UN Tries to cut Numbers at EU-funded Migrant Center in Libya

The U.N. refugee agency plans to cut the number of migrants staying at an overcrowded transit center in Libya’s capital, a spokesman said Saturday.

Libya is a major waypoint for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East to Europe.

“The situation is very difficult, and we do not have the resources” because the center in Tripoli is at about twice its capacity, with some 1,200 migrants, Charlie Yaxley, a UNHCR spokesman, told The Associated Press.

The UNHCR has asked those refugees not registered with the agency to leave the European Union-funded Gathering and Departure Facility, offering an assistance package that includes cash for an initial two months.

“You will not be considered for evacuation or resettlement if you stay at the GDF,” the agency warned the migrants, according to a document obtained by the AP. It added that those seeking registration with the agency could only do so “outside” the facility.

The UNHCR said it would phase out food distribution for the unregistered migrants, including dozens of tuberculosis patients, from Jan. 1.

Yaxley said the agency also offered to facilitate returning the migrants to their home country or to a country they previously registered as asylum-seekers.

Migrants, however, decried the move, fearing they would end up at detention centers or at the mercy of human traffickers.

“The migrants are reluctant and have their concerns about leaving the GDF,” one person seeking shelter at the facility said, who spoke on condition of anonymity for his safety. The surrounding areas of Tripoli have seen heavy fighting between armed factions since April.

The self-styled Libyan National Army, led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, launched an offensive to capture the capital city in April, clashing with an array of militias loosely allied with the U.N.-supported but weak government there.

The fighting has stalled in recent weeks, with both sides dug in and shelling one another along Tripoli’s southern reaches. They have also carried out airstrikes and drone attacks.

In July, an airstrike hit a detention center for migrants outside Tripoli, killing more than 50 migrants held there. The Tripoli-based authorities blamed the LNA for the airstrikes. The LNA, however, said it was targeting a nearby military site, not the detention center.

After the airstrike, hundreds of former detainees made their way into the GDF, the agency said. They were followed by another group of around 400 people from Abu Salim detention center in late October, as well as up to 200 people from urban areas, the UNCHR said.

The gathering point, which was opened a year ago, has capacity for around 600 people.

“We hope that the GDF will be able to return to its original function as a transit facility for the most acutely vulnerable refugees, so we are able to evacuate them to safety,” said UNHCR’s Chief of Mission for Libya Jean-Paul Cavalieri.

There are some 40,000 refugees and asylum-seekers living in urban areas across Libya, some of whom are extremely vulnerable, face abuse in militia-run detention centers, and are in desperate need of support, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

Separately, the Libyan coast guard said Saturday it intercepted at least 205 Europe-bound migrants off the western town of Zawiya. The African migrants, who included 158 men, 33 women and 14 children, were given humanitarian assistance and were taken to the detention center in Tajoura.

Libya’s detention centers are rife with abuse and Europe’s policy of supporting the coast guard has come under growing criticism.

Climate Activists Invade East German Coal Mines in Protest

Climate activists protested at open-pit coal mines in eastern Germany, pouring onto the premises to urge the government to immediately halt the use of coal to produce electricity.

The news agency dpa reported that police estimated more than 2,000 people took part Saturday at sites near Cottbus and Leipzig and that some of the demonstrators scuffled with police. Three officers were reported slightly injured at the Janschwaelde mine near Cottbus. The mine operators, Leag und Mibrag, filed police reports asking for an investigation and possible charges.

Burning coal releases carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed by scientists for global warming. The German government plans to end the use of coal by 2038 and spend 40 billion euros ($44 billion) on assistance for the affected mining regions.

Commonwealth, AU, OIF Call for Peace and Unity in Cameroon

Three international organizations have ended an official visit to Cameroon with a call for efforts to restore security, justice and the conditions for the resumption of normal life in English-speaking northwest and southwest regions of the country hit by the separatist crisis that has killed over 3,000 people. The Commonwealth, African Union, and International Organization of La Francophonie delegation says it is convinced dialogue remains the preferred path for peace to return, but that the government should start implementing the recommendations of the last major national dialogue it organized. Some, however, have been critical of government efforts.

Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, says after exchanging views with Cameroonian President Paul Biya, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, representatives of the main political parties, religious leaders, youth representatives and a cross-section of Cameroonians,  the organizations are convinced that there is a yearning for peace to return to the restive English-speaking regions.

Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat delivers a speech during the African Union (AU) summit at the Palais des Congres in Niamey, Niger, July 7, 2019.
FILE – Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat delivers a speech during the African Union (AU) summit at the Palais des Congres in Niamey, Niger, July 7, 2019.

He says they noted that a majority of Cameroonians welcomed the convening of the Grand National Dialogue from September 30 to October 4,  in which Cameroon’s government  consulted with political party leaders, activists, opinion leaders, traditional rulers, lawmakers and clergy, and are anxiously waiting for the government to implement its recommendations.  Those recommendations include establishing some sort of special status for the minority English-speaking regions, to be considered by the country’s parliament.  It also backed enforcement of the constitutional language giving English and French equal status and saying they must be used in all public offices and documents.  It also backed continuing the process of decentralization by giving more powers and resources to local councils.  

Mahamat participated in the tripartite mission with  International Organization of La Francophonie Secretary General Louise Mushikiwabo and Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland to encourage national peace efforts.

Mahamat said after their meetings in Yaounde, they observed that a large majority of Cameroonians supported the convening of the major national dialogue and believe it aided their quest for peace.  He said they were convinced that dialogue remains the only path to peace, and asked the government to implement the recommendations of the national dialogue.

After the national dialogue, hundreds of prisoners were freed when Biya ordered a halt to court proceedings against them, saying he was implementing the recommendations of the dialogue.

However, Albert Mvomo, an official of the opposition Cameroon United Party, says Biya’s government has not been doing enough to solve the crisis. He says the AU, OIF and Commonwealth delegation should have proposed sanctions to force Biya to solve the crisis.

He says the three organizations, like any international organization, should force the government in Yaounde to solve the crisis in the English-speaking regions through economic and diplomatic sanctions. He says Cameroon’s government shows no serious sign of wanting to stop the crisis.

Mvomo said the growing number of displaced people in towns and villages in the French-speaking regions showed the government has not been doing much to stop the separatist conflicts.

Simon Munzo,  an Anglophone leader who took part at the national dialogue, says while some recommendations would require legislation, Cameroon should have started showing serious signs that it wants peace to return by restoring public infrastructure and villages and towns destroyed by the fighting for the population to return.  

“We expect the government to maintain the momentum through the implementation of the recommendations of the dialogue,” said Munzo. “Some of them require legislation. Others do not, for example rebuilding schools and bridges and all of that. You do not need legislation for that except in terms of budgeting. Now, there are other aspects that will require modifying the constitution.”

Separatists have insisted on social media that they do not recognize the outcome of the national dialogue and will be ready to negotiate with the Yaounde government only on the terms of the separation of the English-speaking and French-speaking parts of Cameroon.

