The Homeland Security Department is backing away from requiring that U.S. citizens submit to facial-recognition technology when they leave or enter the country. 

The department said Thursday that it had no plans to expand facial recognition to U.S. citizens. A spokesman said DHS would delete the idea from its regulatory agenda, where privacy advocates spotted it this week. 

The advocates and lawmakers accused DHS of reneging on repeated promises not to force American citizens to be photographed leaving or entering the United States, a process that is required for foreign visitors. 

Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, called the administration’s retreat “a victory for every single American traveler who flies on a plane.” He credited public pressure for the about-face. He said, however, that he still planned to introduce legislation to ban biometric surveillance of Americans. 

Settled issue?

Edward Hasbrouck, a privacy advocate who pointed out the proposal, said the matter might not be settled. 

“Was this a trial balloon to find out whether the DHS had finally reached the limits of our willingness to be treated like criminals whenever we fly?” he said. “And if so, has the DHS partially backed off, at least for now? Maybe.” 

Customs and Border Protection officials said they originally considered including U.S. citizens in the biometrics program because having one system for Americans and another for foreigners added complexity and could compromise security or make lines longer. 

But after meeting with lawmakers and privacy experts — including this week — CBP decided it was better to continue letting Americans opt out. 

Privacy experts have questioned the accuracy of facial recognition and have warned that personal information could be vulnerable to hackers or used improperly by companies holding the data. In response to those criticisms, DHS made some changes, including shortening the time it would retain photographs from 14 days to 12 hours. 

Facial recognition is used to screen passengers at more than a dozen U.S. airports. Some airlines, including Delta and JetBlue, tout it as a convenience for passengers who no longer need to show boarding passes and identification. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel has the “full right” to annex the Jordan Valley if it chose to, even as the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned the country against taking the bold step.

Netanyahu said his proposal to annex the strategic part of the occupied West Bank was discussed during a late-night meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He said they also agreed to move forward with plans for a joint defense treaty.

The longtime Israeli leader, beleaguered by a corruption indictment and political instability at home, is promoting the two initiatives as a justification for staying in office.

The Trump administration has already delivered several landmark victories to Netanyahu, such as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. Netanyahu says that thanks to his close relationship with Trump, he is singularly positioned to further promote Israeli interests at this junction before the 2020 U.S. election season heats up.

The annexation move would surely draw condemnation from the Palestinians and much of the world and almost certainly extinguish any remaining Palestinian hopes of gaining independence.

The Palestinians seek all the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967, as the heartland of their hoped-for state. The Jordan Valley comprises some 25% of the West Bank and is seen as the territory’s breadbasket and one of the few remaining open areas that could be developed by the Palestinians.

But many Israelis say the area is vital to the country’s security, providing a layer of protection along its eastern flank.

In her annual report, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said her office was following the Israeli annexation proposal “with concern.”

When asked by reporters about the warning, Netanyahu insisted that it is Israel’s “full right to do so, if we chose so.”

Netanyahu’s visit with Pompeo was their first since the secretary of state announced last month that the U.S. no longer considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law. Israeli nationalists have interpreted that policy change as a green light to begin annexing parts or all of the West Bank.

Netanyahu called their 1 hour and 45 minute-meeting in Lisbon “critical to Israeli security.”

In particular, he noted the progress they made toward a joint defense pact that would offer Israel further assurance against a future attack from Iran. He said he has informed his chief rival, former military chief Benny Gantz, of the progress in the initiative.

Israeli defense officials, and Gantz as well, have expressed concern that such a pact could limit Israel’s freedom to operate militarily. Netanyahu said he was aware of the reservations but assured that it was a “historic opportunity” and Israel would not be limited to act against archenemy Iran.

Mike Makovsky, president and chief executive of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America in Washington, which has been promoting the idea of a narrow defense pact, said the proposal would offer “an extra layer of deterrence” and “mitigate the intensity and scope” of a potential war with Iran.

“Just like every other mutual defense treaty it would be left to the discretion of both parties how it would be implemented,” he said. “Mutual defense pacts have been sources for stability.”

In Lisbon, Netanyahu also met with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and thanked him for adopting the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism, which toughens guidelines to include some forms of criticism of Israel. Israeli researchers reported earlier this year that violent attacks against Jews around the world spiked significantly in 2018, with the largest reported number of Jews killed in anti-Semitic acts in decades.

The trip gave Netanyahu a brief respite as he fights for political survival in the wake of two inconclusive elections and a damning corruption indictment. He refused to discuss his future options but vowed to carry on.

Israel’s attorney general last month indicted Netanyahu for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.

It is the first time in Israeli history that a sitting prime minister has been charged with a crime. Unlike mayors or regular ministers, the prime minister is not required by Israeli law to resign if indicted. Netanyahu is desperate to remain in office, where he is best positioned to fight the charges.

Bethelihem Tesfatsion is a successful businesswoman who has sold thousands of hand-stitched Eritrean dresses worldwide, but she operates in the shadows, waiting for Ethiopia to make good on its promise to allow refugees to work. 

As an Eritrean asylum-seeker, Bethelihem, 29, is not eligible for a work permit, so she got an Ethiopian friend to put his name on the business license in 2017 when she opened her shop in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. 

