European parties to the Iran nuclear deal are likely to trigger a dispute resolution process in January to force Tehran to rollback violations, but would stop short of rushing to restore U.N. sanctions that would kill off the accord, diplomats said.Iran has criticized Britain, France and Germany for failing to salvage the 2015 pact by shielding Tehran’s economy from U.S. sanctions, reimposed since last year when Washington exited the agreement between Iran and six major powers.The deal’s objective was to extend the time Iran would need to accumulate enough fissile material for an atom bomb, if it sought one —  something sometimes referred to as “breakout time” — to about a year from 2-3 months. The Europeans are alarmed Tehran’s latest moves will start eating into that time.Washington wants to force Iran to negotiate a broader deal that includes its nuclear activities, ballistic missile program and regional influence.In reaction to Washington’s “maximum pressure”, Iran, a longtime U.S. foe, has gradually reduced its commitments under the deal, including resuming enriching uranium at its underground Fordow plant and rapidly accelerating enrichment with advanced centrifuge machines also banned by the deal.On Jan. 6 Iran will further distance itself from compliance with the deal, according to Iranian officials, to amplify its warnings about the dire consequences of renewing U.N. sanctions.Six European and Western diplomats said the so-called E3 of Britain, France and Germany had agreed in principle to begin the process, although they would still wait to see how significant Iran’s latest steps were before taking a final decision.”Launching the process aims to resolve the problematic issues and save the deal,” said a European diplomatic source.”It’s not automatic that U.N sanctions will follow. If we decided to do that (reimpose U.N. sanctions) it would mean that we have decided to put the final nail in the coffin.”Under the terms of the 2015 deal, if any party believes another is not upholding their commitments they can refer the issue to a Joint Commission comprising Iran, Russia, China, the three European powers, and the European Union.They then have 15 days to resolve their differences, but can choose to extend the period by consensus between all the parties.However, if it is not extended the process escalates and can ultimately lead to the reimposition of sanctions that were in place under previous U.N. resolutions – known as a “snapback” —  unless the U.N. Security Council decided otherwise.Diplomats said that unless Iran’s upcoming violations crossed an unacceptable threshold, the Europeans would focus on extending the process rather than pushing towards sanctions. It is unclear what the breaking point for the European powers is.US snapback? “This is not a step we want to take but Iran’s actions are leaving us little option other than to respond within the parameters of the agreement,” Britain’s envoy to the U.N. Karen Pierce said.”Should we be forced down the path of triggering the DRM (mechanism) we would do so in order to find a diplomatic way forward with the aim of protecting the agreement.”Three diplomats said the E3, in particular France, were lobbying Russia and China to get them on board to show unity between the five, even though Moscow and Beijing oppose launching the process for now.A senior Iranian official involved in nuclear talks said Iran had been informed the E3 wanted to launch the mechanism.”If they do it, Iran will act accordingly. If they want to save this deal, they have to keep their promises, otherwise Iran will take further steps,” he said, adding that the Europeans were being bullied by the United States.The Europeans could also back down should Iran not act in January. They are hoping the first transaction as part of a humanitarian trade channel they have been working on for more than a year could be a small carrot to convince Tehran to reassess its position.Coinciding with the European move, the U.S. State Department issued a legal reasoning seen by Reuters that concluded that the United States can trigger the “snapback” provisions of the nuclear deal despite having pulled out of the agreement, a stance that could increase pressure on the Europeans to do so.”There isn’t a direct link between the two (the European move and the U.S. legal reasoning), but we have always made it clear we want the Europeans to return to sanctions,” a U.S. official said. “That continues to be the case.”
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British lawmakers are set to hold their first major vote on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill Friday. It is all but certain to be approved by the country’s new Conservative-dominated Parliament.The vote to approve the Withdrawal Agreement Bill in principle will set Britain on course to leave the European Union as scheduled on Jan. 31. That was the key campaign promise of Johnson, who won a commanding parliamentary majority in last week’s U.K. general election.Previous attempts to pass a Brexit deal through the U.K. Parliament foundered as lawmakers objected to sections of the agreement and demanded a bigger say in the process. But Johnson’s victory gives him the power to get his way.The bill commits Britain to leaving the EU on Jan. 31 and to concluding trade talks with the bloc by the end of 2020. Trade experts and EU officials say striking a free trade deal within 11 months will be a struggle, but Johnson insists he won’t agree to any more delays, and the bill has been amended to bar ministers from agreeing to extend the transition period with the EU.That has set off alarm bells among businesses, who fear that means the country will face a “no-deal” Brexit at the start of 2021.Johnson has stripped out parts of the bill which gave lawmakers a role in negotiating a future trade deal with the EU and required ministers to provide regular updates to Parliament. The clauses were added earlier in the year in an attempt to win opposition lawmakers’ support — backing that Johnson no longer needs.A promise that workers’ rights will not be eroded after Brexit has also been removed, though the government says it will enshrine employment rights in separate legislation.The bill is expected to complete its passage through Parliament in January, in time for Britain to leave the 28-nation bloc on Jan. 31.The divorce deal also needs to be ratified by the European Parliament. European Parliament vice president Pedro Silva Pereira said officials expect that to happen by Jan. 29.Very little will change immediately after Brexit. Britain will remain an EU member in all but name during the 11-month transition period that ends in December 2020.
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The Vatican office responsible for processing clergy sex abuse complaints has seen a record 1,000 cases reported from around the world this year, including from countries it had not heard from before — suggesting that the worst may be yet to come in a crisis that has plagued the Catholic Church.Nearly two decades after the Vatican assumed responsibility for reviewing all cases of abuse, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is today overwhelmed, struggling with a skeleton staff that hasn’t grown at pace to meet the four-fold increase in the number of cases arriving in 2019 compared to a decade ago.“I know cloning is against Catholic teaching, but if I could actually clone my officials and have them work three shifts a day or work seven days a week,” they might make the necessary headway, said Monsignor John Kennedy, the head of the congregation’s discipline section, which processes the cases.“We’re effectively seeing a tsunami of cases at the moment, particularly from countries where we never heard from (before),” Kennedy said, referring to allegations of abuse that occurred for the most part years or decades ago. Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Italy and Poland have joined the U.S. among the countries with the most cases arriving at the congregation, known as the CDF.Kennedy spoke to The Associated Press and allowed an AP photographer and video journalists into the CDF’s inner chambers — the first time in the tribunal’s history that visual news media have been given access. Even the Vatican’s most secretive institution now feels the need to show some transparency as the church hierarchy seeks to rebuild trust with rank-and-file Catholics who have grown disillusioned with decades of clergy abuse and cover-up.Pope Francis took a step towards showing greater transparency with his decision this week to abolish the so-called “pontifical secret” that governs the processing of abuse cases to increase cooperation with civil law enforcement.But the CDF’s struggles remain, and are emblematic of the overall dysfunction of the church’s in-house legal system, which relies on bishops and religious superiors, some with no legal experience or qualified canon lawyers on staff, to investigate allegations of sexual abuse that even the most seasoned criminal prosecutors have difficulty parsing. The system itself is built on an inherent conflict of interest, with a bishop asked to weigh the claim of an unknown alleged victim against the word of a priest who he considers a spiritual son.Despite promises of “zero tolerance” and accountability, the adoption of new laws and the creation of expert commissions, the Vatican finds itself still struggling to reckon with the problem of predator priests — a scourge that first erupted publicly in Ireland and Australia in the 1990s, the U.S. in 2002, parts of Europe beginning in 2010 and Latin America last year.“I suppose if I weren’t a priest and if I had a child who were abused, I’d probably stop going to Mass,” said Kennedy, who saw first-hand how the church in his native Ireland lost its credibility over the abuse scandal.“I’d probably stop having anything to do with the church because I’d say, ’Well, if you can’t look after children, well, why should I believe you?”But he said the Vatican was committed to fighting abuse and just needed more time to process the cases. “We’re going to look at it forensically and guarantee that the just outcome will be given,” he said in an interview.“It’s not about winning people back, because faith is something that is very personal,” he added. “But at least we give people the opportunity to say, ‘Well, maybe give the church a second chance to hear the message.’”___Located in a mustard-colored palazzo just inside the Vatican gates, the CDF serves as the central processing center for abuse cases as well as an appeals court for accused priests under the church’s canon law, a parallel legal system to civil law enforcement that dispenses ecclesial justice.In the past, when the CDF was known as the Holy Office or the Sacred Roman and Universal Inquisition, such church punishments involved burnings at the stake for heretics and publishing lists of banned books that the faithful were forbidden to read.Today, CDF justice tends more toward ordering errant priests to prayer, penance and prohibition from celebrating Mass in public. In fact the worst punishment handed down by the church’s canon law, even for serial child rapists, is essentially being fired, or dismissed from the clerical state.While priests sometimes consider defrockings to be equivalent to a death sentence, such seemingly minor sanctions for such heinous crimes have long outraged victims, whose lives are forever scarred by their abuse. But recourse to church justice is sometimes all the victims have, given the statutes of limitations for pursuing criminal charges or civil litigation have often long since passed by the time a survivor comes to terms with the trauma and decides to report the abuse to authorities — usually to prevent further harm.’’I wanted to make sure that this priest does not have access to any children,” said Paul Peloquin, a Catholic clinical psychologist and abuse survivor who reported his abuser to the archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1990.By then, church authorities had known for decades that the Rev. Earl Bierman groped young boys, and they had sent him off for therapy. But his bishops kept putting him back in ministry, where he is believed to have abused upwards of 70 children. A Kentucky jury convicted him in 1993 and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, where he died in 2005.Peloquin, however, never received a reply to his initial complaint to his bishop.“It just made me angry,” said Peloquin, who now counsels victims from a faith-based perspective that emphasizes forgiveness in healing. “It seemed like they would have called me up right away and said, ‘Let’s hear about what you’ve got to say.’”Because of cases like his, where the bishop ignored the victim, protected the pedophile and placed the church’s reputation above all else, the CDF under then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 2001 persuaded Pope John Paul II to centralize the process.The aim was to crack down on abusers and provide bishops and religious superiors with needed guidance to punish the priests rather than move them around from parish to parish, where they could abuse again. At no time has the Vatican ever mandated superiors report abusers to police, though it has insisted they cooperate with civil reporting laws.The 2001 revision calls for bishops and religious superiors who receive an allegation to conduct a preliminary investigation, which in the U.S. is often done with the help of a lay review board.If the bishop finds the claim has a semblance of truth, he sends the documentation to the CDF which tells the bishop how to proceed: via a full-blown canonical trial, a more expedited “administrative” procedure, or something else, including having the CDF itself take over the investigation.Over the ensuing months and years, the bishop continues the investigation in consultation with the CDF. Eventually the bishop reaches a verdict and a sanction, up to and including dismissal from the clerical state, or laicization.If the priest accepts the penalty, the case ends there. If he appeals, the case comes to the CDF for a final decision.From 2004 to 2014 — roughly the years of Benedict’s papacy with a year on each bookend — some 848 priests were defrocked around the world and another 2,572 were sanctioned to lesser penalties, according to Vatican statistics.The Vatican hasn’t published updated statistics since then, but Benedict’s get-tough defrocking approach has seemingly gone unmatched by Francis. The Jesuit pope appears more swayed by arguments that the church and society are better served if abusers remain in the priesthood, albeit out of active ministry with young people, so they are at least under surveillance by their superiors and not able to have access to children in other jobsThe appeals are decided in an ivory damask-walled conference room on the first floor of the Palazzo Sant’Uffizio, the CDF headquarters a stones’ throw from St. Peter’s Square.The room is dominated by a massive wooden crucifix on the wall that faces St. Peter’s Basilica, and, in each corner of the room, a closed-circuit TV camera peering down on CDF staff.The cameras record the debates on DVDs for the CDF’s own archives and in case the pope ever wants to see what transpired.It is wretched work, reading through case files filled with text messages of priests grooming their victims, psychological evaluations of pedophiles, and heart-numbing letters from men and women who were violated as children and are finally coming to terms with their traumas.