Thousands of protesters opposed to the French government’s plan to revamp the retirement system marched through Paris on Saturday, the 24th day of crippling strikes.In an unusual gesture, unions organizing the march asked yellow vest protesters to join them. The march coincided with the 59th consecutive Saturday of marches by the yellow vest movement that seeks social and economic justice.Brief scuffles marred the union march as individuals, some wearing masks, burned construction materials along the route. The march went from the Gare du Nord train station to Chatelet in central Paris.“Whatever the color of the vest, we must stick together,” the leader of the hard-left CGT union Philippe Martinez said on BFMTV, referring to the several hundred yellow vests who joined the march.President Emmanuel Macron wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and rid the complex system of 42 special categories, notably railway and bus and Metro employees, with their own rules.The strikes have disrupted transport across France and beyond, hobbling Paris Metros and trains across the country as well as businesses. The strikes have been especially felt over the holiday season.On Saturday, the SNCF train authority said only six of 10 high-speed trains were running. The Eurostar from Paris to London had four of five trains running. Paris Metro service was improving, with partial service on several lines that had been shut down from the start. Only two lines, both automatic, ran without problem.Prime Minister Edouard Philippe plans to continue talks with unions after a holiday break. The unions plan a major day of action on Jan. 9.
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Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country have agreed to swap dozens of prisoners on Sunday, the self-declared rebel republic of Donetsk said.Both sides had said earlier this month they would carry out a prisoner exchange by the end of the year, following high-profile peace talks in Paris aimed at de-escalating Europe’s only active war.”Kiev and the Donbass (a term used to refer to rebel-held eastern Ukraine) have reached an accord on an exchange of prisoners… this Sunday December 29,” Donetsk government spokeswoman Daria Morozova said in a statement.She said two separatist territories Donetsk and Lugansk will get 87 prisoners, while 55 others will be handed over to Kiev, without giving details on the identity of those involved.The prisoner exchange is expected to take place near the town of Gorlivka in the separatist-held Donetsk region.Russian media reported that the operation will take place on the front line.Ukrainian authorities refused to confirm or deny the exchange.”We are not commenting on this,” Olena Guitlianska, spokesman for the SBU, the Ukrainian security services, told AFP.Officials at the Ukrainian presidency could not immediately be reached for comment.The swap would come three months after Ukraine carried out a long-awaited exchange with Russia of 35 prisoners each.More than 13,000 people have been killed since pro-Russia militias in eastern Ukraine launched a bid for independence in 2014 – kicking off a conflict that deepened Russia’s estrangement from the West.International pressureDetails of Sunday’s exchange were scarce, with officials saying that lists of prisoners were still being agreed.OSCE Special Representative Martin Sajdik confirmed that preparations for the swap were under way.At the Paris summit this month, the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine agreed to implement a full ceasefire and proceed with a new withdrawal of forces from conflict zones by March 2020.The latest swap also comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky held their first face-to-face talks and agreed measures to de-escalate the conflict.The December 9 summit was the first of its kind in three years.Since coming to power in May, comedian-turned-president Zelensky, 41, has sought to revive a peace process to end the separatist conflict.The Kremlin has sent signals that it is ready to work with Zelensky, whom Putin has described as “likeable” and “sincere”.Ahead of the summit, Kiev and separatists completed a partial troop pullback.French President Emmanuel Macron said at the time of the Paris meeting a new summit would be held in four months to take stock of progress on ending the conflict.Countries have sought to revive accords signed in Minsk in 2015 that call for the withdrawal of heavy weapons, the restoration of Kiev’s control over its borders, wider autonomy for Donetsk and Lugansk, and the holding of local elections.But there was no sign of warmth between the Ukraine and Russian leaders in Paris and many doubt whether Putin genuinely wants to settle the conflict.Speaking in Moscow this month, Putin said that if Kiev gets back control of the border in the east pro-Russian residents of separatist-held territories could be targeted.Zelensky’s peace plan has also been strongly criticised by war veterans and nationalists.Various nationalist organisations even deployed their own troops to the frontline in an effort to prevent a troop pullback in line with peace agreements.Critics say the proposals favour Russia but Zelensky has pledged not to betray Ukraine’s interests.Ties between Ukraine and Russia were shredded after a bloody uprising ousted a Kremlin-backed regime in 2014. Moscow went on to annex Crimea and support insurgents in eastern Ukraine.  
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The past decade has seen a backlash against human rights on every front, especially the rights of women and LGBT communities, according to a top U.N. human rights official. 
 
Andrew Gilmour, the outgoing assistant secretary-general for human rights, said the regression of the past 10 years hasn’t equaled the advances that began in the late 1970s — but it is serious, widespread and regrettable. 
 
He pointed to populist authoritarian nationalists'' in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, who he said are taking aim at the most vulnerable groups of society, including Rohingya Muslims, Roma and Mexican migrants, as well as gays and women. He cited leaders who justify torture, the arrests and killing of journalists, the brutal repressions of demonstrations anda whole closing of civil society space.” 
 
“I never thought that we would start hearing the terms `concentration camps’ again,” Gilmour told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. And yet, in two countries of the world there's a real question.'' FILE - A Chinese police officer takes his position by the road near what is officially called a vocational education center in Yining in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China, Sept. 4, 2018.He didn't name them but appeared to be referring to China's internment camps in western Xinjiang province, where an estimated 1 million members of the country's predominantly Muslim Uighur minority are being held; and detention centers on the United States' southern border, where mostly Central American migrants are being held while waiting to apply for asylum. Both countries strongly deny that concentration camp-like conditions exist. 
 
Gilmour is leaving the United Nations on December 31 after a 30-year career that has included posts in hot spots such as Iraq, South Sudan, Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and West Africa. Before taking up his current post in 2016, he served for four years as director of political, peacekeeping, humanitarian and human rights affairs in former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office. 
 
Despite his dim view of the past decade, Gilmour — a Briton who previously worked in politics and journalism — said he didn't want to appear “relentlessly negative.'' Not a straight line
 The progress of human rights is certainly not a linear progression, and we have seen that,” he said. There was definite progression from the late '70s until the early years of this century. And we've now seen very much the countertendency of the last few years.'' 
 
Gilmour said human rights were worse during the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union,but there wasn’t a pushback as there is now.” 
 
