RIYADMEDIA

Seventeen people are missing and presumed dead after a Russian fishing boat sank in the northern Barents Sea Monday morning, authorities said in a statement carried by local media. “The crew consisted of 19 people. Two people were rescued,” the Russian Emergency Ministry said. Officials believe that ice accumulation on the trawler caused the accident. The privately owned ship Onega, based in Murmansk, capsized and sank near the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Barents Sea. Four vessels have been deployed for a search and rescue operation in the area and a criminal investigation is already underway.    The Russian-flagged fishing boat had been in operation since 1979.   
…

About 200 British holidaymakers forced to respect a 10-day quarantine in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier fled secretly in the night, the municipality said Sunday.About 200 out of an estimated 420 British holidaymakers stricken in Verbier by the quarantine measures imposed by the Swiss government on travelers coming from Britain since December 14, left right away, reported the newspaper SonntagsZeitung.The upscale resort of Verbier, very popular with British customers, hoped to welcome thousands of skiers from Great Britain, but the discovery of the new British variant of the novel coronavirus has shattered those hopes.Some British tourists staying in Verbier left immediately, but others decided to stay a little longer, the communications officer for the municipality of Bagnes, Jean-Marc Sandoz, said.Many remained in quarantine for a day before slipping away, he told the ATS news agency.”It was when they saw that the meal trays remained intact that the hoteliers noticed that the customers had left,” Sandoz said.”We can’t blame them. In most cases, quarantine was untenable. Imagine being four in a hotel room of 20 meters square,” he added.
 The tourists left “a little angry with Switzerland” and with the feeling of having been “trapped,” he added.British tourists normally represent 21% of the clientele of this Valais resort, voted the best ski resort in Switzerland for the past two years.Two cases of the new British variant of the coronavirus have been detected in Switzerland and one in neighboring Liechtenstein, the Swiss Ministry of Health said Sunday.Two cases of the South African variant have also been reported.
 
…

Turkey’s defense minister said that any attack by eastern Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar on its personnel in the North African country would be met with force.”A war criminal, murderer Haftar and his supporters must know that they will be seen as a legitimate target in case of any attack on Turkish forces” by his troops, Hulusi Akar said in an address to Turkish units in Tripoli late on Saturday and made available to media on Sunday.His comments come days after Haftar said his forces would “prepare to drive out the occupier by faith, will and weapons,” referring to Turkish troops operating in support of Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA).”If they take such a step, they will be unable to find any place to flee to,” Akar said, referring to Haftar’s forces. “Everyone should come to their senses.”Turkish support for the GNA earlier this year helped repel a 14-month offensive against the capital by Haftar, who is backed by Russia, Egypt and United Arab Emirates.The two sides struck a cease-fire agreement in October, setting the stage for elections at the end of next year.Akar on Saturday made an unscheduled visit to Tripoli where he discussed, according to Libyan officials, military cooperation between Ankara and the GNA.Turkey’s defense minister said political talks based on the cease-fire sought to find a solution.”What matters here is that everyone should contribute to a political solution. Any action other than that would be wrong,” he added.Haftar had said there would be “no peace in the presence of a colonizer on our land” during his speech on Thursday.    
…

Several European Union countries began vaccinating against COVID-19 Sunday.In Italy, a nurse, a university professor and a doctor were the first people to receive the initial vaccine dose at Rome’s Lazzaro Spallanzani hospital.In Spain, the vaccination began at Los Olmos nursing home in Guadalajara.In the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Andrej Babis was among the first people inoculated, as vaccinations began nationwide.In Germany Saturday, 101-year-old Edith Kwoizalla, who lives in a retirement home, received the first of her two shots.In Hungary, it was a doctor, Arienne Kertesz from South Pest.In Slovakia, an infectious disease specialist was the first in line.The first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were limited to 10,000 doses in most EU countries. Each nation decides its own vaccination program, but all are vaccinating the most vulnerable first.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it “a touching moment of unity” in a video celebrating the beginning of the rollout of the vaccine to nearly 450 million people.The vaccination in EU countries began as a new coronavirus variant, more contagious and more dangerous, spread internationally, adding emphasis to the World Health Organization’s warning that the current pandemic will not be the last.The warning came in a video message on Sunday by WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.The world must learn from COVID-19 and address “the intimate links between the health of humans, animals and the planet,” Tedros said in his remarks for the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness.“For too long the world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect,” he said. “We throw money at one epidemic and when it’s over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one.”Tedros said every country needs to invest in what he called the supply of care: the ability to avoid, detect and mitigate all kinds of emergencies.The new virus strain is 50% to 74% more contagious than its predecessors, according to a study from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, raising fears of more hospitalizations and deaths in 2021 than in 2020.Effective Monday, U.S. authorities said passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. 
…

