A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck early Tuesday off the coast of northern Chile, but there were no reports of damage.      The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was recorded at 3:46 a.m. local time at a moderate depth of 32 kilometers (20 miles). It was centered 37 kilometers (23 miles) west-southwest of the city of Arica.The biggest recent quake to hit Chile came in 2010, when a magnitude 8.8 quake caused a tsunami blamed for more than 500 deaths. 
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Protesters trying to cancel national elections have blocked roads leading to the main airport on the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica.Supporters of the opposition United Workers’ Party set up burning roadblocks on the two main roads leading to Douglas-Charles Airport, forcing the cancellation of at least one flight Tuesday morning. Passengers for other flights were forced to walk more than a mile to the airport, dragging their luggage through the street.The opposition says the country’s loose electoral rules allow the possibility of fraud in the Dec. 6 elections and have sued to stop them. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says he plans for elections to proceed.A judge is expected to rule on the case Tuesday.
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The head of the European Union’s mission to Malta on Tuesday expressed doubts about the government’s credibility after meeting with the embattled prime minister of the Mediterranean island nation.With protesters shouting in the background, European lawmaker Sophia in t Veld said outside the prime minister's office that “it is difficult to see how credibility of the office can be upheld.”The EU delegation launched the mission to the small EU nation after an investigation into the 2017 car bomb killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a leading investigative journalist, implicated Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff. Keith Schembri resigned from office and denies any involvement.Police have arrested a prominent businessman as the suspected mastermind. Yorgen Fenech reportedly linked Schembri to the killing.The delegation chief's comments raised pressure on Muscat, whose pledge to resign in January has done little to placate thousands of protesters gathering in the capital each night to demand he step down immediately.“In politics it is about trust. It is about the integrity of office. This is not about formalities,” int Veld, a Dutch lawmaker, said as a handful of anti-government protesters shouted in the background. “We have made it very clear that there is a problem. This is not just between the prime minister and the Maltese people. It is between Malta and the European Union.”She said trust between the EU and Malta “has been very seriously damaged,” and that Muscat did little to allay concerns.“I am not coming out of this meeting with more confidence, I have to say,” in `t Veld said.A Maltese member of the delegation, Roberta Metsola, said that Muscat, when asked, said he felt betrayed by his former chief of staff.The delegation will also meet during the 1 ½-day mission with police, the attorney general, journalists, Europol, civil society and family members of Caruana Galizia.The 53-year-old journalist, who had built a strong following for her work investigating corruption at the highest levels of Malta politics and economy, was slain in a car bomb in October 2017.While three men are being held pending a trial on charges of carrying out the attack, it took more than two years to identify anyone behind the killing. 
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The head of the European Union’s mission to Malta on Tuesday expressed doubts about the government’s credibility after meeting with the embattled prime minister of the Mediterranean island nation.
                   
With protesters shouting in the background, European lawmaker Sophia in t Veld said outside the prime minister's office that “it is difficult to see how credibility of the office can be upheld.”
                   
The EU delegation launched the mission to the small EU nation after an investigation into the 2017 car bomb killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a leading investigative journalist, implicated Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's chief of staff. Keith Schembri resigned from office and denies any involvement.
                   
Police have arrested a prominent businessman as the suspected mastermind. Yorgen Fenech reportedly linked Schembri to the killing.
                   
The delegation chief's comments raised pressure on Muscat, whose pledge to resign in January has done little to placate thousands of protesters gathering in the capital each night to demand he step down immediately.
                   
“In politics it is about trust. It is about the integrity of office. This is not about formalities,” int Veld, a Dutch lawmaker, said as a handful of anti-government protesters shouted in the background. “We have made it very clear that there is a problem. This is not just between the prime minister and the Maltese people. It is between Malta and the European Union.”
                   
She said trust between the EU and Malta “has been very seriously damaged,” and that Muscat did little to allay concerns.
                   
“I am not coming out of this meeting with more confidence, I have to say,” in `t Veld said.
                   
A Maltese member of the delegation, Roberta Metsola, said that Muscat, when asked, said he felt betrayed by his former chief of staff.
                   
The delegation will also meet during the 1-day mission with police, the attorney general, journalists, Europol, civil society and family members of Caruana Galizia.
                  
The 53-year-old journalist, who had built a strong following for her work investigating corruption at the highest levels of Malta politics and economy, was slain in a car bomb in October 2017.
