Malaysian durian trade battered as lockdown bites
Issued on: 17/02/2021 -

The 'king of fruits' is loved by fans for its bittersweet flavour and creamy texture, 

though critics say it smells like rotting garbage 

Mohd RASFAN AFP

Raub (Malaysia) (AFP)

Durians falling from trees are collected in nets on a farm in Malaysia, where a long lockdown has slowed domestic demand and left traders more reliant on China's appetite for the world's smelliest fruit.

Grown across tropical Southeast Asia, fans love the "king of fruits" for its bittersweet flavours and creamy texture although critics compare its odour to rotting garbage, and it is banned from many hotels and on public transport.

A first lockdown in Malaysia did not do too much damage to demand but a serious Covid-19 resurgence has prompted authorities to re-impose curbs for a longer period, hitting the economy again and hammering the durian industry.

With the roadside stalls where people usually eat the fruits largely empty of customers, sales have plummeted.

"Compared to last year, the local sales are not as good," Eric Chan, a trader and managing director of Dulai Fruits Enterprise, told AFP.

On the farm in Raub, outside Kuala Lumpur, some of the precious fruits are caught in nets stretched out under trees to ensure they don't suffer any damage.

Many are destined for China, where the virus emerged but which has largely tamed its outbreak and is once again recording economic growth.

"If there are no exports, or when there is no stock for the export, I think (such a scenario) will collapse the whole industry," said Top Fruits managing director Tan Sue Sian.

The trade in durians has exploded over the past decade, largely driven by China's growing appetite, with prices of the once cheap fruit selling for 60 ringgit ($14) or more a kilo.

The fruit was once exported to China only as pulp and paste but in 2019 officials there allowed the shipment of frozen whole fruits, in a further boost to the industry.

Durians can be found in Malaysia at all times of the year, though the fruit has bumper harvests at certain times.

© 2021 AFP

'We just want to play': Iran gamers battle reality of US sanctions

Issued on: 17/02/2021 - 

US sanctions do not directly target Iran's gaming industry, but the risk of punitive measures prevents companies from offering services to Iranians

ATTA KENARE AFP

Tehran (AFP)

Iran's millions-strong legion of gamers revel in online worlds, but they have to fight daily real-life obstacles imposed by US sanctions in their quest to level up and keep playing.

"It's a problem between governments and a pain for the consumer," said 24-year-old gamer and game journalist Amir Golkhani.

"We have no political demands. We just want to play," he told AFP.

Sanctions reimposed in 2018 by former US president Donald Trump do not directly target the gaming industry.

But the risk of punitive measures prevents companies from offering services to Iranians.

At shops near central Tehran's Imam Khomeini square, the situation appears normal -- shelves are stocked with the latest games and consoles.

Surprisingly, both the Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X can be found on sale, even though they are nearly impossible to acquire in many countries since the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains.

But neither company is officially present in the Islamic republic due to Washington's punishing sanctions, and their products are imported or smuggled into Iran from countries nearby.

Iran's blacklisted banking system also means players, with no access to internationally recognised credit cards, need to use fake identities and addresses -- and sometimes middlemen in other countries -- to register accounts and make online purchases.

There are at least 32 million gamers among Iran's population of 80 million, according to a September report by the Iran Computer and Video Games Foundation.

It found that the most popular games in Iran were Pro Evolution Soccer, Clash of Clans, FIFA, Call of Duty and PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds).

"Gaming is one of the few things helping me escape life's realities," said Farshad Rezayi, a 32-year-old chef and avid gamer.

Sanctions have almost deprived him of that outlet too, he added.

- 'Same game but cheaper' -

One way for Iranians to cheaply and easily access games is a local spin on the "gameshare" function found on most consoles and computer platforms.

Iranian shops use VPNs or other methods to mask their locations and create accounts seemingly from abroad.

They then purchase games for those accounts using overseas credit cards or gift cards, and sell the access to several gamers, who share what's locally known as a "capacity account", referring to usage -- online, offline or both.

For the hugely popular PlayStation 4, for instance, shops sell access to single-game accounts for between 20 and 60 percent of the regular price, according to use.

The store makes a profit by peddling one account to several people, while the player avoids shelling out the full cost of owning the game -- usually $60 or more in the unregulated Iranian market, according to the game, demand and level of hype.

