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Hundreds of Haiti’s national police officers (PNH) were in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the northern city of Cape Haitian Sunday, demanding better work conditions and a union to represent and defend their rights. This is the second time in a month police have protested.“We need a union that can represent us when things aren’t good,” a member of POLIFRONT, Haiti’s Border Police unit of the National Police, told VOA Creole. He was in uniform and wearing a black face mask. “I’m talking about abuse, our meager 19,000 (Haitian gourdes) salary (about $208), which is not enough.”This policeman from the POLIFRONT unit of @pnh_officiel says they need a union to defend and protect their rights. ?Matiado Vilme @VOAKreyol#Haitipic.twitter.com/6AoAu70fBO— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019The officer said the police are suffering because they don’t enjoy the same benefits reserved for their leaders, and they don’t have anyone to represent and defend them when they need it most.“If we remain strong, we’ll get everything we need,” another police protester, dressed in civilian clothing, from the Mobilized Intervention Unit (BMI) of the national police told VOA.This policeman of the Mobilized Intervention unit of @pnh_officiel says an 8 hour workday limit is essential to the officers. He believes the constitution will prevail and their demands will become a reality. ?Matiado Vilme #Haitipic.twitter.com/FErnXQDzt6— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019“The police is a legal force, recognized by the constitution, which also gives us the right to form a union. So if the constitution allows us to form a union, that means we will have it one way or another. And we should only be working eight hours a day, according to the law,” he added.According to the officer, although a law was passed and signed by the director of the national police force, it has not gone into effect, and police officers often are subjected to long work days.Female police officers also participated in the Port au Prince protest, Nov 17, 2019. (Photo: M. Vilme/VOA)The Port-au-Prince protest was festive, with a truck and deejay accompanying the protesters in the streets while blaring motivational songs, ending with the country’s national anthem. “For the flag, for the nation,” they sang to a tune very similar to France’s national anthem “La Marseillaise.”#Haiti national policemen @pnh_officiel are back in the streets today in PAP demanding better work conditions including higher salary, insurance, health care. They sang the national hymn too, which may sound familiar if you know La Marseillaise. ?Matiado Vilme @VOAKreyolpic.twitter.com/ubmu0SNgs0— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019Up north in Cape Haitian, hundreds of police officers took over the streets for a noisy, festive, peaceful protest. “Si yo pa reponn nou, nou pral nan rebelyon. We’ll shift to rebellion mode if they don’t respond to our demands” they chanted. Their demands are the same as their colleagues’ in the capital: better wages, insurance, health care and a union.“Si Yo pa reponn nou, nou pral nan rebelyon” if they don’t respond we’ll shift to rebellion mode policemen in Cape Haitian chanted today. #Haiti ?Yvan Martin Jasmin @VOAKreyolpic.twitter.com/1ehBD89INx— Sandra Lemaire (@SandraDVOA) November 17, 2019Some of the protesters held posters that said: “Policemen are not slaves,” “Too many policemen have been imprisoned for no good reason” and “19,000 gourdes cannot take care of a family.”Haiti’s National Police force has been plagued by allegations of corruption. They have also been accused of human rights violations for firing on unarmed civilians and using excessive force during peaceful protests.Police protesters hold a banner that says IGPNH (inspector general of police) you can’t give what you don’t have, Nov 17, 2019, Port au Prince. (Photo: M. Vilme/VOA)Earlier this month, the United Nations human rights office and Amnesty International expressed concern about the situation and asked the Moise administration to investigate the incidents “promptly, thoroughly and effectively.” National Police officials say the force that exists today is a work in progress and far more professional, but that problems persist.During a recent visit to police stations in Carrefour and Petionville, two suburbs of the capital, President Jovenel Moise told the press he asked for officials to give him a detailed report on the officers’ working conditions so they could be addressed as soon as possible. He also commended the police for their dedication and hard work.On November 15, a new police inspector general was named. In his inauguration speech, Herve Julien urged young officers to stay far away from politics for the good of the national police force.
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Heavy police presence in Athens appeared to have prevented serious clashes Sunday with anarchists and other extreme leftists on the 46th anniversary of a student uprising against the then-ruling Greek military dictatorship.Over 20,000 people made the traditional march from the National Technical University of Athens, site of the 1973 uprising, to the U.S. Embassy on Sunday.Police said about 10,000 people participated in a Communist Party rally and a further 1,000 marched with the formerly ruling leftist Syriza party, both separate from the main march with over 10,000 participants. Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras started the march with Syriza but left before the halfway point.Police say they arrested 28 people in clashes after the march, mostly in the Exarchia neighborhood near the university, and detained a further 13.A recent crackdown by the conservative government on extreme leftist activity in Exarchia, a known anarchist haven and counterculture center, and another nearby university, the Athens University of Economics and Business, had raised fears of possible heavy clashes. More than 5,000 officers were deployed, focused on preventing rioters from occupying the rooftops of apartment buildings and hurling firebombs and rocks into the streets below, as happened two years ago.Police tactics appeared to have worked, and the first six arrests, shortly after the march, were of people who had sneaked firebombs, rocks, gas masks and other paraphernalia onto a rooftop close to Exarchia’s main square.There were reports of police violence, including from a news site reporter who said he was attacked while filming riot police pursuing protesters. He appeared in a video with his face bruised.Clashes with police also took place in the northern city of Thessaloniki, again after marches in which almost 10,000 took part, as well as in other Greek cities.In Thessaloniki, vehicles were set on fire. Police said they detained 14 people in Thessaloniki and 17 in two other Greek cities. They said 2 police officers were injured, but did not specify the city.
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French Beninese writer and activist Kemi Seba is in Haiti this weekend on a humanitarian mission.Seba traveled to the Caribbean nation to show support for the PetroChallenger anti-corruption movement and for the residents of the poorest slums of the capital.VOA Creole spoke with the activist as he was distributing sanitary kits in Port-au-Prince.“We wanted to show that we are capable and that we don’t have to wait for the government to act, we can take action ourselves to show our support,” Seba said.”Although we have meager resources we only exist when we can share what we have with others in the context of this dimension, this dynamic,” he added. “We have medical staff with us, midwives, specialists who are not only distributing the kits but also doing free consultations. They are volunteers who gave their time to make this happen.”French Beninese writer and activist Kémi Seba is visiting President Moise denies the corruption allegations and in recent weeks has taken steps to address the protesters’ concerns, such as naming new Cabinet ministers, visiting local businesses, and speaking directly to the people on traditional and social media. He has also called for a national dialogue to discuss ways to resolve the political impasse, but the opposition has repeatedly rejected the offer.Activist Seba told VOA he hopes his effort will spark future progress.“We hope this will not be a just drop in the bucket, but rather the beginning of a process to address this issue with sister institutions and medical partnerships who are already working here. I want to especially thank the medical staff who helped us bring this mission to fruition today,” he said.The local residents, who did not wish to be photographed, expressed gratitude and thanks to Seba and his team for taking the time to visit them and address some of their most urgent needs.Jacquelin Belizaire and Matiado Vilme in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.
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Pope Francis hosted 1,500 poor and needy people for lunch on Sunday at the Vatican. Earlier he celebrated Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to mark World Day of the Poor.Some 150 round tables were prepared in the large Vatican hall where the pope normally holds his indoor audiences with the faithful during the winter months.  There he hosted lunch for poor people, including migrants and about 50 volunteers who work with the needy.Before lunch was served, the pope thanked all those present and asked God to bless them and their families. The menu for all the pope’s guests was lasagne, chicken with cream of mushroom sauce and potatoes, dessert, fruit and espresso coffee. Elsewhere in Rome, another 1,500 needy people were also served lunch and in many parishes.Earlier on Sunday the pope celebrated a special mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to raise awareness about the poor in the world. The mass was attended by the poor and the volunteers who later lunched with the pope. During the service, Pope Francis said the poor “facilitate our access to heaven” and described them as “the treasure of the Church.”People wait for Pope Francis arrival for a lunch in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Nov. 17, 2019.Francis encouraged the faithful not to feel annoyed when the poor knock on our doors, but to welcome them and help them as much as possible.”How many elderly, babies, disabled and poor people are considered useless”, the pope said in his homily adding that “we go our way in haste, without worrying that gaps are increasing, that the greed of a few is adding to the poverty of many others.”The pope told the faithful to ask themselves the questions: “Do I help someone who has nothing to give me in return? Do I, as Christian, have at least one poor person as a friend?”The pope, who chose the name Francis after the saint of the poor, has focused his attention on the world’s marginalized since the start of his papacy. 
