China has suspended additional tariffs on some U.S. goods that were meant to be implemented on Dec. 15, the State Council’s customs tariff commission said on Sunday, after the world’s two largest economies agreed a “phase one” trade deal on Friday.

The deal, rumours and leaks over which have gyrated world markets for months, reduces some U.S. tariffs in exchange for what U.S. officials said would be a big jump in Chinese purchases of American farm products and other goods.

China’s retaliatory tariffs, which were due to take effect on Dec. 15, were meant to target goods ranging from corn and wheat to U.S. made vehicles and auto parts.

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What’s In the US-China Trade Deal?

Broad outlines are similar to deal in principle announced in October that was dominated by increased Chinese purchases of US agricultural goods

Other Chinese tariffs that had already been implemented on U.S. goods would be left in place, the commission said in a statement issued on the websites of government departments including China’s finance ministry.

“China hopes, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, to work with the United States, to properly resolve each other’s core concerns and promote the stable development of U.S.-China economic and trade relations,” it added.

Beijing has agreed to import at least $200 billion in additional U.S. goods and services over the next two years on top of the amount it purchased in 2017, the top U.S. trade negotiator said Friday.

A statement issued by the United States Trade Representative also on Friday said the United States would leave in place 25% tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods.

…

Little piggies go to market, but in Germany they also go to court.

In a legal first, animal rights activists have asked Germany’s top court to ban the practice of castrating young male pigs without anesthetic – with the piglets themselves listed as the plaintiffs.

The painful procedure has become increasingly controversial in Europe and has been banned in Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.

Farmers argue that the castration of piglets a few days after birth is necessary to prevent “boar taint”, the occasional occurrence of a foul smell when cooking pork from male pigs past puberty.

The German parliament outlawed castration without pain relief in 2013 but it offered farmers a five-year transition period to help them adapt to the change – a timeline that was extended last year until 2021.

Outraged by the inaction, the PETA campaign group filed a lawsuit with Germany’s Constitutional Court in November on behalf of the baby pigs.

The group wants judges to recognize that pigs have rights similar to human rights and that these are being violated by the “cruel act” of castration without pain relief.

“Non-human entities like companies and associations have legal personhood. So why not animals too?” said lawyer Cornelia Ziehm, who is supporting PETA in representing the piglets in court.

‘Little chance of succeeding’

PETA argues that under German law, animals cannot be harmed without reasonable explanation.

“The castration of piglets – with or without anesthesia – is in clear violation of this, giving Germany’s male piglets only one option: to sue for the enforcement of their rights in court,” the group said in a statement.

The crux of the case is their argument that in Germany “everyone” (jedermann) can file a constitutional complaint if they believe their basic rights have been violated – even a pig.

But Jens Buelte, a law professor at Mannheim university, doubted whether the judges in Karlsruhe would see it the same way.

“Animals do not have their own rights under German law,” he said, giving PETA’s lawsuit “little chance of succeeding”.

Monkey selfie

It is not the first time campaign groups have filed a case on behalf of animals.

PETA made global headlines in 2015 when it asked an American court to grant a macaque the copyright to a selfie it snapped on a wildlife photographer’s camera.

The picture of the broadly grinning monkey went viral but the court eventually ruled that animals cannot bring copyright infringement suits.

PETA condemned the verdict, saying the monkey was “discriminated against simply because he’s a nonhuman animal”.

However, in Argentina in 2016 a judge ordered Cecilia the chimpanzee to be released from Mendoza Zoo after agreeing with activists that she was entitled to basic rights and her solitary confinement was unlawful.

Alternatives

German farmers, who remove testicles from roughly 20 million piglets each year, have long resisted the push to end castration without anesthesia.

They say there is a lack of workable alternatives to tackle boar taint, in an industry already struggling with fierce foreign competition.

Local anesthesia and gene editing are not yet viable or too expensive, they say, and would raise the cost of pork in a country famous for its love of schnitzel and sausage.

The government agreed in late 2018 to give the farmers a final two-year extension before the ban takes effect – a decision decried by the opposition Greens and far-left Die Linke, who argued it put the interests of the meat industry above animal protection.

Some German pork producers are pinning their hopes on a vaccine that requires just two injections to prevent boar taint – already a popular alternative abroad.

A pilot project involving 100,000 German piglets is currently ongoing, though critics say the vaccines are costly too.

A similar debate is raging in France, where agriculture minister Didier Guillaume recently said castration of piglets without pain relief should be banned by the end of 2021.

…

Several thousand people took part in Thailand’s biggest protest since a 2014 coup on Saturday after authorities moved to ban a party that has rallied opposition to the government of former military ruler Prayuth Chan-ocha.

The demonstration in Bangkok, called just a day earlier by Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a 41-year-old billionaire, revived memories of the spasms of street protest that have roiled the Thai capital periodically during the past two decades of political turbulence.

But there was no sign of any attempt to block the biggest demonstration since Prayuth seized power in 2014 on promises to end such unrest.

“This is just the beginning,” Thanathorn told the cheering crowd that spilled across walkways and stairways close to the MBK Centre mall, in the heart of Bangkok’s shopping and business district.

Thanathorn has emerged as the most outspoken opponent of the government headed by Prayuth, 65, since an election in March that the opposition said was manipulated to favour the army.

Thailand’s election panel has asked the Constitutional Court to dissolve the Future Forward party, accusing it of infringing the laws governing political parties by accepting multi-million dollar loans from Thanathorn.

Last month, the Constitutional Court disqualified Thanathorn as member of parliament for holding shares in a media company on the date his election candidacy was registered. Thanathorn disputed the ruling.

Among Saturday’s crowd were some veteran “red shirt” protesters, supporters of ousted populist leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who had once clashed in Bangkok with the “yellow shirt” conservatives – hardline loyalists of the palace and army.

New generation

But there were more younger anti-government protesters, many of whom said it was their first protest.

“It’s time,” said office worker Pantipa Tiakhome, 30. “They have done everything to hinder democracy from flourishing.”

Helped by social media, Thanathorn has struck a chord with younger Thais. Meanwhile, the army has made plain its dislike of a movement it accuses of trying to rally the young against the monarchy and the armed forces.

“Today is a show of strength so that in the future others may join us. We’re just here today as a test run. Prayuth, don’t be afraid yet. The real thing is next month,” Thanathorn told the protest.

A party spokeswoman said more than 10,000 people had joined the demonstration. Authorities did not give an estimate.

Many gave the three-finger salute of resistance to the former junta, a symbol drawn from the film The Hunger Games.

Government opponents are also planning a “Run Against Dictatorship” for Jan. 12.

Thanathorn signed an agreement on Saturday with six parties in an opposition alliance to push for changes to the constitution that was drawn up by the junta before the election.

He also won their support for the protest.

Among those parties was Pheu Thai, linked to Thaksin, who lives in self-exile since he was overthrown in 2006. His sister was ousted as prime minister by Prayuth.

Pheu Thai won the most seats in the 500-member lower house but has adopted a quieter approach to challenging the government than Future Forward, which came third in the election.

Palang Pracharat, the pro-military party formed last year by members of the junta’s cabinet, came second. Prayuth told reporters on Friday it was inappropriate to organize a demonstration towards the end of the year.
 

…

A Congolese city at the center of the Ebola epidemic has again come under attack from rebels, leaving at least six people dead.

