Monthly Archives: May 2022

The French city of Grenoble has formally allowed Muslim women to wear burkinis, or swimming costumes covering the whole body, in public pools.

Members of the municipal council narrowly approved the new rules during a meeting on Monday despite political opposition.

After a tense debate, there were 29 votes in favour of the measure, with 27 councillors voting against and two abstentions.

France's interior ministry has stated that it will block the move, which contradicts French laws on secularism and the "neutrality of public service".

Grald Darmanin described the decision as an "unacceptable community provocation, contrary to our values."

But the mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piolle, has repeatedly argued that debate over burkinis is a "non-issue".

Piolle has stated the change in swimming pool regulations -- brought in before pools open in mid-June --aims to "remove aberrant clothing bans" and combat "injunctions on women's bodies".

From 1 June, Grenoble will relax its rules and allow both women and men to swim topless or wearfull-body swimming costumes for sun protection or religious beliefs.

The move has been backed by women's rights activists in France, who have campaigned for people to "wear what they want" at swimming pools.

But MPs from the ruling En Marche party of President Emmanuel Macron have argued that Islamic veils go against France's strict secular values, which separate state and religion.

Opponents also argue that the burkini is a symbol of women's oppression,similar to the full veil that is worn in some Muslim-majority countries.

The right-wing president of the Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes hasthreatened on Twitter to pull all regional funding to the city over the new rules.

The regional prefect of Isre had announced on Sunday that he will refer the council's decision to the administrative court of Grenoble.

"I can't wait for the government to explain to us why we should hide all our religious signs in a swimming pool," Piollo told Franceinfo in response on Monday.

The Grenoble mayor has cited another French city Rennes, which passed a similar measure approving burkinis in 2018.

Two years earlier, an estimated 30 French coastal resorts banned women from wearing burkinis on beaches.

France's highest administrative court later ruled that the anti-burkini decrees were a serious and manifestly illegal attack on fundamental freedoms.

In Grenoble, the NGOAlliance Citoyenne has organised several recent stunts in the city's swimming pools to support the new rules.

The group has also campaigned against France's Football Federation, which bans the wearing of Islamic hijabs in competitions.

Read the original post:

Controversy as French city allows women to wear 'burkinis' in pools - Euronews

WARSAW, PolandBe not afraid, President Joe Biden said in his fiery speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on March 25, 2022, exactly one month after Russian president Vladimir Putins armed forces invaded Ukraine. Bidens visit to Poland was part of a series of intensive back-to-back meetings with the leaders of NATO, the Group of Seven Industrialized countries (G-7), and the twenty-seven-member European Union (EU).

As the Catholic U.S. president invoked the famous phrase of the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II during his visit to Warsaw, the Russian Federations missiles destroyed targets in western Ukraine next to the Polish border on the very same daysending an unequivocal message to the United States and its global partners.

Choosing Poland for Bidens historical speech was no coincidence. Poland is a frontline country for both NATO and the EU. Since the outbreak of the war, almost three million Ukrainians have crossed the border with Polandmaking it the biggest host for Ukrainian refugees.

Interestingly, Poland being a frontline country is nothing new. In World War I, Poland was a battlefield in a war between Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on one side and Tsarist Russia on the other. Twenty years later, WWII started with Nazi Germanys attack on Poland in September 1939. The tragedy resulted in the death of over six million Polish citizens, including more than three million Polish Jews. It is quite conceivable that a possible World War III might also go through Poland.

When U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin returned to Poland after their secrecy-shrouded visit to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on April 24, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned against an imminent WWIII. Ironically, however, Russia has not until now called its war against Ukraine a war, but simply a military operation.

It is indeed a global war already. In Warsaw, Biden reiterated that the unprovoked war in Ukraine is part of a global struggle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and oppression, between a rules-based order and one governed by brute force. This great battle for freedom will define the future of the world and it will not be an easy one. With those words, Biden appealed to the global communityclearly echoing the celebrated Truman Doctrine.

Bidens Update of the Seventy-Five-Year-Old Doctrine

In February 1946, George Kennan, the American charge daffaires in Moscow, sent a famous long telegram to Washington sharing his observations about the Soviet system and the threat of communist expansion. His telegram provided the primary underpinning for the Truman Doctrine, whose aim was to contain communist expansion at the dawn of the Cold War.

Addressing the Joint Session of the U.S. Congress on March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman announced that every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. It is a choice between the will of the majority that guarantees individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression, or the power relied on terror and oppression that is forcibly imposed with the control of media, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.

U.S. containment policy was implemented for the first time in 1949 by providing aid to Greece and Turkey which, as the Truman White House believed, would save these countries from falling into the hands of communists. Soon afterward, the Greek crisis was resolved; both countries joined the newly created NATO security alliance. As a result, together with the Marshall Plan, which aimed at rebuilding postwar Europe, the Truman Doctrine defined the U.S. containment policy throughout the Cold War.

At the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Truman Doctrine, the global community now witnesses a similar conflict unfolding. Even though the Soviet Union collapsed over thirty years ago, Russia is yet again trying to expand its former territory westward, pushing its borders to NATOs eastern frontier, formed by Poland and the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Like in the past, it is more than a regional conflict; it is a proxy war between democracy and autocracy.

Poland at a Crossroads

Extending the Truman Doctrine to preserve the essential principles of a free society, Biden henceforth invited like-minded countries to defeat democracys mortal foes. Poland, as the place of his historic speech, had profound symbolic meaning and purpose. While Poland strategically remains NATOs critical ally during Russias expanding war in Ukraine and beyond to Moldova, the Warsaw government hardly fits elegantly into the undisputed league of exemplary democracies.

Since 2015, the Polish authorities illustrated the lack of commitment to the rule of law, democratic values, and the freedom of the press. Warsaws right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party and its coalition governments sweeping changes to the judicial system violated the EUs democratic standards; thus, Brussel has blocked 36 billion post-Covid-19 recovery loans and grants to Poland.

