United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says this week’s inaugural meeting of a committee tasked with drafting a new Syrian constitution presents a “unique opportunity” for peace.

The U.N. chief said Tuesday that he expects the 150-member committee to work “in good faith.”

Representatives from the Syrian government, opposition and civil society are to begin meeting Wednesday in Geneva.
 
Repeated U.N. efforts to host talks on ending Syria’s eight-year civil war have largely failed.

Guterres stressed that “meaningful engagement” by committee members must be accompanied by a cessation of hostilities across the country. He says that would facilitate “a broader political process.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government has all but won the war militarily with the help of Russia. Syria’s last rebel stronghold is in the northwestern province of Idlib.
 

…

A top U.S. Border Patrol official has a warning: The crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border is not over.

Even though crossings have been down over the past few months and news of custody deaths and teeming facilities full of children and families has faded from front pages and talking points of politicians, the number of migrants coming over border is still high. And resources are still stretched.

“It is kind of a new norm. We’re at risk at any time,” if some recent deterrent efforts are blocked by the courts, like a policy forcing asylum seekers to wait out their claims in Mexico, Brian Hastings, chief of law enforcement operations at Border Patrol said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“We will go back, mark the words, we will go back to the crisis level that we had before.”

Immigration has been a top issue since President Donald Trump took office almost three years ago, with Democrats heavily critical of his administration on border conditions. But Washington is now dominated by talk of impeachment and immigration seems somewhat less pressing, with monthly apprehension numbers declining and Mexico and other nations enhancing cooperation with the U.S. on immigration issues.

Still, Trump has not forgotten an issue that was key to his 2016 victory, pointing to it often at public events and at rallies. And as he ramps up his campaign heading into 2020, he’s likely to invoke it often as a measure of his success, telling his supporters that construction is happening on the long-stalled wall he promised along the southern border and that far fewer people are being apprehended crossing the border illegally — if current numbers hold, that is.

Over the budget year that ended Sept. 30, there were 859,510 apprehensions by Border Patrol, plus over 110,000 more encounters of people who tried to enter legally but were deemed inadmissible. There were nearly 1 million crossings from the early 2000s, but those were mostly single men from Mexico who were easily returned, not families from Central America who require much more care.

While the numbers surged, Homeland Security agents and officers were overwhelmed by the number of families crossing the border as the numbers continued to rise. Families with small children require much more care.

Border officers pleaded for help but it wasn’t until over the summer, when reports of squalid conditions and surging numbers of detainees and children dying were published that Congress authorized additional funding to increase capacity. That funding expired at the end of the fiscal year.

There were more than 200 large groups of more than 100 migrants dropped off by smugglers in remote areas — something that can shut down an entire station for the day for processing — and there were at least 140,000 people who evaded capture.

Previously, 2014 was considered a crisis year, when the Obama administration saw a crush of unaccompanied children at the border. The overall apprehensions by Border Patrol were 479,371 — there were 372,000 more in 2019.

Border agents saw more families crossing the border in the month of May this year than the entire budget year of 2014. In 2014, there were about 68,000 families for the entire budget year compared to 84,000 in May 2019 alone.    

There were more than 4,900 people rescued including a dramatic increase in river rescues — 742 from 86 the year before.

“I am incredibly proud of the agents,” Hastings said. “They have been vilified, but they deserve to be thanked because we have never, ever dealt with anything like this before.”

Hastings said the so-called remain in Mexico program that is expanding in parts of California and Texas, plus a new rule barring asylum to those who pass through a third country, and crackdowns by Mexico at its own southern border have helped. More than 55,000 people have been turned back , and officials say many have gone home.

The program won’t be extended into the Arizona border right now, Hastings said, because officials are focused on increasing the number of people returned in the areas where it is already in place. And he’s seen Mexico crack down before, but “we’ve never seen them sustain for that long.”

Still, Hastings has said the number of immigration officials reassigned to the border has gone down, as more agents and officers go back to their regular jobs.  

The Border Patrol is looking to create a civilian workforce to help agents with some non-law enforcement duties, he said.

…

Ninety years ago, on Oct. 29, 1929, the U.S. stock market plummeted nearly 13%. Wall Street investors panicked and unloaded their stock. The unprecedented financial crash became known as Black Tuesday.

…

Russia’s defense minister said Tuesday that Syrian Kurdish fighters have completed their withdrawal from areas along the Syrian border, in line with a recent Russia-Turkey deal. Sergei Shoigu said Russian and Syrian troops have moved into the border zone following the Kurdish withdrawal.
 
Separately, a Russian military statement said an explosive device went off near Russian armored vehicles near the Darbasiyah border checkpoint, but there were no injuries or damage. 
 
Last week’s Russia-Turkey deal to divide control of northeast Syria has halted the Turkish invasion of the area. Ankara aimed to drive out Syrian Kurdish forces there. 
 
The Kurdish-led forces had been U.S. allies during a five-year campaign against the Islamic State group in Syria. But U.S. forces withdrew from the area, allowing the Turkish offensive. The Kurds have since turned to Russia and the Syrian government in Damascus for protection.
 
Moscow and Ankara have agreed that Turkey gets to retain control over the areas it seized when it launched its offensive on Oct. 9. Russian and Syrian troops will control the rest of the frontier. 
 
Russia and Turkey are set to conduct joint patrols of areas east and west of the Turkish-held parts of the border area.
 
Later Tuesday, Turkey’s communications director Fahrettin Altun tweeted that his country’s forces would verify whether the Syrian Kurdish fighters had withdrawn once those joint patrols begin. 
 
Turkey’s Defense Ministry didn’t immediately say if the Kurds have met the deadline. It said Russian and Turkish military officials completed a second day of talks about implementing last week’s deal struck by Moscow and Ankara to divide control of northeast Syria, but didn’t provide further details.
 
The Syrian Kurdish fighters had until 3 p.m. GMT to pull back to positions about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Turkish border. Ankara has threatened to resume its offensive if the Kurdish militias did not retreat.

…

Senior Islamic State leaders in Syria are coming under fire, part of what appears to be an urgent campaign to gut the terror group’s brain trust.

The U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces — credited with playing a key role in taking out IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and IS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir — said Wednesday it had carried out a series of raids aimed at getting the terror group’s key players dead or alive.

“Another successful raid targeting & arresting senior ISIS members,” SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted late Monday, using an acronym for the terror group which is also known as IS or by its Arabic acronym, Daesh.  

Another successful raid targeting&arresting senior ISIS members.

