European Union foreign ministers on Monday debated ways to keep the Iran nuclear deal intact after the Islamic Republic began enrichment work at its Fordo site in a fresh act of defiance that seems likely to spell the end of the painstakingly crafted international agreement.
 
At talks in Brussels, the EU powers that signed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — Britain, France and Germany — were expected to signal what action should be taken as the bloc awaits a new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency later Monday on whether Iran is still complying with its commitments.
 
“We want to preserve the [deal], but Iran must finally return to its commitments and comply with them, otherwise we will reserve the right to use all mechanisms that are set out in the agreement,” said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. 

The EU sees the nuclear pact as a key component of regional and global security and has struggled to stop the nuclear deal from unraveling since President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of it over a year ago, triggering debilitating economic sanctions against Iran.
 
“It’s a great agreement and we need to keep it alive,” Slovakia’s foreign minister, Miroslav Lajcak, told reporters. But it remains unclear what more the EU can do as Iran’s economy buckles under the weight of the sanctions, apart from renewing its appeals for restraint and dialogue.
 
The Europeans have poured a lot of cash and credibility into ensuring the Iran nuclear deal stays afloat. A safeguard was built to keep money flowing to Tehran, but it has not been effective. A system is in place to protect European companies doing business in Iran from U.S. sanctions, even though many remain reluctant because they fear being shut out of the more lucrative American market if they do.
 
One option could be to trigger the dispute mechanism in the agreement, which would open a window of up to 30 days to resolve the problem. Some are even calling on the Europeans to impose their own sanctions on Iran.
 
“Sanctions, sanctions, sanctions. We’re not going to solve the problem like that,” said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn. “Right now, we should wait for the report from the IAEA to see where we stand.”
 
Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said he was “very worried about Iran’s behavior,” after uranium gas was injected into centrifuges at Fordo last Thursday to produce low-enriched uranium to fuel nuclear power plants. Under the deal, Tehran was not supposed to do this at the site until 2030.
 
However, the Europeans are hardly surprised by Iran’s actions. They believe the writing has been on the wall ever since Trump withdrew from the nuclear agreement last year, claiming that it does not to stop Tehran from developing missiles or undermining stability in the Gulf region.
 
  “Sadly, it’s a degradation that was to be expected,” Asselborn said.
 
   

 

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Thousands of people marched in Paris and other French cities against Islamophobia targeting Western Europe’s largest Muslim population.

Muslims joining the march through the rainy streets of the capital say they have had enough.

Mohamed, here with his sister Khadija, says the two feel completely integrated in French society. But he says he’s faced discrimination — including being asked to change his name during a job interview to something more traditionally French.

A recent IFOP poll finds four in 10 French Muslims also believe they are discriminated against because of their religion. Another survey finds more than 60 percent of respondents considered Islam incompatible with French values.

While anti-Islamic attacks are not new, several recent events helped catalyze this protest. Last month, two Muslims were shot and seriously wounded outside a mosque in southwestern France.

France’s conservative Senate also approved an amendment banning veiled women from accompanying their children on school outings. The lower house is unlikely to pass it. But it followed an incident where a far-right lawmaker demanded a woman visiting a regional council to remove her headscarf — leaving her son in tears.

Wafa, a mother of three, says she’s had a similar experience. She’s a trained computer technician, but she says she can’t find a job because of her veil.

Sixty-eight-year-old Julia Fernandez was among the many non-Muslims who joined the march.

She likened the current climate to the anti-Semitism of the 1930s, before the Holocaust.

Still the march was controversial, with some of the organizers accused of ties to fundamentalist Islam. A number of leftist politicians opted not to join the protest.

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President Donald Trump’s national security adviser says Trump will confront Turkey’s leader about his decision to buy a Russian air defense system when they meet Wednesday at the White House.

Robert O’Brien tells CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the U.S. is “very upset” about Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 system.
 
O’Brien says if the NATO ally doesn’t get rid of that system, Turkey will likely face U.S. sanctions. He says that’s a message Trump will deliver to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
 
The U.S. says the S-400 is not compatible with NATO forces, could compromise the F-35 fighter jet program and aid Russian intelligence. The Trump administration removed Turkey from the F-35 program in July.
 
Trump is to meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday.
 

 

 

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Bolivian president Evo Morales called for new elections Sunday after weeks of protests around “irregularities” in last month’s elections.

The president announced in a televised address Sunday that he would also be replacing the country’s electoral body.

His announcement follows weeks of protests after the October 20 election which he narrowly won. The Organization of American States conducted an audit of the elections and found irregularities in nearly every area which it reviewed.

The United States welcomed the decision Sunday.

“Fully support the findings of the @OAS_official report recommending new elections in #Bolivia to ensure a truly democratic process representative of the people’s will. The credibility of the electoral system must be restored,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted.

Fully support the findings of the @OAS_official report recommending new elections in #Bolivia to ensure a truly democratic process representative of the people’s will. The credibility of the electoral system must be restored.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 10, 2019

Morales, who is serving his fourth term as president, had previously called the protests around his election a coup.

The long-time president did not indicate whether he would once again be running in the new elections. Despite Sunday’s announcement, opposition leaders have continued to call for him to step down.

Latin America’s longest-serving leader went into the election needing a 10 percentage-point lead to avoid a runoff and secure his fourth term in office.

Partial results released after the election had predicted Morales would face a December runoff election against his main rival, former President Carlos Mesa.

Then, less than 24 hours later, the electoral commission released new numbers that showed with 95% of votes counted, Morales was just a 0.7 percentage point short of the 10 percentage-point mark.

The announcement prompted opposition complaints of fraud, and triggered violent protests in several cities.

 

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A man believed to be a prominent Russian historian has been pulled out of a river in St. Petersburg with a backpack containing the severed body parts of a young woman and has been charged with murder.

