Appeals Court Tells Lying Cop No 'Reasonable' Officer Would Think It's OK To Tear Gas Journalists For Performing Journalism

Legal Issues

from the pretty-much-as-clearly-established-as-something-can-get dept

Mon, Feb 8th 2021 7:59pm — Tim Cushing

For some reason, we, the people, keep having to shell out cash to employ a lot of unreasonable law enforcement officers.

We've already seen some federal courts respond to violent law enforcement responses to the mere presence of journalists and legal observers during protests. The targeting of non-participants by law enforcement has been met with injunctions and harsh words for the officers participating in these attacks.

Much of what's been covered here deals with months of ongoing protests in Portland, Oregon and violent responses by federal officers. But this appeals court ruling (via Mike Scarcella) shows the problem isn't confined to the Northwest or federal law enforcement. Cops are attacking journalists in other cities as they try to do nothing more than cover highly newsworthy events.

And the problem isn't new either. This case [PDF], handled by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, deals with an attack on three Al Jazeera reporters covering protests in Ferguson, Missouri following the killing of Michael Brown.

Local law enforcement officers may not have been wearing cameras, but the journalists brought their own. The events that transpired were captured in the course of their attempted coverage of Ferguson protests. Fortunately, this footage exists. The version of events offered by the sued deputy is a lie. Here's what was captured by Al Jazeera cameras:

The SWAT Team approached the reporters as they prepared the live broadcast, a block and a half from the street where most of the protests occurred. Their video shows a calm scene. An unidentified officer begins shooting rubber bullets at them. They yell, identifying themselves as reporters. Anderson then deploys a single canister of CS gas (also known as “tear-gas”). It lands in front of the reporters. They move away from the camera, but can be heard talking in the background. An unidentified person walks past the camera. Other people stop in front of it. The police do not fire at them. One reporter re-appears in front of the camera, is shot at, and leaves. Another person walks past the camera (possibly the same unidentified person as before). A second group poses in front of the camera, thinking they are on CNN. They talk to the camera for over two minutes.

Minutes later, police deploy another canister of tear-gas at men standing on the corner, several feet from the camera. Over a speaker, the SWAT Team appears to ask the reporters to “turn the spotlight off.” SWAT Team members then lay down the lights and turn the camera lens toward the ground. The reporters re-appear. After speaking to the officers, they pack their equipment and leave.

As the court notes, this narrative (the one captured by cameras) is "disputed." But it's only "disputed" because Deputy Michael Anderson (the defendant) would prefer to use an alternate history to exonerate himself.

Anderson claims the reporters were told to disperse and turn off the lights but refused. He also claims he saw projectiles launched from the area of the bright lights. He says he had difficulty seeing what was going on. He believes there was an imminent threat to safety. He stresses that his sergeant ordered him to deploy the tear-gas.

Submitted in support of this narrative is Anderson's sworn declaration that everything he said is true, even when nothing on record supports his version of the incident.

Before the SWAT Team arrived, the reporters counter that their location was a calm scene. The videos support this. None records any orders to disperse. They also do not show any projectiles thrown from the reporters’ area. They do not show orders to turn off the light before Anderson deployed the tear-gas.

The court doesn't call Anderson a liar. It might have, if other questions had been presented. It's limited to determining whether or not Deputy Anderson should be awarded qualified immunity. Once this returns to the lower court, Anderson will get another chance to prove he's not lying. It seems unlikely he'll be able to, but he is definitely going back to the lower court and is definitely going to have to defend himself against at least one allegation.

The Appeals Court says Anderson's actions clearly violated the reporters' First Amendment rights. No qualified immunity on this count.

The videos confirm the reporters’ version of the facts. They do not show dispersal orders or flying projectiles. They do not show orders to turn off the lights before the tear-gas. Rather, they show a peaceful scene interrupted by rubber bullets and tear-gas. Anderson presumes disputed facts in his favor, which this court cannot do because he moved for summary judgment. See Duncan, 687 F.3d at 957. Taking the facts most favorably to the reporters, Anderson did not have arguable probable cause to use the tear-gas.

