Pirates have attacked four ships in the harbor of Gabon’s capital, killing a Gabonese captain and kidnapping four Chinese crew members.

Gabon’s security forces, assisted by Interpol and other regional forces, are looking for the hostages and their captors.  

One vessel belonged to Satram, a maritime transport company based in Gabon.  Associated Press reports the captain worked for Satram.  

The French news agency AFP says that two of the ships were owned by Sigapeche, a Sino-Gabonese company that employed the kidnapped crew.

The fourth ship flew a Panamanian flag, according to AFP.

Attacks in Libreville’s harbor are rare, but happen frequently in the surrounding Gulf of Guinea waters.

The International Maritime Bureau says 82% of the world’s maritime kidnappings happen in the Gulf of Guinea.

…

Protesters scuffled with police at Gare de Lyon station in Paris on Monday as a nationwide strike against plans by French President Emmanuel Macron to change the country’s pension system dragged on into a 19th day.

French TV station BFM showed footage of riot police tangling with around 30 protesters at the Gare de Lyon, one of the French
capital’s busiest stations and often used for travel to ski resorts in the Alps.

Protesters let off flares and fireworks, releasing smoke that drifted down into the station concourse.

The walkouts, which have disrupted Christmas preparations, have also affected other main Paris stations such as the Gare du
Nord, which handles the Eurostar services to London and Brussels, and the Gare de l’Est.

“I understand [the strike] but I am not OK with it as I think all French people are being held hostage and it is difficult for us to understand what the goal is,” said Damien Dremont, a commuter at the Gare de L’Est.

Two weeks of nationwide industrial action against Macron’s pension reform, which would scrap special pensions for many
public sector staff and make people work to 64 to draw a full pension, have crippled France’s transport network.

France’s oil sector workers are also expected to vote in favor of shutting down oil refineries as part of the protest.

In a bid to defuse the public anger, Macron over the weekend decided to forego a special presidential pension payout when he
eventually steps down.

…

Thousands of Iraqis protested Monday in Baghdad and other parts of the country after politicians missed an overnight deadline for naming a new prime minister.

Anti-government rallies have rocked the capital and the Shiite-majority south since October with people protesting against corruption, poor services and a lack of jobs.

President Barham Salih and parliament have missed several deadlines to appoint a new prime minister following Adel Abdul Mahdi’s resignation last month. Mahdi and his government agreed to stay on in a caretaker role until a new prime minister is approved.

Mahdi’s resignation failed to satisfy anti-government protesters who have said it is not enough for a new prime minister to take over.  They are demanding changes to the entire political system imposed after the U.S. invasion in 2003, which they say is corrupt, inept and does little to help impoverished Iraqis despite the nation’s oil wealth.

Protesters on Sunday decried a potential pick for the new prime minister, former higher education minister Qusay al-Suhail, who is opposed by critics for his ties to Iran. Demonstrators categorically reject his candidacy along with any other potential contenders who have been part of the government since 2003.

At least 460 people have died and tens of thousands of others have been wounded since the demonstrations erupted in October in Baghdad and in Shiite-majority areas in southern Iraq.

…

 With North Korea signaling bigger provocations in 2020, some analysts worry the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, could overplay his hand and make a dangerous miscalculation, especially if Kim believes he can affect U.S. President Donald Trump’s reelection chances.

North Korea has set an end-of-year deadline for the U.S. to offer more concessions in nuclear talks, and promised Washington a sinister “Christmas gift,” possibly a long-range missile test, which could upset nearly two years of diplomacy between Trump and Kim.

The moves suggest an emboldened Kim believes he can hold out for a better deal, possibly because he sees Trump as weakened by impeachment and a tough reelection campaign that is set to enter a more intense phase.

Trump, who has portrayed his outreach to Kim as a major foreign policy victory, has at times directly linked North Korea with his 2020 reelection chances, despite little if any evidence suggesting it will be a major issue for U.S. voters.

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Heading into 2020, Trump Defends Faltering North Korea Talks as a Win

Trump shrugs off missile tests, lack of progress in talks

North Korea hasn’t explicitly threatened to interfere with the election. However, its state media accuse the U.S. of deliberately prolonging the nuclear talks to preserve a Trump foreign policy win during election season. North Korean officials have also said Trump is “very fretful” and must be in “great jitters” about what Pyongyang is about to do following Kim’s end-of-year deadline.

“They truly believe they can influence the presidential election in November,” said Bong Young-shik, who teaches at Seoul’s Sogang University. “North Koreans think the world revolves around North Korea… it’s a very unfortunate miscalculation and misunderstanding.”

Trump takes credit… but for what?

North Korea’s confidence may stem in part from Trump, who at times portrays the stalled nuclear talks as having already succeeded.

After his initial summit with Kim in 2018, Trump famously declared, “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” In reality, North Korea never agreed to give up its nuclear weapons and has been steadily increasing its arsenal, according to experts.

Trump has also taken credit for Kim’s self-imposed, two-year-long moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests. By threatening to end that suspension, Kim appears to be trying to bolster his leverage.

Earlier this month, Trump directly warned Kim against provocations during the U.S. presidential campaign.

“I’d be surprised if North Korea acted hostilely,” Trump said in early December. “He knows I have an election coming up. I don’t think he wants to interfere with that, but we’ll have to see.”

Not a big factor in 2020

Trump’s statement appeared to grant Kim leverage many believe he would not otherwise possess. Polls have long suggested domestic, not foreign policy, issues are typically the most important in U.S. presidential elections.

Only 3% of registered U.S. voters said foreign policy is the top issue facing the country, according to a May poll by RealClearPolitics. Healthcare, the economy, immigration, education, and the environment all were chosen as bigger priorities, respectively.

According to exit poll data from the 2016 presidential election, only about 13% of voters said foreign policy was the most important issue.

Ahead of that election, voters overwhelmingly said that Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump, would make better foreign policy decisions, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center.

“North Korea is extremely low on the list of key issues that are determining the next election,” John Delury, a professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University, said. “It would take a war really for North Korea to have an impact on who the next American president is,” he said.

Miscalculation?

Based on his conversations with North Koreans, Delury agrees that Pyongyang likely thinks it can sway U.S. voters by ramping up tensions during the election. That could be a dangerous miscalculation, he warned.

“A provocation at this stage will have a conventional, security, or even military response, and they’ll be surprised because they thought they were able to play U.S. domestic politics, when in fact they’re not,” Delury said. “Everyone knows the election is not about North Korea.”

In 2017, Trump exchanged nicknames and threats of nuclear war with Kim. At one point, Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea. Reports suggested the Trump administration was considering a preemptive military attack on North Korea — a so-called “bloody nose” strike — in what some described as an attempt to deter North Korea from further provocations.

