WHY NOT BAN STR8 MEN
FDA-funded study aims to lift restrictions on blood donation for gay, bisexual men

The study aims to evaluate alternatives to the blood donor deferral policy known as men who have sex with men, or MSM.

GLOBALLY UNPROTECTED STRAIGHT SEX SPREADS HIV 

By Brooke Migdon | Jan. 18, 2022

(Europa Press News/Getty Images)

Story at a glance
A new study is evaluating an FDA policy barring some men from donating blood.
Under current FDA guidelines, men who have sex with other men may not donate blood if they have had sexual contact with another man less than three months prior to donation.

The study aims to develop a questionnaire based on individual risk assessment to replace the FDA’s existing abstinence policy.

A new study currently underway could ease eligibility requirements for gay and bisexual men seeking to donate blood.

The study, funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, aims to evaluate alternatives to the blood donor deferral policy known as men who have sex with men, or MSM, put in place to reduce the transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV.

Under current FDA guidelines, men who have sex with men are ineligible to donate blood if they have had sexual contact with another man less than three months prior to donation.

The ADVANCE study (standing for Assessing Donor Variability And New Concepts in Eligibility) will recruit a total of 2,000 gay or bisexual men in eight cities across the U.S., including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, and Washington, D.C., according to the study’s website. Between 250 and 300 participants will be recruited in each city.

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To be eligible for the study, individuals must be between 18 and 39 years old, express an interest in donating blood, have had sex with at least one other man in the three months before joining the study, and agree to an HIV test – the results of which must be negative.

Study participants will test the reliability of a donor history questionnaire based on individual risk of HIV transmission. If the study is successful, the new questionnaire could replace the FDA’s deferral requirement.

The FDA had initiated a lifetime ban for men who have sex with men in 1983 at the start of the AIDS crisis, when little was known about the spread of the disease. That was relaxed to a yearlong abstinence period in 2015.

The agency’s current deferral period of three months was adopted in 2020 to address the “urgent need” for blood during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The American Red Cross last week declared its first-ever national blood crisis, warning that doctors are being cornered into making "difficult decisions" about which patients receive blood transfusions over others.

In a letter sent to the FDA Thursday, a group of House Democrats called on the agency to reassess its current deferral period, writing that the existing policy "continues to stigmatize gay and bisexual men" and "undermine crucial efforts to ensure an adequate and stable national blood supply."

Recruitment efforts for the ADVANCE study, which began in March, are nearing completion.

“We are currently at 276 as of last Friday’s report,” Christopher Cannon, director of research operations at the Whitman-Walker Institute in Washington, D.C., one of the community organizations involved in the study, told the Los Angeles Blade. “The current goal is now 300, so we’re hoping to push this over that goal line in the coming days and weeks.”

According to Cannon, as of last week, organizers had recruited a total of 879 study participants nationwide. Pandemic-related roadblocks have led to some delays in recruitment efforts, but organizers are hopeful the study will be completed by the summer, he said.

The Steep Costs Of U.S. Childcare

By Newsy Staff
and Amber Strong
January 17, 2022

We break down what it costs to care for a child in the U.S., and how the country stacks up to others.

The costs of childcare in the U.S. can force parents to make difficult decisions about what to pay for. The country is next to last overall in rankings of childcare services.

 

Myanmar: Outlawed Group Resurfaces, Raising New Fears Of Clashes In Rakhine State

 January 19, 2022  

By RFA

Residents of western Myanmar’s Rakhine state say they are concerned over possible armed clashes in Maungdaw township along the country’s border with Bangladesh amid a recent uptick in activity in the area by the outlawed Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

ARSA, which has joined Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) and other armed ethnic groups in fighting the junta following its Feb. 1 coup, has been moving aggressively to establish control over sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh, where three-quarters of a million Rohingya fled during a crackdown by Myanmar’s military in 2017. The crackdown came in response to ARSA’s attack on Rakhine police posts.

A rival group, the Buddhist Arakan Army (AA), agreed to a ceasefire with Myanmar’s military in late 2020, and ARSA now appears to be taking advantage of the relative calm, residents of Maungdaw told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

In November, clashes broke out between ARSA and the military in Maungdaw. Last month a man from the township’s Khonedaing village was injured when ARSA gunmen opened fire on a group of 20 people who had gone to collect bamboo in the jungle.

Earlier this month, several photos and videos appeared on social media purporting to show an armed exercise by more than 50 ARSA troops and their leaders. Maungdaw residents said they are now afraid of renewed violence in the area.

“The ARSA fighters look like a revolutionary group in guerrilla uniforms, and sometimes we see four or five of them in civilian clothes,” said Maung Hla, the administrative officer of Khonedaing village.

“We are afraid to go to the western part of the hills. If we need to go, we must go in groups of about 20 people, not in small groups. And we dare not go into the deep jungle.”

According to Maung Hla, ARSA’s Myanmar branch is based in the Wela Hills, about 20 miles north of the seat of Maungdaw and only around two miles from his village. Its presence has greatly disrupted the lives of local community members, who rely on natural resources for their livelihoods, he said

A resident who spoke on condition of anonymity told RFA that ARSA’s position in Maungdaw lies directly between a group of military and AA units.

“ARSA cannot move around as freely as it did before [the 2017 crackdown] with two adversaries on either side,” he said. “People living near the border areas will have to be careful about their movements.”

Repatriation stalled

Other sources told RFA that a planned repatriation of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh had stalled in part due to reports of ARSA militants within their ranks.