Even if the court were inclined to believe Anderson's apparent bullshit, he still wouldn't be granted qualified immunity.

Anderson is not entitled to qualified immunity even if his sergeant told him to deploy the tear-gas. Anderson cites the Heartland case for the proposition that §1983 “does not sanction tort by association.” Heartland Acad. Cmty. Church v. Waddle, 595 F.3d 798, 806 (8th Cir. 2010). True, but nothing in Heartland says that a government official is immune if a superior instructs him to engage in unconstitutional conduct. Instead, Heartland says that defendants must be individually involved in the unconstitutional act to be liable under §1983. Id. See also White, 865 F.3d at 1076 (“[A] plaintiff must be able to prove ‘that each Government-official defendant, through the official’s own individual actions, has violated the Constitution.’ ”), quoting Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 676 (2009). Here, it is undisputed Anderson was involved. He is the one who deployed the teargas at the reporters.

The deputy argued the reporters weren't engaged in First Amendment activity. Instead, they were ignoring a dispersal order. Again, the court points to the recording which shows no dispersal order being given during the entirety of the incident. Even if one had been, there's no reason to assume a dispersal order requires reporters to leave the scene. Reporters reporting on newsworthy events are not engaged in unlawful activity.

The deputy also argued the plaintiffs were required to provide proof of his motive -- his alleged desire to retaliate against the reporters for engaging in protected activities. Wrong again, says the court. There's enough doubt in here a jury should examine it.

To support its conclusion that the reporters had alleged enough about causation to survive summary judgment, the district court noted that the videos show a peaceful scene interrupted by Anderson’s tear-gassing of the reporters, but not others. Quraishi, 2019 WL 2423321, at *7 (“The raw footage from Al Jazeera, however, showed that numerous people came into the area where the reporters were standing, but only the reporters were shot at and tear gassed.”). The reporters were singled out—other people were in their immediate area but only the reporters were tear-gassed at the scene. (Minutes later, men were tear-gassed several feet from the camera.) Anderson’s motive is not “so free from doubt as to justify taking it from the jury.”

And, again, the court highlights the video that shows a chain of events that contradicts Anderson's claims.

The district court’s summary judgment facts are not based on allegations of actions by unknown individuals. They come from videos showing Anderson deploying the tear-gas. As noted, the district court does not have to rely solely on Anderson’s account of events to discern what motivated him.

It is clearly established that firing tear gas at journalists to prevent them from covering newsworthy events is a violation of their rights, the Appeals Court says, rattling off a list of ten previous decisions reaching the same conclusion. Any assumption otherwise is unreasonable.

A reasonable officer would have understood that deploying a tear-gas canister at law-abiding reporters is impermissible.

Deputy Anderson is headed back to the district court to face the reporters' First Amendment allegations, as well as state-level excessive force claims. (The Appeals Court grants qualified immunity on the Fourth Amendment claims, noting that being tear-gassed is not a "seizure" as there is no detention or other form of police custody.) And it would seem he's destined to lose. His version of the events isn't supported by anything tangible. The other side has plenty of footage showing things didn't happen the way Deputy Anderson apparently wishes they would have happened. This isn't a "factual dispute." This is a recording contradicting a law enforcement officer's lies. Hopefully, the district court will further highlight this, shall we say, "disparity" upon his return.

 

NYT Easily Tracks Location Data From Capitol Riots, Highlighting Once Again How US Privacy Standards Are A Joke

Privacy

from the watching-you-watching-me dept

Mon, Feb 8th 2021 5:37am — Karl Bode

First there was the Securus and LocationSmart scandal, which showcased how cellular carriers and data brokers buy and sell your daily movement data with only a fleeting effort to ensure all of the subsequent buyers and sellers of that data adhere to basic privacy and security standards. Then there was the blockbuster report by Motherboard showing how this data routinely ends up in the hands of everyone from bail bondsman to stalkers, again, with only a fleeting effort made to ensure the data itself is used ethically and responsibly.

