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Greece has sent two letters to the United Nations explaining its objections to a maritime boundary deal between Turkey and Libya and asking for the matter to be taken up by the U.N. Security Council, the government spokesman said Tuesday.The country’s foreign minister also convened a meeting in Athens to brief political party leaders on developments. The deal, endorsed by Turkey’s parliament last week, has fueled regional tension, particularly over drilling rights for gas and oil exploration.The agreement would give Turkey and Libya access to an economic zone across the Mediterranean despite the objections of Greece, Egypt and Cyprus, which lie between the two geographically. All three countries have blasted the deal as being contrary to international law, and Greece expelled the Libyan ambassador last week over the issue.Government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Greece sent one letter to the U.N. Secretary General and one to the head of the U.N. Security Council Monday night detailing Greece’s position. He said the letters noted the agreement “was done in bad faith and violates the law of the sea, as the sea zones of Turkey and Libya are not neighboring, nor is there a joint maritime border between the two countries.”The letters also note the deal “does not take into account the Greek islands” and their right to a continental shelf and exclusive economic zone. The agreement has also not been ratified by Libya’s parliament, Petsas said, rendering it “void and unable to affect Greek sovereign rights.”Neighbors Greece and Turkey, although NATO allies, have tense relations and are divided by a series of decades-old disputes, including territorial issues in the Aegean Sea, and have come to the brink of war three times since the 1970s, including once over drilling rights in the Aegean. 
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American billionaire and Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg says that the next U.S. president should halt fossil fuel subsidies altogether.Bloomberg, who launched his campaign less than three weeks ago, is attending a United Nations global climate conference in Madrid that is kicking into high gear.Ministers from nearly 200 countries are arriving on Tuesday to tackle some of the tough issues that negotiations couldn’t resolve over the past week, including finalizing the rules for international carbon markets that economists say could help drive down emissions and help poor countries to cope with the effects of rising temperatures.     Opening an event on sustainable finances organized by the summit host, Spain, Bloomberg said that “the next president of the United States should end all subsidies for fossil fuel companies and fossil fuel extraction, and that includes tax breaks and other special treatment.”
“He or she should reinvest that funding into clean energy, which will also create a lot of new jobs,” he added.
The 77-year-old businessman and former New York mayor is expected to share the results of his private push to organize thousands of U.S. cities and businesses to abide by the terms of a global climate treaty that the Trump administration is working to abandon.
 “Americans are willing to continue to work even with a climate change denier in the White House,” Bloomberg told a room packed of journalists and officials.
 “The White House matters, but sometimes not too much,” he added.
The Democrat has vowed to rejoin the Paris climate agreement if he’s elected as president. He recently stepped down as the U.N.’s special envoy for climate action.
Unlike at many past climate summits, few heads of government are joining the talks in Madrid. The U.S. has sent a career diplomat, Ambassador Marcia Bernicat, as head of its delegation.
John Kerry, the former Secretary of State under the last Democrat administration, is also attending events on the sidelines of the Madrid conference, and said the absence of any representative from the White House at the talks “speaks for itself.”
 “It’s an absence of leadership,” Kerry told The Associated Press. “It’s a tragedy.”
Most other countries are sending environment ministers or other senior officials instead of prime ministers or presidents, worrying some observers.
“It shows that there has not yet been an internalization of the emergency situation that we are in, that so few heads of state are coming to Madrid and ready to roll up their sleeves and do what it takes to actually respond to the science,” said Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International.
She also accused some governments, such as Brazil and Saudi Arabia, of trying to weaken the agreements, and called on the European Union to work with vulnerable nations to counter those efforts.
Environmental campaigners are hoping the EU will present an ambitious plan this week for cutting emissions in the medium- and long-term that would send a message of hope to weary negotiators in Madrid.
The new head of the bloc’s executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has backed a call for the EU to stop all net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
Scientists say emissions worldwide need to start falling sharply from next year onward if there is to be any hope of achieving the Paris climate accord’s goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).
Negotiators in Madrid had worked until 3 a.m. to prepare the ground for ministers, said said Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch minister for foreign trade and development cooperation.
“Let’s hope to see that we can … really sort of give shape and meaning to the call ‘Time for action,'” said Kaag, referring to the motto of the U.N. talks. “It’s now or never.”   
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Police in the Czech Republic said Tuesday an attacker shot dead six people and wounded two others at a hospital in the eastern part of the country.The shootings happened around 7 a.m. local time in a waiting room at the hospital in the city of Ostrava.Police announced hours later the suspect in the attack, identified as a 42-year-old man, was dead after shooting himself in the head inside a car before officers reached him.There was no immediate word on a possible motive.
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Russian and Ukrainian presidents are meeting in Paris in an effort to end five-and-a-half years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed rebels. The first face-to-face meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy is mediated by France and Germany and was preceded by a prisoner swap and the withdrawal of Ukraine’s military from key areas on the front line. But, as VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, many Ukrainians back home are protesting what they see as Zelenskiy’s weakness.
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Chile’s military has launched a search and rescue mission for an air force plane carrying 38 people that disappeared Monday during a flight to a base in Antarctica.The C-130 Hercules aircraft took off from the southern city of Punta Arenas, located more than 3,000 kilometers south of the capital Santiago. The 17 crewmen and 21 passengers were heading to the Antarctic outpost to check on a floating fuel supply line and other equipment.  The air force says it lost contact with the plane nearly an hour-and-a-half later.
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A conservation group trying to protect the world’s most endangered marine mammal said Monday that hundreds of fishermen massed in dozens of boats to fish illegally in Mexico’s Gulf of California.Activists with the Sea Shepherd group said they witnessed about 80 small fishing boats pulling nets full of endangered totoaba fish from the water near the port of San Felipe on Sunday.Those same nets catch vaquita porpoises. Perhaps as few as 10 of the small, elusive porpoises remain in the Gulf of California, which is the only place they live.While totoaba are more numerous, they are also protected. But their swim bladders are considered a delicacy in China and command high prices.The Mexican government prohibits net fishing in the gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortez, but budget cuts have meant authorities have stopped compensation payments for fishermen for not fishing.Sea Shepherd operates in the area to remove the gillnets that trap vaquitas, but the group said the mass fishing seen Sunday was a new tactic, in which a number of boats would surround and enclose totoabas to ensure they couldn’t escape the nets.The mass turnout overwhelmed the relatively few Mexican navy personnel present, the group said. In the past, fishermen have attacked Sea Shepherd boats as well as naval vessels.
 