Tapping into these prevailing undercurrents, apart from invoking the pope, Biden also purposefully summoned former Polish president Lech Wasa in his Warsaw speech. He essentially reminded the Poles that their government is trying to impose changes to the historical remembrance of the Solidarity Movement and its democratic transformation by eliminating Wasa from public memory. It seems that the U.S. president was fully aware of the legacy of Wasa, whose contributions had systematically been erased from official school handbooks. Indeed, Polands democratic foundation has gradually eroded since the PiS coalition took power in 2015. According to the 2021 Global Democracy Index, Poland has become the most autocratizing country in the world.

Invoking the Catholic and Solidarity leaders in his speech, Biden sent a coded but unmistakably clear message to the government leaders in Warsaw. In other words, he consciously sensitized the nature of American-style culture warin Poland and the Polish governments stance against the established democratic norms.

Bidens New Truman Doctrine

The democratic and universal values must first be defended and strengthened in the bastion of democracy: the United States. After four years of President Donald Trump, who supported autocratic leaders like Putin and undermined democratically-elected leaders like Zelenskyy, Biden inherited a herculean task ahead to regain the credibility of adhering to the American ideals.

After Hillary Clinton lost the electoral college vote but won the popular vote over Trump, Senator Tim Kaine, Clintons vice-presidential candidate, described the need for a renewed foreign policy. In his pivotal Foreign Affairs article in 2017, A New Truman Doctrine: Grand Strategy in a Hyperconnected World, Kaine wrote about the tendency of Trumps America first policy and articulated the value of coherent and bipartisan foreign policy strategy that balances Americas greatness through goodness.

Upholding his Inaugural Speech, President Biden is now revitalizing the tradition of the Truman Doctrine that we lead not by the example of our power but by the power of our example. The Biden White House has galvanized democratic world leaders to extend their military, economic, diplomatic, and moral support for Ukraine through Poland and other NATO partners. In response, the U.S. Congress approved an unprecedented $6.5 billion for military assistance in March as part of $13.6 billion for Ukraine and its allies. On April 28, Biden asked Congress to approve an additional $33 billion for military, economic, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The president also requested the power to seize and sell the assets of wealthy Russians, claiming to support Ukraine and its fight for freedom.

Poland remains a frontline NATO member and an important American partner to challenge Russias ongoing aggression, reported war crimes, and corruption. However, the Biden administration must focus on Poland not only as a European ally but also as a credible democratic nation. Thus, both the United States and the EU must engage and assist Poland instructivelyespecially in political, economic, and military realms. The United States, its G-7 allies, and the EU should use this window of opportunity to decisively convince the Warsaw authorities to legitimize their actions in line with democratic values and universal normsparticularly when the Polish government is accused of constituting draconian legislations over abortion and human rights restrictions vis--vis the LGBT community, and the negations of the treaty obligations with the EU.

Poland should be the shining example of democratic triumph on NATOs eastern flank and primarily even for more vulnerable countrieslike the Baltic states. Poland still has a thriving civil society that defends democratic freedoms tirelessly. While the United States and its democratic allies are engaged in the great battle for democracy, they must not overlook the nature of anti-democratic governance by the right-wing leaders in Warsaw. There is no strategic necessity that would justify the blind support for the Polish autocratizationor sacrifice democracy for the support of an important allied country. Like in the United States, the New Truman Doctrine should also flourish in Poland.

Dr.Patrick Mendis, a former American diplomat and a NATO military professor, is currently a distinguished visiting professor of transatlantic relations at the University of Warsaw in Poland. Dr.Antonina Luszczykiewicz, a Fulbright scholar, is an assistant professor at the Jagiellonian University in KrakowPoland. Both served as Taiwan fellows of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China.The views expressed in this analysis do not represent the official positions of their current or past affiliations or governments.

Read the original post:

Will Poland Become a Shining, Democratic American Partner? - The National Interest Online

The leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion overruling Roe v. Wade was a shock, but the content of the draft should not have been a surprise. Overruling Roe has been a stated goal of the Republican party, repeated in its presidential platforms in every election since the decision was handed down in 1973. With a 6-3 Republican majority in firm control of the Court, the end of Roe should have been expected.

Yet people were surprised. Part of the reaction comes from the fact that Roe had survived other Republican majorities. Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed the central holding of Roe in 1992, was decided by a Court with eight Republican appointees. The Roe Court itself had a 5-4 Republican majority.

Things are different now than they were fifty or thirty years ago. Justices vote in line with the preferences of their appointing President more consistently than they used to. But the overruling of Roe also conflicts with a general sense in that the Supreme Court usually expands peoples rights; it doesnt take them away. This understanding falls neatly into the story of progress that we like to tell ourselves: American history moves forward; it doesnt go back.

Thats a comforting story, but it isnt true. American history does go back, and the Supreme Court does take rights away. The most striking example of this occurred after the greatest expansion of constitutional rights, the Reconstruction Amendments.

After the Civil War, the Reconstruction Congress transformed American society with three amendments designed to make a new nation. The Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment established birthright citizenship, including the formerly enslaved as full members of the American nation. It gave those new citizens, and everyone else, rights of liberty and equality to protect them from oppression by the States. (The Bill of Rights, like most of the 1787 Constitution, protected people only from the federal government.) The Fifteenth Amendment prohibited racial discrimination with respect to the right to vote. All the amendments gave Congress power to pass laws for their enforcement. Together, they sought for the first time to make America a multiracial democracy.

It workedfor a while. Reconstructed southern governments operated integrated schools and police forces. They reformed divorce laws and provided social services on a scale never before seen in the South.

But not everyone was willing to accept the new society. Some whites resented seeing government services supporting Blacks, which marked them as insiders. They resented sharing those services with Blacks, which marked them as equals. And they resisted violently.

