Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankar IA's Academy, displayed at the list of news articles taken up for today's analysis, along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Trivandrum editions. The handwritten notes in PDF format and the timestamping of all the news articles taken up for today's analysis will be available in the description section and also in the common section for the benefit of the smartphone users. Let us now start our analysis. This news article discusses about the ban on oxytocin, the syllabus for this news analysis is given here. Let us now see the news article. In April 2018, the central government has issued a notification as per the powers given to it under section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. Now as per this section, the central government has the power to regulate, restrict or prohibit the manufacture, sale or the distribution of drug and cosmetics in public interest. The central government has such powers if it feels satisfied under these three situations in public interest. The first one is if the use of any drug or cosmetic is likely to involve any risk to the human beings or animals. Next, if any drug does not have the therapeutic value as claimed or as perverted or stated to be claimed for that particular drug. Finally, if the drug contains ingredients and if that ingredient is in such a less quantity for which there is no therapeutic justification, then the central government can exercise its powers. In our case, that is as per the April 2018 notification, the central government has restricted the manufacturing of oxytocin for domestic use to only to the public sector undertakings. So, only the PSUs can manufacture oxytocin in India for domestic use. In this notification, there is also one more provision for the purpose of exports. The private players can actually manufacture oxytocin but for domestic use, it is restricted one to the public sector undertakings. Now, let us see about oxytocin. It is a natural hormone that is secreted by the pituitary glands of the humans and also some mammals. This hormone plays an very important role in women during childbirth. It is used as a first-line drug which is administered or given to the young mothers in order to save their lives when they are suffering from excessive bleeding immediately after childbirth. Then, oxytocin also plays an important role during lactation, that is feeding of mother's milk after childbirth. Then, this hormone is also manufactured artificially if you see and it is being given as a prescription drug. It is used to start birth contractions by the uterus during the delivery. In simple terms, it will accelerate the normal labor process. This hormone is also used in milk animals, that is to those animals that provide milk. So, when this hormone is injected into the milk animals, the animals will give more milk. Also know that oxytocin is included in the national list of essential medicines in India. This particular list is provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Now, let us see some of the old issues and cases related to this oxytocin use. This news article tells that the trigger for the notification was a 21-year-old controversy or a problem which is the clandestine or the secret manufacture of the oxytocin drug. And if you see, this drug was misused by the dairy owners where they injected oxytocin on the milk animals in order to artificially extract more milk from those animals. In March 2016, if you see, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh had given a judgment. In that particular judgment, the High Court asked to check for the feasibility of restricting the manufacture of oxytocin only in the public sector companies, nothing but the public sector enterprises. Since it observed a large-scale clandestine manufacture and sale of the oxytocin drug, the High Court asked to check for the feasibility of restricting the manufacture. So, we saw that this drug was misused by the dairy owners, which is harmful to both animals and humans. After this judgment, this matter was considered by the Drugs Technical Advisory Board. Know that this Drugs Technical Advisory Board is a statutory body which is constituted under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940. And this board comes under Central Drugs Standard Control Organization. Now, this board recommended that oxytocin formulations for human use needs to be regulated and restricted. And they should be supplied only to the registered hospitals and clinics in both public and private sector in order to prevent its misuse. So, the supply will be only to the registered hospitals and clinics. Now, based on the recommendations of this board, the Central Government issued a notification in April 2018. So, this is the April 2018 notification. In this notification, the Central Government restricted the usage of oxytocin, like it restricted its imports. And it also decided to confine the manufacturing to a public sector enterprise, which is Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Limited. Now, the news is that yesterday, the Supreme Court has referred or mentioned all the petitions that have challenged this April 2018 notification to a three-judge bench. So, we just need to wait and watch how this case will move forward. Now, have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article speaks about the poultry farmers in the state of Karnataka who are demanding for importing the genetically modified maize crop. The syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. Now, before discussing the news article, let us first understand the meaning of genetically modified organisms. According to the World Health Organization, genetically modified organisms are defined as those organisms which can be plants, animals or even microorganisms in which the genetic material has been altered in such a way that it does not occur naturally, like naturally means by mating or through natural recombination. Instead, it is being done artificially to alter the genetic material in the organisms. So, this is called as genetically modified organisms. Now, the news article tells that the poultry farmers and breeders in the state of Karnataka are facing a shortage of indignously grown maize. So, this maize is used to feed the broiler chickens. In order to overcome this shortage, now the poultry farmers are demanding for the import of the genetically modified maize. Otherwise, they will have to wait for a few months in order to get the non-GM maize that is the regular maize till the state authorities import the non-GM maize. But they might have to pay more for that non-GM maize because there will be a huge demand by then. So, this is why the poultry farmers and breeders are demanding for the import of GM maize. If you see maize is one of the chief sources of feed for the broilers, the author says that in this news article it was mentioned that maize was available at a cost of 17,000 rupees per ton last year. So, this maize was imported by the state trading enterprises like the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India, in short the NAFET. Now the proposed import will cost them at least 23,500 rupees per ton. So, this is an increase of 6,500 rupees. So, this will ultimately bring down the profit of the poultry breeders because there is a huge scarcity for the indignously grown maize. When we tell indignously it means the maize that is grown within India. The yield of the indignously grown maize has been severely compromised or affected due to pest attacks and also due to drought nothing but water scarcity. Another reason for the low availability of maize is that we import maize from countries like Ukraine but now in that country it is an off season for maize so that we cannot even import the non-GM maize from Ukraine. So, this is one another reason but if you see the GM maize is available globally in abundance that is it is available in huge quantities and also it is cheaper when compared to the non-GM maize nothing but the regular maize. So, this is why the poultry farmers are pushing for importing the GM maize. They have asked the state authorities to get permission from the central government and they personally have assured that GM maize will only be used for feeding the poultry and it will not be used for sowing that is agriculture or even for human consumption. In this news article it is mentioned that any decision in the matter of permitting import of GM maize has to be taken by the directorate general of foreign trade know that this office of directorate general of foreign trade is attached to the ministry of commerce and industry. The news article also tells that for the time being the state trading enterprises who trade this maize crop are allowed to import only non-GM maize for feeding poultry and they are prohibited to import GM maize. Also know that the import of any food, any feed which is raw or processed or any other ingredient of food then food additives or any food product that contains GM material and which is being used either for the industrial production or for environmental release or field application will be allowed only with the approval of the genetic engineering appraisal committee. Now know that in the newspaper the term is given as genetic engineering approval committee. It was called as genetic engineering approval committee till 2010 then after a Gassett notification in 2010 this genetic engineering approval committee was renamed as genetic engineering appraisal committee and know that this functions under the ministry of environment forests and climate change. In the news article it is mentioned that in 2018 the government of India allowed the import of chicken from United States to India. So India had to allow the import of chicken from the US after a ruling from the world trade organization. So now the poultry industry has taken this point and they are justifying their demand for the import of GM maize because if you see in the US the poultry that is nothing but the chicken they are fed with GM maize and also with GM soya and that poultry is being imported to India for which the Indian government gave approval in 2018. So the poultry industry is justifying that GM maize can also be imported. The poultry industry has also said that the residue from the GM cotton seed oil has long been used as a feed for chicken cattle and fish in India. So this is their justification for importing GM maize from abroad. Now let us see some facts about the directorate general of foreign trade. It is attached to the ministry of commerce and industry as we saw it was formed in there 1991. Its main role is that it acts as a facilitator of exports and imports keeping in use of the interests of India. So it will help in exporting products from India and importing products to India and the main objective of this directorate general of foreign trade is to regulate and promote the foreign trade in line with the principles of liberalization and globalization. Also it is responsible for implementing the foreign trade policy or the Exim policy of India and know that earlier this directorate general of foreign trade was known as the chief controller of imports and exports till there 1991. So once the LPG reforms or the liberalization, privatization, globalization reforms came into effect this particular division was renamed as directorate general of foreign trade. That is why we can see that its objective is to regulate and promote foreign trade in line with the principles of liberalization and globalization. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This editorial talks about the Belt and Road Initiative of China and the challenges faced by the syllabus that is relevant to the analysis of this editorial is given you for your reference. Let us now see the editorial. The Belt and Road Initiative is one of China's most ambitious policy. It was initially conceived as a response to China's over capacity in infrastructure related industries. That is the infrastructure related industries in China were producing more than what needs to be produced. In order to consume their production, this initiative was put forward by China. Now this over capacity happened due to the credit-fewable growth in China during 2008. It means providing more credit to produce more so that the demand will rise automatically. Till the global economic recession which happened around 2007-2008, the Chinese economy was booming because of huge exports. But since the international economy faced recession, the global trade reduced and so the Chinese exports also came down quite heavily. So in 2009 the Chinese administration came up with a proposal called the Chinese Marshall Plan. This plan suggested that China should use its vast foreign exchange reserves and then its expertise in building infrastructure then the over capacity nothing but the over production in iron, cement, aluminum, glass, coal and shipbuilding industries and then the unemployed labor. So all these must be used to meet the infrastructure demand in Southeast Asia, then in Central Asia and also in Africa. We have an original Marshall Plan that is the Marshall Plan in 1948. This was actually a US initiative to provide economic assistance to Western Europe. So this in turn will benefit the US economy. Similar to that in 2009, China came up with its Chinese Marshall Plan. The author of this editorial is telling that the Chinese leadership is enough compelled to review the Belt and Road Initiative due to a lot of reasons. Here the author has mentioned the China-US trade war which is still ongoing between China and US. Then the mounting criticism on the Belt and Road Initiative and also the growing division nothing but the schism in its Politburo. So Politburo is nothing but the decision-making body of the Communist Party of China. So all these are some of the reasons why the author is telling that the Chinese leadership is now compelled to review the Belt and Road Initiative. Now, let us see in brief about this Belt and Road Initiative. It was announced in 2013 by the Chinese president. It has two parts. First one consists of belt of rail routes, then highways, then oil and gas pipelines and other infrastructure projects which will be extending from Xi'an and Central China and it will pass through Central Asia, Russia, West Asia and Europe. It has another branch which will extend from the Khashkar in Xinjiang province in China to Guadar which is located in Balochistan and this will travel via the Pakistan occupied Kashmir. So this corridor is called as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Now the second part of this Belt and Road Initiative consists of a network of ports and coastal infrastructure. So this will stretch from Eastern China across the Southeast Asia and South Asia, then the Gulf countries, then Eastern Africa and through the Mediterranean up to Rotterdam and Europe. So one is the land route, the next is the water route. According to China more than 120 countries have signed and joined this Belt and Road Initiative and the China's trade with these countries has crossed more than 5 trillion US dollars and the investment has totaled around 200 billion US dollars for around 2600 projects since 2013. And the author has mentioned also one more statistics here. He tells that in 2019 China's trade with the Belt and Road Initiative countries was 6% higher when compared to the growth of its global trade. According to the author, the Belt and Road Initiative has not succeeded in the full utilization of over capacity in infrastructure industries. If you see China had to close many companies about one third of its projects are failing due to several issues like there is no open tendering or there is no competitive building or there is no practice of an independent pre feasibility or environmental impact studies as per the global norms which has to be conducted for the BRH projects. And if you see most of the projects are suffering from lack of local resources and then there are protests on the land procurement and there are also protests that the projects might cause pollution, then the performance delays, then corruption, then financial viability, then unsustainable debt and low investment returns. So these are some of the problems that the BRH projects are facing. And also the interest rate that is charged by China for these projects is also quite high. For government loans that is the loans given by Chinese government to the other country which is a part of this BRH network is 3%. And for the commercial loans that is the loans that are given to the companies in other BRH countries, the interest rate is ranging between 17% to 18%. And this again comes with the sovereign guarantee of the local government. Now many of these loans, both the government and also the commercial loans that were provided, have turned into non-performing assets, which means whatever projects that China is trying to implement has either not been completed or for those completed projects the rate of return is quite low. So now China has become quite selective in giving new loans. According to the author, some Belt and Road initiative projects do not make any economic sense because the cost of transportation via the proposed BRH projects is much more when compared to the existing routes. Also if you see many countries like Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Malaysia have asked China to either restructure or downsize that is reduce the proposed BRH projects. In one way it is good that India did not participate in the BRH. The reason why India did not participate in BRH was due to the concerns that were related to the sovereign tissue since the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passes through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. And also there were many other reasons why India did not join this BRH like lack of transparency, openness, then financial sustainability, then the high interest rates that China is charging and also the tide nature of the Chinese loans. Here the tide nature of Chinese loans means China will insist the receiving country to spend money on particular things so as to benefit the Chinese firms. So this is what is the concept of tide loans. So whichever country that is receiving the money will not have that freedom to spend the money as and how it wishes. Instead it has to go by the terms and conditions of China. So the author is telling that after all these international criticisms high expectations about the Belt and Road initiative have now faded down that is now there reduced. And to highlight this the author has given one statistics he tells that the growth of the Belt and Road initiative projects is now down because the China's investment in all these projects in the first quarter of the financial year 2019 grew only by 4 percentage whereas if you see in 2018 the growth was around 22 percentage. So the author is telling that the growth of BRH is quite low now. Next the author has mentioned about the Belt and Road initiative forum that was held in April 2019. In this forum the Chinese president promised to fine tune the Belt and Road initiative. So he assured that there will be an open consultation in order to bring more transparency and also to bring in clean governance and also implementation of green projects that is environment friendly projects or sustainable projects. Then the author has mentioned that now the Belt and Road initiative is a Chinese scheme which is dominated by the state-owned enterprises that is those public enterprises that are controlled by the Chinese government. So the author is concluding the editorial by telling that the real challenges whether all these best practices can be incorporated into the Belt and Road initiative or it will remain only as a Chinese scheme because we saw that the state-owned enterprises only play a lead implementing role in implementing these projects. So the author hopes that China will fine tune the BRH projects by having open consultation clean governance and also by implementing green projects. So from this editorial the author has given an idea about how the Belt and Road initiative was formed and some details about the Belt and Road initiative and why it failed and how the Chinese government wishes to overturn the BRH as it announced in the BRH forum in April 2019. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article is about the humanoid robot that was launched into space by Russia. The syllabus for this news analysis is given here. Yesterday that is on 22nd August Russia has launched an unmanned rocket to the International Space Station or in short ISS. This unmanned rocket is carrying a life-size humanoid robot. Now a humanoid robot is a robot which has human-like features. If you see the size of the robot will also be similar to the size of the humans that is where it is called as a life-size humanoid robot. In this news article it is mentioned that the silvery anthropomorphic robot is 1.8 meters tall and it weighs 160 kg. Now the term anthropomorphic means having human characteristics. The purpose of this humanoid robot is to assist the astronauts who are in the International Space Station. The name of this humanoid robot is Fyodor. Fyodor is the acronym for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research. Fyodor is also known as SkyBot F850. Know that this is the first robot ever sent to space by Russia. This robot was put in the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft and the spacecraft was launched from Russia's Cosmodrome which is located at Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz spacecraft will dock with the International Space Station on Saturday that is 24th August and it will stay that till 7th of September. This news article tells that normally Soyuz spacecrafts are manned during trips to the International Space Station but on Thursday no humans travelled in this spacecraft. These humanoid robots will also be potentially useful in Earth. They can be deployed in high radiation environments. Now if you need to know that there are also some other robots which have been to space this includes Robonaut 2 from NASA. If you see this NASA's Robonaut 2 which had head and arms but no legs performed simple test tasks between 2011 and 2014 but there were some difficulties in its operations so it returned back to Earth in 2018. This Robonaut 2 is expected to make another flight to the International Space Station in 2020. Next you need to know about Simón or Crew Interactive Mobile Companion. This was developed by the European Aerospace Company Airbus on behalf of the German Space Agency which is well known by its German acronym DLR. This Simón is a small robot which is endowed with artificial intelligence and this visited the International Space Station in June 2018. If you see Japan has also sent a small robot to International Space Station in 2013. This small robot's name was Kirobo. This robot was developed along with Toyota which is an automobile manufacturing company. This robot was also able to make some conversations but only the Japanese language. Apart from these there are a couple of NASA's free flying robots in the International Space Station. They are Spears and Astrobee. Here Astrobee is the more advanced version when compared to Spears. Now the purpose of sending all these robots is to basically assist the astronauts who are living in the International Space Station in their day to day activities. Now let us see in brief about International Space Station. It is a joint project between five participating space agencies which are NASA from USA, Roscosmos from Russia, JAXA the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency from Japan, next the European Space Agency from Europe and next the Canadian Space Agency from Canada. The purpose of this International Space Station is to learn more about living and working in space conditions. So scientific research is being conducted International Space Station. Now also know that India announced to build its own space station in June 2019. It would take another five to seven years to build this space station as per Astro's announcement. So whenever you are learning about a particular class of technology like today it was humanoid robots always try to know if similar such technologies exist in some other countries as well. So this is how we connect the current affairs. Now have a look at the practice question. Let us move on to the next news article. This news article speaks about the World Health Organization publication on microplastics in drinking water. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is given here for your reference. Let us now see the news article. Recently if you see the World Health Organization has released a publication which is titled microplastics in drinking water. This study is related to the presence of microplastics in treated tap and treated bottled water which have raised questions and concerns about the impact that microplastics in drinking water might have on human health. Now we need to know the term microplastics. They are very small pieces of plastic generally with a length of less than five millimeters. So in this publication it has been said that the level of microplastics in drinking water is not yet dangerous for humans but it has stressed upon the need for more research in the future because in the future it can be a potential risk to human health. Now the World Health Organization's coordinator of water and sanitation has said that based on the assessment the risk for drinking water consumer from around the world is low. It has also said that at present the data on the presence of microplastics in drinking water is quite limited. So with these few reliable studies it is very difficult to analyze the results and the impacts of microplastics on human health. So the World Health Organization has called on the researchers to conduct more in-depth evaluation into microplastics and the potential impacts on human health. Then the World Health Organization has also urged a crackdown on plastic pollution in order to benefit the environment and also to reduce the human exposure to microplastics. Now why the World Health Organization is urging a crackdown on plastic pollution? Because at present without any limitation plastic is being used by the human beings across different countries. We also saw during our 16th August analysis that microplastics have been found in Arctic snow and also on the Alps mountains in the European continent. So we can see the presence of microplastics across the globe. And if you see basically there are two types of microplastics. One is the primary microplastic where like microbeads, fibers which are manufactured and whose size or length is less than 5 millimeter. But there are secondary microplastics which are formed when the larger plastics break down. So when the plastic pollution is more the formation of secondary microplastics in the environment will also become more. This is the reason why the World Health Organization has urged a crackdown on plastic pollution. So they have told that for the time being the microplastics in the drinking water may not be threatening the human health. But they have insisted that policy makers and the public should take measures in order to better manage the plastics and reduce its use wherever possible. And also if you see in the Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister of India told that India needs to put an end to the single use plastic. So the threat that the microplastics are likely to cause to humans in the future is quite high. The World Health Organization has also said that microplastics which are larger than 150 micrometers are not likely to be absorbed by the human body. But it said that the chance of absorbing very small microplastic particles including nano sized particles is quite high. Now in order to conduct a more robust that is a more active human health risk assessment of these microplastics, several data gaps should be addressed. Now let us see them. First is we need to have a better understanding about the occurrence and the detection of microplastics and also the nano plastics in drinking water. So we need to find the source of these microplastics in drinking water. Then we need to do more research on adverse health effects of these microplastics and then also the influence of the size, shape and the chemical composition of these microplastics on human health. Then we also need to conduct research on the capacity of microplastics to transport pathogenic bacteria over long distances. So a lot of research needs to be done on microplastics in the future as stressed by the World Health Organization. Now let us move on to the practice questions discussion session. The question is which among the following hormones has recently been in use for its rampant misuse in milk animals? We saw during our discussion that oxytocin is being misused in large quantities by the dairy farmers because the farmers inject them to the milk animals so that they can get more milk. So the correct answer here is oxytocin. Let us also see the other hormones that I mentioned here. First is the insulin. Insulin is the hormone that is responsible for regulating the blood sugar levels in human body. Next is the adrenaline hormone. It is also called as the fight or flight hormone. It is basically released in response to a stressful situation or an exciting situation or when there is a dangerous or threatening situation. Next we have dopamine. Dopamine is generally called as the happy hormone. So it is responsible for our experiencing happiness. So here the correct answer for this question is option C oxytocin. Also know that the intake of oxytocin is associated with the onset of early puberty in children. So if you see particularly child traffickers misuse this hormone. So these child traffickers traffic the children for the purpose of prostitution and they misuse this hormone to induce early puberty in those children who are trafficked so that they can be involved in child prostitution. So this is a fact just remember. Moving on to the next question. Consider the following statements. They have given three statements and I have asked you to choose the correct answer. The first statement tells that the direct trade general of foreign trade is under the Ministry of External Affairs. Now this statement is wrong. We saw during a discussion that the direct trade general of foreign trade comes under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries. So remember that the term trade is used. So it is basically to regulate the foreign trade. So it will come under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and know that it was formed in the year 1991. So the first statement is wrong here. Now if the first statement is wrong and if you are going by the elimination technique we can arrive at the answer which is option C 2 and 3 but let us also see the other two statements. The second statement tells that it regulates and promotes foreign trade in line with the principles of liberalization and globalization. So this is the objective of the direct trade general of foreign trade. So this statement is correct. The third statement tells that it is responsible for implementing foreign trade policy of India. So this is one of the function of the direct trade general of foreign trade. It is responsible for implementing the foreign trade policy of India or the Exim policy of India. So the correct answer to this question is option C 2 and 3. Moving on to the next question. The question