Belarusians are voting in parliamentary elections with little question that candidates loyal to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka would dominate despite many opposition members being on the ballot.

The November 17 elections for the largely rubber-stamp parliament come with Belarus at a crossroads. Moscow is pressing Minsk on closer military and economy cooperation, prompting Lukashenka to court closer ties with the European Union, United States, and China.

The Belarusian leader, who has ruled the Eastern European country of some 9.5 million for 25 years, will face a presidential election in 2020 amid questions over how much longer his authoritarian rule can last.

Speaking to reporters after voting at a polling station in the capital, Minsk, Lukashenka said he planned to run for reelection next year. He also brushed off doubts about whether the parliamentary vote would be deemed valid by Western observers.

“I’m not in the habit of worrying about this matter,” he said.

“If society doesn’t like how the president organizes this [election], they can choose a new one next year,” he said, speaking of himself in the third person. “I won’t cling on with my cold, dead hands.”

All 110 seats in the lower house of the National Assembly were being contested by more than 500 candidates. More than 200 other candidates, many of them affiliated with the opposition, were barred, most for allegedly not submitting enough valid signatures.

Among those kept off the ballot were Hanna Kanapatskaya, a member of the opposition United Civic Party, and Alena Anisim, an independent candidate with ties to the opposition. Both were elected to parliament in 2016, becoming the first independent members of that body since 1996.

Lukashenka announced the election on August 5, approximately one year before the current parliament’s mandate was due to expire. Representatives will be elected for four-year terms.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said it would release the preliminary findings of its election observation mission on November 18.

Following the last parliamentary elections in Belarus in 2016, the OSCE cited “a significant number of procedural irregularities and a lack of transparency,” among other concerns and problems.

About a quarter of the country’s voters have already cast their ballots in early voting from November 12 to November 16, a process that is seen by the opposition as fraught with abuse. Ballot boxes stand unguarded during the early voting process and votes are counted without observers being present.

Lidzia Yarmoshyna, chairwoman of the Central Election Commission, on November 13 denied allegations of early voting violations, calling such reports “an invented scandal.”

Yarmoshyna also dismissed reports that university students were being told to vote or face problems, including being kicked out of their dorms.

An independent observer filmed a woman who tried to stuff a pile of ballots into a ballot box during early voting at a polling station in Brest, a city on the border with Poland.

Yarmoshyna, who has held the job for 23 years, responded by saying the observer who made the video should be stripped of his accreditation.

Ahead of the election, between 1,000 and 1,500 people turned out on Minsk’s Freedom Square to demand democratic change in what Western opponents of Lukashenka have described as “Europe’s last dictatorship.”

The unsanctioned action on November 8 was called by Stsyapan Svyatlou, a popular vlogger better known as NEXTA.

NEXTA regularly posts satirical videos on YouTube and Telegram that often lampoon Lukashenka and his government. The one posted on October 25 about Lukashenka’s rise to power has been viewed nearly 1.7 million times.

Some 200 opposition supporters marched in Minsk on November 15 in what was billed as the “Meeting of Free People.” No arrests were made, but four activists, including three from European Belarus, were detained by police on the eve of the rally.

Lukashenka’s government appears caught between a rock and a hard place.

Moscow is pushing Minsk to speed up military and economic integration, prompting Lukashenka to look elsewhere for leverage in talks with Russia.

The outbreak of the Ukraine crisis five years ago spooked Lukashenka and spurred the government to scale back its dependence on Russia.

Minsk is reliant on Russia for cheap oil and on roughly $5 billion worth of yearly subsidies for its outmoded Soviet-era economy that is mostly state-run, aside from its flourishing information-technology industry.

The two countries signed an agreement in 1999 which was supposed to create a unified state and their joint border is an open one under a customs union arrangement.

In comments to reporters, Lukashenka threatened that he might not sign a so-called integration deal with Moscow, scheduled for next month, to move the prospect of a union state closer.

“If our fundamental issues are not resolved: on the supply of hydrocarbons, on the opening of markets, no road maps can be signed,” Lukashenka said.

In 2016, the European Union lifted most of its sanctions against Belarus and Lukashenka’s government. Last week, he visited Vienna — his first trip to an EU country in three years.

Relations with the United States have been on the mend as well. The two countries in September said they would resume hosting ambassadors after an 11-year hiatus.

China has also warmed up to Belarus lately. In September, the China Development Bank issued a $500 million loan to Belarus after Moscow stalled on a $600 million loan.

China and Belarus are also developing the Great Stone Industrial Park, the biggest foreign investment project in Belarus.

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Lisa  Bryant contributed to this report from Paris.

French police have arrested more than 250 demonstrators across the country during rallies marking the first anniversary of “yellow vest” protest movement. 

Officials say 173 people were arrested in Paris. 

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, however, told Europe 1 radio on Sunday that that there were few legitimate demonstrators among those who rioted in southeastern Paris Saturday for several hours. 

He characterized them as “thugs, brutes who came to fight the security forces and prevent the emergency service from doing their work.” 

Demonstrators torched several cars in Paris and threw rocks and bottles at police who fired back with tear gas and water cannons. 

The “yellow vest” protest movement, named after the fluorescent jackets the French keep in their cars, morphed well beyond its initial opposition to a planned fuel tax hike, to embrace a range of other issues, from action on climate change to support for working-class families.  

French President Emmanuel Macron responded to the demonstrations by launching a national citizens debate earlier this year, and he offered concessions like tax cuts and a minimum wage hike.  

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The Afghan election commission has tried to launch another ballot recount but presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah halted the attempt by saying he won’t let his observers participate.

The September election has been mired in controversy. The election commission has tried to carry out a ballot recount. Both President Ashraf Ghani and his main rival and chief executive in the current government, Abdullah, were running for president.

Afghan election laws call for representatives of all presidential candidates to observe ballot counting.

Abdullah said on Sunday that the commission needs to stop trying to do a recount, contending many of the ballots are fake.

