Russian Prime Minister Sergei Lavrov has struck a defiant tone, saying the Nord Stream 2 and Turk Stream gas pipeline projects will be launched despite U.S. sanctions.
Quoted by the Interfax news agency on December 22, Lavrov said that Russia planned to respond to the new measures.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill on December 22 that included legislation imposing sanctions on firms laying pipe for Nord Stream 2, which seeks to double gas capacity along the northern Nord Stream pipeline route to Germany.
More sanctions against Russia for its alleged interference in democratic processes abroad as well as its “malign” actions in Syria and aggression against Ukraine — known as the “sanctions bill from hell” — has been approved by a U.S. Senate committee but has not been put to a vote in Congress.
In other remarks, Lavrov said Russia was prepared to include the heavy Sarmat missile and the Avangard hypersonic missile if the New START arms treaty with the United States is extended.
Russia is also ready to demonstrate the Sarmat missile to the United States, Interfax cited Lavrov as saying on a talk show on Russian state television.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday defended a new citizenship law critics claim discriminates against Muslims at a rally in New Delhi as protests over the law continue.
More than 20 people across the country have died in clashes with police since parliament passed the discriminatory law earlier this month. The new law allows for Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities who are in India illegally to become citizens, if they can prove they were persecuted because of their religion in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The new law, however, does not apply to Muslims.
“People who are trying to spread lies and fear, look at my work. If you see any trace of divisiveness in my work, show it to the world,” Modi told the demonstration. He said the opposition Congress party was trying to “push not only New Delhi but other parts of the country into a fear psychosis.”
Critics of the new law say it violates India’s secular constitution and seeks to marginalize India’s 200 million Muslims.
Afghanistan’s incumbent President Ashraf Ghani has apparently won a second five-year term based on preliminary results announced Sunday for the disputed September 28 presidential vote.
The head of the country’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) released the long-delayed outcomes at a news conference in Kabul, noting that Ghani secured around 51% (50.64 exact figure) of the more than 1.8 million total votes.
Hawa Alam Nuristani said Ghani’s main challenger and governing partner in the outgoing unity government, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, received 39.52% of the ballots. The rest of the votes were shared among other candidates, she said.
Hawa Alam Nuristani, chief of Election Commission of Afghanistan, center, leaves after a press conference at the Independent Election Commission office in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 22, 2019.
Election authorities were originally due to release the preliminary results on October 19 but allegations of fraud from candidates, particularly Abdullah, and technical issues had forced the IEC to repeatedly delay the announcement.
“We have accomplished our task with honesty, responsibility, transparency, faithfulness and courage, respecting every single vote to ensure that democracy continues and endures in our country,” Nuristani stressed.
President Ghani announced via a Twitter post he will address the nation later Sunday to speak about the preliminary election results and “thank the nation for their patience with the process.”
But Abdullah swiftly rejected as “fraudulent” the initial results, fueling concerns the fallout from the bitterly contested Afghan presidential polls is far from over and a final outcome could still take weeks.
“We would like to make it clear once again to our people, supporters, election commission and our international allies that our team will not accept the result of this fraudulent vote unless our legitimate concerns are addressed,” Abdullah’s office cautioned in a statement.
Abdullah has from the outset questioned the validity of around 300,000 ballots and demanded their exclusion from the recounting process. He accused the IEC of trying to deliver the election outcome favoring Ghani, charges Nuristani has repeatedly rejected.
However, election commissioners have maintained candidates can approach the national election complaints commission to raise any concerns they may have before the IEC announces a final outcome of the fourth Afghan presidential vote.
In the wake of previous fraud-marred and controversial elections, the IEC for the first time used biometric machines to deter people from voting more than once in the presidential polls on September 28.
But the IEC had to purge nearly one million of the initial 2.7 million votes polled, the lowest turnout of any election in a country with more than nine million registered voters in a population of around 35 million people. This gave credence to allegations of fraud and irregularities.
Authorities attributed the record low turnout to security threats from Taliban insurgents, irregularities and technical issues facing the organizers.
The United Nations and the United States hailed the announcement of the preliminary results, emphasizing the need for Afghan election organizers and the complaints commission to conclude the process in a credible manner.
“It’s important for all #Afghans to remember: these results are preliminary. Many steps remain before final election results are certified, to ensure the Afghan people have confidence in the results,” tweeted the U.S. ambassador in Kabul, John Bass.
The head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) again praised voters for braving security threats to cast their votes, saying it is now for all Afghan voters and actors to demonstrate their commitment to protect the integrity of the final stage of the election process.
“Any decisions taken by the electoral management bodies in the final stage of the process must have clear legal and technical justifications and should be explained to the people of Afghanistan in clear terms,” stressed Tadamichi Yamamoto.
A credible outcome of the election is considered key to efforts the United States is making to seal a deal with the Taliban to reduce violence in Afghanistan and engage in peace negotiations with Afghan stakeholders to bring an end to decades of hostilities in the country.
In return, U.S. and NATO troops would commit to a “conditions-based” phased withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan. But the Taliban said on Friday it would not enter into intra-Afghan negotiations until the signing of a foreign troop withdrawal agreement with the U.S.
The insurgents have refused to hold any direct talks with the Afghan government, dismissing it as an illegitimate entity and a product of “American occupation” of Afghanistan.
Russia and Ukraine announced terms of a new gas transit deal on Saturday, under which Moscow will supply Europe for at least another five years via its former Soviet neighbour and pay a $2.9 billion settlement to Kyiv to end a legal dispute.
The deal is a major breakthrough for both countries, which have been seeking to resolve disputes over Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region and the Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Under the new agreement, Russia’s Gazprom, which supplies over a third of Europe’s gas needs, would use an agent to book the transit of 225 billion cubic metres (bcm) of the fuel via Ukraine over five years.
Of the total, 65 bcm would be shipped in 2020, falling to 40 bcm in 2021 and in each of the subsequent years, Gazprom said. The Russian gas company would also pay Ukraine the $2.9 billion before Dec. 29, in line with the amount proposed in arbitration rulings between Gazprom and Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz in 2018.
In exchange, Ukraine is expected to sign a legal settlement and withdraw all outstanding claims, also before Dec. 29, aiming to resolve the issue before the existing supply deal expires.
Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz had gone to an arbitration court in Stockholm in a number of disputes over gas prices and transit fees dating back to 2014.
The presidents of Russia and Ukraine met in Paris on Dec. 9 to discuss options for a settlement over Donbass and terms for the new gas transit deal. The talks, known as the Normandy summit, were brokered by France and Germany.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Oleksiy Orzhel said on Saturday that under the new deal both parties had an option to extend the five-year term by another 10 years. He added that the transmission tariff for the Russian gas would rise.
The deal comes as U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation on Friday that included provisions to impose sanctions on companies laying pipe for Nord Stream 2, a project that aims to double gas capacity from Russia along the northern Nord Stream 1 pipeline route to Germany.
Nord Stream 2, which will run along the Baltic sea floor, will enable Russia to bypass Ukraine and Poland to deliver gas. The group behind Nord Stream 2 said on Saturday it aimed to complete the pipeline as soon as possible, after a major contractor suspended pipe-laying activities due to the U.S. sanctions.
The United States is “very concerned” about the intensification of the conflict in Libya, with a rising number of reported Russian mercenaries supporting Khalifa Haftar’s forces on the ground turning the conflict into a bloodier one, a senior State Department official said on Saturday.
