Corporations should stop funding climate science deniers in Congress


In the wake of the mob assault on the Capitol and Republican lawmakers' attempt to overturn Joe Biden's election, nearly two dozen corporate campaign donors announced that their political action committees (PACs) will temporarily suspend contributions to the 147 senators and representatives who voted against certifying the Electoral College vote. Another four dozen corporations went even further, pausing all PAC donations.

© Getty Images 

Corporations should stop funding climate science deniers in Congress

This unprecedented capital strike signals that a growing number of CEOs recognize that congressional (and presidential) actions leading up to and culminating on Jan. 6 crossed the line: Denying the legitimacy of a free and fair election poses an existential threat to democracy.

Even more lawmakers, however, are in denial about another existential threat that is no less dangerous. They reject the scientific consensus that human activity - mainly burning fossil fuels - is causing a climate crisis and are standing in the way of federal action. Corporations should permanently cut off their funding because time is running out.

Indeed, 2020 tied 2016 as the hottest year on record, according to NASA. Likewise, there were a record 22 weather and climate disasters across the country last year with a price tag exceeding $1 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Since 2016, billion-dollar disasters in the United States have cost more than $600 billion, a record for a five-year span.

Despite the incontrovertible evidence, the number of climate science deniers and obstructionists in Congress increased since last November's election. There were 150 at the start of the 116th Congress, but by my count, there are now 172 who deny climate science or, in a few cases, accept scientific reality but say the private sector should take care of the problem, not the government. They make up two-thirds of the 261 Republicans in Congress, as well as two-thirds of the 147-member "Sedition Caucus" that challenged the Electoral College results on Jan. 6.

The GOP, which has the distinction of being the world's only major climate-denialist party, is wildly out of step with its base. According to a poll conducted last October by the Conservation Coalition and the Conservative Energy Network, three-quarters of Republican voters want the government to take steps to reduce carbon emissions, while 84 percent between the ages of 18 and 54 say they would like their state to become a national leader in promoting the growth of renewable energy.

Why is the GOP oblivious to public opinion? Follow the money. Since the 2016 election cycle, 86 percent of the $181.9 million oil and gas industry PACs and employees donated to federal candidates went to Republicans. The coal industry chipped in less, but 96 percent of the $11 million its employees and PACs contributed went to Republicans. Some of that money went to 132 of the Sedition Caucus members, who received $8.8 million from 65 fossil fuel industry corporate PACs alone, according to a recent Public Citizen report. Thus far, only one of those companies has vowed to suspend its PAC contributions.

Would freezing corporate PAC contributions have much of an impact? It certainly sends a message, but PAC money accounts for a relatively small percentage of total campaign funding. By law, PACs can only give a candidate up to $5,000 for each primary and general election and corporations contribute more money via trade associations, issue-based groups and individual executives' contributions.

That said, suspending corporate PAC donations could discourage donations by company employees, who are swayed by their CEO's political preferences. A 2016 analysis in the Harvard Business Review examining data from more than 2,000 companies between 1999 and 2014 found that employees on average donated three times more to candidates endorsed by their CEO than to candidates their CEO did not support.

It remains to be seen how long corporations will withhold their PAC donations. It is all too easy to appear high-minded just after an election, when campaign contributions drop off, only to ramp them back up in advance of the next election cycle. Given the Biden administration's plans to transition to a clean energy economy, fossil fuel companies will likely want to fund their friends on Capitol Hill. But like corporations in other sectors, they should end their PAC donations for members of Congress who refuse to accept reality about election results as well as climate change. Likewise, all companies should restrict their executives' donations and stop financing the secretive "dark money" groups that support denialist lawmakers. Otherwise, they will continue to aid and abet the subversion of U.S. democracy and the destruction of the planet.

Elliott Negin is a senior writer at the Union of Concerned Scientists

Deserted debts stir disquiet in the mysterious world of Dubai Inc

By Davide Barbuscia

© Reuters/SATISH KUMAR FILE PHOTO

 View of Burj Khalifa the tallest building from the Business Bay area in Dubai

DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai's debts have always been something of a mystery for investors but since the coronavirus pandemic hit its economy, things have got hazier, some say.

