the conflict-ridden and impoverished country, exacerbating Afghanistan’s own economic and humanitarian situation. Underlining the concerns is the fact the Herat province bordering Iran, a transit point for many of those crossing, became a hotspot for COVID-19 in Afghanistan.

Afghan Health Minister Ferozudin Feroz and other Afghan officials expressed concern that Iran would push out the more than 1 million Afghans working illegally in the country.

But as restrictions ease in badly hit Iran, many are looking

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to move to Tehran as they flee political and economic hardship, often making multiple attempts to get into Iran. Others cross into Iran for seasonal work and return home after earning some money. Afghans who cross the border into Iran endure inhumane treatment from smugglers and often lose their savings in the process. They are usually dropped off at Iran at Islam Qala border crossing — nicknamed “Zero Point”, a neutral spot between the two countries. Deportees are subject to torture and other forms of human rights abuse from Iranian authorities, especially, when tensions are high between the two countries.

UNWELCOME GUESTS Iran has long faced criticism over its treatment of Afghan refugees. Human Rights Watch(HRW) has said that the government’s policies toward its Afghan refugees and migrant population “violate its legal obligations to protect this vulnerable group from abuse”. Iranian forces deport thousands of Afghans summarily, “without allowing them the opportunity to prove they have a right to remain in Iran, or to lodge an asylum application.” The international non-government organization documented violations including “physical abuse, detention in unsanitary and inhumane conditions, forced payment for transportation and accommodation in deportation camps, forced labor, and forced separation of families” and said it is “particularly concerned about the Iranian security forces’ abuses against unaccompanied migrant children – who are traveling without parents or other guardians – a sizable portion of Afghan migrant workers and deportees.

HRW also reported that the Iranian government also failed to take necessary steps to “protect its Afghan population from physical violence linked to rising anti-foreigner sentiment in Iran, or to hold those responsible accountable.” Afghan refugees complain that their children face bureaucratic obstacles that prevent their children from attending school, in violation of international law,

Deportees are subject to torture and other forms of human rights abuse from Iranian authorities, especially, when tensions are high between the two countries.

and say they feel subject to discrimination and prejudice when seeking health services. 27 out of 31 provinces have partial or complete bans on the residence of Afghans, preventing Afghans from moving freely and seeking opportunities for livelihoods.

Vulnerable Afghan refugees have been primary targets for Tehran looking for military manpower in its support for Bashar alAssad in the Syrian war. Since 2013, Iran has supported and trained thousands of Afghans, at least some of them undocumented immigrants, as part of the Fatemiyoun division, a group that an Iranian newspaper close to the government describes as volunteer Afghan forces, to fight in Syria. Many signed up by the promise of a few hundred dollars a month or obtaining legal immigration status in Iran. In 2017, HRW reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has recruited Afghan immigrant children living in Iran to fight in Syria. Afghan children as young as 14 have fought in the Fatemiyoun division. Under international law, recruiting children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities is a war crime. Human rights groups have described Tehran’s use of Afghans and other foreign fighters as a tactic to save Iranian lives and silence domestic criticism of its involvement the Syrian war.

POLITICAL LEVERAGE Critics say the presence of the Afghan community has fre-

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Afghans refugees returning to their homeland. (AP)

quently been used as political leverage by Iranian authorities, accusing Tehran of using the threat of mass deportation of Afghans as a means of coercing the Afghanistan to adopt policies favourable to the Islamic Republic. HRW has described Iran’s use of Afghan refugees and migrants as a “political football” – a way to punish the Afghan government and demonstrate to the US its enduring capacity to exert its influence over Afghanistan despite the huge US engagement there. The report published in 2013, said that the relationship between Afghanistan and Iran is characterised by a power imbalance. “The Afghan government is struggling desperately, and often failing, to manage the humanitarian, economic, security, and governance challenges it already faces.

The addition of a new flood of returning Afghans, many of them without financial means or a home in Afghanistan to return to, would add another burden that the Afghan government is fully unprepared to manage at present or for the foreseeable future,” the report said.

Fatemeh Aman, is a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council, says that resentment is also fueled by drug trafficking from Afghanistan into Iran, “which has made Iran a primary route for drug smuggling to Europe and the rest of the world. Most refugees and migrants are hard-working people who have nothing to do with trafficking. However, this vulnerable minority makes the perfect scapegoat for Iranian authorities’ failure to stop the drug trade.”

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Vulnerable Afghan refugees, including children, have been primary targets for Tehran looking for military manpower in its support for Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war.

Another source of resentment is the ongoing Iranian-Afghan dispute over trans-boundary waters. “Iran’s disastrous water management and dam building have contributed to water shortages along with climate change. Tension over water impacts Afghan refugees and migrants. A Majlis representative from Iran’s Khorasan province said some time ago: “We have close to 4 million Afghans in Iran. If each person uses daily 100 liters of water, the Afghans living in Iran use 400 million liters.” Afghanistan’s own dam building projects, such as the Salma Dam on the Harirud, have added to Iranian-Afghan tensions,” she said.

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AstraZeneca and Oxford University Sprint Ahead in the Race for a Coronavirus Vaccine The British Drugmaker Has Already Started Making Doses to Meet Demand if the Vaccine Proves Effective 20

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AstraZeneca has already started making doses now so that it can meet demand if the vaccine proves effective.

Biologics as the worldwide race for a vaccine kicks up another notch.

The vaccine sprinting fastest is by AstraZeneca and the eyes of the country - and the world - are firmly upon the drugmaker. AstraZeneca became a front-runner in coronavirus drug development when it licensed work by the University of Oxford.

The British drugmaker has already begun human trials on April 23, with a phase I trial in Britain due to end soon and a phase III trial already begun.

by Yasmine El-Geressi As total number of coronavirus cases across the world has now crosses the -7million mark, scientists, drugmakers and governments are moving with unprecedented speed to deliver a vaccine to protect against Covid19-. The goal is to have a vaccine ready for use by the end of the year, or early next. Doing so would be a scientific feat as no vaccine has ever been developed so quickly, never mind manufactured for the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 115 potential COVID19- vaccines are in development around the world, including several already in human trials from major pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, BioNtech, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Sanofi and CanSino

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The Oxford University team›s experimental product, called «ChAdOx1 nCoV19-», is a type of immunisation known as a recombinant viral vector vaccine and is just one of at least 70 potential Covid19- candidate shots under development by biotech and research teams around the world.

The vaccine takes an adenovirus, and much like gene therapies seeking to correct defective DNA, uses it to coax the body›s cells to produce the coronavirus› characteristic «spike» protein. The adenovirus used causes infections in chimpanzees but not in humans. The vaccine was chosen as the most suitable vaccine technology for the virus as it can generate a strong immune response from one dose.

AstraZeneca have said that the first indication on efficacy would likely come in June or July and they expect to know by August if the AZD1222 vaccine is effective. If it works, the company will be able to produce two billion doses and it has agreed to supply half of the doses to low and middle-income countries. AstraZeneca CEO Soirot told the BBC the company was building a number of supply chains across the world «to support global access at no profit during the pandemic and has so far secured manufacturing capacity for two billion doses of the vaccine».

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The UK government has given the University of Oxford 65.5£m towards the development of the vaccine. After announcing the further funding this Alok Sharma, the Business Secretary, said: «This new money will help mass-produce the Oxford vaccine so that if current trials are successful we have dosages to start vaccinating the UK population straight away.» Sharma added «the UK will be first to get access» but that the Government would also ensure that «we›re able to make the vaccine available to developing countries at the lowest possible cost». AstraZeneca has agreed to supply 100 million vaccines too the UK with the first deliveries expected in September. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has said that the first 30 million vaccines will be «at the start for the most vulnerable».

AstraZeneca has also agreed to supply 300 million doses of the potential vaccine to the US in a 1.2$ billion agreement with the U.S. government and 400 million doses across the EU in a contract signed with European governments worth 843$ million. China, Brazil, Japan and Russia have also expressed interest. The shot would cost about 2.5 euros (2.8$) per dose in Europe, according to Italy’s health ministry and Astrazeneca said that it will not take any profit from the vaccine should it be rolled out during the pandemic. The costs in to be used by the time we have the results,» Soirot other regions have not been disclosed. said. The firm reached a deal this week with New Jersey-based Catalent to finalise manufacturing AstraZeneca has already started making doses now and packaging for the vaccine. As part of their so that it can meet demand if the vaccine proves agreement, Catalent will help Astrazeneca produce effective. «We are starting to manufacture this “hundreds of millions of doses” of the drug, vaccine right now - and we have to have it ready beginning in August, a spokesperson said.

