Sri Lankans ditch cars for bicycles to ride out economic crisis

By Uditha Jayasinghe 

© Reuters/DINUKA LIYANAWATTE Sri Lankans turn to bicycles as fuel crisis worsens

COLOMBO (Reuters) - For the last two weeks, Sri Lankan doctor Thusitha Kahaduwa has left his car in the garage and done his patient rounds by bicycle, spending hours each day criss-crossing the commercial capital Colombo.

© Reuters/DINUKA LIYANAWATTE Sri Lankans turn to bicycles as fuel crisis worsens

The 41-year-old is among countless thousands, many of them middle-class professionals, who have switched to two wheels for everything from work commutes to grocery shopping after the country - mired in its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948 - all but exhausted its fuel supplies.

© Reuters/DINUKA LIYANAWATTE Sri Lankans turn to bicycles as fuel crisis worsens

"First, it was two or three hours in a petrol queue," Kahaduwa told Reuters. "Last time, about three weeks ago, I was in a petrol queue for three days.

"Buying a bicycle was an act of desperation."

Sri Lanka's hard currency reserves are close to zero, meaning imports of fertiliser, food and medicine for its 22 million population have also slowed to a trickle.

No oil shipments have arrived for about two weeks and the government - which has closed schools, told public employees to work from home and restricted fuel to essential services - has not said when the next ones are due..

As a consequence, the number of bikes on Colombo's streets has soared and, with stocks limited and demand rocketing, prices of new and used machines have more than doubled, three retailers said.

Spare parts and accessories like bike helmets and locks are also in short supply.

One shop owner, Victor Perera, said that he sold about 20 cycles a month up until May, when sales increased tenfold.

"Because of the petrol problem, everyone is asking for bicycles," he said.

New supplies are limited because authorities have restricted imports to basic necessities to conserve what foreign exchange remains for as long as possible.

© Reuters/DINUKA LIYANAWATTE Sri Lankans turn to bicycles as fuel crisis worsens

"The importation of bicycles is banned. So, the importers sold their stocks at high prices," Perera said. "Now there are no more bicycles."

The government is due to present a debt restructuring plan to the International Monetary Fund in August and then continue talks on a possible $3 billion bailout package, suggesting the crisis is far from over.

© Reuters/DINUKA LIYANAWATTE Sri Lankans turn to bicycles as fuel crisis worsens

So Kahaduwa and many others are settling in for a long ride.

"I don't think our country's problems will be resolved anytime soon," he said, "At least I get plenty of exercise now."

(Reporting by Uditha Jayasinghe, Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal and John Stonestreet$)

Canada’s Acquisition of Robotic Mine-Hunting System Faces Delay


Canadian military vessel. Photo: Royal Canadian Navy

 JOE SABALLA 

DEFENSE NEWS

 JULY 7, 2022

Canada is experiencing partial delays in acquiring new robotic mine-hunting systems for the Canadian Navy, according to a report by Ottawa Citizen.

The first batch of robots that detect and dispose of underwater mines was supposed to be delivered to the navy by the end of the year.

However, industry officials told the media outlet that defense procurement officials are bungling the $35-million project.

The Department of National Defence has confirmed the delays in the acquisition process. However, it said that the interruption has been caused by the need for further discussions with the defense industry.

It also revealed that the delays were caused by the country’s refocusing of internal resources to prioritize equipment donations to Ukraine.

Apart from the mine-hunting systems, the DND said no other projects are affected by the prioritization of equipment purchases for Kyiv.

Remote Mine-Hunting and Disposal System

The Remote Mine-hunting and Disposal System, or RMDS, is a modular, stand-off naval mine countermeasure device designed to improve underwater domain awareness.

It is capable of detecting, classifying, and disposing of sea mines that pose a threat to the Canadian Navy and impede the conduct of maritime operations.

The RMDS would reportedly leverage commercial off-the-shelf unmanned systems and autonomous underwater vehicle technology.

The robots will be integrated into the Canadian Navy’s Kingston-class vessels.

The procurement process started in 2017, with bids requested in mid-2021.

Focus on Ukraine

Weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, Western countries including Canada pledged their support for Kyiv.

Earlier this year, Ottawa sent weapons to Kyiv to help it defend against Moscow’s aggression.

It also offered 500 million Canadian dollars ($393 million) to bolster Ukraine’s defense capabilities.

Additionally, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his country would provide Ukraine with 39 armored vehicles originally earmarked for the Canadian military.

IRONIC

POLAND

Sanctuary for ‘Rainbow Youth’

Safe houses in Poland offer shelter to homeless and persecuted LGBTQ youth.

Transitions magazine
Posted in Poland
by Anna Gmiterek-Zablocka
05 Jul 2022

The Equality March in Czestochowa, Poland in 2019.

Nineteen-year-old Kamil (not his real name) suddenly found himself on the street. His parents had kicked him out of the family home after he told them he was gay. They did not want to have such a son, they told him, and didn’t care where he went.

Kamil left with literally nothing but what he had on him. “I know now that it was good that happened,” he says a few months later. “Yes, I was left ‘out in the cold’ — for a while I was homeless — but it was worth it.”

After staying with a friend for a few days, he found information online about a safe house set up for people like him — homeless people from the LGBTQ community.

There is one such crisis center — located in an apartment — operating in Warsaw at present, run and fully funded by three NGOs: the Po Drugie Foundation, the Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH) and the My, Rodzice (We Parents) Association. When Kamil contacted the foundation, “They said they would do everything to help,” he says.

“After coming out, a young person often loses all their family’s support. They become an enemy, a liability, an embarrassment. Our activities aspire to offer them a sense of security and self-reliance,” said Ewa Miastkowska from We Parents when the shelter was opened.

