Since 1954, Mother Dear’s Community Center has been providing services for the needy in the Washington metropolitan area. During the holiday season, the center’s volunteers serve up meals-on-wheels, feeding homebound seniors and the homeless.

…

Protests in India against a new citizenship law claimed five lives on Friday as thousands of people defied bans on public gatherings and clashed with police even as authorities blocked the internet in several towns and detained hundreds of people.
  
The protests, now in their second week, have taken 13 lives as crowds have sometimes turned violent.
  
On Friday, police fired tear gas and used water cannon to control angry protesters in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and in the capital, New Delhi.
  
Five people were killed in violence that erupted in several towns of Uttar Pradesh where stone-pelting crowds clashed with police and set vehicles and a police post on fire. The state, with a large Muslim population, is a flashpoint for tensions between Muslims and Hindus.

In New Delhi, thousands gathered after prayers on a narrow street outside the city’s main mosque, the Jama Masjid, chanting, “Remove Modi” and calling on the government to scrap the law as police and paramilitary stood by.
  
Some waved Indian flags and “Save the Constitution” banners, while others carried placards that read, “Not to be violent, not to be silent.”
 
The largely peaceful march, however, was disrupted in the evening when some protesters pelted stones and torched a vehicle outside a police station, prompting officers to spray the crowd with water cannon. Dozens were injured.
  
Outside Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, slogan-shouting students launched a signature campaign demanding that the law be scrapped.

Section 144 
  
The protests that began on predominantly Muslim university campuses like Jamia Millia have widened as ordinary citizens and academics join with students. Bollywood stars were among those who raised their voices against the new law in Mumbai on Thursday at a huge rally in India’s financial capital.

Critics call the new law unconstitutional because it does not include Muslims among six religious groups that stand to receive Indian nationality if they have faced persecution in three neighboring countries — Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.     

While the immediate spark for the public fury is the citizenship law, anger is also growing for what is being decried as an attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to control dissent by preventing people from staging demonstrations.
 
Since the protests escalated, authorities have imposed a restrictive rule known as Section 144 in several parts of the country. It prohibits more than four people from gathering at one place, closed metro stations in the capital to prevent people from mobilizing, and shut down the internet and text messaging services in many places.
  
Blaming the government for coming down with a heavy hand on protesters, political analyst Neerja Chowdhury said, “You have 144 being imposed all over, you have the net shutdown, things that have been unprecedented. That is fueling the anger.”

Instead, she said, the government should have reached out to calm fears of “people who are unhappy, insecure, worried about the future and worried about where the country is headed.”

Government: ‘Lies and rumors’

Authorities defended the measures, saying they were necessary to control the volatile situation.

While critics see the new law as an attempt to turn India into a Hindu nation, the government has defended the controversial law as a humanitarian gesture meant for minority communities in neighboring Islamic countries. The prime minister has said that the law will not impact any Indian Muslim and blames opposition parties for sparking panic and spreading “lies and rumors” about it.

Besides the citizenship law, protesters are demanding that the government roll back plans for an identification plan that would involve all citizens producing records to show they or their ancestors lived in India. That would put Muslims at a disadvantage because they would risk losing their nationality if they cannot produce the records.

There was some relief for the northeastern state of Assam, which has also witnessed widespread protests against the law as data services, which had been switched off for almost two weeks, were restored following a high court order. The Assamese people oppose the law because they worry that it will pave the way for tens of thousands of migrants, who came from Bangladesh, to settle in their state, drowning their identity.   
 

…

As Venezuelans head to the polls next month, top U.S. officials are pressing for free elections for the National Assembly and the presidency, saying the vote is crucial to the country emerging from its deep political crisis.

U.S. officials also are urging authorities to “unconditionally release” all persons being detained for political reasons.

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s 2018 reelection is considered to be illegitimate by many nations in the Western Hemisphere. The United States and more than 50 other countries now recognize National Assembly leader Juan Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela.

On Jan. 5, the Venezuelan National Assembly will vote on its president for 2020. Guaido is seeking reelection, a year after declaring himself to be the country’s interim leader.

U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams sounded hopeful Friday that opposition leader Guaido will win.

“I think that at least as of now, he has the votes to be reelected,” said Abrams during a press briefing at the State Department.

Allegations of bribery

The U.S. envoy said the Maduro government is “using a combination of threats, arrests and bribes up to 500,000 dollars per vote” to stop the reelection but “it’s not widespread enough to change the outcome.”

U.S. officials took note that Russia and China, Maduro’s major supporters, have not offered any investment or loans to Venezuela in the last six months.

“I think it’s striking that they don’t seem to be willing to give him another dime because they know it will be stolen or wasted. I think they know the regime is going to go,” said Abrams.

