Month: December 2019

A team of Mexican entrepreneurs were the winners of the 2019 Hult Prize — a $1 million award presented each year to aspiring young visionaries from around the world who are creating businesses with a positive social impact.

This year’s contest focused on global youth unemployment and attracted more than 250,000 participants from around the world.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who’s been a major supporter of the Hult Prize since its inception in 2009, announced the winners.

“These young people are our best hope for the future,” Clinton said. “Look at them! They are from all over the world. They are happy to be together. They think what they have in common is more important then what divides them.”

Rutopia

Rutopia, the winner, connects tourists with indigenous communities in rural areas of Mexico.

“It feels great! We are very excited and we cannot wait to come back to Mexico and share these with all the other people in Rutopia,” said Emiliano Iturriaga, who accepted the award along with three of his team members.

He also said it was a win for all the people they work with in the local communities.

Iturriaga describes Rutopia as an engine that empowers indigenous youth to design and sell trips online, while making it easy for travelers to find authentic cultural experiences.

“We’re turning unemployed youth into successful touristic entrepreneurs in their own villages,” he said.

The company is now collaborating with Airbnb to create eco-friendly, immersive travel experiences.

Business as a force for good

Ahmad Ashkar founded the Hult Prize Foundation in 2009, to inspire students on university campuses around the world to think differently about business, he said.

“I was an investment banker, the child of refugees, who felt unfulfilled with their own life and my contribution to society,” he said. “So I felt young people had to choose: be good or be cold-hearted investment bankers. So I created The Hult Prize as a platform to equip them, arm them, and then deploy capital to these young people and their ideas; capital that can help them change the world.”

A social entrepreneur himself, Ashkar feels he’s doing his part toward that goal. He’s the founder of Falafel Inc., a Palestinian-inspired small-food business in Washington, D.C., with a cause.

“With every dollar you spend in our restaurant, we help feed, employ and empower refugees,” Ashkar said. “I’m proud to say we fed more than a quarter-million refugees since launching Falafel Inc. around the world.”

Diego’s story

Diego Sandoval first heard about the Hult Prize when he was a sophomore in high school. He then became involved with the program during his sophomore year of university at NYU Abu Dhabi, bringing the Hult Prize competition to his university campus.

“That led to a series of internships with the Hult Prize accelerator program, where the best 50 teams get together over six weeks to compete and build their businesses,” he said.

“The accelerator program brings in 200 students from around the world from over 30 countries,” Sandoval said. “And I had the privilege of sitting down with every participant, every competitor, to study the social networks behind their business growth. And so as part of the Social Research branch of network science, I was able to investigate that social capital that we have embedded in the Hult Prize ecosystem.”

The experience gave him the opportunity to understand the message of what the Hult Prize stands for he said. “It really aims to inspire students to change the trajectory of their careers from a traditional, conventional path to a more entrepreneurial and more passion-driven, mission-driven career.”

Winners circle

Previous Hult Prize winners have included people like Mohammed Ashour, co-founder and CEO of the Aspire Food Group, which harvests crickets as a source of protein to feed the world.

And a winning start-up team from India called NanoHealth, devoted to bringing health care to India’s urban slums.

“We have companies in agriculture, in fishing, in youth unemployment, from Palestine to Zimbabwe,” Ashkar, of the Hult Foundation, said. “We’ve got over 25,000 students who organize programs across a hundred countries and 2,500 staff and volunteers.

“It’s just been a humbling experience to build this movement,” he said.

Hult Prize 2020

The theme for the 2020 Hult Prize is the issue of climate change.

For would-be contestants, Rutopia’s Iturriaga offered advice: “The important thing is that you really care about the problem. You don’t build a business and then make the impact, you first see what’s your passion, what do you want to solve in the world, and then you build a business around it.”

Tina Trinh contributed to this report from New York City.

…

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

Options are few

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

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

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

…

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

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

…

Covering an anti-government protest in Hong Kong nearly two months ago, Indonesian journalist Veby Mega Indah felt a sharp sting in her right eyeball.

“I was doing livestreaming, and before I realized what happened, I heard two bangs — two loud bangs — and then I saw white smoke from the stairs where the police were,” she said.

She fell backward, and another journalist lunged to her aid.

“She hugged me and we collapsed together to the floor,” Indah, 39, recently told VOA’s Mandarin service. “Thanks to her, I [didn’t] get brain injury or something. … We crashed directly onto the hard floor and she kept hugging me. I couldn’t open my eyes anymore. I couldn’t feel my face.”

Indah is believed to have been hit by a rubber bullet while livestreaming footage of the demonstrations from the vantage point of a pedestrian bridge.

An associate editor for Suara Hong Kong News, an outlet that caters to the city’s Indonesian migrant population, on that Sunday afternoon in late September, she became a part of the story. 

As word of her injury garnered international media attention, she realized that, unlike the hundreds and possibly thousands of people who’ve sustained injuries in the protests, she was in a position to approach the police without risking her own arrest.

“Many people were injured in Hong Kong who could not do what I did because, if they do it, they can be charged,” Indah said. “So this [activism] is not just for me. …

“God gave me the opportunity to seek justice,” she added. “If I do not do that, I could not face myself.”

The projectile that struck Indah has caused permanent loss of sight in her right eye.

The Chinese-ruled city has been roiled by more than six months of sometimes violent protests as activists call for greater democracy and an independent inquiry into police actions, among other demands.

Police, who have dispersed demonstrators with rubber bullets and tear gas, say they have shown restraint in the face of escalating violence.

Indah, who has been unable to return to work, is being represented by Hong Kong-based British human rights lawyer Michael Vidler. The South China Morning Post has reported that Indah has applied for legal aid to finance her case.

This story originated in VOA’s Mandarin and Indonesian services.

…

Notre Dame kept Christmas going even during two world wars — a beacon of hope amid the bloodshed.

Yet an accidental fire in peacetime  finally stopped the Paris cathedral from celebrating Midnight Mass this year, for the first time in over two centuries.

As the lights stay dim in the once-invincible 855-year-old landmark, officials are trying hard to focus on the immediate task of keeping burned out Notre Dame ‘s spirit alive in exile through service, song and prayer.