Witnesses said Saturday that the rebels from the Ugandan-based group known as ADF had launched an assault in Beni overnight.

The attack comes just days after Congo’s military began stepping up its efforts to fight armed groups in the area.

Repeated attacks by ADF rebels and other armed groups have disrupted efforts to contain the Ebola virus outbreak in eastern Congo, which has killed more than 2,200 people.

Anger over the continued attacks also has erupted into violent demonstrations in Beni. Late last month, residents burned the town hall and stormed the United Nations peacekeeping mission in protest.
 

…

Since the Trump administration began reshaping trade policy in early 2018, U.S. farmers have endured fluctuating prices and uncertain destinations for what they grow and harvest amid increasing tariffs on grain exports.
 
“We want trade, we don’t want aid, but right now the bankers want paid,” Steve Turner recently told hundreds of attendees at the Illinois Farm Bureau’s annual meeting in Chicago.

In Washington, meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Democrats had reached an agreement to support passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, delivering a major trade victory to Republican President Donald Trump. Just a few days later, the White House announced a breakthrough in trade negotiations with China.

But as diplomats and lawmakers work to turn trade negotiations into long-term agreements, Steve Turner is among many farmers across the country receiving payments from the U.S. government to compensate for income lost due to trade battles. The Department of Agriculture’s Market Facilitation Program is distributing about $14.5 billion overall to farmers in 2019 on top of an estimated $12 billion in 2018.
 
The MFP is intended to offset the immediate impact of tariffs on U.S. crop exports, helping farmers get through the resulting economic hardship while the Trump administration negotiates with key trading partners.
 
“It made a big difference to our bottom line, absolutely, there’s no question about it,” Megan Dwyer told VOA while gazing out on her soybeans fields situated near Colona, Illinois.
 
“If we’re going to have tariffs, we ask that we be taken care of,” says farmer Jeff Kirwan, who tends land in Mercer County, Illinois.

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Trump Pushes Congress to Pass USMCA as AFL-CIO Steps on Brakes

A major US labor leader on Monday said there was more work to do on the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement

The USDA reports that Illinois, where Dwyer and Kirwan both farm – is the state receiving the most MFP funds in the country. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota round out the list of top aid-receiving states.
 
But many farmers say they prefer trade agreements over the MFP payments.
 
“No one is looking for a handout,” says Dwyer.
 
Kirwan agrees, and says he supports what President Trump is trying to do in the hopes it makes the U.S. more competitive internationally on trade.
 
“I think it’s important when you talk about trade agreements that we want good, fair trade,” which is also why Kirwan and Dwyer say they are relieved the USMCA is moving forward.  

 The USMCA replaces the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. A key part of the new agreement is to lower or end tariffs and boost markets for U.S. crops – most notably corn and soybeans – in countries bordering the United States.
 
“One success leads to hopefully more successes,” Kirwan said to VOA on the sidelines of the Illinois Farm Bureau meeting. Kirwan and Dwyer both see passage of the USMCA as a sign of things to come as the Trump administration continues to press for a comprehensive trade agreement with China.
 
“It’s just building some confidence with our other foreign markets,” says Dwyer, “To show that the U.S. can come up with an agreement.”
 
On Friday, the White House announced progress in trade negotiations with China, agreeing to delay tariffs on Chinese-produced electronics and toys while reducing existing tariffs on other goods. In return, China is promising to buy more American agricultural output.

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First Phase of US-China Trade Deal Announced

Officials in Beijing and Washington say the agreement will mean both sides will not impose further tariffs on each other

Advocates for U.S. agricultural producers called the news a good first step.
 
“America’s farmers and ranchers are eager to get back to business globally,” American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement Monday. “China went from the second-largest market for U.S. agricultural products to the fifth-largest since the trade war began. Reopening the door to trade with China and others is key to helping farmers and ranchers get back on their feet. Farmers would much rather farm for the marketplace and not have to rely on government trade aid.”

Similarly, the Illinois Farm Bureau called Friday’s announcement “welcome news,” adding that farmers in the state have “a profound desire to recapture lost export demand due to the prolonged trade war with China.” The group expressed hope for “more good news yet to come.”
 
Illinois farmer Evan Hultine says he is “very excited” about the prospects of the purchase commitment China is making in the current phase of negotiations, but that the “residual stress” of the trade war has him taking a wait-and-see approach. “I don’t think my nerves or trepidation will completely fade until China starts making physical purchases and commodities and money changes hands,” he told VOA.
 
Trade announcements take time to be implemented and even longer to benefit farmers economically. For all the trade headlines emerging in Washington, Turner says many farmers across America continue to struggle.

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Trump Touts USMCA in Meeting with Canada PM Trudeau 

Trump says two countries will be ‘significantly expanding’ trade relations once agreement is done

 
“The economic damage to us on prices has still been done out here,” he said.
 
“Let’s say that we have a [final] trade agreement [with China], and things really get moving – we know that the farm income situation has been affected and can’t be turned around overnight,” said Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Censky during a visit to the Illinois Farm Bureau’s annual meeting.  
 
Censky said he hopes further MFP payments in 2020 won’t be needed if negotiators can reach a full and comprehensive trade agreement with China, which is one of the largest buyers of U.S. soybeans.  

“All of us want to have trade and not aid,” says Censky. “None of us wants to have this level of government payments going to farmers. We want the markets.”

Farmers echo the sentiment but also want to know the U.S. government will continue to support them if further trade progress doesn’t materialize and their list of worries continues to extend beyond omnipresent factors, like the weather.

…

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam visited Beijing on Saturday for her first trip to the Chinese capital since her government was handed a crushing defeat in local elections last month, prompting speculation about changes to her leadership team.

During a four-day visit, Lam is due to discuss the political and economic situation in China-ruled Hong Kong with Chinese officials. She will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday.

Hong Kong has been convulsed by daily and sometimes violent protests for the last six months as demonstrations against a now-withdrawn extradition bill broadened into demands for greater democratic freedom.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched last Sunday to protest against what is seen as Beijing undermining freedoms guaranteed when the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997. Many young  protesters are also angry at Lam’s government, charging it with failing to address social inequality issues in one of the world’s most expensive cities.

“Our sincerity to have dialogue with citizens has not changed,” Lam said in a Facebook post on Saturday. She said her governing team would continue to pursue “different formats of dialogue to listen to citizens  sincerely.”

This week Lam said a cabinet reshuffle was not an “immediate task” and she would focus her efforts on restoring law and order to Hong Kong. Still there are doubts about how long Beijing is willing to back her, especially after pro-democracy candidates won nearly 90% of the seats in district elections last month.

China has condemned the unrest and blamed foreign interference. It denies that it is meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs. In an editorial this week, the official China Daily newspaper called on Hong Kong’s government to uphold the rule of law.

Separately, three men were arrested on Saturday and charged with testing remote-controlled explosives, police said. Police also found body armor, shields and gas masks, they said.

Police also arrested five teenagers in connection with the murder of a 70-year-old man last month and on rioting charges, the government said. The man had been hit with bricks and later died in hospital, the  government said in a statement.

…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has rejected a $13.5 billion settlement that Pacific Gas & Electric struck just last week with thousands of people who lost homes, businesses and family members in a series of devastating fires that drove the nation’s largest utility into bankruptcy.