The drugmaker’s CEO said this week that the vaccine is expected to provide protection for one year. After that protection runs out, it isn’t clear whether recipients would be instructed to get another dose, or another vaccine, or rely on COVID19- treatments if they›re approved. So far, Gilead›s remdesivir is the only treatment with an emergency use authorization but on Tuesday, researchers in the United Kingdom reported a cheap and widely available drug can help save the lives of patients seriously ill with coronavirus.

The drugmaker has agreed to supply 100 million vaccines too the UK with the first deliveries expected in September.

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The University of Oxford Old Road Campus, where the first human trials of a coronavirus vaccine are taking place, on April 29. (Getty)

UK experts say the low-dose steroid treatment dexamethasone is a major breakthrough in the fight against the deadly virus. It cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth. Had the drug had been used to treat patients in the UK from the start of the pandemic, up to 5,000 lives could have been saved, researchers say. And it could be of huge benefit in poorer countries with high numbers of Covid19- patients.

AstraZeneca have said that the first indication on efficacy would likely come in June or July and they expect to know by August if the AZD1222 vaccine is effective.

If proven effective, the ZD1222 vaccine would allow people to leave their homes, go back to work, and rebuild the economy. But the UK Government has also cautioned that an effective coronavirus vaccine may never be found. In a foreword to the Government’s strategy to ease lockdown, the Prime Minister said that the “only feasible long-

term solution” to end the coronavirus pandemic is the creation of an effective vaccine or treatment, but warned this was not an inevitability. The Government›s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said the development of an effective vaccine could never be guaranteed.

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A New Civil Rights Movement Is a Foreign Policy Win This Is What Democracy Looks Like

by Chris Murphy Just as the world today is consumed with images of American law enforcement officers pepper-spraying peaceful protesters in front of the White House and pushing old men onto the

sidewalk, so was the world transfixed by similar scenes during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. And just as many Americans today surmise that the eruption of these civil rights protests and President Donald Trump’s scornful and often brutal response to them have

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accelerated the descent of the United States’ reputation around the world, so, too, did those who lived through the events of the country’s first civil rights movement. Watching the 101st Airborne called in to forcibly integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957, the famed columnist Walter Lippmann wrote: “The work of the American propagandist is not at present a happy one. [Segregation] mocks us and haunts us whenever we become eloquent and indignant in the United Nations. . . . The caste system in this country, particularly when as in Little Rock it is maintained by troops, is an enormous, indeed an almost insuperable, obstacle to our leadership in the cause of freedom and human equality.”

These days, of course, the world didn’t really need any new reasons to feel queasy about the United States. President Trump’s attacks on traditional allies, disinterest in human rights and democracy promotion, and generally boorish behaviour have already put the country’s global reputation on a path of steady decline. Last year, the Pew Research Center reported that in many parts of the globe, approval of the United States was at an alltime low. The Trump administration’s bungled response to the COVID19- pandemic, which has left over 110,000 Americans dead, surely did not reverse this trend.

Hundreds of protesters hold up their hands and chant, «Hands Up Don›t Shoot» in Columbus Circle. This was part of the Warriors of the Garden Peaceful Protest Against the 45 President Of the United States Donald J.Trump on his 74th Birthday, which started at Trump International Tower and drew large crowds.

(Getty)

Just as the world today is consumed with images of American law enforcement officers pepper-spraying peaceful protesters in front of the White House and pushing old men onto the sidewalk, so was the world transfixed by similar scenes during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. rests on its success or failure.

The United States’ adversaries know this. That is why they spend so much time trying to undermine the American system of government through election rigging and information warfare. They know that if American democracy succeeds, more people in their own nations will want democracy for themselves. And if that happens, it is good for the United States, since more democracies mean more global stability and fewer threats to the homeland.

Yet fears that the new tempest over racial justice is making the United States look weak in the eyes of the world are totally and completely upside down.

This moment of reckoning could end up becoming a defining advertisement for the American model, a body blow to autocratic regimes all around the world, and a way for the United States to reclaim much of the moral standing that it has lost during the past three years.

U.S. rivals’ fear of democracy led Russia to invade Ukraine—to destroy a democracy that was starting to function normally, with citizens demanding that leaders who don’t deliver be replaced. That example, for all Russians to see, could not be allowed to exist right next door. The same fear has led China to feverishly repress democratic progress in Hong Kong, lest the people in Mainland China start getting ideas about personal and political agency.

Why do I believe this? To start, I know that the United States has never claimed perfection.

How could a nation forged by human chattel?

What it does claim is that it has put in place a system of governance in which normal citizens possess agency, over both their own fate and the fate of their fellow citizens. And however flawed and frail U.S. democracy may be, it is still the world’s standard, and the future of the global fight between self-determination and autocracy largely

The attraction of a democracy is the ability of ordinary people to decide their future and for those same ordinary people to join with one another in collective action to right long-standing wrongs.

In the United States, the power of the status quo is such that successful instances of major, grassroots-led change are few and far between.

But when change does occur—as happened during the first civil rights movement—it reminds the world of the awesome power of the United States

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and its model of governance. The signs held aloft at the 1968 Democratic convention read: “The Whole World Is Watching,” and indeed it was.

As the civil rights movement of the 1960s scored victories, the propaganda efforts of the Soviet Union lost steam. Americans’ ability to candidly wrestle with Jim Crow undermined the Soviet critiques of their country and weakened global communism.

Further, these moments of collective mobilization for civil rights act as earthquakes, sending shock waves all over the world. Shen Tong, one of the leaders of China’s 1989 democracy protests, named Martin Luther King, Jr., as his inspiration.

Patrick Lekota, a major figure in the antiapartheid movement in South Africa, said the American civil rights movement was “highly studied material.” Polish Solidarity leaders invited U.S. civil rights leaders to instruct them on the tactics of nonviolent action. When Americans stand up successfully for their own rights as human beings, it gives inspiration and confidence to others, alighting the world in civil rights and democratic activism.

Finally, just as Lippmann argued in 1957, taking action to address long-standing racial inequality will also neutralize a key propaganda argument by foreign adversaries. Authoritarian governments, such as China and Russia, seize on existing racial divisions to argue that the United States doesn’t

These moments of collective mobilization for civil rights act as earthquakes, sending shock waves all over the world. Shen Tong, one of the leaders of China’s 1989 democracy protests, named Martin Luther King, Jr., as his inspiration.

live up to its own ideals. They did not create these divisions but relish in exacerbating them—and do so using increasingly sophisticated social media tools and strategies. But everyday American citizens can flip that argument on its head by demonstrating their capacity to bring about meaningful, systemic change through collective action.

It is too early to tell if the Black Lives Matter movement will end up being as enduring, significant, or successful as the movement that resulted in forced desegregation, the Civil Rights

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Dr. M.L. KIng, Jr. speaks to demonstrators and members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party on the Atlantic City boardwalk, outside the convention hall during the Democratic National Convention, held in Atlantic City, NJ, 1964.

Sketches of the three slain civil rights volunteers (from left, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner) are held up behind him. (Photo by Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images)

Act, and the Voting Rights Act. But maybe the country is at the dawn of a second civil rights movement that will prompt fundamental reforms to its systems of law enforcement, criminal justice, housing, and school finance. Could it also be that Americans’ ability to squarely confront their demons and use the tools of democracy to profoundly alter the status quo will relight the country’s torch in the eyes of the world?

Might simmering human rights campaigns and democracy movements around the world find new strength, watching millions of ordinary Americans, powerless on their own, move a

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nation to long-overdue action through collective strength?

It will take a truly exceptional turn of events to reverse this downward slide of American reputation and influence. But what has happened in our imperfect, always-correcting nation over the past two weeks is truly exceptional.

And maybe—just maybe—the country’s second civil rights movement will be its best chance to reset its image and influence around the world.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

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The International Order Didn’t Fail the Pandemic Alone The United States and China Are Its Crucial Pillars

by Thomas R. Pickering, Atman M. Trivedi As the novel coronavirus pandemic has spread around the world, international organizations, struggling to keep pace with the virus’s impact, seem to have lost some of the relevance and the utility they once had. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council have failed to hold a virtual summit on coordinating the virus response. The G20-

and the G7- have been unable to reach even basic decisions on the global economic recovery. Most glaringly, the World Health Organization (WHO)—the organization tasked with leading the international response against the virus—was slow to act under intense politicization.

The institutional and political vulnerabilities that COVID19-, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has exposed in multilateral organizations are real. But to blame such

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vulnerabilities on a lack of effort or expertise in the institutions themselves mistakes the symptom for the cause. At the heart of the problem is the failure of the world’s leading powers, starting with the United States and China, to invest in and empower the multilateral system. Washington’s sins of omission and Beijing’s sins of commission have conspired to sideline international institutions, helping frustrate their common goal of ending the pandemic.