It has decamped its rector, famed statue, liturgy and Christmas celebrations to a new temporary home pending the restoration works, just under a mile away, at another Gothic church in Paris called Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois.

And there it will remain, as works slowly progress to rebuild the cathedral after the April 15 fire destroyed its lead roof and spire  and was moments away from engulfing its two stone towers.

“This is the first time since the French Revolution that there will be no midnight Mass (at Notre Dame),” cathedral rector Patrick Chauvet told The Associated Press.

There was even a Christmas service amid the carnage of World War I, Chauvet noted, “because the canons were there and the canons had to celebrate somewhere,” referring to the cathedral’s clergy. During World War II, when Paris was under Nazi occupation, “there was no problem.”

 He said that to his knowledge, it was only closed for Christmas in the period after 1789, when the anti-Catholic French revolutionaries turned the monument into “a temple of reason.”

Christmas-in-exile at Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois this year will be a history-making moment.

“We have the opportunity to celebrate the Mass outside the walls, so to speak… but with some indicators that Notre Dame is connected to us,” Chauvet said.

Those indicators include a wooden liturgical platform that has been constructed in the Saint-Germain church to resemble Notre Dame’s own. A service will be led at midnight on Dec. 24 by Chauvet to a crowd of faithful, including many who would normally worship in the cathedral, accompanied by song from some of Notre Dame’s now-itinerant choir.

The cathedral’s iconic Gothic sculpture “The Virgin of Paris,” from which some say Notre Dame owes its name, is also on display in the new annex.

The 14th-century masterpiece, which measures around two meters (six feet) and depicts Mary and baby Jesus, has come to embody the officials’ message of hope following the fire.

“It’s a miraculous virgin. Why? Because at the time of the fire, the vault of the cathedral completely crashed. There were stones everywhere, but she was spared. She could have naturally received the vault on her head and have been completely crushed,” Chauvet said.

He recalled the moment on the night of the fire when he discovered it was saved, as he was holding hands with French President Emmanuel Macron on the cathedral’s forecourt. Around midnight as the flames subsided, they were finally let inside to look. Chauvet pointed and exclaimed to Macron: “Look at the Virgin, she is there!”

He said later that Notre Dame’s workmen on the ground implored him to not remove the statue from the cathedral, saying that during the restoration “we need it. She protects us.”

Chauvet said having it nearby for Christmas is comforting.

“She lived very much in Notre Dame. She watched the pilgrims, all the 35,000 visitors a day … It keeps us going,” Chauvet said.

Another reason for hope: Since November, after months in the dark, the facade of the cathedral is being lit up after dusk for the first time since the fire. Tourists over the festive period can now see the famed gargoyles and stone statues at night in their full illuminated splendor from the adjacent bridges, although the forecourt is still closed.

Cathedral officials carefully chose Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois as the new temporary home because of its proximity to Notre Dame, just next to the Louvre, allowing ease of movement for clerics who lived near the cathedral. Also, because of its prestigious history.

It was once a royal church that boasted among its faithful French kings, in the days when they lived in the nearby Louvre Palace. The kings, Chauvet explained, would simply cross the esplanade to come and attend Mass.

Since September, the church has been welcoming the cathedral’s flock each Sunday.

Though Notre Dame has moved liturgically to a new home, Notre Dame will always remain Paris’ cathedral so long as the bishop’s physical chair, or “cathedra” doesn’t move.

Derived from the Greek word for “seat,” a cathedral’s entire identity technically boils down to the presence of a chair.

“The cathedra is at the cathedral and so it remains Notre Dame Cathedral, which is the cathedral in the heart of Paris,” Chauvet said.
It is not only the faithful who have been displaced since April’s blaze.

Notre Dame was home to a vibrant 160-strong choir-school, which provided singers for each of the cathedral’s some 1,000 annual services. Midnight Mass at Christmas was always a special event in the year: One of the rare times the entire choir sung together and used the cathedral’s famed acoustics to their fullest.

Instead of disbanding, this now-homeless chorus of singers, ranging in age from 6 to 30, has too honed an upbeat message and decided to continue on in a divided form. Different sections of the choir put on concerts in churches, such as Saint-Eustache and Saint-Sulpice, in Paris and beyond. On Christmas Eve, its members will sing at various yuletide events, including at Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, as well as, bizarrely, at the Russian Circus.

But don’t mention the term choir-in-exile to one of the choir’s directors, Henri Chalet.

“I’d rather use beyond the walls'...Exile’ brings it back to sadness. Obviously, there is a lot of sadness and desolation for us to no longer be in our second home. But there is also a lot of hope because it is only a phase,” Chalet said.

In the grand scheme of things, five or six years of restoration for an 855-year-old cathedral “is nothing at all,” Chalet reasoned.  Macron declared in the days after the blaze it would take a mere five years to restore the cathedral — a timeline many experts deem unrealistic.

Notre Dame choir singer Mathilde Ortscheidt, 29, left a little more space for melancholy as she regretted her absence at last year’s Midnight Mass.

“To think that I was ill last Christmas…thinking that I would go again this year with no problem!” she said.

On the first rehearsal she attended after the blaze, she said she “felt such a pain and such sadness” because the cathedral was where she began as a singer.

For the singers, the unique acoustics produced by the cathedral’s massive dimensions are sorely missed.

“When we balanced it right, it was the most beautiful feeling of just hearing it resonate through this enormous space,” Ortscheidt said.

Despite having “to walk around a lot now,” people have got used to the choir’s new lifestyle, she said, and it was just a matter of time before there will be song in the cathedral once again.

In the meantime, “the important thing for us is that we keep on singing and doing the music. That’s what brings us together.”

…

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is holding talks with General Motors Co. on the automaker’s petition to deploy a limited number of self-driving vehicles on American roads without 
steering wheels or other human controls, the head of the agency 
said Friday. 

Acting NHTSA Administrator James Owens said his agency aims to decide soon on GM’s January 2018 petition as well as on a request by Nuro, a driverless delivery startup backed by Softbank Corp., to deploy a limited number of low-speed, highly automated delivery vehicles without human occupants. 

