Germany is expelling two Russian diplomats over what a German court said was a Russian-ordered killing of a German citizen of Chechen origin in Berlin in 2019. 

In the high-profile incident, Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili was gunned down in a Berlin park. 

On Wednesday, a German court found Russian Vadim Krasikov guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment, saying he was working for Russian authorities who had provided him with a false identity and other resources.

Calling the murder a “grave breach of German law and the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock summoned the Russian ambassador to discuss the case and expel the two diplomats. 

In 2004, Khangoshvili was involved in an attack on a Russian police station that left police and civilians dead. 

“There is no doubt that Khangoshvili bears responsibility for people’s deaths,” Judge Olaf Arnoldi said, adding that Russian authorities wanted “revenge and retribution” for the attack. 

“Khangoshvili had given up the fight against the Russian Federation years before. He had not held a weapon in his hands since 2008,” Arnoldi said. “This was not an act of self-defense by Russia. This was and is nothing other than state terrorism.” 

In December 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Khangoshvili a “terrorist and murderer.” 

While living in Georgia in 2015, Khangoshvili survived an assassination attempt. He later moved to Ukraine and then to Berlin. 

Russia’s ambassador in Berlin denied Russian involvement in Khangoshvili’s murder. 

“We consider the verdict an unobjective, politically motivated decision that seriously aggravates already complicated Russian-German relations,” Russian Ambassador Sergei Nechayev said, adding it was “an unfriendly act that won’t go unanswered.” 

“The absurd notion about Russia’s involvement in the wrongdoing during the entire course of the trial was being methodically imposed on the public, was being weaved into the general anti-Russian background, but wasn’t in the end proved with convincing evidence,” he said. 

Some information in this report comes from Reuters and The Associated Press. 

 
…

Istanbul hosts a two-day African Summit this week, the latest effort by Turkey to expand its diplomatic and economic influence in Africa. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

Produced by: Marcus Harton
…

The European Union’s drug regulator Wednesday approved booster shots of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for adults who received their first dose of the vaccine at least two months prior.

In a statement, the Europe Medicines Agency (EMA) said the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may also be taken by people who had received the full two-shot dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines as well.  

The EMA said it will continue to look at all available data on the safety and efficacy of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.  

In its statement, the agency said individual national public health agencies may issue their own official recommendations on the use of booster doses, considering the local epidemiological situation, availability of vaccines, and emerging effectiveness and the limited safety data for the booster dose.

The Johnson & Johnson shot is the third vaccine approved for boosters by the EMA, after the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

Johnson & Johnson had presented results from a large study it conducted indicating a second dose of its vaccine just two months after the first increased protection against COVID-19 symptoms from 70% to 94% in U.S. recipients.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.

 
…

French troops have left a military base in Timbuktu, Mali, where they were posted since liberating the area from Islamist militants in 2013. French forces have been gradually withdrawing from the region, despite ongoing fighting with militants that threatens stability. Locals are expressing unease about the French troops’ departure.

On Tuesday, French troops left their military base in Timbuktu as part of a reorganization of Operation Barkhane announced by French president Emmanuel Macron in June. 

The Kidal and Tessalit bases were handed over to the Malian army in October and November, respectively. The French troops first set up a base here when the city, along with several others in northern Mali, was liberated in 2013 from Islamist militants. Then-French president Francois Hollande visited Timbuktu the day after its liberation and was welcomed by residents. 

Salem Ould El Hadj, a historian and a teacher at Timbuktu’s famous Ahmed Baba Institute, spoke from a public square by Timbuktu’s Sankore mosque about his experience when the city was liberated.  

We needed it, he says, and you’ve seen how the population welcomed them with widespread enthusiasm. An unabashed fervor. It’s true. I was in Bamako, he says, and it’s thanks to [the French intervention] that I came back to Timbuktu.

Since 2013, Mali has weathered two more coup d’etats. Violence and killings have increased and moved further south into the country’s center. Large protests in Bamako have called for the departure of French troops, with popular sentiment in the capital favoring a potential Russian intervention in Mali. 

Mohamed El Bashir, president of Timbuktu’s municipal youth council, says that withdrawing Barkhane troops from Timbuktu will make the region less secure.

It’s not the same feeling here, he says, because the people in Bamako don’t live what we’re living here in Timbuktu. What we’re living here, people in Bamako aren’t living. They should come here, and we will go to Bamako, and they can ask that Barkhane leaves, he says, then they will understand. That’s the reality.

France has been gradually retiring its troops from military bases in northern Mali and moving them to Gao, which will now serve as Operation Barkhane’s northern base. 

General Etienne du Peyroux, Barkhane’s representative in Mali, says that the handing over of Timbuktu’s military base is not an abandonment.  

He says, this is ultimately the goal of Operation Barkhane, to allow Mali to take its destiny in its hands. After a phase of preparation, after a phase of ramping up, after a training phase. And always in partnership, which will be different, with less of a physical presence but just as real, he says.  

At a ceremony on the military base yesterday, the French flag was lowered, the Malian flag raised, and a symbolic key to the base handed over from the French military to the Malian army. Malian military authorities declined to comment to journalists, who were asked to leave the ceremony before their commander spoke to Malian troops. 

French armored vehicles exited the base for the last time.

At the airport, French troops could be seen boarding a military plane headed for Gao. The fate of Timbuktu, once a symbol of Mali’s liberation from extremist rule, now rests in the hands of Mali’s army.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met Wednesday via video conference, stressing their strong alliance amid both countries’ deteriorating relations with the west.

 “A new model of cooperation has been formed between our countries, based, among other things, on such principles as non-interference in internal affairs, respect for each other’s interests, and determination to turn our common border into a “belt” of eternal peace and good neighborliness,” Putin told Xi.