“It doesn’t feel like the brand is mine,” said Bethelihem, who left Eritrea five years ago to get treatment for a kidney problem and never returned — like tens of thousands who flee the tiny Horn of Africa country every year, citing political repression and lengthy military conscription. 

“You always fear you do something that you’re not supposed to do, that someone from the government is going to come after me.” 

Home to Africa’s third-largest refugee population, Ethiopia won praise in January for passing a law giving 700,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers who have fled conflict, drought and persecution the right to live outside 26 camps where they are currently hosted. 

‘Very disappointed’

But 11 months after the Refugee Proclamation was announced — allowing refugees and asylum-seekers to work, open bank accounts, legally register births and marriages, and attend primary school — Bethelihem is frustrated Ethiopia has yet to pass further legislation to bring it to life. 

“I am very disappointed,” she said, as her sister and aunt busily packed a traditional white cotton dress with colorful edging to send abroad, while passers-by glanced in at the elegantly dressed mannequins in the window. 

“We are sick of [waiting] because we have the capacity [to work].” 

Politics may be preoccupying Ethiopia’s leaders. Deadly clashes and protests have erupted following democratic reforms introduced by Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed since 2018, which lifted the lid on long-repressed ethnic tensions. 

“The government has certainly not backed away from its commitments but it’s not a top priority,” said one aid worker who declined to be named. 

“They have a lot on their plate,” he said, adding that allowing refugees to work could add to the strain, amid high unemployment. 

Eritreans struggling 

As the U.N. readies for the first Global Refugee Forum in Geneva on December 17 — which aims to identify best practices to support refugees and get donors to make pledges — Ethiopia is seen as exemplary for seeking to boost refugees’ self-reliance and ease the burden on host nations. 

Eritrea, a country of 5 million people, is the world’s ninth-largest source of refugees, with 500,000 registered. One in three Eritrean refugees lives in Ethiopia, one of Africa’s poorest countries despite impressive growth. 

Many of the 20,000 Eritreans in Addis Ababa find it hard to survive as they do not have the right to work and rely on informal jobs where they risk being exploited, a study by Oxford University’s Refugee Studies Centre found. 

“Some of them are really struggling,” said Bethelihem, who makes half of her sales online, mostly via Facebook and Instagram, to Eritreans in the United States, Europe and Australia who spend up to 9,000 birr ($299) on outfits for special occasions. 

“They engage in child labor to support themselves [and] prostitution.” 

The U.N. allows Eritreans to live in the capital if they can prove they have financial support from friends or family. But remittances are not a reliable source of income and many Eritreans in Addis Ababa work as poorly paid waiters, hairdressers or plumbers, Bethelihem said. 

“Family members in the diaspora are desperately wanting the refugees to take care of themselves,” said Bethelihem, whose sisters work with her in the shop, having also left Eritrea to escape indefinite national service, which Human Rights Watch has said includes hard labor and physical abuse. 

‘Remaining tasks’ 

Refugees can already register births and marriages, open bank accounts and buy mobile phone SIM cards, said Addisu Kebenessa, deputy director general of the government’s Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs. 

“Most of the [Refugee] Proclamation is already implemented,” he said, adding that work and residence permits are the two “remaining tasks,” with a long-term goal of ending refugee encampment by 2030. 

Addis Ababa’s Nefas Silk Polytechnic College offers a hopeful vision of a more inclusive world, as donors struggle to provide for record numbers in need of aid and U.S. and European hostility to refugees and migrants grows. 

Dozens of refugees and Ethiopians learn cooking, sewing, welding and other skills at the college, which is supported by GIZ, a German development agency. 

“We treat the refugees as regular students,” dean Melese Yigzaw said. 

One of his students is Ayda Gebremichael, who left Eritrea with her husband and three children five months ago. They plan to build a life in Addis Ababa if they can find decent work — with a dream of moving to Canada in the future. 

“Sometimes, I forget that I am a refugee here,” said Ayda, 28, as she took a break from her sewing class. 

Reduction of tension

Bringing the two groups together to study can also reduce tensions that often erupt when large numbers of refugees arrive, overwhelming local services — a problem faced from Germany and Jordan to Brazil and Kenya. 

“We have to make sure both refugees and host communities benefit from our interventions,” said Moges Tamene, a program manager with DanChurchAid, which works with refugees throughout Ethiopia. 

“So far it has never been the case,” he said, highlighting camps in the western Gambella region where South Sudanese refugees outnumber locals and receive clean water, while Ethiopians a few kilometers away drink from a river. 

Ethiopia has promised to create 30,000 jobs for refugees as part of its industrialization drive, but Bethelihem is not interesting in working in a factory where garment workers earn about $26 a month, according to the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. 

“Nobody will go there,” Bethelihem said. “We have the capacity to be self-reliant and even to support the host community.” 

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it official Thursday — Democrats in the House of Representatives will begin drafting articles of impeachment with the goal of removing President Donald Trump from office. That would make Trump the fourth president in U.S. history to face formal impeachment charges in the House. As the impeachment battle intensifies, both sides are keeping a close watch on public opinion polls. VOA national correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington. 