It took the U.S. Army to keep them in line, and eventually the will to maintain what was in essence a military occupation of the South faded. As a way of settling the disputed election of 1876, the federal troops ended their supervision. What followed was called Redemption. Whites took back control, often through violent coups led by white supremacist paramilitary organizations. And very quickly, the rights promised by the Reconstruction Amendments went away.

The Supreme Court did not help. It read the Fourteenth Amendment narrowlyin the words of a dissenting Justice, it turned what was meant for bread into a stone. It struck down a federal law prohibiting racial discrimination by restaurants and inns, commenting that at some point blacks must cease[] to be the special favorite of the laws. (This in 1883, when slavery was only eighteen years in the past.) Faced with massive and systemic violations of the Fifteenth Amendment, the Court threw up its hands. [R]elief from a great political wrong, it said, had to come from the legislative and political department of the government of the United States.

Eventually that relief did come. Almost a hundred years later, the Civil Rights movement fought to fulfil the promises of Reconstruction. Congress enacted more anti-discrimination laws and, crucially, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. For a brief periodthe time historians now call the Second Reconstructionthe Court worked with Congress to make a more just and equal society.

But starting around 1980, with the election of Ronald Reagan, things took a new turn. The 1980 Republican platform lamented that government power has grown unchecked under Democratic administrations and promised freedom from its pervasive and heavy-handed intrusion. Republicans, it continued, pledge to continue and redouble our efforts to return power to the state and local governments. Reagans four Supreme Court appointments fulfilled the pledge, making the Court more suspicious of federal authority and more receptive to claims of states rights.

In constitutional law, a preference for state authority is called federalism, and constitutional scholars typically called this era the New Federalism. But people seldom favor state authority in the abstract, without some idea of what that power will be used for. In recent years, the issues on which the Supreme Court favors the states have become clearer. Congress can still enact broad laws to regulate the economy: the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. But it cannot protect the right to vote against racial discriminationin a series of decisions, the Supreme Court eviscerated the Voting Rights Act. It cannot use its powers under the Fourteenth Amendment to protect individuals against discrimination by statesin a different series of decisions, the Court struck down federal anti-discrimination laws and the Violence Against Women Act.

The selective and carefully targeted nature of the judicial pushback against Congress shows that what is happening now is not really about states rights any more than the Civil War was. It is about rolling back the gains that equality movements made in the century and a half since the end of the first Reconstruction. (If you doubt this, watch how quickly abortion opponents drop the appeal to states rights in favor of a national ban.)

The decisions and even the phrases of the current Court echo those of an earlier era. Striking down an attempt to integrate schools, John Roberts pronounced that the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. Endorsing a challenge to the Voting Rights Act, Antonin Scalia criticized the law as a racial entitlement. Blacks must cease to be the special favorites of the law. Attempts to promote equality are an affront to the natural order of things. That is what the attack on affirmative action is about, and it is what a decision overturning Roe would be about, too. The time they want to return to is not 1787 but 1876.

Ive taught constitutional law for twenty years now, and for twenty years the last section of my syllabus has been called The New Federalism. For the past ten, Ive put a question mark at the end of that phrase because I havent been sure whats really going on. But now I am, and the question mark is going away. So is the fig leaf of states rights. The constitutional era we live in now is getting the name it deserves: the Second Redemption.

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Originally posted here:

The Roe Leak Shows the Supreme Court's Ongoing Effort to Overturn Established Rights - TIME

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Protests in different Iranian cities entered their seventh day on Tuesday. With anti-regime slogans, these demonstrations are the broadest display of a volatile society. But what are the origins of these protests?

Iran has been experiencing various protests and at least eight large-scale uprisings Since 2017. When the November 2019 uprising with over 1500 victims erupted, both the regime and people knew the situation would never be the same.

While viewing the current protests as the result of Irans economic crunch would be parochial, ignoring these elements does not allow one to fully appreciate that the country is going through a critical socio-economic transition.

The new series of protests began in Iran following the rapid rise of consumer goods, particularly bread and pasta. While the prices have been experiencing a rising trend in recent years, they skyrocketed soon after Ebrahim Raisis government removed the preferential exchange rate.

The preferential rate was the countrys official exchange rate of 42,000 rials to a dollar since 2018, to be ostensibly used to import essential materials such as wheat and medicine. But the regimes insiders who received the currency imported goods at a lower price but sold them trifold in the market. The prices did not significantly decrease, and since the regime did not have enough currency, it began banknote printing.

The unsupported banknote printing created liquidity much higher than Irans low production rate of 3%. Raisis government removed the official exchange rate after a lot of fanfare about combatting corruption.

Because Irans liquidity rate was more than its production and employment rate, inflation has become rampant, causing prices to rise steadily.

Since the regime officials knew removing the official exchange rate could certainly increase prices, they made a lot of flip-flops to implement their so-called economic operation.

While many Iranian economists warned that removing the preferential rate would lead to a currency shock and will cause prices to jump, Raisi claimed on April 8 that his government will not create a currency shock by removing the preferential rate.

But the skyrocketing prices speak for themselves. Since removing the preferential rate, wheat increased by 100% compared to three years ago. The price of flour increased from 25,000 rials to nearly 170,000 rials a kilo, and the cost of medicine has increased tenfold.

Covert and overt subsidies to the Iranian economy should be eliminated in line with production, investment, and income growth. Production is so dependent on the outside world that tuna fish doubles in price as the dollar exchange rate rises, the state-run Mostaghel daily wrote on May 10.

So why did Raisi do this?

According to the state-run Eghtesad-e Ayandeh daily on May 14, Raisis government would earn roughly $8 billion by removing the preferential rate and setting a much higher currency rate. Irans ruling theocracy needs every penny to fuel its warmongering and terrorism machine and use it as leverage in its talks with world powers.

Besides, Raisis government earns billions of dollars as the prices of consumer goods continue to increase. Raisi removes the preferential rate simply because his government wants to benefit from five quadrillion rials [nearly $17 billion] price difference in consumer goods. The claim of spending money for people is a bitter joke, Mostaghel daily acknowledged on May 10.