The United States continues to recognize the Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Fayez al-Serraj, the official said, but added that Washington is not taking sides in the conflict and is talking to all stakeholders who could be influential in trying to forge an agreement.
“We are very concerned about the military intensification,” the official told Reuters. “We see the Russians using hybrid warfare, using drones and aircraft…This isn’t good.”
“With the increased numbers of reported Wagner forces and mercenaries on the ground, we think it’s changing the landscape of the conflict and intensifying it,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, referring to a shadowy group of mercenaries known as Wagner.
Years-long rivalry
Libya has been divided since 2014 into rival military and political camps based in the capital Tripoli and the east. Serraj’s government is in conflict with forces led by Khalifa Haftar based in eastern Libya.
Haftar is backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and most recently Russian mercenaries, according to diplomats and Tripoli officials. The issue has come up in a meeting earlier this month between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
Pompeo said there could be no military solution to the fighting and that Washington had warned countries against sending weapons to Libya, adding that he reminded Lavrov
specifically of the U.N. arms embargo on Libya.
FILE – Mourners pray for fighters killed in airstrikes by warplanes of General Khalifa Haftar’s forces, in Tripoli, Libya, April 24, 2019.
Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) has been trying since April to take Tripoli. Earlier this month, he announced what he said would be the “final battle” for the capital but has not made much advance.
The U.S. official said the involvement of Russian mercenaries so far has not tipped the conflict in favor of Haftar. “It’s creating a bloodier conflict…more civilian
damage, damage to infrastructure like the airports,.hospitals have been targeted. But at the same time we don’t see that Haftar is gaining ground.”
Turkey agreement with Libya ‘provocative’
Turkey has backed Libya’s internationally recognized government led by Fayez al-Serraj and the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on maritime cooperation in the eastern Mediterranean as well as a security agreement which could deepen military cooperation between them.
In a first reaction from the United States on the agreements between Turkey and Libya, the U.S. official said the maritime MOU was “unhelpful” and “provocative.”
“Because it’s drawing into the Libyan conflict interests that up until now had not been involved in the situation in Libya,’ the official said. “With maritime boundaries, you’re
drawing in Greece and Cyprus…from the United States’ perspective, this is a concern; it’s not the time to be provoking more instability in the Mediterranean,” the official said.
Ankara has already sent military supplies to Libya in violation of a United Nations arms embargo, according to a report by U.N. experts seen by Reuters last month. Its maritime
agreement with Libya enraged Greece and drew ire from the European Union.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey could deploy troops to Libya in support of the GNA but no request has yet been made.
Venice’s Hotel Association is urging tourists to visit the lagoon city without fear of high waters. Hoteliers say there have been many cancellations for Christmas and New Year’s, and that bookings have dropped more than 45 percent following the exceptional high tide of November 12. They add that the city is as beautiful as ever and that all museums, shops and restaurants are functioning properly, as is transportation.
The Venice Hotel Association is calling on tourists all over the world to come to see for themselves the beauty of a city that has always lived with high tides, which hoteliers stressed, come and go. They fear that the many cancellations received by hotels following the extraordinary high tide of Nov. 12 has scared tourists away.
FILE – The ‘Acqua Alta,’ a term used to describe Venice’s exceptional tide peaks, is seen outside the city’s Luna Baglioni Hotel during November flooding. (Sabina Castelfranco/VOA)
Venice’s hotel association president, Vittorio Bonacini, said that tide certainly caused many problems in the city, with its hotels alone suffering $33 million in structural damage. He explained that the exceptionally high tide, which peaked at 187 centimeters (74 inches) and caused the worst flooding in the city in 50 years, was brought on by four factors: a rare lunar attraction, sirocco winds, extremely low atmospheric pressure on the high Adriatic Sea and winds blowing from the east at more than 126 kilometers (79 miles) an hour.
Bonacini added that the convergence of those factors was a lethal mix for the configuration of Venice and that the pictures captured at the time reminded everyone of just how fragile the city and its environment are. Bonacini said that what the pictures did not show is that the event lasted a mere one-and-a-half hours and that the tide had begun to recede after 3 hours.
Bonacini said that for centuries Venice has lived and experienced high water or “acqua alta,” regulated by the cycles of the tides which rise and recede every 6 hours.
FILE – Emergency workers are seen wading through high waters during November flooding in Venice. (Sabina Castelfranco/VOA)
Hoteliers say that very quickly after a high tide event, life in the city is back to normal. They say it was obviously harder after the exceptional Nov. 12 event, but all Venetians came together and worked very hard to return the city back to normality in a very short time and, in spite of the damage, everyone resumed their ordinary daily lives.
The tides are not an earthquake, they say, but something that comes and goes, and Venice has always lived with them. As tides come and go, soon the water disappears from the flooded squares and streets, and it’s business as usual at bars, restaurants and shops.
Hoteliers made clear that all activities function properly in the city and that Venice is safe again for everyone, including children and the elderly. They stressed that “acqua alta” is nothing traumatic, but that many hotel guests even consider it a fun experience.
Many hotels hand out high plastic boots to their guests as gifts so that they can avoid getting their feet wet and are not forced to use elevated walkways to enjoy a cup of coffee sitting at a bar in a flooded Saint Mark’s Square.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is holding talks with General Motors Co. on the automaker’s petition to deploy a limited number of self-driving vehicles on American roads without
steering wheels or other human controls, the head of the agency
said Friday.
Acting NHTSA Administrator James Owens said his agency aims to decide soon on GM’s January 2018 petition as well as on a request by Nuro, a driverless delivery startup backed by Softbank Corp., to deploy a limited number of low-speed, highly automated delivery vehicles without human occupants.
The agency’s review comes at a time of heightened concerns
about the safety of automated piloting systems in vehicles and
aircraft, a potential revolution in ground and air transportation.
“I expect we’re going to be able to move forward with these
petitions soon — as soon as we can,” Owens told Reuters, adding
action “definitely” would come next year.
“This will be a big deal because this will be the first such action that will be taken,” Owens said.
GM, the No. 1 U.S. automaker, confirmed it has been in talks with NHTSA about the petition. Nuro also confirmed it is in talks with NHTSA.
Still work to do
GM Chief Executive Mary Barra and U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao last week met and discussed the petition, officials said, but significant work remains at the technical level.
Owens said NHTSA officials are “crawling through these petitions because we want to make sure” the driverless vehicles are at least as safe as other cars on the roads.
“There’s a lot of back and forth between us and the companies,” Owens said during a Reuters interview that also included Chao and other Transportation Department officials. “We’re sharing with them thoughts and ideas and concerns. They come back to us with additional information.”
Chao said it is important that NHTSA take its time in reviewing the GM petition. Chao suggested that some auto industry officials and analysts were too optimistic about the timing for deployment of fully autonomous vehicles.
“I think the complexity was far greater than what a lot of very optimistic advocates were thinking,” Chao said.
FILE – In this Aug. 16, 2018, photo a self-driving Nuro vehicle parks outside a Fry’s supermarket, which is owned by Kroger, as part of a pilot program for grocery deliveries in Scottsdale, Ariz.
In GM’s petition, NHTSA is for the first time looking at a vehicle in which all driving decisions are made by a computer rather than a human driver. Nuro, which partnered with Kroger Co. last year to deliver groceries, seeks approval not to include a windshield in the vehicle.
