Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called on Tuesday for the resettlement of 1 million Syrian refugees in their homeland in “a very short period of time” and accused world powers of moving more quickly to protect Syria’s oil fields than its children.

Erdogan, whose country hosts 3.7 million Syrian refugees, the largest refugee population worldwide, said more than 600,000 should voluntarily join around 371,000 already in a “peace zone” in northern Syria from which Turkey drove Kurdish militia.

“We need to find a formula that will allow the refugees to remain in their homelands and the ones who have already traveled to Turkey to be peacefully returned and resettled in their homelands,” he said.

Addressing the Global Forum on Refugees in Geneva, he said Turkey had spent $40 billion hosting the refugees over nine years and criticized the European Union, which had earmarked nearly 6 billion euros ($6.61 billion), for failing to deliver it all.

“We are still waiting at the threshold of receiving the other 3 billion euros that was pledged,” he said.

Housing and schools could be set up in the northern zone, where some 371,000 Syrian refugees have already returned since Turkish military operations to clear the area of “terrorist organizations”, he said, naming Islamic State as well as the Syrian Kurdish YPG and PKK, Kurdish separatists within Turkey.

“If we can implement the projects that I have talked about at the General Assembly of the United Nations I think the resettlement can easily reach 1 million in a very short period of time,” he added.

Erdogan, taking a thinly veiled swipe at the United States, which moved quickly to protect oil fields in Syria after the retreat of Islamic State, said: “Unfortunately the efforts that were spared to protect the oil fields were not mobilized for the safety and security of the children in Syria.”

…

Burundi’s main opposition alliance in exile, the National Council for Compliance with the Arusha Agreement (CNARED), says it plans to participate in the 2020 national elections.

A recent announcement, at a news conference with CNARED press officer Mames Bansubiyeko, took many politicians by surprise. On Wednesday, the alliance’s executive secretary, Anicet Niyonkuru, arrived in the capital, Bujumbura, from Brussels, Belgium, along with 15 other opposition politicians who have lived in exile the past four years.

Niyonkuru said elections were the only way to improve conditions in Burundi, which has been stuck in political turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for and won a controversial third term in 2015.

Niyonkuru also said that his party, CDP, and his alliance CNARED would not repeat the same mistakes made in 2010 and in 2015 when they boycotted the elections, paving the way for an easy win by the ruling CNDD-FDD party.

“We will participate in elections slated for 2020 whether the political situation improves or not,” he said.

The decision has triggered both criticism and praise from other political organizations. Some politicians argue that the decision is a capitulation from the alliance’s initial tough stance on the president’s third term, which critics still consider unconstitutional.

Professor Liberat Ntibashirakandi of the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium contends that politicians who fled the country after the 2015 crisis should not return until thousands of Burundian refugees now living in camps can also come home, safely.
 
“I personally believe that CNARED members have the right to go back to Burundi, but the only thing I fear are the consequences of such a decision and the impact it may have on Burundian refugees who will feel betrayed by the decision to go back to a country they fled and still fear to go back to,” he told VOA’s Central Africa service. He said opposition politicians in exile have heeded the call by President Nkurunziza for all Burundians to come home and build their nation.

“The return of Burundian refugees in exile — specifically that of Anicet Nionkuru and a dozen other opposition politicians — is in line with the response many politicians and Burundians are giving to the call urging of them to go back,” he said.

Ildephonse Rugema, a political analyst based in London, said that it is too early to judge the choice made by leaders of the CNARED alliance. Rugema said he would be observing to see if the government upholds democratic principles and freedom for all politicians.

“The announced return of politicians could be a good thing for the future of Burundi only if the Burundi government is going to provide freedom and political space to all Burundians wishing to participate in the coming elections, including refugees,” he said.

Ever-changing stance

Since 2015, CNARED has changed its political stance several times. At the beginning of the crisis, CNARED announced it would not hold talks with Nkurunziza’s government until he resigns and accepts a transitional government.

Later, CNARED agreed to participate in the inter-Burundian dialogue under the auspices of regional mediator Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, and international facilitator and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa.

The inter-Burundian dialogue ended in failure three years later when Mkapa announced that he was resigning from his role as a facilitator on February 9, 2019.