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A senior official from Britain’s main opposition Labour Party says that leaks from a parliamentary report on Russian interference in British politics raises important questions about the fairness of next month’s general election.An 18-month-long investigation by the British parliament’s cross-party intelligence committee has concluded Russian meddling may have impacted Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, though the panel couldn’t decide how much it affected the vote. The leak of the report’s conclusion, published in Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, is adding to pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to publish the full findings of the inquiry before Britons head to the polls on December 12.Emily Thornberry, Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson, said the disclosure that Russian meddling may have distorted the Brexit vote raises questions about how next month’s election can be safeguarded. “If it is correct that our security services have been unable to reach a conclusion about the extent or impact of Russian interference in the 2016 referendum, then it raises serious questions which require serious answers,” she said.If the report is not immediately published by Johnson “people will rightly continue to ask: what is he trying to hide from the British public and why,” she added.Opponents have accused the government of sitting on the report by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), despite the fact that the country’s security services have cleared it for publication. Witnesses who testified to the panel say the report will contain embarrassing disclosures about the funding of the ruling Conservatives by London-based Russian oligarchs tied to the Kremlin or Russian intelligence agencies.FILE – Marina Litvinenko, widow of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, addresses media following pre-inquest review, London, Dec. 13, 2012.The delay in publishing the report could well become the subject of at lest one court action this week, and possibly more. Lawyers acting for the widow of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and Russian dissident who was murdered with a radioactive isotope in 2006, sent Johnson a letter last week saying she planned to take legal action unless the report’s findings are released in full ahead of the election. An official British inquiry concluded Litvinenko was murdered on the orders of the Kremlin.Marina Litvinenko’s says there’s “profound public interest in the information being disclosed to the public, so they are fully informed of the extent of Russian interference in British politics before they go to the polls on 12 December 2019.”An urgent legal challenge is also being planned to force the government’s hand by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which has written to Downing Street demanding publication. Lawyers for the bureau are planning to ask for a judicial reviewRachel Oldroyd, managing editor of the bureau, said in a statement: “The absolute minimum voters in any democratic election should expect is the knowledge that the previous election was fair and free of outside interference. British voters are being denied that.”Security minister Brandon Lewis told Sky News Sunday that the report couldn’t be published during the election campaign, which officially got underway last week, because of rules which restrict government announcements during the run-up to a general election.“We want to make sure, particularly where national security is involved, we go through that process properly and thoroughly,” he said. “We can’t publish things during the general election … but after the general election that report will be published,” he said.FILE – MP Dominic Grieve, the head of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, is seen at the Conservative Party annual conference in Manchester, Britain, Sept. 30, 2019.But critics, including former attorney general Dominic Grieve, who chaired the committee, say the 50-page dossier, which examined the level of Russian infiltration of the higher ranks of British politics as well as allegations of a Kremlin-sponsored influence campaign during the 2016 referendum, was vetted by the country’s security agencies days before the election was called and could have been released before electioneering was in full swing.The report “comments directly on what has been seen as a perceived threat to our democratic processes,” says Grieve. He says members of the committee had expected Johnson to approve publication ahead of the election.“Someone in Downing Street calculated that it was less embarrassing to suppress the intelligence and security committee’s report into Russian interference in the UK than it was to publish it,” according to Oliver Bullough, author of the book “Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back.”According to the Sunday Times, the parliamentary panel found that anti-EU, pro-Brexit articles disseminated by Kremlin-controlled outlets in the run-up to the referendum campaign had four times more social media impact than those put out by British Leave campaigns. The report also reportedly criticizes British intelligence agencies for failing to devote sufficient resources to combat Kremlin meddling in British politics.Johnson dismissed claims Friday that he was suppressing the report to save the Conservatives from embarrassment and he defended taking money from Russian oligarchs living in London, saying there’s no evidence of Moscow interference.“All donations to the Conservative Party are properly vetted and properly publicized,” he said during a BBC radio interview. He added: “I think that you’ve got to be very careful before you simply cast aspersions on everybody who comes from a certain country just because of their nationality.”
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Pope Francis has agendas both pastoral and personal for his trip to Asia, where he’ll appeal for global nuclear disarmament at the sites of the atomic bomb and minister to two tiny Catholic communities that have suffered gruesome periods of persecution.Emphasizing the dignity of life is also on Francis’ to-do list for his trip to Thailand and Japan that begins Wednesday, given the scourge of human trafficking in Thailand and Japan’s use of capital punishment and high suicide rate.As a young Jesuit, Francis dreamed of being a missionary in Japan, inspired by the courage of Japan’s Hidden Christians, who braved two centuries of persecution to keep their faith alive.“In some way, this is the fulfilment of his dream,” said the Rev. Bernardo Cervellera, editor of AsiaNews, a Vatican-affiliated news service.In Thailand, Francis will also be reunited with his second cousin, Sister Ana Rose Sivori, an Argentine nun who has lived in Thailand since 1966 and will serve as Francis’ official translator there.Here are some highlights of Francis’ pilgrimage, his fourth to Asia and one that could also touch on the Vatican’s delicate relations with China:Asian martyrs and missionariesOne of the highlights of the trip will be Francis’ prayer at the memorial of the 26 Nagasaki Martyrs, who were crucified in 1597 at the start of a two-century wave of anti-Christian persecution by Japanese rulers.Francis’ own Jesuit order had introduced Christianity to Japan with the arrival of St. Francis Xavier on the archipelago in 1549. After converting more than a quarter-million Japanese, missionaries were banned at the start of the 17th century. Japanese Christians were forced to renounce their faith, suffer tortuous deaths or go underground.Francis will greet some descendants of these Hidden Christians, whose story was recounted in the 2016 Martin Scorsese film “Silence.”Francis will also honor Thailand’s World War II-era martyrs, who were victims of anti-Christian persecution by Thais who viewed Christianity as foreign and associated with French colonial powers. Francis will pray at the sanctuary for Thailand’s first martyred priest, Nicolas Bunkerd Kitbamrung, who was beatified in 2000.A banner with portrait of Pope Francis is displayed inside St. Joseph Convent School ahead of Pope’s visit to Thailand, in Bangkok, Nov. 9, 2019.The pope says no nukesFrancis has gone further than any other pope by saying that not only the use, but the mere possession of nuclear weapons is “to be firmly condemned.” Japanese bishops are hoping he goes even further and calls for a ban on nuclear power.Francis will likely repeat his appeal for a total ban on the bomb when he visits Nagasaki and Hiroshima, meets with survivors of the 1945 bombings there as well as victims of the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in northern Japan.An offshore magnitude-9 earthquake triggered a tsunami that knocked out power for the cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear plant, displacing more than 100,000 people and coating the area with radioactive waste. In response, Japanese bishops in 2016 called for the abolition of nuclear power to protect “our common home.”