Category: 2. World

CAIRO:

Egyptian authorities have detained dozens of teenage TikTok influencers in recent weeks, accusing them of offences ranging from violating family values to laundering money.

Police have announced multiple arrests, while prosecutors say at least 10 cases of alleged unlawful financial gains are under investigation. Travel bans, asset freezes, and the confiscation of devices have also been imposed.

Critics argue the crackdown is part of a broader effort to police speech and tighten state control in a country where social media has long served as one of the few alternatives to heavily state-influenced media.

Many of those detained were children during the 2011 uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak. Lawyers say vague indecency laws give authorities wide latitude, allowing them to scour old posts for material deemed unlawful and then charge influencers with financial crimes.

A star detained

One of the most prominent detainees is 19-year-old Mariam Ayman, known online as Suzy El Ordonia, who has 9.4 million followers. Arrested on August 2, she faces charges of distributing indecent content and laundering 15 million Egyptian pounds ($300,000).

The Interior Ministry said she was arrested after complaints about her posts. In a final video before her detention, she acknowledged controversy over her content but insisted she never intended harm.

“Egyptians don’t get arrested just because they appear on TikTok,” she said.

Her lawyer, Marawan al-Gindy, said indecency laws were being applied inconsistently.

“There is a law that criminalises indecent acts, but what we need is consistent application and defined rules, not just for TikTok, for all platforms.”

Path to fame

Like many young Egyptians, Suzy began by posting casual videos of daily life and makeup routines. Her popularity skyrocketed after a viral livestream in which she joked with her father, a bus conductor, sparking a nationwide catchphrase.

She later shared videos of family life, travels, and her sister with a disability, helping break stigma. But even lighthearted clips, critics say, can highlight social hardships and be construed as veiled criticism of the state.

Shortly after Suzy appeared on a podcast describing her dreams of improving her family’s life, the interviewer, Mohamed Abdel Aaty, was also arrested.

Rights groups alarmed

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) condemned what it called an “aggressive security campaign” based on vague morality provisions in the 2018 cybercrime law, which criminalises violating “principles or family values in Egyptian society.”

EIPR lawyer Lobna Darwish said the law is so broad that TikTokkers have been prosecuted for content no different from mainstream television. The group has tracked at least 151 people charged under the law in more than 109 cases over the past five years.

Authorities have also encouraged citizens to report “immoral” content, with the Interior Ministry itself running a TikTok account that comments on videos urging compliance with moral standards.

The campaign has widened beyond young women to include people with dissenting religious views or LGBT Egyptians. In some cases, leaked private content has been used to justify investigations.

Money and Morality

TikTok says it removes videos that violate community guidelines, with more than 2.9 million taken down from Egypt in the latest quarter. The company declined Reuters’ request for comment.

Social media adviser Ramy Abdel Aziz said TikTok creators in Egypt can earn about $1.20 per thousand views — far less than in the United States, but still significant in a low-wage economy.

Financial analyst Tamer Abdul Aziz questioned whether content creators should be the focus of money-laundering probes.

“If there’s a crime, you look at the owner or the financial flows, not the performers,” he said.

Israeli President

Reuters

Former Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan will lead the Pakistani delegation aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip, according to posts from his social media account on Friday.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Pakistan would be joining the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the Israeli siege of Gaza, according to a post on Instagram by the Pak-Palestine Forum, a platform aiming to advance support for the Palestinian cause.

According to its website, the flotilla is a “coordinated, nonviolent fleet of mostly small vessels sailing from ports across the Mediterranean to break the Israeli occupation’s illegal siege on Gaza”.

Reuters reports that dozens of boats carrying aid will depart Spain and Tunisia and set sail for the Gaza Strip. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Portuguese left-wing politician Mariana Mortagua are among hundreds of people from 44 countries participating in the flotilla. Sumud means “perseverance” in Arabic.

Among the participants is a five-member delegation from Pakistan, led by former senator Khan.

In comments to Dawn.com, the former senator said that the flotilla — the largest civilian aid mission in history — will depart the Tunisian capital on September 4.

“We will be trained on the vessel and the journey from September 1 to 3 in Tunis,” the ex-senator said. “There will be over 100 ships from over 50 countries … this is the biggest humanitarian operation led by civilians,” he said.

“This flotilla is made up of vessels from four different coalitions. One of them, the Sumud Nasantra, includes delegations from the Philippines, Thailand, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, which I am leading,” he added.

Other coalitions participating in the flotilla include the Maghreb Sumud Flotilla, Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Global Movement to Gaza.

