It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, April 17, 2022
Syrian Kurdish-led forces withdraw from regime zones in Qamishli The Syrian Democratic Forces and Asayish have withdrawn from regime buildings in Qamishli, after taking control of parts of the city in northeast Syria on Thursday morning. Russia reportedly pressured the SDF to withdraw from regime zones in the northeastern city of Qamishli [Getty]
Syrian Kurdish-led forces withdrew on Thursday from regime buildings in the northeastern city of Qamishli for fear of Turkish intervention, according to reports.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Asayish – the police force of the Kurdish-controlled autonomous regions in north and east Syria – took control of the regime-held zones in the centre of the city on Thursday morning, before withdrawing the following evening, The New Arab’s Arabic language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.
Syrian regime ally Russia – who has been leading negotiations between the two sides - reportedly pressured the SDF to leave, warning that their continued presence in regime-controlled parts of the city could provoke Turkish-backed rebels to invade the area, German news agency DPA reported.
However, sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the Kurdish-led forces are still imposing a siege on the regime’s political security, military security and state security branches in the area.
“[We] will continue these security measures on the security square in Qamishli until the siege on our people in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhood is lifted,” the Asayish forces said in a statement.
The regime has held back goods from reaching the besieged, Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of Sheikh Maqsoud - located in Syria's largest city, Aleppo - “in an attempt to exert political pressures on the SDF”, according to Mohammad Abdul Sattar Ibrahim, a Syrian analyst in touch with Kurdish officials, Reuters reported.
However, the governor of Hasaka province, where Qamishli is located, has also accused the SDF of “preventing entry of wheat, foodstuffs and fuel” to other areas held by the regime in the province.
The SDF said on Thursday they took over about 10 regime offices including local finance, grains and education branches in the heart of Qamishli.
Much of Syria has been left in ruins following over a decade of conflict, which has killed over 500,000 people, mostly as a result of regime and Russian bombardment.
The country remains deeply fractured, with various foreign armies and militias in control of different regions.
TEHRAN, Apr. 16 (MNA) – Turkish fighter jets conducted air raids on areas in Iraqi Dohuk province in the north on Saturday, local Iraqi media said.
An Iraqi source told the Iraqi Arabic-language al-Maloumeh news website that Turkish warplanes targeted the Korzar heights and surrounding areas near the villages of Nahili and Bari Kari in the Dirluk district of the Al-Emadiyah county in Dohuk province on Saturday.
The source added that "In the airstrike, the farmlands belonging to the people in the region were targeted and the residents had to evacuate for the city of Dirluk district as they were concerned for their safety."
Turkish warplanes attack villages in the Iraqi Kurdish region in the north almost on a daily basis despite opposition and condemnation from the Iraqi and Kurdish authorities.
Iraq has repeatedly called on Turkey to end the violations of its sovereignty and territorial integrity while Ankara says that it targets the PKK elements' hideouts in the region.
Iraq-Halliburton Deal on Gas to Be Decided After Eid Holiday
Khalid Al-Ansary and Kadhim Ajrash, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Iraq’s cabinet may make a decision on reactivating a deal with Halliburton Co. to drill wells in the western gas field in Akkas next month, Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said in a televised interview.
Iraq’s oil ministry has in recent months dispatched two exploration teams to get more clarity on the reserves of oil and gas in the region. The deal with Halliburton will enable the oil ministry to get clear data on the production capacity of the Akkas field and reach a decision after Ramadan, which ends in early May, the minister said.
Talks with Chevron Corp. and Saudi Aramco on investment in the region “will depend on the data we get from the exploration and well-drilling operations,” Abdul Jabbar said in the interview that aired on Al-Forat channel.
If global prices continue at this level, the selling price for Iraqi oil for this month would average $106-$107 a barrel, he added.
The oil ministry is providing 30 million liters of gasoline a day for consumption, which Abdul Jabbar called a “big” number. Work on a new refinery in Karbala has been delayed by Covid-19 but the facility is expected to enter service in the first quarter of 2023, he added. The country will continue to import gasoline until 2024.
Abdul Jabbar said 80% of the contracts that the Kurdistan Regional Government signed with oil companies are correct and the rest need to be reviewed. The KRG has no problem with 50% of the solutions the federal government offered to resolve the oil issues in Kurdistan.
The region exports 430,000 barrel per day, Jabbar said.
Baghdad has long sought to bring Kurdish production under its control in exchange for funds from the national budget as compensation and a February ruling in Iraq’s top court asserted the central government’s right to the semi-autonomous region’s hydrocarbons.
Read more: Baghdad Tells Kurdistan to Move Oil Assets to New Company
What the world is confronting nowadays and the quick events unfolding in the Middle East are open to all possibilities. It is hard for a political observer to predict the course of events or the outcomes of significant changes that may result in new coalitions and lineups. What will the effect be? What repercussions or consequences, whether positive or negative, will they have on the Kurdish political arena and the issue of Kurdistan in general? Let us particularly mention the following:
– The Russian-Ukrainian war triggered the energy crisis in most countries of the European continent, especially the industrial capitalist ones, due to their dependence on Russian gas by 40% to meet their needs in this field, estimated at (155 billion cubic meters). Additionally, the crisis of the high prices of some foodstuffs and other essential supplies for citizens jumped by 24% compared to the same period last year, with an estimated increase of 4.1% per month since the outbreak of that war.