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France and a group of Brazilian states plan to announce a partnership to preserve the Amazon rainforest, the group’s leader said on Monday, bypassing Brazil’s federal government after a spat between the presidents of the two countries.Amapa state Governor Waldez Goes, who heads the consortium of the nine states that comprise Brazil’s vast Amazon region, told Reuters that the partnership would be announced at the U.N. climate summit in Madrid this week and would include other initiatives aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions.Fires in Brazil’s section of the rainforest, which accounts for 60% of the overall Amazon and is seen as a bulwark against climate change, surged in August to their highest point since 2010. The widespread blazes provoked an international outcry that Brazil was not doing enough to protect its forest.French President Emmanuel Macron called for urgent actions to be taken on the fires, rapidly becoming embroiled in a war of words with Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro.FILE – French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference after the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assem.bly at the French mission to the UN in New York, Sept. 24, 2019Macron accused Bolsonaro of lying to world leaders about Brazil’s commitment to preserving the environment. Bolsonaro at one point insulted Macron’s wife and said he would only accept $20 million in aid offered by the G7 group of wealthy nations if Macron withdrew his “insults.”Macron said he thought Brazilian women must be ashamed of Bolsonaro, and suggested he was not up to the job of president.Goes said the nine Brazilian states would announce a mechanism on Tuesday to allow foreign countries to contribute directly to state-level projects to preserve the Amazon.He said that they had approached several European countries about funding such efforts.The non-binding partnership with France could lay the groundwork for the country to provide eventual financial support to the states’ environmental projects, he said. It was not clear whether talks will advance far enough at the summit for France to announce an amount that it would contribute, Goes added.A spokesman for the French delegation at the conference declined to immediately comment.FILE – Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro looks on during the ceremony of the 300 days of government at the Planalto Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Nov. 5, 2019.Environmentalists blame Bolsonaro for Amazon deforestation hitting an 11-year high as he has prioritised economic development of the rainforest over conservation.”The Brazilian President has in his official agenda the exploitation of the Amazon,” said Nara Bare, a Brazilian indigenous representative at a protest outside the two-week climate summit in Madrid, which is due to conclude on Friday.Bolsonaro has said the media has sensationalized the Amazon fires and demonized him. 
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Hungary’s government submitted plans to parliament on Monday to tighten its control over theaters, triggering protests from actors and audiences who feel that artistic freedom is under threat.On a cold wet day, about 1,000 to 2,000 people demonstrated against the legislation in downtown Budapest, with banners saying “Pigs, hands off the theater!”Leading actors, theater directors and Budapest’s liberal mayor spoke at the protest against the bill which they say could undermine the independence of theaters.”I am a democrat, and this is a step towards stealing yet another field that belongs to the public: this time the theaters,” said Gabor Timar, 67, a retired bus driver.The ruling party of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants to pass the bill in an accelerated process this week.A public petition urging lawmakers to reject the bill had gathered almost 50,000 signatures by Monday evening. Actors read out the petition at several theaters over the weekend.In a Facebook video, some of Hungary’s leading actors and theater directors said the plans recalled the communist era, when the state controlled most aspects of national life.Actors and the audience hold up their hands at Budapest’s Trafo threater in protest against a plan by Hungary’s government to tighten its control over theaters in Budapest, Hungary, Dec. 8, 2019.According to the draft law published on parliament’s website, which the government has softened compared with an original version leaked on Friday, a new National Cultural Council will be responsible for the “unified strategic direction of various segments of culture.”Hungary’s minister for human resources, who oversees culture, would have a say in appointing theater directors at institutions jointly financed by the state and municipalities.The minister and the relevant municipality would have to sign a deal defining the joint operation of a theater, including how to appoint its director, but this agreement “has to guarantee the artistic freedom of the theater,” the bill says.FILE – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban talks to the media in Budapest, Hungary, Oct. 13, 2019.Since Orban won power in 2010, his right-wing Fidesz party has rewritten Hungary’s constitution, gained control of state media, and businessmen close to the prime minister and the party have built empires.After winning a 2018 election, his third in a row, Orban said he had won a “mandate to build a new era.”A government spokesman told Reuters on Friday that a recent sexual harassment case at a Budapest theater made the changes necessary as the government currently has no power to sack the director of the theater involved. 
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Russian and Ukrainian leaders agreed to implement a ceasefire and a prisoners’ swap by years end, following four-way talks in Paris on Monday that also included France and Germany. The four heads of state said they had made progress and that just talking was a key step forward. They are to meet again in four months.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was confident of the ceasefire would take place this month. He outlined both steps forward and progress still to be made during a late night press conference, echoing similar remarks made by other leaders there.”It’s not a frozen situation,” Zelensky said. “And to answer your question, yes I do feel we will meet again in another four months, and be in a position to go forward and address other questions on the basis of our achievements.”This is the first meeting between Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin since the Ukrainian actor took office earlier this year. It’s the first such four-way summit since 2016 that also includes France and Germany.Putin said describing a possible thaw between Russia and Ukraine was correct.”We’ve have had progress on most issues,” Putin said. “All of this does suggest that things are going the right way.”The talks aim to pave a solution to the ongoing conflict between the two countries that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014. Both sides have since accused the other of failing to honor a 2015 peace agreement.President Zelensky, a political newcomer, has made ending the conflict a priority.But many Ukrainians are worried he may concede too much. Ahead of the Paris meeting, thousands demonstrated in the capital Kyiv against any so-called “capitulation” to Moscow.The talks are also seen as a diplomatic test for host Emmanuel Macron. The French President wants to re-engage with Russia after several years of European Union sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. But that has gotten pushback from EU members like Poland. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump will join Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday for talks with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the White House announced.The three will “discuss the state of the bilateral relationship,” a senior Trump administration official said Monday.
 