The agency’s review comes at a time of heightened concerns 
about the safety of automated piloting systems in vehicles and 
aircraft, a potential revolution in ground and air transportation. 

“I expect we’re going to be able to move forward with these 
petitions soon — as soon as we can,” Owens told Reuters, adding 
action “definitely” would come next year. 

“This will be a big deal because this will be the first such action that will be taken,” Owens said. 

GM, the No. 1 U.S. automaker, confirmed it has been in talks with NHTSA about the petition. Nuro also confirmed it is in talks with NHTSA. 

Still work to do

GM Chief Executive Mary Barra and U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao last week met and discussed the petition, officials said, but significant work remains at the technical level. 

Owens said NHTSA officials are “crawling through these petitions because we want to make sure” the driverless vehicles are at least as safe as other cars on the roads. 

“There’s a lot of back and forth between us and the companies,” Owens said during a Reuters interview that also included Chao and other Transportation Department officials. “We’re sharing with them thoughts and ideas and concerns. They come back to us with additional information.” 

Chao said it is important that NHTSA take its time in reviewing the GM petition. Chao suggested that some auto industry officials and analysts were too optimistic about the timing for deployment of fully autonomous vehicles. 

“I think the complexity was far greater than what a lot of very optimistic advocates were thinking,” Chao said.  

In GM’s petition, NHTSA is for the first time looking at a vehicle in which all driving decisions are made by a computer rather than a human driver. Nuro, which partnered with Kroger Co. last year to deliver groceries, seeks approval not to include a windshield in the vehicle. 

The petitions — formal applications for action by the agency — seek exemptions from U.S. vehicle safety rules largely written decades ago that assumed human drivers would be in control of a vehicle. The petitions are for up to 2,500 vehicles per manufacturer. 

GM initially said it hoped to win approval to deploy the vehicles by the end of this year. But in July its self-driving unit, Cruise, said it was delaying commercial deployment of cars as more testing of the vehicles was required. A new target date wasn’t specified. 

Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo unit this year began offering some rides with no human driver in its limited autonomous ride-hailing service in Arizona, but with steering wheels and employees watching remote feeds of the vehicles’ cameras. 

“We’re in communication with them about how they are ensuring the safe operation of the vehicle,” Owens said. “We will continue having a back-and-forth with them.” 

…

The U.S. Senate, rushing to meet a looming deadline, approved and sent to President Donald Trump a $1.4 trillion package of fiscal 2020 spending bills that would end prospects of government shutdowns at week’s end when temporary funding expires.

By strong bipartisan margins and with White House backing, the Senate passed the two gigantic funding bills for government programs through Sept. 30.

Trump is expected to sign both bills into law before a midnight Friday deadline.

Notably, the Pentagon would get $738 billion for military activities — $22 billion more than last year.

Investments in domestic programs range from child nutrition and college grants to research on gun violence for the first time in decades and money for affordable housing programs that Trump had opposed.

The legislation also contains a series of new initiatives, including funding for Trump’s military Space Force, raising the age for purchasing tobacco products to 21 from the current 18, and repealing some taxes that were intended to fund the Affordable Care Act health insurance, popularly known as Obamacare.

About a year ago, the U.S. government plunged into a record-long, 35-day partial shutdown after Congress refused to give Trump the money he wanted to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall — one that he previously had insisted Mexico would finance.

This time around, money for border security would stay level at $1.37 billion, far below what Trump had sought.

Earlier this year, angered by Congress’ refusal to give him the wall money, Trump declared an “emergency” and took funds from other accounts appropriated by Congress and used them to build part of the border wall that was a central promise of his 2016 presidential campaign.

Congressional and White House negotiators reached a deal on the spending bills to avert government shutdowns just days before Washington plunged into a different kind of political crisis: the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approving articles of impeachment against Trump, a Republican.

With Democrats and Republicans trying to demonstrate that they can get at least some legislative work done amid Trump’s impeachment, the administration and Democrats also worked out differences over a U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, making for a flurry of pre-Christmas break action in Washington.

The $1.4 trillion in spending for so-called “discretionary” programs, up from $1.36 trillion last year, is separate from “mandatory” programs like Social Security retirement benefits, which are automatically funded.

The higher spending, coupled with tax cuts enacted in 2017, are contributing to widening budget deficits. The government spent $984 billion more than it took in during the last fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects annual budget deficits averaging $1.2 trillion over the next decade.

A rapidly-rising U.S. national debt now stands at $23.1 trillion, a level that some experts fear could eventually hobble the economy.

…

In northern Ethiopia, tens of thousands of mostly Eritrean refugees are getting connected to families back home, partly thanks to last year’s peace deal between Addis Ababa and Asmara, but also to clean energy. 
 
A Spanish alliance that includes three power companies is linking refugee camps in Shire, near the border with Eritrea, to the country’s energy grid, which largely relies on hydropower. The next step is equipping refugee households with solar energy. 

Private Sector Joins Clean Energy Drive for Africa’s Refugees video player.

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“It’s a catalyst,” said Javier Mazorra, partnership coordinator for the group, Alianza Shire. “You need energy for health, you need energy for education, you need energy for protection, especially for women.” 
 
Humanitarians hope what is happening in Shire will someday become the new normal, amounting to a game changer for refugees, 90% of whom have limited access to electricity, according to the United Nations. Indeed, energy access counted among key issues addressed this week at a global refugee forum in Geneva, with Africa considered a top priority. 

“The current situation in Africa is pretty poor, pathetic,” said Andrew Harper, climate action special adviser for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which co-hosted the meeting. 
 
Often refugees have a single energy solution, “which is going to surrounding forests, woodland, and cutting it down,” Harper said. 
 
Greening Africa’s energy 
 
The refugee agency has launched a four-year strategy to transition to clean energy in all of its camps, although Harper offered no fixed deadline or price tag for doing so. A UNHCR-sponsored report out this week also found renewable energy to be a cost-effective and reliable energy source for refugees.   
 
For Africa in particular, the stakes are high — inside and outside refugee settings. Along with Asia, it has among the world’s highest rates of reliance on charcoal and firewood. Adding in charcoal exports, that has translated into massive deforestation in parts of the continent. 
 