While Bangladesh denies that ARSA operates in the refugee camps, last month, Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told reporters that he had “credible” information about the group being involved in kidnapping, abusing, and even killing fellow Rohingya at the facilities.

Mohammad Shari, a Muslim resident of Maungdaw, told RFA that while ARSA remains active, the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh will refuse to return home.

“As long as these ARSA elements are present, it is impossible for us to bring back our refugees from Bangladesh and there will be no peace and security for us who are now living in northern Rakhine state,” he said.

“Last time, we had to flee to Bangladesh because of these people [ARSA]. And now, with all these pictures and video files appearing on Facebook, we are worried we might have to flee again.”

In addition to ARSA, residents told RFA that other militant groups, including the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO) and the Rohingya Army, have infiltrated the Maungdaw side of the Myanmar-Bangladesh border in Rakhine state.

Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun was not immediately available for comment when contacted by RFA.

Dil Mohammad, a Rohingya leader in Bangladesh, told the RFA-affiliated BenarNews agency that fighting had already broken out between ARSA and the AA in the no-man’s land along the shared border.

“The fighting between ARSA and the Arakan Army occurred after a reported incident about the abduction of a Rohingya person,” Mohammad said.

But he said that while fighting has broken out in the area, the real reason Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have not returned home is “owing to the reluctance of the Myanmar government.”

“Myanmar is still reluctant to accept us, so the repatriation is not taking place,” he said.

Shah Rezwan Hayat, Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation commissioner, downplayed the presence of ARSA in the Rohingya refugee camps to BenarNews.

“We hear from the media and other sources about the presence of ARSA at the camps. But the armed groups inside and around the camps only use the ARSA name to enhance their importance. We will not allow any armed groups to create anarchy at the camps,” Hayat said.

“If Bangladesh and Myanmar could reach a diplomatic agreement, either with the facilitation of any other country or without, the violence at the border would not hinder the repatriation process.”

Brother of ARSA leader arrested

The increased presence of ARSA in the border area comes amid reports on Tuesday that the brother of ARSA leader Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi was arrested in a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.

Mohammad Shah Ali, 50, was taken into custody on Jan. 16 by police who discovered him carrying a Bangladeshi national ID card, weapons and drugs, Inspector (Investigation) Gazi Salah Uddin, who oversees the Ukhia Police Station, told BenarNews.

Chittagong District Election Officer Jahangir Hossain told local journalists that if the identity card is genuine, it will be investigated, and action will be taken against those involved.

Naimul Haque, a captain of the Armed Police Battalion Cox’s Bazar, told BenarNews that Shah Ali was staying in a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar on the instructions of his brother Ataullah Abu Ammar Jununi.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service, with additional reporting by BenarNews. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Members of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) in Myanmar. Photo Credit: DMG

Cambodia As ASEAN Chair Can Play Key Role In Rohingya Refugee Crisis Solution – OpEd

 January 19, 2022  

By Jubeda Chowdhury*

The Rohingya issue is currently an important international issue. More than 1.1 million Rohingyas have taken refuge in Bangladesh since August 2017 due to genocide and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. About 50,000 newborn Rohingya children are added to it every year.

Bangladesh Prime Minister raised the issue at the UNGA on September 25, 2021 to draw the attention of global leaders in solving the Rohingya crisis. She focused specifically on the engagement of ASEAN leaders. It is ASEAN which can resolve Rohingya refugee problem easily.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen today said the Cambodian Chairmanship of ASEAN provides a great opportunity to facilitate safe and dignified return of the Rohingyas, now sheltered in Bangladesh, to Myanmar.

According to media reports, The foreign minister said this to Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn, also the country’s minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, during a telephone conversation recently.

During the conversation, Momen laid emphasis on the potential security risks to Bangladesh, Myanmar and to the greater region if the Rohingya crisis is left festering for a much longer period of time.

He mentioned the vulnerability of the displaced people to radicalism, extremism, terrorism, cross-border crimes, etc.

Foreign Minister Momen congratulated his Cambodian counterpart on Cambodia’s assumption of ASEAN Chairmanship and on the latter’s appointment as the Special Envoy of the ASEAN Chair to Myanmar.

Referring to the longstanding and excellent bilateral relations between the two countries, Momen mentioned that Bangladesh highly values its relations with Cambodia as an important partner in the neighborhood.

Lauding the “big heart” demonstrated by Bangladesh in sheltering 1.1 million displaced Myanmar nationals, Prak Sokhonn expressed his full understanding of and sympathy for the difficulties being faced by Bangladesh.

As Chair and an active member of ASEAN, Cambodia can help to resolve it. Cambodia can be an honest mediator in this regard. Cambodia has very warm relations with both Myanmar and Bangladesh.

On October 28, 2021, Cambodia officially took over the chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the third time since joining the group in 1999.

Cambodia holds the ASEAN chair for the third time since it joined ASEAN on 30 April 1999. It was the last amongst the 10 ASEAN countries to join ASEAN and has followed its regular turn in chairing the organisation every decade, in 2002 and 2012, respectively. There are only two countries—Cambodia and Brunei—whose leaders continued their tenure over the years in ASEAN, one being PM Hun Sen and the other one being the Sultan of Brunei.

Earlier, the Rohingya had been subjected to systematic discrimination, deprivation of the right to vote, and regular targeting of violence in Myanmar for decades.

Rohingyas have come to Myanmar to save their lives after being subjected to extremely inhumane treatment by the military; But their position in the country has become a cause for concern as they are involved in migration, drug trafficking, child trafficking, smuggling, and other misdeeds as Bangladeshis. Again, some of the Rohingyas have been accused of being involved in militant activities and the Ramu attack.