“There are times when I am pouring over cases that I want to get up and scream, that I want to pack up my things and leave the office and not come back,” Kennedy told Catholic journalists in the U.S. earlier this year.Nearly 20 years after the CDF assumed responsibility for the cases, it has processed 6,000 abuse cases, and at one point Francis lamented that it had a backlog of 2,000. But the CDF now must cope with the globalization of the scandal that in 2001 seemed to be largely confined to the English-speaking world.Today, the CDF counts just 17 officials, with occasional help from other CDF staff, plus the superiors. Kennedy said he was planning to bring in a Brazilian, Polish and bilingual American canonist to help offset the expected departures of current CDF staff and to process cases from countries that are only now having a reckoning with abuse.But there are still countries the CDF has never heard from — a scenario that suggests “either that they’re all saints or we don’t know about them yet,” Kennedy told AP.The implication is that victims are still cowed, and bishops are still covering up cases. A new Vatican law mandates all abuse and cover-up be reported to church officials, but there is no automatic penalty if anyone fails to do so.Not even in the U.S., which has the most stringent reporting mechanisms in place, is there any way to ensure that bishops are forwarding allegations to the CDF as required.“There has never been independent review of diocesan compliance with that law,” said the Rev. James Connell, a canon lawyer who represents abuse survivors.___Walk into the Pontifical Gregorian University library, climb up the spiral staircase to the legal stacks and you’ll find volume after volume of “Decisiones Seu Sententiae” — the Latin-language legal decisions from one of the Holy See’s main tribunals, the Roman Rota.The tomes contain hundreds of decrees of petitions to nullify Catholic marriages from around the world — the Vatican-stamped paperwork Catholics need to remarry in the church after divorcing.But there is no such jurisprudence published for the Vatican’s other main tribunal, the CDF. None of those rulings are ever published. And that is because until this past week, abuse cases were covered by the highest form of confidentiality in the church, the so-called “pontifical secret.”St. John Paul II decreed that abuse cases would be kept under such tight secrecy in 2001, and defenders argued it was the best way to protect the privacy of the victim, the reputation of the accused and the integrity of the process.Critics said the pontifical secret was used to keep the scandal hidden, prevent police from acquiring internal documentation and silence victims. The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a scathing denunciation of the secrecy in 2014, and victims long complained how it retraumatized them:Many were held to secrecy for decades by their abusers, only to have the church re-traumatize them by imposing secrecy on them when they finally found the courage to report the crime.In announcing the abolition of the highest confidentiality in abuse cases, the Vatican said the reform would facilitate cooperation with civil law enforcement, since bishops would no longer be able to hide behind the pontifical secret to withhold documents.The argument was striking, given that it amounted to an explicit admission that bishops had used the pontifical secret as an excuse to refuse cooperation when prosecutors, police or civil authorities demanded internal paperwork.In more academic terms, the lack of published CDF jurisprudence means no bishop or religious superior has case law to refer to when he receives a new allegation that one of his priests has raped a child: He can’t read up on how the Vatican or his brother bishops have handled a similar set of facts in the past, since none of the cases are published.No seminarian studying canon law can cite case studies in preparing his thesis about how the Catholic Church has responded to the abuse scandal. No academic, journalist, victim or ordinary Catholic has any real idea how the Catholic Church has adjudicated these cases in any systematic way.The Rev. D.G. Astigueta, a Jesuit canonist at the Gregorian, has said such institutional secrecy surrounding abuse case harms the development and practice of the church’s own law.“Canonical science doesn’t only grow and develop from a reflection by experts or the production of new laws, but also by jurisprudence, the way of interpreting the law by judges and lawyers,” he told a 2017 conference.He called for greater transparency by the CDF so that today’s canon lawyers, especially those studying in Rome, could have easy access to case files and thus have “teaching based not just on theory but practice.”He is not alone. For the past several years, Vatican-affiliated universities in Rome have hosted conferences on seeking a new equilibrium between the need to protect the integrity of the investigation while looking out in particular for the needs of the victims.Three of the official speakers at Francis’ big sex abuse summit in February called for a reform of the pontifical secret, and the Vatican’s leading sex crimes investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, was the primary driver behind the reform.In another change to church law this year, Francis decreed that victims cannot be silenced, and have the right to learn the outcomes of their cases. But they are still largely kept out of the process, after making an initial complaint.“They are that person who has been harmed. And it would seem to be natural justice that they should know what is being done what is being said in their absence,” said Marie Collins, an Irish survivor who quit Francis’ child protection commission in frustration in part over what she said was the CDF’s intransigence and obsession with secrecy.And the length of time the cases take benefits no one, she added.The CDF is due to soon publish a step-by-step guidebook for bishops and religious superiors to refer to so they can process cases, and two researchers are currently hard at work in Kennedy’s office, entering case details into a database so the CDF can generate a statistical analysis of the cases it has processed over the past two decades.Kennedy said he needs more funding to complete the project, and said more transparency could be possible down the line.“I think eventually we will get to the point of publishing jurisprudence, like the way the Roman Rota does,” he said. The aim would be to redact names and revealing details, but show “the broad parameters of what it is that we do.”
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Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual press conference with journalists on Thursday — a more than four-hour freewheeling event highlighted by swipes at the push to impeach President Donald Trump and suggestions that an adjustment to Russia’s constitution could extend to Putin’s hold on power when his current term ends in 2024.  The annual press conference, now in its 15th year, long ago morphed into an exercise that paints Putin as the indispensable leader of the nation. The Russian leader was as comfortable reeling off the wages of doctors in far-flung Russian regions as he was discussing key global events.     This year’s event came a day after congressional Democrats voted to impeach President Donald Trump — the third time in U.S. history an American leader was formally sanctioned by Congress.There was intense interest in what Putin might say about a process that has put allegations of Russian election interference — and unproven conspiracies of meddling by neighboring Ukraine in U.S. politics — under the microscope in Washington.   Yet when prompted, Putin appeared to echo White House talking points, arguing the impeachment process was a sham launched by Democrats for “completely fabricated reasons.””This is nothing but a continuation of an internal political struggle, with the party that lost the election, the Democratic Party, trying to reach its goal by different means,” Putin said.  The Democrats tried to overturn the 2016 U.S. election results with an investigation into Russian meddling, he added. Having failed at that, “it’s now Ukraine’s turn,” the Russian leader said.   Addressing another key issue in U.S.-Russian relations, Putin reiterated his calls for the immediate extension of New START, the sole remaining agreement limiting nuclear weapons, and the subject of recent negotiations between Moscow and Washington earlier this month.   People watch a broadcast of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual end-of-year news conference, in a library in Kaliningrad, Russia, Dec. 19, 2019.”We are ready until the end of the year to extend the existing agreement, the New START treaty,” said Putin. “But thus far, there has been no answer to any of our suggestions. And without a New START treaty, there is nothing to curb an arms race. And that, in my opinion, is bad.”Bread and butterOn the domestic front, Putin faced questions ranging from concerns over climate change in Russia’s North, long-simmering anger over the disposal of trash from Russia’s major urban centers, breakdowns in health care, declining salaries and demographics, as well as criticism over laws that do little to protect Russian women from domestic violence, among other issues.   The government was aware of the problems, argued Putin, while acknowledging that more work was needed.   The press conference is a rare occasion — some would argue a once-in-a-lifetime lottery — for Russian journalists to inform Putin of issues that he seemingly would fix if he was aware of them.What were his plans to tackle lower doctor wages in the Urals? The prohibitively expensive flights from the Far East? Blatant police corruption and abuse? What would he do to protect Russian athletes smeared by doping scandals?   With domestic problems piling up, a Bulgarian journalist launched into a prayer for the Russian leader. It was met with scattered applause.  Ukraine impassePutin also assessed recent talks aimed at ending the five-year war between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces in east Ukraine’s Donbass region that has killed over 13,000 people.FILE – Members of the Donbass self-defense battalion attend a ceremony to swear an oath to be included in a reserve battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine near Kyiv, June 23, 2014.The Russian leader acknowledged some progress with newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, but he still blamed Kyiv for failing to engage in direct talks with rebels under the stalled Minsk peace accords negotiated with European powers.  “Direct dialogue on Donbass is needed,” said Putin. “You can’t solve the problem by force.”Yet the Russian leader again refused to concede — despite well-documented evidence — that Russian mercenaries and army regulars had played a role in the uprising.”There are few Germans and French fighting there,” said Putin, noting their numbers weren’t significant enough to alter the battle terrain.Beyond Putin?But the domestic headline of the day was Putin’s hint — seemingly out of the blue — that an adjustment to constitutional term limits may be needed to keep qualified politicians in office.  “One thing that could be changed about these terms is removing the clause on successive terms,” he said, when asked about increasing political competition in Russia by the state RIA-Novosti News Service.  “Your humble servant served two terms consecutively, then left his post, but with the constitutional right to return to the post of president again, because these two terms were not successive,” added Putin.  “Some of our political analysts and public figures are troubled by this. Well, maybe it could be removed.”The comment was widely interpreted as a key signal of Putin’s possible intentions when his current term ends in 2024 after nearly a quarter-century in power.  A deadly attackDespite the event’s tradition as the key year-end news event in Russia, Putin’s performance was later upstaged by a deadly armed assault on the main building of the Federal Security Services (FSB), the former KGB headquarters in downtown Moscow where Putin briefly headed operations in the late 1990s.The attack coincided with celebrations marking Russia’s intelligence services, commonly known by Russians as Chekist’s Day.   Putin, himself a career KGB officer in the Soviet Union, was celebrating Chekist’s Day at the Kremlin when the attack occurred.  According to the FSB, one agent was killed and five others wounded after an armed gunman opened fire inside the compound. Witness video from the scene showed pedestrians fleeing the scene as shots rang out.  The Interfax news agency quoted FSB sources as saying the shooter was later “neutralized.”   An investigation into the motive and timing of the attack was under way.  
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Canada’s minister of health, Patty Hajdu, on Thursday proposed banning promotion and advertising of vaping products in public spaces, convenience stores and online, in an effort to curb youth use of e-cigarettes.Hajdu also announced new mandatory health warnings on vaping product packaging.The proposed regulations come amid growing fears surrounding vaping’s safety and mounting evidence that youth vaping is on the rise both among people who once smoked and those who had not.FILE – Canada’s Minister of Health Patty Hajdu speaks in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Dec. 10, 2019.While e-cigarettes are marketed as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes and a means to help smokers quit, health officials are concerned they are getting a new generation hooked on nicotine.The number of Canadian teens who said they had vaped in the past month doubled from 10% to 20% between 2017-’18 and 2018-’19, according to the Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey.”The latest statistics … are alarming,” Hajdu said in a news release. “We are working with experts and all Canadians to find ways to prevent youth from vaping. The new measures announced today will help, but there is more to do.”In an interview with the CBC public broadcaster, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the measures a “first step.””There’s a lot more information to gather,” he said. “We are very worried about the reports of the extremely negative impacts of vaping.”A U.S. study released earlier this week found that e-cigarette use significantly increases the risk of developing chronic lung conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
 