                   
 While three men are being held pending a trial on charges of carrying out the attack, it took more than two years to identify anyone behind the killing.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for his recent statement describing NATO as experiencing “brain death,” saying the French leader’s comment was a “nasty statement.”Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as leaders of member nations gathered for a summit in London, Trump said, “You just can’t go around making statements like that about NATO.”Macron’s comments came in an interview with London-based magazine The Economist published last month.  He has since defended his words, saying NATO “needed a wake-up call” and should be focused on issues other than the amount of money each member spends on its military.NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg gestures during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at Winfield House in London, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019.Trump and Macron are due to meet Tuesday.Defense spending has been a focus for Trump since he took office in 2017 and complained the United States was taking on an outsized financial burden.Stoltenberg praised Trump on Tuesday, saying his leadership on the issue is “having a real impact.” He cited a $130 billion rise in defense budgets among the non-U.S. NATO members and said that would go to $400 billion by 2024.In addition to budget discussions, Stoltenberg said leaders would be talking about counterterrorism efforts, arms control, relations with Russia and the rise of China.The summit comes as Trump faces an impeachment investigation back home.  He repeated his criticism Tuesday of Democrats who control the House of Representatives, saying it is unfair to hold hearings while he is attending the summit.But when asked if the proceedings weaken his position as he meets with other leaders, Trump said, “I don’t think so.”
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U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper urged Turkey on Monday to stop holding up support for a NATO defense plan for the Baltics and Poland, as Ankara presses the alliance to support its fight against U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG militia in Syria.In an interview with Reuters ahead of the NATO summit, Esper warned Ankara that “not everybody sees the threats that they see” and added he would not support labeling the YPG as terrorists to break the impasse.He called on Ankara to focus on the larger challenges facing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.”The message to Turkey … is we need to move forward on these response plans and it can’t be held up by their own particular concerns,” Esper said as he flew to London.”Alliance unity, alliance readiness, means that you focus on the bigger issues — the bigger issue being the readiness of the (NATO) alliance. And not everybody’s willing to sign up to their agenda. Not everybody sees the threats that they see.”NATO envoys need formal approval by all 29 members for the plan to improve the defense of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia against any threat from neighboring Russia.The dispute, as NATO prepares to hold its 70th anniversary summit, is a sign of deep divisions between Ankara and Washington over everything from the war in Syria to Turkey’s growing defense relationship with Russia.Turkey wants NATO to formally recognize the YPG militia, the main component of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as terrorists and is infuriated that its allies have given the militia support.Ankara has blamed Washington for the current impasse, saying it was caused by the U.S. withdrawal of support from a separate defense plan for Turkey, covering any possible attack from the south where it borders Syria.Asked whether Washington might agree to branding the YPG as terrorists in order to break the deadlock, Esper said: “I wouldn’t support that.””We’re going to stick to our positions, and I think NATO will as well,” Esper said.The issue is the latest source of friction between the NATO allies, which have also been at loggerheads over Turkey’s purchase of advanced Russian air defenses, which Washington says are incompatible with NATO defenses and pose a threat to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighter jets.Washington said in July it was removing Turkey from the F-35 program and has warned of possible U.S. sanctions.Two U.S. senators pressed the Trump administration on Monday to impose sanctions on Turkey over its purchase of the Russian missile defense system and said the failure to do so sent a “terrible signal.” 
