The deadly shooting by a Saudi national last week at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida has raised questions about radicalization in Saudi Arabia’s military ranks.

Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, a lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force, opened fire in a classroom at the naval base, killing three U.S. sailors and wounding eight others before he was killed by police.
 
Alshamrani had reportedly shown signs of radicalization and embraced extremist ideology as early as 2016.
 
Vetting process
 
If reports about Alshamrani’s early radicalization are true, “then it raises more questions over what is the vetting process,” said Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center in New York.
 
“Clearly it is not effective enough, because this person would have been identified as someone who was making extremist remarks or holding religiously radical viewpoints,” Clarke told VOA.  
 
Considered a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has been sending students to the United States for military training for decades.
 
According to the U.S. State Department, more than 5,500 temporary visas were issued to Saudi military personnel in 2019 alone. As of last week, 852 Saudi nationals were in the U.S. for Pentagon-sponsored training on security cooperation, The Washington Post  reported.
 
In response to the Friday attack, the Pentagon has suspended nonclassroom training for all Saudi Arabian military students presently in the U.S.  
 
U.S. defense officials also have ordered a review of the vetting process for all international students enrolled at U.S. military facilities.
 
Experts charge that moving forward, the vetting process for international military trainees should be more comprehensive to ensure that prospective students aren’t radicalized and don’t have ties with terror groups.
 
“Vetting might have to extend to a close examination of individuals’ social media accounts,” analyst Clarke said.
 
Anti-Americanism
 
Saudi Arabia is a major recipient of U.S. military aid and assistance. Riyadh is the top buyer of U.S. weapons. Between 2013 and 2017, Saudi Arabia’s  purchases accounted for nearly 18% of all U.S. arms sales, or about $9 billion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

 
But despite this close security cooperation, some experts, such as F. Gregory Gause, a professor of international affairs at Texas A&M University who monitors developments in Saudi Arabia, think there is an anti-American sentiment among many Saudi military personnel.
 
“I would assume that some amount of anti-Americanism is widespread in the Saudi military, as it is in Saudi public opinion and Arab public opinion generally,” he said.
 
Gause told VOA, “The more important question on this particular issue is not anti-Americanism, but radicalization into jihadist beliefs.”  
 
“Saudi government has, since the mid-2000s, been very careful to try to stamp it out at home, through a combination of repression and changed rhetoric,” he added.
 
Religiosity, not extremism
 
While some experts admit that religiosity exists among many Saudi military personnel, they maintain that it is not necessarily linked to extremist ideology.
 
“There is a level of religiosity in the Saudi military because it is part of the Saudi society, which is already religious,” said Abdullah Ghadwi, a journalist at the Okaz newspaper in Riyadh.
 
“However, this does not mean that extremism exists in the Saudi military,” he told VOA. However, “the Florida incident is a unique case.”
 
The Florida shooter was one of the remnants of “jihadist movements that the Saudi authorities are working to eradicate,” Ghadwi noted.
 
Wahhabism
 
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Wahhabism, a strict Sunni doctrine credited with inspiring the radical ideology of the Islamic State terror group.
 
Analyst Clarke said, “Saudi Arabia is the number one exporter of religious extremism and radical ideology across the world, and every now and then it comes back to bite them or another country, in this case it is the United States.”
 
He said thousands of Saudi nationals have traveled to conflict zones to become foreign fighters with terrorist groups.
 
But in its 2018 Country Reports on Terrorism, released in November, the State Department said, “Saudi Arabia continued to enact domestic religious sector reforms, including the development of more stringent guidance and approval for Saudi religious personnel traveling overseas to conduct proselytization.”  
 
“As part of what Saudi Arabia describes as its ‘moderate Islam’ initiative, Saudi clerics and religious attachés sent abroad were vetted for observance to principles of tolerance and peaceful coexistence and were forbidden from undertaking proselytization efforts beyond host country Sunni Muslim communities,” the report added.
 
Continued cooperation
 
Ghadwi, the Okaz newspaper journalist, said the Pensacola attack could be a way to raise the level of security and counterterrorism cooperation between Washington and Riyadh.
 
“Most likely the Florida shooting incident won’t affect the course of security cooperation between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, rather it increases it,” he said.
 
“Saudi Arabia is affected by this extremist ideology like the United States, and therefore the two parties will continue to eradicate it,” Ghadwi added.