According to a recently released book, Trump told author Doug Wead that he was serious about his North Korea threat. 

“You only say this if you are ready to act on it. It was unbelievably close,” Trump was quoted as saying in the book.

Trump shrugs off deadline

So far, Trump has not addressed North Korea’s deadline. In fact, Trump has rarely mentioned North Korea over the past several months, even as it ramped up threats and conducted a series of short-range missile tests.

“He wants to be able to say he made a deal. I think that’s the big thing he’s after,” said Gwenda Blair, a Trump family biographer who has followed Trump’s real estate and other deals for decades.

Blair said Trump is not likely to welcome any reminder that his North Korea policy has not resulted in Kim giving up his nuclear weapons.

“He wants to hang on to that [win] as a bullet point,” she said, adding, “he can’t engage with anything that might threaten that.”

It’s not clear how Trump would respond to a major North Korea provocation, such as a long-range missile or nuclear test.

Senior U.S. military officials have said they are closely watching North Korea as the deadline approaches.

Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S Joint Chiefs of Staff, last week acknowledged the North Korean threats, stressing the U.S. is “prepared for whatever.”

…

China Monday hit back at the US for criticizing its blocking of a U.N. Security Council resolution over civilian aid, accusing Washington of “politicizing humanitarian issues.”

On Saturday U.S.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described as “shameful” Russia and China blocking the U.N. resolution, which would have extended for a year cross-border humanitarian aid to four million Syrians.

“To Russia and China, who have chosen to make a political statement by opposing this resolution, you have blood on your hands,” Pompeo said in a statement.

China reacted angrily Monday, saying it voted on the basis of “right and wrong.”

“We firmly reject the unjustifiable accusations made by the U.S. side on China’s voting position,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

Geng said the U.S. was “politicizing humanitarian issues” and “pursuing a typical double standard.”

Humanitarian aid currently flows into Syria through U.N.-designated checkpoints in Turkey and Iraq without the formal permission of the regime in Damascus, but that authority is due to expire on January 10.

Germany, Belgium and Kuwait presented a resolution extending that authority for a year, winning the support of 13 council members but drawing the vetoes of Russia and China.

A competing Russian resolution would have granted a six-month extension while reducing the number of UN crossing points, but it failed to get the minimum nine votes.

Russia — an ally and major supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — has used its veto 14 times on Syrian issues since civil war broke out there in 2011.

The resolution failed as tens of thousands of civilians have been fleeing the northwestern Idlib region amid heavy bombardments by Assad’s Russian-backed government, in the last bastion of the jihadist opposition.

…

Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets Sunday ahead of a midnight deadline to name an interim prime minister.

Anti-government rallies have rocked Baghdad and the Shi’ite-majority South since October, protesting against corruption, poor services, and a lack of jobs. Protesters have called for an end to the political system imposed after the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s resigned Friday. President Barham Salih and parliament have since missed several deadlines to appoint a new prime minister. Mahdi and his government had agreed to stay on in a caretaker role until a new prime minister is approved.

But Mahdi’s resignation failed to satisfy anti-government protesters who have said it is not enough for a new prime minister to take over — they are demanding changes to the entire political system, which they call corrupt, inept, and say it does little to help impoverished Iraqis despite the nation’s oil wealth.

Protesters on Sunday decried the likely pick for the new interim prime minister, former higher education minister Qusay al-Suhail, who is opposed by critics for his ties to Iran. Demonstrators categorically reject his candidacy along with any other potential contenders who have been part of the government since 2003.

At least 460 people have died and tens of thousands of others have been wounded since the demonstrations erupted in October in Baghdad and in Shi’ite-majority areas in southern Iraq.

…

Chanting “freedom,” Fozia stands among the sea of student protesters in New Delhi loudly demanding that the government scrap a new law that introduces religion as a criterion for citizenship for persecuted minorities from three neighboring countries.

“India will accept people from all faiths except Muslim. This is creating inequality,” says the undergraduate student of Jamia Millia Islamia University that has spearheaded the protests against the new law. Wearing a black veil and giving only her first name, she refers to the country’s constitution that guarantees equality. “It is damaging the country’s basic structure,” she says.

WATCH: Anjana Pasricha’s video report

Women at Center Stage in Protests Against India’s Citizenship Law video player.

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India’s new citizenship law that excludes Muslims from six religious groups who will get expedited citizenship if they fled religious persecution in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, has unleashed public anger across several Indian cities and many university campuses for being discriminatory.   

But this protest at Jamia Millia, where many Muslims study, is unusual — on the front lines are hundreds of Muslim women from conservative homes who have traditionally stayed away from public places. As housewives and mothers join students to sing songs and hold placards on the street outside the university campus, some keep their faces covered or refuse to reveal their names. Muslims have almost never led protests in India but fears that the new law will relegate them to second-class citizens has brought many into the streets.    

Female students at the university, many with hijabs covering their hair, have been at the forefront with their male counterparts since the protests erupted last week. Fozia for example ignores the chill in New Delhi’s winter air and arrives every morning at 7 am to organize the rally and ensure that arrangements are made to distribute water and food to those who camp here for several hours.

Many of them are furious not just with the new citizenship law but also with the government’s efforts to quell the protests. At Jamia, at least 200 students were injured when police lobbed tear gas after entering the campus last weekend to break up the student demonstrations.

Among the protesters is 55-year-old Rabia, who gives only one name and says her son was among those who sustained injuries when police entered the university library where students were working.   

“Those of us who wear these clothes seldom come out of our homes,” she says pointing to her black veil on which she has pinned a huge poster, “Save the Constitution.” But her son’s experience has been a tipping point for her. “The situation has gotten now out of hand that is why we are out. Till they don’t scrap the bill, I will be out protesting,” she says.

Police say they used maximum restraint and their action was meant to curb violence.

But many who witnessed first hand what happened to their fellow students were traumatized and are now determined to make their voices heard. Zakeera Roohi, an undergraduate student, says it is the “brutality” of the police that has made her lend solidarity to those present here as much as her anger at the new law.

The government has called the law a compassionate measure for minorities such as Hindu and Christian refugees who have no place to go. But many non-Muslims, both from Jamia and other colleges, who have joined the protests, fear it damages India’s tradition of a pluralistic society.

“I am a Hindu but this bill is affecting me because my fellow citizens and my fellow students are being affected by this,” according to Sumedha Poddar. “In my entire one, one and a half year in Jamia, I have been with my Muslim friends. I have shared my lunch with them, I went to their home in Eid and I have celebrated their festivals.”

