"Power in solidarity": Myanmar protesters inspired by Hong Kong and Thailand

(Reuters) - Using one hand to photograph this moment in Myanmar's history, Myat gave a three-finger "Hunger Games" salute of defiance to authoritarian rule as she stood with tens of thousands of other protesters gathered around the Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon

© Reuters/STRINGER Rally against military coup in Naypyitaw

Passers-by and storekeepers returned the salute as Myat and her fellow demonstrators sang protest songs, while police watched on.

That was on Monday, the third day of protests by people opposed to a military coup against a civilian government that won a landslide election in November.

The three-finger salute was first adopted by activists in neighbouring Thailand opposed to a government there that is headed by a former army chief, who had also come to power in 2014 by overthrowing an elected government.

Before joining demonstrations, 28-year-old Myat says she reads a manual of Hong Kong protest tactics that has been translated into Burmese and shared thousands of times on social media.

Online, some opponents of Myanmar's Feb. 1 coup are connecting with users of the #MilkTeaAlliance hashtag that brought together campaigners in Thailand and Hong Kong.

"We saw how youths are participating in political movements in nearby countries," Myat said. "It inspired us to get involved."

Protesters told Reuters that social media helps them borrow symbols and ideas from elsewhere, like using Hong Kong-style flashmobs, rapidly shifting hashtags and colourful meme artworks.

Anticipating stronger action by police, protesters returned to the streets for mass protests on Tuesday, many wearing yellow construction helmets and carrying umbrellas, just as protesters in Hong Kong and Thailand had done.

The biggest protests in more than a decade have swept Myanmar to denounce the coup and demand the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. The deposed 75-year-old elected leader first came to prominence in 1988 during a very different generation of protests against an earlier junta.

For the first time in Myanmar, mass protests are joined by a Generation Z who grew up with greater freedom, prosperity and access to technology in what remains one of Southeast Asia’s poorest and most restrictive countries.

They are forming bonds with activists who took on Beijing's rule in Hong Kong and Thailand's government and its monarchy, which is accused of enabling decades of military domination.

"There's power in solidarity," said Sophie Mak, a Hong Kong human rights researcher and activist.

"Milk Tea Alliance is a pan-Asian solidarity movement basically comprising young people who are fed up by their governments' oppression," she told Reuters.

Allies abroad can amplify the message from Myanmar's activists, particularly when communications blackouts make it hard to get out information, she said.

The exchange in political campaigning culture is accompanied by protest art, with graphic artists preparing work to support each other.

One of the newest artworks shows the addition of a cup of Myanmar's own strong sweet tea to the image of milky tea drinks from Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

"Youths gained more exposure to the rest of the world during the last five years of the civilian government," said 24-year Nadi told Reuters at the same protest in Yangon.

"We witnessed what happened in Hong Kong and Thailand and it is a big influence on today's movement," she added.

Nearby, a bridge pillar had been covered in colourful post-its with anti-coup messages, copying Hong Kong's popular "Lennon Walls."

Pro-democracy campaigner "mhonism" - who asked to be identified only by his Twitter handle - dubbed Myanmar the newest member of the Milk Tea Alliance in a tweet sent hours after the coup that was shared more than 22,000 times.

He then helped to coordinate protests against Myanmar's coup in Thailand by Thais and people from Myanmar to demonstrate " solidarity."

Thai pro-democracy groups have now hung banners supporting Myanmar protesters in Bangkok - despite the disapproval of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, himself a former junta leader, who has said Thais should stay out of Myanmar's "internal affairs".

The exchange of ideas goes both ways.

Thailand's largest youth protest group, Ratsadon, has announced a protest on Wednesday with the banging of pots and pans - something the Myanmar anti-coup protesters have been doing nightly as a way to drive out evil spirits.

The aim is to protest against both governments.

"We went through the same thing," said Rathasat Plenwong , a Thai protester and Milk Tea Alliance activist. "Now we support and inspire each other."