According to state-run Jahan-e Sanat, on May 14, in four days, Raisis government took three quadrillion rials from peoples pocket which caused unprecedented price hikes.

The sudden increase in prices was followed by the recent protests. Raisis government promised to give four million rials worth of subsidies to Iranians for two months to calm the society. But as the prices of consumer goods continue to rise, this amount of money would in no way help Iranians make a living.

Besides, even if the regime gave four million rials to Iranians in terms of subsidies, inflation would further increase, leaving Iranians with nothing to acquire their basic needs.

Raisi refuses to say that if the government does not have enough currency, how could he afford to pay the subsidies other than continuing to print banknotes, thus increasing inflation?

According to the latest monetary statistics of the Central Bank, the volume of liquidity with a growth of 39% at the end of last year has reached 4.8 quadrillion rials. In other words, during the past year, 1.3 quadrillion rials worth of liquidity has been created. The monetary base also grew by 31.4% last year, the state-run Jahan-e Sanat daily acknowledged on May 10.

This increase in prices is so great that subsidies will not be able to cover them. People have not used this money, but they see new prices, forcing them to buy chicken, eggs, oil, and dairy at higher prices, the state-run Jahan-e Sanat daily acknowledged on May 12.

Hossain Raghfar, one of the regimes economists, called this plan A new episode of plundering in Iranian economy that government conducts to compensate for the budget deficit.

Yet, Raisis government has so far failed to deceive the public. On May 15, the state-run IMNA news agency quoted Hojjat Abdolmaleki, Raisis Minister of Labor, as saying, There have been more than one million cases of protests in just four days since the so-called subsidies modification plan was implemented.

Raisis economic surgery would kill Irans sick economy, according to MP Moinoldin Saadi, as quoted by state-run ILNA on May 14.

Raisi is indeed bereft of any solution for Irans financial crises. The sole task of the hanging judge is to control Irans society through oppression and to further squander the national wealth on terrorism, missile, and nuclear projects to preserve the moribund regime. His recent economic surgery and increasing oppression attest to this fact.

But the ongoing and expanding protests leave one question: Could these maneuvers save Raisi and the ruling theocracy?

Excerpt from:

Irans Ongoing Protests and Raisis Economic Surgery - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

The streets of Wuhan, China were all but empty during the early days.

A mysterious virus had swept through the city of 11 million, prompting authorities to impose a lockdown.

As many residents longed to leave what would become a 76-day ordeal, Murong Xuecun was arriving to stay.

It was April 2020, and the celebrated Chinese writer could enter but not leave the city that became synonymous with the origin of COVID-19.

At the time, cellphone footage had offered the only real glimpse of what life in Wuhan was like. Yet the origin of the COVID-19, destined to kill millions of people around the globe, was starting to generate conspiracy theories, and Chinas handling of it was increasingly under international scrutiny.

Against this backdrop, the writer, once a regular New York Times opinion contributor, decided to make the trip to document what was happening in Wuhan as COVID-19 emerged. He believed, he says, that the government would try to hide the truth.

Two years later, Murong has released Deadly Quiet City, an in-depth and personal account of the grief and sorrow Wuhan residents endured that also paints a picture of the corruption and ruthlessness employed by government officials desperate to appear in control of the outbreak.

People died silently, he writes in the books foreword.

They wailed plaintively for food and medicine, but hardly anyone on the outside heard them. No one knew what the millions of inmates were going through and how they lived inside this catastrophe.

Murong says he wants the world to know how the people of Wuhan suffered at the hands of their own government. Upon his arrival in 2020, the toll was obvious, he recalled.

The city was dead, its residents ordered to stay home amidst a lockdown so strict it was difficult to get food or access health care. People feared jail or being taken into quarantine if caught on the streets.

The streets looked very empty. Many times, there was only me walking on the entire street, he told the Star through a translator. In some business areas, people started to appear, and most of them were youth. Everyone was wearing a mask. What struck me most was, there were almost no smiles on their faces.

Murong, whose real name is Hao Qun (Murong Xuecun is a pen name), wrote the book while hiding in a small village in the mountains of Sichuan province. He went there upon leaving Wuhan after, he says, received a menacing phone call from authorities.

He sent the chapters in English to a contact in Australia who translated them. They were then edited by Clive Hamilton, an Australian academic and author of the book The Hidden Hand: Exposing how the Chinese Communist Party is reshaping the world.

Tales of grief, loss and a city whose residents feel abandoned by their country fill Murongs pages.

A doctor, aware of others being accused by authorities of spreading rumours, tells of purposely misspelling words to spread warnings of the infection without being detected by government censors. All the while, officials were under-reporting the number of deaths.

In another chapter, a schoolteacher recalls classes being mysteriously cancelled for influenza in late 2019 and details his own sly escape from Wuhan, evading police roadblocks to visit his father in a nursing home.

The purpose of writing this book, is to provide a channel for the people in Wuhan to spread their voice, and let their sufferings be known, Murong says. At the time, the true voice of the Wuhan people couldnt be heard because of the government propaganda and censorship.

Deadly Quiet City was released March in Australia and U.K.; a Chinese version of the book is still in the works and a North American release is expected next year. Murong himself is now in Australia, and says he is unable to return to China safely.

Hamilton says the book is of extraordinary literary quality, detailing the suffering of the citys residents at the time and the effects of government oppression.

I think what Murong is showing us is just how cruel and brutal the Chinese Communist Party system can be, he says. The most fascinating insight to emerge from working on the book is the way with which Chinese people find ways around and through the repressive and cruel system.

It also tells the tale of Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist Murong befriended who rose to international fame when she began exposing government actions in Wuhan. She was arrested eight days after Murong left.

Zhang was sentenced to four years in prison for picking quarrels and provoking trouble, according to Amnesty International. In protest, she started a hunger strike.

