Egypt's stray dogs loved, hated and feared


Ahmed Fouad February 11, 2020




India’s leader Mahatma Gandhi famously said that the greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated — a statement that could make Egypt very difficult to judge, with dueling campaigns on whether to help or kill stray dogs.

On Jan. 15, Iman Hassan, an animal rights activist who advocates for stray dogs, posted on her Facebook account the story of a man in Heliopolis who had built a wooden shelter to protect stray dogs from the cold.

The man’s name was not revealed in the post, but Hassan explained in detail how this compassionate young man had bought the wooden dog house from an elderly man living in the same street and then put it in a safe place away from pedestrians and cars. Other young people living in the area help by providing food and water for the animals in this makeshift shelter. Then, one of the stray dogs gave birth to seven puppies.

Hassan said that the wooden shelter had gradually become a full neighborhood initiative, with some youths cleaning the dog house daily and others providing food. Even residents who don't particularly love dogs respect the initiative and are kind to the dogs who stay there. She has urged this citizen initiative to spread to other parts of the country.

But not everyone has been happy with the initiative. A resident who lives close to the dog house told Al-Monitor that the area attracts more stray dogs because of the food available there.

He called on the Ministry of Agriculture to intervene against this initiative in order to protect the residents from the increasing number of stray dogs.

An informed source at the Ministry of Agriculture told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that there have been no official complaints regarding the shelter. “The ministry will not take action unless someone makes an official complaint,” he said.

He added that some of the animal-friendly measures taken by locals may unwittingly lead to negative consequences, such as an increase in the number of stray dogs in a particular location. “If there are too many stray animals in a single area and the residents feel threatened, the ministry has to act. In some cases it becomes impossible to reduce their numbers except by using poison or guns to kill them,” he said.

In October 2018, the Slaughterhouse and Public Health Department of the ministry's Veterinary Services Authority launched a nationwide plan to get rid of stray dogs by poisoning them.

The authority estimates the number of stray dogs in Egypt to be close to 15 million, and that number is on the rise. It is impossible to sterilize and vaccinate this huge number of stray dogs because of the cost involved, which the authority said would be 500 Egyptian pounds ($32) per dog.

Shortly after the plan was announced, Egyptian parliamentarian Margaret Azer suggested exporting dog meat to East Asia. She said, “This is a more humane way of dealing with the overpopulation of dogs [than the current solutions that include mass shootings and castration]." She added that the benefits of this plan would be two-fold: reducing the likelihood of stray dogs attacking people on the street and providing an additional source of revenue to the Egyptian economy.

“We could take the stray dogs to a farm where they would be given a balanced diet and then slaughtered and exported,” Azer was quoted by the local press as saying. “After being properly fed, a dog could be exported for 5 pounds [$0.32] each.” Her proposal caused a reaction from public figures, including from Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Salah. It was eventually shelved.

Hassan al-Jaweeni, director of the Slaughterhouse and Public Health Department, told Al-Monitor that Law No. 53 of 1966 regarding the competences of the Ministry of Agriculture specified cases of removing stray dogs — and domestic dogs that do not have leashes — from the streets and other public spaces if there is a risk to the public.

Jaweeni said that both the officials in the Ministry of Agriculture and the public agree that stray dogs pose a threat on the streets. He said that more than 1.7 million dog attack complaints had been registered in 2014-18, with 278 incidents ending in death.

He pointed out that the Ministry of Agriculture obtained from the Egyptian House of Fatwas an official fatwa in November 2007 authorizing the killing of stray dogs if they have harmed people, “including scaring or barking at them.” The fatwa stipulated that killing the dog or dogs — as opposed to taking them to a shelter — had to be the only available option.

Al-Azhar Fatwa Committee has adopted a softer tone with stray dogs compared to the House of Fatwas. The committee issued a fatwa on Sept. 20, 2019, stating that the basic principle is "charity for animals," and the priority in dealing with stray dogs should be to collect them and send them to dog shelters. But it added that if a dog had become a threat to humans and killing it was the only option to stop it, this was allowed.

Dog lovers complain that the fatwas itself — particularly those that say dogs are unclean and not welcome in a Muslim home — have a negative impact on the way Egyptians treat dogs. Conservative people’s attitude to dogs was tested when Sufi singer Mahmoud al-Tohamy, chairman of the board of directors of the Religious Chanters’ Syndicate and a graduate of Al-Azhar University, posted on Facebook a photo of himself while caressing his son's dog.

The Dec. 19 post simply said, “Whoever tells you the dog is impure, tell him that God never created impure creatures.”

The photo immediately caused anger with the public, who considered that he was going against Sharia (Islamic law); several fatwas of Al-Azhar and the House of Fatwas over the years had said that dogs are impure.

Tohamy responded by saying that various scholars had challenged the idea of the impurity of dogs, including Imam Malik Ibn Anas, a prominent Islamic scholar (711-795).

Muslim doctrines are divided on whether dogs are clean or not. The Maliki sect considers the dogs clean, whereas the Shafi'i and Hanbali sects believe that dogs are unclean and have no place in a home where there are daily prayers. According to Al-Azhar — which follows the Hanafi school of thought — the dog is also impure and forbidden in the homes of Muslims except for an important reason such as guarding.

Abdel-Rahman Youssef, director of the Cairo Animal Rescue Team, blamed such fatwas for people’s attitudes toward dogs.

"The fatwas of religious institutions that the dog is impure provide a basis for many citizens who think they are entitled to attack dogs on the streets,” he told Al-Monitor. “Dogs normally do not snap or growl and threaten people unless they are threatened themselves, and only a small percentage of dogs on the streets have rabies or other diseases,”

Youssef said a cultural change is necessary — both in the religious interpretation of the "purity” of dogs and in the role they play in urban life. “The killing of stray dogs since 2018 has led to the emergence of various dangerous animals in the outskirts of some of the cities near the deserts,” he said.

In April 2019, media outlets and social media activists shared photos of hyenas near a tourist resort in Taba in the south Sinai Peninsula.

Many activists attributed the hyenas’ emergence to the expansion of campaigns to get rid of stray dogs in the cities of Taba, Dahab and Nuweiba, as these dogs play a prominent role in scaring away the hyenas.

Found in:ANIMALS AND ANIMAL RIGHTS

Ahmed Fouad is an Egyptian journalist working as newsroom assistant manager for Al-Shorouk. He specializes in coverage of Islamists and analysis of the political situation in Egypt, especially since the mass protests of June 30, 2013, the one-year anniversary of Mohammed Morsi's presidential inauguration.



Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/02/egypt-continues-debate-on-stray-dogs.html#ixzz6EqDYB3YT




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Egypt bans 'music of the slums'

Menna A. Farouk February 20, 2020

Facebook/Official. HassanShakosh
Hassan Shakoosh is shown in an image uploaded Dec. 21, 2019.

“Please do not punish my child,” a woman in her 50s tearfully told the reporter of Mehwar TV channel. She offered no name, except to say that she is the mother of Hamo Bika, a popular singer.