The petitions — formal applications for action by the agency — seek exemptions from U.S. vehicle safety rules largely written decades ago that assumed human drivers would be in control of a vehicle. The petitions are for up to 2,500 vehicles per manufacturer.
GM initially said it hoped to win approval to deploy the vehicles by the end of this year. But in July its self-driving unit, Cruise, said it was delaying commercial deployment of cars as more testing of the vehicles was required. A new target date wasn’t specified.
Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo unit this year began offering some rides with no human driver in its limited autonomous ride-hailing service in Arizona, but with steering wheels and employees watching remote feeds of the vehicles’ cameras.
“We’re in communication with them about how they are ensuring the safe operation of the vehicle,” Owens said. “We will continue having a back-and-forth with them.”
Robert Glenn “Junior” Johnson, the moonshine runner turned NASCAR driver described as “The Last American Hero” by author Tom Wolfe in a 1965 article for Esquire, died Friday. He was 88.
NASCAR announced the death of Johnson, the winner of 50 races as a driver and 132 as an owner. He was a member of the inaugural class inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010.
“From his early days running moonshine through the end of his life, Junior wholly embodied the NASCAR spirit,” NASCAR Chairman Jim France said in a statement. “He was an inaugural NASCAR Hall of Famer, a nod to an extraordinary career as both a driver and team owner. Between his on-track accomplishments and his introduction of (sponsor) Winston to the sport, few have contributed to the success of NASCAR as Junior has.
“The entire NASCAR family is saddened by the loss of a true giant of our sport, and we offer our deepest condolences to Junior’s family and friends during this difficult time.”
From North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Johnson was named one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers in 1998 after a 14-year career that ended in 1966 and included a win in the 1960 Daytona 500. He honed his driving skills running moonshine through the North Carolina hills, a crime for which he received a federal conviction in 1956 and a full presidential pardon in 1986 from President Ronald Reagan.
His was first immortalized by Wolfe in 1965 and later in a 1973 movie adaptation starring Jeff Bridges.
As a car owner for drivers that included Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte, Johnson claimed six Cup championships. His last race win as an owner was the 1994 Southern 500 with Elliott.
Waltrip said he grew up only dreaming of one day meeting Johnson, but surpassed that by getting to drive for his hero.
“He became my boss and made me a champion, I loved that man, God Bless Jr and his family. You were the greatest!” Waltrip said on Twitter.
Johnson also is credited with bringing the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to NASCAR, which then led to Winston sponsoring its premier series from 1971-2003.
“The Last American Hero is gone and so leaves a huge dent in NASCAR racing. Junior Johnson was one of American sports’ great characters and one of the best racer and car owners ever. His mountain man drawl and tricks were legendary,” former race promoter Humpy Wheeler said. “He’ll go down as one of racing’s great ticket sellers.”
Johnson is credited with discovering drafting — using the slipstream of the car in front of you on the track to keep up or slingshot past. Using that maneuver, he won the 1960 Daytona 500, outrunning several cars that were about 10 mph faster.
As a young man, Johnson built a reputation as a moonshiner who could outrun the law on the mountain roads like no one else. He’s credited with inventing the Bootleg Turn, a maneuver that spins the car into a quick 180-degree turn and sends it speeding off in the opposite direction.
Johnson began driving at age 8, long before he had a license.
“I didn’t need one anyway,” he often said with a laugh. “They weren’t going to catch me.”
At 24, Johnson turned that talent to racing and became a superstar in NASCAR in the 1950s and 1960s. He walked away from the sport in 1996 to concentrate on his other businesses, including a line of fried pork skins and country ham.
“I had done just about everything in racing that I wanted to do,” Johnson said in an interview with The Associated Press before driving the pace car for the start of the 2008 Daytona 500, the 50th running of that event. “I do miss being in the garage sometimes, but I just wasn’t excited about going racing anymore.”
Johnson was never caught on the roads during his moonshining days, but he was arrested by federal authorities in 1956 when he was caught working at his father’s still. He was sentenced to 20 months but was released after 11 months in federal prison in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Although a lifelong Democrat, Johnson was pardoned by Reagan. In his later years, Johnson often said that the pardon in December 1986 was “the greatest thing in my life.”
Johnson is survived by wife Lisa, daughter Meredith and son Robert Glenn Johnson III.
“The Last American Hero is gone and so leaves a huge dent in NASCAR racing. Junior Johnson was one of American sports’ great characters and one of the best racer and car owners ever. His mountain man drawl and tricks were legendary,” former race promoter Humpy Wheeler said. “He’ll go down as one of racing’s great ticket sellers.”
Firefighters in the Australian state of New South Wales were bracing for “catastrophic” fire conditions on Saturday as temperatures well above 40C (104F) and strong winds were set to fuel more than 100 fires burning across the state.
Authorities asked people to delay travel, at the start of what is normally a busy Christmas holiday period, warning of the unpredictability of the fires as winds of up to 70 kph (44 mph) were set to fan flames through the middle of the day.
“Catastrophic fire conditions are as bad as it gets,” NSW Rural Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told journalists.
“They are the very worst of conditions. Given we have a landscape with so much active fire burning, you have a recipe for very serious concern and a very dangerous day.”
Flowers and the helmets of volunteer firefighters Andrew O’Dwyer and Geoffrey Keaton, who died when their fire truck was struck by a falling tree as it traveled through a fire, are seen at a memorial n Horsley Park, Australia, Dec. 20, 2019.
Greater Sydney and two surrounding areas were rated as catastrophic for Saturday, and other areas were at extreme or very-high fire danger ratings.
Close to 10,000 emergency personnel would be working across NSW on Saturday, which the NSW Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott said was likely the largest emergency deployment the state had ever seen.
“They’re there, four days before Christmas, to keep families safe,” Elliott told media.
A southerly wind change is expected late on Saturday afternoon. It is forecast to bring winds of up to 90 kph (56 mph), which Fitzsimmons said would initially worsen fire conditions before leading to a dramatic drop in temperatures.
The Gospers Mountain mega fire, which has already burned almost 450,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) to the northwest of Sydney was upgraded to emergency status early on Saturday.
The death of two firefighters on Thursday night when their fire truck was struck by a falling tree as it travelled through the front line of a fire brought the wildfires death toll in New South Wales to eight since the start of October.
Shortly after the two deaths were announced, Prime Minister Scott Morrison issued a statement saying he would return as soon as possible from a family holiday in Hawaii, a trip that had drawn sharp criticism as the wildfires crisis deepened.
Australia has been fighting wildfires across three states for weeks, with blazes destroying more than 700 homes and nearly 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares) of bushland.
The Democratic presidential candidates held their liveliest debate yet Thursday in Los Angeles, California. Seven contenders were on the debate stage and clashed over the economy, health care, climate change, campaign finance reform and who best can defeat President Donald Trump next year. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington
Organizers wanted to make it clear the 99th Miss America competition isn’t your grandmother’s beauty pageant, and their winner did just that on Thursday.
Virginia biochemist Camille Schrier won the crown just minutes after wowing the crowd with science. Dressed in a lab coat, she gave a colorful chemistry demonstration of the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide.
Schrier, a native of Pennsylvania, said she hopes to “break stereotypes about what it means to be a Miss America in 2020” by being a “woman of science” who is authentic to herself.
“I’m not the beauty queen,” she said. “I’m the brand ambassador for this organization and I’m more than just someone with a crown on my head.”
Victoria Hill of Georgia placed first runner-up.