Firewood- and charcoal-based energy also carry myriad other problems, posing health risks from smoky fires and security threats for women collecting charcoal, and heightening tensions between refugees and host communities who also rely on the fast-thinning trees. 
 
Many of these problems can be seen in East Africa, home to some of the continent’s largest refugee communities. 

“There are some energy solutions,” said Kathleen Callaghy, senior humanitarian program associate for Clean Cooking Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. “But the funding, the political will and the capacity of organizations in the humanitarian community is not enough to sustain or expand these projects over time.” 
 
In drought-prone Ethiopia, the government launched a massive reforestation initiative that saw more than 350 million trees planted countrywide in a single day. 
 
Unsustainable energy practices persist for the nearly 1 million refugees Ethiopia hosts, said Fisseha Meseret Kindie, humanitarian assistance director at the country’s aid agency.  

“The energy challenge is one of the prominent challenges we have,” he said, adding host communities are facing the fallout. 
 
Convincing private sector 
 
Transitioning to green energy in Africa will mean tapping a private sector that may be wary of investing in refugees and a continent deemed risky. 
 
“Quite honestly, there’s very little in it for them right now,” Callagh, of the Clean Cooking Alliance, said, suggesting alliances with humanitarian agencies as the way forward. 
 
But for Mazorra, of Alianza Shire, the payback is more than financial. 
 
“There are a lot of incentives,” he said, including learning to operate in risky settings. “When you are struggling with really poor resource situations, innovation is key. And there are some innovations that could go back to Spain.” 
 
Harper, of UNHCR, believes there’s another, broader case to be made. 
 
“We’re basically saying the market for energy in Africa is not just 6, 7 million refugees,” he said. “It’s 1.2 billion people. We’ve got to look at it as much more part of the rural electrification process across the continent.” 

…

President Donald Trump held a triumphant White House meeting Thursday to show off a Democratic congressman defecting to his Republican party, portraying the switch as proof that his impeachment is “a hoax.”

Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey was one of a handful of Democrats who bucked the party line and opposed Trump’s impeachment Wednesday on two counts.

Trump brought Van Drew to the Oval Office, seating him in one of the armchairs typically used for visiting foreign leaders, and told reporters “Jeff will now be joining the Republican party.”

“It’s a big deal,” Trump said. “I can say I am endorsing him.”

Van Drew told Trump: “You have my undying support, always.”

Trump, clasping Van Drew’s hand, returned the pledge, saying: “Same way.”

For Trump, this stage-managed presentation of a political scalp underlined his Republican party’s total loyalty during impeachment.

Democrats were able to pass the two articles — abuse of office and obstruction of Congress — thanks to a healthy majority in the lower house.

But while Republicans were unanimous in voting against, the Democrats saw two of their members break with the party line on the first article and three on the second. Another member of the party sat out the vote.

Trump will now become only the third president in U.S. history to face a trial in the Senate, where his Republicans have the majority.

Trump once again branded the entire procedure a “hoax” and said, “I don’t feel like I am being impeached.”

Americans, he said, will still reelect him in 2020, in large part because “We have the greatest economy in the history of our country. We’ve never done so well.”

Democrats say that testimony from senior government officials and diplomats proves that Trump used a hold-up of foreign aid to Ukraine to try and force the country into opening an unnecessary, politically damaging corruption probe against one of his main 2020 challengers, Joe Biden.

He then attempted to block officials from testifying before Congress or sharing documentation on the matter.
 

…

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.” 

…

The sixth and final Democratic presidential debate of the year will be held Dec. 19, 2019, on the campus of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Only seven of 15 candidates seeking the nomination to challenge President Donald Trump will be on stage this time, as the first primary contests early next year draw closer. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has more on the significance of this debate and the issues young student voters want to hear from the candidates.

…

African governments and refugee activists hope a ground-breaking refugee forum will deliver much-needed funding and voice to a region whose challenges are often eclipsed by more headline-grabbing crises.

Two decades ago, John Bolinga fled his hometown of Goma, in Democratic Republic of Congo’s restive northeast.

“Rebels came and attacked our home so my father was shot dead. So I had to run to Uganda,” Bolinga said.

He started out destitute, but eventually launched his own NGO in Kampala, which today helps women and children who like himself, were uprooted by violence.

He is sharing his story in Geneva, where countries are meeting for a first-ever global refugee forum. Here and elsewhere, Bolinga says, giving refugees a voice and active role in decisions that affect their lives is critical.

“The challenge is if refugees feel they’re not welcomed,” Bolinaa said, “and also the root causes which is making refugees to flee their countries is not tackled, there is going to be a crisis.”

Africa is a leading exporter of refugees. They count among the millions making perilous journeys across the Sahara and Mediterranean for a better life in Europe … which often isn’t realized. But Africa also shelters more than one-quarter of the world’s displaced people.

Critics note that some African countries severely restrict refugees’ opportunities. Still these nations are opening doors that others slam shut.

“African governments continue to carry the extra responsibility on behalf of all of us, in hosting refugees in keeping borders open,” Ambassador Mohamed Abdi Affey said.

The official is Horn of Africa special envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which is hosting this forum.

“While we appreciate more spotlight and attention to other refugee cases like Syria and Yemen, Affey said. “… the ones in the Horn of Africa particularly, the ones who have been with us for 30 years, risk being forgotten.”

Those demands join broader calls here for wealthy nations and the private sector to do more for poorer countries that together host more than 80%  of the world’s refugees.

It’s coming from countries like Ethiopia, which hosts roughly one million refugees from 26 nations. Fisseha Meseret Kindie is director of humanitarian assistance and development at Ethiopia’s Agency for Refugees and Returnees.

“We are in shortage of finance, we cannot help them. And shortage of money,” Kindie said. “And we need the support from the international community at large.”

Some feel the page may be turning here in Geneva. Cameroon representative Tirlamo Norbert Wirnkar from Cameroon, which hosts more than 400,000 refugees, is optimistic this meeting will make a difference.

“We are really hopeful that pledges are going to be made on both sides — by the international community and host countries,” Wirnkar said.

…

The number of journalists killed globally in 2019 is the lowest in over a decade as some war zones became less deadly, say two of the world’s leading free-press advocacy groups.