The Russian president also said he looked forward to seeing Xi in February at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games and added, “I would like to note that we invariably support each other on issues of international sports cooperation, including rejection of any attempts to politicize sports and the Olympic movement.”

Several western nations, led by the United States, have chosen not send diplomats or other government officials to the games in protest of China’s human rights record.  

Both Russia and China have faced the threat of Western sanctions amid rising diplomatic tensions. Russia is currently in a tense stand-off with the European Union and NATO over its buildup of troops on the border with Ukraine.

Ahead of the Xi-Putin meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the two leaders would discuss tensions in Europe and “aggressive” U.S. and NATO rhetoric.

Meanwhile, China and the U.S. have exchanged strong words regarding China’s treatment of ethnic Uyghurs and its recent apparent military efforts to intimidate Taiwan

Also, during Wednesday’s virtual meeting, Putin praised Xi and China for its cooperation in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, noting six Chinese manufacturers had signed contracts to produce 150 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik COVID vaccines. 

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
…

U.S. lawmakers just back from a visit to Ukraine warn that Washington’s threats of sanctions and diplomatic maneuvering are not doing enough to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from potentially launching an invasion. 

The group of Democrats and Republicans visited Kyiv Saturday and Sunday where they met with the commander of the Ukrainian special forces and with U.S. special operators and National Guard troops who have been helping the Ukrainian military with training. 

They described the situation as “very concerning” and urged the White House to speed up the delivery of weapons to the Ukrainian forces in the hopes of staving off a Russian invasion. 

“I think promising tough action, just to be candid, after an invasion, will do very little in terms of Putin’s calculus,” Republican Representative Michael Waltz told reporters Tuesday.

“We’re seeing Putin, I think, do this in many respects because he knows he can get away with it,” Waltz added. “We need to help Ukraine porcupine themselves and raise the costs now.” 

Democrats on the trip likewise urged the White House to take actions that will make Russia feel the blowback for an invasion of Ukraine almost instantly. 

“If Putin invades, I want him to know that he’ll have trouble buying a soda from a vending machine in the next five minutes, not that NATO will convene a conference to debate what to do next over the ensuing several weeks,” Representative Seth Moulton said. 

“We need to clearly communicate how the weapons we provide will cause large losses of Russian troops on Day One, not just over time,” he said. “Not just convincing them or trying to convince them that an occupation will be painful, but rather that an immediate full-scale invasion will be hard to take immediately.” 

The lawmakers also expressed confidence that unlike in 2014, when Russia invaded and occupied Crimea, Ukrainian forces are prepared to mount a fierce resistance if Putin sends in Russian troops. They said it would be folly, though, to think Ukrainian troops could hold out for long. 

“I think what we have to work on in the immediate future, right now, is to create the capability for a strong resistance in nonconventional warfare,” said Democrat Ruben Gallego.

“(Ukraine) being able to hold out and impose costs will be very helpful,” he said. And that would “hopefully change the calculation that Putin is using.” 

The lawmakers called for the White House to speed up the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, including ship-to-shore missiles, air defense missiles and additional Javelin anti-tank missiles. 

Some analysts have suggested such a strategy, aimed at imposing a military cost on Moscow, could work. 

“I think if Putin goes big, it could become very costly for him,” Luke Coffey of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation said Monday in response to a question from VOA. 

“They have a very robust reserve system in Ukraine where they can call up huge numbers of forces,” he said. “The further west that Russian forces would move, the stiffer the resistance would become, without a doubt.”

The White House signaled Tuesday it is prepared to stay the course, however, promising Moscow will pay a “terrible price” should it invade Ukraine due to what U.S. President Joe Biden has described as devastating sanctions.

“Our objective continues to be to keep this on a diplomatic path and for that to lead to de-escalation,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday. 

“We’re obviously engaged in daily conversations with Europeans, with Russians, with Ukrainians, and conveying exactly what we think should happen here to de-escalate the situation on the ground,” Psaki said.

Yet those talks, including meetings by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried with Russian officials in Moscow, seem to be having little impact on the ground, at least so far. 

The Pentagon said Tuesday it has seen no evidence of a pullback by Russian forces massed along the border with Ukraine. 

Putin on Tuesday reiterated Russia’s concern about Ukraine’s potential membership in NATO during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, insisting the West provide Moscow with needed security guarantees. 

“The Russian president emphasized the importance of immediately launching international negotiations to develop legally fixed guarantees that would prevent any further NATO expansion to the east and the deployment of weapons to neighboring states, primarily in Ukraine, that threaten Russia,” the Kremlin said in a statement. 

Russia’s deputy foreign minister earlier threatened that Moscow could be forced to deploy tactical nuclear weapons if the U.S. and NATO fail to put an end the alliance’s eastward expansion. 

 NATO Tuesday dismissed such talk as hypocritical, specifically the Kremlin’s call for a moratorium on intermediate-range nuclear forces in Europe. 

“We had a ban, and they violated that ban,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters. “It is not credible when they now propose a ban on something they actually have already started to deploy.” 

Some information from Reuters was used in this report. 
…

Russian journalism experienced extreme highs and lows in 2021. On the plus side, a Nobel Peace Prize for newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov. But the downside saw an escalating government crackdown on independent media. News organizations and individual reporters were declared “foreign agents” and “undesirable elements,” while some journalists went into exile.
…

Almost 100 Conservative lawmakers voted Tuesday against new coronavirus restrictions, dealing a major blow to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s authority and raising questions about his leadership. 

After a day of frenzied failed lobbying, Johnson was handed the biggest rebellion against his government so far by his party over measures he said were necessary to curb the spread of the new omicron variant. 

