Kadhimi In Brussels to Activate Agreements Concluded with EU Countries
Arab World
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi held talks Wednesday with President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels (AFP)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi visited the European Commission headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday where he held talks with President of the European Commission,Ursula von der Leyen. According to PM al-Kadhimi's office, he is set to hold a series of meetings with officials in Belgium and the EU to boost ties. Earlier, the Iraqi PM said his visit will focus on activating the agreements concluded with the European countries to expand the economic cooperation and help Iraq overcome the economic crisis. "Iraq suffers from a seasonal shortage in power supply. The government acknowledges it and will take measures to tackle it, given that we inaugurated four grand power plants this year and we expect to inaugurate more in the next few months," he noted. "The talks with the EU will also highlight other economic, security, and political aspects."
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056651/kadhimi-brussels-activate-agreements-concluded-eu-countries
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin speaks with members of the media after meeting with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office June 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP)
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to hold talks to end the bloody Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has started 120 years ago. “We must forget the past, once and forever. We were not doomed to live together between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. We were destined to live together. That is our only hope for ending this conflict,” Rivlin said on Tuesday, stressing that "the State of Israel is here to stay, in eternity." “Let us build trust between the peoples, let us return to talking about the future and let us aim for a brighter and better future for our peoples.” Rivlin’s remarks came during a meeting in New York with a delegation of ambassadors from around the world to the United Nations, including Israeli Ambassador to the US and to the UN Gilad Erdan. Speaking at the gathering, Moroccan Ambassador to the UN Omar Hilale said he sees the Middle East changing. “I do not deny the dangers and difficulties, but I am very optimistic.” The ambassador said that what happened a few months ago is nothing short of historic and that nobody expected that Israel would reach agreements with Arab states. “This is an opportunity for progress, to advance dialog, to ensure our security. We have no alternative to peace,” Hilale said. However, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Gilad Erdan took advantage of his speech to lash out at the Palestinian Authority in general and Abbas in particular. “Only today, Abbas made a shameful speech considering Israel a strange colonial plant in the region,” he said. The ambassador said that it is undeniable that there is a strong bias against Israel at the UN and that antisemitism has infected too many UN bodies. “The sheer number of anti-Israel resolutions in the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, as well as the wasted discussions in the Security Council that should be focused on real threats to peace and security, like Iran, make this abundantly clear,” he noted. Erdan added that in 1947, “the UN’s 57 members voted in favor of establishing a Jewish State in the Land of Israel. Today, with 193 members, many of them allies, I am not sure that such a resolution would pass. This should worry us all.”
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056646/israeli-president-urges-abbas-hold-peace-talks
Turkey Says in Talks with Russia on Extending Syria Aid
Arab World
Asharq Al-Awsat
An aerial view shows tents at a camp for internally displaced people in northern Idlib, Syria, June 10, 2021. Picture taken with a drone June 10, 2021. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Turkey is in talks with Russia and other members of the United Nations Security Council on the extension of a cross-border aid operation into war-torn Syria, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday, less than 10 days before the mandate expires. Millions of people depend on the humanitarian aid currently funneled from a single border crossing in Turkey into northwest Syria, an arrangement authorized by the UN Security Council. Officials have warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if the mandate is not renewed. Speaking alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Turkish resort of Antalya, Cavusoglu said the mandate, which expires July 10, should be extended, according to Reuters. Ankara would continue to work with Moscow on a political solution to Syria’s crisis and the maintenance of an existing ceasefire in the north, he added.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056621/turkey-says-talks-russia-extending-syria-aid
Tel Aviv: PA Requested Riot Gear to Dispel Protesters
Arab World
Tel Aviv - Asharq Al-Awsat
Palestinian security forces block a road during a demonstration in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank, on June 26, 2021, protesting the death of human rights activist Nizar Banat while in the custody of Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has asked Israel to restock its supplies of crowd control weapons following days of demonstrators in the West Bank, Israeli sources said Tuesday. “While the PA has a stock of riot dispersal materiel, those reserves have been somewhat depleted in recent days, leading it to ask Israel to approve further shipments,” Israeli Ynet news site reported. It quoted Palestinian sources as saying that such equipment can only be purchased upon Israel's permission, and in limited quantities. Palestinian protesters and security forces clashed in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah in the past days after demonstrations broke out following an activist's death in custody. Nizar Banat, a 43-year-old from Hebron known for social media videos denouncing alleged corruption within the PA, died on Thursday shortly after security forces stormed his house and violently arrested him, his family said. Israel controls all border crossings into and out of the West Bank, and the PA cannot obtain weaponry without coordination with Israel. According to Ynet's report, the PA requested from Israel tear gas and stun grenades. Spokesperson for the Palestinian security forces denounced the Ynet news report, and said it was part of the Israeli policy to weaken the PA. He said all countries have crowd control weapons, however, the PA cannot buy it without Israel’s permission.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056611/tel-aviv-pa-requested-riot-gear-dispel-protesters
EU Revives Bloc-wide Travel with COVID Pass Despite Delta Threat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat
An Air France Airbus A350 airplane lands at the Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Roissy, near Paris, France April 2, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann//File Photo