Although small in the face of South America’s giants, Haiti is slowly developing its cocoa industry, earning better incomes for thousands of farmers and refuting the stereotype that culinary art is the preserve of wealthy countries.Haiti’s annual production of 5,000 metric tons of cocoa pales in comparison to the 70,000 metric tons produced per year by neighboring Dominican Republic, but the sector’s development is recent in the island nation.Feccano, a federation of cocoa cooperatives in northern Haiti, became the first group to organize exchanges in 2001 by prioritizing farmers’ profits.”Before, there was the systematic destruction of cocoa trees because the market price wasn’t interesting for farmers who preferred very short-cycle crops,” said Guito Gilot, Feccano’s commercial director.The cooperative now works with more than 4,000 farmers in northern Haiti.By fermenting its members’ beans before export, Feccano has been able to target the market for fine and aromatic cocoa.”Feccano’s customers pay for quality: they don’t have the New York Stock Exchange as a reference,” Gilot said.Just-in-time collectionSmelling potential, Haiti’s private sector began investing in the cocoa industry, which until then had been supported solely by non-governmental organizations and humanitarian efforts.By setting up its fermentation setter in 2014 in Acul-du-Nord, the company Produit des iles (PISA) entered the market. But the logistical challenges are many.”The producers we work with farm less than a hectare, often divided into several plots, whereas, in Latin America, a small producer already owns four or five hectares,” said Aline Etlicher, who developed the industry at PISA.”We buy fresh cocoa, the same day as the harvest so the farmer no longer has the problems of drying and storing that they would have if they sold it to an intermediary,” the French agronomist said.In recent months, this just-in-time bean collection from all sites has been more challenging because many roads were regularly blocked because of socio-political unrest.Maintaining organic and fair-trade certifications for the cocoa is delicate, but the Haitian style has made its mark abroad.”Today there are bars sold in the United States that are called Acul-du-Nord,” Etlicher said.”With our customers, we are part of the ‘bean to bar’ movement of chocolate makers who transform the cocoa bean into the chocolate bar,” she said, adding that by cutting out the middleman, Haitian producers’ revenues have doubled.And on the other end of the chain, bean processing remains local.’Plant your cocoa’For master chocolatier Ralph Leroy, making a rum ganache — Haitian, just like all the products he uses — was not an obvious choice.After years in Montreal, he returned home to Haiti as a haute-couture stylist.His shift to cocoa began when he made clothes out of chocolate for a culinary trade show. The training he then underwent for a year in Italy fueled his passion as much as his pride.”The first week, I think I was insulted when the professor said, ‘Chocolate is made for Europe. You there, plant your cocoa, we buy the cocoa and do the work,'” he recalled.Today, Leroy runs the chocolate company he founded in 2016, Makaya, and the edible sculptures that come out of his workshop are a huge sensation at parties. His company now has about 20 employees who share his passion.”Even in cooking schools, we don’t learn this. I learned everything here and I am very, very proud,” said Duasmine Paul, 22, head of Makaya’s laboratory.Echoes of car horns reach the ears of Makaya employees carefully sorting cocoa beans, a side effect of the chaotic traffic that paralyzes Haitian capital Port-au-Prince at the end of the year.From his workshop, where he also concocts chocolate-based cocktails, Leroy sees as sweet revenge the great marketing of his bars.”The greatest pleasure is when, before traveling, Haitians come here to buy a lot to offer abroad. It’s become their pride. And also when Europeans come and buy all the stock. … I tell myself that I am doing a good job,” he says with a burst of laughter.
…

At the entrance to Argentina’s Congress is a plaque reminding legislators that Our Lady of Lujan is the patron saint of the country’s political parties, a not-so-subtle nod to religion in a nation considering whether to allow abortions.As Argentina’s Senate prepares to vote on a bill that would legalize the practice, the Catholic Church has joined forces with evangelical Christians to fight the measure tooth and nail.The bill, which aims to legalize voluntary abortions at up to 14 weeks, was passed by the Chamber of Deputies on Dec. 11 and will be debated and voted on in the Senate on Tuesday.Two years ago, a similar bill passed the lower house but was defeated in the Senate following a determined campaign by both Catholics and evangelicals.Argentina’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and a 1994 reform removed the requirement that the president be Catholic.However, it retains a reference to God in its preamble and its second article guarantees government support for the Catholic Church.”The Catholic Church in Argentina has great sway. There’s a very strong Catholic culture in the political world,” sociologist Fortunato Mallimaci, who wrote a book on what he says is the myth of Argentine secularism, told AFP.”Religious groups look for state support and the state, when it feels weak, looks for support from religious groups. Today the Catholic Church wields more political than religious clout,” he said.Catholicism is a strong force in Argentina, the homeland of Pope Francis.The state pays a salary to archbishops and subsidizes Catholic schooling, which accounts for 36% of education in Argentina, according to Mallimaci.Francis stays silentHowever, Catholicism has been losing influence as evangelical Christianity gains ground.According to a 2019 poll by a government agency, 62% of Argentines identify as Catholic, 18.9% as non-religious and 15.3% as evangelical.The Catholic Church’s sway can be seen in Argentina’s delay compared to other countries in adopting a number of laws: divorce was legalized only in 1987, sex education introduced in 2006, gay marriage approved in 2010 and a gender identity law passed in 2012.Abortion is currently only allowed in two cases: rape and a danger to the mother’s life.”There is an opposition and huge rejection from the Catholic Church, which weighs heavily” on the chances of the law passing, constitutional lawyer Alfonso Santiago told AFP.However, Santiago believes the relationship between the government of President Alberto Fernandez, who sponsored the abortion bill, and the Catholic Church will remain strong regardless of which way the vote goes.”I don’t think there will be a break in collaboration on other issues. It didn’t happen before” when, for example, same-sex marriage was approved, he said.While Francis has in the past likened abortion to hiring an assassin, he’s remained silent over the current debate.Protest strength”The problem for the Catholic Church if abortion is legalized is that it will be up to it, and not the state, to ensure that its faithful comply with a prohibition that will be only religious,” Mallimaci said.A 2020 government poll found that 22.3% of Catholics in Argentina believe that a woman should have the right to an abortion if she wants one.Meanwhile 55.7% said it should be permitted only in certain situations while just 17.2% supported a blanket ban.Since 2018, evangelicals have come to the fore in protesting legalization.”They have the momentum of the reborn,” said Mallimaci, pointing to the light blue handkerchiefs brandished by evangelicals at their protests, as a counterweight to the green ones sported by abortion rights activists. “Catholics don’t mobilize in that way.”Despite their constant growth, evangelical churches in Argentina “don’t have the same political weight as in other countries, such as Brazil where they can count on a parliamentary bloc.”Their strength, however, lies is in street protests and they will be out in force Tuesday in front of Congress, face-to-face with abortion rights demonstrators.
…

