Учасники 24-ї української антарктичної експедиції привітали співвітчизників із Новим роком, повідомляє Міністерство освіти і науки України.
«З протилежного боку планети 24-та українська антарктична експедиція хоче привітати всіх українців із прийдешнім Новим роком та Різдвом Христовим. Хочу побажати кожному українцю в Новому, 2020-му році, – нехай Бог дасть розум та душевний спокій, щоб змиритися з тим, чого не можна змінити, і сил та впевненості, аби змінити те, що можна змінити, і мудрості відрізнити одне від іншого», – зазначив один із учасників експедиції.
Зараз на українській антарктичній станції «Академік Вернадський» перебуває 12 учасників річної експедиції: 10 полярників та дві полярниці. Вони працюють в Антарктиді вже близько 10 місяців. …
Синоптик Наталка Діденко попередила про погіршення погоди новорічної ночі.
«Скоро з північного заходу до нас прийде атмосферний фронт, який прикриє сонце, нажене хмари та ближче до вечора посипатиме мокрим снігом. Цей мокрий сніг випадатиме у Новорічну ніч, так що перебігати від родини до друзів і навпаки краще не на шпильках. Буде сильний, до штормових поривів, вітер. Опади та рвучкий вітер новорічної ночі очікуються практично в усіх областях України. Там, де температура повітря перевищуватиме нуль, сніг переходитиме у дощ. На дорогах будьте уважними особливо», – застерегла вона.
За її даними, стовпчики термометрів коливатимуться 1 січня і вночі, і вдень від 2 градусів морозу до 3 тепла, на півдні України до 2–5 градусів тепла.
У Києві, повідомила Діденко, атмосферний фронт спочатку прижене хмари, потім – мокрий сніг, місцями з дощем. Новорічної ночі у столиці України буде від 1 градуса тепла до 1 морозу, мокрий сніг, сильний вітер.
«Удень 1 січня опади припинятимуться, вітер залишиться рвучким, температура повітря істотно не зміниться. 2 січня в Україні буде сухо, вітер послабне, вночі передбачається 0–5 градусів морозу, вдень близько нуля», – написала Наталка Діденко у фейсбуці.
Державна служба з надзвичайних ситуацій, зі свого боку, попереджала про те, що 31 грудня в Україні, крім південних областей, пориви вітру 15–20 метрів за секунду, на більшій частині території країни на дорогах ожеледиця. …
У Києві повідомили про низку обмежень і змін у роботі міського транспорту і перекриття руху всього транспорту деякими вулицями міста через святкування Нового року.
Зокрема, як мовиться на сайті Київської міської державної адміністрації, 31 грудня і 1 січня (а також у день Різдва, 7 січня) деякі станції метрополітену працюватимуть в особливому режимі.
Ідеться про те, що в разі необхідності залежно від пасажиропотоків можуть на короткий час закривати на вхід станцію «Золоті ворота» на час проведення новорічних, а потім і різдвяних заходів на Софійській площі. У цей час усі ескалатори працюватимуть на підйом для уникнення тисняви на платформах станцій.
Окрім того, для уникнення тисняви у вестибюлях станцій можуть так само закривати на вхід станції «Хрещатик», «Контрактова площа», «Поштова площа» і «Майдан Незалежності».
У КМДА також нагадали про ухвалені раніше рішення про те, що новорічної ночі київський метрополітен працюватиме на 3 години довше, а фунікулер – цілодобово. Також продовжать роботу автобуси, тролейбуси і трамваї. Зокрема, автобуси №№ 166, 208, 155, 181, 220, 234, 500, 502, 516, 550, 586 працюватимуть у ніч на 1 січня до 5-ї години ранку в режимі маршрутного таксі.
На час проведення заходів на Софійській і Михайлівській площах із 19:30 31 грудня до 02:00 1 січня, а також 1 січня з 13:30 до 20:00 і 7 січня з 10:30 до 14:00 рух тролейбусів №№ 6, 16, 18 буде організовано зі змінами: тролейбуси № 6 курсуватимуть від Мінського масиву до станції метро «Лук’янівська», тролейбуси № 16 – від вулиці Академіка Щусєва до Повітрофлотського шляхопроводу, тролейбуси № 18 – від вулиці Сошенка до Повітрофлотського шляхопроводу.
Крім того, 31 грудня і 1 січня заборонять рух транспорту уздовж Володимирського проїзду і вулиці Володимирської (від будинку № 23 на вулиці Софіївській до Рильського провулку) – з 20:00 31 грудня до 03:00 1 січня 2020 року, а також 1 січня – із 14:00 до 22:00.
Натомість, у зв’язку з цією забороною, у згадані святкові дні дозволять проїзд транспорту Хрещатиком, який зазвичай перекривають у денний час щосуботи, щонеділі, у святкові й неробочі дні. …
Moscow and Kyiv on Monday signed a five-year agreement on the transit of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine, finalizing months of difficult talks just ahead of a New Year deadline.
The current deal between the two ex-Soviet countries expires Tuesday and ties between them have been shredded since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and supported a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the deal by phone and congratulated each other ahead of New Year’s celebrations, a sign that their relations could be on the mend.