The Russian Investigative Committee said a 63-year-old man was rescued from the Moika River near the city center early on Saturday with a woman’s arms and a gun in the backpack. Authorities said he has been hospitalized with hypothermia.

Local media identified the man as Oleg Sokolov, a historian at St. Petersburg State University who was once awarded France’s Order of Legion d’Honneur for his research into military leader Napoleon Bonaparte.

The state-run TASS news agency quoted police sources as saying the alleged victim may be a postgraduate student of Sokolov’s named Anastasia Yeshchenko from Russia’s Krasnodar region. She reportedly was a co-author of Sokolov’s in joint research on Napoleon’s French military rule.

The Fontanka news outlet quoted police sources as saying they suspect the man may have been drunk and fallen into the river while attempting to dispose of the backpack.

Further apparent confirmation of the suspect’s identity came from Aleksandr Pochuyev, who says he is Sokolov’s attorney and claims that his client has “signed a plea-bargain deal” in the matter.

“If such a heinous crime, which my client has confessed to, did take place, it was committed under the influence of strong factors — possibly pathologic intoxication or temporary insanity,” Pochuyev said.

“The verdict has not been passed yet, and until that moment a person is forbidden to be considered guilty” under Russia’s Criminal Code, Pochuyev added.

Pochuyev told investigators that Sokolov planned to dispose of the corpse and then commit suicide in public, dressed as Napoleon, AFP reported.

Police said that, during a search of the suspect’s apartment, they discovered the body of a dismembered 24-year-old woman and a cutting saw possibly used in the incident.

Sokolov was awarded the Order of Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian decoration, in 2003 by France’s then-President Jacques Chirac for his studies on Napoleon.

In 1976, Sokolov founded the first military-historical reconstruction group in the Soviet Union, and he now heads the All-Russian Military Historical Movement, which conducts reenactments of military battles from the Napoleonic Wars.

TASS reported that divers searching the river for clues overnight discovered remains from another, unidentified individual. It was unclear whether those remains might be related to Sokolov’s case.

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China wrapped up its second International Import Expo on Sunday  a six-day trade show in Shanghai, which has attracted the participation of more than 3,800 companies from 180 countries.

While acknowledging Beijing’s efforts to open up its vast market, exhibitors expressed mixed views toward whether the import-themed national-level expo lived up to their expectations.

And it remains to be seen if the Chinese authorities’ top-down approach to opening-up its market and its reform initiatives can be fully implemented at local levels, observers say

“Local authorities still keep strongly protectionist policies, which are opaque and have posed a worse trade barrier than tariffs. This is a big problem. It will be a huge and questionable task if local governments will fully execute the top leadership’s [open-up] policy,” said Liu Meng-chun, director of the Chung-Hua Institution of Economic Research’s mainland China division in Taipei.

Market open-up

Addressing the expo’s opening ceremony last Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to further open up the Chinese market and urged global leaders to join hands in resisting protectionism.

“We need to strengthen the mechanisms for sharing benefits globally, and explore new ways of international cooperation. The goal is to give more impetus to economic globalization and remove impediments as much as we could,” Xi said.

Such an expo, however, isn’t enough for China to address its trade imbalance with individual foreign countries or showcase its determination to remove market access barriers, both direct and indirect, facing foreign companies, said Carlo Diego D’Andrea, chairman of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

“In order to truly encourage more investment for European companies, China will need to follow through on the reform of state-owned enterprises, enacting the principle of competitive neutrality, which means no differences in treatment between government- and private-owned companies,” D’Andrea told VOA.

“And this is one of the reasons why there is the trade friction between the U.S. and China,” he added.

Indirect access barriers

D’Andrea said that 30 percent of his chamber members face indirect market access barriers in China.

For example, legal firms are allowed to operate in China, but restricted to give advice on Chinese laws or to Chinese architecture firms.

And the central government’s procurement regulation looks fair for medical device providers to compete, but local governments’ quota limitations in favor of Chinese products put foreign competitors at a disadvantage, D’Andrea added.

The chamber’s survey on its members which attended last year’s expo showed that only half of them closed deals but most of those deals went unfulfilled with one company saying that its deal existed only as a “symbolic agreement.”

Although 70 percent of respondents were overall satisfied with last year’s expo, those who were not expressed disappointment in things such as meeting bad contacts, feeling “cheated in different ways” and lamenting that the expo was meant more for Chinese public relations than business development. A costly investment of more than $28,000 to enter last year’s expo was another source of dissatisfaction. 

The chamber, however, lauded China’s inking of a bilateral agreement with the EU on Wednesday on geographic indications (GIs) to deepen mutual cooperation.

GI is a sign used on products to prevent counterfeiting and enable consumers of both countries to use authentic high-quality products.

European businesses appear to be a bigger winner at this year’s expo after France walked away with contracts totaling $15 billion in the fields of aeronautics, energy and agriculture during President Emmanuel Macro’s three-day visit in Shanghai.

Twenty French companies are further allowed to export poultry, beef and pork to China.    

Mixed feedback

Despite tariff hikes have hurt the pricing of American imports, nearly 200 American companies showed up at this year’s expo.

Some voiced concern about business prospects shall the U.S.-China trade war drag on while others said that American companies are not yet being stigmatized.

“They’re not going to Philips just because we’re an American company and Philips is a European company. There continues to be a lot of interest,” Steven Lien of Honeywell International Inc. told Reuters on Thursday.

“We quite want to separate politics and business. Our product is very helpful and useful, so we want people to focus on products,” Twiggy Zhao of the California-based lubricants maker WD-40 Co. also told the Reuters, sharing her worries about trade war fallout.

However, Inos Lin, executive vice president of TCI  a contract maker of private-label dietary supplements from Taiwan  finds its first-ever participation at this year’s expo rewarding.

