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

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

Options are few

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

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

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

…

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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US Watching North Korea for ‘Christmas Gift’ Missile Launch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Teaser Description

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

Mixed messages?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Warmbier’s Parents Praise Bill Seeking Further North Korea Sanctions 

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

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

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

Stalled talks

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

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

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

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

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

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

North Korea has not publicly responded to those requests.

…

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

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

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Australia’s NSW Braces for Catastrophic Fire Conditions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Agitation of domestic US policy

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cooperation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Criticism for Macron

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

An earthquake shook some buildings in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kashmir state in India on Friday, witnesses said.

The magnitude 6.1 quake was centered in mountainous Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan, at a depth of 210 km (130 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Officials in Kabul said they were assessing damage in areas around the sparsely populated epicenter.

In Pakistan, tremors shook furniture and power cable poles.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Waseem Ahmad, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority in Islamabad, estimated the quake to be about 6.4 magnitude.

“I was with my kids at a badminton court when we felt strong jolts,” said Nusrat Jabeen in Pakistan’s capital. “It was very scary. We felt everything was shaking. We ran out for safety.”

Tremors were also felt in India’s mountainous Kashmir state where people rushed out of their homes and offices.

The Indian subcontinent has suffered some of the largest earthquakes in the world.
 

…

French President Emmanuel Macron will be sharing a holiday meal Friday with French forces stationed in Ivory Coast as he begins his visit to West Africa where he also plans to concentrate over the weekend on how to confront the rising jihadist violence imperiling the region. 

The trip is providing a respite for Macron from the ongoing strikes back home over his plans to raise the retirement age, which have paralyzed transport ahead of the holiday season.

France has some 4,500 military personnel stationed throughout West and Central Africa, where Islamic extremist groups have carried out unprecedented attacks this year against local armies in Mali and Niger. Attacks are multiplying, too, in Burkina Faso.

The security situation Africa’s Sahel region is deteriorating by the day, said Ivorian political analyst Geoffroy Julien Kouao. Ivory Coast is not only home to a French military base, it is also the region’s economic powerhouse and it came under attack in 2016 when al-Qaida-linked militants sprayed gunfire at a popular beach, killing 19 people.

“Let’s not forget that Ivory Coast shares 800 kilometers (500 miles) of border with Mali and Burkina Faso so the military component dominates this visit by the French president,” Kouao said.

Macron was to meet with leaders of the Sahel countries in France earlier this month but the meeting was postponed when an Islamic State affiliate carried out the deadliest assault on Niger’s military in recent memory. Officials said 71 soldiers were killed when their army camp was overpowered near the volatile border with Mali.

During his first stop Friday evening at a French military base, Macron plans to meet with those on the front lines of the fight including some commandos who were involved in the operation in Mali during which 13 soldiers died in a helicopter collision.

On Saturday, Macron plans to help launch the International Academy to Fight Terrorism, which will focus on regional strategies and training those involved in the fight against extremism, according to the French presidency.

He also will pay a visit to Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou in Niamey on Sunday before returning to France, where the summit with West African leaders has been rescheduled to mid-January.

Macron’s high-profile visit to Ivory Coast’s commercial capital also comes ahead of pivotal elections scheduled for October 2020. The former colonizer has substantial economic interests there, and past outbreaks of violence have seen French expatriate civilians targeted.

Ivorians remain scarred by the post-election bloodshed in 2010-2011 that left more than 3,000 people dead after then-President Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede defeat to Alassane Ouattara, who ultimately prevailed and then was reelected in 2015.

Initially Ouattara was limited to two terms, meaning the 2020 election would be a wide open field. Ivorian elections, though, have proven to be anything but predictable: Ouattara recently has given signs he might consider a third bid if his nemesis gets involved.

Gbagbo, who was accused of unleashing violence to cling to office after losing the runoff vote, remains popular among some Ivorians and it’s unclear what kind of influence he could have. He has been acquitted of criminal charges at The Hague in connection with the violence, though International Criminal Court prosecutors have launched an appeal.

Before that electoral crisis Ivory Coast already had suffered through a civil war that began in 2002 and left the country with a rebel-controlled north and a loyalist south until a 2007 peace deal. During the crisis a 2004 bombing killed nine French soldiers and an American scientist who had sought refuge at the base amidst the fighting.