An EU-wide COVID certificate for easier travel comes into force on Thursday, just in time for Europe's busy summer vacation period, but the more-infectious Delta variant is already threatening to curtail its use. The EU document -- essentially a QR code made available in digital form on smartphones or hard copy -- shows whether the bearer is vaccinated with one of the EU's approved jabs (from BioNTech/Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson), has recovered from an infection, or has a recent negative COVID test. Under EU law, the certificate is meant to do away with the need for quarantines or further testing when travelling between the EU's 27 countries or four associated European nations (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein). EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said he expected all EU member states to be connected from Thursday. Only Ireland, which was hit by a cyber-attack targeting its health service in May, will lag behind, AFP reported. As of Wednesday, 21 EU countries were already accepting the certificate, including major tourist destinations France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Croatia. "We recommend to all the member states to use such a tool not only for the free movement law... but also for all the possible national uses, for other purposes: to go to concerts, festivals, theatres, restaurants," Reynders said. But a surge in the Delta variant, first detected in India and now rampant in former EU member Britain, could trigger an "emergency brake" provision suspending its acceptance, AFP said. Already Germany has announced a ban on incoming travelers from Portugal, where the Delta variant has become dominant. Only its own citizens or residents are exempted if they quarantine for two weeks. Berlin's decision has raised Brussels' ire, with Reynders saying "we should avoid travel bans" within the EU and stressing that Germany should have consulted with its partners first. Britain's startling rise in Delta infections -- it now has a rolling two-week infection rate more than seven times that of the EU -- is generating deep concern on the continent. At an EU summit last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized southern EU countries -- desperate for tourist cash -- for allowing in Britons with few, if any, COVID checks. This week, Portugal, Spain and Malta all abruptly increased restrictions for travelers from Britain, emphasizing full vaccination for entry. Beyond the EU certificate, Brussels is urging all member states to allow in only fully vaccinated travelers from outside the bloc, or those with urgent reasons to visit. But, unlike for the certificate, that is only "guidance" that can be ignored. Even the EU certificate may not be the fillip many hope for. "There is no doubt that the tourist industry could do with a boost in time for the summer season," economic research consultancy Capital Economics said in a note. But it forecast the EU certificate "will have very little impact on European tourism this year," observing that "most adults are not fully vaccinated and the Delta variant is making people and governments more cautious". Airlines grouped together in an umbrella lobby group, A4E, have expressed worries that an "inconsistent approach" among EU countries in vetting the EU Covid certificate could create lengthy lines in airports with the potential to "create new health hazards". They called for the certificates to be checked online before travelers even arrived at the airport. Reynders responded by saying the European Commission stood by to help with technical implementation, but stressed that the fact there was one EU certificate rather than 27 national ones already greatly streamlined travel in the bloc. Overall, EU governments are weighing the public desire for a summer break after a tough year of restrictions against a race between vaccination and the Delta variant. AFP statistics collating official health data from across the EU show that 50.4 percent of the bloc's population has now received at least one vaccine dose (compared with 65.7 percent in Britain). So far, 32.7 percent in the EU are considered completely vaccinated. Covid experts had initially believed "herd immunity" could be reached with 70 percent of a population fully vaccinated, but now judge it would need 80 percent or more immunized, given Delta's infectiousness and the fact vaccines are less effective against it.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056606/eu-revives-bloc-wide-travel-covid-pass-despite-delta-threat
Criticism of Palestinian Security Forces Raises Pressure on Abbas
Arab World
Asharq Al-Awsat
Palestinians march during a demonstration in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to protest the death of human rights activist Nizar Banat while in Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces’ custody. (AFP)
Pressure is mounting on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over his security forces’ handling of protesters demanding his resignation since one of his biggest critics died in custody. The US Embassy in Jerusalem said on Tuesday it was “deeply disturbed” by reports that protesters had been intimidated and beaten by plain-clothes officers, and the United Nations condemned what it called “totally unacceptable” attacks. The security forces have denied deploying officers in civilian clothing against protesters. But the criticism of the Palestinian Authority (PA) by such important international backers extends the already long list of problems facing Abbas, 85, after 16 years in power, according to Reuters. The family of Nizar Banat, a prominent critic of the PA who died in detention on June 24, said security forces broke into his house in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron and hit him repeatedly with a metal rod before arresting him. A Palestinian rights group said after conducting an autopsy that Banat had suffered blows to his head. The PA has declined direct comment on the circumstances of Banat’s death but, offering his condolences, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Tuesday the judiciary would “ensure application of the law against all those found guilty.” The death has led to days of protests in the West Bank and clashes between demonstrators and security forces. “We are deeply disturbed by reports that non-uniformed members of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) harassed and used force against protesters and journalists over the weekend,” a spokesperson for the US Embassy said. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory said one of its rights monitors covering protests in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday was among dozens of people who had been attacked in a “totally unacceptable way.” “The attack, by persons in civilian clothes, included punching, the use of pepper spray, and attempts to steal a phone being used to document events,” it said on Facebook. Talal Dweikat, spokesperson for the Palestinian security forces, said such reports were “not true.” “This is dishonorable talk. There were no security personnel in civilian clothes. Why would (they) wear civilian clothes?,” he told the Ramallah Mix broadcaster. His office declined requests by Reuters for comment. The PA says it has investigated Banat’s death, and Shtayyeh has urged Palestinians not to politicize the case. Abbas’s popularity has plummeted since he was elected in 2005, according to opinion polls. He has ruled by decree for over a decade and the PA faces widespread allegations of corruption, which it denies. Peace talks have been stalled since 2014, and Abbas has faced criticism for continuing to coordinate with Israel on security issues. Opponents say this enables Israel’s occupation of West Bank territory that it captured in 1967. Anger deepened this year when Abbas canceled planned elections. Criticism of the security forces’ methods has mounted since Banat’s death and Abbas’s Fatah party has accused Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas and other rival political factions of being behind them. Aseel AlBajeh, of the rights group Al-Haq, said she was confronted by men in civilian clothing who pushed her and took her phone when she was filming Sunday’s protest in Ramallah. “You feel completely unsafe because you don’t know if the person next to you, dressed in completely normal clothing, is going to beat you up or not,” AlBajeh, 26, said. “It is painful. As Palestinians, we have two struggles: one against an occupying power in Israel, and the other against an authoritarian regime.” The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said reporters had been “prevented from covering events and threatened by plain-clothes forces.” It demanded the PA “prosecute those who assaulted journalists, and bring them to justice.”
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056601/criticism-palestinian-security-forces-raises-pressure-abbas
Latin America Is Slipping Back Into Strongman Rule
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."
