Trade talks between Britain and the European Union continued into the night Saturday ahead of the latest make-or-break deadline, as the Royal Navy readied armed ships to patrol U.K. fishing waters in case of a no-deal Brexit.Negotiations in Brussels were to continue Sunday, the day that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen have set as a deadline to decide whether any trade deal is still possible.”Talks are continuing overnight, but as things stand the offer on the table from the EU remains unacceptable,” a U.K. government source said. “The prime minister will leave no stone unturned in this process, but he is absolutely clear: Any agreement must be fair and respect the fundamental position that the U.K. will be a sovereign nation in three weeks’ time.”A senior EU source, echoing von der Leyen’s words Friday, said: “The defense of the single market is a red line for the European Union. What we have proposed to the United Kingdom respects British sovereignty. It could be the basis for an agreement.”Four 80-meter (260-feet) British ships have been placed on standby, part of increased contingency planning on both sides of the English Channel, and evoking memories of the Cod Wars with Iceland over fishing rights in the North Atlantic in the 1960s and ’70s.Johnson said on Friday it was “very, very likely” the talks would fail, and that Britain would revert to World Trade Organization (WTO) terms with its largest single trading partner.European leaders have also been told the chances of a deal are slim, with both sides at loggerheads over rules to govern fair competition and fishing rights in British territorial waters.FILE – Trucks queue along the A16 motorway to board ferries to reach England, near Calais, France, Dec. 9, 2020. British-EU trade talks were teetering Dec. 12, 2020.Deal or no deal, Britain will leave the EU single market and customs union on the evening of December 31, more than four years after a landmark referendum on membership of the bloc.’Robust enforcement’As the talks limped on, hardline pro-Brexit Conservative MPs sought assurances from Johnson that the navy should be deployed to protect British waters.Lawmaker Daniel Kawczynski said it would help “prevent illegal French fishing” when EU access ends, stoking nationalist fervor but sparking criticism even within the Tory ranks.But another Conservative, Tom Tugendhat, chairman of Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, tweeted in French that the whole process posed “a real and present risk of poisoning relations” between France and Britain.And Tobias Ellwood, a former British army captain who now heads Parliament’s defense select committee, said confrontations in the channel would only be welcomed by Britain’s enemies.”We’re facing the prospect of our overstretched Royal Navy squaring up to a close NATO ally over fishing rights,” he told BBC radio. “This isn’t the Elizabethan times anymore. It’s global Britain,” he added, referring to the country’s new post-EU foreign policy.”We need to be building alliances, not breaking them apart,” he added.The river-class patrol vessels of the Fishery Protection Squadron — the Royal Navy’s oldest front-line squadron with a history dating back more than 500 years — already enforce U.K. and EU fisheries law.The Ministry of Defense confirmed it has conducted “extensive planning and preparation” for a range of post-Brexit scenarios from January 1 and has 14,000 personnel on standby to help with the transition.Planning difficultiesWTO terms would mean tariffs and quotas, driving up prices for businesses and consumers, and the reintroduction of border checks for the first time in decades.That has already raised the prospect of heavy traffic clogging roads leading to seaports in southern and southeast England, as bureaucracy lengthens waiting times for imports and exports.Transport companies have also warned that EU member Ireland could see import volumes shrink in the event of new customs procedures for goods routed through Britain.”As an industry we’re looking to plan ahead but there’s so many unknowns it becomes difficult,” said Road Haulage Association director Martin Reid.
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Mexico approved the emergency use of a coronavirus vaccine late Friday, bringing to six the number of countries that are inoculating or plan to inoculate with shots produced by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech.Britain, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United States have also approved the vaccine.Mexican Assistant Health Secretary and epidemiologist Hugo Lopez-Gatell called the vaccine approval “a reason for hope.” Reuters reports Mexico signed an agreement with Pfizer to acquire 34 million doses of the vaccine, with the first batch expected later this month.Mexico has recorded 1.2 million COVID-19 cases and 113,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.The vaccine’s approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday came as the United States topped 295,000 fatalities from COVID-19, the world’s highest death toll, according to Johns Hopkins University, which calculates the United States has had 15.8 million of the world’s more than 71 million COVID infections.Hospitalizations are at record levels in America’s most populous state, California. Los Angeles County reported its highest-ever daily number for new COVID-19 cases at more than 12,000 earlier this week. A public health official said the county is “on a very dangerous track to seeing unprecedented and catastrophic suffering and death … if we can’t stop the surge.”Meanwhile, the World Health Organization and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies signed an agreement, the Emergency Medical Team (EMT) Initiative, on Friday to strengthen the delivery of emergency medical and health services during humanitarian crises.“We are very committed to working together with WHO to provide quality emergency health services that communities desperately need in times of crisis.” said IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain.India said early Saturday that it recorded 30,000 new cases in the past 24 hours. The South Asian nation follows the U.S. in the number of COVID cases with 9.8 million infections. Brazil comes in third with more than 6 million COVID infections.
