U.S. lawmakers just back from a visit to Ukraine warn that Washington’s threats of sanctions and diplomatic maneuvering are not doing enough to dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from potentially launching an invasion. 

The group of Democrats and Republicans visited Kyiv Saturday and Sunday where they met with the commander of the Ukrainian special forces and with U.S. special operators and National Guard troops who have been helping the Ukrainian military with training. 

They described the situation as “very concerning” and urged the White House to speed up the delivery of weapons to the Ukrainian forces in the hopes of staving off a Russian invasion. 

“I think promising tough action, just to be candid, after an invasion, will do very little in terms of Putin’s calculus,” Republican Representative Michael Waltz told reporters Tuesday.

“We’re seeing Putin, I think, do this in many respects because he knows he can get away with it,” Waltz added. “We need to help Ukraine porcupine themselves and raise the costs now.” 

Democrats on the trip likewise urged the White House to take actions that will make Russia feel the blowback for an invasion of Ukraine almost instantly. 

“If Putin invades, I want him to know that he’ll have trouble buying a soda from a vending machine in the next five minutes, not that NATO will convene a conference to debate what to do next over the ensuing several weeks,” Representative Seth Moulton said. 

“We need to clearly communicate how the weapons we provide will cause large losses of Russian troops on Day One, not just over time,” he said. “Not just convincing them or trying to convince them that an occupation will be painful, but rather that an immediate full-scale invasion will be hard to take immediately.” 

The lawmakers also expressed confidence that unlike in 2014, when Russia invaded and occupied Crimea, Ukrainian forces are prepared to mount a fierce resistance if Putin sends in Russian troops. They said it would be folly, though, to think Ukrainian troops could hold out for long. 

“I think what we have to work on in the immediate future, right now, is to create the capability for a strong resistance in nonconventional warfare,” said Democrat Ruben Gallego.

“(Ukraine) being able to hold out and impose costs will be very helpful,” he said. And that would “hopefully change the calculation that Putin is using.” 

The lawmakers called for the White House to speed up the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, including ship-to-shore missiles, air defense missiles and additional Javelin anti-tank missiles. 

Some analysts have suggested such a strategy, aimed at imposing a military cost on Moscow, could work. 

“I think if Putin goes big, it could become very costly for him,” Luke Coffey of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation said Monday in response to a question from VOA. 

“They have a very robust reserve system in Ukraine where they can call up huge numbers of forces,” he said. “The further west that Russian forces would move, the stiffer the resistance would become, without a doubt.”

The White House signaled Tuesday it is prepared to stay the course, however, promising Moscow will pay a “terrible price” should it invade Ukraine due to what U.S. President Joe Biden has described as devastating sanctions.

“Our objective continues to be to keep this on a diplomatic path and for that to lead to de-escalation,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday. 

“We’re obviously engaged in daily conversations with Europeans, with Russians, with Ukrainians, and conveying exactly what we think should happen here to de-escalate the situation on the ground,” Psaki said.

Yet those talks, including meetings by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried with Russian officials in Moscow, seem to be having little impact on the ground, at least so far. 

The Pentagon said Tuesday it has seen no evidence of a pullback by Russian forces massed along the border with Ukraine. 

Putin on Tuesday reiterated Russia’s concern about Ukraine’s potential membership in NATO during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, insisting the West provide Moscow with needed security guarantees. 

“The Russian president emphasized the importance of immediately launching international negotiations to develop legally fixed guarantees that would prevent any further NATO expansion to the east and the deployment of weapons to neighboring states, primarily in Ukraine, that threaten Russia,” the Kremlin said in a statement. 

Russia’s deputy foreign minister earlier threatened that Moscow could be forced to deploy tactical nuclear weapons if the U.S. and NATO fail to put an end the alliance’s eastward expansion. 

 NATO Tuesday dismissed such talk as hypocritical, specifically the Kremlin’s call for a moratorium on intermediate-range nuclear forces in Europe. 

“We had a ban, and they violated that ban,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters. “It is not credible when they now propose a ban on something they actually have already started to deploy.” 

Some information from Reuters was used in this report. 
…

Russian journalism experienced extreme highs and lows in 2021. On the plus side, a Nobel Peace Prize for newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov. But the downside saw an escalating government crackdown on independent media. News organizations and individual reporters were declared “foreign agents” and “undesirable elements,” while some journalists went into exile.
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Almost 100 Conservative lawmakers voted Tuesday against new coronavirus restrictions, dealing a major blow to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s authority and raising questions about his leadership. 

After a day of frenzied failed lobbying, Johnson was handed the biggest rebellion against his government so far by his party over measures he said were necessary to curb the spread of the new omicron variant. 

The new rules, which included ordering people to wear masks in public places and use COVID-19 passes for some venues, passed largely because of the main opposition Labour Party. 

But the revolt piles pressure on Johnson, already under fire over scandals such as reported parties in his Downing Street office last year – when Britain was in a COVID-19 lockdown – and a pricey refurbishment of his apartment. 

Rebelling lawmakers said the vote was a warning shot that he needed to change how the government was operating or he would face a leadership challenge. 

Some 99 Conservatives opposed plans for the COVID-19 passes, a much higher number of rebels than was expected. Originally the official figure was put at 98, but the number was later revised upward. 

Among those voting against the government was lawmaker Louie French who was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) at the start of the month, while media reported that former Prime Minister Theresa May was among 17 others who abstained. 

Many Conservatives say some of the new measures are draconian, with several questioning the introduction of a certificate of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test to enter some venues, such as nightclubs. 

Others used the votes as an opportunity to vent their anger at Johnson, believing the man who helped the Conservatives win a large majority at a 2019 election is squandering the party’s successes by self-inflicted missteps and gaffes. 