The meeting, which was originally announced to involve only Pompeo and Lavrov, was widely speculated to be attended by Trump, as well.
 
White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said such a visit by Trump would reciprocate a courtesy extended by President Vladimir Putin to Pompeo during his last visit to Moscow.”When Pompeo has gone to Russia, Putin’s seen him. And one of the things that we’ve said with the Chinese and the Russians is, we want reciprocity,” O’Brien said on the “Face the Nation” television program.FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, pose for a photo before their talks in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, southern Russia, May 14, 2019.The trio is expected to meet for a half-day of talks that include a working lunch and a news conference. U.S. officials say the three will discuss arms control, as well as the situations in Ukraine and Syria, among other issues.Strained ties
 
The meeting comes as bilateral ties between the United States and Russia are strained over allegations of election meddling, as well as the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.
 
The talks appear to have been initiated after Putin said last week that Moscow was eager to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty by the end of this year “without any preconditions.”At the recent NATO summit in London, Trump said that he was aware of Moscow’s desire to “do a deal” on arms control, and said that China could also be brought into the process.
 
Pompeo and Lavrov met several times this year, including in Russia and in New York at the United Nations. Lavrov has not been in Washington since he met Trump at the White House in May 2017, a meeting that led to accusations that Trump divulged classified information during the talks.Impeachment inquiryThe talks come at a time when Washington is embroiled over the ongoing impeachment inquiry against Trump, which has focused on allegations that he withheld aid to Ukraine in order to pressure Kyiv into launching an investigation into Trump’s potential Democratic rival in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections.Russia has also been drawn into the conversation, with some Democrats arguing that the scope of the impeachment trial should include allegations of obstruction of justice by Trump for his dealings with special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
 
Mueller’s report concluded that Russia did interfere to try to tilt the vote in favor of Trump. Moscow has denied any interference.While Mueller’s report concluded that Trump did not collude with Russia, it also did not fully exonerate the president on possible crimes of obstruction of justice.
 
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Britain’s political leaders are making a final push for votes ahead of Thursday’s general election, which has been dominated by the issue of Britain’s exit from the European Union.A new report from analyst group The UK in a Changing Europe at Kings College London concludes that both the ruling Conservative party and opposition Labour party manifestos are vague or misleading on Brexit — and warns the agonizing over Britain’s future relationship with the EU is only likely to get worse.The Conservatives plan to leave the European Union on Jan. 31, 2020, under the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated with Brussels, if they win a majority on Dec. 12. Party leader Boris Johnson toured a fish market in the port of Grimsby on Monday, pledging to boost the industry after Brexit.“I think it’s an opportunity here to look at one of the ways in which this country will take back control of a massive industry once we get Brexit done in January,” Johnson said.Far from “massive,” commercial fishing makes up just 0.1 percent of the British economy — but control of fishing rights holds symbolic value for many pro-Brexit voters, who want to prevent European boats from accessing British waters.However, three-quarters of British-caught fish is exported, most of it to the European Union — and any trade barriers could hurt the industry.
Britain Set for Key Election, But Brexit Agony Will Likely Continue video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkThe Conservatives election mantra is “Get Brexit done.” But Britain has yet to negotiate its future relationship with the EU and that will likely take years. Such Brexit trade-offs have been largely ignored, says Jill Rutter of The UK in a Changing Europe program.“One of the things the Conservatives have said is ‘we can get a good trade deal done with the EU by December 2020. We’re not going to ask for another extension,’” said Rutter. “That looks pretty unrealistic to most people. And it’s very unclear exactly where the Conservatives are heading on that relationship.”The opposition Labour party has tried to focus on other issues, like the health service, and has sometimes struggled to communicate its stance on Brexit, something that could cost them at the ballot box. The party promises to renegotiate a better Brexit deal then hold another referendum.“So they talk about not full alignment with the Single Market rules, but close alignment,” noted Rutter. “I think the EU might want to ask what that’s about, because remember they really didn’t like it when (former Prime Minister) Theresa May said ‘I want to pick and mix which rules I go with.’”For their part, the Liberal Democrats say they would cancel Brexit altogether.  They could be kingmakers if no one party wins a majority Thursday.
 