A fast-food eatery at Pompeii has been excavated, helping to reveal dishes that were popular for the citizens of the ancient Roman city who were partial to eating out.Pompeii Archaeological Park’s longtime chief, Massimo Osanna, said Saturday that while about 80 such fast-foods spots have been found at Pompeii, it is the first time such a hot-food-drink eatery — known as a thermopolium — was completely unearthed.A segment of the fast-food counter was partially dug up in 2019 during work to shore up Pompeii’s oft-crumbling ruins. Since then, archaeologists kept digging, revealing a multisided counter, with typical wide holes inserted into its top. The countertop held deep vessels for hot foods, not unlike soup containers nestled into modern-day salad bars.Plant and animal specialists are still analyzing remains from the site, with its counter frescoed with a figure of an undersea nymph astride a horse. Images of two upside-down mallards and a rooster, whose plumage was painted with the typical vivid color known as Pompeiian red, also brightened the eatery and likely served to advertise the menu.Another fresco depicted a dog on a leash, perhaps not unlike modern reminders to leash pets. Vulgar graffiti were inscribed on the painting’s frame.A fresco depicting two ducks and a rooster on an ancient counter discovered during excavations in Pompeii, Italy, is seen in this handout picture released Dec. 26, 2020.Valeria Amoretti, a Pompeii staff anthropologist, said “initial analyses confirm how the painted images represent, at least in part, the foods and beverages effectively sold inside.” Her statement noted that duck bone fragment was found in one of the containers, along with remains from goats, pigs, fish and snails. At the bottom of a wine container were traces of ground fava beans, which in ancient times were added to wine for flavor and to lighten its color, Amoretti said.”We know what they were eating that day,” said Osanna, referring to the day of Pompeii’s destruction in 79 A.D. The food remains indicated “what’s popular with the common folk,” Osanna told Rai state TV, noting that street-food places weren’t frequented by the Roman elite.One surprise find was the complete skeleton of a dog. The discovery intrigued the excavators, since it wasn’t a “large, muscular dog like that painted on the counter but of an extremely small example” of an adult dog, whose height at shoulder level was 20 to 25 centimeters, Amoretti said. It’s rather rare, Amoretti said, to find remains from ancient times of such small dogs, discoveries that “attest to selective breeding in the Roman epoch to obtain this result.”Also unearthed were a bronze ladle, nine amphorae, which were popular food containers in Roman times, a couple of flasks and a ceramic oil container.Successful restaurateurs know that a good location can be crucial, and the operator of this ancient fast-food eatery seemed to have found a good spot. Osanna noted that right outside was a small square with a fountain, with another thermopolium in the vicinity.Pompeii was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which is near present-day Naples. Much of the ancient city still lies unexcavated. The site is one of Italy’s most popular tourist attractions.Human remains were also discovered in the excavation of the eatery.Those bones were apparently disturbed in the 17th century during clandestine excavations by thieves looking for valuables, Pompeii authorities said. Some of the bones belonged to a man, who, when the Vesuvius volcano erupted, appeared to have been lying on a bed or a cot, since nails and pieces of wood were found under his body, authorities said. Other human remains were found inside one of the counter’s vessels, possibly placed there by those excavators centuries ago.
…

The coronavirus pandemic has dominated the news this year, and it’s no different this holiday season. Despite public health warnings not to travel, many Americans boarded planes to celebrate Christmas with loved ones in other cities. Meanwhile, Europe is receiving its first shipments of a vaccine against the virus and the disease it causes, COVID-19. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti has our update.
…

Hundreds of migrants were stranded Saturday in a squalid, burned-out tent camp in Bosnia as heavy snow fell in the country and winter temperatures suddenly dropped.Migrants at the Lipa camp in northwest Bosnia wrapped themselves in blankets and sleeping bags to protect against the biting winds in the region, which borders European Union member Croatia.A fire earlier this week destroyed much of the camp near the town of Bihac. The camp had been harshly criticized by international officials and aid groups as being inadequate for housing refugees and migrants.Despite the fire, Bosnian authorities have failed to find new accommodations for the migrants at Lipa, leaving about 1,000 people stuck in the cold, with no facilities or heat, eating only meager food parcels provided by aid groups.Migrants sit in a temporary shelter at the Lipa camp northwestern Bosnia, Dec. 26, 2020. Hundreds of migrants are stranded in a burned-out, squalid camp in Bosnia as heavy snow fell in the country and temperatures dropped.”Snow has fallen, subzero temperatures, no heating, nothing,” the International Organization for Migration’s chief of mission in Bosnia, Peter Van Der Auweraert, tweeted. “This is not how anyone should live. We need political bravery and action now.”Bosnia has become a bottleneck for thousands of migrants hoping to reach Western Europe. Most are stuck in Bosnia’s northwest Krajina region as other areas in the ethnically divided nation have refused to accept them. The EU has warned Bosnia that thousands of migrants face a freezing winter without shelter, and it has urged the country’s bickering politicians to set aside their differences and take action.’Living like animals’On Saturday, migrants crowded at the camp to receive water and food provided by Bosnia’s Red Cross as police sought to maintain order. Some migrants wore face shields to protect them from coronavirus.”We are living like animals. Even animals are living better than us!” said a man from Pakistan who identified himself only by his first name, Kasim. “If they not help us, we will die, so please help us.”A migrant wraps himself in a blanket while walking through the snow at the Lipa camp northwestern Bosnia, near the border with Croatia, Dec. 26, 2020.Plans to relocate the migrants temporarily to a closed facility in central Bihac have prompted protests by residents.Left without a solution, migrants put down cardboard on the floor and set up improvised barriers for privacy inside the only standing tent at the Lipa camp. Some people held their wet feet above the small fires that migrants lit outside to warm up, while others wrapped up tightly in blankets for warmth. Many migrants were wearing sneakers despite the snow.To get to Croatia, migrants often use illegal routes over a mountainous area along the border. Many have complained of violence and pushbacks by the Croatian police.
…

Italy reported 261 coronavirus-related deaths Saturday against 459 the day before, the health ministry said.The daily tally of new infections increased by 10,407 from 19,037 the day before, taking the total number of cases since Italy’s epidemic began to 2,010,037. Heath Agency: British Coronavirus Variant Found in Traveler to SwedenHealth Agency official Sara Byfors told a news conference the traveler, who was not identified, had kept isolated after arrival to Sweden and that no further positive cases had so far been detectedItaly Thursday became the eighth country in the world to exceed 2 million officially recorded cases.
 