But despite the rumblings of discontent, Conservative Party insiders say there is not enough of a groundswell against Johnson to dislodge him now, although they hope the vote will be a “wake-up call” for the prime minister to reset his agenda. 

“He’s got to now be in some danger,” Conservative lawmaker Geoffrey Clifton-Brown told Sky News. “And he’s got to realize that because if he doesn’t realize that, then he will be in much bigger danger … I’m still backing him. But he’s got to change.” 

‘Huge spike’ 

Britain reported 59,610 new COVID-19 infections Tuesday, the highest figure since early January and the fifth highest recorded since the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year. 

More than 5,300 cases of omicron have been recorded, with 10 people hospitalized. One person has died after contracting the variant, which is set to become the dominant strain in the capital London. 

Before the vote, the government had mounted a campaign to keep lawmakers in check, with Johnson warning his ministers there was a “huge spike” in omicron cases heading Britain’s way, and that the measures were needed to protect people. 

Ministers tried to win over the Conservative rebels, noting that people who have not had two vaccinations can instead offer proof of a negative lateral flow test to gain access to indoor venues of more than 500 people.

Health minister Sajid Javid told lawmakers he firmly believed in “individual liberty” but that “the responsible decision to take is … to move to plan B in England.” 

But their arguments fell on deaf ears. In addition to the 99 Conservatives who voted against the passes, 40 voted against expanding the requirement for mask wearing. 

“I am sure that the prime minister will understand the strength of feeling within the party about the constraint of liberties,” Conservative former minister David Jones told Reuters. “He is a libertarian himself and I have no doubt that he will listen to the message from his party.” 

 
…

Britain will end a ban on visitors from 11 African countries aimed at combatting COVID-19, the government said Tuesday, despite an alarming spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

After the variant was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong in November, the British government compiled a travel “red list” of the 11 African nations later in the month.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced in parliament Tuesday that the ban would be lifted on Wednesday at 0400 GMT since the country had achieved community transmission of omicron.

“Now that there is community transmission of omicron in the U.K. and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of omicron from abroad,” he said.

While the ban remains in effect, only British citizens or residents arriving from the listed countries are allowed to enter the U.K. on condition they quarantine in a hotel at their expense.

The countries on the list are Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Javid said Monday that omicron, which is more transmissible than earlier variants, would be dominant in London “within 48 hours.” U.K. health authorities say omicron infections are doubling every two to three days, amounting to about 200,000 new cases daily.

South African scientists say the health effects of omicron may be less severe than the delta variant but warn it is premature to reach conclusions.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

The United Nations’ top refugee official is urging nations to strengthen their support for people fleeing conflict, persecution, and violence and to keep their borders open to people in need of international protection.

In a video, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, sets the scene for this two-day virtual event: “for centuries, experiences of exile and traditions of refuge have formed part of our collective heritage,” Grandi notes on the video clip. The meeting is the first follow-up to the Global Refugee Forum held two years ago. Nearly 1,400 pledges were made then to better support refugees and host communities.

Senior government officials, refugees and various partners are here to take stock of how many pledges have been kept. High Commissioner Grandi gives the global picture a mixed review.

He says countries are doing better at including refugees in national COVID-19 and health care responses, and in providing protection and greater livelihood opportunities. He says progress has been made toward eradicating statelessness and in the field of education.

He warns, however, that too many countries are turning their backs on people in need of safety and protection.

“To this end, I must repeat my grave concerns regarding certain trends in some of the world’s industrialized countries, including closed borders, sometimes very violent pushbacks, the construction of walls and barriers, the outsourcing of international legal and moral obligations concerning people’s right to seek asylum,” he expressed.

The UNHCR reports at least 83.4 million people have been forcibly displaced around the world, and of that number, 26.4 million are refugees. Developing countries host about 85 percent of the world’s refugees.

Grandi is calling on wealthier countries to assume a greater share of this responsibility. He also is appealing for more third country solutions to intractable refugee problems.

“Resettlement is of course a key avenue, and I am grateful to all those states that have continued to maintain or increase their resettlement quotas over the past years, as well as to the United States of America for reinvigorating its resettlement program,” he pointed out.

Officials attending the event will spotlight several key areas, including the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate action, and displacement.
…

A Belarusian court has delivered verdicts and harsh sentences to a group of bloggers, opposition activists, and the husband of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. All of those of them were rounded up by security officials before a controversial presidential election that saw authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko claim a sixth term in power despite widespread belief that the vote was rigged.

Rights groups consider all six of those sentenced in the southeastern city of Homel on Tuesday to be political prisoners. At 173 days, the trial was one of the longest in Belarus’s history.

The crackdown on the pro-democracy movement has only intensified since mass protests erupted in the wake of Lukashenko’s August 2020 reelection, which is not recognized by the opposition and the West.

Popular video blogger Syarhei Tsikhanouski , who intended to run against Lukashenko before being disqualified and ultimately arrested ahead of the election, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

After being disqualified, his political novice wife, Tsikhanouskaya, mobilized voters and won the election, according to the opposition and Western countries.

Tsikhanouskaya has been living in exile in Lithuania since fleeing Belarus after the election due to concerns about her safety and that of the couple’s two children.

“The very existence of these people is a crime for the regime. They’re repressed for wanting to live in a free Belarus,” Tsikhanouskaya said in a tweet immediately after news of the verdict broke.

“The dictator publicly takes revenge on his strongest opponents. While hiding the political prisoners in closed trials, he hopes to continue repressions in silence. But the whole world watches. We won’t stop,” she added.

Another blogger, Ihar Losik, who is also an RFE/RL consultant, was handed a sentence of 15 years. He was arrested before the election and accused of using his popular Telegram channel to prepare actions to violate public order.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly called on the Lukashenko regime to end its “reprehensible” treatment of Losik and other journalists.

