Merkel, Rival Meet German President Amid Government Impasse

Germany’s president brought together Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leader of the center-left Social Democrats, Martin Schulz, on Thursday night with the aim of breaking the impasse over the formation of a new government.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the party leaders together after talks between Merkel’s conservative bloc and two smaller parties to form a previously untried coalition collapsed.

Schulz, Merkel and her Bavarian ally Horst Seehofer agreed to meet at Germany’s presidential palace to explore the possibility of forming a so-called grand coalition like the one that makes up the outgoing government.

Schultz had initially refused to consider another “grand coalition” with Merkel after a disastrous showing of the Social Democrats in the election on Sept. 24, saying the Social Democrats needed to go into opposition. But he reversed course after Steinmeier’s appeal, and said his party is now open to holding exploratory talks.

Merkel this week said she hoped to talk with the Social Democrats “in a serious, engaged, honest way and obviously with the intention of success.”

Schulz sounded more skeptical, however, saying the talks hosted by Steinmeier would be about “if and in which form” they would continue discussions and “if it even makes sense to continue to talk with one another.”

He added that his party members would have to have a final say over any agreement.

Even if the two sides do agree to continue, they’ll first have to negotiate the prerequisites for coalition talks, then carry out the coalition talks themselves, meaning it will likely be several months before a new government is formed.

If Merkel can’t put together a coalition, the only options would be a minority government or a new election.

Meanwhile, she continues to head a caretaker government made up of her conservatives and the Social Democrats.

Italy’s Berlusconi Faces New Trial Ahead of 2018 Election

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been ordered to stand trial on charges that he bribed a witness to give false testimony at a trial four years ago where he eventually was acquitted of paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

The trial for the 81-year-old, four-time premier is set for February in the Tuscan city of Siena, not long before Berlusconi is set to try to reclaim control of the Italian government in new elections.

Berlusconi, leader of the center-right Forza Italia party, is accused of paying a piano player at his wild Bunga Bunga parties to lie at his trial about Berlusconi’s involvement with the prostitute, Karima El Mahroug, a 17-year-old Moroccan-born belly dancer who called herself Ruby the Heart Stealer.

Berlusconi has denied all charges in the case and maintained that the parties at his home near Milan were nothing more than elegant dinner parties.

He was originally convicted of paying to have sex with a minor and handed a seven-year prison sentence. But the verdict was overturned by an appellate court in 2014, which said there was no proof that Berlusconi knew the prostitute’s age.

Neglect, Corruption Left Puerto Rico’s Power Grid Ripe for Failure, Observers Say

Individuals long familiar with the inner workings of Puerto Rico’s publicly owned power authority say it should come as no surprise that the island was left entirely without electric power by Hurricane Maria or that, more than two months later, more than half its residents are still without electricity.

The late September storm hit the U.S. territory with unprecedented strength, leveling buildings and even whole forests with winds in excess of 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph). But former and current officials of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) say a decades-long culture of neglect and corruption had left the system unnecessarily vulnerable to Maria.

Long before Maria, signs of the power grid’s delicate state were everywhere. During Hurricanes Hugo in 1989 and George in 1998, Puerto Ricans were left without power for up to three weeks, especially in remote areas. On September 21, 2016 — a year to the day before Maria left the island — a fire in PREPA’s southern Aguirre plant caused an island-wide blackout for six days.

Former senior PREPA executives and other analysts pointed to several long-standing problems that contributed to the system’s collapse and painfully slow recovery:

● The vast majority of power lines in Puerto Rico are suspended on reinforced concrete poles designed to withstand winds of between 225 and 240 kph, meaning they should have held up through most of Maria’s blast. But, according to former PREPA Executive Director Josue Colon, cable and telecommunications companies have been allowed to string their own fiber-optic cables on the poles, reducing their wind load capacity by an average of 80 kph.

Existing law requires these companies to coordinate with PREPA, but all too often, Colon said, they “just do what they want” without proper oversight or regulation.

● Generating units in Puerto Rico’s petroleum-based electrical system date back, on average, 45 years, compared with the U.S. national average of 18 years. When asked, in an interview with local media in 2015, to assess the condition of PREPA’s physical assets, a representative of a New York-based consulting firm said they were the worst of any corporation she had previously seen or worked with.

● Once the storm hit, the local government was slow in activating its energy restoration plan. The U.S. company initially hired to repair the grid, Whitefish Energy Holdings, wasn’t contracted until six days after Maria, and its crews did not begin arriving on the island until October 2 — 12 days after the power was knocked out. Florida, in contrast, had mobilized thousands of crews from around the country to begin work the day after Hurricane Irma subsided that same month.

PREPA’s executive director is required by law to report by May 31 each year on steps that have been taken to prepare for hurricanes or “other atmospheric disturbances.” That plan should include details of companies that have been contracted to initiate repairs in the case of a storm.

However Senator Carmelo Rios, majority speaker in the Puerto Rico legislature, said in a radio interview this month that this year’s report was not filed until August 30 — less than three weeks before Maria struck — and that it falsely claimed the utility was fully prepared to deal with any contingency. Neither the governor’s office nor that of PREPA Executive Director Ricardo Ramos responded to VOA’s requests for comment.

● An individual with personal knowledge of PREPA’s workings, who declined to be identified while talking about company-employee relations, described systemic corruption that has allowed critical equipment to deteriorate while highly paid and underperforming employees are protected.