For reasons of geography, culture and commerce, no region of the world matters more to the US than Latin America. But because the US has long been such a dominant presence there, the region receives comparatively little attention from Washington — until something goes seriously wrong. That’s why so few Americans seem to have noticed an alarming trend: The long, slow erosion of Latin American democracy is threatening to become an autocratic avalanche. Nicaragua is the most recent example. Since 2007, President Daniel Ortega has maneuvered to consolidate power and marginalize his opposition. During a political crisis in 2018, he reportedly relied on extralegal detentions, torture and killings to stymie his foes. Now, Ortega has thrown off the mask altogether, jailing virtually all of his prospective opponents in presidential elections this fall. History has come full circle in Nicaragua: The man who helped overthrow one tyranny in 1979 has now established another. Two decades ago, Latin America seemed to have escaped its authoritarian past. In the 1970s and 1980s, democracies steadily displaced dictatorships. By 2000, Fidel Castro’s Cuba was the region’s lone island of autocracy. The moment didn’t last. In retrospect, the election of Hugo Chavez as Venezuela’s president in 1999 had already started an ominous trend: Populists came to power through democratic procedures and then set about weakening the institutions that constrained them. Illiberal leaders subsequently held power for lengthy periods in Ecuador and in Bolivia, where President Evo Morales’s increasing autocratic tenure was ended only by a military coup in 2019. Brazil’s right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, has longed for the days of military rule. El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele brought armed soldiers and police into the nation’s legislative assembly to demonstrate “who’s in control of the situation.” In Mexico, critics of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador debate whether he is an aspiring authoritarian or is simply debasing the political system through his incompetence. Regular elections still occur almost everywhere, but democratic backsliding has accelerated and political instability has spiked in countries large and small. Case in point: Peru is currently caught in a tense political standoff amid challenges to the legitimacy of a closely contested, ideologically polarized presidential election. It’s easy to explain this regression as the result of internal factors: The façade of Latin American democracy was always more impressive than the foundation. Regular democratic elections concealed fragile democratic institutions and norms. Persistent poverty and inequality left the ground fertile for ambitious populists. Underdeveloped states with weak tax bases struggled to control surging criminal violence, which then made democracy lose its luster. Illiberal leaders mastered an “autocrats’ playbook” that entailed changing electoral rules, packing courts and otherwise co-opting or deforming the political infrastructure of a democratic state. Things may soon get even worse: Covid-19 has set Latin American countries back years economically, exposed glaring failures of public health programs and social safety nets, and exacerbated the citizen insecurity that so often fuels political volatility. Longtime Latin America-watcher Cynthia Arnson of the Wilson Center wrote that the pandemic could affect the region’s democracies “in negative and potentially irreversible ways.” Yet political shifts have always been linked to geopolitical shifts: It is no coincidence that Latin America became most democratic after the Cold War, when a democratic superpower reigned supreme. Since the early 2000s, the global balance of power has changed, and so has the region’s balance of political forces. In the 2000s, Venezuelan oil wealth allowed Chavez to subsidize the Castro regime in Cuba and like-minded leaders in Bolivia, Ecuador and other countries. More recently, the re-emergence of autocratic great powers has had profound regional effects. Countries that once would have had to seek financing from US-led international institutions — which generally take corruption and good governance seriously — can now get no-strings-attached loans and investment from China. After Rafael Correa repudiated part of Ecuador’s foreign debt in 2008, for instance, his government turned to China for billions of dollars of loans, repaid through privileged access to Ecuadoran oil. A wobbling regime in Venezuela can prop itself up by leaning on other autocracies: Russia helps the government evade international sanctions and dispatches mercenaries to serve as a praetorian guard for President Nicolas Maduro. Meanwhile, Chinese surveillance technology has helped illiberal regimes track political opponents and keep tabs on their populations. Russia, and sometimes China, shields governments in Havana, Managua and Caracas from international censure of their human rights abuses; Ortega’s thugs have used Russian weapons to shoot unarmed protestors. And Bukele, Maduro and other illiberal leaders can use China as a counterweight to America: Press us too hard, they can say, and we’ll just cast our lot with Beijing. It’s not an entirely hollow threat: When Mexico is excluded from the calculus, China is already the largest buyer of Latin America’s exports. As political scientists Alexander Cooley and Daniel Nexon wrote, autocratic leaders currently have more “exit options” — ways of slipping the constraints of the liberal international order — than they did before. Regardless of what happens in Nicaragua or any other country, the crisis of democracy in the Western Hemisphere will persist, because it is being propelled by strong internal forces as well as changing geopolitical winds. Latin America’s post-Cold War moment is over, in no small part because America’s unipolar moment is over as well. Bloomberg
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056596/hal-brands/latin-america-slipping-back-strongman-rule
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Dies at 88
World
Asharq Al-Awsat
FILE - In this Dec. 24, 1974, file photo, President Gerald Ford and presidential assistant Donald Rumsfeld huddle over bills during work session in Vail, Colo. The president was spending a working holiday at the ski resort with his family. Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate, died Tuesday, June 29, 2021. He was 88. (AP Photo, File)
Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern US military was unraveled by the long and costly Iraq war, died Tuesday. He was 88. In a statement Wednesday, Rumsfeld’s family said he “was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico.” “History may remember him for his extraordinary accomplishments over six decades of public service, but for those who know him best and whose lives were forever changed as a result, we will remember his unwavering love for his wife Joyce, his family and friends, and the integrity he brought to a life dedicated to country,” Rumsfeld’s family said. President George W. Bush, under whom Rumsfeld served as Pentagon chief, hailed his “steady service as a wartime secretary of defense — a duty he carried out with strength, skill, and honor.” After retiring in 2008 Rumsfeld headed the Rumsfeld Foundation to promote public service and to work with charities that provide services and support for military families and wounded veterans. He is the only person to serve twice as Pentagon chief. The first time, in 1975-77, he was the youngest ever. The next time, in 2001-06, he was the oldest. Nine months into his second tour as defense secretary, on Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackers attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, thrusting the nation into wars for which the military was ill-prepared. Rumsfeld oversaw the US invasion of Afghanistan and toppling of the Taliban regime. By 2002 the Bush administration’s attention shifted to Iraq, which played no role in the Sept. 11 attacks. The war effort in Afghanistan took a back seat to Iraq, opening the way for the Taliban to make a comeback and prevent the US from sealing the success of its initial invasion. The US-led invasion of Iraq was launched in March 2003.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056591/former-defense-secretary-donald-rumsfeld-dies-88