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Brazil, which is second to the U.S. in deaths from COVID-19 and third in the world in positive cases, is approaching 180,000 deaths as it suffers through its second wave of the disease caused by the coronavirus.In the past day, more than 53,000 cases and 770 deaths have been reported, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Since the start of the pandemic, Brazil has recorded more than 6.7 million cases.Brazil, with a population of 212 million, is entering its summer, when beaches fill with weekend crowds.”The situation is likely to worsen with the summer, because people will move around more, without any control, most of the restriction measures having already been lifted,” Christovam Barcellos, a researcher at the Fiocruz institute, told AFP.The coronavirus crisis in the U.S. continued to intensify Friday, as more than 2,700 people died of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins data, down from the record toll of 3,124 set Wednesday. The country’s deaths now stand at more than 292,000, the most in the world.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized Friday the emergency use of a vaccine produced by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech.An FDA advisory panel voted to recommend approval of the vaccine late Thursday.And the U.S. purchased 100 million more doses of another vaccine, one by Moderna. Friday’s agreement brings the number of Moderna doses to 200 million, enough shots for 100 million people. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots.”Securing another 100 million doses from Moderna by June 2021 further expands our supply of doses across the Operation Warp Speed portfolio of vaccines,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.With the U.S. on the verge of its inoculation program, human rights group Amnesty International’s director of economic and social justice issued a warning. Steve Cockburn told The New York Times, “Rich countries have clear human rights obligations not only to refrain from actions that could harm access to vaccines elsewhere, but also to cooperate and provide assistance to countries that need it.”The Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center said Friday night there are 70 million coronavirus infections worldwide, with nearly 1.6 million deaths.The U.S. continues to lead the world in the number of cases with more than 15.8 million infections, followed by India with almost 9.8 million and Brazil with nearly 6.8 million.
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Supporters of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadian citizens detained by Chinese authorities since December 2018, are joining a campaign to send them “season’s greetings” as the two prepare to spend a third Christmas behind bars.Charles Parton, a former British diplomat who knew Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat, in Beijing, started Charles Parton, former British career diplomat, is a senior associate fellow at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). (Photo courtesy Charles Parton)“I suddenly thought a contemporary version to that would be to send the Christmas card, but make sure that before you send it to the Chinese Embassy, that you put it online, with whatever social media you wish, under the hashtag #FreeChinaHostages, so that lots of people can see it,” he added.Kovrig and Spavor were arrested shortly after Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese state champion tech giant Huawei, was detained by Canadian authorities at the Vancouver international airport on December 1, 2018, at the request of the United States.While China has not publicly linked the cases, it is widely assumed the two were seized in retaliation and that they are being held to pressure Canada for the release of Meng, who has remained under house arrest in Vancouver as the extradition case works its way through the Canadian courts.Parton understands that the Christmas cards sent to the two Canadian citizens in care of Chinese embassies around the world probably “won’t get any further.” But “it would make the point to the local Chinese embassy how upset a lot of people are at what happened,” he said.A second point, he said, is “to bring home to a wider public, the politicians, the press, just the nature of the way the Chinese Communist Party operates, therefore, whatever policy we devise towards them must take that into account.“And thirdly, when Michael eventually does get out, or I should say, the two Michaels – I don’t know Michael Spavor, but of course his situation is the same – but when they get out, they realize a lot of people around the world cared,” Parton said.Louisa Wall, a New Zealand lawmaker, told VOA in an email interview that “many of us are watching their situation with much concern” and “want these two men and their families to know that their heartache is not in vain, nor in isolation.”Support for the two Canadians is also coming from lawmakers and citizens in other countries, including Sweden, the Czech Republic and Australia, which is going through its own trade battle with Beijing.”We have not forgotten your plight and we will not cease to long for your freedom.”Message from #IPAC 🇨🇿 co-chairs Sen. @PavelFischer and Jan Lipavský MP to Michael Korvig and Michael Spavor on the 2nd anniversary of their arrest and imprisonment in China. #FreeChinaHostageshttps://t.co/MSm6VwqWYy— Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (@ipacglobal) December 10, 2020#IPAC 🇸🇪 co-chair @IsaLann1 adds her support to the #FreeChinaHostages campaign. https://t.co/TxnebL5osH— Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (@ipacglobal) December 10, 2020Two years ago Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were arrested by Chinese authorities for “espionage.” Today on International Human Rights Day, I join people the world over as we send a message of hope and solidarity. #freechinahostagespic.twitter.com/5PtOo3xDJG— Eric Abetz (@SenatorAbetz) December 10, 2020The International Crisis Group, where Kovrig was working when he was detained, has undertaken its own solidarity initiative.Today, I walked 5k – a distance our colleague Michael Kovrig paces every day in his Chinese prison cellHe has been held there unjustly for 2 yearsHe needs to come home. #FreeMichaelKovrigpic.twitter.com/JEwlwxc1D4— Robert Malley (@Rob_Malley) December 6, 2020Our colleague Michael Kovrig has been detained by the PRC for two years today. Every day he takes 7,000 paces, ~ 5km, in his cell. This morning, I walked 5k in solidarity. He should be released immediately.#FreeMichaelKovrigIllustration by @Titwane.https://t.co/KZfNaBlz0Xpic.twitter.com/4A4VItAcQM— Matt Wheeler (@mattzwheeler) December 10, 2020Karim Lebhour, the group’s spokesperson, told VOA that he and his colleagues have been preparing scrapbooks to present to Kovrig on the day he is released. One of the books will provide a record of events that have taken place while he was jailed.Canada’s leading newspaper, The Globe and Mail, on Thursday published the addresses of the prison facilities that hold Kovrig and Spavor.Here’s how to get in contact with detained Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig https://t.co/zhb4UrMEzi— The Globe and Mail (@globeandmail) December 10, 2020The paper also published a report to mark the two-year anniversary of their detention, with details of their ordeal.Wei Jingsheng, a former Chinese political prisoner now living in exile, said in a phone interview that he very much likes the idea of a Christmas card campaign.Wei recalled that one day during his 18 years of jail time, a young prison guard told him, “Hey, I didn’t know you had so many friends from outside.” The guard was referring to mail arriving at the prison and the attention Wei was receiving internationally.“My spirit was greatly lifted upon hearing that,” Wei said. “Dissidents [inside China] used to be held as hostages; now foreigners are put in that same situation.”Earlier this week, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne commented on the case of the two Michaels. “We are grateful to the many countries around the world that have expressed support for Canada and for Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor,” he said.
