Talks between Britain and the European Union over a future trade deal are going to the wire, as the end of the Brexit transition period approaches fast. Henry Ridgwell reports EU leaders meet in Brussels Thursday as the bloc faces urgent budget concerns.Camera: Henry Ridgwell    Produced by: Jason Godman 
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Georgian leaders Wednesday in Tbilisi where he expressed support for Georgia’s sovereignty and strengthening of democratic institutions. On the latest stop of his multi-nation tour visiting allies in Europe and the Middle East, Pompeo held talks with Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, followed by a session with Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia and Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani. Gahkaria called U.S.-Georgia relations his country’s “most important partnership” and said Georgia appreciates U.S. support of its territorial integrity.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with civil society leaders in Tbilisi, Georgia, Nov. 18, 2020.Russia has occupied Georgia’s two breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia since a brief 2008 war. The State Department said Pompeo’s focus included urging further progress in democratic reforms in Georgia.  At the start of his meeting with Gakharia and Zalkaliani, Pompeo cited the need for free and fair elections, as well as the opportunity for robust debate. From Georgia, Pompeo is due to travel to Israel where he will discuss with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Israel’s recent agreements normalizing relations with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The rest of the trip includes stops in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. 
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Iota continues to pound Nicaragua with strong winds and heavy rains even after weakening from a hurricane to a tropical storm. As of late Tuesday night, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Iota was carrying maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers an hour on a path towards Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  Forecasters say Tropical Storm Iota will dump between 7 to 20 kilometers of rain on a stretch of Central America from southern Nicaragua to southern Belize overnight, leading to “significant, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding,” along with mudslides in higher areas. The storm is expected to weaken to a tropical depression through the night before dissipating sometime Wednesday.A woman sits near her house damaged the passing of Hurricane Iota, in Puerto Cabezas, Nov. 18, 2020.Iota made landfall Monday on the northeastern coast of Nicaragua Monday carrying maximum winds of 210 kilometers an hour, then grew in speed to 250 kilometers an hour, becoming a Category 5 storm — the top level on the five-level scale that measures a storm’s potential destructiveness.   The storm left scores of communities cut off from the outside world and forced thousands of residents to evacuate their homes.  At least eight people across the region have been killed, including two children who reportedly drowned while trying to cross a flooded river in Nicaragua. At least one person died in Providencia island, located in Colombia’s Caribbean archipelago, while another person was killed in Panama’s western Ngabe Bugle indigenous community.Iota is the 30th named storm of this year’s record-setting Atlantic hurricane season.  It struck just south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall on November 3 as a Category 4 storm, triggering flash flooding and landslides over parts of Central America and killing more than 130 people. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson triggered anger Monday in Scotland when he called the decision to grant Scotland governing powers “a disaster,” and said he did not support granting the nation any additional powers. The reported comments come as surveys show rising support for a second independence referendum.British media report Johnson made the remarks in a virtual meeting with northern English lawmakers from his Conservative Party. He said granting Scotland self-governing powers – or devolution – introduced by former Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair, had been Blair’s “biggest mistake.” Johnson’s office did not deny the comment.Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, proponent of an independence referendum, responded Tuesday to Johnson’s comments via Twitter.“Worth bookmarking these PM comments for the next time Tories (Conservatives) say they’re not a threat to the powers of the Scottish Parliament – or, even more incredibly, that they support devolving more powers. The only way to protect & strengthen (the Scottish parliament) is with independence.”Scots rejected an independence referendum in 2014 by a vote of 55  to 45 percent. But relations have soured following the Brexit vote which Britain supported and Scotland rejected, and by what has been viewed by many Scots as the British government’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.Recent public opinion surveys show a majority of Scots support independence. British Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick sought to defend Johnson’s comments, saying the disaster the prime minister referred to was the rise of nationalism in the form of Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party. 