— Mustafa Bali (@mustefabali) October 28, 2019

Word of ongoing operations against the terror group came shortly after a senior State Department official credited the SDF with playing a “key role” in enabling the U.S. raid on Baghdadi’s compound in Bashira, Syria, which led to the IS leader’s death.

The official also confirmed SDF claims that its forces had killed the IS spokesman in a separate operation Sunday in the town of Jarablus, near the Syrian border with Turkey.

Pentagon officials denied any involvement in the strike, in which a second IS fighter was killed and a third was captured, though the State Department said U.S. assets were involved.

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IS Leader Dead, Trump Announces

Leader of Islamic State said to have blown himself up during raid led by US special forces

Earlier Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper lauded the U.S. raid that killed Baghdadi as a “devastating blow for the remnants of ISIS” and promised that the U.S. would continue to be in close contact with the SDF.

“Baghdadi’s death will not rid the world of terrorism or end the ongoing conflict in Syria,” Esper said while briefing reporters. “But it will certainly send a message to those who would question America’s resolve.”

U.S., SDF relations

Relations between the U.S. and the mainly Kurdish SDF have been strained since U.S. President Donald Trump ordered U.S. Special Forces to withdraw from parts of northeastern Syria earlier this month. Once the U.S. troops began to vacate key outposts near the Syrian-Turkish border, Turkey launched an assault targeting the Kurds, many of whom it views as terrorists with links to groups inside Turkey.

But SDF officials Monday said that cooperation with the U.S. in the weeks and months leading up to the raid on Baghdadi’s compound in Idlib province had been intense, though the Turkish incursion caused the operation to be delayed by more than a month.

“Since 15 May, we have been working together with the CIA to track al-Baghdadi and monitor him closely,” senior SDF adviser Polat Can said on Twitter.

Can said the SDF had been tracking the IS leader for months, watching him as he moved from Dashisha, in eastern Syria, to Deir El-Zor, before finally making a move to the compound near the Turkish border where he met his end.

“Our own source, who had been able to reach al-Baghdadi, brought al Baghdadi’s underwear to conduct a DNA test and make sure [100%] that the person in question was al-Baghdadi himself,” Can said of the access the SDF spy was able to get. “Our intelligence source was involved in sending coordinates, directing the airdrop, participating in and making the operation a success until the last minute.”

A U.S. official confirmed to VOA that Baghdadi, who died after detonating a suicide vest when he was cornered in a tunnel under the compound, has been buried out at sea.

Evidence collected

In the meantime, U.S. officials are starting to sift through material and other evidence collected at the compound before it was destroyed in an airstrike.

“There was material taken away. I don’t want to say exactly what or how much,” General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters.  

Milley also confirmed two IS members, both men, were taken alive.

“They’re in our custody,” he said.

Milley said the U.S. has both photos and video of the Baghdadi raid, and that some of them could be declassified and released to the public in the coming days.

Trump said Sunday that Baghdadi was “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way” to his death.  

Milley said he had not been given that information but that the president had spoken directly with members of the assault team.

U.S. troops

For now, Milley and Esper said the U.S. is repositioning troops and equipment to further secure the oil fields near Deir el-Zor, once controlled by IS, to make sure the group’s remaining terror cells are not able to target the facilities and profit from the oil.

“That will continue until we believe we have sufficient capability,” Esper said, adding the U.S. would also be ready to defend its forces in the area against the Syrian regime or Russian forces also operating in the region.

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What impact will Baghdadi’s death have on the region?

US President Donald Trump announced Sunday that a US-led military operation in Syria had killed Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. International Edition takes a look at what impact his death may have on the region and the global fight on terrorism. Plus, the latest on the impeachment inquiry, protests in Hong Kong, and Brexit.

“We want to make sure SDF does have access to the resources in order to guard the prisons, in order to arm their own troops, in order to assist us with the defeat ISIS mission,” Esper said.

During a visit to Chicago for a police chiefs convention Monday, Trump said the oil fields in Syria were worth $45 million a month in revenue, and the U.S. plans to keep them.

U.S. officials, though, were unable to explain how that would work.

“We’re just beginning to look at specifics of this,” the senior State Department official said.

The president Monday also celebrated the death of the IS leader, calling Baghdadi, “a sick and depraved man and now he’s dead.”

“He’s dead, he’s dead as a doornail, and he didn’t die bravely I can tell you that,” Trump said.

Steve Herman and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.
 

…

Student protesters honked car horns and blared loud music in the streets of Baghdad on Monday night, appearing to defy the army and ignore an overnight curfew.

Iraqi authorities had ordered people to stay off the streets between midnight and 6 a.m. after another day of fierce anti-government demonstrations.

At least three more people were killed and more than 100 hurt Monday in clashes between marchers and police, who responded with tear gas.

Parliament’s approval of a bill to cancel privileges and bonuses for senior politicians, including the president, prime minister and Cabinet ministers, did little to calm the marchers.

Students and other protesters are angry at alleged corruption, a slow economy and poor government services, despite Iraq’s oil wealth.

Students are boycotting classes and demanding the government resign.

The latest wave of violent protests in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities has killed at least 72 people since Friday. This is on top of the nearly 150 people killed during marches earlier this month.
 

…

Pakistan has reassured the United States of its “steadfast” support to the peace and reconciliation process in war-shattered Afghanistan, stressing the importance for all parties to the conflict to take “practical” steps to reduce hostilities.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s office said in a statement issued late Monday that he made the remarks in a meeting with visiting U.S. chief negotiator for Afghan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad.

The U.S. envoy visited Islamabad a day after briefing leaders in Kabul on his renewed Afghan peace-building efforts. Khalilzad traveled to Afghanistan for the first time since President Donald Trump abruptly ended talks with Taliban insurgents last month.

“As a sincere facilitator and a friend, Pakistan remains ready to do everything possible in its capacity, as part of a shared responsibility, for (an) early conclusion of a peace deal,” Khan said.

The yearlong U.S.-Taliban dialogue, hosted by Qatar, had brought the two adversaries close to concluding a peace agreement to end America’s longest war before Trump abruptly ended the process. He cited a series of insurgent attacks in Kabul that killed, among others, a U.S. soldier.

Pakistan takes credit for arranging the U.S.-Taliban talks by persuading the insurgent group to come to the negotiating table.

“Achieving sustainable peace and security and ensuring long-term development, progress and prosperity in Afghanistan and the region was in Pakistan’s best national interest,” Monday’s statement quoted Khan as saying.