A recent U.N. report painted a grim picture of Venezuela as a dysfunctional society. Citing data, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said thousands of people continue to flee the country as its political, economic and human rights crises deepen.

Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Jorge Valero, disputed the report’s findings, saying there is no humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.
 

…

The Taliban Friday ruled out participation in intra-Afghan negotiations until the United States signs an agreement with the insurgent group on the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.  

U.S. chief peace negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad paused peace talks with Taliban interlocutors in Qatar a week ago to give them time to consult with their leadership on reducing insurgent violence. The temporary suspension came a day after the Taliban attacked the largest U.S.-run military base, Bagram, north of the Afghan capital of Kabul.

However, the Taliban indicated Friday it does not intend to stop hostilities until securing a foreign troop withdrawal deal with the U.S.

“Intra-Afghan negotiations will begin only after an agreement with America on the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan is signed,” tweeted Suhail Shaheen, who speaks for the Taliban negotiating team.  

But top U.S. defense officials Friday gave no indication they were prepared to authorize such a comprehensive withdrawal.
“We have a mission in Afghanistan, that is to ensure that it never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists,” U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. 
“Until we are confident that that mission is complete, we will maintain a presence to do that,” he added.

Khalilzad visited Kabul earlier this week and held discussions with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, politicians outside the government and civil society representatives.  

“We discussed efforts to achieve reduced violence and pave the way to intra-Afghan negotiations… We’re approaching an important stage in the Afghan peace process,” Khalilzad tweeted on Thursday at the end of his two-day consultation.  He did not elaborate further nor did he say when U.S.-Taliban talks would resume.  

Taliban officials insist they don’t see the need for further negotiations with U.S. interlocutors because both sides have already negotiated a draft agreement after months of meetings and they just need to sign it in the presence of international guarantors.  

The proposed document outlines the Taliban’s counterterrorism guarantees in return for a phased withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from the country. The insurgents would then immediately engage in talks with the Afghans to find a political settlement to decades of hostilities in the country.

President Ghani wants the Taliban to observe a temporary cease-fire and insists his administration will lead peace negotiations with the Taliban.  

But the insurgent group so far has rejected calls for direct talks with the Kabul government, condemning it as an illegitimate entity and a “puppet” of America.

Shaheen insisted Friday that all Afghan sides will have their representation in the Taliban-Afghan negotiations when they begin.  

“This has been our consistent stance and we have shared it with media time and again,” Shaheen added.  

The Taliban has maintained negotiations with an inclusive Afghan delegation representing all political and ethnic groups in the country would also involve government officials but in their private capacity and not as envoys of Kabul.

The war in Afghanistan, America’s longest, has raged for more than 18 years, costing Washington nearly $1 trillion and the lives of around 2,300 U.S. troops.  

The conflict has killed an estimated more than 150,000 people, including foreign troops, Afghan and Taliban combatants and Afghan civilians.  

Uncertainty about the fate of peace talks comes as Afghan election officials say they are set to announce repeatedly delayed preliminary results of the September 28 presidential election in coming days. The Independent Election Commission announced on Thursday it has recounted and audited questionable votes in all 34 Afghan provinces.  

President Ghani and his governing partner, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, are the two front runners. 

…

The U.S. House of Representatives’ vote to impeach President Donald Trump broke along party lines Wednesday, reflecting the American public’s deep divide over the president. 
  
National polls showed public opinion remained evenly split on the president’s impeachment, moving little since the process began. According to a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, 48% of those surveyed approved of the impeachment process, whereas an equal percentage opposed it. Those figures mirrored the president’s approval ratings, which also have fluctuated little since his first days in office. 
  
For some of the president’s biggest critics and supporters, impeachment brought an opportunity to publicly state their views outside the Capitol during the vote.  

“I think it’s a hoax, I think it’s a travesty, I think it’s damaging our democracy, I think it’s hurting our country. I think it’s really an invalid impeachment,” said Mark Kampf, a Trump supporter who came from Nevada to denounce what he considered a politically motivated process. 
 
Paki Wieland, however, joined the rally to call for the removal of Trump: “This president has broken so many laws and we need to hold him accountable. And to state to him and to the world that no one is above the law.” She also expressed concern that Republican partisanship was undermining the country’s democratic system of government. 
  
“I was here for the Nixon impeachment. Members of his party were much less partisan than members of the Republican Party are today,” Wieland said. 
 
Analyst Elaine Kamarck with the Brookings Institution in Washington said Americans have been divided politically for years, but Trump has tried to exploit those divisions for political gain. 
  
“Donald Trump has intensified the polarization. Throughout his presidency, he has played to his base. He has played to simply the supporters that he already has,” Kamarck said. 
 
