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Massive Technical and Reputational Fall of Facebook

A Weekly Political News Magazine

US Alliances, Global Challenges: Reluctant Allies, Rising Rivals

Issue 1873- October- 08/10/2021

A Weekly Political News Magazine

Issue 1873- October- 08/10/2021

Najla Bouden: The Independent Geologist; Arab World’s First Female PM

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Georgia’s Troubles Benefit Russia in South Caucasus www.majal a.com

Editorial A Weekly Political News Magazine

On October 2, Georgians voted in municipal elections that could determine the outcome of a political crisis, a day after the arrest of a former president who flew in from exile to call for support for the opposition. Former President Mikheil Saakashvili, founder of the main opposition United National Movement, was arrested after he flew in from exile and called for his supporters to stage a post-election street protest. Saakashvili had left Georgia in 2013 and was sentenced to prison in absentia in 2018 for abuse of power. The authorities said they had warned him he would be arrested if he returns. Maia Otarashvili makes in-depth analysis about how Georgia’s troubles are benefiting the advancement of Russian hegemony in the South Caucasus region.

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Editor-in-Chief

Ghassan Charbel The Editor Mostafa El-Dessouki HH Saudi Research and Marketing (UK) Ltd 10th Floor Building 7 Chiswick Business Park 566 Chiswick High Road London W4 5YG

In the economy section, Jiwan Soz talks about black labor which is the popular term for illegal work and is widespread in various Western countries, particularly in Europe. In his article, Soz delves into this phenomenon which is highly recurrent in poor neighborhoods and suburbs at the outskirts of major cities.

Tel : +44 207 831 8181 Fax: +44 207 831 2310

As economic hurdles exacerbate in Lebanon, some media reports said that organ trafficking is on the rise. But Latifa El Hassanyeh is refuting this in her article after interviewing officials in the country and conducting a fact-checking analysis about the topic. In the technology section, Sara Gamal interviews Egypt’s first woman to be a manager at the international IT company Microsoft.

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

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A Weekly Political News Magazine

08/10/21

A Weekly Political News Magazine

Black Labor: Migrants’ Source

34 of Living in Europe

Issue 1873- October- 08/10/2021

28 Kidney for Sale” Yes, People“ are There

A Century of ArabAmerican Art

56 Better Blood Sugar Tracking: A Benefit for Heart Health ?

48 Jake Gyllenhaal Saves «The Guilty»

From Buckling Under Its Own Premise

40 The Tech Woman

54 5

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Book: “I’ll Take Your Questions Now: ”What I Saw at The White House

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Jerash Festival of Culture A member of the Mexican Ballet Folkloric Yaocauahti perform in the ancient Roman city of Jerash, a popular attraction 50km north of Jordan’s capital, during the final day of the annual Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts on October 2, 2021. Jerash, , Jordan )AFP Photos(

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Women, drive scooters academy First time Egyptian women motorcycle drivers take a ride on the highway between Cairo and Madinaty, in Cairo, Egypt, 01 October 2021. The event is part of an initiative by the Women, Drive Scooters academy, founded by Walaa Zohier, to teach women to drive scooters for mobility freedom and to seek a sexual harassment free means of transportation )EPA Photos(

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Georgia’s Troubles Benefit Russia in South Caucasus Will US Make Room for Russian Dominance in Eurasia? Maia Otarashvili On October 2, Georgia held the first round of its municipal elections in an exceptionally heated environment. Continued political crises, tensions with western allies, and a raging pandemic served as the backdrop for the election that would not have been a very big deal without the extraordinary circumstances. For weeks, in August and September, Georgia was num-

ber one in the world in terms of COVID-related deaths per capita. The raging pandemic and low vaccination rates have kept Georgia on the “do not visit” list for most countries in the west making it difficult for the usual flurry of observation missions to be present at the election. But it was everything that happened before the election that put Georgia in a precarious situation, making its democratic, euroatlantic future anything but guaranteed.

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Alienating Western Allies Last month, a major leak from the Georgian State Security Service showed that the government had been eavesdropping on diplomats, journalists, clergymen, and public figures. This included the embassies of the United States, Israel, and various European missions to Georgia. The scandal served as a type of culmination of the Georgian government’s fall from grace with its western allies. In spring 2021, after months-long parliamentary crisis where the opposition parties had boycotted the parliament following another hotly contested election, Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, brokered a compromise deal between the ruling party and the opposition parliamentarians.

A member of an election commission helps to a woman to cast her ballot at a polling station during national municipal elections in Tbilisi, Georgia, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. Photo Credit: AP

The agreement obligated the Georgian Dream government to call early parliamentary elections if it did not receive 43% of the vote at the October 2 municipal election. The agreement was signed on October 19th by the Georgian Dream party and most opposition parliamentarians and temporarily ended the opposition boycott. However, in the lead-up to the municipal elections the ruling party publicly walked back on the compromise deal despite Michel’s tireless attempts to save it.

A major leak from the Georgian State Security Service showed that the government had been eavesdropping on diplomats, journalists, clergymen, and public figures. over, they have not shied away from making questionable foreign policy moves elsewhere. Back in August the Georgian State Security Service began to cooperate officially with Belarus KGB. The two sides signed a cooperation agreement back in 2016, but it only went into effect this year.

According to Georgian sources the agreement is rather comprehensive: “the agreement foresees the exchange of information on terrorism, extremist and separatist organizations, and specific individuals that are preparing terrorism or other actions posing threat to the state security of either states. In addition, the parties may send security representatives/ attachés to the territory of another signatory state. According to the document, the two security agencies will hold working meetings, In the lead-up to the election the Georgian government study visits, and conferences, and implement joint proalso chose to turn down 75 million euros in European grams and trainings, and assist one another with techaid, as it was unwilling to meet the judicial system re- nical means and equipment.” form requirements as part of aid conditionality. Putting this agreement in the global context makes the Georgia’s Prime Minister claimed that the country’s decision even more questionable. Belarus remains uneconomy was doing very well and did not need the der western sanctions over its abuse of human rights funds. However, the EU mission statement regarding and persecution of opposition groups. Right before the this decision spoke directly about the unfulfilled re- Belarus-Georgia agreement went into effect, the U.S. form requirements: “While we respect the decision of applied another round of sanctions on Belarus. MoreoGeorgian authorities, at the same time, we note that ver, Russia and Belarus have only deepened their alliGeorgia failed to sufficiently address the condition ance over the past year, and further integration of Befor this macro-financial assistance, and notably, to in- larus’ military and security infrastructures into those of crease the independence, accountability and quality of Russia is expected. the judicial system.” This agreement essentially implies that Georgia will be sharing sensitive information with Russia via BePoor Timing for Dodgy Deals larus. This is all even more unnerving for Georgia’s Georgian government officials have been known to western allies in light of the recent illegal wiretapping snap back at their U.S. and European counterparts’ news. Simply put – Georgian security services spying constructive criticism over the past few months. More- on you equals Belarussian and Russian security ser-

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vices spying on you. This does not exactly instill trust and confidence among Georgia’s supposed allies in the west, who are supposed to be helping Georgia fulfill its ambition to join NATO and the E.U.

The Curious Case of Mikheil Saakashvili On October 1, the country’s former president, Mikheil (Misha) Saakashvili returned to Georgia after spending nine years in exile. When his party was voted out of power in 2012, the incoming Georgian Dream government, led by billionaire oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, launched a flurry of investigations ultimately indicting Saakashvili on charges of power abuse and corruption. Saakashvili fled Georgia, ended up in Ukraine, took Ukrainian citizenship and founded his own political party. At first, he served as the Governor of Odessa under his former classmate, President Petro Poroshenko. Later the relationship soured, Saakashvili publicly accused Poroshenko of corruption and became his avid critic. Later, Saakashvili was detained very publicly for “assisting members of a criminal organization and covering up their criminal activities.” His supporters blocked the police van before he was taken away and helped him get away. The dramatic scenes unfolded on live television. At some point, during the raid of his apartment, Saakashvili made it to the rooftop of the building and claimed he was ready to jump off and die for Ukraine. Saakashvili fled to Poland, having his Ukrainian citizenship stripped by Poroshenko. Once Poroshenko was voted out, Saakashvili returned to Ukraine. President Zelensky reinstated Misha’s

Georgian government officials have been known to snap back at their U.S. and European counterparts’ constructive criticism over the past few months.