The number of swab tests carried out in the past day was 81,285 from a previous 152,334, the health ministry said. The first Western country hit by the virus, Italy has reported 70,909 deaths since its outbreak came to light on February 21, the highest toll in Europe and the fifth highest in the world.
 
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 stood at 23,304, down by 98 from the day before.
 
The current number of intensive care patients decreased by two to 2,582, reflecting those who died or were discharged after recovery.
 
When Italy’s second wave of the epidemic was accelerating fast in the first half of November, hospital admissions were rising by about 1,000 per day, while intensive care occupancy was increasing by about 100 per day.
…

The new variant of the coronavirus circulating in Britain has been detected in Sweden after a traveler from Britain fell ill on arrival and tested positive for it, the Swedish Health Agency said on Saturday. Health Agency official Sara Byfors told a news conference the traveler, who was not identified, had kept isolated after arrival to Sweden and that no further positive cases had so far been detected.
 
The new variant is thought to be more transmissible than others currently circulating.
 
Sweden imposed travel restrictions earlier this month on passengers from Britain amid concerns over the variant. Similar measures have been taken by several other countries in the EU and across the world.
…

George Blake, who died Saturday in Moscow aged 98, was a British Cold War spy and Soviet double agent who spent half his life in Russia after dramatically escaping jail in London.The last surviving member of a notorious generation of British defectors, Blake was seen as one of the West’s most damaging traitors and claimed to have betrayed hundreds of agents to the KGB.   The bearded spy, however, trod a very different path to becoming a Soviet agent than that taken by the establishment insiders of the infamous Cambridge spy ring: Kim Philby, Donald Maclean and Anthony Burgess, all recruited while at the British city’s prestigious university.Born George Behar in the Netherlands in 1922 to a Dutch mother and Egyptian Jewish father, who was a British subject, he led a peripatetic youth that took him through Cairo and into the Dutch World War II resistance before joining Britain’s MI6.  Ex-British Double Agent Says Russian Spies Must Save World

        A former British intelligence officer who once worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union said Russian spies now have "the difficult and critical mission" of saving the world, according to a statement released Friday.

George Blake has lived in Russia since his escape from a British prison in 1966.

Conversion to communism  Blake — a practicing Calvinist Protestant — said he willingly offered to work for the KGB after witnessing the bombing of innocent civilians by U.S. forces during the Korean war, when he spent a harrowing period as a North Korean captive.”I viewed communism as an attempt to create the kingdom of God in this world. The communists were trying to do by action what the church had tried to achieve by prayer,” Blake told one interviewer.”I came to the conclusion I was no longer fighting on the right side.”After returning to London from captivity, Blake’s first major coup for his new handlers was the exposure of a secret tunnel to spy on Soviet communications in East Berlin.At the same time as he was becoming enmeshed ever deeper in his perilous work, handing over troves of secret information to the Russians, he married a woman named Gillian, who knew nothing of his double life, and they went on to have three sons. Soon he moved to Berlin where he claimed to have betrayed all of the “maybe 500, 600” agents operating for the British in Germany. Later Blake repeatedly denied accusations that those he gave up were executed by the Soviet secret police. “I said to them I will only give you this information if you can assure me these people will not be executed,” he said.Escape to the USSR  Eventually, however, the tide turned on the traitor and the net finally closed when information from a turncoat Polish intelligence officer unmasked Blake.Summoned to London for questioning, he admitted that he was a Soviet agent and was sentenced at a closed trial in 1961 to an unprecedented 42 years in prison. But just five years into his sentence in 1966, Blake clambered up a rope ladder and over the wall of London’s high-security Wormwood Scrubs jail to freedom with the help of an Irish petty thief and two anti-nuclear campaigners whom he had met inside. Smuggled by his co-conspirators to the border with East Germany, he walked across the Iron Curtain and turned his back on the West for the last time. In Moscow, Blake was celebrated as a hero with a string of medals and the rank of colonel from the KGB, and a flat in the center of the Soviet capital. He married a Russian woman Ida after his first wife divorced him and had one son with her. Eventually he was also reconciled with his British children.Blake, however, came to realize that communism in Russia did not live up to his hopes and he watched the system — and finally the Soviet Union — disintegrate. Disappointment  “One of the main things, which to me was a disappointment, was that I believed that a new man was born here,” he told The Times newspaper. “I realized very quickly that this was not so. They were just ordinary people like everyone else and that the same human passions, and greed and ambitions, which governed the lives of most people also governed their lives.”In 1990 he published his autobiography entitled “No Other Choice”.Blake lived out the final years in a wooden dacha on the edge of Moscow — with his eyesight and hearing failing, he seemed a relic of another era.While he kept his opinion of the rampant consumerism of modern Russia to himself, on his 90th birthday he was hailed by ex-KGB agent President Vladimir Putin as one of “a constellation of strong and courageous people, brilliant professionals.”In rare interviews, Blake insisted he had no regrets, despite the failure of the system that he dedicated his life to.”I think it is never wrong to give your life to a noble ideal, and to a noble experiment, even if it doesn’t succeed,” he said. 
…