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Russia resumed construction on a gas pipeline to Germany on Friday, one year after the United States opposed the joint international project because of possible threats to Europe’s energy security, project managers said. Work on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was suspended in December 2019 after it became a source of conflict between Russia and the West. Nord Stream 2 is intended to double the annual gas capacity of the existing Nord Stream pipeline. In a statement, Nord Stream 2 officials confirmed construction had resumed under the Baltic Sea, saying “the pipelay vessel Fortuna will lay a 2.6-kilometer section of the pipeline in the German Exclusive Economic Zone in water depths of less than 30 meters.” Germany’s maritime authority notified shippers to avoid part of the Baltic Sea where the Nord Stream 2 will be built until December 31. Work on the 100-kilometer undersea pipeline is 90% complete. When finished, Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2, which bypass Ukraine, will be responsible for the transfer of more than half of Russia’s total gas exports to Europe. Washington had criticized Europe for its overdependence on Russian energy and threatened sanctions against European partners in the pipeline project. The majority stakeholder in the project, Russian gas giant Gazprom, together with its European partners, Germany’s Wintershall and Uniper groups, the Dutch-British giant Shell, France’s Engie and Austria’s OMV, will spend about $11.5 billion on the project. Gazprom’s stock value rose 3.5% Friday on the Moscow stock exchange. 
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European Union leaders say the most likely outcome after months of fractious haggling with London is that Britain will leave the bloc at the end of the year without a trade and security deal — an upshot that will have serious economic repercussions on both sides of the English Channel and could poison relations between the EU and the British for years to come.During a short briefing at the end of an all-night summit in Brussels, Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, told the EU’s 27 national leaders that there was a “higher probability for no deal than a deal,” according to officials.With a firm Sunday deadline for talks looming, Britain’s Boris Johnson echoed the EU president’s pessimism, saying a no-deal outcome from Brexit trade talks was “looking very, very likely.”The prime minister suggested a breakthrough in the deadlocked talks would need a “big offer, a big change” from the EU, but that he had “yet to see it.”But unlike the Europeans, Johnson sounded an upbeat note, adding: “It is looking very, very likely that we will have to go for a solution that I think would be wonderful for the UK, and we’d be able to do exactly what we want from January 1.”FILE – A man waves a British flag on Brexit day in London, Jan. 31, 2020.Some see limitless possibilitiesBritain’s Brexiters have long maintained that once free from the EU, the country’s commercial possibilities will be limitless and they can compensate for any losses by striking trade agreements with a host of other countries.It isn’t a view shared by much of British business nor the Bank of England, which has warned that leaving the EU without a deal could reduce Britain’s GDP next year by 6 percent.British businesses say a no-deal Brexit will cause massive disruption to trade, with exporters and importers facing new, burdensome border checks, costly customs paperwork and higher prices. Restrictions on the number of British trucks allowed to enter the EU would mean an estimated two-thirds of British businesses would find it difficult to trade in the bloc at all, according to some haulage experts.British-manufactured cars exported to the EU would face tariffs of about 10 percent, dairy products 35 percent, and meat more than 40 percent. Nearly half of all foods consumed in Britain come from EU countries, and supermarkets are warning there will be less choice on their shelves and there will be inflationary price hikes if a deal eliminating tariffs and reducing trade barriers isn’t struck.Border disruption also will affect the importation of medicines from Europe, a major supplier for Britain, leading to shortages and, again, higher prices, Britain’s pharmacists have warned.Without a deal, it remains unclear to what extent British banks and financial institutions will be allowed to operate on the continent. Some international banks likely would shift some of their operations to EU countries.FILE – The Corentin-Lucas fishing boat arrives at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, Dec. 10, 2020. Fishing rights are a sticking point in negotiations between the U.K. and the European Union about a post-Brexit trade deal.Key disputesMidweek, Johnson flew to Brussels for face-to-face talks with von der Leyen over a three-hour fish dinner. The two had “frank” discussions, according to officials, but failed to bridge the gap in two key areas — EU fishing access to Britain’s coastal waters and regulatory alignment.Of these, the bigger dispute involves regulatory alignment, with both sides at loggerheads over shared regulatory rules and competition, and safety standards to ensure businesses in Britain do not have an unfair competitive edge over their EU rivals. Lower standards mean lower costs and lower prices for finished goods, giving British manufacturers an advantage over continental competitors.Brussels insists that Britain should follow EU rules closely, including workers’ rights and environmental regulations. British officials have taken special offense with Brussels’ demand that Britain would have to comply with the bloc’s rules, even as they evolve, without having had any say in their development.Johnson has said the whole point of Brexit was to “take back control,” to break free from following EU common rules and to reassert national sovereignty. But EU officials say common rules are the price to pay for access to the bloc’s lucrative single market, the world’s largest free-trade bloc, and they note all trade treaties normally require agreed competition rules that can and do change over time.A no-deal exit by Britain when its transition period out of the EU ends on December 31 will also end cooperation on security and intelligence data-sharing. British police will lose access to the EU database of convictions, wanted suspects, DNA and fingerprints.“Workarounds for access to the databases would all involve more time and effort. And in this business, speed equals security, so loss of real-time connectivity makes us all less safe,” a former British national security chief, Peter Ricketts, warned Friday.Trucks queue in Dover, England, Dec. 11, 2020. The U.K. left the EU on Jan. 31, but remains within the bloc’s tariff-free single market and customs union until the end of the year.Plea for cooler headsSome EU leaders say they’re still holding out hope for a deal, but also insist sharp rhetoric on both sides needs to be reduced. Speaking in Berlin, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told reporters: “We need to try and dial down the language in terms of the division and differences of views and focus on the detail. There is a bigger picture here that goes beyond trade in a world that is changing and has a lot of risk.”He said: “The idea that the UK and EU cannot put a good, constructive, positive partnership in place in the context of that new relationship … I think that would be an enormous lost opportunity and both sides will be weaker as a result.”His call to drop vitriolic language was ignored by some British Conservative lawmakers. “Have our EU ‘friends’ no regard or respect for the UK and our nation’s sacrifices that permit them to live in freedom and prosperity today, safely away from the shadow of totalitarianism?” tweeted Imran Ahmad Khan, a Conservative MP from the north of England.“The EU’s contemptuous treatment of the UK makes it clear there cannot be a deal until it accepts the UK as a sovereign equal and awards us the respect and regard we merit,” Khan added.There will also be repercussions for the EU from a messy British exit, with member countries collectively suffering an estimated $40 billion in lost annual exports. But the impact will largely be borne across all 27 member countries, although Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are expected to take the biggest hit.France will lose an estimated $4 billion a year in diminished exports to Britain, according to some studies, with 30,000 French firms impacted, many in the wine and drink sector. Ireland could suffer a 6 percent reduction in its GDP next year in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) says action and money are needed to ensure coronavirus vaccines are available around the world as Western nations approve them.
