Abandoned animals join Ukraine’s war exodus

Some people who fled the war left their pets behind them - Copyright AFP STR

AFP
March 27, 2022

Joe STENSON

At the “Home for Rescued Animals” in the city of Lviv, exotic creatures are now sheltered alongside everyday pets — those left behind in the rush of refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A milky-eyed wolf prowls in its enclosure. Boris the goat bathes his bedraggled face in the spring sunshine. A parliament of owls peers out from the perches of their shaded roost.

In a side building around a dozen cats from Kyiv are lodged. Dogs yowl from an industrial barn, courting volunteers arriving to walk them round nearby parkland.

“Migrants who come from Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv and go abroad via Lviv leave animals en masse,” said 24-year-old shelter manager Orest Zalypskyy.

His hilltop sanctuary in the 13th century city of Lviv was once a “haven” reserved for exotic animals, he says.

“This war has made us more engaged.”

– Left behind –


The UN estimates more than 3.7 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the war began a month ago.

More than two million of those crossed the border to Poland, where AFP has witnessed droves of animal lovers ferrying dogs, cats, parrots and turtles to safety.

Lviv — just 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the border — has been the final stopover on Ukrainian soil for many making the journey out of the war zone.

Some soon-to-be refugees felt unable to take their pets further.

Zalypskyy estimates his shelter has taken in 1,500 animals since the war began, from migrants and shelters in “hot spots” to the east.

Between 10 and 20 were collected from Lviv’s train station — the locus of chaos in the first days of the war, where carriages and platforms heaved with desperate passengers.

“There’s been no system,” says Zalypskyy. “We just have many volunteers who head out and fetch them.”

One dog from a war-torn region in the east did not leave its pen for two weeks. A cat abandoned by its owner of seven years is distraught.

“We are all bitten and scratched,” said Zalypskyy of his volunteer teams. “The animals are very stressed.”

– Onward travel –

However the animals left here do not languish. Around 200 have been adopted by the locals of Lviv, while most of the rest are taken onwards by volunteers to Germany, Latvia and Lithuania.

There are currently no cats available for adoption — they are all bound for Poland.

By noon Zalypskyy has already signed his third set of dog adoption paperwork for the day.

Meanwhile the shelter is inundated with couples, friends and families arriving to borrow dogs for a weekend stroll.

“Ukrainians really adore animals,” says 36-year-old Kateryna Chernikova. “It’s just in the DNA.”

With her husband Ihor, 36, and four-year-old daughter Solomiia, Chernikova fled Kyiv a week before war broke out.

The young family plus their two guinea pigs Apelsynka and Lymonadka (Orange and Lemonade) — now live in the relative safety of Lviv, which has been largely untouched by violence.

On Saturday morning they leashed a pair of boisterous hunting dogs and set out through the shelter gates, under a fluttering Ukrainian flag.

“We’re not in the war conditions itself, but it’s psychologically very hard,” said Chernikova.

“When you have a walk with a dog, it just feels as if you’re living a normal life.”

Meat off the menu in crisis-hit Lebanon as poverty bites


By AFP
Published March 26, 2022

The price of imported red meat has increased five fold, with some cuts costing more than the monthly minimum wage of 675,000 Lebanese pounds ($33) - Copyright AFP/File Joseph EID

Bassem El Hage

Layla Ibrahim has cut down on her daily meat consumption, not because of a health fad but forced by Lebanon’s bruising economic crisis.

“I used to eat a slice of meat, chicken or fish every day, but the prices of these items have become ridiculous,” the 44-year-old mother of two told AFP.

“Out of necessity and not choice, I have almost become a vegetarian,” she added.

Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually associated with full-scale wars.

The currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value on the black market, more than 80 percent of the population lives in poverty, and prices have skyrocketed.

The price of imported red meat has increased fivefold, with some cuts costing more than the monthly minimum wage of 675,000 Lebanese pounds ($33).

As a result, dietary habits have changed and plant-based dishes — a popular part of Lebanon’s Mediterranean cuisine — are now a main course in many households.

For Ibrahim and her family, meat is served only once a week and even then in small portions.

“We started using smaller quantities of minced meat in stuffings and stews,” Ibrahim said.

“Even the Sunday family barbecue has been scrapped.”

– Luxury item –

Nabil Fahed, head of the syndicate of supermarket owners, said customers are opting for poultry or grain as a cheaper alternative.

Chicken is almost three times cheaper than beef and sells at around 120,000 pounds ($5) a kilo.

The demand for red meat has plummeted since the government lifted subsidies on certain food imports in March 2021, Fahed said.

Sales dropped by around 70 percent in large supermarkets and the decline is even steeper in popular markets frequented by people with low incomes, he said.

Nancy Awada, a food inspector working with the Beirut municipality, has noticed a change in supply.

“The quantities of meat stored in a butcher’s refrigerator… today are a quarter or a third of what they used to be,” she said.

“Instead of slaughtering two or three calves a day, butchers make do with only one.”

– Dine-out culture –

Lebanon’s cash-strapped government is struggling to afford fuel imports to feed its power plants, causing outages that last up to 22 hours a day in most parts of the country.