France on Saturday received its first batches of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which were delivered to the Paris hospital pharmacy network.Inoculations are planned to begin in two nursing homes Sunday, the same day the rest of Europe is set to begin vaccinations.France has reported more than 2.6 million COVID-19 infections and over 62,500 deaths. French health officials said they recorded the first case of the new COVID-19 variant that has led to new lockdowns in Britain and global travel restrictions on British residents.The first batch of Pfizer-BioΝTech vaccines also arrived in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on Saturday and is being stored at a military-run facility. The country, like the rest of Europe, will begin injections on Sunday in nine hospitals across the country.On Saturday, Russia approved its main coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, for use in people over 60 years old, Russian media quoted the health ministry as saying.According to Russian official data, the country crossed the 3 million mark of infections on Saturday, with over 29,200 new cases and 560 death in the previous 24 hours.COVID-19 infections in Japan’s capital, Tokyo, recorded a new daily high on Saturday.Japan, like France and some other countries, has also reported cases of the new coronavirus variant. Japan’s health ministry said five people who arrived between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 tested positive for coronavirus and were sent to quarantine straight from the airports. Officials said further analysis showed they had contracted the new variant of the coronavirus.British authorities have said the new coronavirus variant appears more contagious and may have led to a spike in COVID-19 cases, leading countries around the world to restrict travel from Britain.U.S. authorities announced Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new requirement is effective beginning Monday.In another development Friday, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message that COVID-19 vaccines must be available to all and called on political and business leaders to “promote cooperation, not competition” in the distribution of them.In Israel, the government announced it would impose its third nationwide lockdown beginning Sunday to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The new restrictions will last for two weeks.Health officials in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the previous 24 hours. Authorities there have ordered anyone except essential workers to stay home.South Korea, Japan and Indonesia recorded their highest daily increases in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.
…

The European Union agreement with Britain on how to handle affairs post-Brexit has been widely celebrated, yet another of the bloc’s tentative deals – that of a comprehensive investment agreement with China – is creating new headaches for European leaders.The negotiations between the EU and China are being closely watched in Washington, as elsewhere.The EU and China are in their seventh year of talks aimed at a comprehensive investment treaty. Last week, reports surfaced that the 27-nation bloc, currently led by Germany, had entered the final stage of negotiations with Beijing, with a goal of concluding the pact by the end of 2020.Those reports have caught the attention of Jake Sullivan, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for national security adviser.“The Biden-Harris administration would welcome early consultations with our European partners on our common concerns about China’s economic practices,” Sullivan said in a tweet on Dec. 21, citing a Reuters story with the headline, “China, EU aim for investment pact by year-end.”The Biden-Harris administration would welcome early consultations with our European partners on our common concerns about China’s economic practices. https://t.co/J4LVEZhEld— Jake Sullivan (@jakejsullivan) December 22, 2020Sullivan’s choice of words – such as “early consultations,” “European partners,” and “common concerns” – has been read by analysts as signaling frustration within the incoming administration that EU leaders are not showing a serious intent to work with the United States.A key message the Biden team has been its commitment to reverse President Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine and work more closely with U.S. allies to confront common challenges.“Any agreement now would be a slap in the face to the Biden team given Sullivan’s comment,” Stephen F. Szabo, a senior fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, said in an interview with VOA.“They [the EU] have been critical of the Trump approach of trade wars with both China and the EU simultaneously, arguing that the U.S. needs the EU to have a joint Western approach, something which is essential to a successful Western policy,” Szabo said.“If China splits the West, it can pursue a divide-and-conquer strategy,” he added.Kasper Zeuthen, an EU spokesperson in Washington, told VOA this week that “the EU-China investment talks are intensive. Progress has been achieved in a number of areas. There are still some important outstanding matters and talks are continuing this week. The EU remains committed to the end-of-year deadline for conclusion of the negotiations, provided we have a deal worth having. We will not put speed over substance.”On Friday, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said at a routine news briefing held in Beijing that China will “conduct negotiations with external parties in accordance with its own pace” while “striving to achieve a comprehensive, balanced, high-quality investment treaty with the EU.”Wang’s remarks reiterated a similar statement released less than 24 hours earlier by China’s Commerce Department.The latest remarks made in Beijing were picked up by news media and China-EU-U.S. watchers.A day after declaring that investment talks with the EU were going smoothly, China suggests otherwise, saying it will conduct the talks “at its own pace” https://t.co/YSlB8N2bK8— Noah Barkin (@noahbarkin) December 25, 2020In the days leading up to the talked-about conclusion of negotiations between the EU and Beijing, a group of EU scholars issued a strongly worded joint statement opposing any such deal.“Why the fast track, the hurry, and the sidestepping of a public debate, why play into China’s hand? What message is Europe, so proud of its deepening integration, so talkative about its open strategic autonomy, so insistent on its respect for values, sending to the rest of the world? Member states should think twice,” urged a large group of prominent scholars specializing in EU-China-U.S. ties.“This has been a year in which China has rescinded its international treaty over Hong Kong. It has been a year during which China clashed on the border with India, engaged in military coercion of Taiwan, and economic coercion against Australia,” the group of French, German, Italian, Czech, Polish, Belgian, Dutch, Greek and Slovakian scholars wrote.“From Beijing’s perspective, having the EU sign an investment treaty after this sequence of events and in the phase of power transition in the U.S., amounts to a strong endorsement of its political trajectory, if not an encouragement to behave more assertively.”One of the signers, Mathieu Duchâtel, an analyst at the French think tank Institut Montaigne, tweeted on Thursday, “What China would have gained strategically: the neutralization of Europe as a values-oriented international player and as a transatlantic partner.”What China would have gained strategically: the neutralization of Europe as a values-oriented international player and as a transatlantic partner. That forced labor in Xinjiang killed this Christmas phase is really a bad scenario for Beijing https://t.co/UJbzbkV748— Mathieu Duchâtel (@mtdtl) December 24, 2020  
…

