In White House race, who is Obama’s political heir?

An Iraqi youth donning the red jumpsuit and Dali mask of the Spanish Netflix hit series ‘ La Casa de Papel’ (Money Heist) stands cross-armed as he performs in a video clip in Arabic using the music of the famous anthem ‘ Bella Ciao’ in the northern city of Mosul on November 11 in support of anti-government protests sweeping the country. The World War 2 Italian resistance song translates to No way out, capturing the sentiment of many young Iraqis about their violence-torn homeland.

MOSUL, Iraq: While Baghdad antiregime protesters have clashed with riot police, their supporters

change with a new take on the resistance anthem “

In a viral music video clip, the World War 2- era Italian antifascist song has been tweaked to “— meaning “no way out” in Iraqi dialect.

It captures the fatalistic sentiment many young Iraqis hold towards their violence-torn homeland.

“I don’t have heating, not a cent to spend. Why would I even study if there’s no way out?” sings one gaunt performer, huddled under a blanket in a gutted building.

Others in the video, which has scored hundreds of thousands of hits despite frequent internet blackouts, hold up signs that read “Justice for our martyrs” and “I want my rights.”

Like activists elsewhere, they borrow from popular culture, donning the red jumpsuits and Dali masks of the Spanish Netflix hit series “

( Money Heist), which has revived the Italian classic.

Much of Iraq, especially Baghdad and the Shiite- majority south, has been gripped by a wave of street protests since October 1, decrying a lack of jobs, poor public services and endemic corruption.

But in Mosul, a mostly-Sunni city recaptured from the Islamic State jihadist group two years ago, social and political pressures have kept demonstrators from coming out in large numbers.

“The song is an artistic message of solidarity from Mosul to the protesters to say: our hearts are with you,” said 25-year-old Abdulrahman alRubaye, the clip’s director.

Creative resistance

The video opens with a despondent mechanic played by Mohammed Bakri, 26, who heads the team of 14 performers that produced the song.

“We bought costumes, painted

streets or in our own homes,” said the father-of-two who founded the performance troupe in 2016.

He has dreamed of taking to the streets to demonstrate like his compatriots in Baghdad and the south, but told the Agence France- Presse AFP that “our situation in Mosul is exceptional and we can’t protest.”

Sunni communities in the country’s north and west have indeed stayed clear of the protest movement, despite the desperate state of public services there after years of war and neglect.

The Islamic State ( IS) group swept through their hometowns in 2014 and the three- year battle to oust the jihadists left neighborhoods and public infrastructure in ruins.

But residents say any street protests would be met with accusations that they are sympathetic to IS, which could lead to a counter-terrorism charge punishable by death.

Or, they fear, they could be painted as fans of Saddam Hussein, the brutal ex- dictator deposed in the US- led invasion of 2003 which paved the way for the current political system.

Authorities in Baghdad have already cast the protests as a nefarious conspiracy seeking to bring “chaos” to Iraq.

Without the street as an option, Bakri turned to the screen.

“With art, we can support the movement our own way. I think that this way, we can speak in the

name of all Iraqis,” he told AFP.

The team was able to produce the video in a mere 12 hours and upload it just before authorities cut off the internet.

‘ Not afraid anymore’

For Jihan Mazouri, a 23- yearold student and actress, her role in the film was “the least she could do” to back peaceful protesters further south.

Her character, dressed in a black robe and veil covering half her face, desperately pulls handfuls of tissues as she sings about “a future with no way out.”

“People have died or gotten hurt in these peaceful protests, so whatever we do is incomparable to their huge national sacrifices,” she said.

After the success of the first video, Mazouri and the rest of the team decided to see the beating heart of Baghdad’s protests with their own eyes.

They traveled to the protest epicenter, the capital’s Tahrir ( Liberation) Square, where they performed a classic Arabic ballad by Lebanese diva Fayrouz.

But, in another creative twist, their version is an ode to the now- famous , threewheeled rickshaws that have ferried wounded protesters to

water to those occupying Tahrir.

Well over 300 people have lost their lives to bullets and often lethal tear gas canisters, and activists say they are being threatened, kidnapped and assaulted.

In Mosul, Rubaye, the director, said Iraqis are becoming more brave.

- selves and we are not silent about what happens to us,” he said.

“We are not afraid anymore.”

Some vying for the Democratic presidential nomination are loud and proud about their friendship with him. Others claim ideological kinship. And still others are taking distance from his record to stand out.

But one thing is for sure: Barack Obama is not saying anything — well, much of anything.

The 58-year-old former president, who left power nearly three years ago with his popularity soaring, is quietly watching to see who in his party will duke it out with Donald Trump on Nov. 3, 2020.

Beyond his positions on health care or immigration or education, numerous White House hopefuls have made reference to Obama’s style — a certain class in the way he exercised his power that is in stark contrast to the attitude of the billionaire Republican who succeeded him.

Democrats make their choice in the Iowa caucuses, the race is still entirely up in the air.

The next Democratic primary debate is set for Wednesday in Atlanta with 10 candidates on the stage and eager to score points — Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer.

At this point, it’s impossible to predict who will ultimately claim the party’s nomination.

And the list of those who dream of wresting the

Billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is once again flirting with a run, and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick threw his hat in the ring this week.

The late entrance by Patrick, one of the first black governors in US history who is close to Obama, fueled speculation about the doubts that the ex- president may have about the ability of the candidates already in the race, including his vice president Biden, to take out Trump.

‘My friend Barack’

Many of the questions indeed focus on Biden, who has been saddled with the moniker “Sleepy Joe” by Trump. While he remains one of the favorites, observers fear the 76-year-old from Delaware cannot go the distance.

On the campaign trail, Biden never misses a chance to highlight his close relationship with his “friend Barack,” and their eight years in power.

Biden is no stranger to campaign politics, and when he launched his latest White House bid, he under

not to back him from the outset...even though the former president had never indicated he would do so.

“President Obama has no plans to weigh in on the primary at this point — preferring instead to let the candidates make their cases directly to voters,” a source close to the former president told the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

But the 44th president of the United States has, unsurprisingly, ideas about how his party should approach the election to ensure that Trump is limited

Little by little, he is positioning himself. In remarks Friday night to donors at the Democracy Alliance in Washington, he offered a few hints about how he sees the upcoming battle for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

‘ Tested’ candidate

While he insisted on the need for new ideas from the party about reducing income inequality and other key issues, he issued a very clear warning about the temptation to take a sharp turn to the political left.

“Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision, we also have to be rooted in reality,” he said.

“The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it,” he added, noting that the United States was “a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement.”

He called on the party faithful — and by extension, its presidential candidates — to be mindful that Democrats, independents and even moderate Republicans “are not driven by the same views that

feeds, or the activist wing of our party.”

He did not name names, but Warren and Sanders — who have called for nothing short of a “political revolution’’ — certainly come to mind.

Obama appeared to want to reassure the many Democrats who fear that the crowded primary will end up being counterproductive, given that the incumbent Trump is all ready to run with a massive campaign war chest.

“For those who get stressed about robust primaries, I just have to remind you that I had a very robust primary,” he said, recalling his at times acrimonious 2008 battle with Hillary Clinton.

will have a candidate that has been tested.”

Former United States president Barack Obama waves as he walks to Marine One prior to departure from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C. en route to California and Washington after he stepped down on Jan. 20, 2017. Some vying for the Democratic presidential nomination are loud and proud about their friendship with the 58-year- old former president.