(Reporting by Reuters reporters, writing by Fanny Potkin & Patpicha Tanakasempipat, editing by Matthew Tostevin & Simon Cameron-Moore)

Myanmar protesters march despite ban on gatherings

Demonstrators have taken to the streets in Myanmar in defiance of new rules imposed by the military junta that make their protests illegal.


Protesters flash the three-finger salute of "Hunger Games" fame that has come to symbolize their movement

Protesters against the Myanmar military coup rallied on Tuesday in the country's two biggest cities, defying a ban on gatherings of more than five people.

Demonstrators want power restored to the deposed civilian government and freedom for the nation's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her allies.

Coup leaders issued decrees on Monday night that banned gatherings of more than five people in parts of Yangon and Mandalay. Thousands of people have been demonstrating in both places since Saturday.

According to the Reuters news agency, security forces arrested at least 27 people in the latest protests.

The legislation bans gatherings of more than five people and imposes an 8 p.m. to

Myanmar: Nationwide strike begins as protests spread

Yangon is Myanmar's largest city, with Mandalay second. It is not immediately clear if decrees have been imposed for other areas.

Photos circulating online showed police in the capital, Naypyidaw, used water cannon against protesters.

People in the crowd chanted "End the military dictatorship" as the water cannon was fired.

Protesters want power restored to the deposed elected government and freedom for Suu Kyi. The military detained her and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) when it blocked a new session of parliament from convening on February 1.

Watch video 02:07 China's edge in geopolitical fight over Myanmar

Junta chief General Min Aung Hlaing made a televised speech on Monday evening in an effort to justify the coup. In his address, he insisted the power grab was justified because of "voter fraud".

Government employees, doctors and teachers are among those have joined a call for civil disobedience and strikes.

The 75-year-old Suu Kyi has been held incommunicado since the coup and is being held in police detention until February 15. She faces charges of illegally importing six walkie-talkies.

While the NLD won the November national elections by a landslide, the military never accepted the legitimacy of the vote.

rc/rs (AFP, Reuters)

Myanmar coup protests inflamed by poverty and coronavirus

Following the coup in Myanmar, a nationwide anti-junta protest movement is starting to take shape.

 Fears are growing of a military clampdown as the country is facing crises on multiple fronts.



Protesters have taken to the streets across Myanmar for three days

It has been a week since Myanmar's military, the Tatmadaw, ousted the nation's democratically elected government and returned the country to military rule.

Widespread public animosity toward the military junta's negating of 10 years of civilian government now threatens to throw Myanmar into a protracted state of volatility, which is being exacerbated by rampant poverty and the coronavirus pandemic.

For three days in a row, demonstrators have taken to the streets of Myanmar's major cities, and the protests seem to be growing in intensity. On Monday, protesters in the capital, Naypyitaw, were met by police water cannons, and finally dispersed after authorities threatened to remove demonstrators by force.

State TV warned Monday that "action" would be taken against protesters who break the law.

Anti-junta protesters also took to the streets of the largest city, Yangon, where Buddhist monks in saffron-colored robes led demonstrations.

Thousands also demonstrated in the coastal city of Dawei in the southeast, and in the capital of Kachin state in the far north. Prominent activists are calling for a nationwide general strike.

During nationwide protests over the weekend that drew 10,000 people into central Yangon, the Tatmadaw disrupted communication across Myanmar to stifle protest organizers. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were blocked, followed by a near-total internet shutdown.

Even though the internet blockade was lifted by Sunday evening, communication remains restricted around the country.

Watch video 26:10 To the point - Myanmar Coup: Death Knell for Democracy?

Protest movement is 'taking off'

Protesters in Myanmar have been photographed holding up the three-finger salute, which has become a well-known symbol of resistance for the pro-democracy movement in neighboring Thailand.

They carry signs condemning military leader General Min Aung Hlaing, and shout: "We do not want a military dictatorship! We want democracy!"

