11 EU states agree to strengthen cooperation on nuclear energy

‘Nuclear energy is one of many tools to achieve our climate goals,’ says joint statement

Ahmet Gencturk |28.02.2023


ATHENS

Eleven EU member states agreed Tuesday to strengthen cooperation on nuclear energy.

“On the occasion of the informal Council of energy ministers in Stockholm, the ministers and high-level representatives of eleven Member States, including Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Hungary, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, met this morning with the Commission and the Swedish Presidency to jointly reaffirm their desire to strengthen European cooperation in the field of nuclear energy,” said a statement by concerned states.

The ministers agreed to foster closer cooperation between their national nuclear sectors to ensure the best cooperation across supply chains and to explore joint training programs and industrial projects, it said.

“Nuclear energy is one of many tools to achieve our climate goals, to generate base load electricity and to ensure the security of supply,” according to the statement.​​​​​​​

Tunisia and the great illusion of colonisation

Populism has always been a breeding ground for anti-immigrant hatred.

February 28, 2023

People welcome migrants arriving onboard of the Sea-eye4 ship

 [Stringer - Anadolu Agency]

Mehdi Mabrouk
February 28, 2023 

Since the beginning of the 1990s, there have been radical shifts in the scene of migration in the Mediterranean. With Italy and Spain imposing visas specifically on citizens of the Maghreb countries, the first waves of secret maritime migration will erupt, or what is known in the Maghreb countries as "harga". People are still wondering what it really means; whether it means illegal infiltration, the burning of documents, etc., regardless of the deep connotations that social semiotics can give us, the functions of these countries have changed a lot, and their areas are no longer only a motive for their immigrants, but also a magnet for immigrants. They are also, at the same time, areas of transit visited by thousands of immigrants who are trying to reach the northern shore of the Mediterranean.

The cost is often high for such attempts: money wasted and lives lost in the Mediterranean. Decades later, given the tightening of immigration policies in EU countries, and even the countries of the Arab Maghreb, this region has turned into a trap that attracts migrants hoping to cross, but they settle temporarily, or for a long time in these countries. There is no doubt that the Arab revolutions and the collapse of the border system have, in turn, prompted dramatic shifts in migration. Borders were also used for extortion, as the late Libyan Colonel did when he publicly refused having his country play the role of the policeman guarding Europe's borders, and secretly blackmailed those countries in order to turn a blind eye to his many transgressions.

READ: EU follows developments in Tunisia with great concern

While these immigrants usually prefer to settle in Libya, the rest of the Maghreb countries remained unattractive to them, due to many factors, including the economic conditions and security control over them. Tunisia generally remained a transit area, although some migrants chose to settle there temporarily, albeit illegally. Despite the high unemployment rates, the labour market in Tunisia was accommodating for these individuals, due to the Tunisian youth's reluctance to work hard while earning low wages, such as jobs in bakeries, cafes and restaurants, as well as collecting household waste and cleaning work in urban areas.

After the revolution, they benefited from the growth of a civil sense fuelled by civil associations working in the field of migrants' rights. During the past decade, they were not subject to arrest, except during aborded secret migration operations, which revealed that a large number of migrants were coming from sub-Saharan countries. However, the scene did not witness radical changes in the number of migrants. Statistics used to indicate that the number of nationalities of migrants arrested was nearly 70 nationalities annually, and this number is still almost the same.

The security approach adopted by the Tunisian authorities in what it calls "combating secret migration" did not bear fruit, for many objective reasons, including the length of the country's coastline, which extends for nearly 2,000 km (if we consider the circumference of the islands), in addition to the lack of logistical capabilities for the maritime border guard due to the suffocating public funds crisis.

Successive governments were not keen to deal with the migration file, and it remained a secondary issue, with the related legislation remaining outdated and not suited to international standards. The law of 3 February, 2004 does not talk about immigration but, rather, about travel documents. It also stipulates penalties that are considered the most severe in the world, without forgetting that Tunisia did not sign the 18 December, 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Only the 2014 Constitution, before it was replaced, referred in a single article, to refugees and prevented their extradition, although some practices continued not to comply with this.