His announcement halted the process so it’s unclear what happens next. Abdullah had halted the process once earlier, when he pulled his observers from the recount last week.

 

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The biennial Dubai Airshow opened Sunday as major Gulf airlines rein back big-ticket purchases after a staggering $140 billion in new orders were announced at the 2013 show before global oil prices collapsed.

The airshow, which runs until Thursday, draws major commercial and military firms from around the world, as well as smaller manufacturers competing for business in the Middle East. The United States has the largest foreign country presence with over 100 companies represented.
      
The Chicago-based Boeing will likely use the airshow to emphasize its dedication to safety after crashes of its 737 Max killed 346 people. The planes have been grounded around the world, impacting customers like flydubai which has more than a dozen of the jets in its fleet and more than 230 on order.

Boeing and Biman Bangladesh Airlines signed a deal for two 787-9s aircraft, which list at $292.5 million a piece. However, buyers often get better deals from manufacturers.

 

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The Burkina Faso army said on Sunday it had killed 32 “terrorists” in two operations in the north of the country after an attack on a patrol.

One soldier was killed in the operations, which come less than a month after 37 people were killed in an ambush on a convoy transporting employees of a Canadian mining company.

The army said 24 people were killed in the first operation on Friday and a further eight in a second on Saturday.

The first operation in Yorsala in Loroum province saw a number of women who “had been held and used by the terrorists as sex slaves” freed.

Arms, ammunition and other materials were also recovered in the second operation on the outskirts of Bourzanga in Bam province, the army statement added.

The impoverished and politically fragile Sahel country has been struggling to quell a rising jihadist revolt that has claimed hundreds of lives since early 2015.

The attacks — typically hit-and-run raids on villages, road mines and suicide bombings — have claimed nearly 700 lives across the country since early 2015, according to an AFP toll.

Almost 500,000 people have also been forced to flee their homes.

The attacks have been claimed by a range of jihadist groups, including Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

The country’s badly equipped, poorly trained and underfunded security forces have been unable to stem the violence, which has intensified throughout 2019 to become almost daily.

The Sahel region, including Burkina Faso’s neighbors Mali and Niger, has been afflicted by the violence despite the presence of the regional G5 Sahel force as well as French and U.S. troops.

 

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France’s yellow vests staged demonstrations Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of a protest movement for greater economic justice that once captured international headlines.  
 
Demonstrators smashed store windows and bus stops in Paris and set bonfires in some streets. Police and firemen responded with tear gas and water hoses. At least one of the demonstrations was canceled because of the violence. 
 
Demonstrations elsewhere in France were more peaceful. 
 
Protests first exploded over a hike in fuel prices. Roughly a quarter-million people — a diverse slice of French society, including teachers, farmers, retirees and students — took to the streets a year ago. Later, their demands expanded to a range of issues, from action on climate change to support for working-class families.  

French President Emmanuel Macron responded by launching a national citizens debate earlier this year, and he offered concessions like tax cuts and a minimum wage hike.  

The demonstrations have cost French businesses and the government hundreds of millions of dollars, but today, ome yellow vests say they’ve gained nothing from protesting. Farid, a government worker, says people are still struggling to make ends meet. Others say they’ve built bonds with fellow protesters. 
 
Recent efforts to revive the movement haven’t gained traction. French protests have certainly not ended — they’ve just gone back to more traditional forms. This week, for example, thousands of hospital workers marched over lack of funds and manpower. But yellow vests may join a broader labor strike next month, which some hope — or fear — may help relaunch the movement. 

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A court in Pakistan has allowed ailing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to travel abroad for four weeks for medical treatment.

Sharif, 69, was given a seven-year jail term by an anti-graft court in 2018 for corruption and money laundering. But doctors say his health has deteriorated because he is suffering from multiple medical complications.

The high court in the city of Lahore ordered the government on Saturday to remove Sharif’s name from a so-called “exit control list” or ECL that bars people or convicts from leaving the country.

The ruling gives Sharif four weeks to seek medical treatment abroad and the duration can be extended further on doctor recommendations.

The former prime minister was released on bail last month on medical grounds but his lawyers argued his ailment required him to consult his regular doctors based in London. Sharif’s travel plans were not known.

The Pakistani government had asked Sharif to deposit financial guaranties in the form of an “indemnity bond” to ensure he comes back home after receiving treatment and serve his prison term in addition to facing several other ongoing cases of corruption against him.

But Sharif’s opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N party refused to submit the indemnity bond and instead approached the court against the government’s one-time conditional permission to travel abroad and succeeded in getting the judicial relief for its leader.

The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan had maintained it wanted assurances from Sharif because five members of his family, including two sons, previously left Pakistan and have not returned to appear in courts in corruption cases against them.  The Sharif family rejects the corruption charges as politically motivated.

Sharif was forced by the Supreme Court in 2017 to step down from the office of the prime minister for not declaring his overseas assets in his election nomination papers.

 

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Iranian protesters are on the streets in dozens of towns and cities across the country as anger spreads following a government decision to double the price of fuel. The protests appear to have gained momentum after the top Shi’ite cleric in neighboring Iraq, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, sided with protesters in a Friday prayer sermon delivered by one of his followers.

Dozens of protesters in the capital of Iran’s Azerbaijan province, Tabriz, clashed with government security forces Saturday, pelting them with stones on a major highway through the city. Amateur video showed traffic stopped as police charged protesters in an attempt to chase them off the roadway.

Protesters also blocked traffic using cars and buses in the capital, Tehran, amid an unseasonal snow storm. Other video showed demonstrators chanting slogans in front of a pro-government militia office in Tehran.

Protests were reported Saturday in dozens of Iranian towns and cities for the second straight day, following a government decision to raise fuel prices. A number of people reportedly were killed or wounded, but reports were conflicting over the exact casualty count. Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV reported that 9 protesters were killed Saturday.

