Tens of thousands of Islamists at a protest camp in Pakistan’s capital are awaiting a deadline set by their leader calling for the prime minister to resign.

Firebrand cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman led a caravan of supporters to Islamabad last week in a bid to pressure Imran Khan to step down, calling him an “illegitimate” ruler.

Rehman has hinted he could direct his partisans to march on the seat of Pakistan’s government and force Khan’s resignation. Khan says he has no plans of quitting.

Pakistani authorities further strengthened security around the camp in the lead-up to Sunday night’s deadline. That includes walls of shipping containers blocking roads leading into and out of the protest area, as well as deploying riot police and paramilitary forces.

Saudi Arabia formally started its long-anticipated initial public offering of its state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco on Sunday, which will see a sliver of the firm offered on a local stock exchange in hopes of raising billions of dollars for the kingdom.

An announcement from the kingdom’s Capital Market Authority serves as a starting gun for an IPO promised by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since 2016.

Initial plans call for the firm’s shares to be traded on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange, then to later put other shares on a foreign exchange.

Prince Mohammed hopes for a very-optimistic $2 trillion valuation for Aramco, which produces 10 million barrels of crude oil a day and provides some 10% of global demand. That would raise the $100 billion he needs for his ambitious redevelopment plans for a Saudi Arabia hoping for new jobs, as unemployment stands at over 10%.

However, economic worries, the trade war between China and the U.S. and increased crude oil production by the U.S. has depressed energy prices. A Sept. 14 attack on the heart of Aramco already spooked some investors, with one ratings company already downgrading the oil giant.

The announcement by the Capital Market Authority offered no timeline for the IPO.

“The Capital Market Authority board has issued its resolution approving the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. application for the registration and offering of part of its shares,” the authority said in its statement. “The company’s prospectus will be published prior to the start of the subscription period.”

The Saudi-owned satellite channel Al-Arabiya reported last week, citing anonymous sources, that pricing for the stock will begin Nov. 17. A final price for the stock will be set Dec. 4, with shares then beginning to be traded on the Tadawul on Dec. 11, the channel reported. The channel is believed to have close links to the kingdom’s Al Saud royal family.

The kingdom has in the past used the company as a piggy bank for development companies, back when it was still an American company. Since buying a 100% interest in the firm by 1980, the royal family as its sole “shareholder” largely hasn’t interfered in the company’s long-term business decisions as its revenue provides around 60% of all government revenue.

But recently, there have been decisions seemingly forced onto Aramco, including the nearly $70 billion purchase in March of the petrochemical firm Saudi Basic Industries Corp. just before SABIC announced a plunge in its quarterly profits.

In Aramco’s first-ever half-year results, it reported income of $46.8 billion. Yet analysts say a $2 trillion valuation – Apple and Microsoft separately for instance are $1 trillion – may be a stretch. By announcing the start of the IPO on Sunday, Prince Mohammed may have been convinced to take a lower valuation in order to get the IPO moving. The kingdom likely is pinning its hopes on tremendous local interest to push up the company’s valuation before potentially taking some of the stock abroad.

Analysts believe Aramco will list as much as 3% of the firm on the Tadawul, with another 2% put abroad.

Saudi Aramco has sought to assure investors, given the questions over its valuation and the potential hazards of future attacks or geopolitical risk. A presentation posted to Aramco’s website last month announced the intent to offer a $75 billion dividend for investors in 2020. That’s the payment per share that a corporation distributes to its stockholders as their return on the money they have invested in its stock.

It also pledged that some 2020 through 2024, any year with a dividend under $75 billion would see “non-government shareholders” prioritized to get paid.

But beyond the stocks, worries persist that Saudi Arabia could be hit by another attack like the one Sept. 14, which the U.S. blames on Iran. Iran denies it launched the cruise missiles and drones used in the attack. Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility, but analysts say the weapons used wouldn’t have the range to reach their targets.

“When the fire comes through, it’s just amazing,” AJ Calderon, a foreman on an avocado and citrus farm in Southern California told the Associated Press about his observation of the Maria Fire in rural Ventura County.  “All the work we do year after year and just a couple of hours, it just wipes it out.”

The Maria Fire has claimed almost 10,000 acres. Evacuation orders have been lifted.

John Grether, the owner of the farm where Calderon works, says he has “probably lost about ten acres” of avocado trees.

Grether said he saw first saw the flames erupt from the foothills, where a power station is located.

Officials say the Maria fire began Thursday on a hilltop northwest of Los Angeles and an electrical line might have been involved. Electrical lines have been involved in other recent fires.

Southern California Edison said it had re-energized a 16,000-volt power line less than 15 minutes before the fire broke out.