To safeguard stocks, traders and distributors have to pay for expensive generator subscriptions to power refrigerators, said meat importer Imad Harouk of the Fed Distribution company.

A spike in transport costs due to the lifting of fuel subsidies last year has also raised the overall meat bill, Harouk told AFP.

Adjusting to demand, importers have sized down on stocks.

“Lebanon used to import 70 containers of frozen meat every month, but now the number is nearly 40,” Harouk said.

Tony al-Rami, head of the restaurant owners’ union, said inflation has altered ordering habits even in cheap fast-food chains.

“Demand has dropped for meat shawarma sandwiches, with consumers leaning more towards chicken,” he said.

This trend has played out at the Kababji grill house, a restaurant famous for its wide selection of meat skewers.

“The economic crisis combined with the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a significant decline in overall sales, especially of meat-based dishes,” said Hala Jebai, the manager of Kababji’s customer service department.

“The high-quality meat that we offer is imported and paid for in dollars… which has led to a significant decline in demand,” she added.

In a Beirut department store, Charles Nassour approached the butcher’s counter to purchase minced meat.

The 62-year-old used to put in a standard order of one kilo (two pounds) before the crisis but now he asks for an amount worth just under $2.

“A lot of consumers are buying limited quantities based on what they can afford,” Harouk, the meat importer, told AFP.

“Even the well-off can’t consume the way they used to.”

BREAD RIOTS LEAD TO REVOLUTION

BREAD IS LIFE

Egypt: Soaring wheat prices turn food security into a priority

Egypt is pushing for reforms following the disruption of the wheat market and soaring inflation. While experts see no immediate food scarcity, the future will depend on real reforms to prevent another uprising.

In Egypt, around 30,000 bakeries sell subsidized bread, and 5,000 bakeries not-subsidized bread

This week was a turbulent one for Egypt's 102 million people.

First, the government devalued the Egyptian pound by 14% against the US dollar to combat a hike in prices for wheat products and other foods, which is a result of the war in Ukraine.

Subsequently, to address the resulting spike in inflation, the central bank increased interest rates by 1%, citing "domestic inflationary pressures and increased pressure on the external balance." 

Then, to counter the soaring prices for non-subsidized bread, Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly introduced a price cap for the next three months.

A 90-gram (3.2 US ounce) loaf will now be sold for 1 pound (€0.05, $0.05) at around 5,000 bakeries throughout the country, according to Abdullah Ghorab, head of the General Bakery Division of the Egyptian Federation of Industries.

By comparison, vendors sell subsidized bread for around 0.05 Egyptian pounds at about 30,000 bakeries, he told DW. 

The government also announced an economic aid package worth 130 million pounds (€6.4 million, $7.05 million), acknowledging that the recent price hike has exacerbated the hardships faced by a population that was suffering from rising poverty, a contracting private sector, and declining labor force participation even before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Meanwhile, 30 million people live in poverty, and 70% of the population depends on food subsidy programs — above all for bread, a staple food that is usually consumed with every meal in Egypt.

A problem leaders can't afford to ignore

The ubiquity of bread means wheat imports nearly doubling in price has hit the country particularly hard, but food insecurity does not appear to be an immediate threat.

"Egypt doesn't have an urgent supply problem, according to the government," Timothy Kaldas, a policy fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, told DW. "They have enough wheat between local production and strategic reserves to cover their needs for the rest of the year."  

Bread is a staple food in Egypt and consumed with almost every meal

But the country still needs to find a sustainable solution to replace the 80% of wheat imports from Ukraine and Russia.

"Importing wheat is essential for Egypt, as they cannot generate the amount themselves, and there are few other foods that provide the same number of calories and can be transported and stored," said Eckhart Woertz, director of the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies and food security expert.

He said he does not see any alternative for the Egyptian government to raising more money and finding substitute exporters, like India or the United States.

For the Egyptian government under President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Madbouly, focusing on food security could be the key to keeping the population calm and cooperative.  

Bread means life for Egyptians

In Egypt, bread has been a particularly delicate topic for many decades. The word "eish" translates into three words: Bread, life, and livelihood.

So-called "bread riots" following subsidy cuts and increased food prices led to violent clashes in 1977, 2011 and 2017.

In 2011, during the Arab Spring, a popular slogan at demonstrations that would eventually topple the military government of long-time Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak was "bread, freedom and social justice."

Consequently, the recent surge in non-subsidized bread prices has led to unsettling memories.

"People ask me more often than before how much it costs," Hosni Mustafa, a seller of non-subsidized bread in Cairo, told DW. 

So far, he hasn't seen people buying less bread, even though it costs more. "We still sell 2,000 pieces of bread per day since people have never held back despite inflated prices," he said.

Egyptian bread is categorized as subsidized and non-subsidized bread, 

which is also referred to as "tourist bread"

And yet, up to the price cap this week, prices were handled differently. "Vendors took advantage of the situation and raised prices on their own," 24-year-old Nour Mohamed told DW outside a small bakery in Cairo. 

"We cannot live without bread," 35-year-old Mohammad Sayed, a father of two sons, told DW. To make ends meet, Sayed has been working two jobs for a while, and his wife is working as a nurse. 

