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UN investigators accused Chile’s police and army of indiscriminate violence and gross violations, including torture and rape, in crushing recent mass protests over social and economic grievances.An investigative team from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights produced a 30-page report expressing alarm at the excessive use of force by security agents.     It said Chile’s violent crackdown on protesters resulted in the reported deaths of dozens of people, a high number of injuries, and the arbitrary detentions of thousands of demonstrators.Chile’s Office of the Public Prosecutor says it is investigating 26 deaths.   The report holds state agents responsible for many of these deaths, noting that live ammunition was used in some cases.  The Chilean Ministry of Justice reports that nearly 5,000 people, more than half of whom were police officers, have been injured during the protests.  UN sources say the number of injured is higher than that cited by government officials.  They accuse state agents of unnecessary and disproportionate use of less-lethal weapons, such as anti-riot shotguns, during peaceful demonstrations.Imma Guerras-Delgado headed the mission to Chile, which took place in the first three weeks of November.  She said the demonstrations that have been occurring since mid-October were triggered by multiple causes, including social and economic inequality.”The majority of those who have exercised the right to assembly during this period have done so in a peaceful manner,” Guerras-Delgado said. “We have found that the overall management of assemblies by the police was carried out in a fundamentally repressive manner.”  Guerras-Delgado said the mission is particularly concerned by the use of pellets containing lead.  She said hundreds of people suffered eye injuries, causing blindness in a number of cases, and condemned the brutal suppression of peaceful nationwide protests by the police and army.”Human rights violations documented by OHCHR [Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights] include the excessive or unnecessary use of force that led to unlawful killings and injuries, arbitrary detentions and torture and ill treatment,” she said.   Among its recommendations, the report urges Chile to immediately end the indiscriminate use of anti-riot shotguns to control demonstrations.  It also calls on the government to make sure security forces adopt measures to guarantee accountability for human rights violations and to prevent the recurrence of similar events.
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Britain “deserves a break from wrangling, a break from politics and a permanent break from talking about Brexit,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday, after his Conservative Party won what Johnson described as an “extraordinary” election.””Let the healing begin,” the prime minister said.Johnson focused his campaigning efforts on the slogan –  “Get Brexit Done.”  He said the parliamentary majority for his Conservative Party will allow him to push through a previously rejected divorce deal with the European Union and carry out Brexit by January 31, 2020.He thanked Labour Party supporters who voted for the Conservative Party for the first time and promised a “One Nation Conservative government.”  “I say thank you for the trust you have placed in us and in me and we will work round the clock to repay your trust and to deliver on your priorities with a Parliament that works for you,” Johnson said.The British leader, who accepted the Queen’s offer earlier Friday to form a government, said there is no one definition for one nation conservatism, “but broadly it refers to the idea the Conservative Party should act for everybody in the UK. That means policies that work for people from different economic backgrounds, from different regions and from the different nations of the UK.”The win gives the Conservatives their biggest margin in parliament since the 1980s.
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Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon jumped to the highest level for the month of November since record-keeping began in 2015, according to preliminary government data published Friday.Destruction of the world’s largest tropical rainforest totaled 563 square km (217.38 square miles) in November, 103% more than in the same month last year, according to the country’s space research agency INPE.That would bring total deforestation for the period from January to November to 8,934 square km, 83% more than in the same period in 2018 and an area almost the size of Puerto Rico.The data released by INPE was collected through the DETER database, a system that publishes alerts on fires and other types of developments affecting the rainforest. The DETER numbers are not considered official deforestation data. That comes from a different system called PRODES, also managed by INPE.PRODES numbers released last month showed deforestation rose to its highest in more than a decade this year, jumping 30% from 2018 to 9,762 square km. Deforestation usually slows around November and December during the Amazon region’s rainy season. The number for last month was unusually high.Researchers and environmentalists blame right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro for emboldening ranchers and loggers by calling for the Amazon to be developed and for weakening the environmental agency Ibama.Bolsonaro and Environment Minister Ricardo Salles have said previous governments played a role in deforestation’s increase, saying policies including budget cuts at agencies like Ibama were in place well before the new government took office on Jan. 1.Brazil’s Environment Ministry had no immediate comment Friday on the DETER data for November.
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Growing up along the U.S.-Mexico border, hotel clerk Joe Luis Rubio never thought he’d be trying to communicate in Portuguese on a daily basis.But with hundreds of Brazilians crossing from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, each week, the Motel 6 by the airport has become a stepping stone for thousands of the Portuguese speakers on a 6,000-mile (9,500 km) journey from Brazil to El Paso to America’s East Coast.“Thank God for Google Translate or we’d be lost,” says Rubio.The quiet migration of around 17,000 Brazilians through a single U.S. city in the past year reveals a new frontier in the Trump administration’s effort to shut down the legal immigration pathway for people claiming fear of persecution.Like hundreds of thousands of families from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, known collectively as the Northern Triangle, Brazilians have been crossing the border here and applying for asylum. They now make up a quarter of immigrants apprehended in El Paso, the most commonly apprehended migrants after Mexicans.Nationwide, some 18,000 Brazilians were apprehended in the fiscal year ending in October, a 600% increase from the previous high in 2016. Brazilians crossing in the El Paso Sector, which covers southern New Mexico and west Texas, accounted for 95% of the apprehensions nationwide, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.On Monday, acting CBP chief Mark Morgan vowed to try to shut down asylum for migrants from outside Spanish-speaking Central America and South America.“We’re seeing, again, individuals from extraterritorial countries, extra-continental, come in from Brazil, Haiti, Africans,” said Morgan.He pledged to implement rules to bar migrants from those countries “with the same level of commitment that we came up with initiatives to address the issue with the Northern Triangle families.”Those initiatives included making families wait in often dangerous Mexican border towns for months to apply for asylum, returning them to Mexico to await court hearings and a recent rule that effectively rejects nearly all asylum claims regardless of merit . The result has been a mishmash of pseudo deportations to countries where migrants have never lived and where they face barriers to work or access to basic social services.Brazilian families are not held indefinitely in detention but instead released to Annunciation House, a network of shelters, where they can stay for a few days while they arrange flights to other cities in the U.S.They’re often taken to the airport in a minivan driven by Phil Porter.“It takes a lot for somebody to pack up and leave their country, especially when they’re family oriented,” says Porter, 72, who estimates he’s ferried around 200 Brazilians. “These are economic refugees.”Brazil plunged into its worst-ever recession in 2015 and 2016 and is headed toward its third consecutive year of roughly 1% growth. The economy’s persistent failure to gain steam means joblessness has remained stubbornly in the double-digits, with the most recent reading at 11.6%. Adding underemployment, the figure more than doubles to almost one quarter of the work force, or 27 million people.Massachusetts officials and community leaders say they’ve felt the surge in Brazilian migrants this past year, with more families seeking immigration services and enrolling their children in public school. The state has the second largest population of Brazilians in the U.S. after Florida, according to 2015 U.S. Census data.Recent immigrant Helison Alvarenga says he started working the day after arriving in Massachusetts. The 26-year-old from the state of Minas Gerais arrived in August with his wife and young son after crossing into El Paso. They now live in Brockton, an old factory city 20 miles south of Boston. Already, he says, he’s earning three times more than what he earned as a mechanic in Brazil.