Tuesday, October 18, 2022

The revolutionary ambitions of Iran’s Generation Z


© STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock | Protesters block a road in Tehran this month
© STR/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock | Protesters block a road in Tehran this month

Narges, a young Iranian protester, walks confidently through ranks of riot police on her way to work with long, black, wavy hair clearly on show.

In another country her appearance would be unremarkable, but in the Islamic republic which has strict rules about what women can wear in public, it is unthinkable. More unusual still is the response: nothing.

This flagrant defiance of wearing a compulsory hijab in public is becoming a new normal — something women like Narges could not have imagined before the tragic death of Mahsa Amini a month ago.

The 22-year-old Kurdish woman died in the custody of morality police on September 16 after allegedly violating the Islamic dress code. Her death has outraged Iranians and sparked nationwide protests that have, in turn, provoked a heavy-handed, lethal response from the state.

Generation Z has surprised the country — and the world — by refusing to back down during one of the most widespread and long-lasting anti-regime demonstrations in the Islamic republic’s history.

The revolutionary ambitions of Iran’s Generation Z

“Woman, life, freedom” has become the battle cry of young men and women in the streets, on university campuses and in schools. Their ultimate goal, protesters say, is to overthrow the Islamic republic in favour of a secular, democratic system, even if the cost is their lives.

They are facing down a regime supported by formidable institutions such as the elite Revolutionary Guards and a multi-layered network of loyalists and businessmen whose interests depend on a continuation of the status quo.

Nonetheless, the protests are a serious warning to Iran’s rulers that they are grappling with a different generation, many of whom do not relate to the regime’s ideology and are furious about being deprived of the everyday freedoms and opportunities afforded to their international peers.

Their movement has the potential to inspire more demonstrations and strikes as a cost of living crisis deepens, posing one of the most significant threats to the Islamic republic’s 43-year dominance.

A newspaper features a photo of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old who died in police custody last month after allegedly violating the Islamic dress code © Majid Asgaripour/WANAVIA /Reuters
A newspaper features a photo of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old who died in police custody last month after allegedly violating the Islamic dress code © Majid Asgaripour/WANAVIA /Reuters

Top leaders — at least publicly — dismiss the idea that the anti-regime protests are a historic turning point and are showing no signs of making any structural or constitutional concessions. Analysts do not expect the regime to rethink a supreme leader as ultimate authority, its hostility towards the US, flexing muscles in the Middle East, or expansion of the nuclear programme.

Protesters, who have radical ambitions for their country’s future, say that the time for knee-jerk political gestures has run out. The impasse has many Iranians worried about difficult days ahead.

The stand-off has repercussions for the country’s long-term stability. In a joint statement, five prominent economists have likened the growing chorus for change to “a flood which has been roaring but has suddenly faced a deadlock”. They say the choice facing political leaders is either to clear the way or let the floodgates burst and unleash a torrent of disruption.

Extensive poverty, corruption of those linked to the regime and declining political participation in recent years have all weakened social capital and fostered a sense of hopelessness, the economists say. In addition, Iranian families’ welfare has, on average, declined by 37 per cent over the past decade, causing the middle class to shrink.

Protesters run from riot police in downtown Tehran amid nationwide demonstrations in which Amnesty International says more than 140 people have lost their lives © AP
Protesters run from riot police in downtown Tehran amid nationwide demonstrations in which Amnesty International says more than 140 people have lost their lives © AP

Narges, 27, says it is this gloomy picture that makes her generation’s fight inevitable: the prosperous future she dreams of, one full of fun and pleasure, cannot be achieved living under theocracy.

“I do value going out without a hijab and the regime’s forces completely ignore me while passers-by say ‘bravo’ to women like me”, she says. “But this system has inflicted irreparable damage to us from our childhood. Only its collapse can help us end inequalities between men and women and have freedom for the most basic, normal things”.

Generation Unrest

Iran has long had a robust protest culture; a symptom of the country’s internal struggle to transition from a traditional society to a modern one.

Its contemporary history has been shaped by regular pockets of social unrest and several uprisings including two revolutions — a constitutional one more than a century ago and the 1979 Islamic revolution.

A slow shift towards greater modernity and more progress for women has become more urgent as a new generation grows impatient. The last national census six years ago showed those aged between 10 to 24 years old make up about 22 per cent of the population of 80mn. Their values contrast sharply with those of Iran’s ageing yet determined leaders, some of whom are in their nineties.

An increasingly educated population, including women who occupy about 60 per cent of university places, fast-paced urban development and wider access to the internet and smartphones, have raised public expectations.

Young people want fair and transparent government, better welfare, decent jobs as well as the ability to travel abroad and enjoy a healthy sex life — not necessarily within marriage.

Iran’s Generation Z, who have grown up with the internet and satellite television, say the things they are fighting for are incompatible with a system that demands an Islamic lifestyle; early marriage, more children and defending one’s religion against threats. Protecting these values, however, is essential for the regime to satisfy millions of zealous loyalists in Iran and the Middle East who represent one of its main pillars of power.

Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s chief of staff for the armed forces, has warned his military commanders that “traditional approaches will not work anymore” if it wants to foil threats to power such as those fuelled by social media. He positioned the protest movement as part of a wider battle against foreign influence.

A burning motorcycle in the Iranian capital. The protests after the death of Mahsa Amini have in turn provoked a heavy-handed response from the state © AFP via Getty Images
A burning motorcycle in the Iranian capital. The protests after the death of Mahsa Amini have in turn provoked a heavy-handed response from the state © AFP via Getty Images

“Today, we are facing multiple military, cultural, newly emerged and sometimes unknown threats from the enemy targeting us either simultaneously or in thoughtful combinations”, he said. “We have to be ready for . . . a hybrid warfare which is extraordinarily heavy and complicated work for us and armed forces’ commanders”.

Ahmad Zeidabadi, a reformist political analyst and a former political prisoner, said in an interview with the semi-official ILNA news agency that “part of the system thinks power, dignity and wealth belongs to insiders and its loyalists . . . while the rest of the people have no rights such as establishing political parties, running for elections and taking part in decision making and hence they have no right to protest”.

It is this political order that protesters are pushing back against, many of whom come from the urban middle class who, until recently, were widely regarded across society as spoiled and pampered by their privileged, educated families.

Now they stand in front of riot police showing no fear of being killed. Over the past month, more than 40 protesters have died, according to state television. Amnesty International says 144 men, women and children have lost their lives, including 20 teenage boys and 3 girls.

Bijan Abdolkarimi, a professor of philosophy at Islamic Azad University, says the failure to understand this country’s youth is a mis-step. “This generation is rebellious and accepts no one else’s authority be it a father’s at home, or teachers’ at school or university”, he told the reformist Etemad daily newspaper. “It doesn’t accept men’s authority over women and . . . fights with tradition and questions all its principles . . . The worst way to deal with them is police, military and security approaches”.