New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Paris-headquartered Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which is known by its French initials, released separate reports that identified the same trend on Tuesday.

Each of the annual reports, however, based findings on distinct research methodologies, resulting in some hard data discrepancies.

CPJ says at least 25 journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2019, the lowest figure since 2002 when 21 journalists lost their lives in the field. RSF reported 49 killed, the lowest number since 36 were killed in 2003.

Both organizations emphasized that although journalist war zone fatalities have declined, the number of journalists killed in countries at peace remains consistent with years prior, and that the decrease is no cause for complacency.

CPJ: Syria, Mexico are deadliest

CPJ logs killings only in direct reprisal for reporting combat-related crossfire, “or while carrying out a dangerous assignment such as covering a protest that turns violent.” Syria and Mexico are the deadliest for journalists in 2019, its report said.

“Deaths in Syria, where at least 134 journalists have been killed in the war, have declined since a high of 31 in 2012,” the CPJ report states.

“Even more striking, the subset of journalists singled out for murder, at least 10, is the smallest in CPJ’s annual records, which date to 1992,” the organization says, adding that half of those “singled out” for murder were killed in Mexico.

CPJ also reports that the decline comes amid “unprecedented global attention on the issue of impunity in journalist murders,” highlighting the October 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the October 2017 murder of Maltese investigative reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia.

“One place where efforts to combat impunity seemingly have had no effect is Mexico,” the report said.

“The decline in the number of journalists killed is welcome after years of escalating violence, and reinforces our determination to fight impunity and do all we can to keep journalists safe,” said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director.

The report also says the Oct. 11 death of Turkish Kurdish journalist Vedat Erdemci, who died in a Turkish airstrike on the northeastern Syrian city of Ras al-Ain, represents the only foreign journalist killed in the line of duty this year.

CPJ’s report, which says military officials were the “most frequently suspected killers of journalists this year,” reflects the number of journalists killed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 13, 2019.

RSF: Fewer killed, more behind bars

RSF’s “Worldwide Roundup of Journalists Killed, Detained, or Held Hostage” summarizes abusive treatment and deadly violence against “professional journalists, non-professional journalists and media workers.”

Like CPJ, RSF says journalism remains a “dangerous profession,” with 49 journalists killed this year, 389 currently imprisoned and 57 others being held hostage.

RSF’s data indicate that although most journalists were killed covering conflicts in Syria (10), Afghanistan (5), and Yemen (2) — compared with 34 last year — targeted assassinations in “at peace” nations such as Mexico (5) were alarmingly high.

“Latin America, with a total of 14 reporters killed across the continent, has become as deadly as the Middle East,” the report says.

“More and more journalists are being assassinated for their work in democratic countries, which is a real challenge to democracy,” said RSF director Christophe Deloire.

While fewer journalists are dying, more are ending up behind bars, RSF said. The 389 detained in 2019 represent a 12% increase since last year.

Nearly half of reporters imprisoned in state custody are in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China, which alone “holds a third of the journalists locked up in the world,” the report says.

Turkey currently has 25 journalists in prison.

Meanwhile, 57 journalists are being held hostage across the globe, mostly in Syria (30), Yemen (15), Iraq (11), and Ukraine (1).

RSF’s report reflects the number of journalists killed between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2019.

Information from AFP is included in this report.
 

…

Boeing Co. said Monday that it will temporarily stop producing its grounded 737 Max jet starting in January as it struggles to get approval from regulators to put the plane back in the air.

The Chicago-based company said production would halt at its plant with 12,000 employees in Renton, Washington, near Seattle. But it said it didn’t expect to lay off any workers “at this time.”

The move amounts to an acknowledgement that it will take much longer than Boeing expected to win approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and other global regulators to fly the planes again.

Grounded since March

The Max is Boeing’s most important jet, but it has been grounded since March after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed total of 346 people. The FAA told the company last week that it had unrealistic expectations for getting the plane back into service. Boeing has missed several estimates of a return date for the plane, and the company didn’t give a date on Monday.

Even if no employees are laid off, ceasing production still will cut into the nation’s economic output because of Boeing’s huge footprint in the nation’s manufacturing sector. Through October of this year, the U.S. aerospace industry’s factory output has fallen 17% compared with the same period last year, to $106.4 billion, in part due to previous 737 Max production cuts.

The shutdown also is likely to ripple through Boeing’s vast network of 900 companies that make engines, bodies and other parts for the 737, and layoffs are likely.

Richard Aboulafia, an aircraft industry analyst at the Teal Group, said the shutdown would probably hinder the economy in the coming months and could worsen the nation’s trade balance.

“This is the country’s biggest single manufactured export product,” Aboulafia said.

Government regulators 

In a statement, Boeing said it will determine later when production can resume, based largely on approval from government regulators.

“We believe this decision is least disruptive to maintaining long-term production system and supply chain health,” the statement said.

Boeing said some of the Renton plant’s workers could be reassigned to 737 or other programs elsewhere in the Seattle area. Some could also help to prepare the 400 Max planes Boeing has built and stored, so they’re ready whenever approval comes to return to the skies.

Investigators have found that flight control software designed to stop an aerodynamic stall was a major factor in the crashes, and Boeing is updating the software, making it less aggressive. But regulators have yet to approve the changes.

Jeff Windau, industrials analyst for Edward Jones, said the 400 planes that Boeing has built but can’t deliver likely were a major factor in the decision to halt production. This comes “both in consideration of storage space and how efficiently can you get them delivered once the plane is ready to return to service,” he said.

Production halt a negative

Boeing has made progress on some FAA requirements to get the Max back in service, Windau said, but he still views the production halt as a negative for the company.

“The flight control system is complex and there are still unknowns with the timing of regulator reviews and approvals,” Windau wrote in an email. He also wrote that it may be difficult to restart an idled factory once production ramps back up.

Boeing will likely face some tough negotiations with suppliers about what level of payments it will provide during the production hiatus. The company will want to avoid any layoffs or shutdowns by suppliers that would keep it from quickly restarting production once its safety is approved.

“It’s really in Boeing’s interest to identify who needs payments to keep workers and capabilities in place for when the ramp up eventually happens,” Aboulafia said.