The waves of illegal immigration have not waned, whether those pushing Tunisians to the Italian shores, or those inviting them to come to Tunisia, either to cross through it or to settle there. According to the most recent studies carried out by the National Observatory for Migration, in cooperation with the National Institute of Statistics, two public institutions that are considered references and which prepared the 2022 National Migration Survey, in cooperation with reputable international organisations in the field of quantitative migration data, the number of foreign immigrants in 2022 reached nearly 70,000 that entered the country, either legally or illegally. However, anti-immigrant voices, in general, continued to express, from time to time, their annoyance with them, citing the difficult situation of the country.

READ: Algeria halves jail terms for Tunisian smugglers

For example, the National Committee against Trafficking in Persons (NCTIP), has addressed in its numerous reports the increased trafficking and ill-treatment against migrants. Since his election in 2019, President Kais Saied has expressed, on many occasions, his dissatisfaction with the phenomenon. He has taken the initiative to visit several coastal cities, hinting, at the same time, that it is the result of a conspiracy plotted against Tunisia. The hint was not clear at the time, until he openly announced it a few days ago during a meeting with what he calls the National Security Council. He expressed that the phenomenon of immigration falls within a big conspiracy against Tunisia, in order to strip it of its Arab-Islamic identity, and limit its identity to its African identity. He said that it is an attempt to change its demographic composition, in an effort to "colonise" it, denouncing the parties that received money to settle immigrants, referring to the organisations that fight to integrate these people, and prevent racist attacks against them, which have increased in frequency, despite the enactment of a law against all forms of racism in 2018. These shocking incidents sparked a wave of condemnation, at the national and international levels, especially since acts of violence accompanied these incidents and harmed some immigrants.

Populism has always been a breeding ground for anti-immigrant hatred.

This article first appeared in Arabic in Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on 27 February 2023

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

Democratic pessimism in Tunisia

This article is part of the Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Initiative, MEI’s look at the evolving threats to freedom, political rights, and civil liberties, as well as the struggles to achieve fair, transparent, and representative governance across the MENA region.

February 28, 2023

Fadil Aliriza

Tunisia’s current system of government is by all indicators continuing to move even farther away from a liberal democratic form envisioned in the 2014 constitution. This is particularly true in the post-July 25, 2021 period after President Kais Saied suspended parliament and assumed full executive and legislative powers. However, analyses that focus solely on Saied miss some of the broader social and political trends that were already rejecting the way Tunisia’s post-2011 “democratic transition” has unfolded. They also miss the nexus that has converged to maintain the current system, in particular between security forces, some sycophantic media, and key figures within the political, business, and civil service sectors.

Prior to Saied’s centralization of authority, there was increasing fragmentation within the executive branch, among state institutions, within and between political parties, within civil society, and even between regions of the country. While the normative ideal of liberal democracy presumes that competition for, contestation of, and checks and balances on power inevitably produce a relatively stable and legitimate governing system, the fragmentation seen at nearly every level of Tunisian society produced little of either and instead saw stagnation in terms of development and no cohesive national project. Since 2011 there have been nine prime ministers, even more ministerial reshuffles, and numerous parliamentary blocs forming, dissolving, and regrouping in parallel to equally mercurial party formations — all while spending on desperately collapsing public services in education, transportation, and health decreased in real (i.e. inflation and exchange adjusted) terms. With such political volatility and lacking a coherent vision for development, state institutions were unable or unwilling to make bold but necessary decisions on spending and real per-capita GDP fell steadily each year from $4,399 in 2014 to $3,498 in 2020.

That was the vacuum in which Saied’s centralization of authority (or alternatively the centralization of authority proposed by the then increasingly popular Abir Moussi) appealed to large numbers of Tunisians. This was exacerbated by the fact that competition and contestation in post-2011 Tunisia was not limited to domestic actors alone, as international financial institutions and foreign states have played vital roles in sustaining funding for Tunisia’s government and civil society activity — funding explicitly tied to policy choices often opposed by the public. For example, EU macrofinancial assistance has come with explicit conditions on Tunisian energy policy and public employment that have been at odds with popular protests over the cost of living and public hiring policies. Such unpopular austerity measures have also been among the conditions for International Monetary Fund loan programs since 2013. The World Bank’s hundreds of millions of dollars in loans for local governments in Tunisia since 2015 have come with a development model for decentralization that is at odds with those of local activists.