Anger piles up

Dissent, however, is not limited to the younger generation. There have been at least three other major protests since 2009 led by the middle and working classes in which hundreds were killed. Protests involving farmers, teachers, pensioners and workers have been frequent.

The latest crisis follows decades of disappointment in successive political leaders to deliver change. Political reforms initiated in 1997 by Mohammad Khatami, then president, were met with resistance from hardliners. Later, centrist president Hassan Rouhani promised a more functioning economy under a nuclear deal that his government signed with world powers in 2015. The deal collapsed in 2018 when the US, under the Trump administration, pulled out.

The election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi as president last year marked a new low. Turnout was 48.8 per cent — one of the poorest on record after main rivals were not allowed to run. This was the moment pro-democracy groups say the road to any reforms hit a dead end.

Mehdi Behabadi, head of semi-official ISPA opinion poll centre, says “a considerable majority” of Iranians harbour “anger” towards the Islamic republic “a factor which is at a dangerous level”. The average age of protesters is also getting younger, he adds, and includes those under 20 years old, while the number of women protesters is “very close” to men.

“Every time there has been widespread protests, they subside only superficially while the anger piles up increasing the level of violence [next time]”, he says.

Behabadi also believes the number of demonstrators in recent years is only “a tiny percentage of all those who are angry” because many believe that history has shown the risk of participation outweighs the reward.

Aila, a 19-year-old computer engineering student, is sympathetic but has chosen not to join protests at her university. “I’d like to see the Islamic republic gone as I see no future for myself in my homeland with all the injustice, gender discrimination, gloomy economic perspective and waste of talents”, she says. “But I don’t see an option for a successor and surely don’t want to see insecurity that the absence of an established government can bring”.

Hundreds protested in Istanbul this month after the events in Iran. Some overseas Iranians have been organising demonstrations in western capitals © Bulent Lilic/AFP/Getty Images
Hundreds protested in Istanbul this month after the events in Iran. Some overseas Iranians have been organising demonstrations in western capitals © Bulent Lilic/AFP/Getty Images

Iran’s leaders are encouraged that the protests have not yet snowballed into mass demonstrations. Labourers have held some sporadic strikes, but teachers, farmers, businessmen and the pious masses, including mid-ranking clergy, are largely in a wait-and-see mood.

Meanwhile, Iranians overseas are urging silent supporters to rise up, organising demonstrations in western capitals and lobbying for international backing. But this disparate opposition is not seen as a viable alternative to the regime, partly because they are far from unified themselves.

It is for this reason that a regime insider close to hardline forces says the protests are not seen as an immediate threat to the Islamic republic.

“Protesters are not from a political party, they don’t have a leader. They are not ideologically motivated to die for their causes. As soon as they get arrested, they express regret”, he says. “Iran’s opposition overseas is no threat. Can they all get together and have one charismatic leader like Imam [Ruhollah] Khomeini to take out millions of supporters on to the streets [as happened in the 1979 revolution]? No”.

The insider adds there will be no significant concessions beyond measures such as an unspoken and relaxed approach to wearing hijabs in public.

But with the unrest and brutal crackdowns playing out on platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp thanks to tech-savvy protesters who use VPNs to circumvent bans on social media, analysts say the republic is losing the media war and is being discredited at home and abroad.

The overseas opposition also uses foreign-based and foreign-funded satellite television to convince Iranians that a revolution is in the making and that a united front can finally bring down 43 years of the Islamic republic.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the target of slogans such as “death to the dictator”, denies the dissent is homegrown and instead has blamed external players including the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. “The only solution is to resist”, he says.

For many Iranians, his response underlines how out of touch the regime is. Shahla, a housewife and mother of two teenage boys, says the main reason she protests is because the political system shows too little leniency towards ordinary people.

“What I hate the most is that the Islamic republic protects the most junior members of its loyalists but is so tough on us”, she says. “Why is it a problem to say one individual made a mistake in the case of Amini and apologise?”

A regime under pressure

Although analysts say those at the top of Iran’s political system remain united in how to deal with the discontent, another regime insider says those at the mid-level are unhappy at seeing young protesters being killed and think the response has gone too far.

They believe, he says, that the regime should listen to protesters and take actions while the 83-year-old Ayatollah Khamenei is alive.

His death — and the rumoured succession of his second son, Mojtaba — could make any reforms far more complicated or near impossible, he adds, because protesters have made clear they will not accept him.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia for the demonstrations, denying that the dissent is homegrown © KHAMENEI.IR/AFP via Getty Images
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has blamed the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia for the demonstrations, denying that the dissent is homegrown © KHAMENEI.IR/AFP via Getty Images

Protesters meanwhile see no benefit in talking with the authorities. Moein, a 23-year-old history student, says the Islamic republic has no intention to change its structures of power. “People from a motorcycle delivery man to a doctor have reached a stage where they don’t want to give up on their demands which are equal rights for men and women and freedom”, he says.

Even if protests are suppressed, he adds, “we shall see bigger protests in the future as these demands will not disappear”.

Analysts agree. “The pent-up political demands . . . are now manifested in non-controversial, inclusive slogans such as ‘woman, life, freedom’”, says Saeed Hajjarian, a strategist for reformists. “This shows the centre of gravity of the society’s demands has shifted from politics to citizens’ rights . . . for all social classes rather than only the urban middle class”.

Iran’s hardliners warn that the continuation of protests is putting Iran’s territorial integrity at risk and could embolden separatists to fight the central government in a country which includes ethnicities such as Arabs, Kurds, Baluchis, Turks and Sunni Muslims.

While protests in Iranian Kurdistan have intensified since Amini’s death, people in the city of Zahedan, home to ethnic Baluchis and Sunnis, have separately clashed with the authorities after a 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a senior police official. Amnesty estimates at least 82 were killed, but officials put deaths at 19.

Pushback against the regime protests also coincides with renewed calls from politicians to sign a nuclear deal with the Biden administration and put an end to US sanctions on Iran’s oil and banking sectors. A lack of movement on the deal is fuelling public frustration as inflation reaches 42.1 per cent and the youth unemployment rate climbs to 23 per cent.

Nuclear talks remain deadlocked after Washington and Tehran failed to agree on the most recent draft proposed by the EU, the mediator in those negotiations. Diplomats and analysts do not expect any progress until after the US midterms in November.

Some politicians say securing a deal is vital to help quell discontent. Ali Larijani, a former conservative Speaker of parliament, says: “The sooner this problem is resolved the more it is to the benefit of the Islamic republic. People should not be under this much pressure”.

Narges, a trained IT engineer, is working as an accountant and earns a monthly salary of about $250 which barely covers her daily expenses. She envies the lives of the young people and teenagers in other countries that she obsessively follows on YouTube.

“I feel that not only have I never experienced the pleasures of teenagers in the US, Britain, Australia, I cannot use my own creativity and talent to have a decent salary and be hopeful about my future”, she says.