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A jailed Catalan separatist leader was entitled to immunity as a member of the European Parliament, the EU’s highest court ruled on Thursday.Oriol Junqueras was sentenced to 13 years in prison in October for his role in a 2017 Catalan independence referendum that was deemed illegal by Spanish courts. He was elected an MEP while in prison awaiting the verdict and has not been able to take up his seat.The EU court ruled anyone elected to the European Parliament “enjoys immunities” to travel and take part in parliamentary sessions and an MEP cannot be subject to detention or legal proceedings because of views expressed or votes cast.The immunity does not, however, apply to an MEP who has committed an offense. The Spanish Supreme Court, which had referred the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), must now decide how to comply with the verdict.Junqueras’ lawyer Andreu Van den Eynde told reporters the ruling should push Spain’s Supreme Court to overturn his client’s conviction and grant his immediate release from jail.”I believe that, one way or another, the State Attorney must accept we are right,” he said at a news conference outside the prison where Junqueras is being held.The ruling could jeopardize efforts by Spain’s Socialists to court Junqueras’ Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) party, whose support they need to form a government and break a political deadlock after two inconclusive elections this year.ERC’s parliamentary spokesperson Marta Vilalta said the party would not return to negotiations until the Socialists and the state attorney react to the verdict.”What they do and say is very important to show that indeed they are abandoning … the path of repression and are seriously embracing the political path,” she said.The acting government said the state attorney would analyze the ruling and present findings in the coming days and that it wanted “a new phase of dialog, negotiations and agreement” on Catalonia.The EU court did not examine Junqueras’ criminal case and sentencing. The ruling only responds to the Supreme Court’s questions on the impact of Junqueras being elected as a European lawmaker, a CJEU source said.If Spanish authorities had wanted to prevent Junqueras from traveling to the European Parliament, they would have had to request the Parliament waive his immunity, the ruling said.Other Catalan leadersTwo other Catalan politicians won European Parliament seats in May but fears of returning to Spain, where they face arrest warrants, prevented them from collecting their MEP credentials. Carles Puigdemont and Antoni Comin are both living in self-imposed exile in Belgium.”Today European justice did more to resolve the (Catalan) conflict than two years of repression by Spanish governments and the shameful silence of the European institutions,” Puigdemont said at a news conference in Brussels.He described Spain’s continuing imprisonment of Junqueras after today’s ruling as a “kidnapping.”Separately, a Barcelona court ruled the pro-independence president of Catalonia’s regional government, Quim Torra, should be barred from holding public office for 18 months after he refused to remove symbols of support for jailed separatists from public buildings during April’s election campaign. Torra said he would appeal.
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The son of Russian spies who was born in Canada and was stripped of his citizenship after his parents were arrested for espionage in the United States is a Canadian national, the country’s top court ruled  Thursday.
Canada’s Supreme Court unanimously upheld an earlier federal court ruling that said a 2014 administrative decision to strip Alexander Vavilov of his citizenship was unreasonable. Vavilov was born in Canada in 1994, as was his brother, Timothy, four years earlier.
“The judges said that Mr. Vavilov was a Canadian citizen,” according to the ruling.
The hit TV series The Americans was based partly on the story of Vavilov’s family. His parents came to Canada in the 1980s under deep cover and assumed names, with the mission to immerse themselves in Western society. The family later moved to Boston, where Vavilov’s parents were arrested in 2010 and charged with spying.
Vavilov’s parents returned to Russia in a spy swap. Both brothers were also sent to Russia. Alexander said he had no idea that his parents were spies until they were arrested.
Children born in Canada normally automatically become Canadian citizens, but the country’s Registrar of Citizenship said Alexander was an exception because his parents had been like diplomats — representatives or employees of a foreign government.
The Supreme Court upheld a previous federal appeals court ruling saying that Vavilov’s parents did not enjoy the “privileges and immunities” of diplomats and so the exception could not be applied to their son.
Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova used the aliases Donald Heathfield and Tracey Ann Foley — names lifted from two Canadian children who had died in infancy. They later admitted their real names to U.S. authorities.
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Police on Thursday arrested more than 300 suspected members of the ‘Ndrangheta criminal organization in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Bulgaria in a major mafia crackdown.In Italy alone, 2,500 officers participated in raids that also targeted property valued at 15 million euros ($16.7 million), focusing on the Calabrian town of Vibo Valentina, but extending through much of the country.The arrested included a former lawmaker, an ex-regional official, a mayor in Calabria, a political party official and a Carabinieri commander previously assigned to the Calabrian capital.The suspects were being held on suspicion of extortion, murder money-laundering and belonging to a Mafia organization.”It is the biggest operation since the maxi-trial of Palermo,” anti-Mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri told the news agency ANSA. He referred to a trial against the Sicilian mafia that lasted from 1986 to early 1992 that led to the convictions of more than 300 people, considered the most significant trial ever against the Sicilian Mafia.”We have completely disrupted the clans of Vibo province, but Italian regions were involved from the Alps to Sicily,” Gratteri saidThe Calabrian `Ndrangheta has increasingly eclipsed the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in power and wealth, infiltrating all sectors of Italian economic and political life. From Calabria, it has spread its tentacles to northern Italy, where it migrated in the 1970s and 1980s, to Germany, and as far away as Canada and Australia.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is warning of another refugee exodus from Syria as government forces there conduct airstrikes against rebel targets in Idlib province. With Russian forces backing the assault, Ankara and Moscow face a looming threat to their recent warming ties.”Now, there are 50,000 people coming to our lands from Idlib. We already host 4 million people, and now, an additional 50,000 are coming. Maybe this figure will increase even further,” Erdogan said Thursday at the Kuala Lumpur summit of Muslim world leaders in Malaysia.Erdogan gave no details on whether any of the refugees had reached the Turkish border. Idlib province is the last main rebel-controlled area in Syria. Around 3 million people are believed trapped in the enclave that borders Turkey.The latest refugee exodus was triggered by the intense bombardment by Damascus, backed by Russian air power. Turkish officials say that around 200,000 refugees in Idlib are camped close to Turkey’s border, after escaping a previous Syrian government assault.”This [Idlib] crisis is not only the problem of Turkey, but it’s also the security problem of the European Union,” said Mesut Casin, a foreign policy adviser to Erdogan.A Syrian man comforts another on the rubble of a building after a reported Russian airstrike on a popular market in the village of Balyun in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, Dec, 7, 2019.Erdogan also renewed his criticism of the international community. “We spent over $40 billion. There is neither serious support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees nor does the European Union fulfill the promises it gave. No one is keeping their word,” he said.Analysts say Erdogan is desperate to avoid another refugee exodus into Turkey. “He has faced the consequences of keeping so many refugees in Turkey,” said international relations professor Serhat Guvenc, of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.”The result was the loss of major urban centers in recent local elections, including Istanbul. Many advisers and analysts link the loss to hosting refugees,” he added.Guvenc warns a new wave of refugees could well be passed on to Europe. “Erdogan holds the threat of opening up borders to Europe. Like a sword of Damocles over the EU, he is repeatedly warning this,” said Guvenc.  Local media reports from Idlib suggest the latest offensive by Damascus could just be preparation for a major offensive to retake the enclave. “Pressure on Idlib, it makes for an explosive cocktail for everybody,” said political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Athens University. “Greece is already struggling with the steady flow of refugees coming from neighboring Turkey.”FILE – Syrian refugees are seen in a commercial district in Istanbul. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing growing domestic pressure over the presence in Turkey of over three and half million Syrian refugees. (Dorian Jones/VOA)A Damascus-led offensive would likely also put Ankara and Moscow on a collision course. Last year, Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin hammered out an agreement that guaranteed Idlib’s protection.  While Erdogan is a strong backer of the Syrian rebels and Putin of the Damascus government, the two men have increasingly cooperated in seeking to resolve Syria’s civil war.  
 