“The closed-door trial he and his co-defendants have endured for the past five months has been an outrageous travesty of justice. We again call on the Lukashenko regime to stop their assault on news organizations and journalists and bloggers like Ihar and let him return to his wife and daughter,” Fly said ahead of the verdict.

Among the other defendants in the trial, former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich received a prison sentence of 14 years, opposition activist Uladzimer Tsyhanovich 15 years, activist Artsyom Sakau 16 tears, and another activist, Dzmitry Papou, 16 years.

The defendants, who have been in pretrial detention since their arrests, are accused of various alleged crimes, including organizing mass disorder, inciting social hatred, impeding the activities of the Central Election Commission, and organizing activities that disrupt social order. It’s unclear why some of the defendants are being tried together or the reason for the trial being held behind closed doors.

In the wake of the election, tens of thousands of people were detained and human rights activists say more than 800 people are considered political prisoners.

Independent media, opposition social-media channels, and civil society groups have also been harassed and shut down, while much of the opposition is either in prison or exile.
…

Students and faculty members from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music arrived with their families Monday in Portugal, where they are being granted asylum and where they hope to rebuild their acclaimed school. 

The 273-person group, including some 150 students, flew into Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, from Doha, Qatar. Their departure from Afghanistan was staggered in five airlifts to Doha over six weeks in October and November. 

“The arrival of the (institute’s) community today means that the first and most important step of saving lives and insuring freedom is now over,” said the institute’s founder and director, Dr. Ahmad Sarmast. 

Governments and corporate and private donors met the group’s evacuation and resettlement expenses. 

“From now on, (the institute’s) musicians will be a symbol of courage and resolve, not only for Afghan artists, but also for the people of Afghanistan, in their struggle against the oppression and tyranny of the Taliban,” Sarmast said.

The musicians are among tens of thousands of Afghans, including many from the country’s sports and arts community, who have fled since Taliban fighters seized Afghanistan in August, when the U.S. and NATO ended their 20-year military presence. 

The Afghanistan girls’ youth soccer team has also resettled in Portugal, a country of 10.3 million that has taken in 764 Afghans since summer. 

Afghanistan has a strong musical tradition, and a pop music scene had flourished there over the past two decades. But many musicians fear for their futures under the Taliban, which rules according to a harsh interpretation of Islamic law. 

The Afghanistan National Institute of Music, founded in 2010, was renowned for its inclusiveness. It became a symbol of a new Afghanistan, with boys and girls studying together and performing to full houses in the United States and Europe. 

The school’s campus in Kabul is now occupied by a Taliban faction. Its bank accounts were frozen and its offices ransacked, according to former school officials. 

The plan is to recreate the school in Portugal, allowing the students to continue their educations, as part of a wider Lisbon-based center for Afghan culture that will welcome exiles. 

 
…

Russia has vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that warns about the security implications of climate change, with its envoy calling it “unacceptable” for his government. 

“We are against creating a new area for the council’s work which establishes a generic, automatic connection between climate change and international security, turning a scientific and socio-economic issue into a politicized question,” Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vassily Nebenzia said just before casting his veto.

Twelve Security Council members voted to adopt the resolution Monday, while China abstained and India voted no.

“The force of the veto can block the approval of a text, but it cannot hide our reality,” said Ambassador Abdou Abarry of Niger, who along with Ireland’s ambassador, penned the draft. 

India’s envoy asked what a resolution could achieve that the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) could not. 

“Why is it that one needs a U.N. Security Council resolution to take action on climate change, when we have commitments under the UNFCC toward concerted climate action?” Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti asked. 

In a rare occurrence, the text was co-sponsored by 113 countries from the U.N. membership, showing the majority’s belief that the council should consider the link between global warming and security issues. 

While the Security Council has considered climate change in some of its work, this would have been the first time it singled out the subject for a resolution of its own. 

“This resolution is about enabling the U.N. Security Council to address climate change with the tools it has within its mandate,” Ireland’s envoy Geraldine Byrne Nason said before the vote. “The council has already taken steps to integrate climate-related security risks into some of its mandated operations.” 

Among the sponsors were several small island states in the Pacific, who say global warming and rising seas could put their countries underwater, as well as nations in Africa’s Sahel — Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria — where climate events including recurring severe droughts have contributed to intercommunal fighting. 

U.S. envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield said climate change is “a threat to every person, in every nation, on every continent” and clearly within the council’s purview.

“We categorically reject the notion that Security Council action undermines the Paris Agreement and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change,” she said. “In fact, it does exactly the opposite. The Security Council can and should complement, support, and reinforce our collective work under the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC in ways that are necessary to fight this security threat.” 

China, India and Russia have drafted a resolution of their own focused on the situation in Africa’s Sahel, where climate has been linked to conflict. China’s envoy urged council members and the wider U.N. membership to support that text instead. 

“China, Russia and India have jointly submitted a draft resolution focusing on security issues in the Sahel region, including climate change challenges,” Ambassador Zhang Jun told the council. “The aim of which is to effectively respond to the specific concerns of the countries in the Sahel region.” 

No date has been announced for a vote on their text. 

Speaking to reporters after the failed adoption, Irish Ambassador Byrne Nason said the Security Council must adjust to a changing world. 

“This council will never live up to its mandate for international peace and security if it does not adapt,” she said. “It must reflect the moment we are now living in, the threats to international peace and security which we now face.” 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been at the forefront of global efforts to mitigate the impact of global warming. His spokesman said the secretariat would continue to integrate climate risks into its political analysis, conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts.
…

An imprisoned Azerbaijani activist says he is now refusing to drink water as he enters his 38th day of a hunger strike to protest what he calls his wrongful imprisonment.