“Things are in pretty bad shape in Brazil right now. The only way to have a better life in Brazil is to go to college, but college is very expensive,” said Alvarenga, speaking in Portuguese through a translator.The New England winter has also been tougher than he expected, he admits.“It makes me homesick. I miss the warmth and the sun,” he said. “If I won enough on a scratch ticket, I’d go back tomorrow.”Many coming from Brazil are petitioning for asylum, citing the country’s high unemployment and persistent corruption and violence, says Luciano Park, an immigration lawyer in Waltham who came from Brazil to attend law school in Boston.But Brazilian asylum seekers face an uphill climb. Simply seeking to escape Brazil’s chronic, gang-related violence often isn’t enough to claim asylum, Park said.Women citing domestic violence reasons are also less likely to win their cases under tougher asylum rules imposed by the Trump administration.“Before these were good cases,” Park said. “But it’s just become tougher to argue.”Tourist and student visas have been more difficult for Brazilians to get as more clamored for them in the recent economic downturn, says Francis Brink, an immigration lawyer in Orlando, Florida.He has taken a few clients who were persecuted by the government because they were police officers or military officials resisting corruption. But he turns most asylum seekers away, not wanting to give them false hope.Many single adult Brazilian migrants are being held in immigration detention while their asylum claims are processed. Others have tried to dodge detention by pretending to be a parent or a minor, often using IDs fraudulently obtained in Brazil. Homeland Security Investigations agents have been filing allegations of so-called “family fraud” by Brazilians at least a few times per month.On a recent Tuesday, the Motel 6 is half empty, with only two Brazilian families staying there.In room 127, a 42-year-old mother from the northeastern state of Maranhão is in bed watching TV. She’s waiting with her 16-year old son for a flight to Philadelphia, where they have family.She said they spent four days in a Border Patrol tent detention camp before being released.“It was miserable,” she said.While stays at the Motel 6 are down, more migrants are staying for longer at Annunciation House, according to the shelter’s director, Ruben Garcia.“One of the things that may have changed is we have Brazilians that don’t have some of the financial resources that some of the Brazilians did a while back,” Garcia said.
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Central American countries are teaming up to conserve the region’s five great forests as part of a regional climate action plan released at U.N. climate talks in Madrid this week, the alliance behind the effort said.The coalition of governments, indigenous people, green groups and others announced a plan to protect 10 million hectares of forests and degraded land inside those forests — an area roughly the size of Guatemala — by 2030.In the last 15 years, three of the forests have been reduced by almost one-quarter in size, with illegal cattle ranching responsible for more than 90% of recent deforestation, it said.Measures planned to safeguard the forests include bolstering agencies that look after protected areas, tracing beef to verify it has been legally produced, cracking down on cross-border cattle trafficking, helping ranchers find other ways to earn a living, and reforesting land where trees have been cut down.Jeremy Radachowsky, regional director for the Wildlife Conservation Society, a partner in the project, said financing would come from multiple sources, including Central American countries, donor governments and a dedicated fund that will be created for indigenous and community forests.The five forests, spanning from Mexico to Colombia, are key to curbing climate change as they sequester carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels that would otherwise heat up the planet.”Nearly 50% of the carbon in Mesoamerica is stored in the five great forests,” said Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Costa Rica’s environment minister, adding he hoped they would not be fragmented by deforestation.The forests also provide habitat for wildlife such as the jaguar and scarlet macaw, the alliance said. The initiative aims to ensure no species go extinct.The forests include the Maya Forest in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize; the Moskitia in Nicaragua and Honduras; the Indio Maiz-Tortuguero in Nicaragua and Costa Rica; the Talamanca region in Costa Rica and Panama; and the Darien in Panama and Colombia.They provide water, clean air, food security and other natural resources to 5 million people, the alliance said, noting that indigenous and local communities manage nearly half of the forest area.Candido Mezua  of the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests, said it was sad to see the forests of the Amazon burning — and the impact that was having on indigenous people.“In Mesoamerica, we have our five forests. They still exist. We can still protect them, and even expand them,” he said in a statement.Amazon summit Amazon indigenous leaders, meanwhile, said this week they would host a world summit in Ecuador next August aimed at protecting the Amazon rainforest and other ecosystems in “response to the environmental crisis in the basin and abroad”.Leaders representing 20 indigenous groups from Ecuador and Peru also called for global support to stop oil drilling and mining in the Amazon “Sacred Headwaters” region, an ecosystem rich in biodiversity that spans 30 million hectares in the two countries.Deforestation in Brazil’s huge tract of Amazon rainforest rose to its highest level in over a decade this year, government data showed in November.The data confirmed a sharp increase in deforestation under right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, which is considering permitting commercial agriculture and mining on native reserves.Risks to Brazil’s forests drew global concern in August when fires raged through the Amazon.Scientists link the fires to deforestation, with people and companies cutting down the forest for timber and then setting fire to the remains to clear the land for ranching or farming.Gregorio Mirabal, general coordinator of COICA, the biggest indigenous federation in the Amazon, said new ways were needed of dealing with threats to the Amazon, including the “devastating effects” of climate change.At the U.N. climate conference, states “are making decisions for companies and not for the people”, he said.”The inability of our governments to solve this (climate) crisis is calling us to do this ourselves, hand in hand with the youth and any others in goodwill who want to join,” he added.Many indigenous groups are opposed to credits for forest protection being included in carbon trading markets, arguing it would damage their sacred lands and livelihoods, as governments haggle over new rules for those markets at the Madrid talks.”We do not allow the commodification of nature or that it has a price. For us nature is of value as itself. It is our Mother Earth,” Mirabal said.According to the Washington-based Rights and Resources Initiative, which works on forest issues, up to 65% of the world’s land is communally held by indigenous peoples and local communities and contains 80% of the world’s biodiversity.But only 10% of those groups’ land rights have been legally recognized, it said.“The local cultures and indigenous peoples are the ones that have best preserved nature, and we do not believe that solutions can exist without us,” said Mirabal.Indigenous groups — officially represented at the U.N. conference for the first time — have pushed for language on protecting their rights to be included in the text on carbon market rules that is under negotiation in Madrid.But it is not in the latest draft as the talks near an end.Indonesian indigenous activist Ghazali Ohorella said the rules should ensure safeguards for forest people’s land and rights, as well as a complaints mechanism and opportunities for them to participate in decisions on carbon offsetting schemes. “If not, it will create so much trouble further down the line,” he told journalists at the talks.
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Serbian opposition activists have blockaded the entrance of the building hosting the state Radio and Television service (RTS) in Belgrade to protest what they say are deteriorating media freedoms in the Balkan country under populist President Aleksandar Vucic.
Members of the Alliance of Serbia (SzS), an opposition umbrella group, began the eight-hour blockade at noon in the capital on December 13, holding a banner reading “EU, It’s Your Choice: Vucic Or Democracy” in both English and Serbian.WATCH: video report
Serbian independent media have repeatedly complained of being pressured by officials and have accused the government of fueling an atmosphere of intolerance toward journalists.