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The U.S. Justice Department is dropping its drug trafficking and money laundering case against former Mexican defense secretary Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday. Barr said the department would drop its case so Cienfuegos “may be investigated and, if appropriate, charged, under Mexican law.” Cienfuegos, who was charged in federal court in Brooklyn, was arrested in Los Angeles last month.  Cienfuegos, who led Mexico’s army for six years under ex-President Enrique Peña Nieto, was the highest-ranking former Cabinet official arrested since the top Mexican security official Genaro Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas in 2019. Cienfuegos was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York in 2019 and accused of conspiring to participate in an international drug distribution and money laundering scheme. Prosecutors alleged he helped the H-2 cartel smuggle thousands of kilos of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana while he was defense secretary from 2012 to 2018.  Prosecutors said intercepted messages showed Cienfuegos worked to ensure that the military did not take action against the cartel and that operations were initiated against rivals in exchange for bribes. He was also accused of introducing cartel leaders to other corrupt Mexican officials.  In court papers last month, U.S. prosecutors had argued Cienfuegos was a significant flight risk and said he would “likely seek to leverage his connections to high level H-2 Cartel members in Mexico, as well as former high-level corrupt government officials, to assist him in fleeing from U.S. law enforcement and shelter him in Mexico.” Had he been convicted of the charges in the U.S., he would’ve faced at least 10 years in federal prison.  Under Cienfuegos, the Mexican army was accused of frequent human rights abuses, but that was true of both his predecessors and his successor in the post. The worst scandal in Cienfuegos’ tenure involved the 2014 army killings of suspects in a grain warehouse. FILE – Blood is seen on the wall of a building in the Tlatlaya community after 22 people, alleged members of the drug cartel, were killed in a confrontation with soldiers of the Mexican Army, in Tlatlaya, Mexico, June 30, 2014.The June 2014 massacre involved soldiers who killed 22 suspects at the warehouse in the town of Tlatlaya. While some died in an initial shootout with the army patrol — in which one soldier was wounded — a human rights investigation later showed that at least eight and perhaps as many as a dozen suspects were executed after they surrendered. Barr said in a joint statement with Mexican Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero that the U.S. Justice Department had made the decision to drop the U.S. case in recognition “of the strong law enforcement partnership between Mexico and the United States, and in the interests of demonstrating our united front against all forms of criminality.”  The Justice Department said it has provided Mexico with evidence collected in the case. 
 
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People in Central America and the aid agencies lining up to help them are bracing for the potentially catastrophic consequences of Hurricane Iota, just two weeks after Hurricane Eta made landfall in the region, causing death and destruction and affecting nearly five million people.  World Meteorological Organization spokeswoman Claire Nullis said that, for the first time on record, the Atlantic has had two major hurricanes in November — a time of year when the season is normally winding down. Nicaragua, Honduras and other parts of Central America have not recovered from Hurricane Eta, yet are being slammed by Iota, with risks of flooding, mudslides and landslides, Nullis warned.  Honduran soldiers hold a baby as they evacuate residents in anticipation of heavy rains as Hurricane Iota approaches, in Marcovia, Honduras, Nov. 17, 2020.In anticipation of Hurricane Iota, International Red Cross Federation volunteers have been positioning basic relief items in Nicaragua, IFRC spokesman Matthew Cochrane said. In addition, he said, the Red Cross has positioned rescue boats in Honduras, in anticipation of launching major search-and-rescue operations once the storm passes.  The Red Cross also was involved in preventative evacuations over the past few days.   Spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke, told VOA it is too soon to know the extent of damage caused by Iota, but said the impact is likely to be worse than that from Hurricane Eta, which is growing in severity.  “For example, Honduras authorities now report that three million people are affected. That is one million more than the figure that they reported last week,” Laerke said. “In Guatemala, we are talking about 900,000 people directly affected by Eta. That is nearly triple the figure from the previous weeks.”   Eta is still a developing emergency made far worse by Hurricane Iota, Laerke said.    
