NICOSIA: Dairy farmers on Cyprus refer to halloumi as “white gold.” The salty, rubbery cheese made from goats’ and sheep’s milk and prized for its ability to withstand a grill without melting is the country’s leading export.
Cypriot authorities have spent years trying to get the European Union to recognize halloumi, or hellim in Turkish, as a traditional product of the east Mediterranean island nation. Receiving the EU’s top quality mark — the “Protected Designation of Origin” — would mean only halloumi made in Cyprus could be marketed abroad under that name.
The nation’s farmers and producers want the Cyprus-specific designation to keep makers of inferior cheeses in other countries from claiming a slice of their market of over 200 million euros ($222 million). Cypriot producers say demand from overseas is projected to hit new highs in the next few years, thanks to heat-tolerant halloumi’s growing popularity as a meat alternative.
However, ethnically divided Cyprus’ complex politics so far have stymied the bid to protect the halloumi name. The difficulty lies in a dispute over how to lawfully get cheese made in the country’s breakaway northern third to foreign markets. The self-declared Turkish Cypriot state is recognized only by Turkey and goods produced there cannot be exported directly.
Cyprus was split along ethnic lines in 1974 when Turkey invaded in the wake of a coup by supporters of union with Greece. The country joined the EU in 2004, but EU rules and regulations only apply to the southern, Greek Cypriot part of the island led by an internationally recognized government.
A European Parliament member from Cyprus has accused the EU’s executive commission of letting the PDO application for halloumi grow moldy. The government hopes the new European Commission seated last month will find a way around the quandary.
Halloumi/hellim was put on track for an exclusive geographic designation amid much fanfare in 2015, when relaunched negotiations between the rival Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders brimmed with hope of delivering a deal to reunify the island as a two-zone federation.
A compromise was struck for the Bureau V eritas — a European body that certifies food and agricultural products — t o perform checks on halloumi/hellim produced on both sides of the ethnic divide to ensure it met EU health and safety standards.
But the peace talks eventually collapsed, and the application has languished since then.
The Cypriot government says the agreement foresaw the export to European markets of vetted, Turkish Cypriot-produced cheese through EU-recognized ports in the south. Britain, Sweden and Germany currently are the top three markets for Cyprus’ halloumi.
But Turkish Cypriot authorities say there was no such understanding. They accuse Greek Cypriots of blocking the European Commission’s effort to enable halloumi/hellim exports from the island’s north.
“Turkish Cypriot producers should be able to export PDO-registered hellim/halloumi as they deem viable,” Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce President Turgay Deniz said. “They should not be restricted to trading across (the dividing line) and via the ports in the south.”
According to Deniz, 13 Turkish Cypriot halloumi/hellim producers export around 30 million euros ($33 million) worth of the cheese to Turkey and Gulf countries. The cheese reaches Gulf nations through Turkey.
Cyprus’ Agriculture Ministry says it intends to keep pushing to clinch the exclusive mark and “to solve soon the remaining issues relating to the registration of halloumi/hellim for the benefit of all Cypriot producers.”
The European Commission says it’s in contact with the Cypriot government and Turkish Cypriots to “ensure an outcome.”
But Cypriot European Parliament member, Costas Mavrides, alleges the Commission is “arbitrarily” stalling it’s approval for halloumi to get the PDO. He said there’s no legal reason for the cheese not to gain the designation and that the only step that’s left is the green light from the Commission.
Mavrides is urging the Cypriot government to take the matter to the EU Court of Justice so halloumi/hellim gets the coveted moniker.
Farmers’ organizations fully back the government’s PDO drive for halloumi. But curiously, a segment of the cheese-making community is voicing its dissent at the cheese clinching the designation amid concerns that this could lead to job losses and shrinking revenue.
For halloumi/hellim t o secure the designation, it must conform to a Cyprus government directive that it must contain at least 51% sheep’s and goats’ milk. That’s in line with a traditional Cypriot recipe dating back some 500 years when cows were a rare commodity. Now, the cheese is made with mostly cow’s’ milk.
But Cheesemakers’ Association President George Petrou warns that more than one-third of the 13,000 Cypriot families in the halloumi/hellim business would find themselves out of a job if they couldn’t use as much cows’ milk in their cheese.
Cheese exports would drop by at least half, as production would plummet because of a current shortage of sheep and goat milk, Petrou estimated.
Petrou says cheese-makers instead want authorities to pursue a geographical origin designation whose rules are more flexible on how much cow milk can be used.
“As cheese-makers, we want a solution that won’t reduce exports or lead to job losses,” Petrou told The Associated Press.
