Skopje, North Macedonia – Every winter, the pollution in Skopje skyrockets to alarmingly high rates. In 2018, Skopje became the most polluted capital city in Europe reaching the highest annual mean of PM 2.5, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Tiny particles named for their diameter of 2.5 micrometres – about three percent of the diameter of a human hair – PM 2.5 are considered the most dangerous air pollutants for health.

They are small enough to penetrate the respiratory system and even the bloodstream and have been linked to premature deaths and various diseases.

“By breathing this air, we are slowly dying,” Tomislav Maksimovski, a Skopje resident, told Al Jazeera. 

“We feel the pollution. You can feel it in your mouth and lungs. Our children are suffering and our parents are coughing. We don’t deserve to live in such a polluted city.”

Skopje, in the centre of the Balkan Peninsula, is nestled in a valley between mountain ranges that hem the city in from the north and the south. This landscape proves deadly in the winter.

As warm air rises up from the mountains, it meets the colder, heavier air travelling downwards. This temperature inversion creates a blanket of smog that settles heavily over the valley, trapping polluted air on the city streets and in the lungs of the residents. 

“Some of the pollution problems specific to the western Balkans may be due to industries, in general older than in the rest of Europe, as well as domestic heating,” said Alberto Gonzalez Ortiz, an air quality expert from the European Environment Agency (EEA).

“For instance, the use of coal implies that the PM emissions are high. The vehicles may also be older than in other parts of Western Europe.”

Many of the power plants and small factories in North Macedonia exist from the communist-era, before the 1990s, and burn brown coal (lignite) which is cheap, abundant but highly polluting.

A 2016 study by the Health and Environment Alliance found that within areas of former Yugoslav countries, 16 lignite plants emit as much pollution as all of the European Union’s 296 power plants combined.

The loosely regulated fleet of old vehicles that crowd Skopje is also highly polluting.

Many of those came by way of the EU when the previous VMRO-DPMNE government in the country allowed the import of old vehicles in 2010.

Many of these were running on diesel and no longer met EU environmental standards.

But one of the biggest contributors to pollution are the combustion processes, at 77 percent, which includes household heating.

“Another reason for the pollution is that too many citizens, because of their financial situation, use firewood for heating,” said Jani Makraduli, North Macedonia’s deputy minister of environment.

Although the country’s electricity tariffs, alongside Serbia, are among the lowest in Europe, energy can cost up to a third, or even a half, of the average monthly salary, especially during winter.

Most residents cannot afford clean energy heating sources, and as many as 42 to 45 percent of the city’s residents turn to firewood to heat their homes.

A lot of those are purchased on the black market – cheaper but more toxic to the environment.

Heart diseases and strokes account for 80 percent of the premature deaths associated with air pollution, with lung diseases and lung cancer in tow, as well as other respiratory cardiovascular disease and cancer.

“Some of the more serious complications from polluted air are the carcinogenesis,” said Nikola Brznov, a doctor who works in the emergency department at Mother Teresa University Hospital in Skopje.

Younger generation at risk

Air pollution is also linked to negative health impacts on newborns and children, including on neural development and cognitive capacities that can lower performance and quality of life as the child grows older.

“After long-term exposure to polluted air, our organs start to manifest that in some chronic illness, mainly respiratory diseases and heart diseases. In the long run, I think the younger generation will be affected,” added Brznov.

With more studies explaining the link between pollution and health, as well as air monitoring apps like MojVozduh (MyAir) that draw data from over 40 measuring stations in Macedonia, citizens are more educated about the scale and effect of pollution.

However, concerns still exist in huge numbers, including those of parents across the city who are worried for their children’s futures. 

In 10 years, our health and that of our children will deteriorate significantly

Tomislav Maksimovski, Skopje resident

“I am afraid of the pollution and I am concerned for my kids,” said Ivana Georgievska, a mother of three. “That’s why we try to use our free time to go out of the city for fresh air, either on Vodno mountain or in the village.”