Polls suggest Boris Johnson’s Conservatives will gain a majority. But there could be a surprise. Some 3.85 million people have newly registered to vote in the last few weeks, with roughly two-thirds of those aged under 35 — a demographic that tends not to vote Conservative.Jason Palmer, a Student Union officer at Bristol University in the west of England, says many young people are engaging in the election debate.“I think a lot of this comes from the discontent that’s previously been experienced in terms of young people feeling as though their voices don’t matter in politics,” Palmers said. “Or that they didn’t have a say, for example, in the 2016 Brexit referendum.”The prime minister’s own constituency of Uxbridge could be the biggest surprise. The area voted to remain in the European Union in 2016 — and the Labour candidate for the seat, Ali Milani, believes he can win there.“We only need a 5 percent swing to take this seat, to unseat a prime minister which would be the first time in British democracy’s history that that’s ever happened,” Milani said.Another factor could be another great British obsession: the weather. A cold snap is forecast, which could persuade some voters to stay home.Will Britain vote for a change of direction? Or will the election push Britain deeper into political quagmire? The result is due in the early hours of Friday. 
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For seven nerve-wracking months, they slept through the day in cramped quarters on cold floors, while spending their nights in prayer, keeping fit with dumbbells made from water jugs and peering through the diplomatic compound’s curtains for fear of surveillance.But on Monday, 16 national guardsmen who shocked Venezuela and the world alike by revolting against President Nicolas Maduro were safely out of the country, having successfully fled the Panamanian embassy in Caracas that had been their makeshift home since April.The Associated Press spoke exclusively to the group’s leaders, who provided the first detailed account of what led them to plot with Maduro’s opponents in an uprising that laid bare fraying support for the socialist leader within the armed forces.Due to security concerns, lieutenant colonels Illich Sanchez and Rafael Soto wouldn’t reveal exactly when or how they left Venezuela. They only said they journeyed in small groups as part of a clandestine “military operation” that counted with the support of dozens of low-ranking troops and their commanders.“We left Venezuela but our fight to restore Venezuela’s democracy will continue,” said Sanchez in a phone interview from an undisclosed location.In this Nov. 8, 2019 photo, Venezuelan guardsmen play a game of dominoes inside Panama’s Embassy, in Caracas, Venezuela.The previously untold story of how Sanchez and Soto managed to dupe their superiors and plot a revolt against Maduro underscore how discontent — and fear — is running high inside Venezuela’s barracks even as the embattled leader clings to power amid punishing U.S. sanctions imposed after presidential election widely seen as fraudulent.                  The two standout officers seemed ideally suited for the high-risk mission, having risen through the ranks to a trusted position with direct control of troops and regular contact with Maduro’s top aides.Sanchez, 41, commanded a garrison of some 500 guardsmen responsible for protecting downtown government buildings including the presidential palace and supreme court. Soto, 43, for a time was assigned to the feared SEBIN intelligence policy, leading a team of some 150 agents charged with spying on government opponents.In their telling, the two longtime friends grew disillusioned watching the devastation of Venezuela’s economy and started secretly plotting to remove Maduro. Eventually they teamed up with Maduro’s opponents led by National Assembly President Juan Guaido, who is recognized as Venezuela’s rightful leader by the U.S. and some 60 countries.On April 30, they stunned Venezuelans by appearing before dawn with tanks and heavily armed troops on a bridge in eastern Caracas alongside Guaido and activist Leopoldo Lopez, who they helped spring from what they considered an illegal house arrest.“When I gathered my troops at 2 a.m. and told them we were going to liberate Venezuela they broke down in tears,” said Sanchez, who as part of his official duties providing security to congress had to speak with opposition lawmakers on a regular basis. “Nobody saw it coming, but they were all immediately committed.”Adds Soto: “Everything was perfectly lined up for a peaceful transition.”But they say they were defrauded by Maduro aides, including Supreme Court President Maikel Moreno and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, who they claim never fulfilled a promise made to the opposition to abandon their support of Maduro. Both Moreno and Padrino have repeatedly reasserted their loyalty to Maduro.In this Nov. 8, 2019 photo, Venezuelan soldiers, who took part in a failed April rebellion against Nicolas Maduro, stand in a prayer circle inside Panama’s Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela.In the confusing aftermath of the failed rebellion, they scurried for protection on the back of motorcycles, stripping off their olive green fatigues and knocking, unsuccessfully at first, on several embassy doors.Amid the chaos, Lopez phoned then Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela, who immediately embraced their cause and arranged their safe entry into the embassy.He recalled how two months before the U.S. invasion of Panama, in 1989, then-dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega crushed a similar revolt and then ordered the execution of more than 10 ringleaders.“We couldn’t leave them alone,” Varela said in an interview. “The Sebin was 10 feet from the door. They were going to kill them all.”The embassy, in an upscale high-rise occupied by state-run companies and well-connected government contractors, would become their makeshift home for the next seven months. Both men said the “humanitarian support” provided by the embassy’s staff and the Panamanian people ensured their safety.While confined, the 16 guardsmen worked hard to maintain their military discipline. To keep out of their host’s way, they adopted an inverted sleep schedule, dozing during the day on thin mattresses strewn across the floor of a small room. Then at night, after the diplomats went home, they’d come alive to cook together on a small stove top, keep fit with dumbbells improvised from 20-liter water bottles and read religious texts in a prayer circle.
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News reports say House Democrats and the White House are close to agreeing on changes to a trade deal that the United States, Canada and Mexico signed last year but have not ratified.The United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement, known as the USMCA, would replace the existing North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which President Donald Trump has derided as the “worst trade deal” ever signed by the U.S. He made renegotiating NAFTA a campaign promise during the 2016 presidential race.NAFTA took effect in the 1990s during U.S. President Bill Clinton’s administration.FILE – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during his daily morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, Nov. 21, 2019.The Mexican Senate accepted changes to the USMCA after intense negotiations with the United States. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to move forward on the deal.”It’s time, it’s the moment,” Lopez Obrador said at a press conference.Reports say Pelosi is studying the terms of the agreement. The changes to the deal are aimed at winning the support of House Democrats. Those close to the discussions say a ratification vote could take place in the House of Representatives on Dec. 18.FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., meets with reporters during her weekly news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 5, 2019.Both the House and the Senate must sign off on the deal.Some congressional Republicans have criticized Pelosi, saying she is holding up the deal, which they say is having an impact on Trump’s negotiations with China.”We would get a better agreement with China if we had USMCA done,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in his weekly press conference last Thursday. China and the U.S. have placed billions of dollars worth of tariffs on each other’s goods in the trade war.NAFTA’s critics say it encouraged factories and jobs to relocate to Mexico. NAFTA eliminated most tariffs among the three nations, making it one of the largest free trade agreements in the world.Ratification neededThe revised agreement must be ratified by legislators in the three countries for it to go into force. House Democrats called on Mexico to adhere to higher labor standards.Mexican senators have approved the USMCA. If it cannot be ratified by all three countries, they will remain in NAFTA unless they break away from it.Lopez Obrador expressed concern for implementing the trade deal sooner rather than later. He said time was running short to avoid the matter becoming an issue in the U.S. presidential race.
 
 The Trump administration also made lowering the trade deficit with Mexico part of a renegotiation strategy.
 
Separately, the United States had a last-minute request to the agreement over the weekend, relating to how steel is identified. The U.S. has proposed that 70% of steel for automobile production come from the North American region. Cars produced in Mexico also use components made in Brazil, Japan and Germany.If Congress is not able to pass Trump’s renegotiated trade deal, he said that he would take the United States out of NAFTA.
 