Such cooperation has fostered more extensive improvement in Turkish-Russian relations, much to the alarm of Turkey’s NATO allies.Analysts point out that given Erdogan’s strained relations with his traditional Western allies over myriad differences, a deepening relationship with Moscow makes tactical sense.  Ultimately, however, regional policy differences are predicted to be increasingly difficult to manage. “In the long run, Turkish and Russian Middle East policies do not converge, because of their two different interpretations of the situation,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.”In Idlib, Putin is committed to supporting [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad’s reclaim of control of all of the Syrian territory. For Erdogan, he is determined to defend the rebel enclave. Something will have to give,” he added.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, May 17, 2018.Some analysts suggest that Putin uses the threat of an offensive in Idlib as leverage on Ankara. The looming crisis over Idlib comes as Ankara and Moscow are facing a new dispute over Libya.Ankara appeared to have taken Moscow by surprise when Erdogan signed a security agreement last month in Istanbul with Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the Presidential Council of Libya’s Government of National Accord, or GNA. Sarraj is Libya’s internationally recognized prime minister.Under the agreement, the Tripoli-based government can invite Turkish forces to deploy in Libya. According to local media reports, Ankara is preparing a rapid action force for possible deployment.Erdogan said he was reacting to the presence of what he called “Russian Wagner mercenaries,” which are fighting for General Khalifa Haftar, the de facto leader of a rival government in eastern Libya. The Wagner Group is a private security force run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close links to the Kremlin.”I wish that the matter of Haftar would not create a new Syria in our relations with Russia,” Erdogan said in a television interview earlier this month. The two governments in Libya have been at war with each other as they jockey for power. Haftar is seeking to overthrow the GNA.Unverified reports from Libya claim the GNA has already requested Turkish military assistance. Ankara has so far not commented on the reports. Libya has been riven by turmoil and division since a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Ankara is set to dispatch a diplomatic delegation to Moscow to discuss differences over Libya.Bagci says ties with Moscow “may not become sustainable” if Turkey insists on sending troops to Libya.”The party, I think, that will eventually have to step back is Turkey. Moscow has too much leverage over Turkey,” he added. 
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“I’m buying dollars, I’m buying euros,” Roly, 28, whispers furtively to tourists outside a hotel in Havana.Roly, who declined to disclose his last name for fear of reprisals, works as a “mule”, traveling abroad to buy goods to sell back in Communist-run Cuba where the black market booms due to shortages and high prices in the state-run economy.But like many Cubans, he says that he is struggling to acquire the hard currency he needs as it has become near impossible in recent weeks to obtain it legally at the country’s banks and exchange houses.Analysts say the recent elusiveness of hard currency is likely due to a deteriorating economic situation and increased demand as the government steps up moves to end Cuba’s labyrinthine dual currency system.Among those affected are Cubans who want to protect themselves from any kind of possible depreciation this complex process could entail by parking their savings in hard currency and those, like Roly, wanting to travel abroad.Neither of Cuba’s two currencies – the peso or the dollar-equivalent convertible peso (CUC) – are legal tender outside the island, where all financial institutions are state-run.”There’s been no money available at the banks or exchange houses for weeks, you have to look elsewhere,” said Roly. “I’ve spent half a day on the streets under the sun and I haven’t managed to buy a single dollar.”Cuba’s foreign exchange earnings have declined in recent years in tandem with the economic woes of its ally Venezuela and a tightening of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo under President Donald Trump, including increased restrictions on U.S. travel.Several countries such as Brazil, Bolivia and Ecuador have also ended over the past year contracts under which they hired thousands of Cuban doctors from the state. Such service exports make up most of Cuba’s hard currency earnings.In October, Cuba opened around a dozen stores selling appliances, car parts and other items for dollars, with a bank card. Economists said this should help authorities rake in some hard currency and stem capital flight through the activity of mules such as Roly.Some say establishing the “dollar stores” could also be a sign the government is bringing back the greenback to stabilize the economy during elimination of the dual currency system, at least during a transition phase.”The economy is already being dollarized, even if no-one says it” said Cuban economist Omar Everleny. “That the CUC has started to lose value…is a reality”.Cuba’s two currencies have circulated on the island at multiple exchange rates ever since the decline of Cuba’s former benefactor the Soviet Union as part of a strategy to open up the economy while shielding local industry and citizens.But the system has for years been deemed more damaging than beneficial to the economy and the government is expected to eliminate the CUC over the next year.In November, it banned its export and import. Passengers catching flights abroad have to now exchange their CUCs before passing through customs and purchase goods on the other side in tradeable currency.”For the last few weeks, they’ve not allowed us to sell hard currency, neither dollars or euros, because there’s no money,” said Miriam Gonzalez, 55, a cashier at an exchange house.”They are sending all the hard currency received here to the airport.”Even those with accounts in hard currency at Cuban banks have struggled to get their money out, sometimes having to wait for weeks, much to their frustration.”You just can’t trust our country’s banks,” said one client, who declined to give her name after attempting to withdraw 500 euros someone had transferred her from Spain. Her bank instead put her on a waiting list.”There’s no money available at the moment … it’s disrespectful.” 
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy named Volodymyr Yelchenko, 60, his envoy to Washington on Thursday. In choosing the soft-spoken but seasoned diplomat, he is putting his faith in Yelchenko to steer relations with the administration of President Donald Trump at a sensitive time.
 