Throughout it all, government has refused to lift a finger to address the problem, presumably because lobbyists don't want government upsetting the profitable apple cart, government is too busy freely buying access to this data itself, or too many folks still labor under the illusion that this sort of widespread dysfunction will be fixed by utterly unaccountable telecom or adtech markets.

Enter the New York Times, which in late 2019 grabbed a hold of a massive location data set from a broker, highlighting the scope of our lax location data standards (and the fact that "anonymized" data is usually anything but). This week, they've done another deep dive into the location data collected from rioting MAGA insurrectionists at the Capitol. It's a worthwhile read, and illustrates all the same lessons, including, once again, that "anonymized" data isn't real thing:

"While there were no names or phone numbers in the data, we were once again able to connect dozens of devices to their owners, tying anonymous locations back to names, home addresses, social networks and phone numbers of people in attendance. In one instance, three members of a single family were tracked in the data."

There's been an endless list of studies finding that "anonymized" is a meaningless term, since it takes only a tiny shred of additional contextual data to identify individuals. It's a term companies use to provide regulators and consumers with a false sense of security that data protection and privacy are being taken seriously, and that's simply not true:

"The location-tracking industry exists because those in power allow it to exist. Plenty of Americans remain oblivious to this collection through no fault of their own. But many others understand what’s happening and allow it anyway. They feel powerless to stop it or were simply seduced by the conveniences afforded in the trade-off. The dark truth is that, despite genuine concern from those paying attention, there’s little appetite to meaningfully dismantle this advertising infrastructure that undergirds unchecked corporate data collection."

The dystopian aspect of this has already arrived, yet this still somehow isn't being taken seriously. Numerous US agencies already buy this data to bypass pesky things like warrants, and the US still lacks even a simple privacy law for the internet despite a steady parade of privacy-related scandals. Instead of having a serious conversation about this or other serious tech policy problems, we spent the last few years hyperventilating about TikTok.

Covid: ‘Much slower’ reduction of cases in poorer areas as care workers using leave to avoid losing income

“Low-paid staff shouldn’t be losing money they can ill afford when they’re poorly or stopping home to avoid spreading the virus. The system isn’t working. "

 by Joe Mellor
February 8, 2021
in News



Boris Johnson said he is “very confident” in the coronavirus vaccines after concerns were raised that the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab may be less effective against the South African variant.

The Prime Minister on Monday insisted he has “no doubt that vaccines generally are going to offer a way out” amid fears the variant could delay the relaxation of lockdown restrictions.

Experts warned it is “very possible” the strain is already quite widespread in the UK after a study of around 2,000 people suggested the Oxford jab only offers minimal protection against mild disease of the South Africa variant.

Rates

Covid-19 case rates for the four nations of the UK have dropped to their lowest level since before Christmas, with some regions of England recording rates last seen in early December, new analysis shows.

In London the seven-day rate has fallen to its lowest since December 8, while the figure for south-east England is at its lowest since December 7.

While a handful of local areas across the UK have recorded a week-on-week rise in the latest figures, most of the increases are small.

However, it is the economic situation of areas that seem indicate who are struggling to being down infection rates, putting easing of lockdown restrictions in doubt.

The reduction in Covid in Britain’s poorest regions has been dramatically lower than in richer areas, reports The Mirror

Case rates have fallen by just nine per cent in Preston, Lancs, 14 per cent in the Bradford West constituency in West Yorks, and 18 per cent in Rotherham, South Yorks.

The more affluent areas of Oxford West and Abingdon constituency in Oxfordshire and Saffron Walden in Essex have both seen their rates plunge by 72 per cent, eight times the decline seen in Preston.