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The government of President Ivan Duque extended an olive branch Monday to labor and student groups organizing recent protests in Colombia by offering to start separate talks on their demands.Administrative Director Diego Molano said the government is willing to immediately initiate talks on 13 points identified by the National Strike Committee – but also asked it to refrain from a planned protest on Wednesday.”We’ve asked them, given the clamor of Colombians and so that the country can begin the Christmas season peacefully, that they suspend the Dec. 4 strike,” Molano said, noting it could have economic and transportation repercussions.Members of the National Strike Committee, comprised of over a dozen labor, student and other activist groups, said it was too late to stop Wednesday’s protest but expressed hope the offer for dialogue nonetheless remains.”The government has been very slow to convoke us,” said Julio Roberto Gomez, head of the General Labor Confederation, one of the nation’s largest unions and a member of the National Strike Committee.Duque had previously insisted that the strike committee join the “National Conversation” he has begun with a wider swatch of society to draft short- and long-term solutions to issues like corruption and inequality.”I’m the president of all Colombians,” Duque said in a televised interview Monday. “Those who march and those who don’t march.”Protest organizers have refused to participate in that dialogue, bashing it as a conversation amongst allies that would dilute demonstrator concerns, and instead demanded that the president establish separate talks specifically with them.Molano did not make clear if the government would still be willing to hold independent talks with the National Strike Committee even if it proceeds with a Wednesday strike.A woman marches with her children in an anti-government demonstration in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 21, 2019..Authorities estimate 250,000 Colombians took to streets around the nation in protests against Duque’s government on Nov. 21. The Strike Committee held a second demonstration last week that drew far fewer people.The strike steering committee’s 13 demands include asking Duque to withdraw or refrain from tax, labor and pension law changes that are either before the legislature or rumored to be in development.It also wants Duque to review free-trade agreements, eliminate a police unit accused in the death of an 18-year-old student protester and fully implement Colombia’s historic peace accord with leftist rebels. 
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A Honduran court sentenced seven people to prison terms of up to 50 years Monday for the 2016 murder of indigenous and environmental rights activist Berta Caceres.The seven men were convicted in November 2018 for the attack, which left Caceres dead while another activist survived.Four men — Elvin Rapalo, Henry Hernandez, Edilson Duarte and Oscar Torres Velasquez — were sentenced to 34 years for the murder and 16 years for attempted murder. The country’s Sentencing Tribunal gave three others prison terms of 30 years for their roles, including an army officer, an ex-soldier and a manager of the dam project Caceres opposed.FILE – Honduran environmentalist Berta Caceres speaks in San Francisco during the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize award ceremony, April 20, 2015.Caceres was shot inside her home in La Esperanza in western Honduras one year after winning the Goldman Environmental Prize for her leadership against the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam project. The project was suspended following her death.Roberto David Castillo Mejia, who was executive president of the company leading the construction work, DESA, when Caceres was killed, is accused by prosecutors of organizing the logistics of the killing. That case continues.The company has denied Castillo and its other employees were connected to the murder.Caceres had been threatened before and as early as 2009 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had ordered protective measures for her safety. Other members of her group had also been killed. The gunmen who killed Caceres also wounded Mexican activist Gustavo Castro Soto, who was at the home that night. 
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Russia is to set up a new online site for its national encyclopedia after President Vladimir Putin said Wikipedia was unreliable and should be replaced.The move will ensure people can find “reliable information that is constantly updated on the basis of scientifically verified sources of knowledge,” a government resolution said.Putin last month proposed replacing the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia Wikipedia with an electronic version of the Great Russian Encyclopedia – the successor to the Soviet Union’s main encyclopedia.”This, at any rate, would be reliable information offered in a modern form,” Putin said then.In 2015, Russia briefly blocked the Russian-language version of Wikipedia for an article containing information on cannabis under legislation banning sites with drug-related material.Moscow has also introduced tougher online controls over the Russian segment of the internet so that it can keep on functioning even if cut off from foreign infrastructure.The Great Russian Encyclopedia is already available in a basic electronic format.The new online portal will cost about 2 billion rubles ($31 million), Sergei Kravets, an editor for the Great Russian Encyclopedia was quoted as saying on Nov. 21 by TASS news agency.The government will also set up a national research and education center for the Great Russian Encyclopedia, the resolution, signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, said. 
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Six people have been indicted over the killing of moderate Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic in January 2018, the state prosecutor’s office said on Monday.Ivanovic was gunned down in front of his party office in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, in an area mainly inhabited by Kosovo’s Serb minority.The prosecution said three suspects were already in custody and international arrest warrants were issued for three others, including the two who allegedly ordered the killing.The defendants include a woman who worked as an administrator in Ivanovic’s office who is accused of helping the killers and police officers accused of hiding evidence, according to the prosecution.In its statement, the prosecutor’s office did not reveal ethnicity of those indicted, but a local prosecutor who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said all those indicted were Serbs.More than a decade since Kosovo proclaimed independence, around 40,000 to 50,000 Serbs in northern Kosovo refuse to recognize Pristina institutions and see Belgrade as their capital.Relations between Serbia and Kosovo remain strained, as Belgrade refuses to recognize the independence of its former province and, with its ally Russia, is blocking Kosovo’s membership in the United Nations. 
