The European Commission has urged Malta to strengthen judicial independence, tackle corruption and improve protection for journalists, as a European Parliament debate exposes continuing disagreements over the country’s rule-of-law record.

The European Commission has called on Malta to accelerate judicial reforms and strengthen safeguards for journalists, nine years after the assassination of investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia, as the European Parliament revisited concerns over corruption and institutional accountability on Wednesday, 21 October.

European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection Michael McGrath told MEPs in Strasbourg that Malta had made progress in certain areas but had yet to implement several outstanding recommendations concerning judicial independence, high-level corruption and media freedom.

The debate followed the controversial acquittal of businessman Yorgen Fenech, who had been accused of involvement in Caruana Galizia’s murder. Maltese prosecutors appealed the verdict in September, leaving the criminal proceedings subject to further judicial consideration.

Commission identifies continuing weaknesses

The European Commission’s 2026 Rule of Law Report, published in July, assessed Malta’s progress in reforming its justice system, anti-corruption institutions and protections for the media.

The report acknowledged certain improvements, including additional resources allocated to judicial and prosecutorial authorities.

However, it found that progress remained limited on several recommendations.

These include reducing delays in judicial proceedings, improving the investigation and prosecution of high-level corruption and ensuring greater judicial involvement in the appointment of the Chief Justice.

The Commission has also expressed concern about the effectiveness of existing anti-corruption arrangements.

Although investigations and prosecutions have increased in some areas, Brussels continues to seek a stronger record of final judgments in major corruption cases.

Court delays and pressure on judicial resources remain significant difficulties.

McGrath told Parliament that the Maltese authorities must continue implementing reforms to address these shortcomings.

Fenech acquittal intensifies accountability debate

Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb near her home in Bidnija on 16 October 2017.

The 53-year-old journalist had investigated corruption, money laundering and political connections involving prominent figures in Malta’s business and political establishment.

Her assassination prompted international condemnation, widespread demonstrations and investigations into the circumstances surrounding the killing.

Several men have subsequently been convicted for participating in the murder or supplying the explosives.

However, the criminal proceedings concerning the alleged commissioning of the assassination have remained contentious.

On 2 September 2026, a nine-member jury acquitted businessman Yorgen Fenech of complicity in the murder and criminal association. The verdict was reached by eight votes to one.

Fenech had denied ordering or financing the killing.

The acquittal prompted criticism from Caruana Galizia’s family and organisations campaigning for press freedom.

On 22 September, Malta’s Attorney General formally appealed the verdict, challenging legal decisions made during the trial.

The appeal does not overturn Fenech’s acquittal or establish criminal responsibility.

The Court of Criminal Appeal must determine whether the legal grounds presented justify further proceedings, potentially including a retrial.

The criminal case remains separate from the broader political debate over Malta’s institutional reforms.

Maltese MEPs clash in Strasbourg

Wednesday’s parliamentary debate exposed sharp disagreements between representatives of Malta’s opposition Nationalist Party and governing Labour Party.

Nationalist MEPs Peter Agius and David Casa criticised the authorities’ record on corruption and institutional accountability.

Agius argued that repeated European Commission assessments had failed to produce sufficient improvements and questioned whether Malta’s institutions were effectively addressing allegations of wrongdoing.

Casa referred to the findings of the independent public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s assassination, which concluded in 2021 that the state had contributed to circumstances in which a climate of impunity enabled the killing.

He argued that significant recommendations arising from that inquiry remained outstanding.

Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba rejected the criticism, maintaining that Malta had implemented reforms and that its judicial institutions should be allowed to perform their functions independently.

He pointed to the prosecution’s appeal against Fenech’s acquittal as evidence that the judicial process was continuing.

Labour MEP Thomas Bajada concentrated on the protection of journalists and the need to counter misinformation while preserving independent reporting.

The disagreements subsequently prompted a response from Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela, who accused opposition MEPs of damaging Malta’s reputation through their interventions.

Protection of journalists remains unfinished

Media freedom featured prominently in the Commission’s concerns.

Malta has introduced legislation addressing certain abusive legal proceedings against journalists, including transposing EU protections against strategic lawsuits intended to discourage public participation.

However, the existing measures principally concern civil proceedings with cross-border implications.

The Commission has urged Malta to extend comparable protections to domestic cases.

Other concerns include journalists’ access to official information, protection from intimidation and the need for more comprehensive legislative safeguards.

McGrath indicated that the Maltese government intended to present additional media legislation in the coming weeks.

The Commission has called for consultations with journalists, media organisations and civil society before the measures are adopted.

European institutions are also examining Malta’s implementation of wider EU requirements under the European Media Freedom Act.

Further pressure for reform

The European Parliament’s proceedings form part of the continued scrutiny of Malta’s institutional record following Caruana Galizia’s assassination.

The Commission’s annual rule-of-law assessments provide a mechanism for identifying outstanding problems and monitoring governments’ responses.

However, the implementation of many recommendations remains the responsibility of national authorities.

For Malta, the immediate issues concern the government’s promised media legislation, outstanding judicial reforms and the progression of the appeal in the Fenech case.

The Commission has made clear that further improvements are required, while the Maltese government maintains that substantial institutional changes have already been introduced.

The next assessment will depend on legislative measures actually adopted, their implementation and progress through the relevant judicial proceedings.

Gli errori compiuti negli ultimi decenni dal Partito Comunista di Cuba e il criminale e pluridecennale embargo statunitense, rinvigorito e rafforzato negli ultimi mesi da Marco Rubio a nome dell’amministrazione statunitense stanno portando Cuba verso la catastrofe sociale e umanitaria.

Segue nostro Telegram.

Oggi Cuba è intanto un’isola spopolata. Di dodici milioni di cubani, almeno un milione e mezzo se ne erano già andati prima del 2020 e due milioni e mezzo hanno abbandonato l’isola tra il 2021 e il 2026, massimamente attraverso il Nicaragua, nazione che dalla primavera del corrente anno ha interrotto l’accesso senza visto per i cubani. Oggi nell’isola son dunque rimaste solo otto milioni di persone.

Ad andarsene sono stati principalmente i giovani, tra i venti e quarant’anni, per altro altamente qualificati in ragione dell’istruzione gratuita, possibile fino all’università grazie al socialismo. Una dipartita che compromette di fatto il futuro dell’isola a prescindere dagli sviluppi futuri, avendo questa situazione determinato la perdita di almeno una generazione. I più maligni oppositori dicono che questi giovani “abbiano votato con i piedi”, ovvero abbiano espresso la loro lontananza dal sistema socialista andandosene, certamente la drammatica aggressione economica statunitense ha avuto negli anni un peso rilevante nel convincerli a cercare altrove maggior fortuna.

Tuttavia oggi a Cuba i problemi si moltiplicano, anche perché le rimesse da parte dei parenti all’estero sono azzerate o quasi. Soprattutto perché in molti casi hanno smesso di arrivare, bloccate dal terrorismo bancario esercitato con brutale coercizione dal Tesoro statunitense contro tutte le banche di qualsiasi nazione, per cercare di strangolare più ancora che l’economia dell’isola già al collasso, i cubani stessi, secondariamente perché se non si hanno cinquanta dollari per comprarsi una gallina, si devono spendere tre dollari per acquistare un uovo. Con uno stipendio medio di dodici dollari un medico o un professore dovrebbe vivere con un uovo a settimana e nulla più, una pensionata o un pensionato con tre uova al mese. Lo storico sistema della “livreta”, che garantiva almeno riso e fagioli neri per tutti, è totalmente collassato e le mense per i bisognosi recentemente istituite dal governo sopperiscono al dramma alimentare solo parzialmente e nelle situazioni più estreme, in particolare per gli anziani indigenti.

Di più, nell’isola non c’è mai stata povertà. Probabilmente una vita a volte difficile, ma sempre dignitosa. Oggi non è più così, la stretta economica ha imposto una violenta povertà che si sta trasformando in miseria, la quale a sua volta porta alla creazione informale di bande, principalmente di disperati, dedite al saccheggio, per la prima volta dal 1959, inizio della Rivoluzione, Cuba sta diventando un luogo incapace di garantire quella sicurezza che è sempre stata un vanto, una certezza e un orgoglio per i cubani.

La stretta sul petrolio e sul carburante ha conseguenze devastanti. Da gennaio il blocco marittimo statunitense intorno all’isola e la fine del sostegno petrolifero venezuelano hanno assestato un colpo distruttivo e incalcolabile, il cui danno, prima ancora che economico, è  umanitario.

Non solo è del tutto impossibile la raccolta dell’immondizia, venendo ora bruciata a sera negli angoli delle strade, dopo che alcuni anziani vi hanno rovistato alla ricerca di un poco probabile companatico, ma neppure i vigili del fuoco o le forze dell’ordine hanno più benzina, meno che mai i trattori in campagna, le macchine estrattive nel settore minerario, le ambulanze nelle città. Si va in ospedale con il carretto trainato dal cavallo, ammesso che ci sia il cavallo, se si sta in campagna solo il medico locale può intervenire, ovviamente come può e con gli strumenti che ha.

Peggiore la situazione negli ospedali, la mancanza di medicine, l’assenza di elettricità, visto che le centrali elettriche regionali a diesel oggi sono tutte e del tutto ferme, la mancanza di carburante per i generatori di emergenza interni alle strutture sanitarie, hanno spento le sale operatorie e non solo, con il tramonto tutti i reparti non possono che passare nella modalità del riposo in attesa dell’alba successiva. Si opera come prima dell’avvento dell’elettricità agli albori del Novecento, con la volontà, l’intelligenza medico – scientifica e l’abnegazione del personale medico e sanitario cubano, che è e resta tra i più preparati e generosi del mondo, come migliaia di missioni di solidarietà in ogni angolo della terra hanno sempre dimostrato. Tuttavia questo non impedisce che persone di tutte le età, dai bambini agli anziani, muoiano per assenza di cure e di medicamenti.

Si moltiplicano le notizie di personale medico e infermieristico il quale, straziato da questa silenziosa carneficina imposta dal violento ed estremo embargo di questi ultimi mesi, decide di abbandonare il lavoro tra le lacrime per una comprensibile crisi psicologica ed emotiva dovuta all’impotenza e all’impossibilità di assolvere al lavoro sanitario. Un dramma nel dramma, del tutto comprensibile, ma non meno straziante.

I blocchi contro le compagnie aeree, l’assenza di cherosene per ripartire una volta atterrati all’Avana, la possibilità incerta di trovare forse un ciclo – taxi per raggiungere il centro della capitale, pagandolo non meno di cinquanta dollari, che è diventato il prezzo al mercato nero di un litro di benzina per le automobili, di fatto del tutto scomparse dalle strade, più ancora che negli anni del “Periodo especial” negli anni ‘90 del XX secolo, quando almeno ambulanze, automobili della polizia, camion della raccolta dei rifiuti ancora circolavano, hanno azzerato il turismo, stroncando tutte le sue ricadute economiche, a partire dal rum e dai sigari, portando alla definitiva cancellazione di Cuba dalle mete dei viaggi organizzati, prima provenienti da ogni parte del globo terracqueo.

Le campagne, già di loro poco produttive, finiti i fertilizzanti e i pesticidi, fermi i trattori, sono del tutto incapaci di soddisfare il fabbisogno alimentare della popolazione. L’autosufficienza e i tre raccolti annui, mirabilmente e mirabolantemente promessi dagli infuocati discorsi di Fidel Castro nei primi anni della Rivoluzione non solo non si sono mai realizzati, ma con la fine dell’Unione Sovietica e l’apertura al turismo, con l’opportunità in quel tempo di reperire alimentari a prezzi contenuti sul mercato globale e globalizzato, hanno portato allora a non valutare a pieno la necessità di implementare, modernizzare, rafforzare il settore primario, che resta sempre e comunque decisivo per ogni nazione. La produzione è del tutto deficitaria, da qualche mese affidata alla buona volontà di chi lavora la terra, sostenendosi adesso con un vecchio aratro di legno e un mulo o un asino, quando va bene e se c’è, a tirarlo.