 
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Germany accused Russia and China on Tuesday of preventing a United Nations Security Council committee from determining whether North Korea has breached a U.N. cap on refined petroleum imports by the isolated Asian state. The Security Council has ratcheted up sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. In 2017, it imposed an annual cap of 500,000 barrels on refined petroleum imports. China and Russia are the only countries to have notified the Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee of refined petroleum exports to Pyongyang, but they did so in tonnes instead of barrels, and the committee has been unable to agree on a conversion rate so it can determine when the cap was reached. “Despite numerous attempts — the issue has been on the agenda for no less than three years — to find an agreement on a conversion rate, Russia and China have been stalling the process,” German U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, chairman of the sanctions committee, told reporters. “While this shouldn’t be a complicated matter to solve, it has become clear that the two delegations are politicizing this topic,” Heusgen said after raising the issue behind closed doors in a formal Security Council meeting. The Russian and Chinese missions to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For the past three years, the United States and dozens of allies have accused North Korea of breaching the fuel cap through illicit imports and called for an immediate halt to all deliveries. However, Russia and China repeatedly prevented the sanctions committee from issuing such a statement. 
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Hurricane Iota continued to lash strong winds and rain on northeast Nicaragua on Tuesday after having made landfall late Monday. Iota weakened from a Category 5 to a Category 4 before making landfall, packing winds of 210 kilometers per hour. Iota is now categorized as a tropical storm as it moves to Honduras, according to the National Hurricane Center, which warned that much of Central America must be prepared for possible mudslides through Thursday. Many people hunkered down in shelters, while the Nicaraguan government evacuated thousands of residents in low-lying coastal areas ahead of the storm. One resident in the seaside town of Bilwi, business owner Adán Artola Schultz, told the Associated Press that metal structures banging and buckling in the wind sounded “like bullets.”  Jason Bermudez, a university student from Bilwi, told AP that several houses lost their roofs, with fences and fruit trees knocked down. “(We) will never forget this year,” Bermudez said. According to witnesses and Nicaraguan officials, many roofs were blown off buildings and power lines had fallen, with some reported cuts in phone and internet service. No deaths in Nicaragua were confirmed so far on Tuesday, said Guillermo Gonzalez, head of Nicaragua’s disaster management agency SINAPRED.“The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Iota is making landfall in almost the exact same location that Category 4 Hurricane Eta did a little less than two weeks ago,” the National Hurricane Center said in a statement. Iota came ashore south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall on November 3, also as a Category 4 storm. Hurricane Eta killed more than 130 people, as the heavy rains caused flash flooding and landslides over parts of Central America. 
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The U.S. Department of Defense said Tuesday an American warship “intercepted and destroyed” an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) target in a test conducted Monday northeast of Hawaii.A destroyer equipped with an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System destroyed the mock long-range missile in flight with an SM-3 Block IIA missile, according to the Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 13 MB540p | 18 MB720p | 37 MBOriginal | 186 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioWATCH: A missile launched from the USS John Finn intercepts and destroys an intercontinental ballistic missile target during a flight test demonstration northeast of Hawaii, Nov. 16, 2020, in this video released by the US Missile Defense Agency.“We have demonstrated that an Aegis BMD-equipped vessel equipped with the SM-3 Block IIA missile can defeat an ICBM-class target,” said Vice Admiral and MDA Director Jon Hill.The Pentagon has previously conducted tests against ICBM targets by launching interceptors from underground silos in the United States. The ship-based approach could bolster the existing U.S. missile defense system if more challenging tests in the future are successful. The success of Monday’s test is especially likely to draw interest from North Korea, whose development of ICBM’s and nuclear weapons is the primary reason the Defense Department has worked to hasten the development of missile defense systems over the past decade.Additionally, China and Russia have voiced concern that the U.S. could use its missile defense capabilities to weaken the deterrent value of their nuclear forces.Carla Babb contributed to this report.