The decision announced Friday in a five-page letter to PG&E CEO William D. Johnson marks a major setback in the utility’s race to meet a June 30 deadline to emerge from bankruptcy protection.

The San Francisco-based company needs to pull a deal off to be able to draw from a special fund created by the Democratic governor and state lawmakers to help insulate utilities if their equipment sparks other catastrophic fires. The risks have escalated during the past few years amid dry, windy conditions that have become more severe in a changing climate.

In his letter, Newsom said the proposed settlement announced last week does not achieve the goal of addressing what he considers its most important elements, providing safe and reliable power to PG&E customers.

“In my judgment, the amended plan and the restructuring transactions do not result in a reorganized company positioned to provide safe, reliable, and affordable service,” he said.

He went on to say that PG&E’s problems are the result of decades of mismanagement that must be addressed before he will sign off on any proposed settlement.

“PG&E’s board of directors and management have a responsibility to immediately develop a feasible plan,” the governor said. “Anything else is irresponsible, a breach of fiduciary duties, and a clear violation of the public trust.”

State Sen. Bill Dodd, who represents much of the fire-ravaged area, praised Newsom’s action.

“We all know that we can’t trust PG&E to do the right thing or even follow the law,” the Napa Democrat said. “Gov. Newsom has been standing up for the interests of ratepayers, victims and communities from day one.”

Newsom played a pivotal role in prodding Pacific Gas & Electric to work out a settlement with the fire victims instead of sticking to its original plan to earmark about $7.5 billion for them.

That $7.5 billion became particularly galling to the governor and other critics after the company agreed to pay $11 billion to resolve a potential $20 billion liability with insurers. Those insurers had already paid their policyholder claims in the fires that killed more than 120 people and destroyed nearly 28,000 homes and other buildings during 2017 and 2018.

The proposed settlement agreed to last week by the utility and attorneys representing fire victims would have paid $6.75 billion to the victims in installments ending in early 2022, and $6.75 billion in company stock that would give them close to a 21% stake in the reorganized PG&E.

The settlement also required significant concessions from the victims. Their lawyers had been contending victims were owed at least $36 billion and were likely to seek even larger amounts had they pursued their claims in a state trial and federal court hearing that had been scheduled for early next year.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali would have to approve a settlement by Dec. 20 for the deal to become part of the utility’s official plan to regain its financial footing. If that happens, bankruptcy experts believe the utility’s preferred reorganization plan will have a clear-cut advantage over a competing proposal from a group of bondholders and a potential bid from a group of cities and counties who have been mulling an attempt to turn the company into a customer-owned cooperative.

One of the attorneys representing thousands of fire victims said Friday night he hopes PG&E can still pull together a revised proposal that will satisfy the governor before that deadline.

“I’m hopeful that adjustments can be made so that all the parties can move forward to obtain compensation for the victims who have suffered so much over two years,” said Rich Bridgford of Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian.

Although he praised the proposed settlement just last week, Bridgford said he understands Newsom’s concerns.

“The governor’s heart is in the right place in seeking to ensure that PG&E emerges from bankruptcy in such a way as to guarantee it can adopt the safety measures necessary to avoid catastrophic wildfires in the future,” Bridgford said. “It’s a delicate balancing act.”

…

…

A measles epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 5,000 people this year, according to a report by the World Health Organization.  The agency says there are a quarter million suspected measles cases in the country and all provinces have been affected, making it one of world’s fastest and largest moving epidemics.  As VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports, the WHO and DRC government are carrying out an immunization campaign to combat the crisis.

…

Canada’s opposition Conservative leader said Thursday he will resign as party leader after weeks of infighting and a disappointing performance in parliamentary elections.

Andrew Scheer, 40, called resigning “one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made.” He will stay on until a new leader is elected.

“Serving as the leader of the party that I love so much has been the opportunity and the challenge of a lifetime,” Scheer said on the floor of Parliament.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won a second term in Canada’s October elections despite losing the majority in Parliament. It was an unexpectedly strong result for Trudeau following a series of scandals that had tarnished his image as a liberal icon.

The vote led several Conservative officials to call for Scheer to step aside.

Even members of his own party said Scheer is bland. They once touted it as a virtue, the antidote to Trudeau’s flash and star power. In the words of Canada’s former Conservative foreign minister, John Baird: “He’s not the sizzle, he’s the steak.”

But Scheer was criticized during the campaign for embellishing his resume by saying he had worked as an insurance broker when, in fact, he was never licensed.

He also took heat for holding dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship — something he and his party had blasted other Canadian political figures for and never mentioned until the Globe and Mail newspaper revealed it during the election campaign.

He stumbled at several points in the campaign. He was widely panned after a debate when Trudeau grilled Scheer about his stance on abortion and the Conservative refused to answer.

In 2005, he gave a speech in Parliament attacking same-sex marriage and his social conservative beliefs hurt him in Eastern Canada.

Following the resignation, Trudeau said in Parliament, “I want to thank him deeply for his service to Canada on behalf of all Canadians.”

Scheer plans to stay on as the member of Parliament for the Saskatchewan district he has represented since he was first elected in 2004 when he was 25. The Conservative caucus chair Tom Kmiec later announced Conservative Party Members of Parliament voted unanimously for Scheer to remain as leader until a new leader is elected.

Political career

He has spent most of his adult life in politics. At age 32, he became the youngest speaker of the House of Commons, a non-partisan role overseeing debate in Parliament.

Scheer became Conservative leader in 2017 after other prominent Conservatives decided not to run because they thought Trudeau could not be beaten in the 2019 election.

Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said leaders of the Liberal and Conservative parties are now expected to win at the first opportunity.

“If they don’t, the knives are out,” Wiseman said. “Scheer could see the writing on the wall; he would have almost certainly failed to win a majority at his party convention’s scheduled review of his leadership in April.”

Antonia Maioni, McGill University’s dean of arts, said Scheer’s party recognized that he and his social conservative beliefs were not a winning strategy for forming a government in Canada.

Dustin van Vugt, the executive director of the Conservative Party, issued a statement that appeared to dismiss suggestions the resignation could be tied to reports that party funds were used to subsidize private school education for Scheer’s five children.

“Shortly after Mr. Scheer was elected leader, we had a meeting where I made a standard offer to cover costs associated with moving his family from Regina to Ottawa. This includes a differential in schooling costs between Regina and Ottawa. All proper procedures were followed and signed off on by the appropriate people,” van Vugt said.
 

…

Britons woke Friday to an utterly transformed political landscape following an electoral earthquake that has ripped up modern British politics, and whose tremors will be felt for years to come.  

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s emphatic win in the country’s third general election in four years — giving the Conservatives, also known as Tories, their biggest parliamentary majority in more than a quarter of a century — marks a decisive turn in the country’s fortunes following the instability triggered by the 2016 Brexit referendum, say analysts.

Armed with an 80-seat majority, the biggest at a general election since Margaret Thatcher’s in 1987, Johnson’s government now will be able to end the deadlock in Britain’s Parliament and deliver on the Conservative promise to “get Brexit done” without further delay. Britain will almost certainly exit the European Union by the end of January, triggering a second and likely trickier stage of negotiations with Brussels over the country’s future political and trade relations with the European continent.