The production halt means that it will take longer than expected to get FAA approval, he said.

“If they had gotten some information quietly, behind the scenes from the FAA, that things were looking good for January or February, they wouldn’t have done this,” he said.

Cash flow problems

Boeing already is having cash flow problems. In October, the company reported that free cash flow went from $4.1 billion a year ago to a negative $2.9 billion in the third quarter, worse than analysts had expected.

The company’s stock came under pressure Monday after reports surfaced about the production halt. It closed down $14.67, or 4.3%, at $327.

The stock slipped another 1% in after-hours trading following the company’s announcement that it would stop Max production. It has fallen 23% since the March 10 crash of a Max flown by Ethiopian Airlines, which followed the crash of a Lion Air Max off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018.

…

Supporters of Lebanon’s two main Shi’ite groups Hezbollah and Amal clashed with security forces and set fires to cars in the capital early Tuesday, apparently angered by a video circulating online that showed a man insulting Shi’ite figures.

Police used tear gas and water cannons trying to disperse them.

It was the third consecutive night of violence, and came hours after Lebanon’s president postponed talks on naming a new prime minister, further prolonging the turmoil and unrest in the Mediterranean country.

President Michel Aoun postponed the binding consultations with leaders of parliamentary blocs after the only candidate — caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri — failed to win the backing of the country’s largest Christian groups amid a worsening economic and financial crisis.

The postponement followed a violent weekend in the small nation that saw the toughest crackdown on demonstrations in two months.

Lebanese security forces repeatedly fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters in downtown Beirut in the worst violence since demonstrations against the political elite erupted in mid-October.

On Monday night, a group of young men clashed with security forces in downtown Beirut after a video began circulating online in which a man insulted Shi’ite political and religious figures, heightening sectarian tensions. The group, apparently supporters of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement led by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, set at least three cars on fire and hurled stones and firecrackers at riot police.

Police responded with tear gas and water cannons.

Postponement request

Aoun had been scheduled to meet with the heads of parliamentary blocs to discuss the naming of the new prime minister. Those consultations are binding, according to the constitution, and Hariri, who resigned under pressure Oct. 29, was widely expected to be renamed.

The presidential palace said the consultations would be held instead on Thursday, based on a request from Hariri.

The U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, Jan Kubis, had warned that because of the collapsing economy, such postponements are “a risky hazard both for the politicians but even more so” for the people.

Lebanon is enduring its worst economic and financial crisis in decades with a massive debt, widespread layoffs and unprecedented capital controls imposed by local banks amid a shortage in liquidity.

Hariri resigned after protests began earlier in October over widespread corruption and mismanagement. The palace said Hariri had asked Aoun to allow for more time for discussions among political groups before official consultations.

Earlier, the country’s main Christian groups said they refused to back Hariri, who has served as premier three times.

His office said in a statement that he is keen for national accord, adding that had he been named to the post, it would have been “without the participation of any of the large Christian blocs.”

Power-sharing system

Under Lebanon’s power-sharing system, the prime minister has to be a Sunni Muslim, the president a Maronite Christian and the parliament speaker from the Shi’ite community. Hariri has emerged as the only candidate with enough backing for the job, but he is rejected by protesters who demand a Cabinet of independent technocrats and an independent head of government not affiliated with existing parties.

Although the protests had united all sectarian and ethnic groups against the ruling elite, tensions had surfaced from the start between protesters and supporters of the Shi’ite groups Hezbollah and Amal, after the latter rejected criticism of its leaders.

Hariri had asked the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for help developing a reform plan to address the economic crisis.

Moody’s Investors Service said that without technical support from the IMF, World Bank and international donors, it was increasingly likely that Lebanon could see “a scenario of extreme macroeconomic instability in which a debt restructuring occurs with an abrupt destabilization of the currency peg resulting in very large losses for private investors.”

Its currency has been pegged at 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar since 1997, but in recent weeks it has reached more than 2,000 in the black market. Lebanon’s debt stands at $87 billion or 150 percent of GDP.
 

…

A judge on Monday sentenced a woman to 10 months in prison for her role in a business that helped pregnant Chinese women travel to the United States to give birth to children who would automatically receive U.S. citizenship.

U.S. District Judge James Selna issued the sentence in Santa Ana, to Dongyuan Li, who wiped away tears with her hand several times during the hearing.

Selna said he expected her to be released from custody later Monday due to time served.

Federal prosecutors opposed the sentence and said they believed Li should be sentenced to years in prison to deter others from helping women lie on visa applications and hide pregnancies in these so-called birth tourism schemes.

Li pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy and visa fraud for running a birth tourism company in Southern California known as “You Win USA.”

Federal authorities said the company helped more than 500 Chinese women travel to the United States to deliver American babies, and that Li used a cluster of apartments in Irvine, California, to receive them.

Authorities said the company coached the women to lie on their visa applications and to hide their pregnancies when passing through customs in U.S. airports.

In a letter to the court, Li said she has taken English and music lessons and read books and exercised daily while in custody.

“I am very sorry for the mistakes that I have made,” she wrote in the Dec. 1 letter filed with the court. “I truly sincerely apologize for any harm that I have caused to the American society.”
 

…

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.

…

U.N. climate talks in Madrid dragged into a second day of extra time Sunday, with officials from almost 200 countries unable to break the deadlock on key points of difference.

The chair of the meeting, Chilean Environment Minister Carolina Schmidt, told weary delegates to examine new agreements drafted by her team and meet at 1:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) for further talks.

“This has been very tough, very long,” she said as the talks entered their 14th day. Still, Schmidt said some progress had been made, adding that “things are coming together.”

Developing countries and environmental groups warned that the drafts circulated overnight Saturday risked undoing or stalling on commitments made in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

“I’ve been attending these climate negotiations since they first started in 1991, but never have I seen the almost total disconnection we’ve seen here … in Madrid between what the science requires and the people of the world demand, and what the climate negotiators are delivering,” said Alden Meyer, a climate policy specialist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Meyer said the current drafts didn’t reflect urgent warnings from scientists that greenhouse gas emissions need to fall sharply, and soon.

“The planet is on fire and our window of escape is getting harder and harder to reach, the longer we fail to act,” Meyer said.