“We can only hope” Francis will speak about nuclear power, given his frequent exhortation to care for the environment, said Nagoya Bishop Michael Goro Matsuura.Minority Catholics and interfaith dialogueCatholics make up just .59 percent of Thailand’s population of 65 million, most of whom are Buddhist. The percentage is even lower in Japan – estimated at .42 percent of the mostly Shinto and Buddhist population of 126 million.As a result, Francis will be stressing interfaith ties and the positive role Catholics can play in mostly Buddhist societies, “especially in the service of the poor, the needy and for peace,” he said in a video message to Thais.The pope on life and deathFrancis has made the fight against human trafficking a cornerstone of his papacy, a message that is likely to resonate in Thailand, which the U.N. considers a key trafficking destination as well as a source of forced labor and sex slaves.In Japan, hopes are high among Catholics that Francis will send a message opposing the death penalty, and perhaps meet with a former boxer and human rights activist held for nearly five decades on death row.Death row inmate Iwao Hakamada (L), flanked by his sister Hideko, is released from Tokyo Detention House in Tokyo, in this photo taken by Kyodo, March 27, 2014.The Vatican confirmed that Iwao Hakamada, who converted to Catholicism while in prison, has been invited to the pope’s Mass in Tokyo, but it’s not clear if he will make it. Hakamada is awaiting a Supreme Court decision after being freed when his verdict was overturned in a lower court.Tomoki Yanagawa, who works at the Jesuit Social Center in Tokyo, said a papal statement about the death penalty would help raise awareness in Japan.“I hope he will speak about the preciousness of life and clearly denounce what trivializes life,” said Yanagawa.Francis changed Catholic teaching last year by declaring the death penalty “inadmissible” in all cases. He has also denounced today’s “throwaway culture” where euthanasia, abortion and suicide are often considered acceptable – a message that could resonate in Japan, which has one of the highest suicide rates in the developed world.Vatican-China relationsWhen Francis travels from Bangkok to Tokyo next Saturday, he’ll fly through Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong airspace – and will send telegrams to their leaders as part of typical papal protocol.That could offer Francis a rare opportunity to address not only the current democracy protests in Hong Kong, but the Vatican’s delicate relations with Beijing. It would be the first such opportunity following last year’s agreement with China over Catholic bishop nominations. The pact aimed to unite China’s Catholics, who are divided between an underground church and an official one.The agreement has been hailed as a milestone by the Vatican, but critics point to continued persecution of underground prelates, including a report last week by AsiaNews that the underground bishop of Mindong was being hounded by Chinese security agents. Monsignor Vincenzo Guo Xijn had stepped aside to allow an official bishop be named as part of the 2018 Vatican deal with China. 
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The owner of a kebab shop targeted in a deadly far-right attack in the German city of Halle last month has gifted the eatery to the two brothers who were working there during the shooting.Siblings Ismet and Rifat Tekin received a framed letter transferring the ownership of the Kiez-Doener to them in a ceremony on Saturday as the restaurant reopened for the first time since the October 9 attack.”I wish my successors much strength in processing the terrible events of October 9, 2019 and hope they have many customers of different cultures and religions,” their former boss Izzet Cagac wrote in the letter, which was accompanied by a key.A 20-year-old customer was shot dead when a gunman opened fire on the kebab shop after earlier trying and failing to storm a synagogue. He also killed a female passer-by.The assailant, a suspected neo-Nazi, was arrested and later admitted that the attack was motivated by anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism, fuelling concerns about an increasingly violent far-right scene in Germany.At the reopened kebab shop, a colorful memorial wall paid tribute to the victims and all customers could eat for free over the weekend, local media reported.Der Spiegel weekly praised Cagac’s gift as an act of hope.”In a society increasingly plagued by brutality and hatred, this gesture of solidarity and humanity offers a small ray of light,” it wrote.
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A U.N. envoy met with Bolivia’s interim president Saturday to find a way out of the country’s political crisis while the world body expressed concern the situation could “spin out of control” amid a rising death toll.On leaving the meeting with interim leader Jeanine Anez, envoy Jean Arnault said the United Nations hopes it can contribute to an “accelerated pacification process” leading to new elections following the resignation and exile of Evo Morales.Meanwhile, another international body, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, condemned Anez’s government for issuing a decree it says “exempts from criminal responsibility” soldiers who took part in efforts to break up protests and unrest that have left at least 23 people dead.The norm was approved before the most violent day since the crisis began, when at least eight pro-Morales coca growers were killed when security forces opened fire during a demonstration.“It is not a license for the Armed Forces to kill,” Presidency Minister Jerjes Justiniano told a press conference. He said the decree is based on the Criminal Code, which states that “if one defends oneself in self-defense, there is no penalty.”Earlier Saturday, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet issued a statement calling the deaths “an extremely dangerous development.”“I am really concerned that the situation in Bolivia could spin out of control if the authorities do not handle it sensitively and in accordance with international norms,” she said.Police dismantle a barricade constructed by supporters of former President Evo Morales, on the outskirts of Cochabamba, Bolivia, Nov. 16, 2019.Protesters said police fired Friday when demonstrators tried to cross a military checkpoint in Sacaba, a town near Cochabamba. Many of the protesters were coca leaf growers loyal to Morales, who had been Bolivia’s first indigenous president before being pressured to step down by Bolivia’s military chief after weeks of widespread protests over a disputed election.Witnesses to the clash described seeing the bodies of several protesters and dozens of people rushed to hospitals, many covered in blood. On Saturday, Bolivia’s national Ombudsman’s Office raised the death toll to eight. It said that overall 23 people had been killed in the violence.Police and soldiers broke up fresh blockades of flaming logs and tractors Saturday on the road linking Sacaba to Cochabamba, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.Morales, who was granted asylum in Mexico after his Nov. 10 resignation, said on Twitter that a “massacre” had occurred and he described the interim government led by Anez as a dictatorship.Former Bolivian President Evo Morales waves upon arrival to Mexico City, Nov. 12, 2019.On Friday, Anez said Morales would face possible legal charges for election fraud if he returned home from Mexico City. She also has said Morales would not be allowed to participate in a new presidential election, which is supposed to be held within three months.The ousted leader, meanwhile, contended this week that he is still president since the country’s legislature has not yet approved his resignation.Morales stepped down following nationwide protests over suspected vote-rigging in an Oct. 20 election, which he claimed to have won to gain a fourth term in office. Morales has denied there was fraud, though an Organization of American States audit reported widespread irregularities.“We’re not going to let them make us flee, nor humiliate us. Let me say to Mrs. Anez that she must denounce this. If not the whole country is going to close in on her,” said Enrique Mamani, a local resident. “They have carried out a state coup, paid off the military, paid off the police. There’s political persecution against our leaders.”Backers of the interim government deny there was any coup against Morales, saying police and the military withdrew backing from him only to avoid shedding civilian blood during the mass protests against him.Police detain backers of former President Evo Morales on the outskirts of Cochabamba, Bolivia, Nov. 16, 2019.Supporters of Morales, who was Bolivia’s president for almost 14 years and was the last survivor from the “pink tide” of South American leftist leaders, have been staging disruptive protests since his resignation, setting up blockades that forced closure of schools and caused shortages of gasoline in the capital.Anez, who had been the highest-ranking opposition official in the Senate, proclaimed herself president after Morales resigned, saying every person in the line of succession ahead of her – all of them Morales backers – had resigned.
The Constitutional Court issued a statement backing her claim that she didn’t need to be confirmed by Congress, a body controlled by Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party.Much of the opposition to Morales sprang from his refusal to accept a referendum that upheld term limits that barred him from seeking another term. He got the courts to declare the limits a violation of his human rights to seek office. 
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Venetians are bracing for the prospect of another exceptional tide in a season that is setting records.Officials are forecasting a 1.6 meter (5 feet, 2 inch) surge of water Sunday through the lagoon city. That comes after Tuesday’s 1.87-meter flood, the worst in 53 years, followed by high tide of 1.54 meters Friday.Those two events mark the first time since records began in 1872 that two floods topped 1.5 meters in the same year, much less the same week. The city’s mayor says the flooding damage are in “the hundreds of millions” and Italian officials have declared a state of emergency for the area.Tourists with suitcases were rushing to grab the last water taxis to get to the mainland Sunday before service is interrupted in anticipation of the high tide.
 
