Minnesota authorities can't arrest or threaten journalists after judge approves settlement arising from George Floyd protests

By Joe Sutton, 
CNN - Wednesday

A federal judge has approved a settlement prohibiting Minnesota authorities from arresting, threatening to arrest, or using force against journalists.

In addition, officials with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Minnesota State Patrol (MSP) are not permitted to use chemical agents or to seize or intentionally damage journalists' equipment, according to an order from US District Judge Wilhelmina Wright.

Tuesday's settlement stemmed from police tactics used against journalists during protests over the deaths of George Floyd and Daunte Wright.

And journalists are not required to disperse even if police order protesters to do so during demonstrations, the order says.

The American Civil Liberties Union called the action groundbreaking and said it requires state law enforcement to be held accountable to the First Amendment.

"We need a free press to help us hold the police and government accountable. Without a free press, we don't have a free society, and we can't have justice," Teresa Nelson, the legal director of the ACLU of Minnesota, said in a statement.

A payment of $825,000 to the ACLU was agreed to in the settlement, as well as additional training for state officers, the DPS and MSP said in a joint statement Tuesday.

The ACLU of Minnesota, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of several journalists, said the payment would go to media members who were "attacked and injured" by police covering the protests over the police killings of Floyd in 2020 and Wright last year.

Ed Ou, a freelance video journalist who was a plaintiff in the suit, was struck by a projectile and pepper sprayed, while covering the George Floyd protests.

"When authoritarian governments in other parts of the world see U.S. law enforcement targeting the press, it empowers them to act with impunity," he said in the ACLU's news release.

"This injunction sends a message that freedom of the press is an ideal the United States continues to hold as one of its core values ... I am glad there is still some semblance of accountability to address attacks like this. I hope this case sets the precedent that any assault of a journalist is one too many."

The settlement between journalists and state law enforcement comes amid a tense time again in the city of Minneapolis. On Tuesday night, hundreds of people marched to protest last week's fatal shooting of Amir Locke, who was killed by police who were executing a no-knock warrant as part of a warrant as part of a homicide investigation into Locke's cousin, who has since been arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder. The cousin was not at the apartment at the time of the raid.


© Nathan Howard/Getty Images

A racial justice march for Amir Locke moves through downtown 

Minneapolis on February 5, 2022.

Protestors could be heard chanting slogans calling for police accountability and shouting, "What's his name? Amir Locke! Say his name. Amir Locke!"

Less than two years ago, chants of "Say his name. George Floyd!" rang throughout dozens of cities as demonstrators voiced outrage over the shocking manner of Floyd's death.

MSP Chief Col. Matt Langer said the organization had learned from the incidents over the last two years. "That's why we have already implemented several improvements, including the use of an ombudsman for media, a public information officer in the field, and the deployment of body-worn cameras," he said in a statement.

"The ability of journalists to cover civil unrest in our communities must be protected and encouraged," DPS Commissioner John Harrington said in the same statement. "The hallmarks of this agreement are transparency, accountability and excellence in policing. Our agency is committed to those principles as we work with members of the media to implement the terms of this agreement."

Some journalists faced harsh crowd control measures from police during protests in and around Minneapolis, which included the arrests of CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, producer Bill Kirkos and photojournalist Leonel Mendez while in the middle of a live television report on May 29, 2020.

Jimenez could be seen holding his CNN badge while reporting, identifying himself as a reporter, and telling the officers the crew would move wherever officers needed them to. An officer gripped his arm as Jimenez talked, then put him in handcuffs.

Police told the crew they were being detained because they were told to move and didn't, one member of the CNN crew relayed to the network. The three were released from custody about an hour later.

CNN was not part of the lawsuit, which referenced the crew's arrest as one of several examples of forceful acts by police.
Decision 'serves the public interest,' order says

The settlement prohibits certain specific behavior by law enforcement toward people believed to be journalists during protests.

Officials, according to the order, are prevented from "arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force -- including through use of flash bang grenades, non-lethal projectiles, riot batons, or any other means -- directed against any person whom they know or reasonably should know is a Journalist unless the State Defendants have probable cause to believe that such individual has committed a crime," the order said.

The decision was based on "constitutional rights" and "serves the public interest," the order says.

Officials with DPS and MSP are not permitted to use chemical agents, seize or intentionally damage journalists' equipment, the order says, unless the journalist is posing in imminent threat of violence or harm to people or property.

Journalists, to be identifiable, can wear "visible identification as a member of the press, such as by carrying a professional or authorized press pass or wearing a professional or authorized press badge or other official press credentials or distinctive clothing that identifies the wearer as a member of the press."

Any official that is responding to a protest or civil unrest that is covered by a journalist should "prominently display their agency name and badge number readable from a distance of twenty feet;" the order said, and copies of the order should be provided within 48 hours to officials from either agency that is going to respond to civil unrest or protests covered by journalists.

The ACLU continues to move forward with its civil suit against the City of Minnesota, its police chief, and sheriff.

Ugandan author flees after alleged torture, says lawyer

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A prominent writer and government critic who accused Uganda's security forces of torture has gone into exile ahead of a looming criminal trial, his attorney said Wednesday.

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija fled Uganda across the land border with Rwanda and will settle at least temporarily in an unnamed European country, Eron Kiiza told The Associated Press.

“Conditions had become impossible for him," he said of Rukirabashaija. “They kept surveilling him. They took away his passport. He had no option but to go and save his life.”

Rukirabashaija alleged that he was tortured by officials while in detention, and photographs of his mutilated back shocked many in this East African country. Opposition politicians, activists and others increasingly accuse the security forces — especially the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence — of torturing suspects in custody.

The international community is also taking notice. The European Union's delegation to Uganda on Monday issued a statement expressing concern over “a situation that for more than a year has seen a significant increase of reports of torture, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, harassment" and other attacks.

Last week the U.S. cited “recurring credible accounts” of forced disappearances and torture by the security forces which “reflect poorly” on the government of President Yoweri Museveni, who has held power since 1986.

Rukirabashaija alleged that he was a recent victim of torture at the hands of state agents who repeatedly attacked him while in detention. A magistrate ordered him freed late last month but kept his passport as a condition of his bail. He had been in custody for nearly a month.

“They started using a pair of pliers and plucked flesh from my thighs and everywhere,” Rukirabashaija said in an account to the local Daily Monitor newspaper. “That day I thought I was dying and thought of denouncing my Ugandan citizenship.”

Kiiza, Rukirabashaija’s attorney, believes his client was in the custody of the Special Forces Command, an army unit that protects the first family. The Special Forces Command has not commented on allegations its members held the writer. Nor has it responded to the torture allegations.

Rukirabashaija, who said in court that he needed to have his wounds treated abroad, lost his bid on Monday to regain his passport when a magistrate ruled there was no urgent need for him to travel.

His trial on charges related to offensive communication was due to start in March.

Prosecutors charge that, using Twitter, the writer aimed to "disturb the peace” of Museveni and his son, Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who commands Uganda’s infantry forces.