Other industry groups see holes in that argument. Rejecting the idea of using less cows’ milk loses sight of the long-term benefits that a PDO mark would offer Cypriot halloumi makers, says Michalis Lytras, president of the Pancyprian Farmers’ Union.
The geographic designation would protect local producers from foreign competitors who might use cheaper, possibly government-subsidized cow milk to make halloumi/hellim.
A PDO designation wouldn’t preclude finding solutions addressing cheesemakers’ concerns, like possibly marketing halloumi/hellim made with mostly cow milk under a different name.
“We can’t sacrifice those long-term benefits for short-term gains,” said Lytras.
Takis Christodoulou, president of the New Farmers’ Movement, says the high sheep and goat milk content appeals to health-conscious European consumers who are helping to fuel halloumi sales.
Christodoulou disputes that revenue from halloumi/hellim exports would drop as steeply as Petrou contends. He said while there may be a dip in cheese exports, PDO-designated halloumi/hellim would command higher prices in foreign markets.
“This is the natural product of Cyprus, and we couldn’t be prouder of it,” said Christodoulou.
White gold: Cyprus’ halloumi cheese entangled in politics
https://arab.news/yt7y4
White gold: Cyprus’ halloumi cheese entangled in politics
- Cypriot authorities have spent years trying to get the EU to recognize halloumi as a traditional product of the east Mediterranean island nation
Musk, president? Trump says ‘not happening’
- Trump: “He wasn’t born in this country”
“He’s not gonna be president, that I can tell you,” Trump told a Republican conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
“You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country,” Trump said of the Tesla and SpaceX boss, who was born in South Africa.
The US Constitution requires that a president be a natural-born US citizen.
Trump was responding to criticism, particularly from the Democratic camp, portraying the tech billionaire and world’s richest person as “President Musk” for the outsized role he is playing in the incoming administration.
As per ceding the presidency to Musk, Trump also assured the crowd: “No, no that’s not happening.”
The influence of Musk, who will serve as Trump’s “efficiency czar,” has become a focus point for Democratic attacks, with questions raised over how an unelected citizen can wield so much power.
And there is even growing anger among Republicans after Musk trashed a government funding proposal this week in a blizzard of posts — many of them wildly inaccurate — to his more than 200 million followers on his social media platform X.
Alongside Trump, Musk ultimately helped pressure Republicans to renege on a funding bill they had painstakingly agreed upon with Democrats, pushing the United States to the brink of budgetary paralysis that would have resulted in a government shutdown just days before Christmas.
Congress ultimately reached an agreement overnight Friday to Saturday, avoiding massive halts to government services.
Russia’s Putin holds talks with Slovakian PM Fico, in a rare visit to Moscow by an EU leader
- Fico has also been a rare senior EU politician to appear on Russian state TV following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday hosted Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to the Kremlin by an EU leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Fico arrived in Russia on a “working visit” and met with Putin one-on-one on Sunday evening, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s RIA agency. According to Peskov, the talks were expected to focus on “the international situation” and Russian natural gas deliveries.
Russian natural gas still flows to some European countries, including Slovakia, through Ukraine under a five-year agreement signed before the war that is due to expire at the end of this year. At a summit in Brussels on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told EU leaders that Kyiv has no intention of renewing the deal, something Fico insisted will harm his country’s interests.
Slovakia last month signed a short-term pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan, as it prepares for a possible halt to Russian supplies through Ukraine. Earlier this year, it struck a deal to import US liquefied natural gas through a pipeline from Poland.
The country can also receive gas through Austrian, Hungarian and Czech networks, enabling imports from Germany among other potential suppliers.
Visits and phone calls from European leaders to Putin have been rare since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine, although Hungary’s PM Viktor Orbán visited Russia in July, and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer met with the Russian leader just weeks into the full-scale war. Both trips drew condemnation from Kyiv and European leaders.
Orbán, widely seen as having the warmest relations with Putin among EU leaders, has routinely blocked, delayed or watered down EU efforts to assist Kyiv and impose sanctions on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine. He has long argued for a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine but without outlining what that might mean for the country’s territorial integrity or future security.
Fico’s views on Russia’s war on Ukraine differ sharply from most other European leaders. The Slovakian PM returned to power last year after his leftist party Smer (Direction) won parliamentary elections on a pro-Russia and anti-American platform. Since then, he has ended his country’s military aid for Ukraine, hit out at EU sanctions on Russia, and vowed to block Ukraine from joining NATO.
Fico has also been a rare senior EU politician to appear on Russian state TV following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel in October, he contended the West has “prolonged the war” by supporting Ukraine, adding that sanctions against Russia were ineffective. He declared that he was ready to negotiate with Putin.