The new rules, which included ordering people to wear masks in public places and use COVID-19 passes for some venues, passed largely because of the main opposition Labour Party. 

But the revolt piles pressure on Johnson, already under fire over scandals such as reported parties in his Downing Street office last year – when Britain was in a COVID-19 lockdown – and a pricey refurbishment of his apartment. 

Rebelling lawmakers said the vote was a warning shot that he needed to change how the government was operating or he would face a leadership challenge. 

Some 99 Conservatives opposed plans for the COVID-19 passes, a much higher number of rebels than was expected. Originally the official figure was put at 98, but the number was later revised upward. 

Among those voting against the government was lawmaker Louie French who was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) at the start of the month, while media reported that former Prime Minister Theresa May was among 17 others who abstained. 

Many Conservatives say some of the new measures are draconian, with several questioning the introduction of a certificate of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test to enter some venues, such as nightclubs. 

Others used the votes as an opportunity to vent their anger at Johnson, believing the man who helped the Conservatives win a large majority at a 2019 election is squandering the party’s successes by self-inflicted missteps and gaffes. 

But despite the rumblings of discontent, Conservative Party insiders say there is not enough of a groundswell against Johnson to dislodge him now, although they hope the vote will be a “wake-up call” for the prime minister to reset his agenda. 

“He’s got to now be in some danger,” Conservative lawmaker Geoffrey Clifton-Brown told Sky News. “And he’s got to realize that because if he doesn’t realize that, then he will be in much bigger danger … I’m still backing him. But he’s got to change.” 

‘Huge spike’ 

Britain reported 59,610 new COVID-19 infections Tuesday, the highest figure since early January and the fifth highest recorded since the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year. 

More than 5,300 cases of omicron have been recorded, with 10 people hospitalized. One person has died after contracting the variant, which is set to become the dominant strain in the capital London. 

Before the vote, the government had mounted a campaign to keep lawmakers in check, with Johnson warning his ministers there was a “huge spike” in omicron cases heading Britain’s way, and that the measures were needed to protect people. 

Ministers tried to win over the Conservative rebels, noting that people who have not had two vaccinations can instead offer proof of a negative lateral flow test to gain access to indoor venues of more than 500 people.

Health minister Sajid Javid told lawmakers he firmly believed in “individual liberty” but that “the responsible decision to take is … to move to plan B in England.” 

But their arguments fell on deaf ears. In addition to the 99 Conservatives who voted against the passes, 40 voted against expanding the requirement for mask wearing. 

“I am sure that the prime minister will understand the strength of feeling within the party about the constraint of liberties,” Conservative former minister David Jones told Reuters. “He is a libertarian himself and I have no doubt that he will listen to the message from his party.” 

 
…

Britain will end a ban on visitors from 11 African countries aimed at combatting COVID-19, the government said Tuesday, despite an alarming spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

After the variant was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong in November, the British government compiled a travel “red list” of the 11 African nations later in the month.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced in parliament Tuesday that the ban would be lifted on Wednesday at 0400 GMT since the country had achieved community transmission of omicron.

“Now that there is community transmission of omicron in the U.K. and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of omicron from abroad,” he said.

While the ban remains in effect, only British citizens or residents arriving from the listed countries are allowed to enter the U.K. on condition they quarantine in a hotel at their expense.

The countries on the list are Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Javid said Monday that omicron, which is more transmissible than earlier variants, would be dominant in London “within 48 hours.” U.K. health authorities say omicron infections are doubling every two to three days, amounting to about 200,000 new cases daily.

South African scientists say the health effects of omicron may be less severe than the delta variant but warn it is premature to reach conclusions.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

The United Nations’ top refugee official is urging nations to strengthen their support for people fleeing conflict, persecution, and violence and to keep their borders open to people in need of international protection.

In a video, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, sets the scene for this two-day virtual event: “for centuries, experiences of exile and traditions of refuge have formed part of our collective heritage,” Grandi notes on the video clip. The meeting is the first follow-up to the Global Refugee Forum held two years ago. Nearly 1,400 pledges were made then to better support refugees and host communities.

Senior government officials, refugees and various partners are here to take stock of how many pledges have been kept. High Commissioner Grandi gives the global picture a mixed review.

He says countries are doing better at including refugees in national COVID-19 and health care responses, and in providing protection and greater livelihood opportunities. He says progress has been made toward eradicating statelessness and in the field of education.

He warns, however, that too many countries are turning their backs on people in need of safety and protection.

“To this end, I must repeat my grave concerns regarding certain trends in some of the world’s industrialized countries, including closed borders, sometimes very violent pushbacks, the construction of walls and barriers, the outsourcing of international legal and moral obligations concerning people’s right to seek asylum,” he expressed.

The UNHCR reports at least 83.4 million people have been forcibly displaced around the world, and of that number, 26.4 million are refugees. Developing countries host about 85 percent of the world’s refugees.

Grandi is calling on wealthier countries to assume a greater share of this responsibility. He also is appealing for more third country solutions to intractable refugee problems.

“Resettlement is of course a key avenue, and I am grateful to all those states that have continued to maintain or increase their resettlement quotas over the past years, as well as to the United States of America for reinvigorating its resettlement program,” he pointed out.

Officials attending the event will spotlight several key areas, including the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate action, and displacement.
…

A Belarusian court has delivered verdicts and harsh sentences to a group of bloggers, opposition activists, and the husband of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. All of those of them were rounded up by security officials before a controversial presidential election that saw authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko claim a sixth term in power despite widespread belief that the vote was rigged.

Rights groups consider all six of those sentenced in the southeastern city of Homel on Tuesday to be political prisoners. At 173 days, the trial was one of the longest in Belarus’s history.