Ukraine’s new envoy to Washington is no stranger to difficult situations, but he may face some of his biggest professional challenges yet, as he takes up his post in a city politically divided over whether Trump abused the power of his office by withholding military aid to Ukraine for personal political gain.
 
Yelchenko has been Kyiv’s ambassador to the United Nations since December 2015. His tenure included a two-year rotating seat on the powerful U.N. Security Council from 2016-17.
 
He came to New York at the height of the crisis in eastern Ukraine, after Russia annexed Crimea and fomented an armed separatist insurgency in the country’s east.
 
Yelchenko, though calm and even-tempered in public, did not shrink from confrontation with his legendary Russian counterpart, Vitaly Churkin, at numerous Security Council meetings on the crisis.
 
“Ambassador Yelchenko was quiet one-on-one, but there was nothing shy about him when he represented his country in the Security Council,” former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley wrote of him in her recent book, “With All Due Respect.” She described the Ukrainian envoy as “a genuinely kind man,” and one of Washington’s “best friends” on the Security Council.FILE – Then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks with Ukraine’s envoy to the U.N. Volodymyr Yelchenko before a Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters, in New York, Feb. 28, 2017.The Ukrainian diplomat recognized early on the value of public praise in the Trump administration, regularly complimenting Ambassador Haley on Twitter.
 
He also was never reluctant to engage with the international press corps who cover the United Nations.
 
This is Yelchenko’s second stint as U.N. ambassador, having previously held the post from 1997 to 2000. He also was Ukraine’s deputy minister for foreign affairs from 2000-2001.
 
While some might consider Washington in its current political climate a potential “hot seat” for any Ukrainian envoy, Yelchenko is a veteran of difficult postings, having been Kyiv’s ambassador to Moscow from July 2010 until December 2015.
 
Some of his former Security Council counterparts describe him as “a very talented and principled diplomat,” “extremely professional and true to the facts,” a “tough negotiator,” and having a “great sense of humor.” They express confidence he will be successful in Washington.
 