Speaking from the steps of No. 10 Downing Street, Johnson said Thursday’s election results show the “irrefutable” decision of the British people is to leave the EU and to end the “miserable threats” of a second Brexit referendum, a rerun plebiscite backed by Britain’s main opposition party, Labor, and the centrist Liberal Democrats.

The huge victory, which saw the country’s main opposition Labor Party record its worst electoral performance since 1935, is a vindication of Johnson’s decision, say analysts, to focus the election campaigning on Brexit and not to be drawn in too much by Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn’s effort to make the poll about the crumbling state of Britain’s public services. Johnson’s strategy was posited on the idea that Britons, even those who would prefer to remain in the EU, have become sick and tired of the long-running Brexit mess and want the saga to end.

‘Red wall’

Johnson also had his fair share of luck, “the biggest piece of which was Jeremy Corbyn,” according to Daniel Finkelstein, a onetime adviser to former Conservative leader David Cameron and now a columnist with The Times. “Corbyn kept more moderate Conservatives voting Tory even when they had doubts about Boris Johnson. He neither united the liberal left and center behind a policy of stopping Brexit nor the traditional Labor vote behind a populist manifesto,” he said.

In the final days of the campaign, Johnson focused on Labor’s so-called “red wall” of constituencies searching for cracks to widen in former mining towns and farming villages crucial to the Conservatives’ hopes of winning Thursday’s election, warning voters they face a “great Brexit betrayal,” if they voted for an increasingly metropolitan and far-left Labor Party.

On Thursday, Johnson managed not just to breach what was once considered an impregnable wall, but he bulldozed through it by persuading traditional working-class voters who favor Brexit in the north of England to ditch their lifetime habit of voting Labor. Constituencies that have been synonymous with Labor for decades fell like dominoes — seats like Workington in the northwest English county of Cumbria, which has been held by Labor for 97 out of the last 100 years.

Johnson’s Landslide Victory Sets Britain On Course for January Brexit video player.

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Existential crisis 

For Labor, the election amounts to an existential crisis — the same for the Liberal Democrats, whose leader Jo Swinson failed even to get re-elected as a lawmaker. Corbyn, widely seen as the most far-left leader Labor has had since the 1930s, has said he won’t lead Labor into another election and will stand down but only after a “period of reflection.”

Labor moderates want him to go immediately, and they fear he wants to oversee the choice of his successor, which his internal party opponents see as a sign that he and the left wing of the party will not easily relinquish control.  

Left-wingers attribute the party’s failure to Brexit and say it has nothing to do with Corbyn or his ideology. Richard Burgon, the shadow justice secretary, tweeted that this had been a “Brexit election.” “Johnson must continue to be fought with radical alternatives, not triangulation, that challenge the Tories head-on,” he added.

But moderate Labor candidates say that on the doorsteps while campaigning, they found the main problem for the party wasn’t Brexit but deep distrust for the Labor leader. They note that while Labor did worse in seats that voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, they also fared badly in constituencies that voted to remain in the EU.

One Labor candidate, Phil Wilson, who failed to keep what had been a safe Labor seat in the north, said it was “mendacious nonsense” for Corbyn loyalists to blame the result on Brexit. “Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was a bigger problem,” he said. “To say otherwise is delusional.”

Scotland, Northern Ireland

Despite their huge win, the victorious Conservatives will face challenges of their own, say analysts, both when it comes to Brexit and in terms of London’s relations with Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Johnson’s victory may have seen a remaking of the Conservatives, a party now more working-class than it has ever been, but it may have come at the cost of unmaking Great Britain. North of the English border, in Scotland, the pro-EU Scottish Nationalists, or SNP, also pulled off a landslide win, heralding a coming battle over Scottish independence and setting London and Edinburgh on course for a possible constitutional showdown that risks being fraught as the current clash in Spain between Catalan separatists and Madrid.

The nationalists gained a dozen seats as the Tories, Labor and the Liberal Democrats were wiped out north of the border with the SNP winning 48 of Scotland’s 59 seats, up from the 35 it won in 2017. The SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, vowed Friday to formally request a second independence referendum before the end of the year, saying that the election results north and south of the border showed “the divergent paths” Scotland and the rest of the UK are on.

“Boris Johnson has a mandate to take England out of the EU, but he must accept that I have a mandate to give Scotland a choice for an alternative future,” Sturgeon told the BBC. Johnson repeatedly has promised to reject any demand for another independence ballot, saying that if there is any formal demand, “we will mark that letter return to sender and be done with it.”

Nationalists enjoyed success, too, in British-run Northern Ireland. For the first time, nationalists, who favor reunification with the Irish Republic, now hold a majority of seats in the province, which voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum.

Brexit debate

On Brexit, Johnson likely will continue to face internal Conservative party disputes, say analysts, with half his Cabinet favoring a so-called soft Brexit, entailing a close trading and political relationship with the EU. Johnson is aiming to conclude a trade deal with the EU by the end of 2020, but EU leaders have warned the timetable is unrealistic and the complicated negotiations will be daunting and take years.  

The new president of the European Council, Charles Michel, warned that Brussels won’t agree to a free trade deal that does excludes Britain agreeing to abide by EU regulatory rules and product standards. “The EU is ready for the next phase,” he said. “We will negotiate a future trade deal, which ensures a true level playing field,” he added.

EU officials formally welcomed Johnson’s victory but added they hope the prime minister will negotiate a “close as possible future relationship.” Some European officials say the Conservatives’ big parliamentary majority should give Johnson political space to maneuver and override the objections of those Tories who want a “clean break” with the EU.

Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit Party, which failed to win any parliamentary seats Thursday, says he fears Johnson will pivot now that he has a large majority and will eventually conclude a closer relationship with the EU than hard-line Brexiters would like.
 

…

The World Health Organization warns that gains made in tackling the Ebola epidemic in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are being threatened by ongoing insecurity in the region.

As of Dec. 10, WHO reported 3,340 cases of Ebola, including 2,210 deaths. 

Over the last week, 27 new confirmed cases of Ebola were reported from four health zones in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. This marks a substantial increase over the weekly average of seven new cases recorded during the previous three weeks, according to WHO.  

Michel Yao, head of WHO’s on-the-ground operations for the Ebola outbreak, blames the rise in cases on attacks by armed groups, which are preventing health care workers from reaching vulnerable communities.

“This is due to the fact that when we cannot access the community … we cannot perform surveillance activities including vaccination, that has been one of the key innovations that help us really to stop the spread out of this country toward the others,” he said.  

Human Rights Watch and WHO say more than 100 armed groups are fighting in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, and some have attacked Ebola treatment facilities.  

Since the beginning of the year, eight health care workers — including one WHO staff member — have been killed. Because of heightened insecurity, WHO relocated 49 non-essential staff from the Ebola-hit region late last month.

Rural risks

When the Ebola outbreak was declared on Aug. 1, 2018, the deadly virus was circulating in 29 health zones, averaging more than 120 new cases of the disease every week. Yao says significant progress in tackling the disease has been made since then.  

He told VOA that in the last few weeks, Ebola cases have been reported in only four health zones — Mabalako, Mandima, Beni and Oicha.

“This is actually where we need to ensure access to finish the job,” he said. “Unfortunately, it is in this area where we are facing insecurity. This area is a mainly rural area. … (In) the big cities, the outbreak is more or less controlled. So, we remain with this rural area, but it is difficult to reach for security reasons.”  