Timely structural reforms 

His family might have just become eligible for subsidized bread though. "The government announced that it was adding 450,000 families to Takaful and Karama, which is their targeted cash assistance program for the poor," Timothy Kaldas told DW. "They also increased the exemption for income taxes and raised public servants' salaries and pensions." 

Kaldas has no doubt that these measures are aimed at appeasing the population: "I think that they're trying to get ahead of the discontent that is likely to come with even further increases in the cost of living in a country that already has so many people living below the poverty line and very possibly will see more people fall below that poverty line in the coming year."

On the other hand, such structural changes are obligatory when asking for international money, and as of this week, Egypt has applied for financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

El-Sissi applied for aid from the IMF, but experts accuse him of not distributing

 the money for the benefit of the population

IMF money with conditions?

"The rapidly changing global environment and spillovers related to the war in Ukraine are posing important challenges for countries around the world, including Egypt. In that context, the Egyptian authorities have requested the International Monetary Fund's support to implement their comprehensive economic program," Celine Allard, the IMF's mission chief for Egypt, said in a statement.

However, Kaldas is not convinced that international money alone will solve the country's future problems.

"It's about the priorities and the proper allocation of public resources and making sure that more of them go towards serving the public and their interests as opposed to enriching regime elites, which has, unfortunately, been one of the priorities of this government for a number of years," he told DW. 

Meanwhile, family father Mohamed Sayed has to pay market prices for the food he puts on the table.

"We are approaching the month of Ramadan. I used to buy four kilos of chicken for 200 pounds and three kilos of beef for 200 pounds, and now I bought three kilos of beef for 300 pounds, an increase of 50%," he told DW. "The war is far from me, but its repercussions and effects are happening in my country."

Edited by: Sean Sinico

MU5735 UPDATES

Second ‘Black Box' Found in China Eastern Plane Crash

Searchers had been looking for the flight data recorder after finding the cockpit voice recorder four days ago

By Ken Moritsugu •


The second “black box” has been recovered from the crash of a China Eastern Boeing 737-800 that killed all 132 people on board last week, Chinese state media said Sunday.

Firefighters taking part in the search found the recorder, an orange cylinder, on a mountain slope about 1.5 meters (5 feet) underground, state broadcaster CCTV said. Experts confirmed it was the second black box. The impact of the crash scattered debris widely and created a 20-meter- (65-foot-) deep pit in the side of the mountain.

Searchers had been looking for the flight data recorder after finding the cockpit voice recorder four days ago. The two recorders should help investigators determine what caused the plane to plummet from 29,000 feet (8,800 meters) and into a forested mountainside in southern China.

The search for the black boxes and wreckage from the plane has been complicated by the remote setting and rainy and muddy conditions. Video posted by CGTN, the international arm of CCTV, showed an official holding the orange can-like object on site with the words “RECORDER” and “DO NOT OPEN” written on it. It appeared slightly dented but intact.

Flight MU5735 crashed Monday en route from the city of Kunming in southeastern China to Guangzhou, a major city and export manufacturing hub near Hong Kong. An air traffic controller tried to contact the pilots several times after seeing the plane’s altitude drop sharply but got no reply, officials have said.

The cockpit voice recorder, also an orange cylinder, was found two days later on Wednesday. It has been sent to Beijing for examination and analysis.

Hundreds of searchers have been combing the site outside the city of Wuzhou for days with shovels and other hand tools. Construction excavators have been brought in to remove earth and clear passageways to the site, and pumps are being used to drain collected water from the rain.

Officials announced late Saturday that there were no survivors among the 123 passengers and nine crew members. DNA analysis has confirmed the identities of 120 of the people on board, they said. Searchers have found ID and bank cards belonging to the victims.

China Eastern, one of China’s four major airlines, and its subsidiaries have grounded all of their Boeing 737-800s, a total of 223 aircraft. The carrier said the grounding was a precaution, not a sign of any problem with the planes.

The Boeing Co. said in a statement that a Boeing technical team is supporting the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Civil Aviation Administration of China, which will lead the investigation into the crash.

Copyright AP - Associated Press

China Eastern plane crash: All 132 people on board confirmed dead

The Chinese airliner, flying between the cities of Kunming and Guangzhou, nosedived into a mountainside earlier this week. The crash is China's deadliest in almost 30 years.

The cause of the crash still remains a mystery

The 132 passengers and crew on China Eastern flight MU5735 died in Monday's plane crash, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) confirmed on Saturday.

Hu Zhenjiang, deputy director of the CAAC, told reporters that there had been no signs of life at the crash site in a heavily forested part of the Guangxi region, near the city of Wuzhou.

"The identity of 120 victims has been determined by DNA identification," he said. The families of the victims have been waiting for days to hear the news as rescue teams looked for survivors.

State media said the 123 passengers and nine crew members had all died in the crash.

What caused the crash of flight MU5735?

The crash, the deadliest in China for almost 30 years, left authorities puzzled over the cause.

The search for clues has been hampered by the rugged terrain and mud at the crash site. Search teams employed machinery and their hands to dig out parts of the plane.

Authorities said they had not found any evidence of conventional explosives at the scene.

Aviation officials said they had found one of the two black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder, which is expected to offer up some details behind the incident. It has been sent to Beijing for examination.