“We’ve met non-corporate clients including state-run or state-owned enterprises, which we normally have no chance of reaching out to. They came to explore products from around the world, which may meet their local needs or present business opportunities,” Lin told VOA.

The event is also a great platform for TCI to gain a better understanding of local consumers and promote the latest trends of needs to nutricyclicals, he said, expressing confidence in finalizing potential deals struck in the past week.

As of Sunday, TCI has reached nearly ten letters of intent at the expo.

 

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Former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday attacked right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro for impoverishing working Brazilians and vowed to unite the left to win the 2022 elections in a speech one day after being freed from jail. 

Lula’s wide-ranging, 45-minute speech to cheering supporters focused broadly on defeating Bolsonaro and improving the economic conditions of the working class. 

Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, also took aim at a long list of political enemies, including Bolsonaro, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes and Justice Minister Sergio Moro, a former judge who initially ruled to convict Lula. 

“I want to tell them, I’m back,” the 74-year-old told hundreds of supporters dressed in red, the color of his Workers Party, outside the metalworkers union where he got his political start. 

He said Guedes seeks to remake Brazil economically in the image of Chile, long seen as a model of financially conservative governance, but that those policies are the reason for the widespread street protests paralyzing its Latin American neighbor. 

Court ruling

A judge ordered that Lula be freed on Friday, a day after Brazil’s Supreme Court issued a broader ruling ending the mandatory imprisonment of convicted criminals after they lose their first appeal. Lula had been imprisoned on a corruption conviction carrying a nearly nine-year sentence. 

Bolsonaro told reporters in Brasilia, “Let’s not give space to compromise with a convict.”  

Earlier on Twitter, the president called for supporters to rally around his government’s agenda, which has included a severe tightening of public spending, saying that they must not allow Brazil’s next phase of recovery to be derailed. 

“Do not give ammunition to the scoundrel, who is momentarily free but full of guilt,” Bolsonaro said.  

While Bolsonaro did not mention Lula by name, his left-wing rival took direct aim at the president. 

“If we work hard, in 2022 the so-called left that Bolsonaro is so afraid of will defeat the ultra-right,” he said. 

Ineligible to run

Lula, who left the presidency with sky-high approval ratings, is ineligible to stand for office until 2025 under Brazil’s “Clean Record” law because of a conviction for taking bribes. But his release is expected to energize the left ahead of next year’s municipal elections. 

He was imprisoned in 2018 after being found guilty of receiving bribes from construction companies in return for public contracts. 

Lula has maintained his innocence. On Saturday he repeated that Justice Minister Moro, prosecutors and police were lying about his guilt for political reasons. 

“[I’m] not responding to criminals, jailed or freed. Some people deserve to be ignored,” Moro responded on Twitter. 

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Bolivian President Evo Morales denounced the actions of “violent groups” early Saturday, hours after police forces were seen joining scattered protests, but the military weighed in later, saying it would not “confront the people” in a standoff over a disputed election. 

Morales, Latin America’s longest-standing leader, won the election on October 20, but a delay of nearly a day in the vote count has sparked allegations of fraud and led to protests, strikes and roadblocks. 

On Friday night, local television showed police in several Bolivian cities marching alongside protesters in apparent acts of disobedience and joining chants regularly used by the opposition. 

Adding to the pressure on Morales, the Armed Forces said in a statement on Saturday “that we will never confront the people to whom we have a duty and we will always ensure peace, co-existence and the development of our homeland.” 

Criticism from foreign ministry

In a tweet in the early hours of Saturday, Morales repeated accusations that “violent groups” were launching a coup against the state. The foreign ministry released a statement saying some police officers had “abandoned their constitutional role of ensuring the security of society and state institutions.” 

At a news conference later in the day, Morales called an urgent meeting with the four political parties represented in parliament. By Saturday afternoon, at least two opposition parties had rejected Morales’ invitation and one had accepted. 

Morales said he would also invite international organizations, including the Vatican, the United Nations and the Organization of American States, which is conducting an audit of the October vote. 

Luis Fernando Camacho, a civic leader from the eastern city of Santa Cruz who has become a symbol of the opposition, and Carlos Mesa, the runner-up in October, reiterated their calls for Morales — the country’s leader since 2006 — to step down.  

“What we want here is to unite all Bolivians in a single cause. We want President Evo Morales to leave,” Camacho told a news conference. 

March set for Monday

Camacho plans to lead a march to the government palace on Monday with a symbolic resignation letter for Morales to sign. 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro tweeted his support for Morales on Saturday. 

“We denounce before the world the attempted coup d’etat in progress against the brother President Evo Morales,” said Maduro, who has been accused of corruption and human rights violations. 

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Waving separatist flags and chanting, “Freedom for political prisoners!” thousands of supporters of Catalan independence gathered in Barcelona for concerts and rallies on Saturday, while some protesters faced off with police, a day before Spain heads to the polls for a general election. 

Mostly organized by secretive Catalan protest group Democratic Tsunami, the demonstrations aim to force Spaniards to reflect on the prison sentences handed down last month to nine separatist leaders who spearheaded a failed independence bid in 2017, organizers said. 

In one protest called by CDR, another separatist group that favors direct action such as blocking highways, several hundred demonstrators tried to reach the Spanish police headquarters, the flashpoint of some of last month’s riots, but were blocked by police. 

Tense exchanges

There were tense moments as masked protesters, singing the Catalan anthem, threw eggs and other objects at the police and tried to barricade the road with waste bins. Officers responded by chasing them through central Barcelona’s restaurant-packed streets until the crowd dispersed. 

Local media said there was no immediate word of any arrests. A spokesman for the Catalan police could not confirm whether any arrests were made during the protest. 

The election campaign has been dominated by the Catalonia separatist issue after weeks of sometimes violent protests that followed the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Catalan leaders. 