Until now, the military has responded to protesters with relative restraint compared with Myanmar's last coup in 1988, or in 2007, when the Tatmadaw defeated the so-called saffron revolution led by Buddhist monks. The military crackdown on both of these protest movements ended up costing many lives.

Several thousand people are thought to have been killed in 1988. In 2007, 13 people were killed according to official numbers, however, Australian broadcaster ABC estimates the death toll to be several hundred.


Asking how the military will respond in 2021, Myanmar historian Thant Myint-U tweeted that "anything" is possible, given the army's track record in cracking down hard on resistance movements.

Several experts and residents in Yangon, who spoke to DW anonymously out of concern for their safety, said they fear that the situation will get worse and expect violent clashes between protesters and security forces.
Economic insecurity

Myanmar's economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, and the military government said Friday it would begin concentrating on bringing the economy back to life.

Lockdowns deprived many day laborers of their livelihoods, and the pandemic also shut down Myanmar's vital tourism sector, while closing textile factories.

Now the military plans to reopen factories and resume domestic air travel, with hygiene measures in place. How they plan to accomplish this during the current state of emergency remains to be seen.

A study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) from November 2020 shows how the pandemic has affected food security in Myanmar.

"The study finds that food insecurity and inadequate maternal dietary diversity are sharply raising serious concerns for the nutritional status of mothers and young children," Bart Minten from IFPRI told DW,

The study also showed that income-based poverty increased from 16 to 63% between January 2020 and September 2020. Two-thirds of Myanmar's residents live on less than $1.90 (€1.60) a day, and 38% of all households in Yangon stated that they had no income in September 2020.

Watch video 01:40 Myanmar: Nationwide strike begins as protests spread

"COVID-19 is triggering a socio-economic crisis that is set to increase the number of poor children in the country by two million," UNICEF said in a statement.

Although the military wants to restart the economy, the coup could hurt economic activity by driving away much-needed foreign investment.

For example, the Japanese large brewery Kirin announced its withdrawal from Myanmar on Friday. More investors will surely follow if economic sanctions from the UN, the US or the EU are imposed.

Myanmar also has a history of economic crisis provoking protest. The 1988 crisis, which was followed by a coup, was essentially due to the miserable economic situation and an unannounced devaluation of banknotes.
Coronavirus adding to the problem

The coup and the ensuing demonstrations come as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rattle Myanmar and the country's weak and poorly equipped healthcare system.

The country has so far recorded around 141,000 cases and 3,168 deaths, although the number of new infections has recently declined thanks to a lockdown imposed in October 2020 by the former NLD government of Aung Sang Suu Kyi.

However, after the coup, it is uncertain who will lead the country's ongoing response to the pandemic.

On the day of the coup, the NLD's Health Minister Myint Htwe announced his resignation on Facebook.

Although he urged his staff to continue to serve the people, many doctors and nurses from state hospitals took part in a civil disobedience campaign after the coup and went on strike.

In any case, the gathering of thousands of people in protest could provide fertile ground for the virus to spread. Even if there isn't a violent crackdown by the military, a steep rise in coronavirus infections would be a high price to pay for opposing the junta.

Watch video 02:07 China's edge in geopolitical fight over Myanmar

Haiti: Journalists shot while covering protests - reports

Opposition leaders have appointed a transitional president to replace current president Jovenel Moise. 

The announcement came a day after Moise alleged an attempted coup to displace him.



The journalists were shot while covering anti-government protests

Two journalists were shot while covering protests against the regime of president Jovenel Moise in Haiti on Monday, according to local media.

The journalists were shot while broadcasting the protests, Rezo Nodwes, a Haiti-based publication reported. It is not clear how badly wounded they were.

Other local journalists confirmed the reports.




The protests against Moise followed an announcement on the same day by Haiti's opposition leaders that they had appointed a transitional president. The appointee, Joseph Mecene Jean-Louis, is the oldest judge in Haiti's supreme court.