Labour has hit out at the Government, saying its failure to offer financial help to low-income people to self-isolate has caused a massive Covid divide between poor and wealthy parliamentary constituencies.
Care workers

Some UK care workers are having to take holiday when they are off sick with Covid or see already low wages fall to £96 per week, raising fears they may not self-isolate, reports The Guardian.

Care staff on minimum wage claim to have been offered only statutory sick pay when ill with Covid-19 or self-isolating due to the virus concerns, which contravenes government policy.

The trade union Unison said it had been contacted by multiple staff complaining about the practice, which appears to affect a minority of care workers.

“Almost a year into the pandemic, many care workers are having to survive on less than £100 a week should they fall ill or need to isolate,” said Gavin Edwards, a senior national officer at Unison. “Low-paid staff shouldn’t be losing money they can ill afford when they’re poorly or stopping home to avoid spreading the virus. The system isn’t working. Every care worker who has to be off work during the pandemic must be paid their wages in full.”

Coronavirus deaths in care homes in England and Wales surged to their highest level since last May with 1,719 residents dying from the virus in the week to 15 January.

Family sues trading app Robinhood over suicide

The lawsuit alleges that Robinhood 'entices' young, inexperienced users 

Issued on: 09/02/2021 - 

San Francisco (AFP)

The family of a college student who killed himself after thinking he'd lost a fortune using Robinhood sued the free trading app Monday.

A message left behind by Alex Kearns asked how it was that a 20-year-old with no income could get access to nearly $1 million of financial leverage using Robinhood, according to the suit filed in Silicon Valley, where the app is based.

"Robinhood's website entices young, inexperienced users," the suit contends.

"By marketing its online trading platform like a video game, it implied that trading stock and options was a fun way to make money, perhaps even to get rich."

The suit accuses Robinhood of causing the Illinois man's death along with unfair business practices, and asks for unspecified damages.

In response to an AFP query, Robinhood said it was "devastated" by Kearns' death last June and has since improved trading features along with guidance and education features for users.

"We remain committed to making Robinhood a place to learn and invest responsibly," a spokesperson said.

Kearns was in his final year of high school when he opened a Robinhood account, according to the suit.

He used the app to start trading options in his freshman year of college, and a series of trades resulted in him finding his account was $730,000 in the red, the suit detailed.

"Tragically, Robinhood's communications were completely misleading, because, in reality, Alex did not owe any money," the lawsuit contended.

"He held options in his account that more than covered his obligation."

The suit comes after traders who banded together over Reddit and other social media platforms in recent weeks used Robinhood to make massive share purchases of GameStop, AMC Entertainment and other struggling companies that wealthy investors had bet against.

The campaign, intended to make hedge funds and other large investors suffer, caused the share prices of these companies to soar, and caught the attention securities regulators.

An app popular among retail investors whose stated goal is to "democratize finance for all," Robinhood at one point limited trades on the most volatile stocks, before reversing course the next day.

© 2021 AFP

Steven Appleby's August Crimp: the cross-dressing crusader

Like his superhero, Appleby discovered his interest

 in cross-dressing when he was young

 Niklas HALLE'N AFP

Issued on: 09/02/2021 

London (AFP)

Not all superheroes wear capes: some prefer dresses. Cartoonist Steven Appleby drew on his own cross-dressing to create August Crimp, who transforms into "Dragman" whenever he puts on women's clothes.

Appleby's first graphic novel, "Dragman", won the special jury prize at France's prestigious Angouleme international comics festival last month.

The hero discovers that putting on women's clothes makes him able to fly -- and his heart soar.

Yet he is ashamed of his secret passion and decides to ditch his dresses and accessories to be a conventional dad.

But when his young neighbour calls out for his help, it's time to slap on the makeup and save the day.

"I put things from my experience in my life in the book," Appleby, wearing deep-red lipstick, a blond wig and elegant black-and-gold dress, told AFP at his south London studio.