He also vowed to attend a military parade in Moscow next May that will mark the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II. The Kremlin has used the annual “Victory Day” celebrations to tout its battlefield prowess, and Putin hailed Russian troops fighting in Ukraine as “heroes” at this year’s event.
Ho Chi Minh City celebrates first metro
HO CHI MINH CITY: Thousands of selfie-taking Ho Chi Minh City residents crammed into train carriages Sunday as the traffic-clogged business hub celebrated the opening of its first-ever metro line after years of delays.
Huge queues spilled out of every station along the $1.7 billion line that runs almost 20 kilometers from the city center — with women in traditional “ao dai” dress, soldiers in uniform and couples clutching young children waiting excitedly to board.
“I know it (the project) is late, but I still feel so very honored and proud to be among the first on this metro,” said office worker Nguyen Nhu Huyen after snatching a selfie in her jam-packed train car.
“Our city is now on par with the other big cities of the world,” she said.
It took 17 years for Vietnam’s commercial capital to reach this point. The project, funded largely by Japanese government loans, was first approved in 2007 and slated to cost just $668 million.
When construction began in 2012, authorities promised the line would be up and running in just five years.
But as delays mounted, cars and motorbikes multiplied in the city of nine million people, making the metropolis hugely congested, increasingly polluted and time-consuming to navigate.
The metro “meets the growing travel needs of residents and contributes to reducing traffic congestion and environmental pollution,” the city’s deputy mayor Bui Xuan Cuong said.
Cuong admitted authorities had to overcome “countless hurdles” to get the project over the line.
Suspect in German Christmas market attack held on murder charges
- Suspect strongly critical of German authorities as well as Islam in the past
- Saudi Arabia repeatedly flagged to Germany concerns over posts on suspect’s social media, according to sources
MAGDEBURG: A man suspected of plowing a car through crowds at a German Christmas market in an attack that killed five people and injured scores faces multiple charges of murder and attempted murder, police said on Sunday.
Friday evening’s attack in the central city of Magdeburg shocked the country and stirred up tensions over the charged issue of immigration.
The suspect, who was in custody, is a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric who has lived in Germany for almost two decades. The motive for the attack remained unclear.
There were scuffles and some “minor disturbances” at a far-right demonstration attended by around 2,100 people on Saturday night in Magdeburg, police said. They added that criminal proceedings would follow, but did not give details.
Protesters, some wearing black balaclavas, held up a large banner with the word “remigration,” a term popular with supporters of the far right who seek the mass deportation of immigrants and people deemed not ethnically German.
Other residents gathered to pay their respects to the dead.
A sea of flowers stretched out in front of St. John’s Church in Magdeburg, close to the scene of the crime, which attracted a steady stream of tearful mourners over the weekend.
“This is my second time here. I was here yesterday. I brought flowers and it moved me so much and I had to know today how many flowers were brought,” local resident Ingolf Klinzmann told Reuters.
A sign commemorating the victims bore in large lettering the word “Why?.”
A magistrate ordered the suspect, identified in German media as Taleb A., into pretrial custody on charges of murder on five counts as well as multiple counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm, police said in a statement.
Reuters could not immediately ascertain if the suspect had a lawyer.
Those killed were a nine-year-old boy and four women aged 52, 45, 75 and 67, the police statement said. Among the wounded, around 40 had serious or critical injuries.
Authorities said the suspected attacker used emergency exit points to drive onto the grounds of the Christmas market, where he picked up speed and plowed into the crowds, hitting more than 200 people in a three-minute attack. He was arrested at the scene.
German authorities have not named the suspect and German media reports have given his name only as Taleb A. in keeping with local privacy laws.
MOTIVE UNCLEAR
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement on Sunday that the criminal investigation would leave no stone unturned.
“The task is to piece together all findings and paint a picture of this perpetrator, who does not fit any existing mold,” Faeser said.
“This perpetrator acted in an unbelievably cruel and brutal manner — like an Islamist terrorist, although he was clearly ideologically hostile to Islam,” she added.
The suspect had been strongly critical of German authorities as well as Islam in the past.
He had voiced support on social media platform X for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and for US billionaire Elon Musk, who has backed the AfD.
The AfD has strong support in the former East Germany where Magdeburg is located. Opinion polls put it in second place nationally ahead of elections in February.
Its members, including the candidate for chancellor Alice Weidel, planned a rally in Magdeburg on Monday evening.
Saudi Arabia had repeatedly flagged to Germany concerns over posts on the suspect’s social media, according to a Saudi source and a German security source.
The Christian Democrats, Germany’s main opposition party, and the Free Democrats, who were part of the coalition government until its collapse last month, called for improvements to Germany’s security apparatus, including better coordination between federal and state authorities.