Iran Opposition Leader Compares Supreme Leader to Shah

A long-detained opposition leader in Iran on Saturday compared a bloody crackdown on those protesting government-set gasoline prices rising under its supreme leader to soldiers of the shah gunning down demonstrators in an event that led to the Islamic Revolution.

The comments published by a foreign website represent some of the harshest yet attributed to Mir Hossein Mousavi, a 77-year-old politician whose own disputed election loss in 2009 led to the widespread Green Movement protests that security forces also put down.

Mousavi’s remarks not only compare Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the toppled monarch whom Khamenei to this day refers to as a tyrant. It also suggests the opposition leader views the demonstrations that began Nov. 15 and the crackdown that followed as a potentially similar last-straw moment for Iran’s Shiite theocracy as the 1978 killings represented for the shah.

“It shows people’s frustration with the country’s situation. It has a complete resemblance to the brutal killing of people on the bloody date Sept. 8, 1978,” Mousavi said, according to the statement published by the Kaleme website long associated with him. “The assassins of the year of 1978 were representatives of a non-religious regime, but the agents and shooters in November 2019 were representatives of a religious government.”

There was no immediate response from Iranian officials nor state media, which has been barred from showing Mousavi’s image for years.

The protests that struck some 100 cities and towns across Iran beginning Nov. 15 came after Iran raised minimum gasoline prices by 50%. The subsidy cuts, which the government said would help fund cash handouts to the poor, come as Iran’s economy suffers under crushing U.S. sanctions following President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Iranians immediately began demonstrating and protests quickly turned violent, seeing gas stations and banks attacked. Online videos purport to show Iranian security forces shooting at demonstrators.

The scale of the gasoline price demonstrations remains unclear even today as Iran so far has not offered nationwide statistics for the number of people arrested, injured or killed in the protests. Amnesty International believes the protests and the security crackdown killed at least 161 people.

One Iranian lawmaker said he thought that over 7,000 people had been arrested, though Iran’s top prosecutor disputed the figure without offering his own. The country’s interior minister said as many as 200,000 people took part in the demonstrations. Iran blocked access to the wider internet for a week, further shielding its response from the world’s view.

Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, remain under house arrest in their home down an alleyway near Khamenei’s official residence in Tehran. However, the Kaleme website occasionally publishes statements from Mousavi, who earlier served as Iran’s prime minister before the position was eliminated in 1989.

The statement Saturday saw Mousavi compare November’s crackdown to “Black Friday,” a seminal moment in Iran’s revolution. That September day in 1978, soldiers opened fire on demonstrators in Jaleh Square.

How many the shooting killed remains in dispute today, with figures running anywhere from 86 to 4,000. However, historians mark the day as the point of no return for the fatally ill shah. Mass protests and strikes followed. The shah fled Iran in January 1979 and by the next month, the revolution took hold.

In his statement, Mousavi offered his condolences to those slain in the November crackdown and warned “this wound on the nation’s body and soul” would not heal until there are public trials of their killers.

“The bullying and talking about how we are in the middle of a world war are not a convincing answer for the people and it would not heal the people’s wounds,” Mousavi said, referring to tensions with the U.S. “It would be enough that the system just think about the consequences of the Jaleh Square assassinations.”

Mousavi is not the only one to compare the November crackdown to the time of the shah, however. Days earlier, lawmaker Mohammad Golmoradi at the Iranian parliament got pulled away after some news websites reported he criticized President Hassan Rouhani over the crackdown. Golmoradi’s area, Mahshar in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, saw security forces violently put down protests, activists say.

“What did you do that the shah didn’t?” Golmoradi reportedly asked.

Albania’s Earthquake Search, Rescue Operation Ends

The search and rescue operation for earthquake survivors in Albania has ended, Prime Minister Edi Rama said Saturday.

The small town of Thumane, experienced the highest death toll from Tuesday’s quake with 26 people killed, six of whom belonged to one family, and all but one under age 30. They were buried Friday.

In the port city of Durres – 30 kilometers west of the capital, Tirana — the quake killed 24.  One person also died in Kurbin.

In all, 51 people died, including seven children. Nine-hundred were injured.  More than 5,000 people are without shelter; and 1,200 buildings were destroyed in the 6.4-magnitude quake and the aftershocks that followed.  
 

Relatives surround some of the coffins during the funeral of six members of the Cara family, killed during an earthquake that…
Relatives surround some of the coffins during the funeral of six members of the Cara family, killed during an earthquake that shook Albania, in Thumane, Albania, Nov. 29, 2019.

Seismologist Rexhep Koci told VOA that while there is the likelihood for more aftershocks, but they would be weaker.

Neighboring countries provide assistance

The European Union sent crews to help with search and rescue immediately following the quake and now the Albanian government has asked for experts to help assess the damage.
 

Volunteers distribute food at a makeshift camp in Durres, after an earthquake shook Albania, November 29, 2019. REUTERS/Florion…
Volunteers distribute food at a makeshift camp in Durres, after an earthquake shook Albania, November 29, 2019.

EU Ambassador to Albania Luigi Soreca said Friday that the European Union and its member states are standing with Albania and working nonstop to provide assistance “in this very difficult moment.”
 
“It is a week of deep sorrow and tragedy for Albania,” Soreca said in a statement. “Our heartfelt condolences go once again to the Albanian people and especially to the families, friends and communities of those who have lost their lives.”

More than 200 military troops from Albania, Kosovo, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, France, Turkey, Switzerland, Romania, North Macedonia, the EU and the United States, participated in the search and rescue operation.

People spontaneously came from Kosovo, operating mobile kitchens, gathering donations and opening their homes. About 500 homeless Albanians are staying in a camp set up by Kosovo’s government in the city of Prizren. On Friday alone, individuals and businesses from Kosovo delivered 100 tons of much needed necessities.

Remembering victims

Tirana residents turned out in the city center to honor the victims, placing candles in a makeshift memorial near the statue of Albanian national hero Gjergj Kastrioti, known as Skanderbeg.


Vigil for quake victims in Tirana, Nov 29 video player.
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Vigil for quake victims in Tirana

The state of emergency declared Wednesday for Durres and Thumane was extended to the heavily damaged town of Lac. Prime Minister Rama said he made the decision after opposition leader Lulzim Basha suggested it. Rama appeared to put on hold the acrimony often on display between the two political rivals.

“In this case, our concerns and ideas converge,” Rama said, inviting the opposition to participate in the Committee for Earthquake Relief.
 
For Rama, the tragedy hit close to home as his office confirmed that among the dead was his son Gregor’s fiance, Kristi Reci, whose entire family — both parents and her brother — died in Durres.

A rescue dog is seen on a collapsed building in Durres, after an earthquake shook Albania, November 29, 2019. REUTERS/Florion…
A rescue dog is seen on a collapsed building in Durres, after an earthquake shook Albania, November 29, 2019.

Physician Shkelqime Ladi said doctors are on hand to help with immediate needs.
 
“We are focusing more on the psychological aspect of the affected. Their psychological state is aggravated,” she told VOA in Lac.
 
The earthquake struck two days before Albania’s 107th independence day. There was no celebration, but a show of solidarity gave solemnity to the day.
 