The gas deal “creates a positive atmosphere for solving other bilateral problems,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
About 18 percent of the European Union’s annual natural gas consumption comes from Russia via Ukraine, which put pressure on EU officials to help broker the deal.
“Ukraine has signed a five-year transit contract,” Zelensky announced in a late-night post on his Facebook page, nearly two weeks after a provisional deal was reached.
A wide range of documents and contracts were involved, and together formed “a package deal which has re-established the balance of interests,” Alexei Miller, the boss of Russian gas giant Gazprom, was cited as saying in a statement.
The documents were signed after five days of non-stop talks.
Gazprom is expected to ship at least 65 billion cubic meters (2.3 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas via Ukraine next year, and at least 40 billion per year from 2021 to 2024, said Zelensky, from which Kiev would earn “more than seven billion dollars”.
‘Great news’ for Europe
The agreement should prevent a repeat of so-called gas wars that previously disrupted supplies and in some years caused real energy problems in EU member states.
EU Commission vice president in charge of energy Maros Sevcovic called the deal “great news for Europe’s energy security” on Twitter, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel thanked Russia and Ukraine.
“Continued gas transit via Ukraine… is a good and important signal for ensuring our European security of gas supply,” she said.
Last year, Gazprom supplied Europe with 200.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas, about 40 percent of which passed through Ukraine for roughly $3 billion in transit fees.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Moscow wanted to keep some gas flowing through Ukraine, despite having built several pipelines to Europe since the current deal was agreed a decade ago.
The new agreement comes days after Gazprom paid $2.9 billion to Ukraine’s Naftogaz to settle a long-running dispute over transit fees that had blocked the deal.
Meanwhile, Russia is pursuing work on the Nord Stream 2 project that is to be completed by the end of next year and would double gas shipments to Germany.
The United States has long opposed the 9.5-billion-euro ($10.6-billion) project and the U.S. Senate voted last week to levy sanctions on companies working on it.
Washington believes the pipeline will give Russia too much influence over security and economic issues in western Europe.
Transit problems for Russian gas began after the fall of the Soviet Union when independent Ukraine took control of the pipeline infrastructure.
Several crises followed, with Russia using gas supplies to put pressure on Ukraine by cutting them repeatedly in 1992, 1993 and 1994.
The last gas crisis disrupted supplies to Europe in 2010.
Multiple Iraqi politicians condemned U.S. airstrikes on the pro-Iranian Shi’ite Kataib Hezbollah militia Sunday, which left 25 dead and over 50 wounded, according to Iraqi government TV. Local reports say the group is becoming increasingly unpopular with large segments of the Iraqi public. Iraq’s Parliament met Monday to debate the U.S.’s action, but failed to muster a quorum.
Amateur video showed survivors of the U.S. airstrike on the pro-Iranian Kataib Hezbollah picking through the rubble and gathering the remains of victims killed in the strike Sunday. Iraqi government media reported that 25 people died, including three Iranian officers.
On social media, pro-Iranian Shiite groups spread photos of militia fighters killed in the raid, calling them martyrs.
Fighters from the Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades militia, inspect the destruction at their headquarters in the aftermath of a U.S. airstrike in Qaim, Iraq, Dec. 30, 2019.
Iraqi state TV read a list of political leaders who condemned the raid. The broadcast added that Sunni Parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi was calling on all Iraqi forces to “use self-control” to avoid any escalation.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi Parliament met Monday afternoon, apparently aiming to condemn the airstrike. But a large number of MPs from Sunni, Kurdish and some Shi’ite political parties stayed away from the session, and no quorum was reached.
The head of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia hit by the air raid, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, vowed revenge, as militia fighters shouted approval.
Many Iraqi protesters who gathered in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, however, chanted slogans against Iran, which has become increasingly unpopular for meddling in Iraqi politics.
They chanted, “Iranians get out of Iraq,” and “Free Baghdad.”
Iraqi analyst Ahmed Shawki told Alhurra TV that pro-Iranian Shiite militias, including the Hezbollah group struck by U.S. warplanes Sunday, have become increasingly unpopular for their repression of popular protests.
He says that it has become clear to everyone since the protests began that the Shi’ite militias are under the command of Iran’s supreme leader, and they have killed and maimed many demonstrators. Shi’ite militias, he adds, dominate the government, and no one dares to stop them.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told journalists that the U.S. airstrikes were a response for pro-Iranian Shiite militia attacks on U.S. forces.
“What we did was take a decisive response that makes clear what President Trump has said for months and months and months, which is that we will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy,” he said.
A U.S. contractor was killed, and several others wounded several days ago, when Shiite militia fighters, reportedly from the Hezbollah militia group, fired rockets on the K-2 military base in Kirkuk. Pro-Iranian Shiite militia forces have also fired rockets or attacked U.S. forces at other Iraqi bases in recent months, including Balad, Taji, Ain al-Assad and Baghdad Airport, as well as the U.S. Embassy.
Newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan has met with his Russian counterpart, Anatoly Antonov, in Washington.
FILE – Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador to the U.S. gestures while speaking during a round-table discussion on the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki in Moscow, July 20, 2018.