The crackdown on the pro-democracy movement has only intensified since mass protests erupted in the wake of Lukashenko’s August 2020 reelection, which is not recognized by the opposition and the West.

Popular video blogger Syarhei Tsikhanouski , who intended to run against Lukashenko before being disqualified and ultimately arrested ahead of the election, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

After being disqualified, his political novice wife, Tsikhanouskaya, mobilized voters and won the election, according to the opposition and Western countries.

Tsikhanouskaya has been living in exile in Lithuania since fleeing Belarus after the election due to concerns about her safety and that of the couple’s two children.

“The very existence of these people is a crime for the regime. They’re repressed for wanting to live in a free Belarus,” Tsikhanouskaya said in a tweet immediately after news of the verdict broke.

“The dictator publicly takes revenge on his strongest opponents. While hiding the political prisoners in closed trials, he hopes to continue repressions in silence. But the whole world watches. We won’t stop,” she added.

Another blogger, Ihar Losik, who is also an RFE/RL consultant, was handed a sentence of 15 years. He was arrested before the election and accused of using his popular Telegram channel to prepare actions to violate public order.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly called on the Lukashenko regime to end its “reprehensible” treatment of Losik and other journalists.

“The closed-door trial he and his co-defendants have endured for the past five months has been an outrageous travesty of justice. We again call on the Lukashenko regime to stop their assault on news organizations and journalists and bloggers like Ihar and let him return to his wife and daughter,” Fly said ahead of the verdict.

Among the other defendants in the trial, former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich received a prison sentence of 14 years, opposition activist Uladzimer Tsyhanovich 15 years, activist Artsyom Sakau 16 tears, and another activist, Dzmitry Papou, 16 years.

The defendants, who have been in pretrial detention since their arrests, are accused of various alleged crimes, including organizing mass disorder, inciting social hatred, impeding the activities of the Central Election Commission, and organizing activities that disrupt social order. It’s unclear why some of the defendants are being tried together or the reason for the trial being held behind closed doors.

In the wake of the election, tens of thousands of people were detained and human rights activists say more than 800 people are considered political prisoners.

Independent media, opposition social-media channels, and civil society groups have also been harassed and shut down, while much of the opposition is either in prison or exile.
…

Students and faculty members from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music arrived with their families Monday in Portugal, where they are being granted asylum and where they hope to rebuild their acclaimed school. 

The 273-person group, including some 150 students, flew into Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, from Doha, Qatar. Their departure from Afghanistan was staggered in five airlifts to Doha over six weeks in October and November. 

“The arrival of the (institute’s) community today means that the first and most important step of saving lives and insuring freedom is now over,” said the institute’s founder and director, Dr. Ahmad Sarmast. 

Governments and corporate and private donors met the group’s evacuation and resettlement expenses. 

“From now on, (the institute’s) musicians will be a symbol of courage and resolve, not only for Afghan artists, but also for the people of Afghanistan, in their struggle against the oppression and tyranny of the Taliban,” Sarmast said.

The musicians are among tens of thousands of Afghans, including many from the country’s sports and arts community, who have fled since Taliban fighters seized Afghanistan in August, when the U.S. and NATO ended their 20-year military presence. 

The Afghanistan girls’ youth soccer team has also resettled in Portugal, a country of 10.3 million that has taken in 764 Afghans since summer. 

Afghanistan has a strong musical tradition, and a pop music scene had flourished there over the past two decades. But many musicians fear for their futures under the Taliban, which rules according to a harsh interpretation of Islamic law. 

The Afghanistan National Institute of Music, founded in 2010, was renowned for its inclusiveness. It became a symbol of a new Afghanistan, with boys and girls studying together and performing to full houses in the United States and Europe. 

The school’s campus in Kabul is now occupied by a Taliban faction. Its bank accounts were frozen and its offices ransacked, according to former school officials. 

The plan is to recreate the school in Portugal, allowing the students to continue their educations, as part of a wider Lisbon-based center for Afghan culture that will welcome exiles. 

 
…

Russia has vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that warns about the security implications of climate change, with its envoy calling it “unacceptable” for his government. 

“We are against creating a new area for the council’s work which establishes a generic, automatic connection between climate change and international security, turning a scientific and socio-economic issue into a politicized question,” Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vassily Nebenzia said just before casting his veto.

Twelve Security Council members voted to adopt the resolution Monday, while China abstained and India voted no.

“The force of the veto can block the approval of a text, but it cannot hide our reality,” said Ambassador Abdou Abarry of Niger, who along with Ireland’s ambassador, penned the draft. 

India’s envoy asked what a resolution could achieve that the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) could not. 

“Why is it that one needs a U.N. Security Council resolution to take action on climate change, when we have commitments under the UNFCC toward concerted climate action?” Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti asked. 

In a rare occurrence, the text was co-sponsored by 113 countries from the U.N. membership, showing the majority’s belief that the council should consider the link between global warming and security issues. 

While the Security Council has considered climate change in some of its work, this would have been the first time it singled out the subject for a resolution of its own. 

“This resolution is about enabling the U.N. Security Council to address climate change with the tools it has within its mandate,” Ireland’s envoy Geraldine Byrne Nason said before the vote. “The council has already taken steps to integrate climate-related security risks into some of its mandated operations.” 

Among the sponsors were several small island states in the Pacific, who say global warming and rising seas could put their countries underwater, as well as nations in Africa’s Sahel — Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria — where climate events including recurring severe droughts have contributed to intercommunal fighting. 

U.S. envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield said climate change is “a threat to every person, in every nation, on every continent” and clearly within the council’s purview.

“We categorically reject the notion that Security Council action undermines the Paris Agreement and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change,” she said. “In fact, it does exactly the opposite. The Security Council can and should complement, support, and reinforce our collective work under the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC in ways that are necessary to fight this security threat.” 