During Friday’s COVID-19 briefing at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus applauded the fact Britain was already vaccinating its citizens and that Canada, the United states and others would not be far behind. He said to have safe and effective vaccines for a virus that was completely unknown a year ago is an “astounding scientific achievement.”
The WHO chief noted it would be an even greater achievement to ensure all countries have equal access to those vaccines. Tedros said the U.N. agency has worked hard over the past year to secure political commitments from world leaders for equal access to vaccines and he said he wants to see those commitments translated into action.  
He said the WHO needs $4.3 billion to procure vaccines for the world’s neediest countries and urged donors to help fill a funding gap.  
The director-general said the organization is working with its partners to ensure developing countries have infrastructure in place to deliver vaccines to their populations. Through its COVAX vaccine cooperative and the 189 countries participating, Tedros said the WHO has secured nearly a billion doses of three potential vaccines.  Americans Await Final Approval of First COVID-19 Vaccine as Deaths Reach Record HighUS Food and Drug Administration widely expected to authorize emergency use after special panel votes to recommend approval   But Tedros said closing the funding gap is crucial to ensuring the entire world is protected.
“We have all seen images of people being vaccinated against COVID-19. We want to see these same images all over the world, and that will be a true sign of solidarity,” he said Friday.
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Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, announced Friday that beginning Monday, the self-isolation period after contact with confirmed COVID-19 carriers will be shortened from 14 to 10 days in the nation.
At her COVID-19 news briefing in Edinburgh, Sturgeon also said that the four-day reduction in the self-isolation period would apply to travelers returning from high-risk countries. She said the new policy was based on recommendations from Britain’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).
She said the chief medical officers in all four jurisdictions – Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – have agreed to the reduction.
In an interview with the Associated Press, British Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries said the new policy was based on studies conducted by the SAGE and a separate advisory group on emerging respiratory virus threats. Harries said those studies found people were least likely to transmit COVID-19 at the end of their infection.  
She said reducing the self-isolation period would allow a “reasonable balance” between managing the risk to the public and intruding on people’s lives.
Sturgeon reported 1,001 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24-hour period. It was the first time in about two weeks that the daily rate was over 1,000. But that number was the result of nearly 25,000 test results, reflecting a positivity rate of less than five percent — which is considered a good sign.
The first minister also announced that non-essential shops across much of western Scotland — including Glasgow — have reopened for the first time in three weeks, She urged people to follow rules, avoid crowded shops, and shop alone or in small groups.
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Turkish exporters say they have become a casualty of what analysts describe as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aggressive foreign policy. Turkey’s relations with its Saudi partners suffer as a result of Ankara’s push to exert its influence in the Mediterranean and in Africa. Exporters say they are being shut out of Middle Eastern markets — prompting Turkey to start changing its approach.Turkish companies like industrial boilermaker Erensan are paying a heavy price for Turkey’s strained relations across the Middle East and North Africa, says Erensan’s CEO Ali Eren.”We shifted, so to speak, from the Middle East,” said Eren. “With Saudi Arabia also not good relations, Egypt not good relations, so we shifted a little bit to the East to Indonesia for example and to Bangladesh which turned out to be good markets for us as well. But it’s not automatically done because we have to work first to get into the market.” FILE – Couple walks along Istiklal Street at the popular touristic neighbourhood of Beyoglu after a partial weekend curfew started during the COVID-19 outbreak in Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 21, 2020.Reports of a Saudi trade boycott has hit Turkey’s massive textile industry, which supplies many of the big international brands. Egypt has sided with Saudi Arabia in a growing, bitter rivalry.International relations expert Emre Caliskan at the University of Oxford says Turkey sees Riyadh as thwarting its efforts to penetrate North African markets.”Turkey wants to be an economic player in the region. Turkey has an export orientated economy,” said Caliskan. “So whenever Turkey started have a better relationship with some countries this could be Morocco and Algeria. They always found a country trying to position itself towards Saudi Arabia.People wearing masks for protection against the spread of coronavirus, walk in the Spice Market, or the Egyptian Bazaar, in Istanbul, Nov. 17, 2020.”The Turkish leadership and the Saudis felt the need to reassess the situation and to be able to start a dialogue in their interest as you said, maybe it could be the start of a normalization of relations with Cairo, why not?,” he said.With Ali Eren’s boiler business is still counting the cost of Turkey’s regional isolation, Eren welcomes talk of a rapprochement.”Egypt has been a loss for us, but we are not worried it’s going to come back on us again because politics change,” said Eren.For exporters like Eren who are also reeling from the pandemic, repairing ties with the Saudis cannot come soon enough.
