Chile’s military has launched a search and rescue mission for an air force plane carrying 38 people that disappeared Monday during a flight to a base in Antarctica.

The C-130 Hercules aircraft took off from the southern city of Punta Arenas, located more than 3,000 kilometers south of the capital Santiago. The 17 crewmen and 21 passengers were heading to the Antarctic outpost to check on a floating fuel supply line and other equipment.  

The air force says it lost contact with the plane nearly an hour-and-a-half later.

New Zealand police say they are launching an investigation in connection with the volcanic eruption on New Zealand’s White Island that killed five tourists Monday.  

Deputy Commissioner John Tims told reporters earlier Tuesday that the probe was criminal in nature, but police later issued a statement revising Tims’s announcement.  The police investigation is being conducted by alongside a probe by New Zealand’s safety regulator.

The country’s seismic monitoring agency GeoNet raised the volcano’s alert level last month to level two on the five-level scale that monitors its chances of eruption. Still pictures captured by a GeoNet camera showed a group of tourists walking on the crater floor moments before the eruption.

Along with the five confirmed deaths, eight others are missing and presumed dead and at least 31 have been injured.  New Zealand chief medical officer

Pete Watson said at least 27 survivors are being treated for burns to more than 71 percent of their bodies.

Authorities say about 47 people were touring the island at the time of the eruption, including 24 Australians, with the rest from the United States, Britain, Germany, China, Malaysia and New Zealand.  Some of the victims were passengers from a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean.  

Conditions on White Island have made it impossible for rescue crews to return to the island to search for any survivors.  GeoNet says there is still a 50 percent chance of another eruption within the next day.

“To those who have lost or are missing family and friends, we share in your grief and sorrow, and we are devastated” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Tuesday in Parliament.  Prime Minister Ardern also praised the pilots  who risked their lives to fly to White Island to rescue survivors.  

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said three Australians are feared to be among the five confirmed deaths, while at least 13 were hospitalized.  

White Island, also known by its Maori name Whakaari, sits about 50 kilometers northeast of the town of Tauranga on North Island, attracts about 10,000 visitors every year.  It is New Zealand’s most active cone volcano, with about 70% of the island under the sea.

The U.N. General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution Monday urging all nations to observe a truce during the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan, saying sports can play a role in promoting peace and tolerance and preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism.

Diplomats burst into applause as the assembly president announced the adoption of the resolution by the 193-member world body.

The resolution recalls the ancient Greek tradition of “ekecheiria,” which called for a cessation of hostilities to encourage a peaceful environment, ensure safe passage and participation of athletes in the ancient Olympics.

The General Assembly revived the tradition in 1993 and has adopted resolutions before all Olympics since then calling for a cessation of hostilities for seven days before and after the games. But member states involved in conflicts have often ignored the call for a truce.

Yoshiro Mori, head of the Tokyo organizing committee for the 2020 games, introduced the resolution calling on U.N. members states to observe the truce around next year’s Summer Olympics, being held July 24-Aug. 9, and the Paralympics, following on Aug. 25-Sept. 6.

The resolution also urges nations to help “use sport as a tool to promote peace, dialogue and reconciliation in areas of conflict during and beyond” the games.

Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, told the General Assembly that as the United Nations approaches its 75th anniversary next year, an Olympic year, there is no better time to celebrate the shared values of both organizations to promote peace among all countries and people of the world.

But he warned that “in sport, we can see an increasing erosion of the respect for the global rule of law.”

Bach said the IOC’s political neutrality “is undermined whenever organizations or individuals attempt to use the Olympic Games as a stage for their own agendas – as legitimate as they might be. The Olympics “are a sports celebration of our shared humanity … and must never be a platform to advance political or any other potentially divisive ends,” he said.

Looking ahead, Bach announced that “we will achieve gender balance at the Olympic Games for the first time in Tokyo, with the highest-ever number of female athletes in history at about 49%.”

He said Tokyo 2020 also aims “for carbon-neutral games,” saying medals will be made from recycled electronics and renewable energy and zero-emission vehicles will be used.

The resolution notes that the Tokyo event will be the second of three Olympics in Asia, following the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and ahead of the 2022 winter games in Beijing.

It also notes that the Summer Olympics will give Japan the opportunity to express gratitude to countries and people around the world for their “solidarity and support” after the 2011 earthquake and “to deliver a powerful message to the world on how it has been recovering.”