According to various sources, there are about four lakh Rohingyas inside Bangladesh and about one lakh outside the country, especially in the Middle East. Moreover, there are reports that underage women and children in various camps in Cox’s Bazar are being tied to an important social bond such as marriage; Which is having a hugely detrimental effect on the society and the state system. Child marriage is a threat to the health of the mother as well as the health of the child. It has far-reaching detrimental effects on women. Adolescent pregnancy can lead to a variety of health problems, including complications in childbirth. In some cases, they are also victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and marital rape. In addition, increasing population density is having a devastating effect on the environment.

In the last four and a half years, despite various initiatives, no real progress has been made in resolving the Rohingya crisis. Under pressure from the international community, the Myanmar government signed an agreement on Rohingya repatriation, but to no avail. According to the agreement, the Rohingyas were to be repatriated in stages. The repatriation process has not started for a long time. The Myanmar government has failed to repatriate the displaced Rohingya and resolve the crisis. Bangladesh has repeatedly urged various international forums to take effective steps to resolve the Rohingya crisis. At the UN General Assembly, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina not only ended her duty by calling on the international community to repatriate Rohingya but also presented six specific proposals. The Prime Minister also raised the issue during his recent visit to France.

In such a situation, the UN committee has unanimously passed a resolution urging Myanmar to end the Rohingya crisis. Most importantly, Russia and China did not oppose the proposal. The resolution, introduced by the OIC and the European Union, was unanimously passed by the Social Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, known as the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly. Foreign Minister in response to the proposal. Abdul Momen considers the support of Russia and China important. He said China and Russia also want a solution to the Rohingya problem. This is positive news for us.

In this regard, Cambodia can play a holistic, significant and strategic role.  Cambodia can support Bangladesh at every international forum such as at UNGA and regional conferences. They can vote in favour of Bangladesh. They can raise the issue within the ASEAN platform. Cambodia can negotiate with Myanmar diplomatically and bilaterally. It has good bilateral relations with Myanmar. Cambodia can engage with others ASEAN states to solve the crisis. Cambodia’s Buddhist society can play an effective role in this regard. Cambodia can make Myanmar understand on the regional significance of Rohingya repatriation.

Earlier, Cambodia hoped hat Bangladesh and Myanmar find a solution allowing the Rohingya repatriation,  Prime Minister Hun Sen said at the joint press conference held following his bilateral meeting with visiting Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina in 2017.

For her part,  Sheikh Hasina affirmed the Bangladesh’s commitment to provide shelters to some 700,000 Rohingya refugees and to continue negotiating with Myanmar for their repatriation.

Cambodia has confirmed its clear stance over Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. On Nov. 16, 2017, Cambodian Premier underlined that Rohingya crisis is an internal affair of Myanmar and Cambodia will not interfere in this issue. The Cambodian premier also expressed his sadness over the crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, adding that Cambodia is considering providing humanitarian assistance to Rakhine’s people, some of them are living in Myanmar while others fled to Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, PM Hun Sen visited Myanmar (6-8 January 2022). A new Special Envoy of the ASEAN chair, Prak Sokhonn the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Ministerof Cambodia, was announced. He will be assisted by Cham Prasidh, Minister of Industry, a veteran of the Cambodian peace process.

Cambodia was initially hesitant to speak out against the junta, citing ASEAN’s principle of noninterference. But this time, as a chair of ASEAN , Cambodia wants to engage itself and ASEAN with Myanmar.  It is a positive side of Cambodia. Isolation is not a solution. Involvement, engagement, negotiations are some tools to find solutions. Cambodia is doing so.  PM Hun Sen is very interested in ASEAN’s relations with Myanmar. Cambodia’s role in this regard would be warmly welcomed. As a chair, Cambodia can resolve a long disputed regional issue. If Cambodia take a initiative to resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis, it would be a great achievement for ASEAN. Whole south Asia and Southeast Asia would see a permanent solution of a regional crisis. Of course, role of Cambodia as ASEAN Chair would be seen positively. The prestigious of Cambodia as ASEAN chair would be accepted amongst all South Asian and Southeast Asian countries.

*Jubeda Chowdhury is a freelance writer with a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Dhaka.

Displaced Rohingya in Myanmar. Photo Credit: Tasnim News Agency

Mexican science agency halves recommendation for glyphosate imports this year

Author of the article:

Reuters

Publishing date:

Jan 18, 2022  • 

Article content

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s top science agency has cut its recommendation for maximum glyphosate imports by half this year, urging agriculture businesses to take steps to reach a government target of phasing out the herbicide completely by 2024.

Mexico’s National Council of Science and Technology, CONACYT, advised a maximum import quota of 8.26 million kilograms (kg) for formulated glyphosate, and 628,616 kg for the more concentrated technical glyphosate, which it said are half the amounts it recommended last year.

“This action moves forward the process to gradually eliminate glyphosate that will culminate in 2024 with its total ban,” CONACYT said in a statement, noting that alternatives exist for weed management.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador issued an executive order in 2020 to phase out glyphosate and GMO corn by 2024, arguing Mexico must attain food self-sufficiency without using toxic chemicals, a move supported by environmental and food safety activists.

However, Mexico’s top farm lobby CNA has opposed the plan, arguing that neither glyphosate nor GMO corn are harmful to health and that reducing their use could affect farm production.

When asked to comment on the new CONACYT recommendation over glyphosate, CNA said the science agency had “skewed opinions” that do not protect health or allow the agricultural sector to develop.