Gli zuccherifici sono fermi, così si è tornati a raccogliere la canna da zucchero con il machete e la molitura si realizza con i macchinari se si trova un po’ di benzina e soprattutto i pezzi di ricambio di fatto irreperibili, un’altra disgrazia che comporta continui guasti, all’occorrenza si provvede con i muli che girano le antiche macine di pietra, se son rimaste nei cortili delle aziende. Come se non bastasse il criminale embargo, ecco che i disastri naturali hanno dato il loro nefasto contributo al disfacimento dell’agricoltura cubana, i violenti uragani che hanno devastato l’isola in questi ultimi anni hanno colpito decine di migliaia di ettari di colture, massimamente di canna da zucchero, uccidendo anche decine di migliaia di animali da allevamento. Metà degli zuccherifici per cronica obsolescenza sono stati chiusi con l’avvento del nuovo secolo, molti contadini e operai del settore, qualificati e specializzati grazie all’eccellenza dell’istruzione agraria cubana, hanno abbandonato l’isola trovando facilmente lavoro in tutte le nazioni ispanofone del continente americano.

Il devastante disastro di tutta questa situazione ha di fatto compromesso totalmente la produzione zuccheriera. Nell’anno 1989, l’ultimo del campo socialista e del COMECON, i cubani hanno prodotto otto milioni di tonnellate di zucchero grezzo, mai raggiunte prima e mai più eguagliate dopo quella data, anche perché allora gli zuccherifici funzionanti erano oltre un centinaio e oggi una decina. Ancora nel 2019, anno pre – covid, la produzione ha toccato un milione di tonnellate. Nel 2025, a fronte di una programmazione statale di un quarto di milione di tonnellate, l’isola è riuscita a raccogliere e produrre solo 150mila tonnellate di zucchero, il dato più basso dell’ultimo secolo e mezzo, ovvero a partire dal 1875. Per l’anno in corso 2026 sono difficili le stime, ma vi è la certezza di un evidente calo, con il rischio di un clamoroso e drammatico dimezzamento della produzione del 2025.

Tutta l’attività estrattiva è quasi ferma, se si può forse ancora arare un campo con un zappa, diventa difficile nel 2026 immaginare di scendere in miniera con un piccone. I macchinari di perforazione, estrazione e trasporto in superficie senza carburante restano all’aria aperta a prendere ruggine.

Le ricchezze minerarie non sono poche: nichel in provincia di Holguín, cobalto con riserve tra le più rilevanti a livello globale, cromo nella provincia di Camagüey e destinato all’industria metallurgica e alla produzione di acciaio inossidabile anch’esse del tutto bloccate mancando l’energia per far funzionare le fabbriche, zinco e piombo destinati a una implementazione estrattiva mai avvenuta per gli evidenti motivi di embargo e scarsità di manodopera, che anche in questo caso spesso ha lasciato l’isola.

A fronte di tutto questo l’attaccamento del popolo cubano alle sue istituzioni è ammirevole, al pari dell’amicizia e della solidarietà di nazioni come la Russia e la Cina, quest’ultima capace in questi difficili circostanze di intraprendere una fenomenale campagna di implementazione della capacità di raccolta dell’energia solare attraverso i pannelli fotovoltaici.

Tuttavia la situazione è drammatica e resta difficile elucubrare ipotesi politiche per il futuro, rendendo possibile paventare scenari di ogni sorta.

Resta la tragedia di un un popolo incolpevole, martirizzato dall’imperialismo statunitense per evidente e irriducibile odio politico.

As protests continue to ripple across European cities, the Italian Green MEP Benedetta Scuderi reflects on her own experiences of police repression, from holding a peace flag near a Brussels protest to facing the fury that followed the flotilla to Gaza. She spoke to EUobserver about the EU’s housing priorities, Italy’s elections, and how the far-right has captured freedom of expression for its own use.

You were detained by police in July, a few hundred meters from a far-right protest calling for “re-migration”. How has the rise of the far-right stalled some key areas, like freedom of speech?

The rise of the far-right is really threatening European democracy as we know it. It has never been perfect, but it allowed people to protest. Now, we only let certain people express their dissent. 

In the European Parliament, people can discriminate and use hate speech because of their freedom of expression, but as you go out of parliament with a Palestinian flag, then you’re a terrorist. So, how is it possible that last Strasbourg plenary, I could hear my colleagues saying that Muslims are a threat, and there are no consequences? And then I go out and I say, “Free Palestine,” and I’ll be arrested.

This double standard is extremely problematic. The fact that not allowing fascist symbols within the parliament also meaning that no other symbol can be shown, is not okay. Because we need to be fine to say that certain things are discriminatory and against European values, without having to say that everything else is not allowed. 

We also need to be able to accept dissent. What is happening all over Europe, with violence increasing towards activists, we’re seeing it target only a certain kind of activists. In Italy, fascist protests are ignored by police. Farmers can come to the parliament with tractors, and that’s completely fine. And then we have 20 people doing a sit-in for Palestine in front of the parliament, and getting their heads smashed. 

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par Thierry MEYSSAN

Alors qu’une douzaine d’États ont déjà vécu — parfois avec succès — des manifestations de la génération Z, celles qui viennent d’avoir lieu, en France, donnent une occasion de manipuler la population. Les destructions programmées, survenues le 17 octobre, semblent préparer une sorte d’état d’urgence qui permette de suspendre l’élection présidentielle comme cela a lieu en Ukraine depuis deux ans.

Dans  cet article, j’examinerai une douzaine de manifestations de la « génération Z », c’est-à-dire les 14-29 ans, qu’elles soient organisées ou désorganisées. Si de nombreux mouvements de contestation auquel elle a participé ont eu lieu dans d’autres États, la génération Z a toujours dénoncé la corruption, le népotisme et les abus de pouvoir avant toute autre injustice.

Je conserverai toujours à l’esprit que si l’on ne peut pas provoquer la colère d’une foule, il est très facile de la détourner de son objectif initial. Ces manifestations commencent donc toujours dans l’intérêt général, mais peuvent s’égarer en chemin.

Une première caractéristique de ces mouvements est qu’ils ont tous éclaté après des scandales de corruption ou de répression. Les manifestants ne se sont pas réclamés d’une idéologie politique particulière, mais ont avant tout exprimé leur exigence de justice.

En définitive, le président Prabowo Subianto a reconnu que la jeunesse avait le droit de manifester et a fait lever les sanctions contre le drapeau pirate.

• Timor-oriental : du 15 au 17 septembre, un syndicat étudiant manifeste à Dili pour protester contre les avantages économiques accordés aux parlementaires. En définitive, ceux-ci devront se passer des voitures de luxe qu’ils avaient commandées.

• Philippines : le 21 septembre 2025, 100 000 jeunes gens défilaient à Manille contre la corruption des clans au pouvoir, les Marcos et les Duterte. 70 % des fonds destinés aux luttes contre les inondations auraient disparus.

• Paraguay : le 28 septembre 2025, des manifestations de jeunes ont débuté pour protester contre la corruption et une tentative de modification de la Constitution pur permettre à l’ancien président, le mafieux Horacio Cartes, de revenir au pouvoir. Les amérindiens se sont joints à la génération Z lorsqu’ils ont appris le transfert du bureau de l’Instituto Paraguayo del Indígena (INDI) dans une base militaire. Le mouvement a cessé le 3 octobre après que le président Santiago Peña ait annulé cette décision.

• Japon : le 3 mai 2025, 50 000 jeunes ont manifesté contre la remilitarisation de leur pays en utilisant des bâtons lumineux, comme lors des concerts de K-Pop et lors de la tentative de loi martiale en Corée du Sud. Elles se sont bientôt multipliées dans tout le pays et ont cessé par épuisement.

• Inde, le 15 mai 2026, le président de la Cour suprême assimile les jeunes chômeurs à des cafards. Un jeune étudiant en communication crée alors le « Parti du peuple des cafards ». Il organise des manifestations jusqu’à ce que le ministre de l’Éducation démissionne. Le mouvement repart, en octobre avec la protestation contre la réforme des listes électorales dont la procédure exclut les Indiens les plus pauvres. Elle se poursuit aujourd’hui, malgré l’emprisonnement de son leader [1].

La manifestation du 17 octobre en France

À partir du 18 septembre 2026, des lycéens manifestent, d’abord à Créteil, puis dans toute l’Île de France, et enfin dans tout le pays contre leurs conditions d’études. Ils sont bientôt rejoints par les étudiants. Et, un peu plus tard, par les syndicats de la fonction publique.

Des manifestations sont annoncées au plan national, le 17 octobre. Les « Gilets jaunes », c’est-à-dire le mouvement informel, de 2018-2019, contre le prix des carburants et pour la France périphérique, se joignent au mouvement. Ils poursuivent l’objectif de lutter contre la vie chère.

La police territoriale, pourtant réputée pour sa grande précision, sous-estime à 150 000 manifestants maximum ces rassemblements, tandis qu’ils seront entre 550 000 et 800 000. La direction de la police s’assure que les unités de maintien de l’ordre ne soient prévues que pour les manifestations estimées et veille à ce qu’elle ne dispose que du minimum de munitions en gaz lacrymogènes et en grenades de dispersion.

Les black blocs européens acheminent des milliers de militants, principalement d’Italie, de Suisse, d’Allemagne et de Belgique.

Analyse

Aucun événement particulier n’a déclenché la contestation lycéenne. Il s’agit d’un ras-le-bol généralisé face au sentiment d’abandon d’une génération à qui on explique qu’elle doit se contenter de locaux mal-isolés, où l’on souffre du chaud et du froid selon les saisons ; et qu’elle ne doit pas espérer avoir de professeurs lorsque les siens sont malades ; que de toute manière, elle n’aura jamais d’emploi et sera remplacée par l’Intelligence artificielle ; mais qu’elle devra quand même payer la dette et les intérêts de la dette que leurs parents ont accumulée.

Dans un premier temps, un parti politique de gauche a tenté de récupérer ces manifestations en venant se poster aux sorties des lycées. Mais tout a changé, ce 17 octobre.

Il est possible que ces responsables cachés soient en France, mais aussi envisageable qu’ils soient à l’étranger ; une hypothèse renforcée par la participation des black blocs européens.

Comment ne pas se rappeler qu’en 2011, le candidat à la présidentielle en tête les sondages, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a été arrêté à New York pour viol, par la police locale, mais avec l’aide du Pentagone, assurant l’élection de son « ami », François Hollande ? [2]
Comment ne pas se rappeler qu’en 2017, le candidat à la présidentielle en tête les sondages, François Fillon, a été mis en cause pour avoir engagé son épouse comme assistante parlementaire sans qu’elle accomplisse de travail à l’assemblée nationale, ouvrant ainsi la voie à l’élection d’un tiers, Emmanuel Macron ?
Comment ne pas envisager qu’en 2027, le candidat à la présidentielle en tête les sondages, Marine Le Pen, soit condamnée par la justice et privée de ses droits civiques… ou que la situation exige de placer le pays sous « état d’urgence » ou encore, selon la nouvelle disposition introduite par la loi du 16 août 2026, sous « état d’alerte de sécurité nationale » ?