New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg launched his campaign less than three weeks ago, but he is already making his first foreign trip as a presidential candidate.

The Democrat will appear Tuesday at a United Nations global climate conference in Madrid, where he’ll share the results of his private push to organize thousands of U.S. cities and businesses to abide by the terms of a global climate treaty that the Trump administration is working to abandon. The appearance comes as Bloomberg, a former Republican whose dedication to the environment earned him the designation of special U.N. envoy for climate action, tries to find his footing in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary election.

It’s rare for a presidential candidate to step onto the international stage before securing the nomination, and virtually unheard of for a candidate to do so in the first month of his or her candidacy.

Earlier this year, Bernie Sanders appeared in Canada to highlight his fight to lower prescription drug costs, while former candidate Beto O’Rourke met with asylum seekers in Mexico. Both men represented states that bordered those countries, however, and there were no formal talks with foreign leaders involved.

Bloomberg shared his plan to appear at the global climate conference on social media on Monday.

“I’m going to the climate summit in Madrid because President Trump won’t,” he said, adding that he plans to “meet with environmental leaders from around the world about next steps on tackling the climate crisis.”

Bloomberg also vowed in a statement to rejoin the Paris climate agreement in his first official act as president.

Campaign aide Brynne Craig said climate would be “a central issue” for Bloomberg this week and throughout his presidential run.

She said the issue “is near and dear to his heart” and “a front-of-mind issue for Democratic voters.”

The 77-year-old billionaire has used his wealth to make an impact in the global fight against climate change and in his 2020 presidential campaign. He is largest donor in the history of the Sierra Club, and he has spent more than $60 million in the first two weeks of his campaign on television ads now running in all 50 states.

Many progressives remain resistant to his candidacy.

“How many self-declared climate champion billionaires does the race need? The answer is none,” said Mitch Jones, climate and energy program director for the group Food & Water Watch, which has been critical of Bloomberg’s pragmatic approach to fighting climate change. “This is just Bloomberg trying to insert himself into international climate negotiations to bolster his campaign.”

Bloomberg’s presidential campaign released a new online video ad contrasting his message on climate change with that of Trump, who served formal notice last month that the U.S. intends to become the first country to withdraw from the Paris accord.

“It’s getting hotter. But while fire and smoke choke our air, Donald Trump is making it worse,” Bloomberg’s new ad says, describing Trump as a “climate change denier” and Bloomberg as a “climate change champion.”

AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of the American electorate, found that 92% of people who voted for Democrats in the 2018 midterms said they were at least somewhat concerned about climate change. Seventy percent said they were very concerned.

 

A conservation group trying to protect the world’s most endangered marine mammal said Monday that hundreds of fishermen massed in dozens of boats to fish illegally in Mexico’s Gulf of California.

Activists with the Sea Shepherd group said they witnessed about 80 small fishing boats pulling nets full of endangered totoaba fish from the water near the port of San Felipe on Sunday.

Those same nets catch vaquita porpoises. Perhaps as few as 10 of the small, elusive porpoises remain in the Gulf of California, which is the only place they live.

While totoaba are more numerous, they are also protected. But their swim bladders are considered a delicacy in China and command high prices.

The Mexican government prohibits net fishing in the gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortez, but budget cuts have meant authorities have stopped compensation payments for fishermen for not fishing.

Sea Shepherd operates in the area to remove the gillnets that trap vaquitas, but the group said the mass fishing seen Sunday was a new tactic, in which a number of boats would surround and enclose totoabas to ensure they couldn’t escape the nets.

The mass turnout overwhelmed the relatively few Mexican navy personnel present, the group said. In the past, fishermen have attacked Sea Shepherd boats as well as naval vessels.
 

During his recent visit to Washington, Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said one goal looms above all others as he leads the country’s transitional government: bringing peace to the war-ravaged nation.
 
“Our number one top priority is to stop the war and build the foundation of sustainable peace,” he said. “Essentially to stop the sufferings of our people in the IDP camps and the refugee camps. We think the opportune time of stopping this war is now.”
 
Hamdok did not specify which war he meant; Sudan’s government has been fighting rebels in the Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions for years. The capital, Khartoum, saw deadly conflicts between protesters and the military earlier this year.
 