Attending the rally, Jovita Mezquita, 69, praised Democratic Tsunami’s initiatives, including its first protest, which disrupted Barcelona’s airport in mid-October. 

“We have to be imaginative,” she said.  

“We have to do things that have impact in the world,” she added, arguing that separatists were not taken into account in the rest of Spain. 

‘Very complicated’

But away from the protests, some Barcelona residents were skeptical that things could change for the region, where separatism is a highly divisive issue. 

“I see [it as] very complicated for the situation in Catalonia to be resolved, because at the national level, that is to say at the Spanish level, I do not see that there is a great desire to do it,” said Maria Rodriguez, a 33-year-old actress. 

Democratic Tsunami, which advocates nonviolent action, called on supporters to demonstrate across the region Saturday afternoon and suggested there would be more to come if Spanish politicians refused to engage with separatists. 

“As long as there is no dialogue, instability will continue,” it said in a statement late Saturday. “The [Spanish] state will not be able to continue with repression without having a citizens’ response.” 

The group, whose leadership remains unknown, said the controversial app it uses to organize events had received more than 1,000 attacks. 

The campaign for Catalan independence has been mostly peaceful for years, but some protests turned violent last month, with a minority of mostly young demonstrators torching cars and launching petrol bombs at police. 

Extra police

Madrid sent around 2,500 additional national police officers — including anti-riot units — to support Catalonia’s regional police force ahead of the election, a national police spokesman in Barcelona told Reuters. 

The goal is to “guarantee that everyone can exercise their right to vote,” the spokesman said. 

A Catalan police spokeswoman declined to comment on the force’s security plans. 

Carme Martin, 68, who attended Saturday’s protest, said she could understand some of the youths’ frustration after last month’s riots in Barcelona.  

“I don’t like violence but [I understand] if it is defensive,” she said. 

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Chancellor Angela Merkel led a series of commemorations Saturday in the German capital to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which divided the city during the Cold War until it was breached and torn down on November 9, 1989. 
 
Merkel, who grew up in Communist East Germany, said, “The Berlin Wall is gone and that teaches us that no wall that excludes people and restricts freedom is so high or so wide that it cannot be broken through.” 
 
November 9 also is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, when Jews were attacked across Nazi Germany in 1938 — a foretaste of the horrors that would follow in the Holocaust.  

“The 9th of November, which reflects in a special way both the horrible and the happy moments of our history, makes us aware that we have to face hatred, racism and anti-Semitism resolutely,” Merkel said in a speech at the Chapel of Reconciliation, located where the Berlin Wall once stood. “It urges us to do everything in our power to defend freedom and democracy, human dignity and the rule of law.”  

International attendance 
 
Leaders from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic also attended a ceremony at Bernauer Strasse, site of one of the last remaining sections of the Berlin Wall. They placed roses between gaps in the barrier that divided the city for 28 years. 
 
Germany President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid tribute to the pro-democracy protesters in the former Soviet bloc countries. 
 
“In gratitude, we remember today with our friends the historical events of 30 years ago,” Steinmeier said. “Without the courage, without the will for freedom of the Poles, the Hungarians, the Czechs and the Slovaks, the peaceful revolutions in Eastern Europe, and German unity, would not have been possible.” 
 
A weeklong series of events in Berlin was capped off Saturday night with a concert at the famous Brandenburg Gate, involving several German and international performers.  

Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously gave a speech in front of the landmark in 1987, demanding of his Soviet counterpart: “Mr. [Mikhail] Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” A statue of Reagan, who died in 2004, was unveiled Friday next to the Brandenburg Gate. 
 
The wall was constructed in 1961 to stop the flood of East Germans fleeing to capitalist West Berlin to escape communist rule. It was officially called the “anti-fascist protection rampart” by the East German government. Hundreds of people were shot dead trying to cross it. 
 
Following growing pressure across the Warsaw Pact countries in 1989, pro-democracy protests spread to East Germany. 
 
On November 4, 1989, a half-million demonstrators gathered in Alexanderplatz in East Berlin. Five days later, a government spokesperson mistakenly said the East Germans were now free to travel to the West, prompting tens of thousands to rush to crossing points along the 43-kilometer barrier. 
 
In the confusion, border guards opened the gates and thousands of people surged across the frontier, cheered by crowds on both sides of the wall. Within hours, Berlin residents were taking pickaxes to the concrete wall, as the city erupted in wild celebrations.  

The fall of the wall is seen as a key moment in the collapse of communism. Just two years later, the Soviet Union imploded and the Cold War was declared over. 
 
Tensions between East-West 
 
However, tensions between East and West have resurfaced. Relations between Russia and the West plummeted following Moscow’s forceful annexation of Crimea and support for rebel fighters in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Arms control treaties have been ditched, and many world leaders have warned of a new Cold War. 
 
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also attended the ceremonies to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall. In a speech on the eve of the anniversary, Pompeo warned that “the West lost our way in the afterglow of that proud moment,” adding that the U.S. and its allies should “defend what was so hard won.” 
 
“We thought we could divert our resources away from alliances, and our militaries. We were wrong,” Pompeo said. “Today, Russia — led by a former KGB officer once stationed in Dresden [President Vladimir Putin] — invades its neighbors and slays political opponents.”  

Pompeo also criticized Russia’s treatment of the political opposition. He said China was now using methods of oppression against its own people that would be “horrifyingly familiar to former East Germans.” 
 
Beijing labeled Pompeo’s comments as “extremely dangerous” and said they exposed his “sinister intentions.” 
 
Pompeo also warned that NATO needed to evolve as the alliance approaches its 70th anniversary. His comments followed sharp criticism from French President Emmanuel Macron, who warned this week in an interview with The Economist that NATO was becoming “brain-dead” in the absence of U.S. leadership. 
 