Just because global collaboration has not defeated the virus does not mean that international institutions should be relegated to the dustbin of history or written off as key players in the ongoing response to the crisis. International institutions—from the UN Security Council to the G20- to the WHO—are essential to respond effectively to the coronavirus pandemic and its economic toll. But in the absence of U.S. or Chinese leadership, it will fall to other powers—particularly EU members and Asian democracies—to step forward to renew these institutions and support their leaders so they are better able to address the immediate challenge of the pandemic and other crises yet to come.

NOT-SO-GREAT POWERS

This combination of pictures created on May 2020 ,14 shows recent portraits of China›s President Xi Jinping (L) and US President Donald Trump. (Getty)

In the early weeks of the coronavirus outbreak, China prevented any collaborative action to contain the pandemic. Beijing silenced doctors at the epicenter and hid information about the virus’s transmissibility from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the WHO, and its own people. China has since tried to make up for these lapses by alternating assistance to stricken countries with propaganda and disinformation. But many countries are wary of its intentions. As German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told Der Spiegel, “I can only warn against anyone falling for it.”

Meanwhile, the United States has been absent from attempts to mobilize international action. Its most conspicuous contribution thus far has been pointing out the disease’s origins in China. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump took the finger-pointing to a new level, suspending funding to the WHO for its allegedly listless response and its closeness to Beijing. Trump may be right that the WHO was initially too trusting of China, but the agency wasn’t alone: Trump routinely praised China’s response in January and February, claiming that he was working with Chinese President Xi Jinping to manage the situation.

Trump also seems to have forgotten how significant the WHO has already been in fighting the pandemic. Over a dozen U.S. experts at WHO headquarters provided real-time (even if limited) data about the virus’s discovery and spread in China, and senior U.S. scientists travelled to Wuhan with the organization in February to collect information. Cutting off the WHO’s funding undermines the developing world’s constrained ability to prepare for the virus: Yemen, the site of a horrific, ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, is a prime example of how the agency plays an indispensable role. Singling out the WHO also makes Americans less safe by increasing the chances that the virus will travel to the United States from such vulnerable countries.

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The institutional and political vulnerabilities that COVID19-, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has exposed in multilateral organizations are real.

Just as concerning, freezing U.S. support for the WHO will cede influence to China. The United States’ budgetary contributions to the organization still far exceed China’s, but Beijing has been increasing its share of funding. After Trump pulled U.S. assistance, China augmented its contribution to the WHO by 30$ million.

U.S. dithering and Chinese machinations also threaten to paralyze the efforts of other institutions, starting with the UN Security Council. It took the council until April 9 to convene its first virtual meeting—and that came at the behest of nine of its ten nonpermanent members, not the United States or China. Earlier in March, when China held the council’s rotating presidency, it resisted calls to declare the pandemic a threat to international peace and security under the UN Charter in an attempt to minimize the crisis and China’s role in it. That declaration was used during the Ebola virus crisis in West Africa to justify a forceful response and could have signaled resolve to address the current pandemic.

With the UN sidelined by disputes between the United States and China, nations have instead turned to the G20-. The organization has fared better than others in managing the potential economic fallout from the coronavirus, but it got off to a sluggish start.

On February 23, G20- finance ministers sought to downplay the pandemic’s risks to growth—even though the virus had already spread to almost 30 nations. Contributing visibly to this disruption was China, which sent only a regional ambassador and not its foreign minister, and the United States, which fought over references to climate change in a communique. The G20- has since committed 5.4$ trillion in economic stimulus packages and agreed to grant temporary relief on bilateral loans to developing countries. G20- trade ministers, however, did not fare as well.

On March 30, they agreed to protect the flow of critical medical supplies, protective equipment, and other essential goods. But as of April, at least 75 countries, including the United States and China, had outright banned or restricted exports of these necessities.

Even the G7- cannot reach a consensus. The United States currently holds the body’s presidency and had the responsibility to pen a group communique that would unite the democracies in their response to the pandemic. But the U.S. State Department’s insistence on branding the coronavirus as the “Wuhan virus” in March created divisions that prevented the G7- from crafting a joint statement. These divisions sprang up again in April in a G7-

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leaders’ video call, during which the White House was largely isolated in its criticism of the WHO’s performance.

STEPPING UP Washington and Beijing have lost sight of the big picture: around the world, governments are focused on controlling the epidemic, saving lives, and restoring economic well-being. They are less concerned about the vicissitudes of the U.S.-Chinese rivalry and increasingly believe it is a roadblock to essential cooperation.

Instead of waiting for the United States and China to subordinate politics to the greater good, Europe’s democracies and likeminded Asian partners need to take matters into their own hands.

Most urgently, countries should seek deeper collaboration within the WHO. A coalition led by the EU and Japan ought to coordinate international scientific and private-sector efforts to test faster, more accurately, and at a large scale. These countries should also focus the WHO’s resources on science-based approaches to the pandemic, using the agency’s resident experts to confirm the efficacy of therapeutic drugs and to support worldwide efforts to find vaccines.

In turn, WHO member states need to recognize the heightened dangers from neglected global health risks, provide adequate funding to address them, and expand intelligence gathering and sharing to prevent future outbreaks. They should additionally push to reinstate Taiwan, which excelled in its pandemic response, in the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s key decision-making body.

At the same time, member states need to encourage constructive reforms at the WHO, taking into account political, legal, and financial constraints. The WHO’s challenges predated the coronavirus, as its diffident response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak showed. To head off politicized national investigations and improve quickly, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, should authorize an independent panel of outside experts to review the lessons learned and the best practices developed thus far.

At the UN, France should persist in its laudable efforts to bridge the fractured Security Council. The country has laboured to

It took the council until April 9 to convene its first virtual meeting—and that came at the behest of nine of its ten nonpermanent members, not the United States or China.

negotiate a resolution with the other four permanent members to support cease-fires and peace initiatives in countries such as Sudan, where combatants had initially signalled receptivity to a pause in the fighting. Guterres and leaders from countries such as Liechtenstein and Tunisia have also tried to fill the vacuum, calling in March for a global cease-fire. If France and Tunisia can receive sufficient backing to finalize a resolution, that would send an encouraging message about the major powers’ ability to work together. Time is of the essence: as the United States and China squabble over the cease-fire resolution, fighting resumed in Yemen, and combatants in Colombia and the Philippines declined to extend their cease-fires past April 30.

The G20- also needs to step up by adopting additional financial measures to support the ailing global economy and ensuing recovery. The organization should wrangle the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to offer additional relief to the world’s poor and vulnerable. As more Western countries partially reopen their economies, the G20- can also contribute to sciencebased strategies, committing world leaders to fund the WHO and finance testing, therapies, and vaccines. G20- countries should lift export restrictions on critical health-related products and basic foodstuffs once they have met domestic demand. And when vaccines are developed, the organization can help ensure that they are shared fairly around the world.

With the pandemic fanning the flames of nationalism, protectionism, and xenophobia, the world needs well-functioning

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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison (Top-R) is seen on a screen attending a videoconference with G20 leaders to discuss the COVID19coronavirus, at the Parliament House in Canberra on March ,26 2020. (Getty)

They (world governments) are less concerned about the vicissitudes of the U.S.-Chinese rivalry and increasingly believe it is a roadblock to essential cooperation. international institutions more than ever. It would be a failure of imagination, though, to entirely rule out U.S.-Chinese cooperation.

The United States and China engaged in cooperative research and shared information to combat SARS and the avian flu in 2003, the swine flu in 2009, and the Ebola virus in 2014. And during the Cold War, Moscow and Washington quietly collaborated on polio and smallpox vaccines. To that end, Trump, Xi, and other global leaders should work together against the virus, even as they compete fiercely over 5G, advanced technologies, and trade. The recent progress implementing the U.S.-Chinese trade agreement offers a ray of optimism for such coordination. Having encountered the drawbacks of acting alone, leading powers now should know that working together is the only alternative.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

Residents wear a mask while visit exhibits at the Hubei Provincial Museum on in 14,2020 June Wuhan, Hubei Province,China.

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China Has Designs on Democracy in Southeast Asia A Base in Cambodia Is Only the Beginning

by Sam Rainsy In January 2019, Dan Coats, then the U.S. director of national intelligence, warned the Senate Intelligence Committee that Cambodia’s “slide toward autocracy” could enable China to establish a military presence in the country. Such a move would pose a grave threat to regional stability and to the political independence of many Southeast Asian nations.

An armed Chinese presence on Cambodian soil would violate

Cambodia’s constitution, as well as the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements that ended its long civil war. To be sure, Beijing is Cambodia’s largest source of aid, credit, and investment, and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s corrupt, authoritarian regime relies heavily on Chinese patronage. But allowing Chinese troops in Cambodia is a political “red line” that Hun Sen cannot risk crossing, at least publicly.