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Prince Andrew offered a detailed rebuttal Saturday to claims he had sex with a woman who says she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, providing an alibi for one of the alleged encounters and questioning the authenticity of a well-known photograph that shows him posing with the woman.In a rare interview with BBC Newsnight, Andrew categorically denied having sex with the woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, saying, “It didn’t happen.”He said he has “no recollection” of ever meeting her and told an interviewer there are “a number of things that are wrong” about Giuffre’s account.Giuffre has said Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew in 2001 when she was 17. She says Epstein flew her around the world on his private planes to have sex with powerful men, and that she had sexual encounters with Andrew in London and New York and in the U.S. Virgin Islands.“I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened,” Andrew said.A request for comment was sent to Giuffre’s representative. Giuffre recently challenged the British royal to speak out, telling reporters in New York, “He knows exactly what he’s done.”“And the answer is nothing,” Andrew told BBC.High-stakes interviewAndrew’s decision to grant the interview was seen in Britain as a high-stakes gamble in a country where the royals don’t normally talk with reporters on subjects beyond their charitable works.The nation’s newspapers, most of which featured photos from the interview along with the pre-released excerpts on their front pages Saturday, speculated that the prince thought he had no other choice after months of tawdry headlines that threatened his ability to continue working as a royal.Disputes photo, other claimsIn the wide-ranging interview, Andrew suggested a photograph Giuffre produced of her posing with Andrew could have been doctored, saying he “can’t be certain” that it actually shows his hand on the woman’s side.He said he was “at a loss to explain” the image, adding he is not given to public displays of affection. He said it also shows him wearing “traveling clothes,” noting he typically wears a suit and tie when he goes out in London, where the photograph purportedly was taken.“I’m afraid to say that I don’t believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been suggested,” he said. “If the original was ever produced, then perhaps we might be able to solve it but I can’t.”Confronted with details of Giuffre’s claims, Andrew insisted he was home with his children on one of the nights Giuffre claims they had sex, saying it “couldn’t have happened.” He said he specifically recalled taking his daughter to a party at a Pizza Express that afternoon.Andrew sought to cast doubt on other parts of Giuffre’s account, including her recollection of Andrew sweating on her as they danced in a London night club.Andrew told BBC he has a “peculiar medical condition, which is that I don’t sweat or I didn’t sweat at the time” after suffering an “overdose of adrenaline” after being shot at in the Falklands War, the 1982 conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom.
“It was almost impossible for me to sweat,” he said.Regrets friendshipAndrew also said he regrets not cutting ties with Epstein after the financier pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida under a deal that required him to serve 13 months in jail and register as a sex offender.He saw Epstein following his release from custody in Florida and stayed at his New York mansion for several days. He said he ended his friendship with Epstein during that visit and did not have further contact with him.“It was the wrong decision to go and see him in 2010,” Andrew said. “I kick myself for (it) on a daily basis because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the royal family.”Epstein, who rubbed shoulders with the elite and politically powerful, killed himself this summer while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He had been accused of sexually abusing dozens of women.Andrew did not rule out cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation in the United States into Epstein’s associates, saying he would follow his lawyers’ advice.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says all Conservative Party candidates in the upcoming election have pledged to back his Brexit deal. “All 635 Conservative candidates standing at this election — every single one of them — has pledged to me that if elected they will vote in Parliament to pass my Brexit deal so we can end the uncertainty and finally leave the EU,” Johnson told London’s Telegraph newspaper in an interview published late on Saturday. “I am offering a pact with the people: If you vote Conservative you can be 100% sure a majority Conservative government will unblock Parliament and get Brexit done,” he said. The December 12 election was called to end three years of disagreement over Brexit that has sapped investors’ faith in the stability of the world’s fifth-largest economy and damaged Britain’s standing since it voted in a 2016 referendum to leave the European Union. Johnson, 55, hopes to win a majority to push through the last-minute Brexit deal he struck with the EU last month after the bloc granted a third delay to the divorce that was originally supposed to take place March 29. Voters in a 2016 referendum narrowly voted in favor of leaving the EU. Johnson’s Conservatives lead Labour by sizable margins, four polls published Saturday show. A YouGov poll showed support for the Conservatives at 45%, the highest level since 2017, compared with Labour at 28%, unchanged. The pro-European Union Liberal Democrats were at 15%, and the Brexit Party was at 4%, unchanged. A separate poll for SavantaComRes also said support for the Conservatives was the highest since 2017, at 41%. Labour’s support was at 33%. The Conservatives have a 16-point lead over Labour, according to an opinion poll published by Opinium Research, and a poll by the Mail on Sunday said Johnson’s party had a 15-point lead over Labour. 
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A federal judge on Saturday ordered that a German citizen arrested on her return to the country on suspicion of being a member of Islamic State should remain in custody, prosecutors said. 
 