Washington has repeatedly called on European NATO members to meet the bloc’s military spending target of 2% of gross domestic product, warning it will no longer shoulder the burden of European defense. 

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Iraqi security forces killed at least five people Saturday as they pushed protesters back toward their main camp in central Baghdad using live ammunition, tear gas and sound bombs, police and medics said. 

The clashes wounded scores more people and put security forces back in control of all except one major bridge linking the Iraqi capital’s eastern residential and business districts to government headquarters across the Tigris river. 

The government promised reforms aimed at ending the crisis. Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said Saturday that political parties had “made mistakes” in their running of the country, recognized the legitimacy of protest to bring about political change and pledged electoral reform. 

Mass protests began at Tahrir Square in Baghdad on Oct. 1 as demonstrators demanded jobs and services, and rallies have swelled in the capital and southern cities with calls for an overhaul of the sectarian political system. 

It is the biggest and most complex challenge in years to the political order set up after a U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. 

Political class vs. jobless youths

Iraq, exhausted by decades of conflict and sanctions, had enjoyed relative calm after Islamic State was defeated in 2017. 

But the government has been unable to find an answer to the current round of unrest, which pits the entire political class against mostly unemployed youths who have seen no improvement in their lives, even in peacetime. 

Despite government pledges of reform, security forces have used lethal force since the start and killed more than 280 people across the country. 

On Saturday, forces drove protesters back from some of the bridges they had tried to occupy during the week and toward Tahrir Square, the main gathering point for demonstrators. 

The protesters still hold a portion of the adjacent Jumhuriya Bridge, where they have erected barricades in a standoff with police. 

But demonstrators fear the next police target will be Tahrir Square and Jumhuriya Bridge. Fresh clashes erupted after nightfall near Tahrir Square, with the sound of tear gas and stun grenades being fired echoing around central Baghdad, as it had nightly for the past week two weeks. 

“Police have retaken almost the entire area up ahead of us. They’re advancing and my guess is tonight they’ll try to take Tahrir,” said one protester, who gave his name only as Abdullah.  

Gas bombs

On Saturday, some demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails toward security forces at another bridge, and young men took unlit homemade petrol bombs up a tall building nearby, preparing for further clashes. 

At a nearby makeshift clinic, volunteer medic Manar Hamad said she had helped treat dozens of wounded on Saturday alone. 

“Many get hit by shrapnel from sound bombs, and others choke on tear gas or are hit directly by gas canisters. People have died that way,” she said as live gunfire rang out and ambulance sirens wailed. 

Police and medics said five people were shot to death and more than 140 wounded in Baghdad on Saturday. A Reuters cameraman saw one man carried away by medical volunteers after a tear gas canister struck him directly in the head. 

As the violence flared, Abdul Mahdi issued a statement that appeared to take a more conciliatory tone and urged a return to normal life after weeks of unrest that have cost the country tens of millions of dollars, although crucial oil exports have not been affected. 

“Political forces and parties are important institutions in any democratic system, and have made great sacrifices, but they’ve also made many mistakes,” he said. 

He said protests were a legitimate engine of political change but urged demonstrators not to interrupt “normal life.” 

Weapons ban

Abdul Mahdi promised electoral reform and said authorities would ban possession of weapons by nonstate armed groups who have been accused of killing protesters, and that there would be investigations into demonstrator deaths. 

His remarks came a day after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s powerful senior Shiite Muslim cleric, urged politicians to seek a peaceful way out of the crisis and held security forces accountable for avoiding further violence. 

In southern Iraq, operations resumed at Umm Qasr commodities 
port, a port official said, after it was closed for nearly 10 days while protesters blocked its entrances. 

Umm Qasr receives imports of grain, vegetable oils and sugar shipments that feed a country largely dependent on imported 
food. 

Authorities in downtown Basra, Iraq’s oil-rich second city, erected a security perimeter, preventing protesters from gathering on Saturday, after two people were killed there on Friday in clashes between protesters and security forces. 

The Kuwaiti Consulate in Basra said it was withdrawing its staff from the city, amid the deteriorating security situation, a consular official said. 

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Artists from around the world have created fanciful, strange, beautiful and huge sculptures at a beach on Denmark’s west coast.  It is a blend of science fiction, technical skill and about 1,200 tons of sand.  VOA’s Jim Randle narrates our story. 

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When the Indian government decided in August to abrogate a constitutional provision giving special status to the then state of Jammu and Kashmir, tourist season was at its peak. Tourists in Kashmir were advised by the Indian government to leave the state. But now the government has rolled back its advisory,  just in time for the winter tourist season. VOA’s Ritul Joshi with cameraman Zubair Dar visited Srinagar to see if the decision will help the tourism industry recover its losses.
 

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The U.S. Supreme Court will take on a case Nov. 12 that could impact the future of hundreds of thousands of people brought to the United States as children illegally. In particular, one doctor who is on track to finish his residency training in the state of California could have his fate determined by the outcome. VOA’s Warangkana Chomchuen reports from San Francisco.
 

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Wildfires razing Australia’s drought-stricken east coast have left two people dead and several missing, more than 30 injured and more than 100 homes destroyed, officials said Saturday.

Around 1,500 firefighters were battling 70 fires across Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, with the most intense in the northeast where flames were fanned by strong winds, Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.

Firefighters found a body Saturday in a burned car near Glen Innes, he said.

A woman who was found Friday unconscious and with serious burns near Glen Innes had died in a hospital, he said.

Another seven people have been reported missing in the vicinity of the same fire.

Toll expected to climb

“We are expecting that number (of missing persons) to climb today,” Fitzsimmons told reporters. “There are really grave concerns that there could be more losses or indeed more fatalities.”

More than 30 people including firefighters received medical treatment for burns and one patient had a heart attack, he said.