In a series of tweets late last year, Rukirabashaija described Museveni as an election thief and Kainerugaba as an overweight and “intellectually bankrupt” soldier who hopes to succeed his father as president.

Rukirabashaija, who writes satirical fiction, has been detained twice before over his work highlighting Museveni’s failures. He was last year awarded the PEN Pinter Prize for an international writer of courage.

His case has renewed focus on the alleged excesses of the security forces in enforcing Museveni’s authority.

Museveni, once praised as part of a new generation of African leaders and a longtime U.S. security ally, still has support among many Ugandans for bringing relative stability to the country. He once criticized African leaders who refused to step aside but has since overseen the removal of term limits and an age limit on Uganda's presidency.

Rodney Muhumuza, The Associated Press

Brazil’s expected soy crop losses already a modern era record -Braun

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (Reuters) - A Brazilian soybean crop as large as 134 million tonnes seemed unimaginable just a couple of years ago, but that figure now represents unprecedented losses in the soybean market as it is known today.

These drought-induced harvest reductions keep this year’s global soybean carryout projection at an eight-year low relative to demand, but the blow is softened by top importer China’s diminishing needs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday cut No. 1 exporter Brazil’s 2021-22 soybean crop to 134 million tonnes from 139 million in January and 144 million in December, which was the original outlook.

The 7% decline from December to February is USDA’s largest two-month cut since the 2012 crop, which also battled drought. But the global soybean market has transformed drastically since then.

The 2011-12 season was the last time the United States was the top soybean exporter, but it has increasingly been Brazil’s game ever since. Brazil’s share of world soybean exports a decade ago was 40% versus about 55% today.

Brazil’s exports have grown more than 150% in the last decade and even with the drought this year are set to outpace U.S. shipments by more than 60%. Ten-year U.S. export growth is about 50%.

Brazil’s soybean boom has been made possible by the doubling of its crop over the last decade on both area and yield expansions. Brazil’s harvest first surpassed the U.S. one in 2017-18.

USDA’s latest reductions are among many industry outlooks calling for a smaller 2022 Brazilian soybean crop, but the agency’s number is on the higher side. Some analysts have predicted a harvest up to 14% off original ideas, double the USDA’s markdown.

Historical crop estimates do not give a great indication of how much further Brazil’s soybean crop may fall because there are so few examples. The 2009 crop suffered similar losses as 2012, and final production in both years came in close to USDA’s lowest estimates of the season.

Brazil’s statistics body, CONAB, will publish fresh outlooks for the soybean crop on Thursday, but its starting point and cuts have been more conservative. The group in December saw the crop at 142.8 million tonnes but last month scaled back to 140.5 million.

USDA’s Wednesday report supported recent ideas that China’s soybean demand has slipped, and the current year import outlook was chopped to 97 million tonnes from 100 million last month, a relatively large monthly decline. That is below the year-ago 99.8 million.

Some market participants assumed Brazil’s crop losses would be reflected on the U.S. balance sheet with an export bump, which did not pan out due to China’s lower imports. But global buyers have recently been snapping up old-crop U.S. soybeans, so U.S. business could be due for a lift if Brazil’s fortunes get any worse.

Karen Braun is a market analyst for Reuters. Views expressed above are her own.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Jamaican bobsledder, who competed for Team USA, fights through grief to make Olympic return


USA TODAY SPORTS
Dan Wolken, - Wednesday

BEIJING – Team Jamaica’s entrance to Friday’s opening ceremony was a joyous sight, with Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian leading a band of dancing, waving, gyrating bobsledders in unmistakably neon yellow pants

But for Fenlator-Victorian, every moment in Beijing is a struggle between joy and grief, between the emotions pulling her home and the understanding that this is where she needs to be, between the sense of accomplishment in just getting here and the sacrifices she made to bring her third trip to the Olympics into existence.

“I’m so happy to be here and press on and share that part of my journey,” she told USA TODAY Sports. “But I’d lying if I said it wasn’t extremely difficult.”

Raised in New Jersey and now living in Texas, Fenlator-Victorian knew full well when she left Team USA after the 2014 Olympics to compete under the Jamaican flag that she was choosing the harder road. In some ways, that was the point.

Just making it back here again, given the lack of funding and infrastructure while also trying to run her own social media and branding business, was going to be the capstone of a trailblazing career.

But on Dec. 28, while Fenlator-Victorian was home with her husband in Dallas on a short break between eight straight weeks on the road and Beijing, unspeakable tragedy struck. After two days of failing to get her 27-year-old sister Angelica to respond to texts, their mother found her dead in their Florida home.

Immediately, there was massive grief, doubt and regret. Fenlator-Victorian wondered whether she should even continue on the path toward these Games, and not just because she was uncertain of her own mental well-being.

Beyond the obvious process people go through when a loved one unexpectedly dies, there were responsibilities and bills and the logistics of caring for her mother, who has health challenges of her own. On every conceivable level, leaving for the other side of the world was going to be very, very hard.

“While I was there with my mom, I let her know I bought a one-way ticket, and if I have to move or stay with her long-term, that’s what I have to do,” Fenlator-Victorian said. “Anybody who knows her knows she’s very strong-willed and was adamant that I need to go. I kind of thought about it, and I let her know that if I were to go, this is the timeline and I’m not confident in her being home alone and navigating these things. But we talked about it further and decided it was time for me to go.”

'Nobody would be able to recognize the heartbreak'

In bobsled, you may not navigate the curves and slopes of the track correctly, but at least you know where they are. Right now, Fenlator-Victorian is on a different course where every day reveals a new emotional weight that she cannot prepare for, and she has no real sense of what life will be like when she returns home.

Even living in the moment here in Beijing isn’t easy. When she FaceTimed her mother after the opening ceremony, her next impulse was to call Angelica.

“And I can’t. She’s not here,” Fenlator-Victorian said. “And that’s a reality that every day feels like I’m still dreaming. The process of grief has no timeline, the process of dealing with that has its highs and lows.”

Fenlator-Victorian talks so openly about that grief because it’s real, and it’s just as much part of any Olympian’s story as the triumph in getting here. Whether that’s her sister’s death or one of her men’s bobsled teammates missing the first six months of his daughter’s life to qualify and train or another giving up their job and income in pursuit of this dream, they are all branches of the same tree.

“Our vibes, our dancing, our smiles – not to get emotional but nobody would be able to recognize the heartbreak, the near-giving up even the possible depression we all have faced,” she said. “The outpour of love and people who woke up early to physically just see me walk through opening ceremonies, whether they’re supporters I know or people I don’t know tagging me on Instagram with all of these amazing messages of positive energy, it kind of reiterates why I’m doing what I’m doing and how much it’s touched them and inspired them and motivated them to make moves in their own way.”

After all, that’s what competing for Jamaica was originally about for Fenlator-Victorian. As a former track and field athlete in college who was recruited into the U.S. bobsled program, she had the best of everything from health insurance, a stipend and endless training resources. She broke through in 2014, finishing 11th at the Sochi Olympics as a driver teamed with Lolo Jones.

