Back Story Newsletter
Good Morning,
China Protests
Zero Covid has always been about reducing Covid in China, so it can’t run through a population of almost 1.4 billion people, over whelming hospitals and resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths.
For the Communist Party, that meant heavy handed tactics locking down cities of millions of people for months at a time until the last known case of Covid was eliminated.
It might have worked, but it didn’t, and the virus kept coming back, and China has been forcing millions of people into mass testing and forced quarantines for months at a time, for more than 3 years.
But time has run out on zero covid because the Chinese won’t have it anymore and it could be an earthquake for the Communist regime and it’s leaderXi Jinping.
In recent days violent protests have broken out in China’s major cities, including Beijing and Shanghai and even Wuhan where the virus originated.
The latest unrest follows a protest in the north-western city of Urumqi, where lockdown rules were blamed for hampering rescue efforts after a tower block fire in which 10 people died.
During Saturday night's protest in Shanghai people were heard openly shouting slogans such as "Xi Jinping, step down" and "Communist party, step down".
Such demands are highly unusual in China. And how the Communists handle the new public discontent can be explosive.
Iran Arrest
Iranian authorities have arrested Farideh Moradkhani, a niece of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to her brother and human rights activists.
Mahmoud Moradkhani wrote on Twitter that his sister had been arrested on Wednesday as she was summoned by the prosecutor's office in Tehran.
Farideh Moradkhani is an engineer and a well-known rights activist. She has been a vocal critic of the government's crackdown on protesters.
In a video shared by her brother, Moradkhani called the government a "murderous and child-killing regime."
Protests continue across Iran, and the violent crackdown by the Iranian authorities continue. How does this end in Iran? Regime change seems far away as a possibility, but Iranian society seems determined not to go back to the way things were under religious police and extreme punishment of women.
Ukraine’s Kherson
Russian President Putin’s determination to either control Ukraine or destroy it, is being played out in Kherson, a city Ukraine took back from Russian occupiers two weeks ago.
The shelling of the city is relentless say residents, with no water or light or heat as Russian troops have destroyed power plants in the area.
Hundreds of Ukrainians streamed out of Kherson city on Sunday to flee Russian shelling, saying its impossible to live there. The shelling has killed 32 civilians since Russian forces left the city on 9 November.
Why Ukrainian troops can’t force Russian forces further away from across the Dnipro river is a major test, and it’s difficult to know if Russia is attempting to retake that city.
Across Ukraine power outages continue and much of the electricity is rationed. Kyiv is down to four hours of power a day, and officials fear this coming week Russia will attempt missile strikes on more power plants.
President Zelensky said last night “We understand the terrorists are preparing new strikes. We know that for sure. As long as they have missiles they won’t stop unfortunately”.
“In recent weeks we are effectively receiving information that signs have appeared that they are possibly preparing to leave ” Petro Kotin, head of Energoatom, said on national television on Sunday.
Other News…
-Queen Elizabeth, according to a new book, suffered through a painful bonemarrow cancer in the last few years of here life. In his new book, "Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait," English author, broadcaster and former politician Gyles Brandreth detailed the final years of Queen Elizabeth, who died on Sept. 8 at age 96 after more than 70 years on the throne.
-World Cup Football in Qatar, Iran is furious after the United States posted an Iranian flag without the Islamic emblem to show solidarity with protesters in Iran. Soccer Federation (USSF) has now deleted the graphic which was posted across its official Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts. But Iran says this is not enough and has called for America to withdraw from the football World Cup. The Islamic Republic's flag consists of three horizontal bands in red, white and green with the word "Allah" appearing in script in the middle and that had been removed.
Have a good Monday!
Dana