Severely food insecure people in Latin America, Caribbean increases by 0.5 million, WFP says

CGTN

The World Food Programme says food insecurity now affects 9.3 million people in the countries where it has a presence in Latin America and the Caribbean. /CFP

The number of severely food insecure people increased by over half a million between December 2021 and March 2022 in Latin America and the Caribbean, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.

The agency noted that food insecurity now affects 9.3 million people in the countries where it has a presence in the region, and this figure could rise to 13.3 million if the conflict in Ukraine continues unabated.

"Millions of people could be pushed into poverty and hunger if the conflict in Ukraine continues. The region is already dealing with COVID-19, rising costs and climate extremes," said Lola Castro, WFP's Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

"We could return to food insecurity peaks seen during the height of the pandemic, as job and income losses, food inflation and other driving factors batter the most vulnerable people."

Like most regions globally, commodity and energy prices have surged since the onset of the Ukraine conflict in late March.

With many countries in the region highly dependent on cereal imports, resultant food inflation threatens even more hunger.

The WFP also noted that the situation also affects its operations in the region, as increases in food and oil prices have driven operational costs.

"In this year of unprecedented needs, our humanitarian dollar is stretched to breaking point. While the number of hungry people keeps rising, the gulf between our funding needs and available resources continues to widen," said Castro.

The agency said it urgently requires US$315 million to cover its operational costs across the region over the next six months.

New exhibition spotlights forgotten Egyptians who discovered King Tut

Delving into the archives of British archaeologist Howard Carter, who led the mission down to the pharaoh’s burial chamber, the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries shines a spotlight on the immense contribution of the locals — a role largely overlooked by history.

English Egyptologist Howard Carter (1874-1939) supervises carpenters preparing to reseal Tutankhamen's tomb, circa 1923. - Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Marc Espanol

AL-MONITOR
May 23, 2022


At the end of 1922, a few months after Egypt formally declared its independence, the field of archaeology reached a historic milestone with the discovery of the largely intact tomb of Tutankhamun. The discovery of the royal burial chamber, still considered one of the most culturally significant in history, gave way to eight years of excavation, clearance and documentation down to the last object in the tomb. A process that propelled the leader of the mission, the famous British archaeologist Howard Carter, to international fame.

Yet a century after the discovery, Egypt’s contribution to Carter’s archaeological mission and the process of unearthing, cleaning and preserving the collection that lay in the tomb of Ancient Egypt’s most famous pharaoh remains a largely neglected chapter of the feat. In the collective imagination, fame and recognition went almost exclusively to Carter.

This narrative, however, could not be further from the truth, and the discovery was never the work of a solitary British archaeologist. In an effort to see beyond this popular colonialist stereotype that still surrounds the discovery of the tomb, and to mark the centenary of the momentous event, the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries launched an exhibition April 13 that puts the spotlight on the often-overlooked Egyptians who were also involved in the mission and the crucial role they played. The project includes photographs, letters, plans, drawings and diaries from Carter’s archive.

“Archaeology is not Indiana Jones [but] a very meticulous process that takes a lot of time, and you need a lot of expertise and knowledge,” said Daniela Rosenow, Egyptologist at the University of Oxford and co-curator of the exhibition "Tutankhamun: Excavating the Archive." She told Al-Monitor. “[We hope] that people understand that this was a 10-year process, and that that involved a team. It was not the story of one heroic man.”

Among the Egyptians who contributed to the mission in the tomb of Tutankhamun, the ones we have the least information about are the laborers who worked at the site. Most of these foremen and laborers came from villages around al-Qurna, a group of small villages near where the pharaoh’s tomb was discovered, according to a recent study by Hend Mohamed AbdelRahman, professor of Egypt’s Modern and Contemporary History at Minia University. In total, she estimates that between 75 and 175 laborers from this area participated in the excavation and clearance of the tomb.

But since Carter, unlike other archaeologists of the time, barely acknowledged these laborers in writing, very little is known about their histories. In fact, only four Egyptian foremen were repeatedly named, and thanked, by the British archaeologist. “Last of all come my Egyptian staff and the Reises who have served me throughout the heat and burden of many long days, whose loyal services will always be remembered by me with respect and gratitude and whose names are herewith recorded: Ahmed Gerigar, Hussein Ahmed Saide, Gad Hassan and Hussein Abou Owad,” wrote Carter in his second volume, in which he recounts the discovery of the pharaoh’s burial chamber.

AbdelRahman has been able to track down Hussein Ahmed Saide, about whom the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram came to write, as well as Gad Hassan, an antiquity’s trader from the village of al-Tarif employed by Carter. Yet the researcher notes that the most famous of the four was probably Ahmed Gerigar, a skilled foreman very close to Carter. It is believed that Gerigar, driven by his good knowledge of the site and refined intuition, encouraged and convinced Carter to keep excavating at the point where they later found the tomb of Tutankhamun when the British archaeologist had already begun to lose hope.

“These four are very famous because every month [Carter] is talking about whether they got their salaries or not,” AbdelRahman told Al-Monitor. “In my opinion, he didn’t want to lose them, or to give them a chance to work with others. He wanted them to continue because he believed in them,” she added.