To be clear, democracy itself is not losing popularity — in the fall 2021 Arab Barometer polling, 72% of Tunisians still preferred democracy to any other system. But the same polling also found that a plurality of respondents believed that the system needs to be totally “replaced” rather than “reformed.” This seeming contradiction — Tunisians preferring democracy yet wanting to replace the system — is open to multiple interpretations. However, it is clear that many Tunisians don’t believe their “democracy” has actually been very democratic even before President Saied dismissed parliament.

The post-2011 consensus

The fruits of 2011 largely benefitted a new political elite: businessmen for whom the ruling family and/or strong state institutions had been an obstacle to greater profits, but also human rights activists and leaders of repressed political parties who had struggled for decades against the regime managed by Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Many of these figures joined political life and won positions as heads of key state institutions or as members of parliament. In contrast, the masses of people whose “everyday resistance” to the regime did not make headlines or earn them the label of “dissident” did not win positions of power in the post-2011 system: football fans who faced down police repression; participants in the Gafsa mining region’s 2008 revolt against an exploitative and deadly development model (a preview of the 2010-11 revolts); student unionists fighting to reclaim universities that had become the regime’s repressive and disciplinary tools; workers who, in the momentum of 2011, kicked out old management and chose their own or instituted self-management schemes; farmers who reclaimed land taken from them by the state.

These actors and their struggles played important roles in bringing down the former regime, yet they have often been sidelined by political actors in the post-2011 era, including by President Saied despite his initial pro-revolution rhetoric. The representative, liberal democratic system with free and fair elections and a new constitution that had been ushered in appeared to many Tunisians as having failed to solve — or even greatly exacerbated — the pressing problems experienced by ordinary people. On economic development, on policing, on regional injustices, on corruption, the few positions on which the “people’s representatives” in parliament found any consensus were either tangential to or at odds with “the people’s” demands. The lack of parliamentary consensus on appointing a constitutional court ironically facilitated Saied’s unchecked suspension of parliament on July 25, 2021, while the parliamentary consensus on a new anti-terrorism law ironically is providing a legal fig-leaf to the current wave of arrests of former MPs. While some analysts very early on diagnosed this consensus-seeking among elites as coming at the expense of social issues, many others preferred to hold onto a rosy narrative of Tunisia’s democratic exceptionalism in the region.

The new system

In the nearly two years since beginning his centralization of power, Saied’s mode of rule and the increasing police and judicial repression of politicians and journalists have understandably drawn sharp condemnations from human rights groups and democracy advocates. At the same time, many of Saied’s own supporters have lost faith in his capacity to replace the system in a way that is meaningfully different from what came before. While Saied’s new “hyper-presidential” constitution includes room for a legislative body with vastly reduced powers, the extremely low participation rates in the online consultation about the constitution, the referendum on the constitution, and the elections for the new legislative body suggests there is little popular faith that these legislative changes will accomplish anything positive — or that voting will have any effect on government. The latter may be interpreted as an acknowledgment that many people no longer believe they have any power over their own government, which is a deeply pessimistic reflection of the state of democracy.

And yet despite the centralization of authority in the executive, or rather because of it, existing fragmentation within Tunisian society is increasing. This includes the spectacular spike in racist violence against black Africans fueled by Saied and his supporters, which itself has provoked sharp polarization. Saied’s supporters also continue to cheer the arrests of opposition politicians, regardless of the glaring lack of due process afforded to suspects. Another example is that the minority who did vote in favor of Saied’s new constitution voted nearly unanimously: 95% in favor. This number is similar to the numbers Ben Ali and similar monarchical presidents in other countries used to win in elections that were neither free nor fair. Under those systems, voting was treated not as a practice of contesting power, but as a small interest group extending its power over the rest of society and sharing the spoils through the political machine. Contestation of power, though heavily repressed and often out of sight, happened elsewhere: within the single ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) party, within state institutions, within unions or by unionists against employers and officials, in football stadiums, and towards the end of Ben Ali’s rule online on websites blocked by the government.

Until recently, Saied has had to do relatively little to repress the political opposition because they have remained largely unpopular. Now however, although the opposition remains unpopular, they appear to be working together better than in the summer of 2021, or at least media outlets that once ignored them are giving them more attention as media institutions themselves feel more threatened with repression. More importantly, the recent arrests of high-profile political figures have come with accusations by authorities that the accused were conspiring with foreign diplomats against state security. Regardless of the relative merit or baselessness of these accusations, they reflect President Saied’s acute attentiveness to perceived threats to his political project.