During the two past months, CNARED leaders have been between Belgium and Uganda for peace consultations aimed at exploring possibilities of returning to Burundi.

To some extent, the alliance is bending to the hard facts of the political situation. The East African Court of Justice recently issued a ruling that President Nkurunziza did not violate Burundi’s constitution or the East African community’s laws.

The decision is in line with that taken by the Burundi Constitutional Court, right after Nkurunziza’s “third term” was challenged by the opposition.

…

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham met with leaders in Pakistan Monday to discuss “a broader” bilateral relationship, with particular focus on economic cooperation and peace-building efforts in Afghanistan, official said.

In his meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan, Graham, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, hailed Pakistan’s consistent support in the Afghan peace process, Khan’s office said. Officials quoted the U.S. senator as commending Pakistan’s unilateral installation of a fence to secure its long and traditionally porous border with Afghanistan.  

While underscoring the importance of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan for his country, Khan reiterated that Pakistan would continue to play its facilitating role in the Afghan peace and reconciliation process.

Graham also visited Pakistan in January, paving the way for a meeting between Khan and Trump at the White House in July.

Senator Graham later traveled to the neighboring city of Rawalpindi and met with Pakistan’s military chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, at the army headquarters there. The discussions focused on regional security and the Afghan peace process, said an army spokesman.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have long been marred by mistrust and suspicion. They stem from allegations that leaders and fighters of the Afghan Taliban use sanctuaries on Pakistani soil to orchestrate and sustain insurgent activities in Afghanistan with the covert support of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence, or ISI. Islamabad denies the accusations.  

Islamabad maintains close contacts with the Afghan Taliban and takes credit for bringing the insurgents to the negotiating table with the U.S. to help find a political settlement to the Afghan war, which has become America’s longest overseas military engagement.

Taliban leaders’ families reside among nearly three million Afghan refugees Pakistan is still hosting on its soil.

Senator Graham flew to Afghanistan after concluding his meetings in Islamabad. While speaking to reporters in Kabul, he stressed that Pakistan could still do more to accelerate the chance for Afghan peace.

“We all know that if Pakistan applied more pressure on the Taliban it would be enormously helpful to resolving the conflict here” the U.S. senator told reporters in the Afghan capital.

Trump had suspended the U.S.-Taliban dialogue in September and resumed the process a week ago. But the dialogue was again paused by Washington last Thursday after an insurgent attack on the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan that killed two Afghan civilians and wounded scores of others.  

The U.S. has been trying to seal a deal with the Taliban that would bind the insurgents to prevent Afghan soil from being used for terrorist attacks against other countries. The proposed deal would also require the Taliban to reduce violence and engage in intra-Afghan negotiations to end decades of hostilities in the country.  

In return the U.S. and NATO allies would commit to a phased withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan. The insurgent group wants to conclude a troop drawdown agreement with Washington in the presence of international guarantors before entering into Afghan-Taliban peace talks.  

…

Senegal is failing to prevent the abuse of thousands of students at the West African country’s Quranic schools, says Human Rights Watch, despite government promises to stop the exploitation.  The rights group analyzed the Senegalese government’s efforts to address abuses over the last two years and found them to be insufficient and ineffective.   

Modou – not his real name – was just six years old when he says the abuse started.  

After his parents died, the now 12-year-old boy says his uncle sent him to study and live at a Quranic school, where teachers forced him and other students to beg in the streets.

If they didn’t return with adequate money and food, they were restrained for months at a time, he says.

Pointing to the scars on his legs, Modou says if he misbehaved or didn’t recite the Koran properly, the teachers beat him and locked him in chains.  

He says when he was beaten, he’d think of his mother and how, if she were still here, this would have never happened.  But eventually, says Modou, he accepted it and told himself it would pass.

Modou is one of 100,000 Quranic students, known as talibés, who are being exploited and abused in Senegal, says Human Rights Watch in a report released Monday.

And the government, according to the rights group, is doing little to stop it.

The report titled “Senegal: Failure to End Abuses in Quranic Schools,” says students at some schools who refuse to beg are subject to harsh, physical punishments and often suffer from malnutrition and untreated illness.  

Human Rights Watch found that some children have even died from neglect.