Ukrainian citizenship and gave him a job on Ukraine’s National Reform Council. Throughout the nine years Saakashvili campaigned on behalf of his United National Movement (UNM) opposition party in back Georgia, from afar. Ahead of every Georgian election he made calls for peaceful government overthrow and kept promising he would return to Georgia where he led the Rose Revolution in 2003. Misha’s unfulfilled promises to return to Georgia and his unwillingness to let go of his public role in the UNM ended up hurting the party’s chances to reinvent itself and regain parliamentary majority. His time in Ukraine did not bring Misha the kind of success he hoped – in April 2020 he was up for the job of deputy prime minister of Ukraine but the parliament blocked his appointment. It seems Saakashvili decided it was time to shake things up, so he returned to Georgia knowing he would be arrested. Currently Saakashvili is in detention. He believes he is a political prisoner and is on hunger strike. President Zelensky has called for his release and return to Ukraine as Saakashvili is still a citizen of that country. While Misha’s arrest made international headlines, there have not been any significant calls for his release from the international community just yet. The election results revealed that the government has lost much of its popularity and the opposition is starting to gather momentum, but Saakashvili’s arrival did not skew the results as significantly as he had hoped. In the days following his arrest his supporters started to gather outside the prison building, demanding his release. The demonstrations are still ongoing and slowly growing. Saakashvili is known for his radical revolutionary approach whether to eradicating corruption in Ukraine or ending the current state capture in Georgia and unsurprisingly he has been calling for a peaceful uprising from jail. But whether the Georgian people are up for another revolution 18 years later, peaceful or otherwise, is yet to be seen. The Georgian Dream government officials have not hidden their disdain for Saakashvili and his UNM party. The president of Georgia, Salome Zurabischvili, announced that she does not plan to pardon the jailed ex-president. The prime minister of Georgia,

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Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili was arrested upon his return to Georgia after spending nine years in exile. Photo credit: Reuters

Irakli Gharibashvili, recently posted a long statement on his Facebook page, claiming Saakashvili intended to stage a coup before he was arrested. In an interview he also warned Saakashvili to “behave himself” or the government would bring more charges against him. “Referring to ex-President as ‘crazy,’ ‘sick man’ throughout the interview, the PM alleged Saakashvili planned ‘a dirty provocation’ allegedly involving a murder of several opposition leaders. The scenario, PM Garibashvili said, was averted by the government.”

Still, Not All Is Lost in Georgia Georgia’s domestic chaos and its government’s souring relations with the west fit well with the overall situation in the South Caucasus region. A year ago, Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in a full-out war over their disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The United States was famously disengaged from the conflict, while Turkey and Russia were able to broker a ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire was a welcome development as it ended weeks-long bloodshed, but it also led to the placement of Russian military peace-keeping forces in Nagorno-Karabakh. Since 20% of Georgia’s territory is already occupied by Russia (the breakaway

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It seems Saakashvili decided it was time to shake things up, so he returned to Georgia knowing he would be arrested. regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia), at this point Moscow enjoys unparalleled leverage over the three countries including a military presence and thus hardpower advantage in all three South Caucasus countries. The Biden administration has been slow to produce a strong, coherent Eurasia strategy for the United States. Yet not all is lost in Georgia as the U.S. still retains plenty of instruments of influence it could use to curb the Georgian Dream government’s unsavory tendencies. As President Biden prepares for his Summit of Democracies this December, many ask whether Georgia should be invited. Will the U.S. see this crisis as a call to action to reengage in the South Caucasus? Or will it further disengage from the region, making room for deepening Russian hegemony?

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US Alliances, Global Challenges: Reluctant Allies, Rising Rivals A Game of Three-Dimensional Chess with Nuclear Options By: Ahmad Taher When US President Joe Biden took office early this year, no shifts in US foreign policy and its global alliances were noticed. Instead, the United States altered its orientation and stance on many issues and regions in light of recent developments marked by Russia’s

aspiration to restore its old glory and China’s rise and attempts to translate its economic power into a political force and participate in managing world affairs. China has long rejected US unilateralism and dominance following the collapse and disintegration of the Soviet system in the early 1990s. However, this dominance did not last long especially after the September

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A virtual meeting with leaders of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue countries on March ,12 2021, in Washington, D.C. Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images

2001 events took place and the US decided to occupy Afghanistan in 2001, then Iraq in 2003, opening new conflicts and colonial hotbeds that drained its capabilities and prevented it from implementing its agenda. Twenty years later, the new administration implemented former president Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US forces from these areas without consulting its allies who had been fighting alongside it in the battle against terrorism. This step clearly indicated the new US foreign policy of disengaging its association with allies and redrawing its map of alliances by prioritizing its interests in application of the motto, “America first.” The US actions prompted its allies in the West, excluding Britain ‫ ـ‬which had recently withdrawn from the European Union ‫ ـ‬to reconsider the means of ensuring their security and stability in light of a division among NATO members over the sources of the threats. Only few days after the US unilateral withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States, Britain and Australia announced a new Indo-Pacific security alliance, dubbed AUKUS. France said it was blindsided by an Australian “stab in the back” after it lost a deal with Australia to build nuclear powered submarines. On September 24, the White House announced that it was hosting the prime ministers of Australia, India and Japan for the first-ever in-person Leaders’ Summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). Leaders of the four-member bloc first held a virtual meeting in March. Maritime cooperation among its members began after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. Its activities were later frozen before Biden reactivated them earlier this year. In light of these unprecedented developments, many questions were raised about US intentions. Among the questions are: To what extent would the US recent steps affect its interests in the areas in which it reduced its presence in return for bolstering this presence in the Indo-Pacific region? What do US allies think about this new policy? What is the reaction of the parties against which this policy is practiced, particularly China and Russia? Could this new policy push China and Russia to form alliances with European parties that reject the new US trends? What about the regional parties that have publicly expressed their solidarity with the United States in confronting China, specifically India, Australia and Japan? This report reviews three main topics that provide answers for the questions raised. First: US Foreign Policy, Difficulty in Achieving Balance US foreign policy adopts the slogan and concept of “America first.” Despite the ease of declaring this slogan, it is difficult to be implemented on the ground, in

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The US actions prompted its allies in the West, excluding Britain ‫ــ‬ which had recently withdrawn from the European Union ‫ ــ‬to reconsider the means of ensuring their security and stability in light of a division among NATO members over the sources of the threats. light of the amount of US ties globally and regionally, as well as the challenges it faces. This makes it difficult for this policy to achieve balance in view of its orientation with the US’ existing and new alliances. The US, Australia and Britain have recently decided to establish a security pact for the Indo-Pacific region. It includes cooperation on “cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and additional undersea capabilities.” Under the pact, Australia would acquire new long-range strike capabilities for its air force, navy and army. It gives Australia secret technology to build nuclear-powered submarines, though not equipped with nuclear weapons. Australia said it would scrap an almost $60 billion deal signed in 2016 for France’s Naval Group to build a fleet of conventional submarines and would instead build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with US and British technology. This decision sparked rage in Paris, prompting it to recall its ambassadors from the US and Australia and escalate its discourse against this rapprochement. The pact is “designed not only to strengthen our capabilities in the Indo-Pacific but to link Europe, and particularly Great Britain, more closely with our strategic pursuits in the region as a whole,” a White House statement read. This statement reflects a varying US vision in dealing with European partners. It tends to give priority to Britain which has recently left the European Union and seeks to form an alliance with the US. “The American choice to push aside a European ally and partner like France from a structural partnership with Australia at a time we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region ... shows a lack of coherence that France can only acknowledge and regret,” the French Foreign Ministry stressed in midSeptember.

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Although the US was aware of the consequences of such a decision on Paris, it did not consider them when it decided to form its trilateral pact. In addition to the huge financial loss, Paris also incurred a geopolitical loss that could affect its interests. Cancelling the socalled “contract of the century” results in the exclusion of France from Indo-Pacific area. Second: Allies and the search for new security and economic approaches The recent US decision to form new alliances away from its NATO partners was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Trump’s unilateral decisions earlier concerned the allies, who became aware that the US aimed to achieve its interests only, especially in light of the escalation of the US-China trade war. Although this war served the European market well in the face of the invasion of Chinese industries, yet it showed that the decision makers gave priority to US interests regardless of the negative effects on the allies’ economies. Ex-administration officials were keen to reassure their allies that Washington would abide by its international covenants and underscored the importance of US alliances across the world. This helped preserve relations with all NATO members, especially after the inauguration of Biden. His first overseas trip in June to meet European partners indicated he would proceed with the same US approach. “The US and EU agreed to suspend our tariffs for five years, and we committed to ensuring a level playing field for our companies and our workers,” he said, in reference to settling differences over the aircraft, steel and aluminum industries. However, Europeans could not rely on these reassurances for their continued dependence on Washington’s power and influence. Rather, this dependence began to

Confidence has been shaken on both sides of the Atlantic, especially from France and Germany which consider the US policy unstable and believe it cannot address these challenges.

decline, prompting them to search for new approaches, mainly relying more on the continent’s capacities and gradually getting rid of complete dependence on US protection. “The regrettable decision just announced on the Future Submarine Program only heightens the need to raise loud and clear the issue of European strategic autonomy. There is no other credible path for defending our interests and values around the world, including in the Indo-Pacific region,” a French foreign ministry statement read. Europeans also decided to establish independent security systems separate from the existing international blocs, such as the NATO. They also considered the possibility of establishing an independent political project that would enhance the ability to face challenges without relying heavily on US protection or support. Confidence has been shaken on both sides of the Atlantic, especially from France and Germany which consider the US policy unstable and believe it cannot address these challenges. Although they agree with the US on the need to confront the Chinese rise and the Russian resurgence, they request full coordination with the allies to protect their threatened common interests, and not the US interests alone. The US allies may not consider containing China and Russia an option due to the number and magnitude of their economic ties. Third: Two New Rivals and the Search for a New Approach to Confrontation The US seeks to confront the two new rivals, Russia and China, by adopting a policy based on building alliances with both countries’ geographic neighbors to encircle them and threaten their interests. The plan represents an alternative to the direct confrontation approach, which is very costly for everyone. While Washington agrees to hold political talks with Moscow, such as the recent meeting in Geneva, it refuses to hold rounds of talks with China. Instead, it tries to market its new alliances (AUKUS, the Quad) as a means to confront any possible threat, a message well received by Beijing, which says US policy will undermine regional stability. China cited the latest US decision to provide Australia with nuclear submarines, which, it believes, may lead to an acceleration of the arms race in the region. Meanwhile, Washington has been trying to neutralize the Russian stance or isolate it from the upcoming conflict with Beijing.