Amateur video showed protesters in the region of Karaj chasing police after officers shot and reportedly killed two unarmed demonstrators. VOA could not confirm the deaths.

Arab media also reported that Iran closed a major border crossing with neighboring Iraq as demonstrations there continued unabated. Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, came out in support of protesters against government corruption during a Friday prayer sermon delivered by one of his followers.

Former Iranian president Abolhassan Bani Sadr told VOA there are many Iranians who follow Ayatollah Sistani and that his message of support for the Iraqi people undoubtedly is reverberating in Iran as well.

Bani Sadr said that Ayatollah Sistani came out in favor of the people as the source of legitimacy of the government. That is a direct rebuke against Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the principle of the Vilayet-al-Faqih. which requires that the country be ruled by an enlightened religious figure.

Bani Sadr also stressed that the economic situation in Iran is “extremely serious,” and that the country has a massive budget deficit of more than $5 billion. The decision to raise fuel prices, he insisted, was made directly by Ayatollah Khamenei, and not the Iranian parliament, inciting anger against him.

Amateur video showed protesters setting fire to billboards showing the picture of Ayatollah Khamenei in the town of Islamshahr, near the capital, Tehran.

Amateur video also showed protesters setting fire to a branch of the Iranian central bank in the town of Behbahan. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Protesters also chanted against Iran’s military involvement in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestinian territories in several towns and cities. Protesters in Islamshahr chanted “no money, no gas, screw Palestine.”
 

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A senior White House budget official arrived on Capitol Hill Saturday to testify behind closed doors before congressional investigators who are conducting an impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mark Sandy, a longtime career official with the Office of Management and Budget, is the first agency employee to be deposed in the inquiry after three employees appointed by Trump defied congressional subpoenas to testify. It remains unclear if a subpoena had been issued to Sandy.

Sandy could provide valuable information about the U.S. delay of nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine last summer, allegedly in exchange for the newly-elected Ukrainian president to launch investigations into 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son at Trump’s request. Investigators are also exploring debunked claims promoted by Trump and allies that Ukraine, and not Russia, interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Sandy was among the career employees who questioned the holdup, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

His signature is on at least one document that prevented the provision of the aid to Ukraine, according to copies of documents investigators discussed during an earlier deposition. A transcript of the discussion has been publicly disclosed.

Sandy appears before the House foreign affairs, intelligence, and oversight and reform committees.

In a statement, the three Democratic-led committees said they are investigating “the extent to which President Trump jeopardized national security by pressing Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election and by withholding security assistance provided by Congress to help Ukraine counter Russian aggression, as well as any efforts to cover up these matters.”

Sandy’s deposition comes one day after the ousted former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, testified at the congressional impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump that she was “shocked and devastated” over remarks Trump made about her during a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“I didn’t know what to think, but I was very concerned,” she told the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. “It felt like a threat.”

Her testimony was consistent with her closed-door testimony last month when she said she felt “threatened” and worried about her safety after Trump said “she’s going to go through some things.”

A career diplomat, Yovanovitch was unceremoniously recalled to Washington after Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, and his allies waged what her colleagues and Democrats have described as a smear campaign against her. Two Giuliani associates recently arrested for campaign finance violations are accused of lobbying former Republican House member Pete Sessions of Texas for her ouster.

Yovanovitch was mentioned in Trump’s July 25 call with Zelenskiy that triggered the impeachment probe after a whistleblower filed a complaint. According to the White House summary of the call, Trump said Yovanovitch was “bad news.”

An unusual exchange occurred during the hearing that began when Trump took to Twitter to again criticize Yovanovitch.  He tweeted, “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad.”

Democratic committee chairman Adam Schiff interrupted the proceedings to read the tweet and asked her to respond. Yovanovitch paused before saying, “It’s very intimidating” and added: “I can’t speak to what the president is trying to do, but the effect is to be intimidating.”

Schiff responded that, “Some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously.”

Trump’s Twitter attack drew the ire of Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the third highest-ranking Republican in the House.

She said Trump “was wrong” and that Yovanovitch “clearly is somebody who’s been a public servant to the United States for decades, and I don’t think the president should have done that.”

The White House later issued a statement denying accusations of intimidation.

“The tweet was not witness intimidation, it was simply the President’s opinion, which he is entitled to,” the statement said. “This is not a trial, it is a partisan political process—or to put it more accurately, a totally illegitimate, charade stacked against the President. There is less due process in this hearing than any such event in the history of our country. It’s a true disgrace.”

Yovanovitch also told lawmakers that she was the target of a “campaign of disinformation” during which “unofficial back channels” were used to oust her.

Yovanovitch said repeated attacks from “corrupt interests” have created a “crisis in the State Department,” which she said “is being hallowed out within a competitive and complex time on the world stage.”

The veteran diplomat said that senior officials at the State Department, right up to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, failed to defend her from attacks from Trump and his allies, including Guiliani.

Yovanovitch, who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from July 2016 to May 2019, also testified last month that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland had recommended she praise Trump on Twitter if she wanted to save her job.

During opening remarks, Schiff said Yovanovitch was “smeared and cast aside” by Trump because she was viewed as an obstacle to Trump’s political and personal agenda.

Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, described the hearings as nothing more than “spectacles” for Democrats to “advance their operation to topple a duly elected president.”

Republicans, led by Nunes and their lead counsel, Steve Castor, tried to portray Yovanovitch as immaterial to the impeachment inquiry.

Nunes suggested that Yovanovitch’s complaints are a personnel matter that is “more appropriate for the Subcommittee on Human Resources on Foreign Affairs” and declared she is “not a material fact witness.”

Castor peppered Yovanovitch with questions aimed at proving her irrelevance, including whether she was involved in preparations for the July 25 call between Trump and Zelenskiy or plans for a White House meeting between the two leaders. She answered in the negative to all the questions.