is international space station is a joint project of the space agencies of which of the following countries? They have given USA, Russia, India, Japan and China. During our discussion we saw that the international space station is a joint effort or a joint project of the five space agencies of five countries which are NASA from USA, then Roscosmos from Russia, then JAXA from Japan, then ESA from Europe and CSA, the Canadian Space Agency from Canada. So here we can eliminate three India and five China. So the correct answer is option 1, 2 and 4 which is option A. So the correct answer is option A, 1, 2 and 4. During our discussion if you remember we also saw that India is going to come up with its own space station likely in the next five to seven years. So the PACE Agency of India which is the Indian Space Research Organization announced this in June 2019. So this is the current affairs. So remember it. So if you are able to eliminate India which is number three, you can eliminate three options here which are options B, C and D. So if you go by the elimination technique, you can easily arrive at this answer. So the correct answer is option A, 1, 2 and 4, 1, D. Moving on to the next question. The question is consider the following parts. They have given space robots and international space station and space agency. Now just see the names Fedor, Robonaut 2, Vikram. So just by seeing the names you can eliminate Vikram because we know that Vikram is the name of the lander that is used in Chandrayaan 2 mission and it is nowhere connected to being a space robot in international space station. So you can easily eliminate three but you also need to know the other two pairs. Fedor is the space robot of Roscosmos. So this is a news today that it has been launched yesterday to the international space station and we also saw that Robonaut 2 is the space robot of NASA which is the space agency of USA. So 1 and 2 are correct, 3 is wrong. Now the question is asked you to choose the incorrect pair or pairs. So here the incorrect pair is only the third pair. So the correct answer is option B, 3, 1, D. With this we come to the end of the analysis of all the news articles taken up for today's discussion and also the practice questions discussion session. Do like, comment and share the video and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for latest videos and updates. Stay focused and motivated friends. Thank you.


It's a country that is blessed. It's blessed by its abundance in natural resources, in its beauty, in its cultural diversity, but it's also a country that is challenged from a natural disasters point of view. For those that don't know, it's among the 10 countries in the world most vulnerable to natural disasters. In the past, we had a lot of issues with trying to identify people who are affected by disasters. Because when disasters happen, they migrate or they go away to several zones, several places. And the challenge for us was to actually track down and identify which people are affected. So that was a challenge we had before. But with the IOM and the United Nations assistance, now we have the displacement tracking metrics. It's easier to not track down on people that have been affected at this place so we can bring them into one place and be able to provide the services that are required. DTM should be taught in all levels of the government, especially at the provincial level, to the districts, to the LLG and the world levels where people should be well educated in terms of a collection of information and data when there is a natural disaster. These people on the ground should be well equipped with skills and information so that they're able to report back quickly for relief supplies or help that should come in. I will try my best to do my responsibility in giving information, even try my best to learn with the skills that I've got to impart to my other women leaders so that we are able to also report back from any situation that is affecting us, especially with women and any other related issues in the community. We have come to realize the importance of DTM because previously we were just assuming, but going through this exercise we have come to realize that there is template and other arrangements that we could use to actually know how many people we are planning for. Let me thank UN as well as other partners from international organizations, our national government, provincial government, for your continued support. Hela has been bombarded with so many disasters, 7.5 magnitude and could destroy the entire province. In a very critical time when Hela faced this disaster, UN has been seen as a ninja rescuing Hela, that Hela will forever remember. After the 2018 earthquake we were able to rely on the DTM again in response to the volcanic activity of Mount Elowen, 8,000 people were actually affected and were on the move and again the DTM enabled us to profile them and get a better sense of their needs. The DTM doesn't rely exclusively on a high level of technology, it can be done through paper matrices and gathering exercises, it can be done through hand held tablets, it can be done through a range of different platforms. So it can reach out to communities where there may not be access to telecommunications, may not be access to the internet, it's still a tool that's flexible, easy to manage, easy to replicate, easy to distribute in the times of the crisis. There's much scope for making continued use of the DTM, we've been working with government, with provincial authorities and of course international partners to launch a joint program building on the nexus between development needs, humanitarian assistance and peace building objectives in the highlands and the DTM will be a fundamental instrument to enable us to get also a sense of movement of people as they are impacted by ongoing conflicts.


Hello, hello, hello, and welcome. I'm Meron Khalili. We are DM25, a radical political movement for Europe. And this is another live discussion with our coordinating team featuring subversive ideas you won't hear anywhere else. Tonight, tonight we are, excuse me, just have to shut something off, start again. Tonight, we'll be looking once again at what can happen over here in Europe when you speak out against Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, which to date has killed over 30,000 people, most of them women and children. And specifically, we'll be examining the disturbing events of last Friday in Berlin at the Palestine Congress. Now, this was a vital three-day conference organized by multiple groups, including us, DM25, as well as Jewish voice for peace. Its goal was to unite activists around a ceasefire for Gaza and to examine Germany's complicity in Israel's murderous campaign. But shortly after the conference started, German police stormed the building. They blocked access to anyone trying to get in. They shut off the power, disabled the live stream and ordered everyone to leave. They detained dozens of activists who were attending, including many Jewish ones. They deported one of the speakers, a surgeon who had treated people in Gaza. And then we learned that our own Yanis Faroufakis, who was also due to speak at the event, had been banned too, not only from making political speeches in Germany, but also from doing so over Zoom.  The German Interior Minister suggested that the conference was spreading Islamist propaganda and hatred against Jews. She praised the Berlin police and said, we need immediate tough action when such crimes are committed, when the actual crime of the conference was just to talk about the mass slaughter of women and children that continues to this day with German bombs and German support. The lengths to which Germany will go to silence criticism of Israel, to atone for orchestrating a genocide in the past and to obscure its role in a genocide in the present are truly astounding and revealing about our political landscape today. As activists advocating for Palestine, we should examine it and learn from it. So tonight, we'll be putting this act of repression under the microscope. Yanis Varoufakis is here as well as colleagues who attended the Palestine Congress, as well as a special guest, Georg Ismail, who helped to organize the event. They'll be weighing in on what really happened, what was the reaction, what lessons could we draw and what could it all mean for free speech and for Palestine.  Let's kick it off with Yanis. Thank you, Ma'am. I can't wait to hear from Georg as an organizer of the Palestine Congress and also from Karen Derigo, the person in charge of our attempt to get elected in the European Parliament elections in Germany. Karen is leading our list of candidates for the European Parliament. I wasn't there. I was meant to connect through Zoom, which I now find out even that I can't do or at least there is a threat that if I do it, I will be crossing the legal maze in which presents itself as a rules-based German system. Allow me to offer a broader perspective. I feel very honored to have been banned by this German government. But, you know, I don't have the right to think personally because there are people who are, as we speak, terrified of what might happen to them. If they are associated with the struggle that they believe in for political rights in Palestine, in Germany for that matter, because I have a certain presence in the media, which to some extent shames me. If something happens to me, it will become news. But many of our volunteers, many of our supporters, many of the people out there who are carrying the weight of the struggle on their shoulders don't feel as secure as they do. And we have to seriously worry about them and work towards their safety and psychological policing. So, having made that preface, allow me to take a broader view of what has happened last week. And I'm going to start the week, the account of last week, of this momentous week, with what happened at the beginning of last week, on Monday, because on Monday, I was in Milano, in Italy. Nothing to do with what we are discussing today, but I think at the same time, everything to do with what we are discussing today. In Milano, first I addressed a Meta 25 Italian meeting, but then the next morning, on Tuesday, I gave a speech to a gathering of hundreds of European financial analysts. In which, without knowing, of course, what was going to follow during the rest of the week, especially last Friday and Saturday, talking to these financiers, I outlined my analysis of what's going on in the German