Officials also believe they will be able to track down the other black box, the flight data recorder, after finding the signal from the emergency location transmitter that had been installed close to it, Zhu Tao, director of the Aviation Safety Office at the CAAC said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash and the country's aviation authorities said they would carry out a full check-up of its vast passenger fleet. 

Boeing, the maker of the 737-800 plane model which crashed, extended its deepest condolences to the victims and their families.  

ab/wd (Reuters, AFP)

China Eastern flight MU5735: Handwritten note found amid wreckage breaks Chinese hearts as rescue efforts continue

MARCH 25, 2022

ByYINGJIE WANG

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

Search and rescue workers found a handwritten note found in the wreckage of China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 they believe was written by a passenger.
Handout

A photograph of a handwritten note from a passenger on China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735, which crashed in southern China on Monday (March 21) with 132 people on board, caused an emotional stir in China this week.

The note describes a jade disc, a good-luck pendant that symbolises “peace, luck and safety” in traditional Chinese culture. The note was believed to be written by a female passenger with the surname Xiang, who was in her 20s, according to Thepaper.cn.More from AsiaOneRead the condensed version of this story, and other top stories with NewsLite.

“The jade disc lucky charm symbolises hope for peace in the year, and a long and healthy life,” she wrote.

Xiang was a live-streaming salesperson and was flying to Guangzhou to host an online sales event for jade products.

The note may have been used for studying because, according to jewellery salespeople, the wording is commonly used to sell jade on television and live streams.

Flight MU5735, a Boeing 737-800, crashed into a forested slope in Guangxi autonomous region on Monday. Flight data suggested the pilots fought to keep the plane airborne because it briefly gained altitude after a 22,000-foot nosedive before dropping again. It crashed 30 seconds later.

A search and rescue operation has been under way since Monday, but no survivors have been found.

One of Xiang’s friends, surnamed Zhao, told Thepaper that they had realised Xiang might have been on the plane when they heard about the crash.

“We calculated the time of the flight and determined that was the route she took. We started to call her, but she did not pick up,” said Zhao.

According to Zhao, the local police department called Xiang’s parents and informed them that she was a passenger on the plane.

Since the accident, Xiang’s parents have struggled to accept the possibility that their daughter may have died in the crash, and they have been posting messages in the comment section of Xiang’s Douyin account, pleading for their daughter to return.

Read Also China Eastern flight MU5735: Suspected debris found 10km from crash site, search area widened

“They discovered the black box, so my daughter should be found soon. We miss you so so much, our daughter; please return home as quickly as possible,” her parents wrote.

At 1am on the day of the accident, Xiang posted a video on Douyin of herself, smiling, with the English words “love you” written across her face, an online trend in China.

Her videos, which typically featured selfies and encouraging words, were often posted in the early morning after she finished her midnight live-streaming sales sessions.

“She was a very motivated person with a nice personality,” Zhao said.

Xiang’s most recent WeChat Moments post is a brief video she filmed on her way to Changshui airport in Kunming to catch the MU5735 flight.

“What kind of goals are worth pursuing and worth always being on the go?” she wrote, finishing her post with three sun emojis.

This article was first published in South China Morning Post.

Ukraine or the Middle East? Greece applies varying rules on refugees

Thousands of Ukrainian refugees have entered Greece, where they enjoy international protection. For non-Ukrainian refugees, however, the situation remains tense and frustrating.

Anti-war protesters in Thessaloniki have been showing their support for Ukrainians

After days of hiding in the basement of her house, Sofiia Malinovskaya finally made it to safety. Airstrikes and fighting near her home in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv forced her to leave Ukraine. 

"A friend and I left by car," Malinovskaya said. "It took us four days just to get to the border. There were just so many cars, and the traffic jam was crazy. We moved 170 kilometers (106 miles) in seven hours."

They left via Slovakia because border traffic there had not been very busy. Volunteers helped Sofiia get to Krakow, Poland, then on to Warsaw and, from there, to the Greek city of Thessaloniki.

Sofiia Malinovskaya fled from Kharkiv to Thessaloniki

Although she is now safe, she said she feels she has no prospects. "I feel very lost. You realize that you don't have the place to get back, because my city is almost destroyed. There isn't a building left without any destruction. You don't know what to do next and you don't know how to keep living a normal life after that," she said.

Malinovskaya came to Thessaloniki because she knew she would have a place to live. "I have a close friend living here, and I could stay with her," she said. 

She added, however, that she did not know that Greece has been criticized for years for pushbacks and lack of protection of migrants and asylum-seekers.

Ukrainians have been fleeing to various neighboring countries

Aid without red tape

More than 10,000 people crossed the border as of Wednesday, according to Vadym Sabluk, Ukraine's consul general in Thessaloniki.

"The Greek government kindly agreed to let all Ukrainians who escape from the war come to the Greek territory," he said.

Ukrainians carrying biometric passports could immediately enter the country. For those identifying themselves with other documents, such as a birth certificate, a center has been set up at Promachonas, the Greek-Bulgarian border checkpoint, where refugees are given paperwork to fill out by the police. They could then submit the document to the nearest immigration authority and be officially registered.