The apartment-based center, which was launched in March 2021, can host four people at once. They must be at least 18 years of age and no more than 29. Along with young people kicked out by their parents, it has also provided shelter to trans people and gay people who were former residents of children’s homes. They learn to be responsible and work together, for example by cooking communally.

Residents who find a job make a symbolic contribution to the rent — generally a small amount, no more than 500 zloty (106 euros). The point is to teach young people the value of feeling responsible.

Kamil lived in the apartment for two months. During that time he began working in catering while also seeing a psychologist and applying — successfully — to go to college. He now lives in regular lodgings and is trying to fix things up with his parents. “The apartment really helped me, as it gave me somewhere to sleep,” he says.

The safe house has a set of rules. “Consumption of alcohol and the use of drugs are not allowed,” explains Agnieszka Sikora from the Po Drugie Foundation. “Since the apartment opened, 17 people have found a roof over their heads here. When one moves out, another moves in. There are no excessive demands. If we decide that someone’s situation is difficult, dramatic, we help.”

LGBTQ people in Poland often experience various forms of violence. The situation has been worsened by a witch hunt from the ruling party and church — such as one archbishop’s reference to a “rainbow plague.”

Parents often do not accept that their child is gay or trans. In some cases, they lock their son or daughter at home, refuse to let them meet with other people, take away their mobile phone or internet access, and cut them off from money or food — all as a punishment.

POLAND LGBTQ PRIDE MARCH

As a result, Poland has for the last three years been ranked as the worst country in the European Union for LGBTI people in the annual “Rainbow Index” published by the NGO ILGA-Europe.

In December 2021, KPH published a report, “The social situation of LGBT people in Poland,” based on research by the University of Warsaw’s Center for Research on Prejudice. One of its findings was that young people are increasingly less likely to be able to count on support from their families because the level of acceptance has fallen. Just 61% of mothers who were aware of their children’s non-heteronormativity accepted it (down from 68% in 2017). The figure is even lower for fathers, at 54% (as compared to 59% in 2017).

Domestic violence towards and homelessness among young LGBT people are widespread problems. A 2020 study by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights showed that as many as one in five LGBTQ people in Europe experience homelessness during their lives.

The KPH report revealed a similar tendency. [DJ1] One in six, almost 17%, of the LGBTQ people surveyed had experienced at least one episode of homelessness, with 10% of cases lasting more than a year.

Sikora explains that those who arrive in the safe house do not always face transphobia or homophobia at home. “As a rule, these people have more than one problem to deal with, including addiction. They stop [attending school] and have emotional, family and personality problems,” she says.

The maximum initial stay in the apartment is 12 months, though this can be extended. Residents receive individual support from a mentor — a “kind soul” who provides them with day-to-day help and keeps an eye on them (making sure there are no alcohol or drugs, for example).

They also receive psychological support (individual or group therapy, depending on their needs) or assistance from a lawyer, for instance in cases where they have experienced violence. A therapist works with those with addiction problems.

There is also a career adviser. This role is especially important as these are young people, without much life experience, who are usually struggling to find their way in the job market. They frequently have no idea what they want to do and which field they can train in, and they lack skills in preparing a CV or in showcasing their strengths. They do not know how to be assertive or self-disciplined.

Importantly, they are given a support network. They meet people for whom they are not “freaks” or “deviants.” People who can advise and help, whom they can call, or if need be, can simply give them a hug when things are hard. They learn what friendship, self-dependence, and keeping one’s word means.

‘AN APARTMENT LIKE THIS CAN BE A SPRINGBOARD’

Psychologist and psychotherapist Jan Swierszcz helps run a Warsaw therapy and development center called Dobrze, że jesteś (It’s good that you’re here). Among the people he helps are those from the LGBTQ community. Swierszcz has no doubt that creating safe places for such people is extremely necessary, adding that such spaces were lacking in Poland.

“An apartment like this can be a springboard for young LGBT people that allows them to break out. They can receive community and social support, and through that, also resources for coping in life: what to sort out and how, where to go, how to get out of a crisis,” the psychologist explains.

A person experiencing violence can try to get back on track only after escaping the cycle of violence. The pain felt by a teenager discriminated against and persecuted by their family because of the youth’s sexual orientation or gender identity is the same pain felt a woman experiencing violence from an abusive husband, according to Renata Durda, the head of Niebieska Linia (Blue Line), the Polish Emergency Service for Victims of Domestic Violence, which has been operating since 1995.

“The experience of humiliation, hurt, and pain is the same, although attempts to escape might vary,” Durda says. “This is why a safe place where LGBT people can live is so important for them.”

The crisis apartment is not the only place. Since September 2001, Warsaw has also boasted another form of support for people experiencing homelessness in the form of a hostel for LGBTQ people. This was opened thanks to authorities in the capital, who set up a three-year project to fund its work.

In 2021, the Lambda Association which runs the hostel received 261,800 zloty (55,500 euros) and it will get 255,500 zloty (54,200 euros) each year in 2022 and 2023.

Warsaw’s deputy mayor, Aldona Machnowska-Gora, says that the city decided to open the hostel because it could not just stand by and watch the problems LGBTQ people were facing.

“We have a wave of calculated and planned attacks on people from the LGBT community, a wave of hate towards this group in some media, [and] anti-LGBT zones, but there have also been brazen personal attacks, for example on people wearing rainbow emblems on the streets,” she says.

Machnowska-Gora explains that the city had also received information about hateful symbols and slogans being left on the doors of same-sex families’ homes. This was what led to the decision to sign the Warsaw LGBT+ Declaration and to open the hostel. People wishing to stay there can get in contact by email or phone.