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

Carbon credits

Nathaniel Keohane of the Environmental Defense Fund said it was critical for countries to resist attempts by Brazil and others to keep large piles of carbon credits amassed under a now-discredited system.

“That opens up a potentially major hole in the fabric of the Paris Agreement,” he said. “There is really a question of integrity at stake and it is really critical for countries to hold the line.”

Schmidt told negotiators shortly after midnight that citizens around the world expected results from the talks to help tackle the “climate crisis.” 

Growing concern about climate change has been reflected in mass protests staged around the world over the past year, often by young activists concerned about the future they and their children might face as the planet heats up.

‘We are not listening’

Scientists have warned that emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases need to start dropping sharply as soon as possible to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. So far, the world is on course for a 3- to 4-degree Celsius rise, with potentially dramatic consequences for many countries.

Demonstrations took place inside and outside the venue of the talks in the Spanish capital, with calls for urgent action to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Some countries said it was time to heed those demands.

“We have the science. We have the collective will to deliver enshrined in the Paris agreement. And now it is time to step up,” said Ola Elvestuen, Norway’s environment minister.

“A weak encouragement will not be understood by the outside world,” he said. “It will send a message that we are not listening to science.”

…

On Dec. 1, a band of assailants opened fire on worshippers at a small-town Protestant church in Burkina Faso, an impoverished West African country where the Christian minority is increasingly a target of attacks. The victims included the pastor and several teenage boys; regional authorities attributed the attack to “unidentified armed men” who, according to witnesses, got away on motorcycles.

The slaughter merited brief reports by international news outlets, then quickly faded from the spotlight — not surprising in a year where attacks on places of worship occurred with relentless frequency. Hundreds of worshippers and many clergy were killed at churches, mosques, synagogues and temples.

A two-week span in January illustrated the scope of this somber phenomenon. In Thailand, a group of separatist insurgents attacked a Buddhist temple, killing the abbot and one of his fellow monks. In the Philippines, two suicide attackers detonated bombs during a Mass in a Roman Catholic cathedral on the largely Muslim island of Jolo, killing 23 and wounding about 100. Three days later, an attacker hurled a grenade into a mosque in a nearby city, killing two Muslim religion teachers.

The worst was yet to come.

On March 15, a gunman allegedly fueled by anti-Muslim hatred attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people. The man arrested for the killings had earlier published a manifesto espousing a white supremacist philosophy and detailing his plans to attack the mosques.

At a national remembrance service two weeks later, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealanders had learned the stories of those impacted by the attacks — many of them recently arrived immigrants.

“They were stories of those who were born here, grew up here, or who had made New Zealand their home. Who had sought refuge or sought a better life for themselves or their families,” she said. “They will remain with us forever. They are us.”

On Easter Sunday — April 21 — bombs shattered the celebratory services at two Catholic churches and a Protestant church in Sri Lanka.

Other targets, in coordinated suicide attacks by local militants, included three luxury hotels. But Christian worshippers at the three churches — including dozens of children — accounted for a large majority of the roughly 260 people killed.

The victims at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo included 11-month-old Avon Gomez, his two older brothers and his parents.

The day’s biggest death toll — more than 100 — was at St. Sebastian’s, a Catholic church in the seaside town of Negombo. It’s known as “Little Rome” due to its abundance of churches and its role as the hub of Sri Lanka’s small Catholic community.

The attacks surprised many in the predominantly Buddhist country, where the Christian community totals about 7% of the population and has long avoided involvement in bitter ethnic and religious divides.

Six days after Easter, more than 9,400 miles (15,000 kilometers) from Sri Lanka, a gunman opened fire inside a synagogue in Poway, California, as worshippers celebrated the last day of Passover. A 60-year-old woman was killed; an 8-year-old girl and two men, including the Chabad of Poway’s rabbi, were wounded.

Some congregation members said the slain woman, Lori Kaye, blocked the shooter by jumping in front of rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, whose two index fingers were injured.

The man charged with murder and attempted murder in the attack, John T. Earnest, could face the death penalty if he is convicted of murder, although prosecutors haven’t yet said whether they will pursue capital punishment.

At a court hearing in September, prosecutors played a 12-minute recording of Earnest calmly telling a 911 dispatcher that he had just shot up a synagogue to save white people from Jews.

The attack occurred exactly six months after 11 people were killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest assault on Jews in U.S. history.

An additional anti-Semitic bloodbath was narrowly averted in October when an armed assailant tried to blast his way into a synagogue in Halle, Germany, where scores of worshippers were attending services on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism.

Unable to break through a locked door, the gunman went on a rampage in nearby streets, killing two people and wounding two others.

Authorities said the 27-year-old German man who has confessed to the attack had posted an anti-Semitic screed before the assault and broadcast the shooting live on a popular video game site.  

In contrast to the Poway and Halle attacks, where authorities have identified suspects and motives, some of the worst attacks on houses of worship unfold without arrests or claims of responsibility.

In October, for example, more than 60 people were killed in a bombing during Friday prayers at a mosque in the village of Jodari in eastern Afghanistan.

No group claimed responsibility and authorities offered conflicting explanations of how the bombing was carried out.

One common element of all the attacks: Dismay that many people of faith now have reason for apprehension as they gather for worship.

“No one should have to fear going to their place of worship,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom after the Poway attack. ”No one should be targeted for practicing the tenets of their faith.”

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Protests against a divisive new citizenship law raged Saturday as Washington and London issued travel warnings for northeast India following days of violent clashes that have killed two people.

Many in the far-flung, resource-rich northeast fear the new legislation will grant citizenship to large numbers of immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, whom they accuse of stealing jobs and diluting the region’s cultural identity.

Several thousand protesters rallied in New Delhi late Saturday to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to revoke the law, some holding signs reading: “Stop Dividing India.”

“People are not gathered here as Hindus or Muslims; people are gathered here as citizens of India. We reject this bill that has been brought by the Modi government and we want that equal treatment as is enshrined in our constitution,” said protester Amit Baruah, 55, a journalist.

Protests turned violent in West Bengal state, a hotbed of political unrest, with at least 20 buses and parts of two railway stations set on fire as demonstrators blocked roads and set fire to tires. No injuries were reported.