He did say he was heartened by the resiliency on display when he visited the Zam Zam camp for internally displaced people in Darfur, where a war that began in 2003 has never entirely stopped.
 
“It was a very moving moment but the climax of it was… a woman who took the floor and delivered the first speech. She articulated so well their interest, their expectations about the transitional government, how they see the peace process. After that, she was followed by six speakers… They all said our sister articulated our issues and were very satisfied with what she said.
 
“All the sufferings and the miseries they went through, it taught them, educated them and made them strong enough to be able to say from now onwards we know what is good for ourselves and nobody can dictate on us anything. This is very liberating,” Hamdok said.
 
Unlike the administration of his predecessor, Omar al-Bashir, Hamdok’s government has pledged to allow unfettered access for aid organizations to reach those in need.

Hamdok spoke at the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank in Washington. He visited the American capital in an effort to repair Sudan’s relationship with the U.S., which was strained to nonexistent during the entire 30-year reign of former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who the military ousted in April after months of mass protests.
 
One of Hamdok’s goal’s is for the U.S. to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.  Sudan was put on the list in 1993, at a time when al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden was living in Khartoum.

 Although Sudan is still on the list, the two countries agreed to resume diplomatic relations and exchange ambassadors.
 
U.S. officials have said the process of removing Sudan from the terrorism list will be a long one. Hamdok stressed that his country is prepared to meet the requirements which may include paying restitution to victims of terrorist attacks.
 
“We Sudanese as a people have never supported terrorism before. It was a former regime that supported this,” he said. “We are also as a nation, victims of terrorism that was inflicted on us by the regime. But we accepted this as a corporate responsibility. And we are negotiating.”
 
Hamdok, an economist and diplomat who has worked for the U.N., was named the country’s transitional prime minister in August. In deference to the leading role women played in the revolution, Hamdok made history by

News reports say House Democrats and the White House are close to agreeing on changes to a trade deal that the United States, Canada and Mexico signed last year but have not ratified.

The United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement, known as the USMCA, would replace the existing North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which President Donald Trump has derided as the “worst trade deal” ever signed by the U.S. He made renegotiating NAFTA a campaign promise during the 2016 presidential race.

NAFTA took effect in the 1990s during U.S. President Bill Clinton’s administration.

The Mexican Senate accepted changes to the USMCA after intense negotiations with the United States. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to move forward on the deal.

“It’s time, it’s the moment,” Lopez Obrador said at a press conference.

Reports say Pelosi is studying the terms of the agreement. The changes to the deal are aimed at winning the support of House Democrats. Those close to the discussions say a ratification vote could take place in the House of Representatives on Dec. 18.

Both the House and the Senate must sign off on the deal.

Some congressional Republicans have criticized Pelosi, saying she is holding up the deal, which they say is having an impact on Trump’s negotiations with China.

“We would get a better agreement with China if we had USMCA done,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in his weekly press conference last Thursday. China and the U.S. have placed billions of dollars worth of tariffs on each other’s goods in the trade war.

NAFTA’s critics say it encouraged factories and jobs to relocate to Mexico. NAFTA eliminated most tariffs among the three nations, making it one of the largest free trade agreements in the world.

Ratification needed

The revised agreement must be ratified by legislators in the three countries for it to go into force. House Democrats called on Mexico to adhere to higher labor standards.

Mexican senators have approved the USMCA. If it cannot be ratified by all three countries, they will remain in NAFTA unless they break away from it.

Lopez Obrador expressed concern for implementing the trade deal sooner rather than later. He said time was running short to avoid the matter becoming an issue in the U.S. presidential race.
 
 The Trump administration also made lowering the trade deficit with Mexico part of a renegotiation strategy.
 
Separately, the United States had a last-minute request to the agreement over the weekend, relating to how steel is identified. The U.S. has proposed that 70% of steel for automobile production come from the North American region. Cars produced in Mexico also use components made in Brazil, Japan and Germany.

If Congress is not able to pass Trump’s renegotiated trade deal, he said that he would take the United States out of NAFTA.
 

Turkey Defense Minister Hulusi Akar warned Washington on Monday that Turkey will seek alternatives if Washington doesn’t end its embargo on the sale of the F-35 jet.