Initially detained on narcotic possession charges, Saleh Rustamov, a government critic and opposition activist, was later sentenced to seven years and three months of imprisonment on additional charges including money laundering and illegal entrepreneurship.

Numerous human rights organizations and international observers view the charges as politically motivated.

Rustamov previously warned authorities that he would continue his hunger strike until death. On Monday, his lawyer, Bahruz Bayramov, told VOA that Rustamov announced that he would start refusing water.

“He can no longer walk. He has no strength to walk,” Bayramov said. “He has lost 17 kilograms in weight. His speech is slurred, and he cannot sleep due to pain.”

On Friday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price urged the Azerbaijani government to release Rustamov on “humanitarian grounds,” saying U.S. officials are deeply troubled by reports of his worsening condition.

The rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the monitoring of Azerbaijan raised alarms about Rustamov’s condition as early as October. 

“Mr. Rustamov’s case is one of many examples of the lack of independence of the justice illustrated by a long-standing pattern of repression of the government’s critics which is a major concern in Azerbaijan,” Austria’s Stefan Schennach and Britain’s Richard Bacon said in a statement calling upon the Azerbaijani authorities to review the cases of all alleged political prisoners.

Azerbaijani authorities have not responded to the international calls with regard with Rustamov’s case. The request by the European Court of Human Rights for Azerbaijani authorities to report on Rustamov’s state of health has gone unanswered.

The Penitentiary Services of Azerbaijan’s Justice Ministry issued a statement on December 9 calling the reports on social media regarding Rustamov’s health “untruthful,” although it did confirm that he was refusing food.

The statement noted the authorities have facilitated visits to the prisoner by the representatives of the International Red Cross, Ombudsman’s Office and civil rights activists.

In recent weeks, dozens of protesters took to the streets of capital city Baku to demand Rustamov’s release.

The protests were quickly dispersed as the police detained the activists, severely beating some of them.

Rustamov, who had served in the government during the 1992-93 rule of the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, had been living in Russia since 1997.

Rustamov was arrested in May of 2018 when he returned to Azerbaijan to attend the funeral of a relative.
…

As Europe starts vaccinating younger children, countries are pursuing very different strategies in what will be a major test of parents’ willingness to get their kids inoculated. 

One region in Italy is sending in clowns and jugglers to clinics, France and Germany are targeting only the most vulnerable kids, while Denmark has been administering shots even before the specially-designed vials and syringes have arrived. 

“Vaccination must be a game, a joyful moment when children can feel at ease,” said Alessio D’Amato, health chief of the central Lazio region, in a video as he declared Dec. 15 “Vax Day” for children in the region. 

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the use of Pfizer’s lower-dose vaccine on the 5-11 age group last month, following the go-ahead for older children in May. 

The first deliveries of the smaller pediatric vials will not arrive until Monday though. Timings for the rollout vary, but most countries are preparing to start getting shots into young arms a day or two after the first shipments arrive. 

Belgium may not start roll-out until early January while the national authorities prepare to issue guidance. 

Spain, which ranks among the world’s most-highly immunized countries with 90% of people aged 12 or over fully vaccinated, will start inoculating younger children on Dec. 15. 

Inoculating children and young people, who can unwittingly transmit COVID-19 to others at higher risk of serious illness, is considered a critical step towards taming the pandemic. In Germany and the Netherlands, kids now account for the majority of cases. 

The roll-out comes as the European Union battles a major wave of infections, accounting for well over half of global infections and 50% of deaths globally. 

Some 27 million 5-11 year olds are eligible for the vaccine in the bloc of about 450 million. 

Parents worry

But a major hurdle will be winning over parents. 

In the Netherlands, 42% of almost 1,800 parents with kids in the 5-12 age range said they would not get their children inoculated and 12% said they would probably decline, according to a poll by Dutch current affairs television program Een Vandaag. Only 30% said they would get their kids vaccinated. 

A survey in Italy by polling firm Noto Sondaggi published on Dec. 5 found that almost two-thirds of those surveyed backed vaccinations, but the percentage dropped to 40% among parents with children aged 5-12 years old. 

A lack of data on the effects on children was given as the main reason for the hesitancy, while a third thought that children would be less likely to get infected and 9% worried about long-term side-effects. 

The U.S. roll-out has been sluggish since it started last month. Of the 28 million eligible U.S. children in that age group, around 5 million have received at least one dose. 

Some parents have been concerned about reports of heart inflammation, a rare vaccine side effect seen in young men at higher rates than the rest of the population. 

Last week, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had not found any reports of the condition among 5–11-year-old recipients of the vaccine. 

No serious safety concerns related to the vaccine have been identified in clinical trials, Pfizer and BioNTech have said. 

“The data show that it is safe, effective, and with results very similar to those for older children,” said Dr Luigi Greco, a pediatrician and Lombardy regional manager for training for the Italian family pediatricians’ union. 

Still, some governments are limiting the rollout until there is more data available. 

In France, only kids who are overweight or who have a serious health condition will be offered access to vaccination to start with. 

Germany’s vaccination advisory commission STIKO said it could not make a general recommendation for the vaccine due to limited data available. 

It recommended that children aged five to 11 with pre-existing conditions be given a shot.   

Captain vaccine

Some health authorities aren’t even waiting for the specially-made kits to arrive, however, instead using vaccines in stock for adults but extracting only a third of the dose. 

When the Austrian capital Vienna last month opened the first 9,200 slots for inoculating kids, all the appointments were booked within days. 

Denmark followed suit on Nov. 28, saying there was no time to lose. After less than two weeks, more than 49,000 children aged 6 to 11 had received their first shot, around 13% of that age group. 