In the mid-2000s, I spent two years as senior military assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, acting essentially as his military gatekeeper and translating his orders to the US military via the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Before joining his team, I had been a Navy one-star admiral and commander of Enterprise Carrier Strike Group, in charge of 10,000 sailors and a dozen ships in combat in the Arabian Gulf. I mention that because my duties suddenly shifted from a pinnacle of command at sea to overseeing administrative misery: Making sure the PowerPoint briefs the secretary saw had page numbers in the right place (lower right corner), that our protocol team put up the right flags when foreign leaders came to the Pentagon (we blew that more than once, to the secretary’s extreme annoyance), and that the schedule ran on time (it never quite did). But I had one other duty that defined the tour, and epitomized my two years around Don Rumsfeld: the game of squash. For those unfamiliar, squash consists of hitting a very small, dense black ball in an indoor court about the size of a racquetball venue, or roughly 20 feet by 30 feet. The front wall has a tin strip at the bottom, and if you hit it you lose the point. If you hit your opponent – and it hurts like hell – you win the point. The ball – especially the hard ball esteemed by the secretary – goes very, very fast, approaching 200 miles per hour when it comes off the small racket. Rumsfeld, who died on Wednesday, became devoted to the game in his middle years, and was intensely competitive. He would often leave blood on the walls from bouncing off them hard. Almost every afternoon, after the end of the workday, either I or my civilian equivalent, Larry Di Rita, would walk down to the squash courts in the Pentagon and do battle with the secretary. While both Larry and I had been varsity squash players at Annapolis on nationally ranked teams, and were more than two decades younger than the secretary, Rumsfeld would generally give as good as he got on those hardwood floors. The only real sin by me or Larry would have been to give him a point — if he had ever detected a shred of “let the boss win,” we’d have been fired on the spot. The morning after each match, the loser had to put a yellow Post-it on the door to the secretary’s inner office with the score and the victor’s name circled. So what did I learn on those afternoons about Don Rumsfeld? I never met a more intense competitor on an athletic field. He threw himself at the game with utter abandon, smashing into the walls, shoving his opponent aside, and striking the ball with immense gusto. He played the game in a very straight-ahead manner, as he did everything, driving the ball down the sides of the court and hitting as hard as he could on virtually every shot. No drop shots or fancy corner plays. When he won a point, he would turn to his opponent with a smirk and say, “speed kills.” I suspect some of his government and business opponents over the years could identify with that quite clearly. Rumsfeld also personified the idea of never quitting. Like Winston Churchill, someone he admired, he was a proponent of the dictum: “Never give in. Never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in.” He could be behind by a ridiculous number of points, but his drive and determination were simply unabated. It was a quality that served him well in a long and eventful life, from Oval Office meetings to Fortune 500 boardrooms. Finally, again and again, I saw his love of fitness. He’d been a champion wrestler at Princeton (as well as a football player), and Don Rumsfeld always wanted to be in shape, to play all sports well, to excel at athletics not only as a competitive endeavor, but as a way to health and a long life with his wife, Joyce, and children and grandchildren. Squash, tennis, riding, skiing, biking, speed walking – anything to be fit and trim. I saw him for the last time a couple of years ago, at the offices of the foundation he and Joyce created to help foster relations between the US and Central Asia. I asked him if he was playing squash (he was in his mid-80s and ailing with shingles) and all he said, with that classic Rumsfeld look of good humor, as though he was playing a joke on the listener, was: “Speed kills. And don’t you forget it.” Godspeed and open water, Mr. Secretary. I hope there is a squash court in heaven for you. Bloomberg
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056586/james-stavridis/donald-rumsfeld-never-gave
Asharq Al-Awsat
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, Tunisia has reported Africa’s highest per-capita death toll from the coronavirus pandemic. (AP)
A man wearing a protective suit quickly yet carefully places a black sheet over a COVID-19 victim laid out in a coffin in a courtyard at Ibn Jazzar Hospital in the Tunisian town of Kairouan. He then folds a white sheet on top and sprinkles the body with disinfectant from a small bottle. Patients in the hospital’s overfilled COVID-19 ward are dying daily amid a spike in coronavirus infections in the North African country, with Kairouan and three other regions especially hard hit. At the regional hospital, tensions mount as personnel try to cope with scarce means. “I’m shocked,” said Sana Kraiem, whose mother was put in a wheelchair in a roomful of COVID-19 patients, “like a dog,” she described. “They told me they can’t free up a bed occupied by a dead person,” a distressed Kraiem said, The Associated Press reported. The half-dozen rooms devoted to COVID-19 patients each packs in five or six beds. A patient who recently died was seen still occupying one of the beds in each room visited. A special service eventually removes the body. Over the past month, confirmed virus infections in Tunisia have reached the highest daily levels since the pandemic began, but the vaccination rate remains low, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Tunisia has reported Africa’s highest per-capita death toll from the pandemic, and is currently recording one of the highest per-capita infection rates in Africa, the data indicates. The Kairouan region is living through “a real horror movie,” Mohamed Rouis, the regional health director in Kairouan, was quoted saying in Tunisian media earlier this month. A temporary hospital has been set up on the outskirts of the city. The army has also bolstered that with a military care facility under a green tent which houses a line of beds with monitoring equipment and respirators. Despite the dire situation, there is no widespread testing for COVID-19 in the poor, rural region. The Ibn Jazzar Hospital’s supervisor, Zohra Hedwej, explained that goodwill gestures by officials end up as frustrating half-measures, such as opening a section for coronavirus patients, without making provisions for medical staff. “We resort to recruiting workers from other departments in the hospital,” Hedwej said. “It’s very difficult to find volunteers because some don’t know the level of their (own) physical immunity, others fear for their relatives who have weak immunity. We want a stable workforce that is able to work.” Hedwej said there is such a dearth of trained personnel that sophisticated equipment can’t be used at times. “We need labor more than we need new equipment,” she said, adding that while equipment comes from donors — who are still needed — there is still a greater need for trained professionals “who can use it and take care of it.” Facing an “alarming” growth in infections, the Tunisian government on Tuesday extended an overnight curfew and ordered stepped-up vaccination efforts in rural areas. But it resisted calls for a national lockdown because of public frustration at the economic impact on a population that’s already struggling with unemployment and economic decline. Tunisia has reported more than 14,000 virus-related deaths amid its population of 12 million since the pandemic began, with more than 400 infections per 100,000 people in four regions, including Kairouan, where hospitals are over capacity.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056581/tunisian-doctors-battle-virus-spike