No longer called contestants, the 51 women “candidates,” who hailed from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, competed for a $50,000 scholarship and the “job” of Miss America, a one-year paid position they hope to use as a public platform for their “social impact initiative.”
For the second year in a row, women were not judged in a swimsuit or how they look in an evening gown. Instead, a series of interviews and talent demonstrations will determine who is best qualified to wear this year’s crown.
“To make it relevant for these young women, it was important for us as a scholarship and service organization to make sure that we were reflective of this generation, meaning that you no longer had to be defined by some sort of ideal,” said Regina Hopper, president & CEO of the Miss America Organization.
Schrier, 24, who spoke on stage about having tackled an eating disorder, said she decided to compete for Miss America after the swimsuit competition was ditched, along with other changes that have been made to modernize the organization.
“I kind of figured that I would never get on that stage because I was a woman who did not want to get into a swimsuit on stage. And I didn’t have a performing talent, which is really ironic now,” she said, adding how she’s the first Miss America to win with a science experiment, a presentation she brings to schools.
Schrier is a cum laude graduate of Virginia Tech with dual bachelor of science degrees in bio chemistry and systems biology and she is currently studying to obtain a doctor of pharmacy degree. Her platform issue is drug safety.
Morgan Nichols, Miss South Carolina, had her own message on Thursday night. She walked down the red carpet wearing a billowing, long skirt topped by a plain white T-shirt that read: “Stronger.”
While Hopper acknowledges there has been some push-back from “old pageant” people who liked the old way of doing things, she said there’s been greater interest in the competition since the roll-out of Miss America 2.0.
When asked on stage whether the Miss America organization should change even more and allow married women and women with children to participate, both Schrier and Hill said no. Schrier told reporters afterward that she believes the job would be too busy for a mother.
This year also marked the first time the multi-day event is being held at Mohegan Sun, a tribal casino and entertainment complex in suburban southeastern Connecticut. Miss America organizers announced plans this summer to leave Atlantic City, New Jersey — for the second time in its history.
Miss America also switched from ABC back to NBC to broadcast the glitzy finale to an estimated 4.5 million viewers. And for the first time, preliminary events and the finale — held in Mohegan’s 10,000-seat arena — are being streamed live on the NBC app.
“We’ve had many, many large events. This probably reaches the most people,” said Jeff Hamilton, president and general manager of Mohegan Sun. “We’re just really, really excited about it.”
Miss America organizers and NBC have not yet agreed to a multi-year contract with the Connecticut casino. A decision is expected in the coming months.
Schrier succeeds 2019 Miss America Nia Franklin, a classically trained opera singer from New York.
The decision to drop the swimsuit competition did create great controversy and criticism of Miss America officials, including former board chair and former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who said in 2018 that Miss America would represent “a new generation of female leaders focused on scholarship, social impact, talent and empowerment.” Carlson has since stepped down.
Atlantic City businessmen came up with the idea for a pageant in 1921 as a way to extend the summer tourism season beyond Labor Day weekend. It became synonymous with the New Jersey seaside resort but moved to Las Vegas in 2005, returning to Atlantic City in 2013.
The U.S. is closely watching North Korea for signs of a possible missile launch or nuclear test in the coming days that officials are referring to as a “Christmas surprise.”
A significant launch or test would mean the end of North Korea’s self-imposed moratorium and raise tensions in the region. It would also be a major blow to one of the Trump administration’s major foreign policy initiatives: the drive to get North Korea back to negotiations to eliminate its nuclear weapons and missiles.
Earlier this month, the North conducted what U.S. officials say was an engine test. North Korea described it as “crucial” and experts believe that it may have involved an engine for a space launch vehicle or long-range missile. Officials worry that it could be a prelude to the possible launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile in the coming days or weeks.
Any test involving an ICBM would have the most serious impact on the diplomatic effort because it would be considered a move by North Korea to acquire the ability to strike the United States, or, even worse, to show they already have it.
“North Korea has been advancing. It has been building new capabilities,” said Anthony Wier, a former State Department official who tracks nuclear disarmament for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. “As long as that continues, they gain new capabilities to try new missiles to threaten us and our allies in new ways,”
The North Koreans warned of a possible “Christmas gift” in early December, saying the Trump administration was running out of time to salvage nuclear negotiations, and it was up to the U.S. to choose what “Christmas gift” it gets from the North.
Victor Cha, a Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said a review of the possible launch sites in North Korea show that they are a “basically ready to go.” He said the expected launch could be a test of a sea-based ballistic missile or a solid-fuel rocket.
Using solid fuel allows North Korea to more quickly fuel up a rocket, providing less lead time for the U.S. or others to prepare for a launch. Sea-based launches are also more difficult to locate and would give less warning or time for the U.S. to react.
Either one, he said, “would be a new type of problem that the U.S. would have to deal with.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters earlier this week that the U.S. has heard all the talk of a possible upcoming test around Christmas.
“I’ve been watching the Korean Peninsula for a quarter-century now. I’m familiar with their tactics, with their bluster,” he said. “We need to get serious and sit down and have discussions about a political agreement that denuclearizes the peninsula. That is the best way forward and arguably the only way forward if we’re going to do something constructive.”
Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, the special U.S. envoy for North Korea, has also warned of a possible launch.
“We are fully aware of the strong potential for North Korea to conduct a major provocation in the days ahead,” he said. “To say the least, such an action will be most unhelpful in achieving lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
At a meeting in Singapore in June 2018, Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a joint statement that said the North “commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
But negotiations stalled this year after the U.S. rejected North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of the North’s nuclear capabilities at Kim’s second summit with Trump last February.
Since then, Pyongyang’s testing and rhetoric has escalated.
Since the Singapore summit, Cha said, Pyongyang has done more testing and grown their missile capabilities. “By most metrics, the Trump policy is not succeeding,” he said.
According to the U.S. military, North Korea has launched more than 20 missiles this year. They’ve included new types of missiles as well as a submarine-launched ballistic missile, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
“The Trump administration and President Trump himself deserves some credit for allowing diplomacy,” Wier said. “That’s a good thing. Now is the time to empower real diplomacy.”
North Korea conducted a torrent of missile tests in 2017. It flew two new intermediate-range missiles over Japan and threatened to fire those weapons toward the U.S. territory of Guam. It also tested three developmental ICBMs, including the Hwasong-15 that demonstrated potential range to reach deep into the U.S. mainland.
Those ICBM tests, however, showed no clear sign that the North had perfected the technology needed to ensure that a warhead could survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry. According to experts at 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea studies, all of the 2017 launches were on highly lofted trajectories and the missiles’ reentry vehicles were not subjected to the thermal and mechanical stresses that would be created by a full-range flight.
Experts said North Korea needed additional flight tests to determine the reliability and accuracy of its ICBMs and establish a capable re-entry protection system.
Those 2017 tests triggered a sharp U.S. reaction. Trump said he would bring “fire and fury” on North Korea and exchanged threats of total destruction with Kim, touching off fears of war on the Korean Peninsula. Kim subsequently suspended ICBM and nuclear tests, allowing Trump to brag about that as a foreign policy win. The North has not performed any known tests of ICBMs since the Hwasong-15 launch in November 2017.
Esper said the U.S. has a team on the Korean peninsula now that has reached out to the North and is asking for meetings. At the same time, he said the U.S. military remains at a high level of readiness.