Albanian President Ilir Meta and Prime Minister Rama, who have been fighting bitterly over political matters, appeared together in Vlora Thursday.

Independence Day coincided this year with the U.S. Thanksgiving Day, and many Albanian Americans rallied to collect donations, holding several fundraisers to help one of the poorest countries in Europe.
 
“I am so heartbroken for my people back home, for those who have lost lives and loved ones,” New York City Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj, an Albanian American, told VOA.
 
Marko Kepi, of the Albanian American organization Albanian Roots, organized a fundraiser that raised close to $1 million in less than a day.
 
“This fundraiser is simply to help those who have lost their homes and to help those families who lost their loved ones, do whatever we can so they can have some sort of peace of mind, that they are not alone, they have support and they are not going to be left out in the street,” he said.

Armand Mero reported from Tirana, Ilirian Agolli reported from Durres, Pellumb Sulo reported from Lac.

 

 

US Border Agents Rescue Migrants From Flooded Drainage Pipe

U.S. border protection officials in San Diego said Friday that 20 people had been rescued from flooded drainage pipes west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry. 

A Border Patrol agent found three people trying to enter the United States illegally late Thursday near a drainage tube about 3 kilometers west of the port of entry, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency.

In a release, CBP said the three people told agents there were people trapped inside the drainage tubes, with water rising because of heavy rain in the area. 

After a search, local emergency officials aided CBP agents in recovering 17 people, sending seven of them to a nearby hospital for medical care.

About an hour later, three more people were discovered in the drainage tubes and were taken into custody. One was sent to the hospital.

CBP said it apprehended 15 men, three women and one juvenile male from Mexico, and one Guatemalan man. It said all would be processed for illegally entering the United States. 

Twitter CEO Pledges to Live in Africa for Several Months in 2020

Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey has wrapped up of a trip to Africa by pledging to reside on the continent next year for up to six months. 

Dorsey tweeted this week: “Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!). Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for 3-6 months mid 2020.”

The CEO of the social media giant did not say what he planned to do on the African continent.

Twitter, which is based in San Francisco, did not offer more details on Dorsey’s plans. 

On Dorsey’s recent trip, he visited entrepreneurs in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. 

Dorsey, 43, co-founded Twitter with several other entrepreneurs in 2006. He ran the company until he was ousted in 2008 but was brought back seven years later to again lead the platform.

Dorsey also co-founded the payment processing app Square and is also CEO of that operation. The tech exec holds millions of stock shares in both companies, and Forbes estimates his net worth at $4.3 billion.

Twitter, along with other social media companies, has faced criticism of its handling of misinformation and has come under scrutiny ahead of next year’s U.S. presidential election. Dorsey announced in October that Twitter would ban political advertisements on the platform. 

Does New Turkish Unrest Mean New Refugee Wave?

The conflict in Syria created a global humanitarian crisis, with millions displaced and millions more fleeing to other countries. Turkish military operations that began in early October may be creating a new wave of displacement. Where are these Syrians going? VOA’s Turkish service filed this report, narrated by Ege Sacikara. 

North Korea Threatens Ballistic Missile Test Under Japan’s ‘Nose’

North Korea made perhaps its most direct recent threat to resume longer-range missile tests, warning Saturday it may soon launch a “real ballistic missile” in the vicinity of Japan.

Pyongyang has carried out 13 rounds of short- or medium-range launches since May. Most experts say nearly all of the tests have involved some form of ballistic missile technology.

The latest test came Thursday, when North Korea conducted its fourth launch this year of what it called a “super-large, multiple-rocket launch system.”

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, right, delivers a speech as Pope Francis listens in Tokyo, Nov. 25, 2019.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, right, delivers a speech as Pope Francis listens in Tokyo, Nov. 25, 2019.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe condemned the launch as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, which prohibit North Korea from any ballistic missile activity.

On Saturday, the official Korean Central News Agency published an article condemning Abe’s statement, saying the test involved a “multiple launch rocket” and not a ballistic missile.

“Abe may see what a real ballistic missile is in the not distant future and under his nose,” KCNA said in a statement attributed to North Korean foreign ministry official.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has set an end-of-year deadline for the United States to offer more concessions in nuclear talks that have been stalled since February.

As that deadline approaches, North Korean officials have repeatedly issued veiled warnings about bigger provocations, though none appear to have been as direct as Saturday’s statement.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversees a super-large multiple launch rocket system test in this undated picture released by…
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversees a super-large multiple launch rocket system test in this undated picture released by North Korea’s Central News Agency, Nov. 28, 2019.

Direct threat

North Korea last tested an intercontinental ballistic missile in November 2017 and conducted a nuclear test in September 2017.

In April 2018, Kim announced a self-imposed moratorium on ICBM and nuclear tests, saying North Korea “no longer need(s)” those tests.

Recently, North Korean officials have issued reminders that North Korea’s pause on ICBM and nuclear tests was self-imposed and can be reversed.

This year has been one of North Korea’s busiest in terms of missile launches. The North has launched 13 rounds of weapons since May.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he has “no problem” with the tests, since they are short-range and cannot reach the United States.

Some U.S. allies in the region disagree. Japan, which is within reach of North Korea’s short-range missiles, has consistently condemned Pyongyang for the tests.

North Korea has shot back, issuing fiery statements at Abe.

Saturday’s KCNA article referred to Abe as a “political dwarf without parallel,” a “rare-to-be-seen deformed child,” and “puppy affected by mange.”

KN-25

North Korea’s most recent test involved the KN-25, a solid-fueled, road-mobile, multiple rocket-launch system.

Many analysts consider the KN-25 to be a “ballistic missile” system, because it fires such large weapons.

“The ‘super-large’ rocket blurs the distinction between multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) and short-range ballistic missiles,” according to the CSIS Missile Defense Project.

By repeatedly testing the KN-25, defense analysts say North Korea has successfully reduced the amount of time it takes to launch successive rockets from the system.

“The faster it fires, the quicker it can get out of Dodge before counter-fire arrives,” Jeffrey Lewis, an expert in nuclear nonproliferation with the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said on Twitter.

During the first two tests of the KN-25 in August and September, 15 to 20 minutes passed between launches. In a subsequent October test, that number was reduced to 3 minutes. On Thursday, Seoul’s military estimated there were only 30 seconds between shots.

Violence Continues in Iraq Despite PM’s Resignation

Anti-government violence raged on in southern Iraq on Friday, despite the announced resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. At least 21 people were killed in the southern part of the country, and one protester was killed in central Baghdad as demonstrations continued here, including a thousands-strong sit-in at Tahrir Square.

Abdul Mahdi’s announcement came after the country’s senior Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for a government rocked by weeks of deadly anti-establishment unrest.

“In response to this [the cleric’s] call, and in order to facilitate it as quickly as possible, I will present to parliament a demand [to accept] my resignation from the leadership of the current government,” a statement signed by Abdul Mahdi said. 

A still image taken from a video shows Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi delivering a speech on reforms ahead of planned…
FILE – A still image taken from a video shows Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi delivering a speech on reforms, in Baghdad, Iraq Oct. 25, 2019.