China, India and Russia have drafted a resolution of their own focused on the situation in Africa’s Sahel, where climate has been linked to conflict. China’s envoy urged council members and the wider U.N. membership to support that text instead. 

“China, Russia and India have jointly submitted a draft resolution focusing on security issues in the Sahel region, including climate change challenges,” Ambassador Zhang Jun told the council. “The aim of which is to effectively respond to the specific concerns of the countries in the Sahel region.” 

No date has been announced for a vote on their text. 

Speaking to reporters after the failed adoption, Irish Ambassador Byrne Nason said the Security Council must adjust to a changing world. 

“This council will never live up to its mandate for international peace and security if it does not adapt,” she said. “It must reflect the moment we are now living in, the threats to international peace and security which we now face.” 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been at the forefront of global efforts to mitigate the impact of global warming. His spokesman said the secretariat would continue to integrate climate risks into its political analysis, conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts.
…

An imprisoned Azerbaijani activist says he is now refusing to drink water as he enters his 38th day of a hunger strike to protest what he calls his wrongful imprisonment.

Initially detained on narcotic possession charges, Saleh Rustamov, a government critic and opposition activist, was later sentenced to seven years and three months of imprisonment on additional charges including money laundering and illegal entrepreneurship.

Numerous human rights organizations and international observers view the charges as politically motivated.

Rustamov previously warned authorities that he would continue his hunger strike until death. On Monday, his lawyer, Bahruz Bayramov, told VOA that Rustamov announced that he would start refusing water.

“He can no longer walk. He has no strength to walk,” Bayramov said. “He has lost 17 kilograms in weight. His speech is slurred, and he cannot sleep due to pain.”

On Friday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price urged the Azerbaijani government to release Rustamov on “humanitarian grounds,” saying U.S. officials are deeply troubled by reports of his worsening condition.

The rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Azerbaijan raised alarms about Rustamov’s condition as early as October. 

“Mr. Rustamov’s case is one of many examples of the lack of independence of the justice illustrated by a long-standing pattern of repression of the government’s critics which is a major concern in Azerbaijan,” Austria’s Stefan Schennach and Britain’s Richard Bacon said in a statement calling upon the Azerbaijani authorities to review the cases of all alleged political prisoners.

Azerbaijani authorities have not responded to the international calls with regard with Rustamov’s case. The request by the European Court of Human Rights for Azerbaijani authorities to report on Rustamov’s state of health has gone unanswered.

The Penitentiary Services of Azerbaijan’s Justice Ministry issued a statement on December 9 calling the reports on social media regarding Rustamov’s health “untruthful,” although it did confirm that he was refusing food.

The statement noted the authorities have facilitated visits to the prisoner by the representatives of the International Red Cross, Ombudsman’s Office and civil rights activists.

In recent weeks, dozens of protesters took to the streets of capital city Baku to demand Rustamov’s release.

The protests were quickly dispersed as the police detained the activists, severely beating some of them.

Rustamov, who had served in the government during the 1992-93 rule of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, had been living in Russia since 1997.

Rustamov was arrested in May of 2018 when he returned to Azerbaijan to attend the funeral of a relative.
…

As Europe starts vaccinating younger children, countries are pursuing very different strategies in what will be a major test of parents’ willingness to get their kids inoculated. 

One region in Italy is sending in clowns and jugglers to clinics, France and Germany are targeting only the most vulnerable kids, while Denmark has been administering shots even before the specially-designed vials and syringes have arrived. 

“Vaccination must be a game, a joyful moment when children can feel at ease,” said Alessio D’Amato, health chief of the central Lazio region, in a video as he declared Dec. 15 “Vax Day” for children in the region. 

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the use of Pfizer’s lower-dose vaccine on the 5-11 age group last month, following the go-ahead for older children in May. 

The first deliveries of the smaller pediatric vials will not arrive until Monday though. Timings for the rollout vary, but most countries are preparing to start getting shots into young arms a day or two after the first shipments arrive. 

Belgium may not start roll-out until early January while the national authorities prepare to issue guidance. 

Spain, which ranks among the world’s most-highly immunized countries with 90% of people aged 12 or over fully vaccinated, will start inoculating younger children on Dec. 15. 

Inoculating children and young people, who can unwittingly transmit COVID-19 to others at higher risk of serious illness, is considered a critical step towards taming the pandemic. In Germany and the Netherlands, kids now account for the majority of cases. 

The roll-out comes as the European Union battles a major wave of infections, accounting for well over half of global infections and 50% of deaths globally. 

Some 27 million 5-11 year olds are eligible for the vaccine in the bloc of about 450 million. 

Parents worry

But a major hurdle will be winning over parents. 

In the Netherlands, 42% of almost 1,800 parents with kids in the 5-12 age range said they would not get their children inoculated and 12% said they would probably decline, according to a poll by Dutch current affairs television program Een Vandaag. Only 30% said they would get their kids vaccinated. 

A survey in Italy by polling firm Noto Sondaggi published on Dec. 5 found that almost two-thirds of those surveyed backed vaccinations, but the percentage dropped to 40% among parents with children aged 5-12 years old. 

A lack of data on the effects on children was given as the main reason for the hesitancy, while a third thought that children would be less likely to get infected and 9% worried about long-term side-effects. 

The U.S. roll-out has been sluggish since it started last month. Of the 28 million eligible U.S. children in that age group, around 5 million have received at least one dose. 

Some parents have been concerned about reports of heart inflammation, a rare vaccine side effect seen in young men at higher rates than the rest of the population. 

Last week, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had not found any reports of the condition among 5–11-year-old recipients of the vaccine. 