“It is a product that when used properly and respecting existing regulation does not cause damage to health or the environment,” CNA said in a statement, referring to the herbicide. (Reporting by Adriana Barrera; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon and Kenneth Maxwell)

UN: Worse now for women peace builders than before COVID

By EDITH M. LEDERER

Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Chilean president, arrives to give a speech and meet with Elisa Loncon, president of the Constituent Convention, in Santiago, Chile, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021.

 (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Women seeking to participate in shaping and building peace and defending human rights face a “vastly worse” situation now than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations human rights chief said Tuesday.

Michelle Bachelet told the U.N. Security Council that in 2020 her office verified 35 killings of women human rights defenders, journalists and trade union members in seven conflict-affected countries where data is available.

“This number, which is certainly an undercount, surpassed the confirmed number of killings in 2018 and 2019,” she said in a virtual briefing.

Bachelet said her Geneva-based office also documented patterns of attacks against women working on gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, corruption, labor rights and environmental and land issues.

“In every region,” she said, “we have seen women subjected to arrests and detention; intimidation; sexual violence, and harassment via smear campaigns” as well as intimidation and reprisals by government and non-government “actors” against people who cooperate with the United Nations.

Despite the Security Council’s adoption in 2000 of a resolution demanding equal participation for women in peace negotiations and peace building, Bachelet said,t “between 1992 and 2019 only 13 per cent of negotiators, 6 per cent of mediators and 6 per cent of signatories in major peace processes worldwide were women.”

That was before the pandemic struck in early 2020, “and before a wave of intensifying conflicts, undemocratic political transitions and disastrous humanitarian crises took hold in many societies,” she said.

Bachelet said the situation now facing women human rights defenders and prospects for women’s real participation in peace efforts is “vastly worse” and “harms all of us” because women’s participation is essential to promote peace.

She singled out three examples: Afghanistan, Africa’s Sahel region and Myanmar.

In Afghanistan, Bachelet said many women human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and judges have been forced to flee or go into hiding after repeated threats following the Taliban takeover in August. Many women have lost all sources of income and are excluded from decision-making about their lives, the Taliban Cabinet and other key national and provincial bodies.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights urged the Security Council to ensure that perpetrators of human rights abuses in Afghanistan are held accountable. And she urged all countries to use their influence with the Taliban “to encourage respect for fundamental human rights” and to resettle Afghan womens rights defenders and immediately halt the deportation of Afghan women seeking protection.

In the Sahel, Bachelet said, “critical deficits in women’s empowerment are clearly a factor in the complex development, security and humanitarian crisis.” Attacks by “extremely violent armed groups” increase the threat of abductions, violence, exploitation and abuse of women and girls and the closure of local schools, especially for girls, she said.

Bachelet, who recently visited the region, said she was encouraged that senior members of the G5 Sahel force set up by five African nations -- Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania -- in 2017 to fight the growing terrorist threat in the vast region emphasized “the importance of increased integration of women in political, security and development policies to address the crisis.” She said her office will continue to support this effort.

In Myanmar, Bachelet said women human rights defenders had long been a force for peace “including at the forefront of resistance against military rule,” but since the military takeover in February 2020 many women’s civil society groups have been forced to shut down. She said women working in the medical field and the media as well as protesters, participants in civil disobedience, social media activists and those providing shelter and food to those in need have been targeted for assault and arbitrary detention.

“Women and girls appear to number over 2,100 of the estimated 10,533 people detained by the State Administration Council and its affiliated armed elements between February and November last year,” Bachelet said.

Norway’s Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt, whose country holds the Security Council presidency and chaired the council meeting, said the government wanted to put the issue on the agenda of the U.N.’s most powerful body “so that we can move forward on our collective promise to let women participate without fear of reprisals.”

“Women are taking great risk to contribute to peace and security for the people of their country, because they know that to end conflict, to work effectively towards peace, women must be part of the process — not because women bring with them some magical solution to end all wars, but because women bring different perspectives, and the more gender-divided society is the more different those perspectives are,” she said..

Huitfeldt said in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan and Myanmar women peacebuilders and human rights defenders too often risk reprisals.

Ghana’s Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey told the council: “Women are usually the most adversely affected by conflict but the most marginalized in peace processes, and the most punished for their peacebuilding efforts.”

She said the gender perspectives of women “lead to better policies and more equitable and gender sensitive as well as sustainable peace deals.”

Tonga agrees to 'contactless' disaster relief amid Covid-19 fears

Thomas Manch

STUFF NZ

Jan 19 2022

HMNZS Wellington departed Devonport Naval Base in Auckland to head to Tonga on Tuesday afternoon.

The Tongan Government has agreed to "contactless" disaster relief from New Zealand amid concern the response to a major volcanic explosion could bring with it a "tsunami" of Covid-19.

The Pacific Island nation, which has strictly maintained a Covid-free status for much of the pandemic, was rocked by a massive explosion from the nearby Hung-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano on Saturday, which coated Tonga’s islands in ash and sent a tsunami wave crashing into its shores – killing at least three people.

The New Zealand Government has in the days since offered to deliver fresh water and other emergency supplies by air and sea. But the disaster response has been hampered by downed communication lines, ash on the Nuku’alofa airport runway, and, also causing concern, was the risk of spreading Covid-19.

“Non-contact” disaster relief from New Zealand’s Defence Force, to any possible spread of Covid-19 from New Zealand soldiers to Tonga, has now been agreed to by the Tongan Government, a spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta confirmed.


NZDF/SUPPLIED
An image from a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion reconnaissance flight on Monday 17 January over Tonga to assist in an initial impact assessment of Saturday’s eruption.