economy. In particular, I outlined dire domestications about the long-term damage inflicted upon Germany's social economy by decades of austerity, combined with money printing, that hugely impressive largesse on behalf of financiers, you know, the whole Merkel-Scheuble period, extending to the Olaf Scholz era. To my surprise, those hard-nosed financiers, many of the suits and some women, not many, hundreds of them in Milano, they applauded my analysis. And many of them approached me afterwards, this is what was all done behind closed doors, they approached me to say that I was right. I have to tell you that when these financiers hear me come up with prognosis of substantial economic distress, especially in Germany, and I put forward these ideas, and then they come to me and they say that I'm right. I'm very vexed, very worried, deep down, I hope that I'm wrong. Okay, and then there was a speech that I never got delivered in Berlin, which left me not merely troubled, but literally speechless. Let's go much further back, you all know, but maybe many of our viewers won't know, that it all began on the 8th of October, the day after Hamas attacked Israel when I was in Berlin, visiting our Merit 25 Deutschland comrades and participating in events. We'll remember that event, some of you. And on that day, I found out about what had happened in Gaza during a television interview. And today, inevitable question, do I condemn Hamas? I replied that I condemn every single atrocity whomever has committed it, but I do not condemn armed resistance to an apartheid system, designed as part of a slow-burning, ethnic cleansing problem. And I made the point, which really annoyed a lot of people, that as a European, I feel the need to refrain from condemning either the Israelis or the Palestinians when it is us Europeans who have caused this never-ending cycle of tragedies, after practicing rabid antisemitism for centuries, leading up to the uniquely, to pogroms and more pogroms and more pogroms leading up to the Holocaust. We Europeans have been complicit for decades with a slow genocide of initially the Israelis and now the Palestinians, as if two wrongs or two genocides make one right. A days later, it all began with the rescinding of an invitation I had from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, who had invited me to collect the prize and deliver the prestigious autobiography lecture. Then the plot thickened. You will recall last February, mid-February, when I was in Berlin to help Raoul Martinez, our comrade British filmmaker, artist and philosopher who had made that six-part documentary centering around me, called In the Eye of the Storm. And remember, we were due to launch that documentary in the Babylon Theater in Berlin. And then we found out that Berlin's police and municipality were leaning heavily on the proprietor of Babylon to cancel the event. When asked for the reasons why they were so insistent on banning us, mid-February, the authorities gave to the proprietor a single word reply, Varoufakis. Interestingly, Babylon's Jewish proprietor told the police where to get off and that he would not budge. And if you recall, he was really touching how he stayed in situ during the event, walking up and down the packed auditorium and auditorium packed and bursting at the rims with Jewish, Palestinian and German supporters. I'm saying this because it's important to put the whole thing of what happened last weekend in context. Now, a month ago, I got a very curious email from my German publisher, Kunstmann. It warned me ominously that if I participate in the Palestine Congress, which we as Merit 25 Dodges run together with Jewish Voice for Peace and many other organizations, we were putting together. And I was told by my publisher that if I participate, this will overshadow my next book's reception in Germany and that it will be highly problematic. It's very interesting that my publisher who are not that of a with what's going on in the political sphere were informed that there will be problems with my book if I dare participate in this Congress, long time before the Congress. Of course, as a result of this rather rude email, I severed my links with that publisher, even though we've published six books together for the last 12 years or so. Essentially, what has been happening is in Germany as the body count in Gaza is mounting and hearings on the International Court of Justice are challenging Germany's official policy of that reason of the logic of the state that Israel security is German security or reason that it's clear that the authorities are increasingly lashing out. Remember, Iris Hefetz, our friend and colleague in Berlin having been arrested for anti-Semitism and Israeli Jewish woman being arrested by a white Aryan policeman in Berlin for anti-Semitism because she dared have a placard as an Israeli as a Jew stopped the genocide in Gaza, which of course prompted us to remember back then to say if she had said as an Israeli and a Jew I support the genocide in Gaza that would probably be okay, right? Because in Germany, you can only talk about genocide if you are supporting. Now, going to last week and to the beginning of it, there was a joint statement, remember, by Germany's almost entire political class, CDU, CSU, SPD, the Greens, and sadly two leaders of the link in Berlin that portrayed us as terror trivializers, as anti-Semites. They created the political pretext, they paved the ground politically for the police action that followed on Friday. Now, I don't need to remind you, I think Maren explained it very well and I think Eric will tell us more about what went down when our Congress eventually got out of the way, even though hundreds and hundreds of police were there to prevent it and the police burst into the building, into the venue and interrupted the proceedings. I recorded the speech that was unable to deliver through the live streaming which was interrupted and posted it on my personal blog. Clearly, the authorities were not very pleased. So on Saturday, we were informed during the demonstration that we staged in Berlin against that unprecedented police intervention, not intervention, incursion, invasion of the value that a ban on any political activity, my political activity was slapped of the kind that has been used only previously for ISIS operatives and the like. When our lawyers reminded the authorities that besides being an EU citizen, I was also a candidate in Germany as a German candidate for the European Parliament five years ago and collected quite a few votes, remember? There was an embarrassed silence and then this prohibition was replaced by another softer prohibition. In any case, I'm not going to go into the details now because I think we should wait for a couple of days. I believe we have caught the authorities in Germany lying through their teeth even in the written form and we shall be back with this because they broke their own rules and if Germans, even conservative Germans, dislike one thing, it is their own government breaking their own rules. So I will conclude with the essence of it all. It is now clear, at least to me, that Germany's state rationale, state raison, is not about protecting Jews. It is about protecting the right of Israel to commit any war crime of its choice. And it is also a sad reflection, going back to what I said right at the beginning about my speech in Milano to financiers. I think it's also a sad reflection on a country who's waning economic dominance, or to be more precise, the waning economic dominance of its oligarchy is fanning the flames of increasing and increasingly farcical authoritarianism. Georg, Karen, I'm looking forward to hearing your side of the story. Thanks, Janis. Yes, Georg, you have the floor. Georg is a member of the Student Coalition Berlin and Arbiter Inenmacht, and one of the co-organizers of the event that was so brutally shut down on Friday. Georg, please take it away and tell us your experience of what happened. Well, first of all, great thanks to the comrades of DiEM and Mera25 for offering their support in organizing this crucial congress, the Palestinian Congress. Without you, we would not have been able to accuse the German state as we did, especially after the authorities pushed the Berliner Sparkas to close down the bank account of the Judische Stimme, the Jewish voice here in Germany. And it was very important that you landed your organizational capacities as well to make this all happen. So thank you very much. I'd like to say a few broader words in the beginning as well, because I think it's important that, especially in Germany, we understand the situation that we are in generally, because I think for more than a decade now, you know, a world situation of wars, crisis, very often counterrevolution has been building up, a very, you know, instable world situation. And for a long time, Germany as the economic powerhouse of Europe thought to itself that imperialism was over. And this is a story that we have been told in schools as well, I myself have been told. And I think this illusion is now shattering in the world that we live in. And I think therefore that what's happening in Gaza is somewhat of a turning point for this whole narrative for Germany itself. And therefore it's very important that we are cautious, that we look very closely what's happening. Because in some sense, I think Germans, you know, unwavering support for this horrible genocide in Gaza is also both an attempt to absolve Germany by its own history and therefore breakthrough through all the, you know, foreign policy restraints that Germany had after the Second World War in the world situation that we are currently facing. And this is accompanied with a turn towards more authoritarian rule, Bonapetist policies inside Germany as well. So something that in fact Germany through its economy has been exporting, you know, to the whole world and in fact to a lot of European countries. I might personally remember very well what Germany did for example to Greece and I'm sure Janis does as well. Germany is now doing on other levels as well again, you know and the military level is part of this. So I think this is important for us to understand and therefore what's happening in Gaza is also about something that's happening in Germany and to German society. And I think it's very important that we as leftists and as the labor movement also remember something very important that the German socialist once then said that the main enemy is at home. And I think we tried to refresh that