No serious safety concerns related to the vaccine have been identified in clinical trials, Pfizer and BioNTech have said. 

“The data show that it is safe, effective, and with results very similar to those for older children,” said Dr Luigi Greco, a pediatrician and Lombardy regional manager for training for the Italian family pediatricians’ union. 

Still, some governments are limiting the rollout until there is more data available. 

In France, only kids who are overweight or who have a serious health condition will be offered access to vaccination to start with. 

Germany’s vaccination advisory commission STIKO said it could not make a general recommendation for the vaccine due to limited data available. 

It recommended that children aged five to 11 with pre-existing conditions be given a shot.   

Captain vaccine

Some health authorities aren’t even waiting for the specially-made kits to arrive, however, instead using vaccines in stock for adults but extracting only a third of the dose. 

When the Austrian capital Vienna last month opened the first 9,200 slots for inoculating kids, all the appointments were booked within days. 

Denmark followed suit on Nov. 28, saying there was no time to lose. After less than two weeks, more than 49,000 children aged 6 to 11 had received their first shot, around 13% of that age group. 

The German state of Saxony, among the hardest hit by surging COVID-19 infections, started vaccinating at-risk children under 12 years of age. 

On Friday, Franz Knoppe travelled more than 100 kilometers to the Leipzig Heart Centre in the state’s most populous city from Chemnitz with his two children, aged seven and 11, for a kids’ vaccination drive. 

“We were so happy that vaccinations for children under the age of 12 are possible now,” he told Reuters at the hospital.  

Mathilda, who did not provide her last name, was at the hospital with her six-year old daughter Erna. 

“It’s important to vaccinate the children and to offer safety, just like for adults,” Mathilda said. 

Regional authorities in Italy, meanwhile, are coming up with inventive ways to entertain and engage kids while they get jabbed and making it easy for parents to arrange a slot. 

In Liguria, the authorities have created a cartoon superhero called Captain Vaccine who carries a doctor’s bag and dons a white coat with a big “V” printed on his chest.  He stars in a comic to be distributed in vaccination centers. 
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Britain has recorded its first death from the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the death Monday, the day after he warned during a nationally televised speech that Britain was facing a “tidal wave” of new infections from omicron.

Johnson announced his government was launching a campaign to get everyone in the country a third shot of the COVID-19 vaccine by New Year’s Eve, accelerating his previous deadline by a full month.

The prime minister said that more than 40 military planning teams will be deployed across the country to establish vaccination centers, and ordered primary doctors, known in Britain as general practitioners, or GPs, to postpone appointments for routine medical procedures to help meet the goal of vaccinating 1 million people a day.

The government raised the COVID-19 alert level Sunday before Johnson’s speech from level three to level four – its second-highest — warning that omicron is spreading much faster than the delta variant, which would overwhelm the National Health Service with new case. Recent studies suggest a third dose is more effective in preventing infections from omicron than the standard two-dose regimen.

Prime Minister Johnson’s accelerated vaccination campaign comes as he faces a revolt from members of his Conservative party over his government’s new restrictions, including mandatory mask wearing and requiring people to show proof they have been vaccinated before they can enter large venues.

Johnson is also under fire over revelations that his staff held parties at his official office and residence on 10 Downing Street last year despite a strict lockdown imposed on the public.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
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Rescuers were pulling out bodies on Monday from the rubble of houses destroyed by a suspected gas explosion on Saturday in the Sicilian town of Ravanusa, with the national fire service confirming at least seven people had died in the incident. 

Sniffer dogs found four bodies in the early hours of the morning, including a nurse that was nine-months pregnant, and firefighters and men from the Civil Protection Department were extracting them from the wreckage, according to a Reuters Witness. 

Three bodies were found in the night between Saturday and Sunday and two people are still missing, a spokesman for the national fire service said on RAI NEW24 television. 

In the explosion late on Saturday, four houses collapsed and another three were damaged, authorities said, adding the blast was likely triggered by a gas leak from the town’s pipes, although an investigation was underway to ascertain the cause. 

Ravanusa is a town of about 11,000 people near the southwestern Sicilian city of Agrigento, which is famous for its Greek temples. 
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Four people were due to go on trial in Britain on Monday in connection with the toppling of a statue of a 17th-century slave trader during anti-racism protests.

Demonstrators pulled down the bronze memorial to Edward Colston in Bristol, western England, on June 7 last year, then dragged it to the city’s harbor and threw it in the River Avon.

The actions came as part of global Black Lives Matter protests prompted by the killing by a white police officer of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in the United States the previous month.

Four people were arrested following the toppling of the statue of Colston, a leading figure in the Royal Africa Company, which forcibly moved large numbers of West Africans.

Their trial on charges of criminal damage to the listed monument is due to start at 1000 GMT at Bristol Crown Court on Monday, according to court documents. 

The defendants — Rhian Graham, 29, Milo Ponsford, 25, Jake Skuse, 36, and Sage Willoughby, 21 — have pleaded not guilty.

To support them, the artist Banksy, who comes from Bristol, announced he would be selling T-shirts to mark the occasion for $33.

“All proceeds to the defendants so they can go for a pint,” the elusive graffiti artist wrote on his Instagram page.

The limited-edition grey souvenir tops have a picture of Colston’s empty plinth with a rope hanging off, debris and a discarded sign, as well as the word “BRISTOL” written above.

The Black Lives Matter protests have forced Britain into a reckoning with its colonial past, prompting a reassessment of statues, road names and buildings linked to historical figures associated with slavery.

Several Bristol institutions bearing Colston’s name have since changed their name to avoid negative associations with him and the slave trade.

The statue, which had stood in the city since 1895, was recovered from the Avon and put on display with placards from the event, along with explanations of what happened and why.