Other names who participated in the mission that have been recorded include Boutros Tadros, who began working for Carter when he was just a boy and was later promoted to be in charge of scheduling the workforce’s shifts. Also, Abdel Maaboud Abdalla, the ex-chief guardian of the Theban Necropolis and a sub-photographer for Carter, and Tewfik Boulos, who worked as Carter’s secretary from 1902 to 1905 according to AbdelRahman.

The importance of the Egyptian workers in the mission was such that many of them even claimed that, in fact, Carter was not even present the day Tutankhamun’s tomb was found, something that the British archaeologist always denied. “Carter filed a case in court against someone who [mentioned] that he wasn’t present in the moment the tomb was excavated. This point will remain forever as a point of dispute,” AbdelRahman explained.

In addition to the workers at the site, Egyptian inspectors from the Antiquities Service also became very involved during the work of clearing the burial chamber, serving as a liaison between Carter’s team and the Egyptian authorities, AbdelRahman recounts. Among these were Abadir Effendi Michrqui Abadir, who supervised the excavation of the tomb; Ibrahim Mohamed Habib, a highly qualified inspector of the Antiquities Service in Luxor; and Saleh Hamdi, present during the process of examining the king’s mummy.

Another way in which the Egyptians contributed to the mission, AbdelRahman notes, is by assuming part of the financing of the project, which was key to ensuring the completion of the whole process and appears in the annual expenditure of the state budget.

Beyond their overall contribution to the discovery of the iconic tomb, AbdelRahman said that the feat was also key in spurring Cairo’s interest in investing in archaeology and taking a greater role in the preservation of its own archaeological treasures. Rosenow noted that the discovery was followed with great interest in Egypt as well, and that the figure of the pharaoh became a symbol of its recently declared independence.

“It helped to develop Egyptology and education as soon as possible, to allow Egyptians to take the place from foreigners and be responsible for the administration of antiquities,” AbdelRahman concluded.

“The Egyptian reaction to the discovery is an important aspect to touch upon. Because Egypt had become independent a few months earlier, and the discovery was an amazing thing. He became kind of the icon of the new independence and pride,” Rosenow noted.

Egyptian-German archaeologists unveil inscriptions, reliefs of Esna Temple

After restorations that began two years ago by the joint Egyptian-German mission, the Esna Temple on the Nile banks finally appeared in the original colors it bore 2,000 years ago.

An inscription from the Esna temple. - Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Hagar Hosny
AL-MONITOR
May 24, 2022


CAIRO — The joint Egyptian-German archaeological mission working on the restoration of the Temple of Esna, which sits on the west bank of the Nile 55 kilometers (34 miles) to the south of Luxor, has unveiled, for the first time, the inscriptions, reliefs and colors of the temple’s ceilings and walls after completing restoration and cleaning works.

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mustafa Waziri explained in a press statement May 15 that the restoration and cleaning works at the temple unveiled the original and bright inscriptions and colors found under the ceiling above the temple entrance, which is located at a height of 14 meters (46 feet).

The reliefs, Waziri noted, portray 46 eagles in two rows, 24 of which carry an eagle’s head and represent Nekhbet, the goddess of Upper Egypt from El Kab, while the other 22 have a cobra head and represent Wadjet, the goddess of Lower Egypt.

He stressed that no relief or picture of this ceiling had previously appeared in the scientific publication of the French Egyptologist Serge Soniron, who documented and photographed the temple inscriptions and engravings between 1963 and 1975.

Hisham el-Leithy, head of the Central Administration for the Registration of Egyptian Antiquities and head of the Egyptian archaeological mission, said in a press release that the temple’s colorful inscriptions have suffered over the past centuries from the accumulation of thick layers of soot, dust and dirt as well as the remains of birds, bats and spiders’ nests. They also suffered from the accumulation of calcium salts over the course of about 2,000 years.

He continued, “This called for the launch of a restoration and development project for the temple to preserve it and its unique and distinct inscriptions, and to preserve this unique monument dating back to the Roman era with funding from the American Research Center in Egypt.”

Hussein Abdel Basir, director of the Antiquities Museum at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, told Al-Monitor that the Temple of Esna is one of the most important Greco-Roman temples of the Ptolemaic period.

He said that the temple inscriptions bore dirt accumulated over time due to the remains of birds. In addition, there were periods when the Copts used the temple as a haven to escape from Roman persecution, which contributed to the accumulation of black dust due to the use of candles and some oil materials for lighting and heating. This, he added, led to the distortion of these inscriptions.

Abdel Basir pointed out that this type of restoration was previously carried out in the Temple of Dendera in Qena governorate in Upper Egypt.

He noted, “While the inscriptions do not reveal new discoveries, they have become [clearer], allowing us to clearly read the hieroglyphs on the walls. Thus further confirming the previous interpretations of these writings, and allowing the contemplation of the colors that still retain their luster despite the passage of thousands of years.”