"I declare that I accept the choice of the opposition and civil society to serve my country as interim president of the broken transition," said Jean-Louis. "In the coming days, I will restore order in the country," he tweeted.

"We are waiting for Jovenel Moise to leave the National Palace so that we can get on with installing Mr Mecene Jean-Louis," opposition leader Andre Michel told news agency AFP.

Haiti's president Jovenel Moise alleged that there was an attack on his life

The appointment comes a day after Moise announced that security officers had thwarted an attempt on his life. About 23 people, including a Supreme Court judge and a top police official, were arrested for what he described as an attempted coup.

Opposition leaders claim that Moise's term began in February 2016 and ended this Sunday. Meanwhile, Moise and his supporters claim 2017 as the year of his ascent. The president has said that he will hand over power to the winner of the elections in October 2021 and will not step down until his term expires in February 2022.
UN Secretary General expresses concern

On February 8, Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations said that the UN was following the political crisis "with concern".

The Secretary General's spokesman told news agency AFP that Moise's term was scheduled to end in February 2022, without commenting on whether the UN supported Moise's claim to power. The US has supported Moise's claim to stay in power till next year.

am/aw (AFP, dpa)

Survivor of forced labor in Japan seeks true apology

A 15-year-old Korean girl was duped into moving to Japan in 1944 with the promise of a better education, only to end up working in a munitions factory.


Yang Geum-deok, now 92, wants Japan to say it is sorry for what happened to her there as a young girl

South Korean courts have judged that Japanese companies must pay compensation to people who were used as forced laborers during World War II.

Japanese leaders insist that the issues have already been dealt with under previous agreements and argue that Japan has expressed adequate remorse.

But those agreements did not cover the case of 92-year-old Yang Geum-deok, who told DW that she is still waiting for a sincere apology from Japan.

In 1944, the 15-year-old Yang was lured into moving to Japan with the promise of a better education. Instead, she worked — unpaid — in a munitions factory as World War II drew to a close.
From promise to nightmare

Yang had been a class leader at her school, excelling in athletics and academics. Her accomplishments did not go unnoticed by Japanese administrators, who offered her a chance for the future her humble family couldn't afford.

"The Japanese principal said I could go to junior high school if I went to Japan. My father said he was lying and would not allow it, but I snuck away. Once in Japan, I never even saw the school door but was taken straight to Mitsubishi Industries, where I was worked nearly to death. I had wanted to be a teacher.

Watch video 03:19  

Survivor of forced labor in Japan still waits for apology

Between 1937 and 1945, Japan employed millions of forced laborers throughout their occupied territories in Asia, and in mainland Japan as well. Yang worked at the Mitsubishi plant in Nagoya, from June 1944 to October 1945. Estimates suggest more than 500,000 South Koreans were forced laborers in Japan during the war.

In her recent autobiography, Yang describes her experience.

"A bell woke us at 6 a.m., and we went to the camp to work, 8 or 10 hours. They made me paint airplanes. They didn't have a ladder for us, so I used wide planks, climbed up and painted. The pail of paint was too heavy for me, and so to this day one shoulder still hurts."

According to Yale historian R.J. Rummel, 60,000 Koreans died while serving as forced laborers in Japan. Malnutrition was a leading cause.

"We had lunch at noon. They gave us each a ball of rice, but after five bites, it was gone, and then we went back to work. I was always hungry," Yang said, adding that some of her school friends died in Nagoya.

As a forced laborer, Yang also experienced the US firebombing of Japanese cities.

"Sometimes we couldn't sleep because of the bombing. We had to spend all night in the air raid shelter, and even when we came out, we could still hear the sounds of bombs over and over. And then, in the morning, we had to go back to work."


The issue surrounding 'comfort women' has been intense on the Korean Peninsula

Return to Korea

After the war ended, Yang returned to South Korea. She was initially the subject of discrimination, accused of being a sex slave and earning money by selling her body to Japanese soldiers. Today Korea's so-called comfort women are by themselves successfully pursuing compensation from Japan in South Korean courts.