Khalilzad’s visit comes amid a new international diplomatic push by key regional players, including Russia, China and Pakistan, to help restart the stalled U.S.-Taliban talks and conclude the peace deal to end the Afghan war, which completed 18 years this month.

On Friday, Khalilzad visited Moscow for a four-party meeting with counterparts from Russia, China and Pakistan to review efforts the countries are jointly making to promote a negotiated settlement to the war.

A post-meeting statement said participants stressed the need for all parties to the Afghan conflict to immediately reduce violence to “create an environment conducive” for peace negotiations.

It noted Russia, China and Pakistan expressed their support for “the earliest resumption of (the) negotiation process and reaching an agreement” between the U.S. and the Taliban, saying it will pave the way for launching intra-Afghan talks.

In early October, Islamabad hosted informal talks between Khalilzad and Taliban negotiators. While the negotiating sides did not publicly discuss or even confirm the interaction, Pakistani officials said they had facilitated the meetings to help resurrect the U.S.-Taliban dialogue.

Afghan leaders allege Pakistan shelters Taliban leaders and fighters, enabling them to sustain and expand insurgent activities in Afghanistan.

Islamabad rejects the charges and does not rule out the possibility of insurgents using areas in Pakistan hosting nearly 3 million Afghan refugees as hiding place.

The two countries share a nearly 2,600-kilometer porous border, though Pakistan says its border management plan has secured most of the boundary over the past two years through fencing and establishing new outposts.

…

The full House of Representatives will vote this week on the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, addressing the White House argument that the probe has been illegitimate.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a vote for Thursday, saying in a letter to fellow representatives that she wants to “eliminate any doubt” about the process.

Pelosi says the impeachment inquiry resolution will “affirm the ongoing and existing investigation … establish the procedures for hearings that are open to the American people … outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee … and sets forth due process rights for the president and his counsel.”

Trump and his Republican supporters have called the impeachment probe illegitimate because it is being held behind closed doors and the full House never voted for it. Pelosi says that argument “has no merit.”

There is no law saying the entire House has to approve an investigation and the majority party in control — currently the Democrats — set out the rules for an impeachment process.

Kupperman lawsuit

Meanwhile Monday, a former White House national security aide balked at testifying before the House committees.

Former Deputy National Security Adviser Charles Kupperman listened in on the July 25 call in which Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for “a favor.” Trump urged Zelenskiy to investigate alleged Ukrainian meddling on behalf of Democrats in the 2016 U.S. election and allegations of corruption by 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who worked for a Ukrainian natural gas company.

When the White House ordered Kupperman to ignore the House subpoena, Kupperman filed a lawsuit Friday asking a judge to decide whose demand he should honor — the congressional subpoena or the White House.

House Democrats sent Kupperman’s lawyer, Charles Cooper, a letter over the weekend contending that the lawsuit lacked merit and had been coordinated with the White House. Cooper said the lawsuit had not been “even discussed” with the White House.

“It would not be appropriate for a private citizen like Dr. Kupperman to unilaterally resolve this momentous constitutional dispute between the two political branches of our government,” Cooper responded.

Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff calls White House efforts to stop Kupperman’s testimony another example of Trump’s obstruction of justice and another possible reason to draw up articles of impeachment.

Phone call

Democrats are investigating whether Trump withheld badly needed aid to Ukraine in exchange for Zelinskiy’s public promise to investigate Democrats and the Bidens.

Trump insists there was no quid pro quo between him and Ukraine and has called his telephone call with Zelenskiy “perfect.”

But U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor testified last week the release of $391 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine was directly linked to its willingness to open the U.S.-related political investigations Trump wanted.

Trump alleges that when Biden was U.S. vice president, he threatened to hold up loan guarantees to Ukraine unless a prosecutor stopped a corruption investigation into the gas company where Hunter Biden worked.

No evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens has surfaced, and the allegations of Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was based on a debunked conspiracy theory.
 

…

The gunman who allegedly killed five people in the office of the Capital Gazette newspaper last year has pleaded guilty but not criminally responsible.

James Ramos, who prosecutors say had a long-standing grudge against the Maryland newspaper, was set to go on trial later this week.

He had earlier pleaded not guilty and not criminally responsible. If Judge Laura Ripken accepts Ramos’s new plea, the court will likely forgo a trial on whether he actually murdered his victims and move straight to whether he was responsible for his actions.

Ramos is accused of bursting into the Gazette’s building in June 2018 and killing four reporters and an office assistant.

Prosecutors say Ramos had lost a defamation suit against the newspaper when it published a story about him pleading guilty to harassing a former high school classmate.

The state planned to show surveillance video at his criminal trial of what the prosecutors say was Ramos walking through the newsroom “hunting” for victims.

…

California Governor Gavin Newsom says there are hopes that by later Monday the near historic winds that are driving a huge wildfire in the northern part of the state will “substantially settle down” as some 3,000 people work to put out the blaze.

“We’re not out of the woods, but we are leaning in the right direction,” Newsom said at a late Sunday briefing.

The western U.S. state is commonly hit by numerous wildfires at this time of year with the combination of low humidity and strong winds combining to create favorable conditions for fire growth.

Firefighters had said the Kincade Fire, named for a local road where the flames are believed to have started in Sonoma County, was at 10% containment, but as of late Sunday that had dropped to 5% with the fire at about 22,000 hectares in size.

Cal Fire said the blaze had already destroyed about 100 structures.

California State Senator Mike McGuire said 4,600 people have gone to shelters in Sonoma County.

Statewide, about 180,000 people have evacuated their homes to seek safety from wildfires.  

Newsom declared a state of emergency Sunday and said there is “no question” the evacuations have saved lives.

“Go means go,” he said, encouraging people to heed any evacuation orders.

In Southern California, fire officials said a much smaller wildfire in Santa Clarita near Los Angeles was 70% contained, but not before it destroyed several dozen buildings.

The California utility company Pacific Gas & Electric shut off power to nearly 1 million homes and businesses across Northern California, some with little notice, as part of a strategy to try to prevent surges from downed power lines sparking more fires.

Businesses are angry that the power cuts have cost them tens of thousands of dollars, and residents bitterly complain about the inconvenience of going days without electricity, especially those who need power for life-saving medical devices.

California authorities blame PG&E lines for sparking last year’s wildfires that killed 85 people and destroyed entire towns. The utility, facing billions of dollars in lawsuits, was forced to declare bankruptcy earlier this year.

Governor Newsom, who had criticized the utilities, said the state will spend $75 million to help residents and businesses deal with the power cuts.  He said the state has a lot of work to do toward putting electrical wires underground and to manage forests in order to prevent both wildfire damage and the need to shut off the power.