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US President Joe Biden participates is a virtual press conference on national security with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 15, 2021. Photo Credit: Brendan Smialowski, AFP

Moscow is aware that if it abandons Beijing now, it will engage in the same confrontation later after the conflict is resolved in favor of the US. Therefore, both partners are looking for a new approach that would enable them to confront Washington’s encirclement policy. They recognize the challenges they would face, especially in regards to each country’s ties and differences with the member states of the new US alliance. Moscow and Beijing agree on their rivalry with Japan and Britain, yet Russia has close ties with India, which joined the pact to confront China. This complexity makes it difficult for both countries to create a joint strategy to face the US new alliances. Nevertheless, both sides have an opportunity to build an alliance with some European parties that reject the US approach, provided that they remain cautious since the US is known for its ability to contain crises and dispel doubts. What makes the current crisis different is that it comes in light of a new US vision in managing the world on the one hand, and the multiplicity of international actors immersed in the crisis on the other hand. Moreover, France is scheduled to hold its presidential

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“The regrettable decision just announced on the Future Submarine Program only heightens the need to raise loud and clear the issue of European strategic autonomy.” elections in April 2022, and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel will step down once a new government is formed. In short, the US must be aware that building new alliances in constantly changing conditions across the world is as difficult as managing conflicts since the absence of governing rules in building and managing the alliance turns the project into a conflict that threatens regional and international peace and security.

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Massive Technical and Reputational Fall of Facebook Huge Losses Over Its Platforms Outage Amid Legislators’ Attempts to Regulate the Company’s Actions By Khaled Makhlouf and Amany M. Salem Described by some experts as “September 11 of the internet” and by others as “social media doomsday”, a number of the most important social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp which are used by more than three billion people went down last Monday. The incident caused break of communications for hundreds of million users who depend on these platforms across the world. The six-hour outage provoked shocked and sarcastic reactions by followers and ex-perts, particularly that this was the first time three main platforms were com-pletely down for long hours causing the disruption of business and communication of millions of users. Other platforms such as Telegram and Twitter were slowed down in some countries due to high traffic of users who resorted to them after the outage of the major three.

social media platforms, par-ticularly Twitter, whose users made fun of the crisis of Facebook and its founder Zuckerberg who lost seven billion dollars within a few hours. Tweets and com-ments have shown the scope of the technological crisis. Some ironic comments mentioned that the Facebook billionaire founder has forgotten to renew the inter-net subscription so the service was suspended. Other people felt its joyful to have an opportunity for real communication with family and friends away from the vir-tual world imposed by technology, while others wished the outage would last for long to repair the detachment caused by social media and the lack of real commu-nication and social duties among families and even members of one family.

“FAULTY CONFIGURATION CHANGE”

New users in tens of thousands went to download Telegram and Twitter whose original users demanded them to leave in a sarcastic note. Ironically, the Facebook company itself had to post on its Twitter account, “We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

Facebook company announced that the reason behind the outage was a “faulty configuration change” that prevented 3.5 billion users from accessing their ac-count on the three applications. The announcement was made after the platforms were back online amid speculations about possible fall of other platforms, reports of a young Chinese hacker being behind the incident, and conspiracies against the United States by major countries such as China and Russia, in addition to anticipa-tion of another fall of technology and internet applications.

Meantime, sarcasm prevailed across the remaining

Following the outage, Facebook stocks declined by

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A portrait of Facebook ex-employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen. Illus-trated by Jeannette Khouri

5.63% according to Market Watch website which reports news of stock markets. According to the website, the stock fall was the worst to take place in one day, as the stock price fell to $323 by about $20.

CRITICISM AT THE SENATE Francis Haugen, a former employee and product manager in Facebook, harshly criticized the company in her testimony before the Senate subcommittee of con-

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sumer protection just a day after the outage. She said that the company’s plat-forms harm children, foster discord and weaken U.S. democracy, calling for en-forcement of legislative actions to regulate the company’s performance. Facebook reacted to Haugen’s accusations by issuing a statement that doubted Haugen’s knowledge of the issues she raised as she “worked for the company for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended

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a decision-point meet-ing with C-level executives,” the statement said. The company also said it didn’t agree with her “characterization of the many issues she testifies about.” Meantime, the ex-employee’s criticism has led the company to suspend its Insta-gram kid’s development. In a rare bipartisan consensus, Republican and Demo-cratic Senators emphasized the company’s need to change.

A WHISTLEBLOWER These developments started to unfold after the appearance of Frances Haugen on the “60 Minutes” program in which she revealed herself as the source of Facebook internal documents sent to the Congress, Wall Street Journal and the U.S. Securi-ties and Exchange Commission. She asserted that she wants to fix the company and not harm it. The documents and ensuing reports published by Wall Street Journal (WSJ) motivated the Senate hearing set for Frances to testify about the vio-lations committed by the company. In her testimony, Haugen said, “Facebook repeatedly encounters conflicts be-tween its own profit and our safety. Facebook consistently resolved these conflicts in favor of its own profits. She also added that “As long as Facebook is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny, it is unaccountable.” She pointed to Mark Zuckerberg’s control of the company and his interest in users’ en-gagement, saying this had a big negative impact on the company’s decisions. A number of Congressmen criticized Zuckerberg,

“Facebook repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profit and our safety. Facebook consistently resolved these conflicts in favor of its own profits,” testified whistleblower Francis Haugen.

while Senator Richard Blumen-thal, the chairman of the subcommittee which held the hearing, called on Mr. Zuckerberg to appear before Congress to testify, describing the company as “mor-ally bankrupt”.

BOMBSHELL FILES In mid-September, WSJ started to publish a series of shocking reports based on documents obtained by an unnamed whistleblower inside Facebook, who appeared later to be Frances Haugen. The reports included internal communication that re-vealed Facebook practices which jeopardize the safety and the well-being of its us-ers. The WSJ investigative reporting highlighted a huge contradiction between the company’s declared principles and values, and its real practices. The paper said that although Zuckerberg publicly said that his company enable its users “to speak on equal footing with the elites of politics, culture and journalism” and that the company’s standards apply to them all regardless of who they are, it was revealed that the facts on the ground are in contrast to what he said. The leaked documents disclosed a system that exempts famous politicians, journalist, athletes from applied standards. Limited number of users are “whitelisted” which means they are immune from the platform’s punishments applied to ordinary us-ers. One such example is Neymar, the Paris Saint German’s Brazilian footballer, who was

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In this file photo taken on October 23, 2019 Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before the House Financial Services Committee on “An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors” in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC. (Photo by MAN-DEL NGAN / AFP)

Broken Ethernet cables are seen in front of displayed Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram logos in this illustration taken October 5, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ru-vic/ Illustration

allowed to post defaming photos of the woman who accused him of rape in 2019 and prevented moderators from deleting them for 24 hours. Investigations revealed that Facebook doesn’t comply with its public standards when it comes to celebrities who violate without any punishment.

CATASTROPHIC RESULTS Leaked internal communication about another major issue uncovered the compa-ny’s mismanagement of studies conducted by its researchers on the negative im-pact of Instagram on young girls. In the results published on the company’s inter-nal message board, the researchers revealed that “Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.” Comparisons triggered by using the photo-sharing application have changed how these girls view themselves, reported WSJ citing the unclassified documents. The researchers noted that the platform which appeals to an increasing number of teens is one reason behind rising rates of anxiety and depression among young people, some of whom started to report suicidal thoughts as a result. However, the company continued to play down in public the harm its platform causes and didn’t make

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In mid-September, WSJ started to publish a series of shocking reports based on in-ternal communication that revealed Facebook practices which jeopardize the safe-ty and the well-being of its users. available the research results to the public, academics or legislators. Even last March, Zuckerberg testified to a congress hearing that using social media apps has a positive impact on mental health.

ALARMING CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES The WSJ reports named “Facebook Files” which included dozens of documents that indicated warnings reported by the company’s employees that some criminal groups use their platform especially in some developing countries. Criminal activi-ties such as recruiting by drug cartels, human trafficking and organ selling in addi-

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tion to pornography and inciting violence against some ethnicities were detected in countries where a large base of users was growing. The employees’ warnings received no reaction from their superiors in order to con-trol these abuses. Although some of these pages were removed, no further action was taken to prevent the issue that allowed their appearance on the company’s various platforms in the first place. Another internal communication obtained by WSJ highlighted another negative im-pact of the content shared by COVID-19 anti-vaxxers which contributed to more hesitancy among citizens and circulated false information about vaccines.

OUTAGE IS AN INTERNAL ISSUE “An internal issue in the three platforms has probably caused the outage,” Dr. Osama Mustafa, an expert of Information Systems and Technology, told Majalla. “When platforms undergo an update, back-up servers are used, but the sudden fall of all these platforms at one time means that some internal problem took place. They commented that it was a DNS issue, which operated Facebook domain. But oddly, all other websites fell down too. They confirm that the issue was with the configuration which is not logic.” The technology expert explained that the company talked about integrating a number of its platforms into one. They tried but failed in doing so with Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp which use three different servers.”

Facebook researchers noted that Instagram which appeals to an increasing num-ber of teens is one reason behind rising rates of anxiety and depression among young people, some of whom started to report suicidal thoughts as result.