Senior U.S. diplomats and national security experts have testified before Congress about behind-the-scenes maneuvering by President Donald Trump or aides to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.

With Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives moving toward possibly impeaching Trump, who urged Ukraine’s president in a July 25 phone call to carry out the investigations, here are highlights of testimony already given by key witnesses in televised hearings:

The quid pro quo

Since the House began a formal impeachment inquiry on Sept. 24, Democrats and Republicans have argued over whether Trump demanded a political favor from Ukraine to benefit him personally in return for the release of $391 million in U.S. security assistance to Kyiv.

In testimony on Nov. 13, William Taylor, acting ambassador to Ukraine, said it was his understanding that the delivery of the U.S. aid to Ukraine was linked to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announcing investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who had business dealings in Ukraine. The elder Biden is a leading Democratic candidate for president in 2020.

Democrats contend that any linking of aid to the probes Trump sought would fit the definition of the Latin term “quid pro quo,” or a favor for a favor.

Under questioning from Republicans, Taylor acknowledged that he did not have firsthand knowledge of Trump explicitly tying the aid to investigating the Bidens.

But Gordon Sondland, a Trump donor and ambassador to the European Union, told Congress: “Was there a quid pro quo? As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.”

Sondland was referring to Zelenskiy’s drive to get a White House meeting with Trump.

National security concerns

National security officials working in the White House told of their worries over Trump’s phone call with Zelenskiy and the role that Trump’s private lawyer Rudy Giuliani was playing in shaping policy toward Ukraine, an important U.S. ally.

Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a top Ukraine expert assigned to the White House, was one of several people who listened to that call. Vindman testified that Trump had made an “improper” demand of Zelenskiy, referring to the American president urging Zelenskiy to initiate investigations.

“Frankly, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was probably an element of shock that maybe, in certain regards, my worst fear of how our Ukrainian policy could play out was playing out,” Vindman said.

Trump has repeatedly defended what he calls a “perfect” phone conversation, saying his goal was to ensure that any U.S. aid delivered to Ukraine was not falling into corrupt hands.

Giuliani’s role

David Holmes, a career diplomat serving in the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, testified that his work started to become overshadowed in March by Giuliani, who was pushing Ukraine to carry out probes of the Bidens and a debunked conservative theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill recalled how then-national security adviser John Bolton called Giuliani, a private citizen with no formal job in the administration, “a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up.”

Trump has defended the former New York City mayor and ex-federal prosecutor, saying his crime-fighting abilities were needed to deal with corruption in Ukraine. Giuliani has said that everything he did was to protect his client: Trump.

Pence and Pompeo

Sondland told the House Intelligence Committee that several senior administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, knew about efforts to pressure Ukraine to carry out investigations that might help Trump.

“Everyone was in the loop” about the efforts to get Ukraine to conduct investigations that Trump sought, Sondland testified.

A top Pence aide said in a statement that the vice president “never had a conversation” with Sondland about investigating the Bidens or the conditional release of aid to Ukraine.

A State Department spokeswoman said Sondland never told Pompeo that he believed Trump was linking the aid to the requested investigations and “any suggestion to the contrary is flat out false.”

 

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been proposed for International Olympic Committee membership, but World Athletics head Sebastian Coe will have to wait due to a conflict of interest, IOC President Thomas Bach said on Thursday.

FIFA and World Athletics, the governing bodies of two of the biggest sports in the Olympics, have been without membership ever since the departure from the IOC of their respective former presidents Sepp Blatter and Lamine Diack in 2015.

For years, membership of the IOC for the heads of soccer and athletics was seen as almost automatic.

Yet the two international federations have been left out in the cold as they struggled with widespread corruption and doping scandals which tarnished their images. Diack, who has denied wrongdoing, faces a corruption trial in France in January.

Bach said Infantino had been proposed for election at their next session in January along with International Tennis Federation chief David Haggerty and Japanese Olympic Committee president Yasuhiro Yamashita.

World Athletics chief Coe, however, had not been proposed due to a conflict of interest.

“We wanted him (Coe) to become an IOC member as president of one of our most important Olympic sports,” Bach said. “Since then we are in close consultation with him and since then we have addressed the risk of a potential of conflict of interest he may have.”

Apart for his role at World Athletics, Coe is also Group Chairman of consultancy firm CSM which also works with the IOC.

“CSM is consulting various organizations and stakeholders including having contractual partnerships with the IOC itself.”

Bach said Coe had informed them that he could not immediately resolve this situation but was working on it. Bach said Coe could become a member at their session during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

“He is hopeful to address it in a couple of months. Then that would mean the door is still open for Tokyo.”

The IOC elects new members at its sessions once candidates are vetted by the Olympic body.

 

Police in Nepal have arrested the brother-in-law of a woman who died after she was banished to a ‘menstrual hut’, the first such arrest in the Himalayan nation as it seeks to end the practice.

The body of Parbati Buda Rawat, 21, was found on Monday after she lit a fire to keep warm in a mud and stone hut and suffocated in Nepal’s western Achhan district, the latest victim of the centuries-old, “chhaupadi” custom, outlawed in 2005.

