US Announces Support for Rescheduling ‘Realistic Elections’ in Libya
Arab World
Cairo - Khalid Mahmoud
US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland during a previous visit to Tripoli. Photo: US Embassy
US Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland has announced his support for the efforts exerted by “Libyan leaders” to hold “realistic elections.” “The United States shares the disappointment that so many Libyan people feel” that the elections scheduled for December have been postponed, he said in a message to the Libyan people on the occasion of the New Year. However, “the momentum for elections is still very strong,” he said. “Two and a half million Libyans have registered to vote and they want to cast their ballots.” “Libyan leaders are working very hard to try to reschedule realistic elections in an early timeframe. The United states supports that process,” the diplomat added. As for Stephanie Williams, the special adviser to the UN chief on Libya, she reiterated “the UN’s firm commitment to support the relevant authorities to fulfill the legitimate and longstanding aspirations of 2.8 million Libyan citizens who registered to vote.” “I stress once again the importance of ensuring suitable conditions to keep the electoral process moving forward on a solid basis and on a level playing field in which no candidate enjoys unfair advantages.”
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3389376/us-announces-support-rescheduling-%E2%80%98realistic-elections%E2%80%99-libya
Asharq Al-Awsat
The newly installed statue of Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo in Calangute. (AFP)
A statue of Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has caused a stir in the southern Indian state of Goa, with locals accusing officials of insensitivity for honoring a sports star from the region's former colonial power. Protesters with black flags gathered at the site after the statue was unveiled this week in the town of Calangute. They expressed anger that authorities had shunned Indian sports stars and chosen a player from Portugal, which granted Goa independence in 1961. Micky Fernandes, a former Indian international player who is from Goa, said the choice was "hurtful" and a "hangover" from Portuguese rule. "Ronaldo is the best player in the world but still we should have a statue of a football player from Goa," Fernandes told AFP. Michael Lobo, a local minister with India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, told AFP the aim was to inspire young people to excel not just inside the country but internationally. "All the boys and girls who want to make football a career will get inspired by people like Cristiano Ronaldo," Lobo said. "If you pursue your dream and you're passionate about it then you can reach a higher goal. This is what we have written on the plaque." Most of present-day India gained independence in 1947. But Portugal's then military dictatorship only relinquished Goa following an invasion by the Indian army and a two-day war in 1961. Portugal's centuries-long influence remains visible in local architecture, particularly the many churches. Many people in Goa have Portuguese-origin surnames. Unlike in most of India, many Goans prefer football to cricket -- and many support Portugal in international tournaments such as the World Cup. "I follow (Portugal) too but when we have our own players we cannot put up a statue of someone from outside," Fernandes said. It is not the first time a statue of Ronaldo, 36, has caused an upset. A grinning bust unveiled at Madeira airport in Portugal in 2017 was widely ridiculed as looking little like its subject.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3387971/ronaldo-statue-kicks-fuss-india%E2%80%99s-goa
Putin, Abbas Discuss Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations
Arab World
Moscow - Raed Jaber
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, meet in Sochi in November. (EPA)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, discussed in a telephone call the latest Palestinian developments and the mechanisms for advancing the settlement in the Middle East. A statement by the Kremlin said Putin and Abbas exchanged warm greetings on the upcoming New Year. The two sides reiterated the need to resume constructive Palestinian-Israeli negotiations as soon as possible, under the auspices of the International Quartet. A statement by the Palestinian presidency noted that Abbas also stressed the importance of Israel stopping all unilateral measures, such as settlements, confiscation of land, demolishing homes, expelling Palestinians from Jerusalem, abusing prisoners, holding the bodies of martyrs, and stopping settler terrorism. Abbas emphasized that economic and security steps are not a substitute for political efforts. Israel continues to stifle the Palestinian economy and deduct from the tax revenues, said Abbas, who warned that the Palestinians would take decisive decisions in this regard, especially as the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is getting ready to convene an important meeting. He reiterated the importance of starting political efforts based on United Nations resolutions and the importance of holding a meeting for the International Quartet at the ministerial level. He had discussed this demand during his visit to Moscow last month. Ahead of the visit, Russia stressed its aim to revive the work of the International Quartet. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed disappointment over the failure of "some parties" to accept the repeated Russian invitation to hold a meeting at the level of foreign ministers. The committee, which includes Russia, the United States, the United Nations, and the European Union, had held three meetings via video conference and at the delegates' level in recent months. However, Moscow stressed the need to organize a meeting at the ministerial level to advance the process and take decisions. During Abbas' visit, Putin stressed that Russia's "firm position on the Palestinian issue has not changed." He underlined his country's commitment to a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "based on the relevant international resolutions and within the framework of a just solution that achieves the interests of all parties." "The Palestinian problem must be resolved following previous UN Security Council resolutions, on a just basis that takes into account the interests of all," he said, pledging to "continue to work towards achieving this goal, no matter how difficult it is." Abbas had warned: "If the two-state solution is not implemented, there will be other alternatives, including going to a one-state solution for all Palestinian and Israeli citizens living on the land of historic Palestine, or returning to the partition resolution issued in 1947." Palestinian sources said Abbas called on Moscow to pressure Israel to end the "unilateral actions," pointing out that the Palestinian officials welcome any expansion of Russia's role.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3387951/putin-abbas-discuss-israeli-palestinian-negotiations
Turkey’s Lira Weakens for Fifth Day on Monetary Policy Worries
Business
Asharq Al-Awsat
A money changer counts US dollar banknotes at a currency exchange office in Ankara, Turkey November 11, 2021. (Reuters)