Reports that date back over 25 years, prepared by engineers charged with overseeing the corporation’s operations, show that PREPA employees on average perform only two hours of useful work per day. Yet a menial custodial position can pay upward of $90,000 a year with generous benefits.

UTIER, the union representing PREPA employees, has also negotiated severe restrictions on what employees can be asked to do, creating inefficiencies. Drivers, for instance, cannot help with any other work, even if that means they must wait and watch while others work.

UTIER did not respond to repeated requests for comment from VOA.

Changes in governing board

Inconsistent PREPA leadership has compounded other problems, with a new territorial administration appointing a new PREPA governing board every four years since 2000. This has affected PREPA’s ability to design, implement and execute a long-term strategic plan to solve its fiscal problems and prepare for emergencies.

The same type of problems that contributed to the island-wide blackout now threaten to plague the recovery effort.

Numerous local officials and environmental activists have argued strongly in favor of replacing the destroyed infrastructure with a decentralized electric grid, developing hundreds if not thousands of microgrids that can provide power to smaller sectors closer to where the power is being generated.

However, Colon points out that a network of seven such grids was already established across Puerto Rico as an emergency backup, but it was inoperable after Maria because of a lack of maintenance. He blames this on draconian austerity measures implemented by Alix Partners, the New York consulting firm brought in three years ago as PREPA neared insolvency.

VOA reached out to Alix Partners for comment by email, Facebook and Twitter but did not receive a reply.

The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that power in Puerto Rico may not be fully restored until March. Governor Ricardo Rossello, however, has publicly stated his goal of restoring power to 90 percent of the island before Christmas.

In reality, when power will be fully restored in the U.S territory is anybody’s guess.

Relatives of Argentina Sub Crew Want Probe of Disappearance

Some relatives of crew members on a missing Argentine submarine are asking to be plaintiffs in a judicial investigation of the disappearance, saying they want to ensure the case is fully studied.

Luis Tagliapietra said Thursday that he joined the case because he believes the navy has withheld information and lied to the families of crew members such as his son. He said seven other families have asked to join as plaintiffs.

 

The group wants judicial authorities to safeguard any evidence related to the voyage of the ARA San Juan, which hasn’t been seen or heard from since Nov. 15 despite an intensive multinational search in the South Atlantic. Hope for survivors has faded because experts say the 44 sailors had only enough oxygen to last up to 10 days if the sub remained submerged and undamaged.

“Until a bolt from the submarine appears, they could be anywhere, in any situation,” said Tagliapietra, the father of 27-year-old crewman Alejandro Tagliapietra.

 

“Of course, the days pass by and the anguish, fear and desperation rise. But in a way, I’m channeling all of this with this struggle, so that no matter what, we can find out the truth.”

The navy has said the vessel’s captain reported that water entered the snorkel and caused one of the submarine’s batteries to short circuit. The captain later communicated by satellite phone that the problem had been contained, the navy says.

Some hours later, an explosion was detected near the time and place where the San Juan was last heard from. A navy spokesman said this week that the blast could have been triggered by a “concentration of hydrogen” caused by the battery problem reported by the captain.

Tagliapietra criticized the navy’s response and its release of information. He noted that for days, officials spoke about a communication problem and didn’t acknowledge the battery problem until after it was leaked to news media.

 

He said that when he found out about the explosion from his son’s direct superior, he was told there was a possibility no one survived.

“I asked if they were all dead, and he said: ‘Yes,’” Tagliapietra said.

The San Juan, a German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine, was commissioned in the 1980s and was most recently refitted in 2014. Some family members have also denounced the age and condition of the vessel. President Mauricio Macri has promised a full investigation.

German Jobless Rate Hits Best Figure Since 1990 Reunification

Germany, Europe’s most robust economy, said Thursday that its unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent in November, the lowest figure since West and East Germany were unified in 1990.

Even as Chancellor Angela Merkel and other Berlin politicians struggle to form a coalition government, the German economy remains strong, with a months-long dip in the country’s jobless rate and solid demand for German products from other countries.

The German report came as Eurostat, the statistics agency for the European Union, said the jobless rate for the 19-nation eurozone bloc that uses the euro currency dropped to 8.8 percent in October. It was the lowest figure since January 2009, when Europe and countries across the world were in the midst of a steep recession.

The German and European jobless rates trail those in the United States, the world’s largest economy, where unemployment has dropped to 4.1 percent, a 17-year low. But the U.S. and European numbers point to steady improvement that had been slow to emerge after the devastating job losses and high unemployment seven to nine years ago.

Eurostat said more than 14 million people remained out of work, but that was 1.5 million fewer than a year ago. In Spain, the jobless rate has been cut from about 25 percent to 16.7 percent.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said that while wages still are not increasing much, they could rise in the coming months as the continent’s economy continues to rebound.

Patrick Chovanex, chief strategist at New York-based Silvercrest Asset Management, told VOA the U.S. is in the eighth year of its recovery.

“It’s a recovery that has kind of waxed and waned,” he said. “One of the things that has been happening over the past couple years is that different parts of the economy were waxing and waning out of sequence with one another. So housing would be strong while manufacturing would be weak, and then vice versa. Every so often they happen to coincide.

“Right now we’re seeing a pattern of several elements of the economy being strong at once. Hopefully, that will continue.”

AU: Between 400,000 and 700,000 African Migrants in Libya

Between 400,000 and 700,000 African migrants are living in camps in Libya, often under “inhuman” conditions, the chairman of the African Union Commission said Thursday at the close of a summit of European and African leaders.

