Arab Americans ‘need to do more to balance relationship’ with African Americans 

Cyril Nichols 1 - Inclusivity
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Updated 03 August 2023
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Arab Americans ‘need to do more to balance relationship’ with African Americans 

  • Equitable ties needed in Illinois, a leading Black legislator said on The Ray Hanania Radio Show sponsored by Arab News 
  • Illinois’ only two Muslim legislators, one who is Arab, should join the Black Caucus, said State Rep. Cyril Nichols 

CHICAGO: African Americans are perplexed that Arab Americans want to be identified as being “Middle East and North African” on the US Census yet fail to balance the support Blacks have given to the Arab community in the country, a leading Black legislator in Illinois said Wednesday. 

Illinois State Rep. Cyril Nichols — a member of the state’s large African-American legislative caucus of 21 members, which represents nearly one-third of the Democratic Party’s contingent — said African Americans support their counterparts twice as much in comparison to what they receive in return. 

During an interview on The Ray Hanania Radio Show, broadcast on the US Arab Radio Network in Detroit and Washington D.C. and sponsored by Arab News, Nichols said “an imbalance exists” and it “needs to change.”  

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“When we work together, we can accomplish so much in a short amount of time. As you may know, about 70 percent of the gas stations in my district are owned by Arab Americans. We are not reinvested,” Nichols said.

“But the African-American community is reinvesting by doing business (with Arab businesses) in those areas where these gas stations (are located) and any other businesses for that matter. We in the African-American community are inclusive. We allow anyone to open up, be it Chinese food restaurants — it could be the gas stations, it could be cleaners. Oftentimes it is not African Americans that own these businesses. We just have to have a real conversation.” 

Asked to define the imbalance, Nichols said that on a scale of one to 10, African-American support of Arab Americans is at 10, while in return it is “an even five.” 

To achieve some “balance,” Nichols told Arab News he would convene a Town Hall-type meeting in October to bring the two communities together in Illinois. He said it should also be done in other areas with similar demographics. 

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“When we are in our communities, because we don’t talk about it enough, because we want to bring in cultural identifiers that are not our culture, there are certain people who don’t want us to work together,” Nichols said, and expressed hope that Arab Americans and Muslims would attend. 

“When we work together, there is nothing we can’t do. There is literally nothing we can’t do. That is the way a community prospers, when people work together. Yes, there is not enough conversations. We should be meeting and convening weekly.” 

Nichols added: “We really need to bring people of leadership together, be it principals, be it business owners, be it clergy. We really need to come together, not to have a gripe session, but to have a real honest discussion with a solution. So, I don’t just want to come in and talk about nothing. I want to come in with a solution and develop legislation to support the solutions that we come up with. That’s the difference.” 

He said there was a long history of relations between Arab Americans and African Americans, citing several key milestones in this regard. 

In 1983, Chicago’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington, created the Advisory Commission on Arab Affairs, and placed several Arab Americans in key city positions, Nichols said. The commission was dismantled by former Jewish-American mayor, Rahm Emanuel, immediately after his election in 2011. 

Emanuel’s successors, former mayor Lori Lightfoot and incumbent Brandon Johnson, said they would reinstate the Arab Advisory Commission but this has not happened. 

In 1984 and 1988, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson gave Arab Americans roles in his attempts to become the Democratic Party candidate for president. Although Jackson did not win the party’s nomination on both occasions, Arab Americans won seats as convention delegates and had roles in defining the party’s national-issues plank. 

In 2022, Nichols introduced draft legislation seeking to recognize Arab Americans as a “minority group,” to qualify them for the Illinois Minority Business Enterprise system — that gives MBE members a first shot at up to 30 percent of the state’s annual contracts worth billions. This status has strengthened the businesses owned by Blacks, Hispanics, women and Asians, but Arab businesses have been left out. 

Nichols noted that instead of supporting the bill, which has not been signed into law yet, many Arab Americans were apathetic. 

“Both communities should be getting a lot more. If we work together we will, we will get a lot more. We have to work together. We have to stop some of these petty (people),” Nichols said, referring to individuals and groups that reject an inclusive approach. 