The German state of Saxony, among the hardest hit by surging COVID-19 infections, started vaccinating at-risk children under 12 years of age. 

On Friday, Franz Knoppe travelled more than 100 kilometers to the Leipzig Heart Centre in the state’s most populous city from Chemnitz with his two children, aged seven and 11, for a kids’ vaccination drive. 

“We were so happy that vaccinations for children under the age of 12 are possible now,” he told Reuters at the hospital.  

Mathilda, who did not provide her last name, was at the hospital with her six-year old daughter Erna. 

“It’s important to vaccinate the children and to offer safety, just like for adults,” Mathilda said. 

Regional authorities in Italy, meanwhile, are coming up with inventive ways to entertain and engage kids while they get jabbed and making it easy for parents to arrange a slot. 

In Liguria, the authorities have created a cartoon superhero called Captain Vaccine who carries a doctor’s bag and dons a white coat with a big “V” printed on his chest.  He stars in a comic to be distributed in vaccination centers. 
…

Britain has recorded its first death from the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the death Monday, the day after he warned during a nationally televised speech that Britain was facing a “tidal wave” of new infections from omicron.

Johnson announced his government was launching a campaign to get everyone in the country a third shot of the COVID-19 vaccine by New Year’s Eve, accelerating his previous deadline by a full month.

The prime minister said that more than 40 military planning teams will be deployed across the country to establish vaccination centers, and ordered primary doctors, known in Britain as general practitioners, or GPs, to postpone appointments for routine medical procedures to help meet the goal of vaccinating 1 million people a day.

The government raised the COVID-19 alert level Sunday before Johnson’s speech from level three to level four – its second-highest — warning that omicron is spreading much faster than the delta variant, which would overwhelm the National Health Service with new case. Recent studies suggest a third dose is more effective in preventing infections from omicron than the standard two-dose regimen.

Prime Minister Johnson’s accelerated vaccination campaign comes as he faces a revolt from members of his Conservative party over his government’s new restrictions, including mandatory mask wearing and requiring people to show proof they have been vaccinated before they can enter large venues.

Johnson is also under fire over revelations that his staff held parties at his official office and residence on 10 Downing Street last year despite a strict lockdown imposed on the public.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.
…

Rescuers were pulling out bodies on Monday from the rubble of houses destroyed by a suspected gas explosion on Saturday in the Sicilian town of Ravanusa, with the national fire service confirming at least seven people had died in the incident. 

Sniffer dogs found four bodies in the early hours of the morning, including a nurse that was nine-months pregnant, and firefighters and men from the Civil Protection Department were extracting them from the wreckage, according to a Reuters Witness. 

Three bodies were found in the night between Saturday and Sunday and two people are still missing, a spokesman for the national fire service said on RAI NEW24 television. 

In the explosion late on Saturday, four houses collapsed and another three were damaged, authorities said, adding the blast was likely triggered by a gas leak from the town’s pipes, although an investigation was underway to ascertain the cause. 

Ravanusa is a town of about 11,000 people near the southwestern Sicilian city of Agrigento, which is famous for its Greek temples. 
…

Four people were due to go on trial in Britain on Monday in connection with the toppling of a statue of a 17th-century slave trader during anti-racism protests.

Demonstrators pulled down the bronze memorial to Edward Colston in Bristol, western England, on June 7 last year, then dragged it to the city’s harbor and threw it in the River Avon.

The actions came as part of global Black Lives Matter protests prompted by the killing by a white police officer of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in the United States the previous month.

Four people were arrested following the toppling of the statue of Colston, a leading figure in the Royal Africa Company, which forcibly moved large numbers of West Africans.

Their trial on charges of criminal damage to the listed monument is due to start at 1000 GMT at Bristol Crown Court on Monday, according to court documents. 

The defendants — Rhian Graham, 29, Milo Ponsford, 25, Jake Skuse, 36, and Sage Willoughby, 21 — have pleaded not guilty.

To support them, the artist Banksy, who comes from Bristol, announced he would be selling T-shirts to mark the occasion for $33.

“All proceeds to the defendants so they can go for a pint,” the elusive graffiti artist wrote on his Instagram page.

The limited-edition grey souvenir tops have a picture of Colston’s empty plinth with a rope hanging off, debris and a discarded sign, as well as the word “BRISTOL” written above.

The Black Lives Matter protests have forced Britain into a reckoning with its colonial past, prompting a reassessment of statues, road names and buildings linked to historical figures associated with slavery.

Several Bristol institutions bearing Colston’s name have since changed their name to avoid negative associations with him and the slave trade.

The statue, which had stood in the city since 1895, was recovered from the Avon and put on display with placards from the event, along with explanations of what happened and why.

The empty plinth was temporarily replaced by a statue of a female protester from the day, but it was taken down within 24 hours as it did not have local authority permission.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is pressing ahead with contentious legislation to toughen jail terms for vandalism of historical artifacts.

During the countrywide protests, a statue of Johnson’s hero, Winston Churchill, was defaced near parliament, branding the World War II leader a racist.

High-profile protests have also been held in Oxford, calling for the removal of a statue of the 19th century colonialist Cecil Rhodes.
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Greece’s third-largest group in parliament on Sunday elected a European Parliament lawmaker as its new leader.

Nikos Androulakis defeated former Prime Minister George Papandreou to lead the Movement for Change, a socialist coalition.

Partial results shortly before 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) showed the 42-year-old Androulakis with 68.4% of the vote compared to 31.6% for the 69-year-old Papandreou. Papandreou called his rival to congratulate him.

Androulakis, a civil engineer, started his political career as a leader of the youth wing of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, or PASOK, one of the parties in the Movement for Change.