The utility said it would  cooperate with investigators.

In Northern California, people continue to return to the area of Sonoma County where the Kincaid Fire burned about 313-square-kilometers, destroying nearly 200 homes.

Authorities do not know what caused the blaze, but Pacific Gas and Electric said it experienced a problem with a transmission tower near the point where the fire started.

The song “Baby Shark” blared over loudspeakers and a wave of red washed across this politically blue capital Saturday as Nationals fans rejoiced at a parade marking Washington’s first World Series victory since 1924. 

“They say good things come to those who wait. Ninety-five years is a pretty long wait,” Nationals owner Ted Lerner told the cheering crowd. “But I’ll tell you, this is worth the wait.” 

As buses carrying the players and team officials wended their way along the parade route, pitcher Max Scherzer at one point hoisted the World Series trophy to the cheers of the crowd. 

At a rally just blocks from the Capitol, Scherzer said that early in the season his teammates battled hard to “stay in the fight.” And then, after backup outfielder Gerardo Parra joined the team, he said, they started dancing and having fun. And they started hitting. “Never in this town have you seen a team compete with so much heart and so much fight,” he said. 

And then the Nats danced. 

‘I trusted these guys’

Team officials, Nationals manager Dave Martinez and several players thanked the fans for their support through the best of times and staying with them even after a dismal 19-31 start to the season. “I created the circle of trust and I trusted these guys,” Martinez said. 

The camaraderie among the players was a theme heard throughout the rally. “It took all 25 of us. Every single day we were pulling for each other,” said pitcher Stephen Strasburg, named the World Series’ Most Valuable Player. 

Veteran slugger Howie Kendrick, 36, said that when he came to the Nationals in 2017, “I was thinking about retiring. This city taught me to love baseball again.” 

Mayor Muriel Bowser declared D.C. the “District of Champions.” The Capitals won Stanley Cup in 2018, the Mystics won the WNBA championship this year, and now the Nationals are baseball’s best. 

The Nationals won the best-of-seven series against the Houston Astros, with the clincher coming on the road Wednesday night. 

“I just wish they could have won in D.C.,” said Ronald Saunders of Washington, who came with a Little League team that was marching in the parade. 

Nick Hashimoto of Dulles, Virginia, was among those who arrived at 5 a.m. to snag a front-row spot for the parade. He brought his own baby shark toy in honor of Parra’s walk-up song, which began as a parental tribute to the musical taste of his 2-year-old daughter and ended up as a rallying cry that united fans at Nationals Park and his teammates. 

As “Baby Shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo” played on a crisp morning, early risers joined in with the trademark response — arms extended in a chomping motion. Chants of “Let’s go, Nats!” resonated from the crowd hours before the rally. 

‘Fight Finished’

A packed crowd lined the parade route. Cheers went up and fans waved red streamers, hand towels and signs that said “Fight Finished” as the players rode by on the open tops of double-decker buses. General Manager Mike Rizzo, a cigar in his mouth, jumped off with the World Series trophy to show the fans lining the barricades and slap high-fives.  

“We know what this title means to D.C., a true baseball town, from the Senators to the Grays and now the Nationals,” Bowser said at the rally. “By finishing the fight you have brought a tremendous amount of joy to our town and inspired a new generation of players and Nationals fans.” 

Bowser added: “We are deeply proud of you and I think we should do it again next year. What do you think?” Then she started a chant of “Back to back! Back to back!” 

Martinez said he liked to hear the mayor pushing for back-to-back championships and said: “I get it. I’m all in. But let me enjoy this one first. I don’t know if my heart can take any more of this right now. I need to just step back and enjoy this.” 

Martinez, who underwent a heart procedure recently, said that during the series, as things heated up, players and fans shouted at him to watch out for his heart. “All this right here has cured my heart,” he said. 

And as the “Baby Shark” theme played once more, team owner Lerner told the team’s veterans, “From now on, you can call me `Grandpa Shark.’ ”   

Airbnb’s boss announced Saturday that the online platform, which offers private homes for rent for short periods, is banning “party houses” after a deadly shooting at a Halloween event in California.

Five people were killed and others wounded in a Thursday night shooting in Orinda, California, in a house that had been rented on Airbnb.

More than 100 people were present at the event, which was announced on social media.

“Starting today, we are banning ‘party houses’ and we are redoubling our efforts to combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct, including conduct that leads to the terrible events we saw in Orinda,” Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said on Twitter.

To do this, Airbnb will increase “manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by our risk detection technology,” create a “dedicated ‘party house’ rapid response team,” and take “immediate action” against those who violate guest policies, Chesky wrote.