The only option, she says, is to continue protesting “until we defeat the Islamic republic even though I’m aware the system is frightening and vengeful”.

By Najmeh Bozorgmehr.


Voices: ‘Iranian women aren’t sleeping’: 

This is what it’s like being a woman in 

Iran right now

I am an Iranian writer who was born after the 1979 revolution. I live in Tehran. Like Mahsa Amini and other women, I have been arrested many times on the street for not wearing a hijab and have suffered the brutal behavior of police.

Since I was six years old, I have been ordered to remain silent and not question the wearing of the hijab in girls’ schools. When I was a child, my mother and aunt were detained in front of my eyes on the street for hijab “offences” and kept in jail for a night.

The murder of Mahsa Amini has shocked us all. And it has made me think about how we got here – and what we need to do now to get out.

After the 1979 revolution in Iran, a radical Shia government came to power, which claims to be able to run society based on the laws of Islam 1,400 years ago. It relies on reactionary Shari’a rulings, some of which involve mandatory restrictions on women. According to the Islamic laws, the woman is considered the man’s land; part of his property. A man can give her commands and prohibitions, just like a pet.

A large number of women who protested in 1979 were killed or imprisoned or fled from Iran. This new regime, with its restrictions on women’s clothing and situation, established from that point that a woman’s body was in fact the property of the “authorities”.

With laws such as stoning and flogging women in public, and other medieval performances, the new regime managed to make it clear that women are to be used to keep the rest of society silent. In other words, by conquering and encroaching on women as property – by punishing her – the regime can show off its power.

Iranian women are protesting against the violation of our rights, but it’s not just restricted to our clothing. Here is what else is at stake:

  • A woman’s testimony in court is counted as half of a man’s. If a witness is needed to prove a crime, two women have to testify so that they have testified as much as one man.

  • Women do not have the right to enter stadiums to watch sports (Sahar Khodayari died in protest at a jail sentence for going to watch a football match).

  • Women do not have the right to dance and sing; or the right to abortion. The punishment for abortion is equal to killing a living human being.

  • A woman cannot be a court judge. A woman cannot divorce her husband – this right belongs to the man only. He can divorce his wife whenever he wants.

  • A woman does not have the right to custody of a child after divorce. The child belongs to the father.

  • A woman does not have the right to leave the country. This right belongs to the father until the age of 18, and after marriage, it belongs to the husband.

  • A woman is forced to wear a full hijab during sport competitions. Many female athletes have been fired from the national team and some of them play for the national team of other countries.

  • Our fathers and brothers have the right to kill us, and because (according to the Islamic Penal Code), fathers and husband are considered guardians, they will not be punished for doing so.

  • And recently, the ban on women eating ice-cream in public spaces was proposed, but not enforced.

In the best of circumstances, a woman’s legal rights are half of a man’s. But the important question remains: how is it fair that a being who is considered half a man when it comes to her everyday rights, can still be seen as a complete person in front of the ballot boxes? A woman is only considered a full person when we are being used to confirm the pillars of power. This is the ultimate hypocrisy. Maybe now the world will understand why women are standing on the frontline of these protests.

Perhaps you’re also wondering why men are protesting with us – I think I can tell you. The fact is that the domination over the female body (as a perfect example of a “subordinate citizen”) has also seen the state’s domination over other parts of Iranian society; including men.

After the 1979 revolution, men saw that while they may have rights towards their wives, daughters and sisters, they did not have many rights for themselves against the power of the government. They are, even now, considered “nothing” against the mighty will of those in charge.

Many men came to the conclusion that every time they took a right from a woman, they legitimised the law of domination over all of those the government views as subordinate. For regardless of gender, we are all inferior in front of the authority of the law. And anyone who questions those in power is considered an “infidel”. The punishment for being an infidel in the eyes of the law is death, whipping or prison.

In this way, fighting against the laws that prohibit women is the first step to fighting for freedom for all people in Iran.

You may also have wondered why some Iranian women continue to wear the hijab in the streets; even if we don’t believe in Islam. Well, that is easy – it is because anyone who declares that they don’t believe in Islam will either be killed or deprived of education and employment. Many who feel this way are forced to emigrate, even if we love our country.

This is what is truly at stake when you see our protests and when you watch footage of us removing the hijab. And it’s important to remember that when you see Iranian women on social media without headscarves – or at a party, while drinking and dancing – it still does not indicate our freedom or liberty. No:,every single Iranian woman who does this, does so in civil protest. We do it at tremendous risk. We do it to fight for freedom.

It is from the heart of living under such suffocation that the slogan “woman, life, freedom” was born. Maybe, after reading this text, you can imagine what a great achievement such a slogan is.

Iranian women have not been sleeping since Mahsa Amini was killed. We have seen that it is the time to announce our awakening. Many people are being killed in the streets of Iran these days. Many women who removed the hijab are in prisons. If you see Iranians in the streets of your city today, please know that we are not without a country – but we have had to flee.

This fragmented diaspora that shouts the name of its homeland in your homeland no longer wants to be treated as a half-being. Our goal is to have the right to our own bodies. This movement is the biggest feminist revolution in the world – and the world stands with us, because it knows that the outcome will be our biggest achievement, together.

Guest column: Iran’s current uprising places regime change well within reach

Ben Janloo
Sun, October 16, 2022 


Whenever unrest sparks in Iran, I suffer for my friends and family still living under the mullahs, yet I am also hopeful that the Iranian people will finally achieve victory over their oppressors. This has perhaps never been truer than in these last few weeks, as protests over the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the “morality police” keep escalating.

The protests began after her funeral in Kurdistan but have since spread to over 150 cities. As with previous uprisings, the spread has been fueled in part by a broad political message showing the vast demand for a regime change.

Because of the violence that Mahsa endured due to her resistance, the initial focus was women’s rights, but the relevant issues proved to be inseparable from the general ideological divide between the mullahs and the Iranian people. Women have been chanting slogans such as “Down with Khamenei (the regime’s Supreme Leader)” and “Death to the Dictator.”

The use of these slogans across the protests shows the organized nature of the uprising, more than its predecessors in the last five years. In early 2018, even Supreme Leader Khamenei admitted that the leading opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK/PMOI), played a role in promoting unrest.

The MEK has continuously pushed the Iranian people toward uprisings, with regime change as its ultimate goal. Its resistance units inside Iran keep information about the domestic situation flowing out, even when the regime has tightened its control over the internet in efforts to crackdown on anti-government sentiment.

I am thankful for the MEK as they provide information far more complete than what reaches mainstream media. Of course, this adds to anxious thoughts, as they provide accurate numbers on death tolls and arrests, which are far more than the regime claims.

However, the MEK underscores the sheer intensity of the ongoing uprisings. My acquaintances in Iran also underscore the same, sharing my hope that this uprising is the one that leads to the overthrow of the mullahs.

On Sept. 28, Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning Mahsa Amini’s death and calling for an end to the systemic persecution of women in Iran. I hope that this view is widely shared by Western politicians and their constituents, who should recognize that the overthrow of the mullahs benefits global security.