Hamilton says few people in the West understand the true ruthlessness of the Chinese regime and that many will likely be shocked at what people in Wuhan endured.

Now Murong says he fears the current lockdowns in China across more than 40 cities, by some estimates, most notably Shanghai have little to do with health concerns and more to do with asserting control at an uneasy time.

The countrys economy is slowing down and the government has stayed devoted to a COVID-zero policy employed more effectively against less contagious variants in the past.

Shanghai, Chinas largest city and its business hub, began a lockdown in March, leaving residents isolated and afraid. Though restrictions were beginning to ease last week, on Monday authorities showed signs of tightening them once again as the Communists push to reach their COVID-zero targets.

Public demonstrations against the lockdowns have even manifested, highlighting tensions between the public and Chinese Communist Party.

The tragedy in Shanghai indicates that the Chinese government is taking advantage of the lockdown experience in Wuhan and amplifying it to implement a tougher and crueler control over the country, he said.

Residents in Beijing are also anticipating a full lockdown in the capital city, which is now under a partial one.

Murong said hes been following the lockdown in Shanghai and thinks its effects are worse than the one endured by residents in Wuhan in 2020.

One example, he said, is the lack of access to food for residents in Shanghai. It appears the government never bothered to examine the logistics of providing food for some 25 million people in the citys lockdown, he suggested.

In Australia, Murong is far away from the lockdowns and he may never see his home country again. But, he said, it was the risk he knew he was taking the day he set out to Wuhan.

On the day I decided to go to Wuhan, I knew the journey would be full of danger and hardship, he said, recalling the day he sent his last chapter to his contact in Australia.

He told the contact, no matter what happens to me, this book must be published.

With files from The Associated Press

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Inside Wuhans lockdown: This author is telling stories from Chinas Deadly Quiet City in the early days of COVID-19 - Toronto Star

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The planned commission will address the realities of racism, class bias and misogyny experienced by Indigenous women that lead to miscarriages of justice, the justice minister said

Author of the article:

The Canadian Press

Erika Ibrahim

Publishing date:

OTTAWA Justice Minister David Lametti says Ottawa is weighing options for the design of a commission to review possible wrongful convictions, adding he is committed to getting the new body in place.

Lametti said Monday while he cannot give an absolute timeline as to when the commission will be formed, its critical to get this right.

I can assure you that this will happen, and were moving forward, Lametti said at a news conference concerning Indigenous residential schools.

The planned review commission will address the realities of racism, class bias and misogyny experienced by Indigenous women that lead to miscarriages of justice, he said.

A new report Monday from a group of senators called on the federal government to make changes to the conviction review process that would better reflect the challenges faced by Indigenous women.

The report by senators Margaret Dawn Anderson, Yvonne Boyer and Kim Pate advocates an approach that would recognize the oppression experienced by Indigenous women in the criminal legal system.

The report details the experiences of 12 Indigenous women, saying they were criminalized for trying to survive and navigate marginalization in society.

It calls on the government to review the cases for possible miscarriages of justice.

Lametti said these women have access to the conviction review process currently in place within the Justice Department.

He said he knows that two of the women cited in the report are already in that process.

The recent death of David Milgaard, the victim of one of Canadas most notorious miscarriages of justice, has put renewed attention on Lamettis plan to create an independent criminal case review commission.

I was profoundly saddened by the fact that he would not live to see this, Lametti said.

More here:

Federal government 'moving forward' on commission to examine possible wrongful convictions: Lametti - National Post

This week, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will be kicking off their three-day visit to Canada with a focus on climate change and learning from the Indigenous peoples in Canada. Apparently theyll begin the blatant PR stunt with a stop in St. Johns, before heading to Ottawa the next day and spending their last day in Yellowknife.

Are you still reading? If so, congratulations! My own brain would have flatlined at Prince Charles.

Strange how the institution that perpetuated the colonization of Indigenous land to form Canada and the exploitation of people and resources for their Dickensian industrial revolution would declare their trip to be about education on these two problems. But the intention is perhaps to evoke some sort of half-hearted atonement. The problem with that though is that even if the reasons were seen as legitimate, we dont care.

The fascination in this country with the British Royal Family has fallen off steeply in recent years. Probably something to do with the sexual assault allegations against Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Meghan Markles interview with Oprah alleging racist behaviour within the family, or a long history of ignoring racism. Maybe Canadians finally realized the whole colonize the world thing may have been a bad thing, though this is probably wishful thinking.

In December, Angus Reid found 52 per cent of Canadians support the abolishment of this countrys constitutional monarchy at some point in the future. The survey also found, for some reason, there was still majority support for recognizing Queen Elizabeth II as head of state for as long as she reigns.

And while the jokes about her being dead have become increasingly funny, shes still alive and well and the reigning British monarch.

Prince Charles and Camilla will be in Canada this week for a Royal tour to mark Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee.

Canadians are at the point where even misplaced trust in the previously beloved Queen is waning. Were just tolerating her out of some sort of unquestioning, deeply ingrained respect. But since admiration of even the matriarchal monarch is fading, that prompts the question: why do we care that Charles is visiting, again? Did we suddenly wake up in 1970?

Over the past two years, incredible societal changes have occurred before our eyes. Unprecedented global protest movements have taken to the streets, Western reckonings with the faults in liberal democracy have become undeniable, the creeping movements of fascism have become stronger by the day, and the harrowing antics of Jared Leto as Michael Morbius still haunt my dreams. Meanwhile, the royal family has been repeatedly embarrassing itself, and now wants to pop in for a spell like its the annoying uncle your parents were obliged to invite to the family reunion. For the fiftieth time, Uncle Chuck, I dont want to look at the commendations you received for beating up striking miners in the 80s.

Are Canada and the British Royal Family attached at the hip? The answer is, unfortunately, a definitive yes.