knowledge as well through the Palestine Congress when we said we accuse and of course we accuse Israel for carrying out this genocide, but we accuse Germany of supporting it and abetting it on all levels that you can imagine. And even though the Congress could not really take place, I think we brought the canvas and we brought, you know, the paint and the German government and the German authorities, they took it into their hands and they painted it in the front of the eyes of the whole world to see where we stand right now. And I think this was very important because this was nothing new. Germany had been doing this, the German authorities had been doing this for six months already that been brutalizing, you know, Palestinians, their allies throughout, you know, we have seen everything we've seen here in Berlin, youth being beaten into coma and after waking up being too afraid to speak out about it because they've feared that this would somehow impact their own lives. We've seen policemen stomping out candles of people who gathered to mourn, you know, their loved ones, their families. So this did not come as a surprise what we saw on Friday, but I'm glad that the whole world watched it and I think it's important that we go on from here on though, you know, accusations as they stand have never changed the world. People realizing something and then organizing, you know, together that has changed the world. And I think it's important that we also see in the, see the ways how the government restrained us from doing that by banning the Congress, by banning all those opportunities and that we come true on them in the coming weeks and months. And I think despite everything we did some, we did lay some grounds for this and this is also a call to comrades in other European countries and beyond Europe, get in touch with us. We will try to get in touch with you to organize together in order to stop the atrocities happening in Gaza and also to stop the German government from supplying weapons to Israel from giving any diplomatic, economic, financial, political support whatsoever. And I would also like to say a few words to, in response to Kai Wiegner and to Nancy Faeser, Kai Wiegner said that he was very happy, you know, that the Palestine Congress got crushed because one had to do everything against those hating Israel. I reply very simply, you know, if I had been a socialist in the 80s and before that I would have hated South Africa and I would have hated my government and my state for supporting it and I do the same with the Israeli state. This is not about religion. This is not about ethnicity. It's about a state that is pushing these things to the fore and I'm completely against that and then every same person should be, every person standing up for humanity and democracy should be. And to Nancy Faeser who said that we don't allow any Islamist propaganda and no hate against Jews. I think this also shows, you know, the danger of the moment that we are in right now and what's happened after 20 years of the so-called war on terror that fake news can be spread, you know, with such impunity by high officials of a government that claims that it is democratic. And it also shows, if we look at how the Palestine Congress could be banned, yes, a lot of illegal things happened, but it also shows how the so-called imperialist democracies have all kinds of means and measures in place, have implemented all kinds of laws over the last few decades that allow for all these things to happen. And I think in so far what's happening, what we see right now is a moment where all the colonialism, all the imperialism that Germany has been exporting to the world, it's coming now back to its own metropolis and we have it in our hands of what the response is. Are we going to forge new alliances with the comrades who've made their way to Europe, to Germany, will we take in their revolutionary experiences, will we build a new labor movement that can effectively fight back in order to stand at the side of our comrades, be they in Palestine, or be they in Sudan, or be they in Congo, or be they wherever. And can we also change and transform the trade unions and the labor movements here in order to achieve these goals, or will we fall back into an age of right-wing authoritarianism and possibly fascism as well? Because if we don't push back against the so-called progressive government in doing so, that is going to be the alternative waiting around the corner. And I think a lot of people have pointed this out. What the government is currently doing, they're basically laying the blueprint for any far-right government in Germany. And therefore it's very important, I think, that we build these international solidarities and fight back. And I'm very glad that we might have the chance to do this together. Thank you very much for that, Georg. Couple of comments from the chat. Non-Latifundia says, most of us thought fascism was over in Germany.  Jesko says, big thanks to the organizers for voluntarily exposing German authoritarianism. Max Ford notes that the European Union is concerned about CO2 emissions from cows but remains silent about the bombs and missiles. And Gerd Schnepel says, no, sorry, Tarek says, please don't say Germany, he asks us. It's the government at fault and an unknown percentage of the people. Yes, I agree. I hope you will forgive us that shorthand that we're using here today. Karin, Karin Doriko, our lead candidate for our German bid for the upcoming European elections, who was also speaking at the conference or would have spoken a little bit more, had it not been shut down, thought was yours. Thank you, Marianne. So, this week I'm trying to kind of zoom out of all what happened in order to analyze it with the calm, but still I get so upset and because probably I told myself I am just way too naive.  First of all, I also want to thank all the other organizations that organize with such a strength and such a dedication, this work for months because as I try to imagine it, there is like a climax on all this. The conference started organizing basically December, January, and we didn't expect to create such a big story, honestly. We would have liked, obviously, but it was not planned. The German government did us a great gift and we thanked them for that. But still, what I'm still super upset about is that it was really a provocation from the first moment, not only from freezing the bank account of the Judischer's team, because the donations and the tickets were collected there, not only for that, not only because they tried to cancel our fundraising event, not all because they spread so much hate propaganda through the media, which were just repeating, what also politicians were saying. So we were kind of attacked in every front and also the police trying to find out the location, trying to stop every possible step that we could take. So in this environment, we managed to really achieve actually what we wanted because a small group of people staying for peace, for solidarity, asking to stop a genocide, could actually, in the end, hold accountable the German government, because there was also a press conference and the minister of the interior was so embarrassing. I don't know what I would have done in their place. But still, what we lived on Friday was just a bridge of every democratic right there is in Europe. Not only, first of all, the police broke the electricity, to stop a live stream, well, not even a live stream, broke the electricity to stop a video that was pre-registered because just to act in the form of a preventive censorship, they always, they also try to present the press that we didn't accredited, letting them out from a back door in order to reduce even more the capacity of the room because from 800 people that were supposed to come in, we were suddenly 250. So all this restriction from any part have just confirmed that Germany has lost completely its narrative. They are scared because of what is happening and what can happen in the future because even though the ICJ doesn't have direct power, but still all the rest of the world I see what they are capable of and they will be stopped sooner or later. What I would like to remind again, this was a positive moment for us but we cannot forget that the important thing is that the ceasefire gets approved immediately and Germany has to stop to send weapons. This is what counts now and all the responsibles must be held responsible. Sorry. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I could tell 10,000 details of that days but the important thing is the end is that Germany has its classes face and we have to keep fighting in order to change the narrative. Thank you. Thank you, Perrin. Amir, Amir Kiayi, who was also at the event. What was yours? Thank you, Mehran. Georg mentioned something in his intervention. I said, when people realize and then organize, that's when change can happen, real change. And it became very apparent to us that the authorities are trying to prevent people realizing by doing what they did. And something that has been mentioned in the press reports, et cetera, was that everything that the police did on that day, on Friday, was through a verbal instruction for a country that loves to give written instructions through the fax machine. We didn't get a single piece of paper saying what actually the issue was that they had to take the action that they did. And bearing in mind the list of actions is really long. Everything from a fire and safety inspection all of a sudden to counting the chairs in the room and so on. Everything was commanded to us verbally. It was confusing messages all the time between the federal police level and the city level, Ministry of Interior. There was just a really well-organized chaos production and provoking of everybody that was there. And not just in the room but outside the conference area in the subsequent March that we held on Saturday and the protest camp that's been going on for the past few days. The level of unprofessionalism and disregard for human life was also very much on display. And this is also very concerning because this was just a simple, nonviolent assembly of people trying to talk and present something. So you can imagine that the level of repression is really high. There was no, you would typically have the state also considering emergency services, nothing. It was all riot police in full gear, heavily armed.  