The Temple of Esna is located in the heart of the ancient city of Esna in southern Egypt. Its Greek name was Latopolis, meaning the city of latus fish. King Ptolemy Philometer built the current temple on the ruins of the temple of King Thutmose III, and it was not until 400 years later that its construction was completed, toward the end of the Roman era. The Esna Temple was dedicated to the worship of the Trinity Khnum, Neith and Menhet.

The temple, whose restoration began two years ago, consists of a hall of columns with 24 beautifully decorated pillars. It is one of the most beautiful column halls in Egypt and is linked to a port on the Nile whose remains are still visible, as per the website of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Egyptology researcher and tour guide Bassam el-Shammaa told Al-Monitor that the Esna Temple is of paramount importance history wise.

“Judging by the design of the temple, there seems to be a part of it that is still buried under the sand and that is yet to be discovered,” he said.

He noted that the city of Esna was called Tasni in ancient Pharaonic days, and later Latopolis, which is a Greek word meaning the Nile Lates niloticus (white-shelled fish), which was sanctified in the city at the time.

Shammaa said that when the Greeks occupied Egypt, they tried to get closer to the Egyptians by building temples for ancient Egyptian gods and deities following the Egyptian style with some Greek additions. At the time, they built several temples on the ruins of other temples, including the Esna, Kom Ombo and Philae temples.

He pointed out that the inscriptions and drawings of the Esna Temple have been clear since the 1980s, but were not in such bright colors. So restoring and revealing the true colors of the temple fulfills the dream of seeing the temple the way it was thousands of years ago.

Shammaa concluded that this step breathes new life into the temple, and these restorations will be impressive for those who are eager to see colors that have managed to weather long years of decay and that can consequently boost the tourism sector if well exploited and promoted.

Hunger strikes by prisoners continue in Egypt

A number of political activists in Egyptian prisons have been on a hunger strike for several days to protest their denial of basic rights, at a time the president has called for a national dialogue with opponents.

The Correctional and Rehabilitation Center in Badr city is seen during a government-guided tour for the media, east of Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 16, 2022. - Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images

A correspondent in Egypt
May 24, 2022


CAIRO — A number of political activists and dissidents detained in Egyptian prisons have been on a hunger strike for several days now in protest against their ongoing unlawful detention for long and illegal periods. They are also protesting the denial of their basic rights in prisons, including regular visits, exercise time outside their cells and access to books, their families and lawyers told Al-Monitor.

In February, 12 detainees in Egyptian jails began a hunger strike in protest against their pre-trial detention that exceeded the legal limit of two years as stipulated by law. These include political activist Abdel Rahman Tarek; Galal al-Behairy, a poet who has been in pre-trial detention for three years; and political activist Ahmed Maher, who headed the media office of Gen. Sami Anan, Egypt's former military chief of staff and presidential candidate in 2018.

Another one of the detainees who had begun the hunger strike — Walid Shawky, a physician and leading figure of the opposition April 6 Youth Movement — was released in April as part of a presidential pardon.

Sarah Tarek, the sister of Abdel Rahman Tarek, told Al-Monitor that she fears for the life of her brother who has been in pre-trial detention for more than 2½ years, in poor conditions and in the absence of real charges or a fair trial. His imprisonment was based on the findings of the National Security Agency’s investigations, accusing him of belonging to a terrorist group and spreading false news, she said.

She noted that her brother was arrested in September 2019 while serving the terms of his probation after completing a prison sentence for a case dating back to 2013. She said Tarek disappeared for several days before reappearing at the state security prosecution in 2019. Since then, the court ordered his release twice, but he would each time be rearrested in a new case, she added.

In 2013, a criminal court sentenced Tarek to five years in prison, followed by a daily judicial observation session (probation) of 12 hours.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a prominent political activist who has British citizenship, has been on an open-ended hunger strike for 50 days now, demanding his basic rights, including family visits without being physically separated by a glass barrier, exercise time outside his cell, and access to books.

His family has repeatedly raised concerns over his deteriorating health as the hospital at the Tora prison complex where he is held is unequipped for treating prolonged hunger strikes.

Laila Sweif, Abdel-Fattah’s mother, told Al-Monitor by phone that her son “was transferred a few days ago from Cairo’s Tora maximum-security prison complex to Wadi el-Natrun prison, following several requests in which we denounced violations he was subject to and very poor imprisonment conditions he lived under since he was detained.”

She added, “Apparently, the imprisonment conditions in the new prison are relatively good compared to the previous one. But Alaa is still on a hunger strike and we really fear for his life, particularly since the prison administration refuses to document the hunger strike in its official records. As long as his hunger strike is not documented by the prison authorities, it means that he is not on hunger strike according to the law. We hope for better conditions and that the [prison administration] meets his demands.”

Sweif, professor at Cairo University and member of the March 9 Movement for the independence of universities, which calls for the noninterference of politics in Egyptian universities, said she had “submitted a missive April 5 to the Egyptian attorney general, the highest legal authority in Egypt, to have Alaa’s demands met, most notably to allow the British Embassy to visit him in prison since he holds British citizenship. Yet we have not received any reply and Alaa is still on a hunger strike, which poses a real threat to his deteriorating health.”