Vucic, who vowed to lead Serbia toward European Union membership, has been accused of curbing media freedoms and democracy, accusations he has denied.
The activists called on RTS to “perform its role and inform the public on all issues that matter.”
Vuk Jeremic, the leader of the People’s Party and the SzS chairman, said the protesters had no intention of entering the building and that they were not seeking personnel changes.
Jeremic told a news conference that “members of SzS organizations, activists, and citizens” blocked the entrance because the RTS, as he put it, “has been blocking the truth for the past eight years.”
Vucic’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party ascended to power in 2012. Vucic has been president since 2017 and his government has strengthened relations with traditional Slavic ally Russia.
Jeremic also said that the move was a “warning” to RTS journalists that they “should do their job professionally.”
He said that while the blockade was peaceful, participants were concerned about possible provocateurs “sent by Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party.”
Police refused to sanction the protest because the request was not filed at least five days in advance, Jeremic said.
The rally came a day after a few dozen Serbian journalists staged a protest in Belgrade against what they said were deteriorating media freedoms under Vucic.
Members of the Independent Journalists’ Association said there have been more than 100 cases of pressure and attacks on the media in the past year alone.
The protest also marked a year since the house of journalist Milan Jovanovic was torched outside Belgrade. Jovanovic was investigating alleged local government corruption. He escaped the fire, but his home burned to the ground.
The suspected arsonists are currently on trial. A senior official in Vucic’s ruling party has been accused of ordering the attack, which he has denied.With reporting by AP
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Canada’s opposition Conservative leader said Thursday he will resign as party leader after weeks of infighting and a disappointing performance in parliamentary elections.Andrew Scheer, 40, called resigning “one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made.” He will stay on until a new leader is elected.”Serving as the leader of the party that I love so much has been the opportunity and the challenge of a lifetime,” Scheer said on the floor of Parliament.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won a second term in Canada’s October elections despite losing the majority in Parliament. It was an unexpectedly strong result for Trudeau following a series of scandals that had tarnished his image as a liberal icon.The vote led several Conservative officials to call for Scheer to step aside.Even members of his own party said Scheer is bland. They once touted it as a virtue, the antidote to Trudeau’s flash and star power. In the words of Canada’s former Conservative foreign minister, John Baird: “He’s not the sizzle, he’s the steak.”But Scheer was criticized during the campaign for embellishing his resume by saying he had worked as an insurance broker when, in fact, he was never licensed.He also took heat for holding dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship — something he and his party had blasted other Canadian political figures for and never mentioned until the Globe and Mail newspaper revealed it during the election campaign.He stumbled at several points in the campaign. He was widely panned after a debate when Trudeau grilled Scheer about his stance on abortion and the Conservative refused to answer.In 2005, he gave a speech in Parliament attacking same-sex marriage and his social conservative beliefs hurt him in Eastern Canada.Following the resignation, Trudeau said in Parliament, “I want to thank him deeply for his service to Canada on behalf of all Canadians.”Scheer plans to stay on as the member of Parliament for the Saskatchewan district he has represented since he was first elected in 2004 when he was 25. The Conservative caucus chair Tom Kmiec later announced Conservative Party Members of Parliament voted unanimously for Scheer to remain as leader until a new leader is elected.Political careerHe has spent most of his adult life in politics. At age 32, he became the youngest speaker of the House of Commons, a non-partisan role overseeing debate in Parliament.Scheer became Conservative leader in 2017 after other prominent Conservatives decided not to run because they thought Trudeau could not be beaten in the 2019 election.Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said leaders of the Liberal and Conservative parties are now expected to win at the first opportunity.”If they don’t, the knives are out,” Wiseman said. “Scheer could see the writing on the wall; he would have almost certainly failed to win a majority at his party convention’s scheduled review of his leadership in April.”Antonia Maioni, McGill University’s dean of arts, said Scheer’s party recognized that he and his social conservative beliefs were not a winning strategy for forming a government in Canada.Dustin van Vugt, the executive director of the Conservative Party, issued a statement that appeared to dismiss suggestions the resignation could be tied to reports that party funds were used to subsidize private school education for Scheer’s five children.”Shortly after Mr. Scheer was elected leader, we had a meeting where I made a standard offer to cover costs associated with moving his family from Regina to Ottawa. This includes a differential in schooling costs between Regina and Ottawa. All proper procedures were followed and signed off on by the appropriate people,” van Vugt said.
 
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Britons woke Friday to an utterly transformed political landscape following an electoral earthquake that has ripped up modern British politics, and whose tremors will be felt for years to come.  Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s emphatic win in the country’s third general election in four years — giving the Conservatives, also known as Tories, their biggest parliamentary majority in more than a quarter of a century — marks a decisive turn in the country’s fortunes following the instability triggered by the 2016 Brexit referendum, say analysts.Armed with an 80-seat majority, the biggest at a general election since Margaret Thatcher’s in 1987, Johnson’s government now will be able to end the deadlock in Britain’s Parliament and deliver on the Conservative promise to “get Brexit done” without further delay. Britain will almost certainly exit the European Union by the end of January, triggering a second and likely trickier stage of negotiations with Brussels over the country’s future political and trade relations with the European continent.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers a statement at Downing Street after winning the general election, in London, Britain, Dec. 13, 2019.Speaking from the steps of No. 10 Downing Street, Johnson said Thursday’s election results show the “irrefutable” decision of the British people is to leave the EU and to end the “miserable threats” of a second Brexit referendum, a rerun plebiscite backed by Britain’s main opposition party, Labor, and the centrist Liberal Democrats.The huge victory, which saw the country’s main opposition Labor Party record its worst electoral performance since 1935, is a vindication of Johnson’s decision, say analysts, to focus the election campaigning on Brexit and not to be drawn in too much by Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn’s effort to make the poll about the crumbling state of Britain’s public services. Johnson’s strategy was posited on the idea that Britons, even those who would prefer to remain in the EU, have become sick and tired of the long-running Brexit mess and want the saga to end.’Red wall’Johnson also had his fair share of luck, “the biggest piece of which was Jeremy Corbyn,” according to Daniel Finkelstein, a onetime adviser to former Conservative leader David Cameron and now a columnist with The Times. “Corbyn kept more moderate Conservatives voting Tory even when they had doubts about Boris Johnson. He neither united the liberal left and center behind a policy of stopping Brexit nor the traditional Labor vote behind a populist manifesto,” he said.Britain’s opposition Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves Islington Town Hall through the backdoor after a meeting following the results of the general election in London, Britain, Dec. 13, 2019.In the final days of the campaign, Johnson focused on Labor’s so-called “red wall” of constituencies searching for cracks to widen in former mining towns and farming villages crucial to the Conservatives’ hopes of winning Thursday’s election, warning voters they face a “great Brexit betrayal,” if they voted for an increasingly metropolitan and far-left Labor Party.On Thursday, Johnson managed not just to breach what was once considered an impregnable wall, but he bulldozed through it by persuading traditional working-class voters who favor Brexit in the north of England to ditch their lifetime habit of voting Labor. Constituencies that have been synonymous with Labor for decades fell like dominoes — seats like Workington in the northwest English county of Cumbria, which has been held by Labor for 97 out of the last 100 years.