On Sunday, Macron will pay tribute to the victims of a 2004 bombing during Ivory Coast’s civil war this weekend in Bouake. A trial is to begin in France next year, 15 years after the attack that killed nine French soldiers and an American civilian who had sought shelter at the French army base. 

The Belarussian pilot and two Ivorian co-pilots who carried out the bombings are accused of murder and attempted murder, but will not be there because the international arrest warrants were never carried out.

The American victim, Robert Carsky, 49, grew up in Syracuse, N.Y. and spent most of his adult life working in West Africa as a soil scientist and crop researcher. A representative from the U.S. Embassy in Ivory Coast is expected to join Macron and his entourage at the site.

“These events took place in a context of war and relations between Paris and Abidjan were abysmal at that time,” Kouao said. “Macron and Ouattara want to erase this difficult moment and show that the two countries have excellent relations today.”

…

Boeing’s new Starliner capsule rocketed toward the International Space Station on its first test flight Friday, a crucial dress rehearsal for next year’s inaugural launch with astronauts.

The Starliner carried Christmas treats and presents for the six space station residents, hundreds of tree seeds similar to those that flew to the moon on Apollo 14, the original air travel ID card belonging to Boeing’s founder and a mannequin named Rosie in the commander’s seat.

The test dummy — named after the bicep-flexing riveter of World War II — wore a red polka dot hair bandanna just like the original Rosie and Boeing’s custom royal blue spacesuit.

“She’s pretty tough. She’s going to take the hit for us,” said NASA’s Mike Fincke, one of three astronauts who will fly on the next Starliner and, as test pilots, take the hit for future crews.

As the astronauts watched from nearby control centers, a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying the capsule blasted off just before sunrise from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The rocket was visible for at least five minutes, its white contrail a brilliant contrast against the dark sky. Thousands of spectators jammed the area, eager to witness Starliner’s premiere flight.

It was a one-day trip to the orbiting lab, putting the spacecraft on track for a docking Saturday morning.

This was Boeing’s chance to catch up with SpaceX, NASA’s other commercial crew provider that completed a similar demonstration last March. SpaceX has one last hurdle — a launch abort test — before carrying two NASA astronauts in its Dragon capsule, possibly by spring.

The U.S. needs competition like this, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Thursday, to drive down launch costs, boost innovation and open space up to more people. 

“We’re moving into a new era,” he said.

The space agency handed over station deliveries to private businesses, first cargo and then crews, in order to focus on getting astronauts back to the moon and on to Mars. 

Commercial cargo ships took flight in 2012, starting with SpaceX. Crew capsules were more complicated to design and build, and parachute and other technical problems pushed the first launches from 2017 to now next year.

It’s been nearly nine years since NASA astronauts have launched from the U.S. The last time was July 8, 2011, when Atlantis — now on display at Kennedy Space Center — made the final space shuttle flight. 

Since then, NASA astronauts have traveled to and from the space station via Kazakhstan, courtesy of the Russian Space Agency. The Soyuz rides have cost NASA up to $86 million apiece.

“We’re back with a vengeance now,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said from Kennedy, where crowds gathered well before dawn.

Chris Ferguson commanded that last shuttle mission. Now a test pilot astronaut for Boeing and one of the Starliner’s key developers, he’s assigned to the first Starliner crew with Fincke and NASA astronaut Nicole Mann. A successful Starliner demo could see them launching by summer.

“This is an incredibly unique opportunity,” Ferguson said on the eve of launch.

Mann juggled a mix of emotions: excitement, pride, stress and amazement.

“Really overwhelmed, but in a good way and really the best of ways,” she said.

Built to accommodate seven, the white capsule with black and blue trim will typically carry four or five people. It’s 16.5 feet (5 meters) tall with its attached service module and 15 feet (4.5 meters) in diameter. 

Every Starliner system will be tested during the eight-day mission, from the vibrations and stresses of liftoff to the Dec. 28 touchdown at the Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Parachutes and air bags will soften the capsule’s landing. Even the test dummy is packed with sensors.

Bridenstine said he’s “very comfortable” with Boeing, despite the prolonged grounding of the company’s 737 Max jets. The spacecraft and aircraft sides of the company are different, he noted. Boeing has long been involved in NASA’s human spacecraft program, from Project Mercury to the shuttle and station programs. 