Her son, with his trademark of gelled hair and a thick chain around his neck, was also beside her as she received the TV reporter at her modest home in Imbaba, a working-class neighborhood in northern Cairo.

The plea of Bika’s mother was aimed at the powerful Egyptian Musicians Syndicate, which has banned the singers of “mahraganat," a hybrid music genre that combines folk with electronic music and uses colloquialism in lyrics, from pursuing their profession. The genre, whose name literally means “festivals” in Arabic, originated in the Cairo slums in the early 2000s.

The ban, announced on Feb. 16, said that the street musicians' songs promote “unethical and immoral” behavior in society — a reference to the lyrics of the song that started the controversy on Feb. 14. The song, called "Bent el-Geran" ("The Neighbor's Daughter"), suggests alcohol and hashish to get over a heartbreak.

The singers have been banned from performing at all tourist establishments, cafes, nightclubs and Nile cruises. On Feb. 20, the powerful syndicate said it will also ask streaming giants, such as YouTube and SoundCloud, to take down these songs as well.

In response to the ban, Bika, who applied for membership to the syndicate several times but was rejected, filed a lawsuit in an attempt to overturn the decision.

Hany Shaker, head of the syndicate and a musician, told local media that the decision was based on a widespread social consensus over the immorality of the songs. These songs "threaten public taste" and "encourages moral decline," he was quoted as saying in a statement from the syndicate.

Shaker’s decision came after the controversy over the lyrics of "Bent el-Geran," whose lyrics include the words, “If you leave me, I will drink wine and take hashish” — both of which are forbidden in Islam.

The song became a hit on YouTube with so far more than 113 million viewers and 59.9 million listeners on SoundCloud.

Singer Hassan Shakoosh performed the song with those lyrics in a ceremony on Valentine’s Day at Cairo International Stadium, but removed the sentence from the lyrics following the reaction.

This did not deter the syndicate. “The decision is a final and irreversible one and it will include all street music singers,” Shaker said in the statement.

But it would be difficult to stop those songs that have been playing in buses, cars, cafes, restaurants and at wedding parties in both poor and upscale areas. “They are attacking a genre that cheers us up and makes us forget all our grievances,” Saeed Abdel Hameed, a 40-year-old construction worker, told Al-Monitor. “It is an attempt to put restrictions on people's choices and tastes. I believe that these songs will win in the end because they talk about people's problems."

Sameha Mohamed, a housewife in Ard el-Lewaa neighborhood, Giza, said that people should listen to whatever they liked without censorship from the government. “We know how to choose what we like. As long as there is a demand for these songs it should be considered a musical genre,” she told Al-Monitor.

The street music songs, known as "music of the slums," have also started to attract an audience from other social groups, including the upper classes, over the past five years.

“I think that it is very good music. The syndicate can try and organize the performances but banning it altogether is wrong. It will never prevent people from listening to this music,” Rasha Mahmoud, an engineer living in the upscale neighborhood of Maadi, told Al-Monitor.

The decision has also been discussed among members of the parliament. Parliament spokesman Salah Hasaballah backed the decision, saying that these songs are more dangerous than the coronavirus to Egypt and all Arab societies — and spreading just as fast.

Mohamed Abu Hamed, a parliamentarian, said that the songs contain words that should neither be pronounced nor heard. He accused the songs of distorting the language through colloquialism, swear words and obscenities.

“If left unchecked, the songs will spread more in society, and unfortunately they will turn into a dominant language,” he told Al-Monitor.

Adel al-Masry, head of the Chamber of Tourism Establishments, told the local media that the chamber supports the syndicate’s decision as it preserves Egyptian identity, culture and art.

The decision drew mixed reactions from intellectuals and composers.

Veteran composer Helmi Bakr said that he had long urged actions against songs that promote illegal practices and use bad language. “These songs ruin art and heritage with the language they use,” Bakr told local media.

Hanan Shoman, an art critic and writer for Youm7 newspaper, said the syndicate should "embrace" these popular singers rather than "ban" them altogether. “We cannot deny that the songs have become popular and many people like them. Instead of banning them, the government should regulate such artwork, and train and educate those singers,” she told Al-Monitor. 

Found in:MUSIC
Menna A. Farouk, a journalist and an editor at The Egyptian Gazette, writes about social, political and cultural issues, including press freedom, immigration and religious reforms among other topics. On Twitter: @MennaFarouk91

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/02/egypt-bans-street-music-singers-following-controversy-over.html#ixzz6EpLio8Y1

Libyan Jews' potential return sends out political shockwaves
ARTICLE SUMMARY
Some members of the Libyan parliament and public vocally oppose the idea of Jews returning or participating in the country's peace process.

George Mikhail February 21, 2020

JOSEPH EID/AFP via Getty Images
The abandoned Dar Bishi synagogue in Tripoli, Libya, Sept. 28, 2011.

The controversial issue of the return of Libyan Jews to their homeland regained traction recently after United Nations envoy Ghassan Salame met Feb. 6 with Raphael Luzon, chairman of the Union of Libyan Jews, at the UN office in Geneva.

Luzon revealed details of the meeting on Facebook, saying, “Finally, [we have] international recognition of the Union of Libyan Jews as an official representative of the Libyan Jewish component in Libya, and firm promises of [our] official participation in all upcoming meetings concerning the unity and peace of Libya.”

He continued, “During the meeting with Salame, we talked about the suffering of our country, Libya, in general, and the Libyan Jewish community, in particular, and its struggle to regain its human and social rights … and its vision for future solutions to its problems and Libya's problems.”

Luzon raised controversy in political circles with his announcement that his community will participate in the planned international conferences on the unity and peace of Libya, as well as the possibility of the Libyan Jewish community returning once again and implementing their demands.
In a Feb. 10 statement, 70 Libyan parliament members threatened to boycott UN meetings if the Jews participate in any dialogue or Libyan affairs. It said Salame had no authority to make promises on behalf of Libyans.

The statement said, “[Such promises] can only be explained by opportunism and the poor exploitation of the country's reality in imposing new demographic and political data and can only be considered a provocative act directed against the Libyan people."

A number of protesters burned a picture of Luzon during demonstrations Feb. 14 in Benghazi's Kish Square.

“Those burning my picture are the descendants of the savages who killed us and attacked us in Benghazi in 1967, the descendants of the same mob that attacked my mother in her home and terrorized her and my sisters,” Luzon commented on the incident the next day on Facebook. "These are not the people of Benghazi."

Luzon, an author and freelance journalist, has chaired the Union of Libyan Jews since 2008. The group is based in Italy. Luzon, who was born in Benghazi, lives in London.



Head of the Union of Libyan Jews, Raphael Luzon, seen in a picture uploaded Sept. 12, 2019. (Facebook/ Raphael Faelino Luzon)

He told Al-Monitor, “The union aims to defend Libyan Jews, recover their property and obtain compensation for the damage caused by the displacement, in addition to preserving the Jewish social and historical heritage.”