“Europe’s Freedom Flotilla will depart from Barcelona, Spain, on September 1,” Khan said. “We are further away, so we will depart on September 4 and converge with the other vessels in the Mediterranean on September 5. We will then travel to Gaza via a sea route.”

The former senator emphasised that the flotilla is legal, nonviolent and peaceful.

“It is legal because we will be travelling from international waters, from which we will transition to Palestinian waters, so we are not coming into contact with Israel,” he explained. “We are only carrying food and water.

“We need to break the blockade, establish a humanitarian assistance corridor and stand up against the genocide,” Khan said. “These are our goals.”

Khan noted that he was the only member of the delegation to arrive in Tunis, as the remainder of the delegation are struggling to obtain visas.

“At the moment, I am alone; however, I am trying to help group members obtain visas. They are four men, none of whom are prominent political figures,” he explained.

In a Facebook post, the ex-senator said he had a meeting with the Pakistani ambassador in Tunisia, who him assured of full cooperation.

When asked about the difficulties or even consequences of embarking on this journey to Gaza, the former senator painted three scenarios.

“There are three options. One is that we reach Gaza successfully and are able to break the blockade and show the world what is taking place there,” Khan said. “Another possibility is that they (Israel) could arrest and deport us.”

The former senator could not rule out the possibility of death, recalling that in the past, Israel attacked and killed those who attempted to challenge their stranglehold on the besieged enclave.

“We are putting ourselves at risk so that the world turns its attention to Gaza and it is moved to stop the genocide going on,” he said.

This flotilla is the latest attempt by activists to break Tel Aviv’s blockage of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s previous attempts, the Handala and Madleen, ended in the detention and deportation of the volunteers on board.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed over 63,000 people and injured 157,951, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The United Nations warned last week that with Israeli forces blocking aid, half a million people face “catastrophic hunger” in Gaza, with famine conditions likely to spread further across the Strip.

Meanwhile, Israel has continued its bombardment after approving a plan to seize control of Gaza City, calling it the “last bastion of Hamas.”

Turkey’s top diplomat said Friday that Ankara had closed its ports and airspace to Israeli ships and planes, with a diplomatic source telling AFP the ban applied to “official” flights.

Ties between Turkey and Israel have been shattered by Israel’s war in Gaza, with Ankara accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in the tiny Palestinian territory — a term roundly rejected by Israel — and suspending all trade ties in May last year.

“We have closed our ports to Israeli ships. We do not allow Turkish ships to go to Israeli ports…. We do not allow container ships carrying weapons and ammunition to Israel to enter our ports, nor do we allow their aircraft to enter our airspace,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told lawmakers in a televised address.

Read More: Israel pressures Gaza as Trump eyes post-war plan

Asked for clarification about the minister’s remarks, a Turkish diplomatic source said its airspace was “closed to all aircraft carrying weapons (to Israel) and to Israel’s official flights”.

It was not immediately clear when the airspace restrictions were put in place.

In November, Turkey refused to let the Israeli president’s plane cross its airspace, forcing him to cancel a planned visit to the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan.

And in May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a visit to Baku after Ankara reportedly refused overflight rights.

On Monday ZIM, Israel’s biggest shipping firm, said it had been informed that under new regulations passed by Ankara on August 22, “vessels that are either owned, managed or operated by an entity related to Israel will not be permitted to berth in Turkish ports”.

The information was made public in a filing to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in which ZIM warned the new regulation was expected to “negatively impact on the company’s financial and operational results”.

The ban also extended to other ships carrying military cargo destined for Israel, it said.

“Separately.. vessels that are carrying military cargo destined to Israel will not be permitted to berth in Turkish ports; in addition, Turkish-flagged vessels will be prohibited from berthing in Israeli ports.”

Fidan’s remarks were the first public acknowledgement of the ban.

Also Read: UN staff urge rights chief to label Gaza war as genocide

“No other country has cut off trade with Israel,” he told Turkish lawmakers at an emergency session on the Gaza crisis.

Turkish officials have repeatedly insisted that all trade ties with Israel have been cut, vowing there would be no normalisation as long as the Gaza war continues.

But some Turkish opposition figures have accused Ankara of allowing trade to continue, notably by allowing oil shipments from Azerbaijan to pass through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline running through Turkey — claims dismissed by Turkey’s energy ministry as “completely unfounded”.

Although Azerbaijan has long been one of Israel’s main oil suppliers, data published on its state customs website this year no longer showed Israel as one of the countries that purchase oil from Baku, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported earlier this year.

