German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ordered a Christmas lockdown amid an alarming rise in coronavirus cases in the country.Under new emergency measures, which will last from December 16 until January 10, all schools and non-essential shops across Germany are to close and bars and restaurants will remain shut.In a bid to deter outside gatherings during the period, the sale of fireworks is banned and so, too, drinking alcohol in public. The only concession for Christmas is that up to 10 people will be allowed to meet indoors — currently a maximum of five people from two different households is allowed to gather in homes.Religious events in churches, synagogues and mosques may take place, if strict hygiene rules are observed, but communal singing is banned.“I would have wished for lighter measures. But due to Christmas shopping, the number of social contacts has risen considerably,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin after a meeting of federal and state leaders. “There is an urgent need to take action,” she added.People stand around a mulled wine to-go stand at a Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz square, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Berlin, Germany, Dec.10, 2020.Infection rates have hit record levels in Germany in the past few days and the country now has the 12th highest number of cases in the world.More than 20,000 new cases were reported by authorities Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 1,320,716, and 21,787 Germans have died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. The country’s intensive care unit capacity is at a critical level, and doctors say that only five- to 10 percent of intensive care beds are available in some parts of the country.Germany’s Finance Ministry announced it was planning further support for businesses and workers impacted by the lockdown, saying, “Companies, the self-employed and freelancers who are affected by closures from December 16 will receive financial support.”Germany isn’t alone in struggling to suppress transmissions and in some European countries, criticism is mounting of governments for failing to prevent a second pandemic wave. In Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who was praised for his decisiveness in battling the first coronavirus wave earlier this year, is being accused of pursuing an “amateurish” approach this time round.A nurse tends to a patient inside a COVID-19 intensive care unit of the Tor Vergata Polyclinic Hospital in Rome, Italy, Dec. 13, 2020.According to an official tally, Italy is nearing 64,000 deaths from COVID, overtaking Britain, which for weeks has held the lead position in European fatalities. The World Health Organization says Italy is now registering 1,036 deaths per million residents, the second highest after Peru.Conte held back from ordering a second national lockdown as the second wave started in September — despite appeals from some regional governors. In March, he imposed a tough 10-week lockdown, which tamed the first wave.The Italian leader has now ratcheted up restrictions for the Christmas period, but some epidemiologists say the move has been too late. Italian microbiologist Andrea Crisanti said, “Italy’s first wave was bad luck but the second wave unforgivable A sign of poor management and amateurish preparation.”Since September, Italy has recorded more than 28,000 COVID deaths.Matteo Villa, an analyst at the Institute for International Political Studies, Italy’s oldest research institution, specializing in political and international affairs, said the government dithered and failed to prepare the health system in between waves. “If you can act sooner, even a bit lighter in the measures, they work better than acting harshly a bit later or too late,” he said.Conte’s poll ratings are now sliding, and his coalition government is being buffeted by desertions and squabbles over the disbursement of recovery funds from the European Union. Matteo Renzi, a former prime minister, has threatened to collapse the coalition government, which also features the populist Five Star movement as well as the Democratic Party, Italy’s main center-left party, by withholding the backing of his centrist Italia Viva party.Earlier this month, many European governments looked poised to ease coronavirus restrictions for the Christmas period, despite warnings from medical scientists.Gabriele Vinzi, 3, and his brother Samuele Vinzi, 4, react along with their parents as they receive a call via Zoom by a man dressed as Santa Claus, amid theCOVID-19 pandemic, in Rome, Italy, Dec. 8, 2020.They came under mounting public pressure to salvage something of the holiday spirit and they grappled with how far they should go in easing lockdowns or lifting curfews, fearing that having a merry Christmas will likely mean suffering a miserable new year. Now most are heading in the opposite direction with tighter restrictions.Last week, the French prime minister announced he would still lift the country’s lockdown on Tuesday as planned but retain some strict restrictions and impose some new ones for Christmas because of worrying health data. Jean Castex had hoped to lift many more rules but said the virus is not letting him. A new 8 p.m. curfew is being imposed.“We are not yet at the end of the second wave, and we won’t be at the goal we set of 5,000 new cases per day,” he said, adding, “We know that the gatherings over the holidays present a risk.”We need to keep our guard up, stay vigilant,” Castex said.  