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Azerbaijan’s Turkish-supported victory over Armenian forces in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave has provided Ankara an opportunity to expand its influence in the Caucuses at the expense of Russia.  That’s the conclusion of some observers – as Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.Camera: VOA
Producer: Rod James
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Hurricane Iota made landfall along the northeastern coast of Nicaragua late Monday night and flash flooding and landslides are expected across Central America. The National Hurricane Center said Iota struck Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm, with winds of 210 kilometers per hour. Many people hunkered down in shelters while the Nicaraguan government evacuated thousands of residents in low lying coastal areas ahead of the storm. One resident in the seaside town of Bilwi, business owner Business owner Adán Artola Schultz, described the sound of metal structures banging and buckling in the wind as “like bullets” to the Associated Press.  Jason Bermúdez, a university student from Bilwi, told AP a lot of houses have lost their roofs, fences and fruit trees that got knocked down. Bermúdez said “(W)e will never forget this year.” “The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Iota is making landfall in almost the exact same location that category 4 Hurricane Eta did a little less than two weeks ago,” the Hurricane Center said in a statement. Iota came ashore south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall Nov. 3, also as a Category 4 storm. Hurricane Eta killed more than 130 people as the heavy rains caused flash flooding and landslides over parts of Central America. 
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Francisco Sagasti of Peru’s centrist Purple Party is set to become the country’s third president in the span of a week after most of the Congress voted him chairman of the legislative body.Sagasti became interim president by congressional action Monday because Peru currently has no president or vice president and the head of Congress is the next in line.Peru’s state-run Adina news agency reports once Sagasti rises to leader of the country, Mirtha Vasque, who was chosen Vice Chairwoman, will become head of the Congress.Sagasti will be charged with trying to begin reconciliation in the country following a week of turmoil over the Congressional ouster of popular ex-President Martín Vizcarra.Manuel Merino, who was sworn in as the interim president last Tuesday after his colleagues voted to impeach Vizcarra, abruptly resigned on Sunday, leaving Peru without a leader.Many Peruvians are hopeful Sagasti’s appointment will mark the end to a week of protests, which left two young men dead and dozens of others injured.
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A British diplomat leaped into a river in southwestern China and rescued a drowning student over the weekend, Britain’s embassy in Beijing and Chinese state media said. Stephen Ellison, the 61-year-old British consul-general in Chongqing, jumped into the water in the municipality on Saturday after spotting the struggling female student, who had fallen in by accident, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported. A video of the incident posted on the British embassy’s Twitter account shows a woman drifting facedown in the water as onlookers scream in panic, before the diplomat takes off his shoes, plunges in and swims to her aid. We are all immensely proud of our Chongqing Consul General, Stephen Ellison, who dived into a river on Saturday to rescue a drowning student and swim her to safety. pic.twitter.com/OOgXqsK5oe— UK in China 🇬🇧 (@ukinchina) November 16, 2020 A life preserver is then tossed into the river, enabling people on the bank to drag Ellison and the student to safety. “Thanks to the rescue, the student soon resumed breathing and regained consciousness,” Xinhua said, citing the local authorities, without naming the woman. The British embassy said everyone is “immensely proud” of Ellison. Sino-British ties have been strained in recent months over China’s decision to impose a new national security law to quell pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which London handed back to Beijing in 1997 after 156 years of British rule. China on November 5 barred non-Chinese travelers from countries including Britain from entering amid surging coronavirus cases.  