Shares in Saudi Aramco gained on the second day of trading Thursday, propelling the oil and gas company to a more than $2 trillion valuation, where it holds the title of the world’s most valuable listed company.

Shares jumped in trading to reach up to 38.60 Saudi riyals, or $10.29 before noon, three hours before trading closes.

Aramco has sold a 1.5% share to mostly Saudi investors and local Saudi and Gulf-based funds.

With gains made from just two days of trading, Aramco sits comfortably ahead of the world’s largest companies, including Apple, the second largest company in the world valued at $1.19 trillion.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the architect of the effort to list Aramco, touting it as a way to raise capital for the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, which would then develop new cities and lucrative projects across the country that create jobs for young Saudis.

He had sought a $2 trillion valuation for Aramco when he first announced in 2015 plans to sell a sliver of the state-owned company.

International investors, however, thought the price was too high, given the relatively lower price of oil, climate change concerns and geopolitical risks associated with Aramco. The company’s main crude oil processing facility and another site were targeted by missiles and drones in September, knocking out more than half of Saudi production for some time. The kingdom and the U.S. have blamed the attack on rival Iran, which denies involvement.

In the lead-up to the flotation, there had been a strong push for Saudis, including princes and businessmen, to contribute to what’s seen locally as a moment of national pride, and even duty. Gulf-based funds from allied countries also contributed to the IPO, though it has largely been propelled by Saudi capital.

At a ceremony Wednesday for the start of trading, Aramco Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, described the sale as “a proud and historic moment for Saudi Aramco and our majority shareholder, the kingdom.”

Five candidates have their eyes on becoming the next president of Algeria — without a leader since April — as voting began in Thursday’s contentious election boycotted by a massive pro-democracy movement.

The powerful army chief and his cohorts in the interim government have promised the voting will chart a new era for the gas-rich North African nation that is a strategic partner of the West in countering extremist violence. Those opposed to the voting fear the results will replicate a corrupt, anti-democratic system they are trying to level.

Tension was palpable on the eve of the vote as protesters in at least 10 towns denounced the elections. In Bouira, east of Algiers, the capital, security forces used tear gas to push back protesters who had invaded a voting station in a high school, according to the online TSA news agency, citing witnesses. Several thousand people demonstrated in Algiers.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) and are to close at 8 p.m. (1900 GMT). Results were not likely until Friday, to be announced by a newly created National Independent Electoral Authority overseeing the voting. The body was among the nods of authorities to protesters, like the decision for soldiers to vote in civilian clothes at regular polling stations, rather than in barracks.

The five candidates, two of them former prime ministers, Ali Benflis and Abdelmadjid Tebboune, endured insults and protests during the 22-day campaign. All five contenders have links to former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was forced to resign in April after 20 years in office under pressure from weekly street protests that began in February, with an assist from army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah.

The turnout rate should be a critical indication of whether the contender elected has popular legitimacy. There was no firm indication which of the five had the upper hand ahead of the vote. Opinion polls for elections are not permitted.

Tebboune, 74, was until recently seen as the favorite due to his reportedly close ties to Gaid Salah. However, a 60-year-old former culture minister, Azzedine Mihoubi, a writer and poet, has been touted in the media. Mihoubi has deep ties to the fallen Bouteflika regime. He took over leadership of the National Democratic Rally party, which governed in alliance with the FLN, the sole party for nearly three decades, until 1989, and now in tatters.

Benflis, 75, was making his third attempt at the presidency. A lawyer and former justice minister, he was Bouteflika’s top aide before falling out when he ran against him in 2004. He started his own party.

The other candidates are Abdelaziz Belaid, 56, a former figure in the FLN who started his own party, and Abdelkader Bengrini, 57, a one-time tourism minister and former member of the moderate Islamist party, Movement for a Society of Peace (MSP). He then started his own Islamist party el Bina, which like the MSP, backed Bouteflika.

Gaid Salah, who has emerged as the authority figure in the political vacuum, setting the date for the elections, has maintained that the voting is the shortest and surest way to raise Algeria out of its paralyzing political crisis and give birth to a new era. He was the force behind an anti-corruption campaign that has seen top figures jailed and convicted, including Said Bouteflika, the president’s brother and chief counselor, sentenced to 15 years in prison in September for “plotting against the state.”

Gaid Salah refers to Bouteflika’s entourage as “the gang,” as do pro-democracy protesters who include Gaid Salah among them.