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Turkey Defense Minister Hulusi Akar warned Washington on Monday that Turkey will seek alternatives if Washington doesn’t end its embargo on the sale of the F-35 jet.The impasse over the fighter jet, deemed key to Turkey’s future defense, is rekindling memories of a similar century-old dispute.Hoping that a “reasonable and sensible” way could be found to resolve Washington’s freeze on the F-35 sales, Akar warned, “If this is not possible, everyone should know that we will naturally seek other quests.”FILE – Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar speaks to a group of reporters in Ankara, Turkey, May 21, 2019.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that Russia’s Su-35 fighter is being considered as an alternative to America’s latest stealth fighter jet if the embargo is not lifted.President Donald Trump froze the jet sale after Ankara procured the Russian S-400 missile system. Washington claims the S-400’s sophisticated radar compromises NATO defense systems — in particular, the stealth technology of its F-35 jet.Ankara claims Washington is manufacturing the dispute.”The U.S. criticized us. However, NATO did not say anything. On the contrary, NATO Secretary General (Jens Stoltenberg) repeatedly stated all countries have the right to buy the weapon and defense system they want,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday.1914 disputeThe increasingly acrimonious dispute is resurrecting memories of a century-old Turkish arms deal that also went sour. In 1914 on the eve of World War I, Britain seized two state-of-the-art dreadnought warships built by British builders for the then-Ottoman Empire.The incident still resonates in Turkey.”It continues to haunt not only the public and political mind, but the institutional mind, especially,” said international relations professor Serhat Guvenc of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University and author of “The Ottoman Quest for Dreadnoughts.” “The navy has never forgotten this experience, and today, there are many similarities in several respects with the F-35 embargo.”The two warships … were fully paid for. But (Winston) Churchill (head of the British navy in 1914) was obsessed, convinced that the Ottomans were going to join the Germans. So, there was no point in releasing the two ships which may end up on the wrong side of the conflict,” Guvenc said.”Over a century ago, it was the fear of the Ottoman’s joining the Germans,” Guvenc added. “Today, the case with the F-35, Russia is the modern-day equivalent with Germany.”FILE – National Guard members view two F-35 fighter jets that arrived at the Vermont Air National Guard base in South Burlington, Vt., Sept. 19, 2019.In 1914, after Britain’s seizure of the Ottoman warships, Germany offered two ships of its own as replacements, a move that brought the Turks to Germany’s side against Britain, France and Russia in World War I.Former Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen acknowledges the 1914 incident still resonates in Turkish military thinking.”Among commanders of today’s Turkish navy, it is still a vivid memory and still today shapes the thinking of these naval planners.”Since 1914, Ankara has never procured a British naval vessel. Selcen says the latest arms disputes with Washington differs from the past.”It’s a public diplomacy stand (by Ankara). It’s public propaganda to compare with the warships,” Selcen said, “because it was kind of an own goal by Turkish foreign policy to get kicked out of the project. It was made clear by Washington: either the S-400 or F-35, not both.”Higher stakesAnalysts point out that the loss of the F-35 jets could be more far-reaching than the loss of two warships in 1914. Ankara has invested over a billion dollars into the jet project and ultimately was to take delivery of around 100 jets to replace the Turkish air force’s aging fleet of F-16 aircraft.Washington has also expelled Turkey from the international consortium building and servicing the advanced jet.FILE – Sukhoi Su-35 jet fighters of the “Sokoly Rossii” (Falcons of Russia) aerobatic team fly in formation during a rehearsal for the airshow in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, Aug. 1, 2019.”When Turkey became a full-fledged partner in the F-35 program, the political implications would be that Turkey remains committed to the NATO alliance and staunch ally to the United States,” Guvenc said. “In Washington, the idea is that Turkey is now moving irreversibly away from the western alliance and seeking new friends in Eurasia, basically Russia and China.”Moscow is lobbying Ankara hard to deepen and broaden Russian military purchases. Turkey is reportedly close to buying a second battery of S-400 missiles, a move analysts say is likely to anger Washington further.Just as in 1914, Ankara could be facing a pivotal moment, Guvenc said.”The similarities are very striking, because when the two German warships arrived in Istanbul in place of the two commandeered dreadnoughts, the British naval mission had to leave and was replaced by the German naval mission. And the German military naval influence in Turkey continued after World War I,” he explained.”So, we may see a rupture in the Turkish military strategy and its realignment around Russia-China — a hybrid military strategy but definitely moving away from the western alliance,” Guvenc said.
 