The Turkish lira weakened for a fifth consecutive day on Friday, further eroding the big gains it made a week earlier as investors continued to fret about the country's unorthodox monetary policy and rising inflation. The lira stood at 13.3 against the dollar in thin trade at 0806 GMT, 0.6% weaker than Thursday's close and down 20% from the end of last week. Turks' earnings have been eroded in recent months by the slide in the lira, though it rebounded from 18.4 to 10.25 last week after the introduction of a state scheme to protect local deposits from depreciation losses versus hard currencies. Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said this week that Turks' dollar holdings have since fallen, but official data on Thursday showed local holdings of hard currencies soared to a record $238.97 billion last week. At the same time the central bank's net foreign currency holdings - its effective buffer against financial crisis - plunged to nearly a two-decade low. The currency crisis was triggered by the central bank's aggressive interest rate cuts, amounting to 500 basis points since September, carried out under pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of a bid to boost credit and exports. Economists have said the easing is reckless, given that inflation has risen above 21% and is expected to soar beyond 30% this month and in the months ahead due to the lira depreciation.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3387946/turkey%E2%80%99s-lira-weakens-fifth-day-monetary-policy-worries
Ronaldo Scores in Man United’s 3-1 Win over Burnley in EPL
Sports
Asharq Al-Awsat
Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo in action during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Burnley at Old Trafford in Manchester, England, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021. (AP)
Cristiano Ronaldo scored a fourth goal in his last five Premier League games to help Manchester United beat Burnley 3-1 on Thursday for its biggest win under recently hired manager Ralf Rangnick. Ronaldo grabbed the third of United’s first-half goals, tapping into an empty net in the 35th minute after Scott McTominay’s long-range shot was tipped onto the post by Burnley goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey. With 14 goals in all competitions this season, the Portugal forward has made a strong start to his second spell at United and he was paired up front against Burnley with Edinson Cavani — a strike partnership with a combined age of 70. United had far too much going forward for the visitors, who were playing their first game since Dec. 12 after seeing fixtures against Watford, Aston Villa and Everton get postponed since then because of COVID-19 outbreaks in opponents’ squads. McTominay, with a curling shot from the edge of the area, and an own-goal by Ben Mee — off his outstretched foot as he attempted to block Jadon Sancho's shot — had set United on course for victory as Rangnick's team bounced back from a disappointing display in a 1-1 draw at Newcastle on Monday. In perhaps a signal of his displeasure about the Newcastle game, Rangnick made six changes including three in defense. One of them was Eric Bailly, who went off injured midway through the second half in a potential blow to Ivory Coast ahead of the African Cup of Nations. Aaron Lennon capped an entertaining first half by finding the net with a shot into the far corner to reduce the deficit in the 38th with his first goal since September 2018. By then, United had done enough to secure a third win in four league games under Rangnick and climb above Tottenham into sixth place. McTominay said he felt United's first-half performance was the best the team had played since Rangnick arrived. “We are learning and adapting,” the Scotland midfielder said. “The game against Newcastle was difficult and we had to bounce back from that. “The manager said we set the record for the most amount of turnovers in the league. We had to keep the ball better.” United is 19 points behind leader Manchester City, having played two games fewer. Burnley stayed in the relegation zone in third-from-last place but has played fewer games — 16 — than all the teams around Burnley fighting against the drop. “We haven’t played for three weeks and there was a bit of rustiness there," Lennon said. “We will dust ourselves down and go again.”
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3387936/ronaldo-scores-man-united%E2%80%99s-3-1-win-over-burnley-epl
Man City Defender Cancelo Assaulted during Robbery at Home
Sports
Asharq Al-Awsat
Joao Cancelo. (Reuters)
Manchester City defender Joao Cancelo said on Thursday he was assaulted during a robbery and posted a picture of himself on Instagram with a cut above his right eye. Cancelo did not mention where the incident took place but the club later said it happened at the 27-year-old's home. "Unfortunately today I was assaulted by four cowards who hurt me and tried to hurt my family," Cancelo said. "When you show resistance this is what happens. "They managed to take all the jewelery and leave me with my face in this state. "The most important thing for me is my family and luckily they are all OK." City said in a statement they were giving support to the player and his family and that he is helping the police with their inquiries.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3387776/man-city-defender-cancelo-assaulted-during-robbery-home
Zverev Sets Sights on Best Season after Strong Finish in 2021
Sports
Asharq Al-Awsat
Alexander Zverev. (Reuters)
German Alexander Zverev said he has matured enough to be able to build on his success and the world number three hopes to use the momentum from his strong finish in 2021 as a springboard for the best season of his career. Zverev won six titles this year, including the Olympic gold in Tokyo and two Masters titles in Madrid and Cincinnati, capping a memorable season by clinching his second ATP Finals trophy last month in Turin. The 24-year-old will begin his 2022 season in Sydney where he will lead Germany's campaign in the ATP Cup. "I won the finals in 2018 and had a really bad 2019. I hope I can change that," Zverev told reporters. "I hope I can do it differently. I was a lot younger back then. I didn't know how to handle big titles maybe as well. "I was 21-years-old going into the 2019 season. I do feel I'm a little bit of a different player but also I'm a different person, I think. I've had a lot more experience on the court, I had a lot more experience outside the court. "I know how to handle maybe the media a little bit better. I know how to handle pressure maybe a tiny bit better, as well. "After the Olympics I continued to play great tennis. I hope I can still use that momentum going into 2022, and hopefully have the best season of my career so far." Germany are in Group C of the 16-team event and will open their campaign against Britain on Sunday with Zverev taking on world number 12 Cameron Norrie in the second singles tie. Canada and the Unites States are the group's other teams. With Zverev's success in 2021 and Daniil Medvedev defeating top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the US Open final, the younger generation look poised to give the "old guard" a run for their money in 2022 and the German predicted an exciting year ahead for the sport. "The first six months of this season, Novak has dominated tennis. In the last six months of the season, I think the titles were a bit more split. They were split between Novak, Daniil, and myself," he said. "I'm looking forward to the beginning of the season, looking forward to the season in general."
