Author: fortraders

After a decade of being shunned by many Arab nations, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is set to attend the Arab League Summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday. The move marks a major turnaround for many Arab states, who cut ties with al-Assad as he brutally suppressed an anti-government uprising that morphed into a civil war. Saudi Arabia, the regional political heavyweight, has recently gotten on board with the effort to restore Syria’s membership in the Arab League. The goals vary from country to country, but for Saudi officials they include countering the influence of Iran and blocking the trade of captagon, an illicit amphetamine, across Syria’s borders and into the kingdom. The summit is expected to offer Arab solutions to Arab problems and provide a platform for Syria to work together with its Arab brothers.

This Monday, elPeriodico, an investigative daily in Guatemala, published its final edition after more than 26 years. Its executive editor is in jail and some of its reporters are in exile. The newspaper’s demise follows the jailing of its publisher after he was accused by the government of financial crimes and the freezing of its assets as part of the case. This is the latest setback for Guatemala’s increasingly brittle democracy, as President Alejandro Giammattei steers the country toward greater repression, targeting critics, including the news media, opposition politicians and the judiciary.

ElPeriodico was founded during a more hopeful, if uncertain, time, not long before the signing of peace accords in December 1996. The agreement put an end to a civil war in the Central American country, which had lasted 36 years and left hundreds of thousands dead or disappeared.

Since Mr. Giammattei took office in 2020, elPeriodico had published scores of investigative articles focused on government corruption within his administration, including within the prosecutor’s office and the country’s high court.

The shuttering of elPeriodico is a horrible sign for independent journalism in Guatemala and in Central America. It is a reminder of how press freedom is eroding in the region and how strongmen learn from each other to put journalists under pressure.

The closing of elPeriodico is a blow to a nation’s democracy and a reminder of the importance of free thought and expression. We must continue to fight for freedom and democracy in Guatemala and around the world.

The war in Sudan has caused a new wave of violence in the western region of Darfur, sending tens of thousands of people fleeing to neighboring Chad. An estimated 60,000 Sudanese refugees have crossed into Chad since the beginning of the war in April, with 90 percent of them being children and women. The conflict has been fueled by the power vacuum in Darfur, with militias exploiting the situation to loot households and kill civilians. In response, some civilians have begun arming themselves and non-Arab groups have retaliated against militias.

The influx of refugees is increasing pressure on Chad, a landlocked, vast Central African country that is already home to more than 400,000 refugees from Darfur. Aid workers and Chadian officials now expect that a pause in the fighting in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, could push tens of thousands to flee to Chad.

The United Nations’ Refugee Agency is providing aid to the refugees, but the situation is dire. Most families have fled with little more than a few cooking supplies, sheets and mats, and many say they cannot return to Sudan due to the lack of security. With the rainy season looming, aid agencies are struggling to provide aid to the swelling number of refugees.

Passengers on an express train to Vienna on Sunday night were shocked and outraged when a scratchy recording of Adolf Hitler and Nazi refrains of “Heil Hitler” and “Sieg Heil” played over the train’s public address system for about 20 minutes. With the help of a specialized key, a passenger had accessed the system and held a phone playing the recording up to the microphone. National rail investigators used video feeds to identify two men they believe are responsible. The police planned to interview the suspects “as fast as possible”.

The strange episode has led to embarrassment and head-scratching in Austria, where Hitler was born. The men thought to be responsible had performed a less sinister version of the takeover on two other trains last week, playing children songs and an audio blooper reel of Chris Lohner, who has been the official voice of Austrian train announcements for decades.

Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister, Vienna’s community rabbi, who happened to be on the train when the recording blasted from the speaker, called it “disturbing”. Colette Schmidt, a journalist with the broadsheet Der Standard, asked on Twitter: “What does a guest from abroad think when Hitler speeches are played over loudspeakers in our trains?”

The episode has raised questions about the security of the national rail service’s P.A. system and the need to ensure that such an incident never happens again.