Nunes also read a rough transcript of an April call Trump had with newly elected Zelenskiy that shows Zelenskiy was eager to have Trump attend his inauguration in Ukraine. The White House released the transcript just minutes after the hearing began, apparently an attempt to dispel any notions of wrongdoing by the president.

“I know how busy you are, but if it’s possible for you to come to the inauguration ceremony, that would be a great, great thing for you to do to be with us on that day.”

Trump vowed to have a “great representative” attend the event if he was unable to.

The U.S. delegation to inauguration was led by Energy Secretary Rick Perry after Vice President Mike Pence canceled the trip.

Yovanovitch’s removal sent shockwaves through the foreign service, with more than 50 former female U.S. ambassadors writing a letter to Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to protect foreign service officers from political retaliation.

William Taylor, acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official in charge of U.S. policy toward Ukraine, testified on Wednesday during the first day of the historic televised hearings that could lead to a House vote on articles of impeachment before the end of the year.

All three diplomats have previously testified behind closed doors about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter, and to probe a discredited conspiracy theory regarding the 2016 president election.

Democrats say the open hearings will allow the public to assess the credibility of the witnesses and their testimonies. Republicans hope to discredit the impeachment proceedings and poke holes in the witnesses’ testimony.

Also Friday, David Holmes, a staffer at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, appeared before House investigators for closed-door testimony. Holmes testified he overheard Trump ask Sondland about the status of “investigations” during a phone call after Trump’s July 25 conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart.

Sondland later explained the probes pertained to Biden, a former U.S. vice president, and his son, Hunter, according to Holmes. No wrongdoing by either Biden has been substantiated.

Holmes’ testimony was one of the first direct accounts of Trump pursuing investigations of a political rival.

Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry to determine if Trump withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine unless President Zelenskiy publicly committed himself to investigating 2020 Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden for corruption.

Trump also has repeated an unfounded claim that Ukraine, and not Russia, meddled in the 2016 presidential election on behalf of Democrats and their candidate, Hillary Clinton.

Republicans have contended that Trump did not improperly pressure Ukraine to investigate political rivals for political advantage.

Under pressure from Trump, Republican lawmakers have waged a vigorous defense of the president’s actions in dealing with Ukraine over a several-month period, and they have asserted that the Democrats’ case for impeachment against Trump is non-existent.

Next week, the House panel will hold public hearings again. The schedule for testimony includes:
 
Tuesday: Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence; Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, former director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, Ambassador Kurt Volker, former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine; and Tim Morrison, a White House aide with the National Security Council focusing on Europe and Russia policy.
 
Wednesday: Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union; Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs; and David Hale, under secretary of state for political affairs.
 
Thursday: Fiona Hill, former National Security Council senior director for Europe and Russia.

 

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The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump centers on the question of whether he suspended close to 400 million dollars in U.S. military aid to Ukraine to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate one of his own political opponents. Top U.S. diplomats and other foreign policy experts said any threat to that U.S. security assistance sends the wrong signal, both to Ukraine, and to the stronger power it is fighting on its own soil, Russia. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
 

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New rules from the Trump administration Friday would require insurers and hospitals to disclose upfront the actual prices for common tests and procedures to promote competition and push down costs.

But the sweeping changes face stiff pushback from the health care industry. A coalition of major hospital groups quickly announced that hospitals will sue to block key provisions, which in any case don’t take effect immediately.

Even in an ideal world where information flows freely, patients and their families would have to deal with a learning curve to get comfortable with the byzantine world of health care billing. What sounds like the same procedure can have different billing codes depending on factors that may not be apparent to an untrained person.

Speaking at a White House event, President Donald Trump skipped over potential difficulties, at times making it sound like openness in health care is a done deal.

“After many, many years, we finally have transparency,” Trump said. “And within about 12 months I think it will be fully implemented, and we can even say probably a shorter period of time than that.”

Months, years from taking effect

A final rule issued Friday would apply to hospitals and a proposed regulation would apply to insurance plans. Disclosure requirements for hospitals would not take effect until 2021; for insurers, the timing is unclear. The requirements do not directly affect doctors.

Officials say the rules would shine a spotlight on the confusing maze of health care prices, allowing informed patients to find quality services at the lowest cost. Prices for an MRI scan for example can vary by hundreds of dollars depending on where it’s done.

“American patients have been at the mercy of a shadowy system with little access to the information they need to make decisions about their own care,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, pointing out that many hospital procedures are scheduled in advance, and that gives patients a chance to shop around.

Under the administration rules, insurers would have to provide patients with online access to individualized estimates, in advance, for what they would owe out-of-pocket for covered services. Most people now see such information after the fact, when their “explanation of benefits” form arrives in the mail.

Going too far?

Hospitals and insurers say the push for disclosure goes too far. They say the government would force them to publicly disclose rates they negotiate as part of private contracts that normally are beyond the purview of authorities.

“This rule will introduce widespread confusion, accelerate anticompetitive behavior among health insurers, and stymie innovations,” the American Hospital Association and three other major hospital groups said in a statement. “Our four organizations will soon join with member hospitals to file a legal challenge to the rule on grounds including that it exceeds the administration’s authority.”

Insurers also contend the plan could backfire, prompting providers that are accepting a bargain price to try to bid up what they charge if others are getting more. 

“Transparency should be achieved in a way that encourages — not undermines — competitive negotiations,” Matt Eyles, head of the industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a statement.

Azar dismissed such criticism. 

“Point me to one sector of the American economy where having price information in a competitive marketplace actually leads to higher prices,” he said.

With the hospital industry going to court, it could be a long time before the complex litigation is resolved and consumers might see changes.

For hospitals, the rule would require:

• Publication in a consumer-friendly manner of negotiated rates for the 300 most common services that can be scheduled in advance, such as a knee replacement, a Cesarean-section delivery or an MRI scan. Hospitals would have to disclose what they’d be willing to accept if the patient pays cash. The information would be updated every year.
• Publication of all their charges in a format that can be read on the internet by other computer systems. This would allow web developers and consumer groups to come up with tools that patients and their families can use.