Luzon added, “The Jews came to Libya in the sixth century BC for trade and settled in Derna and Benghazi. In June 1967, after the [Six-Day War] between Egypt and Israel, anti-Jewish riots took place. All shops were burned and looted and about 17 people were killed. The Libyan Jews were expelled and they were never allowed to return in the era of former President Moammar Gadhafi.”

Currently, according to the Jewish Virtual Library and other sources, no Jews remain in Libya, though in 1948 it was estimated 38,000 lived there. Speaking about the number of Libyan Jews around the world, Luzon said, “There are about 120,000 Libyan Jews, over 100,000 of whom live in Israel, about 6,000 in Italy and the rest in the United Kingdom and the United States.”

Luzon said he had requested the Feb. 6 meeting with Salame, "especially after he met with all parties involved in the internal conflict, tribal leaders, mayors and all social components in Libya, with the exception of Libyan Jews.”

“I explained to [Salame] the importance of Libyan Jews being equal to other Libyan components, and he promised [I could] participate in upcoming meetings on the future of Libya," he said. “Libyan Jews demand equal rights, the ability to vote, participate in public, social, political and cultural life, and have the right to decide to return, visit and invest in our homeland.”

Speaking about his position on the armed conflict in Tripoli, Luzon called on all Libyan parties to abandon their egos and put the country's interests first.

He called for the formation of a government of national unity and the establishment of an emergency program supported by the United States, Europe and the United Nations. He also called for the creation of a global conference of companies and businessmen to start reconstruction, as well as the formation of a committee to evaluate projects needed by Libya.

Luzon explained that he has met and has ties with many Libyan parties and political forces. He added no details except to say he had not met with any leaders of the Libyan National Army, headed by eastern military commander Khalifa Hifter. Hifter's rebel forces are battling the UN-backed government for control of Tripoli in the west.

In the same context, Simon Bedosa, a member of the Union of Libyan Jews, told Al-Monitor, “The war in Tripoli is caused by the desire of some to exploit Libya for the sake of their interests, and not the interests of the country and the Libyan people.”

Speaking about the statements rejecting the return of Jews to Libya, he said, “Libya is the right of Libyans, and I am a Libyan. We want to visit our homeland, participate in public life and create foreign investments.”

Bedosa added, “The crisis between Palestine and Israel is the reason that some have rejected our return — due to the many Arab leaders who have deluded their people into thinking that their priorities are to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — and hate all Jews, whatever their affiliations and opinions.”

Parliament member Ali al-Tikbali told Al-Monitor, “The participation of Libyan Jews in any political dialogues must be a decision made by the Libyan people, and it needs to be discussed in the political dialogue committees that will be under UN auspices and also in the parliament representing the Libyan people.”

He called the issue of Libyan Jews "sensitive" and said, "Those who will publicly deal with them will definitely lose popularity due to the positions rejecting the Jews.”

Tikbali explained, “The Libyan public is strongly divided when it comes to the Libyan Jews, and there is a large part that rejects them. The issue of the Libyan Jews should thus be dealt with in full transparency and the decision should stem from the Libyan people without the aspirations of the UN mission or anyone else.”


George Mikhail is a freelance journalist who specializes in minority and political issues. He graduated from Cairo University in 2009 and has worked for a number of Egyptian newspapers.


Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/02/libya-jews-return-un-meeting-peace-process-conflict.html#ixzz6EpL6KfKz

The Robots Are Not Coming for All of Our Jobs
BY DOUG HENWOOD

There’s lots of breathless talk these days about robots replacing all of our jobs. But if you look at the data, there’s little indication that’s actually going to happen.
An attendee looks at a disassembled Lovot robot during an event at the Lovot Museum on February 5, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

You can hardly look at Twitter without reading something about the impending AI revolution: robots are coming for your job. I’m a skeptic. By that, I don’t mean to argue that IT and AI and all the other abbreviations and acronyms aren’t changing our world profoundly. They are. Tech affects everything — work, play, love, politics, art, all of it. But the maximalist version, where robots, equipped with artificial intelligence, are going to replace human workers, is way overdone. No doubt they will replace some. But not all.

Back in 1987, ancient history in tech time, the economist Robert Solow observed, “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” That observation achieved cliché status, but unlike many of that breed, it was true. Productivity — measured as the dollar value of the output per hour of work, adjusted for inflation — had fallen below its long-term average in the mid-1970s, one of many signs of the end of the post-World War II Golden Age, and would stay there for twenty years. (See the graph below. Trend productivity in the graph is computed with a Hodrick–Prescott filter.)



Then, around 1995, productivity accelerated with the commercialization of the internet and the dot-com boom, which came with a surge in corporate investment in IT. Solow’s quip was retired, and the dawn of a new era was pronounced. Curiously, that productivity acceleration was a time of low unemployment and rising real wages — unlike the present, when unemployment is low but wage growth sucks. So by that precedent, there’s no reason to associate a productivity acceleration with job loss.

That new era lasted only about ten years. Productivity fell back into a slump, reaching all-time lows from 2014 to 2016. It’s picked up some since, but trend productivity growth is at levels comparable to the productivity slump of the late 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. So, we’re back in the land of Solow’s quip: robots aren’t visible in the productivity stats.


Here’s another way to look at it. Historically, it took just over 2 percent of GDP growth to generate a 1 percent increase in employment. For most of the last decade, employment growth has outstripped that historical norm. Lately, the US economy has added almost forty thousand jobs a month more than GDP growth would suggest. That compares to an average gain lately of around two hundred thousand. In other words, one out of every five jobs being produced in the United States today wouldn’t be here if normal relationships between growth and employment were still holding sway. (See the graph below.)



GDP growth — which has been slow by historical standards — has also been producing larger declines in unemployment than you’d expect if old relationships were still in effect. If the robots were moving in, you’d expect just the opposite — job growth badly lagging economic growth, unemployment stickier than it has been. But these things are just not happening.

Maybe they will, though we’ve heard panicked tales of disappearing human workers since the onset of capitalism. Cries of alarm like “the robots are coming!” undermine the confidence of the working class and make people more grateful for whatever crap the system feeds them than they should be. Economic life is hard enough as it is without promoting mechanical competitors.

The Lebanese Uprising Continues
AN INTERVIEW WITH RIMA MAJED

Among the mass protests that erupted across the globe in October last year, Lebanon’s were some of the largest, targeting both a failing neoliberal system and ingrained sectarianism. Now in their fourth month, the protests are showing no sign of diminishing.

Anti-government demonstrators gather in Martyrs' Square to listen to speeches and music as part of the ongoing protests, on November 3, 2019 in Beirut, Lebanon. (Sam Tarling / Getty Images)

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INTERVIEW BY Shireen Akram-Boshar

For more than a hundred days, Lebanon has been beset by mass protests, seeing up to a million people in the streets of a country of less than seven million inhabitants. Now known as Lebanon’s “October Revolution,” the demonstrations have emerged in response to a range of issues, from anti-austerity, the government’s mismanagement of the climate disaster, and the full-scale rejection of the country’s sectarian political system, entrenched since the Civil War.