Johnson’s Landslide Victory Sets Britain On Course for January Brexit video player.
Liberal Democrats candidate Jo Swinson speaks after losing her seat in East Dunbartonshire constituency, at a counting center for Britain’s general election in Bishopbriggs, Britain, Dec. 13, 2019.Labor moderates want him to go immediately, and they fear he wants to oversee the choice of his successor, which his internal party opponents see as a sign that he and the left wing of the party will not easily relinquish control.  Left-wingers attribute the party’s failure to Brexit and say it has nothing to do with Corbyn or his ideology. Richard Burgon, the shadow justice secretary, tweeted that this had been a “Brexit election.” “Johnson must continue to be fought with radical alternatives, not triangulation, that challenge the Tories head-on,” he added.But moderate Labor candidates say that on the doorsteps while campaigning, they found the main problem for the party wasn’t Brexit but deep distrust for the Labor leader. They note that while Labor did worse in seats that voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, they also fared badly in constituencies that voted to remain in the EU.One Labor candidate, Phil Wilson, who failed to keep what had been a safe Labor seat in the north, said it was “mendacious nonsense” for Corbyn loyalists to blame the result on Brexit. “Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was a bigger problem,” he said. “To say otherwise is delusional.”Scotland, Northern IrelandDespite their huge win, the victorious Conservatives will face challenges of their own, say analysts, both when it comes to Brexit and in terms of London’s relations with Scotland and Northern Ireland.Johnson’s victory may have seen a remaking of the Conservatives, a party now more working-class than it has ever been, but it may have come at the cost of unmaking Great Britain. North of the English border, in Scotland, the pro-EU Scottish Nationalists, or SNP, also pulled off a landslide win, heralding a coming battle over Scottish independence and setting London and Edinburgh on course for a possible constitutional showdown that risks being fraught as the current clash in Spain between Catalan separatists and Madrid.Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaks in Edinburgh, Dec. 13, 2019.The nationalists gained a dozen seats as the Tories, Labor and the Liberal Democrats were wiped out north of the border with the SNP winning 48 of Scotland’s 59 seats, up from the 35 it won in 2017. The SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, vowed Friday to formally request a second independence referendum before the end of the year, saying that the election results north and south of the border showed “the divergent paths” Scotland and the rest of the UK are on.”Boris Johnson has a mandate to take England out of the EU, but he must accept that I have a mandate to give Scotland a choice for an alternative future,” Sturgeon told the BBC. Johnson repeatedly has promised to reject any demand for another independence ballot, saying that if there is any formal demand, “we will mark that letter return to sender and be done with it.”Nationalists enjoyed success, too, in British-run Northern Ireland. For the first time, nationalists, who favor reunification with the Irish Republic, now hold a majority of seats in the province, which voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum.Brexit debateOn Brexit, Johnson likely will continue to face internal Conservative party disputes, say analysts, with half his Cabinet favoring a so-called soft Brexit, entailing a close trading and political relationship with the EU. Johnson is aiming to conclude a trade deal with the EU by the end of 2020, but EU leaders have warned the timetable is unrealistic and the complicated negotiations will be daunting and take years.  European Council President Charles Michel speaks during a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 13, 2019.The new president of the European Council, Charles Michel, warned that Brussels won’t agree to a free trade deal that does excludes Britain agreeing to abide by EU regulatory rules and product standards. “The EU is ready for the next phase,” he said. “We will negotiate a future trade deal, which ensures a true level playing field,” he added.EU officials formally welcomed Johnson’s victory but added they hope the prime minister will negotiate a “close as possible future relationship.” Some European officials say the Conservatives’ big parliamentary majority should give Johnson political space to maneuver and override the objections of those Tories who want a “clean break” with the EU.Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit Party, which failed to win any parliamentary seats Thursday, says he fears Johnson will pivot now that he has a large majority and will eventually conclude a closer relationship with the EU than hard-line Brexiters would like.
 
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Britain looks certain to leave the European Union by the end of January after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson secured a big majority of 78 seats in Thursday’s general election. His Conservative Party seized control of dozens of constituencies that had voted to leave in the 2016 referendum, vindicating Johnson’s decision to call an election. However,  as Henry Ridgwell reports, the country remains deeply divided – and the prime minister will face big challenges early on in his new term.
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Russia said on Friday it was alarmed after the United States tested a ground-launched ballistic missile that would have been prohibited under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the RIA news agency reported.The United States carried out the test on Thursday. Washington formally withdrew from the 1987 INF pact with Russia in August after determining that Moscow was violating the treaty, an accusation the Kremlin has denied.”It alarms us. Of course we will take this into account,” said Vladimir Ermakov, head of the foreign ministry’s arms control and non-proliferation department.It was the second test by the United States that would have been prohibited under the INF treaty and too place as the future of another major nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States is under question.New START, the last remaining major nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries, is due to expire in February 2021 and Moscow has warned there is already not enough time left to negotiate a full-fledged replacement.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has won a solid majority of seats in Britain’s Parliament — a decisive outcome to a Brexit-dominated election that should allow Johnson to fulfill his plan to take the U.K. out of the European Union next month.With just over 600 of the 650 seats declared, the Conservatives reached the 326 mark, guaranteeing their majority.Johnson said it looked like the Conservatives had “a powerful new mandate to get Brexit done.”The victory will likely make Johnson the most electorally successful Conservative leader since Margaret Thatcher, another politician who was loved and loathed in almost equal measure. It was a disaster for left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who faced calls for his resignation even as the results rolled in. The party looked set to gain around 200 seats.Corbyn called the result “very disappointing” for his party and said he would not lead Labour into another election, though he resisted calls to quit immediately,Results poured in early Friday showing a substantial shift in support to the Conservatives from Labour. In the last election in 2017, the Conservatives won 318 seats and Labour 262.The result this time looked set to be the biggest Tory majority since Thatcher’s 1980s’ heyday, and Labour’s lowest number of seats since 1935.The Scottish National Party appeared set to take about 50 of Scotland’s 59 seats — a big increase — with a lackluster dozen or so for the centrist, pro-EU Liberal Democrats. Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson lost her own Scottish seat.The Conservatives took a swathe of seats in post-industrial northern England towns that were long Labour strongholds. Labour’s vote held up better in London, where the party managed to grab the Putney seat from the Conservatives.The decisive Conservative showing vindicates Johnson’s decision to press for Thursday’s early election, which was held nearly two years ahead of schedule. He said that if the Conservatives won a majority, he would get Parliament to ratify his Brexit divorce deal and take the U.K. out of the EU by the current Jan. 31 deadline.Speaking at the election count in his Uxbridge constituency in suburban London, Johnson said the “historic” election “gives us now, in this new government, the chance to respect the democratic will of the British people to change this country for the better and to unleash the potential of the entire people of this country.”That message appears to have had strong appeal for Brexit-supporting voters, who turned away from Labour in the party’s traditional heartlands and embraced Johnson’s promise that the Conservatives would “get Brexit done.”“I think Brexit has dominated, it has dominated everything by the looks of it,” said Labour economy spokesman John McDonnell. “We thought other issues could cut through and there would be a wider debate, from this evidence there clearly wasn’t.”The prospect of Brexit finally happening more than three years after Britons narrowly voted to leave the EU marks a momentous shift for both the U.K. and the bloc. No country has ever left the union, which was created in the decades after World War II to bring unity to a shattered continent.But a decisive Conservative victory would also provide some relief to the EU, which has grown tired of Britain’s Brexit indecision.Britain’s departure will start a new phase of negotiations on future relations between Britain and the 27 remaining EU members.EU Council President Charles Michel promised that EU leaders meeting Friday would send a “strong message” to the next British government and parliament about next steps.