“We must do better, and we will,” he said. “This is unacceptable.”

Michael Wang, the owner of the home where the shooting took place, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he rented his house to a woman who said she was organizing a family reunion for a dozen people.

The sheriff’s department said it was responding to a noise complaint at the house around the time the shooting was reported.

Three people died at the scene, while two more died after being hospitalized, police said. 

Firefighters began to get the upper hand on a destructive wildfire in a Southern California farming region Saturday, taking advantage of lighter winds as authorities let some evacuated residents return home. 

The Maria Fire erupted Thursday near Santa Paula, about 70 miles (110 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and it has since charred 9,400 acres (3,800 hectares) of dry brush and chaparral, officials said. 

Firefighters have scrambled to protect tens of millions of dollars’ worth of citrus and avocado crops in harm’s way, as well as oil industry infrastructure. 

The blaze, which was 20% contained Saturday, is the most pressing emergency facing California firefighters, with several other blazes in the state largely contained. 

More than 10,000 people were under evacuation orders at the height of the blaze. 

Evacuation orders lifted

But authorities allowed people in two residential areas to return home Saturday and they had plans to further lift evacuation orders, said Ventura County Fire Captain Brian McGrath. 

“We’re taking advantage of the good weather we have right now,” McGrath said by phone. 

The fire has destroyed three structures but has not caused any injuries, he said. 

Southern California Edison has told state authorities that 13 minutes before the fire started, it began to re-energize a circuit near where flames first erupted, said a spokesman for the utility, Ron Gales. 

Southern California Edison had shut off power in the area because of concerns that an electrical mishap could spark a wildfire. The utility and fire officials have said the cause of the blaze is still under investigation. 

Dry winds, but they’re weak

On Friday evening, moist breezes from the Pacific Ocean aided firefighters battling the Maria Fire. By Saturday morning conditions were dry again, although winds were relatively weak, said National Weather Service meteorologist Lisa Phillips. 

The Maria Fire erupted after fierce Santa Ana desert gusts howled across much of Southern California. Santa Ana winds and similar gusts in Northern California have intensified a number of wildfires in the state this fall. 

The state’s largest blaze, the Kincade Fire in Sonoma County north of San Francisco, was 72% contained Saturday after burning nearly 80,000 acres and destroying more than 370 structures since it started on Oct. 23, officials said. 

Shelling that targeted the northeast Syrian town of Qamishli, amid a Turkish incursion to oust Syrian Democratic Forces, has forever changed the life of Sara Hossein, 8, who lost a leg and her 13-year-old brother in the bombing. Rebaz Majeed reports for VOA.

Security forces killed a protester and wounded 91 others in Baghdad on Saturday, security and medical sources said, as tens of thousands of Iraqis gathered in anti-government protests in the capital and blocked roads leading to a major port. 

Protesters have been congregating in the capital’s Tahrir Square for weeks, demanding the fall of the political elite in the biggest wave of mass demonstrations since the toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein. 

Protests have accelerated dramatically in recent days, drawing huge crowds from across sectarian and ethnic divides.  

They have been comparatively peaceful by day, becoming more violent after dark as police use tear gas and rubber bullets to 
battle self-proclaimed “revolutionary” youths. More than 250 people were killed in October. 

Clashes have focused on the ramparts to the Republic Bridge leading across the Tigris to the heavily fortified Green Zone of government buildings, where the protesters say out-of-touch leaders are holed up in their walled-off bastion of privilege. 

Walls erected, then removed

Security forces on Saturday erected concrete walls on one of Baghdad’s main streets that leads into Tahrir Square to try to reduce the turnout, but a spontaneous protest in which crowds surrounded soldiers driving bulldozers forced them to 
take the structures down. 

“Take it down, take it down,” they chanted. 

The protests, driven by discontent over economic hardship and corruption, have disrupted nearly two years of relative stability in Iraq. 

Despite the country’s oil wealth, many live in poverty with limited access to clean water, electricity, health care or education. The government of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, in office for a year, has found no response to the protests. 

Thousands of protesters were blocking all roads leading to Iraq’s main Persian Gulf port, Umm Qasr, near the oil-rich city of Basra, after security forces used live rounds and tear gas overnight. 

Operations at the port, which receives the bulk of Iraq’s imports of grain, vegetable oils and sugar, have stopped since Wednesday. 

On Friday, both the teachers’ and lawyers’ unions said they would extend strikes they began last week.  

Foreign interference

Many see the political class as subservient to one or another of Baghdad’s allies, who critics say are using Iraq as a proxy in a struggle for regional influence. 