S’adressant à la Nation, le lendemain même, le président Emmanuel Macron a dressé un rapide bilan de cette journée de destruction [3]. Il en a conclu que les Français étaient impuissants face à ces violences. Puis, il a conclu en souhaitant rétablir l’ordre… afin que les élections puissent avoir lieu.

Publié à l’origine par  Réseau Voltaire

Measures would remove some penalties for those helping women access abortion but are ‘small-scale step’, say campaigners

Poland’s lower house of parliament has approved two bills aimed at loosening a near-total ban on abortions, in what campaigners have described as a “small-scale step” ahead of protests calling on the government to fulfil its promises to overhaul the country’s laws.

The new measures, which are likely to be vetoed by Poland’s nationalist president, would remove some of the criminal penalties for those who help women to access abortion care and allow terminations in cases of foetal abnormalities.

Four people, including two police officers, were injured after a strong explosion at the entrance of a building in Akadimia Platonos in Kolonos suburb of western Athens on Wednesday afternoon. The explosion occurred short before 4 o’ clock. According to initial information, police received a call to check the building about narcotics. Two police officers […]

The post Bag with drugs explodes injuring 2 police officers, 2 civilians in Athens appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

Thousands of teachers, pupils, students and their parents but also civil servants including health personnel, pensioners and workers joined their voices in protesting the high cost of living, demanding better education conditions, higher salaries and lower housing costs. Τhe protests followed the 24-hour strike called by the primary and secondary teachers unions. In Athens, Thessaloniki […]

The post Students in Greece protest high cost of living; solidarity with France appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

Abdulreza used to plan his studies in Tehran around a 90-minute flight from Najaf. This autumn, returning to university meant a 12-hour road journey.

The Iraqi student, now in the third year of a computer engineering PhD at Shahid Beheshti University, had gone home when the war closed Iran’s universities. As he prepared to return, the flight announcements kept changing: services were suspended, then apparently available, then uncertain again.

Tickets that used to cost him $100 to $150 were being offered for $400 to $700, he said, and seats were hard to secure. He considered flying through Dubai, but worried that connection might disappear too.

Instead, he took a bus from Najaf to the Mehran border crossing and travelled on to Tehran, paying 10,000 Iraqi dinars (about $8) for the first leg and 2.5 million tomans (about $10) for the second.

"The cost was not just financial," he said. "The journey was much harder."

His experience shows what disrupted air travel means for a relationship sustained by university places, medical appointments and pilgrimages.

The land crossings remain open, but replacing a short flight with a long road journey changes who can travel, how often and under what conditions.

Washington’s aviation sanctions have carried those decisions into homes, clinics and travel agencies on both sides of the border.

On 8 September, the US Treasury sanctioned 36 targets connected to Iranian aviation, including 27 airlines.

Washington accused Iranian carriers of supporting military activities and warned foreign companies servicing sanctioned airlines that they risked being cut off from the global financial system.

Foreign ground-handling companies then refused to service Iranian aircraft, halting flights at four Iraqi airports.

Baghdad sought exemptions for medical treatment, education and pilgrimage. On 2 October, the Iraqi prime minister’s office announced that Iranian airlines, excluding Mahan Air, could operate up to 40 daily flights to and from Najaf.

Iraqi Airways separately announced that daily services from Najaf to Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan would resume on 8 October, after suspending its Iran flights in March.

The reopening gives some passengers an alternative. It does not undo cancelled appointments, return money already committed to bookings, or remove the uncertainty hanging over journeys planned weeks ahead.

Studying between two countries

More than 50,000 Iraqis study in Iran, according to Iran’s science minister, Hossein Simaei Sarraf.

Abdulreza’s interest in Iran began before university. He had studied Persian and knew Iranian culture well, which made Tehran a place where he could build a life alongside his studies.

He rents a flat in Tehranpars, in the east of the capital. Returning this autumn also meant bringing his belongings, which made finding a flight with a limited baggage allowance even harder.

He has completed his coursework and passed his comprehensive exam. But defending his research proposal and meeting his supervisors still require him to be there in person.

Internet blackouts during the war made remote contact unreliable, he said. Reaching Iran became harder just as he most needed to see his professors.

He used to travel home to Iraq once or twice a month without disrupting his work. Repeated overland journeys take far more time, and far more recovery.

"I may have to reconsider how often I go back," he said.

The border is still crossable. What has changed is the routine that let him keep a home in one country and his family in another.

Treatment postponed again

Abu Saeed had planned to bring his 78-year-old mother, Zahra, to Shiraz for cataract surgery. Instead, he is trying to figure out how to get her to the hospital.

An Iraqi businessman in Tehran’s stone market, he has lived in Iran for 22 years. His mother still lives in Iraq.

The war had already postponed her operation at Khodadoust International Hospital. The family then waited until after Arbaeen, when relatives were busy hosting pilgrims.

They chose autumn, hoping for cooler weather and time for Zahra to recover at her son’s home. She booked her flight for 5 October, and the surgeon’s fee was about $800.

"We have no problem paying for it," Abu Saeed said. "But I really don’t know how to bring my mother here."

Her surgeon, Dr Nazarpour, said he had agreed to reschedule despite a full appointment list. He understood why the family could not replace a flight with a long bus journey for an elderly patient.

Other clinics face the same disruption. Dr Rahimi, a dermatologist in Shiraz, said she treats 150 to 200 Iraqi patients a year, many of them travelling for hair transplants costing $500 to $1,200.

Four of her patients had recently been unable to arrive. Rearranging their appointments meant lost income and knock-on changes to other bookings.

For patients and doctors alike, a restored route is only part of the answer. Treatment also means matching travel dates to an appointment, and leaving enough time to recover before the journey home.

Iran’s tourism minister has described Iraq as the country’s leading tourism partner, with about 3.5 million Iraqis visiting each year for pilgrimage and healthcare.

Abu Mustafa, 45, who works for a food distribution company in Najaf, had planned a November pilgrimage and holiday in Mashhad as a wedding anniversary gift.

In August, he bought return tickets for himself, his wife and their 15-year-old son, Mustafa, and booked accommodation through a local agency.

In an interview arranged by the travel agency, he said over WhatsApp that his son had been counting the days until they left.

"They say a 40-flight exemption has been issued for Najaf, but the agency tells me there is no guarantee for November," he said.

His frustration runs deeper than one trip.

"Every year millions of Iranians come for the Arbaeen walk, and we open our homes to them," he said.

He asked why Iraqi travellers should lose access to Iran because of American sanctions. For his family, Najaf’s reopening is welcome, but their own journey remains uncertain.

The businesses behind the bookings

At the Dor o Nazdik travel agency on Tehran’s Nejatollahi Street, employee Javad described how the uncertainty over flights was hitting bookings, cash flow and the people hired to look after Iraqi visitors.

The agency served about 4,200 Iraqi travellers and patients in the last Iranian calendar year, he said. Accommodation, transfers and medical referrals for Iraqi clients made up around 60 percent of its annual net profit.

For the autumn, the agency had pre-purchased 45 airline seats a day. In August, it also paid more than 750 million tomans in hotel deposits for October and November, about $4,000 at that month’s exchange rate.

Since then, he said, the dollar has risen from around 187,000 to 250,000 tomans. Bookings that once promised a good return now leave the agency unsure how many customers will arrive.

Even the prospect of restored routes has not eased his worries.

"How do we know the US won’t impose new restrictions once our passengers arrive?" he asked.

Hotels are treating cancelled bookings as non-refundable or offering credit towards future stays, he said, leaving the agency’s money tied up while it waits for passengers to confirm their plans.

The uncertainty also hangs over the 12 freelance interpreters and eight drivers the agency had lined up for part-time work. They have worked with the company for years and never asked for advance payment, Javad said. Now their work is in doubt, and he does not know whether they can find other jobs.

For Javad, the disruption has changed more than his business outlook.

"Before these wars, I thought America had no problem with ordinary Iranians," he said. "Now I see it creating conditions that hurt me as a businessman too. My view of America has changed."

Najaf’s reopening offers some relief. But a restored route doesn't release hotel deposits, replace lost work, or make future bookings dependable.

For Abdulreza, Zahra’s family, and Abu Mustafa, the question is whether they can plan around a flight again and trust it will take off.

Peiman Salehi is a Tehran-based Iranian political analyst focusing on global order, emerging power structures, and non-Western coalitions

This article was published in collaboration with Egab.

Student protests across Europe are a desperate cry for help, an appeal to governments to build a brighter, hope-filled future. Instead of paying attention, European politicians have decided to manhandle the protesters, misrepresent their demands and manipulate public opinion.

Different narratives are now competing to explain what the protests are really about.

They want to be taught properly. They want more teachers, an end to overcrowded classes, dilapidated buildings and inadequate school meals and an admissions system that sorts young people by class and postcode.

In Belgium, students have protested education cuts and fees. Greek students occupied Syntagma Square over rents, student housing and energy bills. Italian students demanded money for schools rather than war.

But politicians seem intent on telling a different story.

For many EU leaders it is – yet again – all about migration.

Hungarian prime minister Péter Magyar has decided that the chaos in French cities makes it “clear to everyone why Hungary advocates the strictest possible approach to migration.”

Poland’s Donald Tusk, who insists he will not repeat the mistakes of other European countries, joined the leaders of Denmark and Italy at the EU leaders’ meeting in Brussels last week to push for an even tougher Fortress Europe.

Together, they almost succeeded in getting others in the EU to agree to a statement linking crime and “irregular” migration.

On the other side of the Atlantic, US president Donald Trump instructed Europe to “close your borders and take control, before it is too late!” while his deputy JD Vance criticised Western liberals for bringing the “third world” to France.

Parts of the media focused on the violence, particularly the looting and destruction carried out by those who have joined the protests to create chaos, rather than on the demands that brought students onto the streets in the first place.

In France, meanwhile, it was the presidential campaign that shaped the political response, with Marine Le Pen from the National Rally calling for law and order and blaming “decades of immigration” for the violence while her protégé, Jordan Bardella, said the police should have more weapons and greater powers.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Insoumise, Le Pen’s leading rival in the elections next year, was accused of fuelling student anger. French centrists struggled to find their footing and their voice. President Emmanuel Macron made an angry television appearance before heading to the Middle East with a delegation of business leaders.

So far, very predictable.

Old playbook: one enemy, no solution

Divert, distract, dehumanise and scapegoat are the oldest tricks in wily politicians’ playbook. The well-worn recipe is simple: take a social crisis, remove its economic content, replace it with a face, a religion, a border. Then offer an enemy, not a solution.

When public services fail, blame the outsider. When wages stagnate, blame the foreigner. When housing becomes impossible, blame the newcomer rather than the landlord, the investor or the government that stopped building.

And when young people take to the streets, describe them as manipulated, criminal, alien or dangerous. Treat their anger as a threat to public order rather than a warning that something is profoundly wrong. Say there has been foreign manipulation and disinformation.

Then turn the full force of the state against the symptoms of the crisis while leaving its causes untouched and change the the subject from justice to fear, from schools to borders, from the future to the past.

Meanwhile, the money goes elsewhere.

Europe is pouring resources into defence and rearmament. Governments speak endlessly of competitiveness, productivity and strategic autonomy. But these questions cannot become excuses for neglecting the social foundations on which Europe’s future depends.

Seriously, who is going to make an ageing Europe competitive if the people expected to build its future cannot afford to have one? Who will run Europe’s basic services if migrants go “home”? What does strategic autonomy even mean if young Europeans cannot get a decent education, find secure employment or afford a home?

Contradictions

We should know by now that security cannot be measured in weapons alone. It also depends on how secure citizens feel, and whether they believe they have something worth protecting. Security demands that people have politicians they can trust and institutions which work for them.