Suppose the fight continues for a prolonged period, with dire consequences for the countries and their citizens alike, and large waves of mass protests erupt across the continent. In that case, they will spiral out of control and be difficult to mitigate. The anticipated situation worries European countries because they are unwilling to adjust their strategy to confront Russia through the Ukraine war and stop the expansion of Russian eastward, as they see it.
European countries are tense about the lack of energy. They have pinned their hopes on developing the energy infrastructure of Middle East countries that produce oil and gas to increase their shares and meet the European market’s energy needs on the one hand. On the other hand, reduce reliance on Russian gas and hold energy prices as stable as possible in the global market.
However, obtaining the volumes required to compensate for Russian gas and deliver it to Europe will not be as simple as some anticipate, especially given that Russia is a powerhouse with political and military clout in the Middle East. It is hard to ignore or underestimate it. Not to mention European countries’ inability to withstand the domestic implications of energy scarcity.
There are also hints of a breakthrough in the Iran nuclear dispute. The US removed pro-Iranian Yemeni Houthis from the terror list, while Iran expressed no interest in remaining on the Quds force on the same list. And lifting the embargo on the five billion Iranian dollars in the South Korean banks is a possible indication of a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel and bringing Iran back on the energy map to compensate for the lack of energy in Europe.
If this happens, it will motivate Iran to pursue its expansionist tendency in the region, known as the Shiite crescent, at the expense of Sunni Arab countries.
Iran is a regional power; no one can underestimate it. For fear of Iran, the Arab countries (especially some Gulf states) embraced and approached Israel and signed the “Abraham” security, economic, and military treaty.
Consequently, the Ukrainian and Iranian conflicts will affect the Middle East region, including Kurdistan. The developments and outcomes that they produce unavoidably reflect all aspects of Kurdistan’s life, especially the political ones. Let us mention some elements here:
The normalization of Turkey’s relations with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia The recent revival of Turkish and American Ties The meeting of Turkish-Israeli and Turkish-Emirati presidents, as well as the handing over of the case of Saudi journalist “Jamal Khashoggi’s” murder in Turkey to Saudi Authorities These steps indicate that Erdogan’s government is reverting to his previous foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu’s “zero problems” strategy with neighbors. The recovery of those relations will undoubtedly be at the expense of the Kurdish people because Erdogan has never stopped utilizing all of his available capabilities and accessible opportunities to strike at the aspirations of the Kurdish people.
As with all successive Turkish governments, what accompanies this government is the horrific panic and the chronic fear of the Kurdish issue, or the Kurdish phobia.
As for Iran, maintaining its position as an influential regional power and signing security agreements with Turkey and Iraq will negatively affect the Kurdish situation in the region. In a contradictious manner, the leaders of the Kurdish parties in southern Kurdistan are neglecting the ongoing events that have disastrous results or severe impacts on the Kurdish issue in the whole region. They preoccupied themselves with marginal issues and side disputes to obtain cheap partisan gains or narrow subjective whims instead of closely monitoring the current changes in the map of relations between states and regional powers.
Despite all of the probable scenarios and unfavorable expectations that loom on the horizon, the Kurds do not have to accept the fate that the occupiers of their homeland have planned for them because the Kurdistan National Liberation Movement remains active in the region:
– As a significant political and military power, it has an impact on the formation of military and political equations in the region, as well as the difficulties of imposing a media blackout or waging a savage psychological war and disinformation operations against it, as was the case in the previous century.
– Not to mention that the rate of oil extracted from Kurdistan constitutes 4.5% of the world’s production. In contrast, it corresponds to 13.8% of the oil of OPEC countries and reaches 19% of the quantities of exports oil in the entire Middle East region. If we add to it the amounts of extracted gas, the position of Kurdistan on the energy map in the area and the world becomes clear. And this qualifies it to guarantee its place among the countries that compete to supply Europe with energy, which contributes to strengthening its political reality.
Kurdistan’s geography and rugged mountainous terrain provide a haven for the national liberation movement. In addition to strengthening the spirit of resistance, confrontation, and challenge of the Kurdish people and providing them with strong support to repel or defeat the fierce attacks of invaders and occupiers greedy for its natural resources, the irresponsible attitude of the ruling Kurdish parties towards the occurring circumstances represents the Achilles’ heel in weakening the Kurdish cause, which is embodied in:
– Another obstacle is that the opposition parties in the Kurdistan region’s political arena are keeping pace with the approach followed by the ruling parties. They sometimes pursue a populist policy to seize power or obtain several official positions and personal privileges from the Kurdistan Democratic Party president, Massoud Barzani. He has demonstrated himself as a Kurdish reference in the region by tickling the false national sense and hollow patriotic sentiments and ensuring the support of Israel, Turkey, and Iran to provide security, intelligence, and military services.
The proper outlet relies on the masses’ strength and national and patriotic depth, paying attention to Kurdistan’s interests rather than the invaders’ interest in executing their recommendations and requests. It is up to them to strengthen and consolidate the Kurdish presence to deal with the current changes in the international and regional arena. The way to do this work is by paying attention to the national project, relying on the Kurdish self-defenses forces and Kurdish public opinion, staying away from playing on the margins of events in the region, and raising the rate of Kurdish demands to a level that benefits the Kurdish majority. Otherwise, if the situation continues, the Kurdish leadership will reap nothing but disappointment and dependence on others while remaining pawns in the game of nations.