French health officials say the country has recorded its first case of the new COVID-19 variant that has led to new lockdowns in Britain and global travel restrictions on British residents.The French health ministry said a Frenchman who had been living in England and returned to France tested positive for the new variant in the central French city of Tours. It said the man had no symptoms and was isolating in his home.Some other countries have also reported cases of the new variant, including Japan, which announced its first cases Friday. Japan’s health ministry said five people who arrived between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 tested positive for coronavirus and were sent to quarantine straight from the airports. Officials said further analysis showed they had contracted the new variant of the coronavirus.British authorities have said the new coronavirus variant appears more contagious and may have led to a spike in COVID-19 cases, leading countries around the world to restrict travel from Britain.France banned all passengers and cargo from Britain for two days, leading to major traffic problems around the British port of Dover. British transport minister Grant Shapps said more than 4,500 trucks crossed the Channel on Friday after more troops were deployed to speed up coronavirus testing.Russia announced Friday that travelers from Britain must quarantine for two weeks after entering the country. Russia had previously suspended direct flights from Britain.U.S. authorities announced on Thursday that passengers arriving from Britain must test negative for COVID-19 before departure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new requirement is effective beginning Monday.In another development Friday, Pope Francis said in his Christmas message that COVID-19 vaccines must be available to all and called on political and business leaders to “promote cooperation, not competition” in the distribution of them.A mother and child look at the line of trucks parked up on the M20, part of Operation Stack in Ashford, Kent, England, Dec. 25, 2020.In Israel, the government announced it would impose its third nationwide lockdown beginning Sunday to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The new restrictions will last for two weeks.Health officials in China’s northeastern port city of Dalian are testing millions of residents after seven new coronavirus cases were reported there in the past 24 hours. Authorities there have ordered anyone except essential workers to stay home.South Korea, Japan and Indonesia recorded their highest daily increases in coronavirus cases Friday as a third wave of COVID-19 hit the countries.In South Korea 70% of the more than 1,200 new cases were in the greater Seoul area, where half the country’s 52 million people live.In Japan, with 884 cases reported Friday nationwide, Tokyo had the largest number of infections.Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in deaths, with 258 fatalities and 7,259 infections, bringing the country’s total numbers to 20,847and 700,097, respectively.
…

More than 4,500 lorries, among a huge backlog of trucks stranded for days in the British port of Dover, crossed the Channel on Friday after extra troops were deployed to step up coronavirus testing, a minister said.Ferry services between Dover and the French port of Calais resumed on Thursday, ending a blockade France had imposed for several days following the discovery of a new coronavirus variant in England.British Transport Minister Grant Shapps said on Twitter on Friday that more than 10,000 coronavirus tests had been carried out on lorry drivers and only 24 of them had tested positive.Britain deployed additional troops to help clear the queues of lorries waiting for COVID-19 tests before being allowed to board cross-channel ferries. British media said 800 extra soldiers were sent to support 300 initially deployed.Soldiers checked vehicles and drivers’ documents at the entrance to the port. In one case, French officials, who were in Dover to help clear the backlog, were seen administering a nasal swab to a driver.The French and British governments agreed to end the blockade on Tuesday but the British authorities had said it would take days to clear the long lines of trucks.
…

The fast-track ratification of the post-Brexit trade deal between the U.K. and the European Union got underway on Christmas Day as ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 nations started assessing the accord that takes effect in a week.At Friday’s exceptional meeting, the ambassadors were briefed about the details of the draft treaty by the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.They are set to reconvene again on Monday and have informed lawmakers at the European Parliament that they intend to take a decision on the preliminary application of the deal within days.While voicing their sadness at the rupture with Britain, EU leaders are relieved that the tortuous aftermath of the Brexit vote had come to a conclusion in Thursday’s agreement about future trade ties.All member states are expected to back the agreement as is the European Parliament, which can only give its consent retrospectively as it can’t reconvene until 2021. British lawmakers have to give their approval, too, and are being summoned next week to vote on the accord.European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier carries a binder of the Brexit trade deal during a special meeting at the European Council building in Brussels, Dec. 25, 2020.Both sides claim the agreement protects their cherished goals.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it gives the U.K. control over its money, borders, laws and fishing grounds. The EU says it protects its single market of around 450 million people and contains safeguards to ensure the U.K. does not unfairly undercut the bloc’s standards.Johnson hailed the agreement as a “new beginning” for the U.K. in its relationship with European neighbors. Opposition leaders, even those who are minded to back it because it’s better than a no-deal scenario, said it adds unnecessary costs on businesses and fails to provide a clear framework for the crucial services sector, which accounts for 80% of the British economy.In a Christmas message, Johnson sought to sell the deal to a weary public after years of Brexit-related wrangling since the U.K. voted narrowly to leave the EU in 2016. Although the U.K. formally left the bloc on Jan. 31, it remains in a transition period tied to EU rules until the end of this year.Without a trade deal, tariffs would have been imposed on trade between the two sides starting Jan. 1. Both sides would have suffered in that scenario, with the British economy taking a bigger hit at least in the near-term, as it is more reliant on trade with the EU than vice versa.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference in Downing Street in London, Dec. 24, 2020.”I have a small present for anyone who may be looking for something to read in that sleepy post-Christmas lunch moment, and here it is, tidings, glad tidings of great joy, because this is a deal,” Johnson said in his video message, brandishing a sheaf of papers.”A deal to give certainty to business, travelers and all investors in our country from Jan. 1. A deal with our friends and partners in the EU,” he said.Though tariffs and quotas have been avoided, there will be more red tape because as the U.K. is leaving the EU’s frictionless single market and customs union. Firms will have to file forms and customs declarations for the first time in years. There will also be different rules on product labeling as well as checks on agricultural products.Despite those additional costs, many British businesses who export widely across the EU voiced relief that a deal was finally in place as it avoids the potentially cataclysmic imposition of tariffs.”While the deal is not fully comprehensive, it at least provides a foundation to build on in future,” said Laura Cohen, chief executive of the British Ceramic Confederation.One sector that appears to be disappointed is the fishing industry with both sides voicing their discontent at the new arrangements. Arguments over fishing rights were largely behind the delay in reaching an agreement.Under the terms of the deal, the EU will give up a quarter of the quota it catches in U.K. waters, far less than the 80% Britain initially demanded. The system will be phased in over 5 1/2 years, after which quotas will be reassessed.”In the end, it was clear that Boris Johnson wanted an overall trade deal and was willing to sacrifice fishing,” said Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations.The French government, which had fought hard for fishing access, announced aid for its fishing industry to help deal with the smaller quota, but insisted that the deal protects French interests.The president of the French ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, Jean-Marc Puissesseau, said no matter what is in the Brexit trade deal, life for his port will become more difficult because “there will no longer be free movement of merchandise.”Some 10,000 jobs in the Boulogne area are tied to fishing and its seafood-processing industry, he said, and about 70% of the seafood they use comes from British waters.”Without fish, there is no business,” he told The Associated Press.
…