The empty plinth was temporarily replaced by a statue of a female protester from the day, but it was taken down within 24 hours as it did not have local authority permission.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is pressing ahead with contentious legislation to toughen jail terms for vandalism of historical artifacts.

During the countrywide protests, a statue of Johnson’s hero, Winston Churchill, was defaced near parliament, branding the World War II leader a racist.

High-profile protests have also been held in Oxford, calling for the removal of a statue of the 19th century colonialist Cecil Rhodes.
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Greece’s third-largest group in parliament on Sunday elected a European Parliament lawmaker as its new leader.

Nikos Androulakis defeated former Prime Minister George Papandreou to lead the Movement for Change, a socialist coalition.

Partial results shortly before 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) showed the 42-year-old Androulakis with 68.4% of the vote compared to 31.6% for the 69-year-old Papandreou. Papandreou called his rival to congratulate him.

Androulakis, a civil engineer, started his political career as a leader of the youth wing of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, or PASOK, one of the parties in the Movement for Change.

With 22 lawmakers in the 300-member Greek Parliament, Movement for Change is Greece’s third-largest political grouping behind ruling conservative New Democracy and left-wing Syriza. It gained 8.1% of the vote in Greece’s last national election, in July 2019.

The socialist PASOK ruled Greece from 1981-89, 1993-2004, 2009-11 and 2011-15 — the last four years in coalition with New Democracy.

The socialist vote collapsed during Greece’s financial crisis, which began under a right-wing government but whose extent was revealed on Papandreou’s watch as prime minister.

Androulakis, a self-styled social democrat, is considered less likely than Papandreou to seek an alliance with Syriza.

The leadership contest took an unexpected turn with the death of Movement for Change leader Fofi Gennimata, 56, of cancer, on Oct. 25.

More than 206,000 party members and friends voted Sunday, fewer than the 270,000 who showed up in the first round of the voting last week.

 
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday that Britain faces a “tidal wave” of infections from the omicron coronavirus variant and announced a huge increase in booster vaccinations to strengthen defenses against it.

In a televised statement, Johnson said everyone age 18 and older will be offered a third shot of vaccine by the end of this month in response to the omicron “emergency.” The previous target was the end of January.

He said cases of the highly transmissible variant are doubling every two to three days and “there is a tidal wave of omicron coming.”

“And I’m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need,” Johnson said. “But the good news is that our scientists are confident that with a third dose – a booster dose – we can all bring our level of protection back up.” 

He announced a “national mission” to deliver booster vaccines, with pop-up vaccination centers, seven-day-a-week clinics getting support from teams of military planners and thousands of volunteer vaccinators.

Johnson’s Dec. 31 target applies to England. The other parts of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — are also expected to speed up their vaccination campaigns.

U.K. scientists believe existing vaccines appear less effective in preventing symptomatic infections in people exposed to omicron, though preliminary data show that effectiveness appears to rise to between 70% and 75% after a third vaccine dose.

Johnson’s announcement came hours after the government raised the country’s official coronavirus threat level on Sunday, warning the rapid spread of the omicron variant had pushed the U.K. into risky territory.

The chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said the emergence of the highly transmissible new strain “adds additional and rapidly increasing risk to the public and health care services” at a time when COVID-19 is already widespread. They recommended raising the alert level from 3 to 4 on a 5-point scale.

The top level, 5, indicates authorities think the health care system is about to be overwhelmed.

The doctors said early evidence shows omicron is spreading much faster than the currently dominant delta variant, and that vaccines offer less protection against it. British officials say omicron is likely to replace delta as the dominant strain in the U.K. within days.

“Data on severity will become clearer over the coming weeks but hospitalizations from omicron are already occurring and these are likely to increase rapidly,” they said.

Concerns about the new variant led Johnson’s Conservative government to reintroduce restrictions that were lifted almost six months ago. Masks must be worn in most indoor settings, COVID-19 certificates must be shown to enter nightclubs and people are being urged to work from home if possible.

Many scientists say that’s unlikely to be enough, however, and are calling for tougher measures, which the government so far has resisted.

Scientists in South Africa, where omicron was first identified, say they see signs it may cause less severe disease than delta, but caution that it is too soon to be certain.
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A volcanic eruption in Spain’s Canary Islands shows no sign of ending after 85 days, becoming the island of La Palma’s longest eruption on record Sunday. 

The eruption has surged and ebbed since it first began spewing lava on Sept. 19. It has since destroyed almost 3,000 local buildings and forced several thousand people to abandon their homes.

On Sunday, after several days of low-level activity, the Cumbre Vieja volcano suddenly sprang to life again, producing loud explosions and blowing a vast cloud of ash high into the sky. 

Scientists say volcanic eruptions are unpredictable. Spanish experts had initially said the La Palma eruption could last up to three months. 

Mariano Hernández, the island’s senior government official, described the volcano as “stable” in recent days. 

“The fact is that all the key indicators have been low,” he told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE. “But the scientists won’t say exactly when it might come to an end.” 

He said experts continue to measure the number and magnitude of earthquakes in the area and local sulfur dioxide levels. 

From Saturday to Sunday, authorities recorded 24 earthquakes, but none was felt by local people. 

Despite the damage, no injuries or deaths have been directly linked to the eruption. Much of the area covered by rivers of lava, which are dumping molten rock into the sea, is farmland. 

Life has continued largely as normal on most of La Palma, where a section of the southwestern side is hardest hit. 

The volcanic Canary Islands, which are a favorite warm weather vacation site for Europeans, lie off Africa’s northwest coast. 
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Three people were killed and six are still missing after a gas explosion late on Saturday caused several residential buildings in the Sicilian town of Ravanusa to collapse, Italian authorities said on Sunday.