Over the past 12 months, two firms with links to Dubai’s government and its ruler, respectively, have said they would not meet hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of debt repayments, a rare step in the Middle Eastern business hub, where debts are typically renegotiated and state support is often seen as implicit.

One of the firms, Dubai Holding, the investment vehicle of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Dubai's ruler, told creditors that it would not service a $1.2 billion loan owed by its subsidiary Dubai Holding Investments Group and was prepared to pursue liquidation for the unit, according to a source and a document sent to investors in December and reviewed by Reuters.

The second firm, state-owned property developer Limitless, told creditors last March it wasn't able to meet payments for a loan worth about $1.2 billion, according to a company document seen by Reuters. It has since been seeking to restructure the debt.

Dubai Holding, which has $35 billion in assets and holdings in property and the hospitality sector, declined to comment on the debts of its subsidiary and repayment plans for other units. A Limitless spokeswoman told Reuters its restructuring discussions with lenders were continuing but did not comment further. Creditors to the company included Dubai banks such as Emirates NBD, Mashreqbank and Dubai Islamic Bank. They declined to comment.  

© Reuters/Satish Kumar Subramani FILE PHOTO: 

General view of Business Bay area, after a curfew was imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Dubai

The moves by Dubai Holding and Limitless have weakened the assumption that state support is a given, investors say, prompting some creditors to reassess their appetite for and exposure to Dubai-linked debt.

With tens of billions of dollars worth due for repayment over the next few years, some lenders are selling their exposures or making provisions for future losses, three banking sources told Reuters.

The price of Limitless debt has fallen sharply in the secondary market, according to price sheets reviewed by Reuters. The price of Islamic bonds issued by property firm Meraas, which was incorporated into Dubai Holding last year, has fallen steadily this year, according to Refinitiv data.

Dependent on trade and tourism, Dubai's economy has buckled under the strain of the pandemic and low oil prices. Forking out to support so-called government-related entities (GREs) would be a further strain on the public purse.

"The recent defaults have highlighted long-standing concerns about high public and private sector leverage against a backdrop of low growth and a very weak real estate market characterized by chronic over-capacity," said Cedric Berry, a Fitch analyst.

"In itself, a policy of more limited support is positive for the government’s finances and creditworthiness. However, there is limited transparency on the GREs’ balance sheets and the challenging economic environment has increased the risk that some entities could still require financial support, putting pressure on government finances."

The Dubai media office did not respond to Reuters queries on Dubai's indebtedness, Dubai Holding's exposures or the city state's plans to tackle the liabilities of state entities.

The United Arab Emirates Central Bank, asked whether it was encouraging banks to make provisions for outstanding Dubai debt, declined to comment.

"A TOUGH LINE TO DRAW"

In the case of Limitless and of Dubai Holding Investments Group, neither the state nor Dubai Holding had any contractual obligation to pay creditors.

Dubai Holding was only responsible for interest payments on the $1.2 billion loan and at its maturity it told creditors that it was "prepared to pursue an insolvent liquidation in the absence of any feasible alternative," a document sent to investors in December showed.

Dubai’s government explained its approach to GREs in the prospectus for a rare public sale of sovereign debt last year. The sheikhdom said that if such companies were unable to fulfil their debt obligations, the government may, "at its sole discretion, decide to extend such support as it may deem suitable."

But some investors have been working off the basis that there was an implicit government guarantee, two bankers said, a sentiment reinforced by Dubai's support for Emirates Group, the state-owned airline, during the coronavirus crisis.

The flag carrier was given a $2 billion equity injection by the state last year. An Emirates spokeswoman told Reuters that none of its debt has a guarantee by the government or by the Investment Corporation of Dubai, its sovereign wealth fund.

Investor confusion has been compounded by the fragmentation of Dubai's debt. Some sits under the government, some under its sovereign wealth fund, and some under the umbrella of Dubai Holding, the investment vehicle of Dubai's ruler - a major force in developing the local economy.

"It comes back to the same old argument, which is where does the ruler in his private capacity stop and the obligations of the emirate start. When you talk about an absolute monarchy, it’s a tough line to draw," a banker at a Dubai lender said.

Some of the debts owed by Limitless, the property developer, were trading at 20 cents on the dollar in December, down from 30 cents a few months earlier, according to secondary loan trading price sheets reviewed by Reuters.