…

Negotiations on a sweeping 16-nation free trade deal and a code of conduct for the hotly contested South China Sea are expected to take center stage at a summit of Asian leaders in Bangkok next month.

The leaders of all 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are due to attend the bloc’s regular year-end summit on Nov. 2-4, along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva are also expected.

Meetings related to the summit begin Thursday.

RCEP a big deal

As this year’s chair of ASEAN, Thailand is hoping to end its run with negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) all but done. In the works since 2012, the deal is seen by some as China’s retort to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, negotiations for which excluded China and fell apart when the US pulled out.

Taking in all 10 ASEAN countries and six others — Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea — it would cover 45 percent of the world’s population and a third of global GDP.

With India and China still at loggerheads over market access, “signing of the RCEP deal seems unlikely” at the summit, said Peter Mumford, head of Southeast Asia coverage for political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

“But ASEAN hopes to at least be able to announce that substantial progress has been made, to ensure momentum is sustained,” he added.

Prapat Thepchatree, who heads the ASEAN Studies Center at Thammasat University, said Thailand was keen to show progress under its watch, especially in the face of the rising tide of protectionism, not least from the US-China trade war.

Once in place, the RCEP will have “a big impact in terms of financial terms and also in terms of psychological terms. It will give a big push … for all regional countries in this part of the world to hope that we still have a chance to support a liberal economic order, ” he said.

With specific tariff negotiations on 80 percent of goods and services complete, and on most others nearly so, the countries could come very close to wrapping up a deal this year, said Piti Srisangnam, director of academic affairs for the ASEAN Studies Center at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University.

Order in the South China Sea

At its last leader’s summit in June, ASEAN said it also hoped to finish the year with the negotiating draft of a code of conduct for the South China Sea ready for a first reading. The code would set the rules for settling disputes in the busy sea lane, where China has competing claims with several bloc members to teeming fishing grounds and a seabed potentially rich in oil and gas.

Piti said he was hopeful the bloc would announce that the draft was ready for a first reading during the summit, adding that China has raised few complaints with the document of late.

“I am expecting…good news,” he said. “There are some good signals from both [sides].”

Independence from both China and the US

At the last summit, the bloc also adopted the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, a policy plan that aims to give its members a lead role in tying the Indian and Pacific oceans together while resisting the pull of China and the US to fall wholly into either’s orbit.

“I think this document will put big powers in a difficult position to reject it, and in practice … they will have to accept it as a regional principle, and that will [allow] ASEAN to play an important role,” Prapat said. “For the November summit, the task is for ASEAN to convince other big powers to agree to accept this document.”

As part of the balancing act, he said ASEAN will use the summit to try to further link its infrastructure plans with China’s Belt and Road Initiative while urging the US, Japan and other powers as well to invest in more projects across the bloc. Thailand has used its latest term as bloc chair to push for connecting the region digitally as well, he added.

Will President Trump attend?

It remains to be seen whether they will get the chance to make their case to US President Donald Trump himself. Neither the US Embassy in Bangkok nor the Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry, which is organizing the summit, would comment on whether he would attend.

Should Trump choose to stay away, Prapat said it would further embolden China to assert its will over the region.

While his absence has already been factored into expectations, Mumford said, it could still “reinforce the view of some countries in the region that this US administration is less engaged” in Southeast Asia.

Piti said the US president may have a strong bearing on the summit either way — by spurring on those who do attend to see the RCEP through.

“If they conclude the RCEP by this summit, they should thank Donald Trump … because of his trade war policy,” he said.

…

Conservative President Mauricio Macri conceded defeat in Argentina’s election Sunday night, paving the way for the country’s Peronist center-left to return to power under Alberto Fernandez as frustrated voters rejected the incumbent’s handling of a bruising economic crisis that has sunk many into poverty.

The result would mark a dramatic return to high office of former President Cristina Fernandez, Alberto Fernandez’s vice presidential running mate, former boss and what critics say might be the power behind his throne.

Macri told supports at his headquarters that he had called Alberto Fernandez to congratulate him and invited him for a breakfast chat Monday at the Pink Presidential Palace.

“We need an orderly transition that will bring tranquility to all Argentines, because the most important thing is the well-being of all Argentines,” Macri said.

Authorities said Fernandez has 47.83% of the votes compared to 40.66% for Macri, with 91.21% percent of the votes counted. He needs 45% support, or 40% support with a 10 percentage point lead, over the nearest rival to avoid a runoff vote on Nov. 24.

Macri was elected president in 2015 promising to jumpstart the country’s economy. Argentines rejected at the time a successor chosen by ex-president Fernandez, who along with her late husband dominated Argentina’s political scene for 12 years and rewrote its social contract. But the divisive former leader, who embodies Argentina’s enduring cycle of hope and despair, appears back.

Thousands of the two Fernandezes supporters crowded outside their campaign headquarters in a jubilant celebration waving sky-blue and white Argentine flags.

“I’m so happy. We were waiting for this change for a long time. We’re tired of everything that has been happening,” said supporter Juan Jose De Antonio, 46. “Some of us live a different reality from those suffering hunger, but when you have a friend who lost a job, a neighbor who can’t make ends meet, it hits you.”

Alberto Fernandez greeted sympathizers who gathered outside the gate of his apartment chanting: “Alberto presidente!”

Sunday’s largely peaceful election was dominated by concerns over rising poverty, a sharp depreciation of the currency and one of the world’s highest inflation rates. Voters appear to have rejected austerity measures that Macri insisted were needed to revive Argentina’s struggling economy. Many Argentines have taken to the streets frustrated with cuts to rises in fuel and transportation costs.

The result would mark a triumphant comeback for Cristina Fernandez and a shift leftward for South America, which has seen conservative governments elected in Brazil, Colombia and Chile in recent years. She was considered part of the “pink tide” of leftist governments that arose in the region in the 1990s and 2000s.

Now a left-leaning government appears set to govern Argentina, and governments in Chile, Peru and Ecuador fueled by discontent over corruption, inequality and slowing growth.

“We Argentines deserve a better country, with work, where we can live peacefully, above all,” said Antonella Bruna, 32, as she voted at the medical school of the National University of Rosario, about 290 kilometers northwest of Buenos Aires.

Macri retains wide support among the key farming sector in one of the world’s top suppliers of grains. But overall frustration over the economy has eroded the popularity of the pro-business former mayor of Buenos Aires. It has also propelled the candidacy of Alberto Fernandez, whose surge has sent jitters in the financial markets over a possible return to interventionist polices of Cristina Fernandez’s 2007-2015 administration.