The ongoing hunger strikes among political prisoners come as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called April 26 for a national dialogue with all opposition political forces and civil society groups.

Yet the political forces and parties stressed the need to release all political detainees and prisoners of conscience and to close the file of unlawful prolonged pre-trial detentions before engaging in any national dialogue or speaking of a new political period, at a time when the regime’s opponents are accused of belonging to terrorist groups.

Egypt to sell state-owned firms amid economic crisis

Ten of Egypt's largest state-owned companies will be listed this year on the stock exchange, while others will be sold in the coming years as the government tries to attract foreign investors to relieve economic hardships.

A general view of the Egyptian Exchange, Cairo, Egypt, Jan. 7, 2022. 

- Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images

Azza Guergues
@AzzaGuergues
May 25, 2022

CAIRO — Egypt will list 10 of its largest state-owned and military-owned companies on the stock exchange by the end of this year, and several other assets will be sold over the next four years in order to attract foreign investors and also alleviate the current economic hardships.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly gave a lengthy press conference May 15, describing the current crisis as the worst in a century. "The [Ukraine] war repercussions have put a heavy burden on us financially. We expect 130 billion pounds [$7.1 billion] of immediate impacts, as well as 335 billion pounds [$18.3 billion] of indirect effects as a result of increased prices for commodities like wheat, oil and even interest rates," he said.

He stated that as a direct consequence of the war, there was an outflow of billions of dollars or "hot money" from Egypt, causing the government to devalue the currency by 17%. But the Gulf states have helped Egypt cope by pledging $22 billion in investments.

Even so, Egypt still faces a budget deficit of $20 billion, a debt-to-GDP ratio of 85% and high prices for major commodities imported. The Egyptian government will spend $4.4 billion on wheat this year, up from $2.7 billion last year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine raised wheat prices. According to Madbouly, a rise in oil prices will also cost the state $11.2 billion instead of $6.7 billion to buy 100 million barrels.

As a way of getting liquidity, Cairo's plan in the months ahead is to sell state-owned assets to private investors and government-owned companies to be listed on the Egyptian stock exchange by the end of the year, Madbouly said. Direct sales are also expected for other firms.

Madbouly revealed that seven Egyptian ports will be merged into one company, as well as many prestigious hotels, with a portion of each listed on the Egyptian Exchange for foreign and local investors. Private investment will also be sought for transportation projects such as a monorail, high-speed train and electric train.

By privatizing these assets, the government expects to raise $10 billion annually for a period of four years, which should help fill a budget deficit of up to $20 billion. Other methods for acquiring the remaining $10 billion include borrowing from the International Monetary Fund and issuing bonds.

Companies that are going to list on the stock exchange or be sold directly have not yet been announced. But on May 17, local media received an official document detailing the industries that the companies would trade in.

According to the draft, the government would liquidate its investments and properties in 79 industries, such as fish farming, livestock, dairy, construction, TV and film production, retail trade, automobiles, furniture and fertilizer. Although the state would maintain 45 other investments, it would reduce them and be open to private participation, especially in cement, iron, aluminum, poultry, cigarette and tobacco plants, and sewage treatment plants.

Several of these firms are expected to be acquired by Gulf states. Abu Dhabi's sovereign fund — ADQ — has already acquired a stake in Egypt's Commercial International Bank in April. An IPO of shares of Banque du Caire will also likely pique investors' interest in the Gulf.

Hany Genena, lecturer in corporate finance at the American University in Cairo, told Al-Monitor that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have a strong appetite for overseas investments.

He pointed out that while countries that consume goods are facing a crisis, oil-exporting countries are enjoying one of their peak periods, as evidenced by their financial flows. “We have a strategic relationship with the Gulf. We need to bring this capital here to invest in Egypt,” he added.

However, Hussein Suleiman, deputy head of the economics department at Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies, said some of the assets that will be put up for sale on the stock market should be considered national security for Egypt and not be sold off, such as the ports that might be taken over by the Emirati firm DP World, which already operates Sokhna.

The government's decision to merge the ports into one firm and list a portion on the stock exchange prompted criticism. Minister of Transport Kamel al-Wazir defended the decision, saying that "there is no sale" and that the government will remain a regulator and overseer.

During Madbouly's press conference, he announced that the government would develop axes to improve the business climate and encourage private sector participation in state-owned assets through a package of incentives and privileges and by opening channels of direct communication with the private sector.

For Madbouly's new strategy to stimulate the private sector to succeed, "deeper reforms are needed than those proposed," according to Suleiman. "We have seen the impact of Egypt's poor political climate. In the past few months, the Juhayna [Food Industries] company crisis has grown tiresome. … Its causes are unclear, but the reports indicate disagreements between different [state] agencies and businessmen over certain shares. These issues are more damaging to the Egyptian economy.”