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Security forces in Belarus have detained dozens of people as opposition demonstrators staged scattered marches and rallies in Minsk and other cities to pressure strongman leader Alexander  Lukashenko to make political concessions. Human rights group Vyasna said that nearly 180 people were detained during the protests on December 13, with most of the arrests reported in Minsk. According to local news outlet Nasha Niva, more than 120 marches took places across the country, with numbers at each rally ranging from dozens to several hundred. Some protesters marched in outlying residential areas of Minsk, waving white-and-red flags, a symbol of the opposition, and chanting “Long live Belarus.” The demonstrations came as opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was scheduled to appear at events in Germany, as part of her efforts to rally international support for Belarus’s beleaguered opposition. The country has been roiled by unprecedented political opposition since early August when Lukashenko was declared victor of a presidential election that opposition leaders said was flawed. Activists have defied often violent police tactics and organized weeks of demonstrations and rallies. Still, the only hints of concession that Lukashenko has shown are suggestions he has made about drafting a new constitution. In contrast to past weekend demonstration, Minsk authorities did not shutter the subway system on December 13, and no major Internet disruptions were reported. Many of Belarus’s opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to leave the country, including Tsikhanouskaya, who says she won the August election. Tsikhanouskaya, who now lives in exile in neighboring Lithuania, hailed protesters who had gathered “despite repressions, violence and cold. “They resist Lukashenko’s regime because the people of Belarus want to live in a democratic and free country,” she said in a post to Twitter. The United States, the European Union, and several other countries have refused to acknowledge Lukashenko as the winner of the vote. The European Union imposed sanctions on Lukashenko and his allies citing election rigging and a violent police crackdown.  
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U.N. agencies are calling for greater protection for Venezuelan refugees and migrants fleeing economic hardship and persecution.   Venezuelans are often in danger upon arrival in other nations.Many of the 4.6 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants across Latin America and the Caribbean face multiple risks due to COVID-19, crime and human trafficking, impoverishment and other threats.  The U.N. refugee agency says Venezuelans most at risk are those fleeing increasingly desperate conditions in their country.  Field assessments indicate approximately 500 to 700 people leave Venezuela every day. Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says borders across the region remain closed, forcing refugees to use routes where they are threatened by armed groups, smugglers and traffickers.    “This exposes them to heightened risk of violence, exploitation, and trafficking having been faced with theft, extortion, violence and abuse in transit and border zones, during their journey to safety,” he said. “As conditions inside Venezuela continue to deteriorate, many arrive in Colombia weak and in a state of poor nutrition, having faced impoverishment and hardship for many months.”   The International Organization for Migration says that COVID-19 has hit Venezuelan refugees and migrants in the region particularly hard.  IOM spokeswoman, Angela Wells says the economic and social impact of the pandemic has been devastating for both the Venezuelans and the 17 countries where they are now. “The pressures due to the COVID-19 mobility restrictions and consequent socio-economic decline have been compounded by the difficulties they face in regularizing their situations in host countries and fewer opportunities to pursue regular migration pathways,” she said.  “Decreased economic opportunities have put refugees and migrants at greater risk of eviction and hunger while xenophobia and discrimination toward this population have been on the rise.”   Under the so-called Quito process, which works to help and protect Venezuelan refugees and migrants, Latin American and Caribbean countries coordinate efforts to allow them to reach countries of asylum more safely. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had set Sunday as the deadline for reaching an accord. But they agreed there was too much at stake in reaching a deal to end talks. “Despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations and despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over, we both think it is responsible at this point in time to go the extra mile,” von der Leyen said. Negotiations continued at the EU headquarters in Brussels. At stake is Britain’s quest for zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the EU’s single market. Stumbling blocks include fishing rights and penalties Britain would face for violating the EU’s fair competition rules. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said early Sunday on Sky News TV, “We want to be treated like any other independent self-respecting democracy. If the EU can accept that at a political level, then there’s every reason to be confident but there is still, I think, a long way to go.” FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 9, 2020.A British source at the talks said Johnson “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 UK will be a sovereign nation in three weeks’ time.” A no-deal Brexit would be economically disruptive in Britain, across Europe and beyond.        
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Droves of Venezuelans blaming President Nicolás Maduro for their country’s collapse voiced their frustrations Saturday in a creative protest days after legislative elections they boycotted as fraudulent.In the so-called “people’s consultation,” U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó urged Venezuelans at home and around the world to register their ire through cellphone apps. Others visited makeshift polling stations in cities across Venezuela and in other Latin American nations, the U.S. and Europe.“Hope has been mobilized in Venezuela,” Guaidó said shortly before the results were announced. “We must underscore a heroic people who mobilized throughout the country and the world in defense of their rights.”Opposition leaders reported that nearly 6.5 million people responded to the survey. The Associated Press could not independently verify the validity of the figures, and even some opposition election experts questioned the number.The opposition’s report said more than 3.2 million participated in person within Venezuela and nearly 850,000 visited centers outside the country, while more than 2.5 million sent in their responses digitally.The survey asked whether people want to end Maduro’s rule and hold fresh presidential and legislative elections, and also seek even greater pressure from international allies to make it happen.Though the event had no legal force, opposition leaders said the survey would unify the foes of Maduro. That includes the 5 million Venezuelans who have fled the nation’s hyperinflation and lack of basic services such as reliable running water, electricity and gasoline, they said.Mirla De Lorenzo, a bank employee, visited a center in her Caracas neighborhood to participate, saying she would take any opportunity to express herself if there was any chance it could bring international attention to Venezuela’s plight and trigger an end to Maduro’s rule.