Kawa Nader Qader, a Kurdish writer from Iraqi Kurdistan.
The United States has been trying to “blur” discrimination against Asian Americans, a report by a Chinese NGO has claimed
Anti-Asian sentiments are on the rise in the US and they are being covered up by the country’s authorities, China’s largest human rights NGO has claimed.
On Friday, the China Society for Human Rights Studies published a report entitled, ‘Increasing Racial Discrimination Against Asians Exposes Overall Racist Nature of U.S. Society’.
Noting that while the problem of discrimination and violence against Asian Americans cannot be considered a new one, the authors of the report argue that the coronavirus outbreak, which supposedly started in China before turning into a global pandemic, “has exposed various racial discrimination problems existing in the society.”
According to the AAPI Hate, a national coalition that tracks and responds to racially motivated hate crimes towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, more than 9,000 anti-Asian incidents took place between March 2020 and June 2021, during the peak of the pandemic.
However, the health crisis isn’t the only thing that should be blamed for the “sufferings” which the US allegedly caused to Asian Americans, the authors of the report claim.
“The racial discrimination against Asian Americans that has continued to the present time is probably a built-in and natural product of American colonialism, and it also reflects a mindset of the United States: bullying the weak,” the report said.
Some of the other causes of anti-Asian sentiments listed by the NGO are an “upsurge of xenophobia” and “white supremacy,” which, as the report claims, “is embodied in the racial structure and social atmosphere of the United States.”
The stereotypical representation of Asian Americans as “well-educated with high incomes” has prevented many of them from “enjoying favorable policies for US ethnic minorities,” the report said. Another factor contributing to negative sentiments towards Asian Americans is their long-standing antagonism with other ethnic minorities, reflecting, according to the NGO, “the complex racial relations and conflicts within the United States.” Finally, the researchers pointed out that “the tension between the United States and a foreign country frequently led to discrimination and racist attacks against the immigrants from that foreign country.”
Considering the strained relations with China, the report suggests that even if the racial discrimination against Asian Americans in the post-pandemic era subsides, “the racial attacks against Chinese Americans will continue to rise.”
“The United States has never compensated for or reflected on the sufferings it has caused to Asian Americans, and even tries its best to cover up or blur relevant facts. As such, the deep-rooted malice toward Asian Americans in U.S. society can never be eliminated,” the report stated.
The researchers justify this accusation by claiming that Asian Americans are portrayed in the US as “outsiders in racial conflicts; the mainstream society denies the history of racial discrimination against Asian Americans and refuses to admit that there are racist attacks against Asian Americans at present.”
On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian addressed the problem of racial discrimination in the US. During a regular press briefing, he was asked to comment on the State of Black America report, published on April 12 by the National Urban League. Lijian said the report “again exposes the persistent systemic racial discrimination in the US, which has seeped into all aspects of social life.” Underlining that “the sufferings of African Americans are not unique to them, but experienced by other ethnic minority groups as well,” the foreign ministry spokesman went on to urge the US government to take “a hard look at the country’s own human rights issues.”
These remarks came just a day after India made similar accusations against the US. Following a New York incident in which two Sikh men were assaulted with fists and a stick, Nikki Singh, a senior policy and advocacy manager at The Sikh Coalition, pointed to an increase in the number of hate crimes against members of the religious community in the US. Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that his country was tracking human rights abuses in the US, including those targeting Americans of Indian origin.
Jaishankar’s statement came in response to comments by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who said that Washington was “monitoring some recent concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police, and prison officials.”
On April 12, the US State Department published its own annual report on human rights around the world, in which it blamed both Beijing and New Delhi for “significant human rights issues.” China is accused by the State Department, among other things, “of arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government,” tortures, arbitrary detentions, and life-threatening prison conditions.
Syrian refugee slams UK-Rwanda deportation policy and hits back at critics Syrian refugee Hassan Akkad slammed the UK government's new Rwanda deportation policy announced on Thursday, saying Britain deserved better leadership. Hassan Akkad called out the different treatment offered to Ukrainian refugees compared to asylum seekers from elsewhere on British TV [Getty]
Syrian refugee and award-winning documentary filmmaker Hassan Akkad has hit back at critics on social media following his appearance on British television slamming the new UK-Rwanda deportation policy.
Akkad appeared on Good Morning Britain on Thursday morning to speak out against the British government's scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. He said UK leaders were trying to “scapegoat” vulnerable people and debunked inflated notions of the country's “refugee crisis”.
In response to comments on Twitter accusing the Syrian of “slagging off” the UK, the former English teacher expressed his love for Britain and said it deserved better.
“When I go on telly to talk about the abhorrent treatment of refugees and migrants in Britain, I’m not ‘slagging off Britain’.
“I have applied for British citizenship, and I’m hoping to get it. I love this country. I just think that we deserve better than this corrupt government,” he wrote on Twitter. Akkad was part of pro-democracy protests in Syria in 2011. He was imprisoned and tortured by the regime, meeting Bashar al-Assad face-to-face at one point.
He later fled Damascus and travelled across Europe via Calais, then on to the UK in 2015.
He told British broadcasters that the threat of deportation to Rwanda will not deter people coming in small boats across the English Channel.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the Rwanda deportation scheme on Thursday, presenting the plan as a way to “disrupt the business model of [people-smuggling] gangs”.
Critics of the scheme, which include politicians across political parties, refugee charities and immigration lawyers, have expressed grave concerns over the threat to human rights and the potential cost - estimated at £1.4 billion a year.
