Amid spiraling inflation and fast-rising prices for food and other basic goods, protests are again emerging in regime-controlled areas of Syria—some reviving slogans of the 2011 revolution. On June 7, an angry protest was held in the southwestern city of Suweida. Crowds moved through the city's central streets, eventually gathering in front of the governorate building, where they chanted, "The people want to topple the regime!" "Revolution, freedom, social justice!" and "Down with Bashar al-Assad!" Discontent has been simmering in the city since local youth launched a campaign dubbed "We Want to Live" at the beginning of the year. The protest was particularly significant, as the Druze-majority province of Suweida has remained loyal to Damascus throughout the nine years of the Syrian uprising. 

Recent inter-communal fighting in Darfur and Kassala State threatens Sudan's fragile democratic transition, United Nations officials warn. The government has dispatched the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to South Darfur and Kassala states to quell the fighting. In a national address, Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the joint civilian-military Sovereign Council that is responsible for Sudan's transition to democracy, said that the security forces would act decisively "to secure the country, lives and property."

The US Supreme Court ruled May 18 in Opati v. Republic of Sudan that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) permits a punitive damages award against Sudan for the role it played in 1998 al-Qaeda bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Following the bombings, victims and family members sued Sudan under the "state-sponsored terrorism exception" to the FSIA, but the act at the time included no provision for punitive damages in suits filed under the "exception." Congress amended the act in 2008 to allow punitive damages in such cases. A district court in 2017 awarded a $6 billion judgment against Sudan, but the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the amendment did not allow plaintiffs to seek damages for attacks that occurred before its enactment. The Supreme Court disagreed, and held that Congress intended the amendment to apply retroactively.

After oil prices went negative for the first time ever last month, they are now starting to rise again as lockdowns imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic are gradually lifted. US crude is now back to nearly $30 a barrel. But this is less than half what the price was a year ago, and a third what it was a dozen years ago. Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer, is at the forefront of the cartel's effort to squeeze supply to consumer nations, as part of its recent deal to curb output. Baghdad just announced a 30% cut of exports to Asia. But it remains to be seen if such measures will jack up prices and ease the economic pain that has led to a remobilization of anti-regime protests, despite pandemic fears. (Reuters, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera)

Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council ordered courts on May 10 to release all protesters jailed since anti–government demonstrations erupted last October. The Council cited Article 38 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to protest so long as demonstrations do not involve acts "contrary to the law." The order comes days after new Prime Minister Mustafa al–Kadhimi addressed the nation, promising to "hold to account all those who shed Iraqi blood" during months of political unrest, and urging parliament to reform the electoral laws. Al–Kadhimi's address spurred a renewed wave of nationwide protests, demanding immediate government action on political reform.

In countries across the world, the impoverished are in the paradoxical position of being disproportionately impacted both by COVID-19 and by the police-state measures imposed in response to the pandemic—and consequent economic pain. In Lebanon, which had been in the midst of a national uprising before lockdown orders were imposed in March, protests have been re-ignited just as the lockdown is being eased—and with far greater rage. Violence escalated April 28 in the northern city of Tripoli as residents angered by the country's economic collapse set banks on fire and met volleys of tear-gas from security forces with barrages of pelted stones. The outburst came at the end of a massive funeral procession for a young man who died the previous day, apparently after being shot in a street clash with army troops. Mirroring a similar incident in Venezuela last week, mourners dubbed the deceased "Martyr of the Hunger Revolution." (WaPo, Foreign Policy)

Sudan's new government officially criminalized female genital mutilation (FGM) on April 29. The change is the result of an amendment to Sudan's Criminal Law Article 141. The act is defined as removing or reshaping "the female genitalia by cutting, mutilating or modifying any natural part of it leading to the full or partial loss of its functions." The punishment for committing female genital mutilation is to be three years imprisonment as well as fines.

Nine years ago this week, the Syrian Revolution began with peaceful pro-democracy protests. The first demonstrations broke out in the city of Deraa after local schoolchildren painted a mural depicting scenes and slogans from the recent revolutions in other Arab countries, and were detained and brutalized by the police. The Bashar Assad regime responded to the demonstrations with serial massacres. After months of this, the Free Syrian Army emerged, initially as a self-defense militia to protect protesters. But the situation soon escalated to an armed insurgency. The regime lost control of areas of the country, and local civil resistance committees backed by the FSA seized control. Assad then escalated to levels of violence rarely seen on Earth since World War II.