Now in its fourth month, the Lebanese protest movement is at a crossroads. Several government reshuffles have done little to placate the movement, and as the debt crisis worsens the government continues to seek IMF assistance, angering the protesters further. There are conflicting ideas within the movement about how best to proceed, and unions are just beginning to reassert themselves for the first time in decades.

To discuss the dynamics of the uprising, and its challenges going forward, Shireen Akram-Boshar spoke with Rima Majed.
SAB


More than a hundred days have passed since the start of Lebanon’s revolution. Broad segments of Lebanese society have been involved, with about one in five taking part in protest. What are things like on the ground? How has the uprising maintained its momentum?
RM


Since the revolution kicked into high gear again recently, there are mass protests every day. Protesters are blocking roads, denouncing the newly appointed government, and demonstrating in front of banks and parliament. But there is also a high level of state repression. Over the past two weeks, it has been particularly bad. Dozens have been arrested and hundreds injured. Security forces have specifically targeted protesters’ eyes, injuring and blinding several.

The banking sector has been the main target during the latest wave. This is because of the daily humiliation imposed by the banks. It has reached an unbearable level. Poverty rates have increased as well as inflation, but it’s not just that. It’s also that even those who have just a bit of money in the bank are prevented from accessing it, which amounts to forced impoverishment. The only exceptions are those who are very rich, have connections with the banking elites, or who can transfer money abroad. For the majority, the degradation has reached a level such that it’s impossible for things to calm down.

This doesn’t mean that the streets will constantly be filled with protesters. Students play a critical role in the revolution, and when protests have decreased, it’s often when schools and universities have opened again. But this revolution, even more than the others in the region, began because of an acute economic crisis. And so it will keep going.

Nothing has changed in the past three months to encourage people to go back home. A new government has just been announced, but even before its announcement, we knew it would not have the trust of the people. There’s no major change in the ruling elite, and there are no serious measures being taken to deal with the financial crisis.

There has been a lot of talk lately about Hezbollah co-opting the movement. I think it’s important to highlight that all the political parties, including Hezbollah, have been trying to co-opt the revolution from the very start. The Lebanese Forces, the Phalangists’ Kataeb, the Free Patriotic Movement, and the Future Movement after the resignation of [former prime minister Saad] Hariri, all tried at different stages to co-opt the revolution and maneuver within it. The panic recently about Hezbollah’s presence is mainly because when they mobilize, they bring sectarianism to the streets. They raise sectarian chants like “Shi’a, Shi’a.” It doesn’t require much analysis to get it.

But the way the revolution has dealt with it is much better than in our previous protest movements. At the start, there were voices from within the revolution that were saying, “these are infiltrators, we must remove them from the streets, it’s Hezbollah.” But very quickly this was shut down by people saying that the streets are open; co-option is something that we know we will have to deal with, but it doesn’t mean that we have to alienate individuals. These are also occasions to organize differently and to build bridges. The movement has recognized that Hezbollah’s base — the vast majority of the Shi’a population in Lebanon — forms a large section of the working class and the working poor.

Having said this, I also recognize that there is a clear danger of political parties, specifically Hezbollah, taking advantage of the revolution. There is an intersection of interest when it comes to targeting the banking system. And this is why the demands to the bank have to be clear in a way that would not leave room for Hezbollah or other parties in power to be able to mobilize around the same demands.

This is part of how the revolution must radicalize and adapt its discourse. Instead of saying, “We don’t accept the poor who are the constituency of certain parties,” or accusing them of being infiltrators and traitors, we must instead adopt a discourse that links the problem of the banking sector not just with the neoliberal system and the financial system that we are against — this is a discourse that Hezbollah would also agree to even though in practice they have backed all the neoliberal policies for the decade that they were in power — but also a discourse that brings in the political vision we are working for.

SAB


Lebanon’s revolution has been marked not only by mass protest, but also ideological advance and a rejection of the political establishment to an extent not seen in previous uprisings. The revolution has also managed to show the connections between economic and political grievances. To what extent has political consciousness been transformed?
RM


To a huge extent. This has come from an accumulation of decades of activism, as well as lessons learned from previous movements both in Lebanon and across the region. One example is the 2015 “YouStink” movement. Because of these experiences, the movement is now more aware of class dynamics, and careful not to alienate people who still ascribe to sectarian political parties — particularly the poorer sections of the working class who have come to make up Hezbollah’s base. This is a major advance from 2015.

On the other hand, the weakest link is that of organization, which protesters are only now beginning to take up. My fear for the months and years to come revolves around the fact that we haven’t yet been able to become organized. It is especially difficult since we are just beginning the process, within the revolution, rather than before it.

To me it seems there are three streams within the revolution. There’s a radical stream, or one that has become more radicalized. It has been thinking intersectionally, centering class inequality, gender inequality, and the questions of citizenship, race, and refugees. It is mobilizing around all these issues and making links between them, and demanding an overhaul of the neoliberal economic system as well as the sectarian political system.

The second stream is more liberal. It considers the problem not to be a systemic one but rather a problem of corruption, and that substituting individual politicians for “cleaner” or less corrupt leaders will be enough. This is the more NGO-ized stream. It has a major presence in the revolution, and there are serious debates between it and the more radical stream.

And then there are the vast groups that are not organized, and that are mobilizing in ways that are more ad hoc. This third stream came together organically, it doesn’t have a clear political project or vision. The challenge is how to bring these three different streams together in order to advance the movement.

It is important to understand that Lebanon’s protesters are challenging not only a neoliberal system, but also the country’s sectarian system. The two are inseparable. Protesters’ demands for an end to economic degradation — essentially an end to the neoliberal system — through reinstating elements of a welfare state would mean an end to the sectarian system, too. It would mean not having to go to your sectarian za’im [leader or boss] to be able to get your basic needs met, thus making the sectarian system redundant.

The revolution poses a serious threat to sectarian leaders because it is the first time in the modern history of Lebanon that such massive numbers have mobilized clearly against them. Those protesting have an underlying class awareness and view the sectarian leaders as corrupt rulers who accumulate wealth at the expense of the majority. Any mobilization in Lebanon that takes on a class dynamic and brings people together based on interests outside the logic of sectarianism is considered a threat to the sectarian system — which can only flourish by making people dependent on the clientele-based services of their leaders. Any pressure toward labor rights and demands for welfare from the state represent a serious threat to sectarian leaders.

SAB


The Lebanese ruling class has been working diligently since the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990 to destroy cross-sect working-class organization and with it, the Left. The progressive weakening of the working-class movement and the Left has impeded any organized fightback, while also depoliticizing much of society. Given this, what are the possibilities for organizing?

RM


You’re right, it’s clear that in postwar Lebanon the regime systematically extinguished any possibility for organizing. Not just cross-sect organizing: the first thing they destroyed was the unions. Today, the General Confederation of Unions in Lebanon is completely co-opted by the regime, and represents less than 5 percent of workers. It has done nothing to support the revolution — only issuing a weak statement after we protested in front of their offices.