Moussa Faki Mahamat stressed the urgency of removing the thousands of migrants, including women and children, from the camps as he addressed the summit where migration was a top issue after recent footage of a migrant slave auction in Libya drew global horror and condemnation.

At least 3,800 migrants in one camp in Tripoli need to be removed as soon as possible, Mahamat said. Most of them come from West Africa.

“That’s just one camp,” he said. “The Libyan government has told us there are 42,” and some contain an even larger number of migrants.

The International Organization for Migration says more than 423,000 migrants had been identified in the chaotic North African country as of last month. The majority are men from impoverished countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

In a communique Thursday, the European and African leaders agreed to “accelerate exponentially” efforts to repatriate the migrants and vowed to combat the crimes committed against them.

The leaders also pledged to do more to help the migrants stranded in squalid detention centers in Libya, the main jumping-off point for desperate people setting out in unseaworthy boats in search of better lives in Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron said leaders from EU and African countries, including Libya, and the United Nations were discussing going after human traffickers with “concrete, military and police actions on the ground to trace back these networks.”

“These smugglers are deeply linked to many terrorist networks and feed, sometimes finance, sometimes are the same as those who make war with us and who kill people every day in much of northern Africa,” Macron told French broadcasters France 24 and RFI.

Some African nations are working to bring their citizens home.

 

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Wednesday that all Nigerians stranded in Libya and other parts of the world will be brought home and “rehabilitated,” calling it appalling that “some Nigerians were being sold like goats for few dollars in Libya.”

Nigeria’s government said on Twitter that 242 Nigerian migrants returned home from Libya on Tuesday and that more than 4,000 stranded there have “safely retuned home” this year.

Ivory Coast’s government in the past week repatriated 316 citizens stranded in Libya.

Europe has struggled to slow the flow of tens of thousands of Africans making the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean. European countries are trying to discourage the stream of migrants with development aid and other means, including funds to tighten border controls. But many Africans feel pressured to make the journey, risking death and abuse, saying high unemployment and climate change leave them little choice.

At least 3,000 drown or go missing annually in attempts to cross the Mediterranean, but with Africa’s population forecast to rise significantly in coming decades many more are likely to take the risk.

To focus efforts, the EU, the African Union and the United Nations also announced that they would set up a special task force to help protect migrants, notably those detained in conflict-torn Libya.

 

Details of its work must be fleshed out, but the main aim is to “save and protect lives of migrants and refugees along the routes and in particular inside Libya.”

The task force, which will work closely with Libyan authorities, will also try to speed up the process of returning willing migrants to their home countries and finding new homes for those fleeing violence or conflict and who need international protection.

Associated Press writer Lorne Cook contributed.

Venezuela Arrests 2 Top Former Oil Officials

Venezuela’s chief prosecutor says two former top oil bosses have been arrested as part of a widespread crackdown on corruption.

Attorney-General Tarek Saab said former Oil Minister Eulogio del Pino and Nelson Martinez, former president of state oil company PDVSA, were arrested early Thursday. Both had been removed from their positions Sunday by President Nicolas Maduro in a Cabinet shakeup.

Last week, Venezuelan authorities arrested the acting president of Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of PDVSA, along with five other senior executives, for alleged corruption.

Members of the Venezuelan opposition argue that recent investigations do not demonstrate a genuine intention of the government to eradicate corruption, but only reflect internal struggles of PDVSA.

Venezuela is one of OPEC’s top producers, but figures show the country’s production has fallen, reaching a 28-year low in October.  Analysts say PDVSA has not been able to come up with the money to maintain and upgrade its infrastructure. Critics say mismanagement and corruption are to blame.

Tensions Rise as Vote Count in Honduras Drags on

Protests were growing in Honduras as incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez emerged with a slim lead Thursday for re-election following a reported computer glitch that shut down vote counting for several hours.

Challenger Salvador Nasralla has alleged fraud and said he won’t respect the official results. He’s watched an initial five-point lead diminish in recent days as official results have trickled out.

By early Thursday, Hernandez was ahead by about 22,000 votes, with about 88 percent of Sunday’s votes processed. He had 42.4 percent of the vote to Nasralla’s 41.7 percent.

Opposition supporters protested through the night outside the electoral court’s facilities, setting up some highway roadblocks and lighting fires in the streets. Police responded with tear gas as calls to maintain calm were increasingly unheeded.

Nasralla via Twitter asked his supporters to continue to protest peacefully and not be provoked into violence.

Court president David Matamoros said complete results will be available Thursday afternoon.

Both candidates have declared themselves the winner. Late Wednesday, Nasralla disavowed an agreement he and Hernandez had signed with the Organization of American States to respect the official results.

“I signed that document before the electoral court’s computing center went down, and that was a trap,” Nasralla said at a news conference. “The agreement with the OAS was to respect trustworthy results without alterations … and the court has altered the documents in the last two days. That is unacceptable.”

Hernandez said he would respect the result and called for calm while the final votes were counted.

Matamoros said the computer problem was resolved and did not affect the vote.

More Than Half the World’s Population Lacks Social Protection

The International Labor Organization says a majority of the world’s population, four billion people, have no social protection, leaving them mired in an endless cycle of poverty. 

The report says 45 percent of the global population is covered by at least one social benefit.  But that leaves 55 percent without any social protection, a situation ILO Director General Guy Ryder calls unacceptable.

