Saudi Arabia offers fully funded scholarships to Filipino students

WARSAW: Belarusian exile Asya watched from the sidelines in central Warsaw as a crowd greeted and applauded Sergei Tikhanovsky, the Belarus opposition figure who was unexpectedly released, barely recognizable after five years in prison.

A popular blogger, Tikhanovsky, 46, was jailed in 2020, weeks before he was due to stand in presidential elections against Belarus’s long-time leader, Alexander Lukashenko.

His arrest was the opening salvo in a sweeping crackdown that escalated after Lukashenko claimed victory over Svetlana Tikhanovskaya – Tikhanovsky’s wife, who ran in his place – in a ballot widely decried by critics and rights groups as rigged.

Asya was among several hundred fellow Belarusians, living in exile in neighboring Poland, celebrating his surprise release under pressure from the United States.

But her mind was with others still incarcerated.

“I am happy for those who are freed, but with each release I always look for the names of my friends,” she said.

There are 1,169 political prisoners in Belarus, according to the Viasna rights group.

The sight of Tikhanovsky – who lost almost half his weight and appeared to have drastically aged behind bars – has given even more urgency to securing their release, Asya said.

“Honestly, regime change is needed. But for me, the priority is for people to be freed and for them to be safe,” she said.

Having been held incommunicado since March 2023, many had long feared for how Tikhanovsky was being treated.

His emaciated appearance was still a shock.

“I cried all day when I saw him,” said Alexandra Khanevich, a 71-year-old activist who fled Belarus in the wake of the protests.

“My mother went through concentration camps... This is what I thought of.”

Tikhanovskaya said the couple’s young daughter did not recognize him.

The bones on his face and fingers are visible, and the 46-year-old looks far older.

“Only when we heard his voice, we knew it was really him,” said Yulia Vlasenko, who had protested in 2020 against Lukashenko in the eastern city of Vitebsk.

Others said they knew him by his distinctive ears.

Tikhanovsky has broken down in tears several times when talking about his ordeal in prison, describing alleged torture and being held in solitary confinement.

Prison officials had attempted to “fatten him up” in the months before his release by giving him “meat, fats, butter,” he told a rally in Warsaw.

He believes there will be more releases.

Officers from the KGB state security service – which has retained the feared Soviet-era name – were touring prisons pressuring people to sign statements asking for pardons from Lukashenko, he said.

Many were hopeful his release could give a new energy to the mostly exiled Belarusian opposition movement.

Tikhanovsky, who has pledged not to get in the way of his wife, said he has “even more energy” than before he was jailed.

The couple are radically different in style.

Svetlana has spent five years touring Western capitals, meeting leaders in polished suits.

Sergei is known for his tongue-in-cheek colloquialisms, having famously called Lukashenko a “cockroach” in one YouTube broadcast.

“Svetlana is more of a diplomat... Sergei is like from the street,” said protester Alexandra Dobrovaya, giggling.

Vitaly Moisa, a 42-year-old in construction, said he hoped the pair would be a “double hit” for the regime, with the opposition boosted by Tikhanovsky’s “charisma.”

He drove more than six hours from southern Poland to see “hero” Tikhanovsky.

“It’s hard to imagine he was not broken by such conditions,” he said.

Many came to the rally with masks on, fearing retribution for their families back home if they were recognized attending the rally.

Ukrainian Oleg Abrashim – who has never been to Belarus – had come with a mission: to give Tikhanovsky a hand-written letter from his Belarusian girlfriend.

“She did not want to come as it will be full of the KGB and she has not got her parents out yet,” he told AFP.

Listening to Tikhanovsky, he was reminded of the style of someone back home he had voted for in 2019: Volodymyr Zelensky.

“I understand why they followed him,” Abrashim said.

From Ukraine’s Kharkiv, which has been pounded relentlessly by Belarus’s ally Russia since it invaded, he was inspired by the messages of hope.

“Belarus and Ukraine should be free,” he said, clutching the letter.