Without other organizational power such as a party to rely on, President Saied is highly dependent on security forces to carry out his orders and for the information he receives, meaning that while power is highly concentrated, the presidency is also isolated. This dependence in turn has further empowered security forces, who have since 2011 escaped civilian control or judicial accountability in what amounts to impunity. With fewer restraints on their powers, it is likely the latest waves of repression represent to some degree a score-settling by some factions within the security sector. As executive power continues to accumulate within the presidency and the security forces (a trend with some antecedents as far back as 2015), other political actors within business, media, and the civil service will increasingly look to these institutions to curry favor or preserve their own positions of power, thus reinforcing the trend. Meanwhile the judiciary’s capacity to hold the executive accountable is languishing even further, with the president’s new powers to fire judges weighing heavily on those who must oversee cases in which President Saied has made highly charged and prejudicial public statements about the accused.

These trends all point to a continued disintegration of the power of ordinary people to direct, change, or even affect how they are governed through formal mechanisms or organizations. If people power is to intervene in shaping policies, it will come through informal means. But because of the increasing repression, only the most dire of circumstances affecting the health and livelihoods of people are likely to break through what may be a new wall of fear. While the Arab Barometer polling found that 72% of Tunisians still preferred democracy to any other system, an even larger percentage — 76% — said they strongly or somewhat agreed with the sentiment that as long as the government solves the country’s economic problems, it doesn’t matter what kind of government is in place.

Fadil Aliriza is the founder and editor-in-chief of Meshkal.org, an independent news website in English and Arabic covering Tunisia, and a Non-Resident Scholar with MEI’s North Africa and Sahel Program.

Photo by Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The Middle East Institute (MEI) is an independent, non-partisan, non-for-profit, educational organization. It does not engage in advocacy and its scholars’ opinions are their own. MEI welcomes financial donations, but retains sole editorial control over its work and its publications reflect only the authors’ views. For a listing of MEI donors, please click here.

IRAQ    
Al-Sudani's First 100 Days

By Hamzeh Hadad, Erwin van Veen and Folkert Woudstra
FEBRUARY 28, 2023


On 27 October 2022, Mohammed Shiya al-Sudani assumed office as Prime Minister (PM) of Iraq. After more than 12 months of political competition between the Sadrist Movement (led by religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr) and the Coordination Framework (which brings a range of Shi’a parties together and of which the new PM is part), al-Sudani’s election was a breakthrough. He started work in a dynamic but relatively positive environment. Tensions between Iran and the US in Iraq are currently at a low point, in large part due to the combination of the war in Ukraine, protests in Iran, and the pretense by both Washington and Tehran that the nuclear deal (JCPOA) is not yet dead.

The first 100 days of the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shiya al-Sudani are a model of appeasement.

At the same time, only a low-level insurgency remains of the once mighty Islamic State. Since June 2021, the group has been able to conduct only a few dozen small-scale attacks per month and mostly in rural areas. Moreover, the infighting among Iraq’s political elites that took a few violent turns between November 2021 and August 2022 has since decreased to more manageable proportions. Al-Sadr has temporarily withdrawn from political engagement, while Baghdad and Erbil intensified their dialogue to find solutions for budgetary, oil/gas and security disagreements.

Read the full brief from Clingendael.

French court dismisses NGOs' case against controversial TotalEnergies projects in east Africa

Feb 28, 2023

A French court ruled on Tuesday rejected a landmark lawsuit against oil giant TotalEnergies that accused it of failing to protect people and the environment as it pursues oil projects in Uganda and Tanzania. The world’s longest heated oil pipeline will pass through forest reserves and game parks before running alongside Lake Victoria, a source of fresh water for 40 million people.

Memphis drag queen fears Tennessee drag ban bill would empower strangers to call the cops on her for how she dresses

Yelena Dzhanova
Feb 28, 2023

Bella DuBalle is a drag performer in Memphis, Tennessee. 

Drew Parker/Courtesy of Bella DuBalle

A bill that would outlaw drag is poised to head to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's office soon.
Bella DuBalle, a Memphis-based drag queen, said the bill is "terrifying" and puts her at risk.

"I could go to prison for six years for appearing in a public pride parade," she told Insider.