The number of teachers arrested for abuse has increased in recent years, but according to Human Rights Watch’s Lauren Seibert, charges are often dropped due to the social influence of Koranic teachers.

“There were a dozen or so cases like this in the past couple years where you can clearly see that the final charge and or the corresponding sentence were reduced,” Seibert said.

Quranic schools are unregulated in Senegal so anyone looking to make money can open a religious school and profit from exploiting their students, says Human Rights Watch.  

Modou was able to escape and find help at Empire des Enfants, a shelter in Dakar that cares for talibé runaways. 

Program coordinator Alassane Diagne says the children often arrive filthy, tired and sick.

He asks why does this problem persist?  It’s because there are people who profit from this disorder, says Diagne.  They don’t need authorization to open their Quranic school, he says, no one is going to verify their credentials, and the government lacks the will to fix it. If you ask, they’ll say it’s because they don’t have the resources, says Diagne, adding that he disagrees. They know where to find the means to fund the things that serve their interests, he says, so, it’s a matter of will.

But not all Quranic school students are mistreated.

Quranic teacher Mouhamed Niass says his nearly 200 students are well cared for at his school in a Dakar suburb and that it is up to the state to stop abuse. The state should also provide funding to religious schools, says Niass, so children aren’t forced to beg.

He says the children need mats, they need mattresses, they need shelter.  They need to be supported like the children at the public schools.  It’s unfortunate that the state doesn’t do it. It causes problems.  The schools need support in order to support the children, because they’re the children of Senegal.

Thierno Diop, an inspector with Senegal’s ministry of education, says the ministry doesn’t inspect religious schools, known as daaras, because it’s not authorized to do so.  

He says this problem goes above the education inspectors.  The inspections are meant to investigate the regulated schools, says Diop, but the daaras, which are constantly moving from one location to the next, can’t be controlled.  It’s because of the bad will of the state that the talibé are still in the streets, he says.  If the state wanted to stop it, adds Diop, they could do it.

A few towns in Senegal have seen some success, says Human Rights Watch’s Seibert, with mayors not only enforcing bans on begging but also shutting down religious schools that were deemed unsafe.  

But enforcement at the local level is rare, she says.

A 2013 bill would have created a regulatory system for Quranic schools by establishing so-called “modern daaras” that teach secular subjects in addition to religious ones.  

But the bill has yet to be passed into law.

And until the national government steps up, the majority of talibés, including Modou, will have to rely on a few, private shelters to protect them from those willing to do them harm.

…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 16 signed amendments to the Administrative Violations Code that allow hefty fines for violating the controversial law on “foreign agents,” which critics say is used to muzzle dissent and discourage the free exchange of ideas and a free press.

According to the changes, individuals who violate the law more than twice in a 12-month period will have to pay a fine of up to 10,000 rubles ($159) for the first violation, and up to 100,000 rubles ($1,590) or 15 days in jail for repeat violations.

Organizations will be obliged to pay a penalty of up to 1 million rubles ($15,900) for the first violation, and up to 5 million rubles ($79,500) for subsequent violations of the law.

The amendments were approved by lawmakers earlier this month.

Two weeks earlier, Putin signed into law a bill that gives authorities the power to label reporters who work for organizations officially listed as foreign agents as foreign agents themselves.

The tag will be applied to individuals who collaborate with foreign media outlets and receive financial or other material support from them.

Russia passed the original foreign agent law — which requires all NGOs receiving foreign funding to register — in 2012 following a major wave of anti-government protests. Putin blamed Western influence and money for those protests.

Critics of the law say it stigmatizes organizations with the designation and would do the same to journalists if they are labeled as foreign agents.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly said on December 4 that the law ratchets up pressure on hundreds of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) correspondents in Russia who provide one of the few remaining alternatives to Kremlin-controlled news.

Last month, Russia’s Justice Ministry listed RFE/RL’s Sever.Realii website as a “foreign agent,” saying the decision was based on conclusions made by the parliamentary committee on an investigation into meddling in the country’s internal affairs.

In December 2017, the Justice Ministry listed Current Time TV, several RFE/RL services and projects, such as its Russian Service, Tatar-Bashkir Service, Sibir.Realii, Idel.Realii, Factograph, Kavkaz Realii, and Krym.Realii, as well as the Voice of America, as “foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent.”