Maksimovski, who has one child, said in “10 years, our health and that of our children will deteriorate significantly.”

Late last year, the government announced, for the first time, a strategy towards combating pollution, aiming to halve it in Skopje over the next two years.

Some key factors include encouraging and supporting residents to move from fuel-burning heating to more ecological sources like gas or central heating.

However, many residents are doubting the government is making an appropriate investment, having set aside only a small annual budget of 1.6 million euros ($1.8m), which experts say is not enough.

“We are not seeing that the government is fighting pollution,” said Davor Vrgovikj who is part of the Cancerogenous Society which organises weekly protests in Skopje.

“Our main demand is for more funds to be allocated. We don’t care what political party it is. We don’t ask for medals. We just want clean air.”

Gaza, Palestine – Several human rights organisations and political factions have denounced attacks on protesters by Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip, who had demonstrated for several days against the increasing cost of living and tax hikes.

The new movement, formed about a month ago, was launched under the slogan of “We want to live” by a group of media activists not affiliated to political parties.

The first protest, which took place on Thursday, was repressed by dozens of Hamas security forces, who dispersed protesters by beating them and firing live bullets in air. Videos of the crackdown were widely circulated on social media.

Hamas security forces also broke into citizens’ homes and carried out arrest campaigns throughout the strip in Gaza City and Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, Deir al-Balah in the middle district, and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.

Protesters said they were attacked with batons by Hamas forces while protesting against the dire living conditions in Gaza Strip. Israa Buhaisi, a journalist with Al-Alam news channel told Al Jazeera her father and brother were beaten up by Hamas security forces, while they were trying to intervene between said forces and a group of protesters getting attacked by them.

“A group of protesters had gathered near the centre of Deir Al-Balah camp, holding posters and chanting slogans of ‘We want to live. We want to work. Our future is lost,’” Buhaisi said.

“This a totally popular movement. People took out to the street to ask for a solution for their miserable life in Gaza.”

A force of Hamas police came to the place and asked the activists to evacuate the area, but the protesters refused to leave, the 34-year-old said.

Supporters of Hamas have claimed that the movement was backed by its rival government based in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority.

A Hamas spokesperson denied to Al Jazeera the existence of a popular-backed independent movement but in an official statement, said that the Hamas security forces had arrested employees previously under the payroll of the West Bank government, who were “blackmailed by the PA to provoke chaos in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the return of their salaries.”

“We emphasize that we support peaceful demonstration, but we will not allow the exploitation of the protests to provoke chaos,” Iyad al-Buzom said.

The security forces arrested a number of protesters and took them to an unknown area, then they raided a number of homes in the refugee camp, mostly belonging to the Buhaisi family. 

“The police started to beat the protesters in the area and clashes erupted between the two sides,” Buhaisi said.

“Vehicles belonging to the security forces arrived at the scene and attacked protesters in the area. My father, who is 60 years old, tried to mediate to stop the assault, but he was also beaten up by the forces and they broke his hand.”

According to Buhaisi, around 70 members of the family are still in detention by Hamas security forces. They took my dad, who is a cancer patient, but they released him the same day,” Buhaisi added.

Movement supported by factions

Nearly a dozen Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip have declared their support for the youth movement and their support for what the group calls “just demands” – which include establishing a labour office that protects workers’ rights from exploitation; ending control of goods and prices by some parties and monitoring the work of private sector; and suspending all taxes that burdening citizens.

The factions also denounced the Hamas security attack on protesters, and called on the movement to respond to the demands of easing taxes.

Baker Abu Safia, a member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), said that the Palestinian people have been very patient during the last 12 years of the blockade.

“We support this popular movement,” he told Al Jazeera. “People have the right to express themselves. We all live under occupation and the sacrifices of the people must be respected.”