Poddar was present on the campus when police stormed inside.  She locked herself in a room to save herself.

Another undergraduate student, who refuses to give her name, has not told her parents that she is joining the protest but hopes that the hundreds of Muslim women present here will break stereotypes about the community. “I told my parents I am with a friend and got out,” she says.

The chants being raised here are not just opposing the citizenship law, but also plans by the government to roll out a citizens’ register that will require all Indians to submit proof of their nationality. The government’s assurances that Indian Muslims do not risk losing their citizenship has failed to calm fears that their exclusion from the new law makes them vulnerable. And many are anguished.   

“Why, why do we have to prove your citizenship first of all? Our forefathers have fought for this nation,” says Roohi. “Then why do we have to prove our loyalty to the country?”

Out on this street for a second week, these young women are vowing not to back down from fighting a law that they see as an assault on India’s secular constitution.  “Because we are Indian. We have basic rights. They are being trampled upon,” says Fozia.

It remains to be seen whether these protests — the most widespread witnessed in recent years — will continue or slowly fizzle out. But they underline a loss of confidence among Muslims in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and growing fears that he is pressing ahead with a Hindu nationalist agenda.

…

Among the protesters rallying in India against a controversial new citizenship law that critics call anti-Muslim are thousands of female students and conservative Muslim women who seldom appear in public places.  The law has excluded Muslims from six religious groups who will get expedited citizenship if they fled persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. At a university in the Indian capital which has been at the forefront of protests, Anjana Pasricha talks to women to find out why they have emerged on the streets.

…

Boeing Co’s Starliner astronaut spacecraft landed in the New Mexico desert on Sunday, the company said, after faulty software forced officials to cut short an unmanned mission aimed at taking it to the International Space Station.

The landing at 7:58 a.m. ET (1258 GMT) in the White Sands desert capped a turbulent 48 hours for Boeing’s botched milestone test of an astronaut capsule that is designed to help NASA regain its human spaceflight capabilities.

“We hit the bull’s-eye,” a Boeing spokesman said on a livestream of the landing.

The landing will yield the mission’s most valuable test data after failing to meet its core objective of docking to the space station.

After Starliner’s touchdown, teams of engineers in trucks raced to inspect the vehicle, whose six airbags cushioned its impact on the desert surface as planned, a live video feed showed.

The spacecraft was in an apparently stable condition after landing, according to images posted by officials from the U.S. space agency NASA.

The CST-100 Starliner’s debut launch to orbit was a milestone test for Boeing. The company is vying with SpaceX, the privately held rocket company of billionaire high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, to revive NASA’s human spaceflight capabilities.  SpaceX carried out a successful unmanned flight of its Crew Dragon capsule to the space station in March.

The Starliner capsule was successfully launched from Florida on Friday, but an automated timer error prevented it from attaining the right orbit to meet and dock with the space station. That failure came as Boeing sought an engineering and public relations victory in a year that has seen corporate crisis over
the grounding of its 737 MAX jetliner following two fatal crashes of the aircraft. The company’s shares dropped 1.6% on Friday.

Parachute challenge

Ahead of Sunday’s landing, Starliner’s three main parachutes deployed just over one mile (1,600 metres) from the Earth’s surface after enduring intense heat from the violent reentry through the atmosphere, plummeting at 25 times the speed of sound.

The parachute deployment, one of the most challenging procedures under the program to develop a commercial manned space capsule, earned Boeing a fresh win after a previous mishap where one parachute failed to deploy during a November test of Starliner’s abort thrusters.

That test tossed the capsule miles into the sky to demonstrate its ability to land a crew safely back on the ground in the event of a launch failure.

For the current mission, Boeing and NASA officials said they still do not understand why software caused the craft to miss the orbit required.

Sunday’s landing marked the first time a U.S. orbital space capsule designed for humans landed on land.
All past U.S. capsules, including SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, splashed down in the ocean. Russia’s Soyuz capsules and China’s past crew capsules made land landings.

…

Holiday travelers across France scrambled for alternatives Sunday as an 18-day-old transport strike over pension reform saw train services slashed yet again.

President Emmanuel Macron issued an appeal on Saturday for a truce over the holidays, three days after talks between the government and unions failed to ease the standoff and labor leaders called for further mobilization.

Workers at the SNCF and RATP rail and public transport companies have downed tools to protest at the government’s plan to meld France’s 42 pension schemes into a single points-based one, which would see some public employees lose certain privileges.

Weeks of travel misery worsened on Sunday, when tens of thousands planned to meet up with family and friends for the Christmas break.

Only half of high-speed TGVs and a quarter of inter-city trains were running, and the SNCF urged travellers to cancel or delay planned trips.

In the Paris area, commuter trains were down to a trickle, and only two out of 16 metro lines were running on the last shopping Sunday before Christmas.

Ten metro lines will open Monday but at reduced frequencies except for the two driverless lines, RATP said, while key commuter trains will run during rush hour but at reduced frequencies.

SNCF said two in five TGV trains will operate and international traffic will also be affected.

Public support dropping

Macron, on a visit to Ivory Coast, urged striking workers to embrace a “spirit of responsibility” and for “collective good sense to triumph.”

“I believe there are moments in the life of a nation when it is also good to call a truce to respect families and the lives of families,” he said in Abidjan.

The Elysee Palace also announced Saturday that Macron would renounce the pension he would be entitled to as former president, and he will not take up a lucrative seat on the Constitutional Council as tradition dictates.

In so doing, the former banker, who turned 42 on Saturday, will forgo a total of 19,720 euros ($21,850) a month.

A poll by the IFOP agency published Sunday showed public backing for the action dropping by three percentage points, though 51 percent still expressed support or sympathy for the strikers.

‘It’s unbearable’

Jean Garrigues, a historian with the University of Orleans, told AFP this was likely to change over the holidays — cherished family time for the French.

“The transport blockage has mostly affected the Parisian region, and we can see that in the coming period, it will also affect people in the rural areas. This will alienate many people from the labor movement,” he said.

On Saturday, frustrated traveler Jeffrey Nwutu Ebube was trying to find a way home to Toulouse in the south from the northern port town of Le Havre — some 850 kilometers (530 miles) away.

“I’m upset, this strike is unbearable… The government must do something,” he told AFP.

The government insists a pension overhaul is necessary to create a fairer, more transparent system.

It would do away with schemes that offer early retirement and other advantages to mainly public-sector workers, such as train drivers who can retire as early as 52.

While some unions support a single system, almost all reject a new proposed “pivot age” of 64 — beyond the legal retirement age of 62 — for retiring with a full pension.