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Peru’s political crisis appeared on the verge of resolution Monday as Congress cleared the way for an elder statesman and consensus candidate to become the country’s third president in a week. Jubilant people waved the nation’s red-and-white flag and blared horns on the streets of Peru’s capital as Francisco Sagasti of the centrist Purple Party was selected as the new president of Congress. The 76-year-old engineer has not yet been sworn into office, but as head of Congress he becomes the nation’s chief of state by default. Peru currently has no president or vice president, making him next in line. It will now fall on Sagasti to heal a nation bruised by a week of upheaval.  Peru’s new interim President Francisco Sagasti takes off his mask after he was designated by Congress to lead the nation, in Lima, Peru, Nov. 16, 2020.”What’s at stake is taking a first step toward rebuilding confidence between the people and the state,” said Samuel Rotta, president of the Peruvian chapter of Transparency International. Applause erupted in the legislative palace as Sagasti clinched the required majority vote. A respected academic, he has also spent decades consulting government institutions and held a post at the World Bank. Shortly after the vote, he took an oath to become Congress’ president. “We will do everything possible to return hope to the people and show them they can trust in us,” he said in his first remarks. Many in the Latin American nation are hopeful Sagasti’s appointment will mark the end of a tumultuous week in which thousands took to the streets outraged by Congress’ decision to oust popular ex-President Martín Vizcarra. During the upheaval, two young men died and dozens were injured. Peru also spent more than 24 hours with no designated chief of state. Sagasti could steer the country back toward stability because he is in a position to win the support of both Congress and demonstrators. He and his Purple Party bloc were among 19 of 130 lawmakers to vote against Vizcarra’s removal. That will earn him credibility among protesters who condemned the ouster as a power grab. Unlike Vizcarra, he also has a party in Congress representing him. “Sagasti is someone who inspired confidence among a lot of people,” said Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow with the Washington Office on Latin America. “He’s an accidental president — but I wouldn’t say he’s someone without a plan.” Peru has much on the line: The country is in the throes of one of the world’s most lethal coronavirus outbreaks, and political analysts say the constitutional crisis cast the country’s democracy into jeopardy. Deadly protestsThe protests that rocked Peru were unlike any seen in recent years, fueled largely by young people typically apathetic to the country’s notoriously erratic politics. They came a year after a wave of anti-government demonstrations around Latin America demanding better conditions for the poor and working class. FILE – People who are refusing to recognize Peru’s new government gather to protest in Lima, Nov. 14, 2020.Human rights groups accused police of mounting an excessive response to the protests, lashing out at demonstrators with batons, rubber bullets and tear gas. The two protesters who died suffered multiple wounds — Jack Pintado, 22, was shot 11 times, including in the head, and Jordan Sotelo, 24, was hit four times in the chest near his heart, according to authorities.  “People on the streets, in their homes, on their balconies and on social media are very, very upset,” Rotta said. “Peru is a country with high levels of mistrust. Politicians profoundly aggravated that.” Widespread corruptionAt the crux of the unrest are long-simmering tensions over corruption in Peru. Every living former president has been accused or charged — most in the massive Odebrecht graft scandal in which the Brazilian construction giant admitted to doling out millions to politicians in exchange for lucrative public works contracts. Meanwhile, half of Congress is also under investigation for crimes ranging from money laundering to homicide. Vizcarra attracted legions of supporters for his efforts to change that. He dissolved Congress last year, reformed how judges are chosen and tried to get rid of the prosecutorial immunity granted to lawmakers. But he had no party backing him in Congress and sparred with legislators constantly. Lawmakers ousted him using a 19th-century-era clause claiming he showed “permanent moral incapacity.” They accused him of taking more than $630,000 in bribes in exchange for two construction contracts while governor of a small province years ago. Prosecutors are investigating the accusations, but Vizcarra has not been charged. He vehemently denies any wrongdoing. The country’s highest court is currently evaluating whether Congress broke the law in removing him from office — a decision that experts said would not be retroactive but could have implications going forward. Some analysts said the ordeal shows Peru’s political system needs reform so that no one branch of government has outsized power.  FILE – People react after Peru’s interim President Manuel Merino announced his resignation, in Lima, Peru, Nov. 15, 2020.After Vizcarra was removed, then-Congress president Manuel Merino became president. The little-known politician and rice farmer faced daily protests. He promised to keep in place a scheduled presidential election in April. But his conservative Cabinet appointments irked many. He resigned Sunday, just five days after being sworn into office. 