Bella DuBalle, a Memphis-based drag queen, is speaking out against a Tennessee bill that would outlaw drag if it becomes law.

The text of the drag ban bill says "adult cabaret performances" cannot be performed "on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult." The bill identifies "male and female impersonators" — drag kings and drag queens — as adult cabaret performers.

In an interview with Insider, DuBalle called the bill "terrifying" and said she's personally afraid for her own safety.

The bill specifies that a second offense would be considered a Class E felony, which carries a jail sentence of up to six years.

"I could go to prison for six years for appearing in a public pride parade," DuBalle said.

The proposed law has already received a majority vote from the state's Senate and House. A modified version of the bill needs one final approval in the Senate this week before it heads to Governor Bill Lee's office.

Lee told reporters on Monday that he expects to sign it into law.

Tennessee's public drag ban proposal is one of the latest anti-LGBTQ bills making their way through legislatures across the country. Drag in particular has become an avatar for right-wing attacks on LGBTQ rights. More than a dozen anti-drag bills were introduced in statehouses just this year.

Outside of drag, DuBalle identifies as nonbinary and said she worries the way she dresses could run her afoul of the law if it's passed.

"I'm scared if I'm wearing gender-nonconforming clothing in Kroger and somebody has their kids and they clutch 'em tight and call the cops, I could get arrested just for presenting the way I present in my daily life," she said.

DuBalle said the bill could make life hard for trans, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary individuals.

Supporters of the bill have argued that it's written to protect children, a characterization DuBalle disagreed with.


"There has never once been a child who has been sexually assaulted or harmed at a drag show or a pride performance. If there had been, it would be a poster image for their campaign, we would see it everywhere," she said.

"If you want to contrast it with the absolute piles and piles of records of sexual abuse and misconduct in our churches, but we don't try and ban people from taking their kids to church," she continued.

DuBalle said she has noticed a vibe shift among her performer friends in Tennessee. She said their focus is now less on creating a festive and happy environment and more on educating audiences about the political history of drag.

She said she's noticed that many of them have begun to include a "somber" statement in their performance to demonstrate how the bill is affecting them.

The proposed legislation, she said, is an attempt to erase these performers.

"We can't ignore it and it's why I speak out in every single show now. It's why we've gotten so loud because if we don't fight for ourselves, we're afraid no one else will," she said.

Leaving Tennessee is not an option for DuBalle. The state has been her home for 43 years, and she's put down roots there, she said.

DuBalle said she also wants to stay to make sure queer kids in Tennessee feel safe there. The bill very much seems like an effort to oust LGBTQ people from the state and discourage them from moving in, she said.

"I grew up queer in Tennessee and I barely survived it," she said. "I feel that it is necessary for me to stay and fight to change the culture here for future queer kids that are going to be born and raised and can't run away or don't have the ability to leave."

The bill is part of a growing movement of anti-LGBTQ legislation in the United States. Utah recently passed a law banning gender-affirming care for trans youth. At least 21 other states are considering similar bills this year.

One 17-year-old affected by the Utah ban told Insider he's planning to uproot his life and move to Portland.

Insider also spoke with the mom of a 13-year-old trans child who said a South Dakota law that bans certain healthcare for trans youth has forced her to find and commute to doctors across state lines.

Recently, Iowa Republicans proposed a bill in which school officials and faculty members would be required to get permission from parents before calling students a nickname that does not "correspond to the biological sex" listed on their birth certificate.

Cuba’s demographic crossroads: no young workforce

By Latin America News

(RIGHT WING) RIO TIMES
February 28, 2023

Amid one of the biggest economic crises in its history, Cuba faces a crossroads: how to recover when its society is rapidly aging and there is no young workforce?

The communist-ruled Caribbean island is already the most aging country in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Two out of 10 Cubans (21.9%) are at least 60 years old, Antonio Ajá, director of the Center for Demographic Studies at the University of Havana (Cedem), told the news and image agency EFE.

The island is already the most aging country in Latin America and the Caribbean 

(Photo internet reproduction)

This means that of the 11.1 million Cubans, almost 2.4 million are over six decades old.

The scientist stresses this results from social policies introduced decades ago that have extended life expectancy (about 79 years for both sexes).

However, this brings a problem from an economic and social point of view.

“It is a challenge for the labor force, which is smaller, for social security systems, health and protection of the elderly,” he said.