At least 100 homes were estimated to have been destroyed since Friday, but that damage toll could rise significantly as firefighters were able to extinguish flames and access fire zones, Fitzsimmons said.

Hundreds flee in Queensland

Hundreds of people evacuated their homes along a 500-kilometer (310-mile) swath of the eastern seaboard from the Queensland state border south to Forster.

Forster is a town 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of Sydney, Australia’s largest city. Many spent the night in evacuation centers while some slept in cars.

In Queensland, more than 30 wildfires were raging Saturday. At least one house was lost, a firefighter suffered a broken leg and 2,000 residents were evacuated from two towns in the state’s southeast, authorities said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned Australia to expect more bad news from the fire zones.

“The devastating and horrific fires that we have seen particularly in New South Wales but also in Queensland have been absolutely chilling,” Morrison told reporters in Sydney.

‘It’s going to be horrific’

In the New South Wales town of Taree, more than 300 people evacuated overnight to a social club, including Club Taree’s chief executive Morgan Stewart.

“It was pretty scary,” Stewart said. “We’re hearing lots of stories of lost houses, lost property, goods and effects, animals, land. It’s going to be horrific, I think.”

Peter Lean spent the night on the roof of his house in the town of Wallabi Point, extinguishing burning embers carried on strong winds.

“I’ve never seen the sky so red since 2000,” Lean said. “We’ve got winds blowing, they’re circling, it’s like a cyclone.”

The fire danger reached unprecedented levels in New South Wales on Friday, when 17 fires were burning at the most extreme danger rating known as the Emergency Warning Level.

“I can only recall a figure of less than 10 that we (previously) got to, which was an extraordinary event in years past,” Fitzsimmons said.

“The fact that we have 17 at once yesterday and another nine burning at Watch and Act (Level) is a magnitude that we simply haven’t seen before, commanding so much attention, so much priority, so much competition for resources and need to get to different communities,” he added.

Only two fires were burning at the highest danger rating by Saturday.

The annual Australian fire season, which peaks during the Southern Hemisphere summer, has started early after an unusually warm and dry winter.
 

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India’s Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Hindu temple on a disputed religious ground and ordered that alternative land be given to Muslims. 

The dispute over land ownership has been one of the country’s most contentious issues. 

The 16th-century Babri Masjid mosque was destroyed by Hindu hard-liners in December 1992.

The Supreme Court said in a judgment Saturday that 5 acres (2.02 hectares) of land will be allotted to the Muslim community in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya. 

The disputed land will be given to a board of trustees for the construction of a temple for Hindu god Ram.

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This Friday, November 8th, marks the third anniversary of Donald Trump’s 2016 election as the 45th president of the United States.  Trump remains a force of nature in American politics, but the third anniversary of his rise to power comes at a time when he is facing the gravest threat yet to his presidency: an impeachment inquiry led by congressional Democrats over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden.  VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.

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In the 30 years that have passed since the Berlin Wall came down and ended a decades-long division between the eastern and western parts of the city, it is artists who have injected new life into the abandoned buildings in what was communist East Berlin. And as Charles Maynes reports, this cultural scene became a driving force behind the reconciliation of East and West – a process that continues to this day.

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A new, unreleased book called “A Warning” paints the most damning public profile of Trump since he took office nearly three years ago.

Trump is “like a 12-year-old in an air traffic control tower” and a senile old man running around with no pants, according to the book by an unnamed author.

The anonymous writer describes him or herself as a “senior official in the Trump administration” who decided to withhold their name to keep the spotlight on Trump.

Opinion piece to book

The author is the same person who wrote a New York Times opinion piece last year describing how some top officials are trying to protect the country from what was called an impulsive president.

According to an advance copy of “A Warning” obtained by The Washington Post, President Trump is cruel, inept, and a danger.

“He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but regularly,” according to the book.

The president is likened to a “12-year-old in an air traffic control tower pushing the buttons indiscriminately” as planes try to avoid a collision.

The writer speaks of what is described as Trump’s sexist comments about women, commenting on their make-up, dress and weight.

In one meeting, the president allegedly used a mock Hispanic accent to complain about female migrants crossing from Mexico, calling them useless and saying if they came with husbands, the men could be used to pick corn.

25th Amendment

Trump is also described as someone incapable of leading the country in a crisis, saying he tunes out intelligence and national security briefings and described as someone easily flattered who other world leaders regard as “a simplistic pushover.”

According to “A Warning,” senior administration officials had considered a mass resignation and say Vice President Mike Pence was ready to back a majority of Cabinet members if they tried to remove Trump through the 25th amendment.

Pence denies this, saying the book is “appalling” and said he never heard anyone in the White House talking about such a move.

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham brushed off the book as “a work of fiction” and a “farce,” calling the writer a “coward” for wishing to remain anonymous.

But the author says many current and former administration officials share the unflattering views on Trump.

The writer also says he or she deliberately avoided talking about specific events in detail to protect his or her identity.

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The dramatic demise in Vietnam of two maps that show China’s claim to a disputed tract of sea herald a longer-term effort at expunging material that officials find politically offensive — and not just in Vietnam.

Both maps, one in a luxury Volkswagen car and the other in a DreamWorks film, show the nine-dash line that Beijing uses to demarcate its claims in the South China Sea. Vietnamese officials contest the line and say some of the waters within it are theirs. The two countries have sparred since the 1970s over maritime sovereignty.

Vietnam will probably keep censoring material that implies Chinese sovereignty over the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea, Asia scholars say. They would effectively follow China’s continued use of authoritarian rule to ban websites and publications that violate its stances on international issues.

“I think this is but the latest series of essentially what I would call posturing,” said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. “You have to keep on emphasizing your sovereignty over a certain part, because if you don’t, then the international community will think that you are giving up.”