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3387761/zverev-sets-sights-best-season-after-strong-finish-2021
Manama, London - Asharq Al-Awsat
A general view of the Marjeh Square at the center of Syria's capital Damascus, Dec. 15, 2021. (AFP)
Bahrain appointed on Thursday an ambassador to Syria. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa issued a royal decree of appointing Waheed Mubarak Sayyar as the kingdom’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Syria. The Foreign Affairs Minister will implement the decree which takes immediate effect and will be published in the Official Gazette. The appointment of Mubarak follows the re-engagement of several Arab countries with the regime in Damascus. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, visited Damascus and held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Nov. 9. The diplomatic activity has been accompanied by calls to return Damascus back to the Arab fold, but not agreement has yet been reached over the issue.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3387746/bahrain-appoints-ambassador-syria
Tunis - Mongi Saidani
Late President Beji Caid Essebsi (R) and Secretary-General of Ennahda Movement Rached Ghannouchi (L). (Getty)
Tunisia’s Justice Ministry has officially requested to launch a probe into the death of former president Beji Caid Essebsi, the official spokesman for the country’s court of appeals said. Caid Essebsi died in a military hospital in Tunis on July 25, 2019 at the age of 92. Habib Tarkhani, spokesman for the Tunisian court of appeals, said the attorney general at the appeals court has already authorized officials at the Court of First Instance in Tunis to open an investigation into the circumstances of the president’s death. The investigation comes following a statement by Mohamed Hentati, a Tunisian religious preacher, who said on a television program that Essebsi was killed. The defense ministry could not reveal the forensic report and determine the true cause of death, Hentati stressed, noting that he has information about this “suspicious” death. The preacher implicitly accused Ennahda movement of killing the late president, describing it in more than one radio and television interviews as a “fatal germ.” Only a few days before his death, Essebsi presided a National Security Council session, during which he addressed the accusations leveled against Ennahda of having a secret apparatus that is operating in parallel with the state. Shortly after the session, his health deteriorated, leading to his death. Ennahda has always denied having a secret security apparatus. Essebsi was hospitalized late June and spent a week in hospital after suffering a “severe health crisis.” He only appeared twice after leaving the hospital on July 1. In this context, local media sources said authorities will most likely open the late president’s grave “to conduct the necessary tests and determine the actual causes of death.” The sources suggest he was poisoned and accused complicit parties inside the presidential palace of killing Essebsi. Meanwhile, political activists called on the president and the prime minister to secure Essebsi’s grave until completing the course of investigation.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3386231/tunisia-launches-probe-essebsi%E2%80%99s-death
US Navy Seizes Heroin Aboard Vessel Likely Coming from Iran
Iran
Asharq Al-Awsat
In this aerial photo released by the US Navy, US service members from coastal patrol ship USS Tempest (PC 2) and USS Typhoon (PC 5) inventory an illicit shipment of drugs while aboard a stateless dhow vessel transiting international waters in the Arabian Sea, Dec. 27, 2021. (US Navy photo Via AP)
United States navy vessels seized 385 kilograms of heroin in the Arabian Sea worth some $4 million, in a major bust by the international maritime operation in the region, officials said Thursday. The USS Tempest and USS Typhoon seized the drugs hidden aboard a stateless fishing vessel plying Mideast waters, the international task force said in a statement. The seizure took place on Monday. The Navy said the fishing vessel likely came from Iran. All nine crew members identified themselves as Iranian nationals, according to Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesperson for the US Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet. As the task force ramps up regional patrols, it has confiscated illegal drugs worth over $193 million during operations at sea this year — more than the amount of drugs seized in the last four years combined, its statement said.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3386221/us-navy-seizes-heroin-aboard-vessel-likely-coming-iran
Nissan Expands Aftersales Network to Over 60 Outlets Across Middle East
Business
Asharq Al-Awsat
Nissan regional aftersales network now offers an overall capacity of over 2,500 vehicles per day - Asharq Al-Awsat
Nissan reached a new milestone this year with the expansion of the brand’s aftersales network to over 60 service facilities across the region. This comes as part of Nissan's continuous efforts to maintaining customer convenience. The company inaugurated three new service facilities in Qatar and Abu Dhabi markets. Nissan’s established network of service centers across the Middle East serves as a testament to the brand’s sustained dedication towards customer satisfaction. With the newly established service facilities, the Nissan regional aftersales network now offers an overall capacity of over 2,500 vehicles per day, allowing for over 700,000 vehicles per year to be serviced across 10 Middle East markets comprising Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and Yemen. Owing to the rich history and heritage of the legendary Nissan Patrol in the region, Nissan also caters to customers with two dedicated Patrol service centers located in Kuwait City and Dubai. By supporting and assisting partners in local markets, Nissan ensures customers receive exceptional service and satisfaction at all outlets across the region, in alignment with the Nissan Retail Concept (NRC). Embodying the new brand identity, the newly opened facilities are built on NRC principles and offer customers a seamless experience across multiple touchpoints, through optimized layouts of the facility, service processes, and digital environments. This in turn provides customers with a globally consistent brand experience that surpasses expectations. Commenting on the opening of the new facilities, Andrew McLaughlan, Aftersales Director at Nissan Middle East, said: “Customers remain at the core of our operations, and we are determined to continually improve their experiences and ownership journeys to exceed expectations." "It is with the support of our trusted partners that we are able to deliver on our strong commitment towards customer centricity," he added.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3386121/nissan-expands-aftersales-network-over-60-outlets-across-middle-east
Sony Music Middle East, Anghami Partner to Launch Vibe Music Arabia
Entertainment
Asharq Al-Awsat
Sony Music Middle East, Anghami Partner to Launch Vibe Music Arabia
Sony Music Entertainment Middle East (SME) and Anghami have announced the launch of “Vibe Music Arabia” – a new joint venture record label to support the independent Arabic artist community in Saudi Arabia, wider GCC and Levant. Announced during the XP Music Conference by MDLBEAST in Riyadh, the wholly independent record label will act as a creative, accelerator and educational hub to empower musicians, songwriters, producers, and content creators to tell their stories regionally and globally. Aimed at showcasing the richness of Arabic music to a global audience, Vibe Music Arabia will strike the perfect balance between its global reach coupled with its deep regional insights to unleash the creative power of a new generation of Arabic artists. With original music at its core, all records will be released on all streaming platforms and services around the world to maximize reach and shine a spotlight on emerging music across the region. Shridhar Subramaniam, President, Corporate Strategy and Market Development, Asia and Middle East, Sony Music Entertainment, said: “We are thrilled to announce the launch of Vibe Music Arabia as a new label for independent Arabic artists – combining Sony Music Entertainment’s unrivalled regional teams with dedicated resources and Anghami’s best-in-class services and technology, to help foster long-term partnerships and deliver global success for the next generation of Arabic artist talent." “At Anghami we are proud of our deep-rooted Arabic origins,” added Eddy Maroun, Co-Founder and CEO of Anghami. “We see so many talented artists and songs emerge daily from this region and believe there is a real opportunity for a boutique label to foster these fast-growing music communities and help develop their craft."