Singapore says it wants to back away from strict rules to combat Covid-19 and the curbs on commercial and social life that come with them. The reality on the ground shows a lack of conviction. Singapore returned to a lockdown-like state in mid-May as the number of unlinked infections started rising — a troubling development for a population that largely hadn’t been vaccinated. While the measure was a blow for the city-state, where cases had hovered near zero for months, the situation has improved fairly quickly. Step by step, those restrictions are now being lifted and shots are progressing. Schools will resume in-person after the summer break, while larger social gatherings and dining in are permitted again. Drill deeper into this encouraging overall picture, though, and details suggest a country ambivalent about where, and how far, to go from here. Singapore looks and feels like a place that wants the outward signs of being open for business, but appears unwilling to take many risks to get there. Showcase events have been shelved. An air-travel bubble with Hong Kong — critical for a government-backed airline with zero domestic routes — has gone nowhere. Offices that were only just beginning to repopulate were told to empty. Even buying milkshakes for my two small kids at the mall dissolved into paperwork and bureaucracy. School holidays last week gave me a decent vantage point to observe Singapore’s latest attempt at reopening. Hush-Hush Hannah, a cartoon character plastered to subway windows, was there to watch over me as I traveled. Her job is to remind passengers to keep the volume down. While Hannah began riding the Mass Rapid Transit network before the pandemic, her skills are as relevant today as ever. Hannah’s speech bubbles reinforce the signboards at station entrances instructing commuters to avoid talking to prevent the spread of droplets. At busy junctions, such as Serangoon in the center of the country, an attendant marches into the carriage waving a placard urging silence. Dining also has evidence of stop-start progress. But recorded music is now forbidden, lest people talk too loudly over the noise and transmit germs. (As I munched my burger, I wondered if the beat ban would become as iconic as a chewing-gum prohibition imposed decades ago. I still encounter people who know little more about Singapore than the gum rule.) These experiences illustrate the split-screen life in Singapore. Politicians now talk about Covid as endemic, something that vaccinated people can tolerate without falling very ill. Officials have begun likening the disease to the flu and have held out the prospect of removing masks outdoors and a revival of the travel industry. Yet after more than a year of on-again, off-again crackdowns, it's hard to see Singapore dispensing with the extreme risk aversion that's defined its response to the pandemic. The approach has delivered results some would envy. Deaths have been few and far between, hospitals are coping, DIY test kits are available at pharmacies and leaders hope to have two-thirds of the country’s 5.7 million people fully inoculated by early August. Across the bridge in Malaysia, hospitals are overflowing, daily infections are in the thousands and the economy remains in the grip of recession. In Indonesia, a short ferry ride away, less than 10% of the far greater population is vaccinated. A spike in illness has made the sprawling archipelago the latest Covid hotpot in the region. Still, the lack of specifics about how substantially life will change after Singapore’s vaccination push is surprising, particularly given its instinct for over-planning. Officials have floated the idea that inoculated people will have more scope to move, attend events and travel. How much more? To where will they be allowed to go, for business or pleasure, and under what kind of closely managed itinerary and quarantine? What will happen to the offices in gleaming towers sporting logos of world financial giants? This week, United Airlines Holdings Inc. placed the biggest jetliner order in company history, a major vote of confidence in a post-Covid world. The message at Singapore Airlines Ltd. is decidedly more circumspect. There is a risk that Singapore imprisons itself in this relative success. For now, the price of hesitation isn’t prohibitive. The economy is expected to grow as much as 6% this year, according to the government, lifted by a powerful revival in the US and China. All the country needs to do is step out of the way. When the pace of recovery slows next year, the moves will have to be a lot bolder. Bloomberg
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056576/daniel-moss/singapore-imprisoned-its-covid-success
Should We Be Forced to Get Covid Vaccines? It's Complicated
Opinion
Andreas Kluth
Andreas Kluth -
The dilemma is almost as old as vaccines: Can the state coerce citizens to get jabbed in the interests of public health? What about other institutions, such as schools, universities or employers? And if they can mandate shots, should they? Even with the more familiar vaccines against smallpox, measles, whooping cough and the like, these questions have never been answered definitively in most countries. That haunts us now that we’re fighting a coronavirus pandemic and need to make urgent decisions. Most governments, for now, are treading lightly, because they fear alienating the very people who need to roll up their sleeves and cooperate. Italy, for example, has mandated Covid vaccines only for health workers, and the UK is considering doing the same. But some politicians, exasperated about the many vaccine slouches, are contemplating more drastic measures. Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, has rather hyperbolically threatened that he’ll throw in jail anybody who refuses to get jabbed. Schools, clubs and employers are facing the same conundrum — and also want to avoid getting sued. In the US many universities are requiring jabs for all those who want to return this fall to physical dorms and classrooms, but will presumably let other students “attend” virtually. On Wall Street, Morgan Stanley is mandating vaccination for employees who want to come back into the office while making all others dial in. Institutions everywhere will sooner or later face the same choices. As a classical liberal — that is, somebody who treasures individual freedom — I see three intertwined routes into this debate: the moral, the legal and the practical. The moral case must start with the premise that, barring special circumstances, nobody has a right to tell me what to do, even if it’s “for my own good,” since that’s for me to judge. By this logic, even seat-belt laws are a baby step toward tyranny. I happen to wear one voluntarily because I feel it makes sense. But if I didn’t, what right does anybody have to make me put it on? It’s my life, after all. The same could be said for the risk of catching Covid-19. This line of thought immediately crashes into the difference between a seat-belt law and a vaccine mandate, however. Saving the life and health of the one getting jabbed is only the secondary purpose of inoculation. The primary goal is to approximate herd immunity, so that the virus stops spreading in the community at large, infecting and potentially killing others who, owing to allergies or other complications, cannot get vaccinated. So a vaccine mandate is less like a seat-belt law and more like rules against, say, fiddling with a smart phone while driving — a cognitive distraction that vastly increases our risk of causing accidents that maim or kill others. By the same token, my refusal to get jabbed makes me a potential vector for SARS-CoV-2. As it keeps spreading, it’ll also keep mutating, thus causing inestimable harm to people near and far alike. This “harm principle” was already defined in 1859 by John Stuart Mill in his treatise “On Liberty”: “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” Viewed thus, public health