Additionally, Yelchenko has a lighter side. He is passionate about progressive and heavy metal rock music and often uses his Twitter feed to mention some of his favorite bands.Sent from Viber https://t.co/lP75IEQDt3pic.twitter.com/aAQ6XY5Jdp— Volodymyr Yelchenko (@YelchenkoUN) December 12, 2019  
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Queen Elizabeth II formally opened a new session of Britain’s Parliament on Thursday with a speech laying out Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to use his commanding majority to take the U.K. out of the European Union and shake up the country’s public services.Johnson’s Conservative Party won an 80-strong majority in the 650-seat House of Commons last week on a pledge to “get Brexit done” by leaving the European Union on Jan. 31, and a broad promise to end years of public spending austerity.Now Johnson has to turn his election pledges into political reality.The Queen’s Speech — written by the government but read out by the monarch from atop a golden throne in the House of Lords — rattled through several dozen bills that the government plans to pass in the coming year.The first will be Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill, the law needed to make Brexit a reality. It must become law before Jan. 31 if Johnson is to stick to his timetable, and the government plans to hold the first significant vote on it Friday.The bill commits Britain to leaving the EU on Jan. 31 and to concluding trade talks with the bloc by the end of 2020. Johnson insists he won’t agree to any more delays — a vow that has set off alarm bells among businesses, who fear that means the country will face a “no-deal” Brexit at the start of 2021.Trade experts and EU officials say striking a free trade deal within 11 months will be a struggle. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday called the timetable “extremely challenging.”The government also plans to pass several other Brexit-related measures, including a new immigration system that will be introduced after Brexit, when EU citizens will lose the automatic right to live and work in the U.K., and new structures for agriculture and fishing.Johnson also promised “an ambitious program of domestic reform,” including a law committing the government to spend more on the National Health Service, which has struggled to keep up with growing demand during a decade-long funding squeeze by previous Conservative governments.There were tough-sounding announcements on law and order, including longer sentences for people convicted of terrorist offenses and other serious crimes.Several of the measures are likely to prove contentious. The government plans to set up a “Constitution, Democracy and Rights Commission” that could lead to reform of the Supreme Court. The court angered the government by ruling in September that Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was illegal.Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and Britain’s Prince Charles walk through the Royal Gallery before ahead of the Queen’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament ceremony at the Palace of Westminster in London, Britain, Dec. 19, 2019.The government also intends to pass a law protecting military veterans from “vexatious” prosecutions. The question of whether veterans who served decades ago in Northern Ireland should be open to war crimes prosecution is hugely controversial.Johnson also promised to lessen regional inequality and bring greater unity to the United Kingdom, which is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But Brexit is making that more difficult. Scotland voted to remain in the EU in Britain’s 2016 referendum, and last week most Scottish seats in Parliament were won by the Scottish National Party, which opposes Brexit and wants Scotland to become independent of the U.K.SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon says that means Scotland should be able to hold a vote on independence, an option Scots rejected in a 2014 referendum that was billed as a “once in a generation” event.Sturgeon said Thursday she had formally written to the prime minister requesting the power to hold a new independence vote.”The alternative is a future that we have rejected being imposed upon us,” Sturgeon said in Edinburgh. “Scotland made it very clear last week it does not want a Tory government led by Boris Johnson taking us out of the European Union.”Johnson has said he will refuse, and the two sides look set for a slow-burning constitutional showdown.The Queen’s Speech was the centerpiece of the State Opening of Parliament, a blend of politics and pageantry that usually takes place about once a year. Britain saw its last state opening just two months ago, soon after Johnson took over as prime minister from Theresa May through a Conservative Party leadership contest and shortly before the early election that returned him to power.The pomp was toned down for the queen’s second visit this year. There were still officials with titles like Black Rod, scarlet-clad yeomen of the guard and lords in ermine-trimmed robes. But the 93-year-old monarch was driven from Buckingham Palace to Parliament in a car, rather than a horse-drawn carriage, and wore a pale blue dress and matching hat rather than robes and a diamond-studded crown.Johnson will make his mark on the government more decisively in the new year. He’s expected to shake up his Cabinet and merge or even eliminate some ministries — all under the guiding eye of chief adviser Dominic Cummings, a self-styled political disruptor.Johnson will also have to wait to see how Brexit affects the U.K. economy. A downturn could hamper the government’s plans to spend more on public services.Thursday’s speech will give the British public some idea of what drives Johnson, a politician whose core beliefs remain a mystery, even to his allies.He sometimes acts like a Donald Trump-style populist — dubbing his administration a “People’s Government” and banning his ministers from attending the elitist World Economic Forum next month in Davos, Switzerland. But he also claims to be a socially liberal “one nation” Tory who welcomes immigration and wants Britain to be a leader in tackling climate change.Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said Conservative prime ministers from Margaret Thatcher to Theresa May all took office promising, like Johnson, to “heal the nation” and tackle social injustice.”But actually in the end they don’t want to spend too much money, they don’t want to raise taxes too high, they don’t want to regulate the economy — and actually nothing much happens,” he said. “So don’t hold your breath.” 
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A British man pleaded not guilty Wednesday to U.S. charges alleging that he and co-conspirators in an international hacking group called The Dark Overlord stole data from health care and accounting companies in Missouri, Illinois and Georgia and threatened to release the information unless they paid ransom.Nathan Francis Wyatt, 38, was charged in federal court in St. Louis with conspiracy, two counts of aggravated identity theft and three counts of threatening to damage a protected computer, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday. His court appearance came after he lost an 11-month fight to avoid being extradited from Britain to the U.S.The indictment does not name the companies that were allegedly attacked but said they include a health care provider in Farmington, Missouri; a medical records company in Swansea, Illinois; an accounting business in St. Louis; a health care provider in Athens, Georgia; and a health care provider with several locations in Missouri.The indictment also does not name the co-conspirators or provide any details on them.Wyatt’s attorney, federal public defender Kayla Williams, did not immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.The conspiracy charge alleges that Wyatt and his co-conspirators remotely accessed the companies’ computers to obtain personal and sensitive information, then sought to sell the records on criminal forums and marketplaces. Prosecutors said the group used email and telephones to threaten the companies unless they paid ransom in bitcoin or wire transfers.The crimes occurred between June 10 and July 26, 2016.The indictment says the defendants sent threatening text messages to the daughter of one of the owners of the Farmington company, at one point asking, “Did your daddy tell you he refused to pay us when we stole his company files?” and threatening to release thousands of patient files, including hers.The hackers also threatened to call the public accountants’ clients “one by one” unless the company paid, the indictment alleges.They also are accused of stealing money from the PayPal account of another health care provider, demanding $75,000 in bitcoin from a third health care company, and extorting money from another health care company.Prosecutors have asked that Wyatt be kept in jail until trial. He has a fiance and three children in England, but no ties to St. Louis or the United States, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.The Dark Overlord claimed credit in April 2017 for the release of stolen episodes of the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black.”
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A year after the United Nation’s General Assembly adopted the Global Refugee Compact to deal with the world refugees crisis, world leaders gathered in Geneva to weigh the progress made, and pledged more than $3 billion to support refugees and about 50,000 resettlement communities.U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the Global Forum on Refugees divvied up the responsibility for dealing with the 25.9 million refugees who have fled war and persecution, mainly exiled in poor neighboring countries.In addition to the $3 billion, Grandi said Germany, which has hosted hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, pledged about $1.9 billion. The Inter-American Development Bank pledged $1 billion to communities hosting refugees in Latin America. The World Bank also increased its funding for projects supporting refugees by 10%, to $2.2 billion.At the end of 2018, nearly 71 million people were living in forced displacement due to war, violence and persecution, including the nearly 26 million who had fled to other countries as refugees.The meeting this week in Geneva stressed the need to share the economic and societal burden of nearly 80% of the world’s refugees living in poor and developing countries.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country hosts a large amount of the world’s refugees, criticized wealthy nations for setting “tiny” refugee quotas and for not providing adequate financial support to Ankara.Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees, about 3.7 million, following by Pakistan, with 1.4 million registered refugees.”We cannot go into a world in which responsibility-sharing means some states keep all the refugees and some states pay all the money. We cannot do that, that is why we have resettlement, why we have different types of partnerships,” Grandi said Wednesday at the close of the two-day meeting.Rising tide of refugeesThe number of people fleeing their homeland has been surging. According to a new report by the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), the number of global migrants has increased from 150 million, to 272 million, in the past 20 years.Contributing to these burgeoning numbers are the reasons why large numbers of people are being forced out of their homes, Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, said.”People are being forced out for reasons — whether it’s gangs, whether it’s civil war, whether it’s a state collapse, whether it’s environmental degradation — things that a normal person would decide to flee from,” Selee said.Along with the challenge of dealing with accommodating large amounts of refugees is the issue of who to let in. Countries are facing the question of who is a refugee and who isn’t. Some cases are clear cut, such as Turkey with the Syrians who are fleeing a brutal civil war; or Colombia with the Venezuelans fleeing their country’s revolution and subsequent economic meltdown.But there are other cases, such as in Europe and the United States at the southern border with Mexico, in which they are trying to figure out who should be returned to their home country, and who actually has a legitimate claim for asylum or refugee protection.”And, so some people say, OK, we’ll call all these people refugees. Then people say, let’s not expand the definition but at least accept that these people are forced migrants that aren’t leaving by choice,” Selee said. “They’re leaving because something has pushed them out. And there’s a recognition that we need to offer some protection to those people, whether or not we call them refugees.”Mass migrationAnother challenge facing host countries is the issue of mass flows of migrants, and the perception of migrants’ impact on communities.Dany Bahar of the Brookings Institution said when you think of a refugee crisis today, you think about a huge inflow of people that come to a country in a very short period of time.Bahar said economists who have been researching the effect of migration have found the perception people had — about how massive inflows of migrants and refugees have negative impacts on the local labor markets — is not really backed by research.”When refugees are allowed to work, that helps a country that is receiving them to become more productive, to grow etc. When the country has the ability to integrate these refugees by allowing them to be part of society, take part in the public sector, health system and education systems, that is of course positive for everybody,” Behar said.Lebanon has anestimated population is 5.9 million, with nearly 1.5 million Syrian refugees. This makes it the country with the highest number of refugees per capita – with one refugee for every four nationals, according to the UN.
 These numbers have placed an enormous strain on the country’s already fragile economy, society and politics.”So in the case of Turkey and Lebanon receiving a lot of Syrian refugees, or in the case of Colombia receiving a lot of Venezuelan refugees, or Ethiopia receiving Eritrean and Sudanese refugees — these are countries that, to begin with, are lagging behind in terms of their infrastructure,”  Behar said.He said that is why international financing is so important, not only for humanitarian reasons to help people, but to get the services they need by sending financial aid to allow host countries to invest in infrastructure and capital, so that they can integrate these refugees.All in all, more than 770 pledges were made at this week’s forum for financial support as well as improving refugee access to employment, education, electricity, infrastructure and promises of more resettlement spots for the most vulnerable.Katherine Ahn and VOA Persian contributed to this report
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The first-ever Global Refugee Forum has ended with more than 770 pledges worth billions of dollars in financial, technical, material, legal and other assistance in support of millions of refugees and the communities that host them. The biggest single contribution came from the World Bank, which pledged $2.2 billion. This was matched by pledges of more than $3 billion dollars in additional resources by states and $250 million from private corporations.However, the total value of the pledges made at the forum will not be known for some time. This is because many of the contributions come in the form of projects run by corporations, aid agencies, civic, faith-based and other organizations. Many involve beneficial projects for refugees by creating jobs and livelihoods, enhancing employment for women, educational opportunities for children, pro bono legal services and the like.UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi says everything will be quickly analyzed and monitored.“It is difficult to add up the different type of contributions, but…we want to monitor the implementation of these pledges altogether and we want to measure impact as soon as possible. We have developed with states a set of indicators that will give us progressively a sense of how much the pledges made around this forum have an impact,” Grandi said. More than 3,000 people, including heads of state, U.N. leaders, senior officials from international institutions, development organizations, and the private sector attended the forum.About 80 refugees from 22 countries living in 30 countries of exile also participated. Their presence, testimonies and stories of suffering and endurance put a human face on the cold statistics that accompany refugee numbers.The aim of the three-day meeting was to generate new approaches and long-term commitments in support of the world’s 25 million refugees. Grandi says the burden of caring for these refugees falls mainly on the poor countries. He says the forum pushed the message that this responsibility must be shared by the rich countries.“We cannot go to a world in which responsibility sharing means some states keep all the refugees and some states pay all the money. We cannot do that. That is why we have resettlement. That is why we have different types of partnership. That is why asylum has to remain in reality in all parts of the world, including in the rich countries,” Grandi said.Grandi says the success of this forum will be measured by the number of pledges that are kept and implemented. He says he believes the enthusiasm and creativity shown by the participants augurs well. He says this has all the makings for a successful outcome. He notes a second Global Refugee Forum will take place in four years time.
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Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists failed Wednesday to agree on a prisoner exchange and troop pullback after several hours of tense talks on the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the separatist rebels met in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, to discuss conditions for an all for all'' prisoner swap. This followed the reaching of a tentative agreement during Ukraine peace talks in Paris last week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who met with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany on December 9, had hailed the prospective exchange as a key result of the Paris talks. He said he expected all 72 Ukrainian prisoners held by the separatists to return home before year's end. But Olga Kobtseva, a rebel representative in the so-called Contact Group in Minsk, said Wednesday's talks failed to produce an agreement. She cited Ukraine's refusal to absolve the rebels in its custody of criminal charges as the main stumbling block. On top of that, the parties were unable to confirm the numbers and verify the lists of prisoners to be swapped. Another rebel envoy, Vladislav Dainego, said the parties also failed to agree on the areas where Ukrainian forces and the rebels would pull back from the front line to help maintain a lasting cease-fire. We proposed some areas, but the Ukrainian side [roposed nothing,“ Dainego said. Previous pullbackUkraine and the rebels had pulled back troops and weapons in several areas to help pave the way for the Paris talks, and the four leaders agreed last week that the disengagement would continue in a few other sectors of the front line. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko in televised comments voiced regret that the talks failed to produce an agreement. He wouldn’t elaborate on details of the talks. The fighting in eastern Ukraine that flared up in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea has killed more than 14,000 and ravaged Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland. A 2015 peace deal in Minsk brokered by France and Germany helped reduce the scope of hostilities, but Ukrainian forces and the rebels have continued to exchange artillery salvos and gunfire. During the talks in Paris, Zelenskiy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced their adherence to the 2015 deal and agreed to revive the peace process. However, they made no progress on central issues — a timeline for holding local elections in eastern Ukraine and control of the borders in the rebel-held region. The Minsk deal envisaged that Ukraine can regain control over the border with Russia in the separatist-held regions only after they are granted broad self-rule and hold local elections. The agreement was a diplomatic coup for Russia, ensuring that the rebel regions get broad authority and resources to survive on their own without cross-border support. Zelenskiy pushed for tweaking the timeline laid out in the accord so that Ukraine gets control of its border first before local elections are held, but Putin insisted that the 2015 deal should be implemented without revisions. 
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Five Japanese fishing vessels were seized Wednesday by Russia in the country’s far east — the latest in a series of incidents over fishing rights that lay bare a larger Russo-Japanese territorial dispute dating back to the end of World War II.  The Japanese ships were fishing for octopus when they were overtaken by Russian border patrol investigating claims of illegal poaching in Russian waters, said Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga in comments on Wednesday.FILE – Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, speaks during a press conference at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo, Sept. 11, 2019.”This is unacceptable,” added Suga in a press conference in Tokyo. “The government is strongly demanding, from a humanitarian perspective, the early release of the crew and ships.”Back in Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova confirmed the incident had taken place a day earlier and insisted Japan had repeatedly — and once again —  violated maritime law concerning natural resources.”Unfortunately, what you say, happened,” said Zakharova in addressing the issue when pressed by journalists.   She also insisted the Japanese fishermen were being given all necessary food, clothing, and medical aid while in custody.  Past is prologueAt the real heart of the issue: a lingering dispute over four small islands the Soviet Union seized from Japan at the end of World War II, which have kept Moscow and Tokyo — formally, at least — at war all these years.Japan insists the four Russian-held islands, which it calls the Northern Territories, must be returned.  FILE – A Russian vessel is seen off the coast of the Southern Kuril island of Shikotan, Sept. 14, 2015. The Southern Kurils are referred to in Japan as the Northern Territories.Russia, which refers to the islands as the Southern Kurils, insists the islands are legitimate spoils of war back from the days when Japan was part the World War II Axis powers, along with Nazi Germany.  Despite decades of negotiations, increased cultural exchanges, and occasional hints at a breakthrough, the island dispute has kept any peace treaty from ever being signed.Both sides insist the islands are theirs. So, too, do their populations.  New century, new bargain?  The latest push for a compromise came from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who unexpectedly announced at a Far Eastern economic forum in 2018 that he was eager to sign a deal “without preconditions” within a matter of months.  The gesture set off a new flurry of diplomatic activity by both sides that ultimately stalled on a key Russian demand: that Japan recognize Russia’s right to the territory before Russia would gift back to Japan two of the smaller islands.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attend a news conference at the G-20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. Equally vexing are Russia’s concerns over post-war Japan’s longstanding alliance with the United States. Despite Japanese assurances, the Kremlin has called the mere possibility of an American military on the islands a non-starter for negotiations.  Then there is public opinion. A 2018 Russian poll by the respected Levada Center found 74% of Russians were against handing over any of the territory.Yet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has indicated he sees a deal on the islands as central to his political legacy as the country’s longest-serving leader.   Also of interest, say observers, are the generational ambitions at play.  Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, also had come tantalizingly close to reaching a deal with the Soviets over the island issue during his own tenure as prime minister from 1957-60.Despite the continued impasse, both Moscow and Tokyo insist discussions will continue.   Indeed, even as the news spread of Russia’s seizure of the Japanese ships, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi was in Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that begin Thursday.     Their primary topic of discussion? A peace deal long awaited, and — if history is a lesson — perhaps out of reach for a bit longer.  
 