Cambodian defense officials derided the U.S. intelligence chief’s

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statement as “fake news.” Hun Sen, too, issued vehement denials, repeatedly proclaiming that Cambodia’s constitution forbids foreign bases—as if the very existence of the prohibition made a Chinese troop presence impossible. But recent reports have suggested that the two countries have signed a secret deal giving the Chinese military exclusive access to Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base, and a leaked document details a previously undisclosed visit that a team of Chinese military surveyors made to Cambodia.

The Cambodian and Chinese governments continue to defend China’s vast investment and infrastructure projects in Cambodia as peaceful efforts to boost economic growth, employment, and trade. But a military presence on Cambodia’s coast would significantly expand China’s ability to project power in the region, and there is growing evidence that indicates China is pursuing this strategic goal covertly, through dual-use projects. Indeed, the sheer scale of some of the Chinese construction projects that are now underway in Cambodia—such as the new runway and deep-water port in Koh Kong Province and the new resort on the island of Koh Rong—strongly suggests that they were designed with the needs of China’s military, and not Cambodia’s tourism industry, in mind.

A TROUBLING HISTORY

The Cambodian (R) and Chinese national flags are waved as Cambodian soldiers carrt aid, to be used to combat the spread of the COVID19- novel coronavirus, from a Chinese military plane at Phnom Penh International Airport on April 2020 ,1. (Getty)

China’s track record gives the world reason for concern about its intentions in Cambodia. When Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, he promoted it as an effort to build soft power internationally by means of major infrastructure projects and loans to developing countries. But Xi has since increased focus on a strategy of militarycivil fusion that has systematically erased the division between China’s domestic commercial and defense sectors. In so doing, the policy has also eroded the line between Chinese soft power and hard power overseas.

As a result of laws Xi’s government enacted in 2015 and 2016, Chinese cargo vessels must now be built to military standards, and Chinese civilian companies engaged in international shipping are required to provide supplies to Chinese military vessels when needed. In the disputed waters of the South China Sea, even Chinese fishing boats have been used to enforce China’s territorial claims.

The BRI investments, meanwhile, offer Beijing not only economic partnerships with governments but also a framework for military cooperation. The Center for Advanced Defense Studies found in 2017 that China, by investing in commercial ports in the Asia-Pacific region, routinely makes its national security interests a higher priority than economic development. And as the Brookings Institution noted in September 2019 of China’s BRI investments, “These infrastructure projects are quicker to build, easier to operationalize than proper military bases, considerably less expensive to establish and maintain, and nonetheless effectively Chinese-owned.”

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Beijing is Cambodia’s largest source of aid, credit, and investment, and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s corrupt, authoritarian regime relies heavily on Chinese patronage. But allowing Chinese troops in Cambodia is a political “red line” that Hun Sen cannot risk crossing, at least publicly.

Through the BRI investment projects, particularly in ports and coastal areas, the Chinese government is building a robust infrastructure in strategic foreign locations, even as it plausibly denies that these efforts serve any military purpose. Moreover, because of the investments, China now has far-flung economic interests to protect—and for which it needs and can justify developing nearby defensive capabilities. From there, developing offensive capabilities will require relatively little additional investment. As China expands its presence overseas, these self-reinforcing steps are becoming an established pattern.

In 2013, China began a major dredging and land reclamation project in the Spratly Islands, a disputed chain of tiny atolls and coral reefs in the South China Sea. Beijing initially denied that it intended to militarize the archipelago. By building artificial islands and equipping them with airfields, the Chinese government insisted, it meant to protect fragile reefs and enable prompt assistance to distressed ships. China eventually acknowledged that the islands served a military purpose but maintained that it was a purely defensive one. Beijing stuck to this story even while installing a sizable force of fighter jets and cruise missiles in the Spratlys.

A similar pattern of public denial and obfuscation surrounded Beijng’s first—and to date, only—official overseas military base, built in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa. China had invested heavily in Djibouti since 2000, cultivating influence with its government by dangling tempting loans it could never repay.

But for years, the Chinese government disavowed any interest in establishing military bases in foreign countries. American officials were reportedly blindsided when Djibouti’s government announced, in 2016, that it had given China a ten-year lease on land for a base. The Chinese base in Djibouti opened, with great fanfare, on August 1, 2017—the 90th anniversary of the founding of China’s People’s Liberation Army. Although China has said that the Djibouti base is merely a logistics facility to support humanitarian and counterpiracy missions, the Pentagon claims

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that lasers operated from the base have been used to blind U.S. military pilots, and satellite images of recent construction work show that the base is now large enough to accommodate warships and nuclear submarines.

FOSTERING AUTOCRACY China’s recent history of engagement with Phnom Penh suggests that Beijing now hopes to use the same militarization template in Cambodia as it has elsewhere. Just as it did in Djibouti, China spent years carefully cultivating Hun Sen’s government. The combination of Chinese investment, loans, and political support, uncomplicated by any regard for human rights violations or cronyism, proved potent, and Hun Sen’s authoritarianism increased in step with his dependence on China.

Today, Hun Sen often behaves more like an obedient Chinese regional governor than a prime minister. Isolated on the world stage and increasingly unpopular with Cambodia’s youthful population, he has little choice. Hun Sen’s displays of fealty to China during the novel coronavirus pandemic—he was the first foreign leader to visit China after its lockdown ended and pointedly declined to cancel flights between the two countries during the worst of the crisis—proved to Cambodians that he values Chinese money over his country’s public health. And Hun Sen’s eagerness to prove his loyalty to Beijing on the global stage, helping China dodge U.S. tariffs, for example, by rerouting exports through Cambodia’s Chinese-owned Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, shows that he values his alliance with China over international norms.

China presents its investments in Cambodia as a means of promoting economic growth and employment that will benefit ordinary Cambodians. But the reality on the ground is quite different. The Chinese airport and deep-water port project in the southwestern province of Koh Kong—pitched as an effort to boost Cambodia’s tourism industry but widely believed to be designed to serve China’s armed forces—is a case in point.

The giant parcel of land that Hun Sen’s government handed

The BRI investments, meanwhile, offer Beijing not only economic partnerships with governments but also a framework for military cooperation.

over to China’s Tianjin Union Development Group for the project is more than three times the legal limit under Cambodian land law and constitutes 20 percent of Cambodia’s coastline.

The terms of the agreement—a paltry $30 per hectare on a 99year lease—dramatically favor China and prevent Cambodia’s private sector from developing coastal industries. Many of the more than 1,000 families that were evicted to make way for the Chinese project in Koh Kong were never compensated; when some traveled to Phnom Penh to submit a petition to the Chinese embassy, they were detained by police.

A profusion of Chinese infrastructure investment projects like these, which serve China’s interests and benefit few in Cambodia beyond Hun Sen and his circle, have alienated ordinary Cambodians and become the focus of popular anger. With Chinese support, Hun Sen’s regime has systematically undermined Cambodia’s democratic opposition and eviscerated its free press—but the fact that the prime minister remains sensitive to questions about Cambodia’s sovereignty, as evidenced by his repeated reference to the constitutional prohibition on foreign military bases, is telling.

Basing armed forces in Cambodia would improve Beijing’s access to the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, better enabling China to harass U.S. vessels and threaten their access to U.S. allies in the region. Between its military presence in the Paracel and Spratly Islands and a base in Cambodia, China would effectively draw a triangular perimeter around mainland Southeast Asia.

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This photo taken on August 2017 ,1 shows Chinese People’s Liberation Army personnel attending the opening ceremony of China’s new military base in Djibouti. China has deployed troops to its first overseas naval base in Djibouti, a major step forward for the country’s expansion of its military presence abroad. (Getty)

Basing armed forces in Cambodia would improve Beijing’s access to the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, better enabling China to harass U.S. vessels and threaten their access to U.S. allies in the region.

China’s dangerous military expansion in Southeast Asia is not yet inevitable. But as Cambodia comes into sharper focus as a front in the intensifying great-power rivalry between the United States and China, a coherent U.S. strategy to stop the stealthy advance of Chinese military power in Cambodia is urgently required.

Cambodia’s neighbors in Southeast Asia have thus far largely remained outside the direct sphere of Chinese influence. But if the international community does not act now to halt China’s development of dual-use infrastructure that will soon allow Chinese armed forces to operate from Cambodia, the political independence of these nations will be in jeopardy.

Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wentian (L) hands boxes of medical supplies, which was donated by the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, over to Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bunheng on April in Phnom Penh, 2020 ,10 Cambodia. (Photo by Huang )Yaohui/China New Service

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The United States has already helped Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam acquire technology to detect maritime security threats, including covert Chinese military activity, and share the information with Washington. Such initiatives must now be expanded in the recognition that Cambodia could easily become the Achilles’ heel of the U.S. containment strategy in the region. The United States and its allies must also act now in support of the Cambodian people—to protect their land rights, demand a new general election, and restore Cambodia’s independence and neutrality.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

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conomy

What Is a Life Worth?