Vadym Sabluk is Ukraine's consul general in Thessaloniki

"According to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum, starting from March 28, an online platform for pre-registration for receiving documents in the status of temporary protection of Greek government will be launched," Sabluk said, adding that the status can remain valid for up to three years. 

Sabluk, who has been working nonstop since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, said he has been overwhelmed by the willingness of Greek authorities and citizens to help his compatriots.

"Many people come to the consulate and offer their own apartments, houses and rooms in order to welcome Ukrainian people," he said.

Volunteers have been bundling up aid packages for Ukraine

Russians living in Greece are showing solidarity as well, Sabluk added. "The Russians are coming and begging pardon and they work shoulder-to-shoulder with our volunteers," he said.

Good refugee, bad refugee

Inside Thessaloniki's city hall, Ukrainians, Russians and Greeks have been working together to assemble packages of food, clothing and medicines to be sent to Ukraine. But out on the streets of Athens, more then 400 police officers have been busy with Operation Skupa ("broom"), carrying out checks on asylum-seekers and detaining anyone who can't prove their identity.

"I'm afraid to go out at all," said a young Afghan, adding that he does not know where he will go when the camp where he lives shuts down in May.

Some asylum-seekers are forced to travel to submit their applications at a reception center

 in Evros, a military zone

His application for asylum was rejected twice, he said. In Kabul, his hometown, he worked as an interpreter for international media outlets, and he fears the Taliban will make good on threats to kill him if he returns to Afghanistan.

The Afghan's attempt to submit a new asylum application was unsuccessful. For hours he tried, as required, to register via the Skype messenger service, but he never got through. Now he has to travel, at his own expense, to the district of Evros, situated at the other end of the country, to submit his application at a reception center.

He said his time in Greece has left him with little trust in Greek authorities. He mentions witnessing police violence and illegal deportations while trying to cross the border from Turkey to Greece.

In February, Bangladeshi migrants staged a demonstration against arbitrary police detention

The Afghan said comparing the treatment of Ukrainian refugees with his own situation makes him angry. "They're new arrivals and should go through the same procedure as all the other refugees," he said.

The war in Ukraine is the main topic of discussion at the camp where he lives, he said, adding that the situation there was difficult enough without seeing how others have received preferential treatment.

Documented breaches of law

Human rights activists have long denounced the Greek government's treatment of refugees. The government, however, claims that Turkey is a safe third country and that, therefore, people had no right to international protection in the EU.

Speaking to the parliament, Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarakis recently labeled the refugees from Ukraine "real refugees." Meanwhile, leading politicians have said asylum-seekers from the Middle East or Africa are "illegal immigrants," according to Greek media.

 

Neda Noraie-Kia, of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Thessaloniki, disapproves

 of Greece's unequal treatment of refugees

Neda Noraie-Kia, an expert in European migration policy at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which is affiliated with the German Green Party, said she disapproves of the Greek government's unequal treatment of refugees. A rather somber picture has emerged regarding refugee protection in Greece, she said: Illegal deportations, lack of basic provisions, lack of integration efforts — the list of accusations is long.

"It's important that the EU responds to documented breaches of law," she told DW.

Nonetheless, it is also important that refugees from Ukraine receive protection in Greece without red tape, she added.

"This proves, after all, that solidarity is possible," said Noraie-Kia, adding that such solidarity also has to be extended to others who seek protection.

Many people, including asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, have been waiting too long for an asylum hearing, trapped in a legal gray area for years.

"Protection against war and persecution is not an act of mercy,"said Noraie-Kia. "We in the EU are not isolated in this world. When authoritarian regimes oppress their citizens, we can't close our eyes. We must take responsibility."

This article was originally published in German

Ukraine: Russians living in Prague stage anti-war rally

Thousands of people, mostly Russian nationals, protested in the Czech capital against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Organizers said it was important to show that Russian expatriates are not secret Putin supporters.


Police said some 3,000 protesters participated in the rally under the slogan "Russians against Putin"


Thousands of mostly Russian nationals on Saturday protested in the Czech Republic against President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, calling on him to stop the war.

Organizers said some 5,000 people joined the "Russians against Putin" march in downtown Prague, while police put the turnout at about 3,000.

Some protesters carried banners calling on Russians to "raise their voice and fight the real enemy, not Ukraine" and labeled Putin as a killer.

Russians rally around Ukraine

"We want to show that the Russians who live here are against Putin, against the war, that they support Ukraine," organizer Anton Litvin told AFP news agency.

He said the Russians in Prague are "not Putinists, they are Europeans."

Another protester and former soldier, Oleg Golopyatov, said: "Just because we are Russians doesn't mean we are automatically for the war."

Golopyatov, who has lived in Prague for 15 years, added: "Ukraine is a normal country. It is terrible (what is happening there)."

Olga Buzenkova, an entrepreneur who moved from Moscow just a year ago, told AFP: "Russia has now become a fascist country. It's a repeat of 1938. We cannot ignore it and we cannot forgive it. Putin must be stopped."

Demonstrators also called on Putin to release political prisoners, including Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was sentenced to nine years in jail earlier this week.
Czech Republic hosts large Russian diaspora

More than 45,000 Russian nationals lived in the Czech Republic at the end of last year, according to official figures.