“The sides exchanged views on the current status and prospective development of Russian-U.S. relations,” the Russian Embassy said in a statement following the December 30 meeting.
Sullivan, who has served in two previous administrations and is a close ally of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was confirmed by the Senate on December 12. He was sworn in on December 23.
Sullivan, as deputy secretary of state in the administration of President Donald Trump, has been involved in developing U.S. policy on Russia, led counterterrorism talks with Moscow in July, and has been involved in restarting negotiations on a broad range of security issues.
He also briefly served as acting secretary of state following the resignation of Rex Tillerson in the spring of 2018. As ambassador, Sullivan succeeds Jon Huntsman Jr., who resigned in August.
During his confirmation hearing in December, Sullivan said that “our relationship with Russia has reached a post-Cold War ebb,” and listed a number of examples of “Russia’s malign actions” that have strained relations.
Among them he named “attempting to interfere in our and our allies’ elections, violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and Georgia, employing a weapon of mass destruction in an attempt to assassinate its citizens abroad, violating the INF Treaty, and infringing on the basic human rights of its people.”
However, he added, “the need for principled engagement with Russia is as important to our national interest as ever.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has described Sullivan as “a highly professional and experienced diplomat.”
Український осередок міжнародного ПЕН-клубу збирає кошти на допомогу поетові, перекладачу, членові Українського ПЕН Мойсею Фішбейну, який третій тиждень перебуває в лікарні в тяжкому стані.
«Він потребує допомоги для проведення операції за кордоном та подальшої реабілітації. З цією метою його колеги з Українського ПЕН ініціювали збір коштів», – йдеться в повідомленні на сайті Українського ПЕН, де вказані реквізити, на які можна переказати кошти.
Мойсей Фішбейн народився 1946 року в Чернівцях. Працював у Головній редакції Української радянської енциклопедії та літературним секретарем Миколи Бажана. 1979 року внаслідок відмови від співпраці з КДБ був змушений емігрувати. З 1982 року жив у Німеччині, де до 1995 року працював на Радіо Свобода.
2003 року Мойсей Фішбейн повернувся в Україну.
«Переклав українською поезії Г. Гайне, Ґ. Тракля, Р. М. Рільке, Г. фон Гофмансталя, П. Целана, Г. К. Артманна, Т. Арґезі, Х. Н. Бяліка, Ш. Бодлера, М. Волошина та інших авторів. Лауреат Премії імені Василя Стуса. В Україні його також нагороджено орденом князя Ярослава Мудрого V ступеня, орденом Святого Рівноапостольного князя Володимира Великого ІІІ ступеня та орденом «За інтелектуальну відвагу», – повідомляє ПЕН.
Мойсей Фішбейн є автором книжок «Ямбове коло» (1974), «Збірка без назви» (1984), «Дивний сад» (1991), «Апокриф» (1996), «Розпорошені тіні» (2001), «Аферизми» (2003), «Ранній рай» (2006).
Як повідомляє Український ПЕН, завдяки Мойсеєві Фішбейну Ізраїль став першою у світі державою, що прийняла на лікування дітей, які постраждали від Чорнобильської катастрофи. …
Former Nissan Motor Company chief Carlos Ghosn said Tuesday he had traveled to Lebanon to escape what he called “injustice and political persecution” in Japan where he faces multiple charges of financial misconduct.
Ghosn has been arrested several times since first being detained in November 2018, but was free on bail. The conditions of his latest release required him to remain in Japan, and his statement Tuesday did not explain how he left.
“I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied, in flagrant disregard of Japan’s legal obligations under international law and treaties it is bound to uphold,” Ghosn said.
Ghosn has denied the charges against him.
Among the allegations are accusations he conspired to understate his Nissan income by about 50 percent between 2010 and 2015, and that a Nissan subsidiary diverted $2.5 million out of $5 million from an Oman dealership to a Ghosn-owned investment company for his private use.
Ghosn was credited for steering Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy to becoming one of the world top-selling automakers. He engineered a three-way alliance with one-time domestic rival Mitsubishi Motors and French-based Renault.
Volunteers are working around the clock preparing flower-decked floats for the annual Rose Parade, a New Year’s Day tradition. Hundreds of thousands of people line the parade route in Pasadena, California, on Wednesday, and millions more will watch on television. Mike O’Sullivan reports on the preparations.
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit from a former White House official who had challenged a congressional subpoena in the impeachment inquiry involving President Donald Trump.
Charles Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser, sued in October after being subpoenaed by House Democrats to testify in their impeachment investigation into Trump’s interactions with Ukraine. He had asked a judge to decide whether he had to comply with that subpoena from Congress or with a conflicting directive from the White House that he not testify.
Both the House of Representatives, which withdrew the subpoena, and the Justice Department, which had said it would not prosecute Kupperman for contempt of Congress for failing to appear, had asked the court to dismiss the case as moot.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon agreed Monday in throwing out the case. He noted that the House had stated explicitly that it would not reissue a subpoena to Kupperman and had not mentioned him by name in an impeachment article this month that accused Trump of obstructing Congress and its investigation.