“This is the first time we have arrested any person in connection with a death under the chhaupadi custom,” Achham’s chief district officer, Bhoj Raj Shrestha, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The custom remains prevalent in Nepal’s remote west where some communities fear misfortune, such as a natural disaster, unless menstruating women and girls – seen as impure – are sent away to animal sheds or huts.

Police official Janak Shahi said Chhatra Rawat, 25, a brother-in-law of the dead woman, was arrested in the district capital, Mangalsen, to investigate if he was responsible in sending her to the illegal hut, and he may later be charged.

If found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to three months in jail and a fine of up to 3,000 Nepali rupees ($26).
A village in the neighboring Doti district this week announced a financial reward of 5,000 rupees for each woman who refuses to be confined to a hut during her period, in the hope this would deter her family from attempting to banish her again.

Outrage led to a parliamentary investigation into chhaupadi after a teenage girl and a mother and her young sons died in two similar incidents earlier this year.

($1 = 114.7400 Nepalese rupees)
 

The highly anticipated final chapter in the Skywalker film saga will feature a significant role for Princess Leia, the beloved “Star Wars” character played by late actress Carrie Fisher.

Writer and director J.J. Abrams said he had enough unused footage of Fisher from the filming of 2015 movie “The Force Awakens” to make Leia a key player in “The Rise of Skywalker,” the “Star Wars” film that debuts in theaters on Dec. 20.

Fisher died in 2016 at age 60.

“We couldn’t tell the story without Leia,” Abrams said in an interview on Wednesday. “She’s the mother of the villain of the piece. She’s in a sense the mother of the resistance, the rebellion, the leader, the general.”

“Her role is, I would say, integral,” he added. “This is not just a cosmetic thing where we’re sort of inserting Leia.”

“The Rise of Skywalker” is the ninth movie in the celebrated space franchise that debuted in 1977 and is now owned by Walt Disney Co.

In recent films, Leia had risen to general leading the fight against the evil First Order in the galaxy far, far away. Her son is Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), the warrior who took over as ruler of the First Order at the end of 2017 film “The Last Jedi.”

If Fisher had been alive, “there is no question we would have done, I’m sure, additional and other things,” Abrams said. “But the fact we had the material to do what we did is incredibly gratifying.”

Daisy Ridley, who portrays resistance fighter Rey, recorded scenes for “Rise of Skywalker” in which her character interacted with the previously recorded images of Fisher.

“I was basically reacting to footage I had seen of her, so it was quite emotional, very strange,” Ridley said. “But I do think you feel a real sense of love between Leia and Rey in this one, and Leia is a big part of the story.”

Pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) and maintenance worker Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) also have scenes that include dialogue with Leia, cast members said.

Abrams said Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, who will appear for the third time as a lieutenant in the resistance forces, also will be seen on screen with her mother.

Anthony Daniels, who plays the droid C-3PO, said the scenes with Fisher looked “totally believable, quite wonderful, quite respectful” in the final cut of the film, which was shown to some cast members this week.

Isaac said he felt “a real melancholy” when he watched Fisher on screen in “Rise of Skywalker.”

“You see her right there, and she’s so vital and alive, and to think she’s not there anymore, and she won’t get to see how we say goodbye to Princess Leia,” he said. “It’s bittersweet.”

Congressional Democrats launched the next step in the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday, hearing testimony from legal scholars on what the U.S. Constitution says about the standards for impeaching and removing a president from office. The House Judiciary Committee hearings take lawmakers a step closer to a vote on Articles of Impeachment, measures that if passed would lead to a Senate trial. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.
 

U.S. President Donald Trump appears intent on following through with his plan to formally designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. His announcement has put the Mexican government on the defensive. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari looks at the political impact of such a move and its effect on bilateral relations with Mexico.
 

A British caver who was labeled “pedo guy” by Tesla co-founder Elon Musk said Wednesday he felt “humiliated” and “dirtied” by the tech billionaire’s accusation, and that it amounted to “a life sentence.”

Speaking on the second day of a trial in Los Angeles federal court to determine whether Musk’s comment constituted defamation, Vernon Unsworth said the entrepreneur’s tweet referring to him as “pedo guy” had branded him as a pedophile.

“It’s disgusting,” Unsworth told the court, his voice quivering. “I feel humiliated, shamed, dirtied.”

“Effectively from day one, I was given a life sentence without parole,” Unsworth, who helped rescue youth soccer players trapped in a cave in Thailand, told the court.

He said Musk’s Twitter rant had resulted in his name being associated with pedophilia.

“Sometimes I feel very vulnerable, very isolated,” he said. “I deal with it on my own, I bottle it up.”

Twitter spat

Musk’s highly publicized row with Unsworth erupted in July 2018 after the British caver dismissed the entrepreneur’s proposal to build a mini-submarine to rescue the boys stuck in the cave as a “PR stunt.”

He also said that Musk could “stick his submarine where it hurts.”

Attorneys for both sides in court have been going over the meaning of the term “pedo guy,” which Musk claims was a common insult in South Africa, where he grew up, and meant nothing more than “creepy old man.”

The 48-year-old tech tycoon insisted during two days of testimony that he was just reacting to Unsworth’s “unprovoked” comments about him when he published the tweet.