“We guarantee a stay in the hostel up to three months — which can be extended,” says hostel coordinator Sulimir Szumielewicz. “It’s important for us that people leave with the social skills to become as independent as possible.”

Who comes to the shelter? One young person showed up at the door recently carrying only a shopping bag with a toothbrush, a shirt, and a few other small items.

The hostel had operated in Warsaw previously in 2015–2016, when it was the first such facility in Central and Eastern Europe. More than 70 people stayed there at the time, including a high school student who took his final exams while living at the hostel. Unfortunately, the center was forced to close due to lack of funds.

“I came to the hostel by chance. I lived there for a few months,” says Michał (not his real name). He has no doubt that such support is a “lifesaver” for many young people and is happy it has reopened. “I found work, I started earning money — today my life has sorted itself out, somehow,” he says.

Representatives of the LGBTQ community would like to open more such hostels or apartments for “rainbow youth” in other cities. A safe house has now been launched in Poznan, run by the Stonewall Group with support from city authorities amounting to 60,000 zloty (12,700 euros). The Equality March Association from Lublin also wants to open a safe house, but as yet has no concrete plans.

In addition to the need to find funding, the other major problem is gaining the support of local authorities. The witch hunt that has taken place in recent years against the LGBT community in Poland — “anti-LGBT ideology” zones throughout the country and homophobic statements by government politicians — causes mayors to be reluctant to fund these kinds of activities out of concern about how that support might affect their election results.

The idea that led to the hostel and safe house is in fact a simple one. It is about LGBTQ people knowing that, despite their homophobic families or teachers, there are also people who are willing and able to help them. When they cannot count on their families, such support networks can be crucial.

…

Anna Gmiterek-Zablocka is a journalist at Radio TOK FM, specializing in social issues including migration, domestic violence, and challenges faced by people with disabilities. She received the Grand Press Award for 2010.

Reprinted with permission of Notes from Poland; edited for style. Photo by Silar via Wikimedia Commons.

ETHIOPIA'S WAR OF AGGRESSION 

FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
Ethiopia's leader admits military losses in insurgencies

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says his government's police and soldiers are dying on a “daily” basis as the country grapples with insurgencies in Oromia and elsewhere

By Associated Press
July 07, 2022, 8:35 AM

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Ethiopian police and soldiers are dying on a “daily” basis as the country grapples with insurgencies in Oromia and elsewhere, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Thursday.

Abiy in a parliamentary address repeated a vow to destroy the Oromo Liberation Army, a rebel group his government blames for two recent massacres targeting members of the Amhara ethnic group.

“As a government, the fact we are not able to prevent the acts they committed, we feel quite sad,” Abiy said. “Daily police officers die, security forces die” while fighting the Oromo rebels, he said.

In a rare admission of government losses, Abiy also said that “hundreds” of district officials have been killed in attacks.

The increase in violence in Oromia comes as the 20-month-long conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front appears to be reducing. Last month Abiy revealed a committee has been set up to negotiate with the TPLF, but if the talks fail he suggested his government is ready to renew military efforts.

“The unity and the interests of our country, if it becomes difficult to secure it peacefully, we will pay sacrifices with our lives,” Abiy told lawmakers. “Outside of that, we believe there is hope. Our door will remain open for peace.”

In Oromia, the latest killings occurred on Monday, resulting in the deaths of an unknown number of civilians in the unstable West Wellega area. It followed a separate attack in the region last month that witnesses said killed hundreds.

The Oromo Liberation Army, or OLA, an outlawed group that the government refers to as Shene, denies carrying out the killings.

In response to the violence, regional and federal forces have stepped up their offensive against the OLA. Abiy said counterinsurgency efforts have been “95%” successful in saving civilian lives and compared the recent ethnic-based killings to gun violence in the United States.

“The security forces serve the country at a high cost, so the parliament should recognize their efforts,” Abiy said, describing the mass killings as “inhumane acts” perpetrated by “destructive, evil forces.”

On Wednesday Ethiopia’s parliament set up a special body to investigate the killings in Oromia, where regional government forces have also been accused of human rights abuses.

Human Rights Watch in a statement this week said a “culture of impunity” has “emboldened unaccountable security forces” that it says are responsible for a spate of extrajudicial killings in Oromia.

The killings are putting pressure on Abiy’s government to do more to protect civilians as waves of ethnic unrest persist in Africa’s second-most populous country with a population of 115 million people. Ethiopia has more than 90 different ethnic groups, according to its census. The Oromo are the largest group with an estimated 34% of the population followed by the Amhara with 27%.

Violence between various ethnic groups has increased in recent years as a result of longstanding rivalries.

New York Denies Air Quality Permit to a Cryptocurrency Mining Facility, Citing Sabin Center White Paper

BY JACOB ELKIN |JULY 7, 2022

The Greenidge Generation power plant in Dresden, NY. Photo: Brian Kahn

On June 30, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation denied Greenidge Generation LLC’s application to renew a Title V air quality permit for the Greenidge Generating Station. The facility, previously permitted as a natural gas-fired “peaker” plant, has recently ramped up its power generation to provide behind-the-meter power to Greenidge’s proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining operations.

The denial cites a white paper published by Columbia Climate School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law in March 2022. The paper argues that the New York Executive Branch has the legal authority to implement a moratorium on the permitting of fossil fuel power plants that are providing behind-the-meter energy to proof-of-work cryptocurrency miners. As the paper discusses in more detail, proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining requires significant energy consumption and thus produces large quantities of greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers have recently estimated that Bitcoin mining is responsible for 65.4 megatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Other estimates put Bitcoin’s annualized carbon footprint at 72.05 megatonnes of carbon dioxide, comparable with that of Greece, with a single Bitcoin transaction generating 805.77 kilograms of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the emissions generated by 1,785,864 VISA transactions.