He pointed to the fact that in the past eight years or so, many countries have adopted laws designed to restrict the funding and activities of nongovernmental organizations, especially human rights NGOs. 
 
And he alleged that powerful U.N. member states stop human rights officials from speaking in the Security Council, while China and some other members go to extraordinary lengths to prevent human rights defenders [from] entering the [U.N.] building even, let alone participate in the meetings.'' 
 FILE - Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, then the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, is pictured after a news conference at the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva, October 2014.In March 2018, for example, Russia used a procedural maneuver to block then-U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein from addressing a formal meeting of the Security Council, the U.N.'s most powerful body, Gilmour said. 
 
Zeid was able to deliver his hard-hitting speech soon afterward, but only at a hurriedly organized informal council meeting where he decriedmind-numbing crimescommitted by all parties in Syria. 
 
Gilmour also cited the United States' refusal to authorize the council to hold a meeting on the human rights situation in North Korea, a move that effectively killed the idea. Rights of women, gays
 
The rights of women and gays are also at stake, Gilmour said. He said nationalist authoritarian populist leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have madederogatory comments” about both groups. 
 
He said the U.S. is aggressively pushing'' back against women's reproductive rights both at home and abroad. The result, he said, is that countries fearful of losing U.S. aid are cutting back their work on women's rights. 
 
Gilmour also pointed out a report issued in September that cited 48 countries for punishing human rights defenders who have cooperated with the U.N. 
 I feel that we really need to do more — everybody … to defend those courageous defenders,” he said. 
 
Gilmour said the U.N. should also stand up when it comes to major violations of international law and major violations of human rights, but I have found it extremely difficult to do so in all circumstances.'' FILE - United States U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft addresses the Security Council after a failed vote on a humanitarian draft resolution for Syria, Sept. 19, 2019, at U.N. headquarters.He said he was happy to hear that the new U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Kelly Craft, feels strongly about ensuring human rights. 
 
“And I do hope that she will be gently and firmly held to that high standard, he said. 
 
Gilmour said that after his departure from the U.N, he will take a fellowship at Oxford’s All Souls College, where he will focus on the importance of uniting human rights and environmental rights groups. 
 
The human rights impact of climate change — it's going to be so monumental,'' he said. 
 
As he relinquishes his post, Gilmour said he is counting on younger generations to take up the mantle of human rights and fight for other causes aimed at improving the world. 
 What gives me hope as we start a new decade is that there will be a surge in youth activism that will help people to get courage, and to stand up for what they believe in,” he said. 
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A new intercontinental weapon that can fly 27 times the speed of sound became operational Friday, Russia’s defense minister reported to President Vladimir Putin, bolstering the country’s nuclear strike capability.Putin has described the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle as a technological breakthrough comparable to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite. The new Russian weapon and a similar system being developed by China have troubled the United States, which has pondered defense strategies.The Avangard is launched atop an intercontinental ballistic missile, but unlike a regular missile warhead that follows a predictable path after separation it can make sharp maneuvers in the atmosphere en route to target, making it much harder to intercept.Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Putin that the first missile unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered combat duty.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, gestures while meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, left, and Chief of General Staff of Russia Valery Gerasimov in the National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 24, 2019.”I congratulate you on this landmark event for the military and the entire nation,” Shoigu said later during a conference call with top military leaders.The Strategic Missile Forces chief, Gen. Sergei Karakayev, said during the call that the Avangard was put on duty with a unit in the Orenburg region in the southern Ural Mountains.Putin unveiled the Avangard among other prospective weapons systems in his state-of-the-nation address in March 2018, noting that its ability to make sharp maneuvers on its way to a target will render missile defense useless.”It heads to target like a meteorite, like a fireball,” he said at the time.The Russian leader noted that Avangard is designed using new composite materials to withstand temperatures of up to 2,000 Celsius (3,632 Fahrenheit) resulting from a flight through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.The military said the Avangard is capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound. It carries a nuclear weapon of up to 2 megatons.Putin has said Russia had to develop the Avangard and other prospective weapons systems because of U.S. efforts to develop a missile defense system that he claimed could erode Russia’s nuclear deterrent. Moscow has scoffed at U.S. claims that its missile shield isn’t intended to counter Russia’s massive missile arsenals.Putin: Russia leading the worldEarlier this week, Putin emphasized that Russia is the only country armed with hypersonic weapons. He noted that for the first time Russia is leading the world in developing an entire new class of weapons, unlike in the past when it was catching up with the U.S.In December 2018, the Avangard was launched from the Dombarovskiy missile base in the southern Urals and successfully hit a practice target on the Kura shooting range on Kamchatka, 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) away.Russian media reports indicated that the Avangard will first be mounted on Soviet-built RS-18B intercontinental ballistic missiles, code-named SS-19 by NATO. It is expected to be fitted to the prospective Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile after it becomes operational.The Defense Ministry said last month it demonstrated the Avangard to a team of U.S. inspectors as part of transparency measures under the New START nuclear arms treaty with the U.S.The Russian military previously had commissioned another hypersonic weapon of a smaller range.The Kinzhal (Dagger), which is carried by MiG-31 fighter jets, entered service with the Russian air force last year. Putin has said the missile flies 10 times faster than the speed of sound, has a range of more than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) and can carry a nuclear or a conventional warhead. The military said it is capable of hitting both land targets and navy ships.China, U.S.China has tested its own hypersonic glide vehicle, believed to be capable of traveling at least five times the speed of sound. It displayed the weapon called Dong Feng 17, or DF-17, at a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese state.U.S. officials have talked about putting a layer of sensors in space to more quickly detect enemy missiles, particularly the hypersonic weapons. The administration also plans to study the idea of basing interceptors in space, so the U.S. can strike incoming enemy missiles during the first minutes of flight when the booster engines are still burning.The Pentagon also has been working on the development of hypersonic weapons in recent years, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in August that he believes “it’s probably a matter of a couple of years” before the U.S. has one. He has called it a priority as the military works to develop new long-range fire capabilities.
 