“The background must be clarified. But above all, we must do more to prevent such offenses, especially as there were obviously specific warnings and tips in this case that were ignored,” Sahra Wagenknecht, leader of the leftist BSW party, told the Welt newspaper.
The BSW, a new political party with far-left roots, has also condemned unchecked immigration and has gained considerable support ahead of the Feb. 23 election.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democrats are trailing in opinion polls, attended a service for victims in Magdeburg’s cathedral on Saturday.
Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh
- In the chaotic days following Hasina’s August 5 ouster there was a string of attacks on Hindus
- Muslim Sufi worshippers as well as members of the Baul mystic sect have also been threatened
DHAKA: For generations, the small Hindu temple outside the capital in Muslim-majority Bangladesh was a quiet place to pray — before arsonists ripped open its roof this month in the latest post-revolution unrest.
It is only one of a string of attacks targeting religious minorities since a student-led uprising toppled long-time autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina in August.
“We don’t feel safe,” said Hindu devotee Swapna Ghosh in the village of Dhour, where attackers broke into the 50-year-old family temple to the goddess Lakshmi and set fire to its treasured idols on December 7.
“My son saw the flames and doused them quickly,” said temple custodian Ratan Kumar Ghosh, 55, describing how assailants knew to avoid security cameras, so they tore its tin roof open to enter.
“Otherwise, the temple — and us — would have been reduced to ashes.”
Hindus make up about eight percent of the mainly Muslim nation of 170 million people.
In the chaotic days following Hasina’s August 5 ouster there was a string of attacks on Hindus — seen by some as having backed her rule — as well as attacks on Muslim Sufi shrines by religious hard-liners.
“Neither I, my forefathers or the villagers, regardless of their faith, have ever witnessed such communal attacks,” temple guardian Ghosh told AFP.
“These incidents break harmony and trust.”
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to India, where she is hosted by old allies in New Delhi’s Hindu-nationalist government, infuriating Bangladeshis determined that she face trial for alleged “mass murder.”
Attacks against Hindu temples are not new in Bangladesh, and rights activist Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir said the violence cannot be regarded out of context.
Under Hasina, Hindus had sought protection from the authorities. That meant her opponents viewed them as partisan loyalists.
“If you analyze the past decade, there has not been a single year without attacks on minorities,” Kabir said, from the Dhaka-based rights group Ain o Salish Kendra.
This year, from January to November, the organization recorded 118 incidents of communal violence targeting Hindus.
August saw a peak of 63 incidents, including two deaths. In November, there were seven incidents.
While that is significantly more than last year — when the group recorded 22 attacks on minorities and 43 incidents of vandalism — previous years were more violent.
In 2014, one person was killed, two women were raped, 255 injured, and 247 temples attacked. In 2016, seven people were killed.
“The situation has not worsened, but there’s been no progress either,” said businessman and Hindu devotee Chandan Saha, 59.
Political rulers had repeatedly “used minorities as pawns,” Saha added.
The caretaker government has urged calm and promised increased security, and accused Indian media of spreading disinformation about the status of Hindus in Bangladesh.
Dhaka’s interim government this month expressed shock at a call by a leading Indian politician — chief minister of India’s West Bengal state Mamata Banerjee — to deploy UN peacekeepers.
Hefazat-e-Islam, an association of Islamic seminaries, has led public protests against India, accusing New Delhi of a campaign aimed at “propagating hate” against Bangladesh. India rejects the charges.
Religious relations have been turbulent, including widespread unrest in November in clashes between Hindu protesters and security forces.
That was triggered by the killing of a lawyer during protests because bail was denied for an outspoken Hindu monk accused of allegedly disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag during a rally.
Bangladeshi hard-line groups have been emboldened to take to the streets after years of suppression.
Muslim Sufi worshippers as well as members of the Baul mystic sect — branded heretics by some hard-liners — have also been threatened.
“There’s been a wave of vandalism,” said Syed Tarik, a devotee documenting such incidents.
Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner appointed the country’s “chief adviser,” has called for dialogue between groups.
Critics say it is not enough.
“To establish a peaceful country where all faiths coexist in harmony, the head of state must engage regularly with faith leaders to foster understanding,” said Sukomal Barua, professor of religion at Dhaka University.
Sumon Roy, founder of Bangladesh’s association of Hindu lawyers, said members of the minority were treated as a bloc by political parties.
“They have all used us as tools,” Roy said, explaining that Hindus had been previously threatened both by Hasina’s Awami League and its rival Bangladesh National Party.
“If we didn’t support AL we faced threats, and the BNP blamed us for siding with the AL,” he said. “This cycle needs to end.”