is another instance of what economists call a commons, a shared resource in which the interests of individuals typically clash with those of society, thus requiring regulation. Classic examples include overgrazing public lands or overfishing the oceans; modern instances include littering space with satellite junk or polluting the atmosphere — and now also free-riding in the global struggle against SARS-CoV-2. This need to prevent harm to other people as well as the “tragedy of the commons” has shaped the evolution of legal thinking about the dilemma. In the US the first vaccine mandate was introduced in Massachusetts in the 1850s, to prevent smallpox transmission in schools. That precedent quickly spread to other states and diseases, making opponents drag the mandates into court. In 1905 the Supreme Court ruled in Jacobsen v. Massachusetts that states may compel vaccination as long as the coercion is proportionate and necessary to maintain public health. In such cases, the judges decided, vaccine mandates fall conceptually into the category of the government’s “police power,” which legitimately restrains personal liberty for the common good. In many iterations, that logic has prevailed in most open societies to date. In April, for example, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled, in a case that preceded the pandemic and was brought by parents in the Czech Republic, that mandatory vaccination is “necessary in a democratic society.” Both these moral and legal lines of reasoning must of course confront practical realities, and this is where things get tricky in the current pandemic. That’s mainly because the Covid vaccines are still scarce, new and less understood than those against mumps or polio, say. The first question is whether a serum is even available easily and amply enough. So far, it isn’t in most countries. I don’t see how you can fairly mandate — on penalty of sanctions — something that not every member of society even has access to. The next question is how safe the vaccines are. Nothing in this world is ever completely free of risk, but the mandate decision must rest on weighing one risk — the jab’s to the individual — against two others: the risk to the same individual of catching Covid and the collective risk to public health. For our familiar vaccines, such as the measles, mumps and rubella jab children get in many countries, that case is easily made. A few of the new Covid vaccines, such as the mRNA shots of BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna, should also clear the hurdle, although their youth still means that regulators like the US Food and Drug Administration have so far only given “emergency use authorization.” Others, such as the AstraZeneca shot, have left people and regulators confused. Others yet, including the jabs hawked by Russia and China, are in my opinion simply too opaque about risk to justify coercion. Beyond the risk of a given vaccine, we also need to know whether it prevents the recipient only from getting sick or also from transmitting the virus. If the answer is the first, remember, we can’t invoke the harm principle or the public good. There’s also human nature to consider. New research based on surveys in Germany suggests that a vaccine mandate might send psychological signals that actually hinder overall compliance. People resent being manipulated, with either carrots or sticks, an effect known as “control aversion.” Coercion also tends to cause “moral disengagement,” making people who might have gotten jabbed for altruistic reasons tune out. Enforced vaccination also undermines trust between citizens and their institutions, as they wonder why coercion is even necessary and what could be wrong with the jabs. In an age of conspiracy theories, feeding the quackery on the fringes is the last thing we need in fighting the virus. The complexities of the debate mean that the choices facing policymakers won’t get easier any time soon. Even lovers of freedom, like me, can agree that sometimes coercion is necessary to prevent harm. But what’s permissible needn’t always be wise. Our best shot for now is still to keep rooting for science, to stay ruthlessly transparent with the data, and to hope that people bare their arms because they want to. For my part, I got my jabs as soon as they became available. Bloomberg
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3056571/andreas-kluth/should-we-be-forced-get-covid-vaccines-its-complicated
Abu Dhabi - Asharq Al-Awsat
The agreement between the two companies will enable the growth of TA’ZIZ industrial system and the Ruwais petrochemical complex in Abu Dhabi (Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic)
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Reliance Industries (RIL) have signed an agreement to set up a new petrochemical complex in Abu Dhabi, to produce chlor-alkali, ethylene dichloride, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Under the terms of the agreement, this integrated plant will have a capacity to produce 940,000 tons of chlor-alkali, 1.1 million tons of ethylene dichloride, and 360,000 tons of PVC annually, RIL said in a statement on Tuesday. “This agreement is a significant milestone, as we continue to grow a globally competitive industrial ecosystem and highly attractive investor value proposition,” said Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, minister of industry and advanced technology, UAE. Jaber is also the managing director and group CEO of ADNOC. “In line with our 2030 strategy, we look forward to creating further opportunities across the entire TA’ZIZ ecosystem for the next generation of local industry. The domestic production of critical industrial raw materials strengthens our supply chains,” said Jaber. “The project will manufacture ethylene dichloride, a key building block for production of PVC in India. This is a significant step in globalizing Reliance’s operations,” RIL’s Chairman and Managing Director, Mukesh Ambani said. “This important milestone further bolsters our long-standing relationship with ADNOC, reaffirming our faith in the global vision of the UAE’s wise leadership. It is also yet another testimony to the enormous potential in advancing India-UAE cooperation in value enhancement in the energy and petrochemicals sectors,” he added. Chlor-alkali is used in water treatment and in the manufacture of textiles and metals. Ethylene dichloride is typically used to produce PVC.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3054956/adnoc-reliance-sign-strategic-partnership
Palestinians Urge International Community to Help Stop Home Demolitions in Silwan
Arab World
Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat
Girl takes pictures of the rubble of a store that was demolished in the Silwan neighborhood near Jerusalem yesterday (AFP)
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has called for immediate intervention from the international community to stop the Israeli authorities from demolishing homes in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem. Minister of Civilian Affairs and member of the Fatah Central Committee Hussein al-Sheikh called on the international community to help stop home demolitions and forcible expulsion of its Palestinian residents. Israeli police raided the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan and tore down a shop in the al-Bustan area, one of 17 structures, mainly homes. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported 13 injuries among the Palestinians, including six from rubber-coated bullets and five from gas canisters. Up to 100 houses might be demolished in the Silwan neighborhood. President Mahmoud Abbas's adviser for religious affairs Mahmoud al-Habbash described the demolition of houses and properties as a new exodus and an ethnic cleansing that is occurring in plain sight. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates (MOFAE) considered the current developments in Silwan as an extension to the ethnic cleansing against Jerusalem citizens; a cleansing that has been practiced by previous Israeli governments. MOFAE added that the occupation’s government is exploiting the support of the international community and the US, to execute its colonial agenda. For its part, Hamas said that what is happening in Silwan crosses the red lines. Hamas spokesman in Jerusalem Muhammad Hamada affirmed that the resistance is aware of the occupation actions in Jerusalem. He further stressed that the resistance is open to all options to respond to the occupation.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3054921/palestinians-urge-international-community-help-stop-home-demolitions-silwan