'Cowardly' and 'barbaric' plan to process refugees in Rwanda slammed
Priti Patel signs the accord with Rwandan deputy foreign minister Vincent Biruta
THE government was branded “institutionally racist,” “cowardly” and “barbaric” yesterday over multimillion-pound plans for asylum-seekers who cross the Channel in small boats to be processed in Rwanda.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson admitted that he expects a court challenge to the proposals, contained in clause 28 of the Nationality and Borders Bill, to detain and fly migrants more than 4,000 miles on chartered planes to the east African country.
He said the Royal Navy would take over “operational command” from Border Force in the English Channel to ensure that “no boat makes it to the UK undetected.”
About 250 to 300 military personnel will be dedicated to police migrants on busy days, working on ships and aircraft in the English Channel.
An initial £120 million is expected to be paid to the Rwandan government under an economic deal, with Home Secretary Priti Patel striking an agreement during a visit to the capital Kigali.
She said that the “vast majority” of those who arrive in Britain “illegally” will be detained and considered for relocation to Rwanda but declined to share specific details.
The number of people who can be relocated will be “unlimited,” with the first due to receive formal notifications within weeks and the first flights expected to take place in the coming months.
Mr Johnson pledged £50 million in new funding for boats, aerial surveillance and military personnel to help ensure that the measures are a “very considerable deterrent” to crossings.
He said the individuals who succeed in reaching Britain “will be taken not to hotels at vast public expense” but to Greek-style detention centres, the first of which will open “shortly.”
Human rights groups warned that similar practices in Australia had led to “rampant abuses” in camps, including rape, murder and suicide.
They called on the government to treat refugees with dignity and compassion by creating more safe routes to claim asylum and dropping the Borders Bill.
Refugee Action chief executive Tim Naor Hilton said that the “grubby cash-for-people plan” would be a “cowardly, barbaric and inhumane way to treat people fleeing persecution and war.”
He added: “Our so-called ‘Global Britain’ is offshoring its responsibilities onto Europe’s former colonies instead of doing our fair share to help some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.”
Freedom from Torture chief executive Sonya Sceats said that the plans were “deeply disturbing and should horrify anybody with a conscience.”
She said: “It is even more dismaying that the UK government has agreed this deal with a state known to practice torture, as we know from the many Rwandan torture survivors we have treated over the years.”
Steve Valdez-Symonds of Amnesty International UK argued that the “ill-conceived” plans, which he said would inflict further suffering while wasting huge amounts of public money, showed “how far removed from humanity the government is.”
He said: “After the chaos and bureaucracy-ridden failures of schemes the government clearly never truly wanted for Afghans and Ukrainians, this is a hugely misjudged distraction from the core work of creating a humane and properly functioning asylum system.”
Sophie McCann of Doctors without Borders (MSF) said the group had “witnessed some of the worst suffering” in Australia’s offshore camps on Nauru island.
She said: “Children as young as nine years old were trying to kill themselves.
“This kind of suffering is what awaits refugees in Rwanda. It is medically and ethically reprehensible.”
She pointed out that the measures would deny refugees opportunities to gain a fair hearing and conceal their suffering from public view.
“Make no mistake, this government knows what the impact of this policy will be — it is knowingly and willingly subjecting refugees to horrific suffering,” she said.
Scottish Greens human rights spokeswoman Maggie Chapman said: “Even by the terrible standards of the institutionally racist Home Office, this would be a disgraceful new low.
“It is a repressive and authoritarian proposal that rejects the fundamental principle and right of asylum.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the plans “unworkable,” “extortionate” and an attempt to distract from Mr Johnson being fined for breaching his own Covid-19 laws.
The deal with Rwanda comes after other locations touted, including Ascension Island, Albania and Gibraltar, were rejected, at times angrily, by the governments concerned.
Tory Rwanda deportation plan sparks huge backlash
NGOs, faith groups and MPs baffled by PM's ‘fly Channel refugees to East Africa’ deal Royal Navy HMS Blazer tows two small boats as it arrives in Dover, Kent,
following a number of small boat incidents in the Channel
A TORY minister has insisted that asylum-seekers will be able to enjoy “fully prosperous” lives in Rwanda despite major concerns about the country’s human rights record.
The government’s multimillion-pound deal with the east African nation comes just 10 months after ministers hit out at its government over failures to investigate human rights violations.
The new plan, announced on Thursday, would see some asylum-seekers, who cross the Channel to Britain in small boats, sent more than 4,000 miles away to have their asylum claims processed.
Ministers scrabbled to defend the plans today following a huge backlash from faith groups, human rights organisations, opposition politicians and even several senior Tories, with the proposals described as “cruel and nasty.”
Questioned on the deal, Home Office minister Tom Pursglove said asylum-seekers transferred to Rwanda would be under no compulsion to stay there, but did not specify how they would be supported to leave or where they would go.
“If they wish to leave and not enter the asylum system there, they are able to do so,” he told the BBC.
“But what will happen is that people will be processed under the Rwandan asylum system, if they are granted they can remain in Rwanda and what Rwanda want to do is to make sure those people can live fully prosperous and successful lives, and the partnership agreement we’ve got with them will help them to achieve that.”
Questioned on the costs of the proposals, Mr Pursglove said the new policy would save Britain money in the “long run” before adding that the costs to Rwanda would be “pretty equivalent” to what is being spent by our government.