“This conduct is of course entirely consistent with the repeated representations that counsel for the House has made to this Court,” Leon wrote. “The House clearly has no intention of pursuing Kupperman, and his claims are thus moot.”
FILE – Former National Security Adviser John Bolton gestures while speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Sept. 30, 2019.
The lawsuit was closely watched since it was a rare challenge of a congressional subpoena in the impeachment inquiry and because of the potential implications it carried for another witness whose testimony has been highly sought by Democrats: former national security adviser John Bolton.
Kupperman and Bolton have the same lawyer. Bolton was not subpoenaed by the House but, as a senior adviser to the president on matters of national security, had similar arguments at his disposal. Senate Democrats have identified Bolton as among the current and former Trump administration officials they would like to hear from in a trial.
Charles Cooper, a lawyer for Bolton and Kupperman, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Though Leon said he did not need to resolve Kupperman’s case now, he acknowledged that the conflict could potentially resurface.
“Have no doubt though, should the winds of political fortune shift and the House were to reissue a subpoena to Dr. Kupperman, he will face the same conflicting directives that precipitated this suit,” Leon wrote.
“If so, he will undoubtedly be right back before this Court seeking a solution to a Constitutional dilemma that has long-standing political consequences: balancing Congress’s well-established power to investigate with a President’s need to have a small group of national security advisors who have some form of immunity from compelled congressional testimony,” Leon wrote.
The first space race pitted the United States against what was then the Soviet Union for the bragging rights of being first in space travel. The space race of the 21st century is a quest by many to land the first people on Mars. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi coasts the cosmos in this look at the various space agencies’ 2020 plans to research the Red Planet.
There’s no doubt that many people around the world see – in magazines and on social media – unrealistic beauty standards and end up feeling unhappy with how they look. But Jessamyn Stanley has never let her body image get in the way of her dream of teaching yoga. Karina Bafradzhian reports from Savannah, Georgia.
Criticism mounted in Kyiv Monday over a controversial prisoner swap with Russian-backed separatists, as it emerged that among the captives exchanged by Ukraine were five riot policemen accused of killing protesters during the 2014 Maidan uprising.
The policemen were members of a Berkut militia unit that is now disbanded.
Relatives of those killed during the uprising had urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy not to include the policemen in the exchange. After the handover, which took place Sunday, the Ukrainian leader defended his decision, saying it was necessary in order for Ukraine to secure the return of several of its reconnaissance soldiers.
A total of 200 captives were exchanged between the two warring sides.
“It was a hard decision. It was a political decision,” Zelenskiy told reporters at Kyiv’s Boryspil International Airport, as he met 76 freed Ukrainians.
His remarks failed to assuage the relatives of protesters who were killed in 2014.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a ceremony to welcome Ukrainian citizens exchanged in a prisoner swap, at Boryspil International Airport, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec. 29, 2019.
As the exchange began, 200 people protested at a detention center in the capital, Kyiv, where three of the riot police were held.
“This country has no future,” Volodymyr Golodnyuk, the father of a 19-year-old protester killed in the uprising, said on Facebook. In an open letter to Zelenskiy, the victims’ families warned the release of the suspects could lead to a “wave of protests.”
Nearly two dozen civil society groups were also critical of the policemen’s release, issuing a joint statement warning that “the decision at the request of the Kremlin undermines the values of the rule of law, justice and dignity, and can divide society by sowing hatred between different groups of Ukrainians.”
Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker who Russia handed over to Ukraine in a September exchange, criticized Sunday’s swap. He said Kyiv was giving up “real murderers” while other Ukrainians remained in captivity in Russia and rebel territory. “All that Ukrainians fought for is turning to ash,” Sentsov said.
About 100 demonstrators were killed during the monthslong 2014 revolution, which ended in the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
FILE – A man places flowers at a monument to the so-called “Heavenly Hundred,” anti-government protesters killed during Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov. 21, 2019.
The Berkut was among militias accused of the worst violence. Members of the Russian-trained Alfa Team have also been accused of involvement in the killings. Many of the slain protesters died from precise shots to the head or neck, while others were gunned down in closer quarters by less expert shooters armed with AK-47 assault rifles.
A dozen Ukrainian soldiers were among those released by pro-Russian separatists. They had been captured during skirmishes in the conflict, which started in 2014, and has so far claimed around 14,000 lives, making it the bloodiest war in Europe since the 1990s.
In order to gain the release of 76 captives — some of them pro-Kyiv activists and bloggers — Ukraine had to free 124 prisoners it was holding. Two contributors to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, VOA’s sister broadcaster, were also released.
This is the second prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia this year.
The first swap in September of 70 captives prompted hopes that Moscow and Kyiv were ready for serious talks to end the more than five-year war in the Donbas region. That exchange included the release of 24 Ukrainian sailors captured in a naval clash.
When Zelenskiy was elected in April, he pledged to move quickly to engineer the release of Ukrainians held captive by Russian-backed forces. A former TV comedian, Zelenskiy won a landslide electoral victory on a promise to end the war.
Relatives of Ukrainian citizens, who were exchanged during a prisoner swap, surround an aircraft during a welcoming ceremony at Boryspil International Airport, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec. 29, 2019.