In a statement, the factions said that the catastrophic crisis currently affecting the Gaza Strip is essentially caused by the Israeli occupation, and the Israeli-Egyptian imposed blockade since 2007.

The factions also pointed out a number of domestic political issues, such as the Palestinian political division between Hamas and Fatah, and the punitive measures adopted by the PA against the population of the coastal enclave, such as forcing many of its employees into early retirement and not paying the Israeli power plant to supply the population of Gaza with electricity.

The statement also laid fault on the decisions of Hamas officials in Gaza to impose more taxes, which has contributed to the high costs of living and the deteriorating conditions of Palestinians in the strip.

Worsening of public freedoms

“There were serious violations against human rights, the right to peaceful demonstration and freedom of expression,” Mustafa Ibrahim, a human rights researcher in the Independent Commission of Human Rights (ICHR) told Al Jazeera.

“The security forces, which the public prosecution abetted by preventing media coverage, violently beat up, detained and broke into civilian homes under the pretext that protesters threw stones and that the demonstration is supported by PA and Fatah.”

“This attack on human rights has clearly shown that the security forces don’t respect the human rights situation,” Ibrahim said, adding that 20 journalists were detained. “This reflects the deterioration of the state of public freedoms in Gaza.”

Ibrahim’s colleague in the occupied West Bank, Ammar Dweik, told local Palestinian news agency Maan that Hamas has apologised to the ICHR for the attack on its members, but the rights group is awaiting further investigation and accountability, and most importantly an end to transgressions against citizens.

“We will continue to monitor violations in the Gaza Strip, and demand access to visit detention centres in the Gaza Strip,” Dweik said.

In turn, Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned in a statement Hamas police officers’ attack on peaceful protesters, calling it “a crime and violation according to the national and international laws” and called upon the security services to “respect the right to peaceful assembly and right to freedom of expression.”

PCHR also called upon the security services “to immediately and unconditionally release the dozens of detainees, and for the competent authorities to take the necessary measures to stop such violations and respect civilians’ public freedoms.”

‘Everyone is under siege’

Mohsen Abu Ramadan, a Gaza-based political analyst, said that this movement came as a result of the unprecedented high rates of poverty and unemployment in the Gaza Strip, which has reached 70 percent among the youth.

Around 20,000 university graduates each year find no jobs, which has caused a number of social problems in the strip. Furthermore, the withdrawal of a number of international NGOs working in Gaza has deepened the economic problems.

“The violent reaction of the Hamas security forces has incensed public opinion,” Abu Ramadan said, explaining that Hamas should have dealt better with the movement without resorting to physical attacks.

“Everyone in Gaza is under occupation and under siege,” he said. “People here have embraced the resistance wing of Hamas and are still participating in the weekly Friday return march protests.

“The state of anger is not directed against Hamas but against the current situation of the people, but Hamas does not seem to read the message and reacted emotionally,” he said.

Regarding the pro-Hamas claims that the PA is behind the movement, Abu Ramadan said: “I think these excuses are readily prepared from both sides. I blame some parties specifically in the official Palestinian media, who used these protests to incite against Hamas.

The demonstrations do have a popular backing, he said, adding that it was not appropriate for any party to use them for their own interest.

Controversy around the Indian cricket team wearing military caps on the field to pay homage to its troops has reignited a decades-old debate over the mixing of politics with sports.

India’s national side came under scrutiny for “militarising” the game after its players wore army camouflage caps during a match against Australia in the eastern Indian city of Ranchi.

The outing, earlier this month, was in solidarity with the Indian paramilitary police killed in a suicide attack by a Pakistan-based group in the disputed Kashmir region and to raise donations for the National Defence Fund. 

But analysts and sports diplomacy experts questioned the Indian cricket team’s move, saying the gesture did “no favours to either national security nor sport”.

“It’s fine to raise money for the troops as long as the fundraising happens off the field,” Mukul Kesevan, an Indian writer and historian, told Al Jazeera.