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Hungary’s president on Monday nominated a Budapest judge to head the country’s powerful judiciary office for the next nine years, amid concerns that nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban might be encroaching on judicial independence.President Janos Ader, a key Orban ally, proposed Gyorgy Barna Senyei, who is in charge of civil economic litigation in Hungary’s capital, to head the National Office of the Judiciary, Ader said in a posting on parliament’s website.The office decides the appointment of judges and oversees the operation of the courts.Orban has solidified his grip over most walks of Hungarian life in the past decade, leading to clashes with Western nations over the rule of law.FILE – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is seen after speaking at the National Museum in Prague, Czech Republic, Nov. 17, 2019.However, despite an overhaul in 2011 which triggered a conflict with the European Union at the time, the judiciary has remained one of the most independent bodies in Hungary.Checks and balances warningThe National Office of the Judiciary had been led by Tunde Hando, the wife of a ruling party lawmaker, until last month when she was appointed to the Constitutional Court. Orban’s critics say that court, once Hungary’s top arbiter of law, has been weakened since Orban’s Fidesz party started to appoint its members.Hando frequently clashed with the self-governing panel of judges, the National Judicial Council, which accused her of abusing her power over the appointment of new judges. Hando rejected the allegations.In April, the European Association of Judges (EAJ) visited Budapest and said in a report that Hando was in effect neutralizing the panel that was supposed to oversee her work.In a July 8 recommendation, the Council of the European Union also warned that “checks and balances, which are crucial to ensuring judicial independence, are seen to be under further pressure within the ordinary courts system. The National Judicial Council faces increasing challenges in counter-balancing the powers of the President of the National Office for the Judiciary.”Orban responseOrban has rejected allegations that his government has eroded checks and balances. He says the mandate he has received through democratic elections empowers Fidesz to change laws and appoint people to key positions.Last month, Hungary’s chief prosecutor Peter Polt, an Orban loyalist, was reappointed for a second nine-year term.Hungary and Poland’s ruling nationalist party have tightened control over the media, academics, courts and advocacy groups, spurring the European Parliament to launch an Article 7 legal process against both the EU countries.
 
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Chile’s economy contracted 3.4% in October from the same month a year ago, the central bank said on Monday, posting the single biggest drop in a decade as weeks of violent protests began sending shockwaves through the Chilean economy.Riots in Chile began on Oct. 18 over a hike in metro fares but quickly spiraled into mass protests, arson and looting that have left 26 dead and upwards of $1.5 billion in losses for businesses. The peso has plummeted to a historic low, prompting multiple central bank interventions.The IMACEC economic activity index, proxy for gross domestic product tallied on a monthly basis, fell 5.4% from September.People walk past a bureau de exchange were currency exchange is displayed in Santiago, Chile, Dec. 2, 2019.Scotiabank labeled it the “beginning of the bad news,” in a note to investors, adding that the year-on-year drop in economic activity was “a drop not seen since the 2008 financial crisis.”Non-mining activity fell 4%, the bank said, marked by a sharp drop in education, transportation, business services and the hotel and restaurant sector.The fall-off in activity far exceeded market expectations, said Mauricio Carrasco of consultancy Econsult.”Going forward, restoring public order continues to be the biggest challenge,” Carrasco said.Much of Santiago, Chile’s capital of 6 million, was shut near the end of October as riots and looting closed streets, central squares and many small businesses. Violence spiked again last week, prompting center-right President Sebastian Pinera to renew calls for deeper reforms and a crackdown on lawlessness.Chilean police clash with anti-government demonstrators in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 12, 2019.Mining activity in the world’s top copper producer nonetheless grew 2.0% compared with the same month in 2018, as new production from Codelco’s Chuquicamata mine ramped up, boosting total output despite the mounting protests.Chile’s copper mines have mostly maintained production and kept operations running normally in the face of the unrest, with only scattered incidents reported. 