“We’re definitely tired of this situation that’s brought us nothing but poverty,” she said, adding that her daughter moved to Spain and her sister migrated to Chile, among relatives who have fled the crisis.The consultation came days after Maduro’s ruling socialist party declared victory in congressional elections that Guaidó’s coalition boycotted, arguing the vote was a fraud. The United States and European Union are among nations and regional bodies that rejected the elections as undemocratic.A supporter of President Nicolas Maduro performs a wheelie on his motorbike during a rally during on the same day the opposition organized a people’s consultation, in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 12, 2020.Guaidó, acting as the National Assembly’s leader, proclaimed himself interim president in early 2019, arguing that Maduro was an illegitimate leader because his most popular challengers were barred from running in the presidential election the previous year.Guaidó quickly won broad support at home among energized supporters who flooded the streets as well as the backing of leaders in dozens of nations, including the U.S. The Trump administration took the lead, imposing sanctions on Maduro, dozens of his political allies and the state-run oil firm PDVSA. The U.S. Justice Department also unveiled an indictment of Maduro charging him with being a “narcoterrorist,” and offered a $15 million reward for his arrest.Nearly two years later, however, Maduro remains in power with control of the military and international allies including Iran, Russia, China, Tukey and Cuba.On Jan. 5, the term of the current opposition-dominated National Assembly ends and Maduro’s political allies take over the last governmental body not controlled by the president’s socialist party. Guaidó and his political allies vow to continue fighting.The U.S. ambassador for Venezuela, James Story, praised the opposition’s survey from Colombia’s capital, where he has worked since the U.S. and Venezuela broke diplomatic relations and the U.S. closed its embassy in Caracas.“We’re proud to see the people of Venezuela in the street voting for their right to democracy, justice, liberty,” Story tweeted. “Their voices have been heard. Democracy must return to Venezuela.”Maduro’s ruling party staged a celebration in the historic center of Caracas on Saturday to mark the victories of their National Assembly candidates, including Maduro’s wife and son. Politicians gave speeches condemning the domestic opposition and U.S. policy toward Venezuela. Salsa music played and people danced.A political talk show on state television Saturday night featured a segment mocking the referendum by showing cellphone videos said to have been recorded by people who drove by survey centers in cities across the nation.“There’s nobody, absolutely nobody,” one unidentified driver said. “Look there’s four people standing around talking nonsense.”
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A soft snow fell as a clutch of visitors equipped with a Geiger counter wandered through the ghostly Ukrainian town of Pripyat, frozen in time since the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986.More than three decades after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster forced thousands to evacuate, there is an influx of visitors to the area that has spurred officials to seek official status from UNESCO.”The Chernobyl zone is already a world-famous landmark,” guide Maksym Polivko told AFP during a tour on a recent frosty day.”But today this area has no official status,” the 38-year-old said of the exclusion zone where flourishing wildlife is taking over deserted Soviet-era tower blocks, shops and official buildings.That could change under the government initiative to have the area included on the UNESCO heritage list alongside landmarks like India’s Taj Mahal or Stonehenge in England.Officials hope recognition from the U.N.’s culture agency will boost the site as a tourist attraction and in turn bolster efforts to preserve aging buildings nearby.The explosion in the fourth reactor at the nuclear power plant in April 1986 left swathes of Ukraine and neighboring Belarus badly contaminated and led to the creation of the exclusion zone roughly the size of Luxembourg.Ukrainian authorities say it may not be safe for humans to live in the exclusion zone for another 24,000 years. Meanwhile, it has become a haven for wildlife with elk and deer roaming nearby forests.Dozens of villages and towns populated by hundreds of thousands of people were abandoned after the disaster, yet more than 100 elderly people live in the area despite the radiation threat.In Pripyat, a ghost town not far from the Chernobyl plant, rooms in eerie residential blocks are piled with belongings of former residents.’The time has come’Polivko said he hoped the upgraded status would encourage officials to act more responsibly to preserve the crumbling Soviet-era infrastructure surrounding the plant.”All these objects here require some repair,” he said.It was a sentiment echoed by Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko, who described the recent influx of tourists from home and abroad as evidence of Chernobyl’s importance “not only to Ukrainians, but of all mankind.”A record number of 124,000 tourists visited last year, including 100,000 foreigners following the release of the hugely popular Chernobyl television series in 2019.Tkachenko said obtaining UNESCO status could promote the exclusion zone as “a place of memory” that would warn against a repeat nuclear disaster.”The area may and should be open to visitors, but it should be more than just an adventure destination for explorers,” Tkachenko told AFP.The government is set to propose specific objects in the zone as a heritage site before March, but a final decision could come as late as 2023.After the explosion in 1986, the three other reactors at Chernobyl continued to generate electricity until the station finally closed in 2000. Ukraine will mark the 20th anniversary of the closure Tuesday.Tkachenko said the effort to secure UNESCO status was a new priority after work on a giant protective dome over the fourth reactor was completed in 2016.With the site now safe for 100 years, he said he hoped world heritage status would boost visitor numbers to 1 million a year.It’s a figure that would require an overhaul of the local infrastructure and overwhelm a lone souvenir kiosk on the site selling trinkets such as mugs and clothing adorned with nuclear fallout signs.”Before, everyone was busy with the cover,” Tkachenko said of the timing of the heritage initiative.”The time has come to do this.”
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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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