Russian officials have said the law is a “symmetrical response” after Russia’s state-funded channel RT — which U.S. authorities accuse of spreading propaganda — was required to register its U.S. operating unit under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

U.S. officials have said the action is not symmetrical, arguing that the U.S. and Russian laws differ and that Russia uses its “foreign agent” legislation to silence dissent and discourage the free exchange of ideas.

Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based rights group, in 2017 called the law “devastating” for local NGOs, saying more than a dozen had been forced to close their doors.

With reporting by TASS and Meduza.

…

Sharing the cockpit of a helicopter on sizzling tarmac, French and British air force chiefs vowed to pursue the joint fight against jihadists in the heart of the Sahel even as the shadow of Brexit looms over their countries.

“We’ve got a long, fabulous history of working alongside each other, and I don’t expect anything to change anytime soon,” Royal Air Force (RAF) Chief of Air Staff Mike Wigston told AFP on a visit to the city of Gao with French counterpart Philippe Lavigne.

“If anything, we are going to work stronger together,” he said.

Backed by 100 British personnel, France has a 4,500-strong Sahel force supporting national armies struggling with a seven-year-old jihadist revolt.

Thousands of civilians have been killed, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.

The two generals this weekend visited Mali, Niger and Chad, which with Burkina Faso and Mauritania form the so-called G5 Sahel, an anti-terror force.

Wigston said Mali and its neighbors were “the front line of instability.”

The priority of the Sahel deployment “is to stamp out the violent extremism which is making people’s lives a misery,” he said.

“But there is a wider security issue here which affects Europe and the potential for this instability and the conflict in this region to spill into Europe… so we are also here to protect Europe.”

What next?

Britain is set to leave the European Union by January 31 following a general election that gave the pro-Brexit Conservative party a large majority.

France sent troops into Mali in 2013 to help drive back Islamist insurgents who had seized the north of the country.

But attacks have continued since then, and the conflict has since spread to the country’s center as well as to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

France’s Operation Barkhane remains in place to train and support poorly equipped local forces, but at a hefty cost that France’s EU allies have only partially eased.

Britain and France signed a defense cooperation pact in London in 2010 — and both sides have repeatedly said it will not be affected by Brexit.

Since July 2018, London has contributed three heavy-lift Chinook helicopters to France’s Sahel fight. They have clocked up some 1,600 hours of flying time to date, transporting about 11,000 personnel and 800 tonnes of freight.

The twin-rotor helicopters can haul nearly four tonnes of supplies and more than 30 troops at a time — a vital contribution in a region where road access to frontline troops is long and dangerous, with a high risk of mines and militia attacks.

The helicopter support “allows us to devote ourselves to air combat missions while our British comrades provide logistics, refuelling and troop transport,” said Loic, who heads France’s Barkhane air combat group in Mali.

In line with French military security protocol, the colonel can be identified only by his first name.

Without the British help, he said, “we would be forced to assign other helicopters or resort to slower, riskier, road convoys.”

‘With or without Brexit’

Fighters on the ground say the Chinooks have been invaluable.

They were deployed to help out last month when two French army helicopters crashed in Mali, killing all 13 on board and bringing to 41 the number of French troops killed in the Sahel region since 2013.

“For us, it would be a real plus if this [Chinook] capacity remained beyond the summer of 2020,” the current deadline for the British deployment, Colonel Loic said.

For his part, Wigston said: “I absolutely understand how vital this asset is to Barkhane, I will transmit (the message) to the political authorities in London.”

Aside from Barkhane, London has announced the deployment of 250 troops to the Sahel for three years from 2020 as part of the United Nations’ MINUSMA peacekeeping force in Mali.

Lavigne insisted that broader military cooperation would continue “with or without Brexit”.

“Our air forces are quite similar, they have the same operating capacities and expertise, and tomorrow we will continue to work together to bring security,” he said.

…

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, is holding a first-ever forum in an effort to drum up international support for tens of millions of people displaced by war, poverty, repression and other woes. The Global Refugee Forum, taking place December 16-18 in Geneva, will seek to gather leaders from governments, business and civil society to work together to find solutions for the unprecedented number of people — more than 70 million, according to the U.N. — displaced in their home countries or abroad. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more.