The 32nd District that Nichols represents has more than 120,000 residents, with a large Arab-American population on Chicago’s southwest side and various suburbs, including in Bridgeview where Arab immigrants built the state’s first prayer hall, the Mosque Foundation, in 1981. 

Last year, Nichols secured a state grant of $120,000 to support the Mosque Foundation’s Food Pantry which helps all needy families. 

Nichols said that nearly one-third of the state’s 78 Democrats in the 118-member Illinois General Assembly are African American and that only two members are Muslim — Nabeela Syed and Abdelnasser Rashid. 

Nichols said Rashid, who has Palestinian roots, and Syed, with Indian ancestry, should “absolutely” join the Black Caucus to address issues facing all the minority communities. 

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“This is a very serious and real topic,” Nichols said. “When I look back and I think of this country, Black folk built this country. To think that our communities don’t work together more, then you are dealing with the idea of systemic racism, thinking that somehow your community is going to jump the Black community.  

“Our community has never thought of ourselves being first, second or third. We are just inclusive. And it is proven. We’re not making this up. It is proven. If we would just learn to work together and believe in what we worship, which is God, a lot of this stuff would not be issues. These issues we deal with are all man-made. These are not God-made issues. These are man-made issues,” Nichols said, adding that Blacks and Arabs can find common ground in terms of their religious beliefs and the struggle against racism. 

Nichols’ comments were made during an appearance on The Ray Hanania Radio Show broadcast Wednesday Aug. 2, 2023, in Detroit and Washington D.C. on the US Arab Radio Network and sponsored by Arab News. 

You can listen to the radio show’s podcast by visiting ArabNews.com/rayradioshow.


Saudia’s budget carrier Flyadeal to launch flights to India next year

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Saudia’s budget carrier Flyadeal to launch flights to India next year

  • Up to 6 new destinations in India will be added in first year of operations, CEO says
  • Flyadeal plans to have 5-10% of its total traffic coming from India

NEW DELHI: Saudi budget carrier Flyadeal is planning to launch flights from the Kingdom to India next year, its CEO said, as industry leaders gathered in New Delhi for the International Air Transport Association’s annual summit.

Established in 2017, Flyadeal is a subsidiary of the Saudi national flag carrier, Saudia. Headquartered in Jeddah, the airline primarily serves domestic routes and has, over the past few years, expanded to international destinations in the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa.

It currently reaches some 35 destinations. Another five or six will be added in India soon.

“We’re planning to launch flights from the Kingdom to India next year,” Flyadeal’s CEO Steven Greenway told Arab News on the sidelines of the IATA meeting on Monday.

“We’re talking about five to six (destinations) in our first year alone — so quite a lot, and mostly secondary cities ... Our sister carrier Saudia will remain in Delhi and Mumbai. We’re looking at the secondary cities.”

While he expects the airline’s upcoming India operations to address mostly labor traffic, tourists are a growing group too, as Saudi Arabia is heavily investing in tourist destinations.

In the past few years the Kingdom has seen significant developments at its eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, eco-friendly and luxury resorts on the Red Sea coastline, and entertainment and sports complexes.

With their vast promotion, also involving Bollywood stars, more and more Indians are willing to visit Riyadh, Jeddah, or AlUla.

“You’ve got a country which is now open for business, which is now deploying key strategic initiatives that are going online  — the Red Sea resorts and so forth. That will bring tourism,” Greenway said.

“I would like to think that we could probably have anything between 5 and 10 percent of our total traffic coming from India over the next couple of years.”

Tourism is booming in Saudi Arabia under the Vision 2030 diversification plan, with the sector expected to contribute 10 percent of the gross domestic product.

The Saudi Tourism Authority announced last year that it expected India to become its key inbound market, with 7.5 million Indian travelers visiting the Kingdom by 2030.