The 65-year-old artist said he is "relaxed about pronouns" and goes by "Steven" and "he" but sometimes also "Nancy and "she".

His studio is a warm, cocoon-like space with candles burning and music playing. There are large drawings on the wall, many of them nudes.

- Shame and fear -

Like his superhero, Appleby discovered his interest in cross-dressing when he was young, while studying at art college.

The book takes an incident from his own life when he discovered a discarded stocking in his student flat.

"I found the stocking down the back of the sofa and put it on, and I suddenly thought: 'Oh I could dress up. And then I could look like a girl,'" he said.

He found this enjoyable, but also felt "immediately guilty and full of shame and fear that my flatmates would discover it".

In another autobiographical detail August Crimp's wife, Mary, is a carpenter, as was Appleby's wife, Nicola Sherring, when they met.

They had two children together, are still married and "very good friends", while no longer a couple, said Appleby,

It was Sherring who did the watercolours for "Dragman."

The main difference between Appleby and his hero, he said, is that "I told her I like to dress in women's clothes when we first met.

"She didn't mind and then we would go shopping for clothes," he added.

"Eventually she realised... as well as being a fun thing it was also an obsession and that became more difficult."

The couple still lives in the same house along with Sherring's new partner and they raised their children together.

"Nicola is an amazing person... because she's able to allow that situation," he said.

Despite his supportive family, it took a long time for him to accept his identity. He took the plunge around 13 years ago, since when he has only dressed as a woman.

"I think it was fear that stopped me, fear of embarrassing my children," he said. But in fact they "didn't really notice".

- 'Be true to your own style' -

Appleby came up with the idea for "Dragman" in 2002 and began drawing a comic strip in The Guardian daily.

At the time he was still not "out" as a cross-dresser and said the strip was "a way for me to playfully put it into the world without sort of saying 'I am a transvestite'".

After the novel "Dragman" came out, Appleby received messages of thanks from other cross-dressers.

"One sent me a message saying that he just told his wife that he liked to wear women's clothes," he said, adding that the response was positive.

But he never told his parents. His mother was Canadian and met his English father during World War II.

He grew up in an old vicarage in Northumberland in northeast England, going to boarding school, then art college, he dropped out for two years to play keyboards in a rock group called Ploog.

"All in all it was a disaster but it was fun," he said.

At the Royal College of Art in London, he was taught by Quentin Blake, who famously illustrated Roald Dahl's children's books.

Blake's advice was to be "true to your own style".

"Dragman" is Appleby's ironic take on the superhero comics he enjoyed reading as a child, particularly "Batman".

"And I think 'Catwoman' had an influence on my dressing up," he added with a cherry-lipped smile.

© 2021 AFP

Soviet spy gadgets to go under hammer in Beverly Hills

Issued on: 09/02/2021 -

A Russian spy cigarette pack with hidden camera is displayed 

during an auction preview for "The Cold War Relics Auction" 

at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills, California 

Frederic J. BROWN AFP

Beverly Hills (United States) (AFP)

Cyanide-filled fake teeth and cigarette packs concealing cameras are among the Soviet spy gadgets going under the hammer at a Beverly Hills auction this week.

Many retro espionage devices in the sale by US-based Julien's Auctions -- known for Hollywood and pop culture memorabilia -- would not be out of place in a classic James Bond movie, including microphones hidden within pens, ashtrays and porcelain plates.

"The people that actually created these things were the pioneers of miniaturization," said director of gallery operations Kody Frederick.

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"Everybody now carries a camera, everybody now has a microphone," but many of the auction's spy gadgets hail from an era when cell phones were "as big as six bricks," Frederick told AFP.

Miniature cameras fitted inside women's handbags, belt buckles, shoebrushes, birdboxes, signet rings and ties -- and used by real secret agents -- are all going on the block.