In order to power such operations, a trend has arisen of former coal power plants transitioning to natural gas generation to deliver behind-the-meter power to mining facilities. Greenidge Generation is one such facility, operating as a coal-fired power plant in the 1930’s before ceasing operations in 2011, then receiving a new permit to restart operations as a natural gas-fired plant in 2016. When applying for that 2016 permit, Greenidge indicated that it would operate solely to provide power to the grid in a “peaking” capacity, but since 2020, Greenidge has begun utilizing the energy it produces to power an on-site cryptocurrency mining operation. As a result of this change in function, Greenidge’s greenhouse gas emissions have increased considerably, with Greenidge predicting its emissions will continue to increase going forward. Greenidge’s permit renewal application has thus drawn a significant amount of attention state- and nation-wide.

Read the rest of the article on the Sabin Center website. 

Caught in the act: Challenging Tunisian society’s homophobia through theatre



Yousra Samir Imran
30 June, 2022

Pride Month: LGBTQI+ NGO Mawjoudin speaks to The New Arab about how it uses art to raise awareness and confront homophobia in the North African country today.

For the LGBTQI+ community in North Africa and the Middle East, Pride Month is bittersweet.

While celebrating their love and existence within safe and private spaces, members of the queer community in many North African and Middle Eastern countries are painfully reminded on an almost daily basis of the prevailing homophobia that exists within their societies.

"Tunisia is often hailed as a shining example when it comes to advancements in gender justice in the region in the wake of the Arab Spring; however, there is still a lot of work to do"

Confronting the challenges that continue to exist for the community in Tunisia is NGO Mawjoudin, which means We Exist. It is one of the first officially registered NGOs in the country that openly works on issues pertaining to the LGBTQI+ community, as well as providing them with a range of support services.

In addition to this, Mawjoudin keeps a tab on human rights violations of LGBTQI+ individuals and runs panels, workshops, and awareness campaigns to provide education, promote greater understanding, and tackle homophobia.

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Mawjoudin was founded in 2015 by a small group of feminists and members of the LGBTQI+ community.

Karam, who joined in 2016, is their Communications and Artistic Project Officer. Speaking to The New Arab he explains how crucial it is to have an NGO that represents the queer community in Tunisia and North Africa. “It was difficult to have the whole community gathered in the same space at first but step by step we gained the confidence of the members of the [queer] community to come to our spaces and events and to feel safe, which is very important for the community.”

Most of the work Mawjoudin does is in Tunisia, helping members of the queer community by providing and connecting them with legal, psychological, digital security, and health services, including helping asylum seekers and immigrants from other Sub-Saharan and African countries.

"It was difficult to have the whole community gathered in the same space at first but step by step we gained the confidence of the members of the [queer] community to come to our spaces and events and to feel safe, which is very important for the community"

Karam explains that the demand for their support is great, and they are working hard on expanding and hopefully establishing branches in other countries in the future. But for now, they provide support and help to anyone who needs it in Tunisia.

“We also try to connect people from abroad asking for help, for example from Sudan, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey, and all these people from other countries are queer people who are finding themselves in very bad situations. We try to connect them to local networks of queer NGOs or even just human rights NGOs working in that country, to offer them the services they need.”

Tunisia is often hailed as a shining example when it comes to advancements in gender justice in the region in the wake of the Arab Spring; however, there is still a lot of work to do – for example, Article 230 still exists in their Penal Code, derived from French colonial law, which criminalises homosexuality, something Mawjoudin advocates for the abolishment of, and Tunisian President Kais Saied previously called gay people “deviants.” But nevertheless, the very fact that you can register yourself as an LGBTQI+ NGO is something.

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Society

Tariq Raouf

“After the revolution, the thing we gained was this freedom to discuss these topics, and the freedom of expression and of association, and to be able to register clearly as an association working on LGBTQI+ issues and topics,” says Karam. “This window of freedom gave the community the chance, the opportunity, and the confidence to talk and to be more visible, and to become more active when it comes to defending their rights.”

Art is an outlet and creative form that can promote greater awareness and understanding of any topic, and it is something that Mawjoudin has used since its inception to bring members of the community together and unite with allies.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they held an annual Queer Film Festival, the first of its kind in North Africa and the Middle East, which Karam says Mawjoudin will be bringing back this autumn. During the last two years of the pandemic, they have worked hard to raise awareness via digital campaigns on their social media channels.




Each year for Pride Month, Mawjoudin likes to put something on. In the past, it has been drag shows, dance performances, and lip-syncing contests.

This Pride Month they have premiered their very first Queer play, Flagranti, or Caught in the Act, directed by Essia Jaibi.

What is special about Flagranti is not only has it got an all-queer cast, but Mawjoudin has opened it to members of the general public, nevertheless in a private and safe space.

Mawjoudin premiered their very first Queer play, Flagranti, directed by Essia Jaibi

Flagranti is the tale of six members of Tunisia’s LGBTQI+ community of varying ages who face violence and abuse at home, in the workplace, and in public, peppered with dark humour.

The scenes in the play are based on real-life scenarios and emotions that the community experiences on a daily basis – the corruption in the police forces and judiciary, police brutality, anal tests, and the toll it has on their mental health. For them, leaving Tunisia seems to be their only option.