Germany’s Merz says court ruling will not stop migration crackdown

Updated 03 June 2025
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Germany’s Merz says court ruling will not stop migration crackdown

BERLIN: Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday a court ruling that German authorities acted unlawfully when border police expelled three Somali asylum seekers could restrict his government’s migration crackdown but would not stop it altogether.
People would continue to be turned away at the German border, he said.
A Berlin administrative court said on Monday the expulsion of the three unnamed Somalis, who were sent back to Poland after arriving at a train station in eastern Germany, was “unlawful.”
It said the asylum application should have been processed by Germany under the European Union’s so-called Dublin rules that determine which country is responsible for processing a claim.
The ruling was a setback for Merz’s government, which won a federal election in February after promising a crackdown on migration that has caused concern in neighboring countries.
The court ruling has “possibly further restricted the scope for maneuver here,” Merz told a local government congress. “But the scope is still there. We know that we can still reject people.”
“We will, of course, do this within the framework of European law, but we will also do it to protect public safety and order in our country and to relieve the burden on cities and municipalities,” he said.
Migration is among German voters’ biggest concerns and a backlash against an influx of new arrivals has contributed to a rise in the popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which came second in February’s election.
It is a big shift since Germany’s “Refugees Welcome” culture during Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015 under Merz’s conservative predecessor, Angela Merkel.
Merz’s government issued an order in May to reject undocumented migrants, including asylum seekers, at Germany’s borders.
Monday’s ruling was seized on by critics as evidence that Merz’s migration policy was unworkable.
“The administrative court has determined that Dobrindt’s policy of rejecting asylum seekers is unlawful, contrary to European law, and now the Federal Ministry of the Interior should really start thinking about how to finally put an end to this nonsense,” Karl Kopp of the pro-immigration advocacy group Pro Asyl told Reuters.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt defended the expulsions, saying he would provide the court with justifications for banning entry.


Mongolia PM resigns after anti-corruption protests

Updated 03 June 2025
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Mongolia PM resigns after anti-corruption protests

  • Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene resigned on Tuesday saying: “It was an honor to serve my country and people in times of difficulties, including pandemics, wars, and tariffs"

ULAANBAATAR: Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene resigned on Tuesday following weeks of anti-corruption protests in the country’s capital.
The landlocked democracy in northern Asia has battled deep-seated corruption for decades, with many arguing that wealthy elites are hoarding the profits of a years-long coal mining boom at the expense of the general population.
Frustrations have flared since last month as public suspicions over the supposedly lavish lifestyles of the prime minister’s family have fueled persistent demonstrations in the capital Ulaanbaatar.
Oyun-Erdene announced his resignation on Tuesday after losing a confidence vote among lawmakers, according to a parliamentary statement.
“It was an honor to serve my country and people in times of difficulties, including pandemics, wars, and tariffs,” he said after the result of the secret ballot was announced to parliament.
He will remain as caretaker prime minister until his successor is appointed within 30 days.
Dozens of young people gathered on the square outside the parliament building on Tuesday, holding white placards reading “Resignation is easy” — a popular slogan at recent protests.
Several voiced pride that they had taken a stand against what they described as deeply embedded corruption and social injustice.
“The youth protest has achieved great results. I’m so proud of the future of Mongolia,” participant Unur Sukhbaatar, a 37-year-old political economy researcher, told AFP.
“The public wants more stable governance with ethical politicians... protesting and unifying our voice for systemic change (shows) that Mongolian democracy is alive,” he told AFP.
Some counter-protesters — overwhelmingly older than their pro-opposition counterparts — have also turned out to support Oyun-Erdene in recent weeks.


Julian Dierkes, a Mongolia expert at Germany’s University of Mannheim, said he “(didn’t) expect any successor to adopt substantially different policies” from Oyun-Erdene, including on corruption.
His ouster “may mean the resurgence of factional politics in his party” after years of comparative stability at the top of Mongolian politics, Dierkes told AFP.
Oyun-Erdene has denied the corruption allegations, and in an address to parliament before the vote, blamed “major, visible and hidden interests” for waging an “organized campaign” to bring down the government.
He had also warned of political instability and economic chaos if forced out of power.
But it was not enough as only 44 lawmakers voted to retain confidence in him, with 38 against.
That did not reach the 64-vote threshold required from the 126-seat parliament, prompting Oyun-Erdene to stand down.


