 Hello and welcome to Daily Debrief brought to you by People's Dispatch. I am Pragya. Globally recognized activists including Angela Davis have kickstarted a month-long campaign seeking political activist Mumia Abu Jamal's release from a US prison where he has spent over 41 years. Activists remind that evidence in the case against him has repeatedly fallen apart. Next, the much-anticipated three-day visit of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi to China concludes with the promise of a return visit. We look at the larger significance of this exchange today. And last, the earthquake in Syria and Turkey sparks serious new concerns in sanctions at Syria, where threats loom of a coming health emergency. One tank Black Panther Party member Mumia Abu Jamal's over 41 years in prison in the United States has prompted prominent global civil rights activists to kickstart a new campaign for his release. Abu Jamal was a young political activist in 1983 when he was convicted for killing a policeman. The evidence against him always seemed to be on shaky ground. Natalia from People's Dispatch joins us on this issue. Hi Natalia, thanks for joining us. Natalia, can you tell me what the campaign is all about? Yeah, so Mumia Abu Jamal, he's a political prisoner in the US. He's been in prison for decades upon decades. You know, he is a fighter for Black liberation and a lot of political prisoners in the US are very similar. They're also fighters for Black liberation in a time when that sort of struggle was heavily repressed. I mean, even today it's very heavily repressed. And so people who, like Mumia Abu Jamal, like Rochelle McGee, like Mutulu Shakur, were imprisoned, you know, in the previous century for struggling for Black freedom in the US. And the FBI essentially targeted them, right? So right now, after decades upon decades of Mumia Abu Jamal being in prison in Pennsylvania, new evidence has been discovered that appears to show that one of the key witnesses was paid for his testimony. And also that there was racism involved in the jury selection. And so because of this new evidence, within the next month or so, up until March 16th, the judge in Pennsylvania is going to decide on his case whether or not he could be free. And many are overjoyed. Many of his supporters are very, very thrilled that this is possible. This has been a very, very long struggle. Mumia Abu Jamal, former Black Panther, was originally charged with murdering a police officer, which in the US is a very, very, very high crime. I mean, people get the death penalty for this sort of thing. Mumia did originally get the death penalty. There was a campaign to reduce his sentence to life in prison and free him. Eventually they, in the 90s, I believe they did reduce his sentence to life in prison as a result of the struggle. And ever since then, it's been a fight to release him from prison, because his supporters argue that he did not kill this police officer, that there the evidence isn't sufficient. And now with this new evidence coming in, it seems like they'll finally get a chance to prove this to be true in court and get a fair trial for Mumia. Right. You said he's a political prisoner. Can you sort of describe why he's considered a political prisoner? Yeah, well, the United States government, as we all know, likes to point fingers at other countries and say, Russia, China, Cuba, they have political prisoners. They're oppressive governments. But, you know, the United States also has prisoners that have been accused of other crimes, but are really in prison because they struggled politically on different issues, right? So, Anabel and Montez is an example, I believe, a recently released political prisoner who was a spy for Cuba and was in prison for a very long time in the U.S. And, you know, I think the most notable examples of this are people who in the 60s and 70s fought for black liberation in the Black Panther Party or other organizations. So, Motul Shakur, he was recently released with six months to live, but he had been in prison for a very long time. And he, you know, was accused also of something that he didn't commit. He's a very famous health worker and acupuncturist. Rochelle McGee, who was part of a raid in a U.S. courthouse, who did not kill anyone, but he has been the longest-serving political prisoner in the U.S., in prison for 60-plus years, I believe, for his involvement in that courthouse holdup, which was also an event that was heavily linked with the Black Panther Party and, again, the Black Liberation struggle at the time. And many, many more. Julia Montequim, also in this boat, someone who was released a few years ago, who I got to interview, who also struggled for black liberation in the 60s and 70s. So, you know, there's a, there are quite a few political prisoners who are often, like Mumia Bajamal and Asad Shakur, accused of killing a police officer because that's a crime that you can get a very severe penalty for. But there's very little to no evidence that he actually did, that Mumia actually did kill this police officer. But to this day, you know, the police hate him. I mean, the fraternal order of police really makes a point to fight for Mumia to stay in prison for the rest of his life, while his supporters are starting for his release. And so, yes, the U.S. does not really admit that it has political prisoners, but there are many people in prison because the FBI targeted them while they were fighting for black liberation in the 60s, 70s, 80s. And now they are in prison on charges of something that they did not commit or have been recently released after decades. Thanks a lot for joining us, Natalia. Yeah, no problem. Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi's three-day visit to China ended in numerous bilateral agreements, but the visit is most significant for its context and for what China and Iran emphasize the most, solidarity and cooperation beyond the shadow of the West and lifting these sanctions against Iran. Abdul from People's Dispatch has been following his visit. Abdul, thanks for joining us. So, Abdul, this visit was much anticipated. Can you tell us what the key points of their interaction was now that the visit is over? Well, Raisi visited China for three days and he met, apart from President Xi Jinping, he also met other officials. And both the countries have signed more than a dozen of bilateral agreements related to energy cooperation, finance, technology, and so on and so forth. There was also a joint statement. There was a joint statement at the end of the meeting, which basically talks about the common perspective with which this particular visit was undertaken, in which, of course, apart from both the countries giving a call for the lifting of all the sanctions imposed on Iran since the US unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018, claiming that such kind of sanctions hamper the global agreements and goes against the international principles of cooperation and stability. Apart from that, it also talks about how both the countries will carry forward their future relations. In particular, there is already a strategic agreement between China and Iran signed in 2021 for 25 years. Apart from that, there was also a talk of China, there is prospect of Iran joining BRICS plus countries. Sorry, Iran is already a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. So these are the major points. Apart from that, of course, G. Zingping also agreed to visit Iran in near future. There were agreements or a common ground over the need of regional peace in the Persian Gulf. As you all know, Iran has certain issues with the Gulf countries, there are issues with Israel. Israel has tried to take various kinds of violent action against Iranians. So all those things have been mentioned directly or indirectly. Apart from that, a very important point was also mentioned in the agreement, sorry, in the statement, which talks about the Iranian perspective. It seems China concurs that there is an attempt to politicize international atomic energy agency by certain countries. Of course, the names of those countries are not mentioned, but it is common knowledge that it is talking about the US and Israel's push to basically of IAEA to investigate certain issues about Iran. So both the countries agree that such attempts are basically not good for the NPT for the larger global, the reputation of the IAEA and such things need to be avoided. So in a nutshell, this is what was the basic assist of a three-day visit of Raisi to China. Tell us about what the implications are. I know that the Chinese side did say that it's a complex global environment. So what was that reference to and what are the regional and international implications? Well, that is a very important point of this visit. The joint statement talks about a common commitment to multilateralism. And it is again a common knowledge that when China and Iran are talking about multilateralism, they are basically trying to question the hegemonic presence of one country in the global politics and that is the United States. So as we have recently seen that there is a kind of a trilateral understanding emerging between China, Iran and Russia, particularly following the war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia. There is a West's attempt to fight a proxy war in Ukraine against Russia and all these basically have led to coming of all these countries together, sanctions against Iran, sanctions against Russia, and now increased targeting of Chinese by the US. We have seen this ridiculous issue related to balloons being targeted, the Taiwan issue being raised. There is a deliberate provocation as China thinks on the issue by the US and then there are sanctions imposed on Chinese tech companies and so forth, Chinese and other companies as well. So this basically has led to a larger realignment in the global politics and Iran, China and Russia seems to be coming together as a kind of an alternative pole to the unipolar US-centered world politics. And this visit basically confirms that particular realignment in the global politics. It also basically addresses certain basic issues which were there between China and Iran all this while. For example, the three island issues in the Persian Gulf, which became an issue when Xi Jinping was in Saudi Arabia last year. That it seems that there is a some kind of attempt to address that also and there is a push by the China that Iran should kind of create much more favorable condition in the larger West Asia region. It means mending its relationship with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. So all these things basically lead to emergence of a kind of global politics in which China along with Iran and Russia basically emerged as a group of countries which increasingly cooperate in global for us, on global for us and kind of try to create a much more as they say, just an egalitarian global politics. Right, Abdul and thanks a lot for joining us with that update. Thousands are displaced, injured and homeless in Syria after the 6th February earthquake. But there is a new crisis afoot as Western sanctions and years of armed conflict hamper relief. There are warnings of a cholera outbreak amid checkpoints and active discrimination in parts of Syria. We spoke to Anna Rekha from the People's Health Movement who has been talking to health workers in Syria and Turkey. Anna, thank you for joining us. Anna, there were these reports which came right after the earthquake very soon after the earthquake where it was said that the sanctions are being lifted