A Europe that invests in its military capabilities while allowing its schools, housing systems and public services to deteriorate risks hollowing out its own strength.

Believe me: I know. I was born in Pakistan, a country which thrives on war and conflict and neglects the well being of its citizens.

There is another contradiction. As young people struggle to make their voices heard, the EU is planning cuts to funding for civil society organisations that defend rights, support communities, hold power to account and help turn public anger into democratic participation.

The EU has always – rightly – backed citizens’ calls for democratic participation, equality and inclusion when it happens in Tunisia, Egypt or Hongkong. How can our leaders close down such calls for participation when they are made at home?

Sadly, politicians and parts of the media have lost young peoples’ trust – and when that faith goes, so does democracy.

The EU can and must offer young Europeans a story of hope, inclusion and progress towards equality. Leaders who prefer to hallucinate about migrants should spend more time living up to the EU’s values by investing in education, affordable housing, decent jobs and public services.

We must give our young people a meaningful voice in decisions that will shape their lives. Our collective future quite literally depends on it.

This article was first published on Shada’s Substack. You can subscribe for free to receive new posts and support her work here.

Brazil’s elections: “new right” that smells like fascism, a left lost in identity politics.

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The Brazilian elections have proved fertile ground for the expression of the most common electoral stereotypes, which, by and large, are responsible for the sharp slide toward a superficial politics, barren of debate over effective solutions for our collective future, yet rich, deep down, in carnival aesthetics, more liberal or more conservative, in bitter invective, and in an exacerbated tendency toward the easy insult or even the basest personal offenses.

None of this is unfamiliar from the US, where national politics is discussed in a conservative, parochial, cramped, and backward fashion, with barricades on both sides avoiding debate on the truly divisive issues, labeled “radical”; nor is it unfamiliar from Old Europe, whose political class has lost quality to a degree that differs nothing, today, from what goes on in Brazil, Argentina, or other places marked by the submission of their leading political figures to Anglo-Zionist imperialism, to the immense power of the oligarchy, or, in the final analysis, to the need to reconcile domestic policies with the international agenda of imperialism.

As we look at a left wing caught, all too often, in individualistic, liberal identity politics — thereby diverted from the workplaces, from the factory floor, from the dramas of exploitation that underlie the deepest problems with which the majority of the population grapples — we also find a right wing that works as the other side of the coin: to the liberalism of part of the left (the liberal left) on matters of customs, the right answers with conservatism; to the left’s promises of social justice (the liberal left), the right answers with more liberalism and even “ultraliberalism.” Both end up saying very little about what really matters, focusing much of the time on side issues more closely bound to aesthetics than to essence.

Nevertheless, with a keen eye, we can always unearth what lies behind one or another piece of pamphleteering. One of the most important themes in contention today in Western societies — or Westernized ones, as is the case of Brazil, Latin America, and Latin Europe — is the tension between sovereignty and submission to Anglo-Zionist imperialism. If in Europe — in the cases of Portugal, Spain, or Italy — that tension is mediated by an already submissive EU, which tends to act as a protective layer over national tensions, then once the question of sovereignty is raised, the tendency is, one of two things: either to see it as an extension of European sovereignty, which hides the real problem, or to see it as an attempt to discuss leaving the EU, which is still regarded as taboo in broad circles of one camp or another. In Brazil, that tension lies more exposed, since there is no American Union to mediate the country’s foreign relations with the US and Israel, the great representatives of Anglo-Zionist imperialism.

And in this case, it is interesting to note that on the Bolsonaro side — from which one might expect the nationalist proposal — this does not happen, or happens only residually, because even when it does, the attempt is unmasked by the excessive support that American social networks give to Bolsonaro’s candidacy, or by the constant interference of Trump and his cronies in the Brazilian electoral process. However much the right wished to present itself as the defender of the nation and its independence, the effusive support of the US for the candidacy in question would bring the mask down, for the US — and Israel — would never support so vehemently and so openly anyone who was not subservient to them. Lula’s absence from Silicon Valley’s algorithmic command posts ends up giving away which of the two candidates is more subservient to US interests.

On Lula da Silva’s side, by contrast, the more clearly drawn proposals on the defense of sovereignty have in fact emerged — even if some of that intensity may later collide with the pragmatic dictates of realpolitik, imposed by the need to strike deals with a notoriously pro-imperialist “centrão.” Either way, this dividing line exists, and it seems scarcely credible to me that anyone in full possession of their mental faculties could choose a protégé of Trump to defend Brazil’s sovereign interests, rather than an experienced conciliator, even if not a revolutionary one.

Knowing how important this question is, afterward, for the sovereign management and use of endogenous resources and for their allocation to an independent development plan, the choice of Bolsonaro seems to me hard to defend, should the sovereign question weigh in that choice. As in the EU, the sovereignists have not found the best practices on the right either — perhaps with the exception of Viktor Orbán, who governed Hungary for sixteen years, until the April 2026 elections — but more out of a need to align with Russia and China, as a consequence of the EU’s energy and industrial choices, than out of any need to build a genuinely sovereign national project. Moreover, if further proof were needed, Orbán’s total alignment with Zionism allowed us to see that his disagreement with the EU was merely tactical, not a matter of principle or of defending national sovereignty. Orbán never for a moment renounced NATO or distanced himself from Israel and Zionism — factors he used as platforms of support against the Brussels bureaucracy. His submission to Trump, for that matter, was also explicit, and voiced with the fervor of one who saw in him “an envoy of God”!

In the case of Meloni, Babiš, and others, the question is the same: much talk, but in the end, the same alignment — which foreshadows where parties like the AfD will later turn. Faced with the fundamental questions, they too will fall in line, either with submission to Brussels or with direct submission to Zionism and US imperialism. Others, like Meloni, manage a middle path that, in the end, has the same social consequences. Where it really counts, young people keep running into unemployment, cannot find a home, watch infrastructure decay, see labor rights under relentless attack, and see their wages rapidly losing value against the brutal rise in the cost of living. There is no place where this “new right” is entrenched and seated in the halls of power where this does not happen.

Hence another important parallel persists between the Brazilian elections and what goes on in Europe and the West in general: whether in Brazil, the US, or Europe, this “new right” also uses the identity agenda as its dividing line against the left. Supposedly, the “left” — liberal, I would add — would be responsible for a decadence of customs and of cultural and religious values, for the social and moral decay of the defenders of this “woke” drift.

Now, this demarcation has served as a justification for many who once presented themselves as critics of Zionism, defenders of multipolarity, anti-imperialists, and defenders of Global South sovereignties, and who now use this supposed “wokeness” of the left to justify electing a representative of submission to imperialism like Bolsonaro. This demarcation has one problem: the only thing more “woke” than the “woke” is the one who makes wokeness the most important thing in politics, whether one is for it or against it.

On the left, many are unable to identify, in the excessively identitarian agendas, an individualistic, divisive agenda that fragments the working classes — one originating in the US itself, whose mass-manipulation services turned being “woke” (alert to social injustices) into a kind of identitarian pamphleteering. They stripped the “woke” movement of the class-based dimension and the just redistribution of wealth it once had, and gave it a panoply of identities in exchange — turning the concern with equality, social justice, and freedom, a materialist and universalist concern, into a tribalistic, individualistic concern, and, above all, one disconnected from the material dimension, that is, from the dimension of the just redistribution of the wealth produced by labor.

But on the right, when this tribalistic and individualistic drift is used as a dividing line, what genuinely distinguishes left from right is also denied. For in the historical matrix that separates left from right lies wealth: who dominates it, and how it is shared. On one side, those who hold that property and wealth must not be the measure of freedom and political initiative, and that all human beings are entitled to a life of dignity (universalism); on the other — on the right — plutocratic physiocracy: the idea that freedom and the capacity for political intervention should be measured by the wealth one has. Hence the liberal suffrages rested on a census-based — that is, identitarian — logic, in which what counted was the wealth one had, being a man, and knowing how to read and write; and were it not for the struggle, notably that of the suffragettes, to achieve what we today call “universal suffrage,” we would still be there. I suspect they, too, were accused of being “woke,” in the terms in vogue at the time!

Thus, from then on — that is, since the founding moment of the “left–right” dichotomy of the French Revolution — the right has committed itself more to the preservation of property in the hands of those who hold it, and the left more to real democracy, to economic, social, and cultural democracy, rejecting the idea that the rich must remain rich and the poor must remain poor. In a manner of speaking, this is what we call universalist progressivism, as opposed to individualist progressivism, which leans above all toward questions of individual identity.

So when this right embarks on the anti-woke logic, making this agenda the most important aspect of the political discussion — as if what really mattered were not the things that allow us to live, to sustain, feed, and enjoy our body and spirit — it does so with only one intention: to divert attention to a superficial issue, so that what is most precious to it does not enter the proposals under discussion: the just redistribution of wealth and economic, social, and cultural democracy. Thus, what matters most to it remains beyond debate, and elections turn into a carnival of little flags for and against. Whoever chooses where to vote because of someone else’s wokeness is every bit as woke as they are.

But the similarities do not end here. Another is the question of security and fighting crime: on the right, the idea is spread that crime is fought with brutal violence; on the left, it is argued that as long as there is poverty, crime cannot be eradicated. Now, it does not take much intelligence to see that the first proposal fails precisely where it is most talked about: the US. No country has more common prisoners — and few will have more political prisoners; no country spends so much on supposed crime-fighting; no developed country has so much crime. Because in the US, the breeding grounds of common crime — the Black and Latino ghettos, where desperate populations live, deprived of basic conditions of employment, education, and essential public services — remain overcrowded and ever more impoverished. But that is only the crime of the desperate, the kind that shows up on television.

Another form of crime — which also features in the right/left agenda — is the question of corruption. If this “new right” waves the banner of corruption and the left barely speaks of it, it is equally true that, once elected, this “new right” does everything except end corruption. One need look no further than Trump to find a case of incorrigible corruption. And those who remembered Bolsonarismo and expected the end of corruption were also left cursing in the desert: the Bolsonaro government was, itself, a den of corruption. Perhaps the discussion should start with the point that, to end corruption, one must end what originates it: the immense disparity in the distribution of wealth, which allows some to use their immense economic power to obtain from political power what they lack in electoral legitimacy. This crime — white-collar crime — being even more insidious and giving rise to the deep causes of the other, does not show up as often on television.

On immigration, we have perhaps the only one of the great differences between the elections in Latin America, in Brazil, and in the countries of advanced capitalism. But immigration also shows up as a form of shallow identitarianism of the right. The more the “new right” talks about “excessive immigration,” the more it forgets that those who employ these immigrants are the very same who finance and support it; that immigrants come to work in the economic sectors with the lowest wages, exploited by the most backward and conservative bosses — the social base of the radical right; and that employers only turn to immigration as a last resort, because their anti-labor agenda has left workers today unable to project a future with stability; because the young, victims of the transformation of housing into real-estate speculation, can no longer plan a future as a family; and because mothers and fathers, victims of the deregulated work schedules imposed by employers and enshrined in law by the right, have no time for their families.

Worst of all, the more they deny the necessary material conditions, the more they claim to defend the family and its values. A clear display of hypocrisy and cynicism, which denies the deep causes of the problem — a problem that affects the entire West. As they have done, it is easier to deny that the fertility crisis is intrinsically bound up with the prevailing system. Know where there was no fertility crisis? In the socialist countries of the East. Industrialized, literate, and well-fed countries, which doubled their populations in 70 years. Today, taken over by capitalism, they find themselves caught up in the same old tune of the advanced-capitalist countries. They will not get out of it until the fundamental features of an economic system change — one that not only leaves women no time to have children but also destroys family cohesion through the deregulation of work and, consequently, of life.