Unfortunately, the international community does not seem to fully recognize the potential of the uprisings. Moreso, this creates a space for the regime to step up its crackdowns before the movement can achieve its aims.

Public statements by Western governments must become louder and more frequent if they are truly committed to preventing further oppression. It must be made absolutely clear that the Iranian people have an inherent right to defend themselves by any available means, and that regime change from within is a well-justified and appropriate aim for their movement.

The goal is achievable, but the international community has a role in determining the price Iranians will pay for it.

Ben Janloo is a business owner living in Oklahoma City and president of the Iranian-American Community of Oklahoma.


This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Iran’s current uprising places regime change well within reach

Oklahoma professor: Iran's struggle for democracy has a long history

Afshin Marashi
Sun, October 16, 2022 

The death of the 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s morality police has sparked ongoing protests. In courageous acts of protest, Iranian women are marching in the streets, burning their state-mandated Islamic headscarves, and chanting: “Women, Life, Freedom.” These are unprecedented acts of defiance in the history of the Islamic Republic.

A protester holds a placard during a demonstration in support of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini during a protest on Oct. 3, 2022, in Nantes, western France, following her death in Iran. - Amini, 22, died in custody on Sept. 16, 2022, three days after her arrest by the notorious morality police in Tehran for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women. in Nantes, western France on Sept. 29, 2022.

For those unfamiliar with Iranian history, it would be easy to see the current protests as narrowly contained to current circumstances. In fact, these protests are part of a longer history of struggle for democracy in modern Iran.

As early as 1905, Iran was the first place in the Middle East to experience a revolutionary movement seeking a democratic form of government. In the short term, the “Constitutional Revolution” was defeated by both internal divisions and external interventions.

However, Iran’s democratic aspirations were not extinguished. After three decades of royalist absolutism and foreign occupation, the 1940s witnessed the new growth of political parties, a vibrant Iranian press, and new educational opportunities that empowered citizens from all walks of life, especially women.

This era culminated with the rise of Mohammad Mossadegh, the prime minister who rallied the democratic will of the Iranian people to nationalize the British-controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. The fear that communism was lurking within Mossadegh’s broad-based democratic coalition, led the American CIA and the British MI6 to foment internal unrest leading to the coup d’état of August 1953 that overthrew Mossadegh.

The next 25 years of Iranian history are a contradiction. The newly restored shah ruled with an iron fist and limited political freedoms. At the same time, however, Iranians made remarkable social progress during this era. Iranian women gained the right to vote in 1963 — by royal decree — over the objection of the clerics. Reforms to family law were also initiated in 1967 and 1975, granting women rights in marriage, divorce and the custody of children, also over the objections of religious authorities.

These social reforms so empowered Iranian women that by the time of the revolution of 1979 Iranian women joined the struggle against the shah’s autocracy.

It is forgotten today, but the revolution that toppled the monarchy in January 1979 did not begin as an “Islamic Revolution.” The initial revolutionary spark began, not in 1979, but in 1977, and was led by democracy advocates. Their initial demands included the release of political prisoners and the guarantee of free elections.

These Iranian calls for democracy in 1977 were inspired by an already well-established democratic tradition within Iran. By 1978, however, the course of Iran’s revolutionary process took unpredictable turns, and advocates for democracy quickly found themselves outmaneuvered. In the emotional context of the revolutionary struggle, liberal calls for civil rights and free elections seemed insufficiently revolutionary.

After the fall of the shah, Iranian democracy was once again thwarted, this time by the emerging authoritarianism of the Islamic Republic. Women lost many of the social rights that they had gained in the previous decades, including the right to choose for themselves to wear the Islamic headscarf.

In the years since, calls for democratic reform have not disappeared inside Iran. The failure of successive waves of reform, such as the presidency of Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) and the Green Movement of 2009, revealed the deep structural obstacles to working within the Islamic Republic’s political system.

As we have seen during the past weeks in Iran, this newest generation of advocates for Iranian democracy are no longer satisfied with working within the system and are demanding fundamental changes to Iran’s form of government.

How this process will unfold in the weeks and months to come is unknown.

What is known is that this newest effort to build a democratic Iran is the product of more than a century of struggle. It is an enduring struggle that deserves our support and promises to rewrite the history of modern Iran and its relationship with the United States.

Afshin Marashi is a professor and the Farzaneh Family Chair in Modern Iranian History at the University of Oklahoma's College of International Studies.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma professor: Iran's struggle for democracy has a long history

Column: That unbelievably racist ad during the Dodgers playoff? Ex-Trump aides were behind it


Michael Hiltzik
Mon, October 17, 2022

Former White House senior advisor Stephen Miller is connected to a racist TV commercial attacking President Biden and Democrats. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

As if Dodger fans didn't have enough to nauseate them during Saturday's playoff game against the San Diego Padres, the telecast featured an openly racist commercial blaming President Biden and other Democrats for illegal immigration.

Airing during the mid-fourth inning break of the game that eliminated the Dodgers from the post-season, the ad consisted of video images depicting a torrent of obviously Latino immigrants pouring over the border.

"This giant flood of illegal immigration is draining your paychecks, wrecking your schools, ruining your hospitals, threatening your family," stated the overwrought narrator, over the obligatory ominous soundtrack. "Mixed among the masses are drug dealers, sex traffickers and violent predators."



Vote to keep our borders, jails and bathrooms open. Vote progressive

Sarcastic billboard sponsored by right-wing Citizens for Sanity

Who's behind this commercial? The ad identifies its sponsor only as "Citizens for Sanity," but that last line should give you a further clue: It's an organization of several former Trump aides who spearheaded his administration's attacks on immigrants.

The ad's characterization of immigrants as criminals almost exactly echoes Trump's line during his announcement of his presidential campaign in 2015 about Mexican immigrants: "They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists."

The leaders of Citizens for Sanity are associated with the America First Legal Foundation, which was founded by Stephen Miller, its president.

Notoriously, Miller was an architect of Trump's cruel and crude immigrant family separation policy, his Muslim ban and his shutdown of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which defers deportation for immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors by their parents and allows them to work, but requires regular renewals.

A whole page on the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, is devoted to Miller.

The immigration ad isn't Citizens for Sanity's only product during this election cycle. Another video blames "woke" politicians — specifically Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Vice President Kamala Harris — for fomenting a tide of urban violent crime, illustrated by a sequence of random videos of gunplay, shoplifting and street assaults.

Another video attacks transgender athletes with the tagline, "Tell Biden and his radical allies: No men in girls' sports."

The group has also erected billboards nationwide, including in California, with sarcastic, infantile glosses on Democratic policies: "Vote to keep our borders, jails and bathrooms open. Vote progressive"; "Demand Transportation Equity for Pansexuals NOW"; "Too much freedom is a bad thing. Get your IRS audit today." And so on.