The impasse over the fighter jet, deemed key to Turkey’s future defense, is rekindling memories of a similar century-old dispute.

Hoping that a “reasonable and sensible” way could be found to resolve Washington’s freeze on the F-35 sales, Akar warned, “If this is not possible, everyone should know that we will naturally seek other quests.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that Russia’s Su-35 fighter is being considered as an alternative to America’s latest stealth fighter jet if the embargo is not lifted.

President Donald Trump froze the jet sale after Ankara procured the Russian S-400 missile system. Washington claims the S-400’s sophisticated radar compromises NATO defense systems — in particular, the stealth technology of its F-35 jet.

Ankara claims Washington is manufacturing the dispute.

“The U.S. criticized us. However, NATO did not say anything. On the contrary, NATO Secretary General (Jens Stoltenberg) repeatedly stated all countries have the right to buy the weapon and defense system they want,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday.

1914 dispute

The increasingly acrimonious dispute is resurrecting memories of a century-old Turkish arms deal that also went sour. In 1914 on the eve of World War I, Britain seized two state-of-the-art dreadnought warships built by British builders for the then-Ottoman Empire.

The incident still resonates in Turkey.

“It continues to haunt not only the public and political mind, but the institutional mind, especially,” said international relations professor Serhat Guvenc of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University and author of “The Ottoman Quest for Dreadnoughts.” “The navy has never forgotten this experience, and today, there are many similarities in several respects with the F-35 embargo.

“The two warships … were fully paid for. But (Winston) Churchill (head of the British navy in 1914) was obsessed, convinced that the Ottomans were going to join the Germans. So, there was no point in releasing the two ships which may end up on the wrong side of the conflict,” Guvenc said.

“Over a century ago, it was the fear of the Ottoman’s joining the Germans,” Guvenc added. “Today, the case with the F-35, Russia is the modern-day equivalent with Germany.”

In 1914, after Britain’s seizure of the Ottoman warships, Germany offered two ships of its own as replacements, a move that brought the Turks to Germany’s side against Britain, France and Russia in World War I.

Former Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen acknowledges the 1914 incident still resonates in Turkish military thinking.

“Among commanders of today’s Turkish navy, it is still a vivid memory and still today shapes the thinking of these naval planners.”

Since 1914, Ankara has never procured a British naval vessel. Selcen says the latest arms disputes with Washington differs from the past.

“It’s a public diplomacy stand (by Ankara). It’s public propaganda to compare with the warships,” Selcen said, “because it was kind of an own goal by Turkish foreign policy to get kicked out of the project. It was made clear by Washington: either the S-400 or F-35, not both.”

Higher stakes

Analysts point out that the loss of the F-35 jets could be more far-reaching than the loss of two warships in 1914. Ankara has invested over a billion dollars into the jet project and ultimately was to take delivery of around 100 jets to replace the Turkish air force’s aging fleet of F-16 aircraft.

Washington has also expelled Turkey from the international consortium building and servicing the advanced jet.

“When Turkey became a full-fledged partner in the F-35 program, the political implications would be that Turkey remains committed to the NATO alliance and staunch ally to the United States,” Guvenc said. “In Washington, the idea is that Turkey is now moving irreversibly away from the western alliance and seeking new friends in Eurasia, basically Russia and China.”

Moscow is lobbying Ankara hard to deepen and broaden Russian military purchases. Turkey is reportedly close to buying a second battery of S-400 missiles, a move analysts say is likely to anger Washington further.

Just as in 1914, Ankara could be facing a pivotal moment, Guvenc said.

“The similarities are very striking, because when the two German warships arrived in Istanbul in place of the two commandeered dreadnoughts, the British naval mission had to leave and was replaced by the German naval mission. And the German military naval influence in Turkey continued after World War I,” he explained.

“So, we may see a rupture in the Turkish military strategy and its realignment around Russia-China — a hybrid military strategy but definitely moving away from the western alliance,” Guvenc said.
 

A United Nations expert on the freedom of expression said he has urged Ethiopian officials to stop shutting down the internet.

David Kaye, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, told reporters in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, that he is concerned with the frequent internet shutdowns carried out by the government.

“I’ve also experienced an internet shut down here in Ethiopia in the past week,” he said, referring to a brief shutdown on Dec. 5 that Ethiopian officials said was to stop a cyber-attack targeting the country’s financial institutions.