Eventually Yang forged a life in South Korea. She married, had three children, divorced, and ran her own business selling dried fish at the village market. But her experience in Japan always gnawed at her.
Japan's apologies and compensation

In 1965, South Korea's military dictatorship accepted an apology and compensation from Japan for its wartime atrocities. The government spent that money on national infrastructure and economic development. It established Pohang Steel and other South Korean industrial giants that enabled the country's remarkable rise as an Asian economic tiger.

But the real victims of Japan's colonial and war crimes received no direct compensation.

Yang and others have refused to let go, campaigning for a sincere apology and direct restitution. South Korea's Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Mitsubishi to pay her and four others nearly $90,000 (€74,800) each. But so far, no money has changed hands, and now Mitsubishi assets in South Korea have been targeted.

For the Japanese leadership, South Korea's dredging up of the past causes considerable consternation

History weighs on South Korea-Japan relations

Japan has long said it has dealt with these issues adequately in the past. The first case was the 1965 normalization treaty, which included $500 million. Japan has since stated that all claims were settled "completely and finally." At various times, Japanese political leaders have apologized.

But the political use of patriotism continues to weigh on South Korea-Japan relations.

In the early 2000s, Japan's then prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, repeatedly visited the Yasukuni war shrine, where 14 class A war criminals are buried, drawing fury in South Korea.

And later, Shinzo Abe, when he was prime minister between 2012 and 2020, questioned the validity of a previous apology, suggesting that the comfort women were not coerced, inflaming anti-Japan sentiment in South Korea.

In the early 2000s, Japan's then prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, repeatedly visited the Yasukuni war shrine

For the Japanese leadership, South Korea's dredging up of the past causes considerable consternation.

"All the demands from the South Korean side were irreversibly solved, period," Tomohiko Taniguchi, Keio University Graduate School economics and history professor, told DW.

"You cannot open the door once finally shut. But South Korea continues to try to open the door once every five, 10, 15 years. It's almost a national pastime," said the former foreign policy speechwriter for Prime Minister Abe.
Japan faces more lawsuits, Yang waits

Since the 2018 judgment in Yang's case, dozens more South Korean forced labor victims and their families have launched lawsuits against Japanese companies. For them, the agreements made between states and their political leaders don't seem to mean much.

For Yang Geum-deok, who has already won her suit, the financial compensation she still awaits is not really the point.

"Money isn't important anymore. It's the insult, the humiliation. They didn't see Koreans as human beings. Even though they said they would pay us back our wages, I don't want it. I am too old now. I only want to hear their apology before I die."

Morocco: Flood kills two dozen workers in illegal factory

At least 24 people have died and emergency services have rescued 10 workers from the basement as the search continues for potentially trapped survivors.


[File photo] Floods are the biggest natural disaster causing deaths in Morocco

Heavy rains flooded an underground clandestine garment factory, killing at least 24 people in the northern city of Tangier, Morocco's state news agency (MAP) reported Monday.

Firefighters have rescued 10 workers from the flooded factory in a villa cellar and moved them to a hospital.

Emergency workers are still searching for more people trapped inside.

Authorities said they had launched an investigation, as the total number of workers of the illegal factory remains unclear.

Local media reports indicate that the victims may have died after the electrics in the house shortcircuited, but authorities have not yet confirmed.

Informal labor accounts for 14% of Morocco's gross domestic product, and about a fifth of non-agricultural economic activity, according to a recent report by Reuters.
Floods pose 'main risk'

A 2016 report by Morocco’s Royal Institute for Strategic Studies considered floods as the "main risk in Morocco, in terms of numbers of victims," according to AFP.

Last month, floods in Morocco’s economic capital Casablanca killed at least four people and injured others as homes collapsed in the heavy rains.