With 22 lawmakers in the 300-member Greek Parliament, Movement for Change is Greece’s third-largest political grouping behind ruling conservative New Democracy and left-wing Syriza. It gained 8.1% of the vote in Greece’s last national election, in July 2019.

The socialist PASOK ruled Greece from 1981-89, 1993-2004, 2009-11 and 2011-15 — the last four years in coalition with New Democracy.

The socialist vote collapsed during Greece’s financial crisis, which began under a right-wing government but whose extent was revealed on Papandreou’s watch as prime minister.

Androulakis, a self-styled social democrat, is considered less likely than Papandreou to seek an alliance with Syriza.

The leadership contest took an unexpected turn with the death of Movement for Change leader Fofi Gennimata, 56, of cancer, on Oct. 25.

More than 206,000 party members and friends voted Sunday, fewer than the 270,000 who showed up in the first round of the voting last week.

 
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday that Britain faces a “tidal wave” of infections from the omicron coronavirus variant and announced a huge increase in booster vaccinations to strengthen defenses against it.

In a televised statement, Johnson said everyone age 18 and older will be offered a third shot of vaccine by the end of this month in response to the omicron “emergency.” The previous target was the end of January.

He said cases of the highly transmissible variant are doubling every two to three days and “there is a tidal wave of omicron coming.”

“And I’m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need,” Johnson said. “But the good news is that our scientists are confident that with a third dose – a booster dose – we can all bring our level of protection back up.” 

He announced a “national mission” to deliver booster vaccines, with pop-up vaccination centers, seven-day-a-week clinics getting support from teams of military planners and thousands of volunteer vaccinators.

Johnson’s Dec. 31 target applies to England. The other parts of the U.K. — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — are also expected to speed up their vaccination campaigns.

U.K. scientists believe existing vaccines appear less effective in preventing symptomatic infections in people exposed to omicron, though preliminary data show that effectiveness appears to rise to between 70% and 75% after a third vaccine dose.

Johnson’s announcement came hours after the government raised the country’s official coronavirus threat level on Sunday, warning the rapid spread of the omicron variant had pushed the U.K. into risky territory.

The chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said the emergence of the highly transmissible new strain “adds additional and rapidly increasing risk to the public and health care services” at a time when COVID-19 is already widespread. They recommended raising the alert level from 3 to 4 on a 5-point scale.

The top level, 5, indicates authorities think the health care system is about to be overwhelmed.

The doctors said early evidence shows omicron is spreading much faster than the currently dominant delta variant, and that vaccines offer less protection against it. British officials say omicron is likely to replace delta as the dominant strain in the U.K. within days.

“Data on severity will become clearer over the coming weeks but hospitalizations from omicron are already occurring and these are likely to increase rapidly,” they said.

Concerns about the new variant led Johnson’s Conservative government to reintroduce restrictions that were lifted almost six months ago. Masks must be worn in most indoor settings, COVID-19 certificates must be shown to enter nightclubs and people are being urged to work from home if possible.

Many scientists say that’s unlikely to be enough, however, and are calling for tougher measures, which the government so far has resisted.

Scientists in South Africa, where omicron was first identified, say they see signs it may cause less severe disease than delta, but caution that it is too soon to be certain.
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A volcanic eruption in Spain’s Canary Islands shows no sign of ending after 85 days, becoming the island of La Palma’s longest eruption on record Sunday. 

The eruption has surged and ebbed since it first began spewing lava on Sept. 19. It has since destroyed almost 3,000 local buildings and forced several thousand people to abandon their homes.

On Sunday, after several days of low-level activity, the Cumbre Vieja volcano suddenly sprang to life again, producing loud explosions and blowing a vast cloud of ash high into the sky. 

Scientists say volcanic eruptions are unpredictable. Spanish experts had initially said the La Palma eruption could last up to three months. 

Mariano Hernández, the island’s senior government official, described the volcano as “stable” in recent days. 

“The fact is that all the key indicators have been low,” he told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE. “But the scientists won’t say exactly when it might come to an end.” 

He said experts continue to measure the number and magnitude of earthquakes in the area and local sulfur dioxide levels. 

From Saturday to Sunday, authorities recorded 24 earthquakes, but none was felt by local people. 

Despite the damage, no injuries or deaths have been directly linked to the eruption. Much of the area covered by rivers of lava, which are dumping molten rock into the sea, is farmland. 

Life has continued largely as normal on most of La Palma, where a section of the southwestern side is hardest hit. 

The volcanic Canary Islands, which are a favorite warm weather vacation site for Europeans, lie off Africa’s northwest coast. 
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Three people were killed and six are still missing after a gas explosion late on Saturday caused several residential buildings in the Sicilian town of Ravanusa to collapse, Italian authorities said on Sunday.

Two apartment blocks in the town of 11,000 people were completely destroyed and several other buildings had partially collapsed in the blast.

Firemen were still searching the site for survivors.

Two people were found alive under the rubble and six people were missing, the captain of the local fire brigade, Giuseppe Merendino, said on Sunday.

A spokesman for Italy’s Civil Protection said three people had been killed. Earlier the disaster agency had said four people were killed in the blast.

A priest who was celebrating mass nearby on Saturday evening said he heard a loud roar and saw flames rising from a group of houses.

“It is a huge tragedy… Let’s pray to ask God to avoid more deaths,” said the priest, Filippo Barbera.
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The United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is condemning the forced expulsion of asylum seekers and migrants by Libyan authorities, warning of the risks many face when returned to the homes they fled to escape persecution.

Two large groups of Sudanese are among those forcibly deported from Libya over the past month. United Nations monitors say most have been summarily expelled from the Ganfouda and al-Kufra detention centers. Both centers are controlled by the Interior Ministry’s Department for Combatting illegal Migration. The monitors say the Sudanese apparently have been transported across the Sahara Desert to the Libya-Sudan border and dumped there. 