The statement did not say when he would resign. Parliament is to convene an emergency session on Sunday to discuss the crisis. 

For weeks, young, unemployed and unarmed protesters have led calls for an overhaul of a political system they say is endemically corrupt and serves foreign powers, especially Tehran.

Protesters celebrated the imminent departure of Abdul Mahdi, but said they would not stop their demonstrations until the whole of the political class was removed.  

“Abdul Mahdi’s resignation is just the beginning. We’ll stay in the streets until the entire government has gone, and all the rest of the corrupt politicians,” said Mustafa Hafidh, a protester at Tahrir Square. 

“It’s not enough,” said Ali al-Sayeda, another demonstrator. “We need them all out, root and branch. We can’t let up the pressure.” 

A victory for Iraq’s national soccer team against the United Arab Emirates gave protesters at Tahrir Square more cause for celebration and they set off fireworks, enjoying a brief respite from the unrest. 

Later, security forces shot dead a demonstrator at nearby Ahrar Bridge, police sources said. 
 
Nasiriyah clash

Security forces, meanwhile, shot dead at least 21 people in the southern city of Nasiriyah after protesters tried to storm a local police headquarters, hospital sources said. In Najaf, unidentified armed men shot live rounds at demonstrators, sending dozens scattering. 

Iraqi forces have killed hundreds of demonstrators since the anti-government protests broke out October 1. More than a dozen members of the security forces have also died in clashes. At least 436 people have died in less than two months, according to a Reuters tally from medical and police sources. 

Anti-government protesters carry a symbolic coffin during ongoing protests in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Nov. 29, 2019. Hundreds of…
Anti-government protesters carry a symbolic coffin during protests in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 29, 2019.

The burning of Iran’s consulate in the holy city of Najaf on Wednesday escalated violence and drew a brutal response from security forces, who shot dead more than 60 people nationwide on Thursday. 

Sistani, who only weighs in on politics in times of crisis and wields huge influence over public opinion, warned against an explosion of civil strife and tyranny. 

He urged government forces to stop killing protesters and the protesters themselves to reject all violence, in apparent reference to the burning of the consulate in Najaf. 

The government “appears to have been unable to deal with the events of the past two months. … Parliament, from which the current government emerged, must reconsider its choices and do what’s in the interest of Iraq,” a representative of Sistani said in a televised sermon. 

Sunni areas

Some protesters took to the streets in Iraq’s northern, Sunni-majority provinces in solidarity with their Shiite compatriots in the south, spurred by Abdul Mahdi’s resignation and emboldened by the soccer win, witnesses said. 

Sunni areas decimated by the fight to defeat Islamic State have mostly been quiet, partly because of fears that IS militants could exploit unrest to grow an ongoing insurgency. 

A rocket hit Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and embassies, late on Friday but caused no casualties, the military said. 

Iraq’s “enemies and their apparatuses are trying to sow chaos and infighting to return the country to the age of dictatorship. … Everyone must work together to thwart that opportunity,” Sistani said, without elaborating.

The prime minister’s departure could be a blow for Iranian influence;  Iran’s militia allies and its own commanders intervened last month to keep the premier in place despite the weeks of anti-government unrest.

Concerns Grow in Nigeria About Nation’s Bride Price Custom

The widespread African tradition of giving cash and gifts to a bride’s family before marriage, known as a “bride price,” critics say degrades women by putting a monetary value on a wife. A recent case in Nigeria ended in suicide, underscoring the financial pressure. But, supporters of the bride price tradition uphold it as a cherished cultural and religious symbol of marriage.

Saadatu Ahmed Manga is having a dye called lalle, or henna, painted on her body because she’s about to get married. The bride and her friends are getting ready.

She says they went to the hairdresser, and now they are doing lalle. For every wedding, the bride does lalle. Lalle is a dye made of plants. It’s painted on the body in patterns that resemble flowers or shapes.

It’s part of the wedding custom in northern Nigeria, which is largely influenced by Islam.

Marriage custom

But the most important marriage custom is the bride price, a payment of cash that the fiancé gives to the bride’s family to show how serious he is about the marriage.

Manga’s fiancé will make a cash payment to her family.

In Islam, the bride price has to be paid before the wedding, she says. Bride price started since the days of the prophet, Muhammed, may peace be upon him, and we continue it, she says.

But more Nigerians are condemning the bride price custom as a degrading practice that requires payment for marriage and places a monetary value on women.

Women are largely left out of determining the bride price, which is negotiated between the male relatives of the bride and groom.

Defenders and critics

Yet, many Nigerians defend the tradition.

One man says, dowry is something God has made compulsory.

Another says, it is not selling her. It is not degrading. It is increasing her honor.

Critical voices can be heard across Africa, including those of scholars, women’s rights activists and artists.

In October, Nigerian media outlets reported the death of a 17-year-old girl in northern Nigeria who set herself on fire because her boyfriend could not afford the bride price. The dowry was 17,000 naira. That’s less than $50 in U.S. dollars.

Marriage and relationship counselor Fiyabina Penuel says the tragedy could have been avoided. She says the pride price custom is being abused.

“Initially, this issue of dowry and bride price was more like a pleasantry being exchanged between the husband-to-be and the in-laws-to-be. When it all started, in most cultures it was little things that everyone can afford. But as time goes on it became so big that most people cannot be able to afford it. So it’s like business and using it to put people in classes,” Penuel said. 

A symbol of love

But African literature scholar, Dr. Agatha Ukata, blames radical feminist ideology for the rising criticism of bride price. She also says the tradition is misunderstood by the Western world.

“The Western world, they have this cultural shock because it is not in their culture to have bride price and so that’s why they look at bride price and they’re imagining, ‘Why do you have to buy a woman?’ The concept of bride price, on its own, it’s not buying somebody. It is just a symbol of love,” Ukata said.

When it’s finally time for Saadatu’s wedding. She walks among a lively crowd, her face covered by a heavy veil. Once seated, the groom’s family members drop money in a box and then ask her to lift the veil so they can see her.

When it’s all done, the crowd burst into applause. She waves the bride price in the air to show it has been paid.

Now, she can confidently call herself a wife.

Botswana Drought Makes Wasteland of Harvests, Livestock

Southern Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts in years, with more than 40 million people expected to face food insecurity because of livestock and crop losses. Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe have declared it an emergency.

In semi-arid Botswana, the farmers are reeling after the worst drought in a decade wiped out entire harvests and left the land littered with dead livestock.

Two thirds of the crops planted last season failed, while Ngamiland, a rich beef producing region, has recorded nearly 40,000 cattle deaths.

Rancher Casper Matsheka says there was no food or water, so his animals starved to death.

“The goats died, as well as the cattle, as you can see the carcasses all over. We were really affected. If only the government could subsidize the prices of feed and vaccines for the livestock during such times,” he said.

Cattle and hippos wallow in the mud in one of the channel of the wildlife reach Okavango Delta near the Nxaraga village in the…
Cattle and hippos wallow in mud in one of the channels of the wildlife-rich Okavango Delta near Nxaraga village in the outskirt of Maun, Sept. 28, 2019. Botswana government declared this a drought year because of no rainfall throughout the country.