That's in a country where the minimum monthly wage is 25 million rials -- currently around $100 at the unofficial exchange rate.

A quick search on Divar.ir -- the Iranian response to Craigslist -- shows hundreds of ads for "capacity accounts".

"It's too much to pay 18 million or 28 million rials for a new FIFA game. I'll just get the (shared) account," said 31-year-old Ashkan Rajabi, who owns a gaming shop in Tehran.

"Same game, same feeling, but cheaper."

Gamer Rezayi said he had used this method exclusively since 2018, and also expressed support for respecting game copyright.

Foreign products are not protected by Iran's limited copyright laws -- Microsoft Windows copies are almost always pirated, Netflix shows are downloaded with a single click, and video games for PC are usually counterfeit versions.

Capacity accounts are the "moral" alternative to almost zero-cost game pirating, Rezayi said.

- 'Always looking for workarounds' -

"I have to support the developer who is helping me have fun. They'd give up if everyone just pirated things," Rezayi added.

Omid Sedigh Imani, a Tehran-based video game critic and streamer, echoed such feelings saying he considered hacked accounts and pirating to be "theft".

Still other gamers have found ways to purchase games on their own accounts by using a go-between.

"We need middlemen in another country like Russia, Turkey," said Sadegh Kia, a 25-year-old aspiring professional gamer, fresh off a competitive match at a gaming centre in Tehran.

He said the go-between sold gift cards that allowed players to top up their accounts and make online purchases.

Iranian consumer culture is "always looking for workarounds", critic Imani said.

While endorsing shared accounts for gamers on a budget, Imani advocated using services like Xbox Game Pass -- a subscription that offers hundreds of games for $10 a month.

But to sign up, Iranians have to go through a middleman for payment, and fake their location and account details.

"I can't tell Xbox support that I'm an Iranian," game journalist Golkhani said, adding that Iranians pretended they were foreigners because Xbox servers reject users connecting from Iran, and accounts that are detected are likely to be banned.

"We're forced to use VPNs, to set different DNSs" to bypass the restrictions, he said, referring to different methods to mask users' locations.

But doing so often meant connection quality was poor, he said.

Critic Imani claimed some companies were "softer" on Iranians and "definitely know what is happening".

Industry giants including Microsoft, Epic Games and Riot Games have blocked Iranians from using their gaming services, often without explanation.

Coupled with Iran's broad internet censorship, it means gamers have few options.

"We haven't done anything wrong. It's just the same old story of being Iranian," Imani said.

"And politics is out of our hands."

© 2021 AFP

Canada-led declaration calls arbitrary detentions 'immoral'

The declaration did not single out any country by name.

Ottawa however has frequently drawn attention to the case of two Canadians it says are being held in "arbitrary detention" in China. Beijing did not sign the declaration.

Issued on: 16/02/2021

The Canadian embassy in Beijing in 2019. Among the 58 nations signing the declaration was the US GREG BAKER AFP/File

Ottawa (AFP)

Canada unveiled a declaration signed by dozens of other countries Monday targeting the arbitrary detention of foreign nationals, a practice Ottawa says China has deployed against Canadian citizens.

Foreign ministers from 58 countries signed the "declaration against arbitrary detention in state-to-state relations" during a virtual ceremony in Canada's capital.

"This illegal and immoral practice puts citizens of all countries at risk and it undermines the rule of law," Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said in a statement. "It is unacceptable and it must stop."

The declaration did not single out any country by name.

Ottawa however has frequently drawn attention to the case of two Canadians it says are being held in "arbitrary detention" in China. Beijing did not sign the declaration.

Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat working as a senior advisor for the International Crisis Group, and businessman Michael Spavor were first detained on December 10, 2018 and later charged with spying.

Their arrests were widely perceived in the West as retaliation for Canada's arrest of Meng Wanzhou, a top executive for Chinese tech company Huawei, though China denies these allegations.

On Tuesday, the Chinese Embassy in Canada said it was "fact-distorting and ill-intentioned" to allow a representative from non-governmental group Human Rights Watch to "accuse China of 'arbitrary detention'" at the launch.

It reiterated China's position that Meng's arrest was "completely political", and said: "The Canadian side's attempt to pressure China by using 'Megaphone Diplomacy' or ganging up is totally futile and will only head towards a dead end."