Esper has visited Korea twice this year since being sworn in as defense chief. A key discussion point has been the reduction in U.S. military exercises with South Korea — a move by the Trump administration to appease North Korea and woo them to the negotiating table for denuclearization talks.
The World Health Organization projects that, for the first time, the number of men smoking around the world is dropping, indicating measures to end the global tobacco epidemic are paying off.
WHO officials called it a major shift in the fight against tobacco, which every year kills more than eight million people prematurely.
Data from 143 countries shows that tobacco use among men has stopped growing, following a steady rise in the use of this deadly product during the past two decades.
During this period, WHO reports 60 million of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion smokers have quit the habit. Most of those reductions were driven by women, as male use of tobacco over the same period rose by around 40 million.
“But now we are seeing for the first time a decline in use, with WHO projecting that there will be at least 2 million fewer males using tobacco in 2020 and 5 million less by 2025,” said Ruediger Krech, WHO’s director of health promotion. “Fewer males using tobacco products means fewer people will suffer the avoidable pain and death that they cause.”
Krech says the decline in tobacco use shows tobacco control measures work. He says steps such as taxation, banning advertising and marketing as well as smoking in public places, and plain packaging of tobacco products discourage people from smoking.
The report also found that approximately 43 million children aged 13 to 15 smoke, with boys using tobacco at twice the rate as girls. It said Southeast Asia has the highest rates of tobacco use, while sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest.
WHO said most gains in reducing tobacco use have been in low- and middle-income countries. While the Americas is the world’s best performing region in terms of reduction of tobacco consumption, Europe has the slowest pace of decline.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the U.S. impeachment process “far-fetched” Thursday, making a seemingly obvious prediction that Donald Trump will be acquitted in the Senate.
Putin said Thursday at his annual news conference in Moscow that the move is a continuation of the Democrats’ fight against Trump.
“The party that lost the (2016) election, the Democratic Party, is trying to achieve results by other means,” Putin said.
He likened Trump’s impeachment to the earlier U.S. probe into collusion with Russia, which Putin downplayed as being groundless.
Putin noted that the impeachment motion “is yet to pass the Senate where the Republicans have a majority.” He added that “they will be unlikely to remove a representative of their own party from office on what seems to me an absolutely far-fetched reason.”
Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the Constitution’s ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.
The historic vote split along party lines Wednesday night in the U.S., much the way it has divided the nation, over a charge that the 45th president abused the power of his office by enlisting a foreign government to investigate a political rival ahead of the 2020 election. The House then approved a second charge, that he obstructed Congress in its investigation. The articles of impeachment, the political equivalent of an indictment, now go to the Senate for trial.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during his annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Dec. 19, 2019.
German extradition request
Turning to a spat with Germany over the killing of a Georgian citizen in Berlin in August, which German prosecutors alleged had been ordered by Moscow or authorities in the Russian province of Chechnya, Putin described the victim as a “bloodthirsty killer.” He said the man, an ethnic Chechen who was accused of being responsible for the killing of 98 people in just one raid in Russia’s North Caucasus and masterminding bombings on the Moscow subway system.
Russian officials have denied that Moscow had any relation to the killing,
Putin said that Russian law enforcement agencies had spoken to their German counterparts to demand the man’s extradition, but were given the cold shoulder and never sent a formal extradition request. He likened the victim to Islamic State group militants in custody in Turkey, some of whom come from Germany, France and other European nations.
“If those people come your way, will you like it?” Putin said. “Will you let them freely roam the streets like that?”
He argued that law enforcement agencies in Russia and Europe need to cooperate more closely to fend off terror threats.
Wide ranging news conference
Putin spoke on a variety of issues during the marathon news conference that was dominated by local issues, such as Russia’s ailing health care system and federal subsidies for the regions.
He opened it by warning about new challenges posed by global climate change, saying that global warming could threaten Russian Arctic cities and towns built on permafrost.
The Russian leader added that climate changes could trigger fires, devastating floods and other negative consequences.
Putin emphasized that Russia has abided by the Paris agreement intended to slow down global warming. At the same time, he noted that factors behind global climate change have remained unknown and hard to predict.
Putin, who has been in power for two decades, also hailed the economic achievements of his rule. He emphasized that Russia has become the world’s largest grain exporter, surpassing the U.S. and Canada — a dramatic change compared to the Soviet Union that heavily depended on grain imports.
The Russian leader also pointed at industry modernization, saying that three quarters of industrial equipment is no older than 12 years.
He said that the country has built three new airports, 12 new railway stations and the number of major highways has doubled.
The Russian economy had suffered a double blow of a drop in global oil prices and Western sanctions that followed Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. It has seen a slow recovery since 2017 after a two-year stagnation.
French President Emmanuel Macron, center left, Russian President Vladimir Putin, center right, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, left, attend a working session at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Dec. 9, 2019.
Relations with West
Russia’s ties with the West have remained at post-Cold War lows, but Putin argued that Russia has recovered and become more resilient to shocks from Western penalties and fluctuations in global energy prices.
Putin voiced hope for further moves to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine following his talks in Paris on Dec. 9 with the leaders of Ukraine, France and Germany.
He said that the 2015 peace agreement signed in Minsk and brokered by France and Germany must be observed, rejecting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s push for revising it.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine that flared up in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea has killed more than 14,000 and ravaged Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.
The Minsk deal envisaged that Ukraine can regain control over the border with Russia in the separatist-held regions only after they are granted broad self-rule and hold local elections. The agreement was a diplomatic coup for Russia, ensuring that the rebel regions get a broad authority and resources to survive on their own without cross-border support.
Zelenskiy pushed for tweaking the timeline laid out in the accord so that Ukraine gets control of its border first before local elections are held, but Putin firmly rejected that.
“There is nothing but the Minsk agreement,” Putin said. “If we start revising the Minsk agreement, it will lead to deadlock.”
He said that Russia still hopes to negotiate a new gas deal with Ukraine that will allow his country to maintain transit shipments of gas to Europe via Ukrainian territory. The Russian leader noted that Moscow would be ready to continue pumping gas via Ukraine even though the new prospective Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea is expected to come online next year.
Lenin
Putin, who once lamented the breakup of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, had some harsh words to say about Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin.
He lambasted Lenin’s policies on ethnic issues, saying that his idea to grant broad autonomy to ethnic-based Soviet republics, including their right to secede, paved way for the Soviet breakup once the Communist Party’s hold on power started to loosen.
At the same time, Putin rejected the push for taking Lenin’s embalmed body out of the Red Square tomb and burying it, saying that it would offend older people who still see the Soviet founder as a powerful symbol.
He noted that the Soviet demise spawned expectations of a “unipolar world” in which the U.S. dictates terms to others, adding that such “illusions” quickly collapsed. Putin said that China has come to challenge the U.S. as the global economic powerhouse and hailed increasingly close ties between Moscow and Beijing.
Putin, whose current term runs through 2024, remained coy about his political future. He wouldn’t answer if he could potentially extend his rule by shifting into a new governing position to become the head of a Russia-Belarus union.
He left the door open to amending the Russian Constitution, such as changing the powers of the president and the Cabinet, but noted that changes must be made carefully after a broad pubic discussion.
American folk singer and songwriter, Alice Peacock released her latest album, “Minnesota” earlier this year. The album’s title track is a love song to her home state, where her family spends their summers. Much has changed for Peacock since her last solo studio album, 2009’s “Love Remains.” She has had three kids, moved to Cincinnati and … gotten 10 years older.