But this is a revolution that is so clearly about class issues. And this was clear from the very first day: grievances had to do with taxation, the financial collapse, and the pegging of the Lebanese lira to the dollar. It’s impossible to overlook this and just think about political organizing without having to deal with the question of class. It is a good opportunity to organize along class lines and to bring back labor and the social question as entry points for those wanting change.

In Lebanon, the geopolitical focus has taken center stage in the political discourse for decades. Focus on regional tensions and sectarianism has overshadowed class, gender, and labor. The revolution has re-centered discourse onto the social question. And within the revolution, the Left is finally beginning to take seriously the question of organization, rather than continuing to insist on the need for leaderless-ness.

Unlike in 2015, many of the activists today are convinced that there is a need for political organization and for preparing ourselves for the coming rounds of upheaval. Some are trying to organize through communes in the region (’Ammieh), under the name of “Communes of October 17th.” Others have organized at the neighborhood level, especially activists who were blocking roads at the beginning of the revolution.

Some groups existed previously, including Li Haqqi and Beirut Madinati, and they are part of larger coordination groups that bring together various groups mobilizing on the ground. Finally, some are trying to create a new leftist coalition that is at once anti-imperialist and anti-authoritarianism, and that is clearly in support of all popular uprisings from Syria to Bahrain.
SAB


Could you tell us more about Lebanon’s Professionals’ Association, which you took part in founding?

RM


For many of us who followed the revolutions in the region, we saw that the only two revolutions that were able to create some sort of transition were Tunisia and Sudan. It was clear that this was because of the presence of organized and independent unions. Along with others, I was convinced that the only way for us in Lebanon to break with the sectarian, neoliberal system was by reclaiming the unions. It seemed obvious from the start of the revolution that this is our chance to do something class-based. So the question of labor is at the core of imagining political change in the country.

We started to organize within the first few days of the revolution with two main goals. The first was organizing politically to support and push the revolution forward. The second was reclaiming labor and professional unions and organizations. This comes with its challenges, not least the fact that activism has for decades been shaped around values that are very neoliberal, very individualistic, and with lots of internal divisions. But even with all of that, I think this is an initiative that has a lot of potential. It is one of the very few places where I see hope for the long term. It is only by reclaiming our interests as social groups and classes, rather than sects and identity, that we will be able to fight a neoliberal, sectarian system that is constantly trying to make us individuals and not groups based on anything other than sect.

And this is where I think the Professionals’ Association can play an important role in changing political culture. The most radical movements in the past decade in Lebanon — all of which are really important initiatives — have also been affected by the neoliberal system. Just look at the names of the movements: Beirut Madinati (Beirut is my city), it’s never madinatona (our city); Li Haqqi (for my rights), it’s not our rights; Hathal Bahro Li (it’s my sea), it’s not our sea. And even when the revolution started, those groups were spraying on banks, rudduli masriyati (give me back my money). As if the problem is individual, and if the bank gives me back my money, then I’m fine. This is what a neoliberal system does to our political consciousness. And until we reclaim a different “we” that is not the sectarian “we” but the “we” that is based on our interests as social classes, it will be very difficult to break away from this system. Because sectarianism is not separate from neoliberalism, it is the other side of the coin. Sectarianism depends on capitalism and neoliberalism, and you need to break with both at the same time.
SAB


What forces make up the Lebanese Professionals’ Association? What has it accomplished thus far, and what is it taking on now?
RM


The association includes professionals and workers from different sectors including university professors, schoolteachers, engineers and architects, medical doctors, workers in the cultural sector, journalists, and lawyers. The association has planned some of the largest marches during the uprising. It also held a series of public debates in various squares around the country. It is currently organizing internally and working on finalizing its founding documents, including its mission, vision, and internal structure. Through the Independent University Professors’ Association, the Professionals’ Association has worked closely with students and continues to coordinate with a number of political groups, grassroots organizations, and student groups within the revolution.
SAB


Lebanon’s revolution is currently at a sort of impasse, with protesters rejecting the political system and the elites, and the latter refusing to budge. As the economic situation continues to worsen, and the banks punish working-class people, protesters have responded with a campaign that directly targets the banks. And yet a major demand in the street is still to replace the politicians with technocrats. What’s this about?

RM


This is why I say the revolution is a process, not an event. It has its own contradictions, like everything else, and it is the dialectical relationship between the different streams that is going to create whatever comes next. The short term is going to be very difficult. We don’t have a clear alternative to take the place of the current system; there is no vanguard to steer the way. This is not a revolutionary coup, it is more of a social explosion that has ushered in a long revolutionary process that will go through many ups and downs.

We know that we need a haircut, we need capital controls, but who is going to impose that? The political elites? We know that they won’t. Nationalizing the banks — yes, of course. But under which regime? Do I give the banking sector to those who are now in power? And there are big debates over constitutional change, including whether the constitution simply needs to be applied more diligently, or whether we should change the whole constitution. These are all very difficult questions.

This is why I think it’s good for the radicals in the revolution to “demand the impossible,” as Che Guevara would say. We need to believe in the possibility of change and to fight for it, but also to think of the mechanisms — how do we reach our goal? This is where organization is key, and where clear alternatives to the status quo become important. And this is also where the whole discourse of refusing to provide leadership becomes so clearly counterproductive. What does it mean to be a revolution that doesn’t want to get to power?

Even the basic demands for electricity and water clearly show the need for a radical break with the system. We don’t need a technocratic government or groups of “experts” to give advice about how to get electricity. It’s not rocket science. Lebanon doesn’t have electricity, but it’s not because we haven’t figured out how to get electricity. It’s a political problem.

The ruling elites are still acting as if there’s no revolution. Although the pressure on them is intensifying, they will keep bouncing back until the revolution has a leadership that is able to translate street pressure into political gains, and to shape a transitional period based on the aspirations of the hundreds of thousands in the streets today. At the moment, the revolution is fueled by the masses who are just angry and exploding, but without a clear strategy to pressure for a particular type of political, economic, and social change.
SAB


What are the major tactics of the counterrevolution at this stage? Do ruling-class sectarian narratives still have a pull?
RM


The counterrevolution utilizes three main tactics. The first is co-option. The political parties insist that they are also against the state, and they are also against the ruling class. All politicians in Lebanon have gone on television saying that they are against the ruling elites, as if they are not part of that elite. And they call on their constituencies to mobilize, only to then create tensions in the streets.

The second tactic is repression, which is imposed via the three main arms of the security apparatus — the police, the army, and the zo’ran, the militiamen of the sectarian political parties. They are very strategic. The last round of heavy repression saw the army using violence against protesters in south Lebanon and the police consistently repressing protests in Beirut for several days, resulting in a number of serious injuries, hundreds of arrests, and a campaign of burning protest tents by the security forces.