COVID19- and the Economic Value of Protecting Health

by W. Kip Viscusi The COVID19- pandemic has raised fundamental questions about how to balance the protection of

public health and the protection of the economy.

How should authorities weigh the risk of illness and death against the risk of economic damage caused by social distancing and other restrictions

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At a value of $ 10 million per life, the total benefits of those policies would amount to 10$ trillion, or about half of U.S.GDP, making it clear that social distancing and lockdowns were justified not only by the lives they saved but by the massive economic damage they prevented.

Fortunately, there is a well-established method of converting the value of reducing health risks into monetary terms, so that policymakers can more easily perform this delicate balancing act.

The key is what economists call “the value of a statistical life,” an estimate of the amount that people are willing to pay to prevent an expected death. Perhaps one of the most important benefits of the VSL is that using it often reveals that the dichotomy between risks to health and risks to the economy is often a false one: losses to health are economic costs, and they do as much harm to the economy as other kinds of losses.

VALUING LIFE

Aerial view of coffins being buried at an area where new graves have been dug at the Parque Taruma cemetery, during the COVID19coronavirus pandemic in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil, on April 2020 ,21. (Getty)

Economists often encounter resistance to the idea of placing an economic value on human life. Much of the discomfort arises from the misperception that doing so equates the value of a person’s life with his or her income. That is not the case: rather, the VSL that slow the spread of disease?

This question is never easy to answer. Earlier this year, reflects how much people value risks to their own however, when the novel coronavirus was spreading lives as reflected by a range of choices that they make. exponentially in major cities, it was not difficult to To calculate the VSL, economists consider a myriad justify the imposition of lockdown conditions: erring of common decisions that involve tradeoffs between on the side of protecting life and well-being seemed money and small changes in risk. Such decisions are like the only prudent course. But as the contagion’s usually made in a market context involving jobs, grip has begun to ease in some places, including the products, and housing decisions. For example, how United States, the sense of crisis has abated, and many much in additional wages can workers demand in jurisdictions are reopening, at varying speeds and to order to perform risky jobs? How much more are varying degrees. This has put renewed pressure on consumers willing to pay for cars that have additional the question of how to measure health risks against safety devices? How much of a discount would a economic ones, especially as reopening policies have buyer expect in purchasing a home near a hazardous waste site? become fodder for partisan politics.

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conomy

The most common way that economists estimate the VSL is by looking at the risks that people face at work. In the construction industry, for example, some workers who perform dangerous tasks, such as machine operators, face an annual risk of being killed on the job of one in 2,500— meaning that on average, one out of every 2,500 such workers dies on the job every year. Analyzing large employment data sets reveals that those workers are paid an extra 4,000$ or so per year in wages compared to people with similar educational backgrounds, skills, experience, and training who have safer jobs. Economists look at these two figures and see a third one: if all 2,500 of those workers were paid 4,000$ extra dollars, and one of them died, it is possible to multiply those two numbers to calculate that the lost life was “worth” 10$ million dollars. That number is the VSL. It reflects how much extra wages workers must be paid for each expected death on the job. analysis, the agency assumed that the VSL assigned to people age 65 or older was 37 percent lower than that assigned to the lives of younger people. Many saw this as an effort to devalue the life of older people: the AARP objected, and newspapers ran headlines such as “What’s a Granny Worth?” The government subsequently abandoned this approach.

(In certain cases, however, the government does make exceptions. For example, when the Food and Drug Administrationconsiders a policy that would One complaint that critics sometimes make about the affect terminally ill patients, it uses not the VSL but VSL is that it places the same economic value on the rather “the value of a statistical life year,” which it lives of people whose circumstances vary widely. If a estimates to be 500,000$ for each year of life that particular policy would prevent the death of a very old the policy would add for each patient.) person or a person with a serious medical condition that reduces his or her life expectancy, should that OPEN FOR BUSINESS? saved life receive the same valuation as the saved life of a young, healthy person? Some worry that the The utility of the VSL has perhaps never been more implication of such calculations is that certain groups apparent than during the COVID19- pandemic. of people are less deserving of protection than others. Debates over social distancing and other restrictions placed on economic activity have been so fierce To avoid such dilemmas, U.S. government agencies partly because people lack a common metric for how do not make such distinctions, as a general practice— to value saving lives: it is hard to do a cost-benefit and when they have, it has sparked a backlash. analysis when there is no agreement about how In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency to measure costs and benefits. Using a rigorously published an analysis of the Clear Skies Initiative, developed estimate for the value of a saved life can a federal plan to cut power plant emissions. In its clarify matters. In the case of the pandemic, using the My current estimate of the VSL in the United States is, in fact, 10$ million—a figure derived from far more complex data and calculations than the hypothetical example above. My estimate is in line with the figures that most U.S. government agencies now use. What that means in practice is that when considering how to calculate the value of a prospective policy to reduce risks, the government assigns a value of 10$ million to each death it expects the policy would prevent.

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American citizens wave from a bus as they leave the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship at Daikoku Pier to be repatriated to the United States on February 2020 ,17 in Yokohama, Japan.

(Getty)

In the absence of certainty about the consequences of such decisions, using the VSL is a powerful way to remind policymakers and citizens that every loss of life is not just a tragedy for individuals, families, and communities but also a major economic cost for the whole of society. resources to devote to safety efforts and consequently have lower VSLs.

VSL shows that imposing such restrictions clearly made economic sense and that lifting them too hastily might prove disastrous for the U.S. economy.

Applying the VSL demonstrates that the negative health effects of COVID19- are real economic losses to society and are just as consequential as the lost productivity caused by social distancing and other restrictions intended to prevent the spread of the disease. In March, the federal government estimated that such measures would save at least one million American lives. At a value of 10$ million per life, the total benefits of those policies would amount to 10$ trillion, or about half of U.S.GDP, making it clear that social distancing and lockdowns were justified not only by the lives they saved but by the massive economic damage they prevented.

Although applying those lower VSLs in such countries would make reductions in their mortality risks worth less than if they used the U.S. figure of 10$ million, the scale of their economies is smaller, as well. As a result, the cost of the economic dislocations caused by social distancing and other restrictive policies will be lower in those countries than in the United States. And in all of those places, using the VSL leads to the conclusion that strong initiatives to stop the spread of COVID19- would be well worth the economic cost. The same is even more clearly true in countries in Latin America and other places that are now witnessing a sharp increase in cases.

As countries, states, and cities move to reopen, the first activities they should restart are the ones that yield the greatest payoffs relative to the increased health costs that will be generated. The economic benefits of highrisk activities—for example, allowing people to attend professional sports events in stadiums—would have to be extremely large to warrant the likely high costs.

In the absence of certainty about the consequences of such decisions, using the VSL is a powerful way to remind policymakers and citizens that every loss of life is not just a tragedy for individuals, families, and communities but also a major economic cost for the whole of society.

Other countries could undertake similar calculations.

However, the VSL in other countries will vary in a manner that is roughly proportional to their average incomes. I estimate the VSL to be 2.5$ million for China, 6.1$ million for Spain, 6.4$ million for Italy, 7.1$ million for the United Kingdom, and 7.6$ million for Canada. In an abstract sense, people in those places surely value their lives as much as Americans do. But because they have lower incomes, they have fewer This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

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o

pinion

The Caesar Act: Why Economic Sanctions Fail

by: Elie Fawaz

Much has been said and written in recent weeks about The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, also known as the Caesar Act, which came into effect this week. The intention of the law is it to punish Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime for committing crimes against humanity that have been documented with images and testimonies of victims who experienced this hell first hand. Simply put, the Caesar Act imposes sanctions on everyone who provides supports or does business with Bashar Al-Assad and his regime.

The Lebanese people are divided over the new law. Enthusiastic supporters hope that the Caesar Act is a chance for Lebanon to rid itself its problems - primarily Hezbollah –as they anticipate the sanctions on Syria will strike the militia financially, therefore weakening group and pushing its proponents to turn against it. As for those against the Act, they say that they are fighting the mother of all battles against the American “imperialism” and “Zionism”. In fact, neither side is right.

The US has a history of imposing sanctions on regimes in the region, but revisiting these examples reveals that such policies do not result in winners or losers.

A 13-year international embargo was imposed on Iraq after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The Iraqis have suffered enormously under these sanctions which have deprived them of food and medicine, resulting in the death of 1.5 million children from starvation, an acute shortage of medicine and basic necessities.

This embargo did not stop Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship and or prevent it from crushing its opposition. Nor did it prevent Saddam and his entourage from smoking luxurious Cuban cigars while his people starved. Even 17 years after the fall of Saddam, Iraq has not yet found its way to stability and prosperity.