There are a large number of Russian shops, some of which are now displaying Ukrainian flags or offering assistance to refugees

Russians make up one of the largest minorities in the country, behind Ukrainians, Slovakians and Vietnamese.

The Czech government estimates 300,000 Ukrainians have fled to the country, in addition to the 200,000-strong diaspora before the invasion.

Russians distance themselves from Putin's propaganda

Besides their condemnation of the war, the protesters said they want to make it clear they are part of Czech society and not secret supporters of Putin.

In the run-up to the invasion, Russia had categorically rejected reports it planned to attack Ukraine.

Moscow presented the war as a "special military operation" to its own public and state media has rebroadcast Putin's baseless claim that his enemies in Ukraine are Nazis.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Kremlin has spent billions of dollars on propaganda to reframe the war to the Russian people.

"You all know exactly what an enormous state propaganda system Russia has built," Zelenskyy said in a video message Friday night.

"Probably no one else in the world has spent such vast sums on lies," he added.

mm/wd (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Ukraine is using Elon Musk's Starlink for drone strikes

Elon Musk's satellites are connecting Ukraine with the internet. Starlink was conceived as a civilian program — but Ukraine's military can also use it to guide drones and strike Russian tanks and positions.



Just after Russia's invasion began, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov took to Twitter to ask the Texas businessman Elon Musk to activate his Starlink satellites for use in Ukraine. The billionaire swiftly tweeted his response: "Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route."

Soon after, a number of terminals and powerful batteries arrived in Ukraine. Others followed. Fedorov took to Twitter again to express his gratitude: "Starlink — here. Thanks, @elonmusk."

No secret dispatches, no long debates, no governmental or parliamentary controls: just a very public deal between a politician whose country has been attacked and an enigmatic billionaire who went on to challenge the aggressor, Russian President Vladimir Putin, to "single combat." What at first looked like a PR coup now seems to be playing a significant role in the defense of Ukraine.

Turkey's Bayraktar TB2 drones, seen here in 2021, have been effective against Russia

'Create target acquisition'

British media report that Ukraine's army is making very successful use of Starlink for drone attacks on Russian tanks and positions. The Telegraph reports that Starlink is of particular military significance in areas where the infrastructure is weak and there is no Internet connection.

According to Telegraph, the aerial reconnaissance unit Aerorozvidka is using Starlink to monitor and coordinate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), enabling soldiers to fire anti-tank weapons with targeted precision. Only the system's high data rates can provide the stable communication required, The Telegraph reports.

An officer with the Aerorozvidka unit described the system to Times of London. "We use Starlink equipment and connect the drone team with our artillery team," he said. "If we use a drone with thermal vision at night, the drone must connect through Starlink to the artillery guy and create target acquisition."

The Times reports that the Aerorozvidka team runs about 300 information-gathering missions each day. Attacks are then carried out at night, according to the newspaper, because the drones, some of which are equipped with thermal cameras, are almost impossible to see in the dark.

Satellites like Starlink's have been considered for getting information to conflict regions

Many possible uses

Starlink satellites are intended to provide internet to undersupplied regions far from urban centers. The potential for using satellites to get information to people in regions where the internet is censored had been discussed. Few, however, had imagined that its initial use would be in a European war zone in which one of the aggressor's first acts at the start of the invasion was to target and destroy power supplies and internet connections.

Ukrainians have — or have regained — access to information. According to The Telegraph, Starlink is one of the most popular app downloads in Ukraine, enabling more than 100,000 people to stay updated about what is happening in the war, and to keep in touch with the outside world.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy uses the Starlink satellites to make speeches to the nation and to national parliaments around the world. Quite apart from its military usefulness, Starlink has become vital to Ukraine, both for obtaining worldwide support and for maintaining the unbroken resistance of the people.

Target for Russia?

As Russia will keep trying to target and destroy Ukrainian infrastructure, including power and internet, the connection will likely be even more important in the coming weeks and months. This, of course, also means that the Starlink reception dishes, which are not exactly inconspicuous, will be targets for Russian troops.

The biggest danger, however, is that the reception equipment can be geolocated while in operation. Shortly after the first terminals were delivered in early March, Musk tweeted: "Turn on Starlink only when needed and place antenna as far away from people as possible."

In addition to targeted attacks, Russia is apparently also trying to use jammers to block internet access from space. But SpaceX says it already has a solution: On Twitter, Musk wrote that a new software update lowers power consumption and can bypass jamming transmitters.

The Kremlin considers Musk's support of Ukraine an aggression. Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, called Starlink's activities interference. "When Russia implements its highest national interests on the territory of Ukraine, Elon Musk appears with his Starlink, which was previously declared purely civilian," he said on RT.

Musk's response was as laconic as ever. "Ukraine civilian Internet was experiencing strange outages - bad weather perhaps? - so SpaceX is helping fix it," he tweeted.

This article was originally written in German.