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In 2008, the Newseum — a private museum dedicated to exploring modern history as told through the eyes of journalists — opened on prime Washington real estate.Sitting almost equidistant between the White House and the Capitol on Pennsylvania Avenue, the glass-walled building became instantly recognizable for its multi-story exterior rendition of the First Amendment.Eleven years later that experiment is coming to an end. After years of financial difficulties, the Newseum will close its doors Tuesday.“We’re proud of how we did our storytelling,” said Sonya Gavankar, the outgoing director of public relations. “We changed the model of how museums did their work.”The building was sold for $372.5 million to Johns Hopkins University, which intends to consolidate its scattered Washington-based graduate studies programs under one roof.Gavankar attributed the failure to a “mosaic of factors” but one of them was certainly unfortunate timing. The opening coincided with the 2008 economic recession, which hit newspapers particularly hard and caused mass layoffs and closures across the industry.She also acknowledged that the Newseum’s status as a for-pay private institution was a harder sell in a city full of free museums. A Newseum ticket costs $25 for adults, and the building is right across the street from the National Gallery of Art and within blocks of multiple Smithsonian museums.“Competing with free institutions in Washington was difficult,” Gavankar said.Another problem, organizers said, is that the Newseum struggled to attract local residents, instead depending on a steady diet of tourists and local school groups. Actual Washington-area residents, who do frequent the Smithsonian and elsewhere, mostly came on school trips and rarely returned as adults.Claire Myers fits that profile. The D.C. resident recalls coming to the Newseum in high school in a senior-year class trip. She only returned in late December for a final visit because she heard it was closing at the end of the year.“I do think part of the reason was because it’s a paid museum,” she said. “Why go out of my way to do this when I could just go to any other free museum?”The $25 price tag, Myers said, creates a pressure to set aside the whole day and take in every exhibit, whereas at one of the free Smithsonian museums, she knows she can come back another time to catch whatever she missed. But Myers said she was deeply impressed by the exhibits, particularly the Newseum’s signature gallery of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs.“I do wish it wasn’t going away,” she said.The museum’s focus evolved over the years, showcasing not just journalism and historic events, but all manner of free speech and civil rights issues and some whimsical quirks along the edges. Exhibits during the Newseum’s final days included an exploration of the cultural and political influence of Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show,” a look at the history of the struggle for LGBTQ rights and a display depicting the history of presidential dogs.Gavankar said the Freedom Forum, which originally maintained the Newseum in northern Virginia for years, would continue its mission in different forms. The educational foundation maintains a pair of exhibits on the Berlin Wall in both Reagan and Dulles airports. Next year, those displays will be replaced by exhibits on the women’s suffrage movement. The current Rise Up! exhibit on LGBTQ rights will move to a new long-term home in the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle.
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Russia’s defense minister reported to President Vladimir Putin that a new hypersonic weapon of intercontinental range became operational Friday following years of tests.Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Putin that the first missile unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered combat duty, the Defense Ministry said.“I congratulate you on this landmark event for the military and the entire nation,” Shoigu said later during a conference call with the top military brass.Experimental US Hypersonic Weapon Destroyed Seconds After Launch

        A hypersonic weapon being developed by the U.S. military was destroyed four seconds after its launch from a test range in Alaska early on Monday after controllers detected a problem with the system, the Pentagon said.

The weapon is part of a program to create a missile that will destroy targets anywhere on Earth within an hour of getting data and permission to launch.

The mission was aborted to ensure public safety, and no one was injured in the incident, which occurred shortly after 4 a.m.

The Strategic Missile Forces chief, Gen. Sergei Karakayev, said during the call that the Avangard was put on duty with a unit in the Orenburg region in the southern Urals Mountains.Putin unveiled the Avangard among other prospective weapons systems in his state-of-the-nation address in March 2018, noting that its ability to make sharp maneuvers on its way to a target will render missile defense useless.“It heads to target like a meteorite, like a fireball,” he said then.Putin described the Avangard’s creation as a technological breakthrough comparable to the 1957 Soviet launch of the first satellite.The Russian leader noted that Avangard is designed using new composite materials to withstand temperatures of up to 2,000 Celsius (3,632 Fahrenheit) resulting from a flight through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.Putin has charged that Russia had to develop the Avangard and other prospective weapons systems because of the U.S. efforts to develop a missile defense system that he claimed could erode Russia’s nuclear deterrent. Moscow has scoffed at the U.S. claims that its missile shield isn’t intended to counter Russia’s massive missile arsenals.Earlier this week, Putin emphasized that Russia is the only country armed with hypersonic weapons. He noted that for the first time in history Russia is now leading the world in developing an entire new class of weapons, unlike in the past when it was catching up with the United States.The military said that the Avangard is capable of flying 27 times faster than the speed of sound.In December 2018, the Avangard was launched from the Dombarovskiy missile base in the southern Urals and successfully hit a practice target on the Kura shooting range on Kamchatka, 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) away.Russian media reports indicated that the Avangard will first be mounted on Soviet-built RS-18B intercontinental ballistic missiles, code-named SS-19 by NATO. It is expected to be fitted to the prospective Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile after it becomes operational.Russia Tests Nuclear-Capable Hypersonic Weapon

        Russia has successfully conducted its final test of a hypersonic glider capable of carrying nuclear warheads, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

Putin, who oversaw the test Wednesday, said the weapon is impossible to intercept and will ensure Russia’s security for decades to come.

He called it an “excellent New Year’s gift to the nation.”

The weapon, dubbed Avangard, detaches itself from a rocket after being launched and glides back to Earth at speeds faster than the speed of sound.