READ MORE:
* Tonga races to prevent a 'tsunami of Covid' as rescue efforts begin following unprecedented disaster
* ‘There’s nothing there for them’: Extent of Tonga’s devastation emerges
* Two Navy ships heading to Tonga as communication issues hamper response effort

Mahuta, speaking to reporters in New Plymouth on Wednesday afternoon, said New Zealand and Tongan officials were discussing what could be done in the “Covid context”.

"There are some activities that don't require contact, for example, the assessment of the wharfs and the infrastructure undersea, and the seabed. That really doesn't require any contact between humans.”

Tonga was already in a state of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and entry to the country was restricted to citizens and permanent residents. Throughout the pandemic, Tonga has recorded a single case of Covid-19 throughout the pandemic, in October 2021.

Tonga’s head of mission to New Zealand, consul Lenisiloti Sitafooti Aho, said people who entered Tonga, such as those on repatriation flights, had to spend three weeks in managed isolation.

This would remain the case unless the Tongan Government decided to change its protocol, he said.
Tongan diplomat Curtis Tu'ihalangingie, the deputy head of mission to Australia, told ABC radio on Tuesday that retaining the country’s Covid-free status amid the response was something both the Australian and New Zealand governments had agreed to.

"We will still need to follow the Covid-19 protocols to keep the people in the population safe, rather than us setting a system and there's a tsunami of Covid hitting Tonga ... We very much appreciate the understanding,” Tu'ihalangingie said.

Exactly how such non-contact deployments will be managed was unclear. Stuff has sought an interview with the Rear Admiral James Gilmour, who as commander of joint forces has been leading the Defence Force’s response.

Two naval ships, the HMNZS Aotearoa and HMNZS Wellington, have already departed for the three-day journey to Tonga and were expected to arrive on Friday. A C130 Hercules was ready to fly to Nuku’alofa airport as soon as the ashfall has been cleared.

On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a Hercules would fly to Tonga regardless of the situation at the airport and “air drop” supplies. This did not go ahead, a Defence Force spokesman later confirmed the option was considered however it “was not the preference of the Tongan authorities”.

NZDF/SUPPLIED
An image taken from a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion reconnaissance flight on Monday 17 January over Tonga to assist in an initial impact assessment of Saturday’s eruption.

Anna Powles, a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at Massey University, said the Defence Force had protocols for providing humanitarian relief without direct contact, and it added an “additional layer of complexity”.

New Zealand had provided non-contact Covid-19 vaccine delivery to Pacific nations during the pandemic, and a C130 Hercules supply flight to Vanuatu after Cyclone Harold adhered to “serious protocols” to prevent the spread of Covid-19, then-Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.

"They obviously did it with respect to the delivery of vaccines for Niue and so forth, but that was much more targeted ... [It] is going to be obviously really interesting in the days to come. I guess it is going to include airdrops, effectively,” Powles said.

"One of the questions for me will be in terms of looking at what the Tonga National Emergency Management Office what their planning is.”

Council for International Development director Josie Pagani​ said there was a “no contact humanitarian protocol” in place, meaning soldiers “put stuff down, ... walk away, and locals pick it up”.

“For us in the aid sector ... It's really important to understand, we will not be doing a fly-in fly-out humanitarian response.

"That's actually a good thing, because what we're doing is we're supporting local Tongan community groups, church groups, local partners, who are on the frontline right now responding.”

Analysis
Disinformation and electronic armies: How Lebanon's political class uses fake news to win elections

In-depth: Ahead of Lebanon's upcoming elections, activists fear the political establishment will spread disinformation and fake news to retain power, in a country where the convoluted media landscape is already rife with political agendas.

Justin Salhani
13 January, 2022

With Lebanon’s general election announced for May, media experts and activists fear that establishment politicians will undermine the democratic process by spreading and amplifying disinformation across social media – just as they have done in the past.

Lebanese citizens are looking to the upcoming parliamentary elections as the first step toward ridding themselves of a corrupt political class that has failed to respond to a revolution, a global pandemic, one of the world’s largest-ever non-nuclear explosions and a crippling financial crisis.

But the die-hard supporters and aggressive online armies of political elites could stand in the way.

Misinformation is already rampant in Lebanon. However disinformation – distinguished by its deliberate intent to deceive - has proven far more damaging for democracies and social movements across the world. Judging from Lebanon’s previous election cycles and defining events, Lebanon is no exception.

“During the October 2019 protests and then later the Beirut explosion in August 2020, we saw an expansion and an influx in the amount of disinformation,” Dr Zahera Harb, Director of the International Journalism and Media and Globalisation programmes at City, University of London, who has extensively researched the spread of disinformation in Lebanon, told The New Arab.

"Misinformation is already rampant in Lebanon. However disinformation – distinguished by its deliberate intent to deceive - has proven far more damaging for democracies and social movements across the world"

“A few weeks into the protests of October 2019, the ruling class was trying to delegitimise what people on the streets were doing. We started hearing stories about collaboration with foreign governments, money coming in, the demonisation of anything that is referenced to as a non-government organisation and putting them all in one basket.”

Fighting disinformation coming from politicians can be an uphill battle. Revelations by whistle-blower Frances Haugen confirmed that Facebook in particular neglects non-English speaking regions when it comes to monitoring disinformation or fake news.

Lebanon would then pose an even more severe challenge due to the use of various forms of Arabic, including the local Lebanese dialect, English transliterations, and the ubiquity of voice notes. This means that much of the monitoring is left up to users reporting malicious content. This is another avenue where organised parties can thrive in setting their own agenda.