Macri’s camp has tried to capitalize on that unease, portraying her as a puppet master waiting in the wings. But the presidential candidate has dismissed those fears and voters gave him a decisive victory over Macri in August primaries, which are a barometer of support for candidates ahead of the presidential election.

Fernandez served as chief of staff from 2003 to 2007 for Cristina Fernandez’s predecessor and late husband, Nestor Kirchner. He remained in the position during part of her term as president but left after a conflict with farmers in 2008.

Peronism is a broad but splintered political movement in the South American country of 44 million people.

On the election trail, Fernandez has criticized Macri’s decision to seek a record $56 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, a deeply unpopular institution in Argentina that is blamed for creating the conditions that led to the country’s worst economic meltdown in 2001.

Macri is credited with returning Argentina to international global markets following a break after the 2001 crisis and with helping strike a free trade deal between South America’s Mercosur bloc and the European Union amid global trade tensions and rising protectionism. But he failed to deliver on promises to jumpstart the economy of the recession-hit country, while Argentines continue to lose purchasing power to an inflation rate of more than 55 percent and about a third have been plunged under the poverty line.

On the campaign trail, Macri has pleaded for more time to reverse fortunes and reminds voters of the corruption cases facing Cristina Fernandez, who has denied any wrongdoing and remains a powerful if divisive figure in Argentina.

“It’s important so we don’t go back to the time of the Kirchners, when there was so much robbery, so much embezzlement. That wouldn’t be good for the country,” said Bernarda Nidia Guichandut, who helped her elderly parents into a car to go to vote. “Macri is honest. He’s made mistakes, he’s backtracked, but he’s said: “Fine, I was wrong.”

For the most part, the election atmosphere was calm and turnout large, though the Buenos Aires Province police department said more than 1,000 people were evacuated following 11 reports of bomb threats to schools that were being used as polling stations. No explosives were found.

Argentines are also choosing 130 lower house seats and 24 senators in Congress, as well as regional mayors, governors for three provinces and the head of government for the Argentine capital.

…

Hundreds of policemen from Haiti’s National Police Force, PNH, took to the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince Sunday, dressed in civilian clothes to protest against what they say are deplorable work conditions.

The police officers, who are demanding officials allow them to form a union, complain they have not been paid for months, while being expected to risk their lives to maintain law and order.  This was the first time law enforcement officers have taken to the streets since the nationwide anti-government protests began last summer.

“They are holding 6 months (of) salary they owe us, that’s not good, it’s not logical,” a policeman told VOA Creole. “When we show up somewhere and say we are police, if we don’t have a decent car to ride in they don’t even believe us – they take us for criminals because we aren’t getting paid so we can’t take care of ourselves.”

Another policeman draped in a Haitian flag and wearing a straw hat with Haiti printed in blue and red letters on it told VOA Creole they are defending rights guaranteed under the nation’s constitution.

“The constitution says we have the right to form a union, to defend our rights,” he said. “We want to thank the civilians, our wives, friends and the people of Haiti who are out here with us protesting today. We also send a warning to the police officials to say that if they think they can fire us and continue mistreating us they are wrong. If that happens the entire country will be turned upside down.”

Haiti’s National Police force has been plagued by allegations of corruption and human rights violations. Protesters often allege that men in police uniforms driving unmarked cars have been firing on them with live ammunition.  The police claim to only be using rubber bullets during the protests.  But the accusation was backed by opposition lawmakers and journalists covering the protests who witnessed the protesters’ injuries.  This, in spite of the fact that the United States has spent millions of dollars to help train the force.  PNH Officials say the force that exists today is a work in progress and far more professional, but problems persist.

 This weekend, the PNH intelligence chief Frantz Georges was fired by police chief Norvil Rameau after an investigation into an incident where an officer under his supervision wound up dead, with his body thrown into the street, according to the Miami Herald.

Jacqueline Charles on Twitter

“Another difficult day of protests in #Haiti with even police officers demonstrating. “When was the last time you heard the police protesting?” a human rights activist said to me.”

Another difficult day of protests in #Haiti with even police officers demonstrating. “When was the last time you heard the police protesting?” a human rights activist said to me.

— Jacqueline Charles (@Jacquiecharles) October 27, 2019

Support from lawmakers, opposition leaders

Senator Patrice Dumont, a member of parliament who is well-respected by colleagues and citizens alike for being a no-nonsense guy who shuns corruption, joined the policemen in the streets.

“I’m out here to show support for the police and to say that they should have access to services that are on par with the service they provide to society,” the senator told VOA Creole.  “For example, after having served for years in the police force they should have certain social services available to them such as housing, health care and insurance.”  Dumont said policemen should be paid immediately by the government when funds become available.

Opposition leader Rene Civil of the Altenativ Konsansyel pou Refondasyon Leta party (Consensual Alternative for the Refoundation of the State), also joined the policemen in the streets.

“I understand why they are protesting, they are young men and women who, after finishing school, dedicated their lives to serving the nation and they are treated like worthless individuals,” Civil told VOA Creole.

One of the policemen said they will not return to work until their demands are met.

“If they don’t respond tonight, tomorrow morning we will remain arms crossed, we will not go to work, we will not take orders (from higher ups). That’s all I have to say,” the officer, wearing a black cap with POLICE in white printed on the front, told VOA Creole.

Cape Haitian protest

In Cape Haitian, hundreds of policemen chanted slogans and held up pink posters that echoed the demands of their colleagues in Port-au-Prince for a union, insurance and better work conditions. They marched to the police headquarters and stood in front of the gates chanting.

In Cape Haitian, northern #Haiti policemen are in the streets, just like in Port au Prince, to demand better work conditions and a union to protect their rights. ?Philippe Augustin @VOAKreyol#PNHpic.twitter.com/LmzFTSGQLV

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) October 27, 2019

Simultaneous anti-government protest

Meanwhile back in the capital, Protestant pastor Prophete Makenson was also in the streets with his followers after church services demanding the president step down.

“I’m just asking for a resignation, that’s why I’m in the street today,” the pastor told VOA Creole. “I’m 33 years old, like many young men out in the streets, we can’t (afford to) eat, we can’t (afford to) drink.”  