Suleiman is referring to Juhayna Food Industries, a giant Egyptian dairy firm whose chairman, Safwat Thabet, and his son Seif are currently behind bars. Accusations of Thabet's association with the banned Muslim Brotherhood-led to the freezing of his assets in 2015, allegations he strongly denied. Despite freezing his assets, Thabet remained chairman of the company until he was arrested in 2020 and his son in 2021 for refusing to hand over their shares to a state-owned business. Following Thabet's arrest, foreign investors who owned stakes in Juhayna sold them. The firm's stock market cap has dropped since then.

As of last month, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for a national dialogue with political forces. He also reactivated the presidential Pardon Committee to study the conditions of detainees. Suleiman noted, “There has been a recent realization that the current economic crisis stems from the fear of local and foreign investors to invest [in the country] due to the weak political environment; therefore, the idea of calling for dialogue has been put forward. However, how serious is this dialogue and how far can it lead to radical reforms?”

Despite Egypt's debt rating being affirmed at B+ with a stable outlook in April following the devaluation of its currency, Fitch Ratings stated that “political instability remains a significant tail risk … the space for political opposition and freedom of expression is restricted."

Oil, gas firms use Ukraine war to resist climate efforts: report

US oil and gas companies spread the misleading message that US climate change policies were to blame for rising energy prices -

 HAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI

by Roland LLOYD PARRY
May 25, 2022 — Paris (AFP)

US oil and gas firms took advantage of energy worries over the Ukraine war to push their fossil fuel products and resist climate change regulatory measures, an analysis showed on Wednesday.

The London-based think tank InfluenceMap analysed advertisements and declarations by the companies in the weeks before and after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

It said the companies spread the misleading message that US climate change policies were to blame for rising energy prices and that more US-produced oil and gas was the solution.

As Western countries that import Russian hydrocarbons looked for alternatives in order to cut ties with Russia, InfluenceMap detected "an active effort from the US oil and gas industry to capitalise on the war in Ukraine".

They pushed "long-standing policy asks relating to the continued expansion of oil and gas," despite the widely-documented role such operations play in driving deadly global climate change, InfluenceMap said.

The group identified one of the key players in the messaging effort as the American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying organisation that has numerous major fossil fuel companies among its members.

InfluenceMap said it detected a surge in the number of ads about US-based energy and energy independence placed via one of the API's Facebook pages in the weeks before and after the Russian invasion.

One series of ads received nearly 20 million views on the social platform.

- Surge in prices -

"The sector has quickly mobilised around the war in Ukraine and high gas prices to promote the need for more 'American-made energy', often relying on potentially misleading or questionable claims," InfluenceMap Program Manager Faye Holder said in the report.

It also analysed public statements by oil and gas executives, finding that several of them publicly blamed climate change policies or promoted US-produced energy as part of the solution to the energy crisis.

The report documented cases where it said the sector had succeeded in securing some of its demands since the invasion, such as a commitment by authorities to speed up approvals for new gas projects.

Many posts by users on social media have blamed a surge in gasoline and crude oil prices on US President Joe Biden's decisions to limit drilling and to halt the Keystone XL pipeline project as part of his low-carbon energy transition plan.

Biden's March 8, 2022 announcement of a ban on Russian oil imports did lead to a jump in prices.

But analysts told AFP in March that swings in energy prices in 2022 were due to a variety of factors, including a rebound in economic activity following the Covid-19 pandemic.

AFP Fact Check published an article on March 10 debunking false claims about the causes of rising fuel prices. It can be read here: http://u.afp.com/wLUU

Turkey's NATO obstinance threatens more than Nordic membership

From the vantage point of the West, giving in to Ankara’s demands from Finland and Sweden amounts to letting an autocrat design the security architecture of Europe.

A picture taken on Nov. 20, 2019, shows a NATO flag at the NATO headquarters in Brussels during a NATO foreign ministers summit. - KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images

Cengiz Candar
@cengizcandar
May 24, 2022


US President Joe Biden’s announcement of his country’s unequivocal support of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership bids came as a veiled rebuke of Ankara.

Flanked by Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto and Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Biden declared both nations have the "full, total, complete backing" of his country after a trilateral meeting at the White House on May 19.

Biden said both countries were “highly capable partners to join the strongest, most powerful defensive alliance in the history of the world,” adding, "The bottom line is simple, quite straightforward: Finland and Sweden make NATO stronger. Not just because of their capacity but because of their strong, strong democracies.”

Describing Finland and Sweden’s decision to abandon their decades-old neutrality as “historic,” Biden’s strongly worded statement also obliquely rebuked Turkey.

Ankara is the only capital among the 29 NATO members to block Finland and Sweden’s admittance to the transatlantic alliance. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has persistently lashed out at both countries for being “guesthouses” for groups that Ankara considers terrorist organizations.

Only hours before the summit at the White House, Erdogan reiterated his objections. “We told them that we could not accept them in NATO because NATO is a security organization where terrorist networks cannot have any place,” he told a group of young people in video released on May 19.

Making matters worse for Erdogan was Biden’s response to a May 18 question on how Washington was planning to convince Turkey. “I’m not going to Turkey, but I think we’re going to be okay,” he told journalists.