UKRAINE'S CIVILIANS PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR THE WAR EFFORT
Anti-tank obstacles instead of sculptures
In peacetime, artist Volodymyr Kolesnykov creates metal sculptures in his workshop in Uzhhorod, near the Hungarian border. These days, his time is spent welding anti-tank obstacles, or "Czech hedgehogs," along with other artists and metalworkers.
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People-centered development significant to human rights: Chinese ambassador

Xinhua, March 26, 2022

People-centered development should be at the heart of the global community's approach to tackling inequality, China's permanent representative to the UN Office in Geneva Chen Xu has said at the ongoing 49th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted economic and social development, and particularly the livelihoods of people in developing countries, he said on Friday. This has exacerbated inequality, bringing severe challenges to global development.

"We are of the view that development contributes significantly to the enjoyment of human rights. The international community needs to work together to speed up the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieve more robust, greener and more balanced global development," he added.

States should remain committed to people-centered development, he said; specifically, this means addressing uneven development among countries so that no individuals are left behind.

States should also practice multilateralism, establish global development partnerships, and support the UN in its coordinating role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Developed countries should extend more robust and targeted support to developing countries, the ambassador said.

China welcomes various development initiatives, including the Global Development Initiative, the African Union's Agenda 2063, ASEAN Community Vision 2025, and the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent, he noted.

"We call upon all stakeholders to strengthen cooperation to achieve common development, promote the enjoyment of human rights, and bring about a better future for people around the world," he concluded.

US Georgia turning into 'wild, wild West' over passing of gun legislation: Report

Xinhua, March 26, 2022

As violent crime jumps in the U.S. state of Georgia, residents are arming themselves at record levels, which is leading to more crime and spurring new efforts by state GOP lawmakers to loosen permitting requirements for carrying concealed weapons, reported The Washington Post on Thursday.

"It's a trend that has echoed across the country, as gun violence continues to rattle communities," said the report titled "As gun ownership rises, Georgia looks to loosen restrictions: It's the 'wild, wild West'," noting that firearm purchases have soared since the beginning of the pandemic.

In recent weeks, Republican governors in Alabama and Ohio have signed laws that nix permits for concealed weapons; 21 other states have similar measures in place. At the urging of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, similar measures have passed the Georgia Senate and House of Representatives, and the two chambers are expected to agree on a final version of the legislation in the coming days.

"The legislation, a setback for gun control advocates in a state that has been trending left, has opened up sharp cultural divisions here in Georgia," said the report.

"One of the concerns I have (with the legislation) is more people leaving their guns in cars. People leaving their guns in other places, because now there is more freedom to have that gun with them," said Roy W. Minter, Jr., police chief in Savannah, Georgia, who noted that his city had more than 100 guns stolen out of unlocked vehicles last year.
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BOOKS

Remembering Sara Suleri Who Knew the Importance of Peace Between India and Pakistan

The writer, most noted for 'Meatless Days', would always identify herself as Pakistani – “never American-Pakistani”.

Sara Suleri (June 1953 - March 2022) Photo: Twitter/@FarooqiMehr


Beena Sarwar 

“Aur bataiye” – tell me more – a polite invitation to keep talking. I could hear her voice, naturally husky, perhaps made deeper with years of cigarette smoking and perhaps more recently with pain and other medications.

She would always send her love to Pakistan whenever I called before flying out from Boston, where we both had ended up around 10 years ago. She was staying there after retiring as professor emeritus of English from Yale University. I had transplanted myself from my home city Karachi where I was editing Aman Ki Asha, hope for peace – between India and Pakistan.

“Dream on!” I hear Sara say. And yet, she agrees, it’s important to keep on keeping on. She was hundred percent supportive of this, and the push for a regional approach – the South Asia Peace Action Network, or Sapan, the more recent endeavour, launched last year with a wonderful group of inter-generational, cross-border peace-mongers.

Sara’s name is on Sapan’s founding charter, calling on South Asian nations to institute soft borders and visa-free South Asia, to allow freedom of trade and travel to each other’s citizens, ensure human rights and dignity for all their citizens and to cooperate in all areas including public health, culture and legal reform, education and environment.

Her roots to the region remained strong, despite all the years away. If asked, she would identify herself as Pakistani – “never American-Pakistani”.

When I’d call Sara after returning from Pakistan, she’d be eager to know what I did, where I went, whom I met. On my return in February 2020 – before COVID-19 – I flew back from Islamabad, having recently visited Lahore where Sara grew up and where I lived for a little over a decade in the 1990s. She was 23 when she left the city in 1976. I was just a little older when I moved there from Karachi in 1988.

Sara spent most of her adult life in America but made frequent visits to Pakistan, until health issues prevented her travel back. Her last visit may have been at the Second Karachi Literature Festival in 2011, guesses her sister Tillat, younger by five years.

There’s a recording of the event online – a more filled-out Sara than the gaunt one I know reads from her chapter on older sister Ifat from her iconic book Meatless Days.

Also read: Hybrid Tapestries: The Journey of Pakistani Writing in English

Walking across the Charles River bridge on a cold February afternoon, I called Sara. With COVID rampant, meetings were impossible. Over the landline – she had stopped using her cell phone – I sent her the fragrance of the Lahore spring and nargis flowers.

In September 2020, Sara sold her Boston apartment and transplanted the contents to Bellingham, a suburb of Seattle. She made it a point to call before leaving. There’s a finality about the goodbye. Who knows when we’ll meet again.