Boeing began preliminary work on the Starliner in 2010, a year before Atlantis soared for the last time. 

In 2014, Boeing and SpaceX made the final cut. Boeing got more than $4 billion to develop and fly the Starliner, while SpaceX got $2.6 billion for a crew-version of its Dragon cargo ship.

NASA wants to make sure every reasonable precaution is taken with the capsules, designed to be safer than NASA’s old shuttles.

“We’re talking about human spaceflight,” Bridenstine cautioned. “It’s not for the faint of heart. It never has been, and it’s never going to be.”

…

An Indonesian prosecutor charged five men and a woman with treason on Thursday, accusing them of organizing a protest in Jakarta demanding independence for the easternmost province of Papua.

The peaceful protest of about 100 people had been held outside the presidential palace and military headquarters on Aug. 28 and followed a period of unrest in Papua.

Prosecutor P.  Permana read out the indictment in the Central Jakarta court saying the six defendants had organized a rally demanding the Indonesian government allow a vote in Papua to let it separate from Indonesia One of the six waved the “Morning Star” flag, while dancing and singing, the indictment said. The flag is a banned symbol of Papuan nationhood.

“The action by the defendants is treason with the aim to separate Papua province and West Papua province from the unitary state of Indonesia,” said Permana.

There was a small protest outside the court on Thursday held by pro-Papuan activists calling for the release of the six.

The six could face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty.

A hearing for the defense is due on Jan. 2, but the six have said it was their constitutional right to participate in the rally.

Resource-rich Papua was a Dutch colony that was incorporated into Indonesia after a controversial U.N.-backed referendum in 1969. The region has since endured decades of mostly low-level separatist conflict.

…

One day after U.S. President Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will not send the articles of impeachment to the Senate or choose impeachment prosecutors until the Senate agrees on rules governing the process.

“When we see what they have, we’ll know who and how many to send over,” Pelosi said at her weekly Capitol Hill news conference.
 
The Senate is not authorized to begin a trial until it receives the articles from the House. 

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US House Impeaches President Trump 

On a near party-line vote, Democrat-controlled House approves two articles of impeachment against Trump, a Republican, making him only third US president to be impeached in country’s 243-year history 

On a near straight party line vote, the Democrat-controlled House approved two articles of impeachment against Trump, a Republican, making him only the third U.S. president to be impeached in the country’s 243-year history. He is accused of abusing the power of the presidency to benefit himself politically and then obstructing congressional efforts to investigate his actions.

Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday that Pelosi is afraid to send the Democrats’ “shoddy work product to the Senate” after declaring the Democratic Party-led impeachment hearings an “unfair” process that has created “a toxic new precedent that will echo well into the future.”

A trial in the Senate, which McConnell has said would be a top priority in January, is likely to end with Trump’s acquittal by the majority-Republican body. 

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Nine Questions About the Senate Impeachment Trial

The Senate operates under its own set of rules established by members, which means they can also change the rules if the majority chooses

When asked about the prospects of a fair Senate trial as mandated by the Constitution, Pelosi took aim at both Trump and McConnell, stating she does not think the Founding Fathers ever “suspected that we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the Senate at the same time.”

On Twitter, Trump charged that “Pelosi feels her phony impeachment HOAX is so pathetic she is afraid to present it to the Senate, which can set a date and put this whole SCAM into default if they refuse to show up!”

Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch ally of Trump, tweeted early Thursday that Pelosi’s failure to send the articles to the Senate “would be a breathtaking violation of the Constitution, an act of political cowardice, and fundamentally unfair” to Trump. 

The White House released a statement shortly after the vote to impeach Trump on Wednesday, calling it a “sham impeachment” and the culmination of “one of the most shameful political episodes in the history of our Nation.”

The statement added Trump “is prepared for the next steps and confident that he will be fully exonerated.”

The House debated the merits of Trump’s impeachment for more than six hours before voting. Democratic lawmakers pointedly advanced the case for Trump’s impeachment. They alternated with Republicans, who said Trump had done nothing wrong in his months-long push to get Ukraine to investigate one of Trump’s chief 2020 Democratic challengers, former vice president Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s lucrative work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election that Trump won to undermine his campaign.