"People are looking to get their hands on really unique, different pieces from a time when digital didn't exist and analog was the way of life," Frederick added.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, many of the items were discarded in Eastern Europe and eventually made their way to New York's short-lived KGB museum, which opened in January 2019 but closed last year due to the pandemic.

Among those for sale this Saturday, both on-site in California and via the internet, are a fake tooth containing deadly cyanide expected to fetch up to $1,200.

"The tooth was designed to shatter when bitten a certain way so that captured agents could end their own lives when necessary to avoid torture or the release of compromising information," explains the auction catalog.

- Deadly umbrella -

The collection includes a replica of the "Bulgarian umbrella" used in 1978 in London to fatally poison Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in one particularly infamous Cold War episode.

It is estimated at between $3,000 and $5,000.

But other initially announced items including a lipstick tube and a pen designed to fire bullets had to be withdrawn due to California's gun laws.

Spy enthusiasts will have to content themselves with clandestine devices used to store sensitive microfilm or other documents, including cufflinks, high-heeled shoes, hollowed-out coins... and even a "rectal concealment capsule."

Alongside the double-agent gadgets, Cold War relics for sale will include Che Guevara's 1942 school report card, and letters signed by him and fellow Communist revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

One Castro missive contains plans to infiltrate Havana, and is predicted to draw bids up to $1,500.

Further objects relate to the US-Soviet space race, such as NASA spaceship designs, vintage astronaut equipment and archive film stock including footage of the low-gravity testing of "various fecal and urine collection devices."

SAME RULE IN MEATPACKING PLANTS

'I have to pee!' - Shapovalov throws a toilet tantrum


Issued on: 09/02/2021 -

"What do you mean, I can't go?" Canada's Denis Shapovalov

 remonstrates with umpire Nico Helwerth

David Gray AFP

Melbourne (AFP)

Denis Shapovalov claims he's got the smallest bladder on tour and the Canadian was not impressed when an umpire at the Australian Open denied his request for a toilet break.

The world number 11 had dropped the fourth set of a five-set epic against Italian teenager Jannik Sinner that finished in the early hours of Tuesday and desperately needed to relieve himself.

"What happens if I go?" asked the 21-year-old, "Do I get a fine? I don't care!" he ranted at German umpire Nico Helwerth, who turned down his request.

"What do you mean, I can't go? Are you going to disqualify me? I have to pee!"

He stepped up his tirade when it became clear the umpire would not relent.

"I'm going to piss my pants!" he said. "I'm going to piss in a bottle."

After coming through the high-pressure first-round match 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in just under four hours, he explained that he needed to use the bathroom more than other players.

"First of all, I was just blowing off steam, just kind of cooling my head, getting rid of it," he said.

"But also I do think it's a dumb rule. Especially for me, I've got the smallest bladder ever, so I literally got to take a piss every set. So it's difficult, especially when you're on that court for so long.

"Before the match I'm trying to hydrate as much as possible, so yeah, I gotta pee, man."

The tournament rules that state players are entitled to just one toilet break during a best of three sets match and two for a five-setter.

"I do think that we should be able to take more breaks and go to the wash room, because we are forced -- not forced, but we could be on the court for three, four hours," added Shapovalov.

"So I think even taking those little breaks ... I think we deserve it."

Shapovalov next plays Australian Bernard Tomic.

Tokyo 2020 officials to discuss chief's sexist remarks: reports

Gaffe-prone Tokyo 2020 chief Yoshiro Mori, 83, sparked uproar in Japan and abroad when he claimed that women speak too much in meetings 

WHICH MEANS HE IS NOT LISTENING 

TO THEM AT ALL

Issued on: 09/02/2021 

Tokyo (AFP)

Tokyo Olympic organisers are planning to meet this week to discuss their response to sexist comments made by their boss that have prompted hundreds of volunteers to drop out, reports said Tuesday.

Gaffe-prone Tokyo 2020 chief Yoshiro Mori, 83, sparked uproar in Japan and abroad last week when he said that women speak too much in meetings.