Kadhimi, Biden to Meet Soon, Discuss Withdrawal of US Troop
Arab World
Baghdad - Asharq Al-Awsat
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. (Khalid Mohammed/Pool via REUTERS)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi will travel to Washington in July and meet with US President Joe Biden. The two leaders are set to discuss the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, based on previous talks with former US President Donald Trump. Biden’s administration, however, seeks to tackle means of addressing pro-Iranian factions active in Iraq. Earlier on Sunday, the US forces launched airstrikes targeting pro-Iranian militants near the Albu Kamal district on the Syrian side of the border. The Pentagon said the strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one in Iraq, all near the common border, that had been used by militias engaged in drone attacks against US interests in Iraq. According to sources familiar with the matter, Kadhimi held talks with Head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri following the attacks. During the meeting, Ameri stressed that the demands of the Shiite political forces and armed factions changed after the recent US strikes, calling for an immediate and complete withdrawal of the US forces from the country, the sources affirmed. Kadhimi vowed to discuss the matter during his upcoming visit to Washington, the sources added. Iraq’s National Security Adviser Qassem al-Araji affirmed that Kadhimi will address the issue with Biden. “The position of the Iraqi government is clear in this regard. The prime minister condemned the attack, describing it as a violation of the state’s sovereignty. The premier is planning a visit to Washington to set a timetable for US troop withdrawal,” he stressed. Al-Jazeera quoted Araji as noting that his country does not need foreign combat forces on its soil and has enough forces. Earlier in April, the US and Iraq agreed on the withdrawal of all remaining US and coalition combat troops deployed to fight ISIS in the Middle Eastern country. Kadhimi also ordered the formation of a committee that would hold technical talks with the US side to approve “mechanisms and timings” related to the redeployment.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3054906/kadhimi-biden-meet-soon-discuss-withdrawal-us-troop
New Study Finds New Evidence on Link between Birds, Dinosaurs
Varieties
Cairo - Hazem Badr
An artist's impression of a Gigantoraptor. Ho / Reuters
A Chinese research team has discovered a tiny, 120 million-year-old fossil in northeast China that belongs to an animal with a bird body, and a skull similar to that of a Tyrannosaurus rex. In their study published in the latest issue of the Nature Communication journal. The researchers suggested this bizarre avian species once belonged to an extinct group of early birds called enantiornithines. They also said this discovery is an important evolutionary step on the way to modern birds. While the 2-centimeter-long (0.75-inch) skull of this little fella holds similarities to much larger dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex, its thin and delicate body looks more like modern-day crown birds, such as sparrows or hummingbirds. Careful CT scans and a detailed reconstruction of the fossil suggest this bizarre avian species once belonged to an extinct group of early birds called enantiornithines, or "opposite birds." While enantiornithines did not survive the Mesozoic mass extinction event, many of their traits still live on today and they are considered an important evolutionary step on the way to modern birds, as highlights the new study. Some other enantiornithines that have been discovered are no larger than a cockroach. This new one is slightly bigger and would have fit in the palm of your hand. "The noggin on this early bird is particularly unique and excellently preserved. Unlike modern birds, whose upper jaws move independently from their brain case, which is known as cranial 'kinesis', the bones on this newly discovered skull are "locked up" and immovable. They even show attachment points for jaw muscles, which are usually found in dinosaurs and reptiles, like lizards and alligators," said paleontologist Min Wang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in a report by the Science Alert website. "One bone in particular, known as the pterygoid, looked "exactly like that of the dromaeosaur Linheraptor, and this proves the link between birds and dinosaurs," according to Wang. Linheraptor dinosaurs are bird-like theropods, an extinct group of dinosaurs that also includes meat-eaters like the T. rex and Velociraptor.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3054856/new-study-finds-new-evidence-link-between-birds-dinosaurs
Ancient Aromas Aim to Lure New Crop of Tourists to Cyprus
Varieties
Agros - Asharq Al-Awsat
Elena Tsolakis harvests the Damask roses for oil extraction in the small mountain village of Agros standing of the Troodos mountain range, Cyprus, May 6, 2021. (AFP Photo)
Lavender, basil and roses: history and aromatic plants are being cultivated in Cyprus to broaden its sun-and-sea appeal and regain its lofty botanical status dating back to Roman times. From sunrise in the small mountain village of Agros standing at 1,100 metres (3,600 feet) in the Troodos mountain range, Andria Tsolakis, her younger sister Elena and their mother Maria busy themselves among their rose bushes. In the crisp morning air, they gather the Damask roses for which Agros and the family are famed. For more than seven decades, the Tsolakis family have cultivated the pink rose of Syrian origin they say first cropped up mysteriously at the foot of the village church, extracting rose water and oils used in cooking and cosmetics, AFP reported. "We need around 400 roses, flowers, in order to make one kilo (two pounds) of roses (petals). And from that kilo, we will produce two litres of rose water," said 31-year-old Andria. When their father, Chris, took over the business, he decided to start up a boutique called "The Rose Factory" and to add Agros on to the eastern Mediterranean island's tourist circuit. In a normal tourist season, before the Covid-19 pandemic that has brought much of the sector to its knees, "we welcomed up to 10 buses every day", said Elena. A European project aims to promote tourism in six southern member states -- Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Italy and Malta -- with the lure of their aromatic and medicinal plants. Partly financed by the European Union, Mappae (Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Pathways Across Europe) says its mission is to "create a multi-sensory, tourist and cultural thematic route, linking European destinations united by a common tradition". "We are blessed with more than 800 different herbs, some of them can only be found in Cyprus," said Yioula Michaelidou Papakyriacou, local coordinator of the project. "Our grandmothers could heal everything with herbs," she said. Papakyriacou puts the high quality of the island's essential oils down to its geology, the formation of the Troodos range, air quality and meteorological conditions. "The climate here is ideal to grow these kind of herbs, because herbs love the heat, they love the strong sun," said herbalist Miranda Tringis, who runs a botanical park near Ayia Napa, the island's top beach destination. Cyprus is proud of its riches in flora, its plants as well as olive and cypress trees. "It was like that in the first century after Christ, when (Roman naturalist) Pliny the Elder wrote that the herbs of Cyprus are the best in the entire Roman empire," said Tringis. "And that is still true to this day."