“It's a question of electronic armies and resources,” said Hadi El Khoury, a Paris-based cybersecurity expert. “They have the means to pay for such strength and organisation of misinformation.”

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Analysis
Kareem Chehayeb

Lebanon’s most powerful force - politically and militarily - is Hezbollah. The Shia Islamist political party and militant group possesses one of the most active and effective online armies.

“Hezbollah’s electronic army will try to censor any anti-Hezbollah voices or anything published against [Hezbollah leader Hasan] Nasrallah,” Ayman Mhanna, Executive Director of the Samir Kassir Foundation, the region’s leading freedom of expression NGO, told The New Arab.

“If a picture or the word Hezbollah or Nasrallah appears in an article that portrays them negatively, the electronic army systematically flags it so it will be taken down.”

The use of fake news and disinformation by the Lebanese political establishment predates social media platforms and even the internet. After the assassination of Lebanese president-elect Bachir Gemayel in 1982, Palestinians and Shia Muslims were blamed in newspaper and radio broadcasts, which in part led to the Sabra and Shatila massacres. The alleged assassin was later discovered to be a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.

But today platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp are the primary drivers of disinformation, which can be used to inflame communal tensions by amplifying hate speech. In October, six people were killed after a planned Hezbollah and Amal march devolved into clashes in Beirut’s Tayouneh neighbourhood.

In Lebanon, disinformation is rife on social media, while traditional media outlets often have a political agenda as well. [Getty]

While gunmen traded shots in Beirut’s streets, news and commentary circulated rapidly on social media. Some users claimed the conflict was an ambush on protests while others painted an image of a neighbourhood under siege.

“Fake news can cause harm because it can generate hate speech and in its different forms lead to harm against innocent people - physically, emotionally or psychologically,” Harb said.

Following the clashes, nineteen people were arrested - including members of the Lebanese Forces. The level of the LF’s actual involvement is still not entirely clear in the fighting, but it still boosted sectarian voting patterns in October’s university elections.

“People don’t typically vote based on a track record or the economy. They look to protect their communal identity,” Mhanna said. “The most important thing in an election is to set the questions.”

"Navigating the complexities of Lebanese media can be difficult on normal days, where well over 70 percent of television, radio and print media have a more or less direct political affiliation"

Lebanon’s political class are unafraid of using disinformation and physical violence, but those are just two in an armoury of tactics they wield against opponents looking for change. Years of foreign funding and the embezzlement of state funds has left the various parties with sophisticated political organising and money to burn on spreading their message.

“Traditional media monetise TV appearances during the election, which in other countries is simply illegal,” Jean Kassir, a journalist and political activist, told The New Arab.

“This is where the budgets will actually play a huge role [because] establishment parties have the ability to pay huge amounts of money to be on primetime shows. The threat is that what people will see on TV is what has been paid for.”

While television is still a major source of news for people in Lebanon, many of these clips and talking points are also widely shared on social media. A report from October 2019 by the Arab Youth Barometer says 33 percent of Lebanese citizens use social media as their primary source of news.

Navigating the complexities of Lebanese media can be difficult on normal days, where well over 70 percent of television, radio and print media have a “more or less direct political affiliation,” according to the Media Ownership Monitor.

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“The main problem in Lebanon is that journalists and media organisations became part of this information game that the ruling class is playing,” Dr Harb said. “I think most of the disinformation in Lebanon is mainly coming from politicians' mouths rather than deep fake videos and fabricated images.”

While Lebanon’s press freedom is still relatively strong for the region, it has eroded in recent years, dropping five places in last year’s Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index. Part of this drop also comes from the actions of the Lebanese government, who when not spreading their own disinformation are suppressing criticisms.

According to SMEX, a Lebanese NGO specialising in media freedoms, Lebanese members of parliament and other political figures liberally filed complaints of “slander and libel” or “offending the Lebanese president” against journalists and activists.

Many initiatives in Lebanon are fighting back against this control of the narrative. The UNDP released a report with important tools that journalists and citizens can use to verify information like images and crowd sizes.

Mhanna told The New Arab that the Samir Kassir Foundation will be funding creative election content on mainstream television channels on the condition that all candidates are given free and equal time and access with live fact-checking on air.

"Most of the disinformation in Lebanon is mainly coming from politicians' mouths rather than deep fake videos and fabricated images"

And while such initiatives are important to fight disinformation, the Lebanese establishment has plenty of other means of winning votes. Foreign interference through funding establishment candidates is not unprecedented. And with the country enduring a severe economic crisis, ruling parties will likely take advantage of their constituents’ desperation.

“There are other tricks that the regime can use to also materially secure the pool of voters that used to vote for the regime because of how desperate the situation is and sometimes it's no longer about an opinion,” Kassir said.

“If someone has promised 100 bucks they will take it because they are starving or because they're in a really dire situation and nobody can blame them, to be honest.”

As elections near, the fight against disinformation will be an uphill battle for Lebanon. Much of the responsibility will also fall on the shoulders of individual journalists.

“Journalists have a role in fact-checking,” Harb said. “And in countries like Lebanon, being a journalist and the fact-checker becomes one, usually these are two separate things, they are now merging together.”

Justin Salhani is a writer and journalist living in Paris, France. He was previously based in Washington, DC and Beirut, Lebanon.

Follow him on Twitter: @JustinSalhani

Analysis

How Palestinian Christians are being driven out of Jerusalem

In-depth
Alessandra Bajec
13 January, 2022

In-depth: The Palestinian Christian presence in Jerusalem is under threat due to institutionalised discrimination, attacks by radical Israeli groups, and systematic attempts by settler organisations to take over church property in the Old City.

Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and Israel are at risk of disappearing in the face of systematic attempts to drive them out of the Old City and other parts of the Holy Land.

Like every year at Christmas, Christian patriarchs and heads of churches warned of the fate of their communities in the region.

In a campaign launched ahead of festivities, Jerusalem’s church leaders issued a joint statement in mid-December saying that “Christians have become the target of frequent and sustained attacks by fringe radical groups” alluding to Israeli far-right settlers who aim to “diminish" the Christian presence.

These groups, the communiqué denounced, are “often using underhanded dealings and intimidation tactics to evict residents from their homes” and continue to acquire strategic property in the Christian Quarter, in the Old City, causing a decline in the Christian community.

"The systematic effort to push the Christian community out needs to be framed within the broader Israeli policy of dispossession towards the Palestinian people in general"

The statement went on to describe “countless incidents” of physical and verbal assaults against priests and other clergy, and attacks on Christian churches. It also reported vandalism and the desecration of holy sites and church properties, and the ongoing intimidation of local Christians as they go about their worship and daily lives.

Britain’s Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called the Diocese of Jerusalem’s declaration “unprecedented” in a tweet, and co-authored an article with the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem Hosam Naoum published in the Sunday Times, which outlines the pressures that have led to an exodus of the community.

They noted that a century ago there were an estimated 73,000 Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land making up at least 10 percent of the total population, and 20 percent of Jerusalem, whereas in 2019 barely two percent are Christian and only 2,000 Christians are left in the Old City.

“Religious extremism is on the rise, there are hostile feelings within the Jewish community toward Palestinian Christians,” Omar Haramy, director of Sabeel Jerusalem, a Palestinian Christian grassroots liberation theology organisation, told The New Arab.

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Jewish local groups with extremist ideologies have for years carried out attacks against Christian institutions in Jerusalem and beyond. The Romanian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem was vandalised during Lent in March last year.

It was the fourth time that the holy site had been attacked in just one month. During Advent in December 2020, a vandal set fire to the Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane in East Jerusalem, the fourth attack against the church.

Attacks against Christian sites are typically perpetrated by groups such as Lehava and “price tag” movements - extremist Israelis who act in retaliation for any policy seen as threatening the settler movement in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Violent incidents have been on the rise in Jerusalem, with at least 24 attacks on churches in the last six years, according to a report published by ICOHS. There have been also increasing numbers of reports of priests and local worshippers being verbally abused, spat at, or aggressed.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. [Getty]

Last May, three settlers assaulted and beat clergymen from the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate on their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem for prayers.

Members of the different churches in the city are regularly harassed by Israeli security forces and face restrictions. In late April of last year, Israeli police erected barricades around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre barring Orthodox Christians from accessing the holy site.

In 2018, the Israeli parliament introduced a tax bill in 2018 that would enable Jerusalem’s municipality to amend a religious tax exemption, resulting in heavy taxation on church-owned commercial properties. Local Christian leaders complained, stating that it was a move to weaken the Christian presence in Jerusalem, and closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the public in protest for three days.

Moreover, there have been attempts by settler organisations to gain control of church-owned properties close to Jaffa Gate, the main entrance to the Christian and Armenian quarters. The Zionist organisation Ateret Cohanim works on populating the Old City and other East Jerusalem neighbourhoods with Jewish residents by buying properties from non-Jewish owners.

The Greek Orthodox church possesses about a third of the land in the Old City and key sites around Jerusalem.

"Religious extremism is on the rise, there are hostile feelings within the Jewish community toward Palestinian Christians"

“Church leaders are very concerned about this development. They see it as a way to undermine the Christian presence in Jerusalem, and disrupt pilgrim routes,” Dorien Vanden Boer, Policy Officer for Israel/Palestine at CIDSE, a network of Catholic social justice organisations, told The New Arab.

Jewish extremists, with the backing of Israeli authorities, are taking steps to change the identity and character of the Old City’s Christian quarters.

“The Israeli government and municipality of Jerusalem have been encouraging regular tours and other activities with Jewish visitors in the area with the intent to change its demographic character,” Sabeel Jerusalem’s director Omar Haramy, a long-time Palestinian Christian campaigner and advocate for peace and justice, said.

He indicated that Christian communities in East Jerusalem are negatively impacted by the Israeli military occupation and illegal annexation in two main ways that accelerate their flight.

Firstly, Palestinian Jerusalemites pay a heavy price for the family reunification law, which prohibits Palestinian citizens of Israel who marry Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza from living within Israel, including illegally annexed Jerusalem.

They must either move to the occupied territories and lose their Jerusalem residency ID or remain separated from their spouses and maintain their residency status - an Israeli measure aimed at preserving a Jewish majority over Palestinians.

Christians, as a minority, are particularly affected by this law as they have to choose their partners from within smaller communities.

(Click to enlarge)


Secondly, as a highly educated population, Palestinian Christians struggle with inadequate educational services, as the Israeli government has continually reduced funding for Christian schools, resulting in higher tuition fees.

Church-based schools, which once provided free education for Palestinian Jerusalemites, and substituted the Jerusalem municipality’s lack of assistance to Palestinians in many areas, have seen an increase in taxation. Consequently, more Christians have moved out of the city to continue their education in Christian schools in the occupied West Bank.

A lack of housing for Christians living in Jerusalem is another factor that leads to the emigration of Christians. Additionally, Palestinian Jerusalemites are denied building permits for new homes or the expansion of their property in the Old City and East Jerusalem.