For insurers, the rule would require:

• Creating an online tool that policyholders can use to get a real-time personalized estimate of their out-of-pocket costs for all covered health care services and items, from hospitalization, to doctor visits, lab tests and medicines.
• Disclosure on a public website of negotiated rates for their in-network providers, as well as the maximum amounts they would pay to an out-of-network doctor or hospital.

The disclosure requirements would carry out an executive order Trump signed this summer.
 

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Texas’ top criminal appeals court on Friday halted the scheduled execution of inmate Rodney Reed, whose conviction is being questioned by new evidence that his supporters say raises serious doubt about his guilt. 

The stay of execution by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals came just hours after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had recommended delaying the lethal injection. 

Reed, 51, had been set for lethal injection Wednesday evening for the 1996 killing of Stacey Stites, 19. Prosecutors say Reed raped and strangled Stites as she made her way to work at a supermarket in Bastrop, a rural community about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of Austin. 

Celebrity support

Reed’s efforts to stop his execution have received support from such celebrities as Beyonce, Kim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey. Lawmakers from both parties, including Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz, have also asked that officials take a closer look at the evidence in the case. 

In its four-page order, the appeals court said Reed’s case should be returned to the trial court in Bastrop County so it could examine his claims that he is innocent and that prosecutors suppressed evidence and presented false testimony. 

Bryce Benjet, an attorney with the Innocence Project, which is representing Reed, said defense attorneys were “extremely relieved and thankful” to the appeals court. 

“This opportunity will allow for proper consideration of the powerful and mounting new evidence of Mr. Reed’s innocence,” Benjet said in a statement. 

The Texas Attorney General’s Office declined to comment Friday on whether it would appeal the order staying Reed’s execution. 

Earlier Friday, the parole board had unanimously recommended a 120-day reprieve for Reed. The board rejected Reed’s request to commute his sentence to life in prison. 

Next step: Governor’s office

The parole board’s decision was to go next to Governor Greg Abbott, who hasn’t said whether he would accept or reject it or do nothing. 

The stay likely makes Abbott’s decision moot. Since taking office in 2015, Abbott has halted only one imminent execution, in 2018. 

Since Texas resumed executions in 1982, only three death row inmates have had their sentences commuted to life in prison by a governor within days of their scheduled executions. 

Reed has other appeals pending, including with the U.S. Supreme Court. His supporters have held rallies, including an overnight vigil on Thursday in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. It was unclear if a rally planned for Sunday in front of the Texas governor’s mansion would still take place. 

Reed has long maintained he didn’t kill Stites and that her fiance, former police officer Jimmy Fennell, was the real killer. Reed says Fennell was angry because Stites, who was white, was having an affair with Reed, who is black. 

Fennell’s attorney has said his client didn’t kill Stites. Fennell was paroled last year after serving time in prison for sexual assault. 

In their most recent motion to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Reed’s lawyers alleged prosecutors suppressed evidence or presented false evidence related to Fennell. 

Prosecutors say Reed’s semen was found in the victim, his claims of an affair with Stites were not proven at trial, Fennell was cleared as a suspect and Reed had a history of committing other sexual assaults. 

Reed’s lawyers say his conviction was based on flawed evidence. They have denied the other sexual assault accusations made by prosecutors. 

DNA testing sought

Reed’s attorneys filed a federal lawsuit in August to compel DNA testing of crime scene evidence, including the suspected murder weapon. His lawyers say the testing, which has been fought for years by prosecutors, could identify someone else as the murderer. The lawsuit is still pending. 

In recent weeks, Reed’s attorneys have presented affidavits in support of his claims of innocence, including one by a former inmate who claims Fennell bragged about killing Stites and referred to Reed by a racial slur. Reed’s lawyers say other recent affidavits corroborate the relationship between Stites and Reed and show Fennell was violent and aggressive toward her. 

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Israel says its missile defenses have intercepted two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

The firings early Saturday raise more doubts about the fate of a fragile cease-fire that was announced Thursday.

The Egyptian-brokered lull ended two days of escalation between Israel and the Islamic Jihad.

A rare Israeli targeted killing of a senior commander from the Iranian-backed group triggered the worst bout of cross-border fighting in years.

Hamas, the larger Islamic group controlling Gaza, stayed on the sideline, fearing its participation could cause an all-out war.

The Islamic Jihad said it launched hundreds of rockets toward Israel in retaliation for the killing of the commander Bahaa Abu el-Atta.

Subsequent Israeli airstrikes killed 34 Palestinians, including eight children and three women. There were no Israeli deaths.

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A federal jury found Friday that an anti-abortion activist had illegally recorded workers secretly at Planned Parenthood clinics and was liable for violating federal and state laws. The jury ordered him and others to pay nearly $1 million in damages. 
 
After a six-week civil trial, the San Francisco jury found David Daleiden had  trespassed on private property and had committed other crimes in recording the 2015 videos. He and the Center for Medical Progress contended that Planned Parenthood illegally sells fetal tissue, which the group says it does not do. 
 
Daleiden and a co-defendant, Sandra Merritt, are set to go on trial starting Dec. 6 on 14 counts each of invasion of privacy. They have pleaded not guilty and argue they are undercover journalists shielded from prosecution. 
 
Planned Parenthood sued the activists as part of what the group called “a multiyear illegal effort to manufacture a malicious campaign.” 
 
“The jury recognized today that those behind the campaign broke the law in order to advance their goals of banning safe, legal abortion in this country, and to prevent Planned Parenthood from serving the patients who depend on us,” the organization’s acting president and CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson, said in a statement. 

‘Biased judge’
 
Daleiden said the jury had reached the verdict after a “biased judge with close Planned Parenthood ties spent six weeks trying to influence the jury with pre-determined rulings and suppressed the video evidence.” 
 
The judge barred the release of some of the videos. 
 
