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(Beirut) – Houthi forces in April 2020 forcibly expelled thousands of Ethiopian migrants from northern Yemen using Covid-19 as a pretext, killing dozens and forcing them to the Saudi border, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi border guards then fired on the fleeing migrants, killing dozens more, while hundreds of survivors escaped to a mountainous border area. Ethiopian migrants told Human Rights Watch that after they spent days stranded without food or water, Saudi officials allowed hundreds to enter the country, but then arbitrarily detained them in unsanitary and abusive facilities without… (Full Story)

China is the second largest economy in the World. The country is a socialist republic with a single party system headed by General Secretary Xi Xinping of the Chinese Communist Party (C.C.P.). China became a great power on the global scale in the 1980s. Still, the People`s Republic of China was not greatly involved on the World stage before Deng`s Open Door Policy in the late 1970s. Nowadays, Chinese President Xi Jinping no longer wants that China keeps a low profile on the World stage. The General Secretary is looking for the future of the nation. Xi Jinping pushes for China to become a super power in World. China officially supports multiculturalism, global rules and norms, and environmental protection. Thus, Xi Jinping wants to take advantage of U.S. isolationism to make China the most powerful nation on Earth. Nowadays, China has to work with other nations to resolve a global pandemic while restoring the World economy. Chairman Jinping once said: ¨We say a sword is made on grinding stone and a man is forged in hardship.¨ Thus, Xi believes that great achievements only happen through challenges. COVID 19 is the greatest challenge China has ever faced for decades. China has been proactive in the fight over the novel coronavirus. For instance, China quickly provided the gene sequencing data to the World.  China currently develops several vaccines and drugs to end the current pandemic. If successful, the People`s Republic could become a scientific World leader and it could become very powerful. Moreover, China could rescue the World economy by investing more than half a trillion dollars into the World economy. A successful handling of the World economic and health crisis by China could contribute to Xi Jinping`s dream of a scientific, militarized, economical, and political China.  (Full Story)

Our nine English school boards maintain that their priority is and always has been the health and safety of our students, staff and their families. While no English school board will reopen any of its schools and centres earlier than the dates proposed by the Government of Quebec, the respective English School Boards will decide if and when each of their schools and centres may reopen, once they determine that all the conditions required can be met in each instance. (Full Story)

By Ephraim Lavie, Khader Sawaed, Maisalon Dallashi, Mora Deitch and Meir Elran

There has been a significant rise in COVID-19 infection rates in Arab communities in Israel.The month of Ramadan, which is commonly celebrated with large public gatherings, demands sharpened awareness and particular preparations regarding information dissemination, enforcement of health regulations, and urgent provision of health services and assistance to the Arab citizens. The positive engagement of the Arab public in the campaign against the pandemic highlights the need for a basic change of approach toward the Arab community, which is entitled to equal access to the social and health services enjoyed by Israel’s Jewish public. (Full Story)

By Itai Brun

What will the world look like one year from now, and how will the corona pandemic affect the Middle East? This article presents four possible scenarios: “continuation,” in which following a temporary interruption of a few months, there is a resumption of familiar global and regional trends from the pre-corona era; “revolution,” in which there is a fundamental change in the patterns that characterized life before the crisis and the world prepares for a new illiberal world order led by China; “breakdown,” in which all global actors emerge wounded from the crisis and the fragile structure of the international system collapses into chaos, expressed inter alia by new waves of upheaval in the Middle East; and “reconstruction,” in which the United States regains its initiative and resumes an international effort to repair the liberal world order and solve burning conflicts.

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By Shahar Eilam and Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzky

A comparative analysis enables us to examine different approaches to the challenges posed by the corona pandemic around the world. Most countries have adopted a similar coping strategy, based on three components: the first is a lockdown policy (to varying degrees), in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus and avoid overloading the health system; the second is the improvement of preparedness and readiness in health systems; and the third is a broad economic aid package in response to the sudden economic shutdown and the deep financial crisis. (Full Story)

Last night, December 24th at midnight, we sang Christmas Lieders in German. That was in Long Island, New York, in a tree-lined brownstone neighborhood inhabited by Halb Jüden; half Jews or half Germans, I don’t recall exactly how they defined themselves. But being all survivors of Hitler’s personal madness, the Nazis themselves called them half-breeds, Mischlings, with a full measure of contempt. (Full Story)

Montreal Jews rely on non-Jewish academics, writers and filmmakers to present and even explain, in French, Jewish realities to the Quebecois public and within Francophone academia. The considerable number of publications on Jewish themes, both in fiction and non-fiction, written in French by non-Jews is certainly unequaled in the Francophone world and most likely in the West, contends writer Victor Teboul. But do these works encourage or dissuade critical assessment of Quebec and of Quebec–Jewish relations, asks Tolerance.ca’s editor, whose most recent book also questions Quebecois identity. (Full Story)

Every year for several weeks before November 11, a field of scarlet poppies appears on coat lapels across Canada. This wearing of the poppy has a complex history ... (Full Story)

New York - Southern (Inner) Mongolian poet Mr. Zhao Baahuu, who goes by the pennames Soliyoot Shulegchin (“Crazy Poet” in Mongolian) and Cao Yuan Nu Huo ( “Fury of Grassland” in Chinese), was detained and placed under house arrest after publishing poems online criticizing China’s ethnic policies toward Southern Mongolians, Tibetans and Uyghurs over the past 70 years.  (Full Story)

There are nominated candidates of all races and religions in our Party. the PPC. With names like Salim Mansour, Rocky Dong, Jigna Jani, Tahir Gora, Jude Guerrier, Jing Lan Yang, Salomon Rayek, and many, many others. (Full Story)

Valentine’s Day rituals often begin in the classroom, where the holiday serves both as an enjoyable arts and crafts activity and as a pedagogical tool, teaching children about structuring love and friendship into a concrete, prescribed form. The ritualization of love continues throughout our lives, not only on Valentine’s Day, but through weddings, anniversaries, and Mother’s and Father’s Day. (Full Story)

Despite his dedicated work on behalf of Jewish refugees in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s, James G. McDonald (1886-1964) is little known today. Come discover this highly unusual and outspoken maverick through Shuli Eshel’s inspiring documentary, “A Voice among the Silent,” followed by comments and discussion led by Neil Caplan. (Full Story)

The Canadian government's recent announcement that it will be providing more than CDN $600 million (USD $455 million) over the next five years to bail out the country's financially strapped media outlets -- as part of the fall fiscal update about the federal budget ahead of the 2019 federal election -- is not as innocent as it may seem. (Full Story)

To many observers, the Jewish community in Quebec is highly integrated into Quebec society, yet to others it appears insular. How can this apparent contradiction be explained? How do religious groups, including Jews, deal with the trend towards secularization in Quebec? We raised these questions and others with Dr. Morton Weinfeld. Professor of Sociology at McGill University in Montréal, Dr Weinfeld holds the Chair in Canadian Ethnic Studies. He is the author of Like Everyone Else, but Different: The Paradoxical Success of Canadian Jews (McClelland & Stewart, 2001), a study of the Jewish community in Canada. Dr. Weinfeld is also a recognized authority on Quebec’s Jewish community. (Full Story)