 U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to meet with top trade advisers on Thursday to discuss planned Dec. 15 tariffs on some $160 billion in Chinese goods, three sources familiar with the plans said, as markets braced for potential negative impacts.

Officials circulated talking points downplaying the repercussions such a tariff hike would have on the U.S. economy ahead of Trump’s meeting with Trade Representative Robert

Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and White House advisers Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro.

The senior trade advisers are expected to present divergent views during the high-stakes meeting, but the final decision will be up to Trump, the sources said.

A decision to move ahead with the December tariffs could roil financial markets and scuttle U.S.-China talks to end the 17-month-long trade war between the world’s two largest economies for the remainder of Trump’s term.

Negotiations have failed to produce deals on agricultural purchases by China and tariff rollbacks by the United States since the two countries agreed in October to conclude a preliminary trade agreement.

Many had expected the two sides to reach a deal ahead of the Dec. 15 tariffs, but that prospect now appeared unlikely, according to multiple U.S. and Chinese sources. The question now is whether Washington will delay the tariffs or let them take effect.

“I’m expecting them to raise the tariffs on Sunday,” one source said. “The administration is preparing its talking points about how that’s the right thing to do. The message is that it will not be painful.”

Emails had been circulated among a small group of senior officials in recent days, arguing that previous tariffs had had a muted impact on the U.S. economy, a separate source familiar with the administration’s thinking said.

Navarro, a China hawk, this week circulated a separate memo in favor of continued tariffs, arguing that China had increased its purchases of U.S. pork and soybeans solely because of its domestic swine fever outbreak, and that tariffs were not having a negative effect on U.S. growth or the stock market.

The Navarro-penned document and separate memos said tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on China over the past year-and-a-half had not been as devastating as critics had argued, a view not shared by many economists.

“The message is that it will not be painful,” said the one source familiar with the administration’s thinking. “People have been proclaiming for a year and half that the sky is falling, and the sky isn’t falling yet.”

Trump’s advisers are divided about whether to proceed with the Dec. 15 tariffs and what impact such a move would have on U.S. financial markets, one source familiar with White House trade deal negotiating procedures said.

“When they get in the room, Peter’s going to say: ‘Hit ’em.’ Larry and Mnuchin are going to say: ‘Don’t do it.’ And I think Bob … is hoping he has enough to go on to justify not doing it,” the source said.

Derek Scissors, a China scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who consults with some White House officials, said he believed the likeliest scenario is a delay in the Dec. 15 tariff deadline for up to 90 days.

Some U.S. Democrats from highly competitive districts say they are undecided on how to vote on the impeachment of President Donald Trump in the House of Representatives, a vote that will be historic as well as pivotal for their own political futures.

In conversations in recent days with over a dozen lawmakers from swing districts, only two said they had decided to vote yes — Representative Susan Wild of Pennsylvania and Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota. Both lawmakers replaced Republicans.

“The question before us is there enough evidence to warrant a trial in the Senate? And the answer in my estimation … is yes,” Phillips said. He said he expected to vote “Yes, with a heavy heart.”

Inquiry called a hoax

The two articles of impeachment accuse Trump of abusing his power by trying to force Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to face the president in next year’s election, and of obstructing Congress when lawmakers tried to look into the matter.

Trump denies wrongdoing and calls the impeachment inquiry a hoax.

Aides to House Democratic leaders say they expect the articles of impeachment to pass comfortably in the Democratic-controlled House, sending the matter to the Senate for a trial on whether to remove Trump from office.

But defections would undermine the sense of party unity, potentially a sign of weakness ahead of 2020 elections.

Representative Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey who is serving his second term in a district narrowly won by Trump in the 2016 presidential election, said he did not expect to make a decision until after the House Judiciary Committee approves the articles on Thursday.

He was among about 10 battleground district lawmakers who huddled earlier this week to discuss the possibility of censuring the president, instead of impeaching him. But that option was ruled out months ago by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Democrats in swing districts may see political advantage in signaling the care they are taking to deliberate and limiting time ahead of the vote to be targeted for a position that will be unpopular with some constituents.

The Republican-led Senate is unlikely to vote to remove Trump from office.

‘Serious decision’

“Phones are ringing off the hook” from impeachment supporters and opponents, said Representative Elissa Slotkin, whose Michigan district was a Republican stronghold until she won there last year. Several Republicans have already said they want to challenge Slotkin in 2020.