Under the deal Rwanda, which already hosts more than 150,000 refugees across six major camps, would receive £120 million in up-front costs, with asylum-seekers being flown over as early as six weeks from now, according to reports.
Rights groups have expressed alarm at the plans, highlighting Rwanda’s “appalling” human rights record, including the fatal shooting of at least 12 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 by Rwandan security forces at a protest.
Describing the plans as “cruelty itself,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement: “Rwanda has a known track record of extrajudicial killings, suspicious deaths in custody, unlawful or arbitrary detention, torture, and abusive prosecutions, particularly targeting critics and dissidents.
“In fact, the UK directly raised its concerns about respect for human rights with Rwanda, and grants asylum to Rwandans who have fled the country, including four just last year.”
In July 2021, Britain’s international ambassador Rita French expressed regret that Rwanda was not carrying out “transparent, credible and independent investigations into allegations of human rights violations, including deaths in custody and torture.”
Rwanda is among governments believed to have paid Tony Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative for advice and possible “whitewashing,” though British governments have refused to disclose the “commercially sensitive” details about the former PM’s links to President Paul Kagame.
Concerns have also been raised about the fate of LGBT+ asylum seekers sent to the country due to evidence of ill-treatment and abuse faced by this community in Rwanda.
British-based refugee rights group Rainbow Migration said in a statement: “The agreement means that LGBTQI+ people who have fled life-threatening situations in their home countries, and sought safety and protection from the UK, will instead be sent to a country where it is not safe for LGBTQI+ people to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Outrage at the plans continued today with former Tory cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell branding them “impractical” and “incredibly expensive.”
Former top civil servant Sir David Normington said the scheme was “inhumane, morally reprehensible, probably unlawful and may well be unworkable.”
Campaigners have also highlighted how a similar deal struck between Israel and Rwanda between 2014 and 2017 saw almost all deported refugees leave the country immediately, with many attempting to return to Europe via people-smuggling routes.
Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said that deal, like Australia’s offshore model, did not achieve the stated aim of stopping people making dangerous journeys and only caused “significant harm and distress.”
Bahrain's Investcorp in 'exclusivity talks' to buy AC Milan
AC Milan could become the latest football club to be have an Arab owner, such as Manchester City and Newcastle A.C. Milan is one of Italy's top football clubs [Getty]
Bahrain-based Investcorp has entered into 'exclusivity talks' to purchase Italian club AC Milan, a source close to the deal told Reuters on Friday.
The source said the deal to buy the Serie A club from current owners Elliott Management Corporation was close to being completed.
Investcorp is an asset manager with lines of business including: private equity, real estate, absolute return investments, infrastructure, credit management, and strategic capital. It manages over $42 billion in assets.
American firm Elliott Management Corporation took over seven-times European champions Milan in 2018.
Investcorp would not comment when contacted by Reuters while the club and Elliott Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Milan have won Serie A, Italy's top flight league title, 18 times but not since 2011- the club are currently top of the table.
AP Source: Bahrain-based investor in talks to buy AC Milan
By ROB HARRIS
AP
April 15, 2022 AC Milan's Zlatan Ibrahimovic reacts after an injury from a header during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Bologna at the San Siro stadium, in Milan, Italy, Monday, April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A Bahrain-based private equity firm is in exclusive talks to buy seven-time European champion AC Milan and become the Italian league’s first Middle East investor, a person with knowledge of the process said.
The buyout by Investcorp could see the Serie A leader sold for around 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), the person told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the exclusive talks which began this month.
The U.S.-based hedge firm Elliott Management has owned Milan since 2018 after the former Chinese owner failed to repay part of a loan. Milan declined comment while club director Paolo Maldini remained tight-lipped about the deal on Friday before the team’s 2-0 win over Genoa.
“I know little,” Maldini said. “It’s normal that there could be a sale in the future of Milan. I don’t know when that will be.
“With a few rounds remaining, I think it’s in the interest of everyone to try to win this championship.”
Investcorp, which was founded in Bahrain in 1982, delisted from the Bahrain stock exchange last year after almost four decades as it continues its global expansion of investments.
Investcorp executive chairman Mohammed Alardhi has been involved in the talks with Milan, the person with knowledge of the process said.
With offices across the Middle East, the U.S., Europe and Asia, Investcorp has assets valued at more than $37 billion, including from corporate investment, real estate and hedge funds.
The potential takeover comes with Milan on top of Serie A with five games remaining. Milan looks to win a first title since 2011, and a 19th overall, after a period of domestic dominance by Juventus broken by crosstown rival Inter Milan only last season.
The two Milan clubs share the San Siro stadium and they are looking to build a new stadium jointly as part of “The Cathedral” project.
AC Milan is also looking for investment that would allow the team to return to the pinnacle of European football having not won the Champions League since 2007 during the ownership of former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi. The team, which features Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, went out in the group stage in December after ending a seven-season absence from the lucrative UEFA competition.
Milan reported debts of around 100 million euros in the last financial year, to June 2021, as the club reported pandemic-impacted losses halving to 96.4 million euros.
While Investcorp would mark the entry of Gulf investment to Serie A, the English Premier League has Abu Dhabi funding of Manchester City and Saudi ownership of Newcastle, and Qatari investment has transformed Paris Saint-Germain.