On the contrary, the country is slipping towards more violence and is facing major economic crises.

As for the Islamic Republic of Iran, it has been subject to sanctions since 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution and the takeover of the United States embassy in Tehran. Sanctions increased with the KhomeiniSaddam war and peaked with the development of Tehran’s nuclear weapons. Decades of sanctions impoverished Iran and its people and destroyed its economy, but it did not prevent the regime from oppressing and killing people - like what happened during the Green Revolution which former president Obama turned his back on and stood against the principles he had preached throughout his presidency. At that time, Obama’s only concern was to sign a nuclear agreement with the those torturing the Iranian people.

Sudan and North Korea have also been subject to harsh sanctions that failed to bring about positive political changes.

American sanction policies aim to discourage dictatorial regimes from persistently killing their people or supporting terrorism outside their borders, but these sanctions primarily serve the strategies and interests of countries that impose those sanctions.

Those in support and those against sanctions fail to take into consideration a fundamental matter: longlasting change can only come from within, and external military intervention can only make temporary shifts. For instance, the Israeli invasion in 1982 and the occupation of Iraq by the American-led coalition forces in 2003 are both examples of nations in that have greatly deteriorated after the withdrawal of armed forces.

Returning to the Caesar Act, its impact will surely be equally as severe for Syria and Lebanon whose already devastated economies will suffer further setbacks. It is inevitable that during the sanctions period there will be no economic growth factors or investments coming from abroad, unemployment will increase among youth, crime rates may rise, and smuggling and other illegal activities will flourish. In addition, repression will increase and any criticism or protest will be annihilated.

If it is possible to predict what may occur in Syria and Lebanon, given the previous results of such sanctions, then it’s conceivable to say that the sanctions will remain for many years, and Assad will remain the president of Syria and the Secretary-General of Hezbollah will continue to control Lebanon. The citizens of both countries may adapt to the poor living conditions and suggest solutions to prevent famine while awaiting an event that may shift the situation. Such a transition will be temporary until further crises emerge.

Unfortunately, this is what happens to societies where change does not come from within.

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Issue 1805- June - 19/06/2020

Michael Jordan: NBA Legend and Philanthropist for African Americans www.majalla.com

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echnology

PlayStation 5 Revealed Top 5 Intriguing Games for the Upcoming Console

by Gieson Cacho

trailers. Here is what stuck out the most:

Although E3 has been cancelled, it’s not stopping video game makers from unleashing big announcements. Sony led the way on June 11 with its PlayStation 5 reveal event showing what the console looks like along with a slew of upcoming games.

1 ”Village: Resident Evil“

Sony Interactive Entertainment unveiled everything from AAA blockbusters to promising indie titles. The reveal ran the gamut and showed that there’s a little something for everyone on the PlayStation 5, which is slated to come out this holiday season.

With that said, only a few stood out from the sizzle reels and

Despite the unusual name, this should be considered “Resident Evil VIII” and it follows Ethan, the protagonist of the previous entry. As the name implies, he’s investigating a village near a snow-capped locale a few years after the events of “Resident Evil VII.” What moved this game to the top of the list are the visuals. They jump out at you in terms of the realistic faces and the atmosphere. The title looks like it will show off the nextgeneration graphics of the PlayStation 5, which will likely including ray tracing to boost realism in the game, increase the

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immersion and make the experience altogether more terrifying.

Plus, I’m a sucker for “Resident Evil” games and if it stays true to previous one, this has a lot going for it. The game is scheduled for release in 2021.

2 ”Horizon: Forbidden West“

Again, this is “Horizon Zero Dawn 2” with a somewhat different name, and it again follows Aloy. The postapocalyptic hero is back and this time she makes her way to North America. From the screenshots, it looks like she’ll be in the Bay Area for part of

“Spider-Man: Miles Morales” is notable because it appears to be the only one on the list coming out this year and it stars one of the few Latino heroes in gaming. made the previous one so good while improving the mission design. Because Miles Morales has a camouflage power, I expect more stealthy approach to battling bad guys. Also, his “venom strike” — a directed energy power — also shows up in the trailer.

4”Demon’s Souls“

Sony revealed the look 5 of the PlayStation )console. (Sony

the adventure. She’ll also face off against Sylens who now has control of HADES the original’s main villain. The trailer showed off new robot designs and fresh areas for Aloy to explore, most notably the underwater elements. The quick cuts of the preview don’t do the game justice and players will have a better feel for it with an extended preview. Just the fact that players get to continue Aloy’s journey is enough to make this one of my more anticipated games of the future.

3 ”Spider-Man: Miles Morales“

This title is notable because it appears to be the only one on the list coming out this year and it stars one of the few Latino heroes in gaming. Morales was introduced in 2018’s “SpiderMan” as a teenager just learning his powers, but in this sequel, it appears he’ll be setting out on his own. This webslinger created in 2011 has a different set of powers than Peter Parker and it looks like that will manifest itself in the upcoming game.

I’m just hoping that this “Spider-Man” keeps the traversal that

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I never finished the first title to the “Souls” series. I lent the game to a friend and his console ended up stolen and my only copy of the game went with it. Thankfully, I’ll have a second stab at trying to finish “Demon’s Souls” thanks to Bluepoint Games, which is handling this remake. From the looks of it, the game will look exceptional on the PlayStation 5 and will fill a niche in that library. Bluepoint Games has a good history of doing remakes, updating the superb “Shadow of the Colossus” and releasing “Gravity Rush Remastered.” (That’s a cult favorite worth playing on the PS4.) I have no doubt that the Austin, Texas-based studio will have the same success here. I just hope that some of the mechanics are updated and the game is somewhat easier to play. I’ll also warn players to keep an eye on a certain NPC in the Nexus, aka the home base. It will save you a lot of grief later on.

5 :Little Devil Inside

“Deathloop” looked intriguing with its 1960s “No One Lives Forver” vibe and “Gran Turismo 7” will certainly turn heads with its realism, but this indie title captured my attention because of its distinct look and humor. It’s described as an action RPG with survival elements but the trailer appears to show influences of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The combination of style and compelling substance has this game high on my list. The developer, Neostream, has been working on this title for a while. It was Kickstarter project scheduled to be released in 2016. Now it’s a timed exclusive for the PS5 that will also come to the PS4.

Originally published in The Mercury News

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Michael Jordan: NBA Legend and Philanthropist for African Americans

by Majalla-London Early Life and Education Michael Jordan was born on February 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York. His mother Deloris Jordan was a bank employee and his father James R. Jordan Sr. was an equipment manager. The family later moved to Wilmington, North Carolina where Michael attended Emsley A. Laney High School. At high school he was noticed for his athletic ability, as coaches recommended he play baseball, basketball or football. Michael’s father had wanted him to pursue a career in baseball, however the basketball court was calling for Michael. He joined his school’s varsity team, and his impressive skills and games made him a target of various college basketball teams. In the end, MJ accepted a sports scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and played for the college’s basketball team.

The Chicago Bulls During his college basketball years, MJ once again became a target, but this time various professional NBA teams were vying to draft him. The Chicago Bulls eventually drafted him in 1984. MJ had a prolific career at the Bulls having six NBA titles. MJ did an impressive

“three-peat” twice as he and the Bulls won the NBA in 1991, 1992 and 1993 and then again in 1996, 1997 and 1998. On an individual level MJ became a ten-time NBA scoring leader and a six time NBA MVP. As impressive as his Bulls stats are, there was a major tragedy that happened to him in the middle of his basketball career.

be promoted to a Major League Baseball team.

His baseball career was nothing to write home about as during his two-year stint, he was constantly being transferred to other minor league teams. When talking about this period in his life MJ noted that his father’s death had influenced his decision and that he had hoped to fulfil his father’s dream of him playing baseball.

His Father’s Murder In 1993, MJ’s father was returning from a funeral, and as he had a long journey home he decided to stop at the side of a road and take a nap. His car expensive was spotted by two teenage thieves and they decided to shoot Jordan Sr. and steal his possessions. Jordan Sr.’s corpse could not be recognised due to the multiple gunshots he had received, as such he had to be identified via dental records. His father’s death would have a massive impact on MJ, as the incident caused him to become disillusioned by basketball and he decided to briefly retire in 1993 despite the fact that he was still in his prime.

Chicago Bulls Take II and Washington Wizards In 1995, MJ returned to the NBA and re-joined the Chicago Bulls. He was an integral part of his team’s second three-peat from 1995-1998.

He then decided to retire in 1999, but would return again to the NBA in 2001 this time joining the Washington Wizards. His decision came shortly after the 9/11 attacks, and thus indicated that he would donate his salary to those affected from the tragedy. His time with the Wizards wasn’t too impressive as injuries and old age plagued him, however he did manage to break the record for highest scorer in AllStar Game history. Since then, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James beat this record. He finally retired for good in 2003.