The connections tying together Miller, the America First Legal Foundation, and Citizens for Sanity have been laid out by the nonprofit group Open Secrets, which tracks money in politics. A public document cited by OpenSecrets identifies the top executives of Citizens for Sanity as Gene Hamilton, Ian Prior and John Zadrozny.

Prior told OpenSecrets that his group has “no relationship with America First Legal Foundation.”

Is that so? Prior identifies himself on his own LinkedIn page as "Senior Advisor for America First Legal." Hamilton is vice president and general counsel of America First Legal. Zadrozny is identified on America First Legal's website as its deputy director for investigations.

All three have impeccable credentials as former Trump aides.

Prior was a Justice Department spokesman during the Trump administration. While working in the Trump administration, Hamilton wrote the memo that formally ended DACA, according to a deposition he gave that was cited by the New Yorker. Zadrozny worked at the State Department and the White House under Trump, according to emails published by the progressive organization Democracy Forward.

Citizens for Sanity didn't respond to my request for comment.

That brings us back to the playoff commercial. It isn't clear how widely the commercial has been aired, but it's not a California-only phenomenon — Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer caught that one and the urban violence commercial during Phillies playoff telecasts. Fox Sports didn't respond to my questions about the commercial schedule or whether the ad was reviewed by any standards department at Fox.

Citizens for Sanity has indicated that it will spend at least six figures promoting its messages.

If that's so, brace yourself for an outpouring of misleading and mendacious ads. The immigration commercial, for example, makes much of the arrest of an immigrant in connection with the rape of a 3-year-old child.

The ad asks, "Who is Joe Biden letting into our country?" The image associated with that point, however, refers to the case of Christopher Puente, which occurred in 2020.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Puente was deported in 2014, under the Obama administration, but managed to re-enter the country with false papers. At the time of the alleged sexual assault, he was at large after being arrested by the Chicago Police Department and then released despite a request by ICE to detain him, according to the agency.

There are several candidates for blame in that episode, but Biden is not among them.

As for where the money for the ad campaign is actually coming from, good luck finding out. Citizens for Sanity is a "dark money" group, meaning that it doesn't have to disclose its donors. Had the commercial been directed at a local political campaign or a California ballot initiative, its principal funders would have to be listed on the air. But it's a national ad, so its backers are anonymous.

The demonization of outsiders for political gain isn't new, of course. In 1934, when the writer and socialist Upton Sinclair ran for governor of California on a leftist platform, movie studios contributed to the campaign against him by producing newsreels depicting tramps and hobos surging over the state line to take advantage of the generous pensions Sinclair proposed for resident seniors; in that case, the images were stock footage from movies then in production.

And who can forget the Willie Horton affair, when George H.W. Bush's campaign aired a commercial aiming to blame Michael Dukakis, his Democratic opponent, for the rape and murder committed by a Black felon who was on a weekend furlough from prison.

That ad had all the same grand guignol elements as the Citizens for Sanity commercial — mainly racism and fear of crime — but it seems almost understated today compared with the turbocharged bigotry on view on your television screens today. Can anyone look at this product and say American politics are in a healthy condition?

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
US and Mexico call for international force to break gangs’ stranglehold on Haiti


Julian Borger in Washington
THE GUARDIAN
Mon, October 17, 2022 

Photograph: Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters

The US and Mexico have proposed the deployment of a multinational force in Haiti to help break the stranglehold of gangs over the distribution of fuel, water and other basic goods.

Presenting a resolution at a special session of the UN security council on Monday, the US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, called for “a limited carefully-scoped non-UN mission led by a partner country with the deep, necessary experience”.

The council session was brought forward from Friday, in view of the dire conditions, with the main port and fuel terminal blockaded by gangs, widespread famine and a cholera outbreak. As the session convened there were demonstrations across Haiti, calling for the resignation of the prime minister, Ariel Henry. Negotiations with opposition groups aimed at resolving the crisis have reached an impasse.

Related: ‘They have no fear and no mercy’: gang rule engulfs Haitian capital

Thomas-Greenfield said the aim of the force would be to “improve the security situation on the ground so that the delivery of desperately needed aid could reach those in need and address the ongoing cholera crisis.”

It would not be a blue-helmeted UN force but the US-Mexican resolution to be endorsed by the security council and granted authority to use force if necessary under Chapter VII of the UN charter. It was unclear whether the US was itself ready to send troops as part of the force, or would just supply funding and logistics support as Washington did with the Minustah UN peacekeeping mission.

Thomas-Greenfield said the US would “consider the most effective means to directly support, enable and resource it” and would “will rely on support from UN member states and this draft resolution explicitly asked for contributions of personnel, equipment, and other resources”.

China’s deputy ambassador, Geng Shuang, questioned whether a foreign force would be welcomed by the Haitian people or face resistance from opposition groups.

“At a time when the Haitian government lacks legitimacy and is unable to govern, will sending such a rapid action force to Haiti received the understanding, support and cooperation from the parties in Haiti, or will it face resistance or even trigger violent confrontation from the population?” Geng asked.

Dmitriy Polyanskiy, the deputy Russian permanent representative, also raised concerns that a foreign force would face popular resistance.

“Many opposition groups call for not allowing a foreign intervention and they are rightly referring to, to put it mildly, not a very successful experience with external interference in the affairs of the country,” Polyanskiy said.

The US and Mexico put forward a second resolution that would impose targeted sanctions on gang leaders like Jimmy Chérizier, a former police officer known as “Barbecue”, who leads a gang alliance called G9 and Family.

The gangs have sealed off a port at Port-au-Prince, including the country’s main fuel terminal. The UN has warned that nearly 5 million Haitians are facing acute hunger with 19,000 in catastrophic famine conditions.

On 7 October, the Haitian government appealed for the immediate deployment of an “international specialised force” to bolster the outgunned and outmanned Haitian police to allow for the distribution of fuel, water and other basic needs.

Related: ‘More bullets, more bloodshed’: Haiti aid groups warn against request for foreign forces

The security council session was considering options put forward by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on how to respond, which include a multinational task force of police advisers, or a special force made up of special police units to carry out security operations in support of the Haiti police.

Other options include enhanced UN support to the Haitian police, bilateral police training programmes and greater efforts to stop the flow of arms to the gangs.

The US has deployed a coast guard cutter to patrol the Haitian coast, and together with Canada, delivered a long-delayed consignment of equipment to the Haitian police, including armoured vehicles, on Sunday.

Richard Gowan, UN director for the international crisis group said any force sent to Haiti would most likely be substantial US with some Canadian participation.

“At the end of the day, if a government of Haiti has requested this, if Mexico and Brazil say they want this, China can hardly block it,” Gowan said. “The Russians could use a veto to embarrass the US, but if Washington wants to send in a small force, it’s going to do that in the end. So Russia would probably just lose face by using its veto on an issue like this.”