He has apologised for the comments but refused to step down, and the International Olympic Committee says it considers the matter closed.

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Kyodo News and broadcaster FNN reported Tuesday that the Tokyo 2020 organising committee is planning to meet later this week to discuss its response.

Around 390 Olympic and Paralympic volunteers, of around 80,000 recruited for this summer's pandemic-postponed Games, have said they will no longer take part in the wake of Mori's comments, reports said late Monday.

Two people have pulled out of the torch relay and around 4,000 people made complaint calls to organisers about Mori's comments, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Tokyo 2020 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mori apologised on Thursday and said he wished to retract his remarks, but then became defensive when questioned, insisting he had heard complaints that women speak at length.

"I hear those things often," he insisted. "I don't speak to women much recently, so I wouldn't know."

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has said she was left "speechless" by Mori's comments, while Japan Olympic Committee chief Yasuhiro Yamashita said the remarks were inappropriate but stopped short of calling on him to resign.

Japanese tennis superstar Naomi Osaka slammed the remarks as "ignorant" on Saturday.

The row is the latest headache for organisers already battling public disquiet about the Games, with polls showing more than 80 percent of Japanese oppose holding the event this summer.

© 2021 AFP

UAE on edge as 'Hope' probe poised to enter Mars orbit

Issued on: 09/02/2021 - 

Key data on the UAE's "Hope" probe and its journey to Mars

 Cléa PÉCULIER AFP


Dubai (AFP)

A tense half-hour on Tuesday will determine the fate of the UAE's "Hope" probe to Mars, as the Arab world's first space mission carries out a tricky manoeuvre to enter the Red Planet's orbit.

If successful, the probe which is designed to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, will become the first of three spacecraft to arrive at the Red Planet this month.

The United Arab Emirates, China and the United States all launched missions last July, taking advantage of a period when the Earth and Mars are nearest.

The venture marks the 50th anniversary of the unification of the UAE's seven emirates.

Landmarks across the Gulf state have been lit up in red at night and government accounts emblazoned with the #ArabstoMars hashtag.

Hope will begin a 27-minute "burn" at 1530 GMT to slow itself enough to be pulled in by Martian gravity, in what Emirati officials say is the most challenging part of the mission.

It will rotate and fire all six of its powerful thrusters to dramatically slow its average cruising speed of 121,000 kilometres (75,000 miles) per hour to about 18,000 kph.

With an 11-minute communications lag -- the time it takes for a signal to travel back to Earth -- the spacecraft must be highly autonomous.

"Twenty-seven blind minutes will determine the fate of seven years of work," Sarah Al-Amiri, chairwoman of the UAE Space Agency and minister of state for advanced technology, tweeted this week.

The "burn" will end at 1557 GMT, and at 1608 GMT the UAE will have its moment of truth.

If all goes well, Dubai's needle-shaped Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower, will be at the centre of a celebratory show.

- 50-50 chance -

"This project means a lot for the nation, for the whole region, and for the global scientific and space community," Omran Sharaf, the mission's project manager, told AFP.

"It's not about reaching Mars, it's a tool for a much bigger objective. The government wanted to see a big shift in the mindset of Emirati youth... to expedite the creation of an advanced science and technology sector in the UAE."

While the probe is designed to provide a comprehensive image of the planet's weather dynamics, it is also a step towards a much more ambitious goal -- building a human settlement on Mars within 100 years.

Apart from cementing its status as a key regional player, the UAE also wants the project to serve as a source of inspiration for Arab youth, in a region too often wracked by sectarian conflicts and economic crises.

"The probe has a 50 percent success rate in entering Mars' orbit, but we achieved 90 percent of our goals in building new knowledge," Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, UAE prime minister and Dubai's ruler, wrote on Twitter earlier this month.

Unlike the other two Mars ventures, China's Tianwen-1 and Mars 2020 from the United States, the UAE's probe will not land on the Red Planet.