“That means that they do not receive any child benefit, any maternity benefit, any unemployment protection, any disability benefit, any old age pension and that they do not actively contribute to social security systems,” Ryder said.

The consequences are severe and tangible.  The report finds the lack of social protection leaves people vulnerable to illness, poverty, inequality and social exclusion.  The ILO regards the situation as a significant obstacle to economic growth and social development.

Ryder tells VOA governments would benefit from considering social protection as an investment in their populations.

“Social protection is a human right and we should be pursuing it because it is a human right,” Ryder said. “But, also, I think there is a great deal of evidence to demonstrate that when social protection systems are in place and where they function well and one can think of the whole cycle of protection from kids right through to old age, then you reap economic benefits from it.” 

The report says the lack of social protection is most acute in Africa, Asia, and the Arab States.  It recommends those regions increase their public expenditure to at least guarantee basic social security coverage to all their people.

British Fury as Trump Retweets Extreme Right Group’s Videos

British lawmakers have reacted with anger after U.S. President Donald Trump retweeted videos posted by an extreme right-wing anti-Muslim group. The tweets, originally posted by the deputy leader of the group Britain First, appear to show acts of violence carried out by Muslims, although doubt has been cast on the reliability of at least one of the videos. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.

Mexico Economy Minister Calls US NAFTA Autos Proposal ‘Not Viable’

Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Wednesday that Trump administration demands for a U.S.-specific automotive content requirement in NAFTA were “not viable,” and he declined to specify when Mexico would formally respond.

At a news conference following a series of meetings with senior U.S. trade officials and lawmakers in Washington, Guajardo said that Mexico was still trying to understand the U.S. proposals that would require 50 percent of vehicles’ value content to be produced in the United States as part of updated North American Free Trade Agreement rules.

“I was clear that the domestic content [requirement] is something that is not viable at this point,” Guajardo said.

He added that Mexico would eventually make a counterproposal on automotive rules of origin, but declined to specify the timing of that response.

His visit was partly aimed at bolstering support in Congress for NAFTA at a time when tax legislation is consuming lawmakers’ attention and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is growing frustrated with the slow pace of NAFTA talks.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to scrap the trade agreement if it cannot be renegotiated to shrink U.S. trade deficits and return manufacturing jobs to the United States.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said after meeting with Guajardo earlier  Wednesday that congressional Republicans “are determined” to strengthen trade ties with Mexico.

“I expect the administration will continue to work with us to modernize NAFTA and bolster our robust relationship with such an important ally,” Ryan said in a statement.

US waiting on counterproposals

After the last NAFTA negotiating round ended last week, Lighthizer complained that Mexico and Canada had not offered counterproposals to its demands on autos and other major areas aimed at “rebalancing” the trade pact.

The United States also is seeking to lift the regional value content requirement for NAFTA-produced cars and trucks to 85 percent from 62.5 percent. Guajardo said that once Mexico has a firm understanding of the U.S. autos proposal, it can work with its own stakeholders to see what adjustments could be made to regional content for autos.

But he said that the U.S. demand to move to 85 percent regional content within three years was “entirely unrealistic.”

Guajardo said he discussed with Lighthizer on Tuesday how to move the talks toward consideration of potential “rebalancing” outcomes. But first, he said, Mexico needed to be clear with its American and Canadian counterparts about unacceptable proposals and its priorities for keeping the pact beneficial to all parties.

“We have to start a process of looking at what’s next after we complete the modernization effort,” he added.

On dispute settlement, Guajardo said that Mexico would be willing to consider some adjustments to the investor-state dispute settlement system, after the United States proposed making the use of such arbitration panels optional.

“We can explore the opt-in, as long as we can define our own opt-in,” Guajardo said of the dispute settlement proposal, adding that otherwise, Mexico is “not interested.”

At a more limited round of NAFTA talks in mid-December in Washington, Guajardo said it would be important to agree on key issues in order to close some NAFTA chapters, such as those on food safety, telecommunications, regulatory practices and digital commerce.

France’s Macron to Give Saudi Arabia Extremist List

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he would draw up a list of extremist organizations to convey to Saudi Arabia after its crown prince pledged to cut their funding.

Saudi Arabia finances groups overseen by the Mecca-based Muslim World League, which for decades was charged with spreading the strict Wahhabi school of Islam around the world.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seeking to modernize the kingdom and cleave to a more open and tolerant interpretation of Islam.

“He never did it publicly, but when I went to Riyadh (this  month), he made a commitment, such that we could give him a list and he would cut the financing,” Macron said during an interview with France 24 television.

“I believe him, but I will follow up. Trust is built on results,” Macron added.

The crown prince has already taken some steps to loosen Saudi Arabia’s ultra-strict social restrictions, scaling back the role of religious morality police, permitting public concerts and announcing plans to allow women to drive next year.

The head of the Muslim World League told Reuters last week that his focus now was aimed at annihilating extremist ideology.

“We must wipe out this extremist thinking through the work we do. We need to annihilate religious severity and extremism which is the entry point to terrorism,” Mohammed al-Issa said in an interview.

Macron, speaking from Abidjan, said he had also sought commitments to cut financing of extremist groups from Qatar, Iran and Turkey.

The French leader will make a quick trip to Doha on Dec. 7, where he will discuss regional ties and could sign military and transport deals, including the sale of 12 more Rafale fighter jets.

Qatar has improved its ties with Iran since Saudi Arabia and other Arab states boycotted it over alleged ties to Islamist groups and its relations with Tehran.