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Lawmakers in Argentina’s lower house on Friday passed a bill that would legalize abortion in most cases, a proposal from President Alberto Fernández in response to long-sought demands from women’s rights activists.  
The bill, which needs approval from the country’s Senate in a debate expected before the end of the year, allows for voluntary abortions to be carried out up to the 14th week of pregnancy.
The proposed law was approved in a 131-117 vote with six abstentions after a marathon debate that extended from Thursday into the early hours of Friday morning.
Demonstrators in favor of decriminalizing abortion, who had spent the night outside the congress building in Buenos Aires, erupted with joy and embraced each other as they listened to the parliamentary speaker reading the vote’s results on screens. Many of them wore face masks in the green color that has become a symbol for their movement.
Hundreds of meters (yards) away, not far from the parliament building, hundreds of opponents dressed in light blue and carrying the national flag deplored the result, with some shedding tears.
Latin America has some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws. Mexico City, Cuba and Uruguay are among the few places in the region where women can undergo abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy regardless of the circumstances.
Currently, many women who have an abortion in Argentina, as well as people who assist them with the procedure, can face prosecution. Exemptions are only considered in cases of rape or if pregnancy poses a risk to the mother’s health.  
While the bill passed the lower house, the outlook is less clear in the country’s Senate. Two years ago, during the administration of more conservative President Mauricio Macri, the upper house voted against a similar bill to legalize abortion after it was narrowly approved by the lower house
Ahead of Thursday’s debate, the Roman Catholic Church had appealed to legislators for “a second of reflection on what respect for life means,” echoing the position of Pope Francis, an Argentine, that abortion is part of today’s “throwaway culture” that doesn’t respect the dignity of the unborn, the weak or elderly.
Before getting elected one year ago, Fernández had promised to push for making abortion voluntary and cost-free.
Several thousand women seeking abortions have died during unsafe, clandestine procedures in Argentina since 1983, and about 38,000 women are hospitalized every year because of botched procedures conducted in secret, according to the government.
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British health officials are warning that people with a “significant history” of allergic reactions should not receive the new coronavirus vaccine that was rolled out in a mass vaccination program Tuesday, pending investigation of two adverse reactions.  Britian is the first western country to begin the mass vaccinations, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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European Union leaders reached a hard-fought deal Friday to cut the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by the end of the decade compared with 1990 levels, avoiding a hugely embarrassing deadlock ahead of a U.N. climate meeting this weekend.Following night-long discussions at their two-day summit in Brussels, the 27 member states approved the EU executive commission’s proposal to toughen the bloc’s intermediate target on the way to climate neutrality by mid-century, after a group of reluctant, coal-reliant countries finally accepted to support the improved goal.Five years after the Paris agreement, the EU wants to be a leader in the fight against global warming. Yet the bloc’s heads of states and governments were unable to agree on the new target the last time they met in October, mainly because of financial concerns by eastern nations about how to fund and handle the green transition.But the long-awaited deal on a massive long-term budget and coronavirus recovery clinched Thursday by EU leaders swung the momentum.Large swaths of the record-high 1.82 trillion-euro package are set to pour into programs and investments designed to help the member states, regions and sectors particularly affected by the green transition, which are in need of a deep economic and social transformation. EU leaders have agreed that 30% of the package should be used to support the transition.
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Thousands of people took to the streets of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, Thursday to participate in a peaceful March for Life in honor of International Human Rights Day.  Protesters marched against kidnapping, murder, rape and countless human rights violations they say happen daily with impunity.  “On International Human Rights Day, we want to send a message to Jovenel Moise (the president of Haiti) that our constitution guarantees our freedom of expression, our right to demand government accountability, the right to demand our rights be safeguarded,” a protester told VOA as he explained why he decided to participate in the march.  Haiti has seen a spike in kidnappings and gang-related crimes that have terrorized citizens of all social classes living the capital.Tires burn in the middle of the street in defiance of a presidential decree which forbids such actions, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dec. 10, 2020. (Renan Toussaint/VOA)”President Jovenel Moise told us we can’t burn tires on the street — well today we showed him we are up to the challenge. We are burning tires right here in front of the national palace, and if he keeps messing with us, we’ll go burn them in front of his home,” said a protester standing near the flames.  “The burning tires represent democracy, freedom, Uncle Sam, no to dictatorship; they represent our opposition to what the president is doing,” another protester told VOA.  “We aren’t hiding behind face masks; we aren’t wearing makeup — we want to show our faces clearly — since we’ve been branded ‘terrorists’ [by the president]. And we’re waiting for those who are coming to arrest these so-called terrorists,” said a protester wearing sunglasses.Moise has been ruling by decree since January 2020 because the parliament is out of session. The terms of two-thirds of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate expired months before the pandemic hit the Caribbean nation in March.Former Senator Antonio Cheramy addresses the protesters in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dec. 10, 2020. (Renan Toussaint/VOA)”He doesn’t issue decrees against the people who are raping your children, but he does issue decrees that threaten all the democratic gains we fought hard to attain in 1987. Today, we say no to kidnapping, and we will not surrender to Jovenel’s threats,” the senator told the crowd. “February 7, 2021, is coming. I applaud all Haitians who are out here today, this is a start, and we should keep protesting until life gets back to normal.”  The senator also decried the countless violations of basic human rights.  With regards to his departure date, Moise has insisted he will leave office on February 7, 2022 – five years to the day since he took power. The United Nations, Organization of American States and United States support that timeline. But the date is disputed by some Haitian citizens and opposition politicians who say Moise should step down in February 2021 regardless of whether elections have been held.  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on the Haitian government to hold elections as soon as possible. Moise responded by naming a provisional electoral council (CEP), which is currently working on organizing a vote.  Former Senator Moïse Jean Charles speaks to protesters during a demonstration in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dec. 10, 2020. (Renan Toussaint/VOA)Former Senator Moise Jean Charles, leader of the Pitit Dessalines opposition party, also joined protesters.  “We don’t have (adequate) hospitals, schools; people don’t have access to food; there are multiple human rights violations happening. We are dealing with insecurity — so we’re out here today to denounce these things,” he told the crowd. “This time we want everyone to know our aim is to overthrow this system of government, which acts with impunity while enjoying support from the (foreign) embassies.”  Senator Moise has been vocal about his opposition to foreign interference in Haiti’s internal affairs, and even organized a demonstration in front of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince in November to express his disdain.  When the protesters arrived in front of the Ministry of Justice, they were dispersed by the national police.  National policemen disperse protesters in front of the Ministry of Justice, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dec. 10, 2020. (Renan Toussaint/VOA)December 10 commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948. The landmark document spells out the rights and freedoms all human beings are meant to enjoy.  In Haiti, protesters accuse the government of disrespecting the most basic and sacred right of all, which is the right to life.  