Deciding to leave the U.S. team

In the end, though, the narrative around that celebrated team as the most diverse in the history of women’s bobsled wasn’t necessarily all it was cracked up to be. Though she knew there would be consequences to leaving, her frustration about perceived inequities in the U.S. system had reached a boiling point. She felt she could have a bigger impact by building a Jamaican team pretty much from scratch.

“I’m so grateful and honored to have been part of that Olympic team, those teammates I still consider them friends,” Fenlator-Victorian said. “But the system itself is very much tainted, and there’s multiple people who have left the sport because they no longer can mentally take jumping through those hoops and the treatment they faced and the politics behind it. And it’s often people of color within that system who step away.”

The decision to leave Team USA brought death threats, racial slurs and accusations that she was chasing money, she said. In fact, the opposite was true. Going to a smaller federation brought immeasurable challenges, including the loss of her ranking after she had established herself as one of the best in the world and the never-ending funding issues that continue to this day. There’s a link on her Instagram right now that sends people to a site selling sweatshirts where part of the proceeds go to paying her expenses.

“I wasn’t looking to fill my pockets and wasn’t looking for publicity,” she said. “What I was looking for was to feel I was being represented for myself, that I had a safe space that didn’t put me in a box and wasn’t discriminatory.”

Fenlator-Victorian thought making the 2018 Olympics and finishing 18th would be the end, but the addition of the women’s monobob event lured her back for one more shot. The circumstances, obviously, aren’t ideal. Beyond navigating her grief day by day, she is trying to make up ground on her competitors who were able to familiarize themselves with the Yanqing Sliding Center track at the test event in November.

After this, the 36-year-old will leave the sled behind to focus on her business, help bolster Team Jamaica from behind the scenes to secure long-term funding for the program and open a foundation in her sister’s name to support mental health causes.

But she is a competitor, and despite everything that’s happened over the last couple months, she plans to give it her best, last shot.

“Someone asked me earlier how important representation is to me and I really can’t put it into words,” she said. “It’s priceless. For someone to see someone that looks like them, comes from the same cultural identities as them representing themselves at some type of level they’d hope to aspire to opens the floodgates. Now I need to pass the torch.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jamaican bobsledder, who competed for Team USA, fights through grief to make Olympic return

Volvo Will Upgrade Torslanda Plant To Produce Next-Gen BEVs

Mark Kane - Wednesday
Inside EVs


The company will follow Tesla by introducing mega castings.

Volvo Cars announced a 10 billion SEK (€960 million/$1.1 billion) investment in its largest manufacturing plant - the Torslanda plant (northwest of Gothenburg city center) in Sweden - in preparation for the production of that next generation of fully electric cars.

The site, which opened in April 1964, currently operates on three shifts and employs around 6,500 people. Its annual production capacity is about 300,000 cars.

Thanks to the investment, a number of new and more sustainable technologies and manufacturing processes will be introduced at the plant, according to the company, This include:

mega casting of aluminum body parts

(more on that below)

a new battery assembly plant

"A new battery assembly plant will integrate battery cells and modules in the floor structure of the car"

fully refurbished paint and final assembly shops

"new machinery and implementing new processes, which are expected to support the ongoing reduction of paint shop energy consumption and emissions"

It's another crucial step in the transition towards a 100% electric car company by 2030. Earlier this month, Volvo announced a 50 GWh battery plant (joint venture with Northvolt), which will be built in Gothenburg.


© Provided by Inside EVsVolvo Cars Torslanda battery assembly plant
Volvo Cars Torslanda battery assembly plant


© Provided by Inside EVsVolvo Cars Torslanda Paint Shop
Volvo Cars Torslanda Paint Shop
Mega castings

The most interesting thing is the official announcement about the mega casting of aluminum body parts, which was first pioneered in high-scale EVs by Tesla.


"The introduction of mega casting of aluminum body parts for the next generation of electric Volvo models is the most significant and exciting change implemented as part of the investment package. Mega casting creates a number of benefits in terms of sustainability, cost and car performance during the car’s lifetime, and Volvo Cars is one of the first carmakers to invest in this process."


© Provided by Inside EVsVolvo Cars Torslanda: Mega casting manufacturing
Volvo Cars Torslanda: Mega casting manufacturing


© Provided by Inside EVsVolvo Cars Torslanda: Mega casting manufacturing
Volvo Cars Torslanda: Mega casting manufacturing

Volvo notes that the use of mega castings will reduce the number of parts, as well as the overall complexity of manufacturing. Costs and weight will decrease too. It also should improve interior space optimization.


"Casting major parts of the floor structure of the car as one single aluminum part reduces weight, which in turn improves the energy efficiency and thereby the electric range of the car. This also allows Volvo designers to optimally use the available space inside the cabin and luggage area, boosting the overall versatility of the car.

Other benefits from mega casting include reduced complexity in the manufacturing process. That, in turn, creates cost savings in terms of material use and logistics, reducing the overall environmental footprint across the manufacturing and supply chain networks."


© Provided by Inside EVsVolvo Cars Torslanda: Mega casting
Volvo Cars Torslanda: Mega casting


© Provided by Inside EVsVolvo Cars Torslanda: Mega casting
Volvo Cars Torslanda: Mega casting


© Provided by Inside EVs Volvo Cars Torslanda: Mega casting
Volvo Cars Torslanda: Mega casting

Next-generation Volvo electric cars

The second-generation electric Volvos are coming soon (in 2022, starting with the all-electric successor of the XC90 in Ridgeville, South Carolina).

The third-generation BEVs are expected to offer very high range, up to 1,000 km (621 miles), and will use a structural battery.


© InsideEVsVolvo Concept Recharge

More about Volvo

In 2021 Volvo Sold Almost 190,000 Plug-In Electric Cars

US: Volvo More Than Tripled Plug-In Car Sales In 2021

Al Franken, Who Resigned From Senate in Disgrace, Considers Running Again

ROGER STONE PLAYED DIRTY TRICKS ON FRANKEN

Daniel Villarreal - Wednesday

Newsweek


Al Franken, a comedian who served as Minnesota's Democratic U.S. senator before resigning due to sexual misconduct allegations, has said that he considers the possibility of running for Senate again "tempting."

In a recent interview, Washington Post reporter Jonathan Capehart asked Franken if he would ever run for office again.

"I don't know," Franken answered. "I certainly loved my time in the Senate. I loved the job. I got a lot done. I was able to accomplish things I couldn't accomplish anywhere else, I don't think. So, yeah, it would be tempting to try to do that again."

"At some point?" Capeheart asked.

Franken responded, "Perhaps. I'm only 70." Franken then noted that Republican Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is also running for re-election at 88 years old.

Capeheart responded, "Well, you've got all the time in the world."

"Yes, I do," Franken responded, laughing.

In response to Franken's comment, Occupy Democrats, a grassroots political organization with over 251,400 Twitter followers, asked its followers to retweet their post if they supported Franken running again. After about one hour, the organization's post had over 3,300 retweets. The post's 206 commenters felt alternately delighted and opposed to Franken's possible return to politics.