Heavy toll on business

Unions are hoping for a repeat of 1995 when the government backed down on pension reform after three weeks of metro and rail stoppages just before Christmas.

The protest is taking a heavy toll on businesses, especially retailers, hotels and restaurants during one of the busiest periods of the year.

Industry associations have reported turnover declines of 30 to 60 percent from a year earlier.

Stormy weather contributed to travelers’ woes Sunday, dropping trees on railway lines in the south of France, blocking several routes, as violent winds left 110,000 households in the southwest without electricity.

…

Berlin police gave the all-clear on Saturday after earlier evacuating a Christmas market that was the scene of a fatal attack three years ago to investigate a possible suspicious object, which they did not find.

Tunisian Anis Amri ploughed a truck into the Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in 2016, killing 12 people. Amri, who had Islamist militant ties, was later shot dead by Italian police after he fled Germany.

“Our police measures around #Breitscheidplatz are finished. A dangerous object has not been found,” Berlin police tweeted. “In the evening, our colleagues had found two people who behaved suspiciously at the #Breitscheidplatz and checked them.”

Daily newspaper Bild quoted a police spokesman as saying that the two men were stopped after leaving the square at a  conspicuously fast pace and that, on taking their names, officers believed one was the subject of an arrest warrant.

The police cleared the square as a precaution. However, they subsequently realized the man’s name was similar to someone facing an arrest warrant, but not an exact match, Bild reported.

…

Travelers across France scrambled Saturday to begin their Christmas getaways as a strike over a pension overhaul showed no signs of letting up. 

Trains were canceled, roads were packed and nerves were tested, but hopes of a holiday truce were dashed after talks between the government and union leaders this week failed to ease the standoff.  Train operator SNCF warned that the traffic would be “severely disrupted” over the festive period. 
 
SNCF said its aim to allow 850,000 ticket holders to travel this weekend was being upheld — but only half of its usual services were running. 
 
“I’m upset. This strike is unbearable. … The government must do something,” said Jeffrey Nwutu Ebube, who was in the northern port town of Le Havre trying to find a way back home to the southern city of Toulouse, 850 kilometers (530 miles) away. 
 
Late Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron called on the strikers to embrace a “spirit of responsibility” and for “collective good sense to triumph.” 
 
“I believe there are moments in the life of a nation when it is also good to call a truce to respect families and the lives of families,” he said, speaking in Abdijan, the commercial capital of Ivory Coast, where he was on a visit. 

Options are few

Many stranded travelers have turned to car rental agencies or sharing platforms since the strike began on December 5, but the last-minute surge in demand meant vehicles were hard to come by.  

“We tried other ways, BlaBlaCar, et cetera, but everything is full, everything is taken,” said Jerome Pelletier, a manager in the textile industry. 
 
Macron wants to forge the country’s 42 separate pension regimes into a single points-based system that the government says will be fairer and more transparent. 
 
It would do away with schemes that offer early retirement and other advantages to mainly public sector workers, not least train drivers who can retire as early as 52. 
 
While some unions support a single system, almost all reject a new “pivot age” of 64 — beyond the legal retirement age of 62 — which workers would have to reach to get a full pension. 

1995 strike
 
They are hoping for a repeat of 1995, when the government backed down on pension reform after three weeks of metro and rail stoppages just before Christmas. 
 
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Thursday that talks had made progress and called on unions to lift the strike “so that millions of French can join their families for the end of this year.” 
 
Although the moderate UNSA union agreed, the hardline CGT and Force Ouvrier unions said they would not let up. 
 
This weekend, the last for Christmas shopping, the RATP Paris train operator said metro services would be “heavily reduced” on Sunday with only two driverless metro lines working. 
 
The protest is also taking a heavy toll on businesses, especially retail during one of the busiest periods of the year, with industry associations reporting turnover declines of 30 to 60 percent from a year earlier. 

…

The United States will continue to pursue diplomatic negotiations with North Korea while pressing Pyongyang to improve its human rights practice, a State Department official said this week. 
 
Robert Destro, U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor affairs, told VOA in an interview Thursday that Washington has to “engage” with “a human rights violator like North Korea” to “get them to change their behavior.”   

Destro’s remarks came amid escalating threats from North Korea to give the U.S. an ominous “Christmas gift” and walk away from nuclear talks. 
 
Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he was redesignating North Korea as a Country of Particular Concern for systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom. The same day, President Donald Trump signed legislation tightening sanctions on Pyongyang. 
 
Destro also commented on human rights practices in Iran, China and Venezuela. The following are excerpts from the interview. 
 
VOA: Earlier this morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just redesignated Iran as a Country of Particular Concern. One year ago, Iran, along with others, like China and North Korea, were designated as CPC. Are those countries being redesignated again this year under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998? 
 
DESTRO: I can’t speak to the other countries, you know. I can only speak for the countries that have been through the designation process. So I’m — the secretary announced Iran, so that’s all I can talk to you about today. 
 
VOA: On North Korea: Yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly, in an annual resolution, condemned “the long-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights” in and by North Korea. Could you please comment? 
 
DESTRO: Well, we remain deeply concerned about what’s going on in North Korea. I think the credible evidence that’s coming out of North Korea speaks for itself. I think that the U.S. has been very eloquent and I don’t think we have much to add to that. It’s a very good statement. 
 
VOA: Is there any discussion in this building that putting North Korea’s human rights abuses on the spot is hurting the diplomatic effort? 
 
DESTRO: I’m not sure how to answer a question like that. I think that it’s — in any case where you have a human rights violator like North Korea and you’re trying to get them to change their behavior, you have to engage with them. I mean, this is just human behavior. You’re either going to have a good relationship or a bad relationship or something in between. So my view is that there’s nothing inconsistent with the president trying to engage with the North Koreans and to try and get them to change their behavior. That’s the whole point of the negotiations. 
 
VOA: On Tibet, a recent proposed congressional bill — the Tibetan Policy and Support Act — would impose sanctions on any Chinese official who interferes in the selection of the successor to His Holiness Dalai Lama. It would also press for a U.S. consulate in Lhasa. China has pushed back, saying the United States “blatantly interferes in China’s internal affairs and sends a wrong signal to the Tibetan independent forces.” What is your take on this issue? How do you respond to China’s criticism? 
 
DESTRO: As an official of the State Department, it’s not my role to comment on pending congressional legislation. Congress is its own independent branch, you know. They will take whatever action they need to take, and then we will take whatever actions are appropriate once they’ve acted. 
 
VOA: On Venezuela, what is the U.S. assessment of the reported harassment by the government against the National Assembly members? 
 
