Six In The Morning Sunday July 26

Turkey

The Observer

Turkey sends in jets as Syria’s agony spills over every border

Turkish air strikes in Syria last week signalled a new phase in a conflict that has left its bloody mark on every country in the region. But will the Turks now agree to US demands to cease all clandestine dealings with Islamic State?

Martin Chulov

Sunday 26 July 2015 00.07 BST

When US special forces raided the compound of an Islamic State leader in eastern Syria in May, they made sure not to tell the neighbours.

The target of that raid, the first of its kind since US jets returned to the skies over Iraq last August, was an Isis official responsible for oil smuggling, named Abu Sayyaf. He was almost unheard of outside the upper echelons of the terror group, but he was well known to Turkey. From mid-2013, the Tunisian fighter had been responsible for smuggling oil from Syria’s eastern fields, which the group had by then commandeered. Black market oil quickly became the main driver of Isis revenues – and Turkish buyers were its main clients.

As a result, the oil trade between the jihadis and the Turks was held up as evidence of an alliance between the two. It led to protests from Washington and Europe – both already wary of Turkey’s 900-mile border with Syria being used as a gateway by would-be jihadis from around the world.

PATRICK COCKBURN

Greece debt crisis threatens 70 years of peace

World View: We forget that, before the EU, wars in Europe were the norm

Political crises in the Middle East and North Africa since 2011 have either produced extreme violence or caused countries to dissolve into civil war. The territorial settlement that followed the defeat of the Ottomans in 1918 is collapsing, but there is no clear sign of what will replace it, other than conflicts which nobody knows how to end.

Bad though this is, the world has got used to instability in the Middle East and North Africa, almost as if it were a natural phenomenon like earthquakes in Japan or hurricanes in the Caribbean. Seven wars are being fought in Muslim countries between Pakistan and north-east Nigeria. In Europe, on the contrary, 70 years of almost continuous peace since 1945 have convinced its people that this is the natural order of things which will continue despite hiccups in atypical places such as Greece and Ukraine.

The Last European: Romanian Driver Navigates the Soul of the EU

By Juan Moreno

For the past decade, Viktor Talic has been driving a van across Europe, delivering people and goods. His 50-hour, nearly sleepless journey offers a disquieting, yet inspiring, glimpse into the Continent's soul.

The hero of this story looks older than his 34 years. He has powerful upper arms, a gentle demeanor -- and he knows what many people think when they hear "Romania."

There are countries in Europe with a bad reputation, there are those with a very bad reputation and then there is Romania. It's a country with anti-corruption department heads forced to step down amid accusations of corruption, and a prime minister who stands accused of money laundering. It ranks lowest for toothpaste consumption in the European Union, and high for alcohol consumption. Our man knows all about these things, because he is well traveled in Europe. In political-speak, one could say that he is always on the go, driving the deepening of the European Union.

In 1992, Romania still had 23 million inhabitants. Today there are 4 million fewer. Those who emigrated profit from the fact that Europe has an undeclared division of labor that goes something like this: Wherever uneducated, rather than educated, workers are needed, employers look for Romanians. Even the Germans.

Secrecy of TPP talks fuels concern about influence of corporate property lobby

AFP-JIJI

WASHINGTON – Higher costs for needed generic drugs. Longer copyright protections than the global standard. Foreign investors empowered to overrule governments. A more tightly-regulated Internet.

Those are just some of the potential pitfalls from any deal that could emerge from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation free trade and investment pact shrouded in secrecy as negotiations head into the final stage in Hawaii this week.

A handful of draft chapters of the TPP, leaked via WikiLeaks, have highlighted the proposed treaty’s heavy emphasis on expanding protections for corporate rights and assets like intellectual property — patents, copyrights and databases — that are far more valuable to corporations of advanced economies than traditional cargo trade.

SAUDI ARABIA 24/07/2015

Saudi religious police target ‘gay rainbows'

Mohammad Alsaeedi

 Saudi Arabian officials are notoriously hardline when dealing with homosexuality, which is illegal in the country. But recently, the country’s religious police have taken it to a whole new level by cracking down on rainbows. They recently imposed a large fine on a school in Riyadh for a colourful mural featuring a rainbow. 
The rainbow is a symbol of the LGBT community and social media around the world was flooded with celebratory rainbow symbols after the United States Supreme Court legalised gay marriage on June 26. Many international supporters of the ruling donned rainbow clothes and hung rainbow flags from buildings. This surge of colourful support annoyed Saudi officials… and the Talaee Al-Noor International School in Riyadh paid the price.

This private international school was handed a hefty fine of 100,000 rials (equivalent to about 25,000 euros) for having repainted its façade with rainbow colours. A school official was also thrown in prison for the rainbow decor.

The news was first reported by a Twitter account of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the official name for the Saudi religious police) on July 17. The tweet also included a photo showing the school’s wall, freshly repainted a sober blue. 

Preventing long-term mental health issues in Nepal

Call-in radio programme aims to reduce psychological impact of earthquake.

Elie Gardner | 26 Jul 2015 08:44 GMT

More than 8,700 people have died since the April 25 earthquake struck Nepal. As the country begins to rebuild, mental health professionals are reaching out to those in need. 

"I saw a lot of grief in people," says counsellor Dristy Gurung.

"If it doesn't get treated or if you don't intervene in such grief or trauma, in the long run it might create some mental health issues for people."

According to the UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal, 2.8 million people are still in need of some form of assistance. 

Gurung works for Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO) Nepal, one of the country's leading psychosocial associations.