Minor League Baseball Following his announcement to retire, MJ decided to pursue a new career in baseball. He joined the Chicago White Sox a minor league baseball team in hopes that he could eventually

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Philanthropy and the George Floyd Murder Michael Jordan is an avid philanthropist. From 2001 to 2014, he hosted the Michael Jordan

Celebrity Invitational, which raised money for various charities. He and his ex-wife, Juanita Vanoy also donated 5 million dollars to the Hales Franciscan High School in Chicago in 2006. In 2008, he became an ambassador for the Make-a-Wish foundation, granting the wishes of over 200 children and he also raised 5 million dollars for the organisation. His philanthropy earned him a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, which was awarded to him by former US President Barack Obama. This led to some criticism from the African-American community, as critics cited that he should not have met with a president who did nothing for African-Americans despite being one himself. MJ’s detractors would fall silent 4 years later. On May 25, 2020 George Floyd, an African-American man, was brutally murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. This prompted many mass protests across the US and around the world calling for an end to racial injustice towards black people. Amid the protests and the debates, Michael Jordan made an incredible announcement on June 5. Over the next ten years, Jordan and his brand would donate 100 million dollars to charities that are dedicated to “ensuring racial equality, social justice and greater access to education.�

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ulture

Black Filmmakers and Executives Get Honest About Their Experiences in Hollywood The Long History of Failures When it Comes to Race Continues to Weigh on the Minds in the Industry

by Ryan Faughnder and Stacy Perman After George Floyd’s killing in the custody of Minneapolis police last month, Hollywood entertainment companies sent out a flurry of statements supporting the Black Lives Matter movement’s fight against police brutality and systemic racism.

Studios, music labels and streaming services promised donations to antiracist nonprofits and declared their commitment to diversity. Internal memos called for reflection on the industry’s poor record of inclusion and diversity.

Still, the entertainment industry’s long history of failures when it comes to race continues to weigh on the minds of many of the black filmmakers, executives and others interviewed by The Times. Many note the stark absence of black executives in studios’ ranks. The Writers Guild of America West’s Committee of Black Writers on Friday published an open letter to studios demanding that actions follow words.

The Times interviewed nearly two dozen black entertainment industry professionals, spanning directors, producers, writers, designers, agents and executives. They discussed systemic racism in Hollywood, what needs to change and their frustration with years of talk and little action.

“This conversation needed to happen for a long time about racism and race in our industry,” said Cynthia Erivo, the actor, singer and songwriter who was nominated for two Oscars for 2019’s “Harriet.” “It feels like for the first time people are listening.”

HOW THE ATTENTION TO RACISM IS CHALLENGING HOLLYWOOD Will Packer, producer, “Girls Trip,” “Night School”: I, like many people in the business, have been contacted by my white colleagues and peers, reaching out to say, “Where do we go from here?” I welcome that. We’ve been here and felt this before.

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Filmmaker Will Packer speaks onstage during a special screening of «The Photograph,» hosted

by Will Packer and presented by Universal Pictures on Feb. 2020 ,6 in Atlanta, Ga. (Getty)

When you see the persistent images that Hollywood portrays of black men and women in demeaning positions, being violent and so forth, it contributes to the dehumanization. perfect place for us to be our better selves.

DeVon Franklin, chief executive, Franklin Entertainment: How can what happened to Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or so many other countless black men and women who’ve lost their lives, happen? Because there’s a dehumanization. That dehumanization is by no means completely at the doorstep of Hollywood. However, when you see the persistent images that Hollywood portrays of black men and women in demeaning positions, being violent and so forth, it contributes to the dehumanization.

WHAT ACTIONS CAN CREATE ?MEANINGFUL CHANGE

For many of us, it’s a generational anger and a generational exhaustion. But at the same time, there is something different this time. I didn’t get this volume of calls around Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown or Eric Garner.

Ava DuVernay, director, “When They See Us,” “Selma”: You have certain people who are really reaching in, in a way that’s active and progressive, and you have folks that are going through the motions. And in this moment, there are no more motions.

That kind of empty exercise is being duly noted by me and others.

Kasi Lemmons, director, writer, “Harriet,” “Eve’s Bayou”: I’ve had some time to think about these diversity reports that came out last year. Looking back 12 to 13 years, the numbers are so bleak especially in terms of what I am doing: writing and directing — and especially for directors of color and underrepresented women, they made less than %1 of the studio movies. That gave me pause. Because you expect or hope what seems obvious in an industry that deals with aspirations and inspiration, it feels like a

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Darrell D. Miller, lawyer, entertainment department Chair, Fox Rothschild: What Hollywood can do, I think, is to actually act upon some of the changes that have literally been talked about for years: Bring more images, more voices, more talent, more producers in the rooms to create content more representative of our society.

John Ridley, screenwriter, “12 Years a Slave”: This is not charity, it’s not do-good work. These are amazing individuals. The talent is here, the will is here, the moment is definitely here, and I just get tired when people of good hearts and right minds say, “I’m going to donate.” But what are you doing? In terms of staffing showrunners, did you even interview a person of color for that position, or did you hire them because they were someone’s friend?

Lorrie Bartlett, co-head of talent department, partner and board member, ICM Partners: First of all, it’s [about] educating people and shining a light on unconscious bias, antiracism and antihate.

It’s not enough to say, “Oh, but I’m not a racist.” There needs to be a real sense of understanding, by omission and silence contributing to a problem that exists. That is the first step.

Nina Shaw, a founding partner of Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano: There are lots of people asking me what I think they should do. My response is the same: You, as white people, should speak to each other. I want you to take ownership, I don’t want you to ask me what you should do. It’s always the same: Treat it like it really mattered to you. Every bonus now should be based on how diversity has been achieved.

Ashley Holland, agent, WME: Clients can demand this type of

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representation incorporated into their teams. If a powerful actor or director has someone trying to sign you, you can say you’re not interested in signing if there’s not a black or brown person or woman on the team. If clients don’t make these kinds of demands, people don’t think it’s required.

Jeff Clanagan, chief executive, Codeblack Films: You can recruit at certain colleges. Try recruiting at the HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities). This conversation has to stay relevant in the same way that the #MeToo movement stayed relevant.

Melina Matsoukas, director, “Queen & Slim”: I want to make these stories on my sets. But the burden of diversity shouldn’t just be on Black filmmakers, it should be on everyone. Do you ask your white counterparts to open their sets and demand that they hire people of color on sets or the writers room? Is that happening?

THE PROBLEM OF WHITE GATEKEEPERS Robin Thede, creator and star, “A Black Lady Sketch Show”: We don’t want a handout, we want to do the work. There’s a reason why you have an Ava DuVernay and an Issa Rae and a Lena Waithe, who are performing at a super high level. These people have worked their asses off. So no one is asking for the studios to just greenlight everything black. That’s going to be awful. We want to be vetted just like everyone else. The problem is, Hollywood doesn’t see us.

Lemmons: I have witnessed people overlooking young black people, just not seeing them. If there’s not a black person in the room, or a woman or indigenous person, are they seeing talent?

Or are they seeing talent that looks like them?

Ridley: There are times when you have to explain to people in the room who are not of color why is it important that this goes into

On some level Hollywood has always acknowledged the corrupt nature of police. Films like “Serpico,” “The Departed” and “Training Day” show how police can be corrupt but, always offer a “good cop” as a positive counterpart to the bad ones.

the story or that it be told this way.

Rob Edwards, screenwriter, “The Princess and the Frog,” “Treasure Planet”: Hollywood is a grim microcosm of larger society. I’ve been in this industry for 35 years. I’m not getting meetings to write a white project. I’m only called in to write about a sharecropper or a black baseball player. My dad’s a doctor. I share very little with that sharecropper experience, but I fear I’ll never be able to write about my own experiences because it never registers on any list of accepted black narratives.

Datari Turner, independent film producer, “Uncorked”: We had a black president of the United States before we had a black person running a major studio in Hollywood. Tyler Perry has built an incredible business, an inspiring, big studio, but he still has to go through Viacom and Lionsgate to distribute his movies and TV that are run by white people. You have to have black people run a studio. If we had a black person running a studio, they would make more movies according to their tastes and how they grew up.

PROFILING IN THE INDUSTRY Miller: I went to my first Vanity Fair Oscar party, and after going through five checkpoints I walked in and finally got to the door, and I was told the chauffeurs are around the corner. I’ve come to Hollywood and I’m at the top of my game. But I haven’t escaped the external reality.