Sunday’s prisoner swap was brokered during peace talks this month between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany amid renewed efforts to reach a cease-fire.
The exchange was made at a checkpoint on the front line of the conflict, overseen by armed troops from both sides.
Live footage streamed by Ukraine’s presidential office showed buses with prisoners parked at a crossing point. The office of Ukraine’s president tweeted, “The mutual release of detained persons is completed …76 of ours are safe in Ukraine-controlled territory … details later.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the Paris talks, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the prisoner exchange. In a joint statement, they said “further work will still be necessary to allow the exchange of all prisoners linked to the conflict.”
In a statement published on Twitter, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv also welcomed the “return of liberated captives from Russian-controlled Donbas.” It added, “Recognizing that Russia’s ongoing aggression confronts Ukraine’s leadership with difficult choices, we stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian partners and the many Ukrainians who remain in captivity in Russia and Crimea.”
This second prisoner swap is also viewed as an encouraging sign that the conflict can be brought to a peaceful conclusion. But seasoned analysts are skeptical, arguing that there is little incentive for the Kremlin to agree to a deal.
Zelenskiy’s peace strategy has been strongly criticized by Ukrainian war veterans and nationalists, but opinion polls suggest it still has strong backing by many Ukrainians.
“Today’s prisoner exchange in Donbass will bring relief to the persons involved and their families, but it will not bring the settlement any closer,” tweeted Dmitri Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center. “The conflict is much more likely to become frozen than resolved.”
Практично у всіх 64 цивільних громадян, яких 29 грудня звільнили з полону підтримуваних Росією угруповань «ДНР» і «ЛНР», є прояви посттравматичного стресового розладу і загострення всіх хронічних хвороб, повідомив заступник головного лікаря клінічної лікарні «Феофанія» з медичних питань Андрій Строкань.
64 звільнених із полону доправлені в цю лікарню і проходять там медичне обстеження. За словами лікаря, пацієнтів у критичному стані серед них немає.
«Три чверті, можливо, навіть п’ять шостих пацієнтів потребують стоматологічної допомоги в обов’язковому порядку. Практично у всіх є в різних ступенях прояви посттравматичного стресового розладу і, звісно, загострення всіх хронічних хвороб, які у них були до моменту потрапляння в полон», – повідомив Строкань.
За його словами, більшість людей перебуватимуть у лікарні протягом новорічних і різдвяних свят і не хочуть спілкуватися з пресою.
Внаслідок обміну на Донбасі на підконтрольну Україні територію повернулися 76 громадян (12 військових і 64 цивільних). Ще п’ятеро людей відмовилися повертатися через те, що мають родини на непідконтрольній території.
Chinese pastor Wang Yi, founder of Early Rain Covenant Church, has been sentenced to nine years in prison on the charges of inciting state subversion and illegal business operation, a court in Sichuan in southwest China said on Monday.
One year after his incommunicado detention and a recent secret trial, Wang has also been deprived of his political rights for three years with 50,000 yuan ($7,157) of his personal property being confiscated, the announcement on the court’s website added.
The court, however, gave no details of its so-called “open” trial, which Wang allegedly faced last week.
Religious rights activists called Wang’s verdict the harshest in a decade, which paints a bleak picture of China’s government-led persecution of religious groups under the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Wang was among dozens of the church’s followers and leaders including his wife detained by police in December 2018 although most were subsequently released.
The 46-year-old pastor is also a productive writer, social activist and formerly a legal scholar at Chengdu University before he took up the pastorate.
According to Bob Fu, founder of China Aid, a Texas, U.S.-based Christian human rights group which promotes religious freedom and rule of law in China, Wang’s sentence is the longest against an ethnic Chinese house church leader in a decade, prior to which, Uyghur house church leader Alimujiang Yimiti from Xinjiang was given a 15-year sentence in 2008.
“This demonstrates President Xi’s regime is determined to be the enemy of the universal values and the religious freedom,” Fu said.
“It shows the regime is very afraid of pastor Wang Yi’s national and international impact based on his reformed evangelic movement,” he added.
Under Xi, China has intensified its crackdown on unsupervised religious followers be it Christians, Muslims or even Buddhists.
In the past few years, authorities there have not only jailed pastors, but also closed churches and taken down thousands of crosses and, in some places, there is a push to ensure that anyone under the age of 18 cannot attend church or be under the influence of religion – what Fu called the worst religious persecution since the Cultural Revolution.
China is officially atheist, but says it allows religious freedom.
And Wang’s church is one of China’s best-known unregistered Protestant “house” churches, deemed illegal under Chinese laws, which require all places of worship to register and submit to government oversight.
In other words, criminal charges against Wang can apply to all other unregistered church leaders and goers, which observers say is sending another chilling effect on Chinese religious believers
“He [Wang] is a martyr who suffers the persecution… The chilling effect was there because many people will be deterred, not to speak up. But those who really are fighting hard for their own faith, for their own religion, will not bend,” said Sang Pu, a commentator in Hong Kong.
Sang said that many church goers are finding new places or new ways to worship in spite of the Chinese government’s crackdown.