Protestant Pastor Prophete Makenson Dorilas is back in the streets protesting today. He says his simple demand is: resign – aimed at @moisejovenel@VOAKreyol Matiado Vilme talked to him. #Haitipic.twitter.com/GlccZYLvDr

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) October 27, 2019

Protestants joined thousands of anti-government protests for the first time last Sunday when they marched to the affluent suburb of Petionville.

Businesses targeted

The anti-government protest took a violent turn in the afternoon, undeterred by police who were busy protesting as well on the other side of town.  Some protesters successfully set fire to business establishments and attempted to burn down the Canadian Embassy.  They ran away when the embassy alarm sounded, alerting authorities. No damage was reported.

But in the Delmas neighborhood, the power generator at Banj, a multi-use complex that houses several tech startups was set ablaze.

#Haiti protesters in a separate demonstration against the government set fire to @banjHT power generator. This, in addition to last month’s looting of the multi-use complex housing several startups in Port au Prince. @marcalainbpic.twitter.com/QqrjIeNa3Q

— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) October 27, 2019

Owner Marc Allain Boucicault tweeted an SOS to the local fire department to rush to the scene to extinguish the blaze, which endangered the building itself. Boucicault later tweeted that the fire had been put out but the generator was destroyed. The Banj building remained intact, he said.  Last month, protesters looted the business, taking equipment, furniture and everything else they could get their hands on, incurring thousands of dollars in losses.

Protesters also targeted the Coin restaurant on the Delmas road, setting fire to the building.  In the affluent suburb of Petionville, protesters set fire to a car parked at the Ponp Sol Sent Terez gas station.

The protests were initially sparked by a fuel hike in July 2018, and outrage over a corruption report that implicated the president’s businesses. Double-digit inflation, unemployment and the president’s seeming incapability to put order to the chaos that has engulfed the nation have also roiled the nation. The weekly demonstrations have paralyzed the country, shuttering businesses and schools.  The U.S. and Canada have published advisories discouraging their citizens from traveling to Haiti.

Late Thursday, the U. S. Embassy in Haiti issued a statement late urging Haiti’s leaders and stakeholders to enter into dialogue to try to resolve the crisis, but the opposition, anti-corruption activists and most protesters rebuffed the call saying the international community has no business meddling in the country’s affairs. 

pic.twitter.com/Pryu3MxBje

— U.S. Embassy Haiti (@USEmbassyHaiti) October 24, 2019

For now, President Jovenel Moise shows no signs of conceding to protesters’ demands to resign, so the opposition and anti-corruption activists have called for a new series of protests to keep up the pressure.

…

Joe Biden called it “improper” for President Donald Trump for having his daughter and son-in-law hold positions in the White House, suggesting in a CBS interview Sunday that Jared Kushner is not qualified to weigh in on the complex affairs assigned by his father-in-law.

That assessment, which the Democratic presidential hopeful offered in a wide-ranging “60 Minutes” interview, ratchets up the rhetoric between Trump and Biden over each other’s adult children and family business affairs.

Biden told CBS that he doesn’t like “going after” politicians’ children, but he said none of his children would hold White House posts, even as he continued to defend his son, Hunter, against Trump’s charges that the Biden’s are corrupt because of the younger Biden’s international business affairs while his father was vice president.

“You should make it clear to the American public that everything you’re doing is for them,” Biden said, according to a CBS transcript, when he was asked about Ivanka Trump and Kushner, her husband, in White House posts with significant policy portfolios.

“Their actions speak for themselves,” Biden said of the Trump family. “I can just tell you this, that if I’m president get elected president my children are not gonna have offices in the White House. My children are not gonna sit in on Cabinet meetings.”

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Trump: White House Chief of Staff to Decide Fate of Kushner Security Clearance

It will be up to the White House chief of staff to decide whether the U.S.

Asked specifically whether he thinks Kushner should be tasked with negotiating Middle East peace agreements, Biden laughed. “No, I don’t,” he said. “What credentials does he bring to that?”

Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine and China remains an emphasis of Trump’s broadsides against Biden, a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. The younger Biden took a post on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm after his father became the Obama administration’s point man on U.S.-Ukraine relations.

Trump’s focus on finding information about the Biden’s Ukraine connections is now at the heart of a House impeachment inquiry against the president. Ukrainian investigators have found no legal wrongdoing by either Biden.

Noting that, the former vice president blasted social media giant Facebook for allowing the Trump campaign to distribute online ads framing the Bidens as corrupt.

“You know, I’m glad they brought the Russians down,” Biden said, noting Facebook’s recent decision to shut down accounts that were distributing misinformation, including about Biden. But, the former vice president asked, “Why don’t you bring down the lies that Trump is telling and everybody knows are lies?”

Hunter Biden in a recent interview said the only thing his father said to him at the time he took the post at Burisma was, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

The elder Biden told CBS he never got into any details over the firm, which had been the focus on Ukrainian corruption inquiries.

“What I meant by that is I hope you’ve thought this through. I hope you know exactly what you’re doing here,” the elder Biden said. “That’s all I meant. Nothing more than that because I’ve never discussed my business or their business, my sons’ or daughter’s. And I’ve never discussed them because they know where I have to do my job and that’s it and they have to make their own judgments.”

And turning the issue back on the president, Biden repeated a line he’s started using on the campaign trail, urging Trump to release his tax returns. “Mr. President … let’s see how straight you are, okay old buddy?” Biden said. “I put out 21 years of mine. You wanna deal with corruption? Start to act like it. Release your tax returns or shut up.”

Trump’s attacks have not displaced Biden as a duel Democratic front-runner alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren. But it has nonetheless raised new questions about Biden’s argument that he’d be the best Democrat to take on the Republican president in a general election. And the Biden attack ads Trump and Republicans have financed in early nominating states, combined with Biden’s own lagging fundraising, have led some of his wealthy supporters to openly discuss the possibility of launching an independent political action committee.

Biden’s CBS interview was taped before his recent decision to reverse his previous opposition to such a Super PAC, a move that Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders have indirectly criticized. Biden did address his campaign’s cash balance being dwarfed by Warren and Sanders, saying he’s “not worried” about raising enough money.

As to just how he can withstand Sanders’ and Warren’s grassroots fundraising juggernauts, he replied, “I just flat beat them.”

…

Tens of thousands of people are marching in Barcelona to protest the separatist movement in the northeastern Catalonia region that has produced Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Barcelona’s police say 80,000 people have rallied Sunday on one of the city’s main streets, with many carrying Spanish and Catalan flags.

One poster read in English: “We are Catalonians too, stop this madness!!”