Macron said he still intended to travel to Iran next year, but wanted to ensure there was a discussion and strategic accord over its ballistic missile program and its destabilization activities in several regional countries.

 

Facebook Suspends Ability to Target Ads by Excluding Racial Groups

Facebook Inc. said on Wednesday it was temporarily disabling the ability of advertisers on its social network to exclude racial groups from the intended audience of ads while it studies how the feature could be used to discriminate.

Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, told African-American U.S. lawmakers in a letter that the company was determined to do better after a news report said Facebook had failed to block discriminatory ads.

The U.S.-based news organization ProPublica reported last week that, as part of an investigation, it had purchased discriminatory housing ads on Facebook and slipped them past the company’s review process, despite claims by Facebook months earlier that it was able to detect and block such ads.

“Until we can better ensure that our tools will not be used inappropriately, we are disabling the option that permits advertisers to exclude multicultural affinity segments from the audience for their ads,” Sandberg wrote in the letter to the Congressional Black Caucus, according to a copy posted online by ProPublica.

It is unlawful under U.S. law to publish certain types of ads if they indicate a preference based on race, religion, sex or certain classifications.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network with 2.1 billion users and $36 billion in annual revenue, has been on the defensive for its advertising practices.

In September, it disclosed the existence of Russia-linked ads that ran during the 2016 U.S. election campaign. The same month it turned off a tool, also reported by ProPublica, that had inadvertently let advertisers target based on people’s self-reported jobs, even if the job was “Jew hater.”

Sandberg said in the letter that advertisers who use Facebook’s targeting options to include certain races for ads about housing, employment or credit will have to certify to Facebook that they are complying with Facebook’s anti-discrimination policy and with applicable law.

Sandberg defended race- and culture-based marketing in general, saying it was a common and legitimate practice in the ad industry to try to reach specific communities.

U.S. Representative Robin Kelly of Illinois, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Facebook’s action was appropriate.

“When I first raised this issue with Facebook, I was disappointed,” Kelly, a Democrat, said in a statement. “When it became necessary to raise the issue again, I was irritated. Thankfully, we’ve been able to establish a constructive pipeline of communication that’s resulted in a positive step forward.”

Opposition Leader to Become Iceland’s Prime Minister

Iceland’s opposition leader Katrin Jakobsdóttir will become the country’s new prime minister, after her Left-Green Movement on Wednesday agreed to form a coalition government, state broadcaster RUV reported.

Her party, which emerged as the second biggest party in snap parliamentary elections Oct. 28, entered coalition talks with the Independence Party, the main partner in the current government coalition, and the Progressive Party two weeks ago.

Current Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson of the right-wing Independence Party called the snap election in September, after less than a year in government, as a scandal involving his father prompted a government ally to drop out of his ruling coalition.

Economic rebound

The Nordic island of 340,000 people, one of the countries hit hardest by the 2008 financial crisis, has staged a remarkable economic rebound spurred by a tourism boom.

The formation of a broad coalition government could bring an end to political instability triggered by a string of scandals.

The previous snap election took place late in 2016, after the Panama Papers revelations showed several government figures involved in an offshore tax haven scandal.

Coalition criticized

Still, some Left-Green members and voters have criticized the party’s plan to enter a coalition with Benediktsson and his Independence Party.

Two of Left-Green’s mandates did not support the new coalition, giving the three parties a total of 33 of parliament’s 63 seats.

Jakobsdóttir, 41, campaigned on a platform of restoring trust in government and leveraging an economic boom to increase public spending.

She failed to form a left-leaning government earlier this month, but said on election night she was open to forming a broad-based government.

While both the Left-Greens and the Independence Party parties agree that investment is needed in areas like welfare, infrastructure and tourism, they disagree over how it should be financed.

The Left-Greens want to finance spending by raising taxes on the wealthy, real estate and the powerful fishing industry, while the Independence Party has said it wants to fund infrastructure spending by taking money out of the banking sector.

Benediktsson will become finance minister in the new government.

Search for Argentine Sub Narrows to Area of Explosion

The international effort to find a missing Argentine submarine has come up empty after scouring more than two-thirds of the search area, the navy spokesman said Wednesday.

The final contact with the ARA San Juan, which had 44 crew members aboard, was Nov. 15.

Two weeks later, the search is focused on a patch of the South Atlantic about 40 square kilometers (15 square miles) around the point of the explosion that likely doomed the vessel, as well as calculations based on the sub’s direction and speed, Argentina’s navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters.

Aircraft and ships from 18 countries looking for the submarine have covered 68 percent of the search area, Balbi said.

The search is taking place about 450 kilometers (279 miles) off Argentina’s southern coast, in an area where the depth of the ocean floor varies between 200 and 1,000 meters.

Balbi said it was hard to tell when the ships and planes will have covered all of the search area. 

“It depends on the weather,” he said. “It is a slow sweep.”

Weather conditions will be favorable Wednesday and Thursday, Balbi said, adding that at least eight ships are operating in the search area.

In their last message, the submarine crew reported an electrical short-circuit caused by sea water, which had started a fire, an Argentine TV channel reported Monday.

The submarine said sea water had entered the ventilation system, causing a battery on the diesel-electric vessel to short-circuit and start a fire, according to the text of the message, which was reported by the A24 television channel.

Russian Network RT Loses US Capitol Hill Credentials

Broadcast reporters for Russian state-funded TV channel RT will no longer be able to report daily from the U.S. Capitol.