"Every video I saw of him while holding that seat, he appeared thorough, prepared and remarkably sharp," Twitter user @MichaelStreiter wrote. "He should never have resigned and would be a real benefit to all Democrats to have him back."

Another Twitter user, @TIFFLS, wrote, "Not sure. I didn't/don't think he should have resigned. But, I lost a lot of respect for/trust in him when he did, and I'm not sure I want him back."

Franken resigned from his Senate seat on January 2, 2018, after eight women accused the senator of sexual misconduct. His resignation occurred near the start of the #MeToo movement, when women began making sexual harassment allegations against other high-profile men, such as film producer Harvey Weinstein, comedian Louis C.K., TV journalist Matt Lauer and hip-hop producer Russell Simmons.

The first accusation against Franken came from Leeann Tweeden, a conservative talk-radio host, who posted a 2006 image of Franken making grabbing hands toward her breasts as she slept in military fatigues and a bulletproof vest. 

TRICK PHOTOGRAPHY OF PERSPECTIVE (HE WAS NOWHERE CLOSE TO HER)

At the time, she and Franken were co-starring in a two-week United Services Organization (USO) show for military service members. She accused Franken of inappropriately tongue kissing her during a rehearsal for one of their sketches.

Tweeden, a Trump follower who supported the "birther" conspiracy theory calling on former President Barack Obama to publicly reveal his birth certificate, broke the news on a right-wing conservative radio station after considering the possibility of having Fox News help break her story.

In his apology to Tweeden, Franken wrote, "There's no excuse, and I understand why you could feel violated by that photo. I remember that rehearsal differently, but what's important is the impact it had on you—and you felt violated by my actions, and for that I apologize."

Tweeden accepted his apology, and said that she wasn't asking him to resign. However, seven more women—three who remained unnamed—came forward soon after, accusing Franken of inappropriate touching and attempting to kiss them without their consent.

Three dozen Democratic senators demanded Franken's resignation, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand being among the first.

"Senator Franken was accused credibly by eight women of groping and forceable kissing," Gillibrand said. "All were corroborated in real time. Two of them were since he was a senator. And the last one that came to light was a congressional staffer."

Not all of the accusations were corroborated, according to PolitiFact.

Ricki Seidman, a Democratic communications consultant who worked with Anita Hill as she brought sexual harassment claims to light during Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court confirmation hearings, criticized Gillibrand for demanding Franken's resignation.

"As a victim of sexual assault, you are cheapening my experience by leading a call for Senator Franken, who has been a champion for women, to step down based on the flimsy accounts that have come to light to date," Seidman wrote. "Knowing of far worse behavior in the Senate, and FAR worse behavior among Republicans like Donald Trump and Roy Moore, the fact that you are equating Senator Franken with them, I find abhorrent and INSULTING to women."

Nine current and former senators who demanded his resignation have since said that they were wrong to do so, according to Jane Mayer, a reporter for The New Yorker.

Most of the senators mentioned by Mayer said the allegations against Franken should have had been scrutinized by the Senate Ethics Committee or at least been subject to a fuller examination by an independent investigative body.

Franken said that Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told him he needed to resign or else he would be censured and stripped of committee assignments. Schumer and his Democratic colleagues denied him the privilege of due process, he continued, adding that major publications didn't vet his accusers' stories before repeating them.

In a statement to The New Yorker, Schumer said, "Al Franken's decision to step down was the right decision—for the good of the Senate and the good of the country. I regret losing him as a colleague but given the circumstances, it was inevitable."

Newsweek has reached out to Al Franken for comment.

Chipotle's CEO says the chain isn't having a problem hiring after it raised prices to pay workers more

THEY RAISED PRICES BECAUSE THEY COULD 

WORKERS WAGES ARE IRRELVENT

mmeisenzahl@businessinsider.com (Mary Meisenzahl) - 

© Provided by Business Insider Hollis Johnson

CEO Brian Niccol says the great resignation movement isn't happening at Chipotle.

Chipotle raised wages in 2021 in a push to increase hiring.

Like other chains, Chipotle dealt with some staffing issues in the last year.

Chipotle isn't seeing the effects of the "Great Resignation" in its workforce, CEO Brian Niccol told investors on Tuesday in the fourth-quarter earnings call. The Mexican chain is staffed back up to pre-pandemic levels, with no signs of mass resignations among General Managers.

Chipotle, like many competitors, raised wages in June 2021 to an average hourly pay of $15 per hour. The raise, $2 above the chain's previous average wage, impacted thousands of employees, Chipotle told Insider last year. News of increased wages came out as Chipotle announced it was looking to hire an additional 20,000 employees to staff up 200 new restaurants.

Staffing needs continue to grow for Chipotle, which has booming sales. In the same earnings call, the fast-casual chain shared that sales were up 19.3% over the previous year. Nearly half of sales, 45.6% in 2021, were digital. The growth of digital sales means that Chipotle has to staff up two make lines at every restaurant, one for walk-in customers and one for digital orders.

Demand has come booming back in the restaurant industry from the earlier days of the pandemic, but the workforce hasn't returned at the same rate.

Turnover among restaurant workers is still elevated over pre-pandemic levels. In a Black Box Intelligence survey of 4,700 former and current restaurant workers from October, 15% said they'd left the industry in the previous year, and another 33% planned to leave.

Labor costs increased, and many business owners say that they've been unable to staff restaurants. In some cases, owners even cite a lack of desire to work, while workers say they can demand better pay and benefits in the tight labor market.

Though Chipotle says staffing is no longer a major problem, the chain has had its share of struggles over the last few years. In November, five Texas Chipotle workers, including a general manager and kitchen manager, told Insider that they walked out over "impossible" conditions thanks to understaffing and constant digital orders. Workers in Kentucky made a similar move after the chain's Boorito promotion, which it said was the highest volume digital order day of the year.

Chipotle says it's looking to hire more workers ahead of its busy season, but fewer than 1% of stores have their digital make lines throttled due to low staff as of February 2022.

The hacked account and suspicious donations behind the Canadian trucker protests

The jumble of misinformation, online fundraising groups and amplification from right-wing political figures suggests there’s more to these protests than meets the eye.

Protesters of the "Freedom Convoy" gather near Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, on Feb. 7.
Source: Anadolu Agency

MISINFORMATION
Anya van Wagtendonk, Misinformation Reporter,
Benjamin Powers, Technology Reporter,
and Steve Reilly, Investigative Reporter
February 8, 2022

Hundreds of people have been camped out in the icy streets of Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, for more than a week, occupying the area around the nation’s government buildings. It’s a protest ostensibly stemming from some Canadian cross-border truckers’ objections to a Canadian requirement that those who cross the border be vaccinated against covid-19.

But a close look at several “Freedom Convoy” groups and crowdfunding efforts online shows the involvement of anonymous actors, deep-pocketed non-Canadian donors and prominent U.S. right-wing political figures.

Some of the largest Facebook groups responsible for galvanizing support, both ideological and financial, appeared to have been administered through a stolen account, Grid has found.