“We don’t want anyone interfering in our affairs, not Saudi Arabia, not Turkey, not Iran, not America. It’s our country. Our demands are clear,” said protester Ahmed Abu Mariam. 

The root cause of grievances is the sectarian power-sharing system of governance introduced in Iraq after 2003.  

“We want an end to sectarian power-sharing. Jobs should not be doled out based on whether you are Sunni or Shiite. We want all these parties gone and replaced with a presidential system,” said law student Abdulrahman Saad, 22, who has been camped out in Tahrir Square for nine days. 

The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights said authorities were violating human rights and using excessive force against protesters by firing rubber bullets and tear gas canisters, which have killed scores after striking them directly in the head and chest. 

A government committee investigating violence that occurred Oct. 1-7 found that 149 civilians had been killed because security forces used excessive force and live fire to quell protests. 

Turkey’s defense ministry said at least 13 people were killed Saturday in a car bombing near a market in the northern Syrian border town of Tal Abyad. 
 
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the ministry blamed the attack on the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 
 
The ministry called on world leaders to take a stand against the YPG, describing it as a “cruel terror organization.” 
 
Turkey has designated the YPG a terrorist group, but the U.S. considers it a key ally in the fight against the Islamic State group. 
 
Ankara seized control of Tal Abyad last month after the Turkish military and its allied Syrian militia launched an incursion into northeastern Syria against the SDF, following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from the region. 
 
A 120-kilometer safe zone was established in Syria between the towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn as part of an Oct. 17 cease-fire agreement between Turkey and the U.S. that also required the YPG’s withdrawal from the area. 

‘Legitimate defense operations’
 
The Syriac Military Council, which is part of the SDF, said Saturday without claiming responsibility that “the SDF continues its legitimate defense operations against the ongoing attacks of the Turkish army and its jihadi factions in the eastern and southern areas of Ras al-Ayn, especially in the Khabour area and the villages around Tal Tamr.”   
 
On Friday, Turkish and Russian troops began patrolling northern Syria to ensure the withdrawal of Kurdish forces.   
 
The U.N. has estimated that prior to the cease-fire, the incursion killed hundreds of people and displaced nearly 180,000 others. 
Local doctors in northeast Syria told VOA that civilian deaths and injuries have continued since the cease-fire took effect. 
 
“Although the cease-fire agreement has been signed between the U.S. and Turkey, as well as Russia and Turkey, the fighting has not stopped for a second,” said Hesen MI Memmed, the head of Tal Tamr Hospital. “On the contrary, attacks have become more fierce and violent.” 
 
He expressed his concern that hospitals in the region were running out of medical supplies as the number of casualties continued to increase. 

The U.N. human rights office is lambasting the Colombian government for failing to stop massacres of indigenous peoples by criminal gangs.
 
The latest atrocity occurred Tuesday in Tacueyo in Northern Cauca in southwest Colombia. Criminal groups trying to enter indigenous ancestral lands shot and killed five indigenous people and severely wounded six others.  Among the victims is a prominent human rights defender, Cristina Bautista.

U.N. human rights spokeswoman Marta Hurtado says 106 human rights defenders and members of the Nasa community have been killed this year.  The Nasa Indians have been defending their sacred land for decades against drug gangs, riot police and deforestation by developers of sugar plantations and tourist resorts.

Hurtado said the Nasa community has repeatedly raised concerns with Colombian authorities about threats to their safety, to no avail.

“The U.N. Human Rights Office stresses once again the urgent need for effective protection and preventive measures for indigenous peoples across the country, and particularly in the Northern Cauca region, in line with their right to land and their right to self-determination, as recognized by the 2007 U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” she said.

Hurtado said the harassment and violent attacks endured by indigenous human rights defenders for their advocacy has got to stop.  She urged the government to establish a prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigation in the Oct. 29 killings in Northern Cauca. She said that is an essential starting point in breaking the cycle of impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of such crimes.

The human rights spokeswoman said failure on the part of authorities to bring perpetrators of crimes to justice may have allowed the massacres of indigenous peoples to continue.  She said those guilty of threats, harassment and killings targeting indigenous peoples must be punished.

 

Shelling that targeted the northeast Syrian town of Qamishli amid a Turkish incursion to oust Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has forever changed the life of Sara Hossein, 8, who lost her 13-year-old brother in the bombing. She herself lost a leg. Rebaz Majeed reports for VOA.

Turkey’s interior minister said Saturday Ankara would eventually send detained Islamic State members back to their home countries, declaring, “We are not going to keep them until the end of time.”

Minister Suleyman Soylu said the refusal of European countries to repatriate their citizens who fought for IS in Syria “is not acceptable to us” and that “it’s also irresponsible.”