Authorities said the suspect, identified only as Nasim A., left Germany for Syria in 2014, married a fighter and moved with him to Iraq. There she was paid to maintain an IS-controlled house and carried a weapon. 
 
She and her husband later moved to Syria, where she also maintained a house, prosecutors said. Kurdish security forces arrested her in early 2019. 
 
The woman was arrested Friday evening in Frankfurt upon her return to Germany. 
 
The judge determined Saturday that she remain in detention because of “suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organization in a foreign country,” prosecutors said. 
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The United Nations warned Saturday that violence in Bolivia could “spin out of control,” following a night of skirmishes between security forces and coca farmers loyal to ousted President Evo Morales that left at least eight dead. Morales resigned under pressure from Bolivia’s police and military last Sunday after evidence of vote rigging tainted his October 20 election victory. He fled to Mexico. The leftist and charismatic former coca farmer has since called his ouster a “coup” and decried growing allegations of heavy-handed repression by security forces under interim President Jeanine Anez, a former conservative lawmaker. “The coup leaders massacre indigenous and humble people for asking for democracy,” Morales said on Twitter late Friday, following reports of mounting deaths.  Anez has blamed Morales for stoking violence from abroad, and has said her government wishes to hold elections and meet with the opposition to mend fences.  FILE – Coca growers, supporters of former President Evo Morales, run from tear gas as one of them kicks a gas canister during clashes with riot police in Sacaba, on the outskirts of Cochabamba, Bolivia, Nov. 15, 2019.The rising body count prompted Morales to strike a more conciliatory tone with the government of Anez in recent days. “For the sake of democracy … I have no problem not taking part in new elections,” Morales told Reuters in an interview in Mexico City. Morales’ party, now the opposition, has asked for a session of both chambers of Bolivia’s legislature this Tuesday to discuss a plan for holding the elections to replace the interim government. Anez, meanwhile, has moved quickly away from Morales’ leftist rule. On Friday, Bolivia asked Venezuelan officials to leave the country. The Andean nation also accused Cuba, once a close ally, of stoking unrest following Morales’ resignation. Anez spoke with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guiado on Saturday. She said she was pleased to establish relations with a 
“democratic Venezuela.” “We have the same objectives, and I hope soon we can cry freedom for Venezuela, as it so rightly deserves,” she said in the televised meeting. 
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Guatemala could send asylum seekers to some of the country’s most remote regions, a top official said on Saturday, as the Central American country and the United States move closer to finalizing details of a controversial migration agreement.Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart, who met officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Friday, told Reuters in an interview that he wanted to finalize the agreement before President-elect Alejandro Giammattei takes office in January. A representative for the incoming government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Degenhart said the regions could include, but would probably not be limited to, the Peten jungle, a sweltering area in northern Guatemala that borders Mexico and is known to be frequented by drug cartels.He declined to give further details on the scope of the agreement before finalizing discussions with his U.S. counterparts.Migrants whose asylum claims were rejected by the United States could be transported to airports across the country, Degenhart said. “All airports are being analyzed,” he said.
“There are some that’ll qualify but others that won’t.”The United States pressured Guatemala to accept more asylum seekers under a “safe third country” agreement signed in July, but it has not yet been implemented as the two sides iron out details amid opposition in Guatemala.By accepting a safe third country deal, Guatemala could help U.S. President Donald Trump implement a new U.S. rule that would deny asylum to migrants unless they first apply in a country they have traveled through en route to the United States.Trump’s administration has struggled to stem a flow of mostly undocumented Central American migrants heading to the U.S. border and bring down migration, a key promise of his election campaign.”The process has not finished,” Degenhart said of the negotiations. “We are close to finishing it but it’s important that we finish defining the details before making a final
decision.”
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France’s yellow vests staged demonstrations Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of a protest movement for greater economic justice that once captured international headlines.  
 
Demonstrators smashed store windows and bus stops in Paris and set bonfires in some streets. Police and firemen responded with tear gas and water hoses. At least one of the demonstrations was canceled because of the violence. 
 
Demonstrations elsewhere in France were more peaceful. 
 
Protests first exploded over a hike in fuel prices. Roughly a quarter-million people — a diverse slice of French society, including teachers, farmers, retirees and students — took to the streets a year ago. Later, their demands expanded to a range of issues, from action on climate change to support for working-class families.  Protesters attend a demonstration to mark the first anniversary of the “yellow vest” movement in Nantes, France, Nov. 16, 2019.French President Emmanuel Macron responded by launching a national citizens debate earlier this year, and he offered concessions like tax cuts and a minimum wage hike.  The demonstrations have cost French businesses and the government hundreds of millions of dollars, but today, ome yellow vests say they’ve gained nothing from protesting. Farid, a government worker, says people are still struggling to make ends meet. Others say they’ve built bonds with fellow protesters. 
 