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House Democrats have reached a tentative agreement with labor leaders and the White House over a rewrite of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal that has been a top priority for President Donald Trump. That’s according to a Democratic aide not authorized to discuss the talks and granted anonymity.Details still need to be finalized and the U.S. Trade Representative will need to submit the implementing legislation to Congress. No vote has been scheduled.
The new, long-sought trade agreement with Mexico and Canada would give both Trump and his top adversary, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a major accomplishment despite the turmoil of his likely impeachment.
An announcement could come as early as Monday. Pelosi, D-Calif., still has to officially sign off on the accord, aides said. The aides requested anonymity because the agreement is not official.
The new trade pact would replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which eliminated most tariffs and other trade barriers involving the United States, Mexico and Canada. Critics, including Trump, labor unions and many Democratic lawmakers, branded NAFTA a job killer for America because it encouraged factories to move south of the border, capitalize on low-wage Mexican workers and ship products back to the U.S. duty free.
Weeks of back-and-forth, closely monitored by Democratic labor allies such as the AFL-CIO, have brought the two sides together. Pelosi is a longtime free trade advocate and supported the original NAFTA in 1994. Trump has accused Pelosi of being incapable of passing the agreement because she is too wrapped up in impeachment.
Democrats from swing districts have agitated for finishing the accord, in part to demonstrate some accomplishments for their majority.
By ratifying the agreement, Congress could lift uncertainty over the future of U.S. commerce with its No. 2 (Canada) and No. 3 (Mexico) trading partners last year and perhaps give the U.S. economy a modest boost. U.S. farmers are especially eager to make sure their exports to Canada and Mexico continue uninterrupted.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last year negotiated the replacement agreement with Canada and Mexico. But the new USMCA accord required congressional approval and input from top Democrats like Pelosi and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts, who have been engaged in lengthy, detailed negotiations over enforcement provisions and other technical details.
The pact contains provisions designed to nudge manufacturing back to the United States. For example, it requires that 40% to 45% of cars eventually be made in countries that pay autoworkers at least $16 an hour — that is, in the United States and Canada and not in Mexico.
The trade pact picked up some momentum after Mexico in April passed a labor-law overhaul required by USMCA. The reforms are meant to make it easier for Mexican workers to form independent unions and bargain for better pay and working conditions, narrowing the gap with the United States.
Mexico ratified USMCA in June and has budgeted more money later this year to provide the resources needed for enforcing the agreement.  
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, are meeting for the first time in Paris for long-awaited talks on resolving the military conflict in eastern Ukraine that has left more than 13,000 people dead since 2014.After a series of bilateral meetings at the Elysee Palace on December 9, Putin and Zelenskiy sat down together with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.The leaders entered the room without smiling and making little eye contact with each other. They did not shake hands for the cameras.The four-way talks in the so-called Normandy Format is the first time the heads of Ukraine and Russia have met since 2016 and the first meeting ever between Zelenskiy, who was elected in April, and Putin.The International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled in November 2016 that the war in eastern Ukraine was “an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.”FILE – A member of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic forces walks on top of a tank during a drill outside Torez, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sept. 14, 2015.All sides have made efforts to moderate expectations of a breakthrough in the run-up to the summit. The Kremlin wants to maintain as much influence over Kyiv as it can, using the land held by the separatists it supports in the Donbas as a lever. The Ukrainian president must balance the benefits of progress toward peace with the potentially disastrous risk of being seen as surrendering to Moscow.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Dec. 6 in Rome that Moscow expects “additional agreements that will help eliminate this conflict.”He added that Moscow was seeking “to really ensure the security of the people of the Donbas, to guarantee their rights as set forth in the Minsk agreements, and to stop this conflict.”The Minsk agreements on creating a road map to resolve the conflict were reached in the Belarusian capital in 2014 and 2015. The accords call for a cease-fire, the withdrawal of heavy weaponry, the restoration of Kyiv’s control over all Ukraine’s borders, a law on special status for the territory controlled by the Moscow-backed separatists, and the holding of elections on that territory.However, their implementation has been largely stymied.The path to the Dec. 9 summit was smoothed in part by a large exchange of prisoners in September and by Moscow’s return to Kyiv in November of three Ukrainian naval vessels Russia had seized in the Black Sea in late 2018.FILE – A Ukrainian serviceman secures an area in a Kyiv-controlled part of Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Oct. 14, 2019.In addition, the two countries agreed in October to withdraw from three flash points along the front line, two in the Luhansk region and one in Donetsk.Zelenskiy, for his part, said earlier this month that the mere fact the talks had restarted was his “first victory” in efforts to end the war.He has said previously that he will push three main ideas in Paris: a further exchange of prisoners, implementing a cease-fire agreement, and the disbanding of “illegal armed formations” in Ukraine.Zelenskiy visited front-line troops Dec. 6, telling the soldiers “it is a lot easier to hold talks while feeling your strength and your support behind me.”The Kremlin has said that Putin plans a one-on-one meeting with Zelenskiy. Kyiv, however, has said only that such an encounter is under consideration.Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Dec. 6 posted online a statement advising Zelenskiy not to meet directly with Putin.”Do not trust Putin,” he recommended. “Never and in nothing.” He warned his successor that Putin will use “KGB-style manipulations, flattery, and play on the president’s emotions and flaws.”In Kyiv on Dec. 8, thousands of people demonstrated under Ukrainian flags on Independence Square to warn Zelenskiy to avoid crossing any “red lines” in the negotiations.Activists attend a “Night Watch” rally in front of the Office of Ukraine’s President, in Kyiv, Dec. 8, 2019, demanding “no capitulation” ahead of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Paris Monday.They cited the need to maintain territorial integrity and avoid federalization, to keep up Ukraine’s pro-European course, to steer clear of actions to legitimize the occupation of Ukrainian territory, to insist on the return of Russian-occupied Crimea, and to keep open the possibility of lawsuits filed internationally over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.The Paris meeting comes amid strikes and sometimes-violent social protests in the French capital and other cities that have snarled the country’s transportation network. At least 800,000 people marched Dec. 5 in Paris, and police used tear gas several times.The Kremlin said Dec. 6 that Putin was not concerned about the situation and that France could “successfully” host the summit.In addition, Ukraine has been at the center of impeachment hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives against U.S. President Donald Trump, in an unfolding political drama that has raised questions about long-standing U.S. support for Kyiv at a time when officials, diplomats, and analysts say it needs it most.European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told Ukrinform Dec 6 that although the European Union was not a party to the Normandy Format, “we strongly support this format and the implementation of the Minsk agreements.”The conflict in eastern Ukraine broke out in early 2014, shortly after Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea region of Crimea. 
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An earthquake struck Tuscany north of Florence on Monday, sending frightened people into the street in the middle of the night, opening up cracks in walls and damaging a church.Mayors of towns in the area near the Appennine mountains known as Mugello said there were no injuries from the pre-dawn quake.A wide crack opened up in the portico of the church of St. Sylvester in the town of Barberino. Cracks opened up in the walls of some houses, Tuscany Gov. Enrico Rossi told reporters. He said a gym was being set up for dozens of people to use as shelter while their homes were checked for any structural damage, while a tent camp would be erected for hundreds of others.The quake was strongly felt in Florence, Tuscany’s main city.The national geophysics agency said the strongest in a series of temblors was measured at magnitude-4.5 and struck at 4:37 a.m. The epicenter was placed at 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) north of the town of Scarperia.State railways said the high speed train line between Florence and Bologna was temporarily closed as a precaution, then later service resumed.Schools in towns near the epicenter were closed as a precaution while experts checked for structural safety.Geologists noted that, 100 years ago, a quake some 1,000 times more powerful struck the same area, killing some 100 people. 
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Celebrity environmentalist Greta Thunberg is urging media to pay more attention to other young climate activists.
                   