"Reactions were mostly being very shocked and moved by the play, about this real situation that people are not aware of, neglecting a part of society that is living this reality and this fear each day, and being able to see which kind of messages and support the community needs"

“We know that art is a soft way to raise awareness without being very confrontational or aggressive – although it can be sometimes – and this year with a play it is another level to confront the audience, with a direct speech to the audience [in order] to be aware of the queer situation, to feel empathy, and to be more aware of our community’s situation when it comes to the legal framework, social discrimination, and homophobia,” Karam tells The New Arab.

“It is also great to give the chance and space to young queer artists and to integrate allies of the community from the artistic field through these projects. The audience was mainly people from the queer community and our allies, but also people who are new to this world and to be in a totally immersive situation.

"Reactions were mostly being very shocked and moved by the play, about this real situation that people are not aware of, neglecting a part of society that is living this reality and this fear each day, and being able to see which kind of messages and support the community needs.”

Flagranti is the tale of six members of Tunisia’s LGBTQI+ community who face violence and abuse at home, in the workplace, and in public

The scenes in the play are based on real-life scenarios

Right now, Mawjoudin is busy at work organising their upcoming Queer Film Festival, a four-day event of film screenings, workshops, and dance performances that they are planning to run in September.

They have been trying to get popular Tunisian actors, actresses, and artists on board to collaborate, hoping that the presence of well-respected figures will aid them in connecting to a wider audience and result in even greater awareness and understanding.

“It is another opportunity for the queer community to gather, not only from Tunisia but from other countries and countries from the region, from Africa too, and for the diaspora. It is going to really be a chance for the queer community to meet up and celebrate. It is our own Pride in a way. It’s a way to celebrate it safely, and it is always a great moment to share.”

Find out more at www.mawjoudin.org and follow Mawjoudin on Instagram @mawjoudin_we_exist and Twitter @mawjoudin

Yousra Samir Imran is a British Egyptian writer and author who is based in Yorkshire. She is the author of Hijab and Red Lipstick, being published by Hashtag Press in the UK in October 2020

Follow her on Twitter: @UNDERYOURABAYA

TURKEY INVADES KURDISTAN IN ETHNIC CLEANSING
Turkey claims it killed 20 YPG members in Syria, amid reports of new military operation

Turkey's defence ministry on Wednesday issued a statement said 20 'terrorists' from the 'PKK/YPG' organisation were killed in northern Syria.

Turkey's army could soon launch a new operation in northern Syria [Getty-file photo]

Turkey on Wednesday said it had killed 20 members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a new Turkish military operation in Syria appears to be drawing near.

The Turkish defence ministry issued a statement saying 20 "terrorists" belonging to the "PKK/YPG" organisation were killed in northern Syria.

The YPG is a Kurdish militia group which is the main component of the SDF, a coalition of Arab and Kurdish militias operating in notheastern Syria.

Ankara alleges that the YPG is the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group that has been fighting fan insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

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Turkey's defence ministry said the "neutralisation" operations took place in the Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch areas.

These are areas of Syria that have been controlled by the Turkish military and its Syrian allies since two separate offensives in Aleppo province in 2016 and 2018.

There have recently been suggestions that a new Turkish operation in northern Syria, which will focus on the towns of Tel Rifaat and Manbij, is imminent.

A correspondent for The New Arab's Arabic-language service reported that fighting broke out between the SDF and the Turkish allied "Syrian National Army" in the village of Al-Mahsanli, north of Manbij.

The correspondent added that Turkish warplanes were seen in the border area on Wednesday evening.

He also said further Turkish military convoys arrived in the area through the Al-Rai border crossing on Wednesday.

The convoy included tanks, armoured vehicles and mine-clearing vehicles, and was headed towards the city of Al-Bab, northeast of Aleppo city.

Turkey has been saying it will launch a new military operation in Syria since late May.

Idlib's female journalists battle against the regime, the patriarchy and misogynistic interpretations of Islam



Hadia Al Mansour
01 July, 2022

States of Journalism series: Female journalists in Idlib remain steadfast in face of myriad challenges; from regime bombing to oppressive measures imposed by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, to the deeply patriarchal society which rejects women working.

This article is part of The New Arab’s States of Journalism series, a sustained exploration of freedom, repression, and accountability in MENA and global media landscapes. Read more of the series’ articles here.

Female journalists in Idlib continue to face colossal challenges when it comes to doing their job, whether collecting information, contacting sources, or filming in public spaces.

Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) has banned the latter under threat of arrest, as the hardline Islamist group and de facto authority in Idlib continues to consolidate its suffocating policies towards journalists in Idlib, silencing those who speak out against its violations against civilians.

But HTS's oppressive security apparatus and strict monitoring of female journalists are not all they face.

Even worse is the stance of their own community, which sees women subjected to intimidation whenever they try to cover events, and their every movement scrutinised. They are fully aware that one misstep could endanger not only their professional life but quite possibly their actual one.

Added to these barriers are the issues faced by all across the war-ravaged region – the repeated bombardment of the opposition-held areas by the brutal regime of Assad, and the intentional targeting of journalists; in addition to logistical issues like electricity and internet blackouts as well as a lack of materials.

"Female journalists in Idlib face colossal challenges when it comes to doing their job, whether collecting information, contacting sources, or filming in public spaces"

About why she chose to become a journalist, ex-teacher Hana al-Mohammed (39) says: "I always felt things were unjust – like when I observed how everyone at the teacher training college for girls in Kafranbel was guaranteed secure employment and I wasn’t – instead I was forced to move from school to school […] barred from a fixed job, just because I didn’t have any connections in the ruling Baath party."