In other words, there are more old people and fewer young people of working age to sustain the country’s economic activity.

And in the long run, to fund the pension system.

Data from the National Statistics and Information Office show that in 2021 there were 99,096 births and 167,645 deaths.

“Cuba has similar demographic behavior to developed countries (low fertility, high life expectancy), but the difference is that they are countries that receive immigrants and counteract demographic aging through their economic development,” Ajá said.

Cuban economist Tamarys Bahamonde told EFE that the number of “dependent” people is also increasing: those who do not produce and live off their pensions after contributing to the economy.

The retirement age in Cuba is 60 (women) and 65 (men), with a minimum monthly pension of ₱1,528 (US$12 at the official exchange rate and US$8.7 in the widely used informal market).

The unprecedented exodus of migrants can largely explain the loss of young people of productive age.

Last year alone, authorities apprehended over 313,000 Cubans along the southern US-Mexico border.

This represents 3% of Cuba’s total population.

This figure excludes thousands of islanders who have absconded to other countries such as Mexico, Spain, or South America.

This phenomenon was confirmed a few days ago by Ángel Luis Ríos, general director of production linkages for the state-owned Azcuba company.

Ríos told the official newspaper Granma that sugar factories – once the engine of the economy – have a reduced and aging workforce due to the “effects of emigration” and that this has led to a deficit in the harvest.

“Cuba has had negative net migration since 1930, which has increased since 1959 (when the revolution triumphed), so the country is losing a population that has its full reproductive and productive capacity,” Professor Ajá said.

Internal migration is also negative because rural areas are “depopulated and overaged,” which is a “worrying” problem, for example, regarding food production because there are no people to work the land, the expert said.

Another reason for the exodus of labor is the lack of incentives.

The average wage in Cuba is about ₱4,000 (US$32 according to the official exchange rate).

According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the fertility rate in Cuba is 1.4 children per woman, one of the lowest in the region (1.85 in 2022).

To maintain the level of reproduction in the population, a woman must have two children, one of which must be a girl, explained Ajá, who stressed that “Cuba has been below this indicator since 1978, with extremely low levels in recent years.”

For Bahamonde, the very low birth rate is rooted in the economic crises that are “chaotic for society, especially for women, since they are responsible for caring for the elderly.

Among the measures the government has taken to address this situation are the construction and maintenance of children’s circles, retirement homes, and maternity homes, as well as support for fertility programs and care for mothers with more than three children.

For Bahamonde, however, “the most important thing is to respond to the serious economic situation and then think about implementing complementary measures to boost the birth rate.”

In this sense, Ajá also believes that “we must strive to improve the economy and that the growth of the gross domestic product must be reflected in family income.”

“This must be accompanied by policies that promote the construction of housing, guarantee a solution to the problem of care for the elderly and children, and try to attract the Cuban population abroad,” added the director of Cedem.

Mexican president: Mexico has more democracy than US

Mexico's president says his country is more democratic than the United States

Via AP news wire

Mexico President
(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Mexico’s president said Tuesday his country is more democratic than the United States.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s testy comments came after U.S. officials took note of heated public debate in Mexico over López Obrador’s recently approved electoral reforms, which critics allege could weaken Mexico's democracy. The reforms would cut spending for the country’s electoral authorities.

López Obrador angrily rejected any U.S. comment, even though U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price was careful to say in a statement Monday that “We respect Mexico’s sovereignty.”

The Mexican president responded “there is more democracy in Mexico than could exist in the United States.”

“If they want to have a debate on this issue, let's do it," López Obrador said pugnaciously. "I have evidence to prove there is more liberty and democracy in our country.”

The Mexican president is notoriously touchy about criticism, whether it comes from human rights groups, non-governmental organizations, the press, or Mexican regulatory or oversight agencies.

Price said in a statement that “Today, in Mexico, we see a great debate on electoral reforms on the independence of electoral and judicial institutions that illustrates Mexico’s vibrant democracy."

"We respect Mexico’s sovereignty. We believe that a well-resourced, independent electoral system and respect for judicial independence support healthy democracy.”

At the root of the conflict are plans by López Obrador, which were approved last week by Mexico’s Senate, to cut salaries and funding for local election offices, and scale back training for citizens who operate and oversee polling stations. The changes would also reduce sanctions for candidates who fail to report campaign spending.