Musk also referred to Unsworth in email messages as a “child rapist.”

Musk apologized

He apologized to Unsworth several times during his testimony and insisted his “pedo guy” tweet did not mean he was accusing the caver of being a pedophile.

“Pedo guy is more flippant than pedo, especially in the context I used in the tweet,” Musk told the court Wednesday. “It’s obviously an insult, no one interpreted it as meaning he was actually a pedophile.”

The trial, which began Tuesday and is expected to last through Friday, hinges on whether Musk’s tweet could have been interpreted by a reasonable person as accusing Unsworth of pedophilia.

Unsworth, who lives in Britain and Thailand, is seeking unspecified damages for pain, suffering and emotional distress.

His testimony was set to continue Thursday.

By day, the small commercial kitchen in a Hong Kong industrial building produces snacks. At night, it turns into a secret laboratory assembling a kit for pro-democracy protesters seeking to detox after repeated exposure to tear gas.

Volunteers seated around a kitchen island sort and pack multicolored pills into small resealable bags. At another table, a woman makes turmeric pills by dipping gelatin capsules into a shallow dish of the deep orange spice.

“Police have used so much tear gas and people are suffering,” said the owner of the kitchen, speaking on condition of anonymity because she fears repercussions for her business. “We want to especially help frontline protesters, who have put their lives on the line for the city.”

10,000 canisters of tear gas

Hong Kong police have fired more than 10,000 tear gas canisters to quell violent protests that have rocked the city for six months. The movement’s demands include fully democratic elections and an investigation into police use of force, including tear gas.

Its heavy and prolonged use in Hong Kong — one of the world’s most densely populated cities and known for its concrete jungle of high-rises — is unusual and has sparked health fears.

While there’s no evidence of long-term health effects, it’s also largely untested territory.

“I don’t think there have been circumstances where there has been this level of repeated exposure for people to tear gas. What’s going on in Hong Kong is pretty unprecedented,” said Alistair Hay, a British toxicologist from the University of Leeds.

Police have fired it in cramped residential areas and near hospitals, malls and schools, affecting not only protesters but also children, the elderly and the sick.

Fears of exposure

Some worry that tear gas residue could stick for days or weeks to asphalt, walls, ventilation ducts and other places. Parents, schools and various community groups have demanded to know the chemical makeup of the gas, which police won’t divulge, so they can clean up properly.

In the absence of official information, some parents have stopped taking their kids to parks, and online tips urge mothers to refrain from breastfeeding for a few hours if they are exposed the gas. Many avoided fresh fruits after a wholesale market that supplies half of the city’s supply was gassed last month.

New daily rituals include using a baking soda solution to bathe, wash clothes and clean surfaces. Tips shared by protesters include not bathing in hot water after exposure as it is believed it will open pores and let the chemicals seep in.

The kitchen owner making detox kits said she wants to help protesters, who often avoid seeking treatment at hospitals to hide their identity and avoid possible arrest.

The kits contain capsules that include vitamins and other natural ingredients and are packed into a small pouch with 10 bottles of a cloudy caramel-colored drink that contains an antioxidant said to be an immune-system booster. They come with instructions for a 10-day detoxification program that includes no alcohol and no smoking.

It has not been scientifically tested for treating tear gas symptoms, but the kitchen owner claimed that feedback was positive from a first batch distributed to frontline protesters through a clandestine network of first-aid and social workers.

Hay, the toxicologist, said that excessive concentrations of CS gas, a common tear gas component, and residue that persists in the environment could cause prolonged symptoms and health complications for vulnerable groups.

Protesters sickened

A survey in August by a group of doctors of some 170 reporters covering the protests found most of them had difficulty breathing, persistent coughing or coughed up blood, skin allergies and gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea or vomiting, according to Hong Kong media reports.

Further spooking residents are reports that the tear gas could emit dioxin, a cancer-causing substance. Hay said he wasn’t aware of any cases of tear gas producing dioxin, although it could in theory be released if the canister burns above 250 degrees Celsius (480 degrees Fahrenheit).

Government officials say that any toxin found could come from the many street fires set off by protesters. They refuse to reveal the components of the gas, citing operational sensitivities.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where more than 1,000 rounds of tear gas were fired on a single day last month, hired an independent laboratory to test air, water and soil samples. Preliminary tests reportedly showed no harmful substances.

Nonetheless, a high school near the campus hired professional experts to decontaminate its grounds.

A 17-year-old volunteer helping make the detox kits said he has joined many protests and often experienced stomach cramps, nausea and rashes for days after being gassed. During a rally in June, he said couldn’t breathe and thought he was going to die.

Another volunteer said she can see clouds of tear gas in the streets below her apartment in Mongkok, a hot spot for protests, and smell it even with her windows closed.

She doesn’t have the courage to join the protests, she said, but feels she must contribute.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution in a city that has become starkly divided by the violent protests.
 

Chinese official media excoriated the United States and called for harsh reprisals in editorials on Thursday after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation requiring a stronger response to Beijing’s treatment of its Uighur Muslim minority. 