Daleiden and Merritt sneaked into numerous Planned Parenthood meetings and other abortion rights gatherings and shot undercover videos of their attempts to buy fetal material. They published the videos in 2015. 
 
Planned Parenthood says it doesn’t sell fetal material for profit and charged only modest expenses to cover costs of donating it for medical research. The organization stopped seeking reimbursement for its shipping costs, and it never faced charges. 
 
Planned Parenthood said punitive and compensatory damages from Friday’s ruling totaled $2.3 million. 

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U.S. regulators on Friday approved a new medicine that can prevent some extremely painful sickle cell disease flare-ups.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Novartis AG’s Adakveo for patients 16 and older. The monthly infusion, which halves occurrences of sickle cell pain episodes, will carry a list price of roughly $85,000 to $113,000 per year, depending on dosing. Insured patients generally will pay less.

Sickle cell disease is one of the most common inherited blood disorders, affecting about 100,000 Americans, most of them black, and about 300 million people worldwide.

Its hallmark is periodic episodes in which red blood cells stick together, blocking blood from reaching organs and small blood vessels. That causes intense pain and cumulative organ damage that shortens the lives of people with the disease.

“The duration and severity of these pain crises worsens with aging. Often patients die during one of these crises,” said Dr. Biree Andemariam, chief medical officer of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America.

Andemariam, a former Novartis adviser, said the drug appears to work better the longer patients receive it.

The Swiss drugmaker is continuing patient testing to determine whether Adakveo, also known as crizanlizumab, lengthens patients’ lives, said Ameet Mallik, the company’s head of oncology and blood disorder research.

He said severe pain episodes send U.S. patients to emergency departments about 200,000 times per year. About 85% are hospitalized for days to a week, running up big bills.

The debilitating condition also causes anemia, delayed growth, vision damage and painful swelling in hands and feet, making it hard for some people to maintain jobs or attend school.

Current treatments include a 21-year-old cancer drug called hydroxyurea and Endari, approved in 2017.

In patient studies, Endari reduced frequency of pain episodes about 25% and hydroxyurea reduced them by half. Hydroxyurea can have serious side effects and requires weekly blood tests. 

Both drugs have complicated dosing and don’t work — or stop working — in some patients.

In a one-year study of 198 patients, those getting the higher of two Adakveo doses averaged 1.6 pain episodes over that year and 36% had none. A comparison group on placebo averaged three pain episodes that year and 17 percent had none. Adakveo’s side effects included influenza and high fever.

Danielle Jamison, of Islandton, South Carolina, has suffered with sickle cell pain episodes since shortly after birth. The 35-year-old previously had a half-dozen pain crises requiring hospital trips each year. Those lessened by about half when she began taking hydroxyurea nine years ago.

She hasn’t been in the hospital since she started taking crizanlizumab two years ago as part of a patient study. She still has mild daily pain, but she said she can now take care of her home and drive her 9-year-old daughter to activities.

“It’s made a huge difference in how much I’m able to do,” Jamison said.

All three drugs work through different mechanisms, so doctors may switch patients to Adakveo or to add it to their current treatment, said Andemariam, head of University of Connecticut’s sickle cell treatment and research program.

Meanwhile, numerous drugs to treat sickle cell disease and gene therapies to possibly cure it are being tested.

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The founder of a Malawian maternity clinic for poor women says it has set a record – delivering more than 8,800 babies with not a single death of mother or child. For her efforts improving access to safe childbirth, Charity Salima has become known as “Malawi’s Florence Nightingale,” the English founder of modern nursing. Lameck Masina reports from Lilongwe.
 

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The Hong Kong government condemned Friday an attack by a “violent mob” on the city’s justice secretary in London, the first direct altercation between demonstrators and a government minister during months of often violent protests.

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng, who was in London to promote Hong Kong as a dispute resolution and deal-making hub, was targeted by a group of protesters who shouted “murderer” and “shameful.”

A statement by the Hong Kong government said Cheng suffered “serious bodily harm” but gave no details. Video footage of the incident showed Cheng falling to the ground.

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam said in a statement she strongly condemned what she described as an attack on Cheng.

The Hong Kong government said in a separate statement: “The secretary denounces all forms of violence and radicalism depriving others’ legitimate rights in the pretext of pursuing their political ideals, which would never be in the interest of Hong Kong and any civilized society.”

Street cleaned dies, city paralyzed

The incident came amid escalating violence in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, where a student protester died earlier this month after falling from a parking garage during demonstrations.

A 70-year-old street cleaner, who videos on social media showed had been hit in the head by a brick thrown by “masked rioters,” died Thursday, authorities said.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department expressed profound sadness Friday at the death of its cleaning worker and said it was providing assistance to his family.

Anti-government protesters paralyzed parts of Hong Kong for a fifth day Friday, forcing schools to close and blocking some highways as students built barricades in university campuses and authorities struggled to tame the violence.

Protesters used barriers and other debris to block the Cross-Harbour Tunnel that links Hong Kong island to Kowloon district, leading to severe traffic congestion. The government once again urged employers to adopt flexible working arrangements amid the chaos.

Protesters call for elections

Thousands of students remain hunkered down at several universities, surrounded by piles of food, bricks, petrol bombs, catapults and other homemade weapons.

Police said the prestigious Chinese University had “become a manufacturing base for petrol bombs” and the students’ actions were “another step closer to terrorism.”

Those protesters demanded that the government commit to holding local elections Nov. 24. The protesters and warned of unspecified consequences if the government didn’t meet their demand within 24 hours.

The district council elections are seen as a barometer of public sentiment in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Pro-democracy activists say the government may use the escalating violence as a reason to cancel the elections.

Around 4,000 people, between the ages of 12 and 83, have been arrested since the unrest escalated in June.

No end in sight to violence

The demonstrations have paralyzed parts of the city and battered the retail and tourism sectors, with widespread disruptions across the financial center and no end in sight to the violence and vandalism.