Canadas independence as a nation is mostly one built out of precedence. Our constitutional monarchy has a degree of autonomy, true, but executive authority is vested formally in the Queen through the Constitution. The only legal way that the Canadian state is enforced is through the authority of the monarchy.

Yep.

As the House Of Commons explains, Approval by the Governor General or another designated representative of the Crown is required for a bill to become law once it has been passed by both Houses in identical form. It may just be a formality, and Canada does have a large degree of autonomy, but commonwealth nations have exploited the technicality in the past. Now, does this mean Canada is a useless entity devoid of any integrity? Yes. Not for that reason, though.

In addition, Canada was largely created through the Doctrine of Discovery, a Vatican law that gave Christian European settlers authority to claim land under their respective crowns. It was also used to claim that, at the most, Indigenous people did not have the right to the land, just its occupation and use.

Theyll learn all about their own history in the three days theyre here. Youll see.

So should we abolish the monarchy? Should we decolonize? Should we give the land back? Is Canada even real? To answer these questions in order: Yes, hell yes, of course, and yes but only if you count a loose jumble of mining corporations as a country. More specifically, getting rid of the monarchy isnt impossible. Barbados officially ditched the royals and became a republic in November. Jamaica is poised to follow suit.

But while monarchies are inherently undemocratic and reactionary, abolishing their role in the Canadian context isnt so easy.

If Canada were to move towards abolishing the British monarchy, the government would need to have the prime minister and their cabinet approve a national referendum, pass that referendum, then amend the Constitution Act of 1867, and the Constitution Act of 1982, then choose its new system of government. What would it look like? Same system but the prime minister is head of state? Prime minister and a president? Install Bonhomme as ultimate dictator? Adopt the U.S. system? This is a conversation worth having, but one that would probably get drowned out by other, more pressing, conversations, like whether or not the Queen is dead.

Even if this were all to happen, treaties with Indigenous peoples on this land are signed between nations and the British Crown. While there has been debate on what effect this would have on the treaties between nations, a compelling argument was made by law student Aidan Simardone that international law would transfer responsibility from the Crown to the Canadian state. While this is a reassuring argument for abolishing the monarchy, considering the genocidal treatment of Indigenous peoples by the Canadian settler-colonial state, the decision should be made in tandem with Indigenous nations.

As it stands now, Canada is inextricably linked to the British Royal Family. But were finally beginning to learn what a lot of modern countries have learned for themselves: Monarchies with complete, de facto authority are not good. What Canadas monarchy lacks in direct oppression, it makes up for in apathetic disdain.

While our options for getting out of the monarchy arent easily solved, they should be explored alongside Indigenous nations who signed treaties with the Crown.

Im curious as to what, exactly, Prince Charles hopes to learn during his visit. Why does a man who sits on a jewel-encrusted gold throne while talking about a cost-of-living crisis not know about the factors behind Indigenous oppression? The only way this visit should be taken seriously is if, for the entirety of the trip, Charles would wear a hot dog suit and exclaim that hes there to find out who did this. Otherwise, we should treat this visit for what it is: silly and not worth our time.

More here:

The Royal family tour: a begrudging reminder that Canada's stuck with the monarchy | Ricochet - Ricochet Media

Natan Sharansky has called on Israel to condemn Russias invasion of Ukraine and help support Ukraines democratic regime despite the possibility that Putin might retaliate by limiting Israels freedom to attack Hizballah targets in Syria.

It is now time for Israel to back the Sudanese peoples pro-democracy non-violent revolution. Unlike the situation with Russia, Israel has nothing to lose in supporting Sudans democratic forces over Sudans military rulers.

Since first coming to power in April 2019, Abdel Fattah Burhan and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (aka Hameti), the architects of the military coup that toppled the Bachir regime, have shown that they will not willingly give up power and privileges gained during the Bachir regime.

Shortly after the coup, tens of thousands of Sudanese joined a sit-in rejecting military rule in front of the armys central headquarters in Khartoum. The protestors reflected the popularity, diversity, and inclusiveness of the pro-democracy movement and encompassed: women and youth heading local resistance committees in every region of the country; railway workers: doctors, lawyers, scientists, and university professors decrying deficiencies in public, health, education and legal services; farmers angry at the expropriation of their land; imams preaching religious freedom; rebel groups and African civilian populations in besieged villages and IDP camps; artists, poets, and musicians; and brave journalists fighting censorship, exposing corruption and documenting human right violations.

The pro-democracy resistance movement enjoys the support of approximately 80% of Sudans citizens who are calling for an end to racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination, and oppression of women. We are Darfur has become a popular slogan.

On June 3, 2019, Burhan gave orders to dispel the sit-in demanding an end to military rule. Hametis Rapid Support Forces (RSP) led the onslaught firing on unarmed protesters, killing, and wounding hundreds, beating, and arresting protestors and bystanders, raping women, and destroying facilities set up to provide food, shelter, and medical treatment to the peaceful sit-in participants.

Though breaking up the sit-ins, the June 3 massacre failed to crush the peoples pro-democracy resistance. Over the next two months, mass demonstrations continued throughout the country. In response to international pressure, Burhan and Hameti promised to share power with a civilian government in August 2021and to transfer full powers to a civilian government in November 2021.

During the designated interim period, the coup leaders retained full control over the security services and used their power to block implementation of reforms initiated by the civilian government. This enabled them to thwart efforts to end military control of key economic sectors and prosecute the perpetrators of the June 3 massacre. The Sudanese army and RSF also failed to protect African civilian populations in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains against vicious attacks by Arab militias close to Hameti.

On October 25, 2021, Burhan and Hameti launched a second coup to prevent the promised transfer of power to a civilian government. After dissolving the civilian government and placing the prime minister under house arrest, they shut down social media, jailed and tortured protest leaders and journalists and used beatings, teargas, firearms, and heavy weapons to break up almost daily mass demonstrations.