Facts vs. opinions 

While public opinion shifted as evidence was uncovered in previous impeachment efforts, the testimony and evidence did little to shift opinions this time. That was in part because many Americans disagreed on the evidence itself. 
  
“There have been no facts. It’s only hearsay and innuendo,” Kampf, the Trump supporter, said. 
 
Adam from Maryland, dressed in an American flag shirt, shared the same view and said the process had only reinforced his trust in the president. 
 
“The only thing I am convinced about is when Trump released the transcript and proved the whistleblower completely wrong,” he said. 
 
And how people read the White House summary of the president’s phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appeared to reflect their view of impeachment itself. 
 
Supporters saw the president exonerated by the summary of the call, in which Trump asked for a “favor”: an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. Critics saw it as a straightforward example of the president using his office for personal political gain. 

Kory Holmes from Maine said the Ukraine episode was the latest example of behavior that disqualifies the president from serving as the nation’s leader. 

Holmes said the testimonies and the documents released had provided sufficient proof that the president’s actions amounted to a pattern of misconduct that stretched back to the 2016 election. 
 
“This man constantly lies, breaks the law, violates every constitutional thing there is. He cheated with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to steal the first election and he’s trying to cheat for the second one,” he said. 
 
Views on impeachment 
 
Trump is expected to survive a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, where lawmakers would decide whether to remove him from office. 
 
The process will only help cement support for the president, said Adam, who added that impeachment was another example of what he called an anti-Trump agenda the Democrats have followed since the president’s election. 
 
For their part, pro-impeachment voters did not seem disheartened by the expected results in the Senate trial. They said the process was about much more. 
 
Holmes, of Maine, said impeachment was a victory for the laws and the Constitution of the United States. 
 
“They [lawmakers] have got to do the job. They swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. The man broke the law. This has nothing to do with the election — this is the law,” he said. 

Analyst Kamarck said she saw a deepened polarization among American voters because of the impeachment. She said Trump used the process to further corrode people’s trust in the government. But she also said she thought impeachment reinforced the constitutional guarantees and protections for the American democratic system. 
 
“The most important reason to do this, even though he will not most likely be removed from office, the most important reason to do this is to preserve what we call in the United States the separation of powers. Had they not done this, what they would have done is ceded an enormous amount of power to the president of the United States, and that is a precedent that they simply could not make,” Kamarck said. 
 
The process has energized the political base of each party. Analysts, such as Kamarck, said they expected to see the highest voter turnout in U.S. history for the 2020 elections. 

…

LOS ANGELES — It was touch and go for a while, but the final Democratic presidential debate of the year is on for Thursday night, with seven of the leading contenders thrashing it out on stage at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

A labor dispute between a university contractor and a food services union representing roughly 150 workers threatened to torpedo the Democratic debate after all seven of the presidential candidates vowed not to cross a picket line to take part in the nationally televised Democratic National Committee event. However, the union and company reached agreement Tuesday on a new three-year contract, prompting a sigh of relief from Democratic officials who had feared the sixth debate of the year was in jeopardy.

The seven candidates include former vice president Joe Biden, the current front-runner in national polls, Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana. The three other lower-tier candidates are entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Senator Amy Klobuchar and billionaire activist Tom Steyer. These seven of 15 Democratic candidates seeking the nomination to challenge President Donald Trump next November survived a Democratic party winnowing process based on their showing in the polls and fundraising.

The high-profile debate, hosted by PBS NewsHour and Politico, is occurring a day after Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ironically, the debate originally was scheduled to be held on the campus of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), but had to be moved to Loyola Marymount because of a separate labor dispute. For Loyola Marymount students, that change in venue was a pleasant surprise.

“When I found out that it was going to be on campus, my first, my first thought was to change my flight home so I could stay,” said Havana Campo, a Loyola Marymount biochemistry student from Texas.

The debate is being held a week after final exams. While most students will not get to see the debate in person, a few lucky ones, such as Emily Sinsky, who is volunteering the day before the debate, has been given a seat in the debate hall.

“It’s exciting. I couldn’t believe,” said Sinsky, a Californian who is studying international relations.

Super Tuesday factor

One reason the debate is being held in California is because the solidly Democratic state has gained significance due to its primary election date being moved up by three months. With 495 delegates at stake, California will play a bigger role in determining who will represent the Democratic Party in challenging Trump than in past elections.

“They [California’s primary elections] will be more relevant than they normally have been, because in most cases we know who the nominee will be by the time he got to California, and we were just ratifying what already had been decided,” said Michael Genovese, president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University. “That got a little old for most Californians. So now, we’re going to be very important and we’ll have a strong say.”