Relations between Ottawa and Beijing have deteriorated since the detentions.

Among the 58 countries -- as well as the European Union -- signing the declaration was the United States, which described arbitrary detentions as "an affront to international diplomatic norms."

"When they are used, as too many nations do, to try to obtain leverage in state-to-state relations, they are a heinous act against the human rights of the individuals in question," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Garneau said that with a "multilateral approach," Canada and the other signatories aimed to build up momentum for the initiative, in the same way as it had for its 1997 treaty against the use of anti-personnel mines, which has since been ratified by 133 states.

© 2021 AFP

Kenya's locust hunters on tireless quest to halt ancient pest

Issued on: 16/02/2021 -

Swarm: Locusts have been cutting a devastating swathe across eastern Africa 

Yasuyoshi CHIBA AFP

Meru (Kenya) (AFP)

As dawn breaks in central Kenya, a helicopter lifts off in a race to find roosting locusts before the sun warms their bodies and sends them on a ravenous flight through farmland.

Pilot Kieran Allen begins his painstaking survey from zebra-filled plains and lush maize farms, to dramatic forested valleys and the vast arid expanses further north, his eyes scouring the landscape for signs of the massed insects.

The chopper suddenly swings around after a call comes in from the locust war room on the ground: a community in the foothills of Mount Kenya has reported a swarm.

"I am seeing some pink in the trees," his voice crackles over the headphones, pointing to a roughly 30-hectare (75-acre) swathe of desert locusts.

Reddish-pink in their immature -- and hungriest -- phase, the insects smother the tips of a pine forest.

Allen determines that nearby farms are at a safe distance and calls in a second aircraft which arrives in minutes to spray the swarm with pesticide.

On the ground, having warmed to just the right temperature, the thick cloud of locusts fills the air with a rustling akin to light rainfall. But a few hours from now, many will be dead from the effect of the poison.

Last month alone, Allen logged almost 25,000 kilometres (15,500 miles) of flight -- more than half the circumference of the world -- in his hunt for locusts after a fresh wave of insects invaded Kenya from Somalia and Ethiopia.

Like other pilots involved in the operation -- who have switched from their usual business of firefighting, tourism, or rescuing hikers in distress -- he has become an expert on locusts and the dangers they pose.

"Those wheat fields feed a lot of the country. It would be a disaster if they got in there," he says pointing to a vast farm in a particularly fertile area of Mount Kenya.

- Second wave -

Desert locusts are a part of the grasshopper family which form massive swarms when breeding is spurred by good rains.

They are notoriously difficult to control, for they move up to 150 kilometres (90 miles) daily. Each locust eats its weight in vegetation daily and multiplies twenty-fold every three months.

The locusts first infested the east and Horn of Africa in mid-2019, eventually invading nine countries as the region experienced one of its wettest rainy seasons in decades.

Some countries like Kenya had not seen the pest in up to 70 years and the initial response was hampered by poor co-ordination, lack of pesticides and aircraft, according to Cyril Ferrand, a Nairobi-based expert with the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

A slick new operation to combat a second wave of the pests has improved control and co-operation in Kenya, Ethiopia and parts of Somalia.

- Locust war room -

In Kenya, the FAO has teamed up with the company 51 Degrees, which specialises in managing protected areas.

It has rejigged software developed for tracking poaching, injured wildlife and illegal logging and other conservation needs to instead trace and tackle locust swarms.

A hotline takes calls from village chiefs or some of the 3,000 trained scouts, and aircraft are dispatched.

Data on the size of the swarms and direction of travel are shared with the pilots as well as governments and organisations battling the invasion in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

"Our approach has completely been changed by good data, by timely data, and by accurate data," said 51 Degrees director Batian Craig.

He said in Kenya the operation had focused on a "first line of defense" in remote and sometimes hostile border areas, which had successfully broken up massive swarms coming in from Ethiopia and Somalia before they reach farmland further south.

In a complex relay, when the wind shifts and the swarms head back into Ethiopia, pilots waiting on the other side of the border take over the operation.

Southern and central Somalia is a no-go zone due to the presence of Al-Shabaab Islamists and the teams can only wait for the swarms to cross over.

Ferrand told AFP that in 2020 the infestation affected the food supply and livelihoods of some 2.5 million people, and was expected to impact 3.5 million in 2021.