Two apartment blocks in the town of 11,000 people were completely destroyed and several other buildings had partially collapsed in the blast.

Firemen were still searching the site for survivors.

Two people were found alive under the rubble and six people were missing, the captain of the local fire brigade, Giuseppe Merendino, said on Sunday.

A spokesman for Italy’s Civil Protection said three people had been killed. Earlier the disaster agency had said four people were killed in the blast.

A priest who was celebrating mass nearby on Saturday evening said he heard a loud roar and saw flames rising from a group of houses.

“It is a huge tragedy… Let’s pray to ask God to avoid more deaths,” said the priest, Filippo Barbera.
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The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is condemning the forced expulsion of asylum seekers and migrants by Libyan authorities, warning of the risks many face when returned to the homes they fled to escape persecution.

Two large groups of Sudanese are among those forcibly deported from Libya over the past month. United Nations monitors say most have been summarily expelled from the Ganfouda and al-Kufra detention centers. Both centers are controlled by the Interior Ministry’s Department for Combatting illegal Migration. The monitors say the Sudanese apparently have been transported across the Sahara Desert to the Libya-Sudan border and dumped there. 

The U.N. Human Rights Office says Libya’s expulsion of the Sudanese asylum seekers and migrants without due process and procedural guarantees violates international human rights and refugee law.

U.N. spokesman Rupert Colville says the group of 18 Sudanese expelled Monday reportedly were arrested, detained, and arbitrarily expelled. He says no hearing was held to assess their need for protection from persecution, torture, and other abuse in their home country. He says they were not granted legal assistance. 

“Those expelled have often already survived a range of other serious human rights violations and abuses in Libya at the hands of both state and nonstate actors, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, trafficking, sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment,” he said.

Colville says other migrants from Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, and Chad —including children and pregnant women — also have been detained in recent months. He says they either already have been expelled or are at imminent risk of deportation. 

“Now of immediate concern is a group of 24 Eritreans who are currently being held in the same Ganfouda detention center, and who are believed also to be at risk of imminent deportation,” he said. “On the third of December, we were informed that, in a pattern mirroring the experience of the expelled Sudanese, they had been transferred to the al-Kufra detention center in preparation for their deportation.”

The U.N. high commissioner’s office is calling on the authorities to protect the rights of all asylum seekers and migrants in Libya. It says they should investigate all claims of violations and abuse and bring perpetrators to justice in fair trials. It urges Libya to meet its obligations under international human rights law, which prohibits collective expulsions.
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The G-7 on Sunday said time was running out for Iran to agree a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions and warned Russia about the consequences of invading Ukraine.

Foreign ministers from the world’s richest nations have held a two-day meeting in Liverpool, northwest England, seeking to present a strong, united front against global threats.

On Iran, G-7 host Britain said resumed talks in Vienna were the Islamic Republic’s “last chance to come to the negotiating table with a serious resolution.”

“There is still time for Iran to come and agree this deal,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told a news conference as talks wrapped up.

Negotiations restarted on Thursday to try to revive the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers, which the United States withdrew from under Donald Trump in 2018.

Iran claims it only wants to develop a civilian capability, but Western powers say its stockpile of enriched uranium goes well beyond that and could be used to develop a nuclear weapon.

U.S. President Joe Biden has said he is ready to return to the agreement and Iranian officials maintain they are serious about committing to the talks.

But Western powers have accused Tehran of backsliding on progress made earlier this year and are playing for time.

Truss’ comments are the first time a signatory to the original deal has given an ultimatum for the talks. 

Russian troop build-up

Britain, which hands over the G-7 presidency to Germany next year, portrayed the two-day conference in Liverpool, northwest England, as a chance to stand up to authoritarianism around the world.

As well as Iran, Russia’s build-up of troops on the border with Ukraine dominated talks, given fears of a possible invasion of the former Soviet state.

Truss said there was “very much a united voice… that there will be massive consequences for Russia in the case of an incursion into Ukraine.”

A senior US State Department official on Saturday said “a large number of democratic countries” were ready to join the G-7 nations of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States in taking action.

Biden earlier this week held a virtual summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to voice Western concerns.

He is sending his top diplomat for Europe and Eurasian affairs to Kiev and Moscow next week to try to end the stand-off by diplomatic means.

Russia says the military build-up is a defensive measure against Ukraine moving closer to NATO.

Pope Francis brought up Ukraine when speaking to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. 

“I would like to assure my prayer for the dear Ukraine, for all its churches and religious communities and for all its people, that tensions will now be resolved through serious international dialogue and not with weapons,” he said following the Angelus prayer.

China looms

From Liverpool, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flies on to southeast Asia as part of Washington’s push for “peace, security and prosperity” in the Indo-Pacific region. 

Britain’s G-7 presidency this year has been dominated by responding to Beijing’s alleged widespread domestic rights abuses, as well as creeping authoritarianism in its former colony, Hong Kong.

Earlier this week, a panel of human rights experts and lawyers said China had committed genocide in its Xinjiang region by imposing population controls on minority Muslim Uyghurs.

Beijing rejected the report, accusing it of “anti-China” bias.

Truss said she and her counterparts were concerned about China’s “coercive economic policies” and there was a need to counter them with their own initiatives as an alternative.

“What we want to do is build the investment reach, the economic trade reach of like-minded freedom-loving democracies,” she added.

“That is why we’re stepping up our investment into low and middle-income countries.”

At a G-7 leaders’ meeting in June in Cornwall, southwest England, the grouping unveiled plans for what it said was a more equitable global infrastructure fund than China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The Chinese trillion-dollar scheme has been widely criticized for saddling smaller countries, particularly in Africa, with unmanageable debt. 
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