Banks' provisions for bad and doubtful debts in the United Arab Emirates amounted to nearly $42 billion as of November last year, up from $36 billion at the end of 2019, according to central bank data.

Non-performing loans are expected to account for 7.6% of total loans in 2020, up from 6.5% a year earlier, the Institute of International Finance has estimated.

ABU DHABI

A dearth of statistics makes it difficult to get a full picture of Dubai’s financial situation. Its sovereign bonds are not rated by credit rating agencies and the city state has mostly used private placements and bilateral loans to raise capital.

The government said in August that its debt levels were equivalent to around 28% of 2019 gross domestic product, but that figure goes up to over 100% of GDP, according to estimates by research firms and ratings agencies, if debt raised by GREs is also taken into consideration.

In its bond prospectus last year, Dubai's government said it had no official estimate for GRE debt.

London Based Capital Economics has estimated that before the end of 2024 $38 billion of Dubai GRE debt is due for repayment, much of it in 2023.

Many of the debts date from the 2008-09 financial crisis. Back then, oil-rich Abu Dhabi gave Dubai a bailout helping its neighbour to support its state-controlled companies. Debts were renegotiated and extended.

This time around, no help has been forthcoming.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai were in talks last year to prop up Dubai’s economy by linking up assets in the two emirates, sources told Reuters at the time. Dubai denied the report.

Abu Dhabi did not respond to a request for comment.

A perception that Abu Dhabi would, however, support Dubai if required is factored into the price of Dubai sovereign debt, according to traders.

Bonds sold by Dubai last year which are due to mature in 2050 are currently trading at a premium of just over 1 percentage point over Abu Dhabi's paper with the same maturity, despite Abu Dhabi having a top credit rating and much larger financial wealth.

"Dubai benefits from perceived backing from Abu Dhabi, which is still an extremely strong credit, and could choose to provide support if needed," said Richard Briggs, investment manager at GAM.

($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham)

(Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Carmel Crimmins)

State oil firms risk wasting $400 billion 

as energy transition speeds up

By Julia Payne  

© Reuters/VALENTYN OGIRENKO FILE PHOTO:

 The logo of SOCAR Energy is seen at a company's gas station in Kiev

LONDON (Reuters) - National oil companies (NOCs) risk squandering $400 billion on expensive oil and gas projects over the next decade that may only break even if the world fails to meet the Paris climate goals, a non-governmental organisation said on Tuesday.


In a new report called Risky Bet, the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) estimated that NOCs could invest $1.9 trillion over the next ten years, meaning one-fifth of those investments would be unviable unless the oil price stayed above $40 a barrel.

Major oil companies like BP, Total and Royal Dutch Shell have already progressively lowered their long term price estimates, now in the $50-60 a barrel range, while some analysts see even lower levels depending on the energy transition scenario.

The result could worsen inequalities as funds that could have been better spent on healthcare, education or diversifying the economy might instead create an economic crisis. Many of these NOCs are based in countries where 280 million people live below the poverty line.

"State oil companies' expenditures are a highly uncertain gamble," David Manley, senior economic analyst at NRGI and report co-author, said.

“They could pay off, or they could pave the way for economic crises across the emerging and developing world and necessitate future bailouts that cost the public dearly.”

(Graphic: NRGI risky NOC investments by region: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/xklpyoelxpg/NRGI%20with%20source.png

The report said that producers in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, would be less impacted as their break even levels were much lower but African and Latin American countries would have more trouble.

A heavy debt burden is already an issue for Mexico's Pemex as well as Angola's Sonangol. Compounding the issue is the longheld expansionist view at many NOCs, along with a lack of transparency. On average, just one dollar in every four dollars of revenue is returned to government coffers, the report said.

Azerbaijan's SOCAR and Nigeria's NNPC were of particular concern, according to NRGI. About half of NNPC's investments in upcoming oil projects may turn into a loss if the global energy transition moves rapidly. Other countries where investments should be reviewed include Algeria, China, Russia, India, Mozambique, Venezuela, Colombia and Suriname.

(Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by Toby Chopra)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$T

Vancouver condo developer Mark John Chandler is “a financial predator,” a U.S. Federal Court judge said Monday while handing down a six-year sentence for a real estate investment fraud. 