He said while a forecast of below average rainfall and the improved control operation could help curb the infestation, it was difficult to say when it will end.

But with dizzying climate fluctuations in the region, "we need to start looking ahead to what needs to be in place if we start to see more frequent infestations of desert locusts."

While the size of swarms have decreased this year, each one is "affecting someone's livelihood along the way," said Craig.

In a Meru village, desperate farmer Jane Gatumwa's 4.8-hectare farm of maize and beans is seething with ravenous locusts.

She and her family members run through the crops yelling and banging pieces of metal together in a futile bid to chase them away.

"They destroy everything, they have been here for like five days. I feel bad because these crops help us to get school fees and also provide food."

"Now that there's nothing left we will have a big problem."

© 2021 AFP

Factfile: The desert locust

Issued on: 16/02/2021 - 

Desert locusts Alain BOMMENEL AFP

Nairobi (AFP)

The name alone is enough to stir biblical fears of devastation and famine -- an insect foe that breeds prolifically and eats its own weight in food every day.

Here are key facts about the desert locust, which has infested eastern Africa.

- Changing behaviour-

Desert locusts -- Latin name Schistocerca gregaria -- are typically a solitary species of grasshopper which lives alone and does not cause much damage, and can be found in a semi-arid and desert band stretching from Mauritania to India.

But when abundant rains lead to mass breeding, they become gregarious, forming huge swarms which can travel vast distances, devouring crops and grazing land.

In 2018, cyclones led to uncontrolled breeding in the Arabian Peninsula, and the following year swarms began moving into Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iran, multiplying every three months, before moving into the Horn of Africa by mid-2019.

The region was experiencing its wettest year in decades, with a record eight cyclones off East Africa, providing excellent conditions for the locusts, which shift with the wind.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the current invasion is known as an "upsurge" -- when an entire region is affected. It would be a "plague" if it affected up to 60 countries.

There were six major desert locust plagues in the 1900s, the last of which was in 1987-89. The last major upsurge was in 2003-05.

- Swarms the size of a city -

In 2020, one swarm in Kenya was estimated by the FAO at around 2,400 square kilometres (about 930 square miles) -- an area almost the size of Moscow -- meaning it could contain up to 200 billion locusts, each of which consume their own weight in food every day.

Even a small swarm can devour the same amount of food in a day as approximately 35,000 people.

Last year the locusts reached Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Sudan, before a lull of a few months.

In December 2020, new swarms emerged in Somalia and Ethiopia, spreading to Kenya, however they are far smaller, with the largest only measuring a few square kilometres.

Swarms have also been reported in Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania and Sudan.

The FAO estimated that in 2020 the infestation affected the food supply and livelihoods of some 2.5 million people, and was expected to impact 3.5 million in 2021.

However control operations prevented even worse damage.

"We have prevented already last year a major disaster, we stopped locusts in Kenya, they didn't move to the Sahel region," said FAO east Africa expert Cyril Ferrand.

- Tough to control -

The main method to deal with locusts is a variety of pesticides in very low doses, either by air, or via ground operations.

They can take several hours, to several days, to act. The toxicity on the environment generally wears off after a day.

Bees, butterflies and other insects are killed, however spray operations are extremely targeted, and post-spray assessments carried out, says the FAO.

Locusts are fiendishly difficult to control, moving up to 150 kilometres (90 miles) daily, and the only time to target them is when they roost for the evening as the air cools down.

© 2021 AFP

RIP

Father of salsa music Johnny Pacheco dies age 85

Issued on: 16/02/2021 

Johnny Pacheco (2R), pictured in 2014 with fellow salsa musicians Roberto Roena (L), Bobby Valentín (2L) and Ismael Miranda (R), was considered one of the fathers of salsa music Andrew H. Walker 

GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

Santo Domingo (AFP)

Johnny Pacheco, the Dominican-born musician considered one of the fathers of salsa, died Monday at the age of 85 in New Jersey, his family said.

A musician, composer and producer, Pacheco founded the Fania Records label, as well as the historic Fania All Stars band, which included salsa icons Celia Cruz, Hector Lavoe and Willie Colon.

"With great pain in my soul and an emptiness in my heart I inform you that maestro Johnny Pacheco passed away this afternoon with great peace," his wife, Cuqui Pacheco, said in a statement published on the musician's official Facebook page.