Ethiopia has shut down the internet nine times in 2019, mostly during national exams and public protests, he said.

“Internet shutdowns are almost always in violation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression,” said Kaye. “I want to strongly urge the government to not use internet shutdown as a tool. I’ve asked several times `Where do you have the authority in law to shut down the internet?’ Nobody could give me an answer.”

Ethiopia is one of several African countries that have blocked the internet or specific social media sites during elections or periods of crisis.

Kaye stressed that social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube have a relatively small presence in Ethiopia right now but they have an “extraordinary responsibility” to moderate contents to make sure postings are accurate.

Kaye praised the reforms implemented by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize for achieving peace with neighboring Eritrea.

“This is a remarkable moment in Ethiopia with all sorts of reforms happening in the country,” he said, adding that it is the first time since 2006 that a U.N. special rapporteur of his kind was invited into the country.

He said, however, that more reforms are needed.

“I’ve expressed my concern regarding the draft hate speech and disinformation law as it may inadvertently criminalize public debate,” he said.
 

As world governments continue climate talks in Madrid, experts say they must sharply increase renewable energy production to meet emissions cutting goals under the Paris agreement. Green energies like wind and solar power are growing rapidly, but not fast enough. From the Spanish village of Maranchon, Lisa Bryant reports for VOA on what’s at stake for the wind industry.

“Marriage Story,” Netflix’s heart-wrenching divorce saga, topped the Golden Globe nominations Monday with six nods including best drama, kicking off the race for the Oscars.

“The Irishman,” Martin Scorsese’s three-and-a-half-hour gangster epic, and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino’s nostalgic love letter to 1960s Tinseltown, were hot on its heels with five each.

The nominations traditionally see the stars and movies destined for awards success start to break away from the competition — the Globes are seen as a key bellwether for February’s Academy Awards.

“Marriage Story” earned nominations for its stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, and for its screenplay, but director Noah Baumbach missed out.

Scorsese was nominated for best director for “Irishman” but there was no best actor nod for his leading man Robert De Niro. Instead, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci were both selected for supporting roles.

Netflix’s Vatican drama “The Two Popes” also performed well, while dark comic book tale “Joker” received recognition in best drama, best actor and best director.

Monday’s nominations were announced at an early-morning Beverly Hills ceremony by actor Tim Allen (“Toy Story”) and actresses Dakota Fanning (“I Am Sam”) and Susan Kelechi Watson (“This Is Us”).

The 77th Golden Globes will take place in Los Angeles on January 5, two days before voting for Oscars nominees ends.

The gala will be hosted by British comedian Ricky Gervais.

A Chinese military supply ship has made its first transfer from a civilian vessel, Chinese media say. Routine though that may sound, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that the mid-November operation near the southeast coast kicks off a bigger program to resupply naval ships without requiring a return to shore.
 
Improved at-sea resupply capacity in turn will enable the People’s Liberation Army Navy better to control tracts of disputed waterways in East Asia and operate in other parts of the world, particularly the Indian Ocean, analysts believe.
 
Leaders from Vietnam to the United States would watch warily as China – which lacks far-flung maritime bases – bolsters its resupply fleet  after adding a list of other hardware to the navy.
 
“What it would mean is that China aims to diversify its means of supplying its naval vessels and to consolidate its control of the region, of the maritime domain,” said Yun Sun, East Asia Program senior associate at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.
 
“We all know the Chinese navy is not just looking at the coastal area,” Sun added. “They are looking at the blue water navy, so in that sense their ambition is global, but for (the) Chinese navy’s global ambition, the biggest hindrance has been their capacity to resupply, because China doesn’t have the naval bases.”
 
Pivotal resupply mission
 
The transfer of supplies from a civilian ship followed a longer-term study by the People’s Liberation Army’s on ways to replenish ships, Xinhua reported December 2. Resupplies at sea between military and civilian ships are “common in the navies of world powers”, Xinhua added, quoting a military chief of staff.
 
“The success of the replenishment laid a foundation for mutual replenishment of various kinds of materials between military and civilian ships,” Xinhua said.
 
A breakthrough in resupplies would complement other Chinese naval upgrades, including use of drones, the construction of an aircraft carrier and an overall increase in the number of ships. 