The commentaries followed warnings from China on Wednesday that the legislation could affect bilateral cooperation, including a near-term deal to end the two countries’ trade war. 

A front-page editorial in the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper said the passage of the U.S. legislation “harbors evil intent and is extremely sinister.” 

“Underestimating the determination and will of the Chinese people is doomed to fail,” it said. 

By a vote of 407 to 1, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved the Uighur bill, which would require the Trump administration to toughen its response to China’s crackdown in Xinjiang, a region in China’s far west. 

The bill still must be approved by the Republican-controlled Senate before being sent to U.S. President Donald Trump to sign into law. 

The White House has yet to say whether Trump would sign or veto the bill, which contains a provision allowing the president to waive sanctions if he determines that to be in the national interest. 

Kept in camps

U.N. experts and activists say China has detained possibly 1 million Uighurs in camps in Xinjiang. China says the camps are part of an anti-terror crackdown and are providing vocational training. It denies any mistreatment of Uighurs. 

The English-language China Daily called the bill a “stab in the back, given Beijing’s efforts to stabilize the already turbulent China-U.S. relationship.” 

“It seems an odds-on bet that more [sanctions] can be expected if the latest approval for State Department meddling goes into the statute books,” it said. 

The English-language edition of the Global Times, a nationalist tabloid published by the People’s Daily, said China should be prepared for a “long-term battle with the U.S.” 

The editorials echoed comments by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, who said on Wednesday that “any wrong words and deeds must pay the due price.” 

Official commentary also took aim at the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, recently signed into law by Trump. 

The act requires the U.S. State Department to certify at least annually that Hong Kong retains enough autonomy to justify favorable U.S. trading terms, and it threatens sanctions for human rights violations. 

‘Idiotic’

A front-page editorial in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily framed the bill as a U.S. attempt to use Hong Kong to contain China, calling such a move “idiotic nonsense.” 

“The Chinese government will in no way allow anyone to act wilfully in Hong Kong, and must take effective measures to prevent, contain and counteract external forces from interfering in Hong Kong affairs.” 

Hong Kong has been wracked by nearly six months of often violent protests, with demonstrators demanding greater democratic freedoms in the Chinese city. 

Colombian unions and student groups held a third national strike Wednesday amid fraught talks between protest leaders and the government over President Ivan Duque’s social and economic policies. 

The strike was the latest demonstration in two weeks of protests, which have drawn hundreds of thousands of marchers and put pressure on Duque’s proposed tax reform, which lowers duties on businesses. 

The protests prompted him to announce a “great national dialogue” on social issues, but government efforts to stop new demonstrations have failed as the union-led National Strike Committee has stuck firmly to demands for one-on-one talks and refused to call off protests. 

The demonstrations, while largely peaceful, resulted in damage to dozens of public transport stations and curfews in Cali and Bogota. 

Protesters have wide-ranging demands, including that the government do more to stop the killing of human rights activists, offer more support for former leftist rebels who demobilized under a peace deal and dissolve the ESMAD riot police, whom marchers accuse of excessive force.

“We’re continuing to march to send a message to the president and to Congress: Don’t play with the people,” said student Diana Rodriguez, 23, as she made her way toward Bogota’s Bolivar Plaza late Wednesday morning. 

“Yesterday they approved the tax reform, and that shows they aren’t taking us seriously,” Rodriguez said, referring to the Tuesday approval of the bill by economic committees in both houses of Congress. The proposal now moves to a floor debate. 

Five people have died in connection with the demonstrations, which started November 21 and have occurred in tandem with protests in other Latin American countries. 

“I invite all Colombians to mobilize massively to show the government that there is another opinion in the country, that the other Colombia has the right to be listened to,” Central Union of Workers President Diogenes Orjuela told Reuters by phone early on Wednesday, adding marches must be peaceful. 

Meetings between Duque’s representatives and the committee are expected to continue on Thursday. 

The committee has made 13 demands, including that the government reject a rise in the pension age and a cut to the minimum wage for young people, both policies Duque denies supporting. 

The government has repeatedly said the demands for one-on-one dialogue exclude other sectors and that it cannot meet demands that it refrain from deploying the ESMAD. 

The Trump administration said on Wednesday it will make it harder for states to keep residents in the U.S. food stamp program in a move that is projected to end benefits for nearly 700,000 people.

President Donald Trump has argued that many Americans receiving food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, do not need it given the strong economy and low unemployment. The program provides free food to 36 million Americans.

The administration has now finalized a rule that tightens guidelines on when and where states can waive limits on how long certain residents can receive benefits. The changes will move more “able-bodied” adults into the workplace, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said.

“States are seeking waivers for wide swaths of their population, and millions of people who could work are continuing to receive SNAP benefits,” he told reporters.

The United States generally limits the amount of time that adults ages 18-49, who do not have dependents or a disability, can receive food stamps to three months in a 36-month period, unless they meet certain work requirements.

States can apply for waivers to this time limit due to tough economic conditions. However, counties with an unemployment rate as low as 2.5% have been included in waived areas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs SNAP.

The agency is stiffening guidelines defining where recipients can reside to be eligible for waivers and standards for demonstrating whether an area has enough jobs to justify a waiver.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.6% in October.