“We are ready to negotiate,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.The pound surged when an exit poll forecast the Tory win, jumping over two cents against the dollar, to $1.3445, the highest in more than a year and a half. Many Investors hope a Conservative win would speed up the Brexit process and ease, at least in the short term, some of the uncertainty that has corroded business confidence since the 2016 vote.Many voters casting ballots on Thursday hoped the election might finally find a way out of the Brexit stalemate in this deeply divided nation. Three and a half years after the U.K. voted by 52%-48% to leave the EU, Britons remain split over whether to leave the 28-nation bloc, and lawmakers have proved incapable of agreeing on departure terms.On a dank, gray day with outbreaks of blustery rain, voters went to polling stations in schools, community centers, pubs and town halls after a bad-tempered five-week campaign rife with mudslinging and misinformation.Opinion polls had given the Conservatives a steady lead, but the result was considered hard to predict, because the issue of Brexit cuts across traditional party loyalties.Johnson campaigned relentlessly on a promise to “Get Brexit done” by getting Parliament to ratify his “oven-ready” divorce deal with the EU and take Britain out of the bloc as scheduled on Jan. 31.The Conservatives focused much of their energy on trying to win in a “red wall” of working-class towns in central and northern England that have elected Labour lawmakers for decades but also voted strongly in 2016 to leave the EU. That effort got a boost when the Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage decided at the last minute not to contest 317 Conservative-held seats to avoid splitting the pro-Brexit vote.Labour, which is largely but ambiguously pro-EU, faced competition for anti-Brexit voters from the centrist Liberal Democrats, Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties, and the Greens.But on the whole Labour tried to focus the campaign away from Brexit and onto its radical domestic agenda, vowing to tax the rich, nationalize industries such as railroads and water companies and give everyone in the country free internet access. It campaigned heavily on the future of the National Health Service, a deeply respected institution that has struggled to meet rising demand after nine years of austerity under Conservative-led governments.It appears that wasn’t enough to boost Labour’s fortunes. Defeat will likely spell the end for Corbyn, a veteran socialist who moved his party sharply to the left after taking the helm in 2015, but who now looks to have led his left-of-center party to two electoral defeats since 2017. The 70-year-old left-winger was also accused of allowing anti-Semitism to spread within the party.“It’s Corbyn,” said former Labour Cabinet minister Alan Johnson, when asked about the poor result. “We knew he was incapable of leading, we knew he was worse than useless at all the qualities you need to lead a political party.”For many voters, the election offered an unpalatable choice. Both Johnson and Corbyn have personal approval ratings in negative territory, and both have been dogged by questions about their character.Johnson has been confronted with past broken promises, untruths and offensive statements, from calling the children of single mothers “ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate” to comparing Muslim women who wear face-covering veils to “letter boxes.”Yet, his energy and determination proved persuasive to many voters.“It’s a big relief, looking at the exit polls as they are now, we’ve finally got that majority a working majority that we have not had for 3 1/2 years,” said Conservative-supporting writer Jack Rydeheard. “We’ve got the opportunity to get Brexit done and get everything else that we promised as well. That’s investment in the NHS, schools, hospitals you name it — it’s finally a chance to break that deadlock in Parliament.”
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Chilean authorities announced Thursday that rescue workers had found debris and human remains from the military transport plane that went missing on a regular flight to Antarctica.The head of the Chilean air force, General Arturo Merino, told reporters that based on the condition of the remains, it would be “practically impossible’ that any survivors would be found.”Remains of human beings that are most likely the passengers have been found among several pieces of the plane,” Merino said. “I feel immense pain for this loss of lives.”The C-130 Hercules was carrying 17 crew members and 21 passengers, including members of the Chilean air force, army and three civilians.  The wreckage was found 30 kilometers from the plane’s last-known position.
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Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has arrived in Argentina, where he has been granted asylum by the new left-wing government.Morales had fled to Mexico after nationwide protests over election fraud forced him to resign early last month.”He feels better here than in Mexico, which is far away,” Argentine Foreign Minister Felipe Sola said Thursday. The two countries are neighbors.Morales will live in the capital, Buenos Aires, with his two children. Sola said four former high-ranking officials in his administration had accompanied Morales and had also requested asylum.Morales fled Bolivia after the Organization of American States concluded that the October elections had been rigged to grant him a fourth term in office.”We expect the Argentine government to comply with international norms of political asylum,” Bolivian Foreign Minister Karen Longaric warned. “We don’t want to see what happened in Mexico, where Evo Morales had an open microphone and a stage.”Interim Bolivian President Jeanine Anez has said Morales will not be allowed to run in new presidential elections that are expected to be held early next year.But on Sunday, Morales’ Movement Towards Socialism (Mas) party named him its campaign manager.”Thank you for not abandoning me. I will always be with you,” Morales tweeted after that decision was announced.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party will win an overwhelming victory in Britain’s election with a majority of 86 seats in parliament to deliver Brexit on Jan. 31, an exit poll showed Thursday.The exit poll showed Johnson’s Conservatives would win a landslide of 368 seats, more than enough for a very comfortable majority in the 650-seat parliament and the biggest Conservative national election win since Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 triumph.Labour were forecast by the poll to win 191 seats, the worst result for the party since 1935. The Scottish National Party would win 55 seats and the Liberal Democrats 13, the poll said.The Brexit Party were not forecast to win any.”That would be a phenomenal victory for the Conservative Party and Boris Johnson will feel completely vindicated with the gamble that he took,” said John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons.”That would be an absolutely dramatic victory,” he said.Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives with his dog Dilyn at a polling station, at the Methodist Central Hall, to vote in the general election in London, Britain, Dec. 12, 2019.Sterling surged after the exit poll, hitting its highest against the euro since July 2016, shortly after the Brexit referendum. Versus the dollar it jumped 2.3% to $1.3480.Official results will be declared over the next seven hours.In the last five national elections, only one exit poll has got the outcome wrong — in 2015 when the poll predicted a hung parliament when in fact the Conservatives won a majority, taking 14 more seats than forecast.If the exit poll is accurate and Johnson’s bet on a snap election has paid off, he will move swiftly to ratify the Brexit deal he struck with the European Union so that the United Kingdom can leave on Jan. 31, 2020 — 10 months later than initially planned.Britain’s paralysis Johnson called the first Christmas election since 1923 to break what he said was the paralysis of Britain’s political system after more than three years of crisis over how, when or even if to leave the European Union.The face of the “Leave” campaign in the 2016 referendum, 55-year-old Johnson fought the election under the slogan of “Get Brexit Done,” promising to end the deadlock and spend more on health, education and the police.The exit poll was produced by three broadcasters — the BBC, ITV and Sky — who teamed up to jointly produce similar surveys in the last three elections, held in 2010, 2015 and 2017.In 2010 and 2017, their exit polls accurately predicted the overall outcome and were close to forecasting the correct number of seats for the two main parties.Johnson’s strategy was to breach Labour’s so-called “Red Wall” of seats across the Brexit-supporting areas of the Midlands and northern England where he cast his political opponents as the out-of-touch enemies of Brexit.Brexit far from overWhile a majority will allow Johnson to lead the United Kingdom out of the club it first joined in 1973, Brexit is far from over: He faces the daunting task of negotiating a trade agreement with the EU in just 11 months.After Jan. 31, Britain will enter a transition period during which it will negotiate a new relationship with the EU27.This can run until the end of December 2022 under the current rules, but the Conservatives made an election promise not to extend the transition period beyond the end of 2020.