First a film, then a car

Vietnamese cinemas stopped showing the movie Abominable in mid-October because the animated scenes depict a map that delineates Beijing’s claim to the South China Sea, domestic media outlet VnExpress International reported. Vietnam disputes the Chinese claim.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan also overlap Chinese claims in the sea that’s rich in fisheries and energy reserves. Chinese maritime activity angers especially Vietnam because China controls the 130-islet Paracel archipelago that both sides claim.

On Monday this week, Vietnamese customs decided to confiscate a $173,000 Volkswagen five-seater after its GPS map displayed China’s “illegal” nine-dash line, state-run Viet Nam News reported. The importer will be fined up to $2,600 and Volkswagen Viet Nam as much as $1,724.

“The General Department of Customs said that all competent government agencies in a meeting on the incident had unilaterally agreed that such a violation must be handled strictly,” Viet Nam News reported.

A private university in Vietnam decided on its own to jettison 500 to 700 books used by first-year Chinese language students because the texts carried the same kind of map, VnExpress International reported Sunday.

Chinese playbook

Beijing has asked dozens of foreign companies over the past two years to tweak wording on their websites so it reflects Chinese political views. Foreign firms have complied particularly by labeling self-ruled Taiwan as part of China, per Beijing’s stance.

China and Vietnam as communist countries are “very consistent” in their posturing, Oh said. Citizens in both often kick off a case by alerting authorities. Filmgoers spotted the map in Vietnam. In China, netizens had noticed foreign websites implying Taiwan was a country.

Vietnam, going forward, will probably play up and shoot down any pro-Beijing South China Sea references they see, analysts say.

“Now there is something like a general trend, every material, movie, media and book that has Chinese maps of the nine-dash line,” said Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies (SCIS) director at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City.

Maps are suddenly subject to review because of “heightened tension,” said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at market research firm IHS Markit. A Chinese survey vessel had fanned anger earlier in the year when it was frequenting waters near a Vietnamese offshore oil exploration site.

China has consecrated its claims throughout the sea over the past decade by using landfill to build islands.

Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines, as democracies, would find it harder to ban material.

However, the producer of Abominable decided against screening the film in Malaysia last month after censors there objected to the map. In the Philippines, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said the film’s map should be cut.

Vietnam’s limitation

Exporters of map-bearing material must mind their politics now, Biswas said.

“Somehow one has to avoid these sensitivities, but it’s very hard because everyone has their own claim, so if you portray anything there’s a danger that someone will object,” he said.

Vietnam, however, will avoid openly criticizing international companies too often because it depends on foreign factory investment for economic growth, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate politics and international studies professor at International Christian University in Tokyo.

China can tap into its much larger domestic market for economic stability.

“The last thing that I think Vietnam would like to be portrayed as is a bully or engaging in economic coercion, in the way that Beijing’s practices have created that image, so I think Vietnam will probably take a softer tone in order to preserve a relatively good image,” Nagy said.

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Human rights groups, lawyers and former defectors are criticizing South Korea’s decision to return two North Korean fishermen who are suspected of killing 16 of their colleagues and then fleeing to the South.

The two men were captured late last week after their squid fishing boat crossed the eastern sea border separating North and South Korea, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. The two confessed that they and another man killed the captain and then 15 other crew members.

South Korea rejected the men’s request for defector status on the grounds they are “heinous criminals” and returned them to North Korea through the Panmunjom border village Thursday.

The bizarre incident tests South Korea’s domestic and international legal commitments. The country’s constitution in theory recognizes North Koreans as South Korean nationals, and Seoul usually accepts fleeing North Koreans, pending an investigation into their background. But South Korean law also allows authorities wide latitude to reject incoming North Korean individuals, for instance, on national security grounds.

Despite the criminal allegations against the North Korean fishermen, some defector and human rights groups in Seoul say the men deserved the legal protections offered by South Korea, noting it is highly likely they will now be executed without a fair trial.

“The two defectors should be handled under the South Korean legal system. We can expect what punishment they will receive in North Korea,” said a statement from Saejowi, a Seoul-based defector support group.

No due process

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) also said it was “deeply concerned” about “the first deportation of North Koreans by South Korea since the 1953 Korean War Armistice.”

“This is the first time (South Korea) has sent North Koreans back against their will,” said HRNK. “In doing so, South Korea has undermined its national constitution, which recognizes all North Koreans as citizens of South Korea, granting them the right to live in the South and be protected by its legal system.”

“As we know from decades of research into how North Korea treats its citizens, there is no doubt that the two deportees have been returned to a place where they face no due process, harsh punishment, torture, and almost-certain execution,” said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of HRNK.

The two Koreas do not have an extradition agreement. While South Korea’s government technically claims judicial authority over the North, South Korean officials say that does not apply to this case.

Officials point to Article 9 of South Korea’s North Korean Refugees Protection and Settlement Support Act, which says authorities are not required to extend protection to those who commit “serious crimes such as murder.”

Grisly killings

Following a three-day investigation, South Korean investigators expressed confidence they have pieced together the details of the grisly slayings.

The fishing boat left the North Korean port of Kimchaek on Aug. 15 with a crew of 19, officials say. But late last month, three crew members killed the captain, allegedly because he had treated them harshly.

“The young men told investigators they decided to kill the other 15 crewmembers as well because they feared they would be punished for the murder if any witnesses were left alive,” reported South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo.

“They called out the others by twos every 40 minutes on the pretext of changing shifts and methodically slaughtered them with a blunt weapon and threw the bodies into the water,” the paper reported.

The three men initially tried to return to the same North Korean port, but after one of the men was arrested, the two others fled using the same boat and were subsequently detained by the South Korean navy, according to South Korean officials.

Joo Seong-ha, a prominent North Korean defector-turned journalist who lives in Seoul, supports the decision to deport the fishermen.

“Crimes against humanity must be punished everywhere,” Joo said in a public Facebook post. “I believe that the agents from NIS and Defense Ministry made a rational decision.”