On…
The Defense Ministry said last month that it demonstrated the Avangard to a team of U.S. inspectors as part of transparency measures under the New Start nuclear arms treaty with the U.S.The U.S. has mulled new defense strategies to counter hypersonic weapons developed by Russia and China.U.S. officials have talked about putting a layer of sensors in space to more quickly detect enemy missiles, particularly the hypersonic weapons. The administration also plans to study the idea of basing interceptors in space, so the U.S. can strike incoming enemy missiles during the first minutes of flight when the booster engines are still burning.The Pentagon also has been working on the development of hypersonic weapons in recent years, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in August that he believes “it’s probably a matter of a couple of years” before the U.S. has one. He has called it a priority as the military works to develop new long-range fire capabilities.
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Montenegro’s parliament adopted a contested law on religious rights early Friday after chaotic scenes in the assembly that resulted in the detention of all pro-Serb opposition lawmakers.The vote followed a day of nationwide protests by supporters of the Serbian Orthodox Church who say the law will strip the church of its property, including medieval monasteries and churches. The government has denied that.Trying to prevent the vote, the pro-Serb lawmakers hurled what appeared to be a tear gas canister, or a firecracker, and tried to destroy microphones in the parliament hall. Plainclothes police wearing gas masks intervened, detaining 24 people, including 18 opposition lawmakers.“We are ready to die for our church and that’s what we are demonstrating tonight,” opposition leader Andrija Mandic said shortly after midnight during the tumultuous session.Police officers carry a pro-Serb opposition lawmaker in the parliament building in Podgorica, Montenegro, Dec. 27, 2019.Law passesThe law, approved by 45 ruling coalition lawmakers, says religious communities would need to produce evidence of ownership of their property from before 1918, when Montenegro joined a Balkan kingdom and lost its independence.The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro described the law as “discriminatory and unconstitutional.”The church Friday accused the Montenegrin authorities of “inciting divisions and hatred,” and leading Montenegro “into a situation that cannot bring any good to anyone.”“Thanks to this, the Orthodox Christian faithful in Montenegro are facing one of the saddest Christmases in recent history,” a church statement said. Serbian Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas Jan. 7.Montenegro’s population of around 620,000 is predominantly Orthodox Christian and the main church is the Serbian Orthodox Church. A separate Montenegrin Orthodox Church isn’t recognized by other Orthodox Christian churches.Torn over SerbiaMontenegro’s pro-Western president has accused the Serbian Orthodox Church of promoting pro-Serb policies and seeking to undermine the country’s statehood since it split from much larger Serbia in 2006.Montenegrins remain divided over whether the small Adriatic state should foster close ties with Serbia. About 30 percent of Montenegro’s population identify as Serbs and were mostly against the split from Serbia.Hundreds of pro-Serb opposition supporters Thursday staged an all-day protest against the law, blocking roads and entrances to the capital. Dozens of riot officers used metal barriers to prevent crowds, including Orthodox priests, from reaching the parliament building where lawmakers debated the bill.The Montenegrin prime minister said the country has the power to prevent more rioting.“I believe in peace in Montenegro,” Dusko Markovic said.
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Around 100 migrants were rescued off the coast of Spain on Thursday, adding to around another 200 plucked off makeshift boats on Christmas Day, Spain’s maritime rescue service said.More than half of them were found off the Costa Blanca on Spain’s southeastern coast, with 10 people rescued just before dawn, among them eight men, a woman and a child.Later in the morning, rescuers saved 16 men off a boat near Torrevieja, while another 12 men were rescued from a dinghy off Xabia, some 45 kilometres (27 miles) up the coast from Benidorm.And on Spain’s southern coast, 17 men were found in waters off Cabo de Gata near Almeria while another man was found floating on what rescuers described as “an inflatable toy boat” in the Motril area, with his friend feared drowned.Another 39 people reached the shore at Punta Jandia on the southwestern tip of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, the spokesman said.There was no immediate information on the nationalities of those rescued.Some 200 others were rescued on Christmas Day in a number of separate operations off the coast of Spain and Morocco.About 120 of them were picked up around the Zaffarin islands off Morocco and the tiny islet of Alboran, Spain’s coastguard said.Several other dinghies were found off the southeastern coast of Spain, off Gibraltar and near the Canary Islands.So far this year, at least 1,250 men, women and children have died attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean, the UN’s International Organization for Migration said in a statement correct to Dec. 20.
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Turkey will send troops to Libya at the request of Tripoli as soon as next month, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, putting the North African country’s conflict at the center of wider regional frictions.Libya’s internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli has been struggling to fend off General Khalifa Haftar’s forces, which have been supported by Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan.An official in Tripoli confirmed a formal request had been made for Turkish military support in the air, on the ground and at sea.The official, who asked not to be named, spoke after the GNA’s interior minister, Fathi Bashagha, suggested in comments to reporters in Tunis that no such request had yet been made.Haftar’s forces, which are based in eastern Libya, could not be reached for comment.Haftar’s fighters have failed to reach the center of Tripoli but have made small gains in recent weeks in some southern suburbs of the capital with the help of Russian and Sudanese fighters, as well as drones shipped by the UAE, diplomats say.A military vehicle carrying an unmanned aerial vehicle travels past Tiananmen Square during the military parade marking the 70th founding anniversary of People’s Republic of China in Beijing, Oct. 1, 2019.The Chinese-made drones have given Haftar “local air superiority” as they can carry over eight times the weight of explosives than the drones given to the GNA by Turkey and can also cover the whole of Libya, a U.N. report said in November.Last month, Ankara signed two separate accords with the GNA, led by Fayez al-Serraj, one on security and military cooperation and another on maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean. The maritime deal ends Turkey’s isolation in the East Mediterranean as it ramps up offshore energy exploration that has alarmed Greece and some other neighbors. The military deal would preserve its lone ally in the region, Tripoli.”Since there is an invitation (from Libya) right now, we will accept it,” Erdogan told members of his AK Party in a speech. “We will put the bill on sending troops to Libya on the agenda as soon as parliament opens.”The legislation would pass around Jan. 8-9, he said, opening the door to deployment.Tension with RussiaFor weeks Ankara has flagged the possibility of a military mission in Libya, which would further stretch its armed forces less than three months after it launched an incursion into northeastern Syria against a Kurdish militia.Turkey has already sent military supplies to the GNA despite a United Nations arms embargo, according to a U.N. report seen by Reuters last month. Erdogan visited Tunisia on Wednesday to discuss cooperation for a possible ceasefire in neighboring Libya and said on Thursday that Turkey and Tunisia had agreed to support the GNA.Tunisia’s presidency said on Thursday the country would never join any alliance or coalition and it would maintain sovereignty over all its territory, in an apparent response to Erdogan’s comments.Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during his annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow, Russia December 19, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia NovozheninaMoscow has voiced concerns over any Turkish deployment in support of the GNA. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Thursday and they agreed the crisis must be resolved peacefully, the Kremlin said.Erdogan, however, has said Turkey will not stay silent over mercenaries from the Kremlin-linked Wagner group supporting Haftar.”Russia is there with 2,000 Wagner (fighters),” Erdogan said on Thursday, also referring to some 5,000 fighters from Sudan in Libya. “Is the official government inviting them? No.””They are all helping a war baron (Haftar), whereas we are accepting an invitation from the legitimate government of the country. That is our difference,” he said.FILE – Libyan militia commander General Khalifa Haftar, top center, listens to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, bottom center, during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Aug. 14, 2017.Haftar’s Libyan National Army has been trying since April to take Tripoli from the GNA, which was set up in 2016 following a U.N.-brokered deal. The UAE, Egypt and Jordan have for years provided military support for Haftar’s forces, U.N. reports have said. None of the countries has confirmed this.Russian mercenaries have put more pressure on the GNA and “accelerated this quid pro quo between Tripoli and Ankara,” said Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and chairman of the think-tank Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies.”So the troop deployment must happen right away, but the risk is that Turkey is being sucked into a military game where the only path is more engagement and escalation,” he said. Turkish and Russian officials held talks in Moscow this week to seek a compromise on the issues of both Libya and Syria, where Russia backs President Bashar al-Assad.In the Mediterranean, Turkey is at loggerheads with Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel over rights to resources off the coast of the divided island of Cyprus. Athens says Ankara’s maritime deal with Tripoli violates international law.
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Turkey’s highest court on Thursday ruled in favor of Wikipedia, saying the Turkish government’s two-year ban on the online encyclopedia constitutes a violation of freedom of expression, the state-run news agency reported.
                   