Primary voters in California will be going to the polls on Super Tuesday, which is March 3, 2020. Thirteen other states will also hold primaries that day.

Money tree

California is also highly attractive to candidates because of its donors with deep pockets.

“Los Angeles is a place where candidates do not campaign so much as come for the money, to shake the money tree,” Genovese explained. “The donors come from a rich variety of sources. You’ve got Hollywood. You’ve got a very strong component of the gay community.”

There are also tech companies, lawyers and donors in the corporate world from Los Angeles who would be willing to give to their preferred candidate.

Candidates and issues

With the top four contenders being Biden, Sanders, Warren and Buttigieg, “what’s unusual is that we have so many older candidates running and at first you thought maybe this is going to be a generational debate,” Genovese said. “The older voters and the older candidates versus the younger generations. It hasn’t quite worked out that way except maybe with Yang and Buttigieg.” Biden, Sanders and Warren are all in their 70s, while Buttigieg is the youngest candidate at 37.

Some younger voters are looking at their candidates from a broader lens outside of a candidate’s age.

“Age is not particularly a concern if the candidate that you’re supporting is more part of a greater movement, and if they select a vice president that really doubles down on their beliefs,” said Luke Hart-Moynihan, a screenwriting graduating student at Loyola Marymount University.

One candidate taking the debate stage that should be watched, analysts say, is Yang, who most likely will not make it to the top, but did qualify for the debate just before the deadline.

“He’s established himself as a player. So the question is not what will Yang do now, it’s what will he do in the next two, four, six, eight or 10 years,” Genovese said. “You can see him being in a Democratic president’s Cabinet, establishing himself as a person of weight and gravitas, and sort of channeling that to something bigger in the future.”

Diverse interests

Many of the Loyola Marymount students who are following the debates are focused on Sanders and Warren. The topics that interest them are as diverse as the students’ backgrounds.

“Three topics in this election that concern me the most would be climate change, health care and immigration reform. I come from a family of immigrants,” said Campo, who is the daughter of a Cuban mother and Colombian father.

“One thing that I feel I have not heard enough from the Democratic candidates is talking about both election security and election legitimacy, because over the past several decades, there have been a lot of concerns about gerrymandering of congressional districts, voter disenfranchisement through voter identification laws,” said Peter Martin, a political science student from California.

“We’re starting to hear a lot more about student debt. Issues that affect young voters, which is really important,” said Gabriella Jeakle, an English major from Washington state, voicing a concern of many of her schoolmates.

Sinsky, the student who plans to attend the debate, said if she had a chance, she would ask the candidates what they would do in their first 100 days in office.

“That really shows where their values are,” Sinsky said.
 

…

Russia has been working to establish a new military force in the Kurdish-majority, northeastern part of Syria with the aim to deploy those troops and hardware to areas along the Syria-Turkey border, local sources told VOA.

The military force reportedly would replace a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-armed group that Turkey claims are terrorists.

“The Russians have already opened recruitment centers in two towns in our region, including Amuda and Tal Tamr,” said a Kurdish journalist, requesting anonymity.

He told VOA he knows “several young people who have signed up to join this force,” adding that Russia is primarily “recruiting ethnic Kurds.”

Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed to VOA that Russian efforts were under way to build an allied force in the Kurdish region.

Kurdish military officials said they were aware of Russia’s plans, noting the new fighters will largely be used for patrol missions, along with Russian troops in the area.

“Those joining the new force are our people,” said a senior commander with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). “We want to make sure that we have a close military relationship with Russia,” he told VOA on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak about the matter to the media.

The SDF official ruled out any potential confrontation between the newly established Russian forces and the U.S.-backed SDF, since “we are essentially involved in the recruiting and vetting process of the new fighters.”  

The SDF is a Kurdish-led military alliance that has been an effective partner with the United States in its fight against Islamic State in Syria.

SDF officials have stated to VOA they have at least 85,000 fighters who have been trained and equipped by the U.S.-led coalition to defeat IS.

Following a decision in October by U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. forces near the Syria-Turkey border, the Turkish military and allied Syrian militias began an offensive in northeast Syria to clear the region from the Syrian Kurdish fighters Turkey views as terrorists.

Ankara says the SDF is an extension of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

The U.S., however, makes a distinction between the two Kurdish groups.  

‘Return of regime authority’ 

In response to the Turkish incursion into Syria’s northeast, Syrian Kurds have allowed the Syrian regime and Russian troops to deploy in the area in an attempt to halt the Turkish operation. Since then, Russia has been trying to increase its presence in the region, experts say.  

“Russia’s goal is the return of regime authority in the east of the Euphrates,” said Jonathan Spyer, a research fellow at the Middle East Forum, a U.S.-based think tank.