Yao says he is confident the outbreak can be brought under control if safe access to the area can be ensured.
 

…

A 30-year-old Laotian blogger has been imprisoned for five years for questioning the adequacy of the government’s response to deadly flooding in the country’s south this fall.

In September, Tropical Storm Podul and Tropical Depression Kajiki dumped an estimated 40 centimeters of rain across Laos’ six southern provinces, killing at least 19 people and displacing an estimated 100,000, according to the United Nations and ASEAN humanitarian and disaster relief agencies.

The Vientiane Times put the death toll at 28, and international media reported that flooding also damaged hospitals and schools, and destroyed hundreds of roads and nearly 100 bridges.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said video blogger Houayheuang Xayabouly, known online as Muay Littlepig, posted a video to Facebook on September 12 drawing attention to what she described as a negligent government response to the disaster in her native Champasak and neighboring Salavan provinces.

As of Thursday, the video had been viewed more than 172,000 times.

RSF learned Tuesday that Houayheuang had already been given the maximum sentence and incarcerated for “spreading propaganda against the Lao People’s Democratic Republic,” and “trying to overthrow the party, state and government.” 

“By disseminating anti-government messages, she violated Article 117 of Criminal Law. So, she could be imprisoned between one and five years, and be fined between 5 and 20 million Kip ($568 and $2,272),” Lieutenant Colonel Phaychit told VOA’s Lao service shortly after the September 12 arrest.

Phaychit also said she “pleaded guilty as alleged and provided the important information of her association with the anti-government groups both inside the country and overseas.”

‘Grim warning’

“By acting as the voice of her fellow citizens with great courage, Muay Littlepig served the public interest in a country where the news media are completely ossified,” said Daniel Bastard, RSF’s Asia-Pacific chief, who is quoted in RSF’s news alert.

“Her harsh sentence is a grim warning to the entire Laotian population,” he said. “As the charges lacked any substance, we call for her immediate and unconditional release.”

According to Bastard, Houayheuang had “previously posted videos about cases of corruption and the failure to adequately address the widespread damage in the southern province of Attapeu, resulting from the collapse of a dam in July 2018.”

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Survivors Recount Horror of Laos Dam Collapse

Samled Inthavong had almost finished hoisting his family members into a boat when a building uprooted by the collapse of a dam upstream slammed into his house.Bobbing atop the surging floodwaters in the inky midnight darkness, he could only watch as his house caved in on his grandparents trapped inside.“My grandparents couldn’t move.

RSF describes Laos as “a news and information black hole in which the state apparatus has complete control over the media, and relatively few people have internet connections.”

The international press freedom watchdog ranks Lao 171 out of 180 countries in its 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

Phaysarn Vorachak of VOA’s Lao service contributed to this report.

…

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party will win an overwhelming victory in Britain’s election with a majority of 86 seats in parliament to deliver Brexit on Jan. 31, an exit poll showed Thursday.

The exit poll showed Johnson’s Conservatives would win a landslide of 368 seats, more than enough for a very comfortable majority in the 650-seat parliament and the biggest Conservative national election win since Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 triumph.

Labour were forecast by the poll to win 191 seats, the worst result for the party since 1935. The Scottish National Party would win 55 seats and the Liberal Democrats 13, the poll said.

The Brexit Party were not forecast to win any.

“That would be a phenomenal victory for the Conservative Party and Boris Johnson will feel completely vindicated with the gamble that he took,” said John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons.

“That would be an absolutely dramatic victory,” he said.

Sterling surged after the exit poll, hitting its highest against the euro since July 2016, shortly after the Brexit referendum. Versus the dollar it jumped 2.3% to $1.3480.

Official results will be declared over the next seven hours.

In the last five national elections, only one exit poll has got the outcome wrong — in 2015 when the poll predicted a hung parliament when in fact the Conservatives won a majority, taking 14 more seats than forecast.

If the exit poll is accurate and Johnson’s bet on a snap election has paid off, he will move swiftly to ratify the Brexit deal he struck with the European Union so that the United Kingdom can leave on Jan. 31, 2020 — 10 months later than initially planned.

Britain’s paralysis 

Johnson called the first Christmas election since 1923 to break what he said was the paralysis of Britain’s political system after more than three years of crisis over how, when or even if to leave the European Union.

The face of the “Leave” campaign in the 2016 referendum, 55-year-old Johnson fought the election under the slogan of “Get Brexit Done,” promising to end the deadlock and spend more on health, education and the police.

The exit poll was produced by three broadcasters — the BBC, ITV and Sky — who teamed up to jointly produce similar surveys in the last three elections, held in 2010, 2015 and 2017.

In 2010 and 2017, their exit polls accurately predicted the overall outcome and were close to forecasting the correct number of seats for the two main parties.

Johnson’s strategy was to breach Labour’s so-called “Red Wall” of seats across the Brexit-supporting areas of the Midlands and northern England where he cast his political opponents as the out-of-touch enemies of Brexit.

Brexit far from over

While a majority will allow Johnson to lead the United Kingdom out of the club it first joined in 1973, Brexit is far from over: He faces the daunting task of negotiating a trade agreement with the EU in just 11 months.

After Jan. 31, Britain will enter a transition period during which it will negotiate a new relationship with the EU27.

This can run until the end of December 2022 under the current rules, but the Conservatives made an election promise not to extend the transition period beyond the end of 2020.
 

…

The recent U.S. seizure of suspected Iranian guided missile parts headed to rebels in Yemen highlights Iran’s continued far-reaching involvement in the war-torn country, experts say. 
  
U.S. officials said earlier this month that a U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard boarding team seized a small boat in the northern Arabian Sea that was carrying sophisticated weapons to Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen. 
  
Iran has not commented on the seizure, but the country has in the past denied sending weapons to Houthi rebels.   
  
Some experts believe the incident shows Iran’s escalating efforts to defy international obligations and to destabilize Yemen and the broader region. 
 
“This is one additional piece of evidence that Iran continues to violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions in exporting arms, which it’s not allowed to do,” said James Phillips, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.  

A U.N. resolution adopted in 2007 prohibits Iran from supplying and exporting weapons outside the country unless approved by the Security Council. Another U.N. resolution, adopted in 2015, bans the supply of weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen. 
 
Since the war in Yemen began in 2015, Iran has been backing Houthi rebels who control much of northern Yemen. Houthis have been fighting forces loyal to the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. 
 
The Houthis reportedly have been using parts smuggled from Iran to build their advanced arsenal. Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which was designated a terrorist organization by the Trump administration earlier this year, has been accused of providing weapons and expertise to Houthi rebels. 

Substantial amount of weapons 
 
Although the size of the recently seized shipment remains unclear, experts charge that over the years, Iran has delivered a substantial amount of weaponry to its Houthi allies in response to what Tehran sees as growing Saudi Arabian influence in the country. 
 
“The weapon cache discovered in that yacht is only a small example of what IRGC Quds Force is sending to Yemen to be used by Houthi rebels,” said Babak Taghvaei, a Malta-based military analyst with knowledge of Iran’s involvement in regional conflicts, including the one in Yemen. 
 