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview Monday that he didn’t speak with President Donald Trump “from the position of a quid pro quo” last summer. Zelenskiy says, “That’s not my thing. . I don’t want us to look like beggars.”Trump later claimed Zelenskiy had said Trump had done nothing wrong. But Zelenskiy didn’t go that far.The Ukrainian leader spoke to Time ahead of the first round of expected peace talks with Russia Dec. 9 in Paris — the two countries have been embroiled in war along the Ukraine border for the past five years.Zelenskiy, a former comedian turned politician, has been in office for barely six months and his conversations with Trump are the topic of intense scrutiny in the U.S., with their July 25 phone call at the center of the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump.Zelenskiy was asked whether there was a connection between Trump’s decision to block military assistance to Ukraine and the two investigations he asked Zelenskiy to do. One was on possible meddling by Ukraine in the 2016 elections, the other was about the family of Democratic rival, Joe Biden.FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the sidelines of the 74th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 25, 2019.“Look I never talked to the president from the position of a quid pro quo,” Zelenskiy said. “But you have to understand. We’re at war. If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us. I think that’s just about fairness. It’s not about a quid pro quo.”Trump later told reporters as he departed Monday for London for the NATO summit that Zelenskiy’s comments should be “case closed,” mischaracterizing the interview by saying that Zelenskiy had come out and said “very strongly that President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.”Zelenskiy also said when leaders like Trump call his country corrupt, it sends a concerning message.“Everyone hears that signal,” he said. “Investments, banks, stakeholders, companies, American, European, companies that have international capital in Ukraine, it’s a signal to them that says, Be careful, don't invest.' Or,Get out of there.”’When asked whether he had any trust in Russian President Vladimir Putin going into the peace talks next week, he said: “I don’t trust anyone at all.”“Politics is not an exact science,” Zelenskiy said.
 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed legislation allowing individuals to be labeled foreign agents, drawing criticism from rights groups that say the move will further restrict media freedoms in the country.An initial foreign agent law was adopted by Russia in 2012, giving authorities the power to label non-governmental organizations and human rights groups as foreign agents – a term that carries a negative Soviet-era connotations.But the expansion of the definition of foreign agent to include private individuals now raises fresh concerns about the ability of independent journalists and bloggers to operate in the country.Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, had called for the initiative to be dropped as it was being approved by lawmakers.Under the law, all material published by an individual who receives funds from abroad will be labeled as having been distributed by a foreign agent. The law also says that any individual who distributes foreign media could be labeled a foreign agent.Rights groups and other organizations designated by the Russian justice ministry as foreign agents can be subjected to spot checks and face bureaucratic scrutiny.Russian law also requires so-called foreign agents to submit regular reports on their funding, objectives, how they spend their money and who their managers are. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday accused Cuba and Venezuela of attempting to hijack democratic protests in Latin America, vowing that Washington would support countries trying to prevent unrest in the region from turning into riots.Amid recent demonstrations in a number of countries in the region, Pompeo stepped up allegations that Cuba and Venezuela had helped stir up unrest but offered few specifics to back his comments.Pompeo cited recent political protests in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador and said that Colombia had closed its border to Venezuela out of concern that protesters from the neighboring country would enter.”We in the Trump administration will continue to support countries trying to prevent Cuba and Venezuela from hijacking those protests and we’ll work with legitimate (governments) to prevent protests from morphing into riots and violence that don’t reflect the democratic will of the people,” Pompeo told an audience at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky.U.S. relations with communist-ruled Havana have deteriorated since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017. His administration has steadily rolled back parts of the historic opening under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.The tension has focused especially on Havana’s support for Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has overseen an economic collapse and stands accused by the United States of corruption and human rights violations.The United States and more than 50 other countries have recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president. Guaido invoked the constitution to assume a rival presidency in January, arguing Maduro’s 2018 re-election was a sham.But Maduro retains the support of the military, runs the government’s day-to-day operations and is backed by Russia, China and Cuba.In his speech on Monday, Pompeo said Maduro was “hanging on” and would continue to work to suppress the Venezuelan people, but that he was confident the Venezuelan president’s leadership would end.”The end will come for Maduro as well. We just don’t know what day,” Pompeo said. 
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Amazon said Monday it has removed “Christmas ornaments” and other merchandise bearing the images of Auschwitz that had been available on its online site.Amazon said in a statement that “all sellers must follow our selling guidelines” and that those who do not will be removed.The move comes after the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum on Sunday appealed to Amazon to remove the merchandise, which also included an Auschwitz bottle opener and a Birkenau “massacre” mouse pad.It said that, “Selling ‘Christmas ornaments’ with images of Auschwitz does not seem appropriate. Auschwitz on a bottle opener is rather disturbing and disrespectful.”Many others on Twitter voiced outrage.On Monday, the state memorial said it was still calling on another online outlet, Wish Shopping, to stop selling the products.Nazi Germany killed 1.1 million people at the death camp, most of them Jews, during its occupation of Poland during World War II. 