Analysts have long argued that China’s Communist Party will have a hard time suppressing Christians in China as Yang Feggang of Purdue University once estimated that the country’s population of Christians has unstoppably grown ten-fold from six millions in 1980 to more than 67 million in 2010.
Yang estimated that China will turn out to have the world’s largest population of more than 247 million Christians in 2030.
Rights activists, in addition, denounced Wang’s trial, saying that the pastor has been deprived of due legal proceedings and representation.
They said that Wang likely stood trial secretly on December 26th when no one from his family was notified or present at the court.
His former lawyer Zhang Peihong, originally hired by Wang’s parents to represent him, had been replaced by two government-appointed lawyers in November.
“Those who do evil will be in trouble. You’re not keeping a criminal behind bars. Instead, you’re crowning a righteous man!” Zhang posted Monday on Facebook, which is banned in China, apparently writing about Wang’s case.
Since June, Wang’s wife Jiang Rong has been out on “bail” after being detained alongside her husband during the initial raid on the church.
But both she, their son and Wang’s parents are still under close surveillance by state security police, according to Fu.
“Jiang Rong is staying in a public security-arranged apartment and their 13-year-old son is not allowed even to have freedom to meet with his own mom and grandparents,” Fu said, adding that “every day, he has to take a police car to go to school and being picked up by the police. No freedom at all.”
A court in Sudan on Monday sentenced 27 members of the country’s security forces to death for torturing and killing a detained protester during the uprising against Sudan’s longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir earlier this year.
The death of protester Ahmed al-Khair, a school teacher, while in detention in February was a key point — and a symbol — in the uprising that eventually led to the military’s ouster of al-Bashir. Monday’s convictions and sentences, which can be appealed, were the first connected to the killings of protesters in the revolt.
FILE – Protesters rally against police violence in Khartoum, Sudan, Sept. 23, 2019.
Last December, the first rally was held in Sudan to protest the soaring cost of bread, marking the beginning of a pro-democracy movement that convulsed the large African country. That led, in April, to the toppling by the military of al-Bashir, and ultimately to the creation of a joint military-civilian Sovereign Council that has committed to rebuilding the country and promises elections in three years.
The anniversary of that protest this month drew teeming crowds to the streets in several cities and towns across the country, with people singing, dancing and carrying flags. A train packed with exuberant demonstrators, clapping and chanting, arrived in the northern city of Atbara, the birthplace of the uprising, from the capital, Khartoum.
Monday’s verdict in the trial of the security forces took place in a court in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city, where dozens of protesters had gathered outside the courtroom, demanding justice for al-Khair.
Al-Khair was detained on Jan. 31 in the eastern province of Kassala and was reported dead two days later. His body was taken to a local hospital where his family said it was covered in bruises. At the time, police denied any police wrongdoing and blamed his death on an “illness,” without providing any details.
The court, however, said on Monday that the teacher was beaten and tortured while in detention. The 27 sentenced were policemen who were working in the jail where al-Khair was held or intelligence agents in the region.
FILE – Sudan’s former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir stands guarded inside a cage at the courthouse where he is facing corruption charges, in Khartoum, Sudan, Aug. 19, 2019.
Also this month, a court in Khartoum convicted al-Bashir of money laundering and corruption, sentencing him to two years in a minimum security lockup. The image of the former dictator in a defendant’s cage sent a strong message, on live TV for all of Sudan.
The deposed ruler is under indictment by the International Criminal Court on far more serious charges of war crimes and genocide linked to his brutal suppression of the insurgency in the western province of Darfur in the early 2000s. The military has refused to extradite him to stand trial in The Hague.
Amnesty International and other rights groups have called on the new government to hold security forces accountable for killing scores of people in their efforts to stifle protests against military rule, especially those behind a deadly crackdown on a huge sit-in outside the military headquarters in Khartoum last June.
Since last December, nearly 200 protesters have been killed in Sudan. The government recently appointed independent judges to oversee investigations into the killings, a major achievement for the protest movement.
Sudan is under heavy international and regional pressure to reform. With the economy on the brink, the new government has made it a mission to get Sudan removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism so that it can attract badly needed foreign aid.
Police in Turkey detained at least 124 people suspected of links to the Islamic State group, the state-run news agency reported Monday, in an apparent sweep against the militant group ahead of New Year celebrations.
At least 33 foreign nationals were detained in the capital Ankara in a joint operation by anti-terrorism police and the national intelligence agency, according to the Anadolu Agency. In Istanbul, police raided 31 houses, detaining 24 suspects, including four foreign nationals.
Police conducted simultaneous, pre-dawn raids in the city of Batman, in southeast Turkey, where 22 suspects were detained, it said in a separate report. Raids were also conducted in the cities of Adana, Kayseri, Samsun and Bursa where 45 people, including six foreign nationals were detained.
Anadolu said the IS suspects apprehended in Ankara were from Iraq, Syria and Morocco. Police were searching for some 17 other suspects, the report said.
The country was hit by a wave of attacks in 2015 and 2016 blamed on IS and Kurdish militants that killed over 300 people.
The IS group also claimed responsibility for an attack at an Istanbul nightclub during New Year celebrations in the early hours of 2017. The attack killed 39 people, most of them foreigners.