He added, “It is supposed that in case any server falls, the other two will remain online. But it seems another internal issue took place.” Commenting on the risks posed to users’ data, the possibility that hackers target-ed the platforms, and hinting at cyberattacks by some countries, Dr Mustafa said, “The incident has nothing to do with users’ data, and I rule out the possibility of hacking attack. No hacker can target three servers no matter their skillfulness; they could only hack some data sections, but not all of them. In case it was hacked, the website would not go completely down, let alone all three. The fault is inside the company.”

SELLING INFORMATION Speaking to Majalla from Washington DC, political writer and analyst Basem Abu Sumaya said, “It is premature to confirm or deny accusations in the Facebook cri-sis. But for a long time social media companies including Facebook have been un-der fire for selling its users’ information for other parties, which might include security agencies.” He went on, “Every time accusations were reported, nothing happened, and peo-ple have been moving forward with using these platforms and applications more than ever. They even used them in organizing protests and revolutions as in the Arab world and in the United States. After the U.S. presidential elections, which millions of pro-Trump Americans believe were rigged, social media platforms, mainly Facebook and Twitter played a major role in inciting the violence that

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Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), left to right, Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) are seen as Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen appears before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, US, 05 October 2021. EPA/Matt McClain / POOL

“Users data have been always vulnerable to hacking whether on Facebook, other social media websites, Google, Yahoo and others. There’s no means of technology that is %100 immune to breaches or hacking despite the daily breakthroughs.” took place at the Capitol Hill.”

to be safer for the users, they will spend less time on the platform which means less advertisements.”

CONTENT MANIPULATION Abu Sumaya also told Majalla that the Senate subcommittee listened to Haugen’s testimony about the company’s manipulation of content that it knew was harmful for its young users. “If we trace the protection of these platforms, we can find that they have been vulnerable to violations, hacking, breaches and even outages.” “The recent incident was not the first to have a fundamental part of peoples’ lives going down. They depend on them in their daily personal life, businesses and jobs.”

As for leaks of users’ data, Abu Sumaya said, “Users data have been always vul-nerable to hacking whether on Facebook, other social media websites, Google, Yahoo and others. There’s no means of technology that is 100% immune to breaches or hacking despite the daily breakthroughs.”

TECHNICAL FAILURE

Agreeing that the outage was due to technical fault rather than a breach, Infor-mation system consultant Mahdi Afifi told Majalla that “For the first time in history the three platforms went done simultaneously for a long time. One server went out, and because employees work FOREIGN CONSPIRACY remotely, they were not able to find a quick so-lution for the dysfunction. The outage has nothing to do with The U.S.-based expert remarked, “The huge losses arising hackers.” from the social media outage have negatively affected world economy, including the American economy which The Washington-based expert added that “Facebook is is already in disarray. Some Americans don’t believe mainly concerned with profits – its net profits amount to the conspiracy possibil-ity, but are concerned with the 40 million dollars – but doesn’t care for social benefits.” massive impact of these losses on the market.” He pointed out, “The U.S. Congress is discussing a bill “Frances Haugen is cooperating with the Senate and holding investigations into the Facebook crisis. subcommittee of commerce in part of the Congress Republicans and Democrats have agreed on issuing a bill efforts to review potential regulations of the platform,” that regulate and adjust the company’s actions, which is he added, citing the Facebook ex-employee’s welcomed by the White House. testimony that the company has delib-erately ignored evidence on its harmful effect on users for the sake “About 10.2 million complaints were filed by users against Facebook and Insta-gram within seven hours. of profits. Those affected will be remunerated for the damages they “She said the company found that if it changes algorithms suffered.”

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ociety

“Kidney for Sale” Yes, People are There Majalla Goes Deep into Lebanese Organ Trafficking Latifa El Hassanyeh Lebanon…. The country that is being labeled with corruption and crisis today. Unfortunately, a fact almost the whole world is aware of. Hence, we will not keep repeating about the tragedy that the Lebanese are going through, not because we underestimate their circumstances, but things have

become clear to everyone. The recent crises have exhausted their strengths and scattered their hopes and ambitions, and the collapse has affected their food, health and livelihood security under a wornout sys-tem... Well, there is no room for prolongation here, nor for speculation, not even a need for any research. The Lebanese are floundering with a crisis that ranks first in the world. We think that

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this sentence is suffi-cient to describe the situation. What makes us stand in a shock today, is the well spread news about a new “phenomenon” that “some Lebanese are offering to sell their organs for thousands of dollars,” due to the financial collapse; The news is cir-culating about “organ trafficking that is being accomplished in Leba-non”. This draw our attention to look for the truth: Do the Lebanese really sell their kidneys in their country? And what is the method that they follow? What about the role of the security services? And associations that are concerned with organ donation? Is it possible for these people to stand watching? This report takes you in journey for a fact check about what is really happening in Lebanon, the country that is being accused of the most harmful human shame ever…. So, what is really going on?

Organ transfer (Getty Images)

“Lebanese law strictly forbids and punishes the organ traffick-ing.”

of organ trafficking, we found an advertise-ment on a Facebook page dedicated to selling organs. Just a moment, the page is not Lebanese, and the users are not Lebanese neither. The page includes advertisements for citizens offering their kidneys for sale. Then we continued our search for Lebanese pages, but we could not find any. Well, this search was not enough to satisfy our hunger for truth... We moved to some human associations, and the Human Rights Association, in addition to humanitarian campaigns concerned Lebanese Announcement for Organ with human rights and human trafficking (as there Trafficking is no special association dedicated to follow-ing Yes, we saw people offering to sell their kidneys up on organ trafficking in Lebanon); The answer on the roads, we really saw it years even before was: “No, we do not know anything about organ the crisis. Today, during our fact check journey, trafficking in Lebanon, we haven’t re-ceived any we searched for these people, and found some in news about it, and we do not receive calls about “one piece”, now here is the good news. We asked this matter.” them what changed their minds? They re-sponded We even referred to the Lebanese internal security with silence. Perhaps it is the silence of disappoint- forces, who are re-sponsible for preventing crimes ment, the feeling of humiliation and weakness, or of human trafficking. We asked them about statisthe fear of punishment, or the blatant silence that tics regarding Lebanese people selling their kidnothing is more valuable than our health, not even neys, and the answer was: “There are no statistics, our children.... How hard it is to think of selling and there is no “organ trafficking in Lebanon.” The your organs to feed your family. This shouldn’t Internal Security Forces continued in an interview be happening in any society. No one deserves this with Majalla, saying: “There are relevant cases that ever. At the end, they told us, they did not sell violate the law, but are be-ing controlled. The ISF their kidneys nor any other organ. We felt relieved. referred here to a human trafficking operation that took place last September, and got exposed. The What matters is that they are fine. On the other side of the world, the virtual one, and criminals in this case were human trafficking, and while surfing the net, we found news on several the victim was a little kid, where his father (Syrian) websites about Lebanese people wanting to sell was selling him to Lebanese people. The criminals their kidneys... We tracked down some news and are now being jailed, and the child is being referred reached out to some journalist, and we asked them to one of the associa-tions concerned with the care to provide us with a way to contact Lebanese citi- of minor children. However, ISF con-firmed that zens who announced that they wanted to sell their “the heresy of selling organs is not true and does kidneys, according to what they have reported. The not happen in Lebanon.” answer was: “They have left Lebanon.” Or “We Security authorities asked citizens through “Madon’t know anything about them”, or “we can’t jalla” to report the pages that promote the sale of organs through social media, “if they exist”, or to give further information”... Continuing our journey in search of the truth about report any person offering his kidneys for sale, what some media de-scribed as the phenomenon through their website or their pages on social me-

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ociety

their organs are in the process of communicating with other countries outside Lebanon.” EmphasizOrgan Donation Lebanon: No Organ Traf- ing, “This matter does not concern us and is not our responsibility.” ficking in Lebanon And whether Organ Donation Lebanon receives As of this writing, no organ trafficking has been calls from Lebanese who want to sell their kidneys, documented in Lebanon due to the economic col- Younan said: “Often some people con-tacts us for lapse this year, and the Human Rights Associa-tion this purpose, and some of them place ads on social confirmed that it has no information about organ media, but this does not mean that they can reach trafficking taking place in Lebanon, and has not re- their goal, because we explain to them clearly and ceived any news or contact in this re-gard; Official firmly that Lebanese law forbids the sale of organs, and everyone is obligated to implement the law.” security agencies also denied this. On the other hand, a foreign news website revealed a report about Leb-anese being motivated Younan called for activating and supporting orto sell their kidneys; The news was copied in more gan donation programs, and thus sent a message through “Majalla” on how to donate, and indi-catthan one Lebanese website. In this context, Farida Younan, the coordinator ed that Medical Ethics Law No. 240, Article 30 of Organ Donation Lebanon, pointed out in an in- thereof, issued in 2012, “has appointed the Organ terview with Majalla that she does not have any Donation Lebanon (NOD). -Lb) as The exclusive clue about organ trade in Lebanon, thus confirm- official reference authorized to monitor all organ ing, “there has been no organ trafficking in Leba- and tissue donation and transplant operations on non since 2014”. She pointed out that the spread all Lebanese territories and set the medical, legal of such reports contributes to the marginalization and ethical conditions and controls for the living of a humanitari-an issue such as organ donation, as and de-ceased donation program. It is also respon“when the media publishes such mis-leading news, sible for training health work-ers and setting up a yearning for fame, it doesn’t take into account the community education program on post-mortem doharm that will be caused to patients waiting for this nation. She also explained the process of donation in both cases, the do-nors that are alive and after treatment.” Younan said that “Lebanese law strictly forbids the death of others. and punishes the organ trafficking. The Ministry of Public Health and the National Authority have Donation by alive people: set conditions and controls for living donations to protect the living donor and prevent any illegal do- Lebanese law allows donation from relatives up to nation process. She added that the cases that some the fourth degree, but anyone who exceeds this depress reported, used are the same info as those used gree becomes a non-relative donor. by a Swiss colleague from ElPais, who confirmed The conditions that protect the endowment and in his report that the sales took place outside Leba- transplant Program from living beings, are as folnon, or that advertisers of the ones willing to sell lows: - A comprehensive medical evaluation for both the recipient and the do-nor patient. - A psychological evaluation confirming that the patient and the donor do not suffer from any mental or psychological disorder that prevents donating, and that they have fully comprehended the risks and complica-tions that may result from the process of donating and transplanting; And that the donation takes place without any psychological dia in a private chat.