“I’m going to take the weekend” to look over the articles of impeachment, Slotkin said on Wednesday outside the House. “I just need to like, get a breath. Take a breath. It’s a serious decision for me.”

In the face of solid Republican opposition, Democrats will need 216 votes to approve the articles, meaning they can lose about 17 or 18 Democrats if everyone is present and voting. One independent, Representative Justin Amash, has told CNN he will vote for impeachment.

‘Battleground’ districts

There are dozens of “battleground” districts in the House, and 31 Democrats represent districts where Trump also won in 2016. Some moderate Democrats who represent those districts were among the last in their party to endorse an impeachment inquiry and have been bombarded recently by Republican attack ads.

“We are giving this the level of seriousness that it is deserving. It’s the second most serious thing I could ever do in

this institution,” after declaring war, said Representative Max Rose, who represents part of New York City, including the middle-class borough of Staten Island.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday that he has a possible skin cancer, after a medical visit where he had a mole removed from his ear.

The presidential office, however, said there is no sign that Bolsonaro has a cancer, adding that the president had been to a hospital in Brasilia in the afternoon. “The president is in good health, without any indication of a skin cancer and is keeping his appointments for this week,” said the statement.

Earlier, Bolsonaro also said he had been advised to cancel a trip to Salvador, in the state of Bahia, due to suffering from exhaustion.

Noor Alexandria Abukaram, a 16-year-old runner living in the U.S. state of Ohio, was recently disqualified from a race because she wore a hijab. Now, Abukaram is fighting to get the rules changed. VOA’s Mohammad Jafar Haand visited the runner in her hometown and filed this report. 

Haiti is already the western hemisphere’s poorest country. Things are getting worse. Plugged In examines the political, economic and social collapse of a country has yet to recover from a devastating earthquake nearly 10 years ago. Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse and opposition leader Reginald Boulos answer our questions about their plans for the future. US Ambassador to the organization of American States, Carlos Trujillo discusses the US policy toward the Caribbean island nation. Haitian-Americans Albert Decady, Executive Director of the Haitian United Front of the Diaspora and Cleve Mesidor, Founding member of LOGOS and U.S. Haiti Technology Association provide a look to the future. Hosted by Mil Arcega. Air date: December 11, 2019.

House Democrats will vote on two articles of impeachment early next week, charging President Donald Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — two offenses they say should remove him from office under the standards laid down by the U.S. Constitution. 
 
Trump is the third president in history to face impeachment based on a specific charge that he abused the power of his office. The Constitution does not directly mention abuse of power among the reasons that Congress can impeach a president. Instead, “treason, bribery and high crimes and misdemeanors” are listed. 
 
Democratic lawmakers, legal experts and precedent support the approach. 
 
Trump has said he did nothing wrong and that House Democrats’ allegations are “flimsy, pathetic, ridiculous articles of impeachment.”  

What do the articles of impeachment say about Trump’s abuse of power? 
 
The abuse of power charge is centered on the allegation that Trump predicated the release of $391 million of congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine and a White House meeting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy upon an announcement by Ukraine that Joe Biden, a potential 2020 election rival of Trump, and Biden’s son Hunter would be investigated. 

“President Trump engaged in this scheme or course of conduct for corrupt purposes in pursuit of political benefit,” said the first article of impeachment introduced Tuesday by House Democrats. “In so doing, President Trump used the powers of the presidency in a manner that compromised the national security of the United States and undermined the integrity of the United States democratic process. He thus ignored and injured the interests of the nation.” 
 
Why would ‘abuse of power’ fall under ‘high crimes and misdemeanors?’
 
While the framers of the Constitution did not specifically mention abuse of power as an impeachable offense, House Democrats argued this week that Congress was given the power to remove presidents from office for this very kind of conduct. 
 
“The framers of the Constitution recognized that someday a president might come to office who would have used that office, betrayed the public trust and undermined national security to secure foreign help in his reelection,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California said Tuesday while introducing the articles of impeachment. “They recognized this danger, and they prescribed a remedy, and that remedy is impeachment.” 
 
Some experts say the fact that the aid to Ukraine was approved by another branch of the U.S. government makes this a clear-cut case of abuse of power. 
 
“He really had no say constitutionally on whether it should be given to Ukraine. Right there, he’s in violation of constitutional norms and practices and the law,” said Barbara Ann Perry, presidential studies director at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. Perry said Trump further abused the power of the presidency by tying the holdup in aid to an investigation into his political rivals. 
 