Syrian Kurdish forces took control of the area in 2012 after Syrian government troops withdrew to focus on fighting rebel groups elsewhere in the war-ravaged country.

With the U.S. withdrawal from some areas in northeast Syria, Syrian government forces appear to be poised to regain control of the Kurdish-held region.

Largely depleted after eight years of fighting rebels throughout the country, the Syrian military is unlikely capable of asserting its authority over this part of Syria.

Russia “understands that the regime is currently too weak to achieve this,” Spyer told VOA. “Hence, Moscow appears to be establishing new bodies to try to push the gradual reconnection of Kurdish forces in northeast Syria to the Syrian state.”

Long-term presence

Some experts, such as Anna Borshchevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, think Russia’s recent move suggests it has plans for a long-term presence in the area.

“This is consistent with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s overall approach to the region — control by relying on local actors,” she told VOA. “The relationship with the Kurds is especially important because Syria’s oil right now is critical to control in Syria,” Borshchevskaya added.

Russia vs. U.S.

After mounting pressure from the U.S. Congress and U.S. foreign allies, Trump decided to keep about 500 U.S. troops in the area to protect the region’s oil fields, and prevent IS and Syrian regime troops from accessing them.

“As minuscule as Syria’s oil reserves are in terms of its global market share, oil revenue has become critical for keeping the [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad regime afloat,” Borshchevskaya said. “U.S. and Kurdish-led forces collect oil revenue, but with the U.S. military withdrawal from Syria, the Kurds have little choice but to work more closely with Putin and Assad.”

“These latest Kremlin moves in Syria show that Putin is building additional leverage in Syria, with implications for the entire region — and U.S. interests,” Borshchevskaya added.
 

…

The Democratic-majority U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump Wednesday. Lawmakers passed charges he abused the power of the presidency to benefit himself politically by a 230-197 vote, with one present. Charges Trump obstructed Congress’ efforts to investigate him also passed by a 229-198 vote, with one present. The historic vote fell almost entirely along party lines, sending the case for removing Trump from office to the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill

…

Minutes after the House impeached President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threw uncertainty into the process by refusing to say, repeatedly, when or whether she would send two articles to the Senate for a trial.

Her comments came as a surprise in a news conference late Wednesday that was intended to express Democrats’ somber closing message after voting to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. She started by praising her fellow Democrats for having “moral courage” and said it was “a great day for the Constitution of the United States of America.”

<!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

US House Impeaches President Trump 

On a near party-line vote, Democrat-controlled House approves two articles of impeachment against Trump, a Republican, making him only third US president to be impeached in country’s 243-year history 

But then she declined to say when she would send the articles to the Republican-led Senate. Until the articles are submitted, the Senate cannot hold the trial that is nearly certain to acquit the president.

Pelosi said House Democrats could not name impeachment managers — House prosecutors who make the case for Trump’s conviction and removal from office — until they know more about how the Senate will conduct a trial.

“’We cannot name managers until we see what the process is on the Senate side,” Pelosi said. “And I would hope that that will be soon. … So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us. So hopefully it will be fair. And when we see what that is, we’ll send our managers.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., rejected a proposal earlier this week from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to call several witnesses. McConnell also said that he is coordinating with the White House and declared that “I am not an impartial juror.”

Pelosi said that McConnell “says it’s OK for the foreman of the jury to be in cahoots with the lawyers of the accused. That doesn’t sound right to us.”

Schumer and Pelosi are set to meet Thursday morning, according to a person familiar with the planning who was not authorized to discuss the private meeting.

<!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

Legacy Moment: Pelosi Leads ‘Somber’ Trump Impeachment

Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent much of the historic day within a few steps of the cloakroom door, away from better-lit seats where the managers and members were debating impeachment

Asked again if she could guarantee that she would send the articles to the Senate, Pelosi said at the news conference: “That would have been our intention.” But they will see what the Senate decides, she said.

“We are not having that discussion. We have done what we set out to do,” Pelosi said.

An aide to McConnell said he did not have an immediate comment on Pelosi’s remarks. But he tweeted that McConnell would speak about “House Democrats’ precedent-breaking impeachment of the President of the United States” on Thursday morning.

Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, a member of Pelosi’s leadership team, said after her remarks that Democrats want impeachment proceedings that are “judicious and responsible and deliberative.”

He said that while Senate will decide its own procedures, “the speaker’s only point is before she sends it over she needs to understand what that is” because it will influence who the impeachment managers are.

Asked about never sending the articles over, Cicilline said, “I would not speculate that anyone’s even contemplating that.”