 
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Doctor-assisted suicide has been legally available in Canada since 2016 for individuals whose death is deemed to be “reasonably foreseeable.” Now, a revision of the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) Act making its way through Parliament would make the ultimate solution available to others with debilitating illnesses.The change was prompted by a court ruling in the mostly French-speaking province of Quebec that found it was unconstitutional to restrict euthanasia to those facing imminent death. The court said that shortcoming must be corrected by no later than December 18.The current law provides a 10-day waiting period before euthanasia can be administered to someone already near death. The proposed changes would eliminate that provision but add a 90-day waiting period before doctors can assist in the suicide of someone not already facing death.Dr. Thomas Bouchard is a Calgary, Alberta, physician who has long been opposed to Medical Assistance in Dying. Previously, he was involved with the Canadian Federation of Catholic Physicians and has signed the “MAiD to Mad Declaration,” which contends that under the proposed legislation, “Medical Assistance in Dying becomes Medically Administered Death.”Longer waitHe says the 90-day waiting period is not nearly long enough. He also says the current legislation is reckless, and he is calling for patients to be offered additional alternatives.“So, they seem to be in a rush, and there’s no need for a rush,” he said. “And I think they had a plan for more fulsome discussion with several committees and hearing from stakeholders. But … this is an absolute rush job. And it’s carelessly done. It’s poorly written.”Euthanasia has been a politically charged issue in Canada since the 1990s, when Sue Rodriguez, who was dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, took her fight for a doctor-assisted death all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. She lost in a landmark 5-4 decision that was overturned in 2016 to allow terminally ill people to seek medical assistance in ending their lives.Her close friend and one of Canada’s strongest advocates for medical assistance in dying is former Member of Parliament Svend Robinson. In February 1994, he helped Rodriguez find a doctor and was with her when she died with medical assistance. He has not disclosed the name of that doctor and did not face criminal charges.Imperfect, but a key stepHe says objections like Bouchard’s are nothing new. Robinson, who served in the House of Commons for 25 years, argues the proposed legislation may not be perfect, but it is an important step in the right direction.“Those groups have fought us every step of the way. They will continue to fight,” he said. “And I just I wish they would recognize that no one, no one is forcing any of them to make this decision.”But for them to tell people like Sue that they don’t have the right to make this decision for themselves — I just think that’s fundamentally wrong and misguided, and so that opposition will continue, but the government should move forward.”Rodriguez’s lawyer, Chris Considine, has advocated for euthanasia for nearly three decades. He does not call the new legislation reckless but agrees with Bouchard that there first needs to be a full debate in Parliament. In particular, he would like to see stronger provisions on counseling about alternatives for people who are depressed or suffering from disabilities.He said he was concerned because he wasn’t sure there were enough resources available to help people with disabilities “make alternative decisions, have alternative procedures put in place if they’re depressed, et cetera, so they don’t necessarily feel they have to take this particular route.”  He said some people with disabilities had expressed similar misgivings about the legislation.The new legislation has most recently been sent from a committee of Canada’s Senate back down to the House of Commons for further debate. But with the Quebec court’s December 18 deadline fast approaching, there is little time left to improve the bill.