“We need everyone who can work to work,” Perdue said.

But critics say the moves will hurt poor Americans.

“This is an unacceptable escalation of the administration’s war on working families, and it comes during a time when too many are forced to stretch already-thin budgets to make ends meet,” said U.S. Representative Marcia Fudge, an Ohio Democrat.

The administration has sought to tighten requirements for food stamps without congressional approval after Congress blocked a Trump-backed effort to pass new restrictions through the Farm Bill last year.

The latest rule will take effect next year and save the U.S. government $5.5 billion over five years by removing about 688,000 people from food stamps, said Brandon Lipps, a USDA deputy undersecretary.

“For those impacted it will mean less nutritious meals, or meals that are skipped altogether,” said Cassie Ramos, policy associate for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group.

 

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged all countries to suspend plans for digital services taxes that Washington believes unfairly target U.S. tech companies, to allow the OECD to reach an agreement on international taxation.

In a letter to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) dated Tuesday, Mnuchin underscored U.S. concerns about digital services initiatives launched by France and other countries that target revenues, not profits.

In the letter, which was viewed by Reuters, he said U.S. taxpayers supported greater tax certainty, but worried that changing the mandatory rules for when countries have the right to tax companies could affect “longstanding pillars of the international tax system upon which U.S. taxpayers rely.”

The rise of big internet companies like Google owner Alphabet and Facebook has strained current tax rules since such corporations can legally book profit and park assets like trademarks and patents in low-tax countries such as Ireland regardless of where their customers are.

The U.S. government on Monday said it may slap punitive duties of up to 100% on $2.4 billion in imports from France of Champagne, cheese and other products, after concluding that France’s new 3% digital services tax would harm U.S. tech companies.

Washington also said it was exploring whether to open similar investigations into the digital services taxes of Austria, Italy and Turkey, but made no mention of proposed digital taxes in Canada or Britain.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said he would press ahead with new digital services taxes despite U.S. objections.

Months of negotiations 

Mnuchin’s letter and the U.S. trade representative’s report followed months of negotiations between French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Mnuchin over a global overhaul of digital tax rules.

The two struck a compromise in August at a Group of Seven summit in France that would refund U.S. companies the difference between the French tax and a new mechanism being drawn up through the OECD.

In his letter, Mnuchin said the United States looked forward to working with the OECD, but had “serious concerns” about any moves to abandon certain current taxation structures such as arm’s-length transfer pricing and taxable nexus standards.

He said concerns could be addressed by creating a safe-harbor regime under Pillar One, the first spate of taxation reforms that the OECD wants to complete by January.

The OECD in October released its proposal for overhauling cross-border tax rules that go back to the 1920s, which would give governments more power to tax big multinationals doing business in their countries.
 

The meeting of NATO leaders in London to mark the alliance’s 70th anniversary got off to a difficult start Tuesday as the leaders of the United States, France and Turkey clashed over burden sharing and the future direction of the alliance. The official summit is set to take place Wednesday, where the various threats to NATO are due to be discussed – but as Henry Ridgwell reports, the biggest challenge could be keeping a lid on tensions within the organization

U.S. President Donald Trump accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being “two-faced” after Trudeau and other NATO leaders appeared to have been gossiping about him.

A recording of a reception Tuesday night in London’s Buckingham Palace shows Trudeau huddling with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Britain’s Princess Anne, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rute and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Trudeau was overheard apparently commenting on Trump’s lengthy impromptu exchange with journalists, during which Trump said Trudeau was perturbed over his remarks that Canada is not fulfilling its NATO financial commitments.

Shortly after Trump’s comments about Trudeau, he tweeted NATO has made “Great progress” since he won the presidency nearly three years ago.

Great progress has been made by NATO over the last three years. Countries other than the U.S. have agreed to pay 130 Billion Dollars more per year, and by 2024, that number will be 400 Billion Dollars. NATO will be richer and stronger than ever before….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

The two leaders met hours after Trump criticized Macron for his recent statement describing NATO as experiencing a “brain death,” due to diminished U.S. leadership. Trump called it a “nasty statement.”  

As the two sat down for talks, Trump warned that NATO member countries who do not meet NATO’s guideline of spending 2% of GDP on collective defense could be dealt with “from a trade standpoint” referring to tariffs on products, including French wine.

This prompted Macron, who is currently contributing 1.9% of France’s GDB towards NATO’s defense, to push back.

“It’s not just about money,” Macron said. “What about peace in Europe?” he asked Trump.

“It’s impossible just to say we have to put money, we have to put soldiers, without being clear on the fundamentals of what NATO should be,” Macron said.

Islamic State fighters

Trump and Macron argued about how to deal with Islamic State after the October withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, a move Trump made without consulting the alliance. The withdrawal paved the way for Turkey to launch an offensive against the U.S.-allied Kurdish militia in northern Syria and triggered fear among allies of a potential IS resurgence.

In response to a question on whether France should do more to take Islamic State fighters captured in the Middle East, Trump asked Macron if he would like “some nice ISIS fighters.”

Macron countered that the main problem is IS fighters in the region. Referring to the abrupt U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria, Macron said “you have more and more of these fighters due to the situation today.”