Trump made the appeal for the Biden investigations directly to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a late July phone call at a time when he was temporarily withholding $391 million in military aid Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Trump eventually released the money in September without Zelenskiy launching the Biden investigations, proof, Republicans said during the House floor debate, that Trump had not engaged in a reciprocal quid pro quo deal, the military aid in exchange for the Biden investigations.

One of the articles of impeachment approved by the House accused Trump of abusing the power of the presidency by soliciting a foreign government, Ukraine, to undertake the investigations to help him run against Biden, who is leading national polls of Democrats in the race for the party’s presidential nomination to oppose Trump next year.

In the 230-197 vote on Article I, all but two Democrats voted for approval, and all Republicans voted against it.

The second impeachment allegation said Trump obstructed Congress by withholding thousands of Ukraine-related documents from House impeachment investigators and then blocking key officials in his administration from testifying during weeks of hearings Democratic-controlled committees conducted into Trump’s actions related to Ukraine.

In the 229-198 vote on Article II, all but three Democrats voted for approval, and all Republicans voted against it.

The two other U.S. presidents who have been impeached were Andrew Johnson in the mid-19th century and Bill Clinton two decades ago. Both were acquitted in the Senate and remained in office.

The impeachment votes were held about the same time Trump began to speak at a campaign rally in the Midwestern state of Michigan, one of the pivotal states he won in the 2016 election.

“This lawless, partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the Democrat Party. Have you seen my polls in the last four weeks?” he said at the rally.

Trump has on countless occasions described his late July call with Zelenskiy as “perfect,” when he asked him to “do us a favor,” to investigate the Bidens and Ukraine’s purported role in the 2016 election. As the impeachment controversy mounted,Trump has subsequently claimed the “us” in his request to Zelenskiy referred not to him personally but to the United States.

…

The son of Russian spies who was born in Canada and was stripped of his citizenship after his parents were arrested for espionage in the United States is a Canadian national, the country’s top court ruled  Thursday.

Canada’s Supreme Court unanimously upheld an earlier federal court ruling that said a 2014 administrative decision to strip Alexander Vavilov of his citizenship was unreasonable. Vavilov was born in Canada in 1994, as was his brother, Timothy, four years earlier.

“The judges said that Mr. Vavilov was a Canadian citizen,” according to the ruling.

The hit TV series The Americans was based partly on the story of Vavilov’s family. His parents came to Canada in the 1980s under deep cover and assumed names, with the mission to immerse themselves in Western society. The family later moved to Boston, where Vavilov’s parents were arrested in 2010 and charged with spying.

Vavilov’s parents returned to Russia in a spy swap. Both brothers were also sent to Russia. Alexander said he had no idea that his parents were spies until they were arrested.

Children born in Canada normally automatically become Canadian citizens, but the country’s Registrar of Citizenship said Alexander was an exception because his parents had been like diplomats — representatives or employees of a foreign government.

The Supreme Court upheld a previous federal appeals court ruling saying that Vavilov’s parents did not enjoy the “privileges and immunities” of diplomats and so the exception could not be applied to their son.

Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova used the aliases Donald Heathfield and Tracey Ann Foley — names lifted from two Canadian children who had died in infancy. They later admitted their real names to U.S. authorities.

…

Warring parties in Yemen’s Taiz governorate have exchanged dozens of prisoners in a locally-mediated swap, the Iran-aligned Houthi movement and government sources said Thursday.

The local deal coincided with renewed diplomatic efforts by the United Nations this week and as Saudi Arabia carries out informal talks with the Houthis about a possible cease-fire.

Seventy-five detainees affiliated with the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi were released, local government sources said. In exchange, 60 people affiliated with the Houthi group were also released, according to Houthi-run al-Masirah TV and the local sources.

Yemen has been mired in almost five years of conflict since the Houthi movement ousted Hadi’s government from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014, prompting intervention in 2015 by a Saudi-led military coalition in a bid to restore his government.

Yemen’s third city of Taiz is a volatile front line. A U.N.-mediated deal reached in Stockholm last December aimed to set up a committee to establish humanitarian corridors to the city, but no progress has been made so far.

U.N. efforts

The United Nations has been trying to re-launch political negotiations to end the war, which has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed millions to the brink of famine.

A year on from Stockholm, U.N. Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths visited officials in Yemen and Riyadh this week.