Meanwhile, Turkey deported a total of 778 IS or other jihadists back to their home countries in 2019, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Sunday.
Turkey has stepped up its efforts to expel foreign fighters back to their countries of origin in recent months, accusing many European countries of not taking responsibility for their nationals and saying Turkey was “not a hotel” for foreign fighters.
Українська сторона 29 грудня звільнила 124 осіб, російські гібридні сили на Донбасі – 80 осіб, але з них погодилися виїхати на підконтрольну територію 76 …
Правозахисна організація «ПЕН-клуб Америка» привітала новини про звільнення в рамках обміну з незаконними збройними угрупованнями авторів Станіслава Асєєва та Олега Галазюка 29 грудня. ПЕН-клуб, який опікується захистом права на свободу висловлення думки, оприлюднив заяву своєї регіональної директорки в Євразії Поліни Ковальової того ж дня.
Читайте також: Обміняти беркутівців на в’язнів ОРДЛО: чому обмін посварив українців у соціальних мережах (огляд)
«Минуло два з половиною роки з того часу, як Асєєв та Галазюк були ув’язнені. Їхній ймовірний злочин – журналістика. Репортери та письменники часто були мішенями для підтримуваних Росією сепаратистів під час жорстокого конфлікту на сході України. Незаконний суд та підробне слідство розлучали цих чоловіків із їхніми родинами та роботою надто довго. Для нас полегшення, що вони прямують додому», – цитує Ковальову пресслужба ПЕН-клубу.
Ця організація неодноразово закликала звільнити утримуваного на окупованій території автора Радіо Свобода Станіслава Асєєва.
Звільнення Асєєва та Галазюка також привітав сенатор Сполучених Штатів від Республіканської партії Марко Рубіо.
«Втішні новини, що українські журналісти Станіслав Асєєв та Олег Галазюк на свободі. Підтримувані Росією сепаратисти утримували їх понад два роки тільки за те, що вони виконували свою роботу і повідомляли правду», – написав політик у своєму твітері.
Читайте також: Радіо Свобода вітає звільнення Асєєва і Галазюка в рамках обміну на Донбасі
Так само новину прокоментували в Норвезькому Гельсінському комітеті. Правозахисники нагадали про своє минулорічне звернення з вимогою звільнити Асєєва.
«НГК втішений тим, що Станіслава Асєєва звільнили сьогодні, після двох із половиною роки полону в Донецьку», – зазначили в організації.
Автори матеріалів Радіо Свобода Олег Галазюк та Станіслав Асєєв були серед заручників незаконних збройних угруповань «ДНР» і «ЛНР», звільнених в ході обміну 29 грудня.
За даними Офісу президента, Україні повернули 76 громадян.
Democratic congressman John Lewis, an icon in the fight for civil rights, announced Sunday he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
“I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now,” Lewis said in a statement.
“So I’ve decided to do what I know to do and what I have always done: I am going to fight and jeep fighting…we still have many bridges to cross,”
Lewis said he is “clear-eyed” about the prognosis and that his doctors tell him he has a fighting chance.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted that “generations of Americans” have Lewis in their thoughts and prayers, saying she knows he will be well.
The 79-year-old Lewis has represented the 5th Congressional District in Georgia since 1986 and has been a stalwart for liberal causes and human rights.
But Lewis is best known has a tireless fighter for civil rights — he marched with Martin Luther King in the early 1960s, sat down at segregated lunch counters, and was the victim of police nightsticks and billy clubs, suffering from a fractured skull.
Lewis was an original Freedom Rider, traveling on busses across the south as part of the battle for integration.
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” stayed on a strong glide path in North American theaters, taking in an estimated $73.6 million for the three-day weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday.
The Disney film, marketed as a grand finale of the nine-film “Skywalker Saga,” has had mixed reviews and was down considerably from last weekend’s lofty $177.4 million opening.
But it has compiled a strong domestic total of $364.5 million.
It again maintained a big lead over the No. 2 film, Sony’s “Jumanji: The Next Level,” an action sequel starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart, which had $34.4 million in North American ticket sales for the Friday-through-Sunday period.
In third for the second straight week was Disney’s “Frozen II,” at $17 million. The animated musical film has Broadway star Idina Menzel voicing Queen Elsa in her latest adventures.
Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel “Little Women” has been brought to the screen many times — no fewer than seven, by Variety’s count — but the new version from director Greta Gerwig has drawn strong reviews and netted $16.2 million to place fourth in its debut this weekend.
The film stars Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet, Emma Watson and Laura Dern, in the story of the joys and struggles of four sisters during the US Civil War.
In fifth was new Fox/Disney release “Spies in Disguise,” at $13.4 million. The animated children’s film features the voices of Will Smith and Tom Holland.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Sunday condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for blaming Poland for the outbreak of World War II, saying Moscow was lying to deflect attention from recent failures.
Poland’s foreign ministry had already summoned the Russian ambassador in protest on Friday, recalling that the war began with a Soviet-German alliance and that Poland lost around six million citizens in the conflict.