How do the charges against Trump compare with charges against past presidents? 
 
Lawmakers in previous impeachments have used the broad outlines of “high crimes and misdemeanors” to include charges of abuse of power against presidents. 
 
“The central kind of problem that impeachment is directed toward is that somebody who achieves the status of president, and then instead of using that power for the American people and to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, uses it for illicit purposes,” said Louis Michael Seidman, professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University Law Center. “That’s a theme that runs through all presidential impeachments.”  

President Bill Clinton faced four articles of impeachment in December 1998, but the charge that he abused the power of his office while covering up an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky did not pass in the House of Representatives. 
 
In August 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned rather than face a vote on articles of impeachment in the House, including a charge he abused the power of his office by directing government agencies to target citizens with investigations. 
 
President Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 for multiple offenses related to his use of executive powers. But he did not face a specific charge of abuse of power. 
 
Why do House Democrats believe Trump’s dealings with Ukraine constitute an abuse of power? 
 
Trump’s conduct “strikes at the heart of our democracy — the ability of people to elect their own leaders,” Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island, head of the House Democrats’ communications arm, told reporters Tuesday. “There’s no higher crime than dragging a foreign government in to corrupt our elections.” 
 
Trump is the first president to face impeachment charges related to an alleged abuse of power in foreign affairs. Cicilline said the framers of the Constitution were concerned about precisely this kind of situation when they developed the remedy of impeachment. 
 
“This is the president of the United States soliciting a foreign government to corrupt our elections and undermine our democracy. It undermined our national security,” Cicilline said.  

Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, a member of the House Judiciary Committee that wrote the articles of impeachment, said Tuesday that lawmakers’ actions “distinguish America from every other country. That is that no one is above the law.”   
 
Lee said her committee “looked very keenly at the question of abuse of power, which, if we begin to not mind holding presidents accountable, it sends America down a spiraling path of being like every other country that has had its challenges with leadership. It clearly denotes that we have a president and not a monarch,” Lee said. 
 
When the full House votes next week, lawmakers will also consider if Trump should be removed from office for obstructing Congress’ investigation into potential abuses of power. If one or both of the articles are adopted, the Senate will hold a trial early next year to consider if Trump should be removed from office. 

Jesse Oni contributed to this report.
 

Indian authorities in the far-flung northeast called in troops Wednesday to help contain demonstrators opposed to contentious citizenship legislation expected to be approved by the upper house, officials said.

Troops were deployed to the state of Tripura and were on standby in Assam, a senior army official said, as police battled protesters railing against a bill that will fast-track citizenship claims for immigrants from three neighboring countries — but not if they are Muslim.

For Islamic groups, the opposition, rights groups and others this is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist agenda to marginalize India’s 200 million Muslims — something he denies.

But many in India’s northeast, which on Wednesday was rocked by a third straight day of demonstrations following a general strike Tuesday, oppose the new law for different reasons.

They object because the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) stands to give citizenship to large numbers of Hindus who have emigrated from Bangladesh in recent decades.

Police fired tear gas in different parts of Guwahati, Assam state’s biggest city, as several thousand demonstrators attempted to barge past security barriers to converge on the adjoining state capital Dispur.

Tripura has suspended mobile internet services to stop the spread of misinformation on social media, according to authorities there.

“If the CAB is passed in Rajya Sabha (the upper house) today, we appeal to all the students, civilians, tea garden workers and all sections of the society to come out to the streets again tomorrow to protest,” local activist Akhil Gogoi said.

‘Eerie similarity’ to Nazi laws

The legislation — which Modi’s government tried and failed to get through the upper house in its first term — passed the lower house just after midnight Tuesday following a fiery debate.

Derek O’Brien, an opposition lawmaker in the upper house, on Wednesday said the legislation bore an “eerie similarity” to Nazi laws against in the Jews in 1930s Germany.

“In 1935, there were citizenship laws to protect people with German blood … today we have a faulty bill that wants to define who true Indian citizens are,” he said.

Modi’s government — re-elected in May and under pressure over a slowing economy — says Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan are excluded from the legislation because they do not face discrimination in those countries.

Also left out are other minorities fleeing political or religious persecution elsewhere in the region such as Tamils from Sri Lanka, Rohingya from Myanmar and Tibetans from China.

Many Muslims in India say they have been made to feel like second-class citizens since Modi stormed to power in 2014.