DESTRO: Well, the United States is committed to democracy in Venezuela. By removing the immunity of members of Congress, you know, you don’t foster democracy. And so we’re very concerned about any attempts by the government to suppress its own democratically elected representatives. That’s just not appropriate. 
 
VOA: Do you have a general view on the current human rights situation in Venezuela? 
 
DESTRO: Well, we applaud the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Madam (Michelle) Bachelet’s most recent report. We think it is a good follow-up to the report that they had before. And I think we all need to study it very carefully and to take heed of the kinds of recommendations that it makes. 
 
VOA: Thank you very much for talking to Voice of America. 
 
DESTRO: Thank you. 

…

President Donald Trump on Saturday said the United States and China would “very shortly” sign their so-called Phase One trade pact.

“We just achieved a breakthrough on the trade deal and we will be signing it very shortly,” Trump said at a Turning Point USA event in Florida.

The Phase One deal was announced this month as part of a bid to end the monthslong tit-for-tat trade war between the world’s two largest economies, which has roiled markets and hit global growth.

Under the deal, the United States would agree to reduce some tariffs in exchange for a big jump in Chinese purchases of American farm products.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last week that the pact would be signed in early January, adding that the deal had already been translated and was just undergoing a technical “scrub.” 

…

Three years into Donald Trump’s presidency, the U.S. government is ramping up its efforts to seize private land in Texas to build a border wall. 
 
Trump’s signature campaign promise has consistently faced political, legal and environmental obstacles in Texas, which has the largest section of the U.S.-Mexico border, most of it without fencing. And much of the land along the Rio Grande, the river that forms the border in Texas, is privately held and environmentally sensitive. 
 
Almost no land has been taken so far. But Department of Justice lawyers have filed three lawsuits this month seeking to take property from landowners. On Tuesday, lawyers moved to seize land in one case immediately before a scheduled court hearing in February. 
 
The agency says it’s ready to file many more petitions to take private land in the coming weeks. While progress has lagged, the process of taking land under eminent domain is weighted heavily in the government’s favor. 
 
The U.S. government has built about 90 miles (145 kilometers) of walls since Trump took office, almost all of it replacing old fencing. Reaching Trump’s oft-stated goal of 500 miles (800 kilometers) by the end of 2020 will almost certainly require stepping up progress in Texas. 

Lobbying, legal challenges
 
Opponents have lobbied Congress to limit funding and prevent construction in areas like the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, an important sanctuary for several endangered species of jaguars, birds and other animals, as well as the nonprofit National Butterfly Center and a historic Catholic chapel. They have also filed several lawsuits. A federal judge this month prevented the government from building with money redirected to the wall under Trump’s declaration of a national emergency earlier this year. Also, two judges recently ordered a private, pro-Trump fundraising group to stop building its own wall near the Rio Grande. 
 
Even on land the government owns, construction has been held up. In another federal wildlife refuge, at a site known as La Parida Banco, work crews cleared brush this spring and the government announced in April that construction would soon begin. Eight months later, the site remains empty. 
 
According to a U.S. official familiar with the project, work crews discovered that the land was too saturated. The planned metal bollards installed on top of concrete panels would have been unstable because of the water levels in the soil, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person did not have authorization to share the information publicly. 
 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to comment on the issue of saturation at La Parida Banco, saying construction there was “currently in the design phase.” 
 
In a statement, CBP says it continues to need a border wall for “the enduring capability it creates to impede and/or deny attempted illegal entries while creating additional time to carry out successful law enforcement resolutions.” The agency says it plans by the end of 2020 to have 450 miles (724 kilometers) of walls built and another 59 miles (95 kilometers) under construction, “pending availability of real estate.” 
 
The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires the government pay “just compensation” to anyone whose land is taken for public use. But the government can deposit an amount it deems fair with the court, then seek to take the land immediately on the basis that a border wall is urgently needed. Even as border crossings have plummeted from record highs for families earlier this year, Justice Department attorneys argue the government needs to take land as quickly as possible. 
 
“Time is of the essence,” the lawyers wrote in Tuesday’s motion. 

Possible settlement
 
In the case of the land targeted on Tuesday, the government has deposited $93,449 with the court for 12.6 acres (5 hectares). U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez has not yet ruled on the motion. 
 
Roy Brandys, an attorney for the landowners, said both sides were close to settling and allowing the government to take the land, potentially within a week. 
 
“When landowners disagree with the government over valuation, there is a transparent, court-supervised process for determining just compensation,” said Jeffrey Clark, an assistant attorney general, in a statement. 
 
Some landowners support a border wall and have agreed to work with the government. Others worry about losing part of their property to a “no man’s land” between the wall or the river. Several have vowed to fight as long as they can. 

Ricky Garza, a lawyer with the Texas Civil Rights Project, which represents six landowners at various stages of the eminent domain process, pointed out that the Rio Grande Valley is one of the poorest regions of the United States. 
 
“This is a severe use of government power against people who have very little,” Garza said. “Our leaders say there’s only so much money to go around. But then you see numbers in the billions appropriated for something that almost no one in the community wants.” 

…

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent announcement that he would, by the end of the year, lift martial law over the country’s vast, often violent southern island of Mindanao after 31 months is seen as a sign authorities have an upper hand over armed rebel groups and want business to prosper in the impoverished region.

Martial law has been in place over Mindanao and surrounding seas since 2017. Foreign embassies still advise against travel on Mindanao, where foreign tourists are occasionally kidnapped and beheaded, but lifting martial law would follow a period of relative calm over the island and respond to calls to improve Mindanao’s reputation among investors and tourists, analysts say.

“After three years, the nature and extent of terrorist activities changed,” said Henelito Sevilla, assistant international relations professor at University of the Philippines in Metro Manila. “The peace and order situation in Mindanao is relatively restored due to the massive campaign of the government forces in the past three years.” he said.

Martial law lost political and economic appeal this year, particularly among local leaders who want more economic development, according to Sevilla.
 
The mayor and city council in the city of Davao, which is seldom hit by rebels, voiced opposition earlier this year to martial law after several ambassadors said the law raises costs of doing business.

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After 3 Failures, Philippines to Restart Talks With Violent Communist Rebels

A peace deal would open poor parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago to investment, with the prospect of easing poverty

“It’s business that’s actually asking for it,” Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Metro Manila-based advocacy group Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, said.

“For example, in Davao they see that as an incentive to have more investment, and also for tourists to come in,” he added.

Poverty dominates much of Mindanao because of lack of investment in the key sectors of tourism, farming and mining.
 