The protests escalated in June over a now-scrapped extradition bill that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial. They have since evolved into calls for greater democracy, among other demands.

Cheng, the embattled Lam’s chief legal adviser, played a key role in pushing forward the proposed extradition bill that ignited the protests.

The months-long protests have plunged the former British colony into its biggest political crisis in decades and pose the gravest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. Xi, speaking in Brazil on Thursday, said stopping violence was the most urgent task for Hong Kong.

The territory is also expected to confirm Friday it has fallen into recession for the first time in a decade amid concerns the economy could be in even worse shape than feared as the anti-government protests take a heavy toll.

Alibaba Group Chairman Daniel Zhang, however, said Hong Kong’s future is “bright” as the e-commerce giant kicked off a retail campaign for its secondary listing in the city.

Many in Hong Kong are angry at what they see as China stifling freedoms guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” formula put in place when Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

China denies interfering in Hong Kong and has blamed Western countries, including Britain and the United States, for stirring up trouble. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Roughly one in 10 migrants pushed back to Mexico to await U.S. court hearings under a Trump administration program have been caught crossing the border again, a top border official said Thursday.

Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said during a White House briefing that migrants returned to Mexico under a program known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) have a 9% recidivism rate. Many of those migrants intend to seek asylum in the United States.

“Unfortunately, some of the individuals in the MPP program are actually going outside the shelter environment,” Morgan said. “They’re re-engaging with the cartels because they’re tired of waiting. And that’s when we’re hearing that some of that further abuse and exploitation is happening.”

Nearly 59,000 migrants have been returned to Mexico under the program, according to a CBP spokesman.

Program to deter Central Americans

The administration of President Donald Trump launched the MPP program in January as part of a strategy to deter mostly Central American families from trekking to the U.S. border to seek asylum. Trump officials have argued the bulk of such claims for protection lack merit and that migrants are motivated by economic concerns.

Immigration advocates say asylum seekers sent to wait in Mexican border towns, for the weeks or months it takes for their cases to wind through backlogged immigration courts, face dangerous and possibly deadly conditions.

Migrants who claim fear of returning to Mexico can ask to stay in the United States for the duration of their court case.

But just 1% of cases have been transferred out of the program, according to a Reuters analysis of federal immigration court data as of early October.

Report criticizes program

A report released by the office of U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley on Thursday criticized the MPP program and the Trump administration’s handling of a migrant surge earlier this year.

The report, citing interviews with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees, said political supervisors at the agency intervened to override asylum officer decisions to remove migrants from the MPP program.

An agency spokeswoman called the allegation “completely false” and said political appointees do not conduct reviews of such decisions.

Border Patrol arrested 35,444 people in October, the fifth consecutive monthly decline this year, according to a CBP official. The administration has said the MPP program and other measures have helped lead to a decline in border arrests.”

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On Aug. 13, 2018, Bobi Wine was in campaign mode.

The popular musician-turned-parliamentarian was attending a rally for Kassiano Wadri, a politician from Uganda’s Arua region, in the north of the country.

There, Wine says, government forces ambushed, arrested and tortured him.

On his Facebook page, Wine later shared his ordeal.

“The marks on my back, ankles, elbows, legs and head are still visible. I continued to groan in pain and the last I heard was someone hit me at the back of the head with an object — I think a gun butt or something,” Wine wrote. “That was the last time I knew what was going on.”

Wine’s driver, Yasin Kawuma, was fatally shot during the violence that day. 

Wine, a vocal critic of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, is certain security forces knew where he’d be and meticulously planned their attack.

Reporting by The Wall Street Journal this summer confirms his claims and shows that Ugandan intelligence officials, with the help of employees of Chinese tech giant Huawei, hacked into Wine’s WhatsApp and Skype accounts to monitor the dissident and his supporters.

In an interview Wednesday, Wine told VOA he’s now adopted a sophisticated routine to throw government spies off his trail using burner phones and old-fashioned code words.

“What I’ve been doing to protect myself and the people that I communicate with is, one, to use coded language when I’m talking on the phone that is known,” he told VOA.

“I’ve been forced to devise means of changing telephone numbers and telephone headsets constantly to keep them on the wrong track,” Wine added. “And sometimes, when I have to move to a place and I don’t want to be followed by the regime, I’m forced to leave my phone behind or put my phone in a car that is going in a different region of the country while I’m going into another one. That alone is how I’m trying to maneuver to go around it.”

Denials

Huawei, who helped build a large portion of Africa’s cellular backbone, has also been implicated in allegations of spying on African diplomacy on behalf of the Chinese government.

But Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, firmly denies spying claims and says his company refuses to give up confidential information of clients and “would definitely say ‘no’ to such a request,” in a rare press conference at the company’s headquarters in January.

In a recent interview with VOA, Zambian President Edgar Lungu also addressed the question of spying on dissidents and opposition parties in the country. 

“There was this story that Huawei, the Chinese company, that I am spying on opposition party leaders, their phones and so on,” he said, describing what he thinks is a spread of misinformation.

He further explained that these claims are detrimental to the country’s image and foreign policy. 

“I think that we need to do more … so that the truth is given to the people, so that we are not demonized over fake news stories,” he said.

‘They were tracking me’

Wine, who was born Robert Kyagulanyi, says his first-hand experiences reveal the scope and sophistication of government-backed spying.

“Among the things I got to learn was that they were listening to my calls and having a copy of all that was WhatsApp chats and many other things, following my location every time,” he said. “I even learned that day when I was arrested and brutalized in Arua, it was because of that technology that they got that they could listen to my phones, and they were tracking me. And they know that they follow me on my phone and they know where I am and listening to my calls.”

The government’s paranoia won’t stop, Wine suggested, as long as they perceive him as a threat.

And he has no plans to back down.

Wadri, the candidate Wine campaigned for in 2018, won his seat in parliament.