Lawyers for Marry Chiwenga, the wife of Zimbabwe’s vice president, Constantino Chiwenga, have asked judges to free her on bail, four days after she was arrested for allegedly attempting to murder her husband.
Attorney Toana Nyamakura filed the bail application on behalf of Marry Chiwenga at the High Court on Wednesday.
While Nyamakura refused to speak to reporters, Kenny Mubaiwa, the father of the former model, maintained his earlier line and only said:
According to state prosecutors, when Vice President Chiwenga was flown to South Africa for medical care in June, Marry Chiwenga forced her husband to stay at a hotel overnight, denying him treatment for about 24 hours. When security agents finally took the vice president to a hospital, his wife allegedly entered his room and removed an IV and a catheter, resulting in profuse bleeding.
Marry Chiwenga was also charged with corruption for allegedly using $1 million in foreign currency – of which there is a shortage in Zimbabwe – to buy houses and luxury vehicles abroad.
Alexander Rusero, a senior journalism lecturer at Harare Polytechnic College, says the attempted murder charge might well be true.
“When you have a whole vice president accusing his wife of murder, I think there is an element of truth to it. No husband in his entire pride would want to bring, or wash dirty linen unless there is something important, and in this case, a life-threatening issue,” he said.
At the same time, Rusero said he thinks the vice president is using his office to get back at his wife, from whom he recently filed for divorce.
“It is an exercise of power, an exercise of office, because the truth is that these are really domestic issues which have nothing to do with the national psyche, which actually have nothing to do with the current efforts that the government might otherwise try to nip the issue of corruption in the bud. They fall away, they are just a matter of flexing muscle by the vice president,” Rusero said.
Mrs. Chiwenga is facing another charge of trying to obtain an official marriage certificate without the vice president’s consent. The Chiwengas have been married for eight years under Zimbabwe’s customary law, a lesser status than the country’s official civil marriage. The state says Marry Chiwenga was attempting to position herself financially and politically in case the vice president died.
State prosecutors are opposed to granting bail, saying Marry Chiwenga has properties outside Zimbabwe and could flee the country to avoid significant jail time.
Immigrants convicted of illegally reentering the U.S., driving drunk or committing domestic violence will be barred from claiming asylum under a proposed regulation announced Wednesday by the Trump administration.
The proposal, which must go through a public comment period before it is finalized, lists seven criminal areas, including some low-level crimes, that would bar migrants from claiming asylum in addition to federal restrictions already in place. It also would remove a requirement for immigration judges to reconsider some asylum denials.
It’s another push to restrict asylum by President Donald Trump’s administration, which claims migrants are gaming the system so they can spend years in the U.S. despite their ineligibility, in part because of a lower bar for initial screenings. Most of the people who claim asylum are fleeing violence, poverty and corruption in their home countries.
Immigrant advocates and humanitarian groups have criticized Trump’s hard-line policies as inhumane and have said the U.S. is abdicating its role as a safe haven for refugees.
But an immigration court backlog has reached more than 1 million cases, and border agencies were overwhelmed this year by hundreds of thousands of Central American families that require more care-giving and are not easily returned over the U.S.-Mexico border.
In an effort to stop the flow of migrants, the Department of Homeland Security, which manages immigration, has sent more than 50,000 migrants back over the border to wait out asylum claims. The migrants often are victimized in violent parts of Mexico and sickened by unsanitary conditions in what have become large refugee camps. Homeland Security officials also have signed agreements with Guatemala and other Central American nations to send asylum seekers there. The first families have already been sent to Guatemala.
The Justice Department also has taken aim at so-called sanctuary cities, like New York and Chicago, which do not assist Homeland Security agents with immigration-related requests. New York officials, for example, say they do not believe immigrants should be deported for minor offenses and won’t notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they have an immigrant in their custody. Attorney General William Barr and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf complained about such policies.
“I think what we are doing is playing politics with public safety,” Wolf said recently in a Fox News Channel interview on New York laws. “That is really concerning from protecting the homeland perspective, making sure that DHS law enforcement officers have the data and the tools that they need to protect their communities.”
The proposed new rules would make asylum seekers ineligible if they were convicted of a felony or if they were arrested repeatedly on domestic violence charges. Other crimes include: low-level convictions for false identification or unlawful receipt of public benefits. Plus: smuggling or harboring immigrants, illegal reentry, a federal crime involving street gang activity or driving while under the influence of an intoxicant.
These crimes are in addition to other bars already in place through federal asylum laws.
The changes were made so that the departments “will be able to devote more resources to the adjudication of asylum cases filed by non-criminal aliens,” according to a joint release Wednesday by the Justice Department and Homeland Security.
For the budget year 2018, there were about 105,500 asylum applications by those who came to the U.S. and were not in deportation proceedings first. The figure decreased by 25% from the previous budget year.
During the same period, the number of asylum applications by migrants who were already in court for deportation proceedings increased about 12%, to 159,473, mostly from Central America and Mexico.
According to Homeland Security data, the total number of people granted asylum increased 46%, to 38,687, in 2018. The top countries were China, Venezuela and El Salvador.
African governments and refugee activists hope a ground-breaking refugee forum will deliver much-needed funding and voice to a region whose challenges are often eclipsed by more headline-grabbing crises.
Two decades ago, John Bolinga fled his hometown of Goma, in Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive northeast.
“Rebels came and attacked our home so my father was shot dead. So I had to run to Uganda,” Bolinga said.
He started out destitute, but eventually launched his own NGO in Kampala, which today helps women and children who like himself, were uprooted by violence.
He is sharing his story in Geneva, where countries are meeting for a first-ever global refugee forum. Here and elsewhere, Bolinga says, giving refugees a voice and active role in decisions that affect their lives is critical.
“The challenge is if refugees feel they’re not welcomed,” Bolinaa said, “and also the root causes which is making refugees to flee their countries is not tackled, there is going to be a crisis.”
Africa is a leading exporter of refugees. They count among the millions making perilous journeys across the Sahara and Mediterranean for a better life in Europe … which often isn’t realized. But Africa also shelters more than one-quarter of the world’s displaced people.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech during the UNHCR – Global Refugee Forum at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 17, 2019.
Critics note that some African countries severely restrict refugees’ opportunities. Still these nations are opening doors that others slam shut.
“African governments continue to carry the extra responsibility on behalf of all of us, in hosting refugees in keeping borders open,” Ambassador Mohamed Abdi Affey said.
The official is Horn of Africa special envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which is hosting this forum.
“While we appreciate more spotlight and attention to other refugee cases like Syria and Yemen, Affey said. “… the ones in the Horn of Africa particularly, the ones who have been with us for 30 years, risk being forgotten.”
Those demands join broader calls here for wealthy nations and the private sector to do more for poorer countries that together host more than 80% of the world’s refugees.
It’s coming from countries like Ethiopia, which hosts roughly one million refugees from 26 nations. Fisseha Meseret Kindie is director of humanitarian assistance and development at Ethiopia’s Agency for Refugees and Returnees.
“We are in shortage of finance, we cannot help them. And shortage of money,” Kindie said. “And we need the support from the international community at large.”
Some feel the page may be turning here in Geneva. Cameroon representative Tirlamo Norbert Wirnkar from Cameroon, which hosts more than 400,000 refugees, is optimistic this meeting will make a difference.