Erdogan remains defiant, reiterating the same sentiment on every occasion. Most recently, he said Sweden and Finland “had to pick their sides” between “terrorist organizations” and Ankara’s concerns, speaking after a cabinet meeting on May 23.

The apparent recipients of Erdogan’s messages are not not confined to Sweden and Finland. He has also dialed up his discourse against the United States and European Union for their support to the Syrian Kurdish group the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the major ally of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State.

Sweden and Finland’s bid to join NATO came in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The historically neutral nations’ applications to join the Euro-Atlantic security system marks the most dramatic evolution in European geopolitics in the post-Cold War period.

Turkey’s resistance to such a historic move has given it an image as Russia’s Trojan Horse in NATO and as a villain in the eyes of much of the Western world.

Erdogan’s position may spark a debate over Turkey’s own NATO membership.

“For reasons that are political, parochial and irrelevant in the decision, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken a hard line in his efforts to derail the prospective members. This should raise the question of whether Turkey under Mr. Erdogan’s leadership belongs in the alliance,” read a May 18 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

The article concluded with a novel suggestion. “Turkey is a member of NATO, but under Mr. Erdogan it no longer subscribes to the values that underpin this great alliance. Article 13 of NATO charter provides a mechanism for members to withdraw. Perhaps it is time to amend Article 13 to establish a procedure for the expulsion of a member nation.”

Finland and Sweden are highly respected countries with excellent records of democracy and human rights in the West. Finland ranks first in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index and Sweden ranks fourth. Sweden is the fourth and Finland is the sixth country in the 2021 Global Democracy Index, which ranks Turkey 103rd.

Erdogan’s depiction of both countries as a “guesthouses” of terrorism and terrorists hardly align with these rankings.

Thus, Ankara’s preventing both nations from taking their place in the new, post-post-Cold War security architecture cannot be considered a mere procedural matter over political disagreements.

From the vantage point of the West, giving in to Ankara’s demands amounts to letting an autocrat design the security architecture of Europe and shape the future of the Western system. The code of conduct of Turkey's current authorities runs against the traditional problem-resolving mechanisms between friends and allies.

The drama that unfolded at a May 16 NATO meeting in Berlin last week is a case in point. Citing a source with close knowledge of the discussions, Al-Monitor's Amberin Zaman reported Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu lashed out his Swedish counterpart Anna Linde and what he called her “so-called feminist policy.” Three NATO diplomats speaking to Reuters described the moment as an “embarrassing” break in protocol. “For us, it was a historic moment and yet Cavusoglu said he was irritated at Linde's 'feminist policy,' bringing so much drama,” another NATO diplomat told Reuters.

The Turkish officials' discourse over the matter frames the conflict as a zero-sum game. Even if Turkey’s Western counterparts were willing to appease and satisfy Erdogan’s demands, Ankara’s ultimatum-like approach would remain problematic because of its inconsistency.

Turkey demands that Sweden and Finland lift the arms embargoes against Ankara over its military operations against the Kurdish-led SDF in northeastern Syria in October 2019. Turkey equates the YPG to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed outfit that has been waging an armed conflict against Ankara for some four decades, and asks Sweden and Finland to adopt a similar position. Sweden, along with several Western countries, has considered the PKK a terrorist organization since 1984. Ankara also wants extradition of the Turkish and Kurdish dissidents living in the two Nordic countries. Both countries’ noncompliance with this demand was brought up by Erdogan himself and covered widely by media outlets strictly under his control.

The Turkish media reported that Stockholm and Helsinki refused Ankara’s demand for the extradition of 33 people from Sweden and Finland. Erdogan’s mouthpieces A Haber TV and the Daily Sabah disclosed eight names that Ankara wanted from Sweden. It quickly came out that the eight include a physician at the University Hospital in Uppsala who passed away seven years ago and has never been in the ranks of the PKK. The blunder was reported by the influential Swedish daily Expressen. One other name cited in the reports turned out to have never been in Sweden. Two more, prominent publisher Ragip Zarakolu and journalist Bulent Kenes, are either Swedish citizens or residents who have never been associated with terrorist acts.

Turkey’s presidency announced that delegations from Finland and Sweden are traveling to Turkey on May 24 for talks over Ankara’s “concerns.” However, a change of position by the Swedish and Finnish authorities on Ankara’s extradition demands seems like a tall prospect. Biden’s firm stand with both capitals also encourages this assumption.

Erdogan chose to play hardball with the West, but now it's Washington’s turn.

Big Pharma Is Pressuring Joe Manchin to Oppose Drug Pricing Reforms

Joe Manchin stalled and killed the Build Back Better bill under pressure from big business. He could now support a compromise budget with drug pricing reforms, but the pharmaceutical industry is doing everything it can to make sure he doesn’t.

An ad from the Alliance for Patient Access warning that drug pricing reforms would “hurt innovation” and prevent companies from developing new treatments.

BY ANDREW PEREZ

JACOBIN
05.24.2022

In the first two years of the Joe Biden presidency, Senator Joe Manchin has become one of big business’s favorite lawmakers, thanks to the way he stalled and ultimately killed Democrats’ Build Back Better bill, a health care and climate spending package that included the party’s signature drug pricing measure.