"A thousand thanks for all your prayers and all the love you always gave him."

Pacheco had been urgently hospitalized a few days ago for pneumonia.

Born Juan Azarias Pacheco in Santiago de los Caballeros, in the northern Dominican Republic, on March 25, 1935, he emigrated to New York as a child with his family.

There, he studied at the Juilliard arts school and began his musical career in the 1950s. He rose to fame with his band Pacheco y Su Charanga.

He founded Fania Records in 1964 with attorney Gerald Masucci.

He recorded or composed more than 100 songs during his career, including "El Faisan" and "Quitate tu."

"DEP (Rest In Peace) my dear friend and teacher," Colon tweeted after Pacheco's death was announced, calling his former bandmate "unique."

Milk and music: Indian villages support protesting farmers

Issued on: 16/02/2021 - 

Small villages surrounding Delhi have become a vital network of support for the huge farmer protest camps Money SHARMA AFP

Makrauli (India) (AFP)

Blasting catchy pro-farmer songs from a speaker, an electric-blue tractor rattled down an Indian village road collecting pails of milk -- just some of the donations sustaining massive protest camps outside New Delhi.

More than two months after the first farmers set up camps on the capital's borders, tens of thousands more have joined them, calling for the repeal of new agriculture laws.

The farmers, who have slept outdoors through the winter cold, are being supported by an army of small villages in the northern states neighbouring Delhi.

"This campaign, this farmer movement, isn't theirs -- those who are sitting there -- alone," Sumit Arya, the 35-year-old head of Makrauli Khurd, a village about two hours' drive from the main protest sites, told AFP.

Makrauli, home to 4,000 people, is a hive of activity every morning with men and women bringing vegetables and wood to collection points.

On Tuesdays, villagers carry small metal buckets full of milk freshly squeezed from their cows to the back of trailers, where men like Ajit Singh gently pour them into larger cans.

"We can't give our time there but we can take care of their food and water needs and whatever they need in winter," the 58-year-old farmer told AFP as he sat on a bed of hay in a trolley.

Around him, villagers raised their fists and chanted "zindabad" ("long live"), in reply to someone yelling "kisan ekta" ("farmers united") -- a rallying cry often heard at the protests.

The government says the agriculture sector needs to be modernised. But farmers fear the deregulation will place them at the mercy of big corporations.

Farming has long been a political minefield in India, with nearly 70 percent of the 1.3-billion-strong population drawing their livelihood from agriculture.

The protests -- which turned deadly in late January when a tractor rally in Delhi turned into a rampage -- have become one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government since it came to power in 2014.

- Passion and community -

Since the start of the sit-in protests in late November, a support network has sprung up to care for the sprawling camps.

Tractors pulling trolleys laden with wood, rice, flour, sugar and vegetables leave villages like Makrauli on daily or weekly rotations for the camps.

They are joined by farmers and their families eager to spend the day or several nights at the sites.

"We strike up friendships... Two or three tractors keep going from our village to keep their spirits up," Ajay Punia, 18, told AFP on a trailer en route to Delhi from Makrauli with 11 others aged 14 to 65.

The villagers played songs of resistance, as green and yellow farmer union flags and the Indian tricolour fluttered from the tractor.

Moments later, two trolleys carrying about 30 people -- mostly women -- from another village passed by and the two groups pumped their fists into the air and chanted slogans. Beside the highway, people waved their support.

By the time the villagers pulled up at a big protest camp at the Tikri border with Delhi, energy levels were high.

The trolley stopped at a community kitchen run by Makrauli and several nearby villages, and the boys and men climbed out and sat in a straight line on a mat.

They were served freshly made roti with pea-and-potato curry and a cup of fresh milk -- brought from Makrauli earlier in the day by another tractor.

"Without this brotherhood, nothing works. Even in our village, different castes are a part of it," Arya said.

"People are getting increasingly pulled towards this (protest)... And whatever its length, we are not backing out."