There was over two and a half thousand police mobilized for a few hundred attendees of a conference. So you can imagine the level of the atmosphere of the terrifying atmosphere that they were creating was beyond in that sense. No respect for the elderly, people in wheelchairs, children, babies that were with the nursing mothers. So it was simply the mode of operation of the police was simply to burst in whenever they could create a terrifying atmosphere, purpose, prayer, liberally, entertain forcefully. And this really has to serve as a warning call to the unions, to environmental activists, other movements that the slide has already started and that's gonna hit everybody. And at a more personal level, this is something that we hope that if there's people listening here today that belong to Extinction Rebellion, FFF, Last Generation, Just Stop Oil, all those other protest movements and activists, think about what happened here and consider why you're not at the Bundestag right now in the protest camp supporting the other people that are actually fighting the oppression that will eventually hit everybody. We have to always remember that our power is in the numbers and where the repression is the highest is where we all need to be. Because if voices are being stifled, we must double down and raise our voices and support those that need their voices raised. And don't forget history always shows us that we'll be victorious and let's watch towards it. Thank you very much, Amir. You did, you did Maya. And as I hand it over to you, I'd be grateful if you could outline a little bit the reaction. I mean, some people have already explained the statements from the Mayor of Berlin and the Interior Minister, but what has the reaction been to this repression in Germany from the media, from the establishment, but also from other activists, if you're aware, what do you think we could learn from that? Well, they really tried to shut down the Congress with every means possible. And the idea that also Janusz's speech was shut down has fortunately given rise to a bit of a strizand effect. If you're familiar with the term is when you try to bend something and the internet says, nope, not having that. So yes, that has been our biggest advantage because of this huge amount of attention from the newspapers who had to at least report the controversy, right, who have been referencing or sometimes embedding Janusz's speech. This speech has been viewed by 5 million people, something that we couldn't have dreamt of if you had only spoken at the conference. And that's a good thing, of course, but in general, I must say I'm a bit more optimistic than the people who've spoken before me because I was talking to a journalist a few days ago working on the reporting about this event. And we kind of agreed that so far it has all been like a house of lies. The German government has constructed this house of lies, like starting with the idea that attacking Gaza is self-defense on the part of Israel. And then because they lied about it being self-defense, then they had to come up with another lie to cover why Israel does not agree to a ceasefire. They're saying it's a complicated thing. Hamas would just start again or anything. And then, you know, with all the war crimes becoming clear, they just start not showing stuff, completely giving incorrect or, yeah, just leaving out major parts of reality. For example, when the IDF kills children, it's never in German news. When there's starvation, it is very, very rarely. One recent case, a very obvious case, all the world's media reported about the killing of Hanye's family, right? I'm not sympathetic to Hanye, obviously, but international law clearly forbids targeting a family of even criminals. So in Germany, there was no reporting that his family had been struck. Children, 10 years old, six years old were killed. There was just, yeah, his sons were able to commit and assault something and they got killed. It's like completely, it's a mirror world, which you cannot imagine. So this house of lies just keeps going on, keeps going on when there was an ICJ accusation against Israel, the German government had bucked itself in such a corner with all these lies that they had to say, no, no, this is completely untrue. It is so untrue that Israel should be doing anything illegal or against international law that we will sit down, we will be co-defendants with Israel, it's the only country that did that and not just verbally support Israel, but actually say, no, we are also on the bench, we are defendants in this trial. And then of course, when there was news about this Congress to call out Germany's complicity in all these crimes that Israel is committing, they had to say that this Congress is all Islamists, all anti-Semites, they have no point whatsoever, don't listen to them because whatever they would say at the Congress is everything to debunk all these lies that have been accumulated over the past six months or longer. So they say it's all Islamists, they shut down the Congress and now with the news getting out that this Congress was organized by a Jewish organization. And with Janis Varoufakis speaking and so on, it's crashing down. So this journalist that I was talking to had the same impression that right now we're seeing this House of Lies coming, crashing down under the weight of everything that they had to conceal. And it is also at the same time, we're seeing crashing down of international law and freedom of speech here in Germany or the impression that people had that there was freedom of speech here in Germany because of everything that's happened in the past months. It's just, it's a waking up, it's a root waking up for a lot of people. And what, so I'm in a way, I'm in a way happy that all these lies are now coming to the fore mainly on social media, not on the mainstream media, I still can't read anything, but on social media, it's all coming out, the stress artifact is helping, everyone is sharing what they see and how it doesn't match what they've been told they would see, where I'm still a bit pessimistic or unhappy is mainly the rest of the left, you know. Here in Germany, there hasn't been solidarity from most of the known figures of the left or from any party, no other, no party, except obviously Meta-25 ourselves, has spoken out about this. And that is completely different than Greece, for example, where there were, there's a society-wide consensus that people should not be banned from entering the country or speaking at an event. And this consensus seems to be missing or at least badly damaged in Germany. And I think we can, I hope we can restore it. Thank you, you did. And while we're on the subject of the media coverage, with what's currently happening between Iran and Israel, are you concerned that this might knock Gaza off the headlines somewhat? Because what I'm seeing is that that's what media are focusing on now. They've had plenty of, they've tried many different angles with this story, as you've mentioned, with Gaza. And now it's all about the prospect of war breaking out and very little about what's actually happening to Palestinian people. So what would you say to that? Yes, absolutely. That's, I think that's part of the point of having this escalation with Iran is to cover up all these things that would otherwise come to the fore now. And I hope that we won't fall into that trap and that we will stay focused on Gaza. Thank you, you did. Hand the floor over to Johannes Fair, who's also a candidate with Mera25 in Germany for a bid for the European elections. Johannes. Thank you. And who was too late to the conference, to actually make it in sight, was prevented by the police to entering and then just saw the police storming in and yeah, being very concerned for some minutes until it was clear that, well, they arrested some people, but at least no one was, yeah, no one was seriously hurt. But of course, what happened is absolutely ridiculous. I actually also wanted to thank again, Karin Georg, everyone that organized that Congress under great pressure from the authorities over month. And actually also mentioned solidarity going out to the protest camp that is happening in front of the German parliament, as we speaking since weeks now, they need support. So if you that are watching this are in Berlin, they can need all the support that they can get, go there, bring them food, tents, whatever they need to get because they also have been attacked on the weekend by the police and can use the support that Amir was already mentioning. One update that I wanted to share with everyone is also that yesterday, there was after the weekend, the first press conference where journalists could ask the German government about what had happened on the weekend and on Friday. And the basic report from that is, they just told the government line and then refused to answer any questions. And I think that is still where the government is now. It was becoming very clear when the government representative spokesperson had said that there was an Islamist and anti-Semitic Congress going on and so on and what you already heard these lies. And when she was asked that Jewish organization was co-organizing this event, that if there are now any Jewish Islamists in Germany, is that really the case? The spokesperson basically said, no further comment. And yeah, that's where basically this government has completely embarrassed itself and we, but we need to keep the pressure up so that they have to actually come clear on that. Some said that this whole things as they were happening were very surprising. And I think we haven't seen them as such before the last six months, as Georg has mentioned, but I think I was actually personally reminded to a different protest that I went with the M25 comrades back then in Hamburg when the G20 was taking place by when our now current leader of this government as a mayor in Hamburg organized the meeting of the most powerful leaders of capitalist nations of the world. And we were there to protest and the M25 was holding an event where Julian Assange was appeared in a live stream and the fire alarm went off and that event didn't happen and the complete state of Hamburg was a police state over those days and weeks and many got arrested, many protesters were beaten by the police. And I think that just shows us that the state here in Germany and probably that's true for other European states as well, whenever they want to, and then they can go to authoritarianism. Whenever now, and I think to go a bit into detail about why the German government is doing that, my analysis would be that it's about the complicity. They had to