The protests are not organized by Canadian trucking unions, the largest of which has come out against the protests. They also do not appear to reflect the values of most Canadians or most Canadian truckers: More than 80 percent of the Canadian public is vaccinated, including almost 90 percent of truckers, according to Canada’s minister of transport.

The speed at which the movement has raised millions of dollars raises red flags. A now-shuttered GoFundMe page raised nearly $8 million USD; a replacement crowdfunding campaign, on a self-described Christian platform called GiveSendGo, had raised more than $6 million by Tuesday morning, after just three days, with many donations of four and five figures.

The movement smacks of U.S. influence, said Gordon Pennycook, a behavioral scientist at the University of Regina who studies disinformation. “For sure, 100 percent, a large part of this is driven by cultural narratives that have emerged from the United States,” he said.

Right-wing politicians across the United States have praised and promoted this small group. “The Canadian truckers … who are resisting bravely these lawless mandates and doing more to defend American freedom than our own leaders, by far, and we want those great Canadian truckers to know that we are with them all the way!” former president Donald Trump said at a Texas rally on Jan. 29.

That doesn’t mean that many of the protesters on the ground aren’t true believers — whether about vaccine mandates, broader right-wing causes or even more extreme ideologies, including white nationalism.

“They’re driven by a very deep connection to a cause that they feel to be just,” Pennycook said. “They’re acting in accordance with their attitudes and values, and it just so happens to be the case that a lot of the beliefs that they hold probably aren’t rooted in good evidence. There’s a lot of conspiratorial thinking and distrust of good sources and reliable sources.”

A hacked Facebook account is behind some of the organizing

The entity behind some of the largest Facebook groups supporting the protests is an unknown person or persons who used the Facebook account of a Missouri woman. She says her account on the platform was hacked and stolen.

The account launched a handful of Facebook groups for the protest, all between Jan. 26 and 28, before the trucker convoy reached Ottawa. With a combined following of more than 340,000 members and more than 7,500 posts, the group names were variations on a theme: “Convoy to Ottawa 2022,” “Convoy for Freedom 2022,” “Freedom Convoy/Ottawa 2022 for Canada,” “Freedom Convoy 2022” and “2022 Official Freedom Convoy to Ottawa.”

Facebook groups are organized by administrators. Grid found that the only administrator account for these groups belonged to the Missouri woman. Reached briefly by phone on Monday, she said her account was hacked and she was not involved with the groups.

“Someone stole my identity on Facebook,” she said. “I don’t know how they [did] it.”

The woman, whom Grid is not naming because she is the victim of apparent identity theft, said her daughter set up a new account for her. A new Facebook account with the woman’s name appeared in October 2021 with the post: “New account. Last one got hacked.”

The groups were disabled Monday afternoon as Grid was reporting this story. Facebook did not immediately respond to questions about the hacked account. “We continue to see scammers latch onto any hot-button issue that draws people’s attention, including the ongoing protests,” Margarita Franklin, a spokeswoman for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, said in a statement to media outlets on Monday.

Even as Facebook groups have been taken down, the conversation is alive on Telegram, a United Arab Emirates-based social media platform that claims 500 million users worldwide. Channels cheering on the protests display thousands of subscribed followers, although it is possible to artificially inflate Telegram subscriber numbers. Inside these channels, users share photos and videos and trade misinformation about covid-19 and about the strength of their movement, such as the debunked claim that Canadian armed forces have pledged “allegiance to the people.”

The United States exports misinformation

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned misinformation driving the protests and the movement writ large. He has referred to the protesters as a “fringe minority” engaging in “disinformation and misinformation online, conspiracy theorists, about microchips, about God knows what else that go with the tinfoil hats.”

Over the weekend, the scene grew rowdy, with reports describing protesters defecating on lawns, desecrating monuments and urinating on war memorials. A reported 8,000 people and 1,000 vehicles, including many eighteen-wheeler trucks, descended along Parliament Hill in Canada’s capital city. Some waved flags with swastikas and the Confederate battle flag. (Notably, about one-fifth of Canadian truckers are of South Asian descent, and many have decried the anti-vaccine movement in the trucker ranks.)

Ottawa’s mayor declared a state of emergency on Sunday. Other protests have cropped up from Toronto to Vancouver. And trucks have blocked a border-crossing site in Coutts, Alberta, a major port of entry at the border with Montana that connects with a trade route leading down to Mexico. On Monday night, protesters also blocked the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit.

The emergence of a strong right-wing element to the protests demonstrates the soup of fringe media that many anti-vaccine protesters swim in, said Pennycook, the behavioral scientist. “For someone to be so fervently against vaccines and opposed to the covid restrictions, those people are often in a kind of right-wing media bubble, one where they don’t really engage with traditional sources of information,” he said. “And the more you engage in that world, the more you can be exposed to alternative perspectives on life. And that fits within the right-wing media ecosystem.”

The Ottawa chief of police, Peter Sloly has described the protesters as “highly organized, well-funded, extremely committed to resisting all attempts to end the demonstrations safely.”

A number of right-wing public figures in the United States have been amplifying the protest, and donations appear to be pouring in from across Canada’s southern border.

“It’s time for the American people to declare independence from every last covid mandate,” Trump said at the Texas rally. “We have to tell this band of hypocrites, tyrants and racists that we’re done with having them control our lives, mess with our children and close our businesses. We’re moving on from covid whether they like it or not.”

In addition to Trump, Republicans including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Senate hopeful J.D. Vance of Ohio have encouraged the protests. Meanwhile, far-right influencers, like Ben Shapiro, Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee have pushed their audiences to donate to crowdfunding platforms.
This movement has raised an astonishing amount of money

A GoFundMe organized for the protesters raised about 9.2 million Canadian dollars ($7.2 million) before the campaign was shut down on Friday. Many donations came from outside Canada, according to Ottawa’s police chief Sloly.

“We are now aware of a significant element from the U.S. that have been involved in the funding, the organizing and the demonstrating,” Sloly said.

GoFundMe said the campaign violated its terms and pledged to refund all contributions to the campaign. Organizers then moved their efforts to GiveSendGo, where they raised millions of dollars in a matter of days.

By comparison, Jan. 6 insurrectionists who ran campaigns on that platform in the months following the U.S. Capitol riots earned far less. A survey of 24 such campaigns, including eight supporting Proud Boys, revealed that they collectively raised less than $250,000 over the course of several weeks.

GiveSendGo released a statement on Monday, saying it has spoken with convoy organizers to ensure that “all funds raised will go to provide humanitarian aid and legal support for the peaceful truckers and their families as they stand for freedom.”

Republican leaders have called for investigations into GoFundMe for canceling the campaign.

And a prospective solidarity movement of American truckers may be in the works. A Facebook group planning a cross-country drive to Washington, D.C., was shut down on Monday.
Conservative infighting isn’t just happening in the U.S.

Like the Republican Party in the United States, Canada’s Conservative Party is undergoing an internal struggle between populist and traditionalist factions, said Dominik A. Stecula, an assistant professor of political science at Colorado State University who studies the media environment and its effect on society. On Feb. 2, the Conservative Party’s leader was ousted, replaced by an interim leader who has been photographed wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat. Meanwhile, two Conservative Party members publicly broke with the party in response to the Ottawa protests.