He told VOA that a Saudi-led coalition had on several occasions seized Iranian-made weapons that were intended for the Houthis. 
  
Saudi Arabia and several Arab countries have been engaged in the Yemeni war since its inception, with the aim of removing Houthi rebels. The conflict therefore is seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. 
 
While the recent seizure marked the first time such sophisticated components had been taken en route to Yemen, U.S. warships have intercepted and seized Iranian arms likely bound for Houthi fighters many times in recent years. 

“The seizure of these weapons will help the U.S. and its allies to find out about technology and material used for production of these weapons, and how to protect their forces from their danger,” analyst Taghvaei said. 
  
Additional US forces? 
 
Despite growing tensions between Tehran and Washington, experts rule out the likelihood of any direct confrontation between the two sides in the Persian Gulf region. 
 
However, Nicholas Heras, a Middle East researcher at the Center for a New American Security, said he thought the U.S. could increase its military presence in the Middle East, for two purposes. 
 
“The first is to reassure nervous partners such as Saudi Arabia that the U.S. is serious in protecting their territory and also their key economic assets, such as oil pipelines,” he told VOA. 
 
“The second purpose is to send a signal to Iran that if the U.S. decides that it is time to escalate against Iran and [its] malign activities in the broader Middle East, the U.S. has the muscle capable to do it,” Heras added. 

In recent months, the U.S. has beefed up its military presence in the region, deploying additional troops, ships, aircraft and other military supplies in response to what U.S. officials say is a growing threat from Iran. 
 
‘Spoiler’ in Yemen 
 
Some experts also say the recent seizure is yet more evidence that Iran acts as a “spoiler” in Yemen, especially since Saudi Arabia reportedly has been engaged in informal talks with the Houthis about a potential cease-fire. 
 
“Riyadh is seeking border security as a part of this process, and the continued Iranian arming of the Houthis — in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions — is Tehran’s way of putting its thumb on the scale,” said Jason Brodsky, an Iran expert based in Washington. 
 
“In the end, this seized cache is just another reminder of Iran’s power projection throughout the region,” he told VOA. 

…

Boeing Co on Thursday abandoned its goal of winning approval this month from the Federal Aviation Administration to unground the 737 MAX after Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg met with senior U.S. aviation officials.

The announcement came after a congressional hearing on Wednesday in which numerous lawmakers prodded the FAA to take a tougher line with Boeing as it continues to review the plane that has been grounded since March after two fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people.

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said on Wednesday he would not clear the plane to fly before 2020 and disclosed the agency has an ongoing investigation into 737 production issues in Renton, Washington. He added there are nearly a dozen milestones that must be completed before the MAX returns to service.

Approval is not likely until at least February and could be delayed until March, U.S. officials told Reuters.

Muilenburg and Boeing’s commercial airplanes chief, Stan Deal, met with Dickson and “committed to addressing all of the FAA’s questions,” the company said, adding it will work to support the agency’s “requirements and their timeline as we work to safely return the Max to service in 2020.”

Dickson told Muilenburg, according to an email sent to lawmakers by the FAA, that “Boeing’s focus should be on the quality and timeliness of data submittals for FAA review. He made clear that FAA’s certification requirements must be 100% complete before return to service.”

Boeing had said last month it expected the FAA would allow it to resume 737 MAX deliveries in December.

The company previously warned a significant delay in MAX approval could force it to cut or halt production of the aircraft, a move that would have repercussions across its global supply chain.

Boeing’s shares closed 1.1% lower at $346.29 on Thursday.

Separately, American Airlines Group Inc said on Thursday it was extending cancellations of 737 MAX flights through April 6. American, the largest U.S. airline, had previously canceled about 140 flights a day through March 4 and now expects to resume 737 MAX passenger flights on April 7.

Gary Kelly, the CEO of Boeing’s largest 737 MAX customer, Southwest Airlines Co, said he was “concerned” about what Boeing decides to do with its production line. Southwest was supposed to have 75 MAX jets in service this year and, like other airlines, it has had to cancel routes and scale back growth plans as it operates a slimmer fleet.

Kelly said it is “likely” the airline will again need to push back its restart date from March.

In an email to congressional staff earlier on Thursday disclosing the meeting between Dickson and Muilenburg, FAA official Philip Newman said Dickson is “concerned that Boeing continues to pursue a return-to-service schedule that is not realistic due to delays that have accumulated for a variety of reasons.

More concerning, the administrator wants to directly address the perception that some of Boeing’s public statements have been designed to force FAA into taking quicker action.”

…

The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution that recognizes as genocide the mass killings of Armenians a century ago, a historic move that infuriated Turkey and dealt a blow to the already problematic ties between Ankara and Washington. 

Turkey condemned the measure, which passed a month after an official visit to the White House by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who enjoys a special rapport with President Donald Trump, amid mounting issues that have soured the relationship between the two NATO allies. 

Trump had cast his November 13 meeting with Erdogan as “wonderful” despite no concrete breakthrough on deep disagreements about issues such as Ankara’s purchase of Russian weapons systems and diverging views on Syria policy. 

The Democrat-led House of Representatives passed the resolution by an overwhelming majority in October. But Republican senators had blocked a vote in the Senate since the Erdogan meeting. 

‘Tribute’

“This is a tribute to the memory of 1.5 million victims of the first #Genocide of the 20th century and bold step in promotion of the prevention agenda. #NeverAgain,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tweeted. 

The resolution, which is nonbinding, asserts that it is U.S. policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey. 

Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constituted genocide. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the decision a “political show,” while presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara strongly condemned and rejected the measure. 

“History will note these resolutions as irresponsible and irrational actions by some members of the U.S. Congress against Turkey,” Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s communications director, said on Twitter. 

Sticking with S-400

Congressional aides said the White House did not want the legislation to move ahead while it was negotiating with Ankara on sensitive issues. However, since the visit, Erdogan repeatedly said Turkey had no intention of dropping the Russian S-400 air defense missile systems it bought, crushing any hopes for progress. 

For decades, measures recognizing the Armenian genocide have stalled in Congress, stymied by concerns about relations with Turkey and intense lobbying by Ankara. 

“I’ve invested, like, decades of my life,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America. “So it was a sense of relief and a bit of a vindication that … [the United] States recognized the history of the Armenians, but also put up a firewall against foreign countries coming into our democracy and dictating to us.” 

Congress has been united in its opposition to Turkey’s recent policy actions. Republican senators have been incensed with Turkey’s purchase of the S-400, which the United States says poses a threat to its F-35 fighter jets and cannot be integrated into NATO defenses. 

Syrian incursion

They have also moved to punish Turkey for its October 9 incursion into Syria. A U.S. Senate committee backed legislation on Wednesday to impose sanctions on Turkey, pushing Trump to take a harder line on the issue. Many lawmakers blame Trump for giving a green light to Ankara for its military offensive. 

To become law, that legislation would have to pass the House of Representatives — which passed its own Turkish sanctions bill 403-16 in October — and be signed by 
Trump. 

…

New Zealand officials now say they will send crews to White Island on Friday to recover the bodies of eight people killed in Monday’s volcanic eruption.

Authorities had been holding off on sending search crews to retrieve the bodies because of the volcano’s continued instability.  Seismologists with New Zealand’s GeoNet seismic monitoring agency said Wednesday there remains a 40-to-60 percent chance of another major eruption.  Poisonous gas continues to vent out of the volcano’s crater and the island is covered in acidic ash.  