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Soylu cited Britain and the Netherlands, but noted they were not the only European countries to revoke the citizenship of IS fighters to prevent Turkey from sending them home.

Turkey captured IS members who were previously in the custody of Kurdish forces during an offensive last month in northeastern Syria against a Kurdish militia Turkey considers terrorists.

Soylu’s comments were Turkey’s latest in a series of appeals to European countries to repatriate their citizens who belonged to IS.

Many European countries have procrastinated, citing concerns over public resistance and security problems.

 

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, federal president of Germany, was in Boston at the end of October to conclude a yearlong diplomatic initiative Germany launched to strengthen ties with the United States.

In remarks delivered at the re-opening of Goethe-Institut Boston on October 31, Steinmeier stressed the longstanding bond between the two countries and urged the two sides to focus less on “what separates us” and more on “what unites us.”

The Goethe-Institut, named after Germany’s most famous poet (and one-time diplomat) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is a German government-supported cultural institution active worldwide. It has offices and a presence in 10 cities in the United States.

“I have come here as Federal President to raise our sights away from the day-to-day emphasis on tweets and tirades and beyond the indignation that is often both predictable and ineffective,” Steinmeier said, in what seemed to be references to U.S. President Donald Trump’s usage of Twitter to communicate his thoughts and feelings.

“I want to expand our horizons so that we can look back on our shared history and at things that will hopefully connect us in the future, things for which we need one another,” Steinmeier continued.

Germany’s troubled history

The German federal president emphasized in his speech that “the great question of our day” is “the fight to uphold democracy and freedom,” adding “there can be no democracy without America.”

Recalling his country’s own history, Steinmeier admitted that “democracy did not come easily to us Germans,” he said. “After the disasters in our history,” he said, referring to the period of Nazi Germany that became synonymous with inhumanity, the German people “relearned it [democracy] with, and thanks to, America,” he said.

Even as Steinmeier juxtaposed the black-and-white images of John F. Kennedy standing in front of Schöneberg Town Hall uttering “Ich bin ein Berliner” with colored images of Ronald Reagan urging then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” while standing at Brandenburg Gate, realpolitik, or politics based on practical objectives rather than on ideals, intruded on the call for unity and international liberal democracy.

Realpolitik intrude

The controversial Russian-German gas pipeline construction, known as Nord Stream 2, is set to advance to scheduled completion early next year, despite strong protests by the U.S., which is concerned that it would hurt Ukraine and Poland, Washington’s close allies in the region.

And a research professor of national security studies at the U.S. Army War College published an opinion piece in the Newsweek magazine with the headline: “Germany’s refusal to ban China’s Huawei from 5G is dangerous for the West.” In the article, the author warned that decisions to allow China’s telecom company, enmeshed in troubles in North America, to gain a foothold in Germany carry consequences equal to “nothing less than an abdication of German leadership in Europe.”

According to Rachel Ellehuus, deputy director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), “broadly speaking, German leaders share U.S. concerns about Russia and China.” That said, “there’s always been a strain of anti-Americanism in Germany society, particularly among more pacifist, left-wing elements,” she noted in a written interview with VOA, though “at the end of the day, NATO and the transatlantic relationship have been and remain a central pillar of German foreign and security policy.”

Affinity for Americans

Daniel S. Hamilton, an expert on transatlantic relations at Johns Hopkins University, told VOA that German public opinion surveys consistently record “deep popular distrust of President Trump, yet still strong affinity for American society and American popular culture.”

As Hamilton sees it, tariffs levied on German and European products by the Trump administration and threats of additional tariffs on autos and auto parts “central to Germany’s manufacturing economy” couldn’t help but generate resentment among Germans.

In a sign that at least certain areas of U.S.-German relations are moving forward and not backward, the two countries’ military leaders recently signed an agreement aimed at achieving an unprecedented level of interoperability within the next seven years, premised on the belief that their joint ground forces are instrumental in keeping peace in Europe, as reported by Defense News.

Speaking in Boston, German Federal President Steinmeier vowed that Germany’s efforts to continue its alliance with the U.S. are set “in stone” far beyond a single Deutschlandjahr USA, that is, a year dedicated to German-American friendship described as Wunderbar Together.
 

A Palestinian was killed by Israeli airstrikes Saturday, the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said, in an attack launched in response to rocket fire.

Dozens of strikes hit the Palestinian enclave in the early hours, targeting bases of the strip’s Islamist rulers and allied groups, a security source in Gaza said.

The Israeli army said the strikes targeted “a wide range of Hamas terror targets,” including a Hamas naval site, a military compound and a weapons manufacturing site.