Social media and the boosting of this protest by American politicians represents a spillover of American culture wars and information disorder polluting other countries’ politics in the process, Stecula added.

“I’m originally from Poland, and I noticed that while there’s no immediate events like the convoy [in Canada], I have been noticing for a while now that there is this exporting of American culture wars into other contexts,” Stecula said. “I think this is a prime example of that.”

In some ways, the situation in Ottawa has evolved into a proxy battle for the American right, said Jacob Remes, a labor, working-class, migration and disaster historian of the U.S. and Canada at New York University.

American donors are not interested in the nuances of the Canadian situation, such as what the Canadian citizenry wants, or the evolution — and perhaps disintegration — of the Canadian Conservative Party.

“But for the Americans, it’s totally irrelevant. They don’t care about who the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada is,” he said. “They just like the idea of a bunch of white truckers being in a national capital and fucking shit up.”


Anya van Wagtendonk
Misinformation Reporter
Anya van Wagtendonk is the misinformation reporter at Grid, focusing on the impact of false information on policy, elections and social behavior. twiceanya

Benjamin Powers
Technology Reporter
Benjamin Powers is a technology reporter for Grid where he explores the interconnection of technology and privacy within major stories. benjaminopowers

Steve Reilly
Investigative Reporter
Steve Reilly is an investigative reporter for Grid focusing on threats to democracy. BySteveReilly

The Canadian trucker spectacle is an American export

Right-wing ideology has crossed the border.

Protesters and supporters play street hockey as demonstrators continue to protest vaccine mandates on Monday in Ottawa, Canada.
DAVE CHAN/AFP via Getty Images

MISINFORMATION
Anya van Wagtendonk
Misinformation Reporter
February 10, 2022

In the two weeks that protesters have taken over the streets of Ottawa, Canada’s capital city, a fringe movement by some truckers ostensibly against covid restrictions has exploded into a global spectacle. On the ground, the movement reflects the northern spread of American right-wing ideology across the border. But the spectacle is very real, causing some residents to leave their homes and overwhelming downtown businesses and organizations.

The self-described Freedom Convoy has come to encompass broader anti-government views, including far-right viewpoints. Just over 400 trucks remain in downtown Ottawa, and protesters now demand more than an end to vaccine mandates. Some now call for a full end to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government — and some want to form their own.

Hate symbols — including Nazi swastikas — have appeared, and local residents have reported being harassed and assaulted by protesters. A youth services provider closed a downtown drop-in shelter. An ice cream shop closed temporarily, saying its staff was being harassed for wearing masks. Police are investigating an alleged attempted arson of a residential building.

For their part, protesters enjoy adulation from conservative politicians and media in the United States and elsewhere. Crowdsourced fundraisers for the convoys have raised at least $8 million, although it is unclear where the money is going or how it will be distributed. It is also unclear where much of that money — some of which has been contributed in four- and five-figure increments — is coming from.

Surprising to see outside the seat of Canadian power are symbols of the American right wing, including Confederate flags and Three Percenter emblems, representing the unproven idea that only 3 percent of American colonists fought in the American Revolution.

This reflects the staggering influence of American right-wing media, said Aengus Bridgman, a doctoral candidate at McGill University who has researched how misinformation crosses national borders.

“The rhetoric, the symbolism, the language is American,” he said. In general, he added, it is exciting when political movements unfold in the streets, a demonstration of democracy beyond simply voting every few years.

“The less exciting part is just this: as a Canadian, watching ... the people who are interested in getting politically involved being sort of co-opted or encouraged by or influenced by this real, deep American culture war around the legitimacy of measures taken to combat covid-19,” he said. “This simplification of politics, the language that is being imported is really concerning.”

On the ground

In nearly two weeks, police have issued 1,300 traffic tickets, opened 85 criminal investigations and made 23 arrests, according to the CBC.

Officials are investigating an alleged attempted arson. Security footage from inside a residential building shows two alleged convoy members entering, taping up doors and lighting a fire before leaving through a side door. According to building tenant Matias Muñoz, a passing good Samaritan spotted the fire from outside and extinguished it.

At a city council meeting on Monday, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said that event demonstrated “obvious criminal intent.”

“The lives of innocent people are at risk, right now, right here,” Watson said. He previously declared a state of emergency in the city on Sunday.

Police response has been mixed. As of Tuesday, more than 400 trucks remained. About a quarter of those had children in them, according to Ottawa’s Deputy Police Chief Steve Bell, and police and the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa have expressed concerns about youth exposure to noise and fumes.

On Wednesday, Ottawa police released a statement that blocking streets downtown would constitute criminal mischief.

“We are providing you notice that anyone blocking streets or assisting others in the block of streets may be committing a criminal offence,” the statement reads.

In the protest’s first week, Marc-André Cossette, an investigative journalist with Global News, a division of the Canadian Global Television Network, reported on a party-like atmosphere at the protests, which he likened to a “middle finger” against anti-covid restrictions.

“The protesters were jubilant, but they were seething and disrespectful too,” he tweeted on Jan. 31. “A sizeable group of them — if not most — think their frustration gives them licence to harass and intimidate anyone abiding by the public health that we as [a] society has set for ourselves.”

Cossette observed protesters harassing employees of local businesses and reporters. Residents have shared stories on social media of relentless noise, including truck horns and fireworks at all hours of the day.

On Monday, a judge placed a 10-day hold on honking. But some downtown residents have left their homes, telling local media they have been driven to exhaustion or felt physically unsafe. On Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, residents described and shared videos of being harassed for wearing masks and of protesters vandalizing houses with LGBTQ+ Pride flags.

Some downtown businesses reported closing or reducing hours out of fear for the safety of their staffs. Nonprofit organizations also cited concerns that the populations they serve were particularly at risk.

A homeless services provider reported its employees were being harassed and assaulted; a youth services group closed a drop-in center out of safety concerns; and a downtown women’s shelter reported that many of their residents and staff also felt fear, and were overwhelmed by the honking and noise of the trucks.

“Women and staff are scared to go outside of the shelter, especially women of color,” a statement from the women’s shelter reads. “Being able to go outside is the only reprieve many women experiencing homelessness have and they cannot even do that.”

A nonprofit for Indigenous youth, called the Assembly of Seven Generations released a statement saying that the population they serve were afraid to leave their homes, and suffered wage loss from businesses being closed. The group condemned the protests as an “occupation” of downtown Ottawa.

As the movement has spread across the country, it has also brought some of this chaos with it. On Saturday, a trucker allegedly rolled into cyclists at a sister action in Vancouver. Nobody was seriously hurt in that incident, and the trucker was fired from his company.

On Tuesday, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, a government agency, released a statement condemning acts of “aggression, intimidation and assault,” and describing citizens feeling unsafe, angry and grief-stricken.