A lifting of martial law will make foreign and Filipino investors “feel secure” with little fear of damage from  fighting, Sevilla said. It might also prompt foreign embassies to cancel travel advisories, and draw foreign tourists.
 
The government’s Board of Investments said registered investments in Mindanao totaled $1.86 billion as of April, but mostly because of government-approved projects.

The government may keep a  heavy troop presence in specific danger zones, multiple Philippine media outlets say, and police and military officials believe spots such as Sulu province will still “need a heavy presence of security forces” after martial law, domestic news website Philstar.com reported. Abu Sayyaf, a Philippine rebel group known for kidnapping tourists, has strongholds in the province’s rural areas, although the group has been “degraded” under martial law, Philstar.com reported December 12..

Ambushes and bombings persist despite the broader calm. For example, a December 4 attack by  Abu Sayyaf wounded 10 soldiers and three police officers.
 
“The military has assured us that they’re going to keep the checkpoints in place, so it’s not like they’re going to completely pull out,” Canoy said, describing her city. “So, maybe it’s just a matter of semantics. They’re just going say ‘there’s no more martial law’, but the visibility will still be there.”

…

North Korea Saturday lashed out at the U.S. State Department’s recent criticism of its human rights record, warning Washington would “pay dearly” for what it called “reckless” remarks.

North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry specifically took issue with a recent VOA interview of a senior State Department official who said the U.S. remains “deeply concerned” about North Korean human rights abuses.

“Such malicious words which came at this time when the DPRK-U.S. relations are reaching a highly delicate point will only produce a result of further aggravating the already tense situation on the Korean peninsula, like pouring oil over burning fire,” the North Korean ministry said in a statement published in the Korean Central News Agency.

The comments come at a particularly tense moment. North Korea, which has promised the U.S. an ominous “Christmas gift,” has threatened to walk away from nuclear talks and resume major provocations, such as a nuclear test or long-range missile launch.

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US Watching North Korea for ‘Christmas Gift’ Missile Launch

A significant launch or test would mean the end of North Korea’s self-imposed moratorium and raise tensions in the region

The U.S. is also gradually increasing pressure on the North. The State Department Friday renewed its designation of North Korea as a violator of religious freedom. The same day, U.S. President Donald Trump also signed legislation tightening sanctions on Pyongyang.

North Korea hasn’t commented on those latest moves. Instead, it objected to a Thursday interview that VOA State Department correspondent Nike Ching conducted with Robert Destro, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor.

“We remain deeply concerned about what’s going on in North Korea,” Destro told VOA. “I think the credible evidence that’s coming out of North Korea speaks for itself.”

Destro defended the Trump administration’s policy of pursuing negotiations with North Korea while it criticizes its human rights record.

“My view is that there’s nothing inconsistent with the president trying to engage with the North Koreans and to try and get them to change their behavior. That’s the whole point of the negotiations,” Destro said.

North Korea’s foreign ministry called those remarks “reckless.”

“If the U.S. dares to impair our system by taking issue over ‘human rights issue,’ it will be made to pay dearly for such an act,” the KCNA statement said.

The statement accused the U.S. of being a “cesspit of all sorts of human rights violations,” but insisted North Koreans “fully enjoy genuine freedom and rights, being masters of the country.”

North Korea is widely seen as being one of the world’s most repressive governments. It restricts nearly every aspect of its citizens’ civil and political liberties, including freedom of expression, assembly, association, religion, and movement.

Lots of Posturing, Little Progress in US-North Korea Talks in 2019

Teaser Description

There was lots of posturing but little progress in 2019, as the United States and North Korea spent much of the year trying to convince the other side to take the first step in nuclear talks. With North Korea’s end-of-year threats and its misguided belief that it can influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election, some fear the Korean Peninsula could soon return to a state of major tensions, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Seoul.

Mixed messages?

The U.S. has been accused of sending mixed messages on North Korean human rights issues.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration prevented a United Nations Security Council meeting on North Korean human rights abuses, effectively blocking the meeting for the second consecutive year.

Reports suggested the move was meant to preserve the chances for diplomacy. Human Rights Watch said the decision sent a “clear message to Pyongyang and other abusive governments that the U.S. is prepared to look away regarding rights violations.”

However, by signing the sanctions legislation Friday, Trump is applying major additional pressure on North Korea.

The legislation, part of a broad 2020 military spending bill, calls for sanctions on North Korean imports and exports of textiles, coal, and other natural resources, as well as sanctions on banks that deal with North Korea.

The North Korea sanctions provision is called the “Otto Warmbier North Korea Nuclear Sanctions and Enforcement Act,” named after the U.S. student who died after 17 months in a North Korean prison.

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Warmbier’s Parents Praise Bill Seeking Further North Korea Sanctions 

Fred and Cindy Warmbier commended a provision of the broader National Defense Authorization Act for applying pressure on North Korea to change its behavior

Joshua Stanton, a Washington-based lawyer and major proponent of more sanctions on North Korea, said the legislation is significant because it shifts enforcement authority from the Treasury Department, which has been reluctant to tighten sanctions on North Korea, to the Justice Department.

“One way or another, whether Donald Trump still loves him or not, (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s) reprieve is about to end,” said Stanton in a blog post.

Stalled talks

Trump and Kim have met three times since June 2018 but have failed to make any progress in nuclear talks. Earlier this month, North Korean officials suggested denuclearization was off the negotiating table.

At their first meeting in Singapore, Trump and Kim agreed to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” Neither side has agreed on what that phrase means or how to begin working toward it and Pyongyang has since insisted it never agreed to unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons.

Kim has given the U.S. an end-of-year deadline to provide more concessions. It has threatened to conduct a long-range missile test. That would end North Korea’s self-imposed moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear tests, which it announced in April 2018.

On Friday, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said the U.S. is closely watching North Korea.

 “North Korea’s indicated a variety of things, and I think you’re aware of all those. So we are prepared for whatever,” Milley said at a Pentagon briefing.

Steve Biegun, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, recently wrapped up a last-minute trip to the region, meeting with South Korean, Japanese and Chinese officials in an attempt to help save the talks.

North Korea has not publicly responded to those requests.

…

A catastrophic fire warning has been issued for parts of New South Wales in eastern Australia, including Sydney.  Emergency crews are also battling serious blazes in the states of Victoria and South Australia.

New South Wales has seen the largest ever deployment of its emergency services.   About 100 fires are burning across Australia’s most populous state.  About half are out of control.  Residents in the path of a mega-blaze near Sydney have been told it is too late to leave.  They have been advised to seek shelter in a ‘solid structure’ to avoid the heat of the flames.  