One 27-year-old man was killed, the health ministry in Gaza said. It did not say whether he was affiliated with any faction.

The sound of explosions could be heard up and down the impoverished territory, an AFP correspondent said.

A Hamas source said they had fired at the Israeli aircraft carrying out the raids and the Israeli army confirmed fresh “incoming fire” from Gaza.

The strikes came in response to at least 10 rockets fired from Gaza late Friday at southern Israel.

The Israeli army said the country’s Iron Dome anti-missile defense system intercepted eight of the rockets.

The rockets were fired in waves, the army said, with air raid sirens sounding.

One house was hit and damaged, without any casualties, the army said, posting a picture on Twitter.

It was the second consecutive evening that the army reported rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave, which is ruled by Hamas.

Before Thursday, there had been no such reported rocket fire from Gaza since Sept. 12.

In August, a series of rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli retaliations, as well as border clashes, raised fears of an escalation between Hamas and Israel, as elections approached in the Jewish state. 

Those polls, Israel’s second elections this year, took place Sept. 17, but have yet to yield a new government.

Southeast Asian countries must stick together in the face of a trade war started by U.S. President Donald Trump, Malaysia’s veteran leader said Saturday at the start of a regional summit held in the shadow of U.S.-China tensions.

But as leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Bangkok, there was no sign they had yet finalized a planned trade deal backed by China that could create the world’s biggest free trade area.

“We don’t want to go into a trade war. But sometimes when they’re unnice to us, we have to be unnice to them,” Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s outspoken 94-year-old prime minister told a business summit on the sidelines of the main meeting.

In an obvious reference to Trump, whose administration began raising tariffs on Chinese imports with the goal of reducing the U.S. trade deficit, Mahathir said “If the person is not there, maybe there will be a change.”

A draft final statement for the ASEAN summit seen by Reuters said the leaders would express “deep concern over the rising trade tensions and on-going protectionist and anti-globalization sentiments.”

Trade would be the main topic, diplomats said, with little discussion expected on perennial regional problems such as maritime disputes with China over the South China Sea and the plight of Rohingya refugees driven from Myanmar.

“We want global economic peace,” said Arin Jira, chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, a body set up by member states.

Export reliant Southeast Asian states are at the sharp end of the trade war, with growth expected to slow to its lowest in five years this year. They are also worried at increasing Chinese influence in a region whose population of more than 620 million is still less than half of China’s.

US downgrades its delegation

The United States, an important trade partner, is sending a delegation to the meetings. But the downgrading of its delegation compared to those in previous years and to those of other countries has concerned those who saw Washington as a security counterweight to Beijing.

Instead of President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence, the United States will be represented by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien.

China is sending its premier, Li Keqiang. 

“This signals that the U.S. is a lesser player in our area,” Kantathi Suphamongkhon, former Thai foreign minister told Reuters.

Hopes for partnership

Southeast Asian states had hoped to make progress toward finalizing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) — comprising 16 countries that account for a third of global gross domestic product and nearly half the world’s population.

But that was unclear after a scheduled news conference was canceled late Friday. A major sticking point has been demands from India, which is worried about a potential flood of Chinese imports.

“The finalization of the RCEP negotiation has become a key test for ASEAN’s capacity to deliver on its often-cited centrality,” Marty Natalegawa, a former Indonesian foreign minister, told Reuters.

Human rights groups said they did not expect the Southeast Asian countries would do much to address problems such as the Rohingya refugees or discuss questions such as the growing authoritarianism in some member states.

“ASEAN will go far. ASEAN will endure,” was the jingle played repeatedly on the conference sound system. “Our neighborhood becomes brotherhood,” it said.

Thousands of people turned out Friday in the center of the Algerian capital, Algiers, as well as other towns and cities, for the 37th consecutive weekly protest against the government, according to Arab media reports.

Many protesters called for the postponement of presidential elections, set to take place December 12. The crowds appeared to be larger than usual, probably because Friday marked the 65th anniversary of the breakout of the Algerian revolution against then-colonial power France.

Arab news channels showed live video of thousands of demonstrators waving Algerian flags and chanting in front of Algiers’ iconic main post office building, as dozens of government security forces ringed off the area.

It was the largest anti-government demonstration in weeks, and some observers estimated that more 1 million people may have turned out nationwide. 

The protesters are upset with plans for the vote to replace longtime leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who quit in April in the face of mass demonstrations against the country’s leadership. They have called for an overhaul of the political system that has been in place for decades. Amid the anti-government protests were official celebrations of the war that led to Algeria’s independence from France.