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3386111/sony-music-middle-east-anghami-partner-launch-vibe-music-arabia
I Got to the Bottom of All Those Flight Cancellations
Opinion
Peter Coy
Peter Coy -
The rash of flight cancellations over the winter break — is it a major blunder by the airlines or the forgivable consequence of the outbreak of Omicron? I looked into this over the past couple of days and my conclusion is that it’s a little of each. First, the case against the airlines. They’re running with a precariously low ratio of employees to passengers, which leaves themselves vulnerable to surprises like Omicron, the more contagious new variant of the virus that causes Covid-19, which drastically thinned the ranks of flight crews. This fall, some airline executives even bragged to Wall Street analysts about how they were able to do more with less — providing more flights per employee. “We estimate that we can fly a schedule 10 percent larger than 2019 with the same number of employees we needed in 2019,” Gerald Laderman, the chief financial officer of United Airlines Holdings, told analysts on the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 20. Robert Isom, the president of American Airlines, told analysts on Nov. 10 that his company had reduced costs by $1.3 billion and was flying with about 10 percent fewer planes while offering about the same capacity as before the pandemic. On Dec. 16, Edward Bastian, the chief executive of Delta Air Lines, told analysts that even though his company had hired back fewer people than it lost during the pandemic, “Our staffing is exactly where I wanted to be,” given the level of traffic. Airlines have been reducing the ratio of employees to passengers for years. According to data I downloaded from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the number of passengers departing from or arriving at US airports rose 53 percent from January 2003 to January 2020, just before the pandemic, while full- and part-time employment by airlines rose only 15 percent over the period. But the case against the airlines isn’t just that they were unprepared; it’s also that they received lots of public money to help them stay prepared. Congress gave airlines $54 billion in grants over the past two years to make sure they remained well staffed so that they could continue to serve their vital function of getting people from place to place. To get the money, they had to accept strict limits on layoffs, dividends, stock buybacks and pay increases for senior executives. They were, however, permitted to reduce head count through early-retirement incentives and voluntary furloughs. They did, and those job cuts have been only partially reversed. So passengers — who also tend to be taxpayers — were angry when in spite of that generous federal aid, the number of flight cancellations jumped during the winter holiday season. After about 100 to 200 cancellations a day for most of December, the number of daily cancellations jumped to 1,627 on Dec. 26, 1,511 on Dec. 27 and 1,283 on Dec. 28, according to Airlines for America, a trade group. That made life miserable for thousands of stranded travelers. In July, nearly half a year before the latest spate of cancellations, Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, who heads the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, wrote letters to the six biggest carriers asking about an outbreak of cancellations during the summer. In a news release she said “the reported work force shortage runs counter to the objective and spirit” of the federal aid program. So the airlines can’t say they weren’t warned. All that said, I can’t put all the blame on the airlines. The contagiousness of Omicron caught almost everyone off guard, not just airline executives. A staffing plan that made sense for the Delta variant proved inadequate against Omicron. Also hard to predict was the strength of the rebound in demand for air travel. A surprising number of people seem to be tired of staying home and are willing to fly in spite of the risk of getting infected. That’s a big change from earlier in the pandemic, when staffing was down but it didn’t matter because traffic was also down; it briefly plunged 90 percent from prepandemic levels. The steep decline in traffic last year inflicted huge operating losses on the airlines that were only partly mitigated by federal aid. “They were in crisis mode,” said Kathleen Bangs, a former airline pilot who is a spokeswoman for FlightAware, a flight-tracking company. “They were just doing everything they could to survive. They were surprised by how fast the recovery was.” Richard Aboulafia, a vice president of the Teal Group, an aviation consulting firm, agrees. “They’ve just been through the worst bust in the history of aviation,” he said. “They’re quite fragile.” Furthermore, the long-run decrease in the ratio of airline employees to passengers isn’t necessarily proof that understaffing is responsible for flight cancellations, said Savanthi Syth, an analyst for the brokerage firm Raymond James. Some regional airlines are flying bigger planes and packing them more fully, which allow them to carry more passengers per pilot, she said. And airlines are saving on personnel by having passengers do their own check-in and baggage tagging, she said. Those changes can be unpleasant for passengers, but they don’t increase the risk of flight cancellations. In November, Syth tried to predict which airlines were at risk of canceling flights by looking at which ones had added the most to their schedules, thus possibly overextending themselves. She said that she found little to no correlation between those schedule additions and the recent number of cancellations. “It was more a matter of where Omicron was worst,” she said. It’s undeniable that airlines can reduce the risk of flight cancellations by having more pilots and crew on standby. But adding staff members is slow and costly, especially given the tight labor market and the training that pilots and other crew members require. Airline executives have to balance their ambition to avoid cancellations and their goal of lowering costs to claw their way back to profitability. You, the passenger, don’t have much say in the matter. The New York Times
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3386036/peter-coy/i-got-bottom-all-those-flight-cancellations
China Is Running Out of Water and That’s Scary for Asia
Opinion
Hal Brands
Hal Brands - Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. His latest book is "American Grand Strategy in the Age of Trump."
Nature and geopolitics can interact in nasty ways. The historian Geoffrey Parker has argued that changing weather patterns drove war, revolution and upheaval during a long global crisis in the 17th century. More recently, climate change has opened new trade routes, resources and rivalries in the Arctic. And now China, a great power that often appears bent on reordering the international system, is running out of water in ways that are likely to stoke conflict at home and abroad. Natural resources have always been critical to economic and global power. In the 19th century, a small country — the UK — raced ahead of the pack because its abundant coal reserves allowed it to drive the Industrial Revolution. Britain was eventually surpassed by the US, which exploited its huge tracts of arable land, massive oil reserves and other resources to become an economic titan. The same goes for China’s rise. Capitalist reforms, a welcoming global trade system and good demographics all contributed to Beijing’s world-beating economic growth from the late 1970s to the early 2000s. The fact that China was nearly self-sufficient in land, water and many raw materials — and that its cheap labor allowed it to exploit these resources aggressively — also helped it to become the workshop of the world. Yet China’s natural abundance is a thing of the past. As Michael Beckley and I argue in our forthcoming book, “The Danger Zone,” Beijing has blown through many of its resources. A decade ago, China became the world’s largest importer of agricultural goods. Its arable land has been shrinking due to degradation and overuse. Breakneck development has also made China the world’s largest energy importer: It buys three-quarters of its oil abroad at a time when America has become a net energy exporter. China’s water situation is particularly grim. As Gopal Reddy notes, China possesses 20% of the world’s population but only 7% of its fresh water. Entire regions, especially in the north, suffer from water scarcity worse than that found in a parched Middle East. Thousands of rivers have disappeared, while industrialization and pollution have spoiled much of the water that remains. By some estimates, 80% to 