 
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The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution that recognizes as genocide the mass killings of Armenians a century ago, a historic move that infuriated Turkey and dealt a blow to the already problematic ties between Ankara and Washington. Turkey condemned the measure, which passed a month after an official visit to the White House by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who enjoys a special rapport with President Donald Trump, amid mounting issues that have soured the relationship between the two NATO allies. Trump had cast his November 13 meeting with Erdogan as “wonderful” despite no concrete breakthrough on deep disagreements about issues such as Ankara’s purchase of Russian weapons systems and diverging views on Syria policy. The Democrat-led House of Representatives passed the resolution by an overwhelming majority in October. But Republican senators had blocked a vote in the Senate since the Erdogan meeting. ‘Tribute'”This is a tribute to the memory of 1.5 million victims of the first #Genocide of the 20th century and bold step in promotion of the prevention agenda. #NeverAgain,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tweeted. FILE – Two people walk at the Tzitzernakaberd memorial to the victims of mass killings by Ottoman Turks, in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, Oct. 30, 2019.The resolution, which is nonbinding, asserts that it is U.S. policy to commemorate as genocide the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923. The Ottoman Empire was centered in present-day Turkey. Turkey accepts that many Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I, but contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constituted genocide. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the decision a “political show,” while presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara strongly condemned and rejected the measure. “History will note these resolutions as irresponsible and irrational actions by some members of the U.S. Congress against Turkey,” Fahrettin Altun, Turkey’s communications director, said on Twitter. Sticking with S-400Congressional aides said the White House did not want the legislation to move ahead while it was negotiating with Ankara on sensitive issues. However, since the visit, Erdogan repeatedly said Turkey had no intention of dropping the Russian S-400 air defense missile systems it bought, crushing any hopes for progress. For decades, measures recognizing the Armenian genocide have stalled in Congress, stymied by concerns about relations with Turkey and intense lobbying by Ankara. “I’ve invested, like, decades of my life,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America. “So it was a sense of relief and a bit of a vindication that … [the United] States recognized the history of the Armenians, but also put up a firewall against foreign countries coming into our democracy and dictating to us.” Congress has been united in its opposition to Turkey’s recent policy actions. Republican senators have been incensed with Turkey’s purchase of the S-400, which the United States says poses a threat to its F-35 fighter jets and cannot be integrated into NATO defenses. Syrian incursionThey have also moved to punish Turkey for its October 9 incursion into Syria. A U.S. Senate committee backed legislation on Wednesday to impose sanctions on Turkey, pushing Trump to take a harder line on the issue. Many lawmakers blame Trump for giving a green light to Ankara for its military offensive. To become law, that legislation would have to pass the House of Representatives — which passed its own Turkish sanctions bill 403-16 in October — and be signed by 
Trump. 
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 LONDON — As Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi addressed the International Court of Justice in The Hague this week, many former supporters watched in dismay as the Nobel peace laureate denied accusations that Myanmar’s military conducted atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim population.Prosecution lawyers say the military’s actions amount to genocide, and many of Aung San Suu Kyi’s critics say she bears some responsibility for the continued persecution of the Muslim minority, three-quarters of a million of whom have fled the country.Human rights groups highlight the continuing detention of Rohingya people across Myanmar on charges of “traveling illegally” in the country.The “Rohingya are not granted freedom of movement,” said John Quinley III of the campaign group Fortify Rights. “We’ve documented recently forced labor of (the) Rohingya and restrictions on the right to nationality. We believe that the International Court of Justice should urgently put in place provisional measures, in order to end the persecution and ongoing violence against the Rohingya in Rakhine state.”Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi leaves the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after court hearings in The Hague, Netherlands, Dec. 12, 2019.Aung San Suu Kyi defended Myanmar’s military against accusations that it waged genocide against the Rohingya after The Gambia filed the case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. She said the military’s actions were a legitimate response to terrorism.”Myanmar requests the court to remove the case from its list. Steps that generate suspicion, sow doubts or create resentment between communities who have just begun to build a fragile foundation of trust could undermine reconciliation,” Aung San Suu Kyi told the court Thursday.History ‘whitewashed’Her appearance and words at The Hague have disheartened many in the West.”The fact that she whitewashed — and her team whitewashed — the genocide that took place, or did not mention the fact that there was any rape, any mass rape, any sexual and gender-based violence took place, it was quite disturbing,” said Yasmin Ullah, a Rohingya Human Rights activist based in Britain.Aung San Suu Kyi was once seen as a global beacon for human rights, standing up for democracy against a military regime that kept her prisoner for most of two decades until 2010. The 1991 Nobel peace prize winner became leader of Myanmar’s civilian government in 2016 after the army agreed to limited reforms.Locals read through newspapers leading with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the International Court of Justice hearing outside a roadside shop in Yangon, Myanmar, Dec. 12, 2019.Critics, supportersFormer supporters have become vocal critics, accusing her of failing to stop the atrocities against the Rohingya.”She was one person who could have brought people together,” said Mark Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK. “She had admiration across religions, across ethnic groups in the country. And she’s chosen instead of doing that — to do the opposite. It turns out that she also has these Buddhist nationalist feelings, that she shares the prejudice against the Rohingya, and she is pursuing policies discriminating against them.”Aung San Suu Kyi retains millions of mainly Buddhist supporters in Myanmar. They insist she is doing her best to govern a multiethnic country where the military still holds the reins of power. But Myanmar’s minorities feel betrayed, Farmaner said.”Other ethnic people are looking at her at this court, defending the military, a military that has committed the same sorts of crimes against them for years, and thinking, ‘How can we ever trust this person? How can we trust this woman now?'” he told VOA.