And the third tactic is sectarian division. This revolution represents a dangerous threat to sectarian leaders, especially in that it articulates class-based demands. This is why attempts at sectarian division started from the very beginning and very clearly. I mean when you send people to the street to shout “Shi’a, Shi’a,” what are you doing? In regions like some parts of the south where almost everyone is Shi’a, they were mobilizing, chanting, “Shi’a, Shi’a,” and people were replying to them, “And so are we, and so are we!”

For a country like Lebanon where sectarianism is so ingrained in the everyday, the ruling parties have failed dramatically to stoke sectarianism so far. It means a lot that three months into the revolution, these attempts have very clearly failed. And I think Hezbollah’s decision to mobilize against the banks recently is because they realize it’s not as easy to whip up sectarianism now. It’s just not the same.

Sectarianism depends on the networks of clientelism which are not only about money but also non-state welfare and security. This becomes more difficult in the context of economic crisis. The question arises, will they be able to provide? There were already cuts before the revolution started. The situation threatens to expose the shallowness of the sectarian system — if you don’t provide the basic services, people are not going to stay with you.SHARE THIS ARTICLEFacebookTwitterEmail
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rima Majed is assistant professor of sociology at the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Media Studies at the American University of Beirut.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER

Shireen Akram-Boshar is a socialist activist and writer.

How Turkey’s anti-Gulen lobbyist risks Washington’s ire with Venezuela contract

Aaron Schaffer February 21, 2020


Reuters/Charles Mostoller
US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen at his home in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, US, July 10, 2017.

Turkey’s most prominent paid advocate for the extradition of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen has a new gig: Working to ease sanctions on the government of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

Amsterdam and Partners will represent Attorney General Reinaldo Munoz Pedroza after Florida-based law firm Foley & Lardner dropped the Venezuelans last month amid a political backlash in Washington. The firm also transferred $1.05 million it had received from Venezuela to Amsterdam, according to a newly disclosed letter to the US Justice Department.

Foley & Lardner’s contract called for the firm to be paid a total of $12.5 million for help “delisting parties subject to US economic sanction due to their connections to the republic.” The firm was notably tasked with representing Munoz Pedroza in discussions with the Treasury Department’s sanctions office.

Amsterdam and Partners founder Robert Amsterdam has been paid $2.25 million by Turkey to warn US federal and state officials about the alleged threat posed by Gulen and his network of charter schools since 2015. Ankara blames Gulen for the failed 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Venezuela contract now risks imperiling those efforts.

After writing a letter to his colleagues last month urging them to boycott Foley, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is now taking aim at Amsterdam. In an emailed statement to Al-Monitor, Scott’s office said he would “refuse to work with anyone in this firm, or anyone that contracts on this matter with this firm,” and urged “every one of his colleagues to stand with him against anyone who willingly represents a dangerous dictator.”


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Explore Al-Monitor's award-winning database of Middle East lobbying here.

In response to Scott’s threat, Amsterdam told the Associated Press today that he would not “bend to the political dictates of Florida.”

Ironically, Amsterdam and Scott have a history dating back to Scott’s stint as governor of Florida. The firm disclosed three phone calls with the office of then-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in mid-2016 to discuss the Gulen schools in the state. Bondi is now a close ally of President Donald Trump.

Aaron Schaffer writes about Middle East lobbying for Al-Monitor in Washington, DC. He co-writes and reports for Al-Monitor's bi-weekly lobbying newsletter. On Twitter: @aaronjschaffer



Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/02/amsterdam-partners-turkey-lobbyist-work-maduro-venezuela.html#ixzz6EpHnqB2s

Meet the AIPAC leaders bankrolling the Bernie Sanders attack ads


Bryant Harris February 19, 2020

REUTERS/Jason Redmond
US Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders waves to the audience at a campaign rally in the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington, Feb. 17, 2020.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has recently emerged as the front-runner in the Democratic presidential field. The rise of the progressive darling’s star also is coinciding with a barrage of television attack ads against him in the crucial early voting states of Iowa and Nevada.

Although the ads have been purchased by a super PAC called Democratic Majority for Israel, they make no mention of Sanders’ pro-Palestinian advocacy. Instead they take aim at Sanders’ perceived electability against President Donald Trump in a general election, arguing that a self-identified socialist is ill-equipped to take on Trump and highlighting Sanders' heart attack last year.

Still, the bulk of the political action committee’s funding comes from a group of high-profile political donors affiliated with the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The influential lobbying group has historically prided itself on bipartisanship. But its pushback against Sanders, coupled with its social media ads targeting congressional Democrats last month, reflects its growing concern over the pro-Palestinian faction within the Democratic party.

The super PAC airing the anti-Sanders ads raised nearly $2.3 million for its war chest last year. An Al-Monitor analysis of Federal Election Commission filings shows that the vast majority of those funds — some $1.8 million — came from prominent AIPAC donors in November and December alone.

Democratic Majority for Israel spent $800,000 of that money on its Iowa ad buy. It’s still unclear how much the super PAC intends to spend on its Nevada ad buy or how much it has raised so far this year.

Mark Mellman, an AIPAC strategist and prominent Democratic pollster, launched the super PAC last year to support pro-Israel candidates and combat the increasing skepticism of the close US ally within his party. In his quest to take down Sanders, Mellman has marshaled significant resources from some key movers and shakers in AIPAC and the broader pro-Israel world.

Democratic Majority for Israel’s biggest benefactor, Stacy Schusterman, sits on the AIPAC National Council. Schusterman, who chairs her family’s oil business, Samson Resources, donated $1 million to Mellman’s super PAC in December.

Gary Lauder, a venture capitalist, was also generous with a donation of $500,000 that same month. His wife, Laura Lauder, sits on AIPAC’s northwest regional board.

The group’s next biggest donor, Milton Cooper, owns New York-based Kimco Realty and donates to the American Israel Education Fund, AIPAC’s sister organization that sends lawmakers on trips to Israel.

Cooper is also a member of the AIPAC National Real Estate Committee, a division within the organization for real estate professionals. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., addressed the committee’s 10th annual luncheon last year. Two other AIPAC real estate committee members — Michael Hackman and Mark Rubin — each donated $25,000 to Mellman’s super PAC last year.

Paula Gottesman, an AIPAC congressional club member who sits on the AIPAC New Jersey Council, donated $100,000 to the super PAC in November. And Barry Porter, a Democratic Majority for Israel Board member, forked over $50,000 to help fund the super PAC in December.

Finally, Michael Sonnenfeldt, who donated $25,000 to the super PAC in December, sits on the board of Trustees for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank with strong ties to AIPAC.

Additionally, The Intercept reported last week that AIPAC is counting donations to Democratic Majority for Israel as donations to the lobbying group, granting donors more access within the organization. AIPAC — which rarely responds to media queries — flatly denied the arrangement in an email to The Intercept.

Most of the super PAC’s contributors have a history of donating to candidates on both sides of the aisle, but particularly favor pro-Israel Democrats such as House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey, both of New York.