As of 2012, the Chinese navy had 512 ships, according to the British think tank International Institute of Strategic Studies. It had 714 ships last year, the database Globalfirepower.com says.
 
Control in the South China Sea
 
A navy that doesn’t need to revisit the Chinese mainland so often for resupplies could tighten control over features that China holds in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer South China Sea, experts believe. 

China vies for control over the sea with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. Those governments prize the waters for fisheries, commercial shipping lanes and vast fossil fuel reserves.
 
China, already has the world’s third strongest armed forces overall and more firepower in the sea than the other claimants.
 
Islets under Chinese control in the sea’s Spratly Islands could become “forward deployed” outposts if better resupplied, said Carl Thayer, Southeast Asia-specialized emeritus professor with the University of New South Wales in Australia. Vietnam and the Philippines vigorously contest much of the Spratly chain.
 
“One massive resupply ship can bring supplies into artificial islands and that just builds up the stocks,” Thayer said. “China can now stay forward deployed and operate from those bases as long as those bases are resupplied.”
 
Further offshore
 
The Chinese navy would be able to operate past its current reach in the Indian Ocean as far west as Africa with a resupply scheme, said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. China historically keeps few replenishment ships and the ones it has move slowly, he added. 
 
Expect China to build up to four faster resupply ships in as little as five years for servicing fleets led by aircraft carriers, Huang said. 

China’s navy is expanding for “its own global expeditionary capabilities” as a counterweight to U.S. maritime dominance in many regions, Washington, D.C.-based research organization Center for a New American Security said in a 2017 study.
 
“Probably there will be another threshold that they cross and they can probably support the fleet or flotilla pretty far away from (the) Chinese mainland,” he said.
 
The U.S. Pacific fleet would stop China from expanding eastward, Huang said. However, over the past half-decade the Chinese military has stepped up activity in East China Sea that’s claimed also by Japan.
 
The U.S. Navy has passed ships though the South China Sea more than 10 times under President Donald Trump as a warning for China to share the waterway. Beijing calls the U.S. passages violations of Chinese sovereignty.

Every year vast amounts of bottles and bags make their way into the world’s oceans….leaving scientists searching for solutions to purge the planet’s plastic problems.  As VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, European researchers have started looking at the much, much bigger picture.

The FBI on Sunday confirmed that the shooter at a U.S. Navy base in Pensacola, Florida on Friday was 21-year-old Saudi Air Force officer Mohammed Alshamrani, who was a student at the Naval Aviation Schools Command at the base. The agency says it has yet to determine the motive for the shooting spree, but is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the Saudi government has pledged to fully cooperate with the investigation.

Renee Zellweger, Brad Pitt and Eddie Murphy are locks. But whether “Cats” has it in the bag, too, we won’t know until the 77th annual Golden Globes are announced Monday morning.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association will unveil their nominations in Los Angeles beginning at 8:04 a.m. EST. They will be live-streamed on the Golden Globes’ Facebook page and their website, with the second wave of nominees carried live on NBC’s “Today” show at 8:15 a.m. Dakota Fanning, Susan Kelechi Watson and Tim Allen will announce the nominations from the Beverly Hilton hotel.

The Globes separate their top categories between drama and comedy/musical, giving some movies well outside the awards conversation an opportunity.

While movies like Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” are widely expected to come away with numerous nods, few would be surprised if the press association — a group known for its sometimes quirky picks, its penchant for A-listers and its fondness for musicals — also included the upcoming, much-memed big-screen adaptation of “Cats.” The HFPA, a group with 87 voting members, was shown an unfinished cut of Tom Hooper’s film.

More likely are nominations for the likes of Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”), Jennifer Lopez (“Hustlers”), Murphy (“Dolemite Is My Name”), Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” slated as a comedy for the Globes), Zellweger (“Judy”), Awkwafina (“The Farewell”) and the leads of “Marriage Story”: Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson.

In the early going, Netflix has dominated awards season. “The Irishman” last week won best film from the New York Film Critics Circle  and the National Board of Review. “Marriage Story” virtually swept the IFP Gotham Awards.

On the television side, the Globes often relish being the first awards group where late fall series are eligible, meaning that Netflix’s “The Crown” and Apple’s “The Morning Show” could have a big morning, along with Emmy winners “Fleabag” and “Game of Thrones.” HBO’s “Watchmen” could also be a factor.