Now, with Manchin signaling he could support a new compromise budget bill that includes drug pricing reforms, Big Pharma isn’t taking any chances — and so it has started ramping up advertising pressure in his state. The industry is likely hoping for a repeat of Manchin’s habit of signaling support for popular initiatives like a billionaire tax, and then quickly backing down the moment moneyed interests raise objections.

Speaking to the world’s financial elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday, Manchin said Congress still has “an opportunity” to pass meaningful legislation before the midterm elections — including on prescription drug prices. The statement was significant, because Manchin has long asserted that he supports some measures to reduce medicine prices.

Fearing legislative progress, a nonprofit called the Alliance for Patient Access recently started running ads in the Washington area and all over West Virginia warning that Congress is debating legislation that would “hurt innovation” and prevent companies from developing new treatments. The Alliance for Patient Access website makes clear the organization is funded by the pharmaceutical industry. The alliance published a list of its associate members and supporters in late 2020, which names the powerful drug lobby Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) as well as three dozen drugmakers.

The ads feature a woman named Katie who says she has chronic migraine disease.

“Treatments have come a long way, so the possibility of living without migraine gives me hope,” Katie says in the ad. “But Washington is considering walls that would hurt innovation. Please don’t let this happen. Innovation in medicine needs to keep going so that I keep having hope. To find new treatments for tomorrow, we can’t let Congress take away our hope today.”

Pharmaceutical companies AbbVie and Lundbeck are members of the Alliance for Patient Access and manufacture drugs used to prevent migraines.

Ads Belied by Federal Data

The ads’ central assertion that limiting drug prices would fundamentally stifle research and development is wildly false: Last year, the Congressional Budget Office found that even if profits on top drugs decreased by 15 to 25 percent, there would only be “a 0.5 percent average annual reduction in the number of new drugs entering the market in the first decade.”

The reason for such a small decline? The federal government heavily subsidizes research on nearly every drug that ultimately gets approved for sale in the United States.

In truth, the drug pricing measure being debated in Washington does not pose any real threat to the industry: Democrats substantially watered down their proposal last year, so that it would cost pharmaceutical companies far less money and only allow Medicare to negotiate prices on a handful of older drugs each year.

But drugmakers don’t want Congress to set the precedent of allowing the government to negotiate any drug prices, like most other high-income countries do, since that power could be expanded further down the road. They also don’t want to lose any of their outlandish profits — which is why the industry is now pummeling West Virginia with TV ads.

“The law to prohibit Medicare from using its buying power to negotiate lower drug prices was passed by the Republican Congress way back in 2003,” Craig Holman, an ethics lobbyist at Public Citizen, told us. “The law not only prohibited Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices, it also prohibited the importing of cheaper drugs from Canada and other countries. It was a dream come true for the drug industry. Only now, twenty years later, is Congress debating repealing that disastrous legislative mistake. Even conservatives like Senator Manchin now understand it was a mistake. But the pharmaceutical industry will fight back hard.”

The Insulin Angle

Though Democrats’ bill has been watered down, the House recently passed a $35 cap on the co-pays that people with insurance are expected to pay for insulin each month — and that provision remains part of the Build Back Better framework still being considered in Congress.

The House version of Build Back Better that passed in November also specifically listed insulin products as eligible for government price negotiation.

Reducing the price of insulin could threaten the profits of Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, which control the US insulin market. Those companies have each jacked up insulin analog prices more than 400 percent since introducing their products, to the point where the average US price for a dose of insulin is triple what it costs in other high-income countries.

All three companies are members of the Alliance for Patient Access — and have increased their lobbying spending amid the push for lower insulin prices.

“The Alliance for Patient Access ad campaign is the very worst of a wealthy business interest running deceptive advertising designed to trick the public into doing their bidding for the industry,” said Holman.

The Alliance for Patient Access’s West Virginia ad campaign follows a similar effort by a pharma front group called the Coalition to Protect Access, which ran ads claiming that Democrats’ drug pricing measure “would harm our ability to fight pandemics” — despite the fact that the US government poured tens of billions of dollars into efforts to develop COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

Although his daughter previously ran a pharmaceutical company infamous for hiking the price of EpiPens, Manchin has consistently expressed support for allowing the government to negotiate drug prices.

Late last month, Manchin told Bloomberg News that he and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer had started discussing a new budget bill to try to reduce inflation. According to Bloomberg, Manchin “said that it would make sense to include cuts to prescription drug costs in the package.”

Axios reported last week that the conservative Democrat has been pushing “to cobble together a compromise package on climate, energy independence, deficit reduction and prescription drug reform.”

The West Virginia ads are likely aimed at trying to convince Manchin to back down — which he often does the moment a powerful lobby starts speaking up.

In October last year, during conversations about funding for Democrats’ Build Back Better legislation, Manchin was reported to be on board with a White House proposal to tax billionaires’ investment income before he came out against it. Around the same time, CNBC reported that “billionaire investor Nelson Peltz said he talks to Sen. Joe Manchin every week.”