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When Usman Khan left prison last December after serving half of a 16-year sentence for his part in a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange, and for planning to establish a terror training camp in Pakistan, he was thought to be making good progress towards being de-radicalized and was seen as a poster boy for Britain’s rehabilitation programs.Cambridge University, which ran one of the programs Khan attended, was even considering offering him a place to study.But now following 28-year-old’s dramatic knife attack Friday on London Bridge during a university-sponsored justice event, which left two people dead and three seriously injured, the early release of convicted terrorists, as well as de-radicalization programs, are coming under immediate scrutiny amid accusations that militants are gaming the rehabilitation system and hoodwinking authorities.Some criminal justice experts say Khan played the rehabilitation system cleverly to secure his release and to lull his probation officers into allowing him to travel unsupervised from his home in the English county of Staffordshire to London for the justice event, where he killed two rehabilitation tutors, 25-year-old Jack Merritt and 23-year-old Saskia Jones.“Despite the monitoring he was subjected to, he was able to convince everyone he was well on the way to being a reformed character,” according to Harry Fletcher, a criminal justice expert and campaigner for victims’ rights. Khan’s attack wasn’t opportunistic, but deliberately planned, say British counter-terror officials.With fears mounting that other recently freed terrorists may also be playing the system, a crackdown has been launched that’s likely to see a large number of them returned to prison. One of Khan’s close associates, 34-year-old Nazam Hussain, who was freed from jail the same day as the London Bridge killer, was re-arrested Sunday on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.At least 74 freed terrorists are being vetted again, according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said in a broadcast interview Sunday that they all needed to be “properly invigilated so as to make sure there is no threat to the public.”Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, center, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, right, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan take part in a vigil in memory of the attack victims, at Guildhall Yard in London, Dec. 2, 2019.Freed terrorists are required to follow a strict set of rules, including not using the Internet, not associating with former accomplices, observing a curfew and attending only approved mosques. They are required to wear electronic ankle tags so their movements can be monitored. Khan wore one during Friday’s attack which unfolded at a conference near London Bridge sponsored by Cambridge University’s “Learning Together” program, which aims to help assist in the rehabilitation of violent offenders.An election issueThe London Bridge attack, which ended after the knife-wielding Khan was confronted by conference attendees, including former offenders, and staff and shot dead by police, is dominating election campaigning with Johnson quick to go on the attack and blame previous Labour governments for the system of early release for convicted terrorists.Johnson says violent offenders “must serve every day of their sentence, with no exceptions.” He added: “If you are convicted of a serious terrorist offense, there should be a mandatory minimum sentence of 14 years – and some should never be released.”Labour politicians have hit back, saying it is recent Conservative spending cuts that are to blame and have called for a full investigation into Khan’s prison sentence and subsequent release. And Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the main opposition Labour party, says convicted terrorists should “not necessarily” automatically serve their full prison sentences. “I think it depends on the circumstances and it depends on the sentence but crucially depends on what they’ve done in prison,” Corbyn said.But amid the political party wrangling, criminal justice professionals and lawmakers who have built up expertise on de-radicalization say knee-jerk reactions and politicization of the challenge will not help improve rehabilitation programs or answer difficult questions surrounding their effectiveness and whether a militant can be de-radicalized.Police officers patrol the scene in central London, Dec. 1, 2019, after a knife attack on London Bridge.Programs’ efficacy in questionSome prison experts have warned for months about a lack of rigor with the programs but have also raised concerns about the resources being devoted to de-radicalization, arguing much more money needs to be spent. Among them, former top prosecutor Nazir Afzal, who says Friday’s terror incident could have been avoided.“What makes me angry is that for some years we have been talking to the government, not just me but many others, about these de-radicalization programs. These programs are delivered by well-meaning people on a shoe-string and are under-resourced and involve the ticking of boxes, but no ticked box has saved anybody’s life,” he says.Others say more fundamental thinking needs to be done and it is not just a question of resources. “Our judicial system isn’t able to cope. We try to rehabilitate but the two people who were killed were people who were trying to help to give this person a second life and yet he wanted to kill. We need to better understand the mindset of somebody like that,” Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative lawmaker and former army officer, told Sky News.Former prison governor, Ian Acheson, who in 2015 led an independent review of how Islamist militants are handled by the country’s prisons and probation system, says the entire system is deeply flawed, marked sometimes by naïveté and a “toxic combination of arrogance, defensiveness and ineptitude.” He complained in his report that the “screening tools to detect and programs to tackle radicalized behavior were rudimentary in-house creations with former terrorist offenders telling us how easy courses were to ‘game.’”  He argues Britain’s criminal justice system is “unsuited to managing the risk of religious extremists with a martyrdom complex coming from a moral universe far away from the professionals responsible for their management.”But writing in The Times newspaper, Acheson said “it would be a shame — possibly counterproductive — to go for the punitive response that the public will understandably demand. Few terrorists will be locked up forever and we need to ensure that those released have a chance to recant their hateful beliefs and join society again.” 