A Russian court has sentenced a flamboyant Russian professor who killed and dismembered his student lover to 12 1/2 years in prison after convicting him of her murder.Oleg Sokolov, 64, who was once awarded France’s Order of Legion d’Honneur for his research into military leader Napoleon Bonaparte, was detained in St. Petersburg in November 2019 after being pulled out of the Moika River with a backpack containing the severed body parts of a woman.
Investigators later found the woman’s head in his apartment.
Sokolov later admitted to killing and dismembering his lover, 24-year-old postgraduate student Anastasia Yeshchenko.
State prosecutors had requested a 15-year sentence for Sokolov.
Sokolov, who regularly dressed in Napoleon-era costumes and took part in battle reenactments, said during the hearing that he fully accepted guilt on all charges, but added that he was not sure if the murder was premeditated as, according to him, he killed his lover in state of “temporary insanity.”
The high-profile case was adjourned or postponed several times in recent months for various reasons, including restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
…

Russian law enforcement agencies have opened a criminal case against Lyubov Sobol, a lawyer for the outspoken Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and took her in for questioning, the head of the foundation said on December 25.FBK Director Ivan Zhdanov said on Twitter that investigators launched a probe into Sobol for trespassing “with the use of violence or a threat to use it” after she rang the doorbell of an agent who has implicated the Federal Security Service (FSB) in the poisoning of the 44-year-old Kremlin critic.Sobol’s lawyer Vladimir Voronin told the AFP news agency that the opposition lawyer was currently a witness in the probe but added that he expected Sobol to be charged later on December 25.
 
There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities.
 
Earlier on December 25, police raided Sobol’s apartment and took away her computers and phones, Navalny’s supporters said.
 
“Lyubov Sobol was taken for questioning to the Investigative Committee. The apartment is being searched,” the foundation said via Twitter on December 25. Любовь Соболь увезли на допрос в Следственный комитет. В квартире проходит обыск.— Навальный LIVE (@navalnylive) December 25, 2020Sobol posted a video on Twitter from inside her apartment before going incommunicado. In the video, her seven-year-old daughter can be heard crying as someone pounds on the front door, demanding it be opened.
 
“They knock on the door and say the police are here. Apparently, the search will be at my home. I’ve never had a personal search before. Well, everything happens for the first time. Apparently, because I recently went to Navalny’s poisoner, ” Sobol says in the video.Separate CCTV image released by Navalny’s allies shows masked men in black uniforms inside Sobol’s Moscow residential building.Sobol was among journalists and political activists who tried to meet with Konstantin Kudryavtsev late in the evening on December 21, the day Navalny published an audio-recording of what appears to be a conversation with Kudryavtsev over the FSB’s role in the poisoning.
 
She was briefly detained at a police station.Sobol’s lawyer said the probe had been launched following a complaint from Kudryavtsev’s mother-in-law.
 Russian Opposition Leader Navalny Trailed for Years Before Poisoning, Report Says An elite Russian intelligence chemical weapons unit tracked opposition figure Alexei Navalny for the past three years, according to investigative website BellingcatNavalny said the Russian authorities’ “hysterical reaction” only proved their guilt.
 
“You call a killer’s doorbell — they break down your door and take you in for questioning,” Navalny wrote on his blog on December 25.
 
Laboratory tests in three separate European countries, confirmed by the global chemical weapons watchdog, established that Navalny was poisoned with a Soviet-style Novichok nerve agent.
 
Russia has rejected calls for an investigation into the poisoning and denies the involvement of state agents in the case, saying it has yet to be shown any evidence.Navalny is currently in Germany where he is recovering from the poisoning. He has said he plans to return home an undisclosed date.
 