An Algerian military band played taps to honor the many victims of the Algerian revolution against France, which officially broke out Nov. 1, 1954. Analyst Adel Fellahi, a former member of parliament, told Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV that “the large turnout for this Friday’s protest is due to the anniversary of the 1954 revolution” and that “many people are taking advantage of that anniversary to push their own agendas.”

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Salaheddin Dahmoun told a gathering to commemorate the anniversary that Algerians should “turn out in large numbers” for next month’s election.

Dahmoun says it is a chance for the people of Algeria to reaffirm the democratic principles that have been put in place for five decades since the country became independent and to reaffirm their commitment to the principles of independence.

Algeria won its independence from France in 1962.

Many young people taking part in the protests have expressed disillusion with the political system. One man in his 20s and draped in an Algerian flag told Arab media he has no faith in the elections.

He said the problem is that the military has imposed presidents since the country became independent. The opposition, he maintains, has never been allowed to take power.

A man in his 30s, wearing a baseball cap, told Arab media that the time for change has come.

He said protesters are signaling to the military that the time for ignoring the people has come to an end. It is time, he argues, for the military to hand over power to a civilian, elected government.

Hilal Khashan teaches political science at the American University of Beirut and has made note of the impact of similar anti-government protests elsewhere in the Middle East. He tells VOA that “protesters in both Algeria and Lebanon have been watching crowds turn out for demonstrations in Iraq and that the events are undoubtedly contagious.” Khashan also thinks that “more protests will break out, elsewhere,” as Arabs watch demonstrations on TV.

Firefighters continued to battle wildfires in California Friday, including a new fast-moving blaze in southern California.

Officials said a brush fire north of Los Angeles, known as the Maria Fire, grew to 3,700 hectares (9,100 acres) Friday after erupting late Thursday afternoon, despite calmer weather conditions that helped firefighters throughout the state.

Officials said the fire in Ventura County forced officials to order evacuations for 8,000 people and said the blaze destroyed at least two structures.

The Santa Ana winds, which blow dry air from the desert and have fueled fires across the state, began to die down Friday and more typical winds that blow from the ocean inland began to return. However, firefighters said the state is not out of danger, noting the change in winds exposes new areas to the threat of fire.

“We are finding that the winds are starting to change and that presents its own challenges all by itself,” Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said.

Erratic winds are expected to persist in Southern California through Saturday.

Taming blazes statewide

Elsewhere across the state, the diminishing winds helped fire crews tame blazes that have been plaguing the region.

In Simi Valley, officials said a blaze that burned close to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was 60% contained, while a separate fire that threatened the Getty Center Museum was 66% contained.

In Northern California, more people were allowed to return to areas evacuated because of the Kincade Fire, which burned through more than 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of the state’s wine country.

PG&E and Kincade Fire

Pacific Gas & Electric acknowledged last week that one of its live power lines might have sparked the Kincade blaze, named for the local street where the flames erupted. It said a transmission tower malfunctioned around the same time and place as the fire is believed to have begun.

California Governor Gavin Newsom threatened a possible takeover of the utility Friday, unless it can emerge from bankruptcy next year with a plan focused on safety.

California authorities blame PG&E lines for sparking last year’s wildfires that killed 85 people and destroyed entire towns. The utility, facing billions of dollars in lawsuits, was forced to declare bankruptcy earlier this year.

PG&E has also come under scrutiny this year for cutting off power to more than a million homes, some with little notice, to avoid power lines sparking new fires. The company said Thursday that most of the 1.1 million customers impacted by planned power outages have had service restored.

The wildfires across California forced nearly 200,000 people to evacuate.

President Donald Trump lashed out Friday at Democrats in the House for their vote this week formalizing the impeachment inquiry into his conduct, calling it “an attack on democracy itself.”

Democrats are “disgracing themselves and bringing shame upon the House of Representatives,” Trump charged during a rally in Tupelo, Mississippi, in support of the state’s Republican candidate for governor. “They’ve been plotting to overthrow the election since the moment I won,” he told the packed crowd.

The rally came a day after Democrats voted to formalize the investigation into whether Trump abused his office and compromised national security when he asked the president of Ukraine to investigate one of his political rivals. Aggrieved and feeding off the energy of the crowd, Trump repeatedly defended himself against what he called the “deranged impeachment witch hunt” and accused Democrats of doing anything to take him down and invalidate the results of the 2016 campaign.  

Insults for Biden, O’Rourke

At one point, Trump mockingly impersonated former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to investigate Biden and his family led to the impeachment inquiry.

Still, Trump insisted — despite polling to the contrary — that the investigation is helping him politically and will hurt Democrats come 2020, telling his crowd that “we’ve never had greater support than we have right now.