Now, what is most interesting about this political debate is that those who, a few years ago — those who said there was no left or right, that politicians were all the same — are now the ones telling us that salvation lies in this “new right,” and they are the ones who bristle when we tell them that this “new right” has nothing “new” about it and that, on the contrary, it reeks of classic fascism.

They are never fascists, but they submit to Zionism and the Anglo-Zionist empire; they are not fascists, but they resort to the demagogy and easy rhetoric used by classic fascism; they are not fascists, but they wave mass banners as classic fascism did; they are not fascists, but they use religion and the supposed degradation of customs to divert attention from what is essential, as classic fascism did; they are not fascists, but once in power they privatize, attack labor rights, and shut down essential public services, as classic fascism did; they are not fascists, but they attack knowledge and devalue study and individual effort, as classic fascism did; they are not fascists, but they dismiss political experience, individual and collective track records, as classic fascism did, in order to dismiss institutions; they are not fascists, but they adopt a racialist, xenophobic, supremacist, and ultra-individualist discourse, as classic fascism did; they are not fascists, but they are all anti-communist, anti-socialist, and opposed to social progress, as classic fascism was; they are not fascists, but they are backed by the oligarchy and the most backward employers, as well as by imperialism, as classic fascism was.

They are not fascists, but they smell, fly, sing, and bellow like fascists…

Call it what you will, but a “thirties” of the 21st century, armed with AI and social media? No, thank you! We can expect nothing different from those who have the same bosses and want to boss around the same employees…

Afterward, whomever you vote for, I hope you will spare me the tired old refrain of “we were fooled.”

SOURCES

Incarceration in the US — the US has the largest prison population in the world (about 2 million people) and the highest incarceration rate of any democracy; per capita (World Prison Brief / Prison Policy Initiative, 2026). https://eji.org/news/u-s-remains-world-leader-in-number-of-people-incarcerated/

Jair Bolsonaro — convicted by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to 27 years and 3 months in prison (September 11, 2025) for attempted coup d’état, armed criminal organization, and violent abolition of the democratic rule of law; serving his sentence since November 25, 2025. https://apublica.org/especial/o-julgamento-de-jair-bolsonaro/ ; https://checamos.afp.com/doc.afp.com.A2V88ZQ

Donald Trump — convicted in May 2024 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records; in January 2025 he received an unconditional discharge (no jail time or fine), with appeals still pending in 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g3m95ykzko ; https://www.axios.com/2026/08/28/trump-hush-money-conviction-appeal

Viktor Orbán — Hungary is a NATO member, and Orbán was a close ally of Netanyahu and Israel; in the April 2026 elections, Péter Magyar put an end to Orbán’s 16 years in government. https://apnews.com/article/hungary-israel-euro-2024-soccer-1514e137b54b18a1fed8be8b6cd89b19 ; https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjef3yqnbx

Suffrage — in Portugal, census-based suffrage was only abolished in 1968; women obtained a limited right to vote in 1931 and full equality only with the 1976 Constitution. https://www.europeana.eu/pt/stories/votes-for-women ; https://arquivomunicipal.lisboa.pt/fileadmin/arquivo_municipal/difusao/publicacoes/cadernos/Cad04.pdf

Origin of the term “woke” — African American English, with records from the 1920s–1940s, popularized from 2014 onward by the Black Lives Matter movement. https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/woke-meaning-origin ; https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-09-30/how-woke-went-from-an-expression-in-black-culture-to-a-conservative-criticism

Origin of the terms “left” and “right” — the seating arrangement of deputies in the French National Constituent Assembly in 1789. https://observador.pt/opiniao/a-grande-dicotomia-o-que-ainda-separa-a-esquerda-da-direita/

Crime — the US homicide rate (≈6.4 per 100,000 inhabitants) https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/2023/GSH_2023_LAC_web.pdf

Years ago I was flipping through the ads of a ‘Black Friday’ sale from a large US retailer, while visiting a relative in North Carolina. Amid the pens and pencils was a child’s school bag with a large neon printed unicorn surrounded by lollipops and or hearts.

It was bullet proof.

I can’t recall what caliber of bullet it promised to stop. But the same paper had a semi-automatic Bushmaster rifle for sale at only $549.99 [€490], which normally retails at almost $1,000. I snapped a photo of it.

A few years earlier, a Bushmaster had been used to gun down 20 small children at Sandy Hook Elementary. Most of them were only six-years old.

A Benenlli 12-gauge tactical shotgun was also on sale. Last week, five-year-old Rhoam Summer and two others, aged 8 and 11 were shot dead at a school in Oregon by a 16-year old with a shotgun.

I mention this as someone who grew up in the United States and went to school there but can’t identify with a normalisation of violence splashed out as one-off specials and deals ahead of Christmas, a holiday that is cynically meant to celebrate peace and kindness.

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The European Parliament has called for more spending to build affordable houses — using funds for regional development that currently make up a third of the EU budget.

Cohesion funds should be used to protect the ‘right to stay’ in rural areas or in small cities, a principle that the parliament wants to write into the new budget legislation.

Peripheral regions often face depopulation due to few job opportunities, according to a parliamentary non-binding report passed with 601 votes in favour, 20 against, and 36 abstentions on Tuesday (20 October).

MEPs are also calling for strong cohesion funds that would allow cities to better prepare for climate emergencies and provide a budget for additional investments in housing.

Cohesion funds, which account for a total of €48.03bn in the existing 2021-2027 EU budget, usually finance infrastructure projects, like bridges, roads, or railways in countries with a lower-than-average per capita gross national income.

The commission proposed significant cuts to reduce regional funds in the next multi-annual budget, set to cover 2028-34, but a group of 16 member states, often benefitting from the funding, opposed the reduction.

Regional development plays a key role in European integration since it is the “only instrument which can unite all of us,” and should not be reduced in the next EU budget, said Left Lithuanian MEP Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis during a plenary debate on Monday (19 October).

Cohesion funds “could be the response to the radicalisation of Europe,” Fredis Beleris, a German centre-right MEP said.

For that to happen, cohesion funds must be accessible for small and medium-sized cities, who often struggle with formalities linked to EU funds, said Denis Nesci, Italian conservative MEP spearheading the file.

Small municipalities should be able to access cohesion funds “on an equal footing as bigger cities,” he said, echoing the dominant centre-right commission’s position and its aim to simplify regulations.

In Kammouneh camp in rural Idlib, Ibrahim al-Khatib, 40, pays little attention to talk of closing the camps. He has no house to return to, and no wish to relive displacement.

"If they decide to remove me by force, I won’t accept it. I’ll tell them to bring the walls down on my head, and my family’s,” the father of four said. "My only condition for leaving is compensation for my destroyed home — either they rebuild it or give me the money to do it myself."

Ibrahim is from Maarat Harma, also in rural Idlib. He now lives in a two-room prefabricated unit with poor services, but he says it is a thousand times better than pitching a tent beside his family’s ruined house.

He works now with a local association; back in the village, he would have none. The roads there are unpaved, there is no electricity or running water, only one well has been restored, and the sewage network needs repair. The government, he says, has built a clinic and a school, and nothing more.

Syria is moving to close its more than 200 displacement camps as part of a nationwide plan and return internally displaced people to their areas of origin.

According to UNHCR data, more than 3.8 million displaced Syrians have returned to their areas of origin or home countries since the fall of the Assad government in December 2024, while over 7.4 million remain internally displaced.

Raed al-Saleh, minister of emergencies and disaster management, said the aim is to close all camps by September 2027.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued Decree 59, forming a committee chaired by the emergencies ministry to deliver the 'Syria Without Camps' vision. It includes the ministries of housing, local administration, social affairs and labour, and foreign affairs and expatriates, along with the governorates of Aleppo, Idlib and Hama.

The ministry’s media office told The New Arab that the committee "plans, coordinates and oversees the work needed to prepare areas of return and secure a safe, dignified and voluntary return."

It put the number of families still in camps at about 84,957 in Idlib and 56,265 in Aleppo.

Between March, when the committee began work, and the end of August, 157 camps were closed, with 220 more being prepared for closure.

Mines on the way home

Return convoys have been running for about three months. But return means more than a truck, a food basket and a few blankets and mattresses.

Landmines remain the biggest obstacle, and they are still killing people.

Demining expert Maysara Hijazi said Ministry of Defence records show mines have killed 224 people and injured 329 since the start of 2026, among them 83 children killed and 118 injured.

"Children are the main victims because they play in rubble or pick up unfamiliar objects; farmers and shepherds come next, which is why large areas of farmland cannot be worked," Maysara added.

The worst-affected areas are the former front lines in Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor and Homs, each of which has recorded more than 1,000 explosions since the end of 2024. Afrin and rural Damascus are relatively better off. These same areas sit on Syria’s map of displacement.

"Since 2025, more than 14,000 unexploded ordnance items have been safely disposed of, and 138 minefields identified in Idlib, Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor and Latakia," Maysara said. 

The Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented at least 3,799 civilians killed by landmines and cluster munition remnants between March 2011 and April 2026, including 1,000 children and 377 women, with a further 10,600 injured.

Casualties rose after the fall of the former government as displaced people returned and farming resumed, with incidents recorded while ploughing, foraging for truffles, or when children handled war remnants.

Camps left to decline

Services and aid in the camps have fallen sharply since Assad’s fall.

Mohammad Bakir, director of the northern department of social affairs and labour in Idlib, told The New Arab that 60 percent of camps have no basic services at all. In some, provision is limited to one bundle of bread per family, and only a few receive full water, sanitation and hygiene services.

As donors pull back, the government is seeking to move international and regional support from the camps to areas of return.

It has presented the UN with a plan to shift funding from humanitarian response to recovery and durable solutions: clearing mines and rubble, rehabilitating infrastructure and services, and creating jobs where people return.

Those conditions pushed Safaa Yassin al-Ali, a widow who works in the Anamel al-Taghyir volunteer team, to return recently to her hometown of Kafr Nabl, after years of her home flooding with rainwater and sometimes sewage.

She lived in the al-Madina al-Munawwara sector of the Barisha camps and has three girls.

"Life in the camp was the worst-served; it was home largely to widows who support their families alone. Water and rubbish collection now require paid subscriptions many residents cannot afford," she added.

Residents live in small, unfinished concrete units built without regard to construction standards.

"If I had stayed one more winter, the walls would have collapsed on me and my daughters," she said. "I’m afraid for those still in the camp. The tarpaulins can’t hold anymore, and neither can the walls. They stayed because their homes are destroyed, they got no help to rebuild, and some never owned a house at all."

She signed up for a return convoy through a WhatsApp announcement from the camp manager. The support covered a bus for her family, a truck for belongings, which usually costs around $100, and sheets, pillows and blankets.

Kafr Nabl is not much better. Roads are unpaved and services scarce. Her daughters walk three kilometres each way to secondary school because she cannot afford transport at $25 a month per child, and she admits she may abandon their education, especially in winter.

The family lives in a single room, all that remains of their house. "It’s enough that I’m free of the sound of rain on the tarpaulin," she said. "It was almost deafening."

Responding to complaints from returnees and those afraid to return, the ministry said the initiative draws on a database linking camp families in Aleppo and Idlib to their places of origin.

A first phase covers 120 areas in Aleppo, Idlib and Hama, rehabilitating water, sanitation, health, education and roads, funded directly by the government with contributions from humanitarian organisations.

Services vary with the scale of damage, it said, but the plan ties return to preparing areas of origin beforehand or in parallel.

Mohammad said returnees are registered and given projects where possible, and that associations repair homes for those who cannot, with widows given priority.