Nor has the drought sparred wildlife.

National parks authorities have resorted to feeding starving hippos while hundreds of elephants have died.

Environmental nongovernment organization, Kalahari Conservation Society’s Neil Fitt says competition for food and water has increased the risk of human-wildlife conflict.

“The livestock are now putting pressure on the wildlife areas, so the wildlife are also getting pressure on their areas, and that is where the conflict zone is,” he said. “Why I am bringing this up? The… interconnected with the drought is this wildlife-human conflict.”

In Botswana, where drought is frequent, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said the government plans to stop calling it an emergency and instead make drought relief part of the national budget.

“Government has taken a decision to develop a Drought Management Strategy, which would classify drought as a permanent feature in our budget plans, rather than an emergency,” he said. “The strategy will be completed before the end of the financial year.”

Acting director of Meteorological Services Radithupa Radithupa says a robust strategy is needed to deal with the recurring droughts.

“We are looking at climate change as an impact now, we are seeing the impact now in terms of heating, the dry spells and the excessive rains. Therefore, we really need to adapt as a nation,” Radithupa said.

Meanwhile, a forecast for rain has raised hopes among farmers and ranchers for recovery and that this season of severe drought won’t be a total loss.

Tibetan Man Dies After Self-immolation Protest Against  China

A former Buddhist monk has died in eastern Tibet after setting himself on fire this week to protest China’s repressive rule, a spokesperson for the monastery told VOA Tibetan Service.

Yonten, a 24-year-old former monk at Kirti Monastery in Amdo Ngaba, in the western China province of Sichuan, carried out his self-immolation Tuesday in Meruma township, spokesperson Kanyag Tsering said.

He said China had imposed restrictions in the area, including cellphone use, slowing the gathering and dissemination of information about the incident.

“We have no further information on whether the body of the deceased has been handed over to the family or not since all channels are now blocked,” the monastery said in a statement.

There have been 156 self-immolations across Tibet over the past decade, 44 of which took place in Amdo Ngaba.

Once a monk, Yonten later disrobed and settled as a nomad. Meruma township has been the scene of multiple self-immolation protests, most recently in March 2018.

In a statement, Free Tibet communications manager John Jones said, “Yonten lived his life under occupation. In his 24 years, he would have seen Chinese police and military suppress protests in his homeland, seen his culture, language and religion come under attack, seen people he knew arrested and made to disappear. Tibetans today grow up in a world of injustice.”

China maintains it has worked to modernize Tibetan society since “liberating” Tibetans in 1950.

NATO at 70: Internal Tensions, External Threats as Leaders Set to Gather

NATO leaders are preparing to gather in London for a two-day meeting Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the alliance, but growing tensions among members could overshadow the celebrations.

The war in Syria and the ongoing Russian threat will serve as the backdrop to the summit. Fellow NATO members the United States and Turkey came close to confrontation in northern Syria last month, rattling the alliance.

“The position of Turkey in the North Atlantic alliance is a difficult one,” said Jonathan Eyal of the Royal United Services Institute in London in an interview with VOA this week.

“Turkey’s decision to become involved in military operations in the Middle East against the wishes of most of its allies, including the United States, [and] Turkey’s decision to buy Russian military equipment … [are] riling with many countries in Europe.”

NATO members say it’s better to have Turkey inside than outside the alliance.

“NATO is about European security, it’s not about coordinating policies in the Middle East,” Eyal said.

Where American troops once kept the peace, Russian forces now patrol northern Syria. The U.S. withdrawal has fueled concerns over America’s commitment to NATO. French President Emmanuel Macron recently called the alliance “brain dead” and urged Europe to create its own security architecture. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, is welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Nov. 28, 2019.

The comments elicited a sharp rebuke from NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg this week.

“European unity cannot replace transatlantic unity. We need both. And we have to also understand that, especially after Brexit, the EU cannot defend Europe,” Stoltenberg told reporters.

Europe still sees Russia as the biggest threat following its 2014 forceful annexation of Crimea and ongoing campaigns of espionage, cyberwarfare and disinformation.

European concerns over the U.S. commitment to Article 5 of the NATO treaty, on collective defense, are not borne out by facts on the ground, Eyal said.

“The reality is the Pentagon’s spending in Europe is increasing, the number of U.S. troops is increasing.”

The deployment of U.S. troops in Europe is seen differently in Moscow.

“Some of the Eastern European nations are trying to get American boots on the ground despite the fact that Article 5 should cover their security, which suggests that they trust the United States more than they trust NATO,” Andrey Kortunov of the Russian Council on International Affairs in Moscow told VOA in a recent interview.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded that European NATO members “share the burden.” Germany on Wednesday pledged to meet the NATO defense spending target of 2% of GDP, but only by the 2030s.

“The U.S. president should be credited with actually banging the table hard enough for the United States to be heard,” Eya said, “This is, and it’s important sometimes to repeat the cliché, the most successful alliance in modern history.”

NATO will hope that is cause for celebration as leaders gather for its 70th anniversary.

Aftershocks Rattle Albania, Leaving Residents on Edge

Residents remained on edge Thursday in the earthquake-stricken areas of Albania, as aftershocks continued to rattle the area.

Thursday afternoon, another 5.0-magnitude quake was registered near the city of Thumane just hours after authorities called off search-and-rescue operations in the area after recovering the bodies of the last people who had been reported missing.

The 6.4-magnitude temblor that struck Tuesday caused the most devastation in Thumane, where 23 people were killed, including seven from one family.

“God let us keep two (members of the family) but took seven from us,” survivor Sul Cara told VOA. “Now we are focused on paying our respects to the dead, as honor and tradition demands of us. We will try our best to show strength as we send off seven loved ones to burial. This is a heavy tragedy to bear, but at the same time we have found strength in the outpouring of support, not just from this town but from the whole country.”

Damnified sit at a makeshift camp in Durres, after an earthquake shook Albania, November 28, 2019. REUTERS/Florion Goga
Albanians sit at a makeshift camp in Durres, Nov. 28, 2019, after an earthquake shook Albania.

The death toll rose to 47 as search operations continued in other locations, but rescuers are increasingly pessimistic survivors will be found.

Residents in many neighborhoods remain in tents or have chosen to move in with relatives in other towns, as authorities warn that buildings remain unsafe.

Dangerous aftershocks

Albanians should heed the warnings, Stanford University geophysics professor Ross Stein told VOA’s Albanian Service.

Stein said that the days, even months after a major earthquake, aftershocks are a very serious threat.

“The risk of another large shock today is much higher than it was a few days ago before the 6.4 struck. The likelihood of a large aftershock is much higher than the likelihood of the same shock had there not been a main shock at all,” he said.

Stein, who has extensively studied seismic activity in the Balkans, said Tuesday’s earthquake was not a surprise from a geological point of view. He said Albania is “the most seismically active part of the Balkan region,” which has exhibited historically “larger and more frequent earthquakes even than Italy.”

The seismic activity is the reason for Albania’s natural beauty, he said.