Several cities perceived to have Islamic-sounding names have been renamed, while some school textbooks have been altered to downplay Muslims’ contributions to India.

In August, Modi’s administration rescinded the partial autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, and split it into two.

A citizens’ register in Assam finalized this year left 1.9 million people, many of them Muslims, facing possible statelessness, detention camps and even deportation.

Removing ‘infiltrators’

Modi’s government has said it intends to replicate the register nationwide with the aim of removing all “infiltrators” by 2024.

Amit Shah, Modi’s right-hand-man and home minister, has likened illegal immigrants to “termites.”

“The Indian government is creating legal grounds to strip millions of Muslims of the fundamental right of equal access to citizenship,” Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Monday termed the bill as a “dangerous turn in the wrong direction.”

India’s foreign ministry retorted that the remarks were “neither accurate nor warranted” and “guided by their prejudices and biases.”

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has been named Time  magazine’s  Person of the Year for 2019.

Editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal made the announcement Wednesday during an appearance on NBC’s Today   show.

“She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year, coming from essentially nowhere to lead a worldwide movement,” Felsenthal said.

Thunberg is the youngest person to win the award after quickly evolving into one of the world’s most prominent climate change activists.

Her Friday protests alone outside the Swedish parliament during school hours at age 15 helped trigger a global movement to fight climate change.

The movement, which became known as “Fridays for Future,” prompted millions of people in about 150 countries “to act on behalf of the planet,” Felsenthal said.

Felsenthal noted that Thunberg, now 16, “represents a broader generational shift in culture,” with more youth advocating for change worldwide, including during demonstrations in countries such as Hong Kong, Chile, Sudan and Lebanon.

Thunberg’s straightforward speaking style captured the attention of world leaders, resulting in invitations to speak at several high-profile events, including at the United Nations and before the United States Congress.

During her appearance before  U.S. lawmakers, Thunberg, who has Asperger syndrome, refused to read prepared remarks. She, instead, submitted the  U.N.’s 2018 global warming report to them and declared, “I don’t want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to the scientists, and I want you to unite behind the science.”

One of her most memorable moments came at the  U.N. Climate Change Summit in September, when she berated  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other world leaders, declaring they had stolen her “dreams of childhood” with their “empty words.”

“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction,” she said, “and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”

Those words resonated worldwide, energizing climate change activists and sparking a series of prompting scornful reactions from others.

Thunberg’s dedication to fighting climate change also earned her a nomination for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft, which has been grounded since March following two deadly crashes, will not be cleared to fly until 2020, the top US regulator said Wednesday.

Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson told CNBC the process for approving the MAX’s return to the skies still has 10 or 11 milestones left to complete, including a certification flight and a public comment period.

“If you just do the math, it’s going to extend into 2020,” Dickson said.

Boeing has been aiming to win regulatory approval this month, with flights projected to resume in January.

But Dickson said, “I’ve made it very clear Boeing’s plan is not the FAA’s plan.” He added that “we’re going to keep our heads down and support the team in getting this report done right.”

Boeing and the FAA have been under intense scrutiny following crashes that together killed 346 people and have prompted Boeing to cut production of the top-selling jet while new plane deliveries are suspended.

Dickson was expected to face another round of tough questioning at a congressional hearing later Wednesday. 

Lawmakers have questioned whether the crashes were the result of FAA officials being too cozy with Boeing, leading to lax oversight during the original certification process for the aircraft.

A powerful bomb-and-gun attack on the largest American military base in Afghanistan early Wednesday injured dozens of people, mostly civilians.

Afghan military authorities said a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed vehicle in front of the gate of an unused hospital almost adjacent to the Bagram Airfield in Parwan province.

Four gunmen later entered the vacant health facility before foreign forces engaged them in a gunfight, Alozai Ahmadi, the commander of the Parwan coordination center, told VOA.

A spokesman for the NATO-led Resolute Support military mission confirmed the attack on the medical facility.

“The attack was quickly contained and repelled by our ANDSF (Afghan National Defense and Security) and coalition partners, but the future medical facility was badly damaged. There were no U.S. or coalition casualties and Bagram remained secure throughout the attack,” he said.

Ahmadi said the casualties occurred in the nearby civilian population because the powerful car bomb explosion shattered houses there. He said more than 50 people, including women and children, were injured. Ahmadi said the hospital was built by the Korean government but it had not been in use for four years due to security reasons.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack, though Taliban insurgents routinely fire rockets at the Bagram base.