Within Sudan, the military regime offered prominent government posts to gain the support of opportunistic politicians and marginal rebel leaders in legitimizing military rule and control over the transition to civilian government. To bolster their control over government, the coup leaders set free jailed Islamists and National Congress Party officials linked to the Bachir regime to replace government officials appointed by the civilian government. At the same time, they ended he contracts of thousands of younger military officers deemed sympathetic to the peoples non-violent revolution.

In calling for national elections to include participation of all political forces within the country (including political parties and organizations aligned with the Bachir regime) the military regime claims that its commitment to a democratic transition is real. However, retention of military control over the electoral process will ensure rigged elections and result in the restoration and legitimization of a despotic, corrupt, and incompetent Bachir-like regime without Bachir.

Bolstered by political and military support from Russia, China, and Egypt, and financial backing from Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, Burhan and Hameti defiantly refuse to transfer political power to any civilian government not under their control.

Russia provides arms, political support, and advice concerning how to crush Sudans democratic opposition. Like Bachir, Sudans military rulers continue to count heavily on Russia as its strongest ally to protect them from international sanctions and pressures. As a reward, they offer permission for Russia to establish a naval base in Sudan. While in Russia on a diplomatic mission, Hameti shamelessly parroted Putins rationale for Russias invasion as wholly justified.

The Israeli government is mistaken in supporting Sudans military rulers and its claims to be the only force strong enough to bring about peace and stability in Sudan and the region. On the contrary, since taking power in April 2019 coup, Sudans rulers have been a major cause of the regions violence, instability, and the growing misery of the Sudanese people. The military regime has failed to make peace or protect besieged civilian populations in IDP camps. Since the coup, the level of violence has sharply increased as heavily armed Arab militia allied with the regime have been encouraged to attack non-Arab civilian populations in Darfur and the Nuba mountains with impunity. Since the coup, the UN reports that the number of Sudanese citizens requiring humanitarian aid has doubled from eight to sixteen million people.

The Israeli government is also short-sighted in seeing normalization with a despotic, corrupt, and incompetent African military regime as a strategic asset. Rather than welcoming recognition and closer diplomatic relations from Sudans coup leaders, Israel should be embarrassed by their embrace. Continued political support to Sudans coup leaders and their increasingly brutal repression of Sudans non-violent revolution will discredit Israels moral standing not only in Sudan but elsewhere in Africa where progressive forces are emerging to oppose corrupt and autocratic regimes.

Israel needs to change course and back Sudans pro-democracy forces over a military regime aligned with and emulating Putins methods. The United States Congress has overwhelmingly just passed a resolution urging the Biden administration to impose strong targeted sanctions on Sudans military rulers and to marshal support from other democratic countries to force Sudans military to return to the barracks and transfer power to a civilian government supported by the Sudanese people. Israel has little to lose and much to gain by aligning its policy in Sudan with our most powerful ally.

Nathan Sharansky has urged Israel to support Ukraine as part of the battle to defend freedom and democracy in the world. We in Israel should also be urging our government to defend freedom and democracy in Sudan as well.

Sheldon Gellar is a Jerusalem-based Africanist scholar and international democracy and development consultant. His work is based on research and lessons learned from living in five different cultures, Metropolitan New York, the American Mid-West, France, Africa, and Israel.

More:

Israel's short-sighted support for Sudan's military coup leaders - The Times of Israel

As the definition goes, a welfare state is a concept of government in which the state or a well-established network of social institutions plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of citizens. And as per Mariam Webster; the national interest of a nation as a whole held to be an independent entity separate from the interests of subordinate areas or groups and also of other nations or supranational groups.

Examples include territorial integrity, national independence, state sovereignty, and the ability to pursue economic development. National interests are pursued by a state over a long period of time and include interests like ecological balance, the military force, the economy and industrial modernisation.

The meaning of national interest is survivalthe protection of physical, political and cultural identity against encroachments by other nation-states. Morgenthau.

Pakistan is a democratic country as per its constitution. Political parties are the pillars of democracypopular leaders are elected as rulers. Leaders are elected to serve the peoplethose who want to be elected must serve betterparties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society. As a matter of fact, a political party brings together people with the same political ideas. By taking part in an election, parties hope to get as many of their members as possible and get legitimacy to govern for a given period of time. During the same period the opposition party acts as a *check and balance* on the ruling elite to ensure it works for the betterment of the public. That means the opposition is, in the practical sense, a part of the system and has responsibilities.

A state cannot be stable as long as its economy is not stable. Therefore, the economy and economic policies have to be a constant factor, like the defence of the country, for all political parties of our country. A sustainable economy needs long-term policies, not only in the conceptual domain but more so in the practical domain.

It is, therefore, in the interest of all political parties, to now politicise economic policies. Whoever gets to lead the government after every election, should inherit a healthy economy. Public interest has to be given preference. A public scheme launched by a government often becomes controversial for the next government if its from another party. Long-term projects especially suffer for one reason or the other, primarily due to the interests of political parties over public interests. The construction of dams, hospitals, stadiums, communication infrastructures etc are a few examples to quote. A race to inaugurate and take credit for some project is always counterproductive and damaging, like what happened in WAPDA a few years back. Efforts must be acknowledged and lauded regardless of who is the beneficiary. An example is the establishment of Rescue 1122.

One simple way to define the economy: Its the way people spend money and the way people make money. An economy can be big or small. The word can refer to a local economy, such as the way people spend and make money in a small town or larger city. Its primarily the role of the sitting government (opposition included, as stated in the above paras), to ensure a reasonable standard of living (if not good) for the public.

Factors that determine a standard of living include:

Income

Physical health

Quality of the environment

Housing availability

Life expectancy

Personal safety

Access to education

Medical facilities

Social services

Factors that can contribute to low living standards include:

Lack of adequate industry in a particular area,

Lack of jobs,

Insufficient health care services,

Lack of public transportation,

Lack of food or water,

Government oppression,

and many more

Having a low living standard limits a persons ability to participate in the wider society, curtails their quality of life, and can have negative long-term consequences across a wide range of social and economic outcomes. It also adversely affects human behaviour, conduct and discipline. It contributes to negativity, lawlessness, depression and even violence.