The rally in favor of Spanish unity comes after several days of protests – some of which have spiraled into violent clashes with police – by Catalan separatists. They are angered by a Supreme Court ruling that sentenced nine of separatist leaders to prison for a failed 2017 secession attempt.

Polls say the 7.5 million residents of the wealthy Catalonia region are roughly evenly divided on the secession question.

…

Pakistan’s ailing former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was jailed on money-laundering and corruption charges, has remained in a government hospital where he was taken last week after suffering a heart attack.

Maryam Aurangzeb, a spokesman for the ex-premier’s Muslim League party, says Sunday that Sharif’s health condition won’t allow for him to be moved to another hospital.

Mahmood Ayaz, the hospital’s top official, said its medical board hasn’t approved moving Sharif and he himself hasn’t requested it.

Islamabad’s High Court Saturday granted temporary freedom to Sharif until another two-judge panel decides Tuesday whether Sharif’s seven-year sentence on a corruption conviction should be suspended due to his illness.

Sharif served three times as prime minister. Supreme Court removed him from office in 2017 on corruption allegations.

…

Thousands of supporters of an ultra-religious party are gathering in Karachi to start a large anti-government march on Pakistan’s capital farther north.

Mufti Abrar Ahmed, spokesman for the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, says its leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman will lead the protesters’ caravan setting off later on Sunday.

The beginning of the JUI protest also marks the anniversary of the start of the conflict over Kashmir, a province both India and Pakistan claim. Separate, anti-India protests are planned across Pakistan.

Ahmed said supporters from Karachi and surrounding areas will travel in buses and vans toward the capital. He said the caravan plans to reach Islamabad on Oct. 31st, to protest Prime Minister Imran Khan’s “illegitimate” government which the Islamist party says came to power through the army’s support.

…

Pope Francis has thanked Amazon regional bishops for their “candor” at a meeting which called for ordaining married priests and other changes to help the Catholic church’s far-flung flock in that part of South America. 
 
In his homily Sunday at a Mass to conclude weeks of discussions at the Vatican on the needs of the Amazon’s faithful, Francis didn’t mention the bishops’ vote to press the Vatican to allow married men to become priests in special circumstances. 
 
A day earlier, Francis told bishops he would draw his conclusions in a document he hoped to write by year’s end.
 
Allowing married men to be ordained in remote Amazon areas that are facing severe shortage of priests would chip away at the Catholic Church’s nearly millennium-old teaching upholding priestly celibacy.

…

An Afghan politician confirms that U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is in Afghanistan’s capital for his first visit since talks between the U.S. and Taliban collapsed last month. 
 
Sayed Hamid Gailani, leader of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, posted on his Twitter account late Saturday that he met with Khalilzad and his team in Kabul to discuss the country’s recent presidential elections and peace efforts.
 
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Afghan official also confirmed Sunday that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had met with Khalilzad.
 
He said that the meeting took place at the presidential palace on Saturday.
 
Khalilzad’s visit to Kabul follows a meeting in Moscow he held with representatives of China, Russia and Pakistan, over restarting peace talks to end Afghanistan’s 18-year-old war.

…

The Democratic-led impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump resumed with testimony from a senior State Department official on Saturday, a day after a judge buoyed the probe by dismissing a central Republican objection. 
 
Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, was due to meet with the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees behind closed doors at the U.S. Capitol. 
 
Lawmakers and staff were holding the first weekend deposition of the investigation, after Reeker’s testimony was postponed because of memorial events this week for Representative Elijah Cummings, who had been Oversight Committee chairman and played a leading role in the impeachment inquiry. 

Inquiry ruled valid
 
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell rejected the claim that the impeachment process was illegitimate, as he ordered the Republican Trump administration to give the House Judiciary Committee secret material from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s reporting on Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. 
 
Howell said the House did not have to approve a resolution formally initiating the effort for the impeachment inquiry to be valid, something Republicans have been insisting is the case. 

Reeker, 54, is a career diplomat whose current portfolio includes Ukraine, the country central to the investigation of Trump. Reeker has held his position on an acting basis since March 18. 
 
The impeachment inquiry has underscored what current and former U.S. officials describe as a campaign by Trump against career diplomats. Several have already met with congressional investigators. 
 
Investigators were expected to ask Reeker about issues including Trump’s abrupt dismissal of Marie Yovanovitch in May as ambassador to Ukraine. According to emails given to congressional committees this month, Reeker was among diplomats who sought to intervene when Trump supporters accused Yovanovitch of being disloyal to the president.  

Another career diplomat involved in those communications, George Kent, testified last week that he was told to “lie low” on Ukraine and instead defer to three of Trump’s political appointees. Yovanovitch has also testified, accusing the Trump administration of recalling her based on false claims and of eviscerating the State Department. 
 
Focus on Ukraine 
 
At the heart of the impeachment inquiry is a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic contender to face Trump in the 2020 election, and his son Hunter, who had been a director of a Ukrainian energy company. 
 
The Trump administration was withholding $391 million in security assistance for Ukraine when the call took place, and investigators are looking into whether Trump improperly tied the release of the aid to getting Ukraine’s help in probing the Bidens. 
 
Trump denies wrongdoing and, backed by his fellow Republicans in Congress, insists he is being treated unfairly. The administration has refused to hand over documents requested by the congressional committees and has sought to prevent current and former officials from giving interviews. 
 
The committees have scheduled several depositions next week, following Reeker’s appearance on Saturday, all behind closed doors. 
 
For Monday, they have called Charles Kupperman, a former deputy national security adviser, and on Tuesday, lawmakers expect Alexander Vindman, the White House National Security Council’s (NSC) top expert on Ukraine. 

Court guidance
 
Kupperman on Friday filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to determine whether he could testify. His lawyer Charles Cooper said the judicial branch needed to weigh in on whether the president could block Kupperman and other White House officials from complying with congressional subpoenas. 
 
Kathryn Wheelbarger, acting assistant secretary of defense for international security, is scheduled to appear on Wednesday, and Tim Morrison, a top NSC Russia and Europe adviser, is scheduled for Thursday. 
 
Democratic members of the three committees said they felt they had gathered a great deal of evidence and did not expect this phase of the investigation to last many more weeks, before public hearings. 
 
“We’ve heard a lot of compelling testimony. We feel like we know a lot of what’s happened,” New Jersey Representative Tom Malinowski, told reporters at the House this week. 

…

Nearly 50 people have died in renewed anti-government protests across Iraq, officials said Saturday, with clashes breaking out as demonstrators turned their fury against government and paramilitary offices.