A committee that governs Capitol Hill access for broadcast journalists has withdrawn credentials for RT after the company complied earlier this month with a U.S. demand that it register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The law applies to people or companies disseminating information in the U.S. on behalf of foreign governments, political parties and other “foreign principals.”

The action also comes just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation allowing Russia to register international media outlets as foreign agents, an act seen as the Kremlin’s retaliation for the Trump administration decision on RT. The new rules require disclosures to the Russian government and are seen as stigmatizing the news outlets as promoters of American propaganda.

 

In Washington, C-SPAN’s Craig Caplan informed RT that its credentials were being withdrawn after a unanimous vote of the executive committee of the Congressional Radio and Television Correspondents’ Galleries.

Caplan, the chairman of that committee, wrote that gallery rules “state clearly that news credentials may not be issued to any applicant employed by ‘any foreign government or representative thereof.’ ” He said the FARA registration made the network ineligible to hold news credentials, and their withdrawal is effective immediately.

Many news outlets with ties to foreign governments are required to similarly register. English-language newspaper China Daily is registered due to its affiliation with the Chinese government, for example. But the pressure on RT has angered Russian officials, who have said they will retaliate with restrictions on U.S. news outlets.

The letter was sent to Mikhail Solodovnikov of RT’s U.S.-based production company, T & R Productions. RT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. intelligence agencies have alleged RT served as a propaganda outlet for the Kremlin as part of a multi-pronged effort to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Russia denies interfering.

 

VP: Venezuela’s Maduro to Seek 2nd Term in 2018

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro — who is battling a crippling economic crisis in his oil-rich, cash-poor nation — will seek re-election next year, Vice President Tareck El Aissami said Wednesday.

In 2018, “we will have, God willing, people willing, the re-election of our brother Nicolas Maduro as president of the republic,” El Aissami told a meeting of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

Next year’s presidential election in the South American country — a member of OPEC — is scheduled for December, but some experts believe it could be brought forward to March.

Venezuela’s prolonged crisis has resulted in crippling shortages of food, medicine and industrial inputs, fueling inflation which at 1,000 percent is the world’s highest.

Ratings agencies have found the country in partial default on massive international loans, estimated at $150 billion.

Maduro is also under fire internationally for marginalizing the opposition and stifling independent media.

Earlier this year 125 people were killed in several months of violent protests against his rule.

The announcement was criticized by opposition leaders, who blame Maduro for the crisis.

“If Maduro wants the economic crisis resolved in 2018, all he has to do is leave and allow Venezuela to choose an honest and efficient government,” opposition leader Henry Ramos Allup wrote on Twitter.

Maduro was elected in 2013 after the death of then-president Hugo Chavez, who had anointed him as successor.

Analysts see the early declaration of intent as a move to dissuade challengers inside the ruling party who may be encouraged to run by the president’s low popularity rating of around 20 percent.

“There was an internal race between aspirants and this can be a way of putting down a marker and get ahead,” said political analyst Luis Salamanca.

Even if challengers emerge, a Socialist Party primary is unlikely. “It will be resolved internally,” said Salamanca.

Maduro’s government is due to begin talks with the main opposition coalition on Friday and Saturday in the Dominican Republic to try to put an end to the political crisis.

“The government isn’t sitting at the table because of political pressure, but because of economic pressure, because it has a brutal crisis and international sanctions that reduce its leeway,” said analyst Luis Vicente Leon.

‘Widespread vicious abuses’

El Aissami’s announcement coincided with the release of a Human Rights Watch report that denounced “widespread vicious abuses,” including torture, against Maduro’s opponents.

The abuses include “egregious cases of torture, and the absolute impunity for the attackers,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director at the rights monitoring group.

The report, produced jointly with the Venezuelan rights group Penal Forum, is based on interviews with more than 120 people, including victims and their families.

“These are not isolated abuses or occasional excesses by rogue officers but rather a systematic practice by Venezuelan security forces,” Vivanco said, suggesting “government responsibility at the highest levels.”

The report documents 88 cases involving at least 314 people between April and September 2017.

“Security force personnel beat detainees severely and tortured them with electric shocks, asphyxiation, sexual assault, and other brutal techniques,” the report said.

They also used “disproportionate force and carried out violent abuses” against people in the streets, as well as arbitrarily arresting and prosecuting government opponents, it added.

“Revolutionary victory”

Maduro’s re-election would be a response to the “coup” of the opposition and the “financial persecution and sanctions” of the United States, El Aissami told the Socialist Party members.

“We are ready to achieve a great revolutionary victory,” he said to applause.

The vice president pointed out that a second term for Maduro would round off a string of victories for the Socialist party.

In late July, a Constituent Assembly stacked with Maduro supporters was elected to take the place of the opposition-dominated National Assembly.

In regional elections in October, the ruling party won governorships in 18 of the country’s 23 states.

El Aissami predicted the ruling party would win “the vast majority” of open mayorships in upcoming municipal elections next month.

Snapchat Seeks to Attract More Users by Redesigning App

Snapchat is separating what friends share and what media organizations publish in an attempt to appeal to a broader range of users.

The photo messaging app has not been gaining enough users, especially beyond its core of younger people. Parent company Snap Inc.’s stock is down sharply since its initial public offering earlier this year.

Users will now see two separate feeds — one from friends and one from publishers and non-friend accounts they follow. Before, Snapchat was mixing those posts, much the way Twitter, Facebook and other rivals continue to do. Snap hinted at changes three weeks ago, but didn’t provide details then.