Haiti calls for help at the UN as world mulls assistance
 

EDITH M. LEDERER and EVENS SANON
Mon, October 17, 2022 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Mexico said Monday they are preparing a U.N. resolution that would authorize an international mission to help improve security in Haiti, whose government issued a “distress call” for the people of the crisis-wracked nation.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the announcement at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council as thousands across Haiti organized protests demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. The demonstrations came on the day the country commemorated the death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, a slave who became the leader of the world’s first Black republic.

The U.S. ambassador said the proposed “non-U.N.” mission would be limited in time and scope and be led by “a partner country” that was not named “with the deep, necessary experience required for such an effort to be effective.” It would have a mandate to use military force if necessary.

She said the resolution being worked on is a “direct response” to a request on Oct. 7 by prime minister Henry and the Haitian Council of Ministers for international assistance to help restore security and alleviate the humanitarian crisis. It reflects one option in a letter from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the council on Oct. 9 that called for deployment of a rapid action force by one or several U.N. member states to help Haiti’s National Police.

Both Russia and China raised questions about sending a foreign armed force to Haiti.

Haiti has been gripped by inflation, causing rising food and fuel prices, and exacerbating protests that have brought society to the breaking point. Daily life in Haiti began to spin out of control last month just hours after the prime minister said fuel subsidies would be eliminated, causing prices to double. Gangs blocked the entrance to the Varreux fuel terminal, leading to a severe shortage of fuel at a time that rising prices have put food and fuel out of reach of many Haitians, clean water is scarce, and the country is trying to deal with a cholera outbreak.

Political instability in Latin America’s poorest country has simmered ever since last year’s still-unsolved assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse, who had faced opposition protests calling for his resignation over corruption charges and claims that his five-year term had ended. Moïse had dissolved the majority of Parliament in January 2020 after failing to hold legislative elections in 2019 amid political gridlock.

Haiti's Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus said he came to the Security Council with a “distress call" from the Haitian people to tell the world they “are not living — they are suffering."

Haiti urgently needs “robust support" to help the police stem the humanitarian crisis, neutralize the the gangs, guarantee fuel distribution and facilitate a return to normal life, he said.

Thomas-Greenfield said the resolution authorizing the security mission is coupled with a resolution obtained by The Associated Press last week that would impose an arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban on influential Haitian gang leader Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed “Barbeque.” It also would target other Haitian individuals and groups who engage in actions that threaten the peace, security or stability of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, according to the text obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Some diplomats expressed hope for a vote on the sanctions resolution this week, but Russia's deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said Moscow can't support quickly pushing through a sanctions resolution.

“In depth analysis and detailed negotiations" are required, he said, “to make sure that the measures are aimed at restoring government control and not be perceived as is frequently the case as a way of punishing the entire country and its people.""

The U.S. ambassador stressed that the United States is “keenly aware of the history of international intervention in Haiti, and specifically of concerns about the council authorizing a response that could lead to an open-ended peacekeeping role.”

The Security Council and the international community must seek “a different course” to respond to the security and dire humanitarian crises in Haiti, which require “targeted international assistance” that must be coupled with “support for political dialogue and backed by sustained international pressure on the actors supporting gang activity.”

Reflecting opposition to foreign interference in Haiti, Marco Duvivier, a 35-year-old auto parts store manager, who joined Monday’s protest in Port-au-Prince said: “The U.S. needs Haiti to make its own decisions and not interfere in Haiti’s business.”

“Life is not going to get better with an international force,” he said.

China's deputy U.N. Ambassador Geng Shuang noted prime minister Henry's call, but also the opposition by some political parties and groups to the presence of a foreign armed force in Haiti.

“At a time when the Haitian government lacks legitimacy and is unable to govern, will sending such a rapid action force to Haiti receive the understanding, support and cooperation from the parties in Haiti, or will it face resistance or even trigger violent confrontation from the population?," he asked. “These are things we need to consider ... and to treat with caution."

Since the gang led by “Barbeque" surrounded the fuel terminal, the distribution of more than 10 million gallons of gasoline and fuel and more than 800,000 gallons of kerosene stored on site have been blocked.

Gas stations remain shuttered, hospitals have slashed services and businesses including banks and grocery stores have cut their hours as everyone across the country runs out of fuel.

The situation has worsened a recent cholera outbreak, with hundreds hospitalized and dozens dead amid a scarcity of potable water and other basic supplies.

Haiti’s last cholera outbreak was a result of U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal introducing the bacteria into the country’s largest river by sewage. Nearly 10,000 people died and more than 850,000 were sickened.

“We don’t need a foreign force. It’s not going to solve anything,” Jean Venel said.

Helen La Lime, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, told the Security Council in a video briefing from the capital Port-au-Prince that “a humanitarian emergency is now at our doorstep" with disruptions to hospital operations and water supplies impacting the response to the cholera outbreak.

She said appeal by diplomats, the U.N. and others to establish a humanitarian corridor have gone unheeded, and insecurity is rife, with nearly a thousand kidnappings reported in 2022 and millions of children prevented from attending school.

___

Sanon reported from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed.





A member of the armed forces patrols the area where Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry attends a ceremony marking the death anniversary of revolutionary leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines at the National Pantheon Museum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

WAIT, WHAT?!
Nigeria's Zamfara state orders media to close for covering political rally

Sun, October 16, 2022 
By Garba Muhammad

KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Zamfara state in northwestern Nigeria ordered five media outlets to close on Sunday after they covered a political rally for the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP), which took place in violation of a state ban on political activities.

The order to close came after Governor Bello Muhammad, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, banned political activities, including meetings at individuals' homes, on October 13 due to the security situation in the state.

The ban includes campaigning for February 2023 presidential elections, which began nationwide last month.

Zamfara state, along with much of northwestern Nigeria, is battling armed groups of 'bandits' who have kidnapped thousands for ransom, killed hundreds and made many roads impassable and some farming impossible.

"Zamfara State Commissioner of Police has been directed to enforce full compliance and arrest of any staff of these media organizations... performing any duties in violation of the shut down," said a statement from the state security council released on Sunday.

The statement named five outlets, Pride FM Radio Gusau, NTA Gusau, Amji TV Gusau, Gamji TV Gusau and Alumma TV Gusau. It did not specify why they had been ordered "shut down", but state information commissioner Ibrahim Magaji Dosara told the BBC Hausa that it was because they covered PDP activities held in violation of the state government's order.

Zamfara's political activity ban came alongside other measures, including restricting movement in some local areas and shutting down several roads.

The statement directed security officials to "deal ruthlessly" with anyone found violating the orders.

(Reporting by Garba Muhammad in Kaduna, writing by Libby George, editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Unionized Workers Sue After Starbucks Accuses Them of ‘Kidnapping’

Decca Muldowney
Mon, October 17, 2022 

Michael M. Santiago/Getty

South Carolina Starbucks workers who were accused of “kidnapping” their boss during a protest have filed a lawsuit accusing the coffee giant of “defamation.” The unionized workers, part of a widespread effort to organize Starbucks stores, say the company “improperly weaponize[d] the legal process” by “falsely accusing them of crimes and seeking to have them arrested.”