“We are really hopeful that pledges are going to be made on both sides — by the international community and host countries,” Wirnkar said.
The number of journalists killed globally in 2019 is the lowest in over a decade as some war zones became less deadly, say two of the world’s leading free-press advocacy groups.
New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Paris-headquartered Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which is known by its French initials, released separate reports that identified the same trend on Tuesday.
Each of the annual reports, however, based findings on distinct research methodologies, resulting in some hard data discrepancies.
CPJ says at least 25 journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2019, the lowest figure since 2002 when 21 journalists lost their lives in the field. RSF reported 49 killed, the lowest number since 36 were killed in 2003.
FILE – A Turkish police officer walks past a picture of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi prior to a ceremony, near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, marking the one-year anniversary of his death, Oct. 2, 2019.
Both organizations emphasized that although journalist war zone fatalities have declined, the number of journalists killed in countries at peace remains consistent with years prior, and that the decrease is no cause for complacency.
CPJ: Syria, Mexico are deadliest
CPJ logs killings only in direct reprisal for reporting combat-related crossfire, “or while carrying out a dangerous assignment such as covering a protest that turns violent.” Syria and Mexico are the deadliest for journalists in 2019, its report said.
“Deaths in Syria, where at least 134 journalists have been killed in the war, have declined since a high of 31 in 2012,” the CPJ report states.
“Even more striking, the subset of journalists singled out for murder, at least 10, is the smallest in CPJ’s annual records, which date to 1992,” the organization says, adding that half of those “singled out” for murder were killed in Mexico.
CPJ also reports that the decline comes amid “unprecedented global attention on the issue of impunity in journalist murders,” highlighting the October 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the October 2017 murder of Maltese investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia.
FILE – People hold pictures of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was slain in October 2017, as they protest in Valletta, Malta, Nov. 29, 2019.
“One place where efforts to combat impunity seemingly have had no effect is Mexico,” the report said.
“The decline in the number of journalists killed is welcome after years of escalating violence, and reinforces our determination to fight impunity and do all we can to keep journalists safe,” said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director.
The report also says the Oct. 11 death of Turkish Kurdish journalist Vedat Erdemci, who died in a Turkish airstrike on the northeastern Syrian city of Ras al-Ain, represents the only foreign journalist killed in the line of duty this year.
CPJ’s report, which says military officials were the “most frequently suspected killers of journalists this year,” reflects the number of journalists killed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 13, 2019.
Like CPJ, RSF says journalism remains a “dangerous profession,” with 49 journalists killed this year, 389 currently imprisoned and 57 others being held hostage.
RSF’s data indicate that although most journalists were killed covering conflicts in Syria (10), Afghanistan (5), and Yemen (2) — compared with 34 last year — targeted assassinations in “at peace” nations such as Mexico (5) were alarmingly high.
“Latin America, with a total of 14 reporters killed across the continent, has become as deadly as the Middle East,” the report says.
“More and more journalists are being assassinated for their work in democratic countries, which is a real challenge to democracy,” said RSF director Christophe Deloire.
While fewer journalists are dying, more are ending up behind bars, RSF said. The 389 detained in 2019 represent a 12% increase since last year.
Nearly half of reporters imprisoned in state custody are in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China, which alone “holds a third of the journalists locked up in the world,” the report says.
Turkey currently has 25 journalists in prison.
Meanwhile, 57 journalists are being held hostage across the globe, mostly in Syria (30), Yemen (15), Iraq (11), and Ukraine (1).
RSF’s report reflects the number of journalists killed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2019.
Turkish military operations which began in October in northern Syria have left over 200,000 thousand Syrians displaced in northern Iraq. The refugees left all their belongings behind so people around the world have stepped up to help. VOA’s Hateen Mahmood reports on a group of Kurdish volunteers in Nashville, Tennessee doing what they can.
Rallies against a new Indian citizenship law based on religion continued for a fifth consecutive day Monday amid clashes between students and the police. The protests that started Thursday in the northeastern state of Assam last Thursday have spread through university campuses and have left at least six people dead so far. The controversial law allows non-Muslims from three majority Muslim nations to obtain Indian citizenship. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has defended the law, saying it protects non-Muslims from persecution. But critics say the Hindu nationalist government is pushing a partisan agenda and undermining the country’s status as a secular republic. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
With the U.S. House of Representatives expected to vote to impeach President Donald Trump this week, the White House is shifting focus to the Republican-led Senate, where the president will face trial as early as January. Patsy Widakuswara has this story on how Trump and his allies are planning to mount a fast and aggressive defense, with the goal of turning the tables on opposition Democrats.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a case that would allow cities to make it a crime to sleep on the streets.
The court let stand a ruling by a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, which struck down a couple of local laws in Boise, Idaho that made it a crime for homeless people to sleep on the streets when no alternative shelter is available.
The Ninth Circuit includes various western states that have a problem of astronomical real estate prices resulting in growing homelessness. Several major cities have tried to curb homelessness by passing strict local legislation.
Boise had appealed the ruling arguing it would allow homelessness to proliferate leading to public health issues.
“As long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter,” the appeals court said in its ruling.
Amnesty International said Monday that at least 304 people were killed in last month’s anti-government protests in Iran, a significantly higher number than what the rights group had reported previously.
The protests, which lasted about four days in several cities and towns in Iran in November, were sparked by a sharp rise in gasoline prices. During the violence and in the days that followed, Iranian authorities blocked access to the internet.
Amnesty said that Iranian security forces opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing scores. Iranian authorities subsequently arrested thousands of protesters as well as journalists, human rights defenders and students in a sweeping crackdown to prevent them from speaking up about the protests, the London-based watchdog said.
Tehran has yet to release any statistics about the scale of the unrest, though two weeks ago the government acknowledged that the security forces shot and killed protesters. Iranian state media referred to some of those shot and killed as “rioters”.
Amnesty said earlier this month that at least 208 were killed in the Nov. 15-18 protests. It did not provide an explanation for the new and higher death toll, reiterating that it had spoken to dozens of people inside the country and had compiled credible reports.
The majority of the deaths recorded by Amnesty were the result of gunshots to the head, heart and other vital organs. Among those killed, according to Amnesty, was a 15-year-old boy in the city of Shiraz who was shot as he passed by a protest on his way from school.
The rights group had noted how during the protests, Iran shut down internet access, blocking those inside the country from sharing videos and limiting knowledge about the full scale of the turmoil.
The protests were rooted in widespread economic discontent that has gripped the country since President Trump imposed crushing sanctions after withdrawing America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran’s national currency, the rial, has sharply plunged from the time of the 2015 nuclear accord while daily staples have risen in price.
Despite the hike in prices, gasoline in Iran remains among the cheapest in the world.
Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated his support for Hong Kong’s embattled leader on Monday even as he declared that the former British colony has faced its “grimmest and most complex year” since its return to China.
Xi praised Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam for holding fast to the principle of “one country, two systems,” and for courage and commitment during an “extraordinary period” for Hong Kong, where Lam has faced harsh criticism for how she has handled months of fiery anti-government protests.
Lam briefed Xi and Premier Li Keqiang during her first visit to Beijing since pro-democracy candidates swept local Hong Kong elections last month in a clear rebuke of her administration.
Hong Kong has been “haunted by this social unrest,” Lam said at an evening news briefing, adding that the Chinese leaders called the situation “unprecedented.”