CEO Evan Spiegel took a jab at rivals, writing that social media “fueled ‘fake news’” because of this content mixing.

 

US, Britain, France Accused of Snubbing Anti-nuclear Nobel Prize

The anti-nuclear group which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize accused the United States, Britain and France on Wednesday of snubbing its disarmament work by

planning to send only second-rank diplomats to the award ceremony next month.

“It’s some kind of protest against the Nobel Peace Prize,” Beatrice Fihn, director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), told Reuters of a plan by the three nations to send only deputy chiefs of mission.

“They like their nuclear weapons very much and don’t like it when we try to ban them,” she said, accusing the three of wrongly opposing ICAN’s work “when North Korea and the United States are exchanging threats to use nuclear weapons”.

The annual December 10 Nobel prize ceremony in Oslo, attended by King Harald and Queen Sonja, is the highlight of the diplomatic calendar in Norway. The prize comprises a diploma, a gold medal and a check for $1.1 million.

Olav Njoelstad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, confirmed the three nations would send only deputies. He said the awards committee always preferred to see chiefs of mission.

“That being said, we are neither surprised nor offended by the fact that sometime foreign governments prefer to stay away from the ceremony in protest or, as in this case, because they prefer to be represented by their deputy chiefs of mission,” he told Reuters.

“The Nobel Peace Prize is, after all, a political prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee takes notice of the joint decision of the British, French and U.S. embassies,” he said.

The British embassy confirmed it was sending a deputy ambassador and said in a statement “the U.K. is committed to the long-term goal of a world without nuclear weapons. We share this goal with our partners across the international community including U.S. and France.”

The U.S. and French embassies were not immediately available for comment. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump nominated Kenneth Braithwaite to the post of ambassador in Oslo, currently held by an acting ambassador.

ICAN, a coalition of grassroots non-government organizations in more than 100 nations, campaigned successfully for a U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted by 122 nations in July this year.

But the agreement is not signed by – and would not apply to – any of the states that already have nuclear arms, which include the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, as well as India, Pakistan and North Korea.

Israel neither confirms nor denies the widespread assumption that it controls the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal.

It was not clear whether other nuclear powers would send Oslo ambassadors to the Nobel ceremony.

The absence of ambassadors from the United States, Britain and France “is disappointing but at the same time we are focused on getting a majority of states in the world to join this treaty,” Fihn said.

She said the three nuclear states were exerting pressure on other nations “not to engage in this treaty.”

 

With Deforestation Rising, Colombia Businesses Join Fight to End Destruction

Colombia’s palm oil industry and big businesses have pledged to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains as the country battles to reverse the growing destruction of its tropical rainforests.

The commitment signed this week makes Colombia the first country in the world to launch its own chapter of the Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, a global effort by governments, companies and nongovernmental organizations.

The TFA 2020 Colombia Alliance aims to help businesses shift to deforestation-free supply chains by sharing best practices, monitoring forest clearance and training small farmers in sustainable agricultural methods.

It also aims to promote development of certified sustainable products from beef to palm oil for consumers to buy in local supermarkets.

Rainforests in Colombia, Latin America’s largest palm oil producer, are coming under increasing pressure, and deforestation is rampant.

Deforestation in the country’s Amazon region rose 23 percent and across the country rose by 44 percent from 2015 to 2016, said Vidar Helgesen, Norway’s environment minister.

Norway is one of four main donor countries, along with the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands, backing the TFA 2020, an initiative hosted by the World Economic Forum.

“These numbers have been higher than what we expected and that’s why it is important to intensify efforts,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Getting the private sector to commit to deforestation-free supply chains is a “critical part of the puzzle” to protect forests, he said.

First such cooperation

“This is the first time in Colombia we see the government and the private sector joining forces like this,” he said.

“My hope and belief is that this partnership will find ways of ensuring that it is not only an agreement on paper but something that will happen in practical terms.”

Protecting forests helps cut carbon emissions, a key driver of climate change. When forests are degraded or destroyed, the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere.

Colombia is home to a swath of rainforest roughly the size of Germany and England combined and has declared a goal of zero net deforestation by 2020 and halting the loss of all natural forest by 2030.

Its rainforests have been increasingly threatened since a 2016 peace deal to end its decades-long civil war opened up former conflict areas to business, agriculture and development, Helgesen said.

Trees also are being cleared for cattle ranching, illegal mining and growing coca — the raw ingredient for cocaine.

Signing up with the Alliance are about 25 palm oil producers and buyers, Colombia’s Federation of Oil Palm Growers and Alqueria S.A., its third-largest dairy company. Also signing up are retail giant Grupo Exito and international companies operating in Colombia such as consumer goods company Unilever.

“The launch of the TFA 2020 Colombia Alliance is important as a strengthening mechanism for joint action in Colombia to reach our deforestation goals,” said Mariana Villamizar, a spokeswoman for Grupo Exito.

Producers and buyers from the beef, dairy and timber sectors are expected to join the partnership soon.

Each company will set targets to achieve zero deforestation across their often complex supply chains, and the government and NGOs will help monitor deforestation.

US Supreme Court Considers Limits on Government in Key Privacy Case

The U.S. Supreme Court signaled Wednesday it may be open to new limits on the government’s ability to track someone’s movements by accessing data on that person’s cellphone.

A case before the high court could result in a landmark decision in the ongoing debate over civil liberties protections in an era of rapid technological change.