Dozens of people were killed in a bus accident in the floods of 2010, and seven people died when heavy rains hit a soccer field in 2019.

fb/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters)

WTO chief: Why the choice of an African woman is a big deal

Former colleagues of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala speak highly of the economist as she prepares to become the next director-general of the World Trade Organization. Her tenure begins during turbulent times.



Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's former colleagues say she is more than qualified to head the WTO

The Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala already had broad support from World Trade Organization (WTO) members, including China, the European Union, the African Union, Japan and Australia. Her challenger, Yoo Myung-hee, the South Korean trade minister, withdrew her candidacy last Friday.

Former colleagues also believe she is well-suited for the position. "Ngozi is one of the most qualified people for that particular post she vied for. So I wish her well in terms of the final decision," Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, a former minister of national planning, told DW.

Okonjo-Iweala and Usman had served alongside each other as ministers under Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. Before taking up the Cabinet portfolio, Okonjo-Iweala had resigned at the World Bank, where she served for 25 years.

An internal memo, addressed to World Bank employees on July 8, 2011, seen by DW, notes that Okonjo-Iweala had played an exceptional role there. Bob Zoellick, the World Bank's president at the time, wrote that her contribution had been stellar.

"Along with her oversight of the bank's work in Africa, South Asia, Europe, and Central Asia, and Human Resources, Ngozi has played a pivotal role in overseeing the Bank's work to help countries hurt by high and volatile food prices," Zoellick wrote in the memo. "As you are aware, with Ngozi's leadership, we put together a food crisis response fund to allow for fast assistance to countries in need. It has helped more than 40 million people in 44 countries."

Okonjo-Iweala was not the preferred candidate by the administration of Donald Trump in the United States, which had complicated the decision-making process.

The election of a new director-general requires the consensus of all WTO) members.

"I know that she will discharge her duties very well as she has done in a lot of jobs she has held before," Usman said of his former colleague.

The WTO, a Geneva-based body tasked with promoting free trade, has been without a permanent leader since Roberto Azevedo stepped down a year earlier than planned at the end of August 2020.


Okonjo-Iweala will have her work cut out for her particularly in terms of the ongoing dispute between the US and China

Azevedo's resignation came after the WTO was embroiled in an escalating trade spat between the US and China.

Tide is turning for women

Okonjo-Iweala will become the first African and the first woman to hold the top position at the WTO.

"I see her appointment as a validation of African women's competency and leadership skills, and of African women's excelling despite the systematic hurdles and obstacles facing them," Fadumo Dayib, the first female Somali presidential candidate, told DW.

Dayib added that the choice of Okonjo-Iweala is a sign that "the tide is turning in favor of competent women and it's about time that happened."

Nigerian economist Tunji Andrews agrees with Dayib. He says the international community has finally realized that Africans can sit at the table with global powers.

"Many people across the world will start to say, let's put more Africans in such roles, not just roles of peacekeeping, but roles of intellectual capacity and roles of pedigree." 

Accomplished economist on global stage

Although Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will make history by becoming the first female and black African to lead WTO, Amara Nwankpa says his fellow Nigerian brings more than just "diversity and inclusion" to the world stage.

"I'm optimistic that her impact on global trade will be positive, given that her antecedents suggest that she's passionately committed to reducing inequality, poverty, and corruption across the world," Nwankpa, director of Public Policy Initiative at Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Foundation, a Nigerian nonprofit that is committed to promoting national unity and good governance, told DW.
Political heavyweight

During her second term as finance minister, Okonjo-Iweala was "credited with developing reform programs that helped improve governmental transparency and stabilize the economy," according to the US business magazine Forbes, which ranked her No. 48 in the world's top 50 "Power Women" in 2015.

The Harvard-educated economist holds a Ph.D. from MIT and chairs the Gavi board, a global vaccine alliance instrumental in ensuring that developing countries have much-needed access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Nwankpa says her background shows that "she brings to this job impressive skills in international negotiations and leadership capacity to confront the key challenges currently facing the planet."