U.N.-mediated talks between warring parties in the strategic port city of Hodeidah also took place for the first time since September. The United Nations has sought to implement a local truce and troop withdrawal from the port agreed at Stockholm.

Meanwhile, Riyadh has been holding informal talks with the Houthis since late September about a wider cease-fire, sources familiar with the discussions have said, as it seeks to exit an unpopular war after its main coalition partner the United Arab Emirates withdrew troops earlier this year.
 

…

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says it is “appalled” by a Tehran court’s decision to uphold prison sentences for four journalists from the Gam (Step) online magazine.

However, the appeals court in Tehran reduced the length of the jail terms from 18 to five years for each journalist — Amirhossein Mohammadifard, Sanaz Allahyari, Amir Amirgholi, and Assal Mohammadi — for a combined total of 20 years, the Paris-based media freedom watchdog said on December 18.

The initial sentences were passed by a Tehran revolutionary court in September.

The journalists were arrested a year ago on what Amnesty International called “spurious” national security charges related to their reporting on workers’ rights protests in Khuzestan Province over grievances concerning unpaid wages and poor conditions.

“Their prosecution forms part of a wider crackdown on labor rights activists and journalists covering the protests at Haft Tappeh [sugar] company in late 2018,” the London-based group said in July. 

RSF said on December 18 that the same appeals court in Tehran also upheld a prison sentence for Marzieh Amiri, a journalist for the reformist Shargh newspaper, but reduced her sentence from 10 years in prison and 148 lashes to five years in prison.

Amiri was arrested in May after covering a demonstration outside parliament in the capital.

She and the other four journalists were released in October pending the decision by the appeals court, RSF said.

The rulings come as Iran is facing international condemnation for its crackdown on the protests that rocked more than 100 cities across the country last month that were triggered by gasoline-price hikes and a rationing plan.

Amnesty International this week said at least 304 people had been killed during the several days of protests and that the authorities were continuing to carry out a “vicious crackdown,” arresting thousands of protesters, journalists, human rights defenders, and students to “stop them from speaking out about Iran’s ruthless repression.”

Iranian officials have dismissed Amnesty’s death toll figures as “lies.”

…

Citing 400 years of tradition, Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vasquez on Wednesday challenged the federal ban on cockfighting.

Vasquez signed a bill that seeks to sidestep the ban signed into law by President Donald Trump last year that was set to take effect on Friday.

“This measure is not meant to be a confrontation,” she said. “If they [the federal government] understand this as a conflict, then we ask them to come talk to us. Let’s talk it through. This is an industry that represents the income for thousands of families, and we have to take them into consideration.”

Puerto Rican officials say cockfighting generates an estimated $18 million a year and employs 27,000 people. There are 71 licensed cockpits across the island that are regulated by the Department of Sports and Recreation.

The blood sport was introduced to the island by Spanish colonists 400 years ago. The ban “is an abuse the U.S. government is committing against our culture,” said  cock owner Carlos Junior Aponte Silva.

Animal rights activists say cockfighting is cruel. Owners attach spikes to the birds’ legs to cause more damage to opponents during the 12-minute bouts. Cock deaths during a fight or shortly afterward are common.

Vasquez expects the law she signed to be challenged.

“Obviously, the final decision belongs to the court,” she said.

…

Tens of thousands of hectares of farmland is being destroyed as desert locusts swarm over Somalia, in the worst invasion in 25 years. 
 
The locusts have damaged about 70,000 hectares of farmland in Somalia and neighboring eastern Ethiopia, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Wednesday. 
 
VOA’s Harun Maruf tweeted dramatic videos of the insects flying over the central Somali town of Adado:

Video: Huge locust swarm over Adado town today. Somalia faces the worst Desert Locust outbreak in over 25 years according to @FAOSomaliapic.twitter.com/2ZuI0vEhDI

— Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) December 18, 2019

The FAO said the locust invasion was worse than had been predicted and was likely to spread to other nations in the Horn of Africa, including Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan and Sudan. 
 
“As the weather seems favorable for the locust breeding, there is a high probability that the locust will continue to breed until March-April 2020,” FAO regional coordinator David Phiri said. 
 