The 16-year-old Swede has drawn huge crowds with her appearances at protests and conferences over the past year.
                   
“Our stories have been told over and over again,” Thunberg said as she spoke Monday at a U.N. climate meeting in Madrid alongside prominent German activist Luisa Neubauer. “There is no need to listen to us anymore.”
                   
Thunberg has been the center of attention at the climate talks ever since she sailed back to Europe last week, having shunned air travel for environmental reasons. She left a protest march through the Spanish capital early after being mobbed by crowds of protesters and reporters Friday.
                   
“It is people especially from the global south, especially from indigenous communities, who need to tell their stories,” she said before handing the mic to other young activists from the United States, the Philippines, Russia, Uganda, Chine and the Marshall Islands.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition leaders are pushing for the finish line in Britain’s election campaign, dashing through multiple constituencies in the final 72 hours before polling day.Johnson was touring Labour-held seats across England on Monday that his Conservatives have to win if they are to secure a majority in Thursday’s election. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was in southwest and central England, where his left-of-center party is trying to hang on to key constituencies.Opinion polls give Johnson’s Conservatives a lead, but as many as one in five voters remain undecided. This election is especially unpredictable because the question of Brexit cuts across traditional party loyalties.Visiting a fish market in eastern England on Monday, Johnson said he was “taking nothing for granted.”The Conservatives had a minority government before the election, and Johnson pushed for the vote, which is taking place more than two years early, in hopes of winning a majority of the 650 House of Commons seats and breaking Britain’s political impasse over Brexit. He says that if the Conservatives win a majority, he will get Parliament to ratify his Brexit divorce deal and take the U.K. out of the EU by the current Jan. 31 deadline.Labour is promising to renegotiate the divorce deal, then give voters the choice in a referendum of leaving the EU on those terms or remaining in the bloc.
 
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will welcome his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday — the Russian’s first visit to Washington since a controversial 2017 meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, the State Department announced.The brief statement about the meeting, to be held at the State Department, said Pompeo and Lavrov would “discuss a broad range of regional and bilateral issues.”On Friday, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said the meeting was being “prepared” for Tuesday.The situations in war-wracked Syria and Ukraine are likely to top the agenda. The Washington meeting will come on the heels of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy over the conflict in Ukraine’s east in Paris on Monday.Iran and North Korea are also of mutual concern in Washington and Moscow.Pompeo and Lavrov met in September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.But Lavrov has not been on an official visit to the U.S. capital since his encounter with Trump in the Oval Office in May 2017, which was followed by allegations that the U.S. leader divulged classified intelligence in the meeting.Photographs of the meeting showed Lavrov, Trump and subsequently sacked Russian envoy to Washington Sergei Kislyak sharing a laugh.U.S. intelligence concluded that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election with an eye to swinging it in Trump’s favor, but U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller found there was not enough evidence to prove that Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russian government in those efforts.The report did not conclude that Trump had committed a crime, but it also did not fully exonerate him.”If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” Mueller’s long-awaited report said.”Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.” 
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Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday welcomed a Lebanese-born Swiss real estate mogul who purchased Nazi memorabilia at a German auction and is donating the items to Israel.Rivlin called Abdallah Chatila’s gesture an “act of grace.”Chatila, a Lebanese Christian who has lived in Switzerland for decades, paid some 600,000 euros ($660,000) for the items at the Munich auction last month, intending to destroy them after reading of Jewish groups’ objections to the sale. Shortly before the auction, however, he decided it would be better to donate them to a Jewish organization. Among the items he bought were Adolf Hitler’s top hat, a silver-plated edition of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and a typewriter used by the dictator’s secretary.The items are to be donated to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.Chatila said he initially bought the items for personal reasons.“He is the personification of evil — evil for everyone, not evil for the Jews, evil for the Christians, evil for humanity,” he said. “And that’s why it was important for me to buy those artifacts.”But Chatila decided that he “had no right to decide” what to do with these artifacts, so he reached out to Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal, a nonprofit fundraising body that assists Israeli and Jewish causes. It then decided to pass the items on to Yad Vashem because of its existing collection of Nazi artifacts.“Usually Yad Vashem doesn’t support trade. We do not believe in trade of artifacts that come from the Nazi party or other parts,” said Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem. “We like that it should be in the hands of museums or public collectors and not in private hands.”At a press conference at Keren Hayesod’s Jerusalem office, Chatila said his donation has been criticized by some in his homeland. Israel and Lebanon have never signed a peace agreement, and relations remain hostile.“I got a few messages saying that I was a traitor, saying that I helped the enemy. And also some messages of people warning me not to go back to Lebanon,” he said. “It’s easy for me as I don’t go to Lebanon. I don’t have a problem with it.”But Chatila said his parents still travel to Lebanon, making the backlash difficult for his family. Still, he said the donation was “the right thing to do.”Rivlin thanked Chatila for his act and donation “of great importance at this time” when Holocaust denial and neo-Nazism are on the rise. He also noted that the artifacts would help preserve the Holocaust legacy for future generations who will not be able to meet or hear from the dwindling population of aging survivors.“What you did was seemingly so simple, but this act of grace shows the whole world how to fight the glorification of hatred and incitement against other people. It was a truly human act,” Rivlin said.The items are still at the German auction house, and it was not immediately known when they would be transferred to Yad Vashem.
 