The European Union and Britain have imposed asset freezes and travel bans against six senior Russian officials believed to be responsible for the Navalny poisoning, as well as one entity involved in the program that has produced a group of military-grade nerve agents known as Novichok.
 With reporting by Current Time, Reuters and AFP. 
…

Pope Francis has called on the world’s nations to share COVID-19 vaccines, saying that walls of nationalism must not be built in the face of a pandemic that knows no borders. He urged international cooperation so everyone can receive needed health care and vaccines.In his Christmas message to the world, delivered indoors rather than, as customary, the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis said that in these times of darkness and uncertainty due to the pandemic, there are some lights of hope, like the discovery of vaccines against COVID-19. But in order for these lights to shine and bring hope to the entire world, the pope added, they must be made available to all.US Vaccine Rollout’s Next Challenge: Verifying Who is ‘Essential’ Officials want to ensure no one cuts the linePope Francis urged the world’s nations to ensure that vaccines are provided for everyone, especially for the most vulnerable, in all the regions on our planet.“We cannot allow closed nationalisms to prevent us from living like the true human family that we are, the pope said, adding that “we cannot allow the virus of radical individualism to win and make us indifferent to the suffering of others.”The pope focused much of his message Friday on the coronavirus pandemic before turning to the world’s hot spots and nations of concern. He urged the world to work together, irrespective of differences.Pope Urges Help for Poor at Low-key Christmas Eve Mass Curbed by PandemicHe notes that Jesus himself was born a poor outcastThe pope said, “At this moment in history, marked by the ecological crisis and grave economic and social imbalances only worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, it is all the more important for us to acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters.”Pope Francis spoke of the need to be generous, supportive and helpful, especially towards those who are vulnerable, the sick, those unemployed or experiencing hardship due to the economic effects of the pandemic, and women who have suffered domestic violence during these months of lockdown.“In the face of a challenge that knows no borders,” the pope said, “we cannot erect walls. All of us are in the same boat.”In his message, Pope Francis also turned his thoughts to the many children who all over the world, particularly in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, still pay the high price of war.
…

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his supporters said that police raided the apartment of an associate Friday morning and detained her for questioning.”Today, police came to Lyubov Sobol’s apartment at 7 am,” Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund chairman Ivan Zhdanov said in a tweet.Zhdanov and Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmyash, said that the phone of Sobol was turned off and they did not know anything of her whereabouts.Sobol has announced her plans to run in parliamentary elections next year.Navalny said on Twitter that the police raid was a response to a telephone call he made Monday to a poisoning expert with the FSB. On the call he said he impersonated an official with the Kremlin’s Security Council and got the expert to admit that Navalny was poisoned back in August.According to Navalny, Sobol, a lawyer by training, attempted to speak to the FSB agent, who he named as Konstantin Kudryavtsev.The FSB has denied Navalny’s allegations of poisoning.However, Western governments have said Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-designed nerve agent.
…

Britain and the European Union finally agreed to a free trade deal Thursday, just days before the Brexit transition period comes to an end. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the deal is yet to be ratified – and there could be more surprises ahead.
Camera: Henry Ridgwell 
…

Pope Francis celebrated a low-key Christmas Eve Mass made somber by the coronavirus pandemic and said people should feel obliged to help the needy because Jesus himself was born a poor outcast.The Mass was celebrated Thursday in a rear section of St. Peter’s Basilica with fewer than 100 participants and only small number of cardinals and bishops. It is usually held in the main section of the basilica and attended by up to 10,000 people, including the diplomatic corps representing nearly 200 countries.Everyone except the pope and the small choir wore a mask during the Mass, which began two hours earlier than usual so that even the limited number of people who attended could return home by a 10 p.m. curfew.”The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God,” Francis said in his homily.Francis said Christmas should make everyone reflect on “our injustice towards so many of our brothers and sisters” instead of pursuing “our endless desire for possessions” and ephemeral pleasures.”God came among us in poverty and need, to tell us that in serving the poor, we will show our love for him,” said the 84-year-old pope, celebrating the eighth Christmas of his pontificate.In his Christmas messages, Francis promised to visit Lebanon and South Sudan as soon as he could.The pope traditionally mentions countries in his Christmas Day message, but he singled out those two nations with Christmas Eve messages because of difficulties each has faced this year.”I am deeply troubled to see the suffering and anguish that has sapped the native resilience and resourcefulness of the Land of the Cedars,” Francis said, referring to Lebanon, which has been struggling with a deep economic crisis and the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion on Aug. 4 that killed about 200 people.In a separate message written jointly with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who is the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, and Church of Scotland moderator Martin Fair, the three church leaders committed to making a previously delayed trip to majority Christian South Sudan “as things return to normalcy.”He is scheduled to visit Iraq March 5-8.On Friday, the pope will read his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message from a hall inside the Vatican instead of from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Square, an event that usually attracts tens of thousands of people.Italians are under a nationwide lockdown for much of the Christmas and New Year holidays. Non-essential shops will be shut between Dec. 24-27, Dec. 31-Jan. 3 and Jan. 5-6. On these days, people are allowed to travel only for work, health or emergency reasons.The restrictions mean people will not be able to go to St. Peter’s Square or the basilica. All papal events between Dec. 24 and Jan. 6 are taking place indoors with little or no public participation and being livestreamed on the internet and broadcast on television.
…

For the first time since a fire that nearly destroyed it, the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris played host to a Christmas Eve choral concert, an annual tradition in France.In a concession to the fact that the Gothic cathedral is still being rebuilt, the choristers wore construction hard hats and boiler suits, and there was no audience.The concert was recorded at the cathedral earlier this month and was broadcast on French television just before midnight Thursday.The choristers performed classical pieces by composers Mozart and Schubert, but also a more light-hearted repertoire, including Jingle Bells.”It was very moving,” said cellist Gautier Capucon, describing the experience of recording the concert. Along with an organist, he provided the musical accompaniment for the choir.”It was the first time we had all been back at Notre Dame cathedral since the fire, so it was a moment full of emotion,” he said in an interview with television station franceinfo.The cathedral, a landmark of Gothic architecture dating to the 13th century and a major tourist attraction, caught fire on April 15, 2019. The blaze destroyed the spire and roof.French President Emmanuel Macron undertook to restore the cathedral within five years.But to date, most work on the site has focused on making the building safe, including clearing up toxic lead from the roof and spire that melted in the fire.In the meantime, Notre-Dame is closed to the public and masses are canceled.In April this year, seven people were allowed to attend a religious ceremony in the cathedral to mark Good Friday, when Christians commemorate the death of Jesus Christ.
…