Recent efforts to revive the movement haven’t gained traction. French protests have certainly not ended — they’ve just gone back to more traditional forms. This week, for example, thousands of hospital workers marched over lack of funds and manpower. But yellow vests may join a broader labor strike next month, which some hope — or fear — may help relaunch the movement. 
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The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump centers on the question of whether he suspended close to 400 million dollars in U.S. military aid to Ukraine to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate one of his own political opponents. Top U.S. diplomats and other foreign policy experts said any threat to that U.S. security assistance sends the wrong signal, both to Ukraine, and to the stronger power it is fighting on its own soil, Russia. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
 
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Authorities in Haiti said late Friday they are investigating allegations that a group of male inmates raped 10 women in a makeshift jail in the northern city of Gonaives.Prosecutor Serard Gazius told The Associated Press that more than 50 men broke out of their cells last week and overpowered police officers guarding the inmates, adding that an unknown number of them are suspected of raping 10 of 12 women being held in the same facility but in separate cells.He said the male and female inmates were being held in a former United Nations facility because the original prison was destroyed years ago and a new one hasn’t been built. Gazius said the women were scared and have yet to identify the suspects, adding that they have received medical care.Gazius said the women were being held on charges ranging from robberies to attempted murder. None of them have been convicted.Jean Castro Previl, head of the Artibonite police department, declined to comment and referred all questions to Gazius.All 340 detainees have been transferred to other facilities as authorities continue the investigation, with Gazius adding that violent protests that began more than two months ago seeking the president’s resignation are making it difficult to prosecute suspects because some courts have been shuttered, along with many schools and businesses.A human rights group known as the Defenders Plus Collective denounced the alleged rapes and called on the government to prosecute the suspects and do more to protect women and girls across Haiti as violence and political turmoil worsen.“With the chaotic situation that Haiti’s population is facing, armed gangs have taken advantage and multiplied and acted with impunity and tranquility under the passive gaze of state authorities,” the organization said in a statement.
 
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Five supporters of former president Evo Morales were killed Friday in violent clashes between protesters and security forces in Bolivia, according to an AFP correspondent who saw the bodies at a hospital.Authorities did not report any deaths in the riots outside Cochabamba, though it said 100 people were detained. Media reports said eight were wounded.Clashes had broken out Friday in the suburbs of Cochabamba, where thousands of coca growers were trying to reach the city center 11 miles (18 kilometers) away to join a protest against interim leader Jeanine Anez.But they were blocked by police, who stopped them from crossing a bridge.Injured demonstrators inside an ambulance in Sacaba, on the outskirts of Cochabamba, Bolivia, Nov. 15, 2019.The protesters carried “weapons, guns, Molotov cocktails, homemade bazookas and explosive devices,” Cochabamba police commander Colonel Jamie Zurita said.”They used dynamite and deadly weapons like the Mauser 765 (rifle). Neither the armed forces nor the police are equipped with such a caliber, I am worried,” he said.The crowd was dispersed after dark by riot police, who were supported by the army and a helicopter.Morales resigned and fled to Mexico after losing the support of Bolivia’s security forces following weeks of protests over his disputed Oct. 20 reelection.With the five protesters killed Friday, the death toll from the unrest rises to 15 with more than 400 wounded.
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has seen an ally forced from office and protests rattle leaders across Latin America in recent weeks, while he has enjoyed a period of relatively smooth sailing, expounding his socialist dream in nightly television addresses and attending international conferences. But opposition leader Juan Guaido is determined to disturb Maduro’s comfort, and has called on Venezuelans across the crisis-torn nation to flood the streets Saturday for protests nearly a year after he launched his campaign to push Maduro from power. We don't have a choice,'' Guaido told a rally this week, saying the circumstances were dire.The alternative for this situation today is death. We want to live.” Test of his appealGuaido’s renewed call will test his ability to draw out masses, despite shrinking crowds rallying around him in recent months in a sign of disillusionment. Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela researcher at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank, said a lot of people will be watching closely to gauge Guaido’s ability to inspire, especially at home in Venezuela. Guaido is under increasing pressure from within his coalition to present a realistic path forward,'' Ramsey said.There’s a lot riding on this.” A woman cries in front of soldiers guarding a street during a march of supporters of former President Evo Morales in downtown La Paz, Bolivia, Nov. 15, 2019.Guaido’s call for renewed protests in Venezuela came as political turmoil embroils governments across the region, from Chile to Ecuador to Bolivia, forcing presidents into concessions and even contributing to one’s departure. Bolivia’s President Evo Morales abruptly resigned and fled into exile in Mexico. While all this happened, Maduro traveled to Azerbaijan for an international conference and even enjoyed a small bump in crude production after years of crashing levels and bad news for the oil-rich nation. Assumption of powerGuaido, 36, leaped to the center of Venezuela’s political fray when the opposition-led National Assembly appointed him as its leader. On Jan. 23, he declared that he was assuming presidential powers. He vowed to remove Maduro and hold new elections. The United States was first among a steadily growing list of more than 50 nations and international bodies to endorse Guaido. They say Maduro clings to power following a sham election in 2018. They accuse him of human rights violations and failed economic policies that have bankrupted Venezuela. That nation sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, but production has been down for two decades. Production made a rare uptick in October, according to OPEC figures, showing the first increase in six months. Still, oil pumping is at the same level Venezuela last produced in 1944. FILE – People shout slogans against Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro during a blackout in Caracas, March 9, 2019.Most Venezuelans earn minimum wage, which equals less than $15 a month, and inflation this year is estimated to hit 200,000%. Millions live with unreliable water supplies and constant power outages, and drivers wait in mile-long lines to gas up their cars. Guaido has held numerous events in recent days, reminding residents that these conditions aren’t normal. He’s visited neighborhoods and talked with university students, urging their return to the street. The opposition published Wakeup Venezuela!'' videos on social media promoting the march. Guaido rejected claims that disillusionment will prevent Venezuelans from heeding his call come Saturday, saying he's defied doubters before. Nobody believed in Venezuela on the 23rd of January,” Guaido told The Associated Press. Today, Venezuela is even clearer about its future.'' U.S. supportJames Story, charge d' affaires for the Venezuela Affairs Unit of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia, said Friday that officials knew going in that forcing Maduro from power would not quick or easy. But he said Guaido continues to have unwavering support from the U.S., the international community and, more important, from Venezuelans. When he travels throughout the country, the people always respond,” Story said in conference call with reporters. He's going to get the same kind of response tomorrow.'' Bolivia's crisis is likely serving as a case study for both Maduro and Guaido, analysts say. Morales, a longtime socialist ally of Maduro, fled to exile in Mexico when a generalsuggested” he step down, after irregularities in the election that he claimed gave him a fourth term. However, Maduro has diligently cultivated Venezuela’s generals, who have remained loyal, even as Guaido early in the campaign pushed to flip the soldiers against Maduro and later mounted a failed military uprising. The government plans to counter Saturday’s opposition demonstration. The socialist party has called its own rival rally. Maduro beefed up security, ordering civilian militias to patrol the streets. Police clashed with students at a Caracas university following a speech by Guaido. Dozens of students offered the police white roses and urged them to abandon Maduro. The students then tried to charge the police line and threw rocks, drawing pepper spray and tear gas in return. Exiting a Caracas subway, shop owner Jose Buitrago, 53, said he’s fed up watching relatives leave Venezuela. He complained of living with a painful hernia while the broken health care system deprives him of a simple operation. “The time has come for us to go out to fight, because this can’t stand anymore,” said Buitrago, who plans to protest on Saturday and said he hoped other Venezuelans would join him. 
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The International Organization for Migration said Friday that 2019 might be the deadliest year for migrant deaths in the Americas since it began keeping records six years ago. The U.N. agency said 695 people have died this year while making the treacherous journey across the central Mediterranean Sea, the world’s deadliest migrant corridor. It said that’s one-sixth the number of deaths recorded in 2016, when fatalities reached an all-time high of nearly 4,200 on the route. But IOM spokesman Joel Millman said the Mediterranean route figure for 2019 was barely larger than the 634 migrant deaths recorded in the Americas.   
 