…

A year after the United Nation’s General Assembly adopted the Global Refugee Compact to deal with the world refugees crisis, world leaders gathered in Geneva to weigh the progress made, and pledged more than $3 billion to support refugees and about 50,000 resettlement communities.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the Global Forum on Refugees divvied up the responsibility for dealing with the 25.9 million refugees who have fled war and persecution, mainly exiled in poor neighboring countries.

In addition to the $3 billion, Grandi said Germany, which has hosted hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, pledged about $1.9 billion. The Inter-American Development Bank pledged $1 billion to communities hosting refugees in Latin America. The World Bank also increased its funding for projects supporting refugees by 10%, to $2.2 billion.

At the end of 2018, nearly 71 million people were living in forced displacement due to war, violence and persecution, including the nearly 26 million who had fled to other countries as refugees.

The meeting this week in Geneva stressed the need to share the economic and societal burden of nearly 80% of the world’s refugees living in poor and developing countries.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country hosts a large amount of the world’s refugees, criticized wealthy nations for setting “tiny” refugee quotas and for not providing adequate financial support to Ankara.

Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees, about 3.7 million, following by Pakistan, with 1.4 million registered refugees.

“We cannot go into a world in which responsibility-sharing means some states keep all the refugees and some states pay all the money. We cannot do that, that is why we have resettlement, why we have different types of partnerships,” Grandi said Wednesday at the close of the two-day meeting.

Rising tide of refugees

The number of people fleeing their homeland has been surging. According to a new report by the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), the number of global migrants has increased from 150 million, to 272 million, in the past 20 years.

Contributing to these burgeoning numbers are the reasons why large numbers of people are being forced out of their homes, Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, said.

“People are being forced out for reasons — whether it’s gangs, whether it’s civil war, whether it’s a state collapse, whether it’s environmental degradation — things that a normal person would decide to flee from,” Selee said.

Along with the challenge of dealing with accommodating large amounts of refugees is the issue of who to let in. Countries are facing the question of who is a refugee and who isn’t. Some cases are clear cut, such as Turkey with the Syrians who are fleeing a brutal civil war; or Colombia with the Venezuelans fleeing their country’s revolution and subsequent economic meltdown.

But there are other cases, such as in Europe and the United States at the southern border with Mexico, in which they are trying to figure out who should be returned to their home country, and who actually has a legitimate claim for asylum or refugee protection.

“And, so some people say, OK, we’ll call all these people refugees. Then people say, let’s not expand the definition but at least accept that these people are forced migrants that aren’t leaving by choice,” Selee said. “They’re leaving because something has pushed them out. And there’s a recognition that we need to offer some protection to those people, whether or not we call them refugees.”

<!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

Billions of Dollars and In-Kind Contributions Pledged at Global Refugee Forum

The Global Refugee Forum has ended with more than 770 pledges worth billions of dollars in financial and in-kind contributions

Mass migration

Another challenge facing host countries is the issue of mass flows of migrants, and the perception of migrants’ impact on communities.

Dany Bahar of the Brookings Institution said when you think of a refugee crisis today, you think about a huge inflow of people that come to a country in a very short period of time.

Bahar said economists who have been researching the effect of migration have found the perception people had — about how massive inflows of migrants and refugees have negative impacts on the local labor markets — is not really backed by research.

“When refugees are allowed to work, that helps a country that is receiving them to become more productive, to grow etc. When the country has the ability to integrate these refugees by allowing them to be part of society, take part in the public sector, health system and education systems, that is of course positive for everybody,” Behar said.

Lebanon has anestimated population is 5.9 million, with nearly 1.5 million Syrian refugees. This makes it the country with the highest number of refugees per capita – with one refugee for every four nationals, according to the UN.
 

<!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

UN: Ability to Get Lifesaving Aid to 4 Million Syrians at Risk 

Russia seeks to cut cross-border access points into Syria, which would create huge obstacles for humanitarian missions

These numbers have placed an enormous strain on the country’s already fragile economy, society and politics.

“So in the case of Turkey and Lebanon receiving a lot of Syrian refugees, or in the case of Colombia receiving a lot of Venezuelan refugees, or Ethiopia receiving Eritrean and Sudanese refugees — these are countries that, to begin with, are lagging behind in terms of their infrastructure,”  Behar said.

He said that is why international financing is so important, not only for humanitarian reasons to help people, but to get the services they need by sending financial aid to allow host countries to invest in infrastructure and capital, so that they can integrate these refugees.

All in all, more than 770 pledges were made at this week’s forum for financial support as well as improving refugee access to employment, education, electricity, infrastructure and promises of more resettlement spots for the most vulnerable.

Katherine Ahn and VOA Persian contributed to this report

…

India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the final appeal of one of the four men sentenced to death for the 2012 fatal gang rape of a woman on a moving bus in New Delhi, paving the way for the four to be hanged.