“The heresy of selling organs is not true and does not happen in Lebanon.”

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Advertising campaign for organ donation (Organ Donation Lebanon)

or financial pressure, and that they signed the informed consent form with the at-tending physician and surgeon. - Securing all the original identification papers, provided that they do not exceed 3 months, to prove the relationship and that they are of the same nationality. That is, from Lebanese to Lebanese, as well as for other na-tionalities, for example, from Iraqi to Iraqi. - The entire medical file of the patient and the donor are studied by the Ethics Committee, after interviewing both the recipient patient and the donor individually, to ensure that there is no moral impediment to the donation or physical or moral pressure. - The National Authority checks the file and makes sure that it meets the legal conditions for completing the transplant. It sends a letter to the Minister of Public Health, who issues a decision approving or not ap-proving the transplant operation, regardless of the guarantor of the recip-ient and the donor, and even if the operation is at the expense of the pri-vate patient or if the patient is not Lebanese. Donation after death: The donor must express his \ her desire for life and informs his family about it; After their death, it is the responsibility of the National Authority to ob-tain the written consent of

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the family, i.e. the signature of the direct of-ficial from the first degree kinship with a witness from the family, if a donation card is found or not. In all cases, Lebanese law gives the family the right to accept the gift or oppose it. Regarding the number of citizens who expressed their desire to donate their organs after death, Younan revealed that the number exceeded 33,000 citizens, and “we aspire to reach a larger number, equivalent to half of the Lebanese people.” On the occasion of International Organ Donation Day, which falls on October 17 (October), the coordinator at NOD called on media institu-tions to take action and cooperate with all bodies similar to the National Commission “to shed light on revitalizing the organ donation programs for the deceased in the region, as well as the needs of the waiting pa-tients and keeping this humanitarian issue away from the political maze and the scoop, because organ donation is above all political, sectarian, racial and geographical considerations. She said: The media has a great role, as it is able from its professional position to spread the culture of gifting after death in a scientific and objective way, and the role of the clergy is also very important in spreading this culture through places of worship.

ociety

Organ trafficking and law protocols To know more about legal protocols regarding organ trafficking, the punishment and ways to face it, “Majalla” conducted an interview with the Appellate attorney, university professor and lecturer Dr. Bassam El Muhtar, who pointed out that the issue of organ trade is of great im-portance in light of the tremendous medical progress and the spread of communications and transportation, considering the crime of human or-gan trafficking among the most serious organized crimes that transcend the borders of states and threaten global public order, and require the participation of several perpetrators: an intermediary, a seller and a buy-er. This, he considers requires coordination and movement in an interna-tional level to eliminate it, or to limit its spread to a minimum. In the scope of law protocols, El Muhtar pointed out that the “Palermo Convention 2000” defined the protocol as to “prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supple-menting the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime,” which adopted national positive laws with a definition, such as the crime of trafficking in persons, including trafficking in organs, and classified them as attracting or transferring, receiving, detaining or providing shelter for a person, with the aim of exploiting or facilitating his exploitation by others, by threatening or using force, kidnapping, deception, abuse of power or abuse of a position of vulnerability, or by giv-ing or receiving sums of money or benefits; It is well known that the term exploitation includes forcing the victim to commit

“All countries that have signed the Palermo 2000 Protocol or that haven’t signed, criminalize organ trafficking with severe criminal penalties.”

acts punishable by law, especially removing organs or tissues from the victim’s body, and thus also falls within this definition, in addition to the sale of blood units that is criminalized as it consists of interconnected cells. These texts, in the opinion of El-Muhtar, gives the judge in charge of the case, a very wide authority to include any act or to include any process from which an organ trafficking process or one of its cases can be found under this name, which of course is reflected in the tightening of the penalty and the adoption of the procedures in force in this regard. Regarding the penalty, the Appellate attorney pointed out that there are many problems that fall under this heading. “All countries that have signed the Palermo 2000 Protocol or that haven’t signed, criminalize or-gan trafficking with severe criminal penalties, especially if it results in permanent disability or the death of the person, and take judicial, securi-ty and social measures to combat this phenomenon, and to rehabilitate the victims, even if only to the extent lowest, Since organ trafficking constitutes a violation of human rights to the integrity of the body, or-gans and life, and is prohibited by the heavenly laws that depend on re-ligion as a

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Appellate attorney, university professor and lecturer Dr. Bassam El Muhtar.

Advertising campaign for organ donation (Organ Donation Lebanon).

primary source of legislation, such as some Islamic countries that oppose any act that degrades human dignity or degrades his human-ity, as God created man in the best manner and preferred him over all other creatures.” He added, as for the real problem arises when adults of-fer to sell their organs in exchange for a material allowance, or promote this trade, and advertising or promotional sites for these acts enter into this framework. Of course, this problem does not arise at all for children, and from the perspective of the Palermo 2000 Protocol, a child is every person who has not reached eighteen years of age, and therefore crimi-nalizes with the most severe penalties any dealings with the child’s or-gans regardless of any justification, especially since this protocol is dedi-cated to the protection of children and women. To face organ trafficking, El Muhtar believes that international or na-tional legislation is not sufficient in this regard; “International human rights conventions focused on human rights broad lines, and left the na-tional legislation for each country to manage its legal affairs according to its concepts, conditions and public order; the same applies to internation-al covenants.” He continues, “As for the Palermo 2000 protocol, it paid special attention

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to children, and extended the lifespan of childhood to reach eighteen years... Al-Muhtar asks: “What about adults who have completed eighteen years of age and who suffer from poverty or diffi-cult circumstances, whose human nature has insulted them and accepted humiliation, don’t they also deserve protection?” This requires, he as-sured, an enactment of international and national legislation to control this dangerous phenomenon on humanity. He also focused on strength-ening an international cooperation between the security, judicial and so-cial agencies to combat this phenomenon and help and rehabilitate the victims. NO, organ trafficking is not a life style in Lebanon, nor the country sells organs; Yes, Lebanon’s lung is suffocating from the lack of oxygen, Lebanon’s heart is aching, Lebanon’s mind is stuck in chaos of thinking. Yes, the Lebanese’s pocket is torn, and they are tired .... But the truth is that spreading misleading news to portray the situation does more harm than good. We quoted above what was confirmed by official bodies, with follow-up steps that contradicted many news that were widely spread. However, with all the corruption in the country, this makes “Lebanon” an easy target to rumors.

conomy

Black Labor: Migrants’ Source of Living in Europe Governments Take Deterrent Measures to Protect Economy By Jiwan Soz- Paris

people can provide them. Black labor (the popular term for illegal work) In an increasingly remarkable scene in Europe’s is widespread in various Western countries, parstreets, people meet at modest coffee shops at ticularly in Europe. This phenomenon is highly night to complain about being ill-treated by their recurrent in poor neighborhoods and suburbs at employers. On speaking to media or meeting the outskirts of major cities, as some people join journalists, most of these people would ask for many jobs upon an oral agreement between the help with residence permit thinking that media worker and the employer without formal contract

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Although European countries have not issued accurate data about the number of workers in “black labor”, estimates by economists indicate that their number amounts to millions and the arising losses are huge and varying among countries. ernmental statistics highlighted that the num-ber of black workers have dramatically increased since the start of the largest influx of refugees in 2015. Black work is prevalent in a variety of fields, such as cafes, restaurants, construction, and agriculture.