The death toll from protests this month has climbed to 205, including dozens who were killed as they torched government buildings or offices belonging to factions of Hashed al-Shaabi force over the past two days.

The demonstrations first erupted on Oct. 1, with protesters railing against government corruption and unemployment, while a second wave broke out late Thursday.

This latest round of demonstrations has been notably violent, with 48 people killed in as many hours.

Three protesters were killed in the capital Baghdad on Saturday, with medics and officials reporting trauma wounds sustained by tear gas canisters lobbed at demonstrators.  

But the majority of victims have been in the Shi’ite-majority south, where protesters torched dozens of provincial government buildings, party offices and Hashed centers.

On Saturday, three people were shot dead while setting fire to a local official’s home, a police source told AFP.

The previous night, 12 protesters died in Diwaniyah while setting fire to the headquarters of the powerful Badr organization.

Top Hashed commanders have threatened “revenge” after their offices were attacked, and denounced those they said aimed at sowing “discord and chaos” in the country.

In a bid to contain the violence security forces have announced curfews across most of Iraq’s southern provinces — but brief protests nevertheless took place in Diwaniyah, Nasiriyah, Babylon and Najaf.

In the southern port city of Basra, protesters failed to come out in large numbers after security forces strictly enforced a curfew.

Fears of ‘armed spoilers’

The Hashed was founded in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group but its factions have since been ordered to incorporate into the state security services.

“Public anger is directed at them in addition to governorate councils, for they were the obvious face of ‘the regime’,” wrote Harith Hasan, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center.

But the attacks could also hint at political rivalries between the Hashed and populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has thrown his weight behind the demonstrations.

“The Sadrists, especially in their traditional strongholds such as Missan, saw this an opportunity to act against competing militias,” such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Badr, and Kataeb Hezbollah, Hasan said on Twitter.

The United Nations on Saturday said it was “tragic” to see renewed violence but also warned against “armed spoilers”.

“Armed entities sabotaging the peaceful demonstrations, eroding the government’s credibility and ability to act, cannot be tolerated,” said the UN top official in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

Protesters gathered in Baghdad’s emblematic Tahrir (Liberation) Square on Saturday morning despite efforts by riot police to clear them with tear gas.

“It’s enough — theft, looting, gangs, mafias, deep state, whatever. Get out! Let us see a (functioning) state,” said one protester, referring to perceived cronyism and corruption in the country.

“We don’t want anything, just let us live,” he added as puffs of smoke from tear gas rose behind him.

‘It’s enough!’

Oil-rich Iraq is OPEC’s second-highest producer — but one in five people live below the poverty line and youth unemployment sits at 25 percent, according to the World Bank.

About 60 percent of Iraq’s 40-million-strong population is under the age of 25.

The staggering rates of joblessness and allegations of corruption sparked the widespread protests on October 1 and the government has struggled to quell public anger by proposing reforms.

Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi has suggested a laundry list of measures, including hiring drives, increased pensions and a cabinet reshuffle.

New education and health ministers were approved by parliament in a session earlier this month, the only time it was able to meet since protests began.

But a scheduled meeting of parliament on Saturday to discuss the renewed protests failed to take due to a lack of quorum.

Protesters so far have seemed unimpressed by the government’s efforts.

“They told young people: ‘go home, we’ll give you pensions and come up with a solution’. They tricked us,” said one of the rare woman protesters on Saturday, her young son at her side.

They have even directed some of their anger at Sadr and country’s top Shi’ite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is deeply revered among most Iraqis,

“Sadr, Sistani — this is a shame,” a protester in Tahrir said on Saturday.

“We were hit! It’s enough,” he said, waving a tear gas canister fired earlier by security forces.

…

California officials warned on Saturday that “historic and extreme” wind conditions were set to fan raging wildfires in the north of the state as millions of residents face power cuts.

Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency as the so-called Kincade Fire spread to 23,700 acres (9,591 hectares) after breaking out on Wednesday in the Sonoma wine region.

The blaze, which is burning in remote steep terrain, has destroyed about 50 structures and forced the evacuation of the small community of Geyserville and of nearby vineyard operations.

“This is definitely an event that we’re calling historic and extreme,” David King, meteorologist for the U.S. National Weather Service, told Saturday’s Los Angeles Times.

“What’s making this event really substantial… is the amount of time that these winds are going to remain.”

Hot, intense winds are expected to pick up on Saturday and last into Monday.

The state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said it expected to cut off power to 850,000 customers — a precautionary shutdown that local media say would affect about two million people.

“The weather event could be the most powerful in California in decades,” PG&E said, with dry northeast winds forecast to gust up to 70 miles per hour (112 kilometers per hour).

“PG&E will need to turn off power for safety several hours before the potentially damaging winds arrive,” it added.

“Winds of this magnitude pose a higher risk of damage and sparks on the electric system and rapid wildfire spread.”

About 1,300 firefighters battled the Kincade Fire, which is only five percent contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Protection.

‘Don’t know what to do’

“I can’t explain it,” 70-year-old Tina Tavares, who was evacuated from her Geyserville home, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

“It’s like you’re in a bad earthquake, the ground is opening up… and you’re seeing it and don’t know what to do.”

PG&E has come under fierce scrutiny after it reported that even though power had already been shut down to nearly 28,000 customers in Sonoma County this week, some high-voltage transmission lines were still operating when the fire broke out.

The same type of lines was responsible for California’s deadliest wildfire ever — last year’s Camp Fire, which killed 86 people.

PG&E, which filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, has been blamed for several other fires in the state in recent years.

Governor Newsom hit out at the company on Friday, saying it had put “profits over the people of California for too long.”

He said it was “infuriating beyond words” that a state such as California had to endure blackouts.

“It’s about dog-eat-dog capitalism meeting climate change,” he said, referring to PG&E. “It’s a story about greed, and they need to be held accountable.”

Further south in California, tens of thousands of residents near Santa Clarita, just north of Los Angeles, evacuated their homes this week as the so-called Tick Fire scorched over 4,000 acres.

The blaze forced the shutdown of all schools in the area as well as a major freeway, creating traffic chaos for commuters.

Some 1,325 firefighters backed by air tankers and helicopters battled the flames close to densely packed communities, with 10,000 structures at threat, officials said.

Six homes were destroyed, though the number was expected to rise.

Wildfires also erupted over the border in Mexico’s Baja California state, where local civil protection authorities said on Friday that three people had been killed and over 150 homes destroyed.

The state’s director of civil protection, Antonio Rosquillas, said that the municipality of Tecate, bordering the United States, was worst hit.

…