None of the certificates she obtained, the training courses she did or the experience she gained was enough to secure Hana a full-time teaching post. It was all "useless without the right connections – the most influential factor within a corrupt system which had long plundered our rights, dreams and aspirations," she says.

When the spark of rebellion ignited in Deraa and spread across the country, feelings that many women in Idlib had long repressed surfaced. On 27 April 2012, Hana marched for the first time with other women from her town, Kafranbel, brandishing a banner that read: "death over humiliation".

Female journalists in Idlib face added challenges during their work from Idlib's conservative society as well as from HTS [Hadia Al Mansour]


She wore a face veil, fearful of being recognised and seized afterwards by Assad's henchmen, who carried out arrests after every demonstration.

Soldiers and security services would raid people's homes, having received detailed reports about those participating in the protests from spies and informants. They would uproot the demonstrators from the arms of their families like "the soul is plucked from the body," in Hana's words.

Hana chose to quit teaching and become a journalist in 2015, to document what was happening in Kafranbel, which experienced repeated acts of terrorism at the hands of the regime and its Russian ally, and later extremist Islamist factions including the Islamic State group (IS).

"As a journalist, I focused on women, children, and other vulnerable groups and the challenges they faced in such a complex situation, whether health-related, economic or to do with the security situation," says Hana.

"Hana chose to quit teaching and become a journalist in 2015, to document what was happening in Kafranbel, which experienced repeated acts of terrorism at the hands of the regime and its Russian ally, and later extremist Islamist factions including IS"

"I had to contribute to the victory of our orphaned revolution in my own way, using my pen to transmit the hardships and pain of those grieving at a time when there was a huge amount of media misinformation penning alternative names for the revolution which bore no relation to the truth: betrayal became 'coexistence' and 'civic loyalty', the revolution 'a crisis', the revolutionary, an 'armed terrorist', the liberation of the land from tyrants, a 'war'," she further explains.

Hana wasn't afraid of taking on a new profession, even one that would invariably invite condemnation from Idlib's society, which clings to a stereotypical view of women and places them into a one-size-fits-all template that cannot be altered. However, Hana has broken the mould and continues reporting reality as she sees it in defiance of her circumstances.

Journalist Mariam al-Mustafa (40), for her part, faced continuous threats from anonymous figures who used bogus WhatsApp numbers, warning that she "would pay" for her attacks on HTS after she wrote a report documenting their repression against women in Idlib and their interventions to stop women working by claiming it violated sharia law and religion.

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"The threats made me more cautious – I started using borrowed names and changing houses periodically. This has destroyed any sense of safety and stability for me and my family."

However, she keeps working. Despite seeing her brother arrested by the regime early on, then seeing him in the Ceasar photographs of the regime's torture victims, to the repeated destruction of her home under bombing raids – from which her and her children survived by sheer chance – to the suffocating oppression of the current de facto rulers, she has remained steadfast in her mission to continue writing and reporting, regardless of the risk.

"Heavily armed fighters from Jabhat Al Nusra, the group in control of the area at the time, stormed the women's workplace. They trashed the office and expelled the women, threatening to arrest them if they returned, accusing them of immodesty, being infidels"

Journalist Rawaa Al Bakour (39) tells a different story – one of the shocking responses of the local community to the launch of the Mazaya magazine (an organisation working to empower women in Idlib).

She and three other female journalists started the magazine in 2015; it was the first media experiment of its kind in the region. The four volunteers hoped the magazine would be a success, and chose article topics relating to women's issues – women's rights, lives, success stories, ambitions, and challenges. The magazine was printed and issued on a monthly basis.

The project had been going for less than a month when heavily armed fighters from Jabhat Al Nusra, the group in control of the area at the time, stormed the women's workplace. They trashed the office and expelled the women, threatening to arrest them if they returned, accusing them of immodesty, being infidels, and yelling obscenities, according to Rawaa.

After the Syrian uprising began in 2011, increasing numbers of women took training courses in journalism to document the crimes of the regime as well as the extremist groups which later appeared [Hadia Al Mansour]

"They deserved it, what do they want doing these things, they should feel ashamed, why aren't they at home looking after their husbands and children, by God, they've reaped what they sowed!"

These were the gloating words muttered by the men of Kafranbel who amassed outside the Mazaya's offices as they gleefully followed the course of events, words that still echo in Rawaa's memory.

"The men’s reaction revealed their deep-seated hatred and rejection of any activity women undertake in our society. A logical response would have been to feel proud of our work and what we were doing, and to reject such a blatant assault on our right to free expression."

"I, as a woman living in a traditional, patriarchal and conservative society, am not a 'lesser rib' – an idea that gets drummed into us! Actually, I am capable of a lot, of breaking the stereotypes, exiting the cage of custom and tradition and of fulfilling my potential"

Rawaa says journalism has changed the way she understands her life: "That I, as a woman living in a traditional, patriarchal and conservative society, am not a 'lesser rib' – an idea that gets drummed into us! Actually, I am capable of a lot, of breaking the stereotypes, exiting the cage of custom and tradition and of fulfilling my potential."

Jabhat Al Nusra's attempts to intimidate Rawaa and her colleagues didn't succeed. The journalists regrouped the following day, and a number of local women came to offer their solidarity. They reopened the office, cleaned up the mess and got back to work.

Rawaa continued with the magazine until late 2018 when the regime unleashed a violent military campaign across south Idlib, and she was forced to flee. But she hasn’t stopped working – currently submitting her articles to numerous media outlets as a freelance journalist.

Sahir al-Idlibi (30), works in electronic journalism and has trained many women in journalistic skills. She was deeply influenced by the burgeoning movement of individual social awareness, which reshaped her perspective on the demand for freedom, justice and democracy in a country where these ideals had long been absent during the Assad family's rule.