Turkey blocked Wikipedia in April 2017, accusing it of being part of a “smear campaign” against the country, after the website refused to remove content that allegedly portrayed Turkey as supporting the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations.
                   
Access to Wikipedia and all its language editions was blocked under a law that allows the government to ban websites it deems pose a national security threat.
                   
Wikipedia declined to remove content from the community-generated site, citing its opposition to censorship. It petitioned the Constitutional Court in May 2017 after talks with Turkish officials and a challenge in lower courts failed.
                   
The Anadolu Agency reported that the Constitutional Court decided the ban amounted to a violation of freedom of expression. The justices voted 10-6 in favor of Wikipedia, the agency said.
                   
There was no immediate comment from the government and it was not immediately clear when access to the website would be restored.
                   
Many Turks have found ways to circumvent the ban on Wikipedia and other blocked websites.
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China, Iran, and Russia will hold joint naval drills, amid tensions between Tehran and Washington.The military exercises will take place in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Oman from December 27 to 30, officials in Beijing and Tehran announced.China will send the Xining, a guided-missile destroyer, to the drills, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian told reporters on December 26. He did not give details on how many personnel or ships would take part overall.In Tehran, senior armed-forces spokesman Aboldazl Shekarchi said the drills would “stabilize security” in the region. He said the drill’s purpose was to bolster “international commerce security in the region” and “fighting terrorism and piracy.”The drills are coming at a time of tensions between the United States and Iran.Washington has proposed a U.S.-led naval mission in the Persian Gulf, following a string of attacks in gulf waters that the United States and its allies blamed on Iran. Tehran denies the accusations.Friction has increased since President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran in May 2018 and reimposed crippling economic sanctions on the Islamic republic. 
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The past year has seen a series of protests from Hong Kong to Chile and from Sudan to Iran. In more than a dozen countries, citizens have taken to the streets to air grievances and many have gotten results. VOA U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer looks at a year of discontent.
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Italian Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti told Reuters on  Wednesday that he had resigned after failing to obtain from the government billions of euros he said were needed to improve the country’s schools and universities. The resignation was a blow to the embattled government, whose ruling parties are at odds on issues ranging from eurozone reform to migrant rights. It also underscores the problems of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, Fioramonti’s party, which is trying to reorganize amid widespread internal dissatisfaction with its leader, Luigi Di Maio. This month three 5-Star senators jumped ship to join the right-wing League in opposition. Fioramonti told Reuters he had tendered his “irrevocable resignation” to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in a letter on Monday. Pledge to quitFioramonti said shortly after the government of 5-Star and the center-left Democratic Party was formed in September that he would quit unless education spending was raised by 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in the 2020 budget. Few believed him, even as the budget continued its passage through parliament and it became clear the government had little intention of hiking taxes or cutting spending to find the funds he demanded. The budget was approved on Monday ahead of a December 31 deadline. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that a minister keeps his word,” Fioramonti told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. Fioramonti said he would still support the government in parliament, where he is a lower-house deputy. Italy spends 3.6% of gross domestic product on primary to university education, compared with an average of 5% among 32 countries in a report by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.Fioramonti, a former economics professor at South Africa’s Pretoria University, has been one of Italy’s most outspoken ministers during his three months in office. His proposals for new taxes on airline tickets, plastic and sugary foods to raise funds for education were attacked by critics who said Italians were already overtaxed. Green policiesA vocal supporter of green policies, Fioramonti made headlines when he announced Italy would next year become the first country to make it compulsory for schoolchildren to study climate change and sustainable development. Earlier this month, he said Italian energy giant ENI should halt oil exploration and focus on renewable energy. “I have sometimes felt I could have had more support from my own party over my proposals on the environment,” Fioramonti said. “5-Star was born 10 years ago with a strongly green platform, but it seems to have got lost along the way.” 
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Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused the U.N. secretary general of turning a blind eye to what Moscow says is U.S. delays in issuing visas for Russian officials seeking to travel to the U.N. headquarters in New York.Moscow says Washington has deliberately delayed issuing visas to Russian officials traveling to the U.N. headquarters, a move Russia has said could further damage strained relations.Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement that some Defense Ministry officials who were due to travel to the U.N. secretariat had to wait “months” for visa clearance.”It is noticeable, that all that is happening with the sheer connivance from the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who effectively ignores United States’ breaches into the U.N. Charter,” she said.Russia summoned a senior U.S. diplomat in September to protest over what it said was Washington’s unacceptable refusal to issue visas to members of a Russian delegation traveling to the U.N. General Assembly.
 