Ricky Gervais will host the Globes for the fifth time on January 5. Tom Hanks, a possible nominee for his performance as Mister Rogers in “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award. The Carol Burnett Award will go to Ellen DeGeneres.

 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will welcome his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday — the Russian’s first visit to Washington since a controversial 2017 meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, the State Department announced.

The brief statement about the meeting, to be held at the State Department, said Pompeo and Lavrov would “discuss a broad range of regional and bilateral issues.”

On Friday, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said the meeting was being “prepared” for Tuesday.

The situations in war-wracked Syria and Ukraine are likely to top the agenda. The Washington meeting will come on the heels of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy over the conflict in Ukraine’s east in Paris on Monday.

Iran and North Korea are also of mutual concern in Washington and Moscow.

Pompeo and Lavrov met in September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

But Lavrov has not been on an official visit to the U.S. capital since his encounter with Trump in the Oval Office in May 2017, which was followed by allegations that the U.S. leader divulged classified intelligence in the meeting.

Photographs of the meeting showed Lavrov, Trump and subsequently sacked Russian envoy to Washington Sergei Kislyak sharing a laugh.

U.S. intelligence concluded that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election with an eye to swinging it in Trump’s favor, but U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller found there was not enough evidence to prove that Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russian government in those efforts.

The report did not conclude that Trump had committed a crime, but it also did not fully exonerate him.

“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” Mueller’s long-awaited report said.

“Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.”

 

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday welcomed a Lebanese-born Swiss real estate mogul who purchased Nazi memorabilia at a German auction and is donating the items to Israel.

Rivlin called Abdallah Chatila’s gesture an “act of grace.”

Chatila, a Lebanese Christian who has lived in Switzerland for decades, paid some 600,000 euros ($660,000) for the items at the Munich auction last month, intending to destroy them after reading of Jewish groups’ objections to the sale. Shortly before the auction, however, he decided it would be better to donate them to a Jewish organization. Among the items he bought were Adolf Hitler’s top hat, a silver-plated edition of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and a typewriter used by the dictator’s secretary.

The items are to be donated to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.

Chatila said he initially bought the items for personal reasons.

“He is the personification of evil — evil for everyone, not evil for the Jews, evil for the Christians, evil for humanity,” he said. “And that’s why it was important for me to buy those artifacts.”

But Chatila decided that he “had no right to decide” what to do with these artifacts, so he reached out to Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal, a nonprofit fundraising body that assists Israeli and Jewish causes. It then decided to pass the items on to Yad Vashem because of its existing collection of Nazi artifacts.

“Usually Yad Vashem doesn’t support trade. We do not believe in trade of artifacts that come from the Nazi party or other parts,” said Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem. “We like that it should be in the hands of museums or public collectors and not in private hands.”

At a press conference at Keren Hayesod’s Jerusalem office, Chatila said his donation has been criticized by some in his homeland. Israel and Lebanon have never signed a peace agreement, and relations remain hostile.

“I got a few messages saying that I was a traitor, saying that I helped the enemy. And also some messages of people warning me not to go back to Lebanon,” he said. “It’s easy for me as I don’t go to Lebanon. I don’t have a problem with it.”

But Chatila said his parents still travel to Lebanon, making the backlash difficult for his family. Still, he said the donation was “the right thing to do.”

Rivlin thanked Chatila for his act and donation “of great importance at this time” when Holocaust denial and neo-Nazism are on the rise. He also noted that the artifacts would help preserve the Holocaust legacy for future generations who will not be able to meet or hear from the dwindling population of aging survivors.

“What you did was seemingly so simple, but this act of grace shows the whole world how to fight the glorification of hatred and incitement against other people. It was a truly human act,” Rivlin said.

The items are still at the German auction house, and it was not immediately known when they would be transferred to Yad Vashem.
 

The House Judiciary Committee holds another hearing Monday in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.  Proceedings have been centering on allegations that the president abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to announce an investigation into political rival Joe Biden, the leading Democratic presidential contender. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports, the hyper partisanship in Washington promises to intensify.

Actress Sally Field, singer Linda Ronstadt and the disco-funk band Earth Wind and Fire awaited their turn in the spotlight Sunday night as part of the latest group of recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime achievements in the arts.

Also in this year’s class are conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and long-running children’s TV show “Sesame Street.”