“Brazenly displaying symbols of hatred and white supremacy is a threat to our democracy and our peace and prosperity,” the statement reads. “The hate-fueled aggression levelled at citizens, on the streets, in their neighbourhoods, on their doorstep and online runs counter to our values and our laws.”
The shape and meaning of the protests

Nevertheless, many protesters appear to still be having a good time, some cooking out and playing music. Their anti-government sentiment isn’t new to Canada, said Bridgman, the misinformation researcher. But the rhetoric of the movement is particularly Americanized and not necessarily reflective of Canadian politics or culture, he said.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms “has much more recognition of group rights and the ability for kind of collective rights to override rights of the individual in specific instances” than the U.S. Constitution, he said.

“So when you see in these protests, the language of freedom — you know, ‘They’re taking away our freedom’ — this is a very individualized notion of liberty that … is unusual in the Canadian context.”

Alongside right-wing American symbols, like Confederate and militia flags, some phrases from right-wing contexts have been translated for a Canadian audience. For example, instead of displaying the message “Let’s Go, Brandon,” which has become a popular coded slur against the U.S. president, one vehicle in the Ottawa convoy displayed a French-language version, aimed at Trudeau: “Brandeau, allons-y.”

The presence of these images and ideas reflects the absorption of American right-wing media, Bridgman said.

“There’s really strong evidence that Canadians consume a huge amount of U.S. news, and those who do consume a lot of U.S. news have many more misperceptions about covid-19, about vaccines,” he said. “And what we see in terms of these protests is, the people who are consuming a lot of this sort of conspiratorial news in the states are imitating that language here.”

Protesters also express strong distrust and dislike of media, sometimes interrupting broadcasters to accuse them of being fake news. On Wednesday, organizers held a press conference for only invited members of the media.

CTV News was explicitly banned from the conference; that same day, Jeremy Thompson, an anchor for CTV Edmonton, tweeted that the broadcaster was removing its brand from company vehicles, citing safety concerns.

“This is a sad day for me,” Thompson wrote. “I am proud of the excellent and vital work we do, perhaps more important now than ever. I’m proud to represent that in public, but it’s just not safe right now.”

Amid the extremism, some protesters also use the convoy as an opportunity to vent their grief and anger about what (and who) they have lost due to measures implemented to stop the pandemic’s spread.

One woman interviewed by David Freiheit, better known as Viva Frei, a YouTuber who supports the movement, attended the protests with a photograph of her son. She said he died of a fentanyl overdose on New Year’s Day of 2021, leaving behind an infant daughter — and blames lockdowns for causing him to relapse. Without steady work, hobbies and sobriety meetings, his support structure deteriorated, she said.

Indeed, opioid overdoses have skyrocketed during the first year of the pandemic, increasing by 35 percent in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and about 71 percent in Canada, according to government research.

In this way, the protests have blended personal and political grievances with far-reaching, sometimes violent anti-government and extremist messaging.

“There are legitimate political grievances,” said Bridgman. “It’s just that they come associated with all of this baggage, that it becomes very difficult to talk about those political grievances divorced from the misinformation, the hate, the racism, the violence, the disruption, the lawlessness. How do you separate those two in a movement like this?”

Morgan Richardson contributed to this report.


Anya van Wagtendonk
Misinformation Reporter
Anya van Wagtendonk is the misinformation reporter at Grid, focusing on the impact of false information on policy, elections and social behavior.twiceanya

Terrorists, U.S. forces and a brutal dictator: Whatever happened to Syria?

A former CIA leader looks at the “potential powder keg” in Syria — where Russia and Iran are dug in, and Bashar al-Assad has kept a firm grip on power.

John McLaughlin
Special Contributor
February 9, 2022

The Feb. 3 U.S. military operation that killed the Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi threw a light not just on continuing terrorism in Syria, but also on an uncomfortable truth: Syria today ranks high among the world’s most dangerous unresolved problems. Three years after the dismantling of the ISIS territorial “caliphate” — which spanned large swathes of Syria and Iraq — terrorist cells still carry out attacks, a brutal dictator remains in charge and regional powers vie for zones of influence.

It is now more than a decade since the first flames of revolution were fanned inside Syria. By the latter part of 2011, the year of the Arab Spring, the dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen had been toppled; Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi was dead. Analysts in the region and beyond assumed the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, would be next. In August of that year, the U.S. issued a call for regime change. “For the sake of the Syrian people,” President Barack Obama said, “the time has come for President Assad to step aside.” A senior administration official told the Washington Post the White House was “certain Assad is on his way out.”

Nearly 11 years later, the root causes of the Syrian war remain unaddressed, diplomacy is stalled and Syria is a potential powder keg for the region and beyond. Terrorists are still there, U.S. forces are still there, and so are Assad and his regime, which attacked its own people with barrel bombs and chemical weapons.

A decade later, it’s worth asking: What happened to Syria?

A portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hangs in the old city of Syria's capital, 

Damascus, on Feb. 1. (LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)

Geopolitics: The “great game” in Syria

The Biden administration, its plate overflowing with new crises, has pursued a narrow-gauge policy toward Syria — focusing on terrorism and to a lesser extent humanitarian problems. But unless the United States is preparing to surrender its historic influence and leadership role in the Middle East, it will have to step up its game in Syria. Others have been at work.

In the six years since major powers began colliding in Syria, Russia comes closest to looking like a winner. Vladimir Putin intervened skillfully with his military, saved and propped up his beleaguered ally, secured permanent naval basing rights at the Mediterranean port of Tartus and an air base at Hmeimim in western Syria, drew leaders to Moscow for consultations, and projected an image of a country that stands by its allies. The defense ministry can claim its own “win” — having tested 600 new weapons systems during the war.

Moscow also gained a Mediterranean platform for its intervention in Libya with combat aircraft and mercenaries, mostly in support of the commander opposing the U.N.-backed government. In short, Syria was instrumental in securing one of Putin’s major goals: projecting Russia as a “great power” with expanding global influence.

Iran has put down roots in Syria and appears likely to be there for the long term. By 2018, Iran had mobilized about 2,500 conventional forces and Revolutionary Guards to fight, along with an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 foreign fighters from Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Pakistan. Last year, scholars counted at least 14 areas of Iranian or pro-Iranian presence in Syria, compared with only three in 2013. Iran has dug in with particular determination in Deir al-Zour province in eastern Syria, along the Iraqi border, where its activities typify Tehran’s approach — providing services to the population, taking control of major cities and recruiting for its militia forces.

Most important, all this has secured for Iran the western end of its long-sought land bridge from Tehran to the Mediterranean, which enables the country to move military supplies securely from Iran through parts of Iraq, into Syria and via Syria to its Hezbollah partner in Lebanon. This gives Iran proximity to targets in Israel and leaves Israel to face an Iranian rocket arsenal aimed at the Golan Heights.

Israel, according to Defense Minister Benny Gantz, will not allow Iranian proxies in Syria to “equip themselves with means of combat that will undermine our superiority in the region.” Accordingly, Israel last year stepped up aerial attacks in Syria. Israeli goals are to prevent the above-mentioned Iranian weapons smuggling to Hezbollah and to degrade Iranian-allied militias, especially those posing a threat to the Golan Heights.