Pakistan, which came to the brink of war with India in the aftermath of the bombing in the Pulwama district of India-administered Kashmir, criticised the Indian team for “politicising” the sport.

“We believe that cricket and sports should not be used for politics and we have said this very clearly,” the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Ehsan Mani, said while revealing that he had lodged a formal protest in a letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC).

“Their [India] credibility in the cricketing world has gone down very badly.”

“It’s just not Cricket”, I hope ICC ll take action for politicising Gentleman’s game … if Indian Cricket team ll not be stopped, Pak Cricket team should wear black bands to remind The World about Indian atrocities in Kashmir… I urge #PCB to lodge formal protest pic.twitter.com/GoCHM9aQqm

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) March 8, 2019

An ICC spokesperson told Al Jazeera that the Indian cricket board – the BCCI – asked for prior approval to wear the olive-and-black caps “as part of a fundraising drive and in memory of soldiers, which was granted”.

“Given the fact that it happened in the aftermath of the India-Pakistan border skirmishing, it just seems pointed in a way that has no business on a cricket field,” said Kesavan.

J Simon Rofe, Global Diplomacy programme director at the University of London, said funds can be raised “without having an overt visual dimension”.

He referred to the annual ‘Pink Test’ supporting breast cancer and the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal match held in Melbourne in 2005.

“There are ways of expressing support for a good cause without it having overt military, let alone political connotations,” Rofe, author of Sport and Diplomacy: Games within Games, told Al Jazeera. 

Cricket and diplomacy nexus

Athletes, including cricketers, have used sport to make political and personal statements in the past.

According to ICC’s code of conduct, players and team officials are not permitted to convey political, religious or racial messages through clothing or equipment.

The ICC shall have the final say in determining whether any such message is approved, the world body said.

In 2014, English cricketer Moeen Ali was banned from wearing “Free Gaza” and “Save Palestine” wristbands during a series against India.

Pakistan-born South African bowler Imran Tahir was sanctioned for revealing a tshirt featuring the portrait of Pakistani singer-turned-preacher Junaid Jamshed, who died in a plane crash in 2016.

“You have two examples from the past already, where both Tahir and Ali were sanctioned for something similar,” PCB’s Mani said, urging the ICC to take strong action against the Indian cricket board.

But, according to Rofe, “the BCCI is a significant diplomatic player and that’s really what’s at stake here”. 

“The agenda of the BCCI is significant to the ICC and the fact that you’ve got the Indian Premier League coming up with a lot of the world’s best players, the nexus of cricket and diplomacy is in India,” he said.

Sporting boycott

Boycotts and sanctions over political differences are common in international sport, especially at the highest level.

The United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

South Africa, during the apartheid era, was subjected to a variety of sporting sanctions by major international governing bodies for its institutionalised racial segregation.

Athletes from Arab countries, which do not have diplomatic ties with Israel, often refuse to compete against Israeli opponents.

India, in an attempt to isolate Pakistan in the cricketing world in the wake of the Pulwama attack, urged the ICC to severe ties with countries from which “terrorism emanates”, a plea that was rejected by the ICC.

Pakistan and India are scheduled to play at the cricket World Cup in June in England, but there are growing calls within India to pull out.

Dear Pakistanis u are desirous to put on military style caps/shirts during PSL Final. Pak Armed Forces humbly acknowledge your love & support. Sports are beyond politics & we believe that our bondage is beyond such gestures alone. Enjoy the game in CityOfLights.#PakistanZindabad

— Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) March 14, 2019

“There’s always going to be politics in international sport … because people do feel strongly about the right to assert what they think is a political virtue, in the context of a sporting encounter,” added Kesevan.

Rofe echoed the argument, saying the idea that “sport and politics don’t mix is a myth”.

“Sport provides both the spectators and the athletes with a platform and some will take advantage of that for very good reasons and some will take advantage of it for covert or indeed, hostile reasons.”

Image: Carl Court/Getty Images