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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he will immediately restore tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum imports from Brazil and Argentina.”Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies, which is not good for our farmers. Therefore, effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel & Aluminum that is shipped into the U.S. from those countries,” Trump said in a tweet.Trump also urged the Federal Reserve to prevent countries from gaining an economic advantage by devaluing their currencies.”The Federal Reserve should likewise act so that countries, of which there are many, no longer take advantage of our strong dollar,” Trump tweeted “Lower Rates & Loosen – Fed!”, he said……Reserve should likewise act so that countries, of which there are many, no longer take advantage of our strong dollar by further devaluing their currencies. This makes it very hard for our manufactures & farmers to fairly export their goods. Lower Rates & Loosen – Fed!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2019Trump has repeatedly urged the Fed to lower rates to below zero, arguing that negative rates in Europe and elsewhere give those countries a competitive advantage.However, Fed policymakers have been reluctant to take the unorthodox policy steps tried by other global central banks. The U.S. central bank’s policymaking committee holds its next meeting on Dec. 10-11.
 
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What does Brexit have to do with Vietnam? It seems a strange question, but there are several ways that Britain’s planned divorce from the European Union would be likely to affect the Southeast Asian nation.These effects can be put in three broad categories. First, Vietnam has finished negotiating a trade agreement with the EU, but Brussels appears too preoccupied to ratify the agreement until it has tied up Brexit once and for all. Second, if Britain is out of the EU, then some European products would become more expensive, so British consumers would look for cheaper alternatives, such as from Vietnam. And third, Britain has been looking for new trade agreements to join if it is no longer in the EU bloc, and that includes joining a major agreement already signed by Vietnam.That agreement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, formerly known as the TPP, includes nations around the Asia Pacific and used to include the United States until President Donald Trump pulled the country out in 2017. When Britain first suggested the idea of joining the TPP, in 2018, it was met with a lot of raised eyebrows — Britain is not a Pacific power, after all. However, the idea subsequently received support from Japan, the TPP member with the biggest gross domestic product, which said it would welcome Britain with open arms. Vietnam is the TPP member with the lowest GDP per capita.It makes sense that Vietnam would want to do more trade with Britain, Frederick Burke, who is the managing partner of Baker & McKenzie, a law firm in Ho Chi Minh City, said at a company conference last month.“It’s a good market, it’s a good opportunity,” he said.Brexit would mean that some European products would no longer have preferential access to the British market, so Vietnam could step in and compete with those products. For instance some British business interests in Vietnam believe Vietnamese tennis shoes and garments would become competitive against Romanian products, Burke said.“The UK is not the same as the American economy but it’s about a third of that, and so it’s very substantial, second biggest economy in Europe,” he said. “So it’s a very good opportunity for Vietnam.”Finally, the third impact may not be quite as favorable to Vietnam. Efforts to finalize the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, or EVFTA, have dragged on for years. The same can be said of Brexit, which was approved in a British referendum in 2016 but has yet to happen. Brussels is far more preoccupied with Brexit than with the Vietnam agreement, so it appears that Hanoi will have to wait.Most recently, analysts expected the vote on the pact with Vietnam to happen this coming January — then again, Brexit has also been pushed to the same month. And if Brexit does not end up taking place in January, it does not look like the Vietnam vote will take place either.“Things could be delayed eventually with the delay of the Brexit, which has been extended to the end of January,” Alain Cany, who is the country chairman of Jardine Matheson Vietnam, a conglomerate that covers areas from restaurants to engineering, as well as a former chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, said. “So it [EVFTA ratification] might be postponed.”