AIPAC started running Facebook ads against Sanders last year, asking users to sign a petition telling him that “America stands with Israel.” While the initial attacks slid largely under the radar, AIPAC could not avoid a furor earlier this month when it posted social media ads accusing “radicals in the Democratic party” of “pushing their anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies down the throats of the American people.”

Some of the ads included graphics singling out two lawmakers backing Sanders: Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Both Tlaib and Omar support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel despite Sanders’ opposition to it.

The graphic also included Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., who hasn’t endorsed the boycott movement and has backed her home-state senator Amy Klobuchar for president. (While Klobuchar’s positions on Israel closely align with AIPAC, McCollum has introduced legislation to condition US military aid to Israel based on its treatment of Palestinian child prisoners.)

AIPAC took down the ads and offered an “unequivocal apology” expressing regret that “the ad’s imprecise wording distorted our message and offended many.” The apology also insisted that the ads “alluded to a genuine concern of many pro-Israel Democrats about a small but growing group, in and out of Congress, that is deliberately working to erode the bipartisan consensus on this issue and undermine the US-Israel relationship.”

A rival lobbying group, the left-leaning J Street, has called on Democratic Majority for Israel to take down the anti-Sanders ads.

“Like their partner organization AIPAC — which recently ran vitriolic attack ads echoing Republican smears against progressive Democrats — [Democratic Majority for Israel’s] right-leaning positions on Israel and US foreign policy are completely out of touch with the vast majority of Democrats and American Jews,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said in a statement.

Whether AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel will be successful in taking on Sanders and other pro-Palestinian Democrats remains to be seen.

The Sanders campaign said it raised $1.3 million in one day after the super PAC started airing its Iowa ads. Still, Sanders was the favorite to win Iowa when the ads aired, yet the caucuses resulted in a narrow tie between the progressive senator and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana.

And while presidential candidates have traditionally addressed the annual AIPAC policy conference in election years, Sanders has indicated that he will skip it this year — just as he did during his 2016 primary campaign. Another candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has also vowed to skip the March conference.

Bryant Harris is Al-Monitor's congressional correspondent. He was previously the White House assistant correspondent for Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera English and IPS News. Prior to his stint in DC, he spent two years as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco. On Twitter: @brykharris_ALM, Email: bharris@al-monitor.com.


Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/02/aipac-bankrolling-attack-ads-bernie-sanders-iowa-nevada.html#ixzz6EpGwaQwF

A top Trump economic adviser clashed with a CNN anchor during a segment where he was shown data that contradicted his claims

© Via CNN
CNN host Poppy Harlow and White House adviser Peter Navarro clashed on the Obama economy during a segment on Tuesday.

"Don't both presidents deserve credit for good economies?" Harlow asked Navarro.

The CNN host showed Navarro a series of charts with government data that contradicted his claims, but Navarro still called the Obama economy "horrible."

A CNN segment turned testy on Tuesday for White House trade adviser Peter Navarro after he was fact-checked on what he called the "horrible" Obama economy with government data that contradicted his claims.

Harlow first highlighted data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showing Obama had four quarters when gross domestic product growth surpassed 4%, peaking at 5.5% once in 2014.

By comparison, Trump hasn't broken 4% so far during his time in office, and the last two quarters of 2019 saw 2.1% growth (the Trump figures were not displayed on CNN).

Then she showed figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that displayed Obama outpacing Trump on job growth in the last 35 months of his presidency compared to Trump's first 35. The average job gains for the former president were 227,000 per month compared to 191,000 for Trump.

"Don't both presidents deserve credit for good economies?" Harlow asked Navarro.

"If you lived through the Obama years ... [people] remember what it is was like," the top White House adviser said. "What President Obama did was double the debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion."

Navarro went on to say that President Trump "fixed structural problems" caused by cumbersome regulations and high taxes. "Back in the Obama-Biden years, it was horrible."

Harlow then cut off Navarro.

"Peter, I'm sorry, I can't," the CNN host said, before displaying the same data again.

Navarro told Harlow to "put your numbers up," leading the CNN host to note the data was generated from government agencies.

"It's a great economy now. All I'm asking you is, wasn't it a good economy then as well?" Harlow asked.

Navarro responded: "No it was not, it was a horrible economy during the Obama years."

Trump has made the strength of the economy central to his re-election bid, touting the half-century low unemployment rate as well as steady wage growth.

On Monday, Trump ripped into Obama after the former president commemorated on Twitter the 11th anniversary of an $800 billion stimulus package he said paved the way for "more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history."

The president called it "a con job" in back-to-back tweets and derided Obama's handling of the economy.

More than 100 wild animals died from poisoning in a mass die-off seemingly triggered by coronavirus disinfectant

Rhea Mahbubani

© STR/AFP via Getty Images
More than 100 wild animals were found dead in a Chinese megacity and tests show that they were poisoned by the disinfectant that's being used to combat the coronavirus.

At least 17 species of animals, including wild boar, weasels, and blackbirds, were affected by the mass die-off.

Nanchong Stray Animal Rescue claims that authorities are killing domesticated animals outright amid fears that they can spread the coronavirus.

Animal activists shared distressing footage on Weibo: bloodied animals, a man hitting a dog with a stick, and an officer poking a lifeless dog.

Animals are the latest victims of the coronavirus crisis in mainland China.


Amid a scramble to control the spread of COVID-19, Chinese authorities believe, based on samples and tests, that at least 135 wild animals were poisoned by disinfectants being used to curb the illness, United Press International said based on reports from China's state-owned news agency Xinhua.

The mass die-off was reported in the megacity of Chongqing, in southwest China, which, in 2016, was home to over 30 million people. At least 17 species of animals, including wild boar, weasels, and blackbirds, have been affected, according to the Chongqing Forestry Bureau.

Tests have shown that the animals didn't die of any diseases such as coronavirus or bird flu, UPI said. They will be buried in disinfected sites.

Chinese state media said Chongqing is rounding up an estimated 5,300 forest rangers to monitor wildlife in the area. They will be accompanied by 200 "full-time supervisors," Xinhua reported, although it's unclear what they will be doing.Pets aren't being spared either

This may have been an unintended consequence of an official policy but animal rights activists with the Nanchong Stray Animal Rescue claim that authorities are killing domesticated animals outright amid fears that they can spread the coronavirus.

Officers in the Sichuan Province are allegedly knocking on people's doors and ordering residents to hand over their pets, while people beg for their companions to be spared, Metro UK reported. The group has accused Chinese authorities of killing the animals within minutes of getting their hands on them.

© Nanchong Stray Animal Rescue/Weibo

An activist shared several distressing images on Weibo: bloodied animals in a truck, a person hitting a dog with a wooden stick and an officer prodding a dog that was lying dead on the side of the road while people looked on.

Local officials have denied the accusations, saying animals were only killed if they had bitten anyone.

Metro UK also reported that residents of Hubei province - where the COVID-19 outbreak originated - were ordered to "deal with" their pets within five days. Animals weren't allowed outside people's homes and would be caught and killed, if they were found. These measures were also enforced in Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Hebei, and Shanghai.