etc etc. But what is the real situation on the ground that you have been able to find out? So essentially what we are hearing from activists on the ground is that for now only UN convoys are being able to enter Syria while the other organizations like for example the Kurdish Red Crescent and other humanitarian organizations are still experiencing problems in reaching the points which they are supposed to reach. So some of these convoys are very small convoys, they have been put together in a very short time with the idea of reinforcements coming up after them. But at the moment it's still very unclear how they're going to be able to pass and it depends a lot on how they are treated at the checkpoints and what's the actual approach of the people at the checkpoints to what they do. So when it comes to northwest Syria it's definitely still what is necessary to actually address the scale of the experience that people have gone through recently. Right Anna, can you just give us sort of idea of what people have told you about the health infrastructure, how it has been affected in Syria, there are long-term effects and also the immediate devastation of the earthquake. Can you give us a look at what's the situation there? Yes so I think one of the most striking things that I've heard for now is that you know activists who have worked in especially in the north of the country have said that while the earthquake definitely did shake the things, the health system was in such a bad shape from the beginning that you know it's very difficult to talk about changes. So to begin with the health system had a shortage and difficulties in accessing both medicines, both health equipment but also health workers. So essentially the situation there was so bad that right now they're still having trouble in mapping things out. It's very unclear still it was a couple of days ago so activists from and coordinators from the Kurdish Red Crescent warned that you know they had troubles in actually estimating the numbers of for example cholera cases that are expected to go up after the earthquake both because there are not enough health workers but also because there are not enough testing kits and other equipment that are needed to to carry this true. But of course you know if we look at the health system itself it's been under tremendous strain and today we have seen news of it being overwhelmed by people seeking care after the earthquake. It also has to be said that a lot of people you know they're still outside of the health system and it's still unclear how they're going to receive care in this context. Here we're talking both about people who are going through mental distress who are having mental health issues because of the earthquake they're either in shock they're too scared to go home they don't have a home to return to which of course increases the danger of both contagious diseases but also of falling quality of mental health let's put it that way. And then a third group which is at particular risk and which activists have warned about that should receive particular care in the days to come are children who are unaccompanied at the moment and who have been moving after the earthquake. So it's a very difficult time for the people in Syria and in the context where essentially no function in health system has been there for years because of the sanctions because of the inaccessibility of the materials that they need to actually have a function in health system is really terrible. Right Anna and Anna we spoke just a while back and you said you also have an update from Turkey what was it that you have found out? Yes so of course you know Turkey at least when it comes to how the western countries reacted got a lot more attention than Syria and organized relief was much easier and much quicker to move in but as we have heard from the Turkish Medical Association the situation there might also be very under reported from what we have been hearing from the mainstream so the official numbers now have crossed 30 000 of that in the areas hit by the earthquake but the TMA warns that you know essentially these earthquakes have essentially destroyed four major cities so by the end of the rescue missions by the end of the efforts to to save as many people as they can their estimates going up to 100 000 that's by the end of this process so it's an incredible number and what is also coming from the activists in Turkey is that since the government response was staggered it was delayed for for quite a bit of time it was up to self-organizing of people and to essentially of how they managed to get volunteers in the areas hit and how they managed to organize provide the provision of care there the Turkish Medical Association has sent its own volunteers to the areas hit I believe it was about 300 people from the TMA who went there in a situation where the TMA is actually under you know under stress of its own because of the political process going against the the organization so it still depends you know to it still depends what's going to happen and how the response is going to pick up in the in the next days but it's it's a very large number of people who are who have been affected there and who are also moving right now so thousands of people on the move which again makes it possible makes it more likely that the contagious diseases the communicable diseases that we have witnessed over the past year might spread even more right Anna sounds like a unfolding tragedy in both countries for a variety of reasons and thanks a lot for joining us with that update and that is all we have for you today thank you for watching daily debrief do come back to us tomorrow you can find more such stories on our website peoplesdispatch.org and our regular updates on facebook twitter and instagram