90% of China’s groundwater and half of its river water is too dirty to drink; more than half of its groundwater and one-quarter of its river water cannot even be used for industry or farming. This is an expensive problem. China is forced to divert water from comparatively wet regions to the drought-plagued north; experts assess that the country loses well over $100 billion annually as a result of water scarcity. Shortages and unsustainable agriculture are causing the desertification of large chunks of land. Water-related energy shortfalls have become common across the country. The government has promoted rationing and improvements in water efficiency, but nothing sufficient to arrest the problem. This month, Chinese authorities announced that Guangzhou and Shenzhen — two major cities in the relatively water-rich Pearl River Delta — will face severe drought well into next year. The economic and political implications are troubling. By making growth cost more, China’s resource problems have joined an array of other challenges — demographic decline, an increasingly stifling political climate, the stalling or reversal of many key economic reforms — to cause a slowdown that was having pronounced effects even before Covid struck. China’s social compact will be tested as dwindling resources intensify distributional fights. In 2005, Premier Wen Jiabao stated that water scarcity threatened the “very survival of the Chinese nation.” A minister of water resources declared that China must “fight for every drop of water or die.” Hyperbole aside, resource scarcity and political instability often go hand in hand. Heightened foreign tensions may follow. China watchers worry that if the Chinese Communist Party feels insecure domestically, it may lash out against its international rivals. Even short of that, water problems are causing geopolitical strife. Much of China’s fresh water is concentrated in areas, such as Tibet, that the communist government seized by force after taking power in 1949. For years, China has tried to solve its resource challenges by coercing and impoverishing its neighbors. By building a series of giant dams on the Mekong River, Beijing has triggered recurring droughts and devastating floods in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Laos that depend on that waterway. The diversion of rivers in Xinjiang has had devastating downstream effects in Central Asia. A growing source of tension in the Himalayas is China’s plan to dam key waters before they reach India, leaving that country (and Bangladesh) the losers. As the Indian strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney puts it, “China’s territorial aggrandizement in the South China Sea and the Himalayas … has been accompanied by stealthier efforts to appropriate water resources in transnational river basins.” In other words, the thirstier China is, the more geopolitically nasty it could get. Bloomberg
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3385956/hal-brands/china-running-out-water-and-%E2%80%99s-scary-asia
Asharq Al-Awsat
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a US Navy aircraft carrier strike group to stay in the Mediterranean Sea region rather than move on to the Middle East, amid worries about the buildup of thousands of Russian troops near the Ukraine border. A defense official said Tuesday that the change in the schedule of the USS Harry S. Truman, and the five American warships accompanying it, reflects the need for a persistent presence in Europe. It is necessary in order to reassure US allies and partners in the region, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military deployment details. The US and Western allies have watched as the buildup of Russian troops near the border grew to a peak of an estimated 100,000, fueling fears that Moscow was preparing to invade Ukraine. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and shortly after threw its support behind a separatist rebellion in the country's east. Over more than seven years, the fighting has killed over 14,000 people and devastated Ukraine's industrial heartland, known as the Donbas. Russia has denied any intention of launching a new invasion and instead has accused Ukraine of hatching plans to try to use force to reclaim control of the territories held by Moscow-backed rebels. Ukraine has rejected that claim. The Truman strike group includes five US ships —- the cruiser USS San Jacinto and the guided missile destroyers USS Cole, USS Bainbridge, USS Gravely and USS Jason Dunham. Also with them is the Royal Norwegian Navy frigate HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen. The Truman left its homeport of Norfolk, Virginia, on Dec. 1, and entered the Mediterranean Sea on Dec. 14. It had been scheduled to continue on into the Gulf region.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3384701/us-warships-stay-mediterranean
Alphabet CEO Pichai Can Be Questioned in Privacy Lawsuit, Judge Rules
Technology
Asharq Al-Awsat
Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during signing ceremony committing Google to help expand information technology education at El Centro College in Dallas, Texas, US October 3, 2019. REUTERS/Brandon Wade
Britney Spears Not Ready to Return to Music Business She Calls ‘Scary’
Entertainment
Asharq Al-Awsat
FILE PHOTO: Singer Britney Spears poses at the 29th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Beverly Hills, California, US, April12, 2018. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Britney Spears has signaled she is not yet ready to return to making music after 13 years under a conservatorship that took away control of her personal and business affairs and left her scared of the entertainment business. Spears, 40, who last month was freed from the court-imposed arrangement in 2008 sought by her father, said in a lengthy Instagram post on Monday that she wanted to “push myself a bit more and do things that scare me but not too much” in 2022. “I guess it seems odd to most why I don’t even do music anymore... People have no idea the awful things they have done to me personally and after what I’ve been through, I’m scared of people and the business!!!,” wrote Spears, who last performed publicly in October 2018, Reuters reported. Spears, who is engaged to boyfriend Sam Asghari, complained to the judge in charge of her conservatorship case earlier this year that she found her father Jamie Spears, who was in charge of her career, controlling. Jamie Spears was removed as conservator in September. He has said his only goal was to help his daughter rehabilitate her career after she suffered a mental health breakdown in 2007 and that he always acted in her best interest.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3384631/britney-spears-not-ready-return-music-business-she-calls-%E2%80%98scary%E2%80%99
Broadway’s ‘Music Man’ Is Latest COVID Victim as Jackman Tests Positive
Entertainment
Asharq Al-Awsat
Hugh Jackman waves during his performance on NBC's 'Today' show in New York City, U.S., December 4, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
Broadway's revival of "The Music Man," the hottest ticket in town, on Tuesday canceled performances for five days after star Hugh Jackman tested positive for COVID. In the latest New York City show to fall victim to the surging coronavirus, Jackman said on Twitter that he had only mild symptoms, including a scratchy throat and runny nose, and that as soon as he was cleared he would be back on stage. Producers announced that all performances of the musical would be canceled through Jan. 1. According to Reuters, Jackman tested positive after his co-star Sutton Foster came down with the coronavirus last week and was replaced by an understudy. Foster will return on Jan. 2 but Jackson is expected to be out until Jan. 6. Dozens of Broadway shows, including "Hamilton," "The Lion King" and "Aladdin," have been forced to cancel performances over the past two weeks as the virus has raged through the city despite vaccine mandates for cast, crew and audiences. Some, like the annual Christmas show by the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, shut down entirely, while musicals "Jagged Little Pill" and "Ain't Too Proud" have closed weeks earlier than scheduled because of breakthrough cases and sluggish ticket sales during the normally busy holiday season. The surge couldn't have come at a worse time for Broadway, which reopened only in September after an 18-month closure because of the pandemic. January and February are traditionally the leanest months to bring in audiences, and large musicals need full houses to make money. "Music Man" is currently running in preview ahead of an official opening scheduled for Feb. 10. Ticket demand has been strong despite an official top price of $699 a seat, and are changing hands on secondary websites for more than $2,000 each.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3384621/broadway%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98music-man%E2%80%99-latest-covid-victim-jackman-tests-positive