…

The full House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on two articles of impeachment approved by the House Judiciary Committee. It is likely that Donald Trump will become the third president in U.S. history to be impeached, with a Senate trial expected next year. Democrats have accused him of abusing the power of the presidency by soliciting Ukraine to investigate one of his chief 2020 Democratic challengers and of blocking Congress to investigate. Trump and his supporters insist he did nothing wrong. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.

…

Leaders of the G5 Sahel nations held summit talks in Niamey Sunday, after the death last week of 71 Niger soldiers in a jihadist attack, calling for closer cooperation and international support in the battle against the Islamist threat.

Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the regional G5 group, called for a minute’s silence for the victims of Tuesday’s attack at a military camp in Inates, near the Mali border.

“These endless attacks carried out by terrorist groups in our region remind us not only of the gravity of the situation, but also the urgency for us to work more closely together,” said Kabore.

“The terrorist threat against the Sahel countries is getting worse,” said Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou, the host of the summit.

The attacks were aimed not just at military targets but increasingly “civilian populations, notably traditional local leaders”.

Earlier four of the five Sahel leaders paid homage at the graves of 71 Niger military personnel killed. Kabore and Issoufou attended along with Mali’s Ibrahim Boubakar Keita, Chad’s Idriss Deby Itno for the short ceremony at an air base in Niamey.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the assault, in which hundreds of jihadists attacked a camp near the border with Mali with shells and mortars.

The attack in Inates in the western Tillaberi region was the deadliest on Niger’s military since Islamist militant violence began to spill over from neighboring Mali in 2015, and dealt a blow to efforts to roll back jihadism in the Sahel.

At Sunday’s ceremony, a large panel painted in the red, white and green of the Niger flag bore the inscription; “rest in peace, worthy and valiant sons of the nation. The Fatherland will be eternally grateful”.

The G5 leaders announced on Saturday they would hold the extraordinary summit in Niger to show solidarity and to “consult” after the large-scale attack. The meeting had originally been due to take place in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou.

Niger has been observing three days of national mourning from Friday to Sunday.

Militant violence has spread across the vast Sahel region, especially in Burkina Faso and Niger, having started when armed Islamists revolted in northern Mali in 2012.

In the last four months, the insurgency has claimed the lives of more than 230 soldiers in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. Last month, 13 French troops were killed in a helicopter collision while hunting jihadists in northern Mali.

Thousands of civilians have also died and more than a million have been forced to flee their homes since the jihadist revolt began.

Analysts note an escalation in the jihadists’ operational tactics, which seem to have become bolder and more complex in recent months.

From hit-and-run raids by a small group of Kalashnikov-armed guerrillas, the jihadists are now carrying out operations that involve hundreds of fighters, armed with mortars and using vehicles for suicide attacks.

Ranged against them are the impoverished armies of Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, plus a 4,500-man French force in the Sahel and the 13,000-man UN force in Mali, MINUSMA.

Tuesday’s attack prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to postpone a meeting scheduled for next week in the southwestern French town of Pau, where he and five presidents from the Sahel were due to discuss security in the region.

The talks will now take place early next year.

The Sahel region of Africa lies to the south of the Sahara Desert and stretches across the breadth of the African continent.

…

Human remains discovered last month at a farm outside the city of Guadalajara have been confirmed as belonging to at least 50 people, authorities in Mexico’s west-central state of Jalisco reported.

Jalisco state prosecutors said recovery work at the farm in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, which began Nov. 22 after the initial discovery, concluded Friday as experts determined there was no more evidence to be gathered from the scene.

The office said in a Saturday statement that there was a “preliminary” indication that the remains corresponded to 50 individuals.

Prosecutors said they had identified 13 people so far — 12 male and one female, all of whom were previously listed as missing.

The state forensic sciences institute will seek to determine the sex of the rest and cause of death.

The investigation continues, with the goal of identifying more victims as well as “those responsible for this crime which gravely harms society,” the statement said.

The state is home to Jalisco New Generation, one of Mexico’s bloodiest and most ruthless drug cartels.