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Bryan Russell has Down syndrome and does daily speech exercises, putting pens and corks in his mouth to help build up low muscle tone there. He is also waging a long-shot bid to become a national Peruvian lawmaker, going door to door in Lima to ask for votes.Russell, 27, wants to use his campaign to raise awareness about people with developmental disabilities and he says he represents an alternative to the scourge of corruption in Peru that has brought down presidents and weakened democratic institutions.”I’m someone clean, honest, transparent,” Russell said in an interview with The Associated Press. He spoke while sitting next to Amor, a pet dog he rescued from the street.The purpose of politicking, he said, is to “break the paradigm” that people with Down syndrome can’t be independent.FILE – Congressional candidate Bryan Russell, right, kisses his mother Gladys Mujica at his home, in Lima, Peru, Dec. 13, 2019.Russell may be the first person with Down syndrome to run for public office anywhere, according to the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.”We are thrilled that Bryan Russell is running for Congress in Peru,” said Michelle Sie Whitten, president and CEO of the foundation. “As far as we know, he is the first professional who has Down syndrome running for a publicly elected office, and he is showing the world that we need diversity in all areas of society including in our governments.”In 2013, Angela Bachiller, who has Down syndrome, became a city councilor in Valladolid, Spain. But she didn’t run for election, instead taking over the post after her predecessor resigned because of corruption allegations.Down syndrome is a genetic abnormality that causes developmental delays and medical conditions such as heart defects and respiratory and hearing problems.Russell is a candidate for Peru-Nacion, a center-right party that is not widely known and has fared poorly in past elections. However, Russell’s bold campaign ahead of the Jan. 26 parliamentary elections is getting attention. He was invited to speak at a leftist forum where he asked people to fight for people like him, regardless of political leanings.”I want people with my condition to have a voice,” said Russell, who studied communications at the Peruvian San Ignacio de Loyola University and said his parents encouraged him to find his own way.”I learned how to read and write, walk, run and eat, basically to respect myself,” the candidate has written.FILE – Congressional candidate Bryan Russell campaigns at San Martin Plaza in Lima, Peru, Dec. 13, 2019.”Well this is really impressive, because Bryan is changing the history and that is the most important thing,” said Gladys Mujica, Russell’s mother.Mujica, an English teacher, described her son as a “symbol.”‘Give him a chance’Some Peruvians are open to Russell’s campaigning, which consists on a normal day of handing out leaflets while carrying a sign with an image of his face.”He’s looking to do his best. The ‘normal’ people try to steal from the country. That’s a very big difference,” said Carlos Maza, a retired man who said he would vote for Russell.”We have to give him a chance,” said Elena Saavedra, a secretary who shook the candidate’s hand.About 3 million Peruvians have some kind of disability in a country of more than 30 million, according to official figures. There is no data for the number of Peruvians with Down syndrome, though historian Liliana Penaherrera, founder of the Peruvian Society for Down Syndrome, estimates there could be up to 25,000 people with the condition.PrejudicesPeople with Down syndrome struggle to overcome prejudices, including a perception that they are basically big children and can’t make their own decisions, said psychologist Patricia Andrade.As a result, many with Down syndrome live on the margins of society because employers prefer to hire people with other kinds of disabilities, filling a quota of 3% and 5% in workplaces of more than 50 people.Last year, Peru changed its laws to allow people described as disabled to exercise their rights without the intervention of a representative on their behalf. Previously, they needed a guardian to marry, vote, sign a work contract, acquire a credit card and do other things.Penaherrera welcomed Russell’s political candidacy, saying it draws attention to people who struggle against discrimination and the invisibility that society forces upon them.Still, she said, Russell should be held to the same standards as “any other politician” if he gets elected.
 