Two months later, the Washington Post reported that Manchin “told the White House last week that he would support some version of a tax targeting billionaire wealth.” By March, Manchin was shutting down a new proposal from Biden to place a 20 percent minimum tax on the unrealized capital gains of households worth more than $100 million.

You can subscribe to David Sirota’s investigative journalism project, the Lever, here.

Andrew Perez is senior editor and a reporter at the Lever covering money and influence.

TORY ISLAMOPHOBIA

UK government sever link with National Union of Students over antisemitism allegations

UK National Union of Students president-elect Shaima Dallali claim to have liked social media post saying: ‘Israel is a racist endeavour’

• Chandrashekar Bhat
• 24 May, 2022

Shaima Dallali (Photo source: City Students’ Union)

By: Chandrashekar Bhat

THE ELECTION of Shaima Dallali as the next president of the UK’s National Union of Students (NUS) will depend upon the outcome of an investigation into the allegations of anti-Semitism involving her. Recently, the Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi cut off ties with the NUS.

Dallali is accused of failing to commit to the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.

As Dallali’s alleged historic anti-Semitic comments on social media resurfaced amid her election, the NUS said it would set up an independent inquiry into her history.

The Jewish Chronicle, a London-based weekly, said it unearthed numerous social media posts “liked” by Dallali which opposed the IHRA definition.

The association defines anti-Semitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews”.

According to it, “rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The NUS said in a statement, “We will be appointing a highly regarded independent party to undertake the investigation and we will be consulting with the Union of Jewish Students in making the appointment.”

It said the investigation would look into a range of Dallali’s comments and actions alleged to have taken place over the last decade.

The NUS’ rules state that all candidates for its office “must have a commitment to anti-racism … and anti-Semitism as per the IHRA definition”

Following the reports of anti-Semitism, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi last week cut off official ties with the NUS, a development that could choke government funding to the student organisation.

The Union of Jewish Students, which raised concerns over Dallali’s alleged comment, reacted to the NUS announcement of the investigation, saying its “voice is being heard”.

“Over the past few months, there have been a lot of discussions and news stories over the issues with anti-Semitism and NUS. Jewish students have felt excluded and ignored and now our voice is being heard and Jewish students are not being silent,” it said.

Alexander Lebedev quits Independent role after Canada sanctions

Russian oligarch, who bought British news outlet for £1 in 2010, ‘directly enabled’ Putin’s war, says Canada

Lebedev promoting his book in 2019. Corporate filings show he stepped down as a director of Independent Print Ltd on Sunday. 

Photograph: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images

Jim Waterson 

Media editor
THE GUARDIAN

Tue 24 May 2022 

The Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev has quit his role at the Independent, shortly after being placed under economic sanctions by Canada for “directly enabling” the Russian war in Ukraine.

It means the former KGB agent now has no formal role at the British news outlet, in a move that may protect the Independent from any issues relating to the sanctions.

Canada last week named Lebedev on a list of 14 prominent people who had “directly enabled Vladimir Putin’s senseless war in Ukraine and bear responsibility for the pain and suffering of the people of Ukraine”. Canadian individuals and businesses are now banned from conducting business with him and connected entities.

The 62-year-old Russian bought the Independent for £1 in 2010, having previously taken control of London’s Evening Standard for the same sum the previous year. He later transferred control of the publications to his son Evgeny – a friend of Boris Johnson who was recently given a seat in the House of Lords by the prime minister, despite concerns from the security services. The two news outlets have since racked up huge losses, while giving the Lebedevs a degree of influence in British society.

Corporate filings show Alexander Lebedev stepped down as a director of Independent Print Ltd on Sunday, the day after it was publicly reported that he was on the Canadian sanctions list. The company is one of the web of businesses involved in the ownership of the Independent and Evening Standard.

A spokesperson for the newspapers played down the importance of the elder Lebedev’s resignation from the board of directors, saying he had not been actively involved in the business. They said: “Alexander Lebedev has no role, commercial or otherwise, in the running of either the Independent or the Evening Standard.”

Alexander Lebedev rose to prominence as a banker in the 1990s in Russia before funding the opposition Novaya Gazeta outlet. His wife, Elena Perminova, 35, has continued to post updates on her widely followed Instagram account about fashion launches, with recent pictures showing the family on a holiday in Istanbul.

The decision to put Alexander Lebedev on the sanctions list has renewed scrutiny of the prime minister’s decision to award a peerage to his 42-year-old son. The government has so far failed to comply with a House of Commons instruction to release information about the decision to make Evgeny Lebedev a peer, arguing this would undermine the confidentiality of those nominated to the upper house of parliament and could degenerate into “political point-scoring”.

The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Ellis, told parliament he did not believe it was in the public interest to release the correspondence relating to the decision, adding: “Lord Lebedev is a man of good standing.”

The ownership of the Independent and Evening Standard has long been a source of intrigue. Since taking control of the outlets from his father, Evgeny Lebedev has sold minority stakes in them to a bank with close connections to the Saudi Arabian state.