On November 28, U.S. President Donald Trump made a surprise visit to Bagram, located about 50 kilometers north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, to celebrate Thanksgiving with his troops.

The U.S. Justice Department’s inspector general is due to testify Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his report that found no evidence of political bias in the FBI’s launching of its investigation into Russian election interference.

Michael Horowitz issued the report Monday with findings that amounted to a rejection of President Donald Trump’s repeated claim that the FBI probe was a political witch hunt to undo his presidency.

Trump nonetheless asserted that the report confirmed an “attempted overthrow” of the government far worse than he had ever thought possible.

The president on Tuesday criticized FBI Director Christopher Wray for saying in an interview with ABC News that the investigation “was opened with appropriate predication and authorization.” Wray also noted Horowitz found the FBI made numerous mistakes during its inquiry.

“I don’t know what report the current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but I’m sure it wasn’t the one given to me,” Trump tweeted.  “With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!”

I don’t know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn’t the one given to me. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

The U.S. military says a suicide bomber attacked a medical facility near the Afghan capital of Kabul Wednesday.

In a written statement issued by the U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan, there were no U.S. or coalition casualties as a result of the attack outside the gate of Bagram Air Base, but five Afghans were wounded.

The medical facility, which was under construction to serve local Afghans, was badly damaged.  

No one has taken responsibility for the attack. 

A look at the history, facts and timeline of the war in Afghanistan.

Lawyers for Huawei’s chief financial officer have won a court battle after a judge asked Canada’s attorney general to hand over more evidence and documents relating to the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, according to a court ruling released Tuesday.

Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes in the Supreme Court of British Columbia agreed with Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s legal team that there is an “air of reality” to their assertion.

But she cautioned that her ruling is limited and does not address the merit of Huawei’s allegations that Canadian authorities improperly handled identifying information about Meng’s electronic devices.

Meng, 47, was arrested at the Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 1, 2018, at the request of the United States, where she is charged with bank fraud and accused of misleading the bank HSBC about Huawei Technologies’ business in Iran. She has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition.

She was questioned by Canadian immigration authorities prior to her arrest, and her lawyers have asked the government to hand over more documents about her arrest.

Meng’s legal team has contested her extradition in the Canadian courts on the grounds that the United States is using her extradition for economic and political gain, and that she was unlawfully detained, searched and interrogated by Canadian authorities acting on behalf of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Judge’s ruling

In her ruling, Holmes wrote that she found the evidence tendered by the attorney general to have “notable gaps,” citing the example of why the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) “made what is described as the simple error of turning over to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), contrary to law, the passcodes CBSA officers had required Ms. Meng to produce.”

Holmes also said the attorney general did not provide adequate evidence to “rebut inferences from other evidence that the RCMP improperly sent serial numbers and other identifiers of Ms. Meng’s devices to the FBI.”

Holmes said these gaps in evidence raise questions “beyond the frivolous or speculative about the chain of events,” and led her to conclude that Meng’s application “crosses the air of reality threshold.”

The order does not require the disclosure of documents — the attorney general may assert a privilege, which Meng could contest in court.

Neither the Canadian federal justice ministry nor Huawei immediately responded to requests for comment.

No timeline was outlined in Holmes’ ruling.

Meng’s extradition hearing will begin Jan. 20, 2020, in a federal court in Vancouver.
 

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that House Democrats have reached agreement with the Trump administration on a new and revised North American trade deal now known as United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA. The agreement on the pact’s final terms came after more than two years of talks, that also included Canada and Mexico, to revise the original free trade accord, known as NAFTA. Pelosi’s announcement came on the same day that democratic lawmakers announced articles of impeachment against President Trump. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.

A police officer and multiple other people were killed in a furious gunbattle Tuesday that filled the streets of Jersey City with the sound of heavy gunfire for about an hour, authorities said.

Authorities said they believe the shootout was not an act of terrorism, but the bloodshed was still under investigation.

Officials gave no immediate details on what set off the shooting and how it unfolded, and there was no word on how many suspects were involved or whether anyone had been taken into custody.

One officer was pronounced dead at a hospital, and multiple other people were found dead at a kosher supermarket, Mayor Steven Fulop said without specifying how many were killed. A second officer was struck in the shoulder by gunfire, and two others were hit by shrapnel, Fulop said.

The shooting spread fear through the neighborhood, and the nearby Sacred Heart School was put on lockdown as a precaution.