“We have never seen anything like that before, where the principal migration routes that link Latin America to North America are now, this year, virtually as deadly as the central Mediterranean route has been for the last six years,” he said. Venezuelan exodusMillman attributed the surprising rise to the mass movement of refugees and migrants from Venezuela. He told VOA that more than 4 million Venezuelans had fled the country over the past two years. He said such a large volume of people on the move creates conditions that will result in more fatalities.   
 
“The place we have seen it worst of all is the Caribbean, where we know 157 deaths at sea,” he said. “Last year at this time, there were 24. So we are talking about more than six times the volume of sea deaths. And I know that the majority of deaths in the Caribbean are Venezuelan migrants and refugees trying to get to the Caribbean islands.”   
 
Millman said the nationalities of 227 people who died while heading toward the United States were unknown. He noted that Latin American migrants from countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Ecuador accounted for the largest number of fatalities after Venezuela. 
 
Included in this year’s statistics were the deaths of six migrants from Cameroon. Millman said three Cameroonians drowned off the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, in the last few weeks and one man died while in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in California. 
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Protests have roiled Bolivia for about three weeks, leading to the ouster of Evo Morales as president.Increasingly, journalists are becoming targets of harassment, censorship and personal attacks by citizens from across the political spectrum, as well as the government. Some newspapers have suspended printing, and broadcast news outlets have gone dark, creating confusion and misinformation.According to the National Press Association in Bolivia, violence against journalists stems from political instability, among other reasons. However, public distrust of reporters has existed for years.The association has registered 64 attacks on journalists and 12 on media outlets this year in the cities of La Paz, El Alto, Oruro, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.FILE – Journalists are seen during a protest in La Paz, Bolivia, Oct. 24, 2019.The newspaper Los Tiempos in Cochabamba said it decided to cancel its paper edition after its journalists were constantly threatened.”Due to threats of attacks and looting by groups related to the Socialist Movement against Los Tiempos, the print edition will not circulate tomorrow. We will keep our readers informed through our website and official social media accounts. Thank you for your understanding,” a statement said.’Victims of aggression’Since disputed presidential elections in October and the resignation of Morales — currently in exile in Mexico — Bolivia is in a restive state. Daily clashes between supporters and opponents of Morales have made work difficult for journalists.”We have deeply regretted the fact that … journalists, reporters, cameramen in Bolivia, have become victims of aggression,” stated Frank Chavez, executive director of the National Press Association.FILE – Bolivia’s President Evo Morales speaks during a press conference at the government palace in La Paz, Bolivia, April 17, 2017.State news outlets such as Bolivia TV and Radio Patria have stopped broadcasting regular programming since Nov. 9, due to the constant threats of people opposed to former President Morales.In one reported incident, hundreds of people protested outside a state-run radio station and forced 40 employees to leave the building. Station director Jose Aramayo was tied to a tree after hundreds of people forcibly removed him.International organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, are expressing concern over reports of physical attacks against journalists from protesters and government forces.”We have seen incidents by the police assaulting journalists, also of the protesters preventing journalists from entering a place, or shouting at journalists, telling them that they are liars, that they will not cover events with objectivity,” Natalie Southwick, coordinator for Central and South America at CPJ, told Voice of America.”There is a very worrying possibility of self-censorship that journalists are not going to report on certain communities or certain issues out of fear.”One reporter’s experienceMiriam Jemio has worked as a reporter in Bolivia for more than 25 years. She told VOA that recently, for the first time ever, she was attacked while doing her work.”I was on my way to an event with former President Evo Morales before his resignation and there was a group of protesters on the street. I took my camera and started recording, and when I was getting closer to the group a woman told me not to record and asked me to give her my phone.”Jemio said the protesters started pushing her, broke her selfie stick and almost stole her phone until another person told the group to stop.”They are equally aggressive on both sides. The worst thing is that they tell us from both sides that we are infiltrators and liars.”She said that every day she covers a story or tries to do an interview, she encounters people who don’t trust her work. Yet, despite these challenges, Jemio said she still thinks it’s possible — though increasingly difficult — to do her job.
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Exceptionally high tidal waters returned to Venice on Friday, prompting the mayor to close the iconic St. Mark’s Square and call for donations to repair the Italian lagoon city just three days after it experienced its worst flooding in 50 years.
                   
The high tide peaked at 1.54 meters (5 feet) above sea level just before noon on Friday, flooding most of the historic center.
                   
Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told reporters he was forced to ask police to block off St. Mark’s Square, which was covered in knee-high water. Even as the water started to subside, workers in high boots began removing the platforms used by the public to cross the square without getting wet.
                   
The city saw the second-worst flooding on record late Tuesday when the water level reached 1.87 meters (6 feet, 1 inch) above sea level, prompting the Italian government to declare a state of emergency.
                   
On Thursday, the government also approved 20 million euros in funding to help Venice repair the most urgent damage.
                   
Venice’s mayor said the damage is estimated at hundreds of millions of euros and blamed climate change for the “dramatic situation” in the historic city. He called for the speedy completion of the city’s long-delayed Moses flood defense project.
                   
He also called for donations from Italy and abroad to help repair the damage caused by the flooding.
                   
“Venice is the pride of all of Italy,” Brugnaro said in a statement Friday. “Venice is everyone’s heritage, unique in the world. Thanks to your help, Venice will shine again.”
                   
The leader of the right-wing opposition League party, Matteo Salvini, visited Venice on Friday morning and also called for a common effort to complete the Moses project, which the Italian government now expects to be completed by 2021.
                   
“We can’t waste time, this city is crying for help,” Salvini said, adding that similar incidents must be avoided.
                   