 
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U.S. President Donald Trump took aim at Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg Thursday, suggesting she has problems controlling anger.”So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem,” Trump tweeted, and added she should “then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill.”Twitter screenshotCriticism of a minor by a sitting U.S. president is unusual, and it came one day after Thunberg was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019. Trump was a candidate for the Person of the Year designation.Trump’s comments apparently did not go unnoticed by Thunberg.The 16-year-old responded to his tweet by changing her Twitter bio to say: “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.”Screenshot of Greta Thunberg’s Twitter profile page.The backlash to Trump’s criticism of Thunberg was swift on social media, with many Twitter users accusing him of bullying. Others, however, came to Trump’s defense.Thunberg is the youngest person to win the prestigious Time magazine designation after quickly evolving into one of the world’s most prominent climate change activists.Editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal made the announcement Wednesday during an appearance on NBC’s Today show.”She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year, coming from essentially nowhere to lead a worldwide movement,” Felsenthal said.Thunberg’s Friday protests alone outside the Swedish parliament building during school hours at age 15 helped trigger a global movement to fight climate change.FILE – Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, then 15, holds a placard reading “School strike for the climate” during a rally for action against climate change, outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm, Sweden, Nov. 30, 2018.The movement, which became known as “Fridays for Future,” prompted millions of people in about 150 countries “to act on behalf of the planet,” Felsenthal said.Felsenthal noted that Thunberg “represents a broader generational shift in culture,” with more youth advocating for change worldwide, including during demonstrations in places such as Hong Kong, Chile, Sudan and Lebanon.Thunberg’s straightforward speaking style captured the attention of world leaders, resulting in invitations to speak at several high-profile events, including at the United Nations and before the United States Congress.During her appearance before U.S. lawmakers, Thunberg, who has Asperger syndrome, refused to read prepared remarks. She, instead, submitted the U.N.’s 2018 global warming report to them and declared, “I don’t want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to the scientists, and I want you to unite behind the science.”One of her most memorable moments came at the U.N. Climate Change Summit in September, when she berated U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other world leaders, declaring they had stolen her “dreams of childhood” with their “empty words.””We are in the beginning of a mass extinction,” she said, “and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”Those words resonated worldwide, energizing climate change activists and prompting scornful reactions from others.Thunberg’s dedication to fighting climate change also earned her a nomination for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. 
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The European Union says it is taking measures to protect its trade interests in the ongoing row with the United States over the shutdown of the World Trade Organization’s appellate body.
EU trade chief Phil Hogan said Thursday that the 28-nation bloc “cannot afford being defenseless if there is no possibility to get a satisfactory solution within the WTO.”
Since Wednesday the WTO’s appellate body, whose decisions affect billions of dollars in trade, lost its ability to rule on new dispute cases. Without having to worry about possible penalties, countries could use tariffs or be tempted to implement protectionist measures.Hogan said that with the proposal to change some EU trade rules will enable it to act even when the WTO cannot give a final ruling.Anticipating the end of the appellate body, the EU and Canada agreed this summer on a new trade dispute resolution system as a temporary backstop. The EU wants to expand it, but it’s unclear how many countries might join.  
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Central banks in the United States and Europe say they’ve done their part to help the economy for now. The European Central Bank on Thursday decided to leave it stimulus programs unchanged as its new president highlighted signs that the economy has steadied after a period of weaker growth.ECB head Christine Lagarde said that recent economic indicators are “weak overall” but “point to some stabilizing in the slowdown of of economic growth.”
The decision to keep interest rates low followed a similar move this week by the U.S. Federal Reserve, where officials indicated they expect no change through 2020.
The ECB enacted a stimulus package as recently as September, when it cut a key rate and launched a bond-buying program that pumps newly created money into the economy. Lagarde said that package, decided before she took over from Mario Draghi on Nov.1, would continue to support the economy with easier borrowing terms for companies.
Doubts have grown among some economists about how much good more central bank stimulus can do to support developed economies.
Interest is meanwhile focused on Lagarde, who presided over her first meeting as head of the institution that sets monetary policy for the 19 euro countries that use the euro and their 342 million people. She is well known from her previous jobs as head of the International Monetary Fund and as French finance minister but investors will want to see how she communicates and explains the complexities of monetary policy to markets and voters.
Other themes that were getting attention were Lagarde’s plans for a review of the bank’s monetary policy framework and how it defines price stability, the goal it is supposed to seek under the European Union treaty. There’s also been discussion of whether the ECB should do more to support financing of projects aimed at fighting environmental pollution and climate change.
Analysts are looking also for signs on how she will manage dissent on the ECB’s 25-member governing council. A minority criticized the measures enacted under predecessor Mario Draghi on Sept. 12.
Those included a cut in the deposit rate to minus 0.5% from minus 0.4%. The rate is charged on excess cash left at the central bank overnight by commercial banks, so the negative rate is in effect a penalty that aims to push banks to lend the money to companies. The bank also started 20 billion euros ($22 billion) in monthly purchases of government and corporate bonds.  
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Voters in Britain are casting ballots Thursday in an early general election that may bring a long-awaited resolution to the departure from the European Union they approved in a 2016 referendum.Prime Minister Boris Johnson focused his campaigning efforts on a slogan to “Get Brexit Done.” He says a parliamentary majority for his Conservative Party would allow him to push through a previously rejected divorce deal with the EU and carry out Brexit by January 31.His challenger, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, said if he wins Britain will hold a new referendum to ask if people still want to leave the European Union, or would rather stay in the 28-member bloc.Johnson took office in July after his predecessor, Theresa May, failed in her repeated attempts to get parliament to approve the deal she reached with the EU. May also tried during her tenure to strengthen her Brexit negotiating position by calling an early election, but the move backfired with the Conservatives losing seats.Opinion polls ahead of Thursday’s voting suggested Johnson’s party was favored to win, but that the race appeared to tighten in the final days of campaigning.Official results are expected early Friday. 