“I was supposed to get up to 3,000 kilograms of teff [a cereal grass] and maize this year, but because of desert locusts and untimely rains, I only got 400 kilograms of maize and expect only 200 kilograms of teff,” Ethiopian farmer Ashagre Molla, 66, said. “This is not even enough to feed my family.” 

…

In mid-June, Abdulrasoul Ibrahim Omar, 38, hired smugglers to transport him, his pregnant wife and his two small daughters out of Libya. 
 
Speaking over WhatsApp during the journey, he would not say where he was going. 
 
“No safety in Libya. I fled to … ,” he texted, not completing the thought. 

Before arriving in Libya, Omar fled genocide in Darfur and Sudan, and survived one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes.   
 
Almost all the people traveling to Libya’s coast in hopes of making it to Europe face beatings, rapes, torture or kidnappings, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Smugglers demand heavy ransoms from the usually impoverished families in exchange for their loved ones’ lives. 
 
“[They are] suffering some of the gravest human rights abuses in the world today,” said Charlie Yaxley, a UNHCR spokesperson in Geneva. “We don’t know how many people are dying on the way.” 
 
At the U.N. Refugee Conference on Wednesday, Libya’s permanent representative to the U.N. office at Geneva said the world’s wealthy nations should take more preventive actions for people feeling the need to flee their countries in the first place. 
 
“Prior to official refugee status, refugees face terrible tragedies through migration and displacement,” said Ambassador Tamim M. Baiou. “As a transit country, Libya is deeply familiar with the first two phases.” 
 
Danger in Libya 
 
Despite the danger of traveling, staying in Libya was not an option, Omar said. 
 
In April, his neighborhood was bombed in the war between the country’s eastern and western governments. He and his neighbors took up residence in a makeshift camp inside a schoolhouse in Tripoli.

Months later, as Omar and his family traveled out of the country, bombs hit a detention center holding refugees and migrants on the other side of town, killing more than 50 people. Most had been arrested after the boats they were trying to take to Europe wrecked in the Mediterranean Sea. 
  
The victims were among the thousands of refugees and migrants detained in Libya above the objections of the UNHCR, which calls the arrests arbitrary and advocates for the release of all the detainees. 
 
Omar’s teenage cousin, Abdullah, was a detainee in the center and survived the blast. 
  
As he searched for a safe place, Omar continued to text. He said the trip was too dangerous to reveal his route.   
   
“When I reach wherever, I will [send] you my location,” he texted. 
  
Dreams of resettlement 
  
Before he left Libya, Omar, his family and his neighbors described their journey into the country. Many wept as they told their stories in a crowded room in the schoolhouse. 
  
One woman was raped by a smuggler. At the time, she was pregnant, and miscarried after the attack. She later found she was pregnant with her rapist’s child. Her husband abandoned her, apparently ashamed.   
   
Another woman pointed out scars on her teenage son’s arms. He had been kidnapped and beaten until she gathered enough money to pay the ransom.   
   
Once in Libya, the families were among the luckier travelers, taking odd jobs and apartments while they continued efforts to get to Europe or other Western countries. Like Omar, they all wanted to be resettled by the U.N., but the wait is long, and there is no guarantee. 

Only 5% of the people determined to be eligible for resettlement are placed, according to Yaxley, because wealthier countries offer too few spaces. 
 
“It’s incredibly challenging,” he said. 
   
The families all said they would not return to their homes and would not stay in Libya. They said that if they were not resettled, they would try to get to Europe on a smuggler’s boat. So far this year, more than 1,200 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, according to the International Organization for Migration. 
  
“We follow the media, and we see that many ships collapse,” Omar said. “The only thing I’m looking for is freedom.” 

On the move   
   
As the war continued in Libya, the schoolhouse where Omar’s neighbors were staying was evacuated. The residents took shelter in a parking lot.   
   
But Omar and his family found shelter in Tunisia. To get there, the family hired smugglers and walked 25 kilometers through the desert. Mahasen, Omar’s wife, was six months pregnant and exhausted when they arrived. 
  
Now, he is still waiting for resettlement, despite being told months ago that his family was eligible. 
 
“It’s shame from the world to keep silent as we die,” he said in a text on Wednesday.      

His new son, Ibrahim, was born in September and is now also waiting to be resettled. 
  
“We are ordinary people,” Omar said. “Only persecuted and fled from war.” 

…