The move pushed the country’s fractious political scene into further uncertainty.
Mongolia had been ruled by a three-way coalition government since elections last year resulted in a significantly reduced majority for Oyun-Erdene’s Mongolian People’s Party (MPP).
But the MPP evicted the second-largest member, the Democratic Party (DP), from the coalition last month after some younger DP lawmakers backed calls for Oyun-Erdene’s resignation.
DP lawmakers walked out of the parliamentary chamber during the confidence ballot.
Munkhnaran Bayarlkhagva, a political analyst and former adviser on Mongolia’s National Security Council, said protesters had effectively helped force a vote on “the legitimacy of the (country’s) political system.”
“The Mongolian Generation Z showed they are willing and able to be a politically engaged, mature and active electorate,” he told AFP.
“The Mongolian political establishment had no choice but to comply to retain popular support.”


Sandwiched between regional giants China and Russia, Mongolia was a communist state during the Cold War, but has transformed into a democracy since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Since Oyun-Erdene took power in 2021, Mongolia’s ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index has dropped.
Concerns over the economy and rising living costs have also stoked unrest.
The protests against Oyun-Erdene began in May following accusations of lavish spending by his son, whose fiancee was reportedly seen with expensive gifts on social media.
“Parliament showed they can put the public interest above party needs,” small business owner Erchissaran Ganbold, 28, told AFP at Tuesday’s protest.
“This demonstration is a strong reminder for politicians to be accountable and transparent in the future.”


Bali drug trial of three Brits facing death penalty begins

Updated 03 June 2025
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Bali drug trial of three Brits facing death penalty begins

  • Indonesia hands out severe punishments for drug smuggling and has previously executed foreigners

DENPASAR: The trial of three British nationals accused of smuggling cocaine or taking part in a drug deal on Indonesia’s popular island of Bali began Tuesday, with all facing the death penalty in a nation with some of the world’s toughest narcotics laws.

Indonesia hands out severe punishments for drug smuggling and has previously executed foreigners, but has upheld a moratorium on the death sentence since 2017.

Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 38, and Lisa Ellen Stocker, 39, were arrested on February 1 after being stopped at Bali’s international airport with 17 packages of cocaine that weighed nearly a kilogramme, according to public court records.

They appeared in court alongside Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, who was allegedly due to receive the packages and arrested a few days later.

The heaviest punishment for taking part in a drug transaction is also the death penalty under Indonesian law.

An AFP journalist at the court said the hearing began Tuesday. A verdict was not expected until a later date.
The British embassy in Jakarta did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s administration has moved in recent months to repatriate several high-profile inmates, all sentenced for drug offenses, back to their home countries.

Frenchman Serge Atlaoui returned to France in February after Jakarta and Paris agreed a deal to repatriate him on “humanitarian grounds” because he was ill.

In December, Indonesia took Mary Jane Veloso off death row and returned her to the Philippines.

It also sent the five remaining members of the “Bali Nine” drug ring, who were serving heavy prison sentences, back to Australia.

According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Immigration and Corrections, 96 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges, before Veloso’s release.


Ukraine’s drone attack on Russian warplanes was a serious blow to the Kremlin’s strategic arsenal

Updated 03 June 2025
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Ukraine’s drone attack on Russian warplanes was a serious blow to the Kremlin’s strategic arsenal

  • Ukraine said over 40 bombers, or about a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, were damaged or destroyed Sunday