© Provided by Vancouver Sun Accused fraudster Mark Chandler (left) crosses the street on his way back to BC Supreme Court Friday, September 8, 2017 to attend his extradition hearing.

Chandler swindled 12 U.S. investors out of $1.7 million more than a decade ago, taking their money for a purported Los Angeles condo project that never materialized, and instead using it to buy himself a Mercedes-Benz, chartering a private yacht, luxury purchases and high-end dining, and vacations in Hawaii and Las Vegas.

Chandler has not been charged with any criminal offences in Canada, but has been the subject of dozens of civil lawsuits in B.C., with many alleging “fraudulent conduct.” Those cases were a factor cited by U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson in his reasons for sentencing Monday in California.

“What’s galling is that the defendant had opportunity after opportunity to do the right thing, and yet he continued to defraud anyone who would listen,” Anderson said. “This defendant was, and is, a financial predator. The evidence showed that he’d rob, victimize and exploit anyone for his own personal gain, and it’s no coincidence that this defendant has more than 77 civil cases filed against him, where there have been numerous accusations of fraudulent conduct.”

Anderson’s jail sentence exceeded the 51 months in prison that U.S. prosecutors had requested, and was almost three times what Chandler’s defence lawyer argued was appropriate.

Chandler, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in October, was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,703,965.56. His lawyer said Monday he has no assets.

In the government’s sentencing position, filed in December, the U.S. Attorney’s office said Chandler’s “extensive fraudulent scheme” involved “creating fake checks and fake bank and investment documentation, as well as using fraudulent checks to trick his victims into believing he was a successful legitimate businessman and that their investments were safe when, in fact, … (Chandler) stole in excess of $1.7 million from his victims to fund his own lavish lifestyle.”

Chandler’s “brazen criminal conduct financially and emotionally devastated his victims,” and “caused his victims to suffer depleted retirement accounts, bankruptcies, and lost homes,” prosecutors wrote.

One of Chandler’s victims, a California-based doctor, spoke by phone at the hearing, saying Chandler “fully expected to get away with it, because he was going to go back to Canada and he never thought he’d be extradited. … He was just going to do whatever he wanted and hightail it back to Canada thinking he was safe there.”

The judge also sentenced Chandler to three years of supervised release, which prosecutors said was necessary because Chandler “egregiously” breached his bail conditions earlier. While Chandler was living freely in Metro Vancouver and fighting his extradition to the U.S., he was ordered to surrender his passport and not leave the country. But he used a second passport and flew by private jet to Mexico for a vacation.

Chandler’s lawyers fought his extradition through Canadian courts for more than three years, before his last appeal failed in October 2019. He was transferred to the U.S., where he has remained in federal custody.

Monday’s hearing was conducted on a Zoom online video conference, with Chandler appearing from inside the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles.

When the judge offered Chandler a chance to speak, he read from a prepared statement and apologized to his investors and his family. Chandler’s time in jail, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been “the toughest experience I’ve been through during the 57 years of my life,” he said. Chandler contracted the COVID in prison, he said, and was “locked up 24 hours a day, being fed peanut butter and jelly for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

In B.C., Chandler has also been the target of enforcement action from regulators, before and after his time in L.A., including accusations he mishandled more than $10 million of homebuyers’ deposits after returning from California for a Langley condo project called Murrayville House.

The Murrayville fiasco caused serious hardship for dozens of hopeful homebuyers, as one B.C. Supreme Court judge noted in a 2018 judgment in one civil lawsuit, calling the situation a “house of cards” that left behind “no winners.” At one point, the B.C. RCMP was investigating Chandler’s actions at Murrayville, but told Postmedia in December 2019 they were no longer reviewing the matter.

Gary Janzen of Langley and his wife suffered significant financial losses and emotional distress after they signed a presale agreement in 2016 for a Murrayville home. After Monday’s sentence was handed down, Janzen said: “We’re glad that justice has been done. … But we’re very disappointed and discouraged there’s no justice here.”