The U.N. Human Rights Office says Libya’s expulsion of the Sudanese asylum seekers and migrants without due process and procedural guarantees violates international human rights and refugee law.

U.N. spokesman Rupert Colville says the group of 18 Sudanese expelled Monday reportedly were arrested, detained, and arbitrarily expelled. He says no hearing was held to assess their need for protection from persecution, torture, and other abuse in their home country. He says they were not granted legal assistance. 

“Those expelled have often already survived a range of other serious human rights violations and abuses in Libya at the hands of both state and nonstate actors, including arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, trafficking, sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment,” he said.

Colville says other migrants from Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, and Chad —including children and pregnant women — also have been detained in recent months. He says they either already have been expelled or are at imminent risk of deportation. 

“Now of immediate concern is a group of 24 Eritreans who are currently being held in the same Ganfouda detention center, and who are believed also to be at risk of imminent deportation,” he said. “On the third of December, we were informed that, in a pattern mirroring the experience of the expelled Sudanese, they had been transferred to the al-Kufra detention center in preparation for their deportation.”

The U.N. high commissioner’s office is calling on the authorities to protect the rights of all asylum seekers and migrants in Libya. It says they should investigate all claims of violations and abuse and bring perpetrators to justice in fair trials. It urges Libya to meet its obligations under international human rights law, which prohibits collective expulsions.
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The G-7 on Sunday said time was running out for Iran to agree a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions and warned Russia about the consequences of invading Ukraine.

Foreign ministers from the world’s richest nations have held a two-day meeting in Liverpool, northwest England, seeking to present a strong, united front against global threats.

On Iran, G-7 host Britain said resumed talks in Vienna were the Islamic Republic’s “last chance to come to the negotiating table with a serious resolution.”

“There is still time for Iran to come and agree this deal,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told a news conference as talks wrapped up.

Negotiations restarted on Thursday to try to revive the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers, which the United States withdrew from under Donald Trump in 2018.

Iran claims it only wants to develop a civilian capability, but Western powers say its stockpile of enriched uranium goes well beyond that and could be used to develop a nuclear weapon.

U.S. President Joe Biden has said he is ready to return to the agreement and Iranian officials maintain they are serious about committing to the talks.

But Western powers have accused Tehran of backsliding on progress made earlier this year and are playing for time.

Truss’ comments are the first time a signatory to the original deal has given an ultimatum for the talks. 

Russian troop build-up

Britain, which hands over the G-7 presidency to Germany next year, portrayed the two-day conference in Liverpool, northwest England, as a chance to stand up to authoritarianism around the world.

As well as Iran, Russia’s build-up of troops on the border with Ukraine dominated talks, given fears of a possible invasion of the former Soviet state.

Truss said there was “very much a united voice… that there will be massive consequences for Russia in the case of an incursion into Ukraine.”

A senior US State Department official on Saturday said “a large number of democratic countries” were ready to join the G-7 nations of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States in taking action.

Biden earlier this week held a virtual summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to voice Western concerns.

He is sending his top diplomat for Europe and Eurasian affairs to Kiev and Moscow next week to try to end the stand-off by diplomatic means.

Russia says the military build-up is a defensive measure against Ukraine moving closer to NATO.

Pope Francis brought up Ukraine when speaking to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. 

“I would like to assure my prayer for the dear Ukraine, for all its churches and religious communities and for all its people, that tensions will now be resolved through serious international dialogue and not with weapons,” he said following the Angelus prayer.

China looms

From Liverpool, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flies on to southeast Asia as part of Washington’s push for “peace, security and prosperity” in the Indo-Pacific region. 

Britain’s G-7 presidency this year has been dominated by responding to Beijing’s alleged widespread domestic rights abuses, as well as creeping authoritarianism in its former colony, Hong Kong.

Earlier this week, a panel of human rights experts and lawyers said China had committed genocide in its Xinjiang region by imposing population controls on minority Muslim Uyghurs.

Beijing rejected the report, accusing it of “anti-China” bias.

Truss said she and her counterparts were concerned about China’s “coercive economic policies” and there was a need to counter them with their own initiatives as an alternative.

“What we want to do is build the investment reach, the economic trade reach of like-minded freedom-loving democracies,” she added.

“That is why we’re stepping up our investment into low and middle-income countries.”

At a G-7 leaders’ meeting in June in Cornwall, southwest England, the grouping unveiled plans for what it said was a more equitable global infrastructure fund than China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The Chinese trillion-dollar scheme has been widely criticized for saddling smaller countries, particularly in Africa, with unmanageable debt. 
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When the nuns of Maredret Abbey in Belgium were struggling to scrape together the funds for badly needed renovation works, they turned to an occupation that for hundreds of years had been the preserve of monks: beer-brewing.

The 20-strong Benedictine community, founded in 1893, decided about five years ago it was time to team up with a brewer with the aim of to producing beer infused with some of their history and values while helping repair their convent’s leaking roofs and cracked walls.

After nearly three years of collaboration with brewer and importer John Martin, Maredret Altus, a 6.8% amber beer using cloves and juniper berries, and Maredret Triplus, an 8% blond incorporating coriander and sage, went on sale in summer.

“It’s good for one’s health. It aids digestion. All the sisters like the beer, we are in Belgium after all,” said Sister Gertrude, adding the nuns allowed themselves one bottle each on Sundays.

The beers are based on spelt, a grain mentioned in texts by Saint Hildegard, a German Benedictine abbess from the 11th century who has inspired the Belgian order, along with plants commonly grown in the nuns’ garden.

Edward Martin, head distiller and great-grandson of the brewer’s founder, said production was currently 300,000 bottles per year, which would rise to around 3 million within a couple of years. Outside Belgium, it is already being sold in Italy and Spain.