“The reason why Albania is so beautiful is because it has this wonderful hill-valley topography and that is produced because the region is being compressed to the east and west. Think of a carpet and you’re a pushing a carpet across the floor and you’re producing folds,” Stein said.

A rescue dog searches for survivors in a collapsed building in Durres, after an earthquake shook Albania, November 28, 2019…
A rescue dog searches for survivors in a collapsed building in Durres, Nov. 28, 2019, after an earthquake shook Albania.

Quake preparation

But despite the area’s history of earthquakes, scientists can’t predict where and when the next one will strike.

The only possible thing people can do, he said, is have a good preparation strategy.

He said there is a need to prioritize earthquake protections, “and the region around Tirana and along the coast of Albania have the highest hazard and indicate to us, in a broad sense, this is where we need to focus our attention.”

Thursday marked Albania’s 107th independence anniversary. President Ilir Meta called on his countrymen to use the moment “to help heal the wounds caused by the earthquake.”

Russia’s Alternative to Western Credit Cards Debuts in London

A Russian-backed bank payment card, introduced after Western sanctions upended Russia’s financial system five years ago and prompted Visa and Mastercard to deny electronic services to some of the country’s leading banks, is set for its European debut on London Wednesday, when a pilot project will be launched in collaboration with the Dutch global payment company PayXpert.

Moscow authorities hoped to get the MIR card accepted eventually in foreign markets, but progress has been slow outside Russia for the MIR payment system,  which operates outside of Western-controlled international financial systems such as Swift, which banks use to transfer money.  

The pilot project with PayXpert “will lay the foundation for new promising trends in the foreign expansion of Russian payment cards,”  according to Vladimir Komlev, the head of Russia’s National Card Payment System, which operates the MIR system.

De-dollarization efforts

The effort is seen by analysts as part of the  Kremlin bid to de-dollarize the Russian economy to lessen the sting of Western sanctions. A Russian Finance Ministry official this month told Reuters that Russia will next year diversify its foreign currency holdings  in its National Wealth Fund, which supports Russia’s public pension system, aiming to lower the share of dollars in the fund’s reserves.

Dmitry Dolgin of the Dutch banking group ING said in  a report this month that de-dollarization efforts are now obvious across most sectors, including local business loans and bank-held international assets, although he said the dollar’s role  has actually increased in company and household savings and cash assets, partly because dollar interest rates have been higher than those offered for euros.

U.S. authorities have been able advance sanctions by targeting companies that use dollars, and the establishment of electronic payment systems not tied to the dollar or largely controlled by U.S. businesses is one way for the Kremlin to reduce the impact of the West’s serial punishment of Moscow. Washington and the European Union have imposed a wave of sanctions since 2014 to punish Russia for the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections, and the poisoning of a defected Russian spy in England.

Komlev told Reuters this year that “In the next three years we want MIR cards to be operational in countries where Russians are used to traveling.” He projected MIR cards would be operational at some banks in at least a dozen countries by the end of this year. Turkish banks started to conduct transactions this year with MIR, which means both “peace” and “world” in Russian.

MIR was launched initially as a national payment system, with the first cards issued in December 2015. Russia’s leading bank, state-owned Sberbank, started issuing them in October 2016, and by the end of last year more than 70 million MIR-based cards had been issued by 64 Russian banks. The Kremlin has mandated that state welfare and pension payments must be processed through the system by next year, along with salaries paid to civil servants.

The card has a long way to go before it rivals VISA our Mastercard internationally. It is not accepted by international shopping platforms or major online booking services for airlines and hotels, although APEXX Fintech, a British start-up global payment company, said Thursday it would now start working with the MIR system. Among smartphone applications only Samsung has concluded an agreement with the MIR system.

Meanwhile, de-dollarization has been moving quickly. Russia’s Central Bank has currency swap deals in place with Iran, China and Turkey, allowing direct trade to be conducted in local currencies instead of U.S. dollars. Russia reportedly lost $7.7 billion in its bid to reduce dollars held in its reserves. Some of the dollars were turned into gold, and since January the bank has purchased 96.4 metric tons of gold.

FILE – The Russia’s Central Bank headquarters in Moscow, Feb. 22, 2018.

Alexei Zabotkin, head of the Russian Central Bank’s monetary policy department, has conceded that it would be impossible to completely empty the country’s foreign exchange reserves of dollars, as this would be  “fraught with excessive risks.” According to central bank data the  National Wealth Fund has $45.5 billion, 39.17 billion euros and 7.67 billion British pounds.

In August, the state-controlled Rosneft oil giant announced it would stop using the U.S. dollar for its export contracts.

Nonetheless, analysts say there are limits on how far Russia can de-dollarize — the ruble is highly volatile and remains unattractive for investors and de-dollarization brings additional and sometimes prohibitive trading costs.

European regulators will be watching the London project closely. EU officials have been sympathetic about Russia’s de-dollarization bid, suspecting that as a spinoff the euro will be boosted as an international currency. In June the European Commission concluded that “the euro clearly stands out as the only candidate that has all the necessary attributes of a global currency that market participants could use as an alternative to the U.S. dollar.”

 

China Summons US Ambassador to Protest Bill on Hong Kong Human Rights

China summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing Thursday to “strongly protest” President Donald Trump’s signing of bills on Hong Kong’s human rights.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng told Ambassador Terry Branstad the move constituted “serious interference in China’s internal affairs” and described the action as a “serious violation of international law,” a statement from the foreign ministry said.  He urged Washington to refrain from implementing the bills to “avoid further damage” to U.S.-China relations.

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Sunrise, Fla., Nov. 26, 2019.

Trump Wednesday signed two separate bills backing pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong, despite a trade deal in the balance and threats from Beijing.

The House and Senate passed both bills last week nearly unanimously.

One law requires the State Department to certify annually that China allows Hong Kong enough autonomy to guarantee its favorable trading status. It threatens sanctions on Chinese officials who do not.

The second bill bans the export of tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and other non-lethal ammunition to Hong Kong police.

It was not immediately clear if Trump’s decision might disrupt negotiations at easing the bilateral trade dispute. China’s foreign ministry said it will take “firm countermeasures” if the United States keeps interfering in Chinese affairs.

Hong Kong’s government expressed “extreme regret,” saying the U.S. moves sends the “wrong message” to the protesters.

But Trump, appearing on the U.S. cable news network Fox News late Tuesday, called Chinese President Xi Jinping “a friend of mine. He’s an incredible guy.”

“I signed these bills out of respect for President Xi, China and the people of Hong Kong,” Trump said in a later statement. “They are being enacted in the hope that leaders and representatives of China and Hong Kong will be able to amicably settle their differences, leading to long-term peace and prosperity for all.”

Trump had twice called the large street protests in Hong Kong “riots” — a word the protesters say plays into the hands of Chinese authorities.

But Trump took credit for thwarting Beijing’s threat to send in 1 million soldiers to put down the marches by saying such a move would have a “tremendous negative impact” on trade talks.

Protester holds U.S. flags during a demonstration in Hong Kong, Nov. 28, 2019.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong police entered Polytechnic University on Thursday after a two-week siege and said they were searching for evidence and dangerous items such as petrol bombs, according to the assistant commissioner of the police.