The suit, filed on behalf of eight workers at a Starbucks in Anderson, South Carolina, concerns an incident from Aug 1. That day, workers at the store performed a “march on the boss,” a federally protected action in which workers present their boss with a series of demands related to working conditions.

“We are not going to move until some action is taken for our raise. No work is being done on the floor, and no customers are being served,” one worker told the store’s manager, Melissa Morris, in audio published by More Perfect Union on Twitter. Video of the incident was also released by the union, Starbucks Workers United.



The store manager, Morris, is shown on the video speaking to someone on the phone before asking workers if she can leave the store. “Yes,” worker Neil Tripathi replies.

Two days later, Morris filed a police report accusing the workers of kidnapping, telling cops they “would not let her leave until they got a raise” and that one worker “assaulted” her.

The Anderson County Sheriff’s office questioned workers about the incident, but no charges were filed. Nonetheless, Starbucks suspended 11 workers at the store. In a statement posted to its website, Starbucks said that the store manager “felt threatened and unsafe as the result of conduct by 11 store partners.”

They Asked for a Raise—Now They’re Accused of Kidnapping

Now, workers, including Tripathi, claim this statement defamed them by insinuating that they “had engaged in criminal activity.” The suit also suggests that Morris, the store manager, made a false police report “in apparent coordination with Starbucks upper management and its counsel.”

In a statement to The Daily Beast, Starbucks said they were reviewing the suit and “look forward to defending the company against the allegations made.” The company also denied retaliating against workers for union involvement.

“No Starbucks partner has been or will be disciplined for supporting or engaging in lawful union activity—but interest in a union does not exempt partners from following policies and procedures that apply to all partners,” the company told The Daily Beast.

Starbucks has engaged high-powered union-busting law firm Littler Mendelsohn to help them fight a wave of organizing at stores across the country. The battle has been ugly, with Starbucks so far firing 129 workers involved in organizing, according to the union. A month after suspending workers at the Anderson store, Starbucks fired six of them permanently.

The union has filed 364 charges against the company with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging unfair practices.

But the suit filed by baristas from South Carolina is the first lawsuit filed by the campaign.

“These workers were called criminals by their manager and by this company, and it was completely unfounded,” said Casey Moore, a member of Starbucks Workers United’s communication committee, “These charges are just holding the company accountable for their actions in whatever way we can.”

Moore says Starbucks has been waging war against the union effort on multiple fronts, firing workers and breaking labor law. The kidnapping charge was just another example of these retaliatory actions, she says.

“It shows the company’s willingness or desire to crush our union in any way that they can,” Moore says.



Starbucks Workers Sue Company For Defamation Over ‘Kidnapping’ Allegation

Dave Jamieson
Mon, October 17, 2022 

A group of Starbucks workers in South Carolina have sued the company for defamation after a store manager accused them of assault and kidnapping during a workplace protest.

The lawsuit filed in South Carolina state court revolves around an Aug. 1 incident at an Anderson store where workers approached their supervisor and gave her a letter demanding higher wages ― a common tactic in labor organizing known as a “march on the boss.”

The manager later filed a police report alleging that the workers refused to let her leave the store until they got a pay hike, and that one of them assaulted her ― accusations the workers and their union denied. A spokesperson for the local sheriff’s office later told The State that “none of the allegations” from the manager were true.

Starbucks said in a statement Monday that it was reviewing the lawsuit.

“No Starbucks partner has been or will be disciplined for supporting or engaging in lawful union activity — but interest in a union does not exempt partners from following policies and procedures that apply to all partners,” the company said.

A TikTok video of a portion of the incident shows workers lined up around a table where the manager is seated on a cellphone. She gets up to leave and bumps a worker who’s in her path along the table. “Why are you pushing him?” a voice asks the manager. (It’s not clear whether the manager ever used the term “kidnapping,” or whether that was just the charge that fit her allegations.)

The eight workers who filed the lawsuit claim Starbucks injured their reputations by “falsely stating or insinuating that they had engaged in criminal assault and kidnapping and engaged in threatened conduct.”

They say they’ve suffered emotional distress as a result of the allegations.

When workers stand up together, workers win. @Starbucks must end their union busting tactics now. #management#unionbusting#uniontok#marchontheboss#southcarolina♬ original sound - SBWorkersUnited

The workers named Starbucks as a co-defendant in the suit, saying the manager consulted with higher-ups on the filing of her report and took part in a “coordinated response.”

“[Her] statement to police was false ― no employee blocked the exit, and no employee assaulted her,” their complaint states.

Starbucks suspended the workers pending an investigation, and barred them from going on other Starbucks properties.

According to the lawsuit, an attorney for Starbucks contacted the workers’ union, Workers United, following the incident and accused one member of “abusive, belligerent, and menacing conduct.”

That worker, Aneil Tripathi, said Monday that “Starbucks knew exactly what they were doing when it smeared our reputation, painting us as criminals.”

“This case is about more than defamation,” Tripathi said. “It’s about highlighting the disgusting and outright abuse Starbucks will level at their own workers.”

The spat in South Carolina is part of a broader fight between the company and the union campaign, Starbucks Workers United. Workers at more than 200 Starbucks stores have unionized in a matter of months.

Starbucks has opposed the campaign all along, and union members have accused the company of retaliating against them through firings, suspensions and store closures.

The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board has found merit in many of the workers’ claims, filing more than 20 complaints against the company alleging labor law violations. Those cases are now being litigated.

Starbucks sued for accusing unionized workers of assault, kidnapping


The sign of a Starbucks store is seen in New York

Mon, October 17, 2022 
By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) -Starbucks Corp was sued on Monday by eight employees at a unionized South Carolina store who said the company falsely accused them of criminal conduct after they demanded a raise from their manager.

The workers filed a lawsuit in South Carolina state court against Starbucks and the manager at the store in Anderson, a few miles from Clemson University. They claimed the manager urged police to charge them with assault and kidnapping after the workers pressed her for a raise in August.

The store's employees had voted 18-0 to unionize in June.

At least 240 other Starbucks in the United States have unionized over the past year, and the company has been accused of illegal labor practices at dozens of locations. Starbucks has denied wrongdoing.

Starbucks in a statement provided by a spokesperson said it was reviewing the lawsuit.

"No Starbucks partner has been or will be disciplined for supporting or engaging in lawful union activity — but interest in a union does not exempt partners from following policies and procedures that apply to all partners," the company said.

According to the complaint, the Anderson workers on Aug. 1 presented the manager with a letter calling for a raise. She then called a Starbucks district manager and falsely claimed the workers were preventing her from leaving the store, the plaintiffs claim.

The manager reported the incident to law enforcement two days later, prompting a weeks-long investigation that included police visiting some of the workers' homes, according to the lawsuit.