The death toll rose Wednesday to eight, as two more victims who had been rescued from the island after the eruption died in hospital.  At least 27 survivors suffered burns over more than 71 percent of their bodies; of that number, 22 are on airway support due to the severity of their burns.  Health officials have said they need an extra 1.2 million square centimeters of skin to provide grafts for the victims.

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Eight Dead, More Missing After New Zealand Volcanic Eruption

Safety fears delay body recovery after New Zealand volcanic eruption

Authorities say about 47 people were touring the island at the time of the eruption, including 24 Australians, with the rest from the United States, Britain, Germany, China, Malaysia and New Zealand.  Some of the victims were passengers from a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean.

Australia has sent at least one military aircraft to New Zealand to bring 12 victims back to Australia for treatment.

GeoNet raised the volcano’s alert level last month to Level Two on the five-level scale that monitors its chances of eruption.  Still pictures captured by a GeoNet camera installed along the volcano’s crater showed a group of tourists walking on the crater floor moments before the eruption.

Police have launched an investigation in connection with the disaster.

White Island, also known by its Maori name Whakaari, sits about 50 kilometers northeast of the town of Tauranga on North Island, and attracts about 10,000 visitors every year.  It is New Zealand’s most active cone volcano, with about 70 percent of the island under the sea.

…

The deadly shooting by a Saudi national last week at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida has raised questions about radicalization in Saudi Arabia’s military ranks.

Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, a lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force, opened fire in a classroom at the naval base, killing three U.S. sailors and wounding eight others before he was killed by police.
 
Alshamrani had reportedly shown signs of radicalization and embraced extremist ideology as early as 2016.
 
Vetting process
 
If reports about Alshamrani’s early radicalization are true, “then it raises more questions over what is the vetting process,” said Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center in New York.
 
“Clearly it is not effective enough, because this person would have been identified as someone who was making extremist remarks or holding religiously radical viewpoints,” Clarke told VOA.  
 
Considered a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has been sending students to the United States for military training for decades.
 
According to the U.S. State Department, more than 5,500 temporary visas were issued to Saudi military personnel in 2019 alone. As of last week, 852 Saudi nationals were in the U.S. for Pentagon-sponsored training on security cooperation, The Washington Post  reported.
 
In response to the Friday attack, the Pentagon has suspended nonclassroom training for all Saudi Arabian military students presently in the U.S.  
 
U.S. defense officials also have ordered a review of the vetting process for all international students enrolled at U.S. military facilities.
 
Experts charge that moving forward, the vetting process for international military trainees should be more comprehensive to ensure that prospective students aren’t radicalized and don’t have ties with terror groups.
 
“Vetting might have to extend to a close examination of individuals’ social media accounts,” analyst Clarke said.
 
Anti-Americanism
 
Saudi Arabia is a major recipient of U.S. military aid and assistance. Riyadh is the top buyer of U.S. weapons. Between 2013 and 2017, Saudi Arabia’s  purchases accounted for nearly 18% of all U.S. arms sales, or about $9 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

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But despite this close security cooperation, some experts, such as F. Gregory Gause, a professor of international affairs at Texas A&M University who monitors developments in Saudi Arabia, think there is an anti-American sentiment among many Saudi military personnel.
 
“I would assume that some amount of anti-Americanism is widespread in the Saudi military, as it is in Saudi public opinion and Arab public opinion generally,” he said.
 
Gause told VOA, “The more important question on this particular issue is not anti-Americanism, but radicalization into jihadist beliefs.”  
 
“Saudi government has, since the mid-2000s, been very careful to try to stamp it out at home, through a combination of repression and changed rhetoric,” he added.
 
Religiosity, not extremism
 
While some experts admit that religiosity exists among many Saudi military personnel, they maintain that it is not necessarily linked to extremist ideology.
 
“There is a level of religiosity in the Saudi military because it is part of the Saudi society, which is already religious,” said Abdullah Ghadwi, a journalist at the Okaz newspaper in Riyadh.
 
“However, this does not mean that extremism exists in the Saudi military,” he told VOA. However, “the Florida incident is a unique case.”
 
The Florida shooter was one of the remnants of “jihadist movements that the Saudi authorities are working to eradicate,” Ghadwi noted.
 
Wahhabism
 
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Wahhabism, a strict Sunni doctrine credited with inspiring the radical ideology of the Islamic State terror group.
 
Analyst Clarke said, “Saudi Arabia is the number one exporter of religious extremism and radical ideology across the world, and every now and then it comes back to bite them or another country, in this case it is the United States.”
 
He said thousands of Saudi nationals have traveled to conflict zones to become foreign fighters with terrorist groups.
 
But in its 2018 Country Reports on Terrorism, released in November, the State Department said, “Saudi Arabia continued to enact domestic religious sector reforms, including the development of more stringent guidance and approval for Saudi religious personnel traveling overseas to conduct proselytization.”  
 
“As part of what Saudi Arabia describes as its ‘moderate Islam’ initiative, Saudi clerics and religious attachés sent abroad were vetted for observance to principles of tolerance and peaceful coexistence and were forbidden from undertaking proselytization efforts beyond host country Sunni Muslim communities,” the report added.
 
Continued cooperation
 
Ghadwi, the Okaz newspaper journalist, said the Pensacola attack could be a way to raise the level of security and counterterrorism cooperation between Washington and Riyadh.
 
“Most likely the Florida shooting incident won’t affect the course of security cooperation between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, rather it increases it,” he said.
 
“Saudi Arabia is affected by this extremist ideology like the United States, and therefore the two parties will continue to eradicate it,” Ghadwi added.

…

Environmentalists and climate change activists worldwide are hailing Time magazine’s decision to make Greta Thunberg its 2019 Person of the Year. The teenage activist has attracted the world’s attention with her eloquent calls on political and industrial leaders to make courageous decisions on climate change. Her actions have inspired young people worldwide to fight for the protection of the planet. But as VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, there are critics who say Thunberg’s mission and her celebrity status are all wrong

…

Top American officials say the U.S. is hopeful that the recent prisoner exchange will lead to a broader discussion on consular affairs between the U.S. and Iran.

In an interview with VOA on Wednesday, Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, recalled some of the emotional moments of witnessing the release of Xiyue Wang, a Chinese American detained in Iran, and said Wang will be “working with us and doing everything we can to get out people like Bob Levinson and then the Namazis and others.”

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Wang was freed Saturday after being held in Iran since 2016 on spying charges, in return for the U.S. releasing Iranian scientist Masoud Soleimani.

Hook said Wang is “in excellent condition” and is at Ramstein Air Force Base with his wife and son.

While the top U.S. envoy said the rare prisoner exchange between the two nations is “a good first step” toward more dialogue, he called Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif’s proposal via a tweet for “a comprehensive prisoner swap” not helpful.

“We don’t think it’s all that helpful for any sort of talking about prisoners in public. We just try to do this in quiet diplomacy and bring Americans back home,” Hook said.

The following are excerpts from the interview.

VOA: First, congratulations on bringing detained American home. You were there to witness the release of Xiyue Wang, the Princeton Ph.D. candidate. Could you please share with us your firsthand story and some of the most memorable moments?