At issue is whether law enforcement will be able to access cellphone data that can reveal a person’s whereabouts without having to first obtain a court-issued search warrant.

The case stems from the conviction of Timothy Carpenter for a series of robberies back in 2010 and 2011. Prosecutors were able to obtain cellphone records that indicated his location over a period of months, information that proved crucial to his conviction.

Get a warrant

On Wednesday, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union argued that law enforcement should be required to obtain a court-ordered search warrant before obtaining such information.

They also argued that allowing law enforcement to access the cellphone data without a warrant would violate the prohibition on unreasonable search and seizures contained in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“It is impossible to go about our daily lives without leaving a trail of digital breadcrumbs that reveal where we have been over time, what we have done, who we spent time with,” said ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler, who spoke to reporters outside the Supreme Court following oral arguments. “It is time for the court, we think, to update Fourth Amendment doctrine to provide reasonable protections today.”

Some of the justices also raised concerns about privacy in the digital age.

“Most Americans, I think, still want to avoid Big Brother,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who often sides with the liberal wing of the court, said.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who often sides with conservatives on the court, said the central question was whether the cellphone information should be accessible to the government “without a warrant.”

Privacy versus security

Justice Department lawyers defended the process of obtaining the data without a court warrant, arguing that even though the technology has changed, the need to rapidly obtain such information for law enforcement has not. The government also argued that privacy rights are not at issue because law enforcement agencies can obtain information from telecommunications companies that record transactions with their customers.

Justices Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy indicated they were open to the government’s position in the case.

Legal experts say whichever way the court eventually rules could have an enormous impact on privacy rights in the digital age.

“I don’t think that this is a world that anybody anticipated a couple of decades ago,” Stanford University law professor David Alan Sklansky said via Skype. “These new data capabilities are rapidly increasing the things that government can do for good and for evil. And figuring out how we allow the government to make full use of these new capabilities, without endangering political liberties and endangering the privacy that is necessary for us to have the kind of flourishing democratic social life we want, is a huge ongoing challenge.”

Sklansky added that the United States “has historically been a leader in thinking about privacy rights, particularly with regard to privacy from the government.”

And he predicted that other countries will be closely following the high court case as they wrestle with similar conflicts. “This is a global problem. Countries around the world are trying to figure out how to deal with it. I think that people in all democratic countries should care about how the United States winds up resolving this question,” he said.

Past rulings

Twice in recent years the Supreme Court has ruled in major cases related to privacy and technology and both times ruled against law enforcement.

The court ruled in 2012 that a warrant is required to place a GPS tracking device on a vehicle. And in 2014, the high court ruled that a warrant is required to search a cellphone seized during an arrest.

A decision in the current case, known as Carpenter v. U.S., is expected sometime before the end of June.

Argentina Sentences ‘Angel of Death’ to Life in Prison

A former navy captain known as the “Angel of Death” was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for human rights violations committed at a notorious clandestine detention and torture center during Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship.

 

Verdicts were also read against 53 other people in the largest trial of its kind in Argentina’s history. In total, 29 people were jailed for life and 19 sentenced to between 8 years and 25 years. Six others were acquitted.

 

Former Capt. Alfredo Astiz sat motionless as a judge read the charges against him that included kidnapping, torture, homicide and stealing minors. Astiz’s nickname came from his cherubic looks and for his work delivering dissidents to the military junta as an undercover agent. He previously was convicted of kidnapping, torturing and murdering two French nuns and a journalist and was already serving a life sentence.

 

Throughout the trial, Astiz remained unrepentant.

 

“Human rights groups want persecution and vengeance,” he said. “I’ll never say I’m sorry.”

 

In the past, Astiz had accused former President Cristina Fernandez of promoting unjust and illegitimate prosecutions for her own political gain. Her late husband and predecessor as president, Nestor Kirchner, encouraged the trials after Argentina’s Congress and Supreme Court removed amnesties that had protected junta veterans.

 

Hundreds of people outside the courtroom celebrated as sentences were read. Some held a large poster with photos of the 54 defendants with a letter “P” for “perpetua,” referring to life sentences, scribbled over the men’s faces. Others held banners about the disappeared that read: “Tell us where they are.”

 

“We’re living a historic moment,” said Taty Almeida, an activist with the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a group that has campaigned to find people disappeared by the junta.

 

“More than ever, we’re going to keep demanding justice,” she said.

 

Prosecution of the crimes began in two previous trials in 2007 and 2009. The third trial that concluded Wednesday was the largest and involved crimes against humanity committed against 789 people at the Naval Mechanics School — the era’s biggest clandestine torture center. An estimated 5,000 prisoners were held there. Some were drugged and later thrown alive from airplanes into the River Plate or to the sea in “death flights.”

 

“In Argentina’s history, the death flights will always be regarded as an incomparable monstrosity,” said human rights activist Eduardo Jozami. “It’s key that this vision held by most Argentines has been ratified with this sentence.”

 

The Naval Mechanics School, a leafy former military campus, is now home to a museum dedicated to preserving evidence of crimes against humanity. The grounds also used to house a maternity ward where pregnant detainees were held until they gave birth and then were made to “disappear.”

 

Human rights groups estimate about 30,000 people were killed or forcibly disappeared during Argentina’s brutal dictatorship.

 

“The reparation of victims and of society is only possible if the state complies with its obligations to investigate, sanction and reconstruct history,” said the Buenos Aires-based Center for Legal and Social Studies, which was part of the legal team representing plaintiffs in the case.