In July, Jalisco prosecutors announced 21 bodies had been found in excavations in the yard of a house near Guadalajara. In May, authorities discovered the remains of at least 34 people at two separate properties in the state.

Such clandestine burial sites are frequently used by criminals to dispose of bodies.

At least 40,000 people have disappeared since Mexico’s drug war began in 2006.

…

Libya’s U.N.-supported government is held hostage by “armed and terrorist militias” in the capital, Tripoli, Egypt’s leader said Sunday.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in televised comments that the Government of National Accord “is not able to have a free and real will because they have been taken hostage by armed and terrorist militias there.”

The GNA is backed by Egypt’s regional rivals Turkey and Qatar and Egypt’s relations with the two countries have been strained since 2013. That’s when Sissi, as defense minister, led the military overthrow of elected but divisive Islamist President Muhammad Morsi amid mass protests against his brief rule. Morsi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Tripoli-based government is supported by a Libyan affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood group, which Cairo designated as a terrorist organization in 2013. Turkey and Qatar are also staunch backers of the Brotherhood.

Sissi said the Libyan conflict has posed a threat to Egypt’s national security because militants and weapons spill over the border into Egypt. He said it had been a priority for Egypt to directly interfere in Libya “but did not take this step to maintain the relationship and brotherhood with the Libyan people.”

There was no immediate comment from the Tripoli authorities.

Last week, the Egyptian president said a comprehensive political solution for the Libyan conflict would be achieved in the coming months that would put an end to a “terrorist hotbed that pushes militants and weapons to (Libya’s) neighboring countries including Egypt.”

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Fighting Stalls After ‘Final Assault’ on Tripoli Fails to End War

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar has announced plans to overrun the western capital several times, but a stalemate continues in the suburbs

Libya descended into chaos after the 2011 civil war that ousted and killed long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The turmoil that followed Gadhafi’s death enabled the rise of Islamic militants. The country was divided into two parts, a weak U.N.-supported administration in Tripoli and a rival government in the east aligned with the self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Gen. Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar, who has modeled himself after Sissi, has for months been fighting an array of militias allied with the Tripoli authorities to wrest control of the capital. He is backed by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, as well as France and Russia, while the Tripoli-based government receives aid from Turkey, Qatar and Italy.

On Saturday, Egypt’s parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Al said Egypt recognizes the Libyan legislature as “the sole legitimate body representing the Libyan people,” according to the MENA news agency. He said the Egyptian parliament backs Haftar’s forces in their “fighting against terrorism.”

Libya’s parliament is affiliated with the government based in the country’s east and has opposed the U.N.-supported government in Tripoli.

Abdel-Al did not say whether the government of Sissi decided to rescind its recognition of the Tripoli-based government. Multiple calls to the country’s presidency and Foreign Ministry went unanswered.

The Libyan commander Thursday declared a “final” and decisive battle for Tripoli, unleashing heavy clashes on the southern reaches of the city in the past two days against the Tripoli-based militias.

Sissi’s comments came amid heightened tensions with Turkey after a controversial maritime border agreement it signed last month with Libya’s U.N.-based government.

Greece, Egypt and Cyprus, which lie between the two geographically, have denounced the deal as being contrary to international law, and Greece expelled the Libyan ambassador last week over the issue.

…

Iran’s telecommunications minister announced on Sunday that the country has defused a second cyberattack in less than a week, this time “aimed at spying on government intelligence.”

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said in a short Twitter post that the alleged attack was “identified and defused by a cybersecurity shield,” and that the ”spying servers were identified and the hackers were also tracked.” He did not elaborate.

Last Wednesday, Jahromi told the official IRNA news agency that a “massive” and “governmental” cyberattack also targeted Iran’s electronic infrastructure. He provided no specifics on the purported attack except to say it was also defused and that a report would be released.

On Tuesday, the minister dismissed reports of hacking operations targeting Iranian banks, including local media reports that accounts of millions of customers of Iranian banks were hacked.

This is not the first time Iran says it has defused a cyberattack, though it has disconnected much of its infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus, widely believed to be a joint U.S.-Israeli creation, disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country’s nuclear sites in the late 2000s.