Although European countries have not issued accurate data about the number of workers in “black labor”, estimates by economists indi-cate that their number amounts to millions. (AFP)

or permit that stipulates a specific salary which is directly reported to the taxes au-thority in the relevant country. Although European countries have not issued accurate data about the number of workers in “black labor”, estimates by economists indicate that their number amounts to millions and the losses arising from this practice are huge and varying among countries; with an average loss of 10% to 20 % of Gross National Product (GDP). European economy incurs annual losses in billions of euros, due to workers evading the payment of specified fees to social security, pensions and tax authorities in exchange for social entitlements. In addi-tion, majority of these workers receive unemployment benefits beside their black jobs, in case they are legal residents of the land where they work or which they carry the citizenship of. Despite the fact that this phenomenon has been widespread in Europe decades ago, recent gov-

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For example, in France, the largest portion of workers in black labor are Turkish of various ethnicities, followed by Arabs of difference nationalities including Syrians, then come Africans and others. A Syrian worker (36 years old) has been working in a “black job” in in-door decorations for eight years in France. He told Majalla, “Such work is the only way to earn money,” because he doesn’t know the language nor have a certificate to land himself a legal job. He went on to say, “We can’t work with French people or other formal companies, because most of them won’t hire us due to lack of certifi-cates and an advanced language level. Thus we are forced to work for Arabs and Turks in ‘black jobs’, while knowing that in some cases we might not receive our due money after the work is finished, because we can’t claim our rights or take those employers to court. We don’t have evidence of our work with them.” In France and other European countries, citizens and foreign residents, whatever their status

conomy

is, should pay annual taxes to the government (except for students), according to the monthly payroll of each individ-ual if they are employees or the profits of their businesses, if they are employers. Sometimes the sums of these taxes are astronomical and unaffordable. One might think that most of workers in black labor are foreigners, but in fact the opposite is true. Statistics show that large number of Euro-pean employers and employees started to use a similar manipulation by revealing half or quarter of their monthly income or profits of their businesses, in order to evade high taxes imposed by their governments. Thus, they apply the same technique of tax fraud used by the migrants by not revealing their real income to the state, which results in more potential economic losses incurred by the European governments. Foreign workers who join the black labor market can be considered “low earners” compared with big businesses which deceive the state about large amounts of money. In many cases low earners don’t seek black labor to evade taxes, but they in fact are forced to do so because large numbers of them do not have residence permit in the countries they are working in, which leaves them with limited options to earn a living.

In many cases low earners don’t seek black labor to evade taxes, but they in fact are forced to do so because large numbers of them do not own residence permit in the countries they are work-ing in

Employers use this method to decrease the amount of taxes they annu-ally pay, but if the official authorities know about their fraud, they would be sentenced to years in prison and pay a huge fine. In fear of that punishment, some employers would seek “half-black labor”, as labeled by a Syrian refugee in France who said, “In some cases, when we work for 100 hours a month, we report to the state working for 50 hours only. The remaining hours are set up orally with the employer to be paid in cash. That way helps him decreases his due taxes.” “Half-black” labor is formal and legal, but employers use it to deceive the government by not reporting the actual working hours of their em-

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Migrant workers clean fields amid an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)

ployees. If discovered, this action will be punished under the law of tax evasion. Labor conditions of “half-black” workers are apparently better and more legal than “black” workers. The first can still file claims against their employers to ask for their money, because they have formal work contracts, but the latter can’t demand their rights due to absence of such contracts that prove that they are employed, in addition to the fact that they don’t have residence permit in the country they work in. Probably the most famous and weird incident with regard to tax eva-sion and subsequent punishment, was the case of Former French Budg-et Minister

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Jérôme Cahuzac who was a staunch supporter of the fight against tax evasion during his tenure. Cahuzac was sentenced to four years in jail besides a fine of 300 thousand euros by a French court, over his indictment of committing the same crime of tax fraud. Economists think that many reasons have caused such phenomenon, mainly the complicated administrative measures in providing work permits for foreigners and the high fees to be paid by employers for so-cial security. As for foreign workers, they turn to illegal jobs to evade taxes and other reasons such as the lack of good language and certifi-cates, and sometimes the lack of residence permit.

A Weekly Political News Magazine

Issue 1873- October- 08/10/2021

Najla Bouden: The Independent Geologist; Arab World’s First Female PM

www.majalla.com

echnology

The Tech Woman Dina Ayman: The Youngest, First Egyptian Programming Manager to Assume Position in Microsoft By Sarah Gamal

neering at one of the largest universities in the United States, the New Jersey Institute of Technology. When you hear for the first time about a woman Since the 7th grade, Egyptian-American Dina holding a management position in one of the larg- Ayman’s dream was to become an engineer. Deest companies in the world, Microsoft, and at the spite all the successes achieved by Dina as direcsame time holding the position of Adjunct Professor tor of the programming department at Microsoft, of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the New a field dominated by men, she had faced a famJersey Institute of Technology in the United States ily with intentions which were contrary to her of America, you might think that this lady has spent goals, as her father wanted her to enroll in medical many years to reach such positions. However, you school. However, Dina decided to study engineerwould certainly be surprised when you know that the woman who assumed positions ordinarily requiring a lifetime is not yet thirty years old, and that she is a young Egyptian woman who has reached the highest positions at such a young age by virtue of her abilities. Dina Ayman, Program Manager at Microsoft, Professor of Engineering at NJIT, and Founder/CEO of Diversity and Inclusion Power, whose name is written in gold letters in the list of inspiring women around the world, is the first Egyptian girl to obtain a master’s degree in computer engineering before completing her bachelor’s degree. Not only did Dina, an extraordinary young Egyptian woman, occupy this great position at a young age, but she also occupies a very important academic position as she studies computer and software engi-

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Photo shows certificates of Egyptian computer engineer Dina Ayman

Egyptian computer engineer Dina Ayman posing for a photo at Microsoft in the US.

ing in which she later excelled. During her studies at the Faculty of Engineering, she received an offer to choose between a doctorate or a master’s degree in parallel with her bachelor’s degree in engineering. She chose a master’s and graduated in 2018 after obtaining a master’s and bachelor’s at the same time, becoming the first Egyptian woman to achieve two degrees in this record time. At the graduation ceremony, she dazzled the audience with her overwhelming charisma and captivating presence, and so she received job offers from ten companies, among which was Intel. Ayman specialized in software as an undergraduate, and networking in graduate school. According to the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Dina’s major in software as a college student together with her later work allowed her to explore many dimensions in both the software and networking side of technology, although she focused specifically on network problems with 5G networks. Besides her work at Microsoft, she is also a professor of engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a CEO of Diversity and Inclusion Power. Dina spoke to Majalla from New Jersey about her journey – studying and working outside Egypt, her

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“My parents didn’t want me to be an engineer. When I was choosing my major, my parents told me that engineering is not for women.” role models, the inspiration for the students she teaches, and her dreams. Dina spent her childhood between Egypt and the US. She was born in New Jersey and moved to Egypt with her parents and attended elementary and middle school. Afterwards, she went back to the States at beginning of high school and still lives there. “My parents didn’t want me to be an engineer. When I was choosing my major, my parents told me that engineering is not for women. I wanted to change that. I know that technology is still a male-dominated field and we still have so much work to do but I want to tell women that engineering and technology is for them,” she said. More remarkably, Ayman graduated with both a BSc and MSc in computer engineering in the same year from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 2018.

echnology

“I was always in the dean’s List when I was in school. While I was studying for my bachelor’s degree and didn’t think about graduate school at all, I was told by my dean that I was selected to start my master’s degree. I was shocked at first that they selected me to do my masters when I was still a senior in my bachelor’s program. But took the offer right away and did the two degrees together and graduated with both in the same year in Computer Engineering.” she said. About the engineering field, Dina said: “I’ve always loved math, and wanted to be an engineer since middle school, before I even knew what engineer-

“Women are absolutely capable of doing any job on the planet and be successful doing it even if it’s a male-dominated field but we tend to doubt and limit ourselves more than men ever do.”

ing was. But my love for technology started in high school. The idea that I can create something here in the U.S. that would be used on the other side of the world was always fascinating for me. And I was always blown away by how technology has intruded into everything we use, and how it makes life way easier.” When asked about her specialty as a Program Manager and the challenges she faced in it, she said: “As a Program Manager at Microsoft, I’m leading a team of software engineers who are creating the future. I love how everyone in my team is thinking outside of the box. Always coming up with new ideas to change the technology that we live with today and making it better. Microsoft truly only hires world class engineers and technology experts and sets the bar way high.” “I never found difficulties managing people. I feel that that one of my strengths is that I’m naturally a people person and care so much about people,” she added. In regards to the US embassy’s publication that praises and encourages her, she said: “I’m forever thankful for the support both Egypt and the U.S. give me. I honor all the beautiful comments I get and will always be working hard to inspire others and empower youth.”

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Egyptian computer engineer Dina Ayman posing for a photo at Intel in the US.

Egyptian computer engineer Dina Ayman posing for a photo with her family on her graduation day in the US.

Egypt for Dina is “Home.” She is always involved with everything happening in the country and the government. She is now involved with the government’s supporting a huge Haya Karima (“Decent Life”) project for a better life for 500 million citizens. Her family is her role model. They are so resilient, strong, and her dad and mom never ever give up on her. They always push her to do more. Her concept in life is that: “In life, you will find people that bet on your success and others that bet on your failure. Make sure you’re surrounding yourself with the right ones who believe in you.” “For girls that want to study engineering, there will be times where you are the only woman in the room, but that’s your power. Don’t let that discourage you from anything you want to achieve. Women are critical to any business success, and you have to always work hard to have a place where decisions are made. Make that your motivation, and know that the sky is your limit. For anyone who dreams to study abroad, the sky is your limit! Work hard and believe you can do it and I know you will.” This was her advice for young girls who aspire to study engineering or dream to study abroad. “Women are absolutely capable of doing any job on the planet and be successful doing it even if it’s

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“I never found difficulties managing people. I feel that that one of my strengths is that I’m naturally a people person and care so much about people.” a male-dominated field but we tend to doubt and limit ourselves more than men ever do. And that’s what I really wish to change. I want to inspire more females who want to be in the computer engineering industry and are not intimidated by being in a male-dominated field, but who embrace it, because by then it won’t be a male-dominated field,” she added. About her dreams and future plans, Dina said: “A lot of people feel that I’ve accomplished a lot but for me this is just the start. I still have a lot of dreams and goals that I want to achieve. I want to keep learning everything that comes my way. I want to grow my company and grow others. I just hope to positively impact others’ lives along the way.”

ulture

John Halaka (born in Egypt): “Resist”

A Century of Arab-American Art

Exhibition Shows Historical Arab-American Art Pieces 44

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Jacqueline Salloum (born in Michigan): “Happy Birthday Dear Sister”

Washington, Mohammad Ali Salih The Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI) is celebrating its 75th birthday this year and, as part of the celebration, has just opened a two-month-long exhibition of historical Arab- American art pieces, some of which are about a century old, such as a drawing by famous Arab- American Gibran Khalil Gibran. MEI was founded 75 years ago on May 8, 1946. It was inspired by George Keiser, an architect and a student of Islamic architecture. He brought together politicians and retired diplomats who were not only interested in the Middle East, but also believed in its future importance to America.