Now Wine is gearing up for a new kind of campaigning, after announcing this summer his intention to run for president in Uganda’s 2021 polls.

VOA’s Peter Clottey contributed to this report.

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The parents of an American journalist who has been missing in Syria for the past seven years told VOA in an interview that they are convinced he is still alive and that the U.S. government should do what it can to reveal his whereabouts and ensure his safe return home.

The 38-year-old journalist, Austin Tice, went to Syria in May 2012 to cover the war as it was entering its second year. He was arrested three months later in August at a checkpoint in Darayya suburb, south of the capital Damascus, and has been missing since.

“In the event that Austin sees this interview, [we want him to know] that his mother and father love him very much and his siblings can’t wait to see him again,” Tice’s father, Marc Tice, told VOA. “We know he is strong and we know he will hang in there, and we can’t wait to hold him in our arms.”

Marc Tice said he and his wife, Debra Tice, believe their son is apprehended in Syria, most likely in areas currently under the Syrian government control. The couple have been trying relentlessly for years to secure the release of their son, albeit with no success.

“It doesn’t really matter who is holding him, the thing that really matters is who has the authority to secure his safe relief,” said his mother, Debra. “We know he is still alive; he is somewhere in Syria, most likely in Damascus or its whereabouts. He is staying alive because he wants to walk free.”

The parents have visited Lebanon several times hoping to get into Syria to appeal directly to the Syrian government. They were never granted a visa to enter the war-torn country.

A Marine

Tice is a veteran Marine officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. A graduate of the Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, he worked as a freelance journalist, reporting for several outlets such as The Washington Post, CBS and the French news agency.

His reporting on Syria focused on the escalating conflict and its consequences on vulnerable people, particularly children.

In a photo he posted on Flickr, June 19, 2012, he wrote, “I have more pictures of beautiful Syrian kids than I could ever possibly use. It breaks my heart to see what is happening to them. No kid should even have to know that things like this happen in the world, much less be forced to live and sometimes die this way.”

He was detained less than two months later, on Aug. 14, 2012.

Nearly five weeks after his disappearance, a video surfaced on social media showing Tice blindfolded and in distress among a group of men leading him away in what observers believe to be a staged video, according to the Tice family. Concurrently, multiple pro-Syrian regime news outlets also reported him being “still alive” and accused him of being a spy for Israel. 

The U.S. State Department has said it also believes Tice is still alive and it is actively working to bring him back. The FBI has allocated a $1 million reward for any information leading to his return.

His parents, however, say they believe more should be done to press the Syrian government for more information. The couple on Tice’s 38th birthday, Aug. 11, launched the “Ask About Austin” campaign to garner more popular support.

Organizations such as the National Press Club and Reporters Without Borders have also joined their efforts.

Congressional outreach

Last September, the National Press Club led teams of volunteers in a congressional outreach effort to inform congressional teams of Tice’s case. It lobbied U.S. lawmakers to sign a bipartisan letter to President Donald Trump urging “continued efforts to free Austin and return him to his family.”

The letter was sent to Trump after receiving 52 signatures from the Senate and 121 from the House of Representatives.

“We strongly urge you that you continue to use the full weight of your national security team — including dispatching the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs — to secure his release. Seven years is simply too long for Austin to be separated from his loved ones,” read the letter led by Representative Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The campaign came after the release two foreigners recently from their detention in Syria, American Sam Goodwin and Canadian Kristian Lee Baxter. Both were released through Lebanon’s mediation.

Unbearable environment

Dozens of Syrian and foreign journalists who went to Syria to document the war have been killed or injured over the years.

According to the World Press Freedom Index, Syria continues to be an “unbearable environment” for journalists, where the risk of arrest, abduction or death makes journalism “extremely dangerous” in the country.

The Syrian Center for Journalistic Freedoms said in its September report that since the Syrian uprising started in 2011, about 1,251 violations were committed against journalists. It claimed that half of these violations were committed by the Syrian government, while the Islamic State group seconded the regime in targeting journalists.

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Pope Francis has appointed a fellow Jesuit to be the Vatican’s finance minister, filling a crucial position left vacant for more than two years after Cardinal George Pell left Rome to stand trial on sex abuse charges in his native Australia.

The appointment Thursday of the Rev. Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, a 60-year-old Spanish economist, came one day after Australia’s Supreme Court agreed to hear Pell’s appeal of his conviction that he molested two youths in the 1990s. Pell denies the charges.

Francis created the Secretariat for the Economy, and named Pell its prefect, as a key part of his financial reform plans after being elected pope in 2013. Pell tried to wrestle the Holy See’s opaque finances into order, but his efforts were rebuffed repeatedly by the Vatican’s old guard.

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is making a late entry into the Democratic presidential race.

Patrick announced his bid Thursday in an online video, saying, “I am today announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”

Patrick made history as the first black governor of Massachusetts and has close ties to former President Barack Obama and his network of political advisers. But he faces significant fundraising and organizational hurdles less than three months before voting begins.

Patrick’s announcement comes as some Democrats worry about the strength of the party’s current field of contenders. Another Democrat — former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — is also weighing a last-minute bid for the party’s nomination.

 Bloomberg has taken steps toward launching a last-minute presidential campaign, filing candidate papers in Alabama and Arkansas. Even 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton this week said in a BBC interview that she is “under enormous pressure from many, many, many people to think about it,” adding that she has no such plans but still would “never, never, never say never.”

The moves reflect uncertainty about the direction of the Democratic contest with no commanding front-runner. Joe Biden entered the race as the presumptive favorite and maintains significant support from white moderates and black voters, whose backing is critical in a Democratic primary. But he’s facing spirited challenges from Patrick’s home-state senator, Elizabeth Warren, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, progressives whose calls for fundamental economic change have alarmed moderates and wealthy donors.

Patrick could present himself as a potential bridge across the moderate, liberal and progressive factions — as candidates like Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker are trying to do.

 

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