In June, Washington officials said that U.S. military cyber forces launched a strike against Iranian military computer systems as President Donald Trump backed away from plans for a more conventional military strike in response to Iran’s downing of a U.S. surveillance drone in the strategic Persian Gulf.

Tensions have escalated between the U.S. and Iran ever since President Donald Trump withdrew America last year from the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and began a policy of “maximum pressure.” Iran has since been hit by multiple rounds of sanctions.

…

Southeast Asian environmental activists  – including young counterparts to teenage activist and Time magazine person of the year Greta Thunberg – are concerned they are not getting the attention that the climate emergency deserves, complaining that the region’s authorities are leaving this month’s climate negotiations in Madrid, also known as COP25, without committing to new climate action plans for 2020, as other nations have done.

The negotiations are meant to find a way to carry out the plans, agreed to in Paris in 2015, to cut global greenhouse gas emissions. However they have broken down as negotiators cannot agree on how much rich nations should spend to support poor nations to enact the plans. Many Southeast Asian governments want such supporting funds but their constituents also say the governments need to promise more dramatic emissions decreases.

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Disagreement Drags UN Climate Talks Into Second Extra Day

Among main issues still being discussed are rules for international carbon markets and a system for channeling money to help poor countries cope with economic impact of climate change

“The situation is critical: our youth are mobilizing and striking because they know that there are only 10 years left for governments to act for them to have a decent future,” Sarah Elago, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, said. “Why is it that children are doing more than the governing adults?”  

Like the Philippines, almost every nation in Southeast Asia has islands or long coastlines, making them particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Consequently, the region’s activists are particularly concerned that their governments did not offer forceful action plans at COP25, formally known as the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which was supposed to conclude on December 13 but continues as of press time.

Activists have exerted pressure on regional governments to offer a climate action plan but those governments say they are doing their best, as developing countries that did not create the problem.

Some say there is little point in offering action when there is none from the United States, the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions until being recently overtaken by China. Developing nations around the Asia Pacific and elsewhere are paying the price because of polluting industrialized nations, according to Basav Sen, climate policy director at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies.

“Our country, as a matter of policy, prioritizes enriching its oil and gas industry over preserving the ecosystems upon which billions of people rely for their food, water and homes,” he wrote in an op-ed for the newspaper USA Today.

He recommended “responsible world governments could publicly shame the U.S. government for its climate policies.”
Southeast Asia must do more, however, Abel Da Silva, a member East Timor’s National Parliament, said.

“We cannot stay on the sidelines of this catastrophe,” said Da Silva. “Southeast Asia is contributing to climate change through its reliance on coal, its deforestation and haze crisis, and its lack of ambition in its climate action plans.”

The region has to “reverse this shameful historical trend and right our past wrongs on the climate,” he said.

Nations generally submit action plans on how they will decrease greenhouse gas emissions at the annual U.N. climate conference. Although nations do other things to deal with climate change, such as constructing walls against rising water levels, emissions are the main issue.

Laos, which is trying to develop hydropower dams as a main industry, is the only Southeast Asian nation to set a goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050 – it is also the only nation in the region that is landlocked. 
 

…

A bus carrying Hindu pilgrims drove off a highway and crashed in Nepal on Sunday, killing 14 people and injuring 18, police said.

The pilgrims were returning home after visiting the famed Hindu Kalinchowk Bhagwati temple when the bus veered off the highway about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the capital, Kathmandu, police official Prajwal Maharjan said.

Rescuers were able to pull out the injured passengers and take them to nearby hospitals for treatment.

Maharjan said police were investigating the cause of the crash but the roads were slippery because of winter rain. The visibility was also poor due to morning fog..

There was also a possibility of mechanical failure and it appeared the bus was not from the area and the driver might not be familiar with the road conditions.

Bus accidents in Nepal, which is mostly covered by mountains, are generally blamed on poorly maintained vehicles and roads.

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

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

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

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What’s In the US-China Trade Deal?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Little chance of succeeding’

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

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

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

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

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

Monkey selfie

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

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

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

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

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

Alternatives

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New generation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He also won their support for the protest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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First Phase of US-China Trade Deal Announced

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

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

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

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Trump Touts USMCA in Meeting with Canada PM Trudeau 

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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