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U.S. forecasters says Hurricane Iota has strengthened to a “catastrophic” Category 5 storm — the latest in the year such a storm has formed — and is likely to bring catastrophic winds, life-threatening storm surges and torrential rainfall to Central America, still trying to recover from Hurricane Eta.In its latest report, the National Hurricane Center says Iota is about 160 kilometers east-southeast of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, with maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometers per hour, making it the strongest storm of the 2020 season. It is moving to the west at about 15 kilometers per hour.Forecasters say on its current track, the core of Iota will make landfall within the hurricane warning area in northeastern Nicaragua Monday night, in almost the exact location Hurricane Eta came ashore two weeks ago.That storm killed at least 50 people, destroyed buildings, knocked out power, and led to flooding and landslides.Workers of banana fields evacuate the area in El Progreso, Yoro department, Honduras, on Nov.14, 2020, before the arrival of tropical storm Iota.Iota is the record-breaking 30th named storm of the 2020 season and, along with Eta, marks the first time two major hurricanes have formed in the month of November.It is also the tenth named storm to “rapidly” intensify — that is, strengthen by more than 55.5 kph in a 24-hour period. Meteorologists attribute the effect to warm waters in the southern Caribbean. 
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A pro-European reformer has won the presidency of Moldova — defeating her Moscow-backed opponent in a second-round vote that centered around the economy, corruption, and what course the small, one-time Soviet republic would choose in the tug and pull between Russia and the West.With all the Incumbent Moldovan President Igor Dodon speaks to media in Chisinau, Moldova, Nov. 16, 2020.Her opponent, the incumbent President Igor Dodon, earned the support of 42% of voters despite support from Moscow and a scorched earth Moldova’s presidential candidate Maia Sandu, poses for a selfie photo with her supporters as she leaves the Action and Solidarity Party office in Chisinau, Nov. 16, 2020.East vs West dimensions?The Moldovan election appeared to be the latest challenge to Russia’s continued influence over former Soviet republics it once ruled.Russian President Vladimir Putin has openly backed Dodon and had called on Moldovans to support his bid for another term. Russian political advisers arrived from Moscow to help manage the campaign.Indeed, Dodon has been a loyal Kremlin ally in return, calling for good relations, attending key Kremlin events, and sitting out calls to sanction Russia over its seizure and annexation of Crimea from neighboring Ukraine.Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting via video conference in Moscow, Nov. 5, 2020.“This certainly serves the vital interests of the Russian and the Moldovan people,” he added. In addressing the course of her future foreign policy on Monday, Sandu said she would seek a “true balance” by pursuing “pragmatic dialogue with all countries” including Europe, Russia and the United States.Sandu supporters argue the incoming president was simply sticking with a pragmatic approach to foreign policy that had served her well in the past.”Maia does come from this chain of pro-European politicians in Moldova,” says the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Nicu Popescu, who served as foreign minister under Sandu when she was prime minister for a period in 2019.“But she’s also someone who sees pro-Europeanism as not built through hostile relations with Russia,” he told VOA.“Much of the Moldovan population wants this approach,” he added. 
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Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology reported a “high intensity” explosion Monday at the Stromboli volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, located off the southern coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea.The institute’s surveillance cameras captured the event in visual and thermal format early Monday. The explosion could be seen sending ash and steam at least 100 meters into the air and streams of lava rapidly running down the center-south side of the volcano. The institute reported the event lasted four minutes. “From the seismological standpoint,” it “was characterized by a sequence of explosive events and landsliding,” it said.The institute also reported no variation in the overall condition of the volcano.The Stromboli volcano is one of the most active on Earth, with minor explosions and random lava flows descending from the crater directly into the sea. It has been erupting almost continuously since 1932. Light from its nighttime eruptions is visible for long distances, earning it the title, “Lighthouse of the Mediterranean.”