Epicenter of unrest

Tensions also simmered in Guwahati in Assam state, the epicenter of the unrest, where medical staff said two people were shot dead and 26 hospitalized late Thursday after security forces fired live rounds.

Assam police chief Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta told the Press Trust of India late Saturday that 85 people had been arrested in connection with the protests, and that officials were working to identify violent demonstrators caught on video.

Friday’s funeral procession for Sam Stafford, 18, who was killed in the demonstration, was attended by hundreds of angry and distraught mourners who shouted, “Long live Assam.”

“We were watching news all day on TV about the protests when my nephew left home in the evening. We asked him not to go but he went with his friends,” the student’s aunt, Julie Stafford, told AFP.

Anticipating further unrest, authorities extended an internet ban across Assam until Monday. Most shops were shut and anxious residents stocked up on supplies Saturday when the curfew was relaxed during the day.

The Citizenship Amendment Act allows for the fast-tracking of applications from religious minorities, including Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, but not Muslims.

Samujjal Bhattacharya from the All Assam Students Union, which has been at the forefront of the protests, told AFP the group would continue its fight against the new law “in the streets and in the court.”

‘Exercise caution’

Modi and Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe postponed a summit that was reportedly due to be held in Guwahati beginning Sunday, and the United States and Britain warned their nationals to “exercise caution” if traveling to the wider northeast region.

Islamic groups, the opposition and rights organizations say the law is a part of Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda to marginalize India’s 200 million Muslims.

He denies this and says that Muslims from the three countries are not covered by the legislation because they have no need of India’s protection.

Modi’s right-hand man, Amit Shah, on Saturday sought to reassure the northeastern states, saying the government would protect their “culture, social identity, language and political rights.”

Nellie massacre

Assam has long been a hotbed of ethnic tensions. In 1983, 2,000 people, mainly Bengali Muslims, were butchered in what became known as the Nellie massacre.

This year a citizenship registry left off 1.9 million people — many of them Muslims — unable to prove that they or their forebears were in Assam before 1971, leaving them to face possible statelessness.

“There has been this agitation [against] illegal migration from Bangladesh over many years,” Sanjoy Hazarika, a professor at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University, told AFP. “They feel that their rights to land, to jobs, and the entire social fabric, education, existing social services and so on will be impacted by this.”

On Friday, university students in Delhi clashed with police, who used batons and tear gas shells to quell the protests.

The passage of the bill also sparked angry scenes in both houses of parliament this week, with one lawmaker likening it to anti-Jewish legislation by the Nazis in 1930s Germany.

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A Wisconsin judge on Friday ordered that the registration of up to 234,000 voters be tossed out because they may have moved, a victory for conservatives that could make it more difficult for people to vote next year in the key swing state.

The judge sided with three voters represented by a conservative law firm who argued the state elections commission should have immediately deactivated any of the roughly 234,000 voters who didn’t respond to an October mailing within 30 days. The voters were flagged as having potentially moved.

Ozaukee County Judge Paul Malloy denied a request by elections commission attorneys to put his decision on hold. He ordered the state Elections Commission to follow the law requiring voters who didn’t respond to be deactivated.

“I can’t tell them how to do that, they’re going to have to figure that out,” Malloy said of the commission deactivating the voters.

Commission spokesman Reid Magney said in an email to The Associated Press that staff will analyze the judge’s decision and consult with commission members on next steps. He didn’t elaborate.

The judge’s ruling comes in the early stages of the case and is expected to be immediately appealed. It’s likely to ultimately go to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is controlled 5-2 by conservatives.

The case is important for both sides ahead of the 2020 presidential race in narrowly divided Wisconsin, which President Donald Trump won by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016. Liberals fear the voters who could be purged are more likely to be Democrats. Republicans argue allowing them to remain on the rolls increases the risk of voter fraud.

The state elections commission, which has an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, is fighting the lawsuit. It argues that the law gives it the power to decide how to manage the voter registration list. It wants to wait until after the April 2021 election before removing anyone, citing concerns that everyone identified may not have moved and removing them would create confusion.

The commission also argued that leaving a registered voter on the polls, even if they have moved, does not mean they will actually commit fraud by voting at their old address.

The elections commission decided to wait longer than 30 days to deactivate voters because of problems in 2017 after about 343,000 voters were flagged as potential movers. More than 300,000 people who did not respond were deactivated, leading to confusion, anger and complaints. Wisconsin allows same-day voter registration, but it requires photo ID and proof of address.

The judge said Wisconsin law clearly required the elections commission to deactivate voters who didn’t respond to the mailing within 30 days. The commission had no basis to set a different time frame, he said.

“I don’t want to see anybody deactivated, but I don’t write the legislation,” Malloy said. “If you don’t like it, then I guess you have to go back to the Legislature. They didn’t do that.”

Karla Keckhaver, an assistant attorney general defending the commission, argued that not putting the ruling on hold pending appeal would create “irreparable harm.”

“This would create chaos to do this now,” she said, referring to upcoming elections in February.

Rick Esenberg, attorney for the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty that brought the case, disagreed, noting that affected voters could re-register online before an election or at the polls.

Some of the highest percentages of voters who could be tossed would be in Wisconsin’s two largest cities and areas with college campuses, epicenters of Democratic support, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis found. Milwaukee and Madison, the largest cities and base of Democratic support, account for 23% of the letters that were sent to voters who may have moved. More than half of the letters went to voters in municipalities where Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Trump in 2016, the analysis found.

As of Dec. 5, only about 16,500 of those who received the mailing had registered at their new address. More than 170,000 hadn’t responded, and the postal service was unable to deliver notifications to nearly 60,000 voters.

While the lawsuit is pending, the commission has asked the Republican-controlled Legislature to provide clarity by passing a law or empowering the commission to create procedures on how to deal with voters who have moved.

Wisconsin has about 3.3 million registered voters out of about 4.5 million people of voting age.

Next year’s presidential race isn’t the only high-stakes election that could be affected by the registration lawsuit. Wisconsin has a February primary for a seat on the highly partisan state Supreme Court. The state’s presidential primary is in April.

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