Libyan lawyer launches campaign for return of Leptis Magna ruins from Windsor Castle
A Libyan lawyer has launched a new campaign calling for Roman ruins from the ancient city of Leptis Magna stolen by British army officers in the 19th century to be returned to Libya.
The crown is yet to provide evidence of legal ownership of the ruins,
A Libyan-British lawyer has launched a public campaign this week to reclaim 2,000-year-old Roman relics from the grounds of Windsor Castle in the UK.
Mohammed ben Shaban, the first Libyan to be licensed as a lawyer to the UK supreme court, is lobbying the crown estate to “follow the spirit of international convention in returning these items of important cultural heritage”.
The columns of Leptis Magna - a city built between modern-day Tripoli and Sirte - were stolen from the temple of Augustus in 1817 by British imperial officers Hanmer Warrington and William Henry Smyth.
In the 17th century, 600 columns from Leptis Magna had previously been taken by Louis XIV for use in his palaces at Versailles and Paris. Remains from the site can also be found in Rouen Cathedral and the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Preps in Paris.
Ben Shaban is representing the state of Libya and the Libyan Ministry of Culture in pursuing the return of the architectural remains stolen by the British.
Lobbying the crown
“We’ve said to the crown: If you have evidence that these Roman antiquities were legally removed from Libya, then please provide it. If you don’t, please return them to Libya,” ben Shaban told The New Arab.
“They currently lie on the crown estate, managed by the National Trust. They’re on the Queen’s land, sovereign land. The Empire has to realise returning items of significant cultural heritage is long overdue,” he said.
“It's like having part of the great wall of China in Bristol. It doesn’t belong there. If you visit it as a normal tourist you’ll appreciate its beauty. But if you’re from the country where it came from, you feel a sense of injustice.”
So far, the legal team lobbying the crown has had little response. “Thus far, the crown’s response has been at best quiet - and at worst, less than respectful,” ben Shaban said.
He believes the crown is “just batting us back, hoping we’ll go away”.
The National Trust is yet to speak publicly about the Leptis Magna columns, but has been contacted for comment. Right of return
While some British institutions have started to repatriate stolen cultural artefacts, the British government’s line is still “return nothing or the floodgates will open”, according to ben Shaban.
British museums often claim custodianship of global heritage, preserving world history that would be at risk in countries experiencing conflict and instability such as Libya.
But the legal team behind the Leptis Magna campaign have spoken to experts who believe the remains are at risk of critical damage due to prolonged exposure to British weather.
“The marble from which these columns were made is not made for British weather. They’re not being looked after more here. The original stoneworkers used material better suited to Libyan weather. It’s next to a lake in the south of England, but it was built for the desert," ben Shaban said.
“This is just a standing example of how empires abused their colonies. They stole oil, gold, people - but when it’s your history, your culture, it’s like stealing part of you, like stealing your DNA.”
Biden Approval Still Higher Than Trump at Same Point in Presidency: Polls
President Joe Biden's approval rating still remains narrowly higher than that of former President Donald Trump at the same point in his presidency—despite a substantial decline throughout his White House tenure.
Analysts and commentators have focused significant attention on Biden's tanking poll numbers, which have plummeted by double-digits since he first took office last January. While the president's approval rating remains underwater, it continues to hover just above that of Trump during the same period of his time serving as commander-in-chief.
FiveThirtyEight's compilation of polls shows that as of April 15, Biden's approval rating stood at an average of 41.6 percent while his disapproval among voters was 52.2 percent. While those numbers are less-than enviable for any politician, they were slightly above where Trump stood in the polls on April 15, 2018.
President Joe Biden's approval rating still remains slightly higher than that of former President Donald Trump at the same point in his White House tenure. Above, this combination of photos shows Biden gesture after speaking during election night at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, and Trump speaks during election night at the White House in Washington, DC, on November 4, 2020.
ANGELA WEISS,MANDEL NGAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The former president had an average approval rating of 40.6 percent exactly four years ago on Friday, according FiveThirtyEight's compilation of polls. That was just 1 percent worse than Biden's current average. Trump's disapproval among voters was also slightly higher, at 53.8 percent—or 1.6 percent above that of the current president.
Biden entered office last year with an average favorability of 53 percent with just 36 percent saying they disapproved of the new president, according to FiveThirtyEight's averages. Comparatively, Trump started his presidential term in January 2017 with only 45.5 percent of Americans saying they approved as 41.3 percent disapproved.
Meanwhile, Trump's current favorability is higher than that of Biden. FiveThirtyEight's average shows that, as of April 13, about 43.7 percent of Americans viewed the former president favorably. Meanwhile, an average of 52.3 percent have an unfavorable view of Trump.
Polls also show that Trump would be well-positioned for a rematch against Biden if the next presidential election were held now. The RealClearPolitics average of recent polls show that about 45.4 percent of voters say they would back Trump in 2024 while just 41.7 percent say they'd support Biden—a lead of 3.7 percent for the former president.
Although Biden has repeatedly said that he plans to seek reelection in 2024, Trump has not confirmed whether he will run again. However, the former president has consistently teased the possibility—regularly responding to questions about his future political ambitions by saying his supporters will be "very happy" with his decision.
In an interview this month with The Washington Post, Trump said that he expects that other potential Republican candidates will step aside if he announces another White House bid.
"If I ran, I can't imagine they'd want to run. Some out of loyalty would have had a hard time running. I think that most of those people...[are] there because of me. In some cases, because I backed them and endorsed them," he said.