“President Putin has lied about Poland on numerous occasions, and he has always done it deliberately,” Morawiecki said in a statement.
“This usually happens when Russian authorities feel international pressure related to their activities…. In recent weeks Russia has suffered several significant defeats,” he added.
As examples, Morawiecki mentioned that the European Union had prolonged sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea, Russian athletes were suspended for four years for doping, and Russia “failed in its attempt to take complete control over Belarus.”
FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during his annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia Dec. 19, 2019.
“I consider President Putin’s words as an attempt to cover up these problems. The Russian leader is well aware that his accusations have nothing to do with reality — and that in Poland there are no monuments of Hitler or Stalin,” Morawiecki said.
“Such monuments stood here only when they were erected by the aggressors and perpetrators — the Third Reich and Soviet Russia.”
Ahead of the German invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to carve up eastern Europe between them in a secret clause of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
The Soviets attacked Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, and occupied part of its territory before Hitler launched a surprise attack against the USSR in 1941.
Earlier this month, Putin blamed the Western powers and Poland for World War II, pointing to various treaties signed with Nazi Germany before the conflict began in 1939.
He later also accused Poland of anti-Semitism, claiming a pre-war Polish ambassador promised to put up a statue of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Warsaw for his pledge to send Jews to Africa.
The row comes as bilateral tensions are running high, with NATO and EU member Poland fearing what has been described as Russian military adventurism and imperialist tendencies.
The U.S. carried out military strikes in Iraq and Syria targeting a militia blamed for an attack that killed an American contractor, a Defense Department spokesman said Sunday.
U.S. forces conducted “precision defensive strikes” against five sites of Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, an Iran-backed Iraqi militia, spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.
The U.S. blames the militia for a rocket barrage Friday that killed a U.S. defense contractor at a military compound near Kirkuk, in northern Iraq.
Officials said attackers fired as many as 30 rockets in Friday’s assault.
The Defense Department gave no details immediately on how the strikes were conducted. It said the U.S. hit three of the militia’s sites in Iraq and two in Syria, including weapon caches and the militia’s command and control bases.
Hoffman said the U.S. strikes will weaken the group’s ability to carry out future attacks on Americans and their Iraqi government allies.
Iraq’s Hezbollah Brigades, a separate force from the Lebanese group Hezbollah, operate under the umbrella of the state-sanctioned militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Many of them are supported by Iran.
A senior member of the Popular Mobilization Forces, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said at at least 12 fighters with the Hezbollah Brigades had died in U.S. strikes along the Iraq and Syria border. His account could not immediately be independently confirmed.
White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Sunday he did not want to speculate about North Korea and its threat of “Christmas gift,” but added the U.S. would be “very disappointed” if Pyongyang tested a long-range or nuclear missile.
During an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” O’Brien said the country would take appropriate action as a leading military and economic power if North Korea went ahead with such a test.
O’Brien added Washington has many “tools in its tool kit” to respond.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in this undated photo released on Dec. 28, 2019 by North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“We’ll reserve judgment but the United States will take action as we do in these situations,” he said. “If Kim Jong Un takes that approach we’ll be extraordinarily disappointed and we’ll demonstrate that disappointment.”
North Korea had warned of a “Christmas gift” if the U.S. didn’t meet an end of year deadline to soften its stance on nuclear talks that have been stalled since February
U.S. officials have been on alert for a potential long-range missile test since the North Korean warning.
Though Christmas holiday has passed and North Korea did not deliver the so-called “Christmas gift” to the United States, U.S.-North Korea tensions appear far from resolved.
North Korea’s nuclear program was the “most difficult challenge in the world” when President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, O’Brien told ABC News.
He also suggested that Trump’s strategy of “face-to-face” diplomacy may have forced North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to reconsider.
Talks about North Korea’s denuclearization have been largely deadlocked since a second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi collapsed at the start of this year.
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a telephone conversation initiated by the Russian side, has thanked U.S. President Donald Trump “for information transmitted via the special services that helped prevent the commission of terrorist acts in Russia.”
There was no immediate confirmation from the U.S. side.
The call also reportedly included discussion of “a set of issues of mutual interest,” according to the official Kremlin website.
Both leaders, Putin’s office said, agreed “to continue bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism.”
Посольство Канади в Україні привітало звільнення українських полонених і заручників ОРДЛО.
«Канада вітає звільнення сьогодні українських бранців та поділяє радість українців побачити їх вдома – це важливий крок вперед. Ми пам’ятаємо про тих, хто залишився в полоні, включно з тими, хто за гратами в Росії та Криму, та очікуємо на їх негайне звільнення», – написали дипломати у твіттері.
Окрім того, посольство закликало Росію виконати всі зобов’язання, які та на себе взяла під час саміту у Парижі.
9 грудня в Парижі відбувся саміт у «нормандському форматі» – зустріч лідерів Франції, Німеччини, України і Росії. На зустрічі сторони домовились, що до кінця року Київ та Москва проведуть обмін утримуваними особами за формулою «всіх на всіх» до 31 грудня.
Раніше радість з приводу повернення додому полонених та заручників угруповань «ДНР» та «ЛНР» висловили посольства США, Франції та Німеччини. …