“While we’re creating jobs and killing terrorists,” he said, “the Democrat Party has gone completely insane.”

Trump also celebrated the news that Beto O’Rourke, one of the Democratic candidates running to replace him, has dropped out of the race. Trump unleashed a slew of insults, calling O’Rourke “pathetic,” “nasty” and a “poor bastard.”

“He made a total fool of himself,” Trump said, mocking an interview in which O’Rourke said he was born for the job.

“He said that he was born for it, like he was born from heaven, he came down,” Trump told his crowd. “Anybody who says they were born for this, they’re in trouble.”

Tight Mississippi race

Trump was in Mississippi trying to shore up support for Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who is locked in a tight race to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Phil Bryant in next week’s off-year election. The race between Reeves and Democrat Jim Hood for the open seat is considered the state’s toughest governor’s race in nearly a generation.

Trump expressed surprise that the race is a close one but promised, “We’re going to send a signal by sending a terrific new Republican governor to Jackson.”

Even though the state’s Democratic nominee for governor lost by 34 percentage points four years ago, Democrats in this conservative Deep South state think they have a shot this time with Attorney General Hood as their nominee. Hood, 57, who is serving his fourth term, has been elected by wide margins in his previous races and is currently the only Democrat to hold statewide office.

Trump tried to tie Hood with national Democrats, saying he’s “not the kind of guy” Mississippi needs. 

Trump also celebrated the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the former leader of the Islamic State Group, calling him “a savage and soulless monster.” But he also complained that he hadn’t gotten enough credit for the killing.

“Conan the dog got more publicity than me,” he said, referring to the dog that played a key role in the Syria raid.

Rallies for GOP governor hopefuls

The rally is one of a handful of events Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will be holding in the coming days to try to bolster Republican candidates running in gubernatorial elections.

Trump is scheduled to travel to Kentucky Monday to campaign for incumbent GOP Gov. Matt Bevin. He is heading to Louisiana on Wednesday to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone, who is trying to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Pence was in Kentucky Friday campaigning for Bevin and will travel to the Mississippi Gulf Coast Monday to campaign for Reeves, among other stops.

“It’s always good for the president to help out Republicans up and down the ticket,” said Rick Gorka, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign and the Republican national party. “He needs reliable partnerships and strong leaders in the states in order to continue to enact his policies, so this is a way to lend his support to Tate Reeves to close out this election strong.”

Mississippi race

Reeves has sought to tie Hood as closely as possible to national Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who are deeply unpopular in a state that voted heavily for Trump in the last presidential election.

Hood says Reeves and other Republicans have underfunded schools and ignored the financial plight of rural hospitals while giving tax breaks to big businesses.

Hood has not invited national Democratic figures to Mississippi. He’s running campaign commercials that show him with his family, his pickup truck and his hunting dog, Buck. In one, Hood unpacks a rifle and says that “Tate Reeves and his out-of-state corporate masters” are spending money on a “bunch of lies.”

Reeves has faced some enthusiasm problems in the Republican party. He was forced into a runoff with Bill Waller Jr., former chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court.

But Gorka said the party was confident heading into Tuesday’s Election Day.

“We’re looking at a strong possibility of winning in Mississippi, but also flipping seats in Louisiana and keeping the one in Kentucky,” he said. “So the way we always approach any election is we invest to win, both with data and infrastructure, but also with the most precious resource, the president’s time, to make sure that we’re getting the most bang for our buck.”

Democrat Beto O’Rourke said Friday that he is dropping out of the crowded 2020 U.S. presidential race, saying it had become clear his campaign did not have the resources to continue to seek the party’s nomination.

“My service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee. Acknowledging this now is in the best interests of those in the campaign; it is in the best interests of this party as we seek to unify around a nominee; and it is in the best interests of the country,” O’Rourke wrote in a post that he shared on Twitter.
 

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that negotiations with North Korea were going too slowly after Pyongyang fired two more short-range projectiles.

Pompeo downplayed Thursday’s launches themselves, saying they were consistent with previous moves, but called for more effort in nuclear negotiations.

“The progress has been far too slow,” Pompeo told radio station KQAM in his home state of Kansas.

“I’m hopeful that we can continue to work on this project and get a good outcome in the months ahead,” he said.

The South Korean military said the projectiles flew 230 miles (370 kilometers) to the east in North Korea’s first known test since Oct. 2, when it carried out a provocative test of a submarine-launched missile.

President Donald Trump has met three times with Kim in hopes of sealing a potentially historic deal on ending North Korea’s nuclear program.

But there has been little concrete commitment and North Korea walked out of working-level talks last month in Sweden.