The gruesome case made international headlines and exposed the scope of sexual violence against women in India, prompting lawmakers to stiffen penalties in rape cases.

The victim, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student whom Indian media dubbed “Nirbhaya,” or “Fearless,” because Indian law prohibits rape victims from being identified, was heading home with a male friend from a movie theater when six men lured them onto a bus. With no one else in sight, they beat the man with a metal bar, raped the woman and used the bar to inflict massive internal injuries to her. The pair were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died two weeks later.

The assailants were tried relatively quickly in a country where sexual assault cases often languish for years. Four defendants were sentenced to death. Another hanged himself in prison before his trial began, though his family insists he was killed. The sixth assailant was a minor at the time of the attack and was sentenced to three years in a reform home.

One of those sentenced to death, Akshay Kumar Singh, filed his review petition earlier this month after the other three had theirs rejected.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Singh’s appeal. India’s president can still decide to grant him mercy, but that is not expected to happen.

Activists say new sentencing requirements haven’t deterred rape, the fourth-most common crime against women in India, according to government statistics.

The last hanging in India was in 2013.

The Supreme Court’s ruling comes amid a revived debate over sexual violence in India after several headline-grabbing cases in recent weeks. A woman in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was doused with gasoline and set on fire by five men, including two she had accused of gang rape and who were out on bail, on her way to attend a court hearing in her case. She died earlier this month at a hospital in New Delhi.

The burned body of a 27-year-old veterinarian was found in late November near the city of Hyderabad in southern India. Police later fatally shot four men being held on suspicion of raping and killing the woman after investigators took them to the crime scene, drawing praise from people frustrated by the pace of the 2012 case and condemnation from those who said it undermined the courts’ role.

…

A global shipping industry organization is proposing a research and development program to help cut carbon dioxide emissions, funded by about $5 billion from shipping companies over a decade.

The International Chamber of Shipping said Wednesday that it is proposing creating a nongovernmental organization to be known as the International Maritime Research and Development Board.

It would be overseen by member countries of the U.N. maritime agency and financed by shipping companies through a mandatory contribution of $2 per metric ton of marine fuel.

Environmental activists say that while shipping contributes only about 2% of global greenhouse gases, the industry’s efforts are essential to combating climate change.

Last year, members of the U.N. agency, the International Maritime Organization, reached an agreement to cut the shipping industry’s emissions.

The strategy envisions cutting total annual emissions by at least 50 percent by 2050 compared with 2008. It foresees “pursuing efforts toward phasing them out entirely.”

The International Chamber of Shipping said that the proposed $5 billion “is critical to accelerate the R&D effort required to decarbonize the shipping sector” and to spur the development of commercially viable zero-carbon ships by the early 2030s. It added that “additional stakeholders’ participation is welcomed.”

The group said that governments will discuss the shipping industry’s proposal when the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee meets in London in March.

…

Farmers and construction workers protested across the Netherlands early Wednesday, driving in slow-moving convoys during the morning rush hour to demonstrate against government policies aimed at cutting pollution.

Traffic authorities warned commuters that the morning rush hour would be busier than usual and police issued fines to some farmers for driving their tractors on the highway as the latest in a series of protests clogged roads around the country.

Police closed off a major highway near Amsterdam when farmers drove tractors onto the road.

Protester Jacco van den Berg told Dutch national broadcaster NOS that the action was aimed at showing that construction workers are prepared to take action to protect their livelihoods, which they say are threatened by measures to reduce pollution.

“Something has to happen,” he said. “We’re coming up to Christmas and there are companies that won’t make it to Christmas.”

Many construction projects were halted earlier this year when a Dutch court ruled that the government’s policy on granting building permits breached European pollution laws.

The protests came a day after Dutch senators approved legislation to cut emissions of the pollutant nitrogen oxide. Measures include making farmers change the feed they give to livestock and extending a voluntary scheme to buy up pig farms.

The new legislation, which has already been approved by the lower house of Parliament, also lowers the maximum speed limit on Dutch highways from 130 kph (80 mph) to 100 kph (62 mph).

…

In conservative Pakistan, women’s sports still lag far behind their male counterparts. That has not stopped women who enjoy sports from pushing the boundaries and demanding change. In a poor neighborhood in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, young women are so passionate about football they have persisted despite the disapproval of their own families and society. But as Ayesha Tanzeem reports from Karachi, the young women still have doubts about a future in the sport.

…

Stirring a giant vat in a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian Christian Maryam Salem prepares a special festive dish — not for Christmas, but the St Barbara’s Day festival.

It is celebrated every December 17 in Aboud, which residents believe is the last resting place of Saint Barbara, a third century woman killed for refusing to renounce her Christian faith.