"Those who have no home remain in the camps and receive whatever services are available until restoration or reconstruction becomes possible," he said.

A pledge, not yet a guarantee

Al-Moutasem al-Kilani, a legal expert in human rights and international criminal law, distinguishes between commitment and delivery. The minister has pledged to restore schools, clinics and water networks, provide jobs, and not oblige families to return to destroyed villages without services.

"That is a positive commitment, but it needs guarantees and verifiable results," Al-Moutasem said.

He points to UNHCR’s first-quarter 2026 report, which documented fragile housing among returnees, missing documents, barriers to services and continuing danger from war remnants.

The report covers returnees and host communities rather than auditing the initiative, he notes, but it shows the challenges it must address.

"If the move comes before housing and services are ready, it could saddle families with rent and debt, interrupt treatment or schooling, and lead to new displacement," he added.

"Voluntariness must be real: a family’s consent is not enough without clear information and viable alternatives."

Under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, he said, displaced people retain rights to work, adequate housing, health and education.

The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, while not a binding treaty, require authorities to enable safe and dignified voluntary return, involve displaced people in planning, and help them recover property or receive fair compensation.

Ending displacement fairly within a year is "highly ambitious," Al-Moutasem said, and published data are not enough to say it can be done. He proposes a plan for each family based on its wishes, the state of its home, the safety of the area and its members’ needs, with three options: return, local integration or resettlement elsewhere.

"Success is measured by the number of families who have settled with dignity and been able to stay," he said, "not by the number of tents removed."

Meanwhile, under pressure to leave, many displaced families have packed up their tents and pitched them again in the villages and towns they came from, to be near their relatives and not be left alone in camps where they once shared grief and aid.

Mawada Bahah is an independent Syrian journalist with bylines in local, regional and international outlets

This article is published in collaboration with Egab

The civil servants’ union federation ADEDY has called a strike on Wednesday, October 21, from 11:00 in the morning until the end of the day’s shift. The strike action applies to all employees, regardless of their employment terms, in public-sector services throughout the country. Supported by pupils and university students, the teachers unions have called […]

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In the early hours of the morning, English-language teacher Deena Allouh has breakfast in her partly destroyed home on Al Nasser Street, in western Gaza City. She then sets off on an hour-long walk to Al Awael Private School, where she teaches around 250 students.

For the past five years, she has worked in different educational institutions across Gaza, driven by a dream of helping a new generation learn English and build a better future.

But since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, her working life and her students’ education have been transformed.

Deena, who graduated with distinction in English-language education, said Israel's war had dramatically disrupted Gaza’s education system, leaving students struggling not only with interrupted schooling but also with the psychological consequences of living through the war.

"Gaza’s students are losing their ability to learn after losing family members, being displaced multiple times from one place to another, experiencing the horror of bombardments, and finding no suitable schools or places to study," Deena told ​​​​​​The New Arab. 

Even displaced families who try to continue their children’s education often struggle to find books and stationery. Others cannot access the internet to follow online lessons, leaving children with few opportunities to keep up with their studies.

For Deena, the consequences are becoming increasingly visible in the classroom. Three years of disrupted education in Gaza have created significant gaps in students’ knowledge and their ability to understand lessons, particularly among primary school children, whose early learning provides the foundation for everything that follows.

"They are supposed to learn the basics to build on them in the coming years," she explained. "Many students who have grown up during the war are not familiar with the educational process and do not understand what school, a teacher or a lesson means. Many students are unable to read the letters of the English alphabet, although three years ago, children of the same age were able to construct sentences."

For three years, regular attendance has depended on the security situation facing each teacher and student, including nearby bombardments, displacement, and the sudden loss or injury of family members.

Deena continued teaching during the war, except when Israeli ground incursions took place in the area surrounding her home or her school.

The classroom has also become a space where the psychological effects of the ongoing genocide are difficult to separate from the learning process.

"Most of my students lost some of their siblings, parents, relatives or classmates. I recognise the effects of their trauma in their social withdrawal, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and changes in behaviour and academic performance," Deena said.

She tries to give students privacy while encouraging them to interact with their classmates. She also notices the small details that remain important to children despite everything they have endured, such as their colourful clothes, beautiful hair, or organised handwriting.

"I do my best to support my students as they cope with their trauma, while my fellow teachers and I also need support because we are going through the same experiences," she said.

For Deena, the most difficult period came during the famine in Gaza in 2025, when severe restrictions on food supplies left families struggling to secure enough to eat.

For teachers, the struggle to maintain classes continued even as their own bodies weakened from hunger.

"I was struggling to work for eight hours with barely a biscuit and water. My body and mind had no energy to teach, but I kept going," she said.

"Many times, my vision would become blurry, but I would not show it or tell others. Sometimes I would write something incorrectly on the board and have to correct myself later. I also made mistakes while correcting students’ work because I could not concentrate. I hope we will not starve again."

The experience exposed the difficult reality facing teachers who were expected to maintain a sense of normality for children while struggling to meet their own basic needs.

"What do you expect from a hungry teacher teaching hungry students, when all they can think about is getting a loaf of bread to eat?" she asked.

Despite these conditions and the ongoing bombing in Gaza, Deena has continued trying to address the educational gaps her students have accumulated.

She now groups students by learning level, repeats lessons when necessary, and uses additional classes and her free time to revisit material they have missed or forgotten.

Her efforts reflect a wider struggle among Gaza’s teachers to keep education going despite the destruction of schools, the loss of colleagues and the daily challenges facing their students.

The cost of learning 

At Al Awael Private School, principal Sahar Hosni explained that teachers' and school administrators' responsibilities had expanded far beyond delivering lessons over the past three years.

"We must balance students' educational needs against the loss of years of schooling and the ongoing threat to the lives of children and staff," she told The New Arab.

"The safety of students and teachers is our first priority, while we are losing generations of students who are growing up deprived of their right to education."

Despite the danger, families continued seeking opportunities for their children to learn, even when Israeli tanks were only a few kilometres from the school.

The school suspended classes for several months before reopening to teach the Palestinian curriculum, using shorter-term plans adapted to conditions on the ground.

"People in Gaza are eager for their children to continue learning. We reopened the school and began teaching the Palestinian curriculum after we lost hope that the Israeli genocide would stop. We suspend classes when Israeli forces intensify their attacks in the neighbourhood. We develop short-term plans according to the situation on the ground," she said.

The administrative team holds regular meetings to discuss students’ psychological and emotional wellbeing, identify possible interventions and prepare alternative plans for emergencies.

When explosions occur nearby, staff ensure that students remain inside the building and contact their families to reassure them that the children are safe.

The school has also tried to make learning more engaging through active-learning methods, psychological first aid sessions for teachers and activities that offer students moments of relief, using the limited educational materials available.

Yet these efforts cannot eliminate the constant risks facing teachers and students.

"We organise psychological first aid sessions for teachers. We try to help students rediscover the joy of learning, but the lack of basic educational technology, including computers, internet access and electricity, remains a major challenge for both students and teachers," Sahar explained.

The dangers facing staff extend beyond the classroom. Sahar described how an Arabic-language teacher narrowly escaped an Israeli airstrike on her way home.

"Two weeks ago, an Arabic-language teacher at the school survived an Israeli airstrike that struck just a few metres away from her on her way home. She came to school the following day looking pale and barely able to teach her students."

Sahar said the impact of Israel's war on the besieged enclave was also evident in students’ motivation, their ability to prepare for exams, and their daily struggle to meet basic needs.

"Many students have lost hope in learning after their schools and houses were bombed or their teachers or family members were killed. Some high school students have lost the opportunity to prepare properly for the most important academic year of their lives and pursue their dreams of studying at the university faculty of their choice," she said.

"Others arrive at school exhausted after spending hours fetching water or waiting in charity food queues. Some cannot study or rest properly in overcrowded makeshift displacement tents."

These conditions are creating a generation whose education has been severely disrupted by circumstances beyond their control, including the lack of safety, stability and suitable places for children to learn.

Sahar urged the international community and academic institutions to help end the war and support the reconstruction of Gaza’s education sector.

"We urge people of conscience around the world and international academic institutions to launch initiatives to stop the genocidal war on Gaza that is killing students and teachers and to support the reconstruction of Gaza’s education sector to safeguard the future of our children," she explained.

An education system in ruins

The destruction described by teachers and school administrators is reflected in figures provided by Gaza’s Government Media Office, which told The New Arab that 97 percent of schools in the Strip had sustained physical damage, while 80 percent of school buildings had been directly bombed or targeted.

According to the office, around 87 percent of school buildings require reconstruction or major rehabilitation before they can be used again, while 40 percent are located within the area known as the ‘Yellow Line’.

The office said the remaining schools were either too damaged to provide the basic conditions needed for teaching or had been converted into shelters for displaced Palestinians who had lost their homes.

The destruction has also taken a devastating toll on Gaza’s education workforce and students, according to the office.

"More than 1,100 teachers and educational staff members have been killed, alongside 194 scientists, academics and researchers. The loss of educators and academic professionals has deepened the crisis by depriving future generations of accumulated knowledge and expertise," it stated. 

"More than 22,000 students have been killed, with thousands more injured, including some who have undergone amputations. Around 650,000 students have been deprived of school education over the past three years, creating a learning deficit that will require years of intensive remedial programmes to address."

Alongside documenting the destruction, the Government Media Office said it was working with Gaza’s Ministry of Education and other relevant authorities to record violations, update data and publish reports in several languages for international media.

It also submitted legal briefings to international organisations, United Nations bodies, and human rights organisations concerned with education and children’s rights. The office urged these organisations to fulfil their legal and moral responsibilities.

"The deprivation of children’s right to education, the targeting of schools and the killing of teachers and students constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions. These acts form part of what we consider a systematic policy of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," it read. 

The future at stake

Beyond the physical destruction of schools, the war has had serious consequences for students’ learning and development, according to Dr Hanan Abu Sakran, a former senior educational inspector at the Palestinian Ministry of Education in Gaza. She was among the first education officials to help resume learning during the war, despite the dangers.

"Education in Gaza has shifted from a structured process taking place inside schools to a daily struggle to preserve children’s right to learn under extraordinary and harsh conditions," she said.

Many students have lost their schools, books and classrooms and have been forced to study in displacement centres, tents and temporary spaces that lack the basic requirements of a safe learning environment.

Dr Hanan said the prolonged interruption to schooling had widened gaps in foundational skills, including reading, writing and mathematics.

"Education is cumulative. Students who miss these basic skills may struggle to understand more advanced lessons in later years."

The consequences extend beyond academic performance, affecting students’ confidence, motivation and ability to concentrate.

"They can include declining self-confidence and motivation, difficulty concentrating, and an increased reliance on memorisation rather than understanding," Dr Hanan told The New Arab. 

Access to education has also become more limited for some than others. Some students can attend temporary schools, use educational tents or follow online lessons, while others lack internet access or a suitable place to study.

This disparity means that children of the same age may have vastly different educational opportunities, depending on their living conditions and access to resources.

Dr Hanan warned that losing experienced teachers presents another long-term challenge.

Schools do not simply transmit knowledge; they also pass on professional culture, values, teaching methods and ways of thinking.

Experienced teachers accumulate knowledge of curricula, students and the local environment over years of practice. They learn to manage complex classroom situations, identify learning difficulties and select appropriate strategies for different students.

These skills cannot be replaced quickly.

"Many of the teachers who were killed were a source of trust, safety and hope for their students, not only teachers," she said.

"We can train a new teacher, but we cannot bring back the life of a teacher we have lost, nor can we easily replace years of experience or the human impact they have left behind."

The loss of experienced educators also weakens the transfer of professional knowledge to younger teachers, making it harder for schools to maintain teaching standards and respond to students’ needs.