Tuesday’s devastating floods have reignited a yearslong debate on Moses, a multibillion-euro flood defense project that has been under construction since 2003. The project has not yet been activated, after being delayed a number of times due to corruption scandals, costs overruns and environmentalist opposition over its effects on Venice’s lagoon ecosystem.
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Britain’s ruling Conservatives are banking heavily on the star quality of their leader, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who’s had an uncanny ability in the past to connect with voters and to cheer them up.He’s struggled on the campaign trail for next month’s highly contentious election, however, and, surprisingly, he hasn’t prospered in several encounters with voters, prompting commentators to query whether the shine has worn off Boris or whether Britons are wearying of his knockabout style.His election earlier this year as leader by the Conservatives, who view themselves as the natural party of government, was partly driven by the idea that the ever-upbeat, mop-haired former London mayor and journalist could secure them a parliamentary majority by casting his political spell, dashing around the fractious country with an invigorating message and cheery rhetoric laden with quips and jokes and endearing gaffes.Hardline anti-European Union Conservatives also saw Johnson as the best bet to break the three-year logjam in Parliament over Britain’s planned and messy departure from the EU, and to be the one to actually “deliver Brexit.”However, the much-vaunted Johnson magic hasn’t so far been the spell-binding force of old in an election that’s the most unpredictable in years, thanks to Brexit, the fracturing of the country’s main parties, and the emergence of new ones.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has his picture taken with supporters prior to boarding his campaign bus, in Manchester, England, Nov. 15, 2019.Torrential rain hasn’t helped. Midweek, Johnson, dressed as though he were out for a day’s hunting on an aristocratic estate, faced angry voters in the deluged English regions of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, the east Midlands and Lincolnshire, where flood defenses failed once again failed to prevent rivers from breaching their banks and flooding homes and businesses.
Shortly after arriving in the sodden Yorkshire town of Stainforth, as a hundred soldiers were deployed to help shore up the failing flood defenses, one middle-aged woman resident stopped briefly to tell Johnson, “I’m not very happy about talking to you, so, if you don’t mind, I’ll just mope on with what I’m doing.”Pushing her wheelbarrow by bemused soldiers and the startled, mumbling Johnson, she added, “You’ve not helped us … I don’t know what you’re here today for.”A townsman shouted at him, “You’ve took your time, Boris, haven’t you?” Johnson’s sheepish response, “We’ve been on it round the clock,” didn’t assuage the man. The day before Johnson inexplicably announced the flooding wasn’t sufficiently bad to call a “national emergency.”“Campaigning as a maverick challenger and campaigning as the sitting prime minister are two very different things,” a member of his election team acknowledged privately to VOA.Autumn and winter floods have become ever more frequent in England — the consequence of climate change, according to scientists, overdevelopment and neglect of infrastructure by successive governments. Johnson can hardly be blamed that once again the flood defenses failed, ruining homes and endangering businesses. However, the government’s slow response in getting the army to help and Johnson’s late arrival in deluged regions, a day after his main rivals, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn and the Liberal Democrats’ Jo Swinson, had visited, was less than sure-footed.Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn poses for a photo after speaking at a campaign event in Lancaster, England, Nov. 15, 2019.It was especially surprising as Johnson’ electoral strategy is based on pulling off something that evaded his Conservative predecessor, Theresa May, at the last general election less than two years ago — winning over some of the Labour Party’s heartland working-class constituencies in the north of England and the Midlands, which voted for Brexit in the 2016 referendum. The Conservatives need to make inroads with these voters  to compensate for the likely loss of pro-EU seats in the south of England and London, where the Liberal Democrats and Labour are likely to do well.  Liberal Democrats would ditch Brexit, Labour would negotiate a new deal and hold a second referendum offering a choice between their exit deal and remaining as a full EU member.An 11th-hour bid by the Conservatives to dissuade Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party from running candidates in Labour’s heartland northern seats, where they’re likely to split the anti-EU vote, failed Thursday, complicating Johnson’s path to victory.Johnson on Thursday was accused of running scared by refusing to meet members of the public during a visit to Somerset, where he was trying to bolster the campaigns of Conservatives, also known as Tories, against strong Liberal Democrat challenges. In the market town of Taunton he was heckled as he visited a school and a scheduled stop-off at a nearby bakery was shelved.On paper, though, Johnson should be able to secure a comfortable parliamentary majority. The Conservatives have a 14% lead over Labour, the country’s main opposition party, which under Jeremy Corbyn has lurched far to the left, and which is running on an aggressive renationalization and tax-the-rich manifesto.Corbyn is also less the firebrand on the campaign trial than he was in the last election, when Labour benefited from a late surge to confound the pollsters and the Conservatives. The Labour leader’s popularity rating in the opinion polls has slumped to a historic minus 48%, 43 points lower than Johnson, who himself has a dismal approval rating of minus 5%. Only Swinson is in positive territory.Leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson reacts as she speaks at a campaign event in London, Britain, Nov. 9, 2019.Nonetheless with a big lead over Labour Johnson looks to be safe. “If current polling and anecdotal evidence from doorstep campaigning is correct, Mr Johnson ought comfortably to secure the majority he seeks on December 12,” notes Jeremy Warner, a commentator for the pro-Conservative Daily Telegraph.However, few pollsters are confident even about their own opinion polls, especially as most were wrong about about the past two elections. Brexit has turned Britain into a politically tumultuous country — old allegiances have been upended, a wide generation gap has been exposed, with younger voters shifting left and older voters shifting right. With the emergence of new political groups and the reinvigoration of the centrist and pro-EU Liberal Democrats there could be some big surprises on election night. The number of variables in play makes it especially hard to predict what will happen.The winter weather also poses a huge danger for the ruling Conservatives — as the flooding demonstrated this week. Governments traditionally have avoided calling elections in the winter — this is the first since 1974, when the sitting Labour government made moderate gains but failed to obtain an overall majority. In the last December election, in 1923, the ruling Conservatives also failed to secure a majority in the House of Commons.The problem for any government is that voters tend to be grumpier in the winter with the darkness and poor weather — a feel-good factor tends to play more favorably for the party in power, but when voters are unhappy they are more likely to punish their rulers, say pollsters.According to Rob Parsons, political editor of the right-leaning Yorkshire Post, the floods “risk washing away Tory hopes of taking the north.”  Another winter-related factor that poses a threat to the Conservatives is the National Health Service, already a key election issue with both the Conservatives and Labour vying with each other over who will spend more on Britain’s hospitals. Lengthy wait times because of winter illnesses such as flu will inevitably be blamed on the government, according to pollsters. 
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The United States is promising not to abandon the fight to eradicate the Islamic State terror group, while pushing its coalition allies to take more responsibility for foreign fighters and rebuilding Iraq and Syria. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed visiting foreign ministers of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS to the State Department Thursday to discuss the way forward, as VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
 
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