Following the sentencing, Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, said: “Mr. Chandler’s lies resulted in substantial financial losses for his victims and a significant prison sentence for himself. Today’s sentencing underscores our office’s determination to bring justice to white-collar criminals — no matter how long it may take.”

dfumano@postmedia.com

twitter.com/fumano

World economy will lose trillions if poor countries shorted on vaccines: OECD


OTTAWA — As the Trudeau government is forced to explain delays rolling out COVID-19 vaccines, some of the world's economic and health leaders are warning of catastrophic financial consequences if poorer countries are shortchanged on vaccinations.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

At a video meeting convened by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Monday, Secretary-General Angel Gurria predicted that rich countries would see their economies shrink by trillions of dollars if they don't do more to help poor countries receive vaccines.

The leaders of the World Health Organization and others also bemoaned the long-term damage of continued "vaccine nationalism" if current trends continue — rich countries getting a pandemic cure at a much higher rate than poorer ones.

It was a message that could provide some political cover for the Liberals, who have been widely criticized for shortfalls in deliveries of vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna while also facing international criticism for pre-buying enough doses of vaccines to cover Canada's population several times over.

Some international anti-poverty groups have also criticized Canada for planning to take delivery of 1.9 million doses from the COVAX Facility, a new international vaccine-sharing program that is primarily designed to help poor countries afford unaffordable vaccines, but also allows rich donor countries — including Canada — to receive vaccines.

Trudeau and his cabinet ministers on the vaccine file have repeatedly said that the pandemic can't be stamped out for good if it isn't defeated everywhere.

They say Canada is a trading nation that depends on the welfare of others for its economic prosperity — especially with the emergence of new variants of the virus in South Africa and Britain.

But their protestations are usually drowned out in the domestic clamour that tends to highlight unfavourable comparisons of Canada's vaccine rollout with the United States, Britain or other countries.

On Monday, Gurria — the veteran Mexican politician who has led the OECD for 15 years — brought the full force of his political gravitas by offering up a pocketbook argument that eschewed any pretence of altruism.

"It's a smart thing to do. It is ethically and morally right. But it is also economically right," said Gurria.

Video: Domestic vaccine supply to supplement international deals: Trudeau (The Canadian Press)

"The global economy stands to lose as much as $9.2 trillion, which is close to half the size of the U.S. economy, just to put it in context … as much as half of which would fall on advanced economies, so they would lose around $5 trillion."

The OECD is an international forum of more than three dozen mainly democratic and developed countries, including Canada, that aims to help foster economic growth and trade. It also conducts comprehensive economic research and issues the world's most authoritative annual report on what rich countries spend on foreign aid.

Canada's former finance minister Bill Morneau, who resigned last summer during the WE funding scandal, had said he was leaving politics because he long wanted to pursue the OECD leadership when Gurria departs later this year. In January, Morneau abandoned that ambition, saying he didn't have enough support among member countries.

Meanwhile, Trudeau said last week that Canada remains committed to helping poor countries cope with COVID-19 through its $220-million pledge to COVAX, and its $865-million commitment to the ACT Accelerator, which tries to ensure low- and middle-income countries have equitable access to medical treatments during the pandemic.

But Jorge Moreira da Silva, the OECD's development co-operation director, said COVAX is underfunded by US$5 billion, while the World Health Organization is predicting at US$27-billion shortfall for the ACT Accelerator.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said 75 per cent of vaccine doses are being administered in 10 wealthy countries.

"It's understandable that governments want to prioritize vaccinating their own health workers and older people first. But it's not right to vaccinate young, healthy adults in rich countries before health workers and older people in low-income nations," Tedros told the OECD forum.

"We must ensure that vaccines, diagnostics and life-saving therapies reach those most at risk and on the front lines in all countries. This is not just a moral imperative. It's also an economic imperative."

Trudeau has repeatedly said that all Canadians who want a vaccine will get one by the end of September but that it is too soon to say how the government will eventually decide to share its excess doses globally.

At Monday's forum, a spokesman for the pharmaceutical industry said the bumps and grinds of vaccine delivery to poor countries would be transformed into "a huge success" in the coming months.

"I think it's dangerous to talk about, you know, this is a huge moral injustice already now because … you will have significant rollout to developing countries," said Thomas Cueni, the director-general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations.

"I haven't seen a single industrialized country, maybe with the exception of Israel, where young and healthy people are vaccinated."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2021.

Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press

"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."