Abbey beers, which involve a brewer paying royalties in exchange for using the abbey name, are common in Belgium, but until now they have only been with abbeys housing monks.

Maredret Abbey is just a kilometer from male counterpart Maredsous Abbey, whose beer, made by Duvel, is widely available.

Sister Gertrude stressed they did not see each other as rivals.

“They were aware, informed and they gave us the green light. It’s not a competition, more a complementarity,” she said.
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Six years ago today, nearly 200 nations signed the Paris Climate Accord, where they agreed to keep the rise in global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. Scientists say that threshold is an absolute minimum to avoid catastrophic climate change.

“Our fragile planet is hanging by a thread,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “We are still knocking on the door of climate catastrophe.”

As he wound up the recent COP26 in Glasgow, Guterres had that harsh warning for the 200 countries who had gathered to talk climate change — and how to slow it down.

Hanging over the summit was the deadline of 2030 for a drastic reduction of greenhouse emissions that was set six years ago at COP21 in Paris.

Former executive secretary of the U.N. Climate Convention, Christiana Figueres, remembers it as a historic event.

“It was a real breakthrough for the United Nations to have a completely unanimous, legally binding pathway for decarbonizing the global economy,” Figueres said.

Secretary of state at the time, John Kerry signed that agreement for the U.S.

“It really was an exciting moment when 195,196 countries come together simultaneously, all wanting to move in the same direction, understanding the stakes,” Kerry said. 

2015 was the hottest year on record. Scientists pointed to that as sure proof that global warming was real and serious.

But that record keeps on getting broken as the planet gets hotter year by year.

The World Meteorological Organization says the planet has been propelled into uncharted territory, with rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and “relentless” extreme weather events.

The WMO warns that “extreme” weather is the new normal.

Nonetheless, both Figueres and Kerry remain optimistic.

“We are moving in the right direction,” Figueres said. “The question is the timing, and I do feel that everyone came out of Glasgow with a renewed sense of timing.”

Kerry is now President Biden’s special envoy for climate.

He was back in Paris this week as part of a whistle stop tour of Europe to reassure leaders the U.S. is back in the game, after former President Donald Trump shut the door on climate issues.

“No one country can save this. Everybody has to act,” said Kerry.

That was also perhaps the main takeaway from the Glasgow summit — as developing nations pleaded with their richer neighbors not to be complacent with what has been achieved, but to keep pushing hard to meet that 2030 deadline, to save the planet.
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Environmental protesters blocked roads in Serbia for a third consecutive weekend to oppose plans for lithium mining, despite a bid by the country’s populist government to defuse the demonstrations by agreeing to the key demands of organizers.

Several thousand people braved rain and cold weather Saturday to halt traffic in the capital, Belgrade, and in other cities and towns in the Balkan nation.

The protesters want the government to fully remove any possibility of companies initiating mining projects. Environmentalists argue that extracting lithium, a key component in electric car batteries, causes huge damage to mined areas.

Serbian authorities withdrew two key laws that activists said were designed to help multinational mining company Rio Tinto open a mine in the country’s lithium-rich west. Fewer people showed up at Saturday’s demonstration compared to the two previous weekends, reflecting a rift among protest leaders over how to proceed.

“There will be no peace until exploitation of lithium is banned and Rio Tinto sent away from Serbia,” Aleksandar Jovanovic, one of the organizers, said.

Serbia’s autocratic president, Aleksandar Vucic, described continued protests as “political” after the government gave up on the two proposed laws, which involved property expropriation and referendum rules. Vucic said people would have a chance to express their preferences during the next election in April.

Serbia must tackle its environmental problems to advance toward European Union membership. Vucic has said he wants the country to join the EU, but he has also fostered close ties with Russia and China, including Chinese investments in mines, factories and infrastructure.

Environmental issues have come into focus recently in Serbia and other Balkan nations because of accumulated problems from air and water pollution. Protesters argue that authorities favor the interests of foreign investors and profit over environment protection.

 
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First, a steady crawl. Then a short clumsy slide across the slick stone floor at their home at the Beauval Zoo near Paris. Then finally the big show as the twin giant panda cubs took their first steps in public Saturday.

The female twins were born in August. Their mother, Huan Huan, and father, Yuan Zi, are at the Beauval Zoo, south of Paris, on a 10-year loan from China aimed at highlighting good ties with France. The twin cubs, named Huanlili and Yuandudu, are their second and third cubs after the first panda ever born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017.

In a video, released by the zoo on Saturday, the twin cubs are seen clumsily making their way around the territory. At some point both attempt to climb nearby rocks as a caretaker looks on and films them with a smartphone.

The cubs will spend a few years in France before being sent to China.

France’s soccer star Kylian Mbappe and the Chinese Olympic champion in diving, Zhang Jiaqi, are the twins’ godparents after the athletes announced the female cubs’ names during a ceremony in November.

There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and about 500 in captivity worldwide.

China for decades gifted friendly nations with its unofficial national mascot in what was known as “panda diplomacy.” More recently the country has lent pandas to zoos on commercial terms. 
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British police say a man was shot dead during a confrontation with firearms officers on Saturday near the Kensington Palace royal residence in London. 

The Metropolitan Police force said officers were called to reports that a man with a firearm had entered a bank and bookmakers in the Kensington area of west London.

He fled in a vehicle, which was stopped by officers nearby in an area that is home to several embassies and the palace, which is the official London residence of Prince William, his wife, Kate, and their three children. It is also home to several other members of the royal family. 

The force said “shots were fired and a man sustained gunshot wounds.” He was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Police say the incident is not being treated as terrorism. 

The force said the police standards body has been called in, as is usual for shootings involving the police. 
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