The special dessert, named after Barbara and given to hundreds of people, looks a little like rice pudding but includes wheat, anise, fennel, cinnamon, almonds, raisins and sugar.

Salem says it takes several days to prepare, starting with soaking the wheat for 24 hours.

“We cook it and gradually add the rest of the ingredients and keep stirring until the ingredients are well mixed,” said Salem, who has been preparing the dish for the festivities for 12 years.

The exact details of Barbara’s story are disputed but the legend of the story is well-known.

The beautiful daughter of a pagan born in the third century, she secretly converted to Christianity.

Once her father found out she fled but was eventually caught.

Her furious father murdered her but was struck by lightning and died shortly after.

The pastor of Aboud’s Greek Orthodox Church, Father Emmanuel Awwad, said some accounts suggest the final scenes took place in the village, while others placed them in the city of Baalbek in modern day Lebanon.

Bagpipes

Celebrations began before sunset on Monday, with a special prayer held in the church in the village centre.

Afterwards the clergy and local residents, both Christian and Muslim, marched through the village down streets flanked by olive trees and cactuses, while a group of scouts played bagpipes and drums.

The march culminated at the saint’s tomb, located on a rocky hill where on a clear day you can see through Israeli territory to the Mediterranean Sea.

There families and visitors lit candles in the darkened room in honor of the saint.

“We ascend to the tomb with a march befitting the saint’s standing and greatness as a martyr,” Awwad said.

He said the march was “affirming their affiliation to the land,” referencing Israeli attempts to take control of the area.

More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, considered illegal under international law, alongside 2.7 million Palestinians.

Hanna Khoury, head of the village council, recalled how in 2002 during the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, Israeli forces blew up the site under the pretext it was being “used to prepare for commando operations.”

The army later apologized, saying it had not realized the religious significance of the site.

Muslims also eat the Barbara dish after a six-day fast and on other occasions, noted Hamzah al-Aqrabawi, a researcher in Palestinian heritage.

“Barbara is a popular ritual that Palestinian peasants have had for 2,000 years,” he said.

Eight-year-old Riad Zaarour was wrapped in a traditional Palestinian kuffiyeh, or scarf, as he waited for the dish.

“The best thing in the festival is Barbara. We eat it and celebrate. I feel happy.”

…

Danish scientists have managed to extract a complete DNA sample from a piece of birch pitch more than 5,000 years old, used as a kind of chewing gum, a study revealed Tuesday.

The Stone-Age sample yielded enough information to determine the source’s sex, what she had last eaten and the germs in her mouth. It also told them she probably had dark hair, dark skin and blue eyes.

And genetically, she was more closely related to hunter-gatherers from the mainland Europe than to those living in central Scandinavia at the time, they concluded.

“It is the first time that an entire ancient human genome has been extracted from anything other than human bones,” Hannes Schroeder of the University of Copenhagen, told AFP.

Schroeder is co-author of the study, which was published in the review Nature Communications.

They found the sample during an archaeological dig at Syltholm, in southern Denmark, said Tehis Jensen, one of the other authors.

“Syltholm is completely unique,” he said.

“Almost everything is sealed in mud, which means that the preservation of organic remains is absolutely phenomenal.”

The researchers also recovered traces of plant and animal DNA – hazelnut and duck – confirming what archaeologists already know about the people who lived there at the time.

But they were not sure why their subject chose to chew the bark: whether to turn it into a kind of glue, to clean her teeth, to stave off hunger – or simply as chewing gum.
 

…

A judge on Monday sentenced a woman to 10 months in prison for her role in a business that helped pregnant Chinese women travel to the United States to give birth to children who would automatically receive U.S. citizenship.

U.S. District Judge James Selna issued the sentence in Santa Ana, to Dongyuan Li, who wiped away tears with her hand several times during the hearing.

Selna said he expected her to be released from custody later Monday due to time served.

Federal prosecutors opposed the sentence and said they believed Li should be sentenced to years in prison to deter others from helping women lie on visa applications and hide pregnancies in these so-called birth tourism schemes.

Li pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy and visa fraud for running a birth tourism company in Southern California known as “You Win USA.”

Federal authorities said the company helped more than 500 Chinese women travel to the United States to deliver American babies, and that Li used a cluster of apartments in Irvine, California, to receive them.

Authorities said the company coached the women to lie on their visa applications and to hide their pregnancies when passing through customs in U.S. airports.

In a letter to the court, Li said she has taken English and music lessons and read books and exercised daily while in custody.

“I am very sorry for the mistakes that I have made,” she wrote in the Dec. 1 letter filed with the court. “I truly sincerely apologize for any harm that I have caused to the American society.”
 

…