On Thursday, May 12 at 19:30GMT:
Sri Lanka:
The political crisis in Sri Lanka intensified this week after the resignation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Clashes are said to have started when pro-government groups being attacked an anti-government protest site in the capital, Colombo. The city is still under curfew.
The prime minister’s departure still makes his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, president, and that continues to cause public outrage. The President has state broad powers for the military and police to detain and interrogate people without warrants. Local authorities report around 217 people have been injured and at least nine have died so far.
Sri Lanka is also fighting the worst of it Economic Crisis Historically, the post-pandemic impact on tourism income has left the government grappling with rising oil prices and the impact of tax cuts.
We will discuss the latest news from Sri Lanka.
Syria:
United Nations Children’s Agency, UNICEF, warning that 12.3 million Syrian children are in need of aid both within the country and in the wider region, where they have fled since the war began. UNICEF has received less than half of requests for funding this year.
This happened when international donors organized the sixth pledge conference in Brussels at the beginning of the week. “World public opinion could not seem to deal with more than one crisis at the time,” said European Union foreign policy director Josep Borrell as he opened the event. He noted that there was “a certain fatigue” among donors saying, “Now it’s Ukraine in the headlines. But don’t give up on Syria.”
The war in Syria is estimated to have killed half a million people and displaced millions since it began with a crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011.
We will discuss the impact on Syrian children and ask how to combat donor fatigue.
Afghanistan:
The Taliban again required women to cover their heads from head to toe and allowed them to go outdoors only when accompanied by a male.
But for the first time, the punishment for non-compliance is also detailed: Male guardians for offenses against women will be warned, and if repeated, they will be jailed for three days .
The order comes as the country faces its worst economic and humanitarian disaster in decades, and millions face hunger and unemployment. The International Labor Organization It is estimated that 900,000 people will lose their jobs by June this year, with women being the hardest hit.
We will discuss the ongoing pushback against girls and women’s rights in Afghanistan and ask how Afghan women’s rights activists are fighting.
In this episode of The Stream, we talk to:
Minelle Fernandez
Reporter, Al Jazeera English
Juliette Touma, @JulietteTouma
Head of Regional Communication & Advocacy
UNICEF Middle East and North Africa
Pashtana Durrani, @BarakPashtana | @LEARNAFg
Director, LEARN Afghanistan