Police officials said they were not searching for any protesters that may be still holed up on campus.

Protests erupted in Hong Kong in June over the local government’s plans to allow some criminal suspects to be extradited to the Chinese mainland.

Hong Kong withdrew the bill in September, but the street protests have continued, with the demonstrators fearing Beijing is preparing to water down Hong Kong’s democracy and autonomy, nearly 30 years before the ex-British colony’s “special status” expires

Some of the protests have turned violent, with marchers throwing gasoline bombs at police, who have responded with live gunfire.

 

Iran Condemns Burning of Its Consulate by Iraqi Protesters

Iran on Thursday condemned the burning of its consulate in southern Iraq hours earlier, which came amid an escalation in Iraq’s anti-government protests that erupted nearly two months ago.
                   
Violence across southern Iraq had continued throughout the night, with security forces killing 16 protesters and wounded 90 since Wednesday. Protesters closed roads while a large number of police and military forces were deployed across key oil-rich provinces. Protesters had set fire to the Iranian consulate in the holy city of Najaf late Wednesday. The Iranian staff were not harmed, and escaped out the back door.
                   
Anti-government protests have gripped Iraq since Oct. 1, when thousands took to the streets in Baghdad and the predominantly Shiite south. The largely leaderless movement accuses the government of being hopelessly corrupt, and has also decried Iran’s growing influence in Iraqi state affairs.
                   
At least 350 people have been killed by security forces, which routinely used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse crowds, sometimes shooting protesters directly with gas canisters, causing several fatalities.
                   
Separately, the U.S. Embassy denounced a recent decision by Iraq’s media regulator to suspend nine television channels, calling for the Communications and Media Commission to reverse its decision. Thursday’s statement from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad also condemned attacks and harassment against journalists.
                   
Local channel Dijla TV had its license suspended on Tuesday, and its office was closed and its equipment confiscated, according an official from one of the channels under threat. Other channels have been asked by the regulatory commission to sign a pledge “agreeing to adhere to its rules,” said the official, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
                   
The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s coordinated bombings in three Baghdad neighborhoods, which killed five people. That was the first apparent coordinated attack since anti-government protests began. The bombings took place far from Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of weeks of anti-government protests that have posed the biggest security challenge to Iraq since the defeat of IS.
                   
Tehran called for a “responsible, strong and effective” response leadership to the incident from Iraq’s government, said Abbas Mousavi, a foreign ministry spokesman, in statements to Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
                   
Iraq’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the torching of the consulate, saying it was perpetrated by “people outside of the genuine protesters,” in a statement, adding that the purpose had been to harm bilateral relations between the countries.
                   
One demonstrator was killed and 35 wounded when police fired live ammunition to prevent them from entering the Iranian consulate building. Once inside, the demonstrators removed the Iranian flag and replaced it with an Iraqi one, according to a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with regulations.
                   
A curfew was imposed in Najaf after the consulate was burned. Security forces were heavily deployed around main government buildings and religious institutions on Thursday morning. The province is the headquarters of the country’s Shiite religious authority.
                   
The consulate attack comes after days of sit-ins and road closures with protesters cutting access to main thoroughfares and bridges with burning tires. Protesters have also lately targeted the state’s economic interests in the south by blocking key ports and roads to oil fields.
                   
In the oil-rich province of Nassiriya, sixteen protesters were killed overnight and 90 wounded by security forces who fired live ammunition to disperse them from a key bridge, security and medical officials said Thursday. Demonstrators had been blocking Nasr Bridge leading to the city center for several days. Security forces moved in late Wednesday to open the main thoroughfare. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
                   
In Basra, security forces were deployed in the city’s main roads to prevent protesters from staging sit-ins, with instructions to arrest demonstrators if they tried to block roads.
                   
Basra’s streets were open as of Thursday morning, but roads leading to the two main Gulf commodities ports in Umm Qasr and Khor al-Zubair remained closed. Schools and official public institutions were also closed.
                   
Protesters had brought traffic in the oil-rich province to a halt for days by burning tires and barricading roads.

Time Running Out on North Korea’s Deadline to US on Nukes

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump have signaled their affection for each other so regularly it might be easy to miss rising fears that the head-spinning diplomatic engagement of the past two years is falling apart.
                   
Pyongyang has issued increasingly dire warnings to Washington to mind a year-end deadline to offer some new initiative to settle the nations’ decades-long nuclear standoff.
                   
Failure could mean a return to the barrage of powerful North Korean weapons tests that marked 2017 as one of the most fraught years in a relationship that has often been defined by bloodshed, deep mistrust and regular threats.
                   
As the deadline approaches, and as the North’s propaganda machine cranks up its warnings, here’s a look at how high-stakes diplomatic wrangling in one of the most dangerous corners of the world might play out:
                   
THE DEADLINE: HOW SERIOUS IS IT?
                   
North Korea has previously issued deadlines it doesn’t follow through on as a way to try to get what it wants in negotiations.
                   
But despite the usual skepticism, there are signs that Pyongyang means business this time.
                   
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency has reported that Seoul is taking the year-end deadline seriously and is working on “contingency plans” with the United States, which has been trying, and failing, to get North Korea back into serious talks before time runs out.
                   
The chief U.S. nuclear negotiator warned recently that the North could turn to provocations if the deadline is unmet.
                   
When diplomacy broke down at a Trump-Kim summit last February after North Korea didn’t win broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities, it began staging a series of short-range weapons tests. On Thursday, North Korea fired two projectiles likely from a multiple rocket launcher, South Korea’s military said, the first such major weapons test in about a month.
                   
The North has also suggested it will not hold another summit with Trump unless it gets something substantial for its efforts.
                   
“The U.S. only seeks to earn time, pretending it has made progress in settling the issue of the Korean Peninsula,” Kim Kye Gwan, a senior adviser to the North’s foreign ministry, said last week. “As we have got nothing in return, we will no longer gift the U.S. president with something he can boast of.”
                   
A RETURN TO ICBMs?
                   
If North Korea makes the determination that it can win little from Trump, amid congressional impeachment proceedings and 2020 presidential election jockeying, it might return to the nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests that made 2017 such a dangerous year.
                   
Some outside observers, however, believe that Kim, despite his frustration with the Trump administration, has yet to give up on negotiations that have won a level of U.S. engagement that has eluded North Korean leaders for decades.
                   
“As we enter 2020, the strategic window to make some kind of compromise with the U.S. will close rapidly, making sanctions more permanent” and hampering Kim’s promise of economic relief for his people, according to Stephen Robert Nagy, an Asia expert and professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo.
                   
Kim may also try to further bolster ties and secure aid from China, North Korea’s most important ally and economic lifeline, and Russia while testing shorter-range missiles, according to Moon Seong Mook, an analyst at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy in Seoul.
                   
But more powerful tests aren’t out of the question.
                   
If the North decides to give up on talks and launches an ICBM, for instance, it will most likely be at “a time that would inflict the biggest pain on Trump,” said Go Myong-Hyun, an analyst at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
                   
ANY HOPE?
                   