The local sheriff's office ultimately concluded the workers had done nothing illegal, the plaintiffs said.

Starbucks released a statement on Aug. 8 saying the manager had felt unsafe and the workers were suspended with pay pending an investigation.

The plaintiffs in Monday's lawsuit said the statement falsely suggested they had threatened the manager and engaged in criminal conduct.

The workers accused Starbucks of defamation and abusing the legal process in violation of state law. They are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Josie Kao)


Moderna signs deal on variant-adapted COVID shots for world's poorest




Mon, October 17, 2022 

LONDON (Reuters) - Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) has agreed to provide its new variant-adapted COVID-19 vaccine to the global scheme aiming to deliver shots to the world's poorest people.

The biotech company and vaccine alliance GAVI will cancel their existing supply deal for vaccines based on the original coronavirus strain. Instead, Moderna will supply up to 100 million doses of its new, variant-adapted vaccines at its lowest available price from 2023.

GAVI leads the COVAX initiative alongside the World Health Organization and other global bodies. The scheme has delivered 1.79 billion doses of COVID vaccine to 146 countries, including nearly 186 million doses of Moderna's original shot.

While at first the initiative struggled for shots as wealthy countries snapped up limited supply, this year it has had a glut of the original vaccines, prompting negotiations to try to better align supply with demand.

Moderna's bivalent COVID vaccine, containing both the original coronavirus strain and the BA.1 Omicron variant, has had approval from regulators worldwide.

GAVI chief executive Seth Berkley said the new agreement was a "critical step for equitable access" to allow lower income countries to use the modified vaccines as they see fit.

Many wealthier countries have started using the vaccine in booster campaigns.

Negotiations with other vaccine manufacturers to adjust supply agreements are going on, GAVI said.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by David Goodman, Robert Birsel)
Assailants apologize to ex-Japanese soldier over harassment


Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force member Rina Gonoi speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. Gonoi, who claims she sexually assaulted while serving in Japan's army, said Monday she accepted an apology in person from four servicemen each over their past wrongdoings they admitted to in a Defense Ministry investigation that began when she came forward two months ago.
(Kyodo News via AP) 

MARI YAMAGUCHI
Mon, October 17, 2022 at 9:23 AM·3 min read

TOKYO (AP) — A former Japanese soldier who suffered sexual harassment while serving in the army said Monday she has accepted apologies from four servicemen in a groundbreaking case that prompted a Defense Ministry-wide investigation into growing reports of assaults in the military.

Rina Gonoi told reporters that the four assailants, who were her superiors in the army, met with her separately and apologized for the pain that caused her to give up her military career. She said some admitted that they had sexually harassed other female soldiers as well.

The four men told her they planned to resign from the army to take responsibility, she said. They gave her handwritten letters of apology which she read in a televised news conference. The assailants did not attend and she did not disclose their names or ranks, saying that their families also were victims and she didn’t want them to suffer.

When the men met with her, "I was a bit scared, but I kept up my spirit and stood face-to-face with them, because accepting an apology in person was one of my goals after seeing the truth being denied,” she said.

Gonoi filed a sexual harassment case with the Defense Ministry last year, saying she had suffered multiple assaults by male colleagues. In one incident, several senior male colleagues pressed the lower part of their bodies against her in a dorm at a training ground in August 2021, forcing her to spread her legs, as more than 10 other male colleagues watched and laughed, but none tried to stop them, she said.

She said the investigation into her case was improperly conducted and local prosecutors dropped it in May. A month later, she quit the army and disclosed her allegations on social media.

Gonoi submitted a petition signed by more than 100,000 people to the Defense Ministry in August seeking a reinvestigation of her allegations by a third party.

She also said that she had received information about dozens of other servicemembers who had been harassed while on duty, as well as from parents who were worried about the safety of their daughters in the military.

In a rare admission of sexual harassment in the military, army chief Yoshihide Yoshida apologized to Gonoi in September.

Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada also ordered a ministry-wide investigation into sexual assault following her allegations.

The ministry said complaints of various types of harassment have increased nearly 10-fold over the past five years.

It sent investigators to the regional army division overseeing the unit where Gonoi served. They found more victims in other cases, and are expected to issue their final report within weeks.

In a country where gender inequality remains high, sexual harassment is often disregarded and the #MeToo movement has been slow to catch on. But Japanese women have slowly begun to speak up, though many still suffer silently.

Gonoi said she went public because she wanted to help others who cannot raise their voices, and is happy to help the Defense Ministry create an environment in which there is less harassment and victims don't need to quit their careers.

Despite the men’s apologies, “the scars I have suffered will stay with me the rest of my life,” she said. “Now I want to regain my own life, not as a victim, but as someone who can make other people smile and who can do something for others.”

Scholz overrides allies, keeps 3 German nuke plants running



 


 The nuclear power plant (NPP) Isar 2 is pictured in Essenbach, Germany, March 3, 2022. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered ministers Monday Oct. 17, 2022, to prepare to keep all of the country's three remaining nuclear plants running until mid-April, putting his foot down on an issue that had threatened to split his three-party government. 
Armin Weigel/dpa via AP, File


FRANK JORDANS
Mon, October 17, 2022 

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered ministers Monday to prepare to keep all of the country's three remaining nuclear plants running until mid-April, putting his foot down on an issue that had threatened to split his three-party government.

The decision comes as Germany tries to prevent a possible energy crunch due to cuts in fuel supplies from Russia over the war in Ukraine.

Scholz’s office said he announced the decision in a letter to the Cabinet, an unusual move reflecting the deep divisions that had riven his junior coalition partners on the issue in recent weeks.

The environmentalist Greens, led by Economy and Energy Minister Robert Habeck, had argued that only two nuclear plants in southern Germany — Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 — should be able to keep operating beyond the scheduled shutdown on Dec. 31 to ease possible power shortages over the winter.


Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats had suggested all three — including the Emsland reactor in the northwest — should stay online, even beyond April if necessary. Some Free Democrats had even called for three other nuclear plants that were shut down last year to be powered up again in the face of high energy prices and possible blackouts.

Successive German governments have committed to ending the country's use of nuclear power by the end of the year as part of its transition to safe, renewable energy.

But the war in Ukraine, which has resulted in a sharp cut in natural gas supplies from Russia to Europe, prompted Germany to reactivate old coal and oil-fired power plants. Climate activists such as Sweden's Greta Thunberg, and others, have argued that it's a mistake for Germany to switch off its existing nuclear plants if that means burning more planet-heating coal.

Experts say the nuclear power plants are mainly needed to maintain grid stability at times of high electricity demand — including from neighboring France, whose own nuclear reactors have faced a series of problems this year.

In addition to temporarily extending the lifetime of Germany's nuclear plants, Scholz said his Social Democrat-led government will propose “ambitious" legislation to increase energy efficiency, enshrining in law a plan to end coal use in western Germany by 2030 and building new power plants that can burn hydrogen.

___

Follow all AP stories on the impact of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

___

Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.