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She says: "I came to feel my role was no longer just to record events, instead I felt I'd become a cog in the machinery shaping these events – an essential partner in the creation of a new phase of Syria's history."

According to Reporters Without Borders, there are 60 female journalists working in Idlib province, and The Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression ranked Syria 174th out of 180 countries for press freedom in 2019.

The Syrian Centre for Journalistic Freedom (SCJF) said in its last annual report that "restrictions on press freedom alongside threats violating the safety and security of media workers and the freedom of the press, formed direct causes for the majority of documented violations during February 2022".

Hadia Al Mansour is a freelance journalist from Syria who has written for Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Monitor, SyriaUntold and Rising for Freedom Magazine.

Article translated from Arabic by Rose Chacko

Twitter bots will not silence us Palestinians exposing Israel's crimes

Nooran Alhamdan
01 Jul, 2022

The use of bots to troll Palestinians online is part of a systematic targeting campaign. But all the harassment and intimidation will not deter activists, who are committed to revealing the truth that Israel fears, writes Nooran Hamdan.


Thousands of fake Twitter accounts began following Palestinian activists online in a targeted harassment campaign. [Getty]

One night, at the height of my final semester of graduate school, I was having a sleepless night. I don’t remember why I was tossing and turning, but I remember after an hour of frustrated attempts to sleep, I found myself mindlessly scrolling Twitter. Through squinted eyes, I noticed that my Twitter notifications were lighting up consistently, the blue signal indicating that I had over twenty notifications every few minutes.

I clicked my notifications tab and jolted up. I had row upon row of updates about new followers. I was perplexed. Had I tweeted something that had gone viral? How were so many people finding my account? I clicked one of the accounts that had followed me, and noticed their account was created that month. They had zero followers, what seemed to be a random photo as their profile picture, and they only followed Palestinian or pro-Palestine solidarity accounts.

The rest of my night remained sleepless. I browsed the hundreds of accounts that followed me and they all shared similar traits; newly created, only following Palestinian accounts, and obviously fake. At one point, I had to make my account private in order to be able to catch up with blocking the bot accounts without getting followed by a new batch of them.

"Being a Palestinian woman on Twitter, where I engage in digital advocacy and utilise the platform for my academic work, has never been easy business"

I wasn’t alone. Other Palestinian Twitter users were dealing with the same thing. Marc Owen Jones, an expert on disinformation and digital authoritarianism in the Middle East, analysed the suspicious activity and concluded our worst fears.

These bots were part of a systematic targeting campaign. The goal of these bots is to mass follow accounts and report them, until the account they are targeting is suspended. Owens even argues that the tactic acts as a “tool of surveillance and intimidation.”

Analysing the accounts following me in particular, Owens found that the 1156 bot accounts were being produced at a rate of 180 accounts every 3 minutes, a feat that is impossible without automation. 1090 of the 1156 accounts were suspended by Twitter.

Since I first experienced bot manipulation in late April, I have found that it has continued, although more sporadically and in fewer numbers. In this past week, I have noticed the activity emerging again, and I was quick to block the accounts.

Being a Palestinian woman on Twitter, where I engage in digital advocacy and utilise the platform for my academic work, has never been easy business. I have experienced a range of harassment and trolling over the years. And despite my large following, I know that I have it relatively easy compared to other Palestinians, who have been smeared by online blacklist websites that have the explicit goal of making the professional lives of Palestinian-Americans extremely difficult.

While I am thankful to have avoided more libellous and bad faith internet attacks, I cannot pretend that I am not uncomfortable being targeted. There is something especially eerie about the artificial bots that follow me. They are a reminder that someone always has their eyes on me; on my account and on the work that I do. What is most unsettling is not knowing exactly who is behind them.

While Israel and its cyberarm are likely a safe bet, I still wonder who would be so concerned about my account that they feel compelled to surveil me in this way. I am a 24 year old student. I engage in organising for the Palestinian cause in my own ways offline, which I do not advertise in any way whatsoever on my account. Most of my tweets are my unfiltered thoughts, informed by my family’s experience as Palestinian refugees and my understanding of politics given that I am deeply embedded in academic and advocacy spaces.

Despite the risks posed by being visibly Palestinian on Twitter and in other digital spaces, I will continue to persist. While I am honest in my discomfort at the feeling of being watched, I will always be committed to Palestinian liberation. Tweeting and speaking out about the genocide and settler-colonialism occuring in Palestine will always be what I consider to be the bare minimum that I can do as a Palestinian in the diaspora.

But more importantly, I ground myself in the reality that Israel is so intimidated by the work that I and other activists do, that mere tweets warrant the response that we have received in the latest form of bot manipulation. And this only motivates me.

"While I am honest in my discomfort at the feeling of being watched, I will always be committed to Palestinian liberation"

The truth scares Israel. Whether spoken in Palestine, in the United States, or in digital spaces. And that should only empower us all further; to keep speaking about Palestine, to keep Gaza Masafer Yatta and Sheikh Jarrah trending on Twitter, to keep posting about Ahmad Manasra, to keep the momentum of digital global solidarity with Palestinians.

They blacklist us, troll us, smear us, and send armies of bots to watch us because they fear the truth.

Nooran Alhamdan recently received her Masters degree in Arab Studies from Georgetown University.
Follow her on Twitter: @nooranhamdan

Algeria’s revolutionary history is tarnished by its regime

Algeria’s independence from France was globally celebrated, but the 60th anniversary will likely be overshadowed by decades-long corruption, backdoor deals with the former coloniser, and political repression by the regime, writes Abdelkader Cheref.