Deirdra Govan, costume designer: I went into a high-end store, I was shopping for an A-list celebrity for a studio show. We had an account with the store. I spent 50,000$, but from start to finish I was profiled and questioned. When I went to pick up the clothes, I was sequestered by security with the receipt in my hand. It was humiliating. The celebrity called the president of the store to say

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DeVon Franklin attends the premiere of Lionsgate›s «I Still Believe» at ArcLight Hollywood on March 2020 ,7 inHollywood, Calif. (Getty)

how inappropriate the behavior was.

Lena Waithe, creator, “The Chi”; writer, “Queen & Slim”: In our workplace, we’ve got to be nice to people, we’ve got to have dinner with them and sit next to them at premieres, you know what I’m saying? It is a truly traumatic thing for a lot of black artists because you’re constantly having to rub shoulders with your oppressors.

THE BURDEN ON BLACK EXECUTIVES AND CREATORS Thede: The burden on black people right now is to not only continue to fight the good fight, but also to educate people who want to join the movement. It’s a good thing, but it adds to the level of exhaustion. That’s why there was that moment of, “Check in on your black friends.”

Jermaine Johnson, manager 3 Arts Entertainment: I do think that people, especially white people in positions of power, need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable; it is monumentally important to the change we need to make. At the top, so long as equality feels like oppression, then we need a reality check for ourselves.

Packer: I have to be successful, I’ve got to make sure I do my Kevin Hart comedies, I’ve got to make sure I’m respected and maintain relationships, and I also have to try to use my position and my power to tell stories that otherwise no one else would tell.

If I don’t do any one of those well, I might be hurting the next Will Packer that comes through.

George Tillman Jr., director, “The Hate U Give”: When I go to pitch at different studios, if you have an African American lead, you’re going to get less money. You’ve got to jump up and down to convince them that this is something that’s universal.

THE PROBLEM OF HOW POLICE ARE PORTRAYED Turner: Hollywood creates imagery for the world. Look on social media; you will see comments that %99 of cops are good, the majority cops do not do this. … A lot of this is because Hollywood has made more cop shows in the last 60 years than any other genre of film. “NCIS,” “Law & Order,” “SWAT,” the list goes on and on. The cops are always portrayed as heroes.

Jermaine Johnson: As long as they get the man, it doesn’t matter what civil rights they trample along the way. It’s always a point of frustration for me. Turn on any procedural and see that they cut corners, break rules, but as long as they get a guilty verdict it doesn’t matter how many people they interrogated illegally.

Jelani Johnson, partner, Macro Management: On some level Hollywood has always acknowledged the corrupt nature of police. Films like “Serpico,” “The Departed” and “Training Day” show how police can be corrupt but, always offer a “good cop” as a positive counterpart to the bad ones. Inversely, if you look at the relationship that black writers and directors have with police,

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you’ll find a much different story; a story more reflective of our community’s true relationship with the police.

TELLING AUTHENTIC STORIES Tillman: The first scene in [“The Hate U Give”] is a scene I experienced when I was a kid growing up in the late ’70s, where my parents and relatives were always telling me, “How do you conduct yourself around a police officer, how do you conduct yourself when you’re out of your neighborhoods?” That’s something my father was taught, he was teaching me in the ’70s and ’80s, and I’m teaching my son in 2020.

Waithe: “Queen & Slim,” for obvious reasons, feels extremely relevant right now. But the truth is, it was relevant then, and it was relevant 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 100 years ago. We’re artists who are showing you what it is like for a black person to encounter a police officer, and oftentimes, it can end in death.

HOW TO FIX HOLLYWOOD’S ?PIPELINE PROBLEM Tina Perry, president, OWN: I think it starts even earlier, with figuring out how to tell high school students what this industry is, what opportunities exist and the types of jobs that are available.

I’ve had interns come to us from L.A. and South L.A., and they didn’t know all the potential ways they could work in the industry. There’s something about the exposure at an early age that’s really important.

Franklin: No studio would outsource their film slate to human resources. So the idea that most diversity initiatives are run through human resource departments is one of the reasons why they don’t work.

Jermaine Johnson: At a very basic level … we need to pay interns. People of color can’t afford to do unpaid internships. I applaud some diversity programs for their aspirations, but there’s tokenism in them. Sometimes they are just press releases on how they are performing diversity. If you are doing it right, you don’t need to tell us every six months.

Tendo Nagenda, vice president, original film, Netflix: If you’re someone who’s college educated, you’ve probably gone into a lot of debt, so if you’re someone making 25,000$ ,30,000$ a year working 80 hours a week, it’s not really a sustainable thing, especially if you’re coming from a family with financial hardship.

I amassed an extreme amount of debt to invest in my career in the hopes that at the end of the rainbow, I would be able to pay it off.

Holland: I was the beneficiary of the 1.0 version of agency calls to address diversity. I was an intern during the second class at CAA when they switched over from friends’ [kids] as interns to a mechanism for recruiting and %50 had to be diverse. I’m the product of [diversity and inclusion] initiatives. Does that mean everyone is getting everything right? No. This article was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.

H

ealth

Step Up Your Fitness and Safety This Simple At-home Exercise Can Improve Flexibility, Leg Strength, and Balance to Protect against Falls

by Harvard Men’s Health Watch Falls continue to be a significant cause of fatal injury among older adults, according to the CDC. In fact, each year, falls result in more than 2.8 million injuries treated in emergency rooms and more than 27,000 deaths.

Lack of mobility and declining strength are the main contributors to falls. Still, another threat, which often goes unrecognized, is simply the fear of falling.

“The idea that you might fall actually increases people’s risk of falling, as it keeps them from staying active, which makes

their muscles and sense of balance weaker,” says Shawn Pedicini, a physical therapist with Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Outpatient Center in Marblehead, Mass.

BUILD MORE CONFIDENCE

A simple remedy to prevent falls -- and also overcome the fear of falling -- is to practice step-ups. With step-ups, you move up and down from stair-step height by raising your legs high enough and placing your feet down in firm and stable steps.\ “The step-up is an easy and functional exercise you can do at home that can help you feel more confident in your movements, especially when going up and down steps and inclines,

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or just moving across uneven surfaces like sidewalks,” says Pedicini. “If you fear falling, then you need to practice stepups.”

Step-ups force you to use the muscles that enable you to stay nimble on your feet, such as those in the thighs (both front and back), the buttocks, and the calves.

“Step-ups teach you to propel your body weight upward and forward, which is a movement that not many traditional exercises focus on,” says Pedicini. They also help you rely less on your arms or rails for support, and they improve your gait by teaching you not to shuffle your feet when you walk.

Try sit-and-stand TRY SIT-AND-STAND

If you have any knee, hip, or mobility issues, begin with sitand-stand exercises, where you move from sitting in a chair to a standing position and back. “Once you can perform two to three sets of 10 repetitions with no pain or discomfort, you should be ready to start step-ups,” says Shawn Pedicini, a physical therapist with Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Outpa-

Lack of mobility and declining strength are the main contributors to falls. Still, another threat, which often goes unrecognized, is simply the fear of falling.

If home stairs are not an option, try step platforms, found at most gyms and fitness centers. You can also use a gym’s step machine.

Wear athletic shoes or sneakers with a good grip. Or, if you find it more comfortable, you can perform stepups in bare feet, which may give you a better feel for balance, says Pedicini. But don’t do step-ups in socks, which could cause you to slip. Also, if you feel uneasy doing step-ups alone, do them with assistance or with supervision.

Here is how to safely perform step-ups.

Step 1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and your arms at your sides. Maintain good posture.

Step 2. Place your right foot firmly on the step or platform.

Push off with the trailing (left) leg as you shift your weight forward and straighten your right leg to raise your body up.

Place your left foot on the step or platform. Stay in this position for approximately a second or two.

Step 3. With your weight on your right leg, step backward with your left leg and place your left foot on the floor in its original position. Then shift your weight to your left leg and step off the platform with your right foot, returning to the starting position. This completes one rep.

Do eight to 10 reps; then switch so you lead with the left foot, and do another eight to 10 reps. This completes one set. Work up to completing three sets. Always remember to start with one leg when you step up and with the other as you step down.

tient Center in Marblehead, Mass.

FOLLOW THE STEPS

You don’t need much height to practice step-ups. Pedicini recommends that you begin with a 4-inch height and progress to 8 inches. (The average stair step is about 7 1/2 inches high.)

“The higher you can step up, the more strength you can build,” says Pedicini. Any type of step is suitable for performing stepups. “The stairs in your house are just fine, plus they have a rail for support if needed,” he says.

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Once you can do multiple sets at an 8-inch height, increase the resistance by holding a lightweight dumbbell in each hand.

“This can also mimic daily movements like carrying groceries,” says Pedicini.

If you want more of a challenge, you can pause for a few seconds while standing on one leg -- with or without dumbbells -- during both the step-up and step-down movements.