The bullets started flying early in the afternoon in the city of about 270,000 people, situated across the Hudson River from the Statue of Liberty. 

SWAT teams, state police and federal agents converged on the scene, and police blocked off the area, which in addition to the school and supermarket included a hair salon and other shops. Dozens of bystanders pressed against the police barrier to capture the action on their cellphones, some whooping when bursts of gunfire could be heard.

Video shot by residents recorded loud volleys of gunfire reverberating along one of the city’s main streets and showed a long line of law enforcement officers pointing guns as they advanced, yelling to bystanders, “Clear the street! Get out of the way!”

“It’s like firecrackers going off,” said Andy Patel, who works at a liquor store about three blocks away. “They were shooting like crazy. … The cops were clearing everyone off the streets.”
 

A Pennsylvania appeals court rejected Bill Cosby’s bid to overturn his sexual assault conviction Tuesday over issues including the trial judge’s decision to let five other accusers testify.

The Superior Court ruling was being closely watched because Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the (hash)MeToo era. The same issue was hard-fought in pretrial hearings before movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial.

Cosby’s lawyers in his appeal said the suburban Philadelphia judge had improperly allowed the five women to testify at last year’s retrial although he’d let just one woman testify at the first trial in 2017.

But the Superior Court said Pennsylvania law allows the testimony if it shows Cosby had a “signature” pattern of drugging and molesting women.

“Here, the [prior bad act] evidence established appellant’s unique sexual assault playbook,” the court said, noting that “no two events will ever be identical.”

The court went on to say that the similarities were no accident.

“Not only did the [prior bad act] evidence tend to establish a predictable pattern of criminal sexual behavior unique to appellant, it simultaneously tended to undermine any claim that appellant was unaware of or mistaken about victim’s failure to consent to the sexual contact that formed the basis of the aggravated indecent assault charges,” the panel said in its ruling.

Lawyers for Cosby had argued eight issues on appeal, including the judge’s decision to let prosecutors use portions of a deposition he gave in the accuser’s related civil suit. His lawyers also argued that he had a binding promise from a former prosecutor that he would never be charged in the case and could testify freely at a deposition in accuser Andrea Constand’s related lawsuit.

The appeals court rejected those arguments and upheld the judge’s classification of Cosby as a sexually violent predator.

Cosby, 82, can now ask the state Supreme Court to consider his appeal.

He has been serving a three- to 10-year prison term for the 2004 encounter at his suburban Philadelphia home, which he deemed consensual.

He was arrested a decade later, after a federal judge unsealed portions of the deposition at the request of The Associated Press and new prosecutors reopened the criminal case.

The Superior Court panel, in arguments in Harrisburg in August, asked why Cosby’s lawyers didn’t get a written immunity agreement and have it approved by a judge, instead of relying on an oral promise.

“This is not a low-budget operation we were operating here. They had an unlimited budget,” said Superior Court Judge John T. Bender, who questioned whether any court would have approved the deal.

Judge Steven O’Neill’s decision to let the other accusers testify came after more than 60 women accused Cosby of sexual misconduct. Prosecutors asked to call 19 of them. Superior Court Judge John Bender appeared to agree with O’Neill’s logic in letting some take the stand.

“The reality of it is, he gives them drugs and then he sexually assaults them. And in four out of the five, those were in mentor situations,” Bender said.

Kristen L. Weisenberger, representing Cosby, said one of the women wasn’t even sure she was sexually assaulted. However, prosecutors said, that’s how Cosby planned it.

O’Neill had allowed just one other accuser at Cosby’s first trial in 2017, when the jury deadlocked. Cosby’s lawyers called his later decision to let more women testify arbitrary and prejudicial.

The long-married Cosby, once beloved as “America’s Dad” for his TV role as Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the hugely popular sitcom “The Cosby Show,” has acknowledged having sexual contact with a string of younger women, many of whom came to him for career advice and took alcohol or pills he offered them.

He and his lawyers and agents have suggested that many of the accusers were gold diggers seeking money or fame. He told a news outlet in November that he expects to serve the maximum 10-year sentence if he loses the appeal, because he would never express remorse to the parole board.

Cosby agreed to pay Constand, a former Temple University basketball team manager, about $3.4 million to settle her lawsuit. His insurance company, following his conviction, settled at least nine other defamation lawsuits filed by accusers for undisclosed sums.

The AP does not typically identify sexual assault victims without their permission, which Constand has granted.