Macron is “more on the side of those who want to actually face up to the crisis and talk about it,” said Hans Kundnani of Chatham House. He is the sort of “disruptive factor” compared to other leaders who may choose to paper over disagreements, Kundnani said.

The summit came as Trump faces an impeachment investigation back home. He repeated his criticism Tuesday of Democrats who control the House of Representatives, saying it is unfair to hold hearings while he is attending the summit.

Trump is not the first U.S. president to attend a NATO summit under the cloud of impeachment. In 1974, Richard Nixon went to NATO’s 25th anniversary meeting in Brussels while the U.S. House of Representatives was concluding its impeachment inquiry. Nixon stepped down a few weeks later.

The next step by congressional Democrats pushing the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump is unfolding Wednesday, with four constitutional scholars testifying on what they believe the country’s founding fathers intended when they decided how a president could be impeached and removed from office.

The Democratic majority on the House Judiciary Committee is calling law professors Noah Feldman of Harvard, Pamela Karlan of Stanford and Michael Gerhardt of North Carolina to advance their case that Trump abused the presidency by pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate one of his chief 2020 Democratic rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company and a debunked theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, meddled in the 2016 U.S. election.

Watch Hearing LIVE

In a prepared opening statement, Gerhardt says, “If Congress fails to impeach here, then the impeachment process has lost all meaning, and, along with that, our Constitution’s carefully crafted safeguards against the establishment of a king on American soil. No one, not even the president, is beyond the reach of our Constitution and our laws.”

Republicans defending Trump are calling George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley to buttress their contention that Trump did nothing wrong while asking for the Ukrainian investigations at the same time he was withholding $391 billion in military aid Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Trump eventually released the assistance in September without Ukraine opening the Biden investigations, proof, Republicans say, that there was no quid pro quo, an exchange of favors between Trump and Ukraine.  

Under the U.S. Constitution, a president may be impeached and removed from office for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” but the definition of those terms has been left to lawmakers throughout the country’s 243-year history.

Trump is only the fourth U.S. leader to face a formal impeachment proceeding. Two former presidents were impeached but not convicted by the Senate and removed from office, while a third resigned in the face of certain impeachment. Many constitutional scholars believe abuse of office and obstruction of justice are also impeachable offenses, but the U.S. Constitution makes no mention of such offenses.  

Trump has assailed the impeachment effort targeting him, saying he is blameless in his request for investigations that would have benefitted  him politically. While he is in London for NATO meetings, his political campaign complained that the majority “Democrats will get THREE constitutional lawyers and Republicans will only get ONE!” at Wednesday’s hearing. “This entire process is unfair to not only @realDonaldTrump, but the American People!”

Tomorrow, Democrats will get THREE constitutional lawyers and Republicans will only get ONE!

This entire process is unfair to not only @realDonaldTrump, but the American People!#StopTheSchiffShowpic.twitter.com/gDfqHco5vo

— Team Trump (@TeamTrump) December 3, 2019

The new testimony comes a day after the Democratic-controlled House Intelligence Committee released a 300-page report accusing Trump of “misconduct” in seeking Ukrainian political interference in the 2020 presidential election and then relentlessly trying to “obstruct” Congress as it carried out an inquiry into his actions.
 
The nearly three-month impeachment inquiry “has found that President Trump, personally and acting through agents within and outside of the U.S. government, solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection,” the report stated.
 
“In doing so, the president placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the U.S. presidential election process, and endangered U.S. national security,” the report declared.

A Trump defender, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, rebuffed the claims, saying , “House Democrats have been trying to undo the results of President Trump’s historic election since before he was sworn in.” He said Democrats have not found “a single legitimate reason” for impeachment.
 
“Instead, Democrats have relied on smears, hearsay, and presumption to build their false narrative,” he said.

A U.K-based correspondent for Dawn, Pakistan’s main English language newspaper, filed a story on the terror attack last Friday in London and her choice of words triggered criticism by several Pakistani government authorities.

The attacker, Usman Khan, 28, a British citizen whose family originates from Pakistan, put on a fake suicide vest on Friday and started attacking people with knives before he was confronted by bystanders and shot dead by police officers near London Bridge. He stabbed five people, two of whom died later of the wounds sustained in the attack.

The reporter’s identification of the attacker as a British citizen of Pakistani origin was deemed as unpatriotic and defamatory because of the usage of the phrase “Pakistani origin” and the linkage to Pakistan.  

Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Science & Technology, took to his official Twitter page and criticized Dawn’s writers and editors for the story.

“Dawn walas [people] please have some mercy on this Nation, shocked on your cheap attempt to link a British terrorist to Pakistan, Anwar Al Awlaki and Anjem ch[Chaudhary] both are brit origin nothing to do with Kashmir or Pak, Britain should handle its problem within—irresponsible n cheap attitude,” Hussain wrote in a tweet on Sunday.

Dawn walas please have some mercy on this Nation, shocked on your cheap attempt to link a British terroist to Pakistan, Anwar Al Awlaki and Anjem ch both are brit origin nothing to do with Kashmir or Pak, Britain should handle its problem within—irresponsible n cheap attitude