Sharjah - Asharq Al-Awsat
Director General of the Central Finance Department Waleed Al Sayegh indicated that the general budget has increased by (2%) compared to the 2021 budget. WAM
Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, has approved AED34.4 billion for the 2022 general budget for the Emirate of Sharjah. This is in line with the emirate’s strategic vision regarding promoting economic and social development, enhancing financial sustainability, and stimulating the overall economy, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported Tuesday. The general budget contributes to both services and development and is based on the process of strengthening the emirate’s financial pillars to advance economic, cultural, scientific and tourism leadership and enhance capabilities to meet various economic challenges, WAM said. The budget has adopted various strategic goals and indicators, including promoting investment in infrastructure and other economic activities to achieve a competitive advantage, and providing various forms of social support to address the needs of citizens, it added. According to WAM, the budget aims to use the best means to stimulate the economy, encourage development, and ensure financial sustainability, as well as to support the growing interest in human resources and to enhance the role of citizens. Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah, said the budget aims to complete the emirate’s march in achieving the highest levels of excellence, success and sustainable development in all sectors and fields. “It is set to help the emirate continue to build on what has already been achieved, according to His Highness’s insightful vision,” WAM quoted him as saying. The budget “calls on each of us to take responsibility and to contribute to the advancement of Sharjah in a fitting manner to ensure a better future for all,” he added. Director General of the Central Finance Department Waleed Al Sayegh indicated that the general budget has increased by (2%) compared to the 2021 budget, and that the government will continue to support capital projects to ensure continuity in meeting the spending needs on these projects in 2022. The capital projects budget constitutes (30%) of the general budget. Salaries and wages constitute (25%) of the budget, an increase of (4%), while operating expenses make up (25%) for the year 2022, an increase of (3%) compared to the budget of 2021. The budget for support and aid accounts for approximately (11%) of the general budget, (3%) more than in 2021, while the balance of loan repayments and interest constitute (7%) of the total, which is an increase of (18%). This will enhance the government’s solvency and ability to meet all its obligations.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3384366/sharjah-ruler-approves-aed34422-billion-budget
In Exodus From Lebanon, the Well-off Find New Home in Cyprus
Features
Asharq Al-Awsat
Nadine Kalache Maalouf, center, Celine Elbacha and Elbacha's daughter Morgane, right, stand on a deck at the seaside in eastern coastal resort of Paralimni, Cyprus, Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Many well-off Lebanese who escaped their country´s economic tailspin for a new life in the nearby island nation of Cyprus say the transition has been a whirlwind of emotions. They are grateful they did not have to turn to human smugglers and embark on risky Mediterranean crossings to reach European shores. But they also feel guilty for leaving family and friends behind to struggle with Lebanon´s unprecedented crises - a failing economy, political uncertainty and social upheaval. The feelings are intense for Celine Elbacha, an architect who moved with her family of four to the Mediterranean island nation in August 2020, and Nadine Kalache Maalouf, who arrived with her husband and two children four months ago. They are among more than 12,000 Lebanese who have left their homeland in the past two years for Cyprus - less than a 50-minute flight from Beirut - enrolling their kids in schools, setting up businesses and snapping up apartments on the island. "We were fortunate to be able to come," Maalouf said, The Associated Press reported. "We´re doing our best here as a Lebanese community to help ... our families, our friends back home. So it´s not like we just moved and we turned our backs and we´re not looking back." Thousands of Lebanese, including teachers, doctors and nurses have left the country amid a devastating economic crisis that has thrown two thirds of the country´s population into poverty since October 2019. That brain drain accelerated after the massive explosion at Beirut´s port last year, when a stockpile of improperly stored ammonium nitrates detonated, killing at least 216 people and destroying several residential areas.) The exodus is telling about the state of Lebanon, where not only the poor are seeking a way out, but also a relatively well-off middle class that has lost faith in the country turning itself around. For those who can afford it, Cyprus, a member of the European Union, is an attractive option for its proximity and the facilities it offers - including residency for a certain level of investment in real estate and businesses. As Lebanese banks clamped down on deposits, many sought to open bank accounts in Cyprus or buy apartments as a way to free up their money. The island has a history of taking in Lebanese, who first came in the 1980s, at the height of Lebanon's 15-year-civil war, and again in 2006, when Cyprus served as a base for evacuating civilians during the month-long war between Israel and Lebanon´s militant Hezbollah group. Maalouf, 43, who made the move to Cyprus with her husband and two kids, said she was pleasantly surprised by how "easy" the relocation process was. She hasn´t found work yet but has connected with Cyprus´ close-knit Lebanese community. "We were scared about this step," she said, but Cypriot immigration authorities "made that very smooth and very easy." Cyprus' Interior Ministry spokesman Loizos Michael confirmed to The AP that the government has "simplified procedures" for Lebanese nationals who wish to immigrate lawfully, "as part of humanitarian assistance" to Lebanon. Additionally, incentives are offered to Lebanese businessmen who wish to transfer their businesses to Cyprus, Michael said, without elaborating. Maalouf said her primary motivation was to shield her children from Lebanon´s dire economic situation - runaway inflation has seen the Lebanese pound lose more than 90% of its value in less than two years - and provide them with a chance for a better future. "It´s scary when you´re a parent, you´re scared and you say, OK, I need to save my kids," said Maalouf. The transition was easier for 47-year-old Elbacha and her family. They had bought a vacation home in Cyprus years ago in the town of Paralimni on the island's east coast and felt they already had a footing here. Her elder daughter, Stephanie, has been studying at a university in Paris for two years now. Her younger daughter, 17-year-old Morgane, was fortunate to get into Cyprus´ only French-speaking school in Nicosia, the capital. Elbacha and her husband, also an architect, have set up a company in Cyprus and are both working. They have a sense of obligation to the country that has welcomed them, she said. "We want to be feeling like we are not illegal in the country," she said. Cyprus has helped them "in every sense, and it´s like we have to return this." Elbacha is lucky, she says, especially when she remembers how powerless many Lebanese feel in the face of constant feuds and bickering among the political elite. Her home in Beirut sustained minor damage in the Aug. 4, 2020 port explosion, mostly broken glass. None of the four of them were hurt but some of her friends and relatives fared much worse. Later that month, the family moved to Cyprus. The first five months here, she remembers feelings of guilt, like she was "betraying my country," she said. Maalouf, who also ended up with her family in Paralimni, has little faith things will turn around in Lebanon anytime soon, despite upcoming general elections. "I've been hearing this since I was a teenager. Things will get better. We´ll see and things never get better," she said. For its proximity to Lebanon, Cyprus is in many ways ideal for both Maalouf and Elbacha. They can easily visit family and friends back in Beirut. "The people of Cyprus are very warm and welcoming," said Maalouf. "We don´t feel like strangers here."