© 2021 AFP

PRE CAPITALISM; MARKET TRADITION

In Iraq, generous Mideast tradition of 'istiftah' lives on


Issued on: 16/02/2021 - 

An Iraqi man sells nuts in the old bazaar in Arbil, the capital Iraqi Kurdistan: shopkeepers offer the tradition of istiftah to the first customer of the day SAFIN HAMED AFP

Arbil (Iraq) (AFP)

As the sun rises over Arbil's historic bazaar, shopkeepers sweep their stoops and eagerly await the "istiftah" -- the first customer of the day, believed to be a good omen.

For a country as famously hospitable as Iraq, where lunch tables are often overflowing with platters of meat as big as truck tyres, the custom of "istiftah", which means "opener", is subtle but sweet.

The first customer of the day gets to name his or her price for the goods or service being purchased, without the usual process of haggling and compromise that is quintessential to street markets.

"The first customer is exceptional," said Hidayet Sheikhani, 39. "He's carrying wealth and well-being straight from God to the businessperson in the early morning."

Sheikhani sells traditional black-and-white embroidered scarves and hats in the bazaar in the bustling centre of Arbil, the Kurdistan region's capital.

Shopkeepers arrive in the bazaar's brick alleyways around dawn, roll up the metal shutters of their shops and pour an obligatory glass of sweet tea to start their day.

It's a tradition as old as time -- not only in Iraq, but all across the Middle East.

Sheikhani inherited it from his grandfather, who had a shop in the same marketplace a century ago.

At the time, he said, the "istiftah" tradition set the tone for the rest of the day.

Shopkeepers who had not yet sold anything would put a chair outside their shop, as a signal to their colleagues.

Those who had made their first sale would direct any incoming shoppers to the other shops, until everyone had had their "istiftah".

Only then would they accept a second customer.

That went for both Muslim and Jewish shopkeepers, said Sheikhani, as Arbil was home to a thriving Jewish community until the mid-20th century.

- 'God will make it up to me' -

The origin of the "istiftah" tradition remains disputed.

Some say it hails from the Hadith, a record of the words and actions attributed to the Prophet Mohammed, in which he pleads to God, "Oh Allah, bless my people in their early mornings".

But Abbas Ali, a lecturer at the College of Islamic Studies in Iraq's Salahaddin University, said the custom's prevalence among other faiths indicates it may not be related to Islam at all.

"It's possible it was merely an ancient custom that was practised for a long time -- and good traditions often become religious rituals," Ali told AFP.

Either way, it lives on, even among young businessmen.

Jamaluddin Abdelhamid, a 24-year-old with a wispy goatee, sells roasted nuts, sweets and spices in the bazaar.

"Often, a customer requests honey because they're sick. It usually costs 14,000 Iraqi dinars (less than $10) per jar, but they ask for it at 10,000 and I agree because it's the 'istiftah'," he said.

"I know God will make it up to me somewhere else in my day," said Abdelhamid.

Rejecting a first customer's request -- no matter how steep the discount is -- leaves him guilt-ridden.

"I spend the whole day feeling sad, asking myself how I could have rejected God's blessing," Abdelhamid said.

- Tradition under threat? -

It goes beyond the old bazaar: even taxi drivers, plumbers and mechanics have adopted it.

"Whatever cash I earn first in a day, I kiss it and raise it to my forehead as a sign of gratitude to God," said Maher Salim, a 46-year-old car mechanic in Arbil.

But an "istiftah" never goes for free.

First customers often offer a very discounted price for their early-morning purchase, but it's frowned upon to request something at no cost at all.

"Even if it's my brother, I'll take something symbolic from him -- even just 1,000 Iraqi dinars," Salim told AFP.

There's one creeping threat to the beautiful balance of the "istiftah": shopping malls.

As Arbil has developed over the last decade, large malls have cropped up across the city, offering convenient and speedy shopping experiences to its residents.

Mohammad Khalil still buys his groceries -- bread, yogurt, cheese and vegetables -- every morning from small shops near his home, showering the shopkeepers with prayers for blessings and good health as he walks out.

Interactions at malls, he complained, are comparatively cold.

"There's no sense of istiftah there -- everything is about the computer system," Khalil told AFP.

"Most of the time, the people who work in the mall shops aren't the actual owners, so they don't even care about the tradition."

© 2021 AFP

First 1,000 Covid vaccine doses to enter Gaza Wednesday: Israel

Issued on: 17/02/2021 - 

Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority had strongly condemned Israel's initial refusal to allow passage for the Covid vaccines intended for frontline health workers in Gaza SAID KHATIB AFP


Jerusalem (AFP)

An initial batch of 1,000 coronavirus vaccine doses donated by Russia will enter Gaza on Wednesday, Israel's defence ministry told AFP, after it had blocked a shipment earlier this week.