Hope will use three scientific instruments to monitor the planet's atmosphere, and is expected to begin transmitting data back to Earth in September 2021, to be made available to scientists around the world.

© 2021 AFP

Achilova: a Turkmen reporter who persists despite attacks

Issued on: 09/02/2021

Achilova gets her stories by talking to ordinary people about their everyday problems -

 FAMILY HANDOUT/AFP

Almaty (Kazakhstan) (AFP)

Soltan Achilova, who found her calling late in life, may have fallen into one of the hardest jobs in the world: being a reporter in secretive and repressive Turkmenistan.

The 72-year-old has been systematically attacked for shining a light on life in the closed Central Asian country and undermining the dictatorship's claims of presiding over an era of "might and happiness".

Her reports for newsrooms outside the ex-Soviet country have described how citizens have been unfairly dismissed from jobs, had their homes bulldozed or have to join long queues to buy subsidised food.

In an email to AFP, Achilova said the subjects for her articles "choose themselves... when you speak to ordinary people about the problems they face every day".

Her detailing of the human misery behind Turkmenistan's grand authoritarian displays won her a place this year on the podium for a prestigious international rights prize.

The Martin Ennals Award -- named in honour of a late British rights campaigner and backed by 10 of the world's leading rights organisations -- announces the winner February 11.

Achilova, who is barred from leaving Turkmenistan, has been shortlisted alongside jailed rights defenders Loujain al-Hathloul of Saudi Arabia and Yu Wensheng of China.

- 'Cameras are dangerous' -

The outlets that Achilova has written for, including Radio Free Europe and Vienna-based Chronicles of Turkmenistan are censored in the country of 5.5 million, where state propaganda monopolises the information sphere.

State harassment of the pensioner has grown more vicious in recent years against the backdrop of a long-term energy price slump and economic mismanagement that has seen incomes shrink and food prices surge.

In 2016 she was mowed down by a quartet of bicyclists in an attack that left her neck and head aching for months.

In 2018, when she was visiting relatives in a provincial town, two men grabbed her and punched her in the chest, knocking her over.

The attacks, which she attributes to the state, are often accompanied by attempts to steal or damage her camera.

"Cameras are dangerous for the authorities because they see things that they hide or refuse to acknowledge," Achilova wrote.

Like other energy-rich, rights poor nations, secretive Turkmenistan has turned to sport to bolster its international prestige.

Autocrat president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is regularly shown riding horses, pumping weights and taking race cars for spins in a bid to promote healthy lifestyles and sporting success.

This year Ashgabat plans to host the Track Cycling World Championships, while in 2017 it held the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.

During the build up to the indoor games, rights groups alleged that the government had forcibly evicted thousands of people without offering adequate compensation in a bid to beautify the white marble clad city.

- Bodies wrapped in cellophane -

Achilova, a trained accountant, might never have turned towards reporting had her own home and that of her son not been erased in similar fashion in 2006.

Authorities merely informed her that the house had been built illegally and the city was being "reconstructed" even though the plot remained empty long after the demolition.

After her attempts to seek justice by appealing to local authorities fell flat, she started raising her case with foreign media before deciding that journalism was her calling.

Farid Tukhbatullin, head of the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights group that oversees the Chronicles website, praised Achilova for her doggedness.

"She mastered the profession of journalism when she was over 50. Despite some poor health, she is always on the road, in search of people and their stories," Tukhbatullin told AFP.

Tough restrictions on movement around the country imposed last year to stop the spread of "dangerous infectious diseases" have limited Achilova's movements, robbing her readers of insights into the suffering of the provincial population.

Ironically, however, Turkmenistan continues to insist it is completely coronavirus-free, a boast Achilova dismisses out of hand.

"It's not true. We see we are losing our loved ones, acquaintances," she told AFP.

"The dead from the hospitals are handed to their relatives wrapped in cellophane, with a warning to bury without opening."

© 2021 AFP