As for Biden, he's said that Trump seeking another presidential term would only embolden him to seek reelection in 2024.
"Why would I not run against Donald Trump if he were the nominee? That would increase the prospect of running," the president told ABC News in December.
US Arrests 210,000 Migrants at Mexico Border in March, Rivaling Record Highs
Asylum-seeking migrants are detained by a U.S. Border Patrol agent after crossing the Rio Bravo river, in El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, April 6, 2022.
WASHINGTON —
U.S. border authorities arrested 210,000 migrants attempting to cross the border with Mexico in March, the highest monthly total in two decades and underscoring challenges in the coming months for U.S. President Joe Biden.
The March total is a 24% increase from the same month a year earlier, when 169,000 migrants were picked up at the border, the start of a rise in migration that left thousands unaccompanied children stuck in crowded border patrol stations for days while they awaited placement in overwhelmed government-run shelters.
Biden, a Democrat who took office in January 2021, pledged to reverse many of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, but has struggled both operationally and politically with high numbers of attempted crossings.
Republicans, who hope to gain control of the U.S. Congress in November 8 midterm elections, say Biden's rollback of Trump-era policies has encouraged more illegal immigration.
Biden officials have cautioned that migration could rise further after U.S. health officials said they will end a pandemic-era border order by May 23. The order, known as Title 42, allows asylum seekers and other migrants to be rapidly expelled to Mexico to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
While more than half of the migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months have been from the traditional sending countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, migrants have increasingly been arriving from more far-flung places, including Ukraine and Russia.
U.S. officials are preparing for as many as 18,000 migrant encounters per day in the coming weeks but are also readying for smaller increases.
The 210,000 migrants arrested in March, a figure made public in a court filing on Friday night, is the highest monthly total on record since February 2000, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics dating back to 2000.
Another 11,000 migrants attempted to enter at a legal crossing along the southwest border in March without a valid visa or permission, the court filing said.
Roughly half of the migrants encountered in March were expelled under the Title 42 order, the court filing said.
Saturday, April 16, 2022
DESCANSA EN EL PODER
Rosario Ibarra, Mexico’s champion of the disappeared, dies aged 95
Her son Jesus Piedra disappeared in 1975, apparently at the hands of authorities.
Rosario Ibarra, whose long struggle to learn the fate of her disappeared son helped develop Mexico’s human rights movement and led her to become the country’s first female presidential candidate, has died at the age of 95.
The National Human Rights Commission now headed by her daughter Rosario Piedra announced the death on its Twitter account, calling her a “pioneer in the defence of human rights, peace and democracy in Mexico”.
Ms Ibarra died in the northern city of Monterrey following several years of failing health.
Her son Jesus Piedra belonged to an armed communist group and disappeared in April 1975, apparently at the hands of authorities, after being accused of killing a police officer.
Ms Ibarra founded the Eureka Committee, a movement demanding information about the fate of her son and other disappeared persons, though his case was never fully clarified.
She was the first woman to appear on a Mexican presidential ballot in 1982, though she won relatively few votes for the Revolutionary Party of the Workers. She was twice a federal deputy and once a senator.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who she considered a friend, said: “We will always remember her most profound love for the children and her solidarity with whose who suffered because of the disappearance of their loved ones.”
Ms Ibarra de Piedra shows a photo of her son Jesus who disappeared during Mexico’s so called ‘dirty war’ (AP)
However, even during Mr Lopez Obrador’s administration in 2019, she refused an honour voted for by the Mexican senate, saying she would only accept it when Mexico learns the truth about its disappeared, who now number nearly 100,000 – 98% of these cases dating from 2006 onwards, during an era of cartel violence rather than “dirty war” politics.
“I don’t want my struggle to be unfinished,” she said at the time in a text read by her daughter, as her condition prevented her from appearing.
Referring to the president, she added: “I leave in your hands the custody of so precious a recognition and ask you to return it to me with the truth about the whereabouts of our loved and missed children and relatives.”
Her decades-long demands for information – as well as amnesty for political prisoners – took the form of marches, hunger strikes, visits to military prisons and to United Nations offices and made her a widely respected figure on the left.
When Mr Lopez Obrador alleged fraud in the 2006 presidential election that he very narrowly lost, he chose Ms Ibarra to present him with a presidential sash of office in a ceremony declaring him “legitimate president”.
After his universally recognised victory in 2018, Ms Ibarra urged him in her message before the senate “not to permit that the violence and perversity of the earlier governments continues to lie in wait”.
She lamented that disappearances continued in Mexico and called once more for progress, saying in the letter read by her daughter: “The families of Eureka continue today the same as a few years ago.
“The open wound will stop bleeding only when we know where our (loved ones) are.”
By Press Association
AUSTRALIA
Traditional Indigenous burning protecting last-known koalas on NSW far south coast
Cultural burns protect a threatened koala population. Dan Morgan retraces steps he has taken hundreds, maybe thousands of times through the forest surrounding Biamanga mountain.
Somewhere, dispersed through the canopy above, lives the last-known population of koalas on the NSW far south coast.
"Biamanga is a place of initiation, it's where we get taught lore," Mr Morgan, a Yuin-Djiringanj traditional custodian, said.
"And the koala, he is like the protector-custodian of this area.
"When we grow up, we're taught that all the animals that live on our sacred sites are our ancestors, and it's our obligation to protect them."
This koala was spotted in the Murrah flora reserve in September 2020.