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3384346/exodus-lebanon-well-find-new-home-cyprus
The parents were talking about pandemic schooling, so, unsurprisingly, the conversation quickly turned to emotional devastation. It was a Wednesday night in December, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, was sitting in a living room in a giant suburban house in Mason, Ohio, for what was billed as a “Stressed Out Parents Strategy Session.” The crowd of about a dozen or so people, most of them women, was a friendly one. The event had been organized by Katie Paris, founder of a Resistance group called Red Wine & Blue that mobilizes suburban women. No one there seemed mad at teachers unions, and a few were teachers themselves. They weren’t upset at schools for closing too long, because theirs had opened relatively quickly. But they did want to talk about the anguish of the previous year, and the damage done by even a few months of what’s euphemistically called remote learning. Elisa de Leon had two kids in the affluent local school district, but worked as a bilingual school liaison in a much poorer one, where many children didn’t have internet at home, or a quiet place to work. “I see kids going from straight A’s to all F’s,” she said, adding that many of her students wanted to leave school altogether. This year, she said, had been better than last, but the mental health toll has been grueling; she said it seemed as if she was referring two students a week for treatment for depression, even though the school had only one therapist. Joy Bennett, a 45-year-old who owns a marketing agency, said that one of her children, who was supposed to graduate from high school this year, had dropped out. Another had managed to eke out D's with the help of intensive tutoring. “I know that’s just me reeking privilege. We could afford a tutor,” she said. One of her children — she didn’t say which one — attempted suicide in January and was hospitalized for eight days. “High school has been terrible for my older ones,” she said. “I’ve got an eighth grader now. Should we try it again? Or should I look for something else?” The conversation, which began at 7 p.m., was supposed to last an hour, but at 10 p.m. it was still going on. It looped around to many different subjects, including school-funding formulas, privatization schemes, critical race theory and school board races. Neither Weingarten nor I had had dinner first, and by the end I was drained and starving, but she seemed in no hurry to leave. Later, Weingarten debriefed her staff about the meeting by phone. “You heard both the pain and the reality of what Covid has done to their lives,” she said. Weingarten referred to the advisory on youth mental health that Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released that week: “You heard it in that room. People were really honest about kids’ depression.” She added, “Clearly, there are, not just pockets, but people all over the country that feel this way.” A former social studies teacher who was elected in 2008 to head the AFT, Weingarten is by far the country’s most prominent teachers unionist, and when there is anger at public schools, it’s often directed at her. “Randi Weingarten is a joke,” Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, said on Fox News in November. “Randi Weingarten does not even have children of her own. What in the hell does she know about raising and teaching kids? In fact, that’s probably why she was perfectly fine to shut down schools for two years and force kids to wear masks, because she didn’t have to deal with it at home.” Leaving aside Cotton’s vaguely homophobic derision of Weingarten’s family life — she is a stepparent to the children of her wife, Sharon Kleinbaum, a rabbi — Cotton’s attack showed how, for the right, Weingarten has come to personify school closures and Covid restrictions. “If your child didn’t attend school regularly last year, Randi Weingarten is likely the reason why,” the columnist Karol Markowicz wrote in The New York Post in July. On the Fox News show The Five, Weingarten was called “the wicked witch of unnecessary school closings.” But those who fault Weingarten for closed schools misunderstand the role she’s played over the past 20 months. Rather than championing shutdowns, she’s spent much of her energy, both in public and behind the scenes, trying to get schools open. And she’s been trying, sometimes uncomfortably, to act as a mediator between desperate parents grieving their kids’ interrupted educations and beleaguered teachers who feel they’re being blamed for a calamity they didn’t create. “It’s such a weird place for me, because I’m normally a fighter. I care passionately about these things, but I fight for things or fight against things,” she said. But now, “we have to calm the waters. We have to meet people where they are. People are tense, and people are stressed out, and we’re not going to actually help kids succeed unless we make an environment safe and welcoming, and you’re not going to make an environment safe and welcoming when you’re screaming at each other.” Beyond the immediate well-being of families and teachers, the future of public education as we know it is at stake. Not long ago, the movement to shift government funds from public schools to nonunionized charters, private schools and home-schooling seemed thoroughly defeated. Diane Ravitch, the education historian and school reform apostate, declared the movement dead in her book “Slaying Goliath,” published just months before the first Covid cases were reported in America. But the movement has been revived by the pandemic. This month, Michael Bloomberg announced that his philanthropy would donate $750 million to create 150,000 seats in charter schools. “American public education is broken,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion essay. “Since the pandemic began, students have experienced severe learning loss because schools remained closed in 2020 — and even in 2021 when vaccinations were available to teachers and it was clear schools could reopen safely. Many schools also failed to administer remote learning adequately.” Even if you disagree with his prescription, this diagnosis is hard to argue with. When Weingarten became the AFT’s president, Ravitch told her it was her job to save public education in America. That job has rarely been tougher or more urgent than it is right now. One thing everyone agrees on: The pandemic has left American public education in crisis. We’re now well into the third school year that has been deformed by the virus. In large districts across the country, enrollment is down. Many students are far behind academically and floundering emotionally. Teachers are fried: According to a Rand study released in June, nearly one-fourth were considering quitting their jobs by the end of the last school year. Principals are struggling too; according to a recent survey from the National Association of Secondary School Principals, almost four of 10 are planning to leave the profession in the next three years. Plenty of parents appreciate all their schools have done to try to weather this disaster, but others feel rage — at the emotional deterioration of their children, at the toll on their careers from forced home-schooling, at the fact that nothing seems close to getting back to normal, and at what sometimes feels like a lack of empathy for their plight. This anger has been the kindling for national conflagrations over critical race theory, which has become a catchall term for all sorts of classroom lessons about race and diversity. Many elite liberals now feel, as I do, that long school closures in blue metropolitan areas were a disastrous mistake. But in retrospect, it’s easy to see why so many teachers were wary of returning to the classroom. “In March 2020, we had a lot of members die, particularly in New York, because Covid wasn’t taken so seriously,” Weingarten told me. That July, when Donald Trump threatened to cut off funding to schools that didn’t fully reopen, many teachers felt their safety was going to be sacrificed to the president’s poll numbers, and their will to return collapsed. Trump’s “threats are empty, but the distrust they have caused is not,” Weingarten said at the time. As the fight over Covid schooling polarized, it became, among some, almost a mark of radicalism to act as though in-person school didn’t matter. In August, Los Angeles Magazine profiled Cecily Myart-Cruz, head of that city’s teachers union, who insisted that there was no such thing as pandemic-related learning loss. “It’s OK that our babies may not have learned all their times tables,” she said. “They learned resilience. They learned survival. They learned critical-thinking skills. They know the difference between a riot and a protest.” Even now, the teachers union in Portland, Ore., is proposing that high school students go remote every Friday, arguing that students and educators are both overwhelmed. “There needs to be some kind of relief valve somewhere and this provides some of that for educators,” a union negotiator was quoted saying in The Oregonian. The Portland teachers union isn’t affiliated with the AFT, and regardless, Weingarten doesn’t criticize other union