International obligations

But while it may be difficult to sympathize with those accused of multiple homicides, the decision sets a bad precedent, said Seoul-based human rights lawyer Kim Se-jin, who said South Korea did not live up to its international obligations.

Specifically, Kim points out that South Korea is a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Torture, which prohibits the return or extradition of a person to another state “where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”

“We respect the South Korean investigation, but the Convention Against Torture says if the criminal or suspect is expected to be tortured or threatened, then the government should not repatriate,” Kim said. “Even though the facts that constitute the crime are obvious, South Korea should have subjected them to judicial proceedings in South Korea.”

“It is de facto truth that the two criminals have a high chance of extrajudicial executions,” she said.

Defections slow

Since the end of the 1950s Korean War, which ended in a truce and not a peace treaty, around 32,000 North Koreans have fled to the South, most via China.

North Korean refugees are first interrogated by South Korean authorities to ensure they are not spies. They are sent to a government-run center to receive training meant to better equip them to live in South Korea.

In recent years, the number of North Koreans coming to the South has slowed. In 2018, 1,137 North Koreans entered South Korea. That is down from a peak of 2,914 in 2009.

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A top aide to Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer in Iowa has privately offered campaign contributions to local politicians in exchange for endorsing his White House bid, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the conversations.
 
The overtures from Pat Murphy, a former state House speaker who is serving as a top adviser on Steyer’s Iowa campaign, aren’t illegal – though payments for endorsements would violate campaign finance laws if not disclosed. There’s no evidence that any Iowans accepted the offer or received contributions from Steyer’s campaign as compensation for their backing.
 
But the proposals could revive criticism that the billionaire Steyer is trying to buy his way into the White House. Several state lawmakers and political candidates said they were surprised Steyer’s campaign would think he could buy their support.
 
Tom Courtney, a former Democratic state senator from southeastern Iowa who’s running for reelection to his old seat, told The Associated Press the financial offer “left a bad taste in my mouth.”
 
Murphy didn’t respond to a request for comment. Alberto Lammers, Steyer’s campaign press secretary, said Murphy was not authorized to make the offers and that the campaign leadership outside of Iowa was unaware that he was doing so until the issue was raised by The Associated Press.
 
Courtney declined to name Murphy as the Steyer aide who made the offer, but several other local politicians said they received similar propositions, and all confirmed the proposal came from Murphy himself. Most requested anonymity to speak freely about the issue. Another, Iowa state Rep. Karin Derry, said Murphy didn’t explicitly offer a specific dollar amount, but made it clear Derry would receive financial support if she backed Steyer.
 
“It was presented more as, he has provided financial support to other downballot candidates who’ve endorsed him, and could do the same for you,” she said.
 
Courtney described a similar interaction with Steyer’s campaign.
 
“Tom, I know you’re running for Senate. I’m working for Tom Steyer,” Courtney recalled hearing from the aide. “Now you know how this works. …He said, ‘you help them, and they’ll help you.”’
 
“I said, ‘it wouldn’t matter if you’re talking monetary, there’s no amount,’ ” Courtney continued. “I don’t do that kind of thing.”
 
Lammers, Steyer’s campaign press secretary, said the candidate hasn’t made any individual contributions to local officials in Iowa and won’t be making any this year. In an email, Lammers said Steyer’s endorsements “are earned because of Tom’s campaign message,” and distanced the candidate from Murphy.
 
“Our campaign policy is clear that we will not engage in this kind of activity, and anyone who does is not speaking for the campaign or does not know our policy,” Lammers said.
 
The overtures do not appear to have made much of a difference for Steyer. Aside from Murphy’s support, Steyer has received the endorsement of just one Iowan since entering the race in July – former state Rep. Roger Thomas.
 
Thomas did not respond to phone calls, but in a statement provided by the campaign, he said that he endorsed Steyer “because he’s the outsider who can deliver for Iowans on the issues that matter most: getting corporate corruption out of our politics and putting forth a rural agenda that revitalizes communities across Iowa.”
 
Thomas’ endorsement was issued in October after the close of the most recent campaign finance reporting period, which ended Sept. 30. The disclosure Steyer filed offers no indication that he directly gave Thomas any money.
 
Experts say a campaign could violate campaign finance laws if they don’t disclose payments for endorsements.
 
“It’s legal if you disclose a payment for an endorsement on your campaign finance report,” said Adav Noti, a former Federal Election Commission attorney who now works for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington. But, he added, “It would be unlawful if you don’t disclose it, or you disclose it but try to hide who the recipient is, or try to hide what that purpose was.”

A trio of former Ron Paul aides faced legal trouble in 2016 over similar issues during the 2012 Iowa Republican caucus campaign. Campaign chairman Jesse Benton, campaign manager John Tate and deputy campaign manager Dimitri Kesari were convicted in 2016 of charges related to arranging and concealing payments for then-Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, who switched his support from then-Rep. Michele Bachmann to Paul just six days before the Iowa caucuses. Sorenson served 15 months in jail for his role in the scheme.
 
It’s unclear whether Murphy could face a similar legal complaint, but the issue could revive scrutiny of how Steyer is deploying his financial resources. The billionaire businessman built his fortune in banking and investment management before turning to politics, and though he’s never held public office he invested tens of millions of dollars in political activism and electoral politics before launching his presidential bid this year. Prior to his presidential run, Steyer’s most recent focus was a multi-million-dollar, pro-impeachment campaign, and as the U.S. House takes up the issue, he’s argued he’s put it on the national agenda.
 
Steyer has largely self-funded his presidential campaign, spending $47.6 million of his own money in the first three months since launching his bid, much of that on online fundraising and advertising. Steyer qualified for the November debate, but he remains at the back of the pack in early-state and national polls.
 

 

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