(Supplied: David Gallan)
Two and a half years ago, in the space of a few terrifying hours, bushfires tore through hundreds of kilometres of bushland and paddocks to the west of Biamanga.
The fires destroyed hundreds of homes and flattened buildings on the main streets of Cobargo and Quaama, then climbed toward the ridge line of Biamanga mountain.
The 2019-2020 bushfire season led to the declaration of koalas as endangered across most of eastern Australia.
But another legacy of the Black Summer has been a surge in support for a different kind of fire.
Mr Morgan is a cultural fire practitioner, working with Firesticks Alliance to return traditional Indigenous fire management to koala country, on land sacred to the Yuin people, spanning the boundaries of National Parks estate, State forests and private landholdings.
He said once the Black Summer fires got to the top of Biamanga mountain they "just sat down, and they trickled around here for more than a month".
Mr Morgan said it was "like the old spirits of the land just sat that fire down and protected the koala habitat".
When he first came back into the forest after the bushfires, Mr Morgan found fresh koala scats on the burnt ground.
Surveys indicated that the estimated 50-60 koalas that live in the forests between Bega and Bermagui survived.
Koala survey contractor Rob Summers holds the scats of a koala mother and young.
(ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)
How koalas helped protect the forest
Chris Allen, a former Senior Threatened Species Officer with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, said the country had originally been scheduled for logging.
"In 1998, the NSW and Commonwealth governments committed millions of tons from these forests to the woodchipper and sawmill, without knowing about the koalas here," he said.
In the 1970s, the newly-built woodchip mill in Eden transformed the region's forests into a battleground, with heated protests against intensive logging, thousands of arrests and deep division within the community.
After a number of reports of koala sightings by local landholders, Mr Allen initiated a community-based koala survey program.
Chris Allen has spent decades researching koalas in the forests of south east NSW.
(ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)
For more than 25 years, community volunteers, agency staff and local contractors, including from Local Aboriginal Land Councils, have searched the leaf litter under more than 100,000 trees to look for koala scats.
"Our survey program extended right through the coastal forests, and our results were trusted, even by Forestry," he said.
"We established that, although numbers were low, koalas were dispersed across more or less the entire landscape, each animal possibly having a home range of hundreds of hectares."
The Aboriginal community added their own powerful voice to the conservation movement when significant cultural sites on Biamanga mountain were threatened by logging.
"Forestry were pulling a lot of trees down, and they were about 50 metres away from a huge, sacred rock," Yuin Biripi traditional knowledge holder Lynne Thomas said.
"My dad tried to explain to them. When you go up to the sites up there on the mountain, it's like our churches."
Lynne Thomas’ father Guboo Ted Thomas led the campaign to protect Biamanga Mountain from logging.
(ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)
Ms Thomas was a little girl when her father, tribal elder Guboo Ted Thomas, led the campaign with Percy Mumbulla and other elders to recognise and protect the cultural heritage on Biamanga and Gulaga mountains.
After decades of activism, Biamanga and Gulaga were proclaimed as national parks, and handed back to traditional custodians in 2006.
With conclusive evidence of a significant koala population, four state forests near Biamanga Mountain and further north toward Gulaga Mountain were reclassified as the Murrah Flora Reserves in 2016, and protected from logging.
For Dan Morgan, the next, crucial step to secure the future of the forests and vulnerable wildlife is to restore the country's traditional fire regime.
He is working with Yuin traditional knowledge holders and the local Koori community, to reclaim and apply cultural fire practices on their traditional lands.
"Our old people knew every insect, every animal and every tree, and how they all connected with the winds and the seasons", Yuin-Djiringanj traditional knowledge holder Warren Foster said.
"They knew the signs the land gave us that it was the right time to burn.
"All that knowledge is still here, locked away in the landscape."
Traditional knowledge holder Warren Foster is a cultural advisor to the burning program at Biamanga
(ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)
Private landholders embrace traditional Indigenous burning
Anne Browne watches as Dan Morgan and a small crew of cultural fire practitioners apply a traditional burn on her property, on the edge of Biamanga National Park.
"I think people are getting desperate now, and realise that things are changing so quickly," Ms Browne said.
"We're at a very critical stage with the country. We can't just go on the way we are, with one catastrophe after another."
Anne Browne has lived on the edge of Biamanga National Park for close to 40 years.
(ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)
Ms Browne is 94, and has witnessed the degradation of the forest by logging, the steady depletion of wildlife, and the horror of bushfires at her doorstep.
In the wake of the Black Summer bushfires, the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements and NSW Bushfire Inquiry both called for greater support for traditional Aboriginal land management practices, and there has been a flood of interest in cultural burning from private landholders.
Scott Parsons and Byron Lonsdale-Patten are among the next generation of traditional fire practitioners.(ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)
For Dan Morgan, it presents the chance to start caring for country as one cohesive landscape.
It is a complex path to navigate, reclaiming ancient fire practices within the constraints of the prescribed burning regimes and regulations of different land tenures, and to support a koala population that is more vulnerable than ever.
But Morgan's determination is deep-seated.
"It's our cultural responsibility, to care for the land the way our ancestors did for thousands of years," Mr Morgan said. "Because that represents who we are.
"It's going to be an awakening, for country, and for people, to realise that we need to be connected to this land."
The Yuin community are reclaiming cultural fire practices on their traditional lands around Biamanga mountain.(ABC South East NSW: Vanessa Milton)