López Obrador denies the reforms are a threat to democracy and says criticism is elitist. He argues that the funds would be better spent on the poor.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated over the weekend in Mexico City’s main plaza, calling the cuts a threat to democracy.

Xi Jinping bans ‘Western’ concepts from schools

Constitutional government, separation of powers and independence of the judiciary are now out. Previously, a directive had been issued encouraging students to report on teachers who deviate from the Communist Party line. Chinese liberals are a persecuted minority. Xi wants to promote China's ideological model in the world.


Beijing (AsiaNews) – Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched a campaign to ban Western democratic ideas from the country’s education system.

To this end, schools have been ordered to “oppose and resist Western erroneous views” such as constitutional government, separation of powers, and judicial independence.

On Sunday, the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) issued new directives, ordering teachers and students to follow the legal principles laid down by the Party and its General Secretary, Xi.

The order comes a week before the National People's Congress, China’s parliament, holds its annual meeting, which also marks the start of Xi’s third term in office.

This is not the first time that the CPC has issued directives of this kind. Communist authorities already encourage students to report on teachers who praise Western forms of governance.

Now the regime wants the CPC’s education policy to be fully implemented in schools. People should be educated "for the Party and the country” and observe a “socialist rule of law”.

In China, most people have accepted total control of the state by the Party in exchange for improved economic conditions. Liberals are a clear minority, persecuted by the government.

Reformist academics like He Weifang, Xu Zhiyong, and Xu Zhangrun have ended up in prison or lost their jobs because they called for the implementation of the rule of law in China (in its true, liberal democratic version), with freedom of the press, an independent judiciary, and the protection of human and workers’ rights .

China’s constitution mentions respect for individual freedoms, including freedom of religion, but everything is subordinated to the supreme interests of the CPC.

It now seems that Xi, who is both CPC general secretary and the country’s president, also wants to promote China's ideological model to developing nations.

In a recent speech at the Party school, he said that China offers a new path for human progress and that "modernisation" is not synonymous with “Westernisation”.

Aleppo Marist: earthquake 'tragedy for all', Syrians 'discriminated' in aid

Nabil Antaki, a doctor in Aleppo, slams Western sanctions that have led to a different emergency response in Syria and Turkey. People "are desperate"; the displaced need of a roof. In the early stages, machinery and rescue teams that did not come could have saved lives. For Europe and the United States, this is a disgrace.

Aleppo (AsiaNews) – Nabil Antaki is a Christian doctor specialised in gastroenterology. For years, he has been directly involved in relief work for the victims of Syria’s brutal civil war. Three years ago, he turned his attention to helping people when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out; now he is grappling with the impact of the 6 February earthquake. He spoke to AsiaNews about the latter.

“After the first, devastating shock,” he said, “hundreds of thousands of people took refuge in churches, mosques, schools, and public gardens because their homes had collapsed or had been seriously damaged, or just out of fear. Today, three weeks later, most shelters have closed.”

A lay member of the order of Marist friars, he is one of the few doctors to remain in Aleppo after the start of the civil war.

At present, “The people of Aleppo are desperate,” he said. “In the last 12 years they have experienced non-stop tragedies, one after the other: the war, the economic crisis, COVID-19, a cholera epidemic, and now the earthquake.”

In the first two weeks, it was a rush to find food, blankets, mattresses amid “absolute emergency.” Now, “the primary work is fixing damaged buildings, rebuilding those razed to the ground; and, above all, guaranteeing a roof to the thousands of families who lost their homes.”

This is a huge task, given that in Turkey alone the earthquake caused US$ 34 billion in damages, this according to the World Bank.

Meanwhile, the combined death toll for the two countries has reached 51,000. in Syria though, estimating the real toll of the quake is difficult because the country is controlled by different groups.

Reconstruction depends on what will happen wilt international sanctions against Syria.

"Even before the earthquake, poverty and economic crisis were the consequence of sanctions, which blocked investment,” Dr Antaki explained.

“The UN estimates that about 82 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. At present, we don't have digging machinery or rescue teams equipped to search under the rubble and many died because we could not look for them, and help."

Altogether, in addition to the damages caused by the quake and by the war, sanctions against the Syrian regime will weigh heavily in the future.

Necessities like bread, gas, fuel, electricity are in short supply; motorists, for example, can have 25 litres of petrol every 20 days, electricity is available for two hours a day.