appear in front of the international court and in their defense against the complicity in Gaza, complicity for the genocide in Gaza, they actually had to list their weapon exports to Israel, to the Israeli army. And they had a slide where it was saying how many millions of weapons they delivered. And in only in October last year it was over 200 millions worth of weapons. And that's what is complicity. So they had to reveal that because they couldn't hide it there. And of course the coverage was very poor on it. And of course they are trying to, going to try to prevent everyone from speaking about this. And it's our task as we are doing it now to speak about it. Thanks. Thank you, Johannes. Couple of comments from the chat. Vig Username says, what happened over the weekend is a worrisome attack on our freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. If you agree with the views of the participants or not, the level of repression is highly concerning. Violin makes a recommendation. They say that Noura Errakats' insight into the Nakbar has essentially excluded from the 1948 genocide convention as a critical idea to spread. Lotta Pettersson from Sweden notes that I haven't seen anything in Swedish media about what happened in Berlin last Friday. Am I surprised? Sad to say no. And Scepti says they can ban Yanis, but citizens of the world cannot all be banned. Danai, Danai Stratu, based in Greece, for us yours. Thank you, Mahan. Actually Johannes has covered quite a lot, a point I wanted to make, but I think it's still important because it's a little bit different than Yanis also mentioned it before, but I think it's very important to realize that for a few weeks now, Yanis is a publisher in Germany of his book that had also published the previous books and there has been a long history there, had been warning him not to participate in the conference and obviously there was a warning there to the publishers, right? Because how would they know that there would be this fuss? So here we listen to the description of all the comrades that were present in Berlin the police, the way that there was so much police, all these things, if you put everything together about what happened before the conference, about trying to stop him from participating, the way that they were there at the conference, so aggressive in so many numbers, the way that they are distorting the news coming out, where the lies about the content of the speeches and the whole thing have been completely distorted, all this is extremely problematic as all the speakers before me also mentioned, but it's important to bring this out and to expose, as everyone said before, this reality of what's happening in Germany and elsewhere. So just these small points to give a bit more of the perspective and emphasize on these, I thought is important. Thank you. Thank you, Danai, Juliana. Juliana also based in Germany, the speaker of our Mera25 party in Germany. Thank you. Thanks, Mera. Yeah, I mean, I'm really, really not surprised and I have to say that I think every leftist person that ever was on a protest against fascists on the street knows that it's always the left people who have took the beating and the fascist on the street got protected by the police. That's one picture that stands from my youth in my mind. So I'm really not surprised when I see these pictures, unfortunately. The other thing I wanted to say is that, although, yeah, of course you can say not, if we say Germany, not every German, but I wouldn't let German society so easily off the hook when it comes to this topic because I think a lot of people are making it very easy for themselves and they have instrumentalized German history as some sort of single explanation on why Israel can do whatever they want. And I think besides confronting the German government, the other thing that is still yet to do here in Germany is really to talk to people and to explain to them if they are not yet at the point to open their eyes to the truth of what's happening there, is to really try to explain to those parts of society that they are literally on the wrong side of history here. And it has nothing to do with German history or being protective of Jews. It's just simply wrong what's happening in Gaza today. And it hurts me to have conversations based on but Israel, but, but, but those parts really need to go. And it's also on the German people who are staying quiet that this police brutality can be done and that the government can act as they act. So yes, they are kind of also backed by a good proportion of society that is complicit to this. I have to say. Thank you, Juliana, well said. And we're nearing the top of the hour. So let's close and look back to Janice. Janice, where can we go from here? European Parliament elections, first week of June. But before I get there, let me say that we at the M25 and M25, we are not demagogues. We do not try to ride a wave of popularity, of populism or anything like that. And let me try to prove this by making a point that jars with a lot of what constitutes our ideology and philosophy. So, you know, you have heard that over the last two days there was a conference in Belgium of the ultra-right of the parliamentary ultra-right. Nigel Farage, Shrella Braverman, the awful person from former minister of Home Affairs of the Interior in the UK, Seymour, the ultra-rightist who was stood for president of France last time around and or Ban and various others. And it turns out from what I read that the authorities in Belgium did something similar to what they did to us. They sent the police in there to interrupt the proceedings of that conference. Now, I came out with a statement today on unheard, unheard.com saying that I demand my right to be pissed off by Nigel Farage's free speech. If we reach the point where the radical center bans anyone it doesn't like, either us or Farage or Obama, then there will be very little space left for democracy, for politics, or even for the idea. I love Farage. I love Obama. I love Seymour. I love particularly Shrella Braverman. But we should be ready to fight for their right to annoy us, to speak out. Many on the left don't like hearing these terms. But then again, don't forget that many on the left supported the banning of our Congress, Palestinian Congress. It is the speaker that the linker either supported the stigmatization and the demonization of Mera 25 Deutschland of the Jewish voiceful piece of the Palestine Congress or kept their mouth shut. Another dimension that Meraan and Judith looked into consensual run. Now, we will never fall in favor of taking sides between the West and Iran on the basis of who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. There are no good guys here. We have to be clear on this. Iran is a brutal authoritarian state that condemns women to third rate, not second rate, third rate status, which kills women, as we saw recently, for wanting to be free and not to wear the veil. The oppression inside Iran of progressives is unbearable. At the same time, and this is the nuanced position that only our movement can take, Iran is a force of stability in a very unstable area. Let's be clear, this authoritarian awful regime is responsible together with the Kurds for defeating ISIS. ISIS would not have been defeated in Syria and Iraq if it wasn't for Iran. Iraq would not have been stabilized. Many lives, hundreds of thousands of lives were saved by the intervention of Iran in Iraq. And when it comes to the clash with Israel, it is clear to me that firstly, you have the vile attack by Israel, the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, which is a clear violation of international law. The embassy of any country anywhere is sovereign territory. Attacking it or violating it is a violation of international rules based order. And what did the West do when the Israeli Air Force bombed the Iranian embassy in Damascus? Silence. So when it suits them, then the international rules based order can be junked. And then when in a very interesting way, Iran responded to the other day with those 300 missiles and mostly drones, which for me was the most diplomatic attack that has ever happened in the history of the world. Yes, it was large because they had to make a large statement. They sent 300 aerial weapons in the direction of Israel. But have you ever heard of a power, state organization, whatever, sending drones and advertising that they've sent the drones right at the time when they're unleashing them before they hit the target? It was like inviting the Americans and the Israelis to shoot them down. So it was a very nuanced attempt in order to de-escalate to show that Iran does not take lying down the bombardment of the Damascus embassy of Iran. But at the same time, it is trying to de-escalate. I'm saying all that because DiEM25 and Mirab 25, we look at you out there watching us now in the eye and we tell you our views as they are. We're not hiding anything from you. We say things that are uncomfortable. We offer a nuanced explanation of our positions and a nuanced take on the world that we live in. We support freedom even of our opponents. We can criticize a regime like Iran very harshly but at the same time recognize its contribution to de-escalation in the Middle East for all those reasons. And to answer Marin's question, how do we proceed from here? Well, vote for Mirab 25 Deutschland in Germany. Vote for Mirab 25 in Italy and help them gather the last few signatures that are necessary to contest the Italian election, the Italian-European election. And vote for Mirab 25 in Greece. Thank you, Yanis. Some last comments from the chat. Alberto Duarte says institutional and individual silence is complicity in genocide, which is why one talks about Germany and not just the state. It is the banality of evil. Claudia Filippi says fascism is back. It never died. Palestine is in our hearts. And Loki says in response to what Yanis was just saying, long live critical thinking. And as Yanis echoed there, if you appreciate a party that believes in critical thinking, in nuanced positions on global affairs instead of binary good and evil, then please support us. We are running in the European elections, as Yanis said, in Germany, in Italy, in Greece. And all you have to do to become a member of DM25 is go to dm25.org. Join in a couple of seconds. You can be a member. Look for us on the ballot in the European elections in June and vote for us. And thank you again to our panel. Thank you again to you guys out there for your comments and questions.