Sue Mi Terry, a former senior CIA analyst on Korea, wrote earlier this month that amid unrealistic expectations in Pyongyang, the U.S. might have “only two bad options” _ give the North massive sanctions relief up front in return for little in return, or watch Pyongyang return to more powerful weapons tests after the expiration of the year-end deadline.
                   
“The North Koreans’ plan is to stall: show up, talk, break off talks,” Terry wrote. “And while they play this game, they are improving and expanding their nuclear and missile programs.”
                   
Christopher Hill, chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea in the George W. Bush administration, said he feels that Pyongyang is “going to really press (Trump) to get something by the end of the year.”
                   
“And if the Trump administration holds firm, then they’re going to have to recalibrate. And they will recalibrate, because they know they need Trump,” Hill said.
                   
Moon Jae-in, the liberal South Korean president who has held summits with Kim and who yearns for deeper engagement, might be the last best hope for diplomacy, according to Robert Kelly, a Koreas expert at South Korea’s Pusan National University.
                   
Moon, Kelly wrote, must strike “a deal which re-engages Trump’s interest at a busy time for him and finally pulls a concession out of the North which is meaningful enough to silence the growing chorus of conservative criticism in Seoul and Washington, yet simultaneously offers North Korea enough to halt its countdown.“
                   
But, Kelly added, “it is unclear if Moon or anyone can thread such a narrow needle.”

TikTok Apologizes for Removing Video on Muslims in China

Social media app TikTok apologized to a user Thursday for removing a video that criticized China’s treatment of Muslims, blaming a “human moderation error” and saying the images had been restored within less than an hour.

The controversy over the video, viewed 1.6 million times, comes as TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, faces an inquiry by a U.S. national security panel over its handling of personal data, while U.S. lawmakers fear it may be censoring politically sensitive content.

In the video she posted last week, the user, who identifies herself as Feroza Aziz, gave a tutorial on eyelash curling, while talking about how Muslims were being treated and saying she wanted to spread awareness of the situation.

But on Twitter this week she said she had been blocked from posting on TikTok for a month, and Wednesday posted that her viral video had been taken down, only to be restored later.

TikTok
TikTok logo on a mobile phone

TikTok statement

The video was offline for 50 minutes, TikTok said on its website.

“We would like to apologize to the user for the error on our part,” said Eric Han, the app’s U.S. head of safety. “Due to a human moderation error, the viral video from Nov. 23 was removed. It’s important to clarify that nothing in our community guidelines precludes content such as this video, and it should not have been removed.”

The TikTok user did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for additional comment.

China’s foreign ministry said it had no specifics of the case, when queried by Reuters about the incident Wednesday.

But it added that it required Chinese firms to operate in a way that respected international norms and local laws and regulations, and hoped that relevant countries also provided a fair and non-discriminatory environment.

TikTok is not available in China, but ByteDance has a domestic version called Douyin.

Uighurs

The user did not mention Uighurs in the video, but said later on Twitter she had been referring to the minority ethnic group.

United Nations experts and rights groups estimate more than a million Uighurs and members of other ethnic groups have been detained in camps in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, which has triggered international condemnation.

China says the camps are vocational training centers to impart new skills and help root out and prevent extremism.

ByteDance has stepped up efforts to shield TikTok, popular with U.S. teenagers and those in their 20s, from much of its Chinese operations, Reuters reported Thursday.

In a timeline on its blog post, TikTok said it had blocked another account set up by Aziz that had posted an image of Osama Bin Laden, which violated its content policies regarding “terrorist imagery.”

On Monday, it enforced a device ban on accounts associated with violations. This affected the new account from which Aziz had posted the eyelash curling video and sent from the same device, it said.

It said it had decided to override the device ban and was directly contacting her to do so.

Aziz confirmed on Twitter that TikTok had restored her account but said other past videos had been deleted.

“Do I believe they took it away because of a unrelated satirical video that was deleted on a previous deleted account of mine? Right after I finished posting a three-part video about the Uyghurs? No,” she posted on Twitter.

US Teen’s TikTok Video on Xinjiang Goes Viral

A TikTok post by a young woman, pretending to give eyelash curling advice while actually condemning China’s crackdown on Muslims in Xinjiang, has gone viral on the Chinese-owned app that has been accused of censoring anti-Beijing content.

The clip by US teen Feroza Aziz, who describes herself as “17 Just a Muslim”, had millions of views across several social media platforms by Wednesday.

But Aziz said she has been blocked from posting on the hugely popular video platform TikTok for a month after uploading Sunday’s clip slamming China, a claim disputed by the app.

Part three to getting longer lashes #tiktok#muslims#muslimmemes#Uyghurmuslims#freepalestinepic.twitter.com/OoFpDpYPvj

— feroza.x (@x_feroza) November 25, 2019

Human rights groups and outside experts say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been rounded up in a network of internment camps across the fractious region of Xinjiang.

China, after initially denying the camps existed, describes them as vocational schools aimed at dampening the allure of Islamist extremism and violence through education and job training.

Aziz starts her video telling viewers: “The first thing you need to do is grab your lash curler.”

However, she soon changes the subject, saying: “Then you’re going to put it down and use the phone you’re using right now to search what’s happening in China, how they’re getting concentration camps, throwing innocent Muslims in there, separating families from each other, kidnapping them, murdering them, raping them, forcing them to eat pork, forcing them to drink, forcing them to convert.

“This is another Holocaust, yet no one is talking about it. Please be aware, please spread awareness in Xinjiang right now,” she adds, before returning to the eyelash curling tutorial.

A previous account owned by Aziz, reportedly from New Jersey, was blocked by TikTok over another alleged violation, but the app denied the current profile had been frozen.

“TikTok does not moderate content due to political sensitivities,” a spokesperson told AFP.

“In this case, the user’s previous account and associated device were banned after she posted a video of Osama Bin Laden, which is a violation of TikTok’s ban on content that includes imagery related to terrorist organizations. Her new account and its videos, including the video in question, were not affected.”

As of Wednesday morning, the post had more than 1.5 million views and 501,900 likes, and 600,000 comments.

Two follow-up videos in which Aziz again addressed the Xinjiang camps had both received more than 7,000 views.

The eyelash-curling clip had reached far more people on Twitter, where versions of the same video received more than 6.5 million views.

Aziz told Buzzfeed: “As a Muslim girl, I’ve always been oppressed and seen my people be oppressed, and always I’ve been into human rights.”

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang decline to comment.

“How could I know what’s happening on the (social media) account of one individual?” Geng said at a regular press briefing, adding that Beijing has always urged Chinese companies to comply with international rules and local laws.

Plugged In-Shoura: An Experiment in Reconciliation

The enemy next door. Plugged In takes you to the Iraqi town of Shoura, once controlled by the Islamic State. Now, Shoura’s residents are trying live side-by-side with the wives and children of the ISIS fighters who terrorized the town. VOA Middle East Correspondent Heather Murdock brings us the story of Shoura, an experiment in reconciliation. Air date: November 27, 2019.