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Thousands of people gathered in the center of Kyiv on Sunday to send a message to Ukraine’s president, who meets his Russian counterpart on Monday, that Ukrainians will not accept a peace deal at the cost of the country’s independence and sovereignty.”We are here because we are not satisfied with the peace at any costs … the peace at the costs of capitulation,” Inna Sovsun, a lawmaker of opposition Golos (Voice) party, told the rally.President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin are meeting in Paris alongside the French and German leaders in a renewed effort to end a conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed forces in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014. Zelenskiy, who won a landslide election victory in April promising to bring peace, said this week that his first face-to-face meeting with the Russian president would give Kyiv a chance to resolve the more than five-year-old war in the Donbas region.But many Ukrainians are concerned over a possible compromise with Russia, which they see as an aggressor seeking to restore the Kremlin’s influence over the former Soviet republic and ruin Ukraine’s aspiration to closer European ties.The Ukrainian government wants to agree with Moscow on a sustainable cease-fire in Donbas, the exchange of all prisoners, and a timeline for the withdrawal of all illegal armed forces from regions under the control of Russia-backed separatists.The leaders’ meeting was arranged after Ukraine and separatists withdrew their military forces from three settlements in Donbas – implementing agreements reached between Russian, Ukrainian and separatist negotiators in September.Kyiv also promised to grant a special status to territory controlled by the rebels and to hold elections there.These plans, seen as a sign of Kyiv’s capitulation, sparked protests in the Ukrainian capital.According to an opinion poll of Ukrainians conducted by a think-tank Democratic Initiative and Kyiv’s International Institute of the Sociology on Nov 4-19, 53.2% of respondents are against a special status for Donbass and 62.7% do not accept an amnesty for those who fight against the Ukrainian army.”We are here so that the voice from Kyiv can be heard in Paris. Friends, we cannot make any concessions to Putin until the last sliver of Ukrainian land is free,” ex-president Petro Poroshenko told Sunday’s rally.Relations between two countries collapsed following pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych’s escape to Russia and Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, which prompted Western sanctions on Russia.Historian Volodymyr Vyatrovych said many centuries and recent years of Ukrainian history showed Kyiv should not believe in Moscow’s good will.”Zelenskiy’s new team seems to be returning to this erroneous strategy, which consists in the fact that we can agree with Russia,” he told the rally. 
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Thousands of people holding hands formed a human chain in central Brussels on Sunday to draw public attention to the need for urgent, joint action against climate change.Some 2,400 people took part in the peaceful demonstration, police said, which encircled the Belgian federal parliament and the Royal Palace.The two-hour demonstration took place as policy-makers from around the world gather in Madrid for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.”The main purpose is to ask for more climate ambition and for the federal government to tackle the climate crisis,” said Julie Van Houtryve, spokeswoman for one of the organizers, Climate Coalition in Belgium. “We need solidarity and cooperation between governments and politicians in Belgium.”Climate activists form a human chain in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 8, 2019. 
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 The flaming barricades are mostly gone, protesters have largely dissipated and traffic is once again clogging the streets of Haiti’s capital, but hundreds of thousands of people are now suffering deep economic aftershocks after more than two months of demonstrations.
The protests that drew tens of thousands of people at a time to demand the resignation of President Jovenel Moise also squeezed incomes, shuttered businesses and disrupted the transportation of basic goods.
“We are nearing a total crash,” Haitian economist Camille Chalmers said. “The situation is unsustainable.”
Haiti’s economy was already fragile when the new round of protests began in mid-September, organized by opposition leaders and supporters angry over corruption, spiraling inflation and dwindling supplies, including fuel. More than 40 people were killed and dozens injured as protesters clashed with police. Moise insisted he would not resign and called for dialogue.
The United Nations World Food Program says a recent survey found that one in three Haitians, or 3.7 million people, need urgent food assistance and 1 million are experiencing severe hunger. The WFP, which says it is trying to get emergency food assistance to 700,000 people, blames rising prices, the weakening local currency, and a drop in agricultural production due partly to the disruption of recent protests.
In the last two years, Haiti’s currency, the gourde, declined 60% against the dollar and inflation recently reached 20%, Chalmers said. The rising cost of food is especially crucial in the country of nearly 11 million people. Some 60% make less than $2 a day and 25% earn less than $1 a day.
A 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag of rice has more than doubled in price in the local currency, said Marcelin Saingiles, a store owner who sells everything from cold drinks to cookies to used tools in Port-au-Prince.
The 39-year-old father of three children said he now struggles to buy milk and vegetables.
“I feed the kids, but they’re not eating the way they’re supposed to,” he said, adding that he has drained the funds set aside for his children’s schooling to buy food.In this Dec. 3, 2019 photo, children play near their home in the Cite Soleil slum of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.A growing number of families across Haiti can’t even afford to do that since the protests began, with barricades preventing the flow of goods between the capital and the rest of the country.
Many of those live in Haiti’s rural areas, which also have been hardest hit by demonstrations that continue in some cities and towns.
Wadlande Pierre, 23, said she temporarily moved in with her aunt in the southwest town of Les Cayes to escape the violent protests in Port-au-Prince. However, she had to move back to the capital because there was not gas, power or water in Les Cayes, and food was becoming scarce.
“There is no access to basic items that you need,” she said.
Pierre is now helping her mother, Vanlancia Julien, sell fruits and vegetables on a sidewalk in the neighborhood of Delmas in the capital.
Julien said she recently lost a couple hundred dollars’ worth of produce because she could not go out on the street to sell due to the protests.
“All the melon, avocado, mango, pineapple, bananas, all of them spoiled,” she said.
Last year, sales were good, but she is now making a third of what she used to earn before the protests began, even though streets have reopened.
“That doesn’t amount to anything,” she said. “The fact that people don’t go out to work, it’s less people moving around and makes it harder for me.”
That also means businesses like the small restaurant that 43-year-old Widler Saint-Jean Santil owns often remain empty when they used to be full on a regular afternoon.
He said the protests have forced many business owners to lay off people, which in turn affects him because clients can no longer afford to eat out.
“If people are not working, there is no business,” he said.
Among the businesses that permanently closed was the Best Western Premier hotel, which laid off dozens of employees.
Chalmers warned that economic recovery will be slow if the political instability continues, adding that the situation is the worst Haiti has faced in recent history.
“A lot of crises came together,” he said. “Not only the economic one, but the political and fiscal ones.” 
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