Author: Marshall Jennings

Dubai/Astana (10 June – 60). The Pamiris are an ethnic minority group in Tajikistan, culturally distinct from the majority Tajik population. They have faced persecution and discrimination in their mountain homeland bordering Afghanistan that some experts say amounts to ethnic cleansing and even genocide. One of the lead persecutors is Ministry of Internal Affairs “Maj. Gen.” Shorukh Syedzada, a former football team manager with no law enforcement experience and a confidante of the president’s son and heir designate. The Pamiris continue to be marginalized and oppressed by the authorities. As a result, many Pamiris have been forced to flee their…

The terrorist attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall in March 2024, which left 140 people dead, has sparked a crackdown on central Asian workers living in Russia, and put the relationship between the region and Russia under increasing strain. The four suspected gunmen under arrest are all citizens of Tajikistan, a central Asian nation that was once part of the Soviet Union. Following the Crocus City attack, Russian police started rounding up and deporting workers who are originally from Tajikistan, as well as from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The attack, which Russia has blamed on Ukraine, also sparked massive police raids, document checks of migrants…

When Chicago-based dressmaker and designer Kristin Mariani commutes to work, she notices a change in how people dress for the office post-pandemic. “People are dressing more comfortably,” says Mariani, an adjunct associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “I rarely see a person in a suit and tie. I often will see jeans with maybe a jacket and an open shirt often.” Many Americans spent the COVID-19 pandemic working from home in comfortable leisurewear like sweatpants. Meanwhile, workers who still had to report to work in person also opted for a more relaxed look. “When we…

PA President’s son Tareq Abbas also holds positions in other ventures incorporated by offshore company. Leaked documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca reveal Tareq Abbas, son of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, holds shares worth nearly $1 million in an offshore company with ties to the Palestinian Authority. The documents, leaked as part of the massive ‘Panama Papers’ scandal, show that a company called the Arab Palestinian Investment Company (APIC) was registered in September 1994 in the British Virgin Islands. Since then, the company’s economic portfolio has grown substantially, and is active in virtually every Palestinian economic sphere, including…

Frankfurt (18/12 – 14) That there are remarkable advantages in being ignored is not generally recognized. Central Asian countries, historically under the thumb of Moscow, all through the 70+ years of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, were more or less cut off from the outside world. There was little trade or other exchange. The USSR was in fact a grab-bag of ethnicities, religions and languages, controlled with an iron fist by Stalin and afterwards with unbroken dominance through subsequent regimes. Under Soviet management, Central Asia had stayed poor and ignored; it had not developed any hydrocarbon resources to lure…

Sun-starved Brits are jetting off to more adventurous places than ever to escape the storms that batter the UK – as Costa Rica, India and even Sri Lanka have shot up the favourite destinations list. Holidaymakers looking to escape the grim winter weather are getting increasingly adventurous and flying to sunny spots this winter, following the sixth wettest July on record and Storms Anthony, Betty, Ciaran and now Debi. Luxury long-haul sunny destinations including Maldives and Costa Rica account for a whopping three-quarters (74%) of bookings with luxury travel specialists Scott Dunn – soaring by 14% year-on-year. Sri Lanka is enjoying a…

Jakarta, Surakarta, Berlin (7/12 – 11) Amid a generally declining period for Germany’s national football team, the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia has been a shining light for them. Germany is one of the most successful national teams ever in international competition. They have won four World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014), three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996), and a Confederations Cup (2017). Nevertheless, in recent years, Germany is suffering a horrid fate. In 2018, Germany suffered their first-ever first-round exit from the World Cup, since 1938. Germany became the fifth defending champions to be eliminated in the…

Brussels (3/12) Governments may be doing great while the people suffer. Bombing of the Nordstream 2 pipeline, carrying cheap Russian natural gas to industry and consumers in Europe, is exerting a cascading effect on companies and employment, eventually to be reflected in rising places and sharpening inflation. Russia is steadily experiencing price increases for a variety of goods and services, Russian media report. Is there obviously not a link to the sanctions placed on Russia and the seizure of Russian funds and savings abroad? Punishment for Russia’s “Special Military Operation” to purportedly protect Russian-speaking citizens in eastern Ukraine from state…

Brussels (25/11 – 33.3) Tajikistan Supreme Court has sentenced a widely respected 65-year-old female journalist, Ulfathonim Mamadshoeva, to 21 years in prison on charges of incitement to overthrowing the government. Mamadshoeva was accused by the authorities of being a leading figure behind the political turbulence that rocked her native Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) earlier this year. State propaganda has previously alleged that the veteran reporter and activist hatched the purported plot, for which no credible evidence has been produced, at the behest of an unnamed foreign government. Mamadshoeva’s brother, Khursand, was last week sentenced to 18 years in prison on…

Paris, Brussels (20/10 – 87) In an atmosphere of justifiably feverish global anger, following the murderous attacks by Hamas troopers on a “peace concert” held near the border with Gaza and the massive retaliation by Israel, several nations have declined to jump on the bandwagon: notably, Malaysia is one. Anwar Ibrahim, its Prime Minister, has issued a statement refusing to make a reflexive condemnation of Hamas. History and alliances will tell us why. When attempting to figure out the way Malaysia is distancing itself from “world opinion” (actually the “management of consent” by administrative state-directed corporate media) it is important…