Looking ahead, Dr Hanan warned that without a ceasefire and measures to address learning loss, the consequences could extend into higher education and the wider education system.

"Unless there is a real ceasefire and we are able to address the learning gaps, Gaza could face a future decline in the number of students able to meet university admission requirements, as well as a growing need for lengthy and costly remedial programmes."

Addressing the crisis will require more than reopening schools.

Students’ learning levels must be assessed, their needs identified, and catch-up classes provided, alongside flexible ways for those who have missed long periods of schooling to resume their education.

It will also require sustained investment in teacher training, educational resources, psychological support and opportunities for young people to continue into higher and vocational education.

For Dr Hanan, rebuilding Gaza’s education system must begin with recognising that the loss extends beyond damaged buildings and missing textbooks.

"Rebuilding Gaza does not begin with bricks and buildings alone, but with rebuilding its people," she told The New Arab.

"Education is the path that enables our children to reclaim their lives, contribute to rebuilding their society, and shape a future defined by greater security and dignity," she added. 

She called on the international community to step up efforts to end Israel’s war on Gaza, protect Palestinian children’s right to education, restore safe and equal access to learning, fund the rebuilding of schools and educational resources, and develop programmes to help children catch up on the learning they have missed.

"Do not let the children of Gaza pay with their childhoods, dreams and opportunities for a war they did not choose," she concluded.

Ahmed Dremly is a Palestinian journalist from Gaza

Follow him on Instagram: @ahmeddremly

They arrive in white vans, wearing T-shirts with "immigration" across the chest, keeping handcuffs ready in their pockets.

Sharon scrolls through these images on her smartphone, glancing nervously around Habima Square in Tel Aviv. This upscale area is usually far from migrant-populated neighbourhoods, offering a fleeting sense of safety from police patrols.

Both Sharon and Beth arrived in Israel over two decades ago as caregivers, yet they share a chilling reality: "Every single day here could be our last," the two women say.

As national regulations confirm, specifically the Foreign Workers Law of 1991 and the Entry into Israel Law of 1952, the Israeli legislative framework subjects migrant workers to profound structural precarity. Standard work visas are valid for a maximum of five years and are strictly non-renewable.

Consequently, thousands choose to remain in the country undocumented, living under the constant threat of the immigration police.

According to official data presented to a Knesset Special Committee by the Population and Immigration Authority, out of a shadow workforce of over 33,000 undocumented individuals, operating alongside 195,000 legal workers, authorities forcibly deported 467 people in 2024 alone.

These are not merely administrative numbers, but the tangible outcome of targeted raids that criminalise vulnerable individuals. Furthermore, this precarity is rapidly expanding: according to the latest Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) data released in September 2026, the total number of foreign citizens in Israel has surged to a record 304,000.

As the state continues to import foreign labour while maintaining its rigid visa expirations, an ever-growing number of migrants is destined to fall into irregularity, exposing a massive community to the continuous threat of arrest and deportation.

Shira, Director of Public Policy at the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants in Israel, an NGO providing legal aid to detainees, illustrates the sheer scale of the current crisis.

"Before October 7, 2023, there were about 100,000 legal migrant workers in Israel, primarily in agriculture, construction, and caregiving, arriving through strict bilateral agreements with countries like Thailand, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, and China," Shira explains to The New Arab.

Before its genocide, the Israeli economy also relied heavily on a workforce of approximately 150,000 Palestinian commuters from the occupied West Bank and about 17,000 from Gaza.

However, in the immediate wake of the October 7 attacks, the Israeli government swiftly revoked their work permits and sealed the checkpoints, citing security concerns.

To avert a total collapse of the construction, agricultural, and industrial sectors, the state launched an aggressive, fast-tracked campaign to import foreign labour, effectively attempting to replace the Palestinian workforce overnight.

"They stopped relying on bilateral agreements," Shira notes regarding this post-October 7 shift, "by bypassing these regulated, state-to-state frameworks, the government opened the floodgates to private recruitment agencies.

"This deregulated influx has pushed the foreign worker population to nearly 250,000. For the first time, these new migrants, primarily from India, Sri Lanka, and Malawi, are being deployed in unprecedented sectors, such as supermarkets, exposing new arrivals to severe exploitation," Shira adds. 

'She is an alien here'

Many workers incur crippling debts in their home countries to pay placement agencies, only to arrive in Israel tethered to binding visas.

Some of the migrants interviewed told us they paid between $10,000 and $15,000 to private agencies just to reach the country.

The Ministry of Interior procedures dictate that a worker's visa is legally tied to a specific employer; if a worker resigns due to unpaid wages or abuse, they immediately forfeit their legal status.

Desperate to survive, many turn to fraudulent schemes, filing false asylum requests just to obtain temporary work visas. These claims are inevitably fast-tracked and rejected, placing the workers in immediate jeopardy of arrest.

However, in April 2025, a report presented to the Knesset's Special Committee on Foreign Workers highlighted the government's economic framing of the issue.

As the report showed in 2024, a total of 467 undocumented workers were removed from Israel, and about 4,000 people left Israel as part of a voluntary exit program, mostly Eritrean nationals. 

Meanwhile, the detention machinery remains implacable: undocumented individuals are held in criminal facilities, such as the Givon prison in Ramle, which features a specific wing for immigration detention.

"If they are held for more than 24 hours, they need to see an adjudicator at a tribunal inside the detention," Shira explains.

The state's control extends brutally into migrants' private lives. Caregivers are forced upon entry to sign a document pledging not to engage in romantic relationships in Israel, as the migrant caregivers told The New Arab.

"If you get pregnant, you will be deported unless you send your children back to your country," Beth testifies.

Yet, because caregivers often stay legally for a decade or more, building a life becomes inevitable.

"After seven years here, my daughter was born. I had planned to send her away, but the moment I held her in my arms, I couldn't do it," Beth says, "now she lives here where she was born, but she has no documents. She is an alien here."

When papers decide your future

While new arrivals face immediate exploitation, those trapped in the system for decades endure a gruelling psychological attrition.

Joffrey, a Nigerian refugee, has lived in Israel for 19 years without obtaining permanent status for his children.

"I came from Nigeria just as a refugee," he says. Over nearly two decades, he has built a life here, raising twin daughters who will soon turn 18. Yet, their future is entirely paralysed by the state's bureaucracy.

"We are fighting for it, to get papers," Joffrey explains, noting that without documentation, his daughters, born and raised in Israel, remain institutional ghosts, unable to access higher education, obtain driver's licenses, or travel.

Similarly, Ikenne, who arrived from Nigeria in 2017 after fleeing political persecution as a member of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), highlights the stark dichotomy of living in Israel, stating that the structural exclusion in Israel is absolute.

He points out that the lack of a clear pathway to residency leaves them perpetually vulnerable, emphasising that if the government could simply "make documents easier," the migrants could finally emerge from the shadows and contribute fully to society.

Esther, a 58-year-old woman from Ghana, has lived in Israel for 35 years. Her early years were marked by the same agony faced by undocumented mothers today. "I sent back the first two children to Ghana. It was not easy, but I had no choice," she recalls, having been forced to separate from her infants to ensure they had a future.

Today, even with a passport, Esther holds no illusions about her place in Israeli society. She actively warns younger migrants about the reality of their existence, instructing them to remember their African heritage.

"No matter how you were born here and everything, in a way, you will not be accepted. You have to know your roots,” she told The New Arab. "There will be a time when our children want to fit into something, then they will tell them: 'Listen, you are not from here. You were just born here.' So psychologically, you have to prepare the children. Despite the fact that they are born here, they have to know their roots."

No safe place

For those raising undocumented children today, daily life is characterised by paranoia.

"When we go grocery shopping, we have to constantly look around," says Sharon. In 2019, the immigration police raided her home because of her outspoken advocacy for migrants' rights. "I knew it would happen. I had to hide for six months, moving from one house to another. The oldest of my daughters was only 12," she recalls.

Paradoxically, the outbreak of the Israel-US war on Iran brought a temporary halt to the raids. "It's awful to say, but some mothers are happy when there is a war because the immigration police stop. We could finally sleep, even if in bomb shelters," the women confess.

However, hours after a recent ceasefire announcement with Iran, the crackdown resumed with unprecedented ferocity. Authorities rely on racial profiling, and ordinary citizens frequently volunteer to report suspicious individuals.

Deportations have become swift and ruthless, bypassing standard legal recourse. As Beth and Sharon told The New Arab, four mothers they knew were deported recently, leaving their newly adult children behind in Israel.

"One has cancer and was deported last June, another has a severely autistic son who was left alone during the war with Iran," Beth states.

"They used to give advance notice, giving you time to call a lawyer and leave the country. Now, they have initiated a new policy: everything is immediate," Father David Mark Neuhaus, who in 2010 initiated coordinated efforts for migrants within the St. James Vicariate, denounces.

"A few weeks ago, in our community in Rehovot, they raided an apartment at three in the morning where a man, his wife, and their six-year-old child (who was born here) were staying. They took them, put them in prison, and within 24 hours, loaded them onto a plane to the Philippines," the priest recounts.

For the hundreds of thousands of workers sustaining an occupying country's economy, whether replacing Palestinians or caring for the elderly, the illusion of a democratic haven is shattered.

"I don't understand," Beth asks herself, "how a so-called 'democratic' country can hire workers and, after using them, not know what to do with them."

Lidia Ginestra Giuffrida is a Sicilian freelance journalist focusing on human rights, migration, and conflict. She has reported extensively from across war zones, including Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Ukraine. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera and New Lines Magazine, and she is a regular contributor to Italian outlets

Follow her on Instagram: @lidia_ginestra_giuffrida

In Paris, students have protested over shortages of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and deteriorating school buildings.

In Spain, the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal — who died on 7 October — became a rallying point for housing protests.

In Tirana, students joined wider demonstrations over education costs and corruption allegations.

These are not parts of a single movement, and the protests do not have one common cause. But they bring into focus a shared challenge: whether young people can see a credible route from education to decent work, and from financial dependence to a life of their own. 

France: school conditions shape the starting line

Since September, French students have demonstrated over teacher shortages, overcrowded classes and deteriorating school buildings. Their demands concern more than the day-to-day running of schools. They also raise a question about equal opportunity: can public education give every student the tools to move forward, regardless of where they live or what their family can afford?

The wider figures help explain why that question matters.

In 2025, 25.5 percent of people aged 15–29 in France were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, compared with 24.2 percent across the EU, according to Eurostat.

In August 2026, unemployment among under-25s stood at 20.6 percent, against 8.2 percent for the population as a whole. The corresponding EU rates were 15.4 percent and 6.1 percent.

These figures do not show that school shortages cause youth unemployment. They do show how difficult the step from education into work remains for many young people and why well-resourced schools matter most in areas with the fewest opportunities.

Housing can make that transition harder still. In Paris, one-in-two private tenants under 30 spends more than 51 percent of their income on rent. A Eurostat indicator also shows that 70 percent of 20–24-year-olds and 25 percent of 25–29-year-olds either live with their parents or are financially connected to their household. 

France scored 66 out of 100 and ranked 27th of 182 countries in Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index. The index measures perceptions of public-sector corruption, not the number of proven incidents. It does not explain the school protests, but it underlines why transparency and accountability matter when public services and resources are at stake.

Spain: when housing delays independence

Abascal’s eviction from the Madrid flat where she had lived for decades prompted demonstrations in several Spanish cities and renewed calls for stronger tenant protections. Her case was not a youth protest, but it put a human face on a housing crisis that also shapes whether younger people can leave home and build an independent life.