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Wednesday that one of his allies had been forcibly conscripted and sent to serve at a remote Arctic base in a move his supporters said amounted to kidnapping.Ruslan Shaveddinov, a project manager at Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, went missing on Monday after authorities broke into his Moscow flat and his phone’s SIM card was disabled.On Tuesday, he resurfaced at a secret air defence base on the remote Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, Navalny said.”He has been unlawfully deprived of freedom,” President Vladimir Putin’s top opponent said in a blog post, calling the 23-year-old a “political prisoner.”The Russian military insisted that Shaveddinov had been dodging the draft for a long time.Russian men are eligible for conscription between the ages of 18 and 27 and serve one year’s military service. However, many find ways to avoid this in a highly corrupt, flawed system.Navalny said Shaveddinov has a medical condition that disqualifies him for military service but he was forcibly drafted and sent to the Arctic base without basic training.Vyacheslav Gimadi, a lawyer for Navalny’s foundation, said Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and commander-in-chief Putin were directly responsible for what he claimed was an act of “kidnapping.”Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, who is Shaveddinov’s partner, said the project manager had recently acted as a contact person for opposition lawmakers in Moscow city parliament.”Perhaps this is the reason this has happened,” Yarmysh told AFP.She said Shaveddinov had managed to call her from Novaya Zemlya using other people’s phones.Navalny said Shaveddinov was not allowed to communicate with the outside world or use a phone, unlike other servicemen.The military also assigned a man to follow Shaveddinov all the time, he added.”The armed forces themselves don’t know what the hell they should do with him,” Navalny said.Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters he did not know whether Shaveddinov had been dodging the draft, but said “If he had and was drafted in this manner then everything was done in strict accordance with the law.”Authorities have been steadily ramping up pressure on Navalny and his allies in recent years.The 43-year-old helped organize major protests against the government this summer when tens of thousands took to the streets of Moscow to demand fair elections.
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Ukrainian officials opened a criminal probe Wednesday after a passenger train from Russia arrived in Crimea via a new Russian-built bridge, arguing that the train illegally carried people across the Ukrainian border.
                   
Earlier this week Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated the railway bridge to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. He said 14 million passengers and about 13 million tons of cargo are expected to move across the bridge next year. The train arrived in Sevastopol from St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city.
                   
Russia annexed Crimea on the grounds that residents of the peninsula voted to join up with Russia. The annexation elicited widespread international censure including U.S. and European Union sanctions on Russia. Ukraine has blocked shipment of supplies via its territory to Crimea.
                   
 The Ukrainian government has repeatedly said the new bridge was built in violation of international laws. In October 2018, prosecutors opened a criminal case against the companies involved in its construction.
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The heads of the Catholic and Anglican churches sent a special message Wednesday to the people of South Sudan expressing hopes for peace, prosperity and implementation of a peace deal as Christians around the world celebrate the Christmas holiday.In a joint letter, Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby sent prayers for “a renewed commitment to the path of reconciliation and fraternity” among South Sudan’s political leaders.FILE – Pope Francis meets the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at the end of a two-day spiritual retreat with South Sudan leaders at the Vatican, April 11, 2019.Earlier this month, President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar agreed to form a transitional unity government by a February deadline after they failed to meet two earlier target dates for implementing a 2018 peace deal.Pope Francis is also to give his traditional Christmas address from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.In the United States, President Donald Trump is spending the holiday at his Florida resort where on Tuesday he spoke to members of the U.S. military stationed at various places around the world and attended a Christmas Eve dinner along with his wife, Melania.The U.S. first lady also answered calls from children as part of the annual program run by the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s Operation that tracks Santa Claus on his trip around the globe.While the holiday is rooted in Christianity, many people in the United States and other parts of the world celebrate in a non-religious fashion, gathering with family and friends to share a meal and exchange gifts. The Christmas season is a key time for many retailers to earn a large portion of their annual revenue.
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Pope Francis assured the faithful on Christmas Eve that God loves everyone — “even the worst of us” — as he celebrated the joyous birth of Christ after a less-than-joyful year of scandals and opposition.With a choir singing the classic Christmas hymn “The First Noel,” Francis walked down the center aisle of St. Peter’s Basilica late Tuesday and unveiled a statue of the newborn Jesus lying in a nativity scene at the foot of the altar.Francis said the birth of Jesus, which Christians commemorate on Christmas Day, was a reminder of God’s unconditional love for everyone, “even the worst of us.”“God does not love you because you think and act the right way,” he said. “You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things, but the Lord continues to love you.”At the same time though, he called for the faithful to allow themselves to be transformed by Jesus’ “crazy love” and to stop trying to change others.“May we not wait for our neighbors to be good before we do good to them, for the church to be perfect before we love her, for others to respect us before we serve them. Let us begin with ourselves,” he said.Pope Francis leads a Christmas Eve mass in St Peter’s Basilica to mark the nativity of Jesus Christ, Dec. 24, 2019, at the Vatican.Reform-minded papacyFrancis has frequently emphasized his call for “personal conversion” in his reform-minded papacy, believing that true reform cannot be imposed from on high, but discerned from within. He has similarly denounced the “holier-than-thou” attitude of doctrinal and legal purists, who have chafed at his progressive openings to gays, divorcees and people on the margins.Those critics have seized on the sexual abuse and financial scandals that have buffeted the papacy of the 83-year-old Jesuit pope.The scandals are likely to follow Francis into 2020, with developments in a corruption investigation involving hundreds of millions of dollars in donations to the Holy See and the release of a report on what the Vatican knew about ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked for sexually abusing adults and minors.Francis’ late-night Mass kicks off a busy few days for the pope, including a Christmas Day speech, noontime prayers, a New Year’s Eve vigil and a Jan. 1 Mass.
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A Russian court on Tuesday extended the pre-trial detention of an American being held on espionage charges.Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who holds US, British, Canadian and Irish citizenship, has been jailed in Russia since he was arrested at a Moscow hotel on December 28 last year.The Moscow court extended his detention until March 29, 2020 but did not clarify why it was doing so.Just before the ruling, Whelan tried to read a statement but was stopped by security guards. Instead, it pressed the two pieces of paper to the wall of his glass cage that contained the statement he wanted to read. It proclaimed his innocence and asked U.S. President Donald Trump and other world leaders to “please act” on his behalf.An American diplomat visited Whelan in prison Monday and called on Russian authorities to allow the prisoner to speak to his family.”It’s two days before Christmas,” Bart Gorman, the U.S. Charge d’Affaires, said. “A holiday Paul Whelan will spend alone in Lefortovo [Prison]. In the past 12 months, Paul has not heard his parents’ voices. Bring Paul some Christmas cheer and let him call home.”The U.S. Embassy in Moscow and the State Department have been increasingly critical of Moscow, demanding it provide evidence against him and accusing Russia of hindering consular access to him. 
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President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia has got a strong edge in designing new weapons and that it has become the only country in the world to deploy hypersonic weapons.
                   