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A minibus carrying a family to a holiday beach getaway in Mexico crashed into a lumber truck on Wednesday and caught fire, killing 14 people, including five children, authorities said. 
 
Many of the victims were trapped inside the burning minibus, whose charred chassis could be seen impaled on the back of the truck. The accident occurred in Jalisco state, on the highway that runs from the family’s native Guanajuato state to the Pacific beach resort of Puerto Vallarta. 
 
Twelve more people were injured in the pre-dawn crash. Two were in serious condition and were airlifted to a hospital in the state capital, Guadalajara, said state emergency authorities. 
 
Officials said the truck had stopped on the side of the road when the minibus crashed into it. 
 
“It was a tourism service hired by a family” traveling to Puerto Vallarta for the holidays, said Samuel Flores of the Jalisco state civil protection service. 
 
Deadly accidents occur frequently during the Christmas season in Mexico as roads fill with vacationers and revelers. 
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French government and union representatives launched negotiations Wednesday to resolve differences over a pension reform bill that has triggered nationwide transportation strikes and widespread street protests.French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed unifying the country’s 42 pension schemes into a single plan, which critics say could force millions of employees to work beyond the official retirement age of 62.French newly appointed junior minister for pensions, Laurent Pietraszewski leaves the Elysee Palace after the weekly cabinet meeting, Dec.18, 2019 in Paris.At Macron’s request, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe began talks with union leaders, but a deal with hard-left unions does not appear to be imminent.CGT union leader Philippe Martinez said after the talks that “deep disagreement” remains between the two sides.A close aide to Macron said the president is “willing to improve” the proposed law but won’t “abandon” it.Sources close to Macron said he hopes to strike a deal with more moderate unions, resulting in the weakening of the protest movement.The general strike, which has crippled public transportation and hurt businesses, entered its 14th day on Wednesday.Protests show no signs of abating, as more than 600,000 people demonstrated Tuesday throughout the country.Unions have called for another mass protest on Thursday and balked at the possibility of a Christmas truce.
 
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The European Parliament on Wednesday blasted Poland for creating zones “free from any LGBTI ideology” and suggested closer attention should be paid as a result to EU grants destined for Warsaw.Brussels has already criticized Poland’s conservative government over plans to revamp its judicial system with court reforms which EU authorities fear will leave judges subject to political interference.The EU assembly on Wednesday voted through by 463 votes to 107 a motion calling on Warsaw to “revoke all resolutions” by dozens of municipal authorities targeting gay, lesbian and transgender people.Although the resolutions concerned are not legally binding, they call on local authorities to “abstain from any action encouraging tolerance of LGBTI persons and not to provide any financial assistance to NGOs working for equal rights,” the assembly noted.EU lawmakers also called on the European Union to “control use of all EU funds as a reminder … that such funds should not be used for discriminatory ends.”Looking further afield, the assembly said it was “deeply concerned at the growing number of attacks on lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and intersexuals in the EU by states, officials, national and local governments as well as politicians.”Lawmakers pointed to examples of homophobic language in recent electoral campaigns in Romania, Estonia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Hungary and also Poland.
 
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Prosecutors in Bolivia’s capital issued an arrest warrant against ousted President Evo Morales on Wednesday, accusing him of sedition and terrorism.Interior Minister Arturo Murillo recently brought charges against Morales, alleging he promoted violent clashes that led to 35 deaths during disturbances before and after he left office.Officials say he ordered supporters to blockade cities in order to force the ouster of interim President Jeanine Anez, who took over when Morales resigned on Nov. 10 after a wave of protests and under pressure from the police and military.Morales, who first flew to Mexico and now is based in Argentina, has repeatedly denied the charges as a setup.Morales said Tuesday that he would campaign for the presidential candidate of his party in elections expected within the next several months, though a date has not been set. The candidate from Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party is yet to be chosen, and the former president cannot run in the new elections.Bolivia’s first indigenous president has described the movement that pressured him to leave as a coup d’etat.Fraud allegationsCritics of the long-ruling leader had accused him of using fraud to win a fourth straight term in office in an Oct. 20 vote. An audit by the Organization of American States backed up the allegations, saying it found evidence of vote-rigging.Morales retains a strong following in Bolivia and has an ally in the government of Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, who took office two days before the former Bolivian leader arrived in the country.Bolivia’s interim government has expressed concern that Morales could use Buenos Aires as a campaign headquarters and might plot his return home.
 
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Immigrants convicted of illegally reentering the U.S., driving drunk or committing domestic violence will be barred from claiming asylum under a proposed regulation announced Wednesday by the Trump administration.The proposal, which must go through a public comment period before it is finalized, lists seven criminal areas, including some low-level crimes, that would bar migrants from claiming asylum in addition to federal restrictions already in place. It also would remove a requirement for immigration judges to reconsider some asylum denials.It’s another push to restrict asylum by President Donald Trump’s administration, which claims migrants are gaming the system so they can spend years in the U.S. despite their ineligibility, in part because of a lower bar for initial screenings. Most of the people who claim asylum are fleeing violence, poverty and corruption in their home countries.Immigrant advocates and humanitarian groups have criticized Trump’s hard-line policies as inhumane and have said the U.S. is abdicating its role as a safe haven for refugees.But an immigration court backlog has reached more than 1 million cases, and border agencies were overwhelmed this year by hundreds of thousands of Central American families that require more care-giving and are not easily returned over the U.S.-Mexico border.In an effort to stop the flow of migrants, the Department of Homeland Security, which manages immigration, has sent more than 50,000 migrants back over the border to wait out asylum claims. The migrants often are victimized in violent parts of Mexico and sickened by unsanitary conditions in what have become large refugee camps. Homeland Security officials also have signed agreements with Guatemala and other Central American nations to send asylum seekers there. The first families have already been sent to Guatemala.The Justice Department also has taken aim at so-called sanctuary cities, like New York and Chicago, which do not assist Homeland Security agents with immigration-related requests. New York officials, for example, say they do not believe immigrants should be deported for minor offenses and won’t notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement if they have an immigrant in their custody. Attorney General William Barr and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf complained about such policies.“I think what we are doing is playing politics with public safety,” Wolf said recently in a Fox News Channel interview on New York laws. “That is really concerning from protecting the homeland perspective, making sure that DHS law enforcement officers have the data and the tools that they need to protect their communities.”The proposed new rules would make asylum seekers ineligible if they were convicted of a felony or if they were arrested repeatedly on domestic violence charges. Other crimes include: low-level convictions for false identification or unlawful receipt of public benefits. Plus: smuggling or harboring immigrants, illegal reentry, a federal crime involving street gang activity or driving while under the influence of an intoxicant.These crimes are in addition to other bars already in place  through federal asylum laws.The changes were made so that the departments “will be able to devote more resources to the adjudication of asylum cases filed by non-criminal aliens,” according to a joint release Wednesday by the Justice Department and Homeland Security.For the budget year 2018, there were about 105,500 asylum applications by those who came to the U.S. and were not in deportation proceedings first. The figure decreased by 25% from the previous budget year.During the same period, the number of asylum applications by migrants who were already in court for deportation proceedings increased about 12%, to 159,473, mostly from Central America and Mexico.According to Homeland Security data, the total number of people granted asylum increased 46%, to 38,687, in 2018. The top countries were China, Venezuela and El Salvador.
 
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European Union nations say the fish catch quotas they agreed upon for next year means they have made more headway in securing sustainable fishing in their waters — but environmentalists are strongly disputing that claim.EU fisheries Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said Wednesday after two days of negotiations that almost 100% of EU fish landings from the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea will come from sustainable sources.After having overfished both regions for years, the EU claims that 2020 will bring in a new era for fisheries.”Next year, the EU member states fleet will fish at the level that will not hinder the regeneration of the stocks,” Sinkevicius said.Environmental groups strongly disagree with that claim. They say EU nations have again put the interests of their fishing industry ahead of the health of their waters. Some cod quotas for next year were cut but fishing for several other species can increase.”The limits agreed by ministers suggest that progress to end overfishing has stalled or even reversed, a disappointing outcome for the year. Overfishing was supposed to become a thing of the past,” said Andrew Clayton of The Pew Charitable Trusts. 
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