leaders. But she’s taken a very different approach, treating shutdowns as a crisis instead of a solution. “Part of my job was to advocate for the safety measures that would help educators feel like they were safe,” she said. “And that was a big responsibility. But my job was also to try and reopen schools, because remote learning was not going to help kids.” Starting in the spring of 2020, Weingarten began pushing for a national reopening plan. When I spoke to her that June, she was desperately trying to get money from the government to fund things like personal protective equipment and allow for physical distancing and was hoping for a system that would bring the youngest children and those with special needs back for most of the week. This year, in August, Weingarten got out ahead of her union and endorsed a vaccine mandate for school staff members. The next month, she agreed to do a virtual town hall with Open Schools USA, a group that opposes school closures as well as mask and vaccine mandates. Some on the left were infuriated that she would legitimate a group associated with the right, but she was convinced it was important to engage. “Frankly, many of the people who call themselves part of the open schools movement are people who are just really frustrated with what has happened, and if you don’t talk to people, you’re not going to change things,” she told me. Weingarten has been frank about the ongoing social costs of some Covid restrictions, even if they are, for the time being, necessary. “This is going to be the hardest school year ever, because we are transitioning from a once-in-a-century pandemic that completely dislocated kids and parents for two years,” she told me in November. As more children are vaccinated, she said, it was time to think about how “we can effectively unlayer the mitigations, including masking and social distancing.” That month, she sent a letter to Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education, and Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asking for an off-ramp from school masking. “We know that masks have helped stop the transmission of the virus and saved countless lives,” wrote Weingarten, but they had come with a cost. Some classroom teachers, she wrote, reported “that the constant use of masks impedes the learning process. A number of parents have expressed dismay about their child’s overall well-being after wearing a mask continually for well over a year and a half.” She admitted to her own difficulties with masking: As an asthmatic, she said, “I personally struggle to breathe while wearing a mask indoors.” This was before the discovery of Omicron, which will almost certainly delay the end of mandatory school masking, at least in those parts of the country that continue to be vigilant about trying to curb Covid’s spread. But it demonstrates how, contrary to the right’s caricature of her, Weingarten has been striving to get to a place of greater normalcy in schools. Still, for Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, it’s hard to credit Weingarten for talking about school reopening when too many schools stayed closed for too long. “A lot of the time she tries to have her cake and eat it too,” Rodrigues said. Publicly, she went on, Weingarten would talk about the importance of getting kids back in school. “But at the same time she’s also got to appease her membership and that’s a hard thing for her to do.” The National Parents Union is funded by the pro-privatization Walton Family Foundation, but Rodrigues herself has a labor background. She’s a former Service Employees International Union organizer, and she co-founded the National Parents Union before the pandemic with the help of SEIU’s former president, Andy Stern. The goal then was to give parents the same sort of representation in education debates that teachers have. But since Covid, Rodrigues’s work has centered on addressing what she calls the “catastrophic systemic nationwide failure of public education” during the pandemic. Rodrigues, a parent of five, said that when schools were closed, her 9-year-old gained about 40 pounds and cried hysterically every morning before his Zoom classes. “I finally said, this situation, this isolation, is breaking my kid down,” she said. Eventually she put him and one of his siblings in a Catholic school that had returned to in-person learning, and “their sparkle came back within two weeks.” Since August, Weingarten has been traveling constantly; when I met up with her in December, she’d visited more than 60 schools. What she hears, over and over, is that this year started with exhilaration, but that moods soured as the scale of the problems teachers were facing set in. In addition to burnout and fatigue, there are staff shortages — of teachers, substitutes, bus drivers, paraprofessionals and others. When schools closed, said Weingarten, many fired bus drivers and other employees not directly involved with teaching. Now, in an ultratight labor market, the schools can’t get them back. Schools should have money for staff from the American Rescue Plan, but Weingarten said that rather than spend on hiring, districts are holding back, perhaps uncertain about what they’ll face next. The chaos and angst in many public schools have opened new opportunities for both private and charter schools. According to an analysis by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, charter enrollment increased 7 percent in the 2020-2021 school year from the year before. Part of that growth was likely from families who opted for established online charters when their schools shut down, and who may have since returned to their public schools. But Nina Rees, president and chief executive of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, insists that’s not the whole story, arguing that charters grew even in states that don’t have online charter programs. Rodrigues says she’s seeing more interest in charter schools among left-leaning parents who might, in the past, have been suspicious of them. “I haven’t seen a dramatic shift to anything like vouchers,” she said. “But I have seen progressive parents who are now questioning everything, literally everything. I was watching progressives have a conversation about charter schools that I had never seen before.” Chris Rufo, the right-wing intellectual entrepreneur behind the anti-critical race theory campaign, told me last month that the next phase of his offensive will be a push for school choice, including private school vouchers, charter schools and home-schooling. “The public schools are waging war against American children and American families,” he said, so families should have “a fundamental right to exit.” Weingarten believes that ultimately, the campaign against critical race theory will hurt the school choice movement. As she sees it, the push for school reform was in a stronger position over a decade ago, when its champions were excoriating traditional public schools for failing Black and brown students. If prominent school choice advocates shift to attacking schools for teaching too much about racism, it becomes a lot harder for them to pose as heirs to the civil rights movement. “You’re going to tell Black people that racism doesn’t exist in this country, and you’re going to expect that somebody’s going to embrace you for that?” she said. But believing her opponents have taken a wrong turn doesn’t make this moment, which Weingarten said was the most difficult of her career, any easier. The war on critical race theory may, in time, backfire on school privatizers. But it has also sown division and made teaching even harder at a time when many educators are barely hanging on. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis just introduced a bill, the Stop Woke Act, that would allow parents to sue schools for teaching what’s deemed critical race theory. In New Hampshire, a group called Moms for Liberty has offered a $500 bounty to anyone who reports a teacher for breaking the state’s anti-critical race theory law. “All of this backlash, and all of this outside noise, and divisiveness, has had a huge chilling effect on teachers and on teaching,” said Weingarten. To teach well, she said, “you necessarily have to take risks,” making constant quick decisions about what questions to ask and whether to present material in new ways. Yet at a time when teachers most need spontaneity and flexibility to deal with classroom challenges, they’re being constrained and surveilled. “Teachers actually feel very similar to parents here, in terms of feeling very alone,” she said. At the gathering in Ohio, Weingarten said that she saw the problems in public schools as a microcosm of the toxicity of American politics right now. “If we actually could deal with the vitriol nationally, this situation would turn around soon,” she said, adding, “This constant sense that we are alone, and battling this by ourselves, I think that’s really deflating.” It’s part of why the pandemic has driven so much of this country mad, and was so distinctly corrosive to public schools. Isolation is terrible for solidarity. Bloomberg
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3384231/michelle-goldberg/we-desperately-need-schools-get-back-normal