MEI was founded 75 years ago on May 8, 1946. It was inspired by George Keiser, an architect and a student of Islamic architecture the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University.

The MEI’s exhibition of Arab-American art also deals with history, bringing together pieces some of which are about a century old. Entitled “Converging Lines: Tracing the Artistic Lineage of the Arab Diaspora in the U.S.,” it was curated by Maymanah Farhat, a prominent Arab-American artist, The group included: Christian Herter, a who, among other achievements, was in congressman from Massachusetts who Foreign Policy magazine’s annual list of would go on to become Dwight Eisenhow- 100 Leading Global Thinkers, in recognier’s Secretary of State; Ambassador George tion of her scholarship on Syrian art after Allen, former lecturer at the American Uni- the uprising of 2014. versity in Beirut Harvey Hall; and, Halford Hoskins, who directed what would become The exhibition explores how Arab-Amer-

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ulture

Etel Adnan (born in Lebanon): “Late Afternoon”

ican artists, while looking back to their origins, handled the complexities of migration, including invisibility, alienation, inter-generational trauma, and changing identities. Featured artists (works of six of them shown here) included: Etel Adnan, Sama Alshaibi, Zeina Barakeh, Kamal Boullata, Huguette Caland, Yasmine Nasser Diaz, Dahlia Elsayed, Gibran Kahlil Gibran, Sherin Guirguis, Helen Khal, John Halaka, Jackie Milad, Mohammed Omar Khalil, Zeinab Saab, Jacqueline Reem Salloum, Nazar Yahya, and Helen Zughaib

The MEI’s exhibition of ArabAmerican art deals with history, bringing together pieces some of which are about a century old.

Kamal Boullata (born in Jerusalem): “Ana Al-Haqq”

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Zeina Barakeh (Palestinian born in Lebanon):”Scenario of Return”

Sama Alshaibi (born in Iraq): “vs. Him”

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Jake Gyllenhaal Saves «The Guilty» From Buckling Under Its Own Premise A Troubled Police Detective Assigned to 911 Operator Duty Scrambles to Save a Caller By Joshua Axelrod Very few films that came out since March 2020 were more obviously filmed during a global pandemic than «The Guilty.» Released Friday via Netflix, the film was directed by Antoine Fuqua — his second release in less than four months after June›s Paramount+ sci-fi thriller «Infinite» — and stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a story that takes place entirely in the confines of a 911 dispatch center. «The Guilty» also happens to be a remake of the 2018 Danish thriller of the same name. Credit must be given to both Fuqua and Gyllenhaal for taking what could have been quite the slog and turning it into a tense cat-and-mouse game that only works because of their combined commitment to making the most out of pandemic-induced limits on the type of sequences they could safely stage. There are multiple baffling plot points throughout «The Guilty» and its premise is stretched about as

far as it can go without completely breaking, but a strong central performance and generally brisk pace result in a satisfying enough watch. Gyllenhaal plays Joe Baylor, a demoted Los Angeles police officer stuck answering phones at an emergency call center. Viewers are quickly left to wonder what he did to land himself in this unfamiliar and unwanted position. It also becomes quickly apparent that Joe has a fractured relationship with the mother of his young daughter. What seems like a boring night manning the phones takes a turn after Joe takes a call from a woman who claims to have been kidnapped. Joe spends the rest of the evening trying to figure out what›s actually going on and grows increasingly frustrated with the bureaucratic red tape he encounters and how unsatisfied he is with the overall state of his life. While there are a few other actors physically in the room with Gyllenhaal, most of «The Guilty» involves the camera locking on him as he talks to someone on

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Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Joe Baylor, an LAPD officer who has been temporarily relegated to desk duty and is taking emergency 911 calls at a center, in «The Guilty.» (Lionel Hahn/Abaca )Press/TNS

the phone who›s either directly involved in this kidnapping or who could hopefully help save the potential victim. It would be tough to come up with too many movies that aren›t animated or feature a computer-generated creation that employ this much voice-acting. All the action happens in the same office setting with only phone calls and occasional glimpses of the outside world on video screens breaking up the scenic repetition. Nobody could be blamed if they grow a bit tired of this shtick, but at least the film moves swiftly enough for the most part that moments of tedium are few and far between. Audiences› ability to connect with this story will almost entirely hinge on their enjoyment of Gyllenhaal, who is reuniting with Fuqua for the first time since the two made the 2015 boxing flick «Southpaw» together. Fuqua clearly trusts Gyllenhaal to carry just about every second of the film›s 90-minute run time. His camera generally doesn›t do much beyond framing Gyllenhaal as he goes from one confrontation to another. While Gyllenhaal is reliably solid in the role, it would be understandable if you found his character to be a tough hang. Joe Baylor is a gruff guy

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There are multiple baffling plot points throughout «The Guilty» and its premise is stretched about as far as it can go without completely breaking, but a strong central performance and generally brisk pace result in a satisfying enough watch. with no ability to separate his personal life from his work. That›s vaguely reasonable given his impending court date but it causes headaches when he becomes so fixated on making sure this woman is safe that he begins to demand too much of friends and former law-enforcement colleagues. That said, it›s still difficult to take your eyes off Gyllenhaal, who›s liable to explode with rage or break down in tears at any second. He›s supported in the call center by a cast that includes fellow 911 operator Manny (Adrian Martinez) and Sgt.

Denise Wade (Christina Vidal) and via the phone by on-point vocal performances from the likes of Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Peter Sarsgaard, Eli Goree, Da›Vine Joy Randolph and more. You might be left with a lot of questions by the time all is said and done, mainly how much trouble Joe would realistically be in if he pulled even a fraction of the insubordinate stunts he did to ensure no harm would come to that woman or her family. At least the ever-present sense of momentum and how relatively short it is make for an experience that doesn›t leave too much time to linger on questions like that. When it comes to a film like «The Guilty» that›s

built around such a specific gimmick, the best things going for it are Fuqua›s steady hand, Gyllenhaal›s unpredictability and the fact it›s right there on Netflix to check out at your leisure. Approach it like a one-man show with no intermission that you can view from home, sit back and watch Gyllenhaal cook. This review was originally published on (TNS).

Pittsburgh native Antoine Fuqua sports a Pittsburgh Pirates cap as he works on «The Guilty,» a Netflix thriller he directed from a van near the studio. (Glen Wilson/ Netflix/TNS)

«THE GUILTY»

2.5 stars (out of 4) MPAA rating: R (for strong language) Running time: 1:30 Where to watch: Now streaming on Netflix

Audiences› ability to connect with this story will almost entirely hinge on their enjoyment of Gyllenhaal, who is reuniting with Fuqua for the first time since the two made the 2015 boxing flick «Southpaw» together.

This image released by Netflix shows Jake Gyllenhaal in a scene from «The Guilty.» (Netflix via AP)

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Najla Bouden: The Independent Geologist; Arab World’s First Female PM

By Majalla Illustration by Jeannette Khouri

Gendering’ ministries and women ministering are not surprising for Tunisia, a democratic country, but the position of head of government is the distinguishing mark today in Tunisia and is subsequent to the continual controversies and great failures of the men who were named prime minister. “For the first time in Tunisia’s history, a woman will head the country as prime minister,” Tunisian President Kais Saied said in a video introducing Ms. Bouden which was posted to the Presidency’s Facebook page. In a historic step, Tunisian President Kais Saied named Najla Bouden Romdhane, a little-known university engineer with World Bank experience, as prime minister nearly two months after he seized power, becoming the first woman in Tunisia and the Arab world to hold this position. Bouden will enter the headquarters of the government in Kasbah amid exceptional measures, burdened with economic and social crises in the country, fueled by tensions, political conflicts, and corruption that erodes all state institutions. Her mission will be to save Tunisia from this situation and improve public services for Tunisians. She will also take on the challenge of demonstrating the ability of Tunisian women to take up the highest positions in the country. While some wonder if Bouden could become the symbol of women’s progress and empow-

erment in Tunisia and the Middle East, others fear that President Kais Saied might exploit her limited political experience to his advantage, especially in economic policy. In contradistinction, others point to the experience that she gained as a person in charge of implementing World Bank programs at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Tunisia, which may help her in managing the economic situation. Najla Bouden is not politically affiliated or close to any political party, which may be in her favor. However, at the same time it may pose more challenges to her, as the country is going through an exceptional political situation par excellence, after suspending major institutions such as Parliament. It is not yet clear whether those affected by President Said’s decision on July 25th will stand against Bouden even before she has a chance to prove herself, especially since the Tunisian street does not know much about its new prime minister, as she suddenly came out to public life after a long academic and administrative career. Bouden, a Tunisian geologist and university professor, was born in 1958 in the old neighborhood of Houmt El-Bey in Kairouan to a wellknown educated family which was keen on educating sons and daughters. Her father, Mohamed Bouden, was director of the Alaoui Institute, one of the oldest scientific institutes in Tunis. Her mother is from the Qouta family, which is an old family from the Tunisian coastal region.