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Australia’s NSW Braces for Catastrophic Fire Conditions

Authorities asked people to delay travel, at the start of what is normally a busy Christmas holiday period, warning of the
unpredictability of the fires as winds of up to 70 kph (44 mph)
were set to fan flames through the middle of the day

A heatwave has exacerbated the fire threat, while a long drought has made the ground tinder dry.

Rob Rodgers, the New South Wales Deputy Rural Fire Service Commissioner, says the dangers are extreme.

“We cannot guarantee that every time someone wants a fire truck we are going to have someone there,” said Rodgers. “So do not be expecting a fire truck to be there.  We will do our best but do not rely on that.  Do not wait for a warning.  Think about what you are going to do if you are in the path of these fires.  Think about what you are going to do well ahead of time as in now.”

There are emergency fire warnings in Victoria and South Australia, where already one person has been found dead and another left critically injured.  

A blaze about 330 kilometers east of Melbourne became so big it began “generating its own weather,” according to the authorities.

For a second day, protestors have gathered outside the prime minister’s official residence in Sydney.  Scott Morrison was criticized for going on holiday to Hawaii during the bushfire crisis.  He’s apologized and is heading home.  Many Australians have accused Morrison and his conservative government of inaction on climate change.

Bushfires have always been part of the Australian story.  But officials say this fire season has not only started earlier than usual, it is far more intense.  Worse may yet be to come, with summer temperatures normally peaking in January and February.

…

An Arizona state trooper shot and killed a Qatari man who was in the U.S. on a student visa after he violently attacked the officer patrolling for drunken drivers along with a member of the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving, authorities said Friday.

The state trooper spotted 25-year-old Mohamed Ahmed Al-Hashemi throw a street sign onto a road in suburban Phoenix late Thursday and ordered him to pick it up, said Col. Frank Milstead, director of the Department of Public Safety.

Al-Hashemi wouldn’t pick it up, then began walking in the middle of the road and wouldn’t obey commands to stop, Milstead said.

Trooper Hugh Grant used a stun gun but it didn’t subdue Al-Hashemi, who then rushed the officer and punched and kicked him.

“It was a vicious encounter,” Milstead said before showing dashboard camera video of the attack. “He was in a fight for his life.”

The video shows the men tussling, and at one point, Al-Hashemi throws Grant to the ground.

The trooper fired his weapon, killing Al-Hashemi, the DPS chief said.

Grant feared for his life and the life of a woman riding along with him as a member of the group also known as MADD. Police often allow private citizens and journalists to come on “ride-alongs” while they patrol.

“When he began to realize this was escalating, he was trying to keep her out of danger,” Milstead said.

Authorities said they didn’t know if Al-Hashemi was impaired. The trooper had injuries to his face and head and is resting at home.

Authorities say Al-Hashemi was arrested for trespassing at the Islamic Community Center of Tempe on Wednesday. Police in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe responded to a disturbance at the mosque around 4:30 a.m. At the center’s request, officers gave Al-Hashemi a warning and told him not to return, police spokesman Greg Bacon said.

Al-Hashemi returned in the early afternoon and officers were called again. Bacon said he was then arrested on a misdemeanor charge of trespassing and booked into jail.

It’s unclear how long Al-Hashemi has been living in the U.S. He was a former student at Arizona State University, which is based in Tempe, according to school officials. They didn’t provide other details.

The Islamic Community Center of Tempe didn’t immediately respond to calls and emails seeking comment.

…

In his four-hour, stage-managed year-end news conference Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin went out of his way to back U.S. President Donald Trump in the impeachment saga unfolding in Washington.

Lambasting American Democrats for what he termed “made-up reasons” to impeach Trump, a Republican, the Russian leader accused them of nursing a grudge over losing the 2016 presidential elections.

The impeachment is “just the continuation of the domestic political strife,” Putin said. “Your members of Congress should know better.”

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Putin Weighs In on Trump Impeachment, Hints at Staying in Power

Russian leader has his say during annual year-end press conference

Putin added there’s little chance the Republican-controlled Senate will remove Trump from office. He disputed a key article of impeachment against the U.S. president: that Trump pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate a political rival, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat who is competing for his party’s 2020 presidential nomination.

“The party which lost the election, the Democratic Party, is trying to achieve results by other means, first by accusing Trump of conspiring with Russia, then it turns out there has been no conspiracy,” Putin said. “This cannot be the basis of impeachment. Now they’ve invented some kind of pressure on Ukraine.”

Agitation of domestic US policy

Moscow-based diplomats say Putin’s defense of his American counterpart had the aim of further agitating domestic politics in the United States.

“He knows full well his comments, his trolling of Democrats, is adding salt to domestic U.S. political wounds,” a Western diplomat told VOA. “The main foreign-policy aim of the Kremlin is to encourage political divisions in the West.”

But Putin’s praise of Trump — and the U.S. leader’s often complimentary remarks about his Russian counterpart — have not helped to improve U.S-Russian relations, widely seen as being at their lowest point since before the Cold War ended.

And few analysts and diplomats believe that will change next year, despite the overlapping views the two leaders have often expressed about Europe and NATO, or Trump’s recent suggestion that Russia be readmitted to the exclusive Group of Seven industrialized countries. The group had eight members until 2014, when Russia was disinvited over the annexation of Crimea.

Both the Kremlin and the White House have repeatedly expressed a wish to improve relations, most recently during a visit earlier this month to the U.S. capital by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“We should have a better relationship — the United States and Russia — than we’ve had in the last few years, and we’ve been working on that,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters in a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart.

Cooperation

He noted U.S. and Russian law-enforcement agencies are cooperating on an almost “daily basis” on counterterrorism and counternarcotics. He said both Moscow and Washington agree there are no military solutions to the conflicts raging in Syria or Afghanistan, although they are far apart on how they can be brought to an end.

For his part, Lavrov said the meetings in Washington have “confirmed that it is useful to talk to each other.” He added, “Talking to each other is always better than not talking to each other.”

But both nations’ top diplomats highlighted the gulf between them on a host of issues, from Ukraine to Venezuela to arms control to Iran.

And on the issue of Russian meddling in U.S. politics, the two had very different takes. “I was clear it’s unacceptable, and I made our expectations of Russia clear,” Pompeo said. Lavrov denied the Kremlin has interfered at all.

With all these overhanging issues — along with what U.S. officials describe as malign Russian activities, including slayings and attempted assassinations on foreign soil of Moscow’s foes — U.S. officials are wary of even attempting a reset with Russia, fearing the effort will be as doomed as the Obama administration’s push to transform relations between the two countries. To do so would raise expectations that likely would be subsequently dashed, leaving both sides worse off and feeling aggrieved, they say.