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With a chaotic and costly no-deal Brexit three weeks away, leaders of both the European Union and United Kingdom saw an ever liklier collapse of trade talks Thursday, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson even spoke of a “strong possibility” of failure. Both sides told their citizens to brace for a New Year’s shock, as trade between the U.K. and the European mainland could face its biggest upheaval in almost a half century.  Johnson’s gloomy comments came as negotiators sought to find a belated breakthrough in technical talks, where their leaders failed three times in political discussions over the past week.  Facing a Sunday deadline set after inconclusive talks between EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Johnson on Wednesday night, both sides realized their drawn-out four-year divorce might well end on bad terms.  FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 9, 2020.”I do think we need to be very, very clear: There is now a strong possibility — a strong possibility — that we will have a solution that is much more like an Australian relationship with the EU,” Johnson said, using his phrasing for a no-deal exit. Australia does not have a free trade deal with the 27-nation EU. “That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing,” Johnson added. On the EU side, reactions were equally pessimistic.  “I am a bit more gloomy today, as far as I can hear,” Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said at an EU summit where von der Leyen briefed the 27 leaders on her unsuccessful dinner with Johnson. FILE – Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven speaks during a news conference updating on the coronavirus situation, at the government headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Nov. 3, 2020.”She was not really confident that all difficulties could be resolved,” said David Sassoli, president of the EU parliament that will have to approve any deal brokered.  A cliff-edge departure would threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs and cost tens of billions of dollars in commerce. To prepare for a sudden exit on January 1, the EU on Thursday proposed four contingency measures to make sure that at least air and road traffic would continue as smoothly as possible for the next six months. It also proposed that fishermen should still have access to each other’s waters for up to a year, to limit the commercial damage of a no-deal split. The plans depend on the U.K. offering similar initiatives. The move was indicative of how the EU saw a bad breakup as ever more realistic. FILE – Fishermen empty a fishing net aboard the Boulogne-sur-Mer based trawler “Nicolas Jeremy” in the North Sea, off the coast of northern France, Dec. 7, 2020. French fishermen net a quarter of their northeastern Atlantic catch in British waters.Johnson warned that “yes, now is the time for the public and businesses to get ready for January 1, because, believe me, there’s going to be change either way.” For months now, trade talks have faltered on Britain’s insistence that as a sovereign nation it must not be bound indefinitely to EU rules and regulations — even if it wants to export freely to the bloc. That same steadfastness has marked the EU in preserving its cherished single market and seeking guarantees against a low-regulation neighbor that would be able to undercut its businesses.  After Johnson’s midnight return to London, reactions were equally dim there.  U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Sunday deadline was a “moment of finality” — though he added “you can never say never entirely.”  FILE – British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab speaks at a press conference at the State Department in Washington, Sept. 16, 2020.In four years of talks on the U.K.’s departure terms and a future trade relationship, such self-imposed deadlines have been broken repeatedly since Britain voted to leave the EU.  January 1 is different because the U.K. has made the 11-month transition since its January 31 official departure legally binding.  “There are big ideological, substantive and policy gaps that need to be bridged,” said Mujtaba Rahman, Europe managing director for the Eurasia Group. “They’re so far apart and the time is so limited now.” A no-deal split would bring tariffs and other barriers that would hurt both sides, although most economists think the British economy would take a greater hit because the U.K. does almost half of its trade with the bloc. Months of trade talks have failed to bridge the gaps on three issues — fishing rights, fair-competition rules and the governance of future disputes. While both sides want a deal, they have fundamentally different views of what it entails. The EU fears Britain will slash social and environmental standards and pump state money into U.K. industries, becoming a low-regulation economic rival on the bloc’s doorstep — hence the demand for strict “level playing field” guarantees in exchange for access to its markets. 
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Turkish exporters are being shut out of Middle Eastern markets because of growing pushback by Saudi Arabia and Egypt in response to what some describe as Turkey’s aggressive foreign policy. But with a COVID-ravaged economy, Ankara is looking for a diplomatic reset, as Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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The head of the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) has warned that 270 million people face starvation around the globe. WFP Executive Director David Beasley spoke Thursday at a ceremony held virtually as he accepted the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the agency.“This Nobel Peace Prize is more than a thank you. It is a call to action,” Beasley said. “Because of so many wars, climate change, the widespread use of hunger as a political and military weapon, and a global health pandemic that makes all of that exponentially worse, 270 million people are marching toward starvation.” He also said, “Out of that 270 million, 30 million depend on us 100% for their survival.”Instead of the traditional Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Beasley accepted the prize in Rome, headquarters of the WFP. He said the world had the wealth and resources to tackle global hunger.“We stand at what may be the most ironic moment in modern history. On the one hand, after a century of massive strides in eliminating extreme poverty, today those 270 million of our neighbors are on the brink of starvation. That’s more than the entire population of western Europe. On the other hand, there’s $400 trillion of wealth in our world today. Even at the height of the COVID pandemic, in just 90 days an additional $2.7 trillion of wealth was created and we only need $5 billion to save 30 million lives from famine. What am I missing here?” Beasley said.In 2019, the WFP provided assistance to almost 100 million people in 88 countries. The Norwegian Nobel committee said in addition to combating hunger, the WFP had contributed to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected places and was a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict over its 60-year history.The WFP’s regional director for Eastern Africa, Michael Dunford, said the organization was delighted to win the prize after a tough year.“This has been a tremendous boost,” Dunford said. “2020 as you know has been one of the most difficult years. COVID has been yet another shock in addition to some of the worst flooding in eastern Africa, in addition to a locust plague of biblical proportions, and unfortunately, and this is the biggest concern, conflict and insecurity in so many of the countries that we’re operating in.”Dunford says the prize is a tribute to the WFP staff who risk their lives “…working in some of the most difficult locations in the world, in sub-offices deep in the field, be it either in Somalia or in South Sudan. And really, people who have to put their lives on the line to be able to support people who cannot feed themselves.”The World Food Program has also coordinated medical logistics during the coronavirus pandemic. The WFP executive director warned that a failure by the international community to address the needs of those affected by the outbreak would cause what he called a “hunger pandemic” that would dwarf the death toll caused by the virus.WFP staff are expected to travel to Oslo at a later stage to deliver the traditional Nobel lecture. The remaining Nobel awards for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics have also been moved online.The ceremonies are held annually on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his will. 
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Spanish officials say at least two people are dead and 17 others injured after a fire broke out in an abandoned warehouse believed to be occupied by squatters just north of Barcelona.Firefighters and emergency services officials in the city of Badalona say the fire broke out late Wednesday in the warehouse in an industrial area. It was brought under control early Thursday, but firefighters were trying to stabilize the three-story structure before conducting a thorough search, for fear it would collapse.Emergency responders say they could account for about 60 people who had been in the building at the time but say many more fled on their own. It was believed more than 100 squatters occupied the building and were asleep when the fire started. The cause is not known, but one of the survivors told a Spanish newspaper he believed a candle was responsible.Badalona Mayor Xavier Garcia Albiol told reporters at the scene the building had been known to be occupied by squatters for years. Local and regional media reports say many of the squatters were undocumented immigrants from Africa.Badalona is a large, coastal Barcelona suburb of about 220,000, the fourth-largest city in Spain’s Catalonia region.