Pro-Palestinian activists preparing to set sail from Spain on Sunday for Gaza in dozens of boats carrying aid have called on governments to pressure Israel to allow their flotilla — the largest to date — through the naval blockade.

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Portuguese left-wing politician Mariana Mortagua were among hundreds of people from 44 countries due to depart from several ports to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. Sumud means “perseverance” in Arabic.

Israel has scuppered numerous attempts over the 15 years of the blockade, including a 2010 boarding by its special forces in which at least nine Turkish activists were killed.

The ball was in the politicians’ court to put pressure on Israel to let the flotilla through, said Saif Abukeshek, one of the organisers.

“They need to act to defend human rights and to guarantee a safe passage for this flotilla,” the Palestinian, who is resident in Spain, told Reuters on Thursday in Barcelona.

In June, Israeli naval forces boarded and seized a British-flagged yacht carrying Thunberg, among others. Israel dismissed the aid ship as a propaganda stunt in support of Hamas.

It has imposed a naval blockade on the coastal enclave since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, saying it aims to stop weapons from reaching the militant group.

The blockade has remained in place through conflicts, including the current war, which began when Hamas-led fighters rampaged through southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 251 prisoners, by Israeli tallies.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has since killed almost 63,000 Palestinians, according to health officials in Hamas-run Gaza, while a global hunger monitor says part of it is suffering from famine.

In early March, Israel also sealed off Gaza by land, letting in no supplies for three months, arguing that Hamas was diverting aid.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

China will stage an elaborate military parade next Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Topping the guest list will be the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. While dozens of world leaders are expected to attend the event, President Trump is not one of them.

FADEL: To help us preview the big event, NPR’s Anthony Kuhn joins us from Seoul. Good morning, Anthony.

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Morning, Leila.

FADEL: OK, so this is the first time ever the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea will meet. What can we expect from the meeting?

KUHN: Yeah. It’s not only the first meeting of Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. It’s a meeting of the three nations’ leaders that we didn’t even see during the Cold War. So I think we can expect some pretty striking images of these three men atop the rostrum in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

In terms of concrete cooperation, there’s been some. Russia and China have, for example, helped North Korea defeat international sanctions. China and North Korea have helped Russia to differing degrees in its war in Ukraine. But they don’t have three-way military drills. They don’t have any three-way offices or institutions. It’s a loose coalition and this parade will tighten it somewhat. Also, all three of these nations fought fascist powers in World War II. Russia now claims it’s once again fighting fascists in Ukraine, and North Korea agrees with them, so they’re at least trying to link the past and present in some sort of narrative.

FADEL: OK. So President Trump won’t be in attendance. Who will be?

KUHN: There’ll be heads of state and government from 26 nations. Many are aligned with North Korea and China and Russia, such as Iran, Cuba, Vietnam and Myanmar. The Serbian president and the Slovak prime minister are the only Western leaders there. Also, South Korea’s president will be notably absent, but I guess if Kim wants to reach out to South Korea, their parliamentary speaker will be there for him to speak to.

FADEL: Now, this is North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s first big multilateral event. How will he approach it?

KUHN: Well, historically, North Korea’s main ally has been China, but Kim Jong Un has recently drawn closer to Vladimir Putin, signing a mutual defense treaty last year with Russia, sending some 12,000 troops to help them fight Ukraine. But with peace talks now beginning, Kim may be starting to look past Ukraine. I spoke about this with Asia Society senior fellow John Delury, and here’s what he said.

JOHN DELURY: We can certainly read this as Kim Jong Un realizing, OK, I can’t put all my eggs in the Russian basket and, again, need to kind of improve the ties with China, but also looking beyond China at Donald Trump and see what may be in play with the Americans.

KUHN: Remember that Trump met with Kim three times in 2018 to 2019. He says he’d like to meet with Kim again this year, and if that happens, Kim will be in a stronger position with Moscow and Beijing’s backing.

FADEL: OK, what message is China looking to send at this event?

KUHN: Well, they’re positioning themselves as leader of a multipolar alternative to the U.S.-led order. They’ll be rolling a lot of military hardware through Tiananmen Square, and they’ll be highlighting their contribution as being on the right side and the winning side of World War II, where they suffered 35 million people killed and wounded. And that’s a message they can send both domestically and internationally.

FADEL: That’s NPR’s Anthony Kuhn. Thank you for your reporting, Anthony.

KUHN: You’re welcome.

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