Speaking at a meeting with top military brass, Putin said that for the first time in history Russia is now leading the world in developing an entire new class of weapons unlike in the past when it was catching up with the United States.
                   
The Russian leader noted that during Cold War times, the Soviet Union was behind the United States in designing the atomic bomb and building strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
                   
“Now we have a situation that is unique in modern history when they are trying to catch up to us,” he said. “Not a single country has hypersonic weapons, let alone hypersonic weapons of intercontinental range.”
                   
The Pentagon and the U.S. military services have been working on the development of hypersonic weapons in recent years, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in August that he believes “it’s probably a matter of a couple of years” before the U.S. has one. He has called it a priority as the military works to develop new long-range fire capabilities.
                   
The U.S. also has repeatedly warned Congress about hypersonic missiles being developed by Russia and China that will be harder to track and defeat. U.S. officials have talked about putting a layer of sensors in space to more quickly detect enemy missiles, particularly the more advanced hypersonic threats. The administration also plans to study the idea of basing interceptors in space, so the U.S. can strike incoming enemy missiles during the first minutes of flight when the booster engines are still burning.
                   
Putin said that the first unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle is set to go on duty this month, while the air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missiles already have entered service.
                   
The Russian leader first mentioned the Avangard and the Kinzhal among other prospective weapons systems in his state-of-the-nation address in March 2018.
                   
Putin said then that the Avangard has an intercontinental range and can fly in the atmosphere at a speed 20 times the speed of sound. He noted that the weapon’s ability to change both its course and its altitude en route to a target makes it immune to interception by the the enemy.
                   
“It’s a weapon of the future, capable of penetrating both existing and prospective missile defense systems,” Putin said Tuesday.
                   
The Kinzhal, which is carried by MiG-31 fighter jets, entered service with the Russian air force last year. Putin has said that the missile flies 10 times faster than the speed of sound, has a range of more than 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) and can carry a nuclear or a conventional warhead. The military said it’s capable of hitting both land targets and navy ships.
                   
The United States and other countries also have worked on designing hypersonic weapons, but they haven’t entered service yet.
                   
The Kremlin has made military modernization its top priority amid tensions with the West that followed the 2014 Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.
                   
Putin on Tuesday described a buildup of NATO’s forces near Russia’s western borders and the U.S. withdrawal earlier this year from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty among top security threats.
                   
He argued that Russia must have the best weapons in the world.
                   
“It’s not a chess game where it’s OK to play to a draw,” he said. “Our technology must be better. We can achieve that in key areas and we will.”
                   
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported Tuesday that the military this year has received 143 warplanes and helicopters, 624 armored vehicles, a submarine and eight surface warships. He said that the modernization of Russia’s arsenals will continue at the same rapid pace next year, with 22 intercontinental ballistic missiles, 106 new aircraft, 565 armored vehicles, three submarines and 14 surface ships to enter duty.
                   
Putin noted that the work to develop other prospective weapons, including the Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, the Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater drone and the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile was going according to plan.
                   
The Burevestnik has stoked particular controversy. The U.S. and the Soviet Union worked on nuclear-powered rocket engines during the Cold War, but they eventually spiked those projects considering them to be too hazardous.
                   