Once again, the attendance of President Donald Trump had been an open question until the White House said Friday that neither he nor first lady Melania Trump would attend. Trump skipped the past two celebrations; in 2017, after multiple recipients threatened to boycott the event if he attended.

The Kennedy Center’s president, Deborah Rutter, said in an interview earlier this year that “they are always invited.”

Field, 72, was a television star at age 19 and went on to forge a distinguished career that included two Academy Awards and three Emmys. She starred last year in a Netflix miniseries called “Maniac.”

“Sesame Street” debuted in 1969 and remains a force in children’s educational television. The show now airs new episodes on HBO, and they are rebroadcast months later on the show’s original home, PBS. The co-founders of “Sesame Street,” Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, will accept the award on behalf of the show.

Hours before the ceremony, the Sesame Workshop announced that Caroll Spinney, who gave Big Bird his warmth and Oscar the Grouch his growl for nearly 50 years on “Sesame Street,” died Sunday at the age of 85 at his home in Connecticut.

Ronstadt was one of the faces of American music in the 1970s and 1980s, landing on the cover of Time magazine in 1977. In 2011, she announced her retirement from singing, citing the advancing effects of Parkinson’s disease.

Tilson Thomas, who has served as music director of the San Francisco Symphony for the past 24 years, has become particularly renowned for his interpretations of the entire works of Gustav Mahler.

Earth, Wind and Fire was originally formed in Chicago by lead singer Maurice White. The group drew elements from rhythm and blues, funk, and disco in a flashy crowd-pleasing mix that spawned eight No. 1 hits. Songs such as “September” and “Shining Star” remain in heavy rotation for both radio station programmers and wedding DJs.

Each recipient was to be honored with a personalized presentation that in the past has in included surprise guests. Last year, Cher was shocked to find her friend Cyndi Lauper walking onstage to deliver a tribute; Lauper had said she would be out of town.

The event will be broadcast on CBS on Dec. 15.

 

Thousands of people gathered in the center of Kyiv on Sunday to send a message to Ukraine’s president, who meets his Russian counterpart on Monday, that Ukrainians will not accept a peace deal at the cost of the country’s independence and sovereignty.

“We are here because we are not satisfied with the peace at any costs … the peace at the costs of capitulation,” Inna Sovsun, a lawmaker of opposition Golos (Voice) party, told the rally.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin are meeting in Paris alongside the French and German leaders in a renewed effort to end a conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed forces in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014. Zelenskiy, who won a landslide election victory in April promising to bring peace, said this week that his first face-to-face meeting with the Russian president would give Kyiv a chance to resolve the more than five-year-old war in the Donbas region.

But many Ukrainians are concerned over a possible compromise with Russia, which they see as an aggressor seeking to restore the Kremlin’s influence over the former Soviet republic and ruin Ukraine’s aspiration to closer European ties.

The Ukrainian government wants to agree with Moscow on a sustainable cease-fire in Donbas, the exchange of all prisoners, and a timeline for the withdrawal of all illegal armed forces from regions under the control of Russia-backed separatists.

The leaders’ meeting was arranged after Ukraine and separatists withdrew their military forces from three settlements in Donbas – implementing agreements reached between Russian, Ukrainian and separatist negotiators in September.

Kyiv also promised to grant a special status to territory controlled by the rebels and to hold elections there.

These plans, seen as a sign of Kyiv’s capitulation, sparked protests in the Ukrainian capital.

According to an opinion poll of Ukrainians conducted by a think-tank Democratic Initiative and Kyiv’s International Institute of the Sociology on Nov 4-19, 53.2% of respondents are against a special status for Donbass and 62.7% do not accept an amnesty for those who fight against the Ukrainian army.

“We are here so that the voice from Kyiv can be heard in Paris. Friends, we cannot make any concessions to Putin until the last sliver of Ukrainian land is free,” ex-president Petro Poroshenko told Sunday’s rally.

Relations between two countries collapsed following pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych’s escape to Russia and Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, which prompted Western sanctions on Russia.

Historian Volodymyr Vyatrovych said many centuries and recent years of Ukrainian history showed Kyiv should not believe in Moscow’s good will.

“Zelenskiy’s new team seems to be returning to this erroneous strategy, which consists in the fact that we can agree with Russia,” he told the rally.