According to Omar Haramy, Christian Jerusalemites who are financially burdened and deprived of basic services have a greater incentive to live in the occupied West Bank, where they can access job opportunities via Christian networks and feel more integrated into Palestinian society.

"Violent incidents have been on the rise in Jerusalem, with at least 24 attacks on churches in the last six years"

Recent research conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) shows that Christians make up less than 1% of the population in Palestine. Recent surveys estimate that of the 162,000 Palestinian Christians living in Israel and Palestine in 2020, the majority live inside Israel (excluding East Jerusalem) with the remaining 52,000 distributed throughout East Jerusalem (10,000), the West Bank (40,000) and the Gaza Strip (2,000).

Haramy added that Christian Zionists play a detrimental role in disseminating the belief that God gave the Holy Land to the Jewish people, including attempting to convince the Palestinian Christian community of the idea that it is a Christian’s duty to support the State of Israel, and that such support would result in accelerating the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

“Those people try to infiltrate, divide and weaken the Christian community, bringing in their own agenda while hiding behind religion,” he said. “That feeds into fear and ignorance”.

Citing a call issued by Kairos Palestine in 2020, Vanden Boer remarked how the appeal to Christians, churches, and ecumenical institutions challenged the misuse of the Bible through Christian Zionist theology, which legitimises “the right of one people to deny the human rights of another”.

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But actions discriminating against Jerusalem’s Christians cannot be isolated from Israel’s ongoing occupation policies against both Muslim and Christian communities across the Palestinian territories. Israel’s adoption of the Nation-State Law in 2018 legalised this institutional discrimination.

“The systematic effort to push the Christian community out needs to be framed within the broader Israeli policy of dispossession towards the Palestinian people in general,” CIDSE’s policy officer highlighted.

Israeli authorities do not take measures to protect the local non-Jewish populations, de facto permitting Israeli extremist groups to assault holy places and church members.

She made it clear that settler violence, fully supported by the Israeli state, has the same goal of displacing all indigenous Palestinian inhabitants from their land, taking over their homes, and continuing the expansion of settlements.

Alessandra Bajec is a freelance journalist currently based in Tunis.
Follow her on Twitter: @AlessandraBajec

Why do Egypt's Christians support Sisi?

January 17, 2022

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) is seen during the opening ceremony of the new Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt on January 6, 2018

 [Egyptian Presidency / Handout - Anadolu Agency]

Hany Soliman
January 17, 2022


There is no doubt that the vast majority of Egypt's Christian citizens support President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and his regime. They were the first to give their backing to Sisi to carry out the 2013 military coup, and the first to support it when it took place. The overwhelming majority have maintained this support, whereas many of the Muslims who supported Sisi and his military coup have changed their position, with some now criticising and opposing him.

Why do Egypt's Christians support Sisi? They are a minority, and like any religious, ethnic, national or other minority, they believe that it is in their collective interest to rally around the ruler of the country. Not out of any love for Sisi, in this case, but in a communal quest for protection from the prevailing majority, which may persecute the minority or may already be doing so.

Even if this ruler is a dictator who tyrannises the whole population without distinction, it is better for a minority to show complete loyalty and obedience without criticising him or his policies. This will help to enable it to live in relative peace and security, even as the ruler tyrannises everyone else.

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Christians in Egypt fear political Islam. When the Muslim Brotherhood won a majority in parliament, and then Dr Mohamed Morsi won the presidential election in 2012, the Christians believed the scaremongering of the biased media and feared the worst. They were ready to believe that the Brotherhood would treat Christians as second class citizens and impose the "jizya" (tribute) upon them; apply Islamic inheritance laws on all communities; close or demolish churches; and prevent the study of Christianity in schools. Rumours spread that Christian girls would be forced to marry Muslim men, and would even be kidnapped to convert them to Islam by force. Moreover, that groups for the "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" in the streets would be launched to beat or arrest non-veiled Muslim women and immodestly-dressed non-Muslim women. Such were the anti-Brotherhood claims.


Egyptian Coptic Pope Tawadros II (L), Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Marc Episcopate, receives Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R), during the opening ceremony of the new Coptic Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt on January 6, 2018

 [Egyptian Presidency / Handout – Anadolu Agency]

No wonder, then, that Christian fears were stoked. It was almost natural, therefore, for the Christians in Egypt to be among Morsi's opponents and supporters of the coup against him.

I do not deny that there are extremists who stir up hatred towards Christians; to do so would be to deny the reality. Take a look at social media and you will find that there are many who are still discussing controversial issues that were raised 1400 years ago and the advent of Islam, regarding Christianity, the nature of Jesus (peace be upon him), Christian religious holidays and celebrations, and about the permissibility or not of congratulating the Christians at such times.

Those who try to prove the error of the Christian faith and accuse its followers of being misguided are unlikely to change Christians' adherence to Christianity; nor are they likely to convert them to Islam. They are, in fact, simply proving to Christians that some Muslims hate them and confirming, in their mind, the persecution from which they claim to suffer.

READ: Egypt releases 3 prominent political prisoners. What about the 65,000 others?

However, although the Christians are a minority in Egypt, led by the Coptic Church they have a loud voice in the West, especially regarding religious persecution, real or imagined, current or historic. Requests for asylum in Europe or the US are generally accepted automatically when the asylum seeker is an Egyptian Christian rather than a Muslim.

The Christian voice is listened to by Western politicians who in turn make Sisi seek the support of Egypt's Christians and the strong Orthodox Church at home and abroad. He needs to convince the West that he protects religious minorities in Egypt if Western aid is to continue to flow into his coffers. As a result, the relationship between the regime and Christian citizens gets stronger because it is of mutual benefit.

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