The Burevestnik reportedly suffered an explosion in August during tests at a Russian navy range on the White Sea, killing five nuclear engineers and two servicemen and resulting in a brief spike in radioactivity that fueled radiation fears in a nearby city. Russian officials never named the weapon involved in the incident, but the U.S. said it was the Burevestnik. 
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Russia has released five Japanese fishing boats and their 24 crewmen after detaining them for a week for allegedly violating fishing agreements near a group of disputed islands.  The five ships and their crews were accused of exceeding their catch quota for octopus when they were detained on December 17.  The boats were released after a Russian court ordered the crews to pay a fine of $100,000.  The ships were seized near a group of islands in Japan’s northern region of Hokkaido.  Known in Russia as the Southern Kuriles, the islands were seized by forces of the former Soviet Union in the final days of World War Two.  Japan continues to claim the island chain, which it calls the Northern Territories.  The ongoing dispute over the islands has kept Moscow and Tokyo from reaching a formal peace treaty ending World War II.   
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A Russian court on Tuesday extended until late March the pre-trial detention of a US man already held in jail for a year despite Western requests for his release.Paul Whelan, who also has Irish, Canadian and British citizenship, was arrested on December 28 last year for allegedly receiving state secrets.On Christmas eve the Moscow City Court extended his detention by another three months, to March 29, a court spokesman told AFP.He risks up to 20 years in prison if convicted.Whelan, 49, has denounced the case against him and said he is being held “hostage” for a possible prisoner exchange.On Monday, U.S. charge d’affaires Bart Gorman and diplomats from Canada, Ireland, and Britain visited Whelan in Moscow’s high-security Lefortovo prison, bringing him food and Christmas greetings from family and supporters.”It’s two days before Christmas. A holiday Paul Whelan will spend alone in Lefortovo,” the U.S. Embassy quoted Gorman as saying.”In the past 12 months, Paul has not heard his parents’ voices. Bring Paul some Christmas cheer and let him call home.”Whelan, a former U.S. marine, maintains he has been framed and that he took a USB drive from an acquaintance thinking it contained holiday photos.His lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov has said the acquaintance that handed over the drive is the only witness against Whelan while the rest of his longtime acquaintances in Russia gave witness statements in his defense.During a previous court hearing in October, Whelan insisted that he was not a spy.”Russia thought they caught James Bond on a spy mission, in reality they abducted Mr. Bean on holiday,” he has said.Whelan and his supporters claim that the American has been mistreated in jail.Moscow has rubbished the claims, saying foreign diplomats have regular access to Whelan and calling the complaints a “provocative line of defense”.”Whelan’s complaints concerning the conditions of detention and actions of investigators have never once been confirmed,” the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
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“Every stone is a treasure,” says the technical director of St. Mark’s Basilica’s vestry board, indicating the prized gold-leaf mosaics overhead, the inlaid stone pavement and the marble clad walls of the 923-year-old masterpiece.And many are vulnerable to the infiltration of sea water during the lagoon city’s ever-higher tides.Constructed atop two previous churches on a site that early Venetians believed was among the most secure in the Canal City, St. Mark’s Basilica suffered at least 5 million euros ($5.5 million) in damage during last month’s devastating great tides. The first, on Nov. 12, was the highest in 53 years, followed by two above 1.5 meters (4.9 feet), a series of severe inundations never before recorded.Though the highest was seven centimeters less than the famed 1966 flood of 1.94 meters, St. Mark’s chief caretaker, Carlo Alberto Tesserin, said, ”We say this was the worst.’’Unlike other natural disasters, like, say, an earthquake that leaves images of collapsed bell towers and fallen walls, fresh damage from the Venice floods is so far not visible to the naked eye.”Someone who comes to Venice to see the high water, and who goes to St. Mark’s Square the next day, sees tables in the square, says, Hey, look, the orchestra is playing. Nothing is wrong here.' While, in reality, what is hidden, is everything we have verified in these days,'' said Tesserin, who submitted the damage estimate earlier this month to city and national officials.Peaking at 1.87 meters (6.14 feet) above sea level, last months’ great tide was accompanied by wind gusts of up to 120 kph (around 75 mph) that pushed the waters even higher, flooding through the windows in St. Mark's crypt of patriarchs. The gale-force gusts buffeted the Basilica's domes, tearing away lead tiles, Tesserin said. Both floodwaters entering from the windows and the ripping away of lead tiles were firsts in the Basilica's history.People walk on an interior mosaic floor of the St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019.Witnesses reported waves in St. Mark's Square never before seen. The Venice Patriarch told a news conference that they were like waves at the seashore, a first in his experience despite having witnessed‘the piazza full of water many times.’'”It was the first time that I was truly afraid,” said Giuseppe Maneschi, the vestry board technical director. The assault was three-pronged: Water was entering from the piazza, through the narthex; from the crypt windows, while also pushing up from below the Basilica. Maneschi worked with others to move precious objects, like a standing crucifix, higher.The crypt remained under water for nearly 24 hours, while two more exceptional floods over 1.5 meters kept the Basilica closed for a week. Before re-opening, workers washed the Basilica floors four times with fresh water — a necessary treatment but one that carries risks as the salt is abrasive against pavement stones, Maneschi said.Salt, not water, is the real culprit. The brackish water is absorbed by the marble columns or cladding and into the brick structure, creeping higher and higher up the Basilica walls and supporting columns. As the water dries, the granules of salt expand to create multiple tiny explosions inside the stone, brick and marble, that weaken their structure.”Even at a height of 12 meters (nearly 40 feet), we have salt that comes out, that crystallizes,” Maneschi said. 'The disaster is inside, where we cannot see. But we can monitor with new technology.’'Past damage, compounded over the years, is evident throughout the Basilica in brittle marble benches and cladding eaten away over the years, in some places exposing the brick walls. Gauze has been placed over vulnerable sections of peacock mosaics in the pavement, which also suffers under the footfalls of around 5 million visitors a year.Now, architects suspect that concrete barriers built in the 1990s to prevent water from entering the crypt from beneath the Basilica were damaged by the force of last month's floods.Tesserin said that they believe the water flooding in from the crypt windows was actually a blessing in disguise, creating pressure that prevented the lagoon rising beneath the Basilica from shattering those concrete barriers, called "vasca,'' or Italian for "tub.''A man works in the St. Mark's Basilica crypt in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019.Workers last week were removing the crypt's marble flooring, which lies 20 centimeters (eight inches) below sea level, to observe whether there are indeed cracks allowing water to infiltrate.The Venice landmark includes 130 different kinds of marble -- some which no longer exist -- that tell the story of ancient conquests. Treasures, like the Madonna Nicopeia that accompanied Byzantine armies to battle, populate every corner, more than the average admirer can possibly assimilate in one visit. But the real prize, Tesserin notes, are its 8,500 square meters (91,500 square feet) of mosaics.It may seem crazy to a modern eye that such a precious Basilica was established at Venice's lowest point. The piazza outside floods at 80 centimeters (around 30 inches), and water passes the narthex into the church at 88 centimeters (reinforced from a previous 65 centimeters), floods the Zen Chapel at 1.2 meters and the baptistery goes under at 1.3 meters.But Tesserin said that when the third Basilica was built,‘it was in the position that was considered most safe.” It has become vulnerable with the passage of centuries, due to the subsidence, or sinking of the land, accompanied by a sea level that has risen 12 centimeters over the last 50 years, and climate change, which has made forecasting high tides in Venice more difficult.Damage can be seen on the bottom of a column of precious Aquitaine marble in the narthex. The capitals are carved with images of lions and eagles, indicating they are of imperial origin and not religious, and therefore believed to have been sacked from Constantinople during the fourth Crusade, Maneschi said. Analysis only this year indicates that the capitals were made even more ornate by gold leaf covering and lapis lazuli inserts — which have long disappeared.The base of one of the decorative columns is badly corroded. But the dark Aquitaine marble prized by ancient civilizations can no longer be found.”The day it falls, we will replace it with another marble. But as long as it resists, we will keep this,” Maneschi said.
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The Church of England has launched a study into an existential question: do its investments in big-tech giants contradict the Christian faith?The Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) will determine whether some of the new technologies undermine “the very idea of God”, a spokesman for the Church told AFP on Monday.The year-long review was first reported by The Daily Telegraph newspaper.EIAG was set up in the early 1990s to help make sure that more than £12 billion ($15.5 billion, 14 billion Euros) in assets held by the Church’s various institutions are put to ethical use.”Artificial intelligence [AI] is an important element of this review,” the spokesman said.The EIAG is in talks with technology experts as well as politicians and theologians “to try to make sense of the issues”, the spokesman said.It wants to reach a conclusion “that is not only grounded in theology and distinctly Anglican but is also practical”, he added.EIAG did not specify how much money the Church has invested in the likes of Google’s parent company Alphabet and Amazon.The Church’s 2018 annual report also reported investments in drugs development companies AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline.”Some argue that tech has brought enormous benefits to society but others note a growing realization of the limitations and downsides of technology,” the spokesman said.
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