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The European Commission, the European Union’s administrative branch, announced  Monday a deal with to purchase 405 billion doses of a potential coronavirus vaccine from German bio-tech company CureVac. The announcement comes just days after EU officials announced a similar deal with German company BioNTech and U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer for an initial 300 million doses of the vaccine candidate they jointly produced, which, they say, has proven 90 percent effective against COVID-19 in late-stage testing. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters the deal with CureVac is, of course, conditional on their vaccine proving to be safe and effective.  Von der Leyen said the fifth CureVac is fifth company the alliance has contracted with a for its COVID-19 vaccine portfolio.FILE – A sign marks the headquarters of Moderna Therapeutics, which is developing a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Cambridge, Mass., May 18, 2020.She said they are already working on a deal with U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna, for a sixth contract. On Monday, Moderna announced testing showed its vaccine candidate to also be better than 90 percent effective. Von der Leyen said the European Commission hopes to have finalize their contract with Moderna soon.  She said all the vaccines must independently tested by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) before they will be accepted. She said, “We do not know at this stage which vaccine will end up being safe and effective… And this is why we need to have a broad portfolio of vaccines based on very different technologies.” European nations continue to see a surge in COVID-19 cases, and many have implemented at least partial nationwide lockdowns until the end of the month. 
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 Security forces in Pakistan sealed off a main highway into the capital, Islamabad, for a second day Monday to contain thousands of Islamists gathered outside the city to protest the reprinting of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in France. 
 
Witnesses and organizers said around 5,000 followers of the far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, or TLP, began rallying on Sunday in neighboring Rawalpindi city and vowed to march toward the French Embassy in Islamabad.   Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, a religious political party, chant slogans while they block a main highway during an anti-France rally over the remarks of French President Emmanuel Macron, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Nov. 16, 2020.Rally participants were chanting anti-France slogans and demanding the expulsion of the French ambassador. 
 
Pakistani authorities, however, deployed thousands of riot police and paramilitary forces, and placed shipping containers at key entry points to block participants from entering the capital. Cell phone service in and around Islamabad was also switched off to prevent rally organizers from coordinating with each other.  
 
Protesters attempted to remove roadblocks Sunday night in their bid to enter the city, prompting police to respond with tear gas. The ensuing clashes spilled into Monday morning, injuring more than a dozen police officers.  Activists and supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) gather beside empty tear gas shells fired by police during an anti-France demonstration in Islamabad, Nov. 16, 2020. An officer told VOA one of their personnel suffered “critical” injures, saying some of the demonstrators were “armed with long sticks that had daggers tied to them.” The clashes also left several protesters injured, according to hospital sources in Rawalpindi. 
 
The Pakistani capital remained under virtual lockdown even on Monday evening, with telecommunication services suspended for a second day in a row and security forces struggling to disperse the rally.  
 
Commuters between Islamabad and Rawalpindi and those traveling to the capital from other parts of Pakistan faced lengthy delays on alternate routes into the capital.  
Islamic parties in Pakistan have routinely organized scattered protests since early September against French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for republishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that Muslims deem as blasphemous.  
 
Last month, a history teacher was decapitated outside a school near Paris after he had shown his students caricatures of the Prophet when the class discussed free speech.FILE – Floral tributes to Samuel Paty, the French teacher who was beheaded on the streets of the Paris suburb of Conflans St Honorine, are seen at the Place de la Republique, in Lille, France, Oct. 18, 2020.While French authorities were investigating the slaying of Samuel Paty and cracking down on suspected Islamist militants, a Tunisian man fatally stabbed three people in a cathedral in Nice. 
 
French President Emmanuel Macron has defended the right of publishers in his country to depict cartoons of the Prophet, drawing strong condemnation and triggering anti-France protests in Muslim countries.  
 
Islamabad has formally lodged a complaint with France over what it called a “systematic Islamophobic campaign” in the European nation. 
 
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused Macron of attacking the Muslim faith and urged Islamic countries to work together to counter what he called growing repression in Europe. 
 
“European powers, Western countries must understand that you cannot use freedom of speech as a weapon to cause Muslims pain by insulting our Prophet. Unless this is understood, the cycle of violence will keep happening,” Khan cautioned in a statement earlier this month.  
 
The ongoing violent protest outside Islamabad is not the first time the hardline cleric and TLP chief, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, has organized demonstrations over blasphemy-related issues in Pakistan.  