Hook: It was a big day for American diplomacy, but it was an even bigger day for Xiyue Wang. And so the United States has been working on releasing all Americans who are detained in Iran for the last three years. We’ve been working to win their release. We’ve been trying to get a consular dialogue going with Iran so that we can get Americans out. And then about three or four weeks ago, we started getting some more positive signals from the Iranians, and then working through the Swiss, I’ve been working with the Swiss, was able to negotiate the release of Xiyue Wang. And so when we were in Zurich, it was a really powerful moment to welcome Xiyue back home and out of Iranian custody, out of Iranian prison.

He is a brave and amazing man. He is currently at Ramstein Air Force Base with his wife and son. They’re now reunited. And I think he’s getting great medical care there. He is in excellent condition. And he emerged from this, he’s very strong. He’s, I really admire his toughness and when he’s ready, after we get through I think just the period of just the medical evaluation and reuniting with his family, then he’ll be coming back to the United States.

VOA: What was his first ask when he met you?

Hook: He just said it’s great to be an American. Those were his first words. And it was a very emotional moment, very powerful. And I really admire him. And I know his wife, Hua, and she’s at Princeton. And she has been tireless in advocating for his release and I had met with her. We’ve spoken by phone a number of times.

Now, there are other families who also have loved ones in Iran who are, we are still trying to get out.

One of the things that Xiyue made very clear to me was he wants to get all of them out. And I know that he’ll be working with us and doing everything we can to get out people like Bob Levinson and the Namazis and others. And we work on it every day.

VOA: Xiyue Wang was born in Beijing. He’s now a U.S. citizen. His wife is a Chinese citizen. During the process, did the Chinese government provide any help or play any role in securing his release?

Hook: Not that I’m aware of. I’m not aware of any role that China played securing his release.

VOA: After the recent swap of Xiyue Wang and Soleimani, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that Iran is fully ready for a comprehensive prisoner exchange. What is your take? How serious is the U.S. taking his pitch?

Hook: Foreign Minister Zarif unfortunately has a long history of creating a sense of false hope with American families. On a regular basis, he says things that we then follow up and test the offer, and then we discovered that there is no offer.

Now we were able to get a successful exchange this time, and it was a fair negotiation. So we’re very pleased with the outcome. We don’t conduct trying to get our hostages out of Iran in public. And so I didn’t, I didn’t talk to the media or to anybody during the last three or four weeks when I was negotiating the release of Xiyue Wang. That is the proper way to handle this.

So we don’t think it’s all that helpful for any sort of talking about prisoners in public. We just try to do this in quiet diplomacy and bring Americans back home.

But I am going to follow up with the Iranians, this was a good first step. I’ll work through the Swiss, the Swiss have been fantastic. They are protecting power. We don’t have an ambassador in Iran. So we rely on the Swiss to represent us in Iran. And they were great. Markus Leitner, the Swiss ambassador to Iran, was a great partner in helping to get Xiyue Wang out of prison. I’ll continue to work with him and the Iranians.

It is a good first step, and I hope this leads to bigger and better things.

VOA: Does the recent swap open any door?  Is there any indication that Iranians may be willing to come to the table to discuss all outstanding issues?

Hook: I don’t think the diplomats in Iran that I met with have any mandate from the supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] to talk to the Americans. I was certainly open to having a conversation with them, but that’s been American policy. The president, the secretary of state have all made clear that we’re, we want to resolve our diplomatic differences bilaterally, through diplomacy, not through military force, which is what Iran has been choosing, and they’ve been making the wrong choice because their economy is in a free fall and the regime is becoming more diplomatically isolated.

But unfortunately, look, I think there are a lot of people in Iran’s foreign ministry that would like to talk to United States and would like to come to the table, but the supreme leader doesn’t give them much of a leash. And I think that became clear in Zurich. And so we hope at some point the supreme leader will start making better choices for his own people instead of making bad choices.

VOA: Is the U.S. advocating for a regime change in Tehran?

Hook: For the 1 millionth time, I’ve said this, the United States policy is a change in behavior. It is not a change in regime. And everybody knows that we have a list of 12 demands. Most of them are based on U.N. Security Council resolutions that were passed unanimously, with votes by China and Russia. These were the international standards before the failed Iran nuclear deal. We are trying to restore those standards. Most of the things that we’re asking for you can find in a U.N. Security Council resolution. It’s not an unrealistic list. It’s very realistic.

And those who think it’s too ambitious, I would ask those people to identify what of the 12 things they would like Iran to keep doing? Do they want Iran to keep enriching nuclear material? Do they want Iran to be proliferating ballistic missiles and sending billions of dollars to Assad and to the Houthis so that they can bomb other countries? This is the right list, this is the right approach. We’re very pleased with the success of our maximum pressure campaign.

VOA: Do you see a Berlin Wall moment in Iran, given the ongoing protests?

Hook: It’s very hard to predict how things go in any country around the world. We do know that Iran is facing its deadliest political unrest in the history of the 40 years of the Islamic Republic. And so we stand with the Iranian people. The Iranian regime has murdered as many as 1,000 Iranians. And the supreme leader calls his own people thugs. And now you’re seeing the regime has lost almost every constituency supporting its revolutionary policy. And now they cling to power with just brute force. And so, we know the Iranian people are demanding the same things that we are, and other nations around the world: stop prioritizing proxies over people. The Iranian people want a better life and they’re tired of all their money being spent in foreign wars.

VOA: For many years, the U.S. has been asking for a consular dialogue with Iran. Has there been any progress? What is the U.S. asking for? What are the sticking points?

Hook: “When I met with Iran’s deputy foreign minister 2 1/2 years ago, Abbas Araghchi, I asked for a consular dialogue and he said no. There have been other times, we’ve asked for it repeatedly and Iran keeps saying no. We’re gonna continue to ask for it.

As I said, I’m really pleased that we were able to make a fair deal with the regime over the release and the exchange of Soleimani for Xiyue Wang. So let’s make this a first step, and I hope that the regime takes advantage of this moment, and let’s build on it.

VOA: Thank you so much for talking to VOA.

Hook: Thank you.

VOA’s Tom Bagnall contributed to this report.

…

For the first time since the early 20th century, more Americans are choosing to die at home rather than in a hospital.

A report published in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday found deaths in nursing homes also have declined.

Researchers studied data on natural deaths complied by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics from 2003 to 2017.

In that period, the number of people dying at home increased from 543,874 (23.8%) to 788,757 (30.7%).  

At the same time, the number of deaths in a hospital fell from 905,874 (39.7%) in 2003 to 764,424 (29.8% ) in 2017.

“It’s a good thing. Death has become overly medicalized over the last century,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Haider Warraich of the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System.  

The rise of home hospice services has helped more people spend their last days at home, Warraich said.

“I have met many patients who just want to spend one day at home, around their dog, in their bed, able to eat home food,” he said.

Hospice provides terminally ill patients with end-of life care, including pain management and emotional support for the patients as well as their families.

In 2003, 5,395 people died in hospice, in 2017, the number rose to 212,652.

The study found the cause of death also reflected where the person died.

Cancer patients were most likely to die at home, and dementia patients in a nursing home.

The rise in at-home deaths “reflects that perhaps we’re able to honor more people’s wishes and help them pass away in a place that’s most familiar to them,” Warraich said.

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