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Clashes sparked by suspected cartel gunmen in a northern Mexican town killed 20 people this weekend, authorities said, putting more pressure on Mexico’s president to curb gang violence after the United States vowed to label the gangs terrorists.President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, mindful of efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to designate Mexican drug gangs as terrorist groups, repeated on Sunday that he would not accept any intervention from abroad, while doubling down on his strategy of trying to contain the cartels.But the killings clouded celebrations marking Lopez Obrador’s first year in office, which were buffeted by a march in Mexico City by thousands of people protesting the violence.The government of the northern state of Coahuila said local security forces killed 14 gunmen on Saturday and Sunday, after a major gunfight broke out in the small town of Villa Union near the Texas border. Earlier, the state government had said police had shot dead 17 cartel members.Four police were also killed in the shootouts, which broke out around midday on Saturday, sparking fresh criticism of the government’s approach to handling the powerful gangs.The bodies of two unarmed civilians apparently murdered by the gunmen were also recovered, the government said.Riding into town in a convoy of heavily armed pickups, gunmen sprayed the offices of the mayor of Villa Union with bullets and fought police for more than 1 1/2 hours as gunfire echoed through the streets.More than 60 gunmen took part in the fight and 17 of their vehicles were seized, Coahuila’s government said.A number of the gunmen, who were suspected members of the Cartel of the Northeast from Tamaulipas state, were killed by state police in pursuit of the raiding party after it fled the town, authorities said.The events in Villa Union add to a series of recent security lapses that have raised questions about Lopez Obrador’s policy.During a speech in front of tens of thousands of supporters on his first anniversary as president, Lopez Obrador again said Mexico would handle its security problems, after Trump’s comments.”We won’t accept any kind of intervention, we’re a sovereign, free country,” the veteran leftist said in Mexico City’s Zocalo central square. Trump’s remarks have stirred concerns in Mexico that Washington could try to take unilateral action to crush the drug cartels. U.S. Attorney General William Barr is due to visit the country next week to discuss cooperation on security.Criticism at home and abroad has focused on the Nov. 4 massacre by suspected cartel gunmen of nine women and children of U.S.-Mexican origin from Mormon communities in northern Mexico, and the armed forces’ release of a captured son of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman under threats from his gang in the city of Culiacan.Critics accuse Lopez Obrador of caving in to the cartels, but he defended the release of Ovidio Guzman, saying it had prevented unnecessary bloodshed.”Our adversaries can say we showed weakness, but nothing is more important than people’s lives,” he said. The protest march united opposition politicians with grieving members of the U.S.-Mexican LeBaron family, who lost loved ones in the killings in the state of Sonora.”We’re not against the president, we’re against the security policies that have been used until now, because they haven’t worked,” said Julian LeBaron, a relative of the victims.Overnight, law enforcement agents captured several people suspected of involvement in those murders, the attorney general’s office of Sonora said.Homicides reached record levels in Mexico last year and are on track to surpass that total this year.Lopez Obrador has also presided over a slowdown in the economy, which has stagnated in 2019.Yet while there has been some erosion of support for him, most recent opinion polls show he remains popular.
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An Irish citizen, who converted to Islam, traveled to Syria to join Islamic State and ended up marrying a British militant, has been arrested on arrival at Dublin airport Sunday.Lisa Smith, 38, who served in the Irish Defense Forces before going to Syria, had been deported from Turkey with her 2-year-old daughter.”On her arrival in Dublin, Lisa Smith was met by An Garda Síochána,” Irish Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said, using the Irish name for the national police force.  “This is a sensitive case and I want to reassure people that all relevant state agencies are closely involved.”Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney told Irish national broadcaster RTE that officials had been trying to repatriate Smith since learning of her presence in a refugee camp in March. He said the primary concern was for the toddler who is an Irish citizen because of her mother’s nationality. The child is now with Smith’s relatives in Dundalk.Authorities plan to question Smith extensively before deciding on what action to take. She has denied fighting for IS or training female soldiers for the militancy.Many European countries and the United States have resisted bringing back their citizens who joined Islamic State. 
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