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Britain’s Conservatives say the left and liberals dominate the arts, museums, broadcasting and the universities, turning them into political echo chambers. They mean to reverse that, fearing they are being outflanked in a broader cultural war roiling the country, one that has only been inflamed by rancorous divisions over Brexit and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.The latest furious skirmish has focused on an unlikely target — the country’s National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. The storied charity manages around 300 stately homes and castles as well as other places of historic interest acquired over the years from impoverished aristocratic families.Among them Chartwell in Kent, the country home of Winston Churchill for four decades, Cliveden, the home to a Prince of Wales, two dukes, an Earl, and finally the Astor family, and the water-meadow along the River Thames at Runnymede, west of London, the site of the signing in 1215 of the Magna Carta, which an assembly of rebellious English barons forced on King John.FILE – “Cliveden” the thames side Mansion of Lord and Lady Astor at Taplow, Bucks, England on July 22, 1938.Castle Ward in Northern Ireland, another National Trust property, was one of the backdrops for the filming of the blockbuster TV series Game of Thrones.And until recently the National Trust, founded in the late nineteenth century and funded by the government and from the subscriptions of members, was synonymous with genteel afternoon teas, strolls in ornate gardens in period settings and quiet family days-out, all far from the cut-and-thrust of political controversy.Troubled historyBut that changed when in September the National Trust published a weighty report detailing the historical links of 93 properties with the slave trade and British imperial rule.The inclusion of Churchill’s home Chartwell drew the ire especially of the country’s culture minister Oliver Dowden and other ruling Conservatives.FILE – The Churchill family turns out in force to welcome former President Harry S. Truman and first lady Bess Truman to Chartwell, the former British Prime Minister’s English countryside estate,June 24, 1956.Churchill’s role as minister for the colonies in the 1920s, his participation in the partition of Ireland as well as his decision as wartime prime minister to limit aid to Bengal during a disastrous 1943 famine were all cited in the report. None of that quieted the outcry from Conservatives, nor their anger that the home of the Victorian-era author Rudyard Kipling was listed because “the British Empire was a central theme and context of his literary output.”“Churchill is one of Britain’s greatest heroes,” Dowden complained. “He rallied the free world to defeat fascism. It will surprise and disappoint people that the National Trust appears to be making him a subject of criticism and controversy,” he added.Other Conservatives criticized the conflation of slavery with colonialism, saying it revealed the political motivations of the National Trust and was an effort to defame and diminish towering historical figures and great families and to rewrite British history.In its report exploring how the previous owners of the properties profited from slavery and were involved in colonial expansion, or oversaw British imperial rule across a swathe of the globe, the National Trust noted: “These histories are sometimes very painful and difficult to consider. They make us question our assumptions about the past, and yet they can also deepen and enrich our understanding.”PoliticsThe charity’s executives insist they are not taking partisan political sides and that the information about how foreign conquest and slavery profits enriched plantation-owning families and imperial overlords, allowing them to build stately homes and lavishly furnish them, can be utilized for education purposes.They want visitors to the properties to get a fuller, more accurate history, not a sanitized version, they say.Historian Peter Mitchell, a research fellow at Britain’s Sussex University, agrees. He has praised the trust for trying to contextualize, explain and for asking uncomfortable questions. Writing in the Guardian newspaper, he said: “The treatment the National Trust has received for daring to understand its mission as to help us understand history, rather than supply us with fantasy, is a warning to all historians.”But Conservative critics say the National Trust should focus on the upkeep of the buildings and land it manages. The battle has raged on for months now.This week, Common Sense, a group of more than 60 Conservative lawmakers, revealed it is seeking a meeting with Britain’s charity commissioner, to discuss the charitable status of organizations which they claim have “denigrated British history and heritage,” including the National Trust. The group argues charities are being hijacked by “elitist bourgeois liberals colored by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the ‘woke agenda.’”The request for a meeting follows a recent warning by the commissioner, Tina Stowell, a Conservative peer, that those “tempted to use charities as another front on which to wage broader political struggles should be careful.”On campusConservative cultural warriors are also targeting Britain’s public universities, which they see as bastions of the left and they criticized a recent report by the universities’ representative body, UK’s universities, calling for an end to “curricula that are based on Eurocentric, typically white voices.” They have fulminated, too, against the so-called no-platforming of controversial speakers, generally Conservatives, at some universities, who find themselves barred from speaking because of their views.Britain’s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Nov. 4, 2020.In the past few weeks the culture minister, Oliver Dowden, has warned a London museum it might lose state funding, if it removes a statue of a merchant and slave trader from its grounds. And the Department for Education has instructed schools not to teach pupils about “extreme political stances” such as the “desire to overthrow capitalism,” and to refrain from teaching “victim narratives that are harmful to British society.”Some Conservative commentators have called for even more forward-leaning action. Daily Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley has urged the ruling Conservatives to “march through the cultural institutions,” saying it should use the “purse strings” to change the cultural political balance.But some Conservative lawmakers worry that cultural warfare can be carried too far and that it carries electoral risks, limiting its utility as a political strategy. Polling data suggests older Britons do worry about the country turning more multicultural and remain fearful of a dilution of what they see as British identity. But younger votes don’t.Prime Minister Boris Johnson himself has been cautious. In his speech to a virtual conference of Conservative party members in October, he devoted little time to the culture wars, limiting his remarks to a short passage criticizing those who “want to pull statues down, to rewrite the history of our country … to make it look more politically correct.” A full-scale, no-holds-barred culture war would undermine the image of a “global Britain,” which Johnson has been promoting.Easier this year, he considered appointing two highly Conservative journalists, Charles Moore, a biographer of Margaret Thatcher, and Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail tabloid, to chair respectively the BBC and the country’s broadcasting regulator, only to back down.
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