Recently, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said, “It would be great if we could get Russia to behave like a more normal country. But you also can’t ignore the last many years of history where Russia has invaded Georgia. It has annexed Crimea. It is occupying parts of Ukraine. It is threatening the Baltic States.”

U.S. officials aren’t alone in saying a reset gambit would be unwise. Chatham House analysts James Nixey and Mathieu Boulègue say making grand overtures toward the Kremlin would be repeating the mistakes of other Western leaders, past and present.

Criticism for Macron

In a recent commentary for the London-based think tank, they criticized French leader Emmanuel Macron’s calls in September for Russia to be brought back into the Western fold, saying his courtship of Moscow overlooks principles and evidence, and would excuse Russia from any responsibility for the frozen conflicts triggered by the Kremlin around its periphery.

“That olive branches have been extended to Vladimir Putin countless times over the past 20 years does not necessarily mean that no more should ever be forthcoming, should a future Kremlin leadership offer any meaningful concession. What it definitely does mean, however, is that the lessons need to be learned as to why they have been rebuffed hitherto: because ‘what Russia wants’ is incompatible with established Western conceptions,” Nixey and Boulègue said.

Kremlin insiders also see little hope of any major improvement in relations between Moscow and Washington, although they place the blame for that on U.S. and European governments. Their assessment of future relations between Russia and the West is bleak and reflects, they say, Putin’s own appraisal.

“He doesn’t think it is possible,” said an insider, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

They blame the sharp slide in relations since the era of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin to the expansion of NATO eastwards to take in the former communist Baltic States. They say the final blow came with the 2013-14 Maidan unrest that led to the ouster of Putin ally Ukraine Presidient Viktor Yanukovych. The Kremlin remains adamant that the Maidan agitation was Western-fomented and not a popular uprising.

The blaming of the West for the return of Cold War-like enmity, and the sense of pessimism, illustrates how difficult it will be to bridge the rift and suggests Russia’s relations with the U.S. and Europe are likely to remain antagonistic.

Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser, says continued antagonism invites serious danger.

A so-called “political technologist” for Putin before breaking with the Russian leader in 2012 over his decision to seek a third term as president, Pavlovsky paints a picture of an insecure Kremlin that frequently improvises and bluffs and “has not inherited from the Soviet Union an instinct for understanding risk and how far you can push risks.”

He added, “Putin is an improviser. And as with all improvisers, he’s an opportunist.”

…

Iran’s Football Federation has given world governing body FIFA a written commitment that women will be allowed to attend matches in the domestic club league, a source with knowledge of the discussions said on Friday.

In October, Iranian women watched the country’s national team for the first time in 40 years, when they were given access to a women’s section of the stadium for the World Cup qualifier against Cambodia in Tehran.

Women had been banned from watching men’s games in Iran since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution with only a few exceptions made for small groups on rare occasions.

FIFA had sent a delegation to Tehran to ensure that women were allowed to attend the game against Cambodia following the death in September of Sahar Khodayari, who set herself on fire to protest against her arrest for trying to get into a match.

Dubbed “Blue Girl” online for her favorite team Esteghlal’s colors, Khodayari had feared being jailed for six months by the Islamic Revolutionary Court for trying to enter a stadium dressed as a man.

After women attended the October national team match, FIFA president Gianni Infantino had urged Iranian authorities to allow women to attend all football matches.

“FIFA now looks more than ever towards a future when ALL girls and women wishing to attend football matches in (Islamic Republic of) Iran will be free to do so, and in a safe environment,” Infantino said at the time.

…

Several dozen English-speaking candidates in Cameroon’s Feb. 9, 2020 local council and parliamentary elections have resigned amid separatist threats and attacks on them and their property. Houses belonging to some of the candidates have been razed and the whereabouts of others are unknown. 

Dozens of people visited the Yaounde residence of Joseph Mbah Ndam, vice president of Cameroon’s National Assembly, the lower house of its Parliament to offer condolences after his house was destroyed by separatist fighters this week.

Among the visitors was 21-year-old businessman Elvis Mbuh, who said he witnessed the incident and fled to Yaounde because he and the lawmaker’s relatives were threatened by separatist fighters.

“They were just shooting in the air,” Mbuh said. “They told us that anybody who did not respect what they said would be killed. Then they asked us, ‘Where is Mbah Ndam? Where is Mbah Ndam?’  We saw fire everywhere and they told us that they would come back if we go to vote.”

Shortly after Ndam’s residence was burned, Batibo Mayor Tanjoh Fredrick Tetuh decided not to run for re-election, saying the security situation there, the killings and abductions, did not permit him to run.

Separatist fighters have said on social media that they will not allow the elections to take place in the English-speaking regions they call their territory. The separatists claimed responsibility for the abduction of at least 40 candidates for Parliament and local councils who defied their demands to resign. The whereabouts of some of the abducted candidates is still unknown. 

The separatists admitted that they torched at least six houses of candidates who escaped to the French-speaking regions for safety and refused to resign. One such house, they said, belonged to Donatus Njong, mayor of the English-speaking town of Kumbo. Njong did not bow to separatist pressure to resign and escaped from Kumbo to the French-speaking region.

Amid the tensions and threats, the opposition Social Democratic Front and the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement of President Paul Biya announced that at least 27 candidates for the elections have resigned.

Maurice Tangem, candidate for Parliament in the English-speaking town of Mbengwi is among those who resigned. He doubts elections can be successful under the prevailing security situation in the English-speaking regions.

“Considering the failure by the president of the republic to create an enabling atmosphere for such elections, considering the ongoing extrajudicial killings in the Anglophone regions, I now officially withdraw from the said elections, which will be nothing but a sham if they [the elections] at all hold amidst prevailing circumstances,” he said.

Cameroon’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, insisted that in spite of the threats, the elections will still take place. He said security in the crisis zones must be improved and called on residents in those areas to work with the military and the administration by reporting suspected separatists in their towns and villages.

“In the northwest and southwest, the head of state has given firm instructions that we have to do everything for this elections to hold properly,” he said. “The security services must protect the electorate, protect those who are going to vote, protect the system and protect all the structures put in place to conduct free and fair elections.”

Separatists have been fighting since 2017 to detach English-speaking northwest and southwest Cameroon from the rest of the country and its French-speaking majority. The government organized what it called a “grand national dialogue” to solve the crisis. 

The dialogue suggested a special status for the two English-speaking regions, with elected presidents and vice presidents and additional powers given to mayors, but the separatists rejected that proposal, saying they want nothing but an independent state. 

The crisis has killed at least 3,000 people and displaced over 500,000 according to the United Nations.

…