The Sputnik V doses were "being transferred from the Palestinian Authority (in the West Bank) to the Gaza Strip in accordance with the PA's request and the approval of the (Israeli) political echelon", said the Israeli military department responsible for civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories (COGAT).

It added that "the vaccine shipment is now making its way to the Erez crossing" that connects Israel to the blockaded Gaza Strip, a enclave which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas.

Both the PA and Hamas, which have said the doses will be given to frontline healthcare workers, had condemned Israel for refusing to allow the shipment to enter Gaza on Monday.

The PA called on the World Health Organization to "condemn Israel" for the obstruction and urged it "to hold (Israel) fully responsible for the dangers arising from preventing the entry of vaccines into the Gaza Strip."

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem had blasted Israel's blockage as a "violation of all international laws and humanitarian standards."

COGAT said on Monday that a political decision was required before it could allow vaccines to enter Gaza, where Israel has fought three wars against Hamas, which took control of the enclave in 2007.

The PA is expecting some two million doses ordered from various manufacturers, in addition to vaccines from the UN-backed Covax programme, set up to help less wealthy nations procure vaccines.

The PA has said it will share its procurement with Hamas.

© 2021 AFP

Hamas condemns Israel for blocking Covid-19 vaccines to Gaza


Issued on: 16/02/2021

A Palestinian health worker holds a vial of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine after the delivery of doses from Israel, in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, February 3, 2021. © Mussa Issa Qawasma, Reuters

Hamas on Tuesday blasted Israel's refusal to allow some 2,000 coronavirus vaccine doses destined for Gaza health workers through its blockade of the territory as a "violation" of international law.

The Palestinian Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, had planned to send the Russian Sputnik V doses through Israel to Gaza, a separate territory run by Islamist movement Hamas. But on Monday evening, the PA health ministry said Israel had blocked the delivery.

But on Monday evening, the PA health ministry said Israel had blocked the delivery.

Israel's move marked "a real crime and a violation of all international laws and humanitarian standards," Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said.

COGAT, the Israeli military department that runs civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, said Monday that the PA had requested to transfer 1,000 vaccine doses to Gaza but that "this request is waiting for a political decision".

The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday urged the World Health Organization to "condemn Israel" for the obstruction. 

The PA called on the WHO and other international organisations "to hold (Israel) fully responsible for the dangers arising from preventing the entry of vaccines into the Gaza Strip," spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said.

The PA said Monday that its own vaccination campaign for the general public had been pushed back due to a delay in deliveries.

It had been anticipating a shipment by the middle of this month, enabling it to start vaccinating the general public in the West Bank while sharing stock with Hamas.

The PA is expecting some two million doses ordered from various manufacturers, in addition to vaccines from the UN-backed Covax programme, set up to help less wealthy nations procure vaccines.

It began inoculating frontline healthcare workers earlier this month with an initial procurement of 10,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, as well as several thousand doses of the Moderna product.

Israel, which is carrying out one of the world's fastest vaccination campaigns per capita, has faced international calls to share its stocks with Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza.

(AFP)

China overtakes US to become EU's top trading partner

Issued on: 17/02/2021 - 

This aerial photo shows shipping containers stacked at a port in Lianyungang, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on January 14, 2021. AFP - STR

China last year overtook the United States as the EU's biggest trading partner, the EU statistics agency Eurostat said Monday.

Britain meanwhile, which is no longer part of the European Union, was the third-largest trading partner for the bloc, behind China and the United States, the agency said.

The supremacy of China came after it suffered from the coronavirus pandemic during the first quarter but recovered vigorously with consumption even exceeding its level of a year ago at the end of 2020.

This helped drive sales of European products, particularly in the automobile and luxury goods sectors, while China's exports to Europe benefited from strong demand for medical equipment and electronics.

The dethroning of the US comes as the EU and China are seeking to ratify a long-negotiated investment deal that would give European companies better access to the Chinese market.

Eurostat said the trade volume with China reached 586 billion euros ($711 billion) in 2020, compared to 555 billion euros ($673 billion) for the US.