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Bouden is an engineer by profession and a professor of higher education at the National Engineering School of Tunis at Tunis El Manar University, having specialized in geosciences. She has a Ph.D. from the École des Mines de Paris in earthquake engineering. Her work has focused on seismic hazards in Tunis. In 2011, she was appointed as Director-General in charge of quality, then held the position of Head of the Purposes Management Unit in the Ministry of Higher Education, and in 2015 was assigned a mission in the office of the former Minister of Higher Education Shehab Boden. A year later, Bouden was chosen to oversee a plan to implement World Bank programs in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, a position she held before her new assignment. She is known for her perseverance at work and all those who worked with her praise her efforts and the quality of her work, which gave her a strong reputation especially in the academic field. In 2016, the late Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi awarded her a medal on the occasion of the National Science Day, along with a number of directors in the Ministry of Higher Education. It is expected that in the coming days Prime Minister-designate Najla Boden will form a government team devoid of political parties, and will control and implement public policies in accordance with the directives and choices set by President Kais Saied.

ook Reviews

Book: “I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at The White House” Underwhelming, Innocuous Revelations about Melania Trump Bring out the Pit Bulls By Mohammad Ali Salih Washington - Another book written by a former official in Trump’s administration, more unpublished information, and another personal attack from Trump. But this time the personal attack was really personal because most of the unpublished information was about the former First Lady Melania Trump. “I›ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House,” published this week, was authored by Stephanie Grisham, 55 years-old, who was Press

Melania appeared in public as not involved or interested in what was going around her in the White House, but the book revealed that: «Like her husband and all of his kids, Mrs. Trump scrutinized her press clippings like an expert.

Secretary to the First Lady (2019-2017), White House’s Communication Director (2020-2019), and Chief of Staff for the First Lady (2021-2020). A staunch conservative, she shunned the media during and before her White House years. She was described as the first White House Press Secretary who didn’t hold a press conference because she preferred individual interviews and mostly with conservative media, particularly Fox TV. She grew up in a conservative family and became interested in religious media (in 2015, she was a press coordinator for Pope Francis›s visit to the US). A year before Trump announced that he was going to run for the US president, Grisham joined his staff and most of the time handled information about Melania Trump. However, after a total of six years as a loyal assistant to the Trumps, she betrayed them, and published this book about their secrets as well as unpublished details of their lives. Fair enough, the Trump machine launched documented personal attacks against her that seemed to contain more sensational information than what she published about Melania Trump: First, she was only a high school graduate, and with low grades, who could not finish university also because of lower grades.

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“I›ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw at the Trump White House,” published this week, was authored by Stephanie Grisham, 55 years-old, who was Press Secretary to the First Lady. that she knew about Melania Trump. Now, to what she already published about Melania: First, Melania, back from Africa, wanted to send mirrors to children she met in Malawi because the children had asked the Americans to take photos of them because “they didn›t know what they looked like.” Melania said: «Children need to know what they look like and see that they are very strong or very beautiful.”

Book Cover

Second, she was divorced by her first husband, then married a second man who also divorced her. Two years later, she had a child without being married. Third, in 2013, she was arrested for driving while drunk, and in 2015, was arrested again for a similar charge. A judge ordered her arrest when she didn’t show up for her trial. Fourth, in 2007, while working for the Arizona American Automobile Association (AAA), she was fired for cheating about office expenses. A year later, she was fired from a job at Mindspace Agency in Arizona for plagiarism. Grisham’s book was just being published this week, and the Trump machine had already published the above-mentioned sensational information, showing that this personal “dirty war” has just started. Actually, during a TV interview about her book this week, Grisham said that she didn’t publish all

Author: Stephanie Grisham Publisher: Harper, New York Print pages: 352 Price: Electronic: $14.99; Paper; $39.99 55

Second, Melania appeared in public as not involved or interested in what was going around her in the White House, but the book revealed that: «Like her husband and all of his kids, Mrs. Trump scrutinized her press clippings like an expert ... No detail was overlooked, nothing missed her eye. She had Google alerts set up for herself and saw everything.» Third, Melania rarely went to her office in the East Wing of the White House. Grisham said she saw Melania there only «a handful of times» during four years. The Secret Service gave Melania the nickname «Rapunzel» «because she remained in her tower, never descending.» Fourth, there was no love in the relationship between Melania and Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka. Mostly due to Ivanka Trump›s desire to be in the spotlight at public events and on foreign trips. Angrily, Melania called Ivanka the “Princess.” And so continued Melania’s sensational information, even if they were not really “secrets.” But Donald Trump has the last word about Grisham, the media and the publishing companies: «Too bad that sleaze bag publishers continue to report this very boring garbage. We are totally used to it. And someday, in the not-toodistant future, we will have our voice back and be treated fairly.”

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ealth

Better Blood Sugar Tracking: A Benefit for Heart Health ? Continuous Glucose Monitors May Help People Better Manage Diabetes By Julie Corliss The high blood sugar levels that characterize diabetes are bad news for blood vessels. Elevated blood sugar can damage artery walls, making them more likely to narrow and stiffen; it also makes the blood stickier and more likely to clot. Having diabetes more than doubles your risk of heart disease.

Checking blood sugar has long required people to prick their finger and squeeze out a drop of blood. But growing numbers of people with diabetes are now using continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), which are small devices placed on your arm or belly with sensors inserted just under the skin. The devices measure a proxy for blood sugar every few minutes and transmit the readings to your smartphone

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Checking blood sugar has long required people to prick their finger and squeeze out a drop of blood. But growing numbers of people with diabetes are now using CGMs, which are small devices placed on your arm or belly with sensors inserted under the skin. they were checking their blood sugar at least four times daily, but that requirement was eliminated in July 2021, removing one of the barriers to getting a CGM, says Dr. Goldman.

Credit: Unsplash

or a portable monitor.

Earlier this year, two studies in JAMA found that for people with type 2 diabetes who take insulin, using a CGM led to better blood sugar control than traditional monitoring. One of the studies, which used real-world patient data, also documented fewer episodes of dangerously low or high blood sugar values among CGM users.

AWARENESS AND AVAILABILITY

FEEDBACK FROM FOOD CHOICES

CGMs are already widely used by people with type 1 diabetes, the less common but more severe form of diabetes. Recent research suggests that people with type 2 diabetes -- who account for more than 90% of diabetes cases -- may also benefit from the technology. Meanwhile, television ads (including one during this year’s Super Bowl) have boosted awareness of the devices among the general public.

Using a CGM can be very helpful by providing immediate feedback about how diet and exercise affects blood sugar. For example, people can see how bigger portions or poor food choices cause their blood sugar to rise -- and how exercise helps lower blood sugar. “I’ve had patients tell me, ‘Thank you for asking me to use this device; it really helped me change my habits,’” says Dr. Osama Hamdy, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the obesity clinical program at the Joslin Diabetes Center. Research suggests that the more frequently people test their blood sugar, the more weight they lose, he adds.

“Many of my patients with type 2 diabetes are asking me about CGM devices,” says Dr. Anna Goldman, an endocrinologist who specializes in diabetes at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Currently, Medicare covers CGMs for people who inject insulin at least three times a day or use an insulin pump to control their blood sugar. Previously, people had to show

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One widely used test to assess diabetes control, hemoglobin A1c (referred to as A1c) reveals a person’s average blood sugar levels over about

ealth

three months. But A1c values can be misleading, says Dr. Hamdy. “You can have frequent episodes of very high and very low blood sugar and your average will still be fine. But that doesn’t mean your blood sugar is well controlled,” he explains. CGM readouts also show your blood sugar trends and tell you the percentage of time that your blood sugar is in a “good control” range (70 to 180 milligrams per deciliter for non-fasting levels). The higher your “time in range,” the better. Growing evidence suggests that frequent blood sugar fluctuations -- known as glycemic variabil-

CGM readouts also show your blood sugar trends and tell you the percentage of time that your blood sugar is in a “good control” range (70 to 180 milligrams per deciliter for non-fasting levels).

ity -- challenge your cardiovascular system. Sugar (glucose) is the fuel that provides energy for all the cells in your body. “Imaging you’re driving a car and it’s not getting a constant supply of fuel. Sometimes there’s a lot, but sometimes there’s not enough. That’s hard on the motor,” says Dr. Hamdy. Another advantage of CGMs: they can be programmed to send an alert when your blood sugar is too high or too low, and they can send that data in real time to family or friends. THE FUTURE OF CGMs External CGM sensors (which are about the size of a quarter but thicker) need to be replaced every 10 to 14 days. An implantable CGM that lasts 90 days is also available, and one company is developing a version that lasts up to six months. As the technology improves and the costs decrease, use of these devices will continue to expand, says Dr. Hamdy. “Within 10 years, everyone with diabetes will have a continuous glucose monitor,” he predicts. This article was originally published on Harvard Heart Letter (TNS).

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(TNS)

Credit: Unsplash

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