A surprise Ukrainian drone attack that targeted several Russian air bases hosting nuclear-capable strategic bombers was unprecedented in its scope and sophistication for the first time reached as far as Siberia in a heavy blow to the Russian military.
Ukraine said over 40 bombers, or about a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, were damaged or destroyed Sunday, although Moscow said only several planes were struck. The conflicting claims couldn’t be independently verified and video of the assault posted on social media showed only a couple of bombers hit.
But the bold attack demonstrated Ukraine’s capability to hit high-value targets anywhere in Russia, dealing a humiliating blow to the Kremlin and inflicting significant losses to Moscow’s war machine.
While some Russian military bloggers compared it to another infamous Sunday surprise attack — that of Japan’s strike on the US base at Pearl Harbor in 1941 — others rejected the analogy, arguing the actual damage was far less significant than Ukraine claimed.
A look at what warplanes were reported hit:
Russia’s bomber assets
For decades, long-range bombers have been part of the Soviet and Russian nuclear triad that also includes land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and atomic-powered submarines carrying ICBMs. The strategic bombers have flown regular patrols around the globe showcasing Moscow’s nuclear might.
During the 3-year-old war in Ukraine, Russia has used the heavy planes to launch waves of cruise missile strikes across the country.
The Tupolev Tu-95, which was code named Bear by NATO, is a four-engine turboprop plane designed in the 1950s to rival the US B-52 bomber. The aircraft has an intercontinental range and carries eight long-range cruise missiles that can be equipped with conventional or nuclear warheads.
Before Sunday, Russia was estimated to have a fleet of about 60 such aircraft.
The Tupolev Tu-22M is a twin-engine supersonic bomber designed in the 1970s that was code named Backfire by NATO. It has a shorter range compared with the Tu-95, but during US-Soviet arms control talks in the 1970s, Washington insisted on counting them as part of the Soviet strategic nuclear arsenal because of their capability to reach the US if refueled in flight.
The latest version of the plane, the Tu-22M3, carries Kh-22 cruise missiles that fly at more than three times the speed of sound. It dates to the 1970s, when it was designed by the Soviet Union to strike US aircraft carriers. It packs a big punch, thanks to its supersonic speed and ability to carry 630 kilograms (nearly 1,400 pounds) of explosives, but its outdated guidance system could make it highly inaccurate against ground targets, raising the possibility of collateral damage.
Some Tu-22Ms were lost in previous Ukrainian attacks, and Russia was estimated to have between 50 and 60 Tu-22M3s in service before Sunday’s drone strike.
The production of the Tu-95 and the Tu-22M ended after the 1991 collapse of the USSR, meaning that any of them lost Sunday can’t be replaced.
Russia also has another type of strategic nuclear capable bomber, the supersonic Tu-160. Fewer than 20 of them are in service, and Russia has just begun production of its modernized version equipped with new engines and avionics.
Russia lost a significant part of its heavy bomber fleet in the attack “with no immediate ability to replace it,” said Douglas Barrie of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, noting that Moscow’s announced plan to develop the next generation strategic bomber is still in its early phase.
“Ironically this might give impetus to that program, because if if you want to keep your bomber fleet up to size, then you’re going to have to do something at some point,” he said.
The A-50, which Ukrainian officials also said was hit in the strikes, is an early warning and control aircraft similar to the US AWACS planes used to coordinate aerial attacks. Only few such planes are in service with the Russian military, and any loss badly dents Russia’s military capability.
Relocating bombers and impromptu protection
Repeated Ukrainian strikes on the Engels air base, the main base for Russian nuclear capable strategic bombers near the Volga River city of Saratov, prompted Moscow to relocate the bombers to other bases farther from the conflict.
One of them was Olenya on the Arctic Kola Peninsula, from where Tu-95s have flown multiple missions to launch cruise missiles at Ukraine. Several bombers at Olenya apparently were hit by the Ukrainian drones Sunday, according to analysts studying satellite images before and after the strike.
Other drones targeted the Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region in eastern Siberia, destroying a few Tu-22M bombers, according to analysts.
Ukraine said 41 aircraft — Tu-95s, Tu-22Ms and A-50s — were damaged or destroyed Sunday in the attack that it said was in the works for 18 months in which swarms of drones popped out of containers carried on trucks that were parked near four air bases.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was briefed on the attack, which represented a level of sophistication that Washington had not seen before, a senior defense official said on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the attack set several warplanes ablaze at air bases in the Irkutsk region in eastern Siberia and the Murmansk region in the north, but the fires were extinguished.
It said Ukraine also tried to strike two air bases in western Russia, as well as another one in the Amur region of Russia’s Far East, but those attacks were repelled.
The drone strikes produced an outcry from Russian military bloggers, who criticized the Defense Ministry for failing to learn from previous strikes and protect the bombers. Building shelters or hangars for such large planes is a daunting task, and the military has tried some impromptu solutions that were criticized as window dressing.
Satellite images have shown Tu-95s at various air bases covered by layers of old tires — a measure of dubious efficiency that has drawn mockery on social media.