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3054851/ancient-aromas-aim-lure-new-crop-tourists-cyprus
Sit-in Held in Beirut in Solidarity with Anti-Hezbollah Shiite Cleric
Arab World
Beirut - Asharq Al-Awsat
Cleric Ali Al-Amin (NNA)
Religious and media figures held a sit-in on Tuesday in solidarity with anti-Hezbollah cleric Ali al-Amin, who has been taken to court for participating in late 2019 in a meeting in Bahrain that was allegedly attended by Israelis. The lawsuit was filed in June 2020 by lawyer Ghassan al-Mawla on behalf of Nabih Awada, Khalil Nasrallah, Shawqi Awada and Hussein al-Dirani against al-Amin for “meeting with Israeli officials in Bahrain, attacks on the Resistance and its martyrs, inciting strife between sects, sowing discord and sedition, and violating the Sharia laws of the Jaafari sect.” Al-Amin’s questioning was scheduled to take place on Tuesday at the Justice Palace in Beirut, but it was postponed due to a strike by lawyers. Religious and media figures had gathered outside the Justice Palace in solidarity with the cleric ahead of the planned questioning. They raised banners supporting al-Amin and saying that violent messages do not silence the voice of freedom. Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel expressed his solidarity with al-Amin “and support for his free and open mind in the face of oppression and close-minded people.” He added: “We will not accept intimidation, and we will bring down the police state and the militias behind it.” Last year, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri condemned the lawsuit filed against the cleric as “an attack on the dignity of Lebanese.” The Mustaqbal movement leader in a tweet said that Amin “is a representative of national and Islamic unity and the attack on his dignity is an attack on all Muslims and Christians.” Al-Amin has said he held no personal meeting with any Israeli at the conference, and that he “was not aware of their attendance.”
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3054846/sit-held-beirut-solidarity-anti-hezbollah-shiite-cleric
IMF Approves $2.5 BN Loan, Debt Relief Deal for Sudan
Business
Asharq Al-Awsat
Motorcyclists queue-up for fuel at a petrol station in Sudan's capital Khartoum on June 10, 2021. Sudan has ended fuel subsidies as part of an IMF-backed reform program, helping it secure a $2.5 bn loan from the financial institution - AFP
The IMF on Tuesday approved a $2.5 billion loan for Sudan, and with the World Bank sealed a landmark deal that unlocks nearly $50 billion in debt relief for the impoverished African nation. The announcement came after the International Monetary Fund finalized an agreement with 101 donor countries allowing Sudan to clear roughly $1.4 billion in arrears to the Washington-based lender -- the key hurdle to allow access to fresh aid. "We congratulate the Sudanese government and people for their commendable hard work and progress toward this remarkable milestone," IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President David Malpass said in a joint statement, AFP reported. Payment of the arrears is the "decision point" that allows access to debt relief under the Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative which the officials said will cover $50 billion or about 90 percent of the country's foreign debt. Sudan will receive $1.4 billion immediately under the 39-month IMF loan program. Washington welcomed the announcement that Sudan is now eligible to receive debt relief from the international lending institutions. "This is a historic moment for Sudan and its people," US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement. "These steps will unlock much-needed financing and will help build the foundation for poverty reduction, inclusive development, and economic growth." Yellen also praised the efforts of Sudan's civilian government to stabilize the economy. The new aid comes amid a rapprochement between the United States and Sudan following the ouster of strongman Omar al-Bashir, who was toppled amid street protests in April 2019 after three decades of iron-fisted rule marked by economic hardship, deep internal conflicts, and biting international sanctions that curtailed investment. In the past two years, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, a seasoned UN economist-turned-premier, has pushed to rebuild the crippled economy and end Sudan's international isolation. Washington in December removed Sudan from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, removing a major hurdle to foreign investment. President Joe Biden has continued the thaw in relations since taking office in January, and his administration has taken a leading role in encouraging other governments to join in the effort to provide debt relief. The US Treasury in March announced $1.15 billion in bridge financing to help clear Sudan's arrears at the World Bank, after Khartoum's civilian-backed government announced a series of reforms. Treasury said the United States also committed to contribute up to $120 million in grant resources to fund IMF debt relief for Sudan under the first phase of HIPC. Sudan is the last country to clear arrears with the IMF, which now faces no repayment arrears from its members for the first time since early 1974. Georgieva praised the government's "strong policy commitment" that has shored up public finances "while channeling assistance to the most vulnerable." But she said "continued reform commitment will be critical to achieve the program´s objectives, as well as to reduce poverty and secure higher and more inclusive growth." The government moved to a market-based exchange rate and removed fuel subsidies in its efforts to secure the deal with the crisis lenders. In an interview with AFP last month, Hamdok said the widely unpopular moves were needed to secure debt relief and the government was calling on foreign investors to "explore the opportunities for investing in Sudan."
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3054831/imf-approves-25-bn-loan-debt-relief-deal-sudan
Asharq Al-Awsat
Serena 'Heartbroken' over Wimbledon Exit
Seven-time champion Serena Williams said she was "heartbroken" to have retired injured from her first round Wimbledon match on Tuesday. "I was heartbroken to have to withdraw today after injuring my right leg," she said in a statement posted on her Instagram account. The 39-year-old was leading 3-1 in the first set against Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus when she slipped and had to have her right leg examined. She returned from receiving medical attention but called it quits at 3-3 and walked off Centre Court in tears. Williams did not reveal the seriousness of the injury which cost her another chance to equal Margaret Court's all-time Grand Slam singles titles haul of 24. Instead she addressed the spectators -- she had saluted all four sides of Centre Court -- and her broader fan base. "My love and gratitude are with the fans and the team who make being on centre court so meaningful," she said in her statement. "Feeling the extraordinary warmth and support of the crowd today when I walked on -- and off -- the court meant the world to me."
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3054816/serena-heartbroken-over-wimbledon-exit