“Given the severity of the situation and the difficulties that we are facing, I can say that the leaders are fully appreciative of the efforts needed,” she said. “I am heartened because we know that our work to stop the violence hasn’t ended. We are not out of this crisis yet.”
Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” framework that promises the city more democratic rights than are allowed on the mainland. In recent years, however, the arrests of booksellers and activists have stoked fears of a growing encroachment by the ruling Communist Party.
Pro-democracy protesters march into the night in Hong Kong, Dec. 8, 2019.
The mass demonstrations began in June in response to proposed legislation that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be tried for crimes in mainland China.
While Lam has since withdrawn the bill, protesters have continued calling for broader democratic reforms and an independent inquiry into accusations of police brutality.
On Monday, Lam again rejected calls for the investigation, a key demand of the movement. A police watchdog council that’s probing complaints should be “given space and time” to complete its report to the government by early next year, she said.
A group of international experts quit the council last week over concerns that the watchdog lacks capacity and independence. The council has no powers to ask for documents or summon witnesses.
The government is also seeking candidates for an independent review committee that will study the issues underlying the crisis, Lam said. Some people fear they would be targeted by anti-government protesters if they join the committee.
Protesters gather during a rally in Hong Kong, Dec. 15, 2019.
A lull in clashes between police and protesters ended Sunday. Police said protesters threw bricks and that officers responded with tear gas. Protesters also set fires, blocked roads and smashed traffic lights with hammers.
Video footage showed truncheon-wielding riot officers squirting pepper spray directly at a photographer in a group of journalists and ganging up to beat and manhandle him. Police alleged that the photographer was verbally abusive and obstructed officers and said he was arrested. His employer, Hong Kong online news site Mad Dog Daily, said he acted legally and heeded police instructions.
Police said they arrested 31 people Sunday and 99 over the past week, taking the total number arrested since June to beyond 6,100. They also said that officers fired 27 tear gas rounds on Sunday.
Protesters said they don’t expect Beijing leaders to ditch Lam in the foreseeable future, because that would be an embarrassment for them and hand too large a victory to the protest movement.
“If they did change, let her step down, then that means that it’s a loss in the battle,” protester Fong Lee, a social worker, said at a rally in Hong Kong on Sunday. “The Communist Party wouldn’t do that.”
Lebanese security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons Sunday to disperse hundreds of protesters for a second straight day, ending what started as a peaceful rally in defiance of the toughest crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in two months.
The violence comes on the eve of a meeting between the president and parliamentary blocs in which resigned Prime Minister Saad Hariri is widely expected to be renamed to the post. The tension also reflects deepening divisions in the country that is grappling with a severe liquidity and foreign currency crunch.
Hariri resigned Oct. 29 amid nationwide protests that have accused the entire political elite of corruption and mismanagement amid Lebanon’s worst economic crisis in decades. The protesters say they won’t accept Hariri as prime minister, demanding an independent head of government not affiliated with existing parties.
“Saad, Saad, Saad, don’t dream of it anymore,” protesters chanted Sunday.
After weeks of bickering, the political parties failed to put forward independent names, most of them insisting on keeping their political share in the government.
Riot police officers beat an anti-government protester during a protest near the parliament square in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Dec. 14, 2019.
The protests Sunday were largely peaceful, but some demonstrators lobbed water bottles and firecrackers at security forces guarding parliament. After a couple of hours, security forces chased the the protesters away, using batons and tear gas. The protesters dispersed in central Beirut. At one point, someone set fire to two tents set up by protesters in Martyrs’ Square, the epicenter for the anti-government protests for 60 days.
After hours of clashes, the army deployed around central Beirut, putting an end to the pitched street battles. The Lebanese Civil Defense said it transferred 20 injured to hospitals while it treated over 70 protesters on site. A news photographer was among the injured.
The army first deployed to separate protesters and rival supporters of political groups, according to reports on al-Jadeed. The local TV station filmed soldiers forcing protesters to retreat from central Beirut’s squares.
Tension has surfaced between protesters and supporters of the Shiite groups Hezbollah and Amal, after the later rejected criticism of their leaders. Meanwhile, the protesters were angered by what they said was the security forces’ harsh crackdown on their rallies while treading lightly when dealing with supporters of the powerful political groups.
Divisions also surfaced among the protesters who rallied in central Beirut. Some promoted confrontation with security forces to express anger at the crackdown and the government’s “business as usual” approach. Many protesters came prepared with helmets and tear gas, and they used plant pots and bins to throw up a barricade in the street.
“We have reclaim our country from this occupation,” one angry protester told LBC TV, referring to what he called a corrupt government in place for decades. Another told Al-Jadeed that on Sunday the protesters started the friction “as a reaction to unjust crackdown” the day before.
Thousands had gathered peacefully earlier Sunday dispersed by evening.
Security forces chased protesters in central Beirut, firing tear gas and rubber bullets. Some protesters hid in the commercial area surrounding the parliament and others in masks pelted officers with stones.
Demonstrators had chanted against the security crackdown. One raised a poster saying the tear gas won’t keep them away. “We are crying already,” it added, in a jab at the deep economic crisis Lebanese are facing.
Lebanese riot policemen run from firecrackers that fired by the supporters of the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal Movement groups, as they try to attack the anti-government protesters squares, in downtown Beirut, Dec. 14, 2019.
The streets leading to parliament were filled with men, women and even children. Some huddled in smaller groups while others were lifted on shoulders chanting in megaphones.
“I came back today to pressure the parliament to make the right choice tomorrow and choose a prime minister from outside the political parties. If they don’t choose someone acceptable, we will be back to the streets again and again,”said Chakib Abillamah, a businessman who was demonstrating Saturday when violence broke out.
Another protester, Huda Kerbagi, said she expected violent protests for some more days, warning that violence will beget violence, particularly in a diverse society like Lebanon. “In other revolutions you have one bloc against one bloc and in this country we have many blocs.”
One protester from southern Lebanon, who gave his name as Ali, said he came to the Beirut protest to change the rulers because “none of them feels their offenses or have any conscience. Not one of them offered an apology.”
Saturday night into Sunday saw one of the most violent crackdowns on protesters since nationwide anti-government demonstrations began two months ago. The overnight confrontations in Beirut left more than 130 people injured, according to the Red Cross and the Lebanese Civil Defense. The Red Cross said none of the injured were in serious condition and most of them were treated on the spot.
Attackers in northern Lebanon also set fire to the offices of two major political parties early Sunday, the state-run National News Agency said.
In one attack, assailants broke the windows and set fire to the local office of Hariri’s political party in the town of Kharibet al-Jundi in the northern Akkar district. Photos circulated on social media of shattered glass and the aftermath of the fire.
In a separate attack also in Akkar, assailants stormed the local office of the largest party in parliament, affiliated with President Michel Aoun and headed by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. The party said the contents of the office in the town of Jedidat al-Juma had been smashed and burned.
Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan on Sunday ordered an investigation into the Beirut overnight clashes, which she said injured both protesters and security forces. She said she watched the confrontations “with concern, sadness and shock.”
Al-Hassan blamed “infiltrators” for instigating violence and called on the demonstrators to be wary of those who want to exploit their protests for political reasons. She didn’t elaborate.
The head of the Internal Security Forces, Maj. Gen. Imad Osman, turned up at the protest rally Sunday. He told reporters on the scene that the right to protest was guaranteed by the law. “But calm down, no need for violence,” he said, appealing to protesters.