Turkey’s role is maddeningly complex, its interests pulled in multiple directions. With several military divisions arrayed along the country’s northern border with Syria, it has been steadfast in opposing Assad’s rule; Turkey occupies the northern zone in part to prevent the regime’s recapture of the area. At the same time, Turkey seeks to diminish the role of the U.S.-allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), because it’s convinced these Kurds are merely an extension of Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Ankara regards as a terrorist group. That in turn encourages Turkey to create refugee resettlement areas in the north, seeking to shift the demographic balance away from Kurdish domination — all of which risks pushing the Kurds closer to Assad, whom they have historically opposed. As I say, it’s complicated.

Along the way, Turkey has at times worked in concert with Russia when it comes to Syria — and then, more frequently, aimed to limit Russia’s role. In short, Turkey is all over the map — at least politically — seeking to find its balance and secure its interests amid all the colliding parties and interests.

The Kurds dominate the SDF, an amalgam of Syrian Kurds, Arabs and ethnic Turkmen that came together to fight ISIS in 2015. They are backed by the U.S., and with about 25,000 to 30,000 Kurdish-dominated troops in northeastern Syria, exert limited control over about a quarter of the country, struggling to fend off Turkey and maneuvering between Russia and Iran. Their longer-term goal is to gain autonomy for Syrian Kurds in any future peace settlement.

The U.S. presence

Where, then, is the United States?

The tangible American stake in all this is represented by the approximately 900 U.S. troops split between a base in the Kurdish-controlled northeast and a small garrison at al-Tanf, deep in territory under Syrian-Russian-Iranian control and near the juncture of the Syrian, Iraqi and Jordanian borders. These bases are what survived a push by President Donald Trump to withdraw completely in 2018 — a policy partly responsible for the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis. Trump ultimately backed off, saying he would keep a small number of bases in Syria to secure its few oil fields — a fig leaf quickly embraced by defense officials who thought it would be a mistake to pull out completely.

Today, these forces conduct patrols, advise and support the Kurdish SDF in its battles with ISIS, and contribute some stability in areas contested by multiple forces. Although not openly discussed, I believe the northeastern base also provides a buffer against attacks on Kurds by NATO ally Turkey. The garrison in the southeast stakes a small U.S. claim in an area Assad and his allies want to secure, and which was attacked late last year by Iranian-backed fighters. The presence of U.S. forces at both locations also facilitates counterterrorist operations such as the strike against the ISIS leader al-Qurayshi.
Terrorism: ISIS remnants, al-Qaeda spinoff

As for terrorists in Syria, ISIS remains the most dangerous organization, shown most recently by its capture of a prison in northern Syria that took the Kurds — with U.S. support — a week of violent counteroffensives to reverse. Reliable estimates of current ISIS strength are hard to come by, but in 2020, the U.N. put the number at about 10,000 fighters — operating in small cells floating back and forth between Syria and Iraq.

Al-Qaeda per se has not been as much of a force in Syria; more significant is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which evolved from a local al-Qaeda affiliate. Although it adheres to a hard-line Salafist ideology, the group is making a concerted effort to blur its terrorist roots as it seeks to maintain a measure of control in the hotly contested northwestern province of Idlib. The province has long been a gathering spot for extremists; this was where the ISIS leader was found and killed.

A way forward?

As the U.S. weighs its policy and approach to Syria, it’s important to consider a few basic realities:
There is obviously no military solution, even if continued U.S. military presence is essential to the search for one. A decade of fighting has produced only a conflict frozen in place.
The U.N. envoy for Syria may continue to call meetings, but the U.N. process under Security Council Resolution 2254 — which called for a cease-fire and political solution — is moribund.
The U.S. has sacrificed much leverage but remains the only country with a chance to bridge the chasms blocking some compromise.
The U.S. can achieve nothing diplomatically without the participation of Russia, and perhaps Iran as well.
As doubts about U.S. staying power grow, the idea is taking hold in the Middle East that Assad is here to stay. The United Arab Emirates reopened its Damascus embassy in 2018; Oman returned its ambassador in 2020, and Bahrain in late 2021. Saudi Arabia has put out feelers in intelligence channels, and Egypt has talked about “returning Syria to the Arab fold.”

It’s not hard to understand how U.S. policymakers might look at the Syrian labyrinth and say: This is just too hard, our plates are too full, we’ll continue whacking terrorists but otherwise we will focus on more immediately pressing problems.

But for the U.S. to turn away is to signal that brutal dictators can abuse their populations mercilessly and remain in power; that Iran will have achieved its arc of influence across the Middle East; and that Russia has outmaneuvered the U.S. in a region important to U.S. allies, where historically Washington has been the “honest broker”. It will also likely mean that the 12 million Syrians either internally displaced or refugees outside the country — the most profound human displacement since World War II — will remain adrift; that the primary catalyst of the Syrian civil war — popular demand for an end to harsh rule by a minority clan — will remain unaddressed; and that Islamist extremists will remain able to find refuge, recruit and plot amid the continuing chaos.
Syrian families live in abandoned schools in Idlib, Syria, on Dec. 3, 2021. 

(Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

If the U.S. does choose to step up its game, any strategy must be long-term, gradual and clear about priorities. The ultimate goal remains political reconciliation and a new or transitional government committed to serving all its citizens — as envisioned in that U.N. resolution. While that looks like fantasy today, in the long term it may be possible to press Assad for the safe return of refugees with internationally monitored resettlement, and similar conditions for the reintegration of opposition forces. This was the recommended approach of U.S. Special Representative for Syria Engagement Jim Jeffrey — and it is a goal for which the U.S. could marshal strong international support.

A next priority could be limiting Iran’s role. The Iranians are currently too dug in to aim for expulsion any time soon, but it is not unrealistic to seek limits on its stockpiling of sophisticated weapons, for which the U.S. would need Russian leverage. This could be a follow-on objective if the U.S. and its partners succeed in renewing the 2015 deal limiting Iran’s nuclear program. Washington would need to think about what it might be willing to give Russia in return for its support. Were the U.S. to achieve some traction, there would be hope for bridging the “gulf of mistrust” that U.N. Syria Envoy Geir Pedersen said stymies the U.N. process.

U.S. policy on Syria over the last decade has been marked by an inability to decide among poor options. But Syria illustrates the old maxim in international politics that no decision almost always ends up equaling a decision, as others seize the initiative and fill vacuums. In Syria, time has been lost, and problems have metastasized. What is needed is constancy of purpose and clearly defined priorities — integrated with skillful diplomacy and a modest amount of force. The moment for such a combination may have passed, but the world is often surprisingly open to U.S. leadership — even when it shows up late.


John McLaughlin
Special Contributor
John McLaughlin is a former acting director of the CIA and a distinguished practitioner in residence at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Photo illustration: Mae Decena. Sources: Anadolu Agency/MediaNews Group/Bay Area News/SOPA Images/Picture Alliance/STRINGER/Getty Images