Algeria proclaimed its independence after the signing of 

the Evian Accords on March 18, 1962. [GETTY]

Abdelkader Cheref
04 Jul, 2022

On July 5, 2022, Algeria celebrates the 60th anniversary of its independence from France.

Sixty years have elapsed since the Algerian War of Independence (1954 – 1962) triumphed. And the victory remains a jubilatory episode in modern Arab history.

The Algerian Revolution was a national armed struggle whose ultimate objective was to bring down the French settler colonial rule which prevailed for more than a century (1830-1962).

Not only it was a major event in the MENA region and worldwide, but it also impacted the decoloniSation movement in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Many historians believe that the “savage war of peace” claimed the lives of some 1.5 million Algerians.

Yet, the after-effects of the Revolution continue to raise questions regarding the current political and socio-economic situation in Algeria.


''Sixty years after a hard-won independence, scores of analysts have a hard time accepting that Algeria - an oil-wealthy country – is struggling with poor infrastructure, high unemployment, limited civil liberties, cronyism, hundreds of political prisoners, and a muzzled opposition.''

Despite the fact that the country was “the Mecca for revolutionaries,” the post-independence leaders were more concerned with power grab than alleviating the miserable conditions of the Algerian people. And fixing the devastation caused by the eight-year war of independence was the least of their worries.

A case in point is former ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who many analysts view as a putschist and one of the architects of the Algerian authoritarian regime.

The man was a key player in dissolving the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA), and in organiSing the June 1965 coup d’état. A coup which deposed Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria’s first civilian elected President, and instated Colonel Houari Boumediene as a de facto president.

That coup not only allowed the military top brass to dominate the political scene, but it has also enabled a bunch of National Liberation Front (FLN) apparatchiks to confiscate power and impose an authoritarian corrupt regime with a democratic façade.

And when the October 1988 riots occurred, the powers that be were compelled to draft a new constitution and allowed the emergence of a relatively free press. They also permitted the legal existence of secularist and Islamist political parties.

But when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win the first free parliamentary elections in December 1991, the military stepped in, cancelled the elections, stopped the democratic process, jailed thousands of Algerians in concentration camps in the Sahara desert, and triggered a dirty civil war which pinned Islamist militants against the Algerian military.

The civil war claimed the lives of more than 200,000 Algerians and foreign nationals.

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It should be mentioned that despite Algeria’s vast oil wealth, the various post-independence governments have all exercised power in a tribal fashion, based on systemic corruption, nepotism, embezzlement, cronyism, and resistance to change.

By some estimates, more than a trillion US dollars of oil revenues were either stolen or misspent during former president Bouteflika’s 20-year reign.

The intransigence of the system has been so full of twists and turns that Algeria has had multiple crises with the former coloniSer as well as neighbouring countries in the Maghreb.

Though Algeria and Morocco share a common historical and cultural heritage, the hostility vis-a-vis Morocco goes back to the 1963 border conflict, called the Sand War. That territorial dispute which took place less than a year after Algeria obtained its independence, claimed the lives of hundreds of people on both sides, and eventually defined the two sister countries' spiteful relationship.

Since the signing of the Evian Accords on March 18, 1962 – which ended the Algerian war and paved the way for independence from France, Algeria has had a craggy type of relationship with the former colonial power.

Though France was permitted to carry out 17 of its nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara Desert until 1966, and former French president de Gaulle managed to strike a secret deal with Boumediene and Bouteflika to authoriSe chemical weapons tests until 1978, the regime’s anti-French discourse has been primarily for domestic consumption.

For many observers, Paris has always had good relations with Algiers. The intelligence and military cooperation taking place without public knowledge has been remarkably fruitful. In January 2013, Algerian authorities allowed French military jets to use the country’s airspace to reach Mali when the French were battling Jihadists. Such proximity with the former colonial ruler did not go well among Algerians.

If for the former French ambassador to Algeria, Mr. Xavier Driencourt, whose recent book - The Algerian Puzzle, highlights the complex and complicated relation between Algeria and France, for Luis Martinez, a political scientist at Sciences Po university in Paris, “despite appearances and criticism, there has been a stable, very balanced relationship.”

However, this neo-colonial enterprise was rejected by the Hirak.

Protestors showed that the French establishment interfering in Algerian affairs has only been made possible by “hizb frança” (The Party of France) – those Algerian officials who spare no effort to defend French interests at the expense of Algeria’s.

Given the Algerian Revolution’s seismic effect on the post-colonial world, the current corrupt and authoritarian regime has tarnished Algeria’s standing.

Do the Algerians deserve to be in such an impasse? What happened to the Algerian fighting spirit? Did the glorious Revolution rise like a rocket only to fall like a stick? These questions are worth posing.

Sixty years after a hard-won independence, scores of analysts have a hard time accepting that Algeria - an oil-wealthy country – is struggling with poor infrastructure, high unemployment, limited civil liberties, cronyism, hundreds of political prisoners, and a muzzled opposition.

It should be mentioned that many view the Hirak as “a struggle for post-dictatorial independence after the struggle for postcolonial independence.”

Will the Hirak, as a continuation of the Algerian national movement, succeed in bringing down the regime which confiscated Algeria’s independence? Time will tell.

Dr. Abdelkader Cheref is an Algerian academic and a freelance journalist based in the US. As a former Fulbright scholar, he holds a PhD from the University of Exeter, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. His research interests are primarily politics in the MENA region, democratisation, Islam/Islamism, and political violence with a special focus on the Maghreb.

Follow him on Twitter @Abdel_Cheref