The agency said EU exports rose by 2.2 percent to 202.5 billion euros while at the same time, imports from the People's Republic of China increased by 5.6 percent to 383.5 billion euros.

EU exports to the United States fell by 13.2 per cent in the same period and imports by 8.2 percent.

In addition to the Covid-19 crisis, transatlantic trade has been impaired by a series of tit-for-tat feuds that have resulted with tariffs being on steel and products such as French champagne or Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Eurostat said trade with the UK plummeted in 2020, the year Britain officially left the bloc, though it was in a transition period to blunt the effects of Brexit until December 31.

EU exports to the UK fell by 13.2 percent, while imports from across the channel dropped by 13.9 percent, Eurostat said.

(AFP)

Spain's Irene Montero: from anti-austerity agitator to minister


Issued on: 18/02/2021 

Irene Montero is known for a confrontational, unabashedly feminist style of politics 

PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU AFP

Madrid (AFP)

A protester-turned-politician, Spain's Equality Minister Irene Montero is an outspoken feminist and young mover-and-shaker in the leftwing government.

A huge rainbow flag graces the front of her ministry, trailing the draft law on transgender rights that Montero -- the partner of the leader of the radical leftwing Podemos -- will present this spring.

Her plan to let people register a gender change on their identity documents without a medical report faces stern opposition from the Socialists, who run Spain's coalition government in which Podemos is the junior partner.

Born in Madrid to a father in the removals business and a teacher mother, Montero went to a liberal Montessori-style school then as a teen joined a Communist youth organisation.

In politics, she has embraced a confrontational style hallmarked by an assertive defence of feminism.

While she can both divide and annoy, in 2017 the strategy saw her flagged by Forbes magazine as one of the most influential European politicians under 30.

Her persona is pure Podemos, slotting into the party led by her partner Pablo Iglesias which emerged out of the anti-austerity "Indignados" movement that occupied squares across Spain in 2011 at the height of the economic crisis.

With a PhD in psychology, Montero has been at the forefront of Iglesias' leadership team since the party was formed in 2014, and a year later was elected as an MP when Podemos surged into Spanish parliament for the first time.

- Two at the top -

At 33, her style is casual, with a jacket thrown over a T-shirt.

And she's well versed in "speaking the language of the people, in a simple, unsophisticated way that is 'less highbrow' than her Podemos colleagues, almost all of whom are political scientists or university professors", says political analyst Euprepio Padula.

Just 29 when she became the leader of Podemos' parliamentary group, Montero made her mark in 2017 when she took to the podium to argue for an ultimately unsuccessful motion of censure against then rightwing premier Mariano Rajoy.

"It was the first time that a woman had stood up to defend a censure motion," Montero told AFP in an interview, saying she felt "a great sense of responsibility".

As she has gained visibility, the spotlight has also turned on her relationship with Iglesias.

When Podemos entered government in January 2020, Montero was named equality minister and Iglesias became one of Spain's four deputy prime ministers.

Her portfolio was a solid win for a party that until then had made few inroads among female voters and was looking to compete with the Socialists, who "for years have attracted most female voters," noted Jose Rama, a political scientist at Madrid's Autonomous University.

- 'Difficult being in politics' -

As a leadership duo, Iglesias and Montero wield "a huge amount of power because not only do they both hold ministerial portfolios... but they also control the party's internal institutions," he said.

But it has also earned them criticism from within their own party, with the pair under fire for buying a villa with a swimming pool outside Madrid in 2018.

Montero does not take kindly to public questions about her private life, lashing out when an MP from the rightwing opposition Popular Party dared raise the issue of her partner in October.

"I'll have whoever I like in my bed," she snapped in an exchange in parliament.

Describing herself as "psychologist, mother and feminist", Montero has no qualms about attending a TV debate with a baby in a carrier, breastfeeding in an interview or shedding a tear during a speech on gender violence.

On prostitution, gender self-determination and other issues, her opinions have often laid her bare to rightwing and centrist accusations of being a "radical feminist" who has even sown divisions among feminists themselves.

"It's difficult for a young woman to be in politics," mother-of-three Montero admits.

"Regardless of how competent you are, how much experience you have or how politically successful you are, there will always be a political argument that undermines you, whether it's your partner, your friends or your youth."

© 2021 AFP