"People are desperate, so much so that today we often hear that 'we lived better during the worst years of the war, under bombs and sniper fire,’ and 'we regret not having emigrated' in the two-year period, 2015-2016, when it was easier to leave.”

Today hope is also in short supply. “There is no light at the end of the tunnel and the only consolation comes from the huge generosity and solidarity of Syrians in the diaspora, whose help and support is unique.”

Christian NGOs are among the groups bringing help and support, providing housing, shelter in churches, food, clothing, electricity, starting with the Blue Marists of Aleppo who "took care of hundreds of Christian and Muslim families" in the first phase of the emergency.

"Now we are renting apartments for those who cannot return to their homes,” Dr Antaki noted. “Neither in the past nor in the present is there any confessional discrimination in providing aid; everyone is going through this tragedy, like the previous ones, in a spirit of total solidarity.”

For the doctor, whether in government-controlled Aleppo, or in Idlib, the only province still held by rebel and jihadi groups, or among Syrian refugees in Turkey (at least 1.7 million in the 11 provinces most affected by the earthquake), the “tragedy is the same for everyone.”.

What makes the difference are "the hundreds of planes that arrived in Turkey with aid, while none were sent to Syria for political reasons in the first hours after the quake. This is a source of shame for Europe and the United States. The response to people's suffering should have been separated from political and military issues.”

PAKISTAN

Supreme Court to hear case of Christian jailed for 21 years for blasphemy

by Shafique Khokhar

Anwar Kenneth was sentenced to death in Lahore in 2002 for defending Christianity against Islam in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks. After five court-appointed lawyers refused to defend him, one agreed to take up his case at the next hearing. For human rights advocates, defending one’s faith cannot be considered blasphemy.



AsiaNews (Lahore) – Anwar Kenneth, a Christian man from Lahore, has been on death row for 21 years following his conviction of blasphemy for defending Christianity in an exchange with a local Islamic leader in the aftermath of the attacks on 11 September 2001.

Anwar Kenneth’s odyssey is now before the Pakistani Supreme Court, which is expected to start deliberations on the matter tomorrow.

His legal troubles began when a complaint was filed against him on 25 September 2001 under the infamous Article 295c of the Pakistan Penal Code, the so-called blasphemy law.

The charge is based on a letter, the Christian man, a former Ministry of Fisheries employee, sent to Haji Mehmood Zafar, secretary of a Lahore mosque, who had written to him that, while Jesus is a prophet according to Islamic tradition, he neither died on a cross nor was resurrected.

In his reply, Anwar Kenneth argued that Muhammad was not the prophet and that the Qur'an was not the word of God. And, provocatively, he challenged his interlocutor to file a complaint for blasphemy, claiming that God would protect him.

Eventually, Anwar Kenneth went on trial on 18 July 2002, ending with a conviction, a fine of five million rupees, a death sentence, and immediate imprisonment. On 30 June 2014, the Lahore High Court upheld the court's verdict.

Anwar Kenneth has always refused to appoint his own lawyer claiming that God is his defence. Moreover, in 21 years, five court-appointed lawyers have refused to represent him in court.

On 24 January 2023, the Supreme Court asked the Bar Council to provide counsel to represent the defendant in the interests of criminal justice. A lawyer agreed, so the hearing is set for 1 March.

Joseph Jansen, president of Voice for Justice, spoke to AsiaNews about the case. “Religious freedom is a fundamental human right protected by national and international laws.”

Anwar Kenneth “is firm in his faith in Christianity, and his arguments and opinions should not be interpreted as an act of blasphemy.”

For Lawyer Abdul Hameed Rana, Anwar Kenneth is a devout believer and an innocent person. Like him, “There are billions of people in the world, who have their own religion and do not believe in Islam”.

None of them “are not liable to be prosecuted in any court of law for their beliefs.” Hence, “he must be acquitted as he has already spent 21 years of his life behind the bar for the offence he has never committed.”

For his part, activist Aneel Edger notes that the Supreme Court itself ruled in 2022 that depriving minorities of their religious beliefs and preventing them from professing and practising their religion is contrary to the Constitution of Pakistan.

Furthermore, written communication between two religious leaders who practise their respective faiths, Christian and Islamic, should not be interpreted as an act of blasphemy.