"She's exactly the person that the world needs at the helm of international trade in these turbulent times," he added.

AstraZeneca COVID vaccine's complex EU supply chain

The firm has blamed production woes in the EU for not delivering as many doses of its COVID vaccine as it had promised. 

These are some of the companies involved in the production of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the EU.



AstraZeneca was able to iron out production glitches 

at its UK factories earlier than in Europe

British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca drew a sharp rebuke from the European Union after the company said late last month it would cut EU supplies of its COVID-19 vaccine in the first quarter.

EU leaders lashed out at the company for not honoring its contractual obligations, with some accusing it of diverting vaccines produced in the bloc to other countries. AstraZeneca, which has developed the vaccine in cooperation with the University of Oxford, has denied the charges, blaming the supply cut on production issues.

The spat comes at a time the EU's vaccination drive is faltering and the bloc is taking much flak for trailing the United States and the United Kingdom in getting shots into the arms of its citizens. EU members, including Germany and France, are facing supply shortages, which has forced authorities in some regions to delay or suspend vaccinations. The EU has responded by introducing export controls on coronavirus vaccines to monitor doses leaving its shores.

AstraZeneca has agreed to supply to the EU only around half of the 80 million doses it had committed to deliver during the first quarter.
Why did AstraZeneca cut vaccine supplies?

The production of AstraZeneca's vaccine broadly involves two steps: one is producing the actual vaccine or drug substance, and the other is putting the vaccine into vials. Those two steps can take up to 60 days each.

AstraZeneca has said while it's facing no issues with the second step, it's struggling to produce high quantities of the vaccine at an EU production plant.

"Essentially, we have cell cultures, big batches, 1,000-liter or 2,000-liter batches. We have cell cultures inside those batches, and we inject them with the virus, the vaccine if you will. Those cells produce the vaccine — it's biotechnology protection," AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told Italian newspaper La Repubblica last week. "Now, some of those batches have a very high yield and others have low yield. Particularly in Europe, we had one site with large capacity that experienced yield issues.

"The yield varies from one to three, by the factor of three. The best site we have produces three times more vaccine out of a batch than the lowest producing site," he added

Soriot also said the company faced similar glitches in other countries, including in the UK, but was able to sort them out because it had more time given that London had signed its contract three months before the EU.

AstraZeneca's European supply chain

AstraZeneca has partnered with several contract manufacturers across the EU to scale up the production of its COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine, or the drug substance, is currently being produced at two facilities in the Netherlands and Belgium. It's the company's Belgian partner, Novasep, which has struggled with low yields.

The vaccine is then filled into vials and packaged in Dessau in eastern Germany by IDT Biologika and by Catalent in Anagni, Italy. Spanish pharmaceutical group Insud Pharma will also undertake vial filling and packaging services for the vaccine in Spain's Castilla-La Mancha region.

Russian pharma company R-Pharm's German unit has also signed up to produce the vaccine at its site in Illertissen in southern Germany. China's Wuxi Biologics could potentially use a former Bayer factory in Wuppertal, Germany, to manufacture the vaccine.

AstraZeneca plans to deliver up to 3 billion doses across the globe by the end of this year. The EU has made a €336 million ($404 million) down payment to secure up to 400 million doses of the vaccine, which was approved by the EU's drugs regulator last week.

How are other vaccine makers faring?

Pfizer and BioNtech are also struggling to stick to their delivery commitments due to production and supply chain problems. But the EU has said that unlike AstraZeneca, the companies are distributing the impact of the disruption fairly among buyers.

Several European governments confirmed last month that Pfizer-BioNtech would temporarily cut shipments of its vaccine due to "modifications" at its Puurs plant in Belgium.

On Monday, the companies promised to deliver up to 75 million more doses to the EU in the second quarter. The companies said they would increase production with a new facility set to open in the German city of Marburg in February. The facility will have the capacity to produce 750 million vaccine doses each year.

 

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.