Pakistan is blessed with huge resources both in terms of men as well as material. It has a history of facing international payment crises many times amid the depletion of Foreign Exchange Reserves. However, the positive side is, it has never defaulted on payments throughout its history. Our exports have been far low in comparison with imports, which puts a huge pressure on our reserves. However, remittances from expats have been playing a crucial role along with inflows through various schemes.

Recently, foreign currency inflows on account of Roshan Digital Accounts (RDAs) from overseas Pakistanis have continued to rise. These surpassed $4 billion in April 2022, despite global political and economic instabilities, more so in Pakistan. Inflows are a huge support towards stabilising the countrys foreign exchange reserves. Without these, our foreign exchange reserves would have decreased to a critical level. Inflows through RDAs are in addition to huge monthly workers remittances by overseas Pakistanis. That has helped to finance elevated trade and current account deficits. They sent a record high $2.81 billion in workers remittances in a single month of April 2022. The estimated amount is around $ 30-31 billion in the current fiscal year 2021-22.

Pakistan is yet to take full advantage of Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) status which is ending in December 2023. The objective of that status was trade diversification but we are still heavily relying on textile only. Other sectors like agriculture, fruits especially citrus (like kinnnows), leather, halal meat, jewellery and horticulture sector, despite fulfilling EUs requirements, were not able to capture EU markets. Our relevant ministries as well as foreign missions didnt work well on that front. Exports to the EU, dominated by textile and clothing, accounted for 75.2 percent of Pakistans total exports to the EU in 2020. Needless to say, for sustainable growth, our country needs to diversify exports. Sectors like IT have a massive potential that the government must explore.

The present government is a coalition of a number of parties, fearing backlash of unpopular (but much needed decisions including some which need continuation from the former government on merit) economic decisions. Unfortunately, there is no luxury of time. Forex reserves are decreasing. There is no respite to global commodity prices, except oil going down 5 percent due covid in China, which is the biggest user of it. Timely action is needed. Traditional supporters of Pakistan have made it clear that there would be no support without bringing the IMF on board. The World Bank and ADB always wait for the IMFs nod in low SBP forex reserves. Even the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is not ready to help without the IMF.

After the next elections, all parties making to the legislature should sit to decide on sustainable economic policies for the country with a professional team and without doing politics on that. It would bring not only prosperity but also enhance the respect of all politicians in the eyes of the general public, which has deteriorated at a very fast pace during the last four decades or so.

The writer is a freelance columnist.

Pakistan is yet to take full advantage of Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) status.

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Challenges and opportunities - The Nation

May 16, 2022

WARSAW, POLAND Today, Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen visited the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Museum showcases the important history of Jews in Poland over the past thousand years and stands directly across from the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, which commemorates the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Secretary Yellen delivered remarks and laid a wreath at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes.

Remarks As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you for being here with me today. Im honored to be at this important site. This museum not only bears witness to one of humanitys darkest chapters but also celebrates hundreds of years of vibrant Polish Jewish culture.

Being here today is personal to me. My fathers family immigrated to the United States from Sokow Podlaski, just over 50 miles from where we stand now.

The town to which I trace my roots has a tragic yet familiar history. During the Holocaust, nearly the entire Jewish population, including much of my family, was deported or murdered. The Nazis destroyed the towns cultural landmarks, and the Jewish cemetery was vandalized. Today, Sokow Podlaskis Jewish community is a fraction of what it once was.

Yet, the region where my relatives lived was also home to resistance. Eastern Poland was a hub for groups like the Polish resistance movement, a brave opposition who in the face of insurmountable odds and almost unthinkable risk stood up to evil. As this museum reminds us, the story of the Jews in Poland is not just one of tragedy; it is a story of bravery and perseverance.

That is part of the legacy I am here today to honor: taking action to confront evil. And it is a legacy that is also at the core of the Treasury Department.

In the spring of 1940, a time when the United States still held an official position of neutrality in World War II, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau persuaded President Roosevelt to sign an Executive Order freezing the assets of Denmark and Norway. The Order made it impossible for the Nazis to capture overseas assets of countries that they were invading. With this, Morgenthau launched what he called the unseen front of the war, a critical but largely unrecognized set of economic actions that damaged the Nazis ability to fund their encroachment into other nations.

And, in the face of resistance from other arms of government, Morgenthau also convinced Roosevelt to establish the War Refugee Board. The Board worked to rescue Jews from occupied territories and provide relief to those in hiding and in concentration camps, ultimately saving tens of thousands of lives.

The lesson of Morgenthaus decisive actions is the lesson of Sokow Podlaski and the lesson of many exhibits in this museum: We must use the tools at our disposal to fight oppression. And that lesson must be applied today.

A few hundred miles to our East lies another place where people are bravely fighting for their freedom. My thoughts continue to be with the people of Ukraine as they fight back against Putins brutal invasion into their homeland.

Putins ongoing attacks on Ukraine require that we think about what we can do to confront brutality. Almost three months into this unjustified war, the Polish people have been the model of stepping up to help in a time of need. Your country has rolled out the welcome mat, taking in over three million Ukrainian refugees.

We at Treasury are also doing what we can to ensure that Putins brutal war is met with fierce resistance internationally. The United States and more than 30 of our partners have imposed unprecedented financial pressure measures on the Russian Federation and its leadership. We are firm in our resolve to hold Russia accountable and to strengthen the hand of the Ukrainian people at every turn.

This moment calls for us to step up and do our part. Im grateful to those who have introduced me to this moving museum, and Ill continue to take these lessons of the past with me as we work toward a better future. Thank you very much.

By U.S. Mission Poland | 17 May, 2022 | Topics: Events, News

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Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen Delivers Remarks at the POLIN Museum in Warsaw, Poland - US Embassy and Consulate in Poland