It’s a big move but she could now be near Tillat in Vancouver, Canada, an hour-and-a-half drive away. They were excited about being so close to each other. Tillat could visit Sara in Boston only a couple of times a year.

There’s no way of knowing when the pandemic will end or for how long will it drag on. Soon after the move, the borders closed again. Sara and Tillat were so near and yet so far.

Since the border reopened last summer, Tillat could be with Sara every week for several days. Comfortingly, she and other family members were by Sara’s side when she took her last breath at home on March 20. She was 68.

Meatless Days

It was Asma Jahangir’s passing in Lahore that brought me close to Sara Suleri in Boston.

Sara, says Tillat, “actively sought the company of Pakistani women”. The observation echoes the first line of Meatless Days: “Leaving Pakistan was, of course, tantamount to giving up the company of women.”

It was at our mutual friend Dr Sughra Raza’s apartment in Boston by the Charles River that Sara and I had met in passing some years earlier. Sara lived upstairs in the same building.

Since her husband Austin Goodyear’s death in 2005, Sara had been talking about moving to be near friends after retiring from Yale. She was visiting Sughra in Boston when Sughra mentioned that an apartment on the floor above was for sale.

“I’ve bought it,” Sara announced when Sughra came back home from work that evening.

They had developed a close friendship since their first meeting in Cincinnati in 1991 at the home of Dr Azra Raza, Sughra’s older sister, an oncologist and writer who hosted an Urdu Mehfil series at home. She had introduced Meatless Days to all her siblings.

“Someone has said about two writers meeting, that they looked at each other and in the reflection of their eyes saw their own identity,” Sara would say later.

The effervescent Sara they knew was different from the tall, ghostly, quiet, somewhat intimidating presence I first encountered at Sughra’s place. Later I would be privileged to discover for myself the “warm, sensitive and brilliant woman, delightful person and genuine friend”, as historian Ayesha Jalal described her in an email from Lahore.

For now, I’m too embarrassed to tell Sara I never finished reading Meatless Days. The cover features the photo of a beautiful woman, elegantly dressed in a gharara, a tika on her forehead. She’s looking down at a little girl holding her hand. Sara’s older sister, Ifat, was run over by a car.

The horror of that tragedy transcends time. It’s at the heart of Meatless Days Sara’s elegant, personal-political memoir, first published in 1989, that I finally read a few years ago. She presented me with a copy of the recently published edition, painstakingly signing it with her left hand, her writing hand immobilised by a fracture. Later, a botched surgery damaged a nerve. She hoped she’d soon be able to write again, but that never happened.

She signed another copy for our journalist friend Raza Rumi, who visited Boston for the Asma Jahangir memorial we’d organised. Unlike flighty me, he read Meatless Days at the age of 19. He re-read it several times for its “literary magnificence as well its resonance for dislocated Pakistanis”, he said. “Her wit, one-liners and totally unique way of looking at the world never stopped amusing and inspiring me.”

After Asma’s sudden departure on February 11, 2018, it seemed everyone wanted to come together to mourn and celebrate her. Raza connected me with some young Pakistani lawyers at Harvard who wanted to pay tribute to Asma. More friends joined us.

Also read: ‘Thinking With Ghalib’: A Book for a Time When Multi-Religious Thought Is Under Attack

Unexpectedly, Sara reached out to me. She wanted to participate. Given her generally ill health, I was apprehensive. Could she do it, would she be able to address a large gathering?

Asma’s memorial took place on Saturday, February 17, 2018, at Weiner auditorium, Harvard Kennedy School. Sara arrived as the hall filled up. She was in a wheelchair, attendant in tow. She sat quietly listening to the other speakers – Amartya Sen, Ayesha Jalal and other luminaries. Then she stood up and walked slowly to the podium.

Celebrating Asma Jahangir- Sara Sulehri from Rick Brotman on Vimeo.

Despite her frailty, she held the audience riveted with anecdotes drawn from her long association with Asma in Lahore. There were poignant pauses and audience laughter. She spoke of Asma’s sincerity, courage and authenticity – traits that applied equally to Sara herself.

“I was a bit airy fairy, and Asma would tell me to put my feet on the ground – I am walking on the ground. And that is exactly what I needed.” The laughter was fitting, given how much fun Asma was. That too is something they had in common.


This was perhaps Sara’s last public appearance.

A couple of years later, she hosted a mehfil at her Boston apartment to discuss the book she co-authored with Dr Azra Raza, aiming to introduce a generation to the joys of Ghalib. For a year-and-a-half, they worked on the project together, they were “joined at the hip”.

A tribute to Ghalib: 21 Ghazals Reinterpreted (Penguin-Viking 2009) is the second title, after the first one went out of print. “I preferred the first one, Epistemologies of Elegance, because it was mine,” said Sara, drawing laughter.

Azra said the two people who have impressed her the most in her life are women, Sara Suleri and another writer Qurratulain Hyder in India, both with much in common. She tried her best to get them to meet but Sara didn’t get the visa.

Beena Sarwar  is a journalist, artist and filmmaker currently based in Boston. She tweets @beenasarwar. This is a Sapan News Service syndicated feature.