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Environmentalists and climate change activists worldwide are hailing Time magazine’s decision to make Greta Thunberg its 2019 Person of the Year. The teenage activist has attracted the world’s attention with her eloquent calls on political and industrial leaders to make courageous decisions on climate change. Her actions have inspired young people worldwide to fight for the protection of the planet. But as VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, there are critics who say Thunberg’s mission and her celebrity status are all wrong
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The leaders of Russia and Ukraine met for the first time in three years in an attempt to end the conflict in eastern Ukriane. In the wake of that meeting earlier this week in Paris, attention now shifts to renewed peace efforts to stem the violence between Ukrainian government forces and Moscow-backed separatists.Yet in interviews and comments online, analysts warn that while important gestures were made, Russia and Ukraine remain far apart on key aspects of the five-year conflict, which has killed at least 13,000 people, and shows no signs of abating.One well-accepted view holds that the mere fact that Monday’s Paris talks took place was reason enough for French President Emanuel Macron to smile.”The fact that we sat side by side today … is an achievement,” Macron told reporters.    The French leader, with backing from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been the driving force behind renewed European efforts to persuade Ukraine and Russia to return to the negotiating table.”Macron showed that Paris is ready to play a bigger role in European politics,” Alexey Pushkov, a Kremlin ally and former member of Russia’s Federation Council, wrote in a tweet that praised the meeting.Left unmentioned? Macron is also seen by Kremlin allies as a rare and recent European voice pushing for renewed detente with Moscow.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attend a joint news conference after a summit in Paris, Dec. 9, 2019.Zelenskiy vs. PutinThe highest stakes going into the talks, however, belonged to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.Analysts wondered how Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old comedy actor elected to the presidency in a stunning landslide victory earlier this year, would fare against a far more seasoned opponent in Russian President Vladimir Putin.Indeed, in advance of the summit, crowds gathered in Kyiv warning Zelenskiy against appeasing the Kremlin. Protesters held signs saying, “No Capitulation” and “No Red Lines.”The Ukrainian leader seemed to receive the message.”I felt the whole of the Ukrainian nation with me,” Zelenskiy said during a press conference following the talks. “I’m here representing all Ukrainians.”Analysts said Zelenskiy held his own, with neither Russia nor Ukraine gaining the edge in negotiations, which bore signs of a thaw in relations, yet no overt breakthroughs.”Everyone believed that Putin would be able to prevail over Zelenskiy, that Zelenskiy is no competitor to him,” Konstantin Skorkin, a Ukraine specialist at the Carnegie Moscow Center, told VOA.”But the reality showed that they could talk to each other and their previous telephone communications led to some progress in the peace effort,” Skorkin said.”I think it would be appropriate to be diplomatic as we’ve just started talking. Let’s say for now it’s a draw,” Zelenskiy said to journalists.Putin, more sanguine, allowed that a spate of recent diplomatic initiatives signaled a “warming” in relations.”All this gives us the grounds to suppose that the process is developing in the right direction,” the Russian president said.For all the diplomatic pleasantries, neither leader appeared to acknowledge the other in public.Results not talkFor now, the Paris talks yielded the promise of a cease-fire, despite what Russia and Ukraine acknowledge were several previous failed attempts to stop the fighting.The warring parties will take “immediate measures to stabilize the situation in the conflict area,” according to a signed communique.Equally pressing? An agreement for a mass prisoner swap with the rebels before year’s end.Beyond a gesture of goodwill to unite families ahead of New Year’s, the measure builds on a widely heralded prisoner exchange negotiated between Putin and Zelenskiy in September.  Putin also hinted at a deal to transit discounted Russian gas to, and through, Ukraine to Europe.French President Emmanuel Macron, second left, Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy gather for talks at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France, Dec. 9, 2019.There was wide agreement, however, that the Paris talks brought little progress to the core issue of the war: the future of the Donbass region in east Ukraine, and the status of two unrecognized “independent republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk.Prisoner exchanges and other compromises are on the “outline of the conflict, issues that go around the heart,” wrote Tatiana Stanovaya of Reality of Russian Politics in a Facebook post assessing the Paris negotiations.”Question the status Donbass. Everything quickly dies,” Stanovaya wrote.”Both sides are confident that they are right and they are not going to retreat. It doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong,” Shorkin, of the Carnegie Moscow Center, told VOA.”Each side is sticking to their position. No one is willing to back down,” he said.Zelenskiy said Kyiv still wants to reestablish full control over Luhansk and Donetsk, the two self-proclaimed independent republics.Putin also is insisting Ukraine adhere to promises under the so-called Minsk Agreements negotiated under Zelenskiy’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko.The Minsk accords, negotiated in 2015 and 2016 with European backing, allow for increased autonomy in the separatists regions, as well as direct talks with the rebels as a precursor to Russia handing over control of the Ukraine-Russian border to Kyiv.East vs. WestMany in Kyiv argue the Minsk accords give Moscow undue influence over their ambitions to join the European Union and, perhaps, one day NATO.In Russia, the battle over Ukraine is widely seen as part of the Kremlin’s insistence that Ukraine serve as a buffer state against the alliance’s expansion east toward Russia’s border.  Analysts argue the Minsk agreements also portray Russia  as a mediator in the conflict, masking its role as the separatists’ key backer, providing money, soldiers and weapons, facts well documented by independent journalists on the ground.  “Everyone perfectly realizes who these leaders in Luhansk and Donetsk are,” Moscow-based political analyst Yuliy Nesnevich told VOA.”What is the point to come to an agreement with them when it’s clear who really stands behind them? When it’s clear who is the puppet master?” Nesnevich said.  Going forward, the diplomatic calendar is clear.The so-called Normandy Format quartet of nations reconvenes in four months in Berlin.Its mission is to assess the Paris agreements and revisit what are seemingly incompatible positions between Moscow and Kyiv.  Whatever progress the parties make may determine the Donbass’ last chance at seeing something resembling peace, analysts said.Withdrawal from negotiations has “no broad support,” Carnegie’s Skorkin said. But the alternative is far messier, he said.
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European Union leaders on Thursday will push to agree to make their bloc climate neutral by 2050, luring reluctant eastern member states with promises of extra money for their heavily-polluting economies.The bloc’s 27 national leaders will meet in Brussels from 1400 GMT, a day after the bloc’s executive proposed a Green Deal to mobilize 100 billion euros worth of investment to help the bloc’s economies move away from fossil fuels.With floods, fires and droughts wrecking millions of lives around the world, the EU’s new executive cast the plan as the bloc’s “man on the moon moment,” kindling hopes among campaigners that other big emitters may follow suit.But coal-reliant Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were not on board, saying a draft decision must spell out in more detail the scale and scope of financing available, and pushing to include nuclear in the EU’s fresh push to cut emissions.”There will certainly be an amount of arm-wrestling,” said a senior EU diplomat from a country more enthusiastic about the 2050 goal. “There will have to be new money … but some member states will be less than enthusiastic about the target of raising 100 billion euros.”Underlining divisions in the bloc on climate, EU national diplomats in Brussels on Wednesday blocked a set of new rules governing which financial products can be called “green” and “sustainable.””It’s going to be very difficult,” said a second senior EU diplomat, from a country more reluctant to do more to fight climate change, about chances for agreement at the summit.The climate discussion feeds into another difficult one the leaders will have, namely on their next long-term budget.No agreement is expected on that after a proposal by the bloc’s current president Finland to cap joint spending at 1.087 trillion euros for 2021-27 was rejected by both the frugal camp and those seeking heavier outlay. The leaders might agree, however, to hold a summit next February to seal a deal.”We’re getting near the time when we have to sit in the sauna and sweat it out,” said another senior EU diplomat.Russia Brexit and Euro ZoneOver dinner on Thursday, the leaders are also expected to support extending for six months from February the bloc’s economic sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and support for rebels in the east of the country.The summit will be notable for the absence of British prime minister Boris Johnson, staying at home for a national election he is fighting on a promise to get Brexit done.After partial results come in through the night, the 27 other leaders will meet again on Friday to discuss Brexit.Should Johnson’s Conservatives win a parliamentary majority, the 27 will reaffirm their support for a divorce deal that would take Britain out of the bloc at the end of January.They will state their aim for “as close as possible” future ties with Britain and embark on preparations for trade talks “based on a balance of rights and obligations” to “ensure a level playing field,” according to their latest draft decision.Eyes will be on two more leaders at the Brussels talks: Finland’s new Prime Minister Sanna Marin — the world’s youngest at 34 — and Malta’s Joseph Muscat, who will be stepping down amid a crisis over the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday that he has a possible skin cancer, after a medical visit where he had a mole removed from his ear.The presidential office, however, said there is no sign that Bolsonaro has a cancer, adding that the president had been to a hospital in Brasilia in the afternoon. “The president is in good health, without any indication of a skin cancer and is keeping his appointments for this week,” said the statement.Earlier, Bolsonaro also said he had been advised to cancel a trip to Salvador, in the state of Bahia, due to suffering from exhaustion.
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