In 2025, 67.1 percent of Spaniards aged 18–34 lived with at least one parent, according to Spain’s National Statistics Institute.

Among those living with a parent, 28.3 percent said they could not afford to rent. The average age at which young people left home was 30.2, compared with 26.3 across the EU, according to Eurostat.

Housing pressure does not operate in isolation. In 2025, 27.6 percent of Spaniards aged 15–29 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, above the EU rate of 24.2%.

In August 2026, unemployment among under-25s was 22.7 percent, more than twice the overall rate of 10 percent. When joblessness is so much higher among the young and rent is beyond the reach of many, delayed independence cannot be reduced to personal preference.

Spain scored 55/100 in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking 49th of 182 countries. That score does not establish a link between corruption and housing protests. But when people are asking for effective action on housing, transparency over how decisions are made — and accountability for whether they work — are part of the debate.

Albania: growth is not enough if young people see no path forward

In October, students in Tirana protested over education costs and corruption allegations, joining a broader anti-government movement. Their participation brought education and young people’s prospects into a wider debate about living costs, employment and trust in public institutions.

Albania’s official figures show that 19 percent of the population was at risk of relative poverty in 2025, while 31.2 percent experienced severe material and social deprivation, according to INSTAT. The two measures describe different aspects of hardship: one compares household income with the national poverty threshold; the other captures enforced inability to afford basic goods and activities.

Young people also face a difficult entry into the labour market. The World Bank’s ILO-modelled estimates put overall unemployment at 10.9 percent in 2025, rising to 25.6 percent among 15–24-year-olds. The estimated average age of leaving the parental household seemed to be 30.9, compared with 26.3 in the EU, according to Eurostat’s dataset. Together, however, these indicators describe the hurdles between education, employment and independence.

Albania scored 39/100 and ranked 91st of 182 countries in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index. The measure is not a count of actual cases, but corruption allegations are part of the protests themselves. That makes transparency, accountability and public trust more than abstract principles: they shape whether people believe institutions respond fairly to their concerns.

Behind the statistics

Behind the statistics are millions of young people struggling to turn their ambitions into reality. The obstacles reinforce one another: under-resourced schools can narrow choices, unemployment can delay financial independence, and high housing costs can prolong dependence on family.

Across the EU, house prices rose by 55.4 percent and rents by 26.7 percent between 2010 and 2024, often outpacing income growth, according to Eurofound.

That is why the response cannot be confined to one policy area. It means properly staffed and maintained schools, routes from education into decent work, more affordable and social housing, targeted help with rent, and stronger protections for tenants.

Young people should also have a meaningful say in policies that shape their education, employment and housing.

A strong welfare state and effective social protection can help ensure that a young person’s prospects are not determined solely by family income or place of birth. If a low-income family cannot support a young person’s move towards independence, financial dependence can pass from one generation to the next. Tackling that cycle is part of building social justice and societies in which young people can plan a future with greater confidence.

The future will show whether today’s protests lead to lasting policies. The test will be whether young people can study, find decent work and afford a home without their prospects being set by the circumstances into which they were born.

Le mobilitazioni del 17 ottobre e le violenze che ne hanno accompagnato la fase finale mostrano una Francia attraversata da una crisi sociale e politica profonda. Mentre il macronismo entra nel suo ultimo semestre, Marine Le Pen e Jean-Luc Mélenchon incarnano due risposte radicalmente opposte alla domanda di rottura.

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Le immagini degli incendi, delle barricate e degli scontri che hanno attraversato la Francia nelle giornate del 17 e 18 ottobre rischiano di nascondere il dato politicamente più importante: centinaia di migliaia di francesi sono scesi in strada contro il carovita, la crisi dei servizi pubblici e il progressivo deterioramento delle condizioni materiali di vita. Il ministero dell’Interno ha contato circa 550.000 partecipanti alla giornata nazionale del 17 ottobre, mentre gli organizzatori ne hanno rivendicati circa 800.000. Una mobilitazione di dimensioni tali da costituire la più importante esplosione di protesta sociale dai tempi della battaglia contro la riforma delle pensioni del 2023.

Il fenomeno sarebbe tuttavia incomprensibile se venisse ridotto ai disordini che hanno segnato la conclusione di numerosi cortei. Lungi dall’essere nata il 17 ottobre, la protesta rappresenta il risultato di un processo cominciato settimane prima nelle scuole e nelle università, quando studenti e liceali hanno iniziato a denunciare classi sovraffollate, carenza di personale, precarietà e progressivo impoverimento dell’istruzione pubblica. Alle mobilitazioni giovanili si sono poi aggiunti sindacati, lavoratori, pensionati e settori del movimento dei gilets jaunes, mentre il rincaro dei carburanti ha agito da detonatore di un malessere sociale molto più ampio.

Tale convergenza conferisce agli avvenimenti un significato politico ben superiore a quello di un’ennesima fiammata di protesta francese. L’Humanité ha descritto il corteo parigino come l’incontro tra generazioni differenti accomunate dalle rivendicazioni sui salari, sul futuro della gioventù e sulla difesa dei servizi pubblici, ma soprattutto dal rifiuto delle politiche seguite dal 2017. In questo senso appare particolarmente significativa l’immagine proposta dal quotidiano della sinistra francese: il macronismo rischia di terminare così come era cominciato, in mezzo ai lacrimogeni e a un conflitto sociale che il potere politico sembra incapace di ricomporre.

Nel tentativo di distogliere l’opinione pubblica dalle ragioni concrete delle proteste, il primo ministro Sébastien Lecornu ha accusato gruppi dell’ultrasinistra di avere deliberatamente organizzato gli incidenti, arrivando a contrapporre il “campo della Repubblica” a quello dei “casseurs” e indirizzando buona parte delle proprie accuse contro La France Insoumise (LFI), nonostante lo stesso leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon avesse invitato esplicitamente i propri sostenitori a non partecipare a saccheggi e devastazioni. Il Rassemblement National (RN), dal canto suo, ha rapidamente trasformato le immagini dei disordini in materiale di propaganda, cercando di associare la protesta sociale a una crisi dell’autorità e alla necessità di restaurare l’ordine.

È una dinamica che rischia di favorire l’estrema destra, ma che non deve far perdere di vista l’origine della crisi. L’aumento del costo della vita, la stagnazione dei salari, il deterioramento dei servizi pubblici e la nuova impostazione austeritaria del bilancio per il 2027 rappresentano il terreno materiale sul quale la protesta è cresciuta.

La risposta televisiva di Emmanuel Macron del 18 ottobre ha mostrato una volta ancora la difficoltà dell’Eliseo a uscire dalla contraddizione che accompagna ormai l’ultimo periodo della sua presidenza. Il capo dello Stato ha riconosciuto la legittimità delle preoccupazioni espresse dai manifestanti, ma ha a sua volta concentrato una parte importante del proprio intervento sulla condanna delle violenze e sulle questioni di ordine pubblico. Ha annunciato consultazioni con studenti, insegnanti, sindacati, parlamentari e rappresentanti delle imprese, senza però indicare immediatamente una svolta economica capace di rispondere alle cause sociali della protesta.

Messi insieme, tutti questi elementi fanno emergere in modo chiaro la dimensione strutturale della crisi del macronismo. Quando Emmanuel Macron conquistò l’Eliseo nel 2017, promise di superare la tradizionale divisione tra destra e sinistra. La sua formula politica avrebbe dovuto sostituire il conflitto ideologico con una gestione pragmatica, europea e modernizzatrice della società francese. Quasi dieci anni dopo, il risultato appare paradossalmente opposto: la Francia non è meno polarizzata, anzi risulta essere molto più polarizzata di quanto fosse all’inizio della presidenza Macron.

La dissoluzione dell’Assemblée nationale nel 2024 aveva già distrutto l’illusione di una maggioranza presidenziale stabile. Da allora la Francia è entrata in una lunga sequenza di governi minoritari, crisi parlamentari e negoziati sul bilancio. Il governo Lecornu resta privo di una maggioranza autonoma, mentre il progetto finanziario per il 2027 è stato accolto con ostilità dalle opposizioni e con crescente nervosismo dai mercati. All’inizio di ottobre i rendimenti del debito francese avevano raggiunto livelli che non si vedevano dai primi anni Duemila, mentre il debito pubblico ha superato il 119% del prodotto interno lordo e la crescita resta debole.

Ma sarebbe riduttivo interpretare questa situazione come una semplice “crisi del debito”. Il problema fondamentale riguarda piuttosto la distribuzione dei costi della crisi. Il governo continua a presentare l’austerità come una necessità tecnica, mentre la sinistra francese sottolinea come essa rappresenti piuttosto una scelta politica precisa: ridurre la spesa sociale e comprimere i servizi pubblici anziché intervenire sulle grandi fortune, sui profitti e sulle ingenti sovvenzioni concesse alle imprese. Da qui nasce la domanda che attraversa una parte consistente delle piazze francesi: chi deve pagare la crisi?

La risposta del RN è radicalmente diversa. Marine Le Pen tenta di trasformare la crisi del macronismo in una crisi dello Stato, dell’immigrazione e dell’ordine pubblico. Il suo partito cerca di intercettare lo stesso malcontento che alimenta le proteste, ma di orientarlo verso una soluzione nazionalista e securitaria. Sul terreno economico, inoltre, il RN sta tentando di rassicurare i mercati: Le Pen ha recentemente promesso forti riduzioni della spesa pubblica qualora conquistasse l’Eliseo, mentre Jordan Bardella ha difeso un piano volto a tagliare circa 140 miliardi di euro di spesa e a ridurre rapidamente deficit e debito. La pretesa dell’estrema destra di rappresentare una rottura sociale con il macronismo entra quindi in contraddizione con un programma economico che contiene anch’esso una pesante componente austeritaria.

Ad ogni modo, i dati demoscopici mostrano quanto questa contrapposizione stia modificando la politica francese. Le rilevazioni pubblicate nelle ultime settimane indicano Marine Le Pen come candidata nettamente più forte al primo turno, ma contemporaneamente mostrano una crescita di Mélenchon e soprattutto una straordinaria solidità della sua base. Un’indagine Ipsos BVA-Cevipof attribuiva in settembre al candidato di LFI tra il 15,5 e il 17% delle intenzioni di voto, ma con livelli molto più alti tra i giovani: fra i 18 e i 24 anni Mélenchon raggiungeva addirittura il 40%. Un sondaggio successivo, riportato da Reuters, ha delineato perfino scenari nei quali Le Pen e Mélenchon si qualificherebbero insieme per il ballottaggio, estromettendo completamente i candidati dell’area centrista.

Naturalmente manca ancora molto alla primavera del 2027 e ogni previsione resta fragile. Marine Le Pen deve inoltre affrontare ancora l’incognita del proprio contenzioso giudiziario, mentre a sinistra rimangono divisioni profonde tra LFI, socialisti, comunisti ed ecologisti. Ma il dato politico è già evidente: il successore di Macron non sembra destinato a provenire dal blocco che ha governato la Francia nell’ultimo decennio.

La battaglia per l’Eliseo sarà quindi molto più di una competizione tra candidati. Sarà uno scontro attorno all’interpretazione stessa del fallimento macronista. L’estrema destra sostiene che la Francia soffra soprattutto per un deficit di autorità, sovranità e controllo. La sinistra radicale individua invece il problema nella crescente disuguaglianza, nell’austerità, nell’indebolimento dei servizi pubblici e nella subordinazione delle scelte economiche agli interessi del grande capitale. Il campo macronista, nel frattempo, fatica sempre più a convincere che la continuazione delle politiche degli ultimi dieci anni possa rappresentare una risposta alla crisi prodotta proprio durante quel decennio.