© Nanchong Stray Animal Rescue/Weibo

Li Lanjuan, a professor and member of China's National Health Commission, sparked these steps by warning people to quarantine pets if they had come in contact with someone infected with COVID-19, according to reports.

Coronavirus has affected 75,465 people and killed 2,236 as of Friday, according to the National Health Commission. China plans to ban its wild animal trade and tighten supervision on "wet markets," which is where the coronavirus was reported to have started, although subsequent research cast doubt over that finding.

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Egyptologists think they may have found the secret chamber where Queen Nefertiti was buried

Isaac Scher 


© Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images
New evidence could help Egyptologists solve the long-debated problem of where Queen Nefertiti was buried.

In February, a team of researchers discovered secret chambers behind the tomb of King Tutankhamun, better known as King Tut.

The discovery comes after years of debate over whether King Tut's tomb contains Nefertiti's remains.

For years, there has been a controversial theory about the famous 3,300-year-old tomb of King Tutankhamun: that Queen Nefertiti's remains are contained just beyond its walls.

A team of scientists led by Mamdouh Eldamaty, the former Egyptian minister of antiquities, seemed to have recently confirmed the theory. The researchers surveyed the tomb with ground-penetrating radar and discovered a previously unknown space near King Tut's burial. The uncovered area is roughly seven feet high and 33 feet long.

The theory of Nefertiti's burial was first advanced in 2015 by a British Egyptologist who said there could be secret chambers behind the tomb of King Tutankhamun. The theory was backed up by initial research later that year.

Three years later, in a sudden scientific twist, a different team found evidence refuting the theory. Using radar, Franco Porcelli and his team spent three years exploring the area around the pharoah's tomb and concluded there was nothing there.

"It is maybe a little bit disappointing," he told NPR in 2018.

But on Wednesday, Eldamaty's team entered the fray. The scientific journal Nature saw details of his team's brand-new and unpublished report, which revealed more evidence of the secret enclosure that could contain Nefertiti's remains. The team presented their research to Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities earlier in February.

The groundbreaking finding is "tremendously exciting," said Ray Johnson, an Egyptologist at the University of Chicago who was not part of the research team. "Clearly there is something on the other side of the north wall of the burial chamber," he told Nature.

King Tut's tomb was first discovered nearly a century ago, in 1922. The pharaoh himself died mysteriously at age 19 in 1323 BC, after ruling the throne for 10 years. (Experts believe he died of gangrene, though they previously thought he was murdered.)



© Markus Schreiber/AP Photo

Although some are delighted by the new finding, others remain skeptical.

The technology that Eldamaty's team used is not reliable, according to Zahi Hawass, a former Egyptian antiquities minister. It has "never made any discovery at any site in Egypt," he told Nature.'The biggest archeological discovery ever'

The location of Nefertiti's tomb has long been a mystery. If her remains were discovered, it would be a significant scientific breakthrough, according to Nicholas Reeves, the British scientist who first proposed that the queen is buried near King Tut's tomb.

For much of history, Nefertiti was known as the Great Royal Wife of the Pharoah Akhenaten. But some Egyptologists believe she was promoted to a co-regent with Akhenaten, and ruled Egypt with him before his death. Others theorize that Nefertiti may have ruled - but while she was disguised as a man.

Either way, "if Nefertiti was buried as a pharaoh, it could be the biggest archeological discovery ever," Reeves told Nature.

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Expert with new theory on Nefertiti's tomb invited to Egypt

Scientists say they're 90% sure they've found a hidden chamber in King Tut's tomb - and they have a theory on who it might belong to

Nefertiti, Is That You? Radar Clues Reignite The World's Longest Game Of Hide-And-Seek

By Rachael Fu

The arduous tale of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb outlines the unique problem faced by archaeologists trying to uncover the secrets of nnell21 FEB 2020, 17:31Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Having drawn up plots in which to excavate, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon searched desperately for the Boy King’s resting place, only to eventually find its entrance cloaked by the neighboring tomb of Ramses VI. In a valley where the wealthy dead were laid to rest with their most precious belongings, tombs were intended to evade those searching for them, and so attempts to find missing figures in history are still thwarting archaeologists to this day.


One such hotly sought-after Egyptian is the mother (or stepmother, researchers aren’t quite certain which) of Tutankhamun, Queen Nefertiti. For decades there has been a back and forth as to the location of her missing remains with the media reporting from one year to the next that Queen Nefertiti has been “found” while she sits out there somewhere, presumably sniggering at our naivety, in her still-not-yet-discovered sarcophagus.

A popular theory for the all-time Hide and Seek champion is that she’s tucked away in a secret chamber in the tomb of Tutankhamun, an afterlife property the world has been very familiar with since its groundbreaking discovery in 1922. In 2015 a paper titled The Burial of Queen Nefertiti? referenced high-resolution images that were believed to reveal the location of hidden doors within the tomb. This theory was later supported by distinct lines observed on the ceiling of the tomb, which led researchers to believe one of the “rooms” was actually a corridor, sealed off by a false wall. But as technological advances continue to change the way we practice archaeology, the convictions of this “hidden chamber” continue to waiver.

Recent findings from a team led by archaeologist Mamdouh Eldamaty, a former Egyptian minister of antiquities, reported on by Nature, detail the outcome of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) used to scan the area surrounding Tutankhamun’s tomb. Initial reports indicate that they have identified a previously unknown corridor-like space a few meters from the burial chamber, findings which were presented to Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) earlier this month. 

The famous bust of Nefertiti. Vladimir Wrangel/Shutterstock

Theoretically the idea of a hidden chamber within the tomb makes sense, as Tutankhamun’s pad is unusually small for a member of royalty. The spaces detected in Eldamaty’s GPR investigation appear as pale blue areas on the radar, which indicate a gap in the bedrock a few meters to the east. The team can’t yet confirm if the “space” is connected to Tutankhamun’s burial chamber, but the 2-meter-high (6.5 feet), 10-meter-long (32 feet) gap is at the same depth and runs parallel to the tomb’s entrance corridor.

As exciting as this sounds, not everyone is convinced. Zahi Hawass, another former Egyptian antiquities minister, told Nature that using geophysical techniques to search for tombs has “never made any discovery at any site in Egypt” and only serves to raise false hopes. He’s reported to have excavated an area to the north of the Boy King’s tomb in search of alternative entrances but found nothing. Francesco Porcelli, a physicist at the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy, led a similar GPR survey inside the tomb in 2017, concluding in a paper published last year in the Journal of Cultural Heritage that his findings actually ruled out any possibility of there being hidden rooms within the tomb.

Eldamaty plans to return to the site to carry out further studies of the area north of the known burial chamber but faces difficulties as the resting place of Tutankhamun is once again obscured, only this time by air conditioning units rather than another tomb. Without removing these, the team will struggle to get a read on the bedrock in this crucial area, but hopes remain that by using a different antenna and taking readings closer together they may pin down the shape and location of the “hidden room” to within a few centimeters.

You’re safe for now, Nefertiti.