The success of Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor is euphoric for Hari Kondabolu, a stand-up comedian who’s been friends with the candidate for 15 years.
Mamdani stunned the political establishment when he declared victory in the primary on Tuesday, a ranked choice election in which his strongest competition, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, conceded defeat.
When he launched his campaign, the unabashed democratic socialist ranked near the bottom of the pack. Now, the 33-year-old state assemblyman has a chance to be New York City’s first Asian American and Muslim mayor. Mamdani’s family came to the United States when he was 7, and he became a citizen in 2018. He was born to Indian parents in Kampala, Uganda.
For Kondabolu, this moment is not just exciting, but emotional.
“I think so many of us have had those experiences in New York of being brown and in a city that has always been really diverse and feels like ours. But after 9/11, like you start to question it like, is this our city too,” Kondabolu said. “And 25 years later ... it’s surreal, like this is the same city but it’s not because we’ve elected this person.”
Mamdani’s campaign has piqued the interest of many Indian, Pakistani and other South Asian Americans, as well as Muslims — even those who may not agree with Mamdani on every issue. Despite that opposition, some still see his rise as a sign of hope in a city where racism and xenophobia erupted following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
South Asians and Muslims riveted by primary in New York, and beyond
Many of New York City’s over 300,000 South Asian residents have been inspired by Mamdani’s extraordinary trajectory.
“My mom was texting her friends to vote for him. I’ve never seen my mother do that before,” Kondabolu said. “So the idea that it’s gotten our whole family activated in this way — this is, like, personal.”
Snigdha Sur, founder and CEO of The Juggernaut, an online publication reporting on South Asians, has been fascinated by the response from some people in India and the diaspora.
“So many global South Asians ... they’re like, ‘Oh, this guy is my mayor and I don’t live in New York City,’” Sur said.
At the same time, some are also concerned or angered by Mamdani’s past remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he publicly called a “war criminal.”
In Michigan, Thasin Sardar has been following Mamdani’s ascent online. When he first heard him, he struck him as “genuine” and he felt “an instant connection,” he said.
“As a Muslim American, this victory puts my trust back in the people,” said Sardar, who was born and raised in India. “I am happy that there are people who value the candidate and his policies more than his personal religious beliefs and didn’t vote him down because of the color of his skin, or the fact that he was an immigrant with an uncommon name.”
New York voter Zainab Shabbir said family members in California, and beyond, have also excitedly taken note.
“My family in California, they were very much like, ‘Oh, it’s so nice to see a South Asian Muslim candidate be a mayor of a major city,’” she said. A brother told her Mamdani’s rise is a great example for his kids, she said.
But the 34-year-old — who donated, voted and canvassed for Mamdani — said it was his vision for New York City that was the draw for her. She and her husband briefly chatted with Mamdani at a fundraiser and she found him to be “very friendly and genuine.”
She suspects that for some who aren’t very politically active, Mamdani’s political ascent could make a difference.
“There’s a lot of Muslim communities like my parents’ generation who are focused a lot more on the politics back home and less on the politics here in America,” said Shabbir. “Seeing people like Zohran Mamdani be in office, it’ll really change that perspective in a lot of people.”
Embracing Indian and Muslim roots
Supporters and pundits agree that Mamdani’s campaign has demonstrated social media savvy and authenticity. He visited multiple mosques. In videos, he speaks in Hindi or gives a touch of Bollywood. Other South Asian American politicians such as Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna praised that.
“I love that he didn’t run away from his heritage. I mean, he did video clips with Amitabh Bachchan and Hindi movies,” Khanna said, referencing the Indian actor. “He shows that one can embrace their roots and their heritage and yet succeed in American politics.”
But his triumph also reflects “the urgency of the economic message, the challenge that people are facing in terms of rent, in terms of the cost of living, and how speaking to that is so powerful,” the progressive California Democrat added.
Tanzeela Rahman, a daughter of Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, said she grew up “very low income” in New York.
“I felt seen by him in a way politicians have not seen me ever,” the 29-year-old financial systems analyst said. “I think very few people in government understand … how hard it is to survive in New York City.”
She found Mamdani to be “unabashedly Muslim” and also “a voice, who, literally, to me sounds like a New Yorker who’s stepping in and saying, hey, let’s reclaim our power,” she said.
While Mamdani has been speaking to the working class, he had a somewhat privileged upbringing. His mother is filmmaker Mira Nair and his father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a professor at Columbia University.
He lived in Queens but attended The Bronx High School of Science. Even as a teen, he cared about social justice, Kondabolu, the comedian, recalled.
His campaign messaging on issues such as affordable housing and free bus rides might not resonate with South Asian households in New York City who have income levels above the median. But, the irony is that his campaign and “great kind of soundbites” earned support from that demographic, too, according to Sur.
“It was, I think, a surprise that he did so well among the wealthiest, including his own community,” Sur said.
Mamdani’s outspoken support for Palestinian causes and criticism of Israel and its military campaign in Gaza resonated with pro-Palestinian residents, including Muslims, but caused tension in the mayor’s race. Some of his positions and remarks on the charged issue have drawn recriminations from opponents and some Jewish groups, though he’s also been endorsed by some Jewish politicians and activists.
Racism and xenophobia
Mamdani’s success immediately elicited strong anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric from some high-profile conservatives on social media, including conservative media personality Charlie Kirk who posted that “legal immigration can ruin your country.” In response, Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress, tweeted “For years they sold people the lie of ‘we have no problem if you come the right way!’”
His supporters aren’t concerned that racism and Islamophobia will distract from Mamdani’s campaign. Those feelings clearly weren’t “enough for him to lose” the primary, Kondabolu said.
“There’s a new generation that wants their voice heard and that generation came out in full force, not just by voting, but by, like, getting all these other people to be emotionally invested in this candidate,” Kondabolu said. “That’s extraordinary.”