 
Rizvi’s followers, at his call, almost paralyzed parts of Pakistan in 2018 following the acquittal by the Supreme Court of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who had been wrongly accused of disrespecting the Prophet Muhammad.  
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A suspected Islamic State gunman who opened fire aboard a high-speed train in France in 2015 is going on trial Monday in Paris.  Ayoub El Khazzani, a Moroccan national, was heavily armed when he opened fire and shot a passenger after the train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris crossed the border into France on August 21, 2015. A Frenchman, a Briton and three Americans, two of them in the military but on leave at the time, tackled Khazzani and disarmed him.  Khazzani, 31, is charged with “attempted terrorist murder.”  He had joined the Islamic State group in Syria in May 2015. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in jail. A judicial source has said that Khazzani had confessed to investigators he planned to attack U.S. soldiers and not civilians. FILE – Then-French President ollande poses with British businessman Chris Norman, US student Anthony Sadler, US Airman First Class Spencer Stone and US National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos (R) during a ceremony at the Elysee Palace, Aug. 24, 2015.At a ceremony to award the Americans the Legion of Honor days after the attack, France’s then president, Francois Hollande said that “one need only know that Ayoub El Khazzani was in possession of 300 rounds of ammunition and firearms to understand what we narrowly avoided, a tragedy, a massacre.”  FILE – Ambulances gather in the street outside the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s office, in Paris, Jan. 7, 2015. Masked gunmen stormed the offices of a French satirical newspaper Wednesday, killing at least 11 people before escaping,The train attack occurred between two deadly attacks in Paris that year. The first, in early January at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket, killed 12 people and injured 11 others. In November, a group of jihadists would kill 130 people in coordinated attacks in the French capital. American actor and director Clint Eastwood turned Khazzani’s drama into a movie titled The 15:17 to Paris, the time the gunman opened fire. Eastwood and the three Americans have been summoned to testify at Khazzani’s trial.       
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders Monday for economic and security talks. The top U.S. diplomat is also taking part in a wreath-laying ceremony for terrorism victims in Paris. Counterterrorism and global threats were among topics the State Department said Pompeo would be discussing Monday in his meetings with Macron and with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from right, pauses as he participates in a wreath-laying ceremony in homage to victims of terrorism at Les Invalides in Paris, Nov. 16, 2020.Pompeo is on a multi-nation tour that next takes him to Turkey to meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Greek Orthodox Christians. He is also due to visit Georgia, and then Israel, where Pompeo will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and discuss U.S.-brokered agreements for Israel to normalize relations with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.  Diplomats said Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al-Zayani is set to join a three-way meeting with Pompeo and Netanyahu. Other stops on Pompeo’s tour include the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. 
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The opposition candidate in Moldova is the projected winner of the runoff presidential election. With almost all the vote counted by Sunday evening, pro-European Maia Sandu was leading with about 57% of the vote, compared to incumbent, pro-Russian president Igor Dodon’s 43%, according to results published on the Moldovan Central Election Commission website.   Sandu, 48, a former prime minister and a former World Bank employee, ran for Moldova’s top job with a pro-European political platform against a president who had promised to keep close ties with Moscow as a traditionally “strategic partner.” Her supporters celebrated overnight in front of opposition headquarters in the center of the capital Chisinau and were chanting “President Maia Sandu” and “a country for young people.”Incumbent Moldovan President Igor Dodon and his wife Galina smile while walking out of a voting station during the country’s presidential election runoff in Chisinau, Moldova, Nov. 15, 2020.Dodon, 45, who was the economy minister under a communist government between 2006 and 2009, said he “voted for peace, social justice and Christian values.”  “We must maintain good relations with the European Union and with Russia,” Dodan said. In the first round of voting on November 1, Sandu, the center-right politician caught the incumbent president by surprise, although she did not garner enough votes to avoid the runoff.   Moldova, a Soviet republic until 1991, with a population of a little more than 3.5 million, has long been divided between those who promote strong ties with the European Union and those who favor close relations with Moscow.  
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